Category Archives: Science & Technology

2,000 Flaunt ‘Happy’ Knees after Joint Replacement

Science & Technology

Guntur :

At a time when patients afflicted with arthritis, particularly senior citizens, dread visualising their future, Guntur-based Sai Bhaskar Centre for Joint Replacement organised a mega event by congregating over 2,000 patients, who had undergone joint replacement surgeries in the hospital and now lead normal life.

Patients from both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, who had recovered from arthritis, performed cat walk, and exhibited their skills in sports like shuttle, cricket and cycling, thus practically proving that they no longer suffer from joint pains.

Attending the programme, health minister Kamineni Srinivas felt that Guntur emerged as a joint replacement hub and the event organised by Dr. Busireddy Narendra Reddy, Chairman and Managing Director, Chief Orthopaedic Surgeon at Sai Bhaskhar Centre for Joint Replacement proved the same.

Expressing immense happiness over the senior citizens, who had undergone joint replacement surgeries, leading normal life independently, he congratulated the Sai Bhaskar hospital doctor B Narendra Reddy and his team on conducting such a large number of operations in both the states.

TRS floor leader in the Lok Sabha and Mahbubnagar MP Jitendar Reddy said the event proved that though the Telugu people split into states, the people of both the states are still together.

Agriculture minister Prathipati Pulla Rao, Narasaraopet MP Rayapati Sambasiva Rao and TDP district president GV Anjineyulu appreciated the conduct of the programme on the eve of World Arthritis Day.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Busireddy Narendra Reddy has called upon his old patients, who found relief from arthritic problems, to celebrate the joy of fighting arthritis on the occasion of World Arthritis Day.

Saying that Guntur has emerged as the strong medical hub in recent years and the need of the hour is to let people know that there is life beyond arthritis, Dr Narendra Reddy said that BMR Sai Bhaskar Hospital has been playing a vital role in giving a facelift to the lives of arthritic patients for several years now.

Dr Narendra, who performed more than 3,000 replacement surgeries, maintained that nothing gives him more happiness than happy knees. “It is my extended family, rather I’d say it is my joint family” he added.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Andhra Pradesh / by Express News Service / October 12th, 2015

JNTUK faculty achieves fourth patent for microbes

Education, Records, All, Science & Technology, World Opinion

Assistant Professor and Head of the School of Biotechnology, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Kakinada, Ramesh Malothu, has achieved fourth patent and the Microbial Type Culture Collection and Gene Bank (MTCC) microbial culture deposition on ‘Mutant Aspartate Kinase Gene from Coryne Bacterium Species and its application for production of L-Lysine.’

“It is all about the mutations in coryne bacterium species has made specific change in Aspartate Kinase (AK) gene.

Due to the change in the AK gene, the expression levels of L-Lysine are enhanced. L-Lysine is an amino acid which is essential for both human and animals, but it is not supplied to the body in required quantities,” Dr. Ramesh said on Tuesday.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Andhra Pradesh / by Staff Reporter / Kakinada – September 30th, 2015

Prestigious Award for Defence Scientist G Satheesh Reddy

Leaders, Records, All, Science & Technology, World Opinion
File Photo: G Satheesh Reddy /
File Photo: G Satheesh Reddy /

Hyderabad : 

The Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS), London has conferred G Satheesh Reddy, Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister, with the Society’s 2015 Silver Medal for work contributing to major advances or contributions in aerospace.

Mr Reddy is the first Defence scientist working in India to be honoured with the prestigious “Silver Medal” of the Society, according to a release.

“This award is in recognition of your contributions as one of the leading navigation and avionics experts in India, under whose leadership India has developed state-of-the-art avionics sensors and systems for key national strategic programmes and other defence applications,” a letter addressed to Mr Reddy from the Society said.

The award will be formally presented with your medal, at the Wilbur and Orville Wright Lecture to be held on December 9 in the Society’s headquarters in London, it said.

RAeS is the world’s only professional body dedicated to the entire aerospace community. Established in 1866 to further the art, science and engineering of aeronautics, the Society has been at the forefront of aerospace ever since.

The Royal Aeronautical Society has been honouring outstanding achievers in the global aerospace industry since 1909, when Wilbur and Orville Wright came to London to receive the Society’s first Gold Medal, the release added.

source: http://www.ndtv.com / NDTV / Home> All India / Press Trust of India / September 12th, 2015

Women scientists hail Manjula’s elevation

Amazing Feats, Inspiration /Positive News and Features, Leaders, Records, All, Science & Technology

Hyderabad :

A woman defence scientist, having roots in Nellore district, has now become an inspiration for many women aspiring to work with the country’s defence establishments.

