The e-Jalakam programme of St Teresa’s College has been chosen for the chief ministers special awards for innovation in public service (2013).
E-Jalakam is a model e-governance literacy project that aims to enhance public access to various online government services. The award will be presented on Monday.
Principal coordinator of the project Nirmala Padmanabhan — who also heads the college’s economics department — said that the programme was a social initiative to educate girls/women on how to access government websites.
“Our aim was to educate people who didn’t know how to navigate government sites. So, students prepared a step-by-step handbook to guide them. The handbook helps a person track file movement in any department. Similarly, people can check birth, death and property details, even power and water bills too. The citizen’s handbook called ‘Vivara Nidhi’ and can be downloaded from the IT Mission website or the e-Jalakam website,” she said. Padmanabhan gives credit to her students whose meticulous efforts resulted in such a simple, easy-to-use guide. The group has managed to reach out to 12,000 families in 86 schools over the past one year.
“You can keep the book next to the computer and finish the entire process screen by screen. In the first two phases of the project, the e-Jalakam team trained 17 civic groups covering 2,000 persons,” she said, adding that a decision was taken in the third phase to train high students in government and aided schools where IT@school project was being implemented.
“Student feedback resulted in another handbook called e-Mithram which serves their interests like applying for entrance exams, checking results, application for driving/duplicate licence etc,” she said. The group plans to print these handbooks with their prize money that amounts to Rs 2 lakh. “Everywhere we go, people ask for a hard copy. We will be selling them at a nominal price to make printing a sustainable operation,” she said.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Kochi / TNN / October 27th, 2014
Six student entrepreneurs at the Startup Village earned global acclaim for their smartphone app designed to improve the skills of skateboarders. File photo
Kochi:
Six student entrepreneurs at the Startup Village here have earned global acclaim for their smartphone app designed to improve the skills of skateboarders. They have now been invited to Canada next month to interact with innovation experts, investors and mentors.
The startup Flip Technologies team’s product, “The Smart Riser” (Skateboard tracker), was ranked among the top five in the Next Big Idea Contest 2014 organised jointly by the Bombay Stock Exchange Institute, the Government of Ontario, Canada, IBM Global and Ryerson Futures Inc.
The Smart Riser is designed for skateboarders to enhance their ability to perform and analyse tricks whether one is an amateur or professional.
The device is connected to the truck of the skateboard and it tracks the dynamics of the board and the data is sent to a smart phone app via bluetooth. The app can determine the trick performed and help the skateboarders to improve their skills and acts like a personalized trainer.
The Smart Riser has also been rated as one of the most interesting products by Intel, which will provide its latest Edison board to the students for prototyping and for development support.
Jibin Jose, Abimanyu Nair, Jishnu Vijayan, Balagovind Girish, Rohith Samuel and Abraham Alexander of Flip Technologies will attend a two-week programme in Toronto’s Discovery District – a hotbed of innovation responsible for more than $1 billion of R&D annually.
“We are really excited about our visit to Canada, where we will have an opportunity to interact with the top people in the industry. We are focused on developing cutting edge IOT (Internet of things) devices and tracking devices for adventure sports,” said Jose, co-founder of Flip.
Startup Village chairman Sanjay Vijayakumar said the student entrepreneurs were “proof that if you have the idea, the enthusiasm and the drive, there is a world of opportunity awaiting you.”
While Jose and Nair had passed out from the Toc-H Institute of Science and Technology (TIST) near here, the other four students are pursuing different courses at the same college.
source: http://www.english.manoramaonline.com / On Manorama / Home> Sci-Tech / by Agencies / Wednesday – October 29th, 2014
After the long demands made by the admirers of Ayurveda and the Hortus Malabaricus Trust, the state Archeology Department has declared the remains of the famous Ayurveda physician Itty Achuthan, coauthor of Hortus Malabaricus, a protected monument. The department issued government order to protect the monument. The ‘kuriala’, a small wooden room used by the scholar; a botanical garden; the ‘narayam’, wooden pen using to write; palm leaf writings; a basket made of cane; the silk and bangle gifted by the erstwhile King of Kochi are in the kuriala.
Itty Achuthan
According to Archeology Department Director G Premkumar, the 8.5 cent land owned by the Kollattu family in the Kadakarapally panchayat in Alappuzha was handed over to the Department. The Department had published preliminary gazette on July 2013 to make it a protected monument. Some of the family members raised protest, but the government negotiated with them and declared the monument a protected one this month, he said. Premkumar said they have plans to construct the monument in the land and to protect the ‘Kuriala’ intact. The Department directed the engineer to prepare a project. The fund for the protection will be allocated in the next financial year, he said.
