`No school bag' day on Oct 15 as tribute to Prez Kalam

Instead, schools to line up reading activities that day

As a tribute to our former president APJ Abdul Kalam, the state government has decided to observe October 15, his birth anniversary , as Vaachan Prerna Diwas or `Reading Day'. City schools will celebrate this day as `No School Bag Day'.

The mandate recommends all students, from class three to eight, to take to reading non-academic books on that day . Schools have also been directed to conduct events and activities that inspire students to read such books. The state government has set a budget of about `6 lakhs for the day . Let's take a look at the activities that will be conducted as a part of the celebrations.

CONDUCT A BOOK EXHIBITION

Students can plan and organise a book exhibition; it can include all their favourite books.While organising the same, students can interact with each other about their reading habits and also learn about some of the most popular books in the world.

GIFT-A-BOOK ACTIVITY

It can be any book, other than a textbook. Be it story books, comics, classics, fiction or non-fiction, students are being encouraged to gift each other a book of their choice, which initiate discussions and enhance their understanding.

INVITE AUTHORS

Some schools are also planning to invite famous authors to meet the children and share their expertise and experience. It will be an enriching experience as children will get to know in detail about writing as a profession, understand the nuances of publishing and the steps that go into being a successful author.

LECTURES BY LITERATURE EXPERTS

The intention of conducting lectures by literature and other subject experts is to broaden the perspectives of students, who spend most of their time in studies and other extra curricular activities. These experts will share knowledge that's not usually a part of the syllabus.

READING A BOOK, NOT TEXTBOOK

Since students come across only textbooks and worksheets while schooling, the day will be dedicated to taking them beyond that and reading all kinds of books. This will enhance their academic knowledge and get them grades. An interactive activity , it will introduce children to well-known authors from around the world and enhance their experience. Reading books can help them expand their horizons and learn things beyond textbooks.

READ OUT LOUD

Although reading might be practised by students on a regular basis, not many know the benefits of reading out loud. One of the activities lined up for this day is to read out loud, so that you understand each and every word you read, their pronunciations, meaning, the tone in which they are used and the context it is used. Reading out loud also boosts our confidence and generates valuable feedback.

Source: The Times of India dated 13 October, 2015

Why your Facebook account needs to be included in your Will

The Internet has changed the way we live. Technology has taken over our lives in many ways and most of us are a tangled mess of emails, smartphones, iPads and laptops. We use technology for almost everything we do—our morning alarm, daily calendar, correspondence through WhatsApp, emails and SMS, bank accounts and social network accounts. This dependence on the Internet has given us something new to think about—dgital assets. During our lifetimes, they afford us the luxury of being able to do almost everything on-the-go and immediately. But what happens to these assets when we pass away?

Justin Ellsworth died while serving in the US armed forces. His father, appointed personal representative of his estate, sought access to his Yahoo account to make a memorial for him. Yahoo has a policy of not sharing passwords and refused to co-operate.

When Helen and Jay Stassen’s 21-year-old son, Benjamin, committed suicide, the Stassens went searching for answers. They found themselves engaged in a conflict with Facebook and Google. Both companies refused to give them access to their son’s account.

In both these cases, the families had to resort to getting a court order for access to information. These cases highlight the uncertainty about privacy of people’s digital lives in the event of their death.

What are digital assets?

Historically, a person’s estate consisted of a Will, trusts, life insurance policies, and any property that a person owned, including financial accounts. While many people manage their finances, business, and personal lives online, only a few have organised or centralised their online accounts. This can make managing and distributing these assets difficult after the person has died, and can lead to confusion for family members, denial of access, and even an inability to locate the accounts or information in the first place.

What happens to the many posts you made on social networking sites if you die or become incapacitated? What about the emails you stored with various service providers? What happens to the thousands of images you have stored on your Flickr or Instagram accounts? Maybe you run a website or a blog or an online business. What about registered domain names and libraries of movies, digital music and e-books that can be of significant value? Even closely held companies have information that is digital: banking records, documents, spreadsheets, personnel records, domain names.

For the majority of us, these accounts and digital assets are likely to outlive us. And when we die, it is left up to family members and executors of the Will to sort through them all. A digital estate plan is a plan for the succession of your digital assets. It can help your family locate and access any accounts you have online. With the launch of the Digital India campaign by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, our daily involvement with the digital world is only going to rise.

What happens to digital assets without any plan?

