Engineering – Page 87 – Take off with Natarajan

How this Aussie Girl Won Sir Richard Branson Over …

May 26, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Isley Hermansen has dyslexia. Her video about the condition inspired billionaire Richard Branson, who also has dyslexia. Source: Supplied

WHAT does this 12-year-old girl from northern NSW have in common with Sir Richard Branson, the charismatic entrepreneur with a net worth of $US4.9 billion?

They both have dyslexia.

It’s an unlikely pairing, but Isley Hermansen caught the attention of the Virgin Group founder through a heartwarming video she made about the struggle dyslexics face.

Isley started high school this year and was struggling to keep up in class, her mother Julie Hermansen told news.com.au.

“She was suffering a lot from anxiety, which goes hand in hand with dyslexia, and I was trying to think of a way to build her self esteem and empower her,” Julie said.

One Saturday afternoon, Isley Googled ‘famous dyslexics’ and discovered a long rollcall of high profile men and women, including Stephen Hawking, Cher, Roald Dahl and Jamie Oliver.

“She decided to put all these famous faces together in a PowerPoint presentation. She did all the animation and everything on her own, we found a powerful song and we put the video on YouTube,” said Julie.

In the video, Isley explains what it’s like to live with the condition.

“Right now it seems like you have got it all over us … because being in a classroom is not our strong point. Sitting for tests, writing essays and reading are all a struggle for us. You don’t see us put our hand up for answers much, and we might try and hide in the classroom,” she writes.

“One day I’m going to fly like a dyslexic,” the video says, accompanied with images of Branson and other dyslexic celebrities including Keira Knightley, Orlando Bloom and Michael Jordan.

Julie shared the video on a dyslexic support Facebook group and was overwhelmed with the response.

“We were contacted by other families who said they cried when they saw it. It got shared in the US and the UK. We got so much feedback from people saying they found it inspirational and from teaching advocates who wanted to use it in schools,” she said.

Sir Richard Branson is the UK’s seventh richest man. Photo: Rob Kim. Source: Getty Images

Julie and Isley then went “went straight to the top” and contacted Branson’s team around five weeks ago.

“We didn’t think we’d get anywhere. We thought, ‘Oh well, we tried’. But then last week I received an email from Richard’s team and it all spiralled from there. It’s incredible to have his support and to have the issue out there in the public eye.”

Branson shared the video on his Facebook page and wrote a blog post about Isley.

‘Every now and then you come across something so inspiring that you can’t help but share it. This was certainly the case with this wonderful idea from 12-year-old Isley, who has severe dyslexia,” Branson wrote.

“Isley’s mum wrote to me saying that one of the main problems with dyslexia is a misunderstanding of the condition, which leads to people feeling ashamed to be dyslexic.

“She said that some kids prefer to fail rather than admit to the shame of being dyslexic. While awareness about dyslexia is growing, it can still hold so many people back.

sley’s letter to Sir Richard Branson. Source: Supplied

“But with videos like Isley’s, the word is spreading that dyslexics can ‘Shake the Shame’ and see all of the positives of being dyslexic. I see my condition as a gift, not a disability. It has helped me learn the art of delegation, focus my skills, and work with incredible people,” he wrote.

Isley says she’s stoked with the worldwide response to her video.

“It makes me feel very special,” she told news.com.au. “She’s really happy,” her mum added.

Julie says dyslexia is a “hidden disability”.

“There’s no funding for it. Teachers aren’t trained to deal with it and they don’t know how to identify it.

“It’s got nothing to do with intelligence — Richard Branson is a highly intelligent man. It’s just that dyslexics learn differently. They need to be taught differently and we need the school system to change,” she said.

Dyslexia is hereditary and affects an estimated 10 per cent of all Australians, according to the Australian Dyslexia Association.

Source……..www.news.com.au

natarajan

How This Start-Up Helps Unorganised Blue-collar workers Get Better Jobs…

May 26, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Bengaluru-based babajob.com is trying to help unorganised blue-collar workers get better employment.

Team that connects the employers with the right kind of workers

On learning that his boss needs another driver, autorickshaw driver Amit, in Bengaluru, recommends his cousin, Sumit. An out-of-work sharecropper, Sumit is hired, and his income doubles.

Anita works as a nanny for a well-to-do family in Mumbai. When another family she knows needs a cook, she recommends her sister, Sunita.