The Archaeological Department started initiatives to take over the land a few years ago, but the land was pledged by the present owners in a Co-operative Bank. Later, the state government released the 8.5 cent land from the bank burden and published gazette. Itty Achuthan had participated in the compilation work of Hortus Malabaricus, a book on the flora of Kerala in the mid 17 century. The Dutch Malabar governor Hendrik Van Rheede had written the book and it was published in the second half of 17 century at Amsterdam.
The property is now owned by a fourth generation member of Itty Achuthan’s family in Kadakarapally panchayat near Cherthala. The land owner pledged the land in two cooperative banks and have taken lakhs as loan. After the death of the land owner his wife and children are living in the house.While the Kuriala is situated in 66 cent land and the botanical garden grown by Itty Achuthan is in 26 cents, the Archeology Department has taken over only 8.5 cents of land from the entire property to protect the monument and botanical garden.Hortus Malabaricus Trust secretary A N Chidambaran said that the trust had been working to protect the monument for more than two decades. The Trust has submitted proposals to construct an ayurvedic museum and a research centre about ayurvedic medicine, he said.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Kerala / by Biju E. Paul / October 23rd, 2014
Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) has developed a ‘lime applicator’ system to apply lime on the sprawling paddy fields of the state, to ameliorate the acidity of soil, before agriculture activities. This machine has come out as a boost for kole land farmers as they were facing acute problems with lime application ahead of every farming season.
The R&D team of the Food Security Arm (FSA) under the University has developed a system of protocols to use the equipment ‘fertilizer broadcaster’ as lime applicator.
After field trials at ARS Mannuthy, applicator was successfully demonstrated at Ponnamutha Kole padavu, before the farmers, and was found very successful. It will apply lime at the rate of 600kg/ha.
According to ARS head U Jaikumaran the kole lands of Malappuram and Thrissur districts, stretching over 30,000 acres, is inherently faced with high acidity problem.
Here high acidity interferes with soil fertility and hinders the uptake of nutrients by the paddy crop thereby reduces rice production up to 60-90 per cent, unless neutralised by lime application.
The farmers in this area were demanding the development of a suitable machinery, over the years, for lime application in kole lands, at the prescribed rate. This demand was projected in ‘Operation Ponnamutha 300/5’ project and since then Agricultural Research Station, Mannuthy, was trying to development of a lime applicator feasible to kole lands, Jaikumaran said.
This led to the development of two lime applicators. Both these functions through PTO operated tractor and mounted on three point linkage. Its hopper is conical in shape and can hold nearly 450 kg of lime material. The PTO operates a central spin situated on the bottom opening of the hopper, which scatters lime material dropping through the hopper.
When manual workers claim nearly `3-5/ kg for lime application, using this machine can reduce the cost by `1/kg. The equipment can also be hydraulically lifted.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Kerala / by Express News Service / October 22nd, 2014
The second annual conference of the Society for Heart Failure and Transplantation (SHFT), an association of cardiologists, cardiovascular surgeons and cardiac anaesthesiologists, begins here on Saturday. Governor P. Sathasivam will inaugurate the conference organised by the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology. Some 300 experts in the field of heart failure will take part.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Thiruvananthapuram / by Special Correspondent / Thiruvananthapuram – October 18th, 2014
All India Institute of Medical Sciences,New Delhi.(Inset: Dr Athira R)
New Delhi :
Dr Athira R recently won the Sorel Catherine Freymann Book award for the ‘Best Post Graduate Student in Pediatrics’ at the AIIMS.
Lov Verma, the Union Secretary Health and Family Welfare, has presented the award to Dr Athira on the occasion of the 59th institute day of AIIMS, New Delhi commemorated on September 24th, 2014.
Dr Athira, hailing from Palakkad district, has published articles in International journals. She had also secured the best outgoing student medal in MBBS from Govt Kilpauk Medical College, Chennai.
source: http://www.english.manoramaonline.com / OnManorama / Home> My News / by Staff Correspondent , OnManorama / Tuesday – September 30th, 2014
‘Face of Palliative Care’ in India, Dr. M.R Rajagopal. Photo: Wikipedia
Four advocates for Human Rights, Dr. M. R. Rajagopal from India, the Founder Chairman of ‘Pallium India’, Shin Dong-Hyuk from North Korea, Father Bernard Kinvi from the Central African Republic, Arwa Othman from Yemen have been chosen for the ‘Dr Alison Des Forges Award’ in 2014.
The award is named after Dr. Alison Des Forges, senior adviser at Human Rights Watch for almost two decades, who died in a plane crash in New York State on February 12, 2009. Dr Alison was the world’s leading expert on Rwanda, the 1994 genocide and its aftermath.
‘Dr. Alison Des Forges Award’ will be presented at the ‘Voices for Justice Annual Dinners’ in 20 cities worldwide. The first dinner will be held in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara in November, where Dr Rajagopal will be honoured. The others will be presented with the award at various venues around the world.
