Category Archives: Business & Economy

Home is the business zone for these entrepreneurs

Business & Economy

It looks like Coimbatore has been witnessing a surge in the number of home entrepreneurs. These trendy businesswomen do not need a fancy set up or a plush studio to run their business, but are more than happy to churn out their goodies from the premises of their houses. Lathadevi R Sivakumar, who conducts baking classes in the city, doesn’t have an upmarket baking studio, but has a separate portion carved out of her home for her workshops. “I wanted to encourage people to make simple homemade food and teach them the basics of cooking. When I started my work, there was a common entrance to the house and there was a steady influx of people to the home. This posed as a hindrance in managing the family and business. But now I use a separate room in my house outside the entrance and have set clear working hours as well. I also take appointments before I meet people. It’s a 400 sq ft room and it can easily hold up to 15 people for a hands-on-session and 30 people for demo. This helps me to manage the flow of work smoothly.”

Isha Arora, who makes cellphone covers, keychains, wallets right in her bedroom, says that she just spreads a newspaper around and begins to work on the merchandises. “I have been making these crafty items for the last two years and every bit of the work happens in my bedroom. If the orders are less, I have a small table around the corner where I sit and make them. If the order is big, I just sit on the ground, spread few newspapers around and begin my work. The work predominantly happens after I finish my day at college, “says Isha, who sells her products online or at expos. “Only if it’s a bulk order, people come home. I also conduct classes for those interested in crafts right in my room on the ground,” she adds.

According to Latha, the biggest advantage of the arrangement is that she can be a lot flexible. “Since both workplace and home are in the same area, I do not have to fret over getting to work or getting back home. I can work long hours and also take breaks in between.” For Shereen Nunez, who caters custards for colleges along with her husband Arthur Auto Nunez, it’s a huge advantage as she can concentrate on both her family and work at the same time. “I started with just five custards two years ago and today I serve up to 300 custard cups every day. I didn’t have to invest much as well in the beginning since I just had to function out of my kitchen. The custards are made in the morning and we purchase the material every evening. If we have to cater biriyani on prior order, we cook it in traditional way with dum in a small space outside our home.”

Nithya Doraisamy, who has been making crafty tags, says that though she would love to open a craft studio in future, she enjoys working out of home as well. “I used to make these gifts for friends and when I realized that Coimbatore has a good demand for crafty tags, I decided to make more of them. I work out of an extra room that we have at home where I also stock my paper and paints. Since I am only a beginner and haven’t ventured into the business full-fledged in a commercial manner, working from home suits me me. I can finish all the work on my own and manage my personal life as well.”

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / National> City> Coimbatore / by P. Sangeetha, TNN / October 18th, 2015

Puthiyamputhur readying up its garments for Deepavali

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy
Tailors busy stitching up garments at the tailoring units in Pudiyamputhur in Tuticorin district on Friday.Photo: N. Rajesh
Tailors busy stitching up garments at the tailoring units in Pudiyamputhur in Tuticorin district on Friday.Photo: N. Rajesh

Production of readymade garments at Puthiyamputhur has gained momentum ahead of Deepavali festival, to be celebrated on November 10.

Now, tailors are busy stitching garments with power machines in garment units at Puthiyamputhur, a village attached to Ottapidaram taluk. With just sixteen days left for the festival, readymades were being consigned to most of the garment shops across Tamil Nadu.

This year also net-designed and embroidered churithars remained top-picks and were produced mostly to suit buyers’ demands, T. Manohar, president, Clothes and Readymade Garment Traders Association, Puthiyamputhur, told The Hindu on Friday.

With the advent of technology, designs of readymade churidhars were photographed with smart phones and sent through ‘whatsapp,’ to buyers for approval before tailoring. Besides, buyers were also placing orders after taking a look at the sample garment. Unlike the previous years, quality of the dress material, design have improved and cost also increased. The fabric was procured from Surat, Bhilwara, Mumbai and Ahmadabad.

Churithars made of fabrics including soft net, silky net and other varieties of ‘thousand putta’ and ‘matti net’ were top choices among buyers selling in garment shops. Churithars were stitched to suit people across ages – from three to 20 years, he said.

On churithar designs, he said long, collar-typed, coat-type ones were all produced at prices ranging from Rs.250 to Rs.800.

Further, he said a remuneration of Rs.70 was given to a tailor for stitching a garment. A tailor could earn a minimum of Rs.700 to a maximum of Rs.1, 500 a day, if he worked from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Most women in the houses at Puthiyamputhur and its surrounding places were also engaged in stitching garments that were collected from garment units. But, K. Raja, former president of the Association, expressed dissatisfaction over the prevailing trend. He said readymade garment business at Puthiyamputhur had been facing a declining trend year after year since garments produced at Calcutta, Nagpur, New Delhi, Mumbai and Indore at cheaper costs were being pushed into the market.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Tamil Nadu / by Praveen Paul Joseph / Tuticorin – October 24tth, 2015

The Silk Route’s Unsung ‘Coolie’ Workers

Business & Economy
Selvi is one of the last few weavers left in Kanchipuram | MARTIN LOUIS
Selvi is one of the last few weavers left in Kanchipuram | MARTIN LOUIS

Chennai :

The sunny weaver enclosure of Pillayar Koil Sandhu, Kancheepuram somehow feels empty. There are no spinning wheels or bamboo ‘Paruttam’ outside homes. Nothing to show these are homes of weavers. The only give-away is the lone man stretching out the dyed silk threads under the sun at the end of the narrow cemented lane.

“Many have left. We used to have as many as 2,000 weavers in every society besides the many private contract weavers,” rues S Ganapathy, a fourth generation weaver. “Now, there are less than 10,000 in this town.”

Many causes surface: unable to pay their children’s hefty college fees, unable to build or buy a house, low wages, etc are some of reasons this reporter heard. It’s not just the weavers who are in dire straits. Even those that used to pedal away on a second loom (usually bought with a wife’s membership in a society or through private contracts) are worse off.

These men and women are, in the purest sense of the word, ‘Coolie workers’, even if they bring to life wonderful patterns and designs on the rich Kancheevaram silk.

Selvi knows this all too well! Despite frequent complains of back-ache and fatigue, the 40-year-old mounts on the loom and pulls at the Jacquard machine to bring forth her weave to embed another stretch of yellow silk. She keeps at it for 8-10 hours a day for a pay that could maybe buy her family of four a single meal at a cheap eatery.

But Selvi worries about none of that. She pedals on, taking the situation in a different light than one would assume. “It’s alright. With the radio on, it’s a lot of fun. We don’t even feel the hours passing,” she smiles.

For many workers like her in this town, weaving is the only trade they know and silk is the only language they speak. There are hundreds like her dotting the silk town, quietly working away in the background.

But her optimism doesn’t change reality. She still has two daughters to raise and educate. Her husband works at a paint shop and does odd jobs and it’s a joint struggle to put food on the table.

For men, who have suffered loss of a gradually waning tradition, other quick-pay jobs in the offing lead them away from their long-trusted loom. Former silk weavers now do manual labour and work inside factories to make ends meet. The elderly have taken to work as security guards in offices and industrial estates.

“They have to worry about things like a salary and raising family. Some of our men in the community aren’t even getting marriage alliances. During my grandfather’s time, it was a pride to belong to this lineage of silk makers. No one wants to marry a silk weaver anymore,” avers Swarna, a weaver. “Situation has changed far too much in the last decade or so. People lack a sense of pride in taking up weaving. Everyone wants their children to go to college, not sit with them and work.”

There is an elderly worker pedaling away at the clack-clacking machine in her family’s shed. They’re chattering cheerfully, but the exhaustion is apparent. Comfortable retirement is an illusion for most. All they can hope for is more years of crafting beautiful and world-renowned silk sarees…the only livelihood they know.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Amrutha Varshinii / October 21st, 2015

A basketful of bread for Madurai

Business & Economy, Green Initiatives/ Environment

Madurai  :

A two-day bread exhibition inaugurated in the city on Saturday as part of the World Bread Day highlighted the need to protect agricultural land to protect our livelihood and future.

The exhibition, organized by Madurai District Tiny and Small Scale Industries Association, (Maditssia) and the Madurai Bakers Association, was inaugurated by Madurai district collector L Subramanian on Saturday. The organisers said the exhibition was a move to create awareness among the public on the health benefits of adding bread in the daily diet. The exhibition is being held on October 17 and 18 at the Maditssia hall.

