The product uses metal nano particles with coated reusable membranes and liquid nanofluids.
Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa inaugurates the Nano Corona Air Purifier-Cum-Steriliser at his official residence Krishna in Bengaluru on Friday
Bengaluru :
A city-based start-up, incubated by Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Nutan Labs has developed Nano Corona Air Purifier Cum Steriliser which purifies indoor air by killing Covid-19 virus and other pollutants. CM BS Yediyurappa, while launching the product at his home office ‘Krishna’, said: “This kind of technology will be useful to help combat the virus. In a first, we are using nano-material in liquid form for absorption of pollutant gases and pathogens.”
The product uses metal nano particles with coated reusable membranes and liquid nanofluids. “In the first stage of nano filtration, we have coated noble metal nanoparticles of 10-20 nanometre each on sandwiched membranes or non-woven fibres. The nanoparticles eliminate the virus by disrupting the outer coating and damaging the genetic material (of 30-140 nanometre each) and ruptures it,” said Nuthan H S, CEO, Nutan Labs.
Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences & Research permitted the start-up to conduct real-time studies with COVID19 positive patients at the hospital’s isolation wards . It is claimed that the instrument purifies, sterilises and recirculates clean and sterile air in a rapid way without using much energy. Recently ‘Nutan Labs ‘ got the ‘Elevate Call 2 Award’ by Start-up Karnataka, Dept of IT- BT, Science and technology, Government of Karnataka.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Express News Service / July 18th, 2020
The Covid Care Centre at the sprawling Bangalore International Exhibition Centre (BIEC) campus on Tumakuru Road. DH PHOTO/B H SHIVAKUMAR
The BBMP is preparing to open a massive Covid Care Centre (CCC) on the sprawling Bangalore International Exhibition Centre (BIEC) campus on Tumakuru Road to combat the spiralling coronavirus cases.
Civic officials said the 10,100-bedded facility will be the country’s largest. New Delhi’s Sardar Patel Covid Care Centre currently holds the honour of being the world’s largest Covid care facility with 10,000 beds. The BIEC facility will accommodate asymptomatic Covid-19 patients or those with mild symptoms.
Initially, the BBMP planned to arrange 5,000 to 7,000 beds in BIEC’s five halls with two-metre distance between the beds. “But the latest standard operating procedure released by the Centre says one-metre distance between the beds is sufficient. So, we scaled up the capacity to 10,100 beds across five halls,” explained Sarfaraz Khan, joint commissioner (SWM), BBMP.
BBMP commissioner B H Anil Kumar said the centre is well-ventilated with enough toilets, nursing stations, kitchens, and other facilities necessary to attend to asymptomatic patients.
“We have decided to set up 10-bedded ICUs at every Covid Care Centre,” Deputy Chief Minister C N Ashwath Narayan, who visited the facility, said. “In BIEC alone, a 100-bedded ICU will be set up with all medical facilities, including oxygen supply. By Monday, 7,000 beds will be ready to occupy and the remaining 3,000 beds will be added in a week.”
The civic body has put up LED screens to beam entertainment programmes, especially for children and the elderly to help them overcome boredom. Good quality food has also been organised for patients with separate bins to dispose of the plates.
A bio-medical waste agency has been given the tender to clean the facility. The centre will have separate cabins with 40 beds and televisions sets in each cabin.
“High-tech toilets and washroom facilities have been provided at all the halls. Separate oxygen chambers have also been set up,” K Narasimhamurthy, joint commissioner, Dasarahalli Zone, explained.
Narayan said patients will be diverted to BIEC by the end of the week. “All medical staff have been relieved from their non-medical duty and directed to these clinical services. Additional trained staffers will also be deployed at these Covid centres. If there are any more complaints about the quality of food, the suppliers will lose the contract without notice,” the deputy chief minister cautioned.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> City / DHNS / July 06th, 2020
We talk to Prathap NM from Mandya, popularly known as the Drone Scientist of India. He talks about his journey so far and the instances when his drones helped people in dire need.
