City born of a sandy strip

September 24, 2014About Chennai(Madras) / TamilNadu, Historical Links, Pre-Independence, Records, All, World Opinionadmin

Two persons, Francis Day and Andrew Cogan, decided to buy a strip of land. For them, it seemed a gamble. Now, three centuries and more later, we look back and find that the gamble did pay off.

August 22, 1639, South of Pulicat, Tamil Nadu

Two men were standing on a sandy strip by the beach. The afternoon sun was scorching, but they didn’t seem to mind the heat — considering they were Englishmen, obviously unused to such temperatures.

“So, you are satisfied, then?” asked one, his shoes scrunching in the sand.

“Rather a silly question to ask now, don’t you think?” replied the other, shielding his eyes as he stared across the sand to the choppy sea. “After all the endless haggling and arguing and signing of the required documents.”

“And that is when one always begins to question one’s decisions,” sighed the first man.

“I thought this place might be right if …”

“I thought the choice of location was mine,” cut in his companion.

“Yes it was, Mr. Day,” Andrew Cogan smiled slightly. “And that fact will go down for posterity, never fear. Let it be known, henceforth that Mr. Francis Day of the Honourable East India Company, having looked upon several sites to establish a factory…”

“And setting one right at the feet of the Dutch in Armagon, upon which we got on each others’ nerves.” Day put in with a grin.

“… for some very strange reason decided upon this sandy strip, some three miles long and one mile wide, south of a fishing kuppam …”

“Because this site offers us long cloth that’s cheaper than anywhere by almost 20 per cent. Excellent trade prospects, wouldn’t you say?”

Cogan carried on, as if there had been no interruption. “But choosing the site, ladies and gentlemen,” he informed his imaginary audience. “ …was only the beginning. Then began a protracted process of gaining an audience with the Nayak king who ruled these parts.”

“Wandiwash and Poonamallee.”

“And who went by the name of …” Cogan stopped. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to their names. They break my teeth.”

“Damarla Venkatadri, and Damarla Ayyappa Nayak, governors of the stretch of land between Pulicat and San Thome, and representatives of the Vijayanagara Empire. Beri Thimmappa, my dubaash, certainly had his work cut out,” Day added, helpfully. “I think they want Persian horses and military protection. Why else would they let us in here, when the Dutch and Portuguese have already established trade?”

“Blahblahdeblah and you even managed to convince me, just going about my work in Masulipatnam, to persuade our superiors to set up our factory on this beach, bounded on two sides by rivers and the sea on the third.”

“It’s pretty here, isn’t it?”

A bargain?

Cogan stared around him. At the broad, sandy beach, leading right down to crashing, frothing waves. Beyond stretched a restless blue-green sea, heaving and tumbling in the mid-day sun. Random fishermen dotted the shores, staring at them curiously, while the fishing hamlet lay sleepily, hazy in the distance. It was not really pretty, from a conventional point of view. But Cogan understood what Day meant. This little place was now theirs.

“Ahem,” he cleared his throat, dismissing the emotion. “And now, beloved and bored members of this august gathering of sand and sea-creatures, I present to you…” he stopped, and stared at his colleague. “You know, we haven’t named this place, yet.”

“Likely because it already has a name? A long and complicated one in honour of the Vijayanagara Rayas, obviously.”

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Cogan waved his arms around. “This place — the one we’ve negotiated so hard for — is empty. No residents — and hence, no name. Come, now. We can’t keep calling it “that-sand-spit” for all eternity.”

“I highly doubt we will,” was Day’s dry answer. “But I see your point. Suggestions?”

“Plenty. That fishing hamlet just north of us — wouldn’t their name suit, for now?”

“It wouldn’t,” Day was vehement. “That hamlet’s headman wouldn’t give up his banana grove for our factory until Thimmappa promised privileges — I’m not sure I want our site named after him.”

“Well, it is his grove, after all.”

“Considering it was the Nayak’s grant, wouldn’t they want this place named after themselves?” Day interrupted. “Isn’t their father called Chinna — Chennappa, or something?”

“Possible. On the other hand, the people of that kuppam are parishioners of the Madre de Deus Church of San Thome. I’ve heard that they would like to adapt the church’s name to this settlement.”

