The Department of Social Welfare is set to establish two unique museums — Interactive Constitution Museum and the Maharishi Valmiki and Ramayana Museum — in the city.
These museums will be set up in Nagadasanahalli near Yelahanka at a cost of ₹120 crore and ₹60 crore, respectively. The museums will be of international standards and will be constructed on eight acres, Deputy Chief Minister G Parameswara stated in a press release.
“The State government hopes to encourage dialogue between Constitution guarantees and rights that govern the Indian republic, and the spirituality and philosophy that has created one of the richest cultures in the world,” said the release.
The project was spearheaded by Minister for Social Welfare Priyank Kharge, and he said, “The two museums will be the most befitting monuments to the father of the Indian Constitution Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, and Maharshi Valmiki, who immortalised the epic Ramayana and inspired people with great values.”
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bengaluru / by Special Correspondent / February 28th, 2019
A company delivers 10 to 12 day old plants that are rich in nutrients and anti-oxidants
Akash K. Sajith was theVice President of Customer Experience and Analytics at a firm when his life changed a couple of years ago, after both his parents became very ill.
This resulted in Akash starting to think about the nutrition value of the food we consume and the manner in which it is prepared. “I realised that good food is vital for good health. Real food is about trust and transparency. It is about ensuring quality and traceability at every step. We set up Living Food Company to provide the food we can trust and to meet a need to take control of our food production systems.”
Microgreen dreams
With his co-founders, Niranjan and Shikha, Akash decided to grow micro-greens, 10 to12-day old plants that are extremely rich in nutrients, antioxidants, essential vitamins and minerals. The Living Food Company grows and delivers the produce to households across the city and sells it to hotels such as the Hilton, Shangri-La and top chefs in the city.
Akash says, “We focus on growing highly nutritious micro-greens such as kale, broccoli, mizuna (Japanese mustard), pink radish, red chard and 15 other varieties. They are a rich source of vitamin A, B, C, E, proteins, calcium, iron, zinc, potassium, magnesium and folic acid. These essential nutrients are often neglected in our diets and the living greens help correct these nutritional imbalances. We aim at making these nutrient-rich foods affordable and accessible for the average urban Indian consumer and democratise access to super-foods.”
Describing the greens, Akash says, They are usually about one to three inches long and come in a rainbow of colours, which has made them popular in recent years as garnishes with chefs. We have climate-controlled hydroponics and aeroponics farmsdesigned to eliminate soil contamination, enhance nutrition and preserve taste and flavour, making us one of the first climate-smart and sustainable farms in the country.”
There are daily and monthly subscription packs. “We deliver across the city. Koramangala, Whitefield and Indiranagar are areas where we have a good subscriber base. I am sure this will become more popular in the time to come.”
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Life & Style / by Nikhil Varma / February 01st, 2019
Raju Teggalli (extreme left), head of Kalaburagi’s Krishi Vigyan Kendra, along with scientists and students inside the shade-net where exotic vegetables are being grown .
Scientists are experimenting to see if foreign crops can thrive in this environment
If agricultural scientists in Kalaburagi succeed in an experiment they are carrying out, farmers of this dry northern district could soon be growing exotic vegetables such as iceberg lettuce and broccoli in their farms.
To help farmers of the backward district get better income, scientists of Kalaburagi’s Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) are experimenting if high-income yielding foreign crop varities can thrive in this environment. In the first phase, they have imported five exotic vegetable seeds — iceberg lettuce, straight lettuce, cherokee lettuce, broccoli and red cabbage — from the Netherlands and planted them on the campus.
“These vegetable seeds can be produced only in cold environments, in areas with less than 20 degrees Celsius temperature. But, they can be grown in Indian conditions during winter. We have planted half of these seeds inside the shade-net and remaining outside. We are giving organic fertilizer and water to both. If there is not much difference between those grown inside and outside, we will recommend the farmers to grow them outside the net so that the shade-net costs too can be saved,” Vasudev Naik, a horticulture scientist, told The Hindu.
The scientists have formed a couple of teams for a survey to assess the marketing potential of the new vegetables.
“Domestically grown cabbages and cauliflowers are sold at around ₹25 a kg or less as compared to ₹80 a kg that red cabbage and broccoli are sold at. Iceberg lettuce is sold at over ₹200 a kg. These are supplied from faraway places to Kalaburagi market in limited quantity,” Akshata Biradar, a student who participated in the market survey, said.
Scientists feel that the experiment could pave way for better utilisation of shade-net and polyhouse farming in the region. “The government is offering subsidies for shade-net, polyhouse and drip-irrigation equipment. But farmers are failing to use them,” Raju Teggalli, a senior scientist and the head of Kalaburagi KVK, said.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Karnataka / by Kumar Buradikattikalaburagi / December 31st, 2018
A visitor looks at one of the exhibits, on the second day of Bengaluru Tech Summit at Palace Grounds in Bengaluru on Friday. | Photo Credit: V Sreenivasa Murthy
Dutch companies have been very active in India
The Netherlands is partnering with the government of Karnataka to bring in Dutch expertise in cyber security, IT and healthcare, said Gert Heijkoop, Consul-General of the kingdom of the Netherlands, at the Bengaluru Tech Summit.
