Madurai and Sivakasi the best performing districts
Tamil Nadu has bagged the Best State Award for its active participation in the Swasth Bharat Yatra, a pan-India cyclothon aimed at promoting the concept of ‘eating right for a healthy life’.
Madurai and Sivakasi won the awards for the best performing districts, while the State also bagged 17 awards in various other categories.
Health Minister C. Vijaya Baskar received the award from Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Ashwini Kumar Choubey on Tuesday. Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan was present on the occasion.
The State also received awards in six special categories, for six organisations and for the best cyclist, Menakadevi of Salem. Under the ‘eat right creativity challenge’, three schools were awarded in the poster competition and one in the wall art competition.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India had organised the Swasth Bharat Yatra, a key element of the ‘Eat Right India Movement’, to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi from October 2018 to January 2019. The objective was to promote the message of ‘Eat Healthy’ to prevent non-communicable diseases, ‘Eat Safe’ to prevent food-borne diseases and ‘Eat Fortified’ to prevent micro-nutrient deficiencies.
During the rally, cyclists visited villages, towns and cities across the country to spread awareness. Two of the six teams visited various districts in Tamil Nadu. They camped in each district for three days and organised awareness programmes.
The Tamil Nadu Food Safety Department made the arrangements to organise the events to create awareness.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Staff Reporter / Chennai – January 30th, 2019
Vice-Chancellor, MSU, K. Baskar, middle, and Senior Finance Officer, Software Technology Parks of India, Devekara Venkanna, exchanging MoU documents in Tirunelveli on Thursday. | Photo Credit: t
Signs an MoU with STPI, New Delhi
Manonmaniam Sundaranar University’s long cherished dream of setting up the Information Technology Incubation Centre on its premises has finally been realised.
A Memorandum of Understanding with the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), New Delhi, for setting up an Information Technology Incubation Centre to cater to the needs of the young entrepreneurs in this region by providing an extent of three acres of land on the Universitycampus was signed on Thursday.
The agreement was signed by Vice-Chancellor K. Baskar and Senior Finance Officer, STPI, Devekara Venkanna, STPI in the presence of Registrar, Dr. S. Santhosh Baboo.
Based on the MoU, the STPI will soon invest around ₹ 30 crore for creating infrastructure, export of computer software, IT-enabled services including export of professional services and electronic hardware.
The MoU will facilitate the students of Manonmaniam Sundaranar University to train themselves on a par with the industry standards using the IT Incubation Centre. It will further help to start new IT companies inside the campus which will eventually create the job opportunity to the students.
Though the Manonmaniam Sundaranar University planned to establish the IT Incubation Centre on its premises quite long back, the land required for the venture could not be allotted to STPI. The reason was that there was no separate patta in the name of the University for its 546.98 acre in the Abhishekapatti campus that still belonged to the Department of Animal Husbandry, the actual owner of the land.
Following the steps taken by Dr. Baskar, Manonmaniam Sundaranar University recently received patta for the entire 546.98 acres of its Abishekapatti campus after paying ₹11.50 crore to Department of Animal Husbandry and Live Stock that subsequently paved way for signing of MoU with STPI, New Delhi, a Ministry of Information and Communication’s venture.
The 3 acres of land will be used by the STPI for a lease period of 30 years to run the IT Incubation Centre primarily for the development of young students residing in Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi and Kanniyakumari districts with employable qualities and transform them into entrepreneurs.
Moreover, young entrepreneurs and people across the country can also utilize the facilities by setting up their own companies at the IT Incubation Centre of Manonmaniam Sundaranar University.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Madurai / by Special Correspondent / Tirunelveli – January 24th, 2019
Prasiddhi Singh is a class 1 student of Mahindra World School
Chennai :
Prasiddhi Singh is unlike other five-year-olds. She has successfully raised Rs 41, 254 on Ketto, a crowdfunding platform for her mission to ‘save flora, fauna and the planet we live in’. The class 1 student from Mahindra World School is an inspiration to people of all ages. Talking to us about how environment-based issues piqued her interest at such a young age, Stuti Singh, Prasiddhi’s mother says, “My husband and I have always been inclined towards fitness, and we introduced Prasiddhi to jogging when she was two years old.
