Monthly Archives: July 2013

New Police Comr. takes charge

Business & Economy, Leaders, Records, All
Outgoing City Police Commissioner K.L. Sudheer is seen handing over the baton to Dr. M.A. Saleem, who assumed charge as the new Police Commissioner at the Commissioner’s office in Nazarbad this morning. DCPs Basavaraj Malagathi (extreme left), K.P. Bheemaiah and Prabhashankar are also seen.
Outgoing City Police Commissioner K.L. Sudheer is seen handing over the baton to Dr. M.A. Saleem, who assumed charge as the new Police Commissioner at the Commissioner’s office in Nazarbad this morning. DCPs Basavaraj Malagathi (extreme left), K.P. Bheemaiah and Prabhashankar are also seen.

Mysore :

Emphasises on accountability, transparency and responsibility among the Police; Assures efficient traffic management

“Accountability, transparency and responsibility will be strictly enforced among the Police personnel of the city to make them more people-friendly,” said City Police Commissioner Dr. Mohammed Abdullah Saleem, who assumed charge this morning from his predecessor K.L. Sudheer, who has been posted as Additional Director of Fire Services at Bangalore.

Dr. M.A. Saleem, who has obtained Ph.D in Traffic Management and was serving as Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic and Security) in Bangalore, said that traffic problem is not limited to Mysore city alone but is global, because of the rise in population and increase in number of vehicles.

Dr. Saleem, who has undergone a training course in Traffic Management in the US, assured of streamlining the city’s traffic system using the existing infrastructure, after studying the existing system and then holding discussions with the elected representatives, government organisations and NGOs.

Recalling that he had served as the DCP in Mysore city for nine months during 1997-98, the new Police Commissioner said that a lot of changes have taken place since then. I will study the priorities for policing here and then implement schemes if required.

Sudheer thanks efficient colleagues, alert media and co-operative citizenry: Outgoing Commissioner Sudheer, who had served here for one and a half years, said that he could serve Mysore successfully because of the efficient Police personnel, alert media and a co-operative citizenry.

“People of Mysore are very peace-loving; hence we were able to implement ‘people-friendly policing’ in city. The successful conduct of Dasara and other events requiring elaborate Police security is because of the people’s co-operation,” he said.

DCPs Basavaraj Malagathi, K.P. Bheemaiah and Prabhashankar, all ACPs and Inspectors were present.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> General News / July 03rd, 2013

World’s first cross-border Silicon Valley-Bangalore hackathon zeroes in on collaboration

Business & Economy, Science & Technology, World Opinion

Bangalore and Silicon Valley are set to simultaneously host their first joint hackathon, which will see over 200 developers working together to create new collaboration applications.

The two-day hack fest that links Silicon Valley and Bangalore is aimed at creating a new generation of open and innovative collaboration tools.

According to the Enterprise Innovation, these tolls will be built over new open APIs (application programming interface), including WebRTC.

Tata Communications  announced it would sponsor the ‘Future of Collaboration’ hackathon by providing 75,000 dollars in cash and prizes.

Tata said that by crowd sourcing the best minds across California and India , the hackathon provides a gateway to rapidly develop, prototype and innovate applications using new web standards to address everyday collaboration challenges, the report added.

source: http://www.business-standard.com / Business Standard / Home> News-ANI> Business / ANI / New Delhi – June 24th, 2013

Biocon rides growth wave on diversification

Business & Economy, Science & Technology

Biopharma company Biocon is seeing increasing demand for its contract research services in allied areas such as agrochemicals, petrochemicals, and even electronics — into which it has recently expanded — as an offshoot of its core biopharmeceuticals and biologics research expertise.

While biopharma is by far its main revenue-yielding area for research services, the firm says the diversification into other segments gives it the dexterity to maintain the growth momentum.

The research services subsidiary Syngene and the clinical research arm Clinigene together crossed the $100-million revenue mark in FY13, growing 36% over the previous fiscal. Syngene, in which GE Capital last year bought a 7.69% stake for R125 crore, is looking at going public in FY15.

“Our strategy at Syngene and Clinigene is to build a comprehensive range of discovery and development services to enable us to offer increased and integrated support,” said Peter Bains, director of Syngene International, at a recent interaction. “We see demand growing against that background in the biopharmaceuticals sector, the pharmaceuticals and the biologics sector. We also see increased demand in associated areas like agrochemicals, veterinary and even some which could be considered more remote, like petrochemicals and electronics.”