Shin Dong-Hyuk, who was a victim of the brutality and starvation prevalent in North Korea’s forced labor camps has worked tirelessly to alert the world to these horrors since his escape in 2005.
The others recipients of the award include Father Bernard Kinvi, a Catholic priest who saved the lives of hundreds of Muslim civilians targeted during sectarian violence in the Central African Republic; Arwa Othman, a leading advocate working to end child marriage and promote equality for women in Yemen.”
Dr M R Rajagopal, a clinician, academic and an activist for human rights is the ‘Face of Palliative Care’ in India. He has been working to promote Palliative care in India as a ‘Human Right’ and to ensure that the patient has the right to be relieved of their pain and die with dignity.
He developed the world’s most successful Community-based Palliative Care Programme, ‘Pallium India’ and he is responsible in convincing the Indian Government to make morphine available for patients.
His main contributions over the past 20 years have been the formation of the ‘National Programme in Palliative Care in India (NPPPC) in 2012 and in bringing the Parliament of India to amend the harsh ‘Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act of 1985 (NDPS), and the amendment was passed in 2014. ‘Pallium India’ aims to stop the suffering of millions in India who are denied of Pain relief and medical care.
They encourage volunteers and the well-wishers to help them in their endeavour to achieve this goal! Dr Rajagopal believes that patients should not suffer from treatable pain, which is in fact a violation of human rights.
source: http://www.english.manoramaonline.com / OnManorama / Home> My News / by Liz Menon / Saturday – October 04th, 2014
As the College of Engineering, Trivandrum (CET) celebrates its platinum jubilee, the author delves into the history of the college to discover how and when women managed to gain admission to the college
In 1939 when the College of Engineering, Trivandrum (CET) started there were no women either as teachers or as students. Today the Director of Technical Education is a woman and so is the Principal of the college. Many faculty members and B.Tech students in the college are women. The change in the gender picture is in tune with the times. A gender audit of the University of Kerala conducted early this year reveals that except for the higher echelons of power, the University has a huge majority of women as employees and students. Of the 200-plus doctorates awarded last year, more than 50 per cent went to women. In the University Post-Graduates Departments, nearly 75 per cent of students are women.
The entry of women into higher education institutions in the city was achieved much earlier than the establishment of the University of Travancore or CET. The College for Women was established in 1889, and gave women in the city representation in higher education. However, the story of CET was very different. There was nothing in the rules that prevented women from entering the portals of this college. However the decision of admission was entirely left to the Principal of the college. He could, without assigning any reason, accept or reject students in an interview and norms for the conduct of the interview were not codified and the Principal’s decision was final.
An Englishman Professor T.H. Mathewman was the first Principal of CET. His own country’s prestigious University of Cambridge gave entry to women as late as 1948. Women were allowed to study courses, sit for examinations, and have their results recorded from 1881, but they were not “admitted to the Degree of Bachelor of Arts”.
It was only in 1948 that women were made full members of the University of Cambridge, but women had to be in all-women colleges. All-men colleges in Cambridge began to admit women only between 1972 and 1988.
Devi Leela Bai was denied admission to College of Engineering, Trivandrum, because of her gender. / The Hindu
In the first year of the existence of CET, a woman from the city came forward to study engineering. She was Devi Leela Bai, who hailed from Poovalathu Veedu in Arasummoodu, a place close to the present campus of CET. She had completed her B.Sc in Mathematics. Admission to engineering required only an intermediate (current Plus Two) with physics, chemistry, and mathematics as subjects. So Leela Bai was actually over qualified. She walked into the engineering college office in the present PMG buildings to buy an application form for seeking admission. The clerk who sold the application form refused to issue a form to her as she was a woman and he was under instructions that no application forms were to be issued to women. The gates were shut before Leela Bai. She entered the government service and retired as a Deputy Collector in the Treasury Department.
Chellamma Jacob with her daughter Jaya Joseph. Photo: Achuthsankar S. Nair / The Hindu
A couples of decades later, things were not very different, if not worse. Chellamma Jacob who did her intermediate in physics, chemistry, and mathematics dreamt of being an engineer, after hearing about women from Travancore going to Madras [Chennai] and studying engineering and coming back into government service in Travancore.
Chellamma remembers that in school she was asked to write an essay on herself. She articulated her dream to emulate the women engineers of Travancore. In the Fifties, it was not only a meritorious pass in the intermediate alone that was required, but also an entrance examination for admission to engineering had to be passed and this involved questions in drawing and drafting. Even during those days, there were private agencies that coached students for the examination. Chellamma joined one of those private coaching centres and did well in the entrance examination. The interview had to be cleared, but with her good academic records and the pass in the entrance examination, Chellamma was confident of making it to CET. She did attend the interview and recalls that she did well, but in the end it did not make any difference, because the Principal M. V. Kesava Rao ended the interview by saying that everything was fine, but “you cannot be admitted as you are a woman”.