“We value our partnership with Karnataka in the area of cybersecurity,” he said. The Netherlands said both the countries are working together on reducing the increasing number of cyber attacks and assessing their impact on economies. Dutch companies, including Fox-IT and Group2000, have been very active in India. Indian companies, including E2Labs, Skillcube, Cloud4c and KrypC Technologies, have established a concrete presence in the Netherlands.
“We look forward to collaborating with the Netherlands and strengthen our partnership for a safe and secure cyber presence,” said Gaurav Gupta, Principal Secretary, Department of Commerce and Industries and Department of IT, BT and Science & Technology.
Healthcare
At the summit, Netherlands pitched healthcare projects to stakeholders from academic institutes, hospitals, IT and med-tech companies and startups for partnerships. This includes ‘point of care tool’ for fast diagnosis of conditions such as urinary tract infection and development of ‘generic toolbox’ to create health literacy application for use in both countries.
The other project is a framework for identification of biomarkers for mass screening of population at risk of development of neurodegenerative disorders.
After the memorandum of understanding was signed between The Hague and the State of Karnataka in 2016, Mr. Heijkoop said the two sides have worked diligently over the last few years in building partnerships for societal impact. He said ‘Living Lab’ is one such example, which will result in creating affordable solutions for sustainable healthcare in both India as well as the Netherlands.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bengaluru / by Special Corespondent / November 30th, 2018
SK Sharma was in palliative care being treated for stage-4 oesophagus cancer.
SK Sharma had been trying for compensation for the last 20 years. (Photo: Facebook Screengrab/ S K Sharma)
Bengaluru:
Sudhir Kumar Sharma, one of the men falsely accused in the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) ‘spy’ case of 1994, has died early on Thursday.
SK Sharma was in palliative care being treated for stage-4 oesophagus cancer.
Sharma was 62-year-old. He is survived by wife and three daughters.
Sharma was hoping to be compensated for the allegations after former ISRO scientist, Nambi Narayanan, was cleared of espionage charges and awarded Rs 50 lakh compensation for “unnecessary harassment” by the Kerala Police.
Labour contractor from Bengaluru, SK Sharma, who was tortured and harassed by the Kerala Police, was also cleared of all charges, but only after a difficult time in custody.
Socially ostracised and labelled as a traitor even when he fought to clear his name, it was a long battle for Sharma, who kept fighting tooth and nail as he wanted his reputation to be restored.
Sharma was trying for compensation for the last 20 years.
Sharma was just 34-year-old when he was first illegally detained for two days – November 21 and 22 in 1994 – from a DRDO lab in Bengaluru.
Sharma was good friend of Chandrashekhar, another person who was falsely accused in the case, who recently passed away.
In early 1994, Chandrashekhar had contacted Sharma seeking his help to get daughter of one of the two Maldivian women he had met at the Thiruvananthapuram airport admitted to a school.
Sharma was unaware that months later he would be detained, his family put under surveillance, or that he would be associated to what at the time was country’s biggest scandal.
In custody, Sharma was physically tortured. ‘They hit me. Slapped and kicked. Then with cane. After half an hour, this person would vanish. Another person would come. They said, ‘you passed ISRO and defence information to Pakistan’. I cried and cried but they were unrelenting. They didn’t let me sit on the ground for three days,” Sharma told NDTV earlier.
His reputation was damaged. And it hurt not just him but his family too.
Sharma had told NDTV, “My daughters were thrown out from the school. My daughters were humiliated. They were told, ‘You people are agents, deshdrohis (anti-nationals). The teachers also said hurtful things.”
His social life was affected as well and people who were close to him started avoiding him.
source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> Nation> Current Affairs / by Deccan Chronicle / November 01st, 2018
A metal replica of the Begur stone dating back to 890 AD. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
The aim is to make metal replicas of stone inscriptions to fund restoration of the original
A 1,100-year-old ‘veeragallu’ (hero stone) dating back to 890 AD, which lay neglected inside the Naganatheshwara temple in Begur, was recently restored thanks to the INTACH. But, not all surviving stones that have Bengaluru’s history etched on them are this lucky. Now, a group of citizens interested in the city’s history are attempting to change this by creating miniature metal replicas of inscription stones as souvenirs and use the proceeds from their sales to preserve and restore inscription stones around the city
“The primary intent of the initiative is to raise funds for safeguarding the inscription stones. To begin with, we will use the funds to build a protective structure for the 750 AD Hebbal inscription stone, which is the oldest known written record of any language found in Bengaluru till date. Depending on the success of this initiative, we will replicate the same for other stones,” said Vinay Kumar, co-founder of Inscription Stones of Bangalore, a citizens group which has been trying to locate, preserve and create awareness about inscriptions stones around the city.
The team has roped in architect Yashaswini Sharma, who has designed a mantapa in keeping with the architecture during the Ganga dynasty.
