Education – Page 2 – Karnataka First

KARNATAKA : VALIMIKI AWARDS: Five achievers to be conferred Valmiki award

As per a government order, the achievers are Kilari Jogayya, Dr Ratnamma S, Rajashekhara Talwara, K S Mrutyunjaya and Ratnamma B Sogi.

A native of Chitradurga, Jogayya has worked towards social progress as a cattle conservator.

On the occasion of Valmiki Jayanti, five achievers from different fields who have worked for the welfare of Scheduled Tribe communities will be awarded the Maharshi Valmiki Award 2024 on Thursday.

As per a government order, the achievers are Kilari Jogayya, Dr Ratnamma S, Rajashekhara Talwara, K S Mrutyunjaya and Ratnamma B Sogi.

A native of Chitradurga, Jogayya has worked towards social progress as a cattle conservator.

Hailing from Chamarajnagar, Dr Ratnamma is an educationist who has strived for the education of tribal children.

Belagavi’a Rajashekhara has been creating awareness in the community about health and hygiene.

A Bengaluru resident, Mrutyunjaya has been striving to ensure that the community gets government facilities and has been endeavouring to organise the community.

Vijayanagar’s Rathnamma is a renowned theatre artist who has popularised the art in rural areas. She has played a pivotal role in the survival of theatre in rural areas.

source/content: deccanherald.com (headline edited)

INTERNATIONAL: KARNATAKA: HISTORY : Know Your City | Exploring Bengaluru’s connections to World Wars

Two institutions deeply entrenched in Bengaluru’s history of the World Wars are the Madras Engineering Group and Bishop Cottons School.

While walking through the cities of Europe, one can still see the scars and memories of the World Wars, with the occasional bomb being discovered even today. On the other side of the world, Bengaluru was far from these earthshaking conflicts, but it nevertheless took part in them. And if you know where to look, the World Wars have left clues to the city’s participation in them, too.

One of the better known such remnants is the World War 1 Sappers Memorial at Brigade Road, in tribute to the 449 slain soldiers of the Madras Pioneers who fought in war theatres across the Indian frontier, the Middle East, and Africa. The other faces of the memorial recall the dead of other pioneer units, one of which, the 61st King George’s Own Pioneers, lost 235 men. They were also part of the “Bangalore Brigade,” which saw action in the defence of East Africa during World War I.

Another fixture of Bengaluru’s military history is the Madras Engineering Group itself. Long headquartered in the city, it has existed under various names since 1780. The unit saw action across the major theatres of World War I, from the Egyptian and Palestinian fronts to the battlefields of France. This era also saw the unit make a major military innovation. Just two years before World War I broke out in 1914, Captain R L McClintock, who was assigned to the unit at the time, developed the Bangalore Torpedo. While not a weapon in itself, the pipe-shaped explosive device proved useful in clearing out traps and barbed-wire barriers in front of attacking troops. Modernised versions of the device are still in use worldwide.

The Madras Engineering Group would go on to fight across the battlefields of World War II. The unit saw extensive action near the frontier at Imphal and into Burma, fighting in the vicious slog that was the Allied invasion of Italy as well as the African campaigns against German general Erwin Rommel, the famous Desert Fox. It brought back a souvenir from these battlefields—a Stuart M5A1 light tank that one can still see near the Ulsoor lake. While the small, fast vehicle seems to have been prone to high losses in combat and was heavily used in a reconnaissance role, a unit of these tanks would become instrumental in the Taiwanese victory over China in the 1949 battle of Kinmen Island.

Another city institution that is deeply entrenched in the history of the World Wars is Bishop Cottons School. While nearly 200 alumni signed up for the Great War, as World War I was initially known, over 300 would respond to the call when yet another World War broke out. Their history is extensively documented in Aditya Sondhi’s The Order of the Crest, which follows the history of the various alumni of the institute. One of these, Clive Armstrong Johnson, would die at just 18 years of age fighting in the Mesopotamian theatre of the war in 1916. As Sondhi records, the school magazine sent to him (The Cottonian) seems to have been a comfort in a time of turmoil. One of his teachers at the school, Lieutenant Cyril Wallace, wrote back regarding Clive’s bravery before his death. He did not long outlive his student. Sondhi records that 23 Cottonians died fighting in World War I.

