Singareni Collieries Company Limited establishes Chair Professor position at Osmania University

HYDERABAD: A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Singareni Collieries Company Limited and Osmania University to establish a new academic position designated as the SSCL Chair Professor on Wednesday.

This new position would not only offer education and training at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels, as well as other activities related to teaching and research, but would also assist SCCL and the Ministry of Coal in various types of research work related to coal exploration and exploitation, as well as waste disposal in SCCL Mines' opencast and underground operations.

The Chair's responsibilities would include all forms of consulting work connected to SCCL's mining operations.

N. Sridhar, CMD of Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SSCL), handed over the order copies as testimonial for the appointment of Er. Satish Kumar and Er. E. Srinivas to the newly established Chair Professor and Professor of Practise positions at the Department of Mining.

Prof. Sriram Venkatesh, in his welcome address profusely thanked the CMD of SSCL N. Sridhar for his benevolence and generosity in establishing the Chair Professor and taking initiatives in appointing two faculty members under this scheme. He lauded the efforts of the Mining Alumni in this direction and urged for their continuous support in this direction for the cause of students.

He also conveyed that the UGCs guidelines to reduce the gap between theory and practice by appointing “Professor of Practice (PoP)” would be strengthened with this initiative. He thanked the Vice-Chancellor, Registrar, Alumni members for their unstinted efforts and support in strengthening the infrastructure and inputs in the various faculties of engineering.

Dr. D. Vijay Kumar, the President of University College of Engineering Alumni Association conveyed that down the line ten years Osmania University will have world class Engineers with the right kind of inputs and infrastructure and lauded the efforts of the SSCL for sparing their precious Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for the cause of Osmania University.

K. J. Amarnath, Vice-President of Mining Alumni narrated the long history of SSCL in supporting the cause of Education by their contributions to various engineering and polytechnic colleges. He lauded the efforts of SSCL for their continuous support in the area of Engineering Education.

Prof. P. Laxminarayana, Registrar, Osmania University, expressed his deep sense of gratitude towards SSCL for instituting the Chair Professor position. He narrated the genesis of the department of Mining, the course being transferred to Kakatiya University for a short span and later revival of the mining department happening at Osmania University to its present status of rising to greater heights in the years to come by.

Prof. D. Ravinder, Vice Chancellor, Osmania University, in his Presidential remarks highly appreciated the gesture of N. Sridhar, CMD of SSCL for his wonderful gesture and in the process creating history in facilitating Osmania University to become the first state university in Telangana to implement the concept of “Professor of Practice”. To sum it up he said it was the “Power of Alumni”; he expressed his heartfelt thanks to the alumni members for their intellectual inputs in improving the Engineering Education at OU. He thanked the Executive Council (EC) members for readily accepting the idea of appointing one hundred Adjunct Professors to beat the issue of Faculty crunch at the University. He placed on record the support from the Telangana Government for its initiatives in permitting constructing of new classrooms, hostels to meet the growing needs of students especially the girl students whose numbers at the university are increasing every year.

N. Sridhar, CMD of Singareni Collieries Company Limited(SSCL) said, that it was very nostalgic coming back to his alma mater. In all humility he conveyed that it was God Almighty, his parents, teachers and the inputs he received at Osmania University which made him what he is today. He conveyed that mining for commercial purposes is on a revival and if the corporate houses come forward to invest their CSR contributions in the present generation which would be a win-win situation to them and the student community for creating a wonderful set of human resources for meeting the ever growing challenges in future. He exhorted that there shouldn’t be any compromise on quality inputs and infrastructure in education.