Maker Village is a venture of the Kerala government to incubate startups focused on electronics and hardware production.
Kochi :
Startups incubated by Kochi-based Maker Village are gaining the attention of defence establishments as a high-level team of officials from Defence Production has decided to visit the incubator facility in the coming days. The move will give a thrust for startups in Kochi and elsewhere enter the defence ecosystem. Maker Village is a venture of the Kerala government to incubate startups focused on electronics and hardware production.
Ajay Kumar, secretary, Defence Production, Government of India, who was in Kochi, held a discussion with Maker Village CEO Prasad Balakrishnan Nair on Saturday. The discussions took place on the sidelines of the second edition of Hardtech 2019, a National Deeptech Startup Conclave organised by Maker Village.
Assuring that he will open the doors for startups to defence production, Ajay Kumar said the visiting team will comprise officials from the Army, Navy and Air Force. Earlier, addressing the gathering at the meet, Kumar said his office has, for the first time, been keenly watching startups for solutions of various kinds. “Startups are going to be an important part of our defence ecosystem. Users like the Army and Air Force want them to identify problems and seek ways to resolve them,” he said.
He recalled a Defence India Startup Challenge the government launched last year received 520 outstanding proposals from new companies, much to the encouragement of the plan to leverage defence startups and connect them with the armed forces. “I want startups from Maker Village to feature in the list of next edition of the Defence India Startup Challenge,” he said.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Kochi / by Express News Service / April 03rd, 2019
On a dirt track set in south Kerala, the rider on her Hero Impulse has made way through the sand and raced ahead.
Panchami and her Hero Impulse
Kochi :
On a dirt track set in south Kerala, the rider on her Hero Impulse made way through the sand and raced ahead. This daring rider, who let everyone else in the competition eat dust, can hang with the best in this motorsport. Panchami LS from Sreekaryam in Thiruvananthapuram is a dauntless rider and one of the few women from Kerala who has made to motocross at a high level. Panchami was one among the dirt bike enthusiasts in the women’s category who participated in Dirtrix 2019, a motocross racing event held at Greenfield Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram recently.
The 21-year-old says she loved motorcycles since she was a child but she took it as her passion when she became a teenager. “I began riding a bike at the age of 10. It all started when I saw others riding motorcycles. But, my passion for being a dirt biker began at a later age,” says Panchami.
There is a saying: ‘Life is always a race towards your dream.’ True to this, Panchami was also enthusiastic about competing at high motocross events held in different parts of the country. Two years ago, during a practice session for one such motocross event, she met with an accident which Panchami, in biker’s language, calls a ‘throttle twist’. “Though I was passionate about riding motorcycles, this accident made me question myself about my future on the track. I was in ventilator for almost 20 days. Besides this, I had a head injury and a steel rod was inserted in my hand,” says the dirt bike enthusiast. The incident was a major breakdown in the pathway of achieving her dreams.
After her accident, the Dirtrix 2019 is officially the first event Panchami participated. She was the only woman from Kerala to compete in the event. “This was my first motocross event after recovering from a major accident. Being my first race, I was very excited and had a good experience,” says Panchami.
Getting involved in motorcycle racing was an uphill battle for her from the start as the sport is not popular in the state. Unlike other motorsports, motocross competitions require more practice and expertise. “When you are into motocross racing, only particular types of bikes can be used and sometimes these bikes need to be modified to increase its power. Not only that, the gloves, gears and jacket have to be proper,” she says.
Panchami has been trying hard to achieve her dream of going pro and has been practising hard for it. For the recent event, she practised at the ground near Kazhakoottam for several days. Aiming for more pulsating racing events, the youngster hopes to bring laurels to the country in the sport that she is so passionate about.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Kochi / by Steni Simon / Express News Service / March 28th, 2019
Mereena Aswani has a goal to make Malayali women get fit.
