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Prof. Durrani Passes Away

Community Involvement / Social Issues, Education, Karnataka (under research project), Leaders, , , , , , , ,

Mysuru, KARNATAKA :

ProfDurraniMPOs02jun2018

Mysuru:

Prof. Mohammed Ismail Khan Durrani, popularly known as Prof. M.I.K. Durrani (91), passed away in the wee hours of today at his residence ‘Durrani Manzil’ on B.N. Road, Mandi Mohalla.

He leaves behind his wife, two daughters, grand-children and a host of relatives and friends.

Namaz-e-Janaza was offered at Masjid-e-Umar Khan, B.N. Road, at 11.30 am followed by burial at Old Khabarasthan, behind Central Jail, Mysuru.

Profile: Prof. Durrani used to occasionally write a column titled Recollections…which was very popular among Star of Mysore readers during 2012-2016.

Prof. Durrani joined University of Mysore as a Lecturer in English in 1950, immediately after getting his BA (Hons) degree. Except for about three years during which he worked as a Lecturer at Intermediate College, Mandya, Prof. Durrani taught English at the constituent colleges of University of Mysore for 35 years.

He was associated with Yuvaraja’s College as a Lecturer and later on as a Reader for a major part of his career (about 25 years). In the year 1983, he was transferred to University Evening College as Professor of English from where he retired in 1988.

During his career as a Lecturer at Yuvaraja’s College, Prof. Durrani also served as an NCC Officer apart from producing and directing several English dramas.

After retirement, he joined the Muslim Educational Society, Mysuru, as an Executive Committee member and became the Founder-Principal of MES First Grade College in 1995. He also served as the President of  Muslim Educational Society which is catering to the educational needs of the community from nursery to college level.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> News / June 01st, 2018

Muslim Girl From Mandya Meets PM Modi: Thanks Him For His Help To Pursue MBA

Community Involvement / Social Issues, Education, Karnataka (under research project), , ,

Mandya, KARNATAKA :

SarahMPOs31may2018

Bengaluru:

Karnataka Assembly election witnessed a heart-warming incident amid a communally polarised environment. A Muslim girl from Mandya met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to thank him for providing financial assistance to pursue her education. She came all the way from Mandya to say “thank you” to the Prime Minister whose personal intervention enabled her to fulfil her higher education dream.

B.B. Sarah and her family members met Narendra Modi on stage at an election rally in Bengaluru on May 8 and presented him the book, ‘The Buddha and His Dhamma.’ The Prime Minister was humbled by her gesture and turned emotional on stage. He blessed her and wished her good luck for her future.

Sarah had written to the Prime Minister about her poor financial condition and requested him to provide financial assistance to her so that she could pursue MBA. She dreamt to do a masters course after scoring 83% in B.Com.

Her father Abdul Iliyaz, who works in Mysore Sugar Mill, had not received his salary for months, which left Sarah unable to find Rs.1.5 lakh that she needed to pay her tuition fees. She tried applying for loans, but was rejected by several banks as the financial condition of her family was bad.

That is when she wrote to the Prime Minister. To her surprise, the PMO responded to her letter in about 10 days and had asked the then State Chief Secretary Subhash Chandra Khuntia to take necessary steps to help the girl. She was subsequently sanctioned a loan of Rs.1.5 lakh by Vijaya Bank.

Before she wrote to the Prime Minister, the Central Bank of India had turned down her loan application owing to her poor financial background. Even after the communication was received by the Bank, the Central Bank Manager allegedly told her “we have done our duty and you have also done your duty. But it is not possible to sanction the loan.” Later, moved by Sarah’s case, Vijaya Bank sanctioned the loan.

It may be recalled here that Star of Mysore, on Mar.21, 2017, had published Sarah’s story in a report titled “PM Modi opens door for Muslim girl’s education in Mandya; Directs Bank to provide educational loan”

“I would like to personally meet Modi and thank him for helping me with education loan at a time when I was in urgent need. I was watching ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ programme on TV and this inspired me to write to the PM. I wish that Modi will bring out a scheme to help talented students like me who want to get involved with higher studies but face financial constraints to do so,” she said.

After meeting the Prime Minister, Sarah said, “Despite being a national leader, he is attached with the population. Whatever schemes he has initiated, he has implemented them. He has not launched them just for name sake purpose,” Sarah said. The girl’s father echoing similar sentiments lauded the Prime Minister for his apt response. “It’s quite unbelievable that out of 125 crore population, he took notice of Sarah’s letter and helped her,” he said.

Sarah has now completed MBA flying colours has now been employed in a multinational company in Bengaluru.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> News / May 10th, 2018

With IIT-K startup’s help, Lucknow firm ready for drone delivery of food

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Travel & Tourism, , , , , ,

Lucknow, UTTAR PRADESH :

Kolkata/Lucknow:

In a first, an IIT-Kanpur startup, in association with a Lucknow-based food delivery firm, successfully flown in flasks of freshly brewed tea on the doorsteps of its customers in the city of nawabs.

