Records of Bengaluru First – Page 15

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: EDUCATION: Chanakya University launched, A Step Towards ‘Indian Multidisciplinary System of Education’

The key method for innovation, he said, is the ability to borrow concepts from other disciplines.

Renowned mathematician Prof Manjul Bhargava said Chanakya University is a step towards India moving towards a multidisciplinary system of education.

He was speaking at the official launch of Chanakya University as the chief guest on Saturday evening. The event was attended by Minister for Higher Education Dr CN Ashwath Narayan and a number of eminent personalities supporting the university.

Prof Bhargava said, “The Indian numerals were a basis for a lot of modern mathematics used in everyday life and in technology. Without it, the Europeans were still using Roman numerals. The ‘zero’ is foundational. Its start came from philosophy, then linguistics, then poetry, music, astronomy and, finally, to mathematics and computer science. This shows the importance of multidisciplinary education.” The key method for innovation, he said, is the ability to borrow concepts from other disciplines.

“The idea of having a multidisciplinary background and drawing ideas from aesthetics, science and art to work on whatever we’re working on, is still applicable today. The best companies hire multidisciplinary teams and people. Many inventors come from a multidisciplinary background. We need more such homegrown stories in India and it is time to move our education system in that direction. I compliment Chanakya University for moving forward on the recommendations of the NEP. I hope it is a model for future new institutions and already established institutions in pursuing multidisciplinary education,” he said.

Established by several architects of the National Education Policy under the Centre for Educational and Social Studies (CESS), Chanakya University has the support of many philanthropists and eminent members involved in multidisciplinary settings. “This unique institution is being established by a charitable trust and through funds collected by the public, having no commercial angle and is not-for-profit. The news about the university has reached other cities and the people have woken up. They are willing to come forward to fund the university with an emphasis on quality and value-added education,” said Dr Sitharam Jindal, founder chairman and managing director, Jindal Aluminium.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, founder and chairperson of Biocon India, said Bengaluru has been blessed with many great educational institutions and the university will contribute to this. “Knowledge is paramount in terms of economic success. We are adding another great educational institute to the knowledge profile of Bengaluru. This helps in creating Bengaluru as not only a ‘Science Capital’, but the ‘Knowledge Capital’ of the country, which will be an extremely proud moment for us,” she said.

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)

NATIONAL (SOUTH INDIA): TRANSPORT / TRAVEL / BUSINESS & ECONOMY: INDIGENOUS TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION: PM flags off South India’s First Vande Bharat Express in Bengaluru making it the 5th in the Country

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday flagged off the inaugural special of south India’s first Vande Bharat Express at Krantiveera Sangolli Railway station here.

The train connects Mysuru and Chennai via Bengaluru. This is the fifth Vande Bharat Express train in the country.

It will enhance connectivity between the industrial hub of Chennai, the tech-cum-startup hub of Bengaluru and the famous tourist city of Mysuru, officials said.

The Prime Minister said, “The Chennai-Mysuru Vande Bharat Express will boost connectivity as well as commercial activities. It will also enhance ‘Ease of Living’.”

According to Railway officials, Vande Bharat Express is equipped with advanced state-of-the-art safety features including an indigenously developed Train Collision Avoidance System – KAVACH.

It can pick up a speed of 0 to 100 kilometres per hour in just 52 seconds, and a maximum speed of up to 180 kilometres per hour.

The country’s first Vande Bharat Express train was flagged off in 2019 on the New Delhi-Kanpur-Allahabad-Varanasi route.

On Friday, the Prime Minister also flagged off the ‘Bharat Gaurav Kashi Darshan’ train, which is operated by Karnataka’s Muzrai Department, under the ‘Bharat Gaurav’ train policy of Railways.

“It (Bharat Gaurav train) will fulfil the dream of numerous travellers intending to undertake Kashi Yatra,” according to the South Western Railway. The train offers an eight-day tour package at discounted rates for pilgrims.

Official sources said the Karnataka government gives cash assistance of Rs 5,000 to the Kashi Vishwanath Yatra pilgrims. This train covers holy places including Varanasi, Ayodhya and Prayagraj.

According to the Prime Minister’s Office, Karnataka is the first state to take up this train under the ‘Bharat Gaurav’ scheme in which the state government and the Ministry of Railways are working together to send pilgrims from Karnataka to Varanasi (Kashi).

The pilgrims will be provided with comfortable stay and guidance for visiting Kashi, Ayodhya and Prayagraj, the statement read.

After flagging off the pilgrims’ train Bharat Gaurav Kashi Darshan, Modi tweeted, “I would like to compliment Karnataka for being the first state to take up the Bharat Gaurav Kashi Yatra train. This train brings Kashi and Karnataka closer. Pilgrims and tourists will be able to visit Kashi, Ayodhya and Prayagraj with ease.”

Indian Railways launched the operation of the theme-based Bharat Gaurav train in November last year to showcase India’s rich cultural heritage and historical places to the people of India and the world.

source/content: newindianexpress.com (headline edited)