Tamil Nadu news live: Rajinikanth receives Dadasaheb Phalke Award

Furthering the cause of STEM education at the grass-root level, a non-profit organisation India Literacy Project (ILP), with the support of Verizon India, has facilitated the distribution of ‘science lab in a box’ kits to 60 government-run schools in Tamil Nadu and Telangana. More than 12,000 children from 30 government higher secondary schools in Tiruvallur district in Tamil Nadu and over 7,000 students from 30 government schools in Wanaparthy district, Telangana, will benefit from these kits. The Tamil and Telugu versions of the science kit manual and Tamil and Telugu digital online opensource content for use by the government school teachers were also released during an event.

Chennai is one of the seven mega refurbishment labs (MRL) to be set up by online used car unicorn Cars24. These company-owned centres will be set up on 35-acre plots in metros to provide buyers “access to high quality used cars coupled with warranty,” said Cars24 in a statement. Apart from Chennai, MRLs will be set up in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Pune. The Chennai facility, which will come up near Tiruvallur, will become operational in the first phase starting October 2021 along with Delhi-NCR, Mumbai and Ahmedabad. Around 20,000 cars a month will be refurbished at these MRLs and upwards of 1,500 auto workshop jobs will be created. Kunal Mundra, CEO, Cars India, CARS24, said, “The quality of used cars is the most important requirement for buyers. This requires significant refurbishment investment and effort. Hence to cater to these consumer needs, we are setting up India’s largest refurbishment facilities.”

More than 400 engineering colleges in the state will begin classes for more than 95,000 students, who have joined through engineering counselling, from Monday. Anna University's College of Engineering, Guindy, Madras Institute of Technology and Alagappa College of Technology have released the time slots for enrolling the students from Monday. These campuses will conduct campus tours, counselling and games during the induction programme this year. As per the academic schedule, the induction programme will be conducted in physical mode at the university while the theory classes will be conducted in online mode. The semester for university departments will begin with an induction programme on November 1 and end on March 1. Most of the colleges have planned physical induction programmes for the students.

What could be a bigger shot in the arm for a space tech startup than getting an opportunity to test its systems at the country’s national space agency? For Agnikul Cosmos, the association with the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has taken it closer to launching its own rocket. The IIT M-incubated startup will build India’s first private small satellite launch vehicle, Agnibaan, that can carry up to 100kg of payload to low-earth orbits. The company partnered with Isro in September to tap the space agency’s facilities and technical expertise to develop and test Agnikul’s systems. Read full story

Vaccine coverage in the city has improved after the mega drives, with four zones that lagged behind achieving their target. After the last few camps since August 26, 12.8 lakh people have been vaccinated, most of them in zones that earlier had least coverage such as Royapuram, Perungudi, Sholinganallur, Teynampet, Thiruvottiyur.

Forest department officials in Tiruvarur seized 8kg of ambergris or whale vomit worth Rs 8 crore from two people near Muthupettai on Saturday night. Ambergris is a waxy substance secreted from the intestine of sperm whales and is used in perfume manufacture, but its possession and sale are banned in India under the Wildlife Protection Act. District forest officials said they laid a trap based on a tip that a gang was trying to sell the banned substance in local as well as international markets. Read more here