World War II was no different. Among the most famous alumni of this era would be none other than General K S Thimayya, the third head of the independent Indian Army. Thimayya was one of the rare Indians to command larger units in the battle, commanding 8 Kumaon in the Burmese theatre and the 36th British Brigade during the later Allied occupation of Japan. Another alumnus, Lt Gen A C Ayappa, was a captain in the Malaya theatre, where he survived terrible conditions as a prisoner of war. He served as chairman of Bharat Electronics Limited after Independence.

source/content: indianexpress.com (headline edited)

NATIONAL: RECORDS OF PESTS : Bengaluru-based ICAR-NBAIR discovers 63 new insect species

ICAR-NBAIR said in a statement it was granted five patents in the last financial year, further establishing its leadership in innovative pest management solutions.

The ICAR – National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources (ICAR-NBAIR) has said it has discovered 63 new insect species in 2023-2024, significantly enhancing scientific understanding of agriculturally-important insects.

ICAR-NBAIR said in a statement it was granted five patents in the last financial year, further establishing its leadership in innovative pest management solutions, including — Herbal-based repellent for termites on woody trees, Protocol for alcohol-free plywood-laced melon fly attractant, and ‘Dorsa Lure’, a plant volatile composition to increase the trap efficiency in mango fruit flies.

Additional biological control agents were released across various areas, greatly reducing the impact of pests, the institute said.

“ICAR-NBAIR achieved groundbreaking progress in gene silencing technology by developing dsRNA constructs, which resulted in up to 85-89 per cent mortality in cotton whitefly (Bemisia tabaci). The institution also completed genome assemblies for four insect species, focusing on critical traits such as insecticide resistance and abiotic stress tolerance,” it stated.

ICAR-NBAIR also commercialised 47 technologies, including microbial pesticides, pheromones, and insecticidal formulations. during the year.

“These technologies generated Rs 32.5 million in revenue, and the Bureau signed over 112 licensing agreements to promote their widespread use across industries,” the statement said.

ICAR-NBAIR also developed and commercialised biological control agents to manage pests such as the fall armyworm and white grubs. These include novel insecticidal formulations and microbial pesticides, now available in the market, it was stated.

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.

source/content: telegraphindia.com (headline edited)

NATIONAL: KARNATAKA: Bengaluru schools shine, bag spots in Top 10 in national rankings

The survey rates and ranks the country’s Top 4,000 schools in four main and 23 sub-categories.

Bengaluru schools have once again made a mark by securing several spots in countrywide ranking of schools surveyed by EducationWorld in association with Bengaluru-based AZ Research Partners Pvt Ltd. The annual report — Education World India School Rankings (EWISR) 2024-25 — was released Monday.

The Rashtriya Military School, Bengaluru, secured the first spot in the country under the category of government boarding schools, while the Air Force School, Hebbal, was awarded the fifth spot under the central government day school category. Brindavan Education Centre, Academy for Severe Handicaps and Autism (ASHA) and Vidyaniketan Academy, Centre for Learning Challenges, are featured in the best special needs schools in the country.

The survey rates and ranks the country’s Top 4,000 schools in four main and 23 sub-categories. This year, a sample database of 8,700 respondents, including 5,150 parents and 3,550 education professionals across 34 cities in the country, were surveyed.

Schools were surveyed on 14 parameters of educational excellence, such as academic reputation, competence of faculty members, individual attention to students, leadership quality, curriculum and pedagogy (hybrid learning readiness), co-curricular education, sports and more.

“Schools are grouped in discrete categories to eliminate apples and oranges type comparisons. Another special feature of the annual EWISR is that it is a national survey based on field interviews with over 8,700 knowledgeable respondents, not on the opinions of a handful of selected jurors,” said DilipThakore, founder-editor of EducationWorld.

In the Vintage Legacy Co-Ed Day Schools category, St Joseph’s Boys High School stood at number two and Bishop Cotton Girls School secured the sixth rank. Smt Kamalabai Educational Institution achieved the seventh rank in the co-ed category.

source/content: newindianexpress.com (headline edited)

NATIONAL: KARNATAKA: ONLINE EUCATION : Unsung Heroes: Meet Shrinidhi from Dakshina Kannada who wants to take affordable online learning to remote cities, war-torn regions

Shrinidhi R S is now CEO of Cherri Learn, an impact-driven ed-tech company that delivers quality grass-root level education in ‘tier 3’ and ‘tier 4’ villages in English along with their regional language through interactive learning aid.

