Category Archives: World Opinion

Indian born scientist wins prestigious US award

Leaders, Nri's / Pio's, Records, All, Science & Technology, World Opinion

 

Thomas J. Colacot. File photo. / The Hindu
Thomas J. Colacot. File photo. / The Hindu

India-born scientist Dr. Thomas John Colacot has won the  American Chemical Society’s  ACS Award in Industrial Chemistry , one of the top honours in the field.

He studied at St. Berchman’s College, Changanacherry, Kerala and IIT, Chennai, and is the first Indian to get the award in industrial chemistry. He also holds an MBA degree and was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

The award is sponsored by the ACS Division of Business Development and Management and the ACS Division of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry.

Currently Global R&D manager in the homogenous catalysis area at Johnson Matthey, a specialty chemicals company, Mr. Colacot directs research in US, UK and in Indian labs.

“The ACS is proud to recognize your outstanding contributions to the development and commercialization of ligands and precatalysts for metal-catalyzed organic synthesis, particularly cross-couplings, for industrial and academic use and applications,” a letter from Tom Barton, president of ACS noted.

The 2015 national awards recipients will be honoured at the awards ceremony in conjunction with the 249th ACS national meeting in Denver, Colorado in March next year.

Mr. Colacot had received Royal Society of Chemistry’s RSC Applied Catalysis Award in 2012 for his contributions to the area of catalysis. His work on ‘cross-coupling’ is particularly acclaimed.

Mr. Colacot joined Johnson Matthey, USA in 1995 and started working in the area of palladium catalyzed cross-coupling.

The catalysts developed in his labs are currently used to make new drugs for Hepatitis C, a deadly disease with no cure, one pill per week for type II diabetics, and many hypertension drugs.

His work involves developing and commercializing ligands and catalysts for applications in metal-catalyzed synthetic organic chemistry.

His book on ‘New Trends in Cross-Coupling: Theory and Applications’ is scheduled to be published in October, 2014 by the Royal Society of Chemistry.

He is also PhD thesis examiner to many IITs and visiting faculty at Rutgers University.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> S&T> Science / by IANS / Washington – September 03rd, 2014

Ramesh Kanjilimadhom: The barefoot runner

Arts,Culture & Entertainment, Sports, World Opinion

A three-time Boston Marathon veteran, this runner from Kochi is organizing his first marathon this year.

Ramesh Kanjilimadhom.
Ramesh Kanjilimadhom.

On The Run | Ramesh Kanjilimadhom 

Ramesh Kanjilimadhom, 45, ran his first marathon in 2006 at the age of 37; since then he has run 39 full marathons. The Kochi-based information technology professional is always either recovering from a marathon or training for one. A prolific runner, he has run the Boston Marathon thrice, and started the running group Soles of Cochin in July last year with friends. On 16 November, the group is organizing its inaugural Spice Coast Marathon. Kanjilimadhom doesn’t use shoes or music for running, and it seems to be working for him, for his personal record for a full marathon—set in Dubai in 2010—is 3:05:26. Edited excerpts from an email interview:

Why, when and how did you start running?

I started running in my early 30s. A subconscious reason for it may have been my brother getting diabetic at a young age.

Your favourite running gear and soundtrack.

Nature and my environment provide me the best soundtrack. I don’t use shoes much, but clotheswise, I run in a singlet and shorts. Brands don’t really matter much.

Describe your training regimen.

It typically involves five or six days of running a week, almost exclusively in the morning. I try to mix it up with tempo, Interval, long runs, recovery, etc.

Why and when did you take up barefoot running? 

I took up barefoot running in 2009 purely out of curiosity when a friend told me how liberating and strong she felt running that way. I enjoyed it and felt it worked well for me. Since then, I’ve been almost exclusively running barefoot except for some long runs and races.

How did you qualify for the Boston Marathon?

I had no idea what it meant to qualify for Boston, but when I finished my first full marathon in 3 hours, 47 minutes, other runners told me that a BQ (Boston Qualification) was within my reach. I failed a few times, but made the cut in January 2009 for the first time. I have done both high-quantity and high-quality miles training with similar results, so I guess both methods work for me. The most important thing is to remain injury-free and enjoy your runs.

