Category: Uncategorized

The idea of starting something of their own came up when markets were shut during the Covid-19 lockdown.

Tired of seeing the word ‘organic’ on almost every label but rarely finding anything truly natural, an IT couple working in Bengaluru quit their corporate jobs and returned to their hometown Puttur in Dakshina Kannada, to start a chocolate brand. They wanted to put Puttur on the ‘Made in India’ chocolate map, using cocoa grown on their family farmland.

What started as small experiments with homegrown cocoa and natural sweeteners like dates and jaggery, has now grown into a full-fledged brand, with the couple also providing employment to women from rural backgrounds. In a chocolate market largely dominated by foreign brands, Swathi Kallegundi and her husband Balasubrahmanya PS (above) wanted to show what organic chocolates from India could be like. The couple now produces 300-500 kilograms of chocolate every day.

Swathi, an electronics and communication engineering graduate, and Balasubrahmanya, a software engineer, had worked for years in MNCs in Bengaluru. Like many urban professionals, they often relied on packaged foods labelled ‘organic’, but over time, found themselves questioning the quality behind the tags. The idea of starting something of their own came up when markets were shut during the Covid-19 lockdown.

Balasubrahmanya and Swathi moved to Puttur to work remotely, living on their farmland. With time and access to fresh cocoa, banana, coconut and dates, they began experimenting with small batches of chocolate, using only cocoa and natural sweeteners like jaggery, coconut sugar or date sugar. “That’s how Anuttama was born. In Sanskrit, Anuttama means ‘the finest’ or ‘none better’, and we chose the name to reflect the focus on clean chocolate made from local ingredients,” Balasubrahmanya said. Swathi said that as the brand grew, they started developing flavours inspired by familiar tastes from Karnataka.

“One of our best-known products is Spicy Tang, a dark chocolate made with jaggery, ginger and pepper. The idea came from kashaya, a traditional home remedy popular across Karnataka, made from spices like ginger and pepper and sweetened with jaggery, often given for cough and cold. Turning that into a balanced chocolate bar took several failed attempts but eventually became one of the best creations,” Swathi said. In 2021, Spicy Tang flavour won the bronze medal at the International Chocolate Awards Asia Pacific.

Another popular flavour is Bella Tharai, made with coconut milk and jaggery — a nod to the coastal region’s cooking traditions. “We didn’t want to add flavours just for variety. We wanted them to mean something and connect to what people here actually consume,” she said.

To support growing demand, the couple uses cocoa beans from their own farm as well as neighbouring ones. “We buy wet beans and handle the fermentation and drying ourselves to maintain consistency,” Balasubrahmanya said, explaining that the entire process — fermenting, drying, roasting, grinding, tempering, moulding and packaging — is done at their unit in Bettampady in Puttur.

Currently, they employ nine women from nearby villages. “The idea is to build a clean product and also create steady local employment, especially for rural women,” she added.

source/content: newindianexpress.com (headline edited)

The funds will be used to improve healthcare facilities, especially in areas related to maternal and child care.

Infosys Foundation, the CSR arm of Infosys, on Wednesday announced a partnership with Prashanthi Balamandira Trust, an organisation that provides education, healthcare, nutrition, and community service free of charge in Karnataka, to support free medical services for women and children in rural Karnataka. The foundation will provide a grant of over Rs 48 crore to Sri Sathya Sai Sarla Memorial Hospital in Chikkaballapur, which functions under the Sri Madhusudan Sai Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (SMSIMSR).

The funds will be used to improve healthcare facilities, especially in areas related to maternal and child care.

The hospital will offer services such as maternity care, pediatric treatment, gynaecological procedures, and heart-related interventions and surgeries for children.

All services will be provided free of cost.

Sri Madhusudan Sai, founder of SMSIMSR and trustee of the Prashanthi Balamandira Trust, said the support from Infosys Foundation will help improve services for women and children, who otherwise struggle to access quality healthcare. He added that the hospital, as a teaching institution, will use the new facilities to train medical and nursing students.

