Amazing Feats – Page 21 – Global Records India

Assam Swimmer Creates Record by Covering 200 km of Indo-Arabian Gateway in 53 Hours

A swimming champion from Assam recently became the first swimmer from North East India to cover 200 km of the Indo Arabian Gateway Mumbai Circle in 53 hours. Elvis Ali Hazarika achieved the feat with the help of his relay team. Union minister of Ports and Shipping, Sarbananda Sonowal, tweeted about Elvis’ achievement and congratulated him.

“Congrats Elvis! 200 Km in 53 Hrs. Yet another feat by ace swimmer Elvis Ali Hazarika to cover the Indo Arabian Gateway Mumbai Circle swim with his relay team, becoming the first from the North East to do so. Keep it up, champ.”

news18.com

In a first, indigenous ATAGS to be part of 21-gun salute on Independence Day

It will stand as a testament to India’s growing capacity of developing arms and ammunition, says Defence Secretary

In a first, an indigenous artillery gun, the Advanced Towed Artillery Gun System (ATAGS), will be used along with the usual 25-Pounders for the 21-gun salute during the Independence Day celebrations at Red Fort this year.

“The initiative to use this indigenously developed gun will stand as a testament to India’s growing capacity of developing arms and ammunition indigenously. The gun has been specifically customised both in terms of blank firing and sound attributes so that it will be useful for ceremonial purposes,” Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar said, briefing the media on this year’s celebrations.

Since Independence, the ceremonial 21-gun salute is accorded by seven vintage Quick Fire 25 Pounder guns which fire blank rounds as the National Anthem is played after the hoisting of the National Flag by the Prime Minister.

This year, in addition to the 25-Pounders, as they are popularly known, one ATAGS will be used, Mr. Kumar said.

The ATAGS is a 155 mm, 52 calibre heavy artillery gun jointly developed by the Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE), the Pune-based laboratory of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), in partnership with Bharat Forge and Tata Group. In May, the gun successfully completed validation trails towards meeting the specifications of the Army and is now ready for induction.

CorbeVax cleared as precaution dose vaccine, awaits WHO’s emergency use listing

This the first time that a booster dose that is different from the one used for primary vaccination has been allowed in the country

Still awaiting World Health Organisation’s emergency use listing (EUL) the Central Government on August 10 approved Biological E’s CorbeVax as a precaution dose for those above 18 years fully vaccinated with either Covishield or Covaxin.

EUL is a risk-based procedure for assessing and listing unlicensed vaccines, therapeutics and in-vitro diagnostics with the ultimate aim of expediting the availability of products to people affected by a public health emergency. Also international travel in many countries requires people to get a vaccine that’s on the WHO’s approved list.

That pending, the latest approval by the Central Government makes this the first time that a booster dose that is different from the one used for primary vaccination has been allowed in the country.

This will be in addition to the existing guidelines for homologous precaution dose administration of Covaxin and Covishield vaccine. Also all necessary changes in regard to the administration of precaution dose of CorbeVax vaccine are being made on the Co-WIN portal.

The approval is based on the recommendations made recently by the Covid-19 Working Group of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI). CorbeVax is to be considered as a precaution dose after completion of six months or 26 weeks from the date of administration of the second dose of either Covaxin or Covishield vaccines for those aged above 18 years enabling use of CorbeVax as a heterologous Covid-19 vaccine for precaution dose administration in this age group.

Sunil Chhetri, Manisha Kalyan named men’s and women’s AIFF Footballer of Year

Sunil Chhetri, the third highest goal scorer among active international players, was first named for the award in 2007

National captain Sunil Chhetri was on Tuesday named the AIFF Men’s Footballer of the Year for the seventh time while Manisha Kalyan was picked for her maiden honour in the women’s category for the 2021-22 season.

Chhetri and Kalyan were nominated as the winners by their respective national team coaches Igor Stimac and Thomas Dennerby.

Chhetri, the third highest goal scorer among active international players, was first named for the award in 2007. He then went on to win it in 2011, 2013, 2014, 2017, 2018–19 seasons.

