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Top executives of tech giants pledge support for Digital India initiative…

September 28, 2015September 28, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Google, Microsoft, Cisco, Qualcomm and Adobe executives express desire to deepen their participation in the Digital India initiative

PM Narendra Modi claps (2nd from right) with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella (centre), Cisco executive chairman John T. Chambers (2nd from left), Qualcomm executive chairman Paul E. Jacobs (right) as Google CEO Sundar Pichai (left) walks to his seat after his speech in San Jose on Saturday. Photo: PTI

Top executives of global information technology giants Google Inc., Microsoft Corp., Qualcomm Inc., Adobe Systems Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc. on Saturday said they are keen to join hands with India and deepen their participation in the Digital India initiative that aims to ensure that government services are available to citizens over the Internet.

The chief executives of the top technology firms were speaking at a Digital India forum in San Jose, California during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US.

“India has more than 300 million Internet users and smartphone users. People are educating themselves and their loved ones how to use technology,” said Sundar Pichai, chief executive, Google. “India is coming online at an unprecedented pace.”

“I can feel the change in the air,” he said. “I am excited about technology, and India will play a big part in its future.”

He also said India has become the fastest growing start-up nation.

Paul Jacobs, executive chairman of Qualcomm, told the forum that his semiconductor company is keen to promote the Digital India vision. “To promote ICT (information communication technology) in India, we will be setting up a $150 million fund to fuel innovation and foster promising Indian start-ups who are contributing to the mobile and ‘Internet of Everything’ ecosystem.”

“In line with the Make in India initiative,” he added, “the company will set up design centres in India to design products from India for the world.”

Microsoft chief executive officer Satya Nadella said the company is looking to bring low-cost Internet in India. “We want to help people make things and make things happen. It is time to collectively combine efforts to empower the people,” he said.

The company worked with researchers to bring low-cost Internet infrastructure to rural Andhra Pradesh using television’s white spaces, he said. “We are now looking to replicate the same pilot project in Varanasi.”

“We are in talks with state governments to expand it in 5,000 villages,” he added.

Modi, in his address, thanked the companies for their initiatives.

“We will see the perfect picture of US-India partnership emerge in the digital economy,” he said adding it is a new era of empowerment where global firms are creating infrastructure and services to support the government with the Digital India initiative.

“Technology is empowering people,” Modi said. “We are attacking poverty with network and smartphones.”

“In the digital age, we have the opportunity to transform the lives of people. About 170 e-governance applications are there to make government services available in better and faster way,” he added.

Stressing on the role of social media in empowering citizens, Modi said, “Facebook, Twitter, Instagram have become the new neighbourhoods. Social media has turned everybody into a reporter.”

Briefing reporters later, foreign ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said Modi had invited Apple to set up a manufacturing base in India.

The Prime Minister (in his meeting with Cook) said he would like Apple to start manufacturing in India. He mentioned the huge opportunities India offered,” Swarup told reporters. Taiwan-based Foxconn Technology Group, which is the largest manufacturer of Apple products, has already decided to set up a manufacturing base in India, Swarup said. “Cook responded positively. I think India does fits into his long term plans. He particularly was interested in the whole app development economy, which he said could be a very, very important factor for entrepreneurship where individual app developers can just become part of the app universe,” Swarup said.

There was also some discussion on how Apple Pay could be a part of India’s financial inclusion Jan Dhan Yojana and other such initiatives, he added.

Indian ambassador to the US, Arun Singh, told reporters that during the Modi-Cook meeting “there was a sense that a lot of design innovation is happening in India.”

“As Apple expands its presence in India, including a manufacturing presence there could be enhanced opportunity for app development related to the apple platforms,” he said.

During the meeting, Cook is said to have recalled how Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs came to India as a young man seeking inspiration.

Source…. Moulishree Srivastava &Elizabeth Roche ….www.livemint.com

Natarajan

Modi gets his message across in Silicon Valley…”Make in India” and “Digital India “

September 28, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Cisco’s John T. Chambers, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Qualcomm’s Paul E. Jacobs and Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai during the Digital India dinner function in San Jose. Photo: PTI

Midway through his second visit to the US, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already addressed three of the four major constituencies he planned to reach out to—at the bilateral, multilateral and Indian diaspora levels.

The fourth—the US leadership—is next in line, say analysts.

At the multilateral level, Modi addressed the United Nations (UN) General Assembly where he spelt out the need for “climate justice” and chaired a meeting of Brazil, Germany, India and Japan—four nations that have demanded a place for themselves as permanent members of a revamped UN Security Council.

Before leaving the US, Modi is also set to address a conference on UN peacekeeping—a global duty that is substantially underpinned by Indian contributions.

On the bilateral economic front, Modi has held meetings with key US business leaders, seeking and enlisting their support for his “Make in India” and “Digital India” campaigns.

That a number of chief executive officers (CEOs) in Silicon Valley are Americans of Indian origin helped Modi link up with the diaspora—the third key constituency that he has reached out to on all his trips abroad. Modi was set to address an audience of 20,000 people of Indian origin in California on Sunday.

