Tag: Bengaluru First

INTERNATIONAL: HEALTH & MEDICAL SCIENCES / INNOVATION: Ayushi Chauhan, Student of Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Wins Prize for ‘TB Diagnostics Tool’ at the Falling Walls Lab and Science Summit 2022, Berlin, Germany

An IISc student won third prize at an international summit held in Berlin, Germany, for a device that could make tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis cheaper and more accessible.

Ayushi Chauhan, a PhD scholar at IISc’s chemical engineering department, was awarded third prize under the ‘Breakthrough of the Year Emerging Talents’ category at the Falling Walls Lab and Science Summit 2022 in Germany. She was earlier the winner of Falling Walls Lab India 2022, leading her to represent the country during the global summit.

She and her adviser, Dr Bhushan Toley, developed a pocket-sized device for the detection of both regular and drug-resistant tuberculosis, that makes the diagnostic portion near equipment-free. “The device reduces instrumentation cost by 99.6% and testing cost by 87%, which can be reduced even further. Only around one-third of tuberculosis cases are actually reported.

This is due in large part to equipment needs,” she said, during her pitch at the summit. She said the diagnosis method was visually similar to that of a home pregnancy test and Covid tests. “I believe this invention can bring an end to tuberculosis by 2035,” she said.

source/content: newindianexpress.com (headline edited)

INTERNATIONAL / NATIONAL / KARNATAKA: ENGINEERING & TRANSPORT / GLOBAL J.V. / INDUSTRY LEADER:Vikram Kirloskar – The man who brought Toyota to Karnataka

Vikram Kirloskar brought global auto giant Toyota to Karnataka in 1997, when the State wasn’t yet a big name in the global business arena.

Way back in 1997, when Karnataka wasn’t yet a big spot on the global business map, auto major Toyota set up a manufacturing facility at Bidadi, on the outskirts of Bengaluru. The man who was instrumental in bringing the Japanese automaker to Karnataka was Vikram Kirloskar who passed away on November 29.

The initial efforts towards bringing Toyota Motor Corp to India were made during the tenure of Chief Minister Veerappa Moily in the early 1990s, and were later followed up by his successor H.D. Deve Gowda. During J.H. Patel’s tenure, Toyota Kirloskar officially started its operations in Karnataka. Thereafter, the business savvy S.M Krishna and his industrious industries minister R.V. Deshpande extended support to the venture.

Although multiple Chief Ministers and their industries ministers were involved in bringing, hosting and settling Toyota at Bidadi, one key person who worked tirelessly from outside was Vikram Kirloskar, who is a mechanical engineering graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), U.S.A.

Industries Minister Murugesh Nirani said, “He was a dear personal friend, an industry friend and, more importantly, a genuine human being who was always ready with a smile. With the passing of Vikram, a prominent face and a pillar of the business community of Karnataka is no more.”

The Kirloskar family hails from Haveri in the Dharwad region. They have been running various businesses, including automotive engineering, pumps, gensets, and machine tools for over 100 years. Vikram Kirloskar became the mainstay of ‘Karnataka Inc.’ with Toyota Kirloskar in 1997.

Since its inception, Toyota has invested over ₹20,000 crore in Karnataka, and Mr. Kirloskar’s personal commitment in 2010 was ₹1,500 crore.

“He has been a great help in organising Global Investors’ Meet. He and (his wife) Geetanjali came with me for a road show in the U.S. prior to GIM in 2010,” recalled Mr. Nirani.

A doyen of the automotive industry, Mr. Kirloskar was extremely supportive of young people and their business ideas.

Addressing a trade body event that had several youngsters in the audience recently, he said, “You are the future leaders. You should soon be sitting here where I am sitting.”