As a family, We participated in a Ridley Run event — for ‘Save the turtles campaign’ in 2015. She was the youngest participant in that event.” Since then, Prasiddhi has been actively taking part in several events, including tree plantation drives, beach cleaning, that promote environmental awareness. “Eventually, she started understanding the impact of pollution and wanted to do her bit to save the planet. We understood her interest in such activities and decided to give her the needed exposure,” shares Stuti.
The cause-driven child has also spent a considerable amount of time being mentored by Hafiz from CommuniTree. “Recently, Mahindra World City, where we live, conducted a ‘one lakh tree plantation drive’ and Prasiddhi used to ask her father almost every day to take her to the field to plant. That’s when we connected with Hafiz. She spent a lot of time with him understanding the way plants grow, how fences save plants from external damages, and why planting is instrumental in keeping the environment thriving,” she says.
After being part of the tree plantation drive, Prasiddhi discussed the possibility of planting another one lakh saplings in the area, with Hafiz, Praveen (her father) and Stuti. “She was determined and had her goal set. But, the scale of the project was quite overwhelming and that’s when Hafiz suggested that we plan it in multiple phases. We started exploring different crowdfunding options and chose Ketto. This is the first phase of a bigger project,” she explains.
Prasiddhi plans to harvest a micro fruit farm to feed the depleting bird population in the city and spread the message on the importance of trees. The idea for such a farm popped when Prasiddhi came across her father’s childhood anecdotes — about climbing trees, eating and enjoying fruits with his friends. “These tales resulted in fruit tree plantations, but her willingness to share it with other kids, especially the underprivileged, made us take this project to government schools to ensure that every child can enjoy the fruit forests,” says Stuti.
Prasiddhi wants to create her own ‘Kids Army’ — where she will plant trees in all the schools and create students club to maintain the trees. “I will monitor those fruit forests regularly,” she says. Prasiddhi’s observation about the depleting bird population comes from quite a startling incident. Narrating the incident, she says, “Sometime back, during a drive with my parents, a few butterflies dotted the windscreen.
I asked my parents, ‘Why do these butterflies come in our way?’ for which they answered, ‘We are coming in the way of birds and butterflies as we have cut a lot of forests and trees. They have lost their habitats.’ I was shocked. Since then, I have been keeping water for birds in my gallery. I want to take baby steps to make a difference.” Prasiddhi’s day starts in the wee hours, with a morning jog along with her father, followed by a gardening session and mantra chanting. She heads to school by 7.30 am, followed by playschool till 7 pm.
“She completes her school work there so that she can spend some quality time with us once she is back. At home, we play indoor/outdoor games and talk about the entire day’s activities. We have dinner together, read some bedtime stories and sleep by 9.30 pm. Our daughter inspires us and we are proud of her,” says Stuti.
Kids army
Prasiddhi Singh plans to harvest a micro fruit farm to feed the depleting bird population in the city and spread the message on the importance of trees. She wants to create her own ‘Kids Army’ — where she will plant trees in all the schools and create students club to maintain the trees. “I will monitor those fruit forests on a regular basis,” says Prasiddhi. She recently initiated the fruit tree planting in a children’s home in Puducherry. “This month, we will also plant in one of the government schools in Kancheepuram,” says Stuti Singh.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Roshne Balasubramanian / Express News Service / January 03rd, 2019
Governor Banwarilal Purohit giving the appointment order to Dr. Sudha Seshayyan on Saturday.
New V-C of M.G.R. Medical University has donned many hats
Beginning her career at the Madras Medical College (MMC) in 1987, 57-year-old Sudha Seshayyan has come a long way. Her love for Tamil literature and spirituality has travelled alongside her medical career spanning over 30 years.