“Sunil was our highest goal-scorer, scoring 5 goals, and also the Player of the Tournament in the SAFF Cup,” Stimac said.

“Furthermore, he led from the front scoring 4 goals in 3 games in the 3rd round of AFC Asian Cup qualifiers in Kolkata. His commitment, leadership, discipline and hard work were impressive throughout bad, and good times.”

For Kalyan, it was her first Women’s Footballer of the Year award. She won the Women’s Emerging Footballer of the Year in the 2020-21 season.

“Manisha has come up with some outstanding performances for the National Team, and also her club. She has scored goals, and also assisted on a regular basis,” Dennerby said.

“Blessed with excellent speed and being a good dribbler, she has the potential to play in bigger leagues in the future. She’s young, and still developing but has been our best player.”

Kalyan recently signed a multi-year contract with Cypriot top division winners Apollon Ladies, which has earned a place in the qualifying rounds of the 2022-23 UEFA Women’s Champions League.

In other awards, Martina Thokchom was named the 2021-22 Women’s Emerging Footballer of the Year, and Vikram Partap Singh was picked as the 2021-22 Men’s Emerging Footballer of the Year by the two national team coaches.

AIFF Awards (2021-22):

Women’s Footballer of the Year: Manisha Kalyan

Men’s Footballer of the Year: Sunil Chhetri

Women’s Emerging Footballer of the Year: Martina Thokchom

Men’s Emerging Footballer of the Year: Vikram Partap Singh

Best Referee of the Year: Crystal John

Best Assistant Referee of the Year: Ujjal Halder

CWG 2022: Here’s the full list of 61 medals won by India at Birmingham Commonwealth Games

Indian athletes won medals across 12 different sports that included a historic gold medal in lawn bowls while wrestlers once again had a 100% strike rate.

India ended the 2022 Commonwealth Games on Monday with 61 medals: 22 gold, 16 silver and 23 bronze medals, which placed the contingent fourth on the overall standings.

India’s campaign in Birmingham ended with gold medals for PV Sindhu, Lakshya Sen and Satwiksairaj-Chirag Shetty in badminton and Sharath Kamal in table tennis. Sathiyan G won bronze in TT while the men’s hockey team won silver in the final on Monday.

Scroll.in’s full coverage of CWG 2022 here.

MEDAL TALLY: India finish fourth in the final standing with 61 medals

Weightlifters Sanket Sargar, Gururaja Poojary, Bindyarani Devi and Mirabai Chanu opened India’s medal account on the second day of the Games.

India secured medals in 12 different sporting disciplines.

India topped the individual discipline medal tally in wrestling, weightlifting, badminton and table tennis (including para table tennis).

The women’s fours lawn bowls fours team scripted history by winning India’s first medal in the sport when they clinched gold. The men’s team also came back with a silver medal.

PV Sindhu completed her set of Commonwealth Games medals, winning the elusive singles gold to add to the silver and bronze she won at previous editions. Lakshya Sen, and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty won gold in men’s singles and doubles events as India claimed six medals in badminton.

In athletics, Eldhose Paul and Abdulla Aboobacker completed a historic 1-2 after winning gold and silver in the men’s triple jump. Avinash Sable put in arguably the best individual performance by an Indian athlete in Birmingham when he ended Kenya’s 24-year-old monopoly in the 3000m steeplechase by winning silver.

The veteran Achanta Sharath Kamal, playing in his fifth Commonwealth Games, won medals in all four table tennis events he participated in including a first gold in mixed doubles to complete his set of gold medals.

The Indian wrestlers won medals in all events for the second time in a row with Vinesh Phogat completing her hattrick of gold medals.

For the first time in the history of the Commonwealth Games, India won medals in both the men’s and women’s hockey event in the same edition after the men won silver while the women clinched bronze.

