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Mandya zila parishad bags national award
“The credit goes to all those who strove hard to take the administration to the grassroots.”
Mysuru :
The Mandya zilla panchayat has won the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Panchayat Sashaktikaran Puraskar (DDUPSP), a national award given by the Ministry of Panchayat Raj to the best performing ZPs across the country.
Mandya is the only district from Karnataka to bag the award which comes with a cash prize of Rs 50 lakh.
Expressing happiness, ZP CEO K Yalakki said, “The focus on improving the civic services in the district along with special attention to segregation of waste, plastic-free panchayats, social sector performance, e-governance and many other aspects helped us fare well,” he said.
MP Sumalatha Ambareesh said, “The credit goes to all those who strove hard to take the administration to the grassroots.”
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Karnataka / by Express News Service / June 18th, 2020
Bicycle Alliance launched with vision of one crore cycles
To boost the city’s bicycle population, Bicycle Alliance has been launched in Bengaluru with a unique ‘Vision One Crore.’
The big objective is to get Bengalureans own one crore bicycles in the years to come so that cycling becomes second nature to all.
Launched as part of the World Bicycle Day on Wednesday, the vision was propelled by a disturbing piece of statistics: As the city’s first bicycle mayor Sathya Sankaran put it: “India is witnessing very slow growth in bicycle ownership and a decline in the use of bicycles as a form of mobility,” he said citing a report by TERI, 2014.
Between 2001 and 2011, the share of bicycle-owning households has increased by a mere 1%. “The corresponding share in rural areas has increased by 3.4%, whereas in urban areas it has declined by 4.1%. (TERI, 2018).”
Various estimates put the stock of bicycles in Bengaluru to be anywhere between 10 lakh and 30 lakhs. However, as Sankaran informed, most are lying unused. “The bicycling mode share in the city is estimated at 3%.”
The Bicycle Alliance is a collaborative of bicycle retailers, cyclists, corporates, government agencies and the community, spearheaded by the city’s bicycle mayor.
Under the Vision One Crore, the Alliance will aim to provide the people with information on events designed to help them make the switch to owning and riding a bicycle in the city. “We will identify ways to promote bicycling via engagement and technology platforms.”
The retailers will provide feedback that would help measure the success of the campaign. Nine flagship bicycle retailers in Bengaluru have already shown joined this alliance with more on the way, Sankaran informed.
Among the retailers are BumsOnTheSaddle, Track & Trail, CycleWorld, Cadence90, Pedal In Tandem, iCycle, Crankmeister Bicycle Works, Wheelsports and Jayant Probikes.
The Alliance, he said, will support the flagship #ResetWithCycling campaign that brings together government, citizens and businesses to make bicycling a means of recovery in the post-Covid world.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home>City> Life in Bengaluru / by Rasheed Kappan / DHNS / June 04th, 2020
Manipal doctors perform complex kidney transplant during lockdown
Doctors at Manipal Hospitals have successfully treated a 43-year-old patient from Kolkata suffering from kidney failure.
Noted nephrologist Dr Ravi Jangamani, along with urologists Dr Deepak Dubey, Dr Shivashankar R and Dr Somanna, cardiothoracic vascular surgeon Dr Devananda N S, anaesthesiologist Dr Navneetan and the team carried out the complex kidney transplant recently.
The patient, Jinmay Kundu, had a familial kidney disease called Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease, which resulted in kidney failure. He had multiple complications, urgently needed a kidney transplant and also required blood for the surgery.
His condition had worsened during the lockdown. Kundu also had bad blood vessels with a 90% narrowing of the lower aorta, leading to poor blood supply in the lower part of the body, which made it difficult for the kidney transplant.
The surgery was the first-of-its-kind kidney transplant at Manipal Hospitals. The patient is stable.
“This was one of the most technically challenging kidney transplants one can imagine. Coupled with this challenge was the anxiety related to the Covid 19 infection around us. The patient had diseased blood vessels and the only option was to use a synthetic graft,” Dr Dubey, HoD and Consultant, Surgical Urology, Robotic Surgery and Renal Transplantation Department, said in a statement.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> City / by DHNS, Bengaluru / June 14th, 2020
Hubballi railway platform in Karnataka to be world’s longest
The Hubballi railway station will have the world’s longest platform within one year when the existing 550-metre long Platform No 1 will be extended to 1,400 metres.
Platform No 1 of South Western Railway’s Hubballi railway station which is an inspection carriage line, is being converted into a full platform of 1,400-metre length and 10-metre width. Presently, Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh has the longest platform in the world at 1,366 metres.