Prathap N M with his drone during one of the expo
Recently, when floods ravaged major parts of North Karnataka and people were stranded in different places, Prathap NM used the drone he made to provide food and relief materials to several affected areas. From Hipparagi Barrage to Janwada, a nearby village — he used his drone to help many. Thousands of people gathered to watch if this drone could really reach the right place. And when it did, both police personnel and the public cheered loudly for the 22-year-old. Originally from the Mandya district, Prathap is a BSc graduate from JSS College of Arts, Science and Commerce in Mysuru.
He is popularly known as the Drone Scientist or the Youngest Scientist in India. A fitting name, we think, considering he thought about building drones when he was just 14 years old. When he was 16, he already had a drone in his hand ready to fly. “Have you seen an eagle, whose eyes are sharp and flight precise? It was this bird that inspired me to build a drone. The late Dr APJ Abdul Kalam also served as an inspiration as he achieved a lot in his lifetime. The first drone that I built was a basic one which could simply fly and capture some images. As I learnt more about technology and how drones can be helpful, I built bigger drones. To date, I have built around 600 drones,” he says.
In 2017, Prathap was recognised on several national as well as international platforms for his work. “I exhibited one of my drones at Skills India and won second place. I exhibited a self-made project called Drones in Cryptography. The Germans used cryptography to send coded messages about bombings, especially during the time of Adolf Hitler, the dictator. Usually, radar signals can trace drones, but if you send messages or signals through cryptography, you can neither detect them nor decode the encrypted message,” he explains. This young scientist has been invited to over 87 countries to showcase the different drones he has built.
When we ask him about the funding required to fuel his passion, he says, “I use very little money and a lot of e-waste to make my drones. Whenever I win competitions, I am awarded money which I save for the future. And as far as e-waste goes, a lot of it is generated and I get it from electrical shops in Mysuru, Visakhapatnam, Mumbai and a few other cities. For example, if there is a mixer-grinder that is defunct, I can remove the motor and use it in my drone. Similarly, I make use of chips and resistors from broken televisions to build my drones. It doesn’t matter what the prototype looks like. Proving the technical points of the drone is all that matters.”
Prathap used his drone to deliver food to people in the flood-hit North Karnataka region
Prathap has won young scientist awards from Japan and France and gold medals for his research on drones from Germany and the USA. among others. But he had to face several challenges before he could earn these recognitions. Being the son of a farmer, Prathap comes from a poor family and could hardly afford to buy good clothes for himself. “When I travelled to France for the first time, people were shocked and judged me for travelling in business class. However, this did not matter to me. One of the companies in France offered me an opportunity to work on their research project. I earned some money there and contributed to the improvement of my family’s financial condition. Currently, the drones I am building now are funded by the money that I earned in France,” he says happily.
Eagle 2.8, the saviour
Prathap feels happy that his creation saved the life of a little girl in Africa. Narrating the series of events, he says, “Africa is home to many indigenous people and species. There is a dangerously poisonous snake called the black mamba in this country. In one year, around 22,000 people in a particular tribal area had died due to this snake’s bite. When I was in Sudan for a research project, an eight-year-old girl was bitten by this snake and needed urgent medical assistance. Usually, a person can survive for only 15 minutes after being bitten by this snake. I used a drone to send the antivenom to the place where she was, a place so remote that you won’t even be able to find its location on Google Maps. The place was 10 hours by road from where I was, so I used my Eagle 2.8 drone, which can cover 280 km per hour. The antivenom was delivered within eight and a half minutes. It was a very challenging task for me. Later, the child and her mother came all the way to Sudan to meet me and thanked me for saving her life. I was very happy that I could help.”
