The Nari Shakti Puraskar, which is the highest civilian honour for women in India, was given at a special ceremony in New Delhi on March 8 to 44 women as well as institutions.
They were recognised for their relentless service towards the cause of women empowerment and social welfare.
Sujatha Mohan
Sujatha Mohan, executive medical director of the Rajan Eye Care Hospital was recognised for her efforts in raising awareness about the importance of eye donations as well as several projects she has initiated to ensure that quality eye care is accessible to all sections of society.
Mini Vasudevan
Mini Vasudevan, co-founder of Humane Animal Society from Coimbatore was honoured for her involvement in animal welfare as well as sensitising the public to it.
Award for dept.
Among the institutions, the Social Welfare and Nutritious Meal Programme Department of the Tamil Nadu government was recognised for performing well with regard to the implementation of the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) campaign.
The campaign is a flagship programme of the Central government to address declining child sex ratio in the country.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Staff Reporter / Chennai – March 12th, 2019
Gowri Ashokan has been appointed city public prosecutor, the first woman to hold the post.
Ms. Ashokan was holding the in-charge position until now. The State government has issued orders appointing her full time to the post.
She will represent any prosecution, appeal or proceeding on behalf of the State government in the city sessions courts.
Along with her, 16 law officers have been appointed as additional public prosecutors to the sessions courts in the city. The law officers will hold the post for a period of three years from the date of taking charge.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Special Correspondent / Chennai – March 10th, 2019
WeBe design won the international competition to design the National War Memorial of India hosted by the Ministry of Defence in 2016.
National War Memorial in New Delhi
Chennai :
“It was an overwhelming moment when the sketch on my notepad stood magnificent in front of my eyes. It’s a privilege to work for the nation,” reminisces Yogesh Chandrahasan, the principal architect of the National War Memorial inaugrated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on February 25. Yogesh is a part of WeBe Design Lab, an architecture practice based in Chennai and Coimbatore. The firm was established a decade ago by a vibrant team of eight partners from the School of Architecture and Planning, Anna University, in 2010.
Bagging the project
WeBe design won the international competition to design the National War Memorial of India hosted by the Ministry of Defence in 2016. The team was commissioned to build the same in 2017. The competition hosted by the Ministry of Defence was on a global level in two stages. From around 450 entries, 75 entries were shortlisted. They were then narrowed down to nine based on conceptual designs
A team of six architects flew from Chennai to New Delhi
These nine teams further developed the designs and competed in stage two. Each of the team had to present the final design to a 20-member jury comprising renowned architects and eminent professors in the field, and to the Ministry of Defence.
“We were not in a great circumstance when we took up the project. Especially, after demonetisation and floods, things had taken a hit for us financially. Taking up a humongous project like this was a big deal that demanded great responsibility. The time given to complete the project was two years,” said Yogesh, who will be in New Delhi for another month.
Capturing emotions
The selected team had eight consultants from Chennai and New Delhi to assist the project in different areas. “The whole idea was a collaborative effort. The intent of our design was to look at the memorial as a place where soldiers were reborn,” he says.
Drafts and details
Revisiting his initial days of the project, Yogesh says, “A partner and I travelled to New Delhi to sign the final agreement before the project commenced. We had to present the detailed project report and the work demanded two whole months of stay in New Delhi. A team of six architects flew from Chennai and we stayed in a hotel there.” “Instructions from the Ministry came as orders and not requests. Here, the clients are particular about individual tasks completed in scheduled time. The deadline was the only factor that kept us going. The team was a big motivational force. Each of us used to lift one another up in times of crises,” shares Yogesh.
Grand opening
Yogesh will always cherish the inaugural day. “The Prime Minister shook hands with me and walked away. However, Defence Minister Nirmala Si-tharaman introduced me to him for a short private chat. His words still ring in my ears — ‘You’ve justified my dreams by doing a satisfactory job with the project’,” he shares.
Memorial architecture
Spread across 42 acres, the design of the `176-crore project is interpreted as four concentric circles of varied elements. The outermost — The Circle of Protection — personifies the territorial control of the armed forces of the borders, The Circle of Sacrifice metaphorically represents the formation of soldiers in the war. The Circle of Bravery has been conceived as subterranean colonnaded semi-open corridor holding the brave stories, and the focal point of the memorial is the innermost circle — The Circle of Rebirth — symbolising the immortality of jawans who lost their lives, through the external fire. The Param Yodha Sthal is a unique space dedicated for the Param Vir Chakra awardees, India’s highest military decoration.
