MoU signed between NIF and Dabur earlier this year
In what could give Indian indigenous medicine a boost, a herbal concoction used by a 60-year-old woman to treat early stage cataract of people in in Tamil Nadu’s Madurai district may soon make its way to market shelves.
This traditional wisdom used by herbal healer Muthulakshmi for decades may be commercialised after Ahmedabad headquartered National Innovation Foundation (NIF) which supports such grassroots innovations has signed an MoU with Dabur Research Foundation earlier this year to develop and commercialise the product.
The herbal medicine which was used to treat early stage cataract patients is currently up for clinical trials and is expected to hit the markets in 6 months.
“We scouted this product with the help of Honey Bee Network, our collective a few years ago. In the past we have validated traditional knowledge and practices of people that are unavailable in classical codified texts with the help of ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research). We got excellent results with the herb that treats patients with early state cataract after preliminary tests were conducted on this herbal medicine tested with PERD (Pharmaceutical Education & Research Development) Ahmedabad.
Later we signed a co-development agreement (MoU) with Dabur Research Foundation earlier this year for testing and developing the herbal medicine. Dabur also has the first right of refusal and can pay market cost for the technology,” said Vipin Kumar, director & chief innovation Officer(CIO) of NIF-India, an autonomous body of DST, Govt of India.
Kicking off the momentum for indigenous traditional medicine made from a flower and administered by Muthulakshmi to treat cataract patients in her region, may be available commercially in an affordable format after it is developed as a viable herbal product.
“We have signed a broad-based MoU and are working with NIF to develop herbal-based products to treat humans through the non-codified herb. The flower is indigenous and grows widely in the country. However, knowledge of this traditional medicine may be lost if it is not passed on to the people. The formula needs to be checked for efficacy on cells and duplicated and made affordable to poor. Through preliminary data we are trying to see if the extract has the potential to cure and will be conducting a clinical trial on 200 subjects.
We are currently in the process of finalising a chemical centre. The money generated through the IPR or patent of this herbal medicine and its royalty will go to the inventor Muthulakshmi and not to us or the NIF. The product can be commercialised within 3 to 6 months once clinical trials are over. Once the product formulation is complete we would obviously not like to refuse it and bring it at affordable rates as our CSR and try to make it low cost for people,” said Dr Manu Jaggi, chief scientific officer, Dabur Research Foundation.
Sithannavasal rock cave in Pudukottai district is one among the places to be documented online. | Photo Credit: M_Moorthy
‘This project will help domestic and international tourists’
The Tourism department has embarked upon a project to document all heritage, historic and popular tourist spots and monuments in the State, including Tiruchi and Pudukottai districts, so as to lure both domestic and foreign travellers through online campaign.
Collection of rare pictures, taking latest pictures and writing description are part of the project, which will be uploaded in the official website of Union Ministry of Tourism, which is projecting the tourism hotspots of the country to international tourists under the tag of “Incredible India”.
The Rockfort temple in Tiruchi, Sri Ranganathar temple in Srirangam, Sri Akilandeswari-Jambukeswarar temple in Thiruvanaikoil, Butterfly park at Melur in Srirangam, Erumbeeswarar temple in Tiruverumbur are among the temples, monuments and places to be documented in Tiruchi district.
K. Ilangovan, Tourism Officer, Pudukottai, told The Hindu that expert photographers had been hired to take pictures of historic places and monuments. Avudaiyar temple, Viralimalai, Thirumayam Fort, Sithannavasal paintings, Brahathambal temple, cave temple in Malaiadipatti, Kundrathar temple, Muthukuda beach on East Coast Road were among the places to be documented online from Pudukottai district. They would be uploaded in the websites of Tamil Nadu Tourism and Union Ministry of Tourism with the participation of National Informatics Centre (NIC). The task would be completed within two weeks.
He said that websites and online booking had become an important tool for disseminating information of the country’s rich heritage, arts, culture and tourist places worldwide.