Mereena Aswani (right) practising at the kalari
Kochi :
At 7.30 a.m., on a recent Saturday, inside the large shed of the Dakshina Bharatha Kalari, at Fort Kochi, Mereena Aswani gazes at the women standing in front of them. All of them are wearing black: T-shirts, track pants or salwar kameez, with a red sash tied around their waists. Soon, they raise their hands upwards, move forward, kick their legs up, turn around, move forward, and kick their legs up again. Later, they sit cross-legged on their floor and Mereena guides them through a series of arm-stretching exercises.
For years, Mereena had been assisting her husband, kalaripayattu exponent Aswani Kumar, but on March 8, Kochi Mayor Soumini Jain inaugurated classes exclusively for women. “It was a desire of my teacher, Sreedharan Gurukal to start a Kalari exclusively for women and I have achieved that dream, with the help of Aswani,” says Mereena.
In fact, the duo got a shed constructed, with a mud-pressed floor, while spears and shields hang on the walls, which have been painted in red. At 1200 sq. feet, it is a spacious area.Once the local women came to know about the classes, they have stepped forward enthusiastically. There are Gujarati working women, ladies from the Muslim community, professional dancers, who want to strengthen their legs, homemakers and yoga trainers who want to learn a martial art. “The flexibility in yoga is different from the flexibility that you gain from kalaripayattu,” says Mereena.
The women range in age from 25 to 50 years. The training is different for newcomers. Mereena looks at them and evaluates their level of fitness. “How flexible are they? Are they willing to work hard?” she says. “I start them off very slowly, with just a few steps. After about eight classes, I will introduce leg techniques.”
One who has been a regular is 38-year-old Thanuja Rauf, an Ayurveda doctor. “I had been learning kalaripayattu under Mereena even before the classes began officially,” she says. “She is a very good teacher. My flexibility has increased. There is a lot of stress relief. And you get a lot of energy. So you are able to be much more active than before. It has also boosted my self-confidence.”But it is not easy. “Definitely, in the beginning, there will be body aches and pains, but you have to practise continuously,” says Mereena. “There is a saying, ‘no pain, no gain’. The biggest advantage is that you will be able to burn away negative energy.”Interestingly, Mereena has been burning away this negative energy for decades.
It all began when she was only ten years old. Because of weak legs, she would fall down often. So, the doctor who treated her told her parents that one of the ways to develop strength in the legs was by practising a martial art.
For the family, this was an easy choice. Just two houses away, at Fort Kochi, was the master Sreedharan Gurukal who used to hold kalaripayattu classes. So Mereena was enrolled. Usually, she would come to the courtyard every day at 5 p.m., after school was over, for training along with a few ladies and girls. “I was the youngest in the group,” she says. And over time, as she practised regularly, her legs became stronger and the pains went away.
But Mereena never stopped. “I was hooked to kalaripayattu,” she says. Asked the advantages of practising the art form, Mereena says, “Your body becomes very flexible. Secondly, in my case, I have developed so much of courage that I feel confident that I can tackle a man bare-handed. Also, through kalaripayattu, I am connecting with our ancient traditions, which are steadily being lost. We are blindly following the West which is not a good thing.”
Kalaripayattu has other benefits, too. Before entering the kalari (ring), the kalaripayattu artist touches the ground with his hand. Thereafter, he or she touches the feet of deities like Ganapati and Bhadrakali, at the different corners of the kalari. Then you have to touch the feet of the guru. “Through these acts, you become humble,” says Mereena.
Apart from kalaripayattu, Mereena also teaches yoga. Last year, she had gone to Germany to teach yoga. At the kalari, Mereena gives a body massage for those who have body aches and pains. Through all this Aswani is right next to her. The couple, who tied the knot on April 30, 2005, has two school-going daughters.
And they have a mission: to make Malayali women get fit. “They are unfit because they are giving up their lives to serve the family and don’t look after themselves at all,” says Mereena. “So I ask them to take out one hour a week only for themselves. And when they come, they experience a lot of stress relief,” she says.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Kochi / by Shevlin Sebastian / Express News Service / March 27th, 2019
The flexible road barrier with indicator developed by C.A. Vinayaram. | Photo Credit: Spl
Vinayaram’s device holds potential to save motorists’ lives
The patent holder of a ‘flexible road barrier with indicator’, which holds immense potential to save the lives of motorists, has sought the help of experts and the government to popularise it.
