Commonwealth Games 2018 squash: Dipika Pallikal-Joshna Chinappa get silver

April 15, 2018Famous Personalities of Kodagu / Coorg, Records, All, Sports, World Opinionadmin

Dipika Pallikal and Joshna Chinappa settle for silver in women’s doubles squash final at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Dipika Pallikal and Joshna Chinappa lost 9-11, 8-11 in the final of women’s doubles squash at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.(Twitter)

Defending Champions Dipika Pallikal and Joshna Chinappa settle for silver after losing their women’s doubles final match to the New Zealand pair of Joelle King and Amanda Landers-Murphy at the Commonwealth Games 2018 on Sunday.

Pallikal and Chinappa lost the final in straight games 9-11, 8-11 in just over 20 minutes.

Coming into the final the Indian pair had lost just three games in their six matches but lost both of their games in the final to win silver.

Dipika was understandably unhappy with the contentious calls.

“There were some shocking calls as usual, those calls changed the match. They need to be looked at. If they don’t, then the game doesn’t grow,” she said.

“It’s sad to see, the players and game are growing, but the officials they’re not growing at all. It’s harsh for us players,” the player from Chennai added.

Joshna too was disappointed with not winning the gold but found some consolation in the silver.

“It’s great that we could be in the finals, we had a great chance to win. The New Zealanders played really well, we had a few bad calls. It’s disappointing, but it happens, that’s sport. We still managed to get a silver four years later,” she added.

This is India’s and Dipika Pallikal’s second medal in squash at the Games after winning the silver in mixed doubles on Saturday.

source: http://www.hindustantimes.com / Hindustan Times / Home> Sports> Other Sports / by HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times, Gold Coast / April 15th, 2018

National Barista Champioship in Bengaluru from April 18 to 20

April 14, 2018Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Coffee News, Coffee, Kodagu (Coorg)admin

Bengaluru :

United Coffee Association of India (UCAI) and Coffee Board of India are to organise ‘The National Barista Champioship 2018’ in Bengaluru at Orion East Mall, Bengaluru.

The champioship spread over three days – April 18 – 20 is likely to see participants from various parts of the country competing.

For the Barista Champioship, United Coffee Association of India (UCAI)—a representative stakeholder in the Indian Coffee industry comprising of green coffee traders, manufactures of roast and ground coffees, along with coffee machinery manufacturers and dealers of equipment, cafes, coffee labs and coffee professionals—have to come together.

According to R Srikanth Rao, Vice President, United Coffee Association of India, “The competition has three rounds of elimination. Each barista would be preparing and presenting four cups each of espressos, milk beverage and signature drink which will be evaluated and judged by certified jury to identify the best in the various categories of beverages.”

The preliminary round will be on April 18 and 19 and the semifinals and finals would be on April 20. The head Judge for the competition would be Joe Hsu, who is international representative from World Coffee Events. The winner of National Barista Competition would represent India at the World Barista Championship to be held at Amsterdam, during June 2018.

source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com / Business Line / Home> News / by Anil Urs / Bengaluru – April 13th, 2018

Hearing Loss Blog, Hearing Health & Technology Matters, Celebrates 7 Years

April 13, 2018Famous Personalities of Kodagu / Coorg, Leaders, Nri's / Pio's, Science & Technology, World Opinionadmin

Tucson, Ariz.:

Hearing Health & Technology Matters (HHTM), an organization bridging the knowledge gaps in treating hearing loss, is proud to celebrate its 7 year anniversary. The HHTM website is a resource for people who share the belief that Hearing Health & Technology Matters!

The editor’s at HHTM strive to provide timely information and lively insights to everyone who cares about hearing loss.

“Being a member of the HHTM writing team for the past 7 years and to see its growth has been exciting. People with hearing loss tell me that learning more about hearing and the view from the professional side has helped them deal better with their personal hearing loss,” said Gael Hannan, editor of the Better Hearing Consumer.

“Hearing Health & Technology Matters has filled a long-needed gap in the hearing healthcare industry; a series of reasoned and thoughtful blogs touching on underlying causes of issues without being constrained by any one ‘party line’,” said Dr. Marshall Chasin, an expert on music and hearing issues and editor of Hear the Music.

CELEBRATING HHTM MILESTONES:

Over the past 12 months, HHTM has exceeded 1 million unique pageviews. Since January 2018, the site has already witnessed greater than 20% growth in visits compared to 2017.

January 2018: Brian Taylor, AuD, was named Editor-In-Chief of HHTM and Amyn Amlani, PhD, was welcomed as new section editor of Hearing Economics.

