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ShareChat founders, all UPites, figure on Forbes’ 30 under 30 Asia list

Business & Economy

Founders of social media platform ShareChat — hailing from Lucknow, Gorakhpur and Ghaziabad — have made it to the Forbes 30 under 30 Asia 2018 list. The list features young disruptors, innovators and entrepreneurs across Asia, all under the age of 30.

Left to right: Farid Ahsan of Lucknow, Bhanu Pratap Singh of Gorakhpur and Ankush Sachdeva of Ghaziabad. (Handout image)

Founders of social media platform ShareChat — hailing from Lucknow, Gorakhpur and Ghaziabad — have made it to the Forbes 30 under 30 Asia 2018 list. The list features young disruptors, innovators and entrepreneurs across Asia, all under the age of 30.

The Forbes website reads: “Farid Ahsan, Bhanu Pratap Singh and Ankush Sachdeva met as students, and in 2015 they created ShareChat, an online local language-based social media platform.”

All three are alumni of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT-K).

Farid Ahsan, 25, of Lucknow, Bhanu Pratap Singh, 26, of Gorakhpur and Ankush Sachdeva, 24, of Ghaziabad developed the vernacular social networking application ShareChat as a technology led start-up based out of Bangalore.

According to information mentioned on the Forbes website, the youngsters’ aim was to share the social media experience with speakers of South Asian languages, Hindi and Punjabi, allowing them to make profile, upload content and establish followers.

“Their app is used by eight million users monthly. Currently, they have raised $23.6 million from investors such as SAIF Partners and Xiaomi,” reads the website.

Speaking on how their platform was designed to cater to the needs of the Indian internet users, Farid said, “ShareChat is changing the way in which the next set of billion Indian users consume the internet through their multi-lingual user-generated content platform and cutting-edge technology infrastructure. It is the first social network that gathers geo-specific data on Indian content on a large scale and leverages a highly data-oriented approach to cater to the diverse needs of the Indian internet users.”

Bhanu added, “ShareChat app can be downloaded from the Google Play Store and used in various regional languages. It allows users to create posts, follow people, consume multimedia content, interact with other people through comments and share things with various other communication platforms in an easy way.”

Calling the application intuitive and convenient, Ankush said, “ShareChat aims to optimise social media content for Indian users and become a unique problem solver for the mass vernacular audience in the country.”

Backed by strategic investors, ShareChat has an established user base of almost 30 million users spread across the country and provides the platform in 14 languages including Hindi, Malayalam, Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi, Telugu, Tamil, Bengali, Odia, Kannada, Assamese, Haryanvi, Rajasthani and Bhojpuri.

source: http://www.hindustantimes.com / Hindustan Times / Home> Cities> Lucknow / by Rajeev Mullick, Hindustan Times,Lucknow / April 14th,2018

Biomarker in blood can prevent amputation

Education, Records, All, Science & Technology, World Opinion
Prof Ajai Singh

Lucknow :

In a study, King George’s Medical University’s (KGMU) paediatric orthopaedic department has found a biomarker (chemical) in blood which if tested within four hours of injury caused to a child, can help in early diagnosis of compartment syndrome and save the child from limb amputation.

Compartment syndrome is a condition after an injury in which internal bleeding or swelling builds up pressure that causes a dangerous condition which may lead to amputation as only treatment.

The syndrome under trauma usually develops in the forearm or leg.

In the research spanning over five years, head of peadiatric orthopaedic department, Prof Ajai Singh, found that if the biomarker — creatinine kinase — is tested to be six times higher or more in the blood after injury, compartment syndrome can be suspected.

“Compartment syndrome in trauma happens to both adults and children but in children, it is difficult to diagnose. Some of them are not able to explain the pain and others are not co-operative, which leads to loss of time, when the situation to amputate can be avoided,” said Prof Singh.

“We tested the findings of the study and progress of the results on 56 patients, and found that the biomarker was 10 times higher in these patients. So if within four hours of an injury, the test is run for the biomarker and it is found to be six times higher or more, treatment should be headed towards compartment syndrome,” he added.

Prof Singh said that test for biomarker is inexpensive and can be performed at any laboratory.