C.A. Vinayaram, who hails from Mattancherry near here, won the patent for the device in 2016. He was allegedly given the cold shoulder by road safety experts in Kerala for the device that he painstakingly developed a decade ago.
It was an accident that led Mr. Vinayaram to work on such a device. In 2003, a car in which he was travelling rammed an unlit median while it was overtaking a tanker lorry in Kannur. It was a narrow escape, he said.
Mr. Vinayaram expressed shock at the plight of unscientifically-built medians — most of them not having even a reflector to warn motorists, claiming the lives of hundreds of people each year in India.
A tourist guide by profession, he knocked at the doors of agencies such as Thiruvananthapuram-based National Transportation Planning and Research Centre (NATPAC) and the Indian Roads Congress (IRC) for support.
A senior official of NATPAC said the innovation was good and had the potential to prevent accidents, since each unit of the flexible median has electricity or solar-powered LED on top to warn motorists.
Lack of funds
“It can even lessen the impact of an accident, since it mainly comprises a spring and is hence flexible. Sadly, the agency does not have the funds for conducting a field study. Hence, we referred it to Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment, following which it was referred to a reputed government engineering college,” said the official.
The innovator is dejected that he is not in a position to manufacture the device in bulk, even when he is getting orders from many parts of India and abroad. “One of the agencies that I approached sought ₹10 lakh to do the field study, while another sought ₹2 lakh. I do not have that kind of money to spare. There are limits to what an individual can do. The government and road safety stakeholders must take steps to test and popularise such devices and also improvise on them if need be.”
Mr. Vinayaram said the idea was still in cold storage, though it was taken up with two Chief Ministers. In 2012, the late V.R. Krishna Iyer, who retired as judge of the Supreme Court, had written to the then Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court in this regard, urging that his letter be treated as a Public Interest Litigation since the device had the potential to save hundreds of lives each year.
Medians as deathtraps
Twenty persons died after an LPG tanker rammed an unscientific and ill-lit road median at Chala in Kannur in 2012.
The same year, a car in which actor Jagathy Sreekumar was travelling, hit a road median near Calicut University, in which he suffered serious injuries. Five powerlifters were killed and another critically injured after their car rammed a median on the Delhi-Haryana border in 2018.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kochi / by John L. Paul / Kochi – March 22nd, 2019
The starry dwarf frog, named after Wayanad’s Kurichiya tribe, is found outside protected areas
It is just 2 cm long and sports pale blue spots and brilliant orange thighs. The discovery of the starry dwarf frog, a nocturnal amphibian that lives under leaf litter on a mountaintop in Kerala’s Wayanad, has been published on March 13 in PeerJ, an international multidisciplinary journal.
It was in June 2010 that frog researcher Vijayakumar S.P. first laid his eyes on the odd-looking frog and picked it up from atop Wayanad’s Kurichiyarmala.
“I knew that it was a new species, it had many interesting morphological characters… shape and colour patterns that I haven’t seen in other Western Ghats frogs,” wrote Dr. Vijayakumar, from the Centre for Ecological Sciences at Bengaluru’s Indian Institute of Science, in an email to The Hindu.
Recently, Dr. Vijayakumar and his co-workers, including from the George Washington University in the U.S., studied its physical, skeletal and genetic characteristics. They also compared the frog with specimens of similar species in museum collections across the world. While scans of its skeletons showed it to be completely different from any other similar-sized frog seen in Wayanad, some of its physical characteristics (such as its triangular finger- and toe tips) closely resembled frogs in South America and Africa. Genetic studies, however, revealed a different story: its closest relatives are the Nycibatrachinae group of frogs that dwell in the streams of Western Ghats, and the Lankanectinae frogs of Sri Lanka.
