Month: June 2022

Kerala’s Suchetha Satish Sets World Record By Singing In 120 Languages

Suchetha Satish is a 16-year-old girl from Kerala who is making headlines today for her ability to sing in 120 languages, earning her a place in the Guinness Book of World Records. At an event hosted at the Indian Consulate in Dubai, she set the world record for singing in the most number of languages.

Satish achieved this feat at the ‘Music Beyond Borders’ performance held on August 19 in Dubai. Kesiraju Srinivas, another Indian national, held the record before her in the category in 2008, having sung in 76 different languages.

Satish is said to have achieved this feat by singing in 29 Indian languages and 91 global languages. She started at noon with Janaki Jane, a Sanskrit song from the Malayali film Dhwani. Her final song was written by her mother and produced by Bollywood musician Monty Sharma, and was in Hindi.

The ‘Music Beyond Borders’ concert, held in Dubai, commemorated India’s 75th anniversary of independence and the United Arab Emirates’ 50th anniversary of freedom. The ceremony was also attended by Ajay Puri, the Consul General of India in Dubai. While Satish’s parents, dermatologist T.C. Satish and Ayilliath Sumitha, recognised her potential when she was only three years old, her love of languages developed organically after she heard a Japanese song performed by a guest at her house. She promptly looked up the words on the internet and, within a few hours, she had performed the entire song, recorded it, and sent it to the guest

femina.in

Another feather in cap for Telangana mountaineer Poorna as she climbs Mt Denali in US

Poorna, who hails from the erstwhile Nizamabad district, scaled the highest peak of Mount Everest at the age of 13 years and became the youngest Indian and the youngest girl in the world to have reached the summit.

“I am very happy to climb Mt Denali, I thank my sponsor Prof YV Gopala Krishna Murthy, Chairman of Ace Engineering Academy, Dr RS Praveen Kumar for identifying my talent and Bhukya Shoban Babu, Chairman of Bhukya Shoban Babu Foundation, Hyderabad, for supporting me,” Poorna said in a statement.

With the sponsorship of the ACE Engineering Academy for the Mt Denali expedition, she started for North America from India on May 18 and reached the starting point Anchorage in Alaska on May 19.


She was accompanied by four other Indians — Ajeet Bajaj, Padma Shri Awardee in adventure sports, Deeya Bajaj, Anmish Varma from Visakhapatnam and Varma, a mountaineer.  

nie/youngest

Avani Lekhara wins gold with world record in Para World Cup

The 20-year-old shooter broke her own world record of 249.6 to secure her a spot at the 2024 Paris Paralympics

Tokyo Paralympics champion Avani Lekhara won gold at the Para Shooting World Cup with a world record score of 250.6 in women’s 10m air rifle standing SH1 in Chateauroux, France on Tuesday.

The 20-year-old shooter broke her own world record of 249.6 to secure her a spot at the 2024 Paris Paralympics.

th

FIH Hockey 5s | Indian men’s team emerges champions, beats Poland 6-4 in final

India made a stunning comeback from being three-goal down to beat Poland 6-4 to win the summit clash

A magnificent India made a stunning comeback from being three-goal down to beat Poland 6-4 in a pulsating final to clinch the inaugural FIH Hockey 5s championship here on Sunday.

India, who had topped the five-team league standings with three wins and one draw en route final, ended their campaign with an unbeaten record.

India had topped the five-team standings after the round-robin league stage with 10 points from three wins and one draw. India had beaten hosts Switzerland 4-3 and drawn with arch-rivals Pakistan 2-2 on Saturday.

th

India and Vietnam sign mutual logistics agreement

The defence minister and his Vietnam counterpart General Phan Van Giang signed a joint vision statement

India and Vietnam on Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on mutual logistics support in presence of the two Defence Ministers during the ongoing visit of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to the Southeast Asian nation.

“In these times of increasing cooperative engagements between the defence forces of the two countries, this is a major step towards simplifying procedures for mutually beneficial logistic support and is the first such major agreement which Vietnam has signed with any country,” the statement said on the logistics agreement.

India has signed several logistics agreements including all Quad countries, France, Singapore and South Korea beginning with the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement with the U.S. in 2016.

th

IISC scientists develop miniproteins that may prevent COVID infection

The miniproteins can not only block entry of viruses like SARS-CoV-2 into our cells but also clump virus particles together, reducing their ability to infect

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore have designed a new class of artificial peptides or miniproteins that they say can render viruses like SARS-CoV-2 inactive.

According to the study, published in the journal Nature Chemical Biology, the miniproteins can not only block virus entry into our cells but also clump virus particles together, reducing their ability to infect.

The researchers noted that a protein-protein interaction is often like that of a lock and a key.

Preventing entry

The team used this approach to design miniproteins that can bind to, and block the spike protein on the surface of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which helps it to enter and infect the human cells.

This binding was further characterised extensively by cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) and other biophysical methods.

