* Karnataka ranks sixth in Good Governance Index

On the other hand, Karnataka has a higher disposal rate of consumer court cases, while nine other states have shown decline.

Karnataka has been placed sixth in the composite ranking among ‘Group A’ states with incremental progress in Commerce and Industry in the Good Governance Index 2021. Union Home Minister Amit Shah released the index, prepared by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) on ‘Good Governance Day’ in New Delhi on Saturday.

* Spreading innovation

Joseph Lobo, a 44-yr-old farmer,  is popularising the hydroponic method of cultivation and is growing the famous Shankarapura jasmine.

They say a farmer is a magician who makes his living from the mud. But that is not true in the case of Joseph Lobo, a 44-year-old farmer from the coastal district of Udupi.Lobo hails from Shankarapura, a tiny nondescript village sandwiched between the mighty Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea. Shankarapura is called the jasmine capital of the Karnataka coastline and is famous for its Shankarapura mallige (mallige in Kannada means jasmine flowers). And like the majority of the residents of the village, Lobo too cultivates Shankarapura mallige. A passionate farmer, Lobo has been growing the Shankarapura mallige — which was accorded GI tag in 2008 — for the last 15 years. 

But what sets him apart from the rest of the growers is that he has attempted to grow his prized possession without soil! Yes, you read it right. Lobo became the first grower in the region to adopt the novel hydroponic method of cultivation, which in layman’s language is soil-less cultivation.Lobo says he was inspired after attending a workshop at University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK, Bengaluru, and started experimenting on the new method of cultivation. Lobo has 32 jasmine plants already, including the three grown using the hydroponic technique.

First

* Bags Gold In Wrestling

H.A. Akhilesh, an MCA student at the city’s Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) Post-Graduate Centre, has bagged a Gold medal  at the State-level  VTU Inter-collegiate wrestling contest  held at Haliyal in Uttara Kannada district recently.

He got the medal for winning  four bouts (97 Kg category) in the Round Robin league of the tournament, according to a press release.

* Mangaluru: Vimala V Pai Vishwa Konkani Puraskar winners announced

Vimala V Pai Vishwa Konkani Sahitya Puraskar, the annual literary awards for Konkani literature instituted by World Konkani Centre for the year 2021 have been announced by The Konkani Bhas ani Sanskriti Prathistan, World Konkani Centre, Mangaluru.

Massam, a collection of Konkani short stories by Antony Barkur (Antony Prakash D’Souza) has been chosen as the Best Konkani Book of the Year (Prose) for Vimala V Pai Vishwa Konkani Sahitya Puraskar 2021.

Indradhonu Udeum a collection of Konkani poems by Uday Narasinha Mhambro has been selected as the Best Konkani Book of the Year (Poetry) for Vimala V Pai Vishwa Konkani Kavita Kruti Puraskar 2021.

Suresh Jaywant Borkar has been identified as the recipient for the Vimala V Pai Vishwa Konkani Jeevan Siddhi Samman 2021 for his life time contribution to Konkani language pedagogy, grammar and lexicography

* Aerospace incubation centre launched at NAL

The centre was described as the first public-private partnership in India

The announcement was made by Social Alpha, a venture development platform for science and technology start-ups.

Dubbed mach33.aero, the centre was described as the first public-private partnership in India.

The centre is housed on the CSIR-NAL campus and will focus on aviation, defence, space exploration, agriculture and climate action.

* Woman Farmer Feted

Outstanding woman farmer Chandrika of Hunsur village in T. Narasipur taluk was felicitated during the press meet at Jaladarshini.

Chandrika has taken up farming in her 8-acre agriculture field for the past eight years following the death of her husband, growing a variety of crops.

World Farmers Day Celebration Committee President Dr. Shivarajappa, Dr. Mahadevaiah, retired Principal N.M. Nayak, Karnataka Sugarcane Growers Association office-bearers Attahalli Devaraj, Somashekar, Hallikerehundi Bhagyaraj, Kiragasur Shankar and others were present.

* Railway cops use novel remote sensing app to record unnatural deaths on Karnataka rail tracks

The Government Railway Police (GRP) is making use of a novel system to ready Unnatural Death Reports (UDR) on railway tracks: an application developed by the Karnataka State Remote Sensing Applications Centre (KSCRAC) to capture all details of a deceased person with location accuracy and related geo-tagged photos.

This innovative usage of technology was initiated by Additional Director General of Police, Railways, South Western Railway Zone, Bhaskar Rao. It is now being utilised by railway cops on a full-fledged basis following the completion of trials that commenced in March this year.

* Azim Premji Foundation, Salesforce to launch app to accelerate Covid-19 vaccination

‘To cover 110 million people in 25 States by June 2022’

Salesforce, a customer relationship management player, and Azim Premji Foundation have entered into a collaboration to introduce VaxIT, an app to help accelerate Covid-19 vaccination in India.

The programme would use VaxIT across 25 States to cover a population of 110 million (11 crore) across over 3,500 Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) by June 2022.

The VaxIT app, developed on the Salesforce platform for Azim Premji Foundation and its partners, would capture the status of vaccination to help individuals plan and stay updated on their progress in the healthcare programme. VaxIT is available on the Android app store and offers multi-lingual, and offline capabilities.

* The man and his vision

Did you know as a tribute to former Prime Minister HD Devegowda, farmers in Punjab have named a rare variety of rice crops by his name?

Author Sugata Srinivasaraju has penned down more such lesser known facts in his latest book Furrows in a Field:

Furrows in a Field: The Unexplored Life of HD Deve Gowda (Penguin Random House, `799) which is a biography of the former prime minister.