The sanitiser plant installed for residents at New Colony in Chromepet | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
The plant is helping residents and shopkeepers in the locality get sanitisers free of cost
Social activist V. Santhanam has come forward to show the way for residents to fight COVID-19 by installing a 1,000-litre capacity sanitiser plant.
The sanitiser plant, installed in front of his house in New Colony in Chromepet is helping residents and shopkeepers in the locality to get sanitisers free of cost.
Mr. Santhanam said the use of sanitisers is being recommended by health officials to prevent COVID-19 infections. As a social cause, a sanitiser-making unit has been installed, wherein residents can come with a one-litre bottle and fill their bottles for free.
The sanitiser plant cost ₹1.50 lakh and was installed through his family owned Sri Saranagathi Seva Trust, he said. Mr. Santhanam said the sanitiser plant was installed by Noble ECo Systems in Vengaivasal. The sanitiser plant has very low operational costs, with only two units of electricity being consumed per day for running the plant and the raw material for producing sanitiser being salt, it does not cost much, Mr. Santhanam added.
The sanitiser plant was inaugurated by Pallavaram Municipal Commissioner Mathivanan on Sunday.
A large number of residents and commercial establishments including provision shops are benefiting from this in the area.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Special Correspondent / Chennai – May 11th, 2020
Over a lakh shields have been distributed. (Photo | EPS)
Chennai :
On March 22, as the nation locked itself in observing the government-ordered Janta curfew, Coimbatore-based Ebin Ephrem Elavathingal, senior manager at AIC Raise, and his team — student start-up JK Data Systems incubated in AIC Raise, supported by Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog and students of Rathinam Group of Institutions, Coimbatore — came up with an idea.
A version of face shields to protect the essential workers in the frontlines of the pandemic.
Now, three weeks later, with over one lakh shields distributed across the country, they’re not done just yet, creating a working prototype of an Intermittent Positive Pressure Breathing ventilator (IPPV).
The five-member team headed by Ebin and comprising the student start-ups by Karthik S, Gowtham Santhakumar and their team, with support of the Bio-Medical and Computer Science department of Rathinam College, are the people behind this ambitious project.
But despite their remarkable final model, you’d be surprised to find out that none of them has any prior experience with medical equipment.
“Once we started watching the global news and understanding the urgent need for ventilators in this pandemic, we immediately dropped what we were working on, and began to educate ourselves about ventilators through open source libraries and other resources,” says Ebin. Within a week, they already had their first prototype with basic features.
But keen on enhancing the model even further, the team re-engineered the design of an international open-source ventilator project to produce their second working prototype, with improved control facilities, within four days.
“We haven’t gotten an Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) license yet, but this device can monitor control of the tidal volume, breath per minute and inspiration expiration ratio adjustments. It is also enhanced with pressure, flow and oxygen monitoring systems,” he explains. With most of the country’s ICU ventilators costing over Rs 5 lakh, their simpler model comes in at just Rs 25,000, with the basic first prototype at RS 10,000.
Ready to take the next steps, Ebin assures us that they are currently at a production capacity of 100 ventilators a day.
Once they receive government approval, the team is ready to spring into action. “Our thoughts upon taking up this massive new project was to help save our nation. It’s as simple as that. I even quarantined myself at the office to ensure that we can truly build something of value,” says Ebin.
Still choosing not to rest on their laurels, the team is already brainstorming on their next project, something that could help in a post-coronavirus world. And while they’re hard at work on it, Ebin’s only plea — if you have the intellectual property to make a difference, now’s the time.
The team
The five-member team headed by Ebin and comprising student start-ups by Karthik S, Gowtham Santhakumar and their team, with support of the Bio-Medical and Computer Science department of Rathinam College, are the people behind this project.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Tamil Nadu / by Shwetha Surendran / Express News Service / April 13th, 2020
Meet good samaritans in Chennai who are working to ensure that people don’t go hungry during the lockdown imposed to fight the coronavirus.
Image for representation: PTI
HIGHLIGHTS
Chennai eatery distributes free food packets
NGO volunteers provide dry rations, health kits
‘We have to help each other out’: Eatery owner
It’s tough to find better words than Trilok Babu’s to capture spirit of good samaritans working to ease the pain of life under lockdown: “We have to help each other out.”
This owner of a Chennai eatery, Dosa Corner, is having free packets of food — rice, sambhar, rasam, buttermilk and pickle — made for anyone who needs it.
“No questions asked,” he said.