The park is designed with the existing trees, accommodating bronze statues of 21 awardees. “As directed by the Central Vista Committee, New Delhi, the design of the war memorial is subterranean with the built form not exceeding 1.5 metres above the ground level. The design was conceived carefully to retain the character of the existing open space and the aesthetics sanctity of the Lutyens planning. Above all, the success is because of team effort and amalgamation of creative thoughts. That aside, my family and friends were a huge support. Some of my clients pooled in resources to support me financially,” says Yogesh.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities>Chennai / by Vaishali Vijaykumar / Express News Service / March 07th, 2019
“Men may come and Men may go, but I will go on forever”,Dr V. Shanta said.
Padma Vibhushan Dr V. Shanta
Chennai :
Padma Vibhushan Dr V. Shanta, chairperson, Cancer Institute (WIA), Adyar was felicitated and honoured by the Madras Chamber of Commerce & Industry and WITT during an healthcare seminar, “Healthcare: Today & Tomorrow- Creating a Sustainable Enterprise with Medical Leadership” organised here . Dr V. Shanta in her special address detailed her six-decade journey with Cancer Institute (WIA). She spoke about the challenges and the struggles faced and highlighted on the achievements and requested to give a “Status” to the Cancer Institution that it deserves, on par with other Government Institutions and concluded her address with a clear statement defining her – “Men may come and Men may go, but I will go on forever”.
Mr. Ramkumar Ramamoorthy, president, The Madras Chamber of Commerce & Industry, while delivering the presidential address stated, “While it’s good to look at revenue and employment numbers, it’s equally important to put ‘CARE’ back into Healthcare, and ensure quality, accessibility, availability and affordability of healthcare. And we have a long way to go to be happy with the impact numbers”. He concluded his address by stating “With technology playing an unbelievably important role, I believe Tamil Nadu has a once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity to become the healthcare (or Health Tech) capital of the country and perhaps of the world”.
The Keynote Speaker Padma Shri, Dr Sneh Bhargava, former director, AIIMS, New Delhi, addressed on “Where did we go wrong?” She elaborated on the current status of healthcare in the country in the context of 5Ms – Men, Machine, Money, Medicines and Management. She highlighted on the detrimental factors that are prevalent in the sector.
source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> Nation> Current Affairs / by Deccan Chronicle / March 03rd, 2019
“Tamil Nadu is the 29th state I’m visiting. I’ve been driving through the country for around 183 days and have covered 41,000 km,” says Sangeetha Sridhar, rattling off numbers when asked about her journey.
An NRI from UAE, Ms. Sangeetha, who originally hails from Coimbatore, has been driving through the country in her modified Tata Hexa for her initiative – ‘Clean India Trail’.
“I wished to commemorate the 100th birth anniversary of Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the founding father of the UAE and the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and undertake this trip as a goodwill journey. Gandhiji always dreamt of a clean and safe India for women and I planned this trip systematically to show that this doesn’t have to be a faraway dream,” she says.
Ms. Sangeetha began her trip from Mumbai on August 12 and has been travelling solo since then, visiting over 290 cities. Her travels, she says, have taught her self-reliance and sustainability while allowing her to soak in different cultures and have engaging conversations with interesting people.
Sanitation audit
“Through this journey, I’ve been auditing the condition of sanitation facilities available and creating awareness about the Swachh Bharat Mission. I drive a vehicle that is made in India and only use products and technology that are home-grown,” she says. Her car is fitted with solar panels and the middle seat has been removed to ensure that she can sleep inside. “At night, I ensure that I find a safe place to park my vehicle – either inside the compound of a residential complex or a police station. I sleep inside the vehicle and use the public sanitation facilities available,” she says.
Ms. Sangeetha has also been engaging with nearly 59 signature industries across the States she has travelled through and has also visited various heritage sites. Collaborating with a start-up, she explains that all the information she collects are documented on an app in her phone. “For my audit of the sanitation facilities, the app provides me with a log and I also can record voice notes which will be location-tagged so that I can go back to them later,” she says.
