Hyderabad Public School. Located on Begumpet Road in Hyderabad, this is the school Satya Nadella, the newly appointed CEO of Microsoft, attended. The school’s emblem is an eagle and it prods its students to think of themselves as eagles and aim to soar high.
By winning the top job at IT behemoth Microsoft, Nadella has more than lived up to the school’s expectations. Nadella’s parents, who live in Hyderabad now, though palpably happy, did not wish to comment on the achievement. His father B. N. Yugandhar, a retired civil servant, confined himself to a “thank you.”
Those who have known the family attribute a lot of Nadella’s success to his upbringing. He grew up in an environment grounded in reality. C. Parthasarathy, Chairman, Karvy Consultants, who knows the family well, says: “This is really a proud moment, which is what all will say. But what is remarkable about this family is its high level of integrity, intellect and belief in hard work.”
“He has grown up in an environment where these attributes would have been re-emphasised from time to time,” adds Parthasarathy. “I think that helped him in his career. Parthasarthy is also closely associated with Hyderabad Public School and has been on its governing board.
Officials at Microsoft India were tight-lipped about the development. But they will all listen avidly when Nadella makes his address to Microsoft employees later today.
source: http://www.indiatoday.intoday.in / IndiaToday.in / Home> Business> India / by E. Kumar Sharma, New Delhi / February 04th, 2014
Students of Sreenidhi Concept School receiving the winner’s trophy, ‘Battle of the Best: Vision 2020’, from ace badminton player Saina Nehwal in Hyderabad on Saturday. | RVK RAO
Badminton star Saina Nehwal gave away prizes to Sreenidhi Concept School and Lohia Little Angels School students who clinched the first and second prizes in a competition titled ‘Battle of the best: vision 2020’ here on Saturday.
The competition was held by the Gray Matters India, a foundation that seeks to assess the quality of education provided by schools across the country.
Speaking on the occasion, Sania Nehwal said it was important for students to have determination to tide over any failure in life to achieve success. ‘’One should always feel that ‘I want to be the best and second to none’. It is this determination helps an individual to reach greater heights in their career,” she added.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Hyderabad / by Express News Service – Hyderabad / February 02nd, 2014
It was an evening to rejoice and celebrate with the winners of Hyderabad Women of the Decade Achievers Awards organised by Assocham Ladies League recently.
Chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy was the chief guest of the evening and was seen mingling with the guests and winners.
Bollywood actress Soha Ali Khan , who graced the do, was given a special award. Musician-singer Dina Fanai from New York made the evening memorable by crooning beautiful numbers.
Also spotted was tennis ace Sania Mirza , actress Sharada, Sangita Reddy, Geeta Reddy, and Seema Kumar among others.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Hyderabad / TNN / February 01st, 2014
K Buchaiah of Parigi depot, who received best KMPL award, poses with family at APSRTC Kalabhavan in Hyderabad on Friday | A RADHAKRISHNA
Recognising the drivers of APSRTC who contributed to conservation of fuel by maintaining a healthy Kilometer Per Litre (KMPL) rate, awards were presented to drivers from various zones of the state on Friday.
A total of 121 best drivers, five from each region with maximum saving of HSD Oil/CNG during 2012-13 were presented with a memento and a certificate of merit at ‘Best KMPL Awards Function’ organised by Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited at APSRTC Kala Bhavan. Drivers who maintained more than 6.00 KMPL of oil were felicitated. Apart from them, mechanics and other staff were also presented with awards on the occasion.
To encourage employees to save fuel, cash incentives are given on monthly basis. Besides this, training is also given to the drivers using simulation fuel conservation machine by safety driving inspectors at all depots who explain how much fuel will be wasted because of faulty driving practices. ‘’By following the instructions, a driver can save around 5 out of 30 litres of fuel easily. This training is given to around 15 drivers in a day,” said a safety driving inspector.
Transport minister Botcha Satyanarayana, chief guest of the event, who presented mementos to the drivers suggested that in the future such functions need to be held at zonal level rather than at Hyderabad alone so that other APSRTC personnel will understand the importance of fuel conservation.
