Daily Archives: June 6, 2018

Telangana Formation Day Award for TITA

Records, All, Science & Technology

Telangana Information Technology Association (TITA) has been conferred with the ‘Telangana State Formation Day Award – 2018’ recognising the efforts and services to promote digital literacy among common people.

IT Minister K.T. Rama Rao presented the award during the annual report of the IT Department. TITA was awarded under the ‘NGO with Best Outreach’ category.

100K Digithon program, Telangana Yuva Nirmaan and Telangana Innovation & Incubation Centre (TIIC) are the few major initiatives of TITA. These have been appreciated and taken as basis for award by the government and this is the third consecutive award for TITA by the Government, said a press release from global president Sundeep Kumar Makthala.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Hyderabad / by Special Correspondent / Hyderabad – June 04th, 2018

ICRISAT releases bio-fortified pearl millet varieties

Agriculture, Green Initiatives / Environment, Inspiration / Positive News and Features, Nature, Records, All, Science & Technology
The bio-fortified variety of pearl millet being grown at ICRISAT at Patancheru in Sangareddy district.

Iron and zinc levels increased using conventional breeding methods: scientist

Consuming supplementary nutrients for better health has become common. Making it more convenient, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has promoted project to include the micro-nutrients in millets.

The ICAR has set minimum levels of iron and zinc that have to be bred into the varieties of pearl millet (Bajra) available across the country. The scientists at a national-level workshop, part of the All-India Coordinated Research Project on Pearl Millet, early this year decided a minimum of 4.2 milligrams of iron per 100 grams and zinc 3.2 milligrams per 100 grams. Any variety or hybrids to be sold to farmers by public or private seed producers should follow this micro-nutrient standards apart from giving a higher yield.

Dhanashakti — the first bio-fortified pearl millet variety released in 2014 — has been a grand success and is currently being cultivated in 65,000 hectares across the country and the seed is largely being supplied by Nirmal Seeds, Maharashtra State Seed Corporation and Karnataka State Seed Corporation. The International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) here has recently developed four bio-fortified pearl millet hybrids with iron and zinc — the most deficient nutrients in current diets.

The hybrids are — AHB 1200 Fe, HHB 299, RHB 233 and HHB 311 — officially released in collaboration with agricultural universities of Maharashtra (VNMKV), Haryana (CCSHAU), Rajasthan (SKNAU).

These bio-fortified varieties and hybrids will contain 7.5 to 8.0 milligrams of iron per 100 grams and 3.5 to 4.5 milligrams of zinc per 100 grams of millet.

So, consumption of 200 g/day bio-fortified bajra-based foods will provide almost 70% of daily iron and zinc requirement in men and women, and 130 gram will give 100% requirement for children.

“It took more than five years to develop these varieties with active support of ICAR and State agricultural universities. These varieties of pearl millet will offer nutrient rich food to the consumers. Minimum nutrient level has been standardized after examining as many as 120 varieties bajra across the country, ICRISAT Senior Scientist Mahalingam Govindaraj told The Hindu.

Key vitamins

“Bio-fortification is conventional crop breeding to increase micro-nutrient levels. It helps to address preventable deficiencies of key vitamins and minerals like iron, zinc and vitamin A. This project was supported by HarvestPlus Challenge program of CGIAR,” he explained.

“Since the seeds have been developed in conventional breeding method there is no need to worry. This is an excellent move in the background of malnutrition levels in India – with over 58 % of children and 50 % of pregnant women being anaemic in India, further, 38 % of children under five are stunted,” he explained.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Hyderabad / by R. Avadhani Pattancheru (Sangareddy Dt.) / June 05th, 2018

Prime posting for journalist from Hyderabad

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Leaders, Nri's / PIO's, Records, All, World Opinion

Joins Columbia Journalism School

Columbia Journalism School announced on Monday that Raju Narisetti, a leading digital media executive and editor, will join the faculty as Professor of Professional Practice and also serve as the new director of the Knight-Bagehot Fellowship in Economics and Business Journalism.

Mr. Narisetti is from Hyderabad and did his B.A. (Economics) from Osmania University and an MBA from IRMA in India. He also holds an M.A. from Indiana University, lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Kim Barrington Narisetti, and daughters Leila and Zola.

“I am delighted to join the journalism faculty and also lead the Knight-Bagehot Fellowship program at Columbia University,” he said in a release. He recently served as chief executive of Gizmodo Media Group and earlier, was News Corp’s senior vice president of strategy. He also spent 14 years at The Wall Street Journal, starting as a summer intern in 1991 and becoming an Editor too.

He also served as the managing editor for digital and new products at The Washington Post, has been Founder-Editor of Mint. He began his business journalism career at The Economic Times in New Delhi, and his U.S. journalism career at The Dayton Daily News.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Hyderabad / by Special Correspondent / Hyderabad – June 06th, 2018

Hyderabad boy bags second rank in NEET

Education, Records, All

Top-100 rank holders include 18 Telugu students

Rohan Purohit, son of a city-based cardiologist, has secured the all-India second rank in the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET-2018). Another city boy, Muppidi Varun secured the sixth rank while A. Anirudh Babu from Vijayawada was ranked eighth, bringing laurels to the Telugu states.

All the three are from open category and are students of Sri Chaitanya Educational Institutions. Purohit missed the coveted all-India first position by just one mark, but emerged top ranker in South India.

At a press conference here, Sri Chaitanya chairman B.S. Rao and director Sushma said it was a matter of pride that 18 Telugu students bagged ranks within top-100 list and of them, 17 belong to their institutions. It was an achievement par excellence and perhaps the best in the country for any single institution, Mr. Rao said.

Other top rankers from the institutions are O.V.S.H. Reddy (14th) Menda Jaideep (16th), Koduru Sriharsha (19th) Siddarth Ravi (25th), Varada Ravi Kiran (36th) and Lokesh P.M. (37th). Mr. Rao announced ₹ 25 lakh scholarship for Rohan Purohit and ₹10 lakh for Muppidi Varun. Parents of the successful students attributed the results to the teachers’ dedication.

Ms. Sushma said the students were made to practice through 134 tests in a year. In fact, 179 questions out of 180 in NEET were from Sri Chaitanya syllabus, she claimed.

An analysis of the results revealed that students of both Telugu states bagged 16% of the top 50 ranks and Delhi was the only state with a similar share. The Telugu states stood at 5th place registering 70.8% pass rate with 66,644 out of 94,130 candidates clearing the exam. The number of candidates from the ‘top 4’ States — Rajashtan, Delhi, Haryana and Chandigarh — were far lesser than those from Telugu states.

Narayana’s feat

Narayana Institutions, in a statement, claimed that their students have bagged 11 ranks in top-10 in the open and reserved categories put together.

P. Sharani Narayana and P. Sindhura Narayana, directors of Narayana Group, said their students secured open category ranks of 3rd, 5th, 9th and 10th. They explained that the success of their students lay in the unique educational programme and innovative teaching methodologies designed for medical aspirants.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Telangana / by R Ravikanth Reddy / Hyderabad – June 04th, 2018