Prof V Rajaraman felicitated on Oct 31, '09

I have pleasure in reporting the honor bestowed on the father of computer education in India, Prof V Rajaraman, by the Supercomputer Education and Research Center at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) on Oct 31, ‘09.

His contributions as a pioneer in Indian education and research in the computer area, starting with his work on the faculty at IIT Kanpur, followed by his work at the IISc are very well known. We should also remember that he was a member of the Electronic Commission, that he was given the Padma Bhushan award by the Govt of India and that it was the Rajaraman Committee on Manpower that proposed the Master of Computer Applications programmes. He played a key role in the creation of what began as the All India Computer Users Group (AICUG), which was soon renamed as the Computer Society of India.

There was a Symposium in the morning, with technical talks by Prof Siva Ram Murthy of IIT Madras, Dr T S Mohan of Infosys, Prof Jayant Haritsa of IISc, Shri N Suthambara, IISc, Dr Atanu Mohanty, IISc, and Ms Sivagama Sundari, IISc. Prof P Balaram, Director, IISc presided over the function.

In the evening there was a felicitation event followed by a memorable Veena Recital by Vidwan D Balakrishna and dinner.

On behalf of all those who have studied under Prof Rajaraman or worked with him, I offer him our best wishes for the future.

I would like to express a personal opinion here on the Master of Computer Applications programme. The highest form of honor we can give a pioneer is to analyze and benefit fully from his ideas. Creation of the MCA programmes recognized a fundamental fact – that activities and knowledge related to the computer field go far beyond engineering. While MCA graduates in tens of thousands have contributed to the nation’s might in the software and services area, the educational world and the industry have to do a lot more to strengthen MCA programs. We should work for the day when the nation’s best graduates in sciences and humanities do an MCA, and some of best managers come out of that stream. The nation cannot ignore its liberal education.

Srinivasan Ramani,
Past President, CSI