Category Archives: Science & Technology

Bharat Biotech to start pre-clinical trials of vaccine for Zika virus

Amazing Feats, Science & Technology, World Opinion

Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech has filed for global patent of two vaccine candidates – a recombinant vaccine and an inactivated vaccine – for Zika virus.

The company announced that it could make available the inactivated vaccine in two years if the Indian Government fast-tracked the regulatory approvals once the pre-clinical trials proved to be successful.

Krishna Ella, Chairman and Managing Director of Bharat Biotech at at a press conference in Hyderabad on Wednesday. - Photo: Mohammed Yousuf / The Hindu
Krishna Ella, Chairman and Managing Director of Bharat Biotech at at a press conference in Hyderabad on Wednesday. – Photo: Mohammed Yousuf
/ The Hindu

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, Krishna Ella, Chairman and Managing Director of the company, said that Bharat Biotech was probably the first in the world to file for global patent for the two promising Zikavac vaccine candidates.

While the recombinant vaccine might take time, the pre-clinical testing of the inactivated vaccine in animals would be completed in five months.

He said that the company had invested over $ 150 million since its inception to build its portfolio of vaccines, which included Rotovac (rotavirus vaccine) and Typbar TCV, typhoid conjugate vaccine. He said that a patent was also filed for Chikungunya vaccine, which would be entering Phase-1 trials shortly.

Bharat Biotech Director R & D Sumathy said that work on Zika vaccine project was started in 2014 and the patent was filed in July 2015. She said that Zika fever was an unmet healthcare need in India and other countries and the potential for Zika virus epidemic was high.

Mr. Krishna Ella said the normal process for a vaccine to get commercialised would take seven years, including the clinical trials.

However, he said that the Zikavac vaccine could be made available if the Indian Government declares national emergency and moves aggressively in regulatory approvals. He said that women would be the prime target group for the vaccine, followed by adults of both the genders since the virus causes Guillain-Barre syndrome in them.

Zika virus disease is an emerging viral disease transmitted through the bite of an infected Aedes mosquito. / AP
Zika virus disease is an emerging viral disease transmitted through the bite of an infected Aedes mosquito. / AP

A Bharat Biotech press release said that the WHO just announced a disease linked to the Zika virus in Latin America poses a global public health emergency requiring a united response.

Zika is now present in 23 countries. Brazil, the hardest-hit country, has reported around 3,500 cases of the devastating birth defect called microcephaly. The Zika virus is spread by mosquitoes of the Aedes genus, which can breed in a pool of water as small as a bottle cap and usually bite during the day.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Business / by Y. Mallikarjun / Hyderabad – February 03rd, 2016

Six Startups Attract Investors Support

Business & Economy, Science & Technology

Hyderabad :

It’s always a major problem for the startups to attract investors and get some funding, but it was not so on Saturday.

Six out of the 11 startups which have pitched their ideas at ‘Startup-a-thon 1.0’ have been able to attract investors and are now just a step away from getting some funding ranging between Rs 30 lakh and Rs 1.50 crore.

Manoj Sharma, CTO Quikr, speaking at the Startup-a-thon-1.0, in Hyderabad on Saturday. | Express Photo
Manoj Sharma, CTO Quikr, speaking at the Startup-a-thon-1.0, in Hyderabad on Saturday. | Express Photo

Out of the six, four startups will directly go for negotiations with investors and the remaining two need to pass through another round and will be allowed to have negotiations only if they clear this particular round. Besides, the event has also provided an opportunity to all the other startups (30) to get some mentorship opportunity.

“Mentoring and funding are the two major problems the startups face and, in order to solve these issues, we have organised this problem. Although only six startups have got short-listed, the main advantage of this programme is that every startup that participated in the event got some mentorship. Now, they know exactly what they are lacking and, by working on their weakness in future, they will be in a better state to pitch,” Maj. Sunil Shetty (retd), CEO and founder of Ask Mentor, said.

The two-day event also witnessed the inauguration of college-specific incubation centre at St Martin Engineering College (SMEC), Kompally. On day one, a mentoring workshop and preliminary round of startup pitches was held and eleven students were selected and were given a chance to pitch to the investors.

“Generally, a student takes at least five years’ time after graduation to become a entrepreneur. Our main aim is to reduce this gap by providing mentorship programme. In order to provide support to the youngsters, we started an incubator at SMEC college. This will be made available even to the outside students so that every student gets benefit from this,” said Rajiv Lulla, director (strategy) of askfunding.in.