Most blue-collar jobs in India are offered and secured through such recommendations. But aspirations are changing and most employment seekers in the segment are now looking to work for brands that pay good salaries.

Dedicated to connecting the right job seeker with the right employer in this unstructured segment, Bengaluru-based start-up babajob.com uses the internet, mobile apps and a variety of other routes.

With a fresh round of capital from SEEK Ltd, an Australian online placement service, it now plans to expand.

Sean Blagsvedt, the man behind babajob.com

Fight against poverty

After nine years in Microsoft, Sean Blagsvedt moved to Bengaluru in 2004, to head the program management and advanced prototyping team of Microsoft Research India. He was focusing on mobile phones and technology in emerging markets.

“I came across a Duke University research study on poverty alleviation. It said the primary path out of poverty was income diversification by securing another job. The study also identified that successful income diversification involved knowing somebody with access to information about the jobs. This led to the idea for a Village LinkedIn, which gradually morphed into babajob.com,” said Blagsvedt, now chief executive officer (CEO) of the start-up, launched in 2007.

The main difficulty, said Blagsvedt, was reaching the job seekers – delivery guys, drivers, security guards and household helps. Most of them do not traditionally have internet access.

“We tried working with non-government organisations and telephone companies. But we found that mobile web and telephone services like Miss Call for a Job reached more people by using traditional media like the press. Connecting with aspirational job seekers was the most effective acquisition channel. It allowed us to reach three million job seekers in 2015.”

Missed call for a job

Two of the most frequent responses that successful job seekers provide babajob.com are 20 per cent salary raise and reduced commute to work.

The site now has about three million job seekers for 2.5 million vacant positions.

“Our primary point of contact is a missed call. A job seeker calls 08880004444. Then, our system automatically calls the number back and generates a profile for him/her through our interactive voice response system. The job seeker is registered on our website,” said Blagsvedt.

The company is now processing about 150,000 job applicants every month.

“According to our estimates, we are able to place nearly 2,000 job seekers every month. We have placed more than 500,000 job seekers since inception,” the CEO said.

The revenue model is simple. The service is free for job seekers but the employers have to pay for services, depending on the package they choose.

Each employer is assigned a recruitment support executive to optimise their campaign. Those who plan to hire in bulk get special packages. Applications through the website are about 47 per cent (combining WebApply and Web), mobile web applications account for 43.7 per cent of the traffic, while voice accounts for 9.2 per cent (including call centre), and Android has a 0.01 per cent share.

Experts feel it’s no mean task to raise awareness about digital platforms among job seekers from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds.

The company believes smartphones are becoming popular among blue-collar workers. The road ahead would involve expanding the digital footprint.

The firm did not share information about its revenue, but said it would look at providing value-added services to employers and job-seekers to boost margins.

The recent funding would be used to expand the team, develop the mobile app and improve services.

SEEK and its affiliate firms are the largest global online job marketplace across Africa, Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Mexico, New Zealand and southeast Asia.

In a statement it had said, “SEEK is a strong partner, with a common vision of using technology to connect as many to better jobs, especially in emerging markets.”

Asked about a possible geographical expansion, Blagsvedt did not rule it out. He said they were collectively excited about the association with SEEK and there was a lot to explore.

The target would be to reach hundreds of millions of people across the developing world in such a way that they are able to use the platform to seek jobs.

The start-up had earlier raised an undisclosed amount from GrayGhost Ventures and Khosla Impact in 2012, with a view to connecting all Indians to better jobs worldwide, especially in the Asia-Pacific.

FACT BOX

Founded: 2007

Founder: Sean Blagsvedt, Ira Weise & Vibhore Goyal,

Area of business: Mobile start-up dedicated to bringing better job opportunities to the informal job sector in the developing world

Funding: Undisclosed amount- GrayGhost Ventures & Khosla Impact (2012); $10 million from Australian online placement service provider SEEK (2015)

EXPERT TAKE: Ravi Venkatesan

Babajob is attempting to use technology to organise an unorganised market. It is a great opportunity but there are many challenges. Both employers and job seekers have to be made aware and educated about the service.

This is no small challenge when you consider the socio-economic profile of job seekers.

The user experience has to be seamless even as you scale. Unit economics have to be improved so that scale-up results in good profitability.

