Monthly Archives: February 2017

GIET students selected as Stanford varsity Innovation Fellows

Education, Records, All, World Opinion
Achievers: The students selected for Stanford University Innovation Fellow programme with their certificates in Rajamahendravaram on Wednesday.
Achievers: The students selected for Stanford University Innovation Fellow programme with their certificates in Rajamahendravaram on Wednesday.

They will leave for U.S. on March 6 for a six-week programme

Three girls and a boy studying third year and second year engineering in the Godavari Institute of Engineering and Technology (GIET) have been selected for the Stanford University Innovation Fellows (UIF) programme. They are part of 224 students from 58 higher educational institutions from seven countries, who have been named University Innovation Fellows.

Rachana Parupudi (III ECE), Grushaker Sahani (III CSE), Sundari Jahnavi (II CSE) and M.V.S Sidhartha (III ECE) have been selected under the UIF programme and they are bound to leave for the U.S. on March 6 for a six-week programme.

Academic Dean Varaparasad said the programme empowers Fellows work to ensure that their peers gain the knowledge, skills and attitudes required to compete in the economy of the future.

Prof. Varaprasad said during the training, Fellows learn how to analyse their campus innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems and understand the needs of stakeholders to uncover opportunities to enrich the educational opportunities for their peers.

He said that they became change agents and also co-designers of the education experience as they create better educational environment for others.

The the total training programme is 13 weeks and after completing first six weeks, the students will be called for one week and in last another six weeks training will be given to them.

The faculty of computer science and electronics gave online training with the support of team from Stanford to the students with the support of Google and AP State Skill Development Corporation. After competing globally, GIET students stood second and were selected to the UIF programme.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Andhra Pradesh / by Special Correspondent / Rajamahendravram / February 23rd, 2017

Women bikers out to blaze new trail

Inspiration /Positive News and Features, Records, All, Sports
An exercise in learning Biker Vaishali More.
An exercise in learning Biker Vaishali More.

Trio will cover 2,500 km from Puducherry to Kolkata in two weeks

Sporting jackets, safety gear and helmets, the three women bikers are all set to take a long ride, covering 2,500 km.

They will go along the Puducherry-Vizag-Kolkata route on a journey that they hope will overturn gender stereotypes.

In the process, they will indulge their shared passion for learning more about culture and heritage.

Vaishali Kulkarni More from Visakhapatnam and Pune bikers Anagha Sant and Sonal Bhat will embark on “Heritage Trail”. They will start from Puducherry on February 23 and end in Kolkata on March 8, International Women’s Day. The ride will cover six States and a Union Territory.

Ms. More, 49, will be the first woman biker from A.P. to do this section of the Golden Quadrilateral. She earlier rode solo covering 1,700 km from Visakhapatnam to Shirdi in July last year. It was in Shirdi that the trio met and instantly bonded, sharing their zest for the outdoors.

Inspiration to many

Speaking to The Hindu, Ms. More said: “I had planned to do this route after returning from my solo ride. When Anagha and Sonal heard about my plan, they instantly agreed to join me. We are in touch with other biking communities. The whole idea is to inspire women to take off by themselves.”

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Visakhapatnam / Nivedita Ganguly / Visakhapatnam – February 21st, 2017

Face-to-face with writer of a lesson

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Inspiration /Positive News and Features
Telugu writer and traveller Dasari Amarendra with the students of the Government Tribal Welfare Boys High School at Bodlanka in East Godavari district. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Telugu writer and traveller Dasari Amarendra with the students of the Government Tribal Welfare Boys High School at Bodlanka in East Godavari district. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Students ask him background of the story

It was a pleasant surprise for the students of Class X at the Government Tribal Welfare Boys High School in the agency village Bodlanka, when they got a chance to interact with a writer, whose short-story was part of their syllabus. They posed him a series of questions ranging from the background of the short-story to the lifestyle of the writer during a session that lasted for about an hour. Some of the students even wanted to have a photograph with him. Amazed by their response, the writer also conducted a session on simple methods of learning English.

