Nokia to work with Indian Institute of Science on networked robotics

Nokia and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) announced the opening of the Nokia Center of Excellence (CoE) in Networked Robotics at the IISc. in Bengaluru.

The CoE would promote inter-disciplinary research involving robotics and advanced communication technologies in 5G and Artificial Intelligence (AI). It would also develop use cases across industrial automation, agriculture and disaster management. The centre would facilitate engagement and co-operation between academia, start-ups and industry ecosystem partners to research and develop these use cases.

The research projects undertaken by the CoE would include the design of advanced robotics, AI and automation solutions built upon next generation telecom networks and their applications for solving societally relevant problems.

Nishant Batra, Chief Strategy and Technology Officer at Nokia, said: “We want India to drive global innovation in an era of convergence where a few years from now, extended reality (XR) and digital-physical fusion will allow us to create, collaborate and communicate in unprecedented ways.’‘

Govindan Rangarajan, Director at IISc, said: “Our collaboration with a world-class company like Nokia will enable us to explore new frontiers for advanced technology research.’‘

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GE Healthcare launches its first ‘5G Innovation Lab’ in India 

GE Healthcare on Thursday announced the launch of its 5G Innovation Lab in India, the first for the company across the globe.

With the advantage of massive bandwidth, high data speeds, low latency and highly reliable connectivity, 5G has the potential to disrupt the patient care continuum, transforming diagnosis, therapy, and prognosis, the company noted.

“The 5G Innovation Lab is designed to position GE Healthcare at the forefront of these groundbreaking advances in patient care, including potentially bringing cutting-edge technology to rural and suburban regions,” a company statement said.

Situated at the John F.Welch Technology Centre (JFWTC) Bengaluru, GE Healthcare’s largest R&D centre outside of the USA, the lab will serve as a testbed to develop future-ready products and solutions, turning a new corner in innovation, it said.

5G in Healthcare was valued at an estimated USD 215 million in 2021 and is projected to reach USD 3,667 million by 2026.

“India is an important market for us globally and it is indeed the right time to venture into 5G, which will open a realm of exciting opportunities, driving the next wave of growth in Healthcare,” said Jan Makela, President & CEO, Imaging at GE Healthcare.

The GE Healthcare 5G Innovation Lab will serve as a conduit for the interplay of exponential technologies like AI/ML, IoT, Big Data, Edge Computing and Cybersecurity, the statement added.

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‘Sensei’-sational win

After B’luru boy M P Jagruth won gold and silver medals at the All-India Karate Championship 2022, he shares his wish to represent India in the next Olympics.

 It all started with his love for the movie The Karate Kid and his dad’s training sessions that culminated in Bengaluru boy M P Jagruth winning a gold medal at the All-India Karate Championship 2022 held in Pune recently.

A national medalist for the last five consecutive years, Jagruth developed an interest in karate at the age of seven. “I would accompany my father to the classes he would conduct and be fascinated by the sport. This was one of the reasons I took up karate. He is my inspiration,” he says.

Jagruth’s total medal tally in nationals to date is six golds, two silvers and one bronze medal. With an inclination towards karate and medicine, Jagruth wants to pursue sports medicine to be able to treat injured sportsmen. “Karate is underrated and needs to be brought to the spotlight. In my karate journey, I realised that practice does make a man perfect. I hope I can represent India in the upcoming Olympics,” says Jagruth, a second-degree black belt.

The champion’s father, M G Prashada, who is also a karate player and coach says his son worked hard to reach where he is now. “He grew up with a passion for the sport. He is not just great at the sport but is also a bright student. He works hard and will one day make the nation proud,” he says.  

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Winners Of U-15 National AFCAI Youth Cup

Vijayanagar Football Academy (VFA), Mysuru, won the U-15 National AFCAI Youth Cup held at Minerva Grounds in Chandigarh recently.

In the first match, VFA Mysuru thrashed VVFC Maharashtra with a goal margin of 5-0.

On the final day, VFA Mysuru won against United Studz Academy, Hyderabad, in which the scoreline was 1-0.

