Mangalore-based woman activist Shahida Aslam has been unanimously elected the new president of National Women’s Front. She was the Karnataka state unit president of the organisation.
The announcement was made at the third national general council of the organization that was held on Sunday at Malabar House, Puttanathani in Kerala.
Aslam, who holds a master degree in mass communication and journalism, is a freelance journalist from Mangalore. She was part of the editorial board of Prastutha, a Mangalore-based Kannada fortnightly. She also had worked for a women’s monthly magazine.She was also an office-bearer of Karnataka women’s writers forum. She presented a paper titled ‘Muslim women in public space’ at an international conference organised at Calicut by institute of objective studies, Delhi. She had also worked as a member of several fact finding teams for human rights organisation and women’s rights organisation.
Alima Fathima from Tamil Nadu and Fareeda Hasan from Kerala have been chosen as the vice president and general secretary of the NWF respectively.
The council started with the introduction by the national president Shahida Tasnim. She said, “The last two years of the organization were the years of growth. We were successful in reaching new places and setting state committees in Goa and Andhra Pradesh. The organization also received good response from women activists from Delhi which has encouraged us to take our movement to the northern part of India in the coming term.”
The leadership oath to the president was given by the returning officer. The newly elected president administered the oath to the newly elected office bearers and national committee member. The programme concluded with the valedictory speech of the newly elected president Aslam, who motivated the members to put in more efforts for the protection of rights and social justice.
The general elected a 13-member national committee and also the new office bearers. The new leadership is as below:
1. Shahida Aslam Karnataka – President
2. Alima Fathima Tamil Nadu – Vice-president
3. Fareeda Hasan Kerala – General secretary
4. Shifa Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu – Secretary
5. Shahida Tasnim, Karnataka – Treasurer
6. Zainaba Ali, Kerala – National committee member
7. Asiya Maryam, Tamil Nadu – National committee member
8. Nousheera Karnataka – National committee member
9. Atiya Firdos, Delhi – National committee member
10. Shareena Najib, Kerala – National committee member
11. Habeeba Usman, Kerala – National committee member
12. Rehana, Goa – National committee member
13. Safiya Erode, Tamil Nadu – National committee member
The following resolutions were passed by the national general council:
1. Provide security, justice and rehabilitation to Muzaffarnagar riot victims: The NGC of NWF demanded the immediate rehabilitation and adequate protection of the riot victims of Muzaffarnagar. The government failed to attend the basic needs of the people displaced from their homes and native villages. The NGC strongly believes that rehabilitating the families thrown out of their native villages along with providing security to their lives and properties is the primary task the government has to fulfil. The NGC demands the UP government to take immediate steps to solve the humanitarian crisis and fulfill is promises.
2. Pass the Communal Violence Bill in the upcoming parliament session : The country has been infected by the deadly virus of communalism since independence. This in turn resulted in various communal riots which has caused an extreme loss to the country and especially to the Muslim community. After every riots the culprits go scot free and no legal action is taken on them. Such negligence by the law authorities has only increases the confidence of the communal fascist forces. The demand for the communal violence bill is a long pending demand which has only seen promises but no actions. The NGC of NWF demands that the government immediately brings into effect a powerful communal violence bill in the upcoming Lok Sabha session and take quick steps for its implementation.
3. Take immediate steps for protection of women: Since the past few years the issue of rapes has come to the national attention. It is a tragedy that even after so much discussion happening about this issue the government and police has failed miserably to protect the women from such heinous crimes. Every day we see a new incident happening in almost all the cities of country. The cases happening to women from rural and tribal areas not even reported. The NGC of NWF strongly demands the central and state governments to take the issue very seriously and give top priority to the protection of women.
source: http://www.daijiworld.com / DaijiWorld / Home> Top Stories / Press Release / Mangalore – January 20th, 2014
Three Bhatnagar Awards and one Bharat Ratna were awarded to city scientists in 2013. Prof D D Sarma, chairman of the Solid State and Structural Chemistry Unit of IISc, said, “2013 has been a good year for science in India and for the city.”
