Category Archives: Inspiration/ Positive News and Features

Social entrepreneurship beckons, say experts

Business & Economy, Education, Green Initiatives/ Environment, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Nature

Social entrepreneurship has gained cultural acceptance as a career path, established social entrepreneurs told a gathering of students at an ‘unconvention’ organised at IIT-Madras on Saturday.

Speakers at the event organised by Villgro, a city-based rural enterprise incubation centre, noted there was a never-like-before culture of embracing entrepreneurship and a growing number of investors willing to invest in such ventures.

Villgro’s CEO and founder Paul Basil laid out a simple mantra for students to follow: “India is the world’s lab; solve it here, then globalise it.”

Social entrepreneurs at the unconvention — a networking meeting that does not rigidly follow the rules of traditional conventions —included P. Srinivasan, co-founder and chairman of Jeevan Stem Cell and Blood Bank, K. Thiruvengada Krishnan, chief consultant of cornea and refractive services, Aravind Eye Care System, and Ravi Sarogi, co-founder of Uniphore Software Systems.

Dr. Thiruvengada Krishnan, in his presentation about Aravind Eye Hospital, outlined the founder Govindapa Venkatasamy’s vision of taking affordable eye care to the masses.

He pointed out that although the hospital ran several charitable projects such as provision of free spectacles and conducting of free surgeries in rural areas, they still made considerable profits because of their non-subsidised healthcare. He added that social enterprise could adopt a hybrid model that combined ‘not-for-profit’ and ‘for-profit’ operations.

Villgro welcomes social entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas for programmes. For more details, interested persons can visit www.villgro.org

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai> Events / by Special Correspondent / Chennai – March 16th, 2014

Celebrating Womanhood

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Science & Technologies
Members of SHGs showcasing their products at the Women’s Day celebrations organised by Asha Nivas Social Service Centre | A Raja Chidambaram
Members of SHGs showcasing their products at the Women’s Day celebrations organised by Asha Nivas Social Service Centre | A Raja Chidambaram

Education and economic independence is important for a woman, said Dr V Shanta, chairperson of the Adyar Cancer Institute, on Monday.

The doctor was addressing a large gathering of women during an International Women’s Day celebration organised by Asha Nivas Social Service Centre. She said that a woman should have economic independence to gain respect among others. “Women empowerment means good education, understanding, social concern and economic independence. There was a time when women took care of their children and were silent observers. Dr Muthulakshmi Reddy fought to study medicine from a village in Pudukottai district. She became the first medical graduate in the country and started Avvai home and Adyar Cancer Institute,” she said.

She further said that it was in the hands of a woman to control the man from drinking, stop fighting at home in front of the children and let the girl child at home get good education. “Parents are the role model for children. In urban areas, girls go to schools and colleges while in villages, boys go to school and girls stay at home. As women, you should let your girls study. Children should also be taught self-defence at schools to safeguard themselves from crimes,” the doctor said.

Advising women that extra care for children was necessary to protect them from accidents, Dr K Mathangi Ramakrishnan, chairperson of the Child Trust Hospital, recalled an incident where she helped a boy get care and support after his mother abandoned him following an accident that led to amputation of both his hands. “I get many kids with burn injuries mostly due to falling in to hot sambar, oil or water. Many mothers still leave their children in the kitchen when they cook,” she pointed out.

About 42 best self-help groups were given awards while an exhibition with products made by SHGs was also inaugurated.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Express News Service – Chennai / March 18th, 2014

Budding entrepreneurs take the stage at IIT-M

Business & Economy, Education, Green Initiatives/ Environment, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Science & Technologies
IIT-M students who designed the Amrutdhara water project. (Right) Glow-in-the-dark notebooks by Pizzamutiny
IIT-M students who designed the Amrutdhara water project. (Right) Glow-in-the-dark notebooks by Pizzamutiny

From T-shirts and paper cups to unmanned aerial vehicles, the students of IIT-Madras seem to have left no stone unturned in their attempt to don the entrepreneurial cap.  Some of the projects were put up by the students at the recently concluded Entrepreneurship Week held at the institution.

One of the most ambitious of projects was the Amrutdhara project, taken by an IIT-M student along with two other business partners. The mandate of the venture is simple: Do away with plastic bottles.

“Every year, millions of tonnes of plastic waste get accumulated due to the use of plastic bottles. Many of these plastic water bottles do not provide quality drinking water too. Reports show that many of them are of the same quality as tap water. Despite this, people are forced to buy it,” said Sandeep.