Keshava Rao was also a person who had worked in the United Kingdom but his exposure did not seem to have changed his attitude towards women. Chellamma went to the Government College for Women to study B.Sc. Mathematics and did her masters in English from the same college. She retired as the head of the Department of English in the University College.
K. Gomathi with her husband K. A. Muraleedharan. Photo: Achuthsankar S. Nair / The Hindu
During her stint as a teacher in Women’s College, Chellamma had a student called K. Gomathi who went on to earn the distinction of being the first woman student of CET. Chellamma still recalls her frustration when she was denied admission to CET. But in some way she feels compensated that her student entered the portals of the College. Chellamma’s daughter Jaya Joseph also graduated from CET in 1985.
In 1957, one of the first women students walked into CET (there were two students – K. Gomathi and Sumithra Ram Mohan, but it was Gomathi who graduated first from CET). The local newspapers carried the news that two women were admitted to CET. Around 400 students, all male, waited to receive them. Keshava Rao was still at the helm of affairs in CET.
First day in CET
Gomathi remembers her first day in the college, with almost all the students out on the verandahs in all floors of the building and greeting her with howls and whistles. She was scared, shaken and embarrassed, but braved it all. She sat in a corner of the class, alone on a bench.
She recalls that it was S. Krishnakumar (later an IAS officer and central minister), a senior, who first talked to her, to seek her vote for the student elections. Sumithra was married and did not regularly attend college due to her family commitments.
Gomathi has unpleasant memories of the first year in CET when she was denied a ladies’ waiting room or even a separate toilet. She wanted to do civil engineering, but switched to electrical engineering as the former required survey camp attendance in outstations, which lasted a few weeks, and with the gender insensitivity demonstrated by the college authorities, she feared it would be torturous.
Gomathi graduated in 1961 as the first woman engineering graduate from Kerala University (women from Kerala had earlier graduated from Guindy Engineering College in Chennai).
K.P.P. Pillai, one of her teachers in the final year, remembers that Gomathi was a hardworking student. Dr. Pillai who taught in CET for many years recalls that in the next batches there were seven students and thereafter the numbers started increasing.
K.A. Muraleedharan, a year senior to her in CET, became her life partner. Gomathi went on to become the first woman post-graduate in engineering and took her doctorate from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.
She became a lecturer in her alma matter itself and became head of the department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering and retired as joint director of technical education in 1994. She was not only a popular teacher, but a great mentor to her students.
In CET, her name is synonymous with IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering), the largest professional society of engineers in the world. She was the faculty counsellor for IEEE for almost two decades and was honoured by the society more than once, with international awards for her leadership in IEEE’s CET activities. The cash prizes she received were donated to the IEEE branch itself to enable it to buy the costly IEEE journals, which in those days were very difficult for her students to get.
Dr. Gomathi currently enjoys her retired life, running a unique school for tiny tots and is passionate about painting. Of her two daughters, Girija Muraleedharan graduated from CET, while Saradha Muraleedharan is an IAS officer.
Gomathi feels happy that CET is no longer a men’s enclave but a place where women have a just place too.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus> Society / by Achuthsankar S. Nair / Thursday – October 10th, 2014
Sounding rockets will sear the skies and high altitude balloons will climb new heights at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), coinciding with the observation of the World Space Week (WSW) – 2014 from October 4 to 10 this year.
An array of programmes will be organized for schoolchildren during the week.
The programmes planned include an essay competition for High School Students on the topic ‘Space – Guiding your Way’.
Essays can be in English, Hindi or Malayalam. Handwritten essays not exceeding 2,000 words along with a certificate from the head of institution should reach the WSW office of VSSC on or before September 26.
The envelope should be superscribed WSW-2014 Essay Competition’.
The best essay will win the GSLV gold medal.
During the week, resource persons from VSSC will visit educational institutions in Kerala to organize lecture Programmes at high schools, higher secondary schools, teachers’ training institutions and polytechnics.
Interested institutions can register online on or before September 19.
A ‘Space Quiz’ will be conducted for school students on October 4. Students of class 9 to 12 can register on or before September 24 at wswquiz@vssc.gov.in or by post. Applications shall be certified by the head of educational institution. Only one team consisting of two students from each school can participate.
Following that, an open house will be organised at VSSC space museum, which will be open to public from October 7 to 10 from 9 am to 5 pm. On production of any photo ID card, free entry passes will be issued at the Canal Gate of VSSC upon arrival.
Further information can be had on the web portal http://wsw.vssc.gov.in.
The postal address for registration is WSW-2014 office, TDAD, VSSC, Thiruvananthapuram? 695 022, Phone: 0471-2564271/4272.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Thiruvananthapuram / TNN / September 11th, 2014
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