Trilok Babu underscored the importance of such charity in a situation that he said was unprecedented for him.
“In my 40 years, I’ve never seen anything like this.”
– Trilok Babu to India Today TV
All of India is under lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus, a new kind (Sars-CoV-2) that was first detected in China and causes a potentially fatal respiratory illness, Covid-19.
In Tamil Nadu, over 300 people have, or have had, the virus, according to an India Today tracker . One person has died.
Many of the infections were traced to a religious congregation held at a markaz in Delhi’s Nizamuddin, now linked to a large cluster of coronavirus cases.
DRY RATIONS AND SANITISING KITS
Sneha Mohandoss, the founder of the NGO Food Bank, is also working to make sure people don’t go hungry during the lockdown and has teamed up with the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC).
Since the corporation is asking the public to provide dry rations instead of cooked food, the Food Bank, too, is asking its volunteers — a small number, since prohibitory orders are in place — to donate accordingly.
“We are a small group of volunteers working together, as it isn’t advisable for a huge group to be out on the streets,” said Sneha Mohandoss, one of several women who took over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Twitter account on Women’s Day this year.
Kicking their way to a better future; (inset) Ajit Sigamani.
By offering a no-cost programme, mixed martial arts trainer Ajit Sigamani seeks to improve the lot of underprivileged youngsters
Ajit Sigamani equips underprivileged youngsters for the battles ahead of them. How does he do that? By helping them deliver a punch here and a kick there. Punches and kicks usually don’t enter polite conversations, and so, before you let your imagination run away with you, here is the drift of it.
Ajit is a combat sports coach and the founder of a combat training club called Combat Kinetics (CK), and he provides free training in mixed martial arts (MMA) to such youngsters so that they carve out a career in martial arts, as coaches or as competition-level fighters.
Thirty-five years old now, Ajit was initiated into combat training at age eight, when he was enrolled for a Karate programme and from there, he went on to train in boxing, sambo, judo and Indian martial arts. (Ajit is the vice-president of the Sambo Federation of India)
With such grounding in mixed martial arts, Ajit started Combat Kinetics in 2011. The training at CK, Ajit says, is mobility-based and combines many sports. “Fitness and weight-loss are an natural by products,” he adds.
“Under a programme ‘Fight For Your Future’, we take care of not just the coaching, but also the nutritional needs of the students,” he says.
Ajit says that at the end of the programme, students either choose to become coaches or participate in tournaments around the world; and many have also been selected to University programmes and even landed jobs under the sports quota, on account of their MMA background.
Syed Abdul Nazzeur (Abu), started his MMA career at a time when his family was facing a financial crisis.
“I didn’t even eat properly during that time and my coach helped me get good food, the needed nutrition, the best training and now I have risen to a level where I train police officers and they call me ‘coach’. I even acquired English and soft skills training for free.”Abu won the first International medal for India in MMA in China in 2016, and now serves as a coach at CK.
Navya Rao, a graphic designer, tattoo artist and a former coach at CK, states that training in MMA builds one’s confidence.
CK has eight centres in Chennai and expansion plans are on the cards.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Priyanka Shankar / February 14th, 2019
The police department has opened a website, wherein, the details of missing persons or unidentified bodies can be viewed and tips furnished to the police by the general public.
A submission to this effect was made by Additional Public Prosecutor A N Thambidurai before a division bench of the Madras High Court comprising Justices S Manikumar and Aruna Jagadeessan during the course of hearing a habeas corpus writ petition, to trace a missing man, last week.
Thambidurai said that the details of the website, with phone numbers, have already been published in the news papers in all districts. In respect of Chennai, necessary publication would be effected shortly, he added.
Additional Solicitor General G Rajagopalan submitted that the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development in New Delhi has already formed a national portal — Track Child — under the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS), for which guidelines too have been issued. The Ministry for Women and Child Development, New Delhi, has taken steps for effective computerised network to link Central Project Support Union (CPSU), State Child Protection Society, District Child Protection Units (DCPU), Child Care Instructions (CCIs), all police stations, Chief Welfare Committee Members (CWCs) and all Juvenile Justice Board Members (JJBs) to facilitate quick and early restoration of the missing children to their families. The website link is being made known to the public at large. Nodal Officers have been appointed to the ‘Track Child’ units in States and Union Territories.