Prof Singh recently presented the study at the 20th Asia Pacific Orthopaedic Association Congress 2018, at Antalya in Turkey.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India/ News> City News> Lucknow News / TNN / April 16th, 2018

Archaeologists discover settlement dating back to 3500-4500 years near UP’s Bhadohi

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Historical Links / Pre-Independence, Records, All, Travel, World Opinion

Bhadoi :

A 3500-4500 years old town has been found in the village of Dwarkapur-Agiyabeer near Uttar Pradesh’s Basti in an excavation by Ancient Indian History Culture and Archaeology Department Team of BHU.

During the excavation, the archaeologists discovered remains of weapons made out of bones, sculptures made of mud, floor tiles and utensils.

The digging of the site, which is now believed to be a settlement of fishermen, started in 1999.

Director Dr Ashok Kumar Singh told that evidence of two cultures has been found- Iron-Stone Age and Copper-Stone Age. Equipment made out of iron, spears, parts of swords, axes were also excavated from the site.

Excavators also found beads which are likely to have been used for beautification.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> News> City News> Lucknow News / by Navbharat Times / April 16th, 2018

Agra Taj Car Rally flagged off

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Sports

The prestigious Agra Taj Car Rally was flagged off on Friday evening from Hotel Clark Shiraz here.

Covering its first “night” leg — 60 km, the rallyists reached the army’s Jeet stadium.

The president of the Motor Sports Club of Agra, Rajiv Gupta, told IANS 74 teams, with 200 members joined the event on Friday, including six teams from the army, five from Indian Oil, and six all-women teams.

Teams have come from Dubai, Delhi, Chandigarh, Indore, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Harvijay Bahia, patron of the club, and a formula car racer in the extreme category told IANS.

Bahia said with support from the Uttar Pradesh Tourism, district authorities, this popular event had firmly established Taj city as the most important motor sports hub in the country.

“No other rally offered such a challenging and picturesque terrain, including, desert, the dreaded Chambal ravines, the river bed, lush green wilderness, plus of course hospitality,” Bahia added.

–IANS

bk/pgh/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

source: http://www.business-standard.com / Business-Standard / Home> News-IANS> Sports / IANS – Agra / April 14th, 2018

‘Critically endangered’ gharials thriving at Kukrail breeding centre

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Green Initiatives / Environment, Nature, Records, All, Travel
The gharial is threatened by the loss of its riverine habitat, depletion of fishes, and entanglement in fishing nets.(HT Photo)

The Kukrail gharial breeding centre in Lucknow alone houses around 300 gharials — once considered to be the total population of the crocodilian in the country. And there are still eggs left for new ones to make an appearance.

“We have 300 gharials with us. But this figure represents only what is left after hundreds were sent for breeding to different places over the years,” said Ashok Prasad Sinha, conservator of forest endangered species project, Uttar Pradesh forest department.

The gharial (Gavialis gangeticus), also known as gavial or fish-eating crocodile, is a type of Asian crocodilian set apart by its long and thin snout. It is different from the crocodile or the alligator, which exist in bigger numbers. It is native to the northern part of the Indian subcontinent.

The jaws of the gharial are too thin and delicate to grab a larger prey. They keep lying in wait for fishes to swim by and then quickly catch them by whipping their heads sideways. They do not chew their prey, but swallow it.

Sinha said that the Kukrail centre is responsible for sending gharials for breeding to places like Madhya Pradesh and Chennai in Tamil Nadu. “In all, 238 gharials were sent to Delhi, Rampur, Bijnor, Etah, Mathura and Kanpur. Thirty-one gharials were also sent to other countries, including Bhutan, the US (New York), Pakistan and China,” he shared.

The latest batches of 116 gharials left the centre for the natural habitat of Kartania forest range on March 15 and 29. “We are happy that even after sending so many, we still have 300 gharials left. According to wildlife statistics, gharials fall under the critically endangered category,” said Sinha.

The gharial is threatened by the loss of its riverine habitat, depletion of fishes, and entanglement in fishing nets. As its population has sharply declined since the 1930s, it has been listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List — a comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biological species.

source: http://www.hindustantimes.com / Hindustan Times / Home> Cities> Lucknow / by Gaurav Saigal, Hindustan Times,Lucknow / April 14th, 2018

Lucknow Metro’s underground project gets RoSPA awards

Business & Economy, Records, All, Travel, World Opinion
The award covers the period between January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2017

Lucknow :

Lucknow Metro’s underground project has bagged the prestigious international Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) health and safety awards, 2018. The project will be awarded with the highly acclaimed ‘RoSPA Silver Award’ for the health and safety performance for the period between January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2017 by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA). This is a British charity organisation that aims for promotion of safety and prevention of accidents in project execution the world over.

