Tamil Nadu’s first solar-powered boat to begin operations soon

Business & Economy, Green Initiatives/ Environment, Records, All, Science & Technologies
Mahindra Odyssea sailing at the Manimuthar Dam.
Mahindra Odyssea sailing at the Manimuthar Dam.

Mahindra Odyssea will set sail at the Manimuthar Dam

Tamil Nadu’s first solar-powered boat will soon operate at the Manimuthar Dam in Tirunelveli district. According to sources at the Kalakkad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve, the boat will begin operations in the next 10 days.

On Friday, Anand Mahindra, chairman of the Mahindra Group, posted a tweet saying, “Mahindra Marine proudly joins #Go Electric – Go Green objective of the group by launching its first solar-electric boat for Tamil Nadu Forest Dept. She is a 24 pax harbour cruise boat, powered by a keel cooled electric motor with shaft, and propelled by a lithium-ion battery.”

Called Mahindra Odyssea, the 26-seater (including two crew members) boat is 11.8 m long and 4 m wide. One of its unique aspects is that it has a German motor (20 KW).

“It has a solar roof on top which can generate 3.8 KW of power. The solar roof will help the boat get partially charged while moving,” said Hiten Ghelani, chief executive officer and managing director of Mahindra Marine, told The Hindu.He said the idea was devised during a visit to Dubai and Europe.

“We started developing the boat and when we were ready with the first one — we received a tender from Tamil Nadu for a similar boat. We asked the team to visit us to try this boat and they came down,” Mr. Ghelani said. To a question on the cost of the boat, he said, “I won’t be able to give the exact details. On an average these boats would cost anywhere between ₹80 lakh and can go up to a crore. These can be customised depending on what the client wants,” he added.

Sources said that two more boats would be supplied in the coming days.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Tamil Nadu / by P Sudhakar & Sangeeta Kandavel / Chennai – Tirunelveli, April 13th, 2019

Passion for playing video games keeps this college student going

Education, Nri's / Pio's, Records, All, Sports, World Opinion

While he plays for 12 hours a day during weekends, he plays for four to five hours on weekdays.

MonishKumarCF20apr2019

Chennai :

Born and raised in Qatar, 21-year-old Monish Kumar was introduced to gaming in 2011 by his friends who asked him to casually play Counter Strike 1.6, a first-person shooter video game. He was instantly attracted to it, and today, he has played over 20 tournaments professionally and is part of Arknemesis gaming group.

“I loved the game and started gaming in Dubai servers. However, I did not know the local tongue, so I could not develop connections. In 2012, I came to Chennai for a vacation and realised gaming was a profession and people earned money through it. That day I decided to take it up professionally,” he says.
In 2016, Monish shifted back to Chennai to pursue Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Sri Venkateshwara College of Engineering, and also take forward his interest in gaming.  “I started with League of Legends and one of my gaming friends introduced me to Overwatch, a team-based shooter game. I joined Arknemesis in 2017,” says Monish.

Though his parents were initially hesitant about him spending hours on gaming, when they realised Monish was being paid a salary and he was getting sponsors, they began supporting him.

Since 2017, Monish has been part of many tournaments. “My first was the Skirmish Tournament by Coolermaster where two Indian teams and one Malaysian team were battling against each other, and we bet both of them. At that point winning over an international team was a big deal. We came second in Indian Cyber Gaming Championship (ICGC), first in LXG Indian Land Gaming First Minor and second in LXG Indian Land Gaming Second Minor,” says the avid gamer.

While he plays for 12 hours a day during weekends, he plays for four to five hours on weekdays. After his graduation, he plans to pursue sports management. “E-sports is starting to get recognised as a sport. Getting into the management side might help organise and manage e-sports events,” he says.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by K.V. Navya / Express News Service / April 20th, 2019

Literary awards conferred on two writers

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Records, All

The Ma. Aranganathan Literary Awards for 2019 were presented to writers Veli Rangarajan and Yuma Vasuki in Chennai on Tuesday. The awards carry a citation and a cash prize of ₹1 lakh each from Munril Literary Society, run by Justice R. Mahadevan of Madras High Court.

He had instituted the awards last year in the name and memory of his father, a noted Tamil writer, who died on April 16, 2017 at the age of 83.

This was the second consecutive year that the awards were being conferred to honour and recognise the contributions made by authors, poets, playwrights and others to the growth of the Tamil language.

Presiding over the event, Sahitya Akademi general council member Tamilavan, recalling his association with Aranganathan, said, the latter had all through his life desired to institute an award for talented writers.

He pointed out that Aranganathan had migrated from Nagercoil to Chennai in 1952, served as a clerk at Chennai Corporation and ran a Tamil literary magazine titled Munril despite his meagre income. The office of Munril served as a joint for literary enthusiasts to sit together, discuss and analyse each other’s works.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Special Correspondent / Chennai – April 17th, 2019