Category Archives: Science & Technology

IVRCL bags orders worth Rs 550 crore

Business & Economy, Science & Technology

Power division wins orders worth Rs 395 crore, building segment Rs 84 cr

Hyderabad-based IVRCL Limited on Monday said the company’s power, building and transport divisions have collectively bagged orders worth Rs 550.56 crore.

Segment wise, the  company’s power division secured contractual works worth Rs 394.36 from the Madyanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Limited, for the supply of equipment and materials for rural electrification and associated 33 KV works in the unelectrified habitations in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh. The completion period is 24 months.
The building division bagged Rs 83.85 crore worth of works from the Airports Authority of India, Calicut international airport, for the construction of a new international arrival block, internal modification of existing interanational passenger terminal building and associated works at the airport. The work is expected to be completed in 20 months.
The company also secured a Rs 72.35 crore contract for the construction of major bridge between Indiranagar and Surbarai in connection with doubling of Viramgam Samakhlai BG section of Western Railway, and the completion period is 18 months, IVRCL informed the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).
source: http://www.business-standard.com / Business Standard / Home> Companies> News / by N. Madhav / Hyderabad – January 20th, 2014

A reunion to cherish

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Records, All, Science & Technology
Graduates of Andhra Medical College’s 1959-64 batch recollecting their college days at a reunion in the city on Saturday. / Photo: K. R. Deepak / The Hindu
Graduates of Andhra Medical College’s 1959-64 batch recollecting their college days at a reunion in the city on Saturday. / Photo: K. R. Deepak / The Hindu

The 1959 batch of doctors of AMC has a gala time

They are all in their mid-seventies and have held important positions which earned them fame and name. Now most of them are enjoying their retired life. Some of them are still active, practising their profession and providing consultation when needed.

They belong to the 1959 batch of MBBS of Andhra Medical College and are meeting up with their old buddies at a reunion at a star hotel in the city on Saturday. It brought back memories of golden days of college life. The whole day they laughed and generally enjoyed the get-together. They called each other by first names and recalled the fun and happiness they enjoyed during college days.

Spade work

The reunion was planned and organised by Vyakaranam Atchuta Rama Rao, a retired consultant psychiatrist who has settled in the UK some 40 years ago, Prayaga M.M. Krishna, who settled in the city after working in Norway for 25 years as consultant anaesthetist, a leading medical practitioner of Anakapalle and former governor of Lions Club G. Subhram, and others. There were 120 students in that class and 35 of them had passed away. Among the rest, 60 attended the reunion, 40 of them with spouses. One of them N. Gajananda Rao, has done computer-aided medicine course in AIIMS after doing general medicine, and established the Indian Association for Medical Informatics. “We are all feeling happy to meet again. Actually this is the third reunion. We had the first one in 2000. We are recollecting the mischief we have done during our college days, the boys teasing girls and vice-versa,” said the 75-year-old doctor. “We are thoroughly enjoying the reunion. We are not sure of meeting again,” said former HoD of Microbiology of AMC Leela Kumari. Her classmate K. Kamamma came from Sompeta for the programme. A general physician of the city G.V. Krishna Rao said the reunion was a golden opportunity to meet everyone in the class. The former students felicitated their teachers who were in their nineties or thereabouts, such as neurosurgeon S. Bala Parameswara Rao, Prof. K. Somasundaram (physiology), Prof. A.V.S.S. Rama Rao (biochemistry), Prof. Nirmala Kumari (pharmacology), and Dr. S. Srinivasa Reddy (paediatric surgery).

source: http://www. thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Visakhapatnam / by Special Correspondent / Visakhapatnam – January 19th, 2014

Lecturer develops low-cost defluoridation of drinking water

Education, Records, All, Science & Technology
Andhra Loyola College chemistry senior grade lecturer Y.Hanumantha Rao / The Hindu
Andhra Loyola College chemistry senior grade lecturer Y.Hanumantha Rao / The Hindu

Could this be the answer to the problem of excess fluorine in drinking water? The method developed by Andhra Loyola College (ALC) chemistry senior grade lecturer Y.Hanumantha Rao has worked very effectively at the laboratory-level and is comparatively low cost. But he felt more research should be done to translate the work he has done in the laboratory to the field. He has been teaching at the ALC for over two decades and decided to do some research to help people.