The Hubballi yard has five platforms, and trains can be dispatched in one direction only at the same time. The Hubballi yard is being remodelled to increase the number of platforms from the existing 5 to 8. This work is being done as part of the Hubballi-Bengaluru line doubling project.
A third entrance is coming up for the station too.
The cost of the works is Rs 90 crore for yard remodelling, signalling, electrical, building work and other works. Work on the project has began and will be completed in the next one year, said SWR chief public relations officer E Vijaya.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> State> Karnataka Districts / by DHNS, Hubballi / June 04th, 2020
Bengaluru’s Mitti Cafe wins Bumble Grant Program 2020
Mitti Cafe founder explains how the grant helped them kickstart their COVID-19 relief work
Mitti Cafe is one of the winners of the Bumble Grant Program launched in March 2020, to support women-led small businesses. The Bengaluru café is run by people with physical and intellectual disabilities, and claims that the grant helped Mitti kick-start its COVID-19 relief work.
“Food is the need of the hour,” says founder Alina Alam, “The grant money is going towards the Mitti Karuna Meals, where our persons with disabilities are serving daily-wage earners and the homeless. We have been able to serve over four-and-a-half lakh meals.”
Social networking site Bumble, which focusses on women-empowerment, has taken initiatives to support 180 local businesses through the Grant Program, launched in March 2020. As a part of the initiative, they offered winners ₹1,00,000 across 11 countries, including India, USA, UK, Russia, Germany, Australia, France, Canada, Mexico, Ireland, and New Zealand.
Of the 20,000 applicants worldwide across sectors like food and service, retail, CSR, technology, fashion and lifestyle, healthcare, education, and more, 2,000 SME applicants were from India. Thirteen of these have received the grant, and eight of these businesses are led by women entrepreneurs.
Director and COO of Mitti, Swati Dokania says, “Bumble’s vision of small businesses working through the community, to make a change, and sustain each other, aligns with ours. That is why we applied for the grant.”
As of now, the 12 Mitti Cafe branches, set up inside various office campuses such as Infosys and Wipro, will remain shut to stay safe from the pandemic. However, the Mitti Karuna Meals initiative is on-going. “Our staff of adults with disabilities came up with this idea, and that’s why we reached out to organisations, including Bumble, to kickstart this,” says Alina.
The 116 staff members at Mitti Cafe are currently helping feed the homeless. However, many of the staff, including assistant manager, Rajasekhar, used to live off the streets as well. “He has an intellectual disability, but today, he trains other people we hire,” says Alina, adding, “Our aim is to help create awareness while at the same time, support them financially.”
Mitti Cafe now has plans of expanding to Chennai, Mumbai and Hyderabad.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Society / by Sweta Akundi / June 10th, 2020
Microsoft’s venture fund sets up office in Bengaluru
Microsoft’s venture fund M12 on Wednesday said it has set up an office in Bengaluru that will bolster efforts in pursuing investment opportunities.
The Bengaluru office joins the M12 network that includes San Francisco, Seattle, London, and Tel Aviv.
The local office will pursue investment opportunities across the region, focusing on B2B software startups in the sectors of applied artificial intelligence, business applications, infrastructure, security, and vanguard technologies, a statement said.
M12 seeks to invest in disruptive enterprise software startups in the Series A through C funding stages, targeting both local and cross-border solutions, it added.
“The new office is a step forward in M12’s long-term commitment to the Indian startup ecosystem,” it noted.
M12 has already been remotely investing in India since 2019 and its portfolio includes names like Innovaccer and FarEye.
“Typically, we see the greatest hurdles in a startup’s journey as they scale from local success to global challengers, and then again when they go on to become category leaders,” M12 India Lead Abhi Kumar said.
He added that both inflMicrosoftection points require specific and deep organisational strength, proven talent, GTM partnerships, and global investors.
“M12 is proud to be co-located in the region, and to bring experience and resources that will help startups successfully navigate these inflection points,” he said.
Post-investment, the startups in M12’s portfolio can elect to work with the fund’s Portfolio Development team.
M12’s portfolio companies are actively supported through connections to Microsoft’s go-to-market resources, access to Microsoft technology and internal thought leaders, co-marketing opportunities, and engagement with engineering teams to explore product integrations, the statement said.
Set up in 2016, M12 (formerly known as Microsoft Ventures) has invested in 90 companies.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> City / by PTI / June 10th, 2020
ITC Infotech supports John Hopkins University in COVID-19 Control Study
The project team from Johns Hopkins is working with ITC Infotech’s Digital Experience (DX) team to further enhance the user interface and user experience (UI/UX) of the COVID-19 Control data collection App.