How much difference does it make running barefoot?

It is certainly different. It brings out your natural stride and landing, uses the feedback mechanism from your feet and possibly lets your body make automatic adjustments/corrections. I haven’t had any aches or injuries running barefoot that I used to have when running in shoes. However, it may very well be that barefoot is not the best style for you. There’s only one way to find out; try both.

Is there some personal goal that you have set for yourself?

I’d like to run a sub-3-hour marathon some day. If I can transcend the pressure of performance for races and become a complete zen runner, I’d like that.

Your tips for runners on how to make it to the Boston Marathon.

First thing is to find out what works for you. For some it’s high-volume training; for some it’s high-quality training; for some others, it doesn’t matter. Once you identify the training plan, enslave yourself to it. It’s hard work, but that’s what marathon running is anyway. For high volume, I highly recommend Pfitzinger 18/70; for high quality, either Fuhrman’s FIRST or the Hansons plan. Custom plans from Runner’s World SmartCoach are also wonderful.

Your running group, Soles of Cochin, is organizing its first marathon this year. What can we expect from it?

Soles of Cochin has a fairly large crowd running regularly, training together for marathons and longer races and achieving great things in terms of race times, physical transformations and mental toughness. We felt that it was time for us to organize a full marathon in Kochi. We have named our race the Spice Coast Marathon and identified a flat and fast course that winds through the spice market, along the happening Arabian Sea coast and to a relatively calm port area. It is scheduled for 16 November, when the weather will be nice and mild. We are expecting pretty good crowd support as the runners enter the Fort Kochi area from the relatively quiet Willingdon Island. We also plan to highlight the centuries-old landmarks in the area that bring the character and heritage of the place in focus.

 On the Run is a monthly series that profiles the most enthusiastic Indian marathon runners.

source: http://www.livemint.com / Live Mint & The Wall Steet Journal / Home> Leisure / Shrenik Avlani / Monday – August 25th, 2014

Building a multi-million venture from a small town in Kerala: Corporate360 story

Business & Economy, Science & Technology, World Opinion

Corporate360 offers SaaS based Marketing Data & Analytics software for B2B marketers. Headquartered in Singapore with subsidiary offices in the US, the UK, Philippines and India, the company offers innovative marketing data & sales analytics solutions for global markets through a disruptive, low cost Data-as-a-Service model.

“The idea behind launching this was to innovate data solutions help B2B marketers identify best-fit target audience for sales & marketing campaigns,” says Varun Chandran, Founder, Corporate360.

The idea for Corporate360 was born when Varun was working for a large technology company in Singapore. He was working in a sales role where his ex-boss and a colleague initiated the idea of developing a sales intelligence and analytics data platform to help them sell better.

Corporate360KERALA25aug2014

Varun took the lead on getting the idea off the ground and startup while the other two colleagues decided to continue with their full time jobs due to security reasons. With their encouragement, Varun bootstrapped and launched Corporate360 with a couple of hundred dollars from his bed room.

Building global venture from a small town in Kerala

Corporate360 is the first international startup in India to start operations in a tier-3 town in Kerala, employing 20 engineers thereby creating jobs in rural India. The company is also a big supporter of women empowerment campaign, 75% of the present workforce of Corporate360 is women.

The company’s Founder Varun started from a humble background. Born in a small farming village in Kerala, he was a national footballer, captained Kerala University and Youth football teams. A college dropout, he went on to work for some of the world’s largest tech companies such as SAP, Oracle, and Dell in 3 countries before  founding Corporate360.

For the first three quarters, he was a one-man company and generated $250k in revenue. He re-invested the revenue back into the business to hire and build teams in Singapore, Manila and India. “At first it was challenging to attract talent especially in Kerala, when he bought his own company building and started the operations instead of renting a space in an IT park. People were hesitant because the company was a non-funded -startup and was not very famously operating out of any technology park,” adds Varun.

