Monthly Archives: May 2020

South Western Railways distributes emergency food packets and Channapatna toys to migrant worker families

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Records, All

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Raushan Kumar, Divisional Commercial Manager, Bengaluru Division, South Western Railways, speaks about the Gantway Sathi Aahar and Put The Smile Back initiatives

“The train got delayed when we were about to reach Bihar. A route that should have taken two hours took 12. We were supposed to reach at 6 pm, but we arrived at 3 am,” says Sanjeev Kumar, a migrant worker who left this month from Bengaluru. “Had it not been for the emergency food packets provided to us at the Bangalore railway station, I don’t know what we would have done. We also received free servings of chitranna at Vishakhapatnam and upma at Vijayawada.”

The idea for Gantway Sathi Aahar (friend till destination) initiative, which provides emergency food packets in addition to cooked food, came to Raushan Kumar (27), Divisional Commercial Manager, Bengaluru Division, South Western Railways. Akhil Bhartiya Ekta Manch, United Sikhs, and IITians4India provided assistance in this endeavour. “Since trains were getting delayed, the migrant workers needed food packets that would sustain them during their journey,” says Raushan. That is when the idea for emergency food packets emerged. Bengaluru-based Sudhanshu Garg and Bikesh, alumnus of IIT Mumbai, and members of IIT4India, wanted to take action to help migrant workers instead of lamenting and criticising. Sudhanshu decided to speak with Raushan to see what they could do. “IITians4India is a group of IIT volunteers working on short term and long term high impact projects through the support of IITians across the globe,” says Sudhanshu. “Their first project is ‘Combat Food Bags for Migrants’ led by alumni of IIT Bombay, Bikesh and me. It started when the team wanted to do something to help the migrants as they commute. Sudhanshu reached out to the Railways department and that is how we contributed.”

Gantway Sathi Aahar food packets were thus provided in addition to cooked food. “They have a shelf life of more than three days and contain friend-till-destination food pack with litti (a delicacy in Bihar), four pieces of onion and green chillis, four buns, two one litre water bottles, two tetrapacks of juice, one biscuit packet, 250 grams of papdi namkin, two bananas and two chocolates. There were complaints that due to intense heatwaves migrant workers are suffering from dehydration. “So we have started to give one sachet of ORS (oral rehydration solution) to vulnerable sections, particularly lactating mothers, children and other women passengers,” says Raushan.

Considering the hardships migrant workers have faced ever since lockdown, with their arduous journey back home, either walking for thousands of kilometres without any money, food or water, or travelling packed in buses and trains, Raushan decided they could do more to uplift their spirits. “That is when we introduced the ‘Put The Smile Back’ initiative, in which we distribute Channapatna toys to children of the migrant workers. This way we not only uplift their spirits but also rejuvenate the local business of Channapatna toy makers. I had received a letter of appreciation from the Channapatna Toy Makers Association. Till now we have purchased toys worth ₹1 lakh. I am also trying to promote the toys in other states too. We have received orders from officers in Rajasthan, Pune and Ranchi.”

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Society / by Sravasti Datta / May 30th, 2020

Capgemini’s Delaporte to take over as Wipro CEO and MD

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Thierry Delaporte.
Thierry Delaporte.

Frenchman had spent 25 years with the consulting firm

Wipro Limited on Friday appointed Thierry Delaporte as its new CEO and MD. The appointment is effective from July 6.

In a regulatory filing, Wipro said: “Until recently, Thierry Delaporte was the chief operating officer of Capgemini Group and a member of its group executive board. During his 25-year career with Capgemini, he held several leadership roles including that of the CEO of the global financial services strategic business unit, and head of all global service lines. He also oversaw Capgemini’s India.”

Mr. Delaporte will be based in Paris and report to chairman Rishad Premji. The company’s current CEO and MD Abidali Neemuchwala will relinquish his position on June 1.

Commenting on Wipro’s new French connection, global analysts who know Mr. Delaporte, say: the new leader comes with a strong finance background and he will be able to bring operational and financial discipline at Wipro. They also said that culture too won’t be a big challenge for Mr. Delaporte as he worked with several companies of diverse cultures, although culture fit’ is a major `concern’ and `criteria’ for CXO selection for many family-driven businesses in India as well as globally.