The fourth constituency is the US establishment, and Modi will be meeting US President Barack Obama overnight Monday before heading home.

Former foreign secretary Lalit Mansingh noted that Modi’s six-day US trip had a multilateral component focused on key foreign policy issues such as the revamp of the UN Security Council, while the bilateral agenda with the US was tied to domestic economic issues.

“On the whole, the tenor of the visit has been positive,” Mansingh, also a former Indian ambassador to the US, said on Sunday.

Economy—the key focus area

Arriving in New York late on Wednesday after a brief halt in Ireland, Modi’s first engagements on Thursday were back-to-back meetings with the US business community aimed at burnishing the image of Asia’s third largest economy as an investor-friendly destination. Last week, the Asian Development Bank cut India’s growth projection to 7.4% for 2015-16 from 7.8% predicted earlier. And there has been criticism, albeit muted, that the Modi government, elected to office last May on a pro-jobs and pro-development platform, has been slow in putting in place measures that would spur the economy.

Among those who met the prime minister were Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corp.; Ajay Banga, president and CEO of MasterCard who also chairs the US-India Business Council; Marilyn A. Hewson, chairman, president and CEO of Lockheed Martin Corp.; Citigroup chairman Michael O’Neill; Boeing International president Marc Allen, and Goldman Sachs president Gary Cohn. These meetings came on a day the Indian government formally announced that foreign companies without a permanent establishment in India will be exempt from the minimum alternative tax, levied on profit-making entities that do not pay corporate income tax because of exemptions and incentives.

“The idea (behind the intensive engagement with the business community) is that while we have expanded in a significant way our political security and defence cooperation, we need to make enhanced effort in terms of expanding the economic engagement between the two countries,” India’s ambassador to the US, Arun Singh, told reporters last week.

“When President Obama had visited in January, the two leaders had declared a goal of taking our trade relationship to a level of $500 billion from the present level of $120 billion. So, it would be important to see what kind of new opportunities we can create in the economic sector and that is why an important part of Prime Minister’s engagement during his visit to the United States is certainly focusing on the economic sector,” Singh said.

If the emphasis of Thursday’s meetings was on investments and manufacturing, it was Digital India at the weekend, when Modi travelled to California. Digital India is the Prime Minister’s flagship programme seeking to promote the use of technology to deliver governance and services. Those who met Modi included John Chambers, executive chairman of Cisco Systems; Paul Jacobs, executive chairman of Qualcomm who announced a $150 million investment in Indian start-ups; Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft; Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google; Shantanu Narayen, president and CEO of Adobe; and Venk Shukla, president and trustee of Silicon Valley at The Indus Entrepreneurs, a group representing tech entrepreneurs.

“Today, more than 15% start-ups in Silicon Valley are attributed to Indian-origin tech entrepreneurs. Therefore, this is an additional dimension to the potential for cooperation between India and the United States,” ambassador Singh told reporters, underlining the potential role of the diaspora in the digital India initiative.

Ahead of the meeting with the leading lights of the Silicon Valley, Modi received Tim Cook, CEO of technology giant Apple, and invited the company to start manufacturing in India under the Make in India initiative that aims to boost India as a global manufacturing hub. Modi also visited Tesla Motors Inc., which designs and manufactures premium electric vehicles on Saturday, a visit that underlined the India’s growing emphasis on renewable energy, including plans to generate 100,000 megawatts solar power by 2022.

“The Prime Minister heard them and their concerns. How he deals with the problems once he is back home is to be seen,” Mansingh said.

At the UN

At the multilateral level, Modi has had two major engagements. On Friday he addressed the UN General Assembly on the occasion of the world community adopting the Sustainable Development Goals that aim to reduce global poverty. The second was early Saturday when he chaired a meeting of the Group of Four (G4) countries—Brazil, Germany, India and Japan—that seek to become permanent members of the UN Security Council.

In his address to the UN General Assembly, Modi spoke of how many of the initiatives launched by the Indian government—financial inclusion, education and skill development and pension schemes for the vulnerable—mirrored the Sustainable Development Goals. With an eye on the Paris climate change conference scheduled later this year in Paris, Modi urged developed nations to transfer technology, innovation and finances to developing countries in order to tackle the challenge of climate change.

Highlighting India’s plans to produce 175 gigawatts of electricity by 2022 through renewable energy sources, energy efficiency measures, improving public transportation, cleaning up cities and rivers, and the waste-to-wealth project, Modi said: “The objective of our collective efforts is common but differentiated responsibilities.” The principle institutionalizes the idea that rich nations must bear historical responsibility for global warming and therefore must take the global lead in efforts to reduce carbon emissions that cause climate change.

“Climate justice” was appropriate to taking the concerns of the poor in sustainable development, Modi said.

Modi also used the UN platform to stress the need to reform the Security Council, seven decades after the body was constituted at the end of the Second World War. “We must reform the UN and the Security Council. This is essential so that the institutions have greater credibility and legitimacy. With a broad-based representation, we will be more effective in achieving our goals,” Modi said.