I believe the lower income workers that companies like Babajob are targeting are rapidly adopting smartphones. However there is great variation across this population, especially as you go away from the major cities.

So, it will be important for Babajob to retain a hybrid approach, i.e both offline and online channels in order to provide widespread access.

Companies targeting this space will have to remain innovative and learn to leverage the old word-of-mouth networking techniques with a technology overlay to win in this market.

I would expect to see very strong growth in the customer base and repeat buying, improving unit economics driving rapid improvement in profitability.

Ravi Venkatesan is chairman, Social Venture Partners India.

Sohini Das

Source:

http://www.rediff.com

Natarajan

The Story Behind this Greatest Photograph in Sports History…

May 25, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Photographer Neil Leifer poses next to his iconic image of Muhammad Ali. Source: Getty Images

FIFTY years ago today Muhammad Ali knocked out Sonny Liston in the first round of their heavyweight title rematch — and Neil Leifer took a photograph.

It was that simple but in so many other ways it wasn’t.

Earlier this year American writer Dave Mondy published fascinating research into arguably the most iconic image in sports history and revealed it would have never been taken if not for a series of extremely fortunate events.

Perhaps the most comical contributing factor to Leifer’s historic snap was he was only in position to take it because a senior photographer had shunted him to that side of the ring. Mondy revealed Sports Illustrated’s Herb Scharfman pulled rank on Leifer — who at the time was just 22 — to claim a spot by the judges’ table that he felt gave him more room to manoeuvre during the fight.

But when Liston fell it left him staring at Ali’s back — you can see him positioned between the champ’s legs in Leifer’s photograph.

“It didn’t matter how good Herbie was that day,” Leifer told Mondy. “He was in the wrong seat.”

How’s the view from there, Herb? Source: News Limited

As for the junior photographer? He was positioned perfectly.

“If I were directing a movie and I could tell Ali where to knock him down and Sonny where to fall, they’re exactly where I would put them,” said Leifer, who went on to become a filmmaker.

Leifer also benefited from what in those days was a risky decision to shoot in colour. There was another photographer, the AP’s John Rooney, sitting to Leifer’s left who also took a pretty good photograph that night.

Rooney’s shot was also widely distributed after the fight. Source: AP

At first glance it looks a lot like Leifer’s (one key difference is Scharfman is positioned to the left of Ali, not between his legs) but when it comes to colour and clarity there’s no comparison.

Interestingly, Leifer’s image wasn’t immediately held in the same esteem that it is today. He actually captured three sensational shots that night and it was another that featured on the first page of a four-page spread of the fight in Sports Illustrated.

“I will never have a night like that ever,” Leifer said. “I mean I’ve never had another one like that. The fight went two minutes and eight seconds and I got three great pictures.”

His snap of Ali standing over Liston was on page four.

Why his ringside angle was the one printed on posters for years to come was because it became the ideal illustration of Ali in his prime.

“This photo shows Ali at the height of his powers,” Leifer told Mondy. “People wanted to remember him at his best.”

But by no means can we put the photograph down to dumb luck. Leifer enjoyed one of the most celebrated careers in sports photography because he had a stroke of genius.

As a boy growing up in New York he would gain free admission to Giants football games by pushing the wheelchairs of handicapped patrons into the stadium and then position himself on the field with the photographers. On his 16th birthday he took several shots of the game winning touchdown in the 1958 NFL championship game and sold them to Sports Illustrated — where he received a job and became a boy wonder.

Leifer would go on to photograph nine summer Olympics, four soccer World Cups, the first 12 Super Bowls and every major heavyweight title fight since 1959. He photographed Ali on 60 different occasions, including all of his biggest fights and 30 one-on-one studio sessions.

But there’s one image that will be remembered forever.

Muhammad Ali and photographer Neil Leifer, who took the famous picture from the Ali-Liston fight.

Source…………………..www.news.com.au and /twitter.com/AstonishingPix

Natarajan

Stunning Images of Planet Earth ….Captured From ISS…!!!

May 24, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

The Dutch physician and European Space Agency astronaut was selected to participate in International Space Station expeditions 30 and 31. Leaving the planet on December 21st 2011 and returning the following July, Andre Kuipers captured some absolutely incredible images of our planet.