Infosys Foundation trustee Sunil Kumar Dhareshwar said the aim is to make essential healthcare available to people who cannot afford it.

source/content: newindianexpress.com (headline edited)

With 11 such centres spread across BBMP, the municipality aims to offer free cataract surgeries and spectacles to the poor and needy free of cost.

Deputy Chief Minister and Bangalore Urban Development Minister DK Shivakumar and Health and Family Welfare Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao inaugurated the “Ashakirana Drishti Kendra” at Dr Balagangadharanath Swamiji Multi-Speciality Hospital in Govindarajanagar M C Layout on Thursday.

This was in collaboration with the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), National Health Mission, National Blindness and Visual Impairment Control Programme and Sight Saver Swayamsevak Sanstha. With 11 such centres spread across BBMP, the municipality aims to offer free cataract surgeries and spectacles to the poor and needy free of cost.

“Among the 11 Ashakirana Drishti Kendras, five centres will be provided with human resources, surgical equipment and spectacle distribution services under CSR initiatives,” said Sirajuddin Madani, Chief Health Officer (CHO), BBMP. He added these centres are part of a total of 393 designated Ashakirana Vision Centres operating in Karnataka.

The CHO also added that the facility will be available at JJR Nagar Public Hospital, Halasuru Maternity Hospital, H Siddaiah Road Maternity Hospital, Hosahalli Maternity Hospital, R C Pura Maternity Hospital, Banashankari Maternity Hospital, Gauri Palya Maternity Hospital, Rampur Hospital, Indiranagar Public Hospital, Jayanagar Public Hospital and KC General Hospital, Malleswaram. Local MLA Priya Krishna, Special Commissioner of the Health Department Suralkar Vikas Kishore, National Health Mission Director Avinash Memon Rajendran, Zonal Joint Commissioner Sangappa and other officials were present.

source/content: newindianexpress.com (headline edited)

A futuristic Bengaluru Airport City will be developed on the KIA premises over the next decade. Spread over 463 acres, it will have business parks, a global innovation hub, an education and health district, a retail dining entertainment village, a concert arena, and more. The Hindu gets an exclusive peek into what the future holds.

The Karnataka government might have set the ball rolling for a second airport for Bengaluru to meet the future demands of the city and the State, but the existing Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) at Devanahalli still has more to offer not just as a world-class airport but as an international gateway to a sustainable smart and vibrant city, say those at the helm.

Over the next decade or so, a futuristic airport city is being developed within the KIA premises, about 40 km north of the city, applying the core principles of ‘work, play, live, learn, and create’.

Sprawling area

Spread over 463 acres, the Bengaluru Airport City will have business parks, a global innovation hub, an education and health district, a retail dining entertainment (RDE) village, a concert arena, a convention and exhibition centre, a knowledge park, an hospitality area, a logistics park, and a central park.

While the business parks will occupy 241 acres of land, the hospitality area will cover 44 acres, RDE village 23 acres, and the remaining 155 acres will have logistics parks, education and health district, aerospace park, corporate retreat, etc.

Overseeing this project is Bengaluru Airport City Limited (BACL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Bangalore International Airport Limited incorporated in early 2020.

Master plan

Before the commencement of the project, BACL officials say they visited Incheon International Airport in Seoul, South Korea, Munich International Airport in Germany, and Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in the Netherlands. BACL officials say they conceived the Bengaluru Airport City master plan after examining these major airport cities.

“The aim was to identify and understand the scale at which airport cities operate, the specific land-use mix and positioning, and best practices deployed in terms of mobility and infrastructure,” officials say.

A few projects at the Bengaluru Airport City are already up and running, including the 3D technology facility and a technologically advanced central kitchen. An EV research and development (R&D) facility is being set up by Epsilon Carbon.

The 3D technology facility from Voxeljet Germany, which has come up on a one-acre plot, has been operational since July 2022, and SATS Central Kitchen, which has come up on 6.7 acres of land, has been operational since March 2024. The SATS Central Kitchen can produce up to 1,70,000 ready-to-eat meals a day.

