NATIONAL: DEFENCE SERVICES: January 15th – Army Day Parade with 8 Marching Contingents in Bengaluru, Karnataka. First Time Conducted out of Delhi, the National Capital

Army Day is being conducted out of the national capital for the first time.

Eight marching contingents including a horse-mounted contingent from the Army Service Corps (ASC) and a military band comprising five regimental brass bands will be part of the 75th Army Day parade which is being held for the first time in Bengaluru on January 15.

The marching contingents are from Madras Engineering Group, Bombay Sappers, Regiment of Artillery, Mahar Regiment, Parachute Regiment and the Madras Regiment.

Unique traditions

The marching contingents are from Madras Engineering Group, Bombay Sappers, Regiment of Artillery, Mahar Regiment, Parachute Regiment and the Madras Regiment.

The parade will be supported by a fly-past of Army Aviation Dhruv and Rudra helicopters. | Photo Credit: PTI

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, General Officer Commanding, Karnataka and Kerala sub-area, Major General Ravi Murugan said each of these contingents represent regiments with glorious histories and unique traditions.

The parade will be supported by a fly-past of Army Aviation Dhruv and Rudra helicopters.

Besides, various weapon systems of the Indian Army like the K9 Vajra Self Propelled Guns, Pinaka Rockets, T-90 Tanks, BMP-2 Infantry Fighting Vehicle, Tunguska Air Defence System, 155 mm Bofors Guns, Light Strike Vehicles, Swathi Radar and different assaults bridges will also be on static display.

Major General Murugan said the Army Day is being conducted out of the national capital for the first time as part of the Government of India’s initiative to take major events away from the National Capital Region to different parts of the country.

“This will lead to greater visibility for these events and larger involvement of the local citizens,” Major General Murugan said.

Increasing awareness

The army has reached out to the general public to increase awareness about the army and the significance of the Army Day.

The Army Day is being conducted out of the national capital for the first time as part of the Government of India’s initiative to take major events away from the National Capital Region to different parts of the country.

He added that towards fulfilling the aim of the event being conducted here in Bengaluru, the army has reached out to the general public to increase awareness about the army and the significance of the Army Day.

“We have invited people from all walks of life including students from schools (especially government schools), colleges, NCC candidates, children from orphanages to name a few. The response has been overwhelming. More than 11,000 local civilians have witnessed the parade during the pre-event displays thus far. We view this as a major achievement,” he said.

The Army Day parade will commence with a wreath laying ceremony at the Madras Engineering Group (MEG) war memorial by Chief of the Army Staff General Manoj Pande, to pay homage to all personnel who sacrificed their lives in the line of duty.

Gallantry awards

The Army Chief will then review the parade at the MEG & Centre parade ground and award gallantry awards for individual acts of bravery and sacrifice. In addition, Chief of the Army Staff Unit Citations will also be awarded to units for their exceptional performance under active operational circumstances.

A Military Tattoo is also organised on the evening of January 15, which will be attended by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

KARNATAKA: EXHIBITIONS & TRADE FAIRS: Army Stalls, Adventure Sports attract huge crowds at the ’26th National Youth Festival’, Hubballi

The army has set up two stalls, one to provide information on various employment opportunities for the youths in the armed forces and the other one is where a few of the arms and ammunitions used by the armed forces are on display.

Army stalls, adventure sports, water sports and various food stalls at the 26th National Youth Festival have drawn the attention of visitors.

The army has set up two stalls, one to provide information on various employment opportunities for the youths in the armed forces and the other one is where a few of the arms and ammunitions used by the armed forces are on display.

At the ‘Know your Army’ stall set up on the campus of Karnatak College in Dharwad, a team of army personnel are providing information on all the recruitment opportunities including the newly launched ‘Agniveer’ scheme.

In the second stall, various arms and ammunitions including few used during the ‘Kargil War’ are on display. On Saturday, January 14, Havaldar Ravindra Pal Singh of Rajputana Rifles and others were seen enthusiastically explaining about various arms, their range, firing capacity and damage that they could cause to the enemy camp. They were assisted by Havaldar Sanjiv Kumar from Madras Regiment (a native of Bidar), who explained the visitors the same in Kannada.

Those on display include A.K. 47 rifle, Single Assault Rifle 7.62 mm, M.M.G. Rocket Launcher, Sniper DSR and others. Equipments and gadgets used for surveillance during night are also on display.

Adventure Sports

Adventure sports have also drawn attention of the crowd. Keerti Pais, Advisor to the Commissioner of Sports and Youth Empowerment said that for the first time at the National Youth Festival, crash courses were being conducted in association with General. Thimayya National Academy of Adventure. He said these crash courses were for registered NYF participants and had seen good response.

