Category Archives: Education

Sibling synergy

Business & Economy, Education

This athleisure brand launched by Bengaluru sisters is a student-run business that focuses on casual fashion created in a sustainable way.

Bengaluru : 

When Ria (20) and Shreya Mittal (18) found themselves with a lot of time on hand over the last seven months, the sisters started browsing through outfits they could purchase. But much to their surprise, their outfit preferences were available on international websites.

“Indian brands were mostly into fast fashion, with quality sometimes lacking. This trend is very fitting in the ‘new’ normal as work-from-home culture takes centre stage, and casual comfortable and fashionable products become the need of the hour,” says Ria, a final year fashion management student in the United Kingdom.

Last month, after weeks of planning and preparation, the two launched their athleisure brand – CAVA, that comprises causal clothes that move with ease from WFH to informal business meets and small casual gatherings. “It’s about clothes you can wear anywhere in the current scenario and look chic and stylish,” says Shreya, a Class-12 student at Mallya Aditi International School. Their target audience is in the age group of 15 and 35 years, which is why they’ve decided to get youngsters on board for this. “The collaboration with our designer came about through LinkedIn. We want to make this a student-run business,” says Ria. 

A strong base of a family background in garment business gave them the backing in terms of their idea as well as the nitty-gritty of business. “We did multiple presentations for our family, which has invested `8- 10 lakh into this venture, before we took the plunge,” says Ria. The name, CAVA, means a Spanish sparkling wine made the same way as champagne, which they thought had a ring to it. Marketed and sold through social media channels, their brand will focus on sustainability.

“We use 100 per cent recycled polyester and BCI (Better cotton initiative ) fabrics which conservers water and other vital resources,” says Shreya. The products are priced between Rs 800 and Rs 2,500.  

Ria, who looks after design and promotion, currently co-ordinates the business from the UK where she returned a month ago. “I plan to come back after I finish my course to see where we can take the brand in the next couple of years,” she says. Next year, Shreya, who is into logistics, packing and social media, too plans to head to the UK to study business and digital marketing.  

Over the last few months, they have realised the challenges of running a business. While they themselves have run into arguments – the reason for separate responsibilities – they now understand the effort that goes into the manufacturing of a single garment. “I told my dad that I now understand how much effort goes into making money,” says Ria. For Shreya, the biggest learning has been experiencing Murphy’s law… anything that can go wrong will go wrong. “But when we talk to our parents, they say this is a part and parcel of business,” says Shreya.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Vidya Iyengar / Express News Service / November 03rd, 2020

12 volumes on the life and works of Kuvempu digitised

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Leaders, Records, All

After nearly two decades of research, Kannada University Hampi brought out a magnum opus — 12 volumes on the life and works of Rashtrakavi Kuvempu.

Deputy CN Ashwath Narayan and VTU V-C Karisiddappa (right)launch the digital version of Kuvempu’s works. (Photo | Express)

Bengaluru :

After nearly two decades of research, Kannada University Hampi brought out a magnum opus — 12 volumes on the life and works of Rashtrakavi Kuvempu. These include his letters to friends and family. And the university has digitised it.The whole effort started in 1999 when Dr K C Shivareddy, Professor at Kannada University Hampi, began collecting the works, letters, interviews and anecdotes on the life of Kuppali Venkatappa Puttappa, popularly known as Kuvempu.  

The most significant is the letters that Kuvempu wrote to his family and friends, Shivareddy told TNIE.


Shivareddy had quite some convincing to do (even Kuvempu’s son Poornachandra Tejaswi)  to let the letters become public.”These letters give nuanced shades of Kuvempu’s life– from instilling financial discipline in his children, to his camaraderie with writers who influenced him. I reminded Tejaswi about other writers whose letters played an important role in understanding their creative writing holistically,” Shivareddy said.

Individual volumes were out over the year, and the compilation of all 12 volumes was out on Monday. This compilation was put in digitised form, on the insistence of Deputy Chief Minister Ashwath Narayan, said Dr Shivakumar, co-founder of Bhashini Services, whose team converted the texts into Unicode, a readable EPUB format, in less than 15 days.

Shivakumar, an engineering graduate from the Indian Institute of Science, had given up his corporate job to pursue his dream of making Indian literature go digital. He used his expertise of Machine Learning (OCR & TTS) in which he got a PhD, to digitise more than 500 books of prominent Kannada writers.