“Or we could just as easily take the name of Madeiros, of San Thome. Wealthy Portuguese family and they’ve been of great assistance to us so far.”

“Madeiros City,” Cogan murmured.

“A city is called Pattinam in these parts,” Day offered.

They stared out at the beach together, thinking, making plans, about trade and about what — if anything — they could achieve here.

“Do you think we’ll ever make a success out of all this?” Cogan asked, finally.

“To tell the truth, I have no idea,” Day admitted. “This is the wildest gamble I’ve ever indulged in.”

“You never know,” Cogan countered. Suddenly, he grinned. “This might become a bustling, thriving city at some point.”

“To the city of new beginnings,” Day mused. “Madras.”

In the beginning

Andrew Cogan and Francis Day’s factory site on an uninhabited sandy strip eventually grew to become one of India’s renowned metropolises, and the capital city of Tamil Nadu. Home to South Indian culture, automobiles, and for incredible advances in medicine, Chennai is the only city in South Asia, to find a place in 52 Places to go around the World by New York Times. Every year, August 22 is celebrated as Madras Day, and this year, 2014, is Chennai’s 375 birthday.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> Young World / by Pavithra Srinivasan / August 21st, 2014

Daredevil riders enthral Kovai

September 23, 2014Sportsadmin

Coimbatore :

Punctuated with gravity-defying jumps and breakneck drifts on a tailor-made obstacle course, Supercross is one of the most awe-inspiring forms of motorsports. The fourth round of the MRF MoGrip National Supercross championship, held at the Hindustan Institute grounds here Sunday had thousands of fans on their feet.

More than 95 riders from across the country showcased their skills in different categories and it turned out to be a feast for the fans. The event was dominated by TVS Racing and the newly launched Hero 9T9. Harith Noah of TVS reigned supreme in SX1, the showpiece category, while Hero 9T9 made a clean sweep of the class 6 for private experts.

However, the highlight of the weekend was ‘Locals’ class, a category instituted for the host city. Coimbatore’s Jagadish Kumar of Hero 9T9 emerged ahead of his city-mates A. Anand and Mohammed Rafiq. Another local boy, S. Azaruddin, caught the eye with an impressive showing.

The capacity crowd was in for a bigger surprise when junior ‘daredevils’ took the centrestage. The U-15 riders of JR SX class were greeted with a standing ovation.

source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> Nation> Current Affairs / DC Correspondent / September 22nd, 2014

Coimbatore textile unit gets export award

September 23, 2014Business & Economy, Records, All, World Opinionadmin

Coimbatore:

Veejay Lakshmi Textiles Ltd of Coimbatore is one among the two export houses in Tamil Nadu that bagged the export awards for 2013-2014 instituted by TEXPROCIL (The Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council of India).

The exporters from the state won the bronze medals/trophies for the highest global export category. This year, Texprocil distributed 71 awards based on 29 criteria, including the coveted gold trophy for the highest global exports.

Highlighting the challenges in the sector, chairnman of Texprocil Manikam Ramaswami said, “Indian textile industry, however competitive it may be at present, needs cotton at less than or equal to international prices and needs a level playing field when it comes to tariff barriers to perform to the best of its potential.”

He pointed out that despite India being a cotton surplus country, every year cotton prices go above international prices from February onwards until the new season and this severely impacts competitiveness.

Texprocil has already articulated a revenue positive solution to the ministry and hopes that it will be implemented soon, he said. On the tariff front, India needs to have agreements with the European Union, Canada and Australia, favourable duty in China similar to Pakistan, Bangladesh, who have negotiated reciprocal benefits with China.

India has US dollar 34 billion deficit with over US dollar 12 billion imports taking place at less than 5 per cent duty. Hence, the country should bargain reciprocal benefit for textiles. China exports US dollar 20 billion of textiles and India can improve exports by a huge amount if they get a level playing field, he said. Emphasising the need for implementation of the export incentive policy, he said, “Export of textiles is the only way forward.”

source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> Nation> Current Affairs / DC Correspondent / September 23rd, 2014

TN Girl’s Journey From Kiln to French Stardom

September 23, 2014Amazing Feats, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Records, All, World Opinionadmin

Nagercoil :

