** Jharkhand undergrad illuminates village with his power-packed ‘jugaad’

The handmade turbine is now generating 5KW electricity, which is illuminating the streets and a temple in the village.

 Troubled by frequent power cuts, Kedar Prasad Mahto, a 33-year old undergraduate in Jharkhand’s Ramgarh, succeeded in making a turbine on a rivulet flowing near his village through ‘jugaad’ after 18 years of hard work.

** Open House showcases student innovations at IIT-Madras

60 projects developed by various teams of students were featured at the event

The Indian Institute of Technology-Madras’ Centre for Innovation (CFI) held its annual Open House, featuring over 60 innovative student projects. The event showcased autonomous vehicles, rockets and the electric Formula racecar developed by the student team Raftar.

The CFI is a round-the-clock innovation lab with 13 clubs, four competitive teams and over 700 members, who apply their engineering knowledge to come up with products.

Institute director V. Kamakoti, who launched a new website for the CFI on the occasion, said the CFI not only provided a platform for young innovators to showcase their creations but also served as an inspiration for other young students to innovate.

Nilesh Vasa, dean of students, said the student-driven facility inspired students to work creatively and collaboratively. The CFI team Abhiyaan’s autonomous vehicle ‘Bolt’, team Abhyuday’s rocket, team Avishkar’s hyperloop, a sports science and analytics project in collaboration with Sports Science Centre of Excellence, a bird diverter project in partnership with the Wildlife Institute of India and projects on blockchain technology were on display.

Prabhu Rajagopal, faculty advisor of CFI-IIT-Madras, said nearly 10% of the students of the institute are engaged with the CFI, cutting across the undergraduate-postgraduate divide. Quite a few teams and projects had graduated to form start-ups, making Open House the largest calendar event of the CFI and showcasing the best student projects of the year.

Asokan Tondiyath, faculty advisor of team Anveshak, said the team had steadily progressed in the past three years and was in the process of making ‘Foresight’ with custom-made wheels, a lightweight manipulator and a state-of-the-art electronic system.

Among the new developments is the chennaiwaterlogging.org platform that enables users/public to report details such as location of floods and water depth and add photos of waterlogged sites with a description. These reports are used to develop a real-time flood map.

A group of students have converted an electric golf cart into an autonomous shuttle. Team Abhyuday has qualified for the Spaceport America Cup, an annual international event for intercollegiate rocketry teams, in its first attempt. It is the first across IITs to qualify for such an event.

** Mina Swaminthan, of M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, no more

Mrs. Swaminathan, 88, passed away at her home on Monday morning; she was a pioneer in the field of early childhood education and an activist deeply involved in the study and practice of gender equality

Mina Swaminathan, Distinguished Chair, Gender and Development, M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), died in her home in Teynampet on Monday morning. She was 88. Her death was due to natural causes, said a source at MSSRF.

A teacher-educator and writer on early childhood education (ECE), she was appointed in 1970, by the Central Advisory Board of Education, as Chairman of the Study Group on the Development of the Preschool Child. The report of this committee, submitted in 1972, became the basis for the scheme known as the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) in 1975, a landmark intervention in the field of early childhood care and development.

** IIT Madras researchers develop new technique to provide high resolution ultrasound images

The research could facilitate better diagnosis of diseases, detection of minute abnormalities and better real-time image-guided biopsy procedures and treatment monitoring applications.

“This research could potentially facilitate several applications like early detection and better diagnosis of diseases, detection of minute abnormalities within human body like renal stones, better real-time image-guided biopsy procedures and treatment monitoring applications,” Arun K Thittai, Professor, Department of Applied Mechanics, IIT Madras, told PTI.

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** RGIA declared best airport by size and region in Asia-Pacific

The Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Hyderabad, has been declared the best airport by size and region in the Asia-Pacific region for 2021.

This is in the category of 15 million to 25 million passengers per annum.

Luis Felipe de Oliveira, director general, ACI World, congratulated GMR Hyderabad International Airport and said that the award reflects their commitment to improving passenger experience.

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** Cooking, swimming and singing bhajans: Army’s first all-women crew relive their maiden voyage

On February 15, 10 women officers from the Indian Army set sail from the Chennai Port for a gruelling journey from Chennai-Nizampatnam-Vizag-Nizampatnam-Chennai by sea. They have not only charted a new course in the history of the Indian Army but also made the country proud. Shattering all possible glass ceilings, making their own mark and setting new benchmarks, these women completed a successful expedition and proved their mettle.

The 10-day long expedition was led by Major Mukta Gautam, and the crew comprised Major Priya Semwal, Major Priya Das, Major Rashmil Sangwan, Major Arpita Dwivedi, Major Sanjana Mittal, Captain Jyoti Singh, Captain Malvika Rawat, Captain Shubham Solanki, and Captain Sonal Goyal.

The women covered a distance of nearly 900 nautical miles, marking this voyage as the first-ever sailing expedition undertaken by the all-women crew of the Indian Army, after the Navika Sagar Parikrama by the Indian Navy in 2018.

** Indian scientists discover strategy to synthesise novel solid adsorbents for CO2 capture

Amidst the growing attempts to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, the Indian scientists have discovered a strategy to synthesise novel solid adsorbents for CO2 capture and utilisation.

Although several industrial advancements have already been demonstrated, none of the technologies can provide an economically viable and complete CO2 capture and utilization solution. Therefore, fundamental research on novel solid adsorbents might offer a critical material for CO2 capture and CO2 utilisation.

Professor Rahul Banerjee’s group at IISER-Kolkata, with support from Department of Science & Technology, Government of India under Mission Innovation programme, has demonstrated a strategy to synthesise novel solid adsorbents, especially for CO2 capture and CO2 utilisation.

** NLCIL Mines I and II bag National Safety Award

Mines I of NLC India Ltd (NLCIL) has bagged the National Safety Award for three years from 2018 to 2020 under the category of lowest injury frequency rate per million cubic metre of output. Mines II has bagged the award under the category of longest accident-free period for 2020.

According to a release, the award was received by Suresh Chandra Suman, Executive Director (Mines), NLCIL, and P. Bharathidasan, senior employee, as representatives of the management and the employees, from Union Minister of Labour and Employment Bhupender Yadav at a function held in New Delhi on Thursday.

** ‘Hope Registry’ to help kidney patients

A “Hope Registry” has been set up to help people who are in need of kidney transplant but unable to get it due to various reasons.

Fr. Davis Chiramel, found, Kidney Federation of India, is the chief patron of the registry. According to Jawad Ahmed, administrator, many people are forced to depend on dialysis because they are unable to do the transplant owing to lack of matching kidneys or other reasons.