Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 73
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Code Context


        trigger_error($message, E_USER_DEPRECATED);

    }
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 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php.'
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deprecationWarning - CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311
Cake\Http\ServerRequest::offsetGet() - CORE/src/Http/ServerRequest.php, line 2421
App\Controller\ArtileDetailController::printArticle() - APP/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line 73
Cake\Controller\Controller::invokeAction() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 610
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 120
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
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Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
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Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51
Cake\Http\Server::run() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 98

Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 74
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Code Context


        trigger_error($message, E_USER_DEPRECATED);

    }
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 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php.'
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deprecationWarning - CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311
Cake\Http\ServerRequest::offsetGet() - CORE/src/Http/ServerRequest.php, line 2421
App\Controller\ArtileDetailController::printArticle() - APP/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line 74
Cake\Controller\Controller::invokeAction() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 610
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 120
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51
Cake\Http\Server::run() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 98

Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Code Context
            if (Configure::read('debug')) {

                trigger_error($message, E_USER_WARNING);

            } else {
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-The Times of India&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;THIRUVANANTHAPURAM (Kerala): &lt;/em&gt;Of late, stories about social media have been not very encouraging, as it was increasingly turning out to be a platform spewing venom. But, during last week&amp;rsquo;s flood, it turned out to be a lifesaver for hundreds - literally.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
A group of social media enthusiasts, who have already been connected through Facebook harnessed the immense potential of the platform. An active volunteer group of 6,000 was the strong force under Compassionate Keralam, a volunteering group which is an extended edition of Compassionate Kozhikode launched by IAS officer N Prasanth, played a major role in helping the government machinery save lives of hundreds trapped in the floods. &amp;ldquo;When our volunteers began offering help, we united them through the Facebook page titled KeralaFloods2018 and soon, the membership crossed 12,000 from all over the world,&amp;rdquo; Prasanth said. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
It quickly snowballed into a serious affair with a group of tech-savvy members from all over the world, including the USA, the UK and Germany, providing technical support. The group members channelized all SOS messages received through different social media platforms along with the data from the government&amp;rsquo;s website Keralarescue.in launched during the floods, to government call centres. The volunteers channelized the data to the district control rooms from where the government machinery was attending to distress calls. &amp;ldquo;Since our volunteers were spread out in various time zones, at any point of time, people were actively working for the cause,&amp;rdquo; said Prasanth.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The rescue parties needed exact locations and the IT members used Google coordinates to mark the locations.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;ldquo;I have never seen people ramping up so quickly and working autonomously with very little supervision and delivering results,&amp;rdquo; IT programme manager with Royal Bank of Scotland in London, Gopikrishnan J Nair who volunteered and provided the technical support online, said over the phone from London. He took up the task of mobilizing 80 volunteers back in the state in less than 30 minutes using Google contacts and adding them in a WhatsApp group and putting them at the disposal of Alappuzha district collector S Suhas.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The government administration offered full support for the initiative, with chief secretary Tom Jose and IT secretary M Sivasankar extending all possible coordination for the team, which also liaised with CM&amp;rsquo;s IT fellow Arun Balachandran, who too stood as a link for the volunteering group with the government.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Organisations including Bhoomika Trust, Amritha Institute, IT major Infosys, and other companies like OrisysIndia, Phykon and Sysfore helped the group establish call centres in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode and places outside the state like Bengaluru and Chennai. In a span of five days, the call centres handled over 30,000 phone calls effectively.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;ldquo;With our earlier experience of handling Chennai floods, we volunteered to set up a call centre at Chennai using our Malayali volunteers,&amp;rdquo; member of advisory board of Bhoomika Trust in Chennai, Latha Subrahmaniam said.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
More than 200 members volunteered to be physically present on the field at each district call centre where the information they received was passed on to the government authorities on a real-time basis. In addition, a WhatsApp group of naval officers&amp;rsquo; wives also volunteered in who got in touch with the Navy officers on the mission to reach out to places which were very difficult to reach otherwise. 
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
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&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;The Times of India, 23 August, 2018, please &lt;a href=&quot;https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/a-virtual-army-that-fought-from-behind-the-screen/articleshow/65507193.cms&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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-The Times of India

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM (Kerala): Of late, stories about social media have been not very encouraging, as it was increasingly turning out to be a platform spewing venom. But, during last week&amp;rsquo;s flood, it turned out to be a lifesaver...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;-The Times of India&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;THIRUVANANTHAPURAM (Kerala): &lt;/em&gt;Of late, stories about social media have been not very encouraging, as it was increasingly turning out to be a platform spewing venom. But, during last week&amp;rsquo;s flood, it turned out to be a lifesaver for hundreds - literally.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A group of social media enthusiasts, who have already been connected through Facebook harnessed the immense potential of the platform. An active volunteer group of 6,000 was the strong force under Compassionate Keralam, a volunteering group which is an extended edition of Compassionate Kozhikode launched by IAS officer N Prasanth, played a major role in helping the government machinery save lives of hundreds trapped in the floods. &amp;ldquo;When our volunteers began offering help, we united them through the Facebook page titled KeralaFloods2018 and soon, the membership crossed 12,000 from all over the world,&amp;rdquo; Prasanth said. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It quickly snowballed into a serious affair with a group of tech-savvy members from all over the world, including the USA, the UK and Germany, providing technical support. The group members channelized all SOS messages received through different social media platforms along with the data from the government&amp;rsquo;s website Keralarescue.in launched during the floods, to government call centres. The volunteers channelized the data to the district control rooms from where the government machinery was attending to distress calls. &amp;ldquo;Since our volunteers were spread out in various time zones, at any point of time, people were actively working for the cause,&amp;rdquo; said Prasanth.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The rescue parties needed exact locations and the IT members used Google coordinates to mark the locations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;ldquo;I have never seen people ramping up so quickly and working autonomously with very little supervision and delivering results,&amp;rdquo; IT programme manager with Royal Bank of Scotland in London, Gopikrishnan J Nair who volunteered and provided the technical support online, said over the phone from London. He took up the task of mobilizing 80 volunteers back in the state in less than 30 minutes using Google contacts and adding them in a WhatsApp group and putting them at the disposal of Alappuzha district collector S Suhas.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The government administration offered full support for the initiative, with chief secretary Tom Jose and IT secretary M Sivasankar extending all possible coordination for the team, which also liaised with CM&amp;rsquo;s IT fellow Arun Balachandran, who too stood as a link for the volunteering group with the government.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Organisations including Bhoomika Trust, Amritha Institute, IT major Infosys, and other companies like OrisysIndia, Phykon and Sysfore helped the group establish call centres in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode and places outside the state like Bengaluru and Chennai. In a span of five days, the call centres handled over 30,000 phone calls effectively.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;ldquo;With our earlier experience of handling Chennai floods, we volunteered to set up a call centre at Chennai using our Malayali volunteers,&amp;rdquo; member of advisory board of Bhoomika Trust in Chennai, Latha Subrahmaniam said.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;More than 200 members volunteered to be physically present on the field at each district call centre where the information they received was passed on to the government authorities on a real-time basis. In addition, a WhatsApp group of naval officers&amp;rsquo; wives also volunteered in who got in touch with the Navy officers on the mission to reach out to places which were very difficult to reach otherwise. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Times of India, 23 August, 2018, please &lt;a href=&quot;https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/a-virtual-army-that-fought-from-behind-the-screen/articleshow/65507193.cms&quot; title=&quot;https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/a-virtual-army-that-fought-from-behind-the-screen/articleshow/65507193.cms&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
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-The Times of India&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;THIRUVANANTHAPURAM (Kerala): &lt;/em&gt;Of late, stories about social media have been not very encouraging, as it was increasingly turning out to be a platform spewing venom. But, during last week&amp;rsquo;s flood, it turned out to be a lifesaver for hundreds - literally.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
A group of social media enthusiasts, who have already been connected through Facebook harnessed the immense potential of the platform. An active volunteer group of 6,000 was the strong force under Compassionate Keralam, a volunteering group which is an extended edition of Compassionate Kozhikode launched by IAS officer N Prasanth, played a major role in helping the government machinery save lives of hundreds trapped in the floods. &amp;ldquo;When our volunteers began offering help, we united them through the Facebook page titled KeralaFloods2018 and soon, the membership crossed 12,000 from all over the world,&amp;rdquo; Prasanth said. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
It quickly snowballed into a serious affair with a group of tech-savvy members from all over the world, including the USA, the UK and Germany, providing technical support. The group members channelized all SOS messages received through different social media platforms along with the data from the government&amp;rsquo;s website Keralarescue.in launched during the floods, to government call centres. The volunteers channelized the data to the district control rooms from where the government machinery was attending to distress calls. &amp;ldquo;Since our volunteers were spread out in various time zones, at any point of time, people were actively working for the cause,&amp;rdquo; said Prasanth.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The rescue parties needed exact locations and the IT members used Google coordinates to mark the locations.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;ldquo;I have never seen people ramping up so quickly and working autonomously with very little supervision and delivering results,&amp;rdquo; IT programme manager with Royal Bank of Scotland in London, Gopikrishnan J Nair who volunteered and provided the technical support online, said over the phone from London. He took up the task of mobilizing 80 volunteers back in the state in less than 30 minutes using Google contacts and adding them in a WhatsApp group and putting them at the disposal of Alappuzha district collector S Suhas.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The government administration offered full support for the initiative, with chief secretary Tom Jose and IT secretary M Sivasankar extending all possible coordination for the team, which also liaised with CM&amp;rsquo;s IT fellow Arun Balachandran, who too stood as a link for the volunteering group with the government.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Organisations including Bhoomika Trust, Amritha Institute, IT major Infosys, and other companies like OrisysIndia, Phykon and Sysfore helped the group establish call centres in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode and places outside the state like Bengaluru and Chennai. In a span of five days, the call centres handled over 30,000 phone calls effectively.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;ldquo;With our earlier experience of handling Chennai floods, we volunteered to set up a call centre at Chennai using our Malayali volunteers,&amp;rdquo; member of advisory board of Bhoomika Trust in Chennai, Latha Subrahmaniam said.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
More than 200 members volunteered to be physically present on the field at each district call centre where the information they received was passed on to the government authorities on a real-time basis. In addition, a WhatsApp group of naval officers&amp;rsquo; wives also volunteered in who got in touch with the Navy officers on the mission to reach out to places which were very difficult to reach otherwise. 
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;The Times of India, 23 August, 2018, please &lt;a href=&quot;https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/a-virtual-army-that-fought-from-behind-the-screen/articleshow/65507193.cms&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;The Times of India, 23 August, 2018, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/a-virtual-army-that-fought-from-behind-the-screen/articleshow/65507193.cms&#039;,
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-The Times of India

