Haveri-born CEO wants to give it all back to society

Prabhu Patil, CEO of Prolim Global Corporation, addressing a gathering after being felicitated by Karnataka Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Hubballi on Tuesday.
Prabhu Patil, CEO of Prolim Global Corporation, addressing a gathering after being felicitated by Karnataka Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Hubballi on Tuesday.

He recalls how an article in The Hindu opened avenues for his growth

A native of Haveri and now CEO of a global company, Prabhu Patil, plans to create job opportunities for another 100 professionals from the region in the next two years for his unit in Hubballi.

Speaking to presspersons after a being felicitated by the Karnataka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) here on Tuesday, Mr. Pabhu Patil, who is now CEO and president of Prolim Global Corporation, said that they have hired 70 persons for his Hubballi unit and have now drawn up plans to add another 100 in two years.

Mr. Prabhu Patil said that Hubballi had a lot of talent and they want to not only train and recruit young graduates but also guide them to become entrepreneurs.

Memorandum

He said that to begin with, they would like to take engineering graduates for internship and train them and for the purpose, they want to have a tie-up with the KLE Institute of Technology in Hubballi. Prolim Global Corporation now has offices in the U.S., Canada, Bengaluru and Hubballi and it recently acquired Ally PM Solutions Inc. of North America.

Mr. Prabhu Patil said that on the social front, they would like to adopt more children under Akshaya Patra midday meal programme and also associate with the Deshpande Foundation in taking up social initiatives.

Earlier, narrating his life story, he recalled how an article in The Hindu took him to Coimbatore for pursuing a research with the Defence Research and Development Organsiation (DRDO) and subsequently, to the U.S. and other nations to work with various companies.

“Now, I have started working for my organisation and also want to contribute a little bit to my region,” he said.

KCCI president Ramesh Patil, secretary Siddeshwar Kammar and other office-bearers felicitated him.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Karnataka / by Special Correspondent / Hubballi – November 08th, 2017

MESCOM bags 27 awards

The awards were in recognition of MESCOM’s strides in power supply.
The awards were in recognition of MESCOM’s strides in power supply.

Mangalore Electricity Supply Company (MESCOM) bagged 27 awards in the recently held Power Awards 2017 organised by the State Energy Department.

A release from MESCOM said the awards were in recognition of the company’s strides in power supply and various innovations. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Energy Minister D.K. Shivakumar presented the awards.

MESCOM Managing Director bagged first place in minimum commercial loss and third places in effective implementation of Hosa Belaku programme, reduction in failure of transformers and uniform rating of ESCOMs conducted by the Central government.

Kadur, Puttur and Kundapura divisions of MESCOM bagged the first three awards in effective implementation of Ganga Kalyana project in rural areas. Similarly, Udupi, Sagara and Kadur Divisions bagged three awards in rural drinking water projects.

Kavoor, Kundapura and Udupi divisions stood in first three places in handling minimum revenue backlog in rural areas.

While Shree Jayadeva Electrical, Udupi repair centre, was judged the best transformer repair centre, Mangaluru Division I was declared the best transformer bank. Bantwal Division was judged the best in augmenting basic infrastructure for Akrama-Sakrama programme. Thomas Gomes, Malpe branch and M. Nagesh, Kulashekara branch, were judged best linesmen.

Customers felicitated

As many as 10 MESCOM customers were felicitated in the solar roof top electricity project under renewable energy sector. They were M. Balakrishna Nayak, Bannanjep; Raghu Hegde, Mavinakoodlu; Chandramathi Shetty, Koni; John D’Silva, Kuntalpady, Karkala; Harishchandra, Gandhi Hospital, Udupi; Ananth Nayak, Lakshmi Textiles, Thekkatte; Veerendra Nayak, VKR Hollow Blocks, Thirthahalli; Ryako Industries, Bhadravati, and Ganapathi Hegde, Padutirupathi Petrol Pump, Sanur.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Karnataka / by Special Correspondent / Mangaluru – November 06th, 2017

Israel Centre opens at IIMB

‘The centre will bring together like-minded individuals in academic knowledge and research’

The Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) opened its campus to an Israel Centre on Sunday which is aimed at becoming a “bridge of academic collaboration” between India and Israel. The centre will be largely based on research by faculty and will also include faculty and student exchange programmes.

