Category: RECORDS, INDIA (National)

** Uttar Pradesh: Plastic surgeon performs 37,000 free surgeries to make kids smile

Plastic surgeon Dr Subodh Kumar Singh struggled in his childhood days to become a doctor; he now offers free corrective surgeries to kids born with cleft lip/palate.

He was a meritorious student, who along with his studies also sold goggles and washed soaps to support his family in Varanasi in 1979. Today, Dr Subodh Singh has earned fame as a plastic surgeon by performing free corrective surgeries (under the worldwide initiative Smile Train) on kids born with cleft lip/palate. Till date, he has brought back smiles in the lives of 25,000 families through 37,000 free cleft-palate surgeries.

** Former CEC Arora joins board of advisors of International IDEA that supports sustainable democracies

The Election Commission said in a statement on Tuesday that Mr. Arora was invited to join the International IDEA’s board of advisors.

Former Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora has joined the board of advisors of the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA), an inter-governmental organisation based in Stockholm.

While serving as the chair of the Association of World Election Bodies (AWEB) and Forum of the Election Management Bodies of South Asia (FEMBoSA) under Mr. Arora’s tenure, the EC ensured further enhancement of capacity building.

** Three Indian companies in Top 100 defence manufacturers grew by 1.7%, says report

Global arms sales increased even as the world economy contracted in 2020, according to a report by Swedish think tank Stockholm Institute Peace Research Institute.

Combined arms sales by the three Indian companies in the Top 100 defence manufacturers worldwide grew by 1.7%, according to the latest report by Swedish think tank Stockholm Institute Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), which also said that international arms sales increased even as the global economy contracted by 3.1% during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. U.S. companies accounted for 54% of the Top 100’s total arms sales in 2020 followed by Chinese firms which accounted for 13%.

The three Indian companies in the SIPRI Top 100 for 2020 rankings are 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,” according to the report ‘The SIPRI Top 100 arms-producing and military services companies, 2020’ released on Monday.

** Fellowship conferred on K.S.Rangappa

K.S.Rangappa, former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Mysore, has been elected as Fellow of the Biotech Research Society of India (BRSI) for 2021, according to a release.

The fellowship is given to Indian scientists in recognition of their significant research contributions in the field of sciene and Prof. Rangappa was recognised for his work in the areas of Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry, the release added.

** Susanta Kumar Dash: Geneticist on a mission to register Odisha’s native livestock breeds

A professor of OUAT and animal geneticist, Susanta Kumar Dash has helped govt in registering 4 native breeds of cattle, 3 breeds of buffalo and one breed of sheep, writes Sudarsan Maharana.

In the last two decades, animal geneticist Susanta Kumar Dash has helped Odisha register eight of its native livestock breeds and secure their Intellectual Property (IP) rights. Working in the field of native livestock breed conservation since 2004, Dash – a professor in the department of animal breeding and genetics in OUAT, Bhubaneswar – has registered four breeds of cattle, three breeds of buffalo and one breed of sheep, all having their own unique features, from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)-National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources. 

** Indian-American mathematician Nikhil Srivastava among 3 selected for inaugural Ciprian Foias Prize

Along with Prof. Srivastava, who teaches at the University of California, Berkeley, the two other awardees are Adam Marcus and Daniel Spielman

Eminent Indian-American mathematician Nikhil Srivastava, has been jointly selected for the inaugural $5,000 Ciprian Foias Prize for the “highly original work” in Operator Theory by the American Mathematical Society (AMS).

** New species found in Sikkim’s Dzongu, the ‘land of butterflies’

When Sonam Wangchuk Lepcha, from Dzongu in north Sikkim, started watching butterflies and taking pictures of them, he was not taken very seriously by the people around him. But now his hobby has led to the discovery of a new butterfly species, whose closest relatives are in southeastern China, close to Hong Kong.

** An innovation that can better protect power grids

High current surges, if unchecked, cause heating of the wires and perhaps melting and consequent short-circuits and fire accidents

Researchers from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur have come up with an innovation that can help protect power grids against sudden, unexpected current surges. 

Over a period of about three years, Prof. Banerjee and his PhD scholars have developed this “smart” SFCL device which deploys an array of Hall sensors around a basic SFCL. The array of Hall sensors placed around the SFCL constantly “measure and monitor as well as map” the current flowing inside the superconductor.

** Sindhu wins silver in BWF World Tour Finals

This was Sindhu’s third final appearance in the tournament. She had won the title in 2018 to become the only Indian to achieve the feat.

Indian badminton ace P V Sindhu settled for a silver medal at the BWF World Tour Finals after going down meekly against Korean teen sensation An Seyoung in the summit clash, here on Sunday.

Sindhu, the reigning world champion and two-time Olympic medallist, could neither match the pace nor breach the defence of the world number six Korean, losing 16-21 12-21 in the 40-minute lop-sided clash.