Mr. Keerti said that the adventure sports like rock climbing and water sports were open to the public during afternoon and evening hours, while it was restricted to NYF participants in the morning.

Desi games

Manjunath M.R., Advisor to Thimmaiah Academy said that the ‘desi games’ at RN Shetty stadium had evoked great interest among the visitors to NYF. So far around 1,200 participants had taken part in the desi games and they were assisted by 60 volunteers of ‘Kreeda Bharati’ organisation. Along with these, eight teams among the NYF participants would be displaying their native games at the youth festival, he said.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

KARNATAKA: LEADERS / FAMOUS PERSONALITIES : 4 Eminent Personalities of Udupi to be Honoured at ‘New Year Awards 2023’

Academy of General Education (AGE), Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Manipal Education and Medical Group (MEMG), Manipal Media Network Ltd & Dr. TMA Pai Foundation Manipal, will honour eminent personalities from different fields for their distinguished services during the ‘New Year Award 2023’ function. 

Mahabaleshwara M S, managing director & CEO Karnataka Bank, Mangaluru, Dr Pushpa G Kini, professor. department of Paediatrics, KMC, Manipal & former director-Student Affaires MAHE, Manipal, Dr Pangal Sripathi Rao, former dean & professor of Orthopaedics Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, and Amai Mahalinga Naik, a well-known farmer, Kepu Adyanadka are the four eminent personalities. 

All the renowned personalities will be conferred during the award ceremony scheduled on Saturday, January 14 at Manipal. The award is being given every year to eminent personalities from different fields for their distinguished services and immense contributions to society.

Dr Ranjan R Pai – chairman-MEMG, president – MAHE, registrar- AGE & Dr H S Ballal, pro chancellor – MAHE & president – AGE; T Sathish U Pai – executive chairman – Manipal Media Network Ltd. & vice president-AGE, T Ashok Pai, president, Dr TMA Pai Foundation, Manipal will grace the occasion. 

The award ceremony will be broadcast live on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJUzepGvfpo

source/content: daijiworld.com (headline edited)

NATIONAL: SPORTS / MARTIAL ARTS: Mysuru City MMA Athletes Win Medals At India Open Championships

Nine MMA athletes, aged between 13 and 28 years of Academy of Martial Science (AMS), won 4 gold, 1 silver and 4 bronze medals for the State at the MMA India Open Championships held in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, in December last.

The event was hosted by Sports Association of Mixed Martial Arts of MP and sanctioned by MMA INDIA. More than 250 participants from across India participated in the Championship. They are all trained at the AMS by Kru Vikram and coaches Kavya, Samarth and Kiran.

Results

1. H.R. Theeksha Bharuni – Gold medal, 51 kgs, Youth C Div.

2. J. Ashwin – Gold, 65 kgs, Youth C Div.

3. Praful Raghavendra – Gold, 85 kgs, Youth C Div.

4. N. Aryan Raj – Bronze, 57 kgs, Youth B Div.

5. Samarth Vikram – Bronze, Bantam weight, Juniors (18-21 yrs).

6. U.K. Skandan Bangar – Bronze, Feather weight, Juniors (18-21yrs).

7. Zaid Mohammed – Gold, Welter weight, Juniors (18-21yrs).

8. B. Akshatha Shanbhogue – Gold Medal, Atom weight, Seniors (21yrs and above).

9. G.R. Sridhar – Bronze, Bantam weight, Seniors (21yrs and above).

source/content: starofmysore.com (headline edited)

KARNATAKA: SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY / ENGINEERING : INVENTIONS: Yashwanth, a student of Kadheshwalya Govt High School’s Multipurpose Agricultural Invention Model Selected for South India Science Exhibition

Yashwanth, a student of Kadeshwalya government high school has developed a multi-purpose agricultural machine that has been selected for a south-India science exhibition besides winning all-round praise for developing the model.

Recently, Yashwanth’s invention of the multi-purpose agricultural machine had won a prize at the state-level exhibition held at Dharwad.

He will now be participating in the South Indian-level science exhibition to be held at Thrissur in Kerala from January 27 to 31.

A total of 20 models have been selected from Karnataka for the Thrissur science exhibition and Yashwanth’s machine is one of the models selected from Dakshina Kannada district in the personal segment of the exhibition.

Yashwanth is the son of Lokesh and Pavithra who hail from Kemmannu.

Yashwanth was guided in developing the model by his maths teacher Geetha Kumari. Yashwanth’s model has already bagged first place at the taluk and district-level science exhibitions.

source/content: daijiworld.com (headline edited)

NATIONAL: SPORTS / WEIGHT LIFTING: 22-year-old Akshata Baswant Kamati bags Gold, National Weightlifting Championship, Nagercoil

Only on Saturday, she bagged gold at the National Weightlifting Championship at Nagercoil, Tamil Nadu in the 87 kg weight group in the snatch and clean and jerk categories.

