Category Archives: Records, All

Up Up… In the air !

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Records, All, Science & Technology, Travel, Uncategorized
Left: 1) An aerial view of Mysore Palace shot by Ramesh Sarkar with his Phantom Go Pro Hero-3 Camera (Right) ( 2) Ramesh Sarkar is seen operating the Phantom Go Pro Hero-3 Camera.
Left: 1) An aerial view of Mysore Palace shot by Ramesh Sarkar with his Phantom Go Pro Hero-3 Camera (Right) ( 2) Ramesh Sarkar is seen operating the Phantom Go Pro Hero-3 Camera.

A shot from above

by Anagha Mahesh

How about a camera that flies in the air just like a toy plane? Is it a toy camera or a real camera? It is indeed a proper camera, which can shoot upto 15 minutes of video or photo mid-air.

The camera — Phantom Go Pro Hero-3 Camera, with a quadcopter (four-winged tiny helicopter), is a brain child of a company in USA. The camera is fixed in the middle of a 4-winged small helicopter kind of thing (see pic). It comes with a monitor and battery operated remote with two joysticks for movement. The person operating this camera uses the monitor to view the images captured from the camera when in air. The camera can capture 60 shots within a second.

In India, only about ten people know how to operate this camera and one among the ten is Ramesh Sarkar, a photographer from city. Sarkar has been into photography since the past 35 years. Basically a Science graduate, he has many firsts to his credit — was the first person in city to use video coverage at a wedding, first to use a digital camera for wedding and the most recent and the coveted one, the first one to use an Aerial camera to shoot wedding videos and photos from the sky.

Apart from this, he has also done the wedding shoot for families of the Wadiyars, Cycle Agarbathi Brand, MPs and MLAs in city. He has made documentaries for Coorg Public School, Gonikoppa and KALS, Mysore. He was also the official Dasara photographer for covering the festivities in all its hues and colours from 1990-99 and again from 2006-12. Till date, he has shot more than 6,000 weddings! That’s quite a figure.

The Phantom Go Pro Hero-3 Camera was introduced to India in the year 2012 by AVCS Systems India Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi. They are the only agents, distributors in the country. The company provides a 10-day training at Delhi for those who buy this camera.

Camera Stats

Cost: Rs. 4 lakhs

Weight: In all, 750 gms.

Batteries: Runs on a rechargeable nickel-cadmium battery (comes with 4 batteries in total).

Kinds of shots: Wide-shot, narrow-shot and a normal-shot.

Has the option of shooting both videos and photos upto 10 hours; once in air it can shoot upto a max of 15 mins.

Usage: Mainly for weddings and for big industrial plants and other industries.

Memory: 32 GB; expandable upto 64 GB.

Application: GoPro

Video type: mp4

Monitor: Wireless and 14” wide

Compatible with any smart phone, tablet or ipad.

A higher version of the same is on the anvil with a 3-wing Tricopter instead of the 4-winged Quadcopter.

For more details, contact Ramesh Sarkar, Sarkar Video Trix, Saraswathipuram on Mob: 99800-89345 or e-mail: sarkar.camera@gmail.com.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Feature Articles / October 12th, 2013

CM to present State Sangeetha Vidwan Award to Dr.V.S. Sampathkumarcharya this evening

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Records, All

VidwanBF11oct2013

Mysore :

City Scholar Dr. V.S. Sampathkumaracharya has been selected for the prestigious Rajya Sangeetha Vidwan award given by the Department of Kannada and Culture for outstanding achievement for the year 2013.

The award, carrying a certificate, a memento of Goddess Saraswathi and a citation will be presented to him by Chief Minister Siddharamaiah at a function organised at Mysore Palace premises today at 6 pm. District Minister V. Sreenivasa Prasad will preside. Kannada and Culture Minister Umashri will be the chief guest.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> General News / October 05th, 2013

Bangalore boy is India’s numero ‘Uno’

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Records, All, Sports, World Opinion
Family helps: Raghav Reddy learnt the tricks of Uno from his sisters. / Photo: K Gopinathan / The Hindu
Family helps: Raghav Reddy learnt the tricks of Uno from his sisters. / Photo: K Gopinathan / The Hindu

It is his family’s favourite pastime, but to 13-year-old R. Raghav Reddy, it is a serious game: Uno. Raghav, who is the first ever national Uno champion (the national finals were held in Mumbai recently), will now represent India at the Uno Asia Championship among seven countries in Tokyo in November. This is for the first time that India will participate in a world championship in Uno.

