In a first in the country, a 72-year-old active racer has won an award for completing 50 years in motorsports. Stepping into the 51st year of career, D Vidyaprakash is not ready to give up the sport anytime soon. He is gearing up for another round of racing competition, with eight races lined up for the championship this year in the saloon cars category.
Recently, Federation of Motor sports clubs of India (FMSCI) had felicitated him with an award. “It is a big honour for me. And receiving it from Jean Todt, who was the manager for the Ferrari team when Michael Schumacher won five times world championship, made it more special,” Vidyaprakash said. Jean Todt is also the president of the Federation Internationale de Automobile (FIA).
Ask Vidyaprakash what keeps him going and pat comes the answer – Racing. “Since my childhood, I loved to fiddle with parts of any machine and always worked to make it better. The same passion drew me to racing in which every year I wanted to come up with a better and faster car. The satisfaction that I get from racing cannot be matched with anything. My teammates, family and competitors are also a source of inspiration,” he said.
In 1980s, Vidyaprakash had almost retired from racing. “In 1990s, Karivarthan created a car and wanted me to test it on the track. He also gifted me the car and asked me to use it for the next race. There has been no looking back since then,” Vidyaprakash said.
Aware of his limitations that have come with the ageing, he said, “I know my reflexes are slower and eye sight is becoming weaker. I know where to draw the line and am careful at the racing tracks,” said Vidyaprakash. “I will continue to race until I feel I can,” he added.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Coimbatore News / TNN / February 13th, 2017
The Burn foot lake of Udhagamandalam in 1860 – from a collection of photographs of A.T.W. Penn.
Christopher Penn, the great grandson of ATW Penn, one of the first photographers who documented the Nilgiris and Southern India, visited the Nilgiris on Saturday and made a presentation at the Nilgiri Library of his great-grandfather’s photographs.
Mr. Penn, who stumbled upon his gilded ancestry by sheer coincidence in 2000, has been visiting the Nilgiris over the last decade.
Mr. Penn made a pictorial chronicle of the early Nilgiris, by reading from his book and also based on research done on the pictures.
Mr. Penn exhibited photographs of the Ooty Boat House, Willow Bund, a view from St. Stephen’s Church, Tiger Hill and many more.
Reading from his book, Mr. Penn, who is 79-years-old, and believes that this could be his final visit to the Nilgiris, described the funeral rites of the Todas, emphasising the importance of the Toda buffalo to the local culture.
The author said that the buffalo would be sacrificed with a single blow, and placed in the grave of the fallen man in such a way that the head of the deceased would touch the buffaloes’ and the hand would be in contact with the animal’s horn. Geetha Sreenivasan, president of the Nilgiri Library, welcomed Mr. Penn.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Coimbatore / by Staff Reporter / Udhagamandalam – February 09th, 2017
Veteran agriculture scientist M S Swaminathan has been presented with the Canadian governor general’s medallion in recognition of his contribution to “improved agricultural practices and rural development in India and abroad.”
Consulate general of Canada in Bengaluru Jennifer Daubeny handed over the medallion on behalf of H E David Johnston, governor general of Canada, at a meeting held at the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) in Chennai on Monday.
Daubeny presented the medallion and citation that placed on record the “profound impact” of research being conducted at the MSSRF.
Daubeny said she was glad of the partnership between and various agencies of the government of Canada and the impact it had on rural development.
Speaking at the event, M S Swaminathan said, “Only collaboration can solve many problems.”
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Chennai News / TNN / February 08th, 2017
S. Nandagopal (left), son of K.C.S. Paniker, describes a painting to German Consul General Achim Fabig and N. Ram, Chairman, Kasturi and Sons Ltd. | Photo Credit: K_Pichumani
“Artist K.C.S. Paniker created a landscape that combined elements of language and symbolism with colour and shape to construct a painting of a larger nature,” Consul General of the Consulate General of Germany Achim Fabig said.
He launched a book ‘Paniker’ that was compiled by Mr. Paniker’s son S. Nandagopal comprising his paintings, at Artworld Sarala’s Art Centre. Mr. Fabig said the legendary artist who founded the Cholamandel Artists Village had managed to transcend the presumed limitations of Indian artists. “His work is of larger importance, not just to India, but to the world of art as such,” he added. N. Ram, chairman, Kasturi and Sons Limited, said Mr. Paniker was a fine artist who had contributed a great deal to the Madras Art Movement. “The book has been beautifully produced and has very carefully selected text. Mr. Paniker had astonishing energy and integrity that made him do things without expecting success. He did what he believed in and did it exceedingly well,” he added.
He noted Mr. Paniker’s assessment of his work ‘Why do I paint?’ gave an interesting psychological insight about himself. “This shows how open he was,” he added.
The exhibition of prints on canvas will be on till February 10 at the art centre. For details, contact: 24338691
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / Staff Reporter / Chennai – February 02nd, 2017
Members of the Min family bursting crackers to signal the arrival of New Year. | Photo Credit: R. Vimal Kumar
For the Min family, the only Chinese- Indians based in Tirupur who now lives very much as Indians, the dawn of Chinese New year is still been seen as the moment that provides an opportunity to reminiscence their roots.
