Monthly Archives: February 2017

ICAI-Bengaluru gets first woman chairperson

Amazing Feats, Business & Economy, Education, Leaders, Records, All

Geetha A.B. has been elected Chairperson of the Bengaluru branch of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) for 2017-18.

She is the first woman head of the professional body. She has over 13 years of professional experience and is specialised in direct taxation and auditing. Her contributions to the CA professional community as Secretary, Treasurer and CA Students’ Head have been noteworthy, said an official press note.

The Bengaluru branch caters to the needs of nearly 13,500 CAs and 30,000 students on its rolls. Ms. Geetha has also been an active member of Karnataka State Chartered Accountants Association and AWAKE, women entrepreneurs association of Karnataka.

Other office-bearers are Shravan Guduthur (Vice-Chairman) Bhat Shivaram Shankar (Secretary), Raveendra S. Kore (Treasurer), and Bhojaraj T. Shetty (nominated-Chairman).

The ICAI, a statutory body, has a Council comprising 40 members, with 32 elected and the rest nominated by the Central government.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bengaluru / by Special Correspondent / Bengaluru – February 18th, 2017

Bengaluru is also biotech startup capital, says study

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

Bengaluru :

Bengaluru has emerged as the biotech startup capital of India -it’s home to 190 ventures out of the 1,022 set up in the past five years, according to a study by the Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises (ABLE).

The National Capital Region (NCR) comes second with 164, followed by Mumbai and Hyderabad with 163 and 160, respectively. The study finds that $2.6 billion of private equity investments went into these companies, with $851 million coming in 2015 -the highest in a year so far. The segment also received government grants and funds from HNIs.

“This is good news and we are aiming to double this number with the ABLE Startups 2020 initiative to take the count to 2020 companies by the year 2020 and $5 bil lion of investments,” ABLE president PM Murali said.The study observed that 3,000 new entrepreneurs emerged between 2012 and 2016 in the biotech sector and at least a third of them were women. The bio-pharma sec tor continues to dominate the indus try, accounting for 57% share of the companies formed, followed by bioresearch (16%), bio-agri (10%), and bio-industrial (9%). Of the total, about 40% of the companies were involved in manufacture of products and ingredients, and 16% were into research and experimental development.

The study observed that the government’s startup policy, funds allocated for the sector, and presence of bio-incubators such as C-Camp and Bangalore Bioinnovation Centre were helping the sector to grow.

Of the 1,022 new startups, 104 were formed in 2016, 367 during 2014 and 2015. Another 551 companies were established between 2012 and 2014.

Biocon chairman and MD, Kiran MazumdarShaw, also ABLE honorary chairman, said ABLE is initiating a mentoring cell of senior industry leaders to guide the next generation of biotech entrepreneurs.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Bangalore News / TNN / February 2017

Bengaluru students win National Finance Olympiad

Education, Records, All

Bengaluru :

Four students from Bengaluru’s National Academy for Learning  (NAFL) came first in the National Finance Olympiad, the finals of which were held in Delhi in the first week of February.
Shivani Gowda  and Sanyukta Kamath, both from Class 8, Rakshashri Nataraja (class 11) and Siddarth Vinay (Class 12), cleared the school and regional rounds to reach the finals. “We were tested on current affairs, general knowledge, the financial world, terminology and stock markets,” said Rakshashri.

“The team from our school won the Olympiad last year, so there was quite a bit of pressure on us to win it again,” said Shivani. ” We are very glad that this is the second team from our school to win the Olympiad,” said NAFL principal Indira Jayakrishnan.

The team received a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh.

The Finance Olympiad is an initiative to familiarize young people with managing money and inculcating the habit of analyzing finances in their daily life.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Bangalore  News / by TNN / February 17th, 2017

Seminar On Princely States Begins

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Records, All, World Opinion

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Indian National Congress ignored Princely States till 1930s, says Prof. David Washbrook of Cambridge University.

A two-day Prof. Achuta Rao Memorial International Seminar on ‘Power, Resistance and Sovereignty in Princely South India’ (with special reference to the transfer of power) began at the Rani Bahadur Auditorium, BN Bahadur Institute of Management Studies in city this morning.

