Thiruvananthapuram Mar 20 PTI A case was registered against a station house officer SHO of Malayinkeezhu police station in rural Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday for alleged sexual abuse of a doctor The doctor in her complaint to Thiruvananthapuram rural police chief Divya V Gopinath alleged that she was sexually abused by the circle inspector over a period of nearly four years after promising to marry her The complaint says she was abused and raped by the officer from 2019 We have handed over the case to the district crime branch the official said A case of rape has been registered against the officer she added PTI RRT ROH ROH

Thiruvananthapuram Dec 23 PTI Kerala leads other states on several indices of human development including aspects of sustainable development and successive governments in the state have kept a sustained focus on the agenda of growth and development President Ram Nath Kovind said on Thursday Addressing a gathering after unveiling the statue of P N Panicker considered as the father of library movement in Kerala at Poojappura in the state capital he said its a unique feature of Kerala that in every village there is a library and people feel an emotional connect with the library in their village or town The President praised Governor of Kerala Arif Mohammed Khan and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan saying they were among the most experienced and sagacious personalities in the area of public service I am glad that the people of Kerala are benefitting from the guidance of the Governor and the leadership of the Chief Minister to scale even greater heights of excellence and inclusion Kovind said Lauding the service sector professionals from Kerala especially the nurses and doctors he said they are highly respected and relied upon by people everywhere Recently when the Covid affected the entire world nurses and doctors from Kerala were among the most visible Covid-warriors in India the middle-east and so many other regions on the globe The people of Kerala enhance the pride of India the President noted Earlier in the day Kovind unveiled the statue of Panicker in the presence of Khan Vijayan Union Minster of State V Muraleedharan and others A visionary can see what others dont see I believe that Shri Panicker would have seen his pioneering steps leading to the great strides Kerala took in the areas of literacy and education An area of illiteracy can remain an area of darkness The light of literacy can brighten the path to individual and collective progress Kovind said The President further said Panicker made libraries and literacy a movement of the people and in fact he made it a popular cultural movement It is a unique feature of Kerala that in every village even in the remotest villages there is a library People feel an emotional connect with the library in their village or town just as they feel a special connect with the temple or church or mosque or school Libraries created by the movement of Shri Panicker later became nerve centres of all social and cultural activities of which the literacy movement of Kerala is an impressive example Kovind said He pointed out that the Granthashala Sangam started by Panicker with about 50 small libraries in 1945 grew into a large network of thousands of libraries and through this the common people of Kerala could get to know the ideals of Sree Narayana Guru Ayyankali V T Bhattathiripad and other great masters The cosmopolitan outlook of an average person from Kerala can be traced to the library and literacy movement of Shri Panicker Kerala leads other states on several indices of human development including aspects of sustainable development Successive governments in Kerala have kept sustained focus on the agenda of growth and development Therefore the State has maintained its leadership position on several markers of excellence Kovind said Speaking on the occasion Governor Khan said the statue of Panicker reminds of not just his efforts towards spreading literacy but also how libraries enabled Keralas rise and transformation into the most literate state in India The library movement initiated by Panicker enabled the increase from less than 50 libraries to a network of over 6000 libraries As a token of gratitude the government of Kerala has been observing June 19 the day of his demise as Reading Day Khan said Vijayan in his speech said the library movement has greatly contributed towards he development of the state Certain forces are trying to bring back superstitions and irrational beliefs into the society and we can keep such forces at bay with knowledge through reading Libraries played a major role in developing our society with the ideas of equality and brotherhood This view helped our national movement and the renaissance movement the CM said The farsightedness and relentless efforts of Panicker led to setting up of numerous libraries across the state making Kerala a literary society The President will be staying at the Raj Bhavan and will visit Padmanabha Swamy Temple here in the evening He will return to New Delhi tomorrow PTI RRT ROH ROH