Thierry is a global leader and has worked with multiple cultures, across different types of companies. He has experience in the international environment and worked in similar types of company cultures,’’ said Ray Wang, principal analyst, founder and chairman of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research Inc,. Commenting on the appointment, Peter Bendor-Samuel, CEO, Everest Group, said, “[Mr.] Thierry is an interesting choice for Wipro, signalling its move to be a true multinational and global player. [Mr.] Thierry faces many challenges as he assumes Wipro leadership; the biggest amongst them is to get Wipro back to industry-leading growth. To achieve this, he must increase accountability, and streamline decision making.”

Phil Fersht, CEO and chief analyst at London-based HFS Research, said, “He is an ambitious business leader with a strong finance background. He will bring strong operational and fiscal discipline to Wipro and has a lot of energy and leadership capabilities.”

As per analysts, everything has quickly changed, in a post pandemic world, including market realities, business challenges, customer needs and work culture and with these also changed the role, priorities and focus of global tech leaders.

On the priorities in front of Wipro’s new leader, as per analysts, the challenges going forward are to bring the vast elements of Wipro together onto accounts. There are many opportunities for multiple teams to work with clients at the same time and gain synergies.

This requires a relook at how industries are organised as they get collapsed post pandemic. For example, manufacturing, retail, and distribution are very similar today just like telecom, media, entertainment, and technology. Those collapsed value chains will change how companies like Wipro service these industries,’’ added Mr Wang. According to Mr. Fersht, Thierry has an immediate challenge of creating a renewed strategy for Wipro and bringing in some new leadership in various areas. “He will likely look to restructure the firm as it seeks to develop a “digital workplace” delivery model for the post-COVID environment that caters for intense cost pressures, remote staff and rapid transformation that many clients demand.”

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Business> India / by Mini Tejaswi / Bengaluru – May 29th, 2020

Mangalore musicians Ashwin Shriyan and Nishith Hegde come up with new single

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Ashwin and Nishith, apart from composing jingles, have worked with several Hindi film singers

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Ashwin Shriyan and Nishith Hegde have known each other since 2010. The two were a part of their respective metal bands then. The former as a bassist-producer-composer and the latter, primarily a guitarist. And, they have been working together on and off until last year when they started Nash Productions that primarily makes ad jingles. The musicians from Mangalore never released a single. One wonders why it took a decade and a pandemic to release their first, ‘Ye Pal’, which will be out on major audio streaming platforms in the first week of June.

Ashwin clarfies, “We were actually done with composing a year ago. We planned to make a bunch of songs, approach a director and get into film music. We had some ad work, which stalled the release. When we saw a lot of independent musicians releasing their tracks, we got inspired and decided we’ll release this one.”

He got the idea for ‘Ye Pal’ after watching The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013) wherein the protagonist Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller), who is used to a monotonous life, sets out on an extraordinary adventure. The song, too, is kind of a dream-realising act for Ashwin and Nishith.

Nishith, who has sung the song, says, “I immediately liked the idea of the song when Ashwin told me about it. We have always been working on others’ ideas or creative inputs. For the first time, we were doing something that was our own.” Ashwin’s friend Shardul Yadav wrote the lyrics and another friend, Prasanna Suresh, programmed the song.

“It was easier for us to work on a song than to make jingles,” says Nishith. “Song-writing is something that comes naturally to us. With jingles, the message is more important. You are supposed to convey a certain emotion within a short time. A song on the other hand gives you more freedom.”

Ashwin and Nishith have worked on jingles for brands including Mastercard, Cadbury India, Renault and Van Huesen. The duo, apart from composing jingles, have worked with several Hindi film musicians including Amit Mishra, Siddharth Mahadevan, Akasa Singh, Jonita Gandhi and Nikita Gandhi.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Entertainment> Music / by Praveen Sudevan / May 26th, 2020

Tulu poems and renditions trending on Facebook

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A screenshot of the #Tulukabhite campaign started by writer-cum-artiste Shashiraj Kavoor on Facebook.

A screenshot of the #Tulukabhite campaign started by writer-cum-artiste Shashiraj Kavoor on Facebook.

It Is not just #samyochane [a campaign initiated by music composer Pravin D. Rao] that is trending on Facebook. #Tulukabithe, by writer-cum-artiste Shashiraj Kavoor, is catching the attention of poets, writers, singers and music lovers on the social networking site.

The campaign was started by Mr. Kavoor on April 23 inviting writers to upload their poems, to which musicians are responding in their style.

The campaign features not just new poems but even those of well-known writers such as Kayyar Kiyanna Rai, Amruth Someshwar and Mandara Keshava Bhat.

Mr. Kavoor, an advocate and who has been a lyricist for many Tulu films and has two Tulu poem collections to his credit, said that the idea of starting the campaign came to him after he saw how two of his Kannada poems were rendered by four singers in the #samyochane campaign.