Mr Hanumantha Rao said that he had analysed drinking water from 24 villages in Kandukur mandal of Prakasam district. While the range of fluorine in potable water should be between 0.05 parts per million (ppm) and 1.50 ppm, the level of fluorine in these villages was between 1.50 ppm and 4 ppm.

Using three kinds of “bio-waste” available locally — sorakaya (snake gourd), Tummakaya (prosopis) and Jammu (thick grass) — for developing activated carbon that removes 90 per cent of the fluorine by the process of adsorption, a process that is different from absorption. The fluorine gets physically and chemically bonded to the activated carbon and the water becomes potable.

The bio-waste had to be incinerated in a muffle furnace to 700º centigrade until it was reduced to powder. The powder was then washed with concentrated Nitric Acid to be “activated”. This was comparatively cheaper then the activated alumina that was being used for defluoridation, he said. The activated carbon had to be washed with an alkaline solution to reactivate it from time to time, Mr Hanumantha Rao said.

When he submitted his research work to the Acharya Nagarjuna University for review he was granted a Ph.D., Mr Hanumantha Rao said.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Vijayawada / by Special Correspondent / Vijayawada – January 19th, 2014

CCMB may grow apples in Araku Valley of Andhra Pradesh soon

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

Hyderabad :

While the Greek hero Hercules wanted to possess the fruit desperately, Adam – the first man in Abrahamic religions – apparently couldn’t resist eating it and was then desperate. Whatever the reasons, few fruits have enjoyed the clout of apple, one of the oldest cultivated trees on Earth.

In India, its farming has so far been limited mostly to the Himalayan region – Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand as well as pockets of the North East. But if scientists at Hyderabad’s Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) have their way, they could soon be grown in Araku Valley of Andhra Pradesh.

For some time now, the changing climatic conditions in the Himalayan region have been hurting apple production, forcing scientists to look for alternatives. Know as the Kashmir of Andhra Pradesh, Araku is blessed with a temperate climate and low temperatures that is suited for growing apples; at least, in theory.

(CCMB may grow apples in Araku…)
(CCMB may grow apples in Araku…)

Situated at about 3,600 feet above the sea level, the Araku Valley area records temperatures of 1-5 degrees centigrade during winters. “Since apples are grown at high altitude areas with low temperatures in winters, we hope the locations in the Araku valley area that we chose for the experiment will yield positive results over the next four-five years,” said Ramesh Aggarwal, who heads a team of CCMB scientists working on the project.

GardenofEdenHF28jan2014 The CCMB scientists are exploring the prospects of growing the fruit – which originated in the Central Asian region, most likely Kazakhstan – in the Lambasingi and Chintapally regions of Araku in Andhra Pradesh’s Visakhapatnam district.

The scientists began work a few years ago to develop new breeds that are resistant to changing climatic conditions while ensuring high yields as part of a genomics sequencing project sponsored by the Department of Biotechnology. They hope to identify genes that give the plant characteristics such as disease and drought resistance. Today there are more than 7,500 varieties of apples grown worldwide, of which at least 300 are cultivated in India commercially. It is said that Alexander the Great first brought the dwarf varieties to Europe (Macedonia) in the fourth century BC, from where it found its way to the rest of the world.

Aggarwal said his team recently visited Araku valley and held discussions with local farmers, non-governmental organisations and researchers to explore growing apples there. If the Araku experiment succeeds, the scientists plan to replicate it in other hilly regions of the South, including the Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu and Coorg in Karnataka.

