Category Archives: Records, All

Flown by four women pilots, Air India’s longest direct route flight lands in Bengaluru

Amazing Feats, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Records, All, Travel, World Opinion

Passengers between Bengaluru and San Francisco can now travel seamlessly between these two cities without a stop over at any other palce.

Members of the crew are Captain Zoya Aggarwal, Captain Papagari Thanmai, Captain Akansha Sonaware and Captain Shivani Manhas. (Photo | Ashish Krishna,EPS)

Bengaluru :

It marked a glorious moment for flyers when Air India’s Boeing 777-237 Long Range aircraft touched down at the Kempegowda International Airport at 3.07 am on Monday and later taxied to its bay by 3.25 am, a good 20 minutes before the scheduled arrival time.

Passengers between Bengaluru and San Francisco can now travel seamlessly between these two cities without a stop over at any other palce.

What makes flight number AI176, the longest flight ever operated by an Indian airline, so special is that it is also an all-women crew. 

The four-member team of Captain Zoya Aggarwal, Captain Papagari Thanmai, Akansha Sonaware and Shivani Manhas as well as Captain Nivedita Bhasin, Executive Director, Flight Safety Section, who accompanied were given a round of applause by passengers and visitors to the airport when they emerged out the ‘Arrivals’ gate.

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The New Indian Express@NewIndianXpress

Replying to @NewIndianXpressAir India’s all-women cockpit crew’s first non-stop flight from San Francisco to Bengaluru landed at the Kempegowda International Airport. Express Photos | @ashishhpendse @XpressBengaluru

8:34 AM . Jan 11, 2021 . Twitter Web App

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They had broad smiles on their faces with the joy of their achievement helping them overcome the fatigue of covering a distance of 13, 933 kms between the two cities in nearly 16 hours. Airport staffers also handed them red roses.

Among the first passengers to come out of the terminal was 78-year-old Govinda Naidu and his son Ramana Anugant. “I have waited 20 years for this day. I have brought my 78-year-old father and 67-year-old mother along. They both cannot walk properly and use wheel chairs. We do not have to change over at Delhi or Mumbai. It is such a relief.” 

71-year-old Subramaniam from Malleswaram who paid 1811 dollars for a business seat said, “I got stuck in my daughter’s house in California due to the Covid epidemic for a year now. I finally decided to come home and it is such a relief to have a direct flight like this.”

Agarwal, commander of the flight said, “Today, we created world history by not only flying over the North Pole but also having all women pilots who successfully did it.”

Billing the trip as “a fantastic experience” Aggarwal said that it  challenging to fly over the North Pole. We have to be very careful when we enter the Polar Region and have received training for it. When you come out, it is completely dark.

29-year-old Captain Shivani Manas from J & K said, “I have just four years experience. I feel blessed to be given such an opportunity. This is an unforgettable day in my life.”

At 2.30 pm, the flight from Bengaluru towards San Francisco (AI 175) will depart with an all male crew commanded by CV Madhu. All the 238 seats on it have been booked.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Nation / by S Lalitha, Express News Service / January 11th, 2021

And the winners are…

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Records, All

The Bangalore Literature Festival and Atta Galatta, the city-based bookstore, have announced the winners of the Atta Galatta-Bangalore Literature Festival Book Prize 2020.

Bengaluru :

The Bangalore Literature Festival and Atta Galatta, the city-based bookstore, have announced the winners of the Atta Galatta-Bangalore Literature Festival Book Prize 2020. The awards carry a prize of Rs 50,000 under the categories of: Best fiction (English), best non-fiction (English), literary achievement award in Kannada, popular choice (English), and a new category introduced this year – best cover design.

For best fiction (English), publishers submitted over 100 books for consideration, and the winner was Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara (Penguin Hamish Hamilton). Best non-fiction (English) was bagged by The Death Script: Dreams and Delusions in Naxal Country by Ashutosh Bhardwaj (4th Estate).

Milind Soman, along with city-based author Roopa Pai, won the prize for the popular choice category, for their book Made in India: A Memoir (Penguin eBury). Vaidehi won the award for achievement in Kannada literature whereas the best cover design prize went to Rising Heat (Penguin Hamish Hamilton). The cover was designed by Gunjan Ahlawat. 

