** Telangana Governor flags off first all-women offshore sailing expedition

Expedition route is from Chennai to Vizag and back

Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan flagged off the first-ever all-women Army officers’ offshore sailing expedition under the aegis of the Army Adventure Wing Southern Command Sailing Node and the EME Sailing Association in Chennai on Tuesday.

Major Mukta S. Gautam from the Corps of EME is leading the momentous expedition with the elite team comprising Majors Priya Semwal, Priya Das, Rashmil Sangwan, Arpita Dwivedi and Sanjana Mittal and Captains Jyoti Singh, Malvika Rawat, Shubham Solanki and Sonal Goyal.

** Kottayam MCH conducts its first liver transplant surgery

Surgical process lasts nearly 18 hours

In yet another milestone in organ transplantation at the government sector in Kerala, the Government Medical College, Kottayam, conducted its first liver transplant surgery on Monday.

In a surgical process lasting nearly 18 hours, a team of doctors at the hospital transplanted a part of the liver to 40-year-old Suneesh, a native of Velur in Thrissur. The organ was donated by Pravija, his wife. Hospital sources said both the donor and the receiver were recuperating after the surgery and the success of the transplant would be known on completion of the highest risk period.

** Mithali Raj stays at number 2 spot in ICC ODI women’s rankings

Raj made 59 off 73 balls in India’s 62-run defeat in the first ODI of the five-match series in Queenstown.

India skipper Mithali Raj maintained her second spot in the ICC Women’s ODI player rankings even as New Zealand batter Amy Satterthwaite moved up to number three after a splendid show in the series-opener against India.

** Isro successfully launches EOS-04, two other satellites Monday morning

The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle blasted off at 05:59 am from the first launch pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre, at the end of a 25-hour countdown, marking the space agency’s first mission launch in 2022.

** Bengaluru: IISc receives Rs 425-crore donation to set up medical institute, 800-bed multi-speciality hospital

The academic centrepiece of this initiative will be an integrated dual-degree MD-PhD programme aimed at creating a new breed of physician-scientists.

The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) will set up a postgraduate medical school along with an 800-bed multi-speciality hospital in its Bengaluru campus. On Monday, the institute inked a partnership with philanthropists Susmita and Subroto Bagchi, and Radha and NS Parthasarathy, who collectively donated Rs 425 crore to set up the new facilities. The sum is considered to be the largest single private donation received by the IISc. The hospital will be named as the Bagchi-Parthasarathy Hospital.

The academic centrepiece of this initiative will be an integrated dual-degree MD-PhD programme aimed at creating a new breed of physician-scientists, who will pursue careers in clinical research to develop new treatments and healthcare solutions, driven by a bench-to-bedside philosophy, said officials. They will be trained simultaneously in the hospital as well as in the science and engineering laboratories at the IISc.

** Tata Group appoints former Turkish Airlines chairman Ilker Ayci as new Air India MD and CEO

yci was born in Istanbul in 1971. He is 1994 alumni of Bilkent University’s Department of Political Science and Public Administration, according to the Tata Group statement.

After a research stay on political science at the Leeds University in the UK in 1995, he completed an International Relations Master’s program at the Marmara University in Istanbul in 1997.

** APNRT Society uniting Telugu diaspora worldwide: Minister

‘It has helped many migrants with investment guidance and orientation’

Minister for Industries, Commerce, IT and Skill Development Mekapati Goutham Reddy on Sunday hailed the Andhra Pradesh Non-Resident Telugu (APNRT) Society in the UAE for doing a good job of uniting the Telugu diaspora worldwide and providing them a platform to engage with Andhra Pradesh.

Speaking at a Telugu Diaspora Dinner organised on the sidelines of Dubai Expo 2020, organised with the help of APNRT Association in Dubai and across the Emirates, the Minister said the NRT Society had been assisting the Telugu diaspora in investment guidance, emergency assistance, orientation for migrants and educating them on the AP Policy NRI Cell.

** The wild oranges of India

The first oranges

Where did the citrus originate? Botanist Chozaburo Tanaka was an early proponent of the Indian origin of the citrus. An exhaustive study of the genomes of many citrus varieties concluded that the last common ancestor of all the varieties we see today grew about eight million years ago in what is now Northeast India (overlapping Meghalaya, Assam, Arunachal, Nagaland and Manipur) and adjacent regions of Myanmar and Southwest China (Wu, et al, Nature (2018) 554, 311-316) This region is, famously, one of the world’s richest biodiversity hotspots. A biodiversity hotspot is defined as a region that contains at least 1,500 species of native plants, and has lost at least 70% of its vegetation. The Northeast corner has 25% of India’s forests and a large chunk of its biodiversity. Here you will find tribes such as the Khasi and Garo, and nearly 200 spoken languages. This area is also a rich repository of citrus genomes, with 68 varieties of wild and developed citrus found here today.

** Industrialist Rahul Bajaj to be given state funeral in Pune

ountry has lost a socially aware, fearless individual: Uddhav

‘Hamara Bajaj’ was the iconic jingle that resonated with the aspirations of the middle class in a pre-liberalised India. And the man behind that brand was one of the biggest and bravest industrialists — Rahul Bajaj. The Chairman Emeritus of the Bajaj Group died at a hospital in Pune on Saturday afternoon. He was 83. The last rites will be held on Sunday.

Bajaj will be accorded a state funeral, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said on Saturday as he and Governor B.S. Koshyari condoled the demise of the veteran industrialist. They said Bajaj’s contribution to industrial development in the country was unparalleled.