Category Archives: Inventions, Innovations (wef. Nov 30th, 2021)

In a first, Kashmir woman food entrepreneur reaches MasterChef India top 12

Amazing Feats, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Education - Gold Medallists, Toppers, Merits, Achievers (wef. June 12th, 2023), Events, Exhibitions, Conferences (wef. Nov 18th, 2021), Inventions, Innovations (wef. Nov 30th, 2021), Science & Technology, Women/Girls(since May26-2021), , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hyderpora (Srinagar) / Pampore, JAMMU & KASHMIR:

Rukhsar Sayeed wishes to see a lot more young Kashmiri girls and boys in MasterChef India.

In a first, Kashmir woman food entrepreneur reaches MasterChef India top 12
Kashmir’s Rukhsar Sayeed.

A 34-year-old woman food entrepreneur has become the first contestant from Kashmir to participate in MasterChef India, a cooking reality show which is being broadcasted on SonyLIV.

Hailing from south Kashmir’s Pampore, where India’s 90 per cent saffron is cultivated, Rukhsar Sayeed has shown a tremendous culinary passion and determination by reaching among the top 12 contestants of the show.

“Breaking barriers and stereotypes I have finally made it to MasterChef India to fulfil my dream. I no doubt had culinary passion since I was a teenager, then the food-specialised education was also at my back but on top of all the support shown by my family was unwavering,” says Sayeed who is currently in Mumbai for the shooting of the show.”

Born and brought up in Srinagar’s Hyderpora, in the year 2010 Sayeed was watching the shows of MasterChef Australia from which she developed the culinary passion and decided to study food technology. “I am on the top of the world to see myself among the top 12 contestants of MasterChef India, the country’s favourite cooking reality show. I am really proud of where I am standing today. I am also overwhelmed to find the support of my family including my husband, parents and in-laws, ” Sayeed tells Moneycontrol.

Calling herself an avid foodie Sayeed has two children while her husband Saqib Javaid Qadri is an assistant executive engineer.

After completing B.Tech in food technology from Islamic University of Science and Technology, Awantipora Sayeed did M.Tech in food technology from Amity University and finally completed her PhD in food technology in 2020.

Sayeed has not only made J&K Union Territory proud by being selected to compete in the prestigious MasterChef India but also expressed her feelings through Kashmiri cuisine and eventually impressed the judges. “So far I had a roller-coaster ride with ups and downs in the kitchen like other contestants but I have made some very good dishes which impressed the judges sitting in the show. I am confident to become the winner of the show because for the first time Kashmiri food is being presented on a large platform. I am trying my best to innovate something with our Kashmiri food. For example, I made Rogan Josh, (mutton dish with red gravy) which apparently does not look Rogan Josh but it does taste like Rogan Josh.”

So far in 11 episodes Sayeed says she made mouth watering cuisines like Babri Boul Falouda (basil seeds drink) usually served during Ramadan in Kashmir, Kashmiri Dhaniwal Korma (lamb curry bursting with coriander) and Kashmiri Dodhe Aal (pumpkin chutney), mesmerizing the judges and celebrity chefs like Vikas Khanna, Ranveer Brar, and Pooja Dhingra.”

Her father M Sayeed Shah says, “It is a dream come true for the whole family. It is a great honour to see her in Masterchef India. I don’t have words to express my happiness. I wish a great future and good luck to my darling daughter.”

Her mother Naseema Kirmani while expressing her happiness says that she is the happiest person to see her daughter in MasterChef India and wishes her best of luck for the show.

Before reaching the MasterChef India show in 2019, Sayeed emerged as the first woman from the Valley to start a frozen food venture — Khalis Foods. “After doing my PhD I was not interested in conventional jobs and therefore I opened a startup to provide people with unadulterated snacks and other healthy foods mainly for children. I along with my six employees are operating from my home in Pampore.”

The young food technologist explains that she is getting to see some of the ingredients for the first time in her life. “I am using some ingredients which are new to me in various foods. For instance, I use some of the popular food ingredients from down south with Kashmiri food.”

Sayeed maintains that being a mother of two children the decision to become a part of Masterchef India show was not easy. “It was a big sacrifice to leave behind my two children at home and participate in the show in Mumbai. I miss my children a lot but I am confident that I will return home as the winner of the show.”

Before getting selected for Masterchef India, Sayeed had participated in the state-level culinary competition and bagged second position in the competition.

She had also served her homemade snacks at an exhibition held at Sheri Kashmir International Convention Centre (SKICC) Srinagar, tickling the taste buds of people around.

In June this year, Rukhsar went through a rigorous audition process before being among the 12 contestants.

For young techie, the MasterChef India journey is a stepping stone in realising her dream of setting up a culinary school in the Valley and creating a chain of restaurants to provide healthy food for the food lovers. “I hope this show can give me limelight and help to boost my food business venture, currently operating in Srinagar. I am also thinking of creating a chain of restaurants in the Valley to provide healthy dishes to people. As a food technologist I am fully conscious of the hazardous preservatives, taste enhancers and food colours that go into our daily food and which is why I lay emphasis on healthy, pure and safe food.”