The jury was headed by writers Shobhaa De for the fiction category, and Akshaya Mukul for the non-fiction category. The jury for the literary achievement award in Kannada was constituted of the past winners of the award. The prizes will be awarded during a ceremony on Dec. 13, during the ninth edition of The Bangalore Literature Festival.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Express News Service / December 10th, 2020

New device measures rate of evaporation in minutes

Agriculture, Business & Economy, Green Initiatives / Environment, Nature, Records, All, Science & Technology

Can help farmers, weather stations and botanists, says IISc. team

In what is touted to be a more efficient and inexpensive alternative to existing methods, a team of scientists from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc.) has developed a device that can measure the rate of evaporation within a couple of minutes.

Apart from being an integral process in the water cycle, evaporation plays a major role in regulating water loss in plants through a process called transpiration, an IISc. release explained. “Being able to measure the evaporation rate is useful for farmers to gauge water requirements for their fields and in weather stations to characterise the local atmospheric conditions. It is also widely used by botanists to study the dynamics underlying transpiration by plants,” said IISc. in the release.

Currently, pan evaporimeters – resembling large pans that are filled with water – are the most commonly used devices to measure evaporation rates. The change in water level over a day gives the evaporation rate from that area for that day.

“The disadvantages are that the evaporation rates are for one whole day, and over a large area, one square metre. One needs an open ground to place the device. But we have a simple method of directly measuring evaporation from a small surface – at the order of a couple of centimetres, and over a short period of time. Our method allows you to get a much more realistic measure of transpiration from plants and evaporation from soil,” the release quoted Jaywant H. Arakeri, Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, IISc., and senior author of the study, which was recently published in the Journal of Hydrology, as saying.

The proposed device consists of a filter paper connected to a capillary tube that takes water from a reservoir to the filter paper, wetting it and mimicking an evaporating water surface. By measuring the distance travelled by the lower meniscus in the capillary tube over a couple of minutes, the evaporation rate is estimated. The innovation lies in being able to measure the very small amount (about 1 microlitre) of water that is lost in evaporation from the surface in a minute, the release explained.

As the evaporation rate is affected by a number of factors such as temperature, wind velocity and humidity, the device can show the evaporation rate within a niche environment. It would be useful to scientists studying the physiological process of transpiration in plants because of its ability to measure the evaporation rate over small areas over short periods of time.

The authors also suggest that it could be used in oceans to study changing evaporation patterns in the open sea and in weather stations to estimate evaporation rates in the atmosphere, an important parameter that is currently not measured.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bengaluru / by Staff Reporter / December 05th, 2020

Six startups at Indian Institute of Science get CSR funds from US conglomerate Honeywell

Records, All, Science & Technology

Three of the six startups are heavily involved in the COVID-19 crisis, said President, Honeywell India, Akshay Bellare, without disclosing the quantum of CSR funds set aside.

Indian Institute of Science (IISC) in Bengaluru. (File photo| EPS)

Bengaluru :

Six deep science startups at the Society for Innovation and Development (SID), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), got a boost as they are now supported financially by US-based conglomerate Honeywell.

The decision was announced on Tuesday by the President, Honeywell India, Akshay Bellare, and Chief Executive, Society for Innovation and Development (SID), Indian Institute of Science (IISc) B Gurumoorthy.

Three of the six startups are heavily involved in the COVID-19 crisis, said Bellare, without disclosing the quantum of CSR funds set aside for SID. His visit to IISc before the pandemic hit, he said, gave him the comfort of working with a great institution with an incredible track record for investing CSR funds.

The choice of deep science for Honeywell, Bellare explained, was because of its significant impacts in addressing the problems society is facing currently — vaccine development for COVID-19, for instance.

The pandemic, he said, highlighted the need for corporates to fund deep science research and development as they are disruptive, can change the game and have significant and positive outcomes.

Gurumoorthy deemed the collaboration an obvious choice for IISc as it can play a role in taking the technology and science done within the institute to the outside world for larger benefits. He added that the number of companies is not frozen and more firms will be identified.

While IISc and SID have a significant chunk of biology and healthcare startups, Gurumoorthy said there are also other spaces such as water, machine learning and software tools thereof, productivity enabling devices and designs of farming sector and three to four firms are developing space and aerospace tehcnology.

Honeywell’s partnership with SID is to support startup ventures working on science and technology projects not related to the company’s core areas of work, but intended to address large, societal problems.

Honeywell’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) contribution will also target needs relating to COVID-19, including building a new class of eco-friendly specialty fluorescent dyes and a rapid point-of-care diagnostics test for use in low resource settings.