A research group, led by Prof C N R Rao of Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Science, established the most important ingredient for high catalytic activity for artificial photosynthesis that will ‘break’ water to produce high energy, hydrogen and oxygen. This ingredient is a single electron in a particular orbital in the oxides of manganese and cobalt.
The group of Prof D D Sarma of the Solid State and Structural Chemistry Unit of IISc, Bangalore, discovered that manganese ions, dropped in small quantities into semiconductor nanocrystals, such as zinc sulphide or cadmium sulphide, can emit intense colours of all hues from green to red, when excited with UV radiation.
This has huge significance in the field of display and lighting and can change the way nanocrystals are used in practical devices.
Researchers like Yamuna Krishnan, who won the Bhatnagar award this year at NCBS, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), devised a new cell biology technology that can simultaneously measure the pH in two different places in one cell.
In another study, a group led by Prof Arindam Ghosh of the Department of Physics, IISc, who too got a Bhatnagar award this year, established some remarkable properties of a hybrid layer of graphene on molybdenum disulfide, in a recent publication.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bangalore / January 02nd, 2014
Dr. R. Indira, Chairperson, Department of Studies in Sociology and Director, International Center, University of Mysore, has been elected as Secretary of the Indian Sociological Society for a period of two years from January 2014.
Prof. Indira is the fourth woman to be elected as the Secretary of the Indian Sociological Society in its 62-year-old history and the first Woman Secretary from South India. With nearly 4,000 members, the Indian Sociological Society is considered the second largest professional body of sociologists in the world, after the American Sociological Association.
Prof. Indira has earlier served as the member of Managing Committee of the Indian Sociological Society and the President of the Karnataka State Sociological Association.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> General News / January 13th, 2014
All in the family: Seen in the picture are (front row from left) Sumukh (kneeling), Padma G. Murthy, Mythili Ramakrishna, G. Ramakrishna, G. Satyanarayana, Nirmala Satya, G. Soumi, Shashank Gowri; (standing from left) G. Ananth, Shruthi Ananth, Spurthi Vinay, G.Vinay, G. Subbanarasimha, Srilakshmi Subbanarasimha, Swamini Varadachaitanya, Deepa, Dr. Asha Shekar, Jayanthi B.G Nath, Suvarna Laxman, M.S. Laxman Rao, Dr. G. L. Shekar, Shamsundar and Vijay Simha.
Mysore :
When families split over trivial issues, here is a family of five brothers and five sisters and their children and grandchildren, living with love and affection.
Gowris of Mysore city, known more through the evening English newspaper ‘Samachar’, edited by one of the brothers, G. Satyanarayana, who have a rich past, assembled last Sunday at Hotel Dasaprakash Paradise in Yadavagiri to felicitate two brothers and a sister, who have crossed 70.
The get-together of over 20 members of the Gowri family was marked with homely and happy atmosphere throughout. The extended family of all the five brothers and five sisters are spread over Mysore, Bangalore, Chennai, US, New Zealand and Australia.
The get-together was arranged chiefly to felicitate G. Ramakrishna, former Director of Tourism, Government of India, now settled in Los Angeles (US), who is on a month-long visit to India, on his 80th birthday. Along with him his next brother G. Satyanarayana (Gowri Satya), former Editor of ‘Samachar’, and his immediate sister, G. Padmavathi, wife of late Gurumurthy, Librarian, Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupathi, were also felicitated. A host of their relatives and close common friends were present.
Candle was lit, cake was cut, the couples exchanged garlands and offered a piece of cake to each other and they were felicitated with Petas (turbans), shawls, fruits and flowers, as per Mysore tradition while their friends recalled their association with them during their felicitation speeches.
Popular All India Radio (AIR) Kannada news reader of yesteryears M. Ranga Rao felicitated Ramakrishna with a Mysore Peta and shawl, while Star of Mysore and Mysooru Mithra Editor-in-Chief K.B. Ganapathy honoured Satya with shawl and educationist Sreepada Rao with turban. R.V. Lalithamba honoured Padma with a shawl, flowers and fruits.
Speaking on the occasion, Ganapathy recalled his close association with the brothers and their journalistic career and expressed happiness over the camaraderie at the get-together. He recalled the cordial relations they had in their journalistic career.