To drive the message home, Modi invited Brazilian President Dilma Rouseff, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to a summit level conference of the G4 countries pushing for the reform of the UN Security Council. The four countries support each other’s candidature for permanent membership of a reformed UN Security Council and, in a joint statement, sought such reform “within a fixed time frame”.

This is the first summit of the four countries in a decade and comes against the backdrop of the previous 69th UN General Assembly deciding earlier this month to begin negotiations based on a broadly agreed text on reforming the Security Council. “With this summit, I think the prime minister has underlined this as a key foreign policy objective,” Mansingh said.

Modi’s last few engagements on Monday include a meeting with President Obama in New York and a separate meeting of countries that send troops for UN peacekeeping missions.

Elizabeth Roche….www. livemint.com

Natarajan

Images of the Day… Super Moon Night …!!!

September 28, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

The moon is seen against the peak of the tomb of Jama Masjid in New Delhi. Picture: AFP / Chandan KhannaSource:AFP

The full moon is seen on the city skyline as Indian devotees carry statues of elephant-headed Hindu god Lord Ganesha for immersion in the Arabian Sea in Mumbai. Picture: AFP / Punit ParanjpeSource:AFP

An Indian man leans on a wall on top of a building in New Delhi as the moon does time as a backdrop. Picture: AFP / Roberto SchmidtSource:AFP

A full moon shines behind a tower of the Jama Masjid mosque in New Delhi. Picture: AFP / Roberto SchmidtSource:AFP

Source…..www.news.com.au

Natarajan

Banana Peels ….Not only edible but also Nutricious….

September 27, 2015Natarajan1 Comment

That’s right, you can eat banana peels. And not only are they edible, they’re also good for you.

If you live in the US, you’re probably used to tossing banana peels in the trash. But people in other countries, including India, have been taking advantage of their nutritional benefits for decades.

While a banana’s flesh is soft and sweet, the skin is thick, fibrous, and slightly bitter. To eat the peel, you can either blend it into smoothies or fry, bake, or boil them for at least 10 minutes. Heat breaks down the skin’s fibre and loosens up that tough texture, making the peel easier to chew and digest.

Also, the riper you allow the banana to get, the thinner and sweeter the peel becomes. That’s because of a natural plant hormone called ethylene that fruits release as they ripen.

Ethylene interacts with the sugars and fibre in the banana skin, changing complex sugars into simple sugars and breaking down pectin, a form of fibre in bananas that keeps them stiff. That’s why the older your banana is, the flimsier it feels. At the same time, other hormones break down the green pigments in the peel, turning them yellow and eventually brown.

Nutritional benefits

The sweet flesh of a medium-sized banana contains significant percentages of your daily recommended intake of various nutrients, such as:

12% of your daily fibre, which helps with digestion and may help lower your risk of diabetes
17% of your vitamin C, which is important for your immune system as well as growth and development
20% of your vitamin B-6, which aids the body’s ability to convert food into energy
12% of your potassium, which helps in development of cells, tissues, and organs throughout the body
8% of your magnesium, which is important for the body’s energy productions and regulating glucose and blood pressure levels

If you then eat the skin along with the flesh you get an even bigger boost in these same nutrients:

“[The skin] contains high amounts of vitamin B6 and B12, as well as magnesium and potassium. It also contains some fibre and protein,” San Diego-based nutritionist Laura Flores toldLiveScience.

Eating the peel is not only good for your body but also better for the environment.

In 2013, bananas were America’s most-popular fresh fruit. The average American ate 11.4 pounds of bananas over the course of that year.

Since a medium-sized banana weighs about 0.3 pounds, that equates to about 38 bananas per person, or roughly 12 billion for the whole US. And since most of us toss the peel, that also means a lot of organic waste. Most of this waste goes to landfills, but some of it is used asfertiliser, in water purification, and in composting.

Other uses for the incredible banana peel

If you can’t stomach the thought of eating a banana peel, then consider some of the many other ways you can re-use this valuable product of nature. Here are a few of the 16 ways that health and wellness website Natural Living Ideas suggests:

Add a few slices of banana peel to a bucket of water and let the mixture sit for a couple of days. Use this to water your planets. The added nutrients from the banana will keep your plants growing strong.
You can make banana vinegar from the peels that can then be added to salads and vegetables. See the recipe instructions here.
Place your meat atop a ripe banana peel in your roasting pan to keep the meat moist and tender as it cooks.

Whether you’re gnawing on a raw peel or using it in your cooking, always make sure to wash it thoroughly.

Source…JESSICA ORWIG …….www.businessinsider.com.au

natarajan

Are you Nomophobic ?….

September 27, 2015Natarajan1 Comment

Nomophobia — the fear of being out of mobile phone contact — is on the rise.

Sapna K, a 19-year-old history student, would log onto social networking sites from her smartphone in between classes.

Slowly, her need to check her phone turned into a craving.

