A day with Dr Abdul Kalam - How he manages the day?

PodUiversal - Edition 50

We have always been wondering, how Dr Abdul Kalam spends his day. After coming out of Rashtrapathi Bhavan, he has become too busy. If you look at the site www.abdulkalam.com, you will find his speeches on a daily basis. He tours length and breadth of India and also frequently visits various countries.

Every speech he delivers is fully packed with so much of new information, data, etc. These speeches are now preferred documents for many students, researchers, corporate houses, etc. How does he manage the preparation of speeches?

In an exclusive interview for PodUniversal, Mr V Ponraj, Advisor to Dr Kalam gives the first hand account of a day in Dr Kalam's Office. Mr Ponraj is a scientist working in DRDO and is also part of the Technology Interface Group in Dr Kalam's Office. Mr Ponraj spends most of his day working with Dr Kalam and also travels along with him within and outside the country. He is also the Editor of 'Billion Beats' epaper published by Dr Kalam's Office through their site.

Please listen to his interview by clicking 'play' button. (The streaming of audio will be good in broadband of 100 kbps. If you find streaming flow is not continuous, please download this audio in mp3 format and listen) - 19 minutes



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Learning disability and Dyslexia - Role of parents, teachers and NGOs

Indian former President, Dr Abdul Kalam is always talking about 'school drop outs' and is campaigning for developing their skills. Lack of awareness about 'learning disability' or 'dyslexia' is one of the reasons for not identifying great talents and potential in the children.

It is generally reported that around 10 to 15 percent of the children across the world suffer from learning disability or what is known as Dyslexia. These children find difficulty in managing the academic works. They may also be slow learners. They would score poor marks. In most of the cases, these children are branded as 'useless', 'poor performers', etc. by the teachers and parents. They are also given punishment.

These children are not intellectually weak. They possess different skills like music, sports, art, acting, innovation, drawing, craft, driving, etc. Many eminent people like Winston Churchill, Einstein, Issac Newton, Thomas Alva Edison and many popular hollywood actors were dyslexic during their childhood.

If these children are not identified and remedied, we will be guilty of losing great men of eminence for future. Many times, because of the punishment given by teachers and parents, such children use their skills in different way and may turn out to be criminals and anti social elements.

Edition 49 - PodUniversal

Madras Dyslexia Association (MDA) is a non profit voluntary organisation started in 1991, by the parents of such children to create awareness about this disability and to train the teachers to handle such children. In an exclusive interview for PodUniversal, Ms Lakshmi Radhakrishnan, Chairperson (Academic) of Madras Dyslexia Association speaks about this disability and the role of parents and teachers in handling such children. Ms Lakshmi Radhakrishnan is one of the pioneers in India and has handled thousands of such children and also trained hundreds of teachers. MDA is also willing to offer guidance to the NGOs who are working in education and rural segment.

MDA has their website http://www.mdachennai.com and they can be reached at mda.ananya@gmail.com

Please click to play the podcast interview with Ms Lakshmi Radhakrishnan in audio format. (For smooth streaming of audio, you need a broadband of 100 mbps. If you do not get streaming properly, you may download this audio to your desktop and listen through any mp3 player) - 16 minutes


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Moving towards second green revolution in India

PodUniversal - Edition 48

In the early 1960s, when India was facing acute food crisis, the then Union Agriculture Minister Mr C Subramanian, popularly known as CS, (picture) took serious initiatives in bringing together many scientists and brought in the 'Green Revolution'. CS is now considered the architect and the father of Indian Green Revolution. Recognising his contribution to the food security, Indian Government honoured him with the highest civilian award 'Bharat Ratna'. The first Green revolution was focusing on "Seed to Grain". That means production was given more importance to manage the difficult food situation then.

CS did not stop with this. Till the his 90th birthday, he was thinking over the next green revolution, to remove the negative aspects of first green revolution. In the year 2000. on this 90th birthday, he started his initiative towards second green revolution and started a trust "National Agro Foundation"(NAF). He roped in many eminent people and scientists to 'institutionalise' the movement. Dr Abdul Kalam is also associated with this movement, from the inception. After the death of CS, Dr Kalam became the Chairman of the Board of Governors, till he became the President of India. Now many eminent scientists and visionaries are governing this foundation.

The second green revolution focuses on "soil to market" as against the earlier "seed to grain". The initiative is to help the farmers to understand their soil and then finally to help them to get a good market for their products. Dr Abdul Kalam visited the adopted villages by this foundation on 15th October 2008 and celebrated his birthday with these villagers. Through this gesture, Dr Kalam showed the importance of agriculture and rural segment to the youngsters.

Following the foot steps of Dr Kalam, the representatives from the partner groups of 'India Vision 2020' also visited these villages on 1st November 2008, to understand the importance of second green revolution and to take it forward., terming this as 'Rural Tourism'. In this exclusive podcast, Mr Rajsekar, son of Mr C Subramanian and presently the Managing Trustee of National Agro Foundation talks about the activities of NAF and how they plan to take it forward to the entire nation. Please listen to him (click to play) - 14 minutes

(the streaming will be comfortable in the broadband of minimum of 150 kbps. if you find the streaming not comfortable, you may download this podcast and play in windows media player)



You can also watch / listen to this podcast in the following links
http://blip.tv/file/1436644/

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