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Vol. XXXII No. 16, December 1-15, 2022
Archives: Vol. XXXII No. 16, December 1-15, 2022
Can we please let medical education be in English?
-- by The Editor
The Health Minister of the Government of Tamil Nadu announced in October that textbooks for the first-year syllabus of MBBS are being prepared in the Tamil language and that once ready, and subject to approval from the Centre, the State will take steps to begin a Tamil medium college in Chennai for medicine. This is the latest in the language battle that is being fought across most States of India. While we are all for the preservation and propagation of the mother tongue and would probably be in the forefront if any other language is imposed over the entire nation, we do feel that this latest move in unwise in the extreme and would do with a reconsideration.
Chennai, and Tamil Nadu are uniquely positioned as far as the medicare industry is concerned. Ours is a status of leadership not just in India but across the world. It would be no exaggeration to say that Chennai is an international medical capital and destination. The city accounts for the bulk of India’s medical tourism income and therefore tops the national statistics on tourist footfalls – beating even the golden triangle of Delhi-Agra-Jaipur. It also remains one of the recruitment hotspots for the medical industry the world over and this includes doctors, paramedics and other staff. All of this, from which the State has benefited, has happened over almost two hundred years of investment in quality medical education, the building of Government and private institutions for healthcare and the State’s enviable record of public health services.
We agree that teaching medicine in Tamil in no way means a dilution of quality.
An informed public calls for Transparency in governance, not Translucence
-- by A Special Correspondent
What do the Smart Cities Mission and the proposed airport at Parandur have in common? A lack of transparency.
In August, the Davidar Committee – a one-man panel led by retired IAS office PWC Davidar – submitted a report to Chief Minister MK Stalin concerning the implementation of the Smart Cities Mission projects in Tamil Nadu. The analysis covers 11 cities, each of which is said to have spent close to Rs.1,000 crores on Smart City projects; the total worth of projects screened by the committee
Heritage Watch: Whither the Music Season?
The 96th edition of the city’s famed December Music Season has just begun. No matter how miniscule the numbers the very fact that a cultural festival dedicated to the classical arts has survived over so many years entirely on private initiative is something to marvel about. This year the music festival will go back to its time-tested and pre-Covid format – of performances to live audiences. The big question is about the public returning to the venues.
Centenary of the Southern Railway Headquarters
-- by Sriram V
In the last issue we carried a story on the construction of the Southern Railway Headquarters, a building that completes a 100 on December 11 this year. We now present a photo feature on the same landmark. It is not often that a building gets to fulfil the purpose for which it was built for over a century and this certainly calls for a celebration.
Gandhi Nagar, Adyar – The first layout of Madras that is Chennai
-- by Sekhar Raghavan
Today’s Chennai may be characterised by hustle and bustle, but several quiet enclaves exist even today that are predominantly residential. One of them is Gandhi Nagar, and it has an interesting history. In order to meet the increasing demand for houses in Madras (later Chennai), the Madras Co-operative House Construction Society was formed in May, 1947, thanks to the