It is to put an end to this that the three-member team came up with the Amrutdhara project. Under the venture, a water filtration outlet is provided at public places where people can buy water at a cost of `3-`5 per litre. But unlike the plastic bottles, the water is provided in glasses that are washed and dried on site.

“The set up will also sell refillable bottles and provide real time analysis of the quality. If the water quality goes down a particular level, the machine will automatically shut down,” says Sandeep.

The economics of the project lies in the fact that even with the most state-of-the-art treatment system with reverse osmosis and membranes, the cost of treatment of water to package is estimated at 25 p per litre. The project, which won the runners-up title at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements’ (IIHS) National Students Challenge is now in the final stages of talks with the Puducherry government.

If bottled water is a menace, so are plastic cups. Mechanical engineering students of the IIT have come up with a project that would not only make selling paper cups profitable for the seller but also for the buyer!

“The idea is simple. Each paper cup will be printed with an advertisement. It will also have certain mobile numbers allotted by the advertiser. When the buyer sends a text to that number, he can avail discounts or other offers. So what we have is a win-win situation. Since we get to make profit through the advertisement, we sell the cups at half the price of normal cups to canteens or other sellers while for the buyers of the cup, it could mean getting discounts and offers,” says Nikhlesh, the second-year student who is part of the Admen company that took up the project.

The project has already fetched a turnover of `75,000 in 15 days, after being implemented 10 city colleges and an IT park.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Amritha KR – Chennai / March 20th, 2014

1,600 women employees to help roll out chapathis

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Records, All

With chapathis to be served in all the Amma Unavagams, more than 1,600 women employees have begunworking in the canteens to roll out chapathis.

More than two lakh chapathis were prepared by them on Friday. Nearly eight more women will be working in each canteen.

Later, machines which were purchased for the purpose would be used, according to an official of Chennai Corporation.

A plate of two chapathis and dal is priced at Rs. 3.

Tree planting scheme

Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Friday launched a scheme for planting 66 lakh banyan saplings. This is to mark Ms. Jayalalithaa’s 66 birthday, which falls on February 24.

The Chief Minister planted a sapling on the premises of the office of Director General of Police here. In each of the districts, as many as 2.06 lakh saplings would be planted by the Forests Department. Totally, the scheme would cost Rs. 49.18 crore, according to an official release.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai /  by Special Correspondent / Chennai – February 22nd, 2014

Tribal students, Top Slip and technology make for a winning combination

Education, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, World Opinion
Coimbatore Collector Archana Patnaik inspecting the Forest Department-runtribal school in Top Slip./ by Special Arrangement / The Hindu
Coimbatore Collector Archana Patnaik inspecting the Forest Department-runtribal school in Top Slip./ by Special Arrangement / The Hindu

Wild Wing Trust plans to groom students to adapt to urban environment

For the students in Classes V, VI, VII and VIII in the Forest Department’s tribal middle school in the middle of forest in Top Slip, students have been having teachers from across the globe. The students and teachers meet at the predetermined time, watch and listen to one another, engage in the teaching-learning process and sign out for the day to catch up the next day for the next lesson.

This interaction among the tribal students and teachers across the globe had been made possible with the active involvement of Wild Wing Trust and support of eVidyaloka, an online organisation that facilitates e-learning.

Wild Wing Trust’s Managing Trustee C. Saravanan said that the organisation’s volunteers decided to help the tribal children after studying the forest and tribal community for long and coming to the conclusion in their education and empowerment lay the future of the forest.

The volunteers started off by visiting the school on weekends to help the children by providing cots, books, etc and meeting their other requirements. But that did not bring about the expected change. It was then that they decided to partner with eVidyaloka to improve the teaching-learning process.

With the help of software and other professionals from Coimbatore who worked abroad and were willing to teach the children, the Trust volunteers provided television sets, network connectivity to bring together the children and the teachers through a video conferencing system.

The online teachers complemented the teachers at the school in that they shared the teaching but provided additional resources like showing video clips, demonstrations, etc. to the students to help them understand better. Mr. Saravanan said that the online teachers also stuck to the Samacheer Kalvi syllabus.

And, the result of the online intervention has been good. Headmistress Vanaja Durairaj said that the students’ commitment towards had improved. “They listen more, study well and also come well groomed to the school.”

The Wild Wing Trust did not stop with that, though. It also took a group of students, who were interested in sports, to interact with cricketer Rahul Dravid in Bangalore. “This was part of our confidence building measure.”