The fourth-generation entrepreneur of the Kirloskar family leaves behind his wife Geetanjali and daughter Manasi, who works in the company.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

INTERNATIONAL: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: Shreya Narayan, Student of Bangalore Institute of Technology Wins First Position in ‘UNESCO-India-Africa Hackathon 2022’, Greater Noida

Shreya Narayan, a student of Bangalore Institute of Technology, Bengaluru, took part in the UNESCO-India-Africa Hackathon 2022 held at Gautam Buddha University, Greater Noida, recently and won the first place with a cash prize of ₹3 lakh, said a release.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

KARNATAKA: BUSINESS & ECONOMY: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY / EXCELLENCE: Infosys, Intel Win ‘Karnataka IT Rathna Awards’ & Host of others Won the ‘IT Pride of Karnataka Awards’ at Bengaluru Tech Summit-2022

Infosys and Intel bagged the Karnataka IT Rathna awards at the 25th edition of the Bengaluru Tech Summit (BTS) 2022 held in Bengaluru, informed a press release.

The awards which were given away at the meet have been instituted by the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) and are given to companies that have clocked more than ₹10,000 crore in exports.

Minister for IT-BT, Science & Technology Dr C N Aswath Narayan also honoured companies such as TCS, Bosch, Mindtree, and 21 others with the award ‘IT Pride of Karnataka’ for clocking ₹2,000 crore to ₹10,000 crore in exports.

Speaking on the occasion, the Minister said “Karnataka is clocking exports worth ₹1 lakh crore annually and expressed hope that it would rise to ₹1.5 lakh crore in the next three years and also achieve $1 trillion in the digital economy space.”

However, the Minister expressed anxiousness over the 40% shortage of finances in the current account despite a high turnover in exports from the state. He urged the IT captains to raise exports and reduce imports to maintain a good balance of trade. He also assured the industry that the government will continue to extend its support.

Aravind Kumar and Shailendra Tyagi of STPI, IT Vision group chairman Kris Gopalakrishnan, Additional chief secretary of IT-BT department E V Ramana Reddy, and director Meena Nagaraj were also present at the vent.

– Winners of the ‘IT Pride of Karnataka Awards’:

– Accenture, Amazon Development Centre, Dell, EIT Services, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, IBM, JP Morgan, Juniper Networks, Mercedes Benz, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Samsung, SAP Labs, Standard Chartered, VMware and Wipro won the IT Pride of Karnataka awards.

source/content: hindustantimes.com (headline and sub-head edited)

INTERNATIONAL: ARTS & CRAFTS / FILM PRODUCTION: Karthik Vijayan Awarded ‘Gulf Achievers Award 2022’ for his Short Films

City’s Karthik Vijayamani speaks about his victory at the Gulf Achievers Award 2022 for his short films, making songs for the IPL and the nature of Dubai’s content creation industry.

When Bengaluru’s Karthik Vijayamani went to Dubai in 2014 for a job in the science and technology industry, little did he know that films were his calling. But after producing multiple short film projects in the past eight years, Vijayamani has recently been recognised for his contribution after he won the Gulf Achievers Award 2022 as the best short film content creator in Dubai. He was recognised for his projects Dad Says, Dance Battle 2022 and Chords of Love.

Now, after amassing recognition in the UAE, Vijayamani feels things worked out for him after his company, Avighna Productions, redefined the concept of an advertisement. “Our production house has  made multiple ads. While working on those projects, we thought of taking a different approach. We took more of a narrative route in a short-film format. We felt it would help us relay a message to the audience better,” says Vijayamani about their work that also incorporated a few Bollywood celebrities to help the project reach a wider audience. These short-films were released in Dubai and Sharjah.

Outside of making short films, Vijayamani’s production house has also created fan anthems for the Indian Premiere League (IPL) teams Chennai Super Kings, Royal Challengers Bangalore & Mumbai Indians. Of these three, the CSK one titled ‘#CSKReturns Anthem’ especially made the rounds during IPL 2019 and has over 3.6 million views on YouTube.

“Making music for the IPL is challenging because of the intense competition. There are thousands of people who make IPL songs. The game is not just about making the song but how we choose to market. A bad marketing strategy can ruin a good song’s success. In our case, we created a film that said that whoever in the audience will dance to the first few beats of the song and put it up on social media, we will give them a gold coin if they gain a huge number of views. That strategy worked out for us,” he shares.

Vijayamani feels the content creation industry in the UAE is different compared to India. “The biggest challenge is that the people of Dubai are not easily approachable. I first had to familiarise myself with all the top Sheikhs in Dubai and maintain a healthy relationship with them.