March 2018: HHTM underwent a significant brand refresh. The website undertook major updates, including a new company logo. This update significantly enhanced the overall performance of the site and user experience.

March 2018: HHTM launched new section, Innovations in Hearing Healthcare, and welcomed new editor, Bopanna B. Ballachanda, PhD.

March 2018: HHTM’s Jane Madell, PhD, editor of Hearing and Kids, and Emmy and Peabody Award-winning director, producer, writer and cinematographer Irene Taylor Brodsky, premiered their documentary The Listening Project on March 9th at the American Cochlear Implant Alliance’s (ACIA) annual scientific meeting in Washington, DC.

“I take great pride in my role of Editor In Chief of the Hearing News Watch at HHTM. We strive to be an independent source of accurate and timely information. Like all credible journalists, our top priority is to inform our readers, who are combination of hearing healthcare professionals and lay-people, with unbiased reporting and thoughtful opinions about topics related to hearing healthcare,” said Dr. Brian Taylor, Editor In Chief.

HHTM articles and reporting have been cited and republished frequently over the last several years by authoritative sources inside and outside the hearing industry, including HHTM news reports cited in the influential “PCAST” report from the Obama Whitehouse in the fall of 2015.

“When I was first invited to work on the blogs, I hardly knew what a blog was… and I am not too sure many of our authors knew either. I had probably been to a blog but did not really know the term for it. It has really been hard work – but lots of fun – to be part of a blog that has gone from zero hits to millions of hits over the past 7 years. I must say, however, that the dedication of our initial investment team, our web site administrator and our authors that spent hours and hours of their time putting together blogs for our site once per week has allowed it to get to where it is today,” said Dr. Robert Traynor, editor of Hearing International.

The editors of Hearing Health & Technology Matters regularly add fresh content, including the latest industry news, so be sure to visit the website regularly for new articles. To view a full list of editors, visit: hearinghealthmatters.org/about-hearing-health-matters.

source: http://www.prweb.com / PR Web / Home> News Center / Tucson, Arizona – April 12th, 2018

The gold is a big confidence booster for us: Ashwini Ponnappa

April 12, 2018Records, All, Sports, World Opinionadmin

The Indian contingent is on a roll at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in Australia.

They created history by winning the first gold ever in the mixed team badminton event.

In the team is namma Karnataka hudugi Ashwini Ponnappa. We managed to talk to her for a brief moment, during which she shared the excitement and some details about plans for the rest of the tournament. She says, “I’m really happy. This is the first time we are winning a gold at the CWG mixed team event. It’s a huge confidence booster for all of us.”

The team is looking at this gold as an opportunity to better their record and aim for more wins at the tournament. “I sincerely hope that we get to do this again in the other team events too. But for now, the focus is on the individual events and doing well there as well,” Ashwini signs off.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> News> Lifestyle> Spotlight / by Sunayana Suresh / TNN / April 11th, 2018

A symbiotic bond with tribal communities

April 12, 2018About Kodagu / Coorg, Agriculture, Green Initiatives / Environment, Inspiration / Positive News and Features, Natureadmin

For 38-year-old S Thanaraj, a visit to study the impact on the lifestyle of Paliyar tribal community due to globalisation in 2006 was a life changing moment. He was impressed by how tribal communities embrace nature and live in forests complementing each other.

A native of Radhapuram in Tirunelveli, he shifted to Madurai to pursue law. Being a dalit, Thanaraj has witnessed caste discrimination at a very young age. He always stood against it and had the tendency of helping others since childhood. This came true after his formal education, when he turned an activist. The law graduate has worked in various areas like youth empowerment, environment and total prohibition by joining hands with various organisations including CESCI, Ekta Parishad and People’s Education for Action and Liberation.

Thanaraj became an Adivasi activist after he extensively worked with the Paliyars, educating them about the Forest Act which ensures their right over forest land. The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers Act passed in 2006 promises tribal rights over agriculture land which traditional belonged to them, accessing forest produces and right to protect and manage the forest, which had been denied for long.

“I went to educate them, but ended up learning so many things from them. Their life is an exemplary one in conserving forest, which needs to be learnt by all. I have taken these lessons to over 1.5 lakh school and college students so far,” Thanaraj said.

