The annual feast of the Bethel Saint George Orthodox Pilgrimage church at Nalila in the district commenced on April 23 and will conclude on May 5. Parish priest Fr. Jose M. Daniel said a highlight of the festival is the presentation of the Georgian award.
Social worker Dayabai has been selected for this year’s award and it will be presented to her at a function to be held at the church in the morning on May 1.
The function in this connection will be inaugurated by N.K. Premachandran, MP.
Former Chief Secretary Jiji Thomson will speak and the Metropolitan of Ahmedabad diocese Geevarghese Mar Yulios, will present the award.
The annual convention in connection with the festival will be held in the evening on that day.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Kerala / by Special Correspondent / Kollam – April 28th, 2016
The quarantine block of the Kannur central prison, where the first jail museum in the state would come up (TOI photo)
Kannur:
Kannur central prison, the first central prison in the State that was established in 1869, is all set to create history, with the first jail museum in the State, which would come up in its quarantine block soon.
“The government has approved the project, and now we will have to consult an expert regarding the curatorial aspect as well as the interior design and selection and display of the items,” said jail superintendent Ashokan Arippa.
The museum, which is the first of its kind in the State, will showcase rare items like the uniform of the jail staffers since the British period, guns, important documents, as also the model of the gallows and the noose that were used to hang the prisoners in those days.
“We have a whole lot of records, and other items that would arouse the curiosity of the common man as well as history enthusiasts, and these would be displayed in the quarantine block of the jail, which is no longer in use,” he said.
The prison has a huge collection of gazettes from the British period to the post-independence period. The gazettes range from the St George Fort Gazette to the ones with the emblem of Tamil Nadu and Kerala governments. The ones with Kerala government emblems give a picture of its transformation from a single elephant and coconut tree in the emblem to its present form, said jail officials. The jail which executed 75 convicts after 1947, the last one being Ripper Chandran who was hanged in 1991, would also display the convict record.
Since the documents are very old, and also highly valuable from a historic perspective, they have to be preserved carefully for which the support of an expert would be sought.
A segment of the records with the details related to the leaders imprisoned during freedom struggle, and also the records pertaining to the 1921rebellion apart from the Kayyur struggle have already been retrieved and this would also be part of the exhibits. Also, there are some rare items like an old water pump manufactured in Manchester, England, by Crossley Brothers, which was recently recovered from the junk. Similar articles would also find place in the museum.
The quarantine block was established at a time when the medical facilities were limited to check communicable diseases. So the prisoners were first made to stay here for a few days to confirm they have no contagious disease before shifting them to the cells.
The authorities selected this double-storey building with twenty cells, because it is no longer in use and also because of its vintage value. Once they get the expert opinion about the way the museum should be designed, the budget would be fixed and the work would begin, said the jail authorities.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Kozhikode / TNN / April 29th, 2016
Wading through the plethora of recipes on the Internet for an easy-to-cook dish, six engineering graduates were led to their eureka moment.
It all began with the culinary dilemma of six young bachelors.
A screenshot from the video of the app.
Wading through the plethora of recipes on the Internet for an easy-to-cook dish, six engineering graduates were led to their eureka moment. “How about forming a start-up and developing a recipe book app?”
A year later, the app named Recipe Book, refined by artificial intelligence with over six lakh recipes, is basking in the glory of being picked as the Editor’s choice in Google Play. “It is the first app from India to receive such an honour,” said authorities at the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) Startup Warehouse at Infopark, where the start-up is based.
Even as that recognition had barely sunk in, came another: “We have been told that our product will be featured in the prestigious Google I/O, an annual global event showcasing creative coders and their innovative products, to be held in California next month. A Google team is also on its way to profile our company,” Nikhil Dharman, one of the founding members of Recipe Book, told The Hindu.
The app, which boasts a million downloads in over 67 countries on Google Play Store, shot to the top in USA Google Play placements on April 14.
The integration of ‘snap n make,’ an artificial intelligence-driven smart feature, into the app in December seems to have won over the Google Play editorial board.
The features works on a highly imaginative level — take a snap of any food ingredient and the app identifies its diverse features, and a mere shake of the phone will list out all possible recipes using that ingredient.
“We are working on a more refined version of the feature, ,” said Bestin Jose, another founding member.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Kerala / by M.P. Praveen / Kochi – April 29th, 2016
Writer and critic M K Sanu will release a documentary on CPM PolitBuro member Pinarayi Vijayan at the Children’s Park Theatre here on Thursday. Film personalities Renjith, Renji Panicker and the documentary’s director K R Subhash will attend the function scheduled for 12pm.