During the brief and informal speeches, Ranga Rao recalled his association with Ramakrishna, when both were working in New Delhi.
Andolana Editor Rajashekara Koti was nostalgic of his friendship with Satya and recalled the contribution of the brothers, and in particular their father late G.L. Swamy, for development of tourism and journalism in Mysore. Though Mysore had several attractions to offer, he deplored that the Government was doing very little for development of tourism, despite repeated demands.
NIE-IT Vice-President M. Sreepada Rao, Consumer activist Dr. S.P. Thirumala Rao and Col. (retd.) Dr. Anand also spoke felicitating the Gowri family members.
Ramakrishna recalled his days in the Department of Tourism in India and thanked all for the felicitations.
NIE Principal Dr. G.L. Shekar, who was chiefly responsible for organising the function, said how the Gowri family, whose strength had grown to about 100 members, is well-knit and maintained cordial relations.
The other first generation Gowri family members are G. Subbanarasimha, Gowri Sunder, Swamini Varadachaitanya (formerly G.L. Gayathri), Rama, Suvarna and Jayanthi.
The Gowri clan of G.L. Swamy and G. Meenakshamma has 10 children, 18 grandchildren and 9 great-grandchildren.
Former MLC M. Sathyanarayana Rao, NIE Secretary S.L.Ramachandra, Writer E.R. Ramachandran, Journalists K.V. Sreenivasan and Prabhurajan were among those present.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> General News / January 08th, 2014
Gita Gopinath is seen with first Indian Nobel Laureate Dr. Amartya Sen. Dr. Sen is seen reading a book written by Gita’s grandmother about their family.
To be listed as one of the ‘25 Smartest Indians to look out for’ is no mean achievement for a 41-year-old! The very mention of it makes this intellectual powerhouse blush, as she brushes it aside, wondering how these lists are made! But those who added her, know for sure why Gita Gopinath, deserves to be there.
A Mysorean and a Professor at the renowned Economics Department of Harvard University, she is the first Indian woman after Nobel Laureate Dr. Amartya Sen and the fourth woman in the Department’s history to be granted tenure. Sharing office space with Dr. Sen, Prof. Gita works in the area of international macroeconomics and finance and her field of expertise is regularly showcased on the global scene.
A mother of a 10-year-old, she strongly believes that a woman can successfully juggle home and work with the right kind of family support.
A BA in Economics from Delhi University (Lady Shriram College), MA from the Delhi School of Economics and University of Washington and a Ph.D from Princeton University, Prof. Gita was also chosen as one of the Young Global Leaders in 2011. But it all began in Mysore.
An economist who enjoys Bollywood films and gossip as much as she delves into the financial crisis in the world, Gita is married to former classmate Iqbal Dhaliwal, a Director of Policy at Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab at Department of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is the daughter of T.V. Gopinath an Industrialist in city and Viji Gopinath who runs a play home in Kuvempunagar. Here, in the first in our series ‘Mysoreans making us Proud’ we feature this remarkable achiever, as she traces her journey from Mysore to Harvard. Excerpts…
Star of Mysore (SOM): You have so many firsts and prestigious assignments to your credits. How best do we introduce you?
Gita Gopinath (GG): A Professor at Harvard…That’s how I introduce myself!
SOM: You spent your formative years in Mysore, which is still considered as the ‘country cousin’ of the big metros. Did you also have the ‘small-town’ girl feeling when you moved to Delhi?
GG: Yes…. I did my Bachelors in Delhi University and when I went from Mysore to Delhi I certainly felt that way. Most of my classmates were from main brand schools in Delhi. They seem to have a lot more global exposure. They were very good at debating and other kinds of things…They seemed to have a lot of confidence. Coming from Mysore I did feel like I was a small fish in a big pond.
However, one thing I was always good at is, I was never apologetic about my background and I didn’t get intimidated by people coming from so-called better background.
For all the ‘small town’ folks out there, to succeed, I think it’s a combination of not being apologetic about your background and also learning from your environment. At no point should you be intimidated, always believe you are your own person and you have a lot to contribute. At the same time pick up all the good things that are available. If you engage in self-doubt, then you’ll never have the confidence to grow.