S C Ramesh, Vice Chancellor, Kannada University Hampi, told TNIE that the university had already released more than 2,000 titles, yet saw the importance of technology in literature.Karisiddappa, Vice Chancellor, Visvesvaraya Technological University, which collaborated on this venture, said that a maximum number of National Poets (Rashtrakavis) are from Karnataka, and digitising would only take this literature to a global audience.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Pearl Maria D’Souza / Express News Service / November 03rd, 2020

Mangalore University establishes facility for Carbon-14 dating of archaeological artefacts

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Historical Links, Pre-Independence, Records, All, Science & Technology, World Opinion
The instrument used for batch combustion of organic material at the Centre for Advanced Research in Environmental Radioactivity (CARER) laboratory at Mangalore University.   | Photo Credit: CARER, Mangalore University

The Centre for Advanced Research in Environmental Radioactivity (CARER) at Mangalore University has established a facility for Carbon-14 dating of archaeological artefacts or material of biogenic origin based on Liquid Scintillation Counting technique.

Carbon-14 dating is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was developed in the late 1940s at the University of Chicago by Willard Libby, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to this work in 1960.

Measuring the amount of Carbon-14 in a sample from a dead plant or animal, such as a piece of wood or a fragment of bone, provides information that can be used to calculate when the animal or plant died, a release from the university said on Thursday.

This facility has been established through financial support from the Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences (BRNS), Department of Atomic Energy (DAE). Through a research project sanctioned by BRNS and with collaboration with Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai, the CARER had undertaken a study for standardising the method for Carbon-14 measurements in the vicinity of nuclear power plants, it said.

A team of scientists led by Karunakara N., a professor and coordinator, CARER, in collaboration with BARC has standardised a batch method for the thermal combustion of the samples by tube furnace system for Carbon-14 measurements. The spin-off application of this method is its application for determining the age of the material up to 30,000 years old, the release issued by K. Raju Mogaveera, Registrar (administration), said.

The CARER with state-of-the-art facilities has been established by the university as a national facility through financial support from BRNS. This is an advanced centre for radioecological and radiation protection research in the country with collaborations with many advanced laboratories of the world. The centre is serving the research needs of various research groups from national laboratories/institutions/universities.

Those who are interested in using this facility may contact through email carermu@gmail.com, or drkarunakara@gmail.com. Phone : 0824 2888754.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Karnataka / by Special Correspondent / Mangaluru – October 22nd, 2020

Visually-challenged girl defies all odds, bags medals at University of Mysore centenary convocation

Amazing Feats, Education, Records, All

Kavya S Bhat has studied carnatic music besides learning the keyboard, but since she wanted to become a teacher so she gave NET and cleared it with flying colours.

Kavya S Bhat (L) with her mother Ravikala. (Photo| EPS)

Mysuru : 

At the age of two, she was diagnosed with bilateral retinoblastoma, an eye condition resulting in the loss of vision. However, this did not dampen Kavya S Bhat’s dream to complete her higher education.

She was the cynosure of all eyes at the University of Mysore’s centenary convocation on Monday when she climbed the stage to receive two gold medals and two cash prizes for scoring the highest marks in MA (Political Science).

Like many of other specially-abled children, she completed her schooling in a blind school and graduated from Bengaluru. She relied on her parents, Srinivas Bhat and Ravikala Bhat, who helped her all through the way.

She then joined the University of Mysore for a PG programme. However, she hit a hurdle when several faculty members opposed her decision to take computerized exams here but she did not lose hope. She managed to appear for a computerized exam in all four-semester exams.

This also makes her the first person from the varsity to give computerized exams without the aid scribes. “I wanted to write the exam myself. So I requested a computerised exam for all four-semesters,” she said.

Kavya has studied carnatic music besides learning the keyboard, but since she wanted to become a teacher so she gave NET and cleared it with flying colours. Kavya said, “My father actually wanted me to have a career in the field of music. Though I love music, I wanted to prove myself and wanted to take up the teaching profession which made me choose this.”

When asked about how she accomplished this feat, she said, “Even we want to be more independent and that makes us find perfection in everything we do. This compulsion is what helped me accomplish this feat.”

She further added, “There will be people to support as well as oppose each of our decisions, but one must be strong to decide what they want.” Despite reaching her goal, she was still not very happy as two weeks ago her father passed away and couldn’t see her getting the medal. 

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Good News / by Karthik KK / Express News Service / October 20th. 2020

Students from Dakshina Kannada fare well in NEET

Education, Records, All

Students from Dakshina Kannada, including those studying in Alvas PU College, Excellent Science and Commerce PU College, Expert PU College, Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, and Chaitanya PU College, have fared well in the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) 2020, the results of which were declared on Friday.

