Hyderabad: The craze for Astrology courses has increased immensely over the last few years. And unlike other courses, the age group if students varies from 20 to even 85 years in this course.

Also, the students are from different walks of life including All India Service officers, businessmen, High Court judges, bank managers, defence officials, doctors, engineers, architects, IT professionals, railway employees, priests, retired government staff etc., and of course normal college going students.

Mr M. Ramprasad, a 1983 batch IFS officer who retired in 2015, developed an interest for this course and did PG and MPhil in Astrology. He is now a guest faculty at Telugu University, which is the only government varsity offering certificate, diploma, PG diploma, PG and Ph.D courses in Astrology besides distance programmes in both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

Mr Ramprasad said that he developed an interest in Astrology way back in 1979 when certain horoscope predictions in his life came true. While in service, he did MA in Astrology in 1998-2000 and later pursued M.Phil.

The rise in the number of students pursuing Astrology in the last few years is due to increased awareness among people and because of daily programmes on electronic media, where they get advice on match making, remedies for their problems etc.

Dr N. Venkataiah from the department of Jyothisha and Vastu in Telugu University said that Astrology was introduced in 1987 by former Chief Minister N.T. Rama Rao. “The students are from different age groups. O. Rammohan Rao, a retired employee from the Secretariat studied Astrology from our varsity at the age of 80 years,” he said.

The Indian Council of Astrological Sciences (ICAS), which has an all-India presence and is presently headed by retired IAS A.B. Shukla and retired Delhi High Court Judge Justice S.N. Kapoor, is also conducting Astrology courses separately.

ICAS honorary vice-chairman Mr K.L. Manohar from Hyderabad said they conduct weekly classes at three centres — Secunderabad, Basheer-bagh and Vidyanagar — and the response has grown over the last few years.