SOM: Economics has always been called a ‘dismal science?’
GG: Oh! That goes back a long way. The original kind of Adam Smith’s idea of Economics was that there was no real role for policy in initiating an economic outcome. In that sense it was called a ‘dismal science’…where you would have bad times and you would just have to live with it. But that changed a lot over Kaynes’ revolution and now we don’t think that way. We think there are ways of fixing problems with policy interventions.
SOM: In India, pursuing Economics as a career-building course is not considered a viable option?
GG: Yes and No actually…If you think of Delhi University, its one of the most sought after subjects. This notion that it is not an attractive option for a career is more true outside Delhi and Calcutta Universities. In terms of future careers, Economics is still very strong in places like Delhi.
SOM: You mean there’s a lot lacking in the colleges outside these cities?
GG: I just think that there is not enough depth in the Universities that teach Economics. Except for about 3-4 schools in India, Economics is not taught the way it should be. Say for instance, in the US, even if you studied in the 50th ranked US University, you would still get very good education in Economics.
Economics has changed a lot over time; we have had a lot of mini revolutions in Economics. If those tools are not being taught, then it’s not quite useful.
SOM: There is a lot of parental pressure not to pursue Arts…
GG: What people observe is, if you do Economics from one of the smaller Universities, you don’t really end up getting good jobs.
Also here students enroll in Economics as a last resort and so it’s not surprising that they don’t end up doing very well. It’s true that people should be less obsessed with professional courses but it’s also true that to make it more attractive, there should be good quality education in Economics.
SOM: You are the first Indian woman to be tenured at the Economics Department of Harvard University
GG: If you consider the history of the Harvard Economics Department ever, I would be the fourth woman and the first Indian woman.
Right now, we have 40 tenured faculty of which two are women. Circumstances have changed from when it used to be harder for women. What we have there is what we call a tenure clock. After your Ph.D, you start off as a Asst. Professor and you have about 7 years to prove yourself in terms of publications and your impact in the research field. After 7-8 years, you either get your tenure, which is permanent or you leave. It’s either up or out.
Most of us by the time we finish our Ph.Ds, we are 27-28 and for the next 7-8 years, till we are 36 or so, we can’t do anything but focus on writing papers and for women these are the child bearing ages. That becomes very difficult for women, as they have to make a very hard choice. But now what Universities do is, if you have a child, they stop your clock, that means if the typical clock is 7 years, if you have a child you get 8 years.
Universities these days are trying very hard to find good women candidates.
SOM: Clichéd but still… Does being one among the just the two women in a faculty of 40 men bother you?
GG: I don’t think at any point of time I felt any kind of conscious discrimination or any such thing. What’s true is that you go to take classes and you notice that 90% of your professors are men. You go to a conference and 90% of the people in the room are men. And you always wonder what’s this about !
SOM: Would you have preferred more women though?
GG: Oh! Yes. From my experience I do find that women students in Harvard in the Economics Dept. talk a lot more to me, because there is more affinity and they talk about how it is like to have a career, family, a child etc.
SOM: You have been listed among the 25 Smartest Indians to look out for.
GG: (blushes) I have no idea. I am very honoured to be on that list but honestly I have no idea how they come up with that. But nevertheless I was disappointed that there were only 3 women in that list. If I was to come up with 25 bright Indians, I would come up with 50-50. I guess they are trying to reflect the overall sample and probably there were more men who were successful. I don’t really know what it means to be there.
SOM: Okay, what do you think then that makes a woman smart?
GG: Someone who has found an area that they want to be in, work extremely hard to develop an expertise that sets you apart from others. The only reason why I know my Economics well is I spend 15 hours a day studying.
What distinguishes you is hard work and then you become a person who is less indispensable, because you have created this niche for yourself.
SOM: It’s said, a woman has to work twice as hard as a man to be considered at the same level?
GG: That depends on your family situation. If you are married to a person who expects you to work hard in the house and outside of it, it can be very difficult and almost impossible. In my case I have been very fortunate that I have been married to a person who is very supportive.
