National Seed Diversity Festival begins at Anna University in Chennai

Business & Economy, Green Initiatives/ Environment, Nature, Records, All

Chennai :

More than 120 seed conserving farmers from 15 states across the country have congregated on the Anna University campus here to showcase a variety of quality seeds of different crops such as paddy, pulses, oilseeds, vegetables besides cotton as part a three-day National Seed Diversity Festival.

The festival began on Friday.

Stalls in the festival display rare varieties of seeds with exceptional qualities such as drought tolerance, submergence tolerance and nutritional superiority across different types of crops.

In all, more than 3,000 varieties of seeds are on exhibition at the venue.

The festival is organised by Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture (ASHA), and this is the fourth edition of the festival. The first three editions of the festival were held in New Delhi, Chandigarh and Hyderabad during the last three years.

Highlighting the importance of crop diversity and traditional seed varieties, both for farmer’s livelihood and consumer health, are the two main objectives with which the festival is being organized.

Experts will talk about agriculture and health during the festival. It also has traditional food, stalls, terrace gardening session, pottery training and sales, natural dyeing, hand spinning, seed ball making, drinking water purification, composting techniques, traditional games and activity spaces for children.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Chennai News / by P. Oppili / June 09th, 2017

Fish worker’s son nets a silver

Records, All, Sports, World Opinion
Indian beach volleyball player Master Robin, belongs to a fisherman family at Pazhaiyar village, who got second place, returned from France. | Photo Credit: G. Krishnaswamy
Indian beach volleyball player Master Robin, belongs to a fisherman family at Pazhaiyar village, who got second place, returned from France. | Photo Credit: G. Krishnaswamy

Robin’s team returns with runners-up trophy in beach volleyball

Even after a long journey, R. Robin did not feel tired for a minute talking about his team winning silver medal in beach volleyball competition at Tahiti. The class 11 student and his team-mates, Dharun and Swagath, were runners-up playing against Brazil in the championship conducted by the International School Sports Federation.

Hailing from a family of fishermen from Pazhaiyar near Sirkazhi, his father V. Ravi is a fish worker, playing beach volleyball came naturally to the youngster. “Having come in 3rd at the national level, we were sent to play at the international level. We made small blunders, which was the reason the other team won. Next time, I will practise harder and win gold,” said the youngster, whose elder brother R. Radhan too came in runners-up in beach volleyball in the State-level recently.

Robin has been playing beach volleyball for the past three years. “I used to play regular volleyball at school and then someone told us about the beach version. Initially it was difficult playing in the sand and required more energy. We are now used to it. We practise at Nagapattinam in 10-day-long camps,” he said.

In his first international trip, Robin had the opportunity to go around Tahiti. “It was a very beautiful place,” he added.

M. Ilango, president, National Fisherfolk Forum, said the government must recognise the students as they have represented the country at the international level. “The children are both from the State and the Chief Minister should appreciate the under-16 winners. The encouragement would help them go to the next step,” he said.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Tamil Nadu / by Special Correspondent / Chennai – June 07th, 2017

James Wilkinson Breeks remembered

About Chennai(Madras) / TamilNadu, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Historical Links, Pre-Independence, Records, All

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The honorary director of the Nilgiri Documentation Center, Venugopal Dharmalingam, laid a wreath at the grave of the first Commissioner of the separate Nilgiris, James Wilkinson Breeks at the St. Stephens Church on Tuesday.

Mr. Venugopal said that June 6 marks the anniversary of the tragic death of Mr. Breeks 145 years ago in 1872.

“The Nilgiris, which was a taluk of the Coimbatore district from 1800, was made a separate district in 1872 and placed under a Commissioner. Mr. Breeks was the Private Secretary and later the son in law of Governor Dennison,” he said.

He said that Mr. Breeks’ lasting legacy was his tireless excavations of the pre-historic grave sites on the Nilgiri hills which revealed a human history of over 3,000 years of the hills. “The collection includes pottery, animal and human figurines, ornaments in iron, bronze, gold and a magnificent bronze bowl,” he added.

Mr. Breeks apparently died due to the emission of some poisonous gas while opening one of the grave sites, and died at the age of 42.

“The work of the NDC is to bring to light, the history literally buried in the Nilgiris,” said Mr. Venugopal. Murali Kumar, the general manager of Sullivan Court, accompanied him.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Coimbatore / Staff Reporter / Udhagamandalam – June 06th, 2017

Shishya’s Jajoo is Tamil Nadu’s topper in ICSE board exam

Education, Records, All

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Chennai :

Aakash Jajoo, from Thiruvanmyur’s Shishya School stood first in Tamil Nadu in the ICSE Class X board exam, results for which were declared on Monday.

The Council for The Indian School Certificate Examination announced the Class XII (ISC) results as well. While the pass percentage in Tamil Nadu for ICSE was 99.72 per cent, for ISC it was 99.34 per cent. There were three toppers in ICSE from Tamil Nadu of which one was from Chennai and two others from Vellore. ICS had four toppers from the State, all of whom were from Chennai.

Jajoo scored 493 out of 500. He scored 94 in English, 94 in Hindi and 99 in History, Civics and Geography and 100 in Maths, 100 in Science and 100 in Computer Application. “I spent four to five hours in studies every day. I want to take up science in Class XI and XII. I have not thought of as of now what I want to pursue after XII. I received lot of support from my teachers for which I am grateful,” he said.

His mother said he was very consistent in studies. “He had a planned schedule. He’d solve sample papers every day for two hours. Besides, he would focus on sports like tennis, badminton and cricket. He also spent time on drama, debate and dancing and would also watch television,” she said.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Tamil Nadu / by Express News Service / May 30th, 2017