The project would help domestic and international tourists to know the treasures of the country.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Tiruchrapalli / by C. Jaishankar / Tiruchirapalli – June 25th, 2018
I Support Farming strives to make agriculture a profitable business option
The floods that rampaged Chennai and several regions on the Coromandel coast in 2015 transformed Vasanth Kumar Mani’s life. A marketing professional with an IT firm, he had gone to Cuddalore for relief work. “I saw how peoplefrom other parts of the State donated food and clothes,” recalls Vasanth. “But they were just dropped off at the centre of the city. A lot of them didn’t reach those in need.” Vasanth saw how there was a huge gap between those willing to do something for society, and those who actually need it. “This is the case with farming,” he says.
“A farmer requires ₹1,000 to plough half an acre of land,” he says. This amount may not be a big amount to a salaried city-dweller. “But for a marginal farmer, this is a big deal.” What if they and those with a heart and the capacity to give, are connected? This is the idea behind I Support Farming, a company that Vasanth and his brother Vijayakumar Mani founded in 2016. Vijay quit his HR job to take the plunge.
“We enable the partnership of the two,” says Vasanth, who holds a Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture. According to him, this business partnership is a win-win for all those who are involved. The “investment” made by a city-dweller, goes into buying seeds, fertilizers, and renting tractors (the company has its own). “We facilitate all of this,” he adds.
The company has a team of 14 on-field technical officers who oversee work on the land. “The profit is split among the three of us — a major portion goes to the farmer, and the rest for the investor and our company,” he explains.
Vasanth says that investing in farming can give better returns than say, opening a Fixed Deposit account. “It’s not as risky as the share market too.” I Support Farming, for their part, does most of the ground work — it evaluates the land before opening it out to investors and also provides technical support to farmers. “We connect with local agricultural research stations to give scientific inputs,” says Vasanth.
Vijay adds that they hope to scale up their company like a mutual fund investment. With an office at the TIDEL Park, Vasanth and Vijay are now working towards opening a line of retail outlets in the city from where people can directly pick-up farmers’ produce.
All this required plenty of work though. “The most difficult part was convincing farmers to come on board,” says Vijay. But they managed to do so. The trick, they realised, was to talk to the most influential farmer in the village.
The first farmer to open up to their initiative was Dhanasekar from Anumandai village in Viluppuram, who convinced several others to join him. Vijay and Vasanth want to do away with the impression that farming is a loss-making venture. Says Vasanth, “With the right approach, we can bring about change.”
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Society / by Akila Kannadasan / June 20th, 2018
With his parents assisting him, a school student develops a mask with vetiveru
Inquisitiveness is at the root of innovation. Arul Srivastav, a Class VI student of a city school, has illustrated this, through a rare experiment he has conducted with the roots of Chrysopogon Zizanioides, called vetiveru in Tamil.
Two years ago, with the assistance of his parents, Arul Srivastav, now a Class VI student of Vanavani Matriculation Higher Secondary School located on the IIT Campus on Sardar Vallababhai Patel Road, Adyar, designed an anti-pollution mask with vetiveru.
“Vetiveru root is ubiquitous at our home. When boiling water, we add it to the water. I add it to my hair oil. Arul wanted to find out if he could ‘add’ it to a customised anti-pollution mask,” says Arul’s mother, Vijaya.
So, Arul’s parents — M. Vijaya and Abhishek Srivastav — encouraged him to make a mask from vetiveru roots. When Arul reached a stage where he had to make a filter, his parents took him to screen weavers found near Aavin Park at Adyar signal.
Arul and his parents also learnt to how to weave vetiveru roots. Vijaya helped Arul weave the roots into a triangular filter, measuring 10cm x 8cm. This was then wrapped within a soft net. His parents then took him to an automobile pollution testing centre at a petrol bunk in Thiruvanmiyur to check the efficacy of his filter.