The Trust’s next plan was to groom the students to adapt to urban environment so that they did not drop out of school when they head to the plains to pursue Class IX and X. Field Director of Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR) Rajiv K. Srivastava and Range Officer Xavier recently infused more life into the school by sourcing more teachers and bringing in more activities for the children.

The old building had been renovated to provide an ideal ambience. Forest Department sources said that they were encouraging the new teaching-learning activity so that the tribal children received quality education.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Coimbatore / by Karthik Madhavan / Coimbatore – February 17th, 2014

Plea to govt on death centenary of Thillaiyadi Valliammai

Amazing Feats, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Historical Links, Pre-Independence, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Leaders, Records, All, World Opinion

People of Thillaiyadi village in the district have urged the Tamil Nadu government to observe the death centenary of Thillaiyadi Valliammai, a close aide of Mahatma Gandhi  during his satyagraha struggle in South Africa .

When Gandhiji started his satyagraha against racial discrimination in South Africa , Valliammai, a 15-year old daughter of an immigrant worker from Thillaiyadi, joined him in the agitation.

She was imprisoned for three months during which she suffered from viral fever. She died on her 16th birthday – Feb 22, 1914.

The Thillaiyadi village panchayat  has sent a memorandum to the Chief Minister urging the government to observe the death centenary, falling on coming Feb 22, in a fitting manner.

Soon after his return from South Africa, in 1915, Gandhiji visited the ancestral home of Valliammai in Thillaiyadi.

Years later, Gandhiji had once remarked that it was Valliammai’s sacrifice that increased his resolve to fight for India’s independence.

In 1971, the then DMK Government headed by Chief Minister M Karunanidhi built a spectacular memorial for Valliammai at Thillaiyadi where a statue of the girl, manuscripts of Gandhiji and several rare photographs have been kept.

source: http://www.business-standard.com / Business Standard / Home> PTI Stories> News / by Press Trust of India / Nagapattinam (TN) – February 15th, 2014

Chennai gets Hi-tech women-only autos

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features

ChennaiAutosMPos13feb2014

ChennaiAutos2MPos13feb2014

The Makkal auto or people’s auto was launched in Chennai by social entrepreneur Manzoor Ali Khan. yesterday. The unique auto, meant for women only, includes an Android tablet enclosed in a steel casing which is water, tamper, and theft resistant.

The device acts as a fare calculator and is also equipped with GPS tracking, 3G data communication with a centralised call centre and a panic button in case of emergency. In addition, passengers can pay with their credit and debit cards

source: http://www.punemirror.in / Pune Mirror / Home> News> Pune> Nation> Story / Thursday – February 13th, 2014

Bodi’s goat-rearing women float producer company

Business & Economy, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Nature

Theni :

The goat-rearing women of Bodi Hills have floated a producer’s company to facilitate themselves in procuring and selling the goats and cater to other auxiliary works required for their trade. Known as the voicemail goat farmers after the women came into limelight for effectively using voicemails through mobile phone to rear the goats, the women for long have been contemplating about floating a proper registered company. The voicemail scheme was implemented by IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Nigam Limited (IKSL).

The producer’s company, Agharam Goat Farmers Producer Company will be involve in selling the goats raised by the women and procure goats whenever they require. It will also involve in distributing loans to the members of the company to raise goats. The auxiliary works of the company will include procuring fodder for the goats, veterinary medicines for the animals and organising camps occasionally for the benefit of the goat rearing women in the region. The company will collect nominal fees for the services which will be included in the capital fund. The collected funds would be circulated among the women as loans.

The illiterate and semi-illiterate women of this region have become the board of directors with a 11-member board monitoring the company. P Vasiammal from Kodiabommanaickenputhur near Rasingapuram, one of the directors, said the company would help wean out the middlemen in the goat trade. “We can save the money spent as brokerage since the company will undertake the transactions,” she said.

This week, the women have given away Rs 30,000 as loans to 11 goat-rearing women of their company. Each of them contributed Rs 250 as share amount and 1,190 women of Bodi – most of them in goat-rearing – have bought the shares. In such manner, they have raised Rs 2.97 lakh as capital for the company. A board of 11 members selected from these women will manage the company affairs with the help of Vidiyal, a Bodi-based NGO working among the women.

“We did not want to hurry because we are planning to run this company in a successful manner,” said A Periajakkamma, another director of the board.

Initially, the women have decided to function under Agharam Traditional Farmers Producer’s Company – one of the producer companies of farmers based in Madurai – to learn the functioning of the company.