Dr. Seshayyan is no stranger to the people of Tamil Nadu. She has donned many roles including that of the official Master of Ceremonies at many State government programmes. On Saturday, she was appointed as the 10th Vice-Chancellor of the Tamil Nadu Dr. M.G.R. Medical University.
Dr. Seshayyan, a professor of Anatomy, has authored a three-volume textbook on anatomy in 2015. This textbook is being used by MBBS students during their first year, and also by postgraduates across the country.
Pivotal roles
In anatomy, her areas of interests include upper abdominal organs, neuro anatomy and genetics. As director of the Institute of Anatomy, Madras Medical College (MMC), she played a pivotal role in taking steps to create a museum of anatomical specimens.
She had planned to set up a museum showcasing specimens for comparative anatomy and materials tracing the history of MMC in the 121-year-old heritage building that earlier housed the Department of Anatomy on MMC campus.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Staff Reporter / Chennai – December 30th, 2018
The design was inspired from a South Korean interior designer, Ha Young Lee, who designed a sturdy desk made out of cardboard for underprivileged kids in his country.
Chennai :
IIT-Madras students have designed study desks using discarded cardboard boxes, for underprivileged students, in some of the government schools. Under the REACH (Reuse cardboard to help children) initiative as part of Shaastra, IIT-M’s annual technical fest that starts from January 3, students have created a supply chain network to collect hundreds of used cardboard cartons from shopping malls, electronic shops, retailers and other places.
The material was then sorted, based on size, shape, and thickness, and then shaped by cutting the sorted boxes into pieces such that they can be assembled easily by anyone with minimal instructions.
The design was inspired from a South Korean interior designer, Ha Young Lee, who designed a sturdy desk made out of cardboard for underprivileged kids in his country. “After a month of trial and testing, we came up with a prototype which was tested by distributing in schools which are devoid of these facilities and infrastructure.
We collaborated with one NGO named ‘BHUMI’, which helped us to get volunteers for making the desks and TFI (Teach For India) which helped us to reach out to schools which didn’t have desks. We have currently reached out to 200 students in 5 schools with each child getting access to these desks,” Shaastra team said in a release. In India, according to a survey, there are 20 million students in the age group of 6-14, who lack basic facilities.
source:http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Express News Service / December 28th, 2018
The curriculum for the World Scholar’s Cup competition is diverse and varies from pop culture to neuroscience to macroeconomics.
Aadi Sai Vijaykaran. (Photo | P Jawahar/EPS)
Chennai :
It was half-past 5 and we were at Savera hotel to meet Aadi Sai Vijaykaran, a 13-year-old from KC High, who created history by winning the Junior Debate Championship at the World Scholar’s Cup held at Yale University from November 16-21. Clad in a crisp blazer, holding his shining trophy, the class 8 student oozed confidence. This is the first time an individual from India has won the coveted title. “My wife and I noticed that Aadi had a flair for oration, even when he was very young. We picked that and worked on honing his skill,” said Aadi’s father, Vijay.
The curriculum for the World Scholar’s Cup competition is diverse and varies from pop culture to neuroscience to macroeconomics. “I took quite a bit of time to prepare for this year-long contest. But, it has been a very interesting process…from getting a deep understanding of the syllabus and topics, practising and improving my public speaking and writing skills to working on my body language, I did it all. Motivation from my mother Vanitha Venugopal and father Vijay helped to be steadfast and work all the way till the end. I also trained at A to Zee Creativity — to practice, train and refine my skills with other scholars,” shared Aadi.
The sharp-witted youngster soaks in news and has the knack of picking information from different places and processing it. He also followed the United States Presidential debates as part of the preparation process. “There are several speakers who I draw inspiration from. One of them is Barack Obama and Shashi Tharoor. I wouldn’t declare myself a fan, but I have certainly learnt a lot by watching these speakers,” he explained.
The Tournament of Champions of World Scholar’s Cup is a competition for young debaters from around the world. Of the 40,000 students who participated across the globe, only 2,000 participants qualified for the final of ‘The Tournament of Champions’ through the various rounds held across the world from January.
