Category Archives: Science & Technologies

6 doctors honoured for distinguished service to society

Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Records, All, Science & Technologies

Chennai :

The Tamil Nadu Medical Council awarded six of the most deserving doctors across the State on the occasion of Doctors Day in the city on Friday.

Governor K. Rosaiah graced the occasion and also gave away the awards who were selected after two months of detailed selection procedure.

One of the oldest doctors to receive the award was 80-year old Lakshminarayanan Janardhanan Poti, a pediatrician from Tiruchy. During the photo session at the end of the event, Poti seemed to have had the most number of supporters in the audience as his large family from babies to the elderly came onto the stage for a picture.

The other awardees were well known laparoscopic surgeon Ramesh Ardhanari from Madurai and M.A Mohamed Thamby, a pediatrician from Tirunelveli, who  was awarded for his teaching. V. Alamelu from Chennai was awarded for her work in taluk hospitals. A. Nagarajan, a surgeon from Nagercoil and C.S Palani from Vellore were also awarded for rural services.

Speaking at the event, J. A Jayalal, vice-president of the TNMC and K. Senthil, president of the TNMC, stressed the need for the State government to give these  awards, and not just the TNMC. Jayalal said that this year they had received 67 applicants, who had to fulfil various criteria to be eligible for the award like teaching, rural service, among others.

This award ceremony is usually held at the Raj Bhavan but was held at the TNMC office this year as renovation work was happening at the Raj Bhavan.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Express News Service / July 02nd, 2016

HIDDEN HISTORIES – The Raja who became Chief Minister

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Historical Links, Pre-Independence, Leaders, Records, All, Science & Technologies
The Raja of Panagal / Photo: Special Arrangement
The Raja of Panagal / Photo: Special Arrangement

The statue of the Raja of Panagal (actually Paanagal) stands inside the park in T. Nagar that is named after him. It is usually the starting point for my T. Nagar Heritage Walk. It was during one of these that I happened to meet MVS Appa Rao, one of the great grandsons of the Raja. And it was through him that I came to know that July 9 this year will mark the 150th birth anniversary of the king who became Chief Minister.

Panaganti Ramarayaningar was born into an aristocratic family of Kalahasti. A polyglot, he completed his matriculation from the Hindu High School, Triplicane, in 1886. He then did his BA at the Presidency College, Madras, and obtained his MA from the University of Madras in 1899. In between, he also acquired a BL degree from the Law College, Madras.

His life of public service began with his being selected as Member, North Arcot District Board. In 1912, he became a member of the Imperial Legislative Council in Delhi, where his debating skills and intellect came to the notice of the Viceroy, Lord Hardinge of Penshurst. In 1918, he was awarded the title of Dewan Bahadur. He was also made a member of the Imperial War Council the same year.

Back in Madras meanwhile, the non-Brahmin movement had gained momentum, with the formation of the Justice Party. Ramarayaningar joined it and was soon recognised as one of its leading lights. He was sent to England to depose before a Parliamentary Committee on the condition of the non-Brahmins in South India. In 1920, Madras Presidency saw its first democratic Government, albeit on a limited franchise. The First Minister, equivalent to today’s Chief Minister, was A. Subbarayalu Reddiar, who stepped down six months later, citing ill health.

Ramarayaningar succeeded him. His Government was returned to office in 1923, with a comfortable majority. He was given the honorific of the Raja of Panagal the same year. However, the Justice Party lost in 1926 and the Raja became the leader of the Opposition. He was knighted that year.

The Panagal administration was known for some far-reaching reforms. Reservation in Government jobs was brought in, thereby putting Madras on the route to inclusivity. The administration of temples and mutts came under a newly-formed Hindu Religious Endowments Board. A School for Indian Medicine was set up, the Raja giving his property, Hyde Park Gardens, Kilpauk, for it. The Kilpauk Medical College is now in that campus. Work also began on the laying out of Thyagaraya Nagar as a residential area.

Panagal passed away on December 16, 1928, at Madras. His statue in the park, by M.S. Nagappa, used to be relegated to a corner till a decade back, with a mutilated bust of King George V occupying centre stage. Happily, the bust has since been removed and the Raja placed in a prominent position. Unfortunately, whoever did that also gave the wonderful bronze a coat of gilt.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Metroplus> Society / by Sriram V / Chennai – July 01st, 2016

101 bots by school kids to set a world record on Sunday

Records, All, Science & Technologies

Chennai  :

You don’t need to wait for the next installment of Transformers to go crazy over robots. Just head over to Elliot’s Beach this Sunday. Attempting to set a world record, 101 robots will be assembled from scratch by school-goers from the city in, get this, one hour!