The entry into some of these remotely connected areas began 2-3 years ago as an extension of the work the material science division was doing, mostly relating to formulation development in polymers for the release profiles for pharmaceuticals. “This is a relatively small component of our business. What is important is that we can diversify our customer base,” said Bains.

The diversification, however, had begun earlier with research into nutritional science followed by agrochemicals and veterinary science.

Biocon’s contract research services — India’s largest contract research organisation and Asia’s second largest after China’s WuXi AppTec — says it sees potential for more applications from polymer and material science. Demand for contract-based research in drug discovery and development is typically driven by the productivity challenges that life sciences companies face in innovation, which has led to an increase in the allocation of work to an external research agency as well as collaboration.

source: http://www.financialexpress.com / The Financial Express / Home> FE> Story / by Ajay Sukumaran / Bangalore – June 21st, 2013

Kasargod: Foundation for Govinda Pai Memorial on June 23

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Historical Links, Pre-Independence, Leaders, Records, All

Kasargod : 

Office bearers of Govinda Pai Memorial Committee informed at a press conference held here on Friday June 21, that union petroleum minister, M Veerappa Moily, will be laying the foundation stone for the construction of ‘Gilivindu’, a cultural hub being built as memorial to Rashtrakavi Manjeshwar Govinda Pai. The building, which was conceptualized several years ago, will come up at Manjeshwar in the district where the late poet’s house stands.

“The foundation-laying function will be chaired by MP, P Karunakaran. MLAs, P B Abdul Razack and N A Nellikunnu, zilla panchayat president, Shyamala Devi, district collector, P S Muhammed Sagir, will be among the dignitaries who will grace the function. The project cost of this cultural hub, including museum, open air theatre, indoor theatre and library, has been put at Rs 3.8 crore.

This project will be jointly funded by Kerala and Karnataka state governments besides the central government.

District collector, P S Muhammed Sagir, additional district magistrate, H Dineshan, information officer, K Abdul Rahman, B V Kakkillaya, and others were present at the press conference

source: http://www.daijiworld.com / DaijiWorld.com / Home> Karnataka / by Stephen Kayyar / Daijiworld Media Network – Kasargod (SP) / Saturday – June 23rd, 2013

Sanjay wins gold for Karnataka

Records, All, Sports

SanjayBF07jul2013

Bengaluru: 

Sanjay C.J. won a lone individual gold for Karnataka on an otherwise disappointing day for the state in the 30th sub-junior aquatic championships at Panjim on Thursday.
Sanjay topped the show in Group III boys butterfly event clocking 01:07.77.
Apart from Sanjay, Karnataka won three silver medals in freestyle relay events besides a bronze in 1M springboard diving.

Results (only Karnataka):
Boys:  Group III 100M BF: 1. Sanjay C.J. T: 01:07.77; 4x50M FS relay: 2. Karnataka (Vinod R, P Kushal, N Sri Hari, Sanjay C.J.) T: 02:01.09 Group IV: 4x50M FS relay: 2. Karnataka (R. Vaibhav, Shivansh Singh, S.H. Harsha Vardan, Raj Vinayak) T: 02:15.86
Girls:  Group III: 4x50M FS relay: 2. Karnataka (Devika Srinath, Nandini S.S., Harshitha Jayashankar, Vaania Kapoor) T: 02:09.52 Diving: 1M springboard: 3. N Navya Theja (203.60 points).

source: http://www.asianage.com / The Asian Age / Home> Sports> Cricket / June 21st, 2013

National Masters athletics : City’s athletes fare well

Records, All, Sports

Mysore :

City’s veteran athletes, taking part in the National Masters Athletics Meet which concluded at Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bangalore on Sunday, performed well and bagged a good number of medals.

A.C. Subbaiah, won gold in the Men’s 55 plus shot-put event and bronze in the discus throw event. Cheluvegowda won gold in the Men’s 65 plus shot-put and silver in the hammer throw.

P.C. Parvathi, taking part in the 55 plus women’s 5km walk, won silver and won bronze in the 1500 m event. Subbas Shetty, taking part in the Men’s 60 plus 5km walk, won silver medal.

