TAMILNADU

Vanavil Mandram (Rainbow forum), a unique initiative to foster scientific interest among school students was launched by NaduChief MinisterM K Stalinhere on Monday. It is aimed at promoting interest among the students of standard 6 to 8 to learnScience Technology Engineering and Mathematics(STEM).

Also, the Chief Minister flagged off 100 mobile science and mathematics laboratories on behalf school Education department to stimulate the scientific temper among students.

They would teach students science experiments and mathematics, on a monthly basis, with proper guidance, and display science tools made by students.
The scheme will be implemented at an estimated cost of Rs 25 crore to benefit 25 lakh government school students.

The sex ratio at birth inTamil Naduhas dropped to 878 in 2020-21 from 954 in 2016-17, according to theNational Family Health Surveyreleased by theInternational Institute of Population Sciences. State officials contest this figure, which is lower than the country’s Average.

India’s average has risen to 929 from 919.

While public health experts raised concerns about possible increase in sex determination and selective abortions, senior state health officials said the survey drastically underestimates sex ratio as the sample size is relatively small. Scientists from theSchool of Public Health, SRM University, gathered information for the survey from 27,929 households, 25,650 Women and 3,372 men in two phases – from January 6 to March 21, 2020, and from December 21, 2020, to March 31, 2021.

The civil registration system is a unified process of continuous, permanent, compulsory and universal recording of events such as births, deaths and stillbirths.

TCMPF in response said that the Auditing was done in the year 2019 and since then it had improved the cooling to ensure that only quality milk reached the diaries.
Usually, the bacterial content in raw milk increases due to transportation delays. To reduce this to one hour or less, the federation has installed more bulk milk coolers (BMCs). The state now has around 500 BMCs.

The Consulate General of Israel to South India in collaboration with United Planters Association of Southern India (UPASI), Jain Irrigation Systems and NaanDanJain Irrigation (Israel) launched a smart IoT irrigation project in a tea plantation (a first of its kind in the tea plantation in the country) near Ooty.

has been in vogue for tea for many years though. Smart IoT irrigation is an innovative Israeli technique that uses water judiciously and helps farmers achieve higher levels of crop yield with minimal amount of water.

The irrigation system has been installed on a 5-acre tea garden in the United Nilgiri Tea Estates Company Pvt. Ltd. (Chamraj group) in Allada Valley near Ooty.

A report by a property consultant has revealed that Chennai was the only city among top eight real estate markets in the country to see a positive leasing activity during the financial year 2021.

Knight FrankIndias report titled India Warehousing Market Report 2021 says Chennai recorded a total of 3.5 million square feet of warehousing leasing activity in FY 2021. The city recorded a 4% Year-on-Year (YoY) Growth in warehouse space absorption despite the pandemic exigencies.

Pointing out that Chennai was the only city among the top eight markets to record positive YoY growth in FY 2021, the report says that the highest leasing activity was concentrated in the Sriperumbudur-Oragadam cluster.

Automobile, textile and manufacturing for heavy industries continued to be the driver industries for citys industrial and warehousing demand, he said adding that ecommerce and retail players were recent additions to this list.

Chief Minister M K Stalin inaugurated the Nadu Technology (iTNT) hub, constructed at a cost of Rs 54.61 crore inside the Anna University campus, through video conference from the Secretariat on Monday.

Touted as Indias first emerging and Deep Tech innovation Network, iTNT hub, which would promote Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and Block Chain technology by integrating growing technologies to face future challenges, was announced in the State Budget for 2022-23.

It will create an ecosystem for innovations and take Tamil Nadu to the top 10 position in the world on Deep Tech. It will work with an academic network of more than 570 engineering colleges by engaging with researchers and Industry partners to promote innovation.

The non-profit organization under the States Information Technology and Digital Services department, iTNT was set up with 50 per cent funding from the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, 37 funding from the State and 13 per cent from industry partners.

The Confederation of Indian (CII)Tamil Naduchapter has mapped more than 10 lakh employees and workers of the CII member companies in the state to prepare them for vaccination. The employees and workers belong to 1,397 member companies of CII in the state and they include temporary and outsourced staff.

The mapping of employees is part ofCII Tamil Nadu’s plans to ensure 100% vaccination for all, as part of its support to the State Government‘s initiatives to contain the spread of Covid. CII’s vaccination programme began on Wednesday at Daimler India’s commercial vehicle plant at Oragadam with chief minister M K Stalin visiting the facility and appreciating the vaccination drive.

CII has devised a ‘hub & spoke’ model, where larger industrial units will hold vaccination camps and employees of smaller industries in the region could vaccinate themselves at such facilities. But the shortage in supply of Vaccines could cause a hurdle.

As per the ‘hub and spoke’ model, larger companies where vaccination camps will be held have be identified and they have assured 100% cooperation.

In the first-ever national census of lakes conducted by the Union jal shakti ministry, Naduhas emerged at the top with 13,629 lakes.

The Irrigation census sponsored by the Centre was launched to have a comprehensive national Database of all waterbodies, covering all aspects, including type, condition, status of encroachments, use, storage, capacity and status of storage, both in rural and urban areas. The findings that were released on Sunday shows that Tamil Nadu stands fourth (43,837) in the number of tanks, after Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Himachal Pradesh. The ministry had enumerated over 24 lakh water bodies in the country during the census.

The assessment of water bodies and their condition comes in the wake of a Parliamentary standing committee recommending a separate census and a central database. For the first time, the Centre has collected information on encroachment of water bodies. While 1.6% of the enumerated water bodies across the country are encroached, 8,366 water bodies in Tamil Nadu, which is 8% of its total count, have been encroached upon. Significantly, the encroachment of 4,933 water bodies alone could be assessed.

Naducontributes more than 10% to the countrys overall technology sector and all stakeholders must come together to increase this, chief minister M K Stalin said on Thursday, in a video message addressing the technology conference Umagine Chennai 2023. More than 1,300 centres in the field of tech are already present in the state. We have the best educational institutions and we are already leading in the fields of automation and innovation, he said. The information technology (IT) sector is key for our model of inclusive development, and I urge the Industry to work together and help us achieve these goals, he added.

Inaugurating the event, state I&T minister Mano Thangaraj said TNs Software export potential is immense, and it can become Indias tech capital. The state is in talks with Google and Amazon to grow here, and they are proceeding well, he added.
The minister said the state has already identified land parcels for the tech cities announced in the statebudgetearlier this week. The one in Chennai is around 150 acres, the second will be in Hosur on around 500 acres, and we will soon identify land in Coimbatore, the minister said.

TheTrichycorporation during the monthly council meeting on Tuesday informed that stray cattle impounding centres will be opened in all zones, amid opposition from a section of councillors against the enforcement. At present, only one safe shelter is available across the city at Konakkarai in zone V, to accommodate the seized cattle. Four more centres will be opened in the other zones to intensify and sustain the drive to prevent accidents due to stray cattle.

Another section of councillors said that the drive was appreciated by 90% of the residents. Corporations property will be utilised to shelter 50 cattle at a time in each of the four centres, the mayor said. Meanwhile, CPM councillor S Suresh brought a bottle of drinking water alleging that Senthaneerpuram residents are getting substandard quality of water in their pipelines. The officials assured to inspect the area.