Former MLC and International Karate expert from Kodagu, Cheppudira Arun Machaiah has been appointed as the new Joint Chairman of the Technical Commission of Karate India Organisation (KIO).
Director of World Shitorio Karate Council and President of All India Shitorio Karate Organisation, Arun is the first Kannadiga to achieve the highest post of KIO.
source/content: starofmysore.com (headline edited)
As India is bracing up to hold the seventh and last phase of polling in the ongoing 2024 general elections, the spotlight continues to shine on the electronic voting machines (EVMs), a pivotal tool in the democratic process. While the device itself is familiar to most, the minds behind its creation have remained largely anonymous—until now.
Leading the charge in designing the EVMs were Ravi Poovaiah and A G Rao, both products of the esteemed Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT). Among them, Ravi Poovaiah stands out as a luminary in the field. A distinguished faculty member at the Industrial Design Centre (IDC), IIT Bombay, Poovaiah’s journey is a testament to his interdisciplinary prowess.
Armed with degrees in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Madras and Product Design and Graphic Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in the USA, Poovaiah brought a unique blend of technical expertise and creative insight to the table. His academic journey culminated in an MTech. degree from IIT Bombay, where he now holds the esteemed D L Shah Chair for Innovation.
But Poovaiah’s impact extends far beyond the academic realm. His advocacy for open-sourcing design and integrating design education into mainstream curriculum underscores his commitment to democratizing knowledge and innovation.
In the professional arena, Poovaiah’s collaborations with industry giants like Microsoft, Yahoo, and Google India speak volumes about his practical acumen and problem-solving abilities. His contributions to projects with Motorola India, Indian Oil Corporation, and Siemens India further cement his reputation as a leader in his field.
Through his leadership in the EVM project, Poovaiah has not only revolutionised electoral technology but also underscored the importance of multidisciplinary approaches in addressing complex societal challenges. As India stands on the finishing line to the 2024 general elections, Poovaiah’s legacy as the visionary behind the EVM serves as a beacon of innovation in the world’s largest democracy.
source/content: daijiworld.com (headline edited)
The ‘Yuva Mitra’ programme, initiated by the Forest Department at Bandipur Tiger Reserve to educate students about forests and environmental conservation, has earned a place in the India Book of Records.
Distinguished by its unparalleled participation, the programme saw a remarkable turnout nationwide. A total of 8,410 individuals, comprising 7,019 students, 655 teachers, 197 Gram Panchayat members, 395 local farmers and 143 tribal community members, actively engaged in the initiative. Over the period from Mar. 3, 2023 to Mar. 8, 2024, a comprehensive series of 162 awareness sessions on forest conservation were conducted.
The programme demonstrates forest and wildlife citizenship qualities through positive change in behaviour and action at individual, school, family and community levels. Not only students, but also teachers, Principals, parents and all those who demonstrate these qualities become ‘Yuva Mitras.’
Initiated under the leadership of Dr. P. Ramesh Kumar, during his tenure as the Bandipur Director (he is currently serving as Conservator of Forests – Project Tiger, Mysuru) ‘Yuva Mitra’ commenced in 2023, coinciding with the Golden Jubilee of Bandipur Tiger Reserve.
Dr. Ramesh Kumar accepted this honour along with ACF Navin Kumar, RFO Deepa, ‘Yuva Mitra’ Education Officer Mohan, safari guides Manju and Dharma.
This endeavour provides students with free safari and nature education. A notable feature is issuance of ‘Environment Volunteer’ identity cards to participating students, emphasising their role as custodians of environmental stewardship.
The programme envisages providing an opportunity for underprivileged students to explore, understand, experience and learn more about Bandipur and its wildlife in the context of their immediate surroundings. It will promote a learning-by-exploring approach through field visits and curriculum transactions related to forest, wildlife, forest ecosystem services and their conservation importance.
Originally tailored for students, the programme’s scope was later expanded to include local Gram Panchayat staff, farmers and tribal communities.
source/content: starofmysore.com (headline edited)
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)
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)
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)
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)
Anson Clement Nazareth, hailing from the Diocese of Udupi, was honored with the prestigious Karnataka Regional Catholic Bishops’ Council, Youth Commission – Yuva Ratna Award 2024.
The award ceremony took place during the 2nd YCS YSM regional convention held in Bengaluru from April 19- 21. Anson was recognized for his exceptional and selfless contributions to the youth ministry and the Catholic Church in India. Currently serving as the national president of YCS YSM INDIA, Anson Nazareth embodies dedication and service in his leadership roles.