It’s almost always in the terms of service of every digital company to not share your account information with anyone other than you. Most companies are aware of the trust placed in them, and take their responsibility to protect the privacy of people who use these services seriously. Companies like Google, Twitter and Outlook may provide content from the account on the receipt of relevant documentation but will not provide passwords or other mechanisms that would enable anyone to log in to a user’s account. Google also goes a step further with “Inactive Account Manager,” which is a way to either share or delete the account after a set period of inactivity. Others like LinkedIn will remove the account without transferring data to related family members. Facebook gives you two options—you can either delete your late family member’s account or to memorialise it. It will not transfer the account to anyone.

Making a plan for digital assets

Many states in the US have enacted laws incorporating certain online accounts or information into the probate process and are taking steps to enact specific laws relating to digital assets. In India, however, this seems some time away. A number of online companies have also started which allow you to indicate who can access your online accounts when you are no longer alive.

Given the lack of legal clarity in this area, it just makes practical sense to get organised now and to take care of your digital assets, to the extent possible. So, here is how you can do it:

1. Make a plan for your digital assets; you may wish to back up data in an external hard-drive to store photos, e-mails, documents, and other work product.

2. Take inventory of your digital accounts and assets, assemble a list of passwords.

3.Store details in an easy to reach location.

4.Give trusted family members information, instructions and authority so that they know what you have, where it is located, and how you want to dispose of it.

The truth is that today more and more of our lives are online and this will only increase. It is imperative to understand what you keep online and what will happen to it once you are no longer there. Careful planning and organisation increases the likelihood that digital assets are handled in a manner consistent with your wishes.

Gautami Gavankar, principal advisor-estate planning, Kotak Mahindra Trusteeship Services Ltd

Source: LiveMint dated 13/10/2015

Placement related Apps

Source: Maharashtra Times dated 11/10/2015

Neglecting science could kill it one day

The deterioration of science education in India should be of greater concern to us than not winning a Nobel Prize

October is that month when institutions in Sweden and Norway, including the Swedish Academy of Sciences, announce the winners of the Nobel Prize in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, economics and peace. The awards in physics, chemistry and medicine have a long history and it is probably this long tradition, rather than their monetary value, that gives the Nobel Prize the extraordinary power to influence public perceptions of the scientific profession.

REUTERSProductive, high-quality science requires good infrastructural facilities, good students, expensive instruments and industry-academia linkages. Such facilities are extremely rare in developing countries

A question sometimes asked, though perhaps less often than it should be by Indian politicians and the intelligentsia, is why, despite our much-touted scientific acumen, no Nobel Prize in science has been won by an Indian for work done in India for more than 80 years — as Sir CV Raman won the physics Nobel in 1930. This question is an important one since the teaching and doing of science require substantial resources that come from the tax payer. An obvious answer is that for Indian science to reach such prize-winning calibre we require not just ‘outstanding’ discoveries in science but also what it takes to come up with them and that these requirements have undergone changes beyond recognition since the Raman era. The question we should rather be asking today is what kind of science allows individual excellence to thrive, bring glory to the nation, and deliver tangible benefits to society.

It is important to realise that many Nobel Prize-winning discoveries both in the past and also in more recent times have been innovation-focused. Contrary to common wisdom, top quality curiositydriven research and that which assumes a broader application often go hand in hand. Excellence in applied and basic research synergises each other over long periods of time. Established innovations can often throw up questions whose answers in turn lead to outstanding discoveries.

The discovery of the ammonia synthesis catalyst in the early 20th century is a particularly instructive case in point. It is essential in the manufacture of the most common fertiliser, globally made in billions of tonnes today, and its discoverer Fritz Haber was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1918. However, while his work revealed how ammonia was made, the question as to why the catalyst works remained unanswered for about 70 years. It was Gerhard Ertl, using modern experimental techniques, who provided the answer and won the Nobel Prize in 2007.

Another relevant example is the Nobel awarded to John Robert Vane in 1982 for providing an answer to why aspirin is an effective pain killer. Although aspirin had been patented in 1900 by the company Bayer, and its medicinal benefits as a pain killer were well established, its mechanism of action was not known. Vane’s answer paved the pathway for the introduction of a new generation of heart drugs.