Dasari Amarendra, a retired engineer-cum-manager from the Bharat Electronics Limited by profession and a writer and traveller by passion, visited the school the other day, located about 70 km from Maredumilli, along with his friends and spent a few hours with the students. In the early 1990’s, he had translated a story for the National Book Trust and a portion of it had been made part of the State government’s syllabus.

During his interaction with headmaster Balu Reddy, Mr. Amarendra mentioned about the lesson ‘Chitragreevamu’ and expressed his desire to meet the students who learnt his story of a pigeon in their classroom.

It took a few minutes for the students to understand the fact that the man in front of them was the one who penned the lesson in the Telugu textbook. “By the time of writing this story, did you know that children would read it for years and answer questions on it in their exams?” asked Ganapathi Reddy, while his friends asked the writer’s intention in penning the story, duration and the immediate response from the readers.

Mr. Amarendra said he had never expected that his translation would become part of the curriculum and he would meet the students one day. Having been impressed with the enthusiasm of the children, Mr. Amarendra enquired with Mr. Balu Reddy about the pupils’ interest in other subjects. After coming to know that the students feel English as a tough nut to crack, he taught them simple methods of learning the foreign language. “The way the residential school is being managed is just amazing and the children here are very enthusiastic and knowledgeable. They promised me that they would speak to me only in English by the Independence Day-2018 and invited me as their special guest of the function,” Mr. Amarendra shared his joy with The Hindu.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Andhra Pradesh / by K.N. Murali Sankar Maredumilli (East Godavari Dist.)

Lalith Babu all set for Moscow challenge

Records, All, Sports, World Opinion
M. Lalith Babu | Photo Credit: CH_VIJAYA BHASKAR
M. Lalith Babu | Photo Credit: CH_VIJAYA BHASKAR

Vijayawada  :

City-based chess Grandmaster Musunuri Lalith Babu (2593) needs just seven points to enter the coveted 2,600-mark which will enable him to join the illustrious club consisting of players like Adhiban, Sasikiran, Sethuraman and Abhijit Gupta.

To garner the elusive points, he will be travelling to Moscow to take part in the Aeroflot Grandmasters tournament from February 20 to March 3 which will feature the best of brains in the world of sixty-four squares.

After the end of the classic round on March 2, he will take part in the Aeroflot blitz tournament which will contain 18 rounds in which the world top 10 players will feature.

“This is one of the world’s strongest tournaments where a good number of Russian Grand Masters will take part along with top-notch players from Israel, China, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan,” said Lalith who is working as the Grade 1 Officer in the Indian Oil Corporation in Vijayawada.

Last year, the Moscow sojourn was a forgettable one as he garnered just five points out of nine and finished 42nd in the final rating list. “The tourney assumes importance as the winner will qualify for the prestigious Dortmund Super Grandmaster tournament,” he added.

He said he was playing in ‘Group A’ where players above 2,550 would clash. “I am placed 78th among the 80 entries in the fray.”

He said he was not taking any online coaching this year as he could not afford the Bulgarian coach Vladimir Chuchelov who proved costly. “I am practising all alone.”

He said the tournament was not one to try experimental moves especially with the openings as the rivals were proficient with all sorts of openings. “I do not want to try new things and I wish to play solid chess,” said Lalith who finished fifth in the Delhi International Open that concluded recently.

He further said, “I wish to avoid complicating positions. I am also working out how not to fall in to the opening trap of the rival.”

Lalith Babu is spending the best part of his time improving his fitness as he needed seven hours of playing daily. “One needs to have lot of energy as it is gruelling event,” he added.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> State> Andhra Pradesh / by J.R. Sridharan / February 18th, 2017

Andhra medical college research on antibiotics shows promise

Education, Science & Technology

Visakhapatnam :

The superbug or multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacteria has become a challenge for doctors and curse for patients worldwide. As a result of misuse or over-usage of antibiotics to kill bacteria, certain bacteria became resistant to many drugs or antibiotics, and cannot be destroyed by antibiotic medicines even with combination of two or more drugs administered by doctors. Therefore, research is now focussed on evaluating the efficacy of non-antibiotics to treat MDR bacteria.