A poor girl’s dream to make a mark in Tinsel Town was more than fulfilled when she got the chance to act in a major role in a French film. Thirty- year-old Janagi, the daughter of a brick kiln worker from a remote village near Aralvoimozhy in the district, bagged the role of Gracie in Son épouse (His Wife). But Janagi’s journey to stardom was not easy. A performing artiste from Devasahayam Mount near Aralvoimozhi, she was the youngest of five children to Devasahayam, a brick kiln worker, and Virisithal, an anganwadi worker. “After completing my plus-two, I was compelled to go for tailoring and other menial jobs as my family was very poor. During that time, I was attracted to what my cousin Selvi did — she was part of a local cultural troupe Kalari and she used to act in plays,” said Janagi, speaking to Express. She later joined the troupe and learnt various folk arts. She was with them for three years, during which time she also managed to complete BA Tamil through correspondence. When she joined another cultural troupe Murasu, she got the opportunity to participate in a workshop organised by the National School of Drama held in Nagercoil. The workshop helped her hone her acting skills and she later enrolled in a three-year full-time diploma course in dramatic arts at NSD and successfully completed the course. In the course of time she got to know Prema Revwathy, who was a member of director Gautham Menon’s production team.

Not only did she get the opportunity to work as an associate director in the French movie Son épouse, directed by Michel Spinso, but Revwathy also got her the role of Gracie, said Janagi.

Gracie is the friend of the main character, Catherine, a drug addict, etched by Charlotte Gainsbourg. After Catherine’s untimely death her spirit enters Gracie. “I learnt French to act in the film,” said Janagi. The film was released in Paris a few months back.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> The Sunday Standard / by S. Mahesh / September 07th, 2014

Asiad Bronze: Jaya Awards Rs 20L to Dipika

September 23, 2014Records, All, Sports, World Opinionadmin

Chennai :

Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Monday greeted Dipika Pallikal for winning the bronze medal in Women’s Squash singles event at the Asian Games and announced a cash award of `20 lakh in appreciation of her achievement.

“You have done us all proud once again by winning a bronze medal in Squash Women’s singles event at the ongoing 17th Asian Games at Incheon, South Korea. My heartiest congratulations on behalf of the people of Tamil Nadu for your splendid achievement”, the Chief Minister said in her message to Dipika.

Congratulating Dipika and and all those who had contributed to her success, the Chief Minister wished her many more such laurels on behalf of the country and Tamil Nadu in future.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Tamil Nadu / by Express News Service / September 23rd, 2014

MADRAS 375 – Over a hundred events to mark b’day bash

September 23, 2014Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Historical Links, Pre-Independence, Records, Alladmin

Chennaiites have over a 100 different events to choose from while celebrating the 375 birthday of their city. The celebrations mark the day when the small piece of land on which Fort St. George stands today was formally handed over to the East India Company.

From walking and learning about heritage structures to getting your answers right at quizzes to watching aachis from Chettinad spice up food, listening to lectures about Australia’s connection with Emden and celebrating the centenary of actor T. S. Baliah, there is a whole lot that a lover of Madras can do till the end of this month.

Madras Musings editor and historian S. Muthiah, who along with other enthusiasts addressed the press on Wednesday at the Taj Connemara, explained how the Madras Day celebrations began 12 years ago as just a half-a-day event and has now grown to a month-long string of events. Talking about some of his favourite programmes from among the over 100 events, he said the day-long seminar by geography teachers’ associations, teaching taxi drivers about the city was truly special. He also said he liked an exhibition by the Armenian Association of Paris at the Armenian Church from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. from August 17 to 25.

You can keep tab of all the events through the Madras Day app (available on Android and iOS) developed by Broad Gate Technologies and funded by Sundaram Finance Ltd. Historian V. Sriram said that the app helped smartphone users sort events based on classification, date and location. “Another app Past Forward, which was also launched recently, provides details of heritage buildings and their pictures,” he said.

Actor Mohan Raman and the architect of the celebrations Vincent D’Souza were also present.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai> Madras 375 / by Special Correspondent / Chennai – August 14th, 2014

Stitching for the men in khaki

September 23, 2014Uncategorizedadmin

V. Jothi Rao has been stitching police uniform for more than 30 years in Vellore. Photo: C. Venkatachalapathy / The Hindu

For a policeman, the uniform is a matter of pride. The Fort City is home to a handful of tailors who have been stitching uniforms for several years.