“A simple test was carried out at the centre. Vehicular emissions from a car and a bike were first noted. With the vetiveru filter fitted to the exhaust pipes of the vehicles, emissions tests were again conducted. The readings were noted down. And, the report proved the efficacy of the vetiveru filter,” says Vijaya. Arul sent the findings of the project, which Vijaya put together for him, to the Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam IGNITE Awards, instituted by the National Innovation Foundation – India. The Foundation, located at Ahmedabad, is an autonomous body under the Department of Science and Technology. The aim of the award is develop scientific temper and innovation among children.
Soon, to Arul’s pleasant surprise, Foundation sent a letter, stating that his innovation had secured the “accepted” status, which means the applicant has substantiated his innovation and that the innovation is qualified for documentation.
“Similar tests should be conducted for smoke emanated from industrial chimneys. If hazardous emissions were found to be filtered by using vetiveru filter, then appropriate measures should be taken to contain air pollution,” suggests Arul.
Arul and his parents live at Kandhasamy Nagar in Palavakkam.
For details, call 95434 96569.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by L. Kanthimathi / June 15th, 2018
A. Dhiraj Ram Krishna (second right) receiving the National Gopal Ratna award from Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Radha Mohan Singh (second left) in New Delhi on Sunday in the presence of Minister of State Krishna Raj (left). | Photo Credit: HANDOUT_E_MAIL
The engineering graduate received the award for upkeep of best dairy animals of indigenous breeds
A young engineer from Coimbatore has won an award from the Central Government on June 2 for cattle rearing and dairying.
A. Dhiraj Ram Krishna received the ‘National Gopal Ratna’ award from Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Radha Mohan Singh in New Delhi for ‘upkeep of the best dairy animals of indigenous breeds’.
The 24-year-old award winner, who holds a B.E. in Production Engineering, ventured full time into dairy business soon after he completed his studies in 2017. “When I wanted to do business, I set sight on dairy. It was a natural choice as cattle has been at home since birth.”
He had stepped into dairy business even when he was pursuing his second year of engineering. It was in a small way, selling milk.
The Periyanaickenpalayam resident says he started with 10 cattle and now has 50, including 10 Gir cows and bulls and 40 cross-bred varieties. The cows give around 250 litres milk a day and he buys another 200 litres to sell to residents in and around the area.
When he started, there was not much opposition from parents, says Mr. Krishna. “Parents only asked me to think twice before venturing into the business. And, when I told them that I’ve made up my mind, they were very supportive.”
He says he did not undergo a course or workshop but learnt dairying on the job. “When it is driven by passion, you tend to learn it and that is how it has been for me.”
He has set up a processing plant to process milk and engages 15 to 20 people on part and full-time basis.
Under the ‘Ganga Milk’ brand, Mr. Krishna also sells curd, ghee and paneer, which he says are distributed throughout Coimbatore.
He has set up a few collection centres in and around Periyanaickenpalayam for farmers to sell their milk and plans to set up a few more in the neighbourhood as he aims to sell at least 1,000 litres milk a day by the December 2018.
The ‘National Gopal Ratna’ award has encouraged him to achieve the target and given ₹ 5 lakh, which he plans to invest for expanding the business.
His father P.R.G. Arunkumar is the Member of Legislative Assembly from Coimbatore North and an AIADMK district secretary as well.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Coimbatore / by Karthik Madhavan / Coimbatore – June 04th, 2018
P. Mohanprasath and N. Satheesh with their book Butterflies of Tamil Nadu in Chennai. | Photo Credit: K.V. Srinivasan
It is the culmination of a two-year project
Did you know that Tamil Nadu has 326 species of butterflies identified so far? And did you know that the fragile vannathu poochi (or pattaam poochi) we chased as children are important ecological indicators?
“If you find butterflies in parks or in your gardens, it means these areas are fine for living. Butterflies are very sensitive to environmental changes and will migrate if they cannot survive,” explains N. Satheesh, Conservator of Forests, Tamil Nadu Forest Plantation Corporation Limited (TAFCORN), Tiruchi.
Mr. Satheesh, along with P. Mohanprasath, who works with the NGO, Act of Butterfly, has authored a book titled Butterflies of Tamil Nadu. Volunteers with the Act of Butterfly study the activities of the pretty insects, including their annual mass migration.