Did someone comment on her Facebook post?

Did she miss out on a WhatsApp message?

Why hadn’t her phone buzzed in the past hour or so?

She would sleep with the phone under her pillow and check her messages in the middle of the night.

Her obsessive attachment to the phone began to interfere with her daily chores and mental peace.

“One day she left her phone at a friend’s party.

She felt anxious the entire time that she reached home and insisted that her father immediately walk back to the friend’s house to pick it up,” says Manoj Kumar Sharma, additional professor (department of clinical psychology) at Bengaluru’s NIMHANS.

He is, at the moment, taking care of at least 60 cases in which the patient is suffering from anxiety related to losing the mobile phone.

What is nomophobia?

This rising obsessive attachment with the phone and the resulting anxiety has prompted medical practitioners to finally christen this behaviour.

It’s called nomophobia.

Although it is not yet listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, it finds a mention in the appendix for further research.

Listed or not, medical practitioners maintain that nomophobia is very much a reality – one that is growing to gargantuan proportions.

“Nomophobia literally means ‘no mobile’ phobia; that is the fear of being out of mobile phone contact,” mentions a study conducted by the department of community medicine at Indore’s MGM College.

This survey studied mobile phone dependence among medical students under 25 years of age.

It observed that when the respondent was in an area of no network or had run out of balance or battery, he or she tended to feel anxious and this adversely affected the concentration levels.

“I have seen nomophobia affect children as young as 11 years old right up to adults in the age group of 40 to 50,” says Sameer Malhotra, director (department of mental health and behavioural sciences), Max Healthcare.

He has seen a drastic rise in the numbers afflicted from mobile phone obsession in the past couple of years with numbers running into hundreds.

Such is this obsession that it can destroy marriages and create rifts in families.

Ramesh Vats, 32, and his wife, Urmila, had been married for three years and were parents to a toddler.

From the outside their lives seemed perfect. Yet, not a word was exchanged between them at home.

Ramesh would either be busy at work or would spend the entire night sending Whatsapp messages or checking social networking sites. It was taking a toll on the marriage.

“Finally, a member of the extended family intervened and got them to me. On further assessment, we found out that this discord was an indirect manifestation of his obsession with the phone,” says Delhi-based clinical psychologist Amitabh Saha.

Young children and teenagers are even more vulnerable to this affliction as they force their parents to buy expensive smartphones and tablets out of peer pressure.

Saha recalls the case of a couple of school children who would exchange notes at night on WhatsApp. Just before the exams, their parents banned the use of the mobile phone.

“As a result of this, none of them could concentrate on his studies and would be irritable and aggressive through the day,” he says.

Are you nomophobic?

Clinical psychologists have come up with a list of signs and symptoms that you need to watch out for:

Are you neglecting your priorities?

“If your phone is becoming enmeshed with your being in an intrusive way, you should immediately step back and assess your behaviour,” says Samir Parikh, director (mental health and behavioural sciences), Fortis Healthcare.

For instance, if you can’t concentrate on your chores just because you missed a call or because someone has not got in touch with you, then that should act as a wakeup call.

Are you missing out on sleep?

“People have a tendency to check their phones at odd hours, as a result of which their sleep pattern gets affected. They don’t even get six hours of sleep,” says Saha. This adversely affects their health and performance at work.

Are you constantly irritated and restless?

“Ask yourself if your restlessness is due to being away from your phone for brief periods. If it’s leading to distress and dysfunction then do something quickly about it,” says Malhotra.

Are you turning into a recluse?

“The phone becomes such a source of connectivity with the world that if it’s not there then a person suffers from loneliness and often depression.

The interpersonal interaction with peers goes down,” says Sharma.

Steps to follow

The patient is made to understand that he needs to control technology and not be controlled by it

Sleep patterns are assessed and a schedule is drawn up to correct it

Offline contact is promoted. Some like Sharma encourage Internet fasting, which involves being away from the phone for a couple of hours every day. The patient is then counseled on the distress quotient

The person suffering from nomophobia is encouraged to take up a physical sport or engage in a hobby. The idea is to convince him or her that life without a phone is possible.

The patient is advised to focus on the essential chores of the day. Stretching exercises are introduced to improve concentration. Anytime that you feel the urge to touch the phone, just stretch your hands and neck for five minutes

Most importantly, the patient must switch off their phone when not at work.

Seek the right kind of help

Once you have asked the right questions, it’s time to seek the right help.

It’s wise to visit practitioners who have had experience in dealing with anxiety resulting from the overuse of technology.

For instance, based on the feedback from focus group discussion, NIMHANS has started SHUT Clinic, or Service for Healthy Use of Technology.

Drawing faculty from departments of clinical psychology, psychiatry, psychiatric social work and epidemiology, the clinic aims at raising awareness about the excessive use of technology, training of counselors and developing timely intervention.

Prior experience will help clinical psychologists to ask the right kind of questions.

For instance, if a person has sought help for anxiety or depression, the psychologist will need to identify if use of mobile phone is one of the co-morbid factors leading up to this.