V. Jothi Rao, 62, has been in the business since the 1960s. He set up his shop on Commissary Bazaar in 1977.

“There were several tailors who specialised in making police uniforms then. I used to stitch the short pants in khaki,” he recalls.

Several orders used to come from Police Training College and Police Recruit School personnel. Inside his shop is a picture of his with Panchapakesan, former DIG of Vellore, his customer. He has also stitched the ceremony dress worn by the police official who presides over the Independence Day parade. “The shirt is stitched like a coat with long sleeves. I have stitched uniforms for all, from trainee Sub-Inspectors to Superintendents of Police,” he says.

V. R. Rajan, who has a shop at the Jawans Market, has also been stitching police uniforms since 1975.

“Earlier, we used to get a plenty of orders. Now, we stitch only one or two sets a day,” he says.

Stitching the uniform needs special skills. The straps are special as the stars are fixed there, which differentiates the ranks.

Mr. Rao adds: “Earlier, there used to be only one brand, one colour and only cotton fabric. Now, the shades vary. Government recognition for tailors will help us immensely.”

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> National> Tamil Nadu / by Serena Josephine N./ Vellore – September 23rd, 2014

Startup city in focus – Chennai: 9 startups to watch out from Chennai

September 22, 2014Business & Economy, Inspiration/ Positive News and Featuresadmin

Chennai has always been known for its automobile and IT industry. The cultural capital of the south sees a presence of a major part of India’s automobile industry. In terms of IT export, Chennai is ranked second in India. It is often seen as the secondary financial hub following Mumbai. One of the fastest growing cities in the world, Chennai is home to more than 20 Indian companies that have a net worth of more than USD 1 billion.

In terms of legacy startups, Chennai has given us Bharatmatrimony. Founded in 1997 by Murugavel Janakiraman, who later met his wife through his own matrimony site, the company has 130 offices in India, with offices in Dubai, Sri Lanka, United States and Malaysia to cater to its customers beyond India. BharatMatrimony is one of India’s largest and most trusted matrimony brands. They were the pioneers in matchmaking and have been early birds in the mobile space with their matchmaking apps on almost all major platforms.

According to software products thinktank iSpirt, at least five Indian product companies have crossed or are on track for a $1 billion valuation, and the list includes one from Chennai. Can you guess the name?

The startup that is currently making waves and is an inspiration for many product companies emerging out of Chennai is Girish Mathrubootham co-founded Freshdesk.Girish is not prominently visible in startup meetings but does a lot of activity that directly benefit startups, such as investments and mentoring. He even gives space to startups to work as part of his office space. The provider of SaaS-based customer support platform for enterprises, has secured $44 million in funding till date which includes a $31 million in a Series D round of funding by investors Tiger Global Management, Accel Partners and Google Capital.

And talking of legacy and inspiration for startups, how can one miss Sridhar Vembu co-founded Zoho that takes on two giants simultaneously – Google and Salesforce.com. First, it speaks volumes on the founders behind it and the ability of the organization to move at the speed of its market or stay ahead of its competition. Zoho was born in the Valley but its developer team is in India. And if you couldn’t guess, the answer to the question mentioned in the beginning of the article is Zoho.

If you begin talking about Vembu, you need to stop somewhere. His incredible energy and focus to build a world-class product company and focus only on that, makes him a rare breed among product entrepreneurs. His guts just overawe you. He has built a unique bootstrapped company and has turned down acquisition overtures from Salesforce.com. This story has acquired some sort of a legendary status in itself as an anecdotal reference to Sridhar’s ability to shrug off naysayers and believe in himself.

Another startup from Chennai that has captured global attention is Indix. Founded by Sanjay Parthasarathy and Sridhar Venkatesh in 2012, Indix is a big data startup that is building a catalogue of over 1 billion consumer products from all over the world. Their intention is to help brands to be able to compare their prices, thereby assisting them to make crucial business decisions. In simple terms Indix is personalizing the results for product search that you get if you google it, all the while itself being neutral. Indix already has a database of over 200 million products and plans to scale to over 1 billion listings in the next two years. Till date, the startup has received four rounds of funding totaling $15.9 million.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Chennaites, listen up. TechSparks, the flagship event of YourStory is coming to your city this Friday (September 19). Get ready to listen and engage with Sridhar Venkatesh, Co-founder, Indix. Get your tickets here.