Regarding her favourite food Sayeed names Hakh (collard green; the staple diet of Kashmir) and Wazwan, (Kashmir’s famous multi-course meal). “Every dish is special but I am in love with Kashmiri food, mainly Hakh especially prepared by my mother and Wazwan prepared by our amazing cook locally known as Waza. From the beginning of my childhood the dishes prepared by my mother in the kitchen have been unmatched.”

Sayeed wishes to see a lot more young Kashmiri girls and boys in MasterChef India. “Since I am the first Kashmiri woman who has reached the famous cooking reality show I would want more people from my homeland to come here and show their food skills.”

She also claims that despite facing criticism from the people in Kashmir she managed to participate in the show to represent the Kashmiri cuisine and culture to a larger audience.

source: http://www.moneycontrol.com / Money Control / Home> News> Trends> Lifestyle / by Irfan Amin Malik / November 05th, 2023

UN Forms New AI Advisory Board; iSPIRT’s Sharad Sharma and Hugging Face’s Nazneen Rajani Among the Members

Amazing Feats, Business & Economy, Inventions, Innovations (wef. Nov 30th, 2021), NRI's / PIO's, Scientists (wef. August 27th,m 2023), Women/Girls(since May26-2021), World Opinion, , , , , , , , , , , ,

INDIA / U.S.A:

UN Forms New AI Advisory Board; iSPIRT's Sharad Sharma and Hugging Face's Nazneen Rajani Among the Members

On Thursday, the Secretary-General at a press conference announced the creation of a new Artificial Intelligence Advisory Body on risks, opportunities and international governance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) . That body will support the international community’s efforts to govern artificial intelligence.

Among the members of AI Advisory Body, two are from India — Sharad Sharma (iSPIRT) and Nazneen Rajani (Hugging Face).

Sharad Sharma is a co-founder of iSPIRT, a non-profit think tank that wants India to be a product nation. He was the CEO of Yahoo India R&D and dubbed as the architect of Indian software products ecosystem.

About Nazneen Rajani, she is a Research Lead at Hugging Face, which is building an open-source alternative to ChatGPT called H4, a powerful LLM, “aligning language models to be helpful, honest, harmless, and huggy”.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday launched this 39-member advisory body of tech company executives, government officials and academics from countries spanning 6 continents.

The panel aims to issue preliminary recommendations on AI governance by the end of the year and finalize them before the U.N. Summit of the Future next September.

The full members list are as below:

  • Anna Abramova, Director of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations-University AI Centre, Russian Federation
  • Omar Sultan al Olama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence of the United Arab Emirates, United Arab Emirates
  • Latifa al-Abdulkarim, Member of the Shura Council (Saudi Parliament), Assistant Professor of Computer Science at King Saud University, Saudi Arabia
  • Estela Aranha, Special Advisor to the Minister for Justice and Public Security, Federal Government of Brazil, Brazil
  • Carme Artigas, Secretary of State for Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence of Spain, Spain
  • Ran Balicer, Chief Innovation Officer and Deputy Director General at Clalit Health Services Israel, Israel
  • Paolo Benanti, Third Order Regular Franciscan, Lecturer at the Pontifical Gregorian University, Italy
  • Abeba Birhane, Senior Advisor in AI Accountability at Mozilla Foundation, Ethiopia
  • Ian Bremmer, President and Founder of Eurasia Group, United States
  • Anna Christmann, Aerospace Coordinator of the German Federal Government, Germany
  • Natasha Crampton, Chief Responsible AI Officer at Microsoft, New Zealand
  • Nighat Dad, Executive Director of the Digital Rights Foundation Pakistan, Pakistan
  • Vilas Dhar, President of the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, United States
  • Virginia Dignum, Professor of Responsible Artificial Intelligence at Umeå University, Portugal/Netherlands
  • Arisa Ema, Associate Professor at the University of Tokyo, Japan
  • Mohamed Farahat, Legal Consultant and Vice-Chair of MAG of North Africa IGF, Egypt
  • Amandeep Singh Gill, Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology
  • Dame Wendy Hall, Regius Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton, United Kingdom
  • Rahaf Harfoush, Digital Anthropologist, France
  • Hiroaki Kitano, Chief Technology Officer of Sony Group Corporation, Japan
  • Haksoo Ko, Chair of Republic of Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission, Republic of Korea
  • Andreas Krause, Professor at ETH Zurich, Switzerland
  • James Manyika, Senior Vice-President of Google-Alphabet, President for Research, Technology and Society, Zimbabwe
  • Maria Vanina Martinez Posse, Ramon and Cajal Fellow at the Artificial Research Institute, Argentina
  • Seydina Moussa Ndiaye, Lecturer at Cheikh Hamidou Kane Digital University, Senegal
  • Mira Murati, Chief Technology Officer of OpenAI, Albania
  • Petri Myllymaki, Full Professor at the Department of Computer Science of University of Helsinki, Finland
  • Alondra Nelson, Harold F. Linder Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study, United States
  • Nazneen Rajani, Lead Researcher at Hugging Face, India
  • Craig Ramlal, Head of the Control Systems Group at the University of The West Indies at St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago
  • He Ruimin, Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer and Deputy Chief Digital Technology Officer, Government of Singapore, Singapore
  • Emma Ruttkamp-Bloem, Professor at the University of Pretoria, South Africa
  • Sharad Sharma, Co-founder iSPIRT Foundation, India
  • Marietje Schaake, International Policy Director at Stanford University Cyber Policy Center, Netherlands
  • Jaan Tallinn, Co-founder of the Cambridge Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, Estonia
  • Philip Thigo, Adviser at the Government of Kenya, Kenya
  • Jimena Sofia Viveros Alvarez, Chief of Staff and Head Legal Advisor to Justice Loretta Ortiz at the Mexican Supreme Court, Mexico
  • Yi Zeng, Professor and Director of Brain-inspired Cognitive AI Lab, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
  • Zhang Linghan, Professor at the Institute of Data Law, China University of Political Science and Law, China