He added that in the last year, two protests took place in Telangana and Seemandhra region. ‘’Whenever people talk about protests, they point out the losses. However during the period of protests, people opt for alternative transport services. So after protests end, it takes around five months to retain the occupancy rate. This situation affects employees also,” said Botcha and added that there is a necessity for employees to fullfil their duties. ‘’There is a need to protect the corporation, even government will do its share,” he said.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Hyderabad / by Express News Service – Hyderabad / February 01st, 2014
36 restored Nizam-era Qurans complete with precious gold and gem stone ink are on display at Chowmahalla
Today Chowmahalla palace will be teeming with visitors and lovers of history to see the unveiling of numerous Qurans some of which date back to early 1400 A.D. Princess Esra, of the erstwhile royal family, who has been an important part of the revival and restoration of the Qurans says, “It was a Herculean task but worth the sweat and effort. These valuable Qurans couldn’t have been let to rot in the state they were found. Once we discovered the collection we took notice of the work it needed and set out with a serious pace,” she revealed .
Esra adds, “It’s only for the sake of culture and heritage. When I came here as a bride I was shown night pictures of the lanes and areas and I was in awe of the silenceand solitude . My mother used to tell me ‘you will know once you get there,’ and after I came to Hyderabad I realised what it meant to be a part of the royal family,” she smiled. In awe of the grandeur and the luxury as well as the love that people had for the royal family, she felt humbled. “When I returned after years to see the dilapidated state of the things I had touched and felt, including the Qurans, I was grief-stricken; I couldn’t let them rot away. I am sure even the Nizams themselves didn’t know how many of the precious holy book of scriptures they owned. When the final discovery was made, the total number of the Qurans, of all sizes, stood at 36. There are some very tiny ones as well,” she says.
Conservators working on the antique cloth quran / AFP
Esra also speaks with pride of another cloth Quran that was found; the entire Quranwritten on cloth. The cloth’s dimensions stood at 9.5 feet x 5 feet. The Qurans are of immense value not only because of their heritage but also the quality of ink used in them. “Besides gold and silver ink, inks made from powdered gems and semi precious stones were also used. In some Qurans mother-of -pearl has also been used as ink,” informs G. Kishan Rao, director of Chowmahalla Palace.
Indian paper conservators restore antique copies of the Quran at Chowmahalla Palace / AFP
Since no royal item is permitted to go outside the Palace, specialists from The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) have been approached. “They worked continuously for two years to revive the precious books, with Esra’s continual monitoring. The restored Qurans will be displayed in the room opposite the Council Hall in the palace,” informs Kishan Rao.
The Qurans will be unveiled by Esra and Muffakham Jah’s son at Chowmahalla Palace today.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus> Events / by Prabalika M. Borah / Hyderabad – February 06th, 2014
Tombs in Line, a photograph of Hyderabad in 1975 by Luttge / The Hindu
Photographer Thomas Luttge has captured the Golconda Fort and its vicinity since 1970s and urges photography enthusiasts to look past postcard images
Last weekend, a small group of photography enthusiasts walked along the wall of Naya Qila with their cameras in tow. “It was the first day of the workshop, which I chose to call the day of discovery,” says Thomas Luttge, who mentored participants through the three-day workshop conducted as part of Hyderabad Literary Festival 2014. His methodology of mentoring took a few by surprise, even left them a tad disappointed.
He wasn’t going to hand-hold them and explain different angles from which the area could be shot. “This was a creative workshop and I wanted them to observe; it had to be their discovery, I was always available if they wanted to talk but I wouldn’t interfere,” says Luttge, who conducted a survey of the area prior to the workshop. “I chose one section of the wall assessing its accessibility. I limited the (field) area from the under-path of the golf club till the area leading to a flight of stairs. We could see the historic wall in the background, an old pond which is now dirty and people who have, with limited resources, built their own little houses very close to the wall,” says Luttge.
