September 2022 – Page 3 – Karnataka First

NLSIU medal winners secure jobs at London law firms

Medal winners share their experiences at the institution, challenges and impact of COVID-19 on their college life

The National Law School of India University (NLSIU) awarded gold medals to 48 graduates during the convocation across different programmes. Amongst them, three students from BA LLB (Honours) programme — Saurabh Gupta, Vrishank Singhania and Pallavi Khatri — received eight, seven and six gold medals respectively, the highest this year. Speaking to The Hindu after receiving their medals, the trio said that they were all going to London to work in law firms soon. They also shared their experiences at NLSIU, the challenges and the impact of COVID-19 on their college life.

Mr. Saurabh won the most number of medals, including the Basant Kumar Birla Medal for the II Rank Student. Hailing from Chandigarh, he described his experience at the top law school as “life changing”. “The journey has been full of ups and downs. It helped me grow as a person and helped me explore what I wanted to do in the future,” he said. After a Masters programme in University of Oxford and a two-year job at a law firm in London, he plans to practise law at the High Court in Chandigarh.

Good support system

The medal winners said that as much as the experience at NLSIU was enjoyable and highly academically beneficial, they underwent a lot of stress. “As we are a small, competitive college, it is quite stressful and is a high-pressure environment. It is a constant challenge as there are a lot of expectations, not just academically, but to perform in other areas as well. However, you learn to cope with it overtime and it gets better with a good support system”, said Mr. Vrishank from Hyderabad who was awarded the Indira Khaitan Medal for University First Rank and Sarala Birla Medal for the overall topper along with the Best Outgoing student medal.

He added that while he missed social interactions during the pandemic, academically, the virtual classes worked out well. “As there are a lot of activities like moot courts, debates and committees involved in law school, the COVID-19 period gave me the time to slow down and introspect and focus.,” he said. He is currently working with a Supreme Court Lawyer in Delhi and will work in London for two years after that. Upon his return to the country, he plans to have a career combination of litigation and academia in his future.

Ms. Pallavi from Chandigarh won the Kumari Devi Menon Memorial Medal for All-round Best Graduating Girl Student and Ms. Anuradha N. Memorial Medal for Best Outgoing Female Student along with four others. When asked about the challenges she faced as a woman in the University, she said “It was pretty similar to what women in face in the other areas of life. While NLSIU is a really open, progressive, liberal community, there are a few bad apples everywhere. From one or two people, you face a little bit of sexism and instances of unsavoury comments. But otherwise, professors and everyone else are very supportive. There are also many collectives in the university which work towards reducing prejudices in the college.”

She will soon be joining a magic circle firm in London where she will work as a commercial lawyer in the corporate department. She wants to have a business of her own in the future and is looking to build a safety net and get some exposure before that.

Legal aid trust

Ashwini O., who graduated from the LLM programme, secured the M/s. Sitaram Jindal Foundation Gold Medal for the Best Outgoing LL.M. Student hailing from marginalised background. In 2013, she graduated from the same law school in LLB and worked in the corporate sector thereafter.

A little while after that, she realised that her true interest lay in litigation and started her career in the field with Ravivarma Kumar, former Advocate General of the State. She practiced before the High Court of Karnataka. “I really enjoyed picking up causes, filing PILs and litigating. Then I felt the need to get back to academics and came back here”, she said.

Ms. Ashwini also runs her own legal aid trust — Dhwani Legal Trust where child rights and women’s rights are the main focus of work. “We work with domestic violence victims and also create legal awareness which providing legal aid.”

Open access digital repository of academic resources unveiled by Azim Premji University

It is the first-of-its-kind digital repository of academic resources translated from English to Indian languages

‘Anuvada Sampada,’ touted as a first-of-its-kind open access digital repository of academic resources translated from English to Indian languages, was unveiled by Azim Premji University here on Tuesday.

Aimed at making these resources freely and widely available to students, teachers, teacher educators, etc., across the country, the repository has close to 2,000 academic resources and growing and is currently available in Hindi and Kannada.

The translations repository was launched by the Vice Chancellor of Azim Premji University, Indu Prasad and seeks to address the paucity of high-quality academic resources in Indian languages at the graduate and post-graduate level. The initiative, said a release, will enable students, academics, and practitioners to mine, use and reuse academic resources in sciences, social sciences, humanities, and languages. The repository is also expected to help promote original writing, reading, deliberation and discourse in Hindi and Kannada.