“The transformative potential of AI for good is difficult even to grasp,” Guterres said. He pointed to possible uses including predicting crises, improving public health and education, and tackling the climate crisis.

However, the UN Secretary-General cautioned, “It is already clear that the malicious use of AI could undermine trust in institutions, weaken social cohesion and threaten democracy itself.”

source: http://www.indianweb2.com / Indian Web2 / Home> AI Governance / by Indian Web2 / October 27th, 2023

Meet Hamid Farooqui, the software engineer who created 3rd largest survey company in the world

Amazing Feats, Business & Economy, Community Involvement / Social Issues, Education, Inventions, Innovations (wef. Nov 30th, 2021), Leaders, NRI's / PIO's, Science & Technology, Scientists (wef. August 27th,m 2023), World Opinion, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Mumbai, MAHARASHTRA / Virginia, U.S.A :

Mumbai based Hamid Farooqui , is a serial entrepreneur who is the CEO of a fast growing SaaS (Software as a Service) company called SoGoSurvey that he co-founded in 2012. SoGoSurvey offers powerful, user-friendly, and affordable online survey software. SoGoSurvey is changing how feedback is collected in a secure, collaborative setting, and moving forward the process of understanding the feedback gathered from customers, employees, and other stakeholders.

Hamid started his tech career as a geeky programmer during the dot com boom and has expertise in all its related technologies, from Software as a Service (SaaS), cloud computing and mobile applications. He was an early member of the technology team that designed, built, and launched Oracle’s e-Travel’s corporate travel tool using C++ and the then brand-new WAP.

In recognition of his strong performance and technology management skills, Hamid rose through successive promotions to serve as the division’s Director of Engineering. After e-Travel was acquired by Amadeus, Hamid led the integration of two complex technology platforms in both the U.S. and Europe.

Hamid is co-founder, CTO of K12Insight, which offers cloud-based solutions to enhance communication between educators and community members. K12Insight’s tools are helping school leaders build stronger relationships among parents, teachers, students, and staff. He also co-founded India’s most successful consumer review site mouthshut.com, considered a pioneer of the Internet revolution in India.

Hamid is a frequent speaker at technology conferences and startup events. Among his favorite topics are the startup scene in emerging markets and the future of autonomous cars.

Besides technology, Hamid is very actively involved in philanthropic work. He and his family runs and funds a school for poor children in a remote part of India, where more than 500 children study for free.

Hamid earned an engineering degree from Bombay University in India and a Master’s degree in Computer Science from State University of New York, Binghamton.  

Mr. Farooqui believes that Indian organizations just like their global counterparts need a strong survey tool in order to understand the pulse of their audience. Companies have to ensure that they know their customers so they can rectify or retain the quality of services or products. Also, for retention of employees, companies must conduct Employee Satisfaction Survey that helps in creating a suitable work environment that meets and exceeds their expectations.

About SogoSurvey:

When it came to online survey software, users have had two difficult options:

  • the affordable, low-end, low-power solution, and
  • the more powerful solution that breaks the bank

This world has just been disrupted: you can now have really powerful, highly user-friendly online survey software at a super-low cost. And it comes with training and support that existing customers are raving about. We’re changing not just how you collect feedback in a secure, collaborative setting, but also how you fundamentally view feedback from customers, employees and other stakeholders. Our solution is easy for the beginner and powerful for the expert.

SoGoSurvey is a software company which provides one of the best enterprise feedback system/ survey tool as SaaS model. SoGoSurvey was founded by Hamid Farooqui and Suhail Farooqui in beta/stealth mode in 2012. The company came out in its full existence in the year 2013. It is a USA based company with the offices in India and UAE.  Target market for SoGoSurvey is all small, medium and large businesses who need to conduct different types of surveys such as Employee satisfaction Survey, Customer Satisfaction Survey, Employee Engagement Survey and others.

