For the first time in its history, The Sanmar Group has made a departure from its tradition of publishing ‘a plain vanilla’ annual report and come out with one that serves as both a colourful, well-designed report. In the words of N Sankar, Chairman, The Sanmar Group, prefacing the group annual report 2004 -2005,
" The size of the group warrants a report of this scale and scope for the benefit of our bankers and financial institutions. The results of our core businesses need to be transparently communicated to their respective stakeholders. Besides, our group has made a number of proactive investments in SHE initiatives, beyond immediate statutory requirements – zero discharge and progression towards zero environment load - that will be relavant for the broad community. Our business plas and investments will drive attractive growth, over the comming years, that could be of interest to existing and prospective employees."
by Aparna Chandrasekhar, Officer-Accounts, Corporate Division, Chemplast Sanmar
It’s a common sight almost at every traffic junction for people sitting in cars to crib about not being able to watch some new movie of Shah Rukh Khan or not being able to keep up their weekend plan because of some emergency at home or work. A few yards away from the car on the pavement, you find destitute women with malnourished children or handicapped children literally living on the streets.
Had those children been given the same opportunities as we were they would have reached greater heights! Aren’t we all really self-centered? Yes, we are and that’s the hard fact! There are people who have thought of all this and felt that their contribution in a small way could make a big difference in so many lives.
There are organizations that do incredible service to society. I am sure all of you will agree that it is our duty to be aware of such services happening around us.
Take the voluntary work of my uncle N Krishnaswamy, a retired officer of the Indian Police Service, who decided a couple of years ago to do something for blind children. Thus originated “Vidya Vrikshah”, and the National Initiative For The Blind, formulated by this organization in 2003, which aims to introduce Braille-based education in all schools and colleges so that the blind languishing in homes and streets can be drawn into education and then into the socio-economic mainstream.
The Vasantha Braille Cube developed by Vidya Vrikshah, a simple device for teaching or learning Braille is gaining countrywide acceptance and testimony to this fact is that more than 200 blind schools in the country have sought supply of this cube in large quantities. The cube has one to six dots in different positions on its six sides. Manipulation of the sides enables one to create up to 63 dot patterns, each standing for a letter and all together enough to represent all letters in any alphabet of any language.
Take the voluntary work of my uncle N Krishnaswamy, a retired officer of the Indian Police Service, who decided a couple of years ago to do something for blind children. Thus originated “Vidya Vrikshah”, and the National Initiative For The Blind, formulated by this organization in 2003, which aims to introduce Braille-based education in all schools and colleges so that the blind languishing in homes and streets can be drawn into education and then into the socio economic mainstream.
The Vasantha Braille Cube developed by Vidya Vrikshah, a simple device for teaching or learning Braille is gaining countrywide acceptance and testimony to this fact is that more than 200 blind schools in the country have sought supply of this cube in large quantities.
With this cube you can learn Braille in 30 minutes.
The cube has one to six dots in different positions on its six sides. Manipulation of the sides enables one to create up to 63 dot patterns, each standing for a letter and all together enough to represent all letters in any alphabet of any language.
A ready reckoner chart with the letters of the alphabet and their corresponding Braille dot patterns enables anyone to learn Braille through use of the cube in less than an hour. The organization has also developed a Universal Braille Kit with other devices like the Natesan Block, which will facilitate the blind to form sentences in Braille. Krishnaswamy is the first person to admit that this is not the work of one man or one organisation. There have been so many people and organizations behind this big leap. The organization’s collaboration with IIT-Madras has resulted in a speech-enabled software package developed by the latter, to be made available with training to large numbers of blind persons and teachers of the blind, helping them to use computers in all the Indian languages. When differences become small, small things make the difference.
A star trainee of Vidya Vrikshah. Afrose, 7 years
old and born blind. Has mastered Braille and
now uses a computer in Tamil.