Once I started to gain their confidence, things started to get easier. In 2018, they gave me one opportunity to make a song about people of determination, which is the official term for specially-abled citizens in Dubai. We made an album with people of determination that year. The success of that project opened many doors for me,” he concludes.

source/content: newindianexpress.com (headline edited)

NATIONAL: ENGINEERING / SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY /DEFENCE / AVIATION: Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) Delivers 16th Advanced Light Helicopters (ALH Mk-III Maritime Specific) to Indian Coast Guard

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has handed over the last of the 16 Advanced Light Helicopters (MK-III, Maritime role) to the Indian Coast Guard at a programme here on Tuesday.

The chopper was handed over to DG, Coast Guard, V.S. Pathania, in the presence of senior officials from the Indian Coast Guard and HAL.

“We are proud to be associated with HAL and happy to issue a Letter of Intent (LoI) for nine more helicopters. Despite Covid-19, HAL delivered all the helicopters at the shortest time with seamless production activities and this allows us to strengthen India’s maritime security,” Pathania said.

The DG had signed a contract with HAL for the supply of 16 ALH Mk-III in March 2017.

C.B. Ananthakrishnan, CMD, HAL, said a unique feature of the contract has been the performance based logistics (PBL) – the one stop solution for maintenance of these helicopters by HAL.

“This will serve as a benchmark for all our future contracts and boost our resolve to work with private partners to speed up the work in the interest of all our customers and strengthen Make-in-India activities in the defence eco-system,” he said.

S. Anbuvelan, CEO (Helicopter Complex), HAL, pointed out the major challenges in execution of the contract that included integration of new systems sourced from foreign OEMs, conducting flight trials for certifications and overcoming disruptions in the supply chain due to lockdowns.

ALH Mk-III is indigenously designed, developed and produced by HAL. The company has so far produced more than 330 ALHs, a versatile helicopter which has logged more than 3.74 lakh flying hours.

source/content: daijiworld.com (headline edited)

KARNATAKA: HERITAGE / ARTS & CULTURE: Learn about Karnataka’s Heritage through innovative ‘Flippar’ Postcard Videos and Postal Covers

Want to know about the unique heritage of Karnataka, its wonderful festivals and ancient culture through a short video? You just need to step inside any major Post Office this week to do so. India Post on November 18 signed an MoU with Bengaluru-based Flippar to sell its eye-catchy postcards and postal covers through major post offices in Karnataka. “The Philately bureaux of the General Post Office in Bengaluru and the Head Post Offices in Mysuru, Belagavi and Mangaluru will be selling them,” Chief Postmaster General (Karnataka Circle) S Rajendra Kumar told TNIE.

Flippar has created 600 unique Augmented Reality (AR) cards, each priced at Rs 50, which showcase India’s rich heritage. The Lion’s share of them are illustrations on Karnataka like the Stone Chariot at Hampi, Vidhana Soudha, Badami, MTR and Koshys, India Coffee House, MG Road, festivals and many heritage buildings.

What is AR card?
An AR card or cover will have a video clip accompanied by audio about a specific landmark or tradition covered. “The duration  of the clip ranges between 45 seconds and 90 seconds,” explains Vivek Mahaveer Jain, Director of Flippar. “One needs to download our app Flippar Go, available on both Google store and Apple store, click the Magic Eye button and scan the postcard to get a 3D view and for the video to play,” he said.

“They are already selling like hot cakes at book stores for over a year now. Post offices across the state will now help us have a much larger reach,” Jain said. It is a win-win situation for both as the Postal Department stands to get 20% of the revenue generated from these cards. Flippar has printed the cards in bulk and will be dispatching them to the post offices before Wednesday. “From Thursday, public can buy them,” Jain said.

Blossoms and Goobes bookshops on Church Street, Champaca bookstore on Cunningham Road, Bangalore Creative Circus at Yeshwanthpur and Paperback Bookshop at Rangasankara already sell them.

source/content: newindianexpress.com (headline edited)

GLOBAL / NATIONAL: SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY / INNOVATION / LEADERS: 14th Infosys Prize Award’ . 6 Awarded for the understanding of Galaxy, Statute, Engineering, Social Sciences

14th edition of Infosys Prize awarded to six persons who each will get a gold medal, a citation, and a cash award of $100,000 or its rupee equivalent.