Here is the list of all 61 medals won by India at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham

Athletics

ATHLETES	EVENT	MEDAL
Eldhose Paul	Men’s Triple Jump	GOLD
Abdulla Aboobacker	Men’s Triple Jump	SILVER
Avinash Sable	Men’s 3000m Steeplechase	SILVER
Priyanka Goswami	Women’s 10km Race Walk	SILVER
M Sreeshankar	Men’s Long Jump	SILVER
Tejaswin Shankar	Men’s High Jump	BRONZE
Annu Rani	Women’s Javelin Throw	BRONZE
Sandeep Kumar	Men’s 10km Race Walk	BRONZE

Badminton

ATHLETES	EVENT	MEDAL
PV Sindhu	Women’s singles	GOLD
Lakshya Sen	Men’s Singles	GOLD
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty	Men’s Doubles	GOLD
Kidambi Srikanth, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, B Sumeeth Reddy, Lakshya Sen, Chirag Shetty, Treesa Jolly, Aakarshi Kashyap, Ashwini Ponnappa, Gayatri Gopichand, PV Sindhu	Mixed Team	SILVER
Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand	Women’s Doubles	BRONZE
Kidambi Srikanth	Men’s Singles	BRONZE

Boxing

ATHLETES	EVENT	MEDAL
Nikhat Zareen	Women’s 50kg	GOLD
Nitu Ghanghas	Women’s 48kg	GOLD
Amit Panghal	Men’s 51kg	GOLD
Sagar Ahlawat	Men’s +92kg	SILVER
Rohit Tokas	Men’s 67kg	BRONZE
Jaismine	Women’s 60kg	BRONZE
Mohammed Hussamuddin	Men’s 57kg	BRONZE

Cricket

ATHLETES	EVENT	MEDAL
Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Taniya Bhatia, Yastika Bhatia, Harleen Deol, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Sabbineni Meghana, Sneh Rana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Meghna Singh, Renuka Singh Thakur, Pooja Vastrakar, Shafali Verma, Radha Yadav	Cricket T20	SILVER

Hockey

ATHLETES	EVENT	MEDAL
Manpreet Singh, Harmanpreet Singh, Jarmanpreet Singh, Abhishake Nain, Surender Kumar, Hardik Singh, Gurjant Singh, Mandeep Singh, Krishan Bahadur Pathak, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, PR Sreejesh, Nilakanta Sharma, Shamsher Singh, Varun Kumar, Akashdeep Singh, Amit Rohidas, Jigraj Singh, Vivek Sagar Prasad	Men’s Hockey	SILVER
Savita Punia, Gurjit Kaur, Deep Grace Ekka, Monika, Sonika, Sharmila Devi, Nikki Pradhan, Rajani Etimarpu, Sangita Kumari, Nisha, Vandana Katariya, Udita, Lalremsiami, Jyoti, Navneet Kaur, Sushila Chanu Pukhrambam, Salima Tete, Neha Goyal	Women’s Hockey	BRONZE

Judo

ATHLETES	EVENT	MEDAL
Sushila Devi Likmabam	Women’s 48kg	SILVER
Tulika Maan	Women’s +78kg	SILVER
Vijay Kumar Yadav	Men’s 60kg	BRONZE

Lawn Bowls

ATHLETES	EVENT	MEDAL
Lovely Choubey, Rupa Rani Tirkey, Naynmoni Saikia, Pinki	Women’s Fours	GOLD
Chandan Kumar Singh, Dinesh Kumar, Navneet Singh, Sunil Bahadur	Men’s Fours	SILVER

Powerlifting

ATHLETES	EVENT	MEDAL
Sudhir	Men’s Heavyweight	GOLD

Squash

ATHLETES	EVENT	MEDAL
Saurav Ghosal	Men’s Singles	BRONZE
Dipika Pallikal Karthik and Saurav Ghosal	Mixed Doubles	BRONZE

