Reduction of child labour and out of school children - A success story at Krishnagiri district

Normally, around 10 percent of the school going children get dropped out from the schools in rural areas, for various reasons, and mainly due to poverty. Such children are being exploited as child labour and their talents get wasted. Every District Administration in India has been empowered with various schemes and enough funds.

In addition, Sarava Shikshya Abhyan, National child labour project and UNICEF also support the district administrations for sending these children back to school. Many such programmes are not implemented well due to lack of initiatives from many of the District Collectors across the country.

In this edition, we are bringing out an exclusive interview with Dr Santhosh Babu, IAS, presently the Managing Director of Electronic Corporation of Tamilnadu ELCOT. In his earlier assigned as District Collector of Krishnagiri district, he ws very successful in reducing the child labour and school drop outs to the extent of 95 to 97%. According to Dr Santhosh Babu, (i) identification and tracking of such children (ii) offering convergence package of schemes to such families would solve the problems for ever. They have also developed a new website www.back2school.in for this purpose.


He also brought e-governance initiatives in the district for improving the administration and to reduce the corruption. The initiative like ‘Rural BPOs’ was also hailed by the various media. He was honoured with the ‘Best Collector Award’ in 2007 by the Chief Minister of Tamilnadu. Indian Express also recognized him as one of the 5 ‘Pride of Tamilnadu’ in 2008. Data Quest honoured him with ‘e governance champion’ of South India in 2006. In an exclusive conversation with me, Dr Santhosh Babu describes the success story of Krishnagiri district.

Please click to play to listen to his interview (20 m). The audio streaming will be smooth, if you have a broad band of minimum of 100 kbps. If the streaming is not smooth, please download the audio in mp3 format and then play..

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'None of the above' option to be included in the voting machine

Indian citizens are expecting the announcement of General Elections soon. Probably within three or four months, all the Indian voters will be electing the new Federal Government.

All the Indian voters are concerned with (i) criminalisation of politics, (ii) Politics-Bureaucracy nexus, (iii) educated middle class apathy towards election and their lack of interest in election process, (iv) Election rules 49 (O) and (v) Electoral reforms like inclusion 'None of the above' in ballots, etc.

You may also download the Voters' Guidelines issued by Election Commission of India from the following link. Scroll down to listen to Mr T S Krishnamoorthy.

http://www.primepointfoundation.org/ECIguideline.pdf

PodUniversal - Edition 54

In an exclusive interview for PodUniversal, Mr T S Krishnamoorthy, Former Chief Election Commissioner of India shares his views on the above issues frankly. When he was the Chief Election Commissioner of India, for the first time, he introduced Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in all the Parliamentary Constituencies, successfully. during 2004 General Elections.

Please click 'play' to listen to his interview - 10 m. (The audio streaming will be smooth in a broad band of minimum of 100 kbps. If your streaming is not smooth, please download the file in mp3 format and play)



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Tough laws like Patriot Act needed for combating terrorism in India

After the Mumbai terror attacks on 26/11, Indian citizens across the Nation are organising events and seminars to show their anger and solidarity to combat terrorism. Shreyans Foundation, organised a seminar on 7th December 2008 at Chennai with eminent people talking on this serious issue. PodUniversal brings out an excerpt from the speech of Mr B S Raghavan, well known personality.

Edition 53

Mr B S Raghavan is a retired Senior IAS officer of the Government of India (1952 batch). He has held high positions in Government of India, Government of West Bengal and Tirupura. He has also served United Nations on behalf of Indian Government. While, he was serving Home Ministry in Indian Government, he has handled security policy of the Government. He has authored six books. He is one of the sought after person by all the media for his views.

In his speech, Mr Raghavan emphasises two points: (1) the need for a tough erlaw like Patriots Act of United States and (2) the role of Indian citizens in combating terrorism.

Please listen to his powerful speech by clicking 'play' button. (The streaming will be smooth, in the broad bands of 100 kbps. If you find any difficulty in smooth streaming, you may download the entire file in mp3 file and then listen) - 10 minutes



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Angry Chennai citizens come together! It is time for change!!

After the Mumbai Terrorist attacks on 26th November, angry educated middle class Indians are coming together in all the Cities showing their anguish. Some of the Chennai citizens have now started an initiative "Citizens for Change". In a rare gesture, on Sunday the 7th December 2008, around ten thousand middle class and upper middle class citizens and their family members assembled at the Marina Beach and signed a pledge for solidarity and to save the Nation.

(both photos - Courtesy - Swaminathan Narayanaswamy)

PodUniversal Edition 52

On behalf of PodUniversal, we interviewed Dr Pasupathy, Convenor of this initiative. Please listen to his interview by clicking 'play button' (To get uninterrupted streaming of audio, you need a broad band of minimum 100 kbps. If the streaming is not continuous, you may download this audio in mp3 format and listen) - 4 minutes and 54 seconds


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Young students organise mega media events in 22 cities of the country

Symbiosis Institute of Media and communication, pune popularly known as SIMC, a reputed media and communication school of Asia is arranging events called ‘footprints’ all over India since 1999 to promote media and communication awareness amongst the students during November and December every year. All the events are organized by their own students as part of their on the job training.

During 2008, SIMC had organized this Footprint event in 21 Indian Cities and one at Dubai, with uniform theme of Citizen journalism. The entire mega event is organized by 364 PG and UG students, by dividing the cities amongst themselves. During this year, more than 15000 young media students had participated in all the 22 footprints. They have involved more than 260 eminent professionals across the country as speakers. These footprints events generated more than 500 media reports across the country, besides social media write ups. These events involved an expenditure of around 75 lakshs, which was generated by the students through various sponsors.