For instance, Adivasis do not kill pregnant animals for meat. When they collect roots, they plant more and they never cut living trees, they only use dead trees. They treat woman equally and encourage widow remarriage. There is no dowry system either, said Thanaraj.
While he worked for Paliyars till 2008, he expanded his horizon and started working for various communities like Kadar in Valparai and Anaimalai, Malasar in Amaravathi, Udumalaipettai and Anaimalai, Muduvan in the interior forests of Theni and Valparai forests and Mahamalasar from Anaimalai and Topslip.

Thanaraj’s has a strategy in empowering the Adivasi community. To create leaders among them, unite them to retrieve their rights over forest and defend themselves from exploitation, he along with the organisations he works for help Adivasis in various areas in the state by getting them housing facility and agricultural land. Only recently, Kadar tribe from 24 villages in and around Valparai in Coimbatore received 10 acres of land after several stages of protest.
Thanaraj has taken part in various national-wide protests carried out to ensure the rights of Adivasis. He has also organised many state-level protests demanding total prohibition. He has also extensively worked in the Tsunami rescue and rehabilitation throughout the TN coast. He also played active role in the protests against Sterlite and Koodankulam nuclear plant.

Thanaraj was lucky to get married to a like-minded person like K M Leelavathi, a daughter of a tribal leader from Coorg, in 2010. An MSW graduate, she too joined him in the work towards helping deprived communities. Recently, he joined the Centre for Justice and People and continues his work towards Adivasi empowerment.

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

Coffee cargo handling up from New Mangalore port

April 11, 2018Business & Economy, Coffee Newsadmin

Mangaluru :

Proactive measures initiated by the New Mangalore Port Trust (NMPT) in the recent years have helped attract more coffee cargo from other ports in the recent years.

Suresh P Shirwadkar, Chairman in-charge of the NMPT, told BusinessLine that the port handled 2.41 lakh tonnes (lt) of coffee cargo during 2017-18 as against 2.36 lt in 2016-17. The port shipped out 1.94 lt in 2015-16 and 1.59 lt in 2014-15.

A senior port official said that more than 90 per cent of coffee cargo are being exported from the NMPT now. Had there been no lull in the international market, the coffee exports from NMPT would have gone up by another 10,000 tonnes, he said.

Stating that a majority of coffee is located in the hinterland areas such as Kodagu, Chikmagaluru and Hassan districts of Karnataka, he said all of them are within 180 km distance from NMPT. The cargo can reach Mangaluru within in four-and-a-half hours from the hinterland. There is no inter-State transfer of the cargo. All these factors have helped exporters to save time and money, he said.

Exporters now have the option of three ports for transhipment of cargo. If the transhipment is delayed for Colombo, the cargo can be taken to Mundra port. With this, transit time comes down.

Ramesh Rajah, Coffee Exporters Association, says New Mangalore port has emerged as preferred choice for exporters due to improved infrastructure including a quick customs clearance and increase in number of sailings. As rising fuel prices add to the exporters’ costs, proximity to Mangalore has worked out to their advantage.

To a query on the reduction in the cost when compared to Kochi, the NMPT official said the cost is less by around IRs. 6,000 a container compared to the neighbouring ports.

source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com / Business Line / Home / by AJ Vinayak / Mangaluru – April 04th, 2018

Indian T20 League 2018: Robin Uthappa plays his 150th match; joins Virat Kohli and others

April 10, 2018Famous Personalities of Kodagu / Coorg, Records, All, Sportsadmin

Robin Uthappa has been associated with Kolkata franchise since 2014.

Robin Uthappa has been associated with Kolkata since 2014 © AFP

Robin Uthappa’s long association with Indian T20 League 2018 has reached a new landmark. The right-handed batsman is playing his 150th match. He achieved this feat as Kolkata took on Bangalore at Eden Gardens. Uthappa has played for franchises like Mumbai, Bangalore, the now defunct Pune franchise owned by Sahara and Kolkata. He has been associated with Kolkata franchise since 2014.

From 149 matches, Uthappa has 3,735 runs at an impressive strike-rate of 131.79. He also has 22 half-centuries to his name. He is sixth highest run-getter in the history of Indian T20 League. His Kolkata captain Dinesh Karthik will be playing his 153th Indian T20 League match. Virat Kohli will also be playing his 150th Indian T20 League match. Interestingly, all his matches have come for Bangalore.

Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni have played more match than Kohli, Uthappa and Karthik.

source: http://www.cricketcountry.com / Cricket Country / Home> Series> Indian Premier League 2018> News / by CricketCountry Staff / April 08th, 2018

Patience helps Nagarathar kin to enter TN coffee market

April 9, 2018Agriculture, Business & Economy, Coffee News, Coffee, Kodagu (Coorg), Famous Personalities of Kodagu / Coorg, Leaders, Nri's / Pio's, Records, All, World Opinionadmin

With coffee running in the blood lines of the family the Mother Mirra Group has owned coffee plantations for four generations.