Planned to be driven across the beach, these creations have taken over a year of after-school hours and weekends to bring to life, say the organisers at Kidobotikz, a robotics training institute for youngsters.

And each has been designed with a unique purpose by its young maker, think everything from surveillance to race bots, that will be hitting the sand this weekend. “The kids spent the last couple of months actually modifying their robots to make sure they were all-terrain friendly once we decided that the venue for the event was going to be the beach,” says a proud Sneha Priya, one of the founders of Kidobotikz.

SnehaPriyaCF02jul2016

“That means they run on sand, gravel, marble, cement and a tar road,” she beams. Sneha and friend S Pranavan, who both studied robotics at Anna University set up this institute at KK Nagar three years ago, when they thought ‘’why not take this knowledge to kids at the school level itself?’ And evidently mission accomplished despite their course being open to students aged 12 to 17, the youngest robot maker to be showcasing is ‘wireless’ bot on the beach will be seven!

While seven-year-old Raghu Ram is just getting started, 16-year-old Chitresh Tiwari has gone so far as to be part of the only group of school students to win a competition at IIT! He recalls, “I remember it all started because I would enjoy opening the gadgets to see how they worked, like the remote controlled car my parents bought for me when I was 11.”

If you think this may be a distraction to academics, Sneha says that robotics classes actually do quite the opposite. “Robotics is a mix of mechanics, electronics, programming and algorithms. So starting early helps school students understand what they are good at and what to concentrate later,” she explains.

A team from ASSIST World Records Research Foundation (AWRRF) will be present to witness the feat and declare the world record. The event at Elliot’s Beach is expected to kick off at 6 am and go on till 8 am. (To know more, contact Kidobotikz at 90031 45154)

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express/ Home> Cities> Chennai / by Express News Service / July 02nd, 2016

Record cadaver transplants in State

Records, All, Science & Technologies

June marked a record in cadaver transplants in Tamil Nadu with a total of 21 donations, said Health Minister C. Vijaya Baskar.

Mr. Baskar was speaking at a two-day national-level meeting of all Regional as well as State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisations under the National Organ Transplant Programme being held in the city.

“We are also planning to increase facilities for transplants in major medical college hospitals in the State. Our priority is to ensure the poorest of the poor can access transplants,” Mr. Baskar said.

He added that a total of 4,584 organs from 820 donors have been donated in the State so far.

Sudhir Gupta, additional deputy director general of health services said that the demand for organs continued to remain high because of non-communicable diseases.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Special Correspondent / Chennai – June 30th, 2016

ViaSat opens new R&D centre in Chennai

Business & Economy, Science & Technologies, World Opinion

Chennai  :

California-based broadband services and technology company VisSat  has set up a R&D centre here – its second facility outside the US – to tap the high-speed Internet connectivity potential in the region.

The research and development (R&D) centre, which now has about 40 people, would scale it up to 250 over the next three years, ViaSat India’s Vice President Sathya Narayanaswamy said.

“There are about 40 employees. It will grow to 250 over the next three years. There is a huge growth market. There are about 13 crore Internet connections in India. It is nearly 10 per cent of the (total) population,” he told reporters.

Listed on Nasdaq, a US stock exchange, the company currently serves seven lakh customers in North America and Canada through the ViaSat-1 highest capacity satellite launched in 2012.

The Chennai facility would be the global research and development centre and its second after the United Kingdom facility outside US.

“Our first facility outside United States is in United Kingdom. So this will be second largest R&D Centre for us”, ViaSat Commercial Networks, Senior Vice-President, Kevin J Harkenrider said.

The company, however, declined to reveal the amount of the investments made at this centre.

He said the company planned to launch ViaSat-2 satellite broadband platform in 2017 that would more than double the bandwidth and increase coverage seven-fold over the prior generation.

“Now, we are planning to launch our second satellite ViaSat-1 by early 2017. It will be built by Boeing and will be launched from Ariane, French Guyana. That launch will help to us to cover across North America and across United Kingdom, Middle East and Africa”, he said.

In 2019, ViaSat will launch first of three ViaSat-3 class satellite platforms that would offer 1,000 Gbps of network capacity, making each satellite equal to the total capacity of all commercial satellites in space.

The third satellite system was planned to cover Asia Pacific region completing the company’s global coverage.

The company was in talks with the Ministry of Communications and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to launch their service in India, Harkenrider added.