“Bengaluru Airport City strives to be more than just an urban extension — it aims to serve as a catalyst that propels North Bengaluru into a future-ready economic powerhouse. Our vision is to create an environment that functions as a living laboratory, where R&D hubs and global capability centres operate round the clock, driving cutting-edge research, continuous progress, and breakthrough inventions,” says Rao Munukutla, executive director and CEO of BACL.

Hospitality and business park

Bengaluru Airport City will also host one of the largest hotels in the country promoted by Vivanta and Ginger. The 775-room Combo Hotel (Vivanta and Ginger), which is under construction, is expected to be operational in October 2026. The proposed hotel comprises a combination of a 450-room Vivanta (four star) and a 325-room Ginger (three star) hotels.

According to the BACL, a demand study had shown a potential to develop up to 5,200 keys (accommodation units) in total to cater to the needs within the airport city. At present, there is one five-star hotel operational within the airport, Taj Bangalore, with 370 rooms.

“Hospitality will be a big story on this campus. While we complete the airport city, we will have 5,200 keys. So technically, if you take 100 keys as a standard hotel, it is equivalent to having 52 hotels on this campus,” Munukutla says.

The BACL will also develop 28 million sq. ft of business parks over time, starting with the first phase of 2 million sq. ft. This will cater to the requirements of the global capability centres (GCCs), technology companies, and financial institutions. The construction for Phase 1 of 0.5 mn sq. ft has commenced.

In addition, the BACL, along with the Government of Karnataka, recently announced the establishment of the global innovation hub – District I – within the business park to bring together GCCs, IT service providers, accelerators, corporate labs, start-ups, venture capital firms, academia, and public institutions.

“In Bengaluru, start-ups are scattered across the city. There are a few in Koramangala and a few in Whitefield. There is no place like Silicon Valley, where all the start-ups are in the surrounding area of Stanford University and San Francisco. The District I fixes this issue,” Munukutla says.

An Air India Academy will also become operational by July 2026, where approximately 360 students will get trained every year.

“Airports and airport cities are socio-economic hinges. Students from Devanahalli and surrounding villages can get trained in this academy. The qualification for getting trained here is a class 10 or class 12 pass. They will be learning hands-on aircraft maintenance. Then they will get absorbed in our maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facilities. We have got an Indigo MRO here and Air India is also building a massive MRO,” Munukutla says.

Addressing vibrancy

Munukutla opines that vibrancy is missing in Bengaluru when compared with global cities. “For any city to be dynamic, vibrancy is very important. We want the airport city to be a vibrant destination,” he says.

At the Bengaluru Airport City, a Concert Arena is also being constructed, which is expected to be operational by the end of 2026. Designed to be a state-of-the-art, fully integrated, technologically advanced venue with world-class acoustics and flexible infrastructure, it will accommodate 10,000 people.

This Concert Arena is the first of its kind in an airport city in India, and it is being developed in technical collaboration with Live Nation, U.S.

“We will have a metro station. People from Bengaluru can take a train and come here for the shows at the Concert Arena. Not just people from Bengaluru but people from all over India and the neighbouring countries, East Asia, Malaysia, and Indonesia can fly to Bengaluru and stay in the hotels here, so all these make the airport city a destination by itself,” says Munukutla.

Smart, sustainable

The Airport City draws inspiration from the Singapore Smart City.

“Built environment and city management, urban mobility, energy, environment and water, and safety and security these are the five pillars on which Singapore works, from there we derived 12 solutions which are: advanced security and surveillance, PA system and AI-based video analytics, smart traffic management, smart energy management, smart streetlight, environment monitoring, waste management, transport management, smart kiosk, digital signage, public Wi-Fi, and the airport city mobile app. We are applying these solutions to our airport city,” says a BACL official.