Table Tennis and Para Table Tennis

ATHLETES	EVENT	MEDAL
Achanta Sharath Kamal and Sreeja Akula	Mixed Doubles	GOLD
Achanta Sharath Kamal, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Harmeet Desai, Sanil Shetty	Men’s Team	GOLD
Bhavina Patel	Women’s Singles Classes 3-5	GOLD
Achanta Sharath Kamal	Men’s Singles	GOLD
Achanta Sharath Kamal and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran	Men’s Doubles	SILVER
Sathiyan Gnanasekaran	Men’s Singles	BRONZE
Sonal Patel	Women’s Singles Classes 3-5	BRONZE

Weightlifting

ATHLETES	EVENT	MEDAL
Saikom Mirabai Chanu	Women’s 49kg	GOLD
Jeremy Lalrinnunga	Men’s 67kg	GOLD
Achinta Sheuli	Men’s 73kg	GOLD
Sanket Sargar	Men’s 55kg	SILVER
Bindyarani Devi	Women’s 55kg	SILVER
Vikas Thakur	Men’s 96kg	SILVER
Gururaja Poojary	Men’s 61kg	BRONZE
Harjinder Kaur	Women’s 71kg	BRONZE
Lovepreet Singh	Men’s 109kg	BRONZE
Gurdeep Singh	Men’s 109+kg	BRONZE

Wrestling

ATHLETES	EVENT	MEDAL
Bajrang Punia	Men’s 65kg	GOLD
Sakshi Malik	Women’s 62kg	GOLD
Deepak Punia	Men’s 86kg	GOLD
Ravi Kumar Dahiya	Men’s 57kg	GOLD
Vinesh Phogat	Women’s 53kg	GOLD
Naveen	Men’s 74kg	GOLD
Anshu Malik	Women’s 57kg	SILVER
Divya Kakran	Women’s 68kg	BRONZE
Mohit Grewal	Men’s 125kg	BRONZE
Pooja Gehlot	Women’s 50kg	BRONZE
Pooja Sihag	Women’s 76kg	BRONZE
Deepak Nehra	Men’s 97kg	BRONZE

source/content: scroll.in (headline edited)

HAL developing AI-driven long-endurance drone for vigil over China border

State-run aerospace behemoth Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) is working on an AI-driven multi-role, advanced and long-endurance drone for strategic missions in high-altitude areas including along the frontiers with China, people familiar with the development said on Sunday.

The rotary-wing drone will have the capability to carry a load of 40 kgs, including missiles and sensors, and it is being developed considering the requirement of the armed forces to keep a strong vigil over the mountainous areas along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), they said.

The HAL has set a target of conducting the maiden test-flying of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) by the middle of next year and plans to produce 60 such platforms in the first phase of the project, the people in the know told PTI.

They said the operating system of the long-endurance drone will feature applications of Artificial Intelligence and the armed forces will be able to use it for multiple purposes including transporting essential supplies.

nie

Indian Virtual Herbarium, biggest database of country’s flora, is a global hit

The portal, with nearly one lakh images of specimens, recorded two lakh hits from 55 countries since its July 1 launch; site to host all of India’s herbaria by 2024

With details of about one lakh plant specimens, Indian Virtual Herbarium, the biggest virtual database of flora in the country, is generating a lot of interest and turning out to be an eye-catching endeavour. While herbarium specimens are considered important tools for plant taxonomy, conservation, habitat loss and even climate change, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recently described Indian Virtual Herbarium as an example of how digital tools can help us connect to our roots.

In the ‘Mann Ki Baat ‘ episode on July 31, 2022, the Prime Minister spoke about the novel initiative and said that Indian Virtual Herbarium is an interesting collection of plants and preserved parts of plants. “The virtual herbarium also presents a rich botanical diversity of the country. I am convinced that Indian Virtual Herbarium will turn out to be an important resource for research on plants in the country,” Mr. Modi said.

Developed by scientists of the Botanical Survey of India (BSI), Indian Virtual Herbarium was inaugurated by Union Minister of Environment Forest and Climate Change Bhupendra Yadav on July 1 in Kolkata. Only five weeks since its launch, the portal https://ivh.bsi.gov.in has nearly 2 lakh hits from 55 countries.