All directions contained in the earlier order of the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court dated September 25, 2014 would be implemented by the central government, in its letter and spirit, he added.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Siva Sekaran / March 22nd, 2015
V. Chandrasekar, a key member of the Forum, is assisted by his wife Vijayalakshmi in sorting out the books meant for distribution. Photo: B. Jothi Ramalingam / The Hindu
In a role reversal, a few seniors in Besant Nagar are caring for youngsters.
We tend to picture senior citizens as helpless and leaning heavily on others. And therefore, we are surprised when we see them serve people considerably younger than themselves.
And I should admit I was more than surprised to discover such a group of seniors in Besant Nagar.
Senior Citizens Group of Besant Nagar, founded in 2012, collects and distributes books to college students. Chandrasekhar, honorary president of the forum, says, “We sent a press release about our initiative to neighbourhood tabloids and made a few calls — that’s all it took to get started. Many came forward to donate their books. Many students from families with low incomes came to receive these free books.”
Around 2,000 books on various subjects were collected in a week. Each student was allowed to take a single book.
Similarly, during the last monsoon, we collected and distributed blankets to pavement dwellers in Besant Nagar. “It is not possible to go far away and distribute the blankets. So we restricted ourselves to Besant Nagar. Seven young volunteers helped us in the distribution of blankets, ,” says Chandrasekhar
“Most of the forum members are pensioners and we set aside a part of our pension for this work,” says Chandrasekhar.
This Forum for seniors encourages similar initiatives in other neighbourhoods. Chandrasekhar says, “Someone from Tambaram called to say he wanted to donate the books of his children. I asked him to distribute the books to deserving students in Tambaram. The idea is to serve the poor wherever they are found. Our forum is not registered and does not have a bank account. We accept assistance only in kind.”
The Forum’s next plan is to collect and distribute walking sticks.
“It also has plans to offer training in spoken English, group discussion and attending interviews for students from economically weak sections. Also, career counselling sessions will be organised,” he adds.
The sessions will be conducted by V. Chandrasekhar, an MBA from XLRI Jamshedpur and a retired professor from Anna University and his wife C. Vijayalakshmi, an English teacher. V. Chandrasekhar is now a visiting professor at Anna University.
Those keen on assisting the forum may call V. Chandrasekhar at 9884224480 or write to profvc@gmail.com
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> Downtown / by L. Kanthimathi / Chennai – January 31st, 2015
R. Vetrivel and his wife Killiammal first noticed there was something wrong with their eight-year-old son when he felt dizzy at school.
The couple, from Tiruppattur in Vellore district, took him to several government hospitals, before being referred to the neurosurgery department at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital.
There, doctors found the young boy had a rare condition — a paediatric brain aneurysm — a condition in which a portion of the artery which supplies blood to the brain bulges and becomes weak. If the aneurysm ruptures, it releases blood into the skull, causing a stroke.
“We performed a microsurgery on the child, delved deep into the brain, found the artery and clipped the protuberant portion, so that it does not pose a risk. This was only possible as we have recently bought two state-of-the-art microscopes costing Rs. 1 crore each. We also bought three aneurysm clips, each costing Rs. 20,000. The surgery was performed free, and it was only possible as we had funds from the Chief Minister’s comprehensive health insurance scheme,” said Ranganathan Jothi, head of the neurosurgery department.
This is just one of the many complex procedures the department can now perform thanks to high-tech equipment, Dr. Jothi said, speaking at a press meet recently. “Now we perform three of four such surgeries every month,” he said.
For 72-year-old Michael Raj, a surgery has changed his life. The retired driver suffered from uncontrolled twitching in the face accompanied by shooting pain. He had tried all kinds of medication but nothing had relieved him. “It was so bad that I couldn’t even brush my teeth,” he said. After a private hospital told him the surgery would cost Rs. 2 lakh, Mr. Raj came to GH.
“An MRI scan revealed that a blood vessel was compressing a nerve. We performed a surgery to separate the nerve and the blood vessel, and now, even six months later, he is fine,” Dr. Jothi said.
Two other complex surgeries were also performed recently on patients with problems in their vertebrae. “Since the screws, plates and rods required are patented products, they are all very expensive. But we were able to acquire them,” he said.
All the patients are reportedly doing well.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Staff Reporter / Chennai – December 19th, 2014
Due to changes in lifestyle, the country chicken ‘naatu kozhi’, once a common sight, has largely vanished from the homes in the state.
It has been replaced by the juicier, cheaper and more easily available broiler chicken. However, country chicken varieties are slowly making a comeback in the district, thanks to the efforts of the department of animal husbandry.