“To begin with, we will experiment with some 100 saplings of seven leading apple varieties by this month end and increase the number of plants to around 500 over the next one year,” said Aggarwal.

In India, the fifth-largest producer of the fruit worldwide, apples were first grown only towards the end of the 19th Century. But it was Samuel Evans Stokes, or Satyananda Stokes as he was later known, who introduced apple cultivation to Himachal Pradesh in the early part of the last century.   Today, it is the major horticultural export crop of the state.

The CCMB scientists are sourcing the saplings of apple variants from Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry at Solan in Himachal Pradesh.

Senior principal scientist at CCMB, A Veerabhadra Rao said studies showed that the climate of Chintapally region was identical to California and Florida in the United States, where apple is grown on a large scale.

Venugopal Rao, head of research at Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University at Chintapally, said if the results of the experiment are positive, a memorandum of understanding with CCMB will be signed to implement the project on a larger scale.

source: http://www.articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com / The Economic Times / Home> News> Economy> Agriculture> Andhra Pradesh / by Raji Reddy Kesireddy, ET Bureau / January 18th, 2014

Millennium trauma centre inaugurated in government hospital

Nri's / Pio's, Science & Technology, World Opinion

Andhra Pradesh Governor ESL Narasimham inaugurated the massive five-storeyed Millennium trauma centre in the 1100-bedded government Hospital premises here.

The trauma centre has been named the ‘Podili Prasad Guntur Medical College Alumni of North America (GMC ANA) Millennium Super Specialty Trauma Centre’.

The new block houses the trauma care centre and the proposed super specialty wing for economy bypass surgeries and liver transparent surgeries for which the hospital currently does not have sophisticated equipment or trained super specialist doctors.

source: http://www.business-standard.com / Business Standard / Home> PTI Stories> National> News / by Press Trust of India / Guntur (AP), January 17th, 2014

NIMS Plans Hospital Information System

Records, All, Science & Technology

Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) here is set to become the first government hospital in the state with an established Hospital Information System (HIS). Though the discussions on HIS have been going on for the last five years, the cash-strapped hospital is finally set to begin the process of HIS from January 26.

While private hospitals across the country have a well established Hospital Information System (HIS), government hospitals do not. At least, no government hospital in Andhra Pradesh is equipped with HIS. This, senior doctors say, is due to their keenness to hide corruption and make transparency difficult in administration.

The HIS is a comprehensive, integrated information system designed to manage all the aspects of a hospital operations, such as medical, administrative, financial, legal and the corresponding service processing. This, officials at NIMS say, will be a significant step towards bringing  transparency in the hospital that lacked financial and administrative discipline.

According to them, it had become extremely difficult in tracking down files regarding purchases, material management, patient management, lab investigation and online reporting, records maintenance, etc at NIMS.

A deal was recently struck with the government agency CDAC for installation of the system in the hospital. It is learnt that the same form of systems would be extended by the state government in other government hospitals too.

Speaking about the new integrated system, NIMS director Dr L Narendranath said, ‘’We plan to make it fully operational in a year. The state government will pay for the software and NIMS for the hardware and customisation of software. The process will take place department by department,” he said.

The new system, estimated at Rs 15 crore, is meant to plug all the loopholes in revenue losses, provide better monitoring and efficient healthcare. ‘’All machines will be interfaced with computers. The minute one sample goes into the machine, all the details and reports relating to that will be available on the computer which can be accessed centrally. This would save all the paper work and the manpower used in different stages of data entry could be better utilised,” said an official.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Hyderabad / by Rahul S. Pisharody  – Hyderabad / January 18th, 2014

Microsoft launches ‘Academic Accelerator’

Business & Economy, Science & Technology, World Opinion

Plans to bridge the gap between industry and academia

MicrosoftHF27jan2014

Software giant,  Microsoft , on Thursday launched ‘Microsoft Academic Accelerator ‘, a new programme aimed at building a long-term association between industry and academia in India.