Coimbatore:

His family is introduced as the ‘first Asians’ to own a plantation in Asia. Ironically, it took several years and four generations of entrepreneurs of the ‘Mother Mirra Group of Companies’ to foray into retail coffee market.

Speaking to DC, Mr. Sundar Subramaniam executive director of group said, “way back in the 1930s, my great grandfather Mr. PPR. Subramanian Chettiar owned and managed estates in Malaysia at a time when only British and Scots owned coffee plantations. Since then on, my family is in the business of supplying coffee powder and roasted beans from our estates in Coorg to different parts of India. Entering into the domestic filter coffee market is a dream come true for my father Mr. S. Subramanian, who is a third generation entrepreneur of our family.”

With Mirras Coffee the company has entered the domestic filter coffee market. Two options of coffee powder were launched in Coimbatore recently. Mirras Premium blend is a combination of 85 per cent coffee and 15 per cent chicory while the Mirras Gold variant is a combination of 53 per cent coffee and 47 per cent chicory.

Available in 200 grams sachets, for a cost that is affordable, the traditional filter coffee tastes just like home-made coffee, sticking to the tag line of the product ‘idhu namma veetu kaapi’.

The product is available across big and small stores and supermarkets across the city. The firm has a strong dealership network in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. “We have partnered with 350 dealers across both the regions. In a year’s time we are hopeful of capturing 3.50 per cent to 4 per cent of the filter coffee market,” Mr. Sundar Subramaniam said.

The company already has a strong market hold in the wholesale filter coffee market segment with regular consignments of their coffee powder delivered across India. Karnataka and Tamil Nadu is where the company does thriving business. The coffee is customized for their wholesale clients.

With coffee running in the blood lines of the family the Mother Mirra Group has owned coffee plantations for four generations.

It is home where three generations of employees have worked and it has to its credit more than seven decades of experience of growing and producing coffee powder. At the product launch in the textile city, one-year-old master Shiv Ram Alagappan, the founders’ grandson, gracefully received the first packet of coffee.

source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> Nation> In Other News / by Lakshmi L Lund, Deccan Chronicle / April 08th, 2018

Yemeni ‘coffee hunter’ exports Mokha’s famed beans to US, Japan

April 9, 2018Coffee News, World Opinionadmin

Hussein Ahmed says that the secret behind his love for coffee comes from the smell of the beans which reminds him of his mother. (Supplied)

Yemen’s famous coffee farms have been replaced by khat farms in recent years after coffee had an agricultural and economic priority.

Gradually, those coffee beans exports disappeared and weakened after it flourishing for centuries in Yemen. After all, “Mocha” gained its name after the Yemeni port city of Mokha, known for having been a point of contact between coffee lovers and farmers in Yemen.

In 2015, production fell from 55,000 coffee bags to 8,000 bags in exports, which urged farmers to seek replacement of coffee seeds with Khat or other crops.

Al Arabiya interviewed one young man who is trying to restore the original spirit of coffee by exporting the Yemeni origin beans to the world. Hussein Ahmed is a certified coffee connoisseur and holds the international taste certificate for coffee from the American Coffee Quality Grader.

But Hussein prefers to be called the “Coffee Hunter”.

Love story with caffeine
Hussein says that the secret behind his love for coffee comes from the smell of the beans which reminds him of his mother.

“I grew up in a family that loves coffee. Since early childhood, my mother asks me to go to the market to buy coffee and I used to enjoy this. When I was getting ready for school, my mother makes coffee and its smell filled the house. This scent was the source of my daily happiness. My mother’s coffee was my companion when I moved to Britain to study, where I visited a lot of coffee shops seeking to find the smell of my mother’s coffee. Unfortunately, I could not find the same smell which my mother used to prepare in my childhood,” Hussein told Al Arabiya.

“At this point I became more interested in coffee in Britain. Ten years later, I returned home in late 2007 and settled in Sanaa. I worked in the software industry, but I noticed that our economy depended on consumption only, so I decided to produce the best of the Yemeni production. Thus, I focused on coffee,” he said.

Hussein would go on to spend more than a year traveling between the mountains of Yemen and the valleys looking for the legendary Yemeni coffee, and documented information and data as much as he could.