The book, with colourful photographs of 316 species found in the State, was recently released in the city.
The culmination of a two-year project, the book explains the ecological role of butterflies, their life cycle, and a list of 32 butterfly ‘hotspots’ in the State. It would make a good addition to any library.
Tamil Nadu has two butterfly parks — one in Srirangam in Tiruchi, and another in the Arignar Anna Zoological Park in Vandalur near Chennai. “If you want to watch butterflies, the best time is either between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. or from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. When it’s hot, they would rather hide in the shade than flit around in the sun,” Mr. Satheesh says. The book is priced at ₹ 900.
Copies can be purchased at the Forest Department office in Saidapet after a few days.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Deepa H. Ramakrishnan / Chennai – May 29th, 2018
The two new coir clusters recently set up at Uthiyur and Puliyampatti through government and beneficiary contributions is all set to provide employment to 320 artisans and increase the turnover from the said regions by ₹10 crore this financial year.
The targeted developments in terms of revenue and employment are planned to be achieved by undertaking cluster development activities to the tune of ₹8.55 crore, which would be a combination of grants from Union government and beneficiary contributions.
Of the outlay, the government grant portion was ₹5.78 crore.
“We are aiming to increase the turnover from the Uthiyur region from the present ₹27.6 crore to ₹31.74 crore before the end of the current fiscal year through an annual production of 8,760 tonnes of matting and biodegradable coir geo textiles like soil erosion control woven blankets”, Anitha Jacob, deputy director of Coir Board, which is the nodal agency of cluster activities, told The Hindu.
Similarly, the cluster activities at Puliyampatti region would be catapulting the turnover from the present ₹34.06 crore to a projected ₹39.16 crore in the current financial year through a combination of exports as well as domestic sale of products like coir pith and coir growbag.
Common facility centres
As part of the cluster activities, common facility centres were set up at both the clusters where the artisans could collectively use provisions such as fibre extraction equipment, growbag manufacturing gadgets and pith block making facility, among others.
The numbers of units involved in the manufacturing of various coir products too were expected to go up by another 10 to 20 units in each of the clusters because of the enhanced support.
Special purpose vehicles
To streamline activities, Special Purpose Vehicles have been constituted in two clusters with the representation of beneficiaries and officials from the Coir Board and ITCOT Consultancy Services.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Coimbatore / by R. Vimal Kumar / Tirupur – May 28th, 2018
It’s a hot, uninviting terrain but it is here that the Madurai malli thrives and grows
Off the Madurai-Aruppukottai highway, a little away from the airport, a road winds through solitary palm trees. On either side is burnished landscape in various shades of brown glistening in the summer sun. Shielded within this terrain are acres and acres of fields dotted with dark green plants — the Maduraimalli. Groups of women are at work, plucking flowers and weeding, and by 10 a.m., they are done for the day.
“A good worker can make about ₹7,000 a month,” says M. Ramar, 42, who owns about 12 acres of land in the tiny village of Melaupplikundu. His wife, Lakshmi, also works with the women in the fields, and their day begins as early as 3 a.m. Armed with headlamps, they make their way to the farm to pick the plump white buds and don’t stop until it’s time for the morning rice gruel.
By 10 a.m., Ramar completes five trips to the flower market in Villapuram, carrying 20 kilos of flowers on his motorcycle. It’s about 20 km from his village to the market, and Ramar zips on the highway. Even the smallest delay can cause the buds to unfurl in the heat.
Ramar is one of the hundreds of farmers in the district that’s famous for the Madurai malli, the jasmine with a GI tag. Madurai and Dindigul together have some 2,000 hectares under cultivation.
But Madurai is only the second home of the eponymous flower. Its birthplace is actually a tiny village called Thangachimadam on Rameswaram island, some 160 km or four hours away.