In the last match of the Tournament, VFA Mysuru had to draw their match against Ardor Football Academy.

However, they displayed wonderful tactical and technical brilliance and won the match 2-1.

They were undefeated throughout the tournament and ended the Tournament with 4 wins and 2 draws.

VFA Mysuru were crowned the Under 15 Youth Cup National Champions.

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Karnataka bags Best Performer Award in DPIIT Start-up Ranking for 2021

Karnataka has bagged the “Best Performer” award in the DPIIT’s (Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade) State/Union Territory Start-up ranking for the year 2021.

he DPIIT has considered the State as an institutional champion, an innovative leader, a procurement forerunner, a capacity-building pioneer and a funding leader, he said.

The DPIIT has Stated that Karnataka has taken several praise-worthy initiatives such as launching engineering research and development policy to attract sector-focused incentives, creating regulatory sandboxes for startups to avail exemption from State and municipal laws, and developing modernistic policies to support innovation in disruptive sectors.

Dr EV Ramana Reddy, Additional Chief Secretary, Dr Meena Nagaraj, Department of Electronics, IT/BT, and S & T have been rewarded as “Start-up Champions” of the State.

On behalf of the government, senior officials of the Department of Electronics, IT/BT, and S & T received the award at an event held in New Delhi.
Expressing his happiness at the State securing the award, Dr Narayan said the government will make all efforts to make further Karnataka as the most favoured destination for start-ups.

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Karnataka’s Sini Shetty is Femina Miss India World 2022

Sini Shetty from Karnataka was on Sunday announced the winner of Femina Miss India World 2022 title at the grand finale of VLCC Femina Miss India here.

At the ceremony, hosted at the Jio World Convention Centre, Rajasthan’s Rubal Shekhawat emerged as Femina Miss India 2022 first runner-up and Shinata Chauhan from Uttar Pradesh was named Femina Miss India 2022 second runner-up.

Actors Neha Dhupia, Dino Morea and Malaika Arora, designers Rohit Gandhi and Rahul Khanna, choreographer Shiamak Davar and former cricketer Mithali Raj were part of the jury panel for the evening.

The pageant in its hybrid format had launched a nationwide hunt to find prospective talents from all corners of the country through virtual auditions. The extensive scouting drive and subsequent interview rounds culminated with the shortlisted selection of 31 state winners, a note from the organisers stated.

“These shortlisted finalists arrived in Mumbai and underwent rigorous training and grooming sessions, mentored by the best in the industry, to compete for the coveted Femina Miss India World 2022,” the note further read.

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Mangaluru girl bags three medals at national swimming event

Alyssa Sweedal Rego clinched gold in the 100m freestyle event

Twelve-year-old Alyssa Sweedal Rego from Mangaluru has won a gold and two silver medals in the individual swimming events at the 38 th Sub Junior National Aquatic Championship held in Rajkot between June 24 and June 26.

Ms. Rego, a Class 6 student from Ladyhill English Primary School, clinched gold in the 100 metre freestyle event in which she clocked 1:07.81 minutes. She won a silver medal each in 50 metre butterfly and 200 metre freestyle events respectively. She was also part of the Karnataka team that secured bronze in the 4X50 medley relay event.

This is the second national event that Ms. Rego has participated. It was her performance in the individual and team events at the state level swimming competition in Belagavi between May 26 and 29 that led to her selection for the national event in Rajkot.

The young Ms. Rego started swimming at the age of three, when she accompanied her brother Alaister Samuel Rego, a Class 10 student from St. Aloysius School and a national level swimmer, to the swimming pool. The two are being trained by Lokraj Vitla of We One Aqua Centre at the St. Aloysius Swimming Pool.

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Dechamma Poonacha wins Mrs. Fitness Queen at Mrs. UAE International

Dechamma Poonacha(Dechamma A.P) has won the Mrs Fitness Queen Title at Mrs UAE International by ‘Being Muskaan’, a leading UAE based brand launched by Meena Asrani, focused towards women empowerment.