J Manjula, director of Defence Avionics Research Establishment (DARE), was on Thursday posted as the director general, Electronic and Communication Systems (ECS), at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).This elevation makes her one of the top seven defence scientists in the country who report to the overall head S Christopher. It was only last year that Manjula was posted as director of DARE.

In fact, this is the second time in the span of a few months that Nellore district has seen one of its own being elevated to a position of eminence.

Before 53-year-old Manjula, it was Dr G Satheesh Reddy who made the district proud by being appointed as the scientific advisor to Raksha Mantri. He heads the Research Centre Imarat in Hyderabad.

Manjula’s appointed as DG has brought much cheer, especially among fellow women scientists. The “missile woman of India”, Tessy Thomas, was one of the first to congratulate Manjula. “It really is a great thing that Manjula has got to the top position. It was her sincerity and dedication to her work that led her to where she is now,” Tessy Thomas, director of Advanced System Laboratory , DRDO in Hyderabad told TOI. Manjula had worked at the Defence Electronics Research Laboratory in Hyderabad for more than 25 years in the field of electronic integrated warfare.”We are already seeing a lot of enthusiasm from college students towards science. We expect more would be interested in getting into defence research,” Tessy Thomas, who was the project director for Agni IV , said.

Manjula, a school principal’s daughter, was born in Nellore and did her schooling there. Later, she pursued her higher education in Osmania University in electronics and communication engineering. She worked with the Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) in Hyderabad before joining DRDO in 1987.

“She has been busy in meetings all through the day . She works till late in the night. Today she took over as the DG and after that was engaged in a video-conference,” an official at Manjula’s office in Bangalore said. Attempts to speak to her did not yield results as Manjula was said to be `extremely busy’ because of her new assignment.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> Hyderabad / TNN / September 11th, 2015

City doctor suggests use of hypnosis as anaesthesia

Records, All, Science & Technology

‘The method has established itself well in the U.S.’

Some major and minor surgeries could be performed on a patient by sending him or her into a sub-conscious state by giving appropriate suggestions in a proper way through hypnosis, claims a city doctor.

This method would eliminate the complications associated with administration of anaesthesia and has no side effects, physician Sreehari said. Complications due to anaesthesia cannot be identified beforehand and hence sending a patient into a sub-conscious state would eliminate complications like anaphylitic reaction (reaction to a specific drug), sudden death, renal failure, respirator arrest, hypertension, etc.

Caesarean, hysterectomy, dental pain, removal of localised tumours, etc. could be performed this way but when to induce the patient into a sub-conscious state has to be planned.

“The effect has to be continued post-operative period till the patient is ready to be woken up,” Dr. Sreehari said at a press conference on Saturday.

“This method is some 100 years old and has established itself well in the US, while in India it is not being practised much though in 2003 the Union Ministry of Health permitted a patient to be taken into a sub-conscious state,” he said.

Publicity drive

To give publicity to this method of anaesthesia, Dr. Sreehari inducted 250 students of Presidency Degree College here into sub-conscious state on September 2, for about 20 minutes and entered the Guinness Book of World Records in the category of most persons anesthetised at a time.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Andhra Pradesh / by Special Correspondent / Visakhapatnam – September 06th, 2015

MANSAS Trust to build 300 bed hospital, medical college in Vizianagaram

Education, Science & Technology

Visakhapatnam :

The Maharajah Alak Narayan Society established by the royal family of Vizianagaram will establish a 300-bed hospital and medical college on 40 acres in Vizianagaram. The funds for the development and promotion of the hospital and college will be raised with the help of the Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority (Vuda) which has partnered with the MANSAS trust to auction certain properties owned by the trust in Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam.

Addressing media persons here on Friday, Vuda vice-chairman, M Babu Rao Naidu, said, “Around 232.5 acres of urban, sub-urban and rural real estate owned by the MANSAS Trust has been identified in the Vuda zone and surveyed for auction. Of this, 230 acres is in Visakhapatnam district alone and the remaining 2.5 acres in Vizianagaram. We will go for e-auction to ensure that all the loop holes are plugged.”

Vuda authorities said the auction process would begin from September 21 with a 2.5 acre plot of land in Vizianagaram town. According to Vuda sources, the MANSAS Trust is the richest land owner in the state, owning as it does more than 13,000 acres of urban and rural real estate in the four north coastal districts alone. The sources further disclosed that all of it was once the personal property of the Vizianagaram royal family that was handed over to the trust, which is still run by the royal family.