What’s true though is in professions where there are fewer women than men, you have to work harder in terms of collaboration and network. May be I feel this way because of the country in which I am working. I have not had any experience of working in India in a field dominated by men.
That said, in some ways India does better. Most of the Banking Heads are women, which is not true in the US.
SOM: You had a slightly different view from C. Rangarajan on Higher tax for the super rich?
GG: What I just said was that, in general raising tax creates distortion, in the sense it affects incentives. Most of the evidences, lots of evidences in fact, we see, suggests that it’s better to make tax system more effective, reduce wastage of government expenditure by improving the quality of deliverance of government schemes. You might be better off reducing on wastages in government expenditure rather than going about introducing new taxes. And in India, the tax base in terms of leakages in the tax system is still quite high. To make it more effective is better than introducing unnecessary tax.
SOM: Did you know that BJP plans to get rid of all taxes? It’s just going to tax on bank transactions?
GG: I haven’t heard of that! This is generally called financial tax but it’s not implemented in any country so far.
SOM: You have said that a State can be a welfare State and also business friendly. How do you rate Karnataka in this context?
GG: I must confess that I haven’t gone deeply into Karnataka’s state. In Karnataka, people recognise Bangalore as an outsourcing major. It’s done well on some business indicators. But what I know is that the political situation is quite messy and that’s problematic. In fact I have some figures for you. In a publication by the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation titled ‘Doing Business in India,’ that measures business regulations and their enforcements in India (the study involved 17 cities), Karnataka stands 13th among the 17 cities which come under cities easiest to do business in India. That’s not very encouraging! Ludhiana, Hyderabad and Bhubaneshwar take the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place respectively, while Chennai, Kochi, and Kolkata take the 15th, 16th and 17th places respectively.
SOM: The fall of the Indian Rupee has come in for a lot of flak?
GG: Among the many variables that affect the value of a rupee is inflation. If you look at the rupee with reference to the dollar and compare India and the US, look at in the last 7-8 years, then inflation in India has been higher.
The other variable is growth and in that dimension India’s growth rate is much higher than the US. It’s come down now, but it’s higher than the US. And by that matrix, India’s rupee should have strengthened. But the question is, which of these two forces were stronger in terms of affecting the value of the rupee.
And when the rupee fell specifically, at that time there was reason to think that the rupee needed to lose some value given the inflation channel was very strong.
But eventually there will be a correction in the rupee. Now that combined with what’s happening externally, besides inflation and besides growth, it matters what’s happening to the interest rate in the rest of the world. When in summer the US said that they would start tapering and the interest rate will go up in the year, for an investor the US becomes more attractive to bring money back in. And we saw withdrawal of money from India going to the US. A combination of all these factors led to the weakening of the rupee. It’s very very hard to predict what will happen to the rupee over a short period of time, better predicted over a longer period of time.
SOM: But the blame was squarely on the ruling government. How fair was that?
GG: I think in this case, the last 3 years there has been a problem with governance in India. There has been a problem with governance in general always. Look at the number of government projects that have been stalled, scams have gone up, bureaucracy has come to a standstill, nobody wants to move anything using scam as excuse. It’s not unfair to blame the ruling government !
SOM: For a layman, how does the future of India seem in terms of the economics?
GG: The layman needs to realise that India’s potential is high. To get the growth to go back up from the low level right now at 4.8% to 6.6 or 7% you don’t have to do very dramatic things say like reforms, get fantastic education for all, change labour laws et al. right away. You need to do all that in the long run.
Right now simpler things like making sure that the projects get going, the ones that have been stalled, put the infrastructure in place, put the investments in place. In that sense it is simpler to engineer growth in India than let’s say in China where it is a bit over invested in infrastructure
Today’s stand is that if there is a more decisive government in power next year, that should be sufficient to get a lot of people interested in India again. So these kind of small things are enough to instil growth again in the country.
SOM: So there’s no big reason for us to feel down and out?
GG: No, the main big uncertainty is what happens next year with the elections. My hope is that even if there’s a bigger coalition but still they will be able to function and be more accepted. My only concern is, if something really messy happens with the Centre and you are going to have another election.