Pinarayi Vijayan will also attend various programmes in the district on Thursday in connection with the campaign programmes of the various LDF candidates. He will attend meetings at Kalamassery at 10 am, Perumbavoor at 4 pm, Kunnathunad at 5 pm and Aluva at 6pm.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Kochi / by Express News Service / April 28th, 2016
Inventor of Vageeswari wooden field camera K Karunakaran alias Thankappan, 90, a native of Alappuzha, died here on Tuesday. The Vageeswari cameras were once known as the best field cameras in the world.
These cameras were the contribution of Alappuzha to the world and it was as famous as Nikon and Canon brands. The Vageeswari camera shop and manufacturing company was started by Karunakaran at Mullackal in Alappuzha in 1945.The cremation was held.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Kerala / by Express News Service / April 20th, 2016
No urban citizen can do without availing banking services, sometimes in the form of a cash transfer or maybe a financial loan. But a majority of us are ill-informed about the tremendous evolution the banking system in India has been through. Filling this vacuum will be ‘Footprints,’ the official banking museum set up at Kowdiar by the State Bank of Travancore.
The museum was inaugurated by governor Justice P Sathasivam in a function presided over by the managing director of SBT Jeevandas Narayan. Also a book titled ‘Tradition of Trust’, depicting the bank’s history, was released by the governor by handing it over to royal family member Gouri Lakshmi Bai.
The museum will walk the visitors through the history of both the bank and the banking culture that prevailed in Kerala. Started as the Travancore Bank back in 1946 by the then Maharaja Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma, the bank was expected to serve as the central bank of the princely state of Travancore. On display at the museum are age-old banking instruments like cheque books, accounting ledgers, share certificate and share agreements. Also invoking curiosity is a larger collection of coins across different time frames in Indian history.
Artefacts from across 20 earlier branches of the bank were collected and brought in to be exhibited at this museum. “The initiative is highly welcomed by the branches from across 18 states we have presence in,” said Jeevandas Narayan. “The bank has a rich heritage that the public is often unaware of and that prompted us to establish such a museum,” he added.
“Banks have a crucial role to play in the lives of the common man. Coming from a family of farmers I had the opportunity to visit banks at a young age with my father. When I look at the facilities and ease of doing business now compared to then the scenario has undergone a progressive change,” said P Sathasivam while inaugurating the museum.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Thiruvananthapuram / TNN / April 24th, 2016
The Choice School, Thiruvalla, has been selected for the Architizer A+ Award for the best designed educational project in the world. The programme focused on promoting and celebrating the year’s best architecture and products.
An online voting was also conducted as part of the selection process. The design has received more than four lakh votes in the public voting.”We are extremely honoured to receive the award. The complete design was carried out jointly by a Kochi-based Kumar group and a New York-based architecture firm,” said Jose Thomas, president, Choice School. tnn
“The building is a four-storeyed structure that can accommodate 3,000 students. The work is expected to be completed by June this year,” said Jose.
The award will be presented on May 12 during a week-long event to be held in New York.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Kochi / TNN / April 21st, 2016
The chinese connection: Joe Thomas’ documentary traces the history of a Malayali family that migrated to China 700 years ago. (TOI photo)
Kochi :
During the time when the Yuan dynasty was ruling China, a Malayali family from Kozhikode crossed the seas and settled in the Land of the Red Dragon. Over 700 years later another Malayali, Joe Thomas Karackattu, who was doing research on the Indo-China relations during the pre-colonial times and the historical and cultural exchanges that took place at the time, stumbled upon this story. He decided to trace the descendants of this family. ‘Guli’s Children’, a documentary written, shot and edited by Joe Thomas, tells the story of this search. The film was premiered at a function held at Malabar Christian College in Kozhikode on Wednesday.
Thomas, an assistant professor at IIT Madras, was trying to bring out the cultural and historical linkages by locating physical artefacts that connect Kerala with China. “It was during the research on the subject that I came across accounts of this family that moved from Calicut to China during the Yuan dynasty, which got me intrigued. So, along with the physical artefacts that show the Chinese connection, I decided to a search for this family,” he said. Guli in Chinese refers to Calicut and hence the title Guli’s Children.
“Several people had varying accounts on where they were based. So the real challenge was to locate them. The research took me nearly 20,000 kilometres across India and China–from the east to the north to the south of China. The story would be told through an academic paper as well, but the visual dimension to such a search gave me the motivation to capture it on film in the first instance,” said Thomas.
