Daily Archives: March 7, 2016

The success story continues

Sports
Sara Ravinder Reddy and P. Krishna Chaitanya won the men’s title at the Senior National Beach Volleyball Championship in Kozhikode on Saturday.— PHOTO: K. RAGESH
Sara Ravinder Reddy and P. Krishna Chaitanya won the men’s title at the Senior National Beach Volleyball Championship in Kozhikode on Saturday.— PHOTO: K. RAGESH

The remarkable success story of Hyderabadis in beach volleyball continues! While the city has only one lake, Hussainsagar, to boast about, over the years it has been the spikers from the city who have been dominating the senior beach volleyball nationals. And this time around, it was the combine effort of Sara Ravinder Reddy and P. Krishna Chaitanya who ensured the rich legacy continues, by winning the title in Kozhikode on Saturday.

For the duo, who started playing together since February last year when it clinched the silver in the last National Games, Ravinder and Chaitanya are quite elated with their latest feat. Now, the focus shifts to the Olympics qualification. With Chaitanya already taking part in the first-leg of the trials held in India and finishing third, he, along with Ravinder, will now go to Thailand for the next leg of qualification for the 2016 Rio Games.

“It has been a wonderful experience and a great feeling to be the national champions. The fact that we could beat the heat and the tough opposition to win the quarters, semis and the final – all scheduled on the final day – in one day is proof of our grit, determination and skill,” remarked 35-year-old Ravinder, a postal assistant in the Postal Department.

Interestingly, Chaitanya is still searching for a job and is optimistic of getting one in a public sector undertaking.

These spikers with the indefatigable spirit to take on the best despite adversity – training at the Musheerabad playground on a makeshift sand court daily. Then, before the Calicut nationals, Ravinder and Chaitanya trained at Film Nagar Club for a couple of days to fine-tune their skills. “We need sponsorship and more and more tournaments to make it more popular,” insist both the champion spikers. “Since we have quite a few Asian-level events, we hope some corporate groups will help us,” say the newly-crowned National champions.

23-year-old Chaitanya reminds that though the Volleyball Federation of India is doing its bit, the sport and the players need greater support to dream big.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Hyderabad / by V.V.Subrahmanyam / Hyderabad – March 07th, 2016

Hyderabad-based plastic recycling start-up Banyan Nation bags $800K funding

Business & Economy, Green Initiatives / Environment, Science & Technology

Hyderabad:

City-based waste management startup Banyan Nation announced that it has bagged $800,000 in its first fund raise from Jaideep Khanna, co-founder, president and managing partner of Artha Capital Management Inc and these funds will be used to scale up its business.

According to the company, Impact Investment Exchange (IIX), Shujog and global investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts have assisted in raising funds and mentoring the startup.

Banyan Nation claims to be one of the first firms in India to use technology, both at the back-end and front-end, to ensure that plastic waste is not just recycled but also ‘upcycled’.

Banyan Nation founder and chief executive officer Mani Vajipey pointed out that the startup tries to address challenges of the unorganised plastic recycling sector by offering solutions for three stages of plastic recycling business — collection, recycling and selling recycled plastic to companies.

At the front-end, it has used technology to map the network of kabadiwalas, who supply plastic waste to the company and at the back-end, it deploys technology to ensure that the waste plastic is graded, which results in recycled plastic being of superior quality.

The startup has a plastic recycling plant on the outskirts of the city that has a capacity to recycle 300 tonnes of waste plastic per month. Currently, it is processing 100 tonnes of plastic waste per month.

“We are operating in an unorganised sector and it is a low margin and high volume business. We have over 20 small and medium sized local firms that procure recycled plastic from us. Now, we are targeting players from pharma, auto and FMCG sector,” Vajipey added.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Hyderabad / by Swati Rathor / TNN / March 03rd, 2016