Justice Chandru launches distribution of The Hindu Year Book to UPSC aspirants

Former Madras High Court Judge K. Chandru on Thursday launched the distribution of The Hindu Year Book for students preparing for the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) Examination.

Speaking at a meeting held to distribute the book to 100 toppers of the State government’s All India Civil Services Coaching Centre (AICSCC) on Thursday, JusticeChandru said: “Students like you should learn about the various aspects of public life, in addition to reading books,“ he said. He also pointed out the importance of reading the editorials of The Hindu.

N. Ram, Director, The Hindu Group of Publications, said the information ecosystem had been polluted by misinformation and disinformation.

 “Misinformation means wrong information, not motivated, not deliberate, happens all the time to scholars, journalists, and so on. The way to overcome it iscorrection; correcting as soon as possible. Misinformation can also cause harm, for example, what happened during Covid-19, [there was] all kinds of wrong information. But disinformation is deadly. Disinformationis deliberate, it is motivated, this is scaledup on social media platforms,” he said.

‘Vital for democracy’

Stressing the need for credible, reliable, and trustworthy information,Mr. Ram said: “This is crucial in the formation of public opinion, which is vital for a democracy. Many scholars, thinkers, philosophers have agreed on this, that we cannot have a functioning democracy unless public opinion is well-informed in a reliable and trustworthy way.

“India has the largest number of Facebookusers. India has the largest number of Instagram users. India has the largest number of WhatsApp users. This is weaponisedon the social media platform, any political party or individual who does it, you can see it,” he added.

AICSCC principal T.S. Saravanan said that more than 150 candidates from Tamil Nadu had qualified for the UPSC Civil Services Personality Test this year because of State government schemes such as Naan Mudhalvan.

“The results have improved. The model personality test was conducted by the AICSCC on December 19 and December 20, in which a total of 111 aspirants participated. Key initiatives implemented by the State government this year include residential coaching for all Tamil Nadu candidates who cleared the prelims. It hasintroduced part-time options for candidates who qualified for the Mains. We follow unified counselling across all centres, with standardised prelims coaching and common classes and teststhrough Naan Mudhalvan.”

“Tamil Nadu introduced pre-examination training for SC/ST candidates in 1966. A special training institute was started by former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi in 1971 for BC and MBC students. Both institutes were merged and renamed AICSCC in 2000. A new campus was built in 2012 at Kanchi, R.A. Puram. The State government has sanctioned ₹62.5 crore for a new project to establisha residential coaching centre with modern amenities to accommodate 500 aspirants.”

From The Hindu, its Editor Suresh Nambath; CEO L.V. Navaneeth; the curator of the book Sambandan V.S.(former Associate Editor); Head – Magazines & Special Publications, Srinivasan R.; Assistant Vice President – Sales & Distribution Babu Vijay R.A.;and Head – Prepress Gurumurthy K.G. were present.