G. Muriel, who scored 1,047, wants to do a B.Tech course./ Photo: Special Arrangement / The Hindu
Nearly four years ago, G. Muriel was rescued along with four other girls from an unrecognised home in Tiruvallur district, by the Child Welfare Committee (CWC).
Today, she and her friends have passed the State board class XII examinations with flying colours.
Another young student, Padmavathi, a resident of Pallipattu in Villupuram, who was rescued from a forced child marriage last year, also passed, scoring 795 out of 1,200.
The six girls are inmates of a home run by Madras Christian Council of Social Service in Perambur.
Muriel scored 1,047, and is over the moon. She, along with Mary Ann (972), Sheeba (961), Rejolia Mary (982) and Esther (680), studied at Everwin Matriculation School, Kolathur. Padmavathi studied at Government Higher Secondary School, Villivakkam.
“Muriel and her friends were rescued by CWC after a complaint about the unrecognised home. The home was subsequently closed down. The six students were referred to us by CWC. Since it is vacation time now, they are about to begin part-time jobs,” said R. Isabel, director of Madras Christian Council of Social Service.
Muriel wants to pursue B.Tech in information technology. “I want to study well and earn a good salary. I am very happy that all my friends have passed. We have been together since childhood,” she said.
Padmavathi wants to do a degree in mathematics and work in a bank.
Ms. Isabel said the students were in need of sponsorships to be able to go to college.
The Government Children’s Home for Girls, Kellys also had reason to cheer, as nine of the 10 girls who had appeared for the exam, passed. “Some of them are orphans, while others have single parents. They are studying at the Government HSS, Purasawalkam,” said an officer at the home.
Of the nine, V. Shanthi scored 760, followed by M. Gokila (727) and B. Pradeepa (711). Gokila, a native of Dharmapuri, wants to become a nurse to take care of the health of her villagers.
Nine of the 12 inmates of Puzhal Central Prison who appeared for the board exams have passed. Notable among them is suspected Maoist leader Sundaramoorthy, who scored 835. Thirty-nine convicts lodged in different central prisons across the State had attempted the exams.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Staff Reporter / May 11th, 2013
Five students from the region have made it to the civil services this year.
The standout performer among them is S Suresh Kumar, the son of a daily wager, who, in his third attempt, secured the 343rd rank. Kumar graduated in BSc plant biology from PSG college of Arts and Science and did his MA in defence studies from Madras University.
The 24-year-old, who chose political science and Tamil literature as his optional papers, started preparing for the UPSC examination while studying for his post graduation. He took tuitions and worked as a students’ reporter with a local magazine to make his ends meet. “My parents would never let any of us work. My mother began to sell food to make my ends meet,” says Suresh, who is now pursuing his M Phil at the South Asian University in Delhi.
Suresh’s father, M Subburaj, worked as a daily wager at a garment manufacturing firm. A few months he moved joined a relative’s firm as a salesman. Thenmozhi, his mother, would cook food for college students to supplement Subburaj’s income. Suresh’s brother, Sathish Kumar is pursuing graduation in a Coimbatore college.
For the political science paper and interviews, Suresh took the help of city-based Higher Studies Centre, which is run jointly by Coimbatore Corporation and Government Arts College. All the five candidates from the region selected for the services had got coached at the institute.
Suresh, who expects a posting in IAS or IFS, wants civil service aspirants not to lose heart with failure. “Hard work never fails. Be persistent in what you do,” he adds.
Another candidate, P Krishna Kumar stands at 460. “I’m a businessman turned civil servant,” says 29-year-old Krishna, who belongs to Uthukuli in Tirupur. An engineering graduate, this was Krishna’s fifth attempt. He helped his father in their rice mill business while preparing for the examination. “Never give up. There may be obstacles, but passing the civil services examination is surely achievable,” he says.