MANSAS representatives said that all the norms specified would be followed in building the medical college and hospital. They further pointed out that the trust runs some of the oldest educational institutions in the state and the trustees have for long been proposing the idea of developing a modern hospital and a medical college.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Visakhapatnam / TNN / September 05th, 2015

NREDCAP wins best performance awards

Agriculture, Business & Economy, Green Initiatives / Environment, Nature, Science & Technology

The New and Renewable Energy Development Corporation (NREDCAP) in Andhra Pradesh has bagged three awards for its outstanding performance at the national level in three categories.

Corporation Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Kamalakar Babu on Saturday said NREDCAP, which was in the forefront of implementing the National Biogas Manure Management Programme (NBMMP), had formulated the best renewable energy policies, besides introducing a single-window clearance for projects and capacity-addition off grid from waste energy products like bio-mechanisation and bio-kitchen waste.

Speaking after receiving the award presented by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, Mr. Babu said the Central government had sanctioned funds to the tune of Rs. 137 crore as an incentive under the 13th  Financial Commission to the renewable energy sector. “These funds will be put to use for development of renewable energy and to develop innovative modes,” Mr. Babu said.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Vijayawada / by Special Correspondent / Vijayawada – August 30th, 2015

Top Indian scientist awarded 1st Sunhak Peace Prize

Agriculture, Business & Economy, Green Initiatives / Environment, Leaders, Nature, Science & Technology, World Opinion

Seoul :

Noted Indian agriculture scientist Dr Modadugu Vijay Gupta, who has done pioneering work in aquaculture in India and several other countries, was today awarded the first Sunhak Peace Prize, billed as an alternative to the Nobel Peace Prize, which he shared with the President of Kiribati Islands.

Gupta, 76, shared the USD 1 million prize with President of Kiribati Islands Anote Tong here at a glittering function which was attended by invitees from all over the world.

Tong, 63, the head of the Pacific Ocean island nation which is facing dire prospects of being engulfed by rising sea waters by 2050, was chosen for the award for his dogged fight to end the carbon emissions which are spelling doom for small island nations.

The awards were presented by South Korean religious leader Dr Hak Ja Han Moon, the wife of late Rev Sun Myung Moon, who instituted the awards to recognise and highlight the work of individuals making big efforts for the betterment of the people.

Hailing from Bapatla in Andhra Pradesh, Gupta, a biologist, was also the recipient of the World Food Prize in 2005 for development and dissemination of low-cost techniques for freshwater fish farming.

Before his retirement, he served as the Assistant Director General at WorldFish, an international fisheries research institute under the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research based in Penang, Malaysia.

Starting his career as a scientist in Indian Council Agriculture Research over three decades ago in Kolkata, Gupta worked in Laos, Vietnam, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Thailand pursuing his belief that the aqua technology which can provide food security and improve livelyhoods of rural poor.

“I believed throughout my career that all the advanced fish farming technology which we created in laboratories should be taken to people, then only it can make a difference to their lives,” he told PTI after receiving the award.

Regarded as a rebel within the ranks of the agricultural scientist community in India, Gupta mostly worked with the UN and agriculture related international organisations in different countries.

His work with rural communities in Bangladesh, a nation bestowed with lot of water resources, has made fish farming a major source of livelihood for millions of rural poor, according to the organisers.

As a scientist advocating sustainable alternatives, Gupta said aquaculture should be seen as a major source of food security.

“There can be no peace without food security in the world. You cannot talk peace to a hungry man,” he said.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> India / PTI / August 29th, 2015

GSLV-D6 set to fly GSAT-6 to space on Thursday

Records, All, Science & Technology, World Opinion

GSLVD6ANDHRA27aug2015

Countdown for launch begins

The Indian Space Research Organisation began a 29-hour pre-noon countdown on Wednesday for the launch of GSLV-D6 satellite launcher.

The launch vehicle is powered by the indigenously developed upper cryogenic stage and will be flown at 4.52 p.m. on August 27 from Sriharikota in coastal Andhra Pradesh.

It will put the 2,117-kg GSAT-6 communication satellite into space. The spacecraft will be gradually moved and finally positioned over the country at 83 degrees East longitude in the coming days.

The GSLV is a medium-lift launcher that can put two-tonne satellites into an initial or geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) of up to 36,000 km from Earth. The last GSLV was flown in January 2014.

ISRO Chairman A.S.Kiran Kumar, who is also Secretary, Department of Space, said the upcoming event was doubly significant. The ninth GSLV launch, for whose success he said ISRO has taken all necessary actions, would take the 20-year-old GSLV programme almost to fruition and regularise its use.

