Category Archives: Science & Technology

Life-saving heart transplant done

Amazing Feats, Records, All, Science & Technology
Venkata Ramya is all smiles after the successful surgery at Yashoda Hospital on Tuesday. - / Photo: Nagara Gopal / The Hindu
Venkata Ramya is all smiles after the successful surgery at Yashoda Hospital on Tuesday. – / Photo: Nagara Gopal / The Hindu

A resident of Pithapuram in East Godavari District, Venkata Ramya had been suffering from ‘postpartum cardiomyopathy’ after delivering a baby seven years ago

Doctors at Yashoda Hospital performed a life-saving heart transplant on a 25-year-old woman after she developed a rare disorder associated with pregnancy.

Venkata Ramya, a resident of Pithapuram, East Godavari District, had been suffering from ‘postpartum cardiomyopathy’ after delivering a baby seven years ago. She had breathlessness while walking and was unable to lie down flat. A cardiologist at Kakinada, who suggested heart transplant for Ramya, referred her to Dr. A.G.K. Gokhale, chief cardiothoracic, transplant and minimal access surgeon, at Yashoda Hospital.

Dr. Gokhale and Dr. Rajasekhar, consultant cardiologist, kept her on the waiting list for a donor. After a month, on December 15, a 21-year-old accident victim was declared brain dead in another hospital in the city. After the victim’s relatives expressed willingness to donate his organs, Dr. Gokhale and Dr. Sudhakar, a consultant anaesthetist, rushed to the hospital, removed the heart from the victim and transferred it to Yashoda Hospital in a few minutes, even as the city traffic police provided escort to the ambulance.

A team of cardiothoracic surgeons, headed by Dr. Gokhale and Dr. G. Subramanyam, senior consultant anaesthetist, performed the surgery taking six hours.

Speaking to the media here on Tuesday, Dr. Gokhale and Yashoda Group of Hospitals managing director Dr. G.S. Rao emphasised the need for creating greater awareness about the Jeevandan scheme and organ donation, as a number of lives could be saved.

Ramya, who struggled to hold back her emotions, said she had lost all hope and added that she was indebted to the doctors and the donor for giving her a new lease of life. Dr. Gokhale said the cost of a heart transplant procedure was Rs. 15 lakh, and that 50,000 to 60,000 people in the country required heart transplant.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Hyderabad / by Special Correspondent / Hyderabad – December 24th, 2013

Success for Silver Pompano in Andhra Pradesh

Green Initiatives / Environment, Nature, Records, All, Science & Technology

INDIA – The first crop of the highly valued Silver Pompano fish cultivated in Krishna district, in the state of Andhra Pradesh, for the first time is ready for harvest.

The marine fish, locally known as Chanduva Para, which is being cultivated in two acres of brackish water in Nagayalanka mandal, survived without any retardation in growth despite the recent bad weather.  The Hindu  reports that this is the first marine fish being cultivated in brackish waters in Krishna district.

Scientists from the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI), Chennai, provided the Silver Pompano seed to the Nagayalanka-based farmer, T. Raghu Sekhar, in July. The tenant farmer sowed the seed in his two-acre pond at Peda Kammavaripalem in Nagayalanka mandal.

Good growth

“Of the total 6,000 seeds released into the pond, not a single fish died and growth is expected to reach the maximum of 400 gm to 420 gm by the time of the first harvest due in March,” Mr Sekhar told  The Hindu .

By the fourth month the fish grew to the size of a palm and also turned white. They were able to tolerate the vagaries of weather, Mr Sekhar said. There is great demand for the Silver Pompano, a marine fish, in the domestic market all along the coast in Andhra Pradesh. But there was a drastic fall in the catch of the variety of fish in the ocean. The fishermen were not sure when and in which weather conditions they could catch this variety of fish in the ocean, Mr Sekhar said.