The contest was held on June 26th at Radisson Red, Dubai Silicon Oasis and was open to all nationalities residing in UAE.

Mrs. Dechamma is currently a home maker. She is a former student of Rotary English Medium School Moodbidri and also was the student of the first batch. 

She further continued her high school an PU education at Jain highschool and PU college Moodbidri.

She pursued her graduation at Sri Bhuvanendra College Karkala where she won Miss. Bhuvanendra in 1997 and Miss. Jaycee Kulyadi queen, Karlala in 1998.

She was born in Coorg but was raised in Moodbidri.

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Lancet paper highlights child and adolescent care model of NIMHANS

The model has been initiated to increase access to and availability of child and adolescent mental health and protection support and services

Highlighting the SAMVAD model by NIMHANS, a recent paper published in The Lancet Regional Health – Southeast Asia has said that this model is the way forward to strengthening the nation’s response to child and adolescent mental health (CAMH) issues.

Titled ‘A transdisciplinary public health model for child and adolescent mental healthcare in low and middle income countries’, the paper was published on June 17.

SAMVAD (Support, Advocacy and Mental health interventions for children in Vulnerable circumstances And Distress) is a model of inter-sectoral collaboration and technology leveraging to build capacity of child care workers. Carved out from the erstwhile Community Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service project, a collaborative project of NIMHANS and Karnataka’s Department of Women and Child Development, SAMVAD was principally approved by the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development in October 2019.

K. John Vijay Sagar, professor and Head of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at NIMHANS who is the principal investigator of the project, told The Hindu that the model is a unique initiative that serves as a resource for the country. “It has been initiated to increase access to and availability of child and adolescent mental health and protection support and services through the use of integrated approaches to child well-being,” he said.

“This model applies innovative teaching and learning methods of participatory, creative and skill-based pedagogies, to deliver training programs focusing on the fundamentals of child mental health and protection work that is relevant to low and middle income countries (LMICs). The model explains frameworks and methodologies that make the training and capacity building done by SAMVAD scalable and standardised while allowing for adaptation of materials to specific professional needs and functions of various types of child care workers and service providers,” Dr. Sagar explained.

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Bengaluru is key driver in GST backend operations

E-way bill and e-invoice is driven from the city by a small team from National Informatics Centre

As the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime is set to complete five years in a few days, Bengaluru has contributed to its nationwide operation. The backend operations for the crucial e-way bill, mandatory to move goods across the country, and the e-invoice that helps in input credit, is driven from the city by a small team from the National Informatics Centre (NIC).

In the four years since its inception, the country has seen over 273 crore e-way bills being generated to move goods and over 163 crore e-invoices having been generated. While the transition from the Value Added Tax (VAT) regime to GST regime took place on July 1, 2017, the e-way bill was introduced on April 1, 2018, while the e-invoice was introduced in October 2020. In fact, the e-Sugam launched by the Karnataka Commercial Tax in 2010 morphed into the e-way bill under the nation-wide GST regime. In the VAT regime, Karnataka was generating 1.2 lakh e-way bills a day.

36% increase

Since its introduction in 2018 April, the number of e-way bills generated daily has seen a 36% increase from about 22 lakh a day to 30 lakh a day. If 55.8 crore e-way bills were generated in 2018-2019, it has shot up to 77.4 crore in 2021-2022.

In case of e-invoice, the numbers have shot up by 92% since October 2020 when 26 lakh invoices were generated daily to about 50 lakh invoices daily now. If 4.95 crore e-invoices were generated in October 2020, it has reached 12.18 crore in April 2022. The numbers have also increased as the e-invoice mandate has been extended to those reporting above ₹500 crore turnover annually when the e-invoice was introduced in October 2020 to include those reporting turnover of over ₹20 crore in April 2022.

The NIC, sources in Commercial Tax Department said, has been managing the entire operations from Bengaluru with a staff of around 50. Sources also said, “It is heartening that the 24/7 software and hardware support from Bengaluru has been such that there has been no incident of the software glitch where an e-way bill generation has been delayed over the past four years.”

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