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM (Kerala): Of late, stories about social media have been not very encouraging, as it was increasingly turning out to be a platform spewing venom. But, during last week&amp;rsquo;s flood, it turned out to be a lifesaver...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;-The Times of India&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;THIRUVANANTHAPURAM (Kerala): &lt;/em&gt;Of late, stories about social media have been not very encouraging, as it was increasingly turning out to be a platform spewing venom. But, during last week&amp;rsquo;s flood, it turned out to be a lifesaver for hundreds - literally.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A group of social media enthusiasts, who have already been connected through Facebook harnessed the immense potential of the platform. An active volunteer group of 6,000 was the strong force under Compassionate Keralam, a volunteering group which is an extended edition of Compassionate Kozhikode launched by IAS officer N Prasanth, played a major role in helping the government machinery save lives of hundreds trapped in the floods. &amp;ldquo;When our volunteers began offering help, we united them through the Facebook page titled KeralaFloods2018 and soon, the membership crossed 12,000 from all over the world,&amp;rdquo; Prasanth said. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It quickly snowballed into a serious affair with a group of tech-savvy members from all over the world, including the USA, the UK and Germany, providing technical support. The group members channelized all SOS messages received through different social media platforms along with the data from the government&amp;rsquo;s website Keralarescue.in launched during the floods, to government call centres. The volunteers channelized the data to the district control rooms from where the government machinery was attending to distress calls. &amp;ldquo;Since our volunteers were spread out in various time zones, at any point of time, people were actively working for the cause,&amp;rdquo; said Prasanth.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The rescue parties needed exact locations and the IT members used Google coordinates to mark the locations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;ldquo;I have never seen people ramping up so quickly and working autonomously with very little supervision and delivering results,&amp;rdquo; IT programme manager with Royal Bank of Scotland in London, Gopikrishnan J Nair who volunteered and provided the technical support online, said over the phone from London. He took up the task of mobilizing 80 volunteers back in the state in less than 30 minutes using Google contacts and adding them in a WhatsApp group and putting them at the disposal of Alappuzha district collector S Suhas.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The government administration offered full support for the initiative, with chief secretary Tom Jose and IT secretary M Sivasankar extending all possible coordination for the team, which also liaised with CM&amp;rsquo;s IT fellow Arun Balachandran, who too stood as a link for the volunteering group with the government.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Organisations including Bhoomika Trust, Amritha Institute, IT major Infosys, and other companies like OrisysIndia, Phykon and Sysfore helped the group establish call centres in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode and places outside the state like Bengaluru and Chennai. In a span of five days, the call centres handled over 30,000 phone calls effectively.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;ldquo;With our earlier experience of handling Chennai floods, we volunteered to set up a call centre at Chennai using our Malayali volunteers,&amp;rdquo; member of advisory board of Bhoomika Trust in Chennai, Latha Subrahmaniam said.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;More than 200 members volunteered to be physically present on the field at each district call centre where the information they received was passed on to the government authorities on a real-time basis. In addition, a WhatsApp group of naval officers&amp;rsquo; wives also volunteered in who got in touch with the Navy officers on the mission to reach out to places which were very difficult to reach otherwise. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Times of India, 23 August, 2018, please &lt;a href=&quot;https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/a-virtual-army-that-fought-from-behind-the-screen/articleshow/65507193.cms&quot; title=&quot;https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/a-virtual-army-that-fought-from-behind-the-screen/articleshow/65507193.cms&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;
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-The Times of India

