Sahayata Flood Relief Collection Drive: Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra

Dear Friends,

As massive floods in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra swept through the three Indian states, destroying homes, crops and livestock, many survivors lost virtually everything, finding it difficult to restore even the simple lives they once knew.. It has wrecked havoc on them, leaving millions of people material-less and without food/cloths/shelters. The situation is grim and millions of people are badly affected.

We, Pankhudians, have deep empathy towards the victims and we are going to help them in all possible ways.

This is to announce the launch of Pankhudi Collection Drive "Sahayata" for flood victims from all the states who are in need of help and support from everyone in the country. Sahayata is a nationwide collection drive led by all ~Pankhudi chapters (Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune) and starting from 20^th October (Tuesday) -  30^th October (Friday) afternoon.

This is an URGENT APPEAL to all members of Pankhudi Parivaar to join in its campaign "Sahayata" to provide support to the victims of this disaster.  Please circulate this e-mail to all your acquaintances, friends and corporate.

List of Donation items:

Important: Material support (needed in good quality)

Dry ration -  Rice, Pulse, Gram, Chiura, Cooking oil, Gud, Sugar, Tea, spices, Biscuits, Namkeen, Packed eatables and Infant Baby's milk powder. 

Utility items- candles & matchbox, torch & batteries, storage & cooking utensils, tarpaulin, feeding bottles, buckets, ropes, Mosquito nets, stoves

Clothing- large number of sarees, bedsheets, shirts, T-shirts, kids clothes, towels, daris & all kind of usable clothing & footwear.

Export surplus/ Cotton cloth for making sanitary napkins

Kindly also donate used plastic (white ) gunny bags, preferably 50 Kg bags to help us pack the donated clothes. Even one gunny bag per donor will help us greatly! (You can obtain gunny bags from your nearby grocery/provision shop keeper for a cost of Rs 3 ~ Rs 5/ bag).

Sahayata Methodology

We will collect the stuff, sort out the things like clothes for men, women & children, food items, pack it in gunny bags and deliver to NGOs who are working on the field (an inspiring work is being done by Goonj, www.goonj.org ). We need to finish the collection drive by 31^st October 2009 Saturday afternoon. So here is a request to all of you to please ask you friends and relative to donate the following material and get them in touch with "Sahayata coordinators" (list of contacts given below). Sahayata coordinators will help individual and corporate donors in all possible ways to smoothly collect and distribute the items.

One can also reach the Sahayata Coordinators at: sahayata@pankhudifoundation.org

Pankhudi URLs:

www.pankhudifoundation.org

http://pankhudifoundation.org/campaigns.shtml#sahayta

http://pankhudifoundation.org/surabhi/

www.pankhudifoundation.org/Join.html 

www.hsmglobal.com

How to Change the World?

Everyone a Changemaker!!! Belive me it is true. Any person with innovative ideas, commitment and vision for social change can emerge as a social entrepreneur to create lasting impact through solving global challenges.

Morris Bornstein’s book "How to Change the World" provides a kind of In Search for Excellence for social entrepreneurs. If you are at all interested or intrigued by social entrepreneurship, I encourage you to read this book. Indeed, Bornstein’s conclusion that successful entrepreneurs are the ones determined to achieve a long term goal that is deeply meaningful to them.

Pankhudi Foundation

DO YOU HAVE A PASSION FOR HELPING UNDERPRIVILEGED CHILDREN?



Just spend few hours of your time...Make a difference in their lives...
Visit us at www.pankhudifoundation.org

Saving Today for a Better Tomorrow!

Did you Know?

· Earth's average temperature has risen in the last few decades

· Ice is melting worldwide, especially at the poles. This includes mountain glaciers, ice sheets covering West Antarctica and Greenland, and Arctic sea ice. This is leading to rising Sea levels.

Its time we pay attention to the environment and give it some space to breathe too. On the occasion of World Environment Day, let’s pledge to make a greener world, a better world and a healthier world.

As global citizens we too can contribute. Here are some small ways how -

• Plant a tree with your family today! – A tree can on an average remove 50 pounds of carbon from the air in one year
• Turn off the lights when you leave a room
• Use compact fluorescent bulbs as they help save energy (not to mention they last longer)
• Switch off all electrical equipments when not in use, like turn off the monitor when you are not at your desk
• Pile all your home rubbish into different bins – biodegradable and non-biodegradable separately
• Use manure like grass clippings for your plants
• Turn off a running tap
• Keep your car well-tuned and tires properly inflated to save on fuel
• Observe a vehicle free day J walk or take a cycle
• And remember please don't print this unless you really need to...

Even a small step makes a huge difference!

May 10th Pangea Day...dont miss it

What is Pangea Day?

Pangea Day taps the power of film to strengthen tolerance and compassion while uniting millions of people to build a better future.

In a world where people are often divided by borders, difference, and conflict, it's easy to lose sight of what we all have in common. Pangea Day seeks to overcome that — to help people see themselves in others — through the power of film.

