Monthly Archives: September 2013

Edinburgh science fest draws Bangalore students in droves

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Science & Technology, World Opinion

Bangalore:

Hundreds of school and college students on Friday flocked to the Edinburgh International Science Festival at the sprawling Bhartiya city in Bangalore for participating in a host of events, workshops and cultural events.

Edinburgh International Science Festival
Edinburgh International Science Festival

Being held for the first time in the country, the 10-day fest is demonstrating a slew of scientific projects and programmes to infuse spirit of enquiry and build scientific temper in the younger generation.

“It is heartening to know that the organizers have chosen Bangalore to host their first science fest in India, testifying the city’s global reputation as a centre of research and development (R&D) and innovations in science and technology,” Karnataka Agriculture Minister Krishna Byregowda said flagging off the event on a cloudy day.

The Minister, who also studied in the US before returning to state and plunging into politics, exhorted the youth to experience the wonders of science in an interactive mode at the fest.

Noting that such festivals kindle children’s interest in science and nurture love for exploring the domain, Indian Institute of Management (IIM-Bangalore) professor Rajiv Gowda said that the country has a rich legacy of science and mathematics since zero was invented and used for the first time by renowned astronomer Aryabhatta during the fifth century AD.

Festival chief executive Simon Gage said that the event would recreate the excitement of Edinburgh’s world famous science fest in India, which is making advances in science and technology.

“The British Council and the Scottish government played an important role in bringing this fest to India,” Gage said.

About 50,000 visitors, including school children and their parents are expected to visit the fest, which will last till September 8.

Among the events being held at the fest include, the Emergency Room (ER) Surgery, where students will gain first-hand experience in the working of an operating theatre and what it’s like to be a doctor. Similarly, at Splatastic, students will explore properties of different polymers and make colourful gooey snakes, observe a liquid-to-solid chemical reaction, produce designer slime and test it on Splatometer.

In Adventure Robots, participants build and control Lego Mindstorm Robots by learning to use basic computer programming software.

“In Math Masters, students learn tips and tricks for super fast mental math calculations and solve puzzles to develop lateral thinking,” Gage noted.

As an educational charity that encourages people of all ages and backgrounds to discover the wonders of the world around them, the Edinburgh fest demonstrates benefits of science throughout the year in partnership with overseas science festivals and an education programme that tours worldwide.

British Deputy High Commissioner Ian Felton, Discover Networks Asia-Pacific vice-president Rajiv Bakshi and Bhartiya group chairman Snehdeep Aggarwal were also present on the occasion.

Discovery Kids, Horlicks Promind, Art Konnect and mycitykids.com are the partners in the fest.

(Agencies)

Source:  http://www.post.jagran.com/ Post Jagra / Home> Indian States News / by  Agencies / August 31st, 2013

Bangalore IT.Biz in October

Business & Economy, Science & Technology

Union minister for communications and information technology Kapil Sibal will inaugurate the two-day Bangalore IT.Biz on October 22, according to SR Patil, minister for IT & BT.

He said the central government has given its nod for the establishment of the Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR) project between Devanahalli and Doddaballapur on 10500 acres of land.

“The state government has issued an order to acquire 2072 acres of land. They would take a decision on the quantum of developed land to be given to farmers,’’ said Patil.

Stating that the central government would be spending around Rs7,000 crore to provide the necessary facilities, he said the proposed ITIR project is expected to provide direct employment for 12 lakh people and indirect employment for 28 lakh people.

Wi-Fi facility
Minister for IT and BT SR Patil said that all arrangements have been made to provide Wi-Fi facility on MG Road and Brigade Road free of cost, for a few hours a day. He said the Wi-Fi facility would be extended to other cities such as Mysore, Hubli-Dharwad and a few places in Mangalore on a pilot basis shortly.