With her website www.cleanindiatrail.com detailing her travels, Ms. Sangeetha says that the results of her audit will be handed over to the United Nations Sustainable Development Board and the Ministry of Tourism. “People everywhere have been extremely welcoming. For women who wish to travel and go on long solo road trips, it is extremely important to prepare physically and mentally. Plan your milestones clearly so that you know what it is that you want to see and it is imperative to study everything along your route,” she adds.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by S. Poorvaja / Chennai – March 02nd, 2019
More than 800 households in Coimbatore city receive fresh milk at their door step every morning from the villages near Annur. The milk has no chemicals or preservatives added and is tested for quality before it is packed. Sold under VilFresh brand, it is the flagship product of Laymen Agro Ventures, a startup based out of Coimbatore.
Procuring milk from 30 farmers, the company also provides employment to youngsters in the villages. The youth are given two wheelers and they bring the milk to the city and take agro inputs for farmers on their return trip daily.
“We started with an initial investment of ₹30 lakh to enter urban kitchens with fresh agro produce. Apart from milk we also supply grains and pulses,” says Selvakumar Varadarajan, its Chief Executive Layman.
With plans to reach out to nearly 8,000 households in Coimbatore, strengthen its product portfolio, set up a unit to make value added products, and commence operations in cities such as Tirupur, Madurai, Tiruchi, and Salem, Laymen Agro requires funds to scale up. And the funding will come from a group of investors in the State and a couple of investment firms.
Nativelead Coimbatore will bring in ₹65 lakh from angel investors in Tamil Nadu and the rest will come from Upaya Social Ventures and Sangam Ventures, says Sivarajah Ramanathan, Founder and President of Nativelead Foundation.
The organisation chose Laymen Agro as it is buying fresh milk from farmers paying a relatively higher price and the model of business can be replicated in other cities.
“We are doing three investments this month in Coimbatore, Tiruchi, and Tindivanam totalling ₹2.4 crore. Of this, ₹1 crore is for Laymen Agro,” he says.
“We will receive the investment in two tranches with the first one on Wednesday,” Mr. Varadarajan adds.
A function will be held here on Wednesday when a new team of office bearers will take charge at Nativelead Coimbatore and the equity investment will be made by the organisation in the startup. Jayaram Govindarajan, who will be chairman of Nativelead Coimbatore for 2019-20, said the team is looking forward to promoting an alternative investment option for native entrepreneurs.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Coimbatore / by M. Soundariya Preetha / Coimbatore – February 27th, 2019
The story of a fisherman’s son, who taught himself to surf, win championships, and train hundreds of people in the sport
Dharani Selvakumar once snuck into a boat to follow his father to sea. “He’d warned me to keep off the water at any cost,” says the 27-year-old surfer from Kovalam. The instant he saw his son, A Selvakumar, dragged him back home and whacked him. A fisherman, he knew the dangers and uncertainties of the profession, and wanted his only son to grow up far from the whiff of the sea. But the sea runs in Dharani’s blood. Nothing — not even his Computer Engineering degree — could keep him from it. Today, the seven-time National champion and ISA-certified surfing instructor, is in charge of Covelong Point @ Mahabs, the second branch of Covelong Point Surf School.
Dharani was an over-protected 90s kid. Despite his father’s repeated warnings, he did what any kid who lived by a beautiful seaside village would do. He jumped into the water the moment he came back from school and college, spent many afternoons catching crab with his bare hands, and surfing with broken windows and polystyrene boards. And when the surfing culture caught on in Kovalam, Dharani promptly followed suit, borrowing a cousin’s surf board.
“I had a three-month break before I joined Engineering,” he remembers. It was an unforgettable three months. Dharani spent every day hitting the water with the board, conversing with the waves, negotiating the ebbs and falls, falling and rising, until he mastered the art of surfing all by himself. “I was addicted to it,” he says. “But I fell out with my cousin and had to return his board,” he says.
Dharani approached Moorthy Megavan, co-founder of Covelong Point Surf School, who let him use his boards. Soon, Dharani started participating in surfing tournaments.
“The Summer Swell Challenge of 2012 in Puducherry, was the first competition I participated in,” he says. He came first in the semi-finals. In 2013, Dharani came first in the Junior Level at a tournament in Covelong. More successes followed, and Dharani travelled to surfing tournaments in various places, including Vizag, Kovalam (Kerala), Mangalore, and Konark Beach. “I also travelled to Thailand with the sponsorship of Arun Vasu of TT Group, who’s been a big support,” he says. Somewhere along the way, he learned stand up paddling too.