****
It all began in the summer of ’50. Betel leaf armer T. Subbiah Kumar stepped out of his home in the blinding light. The cool sea breeze had long dissipated and Thangachimadam, just 3 km inland, was simmering. Farmers in this little speck of a village lived off the cultivation of betel leaves. Lost in thought, Kumar made his way to the farm. Of late, men from the island had been steadily leaving for the mainland in search of work. Betel leaf cultivation being labour intensive, Kumar was finding the going hard. He planned to visit Coimbatore Agricultural College soon, hoping to get a new high-yielding variety.
___________________________
The paper trail
In 1962, The Hindu started using an Indian Airlines special flight to transport bundles of the newspaper to the temple town of Madurai. By September the next year it had bought its own aircraft, a Heron. The then small military airport in Madurai was used to land the plane and offload the bundles. As the aircraft had to return empty, it struck someone that jasmine flowers could be loaded in it for the export market. Nagarathnam of S.N. Exports chuckles. “It was The Hindu that opened up the world market for Madurai malli.”
_____________________________
The visit did take place and it changed not just Kumar’s life but also the landscape of Thangachimadam. In the agricultural college, he saw a jasmine plant being layered and, on a whim, brought back one sapling for the women at home. Once the plant grew, instead of propagating it using the layering method, he just cut a stem and plonked it a little distance away.
In a few weeks he was stunned to see the stem sprout a lush growth of tiny new limbs. In no time, his farm was teeming with rows and rows of jasmine saplings. At this time, jasmine farmers in Madurai and its peripheries were using only the layering method to propagate the flower. It took a long time for the plant to take root in the gravelly earth with its thick under-layer of clayey soil. Though the perfume was heady, the flowers were few and enough only to supply the local market.
One day, S. Nagarathnam, a flower-seller’s son who owned a few acres of farmland in Madurai, stumbled upon the Thangachimadam saplings. He planted a few on his plot and found that not only did they take root immediately, they also flowered profusely.
According to Kumar’s son Thavasi, who now runs a nursery in Thangachimadam, this realisation was the eureka moment for the Madurai malli. As we talk, he bends down to tug at a little sapling and uproots it for me to see. There is one primary root hidden in a maze of secondary roots. The sandy terrain and loose soil help the roots penetrate deep and proliferate. Till the saplings take root, coconut fronds are woven and layered like a shamiana to protect them from the harsh sun.
Once fresh leaves spring forth, the fronds are removed and the plants bask in the heat. In three months, the saplings are uprooted, tied in bundles, and sent for replanting, some as far away as Mumbai.
But without a doubt, the jasmine is at its seductive best only in the hinterlands of Madurai. Replanted here, the hundreds of secondary roots cling to the gravelly soil while the primary root goes deep into the clayey soil. In this uninviting terrain, the Madurai malli is reborn, hiding a heady perfume within its thick petals.
****
It is in summer that jasmine thrives. Of course, the plants need plenty of water. Like other farmers, Ramar too has deepened his borewell and invested in drip irrigation. The regulated supply helps the plants, he says.
A three-acre plot is divided into three sections, with plants in one acre watered for 10 days continuously. On Day 11, the buds are ready for harvest. The plants flower continuously for the next 20 days. On Day 20, the second acre is watered and by the time the first acre stops flowering, the second begins to bloom. As Ramar says, flowering is continuous in summer; daily average yields can be 9 kg per acre. The regimentation maintains a steady supply to the market.
Summer showers can be scary though, says Ramar. If it rains two days at a stretch, the flowering is prodigious, leading to a glut in the market. From mid-December to mid-February, when mist covers the region, the plants lie dormant. An occasional bud or two may be healthy enough to fetch the farmers a good price.
****
The Madurai malli hides a heady perfume within its soft petals. | Photo Credit: G. Moorthy
Madurai malli is a capricious child, says Nagarathnam, 70, proprietor of S.N. Exports, as he lovingly scoops out a handful of blooms from a sack. It is 6.30 a.m. and the flower market at Villapuram is bustling. Farmers carrying sacks of flowers enter the market, which is located in the middle of a housing board colony and roofed with corrugated sheets.