Here are the six startups and their products:

Azooka Labs Private Limited — safer and more stable viral transport medium, and easy-to-deploy point-of-care diagnostic kit that will be useful for testing COVID-19

Siamaf Healthcare Private Limited — magnetic nanotechnology for radiation-free and affordable cancer diagnosis and therapy

Protein Design Private Limited — viral antigens for diagnostics and vaccination for COVID-19; works on protein biotechnology

Mimyk Medical Simulations Private Limited — augmented reality/virtual reality-based laparoscopy simulation platform to train surgeons

HealthSeq Precision Medicine Private Limited — solutions in precision medicine to enable targeted therapy, reduce risks, and increase efficiencies in the healthcare system

PathShodh Healthcare Private Limited– re-purposing its technology for rapid and accurate COVID-19 diagnostics, while also eliminating the need for PCR machines.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Pearl Maria D’Souza / Express News Service / December 01st, 2020

Ansr acquires Bengaluru-based AI firm FastNext

Business & Economy, Records, All, Science & Technology, World Opinion
Representative image/Credit: Pixabay Image

The US-based Ansr on Wednesday announced acquisition of Bengaluru-based artificial intelligence (AI) firm FastNext in a cash and stock deal.

However, the company didn’t disclose the acquisition cost.

Post the acquisition, FastNext employees will join Ansr and work closely with its product Talent500.

“The acquisition will enable Ansr empower global enterprises to build the best teams for their global capability centres (GCC) by using deep learning and AI-powered tools across talent acquisition and management, smart workspace management and management and business workflows,” Ansr said in a statement.

The first of the capabilities Ansr aims to build with FastNext is in AI driven talent acquisition and management that will augment existing consulting and technology capabilities. It will help clients in areas such as talent acquisition and management.

“Ansr’s Talent500 will play a pivotal role in this partnership for achieving comprehensive 360-degree candidate profiles,” the statement said.

source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> City> Top Bengaluru Stories / by PTI / November 05th, 2020

Field trials of Rajamudi rice to resume soon

Agriculture, Business & Economy, Records, All
Cultivation of Rajamudi variety of rice is currently restricted to parts of south Karnataka region.  

This is a precursor to seeking GI status

The second set of field trials to prove the unique characteristic features of Rajamudi, Karnataka’s premium variety of rice, will be resumed in due course as a precursor to seeking Geographical Indication (GI) status for it.

The results of the first set of trials — which was said to be encouraging — was published some time ago in the international rice journal Oryza and scientists involved in the exercise are confident of securing the coveted GI tag for Rajamudi within the next two years.

The process is lengthy and entails scientifically proving that the characteristic features of Rajamudi cannot be replicated when cultivated in other areas.

“It is in this connection that we intend to take up its cultivation in different parts of Karnataka, including Shivamogga, Davangere, Bidar etc. this year,” said M.P. Rajanna, a research scientist at VC Farm in Mandya, who is involved in the project.

Once successful, it will be the first paddy variety of Karnataka to share the honours with Gobindobhog of Bengal, Kalanamak of Uttar Pradesh, and Ajara Ghansal of Maharashtra, which have received the GI tag.

The State government is keen to secure the GI tag for Rajamudi, which was the preferred rice variety of the Wadiyars of Mysuru who chose to receive it from the farmers of the region in lieu of tax. This was due to its unique taste and the perceived higher nutritional value which was proved scientifically in recent years, said Krishnaprasad of Sahaja Samruddha, an NGO spearheading the movement to save and popularize the indigenous variety of rice in the State.

He said cultivation of Rajamudi variety of rice is currently restricted to parts of Holenarsipur, Arkalgud, Channarayapatna, Hassan, and Mysuru taluks in south Karnataka region. However, the acreage or area under cultivation is only around 25,000 acres to 30,000 acres and was on a decline raising concern that it could be on the brink of extinction as it is being supplanted by hybrid variety.

Explaining the rationale for securing the GI status, Mr. Krishnaprasad said it will not only help conserve the paddy variety but will prevent other variety of rice cultivated elsewhere in the State from being foisted on consumers as the genuine Rajamudi product.

The initiative to secure GI tag for Rajamudi was announced almost two years ago by the Karnataka Agricultural Price Commission and the Department of Agriculture. Besides Rajamudi, there are plans to seek GI status for other varieties of rice, including Gandhasale and Ratnachudi.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Karnataka / by Special Correspondent / Mysuru – November 23rd, 2020

Frizzell D’Souza’s début single is as new as freshly brewed coffee

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Records, All

Bengaluru-based singer-songwriter Frizzell D’Souza’s début single is about a relationship on the cusp of feeling jaded

For this fourth-year student of RV College of Architecture in Bengaluru, success as a singer-songwriter was something she stumbled upon by accident.

