** Hassan: Man who found black box of crashed Navy helicopter awaiting prize from 30 years

A youth, who has reached senior citizen’s age now, who found the black box of the Navy helicopter that crashed on Western Ghats in 1991, did not receive the promised prize money.

In 1991, a Navy helicopter that was carrying very critical documents from Mangaluru to Bengaluru crashed on the plateau of Aramane Gudda on Western Ghats. Four people, including a colonel, lost their lives in the mishap. Even after frantic searching the helicopter could not be located.

Puttaswamy Gowda, a youth of 33 years, resident of Vanagoor village, continued his search in the quest of getting the prize, though all others stopped the hunt for the black box of the helicopter. After two years of continuous search he was able to locate the black box in 1992 October on the plateau of Aramane Gudda.

** All for the road

Dr Pramod Chinder, a bone cancer surgeon, is not just an avid biker but is also part of various biking groups which often takes off on trips to offbeat places.

Well, Dr Pramod Chinder loves riding his motorbikes that he has collected over several years. Chinder, who is a bone cancer surgeon, has also done trips to the Himalayas and has extensively covered offbeat places across Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

** BMTC launches electric bus services in Bengaluru

The first service will be to Kengeri

In a green milestone, the first fleet of electric buses and BS-VI diesel standard buses hit the city’s road on Monday. With this, the long wait for green public transport of seven years has come to an end.

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai flagged off the State’s first batch of these buses deployed on a long-term basis on Monday morning and the buses hit the streets making their maiden trips later in the day.

** Aerospace incubation centre launched at NAL

The centre was described as the first public-private partnership in India

The announcement was made by Social Alpha, a venture development platform for science and technology start-ups.

Dubbed mach33.aero, the centre was described as the first public-private partnership in India.

The centre is housed on the CSIR-NAL campus and will focus on aviation, defence, space exploration, agriculture and climate action.

** Vistadome coach service between Bengaluru and Shivamogga from today

eople travelling between Bengaluru and Shivamogga can now enjoy the comfort of a Vistadome coach. The South Western Railway (SWR) has decided to augment one AC Vistadome coach to the Yeshwanthpur-Shivamogga Town Intercity express.

The coach will be augmented on a temporary basis from Saturday (December 25) to March 31, 2022. The ticket cost has been fixed at ₹1,130.

** Railway cops use novel remote sensing app to record unnatural deaths on Karnataka rail tracks

The Government Railway Police (GRP) is making use of a novel system to ready Unnatural Death Reports (UDR) on railway tracks: an application developed by the Karnataka State Remote Sensing Applications Centre (KSCRAC) to capture all details of a deceased person with location accuracy and related geo-tagged photos.

This innovative usage of technology was initiated by Additional Director General of Police, Railways, South Western Railway Zone, Bhaskar Rao. It is now being utilised by railway cops on a full-fledged basis following the completion of trials that commenced in March this year.

** Charter firm launches helicopter service from Bengaluru to Coorg

The service would reduce travel time to an hour as compared to 7 hours by road

BLADE India, a private charter service, has announced launch of its helicopter services in Karnataka with a service between Bengaluru and Kabini in Coorg.

The service would reduce travel time between Bangalore and Kabini to an hour as compared to 7 hours by road. Flights from Bengaluru would take off from Jakkur aerodrome. In Kodagu district, you get the option to land either at Evolve Back Resorts in Kabini or the Mercara Downs Golf Course in Madikeri.

The one-way tariff per person from Bengaluru to either destinations in Kodagu district is ₹16,000.

** DFRL’s ready-to-eat menu for Gaganyaan mission

A slew of technologies showcased at two-day expo

The Defence Food Research Laboratory (DFRL) in Mysuru has prepared a slew of ready-to-eat dishes tailor-made for India’s space programme Gaganyaan.

The DFRL has prepared about 40 to 50 menus comprising both vegetarian and non-vegetarian items and the trials are in the preliminary stages.

The items include potato-stuffed paratha, vegetable biriyani, dal chawal, sambar chawal, rajma chawal, kichdi, preserved chapatis, veg katti roll, chicken biriyani, chicken katti roll, egg katti roll, chikki, instant tea and coffee mix, sooji halwa, garlic and mango pickle, and tomato sauce.

Some of the technologies developed by the DFRL were on display at the two-day exhibition of technologies and products to mark Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav which commenced here on Monday.

** Students create Gaganyaan’s functional rocket model with an eye on Guinness World Record

Gaganyaan, India’s manned mission, launch has been postponed to 2023 due to Covid-19 but the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is working hard to keep the buzz about the mission and motivate young minds by sponsoring 550 students to create Guinness World Record (GWR) for assembling Gaganyaan’s functional rocket model at one place. 

All these rockets assembled by 550 students following a 2-hour exercise at the India International Science Festival (IISF), 2021 under the guidance of N Sudheer Kumar, Director, Capacity Building Programme Office, ISRO, will be launched at the Panaji gymkhana ground using ISRO launchpads. 

The man behind training the students is Diyanshu Poddar’s start-up, Rocketeers. 

** Udupi man designs unique multi-featured 2WD E-scooter

Jayaprakash, an IT support engineer worked at NIC department of Manipal.

Driven by his ambition and to realize his dream, he resigned from his job.

At present, he is staying in a small cottage with his family. He drives an auto rickshaw during his free time. Now he has built a multi motor-powered unique E-scooter, which is suitable for all roads.