SOM: A photo of your parents also finds a pride of place on your desk? (Industrialist T.V. Gopinath and Viji Gopinath, who runs a Play Home in Kuvempunagar, are her parents)
GG: They are in my heart! They believed I can accomplish much more than what I thought I could. In fact I was in Science stream in PU (Mahajana’s College) and I went to study in Delhi because I wanted to do my IAS. My father called me and told me that there’s something called a President’s Gold medal if you stand first in the Delhi University, after 3 years if you scored the highest, cumulatively … I did win that…He said it as if it was so easy and I never felt it was unattainable. Then he said you should study in Harvard. They kept raising the bar every time and it also helped that my personality is such that I like challenges.
SOM: Do you like to be a role model?
GG: Yes and No. I want people to kind of look at me and see that they too can do it. I want them to see that in international matters they can look like me, an Indian woman, in the sense that I want them to get a lot of confidence.
On the other hand I don’t want them to put me up there. I never did that. I never put anyone on a pedestal.
A lot of what you want to become should come internally. It’s what drives you. One can get inspired, but there shouldn’t be a fan following ! Your strength should come from within and not from anything outside you.
SOM: It’s said Mathematicians, Economists lead a boring life?
GG: I disagree! Of course I enjoy life! Someone who looks at me from outside may find that I’m leading a boring life. I enjoy my life to the hilt. In fact the mathematicians or physicists whom I meet in Harvard lead incredibly enjoyable lives ! It’s just about the definition of enjoyment! I get time to enjoy the smaller nuances of life. Yes I’m a workaholic and I get pleasure from working, but I have time for things I like. I know as much about Bollywood as I know about Economics! Pretty amazing actually and my friends always make fun of me about that.
SOM: Mysoreans are proud of you…How proud are you as a Mysorean?
GG: I spent most of my early years here. Some of my best friends are from Nirmala Convent and they are still my best friends. I liked that I grew up in a small town. You are more empathetic, there’s a little bit more innocence in you which is good and you grow up with some basic principles…like to achieve something you have to work hard for it. I tend to derive pleasure from doing simple things and keeping it simple. So, yes, I am happy I’m from Mysore .
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Feature Articles / December 28th, 2013
Union minister for petroleum and natural Gas M Veerappa Moily on Saturday dedicated the Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MPRL) single point mooring and allied facilities to the nation at Tannirbhavi near here.
MRPL has set up the SPM in the high seas, 17-km off the Tannirbavi coast, along with a coastal booster pumping station at a cost of over Rs1,000 crore and commenced operations following trial runs since August.
The SPM, a buoy in the high seas will enable MRPL to ship in crude parcels on very large crude carriers (VLCC) which will provide freight economies and also optimize on logistics. This will also help MRPL source West African and Latin American crudes which provide cost advantages. Additionally, Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserve Ltd, which has its underground caverns at Mangalore and Paddur, will also benefit from this facility.
P P Upadhya, managing director, MRPL, said SPM will vastly decongest oil jetties at New Mangalore Port and enable MRPL to receive all types of crudes that VLCC can transport. “One can expect these VLCCs to discharge crude at the rate of 10,000 kilo litres per hour,” he said, adding that the entire crude parcel contained in such vessels can be discharged in 36 hours. Such discharged crude will go to both MPRL and ISRPL facilities, he said.
MRPL will be in a position to receive 13 million tonnes of its annual crude refining capacity of 15 million tonnes from VLCCs and the remaining 1.5-2 million tonnes on board smaller vessels. The draft of 31 metres on the high seas makes it easier for VLCCs to discharge crude there as against the 14-metre draft available at the oil jetties at NMP. “The smaller vessels will still berth at these oil jetties and not discharge crude at SPM,” he added.
Batting for SPM technology, Moily said: “I have seen this in operation in Jamnagar with Reliance, Essar and IOCL receiving their crude parcels there.” Moily allayed fears of an oil spill out on the high seas as the technology is tried and tested that the rest of the world is using for a long time.