The Consul General of Israel to Bengaluru, Dana Kursh, during the inauguration of the centre, said the initiative was spearheaded by the heads of IIMB and Coller School of Management. “Both our countries have a similar ecosystem in terms of business, academia supported by the government, and research. Previously, the Karnataka Israel Research and Development agreement facilitated research with state-funding from both Israel and Karnataka. For any economy, startups are very important,” she said.

Speaking about the Israeli startup ecosystem, which is based on three factors — government, industry and academia — Ambassador of Israel to India Daniel Carmon said the collaboration will strengthen the ecosystem of both the countries. “Bengaluru is an ideal centre for startups, and this collaboration is an excellent idea. This is further highlighted by the fact that currently, a Bengaluru startup is representing India in Start Jerusalem programme back in our country. This centre will bring together like-minded individuals in academic knowledge and research.”

G. Raghuram, Director, IIMB, said the centre will act as a hub for research, technological innovations, business strategy, government policies, and culture. “Through this centre, we will also support exchange programmes, host seminars, discussions, and nurture entrepreneurial spirit,” he said.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bengaluru / by Staff Reporter / Bengaluru – November 06th, 2017

Bengaluru schoolboy to make World Rotax Max debut

Bengaluru schoolboy Ruhaan Alva, supported by Italian manufacturer Birel Art, will be making his debut in the World Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals which starts here on Monday.

The event will see 360 competitors representing 60 countries vie for titles in various age-group categories.

Ruhaan, who finished third overall in the recently-concluded Easykart series in Italy, has entered in the 125 Micro Max category which has a grid of 36 drivers who have qualified from their respective National Rotax Max championships or international Rotax Max series.

After completing formalities over the weekend, the competitors will have two days of practice sessions on November 6 and 7.

The qualifying sessions will commence on November 8, leading up to the three rounds of heats (November 9) and pre-finals (November 10) before the finals on November 11.

Looking ahead to his maiden participation in the Grand Finals, Ruhaan, who is also supported by Play Factory and Sona Miller, said he would put to good use his experience in the recent Eastkart championship in Italy and hoped to deliver a strong result.

“I had a good season in Italy though it was very tough because I switched to a higher and more competitive Easykart 60 category after the first round in the Mini class which I won,” the 11-year-old from Bengaluru said.

–IANS

ajb/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

source: http://www.business-standard.com / Business Standard / Home> News-IANS> Sports / IANS – Portimao(Portugal) / November 05th, 2017

Students from Mysuru win hackathon in Bengaluru

Third-year computer science and engineering students of JSS Science and Technology University (Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering) have won the first prize in a hackathon titled #Hackabout 2017, conducted by Royal Philips, Bengaluru.

The winners — Shashank R., Ashwin B.S. and Ajay B. and Amogha Subramanya D.A. — were mentored by Anil Kumar K.M.

Philips, which provides technology for health services and has an innovation campus in Bengaluru, conducted the hackathon based on its data science platform (DSP). Participants were given an opportunity to experience the Philips DSP to create solutions to real-world problems. The two-month-long competition concluded only recently.

#Hackabout 2017 had multiple rounds and the finale was conducted at the Philips Innovation Campus. Seventy teams, with around 300 students from colleges across India, participated.

According to a release from the college, in round one, a problem related to semantic similarities was issued. Based on the solutions, the top 20 teams were selected for the next round. In round two, the teams were given access to the Philips DSP to propose a way to predict the length of a patient’s stay in ICU.

Based on this round, the top 10 teams were selected. They included teams from IIT Madras and Manipal Institute of Technology. The final 10 were invited to the innovation campus for the final presentation.