Lucrative price

The cultivation of these fish was, however, tricky because the salinity of the water should be maintained between five and 40 PPT (parts per thousand) for the fish to thrive and grow.

“Domestic market prices are very lucrative for Silver Pompano, fetching Rs 200 a kg. At times when the cultivation of tiger prawn and high risk Vannamei shrimp are driving the farmer into losses frequently, shifting to cultivation of marine fish species is being seen as a viable and lucrative option,” added Mr Sekhar

source : http://www.thefishsite.com/ The Fish Site / Home> News> India / by The Fish Site News Desk / December 17th, 2013

Infotech becomes first India-based company to receive TL 9000 certification

Records, All, Science & Technology, World Opinion

Achieves it for fixed network engineering services

News | CIOL Bureau

Hyderabad, India :

Infotech Enterprises announced that its telecom business unit’s network engineering services division has earned a TL 9000 (Release 5.0) certification under the product category 7.2.1.1 Fixed Network Engineering Services, becoming the first India-based organization to be certified under this product category. Infotech’s offices at Madhapur, Hyderabad and Paragould, Arkansas, USA were certified.

Scope of the certification includes: engineering services including design, modeling, analysis, and data conversion of wire line telecommunication networks.

The TL 9000 quality management system was developed by the Quality of Excellence for Suppliers of Telecommunications forum, a global communications association comprised of the world’s top industry service providers and suppliers, who are dedicated to continually improving standards in the telecommunications industry.

TL 9000 is built on ISO 9001 standards and its purpose is to define the unique communications quality system requirements for design, development, production, delivery, and service.

As part of the certification process, the audit team from Bureau Veritas Corp. (BVC) audited Infotech’s engineering services practice delivery in Hyderabad and the USA on the ISO 9001:2008 and TL9000 Release 5.0 quality management systems and continuous improvement initiatives.

John Renard, president and BU head, said: “Infotech has always put quality of execution and quality of the process at the heart of every client engagement. With the significant growth in our telecom engineering services, especially in North America, it became clear that we could align this focus on quality with the specific needs of our telecommunication customers by adopting TL 9000. We strongly believe that TL 9000 will benefit all customers in this sector and strengthen our leadership position in the sector.”

source: http://www.ciol.com / CIOL / Home> Telecom> News / by CIOL Bureau / Hyderabad, Wednesday – December 18th, 2013

President Mukherjee to spend winter sojourn in Secunderabad

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Historical Links, Pre-Independence, Leaders, Science & Technology

President Pranab Mukherjee will proceed to the Rashtrapati Nilayam in Bolarum, Secunderabad  for the customary winter sojourn from December 19 to 31.

From Secunderabad, Mukherjee will visit  Tamil Nadu and Kerala  on December 20.

In Tamil Nadu, he will inaugurate the 28th Indian Engineering Congress and the School of Commerce and Economics of Loyola College at Chennai.

In Kerala, he will unveil a statue of late K. Karunakaran, former chief minister of Kerala, at Thiruvananthapuram and inaugurate the 150th birth anniversary celebrations of Mahatma Ayyan Kali at Kochi on the same day.

On December 23, Mukherjee will attend the concluding function of centenary celebrations of Dr. Neelam Sanjeev Reddy, former President of India at Ananthapuram,  Andhra Pradesh .

source: http://www.business-standard.com / Business Standard / Home> News-ANI> National / by ANI / New Delhi – December 18th, 2013

Now, add augmented reality to print ads via Rev Media’s mobile application

Business & Economy, Science & Technology

To launch fully AR-enabled monthly tabloid for high-networth individuals soon.

Rev Media, a Hyderabad-based out-of-the-home (OOH) media start-up, has developed Rev Eye, a mobile application that enables transforming traditional forms of print media advertisements or collaterals into digital engagements using augmented reality (AR).

AR is a technology that allows for a digitally-enhanced view of the real world, connecting the user with more meaningful content in his/her everyday life. With the camera and sensors in a smartphone or a tablet, AR adds layers of digital information – videos, photos and sounds – to the rich content.