“With the vast and growing pool of engineering graduates (over 500, 000 per year) in India, it is imperative to invest in skill-building and high-tech jobs. We saw an opportunity that is there between the academia and the industry to be bridged,” Vinod Anantharaman, head (business development), Microsoft India (R&D), told mediapersons in Hyderabad.

It is initially collaborating with 10 Indian engineering colleges for the programme. The programme currently has two main components — a series of workshops that span a spectrum of relevant to modern-day high technology industry, and a series of student hackathons that give all students at the 10 campuses an opportunity to work collaboratively in team environments to build real-world applications that leverage the latest Microsoft platforms including mobile and cloud.

While the workshops are tailored to the curriculum at each partner college, based on the needs of computer science faculty and their specific tasks, and get delivered by seasoned Microsoft engineers who are domain experts on that particular area, the hackathon series, delivered under the ‘code.fun.do’ brand name, are open to all passionate coders at partner college campuses.

During 2012-13, the pilot year of the programme, apps such as Awesome Logo, Lengua and SudoCam were developed by students and are now made available on the  Microsoft’s app store.

“The students are working on 15-16 such apps now,” Anantharaman said, adding that during the 2014 fiscal, Microsoft was planning to touch over 4, 000 students (including more than 2, 500 at code.fun.do) and should be creating over 250 apps, including 30-odd ‘great’ apps for the store.

source: http://www.business-standard.com / Business Standard / Home> Companies> News /by BS Reporter / Hyderabad – January 16th, 2014

Isuzu Motors to invest Rs.3,000 crore in Andhra plant

Business & Economy, Science & Technology, World Opinion

Japanese automotive major Isuzu Motors will invest Rs.3,000 crore in its first manufacturing plant in India , coming up in Andhra Pradesh , company officials said Thursday.

The plant, which is coming up at Sri City, is expected to be operational in 2016 and manufacture 50,000 Light Commercial Vehicles (LCVs) and Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) in the first year.

Sri City is a special economic zone located in Chittoor and Nellore districts of Andhra Pradesh close to Tamil Nadu.

The company, which rolled out its first SUV manufactured in India at an event here, plans to increase the capacity of the plant to 80,000 in the second year and 100,000 in the third.

The company showcased MU-7, one of the longest SUVs available in India, and also handed over the key to its first customer here.

Powered by Isuzu’s superior diesel engine and priced at Rs.22.6 lakh (ex-showroom Hyderabad), the SUV has been assembled at the Thiruvallur (Chennai) plant of Hindustan Motors , with which Isuzu has a contract manufacturing agreement to assemble MU-7 and pick-up truck D-Max.

“We are delighted to showcase the India made MU-7 in Hyderabad. The MU-7 SUV is known for its ruggedness, durability and fuel efficiency and is a proved and successful SUV in other key markets,” Takashi Kikuchi, president and managing director, Isuzu Motors India, told reporters.

He said the Chennai plant would manufacture 5,000 SUVs and pick-up trucks before Isuzu’s own manufacturing plant in Andhra Pradesh becomes operational in 2016.

Isuzu Motors had last year signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Andhra Pradesh government to set up the plant.

The Japanese firm, which is considered the global diesel engine expert, has already sold 200 imported SUVs in India.

Isuzu currently has dealers in Hyderabad, Chennai and Comibatore. Shigeru Wakabayashi, deputy managing director, Isuzu Motors India, said they planned to have five more dealers in a month, all in south India, the region where it is currently focusing.

After its manufacturing plant becomes operational in 2016, Isuzu plans to expand the dealership network to entire country with 60 dealers. Despite the current slowdown, the firm bets high on Indian market.

Wakabayashi is optimistic that the Indian economy would return to high growth path in six months and pointed out that many Japanese companies were investing in India.

Wakabayashi did not agree that Isuzu had come late to India.