In the final round, each team made their presentation and answered questions posed by the jury and the audience. The jury comprised Srinivas Prasad, CEO of Philips Innovation Campus, Vijayananda J., senior director, Philips Healthcare, and John Huffman, business lead, Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, Philips.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Karnataka / by Special Correspondent / Mysuru – October 31st, 2017

Date with history: ET explains the story behind the names – The plague that helped Bengaluru expand

"Some people refused to go to plague camps because they would then have to mingle with other castes," said Meera Iyer, co-convenor, Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH). (Image source:Wikipedia)
“Some people refused to go to plague camps because they would then have to mingle with other castes,” said Meera Iyer, co-convenor, Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH). (Image source:Wikipedia)

In a way, Bengaluru owes its expansion to the plague. It was the outbreak in the late 1800s that egged people -until then averse to relocation -to settle in newly-created extensions like Basavanagudi and Malleswaram. A famous incident involving trader-philanthropist BP Annaswamy Mudaliar took place at a plague inoculation camp in the city . The crowd at the camp was leery about inoculations when Mudaliar, a progressive thinker, lectured them about the benefits, folded his sleeve  and got himself vaccinated. While this crowd cooperated with the administration’s efforts to curtail the disease, widespread public resistance towards certain control measures culminated in what came to be known as the plague riots. The violence was also a mirror to the caste and cultural identity conflicts prevalent among people .

“Some people refused to go to plague camps because they would then have to mingle with other castes,” said Meera Iyer, co-convenor, Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), explaining that people hid in relatives’ or neighbours’ houses to avoid being forcefully segregated. Apparently , dead bodies were simply abandoned. “Caste was a big factor that hindered plague prevention and treatment. There was also strong opposition to bodies being examined for plague because the last  rites would be delayed.

 In their book Health and Medicine in the Indian Princely States: 1850-1950, Waltraud Ernst, Biswamoy Patil and TV Sekher state how hospitals were looked upon as jails and slaughterhouses, and how people stopped using public water taps because they believed that the purified drinking water supplied to them would actually poison them. “As an expression of hostility towards administrative measures to curtail the plague, the public set fire to plague sheds. The Health Officer of Bangalore City ,  Achyut Rao, had stones thrown at him by youth who disapproved of inoculation,” according to the book.

The culmination of these events came to be known as the ‘Ganjam Riots’ (Ganjam is near Srirangapatna). It started with two weavers from Bengaluru dying of the plague within a week of their arrival in Ganjam on November 02, 1898. Locals refused to cremate the second body , stating that the victim was poisoned.People threw stones at officers. The police, with full emergency powers, raided the village and arrested 55 people for the violence.Villagers retaliated with sticks, swords and guns. The police opened fire to control the mob, resulting in death and injuries.

 M Jamuna, professor, department of history , Bangalore University, said that this crisis of confidence compelled the administration to focus on sanitation measures instead. “Between 1900-01, 13,223 homes were disinfected with chemicals while 47,801 were disinfected by exposure to sun, air and whitewash. In Bengaluru, 71 homes were demolished. The administration planned to remove congestion and improve drainage systems. Budget provisions were made for plague-relief and surplus revenue was also  also spent for the cause.” This resulted in restoration of public confidence and greater co-operation with authorities.

source: http://www.economictimes.indiatimes.com / The Economic Times / Home> News> Politics and Nation / by Divya Shekhar, ET Bureau / November 02nd, 2017

Women police elated at breaking glass ceiling

Neelamani N. Raju is appointed as the first woman Director-General and Inspector-General of Police of the State.

Several IPS officers are elated with the appointment of Neelamani N. Raju as the first woman Director-General and Inspector-General of Police (DG & IGP) of the State.

That no woman had occupied the top post in Karnataka so far was a reminder of the glass ceiling in a predominantly male force that has in recent times seen several women IPS officers excel.

