Category Archives: Education

Two ex-IIT-BHU students develop reverse osmosis-based water purifier

Education, Inspiration / Positive News and Features, Records, All, Science & Technology

Kanpur :

Concerned over wastage of water from the RO water systems, two ex-students of IIT-BHU were successful in developing cost and energy efficient water purifier called ‘Aquvio’.

The patentable technology was developed two years ago.

In Aquvio’s cost and energy saving Reverse Osmosis-based water purifier, only 30% of water is rejected and 70% is available for drinking purposes. Recognising the potential of Aquvio, IIT-Kanpur granted a seed funding of Rs 20 lakh to the company run by these ex-IIT-BHU students.

The duo–Naveen Kumar and Rohit Kumar Mittal–who had developed Aquvio in just two years, were successful in getting 60 Aquvio water purifiers installed across schools and colleges in Varanasi. Four such water purifiers were also installed at an Army unit in the holy city. With fresh round of funding, Naveen and Rohit are hopeful that they will be able to take forward their mission of saving water. In the last one year, Aquvio managed to save one crore litre of water.

Talking to TOI over phone, Naveen, who passed out from IIT-BHU in 2014 said, “Aquvio’s water filters significantly reduce the amount of water wasted as compared to modern RO water systems. In water purifiers available in the market, 70% of the water is drained out, which is nothing but a wastage in the current scenario of water crisis in our country. In Aquvio’s cost and energy saving Reverse Osmosis-based water purifier, only 30% of the water is rejected and 70% is available for drinking purpose. Aquvio water purifiers also consume less power”.

Naveen said that while the first water purifier was developed and launched in the market in August 2015 after eight months of research, 60 products have been installed in different schools and colleges in Varanasi. “The technology used in Aquvio has already been patented. This patented technology only ensures that out of four litre of water only one litre gets drained and the remaining water is available for drinking purpose. It significantly helps in saving water”, he further said.

Aquvio has two water purifiers that can filter huge quantities of water (100 litre per hour and 50 litre per hour) and are fit for use in corporate offices or schools/colleges.

When asked about the cost of a single piece of Aquvio, Naveen replied that Aquvio, dispensing 50 litre of water per hour costs Rs 50,000. “We are in the mode of expansion. At present our company is based in Malviya centre in IIT-BHU but soon we will have a manufacturing unit out of the institute campus. We shall base ourselves somewhere in Delhi/NCR. At present 16 full time employees are working in our company”, said Naveen while talking about the expansion plans of his start-up. He said that he had accepted the job offer from a company during the campus placement drive but he did not join and after completing his BTech in 2014 he started with his water purification project.

“The fact that Aquvio purifiers are cost and energy efficient as well as helping in water conservation is what aligns the start-up with the aim of the INVENT programme, under which SIIC (SIDBI Innovation and Incubation Centre) has funded the company. IIT-Kanpur has granted a seed funding of Rs 20 lakh to a cost and energy efficient water purifier start-up called Aquvio (iMinbit Technologies Pvt. Ltd.), based in Varanasi”, said Prof Sameer Khandekar, associate dean, Innovation and Incubation, IIT-Kanpur.

“We are excited to welcome Aquvio into IIT Kanpur’s social incubation programme which has seen rapid growth over the last six months. With a majority of India’s cities and towns reeling under water crisis, Aquvio’s water-saving ROtechnology not only reduces water wastage but also provides sustainable potable water to the underprivileged communities,” said Prof Khandekar.

Aquvio has been recognised by Startup India Standup India, a Government of India initiative, Naveen said.
INVENT is a collaboration between the Technology Development Board, Government of India and the Department for International Development, Government of the United Kingdom.

As on June 30, IIT-Kanpur has received the highest number of incubation applications approved among the three other INVENT incubators in the country. The institute’s INVENT programme has been operational since August 2016 and has so far funded nine social enterprises.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Kanpur News / by Abhinav Malhotra / TNN / July 14th, 2017

Research needs to be multi-disciplinary: Award-winning duo

Education, Records, All, Science & Technology

Bengaluru :

The scientific landscape in India must move in an organic way towards an environment that encourages multi-disciplinary research so as to address the challenges that the country and the world face, scientists say.

G Mugesh from the department of inorganic and physical chemistry, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), said: “There is no doubt that people working with different interfaces need to be encouraged. The challenges before us have shown that just one discipline is not enough, for example, to tackle several diseases that the world at large and India face.”