As many as 914 students from Alvas PU College, Moodbidri, scored good marks in NEET. of which eight scored more than 650 marks, 37 scored between 600 and 650, 139 students between 500 and 600, and 203 students between 400 and 500 marks. Arnav Ayappa topped with 685 marks, followed by Anargya K. (683), and P.S. Ravindra (670), chairman of Alvas Education Foundation Mohan Alva said in a press release.

Of the 1,085 students from Expert PU College who qualified, Aakarsh R. Pai topped with 691 marks, followed by Akash G. (687), and H.C. Gourish (675). As many as 14 students scored more than 650 marks, followed by 112 students between 600 and 650, and 482 students scored between 500 and 600 marks, said Narendra L. Nayak, chairman of the Expert Educational and Charitable Foundation.

Chirag Rao topped among students from Chaitanya PU College by scoring 685 marks. In all, five students scored more than 600 marks, while 17 scored between 500 and 600 marks, said a release by college principal Ramakrishna Bhogyam.

All the 119 students coached by Excellent Science and Commerce Pre-university College, Moodbidri, qualified. Shreyas G.R. topped with 660 marks, followed by Sahana V.P. (653), and Dheeraj Hegde (645). Seven students scored above 600 and 35 students scored between 500 and 600, said Yuvaraj Jain, chairman of Excellent Group of Institutions, in a press release.

Abdul H. Shahrukh, Spandana M.N. and Sudeep S. from Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Mudipu, qualified in the examination, said V. Srinivasan, principal of the vidyalaya.

Anjali E.D. topped among five students from Vikaas PU College, Mangaluru, with 600 marks, followed by Kousar Ibrahim (571), and Ashritha M. (553). A total of 67 students qualified in NEET, said a release by the college.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Mangaluru / by Special Correspondent / Mangaluru – October 17th, 2020

MIT students bag prize at aero design competition

Education, Records, All, Science & Technology

Students of Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, bagged the second prize at the recently-concluded Aero Dominator 7.0, a national-level aero design competition.

The competition was held during Vellore Institute of Technology’s technical fest “Gravitas” from October 2 to October 5 wherein 25 teams from all over the country competed.

The task was to design a fixed wing RC UAV capable of transporting medical cargo and first aid during emergencies. Teams were judged on three criterion – design report, technical presentation and predicted flight score.

The team of students consisted of team manager Aditeya Gurumurthy, aerodynamics Head Nagaraj Ganesh Prabhu and senior team members Pranav Gupta, Prahaladh Chandrahasa, and Rahul Alvares.

MIT director Srikanth Rao congratulated the team.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Karnataka / by Special Correspondent / Mangaluru – October 17th, 2020

The Richie Rich of Bengaluru

Business & Economy, Education, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Leaders, Records, All, World Opinion

Garden City, tech hub, pub city… And now most preferred city for business headquarters for young wealth creators.

Nikhil Kamath,  co-founder and CIO, Zerodha and True Beacon

Bengaluru : 

The recently-released IIFL Wealth Hurun India 40 & Under Self-Made Rich List 2020 has a ranking of the self-made Indian-origin entrepreneurs with a wealth of Rs 1,000 crore, aged 40 years and under. Bengaluru figures as the city with the highest number of persons on the list. As many as nine entrepreneurs from the list of 17 are city-based, with Nithin Kamath and Nikhil Kamath from Zerodha, ranking first with a wealth of Rs 24,000 crore. 

Sharing his thoughts on the findings, Anas Rahman Junaid, MD and chief researcher, Hurun India, said some of the names on the list have fully or partly exited their core businesses and are setting up investment funds and backing other young entrepreneurs. “This will have a compounding effect on the growth of disruptive entrepreneurship in India,” he said in a statement. 

The 17 Indian-origin entrepreneurs have together added wealth close to Rs 45,000 crore. The list also includes Media.net’s Divyank Turakhia in second place, Bengaluru-based Udaan’s Amod Malviya and Sujeet Kumar in third position, Flipkart’s Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal in seventh rank and Zomato Media’s Deepinder Goyal in the 13th position. 

The only woman on the list is 39-year-old Devita Saraf, who ranks 16th with a wealth of Rs 1,200 crore. Saraf derives her wealth from Vu Technologies, a television manufacturing company, which she founded in 2006.

Richie Rich in Namma Ooru

Nithin Kamath and Nikhil Kamath 
(rank 1; Rs 24,000 cr)Co-founders of online trading platform Zerodha, which grew to become India’s largest stockbroker by the number of clients.

Amod Malviya and Sujeet Kumar 
(rank 3; Rs 13,100 cr) Co-founders of B2B commerce company Udaan.