Senior IPS officer Malini Krishnamoorthy, who is posted as Additional Commissioner of Police (Law and Order, West) Bengaluru, said the appointment was extremely significant and a signal in the right direction. “Ms. Raju is the senior-most officer in the State and there is no reason why she shouldn’t be given the top post,” she said, and added that this would go a long way in increasing the confidence of all policewomen. “This is a time that we should use to better leverage women police personnel across the State,” she said.

D. Roopa, another IPS officer, said all policewomen in the State were congratulating themselves. “It was high time we had a woman chief and we have got one,” she said.

Historically, the only other woman officer who has come close to occupying the position but was denied was Jija Harisingh, a 1975 batch officer and also the first woman IPS officer of Karnataka cadre. Ms. Harisingh was in the race for the posts of the Police Commissioner of Bangalore in 2006 and DG & IGP in 2009. At that time, she had expressed her unhappiness at the top posts being denied to her. Ms. Harisingh, who retired in 2011, was not available for comment.

The second IPS officer from the State, Prabha H. Rao — a 1982 batch officer — was later absorbed into the Central Intelligence Agency and is still posted there.

Ms. Raju, the third IPS officer from the Karnataka cadre, has had a 23-year-long tenure in the Intelligence Bureau and returned to State service in 2016.

Chief Secretary

In all likelihood, a woman will be in the running for the post of Chief Secretary. The incumbent chief secretary Subhash Chandra Khuntia, a 1981 batch IAS officer, will retire on November 30. The next line of seniority has two women officers, followed by another male officer. The senior most IAS officer is Ratna Prabha K who is also a 1981 batch IAS officer and will retire on March 31, 2018. Two others in the race are 1982 batch officers Latha Krishna Rao G. and S.K. Pattanayak, both on central deputation presently.

However, it will not be the first time the State will have a woman Chief Secretary.

Sources in the government, however, said that no call had been taken on the issue, and that the Chief Minister was likely to go by seniority.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Karnataka / by Staff Reporter / Bengaluru – October 31st, 2017

Rajayotsava : The Hows and Whys of Karnataka

RajayotsavaBF01nov2017

Today is Karnataka Rajyotsava, a day celebrating the formation of the state in 1956. ‘One State, Many Worlds’ best describes our story, marked by a unification despite the pulls and pressures of socio-linguistic fragmentation

There is not a day on which Kannada, the state language of Karnataka, comes into popular focus more than every November 1. The day marked as Karnataka Rajyotsava, a public holiday, has been typically accompanied by visual symbols everywhere, of the state’s identity – like buntings of an (unofficial) flag and banners about an (official) language.

Translated literally to ‘State Festival’, Rajyotsava marks the day in 1956 when the erstwhile Mysore State was expanded to re-unify into it, some key Kannada-speaking and geographically connected regions of South India. The change of the State’s official name to Karnataka itself happened close to two decades later, with the passing of the Mysore State (Alteration of Name) Act, 1973.

The early C(K)arnatic

The term ‘re-unification’ of the State needs to be understood with some historical context. The geo-political expansion of the region had been commenced by Chikka Devaraka Wodeyar and continued by Hyder Ali, which towards the end encompassed a surprising area compared to what Karnataka State is today.

This growth of the Mysorean region was of course cut short by two key events: The Treaty of Seringapatam (1792) which ended the Third Anglo-Mysore War, and The Siege of Seringapatam (1799) which ended the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War.

The result of the former was that, about half of the Mysorean territory, was divided by the British and their allies at the time – the Mahratta Peshwa acquired territories up to the Tungabhadra River, and the Nizam of Hyderabad was granted land between the Krishna and Pennar Rivers, and the forts of Cuddapah and Gandikota. The East India Company itself retained a large integral central portion (Mysore and Coorg) and some of the Malabar Coast territories between Travancore and the Kali River, as also Baramahal and Dindigul districts. The result of the latter, which marked the final confrontation between the East India Company and the Kingdom of Mysore, was a further division of the remaining parts of the kingdom – Kanara, Wyanad, Coimbatore, Dharmapuri and Srirangapatna were retained by the British and the Nizam acquired Gooty, a part of Chittoor and Chitradurga districts. The effect on the ground was that large pockets of people were placed outside the core Mysore region, but still retained Kannada as lingua franca because of continued trade and commerce across the borders of a larger core region.