“The thrill of meeting the descendants of a Malayali who had moved to China over 700 years ago was incomparable. I hope that the documentary will open up the way we look at Indo-Chinese relations,”he added. “Cultural interaction with Southern India and China, peaked between the 12th and 15th century. There are historical accounts that refer to connections with Kerala, chiefly Calicut, Cochin and Quilon in Chinese works like Yingyai Shenglan by Ma Huan, Xingcha Shenglan by Fei Xin and Ming Shilu,” he said. “I feel we are stuck in a time-warp or a paradigm warp, when it comes to looking at China. That paradigmatic optic needs to change.”
Thomas, who was born and brought up in Delhi, studied at St Stephen’s College and JNU and was a Fox Fellow at Yale University.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Kochi / by Rochelle Dsouza / TNN / April 21st, 2016
The Rs.1.34-crore project involves bio-fencing, inventorisation of plant wealth and cleaning up of water bodies
In an attempt to arrest the depletion of the rich gene pool and protect the hotspots of local biodiversity, the State Medicinal Plants Board (SMPB) is embarking on a project for conservation of sacred groves in Kerala.
Funded by the National Medicinal Plants Board (NMPB), the Rs.1.34-crore project involves conservation and resource augmentation of sacred groves with medicinal plants in over 100 hectares.
The proposed activities include bio-fencing, inventorisation of plant wealth and cleaning up of water bodies.
The NMPB has released the first instalment of Rs.53.75 lakh for the three-year project. “The idea is to conserve the remaining patches of rich biodiversity and prevent further encroachments,” said SMPB Chief Executive Officer K.G. Sreekumar.
Healthy environment
The project seeks to conserve the diversity of indigenous medicinal plants, maintain ecological balance and enhance ground water resources. The other objectives are to ensure a healthy environment, besides creating awareness about conservation and tracing the history of vegetation in the locality.
Distinct and unique in biological diversity, sacred groves are valuable gene pools of immense ecological significance.
They are rich repositories of valuable medicinal plants including rare, endangered, and threatened species.
Most sacred groves also harbour a perennial water source. “Conserving sacred groves will help preserve these assets for future generations,” Mr. Sreekumar added.
Applications invited
The SMPB has invited applications from individuals and trusts with ownership rights to sacred groves. Physical verification of the groves to be included in the project is expected to begin shortly.
“Saplings of native species will be planted to augment the floral diversity, and name boards will be installed to identify each species,” he said.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Thiruvananthapuram / T. Nandakumar / Thiruvananthapuram – April 18th, 2016
Nirdesh (National Institute for Research & Development in Defence Shipbuilding), the autonomous institution set up to boost the indigenisation of country’s warship and submarine construction, at Chaliyam near here, is all set to commence designing of various vessels for the Indian Navy. It would also set up the first centralised shipbuilding database in the country at the institute.
Though the foundation stone for the proposed Rs 600 crore project was laid by then defence minister A K Antony back in 2011, the activities of Nirdesh have so far been limited to conducting training programmes on shipbuilding and taking up some R&D projects.
Nirdesh would start off with preparing standard designs for a range of small vessels used by Navy including patrolling vessels, harbour vessels, tugs, ferries, survey ships, etc. “We have got approval to engage a design expert and two naval architects. In the first phase, we will be working towards preparing a standardised design for vessels which are required in substantial numbers by the Navy . It is highly beneficial to have a standardised design as the vessels will be built by different shipyards. It would help in the operation side as well as for maintenance,” Captain Ramesh Babu, project director of Nirdesh said.
Nirdesh has also got approval to engage a data management expert to set up and maintain the country’s first centralised shipbuilding database.
“The shipyards of the country generate a vast amount of data during shipbuil ding. Nirdesh will take up the task of collecting, compi ling and archiving the data in a data centre so that it can be shared among shipyards and used for process improve ments,” he said, adding tha the appointments would be made on contract basis. The design expert would be from among personnel who have retired from the defence shipyards or the Navy .
According to Nirdesh of ficials, the full-scale infrast ructural works at the Chaliy am facility has been held up due to the procedural delay in getting the Cabinet appro val for the formation of an autonomous society headed by the Union defence minister.
According to sources, the Nirdesh board of governors have approved a Rs 115 crore prioritize phase-1 master plan which would see setting up of the design and training facility. Nirdesh already has around Rs 20 crore corpus fund provided by the defence shipyards at Mumbai, Kolkata, Goa and Visakhapatnam for infrastructure creation.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Kozhikode / K R rajeev / TNN / April 04th, 2016
