Monthly Archives: September 2017
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Bengaluru gets new Boeing engineering centre
New Delhi :
Union minister of state for civil aviation Jayant Sinha inaugurated Boeing’s additional new facility at the Boeing India Engineering and Technology Center (BIETC) in Bengaluru on Friday. This facility will enable Boeing to focus on state-of-the-art technology areas such as data analytics, internet-of-things, avionics, aerospace design, manufacturing, testing and research, to support Boeing products and systems. The centre also includes laboratories for research to support next-gen innovations in aerospace.
“Boeing’s commitment to growth of capability and capacity in the Indian aerospace sector is commendable. I congratulate the team on this brand new addition to the Boeing India Engineering and Technology Centre and am proud that Boeing is leveraging India’s engineering talent and its expertise for some of the most advanced aerospace products in the world, and developing complex solutions for the world,” said Jayant Sinha.
This expansion comes soon after Boeing opened its engineering centre in January 2017. “As a source for innovative and cutting-edge engineering, India offers us tremendous growth potential. This is a winning formula for India and our own global growth strategy for improved productivity, enhanced engineering efficiency and cost advantage, while focusing on quality,” said Pratyush Kumar, president of Boeing India.
Recently Boeing announced a partnership with aviation ministry and Air India Engineering Services Ltd (AIESL) to develop an aircraft maintenance engineers accelerated apprenticeship program. The key objective of the program is to improve the employability of AMEs through training and hands-on experience with actual aircraft.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> India News / by Saurabh Sinha / TNN / September 22nd, 2017
900-Yr-Old inscription found in Mangaluru Temple
Historians say the discovery refers to Alupa ruler Kulashekara and his liegeman
A 900-year-old inscription was discovered at Polali Rajarajeshwari temple located on the outskirts of Mangaluru.
It was found during the ongoing renovation works of the temple. Moodabidri-based historian Dr Pundikai Ganapayya Bhat, who examined the inscription, said: “It is a 900-year-old Kannada inscription that was found on the left of the sanctum sanctorum of the temple. It was used as a pedestal for the Nityabhisheka (daily worship) of the idol. It has a mention about Alupa ruler Kulashekara and his liegeman Biliveya Nambi.”
The inscription, 38 inches tall and 24 inch wide, has 20 lines of writing. Sculptures of two lions and a man along with a lady sitting between these lions are seen on the lower part of the inscription. A few scriptures in between have been damaged. It dates back to 1117 AD. Ganapayya said that the 14th line mentions Pandya Pattiga Deva which could be the title of the ruler — Kulashekara.
It has a mention of Alvakheda 6000, which means that the region was ruled by the Alupas. Three Veeragallus were also found. Dr B Rajashekarappa, a researcher from Chitradurga, has helped in understanding the inscription. The Alupas are a royal dynasty that ruled Tulunadu from 4th to 15th century. Kulashekaradeva was one of the prominent rulers of Alupa dynasty.
A brief history of Alupas
The Alupa of Tuluva race was a royal dynasty which ruled their native land, Tulunadu, which is now in coastal Karnataka. They independently ruled their kingdom, known as Alvakheda, since the beginning of the common era. Later, with the dominance of Kadambas from Banavasi, they became feudatory to them. With the changing political scenario, soon they became the vassals of the Chalukyas, Rashtrakutas, Hoysalas and Vijayanagara Rayas.
source: http://www.bangaloremirror.indiatimes.com / Bangalore Mirror / Home> News> State / Bangalore Mirror Bureau / September 20th, 2017
Monsoon Blues ? Art Doctors have the cure
Experts at Intach-CKP help treat artwork affected by the high humidity in air
For automobile mechanics, plumbers and doctors, monsoon is a busy time. In the city, however, there is a set of other specialists too, who get busy during this time in particular – working away at rain damage control for pieces of art.
When there is moisture in the air, fungus crops up in old paintings, murals, heirloom clothes and antique furniture. Art experts at Intach- Chitrakala Parishath Art Conservation Centre (ICKPAC) in Bengaluru are busy this time of the year with conservation and restoration work.
The centre with a small team of around 10, housed in Chitrakala Parishath premises, has its hands full with rain treatment as a good chunk of Bengalureans are art connoisseurs and possess a variety of heritage and heirloom articles, most of which could have been handed down over generations.
The little-known centre had earlier handled prestigious restoration projects, including the Velankani Church, Vidhana Soudha paintings and art pieces at Puttaparthi Sai Baba ashram. “Bengaluru’s weather is such that a lot of moisture is in the air during monsoon. This allows growth of fungus in paintings, furniture, clothes and art objects, which need to be treated. Treating is not a permanent solution but we can call it remedial conservation or preventive conservation. We have a team that has specialised in art conservation and we take up such work. It is highly niche work. People come to us with their old paintings, clothes, wooden work, murals and different kinds of art pieces, which we treat for fungus,’’ Madhu Rani, director of Intach Chitrakala Parishath Art Conservation Centre, told Bangalore Mirror.
The centre has done work not just in the state, but it also takes up work commissioned by other parts of South India. Their earlier work of restoring 300-year-old murals in Thiagarajaswamy temple, Tiruvarur, was a landmark project. These paintings go back to the Nayaka period and are on the ceiling of the thousand-pillared hall in Thiagarajaswami Temple premises. Conservation of mural paintings in Nalaknadu Palace, Kodaganadu, restoration of Mother Mary altar at Velankani church, are also noteworthy. The centre is carrying out restoration of the collections in Puttaparthi Sai Baba ashram — old European paintings gifted by Maharajas of Jamnagar.
“We are documenting all wall painting sites in Karnataka at palaces, temples or old houses. We have the inventory of such sites and are documenting the status of the paintings,’’ Rani said.
OPEN FOR ALL
On Saturday morning, a Parichay will be organised to introduce people to ICKPAC’s works — conservation of paintings, documents, temple murals and oil paintings. This will be led by Madhu Rani and her team. Rani will talk about how you can preserve your great-grandmother’s photograph, or that treasured letter written by your grandfather. Or may be a book that has been handed down generations. The Parichay will be held at Chitrakala Parishath and will be for about two hours. Those interested can mail intach.blr@gmail.com and the event comes with a nominal fee.
source: http://www.bangaloremirror.indiatimes.com / Bangaloremirror.com / Home> Bangalore> Others / by Kushala Satyanarayana / Bangalore Mirror Bureau / September 20th, 2017
The sweet taste of success
Honey is both the nectar from flowers and a term used to express endearment for someone’s sweetheart. The twain have combined more seamlessly for G Raju, an ace beekeeper from Harati village in Kolar district. What began as a labour of love years ago has turned into a lifetime passion. Travelling across the State, he maintains over 700 beehive boxes in farms, gardens, orchards and backyards.
Honeybees demand nothing from the beneficiaries except some space where their industriousness could blossom uninterrupted. And in turn, they help the farmers increase the yield through pollination.
Raju became interested in bees around the turn of the century while working in an apiary in Punjab. Back in Karnataka in 2001, he rented a house in Bengaluru and placed some beehive boxes in the green surroundings. Bees began to hover around and he saw the potential for adding more boxes. A session of training in Bhagamandala in Kodagu led him to take beekeeping as the main source of livelihood. He decided to place beehive boxes in different regions and began persuading farmers to install boxes in their farms.
Today, he maintains these boxes in places like Hiriyur, Kadur, Birur, Vijayapura, Nargund, Chitradurga and Bengaluru. He extracts 10 to 12 tonnes of honey annually and sells nearly 500 boxes per year. In a standard beehive box, the brood chamber has eight frames suspended from the roof. Generally, a beehive box seller would supply only four frames that would carry the parts of combs attached to them. This allows bees to build their combs in the remaining four empty frames.
Raju says that a beehive box can ideally yield 30 kg of honey in a year in rural areas. The farmers can extract honey every 20 days while in urban locales, these boxes may yield honey just thrice a year. Yield is generally high between November and March, as this is the flowering season.
Sunflower has come to be a major crop in farms right from Tumakuru to Vijayapura. In Birur, Kadur and Chikkamagaluru, where coffee estates abound, the bees mainly draw nectar from coffee flowers.