________________________________________________________________________________

First let us take a look at a few older startups which can now be termed upstarts.

OrangeScape – A company with two platform software. Visual PaaS – a cloud application development platform and KiSSFLOW a workflow-as-a-Service platform. OrangeScape has marque enterprise customers include the likes of Unilever, Citibank, Pfizer, AstraZeneca and its KiSSFLOW is the #1 in its category and used by 9000+ companies across 108 countries.

BankBazaar.com – Started by Adhil Shetty, Arjun Shetty and Rati Rajkumar, this online financial marketplace lets you search across all top financial institutions of India and get instant customized rate quotes on loans and insurance products. They raised Rs.80 crores in a funding round led by Sequoia Capital and existing investor Walden International in early 2014. While most online financial portals operate on a referral mode where they capture phone numbers and sell them to different banks and agents, BankBazaar.com offers real time approval for loan applications. Presently, they offer services of nine banks. They also have a mobile product accessible on smartphones.

Chargebee – Founded in June 2011 by Krish Subramanian, KP Saravanan, Thiyagarajan T and Rajaraman S, ChargeBee is primarily a subscription and recurring billing solutions for businesses across different industries. With its plug-and-play capability, businesses can automate billing, invoicing and leverage transactional emails to improve communication with their customers. The company had raised its first round of $350k from private investors in December, 2012. Earlier this year it raised another $800k from Accel Partners.

Stayzilla – In 2006, Yogendra along with his backbencher friends at college, Sachit Singhi and Rupal Surana, believed that the fragmented ‘stay’ market could be brought online and made structured. It was 2005-06, when India was going through the Internet revolution but still wasn’t quite internet savvy as today. They started under the name of Inasra.com but then they rebranded it to StayZilla – stay in every ‘zilla’ (district) — in 2010. As of today, it has more than 15,000 stays listed in a network of more than1100 cities in India. They clock more than 500 bookings per day. The company is funded by Matrix Partners prior to which it had raised its angel round from IAN.

vakilsearch – Founded by Hrishikesh Datar in 2010, vakilsearch is a web-portal that provides legal services on the internet. Services provided by vakilsearch includes, legal advice support, documentation services including will, rental agreements, non-disclosure agreements, incorporation of companies, Limited liability partnership firms, intellectual property registration and advice, tax filing and accounts related services. The information needed for creation of basic agreements are collected through simple questionnaire online and supplemented through telephonic calls, if needed and the document is delivered through postal services.

Caratlane – Founded in 2007, the portal has helped customers go beyond local family jewellers for their needs and tap ‘the world’s largest collection’ of solitaire gems and innovative contemporary designs via the Net. Earlier, Tata’s Tanishq had transformed India’s jewel market via a trusted name in branded jewels. CaratLane sources directly from vendors, eliminating inventory and real estate costs. It educates customers about jewellery designs, hires gemologists in the sales team, forms partnerships with banks for outreach, and targets male as well as female shoppers.

Contus – Contus is a leading mobile app development company that fulfills web and mobile app requirements. Apptha, the powerful marketplace of Contus is a storehouse of all themes and extension needs for different platforms like Magento, WordPress, and Joomla. Mobecommerce of Contus is another notable marketplace delivering mobile-based products cost-effectively. Founded in 2008, Contus serves more than 40 countries all around the globe.

Unmetric – Founded by Lakshmanan (Lux) Narayan, Kumar Krishnasami and Joe Varghese, Unmetric works with leading brands and agencies across the world and provides them competitive intelligence 10,000+ global brands across 30 industry sectors. Brands use this intelligence to then comprehend and calibrate their social media efforts. The company has worked with global brands like Subway and Toyota.

Now, let us look at 9 promising startups from Chennai that you should watch out for. These are in no particular order and the list has been curated based on the team, innovation, market size and their current execution stage.