For Lucknow Metro Rail Project, Gulermak-Tata Projects Limited (TPL) Joint Venture (JV) are the contractors who have been entrusted with the civil work of the 3.67-km long Charbagh to Hazratganj underground stretch. The contractors have been declared winner of this coveted award, announced the Lucknow Metro Rail Corporation (LMRC).

Officials said that this award is a very important achievement for the team of Lucknow Metro since it was selected among some very prominent international projects. This award highlights LMRC’s continuous commitment in achieving highest standards of health and safety in the project execution for the Lucknow Metro Rail Project. The award will be presented in a ceremony on July 5, 2018 at Birmingham, United Kingdom.

RoSPA Silver Award winners indicate that the company has achieved a high level of performance by adopting good management systems which are delivering consistent improvement and are working towards the level of excellence.

In the recent past, LMRC has also won several prestigious national and international awards, including the Best Urban Mass Transit Project in 2017 by the ministry of housing & urban affairs, government of India, the best metro project for ‘Excellence in Innovative Designs’ in 2016, the ESQR Quality Choice Prize in 2016 in Berlin (Germany) under the Gold Category, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Memorial Award on Innovation in Governance in 2016, the ‘International Quality Summit (IQS) Award 2016’ under Gold Category by Business Initiative Directions (BID) Group One – in Madrid, Spain and the Dun & Bradstreet Infra Award, 2017 in Mumbai etc.

The contract for Charbagh – Hazratganj underground stretch of Lucknow Metro Project was awarded in April, 2016. The scope of work includes 3.67 km of tunneling with Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) and construction of three underground stations at Hussainganj, Sachivalaya and Hazratganj. The project is progressing at a very fast pace with about 75% of work having been completed.

“This has been a significant technical and managerial achievement for the team of Lucknow Metro since the work involved construction/tunneling through some of the most congested areas and highly dilapidated buildings of the city requiring extensive instrumentation, monitoring and traffic management”, said officials.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> News / by Priyanka Singh / TNN / April 11th, 2018

CWG 2018: Shooter Ravi Kumar takes bronze in 10m air rifle

Records, All, Sports, World Opinion


____________________________________________________

HIGHLIGHTS

Ravi Kumar won bronze in the final of the men’s 10m air rifle

The shooter from Meerut finished with shots of 10.4, 10.1, 9.3 and 10.2 to finish third with a total of 224.1

Australia’s Dane Samson won gold while Abdullah Hel Baki of Bangladesh claimed silver
______________________________________________________

New Delhi :

Bringing further laurels to India on what has turned out to be a super Sunday, shooter Ravi Kumar won bronze in the final of the men’s 10m air rifle to extend the country’s medal tally to 10 at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia.

Having entered the final after finishing second in qualifying, Ravi shot very well in the final even as compatriot Deepak Kumar bowed out, and it all came down to an intense tussle with Australia’s Dane Samson and Abdullah Hel Baki of Bangladesh. The shooter from Meerut finished with shots of 10.4, 10.1, 9.3 and 10.2 to finish third with a total of 224.1.

Samson claimed gold with a CWG record score of 245 and Baki took silver with 244.7.

Ravi, 29, entered the ongoing CWG with plenty of hope having clinched bronze in the 10m air rifle event at this year’s International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup.

Belonging to a humble family from Meerut’s Bhainsa village, Ravi obtained his first air gun after his farmer father Ajay Kumar – who left his job as a supervisor in a sugar mill in Khatauli to run a medical store – collected money from his relatives. Inspired from his mother’s maternal uncle Rajpal Singh and his Arjuna awardee son Vivek Singh, Ravi began shooting in 2007.

