At Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, the students had cleaned the Coimbatore town bus stand, mofussil bus stand, the road from Ukkadam to the campus and the Ettimadai village as well. And all this was even before the Central Government launched the Swachh Bharat initiative. This year, again, the university would take up 'cleaning initiative under the Swachh Bharat programme, said Dean S. Mahadevan. The faculty said the students stood to gain the most because they came face to face with another facet of the society and that brought about a transformation in them. "There are two changes that I noticed the most in students - one, they don't litter, and, two, they turn humble by giving respect to conservancy workers," Mr. Mahadevan added.

Nearly 15 of tribals from Singampathy village near Kovai Coutrallam underwent a training to make jewellery and small toys out of the wood of Lantana camara, an invasive plant species found in the region. The training was the part of DST project of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham to empower the tribal community. "We have already conducted training for them to make furniture and organic farming. In the third part of the training, we teach them to make toys,” said Dr. Maya Mahajan, Associate Professor, Centre for Sustainable Future, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham.