Kerala to set up two fabrication labs

Kerala would set up two fabrication labs in Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram with the support of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The first lab would be coming up in IIITM-K campus at Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram.

Neil Gershenfeld, director of the Center for Bits and Atoms, MIT, called on chief minister Oommen Chandy on June 15 to deliberate on the proposal.

Gershenfeld, who is supervising the setting up of the proposed labs at Technopark and Startup Village, has discussed the scope and activities within the fabrication labs during the meeting.

The fabrication labs are being set up as part of the youth entrepreneurship development programme of the Kerala government. The Kerala Startup Mission (formerly Technopark-TBI) is the designated agency for implementing the programme.

Seeks relaxation in emigration clearance

Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy today urged External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to exempt nurses who had cleared job interviews before May 30 from emigration clearance. Chandy recalled the External Affairs minister that she had agreed to this demand earlier, when it was raised by Kerala NRK Minister KC Joseph during a meeting with her. The Union government, while accepting the request, had announced that nurses who had been selected through a transparent process would be exempted from emigration clearance.

Meanwhile, Chandy welcomed the steps initiated by the Centre to check frauds in the recruitment of nurses.

But for their effective implementation, he said the Indian embassies in 18 countries, where the emigration clearance had been made mandatory, should take necessary steps in discussion with the respective government and private sector employers.

So far no steps had been taken in this direction by the respective embassies, except in Kuwait.