Monthly Archives: June 2020
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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