In the beginning, Raju used to sell the honey to Coorg Honey and Wax Producers’ Cooperative Society at Virajpet. Later, he set up his own honey filtering unit in Bengaluru and secured Agmark certificate for the bottled honey. While he supplies honey to retailers in various towns and cities, he also sets up a stall in events like Lalbagh Flower Show and agricultural fairs.
Acknowledging his achievement in the field, he was felicitated at GKVK recently. A tonne of honey fetches him nearly Rs two lakh. He says, he spends nearly 20 days of a month in the fields and farms across the State, creating awareness about beekeeping and providing farmers the initial training.
His wife Geetha is a constant companion in his pursuit in disseminating information on beekeeping. Their knowledge and consummate skills in beekeeping make them almost a mobile encyclopedia on apiculture. G Raju can be contacted on 9494695937.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> Supplements> Spectrum / by M A Siraj / September 18th, 2017
Conference on the depth and breadth of Ramayana
Scholars discuss versions of the epic and their influence on India and Southeast Asian countries
In a Kathakali performance staged in 1780 by Kallaikulangara Raghava Pisharoty, Ravana from the epic Ramayana takes centre stage. Set 10,000 years before Rama’s birth, the dance-drama depicts the story of Ravana’s ancestors, the downfall of the kingdom of the rakshasas, the birth of Ravana, his love for his mother and his great tapasya (austerity) to regain the lost glory of his clan.
The performance portrays Ravana, the villain of Valmiki’s Ramayana, in the most sympathetic light, bringing out the qualities of courage, resolution and strength of character. Rama is nowhere in the picture.
The Malaysian shadow play Wayang Kulit Kelantan draws influence from the oral folk versions of the Ramayana, which travelled beyond the shores of India. The role of Gods and saints is reduced drastically. Wayang Kulit portrays different versions of Ravana’s origin, including the one in which he is born in the heavens and banished to Earth. There he meets Adam and they divide the world among themselves.
These and many other versions of Ramayana and their influence on art, culture and social landscape of India and Southeast Asian countries were revisited by scholars at the two-day international conference on Connecting Cultures: Ramayana Retelling in South India and South East Asia, which was held at REVA University on September 14-15.
Stating that the manifestations of core themes of the Ramayana are complex and in need of detailed research, Dr. Ghulam-Sarwar Yousof from the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, said, “A lot of Malaysian, Thai and Indonesian versions of the Ramayana can be traced back to Krittivasi Ramayan, composed in 15th century Bengal.”
Malini Saran, independent scholar, presented a paper about the discourse on governance and ethics initiated in the first known Ramayana in Java called the Old Javanese Ramayana. “An emphasis on the spiritual and ethical rather than devotional values of Rama’s story in this version allowed imaginative interpretations, with its content and characters used as an allegory for contemporary situations.”
Cheryl Thiruchelvam, a PhD scholar from Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia, spoke about the emerging art forms, artistic practices, architecture in Malaysia that have origins from versions of the Ramayana. Citing examples of painters Nik Zainal Abidin, Syed Thajudeen and Loo Foh Sang, she discussed how they drew inspiration from Wayang Kulit (traditional puppet-shadow play in Indonesian culture) for their paintings.
Sessions were also held on retelling of Ramayana within the canon of Kannada literature and its multiple interpretations in the Yakshagana of coastal Karnataka.
Dr. Purushottama Bilimale spoke about the 60 episodes of Ramayana created by around 40 authors for Yakshagana performances. “All of these episodes are flexible depending on the time of performance, community and the artistes’ talent. Also versions differ in terms of music, poems and dance. With every Yakshagana performance, multiple versions of Ramayana are created on the stage,” he said.
The conference also deliberated on Ramayana narratives from the Hoysala to Vijayanagar empires, the influence of the epic on sculpture in medieval India such as Pallava and Pandya archaeology and artistic representations throughout India and Southeast Asia.
Before the conference began, participants observed silence for one minute in memory of journalist and activist Gauri Lankesh.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bengaluru / by Staff Reporter Bengaluru / September 17th, 2017