Marketing Strategy of SogoSurvey is to have an awesome product and website which is appealing to the user. They also offer a free version of our tool so that users who want to use the tool for basic purpose can also access the same. The freemium model gives the access to a great amount of people who turn into loyal users eventually.

source: http://www.muslimmirror.com / Muslim Mirror / Home> Indian Muslim> Positive Story> Sci-Tech> Youth / by Muslim Mirror Special Correspondent / January 04th, 2019

UAE: Indian woman showcases 30 kg handwritten Quran at SIBF

Amazing Feats, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Books (incl.Biographies - w.e.f.01 jan 2018 ), Community Involvement / Social Issues, Inventions, Innovations (wef. Nov 30th, 2021), Museums, Libraries (wef. April 16th, 2022), Women/Girls(since May26-2021), , ,

KERALA:

The holy book, which weighs 54 kg with the cover, measures 28.5 inches long, 22.5 inches wide, and 4.5 inches high.

UAE: Indian woman showcase calligraphic handwritten Holy Quran at SIBF 2023

Abu Dhabi:

A 46-year-old Indian woman has displayed her handwritten Holy Quran in Arabic calligraphy weighing over 30 kgs at the 42nd Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF).

Jaleena Hussain, who hails from Indian state of Kerala, has spent over a year creating a unique edition of 114 surahs, covering 604 pages.

Speaking to Sharjah 24, Jaleena said writing the Quran was her way of fulfilling her desire to memorize the Holy Book.

She expressed gratitude to the Sharjah authorities for allowing her to showcase her talent.

Jaleena, a former rubber plantation worker and Urdu teacher, has been recognized by the Arabian World Records and the India and Asia Book of Records for her handwritten Quran.

VIDEO: Largest handwritten Quran in Arabic calligraphy presented at SIBF - GulfToday

source: http://www.siasat.com / Siasat.com / Home> News> India / by Sakina Fatima X / November 12th, 2023

Seyed Ehtesham Hasnain: scientist who changed the course of TB diagnosis in India

Agriculture (since June 07th, 2021), Amazing Feats, Business & Economy, Education, Green Products, Inventions, Innovations (wef. Nov 30th, 2021), Leaders, Science & Technology, Scientists (wef. August 27th,m 2023), World Opinion, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Gaya, BIHAR:

Prof Seyed Ehtesham Hasnain

Prof Seyed Ehtesham Hasnain’s scientific research has changed the complicated regimen for the diagnosis of Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis and the Indian Basmati getting its patent and trademark in the UK in the fight against the Pakistani variant. This Bihar-born scientists’ findings have saved patients suffering from Drug-Resistant TB money and time and helped the Indian government and farmers earn through exports of the Basmati.

He told Awaz-the Voice in an interview that the government of India has taken at least two major policy decisions based on his research. “One decision was that previously the testing of tuberculosis (TB) was based upon antibody-antigen reaction. So, the antibody formed was based on the antigen of a bacterial protein, and the sequence (genetic) used was mostly European or American isolates. 

“When I did sequencing in India, I found out that the Indian variant is completely different. Therefore, the test could give false positives or negatives…. I published this finding and had a meeting with the DG of ICMR (Indian Council for Medical Research) and recommended that the tests based on foreign kits be banned and that made a big impact.” 

The President, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam presenting Padma Shri to Prof. Seyed E. Hasnain, renowned biologist, at an Investiture Ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on March 29, 2006.

Padma Shri recipient Seyed Ehtesham Hasnain said. E. Hasnain was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, the highest Civilian decoration of Germany in 2014. Nature, a famous scientific journal, reported on his receiving the award, “With the Order of Merit, he joins the league of outstanding personalities from various fields including Nobel laureate biologist Paul Herman Muller, former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone and music conductor John Crosby.” 

In 2006, he received Padma Shri in recognition of his scientific work. Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (1995) and J. C. Bose Fellowship (2006), two of the most prestigious Indian Awards in the field of science have also come his way apart from numerous other decorations.

Hasnain was born in Gaya, Bihar in 1954. He was born seven years after India had attained independence. At that time Bihar was not the most developed of the Indian states. Hasnain’s father was a college lecturer and he nursed a dream of studying abroad. He studied at the Nazareth Academy, an expensive school in the town. It’s said that almost 20% of his father’s salary would go into children’s school fees. 

He did his M.Sc. from the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. However, though he was selected for his post-graduation studies by Harvard University, for some reason he could not join.

In 1981, Hasnain moved to Canada as a Post-doctoral Fellow (PDF). He worked in Canada and the USA for the next six years. At this stage, his father asked him to return home to serve his country and people. He was advised by many people that he must try to get his green card before moving back to India. 