Nestled in the serene landscape of Dakshina Kannada, Kaladka is more than just a charming town known for its rich and aromatic tea. While its signature brews have won the hearts of many, the town also holds the pride of producing its first and youngest entrepreneur to own a LLP (Limited Liability Partnership) under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Shrinidhi R S, 22, is now the CEO and founder of Cherri Learn, an impact-driven ed-tech company that delivers quality grass-root level education in ‘tier 3’ and ‘tier 4’ villages in English along with their regional language through interactive learning aid at a highly affordable price.

The core mission of the platform is to make quality education accessible to children in underserved areas of India and to deliver affordable education to 10 million students by 2025. Shrinidhi grew up in a humble family background. His father was into the taxi business while his mother was a tailor. During his early days, Shrinidhi mostly spent time exploring the internet and had a penchant for learning to build websites and software applications.

By the age of 16, just when he finished his 10th grade, Shrinidhi was an intermediate developer. He took up freelance assignments and developed websites, making a meager amount of money. However, when this transitioned into a serious business, he set up the first software development LLP company called Abstract Technologies when he was only 18. “I had the distinguished achievement of opening the first LLP in my region (Kaladka),” says Shrinidhi.

But over time, he didn’t find that to be a lucrative business model, which prompted him to launch one-of-its-kind agri-tech apps called MyMPCS (Milk Producers Collectors Society), that helped streamline the business of dairy farmers. With over 10,000 downloads, dairy farmers mostly from Dakshina Kannada district, signed up on the app that helped them streamline livestock and inventory management.

“We helped the farmers move from traditional way-using pen and paper to digitised version of channelising their dairy produce,” explains Shrinidhi who is currently pursuing distance learning in MBA.

But just when Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020, Shrinidhi forayed into a transformative space and joined the digital learning bandwagon. With many students hinging on online education and with leading ed-tech platforms jumping right into the opportunity, Shrinidhi identified the scope for an inclusive and affordable online learning service. This led to the birth of Cherri Learn, which focused primarily on delivering quality education to students from deeper pockets of India.

“Initially, I started off by uploading videos on my own. I used to identify certain concepts in the subjects of mathematics and science and upload them on YouTube. However, the lack of access to online learning to all students irrespective of socio-economic background and with the expensive services of such online learning platforms, I felt a major section of students were kept out of the loop. This mostly included students from Kannada medium schools. This problem is what triggered the idea of Cherri Learn,” says Shrinidhi.

The platform offers educational content for children in grades 1 to 5, designed through animation to engage students in a visually compelling learning model. What sets it apart is its availability in regional languages, including Hindi, Kannada and Malayalam. Students can avail themselves of education content in regional languages for Rs 365 a year (Rs 1/day) and can access English language content for Rs 1,095/year (Rs 3/day).

“One of the major challenges was to market the product among students in the remote areas. During the pandemic we used digital marketing to popularize the product. However, once the pandemic was over, we conducted extensive outreach programmes and demonstrations on how to use the app and how the platform could supplement traditional schooling. Currently we have reached more than 1,200 remote cities in India and have recorded over 80,000 downloads,” said Shrinidhi who also collaborates with NGO partners and corporates to expand the service as part of Corporate Social Responsibility.

Shrinidhi also said that the average screen time of the students on the app was around 1 hour and 10 minutes ,which contributed significantly to the learning curve of the students. “Going ahead we would like to make our product global and reach out to students in other countries including Africa, Middle East and some war-torn countries. By the next academic year, with the help of international NGOs we are focusing on delivering educational content in Nigeria, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Tanzania. Since we are not specialized in the curriculum of other countries, we will initially be targeting pre-primary and primary students with basic numeric and alphabetical literacy,” says Shrinidhi.

Shrinidhi’s ed-tech company in 2023 emerged as the winner of Elevate Karnataka and secured an equity-free grant of Rs 35 lakh from the Government of Karnataka. Besides, Shrinidhi has also raised a seed round of angel funds amounting to Rs 1.5 crore.

