Pondicherry-The Educational Hub of Southern India

By Students' Academy

The natural beauty of the state leaves the visitors spellbound and they promise to come back over and again. Beautiful beaches, gardens, rivers, springs, and modern cities provide enough to a visitor.

The multi-lingual society makes it easier for the visitor to converse with even a common man in Pondicherry because most of the natives speak English, Portugese, and other languages.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Raja Sharma
• Release date: Aug 18, 2011
• ISBN: 9781466145979

Students' Academy

Easy study guides for the students of English literature.

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Pondicherry-The Educational Hub of Southern India

By Students’ Academy

Copyright@2011Students’ Academy

Smashwords Edition

Chapter 1: Introduction

Puducherry is a Union Territory of India. This Union Territory was formerly known as Pondicherry and it still carries the nickname ‘Pondy’. It is a former French colony and the signs of the colonialism are very much present in the state. This Union Territory consists of four non-contiguous enclaves, or regions, and named after the largest region, Pondicherry. Karaikkal, Mahé, Yanam, Puducherry were the four non-contigous enclaves of Puducherry.

In the year 2006, the Union Territory was renamed Puducherry. Of late, Pondicherry is also considered an educational hub of southern India, having 1 national institute of technology, 1 central university, 8 medical colleges, 10 engineering colleges, 3 dental colleges, 2 law colleges, 1 veterinary college, 1 agricultural college, 10 arts and science colleges, and 5 polytechnic colleges functioning within its territory. Many medical and engineering colleges including a state-owned university are also reported to be in queue. People of Pondicherry are demanding statehood for Pondicherry and are also requesting to add neighboring villages from Tamil Nadu to newly form Greater Pondicherry state for better administration and development purposes.

In local Tamil language Puducherry means New Hamlet. During the colonial period the name was changed to Pondicherry. Pondicherry was widely used for a long time to refer to the region. In 2006, the name for the state and the capital city officially reverted to Puducherry.

During ancient times, it was known as Poduke or Podukai. Ancient Greeks referred to this place as Poduke and Aryans referred as Vedapuri.

Chapter 2: Geography

Pondicherry consists of four non-contiguous regions: Pondicherry, Karaikal, and Yanam on the Bay of Bengal and Mahé on the Arabian Sea. Pondicherry and Karaikal are by far the larger ones, and are both enclaves of Tamil Nadu. Yanam and Mahé are enclaves of Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, respectively.

The territory has a total area of 492 km2 (190 sq mi): Puducherry 293 km2 (113 sq mi), Karaikal 160 km2 (62 sq mi), Mahé 9 km2 (3.5 sq mi) and Yanam 30 km2