Differentiators and USPs

The B2B marketplace is crowded with legacy data re-sellers. There is a huge gap of BigData innovations in this space corresponding to lack of relevancy, accuracy, analytics and data maintenance in the old fashioned model. “Companies end up spending millions of dollars repeatedly to source data sets for their marketing campaigns from expensive, generic data re-sellers. B2B marketers are increasingly looking for insight driven marketing campaigns and switching from the legacy model of generic marketing blast approach,” points out Varun.

Corporate360 solutions are designed to leverage BigData to provide insight driven campaign data and sales analytics. The company is the first in Asia to offer a SaaS based B2B marketing data platform for global markets.

It offers a comprehensive, one-of-a-kind and the most complete marketing data software suite available today. The platform covers company profile, contact intelligence, organisation charts, tech install info, competitive intelligence, predictive analytics, sales triggers & social data through a low cost Data-as-a-Service model. Corporate360 DaaS model is unique and innovative delivering high value for customers, ensuring highest level of data accuracy, ongoing data maintenance and real-time updates.

How Corporate360 works for startups?

B2B marketers and agencies use Corporate360 solutions to access insight driven campaign data such as target companies, contacts, social intelligence, competitive intelligence & sales triggers. They use our platform to retrieve actionable data to design targeted campaigns with tailored messaging.

At present, the company has 900 plus clients ranging from startups to ‘Forbes’ listed corporations. A large portion of revenue comes from international markets such as the US & Europe. Corporate360 clients include HP, Dell, Oracle, and Google etc. The company offers exclusive, low-cost data subscription plans for B2B startups to get them started on their marketing campaigns.

Corporate360 is gaining good traction in global markets with their data driven & structured knowledge discovery solutions for B2B sales and marketers.

Journey from zero to multi-million dollar venture in three years

Corporate360 grew into a multi-million dollar business within three years as a bootstrapped venture. The company is profitable with operations in 5 countries with a team size of 29 executives. Profitable from inception, the company grew from revenue (first year) of $250k to a million dollar mark in just three years, presently forecasted to cross multi-million in revenue this year.

Plans for scaling up

The company is scaling up its offerings with innovative data solutions for marketers. The company is scheduled to formally launch three new cool data applications to their SaaS platform like:

PeeP: A social profiling widget of target audience to help learn more about the background of target prospects.

DataStudio – A comprehensive data service model to refresh & maintain internal data accuracy, leverage external data sets, create predictive data modelling, run accurate sales analytics, and integrate into CRM tools.

SmartWorker – A crowdsource data platform leveraging millions of online workers to perform data tasks at any scale to deliver real-time data updates.

By 2015, the company is aiming to cover 90% of total addressable enterprise market coverage in their data platform.

Road ahead

Corporate360 is expanding with local sales offices in the US, the UK and Singapore. The company is launching new data driven products for B2B marketers and has filed for four patents. “We are also in discussions with some prominent VCs to explore capital raising to accelerate our sales and marketing expansions in global markets,” says Varun.

Acquisition on the card

Corporate360 is in final discussions with a BigData startup company from India for a potential acquisition. The total team size is expected to grow from 29 to 50 this year, primarily expanding Data Scientist teams in India and Sales team in the US.

Website : Corporate360

source: http://www.yourstory.com / Your Story / by Jai Vardhan / August 25th, 2014

Twinning Tale Delivers More Wonders

Amazing Feats, Arts,Culture & Entertainment, Records, All, Science & Technology, World Opinion

Mallappuram : 

Less than a week ago, gynaecologist Laila Beegum supervised the birthing of a set of identical twins to a couple from Kodinhi village, now known globally for the high number of multiple births. The twin babies born on August 7 this year took the total number of such deliveries witnessed by her to 452.

Though the total number of twins in the village has now crossed 500, the mystery behind the phenomenon is yet to be unravelled.

Located close to Tirurangadi town in Malappuram district, Kodinhi village, with its high twinning rate, garnered global media attention around six years ago. At Kodinhi, twins account for 42 per 1,000 live births while the global average of twinning is reportedly around six per 1,000.

Brazil’s Candido Godoi and Nigeria’s Igbo-Ora have witnessed similar birth phenomenon. Attempts by several scientists and organisations to find the secret behind the high twinning rate have failed to bear fruit.