This year’s Nobel Prize for medicine to Tu Youyou of China for the discovery of artemisinin, an antimalarial drug isolated from Chinese wormwood, is a clear example of how innovation continues to be driven by good science. In China the national project against malaria to discover new therapies was started in 1967, and artemisinin (the active ingredient) isolated by 1972. In other words, it took four decades for the scientific community as a whole to collectively establish and accept the enormous scope and utility of Tu’s work.

Much of Nobel Prize-winning science has been interdisciplinary in character. Many prize-winning discoveries had engineers working with scientists. Carl Bosch and Guilio Natta (one of the Nobel Prize winners for plastic) were chemical engineers who collaborated and shared their Nobels with chemists. In recent times the border lines between physics and chemistry or chemistry and biology are so blurred that chemists often complain that the prizes given for chemistry have little to do with chemistry. In this century four out of the 16 Nobel prizes in chemistry, have been awarded for work related to catalysis, an interdisciplinary area of much industrial relevance.

Productive, high-quality science requires good infrastructural facilities, good students, expensive instruments and industry-academia linkages. Such facilities are extremely rare in developing countries. No wonder many talented scientists from the developing world have looked for professional fulfilment in the West. Aziz Sancar, one of the Nobel Prize winners in chemistry this year, is one more addition to the long list of Nobel laureates in the United States whose primary training in science was in the developing world. Hargobind Khorana and V Ramakrishnan, both Indianorigin scientists and Nobel laureates, also worked in well-funded science laboratories elsewhere.

The future of Indian science as a whole is uncertain and the overall deterioration in science education and research are matters of far greater concern than not winning a Nobel Prize. Science education and research must not be thought of as water falling from a tap that can be closed and opened at will. Neglecting science beyond a point can kill it permanently. In India with less than 1% of GDP allocation to science and the private sector’s complete indifference to long-term industry-academia linkages we are fast approaching that point. Sumit Bhaduri taught at Northwestern University and IIT Bombay The views expressed are personal.

Source: The Hindustan Times dated 12/10/2015

Digital Learning Made Easier

Bulbbulapps library, a smartphone and tablet app for children below six years, has garnered more than a million views on YouTube. Merely four months old, Hyderabad-based startup Bulbulapps is available on all platforms is and  is currently among the top apps in iOS India.

How Bulbul was conceived

A serial entrepreneur, Prakash was always passionate about films and books right from his childhood. “I grew up to become a filmmaker and an artist. Bulbulapps is inspired by this very fundamental need to learn and unlearn. Most importantly. It is meant to unlock the curiosity of every single child. It became even more evident when my child began to ask questions born out of curiosity. They enjoyed reading and learning through the digital platform as it was highly engaging and had a tremendous visual and interesting narration,” says Prakash, founder and CEO, Bulbulapps.

Prakash was awed by the curiosity and the questions that every child asks constantly. Their hunger for answer is endless. “When I first came across the bird ‘Bulbul’, I found that it was unique, bubbly, full of curiosity and had a  restlessness to discover things around it. I wanted to create a brand that had a distinctive and childlike voice – a voice and visual that stimulates something  personal, embraces modern technology and puts the child reader and parents’ choice foremost in the process. So Bulbul came to existence,” he says.

Loaded with stories

Bulbulapps library is loaded with different stories wherein  a kid or a parent gets on single library app with lots of categories and books that they can download and read. The basic version is free. We also offer a subscription model. “Currently, we don’t tie up our apps with any physical books. Though we have requests from pre-schools at this moment we are more focused on the library app itself,” Prakash points out.

Collaborative effort

The foundation of the library app is ‘Think like a Child’. “For our app Krishna and the Universe we had a writer from Mumbai, a Spanish artist from Mexico, an Israeli music studio, a city animator and a Hyderabadi voice-over artist who collaborated to create this beautiful app for the pre-school children using our bulbulstudio.com.  It is a highly engaging, enriching a mobile phone story for children,” says Prakash.

The team has over 180 artists from around the world, who constantly bring new story ideas on board and translate them to lovely apps. “We believe if people can collaborate from different countries to do coding and create software, they can also collaborate to make a beautiful interactive story for kids,” he says.

Currently, Bulbulapps have touched 250,000 cumulative downloads and counting. “Some of our books even went on to become No1 eBook app in 14 countries including Saudi Arabia and Pakistan,” he adds.

What next?

“We began our journey by creating known folk and fairy tales. Our next focus is to develop native characters and regional content for India. All the apps in our library are more popular and easily understood stories in English. Apart from English, we are in the process of creating local apps in Hindi and Telugu. In the next six months we plan to introduce apps in another 12 languages. Our new series is kids travel apps. We just introduced Tuk-Tuk in Mumbai. Soon we will it in other cities,” says Prakash.