IIIT in Dharwad
The Indian Institute of Information Technology would be established on 50 acres of land in Karnataka University campus in Dharwad with an investment of Rs128 crore, according to Patil.

source: http://www.dnaindia.com / DNA / Home> Bangalore> Report / by DNA Correspondent / Place:Bangalore, Agency:DNA / Sunday – September 01st, 2013

Improvised GPS collars to track pachyderms

Nature, Records, All, Science & Technology

As a first step to address the issue of man-animal conflict, the Karnataka Forest Department has decided to put elephant tracking Global Positioning System (GPS) on four wild jumbos. In fact, an improvised version of the GPS collar developed by the Department of Electronics Study, Indian Institute of Science (IISc) here, would be used.

With this, Karnataka would become the first Indian state to use GPS collars on jumbos, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) G S Prabhu told Express.

The four elephants are from the Bandipur National Park. They have been posing problems in Kodagu and Hassan districts, attacking people and damaging crops. More pachyderms would be collared if the present mission turns a success.

The GPS idea has been employed in Sri Lanka, where 10 elephants were collared. This helped the forest authorities to track their movements and alert villagers much before they entered human habitation, said Prabhu. The GPS is based on a network of satellites using which the location of an object on the ground could be obtained, within a few meters accuracy. So these collars obtain an extremely accurate location for the elephant every four hours, night and day. They then transmit that information (six locations per day) once a day to another satellite that relays it back to the ground. This way, they would give extremely precise data on elephant movements every four hours.

Prabhu said the improvised version of the GPS collars developed by Department of Electronics Study are water-proof, cost effective and have a  better battery life. The collars used by the South African forest authorities were not water-proof, but very expensive. Even the battery life was less. The cost of IISc-developed collar is `1.5 lakh and it weighs less than two kg. The collars would be fixed around the neck of elephants after tranquilising them. Once done, the movements of elephants could be monitored on computers, laptops and even on mobile phones.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Karnataka / by Shyam Sundar Vattam – Bangalore / August 30th, 2013

Karnataka’s Sakala covers record number of 375 services now

About Bangalore(Bengaluru) / Karnataka, Amazing Feats, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Records, All

Photo Caption

Bangalore :

For the first time in the entire country, Karnataka has emerged as the path-breaker by offering the maximum number of 375 services under the Sakala scheme of providing guaranteed time-bound delivery of services to the citizens.

The State Government has included another 110 services under the Karnataka Sakala Services Act 2011 on August 16 taking up the total number of services to a record 375, which is the highest in the country.

Karnataka’s Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister T B Jayachandra on Thursday released the progress report of the scheme for the month of July and said 69 services have been made available online.

The minister, however, clarified that the addition of the 110 services could not be announced in view of the election model code of conduct in operation in as many as 9 districts on account of the by-elections to Lok Sabha and Legislative Council.

Important services such as driving learning license, driving license, vehicle registration, duplicate copy of certification of registration, recounting of marks, revaluation of answer scripts, registration of new schools and land registration documents have been made available under the Sakala online.

Department-wise online services that are made available are:

Transport – 5, department of personnel and administrative reforms – 21, primary education and commercial department – 10 each, commerce and industry – 2, Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike – 6, Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board – 3, Bangalore Development Authority – 4, Karnataka Housing Board – 3 and Drugs Control Department – 5.

As many as 110 services of various departments such as public libraries, collegiate education, technical education, university constituent colleges, university post-graduate section, university examination section, university finance section, university academic section, exercise department, Karnataka State Warehousing Corporation, sericulture have been added on August 16.

The department has identified 1800 services to be provided under the scheme to ensure transparency in the delivery of services to the pubic, he said disclosing that the government proposed to add more services in the coming days.

Jayachandra said show-cause notices have been issued against 449 officials who defaulted on providing services within the stipulated time for more than seven times.

A highest number of employees of the Revenue Department (272) followed by Inspector General of Registration (37), Home (26) and Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (11) have failed to provide services in time on than seven occasions, he said.

Chamarajanagar 1st , Udupi 28th

Chamarajanagar stands first while Bidar ranked last among the districts as far as implementation of Sakala scheme, which ensures time-bound service to the public under the Karnataka Sakala Services Act 2011.

The Department of Personnel and Administration Reforms (DPAR) published a report of July 2013 on all districts taking into account their performance.

Ranking is given to districts based on the number of applications received and disposal. While weightage is 70 per cent for number of applications received per lakh population, 30 per cent for disposal.