The team named the new species the starry dwarf frog Astrobatrachus kurichiyana (genus Astrobatrachus after its starry spots and kurichiyana in honour of the Kurichiya tribal community who live in the area). It is not only a new species but different enough to be assigned to a new ‘subfamily’. Genetic analysis reveal that the species is at least 60 million years old.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Science / by Aathira Perinchery / Kochi – March 13th, 2019
Swapna Augustine, a differently-abled painter, handing over her work to KMRL during the Women’s Day observance in Kochi on Friday. | Photo Credit: jinson abraham / jinsonabraham.coo
KMRL felicitates 5 women who travelled the most in metro
Five women who travelled the most in Kochi metro since its inception in June 2017 were honoured as part of the International Women’s Day observance here on Friday.
Swapna Augustine, a differently-abled painter, who participated as the chief guest at the function, handed over a painting drawn by her to Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL). It will be kept at the Edappally metro station where the function was organised. KMRL chose Dr. Anusha George, a resident of Aluva, who made 1,880 trips in the metro as the ‘most travelled woman commuter’. It also honoured Golda Jose of Edappally, Reeba Suresh of Aluva, Shini Lukose Umesh of Aluva, and Jayasree T.R., a BSNL employee and native of Ambattukavu.
“The Kochi metro is the safest and best mode of transport in the Greater-Kochi area. The high number of trips undertaken by women of Kochi city denotes how safe the system of mass rapid transport is,” said Thiruman Archunan, director (projects), KMRL. He also delivered the Women’s Day message.
KMRL director (systems) D.K. Sinha handed over gift vouchers to the chosen commuters. Apart from metro officials, students of SCMS College and the general public attended the event.
Event at Custom House
A slew of programmes marked the International Women’s Day observance at Custom House here. Commissioner of Customs Sumit Kumar inaugurated a toilet complex at Government Higher Secondary School which was refurbished by the Custom House. He also handed over sanitary napkin vending machine, incinerator, books, and other school supplies to 10 students of the school.
The observance with the theme ‘Think equal, build smart and innovate for change’ was inaugurated by Pullela Nageswara Rao, Chief Commissioner of Central Tax, Excise and Customs. It was followed by a seminar for officials.
Customs Group dance team, which won the first prize at the All India Revenue Cultural Meet 2018-19 held in Kolkata, was felicitated, and a ladies rest room at Custom House was inaugurated by the senior-most lady officer, G. Susheela.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kochi / by Special Correspondent / Kochi – March 09th, 2019
From the deep sea-fishing Rekha Karthikeyan near Chettuva to mussel farming Praseela Shaji at Moothakunnam, there is in these women a spirit of determination and readiness to take on the challenges of life in their battle for survival. If you thought fishing came easy to these women entrepreneurs living close to the sea and backwaters, it is not true.
“It was so frightening initially,” says Ms. Karthikeyan, about her first venture into deep-sea fishing. “But the fright did go away. I was never intimidated,” she adds.
She has been recognised by the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute as the lone woman in the country actively engaged in deep-sea fishing.
She and her husband Karthikeyan use their boat for fishing ventures on a daily basis.
The couple with four children, routinely take to the seas to feed the family.
Undeterred by deluge
For Ms. Shaji, the mid-August 2018 flood was a life-changer. It threatened to derail her life. The floodwaters washed away the mussel farming ventures of dozens of women entrepreneurs like her. While some of them gave up, she did not. Ms. Shaji her friends have put the pieces together and is now fast on the road to achieving normality in mussel production.
The major fishery based micro-enterprises being taken care of by women self-help groups include bivalve farming (mussel and edible oyster culture), seaweed culture, ornamental fish culture, cage culture, Chinese dip-net units, fish amino acid units, fish fertilizer units, clam processing, fish drying, fish pickling, ready-to cook and eat fish products, aqua-tourism, seafood kitchen units, dry fish procuring, fish vending, prawn culture, crab processing, aquaponics and fish feed production, says a CMFRI scientist.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kochi / by Special Correspondent / Kochi – March 08th, 2019
23-year-old Dhanya has penned 32 keerthanas and dreams of being an RJ
Dhanya has a disarming smile that even cerebral palsy could not rob her of.