Recently, Dr N K Sribiju, public health consultant, Taluk Hospital, Tirurangadi, approached the state government seeking permission to conduct a genetic study on the local populace.

“Surely, there would be a scientific reason behind the birth of a huge number of twins in such a small area. But, the secret can be revealed only through a detailed genetic and environment study. We are awaiting permission from the ethical committee of the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology at Thiruvananthapuram for the same,” said Dr Sribiju.

Significantly, more than 90 per cent of the couples from Kodinhi who reported twin births conceived normally. “Hence, IVF treatment cannot be considered as a reason for the high rate of twinning in Kodinhi,” Dr Biju said.

Dr Laila, who runs Laila’s Hospital, Chemmad, said multiple births are not just being reported by persons born and brought up here.

“Many women who came to Kodinhi after marrying someone here have also experienced twin birth. So, it could be due to some mysterious element of nature.

“Earlier, we conducted a water test but the results were not conclusive,” Dr Laila added.

Twins and Kins Association (TAKA) of Kodinhi believes that their village has the most density of twins in the world and is planning to approach officials of the Guinness Book to claim a record.

Get-together

“There are families having three pairs of twins and triplets at home. A 90-year-old man here is the eldest among the twins who are alive,” said Bhaskaran Pullani, president, Twins and Kins Association, which is planning to organise a get-together of all Kodinhi twins.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Kerala / by Santosh Christy / August 17th, 2014

Malayali toddler bags a BMW

Arts,Culture & Entertainment, Nri's / Pio's, Travel, World Opinion
Tanishka, with her family.
Tanishka, with her family.

Dubai:

The Dubai Summer Surprises lucky draw prize winner is a young Malayali girl who won a BMW car worth 130,000 dirhams (Rs 21.5 lakh approx). Tanishka,the 2 year old, is the daughter of Abhilash Ayyapan who resides in Dubai.

Abhilash was born in the UAE, and is currently in Dubai with his family, running his own business. He was at Oasis mall with his family, when he filled out the coupons for the lucky draw. Tanishka’s family has decided to acquire money equivalent to the cost of the car and save it for their daughter’s future. The event, conducted by Dubai Department of Tourism and Commercial Marketing, would be on a gift giving spree till September 5.

source: http://www.beta.english.manoramaonline.com / Manorama Online / Home> News> Kerala / by Manorama Online Correspondent / Thursday – August 14th, 2014

[Techie Tuesdays] Indian DIY hacker Arvind Sanjeev, the inventor of ‘desi’ Google Glass

Business & Economy, Science & Technology, World Opinion

As a child, Arvind Sanjeev loved breaking new toys. That was his way of playing with them.  He has continued his hacking habit and is now a do-it-yourself hard coder. He was recently in the news for creating his own open-source Google Glass clone.

ArvindKERALA13aug2014

A hardcode electronics and mechatronics fan, he completed his engineering in Electronics and Communication in 2013. He was involved in developing functional prototypes while in college.

He has completed 15 projects  and numerous hacks which include following:

1. RideSmart – It is a remote Vehicle Activation System using SmartPhones (Android, Blackberry 10, Nokia) and he has filed for a patent (pending) for this project.

2. Smart Cap – It is the open source Glass clone which he developed mounting the display over the cap.

3. Fin – The Wearable Smart Finger Ring controller for SmartTVs, Smartphones, etc.

4. He has developed Internet of Things based home automation system.

5. You might have probably heard of (Android) SmartPhone Application Controlled Robot. Arvind has developed (Android) SmartPhone Application Controlled Honda Scooter.

6. He has manufactured the remote control of quad-rotor helicopter which has auto stabilization in it.

7. He has made a hovercraft with GPS which can be controlled by a wearable hand glove.

8. He has designed a smart and an interactive offline voice response system for home automation.

9. At times, two wheelers are just too easy to steal. Hence, he designed Gspeed, an anti-theft and navigation system for two wheelers.

10. He went on to make a portable GPS navigation module for explorers.

11. He has earned recognition from Kerala Power Minister and Electricity Board for developing home power and internet logger.