“Usually people don’t come to us directly for nomophobia. It’s up to us to figure out that it’s one of the many factors leading to this mental state and then treat accordingly,” says Saha.

Max Healthcare’s Malhotra (left) concurs: “We need to assess if there is an underlying medical condition such as obsessive compulsive disorder that is behind this overuse of the phone or a deranged lifestyle that is responsible. Then one can decide if there is need for correction or medical intervention,” he says.

Lead image used for representational purposes only. Image: Reuters

Avantika Bhuyan

Source:

& http://www.rediff.com

Natarajan

From Kolli Hills to Italy, two women win hearts with ‘Murukku’….

September 27, 2015September 27, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

‘I had to stop going to school after 7th standard as my parents did not have enough money to even feed us’

‘I was just an uneducated and poor farmer till I joined the self-help group. Going to a foreign country to highlight our achievements was a dream come true’

‘My dream is to see all women like me who live in villages to come up in life and be independent’

Malliga and Jayalalitha talk to Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com about how millet farming changed their lives, their successful trip to Milan and how their ‘murukku’ was appreciated at Milan.

Image: Malliga Seerangan and Jayalalitha Easwaran in Chennai. Photograph: Ramesh Damodaran

The journey from a remote village in Kolli Hills in Namakkal district of Tamil Nadu to flashy Milan has been an unforgettable experience for Malliga Seerangan and Jayalalitha Easwaran.

Their background is similar – poverty, no education and cut off from development. But today the success story of the two women, 35-year-old Malliga Seerangan and 27-year-old Jayalalitha Easwaran, is an inspiring lesson in women empowerment.

These two women are part of a self-help group supported by by the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation, that promotes biodiversity through farming. They were in Milan to attend an event on ‘Agricultural biodiversity, value chains and women’s empowerment’ organised by Bio Diversity International, on September 17.

The event was organised to celebrate the women ‘who grow, harvest, process, cook, buy or sell a variety of food and agricultural products to sustain their families and contribute towards conservation of agricultural biodiversity’.

“Women and agricultural biodiversity are closely linked,” say the organisers. So both Malliga and Jayalalitha were the right people to represent what the event stood for; Agricultural biodiversity, value chains and women’s empowerment.

Image: Malliga (second from left) and Jayalalitha in Milan. Photograph, courtesy: MSSRF

It was their first trip abroad and accompanying them was Dr Oliver King of the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation. MSSRF is playing a key role in transforming the lives of many women by promoting different types of millet cultivation — little millet, Italian millet, finger millet, common millet, and Kodo millet under different agro-climatological and landscape conditions.

The organisation has helped them follow locally suited traditional agricultural practices like inter-cropping, multiple cropping, mixed cropping and crop rotation based on soil types and rainfall pattern focussing on the food and nutritional security of the people. For example, mixed cropping is practised to maintain the family’s food security.

The nutritious products made from millet are sold through Kolli Hills Agro Biodiversity Conservers Federation (KHABCoFED) in attractive packs as organic food in nearby cities. MSSRF follows the four ‘C’s: conservation, cultivation, consumption and commercialisation.

Image: Millet farming transforms the lives of farmers. Photograph, courtesy: MSSRF

How millet farming transformed Malliga Seerangan’s life

‘My family has been involved in farming for many generations and I grew up seeing my grandparents going to the fields. From the time I could remember, I was also helping them and my parents in the fields.

‘I had to stop going to school after 7th standard as there was not enough money to even feed us. We had a small farmland. Since there was no market for millets, naturally there was not much income from farming. I continued doing the same work after getting married.

‘People in and around Kolli Hills do only farming and that too, only ragi and samai. There was a time when we farmed just enough for us to consume, and nothing more than that.

Today, we are farming six varieties of millets, thanks to MS Swaminathan Research Foundation which came to our village around 15-20 years ago. Other than helping the farmers in cultivating, they also helped us start small self help groups groups of men and women.

‘There are more than 1500 farmers in our small region itself and each group consists of 13 women. I am the head of our group.

‘We pool in small amounts of money and put it in the bank, and then each member can take a loan for farming. Earlier, we didn’t even have a bank account, nor did we know how operate an account.

‘They also taught us how to do farming depending on the weather. We had no knowledge of good farming practices. Now, we are producing several folds of different varieties of millets.

Image: The murukkus turned out to be a big hit at Milan. Photograph, courtesy: MSSRF

‘Earlier, we had to grind millets physically which involved hard labour but today MSSRF have installed mills so that in less than half an hour, the powder is ready.

‘They also taught us how different products can be made of these millets to make it popular among people. We were used to eating them as it is but today, we make and sell products like millet rice, ragi murukku in attractive packs.

‘Now, we know that these millets have high iron content and are excellent for good health. You won’t believe, not a single person is diabetic in our village, and it is only because we have been consuming millets for generations.

Today, even city-dwellers have understood the health benefits of millets. They make tasty upma so children also enjoy eating it. Our ragi malt powder, murukku powder, samai, etc are available in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka under the Kolli Hills brand.

