Category Archives: Science & Technology

Puttur students book their tickets for International Science Fair

Education, Science & Technology, World Opinion

MANGALORE: Students of Sudana High School – Deepika CN and Ayesha Fahima – studying in the IX standard have been selected to represent India in the International Science Fair INESPO – Environment Sustainability Olympiad 2014 to be held in the Netherlands in June. Trying to find an economic use for a weed was the main aim of this project that these students undertook.

Deepika and Ayesha had participated and won at the regional level competition conducted by Science Society of India held here. At the national level competition held in Chennai in January conducted by INSEF (National level Science and Engineering fair) in collaboration with SSI this project won the gold medal and a chance to participate in the international fair.

They used a very common weed eupatorium popularly known as Communist plant to extract fibres. After process of retting in water, the fibres are extracted and processed to give additional strength. These fibres can be made into ropes, woven into mats or gunny cloth. These fibres can have practical application in the form of mats, doormats and so on.

These are comparable and better in durability and strength than items derived from other natural fibres. Sadhana Hebbar, Prathima and Gayathri, staff members with encouragement of the correspondent Rev Vijay Harvin, and headmistress Shobha Nagaraj and Jayashree have guided the students who had brought laurels to the district and the state with their achievement.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Mangalore / by Jaideep Shenoy, TNN / March 19th, 2014

Japan’s Netmagic expands data center footprint in India

Business & Economy, Science & Technology, World Opinion

Netmagic, an NTT Communications Company and India’s only Data Center Infrastructure Lifecycle Management (DILM) service provider, today announced the launch of its new data center in Bangalore .

This 100,000 sq. ft. data center is the first time Netmagic and NTT Communications have collaborated in building an entire facility from the ground up, and thereby, draws from their combined engineering and operations expertise.

“This is a moment of pride for us, as this new data center will give Indian and multi-national enterprises an opportunity to experience the state-of-the-art data centers that NTT Communications operates across the world. The added advantage of Netmagic’s excellence in IT infrastructure management and service delivery in the Indian enterprise space, gives this data center the capability of becoming the new benchmark for data centers in India, said Akira Arima, President and CEO, NTT Communications at the unveiling of the data center. He added, “This facility is part of our Global Cloud Vision to become a genuine global ICT partner for enterprises, providing seamless ICT solutions such as networks, data centers and applications, thereby capitalizing on the trend of enterprises’ migrating their on-premise systems to the cloud.”

“Bangalore offers a strong growth potential and a supply-constrained market, making this the most opportune moment to launch our new data center. Given the large concentration of data intensive activities in Bangalore, our objective is to accommodate enterprises’ demand to house their critical IT infrastructure closer to them, as well as ensure that our data centers have the scalability to meet their growing needs, while offering highly efficient services at the same time,” said Sharad Sanghi, MD and CEO, Netmagic. “The launch of this data center will enhance the confidence of our customers who have been part of our 16 year old journey and strengthen our position as one of India’s leading IT infrastructure management players”, he added.

This new facility also marks the formal launch of the Nexcenter brand of data center services in India. Under this brand, NTT Communications offers leading-edge data center services across the globe. In India, these services are offered through all 8 Netmagic data centers.

The data center will deliver Netmagic’s entire suite of services including managed co-location, dedicated hosting, cloud computing, IT infrastructure monitoring and management and security. It will provide enterprises customizable hosting space with high power and cooling densities and offer not only individual racks, but also highly secure cages and enclosed server rooms to meet the requirements of large global enterprises.

Consistent with Netmagic’s data center standards, connectivity from multiple telecom providers will be available from physically redundant paths allowing customers to architect on any network of their choice. Extending the ‘carrier neutral’ approach to building data centers, this facility is designed with high levels of redundancies and a stringent focus on security – both physical and logical. Enterprises can expect further attention to detail with amenities, such as a highly secure material handling system, based on bar coding and multiple checkpoints, adequate customer office space, dedicated storage space and heavy equipment handling systems.

One of the other strengths of this facility is that its location is one of the least prone to natural calamities and importantly, allows ready access to key resources. This makes it ideal for large enterprises, across India and other geographies to establish their disaster recovery and business continuity sites.