The BACL says that the airport city’s urban design guidelines are aligned with the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals by promoting mixed use development to ensure that it becomes inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable.

In addition, the BACL and the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) have signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly advance sustainable, energy-efficient developments, aligned with global best practices in high-performance building design at the airport city.

Through its ASSURE programme, the IIHS also aims to accelerate the development of super-efficient, high-performance real estate in line with India’s climate goals.

The BACL has also received the IGBC Green City ‘Platinum’ rating for green master plan and design and policy interventions for the entire development.

Munukutla says that 90% of the project work will be completed by 2038, and the last 10% in the subsequent years.

Will it work?

Aviation experts and urban planners have welcomed the move to establish the airport city, which they say can evolve into a central business district by itself.

“It will work because you are going to have campuses that will be very close to the airport. The new aero city is following the similarities of quite a few global airports, but newer generation airports and not older generation ones,” says aviation expert Devesh Agarwal.

He adds that if the planners are building an entertainment district or a chain of restaurants it will work as well.

“If you see, the northern Bengaluru area does not have too many food and beverage outlets beyond Jakkur. Jakkur is kind of the limit; after that, you don’t really see any concentration of restaurants and pubs. So, if a complete entertainment and hospitality district is created — a sort of what has been done in Delhi aero city where they have a mall with many restaurants inside — it will work out. I also think they will focus on what is called the meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions sector,” he adds.

Unique venture

Another expert says that when the Bengaluru Airport City comes up, it will truly be India’s first airport city. “Though Delhi has an aero city, its concentration is more on hotels and restaurants, unlike this one, where you have a mix of business and entertainment,” says an expert.

(Edited by Giridhar Narayan)

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have developed a unique luminescent probe that uses terbium, a rare earth metal, to sense the presence of an enzyme called β-glucuronidase, which can potentially aid in the detection of liver cancer.

According to IISc, β-glucuronidase is an evolutionarily conserved enzyme found across life forms – from microbes to plants and animals. Its core function is to break down a sugar acid called glucuronic acid.

“Beyond its biological omnipresence, the enzyme also doubles as a critical biomarker for liver cancer. In fact, an upsurge in β-glucuronidase often accompanies colon, breast, and renal cancers, as well as infections of the urinary tract and AIDS,” IISc said.

Conventional methods

“Conventional methods of colorimetry and fluorescence for detecting such enzymes are often restricted by sensitivity or interference from background signals. The ability of rare earth metals to have long-lived excited states allows us to filter out short-lived background fluorescence, resulting in a much clearer signal,” said Ananya Biswas, former PhD student at IISc and co-first author of the paper published in Chemistry.

The roots of the project trace back nearly a decade, beginning with the team’s experiments on metal ions and their gel-forming properties. The team found that terbium ions couched in a gel matrix derived from bile salts can emit green fluorescence.

Within the same gel matrix, the team added an organic molecule called 2,3-DHN (2,3-Dihydroxynaphthalene) “masked” with glucuronic acid. When β-glucuronidase slices this modified molecule, 2,3-DHN gets released. The researchers then shined UV light on the sample.

“The free 2,3-DHN acts as an ‘antenna’ – absorbing UV light and transferring the energy to the terbium ions nearby, greatly enhancing their green emission. The gel matrix ensures sufficient proximity between the ‘antenna’ and terbium ions, facilitating efficient energy transfer,” said Uday Maitra, honorary professor in the Department of Organic Chemistry, IISc, and corresponding author of the study.

Ease of application

For ease of application, the team designed this assay as a simple paper-based sensor by anchoring the gel matrix onto a paper disc. When β-glucuronidase pre-treated with modified 2,3-DHN is added, the disc exhibits a much stronger green glow under UV light.

IISc said that the uniqueness of this technique is the analysis. “Unlike conventional high-end fluorescence detection systems, these sensors can be analysed using a UV lamp and ImageJ, an open source, freely accessible software, making this technique ideal for resource-limited settings,” it said.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

Nandini, the flagship dairy brand of KMF, retains its fourth position in Brand Finance’s 2025 rankings of India’s Most Valuable Brands.