12. We have lighted a rocket using normal ignition. Arvind went a step ahead and designed an electric ignition based rocket using self-made solid fuel mixture.

He tells us that he used to refer to YouTube, StackOverflow, etc, to learn more about technologies around Android and other open source hardware like Arduino, Raspberry Pi, etc.

Commenting on the present education system, he says that the ultimate aim of any academic course should be to equip the student with the ability to apply the working knowledge gained through practical applications. He adds that there is an urgent need to revamp the outdated academic curriculum.

Arvind2KERALA13aug2014

Arvind feels that India lacks proper resources and a conducive breeding ground for the hardware industry to prosper. At present, there is a boom of 3D printers and rapid prototyping, and hardware is going to become nearly as scalable as software. Arvind says that India should equip itself with the latest technologies in the market, and only then will we be able to start the race from the same starting line as our counterparts abroad. “Even today, many people, including developers, etc are skeptical about developing a hardware product,” he says.

Wearable market is another rat race which everyone is venturing into, be it smart watches, glasses, arm bands and even rings have entered the fray.  According to Arvind Sanjeev, the quintessential use for it in our daily life still deserves contemplation. He mentions that affordable augmented reality displays running on artificial intelligence that can be controlled using our brain waves or thoughts, sound promising.

He started a platform called DIY Hacking to serve as a medium to tutor students, hobbyists, etc about the latest technology development. It consists of detailed step by step instructions on how to do several projects centered on modern technology, and has tutorials ranging from $ 80 per head, which include mounted displays, Internet of Things and smartphone controlled robots.

Arvind says that the support he got from his parents — Dr.Sanjeev S (Principal Scientist, CIFT) and Dr. Usha Sanjeev (Technical Officer, CIFT) — has helped him in all his endeavors. They have helped him in funding several of his projects and continue to provide him with several resources. He also credits Startup Village, Cochin, for the support and guidance.  He also mentions that Sijo Kuruvilla George, Founding CEO of Startup Village, has guided him and several others in all their endeavors and is a true source of motivation.

source: http://www.yourstory.com / Your Story / Home> Techie Tuesdays / by Shreyansh Singhal / August 12th, 2014

Award Presented to M K Sanu

Arts,Culture & Entertainment, Nri's / Pio's, Records, All, World Opinion

Kannur :

The Abu Dhabi Sakti-Thayat-T K Ramakrishnan awards were presented at a function here on Sunday. T K Ramakrishnan Award for social, cultural and literary contributions was presented to Prof M K Sanu by Chalakudy MP Innocent. He also presented the Thayat Award for literary criticism to Pallippuram Murali.

Abu Dhabi Sakti awards were presented to Sheeja Vakkam, C P Biju, Gopinath Kozhikode, E P Hamsakkutty, Sunil P Ilayidam, K Rajagopal and M S Kumar.

MP  Innocent inaugurated the award ceremony and the cultural meeting organised in connection with it. P Karunakaran MP, chairman of the award committee, presided over the function. P K Sreemathi MP delivered the keynote address.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States>  Kerala / by Express News Service / August  04th, 2014

Kochiite takes a leaf from New York

Arts,Culture & Entertainment, Nri's / Pio's, World Opinion
Facebook page of Humans of Kochi. (Photo: Facebook grab)
Facebook page of Humans of Kochi. (Photo: Facebook grab)

Kochi:

The ‘Humans of New York’, a Facebook page, that has become an internet sensation, was the inspiration for the ‘Humans of Kochi’ page, which is slowly gathering momentum. Following in the footsteps of its New York model, which features portraits of people in and around the city, accompanied by short descriptions and just enough information about those who are willing to face the camera, the Kochi version, created by a Kochiite, Lohit Chandran, a B.Tech graduate, is trying to show a glimpse of the lives and stories of people in the city. The stories are written in both English and Malayalam. Lohit, who launched his page on April 10, now has more than 50 stories and 1500+ likes.