Dharani started teaching at Covelong Point in his free time and enjoyed the process. He’s trained over 6,000 people so far, some of whom are equipped enough to participate in tournaments. The best thing about teaching, for Dharani, is that he gets to see the same unabashed thrill in his students that he experiences every time he rides the waves. “I cannot describe the feeling, but I’m able to share it with someone else, which makes me happy,” he says. Dharani says that he would love to start his own surf school in the future. “But for now, I want to focus on taking the sport to the next level, and involve more boys from Mamallapuram in it,” he adds.
It was not easy making a career out of the very means his father advised against. “People in my village kept badgering him about why I was whiling away my time at sea despite being well educated,” he says. But Dharani’s mother Desam stood by him. She did housekeeping where he taught just to be with him. Gradually, Dharani’s father began to see how much happiness the sea brought his son. On an average day, there may be many people on the beach, admiring Dharani’s moves on the surf board. But he knows that sometimes, his father does too, pausing on his way to work.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Society / by Akila Kannadasa / February 27th, 2019
Inspiring people: Arunachalam Muruganantham in Coimbatore on Monday.
Arunachalam Muruganantham, a 56-year-old social entrepreneur in Coimbatore, had his handset ringing with congratulatory calls and messages on Monday morning. Period. End of Sentence, a documentary that reflects his work, had won an Oscar in the Best Short Documentary category.
“I am very happy. We never expected an Oscar. The subject (menstrual hygiene) has reached a global audience. Not just in India, but, women in Kenya, Uganda, or Bangladesh can learn about menstrual hygiene through the documentary,” he says.
Pad Man, the Akshay Kumar-starrer inspired by the life of Mr. Muruganantham had created a huge impact in India. The Oscar for Period. End of Sentence will take the subject to more people in different countries, he adds. “I have received several calls from women who have seen the movie and not only started using the napkins but are educating other women too. That is the real award.”
After nearly seven years of research, Mr. Muruganantham started manufacturing machines in 2004 to produce affordable sanitary napkins. The machines are set up mainly in rural areas where women make the napkins and sell them. “I have installed 5,300 machines in India. More than one lakh women are employed and they produce 1,500 different brands of sanitary pads,” he says.
The aim is to achieve 100% use of sanitary napkins among women and provide self-employment opportunities to 10 lakh women. He has also enabled installation of the machines in 24 countries, including six machines in Pakistan and 10 in Bangladesh. He has trained a group of women in Afghanistan. One machine will be commissioned in Chennai on March 8 this year to be operated by 20 hearing and speech impaired women.
According to him, the challenge is not in installing the machinery but in breaking the taboo against use of sanitary napkins. “Several communities have beliefs against use of the pads. Such beliefs exist in many other countries too.” “The Government should include menstrual hygiene in the curriculum,” he says. The Delhi government plans to incorporate a summary of important events in his life in the school curriculum.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Coimbatore / by M. Soundariya Preetha / Coimbatore – February 25th, 2019
Meet Harish Natarajan, a champion debater who recently triumphed over IBM’s AI debater
Harish Natarajan loves arguing. It has helped him win debates against his parents at dinner table conversations when he was young. It has helped him scale heights in debating circles — he holds the world record for most debate victories. And recently, it helped the 31-year-old triumph over IBM’s artificial intelligence debating system, affectionately dubbed ‘Miss Debater’.
His victory has been celebrated across the globe, thanks to the recent emphasis on man-vs-machine clashes. At his nondescript house in Chennai’s bustling T Nagar, where he is for a day for his grandfather’s birthday celebrations, a jet-lagged Harish is nonplussed about all the worldwide attention. “Before the clash, part of me thought that a machine couldn’t be as good as humans in debating. But then, I knew that a machine had beaten chess champion Garry Kasparov in the past. So, winning against the AI was somewhat of a relief. Maybe in a couple of years, if IBM continues developing the debating side of AI, I’d be happy to have a go at it again… and then, that would be real achievement,” he says.
_____________
Who’s Harish Natarajan?