Jayachandra said 30 districts received 33.15 lakh applications and disposed off 32.45 lakh (98.43 per cent) in July. Delayed disposal for the month stood at 1.53 per cent.

Chamarajanagar continued to remain on the top of the table for the second consecutive month while Mandya and Uttara Kannada ranked second and third respectively while Udupi district was ranked 28.

Bidar secured 30th rank, Belgaum – 29th and Udupi – 28th.  Total number of applications received by Chamarajanagar district was 73,052, Mandya – 1,34,782, Uttara Kananda – 94,938, Bidar – 82,066, Belgaum – 210249 and Udupi – 49,649. The Minister said a competitive environment has been created among districts in the provision of services to the public.

Deputy Commissioners of top performing districts would be given certificates appreciating timely delivery of services, the minister said.

Sakala Mission Director Shalini Rajneesh was present.

source: http://www.daijiworld.com / DaijiWorld.com / Home> Top Stories / by DaijiWorld Special Correspondent / DaijiWorld Media Network – Bangalore /  August 30th, 2013

Science is fun, kids learn at Edinburgh fest

Education, Records, All, Science & Technology, World Opinion

Iconic international science festival receives warm response in city.

School children try their hands at Bubble Magic, one of the main attractions at the Edinburgh International Science Festival. - A Veeramani / DNA
School children try their hands at Bubble Magic, one of the main attractions at the Edinburgh International Science Festival. – A Veeramani / DNA

“Now I am sure I want to become a doctor and perform surgeries,” burst out an excited Pushpak R.

What made him decide on his future career was a visit to the Evergreen Room, a dummy operation theatre at the first ever Indian edition of the iconic Edinburgh International Science Festival at the Bhartiya City, near Hebbal here on Friday.

The venue of the 10-day science event teemed with young, would-be scientists accompanied by parents and teachers. The fest was inaugurated by Karnataka minister for agriculture Krishna Byre Gowda in the presence of EISF, Dr Simon Gage and British deputy high commissioner to India, Ian Felton. The fest kicked off with 17 exciting events.

On the first day there were over 15 workshops which were interactive, apart from live shows and exhibits which had a bit for every age group, such as aero modelling, chemistry experiments, evergreen room (dummy operation theatre), bubble magic workshop, splatastic, science circus, international photo exhibition, forensic science experiments, illusion room, smoke bonanza, lego robosports etc.
AT the dummy operation theatre, students helped to treat a deep leg wound and perform key hole surgery using a real surgical equipment. They also gained experience with a miner surgical procedure to remove a cyst and learn how and why blood samples are taken.

During Splatastic, students explored the properties of different polymers, making some of their own colourful snakes, observe liquid to solid chemical reaction, produce their own designer slime and test the slime on the splatometer. Other crowd pullers were ‘Adventure Robots’, wherein participants built lego robots, using basic computer programming software, and Math Masters, which saw students learn tips and tricks for super fast mental math circulations and solve puzzles to develop lateral thinking.

But easily the show stopper was Bubble Magic, hosted by Discovery India. Children indulged in creating interesting shapes out of bubbles ranging from the tiniest of them to unbelievably huge ones.

Children had great fun trying to catch smoke-filled bubbles in their palms, to standing inside a giant bubble, and even turning a ‘round bubble square’.

source: http://www.dnaindia.com / DNA / Home> Bangalore> Report / by DNA Correspondent / Place:Bangalore, Agency:DNA / Saturday – August 31st, 2013

City’s Chethan bags Natl. Muay Thai championship

Records, All, Sports

ChethanBF10sept2013

Mysore :

C. Chethan, employee of Cycle Pure Agarbathies, has bagged gold at the National Muay Thai Championship organised by Muay Thai India (MTI) National Federation at L.B. Stadium, Hyderabad from Aug. 25 to 29.

Chethan, who represented Karnataka State, defeated a Chhattisgarh opponent in the semi-finals and won against his rival from Tamil Nadu to clinch the title in the 75-81 kg Seniors category.

M.H. Abid, President, MTI, presented the certificate and medal to Chethan at the prize distribution ceremony. In all, 14 States participated in the Championship.