NTT Communications provides consultancy, architecture, security and cloud services to optimize the information and communications technology (ICT) environments of enterprises. These offerings are backed by the company’s worldwide infrastructure, including leading global tier-1 IP network, Arcstar Universal One(tm) VPN network reaching 196 countries/regions, and over 150 secure data centers. NTT Communications’ solutions leverage the global resources of NTT Group companies including Dimension Data, NTT DOCOMO and NTT DATA.

source: http://www.business-standard.com / Business Standard / Home> News-ANI> Business / ANI / Bengaluru – March 27th, 2014

Infosys Signs Five Year Deal With Sweden’s Lansforsakringar

Business & Economy, Science & Technology, World Opinion

Infosys Ltd. announced the signing of a five-year agreement with Lansforsakringar AB (LFAB) to provide application development and management support for its life and non-life insurance business .

The new agreement with Infosys will see LFAB, owned by Lansforsakringar Alliance, a mutual organization of 23 regional insurance companies with a strong local brand, improve the quality of service and time to market for its alliance members at a reduced cost.

Under the agreement terms, Infosys will be responsible for the development and management of more than 200 applications across LFAB’s line of business. To support this engagement, Infosys will provide support from global facilities as well as its local offices in Stockholm, Ostersund and Linkoping.

Besides, Infosys and LFAB will work together to improve the systems and processes so that member companies enjoy a more consistent approach to claims and policy administration.

LFAB Chief Operating Officer Soren Westin said, “Infosys demonstrates strong insurance industry expertise as well as a track record in application development and management. Their commitment to significantly strengthen their local footprint reflects our belief in the importance of local customer service.” 

Infosys President-Member of the Board and Head of Europe B.G. Srinivas commented, “Our partnership with Lansforsakringar AB will allow the company to transform and optimize their systems and processes and benefit from improved operational performance. Our talented team based in Sweden will play a central role in delivering world-class services to LFAB using an optimal combination of near shore and global delivery capabilities.”

At the BSE, Infosys closed Tuesday’s trading at Rs.3,349.25, down 1.19 percent from the previous close.

source: http:://www.rttnews.com / RTT News / Home> Business> Indian News / by  RTT Staff Writer / March 18th, 2014

‘Be true to yourself first’

Nri's / Pio's, Science & Technology, World Opinion

Bangalore :

Neil Lobo, a graduate of St Joseph’s Arts and Science College here, recently made his city and India proud. This research associate professor at the University of Notre Dame , Indiana, US, and his colleague , won a $23 million grant from the . The 41-year-old researcher’s team is gearing up for a five-year global project to show the effectiveness of spatial repellency in preventing malaria and dengue fever.

Excerpts from an interview:

* Why should we be proactive in tackling malaria and dengue fever?

Mosquitoes kill more humans every year than any other living being by transmitting diseases. While malaria causes an estimated 300-500 million clinical cases and about 750,000 deaths annually, dengue is a problem for over 3.97 billion people in 128 countries. The people who suffer most are the poor.

* What helped you get the grant?

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation asked us to work on a project that would look at the benefits of using a spatial repellent product to prevent human infections with malaria parasites and dengue virus. The approval followed hard work, writing, rewriting, discussions and research. Demonstrating that the study was scientifically designed to get the most research out of resources, while still producing the highest quality data that would meet the objectives led to the approval.

* How will you go about it?

The primary objective is to demonstrate and quantify the efficacy of spatial repellent products. We’ll work with partner institutions and field sites worldwide. This project has given us an opportunity to combine our skills and work on something which may affect many lives.

How will you address the concerns of eco-activists’ reservations about chemicals in spatial repellents?

Spatial repellents are active in repelling insects in concentrations far below toxic concentrations. Also, these low concentrations of active ingredients (not toxic to humans) should be used where mosquito-human contact occurs (i.e. disease transmission) making their use limited to where humans are.

What’s your take on India’s measures to tackle malaria and dengue fever?