“The initiative taken by askmentor and askfunding is commendable. In order to show our support for the event, we are introducing our developer platform to students so that they can make use of it. It is same as the in-house site we use and anyone can register freely and make use of the basic services,” Manoj Sharma, CTO of Quikr.com, said.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Telangana / by Express News Service / January 31st, 2016

Telugu states bag 14 Padma awards

Amazing Feats, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Inspiration / Positive News and Features, Leaders, Records, All, Science & Technology, Sports

Hyderabad :

Telangana and Andhra Pradesh once again made their mark on the national stage with 14 individuals from the two Telugu speaking states bagging the Padma awards.

Between them, the two states shared two Padma Vibhushan awards, five Padma Bhushans and seven Padma Shris for the year 2016. The awards were announced in New Delhi on the eve of the Republic Day on Tuesday.

Last year, the two states had to settle for four Padma Shri awards while the year before in 2014, unified AP had the honour of receiving two Padma Bhushans and seven Padma Shri awards.

Leading the winners this year are Ch Ramoji Rao of the Eenadu Group, who was chosen for the Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian award in the country, for his contribution to education, literature and journalism. The danseuse Yamini Krishnamurthy is the other winner of the award.

Chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana N Chandrababu Naidu and K Chandrasekhar Rao expressed happiness at the Ramoji Group chairman being chosen for the prestigious award. Naidu said Ramoji Rao had taken print and television journalism to great heights. He had launched ‘Eenadu’ in Visakhapatnam in 1974.

The 79-year-old Ramoji Rao, who was born in Pedaparupudi of Krishna district in Andhra Pradesh, is also a film producer with 87 films to his credit, has a chit fund business and owns a group of hotels. His Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad is a filmmaking destination for producers even from Hollywood, apart from being a tourist attraction.

Among the Padma Bhushan winners are the popular sports stars Sania Mirza (tennis) and Saina Nehwal (badminton). With the Rio de Janeiro Olympics round the corner, the awards are expected to come as a great boost to both of them. Mirza had won the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award last year.

SS Rajamouli, who made waves with his blockbuster film ‘Bahubali’ has been awarded the Padma Shri. Rajamouli, officially listed as hailing from Karnataka by the government in its release announcing the awards, is currently shooting in Kerala for ‘Bahubali-2’.

His father, K Vijayendra Prasad, told TOI that he was happy that his son has been given the award. “First of all, it is God’s grace. And secondly, he is sincere, hardworking and humble. He deserves the award,” he said.

Two other well-known personalities from the city, social worker Sunita Krishnan won the Padma Shri while gastroenterologist Dr D Nageshwar Reddy has been awarded the Padma Bhushan.

Well-known artist K Laxma Goud, cardiothoracic surgeon Dr Mannam Gopi Chand and cardiac surgeon Dr Alla Gopalakrishna Gokhale were also awarded the Padma Shri.

QUOTE
This award is not just mine, but belongs to all Telugu people who have been with me in this journey in journalism
Ramoji Rao
First of all, it is God’s grace. And secondly, he is sincere, hardworking and humble. He deserves the award
– K Vijayendra Prasad, father of director SS Rajamouli

|Telugu Winners
Padma Vibhushan
Yamini Krishnamurthy Art classical dance
Ch Ramoji Rao Literature, education & journalism

Padma Bhushan
Dr Alla Venkata ama Rao Science and engineering
Yarlagadda Laxmi Prasad Literature and education
Dr D nageshwar Reddy Medicine, gastroenterology
Saina Nehwal Sports – Badminton
Sania Mirza Sports Tennis Padma

Padma Shri
Dr Nayudamma Yarlagadda Medicine, pediatric surgery
Sunita Krishnan social work
Dr TV Narayana social work
SS Rajamouli Art Film direction & production (Officially listed as from Karnataka)

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> India / TNN / January 26th, 2016

T-Hub Launches its Own Incubation Programme

Business & Economy, Science & Technology

Hyderabad :

In an endeavour to bring the best for the startup ecosystem in Hyderabad, the T-Hub has launched its very own incubation programme namely LAB/32 here on Saturday.

A few handpicked startups will be a part of this programme, where they will not only have access to the best names in the industry, but will also be given the opportunity to pitch to VCs and angel investors from the country as well as globally.

Speaking at the launch, Jay Krishnan, CEO, T-Hub said, “A good hockey player knows where the puck is. A great hockey player knows where the puck is going to be. That’s a line by Wayne Gretsky, arguably one of the greatest hockey players in the world.