Riju Ravindran (rank 6; Rs 7,800 cr) 
Brother of Byju Raveendran, who co-founded Byju’s in 2011 with his wife Divya Gokulnath. All three have stakes in the online edtech company.

Binny Bansal and Sachin Bansal (rank 7; Rs 7,500 cr) 
Co-founders of Flipkart. Since their exit from Flipkart, Binny Bansal has been investing in several start-ups as an angel investor and Sachin Bansal has co-founded and is the CEO of Navi, a neo-bank start-up headquartered in Bengaluru.

Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati (rank 10; Rs 3,500 cr and rank 14; Rs 1,600 cr) 
Co-founders of Ola. In July 2020, Ola incentivised Aggarwal and Bhati by way of issuing equity shares at a nominal price of Rs 10 per share – resulting in a 13% increase in their wealth compared to last year.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Express News Service / October 14th, 2020

Couple’s free online classes proves a huge hit, minister promises help

Education, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features
Indira and Badrinath Vitthal

An octogenarian couple’s efforts to conduct online classes for poor students has caught the government’s attention. The education minister has promised to help the couple by bringing volunteers and mobilising technical infrastructure for the poor students.

Retired civil servant Badrinath Vitthal, 83, his wife Indira Vitthal, 78, a voluntary teacher, started teaching the two children of their maid at the start of the lockdown. The number of students rose to eight, and the couple switched to online teaching.

“Teaching was a passion I picked up from my wife,” Badrinath, an MTech graduate from IIT Bombay, told DH. “As a hydraulic engineer, I worked for the construction of big dams and I realised that building the academic foundation of children during Covid-19 was very important,” he said.

The couple’s confidence grew after Yashaswini P N, the maid’s daughter, registered progress in her studies. “We saw her test results improving gradually and decided to bring other children on board,” Indira said. 

After Prajavani, the sister publication of DH, reported on their work on Wednesday, more than 400 students or their parents called from rural areas of the nearby Doddaballapur to Gangavathi in Koppal district, expressing interest in joining their online classes.

“We are worried about those who have neither the smartphones or laptops. Students should not be deprived of education because they can’t afford gadgets. We hope corporate companies and donors will come forward to help children in rural areas,” Badrinath said.

Minister for Primary and Secondary Education S Suresh Kumar, who spoke to the couple, told this newspaper that he had already initiated a discussion with the information technology department for providing internet connectivity in rural areas. “Many people buy gadgets every six months. Together with some friends, I am trying to start a movement to convince people to donate their old smartphones. We need reliable internet in rural areas and I have spoken to the IT department in this regard,” he said.

Kumar said he would visit the Vitthals within a week to understand their requirements, including volunteers, to expand the programme. 

source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> City> Life in Bengaluru / by Chiranjeevi Kulkarni / DHNS, Bengaluru / October 02nd, 2020

Udupi artist’s KSTRC bus model rewarded with real bus for village school

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Education, Records, All, Travel
Prashanth Achar and his brother Prakash met KSRTC MD Shivyogi C. Kalsad on Monday to present the models.   | Photo Credit:  Sudhakara Jain

KSRTC places order for models, which will be displayed or gifted as mementos

Instead of sitting idle during the lockdown, artist Prashanth Achar, 30, from Kundapur taluk in Udupi district, started building models of Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) buses. First, he built a model of an ‘Airavat’ bus.

Elated by the response from his friends and relatives, he built other models of buses, such as ‘Karnataka Sarige’. His effort has been recognised by the transport corporation.

After meeting him on Monday, KSRTC MD Shivyogi C. Kalsad has placed an order for 10 models of various brands of buses operated by the Corporation.

But that is not all. During his meeting with KSRTC officials, Mr. Achar sought help to improve the infrastructure of the government school in his village Bagwadi.

“There was one more reason for visiting Bengaluru, and that was to seek help to improve the infrastructure of the government school in my village where 85 students are enrolled. I am planning to meet the Transport Minister who is also the Deputy Chief Minister. Improving infrastructure at Bagwadi school will help children from rural areas.”

Mr. Kalsad decided to provide an old bus of the KSRTC that can be converted into a classroom for the benefit of school children.

“I am very happy with the MD’s offer of a bus. He has asked us to come up with innovative ideas to make use of the bus,” Mr. Achar said.

“During the lockdown, I had a lot of free time. I was always fascinated by KSRTC buses. I thought why I should not use the free time to build models of these buses. First, I made a model of an ‘Airavat’ bus and posted photos of the bus on social media. The work received very good response from the general public. Even higher ups in the KSRTC took note and contacted me,” he added.

He uses foam sheets to build the models and takes eight days to build a model.