“Non-availability of academic resources in Indian languages is a major constraint in expanding access to education and ensuring inclusion. We believe this initiative will help students engage more deeply with concepts and ideas currently available only in English, encourage nuanced debates, and develop perspectives in diverse contexts,” said Hriday Kant Dewan, who leads the initiative at Azim Premji University.

The repository includes select academic resources for postgraduate programmes in education and development, and undergraduate programmes in arts, sciences, and diploma courses. Besides these, there are select articles from journals, extracts or complete chapters from books, podcasts, short films, brief lectures, and panel discussions related to higher education.

Articles focused on various aspects of school education from different publications of Azim Premji University like Learning Curve, At Right Angles, I wonder.., and Pathshala, apart from books and research studies published by Azim Premji Foundation, form part of the collection, added the release.

The University is also in the process of seeking copyright permissions from various publishers to expand the number of open access academic readings on the site.

Anuvada Sampada is available at: https://anuvadasampada.azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/.

Motherhood Hospitals acquires Bengaluru-based Femiint Hospital

Since 2016, Motherhood Hospitals had invested ₹200 crore in consolidating its presence in Bengaluru, and was planning to make an additional investment of ₹50 crore

Asia Healthcare Holdings (AHH), which owns Motherhood Hospitals, a chain of hospitals dedicated to women and children, acquired Bengaluru-based Femiint Hospitals on September 21.

Femiint Hospital, located in Whitefield, provides women and childcare services ranging from out-patient care in gynaecology, pediatrics & IVF pediatric care to comprehensive in-patient care in obstetrics, birthing, gynaecology surgery, fertility & IVF care, besides pediatric surgery.

Since 2016, Motherhood Hospitals had invested ₹200 crore in consolidating its presence in Bengaluru, and was planning to make an additional investment of ₹50 crore.

With this acquisition, Motherhood Hospitals would have a network of seven hospitals and two out-patient facilities in Bengaluru. The company has set up a chain of 18 hospitals across 8 cities in India, post the AHH investment in 2016. It also has a network of 200 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) beds.

Vishal Bali, Executive Chairman, Asia Healthcare Holdings (AHH), said, “We have built the largest women’s health network in South Asia. We believe there is an opportunity to consolidate this space, and offer exceptional clinical services to Women, newborns and Children.”

IISc researchers fabricate pressure sensors that use paper as the medium

Paper-based electronic devices are gaining greater attention owing to their natural biodegradability, excellent flexibility, porous fibrous structure, light weight, and low cost

Several industrial, automotive, and healthcare applications rely on accurate and precise measurement of pressure. Flexible and wearable pressure sensors are typically fabricated using petroleum-based polymers, but the solid waste generated from using such non-biodegradable plastics is harmful for the environment. To avoid this issue, researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc.) have now fabricated pressure sensors that use paper as the medium.

According to an IISc. release, a pressure sensor detects physical pressure and converts it into an electrical signal that is displayed in the form of a number indicative of its magnitude.

Nowadays, paper-based electronic devices are gaining greater attention owing to their natural biodegradability, excellent flexibility, porous fibrous structure, light weight, and low cost. However, paper-based sensors developed so far have certain disadvantages.

The team of Navakanta Bhat, professor at the Centre for Nano Science and Engineering (CeNSE) and corresponding author of the paper published in the ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, has proposed a design for the paper sensor that, by virtue of its structure and multilayering, achieves high sensitivity and can detect a broad range of pressures (0-120 kPa) with a response time of 1 millisecond.

The sensor is made of plain and corrugated cellulose papers coated with tin-monosulfide (SnS) stacked alternatively to form a multi-layered architecture. SnS is a semiconductor that conducts electricity under specific conditions.

“Paper in itself is an insulator. The major challenge was choosing an appropriate 3D device structure and material to give conductive properties to paper,” says Neha Sakhuja, a former PhD student at CeNSE and the first author of the paper.

When pressure is applied on the sensor’s surface, the air gaps between the paper layers decrease, increasing the contact area between these layers. Higher contact area leads to better electrical conductivity. On releasing the pressure, the air gaps increase again, thus decreasing the electrical conduction. This modulation of the electrical conductivity drives the sensing mechanism of the paper sensor, explained the release. “Our key contribution is the simplicity of the device. It is like creating paper origami,” said Prof. Bhat.