“We have come to India at right time as the demand is set to pick up in coming years,” he said, pointing out that the Indian automobile industry was expected to see a huge growth from 3.5 million in 2013 to 10 million by 2020.

Isuzu, which sold 700,000 vehicles worldwide last year, sees India as a key market and plans to achieve the production capacity of 100,000 units by 2020.

Currently, Thailand is the biggest market for Isuzu. The company sells 15,000 vehicles per month in Thailand.

source: http://www.business-standard.com / Business Standard / Home> News-IANS> Business-Economy / IANS / Hyderabad – January 16th, 2014

Cognizant buys Hyderabad office space for Rs 112 crore

Business & Economy, Science & Technology, World Opinion

Bangalore :

Nasdaq-listed IT software firm Cognizant has bought a 11.04-acre land parcel that includes a 250,000 sqft operational office space facility in Hyderabad, from Bangalore-based technology park developer DivyaSree.

The Rs 112-crore transaction, struck in Hyderabad’s IT hub of Gachibowli, gives the $7.35-billion IT services company room to further develop around 1 million sqft of office space. Last year Cognizant had bought 18-acres of land in Kochi; work here has begun.

Despite political uncertainties over the status of Hyderabad, the city’s IT corridor of Madhapur, Kondapur, Hitec City and Gachibowli continue to remain the most active commercial micro-market, owing to the expansion and relocation requirements of IT/ITeS firms. Industry analysts estimate that around 3-million sqft of commercial office space is likely to be released into Hyderabad’s IT corridors over the next six months.

Major IT companies are all expanding facilities as demand remains robust . Last week TOI reported that Infosys Technologies had bought a 300,000 sqft facility for Rs 115 crore in Bangalore.

(Cognizant has bought a 11.04-acre…)
(Cognizant has bought a 11.04-acre…)

In Hyderabad, Cognizant has been working out of a leased office it got when it acquired the business interests of UBS in India in 2010. This facility nowhasover 3,000 employees working out of it.

Confirming the deal, a Cognizant spokesperson said, “The facility will support our expansion in Hyderabad. It is at a conveniently accessible location in the city’s financial district.” International property consultants CBRE South Asia had structured the deal.

As per Cognizant’s annual report, its India real estate development programme includes construction of 10.5 million sqft of new space between 2011 and the end of 2015. “This programme includes an expenditure of over $700 million (over Rs 4,300 crore ) during this period on land acquisition, facilities construction and furnishings to build new company-owned development and delivery centres in regions primarily designated as SEZs, located in India,” the company’s annual report for 2012 says.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> Tech> Office Space / by Anshal Dhamija, TNN / January 13th, 2014

Police Launch Apps to Help Women

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Inspiration /Positive News and Features, Records, All, Science & Technology

The State police have introduced a new device called ‘RAKSHITA APPS’ to help women in distress/trouble/danger, according to DGP Prasada Rao.

The police chief who visited Mahabubnagar and Kurnool districts on Saturday on an foundation laying/ inauguration spree, told newsmen that any woman in distress/trouble/danger could just dial 119 and seek help from police.

The call would be passed on to the police station/ set-up through the ‘RAKSHITA APPS’ so that the police could rush to the trouble spot and rescue the woman. The DGP said that due to better awareness among the women now about the Nirbhaya Act more cases under the Act were being registered in the State.

Referring to the increasing number of highway accidents in the two districts, the DGP said that that most of these accidents were occurring due to over-speeding and rash driving. He said that to curb the accidents, speed-recording gauges would be installed at the tollgates to check the speed of the vehicles between one tollgate and another.

Answering newsmen’s questions on the Palem bus blaze incident, Prasada Rao said that there was only a single driver in the ill-fated bus on that day. He also ruled out any possibility of sabotage in the blaze.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Hyderabad / by Express News Service – Mahbubnagar/Kurnool / January 12th, 2014