400 kilometers above Earth

The Australian Outback

A bizarre interaction between light and the sunset

Canada

A comet as seen from ISS

Flattened Moon beams

ISS at MOONLIGHT

Sahara Desert and the Atlantic Ocean

The Moonrise

The ISS Observatories

The Sahara Desert and Mauritania

over the Somalian Desert

The Soyuz – the apparatus Kuipers used to return to Earth

The Super Moon

By Savannah Cox on January 23, 2014 in Aerial photography, Astounding, Earth, Galleries, Photography, and Space

http://www.all-that-is-interesting.com

Natarajan

” This is not Much of a big thing For Me…” says this 11 Year Old Boy who Took 3 College Degrees at this age….” !!!

May 23, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Three degrees ... all part of 11-year-old Tanishq Abraham’s master plan. Picture: KCRA

Three degrees … all part of 11-year-old Tanishq Abraham’s master plan. Picture: KCRA Source: Supplied

STUDENTS graduating at a California college on Wednesday were celebrating alongside an unusual classmate — 11-year-old Tanishq Abraham, who took out not one but three degrees.

Tanishq, who graduated from American River College in Sacramento with a perfect grade point average of 4.0, successfully took out degrees in maths, science and foreign languages studies.

All this was just one year after he completed California’s early-exit high school exam, aged 10, KCRA reports.

Prodigious ... Tanishq Abraham, right, with younger sister Tiara, on the way home from co Baby steps ... 11-year-old Tanishq Abraham on his graduation day. Picture: Fox40

Prodigious … Tanishq Abraham, right, with younger sister Tiara, on the way home from college classes. Picture: Facebook Source: Supplied

Baby steps … 11-year-old Tanishq Abraham on his graduation day. Picture: Fox40 Source: Supplied

“This isn’t much of a big thing for me,” Tanishq said, with his sights already set on some bigger prizes. “I want to become a doctor, but I also want to become a medical researcher, and also the president of the United States.”

On Twitter, he said it felt awesome to graduate the degrees, but called the accomplishment his “first few baby steps”.

Team work ... Tiara, Bijou, Tanishq and Taji Abraham enjoy a celebratory dinner. Picture:

Team work … Tiara, Bijou, Tanishq and Taji Abraham enjoy a celebratory dinner. Picture: Twitter Source: Supplied

Tanishq wore a brightly coloured scarf with his graduation robes, and decorated his mortar board with his favourite Toy Story quote: “2 Infinity and Beyond”.

Reflecting on college life, he said some of his classmates “were intimidated” by him but “a lot of others were really happy” to have a kid in their class.

Happy family ... Tiara and Taji with Tanishq Abraham, who just graduated with three degre

Happy family … Tiara and Taji with Tanishq Abraham, who just graduated with three degrees at age 11. Picture: Facebook Source: Supplied

His parents knew early on that he was intellectually gifted. “Even in kindergarten he was pretty ahead, a few years ahead — and then it just went from there,” his mother Taji Abraham said.

Tanishq was home schooled until he began attending college

Big day for a little boy ... 11-year-old Tanishq Abraham at his college graduation. Pictu

Big day for a little boy … 11-year-old Tanishq Abraham at his college graduation. Picture: Fox40 Source: Supplied

Celebrating with him on his big day were his father Bijou Abraham, a software engineer, his mother Taji (a doctor of veterinary medicine) and sister Tiara, 9.

“We did it as a family, as teamwork,” Ms Abraham told Fox40. “And I was just cheering, I was just crying there when I saw Tanishq walk down the stage.”

His younger sister Tiara is also a child prodigy and, like her brother, began taking college classes at age 7. She also loves singing and painting.

Just kids ... Tiara mucks around with older brother Tanishq Abraham on her ninth birthday

Just kids … Tiara mucks around with older brother Tanishq Abraham on her ninth birthday. Picture: Facebook Source:Supplied

Source……www.news.com.au

Natarajan

Image of the Day…Sky View of Earth…

May 21, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

composite image of southern Africa and the surrounding oceans from Suomi NPP

This composite image of southern Africa and the surrounding oceans was captured by six orbits of the NASA/NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership spacecraft on April 9, 2015, by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument. Tropical Cyclone Joalane can be seen over the Indian Ocean.

