March 2022 – Page 6 – Global Records India

** Telangana: Feast on pink and yellow tomatoes soon, courtesy Wanaparthy genetics professor

The professor has also developed a variety of red amaranth (thotakura), which is a high-yielding variety and contains anthocyanin pigment.

In yet another feather in the cap of the College of Horticulture, Mojerla of Wanaparthy district, Associate Professor in Genetics and Plant Breeding, Pidigam Saidaiah (41) has developed promising seed varieties of pink tomato, yellow tomato, red amaranth and yardlong beans using a pedigree method. Developed by crossing two extreme varieties, these hybrids have several advantages over the common ones. The seeds have been sent to the Horticulture Centre of Excellence in Jeedimetla for testing and are expected to be released in the market soon.

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** 13 year old Mumbai autistic girl swims across Palk Strait, sets record

The swimming commenced at 4.22 am on Sunday from Talaimanar and concluded at Dhanushkodi at 5.32 pm.

A 13-year-old Maharashtra girl suffering from Autistic spectrum disorder has set a new record by swimming across the Palk Strait from Talaimannar in Sri Lanka to Dhanuskodi in Tamil Nadu, covering a distance of 29 km in 13 hours and 10 minutes on Sunday.

By achieving the feat, Jiya Rai, daughter of Master Chief of Arms of INS Kunjali, became the youngest and fastest female swimmer in the world to swim across the Palk Strait. The previous record was held with Bhula Chowdhary who covered the distance in 13 hours and 52 minutes in 2004. The swimming commenced at 4.22 am on Sunday from Talaimanar and concluded at Dhanushkodi at 5.32 pm. The event was conducted and guided by the Para-Swimming Federation of India (PSFI).

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** Historical find in Telangana’s Nirmal district throws light on Chalukya era

10 Sati stones discovered in an open field in Mudhole, a known site for Jainism

A group of 10 Sati stones dating to the 10th-11th Century AD have been discovered in an open field in Mudhole of Nirmal district by amateur historians of Telangana.

“We identified these as Sati stones since there are sculptures that show a woman wearing bangles with a raised hand. This was the tradition at the time. We dated this to Kalyani Chalukya rule in the region,” said Sriramoju Haragopal, who worked with B. Ramamohan for the find.

The findings also included hero stones, locally known as viragallu. “After speaking to the local residents, we realised that there were more sculpted stones in the area but those were thrown into a pond due to superstitious belief,” informed Mr. Haragopal.

** Nissan India rolls out 50,000th unit of the Magnite

Nissan India on Tuesday said that it has rolled out 50,000th unit of its Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) Magnite from the Chennai plant of Renault Nissan Automotive India Pvt Ltd (RNAIPL) alliance.

Terming Magnite as a game changer, Rakesh Srivastava, MD, Nissan Motor India, said in a statement that the company had received over 100,000 customer bookings in domestic & export markets,

“We have been able to achieve the 50,000th Magnite milestone in less than 15 months despite head winds from Covid and the semi-conductor crisis. Our employees and supplier partners have contributed immensely with innovative strategies to overcome this crisis,” said Biju Balendran, MD & CEO, RNAIPL.

Magnite was the first global product to be launched under the Nissan NEXT transformation plan. Since its launch, 50,000 Magnites have been produced in Chennai, despite the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic and ongoing semiconductor shortage.

** US President Biden nominates Indian-American diplomat Puneet Talwar as his envoy to Morocco

Talwar, who is currently a Senior Advisor at the State Department, has held senior national security and foreign policy positions in the State Department, the White House and the Senate, the White House said as it announced several other senior administration positions.

** Devendra Jhajharia receives Padma Bhushan, first para athlete to do so

The 40-year-old Jhajharia received the prestigious award from President Ram Nath Kovind at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Jhajharia is a multiple-time Paralympics medal winner, having won his maiden gold during the 2004 Paralympics in Athens, his second gold medal during the Rio Games in 2016, and a silver medal during the 2020 Tokyo edition last year.

** Jay Shah’s term as Asian Cricket Council president extended by one year

BCCI secretary Jay Shah’s tenure as president of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) was on Saturday unanimously extended by a year at its annual general meeting here.

Shah had taken over the reins of the ACC in January last year from Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazmul Hassan, making him the youngest administrator to be re-appointed as ACC president.

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** From UAE villages, this Kerala man emerges as award-winning photographer

Tittu Shaji Thomas, belonging to Mannar near Alappuzha, was injured while playing kabaddi in Dubai, where he had gone to work in 2009. That led the former Kerala University kabaddi player to focus on his other passion, photography.

13 years on, he is an award-winning photographer, the latest being a prestigious one instituted by the UAE government — the Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award. It carries a prize money of 50,000 dirhams (approximately Rs 10 lakh). The 34-year-old was selected from among 2,176 contestants from 89 countries.

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** US to establish SE Asia’s largest Consulate campus in Hyderabad

The soon-to-open US Consulate office in Hyderabad will be the largest US consular processing post-South East Asia both in terms of the number of visa windows and in area. The centre being set up in Nanakramguda is likely to be completed by November 2022 and will open shortly thereafter.

Speaking to Express, David Moyer, Public Diplomacy Officer at US Consulate General office in Hyderabad, said that the centre will be unique as it will comprise 54 visa processing windows as well as multiple new features.

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** Amin Jaffer’s new chapter in Paris

The Rwanda-born Indian curator, who has made the French capital his home, on the Al Thani collection’s first museum, his new book, and the importance of private collections

Writer, curator, collaborator, colonial furniture specialist: Amin Jaffer wears his titles effortlessly. And in the last couple of years, he’s added another one — that of Paris denizen — after he uprooted his English life of 25 years to move into a hôtel particulier (a grand townhouse) on Quai Voltaire along the Seine.