“Growing up, my sister and I were encouraged to learn music,” says 21-year-old Frizzell D’Souza, over phone from Mangaluru. “She had piano lessons, while I learnt the violin for eight years. However, I took to the guitar and ukelele a few years ago, on my own.

“I started doing music about two-and-a-half years ago, with covers of some of my favourite artistes such as Ed Sheeran, Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson and Eric Clapton. When Prateek Kuhad himself shared my rendition of his ‘Cold/Mess,’ it boosted my confidence and my viewership.”

Frizzell D’Souza – New (Official Lyric Video)

It was only in the thick of the lockdown, that she began meeting independent artistes online who had started going live. “Established musicians such as Ehsaan sir (of Shankar Ehsaan Loy fame) and others kept encouraging musicians to use the time to work on their own music.” That was when she began working on creating an original number.

“I did not have any real experience writing before; I’m not even much of a reader,” she admits candidly. “When I saw others trying their hand at composing lyrics, I realised I couldn’t go on singing covers forever. Writing my songs was the next step up.”

Frizzell began by writing a few lines every day and would keep honing it till she was satisfied. “When I finished ‘New,’ a few of my friends encouraged me to put it out there.”

Frizzell says that over the course of the lockdown, she not only came up with the music and lyrics for ‘New,’ but also got down to producing it. “It was pretty challenging to produce it on your own especially when you are restricted to working from home. The Urban Weaver, an artist collective, helped me with it, and they released ‘New’ in August.”

Apart from online classes for her semester, Frizzell says she has been working on her music and is set to release another single. “When I’m not drawing or drafting for class or working on my music, I do a lot of painting.”

Her next track ‘Drown Away’ is about her childhood memories of Goa and will be released shortly.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Entertainment>Music / by Ruth Dhanraj / November 25th, 2020

Back with a bounce

Nri's / Pio's, Records, All, Sports, Uncategorized, World Opinion

City hoopster talks about staying alone and training amid the pandemic in the US

Bengaluru :

 Bengaluru girl Sanjana Ramesh is currently in her second year with the Northern Arizona University (NAU) women’s basketball team in the United States. But this year has been completely different from the last season due to the pandemic, and with the 19-year-old living away from her family, life is not easy for her in the prevailing situation. 

Sanjana is adjusting to the new normal, wherein she gets tested for Covid-19 thrice a week, and gyms are also open during a specific time. Even when it comes to food, there is no dine-in and takeaway is the usual option. She has also been extra careful about isolation, and hopes to get involved more in the upcoming National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Basketball Season.   

“I have had to make sacrifices due to Covid-19,” the India hoopster said in a virtual interaction. “I don’t want to take any risks. I am here in the United States. What if I get the virus? I will not have the support system that I have back home. I am more isolated. It is the necessary sacrifice to make if you want to play this season and I want to do that.” 

After spending three months in India, Sanjana, who is majoring in business administration, travelled to the US in July. She had to quarantine for 14 days before starting her light training. Initially, she had to train one on one, before gradually picking up and starting practice with her teammates. With her team starting the NCAA Division I campaign on Nov. 25, she is now looking forward to it, but has a weird feeling too. “Now we all play as a team and we have progressed in training. And, I will have to change my mindset that I have to play against another team. It is a little strange, knowing that we will be touching, breathing and sharing the air in the same place,” said Sanjana. 

The team has also held a meetings about the dos and don’ts around Covid-19. This season is going to be a big test for all players, including Sanajana, at both the physical and the mental level. They have had sessions with therapists too. 

“My personal goals are that at least for 10 minutes a game, I want to be the leading shot blocker in our conference, get rebounds… Also, it is going to be hard if even one of the players gets Covid in our team. Even if everyone else is fine, we have a 14-day shutdown,” Sanjana said.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Express News Service / November 24th, 2020

The right match

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Records, All, World Opinion

City-based singer Soundarya Jayachandran on crooning her first Hindi song for Netflix’s new show Mismatched, which also features renditions by popular names like Prateek Kuhad and Ritviz .

Soundarya Jayachandran

Bengaluru :

 Fresh off its Friday release, Netflix’s new show, Mismatched, is all about teenage love and dreams, set in the scenic locales of Rajasthan. But besides winning hearts, the show – which stars Rannvijay Singha, Prajakta Kohli and Rohit Saraf – also offers an array of foot-tapping music, featuring songs by well-known names like Prateek Kuhad, Nikita Gandhi and Ritviz. Joining this lineup is city-based singer Soundarya Jayachandran, who lent her voice for the song Jaana. 