From this year onwards, they have also instituted two awards for the young professional achievers in the media line in each center. They have honoured 34 such young achievers in the current year throughout India. These events helped all the students to have an hands on experience on marketing the events, sponsorship, public relations, photogrpahy, videography, advertisement, event management, etc.

When they had organized the footprint event on 5th December 2008 at Chennai, I spoke to Ruhi Jhunjhunhwala, a first year PG student of SIMC and the team leader of the Chennai Footprint team. Please listen to the interview by clicking 'play' button (12 minutes). (If you have a broadband of atleast 100 kbps, the streaming will be smooth. if the streaming is not continuous, you may download this file in mp3 format and listen)


This interview may also be listened in the following link
http://www.podbazaar.com/permalink/144115188075857333

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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



This podcast can also be listened at
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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/

http://www.podbazaar.com/permalink/144115188075857317

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C-DAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing) - India's pride

PodUniversal - Edition 47

Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), is a Research and Development organisation set up by the Government of India. They have been contributing to the National Technological development silently. They are pioneers in building Super Computer PARAM in India, Garuda Grid Computing. They are also promoting open source softwares. They have released a Desi operating System BOSS, Indian version of Linux. They have also developed forensic software to help the Police officials to investigate cyber crimes.

In this podcast, we have interviewed Mr S Ramakrishnan, Director General of C-DAC. Mr S. Ramakrishnan, popularly known as Ramki is a pioneer in India in computer newtworking and grid computing.  Even before the internet concept came to India, as the Project Director at National level, he was mainly responsible for networking educational institutions as 'ernet'.  Now he is also closely associated with the PARAM PADMA, the next generation Super Computer.

Please listen to his interview by clicking to play (13 minutes)

(The streaming will work comfortably in the broadband of minimum of 150 kbps.  If you find any difficulty, in the smooth streaming, you may download the wmv format (4 mb) and play in your windows media player)

You may also watch this podcast in the followig links

http://blip.tv/file/1404790

http://podbazaar.com/permalink/144115188075857313

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Cyber crimes - protecting your computers and network

 

Cyber Society of India (CySI) organised a two day-seminar at Chennai on "Cyber Security and Assuirances" in 24th and 25th October 2008.  Mr Scott from Consultant General of USA at Chennai and Mr N Vittal (Former Chief Vigilance Commissioner of India) inaugurated the seminar and delivered key note address.  Many experts across the professional and IT sector participated and shared their views. 

Please click to play to watch the podcast of the extract of the inauguration ( 10 minutes)

(The streaming will be comfortable in the broadband of minimum of 150 kbps.  If you find any difficulty in smooth streaming, you may download the wmv format and play with you windows media player)

You may also watch this podcast from the following links

 http://blip.tv/file/1394790

http://www.podbazaar.com/permalink/144115188075857311

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Catholic Syrian Bank launches 'Marvel', Core Banking Software

PodUniversal - Edition 45

Catholic Syrian Bank, a Kerala based leading Private Sector Bank has launched an unique core banking software on 20th October 2008, in an impressive function held at Chennai. This software was developed by the Bank jointly with Laser Soft Infosystems Limited, a well known Chennai based banking software product development company. This is the first time, a bank is developing a software product jointly with a vendor in India. The Bank has already networked 100 branches and will be networking all the remaining branches before the end of March 2008.

In this podcast, we bring out excerpts from the launch function. Please listen to Mr R Venkataraman (Chairman of the Bank), Mr B Suresh Kamath (Managing Director of Laser Soft) and Mr Anand (CEO, Wipro Infortech Limited). Please watch the podcast, by clicking 'play' ( 9 m 39 sec)

(The streaming of this podcast is comfortable in broadband of minimum of 150 kbps. If you have a lower bandwidth or streaming is not continuous, please download the podcast in wmv format and play with your windows media player)





You may also watch this podcast from the following links:

http://blip.tv/file/1385847
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=tUcPpgRJdpE
http://www.podbazaar.com/permalink/144115188075857310 (audio only)

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Rights and responsibilities of banks and customers - RBI Dy. Governor speaks

Edition 44 - PodUniversal

Indian Banks' Association (IBA) and Consumers Association of India (CAI) organised a seminar on 6th October 2008 at Chennai jointly on the 'Rights and responsibilities of banks and customers'. In this edition, we bring to you an excerpt from the speech of Ms Usha Thorat, Deputy Governor of Reserve Bank of India. Ms Usha is handling the customer grievances at RBI against all the public sector, private sector and multinational banks operating in India. She is appellate authority for all the banking ombudsman in India.

In her speech, she has touched the very important issues like loan recoveries, penal interest, service charges, credit cards, ATM cards, drop boxes, etc. She has explained the various rights and responsibilities of the commercial banks (including private sector and multinational banks) and the customers.

With the permission of Consumers Association of India, we are publishing the ppt presentation of Ms Usha Thorat in full and excerpts from her speech. The ppt presentation may be downloaded from the following link (157 kb)

www.prpoint.com/ushathorat.ppt

Please watch and listen to her speech by clicking 'play' (15 mts). (This needs a minimum of 150 kbps broadband for smooth streaming. If you find that streaming is not fast, please download the file in wmv format and play in windows media player)



This podcast may be listened from the following links also

http://blip.tv/file/1340257/

http://www.podbazaar.com/permalink/144115188075857307

To download the wmv format of this podcast, right click and save to your desktop (7.6 mb)

Unresolved customer grievances against any banks in India may also be referred to Mr Desikan, Founder, Consumers Association of India to their email id cai.india1@gmail.com

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