Monthly Archives: September 2018
12
Kochi to host Cocon
Around 1,500 delegates from 50-odd countries will deliberate on the latest trends in cybercrimes at Cocon, an international cyber security conference being organised by Kerala Police here on October 5 and 6.
The event, being held in association with POLCYB (The Society for the Policing of Cyberspace), will see discussions over three different tracks.
In the General Track, all the policy issues will be discussed while the second is a Technical Track .
The third is a Live Track where live demonstrations will be conducted on the use of various technologies, latest cybercrimes, hacking of aeroplanes, cars and through UAVs.
Experts including Gulshan Rai, Chief Information Security Officer, PM’s Office; Adam Blackwell, Besty Broder, Bessie Pang, and Cecilia Wallan will be speaking at the event.
A modern exhibition of cyber security, data privacy and digital threats is also being organised along with the conference, where representatives from major IT companies in the world will be participating.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kochi / by Staff Reporter / Kochi – September 10th, 2018
‘Chekutty’ to help weave together flood-ravaged Chendamangalam
Designers create dolls from soiled handloom cloth
Born out of the love for Chendamangalam handloom are dolls made of the soiled textile from the flood-ravaged looms. ‘Chekutty’, as the designers have named it, is ‘Chendamangalam Kutty’ and stands for all that the floods have left behind.
“Chekutty has scars, Chekutty has stains. But Chekuty is each one of us who survived the floods,” goes the appeal from the designers who took up the task of helping rebuild the lives of the flood-hit Chendamangalam weavers, for whom 80% of revenue comes from Onam sales.
The only option left for the weavers was to burn the severely damaged and soiled stock, which could not be fixed through cleaning, says designer Lakshmi Menon of Pure Living, who has been promoting a green lifestyle along with ideas of making value-added products from waste materials.
Out of the debris of the soiled saris has emerged Chekutty – a mascot for rebuilding Kerala from despair.
Gopinath Parayil of Blue Beyond is partnering with Ms. Menon in the endeavour of ‘Weaving together Kerala’ – the slogan given for Chekutty dolls.
“We saw that there were many takers for the stock that was not damaged. It was the amount of damaged stock that got me thinking. And we needed to do something fast too,” says Ms. Menon.
“We have upcycled the fabric to help raise funds for the weavers that will help them till the next season,” says Mr. Parayil. The festival of Vishu next April is the next season for the weavers.
350 dolls per sari
The average cost of a sari is ₹1,300. Up to 350 dolls can be made from a sari, with the minimum price of a doll at ₹25. Hence, the cost retrieved from a sari will be nearly ₹9,000, says Ms. Menon.
Each piece of textile is chlorinated and boiled in water to disinfect it and is made safe to be used, she adds. The dolls may be hung on shoulder bags, suitcases or inside cars.
A demonstration of doll-making was organised at Panampilly Nagar on Sunday to help people take up the task.
Website
A website, www.chekutty.in, is in the process of being set up to invite people to participate in creating dolls or buying them.
Remaining stock
Ajith Kumar, secretary of the Handloom Weavers’ Co-operative Society, Karimpadam, Chendamangalam, says stock worth ₹21 lakh remains damaged. Fortunately, there was stock worth ₹10 lakh, set aside for Kozhikode and Ernakulam markets, which remains to be sold, he adds. (Mr. Kumar may be contacted at 9446927345.)
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kochi / by Shyama Rajagopal / Kochi – September 10th, 2018
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Floodwaters swallow a piece of Alangad’s illustrious history
The waters that surged into the historic Chembola Kalari in the heart of Alangad town on the night of August 15 has swallowed a piece of history in the form of a collection of palm-leaf manuscripts.
Legend has it that Lord Ayappan took lessons in the traditional martial art form at the Chembola Kalari.
It is also strongly linked to festivities at the Sabarimala temple. A member of the Chembola family said there were nearly 80 manuscripts in the collection, and around 20 to 25 of them have been damaged in the floods. The manuscripts mostly dealt with Sanskrit grammar and literature, he said.
It is believed that the Chembola family settled in Alangad from north Malabar at least 600 years ago.
The family member said the Chembola Kalari premises had escaped the great deluge in 1924 and it was a refuge for hundreds of people around the area.
He recounted an orally transmitted account of how people in the area used a big tamarind tree at the kalari premises to escape from the floods in 1924.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kochi / by Special Correspondent / Kochi – August 31st, 2018
Helping hands restore classrooms, school park
Professionals from various fields, students of Cusat and teachers join the effort
Rincy and Ananthakrishna, both aged 8, had left their flood-battered homes in Thuruthipuram near North Paravur wondering how long it would take for them to swing and slide in their favourite school park again.
But, a surprise was in store for the children as they walked into the Government S.N.V. Lower Primary School, Thuruthipuram, on Monday morning. The slide, swings and the benches in the park, which had got discoloured in the rushing flood waters, were gleaming with a fresh coat of paint. New charts, scribblings and graffiti had replaced all that the waters had taken away.
Only later did they realise that their dream had been made real by some angels in the form of youngsters, teachers, professionals from IT and other fields, who had worked tirelessly to make it all happen. These unknown faces and hands represent the increasing tribe of Good Samaritans engaged in the re-building of flood-ravaged schools in Ernakulam.
“We had kept some money for conducting the Onam programmes in our university. We used that along with the funds given by our friends to re-build the school,” said Muhammed Shibin, a final-year student of B.Tech Information Technology at the Cochin University of Science and Technology. The youth was part of the 45-odd volunteers who had joined hands to restore the flood-hit government school to its original condition.
