** Man Of The Mat: Meet Siddharth Singh, India’s Brazilian-Jiu-Jitsu Champ

Everything was going well in Siddharth Singh’s life. After Doon School, Delhi University and University of St Andrews in Scotland, he got a well-paid job as regional business manager for Europe, the Middle-East and Africa with the Italian apparel brand Ellesse. It was a job that came with plenty of travel and a house at Hampstead Heath in London.

Yet Singh was restless. He liked his work, but what he really lived for happened after office hours, when he changed out of his suit and into shorts; stepped out of formal shoes and onto the mat barefoot.

Singh was introduced to combat sports at age 12, in boarding school, where he picked boxing. While studying in Scotland, he switched to Muay Thai (Thai kickboxing). Now, all day, he itched to get to his gym and lose himself in training.

Singh eventually quit the cushy career at 26, became a mixed-martial-arts (MMA) specialist, started a chain of training centres. And now, at 35, is India’s only elite-level international medallist in Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ). It all began in London, when a slim, lithe woman knocked him out.

globalcirculate.com

SCOTLAND: Glasgow Indian restaurant named the best in Scotland, as wedding venue scoops top award

An Indian restaurant and a wedding venue in Glasgow have been named the best in Scotland.

At the Scottish Entertainment Awards, Swadish, on Ingram Street, won the Best Indian Restaurant Award, beating off competition from across Scotland.

There was also success for another three Glasgow venues, as The Auditorium at Òran Mór was given the award for Best Wedding Venue, The Record Factory in Partick, famous for its live music, won the Best Late Night Venue award, and Connolly’s Irish Bar won the Best Irish Bar award.

Swadish has scooped other awards in the past for its fine dining experience, which brings together seasonal Scottish ingredients and traditional and modern Indian culinary techniques.

glasgowworld.com

SCOTLAND : Edinburgh restaurant voted Scotland’s best Indian by Uber Eats hailed as ‘heavenly curry mecca’

An Edinburgh restaurant is celebrating success after it was shortlisted for the inaugural Uber Eats UK and Ireland Restaurant of the Year awards.

Mother India’s Cafe – based on the Old Town’s Infirmary Street – featured as one of ten Scottish nominees, with customers who voted deeming it the best Indian restaurant in Scotland , along with Mother India’s sister sites in Glasgow.

For the next stage in the awards process, customers can view the shortlist and vote for their favourite restaurants from across the UK and Ireland from until 16 June at ubereatsawards.com.

edinburghlive.co.uk

Delhi Airport replaces Dubai as the world’s second busiest airport in March: Report

The Delhi Airport was in 23rd place in March 2019 before the pandemic.

Delhi Airport was the world’s second busiest airport in March 2022 in terms of domestic and international flights handled, said Official Airline Guide (OAG), a global travel data provider, in its recent report.

Whilst Atlanta retains its position as largest, Dubai is knocked out of second place this month (March) by Delhi which moves up from third place last month (February),” the OAG’s report mentioned.

The Delhi Airport was in 23rd place in March 2019 before the pandemic, it added. In March this year, airports in Atlanta in the US, Delhi in India and Dubai in the UAE handled 4.42 million, 3.61 million and 3.55 million seats, it mentioned.

dnaindia.com

** HumCen Global Backed World Record For 100 Patent Filings in 24 Hours!

HumCen Global (P) Ltd has successfully organised a huge event on World IP Day, April 26, 2022, with the primary goal of filing 100 Indian Design patents in 24 hours. The World Book of Records (LONDON) recognized and commended this bold initiative.

The team from HumCen Global Pvt Ltd and Trichy’s K Ramakrishnan College of Technology worked tirelessly to attain this goal. As a result, the “100 Design Patent Filed within 24 hours”, this claim was a first-of-its-kind effort around the globe.

The crew works bright filing the first patent at 2:42 AM,. It was not easy, but sheer determination got the team through, and the record-breaking patent was achieved at 11:32 p.m.

