Category: Business & Economy

** 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. 

** 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.

** Rocketmen from Hyderabad

Skyroot is working simultaneously on different stages of both solid propulsion and liquid propulsion engines

When the new age Skyroot Aerospace successfully tested ‘Dhawan-1’, it became the country’s first privately developed fully cryogenic rocket engine running on two high-performance rocket propellants — Liquid Natural gas (LNG) & Liquid Oxygen (LoX) last month. The indigenous engine was developed using 3D printing with a superalloy.

Before that, the two co-founders and ex-IITians Pawan Kumar C. (Kharagpur 2012 batch) and Naga Bharath D, (Madras, 2012 batch) plan to put its first launch vehicle 20 metre tall ‘Vikram 1’ vehicle based on solid propulsion engine into space. 

The firm has already won a national award for start ups in space research and had an online interaction with Prime Minister Narendra Modi

** IIT Bombay: Breeding geniuses by the lakeside

Compared to the first girl — Tejaswini Saraf (1966 batch) — who turned heads at IIT-B, being the lone female student among 300 boys, today the situation is different with 20-25 per cent female students on the campus.

As the President of the IIT-B Alumni Association (IITBAA), Deepak Patil, says, at IITs, the mind is trained not only academically, but also to think deeply, rationally, to handle any problem, to go to the root and evolve a logical solution.

IITBAA Chairman Girish Nayak says IIT education makes the student sharper and analytical, trains them overall to solve any kind of problems, grapple any challenges in life without getting surprised or overwhelmed, and this is something that stays with them forever.

A few of the many notables who have passed out of IIT-B over the past six decades are: BSE MD & CEO Ashish Chauhan, Syntel founder Bharat Desai, Infosys Co-founder Nandan Nilekani, Twitter Inc. CEO Parag Agrawal, Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves, ex-BMC Commissioner Jairaj Phatak, ex-Union minister Jairam Ramesh, late Goa CM Manohar Parrikar, mathematician Ravindran Kannan, ex-Dean of Harvard Business School Nitin Nohria, economist Ajit Ranade, and ex-President of Bell Labs Arun Netravali, among others.

** India ranked fourth most powerful country in Asia

 India is the fourth most powerful country in Asia, as per the Lowy Institute Asia Power Index 2021.

The annual Asia Power Index — launched by the Lowy Institute in 2018 — measures resources and influence to rank the relative power of states in Asia. The project maps out the existing distribution of power as it stands today, and tracks shifts in the balance of power over time.

India is ranked as a middle power in Asia. As the fourth most powerful country in Asia, India again falls short of the major power threshold in 2021. Its overall score declined by two points compared to 2020. India is one of eighteen countries in the region to trend downward in its overall score in 2021, the report said.

The top 10 countries for overall power in the Asia-Pacific region are the US, China, Japan, India, Russia, Australia, South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand, Lowy Institute said.

** Gita Gopinath to take on new role at IMF as First Deputy Managing Director

Indian-American Gita Gopinath, the chief economist of International Monetary Fund, is being promoted as IMF’s First Deputy Managing Director, the fund announced Thursday.

She would replace Geoffrey Okamoto who plans to leave the Fund early next year. Gopinath, who was scheduled to return to her academic position at Harvard University in January 2022, has served as the IMF’s chief economist for three years.

** Udupi: Bantakal Engineering students win prizes in National Level Event ‘IEEE- EUREKA 2021’

The students of Shri Madhwa Vadiraja Institute of Technology and Management Bantakal have won first, second and third prize in ‘IEEE-EUREKA 2021’, a national level event organized by the IEEE Pune section.

Stream 1: ‘Technologies for Environment, Climate Change and Natural disasters’ Team: Aniketh Shenoy, Anjali Shet, M Sowmitha Pai, Vikram G Thunga. (First Prize)

Stream 2: ‘Technologies for Rural Development and Woman Welfare’ Team: S Sinchana, Shreya Nayak, Vaishak Prabhu, Vivek Shenoy. (First Prize)

Stream 3: ‘Technologies for Agriculture and Food Processing’ Team: Shriraksha, Ramya Deshpande, Shreya M Thantry, Rahamathunnisa. (Second Prize)

Stream 1: ‘Technologies for Environment, Climate Change and Natural disasters’ Team: Sarvesh S P, Varalakshmi, Varshini Acharya, Yashaswini R Amin.

** Gujarat displaces Maharashtra to become largest manufacturing hub in country

Maharashtra, however, continues to lead as the nation’s biggest services hub.

Gujarat has pipped Maharashtra to emerge the largest manufacturing hub in the country, with the former’s Gross Value Addition (GVA) in manufacturing growing 15.9 per cent annually on average between FY12 and FY20 to touch Rs 5.11 lakh crore, according to the data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Maharashtra’s annual growth rate during the period was 7.5 per cent per annum, taking the state’s total manufacturing GVA to Rs 4.34 lakh crore in FY20. It continues to lead as the nation’s biggest services hub.