T.G. Asha, taking part in the women’s 35 plus high jump event, won silver.

S. Mahadev and Balarame Gowda, representing Karnataka in the 60 plus men’s 4x100m Relay event, won silver.

In the 50 plus men’s section, Dr. Padbanabh, Puttanniah Chary and M.M. Naniah, won silver, representing Karnataka in the 4×100 and 4x400m relay events.

In the 45 plus men’s section, Amarnath, representing karnataka won silver in the 4x100m relay event.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Sports News / July 04th, 2013

Two young shuttlers to undergo coaching in Padukone’s academy

Sports

Mumbai : 

Young shuttlers Simran Singhi (11) and Rahul Vyas (12) from Mumbai would undergo a 14-day coaching stint at badminton great Prakash Padukone’s academy, after they won a talent hunt event.

Padukone in association with  Tata Capital  had launched a talent hunt for children between 8 and 12 years of age at five gymkhanas of the city, with a two-day tournament that culminated on Sunday.

Singhi (11) and Vyas (12) from Khar Gymkhana and Bombay Gymkhana, respectively, won the Tata Capital Super Shuttlers Finals Tournament.

The event was conducted from May 27 to June 7 to identify potentially good players for the two-day tournament at the Cricket Club of India held on Saturday and Sunday.

Apart from CCI, the other clubs/gymkhanas who were part of the initiative — Bombay Gymkhana, Juhu Vile Parle Gymkhana, Khar Gymkhana and National Sports Club of India.

“My academy is grateful that, this tournament has aided in promotion of badminton among young kids, cultivated friendship and collaboration among top clubs of Mumbai, and provided budding talent a valuable opportunity to show their sporting prowess and vitality,” Padukone said in a statement.

The tournament in Mumbai is one of the first phases of this initiative, which will be replicated across other cities in the near future, the release added.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> Sports> More Sports / by PTI / June 16th, 2013

Sri Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar award for Dr. Geetha Avadhani

Leaders, Records, All, Science & Technology

Mysore :

Dr. Geetha Avadhani, Dean and Director, Mysore Medical College & Research Institute (MMC&RI), was conferred Sri Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar award at a function jointly organised by the District Administration, Kannada & Culture Department, MCC, MUDA and Ursu Mandali at Kalamandira on June 22, to mark the 129th Jayanti celebrations of Sri Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar.

Dr. Geetha Avadhani was conferred the award in recognition of her contribution to the medical field. MMC&RI staff have congratulated her for the award.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> General News / June 28th, 2013

Dial 104 for basic medical info, doctor’s advice

Science & Technology

Hubli :

If you have health problems and need immediate remedy, just dial 104 and you will get health tips over phone on how to overcome your problem. If need be, you will be counselled and an ambulance will be sent to your doorstep.

The state government introduced Arogyavani — the ‘104’ Health Information Help Line (HIHL) Services — and the service was launched by minister for health and family welfare UT Khader on Wednesday.

The service has a system wherein any person can receive basic medical information, advice, counseling without visiting a doctor, pharmacist or a health centre. The centre will deliver service in four phases. To maintain the standard, every call will be recorded and service quality will be monitored regularly.

In addition, it provides information on healthcare service delivery, healthcare facility, health guidance, advice, grievance redress on matters related to healthcare, counseling support and linkages with emergency support.

A few days back, the call centre kicked off on a trial basis at the IT park here. Now the centre is ready with well-equipped facilities and manpower. At the initial stage, 100 calls will be taken up at once and later the lines will be increased to 300, said sources.

People from any part of the district or village can make a call to this service. It is the first of its kind service in the state. Hyderabad-based NGO Health Management and Research Institute (HMRI) set up the infrastructure.

The main objective is to assist people living in rural areas, who face difficulty in accessing the service of qualified doctors and to provide information on any health problem round-the-clock all 365 days in a year. The helpline will ensure that people get basic information of a medical facility and health condition through a process which is easy and accessible.

HOW IT WORKS

Step 1: When a call comes in, registration staff note down information of the caller, will register call and transfer it to the health advice officer (HAO) after giving registration number.

