** P V Sindhu Wins Women’s Title – Syed Modi International Badminton, March 2022

P. V. Sindhu won the title with expected ease, by doing just enough to end her title drought.

Excitement was at a premium on the final day of the $150,000 Syed Modi India International badminton that produced one-sided matches.

World No. 7 Sindhu ended the spectacular run of Malvika Bansod 21-13, 21-16 for her first World Tour title since the 2018 BWF World Tour Finals.

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** This all-women team of smartphone-toting, low-caste reporters could fetch India first Oscar

Khabar Lahariya works in areas left behind by the economic boom, where life has barely changed even as new wealth transforms the country’s urban landscape and culture.

An all-women team of smartphone-toting, low-caste reporters who chronicle India’s hardscrabble heartland may give the cinema-mad country its first Oscar-winning film, after their own story became a critically lauded documentary.

The journalists of Khabar Lahariya (Waves of News) have built a huge following across Uttar Pradesh, a northern state with more people than Brazil, covering a beat that runs from cow thefts to sexual violence and corruption.

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** Bafta 2022 honours Lata Mangeshkar and Dilip Kumar

Lata Mangeshkar and Dilip Kumar were remembered as “singer” and “actor”, respectively, in the in-memoriam section of the Bafta film awards held on Sunday night at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

When Lata died on February 7, The Guardian called her “the nightingale of Bollywood”.

After Dilip Kumar passed away, aged 98, on July 7, 2021, The Times, London, described him as “Bollywood’s answer to Marlon Brando” and “a towering figure in Hindi cinema and a meticulously dedicated method actor”.

** More than 22,500 Indians brought from Russia-hit Ukraine, says Jaishankar

Russia-Ukraine war: External affairs minister S Jaishankar told Rajya Sabha that the evacuation efforts were undertaken at a time when artillery shelling and airstrikes on Ukrainian cities were underway. 

** Open House showcases student innovations at IIT-Madras

60 projects developed by various teams of students were featured at the event

The Indian Institute of Technology-Madras’ Centre for Innovation (CFI) held its annual Open House, featuring over 60 innovative student projects. The event showcased autonomous vehicles, rockets and the electric Formula racecar developed by the student team Raftar.

The CFI is a round-the-clock innovation lab with 13 clubs, four competitive teams and over 700 members, who apply their engineering knowledge to come up with products.

Institute director V. Kamakoti, who launched a new website for the CFI on the occasion, said the CFI not only provided a platform for young innovators to showcase their creations but also served as an inspiration for other young students to innovate.

Nilesh Vasa, dean of students, said the student-driven facility inspired students to work creatively and collaboratively. The CFI team Abhiyaan’s autonomous vehicle ‘Bolt’, team Abhyuday’s rocket, team Avishkar’s hyperloop, a sports science and analytics project in collaboration with Sports Science Centre of Excellence, a bird diverter project in partnership with the Wildlife Institute of India and projects on blockchain technology were on display.

Prabhu Rajagopal, faculty advisor of CFI-IIT-Madras, said nearly 10% of the students of the institute are engaged with the CFI, cutting across the undergraduate-postgraduate divide. Quite a few teams and projects had graduated to form start-ups, making Open House the largest calendar event of the CFI and showcasing the best student projects of the year.

Asokan Tondiyath, faculty advisor of team Anveshak, said the team had steadily progressed in the past three years and was in the process of making ‘Foresight’ with custom-made wheels, a lightweight manipulator and a state-of-the-art electronic system.

Among the new developments is the chennaiwaterlogging.org platform that enables users/public to report details such as location of floods and water depth and add photos of waterlogged sites with a description. These reports are used to develop a real-time flood map.

A group of students have converted an electric golf cart into an autonomous shuttle. Team Abhyuday has qualified for the Spaceport America Cup, an annual international event for intercollegiate rocketry teams, in its first attempt. It is the first across IITs to qualify for such an event.

** Joshi, Bhagat shine as India bag 21 medals at Spanish Para Badminton International

Manshi Joshi and Nithya Sre claimed a gold each, while Tokyo Paralympics champion Pramod Bhagat secured two silver and a bronze as India bagged as many as 21 medals at the Spanish Para Badminton International in Cartagena, Spain.