These miniproteins are helical, hairpin-shaped peptides, each capable of pairing up with another of its kind, forming what is known as a dimer. Each dimeric ‘bundle’ presents two ‘faces’ to interact with two target molecules.

The researchers hypothesised that the two faces would bind to two separate target proteins locking all four in a complex and blocking the targets’ action.

“But we needed proof of principle,” said Jayanta Chatterjee, Associate Professor in the Molecular Biophysics Unit (MBU), IISc, and the lead author of the study.

th

QS Ranking | IISc Bengaluru fastest rising South Asian university, two IITs in top 200

The Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, is the fastest rising South Asian university among the coveted QS World University Rankings top 200 varsities, having gained 31 places while four IITs have also figured in the category attaining a higher rank compared to the previous edition.

Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), London based global higher education analyst, on Thursday released the 19th edition of the world’s most consulted international university ranking.

The Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, which has bagged the 172nd position, is India’s second best institution, rising five places while IIT Delhi has risen eleven places to bag 174th rank.

th

NHAI enters Guinness World Record for laying 75 km highway in 105 hours: Nitin Gadkari

Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari announced that the 75 km stretch of the Amravati-Akola highway in Maharashtra was laid in 105 hours and 33 minutes, setting a Guinness World Record

State-owned NHAI has created a Guinness World Record for the longest continuously laid bituminous lane of 75 kilometres in 105 hours and 33 minutes on the national highway between Amravati and Akola districts in Maharashtra.

Mentioning about the record, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday said the project was implemented by 720 workers including a team of independent consultants who worked day and night.

The total length of the 75 kilometres of single lane continuous bituminous concrete road is equivalent to 37.5 kilometres of two-lane paved shoulder road and the work started on June 3, at 7:27 am and was completed on June 7, at 5 pm, the minister said in a video message.

The previous Guinness World Record for the longest continuously laid bituminous was for building 25.275 kilometres of road that was achieved in Doha, Qatar in February 2019 and that task was completed in 10 days, Mr. Gadkari said.

th

International Catholic Migration Commission elects Christine Nathan new president

 The Council of the International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC) has elected Christine Nathan from India as the commission’s new president. She is the first ICMC president from Asia. She belongs to the Archdiocese of Bombay and nominated to the ICMC Council by the CCBI Migrant Commission.

The ICMC Council has its members from the National Episcopal Conferences. The 58 members representing the Episcopal Conferences all over the world elected her on June 1, 2022 at its meeting held in Rome.

Apart from the Episcopal Conference His Eminence Cardinal Pietro Parolin Secretary of State, Giorgio Bertin O F M Bishop of Djibouti and Fr Fabio Baggio, cs, Co-Undersecretary of the Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development attended the ICMC Council meeting in Rome.

She is the member of Migrant and Labour Commission of the Archdiocese of Bombay. Christine is a senior education specialist in Adult and Workers Education with experience over 40 years. Having a strong multi-speciality background Christine has worked with the International Labour Organisation (ILO – UN) with Govts, employers and workers. Regional specialist on adult education, Occupational safety and health.She has engaged herself with NGO’s and Civil Society Organisation’s on several social issues at the National and international levels.

dw

Artist who designed ‘Gandhi’ posters no more

Artist P. Sharath Chandran had designed over 800 cigarette covers, but is better known for his only movie poster

Noted artist P. Sharath Chandran (79) passed away at his residence at Eranhipalam here on Friday morning. Though a designer of more than 800 cigarette packets sold across the world, he is best known for his poster design for Richard Attenborough’s epic movie ‘Gandhi’. Ironically it is the only movie poster he had ever designed.

Born in Kozhikode, Sharath Chandran moved to Mumbai (then Bombay) in 1964, after completing his art education at the Thalassery School of Arts. He was employed as a designer at ‘Golden Tobacco’ there for which he designed the cigarette covers. He got the offer to design the ‘Gandhi Poster’ through an advertising agency. The poster, which depicts a side profile of Gandhi and a boy crying over the body of his dead mother after the Jalianwalah Bagh massacre, was used across the country for the movie’s promotion and Sharath Chandran’s work was much appreciated.

However, the artist went back to design cigarette covers. After 18 years of service, he quit his job and launched ‘Orbit’, an advertising agency, along with his friends and later on, became a freelance designer.

Call it fate, but all the posters and promotional materials Sharath Chandran had designed for ‘Gandhi’, besides a few of his paintings, were destroyed due to a leakage in his roof years ago, leaving no keepsakes for the artist.

The artist returned to Kozhikode in 2016 and his first come-back exhibition held at Kerala Lalithakala Akademi Art gallery in the same year was notable for the realism and attention to details in his works that made them life-like. He was a master at close up portraits of people, especially old people, monks, with detailed wrinkles and bright eyes. He went on to conduct 9 more exhibitions later.

The funeral of the artist will be held at Mavoor Road Crematorium in the city at 4 p.m. on Friday.

th/kerala