After downloading Rev Eye, all a user needs to do is aim a phone’s camera to an activated advertisement, and then have various images of a product and all the relevant details of it on the screen. The app was developed using a core image recognition engine licensed from a US-based technology provider and involving an investment of Rs 10 lakh.

“In our case, we are doing AR (print advertisement, posters, billboards and packaging) for brands. Rev Eye is currently live on five brands, including the Indian Luxury Expo scheduled to be held in Hyderabad from tomorrow. We should be hitting at least 100 brands in a year from now,” said. Vishal Reddy, chief executive of Rev Media.

Stating that the adoption of this technology was still in a nascent stage, he said AR as a market was at around $2 million in India in 2010, which was expected to grow exponentially to touch the $2.5-billion mark by 2015.

“The growth will primarily be driven by the ubiquity that the smart phones are achieving,” Reddy said, adding that the company’s immediate target was to generate revenues of Rs 1 crore a month from Rev Eye, starting next quarter.

Reddy said that the company was set to launch ‘The Luxury Box’, a fully augmented reality-enabled tabloid targeting high-networth individuals (HNIs) during this weekend. The 20-page monthly, priced at Rs 100, will have precise and situation-based content on “anything luxury” including hotels, apparel, jewellery and cars, he added.

source: http://www.business-standard.com / Business Standard / Home> Companies> News / by K. Rajani Kanth / Hyderabad – December 12th, 2013

Aurobindo receives USFDA nod for anti-depressant drug

Business & Economy, Science & Technology, World Opinion

The capsules are the generic equivalent of Eli Lilly & Company’s Cymbalta delayed-release capsules.

CapsulesHF26dec2013

Hyderabad-based drug maker Aurobindo Pharma Limited stated that it had received the final approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) to manufacture and market Duloxetine Hydrochloride delayed-release capsules 20 mg (base), 30 mg (base) and 60 mg (base), which had been tentatively approved earlier.

The capsules are the generic equivalent of Eli Lilly & Company’s ‘Cymbalta’ delayed-release capsules. They are prescribed for the treatment of major depressive disorder and fall under the neurological therapeutic category.

According to IMS, the market size of the product is $5.4 billion for the twelve months ending September 2013.

Aurobindo said in a press release that it now had a total of 188 abbreviated new drug application approvals from USFDA.

The company’s scrip was trading at Rs 300.20 on the BSE, up 0.76% over the previous day’s close of Rs 297.95.

source: http:d//www.business-standard.com / Business Standard / Home> Companies> News / by Prashanth Chintala / Hyderabad – December 13th, 2013

Nursery for Plant Scions in Hyderabad

Green Initiatives / Environment, Nature, Science & Technology

plantHF24dec2013

As many as two new Scion Bank Nurseries producing high yielding grafts of different varieties of fruit plants and others are being planned at Moinabad on the city outskirts by the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) shortly.

The two new scion bank nurseries have been proposed at Peddmangalaram village in about 50 acres land and Kanakamaidi village in Moinabad mandal of Rangareddy in about 100 acres of land at a cost of `20 crore each.

These two villages fall under the GOMs 111. For the developing the nurseries, HMDA has requested the State Government to transfer the above said lands to them from the Revenue Department so that they can take up the works. The HMDA which already established a scion bank nursery at Tellapur is developing high yielding grafts of different varieties of mango, amla, pomegranate, sapota, seethaphal, jamun, acid lime and tamarind, according to HMDA officials.

The grafts are established through approach, bud and veneer grafting techniques. The scientific management of scion bank yields from 50,000 to 75,000 grafted seedlings per annum.