Winds, tides and density differences constantly stir the oceans while phytoplankton continually grow and die. Orbiting radiometers such as VIIRS allows scientists to track this variability over time and contribute to better understanding of ocean processes that are beneficial to human survival on Earth. The image was created by the Ocean Biology Processing Group at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

For more information, please visit: http://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov/ and http://www.nasa.gov/npp

Image Credit: Ocean Biology Processing Group at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Source…..www.nasa.gov

Natarajan

” HIS Tail is Beautifully Raised above HIS Head…”

May 21, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

The Anjaneyar Temple at Nanganallur, Chennai is famous for the Hanuman which is 32 feet tall and sculpted from a single piece of stone. The idol was installed in 1989 and consecrated in 1995 with the blessings of Sri Kanchi Paramacharyar.

Sri Ramani Anna of Nanganallur, Chennai planned to build a temple with a big Anjaneyar of 32 feet high, in Nanganallur. He went to Sri Kanchi Mutt, met Sri Maha Periyava and sought his permission and blessings. With great

difficulty, they hunted for a single big stone and finally the sculptor selected a suitable one and began his work. One fine morning he finished the work and the statue of the great Anjaneyar was brought to Nanganallur and kept at the place where the temple was to be built. The Palalayam (before prathishta, the statue had to be kept for a certain period separately in the water, milk, paddy, grains etc) was established properly.

In the meantime, Ramani Anna went to Sri Kanchi Mutt to inform about the arrival of the Anjaneyar at Nanganallur and get further

instructions from Maha Periyava. Like Lord Ganesha, Anjaneya is also Maha Periyava’s favourite God! Periyava inquired enthusiastically about the full shape of Anjaneya part by part. Ramani Anna too explained and answered all the questions to the satisfaction of Periyava. Finally, Periyava asked about the position of Anjaneyar’s tail part. Ramani Anna replied, “The tail is curvaceously and beautifully raised above his head Periyava!” expecting an appreciation from the Periyava. But, Periyava was silent for a few

minutes. Ramani Anna felt a bit uneasy. Finally Periyava said, “You say you are also going to keep Sri Rama there opposite to Anjaneyar! Maruthi never stands with his tail raised above in front of Sri Rama! Ramani Anna’s worry increased considerably. He asked, “Oh! Periyava! What can I do now? The statue is completed and ready! The Palalayam too is ready. The muhurtham date and time has also been fixed. If we remove the tail now, we should again reorganise the Palalayam and the Kumbhabhishekam again. The Prathishta of Anjaneyar cannot be done in the already fixed auspicious best muhurtham. Periyava only has to show me a way and a solution for this!

Periyava said calmly, “You just proceed further with your fixed schedule. Everything will be alright. Anjaneyar will co-operate! Periyava then blessed them with prasadam. Ramani Anna came back to Nanganallur and he was thinking about Anjaneyar’s tail all the time. After the Palalayam was complete, they did all the proper Homams and other rituals and brought a big crane to lift and keep Anjaneyar on the Peetam at the auspicious time. When all the other things were over, they went to lift Anjaneyar. To their great astonishment, they found that the tail had already been cut off so expertly at the right place as though it had been done by a sculptor and that too without any flaw!!!

Can there be words to describe the state of mind of Ramani Anna and other members of the committee? They simply raised their folded hands in the direction of Sri Kanchi with tears rolling down their cheeks!!!

Jaya Jaya Sankara!!! Hara Hara Sankara!!!
Source: shodasee.blogspot

” Why an Apple a Day keeps the Doctor Away …” ?

May 21, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Why Are Apples So Healthy?

We all know that old saying: “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.“

But have you ever wondered why that is? How one apple a day can bring about significant health benefits? If you have, then you’ll be glad to read this article. From strengthening the immune system, through preventing cancerous growths and to losing weight, say hello to your one apple a day!

How do apples help us?

An important research published in 2008 by the German cancer research center, showed that apples offer a significant health advantage. When comparing between a group that had less than one apple per day and a group that had one or more apples a day, the latter was found to have less risk of mouth cancer, larynx cancer, breast cancer, intestinal cancer, kidney cancer and ovarian cancer.

These findings support a new research performed at Cornell university, showing that the peel of the apple has strong anti-oxidant properties, a powerful block against the influences of breast cancer cells. Researchers found that the higher the concentraion of apples, the lower the concentration of cancerous cells.