The health ministry’s decisions need to be evidence based. Various disease interventions (bed-nets, indoor residual spraying, etc) are effective to a certain extent depending on disease transmission dynamics in that area. For example, insecticide-impregnated bed-nets are known to reduce malaria infections. But what happens if mosquitoes in a certain area bite humans outside the house and early in the evening when people aren’t under their nets?

You wanted to stay in India for higher studies but left for the US…

I don’t think I’d be the person I’m today if I’d stayed in India. I wanted to be in a place more accepting of who I am, allow me to be the best person I could be, while still being true to what I am. The US universities to which I applied had research programmes in my areas of interest — infectious diseases and genetics.

What are your memories of Bangalore?

My favourite memories are the huge trees, particularly the gulmohur and rain trees, though they remain only a memory now. I miss the food and my family the most. I sometimes dream of crisp dosas, South Indian coffee, chaat, biriyani, my grandmother’s chapatis, Goan fish curry…

What’s your message to youngsters who want to achieve something special in health research?

Be true to yourself first. You can reach your potential only when you’re comfortable with who you are and the people around you. Hard work and patience and the realization that you’re only learning if you make mistakes are really important.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Bangalore> Namma Metro / by Rohith B R, TNN / March 19th, 2014

IIM B to launch India’s first aerospace management course

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

New Delhi :

The Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIM-B) and Toulouse Business School have signed an agreement to launch India’s first executive general management programme in aerospace and aviation management.  Airbus is sponsoring the two year part-time degree programme to develop and nurture local talent in the field of aerospace, Airbus said in a statement.

BuildingBF22mar2014

The Aerospace MBA will be the first of its kind in India and will be conducted by Toulouse Business School, whose own aerospace MBS course has a strong business focus. Each year up to 75 students will be enrolled in the course.

“India is one of the fastest developing countries in the aviation market and is also one of the richest talent pools for the next generation of business leaders and we want the best to enter the exciting world of aviation,” Dwarkanath Srinivasan, CEO of Airbus India said in a statement. “With more passengers flying each year in India, there is an increasing need for expertise in aviation business,” he added.

Jacques Igalens, dean of Toulouse Business School said: “With the constantly evolving aviation landscape, the aviation industry needs world class leaders to anticipate trends and provide innovative solutions in today’s fast changing and uncertain globalised markets . This programme truly aims at answering this need.”

source: http://www.articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com / The Economic Times / Home> News> News by Industry> Education / by Anumeha Chaturvedi / ET Bureau / March 13th, 2014

International Conference on ‘Quality Cleft Care ’ held in city

Science & Technology, World Opinion

One milllion untreated cases in the country

Hans Gunter Loffler, Dy. Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany addressing the media at the international conference on ‘Quality Cleft Care’ held at a private hotel in city recently.
Hans Gunter Loffler, Dy. Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany addressing the media at the international conference on ‘Quality Cleft Care’ held at a private hotel in city recently.

 Mysore :

The international conference on ‘Quality Cleft Care’ organised jointly by Deutsche Cleft Kinderhilfe E.V. (DCKH) in association with St. Joseph’s Hospital, Mysore and Schweizer hilfe fur spaltkinder, Switzerland, was inaugurated by Hans Gunter Loffler, Deputy Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany at a private hotel in city recently.

The conference was followed by a live surgical workshop at the St. Joseph’s Hospital. The aim of the conference was to provide quality and accessible cleft care to the underprivileged children who would otherwise never have a chance to reintegrate as productive citizens into the society.

This year, DCKH is sponsoring 20 students who are pursuing research in the field of cleft care — oral and maxillofacial surgery, orthodontics and speech pathology.

54 delegates including 15 eminent maxillofacial surgeons, orthodontists, anaesthesiologists, physicians and speech pathologists involved in cleft care from Bangladesh, Germany, Vietnam, USA and India participated.

Dushyant Prasad, Regional Manager, DCKH India, said, “The current statistics reveal that a overwhelming number of 50 patients a month are slated for surgery at each of the Deutsche Cleft Kinderhilfe E.V. facility in Mysore, Coorg and Bangalore against the national backlog of one million untreated cases. Though the organisation is not in a position to cater to the huge number of cases, we are consciously making all efforts to provide the highest standards of treatment to whom we can reach.”