From the satellite point of view, he said GSAT-6 would try out quite a few novel technologies that very few satellite players have tried out, such as the large, unfurlable antenna of a diameter of six metres.

ISRO’s other launch vehicle, the light-lift PSLV, is a big success after 30 flights in 22 years, lifting Indian spacecraft to Moon and Mars apart from several Earth observation satellites, a national communications satellite and 45 small foreign satellites.

High hopes

ISRO officials have often said the national space programme needs the GSLV badly for launching its communication satellites; many have been put in space on European Ariane launchers at higher costs than on a GSLV.

S.Sivan, Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, the lead centre for launch vehicles in Thiruvananthapuram, recently said they had retained the configuration of the previous GSLV-D5 of 2014 so as to establish the vehicle’s reliability and robustness.

Flight D6 would fully prove the vehicle and the indigenous cryogenic technology and shift the programme into functional mode. The next GSLV could be as early as the first half of 2016, Dr. Sivan said.

When the GSLV is fully achieved, ISRO plans to have two flights of it a year. Meanwhile, a GSLV-Mark III of twice its capacity is also being developed and will be flown for the first time around December 2016.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National / by Madhumati D.S. / Bengaluru – August 26th, 2015

Tata Trust Pact to Make Villages Smart

Business & Economy, Science & Technology
TATA Trust chairman Ratan Tata (right) interacts with Vijayawada MP Kesineni Srinivas at a press conference in Vijayawada on Monday as executive trustee R Venkataramanan looks on | Express Photo
TATA Trust chairman Ratan Tata (right) interacts with Vijayawada MP Kesineni Srinivas at a press conference in Vijayawada on Monday as executive trustee R Venkataramanan looks on | Express Photo

Vijayawada : 

Taking another step in the direction of developing Andhra Pradesh as a smart state by developing villages as smart villages, the state government entered a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Tata Trust here on Sunday.

Though the MoU is for the development of 264 villages in the Vijayawada Parliamentary Constituency with focus on human resources development and employment generation avenues, the State Government sees it as a cornerstone for the development of the state as ‘the best state’ by 2029. The MoU was signed by R Venkataraman, CEO of Tata Trust, on its behalf and Shanti Priya Pandey, Additional Secretary (Planning), on behalf of the government.

Launching the Village Development Plans and the website for the Vijayawada Bamboo Mission, along with Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, Tata Trust Chairman Ratan Tata said he looked forward to a great partnership between the state government and Tata Trust. He said it would be a step in the direction of helping the betterment of quality of life in villages. Recalling his past interaction with Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, the Tata Trust Chairman said he held the former in great esteem. He wished the CM and the state all successes in the coming years.

Speaking on the occasion, Naidu said it was a start in the direction of Smart AP’ and called upon people of the state settled across the world to chip in with their knowledge and other contributions to make the state a smart one and help in improving the lives of people in the rural areas.

Hailing the initiative of Vijayawada MP Kesineni Srinivas, which saw the Tata Trust becoming a partner in the development of 264 villages of his constituency like never before, the CM said many companies and individuals were also coming forward to partner with the state in its development.

“However, to make such initiatives successful, people’s cooperation and active participation are of paramount importance”, he maintained.

Pointing out at the technologies like geo tagging, GAP analysis to do baseline survey of 10 lakh families in 264 villages in Vijayawada Parliamentary Constituency which was made possible with people’s cooperation, the CM said the government would be launching Pulse Smart Survey in the state to get details of all the people in the state and that the job had been entrusted to Special Chief Secretary S P Tucker.

Stating that technology had become cost-effective, the CM said that using the tablets being provided by the government, VROs and sarpanches in the villages could identify the needs of the people and the gaps in implementation of schemes / programmes and initiate corrective measures. He cited ePOS in the PDS, distribution of pensions using hand-held tabs at the doorsteps of the beneficiaries to emphasis that usage of technology not only ensured transparency but also saved lots of money.

Assuring the villages of the government’s help with regard to matching grants and gap solutions for different programmes to be taken up at the village level, he said the villages doing well in development and the implementation of welfare schemes would be given ‘Best Village’ awards and their sarpanches and officials would be felicitated during Sankranti.

On the occasion, he cited the government initiatives like seven missions and five grids for the overall development of the state.

Earlier, Venkataraman and Vijayawada MP Kesineni Srinivas (Nani) explained the objectives of the Village Development Plans, which were basically focused at nutrition, health, fisheries,  skill development and related aspects.

On the occasion, the students of the city-based Siddharta Mahila Kalasala presented a cultural programme and the same was appreciated by one and all.

source : http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Andhra Pradesh / by Express News Service / August 25th, 2015