Seyed Ehtesham Hasnain with Dr Venky Ramakrishna, Nobel Prize Winner and President of Royal Society, UK, in Cambridge

In 1987, he joined the National Institute of Immunology (NII) as a scientist. Hasnain says, “I thought that after getting a green card, I would have a fall-back and a plan B. I did not want a plan B. My plan was the only plan A. I will work in India and do something good in India.”

Hasnain broke the convention by not continuing the research he was doing abroad. He started afresh and soon made a name for himself in research of baculoviruses. He established a baculovirus insect cell expression system (BEVS) for the first time in India and used this to express foreign genes and also to ask fundamental questions concerning gene expression in BEVS. The idea was to make India a scientific power.

Hasnain says that when his career was at the peak with research on baculovirus one day, Dr. Sandeep Basu, the then director of NII, asked him, “Seyed, you are publishing in good journals, it is fine, but how does humanity benefit? What is India gaining out of it? How are the common men benefiting from your papers? Doing research is good but do something which will benefit the common man.” 

This was the turning point in Hasnain’s life and career. He says “I decided to do something where I can do direct application.” He started his research on tuberculosis. 

Seyed Ehtesham Hasnain at the Global Health Conference organized by the German National Academy of Sciences, Leopoldina, Halle, Germany

Hasnain initiated studies on molecular epidemiology and genetics of multi-drug resistant (MDR) M. tuberculosis (M.tb). He says, “second important observation that was published, again the first time in the world. We used to test TB for drug resistance. The bacteria was tested against each drug. I showed with my study that if the bacteria are resistant to one drug then it will be resistant to almost all other drugs. I established the correlation and proposed that you don’t need to do multi-drug resistance testing for all the drugs. Just test one drug rifampicin and if it is confirmed then 95%-99% of drugs will be resisted by the bacteria. That has become a standard treatment all over the world. He is still working on developing cheaper methods of diagnosing TB.

In 1999 Hasnain was invited as the first director of the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD), Hyderabad. It was based on his work on Indian Basmati Rice DNA fingerprinting that India won the Patent case against Pakistan enabling the export of the Indian Basmati to the UK. This prevented a major economic loss to India. Subsequently, the Ministry of Commerce established the CDFD-APEDA Basmati DNA Analysis Centre, where all Basmati exports are certified. 

Hasnain also served as Vice Chancellor of the University of Hyderabad (2005-11), and Vice Chancellor of Hamdard University and is currently A National Science Chair of SERB, at the Department of Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology at IIT-Delhi. 

Hasnain Mantra is: “Nothing is a substitute for hard work.”  

source: http://www.awazthevoice.in / Awaz, The Voice / Home> Story / by Saquib Salim / November 03rd, 2023

AMU satellite project named after Sir Syed Ahmad Khan gets IN-SPACe nod

Amazing Feats, Education, Inventions, Innovations (wef. Nov 30th, 2021), Science & Technology, Scientists (wef. August 27th,m 2023), , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Aligarh, UTTAR PRADESH:

The “SS AMU SAT” is a Nanosatellite Project which began in November 2021 under the AMU Robo Club.

AMU satellite project named after Sir Syed Ahmad Khan gets IN-SPACe nod

Aligarh Muslim University: 

The Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe), working under the Department of Space, Government of India, has approved the proposal for development of “SS AMU SAT” – Aligarh Muslim University’s first satellite programme.

The leading university’s first satellite programme is to be named after its founder Sir Syed Ahmad Khan.

About SS AMU Sat

The “SS AMU SAT” is a Nanosatellite Project which began in November 2021 under the AMU Robo Club. The satellite is a 3U CubeSat with multiple objectives which include the study of economic growth in India’s poorest districts using satellite imagery and implementation of an in-house developed image compression technology for a faster multimedia transmission.

In addition to this, the satellite will also test various satellite sub-systems that have been built in-house.

SS AMU Sat Team

The project was submitted to IN-SPACe in January 2023, for approval, registration, frequency allocation and launch of SS AMU SAT.

In September 2023, the Student Satellite Committee, chaired by Dr. P K Jain, Director (PMAD), IN-SPACe, reviewed the design and approved the proposal with a condition that AMU will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with IN-SPACe for all activities from the development of the SS AMU SAT to its launch into the Lower Earth Orbit.

The project is headed by Prof. Ekram Khan, Chairman, Department of Electronics Engineering, under the leadership of Prof. M.M. Sufiyan Beg, Principal, Zakir Husain College of Engineering and Technology.

The students’ team which is involved in the development of the project, is led by Ms Poorti Varshney and mentored by Dr. C. A. Prabhakar (Former Project Director, ISRO) and Er. Faraz Ahmad (A 2013 batch alumnus). The project has received technical support from AMU alumni working with ISRO and several industrial experts across the globe.