Palm-sized replicas
Along with the Revival Heritage Hub, the team will be using 3D scanners to scan the inscription, which enhances the readability of the stone. The scan will then be converted into 3D prints, which will be used to create the palm-sized metal replicas.
As a pilot, the team has created a metal replica of the Begur stone.
Mr. Kumar also feels that the initiative will help create a connect between people and the city’s history. “When we started the group, we found that there was lack of awareness and participation among people, leading to neglect of these stones. Through the project, we wish to make heritage conservation inclusive and get a large number of people to take ownership in protecting our heritage,” he said.
We were initially reluctant to go commercial, but felt that these souvenirs can ensure that more people get involved in the preservation of the stones, he said.
“The proceeds from the sales will help make the whole initiative a self-sustainable one.”
However, no decision on pricing has been taken yet. “But, we will try to keep it as affordable as possible,” Mr. Kumar said. The group can be contacted on Facebook (Inscription Stones of Bangalore) or Twitter (@inscriptionblr).
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bengaluru / by Sarumathi K / Bengaluru – September 29th, 2018
Taski Ali’s brain surgery lasted for two hours, according to doctors
Bengaluru :
A 31-year-old Bangladeshi computer science engineer, who was operated for a rare neurological disorder in a city hospital two weeks ago, was strumming his guitar during the procedure.
Taskin Ali was suffering from guitarist’s dystonia, which rendered his left hand numb. The two-hour brain circuit surgery to tackle the disorder was performed in Bhagawan Mahaveer Jain Hospital on May 17.
Ali first noticed the problem in 2013 when he was playing guitar for no less than 10 hours a day. He worked in a company that developed video games and his job was to provide background music for the games.
“I used to find it difficult to move my left hand fingers while playing the guitar but that was my bread and butter. I thought I should practise more and increased it to 14 hours a day. But my condition only worsened. I was not able to play guitar at all,” Ali told TOI. Soon, his condition was diagnosed as Guitarist’s Dystonia in Dhaka but he was told that there was no treatment for the same.
In 2017, Ali read a Times of India report about a surgery conducted in Bengaluru on a guitarist suffering from the same disorder. He got in touch with Dr Sharan Srinivasan, consultant neurosurgeon at Jain hospital who had conducted the surgery. He also got in touch with the guitarist, Abhishek Prasad, who had undergone surgery.
Ali sold one of his guitars and other music equipment to raise money for the surgery that cost him Rs 2.25 lakh. Ali didn’t inform his parents too and landed in Bengaluru with his uncle on May 14.
Guitarist’s dystonia occurs due to abnormal and involuntary flexion of muscles because of rigorous use. “We usually do not extensively use the last two fingers of the hand, especially left. But that’s quintessential for the guitarists. No CT scan or MRI scan can show the problem,” says Dr Sharan.
Ali was put on local anaesthesia during the surgery. He played the guitar, Dr Sharan and and Dr Sanjiv CC, a movement disorder neurologist, operated on him.
“Through a 14 mm insertion to the brain, we burnt 9.3 cm of the ‘problematic’, ‘misbehaving’ circuit the brain. We made eight burns for 40 seconds each and parallelly checked the movement of the fingers in his left hand as he played the guitar. These extremely challenging surgeries improve the quality of life. Throughout the surgery a special MRI scanning was done and we used a software for precision,” Dr Sharan explained.
The disorder is said to affect one percent of musicians, especially guitarists. “For musicians suffering from this problem, fingers do not coordinate with each other. The problem is resistant to medical drugs and surgery is the only option,” said Dr Sanjiv.
Ali said he was conscious of his finger movements throughout the surgery. “I was unable to even hold a cup of coffee in my left hand or flip a coin. Now, I have to retrain my left hand fingers for my regular work,” he said.
Ali’s parents landed in Bengaluru on Wednesday. They were shocked to learn that their son had to undergo a brain surgery to fix the problem in his hand.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> News> City News> Bangalore News / by Sunitha Rao R / TNN / June 01st, 2018
Mohan S.L. with his mother, Puttalakshmi, and father, Lakshme Gowda, in Hassan on Monday. | Photo Credit: Prakash Hassan
Mohan S.L., son of a farmer, secured the second highest marks (595 out of 600) in in Science, in the State.
His family lives in Shantigrama village in Hassan taluk but he remained with his grandparents in Hassan town so that he could concentrate on attend classes at Masters PU College in Hassan town and focus on his studies.
He scored 100 each in Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and Biology.
“My teachers helped me a lot. I used to study till midnight and get up early at 4.30 a.m.,” he said.
His parents were farming their tomato crop when they learned that their son was ranked second in Karnataka.
“I have studied only up to class 4. My dream is that my only son studies well,” said his father, Lakshme Gowda, who owns 33 guntas of land in Shantigrama, and grows tomatoes and potatoes for a living. Mr. Mohan wants to study MBBS and later prepare for the IAS.
“My son studies hard and supports the family in agriculture activities. He looks after our cattle, and gets hardly four hours of sleep in a day,” added Mr. Lakshme Gowda.