“The sensor shows promise in being developed into a flexible and wearable electronic device, especially in the healthcare sector. For example, the research team mounted it onto a human cheek to investigate the motion involved in chewing, strapped it to an arm to monitor muscle contraction, and around fingers to track their tapping. The team even designed a numeric, foldable keypad constructed using the in-house paper-based pressure sensor to demonstrate the device’s usability,” added the release.

Puttur: Periyadka youth is editor of Guajarati film ‘Chhello Show’, India’s official Oscar entry

Guajarati film ‘Chhello Show’ is nominated officially as Indian film for this year’s Oscar awards. It is proud moment for Dakshina Kannada as the editor of the movie is Pavan Bhat, a resident of Periyadka near Uppinangady in the taluk.

Pavan Bhat, who is an engineer, is the son of Gopalkrishna Bhat and Saroja Bhat couple. He is settled in Bengaluru and is in high demand for movies as an editor.

Pavan got educated in Bengaluru and Kolkata. When he was doing PUC itself, he was very much interested in the field of cinema. As he opted for computer science in engineering, editing a movie was easier for Pavan. He also did two years of higher education in editing in Mumbai.

Pavan is the only Kannadiga to have worked in the movie Chhello Show. He said that he never thought of getting entry into the Oscars, but feel proud that the movie is the official entry to Oscar awards from India.

Pavan Bhat has worked as full scale editor for four movies. In total he has worked in more than 20 movies. Bhasmasur was his first movie. It has bagged awards in Indian and overseas. He is interested to work in Kannada movies. Already talks are on with regard to one Kannada movie as per the information shared by Pavan.

Chhello Show movie is about a nine-year-old boy who gets fascinated by Cinema. The movie was premiered in June 2021 in the Tribeca film festival. The movie bagged several awards including Golden Spike award in the Spain film festival. It will be released throughout the world on October 14 with the English title ‘Last Film Show.’ The movie features Bhavin Rabri, Bhavesh Srimali, Richa Meena and others.

Mangaluru: Snehalaya, White Doves founders among AICU awardees

All India Catholic Union (AICU) is honoring two unique social activists, apart from an Everester, a national gold-medalist Karnataka athlete, an eminent jurist, the apex body of Catholic bishops, and two of its own past national presidents at its AGM in Old Goa on October 1.

A simple rickshaw driver who created a unique shelter home for the destitute takes pride of place in a galaxy of women and men found worthy of recognition by the 103-year-old All India Catholic Union. The AICU is in Goa for its first physical meeting after the Covid pandemic.

The awardees are Snehalaya, Shanti Dham founder Joseph Crasta; gold medalist high jumper Flavisha Velisha Monteiro and Arunachal Pradesh’s Tagit Sorang Abraham who has summited Mount Everest multiple times win special awards for their outstanding feats. Others awarded by the union are social activist Corrine Antoinette Rasquinha, and the noted jurist Justice John Michael D’Cunha.

While the Catholic Bishops Conferences of India has been cited for a special award for its stewardship of the church in India, the AICU has honoured for their lifetime services to the union and the church two of its past national presidents, Dr Maria Emelia Menezes, the eminent educationist and industrialist, and eminent writer and human rights activist.

Joseph Crasta’s is a journey rarely seen. On August 26, 2009, the birthday of St Teresa of Calcutta, Crasta, a poor rickshaw driver with a family to look after, started a shelter for the homeless under the banner of ‘Snehalaya’. In just 13 years, with his share of ancestral property and help from friends, he has seen Snehalaya now boast of separate Psycho-social Rehabilitation Centers for men and women, ‘Snehalaya Shanti Dham’, a home for the aged, and ‘Snehalaya Mannat’, which provides daily midday meals to over 700 caretakers of patients and runs a free ambulance emergency service.

AICU Community Award winner and White Doves founder Corrine Antoinette Rasquinha too has taken a leaf out of the Saint of Kolkata in caring for maggot invested sick, also rescuing since 1992. She started with her own funds, and in time had a home for disadvantaged and single parent children. Over 160 young people have benefited from her work.

For Justice John Michael D’ Çunha, many of the cases brought before him have been of high profile politicians. His honesty and integrity, especially while sitting as judge of the special court to deal with over 216 criminal cases against MPs and MLAs from Karnataka, are part of contemporary history.

Young national gold medalist high jumper Flavisha Monteiro has sports in her genes, but her career was honed under coaches Balakrishhna and Harshini Kumari. The daughter of Felix Monteiro and Flavia D’Souza, Flavisha is studying law at the SDM Law College, Mangaluru. She first participated in the National Junior Athletics Championship 2016 held at Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.

