Letters from two hostels recommending DTH connection are ready

The letters about DTH connection from Hostel Councils of Kaverie and Sharayu are with me. I am trying to contact CCW continuously from yesterday afternoon with no success. I even have sent him an email mentioning the same. Now it is clear that there will not be any development on this front during this weekend.

Award for bright MS scholars suggested

Prize Distribution Committee met today morning. I noticed in the list of prizes/awards given for the discussion that the prizes for PhDs were very less in number and MS degree did not even have mention. This meant, there was no consideration from institute for rewarding a bright MS scholar. MS scholars are more than 650 in number and I strongly feel that they should not be left out when institute appreciates its students' achivements. Case of PhD scholars is a little better considering that at least five prizes are given to the best dissertation or best paper. Interestingly they form a large population of 950. As compared to MS/PhD scholars the number of prizes given to other programs are appreciable. The committee appreciated my suggestion agreed to recommend it to the senate.

A brief information about this committee: This committee decides the prizes to be given to the students and faculty in convocation, Institute Day and at departmental level. The prizes for coming convocation are almost decided. Decision about prizes to students who have come back from Germany is pending since in case of most students the grades are not finalized by concerned departments or Acad Section has not received them.

DAAD returnees submit the letter

At last DAAD returnees submitted their letter to Office of DoAC after a daily followup by me. Along with an unexplainable delay they even did not care to show draft to me. They give a reason of their business. Of course they must be very busy!

This delay got reflected when I talked to DoAC after the meeting of Board of AC. He said that he has forwarded the letter to DR Acad and students would have to meet DR the next day. He was prompt enough to say that if students can delay writing a simple letter by ten days then they should not expect a very immediate action from him either. I say what's wrong in his argument!

Ultrasonic Testing Facility in the Insititute Hosptital

There will be a great relief to the patients who at present end up in paying Rs 600 to Rs 1000 per test if they have to get ultrasonic test done from outside facility and travel cost in addition to the test charges. Patients will not face this problem now onwards. An ultrasonic testing facility is installed in the hospital. Patients will pay Rs 200 per test. This is less than one third of the present cost. This was decided in the first meeting of Hospital Advisory Committee.

There was a proposal of putting 20% of the drug cost on the patients in order to reduce the total drug bill. The last month it was little over one lakh rupees for students and over four lakh rupees for employees. The proposal would have affected students apparently for no significant reason as bill for students constituted only ~ 20% of the total drug bill. I opposed the proposal and supported a suggestion of putting a restriction on doctors in prescribing costly drug if it is not going to compromise on the health of the patient. I have also suggested that if putting restriction does not reduce the total drug bill, an annual limit can be put on the drug bill for every patient. Other members also favored such provision.

Catering in Central Dining Facilities

The central dining facility will be functional from Janaury 2006. The present Mega Dining Hall 2 will also work parallely and will share some hostels. The catering work will be split between worthy private caterers and Hostel Mgmt Staff. Institute will call for tender for catering service soon. In this context CCW has asked me to prepare two things

1. A common menu for all hostels
2. Assessment of catering service

Myself and HAS has to have discussion with hostel mess secretaries and come up with these things as soon as possible so that they can be put as a part of the terms and conditions of the agreement between caterers and the institute.

The demand for a vegetarian mess is also under consideration. The discussions are going on.