The others from the region who have been ranked by the UPSC are B Abhinaya Nishanthini at 817, N Manoj at 771 and P Karthikeyan at 789.
source: http://www.m.timesofindia.com / The Times of India – Mobile / Home / TNN / by Arun P.Mathew / May 04th, 2013
Most of the elected women representatives in local bodies are usually prevented from acting on their own by their male family members. Though the officials have issued warning against such practice, it still persists in many parts of Trichy and neighbouring districts. Nevertheless, some of the women break such barriers and act on their own. A group of elected women representatives from six districts of Dharmapuri, Tirupur, Madurai, Cuddalore, Erode and Pudukkottai converged at an event in Trichy on Thursday to share their successful stride in public life. Surprisingly, no woman representative from Trichy turned up for the meet. The women expressed satisfaction in serving the people on their own by not depending on their male family members.
T Pasupathi, the president of Pullaneri village panchayat in Madurai district told TOI, “The encouragement from my family was a key to contest in election and to succeed. But I never depend on my family members to execute my work as a president. I want the women to shine in their life equal to men. In my career as a president, I stopped four child marriages in our area. Further, my service for the welfare of the women would continue.”
The aim of Dhanuskodi Saivarasu, the president of Mangathevanpatti village panchayat in Pudukkottai district is to strive hard towards getting 50% reservation for women. She said, “After creating awareness, most of the elected women representatives are prevented by husbands, children and fathers. In my case, my husband is helpful and does not interfere in my work.”
The story of C Nagalakshmi is an example for many women how to strive hard in life without support from others. Nagalakshami, a deserted woman, having two children won the election for ward member in Uppiliyakudi village panchayat. She said, “Though my husband separated from me, I hope that I would succeed in my life. With support from our people, I won the election. Despite many hurdles from men, I still want to serve for the people.”
Even though some of the women are brave enough to struggle in public life, there are many cases in Trichy where the male family members of the elected local body women representatives take care of the official duties of the women. District collector Jayashree Muralidharan last year issued a circular to all local bodies warning against the practice. Nevertheless, it continues in Trichy, told an official of the panchayat department in Trichy.
It can be mentioned in the context that the Trichy district administration cancelled the cheque signing power of 13 village panchayat presidents under Section 203 of Tamil Nadu Panchayat Act 1994 on charges of alleged irregularities.
Surprisingly, most of the ‘punished’ presidents in Trichy are women. The officials say that the irregularities were done by their husbands or other members of their family.
source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Madurai / by R. Gokul, TNN / April 19th, 2013
Pierre Fournier, Consul General of France, Puducherry, releases the Braille edition of ‘Kutti Elavarasan’ and A. Chermathai, secretary, IAB, receives the first copy at Sundararajanpatti on Wednesday /. Photo: S. James / The Hindu
‘Kutti Ilavarasan’ given away to 40 institutions across the State
“One sees clearly only with the heart because what is essential is invisible to the eye,” says a fox to the little prince in the French classic The Little Prince. True to those words, a group of children who could see everything with their hearts but nothing with their eyes had gathered at the Indian Association for the Blind (IAB) at Sundararajanpatti near here on Wednesday for the release of a Braille edition of the book translated into Tamil.
Pierrre Fournier, Consul General of France at Puducherry, released the Braille edition and A. Chermathai, secretary, IAB, received the first copy. Ms. Chermathai, 62, was among the first batch of visually challenged people who benefited from rehabilitation programmes conducted by the IAB during its inception in 1985. She worked as a government school teacher for long and associated herself with the IAB after her retirement.
The IAB was founded by S.M.A. Jinnah, a visionary who lacked the use of his eyes since the age of 13. It was administered by a managing committee comprising 13 members, six of whom were visually challenged women and three visually challenged men.
It runs a higher secondary school and assists the visually challenged in gaining education from Standard I to post-graduation. It also helps them become self-reliant and employable.
The association joined hands with United Way of Chennai, a philanthropic organisation, to start the IAB-UWC Finishing School aimed at assisting visually challenged youth seeking employment. The school was also inaugurated on Wednesday in the presence of Shyamala Ashok, Executive Director, UWC. K.N. Subramanian, Lead District Manager, Canara Bank, participated in the function and distributed CD players to visually challenged students of Standard IX.