Each record in the digital herbarium includes an image of the preserved plant specimen, scientific name, collection locality, and collection date, collector name, and barcode number. The digital herbarium also includes features to extract the data State-wise and users can search plants of their own States which will help them to identify regional plants and in building regional checklists.

The portal includes about one lakh images of herbarium specimens; Director of Botanical Survey of India (BSI) Dr. A.A. Mao said by the end of this year the number of digitized species will increase to two lakh. “By the 2024, we plan to provide a platform to all the herbaria in the country so that they can display their herbarium collection on the platform,” Dr. Mao said.

Scientists say that there are approximately three million plant specimens in the country which are with different herbaria that are located at zonal centers of BSI and at the Central National Herbarium located at Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden at Howrah in West Bengal.

In a first, U.S. Navy Ship arrives in India for repairs

It will undergo maintenance activities at L&T’s Shipyard in Chennai for 11 days

In a first, a U.S. Navy Ship, Charles Drew, arrived in India for carrying out repairs and allied services at Larsen & Toubro’s (L&T) Shipyard at Kattupalli, Chennai, on Sunday adding a new dimension to the fast expanding Indo-U.S. strategic partnership.

“This is the first ever repair of a U.S. Navy ship in India. The U.S. Navy had awarded a contract to L&T’s Shipyard at Kattupalli for undertaking maintenance of the ship. The event signifies the capabilities of Indian shipyards in the global ship repairing market,” a Defence Ministry statement said.

The USNS Charles Drew will be at the Kattupalli shipyard for a period of 11 days and undergo repairs in various areas.

At the India-U.S. 2+2 in April, both sides agreed to explore the possibilities of utilising Indian shipyards for the repair and maintenance of ships of the U.S. Maritime Sealift Command to support mid-voyage repair of U.S. Naval ships.

Campus Names New Dean for the School of Engineering

After a nationwide search, Rakesh Goel was selected as UC Merced’s next dean of the School of Engineering.

Goel is a seasoned academic leader who currently serves as executive associate dean in the College of Engineering at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly).

Before he arrived at Cal Poly, Goel was an assistant professor of Civil Engineering at Syracuse University and worked at the Earthquake Engineering Research Center at UC Berkeley as an assistant research engineer. He has industry experience both in India and the U.S. in civil and structural engineering. He is a registered civil engineer in the State of California and is a certified safety assessment program worker for the California Office of Emergency Services.

Goel is a national and international leader in the discipline of earthquake analysis and design structures. His work has been adapted by seismic codes and guidelines, such as the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) ASCE 7, FEMA-356, California Building Code and ASCE 61. He has authored/co-authored more than 150 publications. He has been awarded the Amman Fellowship, the Huber Research Prize and the Norman Medal by the American Society of Civil Engineers, among many other recognitions.

He is a fellow of the ASCE and the Structural Engineering Institute, where he has chaired three prominent committees and served on the editorial board for the Journal of Structural Engineering and Earthquake Spectra.

Goel earned his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi, India. He earned his M.S. and Ph.D. in structural engineering from UC Berkeley.

He succeeds Mark Matsumoto, who has served as the school’s dean since 2015. Goel is expected to join the campus in the fall.

news.ucmereced.edu

LIC breaks into Fortune 500 list, Reliance jumps 51 places

The list, topped by US retailer Walmart, has nine Indian companies — five of them state-owned, and four from the private sector.

Recently-listed Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) has broken into the latest Fortune Global 500 list, while Reliance Industries has jumped 51 places.

The nation’s biggest life insurer with revenue of USD 97.26 billion and a profit of USD 553.8 million, was ranked 98th on the just released Fortune 500 list.

Reliance Industries jumped 51 places to 104 on the 2022 list.

This is the first outing of LIC on the list, which ranks listed companies by sales. Reliance, with revenue of USD 93.98 billion and a net profit of USD 8.15 billion in the latest year, has been on the list for 19 years.