The theme for the cup was ‘An Entangled World: diplomacy, human relationships, the science of memory, and literature, art and music’. “The competition took place over a series of rounds, and motivated us to discover new strengths, practice new skills and to inspire a global community of future scholars and leaders,” Aadi said.
For Aadi, WSC was not just about winning but also about meeting people from countries he hasn’t visited or even knew existed.“I learnt so much about our diverse world. The experience of cultural diversity and globalism was enthralling. We interacted with professors and got a feel of what it takes to get into college,” he said.
He won ‘the Top Debater in the World’ title across 58 countries, against thousands of students aged 10 to 15. Economics has become a subject of interest for Aadi. “I am good at Math, with numbers and learning about macroeconomics has drawn me to the subject,” he said.The youngster is a trained Carnatic musician, has a black belt in Karate, plays chess and football.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Roshne Balasubramanian / Express News Service / December 26th, 2018
Twelve-year-old’s drawing finds a spot in the American space agency’s Commercial Crew Calendar for 2019
A drawing by a 12-year-old from Palani has found a place in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) international Commercial Crew Calendar for 2019.
N. Thenmukilan, a Class VIII student of Shri Vidhya Mandir, Palani, drew an image of an astronaut cultivating fruits and vegetables in space to boost nutrition. He said that it took two full days to put his concept on paper. His entry was chosen from among thousands of others vying for a spot in the calendar at an international level.
Thenmukilan said that he began taking an interest in art from the age of 6. He would spend hours drawing and colouring. “Our school has a club called ‘Image Minds’, which helps us explore ideas creatively. When I first heard about the topic ‘Space Food’, my mind went several places. I finally settled for the concept of cultivating food in space as fresh vegetables never last the journey,” he said.
‘Sense of being home’
The student added that he drew tomatoes, pumpkins, bottle guards, corn, onion, pineapples and paddy to ensure that the astronauts had enough nutrition in outer space. It would give them a sense of being at home, he said.
Thenmukilan’s artwork was chosen for the month of November. He said that he used oil pastels, colour pencils and acrylic paint to produce his artwork. His parents, M. Natarajan, headmaster of a government school, and P. Chandramani, Senior Revenue Inspector, said that they were overjoyed upon hearing the news. “We were pleasantly surprised. The credit goes to his school and his teachers for honing his artistic talent,” said Mr. Natarajan.
According to NASA’s website, the Commercial Crew Calendar would be transmitted to astronauts aboard the space station.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Tamil Nadu / by Staff Reporter / Madurai – December 25th, 2018
The 50-year-old Minstrels will perform its annual Christmas concert tomorrow
There’s a wonderfully still moment at the start of every carol concert when you are visited by ghosts of Christmases past. Among the memories of good times, for the Minstrels, it is a throwback to singing of joy and hope in the leafy bylanes of Purasaiwalkam half a century ago. Founded in 1968, by school friends who loved a game of cricket as much as they loved pitching their voices together, the Minstrels have been singing at special services in and around Chennai since then.
“We were all students of Madras Christian College School and lived in the same neighbourhood. We had a lot of time and our parents thought we could put our fledging guitar skills and voices to use. We first sang at the CSI Missionary Chapel, Mookathal Street, in 1978 and since have been singing at special services in churches,” says John Manikam, choir director and one of the founding members of the Minstrels.
The all-male choir that initially had 10 members and swelled to 30, is now a 16-voice, four-part harmony ensemble. “Members are scattered across age groups — the youngest is 18, the oldest 64 — and we don’t strictly audition for it. We welcome anyone who can carry a tune,” says John, who took over from Donald Madhavaraj.
The choir that sings hymns and gospel songs in both English and Tamil, counts the music of the Seekers as one of their early favourites. “For the upcoming concert we will be singing Don Moen’s ‘Emmanuel has come’ and our all-time favourite, ‘Devan nammaku adaikalam’.
