Daily Archives: October 8, 2014

State’s midget cows head for Punjab Badal’s farm

Agriculture, Green Initiatives & Environment, Nature, Records, All, Science & Technology

Kozhikode :

Next week four cows and two bulls – all dwarves, each averaging between 80 to 100 cm in height – will embark on a 3,000 km long cross-country journey from Kasaragod to Chandigarh in a cattle swap involving Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal.

The destination for the six animals belonging to two of the world’s smallest breeds – Vechur and Kasaragod Dwarf – in their 12-day trip is the official residence of the Punjab chief minister in Chandigarh where they will be reared in a farm.

The cows give 1-4 litres of milk per day which is valued for its high nutritional and medicinal properties.

In return, the Punjab chief minister has promised six Sahiwal breed of cattle indigenous to Punjab which will be sent back to the farm of Kasaragod Dwarf Conservation Society (KDCS) at Nagacheri farm near Neeleshwaram.

The stage for the high profile cattle exchange was set during the Indo- Pak interactive seminar on conservation of indigenous livestock breeds held at Punjab Bhavan in Chandigarh on July 10 which was attended by P K Lal, Director of Kasaragod Dwarf Conservation Society.

Following the presentation on Vechur and Kasaragod Dwarf varieties, Lal was invited to the official bungalow of the CM where Badal personally expressed his keenness to get two pairs of the indigenous breeds from Kerala.

“The chief minister is a keen cattle enthusiast and there are around 30 indigenous cattle breeds in his farm attached to the official residence. He had heard about the dwarf cattle varieties of Kerala and requested us if we could give him pairs of each breed which we agreed to,” Lal said.

Sahiwal cows from Punjab are known to produce over 25 litres of milk and are high-yielding even in dry conditions of Punjab where temperatures touch 45 degree Celsius. “We would like to find out how well they fare in Kerala conditions,” Lal said.

Lal said that efforts are on to get the Kasaragod Dwarf included as a native cattle breed by the National Bureau for Animal Genetic Resources (NBAGR) and hopes that formalities would be completed within one year.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Kochi / TNN / October 04th, 2014

Government School Cheers for English with Magazine, Blog and a Movie

Education, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features

Thiruvananthapuram   :

The non-descript library of this government higher secondary school, catering mostly to tribal students, comes alive every week turning the usually hush-hush zone into a bee-hive of activities, where honey-tongued students speak, debate and discuss in English.

In the past one year, the Government Vocational and Higher Secondary School, Paruthipally, located next to the tribal area of Kottoor in Thiruvananthapuram, has given birth to a magazine titled ‘English Rider’ and a weblog. The latest initiative is an English language short-film ‘Facebook’.

The school, which has over 1,000 students, has a good representation of tribal students coming from the nearby forest area. Four teachers were instrumental in honing the English language skills of students which made them as competent as their counterparts in English medium schools.

J Sija, one of the coordinators of the club, said they started off with reciting nursery rhymes to improve pronunciation. “The initial response was feeble, as nobody conversed with students in English. Things changed this academic year and we had to do a screening test to choose members to the club. Now 200 students are members of the club,” she said.

As the club activities progressed they thought of publishing the articles of students. Initially planned as a newsletter, the product took the shape of a magazine. At every meeting, the members, mostly tenth graders, are shown a film version of the chapters of their English textbooks.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / Th New Indian Express / Home> States> Kerala / by Meera Nanu / October 08th, 2014

Women launch biotech start-up in Trivandrum

Business & Economy, Education, Science & Technology

The number of engineering colleges in the State has grown so much and so fast that it has even become the stuff of jokes such as, ‘If you throw a stone in the streets of Kerala, you’re bound to hit an engineer.’ Now, it seems the statement can be applied to the field of entrepreneurship with more and more youngsters rejecting the prospect of a desk job in a large corporation and choosing to follow their own creative and innovative spirit.

A recent entrant into this fold here strikes as a little different from most others that are being incubated in institutions such as the Technopark-TBI in the capital and Start-up Village at Kochi. For one, it has two women at the helm.

For Aardra Chandra Mouli and Gayathri Thankachi, the inauguration of Aeka Biochemicals Pvt. Ltd. here on Friday is the first step towards the dream they have nurtured since college. Both of them graduated from the Sree Chitra Thirunal College of Engineering in 2011.

Another feature that sets this start-up apart is their specialisation in biotechnology and biochemicals – a vast area that is yet to receive a level of interest by new start-ups in the State that matches its immense potential. In Kerala, biotechnology is still viewed as ‘the next big thing,’ when the truth is it has already arrived, said Aardra. She pointed out how in Hyderabad and Bangalore, the concept of ‘bioparks’ has long been established but Kerala is still a step behind.

Aeka seeks to apply its expertise on a wider basis, covering food and agriculture, health care, waste management and environment conservation. “Research for biochemical products is a capital intensive affair which is why we are prioritising small-scale production of high-value, low-volume products to begin with,” said Aardra. Their first product may be brought out as soon as next month and Aeka has the support of the Cashew Export Promotion Council at Kollam in this venture.

Afterwards, Aardra says they hope to work on biopesticides and products that will provide some solution to the waste management issue in the capital. “We were born and brought up here and we know what the city can be at its best. But pollution, accumulation of plastic waste are major civic issues here that need to be addressed,” she said. Their classmate from college Nidhin Sreekumar is another member of the start-up.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Thiruvananthapuram / by Kaaya Pradeep Kumar / Thiruvananthapuram – October 05th, 2014