Many catering institutions came out with expressive exhibits. A ‘save agri’ model highlighted the need to prevent the conversion of agriculture lands into housing plots. Another model stressed the need to protect wild animals. Cooking competitions for homemakers are being held on Sunday. There is a special stall selling breads and snacks.

Exhibition chairman S Anburajan spoke about the importance of the World Bread Day. Maditssia president L Murari welcomed the audience. Earlier, new members of the Madurai Bakers Association, including president M Chakkaravarthy, secretary D Balaganesh and treasurer Ramasamy, assumed charge.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Madurai / TNN / October 18th, 2015

Awards given

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Leaders, Records, All

The MAC Charities Awards in the name Dr. Rajah Sir Annamalai Chettiar, Dr. M.A.Chidambaram Chettiar and Dr. A.C.Muthiah were distributed at the Annamalai Mandram recently.

Renowned Tamil writer Silamboli Chellappan, received the Dr. Rajah Sir Annamalai Chettiar Award. Dr. M.A. Chidambaram Chettiar Award was received by Kalaimamani Kannappar Sambanthan Thambiran (president, Purasai Duraiswamy Kannappa Thambiran Parambarai Therukkuthu Mandram) for popularising the ancient art of Therukkuthu.

Dr.A.C.Muthiah Award for excellence in first-generation entrepreneurship was given to industrialist C. Subba Reddy, chairman, Ceebros Group.

Gem Group of Companies chairman R. Veeramani distributed the awards.

The trust has also donated Rs. 1 crore to promote free and low-cost medical services at the Chennai Child Trust Hospital.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / October 13th, 2015

Kancheepuram Weavers Enthrall Students as a Part of Daan Utsav

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy
Students watching the weavers weave their magic | P JAWAHAR
Students watching the weavers weave their magic | P JAWAHAR

Chennai :

More than 650 students from schools across the city were teaming in the Cooptex grounds on Wednesday to witness something they’ve never had a chance to. A small wall was erected to display the range of indigenous hand-woven sarees that were made by weavers across the State. Silk and cotton Jarigai’s of all patterns, splashed with colours and textures, invaded the space.

But what grabbed all the eyes was the group of weavers who had come from Kancheepuram to give students an experience of seeing weaving done live. Cooptex jumped into the spirit of Daan Utsav for the first time by facilitating this event for students. The two-day festival called ‘Weaving the Handloom Tale’ is a mini-replica of everything you’d find at a traditional silk weaver’s home. Some of them who had turned up have been in the business for generations.

Armed with a spinning wheel, warp machine and metres of silk threads, the group of six weavers demonstrated how silk threads were processed and woven. A small table in the front had a batch of moldy-looking mini egg-sized silk cocoons. Next to it, yarns of coloured silk, warped and weft, as its called, were laid out in bright eye-catching colours of pink, white and blue for everyone to look and get a feel of.

“The students were fascinated by these cocoons. You can even hear the sound of silkworms when you shake them,” says Sukanya, a volunteer of Daan Utsav. “The weavers work almost 8-10 hours everyday. They need about eight days to make a single silk saree.”

The weavers were undoubtedly the stars of the day. They explained how the set-up worked to the endless stream of curious onlookers. All those who were assembled at the event, right from the toddlers from Euro kids, to the 8-12 year olds from Don Bosco Matriculation and even the students from Madras Institute of Fashion Technology students, who whipped out their phones to click pictures, were amazed at the skill and craft of the weaver’s.

“One child even asked me if the spinning wheel was invented by Gandhiji,” chuckles Thiruvengadam, who has been weaving silk for decades. At the behest of Cooptex, he was here to exhibit the trade for young learners.

His wife sits barely a feet few away helping him spin the yarn or parittam, where she spun almost 50 grams worth of silk onto a small cylindrical wood structure. This is fed into the spinning wheel, which later goes into the warping device. “There are two kinds of yarns for any weaving — warp and weft. One makes horizontally woven threads while the other makes vertical threads. It is the basic format in which all weaving is done,” explains Balasubramaniam, general manager of Cooptex.