The event is being organised under the joint auspices of the Department of Studies in History, University of Mysore and Prof. D.S. Achuta Rao Centenary Programme, Bengaluru. The seminar is a being held as part of the centenary celebrations of Prof. Achuta Rao, who served as a History lecturer in Maharaja’s College in city from 1950 to 1960 and then as a Professor at Manasagangothri till his death in 1965.

The key-note address on “The Princely States and the making of Indian Modernity” at the event was delivered by Prof. David Washbrook, a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge University. David also taught at Warwick, Oxford and Harvard Universities and his special interest is South India between 18th and 21st centuries on which he has published extensively.

Addressing the gathering, Prof. Washbrook said that the Princely States have focused on struggle against the British rule. “In education, public health, industry and commerce, certain of the Princely States (notably, Mysore, Travancore, Baroda and even Hyderabad) have led the country in social development and put backwardness and stagnation of British India to shame,” he said.

“The Indian National Congress ignored the Princely States till the 1930s and then subsumed them under a programme designed to obliterate their ‘difference’. The difficult circumstances of partition and accession also made post-independent India instinctively hostile to the traces of princely privilege and power. Reviled as feudal relics, India’s Maharajas were meant to fade into history and the societies over which they ruled to blend into a single, homogeneous and continuous national modernity,” Prof. David said.

After 1857, princely India may have played little public role in the political struggle against colonial rule. They left lasting legacies and the erstwhile princely cities of Bengaluru and Vadodara were leading centres of science and industry today and Thiruvananthapuram (along with the rest of Kerala) is a pioneer of Indian medical practice, he said.

Acting V-C of University of Mysore Prof. Yashavanth Dongre presided.

UoM Registrar Prof. R. Rajanna inaugurated the exhibition on the life and works of Prof. D.S. Achuta Rao.

Convener of Prof. D.S. Achuta Rao Centenary Programme Advisory Board D.A. Prasanna was present.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> General News / Friday – February 17th, 2017

Bengaluru’s 81-year-old pilot stays young among the clouds

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Leaders, Records, All, Sports, Uncategorized
Ajit Lamba has served on Indian Air Force for 36 years
Ajit Lamba has served on Indian Air Force for 36 years

Bengaluru :

What’s the right age to start flying an aircraft and when should one stop flying? If you ask 81-year-old Air Vice Marshal Ajit Lamba (Retd), his reply will be: You start flying as early as you can (if not when you are born) and you stop flying the day you die.

He is the oldest pilot to fly in the history of Aero India, but he calls himself the youngest aviator. Lamba will display his skills at Yelahanka Air Force Station on Wednesday. He will be given two slots of six minutes to showcase his skills with Hansa-3, which he will fly from the hangars of National Aerospace Laboratories.

“I had skipped two editions of Aero India as Hansa-3 was grounded for a few reasons. NAL approached me to fly it and I accepted it the very moment. I will fly Hansa-3, which is non-aerobatic. I am excited to perform for the Bengaluru crowd,” Lamba told Express.

An ace pilot with decades of experience, Lamba has served the Indian Air Force for 36 years. He retired in 1991 but continued to fly planes when he is not playing golf. “I fly planes frequently as it is my passion and hobby too,” he said. His last posting was at Bengaluru-based Aircraft and Systems Testing Establishment (ASTE), an institution training test pilots and flight test engineers. He has been living in Bengaluru for the past 25 years.

The veteran pilot has an enormous amount of experience having flown at least 100 types of planes and logging close to 7,500 hours in his 60-year career.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Express News Service / February 15th, 2017

3 techies develop non-contact baby monitor to track sleep, breathing

Amazing Feats, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy
The creators of the monitor, Raybaby, hope to help new parents
The creators of the monitor, Raybaby, hope to help new parents

Bengaluru :

Prachi (name changed), 32, a corporate professional and single mother, is sleep-deprived. So is her five-month-old son, who wakes up in the middle of the night with sudden bouts of respiratory trouble. Despite repeated visits to the paediatrician, the infant’s condition has barely improved.
“My son often wakes up as he can’t breathe. Though I always try to comfort him and put him back to sleep, I don’t know when the next episode will occur. This has been giving us sleepless nights and is affecting my son’s health,” said the exasperated mother.