Our job, at the T- hub is exactly that – To try and help entrepreneurs, through our programmes, to be awesome entrepreneurs running amazing ventures, who can foresee where the market is going to be. And we commit to doing that through LAB/32,” he said.

“Our goal at the T-Hub is to turn Hyderabad into one of the most vibrant startup ecosystems in the world, and to create success for our startups. The launch of our own incubation programme, LAB/32, is the next step in that direction, and our deep connections to world-class mentors, investors and organizations, along with great support will make it one of the best incubators in the country,” Srinivas Kollipara, Founder & COO, T-Hub, said.

Through this programme, T-Hub is bringing together partnerships in the form of individuals and organizations from different verticals to help entrepreneurs shorten the sprint towards their goal. To make things easy for the newbies, the service providers including legal professionals, chartered accountants, company secretaries, investment bankers, etc will all be just a call away.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Hyderabad / by Express News Service / January 24th, 2016

PEDICON-2016 begins today

Science & Technology, World Opinion

Hyderabad :

Three different associations — Asia Pacific Congress of Paediatrics, Indian Academy of Paediatrics and Asia Pacific Paediatric Nursing Association — are jointly hosting APCP PEDICON-2016, a four-day conference starting from 21 January.

The four-day event is expected to see over 10,000 delegates arriving in the city from as many as 22 countries from the Asia Pacific region to attend the four-day event.

Chief organising Secretaries for APCP PEDICON Dr N Ravi Kumar, U S Jagadish Chandra and co-chairman Ajoy Kumar said that the mega event would mainly focus on child health care issues especially paediatric nursing.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Hyderabad / TNN / January 21st, 2016

T-Hub becomes a case study for other states

Business & Economy, Science & Technology, World Opinion

Hyderabad :

Having roped in 130 companies and 40 top mentors from the Tech world, T-hub now has students in state governments from Karnataka, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Orissa and Assam.

These state governments have visited Hyderabad over the last one month to study the largest start up ecosystem of the country, aiming at catching up on the innovation scene and has asked the IT department to help replicate the model. Apart from the ecosystem, even the green building have been studied by these states. Representatives from four more states will visit the hub soon, officials said.

Despite a beeline of states wanting to replicate the largest incubator, T-hub is expected to remain on the top of the incubation scene, as it will reap the benefit of beginning early in the race, as per insiders. “Apart from states, Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) from Bhubaneshwar, Delhi and Bangalore have visited the incubator to study the set-up,” said K Srinivas, CEO T-hub.

The T-hub, meanwhile, is signing up more accelerators in the near future. Under the launch pad, seeding funding, mentorship, incubation space, industry hand-holding, partners and investors have been brought under one platform for better access for start-ups.

A previous T-hub concept was planned by Kerala few years back, but it did not translate into success due to lack of good mentors. The project did not take off, despite being the first state to recognize the power of innovations and start-ups in case of Kerala.

“There is so much of hunger in the innovation community for this kind of an initiative that within five days of launching T-hub, the entire 70,000 sft space was full. Start-ups and innovations are going to be the biggest growth drivers in future and the national government is now waking up to the power of start-ups. Having started early and having created T-hub as the largest and organized ecosystem, we are bound to remain on the top,” said Jayesh Ranjan, Secretary IT, Telangana.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Hyderabad / TNN / December 30th, 2015

KITS Warangal students bag award

Education, Records, All, Science & Technology

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) award for the best student-project of the 2014-15 batch was given to KITS Warangal students – V. Sri Raga Madhuri, V. Shiva Prasad, K. Srikanth Reddy and T. Pratheek Reddy –for their project titled ‘Design and Development of Vertical Rotary Parking System’.

V. Rajanna, TCS vice-president and regional head, gave away the award to students. The project was done by students from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kakatiya Institute of Technology & Science, Warangal. The award comprises a gold medal, a certificate and a cash price of Rs. 20,000.

TCS Best Student-Project Award is presented to one project each nominated by colleges with which the TCS has signed an MoU. The award aims at promoting creativity and socially useful projects. Management members and secretary Capt. V. Lakshmikantha Rao congratulated the winners.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Telangana / by Special Correspondent / Warangal – December 30th, 2015

Digital library inaugurated at Gitam

Education, Nri's / PIO's, Science & Technology

Prof. S.S. Rao from the University of Miami, Florida, USA, inaugurated the ‘Digital Library’ at Gitam University, Hyderabad campus on Tuesday and appreciated School of Technology (SoT) for the latest state-of the-art high technology e-learning such as 30 lakh e-books, Ebrary (90,300 titles), Digital Engineering Library, Pearson E-Books, SONET & NPTEL videos, IRC technical papers and the course material developed by GITAM faculty, etc. He stressed the importance of “e-resource and digital library”.