The participants took their time to walk around the area and draw their inferences. “Some were interested in how large stones were placed one over the other to build the wall; a few others observed people living there and others liked the entire atmosphere,” says Luttge. The second day of the workshop saw students taking photographs and analysing them and the third day saw them presenting select photographs.
Clicking photographs was only one part of the workshop. Learning to document and present their work formed the rest. “Documentation doesn’t mean clicking a photograph and showing it to others; I am critical of this easy talk of documentation. One should make up his mind on why he likes some photographs over the others. The best part was participants standing up and presenting their work, which some of them were doing for the first time,” says Luttge.
Photographer Thomas Luttge / The Hindu
Thomas Luttge knows the topography of Golconda Fort and its surroundings rather well, having photographed the area since his first visit to the area, in 1975, along with Hans Winterberg who was then the director of Max Mueller Bhavan in Hyderabad. “When I was here for the first time, I felt as though I had stepped back a 100 years year into a dream culture where everything was slow and a bit dusty but the people were very friendly. So much has changed. There is a rush and people are under different pressures today,” he observes.
An avid traveller, Luttge has documented his impressions on large cities — New York, Paris, Munich, Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad among others — over several decades through photographs that give us insights into places, people and culture beyond touristy, postcard images. Beginning February 7, he will be holding an exhibition of some of these photographs, all in black and white, titled Cityscapes, at Goethe Zentrum. “Some people viewing my images feel I’ve arranged those photographs. But real life is beyond imagination. I try to find powerful images from big cities that would concentrate imaginations of that city; I look for small corners where life goes on with spontaneity,” he signs off.
Ideas for the present
During the recent workshop, Luttge recalls participants coming up with their ideas on how historical places can be reinvented to suit our time. “A student of city planning and architecture from Iran, now learning German here, suggested that the different platforms along Naya Qila wall could be used by people to gather and talk about relevant issues — different platforms for performing arts, social concerns and ecological concerns and so on. These areas were probably used as observation towers in the past to keep tab on intruders. She felt these can serve as platforms. Another participant liked the entire area and suggested that it could perhaps be used to host music sessions. These are marvellous ideas,” commends Luttge.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus / by Sangeetha Devi Dundoo / Hyderabad – January 30th, 2014
Patents for treatments associated with neurodegenerative diseases, valid through 2025.
Hyderabad-based biopharmaceutical company Suven Life Sciences (Suven) said it has secured three product patents, one each from Canada, China and India. The patents correspond to the new chemical entities (NCEs) for the treatment of disorders associated with neurodegenerative diseases. These patents are valid through 2025.
The patents include the class of selective 5-HT compounds discovered by Suven, which are being developed as therapeutic agents. These are useful in the treatment of cognitive impairment associated with neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s disease, Attention deficient hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Huntington’s disease, Parkinson and Schizophrenia.
With these new patents, Suven has a total of 14 granted patents from Canada, 12 patents from China and 17 from India.
“We are very pleased by the grant of these patents to Suven for our pipeline of molecules in CNS arena that are being developed for cognitive disorders with high unmet medical need and with huge market potential globally” chief executive officer, Venkat Jasti, said in a press release on Friday.
source: http://www.business-standard.com / Business Standard / Home> Companies> News / by Prashanth Chintala / Hyderabad – January 31st, 2014
A team of doctors led by Dr Anurag Chitranshi from Prime Hospitals performed a highly complex surgery to re-implant an amputated arm of a 12 year old girl in Hyderabad.
The doctors from Prime hospitals acted in the right time and conducted a successful surgery to re-implant an amputated arm for the first time in Andhra Pradesh. Usually in many such cases, the other half of the amputated part of the limb becomes non-functional and useless unless an immediate medical care is given.
After eight long hours of the complex surgery the doctors declared the surgery as a rare success and the 12 year old girl is fast recovering as veins and arteries are functioning properly by supplying blood in to the re-implanted arm.
Going in to details, Thanishka was brought to the emergency department at Prime Hospitals in Ameerpet, on December 10, 2013 at around 1:30 pm with accidental entrapment of right arm in an elevator.