Nandini, the flagship dairy brand of the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF), has once again cemented its position among India’s elite in the food and beverage space. In the latest 2025 rankings released by global brand valuation firm Brand Finance, Nandini retained its fourth spot, standing tall alongside industry heavyweights like Amul, Mother Dairy, Britannia, and Dabur, news agency PTI reported.

“In its latest report, Nandini has demonstrated remarkable progress, climbing from 43 in 2024 to 38 in 2025 among the Top 100 Most Valuable Indian Brands. The brand’s valuation rose to USD 1,079 million, reflecting an impressive increase of USD 139 million in brand value over the previous year,” the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) said in a statement accessed by news agency PTI.

KMF expressed pride in Nandini’s continued presence among the top-tier, with the brand trailing only behind Amul (#1), Mother Dairy (#2), and Britannia (#3), while staying ahead of several other major players including Dabur (#5).

These rankings, which reflect not just financial value but also intangible factors like consumer trust, market share, goodwill and brand loyalty, serve as a benchmark for brand strength and influence. A high position on this list is a signal of enduring consumer confidence and competitive edge, the report stated.

Nandini’s consistent climb in valuation highlights its growing resonance with consumers, particularly in South India, reinforcing its reputation for quality and reliability in a crowded marketplace.

“We extend our sincere gratitude to our valued consumers, dedicated farmers, trusted partners, and committed teams. Your continued trust and unwavering support have been the driving force behind Nandini’s growth and recognition. We remain steadfast in our commitment to delivering value, nourishment, and reliability–every single day. Together, we will continue to strengthen Nandini’s legacy and reach new milestones,” KMF’s MD B Shivaswamy said, as quoted by the agency.

(With inputs from PTI)

source/content: hindustantimes.com (headline edited)

India is carving out a new space for Foxconn and other high-end manufacturers, just as President Trump demands American companies do at home.

A new iPhone factory in an out-of-the-way corner of India looks like a spaceship from another planet. Foxconn, the Taiwanese company that assembles most of the world’s iPhones for Apple, has landed amid the boulders and millet fields of Devanahalli.

The sleek buildings rising on the 300-acre site, operational but still growing, are emerging evidence of an estimated $2.5 billion investment.

This is what President Donald Trump wants Apple to do in the United States. What is happening in this part of India shows both why that sounds attractive and why it will probably not happen.

In India, Apple is doubling down on a bet it placed after the COVID-19 pandemic began and before Trump’s reelection. Many countries, starting with the United States, were eager to reduce their reliance on factories in China. Apple, profoundly dependent on Chinese production, was quick to act.

Analysts at Counterpoint Research calculated that India had succeeded in satisfying 18% of the global demand for iPhones by early this year, two years after Foxconn started making iPhones in India. By the end of 2025, with the Devanahalli plant fully online, Foxconn is expected to be assembling between 25% and 30% of iPhones in India.

This newest factory is the largest of several making Apple products in India. Its full frame is still rising from red dust. Cranes are at work above the skeletons of high-rise dormitories for female workers. But about 8,000 people are already at work on two factory floors. Soon there should be 40,000.

The effects on the region are transformative. It’s a field day for job seekers and landowners. And the kind of crazy-quilt supply chain of smaller industries that feeds Apple’s factory towns in China is coalescing in India’s heartland. Businesses are selling Foxconn the goods and services it needs to make iPhones, including tiny parts, assembly-line equipment and worker recruitment.

Some of the firms are Indian; others are Taiwanese, South Korean or American. Some were already in the area, while others are setting up in India for the first time.

The changes spurred by Foxconn are rippling broadly through Bengaluru, a city of 8 million people that had a start in the 20th century as home to India’s first aerospace centers. But its manufacturing base was pushed aside, first by call centers and then by flashier work in microchip design and outsourced professional services. Going back to the factory floor, as they’re doing in Devanahalli, is what Trump wants American workers to do.

