The Central Public Works Department (CPWD) on Wednesday awarded its largest-ever contract at ₹3,141.99 crore, handing over the letter of award for construction of three buildings of the new Common Central Secretariat to Larsen and Toubro Ltd.
The CPWD opened the financial bids of three bidders — L&T, Tata Projects Ltd. and NCC Ltd. — on October 18. L&T was the only one to submit a bid below the estimate of ₹3,254 crore. The project includes construction of the three buildings.
Called Moottilpazham, this plentiful wild fruit is soon set to make its way to our gardens as well as diet, thanks to an initiative by the Kerala Forest Department. An 11-minute documentary film that propagates the lesser-known tale of this fruit and its potential for cultivation is slated for a release next week.
According to G. Prasad, Assistant Conservator of Forest (Social Forestry), who conceptualised the movie, Moottilpuli, the tree, is endemic to the southern region of the Western Ghats that extends from South Canara to Kanyakumari. “The tree, Baccaurea courtallensis, is a member of Euphorbiaceae family and the fruit derives its name from the way it bunches up at the base of the tree and even touches the ground. It blooms in February and March while the fruit matures between June to August,” he explained.
Kerala
Two Dubai students are aspiring to revolutionise education for their fellow peers through their innovative platforms.
Ahad Khot and Rishi Shah, from Dubai International Academy — Emirates Hill, aren’t just empowering local teens — they’ve created a movement for hundreds of thousands of students around the world.
Khot, a Grade 12 student, launched a non-profit online platform last year that now has a reach in five countries, where clubs have been set up. The platform can also be accessed from anywhere online.
Bengaluru scientists have devised a toxic-free method that converts the most common greenhouse gas (GHG) carbon dioxide (CO2) to methane (CH4) – known to be the cleanest fossil fuel – a process that can effectively help in reducing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide levels which is a major climate change concern.
The scientists from Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bengaluru, achieved this using non-metal catalysts, unlike procedures that are in use, which are found to release toxic gases in the process.
In doing so, the scientists, led by Professor Tapas Kumar Maji from the Chemistry and Physics of Materials Unit of JNCASR, have designed a cost-effective metal-free catalyst to achieve the conversion by absorption of visible light.
Babu Parambath cultivates 50 varieties from India and abroad.
At first glance, they all look the same until you read the name boards kept on the foot of every plantain shoot and Babu Parambath describes the speciality of each of them. Then you start noticing the minor details that make this plantain grove one of its kind.
Mr. Parambath, known for his several ventures in the waste management front as the project coordinator of Niravu waste management company, has collected 50 different varieties of plantains from not just India, but from other parts of the world too, over a period of one-and-a-half years since the first COVID-induced lockdown.
He has one or two shoots of each of them planted in the 10 cents next to his home at Vengeri.
Padma Shri awardee Professor Sharada Srinivasan has added yet another accolade to her expansive list of accomplishments by being one of three women to be chosen for the Indian National Academy of Engineering’s Woman Engineer of the Year award in 2021.
The title is awarded by the academy to women who have made breakthrough contributions to the fields of technology and engineering in India. She is a professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru.
Homegrown microblogging platform Koo’s user base has touched about 15 million now, with five million users added in the last quarter, its co-founder Aprameya Radhakrishna has said.
India, the world’s second-largest telecom market and the biggest consumer of data, is a key market for Internet companies like Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter given the large population base, burgeoning internet and smartphone adoption, as well as explosive growth.
he proposed price increase comes after a gap of 14 years
On the morning of October 1, Marut Drones, a Hyderabad-based technology startup, aimed high. A drone they have christened the ‘seedcopter’ dispersed 1.5 lakh spheres over the KBR National Park in Hyderabad. The spheres made of clay and manure contained seeds of custard apple, gooseberry, tamarind and bamboo.
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