Category: Science & Technology

** Narinder Singh Kapany: The relentless innovator behind the science of fibre optics

Known as the ‘Father of Fibre Optics’, Dr Narinder Singh Kapany had over 100 patents under his name.

For someone who was hailed as one of the seven unsung heroes of the 20th century for his Nobel Prize-deserving invention in 1999 by Fortune magazine, Narinder Singh Kapany remains relatively unknown.

The Indian American scientist was a multi-faceted personality—physicist, innovator, entrepreneur, farmer, philanthropist, and an avid art collector.

he also invented Retinal laser coagulation treatment. He became the first Indian Sikh to take a company public in Silicon Valley. 

In 1967, Kapany created the Sikh Foundation that pioneered the display of Sikh Arts at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and established the first permanent Sikh Art Gallery in the United States and Canada

** The growth of India’s defence exports

The story so far: India’s defence exports have increased from ₹1,521 crore in 2016-17 to ₹8,434.84 crore in 2020-21. The figure stood at ₹10,745 crore in 2018-19. The Government has set an ambitious target to achieve exports of about ₹35,000 crore ($5 billion) in aerospace and defence goods and services by 2025.

According to the latest report of the Swedish think tank Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), three Indian companies figure among the top 100 defence companies in the 2020 rankings — Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Ordnance Factory Board and Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL). “Their aggregated arms sales of $6.5 billion were 1.7% higher in 2020 than in 2019 and accounted for 1.2% of the top 100 total,” the report, released earlier this month, said.

** Ramanujan Prize 2021 winner Neena Gupta: ‘There’s a lot more to be done in mathematics field yet’

Neena Gupta is the third woman to receive the Ramanujan Prize, which was first awarded in 2005. She is the fourth Indian to win this prestigious prize. Prior to her, three of the other four winners are also associated with the ISI Kolkata.

** IIT Dropout Series: Jharkhand boy left IIT Delhi for own startup, now runs a Rs 500-crore company with global partnerships

Ankit Prasad made it to the list of Forbes 30 under 30 in 2018 and has also been recognised in the Business World magazine’s 40 Under 40 list.

However, he wanted to tap into the growing smartphone industry and in 2015 founded ‘Bobble AI’ which created ‘Bobble Indic’ keyboard. Around 120 languages from around the world, as well as 37 Indian languages, are assisted by the keyboard. Bobble AI’s valuation was recorded to be over 500 crores in 2020, which increased to more than 750 crores in the third quarter of 2021.

** Urgent need to address shortage of 4.3 million nurses in India: Experts

“India has over 3 million registered nurses & midwives who are responsible for the country’s 1.3 billion population, which is grossly inadequate. This is less than the WHO norm of 3 nurses per 1,000 population and India needs to add more than 4.3 million nurses by 2024 to meet the prescribed WHO norms,” the Forum said in a statement.

Speaking during the discussion, Dr T Dileep Kumar, president, Indian Nursing Council, highlighted the need for nursing leadership and making nurses part of policy making.

** IIT (ISM) Innovation hub develops lac scrapping machine

IIT (ISM)’s innovation hub – Atal Community Innovation Center (ACIC), has taken into account the difficulties faced by lac growers in manually scraping lac from sticlac. They have developed a lac scrapping machine

Talking to The Telegraph Online, Amit Shukla, Chief Executive Officer ACIC  at IIT (ISM) Dhanbad said “Jharkhand produces almost half of the total quantity of lac produced in India. Jharkhand’s share makes India the world’s top lac producer.”

* DFRL’s ready-to-eat menu for Gaganyaan mission

The Defence Food Research Laboratory (DFRL) in Mysuru has prepared a slew of ready-to-eat dishes tailor-made for India’s space programme Gaganyaan.

The DFRL has prepared about 40 to 50 menus comprising both vegetarian and non-vegetarian items and the trials are in the preliminary stages.

** Vertical Launch Short Range Surface-to-Air Missile successfully tested

It has paved way for integration of weapon system onboard naval ships, says DRDO Chairman

The Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) on Tuesday successfully flight tested the Vertical Launch Short Range Surface-to-Air Missile from Integrated Test Range, Chandipur, off the coast of Odisha.

“The launch was conducted from a vertical launcher against an electronic target at a very low altitude. The flight path of the vehicle along with health parameters was monitored using a number of tracking instruments deployed by ITR, Chandipur. All sub-systems performed as per expectation,” the DRDO said.

** Meta opens new office in India; will skill 1 crore small businesses

The new office building in Gurugram will house teams from across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp

Meta, formerly Facebook, on Wednesday opened one of its largest offices in Asia in India, and announced plans to skill 1 crore small businesses and 2,50,000 creators over the next three years in the country through its Centre for Fuelling India’s New Economy (C-FINE).

The new office building in Gurugram, which hosts the C-FINE, will house teams from across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.