Aparna Sharath is the first woman from the Tulunadu region of Karnataka to receive the ‘Nari Shakti Samman’ of the government of India, honoured by the Indian Embassy in Qatar, marking a historic milestone for the community.
She was felicitated as one among only 12 Indian women during the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas celebrations organised by the Embassy, in recognition of her outstanding community service and leadership.
The honour acknowledges her significant contributions towards empowering the Indian diaspora and strengthening India–Qatar relations.
This achievement has brought immense pride to the Tulunadu region of Karnataka and the wider overseas Indian community.
The felicitation under the Nari Shakti initiative highlights her role as an inspiring woman leader on an international platform.
The event was attended by diplomats, community leaders, and prominent members of the Indian community in Qatar.
Applications of the tool could span from disease biology to drug design, say scientists.
Researchers at the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bengaluru, have developed a deep-learning tool that can predict how intrinsically disordered proteins (IDP) latch on to their binding partners.
Shapeshifters, central to life
Proteins usually fold into specific shapes; However, IDPs, which are shapeshifting molecules vital to cellular communication, don’t form a fixed structure. Central to life, they guide signalling networks, help proteins move and find partners within the cell, regulate which genes are switched on or off, support protein folding and quality control, and assemble flexible cellular hubs called condensates.
But their flexibility has made it challenging to figure out how they attach to other molecules and to map them using traditional structural biology or computational tools.
On the other hand, it is crucial to understand this interaction to decode cell communication, understand disease mechanisms and design more precise treatments.
Protein language models
The tool, named Disobind and developed by the researchers, analyses the protein sequences and uses protein language models (a form of AI trained on millions of known protein sequences) to forecast which parts of a floppy, flexible protein will make contact with another protein molecule. Unlike current structure prediction methods, Disobind does not require any structural information or sequence alignments, and importantly, considers the binding partner. This is crucial because context influences interaction in the case of these floppy proteins.
Kartik Majila, lead author of the study, and his team benchmarked Disobind against predictors including AlphaFold-multimer and AlphaFold3. Disobind delivered consistently higher accuracy when tested on new protein pairs it had not seen before. When combined with AlphaFold-multimer predictions, performance improved even further.
Disease biology to drug design
“Applications span from disease biology to drug design. With Disobind, we can begin to reveal new interaction motifs linked to disease, suggest intervention points for regulating IDR-mediated interactions across the proteome, and better position disordered segments within large molecular assemblies,” said Shruthi Viswanath, who leads the Integrative Structural Biology Lab at NCBS.
The team demonstrated Disobind’s capability across diverse biological systems from immune signalling molecules to repair proteins implicated in cancer and neurodegeneration. Disobind is open-source and freely available for researchers worldwide.
The prestigious Karnataka Crown 2026 beauty pageant, organised by Wenz Modelling Academy under the leadership of its founder Wencita Dias, was successfully held at BMS Hotel, Mangaluru. Conducted in association with Karunya Setu Foundation, the event received an overwhelming response, with a packed audience that included celebrities and prominent political personalities.
A total of 46 contestants competed across the Teen, Miss and Mr categories. The esteemed judging panel featured Bigg Boss Season 12 contestant and Sandalwood actress Risha Gowda, SIIMA Award winner Shubha Raksha, and actor, director and model Siddharth Shetty.
The inauguration ceremony was graced by title sponsor Swasthik Arya of Karunya Setu Foundation, Dr Praveen Martis SJ, vice-chancellor of St Aloysius (Deemed to be University), along with entrepreneurs Darshan Jain and James Mendonca, and Jeswita Dias and Wencita Dias.
A special highlight of the evening was the social cause segment, where children from an orphanage delivered captivating performances, highlighting the pageant’s strong commitment to community upliftment and social responsibility.
Winners of Karnataka Crown 2026
Teen Category: Renisha D’Souza (Winner), Moksha A K (First Runner-Up), Aadhya Salyan (Second Runner-Up)
Bengaluru real estate update: The office space is spread across multiple floors situated in a building named RMZ Ecoworld, and measures almost 4 lakh sq ft .
Global technology major Honeywell Technology Solutions Lab Pvt Ltd has leased close to 4 lakh sq ft of office space in the Bellandur area of Bengaluru for a total rent of ₹429 crore for a period of seven years, according to property registration documents accessed by Propstack.
Global technology major Honeywell Technology Solutions Lab Pvt Ltd has leased close to 4 lakh sq ft of office space in the Bellandur area of Bengaluru for a total rent of ₹429 crore for a period of seven years, according to property registration documents accessed by Propstack.
According to the documents, the leased premises span multiple floors, covering the ground to the second floors and the fourth to the ninth floors of the building. Honeywell will pay a starting monthly rent of ₹4.39 crore, equivalent to a rental rate of ₹110 per square foot per month. The agreement is for a seven-year tenure (84 months), with a 5% annual escalation clause.