VIJ APR ADI ABI

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Chennai / PTI / June 30th, 2016

Recognising the voice as the future

Business & Economy, Records, All, Science & Technologies, World Opinion
Umesh Sachdev, CEO, Uniphore Software Systems.- Photo : Bijoy Ghosh
Umesh Sachdev, CEO, Uniphore Software Systems.- Photo : Bijoy Ghosh

Uniphore’s CEO says software built around speech will change the face of technology

: It was in 2007 that Umesh Sachdev struck upon the idea that took over his life.

“If voice could be used to communicate with machines, we would solve massive problems. That’s when we started building speech recognition and artificial intelligence based software products, which have today become Uniphore,” said Mr. Sachdev, Uniphore’s co-founder and CEO who recently made it to Time Magazine ’s 2016 list of 10 millennials changing the world.

After Mr. Sachdev and his co-founder Ravi Saraogi completed Computer Science engineering, they got onto the entrepreneurial stride and conceptualised the speech recognition software.

The idea was to reach millions of users who were not part of digital revolution due to illiteracy or language constraints.

“We wanted to use technology which allows people to interact with devices such as mobile phones in their vernacular languages and connect to the internet to access information and carry out transactions. That was the motivation to develop vernacular language speech recognition and voice biometrics,” said Mr. Sachdev, who started the venture at the IIT Research Park in Chennai.

Citing an example, the 30-year-old Sachdev said, “Imagine a housewife in a village who wishes to recharge her cable TV (DTH). Today, she is able to do so by dialling a number and saying her command in one of 14 Indian languages and the transaction is fulfilled.

In near future, these applications will be smarter. It will remind her that her daughter’s school fee is due and that she should also transfer it along with the TV bill.”

Empowering people

Having pioneered Indian and Asian vernacular languages, Uniphore is now investing in ‘natural language’ and ‘artificial intelligence’ capabilities.

“The impact of this, we believe, would empower people in various ways in the coming years,” Mr. Sachdev said.

The startup firm has added over 70 global languages and expanded to South East Asia, the Middle-East and the US.

Till date, the startup has received investment from a series of investors, including IDG Ventures India; India Angel Network; Ray Stata, the co-founder and Chairman of the Board of Analog Devices; and YourNest Angel Fund.

It also received seed investment from IIT Madras’ Rural Technology and Business Incubator; Villgro Innovations Foundation; and the National Research Development Corporation.

Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan has also invested an undisclosed amount in the firm.

Having pioneered Indian and Asian vernacular languages, Uniphore is investing in ‘natural language’

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Sangeetha Kandavel / Chennai – June 27th, 2016

Victorian men who ended India’s water woes

Green Initiatives/ Environment, Historical Links, Pre-Independence, Records, All, Science & Technologies, World Opinion

BookEpicEnggCF24jun2016

A book follows the lives and achievements of two engineering geniuses who changed the face of irrigation in India in the 19th century.

There is a thin but bright skein that runs through, and indeed often gets obscured by, the darker history of colonial rule in India. This thread represents the work of the small but extraordinary group of colonial innovators who pushed the boundaries in a diverse range of fields — from engineering to archaeology, from botany to triangulation and mapping.

A recent book by Alan Robertson, Epic Engineering: Great Canals and Barrages of Victorian India follows the lives and achievements of Arthur Cotton (1803-1899) and Proby Cautley (1802-1871), two engineering geniuses who changed the face of irrigation in India in the 19th century. Cautley designed and built the 700-mile Ganges Canal, and Cotton harnessed for irrigation the flow of two of the great river deltas of South India – the Cauvery and Godavari.

Though contemporaries in India, and equally qualified, the two men could not have been more different in their approach to engineering problems. The book deals in some depth with the bitter public battle in England when they returned after their India postings, over the efficacy of their respective engineering designs in India.

According to Robertson, Cautley was recognised and honoured by his Victorian contemporaries, although it is Cotton who is remembered over a century and a half later in the Indian mind — celebrated as he is in writing, popular lore and public statuary in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. In the 1930’s Cotton built the Upper and Lower Anicut to regulate and divert for irrigation the flow of water in the Cauvery and Coleroon (Kollidam) rivers. He then turned his attention to the Godavari delta, where in the 1930s the destruction of the weaving industry was exacerbated by a famine that together resulted in the death of one in four persons. The Godavari’s flow in monsoon was three times greater than the Nile in flood, Robertson writes, therefore greater the challenge. The many ingenious solutions Cotton devised to practical problems as they cropped up during the construction of the four-mile long Godavari anicut provides a flavour of the unconventional genius and the times.