In this regard, the microbiology department of Andhra Medical College (AMC) has undertaken an interesting and much-needed research on non-antibiotics to counter threats from superbugs and thereby reverse the antibiotic resistance.

In a research titled ‘Reversal of Methicillin Resistance in MRSA by Thioridazine’ (MRSA is the name of the bacteria Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus while Thioridazine is the name of the non-antibiotic drug) undertaken by researcher Dr Ramakrishna Reddi under the guidance of Dr Professor N Lakshmi, drugs such as Thioridazine and other non-antibiotics are showing promising results against MRSA superbug and can also be effective for treatment of MDR Tuberculosis after further research and clinical trials.

“Bacteria multiply very rapidly. For example, 100 E Coli bacteria can become one million within six hours or so. Antibiotics are used as medicines to kill the disease causing bacteria but if in the million new bacteria, one or two mutates or changes, then these may not get killed by the antibiotics or drugs prescribed by doctors and develop into drug resistant bacteria. Sometimes, to counter drug resistance, the doctor treats the patient using combination of two or more antibiotics. But even then, the drug resistant bacteria may become resistant to the combination drugs and treatment would fail. Such bacteria, which develops resistance against combination drugs, are called MDR bacteria or superbugs,” explained researcher Dr Ramakrishna Reddi.

When the bacteria become resistant to antibiotics, treatment fails (as the bacteria doesn’t get killed by the medicines). But with reversal of antibiotic resistance, these bacteria lose their resistance and become sensitive to antibiotics again and thus treatment would be successful (the bacteria would successfully get killed by the medicines).

Elaborating on the research, Dr Reddi said, “When the antibiotics stop responding or fail to kill the bacteria causing the disease, then lab research indicates that non-antibiotic drugs like Thioridazine used along with the antibiotics can enhance the performance of antibiotics. However, clinical trials are still due for this though the research is promising. In itself, Thioridazine is an anti-psychotic medication, which has its own side effects. But isomers of Thioridazine (compounds with same chemical composition but different structure) has less side effects and significant antibiotic profile or properties and pain killers like diclofenac too has anti-biotic profile. With the rapid evaluation of drug designing software, these non-antibiotics, which show antibiotic properties can be tweaked in their structure using computer programmes and can be designed such that they can help in the fight against drug resistance or MDR evolving in bacteria and the cures.”

After one year of lab research, which has been quite promising, Dr Ramakrishna said, he is going for the next level that is structural alteration or designing level. “The structure of the drug compounds can be altered to see what new medicinal properties emerge with respect to anti-psychotic effects and microbial effects and accordingly, we will minimise the side effects and maximise its reversal of drug resistance properties,” added the doctor.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Visakhapatnam News / by Sulogna Mehta / TNN / February 16th, 2017

ISRO launches 104 satellites in one go, creates history

Amazing Feats, Inspiration /Positive News and Features, Records, All, Science & Technology, World Opinion
RECORD HAUL: The PSLV-C37 blasting off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota with 104 satellites on Wednesday. | Photo Credit: PTI
RECORD HAUL: The PSLV-C37 blasting off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota with 104 satellites on Wednesday. | Photo Credit: PTI

These include the country’s earth observation satellite Cartosat-2 series.

India, a one-rocket fledgling in space transportation compared to its European and U.S. counterparts, created launch history on Wednesday by placing a record 104 spacecraft in their desired orbits.

The feat was performed on the old reliable launch vehicle, the PSLV, numbered C-37, which took off from the first launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, at 9.28 a.m.

Precise launch

C-37 was a largely commercial flight as all but three passenger satellites, small nanosats, belonged to six other countries. The 29-minute launch went off precisely as planned; it took just 11 minutes from the release of the primary Cartosat-2 series spacecraft to the last launch of a client satellite, ISRO said after the mega-payload launch.

The PSLV, in the category of launch vehicles that can lift relatively light loads to space, now marks 38 successful missions in a row out of a total of 39 flights.

This time, it took to space a total of 1,378 kg, of which the primary satellite was 714 kg.

The latest Cartosat is the fifth in the series of six Cartosat-2 spacecraft, starting from Cartosat 2 in 2007 and followed by what were earlier marked A, B, C, D and E. The last one is due.