The team of students comprises Kulsum Ilyas, Anant Agarwal, Tarun Singh, Rabiya, Mohammad Ali, Ilma Shah, Ahsan Waseem, Azhan Kamil, Tanu Attri, Mohd. Arquam, Kanuj Chitranshu, Munira Sultan, Atifa Saeed, Kanika, Asif Ali, Syed Muhammad Suhaib, Azam, Gulam Fareed, Samad, Varun Yadav, Mudassir Ali, Tehreem Fatima, Tarannum Zafar, Yashra, Mansha and Binish Kashif

The project is tentatively scheduled to be launched in 6 months.

source: http://www.ummid.com / Ummid.com / Home> Education & Career / by ummid.com news network / October 28th, 2023

Rabiya Farooqui’s achievement making noise at the international level; A student who invented ‘life-saving glasses’

Amazing Feats, Business & Economy, Education, Education - Gold Medallists, Toppers, Merits, Achievers (wef. June 12th, 2023), Inventions, Innovations (wef. Nov 30th, 2021), Karnataka (under research project), Scientists (wef. August 27th,m 2023), Women/Girls(since May26-2021)

Hubli, KARNATAKA:

Hubli:

So many lives have been lost due to drivers falling asleep while driving. Rabia Farooqui, a student of Hubballi, has invented life-saving glasses to eliminate this.

The same anti-sleep drowsiness preventer machine warns students if they fall asleep while studying. The night shift workers are also alerted.

The transparent glasses are equipped with a rechargeable battery, an SIB buzzer, and an IR sensor. If the eyes are accidentally closed while driving, the nano Arduino buzzer will ring instantly and alert the driver.

Rabia Farooqui is currently studying in the first year of PUC at Vidyaniketan College. The glasses invented by Rubia have now been selected for the National Best Model Award at the Inspire Awards show held in Delhi.

Apart from this, the glasses invented by Rubia have also been selected for international-level science exhibitions.

source: http://www.thehindustangazette.com / The Hindustan Gazette / Home> News> Education / by Shifa / October 19th, 2023

India’s Millet Man Dr Khadar Vali says eating coarse grains is way to healthy life

Amazing Feats, Business & Economy, Community Involvement / Social Issues, Green Products, Inventions, Innovations (wef. Nov 30th, 2021), Leaders, Science & Technology, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Purdadtoor Town (Kadapa District), ANDHRA PRADESH:

Dr Khadar Vali, the Millet man of India
Dr Khadar Vali, the Millet man of India

Coarse grains or millets are ancient foods which contain key nutrients like vitamins, zinc, beta-carotene, and magnesium. These foods keep blood sugar under control and reduce obesity. If one eats healthy food one can simply avoid disease and medicines.

This is the message from India’s leading agronomist Dr. Khadar Vali, who is also called the Millet man of India.

Dr. Vali is an independent scientist and food expert. He has brought back five species of millet that had disappeared from the world. Today, at 66 years of age, Vali is one of the leading proponents of millet cultivation in the world. He has made world realize the importance of grains.

Millets are available not only in India but everywhere in the world. These are known by different names in each country. To date, people around the world have eaten 200 different types of whole grains.

It’s important to note that the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) declared 2023 as the International Year of Millets at the insistence of India.

Khadar Vali says that the cultivation of millets can solve problems of soil erosion and irrigation also. The food we eat creates an imbalance in blood glucose levels. It makes people sick. But all this can be avoided if we use coarse grains. If you eat millet, you never need medicine.

He says it’s a misconception that coarse grains are food for animals and birds. He says these are super foods that can prevent disease as these contain fiber that cleanses the body. These grains protect the human race and other species. Millets are food for the whole planet.

Fox millet or Bajra

Dr Khadar Vali hails from Purdadtoor town in the Kadapa district of Andhra Pradesh. He has been working for 20 years to revive Sridhanialu, an Indian concept about food habits that are in sync with the nature and the human body.

Earlier, he worked in a good position in the USA. Dr Vali is a post-graduate from the Regional Institute of Education, Mysore, and did his PhD on Steroids from the Indian Institute of Sciences, Bengaluru.

Vali did his postdoctoral research on a fellowship in Environmental Science from the United States. His research focused on the inactivation of deadly chemicals such as Agent Orange and dioxins. His research came at a time when food was becoming increasingly commercialized.

Around 1986-87, Dr. Khadar Vali raised the issue of food-related consequences in society when he came across a case of a girl who started menstruating at the age of 6. He decided to return to his country.

He returned to India in 1997 and worked hard to revive five different varieties of millets in Mysore that were rapidly disappearing. More than two decades later, India’s ‘Milletman’ Dr. Khadar Vali was awarded the Padma Shri on the occasion of the 74th Republic Day celebrations.

awazurdu

Dr. Khadar Vali says that millet has long been part of the mainstream diet but over the past 75 years, corporations marketing rice and wheat have Institutions subjected them to “systematic destruction”.

He has told the world about the benefits of coarse grains along with the negative effects of other grains from his long research on millet. Some points of his research are as follows. His research on food grains has led him to categorized them as negative, neutral, and positive.

Negative: These Grains cause diseases and include paddy rice and wheat. The fiber content of these grains is below 2 percent.