On May 10, 2008 — Pangea Day — sites in Cairo, Kigali, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai, and Rio de Janeiro will be linked live to produce a program of powerful films, visionary speakers, and uplifting music.

The program will be broadcast live to the world through the Internet, television, digital cinemas, and mobile phones.

Of course, movies alone can't change the world. But the people who watch them can. So following May 10, 2008, Pangea Day organizers will facilitate community-building activities around the world by connecting inspired viewers with numerous organizations that are already doing groundbreaking work.

The Program starts at 11:30PM in India. To take part in this 4 hours film event:

On Televison: Star World (On 10th May 11:30PM - 3:30AM Indian time)

Online: On 10th May from 11:30PM - 3:30AM the entire Pangea Day program will be streamed online at www.pangeaday.org

Live event: National Center for Performing Arts, NCPA Marg, Nariman Point, Mumbai 400 021, India (On 10th May from 11:30PM - 3:30AM)

For more details visit http://www.pangeaday.org

My Delhi Trip Exp (MIT Symposium: A Conversation About the Future)

MIT President Susan Hockfield led a delegation on a weeklong trip to India, highlighting MIT's history with India and the potential for future collaborations.

In New Delhi, She led the symposium, "India and MIT: A Conversation About the Future" at which around 100 attendees consisting of MIT faculty members, IIT faculty and MIT alumni discussed on various things. She will also deliver a public lecture on "Universities and the Global Knowledge Economy" to the Confederation of Indian Industries(CII) in Mumbai.

While in Bangalore, Hockfield will visit the leaders of John F. Welch Technology Centre, Infosys, Wipro and Biocon. She also plans to meet with groups of alumni in India and with dignitaries from the Indian government, academia and industry.

After receiving invitation from MIT to attend symposium "India and MIT: A Conversation About the Future", I decided to go to Delhi 2 days before so that I can meet my old friends. My flight started from Bangalore at 6:00Am on 17th Nov and reached Delhi at 8:30Am. I met my old friends Dheeraj and saurabh in IIT delhi and had lunch together. Than we went for site seeing of Delhi. Most people must have seen India gate, Parliament and Akshardamam so lets not got into their details. Nexy day was site seeing of Agra with my old friend satish where we visited Tajmahal, Agra fort. Somehow we reached Mathura in the night where we visited Krishna Birth place. Going there made all the pain seem worthwhile.

Monday 19th Nov, I went to Imperial hotel to attend the MIT symposium. I reached there at 8:00Am, and had a nice breakfast in Imperial, after few minutes, the program is started. The program details are:

Welcome speech by MONTEK SINGH AHLUWALIA
Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Government of India

Remarks by Susan Hockfield
President, MIT

Moderator:
PHILIP KHOURY
Associate Provost and Ford International Professor of History

Improving Social Policy by Evaluating What Works: A Look at Education and Health
Video of this discussion is available at (Real Player is required) http://web.mit.edu/smcs/ii/2007/mitw-ii-new_delhi-improve_social_policy-19nov2007-200k.ram

ESTHER C. DUFLO
Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics, MIT

NACHIKET MOR
Deputy Managing Director, ICICI Bank Limited

TEA BREAK

Fostering Innovation Across International Borders
Video of this discussion is available at (Real Player is required)
http://web.mit.edu/smcs/ii/2007/mitw-ii-new_delhi-fostering_innovation-19nov2007-200k.ram

SUBRA SURESH
Ford Professor of Engineering, Dean, School of Engineering, MIT

CHARLES L. COONEY
Robert T. Haslam Professor of Chemical Engineering, MIT

GURURAJ "DESH" DESHPANDE
Chairman, Sycamore Networks, Inc. and Member of the Corporation, MIT

TEA BREAK

Partnering to Transform Engineering Education: Empowering the Teachers
Video of this discussion available at (Real player is required) http://web.mit.edu/smcs/ii/2007/mitw-ii-new_delhi-transform_eng_ed-19nov2007-200k.ram

STEVEN R. LERMAN
Class of 1922 Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Dean for Graduate Students, MIT

ARVIND
Charles W. and Jennifer C. Johnson Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, MIT

SANJAY GOVIND DHANDE
Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science and Engineering, Director, IIT Kanpur

M.S. ANANTH
Professor of Chemical Engineering, Director, IIT Madras

LUNCH BREAK

Partnering to Advance Innovation and Translation in Health Sciences and Technology
Video of this discussion available at (Real Player is required)
http://web.mit.edu/smcs/ii/2007/mitw-ii-new_delhi-partner_adv_innov-19nov2007-200k.ram

MARTHA L. GRAY
Edward Hood Taplin Professor of Medical Engineering and Electrical Engineering, MIT

M.K. BHAN
Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, Government of India

Attendees of Symposium are:


After Symposium, HST Director Martha Gray and Dr. M. K. Bhan, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India, signed a letter of intent for partnership that will result in the creation of a new Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI) in India.