Originally from Our Lady of Health Church in Shirva, Anson completed his primary and secondary education at Don Bosco School, Shirva. He is currently pursuing his education at St Aloysius Deemed to be University in Mangaluru. Anson’s commitment to the youth ministry has earned him accolades not only at the regional level but also nationally and internationally, culminating in the Yuva Ratna Award 2024. His multifaceted involvement includes various roles in YCS and YSM, along with active membership in the Indian Catholic Youth Movement.
Anson Clement Nazareth stands as a beacon of inspiration and service, embodying the values of leadership and dedication within the Catholic youth community. His recognition with the Yuva Ratna Award 2024 underscores his remarkable contributions and commitment to the betterment of youth initiatives in India and beyond.
source/content: daijiworld.com (headline edited)
Mysuru has a rich legacy of producing talented actors and technicians who have carved a niche for themselves in the film industry. In fact, some of them have even gone on to become G.O.A.T (Greatest Of All Times). Among the aspiring actors who wish to make it big in the industry is Ritika Gupta of Mysuru.
Born and brought up in Mysuru, Ritika studied acting from Second City, Chicago and Kreating Characters from Mumbai. This young actor from Mysuru has been featured alongside actress Pooja Bhatt in the series ‘Big Girls Don’t Cry’ directed by Nitya Mehra and Sudhanshu Saria on a popular OTT platform.
Ritika has also featured in a Hindi movie ‘Tamso’ that was screened at the Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, USA, during February 2023 which is expected to release in an OTT platform later this year. A true Kannadiga by nature, she has acted in the movie ‘Srinivasa Kalyana’ directed by M.G. Srinivas.
“I always aspired to become an actress but there is so much taboo around it that I was scared to speak about it. But, as soon as I joined a course in Arts (Journalism), I was assigned to write about movies, music and theatre and that is when I realised that I should pursue a career in acting. Following this, I enrolled myself into acting classes,” said Ritika.
The Mysuru girl also has a liking towards performing arts which inspired her to learn Kathak and Belly dancing and Bachata, a Latin form of dance. In fact, Ritika represented India in the opening of World Latin Dance Cup that was held in Columbia in February 2024.
On completion of her dance course, Ritika shifted to Mumbai where she has been trying to foray into Bollywood. “Life in Mumbai has been very challenging from finding a place to stay to building a network, making friends and having a sense of community. But I am slowly getting there. Also there is so much of learning and growth that happens in Mumbai,” she said.
Ritika added that she visits Mysuru, her home town, often to recharge and rejuvenate amidst nature, friends and family.
Her entry into ‘Big Girls Don’t Cry’ was not easy. She was tested for multiple roles during which she had to give 12 auditions over a period of five months before she finally bagged the role of ‘Mithya Nagraj.’ Ritika is popular in social media through her Instagram handle ritika_gupt.
She also aspires to enter Kannada film industry. “Being a Mysurean, I am familiar with the Kannada language which I can speak fluently. This apart, I am aware of the rich culture and tradition of Karnataka,” she added.
Ritika is the daughter of C. Anil Kumar, owner of Bombay Tiffanys Annexe and late Anita Gupta. She has two siblings Anish Gupta and Anjul Patel. Here is wishing good luck to the Mysuru girl. — VNS
source/content: starofmysore.com (headline edited)
Winner of the TFA Award for Creative Writing in Kannada, Naveen Tejaswi, talks about his attempts to be heard in a language he understands.
“If someone asks me ‘Why do you make films?’ I tell them it’s because it has everything I like — music, photography and acting,” says Naveen Tejaswi. Naveen may have won an award for Creative Writing in Kannada from TOTO Funds the Arts, but behind that unassuming mien lies a creative soul who expresses himself through theatre, photography and films.
Hailing from Hosabale in Shivamogga, Naveen is a first generation student from his family and after completing his primary education from his village, came to Bengaluru to pursue a BSc degree from St Joseph’s College.
“I wanted to become a scientist, but after a while I realised that though I was good at it, I did not enjoy it.“
“If someone asks me ‘Why do you make films?’ I tell them it’s because it has everything I like — music, photography and acting,” says Naveen Tejaswi. Naveen may have won an award for Creative Writing in Kannada from TOTO Funds the Arts, but behind that unassuming mien lies a creative soul who expresses himself through theatre, photography and films.
Hailing from Hosabale in Shivamogga, Naveen is a first generation student from his family and after completing his primary education from his village, came to Bengaluru to pursue a BSc degree from St Joseph’s College.
