Felicitation to Nazareth

P A Nazareth, receipient of the prestigious U Thant Peace Award 2007 was felicitated by The Centre for Gandhian Studies of Bangalore University on December 20 at the Centre. The award, presented to him at a New York function recently, was in appreciation of his “lifetime of dedication and world service by promoting the Gandhian ideals of truth, non-violence, communal harmony, humanitarian service and peace”. He is a retired IFS officer and currently the managing trustee of Sarvodaya International Trust. The U Thant Peace Award was instituted in 1982 by the Sri Chinmoy Peace Meditation Group at the United Nations to honour the memory of the widely respected and deeply spiritual former UN General Secretary, U Thant. Previous recipients of this award include Mikhail Gorbachev, Pope John Paul II, Mother Theresa, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Pandit Ravi Shankar.

Creative workshop

British Library is organising a series of creative workshops (winter camp) for kids age group between 7-16 years on December 27—29, 2007 at the British Library, 23, Prestige Takt, Kasturba Road Cross, Bangalore between 10.00 am and 4.30 pm.

The workshop includes creating greeting cards, paper sculpture, fun with music and theatre activities It is open to the members of the (family and classic YLC category) library only on first come first serve basis. For registration contact British Library at 22489220.

Meditation camp

Osho Celebration Centre is organising a three-day residential meditation camp at Pyramid Valley, Pyramid Spiritual Society, Kanakpura Road, 30 km from City, 10 km from Art of Living between January 24, 3 pm to January 27 1 pm. For Registration Contact 9844762638.

Session for kids

An interactive session will be organised for children between for to 12 years of age in Malleshwaram on December 22 between 2.30 pm and 6 pm and on December 23 between 11 pm to 12.30 pm. The programmes include science through theatre, word mastery through phonics and story telling with puppets. For more details contact Vatsala Iyengar: 4120-4442/43.

Award for journalist

Freelance journalist, social activist, National Magnum awardee and First May Day awardee Altaf Ahamed has been awarded the iCongo-Tehelka-CMS Media Citizen Karamveer Puraskar for his work in the media. The award has been presented at the iCONGO_Khemka Foundation ‘Right every Wrong’ conclave at New Delhi on November 26.

Meet on distributed computing

The fourth International Conference on Distributed Computing and Internet Technology (ICDCIT) 2007 was inaugurated in Bangalore on December 17. The four-day conference is organised by KIIT University, Bhubaneshwar in association with the Center for Electronic Governance at the United Nations University, IIST, Macao.

Speaking on the occasion, Prof R K Shyamsundar of India Research Lab, IBM, New Delhi said that internet technology has progressed in India but it has not been translated into better education in the rural sector.
Citing an experiment, he explained how internet and distributed computing can benefit the rural populace and have an impact on the society. The experiment, ‘voice enabled tech site’, was conducted in the IBM research lab. The site is supported on a rural kiosk. With just a click of the mouse, the user can get the desired information in a voice format. The information can include day-to-day needs such as power shutdown, weather conditions etc, Prof  Shyamsundar explained. He added that the technology is so user-friendly that even an illiterate person can handle it with ease.

Governor Rameshwar Thakur said that Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology’s (KIIT) rise as one of the premier technical institutes and later, its graduation to deemed university level has been phenomenal.
He said that the conference deals with a highly technical subject and it testifies the level of excellence KIIT has achieved in the field of technologically advanced education and training.

 The Governor added that deliberations in the conference will benefit the students and young professionals by giving them an opportunity to interact with the experienced and knowledgeable delegates.