As a strategic patent consulting partner of K Ramakrishnan College of Technology (Autonomous) in Trichy, Tamil Nadu, India, it was an excellent overall experience for HumCen Global Pvt Ltd in Chennai, TamilNadu, India to work for the theme IP and Youth: Innovating for a Better Future with 300+ Student Innovators cum Faculties. 

globenewswire.com

GLOBAL RECORDS: INDIA RECORDS: India-born Scientist & Conservation Biologist Kamal Bawa Elected to US National Academy of Sciences

Conservation biologist Kamal Bawa has been elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. Kamal Bawa is president of the Bengaluru-based Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment (ATREE) as well as an elected fellow of the Royal Society (London) and the American Philosophical Society.

“The election is a reaffirmation of our important work on the ecology, conservation, and management of tropical forests that are declining all over the world but are critical to humanity’s well-being,” said Dr. Bawa.

A few years ago, Dr. Bawa brought together scientists from India’s leading institutions to develop the National Mission on Biodiversity and Human Wellbeing under the banner of the Biodiversity Collaborative.

The effort was supported by the office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, and is currently funded by the Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies.

source/content: thehindu.com (edited)

** 1946 Last War of Independence Royal Indian Navy Mutiny review: The 1946 naval uprising

Pramod Kapoor transforms a footnote in history into a remarkable account of a rebellion that convinced the British it was time to leave India

As rightly remarked by Shyam Benegal, a footnote in the history of the freedom movement has been turned into an exciting and important account in Pramod Kapoor’s  1946 Last War of Independence: Royal Indian Navy Mutiny. Pramod himself stumbled onto this forgotten story while researching for his book on Gandhi: “After the draft of the Gandhi book was done, I re-read the Royal Indian Navy mutiny episodes and realised the magnitude of the event.”

Reports of the revolt

When Pramod began his research, he discovered hundreds of reports by British admirals, commanding officers of ships and shore establishments, cables and letters exchanged between London and Delhi, proceedings in the British parliament and debates in the Legislative Council in India. They were “honest,” but were told from the British point of view. For another view, Pramod waded through hundreds of newspaper reports and documents at libraries, met people with knowledge of the revolt and toured HMIS Talwar, the signal school of the Navy at Colaba, where “inflammatory slogans” had been written on the walls and “seditious pamphlets” were circulated. A tour of the dockyard and areas of Navy Nagar in Mumbai helped him understand the “history and geography of the area where the uprising took place.”

In February 1946, ratings, or the lowest rung of sailors in the Royal Indian Navy hierarchy, staged a revolt. The young sailors were protesting against the fact that things they were promised at the time of recruitment had not been honoured: living conditions were horrible; the food worse and there was rampant racial discrimination. Also, says Pramod, inspired by the Indian National Army (INA), they were politically charged and keen to play a part in India’s freedom movement. Within 48 hours, the strength of the mutineers grew to 20,000, and they took over ships afloat and on-shore establishments. Servicemen in the army and air force, and civilians joined the protests.

th

** ‘Vakeel Babu’ Selected for New York Indian Film Festival 2022

The film stars Abhishek Banerjee, Bhamini Oza Gandhi and Lovleen Mishra in pivotal roles.

The film Vakeel Babu, produced by Civic Studios and co-produced by TrainTripper Films, has landed a place at the 22nd edition of the New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) 2022, taking place virtually from May 7th to 13th 2022.

The film will be participating in the Shorts (Narrative) category and has also been nominated in the Best Short (Narrative) category.

source/category : thehindu.com (edited)

** The Indian leg of the Great Backyard Bird Count records an impressive 1,017 species

Hobby birders and students collaborated with naturalists from across the country at the 10th edition of biggest four-day bird-o-thon and documented over 1000 bird species

A pair of bright yellow eyes stared right back at Angeline Mano, a 23-year-old birder, as she zoomed in with her binoculars. Angeline was at Stanley Reservoir in Salem, one of the largest fishing reservoirs in South India, documenting birds for the recently-concluded, annual Global Backyard Bird Count (GBCC). The bulky bird with a finely streaked breast, was a brown fish owl, perched on a branch just 10 metres away.

The India leg of the four-day event, coordinated by Bird Count India, allowed participants to count birds for as little as 15 minutes from a particular location. They upload their sightings online, on eBird (www.ebird.org/india), the world’s largest biodiversity-related citizen science platform.

th