Kochi Nov 25PTI Seeking to encourage inclusivity in the startup ecosystem by accelerating and empowering women with upskilling and global collaboration opportunities the Kerala Startup Mission KSUM is organising a Women Startup Summit 30 next month KSUM aims to inspire women in entrepreneurship by facilitating their participation in three sections--Innovation Challenge Investor Caf and Hackathon The winners of the Innovation Challenge as part of the December 15-16 summit will receive a grant of Rs five lakh the KSUM said in a release Applicants should be Indian startups with one or more women as the principal shareholders Also they should have conceived a feasible product model The startups must have registered with DPIIT and must bear KSUMs unique ID the KSUM said Applications for the December 15 Innovation Challenge can be made till November 30 at httpsbitlyWomenInnovationGrant Besides the Rs five-lakh grant the winning entrepreneurs will be eligible for soft loans of up to Rs 15 lakh with an interest rate of six per cent besides seed funds The Investor Caf will be to promote investment in existing startups It will provide entrepreneurs an opportunity to directly interact with investors so as to further strengthen business the release said As for the Hackathon which will be a hybrid event with both online and offline sessions the winning women entrepreneurs will be eligible for a three-month pre-incubation at KSUM or internship at Ernst Young it said Women Startup Summit 30 aims to bring together women leaders and entrepreneurs from various fields on a common platform to share experiences aspirations and success stories With Rise To Equal Post-Pandemic Era as the focal theme the Summit will feature influential women from the ecosystem Being hosted with an objective to build awareness of business innovations the two-day summit seeks to encourage inclusivity in the ecosystem by accelerating and empowering women with upskilling and global collaboration opportunities it said KSUM is the nodal agency of the Kerala government for entrepreneurship development and incubation activities in the state PTI RRT ROH ROH

Kochi Oct 23 PTI The Indian Navy will conduct an Offshore Sailing Regatta from Kochi to Goa under the aegis of Indian Naval Sailing Association INSA to commemorate the 75th year of countrys independence Six Indian Naval Sailing Vessels INSVs--Mhadei Tarini Bulbul Neelkanth Kadalpura and Hariyal will be participating in the race which is scheduled to start on October 24 for a tentative duration of five days and would cover an approximate distance of 360 nm between the start point at the Naval Base in Kochi to Goa Navy officials said The expedition is aimed at fostering the spirit of adventure and ocean sailing for the participating crew Rear Admiral T V N Prasanna Chief Staff Officer Training said It has the participation of almost 36 officers from various commands of Indian Navy This will not only rejuvenate the sailing part but brings out the essence of adventure and togetherness and also commemorate the 75th year of independence Prasanna told the media The yachters have been undergoing rigorous training for the event over the last one month Each of the six INSVs - four 40 footers and two 56 footers would be manned by six naval personnel drawn from three Commands of Navy the ANC and IHQ MoD Navy In addition Ocean Yachts from Yachting Association of India YAI affiliated civilian clubs would also be participating in the event Captain Atool Sinha skipper of INS Kadalpura told PTI that they expect to reach Goa by October 28 and the major challenge would the unpredictable weather We expect to reach Goa on October 28 The event is being represented by various commands and they come with their boats The team of qualified yachters are trained by the western naval command over the last couple of years and last month we have done some intense training The challenges we are gonna face is essentially bad weather or no wind at all It can oscillate between zero wind to 25 to 30 knots We will have to battle all these conditions and this boat will be our life saver Sinha said The Two 56-footers participating in this Regatta have already made history in the Indian Navy by participating in circumnavigation a release by the Navy said Navy said the crew are selected from volunteers with adequate sea sailing experience Ocean sailing is an extremely tough adventure sport and through this Indian Navy inculcates the spirit of adventure enhancing risk taking abilities whilst honing essential seamanship skills including navigation communication technical operations of engines and onboard machinery operation of Inmarsat equipment logistics planning etc it added PTI RRT ROH ROH

Thiruvananthapuram Oct 17 PTI Kerala registered 7555 fresh cases of COVID-19 and 74 related deaths on Sunday taking the total affected in the state to 4845115 and the toll to 26865 State health minister Veena George said 73157 samples were tested in the last 24 hours and there are 211 wards across 158 local self government bodies with a weekly infection population ratio over 10 per cent Among the districts Thrissur reported the highest number of COVID-19 cases on Sunday--998 followed by neighbouring Ernakulam with 975 cases and Thiruvananthapuram with 953 cases Currently there are 87593 active COVID-19 cases in the state out of which only 10 per cent are admitted in the hospitals the minister said in a release George said out of those who were found infected today 44 reached the state from outside while 7162 contracted the disease through their contacts The sources of infection of 278 are yet to be traced Seventy one health workers are also among the infected There are 311361 people under observation in the state out of which 10205 are in isolation wards of various hospitals Meanwhile 10773 people recuperated from the disease on Sunday taking the total cured in the state to 4739 lakh The Minister also said that 938 per cent 25078552 of the targeted population has been vaccinated with the first dose while 455 per cent 12169186received the second dose too PTI RRT ROH ROH

Kochi Sep18 PTI Noted journalist K M Roy died at his residence here on Saturday family sources said He was 84 The body will be laid to rest at St Thomas Church on Sunday they said Roy a senior journalist and a noted columnist began his career in 1961 as co-editor of Keralaprakasam He had also worked with the Economic Times The Hindu and UNI news agency He retired from active journalism as the Editor of the Mangalam daily PTI RRT ROH ROH