Prathap was given the Albert Einstein Innovation Medal from CeBIT in 2018 and secured the first place for his project Autopiloted drones
Prathap has also delivered a few lectures at IIT Bombay and IISc on how drones can be used in time-sensitive situations like transferring of organs during organ donation, blood transfer and other such purposes. Prathap says, “When my lecture was held in these institutes for the first time, only three or four people attended. But these few people told the others about me and my talks, so when the lectures were organised again, the hall was jam-packed.” Currently, Prathap is working to establish his own start-up that can involve youngsters to build drones or any other devices. According to him, there are several people out there who have the talent, but don’t have the degree. “I will employ such talents and bring out many innovative devices that can help the nation during disasters and wars and in the fields of defence, aviation and beyond. The aim is very simple, it is to use technology in the interest of our nation.”
source: http://www.edexlive.com / The New Indian Express edex live / Home> People> Drone / by Rashmi Patil, Edex Live / December 23rd, 2019
This is also a way to help patients in quarantine get emotional support from counsellors and stay in touch with their families via video-conference.
Karnataka Health Minister B Sriramulu
Bengaluru :
Minister for Health and Family Welfare B Sriramulu launched ‘ICU Telecard’ on Thursday, a technology developed by CISCO to address the concerns of doctors treating Covid patients. The technology help doctors who have contracted the virus while on duty, allowing them to provide treatment to patients from a safe distance. It will also ensure that doctors don’t come in contact with patients in isolation wards and Covid ICU’s.
This is also a way to help patients in quarantine get emotional support from counsellors and stay in touch with their families via video-conference. Families will also be able to virtually take part in doctor consultations. “This technology is a necessity in safeguarding the health of doctors, and should be implemented in all hospitals. We will discuss this in the task force meeting, and take decisions regarding technology required in Covid hospitals in the state. For now, we have installed the technology at Victoria Hospital and KC General hospital,” the minister said.
Sriramulu also addressed complaints regarding the delay in releasing of dead bodies that are yet to be tested, stating that the Chief Minister in a meeting on Wednesday has ordered for more testing labs to be set up. “We are also contemplating conducting plasma therapy in all districts,” he said.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Karnataka / by Express News Service / July 03rd, 2020
Within a few days of its release, more than 10,000 people have reportedly downloaded the android app. It has a 4.9 star rating at the moment and has clocked over 2000 reviews too.
Z Share app
Hubballi :
A student from Dharwad has developed the Z Share app, an alternative to SHAREit, that he claims transfers files two times faster than the popular Chinese app.
Within a few days of its release, more than 10,000 people have reportedly downloaded the android app. It has a 4.9 star rating at the moment and has clocked over 2000 reviews too.
Shravan Vasant Hegde from Kansur village near Sirsi in Uttara Kannada district, pursuing his BCA degree from CSI College in Dharwad, is the developer.
He says he developed the app within 15 days, and with the help of his cousin, who is into software, made his newly developed Z Share app available on Google Playstore.
Shravan says he has experience in developing apps and had developed a couple of apps for Karnatak University students already.
“After Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s words to go desi, I thought of developing the app and started to develop the app in the beginning of June. Within two weeks, I completely developed it and now it is available on playstore. I have plans to release it on iOS too,” he added.
The app transfers files like images, videos, pdfs and other types. The average speed is about 6 mbps, which is double that the Chinese app currently offers, Shravan claims. When the users are using the latest phones the transfer speed reaches a max of 10 mbps too, he went on to say.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Karnataka / by Arunkumar Huralimath / Express News Service / June 29th, 2020
Doctors at Manipal Hospitals have successfully treated a 43-year-old patient from Kolkata suffering from kidney failure.
Noted nephrologist Dr Ravi Jangamani, along with urologists Dr Deepak Dubey, Dr Shivashankar R and Dr Somanna, cardiothoracic vascular surgeon Dr Devananda N S, anaesthesiologist Dr Navneetan and the team carried out the complex kidney transplant recently.
The patient, Jinmay Kundu, had a familial kidney disease called Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease, which resulted in kidney failure. He had multiple complications, urgently needed a kidney transplant and also required blood for the surgery.
His condition had worsened during the lockdown. Kundu also had bad blood vessels with a 90% narrowing of the lower aorta, leading to poor blood supply in the lower part of the body, which made it difficult for the kidney transplant.
The surgery was the first-of-its-kind kidney transplant at Manipal Hospitals. The patient is stable.
