KARNATAKA: SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY / INNOVATION: Mysuru’s Excel Public School students’ ‘Anytime Education’ Learning Device gets recognition from Ministry of Education (MOE) at ‘School InnovationContest 2023-24

The innovation will also be showcased at the NEP national-level exhibition in Delhi to be held in July, 2024.

Mysuru’s Excel Public School students’ ‘Anytime Education’ device has been recognised by the Ministry of Education as one of the top 20 innovations at ‘School Innovation Contest’ 2023-24.

‘School Innovation Contest’ was launched by the MoE inviting over 6,000 project submissions from across the country. The contest was developed by the Govt of India for systematically fostering the culture of innovation in all higher education institutions and schools across the country.

Students of Excel Public School — Eshanvi Nandeesh Preetham, C B Swarna, and Divya Satish — over the last eight months underwent boot camp training leading up to an elevator pitch to the ministry. Their elevator pitch for ‘Anytime Education’ was selected among the 20 in India who qualified for funding.

The students received the first tranche in March and are expected to receive the second tranche in June. The funding from the ministry will help the students to further develop the product and market its use-case across relevant forums and exhibitions. The innovation will also be showcased at the NEP national-level exhibition in Delhi to be held in July, 2024.

The device is powered by a solar panel with a power backup and comes with preloaded digital content. Students can access a vast library of educational content with no internet, ensuring uninterrupted learning.

Students also have access to a timetable/class schedule to receive real-time personalised learning from subject experts. Inspired by the Philippine’s model of using HAM radio, the A.T.E device connects students with teachers through HAM radio system for one on one discussions. The education content is currently available in English and Kannada.

Excel Public School principal Mathew K G said: “We are elated by this prestigious recognition by the Govt of India. The accomplishment of our students at the Ministry of Education’s ‘School Innovation Contest’ is a source of immense pride for the school.”

source/content: newindianexpress.com (headline edited)

KARNATAKA: HEALTH CARE: Unsung Heroes: Mom-daughter duo Rani Desai & Priya Teams up to offer primary health care under Anahat Foundation for Bengaluru’s urban poor

Bengaluru-based Anahat Foundation deals with identifying, preventing and counselling the patients suffering from chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and hypertension. Rani Desai, 70, manages the operations and devises public health programmes, while daughter Priya handles communications and funding for the foundation.

‘Prevention is better than cure’ is as simple as that for Rani Desai, 70, and Priya, 40, the mother-daughter duo behind Anahat Foundation that is focused on improving access to primary and preventive healthcare for the urban poor.

The Bengaluru-based foundation that emerged as one of the winners at the recently concluded SVP (Social Ventures Partners) India Fast Pitch 2024, a virtual fundraiser event, is proving to be a major lifeline for the urban poor who lack access to basic healthcare. The foundation which was started seven years ago was offering preventive and primary healthcare to the rural population and later expanded to the urban region, given the growing demand for primary healthcare needs.

Rani and Priya come with a rich experience in public service as consultants and members of various humanitarian projects. Rani worked with Biocon Foundation for 12 years and has also served as an independent public health consultant for seven years before co-founding Anahat with her daughter in 2017.

Meanwhile, Priya, a journalism student who has worked as a copywriter in the advertising industry, worked as a consultant with India Water Portal that dealt with water issues in India and moved on to the role of a marketing and communication manager with Pratham Books, a non-profit children’s book publisher.

At Anahat the mother-daughter duo somewhat replicates similar roles wherein Rani manages the operations and devises public health programmes, and Priya handles communications and funding for the foundation.

“My mother and my family members have been actively involved in public service for a long time. My brother and I grew up doing philanthropic work. When I worked as a copywriter in the advertising industry, I realized it was not the right fit; which is when I shifted gears towards public service along with my mother,” said Priya.

Most of the work by the foundation deals with identifying, preventing and counselling the patients suffering from chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and hypertension, among others.

The services are targeted mainly towards economically disadvantaged families who lack access to public healthcare.

These services are accorded to patients through Anahat Clinic located in the heart of Bengaluru in Shantinagar.

“During our assessment we found out that 70 per cent of the poor people don’t avail themselves of the public health services despite knowing that it is cost-free. This is because of the trust deficit in the public healthcare system and the lack of resources in government hospitals,” said Priya, who also partners with various NGOs to conduct free community health camps in slum areas in Bengaluru.

The clinic that garners over 50-100 footfalls daily on an average, provides a wide of range of primary care services for free including free medical consultation with a full-time registered allopath, free medicines including 100 different medicines stocked based on the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) list of essential drugs for primary care, free diagnostic tests, including WHO recommended panel of 70 tests like blood and urine tests, X-rays, scans and MRIs.

The foundation also partnered with Medtronic Labs to introduce Prerna, a special programme for people living with diabetes, hypertension, and co-morbid diseases. With Prerna, the foundation integrates social and clinical interventions in a group setting with patients at the Anahat Clinic every week, focussing on the social and behavioural determinants of diabetes and hypertension. Patients also receive ongoing medication, lab testing, and doctor visits to address clinical needs.

The Anahat clinic also offers counselling and therapy sessions called ‘Ananda’ for individuals, couples and parents by engaging them in role-play therapy to strengthen social and interpersonal skills and help patients learn techniques to manage and deal with stress.

“The major challenge for us has been to make the patients understand that there is something more than medication. It is challenging to help them understand that diet, change in lifestyle, regular exercises among other changes are as integral as medications. For example, we can’t recommend a diabetic patient from an economically weaker background to have millets. It’s not part of their diet,” said Priya.