Under a scheme to boost country chicken breeding, the department is providing individuals and women self-help groups (SHGs) money and other incentives.
It enables eligible applicants to get Rs 1,29,500 for every unit of native chicken breeding. One unit consists of 750 chickens, which will be given in three dues of 250 each.
Half the money would be provided by banks, which has to be repaid later. The state government and the national bank for agriculture and rural development (NABARD) will provide 25% each of the total cost.
The beneficiaries have to set up a shed and lights to create an atmosphere conducive for chicken breeding. For 2014-15, 160 people are receiving the units, worth Rs 2,07,20,000.
The number of beneficiaries in 2013-14 and 2012-13 were 240 and 35 respectively, with a total cost of Rs 2,80,80,00 in 2013-14 and Rs 40,95,000 in 2012-13.
Unlike broiler chicken, which has been said to create health problems in the long run, country chicken is bred in natural circumstances. Under the scheme, the chickens are fed with greens for healthy rearing. It takes around 75 days for a chicken to attain its full growth of 1.5 kg. Each kilogram of country chicken costs around Rs 300.
District collector Jayashree Muralidharan said that the scheme had benefitted a lot of women and it gave an impetus to rear country chicken.
Dr R Mohanarangam, joint director, department of animal husbandry, said that immunization drops were provided to the country chickens to protect them from diseases.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Trichy / December 09th, 2014
Noble gesture: The shed set up by Gayathri Trust near Chromepet bus station. / Photo: G. Krishnaswamy / The Hindu
Many an organisation in the city provides free water and buttermilk to the thirsty during summer. Here is an organisation which does this service a bit differently: they provide an unlimited supply of free butter milk. At 11 a.m. every day, people throng the stall put up Sree Gayathri Trust, Chromepet, to give way the buttermilk.
“It’s our way of helping people get through summer. Buttermilk, apart from quenching thirst, is also good for health,” says G. Raghavan, founder, Sree Gayathri Trust.
The stall was set up on Monday (April 21) in memory of professor S. Narasimhan of Madras Institute of Technology, Chromepet.
“The stall will be around till the end of May. Every day, around 300 litres of buttermilk will be served free, and I ensure that quality and hygienic buttermilk is served,” says Raghavan. The buttermilk is laced with curry leaves, coriander, salt and asafoetida. The Metropolitan Transport Corporation bus drivers halt their vehicles to have buttermilk in bottles. Daily around 600 people visit the stall, which is open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
“Sweating, tiredness, muscle cramps, nausea and headaches would reduce significantly if buttermilk is consumed. Very soon, I am going to distribute free curd rice packets for people to beat the summer,” he says.
B. Raja, an autorickshaw driver, and a resident of Pallavaram says, “This buttermilk served here is tasty. Whenever I drive through this area, I make it a point to stop at the stall.”
People from Pallavaram, Tambaram and Tambaram Sanatorium are also regular to the stall. Those who want to contribute towards this work, can contact G. Raghavan at 044 22654777 or at 9444022033.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> Downtown / by T. S. Atul Swaminathan / Chennai – May 01st, 2014
A team of 300-odd youngsters will soon be seen on the streets of Tamil Nadu with their laptops.
They are volunteers from Indian Linux Users Group (ILUG). who have embarked on a major mission to install Linux open source operating system to computers whose users love to get away from Windows.
T. Shrinivasan, an active member of ILUG, said every year several lakhs of people buy desktop computers and laptops loaded with Windows ( Microsoft’s proprietary operating system) for a hefty rate.
“When one can get more facilities with added security in Linux free of cost why should we invest more for a proprietary software?” Shrinivasan asked.
Explaining the objective of the Linux Install Fest, which will take place between August 1 and 31, Shrinivasan said they liked to help the Linux community grow larger in size.
“We have volunteers across the state who will go to houses/educational institutions to install Linux free of cost and we will also help them whenever they have any issues with Linux”, he added.
P. Raman, another Linux enthusiast and ILUG member, lamented that even though Tamil Nadu government installed Linux in its free laptops students had not used it.
“Students don’t have awareness about Linux, which made us think of install fest. We want youngsters to join the Linux revolution across the state”, he said.
Those interested either to volunteer the group or get Linux loaded onto their computer can browse: www. ilugc.in.
source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> News> Current Affairs / by DC / N. Arun Kumr / August 01st, 2013
Received a Bright Smile as soon as I gave her the meal box 
