Month: March 2020

Milkha Singh the legendary hero is Independent India’s first and only* male athlete to win an Individual gold medal in Athletics Track event at the ‘ 1958 Commonwealth Games ‘ (*as on July 2013) where he won the 400 yards at Cardiff by defeating the favourite Malcolm Fence.

A true champion, a real life hero, a graceful runner Milkha Singh was born in a country, and won medals against all odds in a country that had savoured independence for just 11 years, and where there was no support from any quarter, where facilities were few, contending for medals was then a romantic pursuit.

Milkha Singh a story of guts and glory. A former track and field sprinter was born in Muzaffargah district in Kot Addu tehsil, British India (currently Pakistan) on October 08th, 1935. A village about 10 Km from the city. He was orphaned during partition of India, when his parents, a brother and some sisters died tragically. At the age of 15 in 1947 he moved to Delhi where he lived with his sister Iswar Kaur. Amongst a string of adversities he faced, his temporary home for a month was a platform on Delhi’s railyway station.

In 1951 he joined the Indian Army and while stationed at the Electrical Mechanical Engineering Centre in Secuderabad was introduced to Athletics. The Brigade Meet in Secuderabad was Milkha’s first exposure to a competitive environment where he ran in front of 8,000-10,000 spectators.

Milkha Singh represented India in the 400m competition of the  1956 Melbourne Olympics. It was here that he got the opportunity of travelling by air for the first time in his life during the Melbourne Olympics. In 1958 he set the recrods for the 200m and 400m in the National Games of India held in Cuttack. He represented India in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome and came 4th. In the 4th Asiad – 1962 Asian Games held in Jakarta (Indonesia) he won the gold in the 400m and in the 400 x 4 relay as well.

Awarded ‘Padma Shri’ India’s 4th highest civilian award in recognition of his sporting achievements.

‘ Flying Sikh ‘ : in 1962 he got the epithet ‘Flying Sikh’ from (then Pakistan President )General Ayub Khan, after defeating Abdul Khaliq, Pakistan’s fastest runner. When he gave away the medals, he whispered to me in Punjabi ” you did’nt run today, you flew ‘. Since then the name crowned and stuck to him ‘ Milkha Singh – The Flying Sikh ‘.

In 1962 Milkha Singh became the Director of Sports in the Punjab Ministry of Education. He retired in 1991 as Director of Sports & Youth Programme , Punjab Government. Married to Nirmal Kaur, a former Captain of the Indian Women’s Volleyball team. They have 3 daughters and one son – Jeev Milkha Singh, Professional Golfer and India’s first Golfer to join the 1988 European Tour. In 1999, they also adopted the 7-year old son of Havildar Bikram Singh, who had died in the Battle of Tiger Hill. He currently lives in Chandigarh and the family run a Trust established in 2003- Milkha Singh Charitable Trust, Chandigarh to help the poor and needy sports persons and their families.

Donated his sporting treasures :

Milkha Singh who in total won 77 of his 80 races, has donated his medals to the nation. They were displayed at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi. Subsequently they were moved later to a sports museum in Patiala.

Books: (1) Autobiography: The Race of My Life : an Autobiography by Milkha Singh and co-authored by his daughter Sonia Sanwalka – Published by Rupa Publcation.

(2) Film : ‘ Bhaag Milkha Bhaag ‘ (English: Run Milkha Run) a biographical film on Milkha Singh, released nationally in India and worldwide as well on Friday, July 13th, 2013. Produced and directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, script by Prasoon Joshi. Milkha Singh’s role played by actor Farhan Akhtar.

(3) website http://www.milkhasingh.co.in/biography.htm

Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited (Ranbaxy) launched the country’s first in-house developed new medicine, a new malaria drug, to be priced at one-third the cost of the current therapies.

The drug ‘Synriamtm’ was launched in New Delhi on the occasion of World Malaria Day , April 25th, 2012.  The unveiling of India’s first new indigenously developed new drug for Malaria was done by Ghulam Nabi Azad, Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India and Vilasrao Deshmukh, Minister of Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, Government of India, with Ranbaxy dedicating the new age cure for malaria to the nation.

What is most exciting about this drug is that its raw material is synthetic unlike the popularly used Artemisinim based drugs that are derived from a plant.  This allows for scaling up of commercial quantities with ease and opened a new chapter in the history of Research and Development in India thus ending a 15-year drug discovery drought for Indian medicine makers.

Ranbaxy’s anti-malaria drug, a combination of two molecules, arterolane maleate and piperaquine phosphatethe will be needed to be taken once a day by patients for three days for the treatment of uncomplicated Plasmodium Falciparum malaria in adults.

India’s first ‘Confucius Institute’ was inaugrated at the Kalinga campus in Santa Cruz, Mumbai by Mumbai University and Tianjin University of Technology (TUT), People’s Republic of China (PRC) on Thursday – July 18th, 2013.

The Confucius Institute (CI) will initiate a Chinese language course, promote art and culture in India . It will also start a student and faculty exchange programme between the two nations.