Karnataka in focus

The implication of the States Reorganisation Act of 1956 for the Kannada speaking regions at that time was of course, the re-unification of some zones that had been separated over a hundred years earlier, and the merger of other zones that were inherently Kannada speaking but were part of historical empires that had held on to them over time.

Remarkably, the name indicated by the States Reorganisation Committee for the unified state was “Karnataka”. The committee’s report provides explanatory notes
as to why the state was not proposed to be divided into two (keeping the erstwhile Mysore State separate, as was demanded by a school of thought at that time), and Section 329, which clearly states, “For these reasons, we recommend that one Karnataka State should be formed. This state should, in our opinion, comprise the, following areas…” and lists the areas proposed for unification covering the then existing Mysore State, four Kannada-speaking districts of the southern division of Bombay, namely, Belgaum, Bijapur, Dharwar and North Kanara, two districts from the princely state of Hyderabad namely Raichur and Gulbarga, South Kanara, Kollegal from Madras, and Coorg.

There were some exclusions in the recommendations, such as Bellary and Hospet taluks, as well as Kasargod, and further explanations were provided with a note “The territorial limits of Karnataka, as thus proposed, broadly cover the Kannada-speaking areas, but in the case of one or two small units, linguistic considerations have been subordinated to other compelling reasons”. The report also mentions Kolar district as an inclusion despite having a majority of Telugu speakers, for reasons of historical interest of Mysore in its industry as well as proximity to Bangalore versus Kurnool or Hyderabad. It also provides a list of over a dozen additional justifications for inclusions, exclusions, economic considerations, developmental and industrial issues, natural resources, population and administration. Finally, in Section 351, the report makes a defining statement: “Karnataka with the territorial limits which have been indicated so far will have linguistic and cultural homogeneity and geographical integrity. Barring a few dissentients, all those who have been concerned with the Karnataka problem in some form or (Aber will sooner or later recognise that this is so…”

Despite the recommended name in the SRC Report, the name of the expanded State was retained as Mysore in the SRA of 1956. Two decades later, with the passing of the Mysore State (Alteration of Name) Act, 1973, the erstwhile Mysore State officially adopted the name of Karnataka. This was in itself also due to an identity conflict where residents of northern Karnataka felt the name of Mysore reflected only the erstwhile regime, and did not represent the expanded state. Prior to the unification of Gulbarga, Raichur, Bidar and Koppal districts, the High Court jurisdiction was Hyderabad, only 200 km away, but after the unification it had moved to Bangalore, at four times the distance.

(The author is an IT professional and Bengaluru heritage enthusiast)

source: http://www.bangaloremirror.indiatimes.com / Bangalore Mirror / Home> Bangalore> Others / by Kiran Natarajan / Bangalore Mirror Bureau / November 01st, 2017

The man who ‘discovered’ 780 Indian languages

Ganesh Devy undertook 300 journeys in 18 months to explore India's languages / ANUSHREE FADNAVIS/INDUS IMAGES
Ganesh Devy undertook 300 journeys in 18 months to explore India’s languages / ANUSHREE FADNAVIS/INDUS IMAGES

When Ganesh Devy, a former professor of English, embarked on a search for India’s languages, he expected to walk into a graveyard, littered with dead and dying mother tongues.

Instead, he says, he walked into a “dense forest of voices”, a noisy Tower of Babel in one of the world’s most populous nations.

He discovered that some 16 languages spoken in the Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh have 200 words for snow alone – some of them ornately descriptive like “flakes falling on water”, or “falling when the moon is up”.