“I am very happy that after a challenging and tough round, I have emerged as India’s champion. I thank my family for introducing this game to me,” says Raghav, a class 8 student at Narayana e-Techno School in R.T. Nagar.

Raghav was initiated into the game when he was in class 2. His elder sisters Ramya and Raksha, who were then in class 5 and 8, were his gurus. It wasn’t always an equal match with his older siblings, but soon the little boy learnt the tricks of the trade. “Later, I was able to point out all their ploys and we always had a hearty laugh,” says Raghav.

Uno is as much a game of skill as it is about luck, explains Raghav. “There are five different sets of cards – skip, reverse, wild, draw four, and draw two. You need to display your skill at saving important cards, knowing when to put down those cards, playing the colour change card to your own advantage and finally yell ‘UNO’ to win the game!”

Speaking about the national competition, Raghav says that after the semi-final round held in various cities, contestants from Pune, Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai battled it out in the final rounds at Mumbai. About 50 children participated in the Bangalore round. Raghav was accompanied by his sister and father to the finals at Mumbai. His sister Raksha, now a medical student, provided tips to Raghav so he could improve his game in the finals. “My family is a great source of inspiration,” Raghav says.

Though he is busy attending his mid-term examinations, preparations for the international competition are in full swing. “Everyday, I play Uno for an hour with my family and I am trying to hone my skills further,” says Raghav who wants to train to be an aeronautical engineer in future. As for Uno he says: “I think this game comes naturally to me.”

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bangalore / by A. B Sudhindra / October 01st, 2013

IISc scientists get their Bhatnagar desserts

Education, Records, All, Science & Technology

Bangalore :

Three IISc professors have added more feathers to the institute’s cap. Whether for unearthing synthetic bones and cardiovascular patches or providing a breakthrough in cancer  treatment, Bikramjit Basu, Dr Sathees Chukkurumbal Raghavan and Vijay Balakrishna Shenoy are among eight eminent scientists who’ve bagged the Swarup Bhatnagar Award for the year 2013.

Dr Sathees Chukkurumbal Raghavan (Biological Science)

Over 20 years of hard work finally paid off for this associate professor in the department of bio-chemistry at IISc. Dr Sathees received the honour for discovering a cancer therapeutic agent and the cause of cancer in human cells.

“I got the award for discovering SCR7. It’s a chemical compound that blocks DNA repair in cancer cells. This accumulates DNA damage inside the cell, causing its death,” explained Dr Sathees, who’s been working on two types of cancer, leukaemia and lymphoma, and the modalities of how cancer cells are generated.

“The basic cause of cancer is chromosomal abnormality and translocation. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy break the DNA inside the cancer cells, causing their death. Our research says if SCR7 is used alongside radiotherapy and chemotherapy, the rate of recovery can be doubled and doses of radiation cut to half.” Said Dr Sathees. Tests have been done only on animals, and human trials could take at least a decade.

Bikramjit Basu (Engineering Sciences)

This engineer bagged the honour for his work in the field of medicine. Research by Bikramjit Basu, 40, associate professor at Materials Research Centre, concerns the heart, nerves and bone disease. Basu has come up with lab-grown synthetic bone, cardiovascular patches and bio-material for damaged nerves and orthopaedic surgeries.

“My work highlights the interface of material science and biological science. The outcome of the research helps in orthopaedic surgeries, neural tissue engineering like nerve repair and cardiovascular implantation, and also expanded our understanding of cell functionalities,” said Basu.

“The polymeric and ceramic materials (bio-material) are non-living patches that can be used in case heart or nerve tissue gets damaged. A part of my research is also based on ‘socket acetabular’, which can be called an advancement in the field of hip replacement surgery,” said Basu.