The Chinese New year celebrations each time bring fond memories to the family members, spread over three generations, about the traditional rituals followed in China since otherwise the Min family did not celebrate any other Chinese festival.
The Chinese New Year falls on the ‘New Moon’ between January 21and February 20 of the English calendar year and the festivities usually last for a fortnight with each day marked for different types of rituals.
Thus, the Chinese New Year this year began on January 28.
The Min family this time welcomed the dawn of New Year with the bursting of crackers wearing new dresses.Special prayers were performed as per the Chinese tradition with Wenchaswi Min (69), the senior most member in the family, leading the ceremony. Then they distributed sweets to the neighbours and friends.
“Speciality of the feast is that there would only be even numbers of dish. This time, there has been 10 dishes with six being Chinese specialities like Chinese dragon chicken, dried mushroom soup and egg sandwiches as prepared in China”, said Sebastian Leo Shaou Kang Min, another member.
The Min family fled China to India in 1930s following the effect of China-Japan war on that country’s economy.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Coimbatore / by R. Vimal Kumar / Tirupur – January 30th, 2017
Meet 22-year old nursing student W. Durgadevi of Peranampet in Vellore district, the recipient of the prestigious Anna Medal for Gallantry, 2017, presented by Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam at an impressive Republic Day celebrations here on Thursday.
The award was in appreciation of her “timely, brave and noble act” of rescuing her classmate from drowning, as a wooden make-shift bridge over Cooum river connecting the Island Grounds in Chennai gave away in the early hours of June 5 last year.
“We were casually standing on the bridge, and suddenly, the wooden surface under our feet was going down. It was dark and we heard screams everywhere. That was when I saw my classmate G. Nandhini drowning and crying for help and I rescued her,” recalls Ms. Durgadevi.
But does Ms. Durgadevi know swimming? “No!,” she chuckles. “I don’t know how to swim but I saw many were trying to step over Nandhini and find their way to safety. I don’t know how and why, but I wanted to save her, who was crying for help,” she recalls.
Both of them were classmates doing B.Sc. Nursing at a college here and were at the Island Grounds on that day to take part in a marathon, which was organised to create awareness for breast cancer.
While her former classmate is now working as a nurse in a private hospital, Ms. Durgadevi is pursuing Post Basic Diploma in Critical Care Nursing as well as working part-time as a nurse.
“My father is my role model. I’m quite happy that he is proud of my endeavour and this award,” she says with a smile. She has four siblings, including an elder sister. Her mother is a home-maker in her native Peranampet.
The aspiring nurse says though she is proud of this award, it would in no way alter her course towards her primary goal of becoming the best nurse, who would always be available for help and care.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Special Correspondent / Chennai – January 27th, 2017
Susan Tuller, Deputy Consular General, Consulate General of United States, in Chennai, presenting the title to Bharatanatyam exponent Malavika Sarukkai at The Music Academy’s 11th dance festival. Academy president N. Murali is in the picture.
The Music Academy’s 11th dance festival inaugurated
Renowned Bharatanatyam dancer and guru Malavika Sarukkai was on Tuesday conferred the title of ‘Natya Kala Acharya’ at the inauguration of The Music Academy’s 11th dance festival here.
Susan Tuller, Deputy Consular General, Consulate General of United States of America in Chennai, who presented the title, said this was her first Margazhi season and that she was awed by the scores of ‘sabhas’ in the city that have thousands of concerts. She congratulated Ms. Sarukkai on winning the title. The US Consulate here enjoyed bringing together South Indian and American artistes, she added.
Academy president N. Murali said Ms. Sarukkai was a wonderful exponent of Bharatanatyam. “Excellence and holistic approach to art are her hallmarks and she is never afraid to explore and innovate. To her, innovation is only an organic growth from within,” Mr. Murali said. The 2017 edition of the dance festival will feature 26 performances over seven days comprising a variety of dance genres, including Bharatanatyam, Odissi, Kathak, Kuchipudi and Mohiniattam, he said.
In her acceptance speech, Ms. Sarukkai said it was an honour to be recognised by the Music Academy which has played a pivotal role in the resurgence of Bharatanatyam from the 1930s. She acknowledged with gratitude her gurus and her mother Saroja Kamakshi, who anchored her dance journey.
“Classical dance is a gift — both precious and vulnerable — that must be nurtured and supported for it represents the heritage of India and requires a conducive ecosystem to survive and flourish,” she said . The responsibility to do this lay with sponsors, philanthropists, organisers, artistes, media, dance enthusiasts.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Special Correspondent / Chennai – January 04th, 2017
Avula Anik Kumar and others from IIT Madras showed that adsrobed arsenic leached from the saturated filter was one-tenth that of the background level. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Exhaustive research carried out by a team of researchers led by Prof. T. Pradeep from the Department of Chemistry at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, spread over four years, has put to rest the scepticism about the merits of the arsenic water filter developed by them. The water filter has been in operation for three and half years in about 900 sites in India, serving close to 400,000 people.