The CD players were donated by Ability International Charitable Trust in the United States. C. Rama Subramanian, a renowned psychiatrist and also the president of IAB, said that the Braille edition of the French book, translated into Tamil with the title ‘Kutti Ilavarasan,’ would be distributed in 40 institutions, including 10 schools, 10 colleges and 10 organisations involved in rehabilitation of the visually challenged in the State.
S. Ramakrishnan of Cre-A publications in Chennai had taken the initiative to bring out the Braille edition of the book in Tamil. Appreciating the effort, the Consul General said that it was one of the greatest books of the century which almost every French citizen, including himself, knew by heart. It had been translated into more than 200 languages and around 14 crore copies of it had been sold since it was published in 1943.
“I am delighted to release the Tamil Braille edition on the 70th anniversary of the book’s publication. It is written for the child within an adult,” he said.
Mr. Subramanian applauded the work of IAB and said that it had been mandatory for all banks to provide education loans to visually challenged students who had successfully completed Standard XII. “We are also providing financial assistance to those who want to be self-employed,” he said.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Madurai / by Special Correspondent / April 04th, 2013
There are myriad ways to procure funds for a social cause and one method that is not commonly heard of is polishing footwear of others. A 32-year-old man from Thiruvallurdistrict did exactly that on Trichy roads on Saturday to gather funds to help destitute students.
S Selvakumar claims he does the lowly job not to garner attention, but to create awareness among public on the need to come forward to help poor people. And he has been doing that across the state to garner funds for providing education to poor students. Selvakumar, an assistant professor in a private college in Thiruvallur district came to Trichy on Saturday as part of his tour across Tamil Nadu.
For almost a decade, Selvakumar is providing free education to 170 poor students, mostly orphans, at a primary school he runs in Parianallur in Thiruvallur district. He has to resort to the unique way of fund mobilisation as he does not charge any fee from the students. As he refuses to take charitable donations to fund his educational activities, he spends his free time to take up any work like catering service, cleaning, motivational talk and even shoe shining to earn money to run the school.
“I don’t think that any such work would belittle me. Considering the welfare of destitute students, I am ready to do any work to earn money for their education. However, I would not force my family to involve in social service. They would act according to their wish. Besides me, there are eight women teachers working for a meagre salary of Rs 2,000 per month for this cause,” says Selvakumar, who has a three-year-old son Lingeshwaran.
Does shoe shining earn sufficient money for a worthy, expensive cause? On Saturday, Selvakumar could polish only 25 pairs of footwear in Trichy without collecting any fixed charge for his work.
The self-effacing man doesn’t mind a little media coverage if it helps promote the cause he champions. By flashing my activity through media, it would create a spark in others to involve in social service. But I don’t want to gain publicity.”
Selvakumar claims he was honoured by Tamil Nadu and Puducherry governments for his services to the education.
source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / Home> City> Madurai / by R Gokul, TNN / March 31st, 2013
Kal Raman , Chief Operating Officer of Groupon./ The Hindu
Hailing from small-town Tamil Nadu, Groupon COO Kal Raman has taken many a risk in his dream career — all ‘for the learning and not the money’.
I am mad at Kal Raman — he’s kept me waiting for 45 minutes. I threaten to leave, but don’t because he has a great story to tell — a textbook rags-to-riches tale. When he finally arrives, I mention punctuality, but he is sufficiently, and smartly, contrite. He isn’t feeling too well, and so on.
In two minutes, I can see why the man who couldn’t “even say ‘My name is Kalyan Raman in English without shivering’” when he joined Anna University’s electrical engineering course in 1984, has today become the Chief Operating Officer of American company Groupon, with an annual billing of $5.5 billion.
Raman is disarming, can talk his way through tough spots and, in his dream career, has taken huge risks — but more for learning, he says, than money.
EARLY YEARS
The son of a tahsildar from a village in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, a 15-year-old Raman, his mother and four siblings were literally thrown out on the streets after his father died of a heart attack. “From a nice house, three servants and a jeep, we were on the road.”