To see the changes afoot here is to understand the allure of bringing back manufacturing. Wages are rising 10% to 15% around the Foxconn plant. Businesses are quietly making deals to supply Foxconn and Apple’s other contractors.

A factory that makes plastic parts for bank cash machines hosted a team from Foxconn for a tour. A foundry that makes yarn-spinning machinery was hoping it might start making the metal bits Foxconn might need in its new factory.

Neither Foxconn nor Apple replied to requests for comment about their operations in India.

India has been working toward a breakthrough like this for a long time. Its first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, called hydroelectric dams, steel plants and research institutes the “temples of modern India.” In 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a “Make in India” policy. Since 2020, his government has committed $26 billion to subsidizing strategic manufacturing goals.

India’s most urgent reason for developing industry is to create jobs. Unlike the United States, it does not have enough: not in services, manufacturing or anything else. Nearly half its workers are involved in farming. With India’s population peaking, it needs about 10 million new jobs a year just to keep up.

It also wants to achieve the kind of financial power and technological autonomy that China found as it became the factory to the world.

One problem is that India’s electronics factories still import the most valuable of the 1,000 components that go into a finished iPhone, like chips and camera modules. Skeptics disparage India’s success with the final assembly of iPhones as “screwdriver work,” complaining that too little of the devices’ value is made in India.

But the government, dangling subsidies, is persuading companies like Apple to source more of those parts locally. It is already getting casings, specialized glass and paints from Indian firms. Apple, which opened its first Indian stores two years ago, is required by the Indian government to source 30% of its products’ value from India by 2028.

Indo-MIM, an Indian company with an American-born boss, is the kind that contributes to the neighborhood forming around Apple’s production and also benefits from it. At a plant near Devanahalli, in southern Karnataka state, Indo-MIM’s engineers perform metal-injection molding for hundreds of companies around the world. It makes parts for airplanes, luxury goods, medical devices and more.

The company is already making jigs or brackets for use in the Foxconn plant. In addition, a “critical mass” of specialty firms means that Indo-MIM no longer needs to make many of the tools it uses to make its products, said Krishna Chivukula, its CEO.

“You don’t want to have to make everything yourself,” he said, adding it means Indo-MIM can concentrate on what it does best.

Chivukula said the workforce made Devanahalli fertile ground for factories. “The people here are very hungry,” he said. “They’re looking for opportunity, and then on top of that millions of them are engineers.”

Still, despite the surplus of engineers, companies are bringing in talent from East Asia. Prachir Singh, an analyst for Counterpoint, said it had taken 15 years to figure out what would work in China and five years to import this much of it to India.

Centum is an Indian-origin contract manufacturer, like Foxconn is to Apple. Centum makes circuit boards that go into products like air-to-air missiles, forklifts and fertility scanners. Nikhil Mallavarapu, its executive director, said the company was in talks to customize testing equipment for the Foxconn factory.

Newly hired engineers and other professionals are pouring into the area. Many moved hundreds of miles while others must commute hours a day to get to work. Some rise at 3:30 a.m. to make the 8 a.m. shift.

But India is thick with people. A five-minute walk away, a village called Doddagollahalli looks the same as it did before Foxconn landed. Nearly all the houses clustered around a sacred grove belong to farming families growing millet, grapes and vegetables.

Some villagers are renting rooms to Foxconn workers. Many more are trying to sell their land. But Sneha, who goes by a single name, has found a job on the Foxconn factory’s day shift. She holds a master’s degree in mathematics. She can walk home for lunch every day, a corporate lanyard swinging from her neck.

It is people like Sneha, and the thousands of her new colleagues piling into her ancestral place, who make Foxconn’s ambitions for India possible. Trump wants to revive the fortunes of left-behind American factory towns, but the pipeline of qualified young graduates is not there.