A symbolic plaque was unveiled by Rajesh Tope, Minister for Higher & Technical Education. Also present at the occasion were Padamalkar Valvi – Minister of Sports & Youth Welfare, Meng Qingong – Chairman of TUT Board and Liu Youfa, Consul-General of People’s Republic of China (PRC)in Mumbai.

The Confucius Institute, once set-up will be headed by 2 officials, one from Mumbai University and the other from TUT or Hanban. Once Indian teachers learn Chinese, they will then go to China and teach Hindi and English language to the Chinese students and teachers.

Confucius Institutes (CI) headquarters are located in Beijing. They are non-profit public institutions aligned with the Government of the People’s Republic of China that aim to promote language and culture, support local Chinese teaching internationally and facilitate cultural exchanges. The CI programme is overseen by the Office of the Chinese Language International (Hanban).

3 specialist ENT Surgeons, Dr.Madan Kapre, Dr.Devendra Mahore and anatomist Dr. Ashutosh Mangalagiri from Bhopal got together to provide a hand-on repository on thyroid surgery.

India’s first ‘Atlas of Thyroid Surgery’ was launched on May 11th in Nagpur by Dr.Ved Prakash, proChancellor and Chief Advisor at Datta Meghe Institute of Medical Sciences, Sawangi. It is a model guide on thyroid surgery for the post graduate medical students and thyroid surgeons.

It is the first time an ‘Atlas’ was put together keeping in mind the Indian context. This has been done previously in USA, Italy and Brazil. The uniquely Indian ‘Atlas of Thyroid Surgery’ was created as a byproduct of camps and workshops in the tribal villages of Central India ,with focus on Chikhaldara in Melghat. This scientific work was carried out with the support of the Rotary club of Nagpur South.

The foreword of the Atlas is written by Dr. Ashok Saha, a world renown authority on thyroid cancer, based in New York.

Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman (Sir C.V. Raman) was awarded the Nobel in 1930,  for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery effect named after him. This phenomenon is now called the ‘Raman scattering’ and is the result of the ‘Raman effect’.  1930 .

More at ink: http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1930/

Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, Southwest Asia has appointed its first Female General Manager – Ms. Britta Leick-Milde who has taken charge recently of the Hyatt Regency Kolkata.

Reinforcing its commitment to diversity and inclusion, Ms.Britta Leick-Milde’s appointment reflects the unique and personal ways that Hyatt celebrates the strength of its co-workers.

Britta’s hospitality career began 20 years ago at the Sheraton Frankfurt Hotel in her native Germany. Subsequently she worked with the Hilton and Kempinski groups. Britta joined the Hyatt family in 2007 as Director of Rooms, Park Hyatt Dubai and was subsequently promoted as ‘ Executive Assistant Manager – Rooms’.

An enthusiastic Indophile she served as Hotel Manager, Grand Hyatt Mumbai for nearly a year before taking up her new assignment as General Manager of Hyatt Regency Kolkata.

www.kolkata.regency.hyatt.com  // www.hyatt.com

Called ‘Deep Space’ the country’s first Dark Roller Coaster which also means that it is an Indoor Roller Coaster, was launched by the 26-year old Bollywood actor Anil Dhawan . The rides go completely upside down indoors upto a speed of 86 km/hour

‘Deep Space’ venue is at ADLABS Imagica in Khipoli on the Pune-Mumbai expressway, the Theme based amusement park outside Mumbai city.

Astonfield Renewables Resources Ltd., has been awarded the first ever solar power project in India, to receive an ‘A’ class credit rating ” CRISIL A-/Stable ” for its 5 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) project based in Osiyan, the north western State of Rajasthan.

The project has been given the A credit rating based on its strong revenue visibility and long term loan facilities by Credit Rating Information Services of India Limited (CRISIL), a division of McGraw Hill Corporation and whose majority shareholder is Standard & Poor’s.

It is one of the first large-scale solar power projects to be operational in India. The project was implemented by renowned technology and services providers. It comprised of thin-film solar PV modules manufactured by T-Solar, while the engineering, procurement and construction(EPC) services were provided by Schneider Electric.

Astonfield, a provider of affordable renewable engery has a total of 4 Solar PV projects in the country with a combined generation capacity of 20.5 MW .

www.astonfield.com

Nandita Venkateswaran Berry was elected as Vice Chair of University of Houston System Board of Regents (UHS Board of Regents), Houston , Texas, United States.

Pipavav Defence & Offshore Engineering Company Ltd. became the first Indian private shipyard in the country to receive a Warship production licence and contract to build warships and other naval assets for the Indian Navy from the Indian Government.It is promoted by the SKIL Group. Ocotber 2010.

Pipavav has India’s largest shipyard at the Gulf of Cambay, Pipavav, Rajula in Gujarat on the West Coast. It has India’s largest Dry Dock (662m x 65m) and the Worlds 2nd largest and is capable of accomodating ships of upto 400,000 DWT. Pipavav has India’s largest shipyard cranes. It is in the process of adding another Dry Dock adjacent to the existing facility on the South Western coast of Gujarat.

It is also the first Private company to form a joint-venture with the State owned naval defence major Mazagon Dock Limited. This joint-venture will bid for orders with other private companies from Indian Navy and the Coast Guard.

Pipavav has won many awards

www.pipavavshipyard.com