The event, which was planned along the lines of ‘giving’, received a fine response from students, who got a sneak peak into the weavers trade for the first-time. To the weavers who had given their time to be here, the students presented colourful hand-made cards with wishes and thank you’s. “We are glad to tell people about how our trade works. We hope more people will be interested in buying weaver-made silk,” smiles Ganapathy, who has been weaving since he was six.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Express News Service / October 08th, 2015

Scientists clone Punnai tree varieties rich in biofuel

Business & Economy, Green Initiatives/ Environment, Nature, Science & Technologies

Coimbatore :

Popularly known in our old Tamil folklore as the ‘Tree that cures’ or as the ‘Tree that protects’, the Punnai tree’s population along our coastal and river belts has been dwindling in the last three decades owing to its rich timber value. But scientists have now begun repopulating this tree for its biofuel and healing properties.

Scientists have cloned certain varieties of the Punnai tree suitable for use as biofuel. (Getty Images photo)
Scientists have cloned certain varieties of the Punnai tree suitable for use as biofuel. (Getty Images photo)

The bio-fuel produced from Punnai tree can run a machine like a pumpset or even a generator, say researchers. Scientists with the Institute of Forest Genetics and Tree Breeding (IFGTB) have managed to clone a few varieties of this tree, scientifically called as Calophyllum Inophyllum, rich in oilseeds, rather than timber.

“Not many people know that the oil extracted from the tree’s seeds can be used as a biofuel,” says the scientist who has been researching tree-borne oils for the past decade, Anandalakshmi Ravichandran. “It can be used to run pumpsets, generators and a lot of machinery that otherwise require petrol or diesel,” she says. A five-year-old well-looked Punnai tree can give a minimum of 4.2 litres of biofuel a year, or 2.1 litres per harvest.

“A tree older than five-years, which is watered well and fed bio-fertilizers, will produce at least 4-10 kg of oilseeds per harvest, which in turn produces 1kg to 2.5kg of kernel, from which oil can be extracted,” she added. Oilseeds from the tree can be harvested at least twice a year.

The tree, which is found in many parts of South India like the Andaman Islands, Kasargod, Sengottai, Cuddalore, Kutralam, Puducherry and Karaikal, unlike most can even survive on loose soil or sandy soil. “These trees are like mangroves and grow in the wild in the same conditions,” says Ravichandran, also the HOD of the seed technology department at IFGTB.

Scientists recommend that farmers choose the number of trees they want to cultivate based on their oil requirement. Around 35 trees can be planted in a one-acre land either on the perimeter or as intercrop. “These trees are natural wind shields, because they initially used to stop the salt carrying sea breeze from blowing into the agricultural lands,” says Ravichandran. The institute has sold 600 units of Punnai seedlings so far.

The drawbacks of growing or cultivating the tree is that it takes at least five to six years to mature, and start yielding fruits or oilseeds. “It will grow upto 15m in height and start producing even more than 10kg of fruits after its 10{+t}{+h} year,” she says. “Nobody realises this because they cut it down after it reaches its fifth year for timber, which is used to make catamarans and furniture,” she adds.

After a lot of research into Punnai trees in its natural habitats, scientists short-listed 156 genetically superior trees across Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andamans.

Seedlings of these varieties are on sale at the IFGTB nursery for Rs20

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Coimbatore / TNN / October 01st, 2015

100 weavers to be trained in enhancing design, quality of products

Business & Economy, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features
Minister for Handlooms and Textiles S. Gokula Indira inaugurating a weavers’ training centre at Paramakudi on Thursdy. Minister for Sports and Youth Welfare S. Sundararaj and Principal Secretary, Handlooms and Textiles, Harmander Singh are seen.
Minister for Handlooms and Textiles S. Gokula Indira inaugurating a weavers’ training centre at Paramakudi on Thursdy. Minister for Sports and Youth Welfare S. Sundararaj and Principal Secretary, Handlooms and Textiles, Harmander Singh are seen.

Move to help them meet changing market needs

The Ministry of Handlooms and Textiles has offered to train 100 weavers under the Integrated Skill Development Scheme (ISDS) and help them come out with diversified products with new designs and improved quality to meet changing market needs.

Inaugurating the training centre at Emaneswaram near here on Thursday, Tamil Nadu Minister for Handlooms and Textiles S. Gokula Indira said that 100 handloom weavers in Paramakudi, Virudhunagar, Nagercoil and Tirunelveli circles would be trained for 50 days and they would be given a daily stipend of Rs. 150 each.