In the same decades Cautely was making progress, though with some embarrassing reversals, on the Ganges canal. Later, in the adjudication of the dispute between Cautely and Cotton — who argued that the location of the headworks of the canal was wrong — a government committee sided with Cautely. However, “within a few years Cotton’s main criticism was quietly acted upon…” Robertson writes.

Historical archives and private collections in Britain still hold many stories on India including those that are already known but are waiting to be enriched with new information. Interestingly, the author of this enriched biography, Alan Robertson, was a nuclear physicist with an abiding interest in history. This led him to a post-retirement MA degree at King’s College on the mid-19th century indigo industry in India and on to the fascinating lives of the two Victorian water engineers.

Unfortunately, Robertson died before his book was published. Finding no publishers ready to accept the manuscript, it was eventually published privately by Catherine Hamilton, Robertson’s sister. Jeremy Berkoff, an irrigation expert who worked for many years with the World Bank edited and completed the manuscript.

Epic Engineering: Great Canals and Barrages of Victorian India

Alan Robertson / Beechwood Melrose Publishing, 2013, 254 pages

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Books / by Parvathi Menon / London – June 14th, 2016

New tech to produce palm sugar in 6 hours

Business & Economy, Education, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Science & Technologies

Madurai:

Before the advent of cane sugar and mass production in factories, palm jaggery or palm candy used to be the local sweetener. But then, it lost sheen as it was unable to match the production of cane sugar.

One of the major impediments was that there was no mechanised method to produce like cane sugar. But, that tide is fast changing again as with its lower glycemic index is in demand over cane sugar.

Considering its huge potential, Thassim Beevi Abdul Kader College for Women has come out with a technology to produce with machines. This new technology was discussed during the international conference on food, nutrition and health organised by the college in Madurai from June 6 to 8.

Few pockets like Udangudi, Vembar in Tuticorin district, Sayalkudi in Ramanathapuram district and Srivilliputhur in Virudhunagar district are still famous for making palm jaggery from the sap of palm trees. They also make in conventional method by boiling palm sap for many hours to remove its impurities and store it in anaerobic containers where crystals are formed on threads tied inside the container. It takes 45 to 60 days to get in this manner.

The technology invented by the college provides in powder form within six hours.

Explaining the technology, S Muthumariswari, assistant professor, department of home science and research centre, said there is enormous demand for not just in India but from abroad as well. She has created the technology as part of her PhD research.

“In many places of Ramanathapuram district, people still make or powdered palm jaggery whenever there is a need. Considering the huge potential, we are making using machines,” she said.

The college has tied up with Coimbatore-based Dinu Technology to create the machine. J Dinesh from Dinu Technology said that similar to conventional method, in this technology too, palm sap is boiled and crystallised.

“Unlike 45 to 60 days, machine processing takes only six hours and sugar content may vary depending on the region. For instance, palm sap in Ramanathapuram district will have more sugar content than other places,” he explained.

It is said that there used to be five to eight crore palm trees in Tamil Nadu. After toddy tapping was banned, palm trees have seen a steady decline and there are only three crore now.

When demand for is said to revive palm cultivation, modern technology to manufacture it will be a great boon. But the machine cost is quite higher for poor palm farmers to afford, says Dr S Sumayaa, principal of the college urging government’s support in this regard.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India /News Home> City> Madurai / by Arockiaraj Johnbosco / TNN / June 08th, 2016

From IIT-M: Capsule in body to count calories, diagnose cancer

Education, Science & Technologies, World Opinion

CapsulesCF17jun2016

Chennai  :

Sensors in capsules that can wirelessly communicate data from within the body are getting smarter.

Researchers from IIT-Madras and the University of Nebraska, Lincoln (UNL) are working on an ingestible capsule that will stay put in the body – potentially for close to a week – with sensors that will take readings of an individual’s calorie intake, eventually help in diagnosis of diseases such as cancer and allow for sustained delivery of drugs.

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HIGHLIGHTS

  • IIT-Madras and the University of Nebraska, Lincoln (UNL) are working on an ingestible capsule that will stay put in the body with sensors that will take readings of calorie intake, will help in diagnosis of diseases like cancer

.  The microcapsule has a vacuum-powered ‘sucker’ surrounded by             tiny needles, similar to the hooks a tapeworm uses to embed                   itself in the gastrointestinal tract.

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As part of the trial, researchers are studying the effect of the capsule on pigs, that have remarkably human-like digestive systems.