Mugesh was conferred the National Prizes for Interfaces between Chemistry and Biology (2017), instituted by the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bengaluru, in collaboration with CNR Rao Education Foundation. The award is donated by AVRA Laboratories, Hyderabad.

This year’s award is also being conferred on Sandeep Verma of Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur.

“Compared to 20 years ago, when I joined IIT-Kanpur after my PhD and postdoctoral research in the US, there is a lot of change. All my training in the US was on how to do multi-disciplinary research and when I returned I found that the scientific landscape in India was still very puritan. Researchers like working in their respective areas and seldom interacted with other disciplines.”

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City News> Bangalore News / TNN / June 06th, 2017

Praise For Paytm Boss Vijay Shekhar Sharma. All The Way From Aligarh

Business & Economy, Education, Inspiration / Positive News and Features, Leaders
Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder and CEO of Paytm, spent his childhood in Aligarh

New Delhi :

It’s always a nice feeling to reconnect with old friends from school. Something similar happened to Paytm Founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma. From his humble beginnings in Aligarh to heading a multibillion-dollar company, Mr Sharma has come a long way. And a word of appreciation came from an old classmate of the Paytm boss. The 43-year-old shared a screenshot of a WhatsApp conversation on Twitter. In the conversation, a person informed Mr Sharma that his Uber driver belonged to the same school as the Paytm boss and was proud of his achievements.

“My Uber driver says Namaste to you. He says he was in your school. His name is Vijay Upadhyay s/o Pramod Kumar Sharma,” read the message. A delighted Mr Sharma quickly responded by recalling the school they went to. “Awww. Agrasen Inter College. Harduaganj,” he wrote. Harduaganj is a town in Aligarh district in Uttar Pradesh where Mr Sharma is from.

As the conversation went on, he was told that his former classmate was happy to admit that the two went to the same school and how proud he was of Mr Sharma’s success. “He is saying you have made everyone proud,” the message read. Vijay Shekhar Sharma shared the heartening conversation on Twitter.

Vijay Shekhar Sharma spent his childhood in Aligarh. At the age of 15, he enrolled at Delhi College of Engineering. In 2010, he founded digital wallet platform Paytm which is now valued at over $4 billion. The online payment app saw a huge surge after PM Modi’s demonetisation policy in November 2016. Now at 43, he is the second Indian on Time Magazine’s ‘100 Most Influential People list’ along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Disclosure: Paytm’s parent company One97 is an investor in NDTV’s Gadgets 360.

source: http://www.ndtv.com / NDTV / Home> Sections> Off-Beat / by Meghna Nijhawan / May 02nd, 2017

Meet Kanpur’s ‘calculator girl’

Amazing Feats, Education, Inspiration / Positive News and Features, Records, All, Science & Technology, World Opinion
Dilpreet Kaur

_____________________________________________________________________
Highlights

Bagging 13 records in a year, Dilpreet Kaur set a history in Limca Book of Records.

She follows the ancient Abacus theory to solve bigger problems.

She holds the record for solving 11 calculation in 15.83 seconds to 1.36 minutes.

_____________________________________________________________________

Kanpur :

A class 10th student from the industrial town has sent the records tumbling , setting 13 Limca Book of records in just a year.

Nicknamed ‘Calculator Girl’, Dilpreet Kaur set 11 national and two world records for most number of mathematical calculations in a minute, that too in a short span of one year. She received her certificates for her feat on Saturday.

In an event organized and supervised by district administration, railway officials and others in the city on August 25, 2016, she had made 11 record by doing 11 mathematical calculations in a record time, ranging from 15.83 sec to 1.36 minute. All 11 records of Dilpreet were accepted in October last year.

In total, Dilpreet, till date had set 14 records which includes two world records, Limca Book of Records authorities said.

“She has become the first person to achieve the feat of bagging a maximum of 13 records in just a span of one year, which is a rare feat in the history of Limca Book of Records.

” Anant Kasibhatla, member of the Limca Book of Records team said her father Manjeet Singh, a mathematics teacher, encouraged her by giving her bigger numbers to solve. “To improve her skill, we suggested her to follow ancient Abacus theory to perform mathematical functions like multiplication, division, addition, subtraction, square root and cube root,” Singh

The district administration has also written to ministry of child development to acknowledge her mother Simran Kaur, also a teacher, said.