Coming from a small village, Halaga, in Belagavi taluk, she faced near-insurmountable odds to take up weightlifting as a passion and reach new heights in the sport. But 22-year-old Akshata Baswant Kamati’s sheer willpower and her family’s support have helped her achieve some outstanding performances at national-level competitions.

Only on Saturday, she bagged gold at the National Weightlifting Championship at Nagercoil, Tamil Nadu in the 87 kg weight group in the snatch and clean and jerk categories. 

In fact, at Khelo India held in Pune, she set a record by lifting 176 kg in the 76 kg category and won gold at the junior national championship in the 81 kg category at the 32nd Women Junior National Weightlifting Championships at Bodh Gaya in Bihar.

Akash Kamati, her elder brother, said Akshata was in eighth standard at Sharada Girls High School in Halaga when the school started special coaching classes for weightlifting and she got fascinated by it. Initially, a few villagers told the family that weightlifting was not a sport for a girl. She would soon prove them wrong. When she was in tenth standard, she won gold at a national level competition, bringing laurels to the village and making villagers proud, he said.

Her father, Baswant, said his family owns 10 guntas of land which is divided among three brothers. Though the government looks after Akshata’s stay, coaching and food, her other expenses, including those needed for her special diet, proteins and incidentals, run up to over Rs 25,000 per month.

source/content: newindianexpress.com (headline edited)

NATIONAL: SPORTS / EQUESTRIAN: 17-yr old Shlok Jhunjhunwala Wins 3 Medals at the ‘Jr National Equestrian Championship (JNEC)’ 2023, Bhopal

This Class 11 equestrian from a city-based riding school recently won two individual gold medals in the National Equestrian Championship.

The recently-concluded Junior National Equestrian Championship (JNEC) in Bhopal, witnessed 17-year-old Shlok Jhunjhunwala from city-based Embassy International Riding School (EIRS) emerge as champion in the young rider category, raking up two individual gold medals and one silver medal. He was also named the ‘Best Rider of the Year’ for the second consecutive time.

Jhunjhunwala also topped the first-ever freestyle dressage held in India at the event. “Freestyle was something that none of us knew how to do, and we had little time to practice. I chose to do my routine with Bollywood music, because I wanted to stand out. My sister helped me pick the music and along with my trainer, we planned everything well and it was a great experience,” he shares.

A Mumbai-native, Jhunjhunwala has been riding since he was eight. Lacking the physical fitness to take up other competitive sports, he says riding helped give him a sense of accomplishment. “I used to go to a riding camp near Pune a few times a year. I knew basic horse riding before that and loved riding ponies when I was young, but it was mostly just for fun. At that time, I wasn’t physically fit for a lot of other sports, so riding gave me a sense of accomplishment,” he says, adding that he started to compete in events at a trainer’s suggestion. “I started enjoying that feeling you get when you’re up against others, and are doing well. Once you achieve something, it drives you to do more,” he says.

On his first attempt at the JNEC in 2019, Jhunjhunwala was placed fourth and managed to achieve a team silver medal. The next year, he got his first individual gold medal in show jumping, which prompted him to take the sport seriously. “My parents started to get invested, both financially and physically. I started training with EIRS, which helped up my game, both in terms of fitness and technique. I have faced different challenges since then as well. Being away from home in 2020 took a toll on me, while in 2022, I was placed in a higher category where I was faced with riders with more experience. I guess 2021 was easier than the rest,” he shares.

In 2020, Jhunjhunwala also got his own horse, a major step to which he attributes a lot of progress since then. “Artemis was my first horse. She’s retired now because of a medical issue. But she took me a long way.  I have two other horses right now, Hulchul and Ignatius. The former is really special to me, he’s come a long way from not being able to do any sort of dressage to being in the top 10. Ignatius has a massive heart. I’ve given him a few terrible experiences in the arena through my mistakes, but he has always been great,” he adds.  

Currently studying in Class 11, Jhunjhunwala hopes to pursue engineering in the future and continue riding professionally. “India has a long way to go before being on the same level as the west. The level of competition we have here is nowhere close to that over there,” he concludes.

source/content: newindianexpress.com (headline edited)

INTERNATIONAL / NATIONAL: Infosys Prize for 6 Researchers

IISc Prof Mahesh Kakde received the award in the mathematical sciences category for his contributions to algebraic number theory which is predicted to help in computing and cryptography.

Six researchers were awarded the Infosys Prize 2022 on Saturday in recognition of their work in their respective fields.The Infosys Science Foundation, a not-for-profit trust, annually honours researchers in the fields of engineering and computer science, humanities, life sciences, mathematical sciences, physical sciences and social sciences.