Presently, the HMDA is making attempts for environment upgradation of Hyderabad metropolitan area by developing and supplying various types of nursery seedlings for multiple urban uses like ornamental plants, shade bearing plants, fruit bearing plants, fodder and fuel needs of the urban and peri urban population.   As many as 10 central nurseries are maintained by the Urban Forestry Wing all around HMA area at Mental Hospital Campus in Erragadda, Airforce Station Land at Hakeempet, Pedda Cheruvu in Nacharam, Bomrukdowla at Rajendranagar, Vanasthalipuram, Yapral, Cherlapalli, Shamshabad, Tellapur and Kapra etc.

In the scion nursery, just a stump, which already has an established healthy root system, is grafted with a cutting or a bud from another plant. In some cases, such as grapes and other fruit-bearing plants, cuttings are used for rootstocks, the roots being established in nursery conditions before planting them out.

The plant part grafted onto the rootstock is usually called the scion. The rootstock is selected for its interaction with the soil, providing the roots and the stem to support the new plant, obtaining the necessary soil water and minerals. After a few weeks, tissues of two parts will have grown together, eventually forming a single plant.

The use of rootstocks is commonly associated with fruit-bearing plants and trees, but is the only way to mass propagate many other types of plants that do not breed true from seed.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Hyderabad / by S. Bachan Jeet Singh – Hyderabad / December 13th, 2013

Maths prodigy aims to develop own technique

Amazing Feats, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Inspiration /Positive News and Features, Records, All, Science & Technology, World Opinion

HaristhaHF24dec2013

Karimnagar: 

She is just 11 years old and studying in Class VII, but she can easily solve maths problems from Intermediate textbooks.

Meet S. Harshita Reddy, who has been excelling in maths since the last six years and winning many awards.

Harshita added another feather to her cap by bagging a silver medal in the National Child Awards for Exceptional Achievements-2013 from the ministry of women and child development in New Delhi on November 14. She was also given a certificate and a cash award of Rs 10,000.

The daughter of an English teacher at a government school, Harshita developed her passion for maths when she was studying in Class I.

“I was surprised after she could remember tables from 1-20 within three days at the age of five. I started teaching her a few topics from algebra, trigonometry and some other tough concepts when I saw that she was blessed with extraordinary skills,” recalls Govardhan Reddy, science teacher at a government school.

When Harshita was nine, she was asked to solve Class X problems and it was a cakewalk for her. “I organised over 50 sessions to demonstrate easy methods to solve maths for students in the school. I would like to develop a method or technique on my own,” said Harshita, adding, “I want to be a maths scientist.”

Harshita claimed she was termed a legend in maths and maro Shakuntala Devi (another Shakuntala Devi) by her critiques and teachers.

Karimnagar MP Ponnam Prabhakar and former MLC, Chukka Ramaiah had complimented her for her talent and achievements.

She has also won awards from the World Amazing Records and India Book of Record and was given the Andhra Bala Ratna Award by a voluntary organisation based on Vizag.

source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> News> Current Affairs / by Santosh Padala / DC / December 13th, 2013

INS Circars celebrates 74 anniversary

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Historical Links, Pre-Independence, Records, All, Science & Technology

 

Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Eastern Naval Command Vice Admiral Anil Chopra along with Commanding Officer INS Circars Commodore Saleem M. Anwer cutting a cake to celebrate the 74th anniversary of ENC Depot Ship INS Circars in Visakhapatnam on Thursday. / by Special Arrangement / The Hindu
Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Eastern Naval Command Vice Admiral Anil Chopra along with Commanding Officer INS Circars Commodore Saleem M. Anwer cutting a cake to celebrate the 74th anniversary of ENC Depot Ship INS Circars in Visakhapatnam on Thursday. / by Special Arrangement / The Hindu

The premier depot ship of the Eastern Naval Command, Indian Naval Ship Circars, celebrated its 74th Anniversary here on Thursday.

Initially established as a small base by the Royal Indian Navy in December 1939 shortly after the outbreak of World War II, the role of Circars changed over the years from coordinating naval operations, functioning as a repair organisation and being an establishment for Boys training, to its present status of being the premier depot ship of the ENC.