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM (Kerala): Of late, stories about social media have been not very encouraging, as it was increasingly turning out to be a platform spewing venom. But, during last week&rsquo;s flood, it turned out to be a lifesaver..."/>
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                <strong>How online army became lifesaver for flood-hit Kerala -KP Saikiran</strong></h1>
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                <div align="justify">-The Times of India<br /><br /><em>THIRUVANANTHAPURAM (Kerala): </em>Of late, stories about social media have been not very encouraging, as it was increasingly turning out to be a platform spewing venom. But, during last week&rsquo;s flood, it turned out to be a lifesaver for hundreds - literally.<br /><br />A group of social media enthusiasts, who have already been connected through Facebook harnessed the immense potential of the platform. An active volunteer group of 6,000 was the strong force under Compassionate Keralam, a volunteering group which is an extended edition of Compassionate Kozhikode launched by IAS officer N Prasanth, played a major role in helping the government machinery save lives of hundreds trapped in the floods. &ldquo;When our volunteers began offering help, we united them through the Facebook page titled KeralaFloods2018 and soon, the membership crossed 12,000 from all over the world,&rdquo; Prasanth said. <br /><br />It quickly snowballed into a serious affair with a group of tech-savvy members from all over the world, including the USA, the UK and Germany, providing technical support. The group members channelized all SOS messages received through different social media platforms along with the data from the government&rsquo;s website Keralarescue.in launched during the floods, to government call centres. The volunteers channelized the data to the district control rooms from where the government machinery was attending to distress calls. &ldquo;Since our volunteers were spread out in various time zones, at any point of time, people were actively working for the cause,&rdquo; said Prasanth.<br /><br />The rescue parties needed exact locations and the IT members used Google coordinates to mark the locations.<br /><br />&ldquo;I have never seen people ramping up so quickly and working autonomously with very little supervision and delivering results,&rdquo; IT programme manager with Royal Bank of Scotland in London, Gopikrishnan J Nair who volunteered and provided the technical support online, said over the phone from London. He took up the task of mobilizing 80 volunteers back in the state in less than 30 minutes using Google contacts and adding them in a WhatsApp group and putting them at the disposal of Alappuzha district collector S Suhas.<br /><br />The government administration offered full support for the initiative, with chief secretary Tom Jose and IT secretary M Sivasankar extending all possible coordination for the team, which also liaised with CM&rsquo;s IT fellow Arun Balachandran, who too stood as a link for the volunteering group with the government.<br /><br />Organisations including Bhoomika Trust, Amritha Institute, IT major Infosys, and other companies like OrisysIndia, Phykon and Sysfore helped the group establish call centres in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode and places outside the state like Bengaluru and Chennai. In a span of five days, the call centres handled over 30,000 phone calls effectively.<br /><br />&ldquo;With our earlier experience of handling Chennai floods, we volunteered to set up a call centre at Chennai using our Malayali volunteers,&rdquo; member of advisory board of Bhoomika Trust in Chennai, Latha Subrahmaniam said.<br /><br />More than 200 members volunteered to be physically present on the field at each district call centre where the information they received was passed on to the government authorities on a real-time basis. In addition, a WhatsApp group of naval officers&rsquo; wives also volunteered in who got in touch with the Navy officers on the mission to reach out to places which were very difficult to reach otherwise. </div><div align="justify">&nbsp;</div><div align="justify"><em>The Times of India, 23 August, 2018, please <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/a-virtual-army-that-fought-from-behind-the-screen/articleshow/65507193.cms" title="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/a-virtual-army-that-fought-from-behind-the-screen/articleshow/65507193.cms">click here</a> to access </em><br /></div>               </font>
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-The Times of India&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;THIRUVANANTHAPURAM (Kerala): &lt;/em&gt;Of late, stories about social media have been not very encouraging, as it was increasingly turning out to be a platform spewing venom. But, during last week&amp;rsquo;s flood, it turned out to be a lifesaver for hundreds - literally.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
A group of social media enthusiasts, who have already been connected through Facebook harnessed the immense potential of the platform. An active volunteer group of 6,000 was the strong force under Compassionate Keralam, a volunteering group which is an extended edition of Compassionate Kozhikode launched by IAS officer N Prasanth, played a major role in helping the government machinery save lives of hundreds trapped in the floods. &amp;ldquo;When our volunteers began offering help, we united them through the Facebook page titled KeralaFloods2018 and soon, the membership crossed 12,000 from all over the world,&amp;rdquo; Prasanth said. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
It quickly snowballed into a serious affair with a group of tech-savvy members from all over the world, including the USA, the UK and Germany, providing technical support. The group members channelized all SOS messages received through different social media platforms along with the data from the government&amp;rsquo;s website Keralarescue.in launched during the floods, to government call centres. The volunteers channelized the data to the district control rooms from where the government machinery was attending to distress calls. &amp;ldquo;Since our volunteers were spread out in various time zones, at any point of time, people were actively working for the cause,&amp;rdquo; said Prasanth.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The rescue parties needed exact locations and the IT members used Google coordinates to mark the locations.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;ldquo;I have never seen people ramping up so quickly and working autonomously with very little supervision and delivering results,&amp;rdquo; IT programme manager with Royal Bank of Scotland in London, Gopikrishnan J Nair who volunteered and provided the technical support online, said over the phone from London. He took up the task of mobilizing 80 volunteers back in the state in less than 30 minutes using Google contacts and adding them in a WhatsApp group and putting them at the disposal of Alappuzha district collector S Suhas.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The government administration offered full support for the initiative, with chief secretary Tom Jose and IT secretary M Sivasankar extending all possible coordination for the team, which also liaised with CM&amp;rsquo;s IT fellow Arun Balachandran, who too stood as a link for the volunteering group with the government.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Organisations including Bhoomika Trust, Amritha Institute, IT major Infosys, and other companies like OrisysIndia, Phykon and Sysfore helped the group establish call centres in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode and places outside the state like Bengaluru and Chennai. In a span of five days, the call centres handled over 30,000 phone calls effectively.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;ldquo;With our earlier experience of handling Chennai floods, we volunteered to set up a call centre at Chennai using our Malayali volunteers,&amp;rdquo; member of advisory board of Bhoomika Trust in Chennai, Latha Subrahmaniam said.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
More than 200 members volunteered to be physically present on the field at each district call centre where the information they received was passed on to the government authorities on a real-time basis. In addition, a WhatsApp group of naval officers&amp;rsquo; wives also volunteered in who got in touch with the Navy officers on the mission to reach out to places which were very difficult to reach otherwise. 
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&lt;em&gt;The Times of India, 23 August, 2018, please &lt;a href=&quot;https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/a-virtual-army-that-fought-from-behind-the-screen/articleshow/65507193.cms&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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-The Times of India