According to Priya, raising funds is a major hurdle because Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds are mostly project-based and not long term. “We are looking at long-term health programmes to prevent disorders at an early stage. It has been difficult for us to raise funds on these lines,” she mentioned.

With the recent grant of Rs 10 lakh which they won at the fundraiser event, the foundation will now spend the same in covering people costs, delivery of health care programmes, training for nurses and other medical professionals.

source/content: indianexpress.com (headline edited)

NATIONAL: AIPORTS: Mangaluru International Airport bags Apex India OHS Platinum Award, New Delhi

Mangaluru International Airport added yet another feather on its cap in bagging the Platinum Award conferred by Apex India Foundation at the 8th Apex India Occupational Health and Safety Awards 2023 ceremony held at New Delhi on May 4, 2024. The award serves as a validation of the airport’s dedication to maintaining the highest standards of occupational health and safety for its workforce.

Throughout its operational journey since Commercial Operation Date, Mangaluru International Airport has consistently implemented robust safety measures with an emphasis on zero work site related incidents. The airport has also initiated training programs and continuous improvement initiatives that is also in line with its Vision 2025 of making it the safest tabletop airport in India.

The safety governance structure of the airport follows the group safety standards and ISO 45001 guidelines. The Chairman (Chief Airport Officer) and six taskforce leaders make up the safety governance committees that meet periodically. “The Safety Governance council body meets monthly to discuss and review any safety issues at the airport, in its unwavering commitment to safety,” the airport spokesperson said.

Apex India Foundation confers the “Apex India Occupational Health and Safety Awards’ to reward the institutions, organizations, their units, and activities which have made unique contribution in the field of health and safety of workers. The award lays emphasis on decreasing job accidents, injuries, medical illnesses, safe and clean environment at the workplace and healthy working conditions.

Overall, more than 60 companies and 200 representatives participated in the gala awards function. Mr Vijayamohan Kondeti, lead (QHSE) and Mr Jithumon N R, lead (OHS) received the award on behalf of the airport.

source/content: daijiworld.com (headline edited)

NATIONAL: India’s AI: Ola’s AI Platform Krutrim, to outdo global players in energy-efficient data centres: Founder Bhavish Aggarwal

He alleged that big technology companies like Amazon, Google and Apple are having closed ecosystems and locking developer’s work on their platform.

Ola’s AI platform Krutrim will compete with global technology majors in building energy-efficient data centres and offer cloud services at the lowest price for the development of artificial intelligence, its founder Bhvish Aggarwal said.

While speaking at an event, Aggarwal announced an AI cloud platform – Krutrim Cloud – to enterprises, researchers, and developers at low cost with a focus on addressing the needs of Indian developers.

“We are building our own technology to do energy management to make the most efficient data centres in the world. I am willing to compete with Microsoft, Google or whoever to say, we will do better than them. The cloud cost we pay is the same as the amount paid by American developers. How is it justified? We will resolve that,” Aggarwal said.

He alleged that big technology companies like Amazon, Google and Apple are having closed ecosystems and locking developer’s work on their platform.

“Krutrim’s overall ambition is to build a full stack AI platform, which allows developers to create applications easier, faster and cheaper,” Aggarwal said.

He also said that no startup makes a profit due to high cloud service costs.

Ola claims that the Krutrim assistant app has been built on its own large language model and trained on over 2 trillion tokens with the largest representation of Indic data.

The company claims that Krutrim currently understands and generates intelligent responses in over 10 Indian languages, which will be expanded to 22 official languages in the near future.

Aggarwal said Krutrim is an Indian platform for developing global applications.

“We are going to make many more models which are useful in the Indian context. We are working on voice models, vision-based models etc,” he added.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

source/content: business-standard.com (headline edited)

NATIONAL: SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY: DEFENCE / UAV : First indigenous bomber UAV unveiled in Bengaluru

The FWD-200B has a payload capacity of 100 kg and is classified as a MALE Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle.

India’s first indigenous bomber UAV aircraft- FWD-200B developed by Flying Wedge Defence, one of the pioneers in India’s defence and aerospace technology sector, was unveiled on Friday.

Driven by a commitment to reducing India’s reliance on costly bomber unmanned aircraft imports and boosting the Make in India initiative, the company aims to position India as a global drone manufacturing and technology hub while equipping the nation with the right air defence resources and enhancing national security, according to a press release issued from Flying Wedge.

“For over 15 years, India’s pursuit of combat unmanned aircraft remained a distant dream. With the launch of the FWD-200B, India not only fulfils this dream but also joins the league of nations with advanced combat aircraft capabilities,” said Suhas Tejaskanda, Founder of Flying Wedge Defence & Aerospace.

“While the US Predator costs a staggering Rs 250 crores, our indigenous FWD-200B, built with state-of-the-art technology and manufactured in India, slashes the cost to a mere Rs 25 crores. This not only demonstrates our commitment to self-reliance but also positions India as a leader in cost-effective defence solutions”, he added.

The Flying Wedge Defence’s state-of-the-art manufacturing unit where the FWD-200B was meticulously crafted, is over 12000 sq.ft built on 1.5 acre land and is located at Electronic City.

The FWD-200B has a payload capacity of 100 kgs and is classified as a MALE Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle (medium-altitude, long-endurance). The Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) consists of optical surveillance payloads and is integrated with missile-like weapons for precision air strikes.

While having a max speed of 200 kts/370 kmph, it has an endurance capacity of 12-20 hours.

source/content: newindianexpress.com (headline edited)