‘Life has changed for us after all this! We had no voice in those days; we never went to the market alone. Today, we go to the market with our products.

We have our own bank accounts and we need not beg for money from our husbands. If you take the case of our group itself, all of us make a profit of Rs 2500-3000 every month and each one of us deposits Rs 100 in our group.

‘Now, after taking care of the household needs, I can buy saris and jewellery with my own money. I am able to educate my children better.

‘My dream is give as much education to my children as possible. I could not study much but I do not want my children to have the same fate. I want them to do better in life.

‘Till the groups were formed, there was no respect for women; now the men in our village know that we are as capable or better than them.

‘We are financially independent as well. We operate bank accounts, deposit and withdraw money. We take loans and also repay them. We know to do all these things without anybody’s help now.

‘We also have the knowledge about millets and can talk to people about its nutritive values.

‘From being confined to the four walls of the house, if women in our village have progressed today, it is all because of MSSRF urging us to form groups, helping us diversify and selling our products in the markets.

If you take my case, till they came, I had not even stepped out of the village. Now, I got the opportunity to travel to Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai and for the first time abroad too.

‘When I got into the flight the first time when I went to Delhi, I just couldn’t believe it.

‘This time, when we were going to Milan, I thought it was a dream. I am just a small, uneducated farmer who was born in a very poor home, and here I was going to a foreign country to show them what we do.

‘We were asked to make ‘murukku’ for the delegates there. All of them enjoyed eating our ‘murukku’. We made around 50 murukkus and they got over in no time, and we felt really happy and excited about it.

‘They took photographs and videos of us making ‘murukku’. They had so many questions for us and as we don’t understand English, Sir (Oliver King) played the role of an interpreter. I have no words to express my happiness. It was an overwhelming experience.

‘Then, we went around sightseeing. I am so impressed with the cleanliness of the city. I did not spot any garbage on the road and I didn’t see anyone throwing anything on the road.
‘They have built good footpaths for people and I also liked the pedestrian crossings. Here, we have to run to cross the road but there the vehicles stopped for us.

‘After seeing Milan, I wondered why we can’t keep our cities clean. I really liked their city better than ours.’

Image: When they appreciated the ‘murukkus’ we made, I felt extremely happy, says Malliga. Photograph, courtesy: MSSRF

A life changing experience for Jayalalitha Easwaran

‘In our village, everybody has been farming since generations. Though I helped my parents as a child in the farm, I got involved in farming actively 10 years ago.

‘Malliga Akka who was my neighbour told me to join the self help group started by MSSRF, and from then on my life changed completely. She told young women like me that if we join the group and start working we would become independent and capable.

‘I was just a school drop-out who had no confidence to even to talk to strangers but today, I can confidently talk about the importance of eating millets and its health benefits.

‘I go to the bank all alone, I have learnt to open an account and operate it. I also take loan from the bank, repay it on time and manage my finances well.

‘Till I joined the group, I was an illiterate young girl confined to my home. I had to depend on my husband for money.

‘Today, I manage my household expenses with the money I earn from my work. My husband is also proud of me!

‘Earlier, we had to physically plough the field, now with the machines given by MSSRF, we do not have to labour so hard.

Similarly, they have installed grinding machines to powder millets. All these have helped in our work tremendously. We concentrate mainly on ragi malt and ragi murukku and sell them in attractive packets in 15 markets.

‘It’s only because of MSSRF that I travelled to Mumbai in a flight for the first time in my life. Till then, I had not stepped out of our village.

‘Now, I have gone to a foreign land also. I cannot explain how excited I was about the trip.

‘I could not believe that a school drop-out like me could go abroad to showcase what we make. I had never dreamt that I would have such good fortune.

‘When they appreciated the ‘murukkus’ we made, I felt extremely happy.

‘My dream is to see all women like me who live in villages to come up in life and be independent.’

Source…….Shobha Warrier /www. Rediff.com

Natarajan

Now, fly from Delhi to San Francisco non-stop on Air India….

September 27, 2015September 27, 2015Natarajan1 Comment

Air India is planning to launch a direct flight between New Delhi and San Francisco in December. The thrice-a-week flight, which will cover the distance in 16 hours, will be the first direct flight between India and the US west coast.

On the San Francisco route, Air India will use its three Boeing 777-200LR aircraft.

Sources said the airline had already secured slots at the San Francisco airport and was planning for a December launch. “It will be a Delhi-San Francisco flight and we are working on hub-and-spoke connections,” said a senior airline executive.

Earlier, the airline was considering a Bengaluru-Delhi-San Francisco flight, deploying a Boeing 777 aircraft on the entire route.

Currently, Air India operates daily non-stop flights to Chicago and New York (from New Delhi) and Newark (from Mumbai). The Mumbai-Newark flight, which takes 16 hours, is the longest flight from India as of now.