“Most of us are uneducated and we don’t want to hurry things. We are working together to improve the company,” said P Papathi, a goat farmer in Bodi and shareholder of the company.

K Kamaraj of Vidiyal NGO said that the organisation would handhold the women for some days till they learn to function on their own. “The women are working hard and training themselves to take up various roles in the company. They will succeed in their venture,” he said.

Having started the producer’s company, the women are now contemplating on starting a cooperative bank. “We are thinking about a bank exclusively for us and we will work together to achieve it too in future,” Vasiammal says with confidence.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Madurai> Goats / by J. Arockiaraj, TNN / January 31st, 2014

Tripura Foundation rewards children with hope

Education, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, World Opinion
The Hope Hero 2013 awards aims to recognise underprivileged women and children — Photo: K. Pichumani / The Hindu
The Hope Hero 2013 awards aims to recognise underprivileged women and children — Photo: K. Pichumani / The Hindu

Twelve-year-old N. Archana, a native of Edayapatti village in Pudukottai district, wakes up early, cooks rice and curry, goes to school and often returns home to be beaten up by her drunken father.

In between this all this, she finds time to take care of a 100-year-old blind woman who she fondly refers to as ‘Periyandi paati’ who lives in her village. On Wednesday, she emerged as a winner of the Hope Hero 2013 award instituted by Tripura Foundation, a non-profit organisation that aims to help underprivileged women and children.

“My grandmother asked me to take care of Periyandi Paati. If I don’t, who else will? Every morning, I help her clean herself, buy her coffee and breakfast with the little money I have and call the 108 ambulance service if she falls ill. Now, I want to use this prize money of Rs. 4,000 to help her,” says Archana, who learnt to be optimistic and service-minded at the HoPE Learning Centre, founded by Tripura Foundation.

A.A. Gowtham, who works with Tripura Foundation, said they adopt the phonemic intelligence technique to teach children. “In this method, we teach them sounds with vowels and consonants that activate specific parts of the brain. It helps in improving their concentration, memory, intelligence and even makes them more compassionate,” he said.

Elaine Kueper, global director of Tripura Foundation, said these sound techniques that were taught by Baskaran Pillai, founder of Tripura Foundation, personally helped her overcome depression in her life. “People who have been benefitted by this technique keep sending donations which enable us to keep these centres functioning,” she said.

R. Maithin Raj, another student of HoPE who also emerged as one of the winners, had persuaded his friend Ajit’s parents who discontinued his education to resume it. “Due to poverty, his parents wanted him to work and forced him to leave school. Then, I had a tough time convincing them and took help from one of the HoPE officials to do it. Finally, it worked and he should be back in school very soon,” he said.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Staff Reporter / Chennai – January 30th, 2014

Disabled badminton ace runs tea shop in Melur

Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Sports

Madurai :

Disabled T Elanchelian, 33, runs a tea shop like others. He is different not just because of disability, but as holder of a commendable sport record. He has won medals in 17 national and two international shuttle badminton events.

Elanchelian’s tea shop is at the village bus stop in A Vellalapatti village in Melur taluk. His request seeking a government job has been pending with the government for many years. He is the sole bread-winner for his small family consisting of himself and his aged mother. His father deserted them 13 years ago. His brother is in fact working in police department, but is settled elsewhere. “Elanchelian was born in 1980. He was afflicted with polio when he was one year old. However, we joined him at the government higher secondary school in our village and he completed his plus two there itself,” said Naachammal, his mother.

After his school education, Elanchelian casually learnt shuttle badminton. He participated in the Madurai district-level badminton game in 1998 and won. This was a turning point, Naachammal said.

Thereafter, he won laurels in several events. He became a state-level winner and then at the national level. In 2002 I attended an international event in Chennai and bagged bronze. I had to settle for silver at an event held in Sri Lanka in 2007, Elanchelian said.

When the third international opportunity had come for him last November he could not go. “The event was held in Germany. I couldn’t attend it as I didn’t have money,” said Elanchelian.

Elanchelian has in his kitty 8 gold medals, 10 silver medals and 13 bronze.

Saying about government job, Elanchelian said he was promised government job when he won gold in the national game held in Chennai in 2013. But, the government is yet to fulfil the promise, he said.

The government extending many welfare measures for the people may consider the poor disabled sports people’ issue, too, he said.

Now, Elanchelian is giving free training to 14 students including two disabled persons at his local place.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Madurai> Badminton / TNN / January 28th, 2014