Dr. Manu Prasad, Project Director, said, through this initiative it is aimed to sensitise and enrich the knowledge of teams involved in cleft care to make a positive impact in the coming days through this learning programme.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> General News / March 14th, 2014

Students give cops a remote for signals

Education, Science & Technology

 Hand-held device will enable traffic policemenmanning junctions to change the sequence and timing of signals

About a year ago, Prof Balaraman, a formerpoliceman now part of the teaching faculty at CMRInstitute of Technology, threw an open challenge to his students. “The challenge was to do a project that can benefit the public,” said Bala Maruthi T, a final semester student. In response to this challenge, Maruthi and two other final year engineering students, Babitha Susan George and Avinash M, teamed up and joined hands with the traffic police to draw up a blueprint that would make the task of manning junctions easier.

The three have devised a remote-controlled device that would help traffic police posted at junctions manipulate traffic lights. The trio has already conducted a round of discussion with traffic police top brass. The top brass are thrilled with the idea and is eagerly looking forward to a demonstration of the device.

The students say the device can help ease traffic jams
The students say the device can help ease traffic jams

Traffic signals in the city currently operate on ‘Zig-Bee’ technology, an automatic system where traffic signals are programmed to a preset sequence and timing. The system is not infallible and has been known to cause delays and jams. To clear congestion, policemen manning junctions are forced to switch to a manual ‘wired-control mode’. This means the constable at the junction, based on his assessment of the traffic situation, controls the lights from a control box mounted on a pole at the junction. While the method offers better management options, police say that it ties the constable down to the control box, often at an obscure location near the junction. Finding no policeman in sight, some motorists tend to break traffic rules, sometimes causing a jam.

“The police officer who witnesses the violation is helpless since he is stationed at the pole,” said Susan George. “He or she is unable to book offenders. Such offences have been known to cause road accidents leading to death or injury.”

With the remote control device, the constable, based on an assessment of the flow of traffic, can choose from among several sequences and timing options and even flip from one option to another. “The device empowers the constable to manage traffic in the best possible manner,” said Avinash. “For instance, if an ambulance approaches the junction, the constable can immediately change signalsto clear a way for the ambulance. Similarly, if traffic is piled up on one road, he can change the timing allowing a longer duration to clear congestion.”

B Dayanand, additional commissioner of police (Traffic and Security) who had a glimpse of the project, said it looks exciting.

source: http://www.bangaloremirror.com / Bangalore Mirror / Home> Bangalore> Others / by Sridhar Vivan and Nischith N , Bangalore Mirror Bureau  / March 15th, 2014

LS Polls : Mysore Paints to suppy 21.65 lakh vials of indelible ink

Business & Economy, Science & Technology

InkBF12mar2014

Mysore :

The Mysore Paints and Varnish Ltd. (MPVL), a feather in the cap of this heritage city as it is the sole industry that supplies indelible ink (Voters’ ink) to the entire country and some foreign countries too, had commenced the production and supply of the indelible ink months before the announcement of Lok Sabha poll schedule yesterday.

The ink, used to mark on voters’ fingers during elections to avoid fraudulent, multiple voting and malpractices, has been applied to over 4.5 billion voters both in India and across the world. The ink is produced in association with the Election Commission of India, National Physical Laboratory and National Research Development Corporation.

MPVL, the only one of its kind (among the PSUs) in the country, was established by Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar in 1937 and named as Mysore Lac and Paint Works Ltd. It has been supplying ink for the Lok Sabha, Assembly and local body elections since 1962.

MPVL Managing Director M.V. Hemanth Kumar told SOM that more than 200 personnel have been working since January to produce the ink for the Lok Sabha elections, to be applied on 81 crore voters, which is 10 per cent higher than last year.

MPVL has received orders for manufacturing 21.65 lakh vials of ink for the coming elections. A total of 14 lakh vials have been supplied to 20 States so far and the remaining will be delivered by this month end, said Hemanth Kumar and added that MPVL had supplied 19.4 lakh vials of ink for the 2009 Lok Sabha elections and this year, the demand is for 21.65 lakh vials.

“The cost of each 10-ml vial is Rs. 142 (excluding excise duty and VAT) and can be applied on about 500 voters. It has a shelf-life of six months and it remains on the finger for about three weeks,” said Hemanth Kumar.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> General News / March 06th, 2014

Repository of Indian medicines

Business & Economy, Green Initiatives / Environment, Nature, Science & Technology

With the growing interest in traditional and complementary systems of medicine across the globe, a facility located in Foundation for Revitalisation of Local Health Traditions (FRLHT) campus, Bangalore helps authenticate the identity of medicinal plants, especially in the form of a repository of the natural resources. 

This centre named as Bio-cultural herbarium is a one-stop information related to plants and currently holds about 40,000 accessions pertaining to more than 3,200 medicinal plants collected from across various bio-geographic regions of the country. A unique feature of this herbarium is its easy accessibility both to the scientific community and the layman which has been achieved through linking the cultural information pertaining to vernacular names, local uses and classical uses of plants to the herbarium database.

The centre also has a repository of raw drugs collected directly from the botanical source and samples. The herbarium and raw drug repository is supported with an image library that currently possesses over 20,000 images. Dr Noorunnisa Begum, curator of the Herbarium says “Traditional knowledge of medicinal plants and their utilisation is increasingly being realised and put to use by modern medicine”.

The long term goal of the centre is to act as a vehicle to promote medicinal plant conservation and in turn help revive health care traditions.

source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> Supplements> Spectrum / by Manish Sharma / March 11th, 2014

City boy’s chopper bike burns rubber

Amazing Feats, Records, All, Science & Technology

Zakir’s 10-feet long Captain America-style bikesports monster Trepador tyre; actor Upendra asked him if the bike can be used in one of his movies.

The bike sports a converted 500 cc Royal Enfield engine
The bike sports a converted 500 cc Royal Enfield engine

If you find a monstrous 10-feet long bike zipping around the streets of Bangalore, ridden by a young lad, don’t mistake him for a ghost rider. It is actually 25-year-old interior designer Zakir Hussain Khan, who has passionately created this unique chopper bike which sports a converted 500 cc Royal Enfield engine.
Zakir Hussain, aka Zak as he’s popularly known among motorcycle enthusiasts, was inspired by the intriguing ‘Captain America’ chopper bikes in the West. Choppers are handcrafted or modified bikes. Captain America is the lead character in the counterculture 1960s movie Easy Rider, in which the two protagonists ride a chopper bike.
It took Zak three months to create this mean machine, which he calls the ‘Big Indian’. He now has Sandalwood bigwigs queuing up to feature this monster in their movies.
“Actually, I was test-riding the bike near actor Upendra’s house when his son saw the bike and called his father to check it out. He seemed quite impressed,” said Zak.
Uppi, known to wow his audience with his exuberant and larger-than-life characters, has even asked him if the bike can be used in one of his movies — this of course, after spending a few minutesinspecting the bike and its unusually big hind wheel.
The young designer, who invests most of his earnings from interior designing on modifying bikes, used the imported Maxxis Trepador tyre made by Taiwanese company Cheng Shin Rubber, doing business as Maxxis International, for the hind wheel. The tyre, made to be used on light trucks and SUVs, reportedly cost Zak a whopping Rs 60,000 to import from Germany. He thinks it gives the machine a mean look.
The bike cost him Rs 6.25 lakh to make from scratch. Another of its unique features is its silencer, which emits fire from its exhaust. This lone cost him a cool INR 1,50,000. Some of the characteristic features of this single-seater bike, now grabbing onlooker eyeballs, are its lengthened frame, extended forks, a skull for headlight, and Gatling-style (a forerunner of the modern machine gun) barrels, extending from one side of both the fork tubes.
Zak, always keen on wanting to make something different, started modifying cars and bikes since he was an 18-year-old. “I want to create another chopper bike which is 18-feet long,” said the ambitious Zak. And what is he going to do with this one? “I want to auction it after a few months,” he said.

source: http://www.bangaloremirror.com / Bangalore Mirror / Home> Bangalore> Others / by Nandini Kumar, Bangalore Mirror Bureau / March 08th, 2014