Over the full lease period, the total rental expenditure is estimated to be around ₹429 crore. The company has also paid a security deposit of ₹26.85 crore, as per the documents.
The documents indicate that the space was leased along with 499 parking spaces for cars. In addition to the committed space, the lease includes an expansion plan. Honeywell has the option to take additional space in a phased manner at RMZ Ecoworld Campus 5B, comprising 55,619 sq ft on the third floor and 80,541 sq ft on the fourth floor, on or before June 1, 2026.
An email query sent to Honeywell and Arliga Ecoworld Business Parks Private Limited did not get a response. The story will be updated if a response is received.
Office leasing scenario in India
Office leasing across major Indian cities reached 82.6 million sq ft in 2025, a marginal 1% year-on-year increase driven by improved demand from domestic and foreign companies. Bengaluru, Mumbai, and the Delhi-NCR region led the activity, together accounting for around 61% of total space absorption, according to a report by CBRE.
In the fourth quarter alone, leasing touched 22.2 million sq ft, with the same three markets driving demand. Technology, flexible spaces and BFSI corporates led absorption with a cumulative share of 60% in 2025.
GCCs continued to power India’s office market, capturing a 39% share in Oct-Dec 2025. Global firms are expected to expand their footprints in India through their Global Capability Centres (GCCs). These centres are projected to drive 35-40 per cent of total space absorption in 2026, the report titled ‘CBRE India Office Figures Q4 2025’ said.
Honoured with the Ramnath Goenka Sahithya Samman in the Lifetime Achievement category, Kannada playwright, novelist and poet Dr Chandrashekhara Kambara looks back at his days rooted in folk wisdom and laurels.
Nestled in the quiet bylanes of one of Bengaluru’s oldest neighbourhoods is Dr Chandrashekhara Kambara’s home, ‘Siri Sampige’, named after the play for which he received the Sahitya Akademi Award (1991). In the two-storey house with a verandah shaded by plants and trees, students and young writers still drop by, bringing their books to him. He reads them all, with a stack of them placed carefully within easy reach in the living room. Just last week, on January 2 – his 89th birthday – he was conferred the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 3rd edition of the Ramnath Goenka Sahithya Samman by The New Indian Express Group. The honour came with a cash prize of `2 lakh, a citation and a trophy. The citation hailed him as, ‘a Kannada writer, thinker, playwright, folklorist and theatre activist whose life’s work has profoundly shaped the nation’s cultural imagination.’
For Kambara, his love for Karnataka’s folk literature or ‘janapada sahitya’ was an inevitable result of growing up steeped in the stories that filled every moment in Ghodageri, a village in Belgaum (now Belagavi). “In the 3,000 people in my village, there would’ve been 15 or 20 who were educated. At the time, people only had janapada, not schools. We used to herd cattle; it was a strange existence. Janapada is a culmination of what the people are, what they say, believe and follow. Nobody knew how to read or write, but they used to sing.”
Growing up through the 1940s and coming of age in the 1950s, Kambara is part of a shrinking tribe of people who lived through the freedom movement. He comments on how the zeal and uncertainty of it all reached the folk arts too, saying, “When we started seeing words like ‘swatantra’, ‘horata’ and ‘strike’ come up in the newspaper (the single one we would get for the whole village), the villagers were shocked. They would make conversation with questions like ‘Have any other problems started with independence?’, ‘Have the British done something now?’ This was when these words and topics entered ‘bayalatas’ (open-air folk theatre) and ‘natakas’.”
He began writing simply because he had learnt how to, he says, adding, “We didn’t have any scripts but plays were born there. There’s a difference between telling the story and writing it. When you write a story, you rewrite, make corrections and look for rhymes. It takes work.” He would go on to write more than 34 plays, including the popular Jokumaraswamy. He also directed film adaptations of some of his plays – Kaadu Kudure received a National Film Award and Sangeeta (adapted from the play Naayi Kathe), went on to win a State award.
A story the litterateur often shares is of his high school teacher and Karnataka Sahitya Akademi Award-winning writer Krishnamoorthy Puranik, encouraging him to write and read out his plays in class. Even though his work drew from folk traditions when Navodaya (movement in Kannada literature) writers looked to Western romanticism, he credits many of them for their mentorship. “There were writers like Krishnamurthy Puranik, Kuvempu, Bendre – they were our seniors and we had them as support. Puranik was a great critic, writer and my teacher in high school – I saw him as all that at once and learnt from him,” he says. Another is AK Ramanujan, the pioneer who took Kannada folk tales to the world through his translations and scholarship. He was Kambara’s mentor at Lingaraj College, Belagavi, and later at Chicago University, encouraging him to follow his folk style. “A secret to writing is to always try writing, observe writers, ask questions and learn their works,” says the former Kendra Sahitya Akademi president.