Asked what keeps him going, Shrinidhi says, “Entrepreneurship was my interest from day one. I believe in the principle of profit with purpose. The sheer excitement in social entrepreneurship is what keeps me going.”

source/content: indianexpress.com (headline edited)

NATIONAL: SPORTS-SWIMING: S Sharanya Wins 04 gold medals at National Aquatic Championship 2024, Bhubaneswar-Odisha

S. Sharanya, a native of Uginahalli in K.R. Nagar taluk of Mandya district, has secured gold medals in four categories of the 40th Sub-Junior and 50th Junior National Aquatic Championship-2024 (Swimming) held at Bhubaneswar in Odisha recently.

He won the first place in 1,500 mts Freestyle (16.45.40 minutes), 800 mts Freestyle (8.53.89 minutes), 400 mts Freestyle (4.14.63 minutes) and 4×100 mts Freestyle (3.45.86 minutes).

A 9th standard student of Jain Heritage School at Kampapura in Bengaluru, Sharanya had previously won gold medals in Khelo India Swimming Championship and Swimming Contest held at Rajkot in Gujarat.

Sharanya is the son of Sridhar, a Computer Engineer and Dr. H.K. Lakshmi, a Gynaecologist at Manipal Hospital in Bengaluru.

source/content: starofmysore.com (headline edited)

INTERNATIONAL: KARNATAKA : 9 Karnataka students to compete in the 47th World Skills Competition 2024 in France

Karnataka Skill Development Corporation (KSDC) has selected nine students to represent India at the 47th World Skills Competition in Lyon, France.

These talented individuals met with Sharan Prakash Patil, Minister for Medical Education and Skill Development, before embarking on their journey to France on Wednesday in Bengaluru.

Minister Sharan Prakash Patil extended his best wishes to the students, encouraging them to seize this opportunity and bring glory to both the state and the nation by demonstrating their skills and winning medals.

The selected students are currently pursuing ITI, Diploma, and Engineering courses in various regions across Karnataka.

“Nine students have been selected as part of the Indian team. These students will compete in World Skills Lyon 2024 from September 10-15. KSDC supports students in participating in this prestigious global skills competition,” Minister Patil.

The World Skills Competition, often referred to as the Olympics of vocational skills, is the world’s largest event dedicated to vocational education and skill excellence.

Held from September 10 to 15, 2024, in Lyon, France, the competition will see more than 1,000 young participants under the age of 22 compete in over 61 skill categories.

The KSDC, under the guidance of the Skill Development, Entrepreneurship, and Livelihood (SDEL) Department, has been instrumental in providing opportunities for Karnataka’s skilled youth to showcase their abilities on national and international platforms.

The National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) organises the India Skills Competition to identify and train candidates who will represent India at the World Skills Competition.

Karnataka secured the second position at the national level during the India Skills competition held in New Delhi from May 15 to 19, 2024.

KSDC Chairperson Kantha Naik, Karnataka Skill Development Authority chairperson V Ramana Reddy, KSDC managing director M Kanagavalli, GTTC managing director YK Dinesh Kumar, NSDC advisor Venugopal were present during the occasion.

source/content: daijiworld.com (headline edited)

NATIONAL: KARNATAKA: PROJECT DIGITISATION: Close to 12,000 books digitised in Bengaluru for All India Gandhi Library project

The collection, assembled over three months and spanning 12 languages, includes Mahatma Gandhi’s collected works, publications such as Harijan and Young India and audio recordings.

The Servants of Knowledge, a non-profit group, has announced that 11,720 books from the library of Bengaluru’s Gandhi Bhavan have been digitised as part of the All India Gandhi Library project.

The group announced this at the valedictory session of a seminar held on Sunday to mark the 75th year of the Gandhi Smaraka Nidhi Organisation.

According to a statement by the non-profit group, Gandhi Bhavan had already made 1,272 books publicly available online. The freshly digitised collection, assembled over three months and spanning 12 languages, includes the collected works of Mahatma Gandhi, his publications such as Harijan and Young India and audio recordings of him speaking on All India Radio.

The digitised libraries have been presented to 12 Gandhian organisations.

Among the speakers at the seminar was American public domain information advocate Carl Malamud, who is also part of Servants of Knowledge and the founder of the US-based Public.Resource.Org.