“This made me start the present campaign to showcase the richness of Tulu literature. Apart from a new touch to the popular Tulu poems, singers have presented new poems in a way that reflects the ethos of this land,” he said and appreciated the support of 20,000 friends [on Facebook] for the success of the campaign.

“Some of the videos of the songs posted on my FB wall have more than 2,000 views,” he said.

Among the songs with a good number of views include the Tulu lullaby Tunkuve Tottil… by Narayana Kille sung by Supriya Raghunandan. Songs by Pallavi Prabhu, Ravindra Prabhu, Muralidhar Kamat, Pramod Sapre and “Mime” Ramdas have also been well received.

“I am continuing this campaign till the end of the lockdown. Anybody with interest in Tulu art and music can take part,” he added.

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Shashiraj Kavoor started #Tulukabithe after two of his poems were rendered on #samyochane campaign

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source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Karnataka / by Raghava M / Mangaluru – May 29th, 2020

NLSIU alumni help migrant workers travel from Mumbai to Ranchi

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Arrange charter flight on Sunday; another to Bhubaneshwar planned for Wednesday

Joining in citizens’ efforts to help stranded migrant workers reach home, alumni of the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru successfully sent home 180 workers from Mumbai to Ranchi on Sunday. This was the second chartered flight arranged by the alumni between the two destinations; the first one on May 28 helped 174 people reach home.

The ‘NLS mission aahan vahaan’ was conceptualised by the NLSIU Bengaluru batch of 2000. One of them, Priyanka Roy, who now has a corporate law practice in Mumbai, told The Hindu that they decided to focus on regions that are not easily accessible from Mumbai.

“There is a huge database of workers from every State. We were largely concentrating on the eastern States because they are not easily accessible from Mumbai. On Wednesday, another flight will carry workers from Mumbai to Bhubaneshwar,” she said.

The alumni ruled out buses and railways as the former would mean long and tedious journeys while the latter would end their intervention with handing over a list of names to the authorities concerned.

“We wanted to make a meaningful intervention and fill in the gap. So we started talking to airlines. We decided to charter flights. The Jharkhand government has been making great arrangements for last-mile connectivity due to which people are able to reach home in 24 hours. We are working with a lot of NGOs too,” Ms. Roy said.

On Sunday’s flight, there were infants as young as 17 days old, as well as a senior citizen, who does not even own a phone but was able to reach the airport after a cab was arranged for her.

The first flight was entirely crowd-funded by the NLS alumni network, but since then they have been getting funding from corporates and others for subsequent initiatives.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bengaluru / by Staff Reporter / May 31st, 2020

Two Mangaluru hospitals get ICMR nod for COVID-19 testing

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ICMRbf23may2020

Experts from both hospitals have been trained at NIMHANS

Father Muller Medical College Hospital in the city and K.S. Hegde Hospital in Deralakatte have received approval from ICMR for conducting COVID-19 sample tests.

The laboratories at both the hospitals have begun conducting RT-PCR method of testing for COVID-19.

Experts from both the hospitals have undergone special training at NIMHANS, which is the mentor institute for COVID testing in the State, the hospitals said in separate press releases.

The release from Father Muller Medical College Hospital said that the test will be done only for suspected cases as per ICMR protocol on prescription by physicians with proper documentation using ICMR RT-PCR app.

A dedicated kiosk for sample collection is also available at the hospital for out-patients. Specimens are transported to the laboratory through proper cold chain and safety protocols, the release said.

K.S. Hegde Hospital said that Amit Kelgi from its Department of Microbiology has been appointed as the Nodal officer of the testing facility The Viral Transport Medium would be provided to all recognised health centres free of cost to collect the throat swab sample. Tests will be done at affordable cost as per government guidelines and test results will be reported by expert staff on the same day, the release said.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Mangaluru / by Special Correspondent / Mangaluru – May 23rd, 2020

Ananya Cultural Academy celebrates its silver jubilee

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Founder RV Raghavendra speaks of the exhaustive library, the 2,500 programmes in the last 25 years and the help extended to musicians during the lockdown

RV Raghavendra, founder of the Ananya Cultural Academy, which turns 25 today, (May 27) was disturbed by the plight of musicians and performers who had no means of earning a livelihood during the lockdown to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. Raghavendra organized financial assistance to deserving artists helping nearly 105 artistes throughout Karnataka. “We will be disbursing around ₹12 lakh to people connected with music, dance, folk arts and light music. We have distributed ₹7 lakh from March.”