With a pension of Rs 420, and the Rs 100 she earned through reading palms, his mother raised the five children with a single goal — they’d have the best of education. “She became an expert at pawning; pay the interest for a piece of jewellery or kodam (utensil) by pawning another.”
After high school, he qualified for both a medical course in Tirunelveli and an engineering course at Anna University, Chennai. He opted for the latter; “I took the first risk of my life because I didn’t want my life to begin and end in Tirunelveli, so I chose Madras.” He didn’t even know about the existence of Anna University — “a friend’s dad applied and picked my courses. There was nobody to help or guide.”
One of the toppers in his batch, Raman cruised into Tata Consulting Engineers (TCE). We now have the famous story of how he landed at 4 a.m. at Dadar East in Bombay, slept on the platform, and left his bag with a vegetable vendor from Tirunelveli. Reporting to the office in chappals, he got ticked off by his boss, who soon turned sympathetic after hearing his story and gave him a month’s advance… and shoes!
AC, NOT COMPUTERS, IMPORTANT!
After nine months at TCE, when Tata Consulting Services wanted staff, he volunteered, “because the computer guys worked in AC rooms”. At TCE, he had done very well, and was offered a jump from Rs 2,350 to Rs 3,600, but he turned it down, quit, and applied to TCS. “Maybe I was naïve, crazy or audacious, but I enjoyed the power of computers and wanted it as a full-time job.”
He stayed at TCS for six months, his last stint in India. The highlight of it was his trip to Singapore as a “glorified courier” to deliver a software tape to IBM — but it crashed, robbing him of the opportunity to shop at Mustafa! After fixing the problem over two days, he whined to a senior about his bad luck. “He extended my trip, gave me an extra $1,000, and a car and driver. And I returned to India like a king, with a new suitcase, two gold chains for my mother and sister, shoes for my brother, TDK cassettes, Tiger Balm, etc.”
AUDACITY PAYS
TCS next sent him to work for a Scottish insurance company. It was launching five new policies, and Raman found the statistical fundamentals of one model flawed. When he pointed that out to his TCS boss in Bombay, he was asked to mind his business and stick to software writing! But when a director of the company, Chris Nicolty, stopped to chat with him, “I told him, ‘Please educate me, I am trying to understand how this will work.’ He listened and said ‘You might have a point’… but nothing more, and walked on.”
Two weeks later, the Scotsman came back to him and said, “Good job, I’m proud of you.” The project was stalled, Raman was given a bonus, and even offered a job at that company, hiking his salary from £500 to £2,500. “My life was made; in my mind I could see a house for my family, sister’s marriage, etc.”
But, interestingly, Nicolty advised him not to take the job because his biggest strength was the ability to take risks. In the UK he would soon hit a glass ceiling, so he should go to the US. “He said ‘don’t make your strength your weakness’.”
US CALLING
It was 1992. Fighting the urge to grab the opportunity, with his Scottish friend’s help, Raman soon had an offer for a contracting job with Walmart at an annual salary of $34,000. “But by the time they processed my visa, within a month the offer had gone up to $60,000,” he says.
By then he was married; he met his wife at TCS. “So with a Prestige cooker, two suitcases, and $100, we landed in Atlanta.” He joined as a Cobol programmer.
Raman’s dream run continued, with a helping hand from his ability to take risks. Walmart was making some of its contractors permanent employees, but the catch was reduced income — from $60,000 to $34,000. “Many others refused, but I took the job. By now my wife was also working, and we were comfortably sending $1,000 home every month,” he says.
FAIRYTALE RUN
Unbelievably, Raman says he got 18 promotions within just 18 months, and his salary jumped from $34,000 to $96,000.
Fascinated, I ask Raman how much more time he has for the interview. “I came late, so I don’t get to decide on the time; you do,” he says.
So, is he really good, or is it his gift of the gab that got him so far, I ask cheekily. Or does the US really recognise and reward talent? “I happened to be lucky; just like Forrest Gump, I was at the right place at the right time. God was disproportionately unkind to me when I was young, and disproportionately kind to me later.” He believes the US is “the most meritocracy country in the world… there is no question about it. You can take shots at America for so many things, but for honesty, work ethics and meritocracy, there is no country like it.”