Nagarathnam’s grandson Mahesh, an engineer who left his job in Saudi Arabia to look after the family business, sits at a table on a raised platform. Weighing the flowers brought in from various parts of Madurai, he and a few others place half a kilo each of the tight buds into plastic baskets.
In an hour, P. Mukamma, 65, arrives, carrying a little tiffin-carrier, picks up a basket, and settles down against a pillar to start stringing the buds together. She is soon joined by about 50 other women, all stringing jasmine.
In another corner, some men are busy soaking gel sheets in water. Once the little chambers in the sheets puff up, they are placed in a refrigerator. By 11.30 a.m, P. Pothiraja, 28, is at his desk, readying thermocol cartons. Some men wrap the buds, now all in strands, in thick paper sheets, while others pack them in plastic bags.
These are all brought to Pothiraja who lines the thermocol cartons with butter paper and frozen gel sheets before putting in the precious cargo. Within the next hour, the cartons are on their way to Madurai airport from where the flowers will fly to Singapore, Malaysia, Dubai, Canada and the U.S. Two tonnes of jasmine are exported every day.
N. Karthikeyan, Nagarathnam’s son, says the packaging is good enough to survive the long journey, and the buds do not bloom until the carton is opened, and sometimes not till two whole days later. But exporting is risky business, and Karthikeyan recalls the time an entire consignment to Dubai went to waste after a worm was discovered nestling in the flowers. But business is otherwise good, he says, and as long as women love flowers and people need them for pujas and weddings and parties, there will always be a market for the Madurai malli.
beulah.r@thehindu.co.in
source:http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Field Notes> Society / by Beulah Rose / May 26th, 2018
A child, along with farmers takes a look at the tradional paddy varieties on display
Trichy :
Farmers exchanged traditional paddy varieties, shared their experiences and discussed the necessity to conserve and cultivate traditional paddy varieties at the 12th National Paddy Festival which commenced in Tiruvarur district on Monday.
Addressing hundreds of farmers from across the country who are attending the two-day festival, Nabard chief general manager Padhma Raghunathan said that the bank has been encouraging not just organic cultivation but innovative ideas from farmers. The need of the hour was to take cultivation of traditional paddy varieties to neighbouring states also.
Leaders of various farmers’ bodies like Ambalavanan, R Sridhar and Ushakumari from Kerala, Durai Singam of the NGO ‘Create’, Tamil Nadu Vanigar Sangangalin Peravai president T Vellaiyan and progressive farmers from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Puducherry participated. Experts delivered lectures on organic farming, traditional varieties and preservation of soil health among other things. The participants took a pledge to preserve organic and natural farming practices, besides conserving the environment.
The festival was organised by ‘Nel’ R Jayaraman, who has revived around 170 traditional paddy varieties as part of the Save our Rice (SoR) Campaign aimed at conserving traditional varieties of paddy. Traditional paddy varieties such as Karun kuruvai, Neeladi Samba and Maappillai Samba besides herbs, agriculture equipment and traditional food varieties, green manure, guides as well as manuals for organic farming have been exhibited too. Earlier, a rally led by organic farming expert Nammalvar and followed by farmers carrying traditional agriculture equipment such as plough, spade etc was taken out.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Trichy News / TNN /May 22nd, 2018
The State Archaeology Department is in the process of classifying more than 12,000 artefacts found at Azhangakulam in Ramanathapuram district and will send them for carbon dating, an official of the department said.
The department has been undertaking excavations at Azhagankulam and the artefacts found at the site include ivory objects, copper coins, quartz, crystals, iron smelters, furnace, potsherds and terracotta plates, among others.
“These artefacts are now being classified, and will be documented, catalogued, photographed and videographed,” the official said.
“Following this, they will be sent for carbon dating,” the official added.
Last year, the department began its eighth season of excavations.
The Tamil Nadu government had sanctioned ₹55 lakh for the purpose.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Tamil Nadu / by T.K. Rohit / Chennai – May 14th, 2018
