The University has instituted “Arignar Anna Research Chair” during 2008-2009, the Birth Centenary year of the most illustrious Dravidian Leader and Chief Minister of Tamilnadu from the DMK party that swept to power on 1967, Dr C.N. Annadurai, reverently called as “Anna”, the ‘elder brother’.

The multi –faceted leader was a great writer, dramatist, play- writer, statesman, astute politician, socialist, original thinker and satirist as well. As a writer, Anna has been compared with Bernard Shaw, Ibsen and Galsworthy. He had penned 12 plays, 28 Novels, 113 Short Stories, 45 Short plays and 66 Poetic works. As an orator, Anna combined the skills of Demosthenes, Ingersoll, Winston Churchill, Edmund Burke and Macaulay. All his speeches are known for Euphonic rhythms and rhymes, apt and arresting similes and revolutionary thoughts and comradeship.

A sum of Rs 1.00 crore was made into corpus fund for the creation of “Arignar Anna Research Chair” for undertaking activities to study the works of the great leader in diverse fields. The interest from the corpus deposit shall be used for funding those activities.