Category: RECORDS, ALL OTHER excl. Asia & India

** The forgotten Scots of the first Everest expedition of 1921 – one died, the other went mad

A century ago, in May 1921 the first expedition to reconnoitre and to possibly attempt to ascend Mount Everest left Darjeeling in India.

On it was George Mallory who died on the mountain in 1924 and whose name is forever associated with Chomolungma to give the mountain its correct name.

But also on the expedition were two Scotsmen, Alexander Kellas from Aberdeen and Harold Raeburn from Edinburgh – both of whose mountaineering achievements were arguably greater than those of Mallory. Today they have been largely forgotten.

** How the Cold War in Germany played a small yet significant part in establishing IIT Madras

A recently-published research paper unearths an oft-forgotten chapter in the establishment of IIT-Madras and its connection with the Cold War in Germany, which resulted in the formation of the now-revered institution.

One of the “largest and most successful educational projects” that emerged out of Indo-German relations during the Cold War, was the establishment of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) in 1959, which, when seen from the perspective of FDR, was largely driven by the Cold War foreign policy it shared with India.

** India topped 2020 vehicle imports into South Africa despite COVID-19 impact: Report

India was the top country of origin for vehicle imports into South Africa despite the lengthy COVID-19 lockdowns and overall declines in vehicle sales in 2020, according to the latest 2021 auto report.

The Automotive Export Manual report released here on Friday by the Automotive Industry Export Council said that India has been established by several global brands as a production hub for entry-level and small vehicles, and most of the vehicles imported from India fell into these categories.

Volkswagen’s Polo Vivo was the only vehicle in these segments that was manufactured locally in South Africa in 2020.

** Reliance Retail 2nd fastest growing retailer in world

The top 10 has seven US retailers and one from the UK (Tesco PLC at 10th position).

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Retail Ltd has been ranked second fastest growing retailer in the world in the 2021 ranking of global retail power houses by Deloitte, down from top rank secured the previous years.

It has been ranked 53rd in the list of Global Powers of Retailing, improvement from 56th earlier, according to the Deloitte report.

** Chandigarh Diary: All that is happening in the ‘Land of Five rivers’

PGIMER professor wins public health award

While a PGIMER professor won a public health award by the American Thoracic Society​, the Panjab University Senate elections scheduled for May 3 have been postponed.

Professor Digambar Behera, senior professor and head, Department of Pulmonary Medicine at Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education & Research (PGIMER) has been awarded the ‘ATS Public Service Award-2021’ by the American Thoracic Society.

** Meet Pubarun Basu who won the Youth Photographer of the Year 2021 at the Sony World Photography Awards

The 20-year-old photographer from Kolkata won the award for his photograph, No Escape from Reality

“There were 3,30,000 entries from around 220 regions around the world. I am the first Indian to win this title. I am humbled by the recognition,” he says.

** ‘My Octopus Teacher’: Swati Thiyagarajan on the Netflix documentary’s Oscars win

Filmmaker and environmental journalist Swati talks to us about the award-winning film, that features her husband Craig Foster forging a relationship with an octopus

** Biocon subsidiary gets approval to market cancer drug Abevmy in Europe

Bengaluru-based pharmaceutical company Biocon Biologics has received approval from the European Commission to market breast, ovarian, cervical and renal cancer drug ‘Abevmy’.

The company got the approval for the Abevmy in two strengths — 100mg and 400 mg