“The Infosys Science Foundation has instituted the Infosys Prize to highlight the importance of scientific research for the development of India and the world. From exploring the frontiers of brain research and astronomy to developing solutions for the urgent healthcare needs of underserved populations to examining the notions of justice in a fast-changing world inundated by the climate emergency and pandemics, our laureates are working on the cutting edge of science, technology, and scholarship….,” said Kris Gopalakrishnan, president, Infosys Science Foundation.

Prof Suman Chakraborty of IIT-Kharagpur has won the award in the engineering and science category for developing diagnostic devices for easy access and use in rural areas. In the humanities category, Vice-Chancellor of National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, Sudhir Krishnaswamy, was honoured for his work on “the importance of the basic structure doctrine of the  Constitution that was adopted by the Supreme Court in 1973”.

IISc Prof Mahesh Kakde received the award in the mathematical sciences category for his contributions to algebraic number theory which is predicted to help in computing and cryptography.

Chairperson, Department of Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, Vidita Vaidya was honoured under the life sciences category for her work on understanding the brain in the context of mood disorders like anxiety and depression.

Prof Nissim Kanekar of National Centre for Radio Astronomy, Pune, and Prof Rohini Pande, director, Economic Growth Center, Yale University, were respectively awarded for their work in the field of physical sciences and social sciences. Prof Kanekar was awarded for his studies on galaxies during the ‘cosmic noon’ era, while Prof Pande was awarded for her research on governance and potential policy change for the benefit of social justice.

source/content: newindianexpress.com (headline edited)

Apollo’s new tech detects prostate cancer accurately 

Aiming to revolutionise prostate cancer detection and treatment, Apollo Hospital Seshadripuram has introduced a novel technology, MRI Fusion TRUS guided Trans-Perineal Targe­ted Biopsy, that enhances the accuracy of cancer detection by 95 to 97%.  Dr Manohar T, Chief of Urology at Apollo Hospital Seshadripuram, who has successfully conducted 42 procedures using MRI Fusion TRUS guided Trans-Perineal Targeted Biopsy, said, “In this procedure, one has to undergo multi-parametric MRI and contouring of the lesions which are suspected to be cance­rous, and prostate size is marked via a special software pack.

The image is then transferred to the special ultrasound done trans-rectally.” Explaining the benefits of this latest technology, Dr Manohar T said: “Early diagnosis is critical in improving the outc­o­mes. Conve­n­tional investigation methods miss the diagnosis by 35-45%.”

source/content: newindianexpress.com (headline edited)

South Western Railway registers highest ever gross revenue, electrifies 712 route km in a year

South Western Railway (SWR) has achieved the highest ever electrification of 712 route kilometre in a year and the highest ever originating gross revenue of ₹7,509 crore, General Manager of South Western Railway Sanjeev Kishore has said.

Addressing presspersons in Hubballi on Thursday, Mr. Sanjeev Kishore said that a major thrust has been given to high quality railway infrastructure and between January and December of 2022, new line has been laid for 22 km, while 210 km of line doubling has been completed.

In the present year (2023), doubling of the Londa-Miraj section and Hubballi-Chikjajur are targeted to be completed by February and March respectively, he said and added that this will mean that the entire railway section from Miraj to Bengaluru will be a double line.

He said that the railway zone has registered 94% punctuality and has also emerged as the best among the railway zones in terms of mobility improvement. The average speed of goods train has increased by 58% in the railway zone when compared to 2021, he said.

In terms of passenger revenue, the zone has registered the highest ever revenue of ₹2,534 crore. The highest ever automobile loading of 405 rakes, an increase of 70% over last year, has been achieved by the zone, he said.

Stands second

Mr. Sanjeev Kishore said that the railway zone stands second among all the railway zones in the country in key performance indices.

“Sangnal-Kushtagi (34 km) section of the Gadag-Wadi project, Karatagi-Sindhanur (18 km) section of Ginigera-Raichur new line project are targeted to be completed in 2023. Work is in progress in the Khajjidoni-Lokapur (9 km) section of the Bagalkot-Kudachi new line project. Further EPC tender has already being floated for the Lokapur-Yadavad section. The first phase (20 km) of the Tumakuru-Davangere project has already commenced,” he said.

Mr. Sanjeev Kishore said that for the convenience of people participating in the 86th Akhila Bharat Kannada Sahitya Sammelan in Haveri, special trains are being run between Benglauru and Hubballi with stoppage to Haveri. Seven long distance express trains have been given additional stoppages at Haveri, in addition to running DEMU special trains, he said.

Chief Public Relations Officer Aneesh Hegde and other officials were present.

source/content: thehindu.com