A 31-year-old, settled in the UK, and among the world’s best debaters
He recently defeated IBM’s AI-powered debating system in a live face-off
Is currently involved in coaching people from less developed debating circuits
_____________
The topic given to the two was about pre-school subsidies, and Harish went about treating the clash like he would with any human. “The first 30 seconds, of course, were strange — I realised I was up against this giant ballot box. But after that, as the AI was making arguments, I kept noting what my responses ought to be. At times, it was putting forth points that I couldn’t really deny. But I was always thinking: How do I use its words against it?”
One of the reasons Harish was able to outsmart the machine in the 25-minute rapid-fire exchange was the emphasis he gave to ‘emotion’ during his arguments. “Emotion elevates the importance of what you’re saying. There were moments when even the machine was trying to evoke emotion. But I did have an edge because, when I talk about experiences, it comes across as more genuine partly because… well, I’m not a machine.”
Point of the matter
His parents are both from Chennai, but Harish was born and brought up in the UK, and has been debating since he was 16. “I was relatively good at school, but I discovered I wasn’t up there once I went to the bigger debating world.” His time at Cambridge helped him put a lot more effort into this side of things. “I realised that I enjoyed debating and had the aptitude for it. Eventually, with practice, I got better.”
Today, he has participated in more than 2,000 debates and is among the world’s best, but Harish has never been too happy with his performances. “That’s why I never re-watch any of my debates, because I am always thinking what more I could have done,” he says.
There have been times when Harish has been caught off guard. At one debate, the topic in front of him was: commercialisation of feminism. “I remember thinking that I had no idea what it was. But I got back home, and read a lot about it. So, a few months later, when a similar topic came up in another debate, I knew a huge deal about it and my teammates gave me looks like: ‘why do you know all this?’” he laughs.
He’s always reading something or the other. “There are things that I don’t care about much, but I know a great deal about. I’ve read so much about academic feminism and elements of climate science in my life. Personally, I like reading about economics and international relations, but as a debater, I have to absolutely keep reading everything under the sky.”
All this reading has helped Harish incorporate debating into his everyday life. “If I read an article in a newspaper, I always think: what is the underlying argument here? With respect to anything I read, I’m always debating within myself. It has now become a way of thinking.”
Out in the world
When he’s not out there debating or attending to his day job — he works as Head of Economic Risk Consulting at AKE International — Harish loves watching football or catching up on a show on Netflix. He loves travelling as well.
“There’s a big difference between having knowledge about a place and actually experiencing something there,” he says, “My last big trip was to Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. What shocked me about the city was that it looks different from anywhere else in world. It looks empty, but there are giant buildings everywhere.”
Currently, Harish is involved in coaching people from less developed debating circuits. “In April, I’ll be in China. A few years ago, I was part of World University Debating Championships right here in Chennai. India has a vibrant school circuit, a good educational system and the parental pressure on children to succeed is huge… and so logically, should be among the best debating countries in the world. Debating at the school level has developed a lot of late and I predict Indian students to be among the best in the next few years,” he wraps up.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Srinivasa Ramanujam / February 20th, 2019
Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Thursday announced establishment of memorials for many late leaders and that their birth anniversaries would be celebrated as State government functions.
Chennai :
Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Thursday announced establishment of memorials for many late leaders and that their birth anniversaries would be celebrated as State government functions.
Making a suo motu statement in the Assembly, the Chief Minister said a memorial and a library for poet Kavimani Desika Vinayagam Pillai would be built at Theroor in Kanyakumari at a total cost of `1 crore.
A memorial for King Perumbidugu Mutharaiyar would be established in Tiruchy district at a cost of `1 crore. Similarly, a memorial for late Dalit leader Rettaimalai Srinivasan would be established at Kozhiyalam near Madurantakam.
The Chief Minister also said that the government would build memorials for VK Palaniswami Gounder, who was instrumental in implementing the Parambikkulam-Azhiyar dam project; Justice Party leader and former finance minister of the erstwhile Madras Presidency AT Panneerselvam; Ondiveeran, the commander-in-chief of King Pulithevan who fought against the British forces in Tirunelveli; and a dome for Allala Ilaiya Nayakar at Jedarpalayam.
Palaniswami also announced that the birth anniversaries of Colonel John Pennycuick, Kongu chieftain Kalingarayan, freedom fighter Veeran Azhagumuthukon, Tamil scholar Ma Po Sivagnanam and former Assembly Speaker SP Aditanar would be celebrated by the governmen.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Express News Service / February 15th, 2019
