The KSRTC felicitated environmentalist Tulsi Gowda, who was recently honoured with the Padma Shri award.
Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi, who holds the transport portfolio, felicitated the ‘Encyclopedia of Forest’.
The award includes Rs 25,000 in cash and a lifetime free bus pass.
Savadi also honoured 47 women employees from the KSRTC’s 17 divisions for their work.
The corporation said it had taken up women-friendly initiatives such as installing sanitary napkin vending machines and incinerators at 10 bus stations.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> City> Life in Bengaluru / by DHNS, Bengaluru / March 11th, 2020
Once the youngest CEO in the world, Bengaluru boy Suhas Gopinath tells CE how he’s had to be “shamelessly aggressive” to reach where he has.
Bengaluru :
If you believe in something, chase it. That’ what Suhas Gopinath believes in. The 33-year-old is the CEO and chairman of Globals Inc., an IT multinational that is into development of mobile and cloud-based applications, and cybersecurity products. He became a part of the corporate world at the age of 14, three years after which he became the CEO of the company he set up, thereby getting the moniker of being the ‘world’s youngest CEO’.
Putting his belief into practice, Gopinath recalls running after Bill Gates at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2010. “I saw him heading towards the restroom and realised that an encounter there would be my only chance to meet him. He gave me a piece of advice that I often go back to today as well: The past is a thief, if you allow it, it will steal your present and future,” he says. Other instances include an orchestrated appointment with an IAS officer, by requesting their PA for the officer’s flight number, which he then booked a ticket for as well. “As introverted as I am in my personal life, that’s how ‘shamelessly aggressive’ I am in my professional endeavours,” he admits.
His age has always been a talking point, raising eyebrows even to this day. Remarks about a boy who didn’t even have a moustache but was running his own company was something he often heard. “Even when I was in my mid-20s and would meet policy makers, they would want to meet the CEO. And when I’d tell them it was me, they would ask to meet my father,” he says, adding that the whole start-up ecosystem and the idea of entrepreneurship is changing now. “Entrepreneurship wasn’t considered cool back in the day, unlike the way it is now,” he says.
Gopinath’s interest in the world of technology started as a young boy who would accompany his brother to the cyber cafe. While peers would often be seen playing games and understanding the concept of e-mails, Gopinath wondered why he couldn’t develop “something like Hotmail,” and would wonder why he couldn’t be a contributor instead of a consumer.
So he’d spend time on groups for developers (something along the lines of Yahoo chat groups) where he would discuss the nuances of technology with people from around the world. “One of those times, a person in the US asked if I would join his company and he was quite taken aback that so far, he had been in conversation with someone who was barely in high school,” he recalls, adding that parents of his friends would often advise his parents that their son should concentrate on school work rather than his “hobby club”.
But he firmly felt he had to do what he had to do, and has no regrets for the way his life has panned out. But realising that he missed a part of his growing years – learning an instrument, playing a sport – he has taken to picking up those skills now. “And whenever time permits, I watch cartoons like Popeye, Mickey Mouse, Lion King and Aladdin, all of which I now realise have so many underlying meanings,” he says, adding that the lockdown has taught him cooking and cocktail making as well.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Vidya Iyengar / Express News Services / April 30th, 2020
Donning Personal Protective Equipment, a typical day lasted from 9am to 5pm with a lunch break nearly towards the close of his duty.
Dr Ishan Capoor
Bengaluru :
When Dr Ishan Capoor signed up for an MD in respiratory medicine, he couldn’t have imagined that he would be one of the medical professionals at the frontline when the world is confronted with a pandemic. “I wanted to be part of this and help in whatever small way,” says the 32-year-old consultant pulmonologist with Narayana Health, who is now in quarantine. Over the last week, Capoor was stationed at the OPD, screening 20-25 patients daily, with some showing COVID-19 symptoms. “The process was streamlined and based on the symptoms, doctors took a call on the next course of action,” he says.
Donning Personal Protective Equipment, a typical day lasted from 9am to 5pm with a lunch break nearly towards the close of his duty. With the PPE come a host of challenges, including going long hours without a restroom break. But those were not concerns for Capoor, who was prepared mentally. His parents were supportive too. “I discussed it with them, and they stood by my decision,” he says.
With the virus being asymptomatic, Capoor says you never know what’s coming your way. “But that doesn’t mean that I was really worried at any point. It’s important to stay engaged mentally,” says the doctor who has been staying at the hospital since he started screening patients. He will do so for the next two weeks when his self-quarantine concludes.
Now, Capoor has one piece of advice to stay calm: Switch off, and don’t overthink.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Vidya Iyengar / Express News Service / April 29th, 2020
Winnifred F. Fernandes. Photo: Special Arrangement
Winnifred F. Fernandes, former MLA and MLC, and senior Congress leader, passed away after a brief illness at Kundapur in Udupi district on Tuesday. She was 91.
She was elected MLA from Kundapur Assembly Constituency in 1967 and 1972. She had served as MLC from 2000 to 2006. She also served as the President of Kundapur town municipality.
She began her career in the Praja Socialist Party and later joined the Congress party. She is survived by three sons and three daughters.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> States> Karnataka / by Special Correspondent / Udupi – April 28th, 2020
The Bengaluru International Centre, Domlur, in collaboration with Prof D S Achutarao History Endowment, has organised a programme on Tuesday to pay tributes to Dr Shadakshari Settar, a well-known historian. Settar passed away on February 28.
Aerospace scientist Roddam Narasimha, translator Vanamala Viswanatha, writer Rajendra Chenni and historians Shivasharanappa, K Aruni and H S Gopala Rao and D A Prasanna, the convener of the Endowment, will speak on the occasion.
The event will begin at 6.30 pm.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> City> Life in Bengaluru / by DHNS, Bengalurur / March 10th, 2020
At a time hospitals are overcrowded with patients getting tested for COIVD-19, there’s fear of contracting the virus right at the corridors of the hospital.
Bengaluru :
At a time hospitals are overcrowded with patients getting tested for COIVD-19, there’s fear of contracting the virus right at the corridors of the hospital. Six students from Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT) had the answer which got them the second prize at the recently-concluded CODE19 online hackathon. The 72-hour hackathon, revolving around the pandemic, was hosted by the Silicon Valley-based Motwani Jadeja Family Foundation. Jithin Sunny, Joel Jogy George, Rohan Rout, Rakshit Naidu, Megha Baid and Shivangi Shukla bagged $5,000 for their solution, TeleVital, which captures a patient’s vital statistics (heart rate, respiratory rate, temperature) remotely through a web cam and browser.
“After consulting doctors, we realised that vital statistics are the deciding factor if a patient needs hospitalisation,” says Sunny, adding that they built a system to check if a person is a virus carrier through their AI-based chatbot, which checks travel history and other symptoms.
The winning entry was of Abhinand C and Shilpa Rajeev from Government College of Engineering,Kannur, who bagged $10,000 for the idea involving a modern virtual classroom. Called iClassroom, it connects students with teachers through a social media-type interface. “It makes learning easier,” says Abhinand.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Express News Service / April 28th, 2020
A top-ranking military officer from Karnataka was given command of the strategically located Chinar Corps (15 Corps) on Monday.
Lieutenant General BS Raju, an alumnus of the Sainik School, Vijayapura, and the National Defence Academy, Pune, is the 49th officer to command the corps which has its origins in World War I.
He was commissioned in December 1984 and has had a career spanning 36 years, with five tenures spent in Jammu and Kashmir. Notably, he was the Force Commander of the Rashtriya Rifles and the Brigade Commander of an Infantry Brigade on the Line of Control.
The previous commander of the Corps, Lt-Gen Kanwal Jeet Singh Dhillon, had been placed to witness a number of historic events such as abrogation of Article 370 and the Pulwama attack.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> City> Life in Bengaluru / bu DHNS, Bengaluru / March 03rd, 2020
Apollo, an iPhone app for COVID-19 testing and research, has been developed by a company headed by a native of Mysuru, Siddarth Satish.
CEO of Gauss Surgical, Siddarth Satish
CEO of Gauss Surgical, Siddarth Satish, is the grandson of Mysuru-based industrialist and art patron K V Murthy. He is the son of Padma (second daughter of Murthy) and M N Satish, who have settled in the USA. Siddarth resides in California.
Dr Prathibha Pereira, his aunt, said that Siddarth studied up to second standard at St Joseph’s School in Jayalakshmipuram. He is an alumnus of the University of California, Berkeley (BS in Chemical Engineering); the University of California, San Francisco (MS in Bioengineering); and Stanford University (SIMDesign Fellow).
Siddarth founded Gauss Surgical in 2011 and served as CTO and chairman initially. He then served as an Entrepreneur In Residence at StartX, Stanford’s Startup Accelerator, and as a SIMdesign Fellow at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He has over 50 issued or pending patents on medical technologies and has raised $50 million in venture capital funding.
As leaders in the healthcare artificial intelligence (AI) space, Siddarth and his team wanted to help during the COVID-19 crisis and quickly began collaborating with researchers at Stanford and observing COVID-19 testing facilities in the Bay Area.
After spending time embedded at a testing facility, Siddarth said, he found the current testing process to be heavily paper-based and observed that it exposed testers to potential risks as they interacted closely with patients.
“An iPhone-based testing solution could reduce the exposure to risk at testing centers and make the overall process much faster. The app optimises the existing testing procedures by eliminating paperwork, reducing the need for direct contact between patients and staff. This also helps to reduce the use of precious PPE resources,” he said.
Design Award
Gauss Surgical’s life-saving Triton App, which monitors surgical bleeding using iPhones, had earlier won the Apple Design Award, which reflects the best in design, innovation, and technology on Apple platforms.
“We embarked on Apollo, as we felt that our expertise in clinical-grade digital decision-support tools enables us to build a tool for screening and triage of Covid-19. We teamed up with Evive Care, a national database of COVID-19 test centers to develop the app, which includes Stanford Medicine’s Apollo Covid-19 Screening Survey (Apollo Study),” said Siddarth.
Gauss is among a large group of Stanford alumni, scientists, and physicians participating in the StartX Med COVID-19 Task Force.
Apollo integrates tools that work across the current testing process. It is designed so that a person can analyse one’s symptoms and if necessary, drive to the closest testing centre. A tool locates one’s closest available testing centre on a map. It has tools for communication between the tester and tested.
The self-diagnostic checks whether the potential patient has already transacted and then send the report via the app to the testing agent, reducing duplication of the same process. The data is available in the form of a QR code (the ‘Apollo Pass’) on the screen of the patient’s iPhone, which is read by the equivalent app on the tester’s smartphone. The patients can share their information while the car windows remain shut, minimising contact time with the tester.
Once the patient sample is collected, the tester adds the kit to Apollo and sends the sample to test. Results can be quickly shared, once the procedure is completed. Apollo COVID-19 is available in 10 languages, most commonly spoken in the United States. The app can be downloaded for free on the Apple App Store or at https://covid19.gauss.com.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> State> Mysuru / by T R Satish Kumar, DHNS, Mysuru / April 27th, 2020
Members of the Naguvanahalli Gram Panchayat in Srirangapatna taluk firmly believe that representatives of panchayat raj institutions should not work for the sake of awards. If they discharge their roles and responsibilities with dedication, their hard work will be honoured suitably.
The 19-member gram panchayat, half of them women, in Mandya district has been chosen for the Gram Panchayat Development Plan Award (GPDPA), a national award, for its immense contribution towards rural development in its region.
The annual awards being given by the Panchayat Raj Ministry, for the season 2018-19, were announced in Delhi on Wednesday.
Several hundreds of panchayats had competed for the GPDPA and of them 24 from various States and Union Territories have been selected. Sanjeeb Patjoshi, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Panchayat Raj, Government of India, announced the list.
Aggressiveness
The members and staffs at the panchayat are known for their aggressiveness in implementing government-sponsored schemes. They regularly conduct meetings to discuss the issues for the development of villages as well to monitor the progress/process of implementation of government schemes.
The panchayat has procured its own vehicle to collect solid waste, distributed separate bins to every household in its limits for segregating dry and wet waste, installed solar-powered street lights and low power-consuming high mast street lamp posts, and set up a digital library, H.G. Yogesh, visually impaired Panchayat Development Officer (PDO), at the GP, told The Hindu.
Educating the representatives through a projector, discussing widely about the plans and programmes with the members before the implementation, maintaining cleanliness by using weed cutter and other equipment, recording the development programmes/execution of plans through handycam, imposition of blanket ban on the use of plastic bags, and effectively implementing the development schemes are some of the proactive measures being implemented by the GP for rural development.
Questionnaire
The Ministry had assessed the achievements of the panchayat by seeking details with 100 questions. A team from the ministry had also visited Naguvanahalli and other places in February this year.
Naguvanahalli, Naguvanahalli Colony, Rajiv Gandhi Nagar, Chandagalu, Belawadi, Brahmapura and Bommuru Agrahara fall under this panchayat. The total population is 7,029.
President B.R. Nandakumar, computer operator P. Manjula, panchayat secretary S. Shivalingaiah, bill collector M.P. Lakshman, and every member and staff are striving for the development of the villages, the PDO said.
Speaking to The Hindu here, Mandya Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer K. Yalakki Gowda lauded the staff of the Naguvanahalli Grama Panchayat for their contribution.
The award distribution programme is expected to be held after the withdrawal of COVID-19 lockdown.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Karnataka / by M.T. Shiva Kumar / Mandya, April 24th, 2020
(from left) Sanchi Poovaya, Ranjana Nair and Aardra Kannan Ambili)
Mysore/Mysuru:
Unique among many medical solutions offered to combat COVID-19 is the new breathing monitor for Coronavirus patients developed by a Bengaluru-based start-up RayIoT and it is a matter of pride that a Kodagu-born and Mysuru-educated innovator is behind the device.
She is Ammanichanda Sanchi Poovaya, a young but experienced engineer, innovator and entrepreneur. She co-founded healthcare start-up RayIoT Solutions Inc. and is the Chief Operating Officer of the start-up that has already made a mark in innovative healthcare products.
Her start-up creates innovative healthcare and baby-tech products using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet-of-Things (IoT) technologies. Very recently, Sanchi Poovaya and her other two co-founders Aardra Kannan Ambili (Chief Technology Officer) and Ranjana Nair (Co-founder and CEO) built a remote respiration monitoring system for COVID-19 patients that allows doctors to remotely monitor less critical patients while seriously ill ones get more attention.
Connected workflow sends alerts to the doctor in case of any abnormal variations in the patient’s vitals. With the high effectiveness of using respiration rate as a predictive vital, early detection especially among at-risk caregivers is a possibility.
“It is a non-contact, Wi-Fi enabled, affordable respiration rate monitor for Coronavirus patients that can run as mini ICU units. In its current form, RayIoT will work as a mini ICU monitoring unit. The algorithms of Artificial Intelligence will allow doctors and other health professionals to track the respiration rate of multiple patients through an app from anywhere in the world,” Sanchi Poovaya said.
In a pandemic like COVID-19 where doctors are falling ill with excessive patient inflow, and the management of quarantined patients have become difficult, the device wirelessly tracks patient’s respiration rate, heart rate, blood pressure and temperature.
Since all the devices can be connected to one central database, using RayIoT, healthcare professionals can monitor more than one lakh patients at a time continuously. By just tracking respiration rate, they will be able to intelligently categorise quarantined patients into mild, severe, and critical cases, she said.
“The idea of a remote respiration monitoring system came to us when a celebrity, who was converting his 14-room sprawling bungalow into a quarantine facility, reached out to us. His problem was remote access to doctors, nurses and medical equipment to fully equip his quarantine facility.”
The team had to come up with a low-cost solution that could monitor the vitals of hundreds of patients at any given point of time and connect to doctors through video when the patients are moving into a severe or critical stage. “The solution also helped Government Task Forces who are monitoring huge swathes of population by providing them a single source of truth with our quarantine database,” Sanchi reveals.
RayIoT has been created by same team that is behind Raybaby (the world’s first non-contact sleep and breathing monitor for babies. This product has won many awards and was mentioned in CNN as one of the must have home gadgets.
Ammanichanda Sanchi Poovaya completed her schooling at Good Shepherd, Ammathi in Kodagu, and JSS Public School, Mysuru. She completed her Mechanical Engineering at the National Institute of Engineering (NIE), Mysuru and MS in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University, New York.
Sanchi Poovaya is the daughter of Ammanichanda Sunil Poovaya (ex-Merchant Navy) and Shiela Poovaya (Pattada, Betoli). They live in Hosur, Bengaluru.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Covid News / April 26th, 2020