For decades, the writer, poet, director and scholar has worked tirelessly, writing 13 poetry collections, six novels, numerous research papers, garnering widespread acclaim for them – from the Padma Bhushan (2021) and Padma Shri (2001) to the Jnanpith Award (2010) and prestigious fellowships. But the last few years have taken a toll, with his wife Satyabhama Kambara’s passing and his health declining. “There comes a situation when you don’t feel the urge to write,” he says, adding, “I write when I find myself wanting to narrate a moment to somebody, but I haven’t found that lately.”
Karnataka has made a landmark advance in quantum technology with the installation of India’s first commercial quantum computer at the Indian Institute of Information Technology-Dharwad (IIIT-Dharwad).
Minister Priyank Kharge said the initiative aims to bolster the state’s position in the national landscape for advanced quantum technologies.
The announcement came after separate meetings between the minister and leaders of Bengaluru-based deeptech company QpiAI and Singapore’s water technology firm ZWEEC, focusing on new technology and infrastructure solutions.
“Karnataka is moving decisively in the quantum space. The deployment of India’s first commercial quantum computer at the Indian Institute of Information Technology – Dharwad marks a significant milestone in building a world-class quantum ecosystem,” Kharge said.
During discussions with QpiAI, the minister reviewed plans for deploying the country’s first indigenously built commercial quantum computer at IIIT-Dharwad.
The state has also announced the establishment of a Centre of Excellence in Quantum AI and Computing at the institute. QpiAI presented its strategy to expand its quantum systems from 25 qubits to a 1,000-qubit quantum computer over the next two to three years, reflecting Karnataka’s focus on building local innovation hubs and strategic partnerships in advanced technology.
In a separate meeting, ZWEEC representatives showcased their biomonitoring technology for detecting contamination in drinking water and identifying algal blooms at an early stage.
Minister Priyank Kharge said the government would examine the feasibility of piloting the technology in partnership with the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Department, aiming to enhance water safety monitoring in rural areas.
Officials noted that these initiatives underline Karnataka’s ongoing efforts to collaborate with technology firms for both research and practical solutions. The steps align with the state’s vision of leveraging advanced technologies to address contemporary challenges and build capacity in emerging sectors.
Directorate of Epigraphy in Hebbal to digitise 75,000 rare inscriptions under BharatSHRI.
Inscriptions of various kinds are vital sources for the creation and study of history. The Directorate of Epigraphy of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) at Hebbal Second Stage in Mysuru houses a vast repository of estampages — inked impressions of inscriptions — which is now being given a digital makeover.
Under the Bharat Shared Repository of Inscriptions (BharatSHRI), a digital epigraphy museum project, the process of digitising estampages has commenced at the Mysuru ASI Epigraphy section.
The digitised estampages are scheduled to be uploaded to the ASI website by the last week of January. The BharatSHRI project was approved in the Union Government’s 2023-24 Budget.
Picture shows an estampage of Halmidi inscription of Kakusthavarman on display at the ASI gallery.
Epigraphical documentation
The digitisation initiative underway at the Directorate of Epigraphy is also being considered for extension to the regional epigraphy branches in Chennai and Lucknow.
Estampages, which are replicas of original inscriptions created using inked paper, form a crucial part of epigraphical documentation. The Mysuru ASI Directorate of Epigraphy, the main branch, houses around 75,000 estampages.
The collection includes stone inscriptions, copper plate inscriptions and others, sourced from different regions of the country and representing a variety of languages and scripts.
Among them are estampages of the famed Brahmagiri inscription of Emperor Ashoka found in Chitradurga district, the Jatinga Rameshwara inscription and the Siddapura inscription. The digitisation of estampages was formally launched on Dec. 17, 2025.
Easy access
According to Dr. K. Munirathnam Reddy, Director (Epigraphy), ASI, the BharatSHRI project aims to create a comprehensive digital repository of India’s inscriptions.
Once the material is digitised and uploaded, scholars, researchers and the general public will be able to access inscriptional data remotely, doing away with the need for physical visits to the Directorate of Epigraphy.
Highlighting the benefits of the project, Dr. Reddy said that digitisation would significantly enhance inscription-related research, reduce the need for visits to museums and heritage sites, and help preserve the original estampages.
He added that Tamil estampages, earlier housed at the Mysuru main branch, have already been shifted to the Chennai branch.
The digitisation work has been entrusted to Crystal Infosystems and Services Pvt. Ltd., Bengaluru. The firm is using specialised high-resolution scanners to produce images at a 1:1 ratio, ensuring faithful reproduction of the original dimensions. Some estampages measure up to 20 feet in length. The project is targeted for completion within six months, with the uploading of digitised estampages to the ASI website set to begin by the last week of January.