For Tagit Sorang Abraham, the only double mountaineer from the state of Arunachal, basic mountaineering training in 2013 from National Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports soon led to his first expedition to Mt Kungto in 2017, Mt Chiumo base exploration in 2018, Pre-Mt Everest Expedition in 2018 at a height of 6120 meters, and Mt Kang Yaste in 2019 at a height 6250 meters. He joined the First Indian Joint IMF & NIMAS Winter Bailey trial trekking expedition in 2021 and summited Everest South Expedition at a height of 8848.86 meters on May 31, 2021.

AICU’s lifetime achievement awards go to two national presidents, Dr Maria Emelia Menezes, 2000-2004, and Dr John Dayal, 2004-2008.

Dr Menezes is a prominent industrialist in Goa and is a prominent name in the India pharma sector. She is also a respected educationist and philanthropist. She broke the glass ceiling in the then 80-year-old All India Catholic Union becoming its first woman president elected in the two yearly elections in 2000 AD. She encouraged deep internal administrative reforms and fund generation in the Catholic union, making it near self sufficient in its work. Her leadership of AICU’s participation in the relief work of the Gujarat earthquake and the tsunami are specially remembered.

Dr John Dayal, who worked with Dr Menezes as her national vice president, was elected head of the AICU in 2004. A member of the National Integration Council and a well-known senior journalist of the country, Dr Dayal is equally well known for his work in human rights and civil liberties spanning five decades.

Bengaluru teen Pranav Anand becomes India’s 76th Chess Grandmaster

The 15-year-old, having already met the other requirements that are necessary for a GM title, achieved the honour late on Thursday.

Bengaluru teenager Pranav Anand became India’s 76th Grandmaster after he crossed the 2,500 Elo mark in the ongoing World Youth Chess Championship in Mamaia, Romania.

The 15-year-old, having already met the other requirements that are necessary for a GM title, achieved the honour late on Thursday.

To become a GM, a player has to secure three GM norms and cross the live rating of 2,500 Elo points. Anand had scored the third and final GM norm at the 55th Biel Chess Festival in Switzerland in July.

“He is passionate about chess. Extremely interested and passionate about the game. He can work for any number of hours,” Anand’s coach V Saravanan said.

“He is especially good in calculation and end games; they are his two biggest strengths right now,” Saravanan said about his ward’s ninth-round win in the under-16 section of the World Youth Chess Championship 2022.

“Also, the most important reason for Pranav’s achievement is the dedication of his family; his mother, and father. They have spent so much time on and supported him. If the pandemic was not there, Pranav could have become a GM at least a year ago. He is one of the most talented kids I have ever come across,” the International Master added.

Anand had secured his third and final GM norm in Biel by drawing his game against Spain’s number five GM Eduardo Iturrizaga Bonelli (2619) in the penultimate round.

He had also beaten GM Maxime Lagarde of France (2631), GM Sethuraman S P(2623), drawn with GM Aryan Chopra (2610) and GM Shant Sargsyan of Armenia (2661) in the event.

His first two GM norms came in the Sitges Open (in January 2022) and Vezerkepso GM Round Robin (March 2022) tournaments.

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Mysuru zoo rated second best in CZA evaluation

The century-old Mysuru zoo has been rated ‘very good’ by the Central Zoo Authority (CZA), which conducted the Management Effectiveness Evaluation of Zoos in India 2022. The country’s medium and large zoos were comprehensively evaluated during the first-ever exercise by the CZA.

Though Mysuru zoo has been adjudged ‘very good’ among large zoos during the assessment by the experts, it, however, stands second as Arignar Anna Zoological Park in Chennai has secured a score of 83 marks and was graded ‘very good’ by the CZA. The Mysuru zoo has got 80 marks but yet graded ‘very good’ in the evaluation considering its best management practices and standards.

Expressing happiness over the rating, Executive Director Ajit Kulkarni said the evaluation was done for the first time by the CZA and an expert team had visited the zoo to appraise the zoo and its practices. “Whatever suggestions have been made for the zoo’s improvement will be implemented. The action to be taken, as endorsed by the CZA, will be looked into,” he said.

Among the medium zoos, the Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park, Darjeeling, is rated the best, according to the evaluation report.

The CZA, in its report, said the mission, vision, objectives and strategies mostly identified at the Mysuru zoo but need to be systematically formulated and documented as per the National Zoo Policy. The zoo has been told to make efforts to pair all single animals.