Festive look

The establishment currently provides administrative and logistics support to as many as 44 naval units in and around Visakhapatnam, catering to an approximate strength of over 3,500 personnel. Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Vice Admiral Anil Chopra was the chief guest for the celebrations marked to commemorate the occasion. The naval base wore a festive look, and saw active participation by personnel and families of INS Circars and allied units. A large number of serving and retired officers participated in the celebrations. The traditional cake cutting ceremony was followed by release of in-house Hindi magazine Circars Vaani. Speaking on the occasion, Commanding Officer, INS Circars Commodore Saleem M Anwer said that the depot ship was fully prepared to meet all challenges in its assigned role of supporting the ENC.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Visakhapatnam / by Special Correspondent / Visakhapatnam – December 13th, 2013

Hyderabad-based tech incubator-cum-seed fund BitChemy Ventures invests $6M in 3 startups

Business & Economy, Science & Technology, Uncategorized
Sunil Motaparti
Sunil Motaparti

BitChemy Ventures Pvt Ltd , a Hyderabad-based tech incubator-cum-seed fund, has invested a total of $6 million in three incubatee companies so far, according to its founder Sunil Motaparti. The firm, which is looking to incubate three-four ideas from across the globe every year, is close to investing in another company.

Incorporated in 2012, BitChemy’s current batch of incubatees includes 3LOQ Labs, Cafyne Inc and Altiux Innovations.

A B2B venture based out of Hyderabad, 3LOQ enables brands and retailers to understand individual customer’s behaviour, based on past action and context, using its advanced machine-learning algorithms. Cafyne is a US-based startup which helps enterprises protect their brand by ensuring compliance to regulatory and company policies. Based out of Bangalore, Altiux helps large MNCs as well as startups in joint IP development, prototyping, new product introduction, concept development, product re-engineering and emerging market-focused solutions.

“At BitChemy, we combine entrepreneurship, incubation and seed capital with operational management and strategic oversight,” said Motaparti, who holds an MS degree in Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in the US.

An entrepreneur himself, Motaparti had led product & business development efforts at his previous venture KeyPoint Technologies. Before KeyPoint, he held various roles in product research and development within the semiconductor design software industry. He is also the co-founder of all the three companies BitChemy is incubating currently.

BitChemy identifies opportunities internally by analysing the technology landscape and externally by partnering with motivated entrepreneurs. “We invite ideas from entrepreneurs, and are operationally involved in building the ventures and cover all critical functions with our teams. We invest up to $2 million in each company we incubate and we also join them as a co-founder,” said Motaparti. The firm has eight staff on board.

Motaparti claims that the firm is also getting applications from across the world for incubation as well as investment. BitChemy also invites early-stage companies (which have some validation) for investment of up to $100,000 each in return for a minority stake.

“We are similar to Rocket Internet in a way that we take innovative ideas in technology and combine them with disruptive business models to build unique companies. However, our market is wide and we focus both on B2B and B2C sectors. Also, we believe in investing in unique business model than just creating a replica of a successful business model like Rocket Internet,” Motaparti said.

India is already home to over a dozen startup incubators. Some of the leading names are Microsoft Ventures (erstwhile Microsoft Accelerator), Times Internet’s TLabs, Kyron Accelerator, IIM Ahmedabad’s Centre for Innovation Incubation & Entrepreneurship (CIIE), and Startup Village. Recently, Target Corp and PayPal announced that they would launch startup accelerators in India too. Beverages major Coca Cola is also planning to launch an incubator in India soon. Early this month, Samurai Incubate, a Tokyo-based startup incubator-cum-seed fund, mentioned that it is also looking to foray into India soon.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)

source: http://www.techcircle.in / TechCircle.in / Home> Money / by Sainul K. Abudheen / December 12th, 2013