The monetary help was possible through donations from Raghavendra, Ananya’s Arogyadhara Medical Help Scheme and through donations. “Just one announcement on Facebook garnered an unprecedented response from the music-loving public.”

Ananya is a self-funded, non-profit cultural organization. It was established in 1995 to propagate and nurture different art forms. Jnanpith Awardee Dr. UR Ananthamurthy was its founder-chairman. Since its inception, Ananya has been working in the fields of music, dance, literature and painting.

“Our activities are multi-dimensional. We organise music, dance and visual art (Ananya Drishya) shows. We have individual performances, festivals, lec-dems, workshops, thematic programmes and interactive sessions. We have a well-defined space for young and upcoming artistes. With artist SG Vasudev as the present chairman, we look back at over 2,500 programmes in the last 25 years.”

After a Masters in Geology from University of Mysore in 1973, Raghavendra obtained PhD in Geo-Chemistry from IISC in Bengaluru. He established Geological and Metallurgical Laboratories (GML), an industrial test house for various industrial materials, in 1980. “The profits from the business helped me run Ananya all these years.”

Born in 1952 in Chitradurga to RN Viprakallachar and Susheela Bai, Raghavendra says though he does not come from a musical background, his mother’s informal renderings of devotional songs at home did have a strong bearing on his personality. “After moving to Mysore for my Post Graduation, I started attending concerts. Coming to Bangalore only increased my craving for all genres of music and dance. I soon became a member of every possible music club in the city.”

Ananya has been publishing Ananya Kalasinchana, a music magazine in English for 23 years. The magazine is now available for free online. “My wife, Pramila Bai, a former professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at IISc, helps me run the magazine. We have articles on music, dance, literature and interviews. We have a 7,000-strong subscription base.”

Raghavendra has over the years collected books, audio-clips and photos of classical musicians. To make the collection accessible to the public he started Ananya Sangraha, a reference library, in West Park Road, Malleswaram. “People who attended our concerts at Ananya auditorium in Malleswaram were encouraged to make use of the material at Ananya Sangraha.”

The collection includes nearly 15,000 hours of live programmes and rare recordings by yesteryear and present day artistes. “I started collecting music three decades ago. Audio recordings such as composer Mysore Vasudevachar’s vocal rendering of kritis, Mysore composers’ Javalis, pieces by Mallikarjun Mansur, Violin Chowdiah, Veena Doreswamy Iyengar, Rudrapatnam RK Srikantan, Alathur Brothers, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, Lalgudi and MSG amongst others are part of the collection. We have digitised almost 6,000 hours of music as of now. Music from South Asian countries including Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Nepal in several dialects are part of the collection, which has music in nearly 25 languages.”

Ananya Sangraha also has a vast collection of books — nearly 10,000 titles including rare ones such as a Kannada translation of Subbarama Dikshitar’s Sangeeta Sampradaya Pradarshini by Anandarama Udupa and edited by SK Ramachandra Rao. “This is one of Dikshitar’s greatest works. Practicing musicians, theorists, editors and publishers have continuously drawn inspiration from it. We are lucky to have this monumental work in translation.” Ananya also has the work of nearly 50 composers, books on instrument playing techniques and sahitya (lyrics) ideologies.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Entertainment> Art / by Ranjani Govind / May 27th, 2020

ITI Ltd. makes face shields; to be provided to healthcare setups, local administration

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The company plans to provide face shields to airports, municipal corporations, police departments, state governments, corporates in the second phase

To strengthen the government’s Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan and to prevent the spread of coronavirus, ITI Limited, a public sector undertaking under the Ministry of Communications, has started manufacturing face shields at its Bengaluru-based unit.

The 3D designed face shield provides protection to the facial area including eyes, nose and mouth from sprays and droplets. The indigenous face shield allows for hassle-free respiration.

Commenting on the steps taken by the company, R.M. Agarwal, Chairman & Managing Director, ITI Limited, said, “ITI has joined the fight against coronavirus as the number of positive cases in the country are increasing everyday and being country’s first PSU we have an obligation to extend help to corona warriors across the country. The company is now capable of producing half a million face shields a month which may be extended to 1.5 million face shields per month in the coming days”.

“In the first phase, the company is providing these face shields to various healthcare setups, educational institutes, NGOs and local administrations on complementary basis. In the second phase, we are planning to provide these to various organisations such as airports, municipal corporations, police departments, state governments, corporates etc.,” Mr. Agarwal added.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bengaluru / by Special Correspondent / Bengaluru – May 26th, 2020