The pill, in its current form, carries a sensor to read core body temperature. The microcapsule has a vacuum-powered ‘sucker’ surrounded by tiny needles, similar to the hooks a tapeworm uses to embed itself in the gastrointestinal tract.

“The capsule, made of biocompatible materials, works like a parasite by latching on to the intestinal wall,” said Benjamin Terry, assistant professor, department of mechanical and materials engineering, UNL. The attachment mechanism, he said, caused no damage to the intestine of the pig, which carried it for six days.

Terry said the big breakthrough for the research team was to ensure the body did not immediately reject the capsule, which is 25mm in length and 12mm in diameter.

“Tissues are slippery and resistant to solid mechanical structures attempting to anchor to them,” Terry said. “They also constantly contract and elongate. On an average, the device initially stayed inside only for two hours.”

The team overcame this by testing numerous types and sizes of suckers, along with the number and angle of needles surrounding them. They settled on a configuration that yielded the strongest adhesion – one that was 5mm in diameter with six needles set at 45 degrees within it. The team’s study recently appeared in the journal Biomedical Microdevices.

The sensors communicate their readings to an external device through low-intensity radio waves.

“The device is kept a metre away from the body. We use only low intensity waves that don’t harm the body,” said P V Manivannan, assistant professor in mechanical engineering, IIT-Madras.

Terry’s team is collaborating with IIT-Madras to take the device to the next step – to measure calorie intake. Manivannan’s team create the system and controls for this.

Experts say biosensors could help monitor factors that influence digestive health. Such prolonged data sources could help in diagnosis of diseases such as cancer and eventually permit the sustained delivery of pharmaceutical drugs.

Terry said the mechanism could also serve as a long-term vessel for capsule endoscopes, the ingestible pill-shaped cameras that permit physicians to record images of the gastrointestinal tract.

“One of the shortcomings of current capsule endoscopy technology is its relatively quick migration through the gastrointestinal tract,” said Terry. “Pausing at a location of interest, such as a polyp or ulcer, is desirable. Our technology will make this possible.”

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Chennai / by Ekatha Ann John / TNN / June 16th, 2016

Chennai doctors to compile list of localised healthy foods for heart

Education, Records, All, Science & Technologies

Biting into a juicy watermelon or having a glass of cold beetroot juice may sound like a healthy way of beating the heat but a group of cardiologists is now listing these fruits and vegetables as “avoidable high-salt foods”, particularly for those with high blood pressure.

A panel of doctors from the Chennai chapter of the Cardiologists Society of India has been working on ’10 commandments for heart-healthy homes’ based on an outline from the parent body. “We are localising the content based on the culture and behaviour. We have some common guidelines on smoking, stress and exercise but we will be localising those related to diet. We will be listing out south Indian foods that are heart-healthy, some that should be taken in moderation, and a few that should be avoided particularly if a person has conditions like diabetes or hypertension,” said CSI (Chennai-chapter) president Dr K Kannan, professor of cardiology, Stanley Medical College and Hospital.
Eggs, lobsters, cauliflower, beetroot, water melon, prawns, beef, chicken and lettuce, having more than 50mg of sodium per 100g of serving, are listed as “avoidable” high-salt foods. “These should be taken in moderation by healthy people and should be avoided by those with risk factors like hypertension,” he said.

Raisins, broad beans, carrot, apple, pineapple, banana, dhals, lentils and mutton have medium protein content and should be taken in moderation by those with risk factors. But the list may differ for people with diabetes as a risk factor. Low-sodium foods like grapes and sapota have high sugar. “One important thing we ask diabetics not to have is porridge. They tend to digest foods very fast and porridge increases glycaemic index,” he said.

Non-communicable diseases account for nearly 50% of deaths across the country, of which cardiac ailments contribute a significant number. In October 2015, Cardiologists Society of India told the state chapters to initiate a campaign to promote healthy hearts at homes.

The TN chapter has been working with a panel of doctors to bring out guidelines that will be circulated as posters and fliers to doctors across the state. “We haven’t given ourselves a stringent deadline because we know it will take a long time to compile but we are planning to complete it as early as possible,” said Dr Kannan.

Public health experts and senior cardiologists say such guidelines will help people maintain good health. Doctors’ bodies in many countries like the US have been able to reduce risk substantially with their campaigns, particularly against smoking, salt and sugar intakes. “On most occasions, we tell patients the importance of exercise and eating healthy . They then have a session with the dietician. But a detailed guideline in the form of a flier or booklet will help many patients,” said Dr TR Muralidharan, professor and head of cardiology , Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Chennai / by Pushpa Narayan / TNN / June 05th, 2016