ASI appeals to public…
Information derived from inscriptions forms the primary framework for the writing and rewriting of India’s history.
Therefore, whenever inscriptions, copper plates or coins are discovered, the public should inform the ASI Epigraphy Branch in Mysuru (Phone: 0821-2304211 or 2304367), said Dr. K. Munirathnam Reddy, Director (Epigraphy), ASI.
Speaking to Star of Mysore, he said that the process of digitising the 75,000 estampages — inked impressions of inscriptions — housed at the Mysuru branch has already begun under the BharatSHRI project.
The initiative, he added, will significantly ease the study of inscriptions for scholars and researchers, which is the primary objective of the project.
A recent study revealed Bengaluru as the best city in India for women to thrive professionally, based on factors like safety, career support, and participation.
Bengaluru is increasingly being seen as the most welcoming Indian city for women to build their careers and lives, a new study released on Wednesday has found.
According to the Top Cities for Women in India study conducted by workplace culture consultancy Avtar Group, Bengaluru has emerged as the country’s leading city for women professionals, The New Indian Expressreported. Rounding out the top 10 are Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Gurugram, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Thiruvananthapuram and Coimbatore.
The report introduces a long-term inclusivity index that evaluates how well cities support women through factors such as workforce participation, personal safety and professional advancement. It also highlights cities that can serve as benchmarks while outlining practices that could help organisations and policymakers improve women’s access to employment, said the report.
Researchers assessed 125 cities across India, comparing the latest findings with previous editions of the study. Rankings were determined using a composite City Inclusion Score, which combines both social and workplace-related indicators.
Social inclusion was measured using criteria such as quality of life, safety, women’s presence in the workforce and empowerment levels. Industrial inclusion, on the other hand, focused on the availability of women-friendly industries, career support systems and the concentration of gender-inclusive organisations, the report stated.
Bengaluru retained the top position in 2025 with a score of 53.29, driven largely by its strong professional ecosystem and career opportunities for women. Chennai followed with 49.86, while Pune (46.27), Hyderabad (46.04) and Mumbai (44.49) completed the top five.
The study also pointed out that while cities like Delhi, Gurugram and Noida performed well in terms of job opportunities and industrial growth, they scored lower on social factors such as safety, cost of living and ease of mobility, underlining that economic expansion alone does not guarantee inclusivity, as per the report.
In contrast, cities including Thiruvananthapuram, Shimla and Tiruchirappalli showed strong social indicators but lacked a robust industrial base, limiting large-scale employment options for women. Meanwhile, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Pune were highlighted for achieving a more balanced mix of social support and workplace opportunities.
Pilikula Golf Club is set to script a new chapter in the city’s sporting history by hosting India’s first-ever floodlit Pro-Am Golf Tournament on January 31.
The landmark event will firmly place Pilikula on the national golf map and marks a proud moment for the local golfing fraternity as well as the city of Mangaluru. The unique Pro-Am tournament will be played entirely under floodlights in a night format, bringing professional golfers and amateur players together on a single competitive platform.
Backed by world-class course preparation and a state-of-the-art floodlighting system, Pilikula Golf Club is introducing a new dimension to Indian golf by blending innovation with competitive excellence. The tournament is expected to redefine night golf in the country and set new benchmarks for the sport.
As many as 12 leading professional golfers from across India have already confirmed their participation, underlining the significance of the event. The tournament will provide a rare and valuable opportunity for local amateur golfers to compete alongside top-ranked professionals and showcase their talent at a higher level.
Beyond the competition, the floodlit Pro-Am reflects Pilikula Golf Club’s commitment to the growth of golf in coastal Karnataka and its vision of promoting Mangaluru as a progressive sports destination. The event is expected to attract golfers, sponsors and spectators from across the state and region, enhancing local participation while providing increased visibility to the city.
The historic floodlit Pro-Am Golf Tournament is not only a celebration of the sport but also a symbol of innovation and progress, promising to set new standards for the future of Indian golf.
Karnataka recorded 198 organ donations in 2025, securing the third position among states with the highest number of organ donations in the country. Officials said on Saturday that this achievement marks a new milestone in the state’s organ transplantation history.
In 2023, the state had reported 178 organ donations. With 198 donations in 2025, Karnataka has surpassed its previous record, officials said.
According to the health department, this achievement has placed Karnataka third at the national level in organ donation for 2025. With this, the State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (SOTTO) has set a new benchmark in the state.
Among the states, Tamil Nadu topped the list with 267 organ donations, followed by Telangana in second place with 205 donations.
Official statistics show that Karnataka stood third with 198 donations, while Maharashtra and Gujarat reported 153 and 152 organ donations respectively.
