Centenarian

S. Parthasarathy

Bhishmacharya Of Library and Information Profession

Centenarian | Innovative Educator | Life-long Learner

Ever Young & Energetic

S. Parthasarathy was born on 23rd August, 1917. At the young age of 103, he is still very active looking after schools and a prestigious college in Chennai. He has been trying to introduce a series of innovations in the educational institutions he manages. For his 100th birthday we went to Bhubaneshwar and he climbed about 50 plus steps to visit the Shanti Stupa. Last year, he participated in the 5K Run/Walk at Srila Park Pride. He is an unbeatable chess player. A few months ago, he demonstrated the sharpness of his mind by beating a young player. More recently, just a few days ago, he has been interviewed by a journal and they have recorded his opinion on the NEP 2020 as well as the responses it has received.

He loves tinkering with the latest gadgets and is always up to date on the most recent releases. A couple of years back, he asked us to get him a Thymio robot. We had to Google it to find out that it's an educational robot that can be used to teach kids to code in a fun and interesting way. The seller was surprised that we had even heard of it and even more surprised that it was for a centenarian. The last we heard, they were going to update their packaging that says "from 9 to 99 years" to 99+!

This year, the gadget that caught his interest was the BBC Micro:Bit. He couldn't wait to get started as soon as it arrived and got his school excited about including it as part of the curriculum too.

He started his career as a school teacher and from there moved on to the Delhi University. He worked in the University for 8 years. Then he became the first director of Indian National Scientific Documentation Centre popularly known as INSDOC. He worked as the director for 25 years and retired as a Scientist Incharge in 1977. After retirement he worked as an honorary professor in DRTC. He also worked on various national and international projects. In one such project he worked as the UNESCO Senior Scientific Information Expert. He has been a member of many institutions. Just to cite an example, he was the member of the International Advisory Committee for Documentation of UNESCO for 6 years, out of which he was the Vice President for two years.

As part of his work he has received many awards and citations. He has been associated with quite many governmental and non governmental organizations in various fields. A few are shared here:

Member of the Hindu Educational Organization (management of a Higher Secondary School set up 175 years back and two CBSE schools; MOP charities (Management of MOP Vaishnava College for Women and a Primary School)
Member of Saraswati Bandaram Committee (Propogation of Sri Vaishnava Literature and running of Sri Ramaswamy Temple built in South Indian Style in Ayodya)
Member Vedavedanta Vardini for promotion of Vedas
Chairman Bharati Pasarai for popularizing Bharati’s Works
Plans For Developing Information Systems
Metallurgical Information Systems for National Metallurgical Laboratories, Jamshedpur
Steel Information Systems for Steel Authority of India
Development for Documentation Facilities at Small Industries Extension Training Centre (SIET) Hyderabad
Patent Information Systems For India Patent Office
Developing Information Facilities at the Railway Testing and Research Centre, Alambagh, Lucknow
Development of Resource Sharing for the BHEL Research Centre, Hyderabad
Plan for Development of National Informational Science and Technology (NISSAT, Department of Science & Technology)
Development of National Information Centre of NISSAT for Machine Tools, Drugs, Food and Leather
Member of UGC Committee set up under the Chairmanship of Dr. S. R. Ranganathan for developing University Libraries
Member Government of India Committee on Note Printing Press, Devas, as a representative of CSIR