On the New Delhi-San Francisco route, Air India will compete with major airlines from Europe, the Gulf countries and East Asia. As of early 2014, about 600 passengers travelled daily between Delhi and San Francisco (one-way); all opted for flights that went via another location, according to Delhi International Airport Ltd data.

Air India has three Boeing 777-200LR aircraft, with 238 seats (eight first class; 35 business class and 195 economy class). Currently, these flights are sparingly used on routes to Saudi Arabia. These are among the 68 Boeing planes it ordered in 2005 for long-haul routes. In 2013, Air India sold five planes in this category to Etihad for $68 million. It had said retaining the fuel-guzzling aircraft would have aggravated losses.

Initially, the airline plans to offer a three-class service to San Francisco. The Air India management is also considering reconfiguring its Boeing 777-200LRs through the next few months, doing away with the first class and increasing the economy class seats. In the past, the airline has found it difficult to sell eight first-class seats on the route and occupancy in the premium segment has been poor.

With domestic jet fuel prices down 41 per cent year-on-year, Air India is likely to keep its operating costs down. And, rising passenger demand is likely to boost yields.

Bengaluru and Delhi are the top source markets for San Francisco flights. Air India’s marketing efforts will be weak if passengers from Bengaluru have to change aircraft in Delhi. Also, rival airlines offer daily connections to San Francisco,” said Devesh Agarwal, editor of Bangalore Aviation, an aviation blog.

In the past, other Indian airlines, too, have explored connectivity with the US west coast. Air India operated flights to Los Angeles through Frankfurt, while Jet Airways briefly flew to San Francisco via Shanghai. Though Kingfisher Airlines considered starting a Bengaluru-San Francisco flight, the plan didn’t take off.
LONGEST FLIGHT ROUTES

Dubai – Panama City: 13,821 km; 17 hrs 35 mins (Emirates)
Dallas – Sydney: 13,802km; 16 hrs 50 mins (Qantas)
Atlanta – Johannesburg: 13,573 km; 16 hrs 40 mins ( Delta)

Note : Emirates proposes to launch a Panama City flight in February 2016; Route planning is automated and routes chosen by airlines vary daily, based on en route wind conditions and the temperature and weather

Source…..www.Aneesh Phadnis ….in www.business-standard.com and http://www.malaymailonline.com

Natarajan

This 12 Year Old Wrote His Exams Blindfolded to Create Awareness About an Important Cause …

September 26, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

12-year-old R Madheswaran says that he can read even when he is blindfolded. The class 7 student decided to put these skills to better use and appeared blindfolded for his English exam. He did this to spread awareness about a very important cause.

Sri Ramakrishna Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Coimbatore, witnessed an unusual scenario during the recently held quarterly examinations at school. Among all the students who were writing their papers on Friday, there was one who attracted everyone’s attention.

R Madheswaran, a Class 7 student, sat for the exam blindfolded. And he even managed to finish the paper within the prescribed two hours.-

Photo: blog.onlinerti.com

No, Madheswaran did not have an eye injury, nor is he visually impaired. The 12-year-old boy took this unusual step to spread awareness about eye donation. He wanted to feel how visually impaired people experience the world, and at the same time, wanted to spread awareness about the various talents that they possess.

Madheswaran claims to have some unusual skills which enable him to read phone messages, question papers and text books while he is blindfolded. .

The young boy decided to put his unique skills to use when writing his English exam paper. The questions paper was not in Braille, and neither were the alphabets embossed.

So how did this young fellow complete this unusual task? Madheswaran says that every word and number has a different smell, and this smell helps him read them in his mind. He also wrote perfectly, right between the lines, using the same technique of smelling the words and the sheet.

His parents claim that Madheswaran acquired these special skills after attending a brain fold activation programme which improved his concentration and enabled him to sense many things without seeing them. Confident of his skills, Madheswaran and his family approached the school authorities to seek permission for this special act and they happily agreed.

Though these skills look unrealistic, we can’t help praising the young boy who took this step to spread awareness for a cause. After all, it is the thought that counts.

Source………www.the better india .com

Natarajan

She Helps the Needy Get Access to Wheelchairs, Crutches, Etc. For Just Re. 1….

September 26, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Orthopaedic equipment is expensive — wheelchairs cost thousands and even lakhs of rupees, while even a simple pair of crutches can tot up to a few hundred. But more important is the fact that most of the time, this equipment has a short-term use. Falguni Doshi of Vadodara has come up with an innovative way of recycling the equipment while helping the needy.

It all started when Falguni visited her friend Sonal in Vadodara. The latter’s grandmother had recently recovered from a prolonged illness and was no longer in need of her wheelchair and walker, which were now lying useless and discarded around the house.

This is when Falguni came up with the idea of recycling the equipment to help the needy. Soon, the two friends had come up with a plan to rent it out for Re. 1 a day.

Project ‘Helping Hand’ was born in 1999 with just four pieces of orthopaedic equipment.

Falguni (L) started with just four pieces of orthopaedic equipment. –

Over the years, donations poured in as many people don’t have much use for wheelchairs, transport chairs, walkers, canes, knee and ankle and neck braces, etc., after the immediate need for them is over. Falguni would rent them out on a regular basis as the demand for them kept growing with each passing day.