An official of the KSRTC said, “The models of buses designed by Mr. Achar are really good. They are lightweight and easy to carry. We have placed orders for 10 models. We will display them. We are also planning to present them as gifts to dignitaries visiting our office.”

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Karnataka / by Special Correspondent / Bengaluru – October 06th, 2020

The Big Brother of Bangalore

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

Janopakari Doddanna worked selflessly and tirelessly for Bengaluru

K. H. Ramaiah, a prominent personality of yesteryear Bangalore, often referred Gubbi Thotadappa as a fatherly figure (appa), Janopakari Doddanna as (Anna), elder brother. The services they rendered encompassed a very large strata of the city irrespective of class, cast and creed.

A vivid description of the life and contribution of Doddanna to Bengaluru is found Prof. V Krishna Setty’s book (1997), who had a long association with the institution founded by Doddanna.

Doddanna Shetty was born on February 3, 1840 to a pious couple Nanjundappa and Siddamma. They belonging to a vegetable oil extracting and trading community. They lived in Commercial Street in Cantonment area during 1830s. In addition to being god fearing and spiritual, the couple were also widely known for their charity and hospitality. Nanjundappa was the head of the community and was referred to as ‘Yajaman’.

Doddanna, got the education required for the family business, and after the death of his father assumed the post of Yajaman, and continued the family trade. He had also inherited the parents’ trait of charity and hospitality and without any bias, helped the downtrodden to live with dignity.

He used to go during night with a few of his associates to distribute good food and blankets to help the destitute and vagabonds on the streets and also the wandering monks who took shelter at Poornaiah Choultry which was located next to Tulasi Thota near Dharmambudi Tank, the present day Kempegowda Central Bus stand.

Paramount Theatre  

He renovated the Lakshminarasimha Swamy temple, his family deity, on Old Poor House Road in Cantonment and liberally donated for such work undertaken by other temples in Bengaluru. He had also given away a portion of his land near Bangalore East Railway station for the use of Buddha Centre. Because of these liberal contributions he used to be even referred to as ‘Daanashoora Karna’, a prominent character known for such charitable acts in the epic, Mahabharata. In spite of being benevolent to the society, as if to test his inner strength to face the adversities, he lost three wives, one after the other. Though two sons were born to the fourth wife she too died soon.

Yet, he recovered from these onslaughts of the fate and continued to serve his city. During 1898, there was severe plague attack in Bengaluru and the first son Lakshminarayana fell a victim for the pandemic. Realising that isolation is the sole solution to prevent the spread of the disease, Doddanna got about two hundred shelters built in a village Venkatapura for the benefit of the members of his community. The plague had also deprived the education to many downtrodden children. To groom the future generation on proper moral and ethical grounds, he took some space near the present day KR Market in 1900 and started a lower secondary school to impart free education especially for poor children. He treated these kids as his own and took personal care even in giving them oil bath, food and clothing.

Pouring a major chunk of his wealth he also started to construct a huge building to run the school. He wanted this structure to represent the culture and ethics of the land and should also be big enough to serve the purpose of a school, choultry, theatre and assembly hall. Later, his building became a landmark in the city as Doddanna hall and also as Paramount theatre.

Around the year 1900, the Mysore Government had started the construction of the building of Revenue Survey Office in Cubbon Park, near KR circle. The contractor, Tatayaa had given the responsibility of the construction to Rangappa. Everyday, while walking from Cantonment to his school in the City Market area, Doddanna used to pause a little and observe the construction and used to discussthe details with Rangappa. Finally, when the building was completed, he liked the elegant front elevation of the structure and the excellent quality of work. He wanted his building also to represent the native culture and tradition. He engage d Rangappa to give his dream a realistic shape.

Inspiration for Doddanna Hall  

The construction work under his personal supervision was going on. At this juncture, fate shot another major blow by taking away the life of his second and the only surviving son, Lakshminarasimha. Since the son died at the beginning of the construction, some elders advised him not to continue the work as his planetary positions were not in his favour. But, he accepted the adversities as challenges and proceeded with the work.

Doddanna’s philanthropic activities and his persisting efforts for the welfare of the downtrodden in spite of stumbling blocks, were known to the elite of the city.

Some other elders told him that his walking all the way from Cantonment to the City Market area was strenuous, Doddanna did not agree. “I can afford to have a personal coach for my movement. But, I feel, the money I spend for the same can be used to get few more cups of milk or oil to give bath to the poor little ones in my school…”

To continue…

sureshmoona@gmail.com

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Entertainment> Art / by Suresh Moona / October 01st, 2020