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM (Kerala): Of late, stories about social media have been not very encouraging, as it was increasingly turning out to be a platform spewing venom. But, during last week&amp;rsquo;s flood, it turned out to be a lifesaver...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;-The Times of India&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;THIRUVANANTHAPURAM (Kerala): &lt;/em&gt;Of late, stories about social media have been not very encouraging, as it was increasingly turning out to be a platform spewing venom. But, during last week&amp;rsquo;s flood, it turned out to be a lifesaver for hundreds - literally.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A group of social media enthusiasts, who have already been connected through Facebook harnessed the immense potential of the platform. An active volunteer group of 6,000 was the strong force under Compassionate Keralam, a volunteering group which is an extended edition of Compassionate Kozhikode launched by IAS officer N Prasanth, played a major role in helping the government machinery save lives of hundreds trapped in the floods. &amp;ldquo;When our volunteers began offering help, we united them through the Facebook page titled KeralaFloods2018 and soon, the membership crossed 12,000 from all over the world,&amp;rdquo; Prasanth said. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It quickly snowballed into a serious affair with a group of tech-savvy members from all over the world, including the USA, the UK and Germany, providing technical support. The group members channelized all SOS messages received through different social media platforms along with the data from the government&amp;rsquo;s website Keralarescue.in launched during the floods, to government call centres. The volunteers channelized the data to the district control rooms from where the government machinery was attending to distress calls. &amp;ldquo;Since our volunteers were spread out in various time zones, at any point of time, people were actively working for the cause,&amp;rdquo; said Prasanth.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The rescue parties needed exact locations and the IT members used Google coordinates to mark the locations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;ldquo;I have never seen people ramping up so quickly and working autonomously with very little supervision and delivering results,&amp;rdquo; IT programme manager with Royal Bank of Scotland in London, Gopikrishnan J Nair who volunteered and provided the technical support online, said over the phone from London. He took up the task of mobilizing 80 volunteers back in the state in less than 30 minutes using Google contacts and adding them in a WhatsApp group and putting them at the disposal of Alappuzha district collector S Suhas.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The government administration offered full support for the initiative, with chief secretary Tom Jose and IT secretary M Sivasankar extending all possible coordination for the team, which also liaised with CM&amp;rsquo;s IT fellow Arun Balachandran, who too stood as a link for the volunteering group with the government.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Organisations including Bhoomika Trust, Amritha Institute, IT major Infosys, and other companies like OrisysIndia, Phykon and Sysfore helped the group establish call centres in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode and places outside the state like Bengaluru and Chennai. In a span of five days, the call centres handled over 30,000 phone calls effectively.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;ldquo;With our earlier experience of handling Chennai floods, we volunteered to set up a call centre at Chennai using our Malayali volunteers,&amp;rdquo; member of advisory board of Bhoomika Trust in Chennai, Latha Subrahmaniam said.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;More than 200 members volunteered to be physically present on the field at each district call centre where the information they received was passed on to the government authorities on a real-time basis. In addition, a WhatsApp group of naval officers&amp;rsquo; wives also volunteered in who got in touch with the Navy officers on the mission to reach out to places which were very difficult to reach otherwise. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Times of India, 23 August, 2018, please &lt;a href=&quot;https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/a-virtual-army-that-fought-from-behind-the-screen/articleshow/65507193.cms&quot; title=&quot;https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/a-virtual-army-that-fought-from-behind-the-screen/articleshow/65507193.cms&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
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-The Times of India&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;THIRUVANANTHAPURAM (Kerala): &lt;/em&gt;Of late, stories about social media have been not very encouraging, as it was increasingly turning out to be a platform spewing venom. But, during last week&amp;rsquo;s flood, it turned out to be a lifesaver for hundreds - literally.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
A group of social media enthusiasts, who have already been connected through Facebook harnessed the immense potential of the platform. An active volunteer group of 6,000 was the strong force under Compassionate Keralam, a volunteering group which is an extended edition of Compassionate Kozhikode launched by IAS officer N Prasanth, played a major role in helping the government machinery save lives of hundreds trapped in the floods. &amp;ldquo;When our volunteers began offering help, we united them through the Facebook page titled KeralaFloods2018 and soon, the membership crossed 12,000 from all over the world,&amp;rdquo; Prasanth said. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
It quickly snowballed into a serious affair with a group of tech-savvy members from all over the world, including the USA, the UK and Germany, providing technical support. The group members channelized all SOS messages received through different social media platforms along with the data from the government&amp;rsquo;s website Keralarescue.in launched during the floods, to government call centres. The volunteers channelized the data to the district control rooms from where the government machinery was attending to distress calls. &amp;ldquo;Since our volunteers were spread out in various time zones, at any point of time, people were actively working for the cause,&amp;rdquo; said Prasanth.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The rescue parties needed exact locations and the IT members used Google coordinates to mark the locations.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;ldquo;I have never seen people ramping up so quickly and working autonomously with very little supervision and delivering results,&amp;rdquo; IT programme manager with Royal Bank of Scotland in London, Gopikrishnan J Nair who volunteered and provided the technical support online, said over the phone from London. He took up the task of mobilizing 80 volunteers back in the state in less than 30 minutes using Google contacts and adding them in a WhatsApp group and putting them at the disposal of Alappuzha district collector S Suhas.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The government administration offered full support for the initiative, with chief secretary Tom Jose and IT secretary M Sivasankar extending all possible coordination for the team, which also liaised with CM&amp;rsquo;s IT fellow Arun Balachandran, who too stood as a link for the volunteering group with the government.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Organisations including Bhoomika Trust, Amritha Institute, IT major Infosys, and other companies like OrisysIndia, Phykon and Sysfore helped the group establish call centres in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode and places outside the state like Bengaluru and Chennai. In a span of five days, the call centres handled over 30,000 phone calls effectively.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;ldquo;With our earlier experience of handling Chennai floods, we volunteered to set up a call centre at Chennai using our Malayali volunteers,&amp;rdquo; member of advisory board of Bhoomika Trust in Chennai, Latha Subrahmaniam said.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
More than 200 members volunteered to be physically present on the field at each district call centre where the information they received was passed on to the government authorities on a real-time basis. In addition, a WhatsApp group of naval officers&amp;rsquo; wives also volunteered in who got in touch with the Navy officers on the mission to reach out to places which were very difficult to reach otherwise. 
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&lt;em&gt;The Times of India, 23 August, 2018, please &lt;a href=&quot;https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/a-virtual-army-that-fought-from-behind-the-screen/articleshow/65507193.cms&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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-The Times of India

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM (Kerala): Of late, stories about social media have been not very encouraging, as it was increasingly turning out to be a platform spewing venom. But, during last week&amp;rsquo;s flood, it turned out to be a lifesaver...&#039;
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-The Times of India