So, was Nicolty right about the UK? “I think so… experience, tenure, that s**t works there. But in the US, I became a director so soon. At 24, I was negotiating $100 million deals with AT&T, without knowing the zeroes in one million.”
By 1993, he had shifted to retail, and when Walmart bought Pace Club the day before Thanksgiving, his challenge was to “integrate everything by Christmas — only six weeks. At this time, about 90 per cent of the people are on vacation. I wrote a bunch of codes and the system went live the day after Christmas.”
This is the day of heaviest returns, but everything worked without glitches. “So my boss introduced me to Rob Walton (the Chairman), saying, ‘he is the guy who did it’.”
Next, he moved to Walmart’s international division; “I moved away from technology to marketing and sales, and in the six years I spent in Walmart, I played every single role you can in retail business.” That laid the seed for his present role in Groupon.
So why did he leave?
“Because my boss, Doyle Graham, a father figure to me, died at 45 — just like my father. After he died, I lost the spark.” He next went to Blockbuster (a home movie rental provider) as a senior director running international technology for 26 countries. Here, too, he found the business model was flawed, and wrote a white paper detailing why it would go bust. But the Chief Executive Officer didn’t care for his views. So he left for Drugstore.com. “It was 1998 and the Internet was becoming big.” He joined as Chief Information Officer, became COO, and then CEO — all within two years.
Then the dotcom bust happened; everybody wrote the company off, but “I said the company would be profitable in two years. We got there a quarter earlier… and then I got bored.”
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was on the board of Drugstore; “and I made another weird call. I became CEO when I was 31, and when I left I was 34, I said I’ve got promotions too fast in my career, so for the next two years I won’t be CEO and will undo all the bad habits I’ve learnt.” Bezos “invited me to solve a complicated technology problem at Amazon. I said I’ll work for a couple of years, but I want to start my own company in education.”
“I DON’T WORK FOR MONEY”
In 2007, he started Global Scholar to “help teachers give differentiated education to kids using technology. It was a fantastic experience. I raised $50 million in the toughest economy since the Depression. In 30 months, I gave four times returns to my investors and then sold the company in 2010-11.” On why he did so, he quips, “The moment you start a company, it is for sale… at the right price. You can’t have emotions…”
Also, by then he must have made enough money, I prompt. “I don’t work for money; every penny I make in Groupon, I’ve pledged to charities…”
To my sceptical look and arched eyebrows he responds: “I don’t need money; I work hard because I want to work hard. Why do I need money? My daughter (studying computer science at Carnegie Mellon) says she won’t take a penny from me. My son, too, is the same, and my wife is cool with it. I still take care of my siblings… I play cricket, watch Tamil movies, read books, that’s it.”
No fancy yachts? “I can’t even swim. I have the same car, a Lexus, since 2001.”
Groupon’s Chief Financial Officer, Jason Child, a colleague in Amazon, got him on the board of the company, which has 14,000 people and 500 offices in 46 countries.
But isn’t Groupon doing badly?
“It is under pressure, true, but not doing badly. That is a distorted reality. I like it this way, though. I want everybody to think we are doing badly, so that all of a sudden you guys will call me a magician. We’re not going to do anything different, but will look like winners.”
On the speculation that he might be named Groupon CEO, he says, “Why should anybody care? Let’s get the stuff going in the right direction.”
During his last visit to India, Raman adopted 24,000 physically challenged kids in a village in Tenkasi — he’ll help with their education, healthcare, vocational training, and employment. “My goal is to give them both dignity and hope… and the ultimate goal is to create one million jobs in Tirunelveli district.” And to own an IPL team!
On India’s future, he says nobody can stop the country from becoming a superpower — “We will work hard to mess it up, but India will prevail because of our intellectual talent and the average age of Indians.”
source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com / Home> Features> Weekend Life / by Rasheeda Bhagat rasheeda.bhagat@thehindu.co.in / 2013
The inhabitants of the remote villages tucked away in Jawadhu Hills, about 70 km from here, got the shock of their impoverished lives the other day when their district collector came riding a motorbike to check on their needs.
