From the compiler

Hello and welcome to August 2011 REEDS NEWS. The entire month has been very exciting!

Achieving distinction in a rural community empowering program

During the month, we have completed an awareness campaign on operation, maintenance and management of drinking water schemes in Andhra Pradesh for the Department of Rural Water Supply, Government of Andhra Pradesh that had conferred us with the status of organization which has carried such campaign in highest number [1150] of villages in Andhra Pradesh.

It is indeed a matter of pride and satisfaction for achieving this distinction and more so for able to take part in the challenging task the process of making the local communities to shoulder the

responsibility of operation and maintenance of the system so as to ensure sustainable supply of safe drinking water to the community!

In this regard, I sincerely appreciate exceptional work of my colleagues Niranjan and Srinivas Ambati and their field teams which made this distinction possible.

Awareness program is in progress at one of the villages. Niranjan and Srinivas in the Inset.

International Cooperation in Skills Development

It was indeed a privilege to take part in the 2nd APIEF, ACPET National conference and pre Forum / Conference events in Australia. The first activity on 22nd August was a pre Forum event - Darwin Gateway designed to showcase the approaches to international engagement through training in the Northern Territory. 24th August was the 2011 APIEF at Brisbane with the theme of The Future of Education in

With other APIEF Internatinal delegates and Ingeborg Loon, International Engagement Manager of ACPET at Brisbane

With Kay.Ganley, ACPET Chair, Professor Lu Hong of CHINA and Hon. Lord Mayor of Brisbane Graham Quirk

With Kay.Ganley, ACPET Chair, Claire Field, ACPET CEO and other national & international delegates at Darwin

the Asia Pacific the role of private providers. Followed was ACPET National Conference on 25th and 26th August 2011.

Attending these has been very rewarding and purposeful. It was wonderful to meet up with many delegates from Australia and other Asia-Pacific countries during the procedures in Darwin and Brisbane. It was great to make new friends and renew few earlier acquaintances. It was an opportunity to discuss a shared vision, challenges and opportunities in the area of Skills Development and Vocational Training. It enabled to continue the engagement in promoting regional collaborations in the area.

It was a great feeling that my Special Interest Advocacy on Rural and Regional Development generated interest among few Australian Training Providers to develop joint concepts, plans and models in Indo-Australian-Pacific Skills Development and Vocational Training sphere. It is encouraging to note that ACPET is very keen to see more regional cooperation.

I expect more and faster pace of progress in our cooperative efforts in this regard in the coming months and to continue the contact in furthering our engagement. I take this opportunity to thank ACPET for all this to happen. Best compliments to TEAM ACPET for able to deliver a successful Forum and Conference.

Towards developing a cooperation

In August, there was another memorable experience - embrace of a loving mother - Mata Amritanandamayi considered a treasured repository of practical spiritual wisdom, a great humanitarian. Fondly known as Amma, she is also the Chancellor of renowned Amrita University.

Following interactions subsequent to December 2010 SKILLS2010 conference, I along with Prof. Sadananda had the opportunity to visit Amritapuri, the abode of Amma, Amrita University and few of their institutions at Kerala. The interactions with Dr.Venkat Rangan, Vice-Chancellor; Dr. Prem Nair, Medical Director-AIMS; Prof. Kamal Bijlani, Head of E-Learning Research Lab; Dr Maneesha V. Ramesh, Head-Center for Wireless Networks and Application; Prof. Bhavani Bijlani, Director-Haptics-Amrita E-learning centre; and Prof. Shekar Babu, Associate Dean of Amrita School of Business and others were very enlightening and purposeful.

Having felt firsthand, the great work they are carrying at Amrita towards spiritual and material upliftment of humankind, our keenness in working with Amrita Institutions in the Rural and Education arena is enhanced and we do hope some endeavour touching mutual objectives could emerge early. Incidentally, our visit was coincided with Amritas e-learning platform A-VIEW winning the jury award for the Best Innovation in Open and Distance Learning at the World Education Summit-2011. Compliments to Prof. Kamal Bijlani and his team for the achievement.

Thank you for your continued support and have a wonderful festive season.

Warm regards

Ravi K Reddy
Board of Governor
September 10, 2011

With Dr.Venkat Rangan, Vice-Chancellor of Amrita Unitversity, Prof.Sadannada, and Prof. Shekar Babu, Associate Dean of Amrita School of Busines.

With Prof. Kamal Bijlani, Head of E-Learning Research Lab-Amrita University, Prof.Sadannada, and Prof. Shekar Babu.