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM (Kerala): Of late, stories about social media have been not very encouraging, as it was increasingly turning out to be a platform spewing venom. But, during last week&rsquo;s flood, it turned out to be a lifesaver..."/>
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                <strong>How online army became lifesaver for flood-hit Kerala -KP Saikiran</strong></h1>
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                <div align="justify">-The Times of India<br /><br /><em>THIRUVANANTHAPURAM (Kerala): </em>Of late, stories about social media have been not very encouraging, as it was increasingly turning out to be a platform spewing venom. But, during last week&rsquo;s flood, it turned out to be a lifesaver for hundreds - literally.<br /><br />A group of social media enthusiasts, who have already been connected through Facebook harnessed the immense potential of the platform. An active volunteer group of 6,000 was the strong force under Compassionate Keralam, a volunteering group which is an extended edition of Compassionate Kozhikode launched by IAS officer N Prasanth, played a major role in helping the government machinery save lives of hundreds trapped in the floods. &ldquo;When our volunteers began offering help, we united them through the Facebook page titled KeralaFloods2018 and soon, the membership crossed 12,000 from all over the world,&rdquo; Prasanth said. <br /><br />It quickly snowballed into a serious affair with a group of tech-savvy members from all over the world, including the USA, the UK and Germany, providing technical support. The group members channelized all SOS messages received through different social media platforms along with the data from the government&rsquo;s website Keralarescue.in launched during the floods, to government call centres. The volunteers channelized the data to the district control rooms from where the government machinery was attending to distress calls. &ldquo;Since our volunteers were spread out in various time zones, at any point of time, people were actively working for the cause,&rdquo; said Prasanth.<br /><br />The rescue parties needed exact locations and the IT members used Google coordinates to mark the locations.<br /><br />&ldquo;I have never seen people ramping up so quickly and working autonomously with very little supervision and delivering results,&rdquo; IT programme manager with Royal Bank of Scotland in London, Gopikrishnan J Nair who volunteered and provided the technical support online, said over the phone from London. He took up the task of mobilizing 80 volunteers back in the state in less than 30 minutes using Google contacts and adding them in a WhatsApp group and putting them at the disposal of Alappuzha district collector S Suhas.<br /><br />The government administration offered full support for the initiative, with chief secretary Tom Jose and IT secretary M Sivasankar extending all possible coordination for the team, which also liaised with CM&rsquo;s IT fellow Arun Balachandran, who too stood as a link for the volunteering group with the government.<br /><br />Organisations including Bhoomika Trust, Amritha Institute, IT major Infosys, and other companies like OrisysIndia, Phykon and Sysfore helped the group establish call centres in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode and places outside the state like Bengaluru and Chennai. In a span of five days, the call centres handled over 30,000 phone calls effectively.<br /><br />&ldquo;With our earlier experience of handling Chennai floods, we volunteered to set up a call centre at Chennai using our Malayali volunteers,&rdquo; member of advisory board of Bhoomika Trust in Chennai, Latha Subrahmaniam said.<br /><br />More than 200 members volunteered to be physically present on the field at each district call centre where the information they received was passed on to the government authorities on a real-time basis. In addition, a WhatsApp group of naval officers&rsquo; wives also volunteered in who got in touch with the Navy officers on the mission to reach out to places which were very difficult to reach otherwise. </div><div align="justify">&nbsp;</div><div align="justify"><em>The Times of India, 23 August, 2018, please <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/a-virtual-army-that-fought-from-behind-the-screen/articleshow/65507193.cms" title="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/a-virtual-army-that-fought-from-behind-the-screen/articleshow/65507193.cms">click here</a> to access </em><br /></div>               </font>
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-The Times of India&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;THIRUVANANTHAPURAM (Kerala): &lt;/em&gt;Of late, stories about social media have been not very encouraging, as it was increasingly turning out to be a platform spewing venom. But, during last week&amp;rsquo;s flood, it turned out to be a lifesaver for hundreds - literally.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
A group of social media enthusiasts, who have already been connected through Facebook harnessed the immense potential of the platform. An active volunteer group of 6,000 was the strong force under Compassionate Keralam, a volunteering group which is an extended edition of Compassionate Kozhikode launched by IAS officer N Prasanth, played a major role in helping the government machinery save lives of hundreds trapped in the floods. &amp;ldquo;When our volunteers began offering help, we united them through the Facebook page titled KeralaFloods2018 and soon, the membership crossed 12,000 from all over the world,&amp;rdquo; Prasanth said. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
It quickly snowballed into a serious affair with a group of tech-savvy members from all over the world, including the USA, the UK and Germany, providing technical support. The group members channelized all SOS messages received through different social media platforms along with the data from the government&amp;rsquo;s website Keralarescue.in launched during the floods, to government call centres. The volunteers channelized the data to the district control rooms from where the government machinery was attending to distress calls. &amp;ldquo;Since our volunteers were spread out in various time zones, at any point of time, people were actively working for the cause,&amp;rdquo; said Prasanth.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The rescue parties needed exact locations and the IT members used Google coordinates to mark the locations.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;ldquo;I have never seen people ramping up so quickly and working autonomously with very little supervision and delivering results,&amp;rdquo; IT programme manager with Royal Bank of Scotland in London, Gopikrishnan J Nair who volunteered and provided the technical support online, said over the phone from London. He took up the task of mobilizing 80 volunteers back in the state in less than 30 minutes using Google contacts and adding them in a WhatsApp group and putting them at the disposal of Alappuzha district collector S Suhas.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The government administration offered full support for the initiative, with chief secretary Tom Jose and IT secretary M Sivasankar extending all possible coordination for the team, which also liaised with CM&amp;rsquo;s IT fellow Arun Balachandran, who too stood as a link for the volunteering group with the government.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Organisations including Bhoomika Trust, Amritha Institute, IT major Infosys, and other companies like OrisysIndia, Phykon and Sysfore helped the group establish call centres in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode and places outside the state like Bengaluru and Chennai. In a span of five days, the call centres handled over 30,000 phone calls effectively.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;ldquo;With our earlier experience of handling Chennai floods, we volunteered to set up a call centre at Chennai using our Malayali volunteers,&amp;rdquo; member of advisory board of Bhoomika Trust in Chennai, Latha Subrahmaniam said.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
More than 200 members volunteered to be physically present on the field at each district call centre where the information they received was passed on to the government authorities on a real-time basis. In addition, a WhatsApp group of naval officers&amp;rsquo; wives also volunteered in who got in touch with the Navy officers on the mission to reach out to places which were very difficult to reach otherwise. 
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;The Times of India, 23 August, 2018, please &lt;a href=&quot;https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/a-virtual-army-that-fought-from-behind-the-screen/articleshow/65507193.cms&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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-The Times of India

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM (Kerala): Of late, stories about social media have been not very encouraging, as it was increasingly turning out to be a platform spewing venom. But, during last week&amp;rsquo;s flood, it turned out to be a lifesaver...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;-The Times of India&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;THIRUVANANTHAPURAM (Kerala): &lt;/em&gt;Of late, stories about social media have been not very encouraging, as it was increasingly turning out to be a platform spewing venom. But, during last week&amp;rsquo;s flood, it turned out to be a lifesaver for hundreds - literally.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A group of social media enthusiasts, who have already been connected through Facebook harnessed the immense potential of the platform. An active volunteer group of 6,000 was the strong force under Compassionate Keralam, a volunteering group which is an extended edition of Compassionate Kozhikode launched by IAS officer N Prasanth, played a major role in helping the government machinery save lives of hundreds trapped in the floods. &amp;ldquo;When our volunteers began offering help, we united them through the Facebook page titled KeralaFloods2018 and soon, the membership crossed 12,000 from all over the world,&amp;rdquo; Prasanth said. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It quickly snowballed into a serious affair with a group of tech-savvy members from all over the world, including the USA, the UK and Germany, providing technical support. The group members channelized all SOS messages received through different social media platforms along with the data from the government&amp;rsquo;s website Keralarescue.in launched during the floods, to government call centres. The volunteers channelized the data to the district control rooms from where the government machinery was attending to distress calls. &amp;ldquo;Since our volunteers were spread out in various time zones, at any point of time, people were actively working for the cause,&amp;rdquo; said Prasanth.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The rescue parties needed exact locations and the IT members used Google coordinates to mark the locations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;ldquo;I have never seen people ramping up so quickly and working autonomously with very little supervision and delivering results,&amp;rdquo; IT programme manager with Royal Bank of Scotland in London, Gopikrishnan J Nair who volunteered and provided the technical support online, said over the phone from London. He took up the task of mobilizing 80 volunteers back in the state in less than 30 minutes using Google contacts and adding them in a WhatsApp group and putting them at the disposal of Alappuzha district collector S Suhas.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The government administration offered full support for the initiative, with chief secretary Tom Jose and IT secretary M Sivasankar extending all possible coordination for the team, which also liaised with CM&amp;rsquo;s IT fellow Arun Balachandran, who too stood as a link for the volunteering group with the government.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Organisations including Bhoomika Trust, Amritha Institute, IT major Infosys, and other companies like OrisysIndia, Phykon and Sysfore helped the group establish call centres in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode and places outside the state like Bengaluru and Chennai. In a span of five days, the call centres handled over 30,000 phone calls effectively.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;ldquo;With our earlier experience of handling Chennai floods, we volunteered to set up a call centre at Chennai using our Malayali volunteers,&amp;rdquo; member of advisory board of Bhoomika Trust in Chennai, Latha Subrahmaniam said.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;More than 200 members volunteered to be physically present on the field at each district call centre where the information they received was passed on to the government authorities on a real-time basis. In addition, a WhatsApp group of naval officers&amp;rsquo; wives also volunteered in who got in touch with the Navy officers on the mission to reach out to places which were very difficult to reach otherwise. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Times of India, 23 August, 2018, please &lt;a href=&quot;https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/a-virtual-army-that-fought-from-behind-the-screen/articleshow/65507193.cms&quot; title=&quot;https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/a-virtual-army-that-fought-from-behind-the-screen/articleshow/65507193.cms&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
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-The Times of India&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;THIRUVANANTHAPURAM (Kerala): &lt;/em&gt;Of late, stories about social media have been not very encouraging, as it was increasingly turning out to be a platform spewing venom. But, during last week&amp;rsquo;s flood, it turned out to be a lifesaver for hundreds - literally.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
A group of social media enthusiasts, who have already been connected through Facebook harnessed the immense potential of the platform. An active volunteer group of 6,000 was the strong force under Compassionate Keralam, a volunteering group which is an extended edition of Compassionate Kozhikode launched by IAS officer N Prasanth, played a major role in helping the government machinery save lives of hundreds trapped in the floods. &amp;ldquo;When our volunteers began offering help, we united them through the Facebook page titled KeralaFloods2018 and soon, the membership crossed 12,000 from all over the world,&amp;rdquo; Prasanth said. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
It quickly snowballed into a serious affair with a group of tech-savvy members from all over the world, including the USA, the UK and Germany, providing technical support. The group members channelized all SOS messages received through different social media platforms along with the data from the government&amp;rsquo;s website Keralarescue.in launched during the floods, to government call centres. The volunteers channelized the data to the district control rooms from where the government machinery was attending to distress calls. &amp;ldquo;Since our volunteers were spread out in various time zones, at any point of time, people were actively working for the cause,&amp;rdquo; said Prasanth.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The rescue parties needed exact locations and the IT members used Google coordinates to mark the locations.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;ldquo;I have never seen people ramping up so quickly and working autonomously with very little supervision and delivering results,&amp;rdquo; IT programme manager with Royal Bank of Scotland in London, Gopikrishnan J Nair who volunteered and provided the technical support online, said over the phone from London. He took up the task of mobilizing 80 volunteers back in the state in less than 30 minutes using Google contacts and adding them in a WhatsApp group and putting them at the disposal of Alappuzha district collector S Suhas.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The government administration offered full support for the initiative, with chief secretary Tom Jose and IT secretary M Sivasankar extending all possible coordination for the team, which also liaised with CM&amp;rsquo;s IT fellow Arun Balachandran, who too stood as a link for the volunteering group with the government.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Organisations including Bhoomika Trust, Amritha Institute, IT major Infosys, and other companies like OrisysIndia, Phykon and Sysfore helped the group establish call centres in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode and places outside the state like Bengaluru and Chennai. In a span of five days, the call centres handled over 30,000 phone calls effectively.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;ldquo;With our earlier experience of handling Chennai floods, we volunteered to set up a call centre at Chennai using our Malayali volunteers,&amp;rdquo; member of advisory board of Bhoomika Trust in Chennai, Latha Subrahmaniam said.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
More than 200 members volunteered to be physically present on the field at each district call centre where the information they received was passed on to the government authorities on a real-time basis. In addition, a WhatsApp group of naval officers&amp;rsquo; wives also volunteered in who got in touch with the Navy officers on the mission to reach out to places which were very difficult to reach otherwise. 
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&lt;em&gt;The Times of India, 23 August, 2018, please &lt;a href=&quot;https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/a-virtual-army-that-fought-from-behind-the-screen/articleshow/65507193.cms&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;The Times of India, 23 August, 2018, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/a-virtual-army-that-fought-from-behind-the-screen/articleshow/65507193.cms&#039;,
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-The Times of India