He found that the nomadic communities in the desert state of Rajasthan used a large number of words to describe the barren landscape, including ones for how man and animal separately experience the sandy nothingness. And that nomads – who were once branded “criminal tribes” by British rulers and now hawk maps for a living at Delhi’s traffic crossings – spoke a “secret” language because of the stigma attached to their community.

In a dozen villages on the western coast of Maharashtra, not far from the state capital Mumbai, he discovered people speaking an “outdated” form of Portuguese. A group of residents in the far-flung eastern archipelago of Andaman and Nicobar spoke in Karen, an ethnic language of Myanmar. And some Indians living in Gujarat even spoke in Japanese. Indians, he found, spoke some 125 foreign languages as their mother tongue.

Dr Devy, an untrained linguist, is a soft-spoken and fiercely determined man. He taught English at a university in Gujarat for 16 years before moving to a remote village to start working with local tribespeople. He helped them access credit, run seed banks and healthcare projects. More importantly, he also published a journal in 11 tribal languagesGrey line

Languages of India

  • The 1961 census counted 1,652 Indian languages
  • The People’s Linguistic Survey of India (PLSI) counted 780 Indian languages in 2010
  • 197 of these are endangered, 42 of them critically so, according to UNESCO
  • Arunachal Pradesh and Assam in the northeast, Maharashtra and Gujarat in the west, Orissa and Bengal in the east, and Rajasthan in the north have the most languages
  • India has 68 living scripts
  • The country publishes newspapers in 35 languages
  • Hindi is India’s most used language, spoken by 40% of Indians. This is followed by Bengali (8.0%), Telugu (7.1%), Marathi (6.9%), and Tamil (5.9%)
  • The state-run All India Radio (AIR) broadcasts programmes in 120 languages
  • Only 4% of languages are represented in India’s parliament

Sources: Census of India, 2001, 1962, UNESCO, People’s Linguistic Survey of India 2010.Grey line

It was around this time Dr Devy had an epiphany about the power of language.

In 1998, he carried 700 copies of his journal written in the local language to a dirt-poor tribal village. He left a basket for any villager who wanted to or could afford to pay 10 rupees (£0.11; $0.15) for a copy. At the end of the day, all the copies were gone.

When he checked the basket, he found a large of number of currency notes – “grimy, crumpled, soggy” – left behind by the tribal villagers who had paid whatever they could afford from their paltry daily wages.

Dr Devy and his team have recorded India's many sign languages / ANUSHREE FADNAVIS/INDUS IMAGES
Dr Devy and his team have recorded India’s many sign languages /
ANUSHREE FADNAVIS/INDUS IMAGES
A story written in Spiti language, spoken in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh / ANUSHREE FADNAVIS/INDUS IMAGES
A story written in Spiti language, spoken in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh /
ANUSHREE FADNAVIS/INDUS IMAGES

“This must have been the first printed material they saw in their life in their own language. These were unlettered daily wage workers who had paid for something they could not even read. I realised this primordial pride and power of the language,” Dr Devy told me.

Seven years ago, he launched his ambitious People’s Linguistic Survey of India (PLSI), which he called a “right-based movement for carrying out a nation-wide survey of Indian languages as people perceive them”.

As the indefatigable language hunter turned 60, he undertook 300 journeys in 18 months across the length and breadth of India to search for more languages. He paid for his trips using money he earned by delivering lectures in universities and colleges. He travelled night and day, revisiting some states nearly 10 times, and religiously kept a diary.

Dr Devy also forged a voluntary network of some 3,500 scholars, teachers, activists, bus drivers and nomads, who travelled to the remotest parts of the country. Among them was a driver of a bureaucrat’s car in the eastern state of Orissa who kept a diary of the new words he heard during his extensive travels. The volunteers interviewed people and chronicled the history and geography of languages. They also asked locals to “draw their own maps” on the reach of their language.