The young IAS officer, Dr. Pingale Vijay Maruti, brought his additional collector T. Anand on the pillion, riding through 15 km of tough forest tracks winding along steep slopes amidst loose boulders to reach those miserable people and see firsthand the generations of neglect they have suffered through successive regimes. About 5,000 people live in these 11 villages that lack most of the basic needs, including schools, healthcare and ration shops.
“Almost all the people he met told the collector that their most vital need is a road to link them to civilisation. They carried their sick 17 km down the difficult forest track to reach the nearest PHC (public health centre), often too late, and carried the dead body on their shoulders for final rites at home. Moved by their plight, the collector has initiated steps to lay roads through the hills”, said a local official, who had struggled to keep pace with Dr. Maruti on that trip on Tuesday.
Asked for details, Dr. Maruti told DC that he met several village leaders during his motorbike ride up the hills and told them to activate their ‘forest rights committees’ for helping him to lay the roads. Under the forest laws, only thin paths of 3.5 metres width were allowed through reserved forests but the ‘forest rights act’ permitted exceptions to make life better for the inhabitants of inner villages.
Once the roads are completed, it would be possible to motor from Polur on Tiruvannamalai side to Jamunamaruthur and on to Amrithi on Vellore side. “A villager now has to either walk or take the bus on a circuitous route of over 50 km for this travel, whereas the new road will shorten the distance to 12 km”, Dr Maruti said.
“It’s been over two years since I rode a two-wheeler, but this ride was quite exciting. And very satisfying in its results”, added the collector, who hails from Nasik in Maharashtra.
source: http://www.DeccanChronicle.com / Home> News> Current Affairs / DC / March 29th, 2013
To keep abreast of latest technologies that enhance teaching, the visually challenged teachers under the banner of Blind Teachers Association (BTA), Madurai Branch, arranged a special technical session for their members. More than 300 visually challenged teachers are members of the branch that has jurisdiction from Karur to Kanyakumari districts and 90 of them from Madurai and nearby districts participated in the workshop held on Saturday.
Pune-based innovation company, Persion Technologies, announced during the event that it will come out with an interactive whiteboard for blind teachers by next month. Kiran Deshpande, director of the innovation and applications wing at the company, said the whiteboards will display whatever one keys into a laptop. The company will be also offering the device at comparatively cheaper prices, he informed.
V Elangovan, BTA chairman, observed that the teaching technology is changing fast and the education department too adopts lot of such technologies into teaching. “We feel that we should be adequately prepared for the technologies in the market. The response from our teachers was very enthusiastic,” he said.
At the worshop, teaching-aids developed by the Pune firm were demonstrated. An input-cum display device helps to feed all standard shapes, charts, scientific and mathematical symbols in any standard application. A Braille embosser for printing ordinary books into the Braille and a scanner device that reads out the printed sheets were also found useful for blind teachers.
“The general challenge we face during the class room is the control of students because we can’t see the activities of the students in a class. Using such modern equipment will help to increase the involvement of students,” said M Kalidoss, a history teacher in Kodukkampatti High School in Madurai.
Nicholas Francis, director of Helen Keller Talking Library, who inaugurated the workshop, remarked that the visually challenged are the pioneers in utilising modern technologies among the differently abled community. “The visually challenged teachers should not be left behind with technological advancements and should strive hard to learn these scientific tools,” he said.
Elangovan said that the association is planning to hold similar workshops in Tirunelveli in the coming days for the benefit of blind teachers from Tirunelveli and Kanyakumari districts.
Students and staff of D.G Vaishnav College gathered at the International Women’s Day celebrations organised by Deccan Chronicle on Thursday. — DC
Chennai:
Hundreds of girl students in a Chennai college on Thursday resolved to launch a ‘Purple Club’ to create a ‘huge’ network of girls and women who will help each other in all possible ways, from tackling men’s harassment to sharing information on education and employment.
This first-of-its-kind initiative was launched at the International Women’s Day celebration hosted by Deccan Chronicle at D.G. Vaishnav College.