“It was just a simple idea. We didn’t expect it to be so successful. It has been about 16 years and I receive at least two to three queries every day even now. I have rented out thousands of pieces of equipment,” says Falguni.

Sonal had to drop out of the project due to personal commitments, but Helping Hand soon became more than a part-time commitment for Falguni. News about the work she was doing spread by word of mouth and many needy people began to approach her for renting the equipment she had.

Falguni takes the entire cost of the equipment as deposit from the clients. This amount is refunded when the customer returns the equipment.

Most people rent the equipment for a couple of weeks or months at a time.

“Earlier, I used to give these things away for free. But then I thought people would not value things given as charity or take care of the equipment. This way people take it seriously and I get to buy more products too,” she says.

Most of the products are donated to Helping Hand by those who don’t need them any more, while some are purchased brand new by Falguni.

For those who cannot afford to pay the deposit, the orthopaedic items are given on just a rental basis. “It is quite flexible. Our main idea was to put the unused equipment to some use and to help those in need. So we do not care if someone is unable to pay the deposit. What matters to us is that we are able to help them,” says Falguni.

Today, Helping Hand receives queries from across Gujarat. But Falguni has restricted her work to only Vadodara as of now.

“Right now I don’t have the capacity to scale up since I am the only one running the show. But my family members support me as much as they can,” she says.

Although the work has been running smoothly for the most part, Falguni has occasionally faced hurdles in the form of clients who return damaged equipment without informing her. –

For more details, contact Falguni at – falgunikd19@gmail.com

I figure it out when I am giving it to someone else. Also, many people do not take responsibility for the damage and I have to face the loss,” she says.

But these problems do not affect Falguni who is deeply attached to some of her customers — they often come to her for a friendly chat or when they need a shoulder to lean on.

“Many times, these people are frustrated with their sickness. They have already shared the details with their family and friends. But I am a new person to them, and since I work in this field I understand them. They feel very close to me and share their issues with me. I feel so overwhelmed by all the love that I receive,” says Falguni.

Falguni recalls a very touching moment when she received a call from a man named Mr. Gupta. His mother had just expired after a long illness and he had heard about Helping Hand. He called Falguni to donate all his mother’s orthopaedic equipment.

“All those products were imported and of very high quality. When he came here to donate them, he was so touched by our work that he donated some money too so that we can buy more things. His gesture will not only touch so many lives but it also gave me a boost that I was doing something good,” says Falguni.

So if you know someone who needs orthopaedic support in Vadodara, Falguni is there to help. And if you have spare equipment at your place, then you know how to put it to better use.

For more details, contact Falguni at – falgunikd19@gmail.com

Source…..www.thebetterindia.com

Natarajan

It Was Mangalyaan’s First Birthday, and ISRO Celebrated It with a Mars Atlas….

September 25, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

To celebrate the completion of Mangalyaan’s first year in the orbit around Mars, ISRO has released a Mars Atlas which is a compilation of all the amazing pictures and data collected from the red planet so far.

The Mars Orbiter Mission spacecraft, which entered the Martian orbit on September 24, 2014, has completed one year of its life around the red planet.

Marking the first anniversary – the day on which India created history by successfully placing Mangalyaan in the orbit around Mars, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has released a commemorative Mars Atlas.

Source: isro.gov.in

“With the launch of Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) on 5th November 2013, India has ushered a new era of planetary exploration of Mars and its environment,” says the introduction in the atlas.

It is a compilation of many spectacular images obtained by the Mars Colour Camera (MCC).

In this past year, all five payloads of MOM have collected a large set of data, and all of it is a part of this scientific atlas.

“The images from MCC have provided unique information about Mars at varying spatial resolutions. It has obtained Mars Global data showing clouds, dust in atmosphere and surface albedo variations, when acquired from apoapsis at around 72000 km. On the other hand high resolution images acquired from periapsis show details of various morphological features on the surface of Mars. Some of these images have been showcased in this atlas. The images have been categorized depending upon the Martian surface and atmospheric processes,” said the official ISRO release informing about the atlas.

The atlas has been released by the Space Applications Centre of ISRO in Ahmedabad. It provides a lot of information in vivid detail, explaining the different features of the red planet such as its craters, moons, volcanic features, tectonic features and more. And all of it is accompanied by Mars’s brilliant pictures.

The MOM spacecraft, which was designed, built and launched in just two years, has five scientific instruments to record five different aspects of the planet. These include the geology, morphology, atmospheric processes, surface temperature and atmospheric escape process.

While the Mars mission was initially planned for just six months, it is now expected to last longer. The ISRO chairman, AS Kiran Kumar, recently informed that the mission can last many years because they have not seen any failures so far, and about 35kg of fuel is still left in the spacecraft.

Happy first birthday in space, MOM!

You can download the atlas here.

Source…. Tanaya Singh ….www.the betterindia.com

Natarajan