“After a flight of 16 minutes and 48 seconds, the satellites achieved a polar Sun synchronous orbit of 506 km inclined at an angle of 97.46 degrees to the equator — very close to the intended orbit. In the next 12 minutes, all 104 satellites successfully separated from the PSLV fourth stage in a predetermined sequence, beginning with the Cartosat-2 series, INS-1 and INS-2,” an official communique said.

ISRO’s workhorse lives up to its billing

The PSLV, which created launch history on Wednesday by placing a record 104 spacecraft in their desired orbits, has totally launched 46 Indian spacecraft, most of them Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites.

As many as 180 small satellites of foreign customers contracted by ISRO’s commercial company Antrix Corporation have also reached space on this vehicle.

This time, it took to space a total of 1,378 kg, of which the primary satellite was 714 kg.

The latest Cartosat is the fifth in the series of six Cartosat-2 spacecraft, starting from Cartosat 2 in 2007 and followed by what were earlier marked A, B, C, D and E. The last one is due.

“After a flight of 16 minutes and 48 seconds, the satellites achieved a polar Sun synchronous orbit of 506 km inclined at an angle of 97.46 degrees to the equator — very close to the intended orbit. In the next 12 minutes, all 104 satellites successfully separated from the PSLV fourth stage in a predetermined sequence, beginning with the Cartosat-2 series, INS-1 and INS-2,” an official communique said.

The PSLV, 39 flights old since 1993, also launched the Indian Moon mission Chandrayaan-1 in 2008; and is set to launch a private lunar mission for Bengaluru start-up Team Indus in late December this year.

“It is confirmed that all 104 satellites have been successfully deployed in the orbit,” PTI quoted PSLV Project Director B. Jayakumar at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) as saying.

“After separation, the two solar arrays of Cartosat-2 series satellite were deployed automatically and ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) at Bengaluru took over the control of the satellite,” the space agency said.

In the coming days, the satellite will be brought to its final operational configuration.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> National / by Special Correpondent / Bengaluru – February 15th, 2017

‘Kara Master’ felicitated

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Records, All

Srikakulam :

Tales, a part of human life, are becoming extinct in the current mechanised era. However, Kathanilayam, started 20 years ago, houses more than a lakh stories in Telugu and in English. The only library in the country,  preserving more than one lakh stories, is the brain child of Kalipatnam Rama Rao, popular as Kara Master. The 20th anniversary of  Kathanilayam was celebrated in Women’s College in Srikakulam on Sunday.

Addressing the gathering, district collector Laxmi Narasimham said, “Kathaniilayam which has the rarest collection of stories in all genres is the only library having such stories.” He said that the district people should be proud of Kathanilayam. On the occasion,  Kara Master said: “A Bengaluru-based software company came forward to digitise the stories. The digital storage would serve the future generations.” Later, the writers and government officials felicitated Kara Master.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Andhra Pradesh / by Express News Service / February 13th, 2017

Vizianagaram theatre fest a huge success

Arts, Culture & Entertainment

Visakhapatnam/Vizianagaram:

The massive success of Nandi Natakotsavam reflects the renaissance spirit of the town.

The festival drew crowds from districts of Visakhapatnam, Srikakulam and Koraput in Odisha. P Kameswara Rao, lecturer in Telugu from Maharajah’s College Vizianagaram, said, “It is not just the quality of the plays but the mood and enthusiasm of the public that makes this festival truly worth while.”

On February 13, the three major draws were the plays Yuvanika, Kotha Pravahaalu and Yuga Karthalu. All the three plays are based on social themes and the need for dynamic change. K Jairam, DPRO of Vizianagaram noted, “The fact that social plays are drawing large crowds is a clear indication of the maturity of the audience.”

The festival has augured well for local businesses as well, especially the book stores in the Prince of Wales market. PS Gupta, who owns a book store in the market, said, “A lot of youngsters are suddenly taking interest in the old books published and written by authors of Vizianagaram. This is huge boost to the town.” TNN

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Visakhapatnam News / TNN / February 14th, 2017