Also, the conservation breeding programMEs for Gaur, Nilgiri Langur, Lion-tailed Macaque, Dhole, Indian Grey Wolf etc., can be managed with improved scientific rigour and with the development of detailed plans for conservation breeding including genetic profiling, individual marking of names for identification, community engagement plan, plan for soft release, and survey of release sites, the CZA said, in its evaluation of the Mysuru zoo.

The Mysuru zoo management must pursue the development of an interpretation centre, according to the report.

Citing about the best practices at the Mysuru zoo in its evaluation, the CZA said the zoo is one of the self-sustainable zoos. In the past two decades, the zoo administration has introduced many interventions, innovations and programs — from waste management policy, to a flexible animal adoption programme. After segregation of the waste, the biodegradable waste is used for making biogas, vermicompost, and manure in the campus itself. Biogas is used in zoo kitchens. The zoo has tie-ups with various NGOs for the recycling of plastic waste. The zoo harvests 79 crore litres of rainwater through directed infrastructure changes. The surrounding areas of the zoo and the farmers have also been benefited by the system as no borewells go out of water during summer. The zoo also provides RO drinking water for free to the visitors. Seventy percent of water that gets wasted from the RO units are reused On the zoo premises.

The CZA said the MEE assessment is an inclusive exercise – the assessment is based on information and documentation produced by the zoo and the detailed site visit.

The actionable points derived from the assessment, along with pillars of change indicated in the vision plan for Indian zoos (2021-2031), can become the catalyst for the transformation, build innovation and leadership and help zoos deliver experiences that inspire visitors to take conservation action and affirm deeper community connect, the CZA concluded in its assessment, a report of which has been sourced by The Hindu.

Comprehensive Urban Primary Health Centre established in Bengaluru, opening to coincide with PM Narendra Modi’s birthday

Karnataka Government says that the comprehensive Urban Primary Health Centre (CUPHC) is the first of its kind in India, and is located at Palace Guttahalli, near Malleswaram

A comprehensive Urban Primary Health Centre (CUPHC), which the government says is the first of its kind in India, located at Palace Guttahalli near Malleswaram, will be inaugurated by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on September 17.

Along with services like testing, diagnosis and treatment, medicines will also be provided at CUPHC at either zero cost or an affordable price. The CUPHC has been set up by Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) in collaboration with Manipal Health Enterprises and with philanthropic contributions by several citizens.

C.N. Ashwath Narayan, Minister and MLA of Malleswaram, said that the hospital will be dedicated to the public on the occasion of the 72nd birthday of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 17. “This healthcare centre is the very first completely digitalised healthcare centre to be established in India. Our solemn aim is to provide quality healthcare services, without turning down anyone, at affordable price.”

”The PHC is established with a two-bed facility, emergency medical equipment like ECG, nebuliser, defibrillator, oxygen facility and high-end monitors for monitoring patients. There will also be services like eye-testing, dental testing, ICU, physiotherapy and Prime Minister’s Jan Aushadhi Kendra. The centre has an in-patient department and EMR system. There will also be a command centre to provide appropriate consultation and assistance for treatment for ailments like heart disease,” he said.

The Minister informed that similar CUPHCs are being set up at Nagappa Block, Gandhi Grama, Yeshwantpur and Mathikere in his Assembly constituency, and that they will be operational within a month.

IIM Bangalore’s one-year EPGP in management ranks first in India, according to Bloomberg survey

In the APAC region, IIMB is preceded only by NUS Singapore

The one-year full-time Executive Post Graduate Programme (EPGP) at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB), which is offered to experienced professionals, has bagged the top rank in India and fifth rank in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region in the Bloomberg Best Business Schools Survey 2022.

The programme scored well on all the parameters, including Learning (88.6), Networking (83.5) and Entrepreneurship (82). The overall score went up from 13.5 in 2021 to 66.4 this year. Compensation too saw a significant increase (34.2) this year over last year (10.1).

Professor Rishikesha T. Krishnan, Director, IIM Bangalore, said, “IIMB works hard at educating leaders who will think broadly of their role in society and foster inclusive innovation and growth. It is a good feeling when rankings, global and national, reflect our efforts.”

In the APAC region, IIMB is preceded only by NUS Singapore.

According to the IIMB, Bloomberg surveyed 117 MBA programmes around the world. The rankings were generated using data from 18,504 students, alumni, and recruiter surveys, as well as income and employment data from each school and its alumni. The best B-schools results for 2022 are divided into four regions: Europe, Asia-Pacific, Canada, and the United States.