Tracking the spread of the coronavirus is an ongoing challenge. But researchers at Johns Hopkins University are conducting a study that uses an app to collect information that can help localise potential COVID-19, clusters and flare-ups.
COVID-19 Control – a Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health approved institutional review board (IRB) study, is a new surveillance tool for COVID-19, based on self-reported body temperatures and, optionally, other symptoms, from users around the country using a user-friendly app.
By using spatial science analytics applied to these data they will identify anomalous increases in body temperatures and generate real-time, pre-clinical, risk estimates of potential COVID-19 outbreaks.
The project team from Johns Hopkins is working with ITC Infotech’s Digital Experience (DX) team to further enhance the user interface and user experience (UI/UX) of the COVID-19 Control data collection App.
ITC Infotech’s DX experts are helping the team from Johns Hopkins fast track UI/UX enhancements to drive higher adoption by introducing more user-friendly features.
“Data from this app will allow us to map and identify hot spots of fevers across the United States, potentially indicating emerging outbreaks of COVID-19 before health care or testing is sought. That information can be key in our efforts to control and mitigate the spread of the virus,” said team member Frank C. Curriero, a professor in the Department of Epidemiology and director of Spatial Science for Public Health Center at the Bloomberg School of Public Health.
“The COVID-19 Control data collection App by Johns Hopkins University is very well-timed, as stay-at-home and shelter-in-place restrictions start getting lifted. We are happy to collaborate with the team from Johns Hopkins University, especially during this unprecedented crisis when industry-academia collaboration is critical,” said Sudip Singh, CEO & Managing Director, ITC Infotech.
This syndromic surveillance tool will allow healthcare systems and government agencies to potentially pre-empt outbreaks and better deploy resources to mitigate consequences. Acquiring data directly from individuals rather than hospitals/laboratories greatly reduces the delay in identifying new outbreaks of the disease and expands basic monitoring of health, he further said.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Sci-Tech> Health / by Special Correspondent / Bengaluru – June 11th, 2020
Real ‘aatmanirbharta’: Denied job, Karnataka man becomes ‘bitter gourd specialist’
38-year-old Satish Shidagoudar is popular in this region as ‘Bitter Gourd Specialist’ for his amazing skills in growing quality and quantity vegetable in his agricultural field.
Belgavi :
Being a double degree holder he could have easily landed job anywhere. But he wasn’t that lucky as he was denied a job. But it didn’t stop him from doing something else to eke out a living and to his luck he is a successful farmer now, mainly In cultivating ‘ bitter gourd’.
He is Satish Shidagoudar, a 38-year-old farmer from Shirur village of Hukkeri taluk, about 35 km from Belagavi, popular in this region as ‘Bitter Gourd Specialist’ for his amazing skills in growing quality and quantity vegetable in his agricultural field.
He has been cultivating it in his 1.5-acre lands out of five-acres owned by him and is earning in lakhs every month, which he says, no employer could have paid him that much salary, if he had got a job.
He is also a wealthy farmer now, as he owns four vehicles, a piece of land and is also planning to build a bungalow.
Speaking to Express, Satish Shidagoudar said that “I wanted to be a teacher for which I also studied bachelor’s degree in education.
I had also completed BA degree. But I was asked to pay Rs 16 lakh as a bribe for a job with Rs 16,000 salary per month. My father was also planning to arrange money by taking loans as he was desperate to get a job for me. But I refused to and decided to help my father in the field”.
My father Nagappa who is aged 69 and uncles were growing variety of vegetables from the past 15 years in a traditional way.
But the yield and quality were poor due to which they were barely generating any income.
“After joining them in agriculture in 2008, I chose the advanced techniques of growing vegetables by adopting drip irrigation for proper water management, mulching the base to maintain moisture and prevent the growth of weed and providing micronutrients regularly and management of pest.
“I chose to grow bitter gourd by studying its demand in the market. It is bitter by taste, but it is a remedy for diabetes, cancer and many more diseases. People have started consuming it more nowadays. It is also used in making medicines,” said Satush.
“Following this, we started growing the very crop throughout the year by changing the plots in one-and-a half-acres of land. We harvest about 50 tonnes in one season.
“This year, it is being sold at Rs 35,000 per tonne against Rs 48,000 last year. During seasons, I earn about Rs 25,000 to Rs 35,000 per day which I think is far more than the salary earnings of any teacher’ says Satish with a smile on his face”, he added.
“I hardly invest Rs 1.5 Lakh and earnings are several times more than the investment. This is possible only due to hard work and dedication.
“I take care of the plants like a baby due to which I get quality yield. Many people from various districts visit my field to understand the method of cultivation”, he said.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Good News / by Sunil Patil / Express News Service / June 10th, 2020