To help new moms like Prachi, three city-based techies have devised a solution, Raybaby, a non-contact baby monitor which tracks activities like sleeping and breathing. Ranjana Nair, Sanchi Poovaya and Aardra Kannan Amili used their brainchild, Kickstarter — a platform helping artists, musicians, filmmakers and designers find resources and support to make their ideas a reality — to come up with the device which was launched on January 31.

Ranjana, chief executive officer (CEO), Kickstarter, said: “This baby monitor was created to bring back sanity in their lives of new moms and dads. All products in the market and hospitals require the baby to wear the battery-operated device, which is dangerous as there have been many instances of the battery exploding. Raybaby is a first-of-its-kind non-contact baby tracker which monitors the baby’s respiratory rate with 98% accuracy.”

Supported by Johnson & Johnson and HAX as part of the joint consumer health device programme, the monitor helps new parents with sleep training and tells them when the baby is awake, asleep or sleeping, via a Smart Journal app. Its artificial intelligence system tells parents how the baby is doing and whether the child is running a fever or has any respiratory ailment like asthma or bronchitis.
Explaining how the idea was born, Ranjana said: “We were visiting a friend’s baby in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and saw that in this day and age, the respiratory rate was still being tracked by placing a hand on the baby’s chest or through uncomfortable chest bands. That was when we decided to create a device to help parents. Research and discussions with doctors showed us how the respiratory rate could be used to monitor a baby’s health in a home environment. We worked with top hardware engineers to develop a safe device.”

Speaking about the safety aspect, Sanchi Poovaya, COO, Kickstarter, said: “It is a non-contact device, which rules out the possibility of explosions or other accidents. We are using the radar technology, which works on the principle of ultrasound, and FDA-approved components.”

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Bengaluru News / by Sreemoye Chatterjee / TNN / February 15th, 2017

BMCRI doctors reattach severed arm

Amazing Feats, Records, All, Science & Technology
The forearm of Subbanna, a resident of Chamrajnagar, got severed when it came under one of the wheels of a train. | Photo Credit: The Hindu
The forearm of Subbanna, a resident of Chamrajnagar, got severed when it came under one of the wheels of a train. | Photo Credit: The Hindu

First time reconstruction surgery of such complexity has been undertaken by a government hospital in the State

Bengaluru:

Doctors of Bangalore Medical College & Research Institute (BMCRI) Super Speciality Hospital successfully reattached the forearm of a 60-year-old man in a 12-hour operation. This is the first time a reconstruction surgery of such complexity has been undertaken by a government hospital in the State.

At 7.30 a.m. on January 22, Subbanna had got off a train at K.R. Puram station to visit his grandson Naveen who works in the city. But he slipped and fell. His forearm got severed when it came under one of the wheels.

“Other passengers pulled him up to the platform and called me. I took him to Bowring & Lady Curzon Hospital,” said Naveen. Doctors put the severed arm in a plastic bag, which was packed with ice.

Subbanna was then taken to BMCRI Super Speciality Hospital. The operation required expertise of the departments of plastic surgery, orthopaedics and anaesthesiology. “We had to identify arteries, veins and muscles and dissect them to identify where to attach them to the corresponding part on the severed arm,” said Smitha Segu, head of the department of plastic surgery.

“We are hoping that he will get sensation in four to six months. He will have to undergo orthopaedic procedures for another 1.5 years,” said Gautham M., associate professor, plastic surgery department, BMCRI.

Ramlingaiah, professor, orthopaedics department, BMCRI, said, “A surgery of this scale would cost between ₹6 lakh and ₹10 lakh in any private hospital in India. But our team did it for around Rs. 50,000.”

However, since it was the first such operation at the hospital, BMCRI has waived off the fee.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bengaluru / by Staff Reporter / February 13th, 2017

City’s Kaviraj excels in Ice-Skating

Records, All, Sports, World Opinion

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Mysuru :

Kaviraj Prithvi of Mysuru recently participated in the Junior World Ice-skating Championship held in Innsburck, Austria between Jan. 26 and. 29.

The qualification criteria to participate at any ISU (International Skating Union) World Championships are based on the personal best timings in 500 mtrs.