Source: http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/hyderabad/Digital-Learning-Made-Easier/2015/10/08/article3067952.ece

New Indian Express, 8/10/2015

De-stressing employees

Long working hours can lead to a sedentary lifestyle and associated illnesses such as obesity, hypertension and cardiovascular diseases. A few minutes of physical activity can not only enhance employee productivity but also employee bonding, so crucial for any organisation

A competitive workspace, hovering deadlines and a pressure-cooker like environment are corporate realities of today. Our highly-connected lifestyles have magnified work-related stress with long working hours, disturbed sleeping patterns, sedentary lifestyles and lack of relaxation. As a result, most working professionals today suffer from various associated ailments. Stress is also becoming one of the reasons for declining productivity and attrition rates in some organisations. Additionally, organisations suffer from the loss of millions of working days due to stress-related illnesses.

However, an increasing number of organisations are realising that employees are not a replaceable property but human resource that needs to be valued. Efforts are being made by corporates to help employees achieve wellness, good health and reduce stress. For instance, setting up of gyms inside office campuses, official tours, yoga classes and socially-relevant activities are some ways organisations are improving employee engagement and wellness. Modern organisations can take various steps to reduce employee burnout.

* Reflexology is a non-intrusive treatment to wash away the stress from the body. In the procedure, effective pressure is applied to reflex points in hands, feet and ears by professional reflexologists. All that this treatment needs is a special chair and a 30-45 minute session. Experts say that a once-in-a-month session with a reflexologist can rejuvenate your employees and minimise their mental and physical stress. The treatment has been proved to lead to better sleeping patterns, thereby leading to better focus and high productivity at the workplace.

* Yoga is a form of meditation that synchronises the body, mind and soul. Globally, people practising yoga have discovered various psychological and physical benefits, including improved strength, flexibility and general well-being, apart from relief from stress, anxiety and depression. Arranging yoga sessions once a week can help employees de-stress. All it needs is a large room and some dedication on part of the management.

* Workout sessions, a few minutes a day, have proven to boost employee confidence and performance. Today, an increasing number of organisations are incorporating a gym area within the office premises. Long working hours lead to a sedentary lifestyle and associated illnesses such as obesity, hypertension and cardiovascular diseases. A few minutes of working out and stretching can enhance employee productivity. Sometimes, it also leads to employee bonding, so crucial for any organisation. Here, management can take steps by inculcating wellness programmes in the employee schedule.

* Off-site gathering is another employee bonding initiative. Often, hectic schedules distance employees not only from their personal lives but also from each other—competitive work environment is known to create fissures among employees. Thus, arranging occasional off-site gatherings can help employees mingle with each other and help them de-stress by talking everything but work.

By Rohit Aggarwal

The author is CEO, Koenig Solutions, the offshore IT training company

Source: The Financial Express dated 12/10/2015

WhatsApp offers Android users back-up in Google Drive

WhatsApp users will no more have to worry about memory storage capacity of their smartphones as it has announced a back-up feature for Android platform that will help store chats and multimedia content in Google Drive.

“...you don’t want your memories stuck on your phone. (What if something happens?!) So starting today, WhatsApp for Android lets you create a private backup of your chat history, voice messages, photos and videos in Google Drive. And once you do, you can restore everything on a new device with just a couple of taps,” Google Drive Director of Product Management Scott Johnston said in his blog.

“The new backup feature is rolling out over in the next few months, so keep an eye on your WhatsApp settings to see if it’s available,” he said.

WhatsApp website also shared similar information.

“You can back up your messages and media to Google Drive so that if you lose your phone or switch to another Android phone, your chats are safe,” the instant messenger portal said.

The feature will come in a new update for existing Android users. After updating their WhatsApp application, they can go to setting option in the application, select ‘Chats and Calls’ option and opt for frequency — daily, weekly, monthly or never — for saving their data.

However, this update at present is not available in WhatsApp application for Android users in India.

WhatsApp did not respond to the query sent regarding the date when this feature will be available for Indian users.

The mobile instant messenger reported to have over 70 million monthly active users in India till November 2014.

In September, the company disclosed that it has 900 million active users globally.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/whatsapp-offers-android-users-backup-in-google-drive/article7749703.ece?css=print