The script of a language called Sakal spoken in Maharashtra / ANUSHREE FADNAVIS/INDUS IMAGES
The script of a language called Sakal spoken in Maharashtra /
ANUSHREE FADNAVIS/INDUS IMAGES
The PLSI has already published 39 books on Indian languages / ANUSHREE FADNAVIS/INDUS IMAGES
The PLSI has already published 39 books on Indian languages /
ANUSHREE FADNAVIS/INDUS IMAGES

“People drew maps shaped like flowers, triangles, circles. These were maps of their imagination on the reach of their language,” says Dr Devy.

By 2011, the PLSI had recorded 780 languages, down from the 1,652 languages counted by the government in 1961. Thirty-nine of a planned 100 books carrying the findings of the organisation’s survey have already been published; and some 35,000 pages of typed manuscripts are being vetted for publication.

India has lost a few hundred languages because of lack of government patronage, dwindling number of speakers, poor primary education in local languages, and migration of tribespeople from their native villages. The death of a language is always a cultural tragedy, and marks the withering away of wisdom, fables, stories, games and music.

‘Linguistic democracy’

Dr Devy says there are more pressing anxieties. He worries about the ruling Hindu nationalist BJP’s efforts to impose Hindi all over India, which he calls a “direct attack on our linguistic plurality”. He wonders how India’s melting-pot megacities will deal with linguistic diversity in the face of chauvinistic politics.

Dr Devy is now planning to check the health of the world's 6,500 languages  / ANUSHREE FADNAVIS/INDUS IMAGES/
Dr Devy is now planning to check the health of the world’s 6,500 languages / ANUSHREE FADNAVIS/INDUS IMAGES/

“I feel sad every time a language dies. But we have suffered heavier losses in other diversities – like varieties of fish and rice,” he says, sitting in his home in Dharwad, a sleepy, historic town in Karnataka state.

“Our languages have survived tenaciously. We are truly a linguistic democracy. To keep our democracy alive, we have to keep our languages alive.”

source: http://www.bbc.com / BBC News / Home> News> Asia> India / by Soutik Biswas, India Correspondent / October 27th, 2017

Cricket legends regale audience

When stars meet: Veteran cricketers B.S. Chandrasekhar, Syed Kirmani, E.A.S. Prasanna, and Rahul Dravid releasing senior journalist Rajdeep Sardesai’s book Democracy IX at the Bangalore Literature Festival on Sunday.   | Photo Credit: Sudhakara Jain
When stars meet: Veteran cricketers B.S. Chandrasekhar, Syed Kirmani, E.A.S. Prasanna, and Rahul Dravid releasing senior journalist Rajdeep Sardesai’s book Democracy IX at the Bangalore Literature Festival on Sunday. | Photo Credit: Sudhakara Jain

Four Karnataka cricket legends shared the stage at the Bangalore Literature Festival on Sunday, leaving the audience spellbound.

B.S. Chandrasekhar, E.A.S. Prasanna, Syed Kirmani, and Rahul Dravid regaled the audience in the company of senior journalist, Rajdeep Sardesai. The former India internationals were present to support Sardesai’s new cricket book Democracy’s XI.

Dravid, the star attraction, stated that he was fortunate to start his career in a State that has produced several world-class cricketers. “The great thing about the cricket culture in the city is that you get to interact with international cricketers when you are young. I remember, when I was 18 or 19, we took a 48-hour train journey to Calcutta to play a Ranji Trophy match. I had G.R. Viswanath (then Karnataka chairman of selectors and team manager) and Kirmani sitting in my compartment. They were happy to share their inputs with me, and I was constantly picking their brain. As an 18-year-old, what more can you ask for,” Dravid said.

He alluded to the fact that his seniors were not averse to knocking back a few cold beverages. “Forty-eight hours is a long time, you have to find ways to pass time. There were some card sessions, and I won’t say what else happened. All I can say is that the weather was warm, and that in those days, there were no fitness tests and diet rules,” he said.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Karnataka / by Ashwin Achal / Bengaluru – October 29th, 2017