Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore   

Reporter's Diary

THE SELF-HELP groups (SHGs) for women in Coimbatore have been making inroads into the market in a very big way by manufacturing and marketing a wide range of products. The focus now seems to have shifted to health care products.

The Collector, S. Kosalaraman, and Project Officer of District Rural Development Agency (DRDA), P. Jeyabalakrishnan, recently launched the vegetable soup and arugampul juice targeting the aged as well as the health-conscious youth. The SHGs have already started manufacturing Sugam, a pain balm produced using lemon grass oil extract, and automated manufacture of sanitary napkins. The mobile tiffin stalls run by women SHGs have been doing a roaring business, encouraging more women to take to such entrepreneurship.

Going one step further, the SHGs have proposed to start a kitchen exclusively aimed at providing food for the diabetic and the health-conscious. The kitchen would have a menu prepared by a dietician and a practising physician in diabetes.

The menu would take into account calories of each item and the diabetic could do away with hugging a tiffin box!

The SHGs would target all office-goers in general and those with diabetes.

The food would be packed and delivered at their offices on time, the officials in charge of SHG activities pointed out.

SEMINAR HALLS and libraries in universities and colleges were among the first to put up notices saying, "Please switch off your mobile phones."

Soon after, it was the turn of conference halls and auditoriums in star hotels to try and prevent mobile phones from ringing merrily when formal proceedings were under way, just when everyone in the audience was trying to maintain a polite silence.

The shrill sounds of the device were a source of disturbance for those trying to concentrate, and what made matters worse was that however quietly the owner answered the phone, his or her voice was clearly audible to those nearby, especially if the room was air-conditioned and acoustically treated to absorb noise.

Star hotels might not sport notices asking for mobile phones to be switched off, but the masters-of-ceremony invariably make several requests at intervals, asking people to switch off their mobile phones or put them in silent mode.

Now it seems to be the turn of places of worship to try and bar the ring of the phone, by putting up notices appealing to devotees to silence the gadgets and then enter the premises.

(Contributed by

V.S. Palaniappan &

A. A. Michael Raj)

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu

News: Front Page | National | Tamil Nadu | Andhra Pradesh | Karnataka | Kerala | New Delhi | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Updates: Breaking News |

Stories in this Section

Traffic diversion for idol immersion procession
`Data collection vital for climatic risk management'
Around the City
In Coimbatore Today
Reporter's Diary

Copyright © 2004, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu