Category Archives: Science & Technology

Nandini Mysore Pak, Cashew Burfi in 100 gm packings released

Business & Economy, Science & Technology, Uncategorized

Mysore, July 17

Nandini has now come out with its popular Mysore Pak and Cashew Burfi in 100 gm packings which were released by Karnataka Housing Board Chairman G.T. Devegowda at a programme organised by Mymul at the Mysore Dairy premises yesterday.

Speaking on the occasion, GTD lauded Mysore Dairy in coming out with tasty and hygienically packed milk products to the consumers.

Managing Director Dr. Suresh Babu said that the Farmers Welfare Trust was doing yeomen service for the milk producers by providing good facilities for their meritorious children. He added that a building belonging to MyMUL at Alanahalli was being renovated to a hostel for the students.

MDCC Bank President C. Basavegowda, District Co-operative Union President H.V. Rajeev, KMF Director S.C. Ashok and Mymul Chairman C. Omprakash were present.

Mymul donates dialysis machines

Mymul has donated dialysis machines to two hospitals in city. KHB Chairman G.T. Deve-gowda and MDCC Bank President Basavegowda launched the operation of the two machines at Cauvery Hospital in Siddarthanagar and River View Hospital in Hebbal yesterday.

They said that the facility would help the MyMul members suffering from renal problems by providing dialysis at reasonable rates. They announced that each dialysis would cost Rs. 600 for the members as against the usual Rs. 1,300 and assured to top up further with more people-friendly programmes in future.

source: http://www.StarofMysore.com / General News / July 17th, 2012

Biocon seeks marketing alliances in several emerging markets

Business & Economy, Leaders, Science & Technology

MUMBAI:

Bangalore-based Biocon is planning to forge partnerships as well as leverage existing alliances to augment the access and penetration of its biosimilar molecules.

“We are investing in augmenting our manufacturing, research and marketing base to pursue strong and sustained growth. This includes our first overseas manufacturing facility in Malaysia, a new state-of-the-art research centre in Bangalore, and a number of marketing alliances in several emerging markets,” Biocon chairperson & managing director Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said in the company’s annual report.

The company has regional partners in 32 geographies including Brazil, Mexico, China and Japan.

“Building on our domestic experience, we have begun unlocking value in other emerging markets with recombinant human insulin (rh-Insulin), insulin analogs and monoclonal antibodies (MAbs), key products of our biosimilars portfolio,” Shaw said.

The company’s new insulin facility in Malaysia started last September and will help to take its biosimilar insulin and analogs to the global markets. The company is also looking at optimising its regional partnership approach to carve out a large slice of the global insulin market, the report said.

In the Novels portfolio, the company had received positive outcomes from phase III trial in Psoriasis for Itolizumab, the anti-CD6 molecule targeted at autoimmune disorders like plaque psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis.

The Itolizumab successfully met all primary and secondary end points in the 52-week, double blind, and placebo controlled trial.

Its partner, Amylin had filed an IND in the US for phybrid, which is a novel biological entity targeted at diabetes and obesity. The molecule has entered into phase I clinical trials in the US markets.

Its biosimilar Trastuzumab has commenced multi- centric, phase III trials in the country, aimed at accessing the pie in emerging markets. The other molecules from its Mylan partnership are also due to enter clinics over the course of the next couple of years, the company said.

source: http://www.articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com / The Economic Times / Home> News> News by Industry> Healthcare/Biotech / PTI / July 15th, 2012

Florida Varsity Don delivers lecture at Microbiology Dept. in Gangotri

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

Caption: Dr. Kalai Mathee, Founder Chairperson, Dept. of Microbiology & Infectious Diseases, Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, Florida International University, is seen with Prof. V.G.Talwar, Mysore University VC; Dr. Shubha Gopal, Chairperson, Dept. of Microbiology; Prof. Ravishankar Rai and others after signing the MoU at Crawford Hall.

Mysore, July 13

A UGC innovative-invited lecture series on Genes, Greens and 65 Roses- The Pseudomonas Aeruginosa connection, organised by the Department of Studies in Microbiology, University of Mysore, by Dr. Kalai Mathee, Founder Chairperson, Dept. of Microbiology & Infectious Diseases, Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, Florida International University, was held at the Microbiology Seminar Hall at Manasagangotri campus in city on Wednesday.

Dr. Kalai Mathee, speaking on Pseudomonas aeruginosa, said that it is a Gram-negative, motile, rod-shaped bacterium that is capable of both aerobic and anaerobic growth and is abundant in various types of moist environments.

This opportunistic pathogen is commonly associated with hospital-acquired infection, mostly in immuno-compromised individuals, she added.

This bacterium is the second most frequently recovered pathogen from Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients, she said.

She also said that Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen that causes a variety of severe and sometimes lethal infections of respiratory tract, urinary tract, intestines, eyes, ears and wounds and added that it has become a serious threat to immuno-compromised patients and was difficult to treat due to its increasing resistance to multiple antibiotics.

Dr. Kalai said that chronic infections with P. aeruginosa remains the most common case of morbidity and mortality among patients with Cystic Fibrosis (CF), an inherited genetic disease and the patients are usually prescribed antibiotic therapy.

She further said that the treatment often fails in CF patients due to emergence of resistant strains that produce mucus.

Dr. Kalai said P. aeruginosa can be found in: moist environment such as soil and water, lakes, streams, rivers, and other fresh waters, potable water sources such as sinks and showers, fresh fruits and vegetables etc.

The lecture explored the microbial ecology using metagenomic tools to determine bacterial diversity in the lungs of CF patients.

Research scholars from CFTRI, DFRL, Dept. of Microbiology, Bio-Chemistry, Bio-Technology and other departments attended. Prof. Ravishankar Rai, Dr. Shubha Gopal, Chairperson, Prof. Manja, former Director, DRDO, Dr. N.B.Ramachandra, Prof. Gopal Marate, Prof. Ramachandra Kini, Prof. Lokanath and others were present.

source: http://www.StarofMysore.com / General News / July 13th, 2012

2,000 Scientists gather at city Infosys

Science & Technology, World Opinion

Deliberate on space studies

Mysore, July 14

More than 2,000 scientists from 75 countries have gathered at the Narayana Murthy Centre of Excellence (Infosys campus, Hebbal) in city to deliberate on contemporary topics in the realm of space over the weekend.

The week-long gathering will witness presentations on over 3,600 scientific papers, posters and reports through more than 630 sessions, according to Indian Space Research Organi-sation (ISRO), which is hosting the event — 39th Scientific Assembly of the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) with the theme ‘Space — for the benefit of Mankind’.

This conference is cohosted by Infosys Limited. The conference starts with ‘International Academy of Astronautics day’ today and the scientific sessions of COSPAR will start from July 15. The opening and awards ceremony of the conference will be held on July 16.

Accommodations

Apart from the boarding and lodging facilities provided for the delegates in the Infosys campus, rooms in more than 26 major hotels of city have been booked for the delegates, it is learnt.

Tight security arrangement has been provided by the N.R. Sub Division Police led by ACP C.D. Jagadeesh, with 150 Police personnel posted at the campus. Sniffer dogs squad, finger-prints experts and bomb detection squad have been checking every nook and corner of the campus since the past three days and will be posted there for three days after the event too.

Prof. U. R. Rao, former Chairman of ISRO, is Chairing the COSPAR Scientific Programme Committee. Dr. Giovanni F. Bignami, Chairman of European Space Agency’s Advisory Council, is the current President of COS-PAR, founded in 1958 by the International Council for Science. COSPAR is one of the foremost space science research associations.

source: http://www.StarofMysore.com / General News/ July 14th, 2012

 

Farmer’s daughter discovers green pesticide

Business & Economy, Education, Green Initiatives / Environment, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Science & Technology, World Opinion

Bangalore:

This 15 year-old from Puttur saw her dad losing his cocoa crop to pests. It spurred her to start work on making a bio-pesticide with five plant extracts. The invention finally took her to an international competition in the US in May.

When Sindoora Saraswati walked on to the stage, hundreds of government school children gathered at the Shikshakara Sadan were bowled over. “I am a farmer’s daughter. I also hail from a village, like many of you. Whatever small thoughts you have, start implementing them,” she said.

This Class 10 student from Vivekananda English Medium School, Puttur, best describes scientific temper. Sindoora was speaking as part of Intel India’s ‘Intel Future Scientist Programme’ in Karnataka. She was part of the five-member team that represented India at Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in the US.

Raghavendra Ramachandra, who just completed his Class 12, astounded the fair with his project in organic chemistry along with Sindoora. He will be at Sweden this December to witness the Nobel award ceremony. His project was about using sunlight to rejuvenate fuel.

Intel India, with an aim to instill scientific temper among students and teachers, is planning to reach out to seven districts in the state. Four specially designed mobile vans will be sent on a Vigyan Yatra to attract onlookers with science exhibits with on-board scientists and science material. They are expected to tour each district for three days, conducting science workshops for students. They plan to reach out to 500 teachers and 5,000 students.

The programme will consist of seven modules delivered over two days of training, comprising inquiry-based learning and facilitating scientific inquiry. It will help science teachers present their curriculum from an inquiry-based perspective to help build a spirit of research and innovation in students.

Primary and secondary education minister Visvesvara Hegde Kageri said: “The government is also coming up with a lot of initiatives to encourage children to take up Science. Entrepreneurs and companies should come forward to adopt schools. If organizations want to invest money in social service, they should look at education as a priority.”

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / Home> City> Bangalore> Scientific Temper / TNN, June 28th, 2012

Nephroplus strengthens presence in Karnataka with second centre at VIMS Hospital

Science & Technology

NephroPlus has opened its second unit in Bengaluru at the VIMS Hospital in Marathahalli. The facility currently has six beds which will be increased to 12 beds.

As part of the new centre launch, NephroPlus has also announced a week long free kidney care camp with check-ups for patients from July 4 to 11, 2012 at the VIMS unit. It is aimed at educating the people about the importance of renal care, causes of kidney ailments along with tips to maintain the health of the kidney.

The kidney care major is working to increase its presence in Karnataka. Its first centre was set in March this year at the Koshy’s Hospital in Ramamurthy Nagar, Bengaluru. It plans to launch another five clinics with similar capacity in the next six months in the state. These could be either  standalone clinics or those set-up in partnership with leading hospitals and medical colleges. Several patients from Karnataka who have experienced NephroPlus care at its facilities in Andhra Pradesh at Banjara Hills,  Marredpally and Santoshnagar in Hyderabad and one at Mahabubnagar, expressed interest in NephroPlus setting up similar units in Karnataka, according to VikramVuppala, CEO and founder, NephroPlus.

NephroPlus also has a facility in north India at Kanpur. Its objective is to prevent cross infection at all centres including the one at Kanpur. To this end all the units are monitored by a first-of-its-kind remote monitoring system to monitor machines and RO(reverse osmosis) plants, to proactively manage outcomes thereby ensuring zero cross infection.

India accounts for 20 lakh ESRD (End Stage Renal Disease) patients with one lakh new cases annually driven by diabetes and hypertension. ESRD cannot be treated with drugs and dialysis is the only option. There are some improvements in the dialysis process itself that are constantly being tried and adopted. However, the state of kidney care in India currently is in a shambles as more than one-third dialysis patients get infected by life threatening HIV, Hepatitis C and Hepatitis B infections during dialysis.

source: http://www.pharmabiz.com / Home> News> Hospitals & Clinics / by Our Bureau Bengaluru / Wednesday, Jyly 04th, 2012

Udupi: Book on Paediatric Cancer Released

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Science & Technology
Udupi, Jun 29:

‘Childhood Cancer’, a book authored by Dr H S Ballal, pro-chancellor, Manipal University and Dr P D Gupta, adjunct professor, MCOPS, a Manipal University Press publication, was released by Dr Boralingaiah MB, Superintendent of Police, Udupi District, at a function recently held Manipal University.

Dr Boralingaiah congratulated the authors for bringing out the informative book.

M V Kamath, honorary director, Manipal Institute of Communication said, “It is essential to create awareness among pregnant women and parents about the symptoms of cancer in children so that in the initial stage itself cancer can be detected. We know that cancers if detected early can be cured completely”. He appreciated the simple language used in the book hence making it easy for everyone to follow and also suggested translating it to other Indian languages so that it can have a long reach.

Dr H S Ballal and Dr P D Gupta also spoke on the occasion.

Dr K Ramnarayan, vice chancellor, Dr H Vinod Bhat, pro-vice-chancellor, Dr G K Prabhu, registrar were also present.

source: http://www.daijiworld.com / Home> Karnataka / Media Release / Friday, June 29th, 2012

Puttur boys make state proud

Education, Records, All, Science & Technology

Mangalore:

Two class X students of Sri Ramakrishna High School in Puttur have made the state proud by winning bronze medals in the International Sustainable World Energy Engineering Enviornment Project Olympiad (ISWEEP) held as part of the International Science Fair in Houston, Texas, USA in May.

The duo – Karthik Bhat A, 14, and Ramnath Rao , 15, – won the prize for their innovation of a bio-pesticide that can be used for preventing damages caused by termites to buildings. They developed the bio-pesticide using the leaves of Schleichera Oleosa tree that grows in the Western Ghats. “Chemical pesticides will create several health issues and many farmers suffer from life-threatening diseases like cancer because of over exposure to them. The bio-pesticide will help prevent such diseases,” they said.

The Science Society of India (SSI) sponsored the students to participate in the science fair.

“I consider traveling to USA with kids from different countries to participate in the event an achievement in life. If not for the event, I would never have visited a foreign country as my parents cannot afford it,” said Karthik, son of Gopal Krishna Bhat, a farmer of Bettamapady near Puttur.

Ramnath son of Satheesh Rao Bekal, an employee in a grocery shop, said that the victory in an international-level science competition had motivated him to take up more research works in the field of bio-pesticide. Vasanthi Kedila, the science teacher of Karthik and Satheesha said that they had become role models for students in the school.

“They have made us proud. They were selected by SSI a few months back,” she added.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / Home> City> Mangalore / TNN / June 30th, 2012

Apple, Infosys among top innovators globally: KPMG survey

Business & Economy, Records, All, Science & Technology, World Opinion

Bangalore:

Apple ranked as the top innovator globally, while in India it was  Infosys.  The Indian IT bellwether, which has been attracting flak for its performance in recent months, was identified as the  innovation leader in a global tech innovation survey done across Americas, Asia Pacific (ASPAC), Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) by KPMG.

About 44% of the survey respondents felt Silicon Valley’s famed position as the innovation center may be challenged, and the world’s technology innovation center would shift from US to another country in the next four years. Almost 30% of the 668 business executives in the survey said China and the US show the most promise for disruptive breakthroughs with global impacts, while 13 percent cited India.

“”The pace of technology innovations today is happening at unparalleled speed and China’s projected rapid rise to prominence as a technology leader would be another example of this,” said Gary Matuszak, partner, global chair and US leader for KPMG’s Technology, Media and Telecommunications practice.

“China’s anticipated parity with the US tech sector shows the significant challenge facing the US to retain its position as an innovation leader. Other countries will continue taking steps to boost technology innovation and to attract tech entrepreneurs,” he added.

source: http://www.articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com / by N. Shivapriya / ET Bureau / June 28th, 2012

UAS releases 15 new varieties of crops

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

The University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS) Dharwad has introduced 15 new varieties of crops for the farming community. UAS Vice-Chancellor R R Hanchinal said here on Tuesday that the researchers and experts of the varsity were introducing the new varieties of crops for the betterment of the farming sector and to help the farmers get high yield.

Considering that North Karnataka region has rich potential for vegetables and horticulture crops the UAS has released two new varieties of tomatoes named DMT-1 and DMT-5. The duration of these crops is 120 days and the new breed has the capacity to yield 28 tonne per hectare. This is a bushy variety with bacterial wilt resistant and the fruits are good for fresh market. Similarly, a new variety of coccinia named DRC-2 has also been released. It has capacity of yielding 67 tonne per hectare and is a long duration crop.

The scientists after years of research have developed new variety of cotton breed named DHH-263 which has a duration of 165 days and has a yielding capacity of 26 quintals per hectare. This is a superior medium staple hybrid cotton with high lint yielding ability.

A new variety of hybrid maize GH-0727 having the duration of 120 days and a capacity of getting 74 quaintal per hectare has also been released. This is resistant to turcicum leaf blight and rust, high yielding and high starch containing variety, he added.

To help the black gram growers, new variety breed DBGV-05 with a duration of 82 days and a yielding capacity of 15 quintal per hectare has been introduced.

Apart from this, the UAS has also released new variety of Cowpea named DCS-1-47, green gram DGGV-2, Niger named DNS-4, Sesame named SSD-5, two new varieties of ground nut G-2-52 and GPBD-5 with a yielding capacity of 35 quintal per hectare and soya JS 03-05 and DSB-21

Hanchinal stated that the biggest challenge before the country is to provide nutritional food to the ever growing domestic market. Hence, emphasis has been given to generate high yielding crops.

source: http://www.Business-Standard.com / Home> Economy & Policy> by BS Reporter / Chennai-Dharwad / June 21st, 2012