The Infosys Science Foundation on Tuesday announced the winners who include a mathematician tackling challenges in a field sometimes called “the queen of mathematics”, an economist working on governance and accountability, and a law school professor and expert on the Indian Constitution.

The winners are Suman Chakraborty at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, for engineering and computer science; Sudhir Krishnaswamy the vice-chancellor at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore, for humanities; Vidita Vaidya at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, for life sciences; Mahesh Kakade at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, for mathematical sciences; Nissim Kanekar at the National Centre for Radio Astronomy, Pune, for physical sciences; and Rohini Pande at Yale University in the US for social sciences, the foundation said.

This is the 14th edition of Infosys Prize. The prize for each category includes a gold medal, a citation, and a cash award of $100,000 or its rupee equivalent.

Chakraborty has studied how fluids behave in tiny channels to design novel medical devices, including low-cost tools, to detect infectious diseases and a hand-held torchlike device for early diagnosis of oral cancer.

The technology has drawn commercial interest within and outside India. Krishnaswamy was awarded the prize for “his insightful understanding of the Indian Constitution, especially his carefully argued account of the importance of the landmark ‘basic structure doctrine’ adopted by the Supreme Court in 1973 that guides and constrains efforts to amend it, while also ensuring its stability in the face of executive and legislative outcomes,” the foundation said.

Vaidya has contributed to understanding the brain mechanisms that underlie mood disorders such as anxiety and depression, including the role of a neurotransmitter called serotonin in causing persistent changes in behaviour induced by early life stress.

The foundation said Kakde has made “outstanding contributions” to algebraic number theory, often called the queen of mathematics that has practical applications in areas such as cryptography or secret communications.

“But I don’t do things with any applications in mind,” Kakde said on Tuesday. His work has yielded proofs for several key conjectures at the heart of modern numbertheory. The conjectures serve as tools to address hard math problems involving so-called polynomial equations.

Kanekar has received the award for his study of star formation in galaxies eight billion years ago and especially for his work on elusive signatures of atomic hydrogen in distant galaxies that has resolved along-standing astronomical puzzle — why have star births in galaxies declined over time?

Pande’s research on governance, accountability, women’s empowerment, the environment, and the role of credit in the lives of the poor “offer major promise and potential for policy design in emerging economies”, the foundation said.

source/content: telegraphindia.com (headline edited)

KARNATAKA: SOCIAL/ CHILDRENs BRAVERY: Five Children Awarded the ‘Hoysala and Keladi Chennamma Bravery Awards’ on Children’s Day by the Department of Women and Child Development

Five children were awarded for their bravery by the Department of Women and Child Development, on the occasion of Children’s Day, at Bal Bhavan.

All the five hail from rural backgrounds, and were conferred the Hoysala and Keladi Chennamma Bravery Awards for displaying various acts of bravery over the last year.

The awards are bestowed by the department on children who have shown commitment towards the rescue of others in dangerous circumstances. The four girls and one boy were honoured at the Children’s Day State Awards Ceremony on Monday.

On November 6, 2021, Namrata, from Madikeri, had saved a senior citizen from drowning in a lake on her way home from school.

Prarthana, from Shivamogga, had saved her brother’s life after he was electrocuted by a TV switch board at their home on November 7, 2021.

Koushalya Hegade, from Siddapura, saved her father following an accident. After their car overturned, she made her way to a nearby village to call for help, as her father had suffered severe injury.

Keerthi Vivek, from Davanagere, also endured a similar ordeal, when his family car fell into a trench, jamming all its doors.

He used a metal water bottle to smash a car window, and was able to pull his sister and parents to safety, following which he called for help.

Kavya Bhaskar Hegde, from Chikkamagaluru, was on her way home when she found an elderly woman lying on a railway track, and rushed in to save her after she saw a train approaching.

The five children were also presented a cash prize of Rs 10,000.

The ceremony included awards distributed to four organisations and four individuals for their services rendered in the field of children’s welfare.

source/content: newindianexpress.com (headline edited)