The smile belying her age, however, is also deceptive of her steel will to reduce her physical state to a minor irritant. Her resilience found another manifestation when renowned playback singer K.S. Chitra released an audio CD of 32 keerthanas penned by her at Sharjah last month.
There is a doggedness about the way the 23-year-old pursues her passions — be it listening to music and mythological stories or penning stories and poems for children. But she’s largely dependant on her parents Ramanan and Sunitha for moving around.
Mr. Ramanan, originally from Thrissur and employed with Dubai municipality for the last 30 years, had initially toyed with the idea of sending his only daughter to special schools in Dubai. “But those schools mostly had mentally-challenged children while my daughter only suffered from restricted muscle movements. So we opted for home schooling and she is now doing Class 8,” he said.
Ms. Dhanya is mostly cheerful and active on social media with three Facebook pages to her credit. While she has published all her 32 keerthanas in PDF format in one page, another page dedicated to stories for children features eight small stories written by her. According to her father, she has so far written nearly 72 stories.
The youngster is now experimenting with poetry for children. Her latest Facebook page dedicated to poems features one of her three works.
For someone who loves to laugh, Ms. Dhanya dreams of becoming a radio jockey or a television anchor someday.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kochi / by M.P. Praveen / Kochi – March 08th, 2019
National seminar on ‘survived seeds’ also to be held
The fifth edition of the Wayanad community seed festival, a three-day programme organised by the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), will be held at the foundation auditorium here on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
Former Chief Secretary S.M. Vijayanand will inaugurate the programme at 11 a.m. on Thursday.
The programme is being organised in association with NABARD, KeralaState Biodiversity Board, Directorate of Environment and Climate Change, Seed Care and Wayanad Tribal Development Action Council.
From all panchayats
Seeds of agricultural crops from all grama panchayats and municipalities of Wayanad district and seeds from adjacent districts such as Kannur and Kasaragod districts will be showcased at the programme. Farmers from Kolli Hills of Tamil Nadu will also attend the function with rare varieties of seeds. The farmers will get a chance to exchange their seeds to each other.
A national seminar on ‘survived seeds’ will also be organised in connection with the programme, the organisers said in a release here on Wednesday.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Kerala / by Staff Reporter / Kalpetta – March 06th, 2019
Sacred Heart College bettered its last year’s tally of 102 points to assert its supremacy in the event
Sacred Heart College, champions of Mahatma Gandhi University Arts Festival, with the trophy (Photo | EPS)
Kottayam :
In what can be termed as a fierce competition, Sacred Heart College (SHC), Thevara, trounced their rivals by a good margin to defend crown at the Mahatma Gandhi University Arts Festival, which concluded here on Monday. The champions scored 107 points to win the title. St Teresa’s College finished runner up with 91 points while RLV College of Music and Fine Arts came third with 63 points and Maharaja’s College, Ernakulam, was placed at the fourth spot with 63 points.
Sacred Heart College bettered its last year’s tally of 102 points to assert its supremacy in the event for the second consecutive year. Last year, the festival saw a major upset when SHC wrested the championship from St Teresa’s College, which has been reigning supreme for quite sometime. St Teresa’s could score only 53 points.
Though SHC clinched the title by maintaining clear domination since day one of the event, they were given a tough competition by St Teresa’s which banked on some tenacious performances on the penultimate and the final day to race past other colleges which have placed in the third and fourth position. As in the previous year, colleges from Ernakulam clinched the first four positions in the championship table while the CMS College, Kottayam, which scored 33 points, was the only college outside the district to find a place among the top five colleges.
Poornasree Haridas of SHC topped the list of individual performers, followed by Kavipriya B of St Thomas College, Pala, with 11 points. Meanwhile, the events staged on the last day of the festival evoked a huge public response. At the main venue where the ‘Oppana’ competition was held, people were seen encouraging the performers with standing ovations.
Actor Rajisha Vijayan inaugurated the valedictory session of the event. MGU union chairman Nikhil S presided over the function while Sabu Thomas, Vice-Chancellor in-charge, MGU, delivered the keynote address. Actor Vijay Babu and Sarjano Khalid were present.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Kerala / by Express News Service / March 05th, 2019