Neutral: Grains don’t cause new diseases, however, can’t help to cure health disorders and diseases. These are jawar, bajra, finger millet, proso millet, etc which carry fiber content from 3 to 6 percent.

Positive: Grains, which help to cure health diseases and disorders. These are Foxtail millets, Barnyard millets, Browntop millets, Little millets, and Kodo millets; which have fiber content from 8 to 12 percent. He named these millets Siri Dhanyaalu. Siri means wealth, which is indirectly health. .

Based on Dr. Khadar Vali’s research and findings, below are the diseases and disorders cured by the positive millets (Siri Dhanyaalu)

 1. Foxtail Millet Rice: nervous system, psychological disorders, arthritis, Parkinson’s, epilepsy

 2. Kodo Millet Rice: blood impurities, anemia, weak immunity, diabetes, constipation, insomnia

 3. Barnyard Millet Rice: liver, kidney, excess bad cholesterol, endocrine glands

 4. Little Millet Rice: uterus, PCOD, male and female infertility

 5. Browntop Millet Rice: digestive system, arthritis, hypertension, thyroid, eye, obesity

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given the name Shree Anna to coarse grains.

The year 2023 was declared by the United Nations as the International Year of Coarse Grains, after which the Grammy Award-winning Indian-American singer Fallo prepared a song, saluting the efforts of Prime Minister Modi.

In one of his tweets, Fallow mentioned the Prime Minister’s support in producing the song. This song has been prepared with the aim of promoting coarse grains and helping farmers to cultivate them and encouraging efforts to eradicate hunger from the world.

source: http://www.awazthevoice.in / Awaz, The Voice / Home> Story / by Mansooruddin Faridi / October 07th, 2023

The Awe-Inspiring Wildlife Drawings of Shaikh Zain ud-Din

Amazing Feats, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Books (incl.Biographies - w.e.f.01 jan 2018 ), Inventions, Innovations (wef. Nov 30th, 2021), Museums, Libraries (wef. April 16th, 2022), World Opinion, , , , , , , ,

Patna, BIHAR (BRITISH INDIA) :

An 18th-century album of India’s flora and fauna showcases the startling work of an overlooked master.

Bird
Shaikh Zain ud-Din’s Brahminy Starling with Two Antheraea Moths, Caterpillar, and Cocoon on an Indian Jujube Tree was originally part of an album commissioned by his British patrons. © Minneapolis Institute of Art

In the late 1770s, a British colonial official named Sir Elijah Impey and his wife, Lady Mary, commissioned the Indian artist Shaikh Zain ud-Din to catalog a private menagerie, including various bird species, the couple had assembled at their home in Calcutta. Using paper and watercolors from England, Zain ud-Din, a Muslim from the city of Patna, modeled his work after English botanical illustration, but he also brought to the job his training in the ornate Mughal artistic tradition—and his own distinctive style. Today critics praise the quality of the colors and the composition, in which a bright, simple background offsets the keenly wrought details of plants and animals. “Everything is incredibly precise and beautifully observant,” says Xavier Bray, director of London’s Wallace Collection, which this month mounts the first UK exhibition of works by Indian artists commissioned by officers of the British East India Company.

The expat aristocrats who patronized Zain ud-Din and his fellow artists had been sent abroad to help manage their country’s growing empire, but once there many, like the Impeys, fell in love with the subcontinent, as well as its flora and fauna. “These paintings,” Bray says, “were made into albums to be leafed through back home, on a rainy day, drinking Earl Grey tea.”

History failed to record much about Zain ud-Din’s life beyond his watercolors for the Impeys. But the new show, which includes 99 paintings of nature studies, portraits and landscapes by 18 artists, makes an argument that he and his contemporaries should be recognized on their own merits, as some of India’s greatest painters. “Anything with a colonial air about it is now considered politically incorrect,” Bray says. “But what we’re trying to do is bring back these extraordinary artists who have been almost completely forgotten.”

Bat
A Great Indian Fruit Bat, or Flying Fox (pteropus giganteus), by Bhawani Das, Calcutta, c. 1778-1782. Courtesy Private Collection
2nd bird - Indian Roller
Indian Roller on Sandalwood Branch, by Shaikh Zain ud-Din, Impey Album, Calcutta, 1780. © Minneapolis Institute of Art
Stork
Asian Openbill Stork in a Landscape, by unknown artist, Lucknow, c. 1780. Courtesy Private Collection (Photo: Margaret Nimkin)
arum
Arum tortuosum (now Arisaema tortuosum, family Araceae), by Vishnupersaud, c. 1821. © The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

source: http://www.smithsonianmag.com / Smithsonian Magazine / Home> Arts & Culture / by Amy Crawford, Contributing Writer / December 2019

In India, 1,000 Tipu Sultan-era ancient rockets to be showcased in museum

Amazing Feats, Business & Economy, Community Involvement / Social Issues, Freedom Fighters (under research project), Inventions, Innovations (wef. Nov 30th, 2021), Karnataka (under research project), Leaders, Martyrs of the Nation, Museums, Libraries (wef. April 16th, 2022), Royal Families, PreIndependence -Descendants (wef. Jan 02nd,2022), World Opinion

KARNATAKA:

India rocket musuem
These were the first iron-cased rockets used in the military thus paving the way for rockets use around the world. (Supplied)

More than 1,000 unused rockets of India’s freedom fighter Tipu Sultan’s era found toward the end of July this year, will now be showcased at a newly created rocket gallery at the museum at Shivappa Nayaka Palace in Shivamogga city in the state of Karnataka.