“This was one of the most technically challenging kidney transplants one can imagine. Coupled with this challenge was the anxiety related to the Covid 19 infection around us. The patient had diseased blood vessels and the only option was to use a synthetic graft,” Dr Dubey, HoD and Consultant, Surgical Urology, Robotic Surgery and Renal Transplantation Department, said in a statement.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> City / by DHNS, Bengaluru / June 14th, 2020
Passengers move to board Hubballi-Jodhpur Shramik Special train, at Hubballi railway station. DH FILE PHOTO
The Hubballi railway station will have the world’s longest platform within one year when the existing 550-metre long Platform No 1 will be extended to 1,400 metres.
Platform No 1 of South Western Railway’s Hubballi railway station which is an inspection carriage line, is being converted into a full platform of 1,400-metre length and 10-metre width. Presently, Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh has the longest platform in the world at 1,366 metres.
The Hubballi yard has five platforms, and trains can be dispatched in one direction only at the same time. The Hubballi yard is being remodelled to increase the number of platforms from the existing 5 to 8. This work is being done as part of the Hubballi-Bengaluru line doubling project.
A third entrance is coming up for the station too.
The cost of the works is Rs 90 crore for yard remodelling, signalling, electrical, building work and other works. Work on the project has began and will be completed in the next one year, said SWR chief public relations officer E Vijaya.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> State> Karnataka Districts / by DHNS, Hubballi / June 04th, 2020
Microsoft’s venture fund M12 on Wednesday said it has set up an office in Bengaluru that will bolster efforts in pursuing investment opportunities.
The Bengaluru office joins the M12 network that includes San Francisco, Seattle, London, and Tel Aviv.
The local office will pursue investment opportunities across the region, focusing on B2B software startups in the sectors of applied artificial intelligence, business applications, infrastructure, security, and vanguard technologies, a statement said.
M12 seeks to invest in disruptive enterprise software startups in the Series A through C funding stages, targeting both local and cross-border solutions, it added.
“The new office is a step forward in M12’s long-term commitment to the Indian startup ecosystem,” it noted.
M12 has already been remotely investing in India since 2019 and its portfolio includes names like Innovaccer and FarEye.
“Typically, we see the greatest hurdles in a startup’s journey as they scale from local success to global challengers, and then again when they go on to become category leaders,” M12 India Lead Abhi Kumar said.
He added that both inflMicrosoftection points require specific and deep organisational strength, proven talent, GTM partnerships, and global investors.
“M12 is proud to be co-located in the region, and to bring experience and resources that will help startups successfully navigate these inflection points,” he said.
Post-investment, the startups in M12’s portfolio can elect to work with the fund’s Portfolio Development team.
M12’s portfolio companies are actively supported through connections to Microsoft’s go-to-market resources, access to Microsoft technology and internal thought leaders, co-marketing opportunities, and engagement with engineering teams to explore product integrations, the statement said.
Set up in 2016, M12 (formerly known as Microsoft Ventures) has invested in 90 companies.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> City / by PTI / June 10th, 2020
The project team from Johns Hopkins is working with ITC Infotech’s Digital Experience (DX) team to further enhance the user interface and user experience (UI/UX) of the COVID-19 Control data collection App.
Tracking the spread of the coronavirus is an ongoing challenge. But researchers at Johns Hopkins University are conducting a study that uses an app to collect information that can help localise potential COVID-19, clusters and flare-ups.
COVID-19 Control – a Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health approved institutional review board (IRB) study, is a new surveillance tool for COVID-19, based on self-reported body temperatures and, optionally, other symptoms, from users around the country using a user-friendly app.
By using spatial science analytics applied to these data they will identify anomalous increases in body temperatures and generate real-time, pre-clinical, risk estimates of potential COVID-19 outbreaks.
The project team from Johns Hopkins is working with ITC Infotech’s Digital Experience (DX) team to further enhance the user interface and user experience (UI/UX) of the COVID-19 Control data collection App.