Vijay Balakrishna Shenoy (physical science)

The era of super computers could end, and quantum computers may be a reality soon.

“Many technological marvels — from supercomputers to phablets – are based on condensed matter physics. I work on its theoretical aspects. There are many open and challenging problems in this area such as understanding systems with high temperature superconductivity, a state where electrical resistance goes to zero! One example can be quantum computers which can solve more difficult problems in a much shorter time as compared to computers of this generation,” says Shenoy.

In the past decade, a traditionally different branch of physics — atomic-molecular-optical physics — has provided new opportunities to simulate condensed matter systems with atoms. This area is called “cold atom quantum emulation”.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Bangalore / TNN / October 01st, 2013

Philanthropy has to be spontaneous, can’t be forced: Azim Premji

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Leaders, Records, All, Science & Technology

New Delhi :

Referring to the issue related to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), which has been made mandatory by the new laws that govern companies, IT czar Azim Premji today said philanthropy cannot be forced and it has to be spontaneous.

PremjiBF07oct2013

Premji, founder-Chairman of Wipro  – India’s third largest software services exporter added however that efforts towards social good need to be “meaningful” and the government alone is not responsible for “social good”.

“They are trying to force something. It should be spontaneous,” Premji said while commenting on the issue of mandatory CSR during his address at the All India Management Association’s (AIMA) 40th national convention here.

The billionaire philanthropist added that giving back to the society is important for the growth of a better world, but it should come from within.

Premji said the stipulation of spending 2 per cent of profits should not become a tax at a later stage.

Under the new Companies Act, 2013, all profitable firms with a sizable business will have to spend every year at least 2 per cent of three-year average profit on CSR works.

This would apply to companies with turnover of Rs 1,000 crore and more, or net worth of Rs 500 crore and more, or a net profit of Rs 5 crore and more.

The new rules, which would be applicable from fiscal 2014 -15, also require firms to set up a CSR committee of their board members, including at least one independent director.

However, Premji said: “If things have to change in the society then the involvement of the whole ecosystem is must. One cannot rely on government alone to do social good and one has to become a co-sharer of the goal and the outcome.”

Outlining the key factors for making CSR successful, he emphasised on the need to define the purpose and scale of CSR activities and choose a focus area.

Premji, however, cautioned against making CSR a substitute for personal philanthropy.

“There should be a distinction between a company activity which is CSR and personal activity that is philanthropy,” he added.

Known for his business acumen as well as philanthropy, Premji said the company’s and entrepreneur’s responsibility to the society are two different issues.

In 2010, Premji had donated 8.7 per cent from his personal stock-holding in Wipro for philanthropy forming the endowment for the Azim Premji Foundation , a not-for-profit organisation set up in 2001.

In February, he announced transfer of 295.5 million Wipro shares worth Rs 12,300 crore held by certain entities controlled by him to an irrevocable trust.

source: http://www.articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> News by Company> Social Responsibility / by PTI / September 26th, 2013

Gear up for Miss Bangalore

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

MissBangaloreBF06oct2013

Running in its 20th year, Max Miss Bangalore 2013 is set to inspire many beautiful and talented girls aspiring to make headway into the glam world. The Miss Bangalore beauty pageant is getting a notch bigger with every passing year. With over 500 girls making a beeline for the auditions at Le Meridien today, it only goes to show the event’s impressive caliber that has assisted many fashion careers down the past two decades.

Feroz Khan of Dream Merchants, who started Max Miss Bangalore and has seen many runways sizzling shares, “Max Miss Bangalore is in its 12th edition and this year we will be selecting 16 girls out of over 500 that have auditioned today. We have fashion choreographer Sreedhar who will be assisting us in picking girls with the X-factor and we will be announcing the results tomorrow. The age group of these girls is 16 to 22. Most of them are college students, while some are even working with MNCs in the city. The criterion for selection is the overall confidence, height, figure and also general awareness and speaking skills which will be judged at the question round. We have categories like Miss Catwalk, Miss Hair, Miss Skin, Miss Figure, Miss Beautiful Eyes and Miss Photogenic.”