Preliminary examination showed her hand to be amputated at a level just above the wrist and she was bleeding from the amputation stump but conscious and co-operative all the while. The amputated arm was brought in a plastic bag put in a thermacol box filled with ice pieces and ice packs, as is desired for a successful re-implantation. The doctors in the emergency department resuscitated, stabilized her and did dressing for the arm. The amputated hand was sent to the operation theatre immediately.
The re-implantation surgery took a marathon of eight hours by a team comprising of plastic surgeon Dr Anurag Chitranshi, orthopaedic surgeon Dr Sathish Reddy and Dr BSV Raju, neurosurgeon & director to operate on her. Initially she was giving general anaesthesia and the arm bone was fixed. Subsequently the veins, arteries, nerves and tendons were repaired and the surgery was completed. The blood circulation was re-established in the cut hand within 6 hours of amputation. She was discharged after a two weeks stay at the hospital with the limb surviving in its entirety.
The expeditious presentation of the patient at the hospital, preservation of the amputated hand in a clean bag, with the bag surrounded by ice cubes, the immediate attention of the team at casualty and expertise of specialist doctors at Prime Hospital in promptly re-implanting and ensuring arterial blood flow, is what helped in salvaging the arm, says Dr Anurag Chitranshi.
Gubba Cold Storage (Andhra Pradesh’s first cold storage company, which was founded by Gubba Nagender Rao) hosted a conference for the frozen food industry recently. Its topic was ‘The Exciting Future of the Frozen Food Industry’. It holds the Limca record for being India’s largest cold storage company (with a capacity of 83,00,000 cubic feet, thanks to Nagender Rao’s successors, Gubba Kiran and Gubba Prashant).
Dodla Dairy’s Sunil Reddy unveiled the record at the event, which was attended by Alfa Laval’s Razween Ahmed; Frick’s Sudhir P; lean management expert Ganesh; Emerson’s Chetan Shetty; Food Cert’s Sri Hari Kotela; Dr Kulkarni and Scoops Ice Creams’ Sudhir Shah, and focussed on the current scenario of the industry, the challenges faced by it and the role of technology.
Gubba is working on an innovation in refrigeration technology with Eesavasya Technology (which was unveiled at the event by Dr Feroz). Dr Kulkarni unveiled the latest issue of the Gubba Frozen News, the company’s news magazine which has a print version (managed by Gubba Rajyalakshmi) and an electronic version (managed by Gubba Deepthi).
source: http://www.fnbnews.com / FnBnews.com / Home> Top News / by FnBnews Bureau, Mumbai / Friday – January 31st, 2014
Dean of School of Social Sciences, University of Hyderabad, Aloka Parasher Sen alongwith the author Narendra Luther, at the launch of ‘Legendotes of Hyderabad’ in Hyderabad. PHOTO: NAGARA GOPAL / The Hindu
Written by the former civil servant, ‘Legendotes of Hyderabad’ combines the legends and anecdotes that populate the city of Hyderabad
The City of Nizams is steeped in legends that greet a curious soul willing to take a break from the modern day hustle bustle, author and former civil servant Narendra Luther observed on Thursday.
Combining the legends and anecdotes that populate this historic city, Mr. Luther wrote a book ‘Legendotes of Hyderabad’. The book was released by Dean of Social Sciences at University of Hyderabad Aloka Parasher Sen at a function held here.
“Everything regarding this city has its own legend and it was my endeavour to weave through these legends in this book. While historians go through the highways to chronicle historic events, I went through the lanes and bylanes of the city to construct its history,” Mr. Luther said.
Terming the book an engaging easy-read, Dr. Sen said the book brings out the role played by the oral traditions, anecdotes and legends in the process of making history. Traditionally history has been based on official documents and inscriptions that were considered as solid facts, but historians have started to realise the importance of oral traditions.
While history attempts to give explanations, the oral traditions speak about the perceptions and this book can act as a bridge between both these aspects of writing history, she said.
The book release function was followed by a short skit played by a team of theatre artists who read out some interesting facets mentioned in the book.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Hyderabad / by Staff Reporter / Hyderabad – January 31st, 2014