“I wanted to become a scientist, but after a while I realised that though I was good at it, I did not enjoy it.“
“I was doing theatre in college and had started watching films. I had come to Bangalore in 2014, and would watch English movies everyday with subtitles to learn the language. Soon, I fell in love with the media.”
His stay in the city brought him exposure to world cinema, literature and photography, which only fuelled his creativity as he used to write poems, essays and short stories in Kannada, even as a youngster.
Naveen used to work part-time jobs in college and when he earned enough, he gifted himself a second hand DSLR camera and began taking photographs, eventually gaining a proficiency in it.
Today, Naveen writes and directs films casting people from his village. So far, Naveen has directed four short films and all of them done the festival circuit. Bidugade (Redemption) was a finalist at KIKSFF at California in 2019 and The Sicklehook was the official selection for EFF, Khanty Mansi in Russia for 2018.
More recently, his short film Habba Haridina Suggi Shivaratri was released on YouTube after it was rejected for its politics by a few film festivals.
“Over a 100 people from my village have been part of my films shot with minimal or borrowed equipment. They say it takes a village to raise a child — the same holds true for homegrown cinema. I call these my sustainable films.”
Though his short stories and films are in Kannada, “Last year I started writing in English too,” says Naveen, adding, “Called Track One, it won the Barbra Naidu prize for personal essay writing.” It motivated him to keep writing despite initial setbacks. Today, that story is part of St. Joseph’s Communicative English syllabus.
“When I first started writing, I used the dialect of my village because that’s what I think in. But when it came to validation — from established writers or professors, they couldn’t connect to those language patterns and nuances.”
Naveen turned down an offer to publish his stories in 2018 because the editors wanted to bring in a lot of changes to the language and approach to make it more suitable. That put a spanner in his imaginative works for almost five years. “During that time I battled with confusion on confidence on what is accepted and what is not. There were no other examples or a reference to the context of social, economic or political background of my village in mainstream media, making it harder to be accepted.”
In 2023, I finally decided to couldn’t stifle it any longer, couldn’t wait for the world to say it was okay. So I started writing again. These stories are set in my village which has 300 houses. Of these, perhaps 10 belong to members of the Brahmin community who are the landowners, while the rest of us work for them. We are the first generation to go to school and my stories look at the lives of people in the village.
Naveen has been working on a collection of short stories set in his village. “I’m interested in contemporary films and literature. I want to know how different artistes are seeing the world we are living right now.”
His winning entry for the TOTO Award were two stories from that collection.
“I believe the stories we tell or create stem from the place we live our experiences. Though there are famous writers in Kannada, due to their socio-political backgrounds, I couldn’t relate to their work. As a first generation student from an oppressed caste, and even while growing up, I would wonder why the stories of those around me were rarely found in any media.”
He agrees that Art imitates Life, and that, “people in pop culture exist too, but their stories are not real for me. I cannot relate to the things they do. I have come to understand that privilege has a lot to do with making art.”
He goes on to elaborate, “Art takes a lot of time and resources. For someone coming from a privileged background these things come easily.”
Talking about the stories which won the TFA Award, Naveen says, “One story is called ‘Suraghi’— it’s a flower whose fragrance lingers for days even after it dries, but it is not used as a temple offering. The story is about a father and his daughter. The father like his father before him have been workers in a Brahmin family for generations now. The story is from the daughter’s point of view — she wants to become a pilot when she grows up.”
“The other story is ‘Bangara,’ also the name of a flower called gold-petalled dahlia in English. This is a story about a mother and her daughter. The mother is a single parent and like most women in our village, after her day as a daily wage earner, she sits with them to dehusk areca from 9pm-11pm to supplement her income.”
“This lady is 60 years old now, and her daughter is married and living away. The mother wants to spend more time with her grandchild but not able to. The story explores the dynamics of their relationship, the gap caused by liking and disliking certain things about each other.”
Both ‘Suraghi’ and ‘Bangara’ won the TFA Award for Creative Writing in Kannada this year. At his acceptance speech, Naveen said he would be using the award money to start an art centre in his village. “It’s called Bheema Shale and on April 6, 2024, we will officially launch the centre where we will conducts a camp for spoken English and music.
“My friends from Adavi, a Bengaluru-based collective will teach us to play the tamate (a hand drum), while I will take the English class.”
The TOTO Awards were instituted 20 years ago by Toto Funds the Arts, a non-profit trust set up in 2004 in memory of Angirus ‘Toto’ Vellani. The annual Toto Awards are intended to encourage and recognise potential in artists under the age of 30.
source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)