2 Smartphone apps developed at Kochi's Startup Village among 10 best

Kochi: Two smartphone applications developed by firms at Kochi's Startup Village have been named among the 10 best apps designed for the security of women, by IT industry body NASSCOM.

Sentinel developed by MindHelix Technosol Pvt Ltd and iFollow from Aucupa Innovative Solutions were among winners of NASSCOM’s first all-India App Fame Contest to search for mobile tools to aid personal safety of women and to help deal with emergencies, a press release said.

Sentinel is a GPS-based application developed by MindHelix for Android devices and iPhone. It can make SOS calls and send text alerts and emails with location information to pre-saved emergency numbers and IDs at the touch of a button.

The application works even in situations where the user is unable to trigger the alert manually or the phone is destroyed or there is no internet access. It can be downloaded for free from Google Play and the App store.

Aucupa's iFollow is an Android app that automatically dials voice calls to emergency contacts pre-configured on the device.It is activated if the phone is shaken continuously for five seconds, and on standby works silently in the background to reduce power consumption and CPU usage. iFollow is also a free application that can be downloaded from Google Play.

MindHelix and Aucupa are both fledgling companies incubating at Startup Village. The latest award follows a series of honours and recognition for products and services developed by young innovators at India’s first telecom technology incubator.

NASSCOM’s App Fame Contest received entries from around the country. The awards were presented at a function in Delhi on June 19. 

Braveheart from Jaipur travels to rain-ravaged Uttarakhand to help victims

JAIPUR: He is a habitual rescuer. Be it serial blasts or a fire incident, 35-year-old AbhishekPandit is the most sought after person by the fire department and the Jaipur police. This time Abhishek along with a 50-member team of volunteers rushed to Dehradun on June 18. He is still there to help the stranded people. Likewise, many others volunteers from Jaipur have gone to Rishikesh irrespective of the fact that they have no relative trapped there.

On June 11, 2011, when a house-cum-chemical factory caught fire in the Walled City, Abhishek arrived on the scene within minutes and rescued three women trapped inside the compound. He was even felicitated by the Jaipur police and civil defence team for his work.

"I was going through the reports of devastation at Gauri Ghat, Kedarnath, Badrinath and other temples. On June 18 I packed my bags and rushed to Rishikesh to help the victims. Later I went to a few villages which had witnessed heavy destruction," said Abhishek, a native of Baba Harish Chandra Marg in the Walled City over phone from Dehradun.

He is with a team of 50 youngsters who have gone with relief material including blankets, biscuit packets, water bottles and first-aid boxes.

"We are in touch with the Army and are urging them to take us in the rescue teams. I have shown my certificates including an appreciation letter by the government of Rajasthan. They said they don't have permission to allow civilians to participate in the rescue operation," said Abhishek.

He said that in the last couple of days the volunteers visited local hospitals in Dehradun where they supplied water, blankets, quilts and other aid to the victims.

"None of my relatives are in Uttarakhand but I know at this time any kind of help and work can help the government authorities here who are engaged in the rescue work," he said.

Bangalore-Mysore highway to be upgraded to six lane

BANGALORE: The state government plans to upgrade the existing 4-lane Bangalore-Mysore highway to 6-lane road.

Public works minister H C Mahadevappa on Monday maintained that upgrading of Mysore-Bangalore road to 6-lane was being actively considered. "Everyday, about 70,000 vehicles use this road and the existing 4-lane is not sufficient to carry that big traffic," he said. The PWD official said the government was in process of land acquisition for the 6-lane. The proposal will be placed before the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), he said.

The minister said the the toll collection on state highways is being done only in few places and it would be extended to at least seven other highways soon. "Toll collection was necessary for maintenance of the roads," he said. In the wake of complaints from the road users that toll was on higher side, Mahadevappa said he would review the collection in those highways.

The minister also said the government will review the allotment of 600 acres of excess land to Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE) around Bangalore. In an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court, the state government has admitted that it had allotted 600 acres excess land to NICE.

Manmohan in Srinagar, says Centre ready to talk to anyone shunning violence, but will not yield to terror

SRINAGAR: On a visit to Jammu and Kashmir, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday expressed government's readiness to talk to anyone who shuns violence but made it clear that it would not succumb to terrorists efforts to destabilise the state.