Turbulent sea condition during monsoon might prove to be a small impediment to use SPM and might witness some delay, Upadhya said.
source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Mangalore> Mrpl / TNN / December 08th, 2013
City based oral and maxillofacial surgeon Manjunath Rai has been re-elected as the honorary general Secretary of Association of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeons of India (AOMSI) for 3 years term.
Election for the new office bearers was held during the 38th national annual conference of AOMSI at Bubaneshwar, Orissa. Dr Rai is having the rare distinction of being the youngest person to hold the post of honorary general secretary when he was elected unanimously in 2010 for a term of 3 years.
Presently, he is the vice principal and head, department of oral and maxillofacial surgery, KVG Dental College and Hospital, Sullia. He is also the consultant oral and maxillofacial surgeon at Father Muller’s Medical College and Hospital. He is a practitioner running a successful practice at Rai Dental Specialty clinic in the city. He is also the elected Senate member of the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, Bangalore from the Professor category. He has made the City proud by organising the First Asian PG convention in August 2013 at Mangalore.
source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Mangalore> Health Sciences / by Vinobha KT, TNN / December 06th, 2013
Well-known agriculturist and technologist Dr. Devangi Prafulla Chandra passed away at a private hospital here yesterday following heart attack. He was 80.
He leaves behind his wife Sathyavathi Prafulla Chandra and two sons, Savyasachee and Ikshu, who are doing well in the field of agriculture.
Former Forest Secretary A.C. Lakshman, who has condoled the death of Dr. Devangi Prafulla Chandra, has said that Prafulla Chandra had become a legend during his life time for his perseverance, innovative successful experiments and a great missionary in different fields of agriculture.
He went on breaking records after records for production of paddy, and sugarcane. He broke the State record, improved them continuously, set National record and ultimately reached a world record. Prafulla Chandra was honoured by the food and agriculture organisation in 1988, an honour first of its kind to an Asian. He was given a State award by the Govt. of Karnataka for his life time contribution to the field of agriculture.
He was also a walking encyclopedia on agriculture. His farm was an open agriculture university whose doors were open to farmers 24×7. His innovative experiments lead to the development of new ovens where firewood consumption was considerably reduced. He had proved that the Areca leaves are sufficient for curing Areca nuts. This was a great contribution from the point of forest conservation. He was able to save thousands of acres of forest fire wood trees from felling.
His services were used by the Govt. of Karnataka in many forms. He was a member of Senate Agricultural University Bangalore and served in different Boards at the State and also at National level.
He was the recipient of honorary doctorates from the University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwar and Kuvempu University, Shimoga for his work towards technology transfer to rural development.
He is the brother-in-law of renowned Kannada poet and literary personality, the late Kuvempu.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> General News / December 12th, 2013
Born to Jayachamaraja Wadiyar and Tripura Sundarammanni couple on Feb.20, 1953, Srikanta Datta Narasimharaja Wadiyar completed BA degree in Political Science from Maharaja’s College and acquired Master’s Degree in Political Science from the University of Mysore.
During his student days, Wadiyar also captained the Mysore University Cricket team and was known for his friendly relationship.
After being coroneted as the Yuvaraja in 1974, Wadiyar got married to Pramodadevi in 1976 and later got elected to Lok Sabha from Mysore Constituency in 1984, 1989, 1996 and 1999 on Congress ticket, during which period, he strived for conversion of Mysore-Bangalore Railway track into Broad Guage.
In the changed political scenario, Wadiyar quit Congress and joined the BJP to unsuccessfully contest from Mysore Parliamentary Constituency, thus facing first defeat of his illustrious political career.
After serving as the President of Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) between 2007-2010, Wadiyar, teaming up with Brijesh Patel swept the elections to the KSCA earlier this month in Bangalore winning all the 24 seats.
Besides taking active part in sporting activities, Wadiyar, who evinced interest in other activities passed an examination on Western Music at the Trinity College of Music in London.
Wadiyar, who served as the Chairman of Chamarajendra Art Gallery in Jaganmohan Palace, Lakshamma Ammanni Education Trust, Jayacahmarajendra Education Trust also performed as a visiting lecturer in the Department of Political Science in Manasagangotri.