Lohit wanders around the city with a photographer and tries to strike conversations at random with people on the street. One conversation and a few photographs later, an interesting part of their interaction is posted on the Facebook page. He says that the page forges an emotional connect with readers. Facebook fans usually like the post, usually comment on it or share it, posting it on their personal walls. Friends of the person whose story is featured sometimes tag the person to let them know that their story appears on the ‘Humans of Kochi’ page.

Lohit has found it difficult though to keep the page going as most people are not at ease opening up to strangers and decline to the interview. Most women are uncomfortable giving interviews and getting photographed even when the concept of the page is shown to them.

The ‘Humans of New York’ page was started by American photographer Brandon Stanton (which now has 60 lakh followers), and many cities around the world, such as Paris, London, Singapore, Bombay, Bangalore and other cities have their similar pages.

source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> Nation> Current Affairs / DC / Rohit Raj / June 23rd, 2014

Study reveals truth behind Malabar Manual

About Kerala, Education, Historical Links, Pre-Independence, Records, All, World Opinion

Kozhikode :

Colonial rulers and chroniclers of British rule had all along maintained that blessed with copious rains and unfailing monsoon, Malabar remained impervious to famine.

But a recent, first of its kind study on ‘Famines in British Malabar’ busts the myth which William Logan, the famous historian and administrator, had reiterated in his exhaustive treatise Malabar Manual, that ever since the East India Company (EIC) took over the administration in India and subsequently passed it on to the British Crown, there was no record of famine in the district, and he gave much of the credit to an efficient British government.

But the yet to be released monograph of ‘Famines in British Malabar’ written by food economist, Dr. M Raghavan, Former Director of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, says that Logan’s accounts about having a largely famine- free Malabar during the 18th and 19th centuries are factually icorrect.

“The archival records themselves reveal that Logan himself had received, under his official seal and date, periodic reports from taluk level officials about the ravaging epidemics and famines in the district. Interestingly, all these reports were received in the Collectorate under the official seal”, Raghavan says in the study.

“Fact being that the Malabar Manual was first published just eight years after the 1876-78 famine, the statement that post the 1727 famine there was no record of any famine in Malabar is more of a deliberate attempt on the part of Logan to conceal the truth,” he said.

Raghavan, who has worked for around 35 years in the realm of food security in various roles including as deputy economic advisor at the Planning Commission, said that there has not been any comprehensive study of famines in British Malabar.

“These assertions are clearly preposterous as in the first half of the twentieth century, Malabar alone had undergone at least four grievous famines in 1918, 1924, 1933, and 1943,” he added.

“Though the construction of railways has been generally perceived as the best long term guarantee against famines as it allowed movement of food quickly from surplus to famine-prone deficit areas, in reality the British administration tacitly allowed private traders to carry away whatever food stocks were available, either for exports or for indulging in speculation inviting disastrous famines at progressively shorter intervals,” Raghavan said.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Kozhikode / by K R Rajeev, TNN / July 16th, 2014

Shaji N Karun showed monuments to Preisner for ‘Gaadha’

Arts,Culture & Entertainment, World Opinion
File photo: Shaji N Karun
File photo: Shaji N Karun

New Delhi:

National-award winning director Shaji N Karun, who is making bilingual film ‘Gaadha’, has roped in internationally acclaimed musician Zbigniew Preisner to compose music for the film.

Karun says he took Preisner to various old monuments across the country before he set out to work on the Hindi and Malayalam film, which is inspired by T Padmanabhan’s short story ‘Kadal’.

“I showed him various old monuments for the music required in the film. I thought he will be able to set the tone of the music right. He is the best for symphony orchestra,” the filmmaker told PTI.

Preisner closely worked with noted Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieslowski on his films ‘Dekalog’, ‘The Double Life Of Veronique’, ‘Three Colours Blue’, ‘Three Colours White’ and ‘Three Colours Red’ besides giving music to films like ‘It’s All About Love’,’Effroyables jardins’ and ‘Un secret’.

Though the cast of the film is not finalised yet, Shaji said he hopes to start shooting the film in few months.

source: http://www.beta.english.manoramaonline.com / Manorama Online / Home> Entertainment> Entertainment News / by Agencies / Monday – July 01st, 2014