The cut-off is 51 seconds. This is the first time any skater in junior category from our country has qualified with this timing. Kaviraj Prithvi (Mysuru) and Ashwin D’silva (Mangaluru) represented India.

Both the skaters had qualified for this event during the European Championship held in Sofia, Bulgaria during December 2016. Kaviraj trains under Srikanth Rao in Mysuru and was coached by Avaduth Tawde during his participating in World Ice-skating Championship.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Sports News / February 08th, 2017

Bengaluru’s ‘Taj Mahal’ set to blossom love across the globe

Agriculture, Business & Economy, World Opinion
Bengaluru contributes about 60% of the red rose exports from India, according to industry sources.
Bengaluru contributes about 60% of the red rose exports from India, according to industry sources.

Exports of the red rose variety expected to touch five million ahead of Valentine’s Day

Bengaluru’s ‘Taj Mahal’ will again be part of this Valentine’s Day flavour across the globe as nearly five million of this red rose variety, grown in fields in and around the city, is being shipped from here.

While Bengaluru growers exported just over 4.5 million roses in the fortnight before the Valentine’s Day last year, the exports could touch about 5 million this year, general manager of International Flower Auction Board, Bengaluru, Vijay Kulkarni, told The Hindu.

“We are expecting about 8% increase in exports this year,” he added.

This year, the ‘Taj Mahal’ variety has been produced much more than the earlier popular variety ‘First Red’, sources said.

Bengaluru and Pune are the largest exporters of red roses from India during Valentine’s Day, and Bengaluru contributes about 60% of the exports, industry sources said. Roses from here are being airlifted to Malayasia, Singapore, West Asian countries, Australia, New Zealand, and several European countries.

While the average price for a rose stem hovers between ₹5 and ₹6 during normal days, it is expected to double over the next couple of days.

Bridging the shortfall

“Taj Mahal has larger bud and longer shelf life than other red rose varieties cultivated here. In fact, this year Taj Mahal will be accounting for about 95% of the exports while the First Red variety will account for a small portion,” said general secretary of the South India Floriculture Association Jayaprakash Rao. He said Kenya and Ethiopia are the largest suppliers of roses, and the Indian roses only bridge the shortfall, which explains a modest year-on-year growth in exports.

The IFAB, which is the largest flower auction house in the country, handling about 1.5 lakh roses daily, has been handling nearly 5 lakh roses every day during this season that is expected to last till February 11.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bengaluru / by Special Correspondent / Bengaluru – February 11th, 2017

Chemistry prof aka karate trainer

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Sports

KarateBF13feb2017

 

Bengaluru :

An assistant professor who doubles as a Karate trainer is teaching women self-defence on the campus, has been recognised by the Karate Association of India for promoting the martial art.

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Mathews P Raj, 29, an assistant professor of the department of Life Sciences at Jain University, Bengaluru has been conducting self-defence classes for the university’s students, as well as staff on the JC Road campus since 2012.

While a few students are trained only for competitive karate to participate in tournaments, many girls and women are trained in self-defence, which includes a lot of mental training too. “The course lasts from six months to an year. Basically we train their minds and teach them how to act and behave in critical situations. They are even taught to defend themselves while wearing a saree,” says Mathews, who himself began learning Karate in 1992, when he was in class II.

At the university, about 15 girls, 10 boys, five staff members and 10 sports students attend the training every day from 3.30 pm to 5 pm. The girls are also taught gymnastics. Regarding the mental training, Mathews says, “Everyone has this thing that once you join karate you can defend yourself. But in training, they are taught the concept of fighting without a fight. Even calling out for help is a part of self-defence.”
In 2015, Jain University signed an MoU with the Karate Association of India, by which the varsity’s team gets direct entry in national karate competitions and competes as a special team. As of now, Jain is the only Indian varsity to promote Karate and self-defence.
Mathews’ organisation – Wakayama Karate Do India, has conducted corporate training programmes, self-defence camps on the occasions of women’s day, one-off workshops lasting three to four hour in corporate sectors and schools.

A CD of a video demo for women was made by the TCS group and the CDs were distributed to all women employees of TCS in India.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Tushar Kaushik / by Express News Service / February 12th, 2017