This new institute, which will be modeled after the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST), will include faculty from multiple disciplines and professions, offer degrees through multidisciplinary programs and develop strong ties with other institutions. Funded by the Indian government, the Indian HST will be a multidisciplinary, multiprofessional research and training center that is highly interconnected with regional centers of excellence.

The institute will increase India's capacity for translating scientific and technological advancements into medical innovations that have the potential to improve healthcare both in India and around the world.

"Tremendous potential exists in India, with its excellence in engineering and science. This partnership is an opportunity to create a long term, synergistic relationship that will result in wide ranging benefits to global health," said Bhan.

"Launching this new partnership with India's Department of Biotechnology will build on HST's pioneering model of medical education that integrates science, medicine and engineering to solve problems of human health," said Susan Hockfield, president of MIT. "We look forward to a future of significant collaboration across disciplines, across institutions and around the world."

To foster a culture of innovation in THSTI, HST will help recruit and train new THSTI faculty members. Each year starting in September 2008 and continuing until 2011, four recruited THSTI faculty fellows will join the HST faculty. These faculty fellows will train at HST for two years. During their stay they will develop translational research programs, design courses and curricula for THSTI, and develop close relationships with HST faculty and students.

These fellows will benefit from HST's nearly 40 years of experience bringing together science, engineering and medicine in education and translational medical research. HST's success stories include medical innovations such as functional magnetic resonance imaging, a low-cost AIDS detection kit and novel implantable drug delivery mechanisms.

HST and MIT will also benefit from having these fellows on campus. "We will have people immersed in our program who actually know about the unmet medical needs in India and who will expose our students and faculty to those needs," said Gray.

This exposure will help drive innovations that can make a real difference in global public health, said Gray. "I don't believe we can have a global impact on health if we don't have international partners as part of our community."

MIT and India have embarked on partnerships before. The two joined forces nearly 50 years ago to form the India Institute of Technology (IIT) in Kanpur, one of India's top-ranked engineering and science schools. "THSTI has the potential to be a second success story that could revolutionize medicine in India the same way the IIT schools revolutionized engineering and science," said Shiladitya Sengupta, assistant professor of medicine and an HST faculty member at Harvard Medical School.

Finally I came back to Bangalore by 9:00PM flight...!!!

~Pankhudi in Hindustan Times

http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/artMailDisp.aspx?article=14_11_2007_161_008&typ=1&pub=264

ACM Bangalore COMPUTE 2008 and HEADSTART

Hi
As you may all know, ACM Bangalore is organising COMPUTE 2008, a conference focusing on research in very contemporary areas of computing - SaaS, Autonomic computing, Information management and Grids.The venue for COMPUTE 2008 is the JN Tata Auditorium at IISc, Bangalore and the tutorials and paper presentations are scheduled over 3 days from 18th to 20th January. We thought that in addition to research and paper presentations, it is also important to showcase the state-of-the-art in areas of applied computing. This would also provide opportunities for businesses, entrepreneurs, investors to see new technology, meet each other, discuss and network. HEADSTART 2008 is the name of the technology showcase event and it will be co-located at the same venue as for COMPUTE. A short note here : HEADSTART will focus on only new technology and products that have not been launched in the market yet, so no sales pitches for existing products are possible. So, how can you contribute ? A lot in many ways and please feel free to post in the mailing list- nominating interesting companies and individuals who can demonstrate interesting tech/products and give names for keynote speakers you want in the event, panel discussions you want to participate in - reviewing or nominating reviewers for the HEADSTART segments of - consumer services, mobility and communications, enterprise applications and toolkits, silicon and embedded systems- joining the organising committee for HEADSTART to work on logistics, inviting keynote speakers, VCs, etc - do publicity for HEADSTART, if you are a member of a mailing list for related topics or blog, put in a word thereI will post all developments related to this event on this mailing list frequently to keep you all updated. COMPUTE has a separate organising committee and we are forming an organising committee for HEADSTART, feel free to write to me if you want to be part of it and give some of your time to make this event a success.
For more info please visit: http://groups.google.com/group/acm-bangalore-chapter?hl=en

Artificial Intelligence is IBM's New Mantra

Software major IBM on Friday announced launch of innovations such as artificial intelligence in vehicles and traffic management systems, voice recognition technology and traffic-related information transfer through cell phones. By introducing these revolutionary transport innovations, IBM believes these could revolutionize the transport system. The innovations would make travelling by planes, trains or automobiles a more convenient and hassle free experience within the next few years, a company release said.It would also curtail fuel wastage and incidence of accidents. "Researchers and strategists at IBM think that the cure for transportation problems is not building more roads or adding flight," IBM India Research Laboratory director Daniel Dias said. The emerging technologies especially in communication will make travel safer, more streamlined and able to accommodate ever-increasing growth demands, he said.Under the driver-assist technologies, automobiles would behave as if they have reflexes. They could sense other cars and avoid hazards. They would also be able to exchange information with each other, take corrective action where it was appropriate and provide essential feedback to drivers. The voice recognition systems in vehicles would al. low drivers to get real-time flight updates, respond to e. mails and get directions through simple voice commands, the company said.