The training imparted to the weavers in the centre would help them develop new designs, add value to their products and enhance their earnings, she said.

In the first batch, 20 weavers, including eight women, from Paramakudi circle would be trained and all the 100 weavers would be covered in the next 10 months, she said.

The Minister said that 89 weavers’ cooperative societies were functioning in Ramanathapuram (86) and Sivanganga (three) circles with more than 12,000 weavers attached to them. They produced about Rs. 36 crore-worth products, mainly cotton saris, per year, and Co-optex procured 40 per cent of themshe added.

The training centre was equipped with all necessary infrastructure facilities, including looms, motorised jacquard boxes, computerised design machine, computerised card punching machine, and motorised pirn winding machine to help the weavers upgrade their skills and familiarise with emerging technologies, R.P. Gowthaman, Assistant Director of Handlooms and Textiles, Parakamudi circle, said.

He said that 30 weavers each from Paramakudi and Virudhunagar circles and 20 each from Nagercoil and Tirunelveli circles would be trained in the centre.

Besides, the Tamil Nadu Cooperative Union was also imparting 15-day training to weavers in technology upgradation on a regular basis. Twenty weavers were trained every month with a daily stipend of Rs. 150 each, he added.

Minister for Sports and Youth Welfare S. Sundararaj, Principal Secretary of Handlooms and Textiles Harmander Singh, Collector K. Nanthakumar and local MP A. Anwar Raza were among the others present at the function.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Tamil Nadu / by Special Correspondent / Paramakudi – September 26th, 2015

Shy boy to tech showstopper – ‘Sundi’ who sang Anjali

Amazing Feats, Business & Economy, Leaders, Nri's / Pio's, Records, All, Science & Technologies, World Opinion

Sundar Pichai, the toast of the technology world, learnt his engineering 110km from Calcutta two decades ago.

In the records of IIT Kharagpur, P. Sundararajan was the topper in metallurgy and material science in the Class of 1993. Outside the classroom, he was known as the ” chhupa rustam” who had wooed and won his life partner from the chemical engineering class without any of his hostel mates getting a whiff of it.

Metro spoke to some of the new Google CEO’s old friends and teachers to get an insight into the man that holds that brilliant mind.

Sourav Mukherji, dean of academic programmes at IIM Bangalore; studied civil engineering at IIT-K and shared the Nehru Hall with Pichai

The world may be hailing Sundar Pichai but to us in Kharagpur, he was Sundi. And he would sing ” Anjali Anjali, pyari Anjali ” all the time.

SundiKOLKATA12AUG2015

We would often hear Sundi hum the lines from the title song of a popular film of our time: Anjali (1990). He loved music and we all thought he sang the song because he liked it. It was much later, after we left Kharagpur, that we realised why he loved this particular song.

It was probably meant for Anjali, the girl from chemical engineering who would become his wife. We all knew Anjali and Sundi knew each other but we never came to know of their relationship in our four years on the campus. It was ‘surprise-surprise’ when we came to know that Sundi and Anjali were seeing each other.

He was a brilliant guy. In fact, a lot of people in the IITs are brilliant. But Sundi was absolutely brilliant. He was the topper in most exams when we were students at IIT. But nobody would call him bookish.

I feel that this (Pichai’s elevation at Google) is a moment of great joy and pride for us as Indians because two of the world’s most powerful IT companies now have Indians as their CEOs (Satya Nadella is the CEO of Microsoft). These gentlemen have truly been able to break the so-called glass ceiling. Twenty years ago, who would have thought that Indians would head powerful American companies, especially companies at the forefront of technology?

PichaiKOLKATA12aug2015

We checked our records but couldn’t trace anyone by that name. Later, the journalist gave us a clue: that he had been a recipient of a silver medal. That helped us track P. Sundararajan. Later, we contacted our alumni office in the US to check whether P. Sundararajan and Sundar Pichai were the same person and finally it was they who confirmed it.

I had taught him in all the four years he studied metallurgy and material science here. I found him exceptionally bright.

The IIT selected him for its Distinguished Alumni award this year and he was supposed to receive the honour at the annual convocation that was held recently. He couldn’t attend the event this time but he has promised to visit the institute when he comes to India next.

