Vijaya Dhasami Celebration - 2011

Here is a video of how peoples of Coimbatore celebrate Vijaya Dhasami. I am not sure, how many of you are aware of such an event that happens in Coimbatore(கொங்கு மண்டலம்). Warning: video may not be appropiate for some viewers.

The ceremony started at Ramalinga Sowdeshwari Amman Temple near Saibaba Colony  and continued till New Ramalinga Sowdeshwari Amman Temple in R.G. Street.All the way through, they harm themselves for GOD. They pray for a cause and sacrify their blood. Its more of spirit than pain.

$35 Tablet (made in India) can replace a teacher!! Can you believe?

After a year of testing in a remote village in India, researchers are ready to scale up production of an ultra-low-power $35 tablet called the I-slate.

Low-Cost Tablet Runs on Three Watts of Power. Designed to teach math to students in poor countries, the device will be the first to use a new energy-efficient computing strategy.

The I-slate is designed to teach math and other subjects to students whose schools lack electricity or to students who don't have access to teachers at all. The device will enter full-scale production next year, and will be the first device to apply a low-power technology called probabilistic CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) to achieve a longer battery life.

The probabilistic CMOS approach is simple: run an ordinary microchip less stringently, sacrifice a small amount of precision, and get huge gains in energy efficiency in return. Probabilistic CMOS (CMOS refers to the technology behind most of today's chip technologies) works particularly well in graphics and sound processing, since human vision and hearing aren't perfect, and small errors are therefore undetectable.

Krishna Palem, a professor at Rice University and director of the Institute for Sustainable Nanoelectronics at Nanyang Technological University, first demonstrated probabilistic CMOS in 2006. Palem is now working on getting the technology into applications including a low-power hearing aid. In the educational tablet device, Palem says, probabilistic chips will enable huge power savings: the educational tablet will require just three watts of power, meaning it can be powered entirely by small solar cells like those on a pocket calculator.

The I-slate looks similar to an iPad, with a seven-inch liquid-crystal touch screen display. But it's not a full tablet computer—in fact, unlike other hardware supplied to disadvantaged children through efforts such as One Laptop Per Child, it's not a computer at all, and does not have an operating system. "It's an elaborate, single-function device," says Palem. Kids can read from a preloaded textbook or take notes and work out math problems using a stylus on a "scratch pad" to one side of the screen. The device can store a few pages of notes.

Palem's group at Nanyang Technological University is developing the I-slate in collaboration with the Indian nonprofit organization Villages for Development and Learning Foundation and the Los Angeles design firm Seso. Last year, the group tested prototype I-slates loaded up with a math textbook and exercises at a school in Mohd Hussainpalli, a village about 70 miles southwest of Hyderabad. In this region, electricity is unreliable, and some villages don't have teachers.

Codissia to explore biz opportunities with Austria, Switzerland

The possibility of importing raw material from Austria and Switzerland, for manufacture of components meeting the design and quality requirements of those countries for exporting back to them, would be explored during the visit of the Indian business delegation accompanying the President of India to those countries from October 3, according to the President of the Coimbatore District Small Industries Association, Mr M.Kandhaswami.

He would also look at the opportunity of using the two European countries as the launch pad for reaching out to the Euro Zone market as some of the industries in Coimbatore region have clients there .

The Codissia President, who is a member of the CII business delegation accompanying the President, Ms Pratibha Patil, during her visit to Austria and Switzerland from October 3-6, told Business Line the main aim of the visit was to promote business relationship between India and the two European nations. The delegation was going with an open mind as `we have to find market’ for our products.

Mr Kandhaswami said the European countries, because of environmental concerns, were phasing out foundries, spinning units and paper mills and he sensed business opportunities in these sectors for the region.

He said during his discussions with the industrialists in the Coimbatore region, he found that many companies here were being supplied with raw materials like steel alloys by European nations for manufacturing finished products on a job work basis since they were able to source the raw materials cheaper elsewhere whereas the labour and processing were cost competitive in India. Mainly auto and textile components and general engineering goods were produced on a job work basis in the region for export meeting the design and quality parameters of their raw material suppliers. He said he would like to take this process forward.

The Codissia President said the two nations have also expressed interest in investing in Indian companies and to become partners. He felt that while the MSMEs in the region may not be keen to allow foreign equity in their companies, they would be ready to have technological tie-ups and buy back arrangements with Austrian and Swiss companies.

Conceding that the potential of Austria and Switzerland was limited because of their size, he said that he would like to enquire whether these countries could be utilised as storage hubs for supplying products to the European countries just as Dubai or Bangladesh are used for reaching out to markets in the neighbouring regions. Already many Coimbatore engineering companies were exporting to countries like Germany and this possibility merited consideration.

He said he would also invite the Swiss companies, some of which supply precision machines to Coimbatore companies, to participate in the forthcoming INTEC exhibition organised by Codissia. Apart from him, the five-member CII business delegation has members from Kolkata, Delhi and Bangalore.

Kalam to take part in greenery drive in Coimbatore

Pasumpulari, an year long afforestation drive of Siruthuli to plant and nurture 1,00,000 trees in Coimbatore in line with the International Year of Forests 2011 and 80th birthday of former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam is in the last lap and will be reaching the milestone on October 15, 2011. 

Mr. Kalam will be with the Pasumpulari, Coimbatore's Green Army, to applaud their green efforts and will be presented with a Pasum Ponnadai.

Ms.Vanitha Mohan – Managing Trustee of Siruthuli said that Pasumpulari began its journey with a heart full of dreams and a handful of saplings. The movement gained strength every month with celebrity guests campaigning for the event. Eight months down the line the movement is all set to turn this region into a fertile greenbelt. Planting commenced with the onset of southwest monsoon and so far 60,000 saplings had been planted in various locations. October 15 will be observed as Green Coimbatore Day and an event will be held at Nandangarai on the foothills of Western Ghats near Irutupallam off Siruvani Road from where Mr.Kalam will convey his green message to the nation. On the occasion, 10,000 saplings will be planted throughout the city involving students and volunteers.