“For the last several months, we have been digitising every book here at the Karnataka Gandhi Smaraka Nidhi libraries. Today we are presenting all of those books in digital format to the organisations here, making them the trustees of this knowledge….this is the first release of the All India Gandhi Library. We have offered to digitise at no cost additional Gandhi materials these organisations may possess to add to the collection. We have already assisted the Gandhi Smaraka Nidhis of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and we welcome additional materials…..as we say ‘scanning is the new spinning’,” he said at the seminar.

Explaining the digitisation process, Malamud told indianexpress.com later, “We make the scanners and frames here in India and have 17 scanners here at Gandhi Bhavan and can scan 15 lakh pages every month… Once you get good at it, you can do 500 pages in an hour. After the scan, a post-process happens where you crop the pages, de-skew it, run optical character recognition and create a PDF file—a whole chain of processes.”

Explaining the challenges of working with old books in general, Malamud added, “If the material is truly fragile, we work with INTACH (Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage) and they help us conserve the books. The same goes with fragile palm leaves. We’re careful while turning the pages with older books, but if the book is going to disintegrate we have it go through the conservation process.”

About some other work done by the Servants of Knowledge, Malamud said, “Om Shivaprakash (another archivist with the Servants of Knowledge) has been instrumental in finding old Kannada books and gotten permission to digitise old Kannada magazines from publishers…. We’re also working on Lalbagh right now and digitising their library of 6,000 books and digitising old and rare prints. There are all sorts of materials that are on the internet for the first time and that is something we’re particularly proud of.”

source/content: indianexpress.com (headline edited)

KARNATKA: BUSINESS & FINANCE: INDIA’S FIRST: IIM Bangalore announces India’s first ‘Global Centre of Excellence on Private Equity (PE) and Venture Capital (VC)

As the private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) landscape in India continues to grow, IIM Bangalore on Saturday announced to set up country’s first global centre on PE-VC.

Professor U Dinesh Kumar, Dean, Faculty at IIM Bangalore signed an MoU with Mathew Cyriac, Executive Chairman, Florintree Advisors Pvt Ltd, to set up the Tony James Centre for Private Equity and Venture Capital.

Named after the legendary investment banker Tony James, the Centre aims to be a global thought leader for research in matters relating to the PE and VC landscape.

Cyriac is contributing Rs 17.5 crore towards the centre. “This is the single largest-ever contribution from an alumnus and we are grateful to Mathew not just for his generous support but for his extreme thoughtfulness in contributing to the naming of four classrooms on campus after faculty who taught his batch,” said Professor Rishikesha T Krishnan, Director, IIM Bangalore.

Cyriac said he expects the Centre “to emerge as a globally reputed ‘go-to’ place for all players interested in private equity as well as venture capital.”

The Centre will serve as a hub for cutting-edge research, education and industry collaboration in the field of PE-VC, where students will connect with industry leaders, gain hands-on insights, and explore the latest trends in the sector.

James has watched the Indian PE landscape flourish. He said that private equity is a strong contributor to the vibrant Indian economy.

The opening of the Centre comes at a time when foreign investment in the country is booming across sectors, riding on the country’s robust domestic macros.

VC investment in the country surged to $4 billion in the April-June period (Q2 2024), from $2.9 billion in the previous quarter. VC investment is expected to continue to pick up in India, driven in part by the country’s stable government and positive economic environment, according to a latest KPMG report.

India Inc saw impressive 195 deals worth $8.4 billion in July, a 16 per cent jump in volumes. PE deal activity continued to lead the volumes for the month, contributing to 57 per cent of the overall volumes, according to ‘Grant Thornton Bharat Dealtracker’.

source/content: daijiworld.com (headline edited)

NATIONAL: EDUCATION – TOP SPOT: IISc Bengaluru Wins Top Spot in NIRF India Rankings 2024: Check Out Top 10 Universities

Summary

The Ministry of Education (MoE) released the ninth edition of the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2024 Rankings on August 12, providing a detailed evaluation of India’s top universities.

The NIRF framework assesses institutions based on several critical parameters

NIRF Rankings 2024 Top 10 Universities in India

The NIRF framework assesses institutions based on several critical parameters, including Teaching, Learning & Resources (TLR), Research and Professional Practice (RP), Graduation Outcomes (GO), Outreach and Inclusivity (OI), and Peer Perception.

The NIRF Rankings serve as a valuable tool for students, educators, and institutions, highlighting achievements and areas for improvement and driving continuous development across India’s higher education landscape.

source/content: telegraphindia.com (headline edited)