A fitness enthusiast, Chethan has been practicing at the Academy of Martial Arts under the guidance of coach Vikram Nagraj.

Earlier, Chethan had won a bronze medal at the National Level Championship-2012 and first place at the State-level event in 2011. He aims to take part in the International Championship to be held in Thailand in 2014.

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

Ramya makes debut in Parliament

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Leaders

Bangalore :

Less than a month ago, Sandalwood actor Ramya may not have imagined that she would throw up her fledgling apparel business and jump tracks to enter the portals of Parliament as MP.

On Monday, when Ramya took oath in Kannada as MP from Mandya Lok Sabha constituency, she became the second person from the Kannada film industry and the same constituency, after MH Ambareesh, to do so. Aged 30, she is also the youngest among the 28 MPs from Karnataka.

Billed as a top star in Kannada film industry, Ramya has two films on hand. She completed 60% shooting for director Vijay Prasad’s ‘Neer Dose’ opposite Jaggesh and 30% for Rajendra Singh Babu’s ‘Aryan’ opposite Shivraj Kumar. A director said she has agreed to complete both assignments. Ramya had also signed ‘Dil Ka Raaja’ with Prajwal Hegde.

Ramya was shopping in Jaipur on August 2 for an apparel business she was to start, when she got a call from chief minister Siddaramaiah asking her to rush back to Bangalore to file her nomination papers, as August 3 was the last date.

“Give me a couple of minutes, I’ll have to consult my father (foster father RT Narayan),” the actor is reported to have told the CM. Getting the go-ahead from Narayan, she landed in Bangalore the next day and drove down to Mandya, 60km from the city, to file her nomination papers. But as fate would have it, Narayan who sat through the entire night preparing the affidavits for her to file the nomination papers died watching from the crowd his foster daughter waving out to.

Destiny’s child as she may be called, Ramya was ushered into the Congress by senior MLA DK Shiva Kumar. In April 2011, she was inducted into the party during AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s meeting with the Youth Congress (YC) in Bangalore. Beyond being a YC member and campaigning in some constituencies during the legislative assembly elections in May, she was seldom seen in party events. However, she had set the 2014 Lok Sabha polls as the target to stake her claim for a ticket from Mandya, which came sooner than she expected.

Along with Ramya, Shiva Kumar’s brother D K Suresh Kumar took oath in Kannada as MP from Bangalore Rural.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Bangalore> Ramya / TNN / August 27th, 2013

Manipal Varsity Prof gets $1.43 million grant

Education, Science & Technology

drArunKumarbBF09sep2013

Bengaluru: 

Manipal Centre for Virus Research (MCVR), a research department at Manipal University (MU) has been awarded the Research Cooperative Agreement Grant (RCAG) worth $1.143 million.

The award has been sanctioned by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), United States Department of Health and Human Services, through the coordinating office, Global Health (GH).  The grant was awarded for the application submitted by Dr. G Arun Kumar, professor and head, MCVR and Dr TMA Pai Endowed Chair in Translational Virology, for his project titled Hospital Based Surveillance of Acute Febrile Illness in the Western Ghat Region of India, which is on detecting etiologies of emerging infectious disease in the Western Ghats region of Karnataka and Kerala.

The other departments of Manipal University involved in this grant are the departments of Statistics, Public Health, Microbiology (Kasturba Medical College, Manipal & Mangalore), Community Medicine (Kasturba Medical College, Manipal) and the School of Communication.

According to Dr. Arun Kumar, the study will provide authentic information on the causes of the fevers (acute febrile illness), the distribution of such causes and diseases in the community over time, as well as its geographical spread. This will help to design future clinical case management strategies and public health interventions to reduce death and disability, by reducing the economic effects and ensuring good health among the people of the region.

Secondly, this grant includes a lot of technical support by the sponsoring agency and will result in significant technical capacity building at MCVR.