Prof. P. Nithiarasu, College of Engineering, Swansea University, UK, inaugurated the systems in the digital library. The digital library aimed at thwarting out the traditional difficulty in finding out information required for the students for academic as well as for extracurricular purposes from huge voluminous books of numerous pages, is highly beneficial for the students as it has been structured with quick search facilities and various multimedia streaming techniques. With a single click, the students will be able to access information needed for them stored in the digital library server in various content formats.

Prof. N. Siva Prasad, Director, SoT, Prof. Ch. Sanjay, Prof. S.S. Prasada Rao, D.V.V.S.R. Varma, resident director and others were present.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Telangana / by Staff Reporter / Sangareddy – December 16th, 2015

Award for UoH student

Education, Records, All, Science & Technology

Shaikshavali, PhD Scholar in the School of Engineering Sciences and Technology (SEST) at the University of Hyderabad (UoH), has won the best poster award for his presentation on “Graphene Oxide Assisted Reduction of Metal Precursors to form Graphene/Metal Oxide Composites and their Application in Energy Storage” at the 4th Nano Today conference held at Dubai.

This is the third such international best poster award he secured during his PhD studies. He will be submitting his PhD thesis on Nano Science and Technology under the supervision of Dr. V.V.S.S. Srikanth.

Organised by Elsevier, the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, and the journal Nano Today, the conference seeks to bring together researchers interested in nano-science and nanotechnology.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Hyderabad / by Special Correspondent / Hyderabad – December 14th, 2015

Satya Nadella to Unveil Four New IT Policies of Telengana

Business & Economy, Science & Technology, World Opinion

Satya Nadella | File AP
Satya Nadella | File AP

Hyderabad :

Microsoft Corporation CEO Satya Nadella will unveil four new policies of the government of Telangana, IT minister KT Rama Rao has said.

Speaking at the inauguration of an animation and gaming incubator of Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) here on Saturday, Rama Rao said, “What is more important than creating infrastructure is framing of policies. We have invited Satya Nadella to T-Hub on December 28. On the same day we are going to launch four new policies on Information Technology, Innovation, Image and Electronic System Design Manufacturing (ESDM). Our focus will now be on both software and hardware, and these policies, especially ESDM, will help us compete with countries like Taiwan and South Korea which have done exceptionally well in hardware. We will ask Nadella to unveil our policies and we hope that some other bright gentlemen will also join us on that day.”

Referring to a suggestion made by one of the speakers at the inaugural, Rama Rao said the gaming city would be renamed as Image. “I really liked the name Image. It’s fantastic. It kind of sums up the mood that is there in the state today. It talks about innovation, incubation, incorporation. The young minds that we talk about today are all reflected in that ‘I’ and we are happy that somebody suggested that we go with the name Image. From here on we will call it Image instead of gaming city.”

Speaking about the incubator, Rama Rao said, “I am happy that this campus came up here because right across we are planning to build the T-Hub Phase-II and Image, having everything in the same vicinity will be very helpful to youngsters interested in multimedia, animation, gaming, VFX, etc. This is the right time for them to look at more opportunities in this sector.”

Gaming City to Be Renamed as Image

Satya Nadella will unveil four new policies on IT, Innovation, Image and Electronic System Design Manufacturing (ESDM) of the state government on December 28

The foundation stone for Image will be laid early next year

Coinciding with Image launch, Hyderabad will host international conference on gaming, animation, visual effects, etc

He advised IT department secretary Jayesh Rajan and others to plan the launch of Image and get it ready by the month of February. “Early next year what we proposed to do is to have an international conference on gaming, animation, visual effects, etc. Let us bring in the best of the world to this place and I request Ranjan to complete all the formalities so that Image will be ready for launch and we can lay the foundation stone. Coinciding with that we can have a conference with all these bright minds,” the minister said.

“The intent of the government is very clear: under the guidance of our Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao we have in the last 18 months ascertained the position as one of the premier destinations for IT in the country. But we are not completely content with that.”

“In fact, there are multiple initiatives which are currently in progress and with the kind of planning we will reach greater heights,” Rama Rao said.

Terming Hyderabad as the safest place in the country, KTR said, “We feel sorry for what is happening in Chennai. No other city is as safe as Hyderabad is and no other city is shielded from these natural forces. I think Hyderabad has this unique opportunity. We have to seize this and make sure that we become premier destination for IT and other fields.”

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Telangana / by Express News Service / December 06th, 2015