Month: December 2021

** Portugal now led by PM, 2 cabinet members of Indian origin

In a twist to that claim, Portugal is now led by people of Indian descent with family ties to the former colony: Prime Minister Antonio Costa, Finance Minister Joao Leao and Planning Minister Nelson de Sousa.

“I am very proud of visiting my father’s land as prime minister, and especially the first prime minister of Indian origin in the European Union. This visit has a strong emotional side in the personal motivation,” Costa said during a visit to India in 2017.

Costa’s grandfather Luis Afonso Maria da Costa was from Margao, where his relatives still live and his 200-year-old ancestral home is located, according to the Portuguese American Journal.

Luis Costa emigrated to what was then another Portuguese colony, Mozambique, where the prime minister’s father Orlando da Costa was born in the capital Maputo.

The elder Costa was a writer and his son released an English translation of his book, Sem Flores Nem Coroas (Without Flowers or Wreaths) while visiting India.

** Digitized war records of Indian troops killed in WWI Iraq highlight long forgotten Kut Al-Amara siege

The beautifully handwritten note on the yellowing service record, compiled by the Punjab government in 1919 and now over a century old, is as brief as it is poignant.

In faded ink, the entry for Wasawa Singh, the son of Shera, a Jat from the village of Gaike in northeast Punjab, tells the story of a young life cut short in the service of an alien empire.

There are no dates, merely a rank — havildar, equivalent to sergeant — and the name of a unit, the 30th Punjabis.

** Know Your City: How badminton was born in Pune as a pastime for bored British officers, their wives

The first informal set of rules of badminton — initially called ‘Poona’ – were formed in India by the British colonists in 1867. Later, as the British officers took the game back home, it acquired the name of Badminton after the country estate of Duke of Beaufort.

In March 1873, an English sports lover sent out a request to The Field: The Country Gentlemen’s Newspaper in England for information about the new ‘Badminton game of Battledore’ that, he had heard, was a favourite in India and was picking up in Britain.

** Narinder Singh Kapany: The relentless innovator behind the science of fibre optics

Known as the ‘Father of Fibre Optics’, Dr Narinder Singh Kapany had over 100 patents under his name.

For someone who was hailed as one of the seven unsung heroes of the 20th century for his Nobel Prize-deserving invention in 1999 by Fortune magazine, Narinder Singh Kapany remains relatively unknown.

The Indian American scientist was a multi-faceted personality—physicist, innovator, entrepreneur, farmer, philanthropist, and an avid art collector.

he also invented Retinal laser coagulation treatment. He became the first Indian Sikh to take a company public in Silicon Valley. 

In 1967, Kapany created the Sikh Foundation that pioneered the display of Sikh Arts at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and established the first permanent Sikh Art Gallery in the United States and Canada

** Bhutan confers its highest civilian award on PM Modi

This is Modi’s 10th international award given by various governments

Bhutan on Friday conferred the Order of the Druk Gyalpo, its highest civilian honour, on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

This was announced on the occasion of the 114th national day of Bhutan.

** The growth of India’s defence exports

The story so far: India’s defence exports have increased from ₹1,521 crore in 2016-17 to ₹8,434.84 crore in 2020-21. The figure stood at ₹10,745 crore in 2018-19. The Government has set an ambitious target to achieve exports of about ₹35,000 crore ($5 billion) in aerospace and defence goods and services by 2025.

According to the latest report of the Swedish think tank Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), three Indian companies figure among the top 100 defence companies in the 2020 rankings — Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Ordnance Factory Board and Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL). “Their aggregated arms sales of $6.5 billion were 1.7% higher in 2020 than in 2019 and accounted for 1.2% of the top 100 total,” the report, released earlier this month, said.

** Ladakh gets its first-ever FM radio station

Advisor Ladakh, Umang Narula launched the first-ever Top FM radio in Leh, they said.

The frequency for Leh & Kargil will be 91.1 FM and it will cover 50 kilometres aerial distance in radius, they said.

“Congratulating the team of Sambhav Media Group,” he said and added that it is a wonderful step and a new source of entertainment and information.

** Ramanujan Prize 2021 winner Neena Gupta: ‘There’s a lot more to be done in mathematics field yet’

Neena Gupta is the third woman to receive the Ramanujan Prize, which was first awarded in 2005. She is the fourth Indian to win this prestigious prize. Prior to her, three of the other four winners are also associated with the ISI Kolkata.

** IIT Dropout Series: Jharkhand boy left IIT Delhi for own startup, now runs a Rs 500-crore company with global partnerships

Ankit Prasad made it to the list of Forbes 30 under 30 in 2018 and has also been recognised in the Business World magazine’s 40 Under 40 list.

However, he wanted to tap into the growing smartphone industry and in 2015 founded ‘Bobble AI’ which created ‘Bobble Indic’ keyboard. Around 120 languages from around the world, as well as 37 Indian languages, are assisted by the keyboard. Bobble AI’s valuation was recorded to be over 500 crores in 2020, which increased to more than 750 crores in the third quarter of 2021.