“Purple is the beautiful colour of the International Women’s Day and soon it will become the most vibrant and powerful colour too, as this initiative will grow into a national and even an international purple network of women sharing information and experience through mobile phones, Internet and Facebook.
Purple is all set to go viral,” said Shanti Reddy of Deccan Chronicle. College principal, Dr S. Narasimhan, said the club would enable its members, to begin with women from his college, to share experiences and access other members through mobile phones at times of difficulties.
DC and D.G. Vaishnav College will set up the club with its girl students joining as members.
The membership is free, sponsored by Deccan Chronicle. A central data bank would be created for members to access at times of need. The members would be given a purple-coloured button to wear on the dress for identification among other members.
“There will soon be a time when romeos on the road will keep away from the woman wearing the purple button on her churidar or T-shirt,” said a happy student leader.
Purple Club for overall development of women
Purple Club will be a group of women and girls, perhaps students of a particular school or college, but eventually broadening its membership to include women of the entire neighbourhood, perhaps the city and state, for sharing information and experiences among themselves.
More importantly, a member would be able to access quick help from her purple friend through mobile phone or other e-means. The Purple Club members will wear a purple button prominently on their dress to identify themselves.
Deccan Chronicle is initiating the first Purple Club in association with D.G. Vaishnav College at Arumbakkam, Chennai, for its girl students. It is proposed to expand the network to bring in other girls and women from various schools and colleges in Chennai and gradually include ‘purple friends’ from other districts and states as well, according to Ms Shanti Reddy of Deccan Chronicle.
DC is getting ready thousands of decorative purple buttons for distribution among the members of the club. “The empowerment stems from uniting their strengths through this club to share information and experiences. One member can quickly and easily reach out to another through mobile or other e-means.
I could be wearing a purple button and walking on the road in a new city, and come across another purple club woman in that place. We would be strangers but still a smile and a comfortable camaraderie will emerge even during that sudden meeting,” explained Ms Shanti Reddy.
In course of time, Purple Clubs could be expanded to include other cities and states, even other categories of women. For instance, there could be Purple Clubs of Mothers sharing their experiences about bringing up kids, hygiene, food information, education and scholarship opportunities for their children, their husbands’ mood swings and what not.
source: http://www.DeccanChronicle.com / Home> News> Current Affairs / DC / by Pramila Krishnan / March 08th, 2013
In a little over a fortnight, Chennaiites will get desalinated water from the city’s second desalination plant dedicated to public use by chief minister J Jayalaithaa on Friday.
Senior government sources told Deccan Chronicle that water from the 100mld desalination plant constructed at a cost of Rs 821.14 crore would reach residents of Tiruvanmiyur, Velachery and Pallipattu besides IT companies in another three weeks.
By then, the pipe laid for over 60km will be flushed and kept ready for conveying water to the city from Nemmeli, sources added.
Unlike the 100mld Minjur desalination plant constructed on DBOOT (design, build, operate and transfer) basis with private partnership, Chennai metro water has built the Nemmeli plant indigenously. The Nemmeli plant has also proved to be relatively cost effective, as it requires only Rs 21 to treat one kiloliter of seawater, while the same costs `48.66 per kiloliter in Minjur.
The Nemmeli plant also will also have an edge over the Minjur plant in terms of technology, particularly in respect of filtering and treatment. The plant is equipped with pressure filters comprising disc and ultra filters that will filter particles as tiny as 0.01micron ahead of the reverse osmosis system that filters chemicals, salts and particles 1/100th of the size smaller than the particles that escape the pressure filters. Breaking silence on the inadvertent delay in the project completion, government sources attributed the delay to a turbulent sea and said they only had a four-month window period from January to April and they had to bury the inlet and outlet pipes in the seabed to a length of one km and 650 meters. The designers initially considered partial burying and later settled to complete burial of the inlet and outlet pipes. The plant takes in 265mld from the sea and send 100mld of desalinated water to the city.
source: http://www.DeccanChronicle.com / Home> News> Current Affairs / DC / February 23rd, 2013