Adds, Sajad Mahajan, partner Dream Merchants and Max Miss Bangalore, “Many girls who used the Miss Bangalore pageant as their launch pad over the years have made exciting careers in celluloid, modelling, television and advertising. We can also boast of some of the previous Miss Bangalore Queens like Ruchita Prasad who became a Kannada and Tamil movie star and Sara Corner who was crowned Miss India. They also walk the ramp for the Bangalore Fashion Week that has now gone international.”

Nicole Padival, who was crowned Miss Bangalore last year is happy to be getting a lot of work. “It’s nice to get the respect and recognition from the fashion industry and modelling assighments,” says Nicole.

source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> Lifestyle> Fashion-Beauty / by Namita Gupta / DC – September 04th, 2013

India’s 1983 World Cup triumph song released

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Historical Links, Pre-Independence, Records, All, Sports
Cheteshwar Pujara, Captain-India ‘A’ team, releasing the ‘World Cup 1983 World Cup triumph song” at Gangothri Glades on Saturday evening. Also seen are (extreme left) Lalchand Rajput, India ‘A’ team coach, P. M. Vijendra Rao, S. Vijayprakash, KSCA, Mysore Zone, Convener and Ashvini Ranjan, Chairman, KSCA Mysore Zone.
Cheteshwar Pujara, Captain-India ‘A’ team, releasing the ‘World Cup 1983 World Cup triumph song” at Gangothri Glades on Saturday evening. Also seen are (extreme left) Lalchand Rajput, India ‘A’ team coach, P. M. Vijendra Rao, S. Vijayprakash, KSCA, Mysore Zone, Convener and Ashvini Ranjan, Chairman, KSCA Mysore Zone.

Mysore :

On the occasion of the 30th year of India’s World Cup triumph over West Indies in the 1983 World Cup at Lords, a song dedicated to the Indian team’s triumph, composed by Mysorean P. M. Vijendra Rao was released by India ‘A’ team’s skipper Cheteshwar Pujara at the Gangothri Glades Pavilion on Saturday evening. Both the Indian ‘A’ and West Indies ‘A’ team members were present on the occasion.

S.Vijayaprakash, KSCA Mysore Zone Convener and Ashvini Ranjan, Chairman, KSCA Mysore zone were also present. To listen to the song log on to www.vijil365.com.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Sports News / September 29th, 2013

Challenges for young minds

Education, Records, All

QuizBF04oct2013

The ‘54th Annual Ramnarayan Chellaram Shield RotoQuiz’ was held at the Rotary Club of Bangalore, Lavelle Road recently. With interesting and intriguing questions spread into a format which consisted of three rounds, including questions for the audience, the quiz was a refreshing experience. 

This quiz, which is held every year, saw four teams in the finals — National Law School of India University, RV College of Engineering, BNM Institute of Technology and St Joseph’s College of  Commerce (Autonomous).

The first round of the quiz was ‘Potpourri’, where a mix of questions like ‘What does ‘Al-Qaeda’ mean?’, ‘Which animal has the most similar set of fingerprints to human
beings?’ were asked, which helped pep up the participants. The second round ‘Connection’ included different images projected on one screen. It had one thread connecting the images, which was the answer to the question. The last and most challenging round was ‘The Last Picture Show’, which had only a part of a face showing and the participants had to guess the person.

The audience was very excited and appreciated the participants with applause, and the quizmaster made sure that the participants never crossed the time set by the buzzer.
About the quiz, president Rotarian Purnimaa Ranganath, said, “We’re very proud to host this quiz every year. As I’m told, it is one of the longest running quizzes. Although there are many quizzes nowadays, when this quiz was started, there were not many events held for the youth and it stands apart because of the same.” Rotarian Suri Menon, the quiz master, said that he was happy to have hosted the quiz for the fifth consecutive year. About the competition he saw this year, he said, “The scores were a bit low compared to last year, but the reason could be that the quiz was more challenging.”The team comprising Jeydev CS and Abhishek from NLSIU won the first prize.