The gallery, named as Bidanur Rocket Gallery after the famous Bidanur Fort at Nagar in Hosanagar taluk of Shivamogga district, will open to receive visitors in October.

Visitors will be able to feast on the rockets used by Tipu Sultan, the illustrious son of Karnataka, who was known as “Tiger of Mysore” for his daring acts against the British who ruled India then.

India rocket musuem
India rocket musuem

Bidanur served as an important administrative centre of Mysore State (renamed as Karnataka) and Tipu Sultan had even established a mint and an armory here.

Speaking to Al Arabiya English, R. Shejeshwara, Assistant Director of the Department of Archaeology, Museums and Heritage, said that the findings were discovered during a field excavation at a farmer’s well in Nagara village in Hosnagar Taluk, Shivamogga district, conducted by Department of Archeology, Museums and Heritage.

He said, “the shape of a cylinder and having a fuse at one end reveal that these rockets were used during the eighteenth century AD during Tipu’s time. Each unused rocket is of 7 to 10 inches in length and 1 to 3 meter in diameter and are rusted because of continuous exposure to soil moisture”.

India rocket musuem
India rocket musuem

Shejeshwara further said that like the earlier rockets found in 2002, those recovered recently also are iron-cased with black powder, a mixture of sulfur, charcoal and potassium nitrate filled inside. The 15-member crew of archaeologists, excavators and laborers took three days to unearth the armory and the ammunition.

Shejeshwara said that after the fourth Anglo-Mysore War, it is likely that Tipu’s army, stationed in Nagara, could have dumped the rockets in the well to prevent them from getting into the hands of the East India Company.

The media spotlight on the recent findings speaks volumes about how this powerful 18th century ruler of Mysore is remembered. Mysore under Tipu stood as a bulwark against the British.

Tipu conceptualized, designed and manufactured cylindrical iron tubes that ensured for great compression of the filled gunpowder and consequently, greater range (nearly 2 km). The brave freedom fighter then fastened them to swords or bamboo poles to provide stability, that would, in turn, lead to better accuracy.

Fitted with sharpnels that traveled a considerable distance, these air-borne weapons would target the enemy with edges of the sharpnels facing them.

India rocket musuem
India rocket musuem

These were the first iron-cased rockets used in the military thus paving the way for rockets use around the world.

The first rocket, which was fired by Tipu Sultan in 1792 against the British forces, is displayed at the British Museum. Though the British lost the war, they have exhibited the rocket.

After being the victims of these innovative locally-crafted rockets, the British eventually adopted the technology. Tipu Sultan wrote a military manual called Fathul Mujahideen in which he explains that 200 rocket men were assigned to each Mysorean cushoon (brigade).

Little wonder then the credit for developing the first-ever iron-clad rockets goes to Tipu Sultan and they were successfully deployed for military use.

In the Battle of Pollilur (the Second Anglo-Mysore War in 1780), Tipu’s rockets set afire the East India Company’s ammunition dumps. It was the British Army’s one of the worst ever defeats in India.

India rocket musuem
India rocket musuem

It may be recalled that a set of 24 rare and rediscovered preparatory paintings depicting the Battle of Pollilur was sold to a bidder for £769,250 at the Sotheby’s biannual Arts of the Islamic World Sale in 2010. The Britishers described these rockets filled with gunpowder on swords as “flying plagues”.

Tipu took advantage of them and established four taramandalpets (star-cluster bazaars, a name that refers to the pattern of mid-air explosions of these rockets that then pounded shrapnel on the enemy) at Srirangapatna, Bidanur, Chitradurga, and Bangalore to conduct research on Mysore rocket technology.

The armory in Kalasipalyam in Bangalore was among the four that were constructed by Tipu Sultan to store ammunition. The 18th century armory that housed the famed rockets of Tipu Sultan is hardly known.

After the death of Tipu in 1799, the British Army discovered as many as 600 launchers, 700 serviceable rockets and 9,000 empty rockets at Tipu’s fort.

One of the major beneficiary was the Royal Artillery Museum in Woolwich in the UK. The powerful ruler was killed in the fourth Anglo-Mysore war in 1799 after a slew of victories in battle against the British.

http://www.english.alarabiya.net / AlArabiya News / Home> Life > Travel & Tourism / by Aftab Alam Kola / August 09th, 2018