Turing Research Labs Pvt Ltd, Frilp

Frilp is an application focused on connecting users with local services and businesses through recommendations from friends and colleagues. From the business owners’ perspective, Frilp helps the 40 million SMEs and consumer facing businesses to get an online presence where they are recommended by their happy customers. Ex-Goldman Sachs analyst Shyam Anandaraman started Frilp and he was joined by Senthil Kanthaswamy. The startup secured $500,000 in angel funding from a group of individuals including Girish Mathrubootham, co-founder and CEO of Freshdesk Inc last month.

Demach Software India Pvt Ltd, Konotor

Started by Srikrishnan Ganeshan, Vignesh Girishankar and Deepak, Konotor is basically a two-way communication channel for app developers to allow their users to interact with the app. Konotor integrates with an app and has a WhatsApp-like appearance which blends in with the app interface. Users of the app get a separate tab or icon via which they can reach out to the app developers, who in turn can take in feedback, answer queries, etc. It received USD 125k in funding from Qualcomm Ventures and Accel Partners in May earlier this year.

ContractIQ

Founded by Ashwin Ramasamy and Visalam Ramakrishnan, ContractIQ takes requirements of buyers of services (80% of them for mobile apps) and from its database of “devshops” (small, independent businesses providing mobile app services, product development, software development, or others) suggests potential matches for the buyer. The devshops (vendors) are charged a fee for bidding for the prospective client and only three of them can bid for a particular project. The vendor base consists of trustworthy developers validated by ContractIQ so that the buyer can confidently seek. It ultimately becomes a win-win for buyers and developers.

Imprimatur Print Services Pvt. Ltd, Stickystamp

With StickyStamp’s in-house printing infrastructure one can create personalized merchandise, stock in their state-of-the-art warehouse and drop-ship to customers in any part of the world. The concept in itself is not new, but the startup has been getting rave reviews on Social Media for its high quality execution and has a great line-up of clients including Freshdesk, HackerRank, HasGeek, Myntra etc. Co-founded by Isaac John Wesley and team in May this year, this startup has already broken 7-digit revenues in slightly more than four months and has shipped 1000+ shipments in this period.

SkillAngels

Sarav Sundaramoorthy believes that every child has some innate talent that can be and must be nurtured in the right way. With SkillAngels, a startup that he founded in 2013 along with Kalpana Murthy and Parimala Vageesan, Sarav is trying to break the rut of education system and redefine the learning process for children by focusing on cognitive skills development (comprising of memory, visual processing, focus & attention, problem solving & linguistics), life skills and social skills development. SkillAngels is a digital platform that fosters the aforementioned five areas of brain skill development by gamifying the learning process.

MyEasyDocs

Founded by Avira and Thomas Tharakan, MyEasyDocs was incubated at IIT Madras Research Park. It mainly consists of two portals for online document verification; myeasydocs.com and directverify.in. DirectVerify.in enables background screening agencies and employers to verify employees’ educational credentials without any online registration. MyEasyDocs.com allows users to store, verify and share the verified documents online to whomever concerned.

Avaz App

The app has been built to help kids with autism, cerebral palsy or communication disorders in general. Through the selection of pictures representing certain words or phrases, the user is able to articulate his need or emotion, using a mobile device. Once a sentence is formed using the different pictures, the app then speaks it out loud, helping the user communicate as well as learn from the process. It also allows you to track the child’s progress. The app also has an integrated keyboard which allows the child to alternate between selecting pictures and typing text.

Mad Street Den

Mind Abled Devices dabbles in artificial intelligence. Co-founded by Anand Chandrasekaran and Ashwini Asokan, the couple aims to build machines that can replicate certain human elements, making them more ‘intelligent’ and relevant. It offers a cloud-based MAD stack that can be incorporated into existing or upcoming applications. The idea is to build certain AI pieces and make them readily available to the world, saving a developer (or other users) a large amount of time and infrastructure that would otherwise be invested in building it.

Bode animation

Bode Animation works for crafting explainer videos for depicting businesses and their services. They offer 6 different styles of videos starting from 2D animation, stop motion, handcraft motion, 3D, whiteboard and blackboard. They work for informative, humorous, interactive, any kind of video that suits your startup’s personality. They also work with number of data visualization tools to generate infographics and other data based stories.

There are several other startups from Chennai. The list above is intended to be neither a ranking of Chennai startups nor an exhaustive list of all startups.