TechEagle Innovations, founded and run by IIT Kanpur graduate Vikram Singh Meena, pilot-tested delivery of two litres of hot tea with the help of battery-powered and GPS-fitted drones on May 23. It has developed the specialised drone to drop-ship a consignment up to 2 kg within a 10-km-radius of its take-off station with just a single click of a mouse. TechEagle has joined hands with OnlineKaka, a Lucknow-based food delivery startup, for these test flights.

“We have successfully delivered world’s first chai via drone. Now, we would provide these mean machines to other food delivery startups like Zomato, Swiggy and Foodpanda. To begin with, we plan to venture out in north India,” Meena told TOI.

Talking about the drone-delivery model, Bilal Arshad, who founded OnlineKaka, along with friend Ahad Arshad and Salman, said: “It’s not like the customer will directly receive the order from the whirring gadget. The drones would be flown and received by our executives at different points and because they would not be commuting through the busy streets, it would cut down the delivery time drastically.” Although the cost implications would be known only after a full-fledged launch of the service, both Bilal and Ahad said they would try to ensure that there was no extra burden for the customer as they would be saving on commuting. At present, they charge Rs 59 per delivery.

Although the trial was conducted with DGCA’s permission, the firs is yet to get a nod for the regular service. “The DGCA had said the norms for drone delivery would be specified in January but it hasn’t come through. It is now expected sometime in July. In sync with the Civil Aviation ministry, the DGCA would mark zones for the drone flights and assign altitude, etc, besides issuing licence for each gadget. The pilots hired for the drones would be another factor to determine cost of operation,” said Ahad.

Interestingly, there are no active drone-based food delivery services in the world. UberEats, the largest grub-delivery platform which has recently opened shop in India, has recently tested a similar drone-based delivery in San Diego, US.

In October last year, global e-tail giant Amazon had filed patent for delivery of products via drones in India.

In 2014, an unmanned drone was used to deliver a pizza to a flat in a high rise in Worli, Mumbai. Another drone startup, based out of Kanpur, called Aarav Unmanned Systems, raised a bridge round funding In April 2016.

However, many firms and startups, who are raring to begin unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) or drone-based commercial operations (like door-to-door delivery, aerial mapping, infrastructure monitoring and product transport) across the country, have hit a regulatory roadblock as India’s sky watchdog, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), hasn’t yet formulated a final official policy for the same. Although, Goldman Sachs has estimated that drone industry will be worth $125 billion globally by 2020.

The founding members of TechEagle Innovations started designing and manufacturing since 2015 in the garage of IIT Kanpur hostel and formed the B2B tech startup only in January 2017.

“Our startup develops custom-made drones of both types — rotary wing and fixed wing — which can carry 500gm to 5kg payload. The wingspan ranges between 60cm and five-meter, flight time varies between 30 min and two hours,” added Meena.

“The drone-based delivery system came to our minds when we saw real-life problems like traffic jams affecting delivery services, especially food transportation. Then, we partnered with Online Kaka,” the TechEagle CEO said.

TechEagle plans to expand its services across the country based on need and resources. “We have analyzed that around 10-15 drones can be deployed in one city. Our drones can traverse 10 metres in one second and one single trip can last up to 20 minutes. So, it can fly up to 6km to deliver tea and come back to its take-off spot. We are doing research on batteries to increase the payload capacity and flight time,” Meena added.

On the likely cost of food or tea to be delivered via drones, Meena signed off by saying, “Quality and price of tea or any food items will be handled and decided by the food delivery firms, who will use our drones, instead of a bike or a motor van. We can’t disclose the exact selling prices of the drones at present. But when the service becomes fully functional, our drone delivery will definitely be cheaper than the current modes of transportation. We are in talks with quite a few food delivery startups.”

There was a time in the city when one could order little from home other than pizza. It was 2016 and while big names like food panda and zomato were foraying into the Lucknow market, a startup with just two delivery boys caught the fancy of locals, whose staple feast is the kabab-biryani fare. “Our shoestring budget did not allow a lavish ad campaign, so we relied more on word of mouth,” said Ahad Arshad, who founded OnlineKaka, along with friend Bilal Arshad, adding.

Founded in 2016, OnelineKaka is a popular service in Lucknow for delivery and is preferred for delivery from iconic joints from crowded Old City. “It saves people the trouble of commuting to the crowded, jammed areas and they could enjoy kabab-paratha, biryani, kulcha-nihari in the comfort of home,” Bilal says. Today, they have a 125-strong army of delivery boys and an equal number of vendors on their panel, with over 500 new joints in queue. From a turnover of Rs 20 lakh in their first year, they have notched Rs 5 crore and recorded a 15% growth per month, said the founders.