Jayachandran recalls this collaboration as things just falling in place at the right time. “Nigel Rajarathnam, who has produced the song, and I had worked together previously. When he got to know that Jasleen Royal, who has written the song, was looking for a voice for the song, he got in touch with me. He felt my voice will fit the song,” says Jayachandran, who adds that the song has a mellow yet dark tune. 

Mostly known for her English songs – original and covers – she does get nervous about singing in Hindi. “It’s just that I am too critical about my Hindi pronunciation. But I do love singing Hindi ballads, since I have been trained in Carnatic classical music for 10 years,” says Jayachandran, confessing that she still finds it a little difficult to write songs in Hindi.

Apart from being trained in Indian classical music, the singer, who is in her mid-twenties, is also trained in guitar from Trinity College of Music, London, and learnt western classical vocals from AR Rahman’s KM Music Conservatory in Chennai. 

Jayachandran also recently launched her first album, Riding Daylight, which has 11 songs. “It’s a visual concept album where every song has an abstract video. The first song, In The Middle, is out now and on the 11th of every month, I am going to drop the other songs,” she says.

She is also working on her own firm, Catiko Productions. “It will take care of content creation, ad films, set design, etc. The last six months have been tough. Through this production house, I look forward to financial stability,” says the singer. 

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Monika Monalisa / Express News Service / November 24th, 2020

‘Soorarai Pottru’: Sky is the limit for Captain GR Gopinath

Amazing Feats, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Leaders, Records, All, Travel, World Opinion

From being an Army man to an entrepreneur, Captain Gopinath speaks about his life and the events that inspired the latest Suriya-starrer ‘Soorarai Pottru’.

Air Deccan founder Captain GR Gopinath (L) and Kollywood actor Suriya (Photo | PTI and YouTube Screengrab)

Bengaluru :

Captain Gopinath’s phone has not stopped buzzing with congratulatory messages ever since the release of Tamil movie Soorarai Pottru, which is based on his life and stars actor Suriya in the lead role. However, he still finds fame awkward.

While Gopinath is quite happy with the way the movie has turned out, he tells CE that Girish Karnad was the first person to convince him that his journey should be made into a movie.

“After reading my book Simply Fly: A Deccan Odyssey, he told me, ‘Captain, you have village, army, politics, helicopter, airplane… your story is so visually fascinating. It should be made into a movie’, but I was shy. He later told my wife Bharghavi too that if I am ready to give the rights, he is ready to wear the greasepaint,” laughs Gopinath, as he recalls the conversation that took place in 2017, two years before Karnad passed away.

Even when the film’s director Sudha Kongara approached him to get the rights of his book for a movie, Gopinath was still not sure.

It was when Guneet Monga, the co-producer of the movie, who has critically acclaimed movies like Gangs of Wasseypur, The Lunchbox, Masaan, Period. End of Sentence to his credit, reached out that something changed in Gopinath.

“Guneet Monga said the story held a special place for her because the first flight she ever took was Air Deccan. Then I researched her work and felt it would be good to give the rights of the movie,” says Gopinath, who was well aware that the makers would take creative liberty.

“My concern was that the message should not be lost. While there is masala, there is also meat beneath it. I am happy the message is loud and clear in the film,” emphases the 68-year-old, who shuttles between Bengaluru and his village Gorur in Hassan district, and remains busy with “writing, and mentoring inspiring entrepreneurs”.

Gopinath was also all praises for the makers for portraying the female lead as a “strong support than a subordinate”.

He says it was important to show the female lead playing his wife’s character as someone who had her own dream. “When there is a success story, there is usually a team behind it. My wife is that support for me,” adds Gopinath, whose wife still runs her bakery, Bun World Iyenger Bakery, which currently has four branches in Bengaluru, the oldest being the one in Malleswaram that was opened 25 years ago.

Talking about the scene in which Nedumaaran Rajangam (played by Suriya) asks Bommi (the wife, played by Aparna Balamurali) for financial help, Gopinath says no such thing happened in real life. “It was like a metaphor. Though I never asked for any financial help, she was my strongest support,” says Gopinath.

Thinking of a low-cost airline at a time when flying was still a luxury, he admits, was an audacious step. “One day, I was driving to my village and I came across a computer training centre, which was a new thing. It seemed like a new country, one with hungry consumers, where people had refrigerators and other electronic items displayed in their living rooms,” he says.

“It’s not always hard work and perseverance that brings success, it’s also optimism. It is important that you wake up and believe that things will work out.”

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Entertainment> Tamil / by Monika Monalisa / Express News Service / November 23rd, 2020