“The grant has been provided by the world’s best public health laboratory and the mechanism of cooperative agreement grant involves significant technical assistance. This grant gives us an opportunity to work with internationally renounced scientists from world class institutions like CDC, Atlanta, thereby increasing our global visibility and providing us with future opportunities for various international collaborations in the field of Virology,” said Dr Kumar.

source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> News> Current Affairs / DC / August 25th, 2013

Arecanut growers form federation

Business & Economy, Nature

‘If the government decided to extend at least 5 per cent of the incentives given to industrial sector to agriculture sector, it would lead to a phenomenal change in farming sector.’

Mangalore : 

Arecanut growers belonging to various organisations have come together under a federation to fight for their causes.

Participating in the first meeting of the federation, Ravikirana Punacha, chief coordinator of the Federation of Karnataka-Kerala Arecanut and Coconut Growers’ Associations, said the arecanut growers are affected by various policies of the government and the vagaries of the nature.

In such a situation, the federation will fight for the causes of arecanut growers in Karnataka and Kerala.

The first meeting of the federation here on Wednesday urged the Centre to direct the banks to waive farm loans. Farmers with small land holdings are finding it difficult to repay their loans because of various reasons, Punacha said.

There is also a need for the government to set up an arecanut board to help the farmers, he said.

The arecanut plantations have been witnessing various diseases in the recent past. Naveen Karvane, representing Karnataka Rajya Raita Sangha from Sringeri, said the government should implement the report of the Gorakh Singh Committee completely.

The committee, which was constituted by the Centre, had suggested measures such as farm loan waiver in the case of arecanut plantations affected by diseases.

‘UNVIABLE’

Rohitaksha Rai, a farmer leader from Dakshina Kannada district, said that the arecanut cultivation has become unviable for many farmers as the growers have to pay high wages to the manual labour force. The shortage of labour is also adding to their problems.

If the government decided to extend at least 5 per cent of the incentives given to industrial sector to agriculture sector, it would lead to a phenomenal change in farming sector, he said.

M.G. Satyanarayana, vice-president of All-India Arecanut Growers’ Association, said an arecanut grower should be in a position to fix the price for his commodity. It is essential for the growers to think in that direction, he said.

Pradeep Kumar, a farmer from Sullia taluk of Dakshina Kannada district, suggested that the farmers should form a cooperative group or company of their own for the collective bargaining while buying inputs and while marketing their produce.

Some of the farmers suggested that they are ready to switch over from arecanut to other crops, provided the government gives them adequate compensation.

source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com / Business Line / Home> Industry> Agri-Biz / by The Hindu Bureau     vinayak.aj@thehindu.co.in / Mangalore – August 22nd, 2013

City Kick Boxers bag eight medals for Karnataka

Sports

Mysore :

The students Academy of Martial Science (AMS), a combat school promoting Muay Thai Kick Boxing and MMA in Mysore, have bagged eight medals for Karnataka at the 14th Amateur Senior Muay Thai Kick Boxing National Championships held at Lal Bahadur Indoor stadium in Hyderabad between Aug. 23 and 29.

Ten fighters attached to the Academy of Martial Science, Mysore, affiliated to Mysore District Muay Thai Association and Muay Thai Karnataka won three Bronze, four Silver and one Title (Gold) at the above mentioned championships for Karnataka.

With this haul of medals, Karnataka is placed at 4th position nationally and Chethan who is the Light Heavy Weight Champion was selected to represent India in the forthcoming World Muay Thai Champioship in Thailand in 2014.

MLA M.K. Somashekar and KR constituency Block President Naveen Kumar congratulated the team at the club premises.

Results

Chethan Kumar- Fly Weight- Quarter finalist, L. Srihari-Light Weight-Pre- Quarter finalist, Vaibhav Yamdagni- Pin Weight- Bronze Medal, Lohith-Feather Weight-Bronze Medal, C. Manjesh- Middle Weight-Bronze Medal, Sourabh Bhatewara- Light welter weight-Silver Medal, Abdul Razack-Light Middle weight-Silver Medal, Sumanth Subrahmanya- Cruiser weight-Silver Medal, Mohammed Zulkharnain- Super heavy weight- Silver Medal and C. Chethan-Light Heavy weight Champion-India.

For details log on to www.academyofmartialscience.com

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Sports News / September 08th, 2013