Josh Foulger has recruited lots of motivated Indian workers like Sneha. He heads the electronics division of Zetwerk, an Indian contract manufacturer with factories in Devanahalli that sees itself as a smaller competitor to Foxconn. He said he routinely got 700 job applications a year from local tech schools. It is a matter of scale: Karnataka state alone, he pointed out, has a population half the size of Vietnam’s.

All of India’s “states are very keen on getting manufacturing,” said Foulger, who grew up in southern India and made his home in Texas before moving back to India, where he set up shop for Foxconn. India has jobs for engineers and managers and all the way down the ladder. “Manufacturing does a very democratic job” of meeting the demand for good jobs, he said.

The New York Times News Service

source/content: telegraphindia.com (headline edited)

The sanctuary status will, however, put an end to indiscriminate mining of laterite stones in the region.

The state government’s decision to declare Apsarakonda-Mugali as the state’s first marine sanctuary will help conserve nearly 1,000 acres of laterite plateau, which is part of the sanctuary and spread across Karianakubri, Manki, Mugali, Kelaginooru and Aprasakonda villages.

Popularly known as bricks with pores, this is the same laterite stone that is used extensively for the construction of houses and other buildings in the coastal region. The sanctuary status will, however, put an end to indiscriminate mining of laterite stones in the region.

It was in 2012 that the Centre for Ecological Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) recommended conservation of the laterite plateau.

This is the first-of-its kind protection accorded to lateritic conservation in the world, said Prof TV Ramachandra, Senior Scientist, Energy and Wetland Research Centre, IISc, who led the team that recommended the sanctuary status.

Because of its pores, the laterite stone plays a crucial role in allowing water to percolate into the ground. Indiscriminate laterite mining was one of the contributing factors for landslides and sea erosion in Uttara Kannada in recent times, several studies have revealed.

Region has 124 species of flora: Scientists

In 2012, a team of scientists led by Ramachandra, MD Subhash Chandran and Prakash Mesta had conducted an extensive study and submitted a report – ‘Conservation Reserve Status to Lateritic Plateau of Coastal Uttara Kannada’, recommending the reserve status to two lateritic plateaus, Bhatkal in Bhatkal taluk and Mugali in Honnavar taluk near Manki.

The study said, “The reserves are declared for the purpose of protecting landscapes, flora and fauna and their habitat. We recommend these areas strongly for protection of their uniqueness in flora and fauna, their ancient geological ages (laterites were formed 88-90 millions ago before the continental drift).’’

Marine expert Mesta said, “The region is unique in that it has 124 species of flora, including ground flowers which bloom in monsoon, the only source of nectar for honey bees during rains. In the checklist, we have at least 100 species endemic to India and 34 endemic to the Western Ghats. The region has several ground-dwelling mammals and reptiles like porcupine, mouse deer, hares, civet cats, pangolins, rodents and monitor lizards. Most of these mammals on laterite patches consume a lot of salt in the form of saline water.”

Vasanth Reddy, conservator of forests, Canara Circle, said the sanctuary status will be a new chapter in the conservation of coastal ecosystems. Conservation of the Mugali laterite plateau is important, considering its geographical and geological importance, he said.

source/content: newindianexpress.com (headline edited)

The awards were conferred at an event in Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike headquarters.

A total of 53 individuals, including members of the BBMP Restructuring Committee, who gave the first draft of the Greater Bengaluru Governance Act, 2024, proposing a new governance structure for the city, were picked for the Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Award for 2025 They included former Chief Secretary B. S. Patil, retired IAS officer Siddaiah, and V. Ravichandar,

Among other awardees were Jayakar Jerome and S. R. Umashankar, former bureaucrats, B.S. Satish Kumar, Deputy Chief of Bureau, The Hindu, Karnataka, civic activists R.K. Mishra and Padmashree Balaram, tennis player Mahesh Bhupati, singer Sangeeta Katti, advocate M.S. Shyamsundar, and cable operator V. S. Patrick Raju.

The awards were presented at an event in Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) headquarters on Friday evening by Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar and Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)