A walkthrough of the Chennai startup ecosystem

The earliest ecosystem driver for product companies in Chennai was a product showcase event called proto.in. This was where many companies made their first product presentation or showed their prototype to an audience consisting of their peers, experts, and investors. Run by a team, of which Vijay Anand was a part, proto.in eventually did not achieve scale like many product companies until it folded after making intermittent appearances around 2011. Many product companies that later started are sure to vouch for the fact that proto.in acted in many ways as their inspiration to startup.

The next major arrival on the scene was Chennai Open Coffee Club, kickstarted by Siddarth and Vaithi. The weekly Sunday meetings drew huge crowds of as much as 100 at the beginning in 2009 for an informal meetup of entrepreneurs, wannabe entrepreneurs, and those generally interested in startups.

The Startup Centre is another incubator which was started by Vijay Anand and acts as an incubator to several startups. Bangalore-based Eventifier was incubated there.

TiE Chennai is another institution which has taken up the startup cause in helping entrepreneurs find feet in Chennai. Its annual flagship event TiECON Chennai, which enters its eighth edition this year, has become very popular among entrepreneurs for the variety fare it dishes out. Through the year, TiE Chennai runs several entrepreneurship-related events.

The latest on the startup scene is the filterkaapi mafia, a closed group of product entrepereneurs who believe that entrepreneurs can as a community help each other.

At YourStory, we are bullish about Chennai and are sure that it will grow into a very big startup hub.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Chennaites, listen up. TechSparks, the flagship event of YourStory is coming to your city this Friday (September 19). Get ready to listen and engage with our keynote speaker Sridhar Venkatesh, Co-founder, Indix. We have four informative sessions and super-useful workshops lined up for you as well. Seats are getting sold out fast. Get your tickets here.

________________________________________________________________________________

source: http://www.yourstory.com / YourStory.com / Home> by Abhash Kumar and Venkatesh Krishnamoorthy / September 16th, 2014

The sweet addition

September 22, 2014Business & Economyadmin

THEY MEAN BUSINESS M. Murali with his daughters / Photo: R. Ravindran / The Hindu

From Coimbatore to Chennai, from father to daughters… the Sri Krishna Sweets story continues as M. Murali’s children give a new twist to the business

If the Sri Krishna Sweets store on Venkatanarayana Road in T. Nagar is abuzz with activity, the tiny office at the back is quiet except for managing director M. Murali’s voice giving orders. The room is painted white, making it seem smaller than it already is and in it sits Murali clad in a white shirt. The garlanded pictures of gods that adorn the walls lend a little colour to the room.

The soft-spoken Murali recalls the opening of his first shop in Chennai in 1996: “There was a steady crowd from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. in front of the shop; it gave me a lot of energy, confidence and faith that made me realise that I can turn my dreams into reality.” And they have indeed, with 42 outlets in the city that include restaurants specialising in South Indian cuisine.

“You walk into a fast food outlet and you just pick up a pizza or a packet of French fries or a burger, you hardly give food like kozhukattai or the boli a thought. What we’ve done is give these a twist. For example, the Bolizza is our take on the pizza and has both sweet and spicy versions,” he explains. “Simply put,” Murali says, “we’ve taken their concept and incorporated our culture.” They also plan to offer bondas and kara appams as alternatives to French fries, and mor kali instead of pastries. According to Murali, their idea is to show that Indian foods can also be suited to fast living and that the notion of fast food merely indicates the time it takes to prepare and not the origin of the food itself.

Speaking about appealing to youngsters, Murali’s face lights up when he talks of his two daughters joining the family business. “I’ve been in the business since I was 11 or 12; it’s similar for them since they were brought up in the same atmosphere.”

Twenty-one-year-old Sneha Murali describes herself as “not bookish. My father always encouraged me to focus more on work than on education; but both were equally important while growing up.” The younger of the two girls, she says that working with your father has its pros and cons, “Most of the time work becomes dinner-table conversation,” she laughs and adds that it’s tough on days when you’re mad at both your father and the boss. But all that doesn’t come in between what she’s learnt from her father. “He taught me that it’s alright for two people to disagree on something. And he still listens and respects any idea irrespective of the size of it or the person who offers it,” she says.