Two concerts a year by the Minstrels — a Christmas worship service and a Lenten song service — raise funds for families from disadvantaged backgrounds. The choir has also recorded and released DVDs.
Have they considered opening the choir to women? “We stuck with what our parents asked us to do,” laughs John.
This year’s edition of Echoes of Christmas Day, will be held on December 13 at the Emmanuel Methodist Church, Jeremiah Road, Vepery, at 6.15 pm. The event is free and open to all.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home>News> Chennai / by Deepa Alexander / December 12th, 2018
More than 4,000 students received their degrees at the 14th convocation of the SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Kattankulathur on Saturday. More than 50 students received gold medals for their academic achievements; and 53 students were awarded Ph.D degrees. Addressing the students, member of NITI Aayog, V.K. Saraswat, urged the students to create a new culture and mindset in engineering education.
“Excellence is needed in basic research. Excellence is required in applied research, including pre-competitive applied research,” he said. He conferred the Honorary Degree of Science (D.Sc., Honoris Causa) on Dr. Mohan Rajan, chairman and medical director, Rajan Eye Care Hospital, Chennai.
Founder-chancellor T.R. Paari Vendhar gave the welcome address.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Staff Reporter / Chennai – December 02nd, 2018
The school offers training in various disciplines like fencing, judo and taekwondo.
Coimbatore :
While the Ministry of Human Resource Development has only now started to give importance to martial arts training for girl students as part of its self-defence programme, this government higher secondary school in Kurichi has been a pioneer in the field with seven of its students getting ready to participate in a State-level meet to be held soon.
Even its first year of training, as many as 120 of its 147 students participated in the divisional meet concluded in the city; 91 of them managed to bag medals too. The school offers training in various disciplines like fencing, judo and taekwondo.
At a time when most government schools in the city and rural areas alike concentrated on conventional games like kabaddi, volleyball and football, this schools took the initiative to introduce martial arts with the help of its physical education teachers P Sivaprakasham and N Nisar. This training was then extended to the school’s girl students in the form of self-defence lessons. Teachers wanted them equipped to handle any situation they might face. After being briefed about the different forms of martial arts, many girls volunteered to be trained in fencing; they also managed to win a few medals, he recalls.
Five girls — S Swetha, D Mercy, R Ranjani, of class XI, and Rajeshwari (class X) and K Logeshwari (class IX) — have been qualified to participate in the State-level event to be held soon in Kankeyam
of Tirupur district. The girls, on their part, are happy to have overcome all odds to make a mark in the sport. Though their mothers were hesitant to allow them to be trained in martial arts, all parents are now happy that their girls have managed to achieve so much. Now, they eagerly inquire about fencing practice before asking about academics, narrates Swetha.
Headmistress N Shanthi cannot appreciate the effort more. The teacher’s job is not just to improve the students’ skills in academics; they should also identify their talents and put them on the path of development. She also remarks that such training has increased attendance among students. A year ago, only 50 per cent of students were willing to attend classes; this has increased to 95 per cent, she claims.
While the school might have its reasons to introduce martial arts to its students, the motivations for single mother M Gowri are quite simple. Raising her two girls — M Praveena and M Durgadevi — on her own, after the demise of her husband, she wanted them to be fiercely independent.
When the school announced self-defence lessons, she was more than happy to sign them up for it. True to spirit, the girls managed to bag a silver medal in karate and Praveena has a bronze in fencing to add to it. It was the mother’s aspiration that pushed them to their best, Praveena declares.
The school allows students to excel in swimming too. Four boys — T Akash, V Mahadevan, M Muthukathiravan, S Logeshwaran (all class VIII students) — were identified after teachers saw them
swimming in the Kurichi lake, located adjacent to the school.
All these boys had not had formal training before. Akash learnt to swim in the Kuruchi lake, for Mahadevan it was a check dam near Madukkarai and Muthukathiravan and Logeshwaran had the good local old wells.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Tamil Nadu / by Prabhakar T / Express News Service / November 29th, 2018