Arsenic in drinking water is the largest natural mass poisoning in the history of humanity, affecting 13 crore people globally. The problem of arsenic in the environment, known for over 1,002 years, has not been solved satisfactorily, due to the non-availability of appropriate and affordable materials. Arsenic is a slow poison, causing numerous adverse health effects, including cancer and genetic anomalies.
The technology developed at IIT makes use of confined metastable 2-line iron oxyhydroxides and its large adsorption capacity to remove arsenic in two different dissolved forms (arsenate and arsenite). The filter was able to reduce the arsenic concentration in the water from 200 ppb (parts per billion) to well below the WHO limit of 10 ppb. The results were published recently in the journal Advanced Materials.
“The arsenic removal capacity of the material filter was found to be 1.4 to 7.6 times better than all the other available materials,” says Prof. Pradeep. “The superior arsenic uptake capacity is due to its inherent structure. Nanostructured iron oxyhydroxide makes many sites available for arsenic uptake. The ions of arsenic adsorb on the nanoparticles at specific atomic positions. No nanoparticles are released into the purified water due to the biopolymer cages in which they are contained.”
The team mimicked the average arsenic concentration seen in West Bengal — 200 ppb of arsenic — for carrying out several laboratory studies. Though studies were carried out at a pH of 7.8, the team found the adsorption capacity of the filter was not compromised in the pH range 4 to 10. “The pH of drinking water is in the range of 6.5 to 8.5. But we tested the filter in a wide range of pH so it can be used for other purposes as well,” says Prof. Pradeep.
“A filter composed of 60 grams of the material can be used safely for removing arsenic from 1150 litres of water and till such time the concentration of arsenic in the filtered water does not cross the WHO limit of 10 ppb,” he says. Once the filter has reached its saturation limit it has to be reactivated or recharged with new material.
Reactivation is done by soaking the material in sodium sulphate solution for an hour at room temperature. It is further incubated for about four hours after reducing the pH to 4. “Using this reactivation protocol we reused the same filter seven times,” he says.
Studies were carried out to test if the adsorbed arsenic leached from the filter. The team found that the amount of arsenic that got leached was 1 ppb in the case of arsenite and 2 ppb for arsenate. “Soil in the affected regions also contains arsenic, typically around 12 ppb of arsenic, which is the background concentration. The amount of arsenic leached from the saturated filter was far less than the background concentration,” Prof. Pradeep says. Leaching of arsenic from disposed filters was one of the biggest criticisms by a few researchers who had worked on arsenic filters. Arsenic, being an element, cannot be degraded further to simpler species.
Since the arsenic filter developed by the team has so far been in use at a community level, studies were carried out to test its performance as a domestic water filter. A domestic three-stage filter was developed to remove particulate matter, iron and arsenic. Input water containing 200 ppb of arsenic and 4 ppm (parts per million) of Fe(III) was passed through the filter for a total volume of 6,000 litres (translating to 15 litres of water per day for one year). “The output was below the WHO limit for both arsenic and iron throughout the experiment,” he says.
“For a family of five, arsenic-free drinking water can be produced at $2 per year,” he adds.
In the course of the development of this technology, he and his former students incubated a company, InnoNano Research Pvt. Ltd. at IIT Madras. In July this year, the company received venture funding to the tune of $18 million. “With this research, a home grown technology appears to be all set for global deployment. Knowledge is no more a limiting factor for solving the arsenic menace,” he said.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Sci-Tech> Science / R. Prasad / December 19th, 2016
It will take some time for cashless transactions to be popular as 70% of the Indian population is below the poverty line and they have to be brought into the system, said TR Dinakaran, chairman of the Ramalinga Mills . He was speaking at the diamond jubilee celebrations of the Madura Yarn Merchants’ Association here on Sunday.
“Farmers and other people, who are below the poverty line, should be educated and made aware of the methods of cashless transactions to make the demonetisation drive successful,” he said.
The meeting resolved that GST should be implemented at the earliest as it would help the textile industry. Uniform taxes at the lower slabs should be applicable to all units of the textile industry, including yarn and readymade garments.
Senior president of the Tamil Nadu Chamber of Commerce and Industry S Rethinavelu presided over the event. President of the Madura Yarn Merchants Association N Palaniappan, secretary R Kishankumar Goyenka and KG Devadoss among others spoke.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Madurai News / TNN / December 19th, 2016
J Daniel Chellappa, senior scientist at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre’s (BARC) technical coordination wing, Chennai, has won the PRSI national award for the best communications campaign for 2016.
Chellappa, a gold medallist from University of Madras, was associated with IIT Madras for his PG project and joined the scientific community of Department of Atomic Energy, Kalpakkam in 1984. He has carried out research in high temperature fuel behaviour as part of the indigenous development of the Uranium – Plutonium Mixed Carbide Nuclear Fuel for the Fast Breeder Test Reactor.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / New> City News> Chennai News / TNN / December 18th, 2016