The district magistrate has also made a recommendation to chief minister Aditya Nath Yogi for acknowledging her talent and rewarding her.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Kanpur News / by Faiz Rahman Siddiqui / TNN / April 17th, 2017

UP’s JEE topper, Lucknow boy advises focus for success

Education, Records, All

Lucknow :

Hailing from a family of engineers, his doctor mother the only exception, Lucknow boy Rohan Gupta is the latest to achieve the distinction. Bagging all India rank 43 in the JEE (Main), Rohan is likely to be the top scorer in Uttar Pradesh. His father Rohit Gupta secured AIR 196 in the IIT-JEE in 1988 and joined IIT-Kanpur while his mother Anamika Gupta, a gynaecologist cracked the All India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT) way back in 1991 with an AIR of 123.

Securing 328 marks out of 360 in JEE Mains, Rohan will now appear for JEE Advanced, the gateway for admissions to coveted IITs. Rohan’s score card read 112, 115 and 101 in physics, chemistry and maths respectively. Each section carried 120 marks. “After calculating the marks using the official answer key, I was expecting any rank under top 50,” said Rohan, who aspires to pursue computer science engineering from IIT-Bombay.

For the City Montessori School, Gomti Nagar passout, success is directly proportional to consistency. “Stay focussed for two complete years, in classes XI and XII. Believe in NCERT textbooks and make best use of them while preparing for JEE,” shares Rohan. His class XII results are awaited and his score in class X was 96.8%.

Rohan’s list of achivements doesn’t stop there. In class X, he cracked the National Talent Search Examination and appeared for Olympiads in mathematics, physics, chemistry and astronomy. Rohan plays lawn tennis, and cricket. Indoors, he plays games on his computer. “He has no interest in watching television and has in fact, got all of us rid of television,” said Anamika.

An ex-IITian, Rohit played a key role in the Women Power Line 1090, a pet project of the former goverment. “The whole IT backbone for 1090 was provided by me,” said Rohit, a software engineer who runs his own company. Anamika is a gynaecologist in Community Health Centre (CHC), Bakshi ka Talab.

Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Thursday announced the results of JEE Main A total of 2,21,427 have qualified for JEE (Advanced) which regulates admissions into IIT and the Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad. Out of 11,86,454 who registered for JEE (Main), 11,22,351 took the exam, both in online and offline mode.

Doing away with the class XII weightage this year, CBSE declared the JEE Main rank too. The cut-off for Common Rank List (CRL) is 81 while for OBC – Non Creamy Layer, the cut-off is 49. The cut-off for SC, ST and Persons with Disabilities is 32, 27 and 1 respectively. In the top 1000 ranks, there are 932 boys and only 68 girls.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Lucknow News> Schools & Colleges> UP / TNN / April 28th, 2017

For these stars, disability is not an excuse

Education, Inspiration / Positive News and Features, Records, All

Lucknow :

It was a moment of pride for scores of students who, despite odds, went on to win gold, silver and bronze medals at the third convocation of Dr Shakunatala Misra National Rehabilitation University (DSMNRU) organised on Monday.

(From L to R) Bikray Upadhyay, Deepamala Gautam and Mohammad Akram being felicitated

Mohd Akram, who is blind, won four gold and two bronze medals, highest in the university. Among the medals that landed in Akram’s kitty are Gold medal for overall performance; Chancellor’s Gold medal, awarded to the highest scorer in all faculties; Vice-Chancellor’s Gold medal, which is awarded to the highest scorer in MA and Mulayam Singh Yadav Gold medal, awarded to the highest scorer in political science in post graduation. Akram also bagged two bronze medals for scoring highest in the respective faculty.

Akram, who is inspired from French educator Louis Braille, said, “I want to be a professor and introduce a new system of learning for differently-abled students. Braille is my best friend as it has helped me achieve academic excellence.”

Bikray Upadhyay, who is also physically handicapped, bagged a silver medal in MA Hindi. “Students like me should get an equal opportunity for pursuing higher education.

I want to become a professor so that I can spread the light of learning.” Another disabled student Janardhan, who won gold in BA, dreams of becoming a teacher. “I want to pursue PhD and teach at Shakuntala Misra University so that I can help students achieve their dreams,” said Janardhan.

Yasmeen Bano, daughter of a tailor, had to work day in and day out to meet her expenses. Apart from regular studies, Bano would teach students to support her father. ” I often felt the need to drop out of college due to financial constraints but by God’s grace I successfully completed graduation,” added Bano, who won silver medal in MA.