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM (Kerala): Of late, stories about social media have been not very encouraging, as it was increasingly turning out to be a platform spewing venom. But, during last week&amp;rsquo;s flood, it turned out to be a lifesaver...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;-The Times of India&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;THIRUVANANTHAPURAM (Kerala): &lt;/em&gt;Of late, stories about social media have been not very encouraging, as it was increasingly turning out to be a platform spewing venom. But, during last week&amp;rsquo;s flood, it turned out to be a lifesaver for hundreds - literally.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A group of social media enthusiasts, who have already been connected through Facebook harnessed the immense potential of the platform. An active volunteer group of 6,000 was the strong force under Compassionate Keralam, a volunteering group which is an extended edition of Compassionate Kozhikode launched by IAS officer N Prasanth, played a major role in helping the government machinery save lives of hundreds trapped in the floods. &amp;ldquo;When our volunteers began offering help, we united them through the Facebook page titled KeralaFloods2018 and soon, the membership crossed 12,000 from all over the world,&amp;rdquo; Prasanth said. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It quickly snowballed into a serious affair with a group of tech-savvy members from all over the world, including the USA, the UK and Germany, providing technical support. The group members channelized all SOS messages received through different social media platforms along with the data from the government&amp;rsquo;s website Keralarescue.in launched during the floods, to government call centres. The volunteers channelized the data to the district control rooms from where the government machinery was attending to distress calls. &amp;ldquo;Since our volunteers were spread out in various time zones, at any point of time, people were actively working for the cause,&amp;rdquo; said Prasanth.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The rescue parties needed exact locations and the IT members used Google coordinates to mark the locations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;ldquo;I have never seen people ramping up so quickly and working autonomously with very little supervision and delivering results,&amp;rdquo; IT programme manager with Royal Bank of Scotland in London, Gopikrishnan J Nair who volunteered and provided the technical support online, said over the phone from London. He took up the task of mobilizing 80 volunteers back in the state in less than 30 minutes using Google contacts and adding them in a WhatsApp group and putting them at the disposal of Alappuzha district collector S Suhas.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The government administration offered full support for the initiative, with chief secretary Tom Jose and IT secretary M Sivasankar extending all possible coordination for the team, which also liaised with CM&amp;rsquo;s IT fellow Arun Balachandran, who too stood as a link for the volunteering group with the government.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Organisations including Bhoomika Trust, Amritha Institute, IT major Infosys, and other companies like OrisysIndia, Phykon and Sysfore helped the group establish call centres in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode and places outside the state like Bengaluru and Chennai. In a span of five days, the call centres handled over 30,000 phone calls effectively.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;ldquo;With our earlier experience of handling Chennai floods, we volunteered to set up a call centre at Chennai using our Malayali volunteers,&amp;rdquo; member of advisory board of Bhoomika Trust in Chennai, Latha Subrahmaniam said.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;More than 200 members volunteered to be physically present on the field at each district call centre where the information they received was passed on to the government authorities on a real-time basis. In addition, a WhatsApp group of naval officers&amp;rsquo; wives also volunteered in who got in touch with the Navy officers on the mission to reach out to places which were very difficult to reach otherwise. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Times of India, 23 August, 2018, please &lt;a href=&quot;https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/a-virtual-army-that-fought-from-behind-the-screen/articleshow/65507193.cms&quot; title=&quot;https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/a-virtual-army-that-fought-from-behind-the-screen/articleshow/65507193.cms&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to access &lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;
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-The Times of India