Sreepriya, an IT professional with a company in SmartCity Kochi, said that they were able to complete works so as to enable the teachers to resume the classes by Monday. “For the kitchen (where mid-day meals are prepared for the 65 children), we bought a new stove, utensils and other necessary items as everything here was either washed away or destroyed in the floods,” she said.
Mr. Shibin said that they had also spruced up the school park and given a fresh coat of paint for the damp walls and wet classrooms. “We wanted to bring back the school to its prior state as much as possible. However, much work seems left in other flood-hit schools and we hope our endeavour will inspire others to pursue it,” he said.
Praising the efforts made by the volunteers, Shelia A. Salam, headmistress of the school, said that the houses of all the 65 children in the school were affected in the floods. “Our school met with extensive damage. We had lost three desktops, two laptops, sound system, motor, compound wall, toilets, office registers, and documents,” she said.
P. S. Chandrika, geadmistress of P.S.M. Government Lower Primary School, Puthenvelikara, expressed hope that the school could come back with the growing support from a cross section of individuals, associations and organisations.
“We got help for clean-up work from policemen, education department officials, and residents’ associations. An IT major has assured us school kits having notebooks, tiffin-box and school bags. A social media group involving education department officials in Thiruvananthapuram has assured us t-shirts, shoes, umbrellas, notebooks for our 250-odd students. Teachers and students from Cusat helped us in cleaning up the wells on the campus,” she said.
However, Ms. Chandrika said that they had no idea how to replace the damaged laptops and desktops. “Most of the children belong to parents who are daily wage labourers. We cannot ask them to pay for these replacements. I have no idea how to bring them daily to the school, as the only bus used to transport them was also damaged in the floods,” she said.
C.S. Santosh, Deputy Director of Education, Ernakulam, said that a leading company had promised 2 lakh notebooks for the students in the flood-affected schools in Ernakulam. “School bags have been offered by a Kerala-based company while a public sector oil major has informed that they are considering a proposal to repair the flood-damaged buildings. We now need support for replacement of IT equipment. As per our preliminary estimates, over 200 laptops and 125 projectors were destroyed in the floods in government and aided schools in the district,” he said.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kochi / by G. KrishnaKumar / Kochi – September 04th, 2018
Is Kochi’s Watasale store the future of retail?
The Watasale store in Kochi is an experiment in cashier-less shopping
There are no long-winding queues or slow cashiers at Watasale. In fact, there is no cashier at all. At this fully-automated store recently launched by a Kochi-based startup at the city’s Gold Souk Grande Mall, customers get a hands-on experience of what cashier-less shopping feels like. This is the age of the automated retail store, which does away with needless human interaction.
While the concept was spearheaded by Amazon, which has its Amazon Go store in Seattle, the rest of the world is still waking up to the many possibilities of disruptive retail. American retail giant Walmart has announced a partnership with Microsoft to launch cashier-free stores.
The ‘just-walk-out’ technology, that the Watasale store is based on, is a first of its kind in India, claim the founders. Unlike in a brick-and-mortar shop, shopping is hassle-free. There is no need to scan the products, generate the bill, enter the card pin, or get the bill checked at the exit. It runs on a combination of Artificial Intelligence (AI), computer vision and sensor fusion, the same technology that is employed in self-driving cars.
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Against the tide
- Amazon started out as an online bookstore. Now, the company runs physical bookstores and the Amazon Go retail
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The store at the Gold Souk Grande is rather small, with two racks on either side, one for toiletries and the other for groceries. For the curious, this is how it works: prospective customers have to download the Watasale app from the Play store and enter the store by scanning the QR code at the entrance. Pick up the products, toss them into your bag and walk out; the money gets automatically deducted from the customer’s account through credit card or an integrated wallet.
“This is the future of shopping,” says Rajesh Malamal, the chief marketing officer of the company, “Though this is a pilot run, we are a live store. The footfalls are just picking up, but we want to give people the ultimate automated shopping experience.” Three years of research and multiple trial runs have gone into setting up the store. The technology and logistics were developed by an in-house team.
The experience is not starkly impersonal as one might imagine. Shop assistants have been appointed, who help customers get familiar with the way the technology works. “Anything from fresh produce to beverages, packed food and pharmaceuticals can be sold through this model. This can also be scaled up to a hypermarket, based on how well our people adapt to the technology,” says Richu Jose, the chief operating officer. Apart from the inquisitive shopper, it has also been attracting the tech geeks among students. “They are interested in AI and computer vision and want to experience it,” Richu says.
With technology such as computer vision, there could be concern about privacy. “Though we use computer vision, we don’t use facial recognition. Instead, we depend on multiple classifications based on AI and identify the customer based on the algorithm. The customer or their mobile phone is not tracked,” Richu adds. This way, the store can get a detailed insight into inventory, analyse buying patterns and update stocks instantly.
In terms of security, it is no different from an ordinary store, only safer, in that it cuts the risk of shoplifting.
Watasale micro stores are the next step in the plan. These ‘stores next door’ will be deployed in apartment complexes, housing areas, workplaces and transit areas. These work as upgraded vending machines, but on the same cashier-less principle, where the customer can scan the QR code and pick up what they need. These micro stores can be placed in any location, and the customers can use them at any time of the day for groceries, daily essentials, food items and the like.
Watasale is planning to expand to Bengaluru and Delhi, and the company also plans to open franchisee stores, and as a later step, include farmers by directly purchasing from them and delivering fresh produce to consumers.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Sci-Tech / by Anasuya Menon / September 04th, 2018