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Sankara Rao, Visiting Professor and Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES), Indian Institute of Science (IISc.), launched “India Flora Online”, a digital database of the flora of India on Monday at the IISc. 

The database, which is the country’s most comprehensive attempt to document its plant wealth, “fulfils the country’s need of bringing the country’s plant or floral wealth into one searchable source,” said Professor Rao, in an earlier interview with The Hindu.  

“It is the culmination of many years of hard work,” said Usha Vijayaraghavan, Dean, Biological Sciences, IISc., at the launch event. She added that the initiative builds on the individual collection of Father Cecil Saldanha, who worked at CES in the eighties. “Individuals matter and individuals who care about plant diversity, plant ecosystems, and cataloguing what is present now, preserve for research tools of the future.“

In his presentation, Prof. Rao took the audience through the database. “Access to information on plants creates a sense of connection with nature which is necessary,” said Prof. Rao. “We do not know as much as we think we know about the floral diversity in our country.”

Evolutionary ecologist and conservation biologist Kamal Bawa, founder of Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment (ATREE), who was also present at the event, commended Prof. Rao’s work and remarked: “I think this effort is very worthwhile and going to result in a resurgence of interest in plant biology in India.”

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

INDOCLEFTCON, the annual conference of the Indian Society of Cleft Lip, Palate, and Craniofacial Anomalies will be organised in Mangaluru from April 18 to April 20 to bring together cleft lip professionals for discussion and deliberations.

Society president K. Mustafa and conference organising committee chairman Manjunath Rai said in a statement here on Friday, April 12, that the theme of the conference would be ‘merging boundaries.’ Keeping in mind the theme, the society intends to propagate modern concepts and team-based approaches to develop a better understanding between various specialities providing cleft care. The conference would be a blend of pre-conference courses, scientific lectures, panel lectures and debates.

Founder and director of Healing Lives, UAE, Jani Vishwanath Jagtiani, and playback singer Sannidhanandan will attend the inaugural programme at 6 p.m. on April 18 at the Indiana Convention Centre in the city. 

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

“Today a lot of visually impaired students cannot continue their education with their other fellow mates in schools, owing to their disability.

According to a report published in the Indian Journal of Ophthalmology in 2022, there is an estimated 4.95 million blind persons and 70 million vision-impaired persons in India, out of which 0.24 million are blind children. However, this number could soon become less of a hindrance for the visually impaired as students from the International Institute of Information Technology-Bangalore (IIIT-B) developed a first-of-its-kind technology to help vision-impaired students get a seamless learning experience in physical classrooms.

Mayank Kabra, a final year M.Teach student with his peers– Divyansh Singhal, Chinmay Sultania, Soham Pawar and Anshul Maduwar made this cost-effective technology to promote inclusivity in all educational institutions and has also acquired a patent for ‘System and method for assisting the visually impaired.’

“Today a lot of visually impaired students cannot continue their education with their other fellow mates in schools, owing to their disability. There are no solutions for it yet, either one has to invest in a very expensive device, study separately or discontinue their education, told Kabra to TNIE. He added that they wanted to address this issue and help the visually impaired to have a seamless learning experience.

“The idea was to create something that would help the visually impaired track what professors are teaching in live classes. The technology comes with hardware which is mounted on the finger and uses a digital board. When the student puts his/her finger on a flat surface, the board is virtually mapped on it. The vibration inside the finger device will help them trace the shape of the diagrams, figures or text on the digital board,” explained Kabra.

The device works on a six-dot braille system, tiny motors and microcontrollers. The device is as heavy as an oximeter that was used during COVID-19. He further added that the device is equipped with braille dots, allowing the user to understand the text in real time. These devices will be connected through Wi-Fi or the local board to transfer information. The team has been working for about a year on the device. Kabra informed that similar devices in the market are valued at over Rs 50,000, however, this one will be cost-effective and accessible to all groups in the society.

The finger-mounted device is built keeping in mind school children as they are the first ones to drop out of pursuing formal education. The IIIT-B team is looking at testing it in some schools and NGOs, with a firm belief that it would need only basic adjustments and children can activate it with just a button’s click. The team is looking for collaborators who will help them manufacture the device on a large scale and take it to the public.

source/content: newindianexpress.com (headline edtied)