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM (Kerala): Of late, stories about social media have been not very encouraging, as it was increasingly turning out to be a platform spewing venom. But, during last week&rsquo;s flood, it turned out to be a lifesaver..."/>
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                <strong>How online army became lifesaver for flood-hit Kerala -KP Saikiran</strong></h1>
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                <div align="justify">-The Times of India<br /><br /><em>THIRUVANANTHAPURAM (Kerala): </em>Of late, stories about social media have been not very encouraging, as it was increasingly turning out to be a platform spewing venom. But, during last week&rsquo;s flood, it turned out to be a lifesaver for hundreds - literally.<br /><br />A group of social media enthusiasts, who have already been connected through Facebook harnessed the immense potential of the platform. An active volunteer group of 6,000 was the strong force under Compassionate Keralam, a volunteering group which is an extended edition of Compassionate Kozhikode launched by IAS officer N Prasanth, played a major role in helping the government machinery save lives of hundreds trapped in the floods. &ldquo;When our volunteers began offering help, we united them through the Facebook page titled KeralaFloods2018 and soon, the membership crossed 12,000 from all over the world,&rdquo; Prasanth said. <br /><br />It quickly snowballed into a serious affair with a group of tech-savvy members from all over the world, including the USA, the UK and Germany, providing technical support. The group members channelized all SOS messages received through different social media platforms along with the data from the government&rsquo;s website Keralarescue.in launched during the floods, to government call centres. The volunteers channelized the data to the district control rooms from where the government machinery was attending to distress calls. &ldquo;Since our volunteers were spread out in various time zones, at any point of time, people were actively working for the cause,&rdquo; said Prasanth.<br /><br />The rescue parties needed exact locations and the IT members used Google coordinates to mark the locations.<br /><br />&ldquo;I have never seen people ramping up so quickly and working autonomously with very little supervision and delivering results,&rdquo; IT programme manager with Royal Bank of Scotland in London, Gopikrishnan J Nair who volunteered and provided the technical support online, said over the phone from London. He took up the task of mobilizing 80 volunteers back in the state in less than 30 minutes using Google contacts and adding them in a WhatsApp group and putting them at the disposal of Alappuzha district collector S Suhas.<br /><br />The government administration offered full support for the initiative, with chief secretary Tom Jose and IT secretary M Sivasankar extending all possible coordination for the team, which also liaised with CM&rsquo;s IT fellow Arun Balachandran, who too stood as a link for the volunteering group with the government.<br /><br />Organisations including Bhoomika Trust, Amritha Institute, IT major Infosys, and other companies like OrisysIndia, Phykon and Sysfore helped the group establish call centres in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode and places outside the state like Bengaluru and Chennai. In a span of five days, the call centres handled over 30,000 phone calls effectively.<br /><br />&ldquo;With our earlier experience of handling Chennai floods, we volunteered to set up a call centre at Chennai using our Malayali volunteers,&rdquo; member of advisory board of Bhoomika Trust in Chennai, Latha Subrahmaniam said.<br /><br />More than 200 members volunteered to be physically present on the field at each district call centre where the information they received was passed on to the government authorities on a real-time basis. In addition, a WhatsApp group of naval officers&rsquo; wives also volunteered in who got in touch with the Navy officers on the mission to reach out to places which were very difficult to reach otherwise. </div><div align="justify">&nbsp;</div><div align="justify"><em>The Times of India, 23 August, 2018, please <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/a-virtual-army-that-fought-from-behind-the-screen/articleshow/65507193.cms" title="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/a-virtual-army-that-fought-from-behind-the-screen/articleshow/65507193.cms">click here</a> to access </em><br /></div>               </font>
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-The Times of India<br />
<br />
<em>THIRUVANANTHAPURAM (Kerala): </em>Of late, stories about social media have been not very encouraging, as it was increasingly turning out to be a platform spewing venom. But, during last week&rsquo;s flood, it turned out to be a lifesaver for hundreds - literally.<br />
<br />
A group of social media enthusiasts, who have already been connected through Facebook harnessed the immense potential of the platform. An active volunteer group of 6,000 was the strong force under Compassionate Keralam, a volunteering group which is an extended edition of Compassionate Kozhikode launched by IAS officer N Prasanth, played a major role in helping the government machinery save lives of hundreds trapped in the floods. &ldquo;When our volunteers began offering help, we united them through the Facebook page titled KeralaFloods2018 and soon, the membership crossed 12,000 from all over the world,&rdquo; Prasanth said. <br />
<br />
It quickly snowballed into a serious affair with a group of tech-savvy members from all over the world, including the USA, the UK and Germany, providing technical support. The group members channelized all SOS messages received through different social media platforms along with the data from the government&rsquo;s website Keralarescue.in launched during the floods, to government call centres. The volunteers channelized the data to the district control rooms from where the government machinery was attending to distress calls. &ldquo;Since our volunteers were spread out in various time zones, at any point of time, people were actively working for the cause,&rdquo; said Prasanth.<br />
<br />
The rescue parties needed exact locations and the IT members used Google coordinates to mark the locations.<br />
<br />
&ldquo;I have never seen people ramping up so quickly and working autonomously with very little supervision and delivering results,&rdquo; IT programme manager with Royal Bank of Scotland in London, Gopikrishnan J Nair who volunteered and provided the technical support online, said over the phone from London. He took up the task of mobilizing 80 volunteers back in the state in less than 30 minutes using Google contacts and adding them in a WhatsApp group and putting them at the disposal of Alappuzha district collector S Suhas.<br />
<br />
The government administration offered full support for the initiative, with chief secretary Tom Jose and IT secretary M Sivasankar extending all possible coordination for the team, which also liaised with CM&rsquo;s IT fellow Arun Balachandran, who too stood as a link for the volunteering group with the government.<br />
<br />
Organisations including Bhoomika Trust, Amritha Institute, IT major Infosys, and other companies like OrisysIndia, Phykon and Sysfore helped the group establish call centres in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode and places outside the state like Bengaluru and Chennai. In a span of five days, the call centres handled over 30,000 phone calls effectively.<br />
<br />
&ldquo;With our earlier experience of handling Chennai floods, we volunteered to set up a call centre at Chennai using our Malayali volunteers,&rdquo; member of advisory board of Bhoomika Trust in Chennai, Latha Subrahmaniam said.<br />
<br />
More than 200 members volunteered to be physically present on the field at each district call centre where the information they received was passed on to the government authorities on a real-time basis. In addition, a WhatsApp group of naval officers&rsquo; wives also volunteered in who got in touch with the Navy officers on the mission to reach out to places which were very difficult to reach otherwise. 
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&nbsp;
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<em>The Times of India, 23 August, 2018, please <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/a-virtual-army-that-fought-from-behind-the-screen/articleshow/65507193.cms">click here</a> to access </em><br />
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-The Times of India

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM (Kerala): Of late, stories about social media have been not very encouraging, as it was increasingly turning out to be a platform spewing venom. But, during last week&rsquo;s flood, it turned out to be a lifesaver...',
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-The Times of India<br />
<br />
<em>THIRUVANANTHAPURAM (Kerala): </em>Of late, stories about social media have been not very encouraging, as it was increasingly turning out to be a platform spewing venom. But, during last week&rsquo;s flood, it turned out to be a lifesaver for hundreds - literally.<br />
<br />
A group of social media enthusiasts, who have already been connected through Facebook harnessed the immense potential of the platform. An active volunteer group of 6,000 was the strong force under Compassionate Keralam, a volunteering group which is an extended edition of Compassionate Kozhikode launched by IAS officer N Prasanth, played a major role in helping the government machinery save lives of hundreds trapped in the floods. &ldquo;When our volunteers began offering help, we united them through the Facebook page titled KeralaFloods2018 and soon, the membership crossed 12,000 from all over the world,&rdquo; Prasanth said. <br />
<br />
It quickly snowballed into a serious affair with a group of tech-savvy members from all over the world, including the USA, the UK and Germany, providing technical support. The group members channelized all SOS messages received through different social media platforms along with the data from the government&rsquo;s website Keralarescue.in launched during the floods, to government call centres. The volunteers channelized the data to the district control rooms from where the government machinery was attending to distress calls. &ldquo;Since our volunteers were spread out in various time zones, at any point of time, people were actively working for the cause,&rdquo; said Prasanth.<br />
<br />
The rescue parties needed exact locations and the IT members used Google coordinates to mark the locations.<br />
<br />
&ldquo;I have never seen people ramping up so quickly and working autonomously with very little supervision and delivering results,&rdquo; IT programme manager with Royal Bank of Scotland in London, Gopikrishnan J Nair who volunteered and provided the technical support online, said over the phone from London. He took up the task of mobilizing 80 volunteers back in the state in less than 30 minutes using Google contacts and adding them in a WhatsApp group and putting them at the disposal of Alappuzha district collector S Suhas.<br />
<br />
The government administration offered full support for the initiative, with chief secretary Tom Jose and IT secretary M Sivasankar extending all possible coordination for the team, which also liaised with CM&rsquo;s IT fellow Arun Balachandran, who too stood as a link for the volunteering group with the government.<br />
<br />
Organisations including Bhoomika Trust, Amritha Institute, IT major Infosys, and other companies like OrisysIndia, Phykon and Sysfore helped the group establish call centres in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode and places outside the state like Bengaluru and Chennai. In a span of five days, the call centres handled over 30,000 phone calls effectively.<br />
<br />
&ldquo;With our earlier experience of handling Chennai floods, we volunteered to set up a call centre at Chennai using our Malayali volunteers,&rdquo; member of advisory board of Bhoomika Trust in Chennai, Latha Subrahmaniam said.<br />
<br />
More than 200 members volunteered to be physically present on the field at each district call centre where the information they received was passed on to the government authorities on a real-time basis. In addition, a WhatsApp group of naval officers&rsquo; wives also volunteered in who got in touch with the Navy officers on the mission to reach out to places which were very difficult to reach otherwise. 
</div>
<div align="justify">
&nbsp;
</div>
<div align="justify">
<em>The Times of India, 23 August, 2018, please <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/a-virtual-army-that-fought-from-behind-the-screen/articleshow/65507193.cms">click here</a> to access </em><br />
</div>',
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$metaTitle = 'Media | How online army became lifesaver for flood-hit Kerala -KP Saikiran'
$metaKeywords = 'Flood Relief,Flooding,WhatsApp,social media,kerala'
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-The Times of India