Son of a farmer, Yashpal Singh, who was awarded a bronze medal for MA Hindi, said, “In my village in Sitapur, there is a dearth of colleges. It’s my dream to set up a degree college some day.”

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Lucknow News / by Mohita Tewari / TNN / April 25th, 2017

Lucknow boy wins Golden Beaver Award for documentary on psychopaths

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Records, All
A 17-year-old boy from Lucknow has won the Golden Beaver Award for his documentary on psychopaths at the recently concluded 7th National Science Film Festival that was held in Kolkata.(Handout image)

A 17-year-old boy from Lucknow has won the Golden Beaver Award for his documentary on psychopaths at the recently concluded 7th National Science Film Festival that was held in Kolkata.

Last year, Aditya won the same award for his documentary ‘Ants: A Tiny Creature’.

“It is a thrilling experience to win an award for two years in a row,” Aditya, a class 12 student of Manipal Public School, said.

He received Rs 50,000 as prize money as part of the award in category D for films made by school students.

Brain’s Fault from Aditya Rahul on Vimeo.

“The documentary titled Brains Fault explains how the physical and biological condition of the brain makes a person criminal before his birth. These people are called psychopaths in medical science,” Aditya said.

“My documentary is an attempt to explain the reason behind psychopaths,” he said.

He added that the rising rate of crime in the country was a triggering point that motivated him to make this movie.

The 7 minutes 47 seconds documentary was produced, directed and shot by Aditya with an SLR camera. While Aditya also handled the cinematography and editing, he said his friends stepped in to lend their support in making this documentary.

“My friend Tanmeet Singh and Dhananjay Singh Chauhan helped me a lot. The narration was done by Tanmeet Singh. Actors in this movie were again my friends – Lokendra Tiwari, Pratimesh, Shubham Singh, Harshit Pandey, Prashant Srivastav, Abhishek Singh and other friends,” he said.

Organised by Vigyan Prasar, an autonomous institution under the department of science and technology, the film festival was held at Birla Industrial and Technological Museums between February 14 and 18.

The entries were selected by a jury of eminent filmmakers, professors, scientists, media professionals such as former chairman of Satyajit Ray Film and TV Institute, Kolkata (chairman national jury) Partha S Ghose, eminent filmmaker Reena Mohan, award-winning filmmaker Arun Chadha and others.

The award was presented by Bollywood film director Madhur Bhandarkar.

However, Aditya could not attend the prize ceremony event because his CBSE Class 12 examination is scheduled to begin next month. The young boy is looking up for more projects in future.

“Aditya has made us proud by winning this coveted award. He does amazing work each time and is very talented, enthusiastic and dedicated about his work. We wish him all the best for his future endeavours,” his principal Anupama Shukla said.

source: http://www.hindustantimes.com / Hindustan Times / Home> Education / by Rajeev Mullick, Hindustant Times,Lucknow / February 28th, 2017

‘Stove watcher’ developed by Meerut lads selected in CBSE’s national exhibition

Amazing Feats, Education, Inspiration / Positive News and Features, Records, All, Science & Technology

Meerut :

Gone are days when you have to keep a tab on your gas stove to save your foods from over cooking or burning. Now, just like a microwave, not only you will be able to set time of your gas stove, but can also keep the temperature under check — thanks to a ‘stove watcher’ developed by Class XI students Yash Bansal and Abiraam T.S of Dewan Public School here.

Their stove watcher is among 18 models chosen from nearly 500 models displayed by 450 schools at a national-level CBSE Science Exhibition in Delhi. Their model is also only one from Meerut to have made it to the list.

Taking about their feat, Yash, 17, said, “One day, my mother told me to keep a tab on the milk boiling on the gas stove, but I forgot and the vessel burnt. The idea to make a device to keep a check on the gas stove came to me from this incident. It took one month to complete the model, which is affordable and compatible with all gas stoves.”

The students have fitted a timer in the gas stove, which can be fixed to switch on the gas, thereafter it will be switched off automatically. Besides, a temperature sensor, which has been designed by them, can be fixed at the tip of the vessel to ensure that the food does not spill out or burnt in the process of cooking.

Geetika Gupta, science teacher and mentor of the project, said, “In the regional round, out of 300 schools, 18 were selected for the national level. At the national level, 18 schools were selected and awarded by CBSE. While the students received certificates, the school has been awarded Rs 3,000 cash prize. This is the second time in the past 10 years when our school has been selected in the national level CBSE science exhibition.”