An elated Jeydev said, “It’s an honour for us to have won it. Most quizzes are unique, but this one has professionalism and seriousness to it, compared to others.” The team from St Joseph’s College of Commerce (Autonomous), won the second place. BNMIT bagged the third place.

source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> Supplements> MetroLife / DHNS / September 25th, 2013

City student’s prize-winning photo on Dasara-2012

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Records, All

DasarawinnerBF03oct2013

Mysore :

V. Chiranth, a 3rd Sem EEE student of NIE- Institute of Technology, Mysore, has won a place among top 5 winners out of 68 shortlisted entries from all over Karnataka for the “Shutter Bug Photo Contest” conducted by Bangalore Press Association under the theme “Glimpse of Karnataka – Namma Nadu” in view of bringing together the youth to preserve the culture and heritage of Karnataka.

This was an online competition through Facebook during April 2013 and results declared during June 2013.

His prize-winning photo was on the glimpse of Dasara-2012 celebrations at K.R. Circle captured with Nikon camera.

He is the son of Vinod Kumar, a businessman and Sujatha, residents of Kuvempunagar in city.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> General News / September 27th, 2013

Eminent engineers felicitated

Business & Economy, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Leaders, Records, All, Science & Technology
Two eminent Civil consultants M.L.Krishnaswami (sitting right) and C.N.Babu, who were felicitated during Engineers Day held in city, are seen with Dr.Ravi Raj, Secretary, ACCE(I), Mysore, Surya Prakash, President ACCE(I), Headquarters, K. Jayakumar, Assistant Vice President, Marketing, The Ramco Cements Ltd, Dr.C.S.Viswanatha, Chairman, Civil Aid Technolicinic Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore and Dr.G.S.Suresh Chairman, ACCE(I), Mysore.
Two eminent Civil consultants M.L.Krishnaswami (sitting right) and C.N.Babu, who were felicitated during Engineers Day held in city, are seen with Dr.Ravi Raj, Secretary, ACCE(I), Mysore, Surya Prakash, President ACCE(I), Headquarters, K. Jayakumar, Assistant Vice President, Marketing, The Ramco Cements Ltd, Dr.C.S.Viswanatha, Chairman, Civil Aid Technolicinic Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore and Dr.G.S.Suresh Chairman, ACCE(I), Mysore.

Mysore :

The Association of Consulting Civil Engineers -India (ACCE-I), Mysore Centre in association with The RAMCO Cements Ltd., celebrated the Engineers Day on Sept. 23 at Hotel Sandesh The Prince in city.

On the occasion, two Eminent Engineers M.L. Krishnaswami, Chartered Engineer and Structural Consultant, Mysore and C.N. Babu, Retired Chief Engineer, Irrigation, Government of Karnataka, were felicitated in recognition of their contribution in the field of Civil Engineering.

The chief guest Dr. C.S. Viswanatha, Chairman, Civil Aid Technoclinic Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore, in his address shared some rare facts and achievements of Sir M. Visvesvaraya and inspired the gathering to follow his qualities like leadership, selflessness, dedication, time consciousness, challenging attitude, etc.

The guest of honour K. Jayakumar, Assistant Vice President – Marketing, The Ramco Cements Ltd., expressed the company’s intention to support such technical events to disseminate information among professionals and public at large.

Anil K. Pillai, Assistant General Manager – Technical Services, The Ramco Cements Ltd., gave a technical presentation about the various products and services offered by their company.

The National President of ACCE(I) P. Surya Prakash who presided expressed his happiness about such celebrations which will motivate the younger generation to emulate the work carried by Sir MV and the eminent engineers who were honoured. He also stressed the importance and the necessity of Engineers Bill for the benefit of Civil Engineering community which is currently being placed for approval before the concerned Union Ministry, Government of India.

The programme was attended by about 120 members which comprised leading Civil Engineering consultants, heads and faculty of various engineering colleges, members of other organisations like Builders Association of India and dealers in construction materials.

The Chairman of ACCE(I), Mysore centre, Dr. G.S. Suresh, welcomed. Hon. Secretary of ACCE(I), Mysore centre, Dr. S. Raviraj, proposed a vote of thanks.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> General News / September 26th, 2013