Cancerous growths are uncontrollable growths of cells independently spreading through the body. The growths are based on three principal levels: The first stage causes mutations in cell DNA. The second, when the growth becomes malignant and grows faster, and finally when it metastases and spreads throughout the body.

In the case of a cancerous growth, apples aren’t only used as anti-oxidants, but also improve the function of the immune system, which helps clean out the growths at the early stages.

In addition to boosting the immune system and fighting cancerous growths, apples also help control the levels of cholesterol and sugars in the blood, prevent heart disease and improve mouth hygiene. The fact that they contain more than 80% water and a long line of essential vitamins, makes them one of the healthiest foods available.

The secret? The nutritional fibers

Apples are considered a vital source of nutritional fibers. Eating one apple a day (with peel) can award us about 4.4 grams of nutritional fibers, which is 1/5 of our entire day’s recommended amount.

Nutritional fibers are materials found in foods that come from plants, and have a very important role in stimulating the digestive system and encouraging its function. Since they are not digested and taken apart in the body, they sate our hunger for a longer period of time. Extensive research has shown that those that do not get their daily recommended amount (at least 25 grams a day), deny themselves a host of health benefits. In addition, the researchers found that consuming these fibers is quite the effective method of losing weight.

The secret is in the chewing. Drinking apple juice will not bring about the same health benefits. We’d be happy to receive the essential sugars and vitamins, but we would not get the fibers.

A research conducted in China found that chewing can help the body regulate the amount of calories it absorbs from food.

What does this have to do with apples?

We all know that old saying: “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.“

How do apples help us?

In the case of a cancerous growth, apples aren’t only used as anti-oxidants, but also improve the function of the immune system, which helps clean out the growths at the early stages.

The secret? The nutritional fibers

The secret is in the chewing. Drinking apple juice will not bring about the same health benefits. We’d be happy to receive the essential sugars and vitamins, but we would not get the fibers.

A research conducted in China found that chewing can help the body regulate the amount of calories it absorbs from food.

What does this have to do with apples?

Everything. Apples are a terrific source of nutritional fibers, especially a group of fibers called Pectin. This is a group of complex carbohydrates that regulate our bowels, improve good cholesterol rates and is a powerful anti-oxidant and anti-bacterial.

Researchers from UCLA have shown that consuming pectin instead of regular fibers, doubles the time it takes the stomach to empty from one hour to two. Meaning that we don’t feel hungry for a longer time. In fact, a recent research paper entitled: “Weight Loss Associated with a Daily Intake of Three Apples or Three Pears among Overweight Women”, shows that women who were overweight and were instructed to eat an apple or pear before each meal, lost significant weight, just for doing so. The women in the experiment were asked to eat regularly and just add the apple before the meal. What happened was that the apples and fibers crowded the stomach, increased the feeling of being full, and made the body absorb less calories.

Other sources of nutritional fibers are: Pears, Peaches, peas, carrots, seeds, nuts, peel of fruits and vegetables, legumes, whole grains, oats and whole wheat. But apples offer many more advantages.

So if you want to:

Lose weight, eat one apple a day.

Strengthen your immune system, eat one apple a day.

Control the level of cholesterol, eat one apple a day.

Prevent the spread of cancerous cells, eat one apple a day.

source….www.ba-bamail.com

Natarajan

” I Love Coffee…” !!!

May 21, 2015Natarajan1 Comment

Source… _{: 7 Myths about making coffee answered,How to make coffee: Mistakes not to make and.www.stumbleupon.com}

Natarajan””

” To Bee or Not to Bee….”

May 19, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Bees are an investment with high returns — the crop yield increases and products become healthier.

When bees are kept alongside farming activities, production increases between 20-200 per cent besides, of course, getting to sell honey on the market.

Shrikant Gajbhiye, founder of Bee The Change is helping spread awareness on bee keeping and its multiple merits. Read on to know more…

The new name for the butterfly effect is the ‘bee effect’, at least these days.

These buzzing clusters of little black and yellow insects pollinate almost 70 per cent of the crops that feed 90 per cent of humanity. But this long and intricate natural chain, created by these busy bees, has been getting altered.

The sudden drop in bee populations worldwide is threatening the balance of the ecosystem with unpredictable consequences.