Japan and his first coffee shop
“My Japanese wife, who came to Yemen with me, she could not adapt with the life in Yemen. So we decided to immigrate to Japan where we decided to export the Yemeni coffee to Japan. We started to send samples to Japanese labs and made high scores in the tasting sessions. This is when passion turned into business. After I settled in Japan and started working in exporting the high quality Yemeni coffee beans to Japan. I opened the first coffee shop specialized in the Yemeni coffee in Tokyo in 2011,” he said.

“In late 2013, I stopped the business and returned back to Yemen due to family issues. Then, I focused on exporting Yemeni coffee to the United States,” Hussein told Al Arabiya. “In 2014, I went to America for two years, during which I studied coffee tasting and got the international tasting certificate, and I established a trading company.”

Hussein revealed that there were some obstacles in the supply due to the instability of exchange rates, the difficulty of shipping charges, high operating costs, and the unavailability of oil derivatives and facilities for farmers.

How Khat contributed negatively to decline of Yemeni coffee
Hussein asserted that the major problem now in Yemen is due to the plantation of khat, which he said was a real environmental disaster as it drains most of the groundwater and goes to the fertile soil where coffee used to be grown on.

As for the future of coffee in Yemen, Hussein confirmed the necessity of developing the quality of the production, marketing and establishing a center to develop the beans. Returning the Yemeni coffee to the international market, Hussein also added that it was important to have fair prices for the farmers and stopping the bad and unfair trades of Yemeni coffee beans.

source: http://www.english.alarabiya.net / Al Arabiya English / Home> Features / by Frash Shmsan, Al Arabiya English / Saturday – April 07th, 2018

Just more than coffee at Alchemy Roasters

April 7, 2018Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Coffee Newsadmin

Different blends at Alchemy Coffee Roasters

It’s a pleasant Monday morning and we are driving on a quiet road in Jayanagar looking for Alchemy Coffee Roasters. Just as we are enjoying the greenery of the park adjacent to the road, we see bright lights shining through teal windows at the first turn of 36th Cross, and we spot the huge signboard of Alchemy Coffee Roasters just above the windows.

Coffee fix
As we had heard so many good things about Alchemy, we are all charged up for some amazing coffee. But we feel something is amiss when we enter the premises. Unlike a regular coffee shop that smells of coffee, Alchemy doesn’t smell like one. For a place that claims to be a coffee roastery, this is a bit odd. But the interesting interiors — a large wooden table for big groups, a huge coffee display cabinet, vintage coffee crushers and tungsten bulbs that hang low from the ceiling — sort of make up for this lack of sensory bliss.

We settle down in one corner of the restaurant to get a complete view, and it seems like some thought has been put into it. We look at the menu expecting the same, but the coffee menu does not have too many options. We order the Salted Caramel Latte, Bon Bon Coffee, Latte Di Mandorla from hot coffees and a Filter Coffee Frappe from the cold coffees.

All the four coffees are served together — plus points for that, but definitely not for the long wait before they were served. From the four, we think the Salted Caramel Latte is the best. Topped with whipped cream and caramel sauce — this drink, with a hint of salt, is perfect! Bon Bon Coffee is a shot of strong coffee. It is ideal for those who want to wake up with a bang. The Filter Coffee Frappe is just regular cold coffee, available at any other coffee shop.

Going vegan
The most disappointing is the Latte Di Mandorla. A blend of almond milk with coffee, this is too watery and has no flavour. The food menu has enough options from small plates, large plates, deli delights and pasta bowls to pizzas and desserts. We order the Signature Mexican Platter (bean and cheese quesadillas, cumin rice, tomato salsa, cheese melt), Coorg Pepper Roast Chicken and Smoked Mushroom and Thyme Cream pasta. The quesadillas are quite delectable thanks to the cheesy vegetable filling.

We also recommend the roast chicken because of the perfect marination and the smokey, peppery sauce it is accompanied with. But we would suggest you give the pasta a miss as it is far from impressive. Though there is a strong thyme flavour , we think the cafe can be more generous with the mushrooms. The experience of dining at Alchemy is on par with any regular coffee shop but we feel that the service can get better.

Rs 1,000 for two. At Jayanagar

ayeshatabassum@newindianexpress.com
@aishatax

source: http://www.indulgeexpress.com / Indulge – The New Indian Express / by Ayesha Tabassum / April 06th, 2018

Kodagu First

a Celebration. Positive News, Facts & Achievements about Kodagu, Coorgs and the People of Kodagu – here at Home and Overseas