Step 2: HAOs will interact with callers to know their health problems in detail and then, they will give tips. In case caller wants counselling for diabetes, stress , mental illness, then call will be transferred to the counsellors.

Step 3: Counsellors will interact with caller for any amount of time and if need be, the call will be transferred to the medical officer and medical officer will discuss the problem with the caller and give advice for immediate remedy.

Step 4: If caller wants a prescription, it will be sent through SMS to his mobile. In case of emergency, they will also inform 108 ambulance services to help the caller immediately.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Hubli / TNN / June 20th, 2013

Wipro hires former Lloyds executive for banking business

Business & Economy, Science & Technology, World Opinion

Jun 13, 2013 (Menafn – Mint – McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX)

Wipro Ltd has hired former Lloyds Banking Group executive Ganesh Balasubramanian to create a new unit focused on banking products and platforms, as part of a move to shore up its banking and financial services business that has lagged rivals such as Tata Consultancy Services Ltd and Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp.

India’s third largest software exporter, which recently hived off its non-information technology business units and started trading as a stand-alone IT stock, has named Balasubramanian as senior vice-president of its newly created banking products and platforms business, according to people familiar with the development who requested anonymity.

Balasubramanian, who previously was the chief technology officer at Lloyds Banking Group, will take up the role in July and report directly to Wipro chief executive T.K. Kurien.

Soumitro Ghosh, who has headed Wipro’s global financial services business since 2008, will continue in his current role and report to Kurien.

Wipro, which gets more than a quarter of its revenue from the financial services business, confirmed the appointment.

“Wipro confirms that Ganesh Balasubramanian will join the company effective July 2013 as senior vice-president — banking products, BFSI in emerging markets and key strategic account relationship. Ganesh was previously with Lloyds Banking Group, where he played a key role as part of the Global CIO leadership team,” the company said in an email response.

India’s 108-billion IT sector gets nearly 40% of its overall business from the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector, where large clients like Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase outsource projects worth millions of dollars every year to Indian software vendors such as TCS, Infosys Ltd and Cognizant.

For more than two years, Wipro has lagged rivals like TCS and Cognizant and is struggling to turn around its performance in the BFSI segment. TCS gets 43% of its overall business and generates more than thrice as much in revenue as Wipro from the sector. Cognizant gets a similar proportion from BFSI and grew revenue from the sector by 20% in 2012.

“Wipro has been a slow bear in BFSI compared with other Indian counterparts such as TCS and Cognizant,” said Yugal Joshi, practice director at outsourcing advisory firm Everest Group. “When the financial downturn happened in 2008-09, Wipro was one of the companies that was least impacted because it has the least exposure towards BFSI. But once the market started to recover a bit, the technology spending went up in BFSI and Wipro was found wanting there because of their lack of exposure.”

In April, Wipro gave a tepid revenue growth forecast for the first quarter, raising concerns about whether the turnaround plan overseen by CEO Kurien was working.

After the fourth quarter results were announced in April, Kurien admitted that Wipro had started slowly in BFSI and needed to step up its performance in the sector.

“If you look at banking, we’ve traditionally had a very poor footprint, being late to start off in the game, and I think some of the fact that our footprint and some of the customers that are doing well or not has been reflected in our topline growth. And we were overweight again on investment banking, which has been under pressure,” Kurien had said.

Kurien said Wipro would focus on “deepening our footprint in BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance), not using traditional, but non-traditional methods.”

For the 2012-13 financial year, revenue from Wipro’s financial services business grew sluggishly at 3.7% to 1.65 billion, lagging the company’s overall revenue growth of 5%. Wipro expects the appointment of Balasubramanian will help it compete better with rivals such as TCS and Cognizant.

Experts tracking the sector feel Wipro will find it difficult to make significant headway in BFSI, given the competitive landscape and their relatively less established footprint in the sector.

“Now the challenge is that there is very limited business in the market — most of the business is coming from renewals and the service providers are going all out to maintain their existing clients,” said Joshi of Everest Group. “Now if Wipro wants to win business from any fresh, new BFSI client, it will be very tough for them…the marketplace is becoming hyper-competitive and no other service provider will gave away even an inch. There is a lot of pressure on pricing. So the challenges for Wipro are going to increase going forward.”

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source: http://www.menafn.com / June 13th, 2013