“There was a minimum-order rider in the beginning but now we deliver the smallest of orders,” said Ahad, adding that their latest offering was delivery of the city’s favourite chai and bun-makhan, anywhere. “The packing ensures you get your cuppa steaming hot but with a successful run of delivery by drone, we hope to pick up more orders in this segment,” he added.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> News> City News> Lucknow News / by Sovan Manna / TNN / June 01st, 2018

2 more papers to go, girl fractures hip, gets 92.5%

Education,

Mumbai, MAHARASHTRA :

Aiman Aslam
Aiman Aslam

MumbaiI:

A simple game of hide and seek landed IIT-Powai’s Kendriya Vidyalaya student Aiman Aslam in hospital, in middle of board exams.

Aslam fell in a 15ft ditch and suffered multiple fractures on her right hip. The incident took place after her social studies paper, five days before the next exam. She score 92.5%.

“Two more papers were left and I had to study in the hospital. However, I was determined not to miss my exams and score a good grade,” Aslam told TOI.

She was taken to the nearest school from her hospital in an ambulance, where she wrote her exams in a reclining wheelchair. Aslam and her family did not view skipping the exam as an option, and were not going to let a freak accident come in the way of her academic success.

Aiman hopes to pursue ethology at a city college.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> News> City News> Mumbai News> Schools & Colleges News  / TNN / May 30th, 2018

Meet Tabassum Hasan, UP’s only Muslim lawmaker in Lok Sabha since 2014, who crushed BJP in Kairana

Community Involvement / Social Issues, Leaders, , ,

Kairana, UTTAR PRADESH :

Tabassum Hasan PTI
Tabassum Hasan PTI

Tabassum Hasan is no stranger to Uttar Pradesh politics. She is wife of late Samajwadi Party leader Munawwar Hasan, who was an MP from UP during 1996 to 1998.

Tabassum Hasan, a former BSP MP who later joined the SP, fought the prestigious Kairana Lok Sabha bypolls on RLD ticket.

The face of united Opposition, who crushed the BJP in communally-sensitive Kairana Lok Sabha bypolls today, is Uttar Pradeh’s only Muslim lawmaker since 2014.

Though BJP’s Mriganka Singh, the daughter of late MP Hukum Singh, was banking on sympathy wave, on May 31st, the verdict showed that Kairana’s daughter-in-law had defeated ‘Kairana’s daughter’.

Hasan did her schooling from UP’s Saharanpur and studied till class X. She married late Munawwar Hasan in 1986 and has two children.

One of the key debating points in Kairana bypolls was the exodus Hindus from the area. Both Mriganka and Tabassum had divergent views on the exodus of Hindu families from Kairana, a claim made by Mriganka Singh’s father which became a major issue in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election.

The exodus of Hindu families from Kairana has stopped, Mriganka  had said.

Before the 2017 UP Assembly elections hundreds of Hindu families had fled from Kairana out of fear and harassment. However, after the BJP government under Yogi Adityanath was formed, the law and order scenario in the region improved, she had said during campaigning.

However, Hasan maintained that there was no exodus from Kairana in the first place. Both Hindus and Muslims have been living here in harmony for generations. The exodus issue was flagged only to divert attention from important issues, to add a communal colour to the elections and divide voters, she haad said.

Conceding her defeat, Mriganka Singh today congratulated Hasan and said that they have emerged strong and BJP has to prepare for future.

“Many voters did vote for BJP, but with a lead of some thousand votes alliance has won. I would like to congratulate the candidate. The alliance has emerged strong and now we have to prepare better for future,” Mriganka told ANI.

The Kairana seat fell vacant in February 2018 after the death of BJP leader Hukum Singh, following which the party fielded his daughter Mriganka Singh from this seat.

(With agency inputs)

No challenge is too big for them

Amazing Feats, Education, Karnataka (under research project), , ,

Bengaluru, KARNATAKA :

The CBSE class 10 results brought cheer to several students in the city, but for a section, the results were a testimony to not just their hard work but also how they managed to overcome many odds.

FirdoseMPOs30may2018

Firdose Fathima, a visually challenged student from Delhi Public School (DPS), Bangalore South, scored 79.8%. “I worked hard and I am happy with my results. I used to study only as much as I could grasp for that day. Owing to my visual impairment, I used a laptop that had a software which would read notes aloud to me, and my mother helped me with diagrams,” she said. She plans to take up psychology in college, and then specialise in child psychology.