Phani Bhushan, co-founder of Anant Computing and Pichai’s batchmate and co-boarder at Nehru Hall, where he had stayed at “CTM” (that’s section C, top floor, middle wing)

Sundararajan was a shy person who was more comfortable in small groups, and now he is making speeches and heading a global conglomerate like Google. It is like he has had a personality U-turn.

We are super excited that our batchmate and hall mate has achieved such a feat, although it isn’t as surprising as the news that he married a fellow KGPian, Anjali!

We hall mates and batch mates tend to spend a lot of time together and we thought he was shy about talking to girls. But he turned out to be a chhupa rustam! We wonder how he managed to have a girlfriend without us knowing about it.

Partha Pratim Chakrabarti, director, IIT-KGP

We are all delighted that a student from Kharagpur has achieved this. Sundar Pichai was always a very quiet and studious person. I never taught him but have interacted with him several times. He recently did a video chat with an auditorium full of students who talked to him about everything from life to technology and leadership.

He hasn’t made any public statement as yet. That’s the kind of person he is. He likes to do his work. Sundar has proved that technological leadership can lead to global leadership and has given aspiration to a new generation of IITKgpians that you can achieve global leadership through technological leadership.

He is a quiet worker, a technical wizard, a great thinker and visionary who is also an extremely humble person, quite in sync with his alma mater IIT Kharagpur. He is an Indian who is a global leader and epitomises future generations of Indians.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcutta,India / Front Page> Calcutta> Story / Wednesday – August 12th, 2015

He Converts Organic Waste into Energy

Business & Economy, Green Initiatives/ Environment, Nature, Science & Technologies
Annadasan with his organic waste-to-energy converter
Annadasan with his organic waste-to-energy converter

Chennai :

Three years ago Annadasan P was at a conference organised by the Ministry of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSME) at Chennai. The event unveiled a slew of technological initiatives including those offering solutions to food-waste conversion. But as Annadasan recalls, they were all expensive and rather complicated solutions. Hailing from an agricultural area in Polur of Thiruvannamalai district, his insight into bio-waste management told him that these prototypes were lacking something. “They were not something a working man or woman have the time for. One had to manually mix the compost a dozen times a day,” says Annadasan.

Recently, Annadasan, was spotted manning a busy stall at the Global Investor’s Meet last week, flaunting his organic waste-to-energy converter- a fruit of 3 years of labour and research. The converter, a 10-litre capacity set-up produces up to 1 cubic output of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) which can be tapped through a tube and used for cooking. That’s almost an hour of gas with your stove on high-flame for every half capacity of the drum.

“It is not run by any motors or batteries and is completely self-sufficient,” says Annadasan, who after months of saving water-drums and trying out new mixers, finished his product a few months ago.

What are the things that go into the converter? “Every kind of organic waste from food waste, leftovers, stock water to even animal wastes can be used in it. Cow dung is not favourable as it produces only 1 kilo methane for every 10 kilos of fuel, but the rest of them are compatible with the system,” he adds.

When City Express spoke to a couple of residents asking whether they will invest in one of these organic-converters, the replies were mostly bleak. “My biggest apprehension is the smell,” said Sureshkumar.  Selvi V.S, a homemaker said, as she lives in a nuclear family, she does not see much use of an organic-converter in her household. “We can’t possibly load a machine with 6-7 kilos of waste everyday,” points out.

But Annadasan is ready with an answer for that as well. “During my two-and-half-years of research, I found the biggest problem was the maintenance of the set-up itself. Nobody has the time to be cleaning or checking. So with all these thoughts constantly running in my mind, I have designed this organic machine that has several mixers which will process the waste through a ‘water-jacket’ system that ensures that it doesn’t let out any kind of stench even after waste has accumulated in it for three to four days.

Currently a large amount of unsorted waste comes under organic matter. “We take inventories of food going waste, but at least 25-30 kilos of food is wasted during a single birthday party or wedding reception at a star-hotel,” says Ganesh*, who works at a prominent hotel in the city. A bulk of the food waste comes out of used plates. And though aimed at households, and smaller canteens these kind of products are also useful for industries.

Around 20 farmers among them would be selected and trained in organic farming periodically.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Amrutha Varshini / September 14th, 2015