Sneha remembers when she’d gone to Berkeley for a summer programme and came back brimming with new concepts, especially a store-in-store, “it’s like a food court where you can buy podis, sweets, kaarams and more. It’s a work in progress at Sri Krishna Sweets,” she says.

Shruthi, the older daughter who looks after the Food Products Division, has a quiet aura about her, much like her father. She talks about how joining her father in business was a natural course of action. Shruthi reveals that she is passionate about making traditional sweets appealing to her generation.

“We go out often to eat and I realise that youngsters prefer something that’s light on the stomach, healthy but tasty and that’s what we’re trying to do. We’ve launched something called Cashew Bites that’s like soan papdi and we’re planning to bring out a halwa made using ragi,” she says. For someone who has been working for two years with her father, Shruthi, a graduate of the Cass Business School in London, says that she still has so much to learn from him and the biggest lesson he has taught her was to “criticise a person’s performance rather than the person himself.”

Murali couldn’t be happier that his daughters have joined him, “It’s the hospitality business and I believe that women bring strengths to the table such as good values and a knack for personalisation.” And it’s not just the daughters who are learning from the father. Murali says it’s sometimes difficult to keep up with them: “They bring systemisation and in five-six years there will be more opportunities for them.”

Sri Krishna Sweets was started by his father N.K. Mahadeva Iyer in 1948 to overcome the absence of a standalone sweet shop that offered pure ghee sweets in Coimbatore.

“Our goal is to be a part of the customer’s family and so our concept is ‘engellam sandosham irukko,angellam Sri Krishna Sweets irukkanum’ (where there is happiness, there will be Sri Krishna Sweets),” he says.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus > Society / by Apoorva Sripathi /Chennai – September 11th, 2014

Chennai’s British engineers immortalised in signages

September 21, 2014Historical Links, Pre-Independence, Records, All, World Opinionadmin

Chennai:

What do Jones Road, Madeley Road, Ellis Road, Nowroji Road, Fraser Street and Captain Baker Street have in common?

All six roads are in different corners of the city, but they are united by one factor. All expect Nowroji Road were named in honour of British engineers and civil servants who envisioned the civic infrastructure of Madrasapattinam.

Madeley Road at Mambalam was named after British engineer J.W. Madeley who arrived in Chennai at the age of 19 at the turn of the 20th century and revolutionised the concept of an organised drinking water system in the city before he returned home in 1932, earning the name ‘Father of Madras Drinking Water Distribution System’ through the pioneering works he carried out in the interim.

‘Baptising’ of Ellis Road, connecting Anna Salai and Triplicane, dates back to 1818. A stone inscription on the ledge of the well at Periya Palaiathamman temple at Royapettah tells how the then Collector of Madras Francis Ellis dug 27 wells to overcome acute drought way back in 1818.

Retired engineer Meenakshi Sundaram, who served 37 years since 1976 in the city’s drinking water networks, says, visionary British engineer Captain Baker dug 10 wells in Bethanayakhanpet (opposite Vallalar Nagar Street) and water was lifted, using piccota buckets and delivered through iron pipes, to British inhabitants in George Town in 1772, and hence, it is called Captain Baker Street which is in front of the Madras high court.

The Seven Wells near Mint actually had 10 wells. “Three of the 10 wells did not serve the purpose and hence the name, Seven Wells,” Sundaram added, quoting from the book, Madrasapattinam, by Narasaiah.
Likewise, Jones Road at Saidapet is a tribute to the first sanitary engineer of Madras, Mr Jones, who introduced Madras to laying drinking water pipes.

Harmusji Nowroji, an assistant sanitary engineer of Parsi origin, formulated a pipeline system conducive to the condition of the native soil. Independent India immortalised his contribution by naming a street after him in Chetpet.

A street in Perambur was named in memory of Engineer Frazer who constructed the Tamaraipakkam dam across Kosasthalaiyar and conveyed water from Red Hills through an open conduit to Kilpauk Masonry Shaft, which is still conserved as a monument in Kilpauk pumping station.

source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> Nation> Current Affairs / DC / K. Karthikeyan / September 21st, 2014

Chennai First

a Celebration. Positive News, Facts & Achievements about Chennai, Tamilians and all the People of TamilNadu – here at Home and Overseas