Besides having the hobby of collecting antiques, watches and fancy cars, the late scion had actively taken part in activities of Mysore Race Club, Bangalore Turf Club, Delhi Race Club and many other sporting bodies.
He was also the Chairman of Mysore International Travel Agency, Manjunatha Packaging Works, Gayathri Enterprises, Saraswathi Enterprises, Venkateshwara Real Estate Agency etc.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> General News / December 11th, 2013
( Left -1) City’s renowned artist Ganjifa Raghupathi Bhat interviewed by K.B. Ganapathy, Editor -in-Chief, Star of Mysore.( Right – 2) The Wadiyar couple with artist Ganjifa Raghupathi Bhat. [Pic by by S. Thippeswamy]by K.B. Ganapathy
I first met Mahaswami at the Palace along with the Taranga Kannada Weekly Editor Santosh Kumar Gulwadi. That was for the purpose of interviewing Wadiyar for an article on his Private Durbar. He was shown some of my paintings, including Ganjifa paintings. He went through those paintings showing keen interest and said that his great-grandfather Krishnaraja Wadiyar III was in fact the creator of 18 Ganjifa card games and also wrote the slokas for those paintings on each card,” said the renowned city artist Ganjifa Raghupathi Bhat, who is responsible for reviving the Ganjifa paintings, which was on the verge of extinction.
Recalling his memories about Srikanta Datta Narasimharaja Wadiyar, the last scion of the Mysore Royal Family who died yesterday in Bangalore, Bhat said that Wadiyar had visited his art museum Chitra Saale in Srirangapatna about three times, twice with his wife Pramodadevi and spent about an hour going through the exhibited art works with great interest and even wrote his opinion in the visitors book.
Bhat recalled Wadiyar calling him and asking him to get a few artists from the artists camp that was going on at that time. Accordingly, Bhat took artists Srihari, Vijay Hagargundi, Nagure and another two to the Palace. Wadiyar received them warmly, served them with coffee in silverware and went through their paintings rather critically.
Bhat was astonished at the immense knowledge about paintings Wadiyar displayed when the latter chanted a Sanskrit sloka ‘Kauthuka Nidhi’ from the book ‘Srithatva Nidhi’ written by Sri Krishnaraja Wadiyar III, on seeing a painting of Devi. Looking at the colour of the saree of the Devi he asked the artist as to the basis on which he had used that particular red colour when according to the sloka the colour should have been of yellow shade. Wadiyar also suggested a minor change required in the crown of the Devi as per the tradition.
Raghupathi Bhat, who used to be called to the Palace by Wadiyar to discuss about matters relating to paintings and even about book-bindings to restore old books, was proud to disclose that he had made a portrait in water colour of Wadiyar which was published in The Times of India on the occasion of his 55th birthday.
Raghupathi remembers with nostalgia the suggestion made by Wadiyar that he (Bhat) should shift to Mysore as there was greater opportunity for developing the museum and also scope for his creative works. Bhat says that he took Wadiyar’s suggestion seriously and that was how he moved to Mysore for good. And Wadiyar was one of the first persons to congratulate Bhat when he got the President’s National Award as an artist.
According to Raghupathi Bhat, the Wadiyar dynasty was a blessing to the world of art and also artists whose number increased in old Mysore under their patronage. Expressing deep sorrow at the untimely passing away of Srikanta Datta Narasimharaja Wadiyar, Bhat mentioned about Wadiyar’s appreciation of the gold-leaf restoration work he had executed in the Palace Durbar Hall and part of Kalyana Mantap this year.
“I feel, I have lost a father figure in Wadiyar’s death,” said Bhat his eyes going wet.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Feature Articles / December 11th, 2013
![( Left -1) City’s renowned artist Ganjifa Raghupathi Bhat interviewed by K.B. Ganapathy, Editor -in-Chief, Star of Mysore.( Right - 2) The Wadiyar couple with artist Ganjifa Raghupathi Bhat. [Pic by by S. Thippeswamy]](http://www.bangalorefirst.in/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/WadiyarBF17dec2013.jpg)