World no. 1 Joshi (SL3) and Sre (SH6) were among the six gold medallists, while India also secured seven silvers and eight bronze medals in the level I tournament, which concluded on Sunday.

Raja/Krishna (men’s doubles SH6), Raj/Parul (mixed doubles SL3-SU5), Chirag/Raj (men’s doubles SU5) and Nitesh/Tarun (men’s doubles SL3-SL4) also bagged the yellow metal.

World no 1 Bhagat (SL3) secured two silver and a bronze, while world no 2 Sukant Kadam (SL 4) ended up with a bronze medal at the event.

Tarun Dhillon (men’s singles SL4), Krishna Nagar (men’s singles SH6), Mandeep Kaur (women’s singles SL3), Manasi/Ruthick (mixed doubles SL3-SU5), Hardik/Ruthik (men’s doubles SU5) and Manoj/Bhagat (men’s doubles SL3-SL4) also won silver medals.

The bronze medal winners were Nitesh Kumar (men’s singles SL3), Manoj (men’s singles SL3), Nilesh Gaikwad (men’s singles SL4), Parul Parmar (women’s singles SL3), Bhagat/Kohli (mixed doubles SL3-SU5), Arwaz/Deep (men’s doubles SL3-SL4), and Prem Ale/Abu Hubaida (men’s doubles WH1-WH2).

Kadam lost to world no 1 Lucas Mazur from France 21-19 19-21 12-21 in the semifinal to settle for a bronze.

India had claimed 34 medals, including 11 gold, seven silver and 16 bronze, from the Spanish Para badminton International II event recently.

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** Mina Swaminthan, of M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, no more

Mrs. Swaminathan, 88, passed away at her home on Monday morning; she was a pioneer in the field of early childhood education and an activist deeply involved in the study and practice of gender equality

Mina Swaminathan, Distinguished Chair, Gender and Development, M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), died in her home in Teynampet on Monday morning. She was 88. Her death was due to natural causes, said a source at MSSRF.

A teacher-educator and writer on early childhood education (ECE), she was appointed in 1970, by the Central Advisory Board of Education, as Chairman of the Study Group on the Development of the Preschool Child. The report of this committee, submitted in 1972, became the basis for the scheme known as the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) in 1975, a landmark intervention in the field of early childhood care and development.

** The BAFTA validation for promising creators

Directors Ajitpal Singh and Prateek Vats get candid about being part of BAFTA Breakthrough India honourees for 2022

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has selected 10 promising talents in cinema, television and gaming for its Breakthrough India initiative for 2022.

In the second year of this initiative, the honourees were selected by a jury that included music composer A R Rahman, writer Apurva Asrani, actors Anupam Kher and Ratna Pathak Shah, director Shonali Bose and producers Guneet Monga and Siddharth Roy Kapur.

The selection intends to help the new cohort explore international opportunities for networking and professional development, with the support of BAFTA and Netflix.

** Cooking, swimming and singing bhajans: Army’s first all-women crew relive their maiden voyage

On February 15, 10 women officers from the Indian Army set sail from the Chennai Port for a gruelling journey from Chennai-Nizampatnam-Vizag-Nizampatnam-Chennai by sea. They have not only charted a new course in the history of the Indian Army but also made the country proud. Shattering all possible glass ceilings, making their own mark and setting new benchmarks, these women completed a successful expedition and proved their mettle.

The 10-day long expedition was led by Major Mukta Gautam, and the crew comprised Major Priya Semwal, Major Priya Das, Major Rashmil Sangwan, Major Arpita Dwivedi, Major Sanjana Mittal, Captain Jyoti Singh, Captain Malvika Rawat, Captain Shubham Solanki, and Captain Sonal Goyal.

The women covered a distance of nearly 900 nautical miles, marking this voyage as the first-ever sailing expedition undertaken by the all-women crew of the Indian Army, after the Navika Sagar Parikrama by the Indian Navy in 2018.