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM (Kerala): Of late, stories about social media have been not very encouraging, as it was increasingly turning out to be a platform spewing venom. But, during last week&rsquo;s flood, it turned out to be a lifesaver...'
$disp = '<div align="justify">-The Times of India<br /><br /><em>THIRUVANANTHAPURAM (Kerala): </em>Of late, stories about social media have been not very encouraging, as it was increasingly turning out to be a platform spewing venom. But, during last week&rsquo;s flood, it turned out to be a lifesaver for hundreds - literally.<br /><br />A group of social media enthusiasts, who have already been connected through Facebook harnessed the immense potential of the platform. An active volunteer group of 6,000 was the strong force under Compassionate Keralam, a volunteering group which is an extended edition of Compassionate Kozhikode launched by IAS officer N Prasanth, played a major role in helping the government machinery save lives of hundreds trapped in the floods. &ldquo;When our volunteers began offering help, we united them through the Facebook page titled KeralaFloods2018 and soon, the membership crossed 12,000 from all over the world,&rdquo; Prasanth said. <br /><br />It quickly snowballed into a serious affair with a group of tech-savvy members from all over the world, including the USA, the UK and Germany, providing technical support. The group members channelized all SOS messages received through different social media platforms along with the data from the government&rsquo;s website Keralarescue.in launched during the floods, to government call centres. The volunteers channelized the data to the district control rooms from where the government machinery was attending to distress calls. &ldquo;Since our volunteers were spread out in various time zones, at any point of time, people were actively working for the cause,&rdquo; said Prasanth.<br /><br />The rescue parties needed exact locations and the IT members used Google coordinates to mark the locations.<br /><br />&ldquo;I have never seen people ramping up so quickly and working autonomously with very little supervision and delivering results,&rdquo; IT programme manager with Royal Bank of Scotland in London, Gopikrishnan J Nair who volunteered and provided the technical support online, said over the phone from London. He took up the task of mobilizing 80 volunteers back in the state in less than 30 minutes using Google contacts and adding them in a WhatsApp group and putting them at the disposal of Alappuzha district collector S Suhas.<br /><br />The government administration offered full support for the initiative, with chief secretary Tom Jose and IT secretary M Sivasankar extending all possible coordination for the team, which also liaised with CM&rsquo;s IT fellow Arun Balachandran, who too stood as a link for the volunteering group with the government.<br /><br />Organisations including Bhoomika Trust, Amritha Institute, IT major Infosys, and other companies like OrisysIndia, Phykon and Sysfore helped the group establish call centres in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode and places outside the state like Bengaluru and Chennai. In a span of five days, the call centres handled over 30,000 phone calls effectively.<br /><br />&ldquo;With our earlier experience of handling Chennai floods, we volunteered to set up a call centre at Chennai using our Malayali volunteers,&rdquo; member of advisory board of Bhoomika Trust in Chennai, Latha Subrahmaniam said.<br /><br />More than 200 members volunteered to be physically present on the field at each district call centre where the information they received was passed on to the government authorities on a real-time basis. In addition, a WhatsApp group of naval officers&rsquo; wives also volunteered in who got in touch with the Navy officers on the mission to reach out to places which were very difficult to reach otherwise. </div><div align="justify">&nbsp;</div><div align="justify"><em>The Times of India, 23 August, 2018, please <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/a-virtual-army-that-fought-from-behind-the-screen/articleshow/65507193.cms" title="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/a-virtual-army-that-fought-from-behind-the-screen/articleshow/65507193.cms">click here</a> to access </em><br /></div>'
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How online army became lifesaver for flood-hit Kerala -KP Saikiran

-The Times of India THIRUVANANTHAPURAM (Kerala): Of late, stories about social media have been not very encouraging, as it was increasingly turning out to be a platform spewing venom. But, during last week’s flood, it turned out to be a lifesaver for hundreds - literally. A group of social media enthusiasts, who have already been connected through Facebook harnessed the immense potential of the platform. An active volunteer group of 6,000 was the strong force under Compassionate Keralam, a volunteering group which is an extended edition of Compassionate Kozhikode launched by IAS officer N Prasanth, played a major role in helping the government machinery save lives of hundreds trapped in the floods. “When our volunteers began offering help, we united them through the Facebook page titled KeralaFloods2018 and soon, the membership crossed 12,000 from all over the world,” Prasanth said. It quickly snowballed into a serious affair with a group of tech-savvy members from all over the world, including the USA, the UK and Germany, providing technical support. The group members channelized all SOS messages received through different social media platforms along with the data from the government’s website Keralarescue.in launched during the floods, to government call centres. The volunteers channelized the data to the district control rooms from where the government machinery was attending to distress calls. “Since our volunteers were spread out in various time zones, at any point of time, people were actively working for the cause,” said Prasanth. The rescue parties needed exact locations and the IT members used Google coordinates to mark the locations. “I have never seen people ramping up so quickly and working autonomously with very little supervision and delivering results,” IT programme manager with Royal Bank of Scotland in London, Gopikrishnan J Nair who volunteered and provided the technical support online, said over the phone from London. He took up the task of mobilizing 80 volunteers back in the state in less than 30 minutes using Google contacts and adding them in a WhatsApp group and putting them at the disposal of Alappuzha district collector S Suhas. The government administration offered full support for the initiative, with chief secretary Tom Jose and IT secretary M Sivasankar extending all possible coordination for the team, which also liaised with CM’s IT fellow Arun Balachandran, who too stood as a link for the volunteering group with the government. Organisations including Bhoomika Trust, Amritha Institute, IT major Infosys, and other companies like OrisysIndia, Phykon and Sysfore helped the group establish call centres in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode and places outside the state like Bengaluru and Chennai. In a span of five days, the call centres handled over 30,000 phone calls effectively. “With our earlier experience of handling Chennai floods, we volunteered to set up a call centre at Chennai using our Malayali volunteers,” member of advisory board of Bhoomika Trust in Chennai, Latha Subrahmaniam said. More than 200 members volunteered to be physically present on the field at each district call centre where the information they received was passed on to the government authorities on a real-time basis. In addition, a WhatsApp group of naval officers’ wives also volunteered in who got in touch with the Navy officers on the mission to reach out to places which were very difficult to reach otherwise.   The Times of India, 23 August, 2018, please click here to access