JunaidMPOs30may2018

Another student of the same school, Mohammed Junaid, bagged 76.9%. He was diagnosed with a neuromuscular problem which reduced his writing speed. “But the issue did not matter. I studied and said the answers out loud while someone (a scribe) wrote for me. I can write, but just that three hours would fall short for my speed. I feel good about my results, but I actually expected more. I worked hard for a month. Hindi and English were easy and these are my favourite subjects as well. On the other hand, I found maths a little tough,” Junaid said

Aditya S. Gaikwad of DPS, Bangalore North, scored 84%. He was diagnosed with a learning and attention disability and was exempted from writing mathematics and Hindi papers. Alternatively, he wrote papers in computer science and fine arts and did well in them. “My teachers helped me with one-on-one sessions and my parents supported me to work better. I wish to study Commerce. I found a balance between studies and physical activity. I gave importance to exercise as well, as it kept me going,” he said.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bengaluru / by Staff Reporter / Bengaluru – May 30th, 2018

Gujarat : Auto driver’s daughter aces SSC exams with 99.31 percentile

Amazing Feats, Education, ,

Ahmedabad, GUJARAT :

Autodriver02MPOs30may2018

Ahmedabad :

As the results for class X board exams for students of Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB) were announced on Monday, for many students from underprivileged backgrounds, the journey wasn’t a cake walk and yet they managed to excel in their exams.

One such case was that of 16-year-old Aafreen Shaikh, the daughter of an auto-rickshaw driver, who scored 99.31 percentile in her class X exams.

 
A student of FD High School, Aafreen plans to pursue medicine, as she aspires to become a doctor. “I am indeed delighted with the results I’ve got and plan to take up admission in the science stream. I wish to become a doctor as nobody in my family has pursued this career and I am always inspired by the way doctors help the people heal their wounds,” said Aafreen who studies at FD High School in Juhapura area of Ahmedabad. She scored 87.13 % in her board exams.

 
For Shaikh Mohammad Hamza, Aafreen’s father, meeting the expenses of his daughter’s education is a struggle due to limited earnings. “I nurture a family of four and will do all that I can to educate my daughter and fulfill her dream of becoming a doctor. We’ve never differentiated between a girl or a male child and I will be the most proud if my daughters study and become independent. I am trying to arrange for financial assistance so that Aafreen can pursue a career of her choice,” said Hamza.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> News> City News> Ahmedabad News> School & Colleges / by Niyati Parikh / TNN / May 28th, 2018

Thottara Puncha rice brand to hit market by June

Amazing Feats, Business & Economy, Community Involvement / Social Issues, Green Products, Leaders, , ,

Ernakulam (Kochi) , KERALA :

The Thottara Puncha before harvest. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
The Thottara Puncha before harvest. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Government’s farming success story sees revival of 652 acres of paddy land

A rice bowl that had been lying almost fallow for over a decade has now been revived fully to produce some 1,500 metric tonnes of paddy in a joint effort by the Ernakulam district administration, Agriculture Department, paddy field collectives, and local bodies.

The rejuvenated Thottara Puncha, where 652 acres of paddy land were brought under cultivation last year, will now be a brand, with the rice produced here hitting the market in that name in the first week of June. The effort to breathe life back into the Puncha, trapped amid some nine hills, was spearheaded by District Collector K. Mohammed Y. Safirulla.

The plan is to market some 20 tonnes of rice initially, followed by another batch of 20 tonnes. Keecheri Service Cooperative Bank has completed collection of paddy, threshing, packing, and branding, said a release issued here.

Mr. Safirulla sought the support of Amballoor and Edakkattuvayal panchayats to cultivate some 350 acres of the 990 acres of the Puncha in Ernakulam district (the remaining 1,082 acres are in Kottayam) in 2016-17, and the results were stunning. “Preparation of fields itself was a challenge, but paddy field collectives worked in tandem to make it happen. This time around, we were able to bring under cultivation the maximum cultivable area — around 700 acres over nine paddy land collectives barring areas acquired for various projects, canals, farm roads, and irrigation channels,” said C.K. Prakash, general coordinator of the project.

Several departments, including irrigation, Land Development Corporation, and the State Electricity Board, supported the initiative. The canals were cleaned, and pumping facility was added to the sluices at Olippuram and Pulimukham (as a chunk of the Puncha being in low-lying areas will get heavily inundated during the monsoon).

“It posed some challenges, as not every area could be cultivated in October, which delayed harvesting too. We have now set up 12 high-power submersible pumps along the Puncha for de-watering, which will help us harvest the entire field by March next. This is going to drastically reduce the harvesting cost as well. And, the idea is to incorporate Kudumbasree in threshing paddy at our own mill and brand it,” said Mr. Prakash.

A Thottara Puncha Development Council will soon be formed, and a mill will be set up at a cost of ₹40 lakh. Terming it his pet project, Mr. Safirulla said all agencies and stakeholders had chipped in with verve to script the success story.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kochi / by Special Correspondent / May 25th, 2018