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Meerut / by Ishita Bhatia / TNN / February 15th, 2017

Workshop on elephant management held in Agra

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Green Initiatives / Environment, Nature, Travel

Agra :

Over a hundred elephants march up and down the Amer fort in Jaipur every day carrying tourists. Many of these elephants have severe welfare issues and concerns stem mainly from lack of expert veterinary care and ignorance about elephant care and management by local elephant care takers in Jaipur. Wildlife SOS in collaboration with Rajasthan Forest Department has launched a series of training workshops for elephant owners and mahouts on elephant care and management. The training workshops have been a trumpeting success with over 75 participants attending the first workshop.

The training workshop had both theory and classroom sessions conducted by elephant veterinarians from the Wildlife SOS Elephant Conservation and Care Centre followed by practical sessions with elephants. To create further awareness and bring about compassion, Wildlife SOS hosted a field exposure visit for the elephant owners and mahouts at the Elephant Conservation and Care Centre in Mathura where the Wildlife SOS elephant care team showed practical humane and scientific elephant management techniques practised at the centre. This was followed by participative discussions and lunch.

Assistant conservator of forests Jagdish Chand Gupta, who accompanied elephant owners from Jaipur, said, “We want to adopt modern and positive elephant management and training techniques as a step to improve the condition for the elephants. This workshop proved to be a motivation for the elephant owners who are keen on adopting these methods.”

Kartick Satyanarayan, CEO and co-founder of Wildlife SOS, said “The Wildlife SOS Elephant Conservation and Care Centre has model standards for humane elephant management and functions as a training platform to create similar facilities across India. Chief Wildlife Warden of Rajasthan Dr G V Reddy has shown great foresight and vision in facilitating these workshops to train stakeholders involved in elephant care so we can work together to improve the living conditions of elephants in Jaipur.”

Geeta Seshamani, co-founder of Wildlife SOS, said, “I am very happy to see the elephant owners and mahouts see and learn new methods of managing elephants with compassion and without the need for intimidation. The visit hosted by Wildlife SOS will go a long way to helping these people change the way they are managing and caring for their elephants”

Dr. Yaduraj Khadpekar, senior veterinarian in charge of the Wildlife SOS Elephant Care Centre, said “The training workshop and subsequent exposure visit to the Elephant Conservation and Care Centre quenched the curiosity of the elephant owners about how Wildlife SOS manages the elephants in our care. It also provided insight into modern management techniques available for providing humane care to elephants.

Rhea Lopez, Elephant campaign manager of Wildlife SOS, said “The workshop covered aspects of enclosure design, positive conditioning, veterinary care, elephant behaviour, enrichment, foot care and the elephant owners and mahouts were receptive & participated in all discussions.”

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Agra News / Aditya Devi / February 10th, 2017

Doon Valley School, Lucknow, wins national civic fest award

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Records, All

Doon Valley School, Lucknow, has been declared the winner of the ‘Bala Janaagraha National Civic Fest’ held here today.

The annual National Civic Fest is a final event for the Civic Fests being held across the country in various cities.

Over the last six months, Civic Fests have been held in 25 cities, and 40,000 students have participated in them, according to the organisers.

Bala Janaagraha is a civic learning programme of the Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy, a non-profit organisation based in Bengaluru.

The Doon Valley School project was to improve and develop a road in Mulayamnagar ward in Lucknow by approaching the local corporator and the Mayor, a Janaagraha release said.

They also raised concerns about safety, street lighting, paving and asphalting of roads in the area which led the local administration to take action resulting in a patrol guard by the city police, and the construction of a pavement and a motorable road in the ward.

The Doon Valley school students also conducted various awareness sessions on themes ranging from crime against women to drunken driving to eve teasing to garbage collection and water logging on streets, the release said.

Doon Valley High School, Lucknow; Oasis International School, Bengaluru; St Michael’s High School, Ranchi and St Kabir School, Ahmedabad were the finalists.

Bala Janaagraha, one of the flagship programmes of Janaagraha, is running a civic education programme for students of government, aided and private schools across 25 cities in the country.

(This article has not been edited by DNA’s editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)

source: http://www.dnaindia.com / DNA, Daily News & Analysis / Home> India / Saturday, February 11th, 2017