Shrikant Gajbhiye is the founder of Bee The Change, which offers free bee-keeping training to farmers and forest populations in Maharashtra.

He argues that when bees are kept alongside farming activities, production increases between 20 to 200 per cent besides, of course, getting to sell honey on the market.

A study in the UK has revealed that honeybees contribute £200 million a year with the services they indirectly enhance through their activities, and £1 billion with what they pollinate.

Similar studies are available in few other countries, but the function of bees in the food chain is the same everywhere.

In the US, some species of bees have virtually disappeared, the European Union has admitted their risk of extinction, and in India the number of the insects has drastically decreased — some point out RFR emitted by mobile phones and towers as one of the main causes. And this alarming fall in bee numbers is alarming everyone.

Given these assumptions, talking about ‘bee effect’ to indicate the massive consequences that can result from a relatively small cause, does not seem an exaggeration.

This is why Shrikant’s venture is not only about producing honey, but is directed towards broader outcomes.

Two years ago, after graduating from IIM Kozhikode, he took up a five-day hobby course on bee-keeping at a government institute in Pune, and fell in love with the striped honey-makers.

“I learnt some of the most amazing facts about bees and the role they play in the ecosystem by means of cross pollination.”

This opened my eyes not only on the key role bees play in nature, but also on the potential they have in changing the lives of people at the bottom of the pyramid,” Gajbhiye says.

In the last few months, Bee The Change has trained more than 500 farmers and forest populations, and currently its network counts 50 trainees.

“As part of our operations, we meet farmers in rural areas and provide them with bee boxes and free training. Then, once they start bee-keeping, we buy back the honey at a pre-determined price. Ours is a not-for-profit outfit, and we generate income by selling this honey to retailers under our own brand.”

For farmers, the proceedings of honey and wax sales are only one of the numerous gains.

Bees are an investment with high returns — the crop yield increases and products become healthier.

“Bee-keeping and pesticides don’t really go hand in hand because chemicals cause the insects to die. So the farmers are asked to refrain from using pesticides while rearing the bees,” explains Shrikant.

This automatically reduces the use of pesticides.

Twenty-five Bee the Change trainees are working towards obtaining the certification for organic farming, which they usually apply for in groups generating cooperative work.

It is not easy to persuade farmers to take up the challenge because bee-keeping requires an investment.

“A bee box costs around Rs 5,000 and bees start producing honey only after a few months. Usually, in areas where we haven’t worked before, one out of ten farmers is willing to keep bees for a year. But once this farmer shows an exponential increase in crop production, others follow.”

Also, each bee colony can give as much as two more bee colonies through division each year providing additional income.

The organisation works with populations in the forests a little differently.

“We train them in techniques of natural honey hunting, which consists in extracting honey from existing combs without hurting the bees. This allows them to increase their income, and bees to be preserved in the wild.”

Gajbhiye says that there are very few organisations working on a similar models, but most of them working only with farmers, whereas Bee the Change includes populations living in the forests.

“Also, these organisations have priced their products in the premium range; whereas we have kept our product accessible,” he says.

Lack of training facilities for bee keeping in Maharashtra, unavailability of bee colonies, difficulties in maintaining a system of support for trainees, getting over negative preconceptions against bees, language barriers, and lack of funds are some of the challenges Bee The Change had to go through.

However, Gajbhiye says, “We dealt with these problems by getting ourselves trained first. We work with experts who help us with training and support, and importing colonies from elsewhere. We believe that exemplifying success stories is the best way of spreading awareness and gaining social interest.”

Currently, the number of colonies in nature is very low. This results in the costs of mobilising and installing these colonies is much higher than the price of the colonies itself.

“We are trying to rear the bee colonies in nature, breed them, and multiply them through our network to such levels that economies of scale can be exploited to increase our operational

efficiency,”says Srikanth.

Moreover, to further diversify the sources of income, Bee The Change is also planning to start training groups of women to produce organic honey and wax-based cosmetics.

The relevance of what Bee The Change is doing is undoubtedly huge and the team, which counts 20 volunteers, seems to have a great time in the process.

Shrikant Gajbhiye quotes Steve Jobs, “At least make a dent in the universe, else, why even be here.”

However, in a venture where resources are not abundant and ambition must scale up ten times faster that the venture itself, not a dent, but a revolution is the goal.

Source…..www.rediff.com

Natarajan