ITC Infotech’s DX experts are helping the team from Johns Hopkins fast track UI/UX enhancements to drive higher adoption by introducing more user-friendly features.
“Data from this app will allow us to map and identify hot spots of fevers across the United States, potentially indicating emerging outbreaks of COVID-19 before health care or testing is sought. That information can be key in our efforts to control and mitigate the spread of the virus,” said team member Frank C. Curriero, a professor in the Department of Epidemiology and director of Spatial Science for Public Health Center at the Bloomberg School of Public Health.
“The COVID-19 Control data collection App by Johns Hopkins University is very well-timed, as stay-at-home and shelter-in-place restrictions start getting lifted. We are happy to collaborate with the team from Johns Hopkins University, especially during this unprecedented crisis when industry-academia collaboration is critical,” said Sudip Singh, CEO & Managing Director, ITC Infotech.
This syndromic surveillance tool will allow healthcare systems and government agencies to potentially pre-empt outbreaks and better deploy resources to mitigate consequences. Acquiring data directly from individuals rather than hospitals/laboratories greatly reduces the delay in identifying new outbreaks of the disease and expands basic monitoring of health, he further said.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Sci-Tech> Health / by Special Correspondent / Bengaluru – June 11th, 2020
38-year-old Satish Shidagoudar is popular in this region as ‘Bitter Gourd Specialist’ for his amazing skills in growing quality and quantity vegetable in his agricultural field.
He has been cultivating it in his 1.5-acre lands out of five-acres owned by him and is earning in lakhs every month, which he says, no employer could have paid him that much salary, if he had got a job.
Belgavi :
Being a double degree holder he could have easily landed job anywhere. But he wasn’t that lucky as he was denied a job. But it didn’t stop him from doing something else to eke out a living and to his luck he is a successful farmer now, mainly In cultivating ‘ bitter gourd’.
He is Satish Shidagoudar, a 38-year-old farmer from Shirur village of Hukkeri taluk, about 35 km from Belagavi, popular in this region as ‘Bitter Gourd Specialist’ for his amazing skills in growing quality and quantity vegetable in his agricultural field.
He has been cultivating it in his 1.5-acre lands out of five-acres owned by him and is earning in lakhs every month, which he says, no employer could have paid him that much salary, if he had got a job.
He is also a wealthy farmer now, as he owns four vehicles, a piece of land and is also planning to build a bungalow.
Speaking to Express, Satish Shidagoudar said that “I wanted to be a teacher for which I also studied bachelor’s degree in education.
I had also completed BA degree. But I was asked to pay Rs 16 lakh as a bribe for a job with Rs 16,000 salary per month. My father was also planning to arrange money by taking loans as he was desperate to get a job for me. But I refused to and decided to help my father in the field”.
My father Nagappa who is aged 69 and uncles were growing variety of vegetables from the past 15 years in a traditional way.
But the yield and quality were poor due to which they were barely generating any income.
“After joining them in agriculture in 2008, I chose the advanced techniques of growing vegetables by adopting drip irrigation for proper water management, mulching the base to maintain moisture and prevent the growth of weed and providing micronutrients regularly and management of pest.
“I chose to grow bitter gourd by studying its demand in the market. It is bitter by taste, but it is a remedy for diabetes, cancer and many more diseases. People have started consuming it more nowadays. It is also used in making medicines,” said Satush.
“Following this, we started growing the very crop throughout the year by changing the plots in one-and-a half-acres of land. We harvest about 50 tonnes in one season.
“This year, it is being sold at Rs 35,000 per tonne against Rs 48,000 last year. During seasons, I earn about Rs 25,000 to Rs 35,000 per day which I think is far more than the salary earnings of any teacher’ says Satish with a smile on his face”, he added.
“I hardly invest Rs 1.5 Lakh and earnings are several times more than the investment. This is possible only due to hard work and dedication.
“I take care of the plants like a baby due to which I get quality yield. Many people from various districts visit my field to understand the method of cultivation”, he said.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Good News / by Sunil Patil / Express News Service / June 10th, 2020