"I have always said that those who shun violence, we are ready to talk to them," he said in a brief interaction with select journalists. The Prime Minister was replying to a question whether the government was willing to consider holding talks with separatists Hurriyat Conference and others. Singh said Monday's terror attack in Srinagar that had claimed the lives of eight soldiers was "most unfortunate".

However, he hastened to add that "this should not frighten leaders or our opponents to conclude that we will succumb to terrorists efforts to destabilise Jammu and Kashmir, destabilise our economy. "I can only say that this is most reprehensible and cowardly act on the part of the terrorists."

The Centre has often made clear its intentions for holding a dialogue with the separatists and other organisations, who have not taken to arms. Moderate factions of Hurriyat Conference have always maintained that they would be ready to participate in any dialogue with the Centre but before that they would prefer some Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) like withdrawal of the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and repatriation of all Kashmiri prisoners lodged in various jails.

Mehsana chips in with helping hand

AHMEDABAD: A group of citizens from Mehsana will set off for Dehradun with relief material for flood-ravaged Uttarakhand on June 26. Mitra Mandal, the group, will go door-to-door to markets, societies and different parts of the town for three days to collect donations for victims.

"We collected food items like rice, jaggery, cooking oil, biscuits from wholesale market on the very first day. The footwear market has promised to donate 1,000 pairs of shoes," said Jaydeep Dabhi, president of Mitra Mandal. They will start their journey to Uttarakhand in trucks and hand over the collection to the Army.

The Gujarat government on Monday held a review meeting to enable easy transit and provide greater relief to those affected by the flash floods in Uttarakhand.

The Gujarat government announced Rs 2 lakh ex gratia each for the kin of pilgrims from Gujarat who died whle on the char dham yatra. Moreover, the state government has decided to grant another Rs 3 crore to the Uttarakhand government as part of the relief package. Earlier, the government had announced Rs 2 crore relief. The total amount now is Rs 5 crore.

Maharashtra to get 15,000 micro-ATMs from Centre for rural inclusion

Mumbai: In order to facilitate financial inclusion of people from remote areas in the state, Maharashtra will get around 15,000 micro-ATMs from Centre.

Moreover, as many as 20,000 Business Correspondents (BCs) will be appointed for the purpose of taking banking to the doorstep of the people in remote areas by allowing them to do transactions at Point of Sale or PoS (the micro ATM).

The four Aadhaar-enabled basic types of banking transactions can be done through micro-ATMs are balance enquiry, cash withdrawal, cash deposit and Aadhaar to Aadhaar funds transfer.


At present, there are about 500 BCs and their number will be enhanced considerably so that Mahatma Gandhi National Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA) funds can be disbursed to the labour force immediately.

This assurance of micro ATMs was given by Nandan Nilankeni, Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), to Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan here recently.

According to Information Technology Secretary Rajesh Agrawal 6.35 crore Aadhar card enrolments have been done in Maharashtra.

"On a daily basis, we are doing 1.5 to 1.8 lakh enrolments which is the highest in the country. At 70-75 per cent, one crore enrolments have been done in Mumbai," he informed.

He said that 50 per cent of Aadhar card machines in the state will be shifted from schools to housing societies to facilitate the penetration.

"50 per cent of the total 4000-5000 Aadhar card machines in the state will be shifted from schools to housing societies. There are about 500 machines in Pune and Thane," Agrawal said, adding that the state will cross 85 per cent enrolment by March 2014.

PTI

Maha govt plans biometric system to facilitate pensioners

Mumbai: In a bid to provide relief to pensioners from submitting yearly life certificates to avail pension, Maharashtra government plans to set up biometric reader machines for online finger print authentication.

Officials in the Department of Information and Technology (IT) said the plan is to set up biometric reader machines in all villages. The machines are proposed to be in PDS shops, citizen service centres and government offices providing e-services.

"The initiative will be useful to state government employees who settle in their native place after retirement. Every year, they have to produce life certificates from tehsildar offices to be submitted to respective banks.

"Instead, the pensioners with Aadhar cards can do their finger print authentication, which will be directly matched with the UID card number stored in the data hub in Ba

ngalore and the banks will get direct intimation about it," the officials said.

They said the state government is awaiting clearance of its proposal by the Centre.

Aadhar card numbers would be made mandatory for sale and purchase of property so that benami transactions can be curbed, officials said.

PTI