Earlier in the day, Ravi had finished second in qualification with a score of 626.8 while Deepak finished top with a Games record qualifying score of 627.2.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> Sports News> Commonwealth Games 208 / TimesofIndia.com / April 08th, 2018

Lucknow group imparts lessons in harmony with scholarship

Education, Inspiration / Positive News and Features
Sachin Gupta (right) receives the scholarship from a Shoulder to Shoulder member in the city

Lucknow :

For the past several days, six-year-old Ziqra Aqeel had been missing out on her studies. The reason being her parents’ inability to pay her school fees. But now, the Balaganj resident will not have to worry about a break in her studies till she wants to continue studying in her life, courtesy a scholarship from Praveer Singh.

The assistance was made possible by a unique scholarship launched by citizen-driven initiative Shoulder to Shoulder (S2S) Foundation, as another step towards building bridges between communities.

The facility ‘S2S Shiksha Tehreek’ allows any individual or group to institute a scholarship in the name of a family member or institution and commit the amount for tuition fees and books for at least one year but with a rider, that the scholarship is for a child from another community.

The recent initiative has already received four sponsors.

“I’ve named the scholarship in my father’s name – Raghvendra Singh and will continue to fund Ziqra’s education till the time she wants to study. Once she is done, I will fund another child. This is not just educating a child, but sending a strong message of peace and harmony,” said Singh.

Ziqra’s father is unemployed due to illness and her mother sews clothes from home.

A bright student Sachin Kumar (6) was also on the verge of being a drop out when Mohd Furqan instituted a scholarship in his father Haji Mohd Shafi’s memory.

“Sachin’s father, a rickshaw puller, was going to stop his education. The scholarship is a boon to the child who is good at studies,” said school co-ordinator Nahid Akhtar.

The scholarship comes to the aid of children who have potential to study but have to drop out of school because of lack of financial resources.

It also gives a message of communal harmony in times of strife,” said Furquan.

S2S Foundation has previously organised Shia-Sunni namaz on Eid-ul-Zuha, roza iftars at gurdwaras, participated in langars on Guru Parv, organised khichdi feast on Makar Sakranti among other activities for promoting communal harmony.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> News> City News> Lucknow News / TNN / April 10th, 2018

Uttar Pradesh: State’s first butterfly park now open for visitors

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Green Initiatives / Environment, Nature, Records, All, Travel

At present, 28-species of butterflies could be seen, but soon the number can go up to 40, said zoo director RK Singh. Butterflies are the most important indicator of good environment.

The park will be further developed to increase the number of butterflies(HT Photo)

Now, visitors can also have a look at different species of butterfly at the Lucknow Zoo as the state’s first butterfly park was inaugurated by forest minister Dara Singh Chauhan here on Monday.

At present, 28-species of butterflies could be seen, but soon the number can go up to 40, said zoo director RK Singh. Butterflies are the most important indicator of good environment.

He said that the park will be further developed to increase the number of butterflies. “We have placed host plants that attract butterfly and hopefully more species will come up soon,” said Singh.

He said that the park will also generate awareness among visitors about the risks that butterflies face due to increasing pollution and use of chemical fertilizers.

There are around 2,000 species of butterflies in the world of which, 1,500 are found in India. On the occasion, the forest minister said that soon Uttar Pradesh would be leading state in eco-tourism as several programmes for the same were being implemented.

source: htt://www.hindustantimes.com / Hindustan Times / Home> Cities> Lucknow / by Gaurav Saigal, Hindustan Times,Lucknow / April 10th, 2018

Ghumantu Pathshala: How this school at Varanasi railway station is changing the lives of children

Education, Inspiration / Positive News and Features

Varanasi :

The Government Railway Police (GRP) at Varanasi railway station has opened a school meant to educate the underprivileged children living in the nearby slum clusters.

The school is attended by at least 40 students who are accused in petty theft cases, are drug addicts or are involved in menial jobs such as picking garbage.

GRP jawans, sub-inspectors, and CO rank officers have volunteered to teach these children.
A vacant room on platform no. 4 is being used to run the classes for the students and has been named “Ghumantu Pathshala” (Nomadic Classroom).

The police department is also tasked with providing study material and stationery for the students.
Normally, the classes are held for two hours every day where the students are taught about the basics of reading and writing.

An NGO, Sathi and Dare, has volunteered to help the children and counsel them about the benefits of attending school.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> News> City News> Varanasi News / TimesofIndia.com / March 14th, 2018