The City Municipal Council (CMC) has proposed to construct a tourist spot in the name of Madikeri Square on the old bus stand premises.
Architects and engineers had visited and inspected the spot and have prepared an action plan.
The private bus stand was damaged during the natural calamity in August 2018. Later, the bus stand building was demolished. There was a proposal to construct a commercial complex which has not materialised. Now, the CMC has come forward to construct Madikeri Square.
According to CMC Commissioner Ramesh, the estimated cost of the project is Rs 3 crore. It was decided to utilise Rs 1 crore from the district administration and Rs 2 crore from the Tourism Department for the construction of Madikeri Square.
District In-charge Minister Sa Ra Mahesh had visited the spot and directed the Tourism Department to chalk out a plan to attract tourists.
Using German technology, a retaining wall is being constructed at the site where the hillock had caved in on the private bus stand at an estimated cost of Rs 1.7 crore. The soil from the landslide site has been tested by an engineering college in Bengaluru, said the officials.
Kodava Makkada Koota President Bollajira B Ayyappa said if the bus stand land is converted artistically, then it will increase the beauty of the site. A bronze statue of Ajjamada Devaiah will be installed at the circle. The statue will be brought from Bidadi in Bengaluru.
Kodava Makkada Koota has urged to name Madikeri Square after Squadron Leader Ajjamada B Devaiah Square.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> State> Mangaluru / by Adithya K A / DH News Service, Madikeri / June 09th, 2019
Kodagu Zilla Panchayat CEO K Lakshmi Priya and Madikeri Taluk Panchayat Executive Officer Lakshmi speak to a child in Kadagadalu.
Kodagu Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer K Lakshmi Priya visited various places in Kadagadalu Gram Panchayat limits in Madikeri on Thursday and collected information on children who have dropped out of school.
As a part of the special enrollment drive by the education department, the ZP CEO and Madikeri Taluk Panchayat Executive Officer Lakshmi convinced the parents to send their wards to schools. A school dropout was admitted to the eighth standard in Government High School in Kadagadalu.
Kadagadalu Gram Panchayat Vice President Madettira Timmaiah, Kadagadalu Panchayat Development Officer B D Devika, Government Higher Primary School, Kadagadalu, Headteacher Neelamma were present.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> States> Mangaluru / by Adithya K A / DH News Service, Madikeri / June 07th, 2019
On Monday from 7 to 8:30 p.m. is the next program in the Sanctuary Lecture Series, “Sinkholes to Stars: Diving into Lake Huron’s Sinkholes while Reaching for the Heavens.”
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. for this free program at Great Lakes Maritime Heritage Center, 500 West Fletcher St., Alpena.
Grand Valley State University Professor Bopi Biddanda will share the excitement of over a decade of exploration of life in Lake Huron’s sinkholes carried out in collaboration with Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, and ponder the relevance of these findings to major issues of both scientific and societal interest such as Earth’s current biologic and physiologic diversity, oxygenation of early Earth in the distant past, and humanity’s ongoing search for extra-terrestrial life.
Biddanda is an aquatic microbial ecologist studying the movement of carbon driven by microbes at the Annis Water Resources Institute at GVSU. He grew up in the lush subtropical mountains of Southwest India, and came to the U.S. in the 1980s to obtain a Ph.D. in ecology from the University of Georgia. Subsequently, he went on research and teaching adventures at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (Germany), National Institute of Oceanography (India), University of Texas Marine Science Institute, University of Rio Grande (Brazil) and University of Minnesota.
For the last decade and a half at GVSU, he has been studying the microbial cycling of elements in the Laurentian Great Lakes — exploring life in extreme environments such as Lake Huron’s sinkholes and operating a world-class time-series buoy observatory in Muskegon Lake.
Courtesy Photo A diver navigates a sink hole in Lake Huron.
He teaches classes in marine biology and aquatic ecology, and directs NASA’s Michigan Space Grant Consortium programs at GVSU. He hopes to continue to study Earth’s lakes — one of our most vital freshwater commons — as sentinels of change.
For more information, contact Stephanie Gandulla at steph.gandulla@noaa.gov or 989-884-6200.
source: http://www.thealpenanews.com / The Alpena News / Home> Life / June 06th, 2019
The new Kannur International Airport which was opened in December 2018, serves passengers from Kannur, Kasaragod, Wayanad, Kozhikode in Kerala and Kodagu and Mysuru in Karnataka.
The Kannur International Airport authorities in Mattanur, Kerala has written to Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation(KSRTC) to provide its ‘Flybus’ services to the Kannur Airport from Mysuru, Kodagu districts in Karnataka.
The new Kannur International Airport which was opened in December 2018, serves passengers from Kannur, Kasaragod, Wayanad, Kozhikode in Kerala and Kodagu and Mysuru in Karnataka. The airport is set to a boon for the tourism industry in south-west Karnataka. Tourism in the area is likely to get a boost as top destinations like Mysuru and Kodagu (Coorg) are within easy reach from Kannur.
The airport which is up on 1,900 acres and is just 58 km from Virajpet, about 90 km from Madikeri and 158 km from Mysuru. Earlier the flyers from Mysuru and Kodagu were using Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru. The regular flyers especially those going to Gulf countries from Mysuru and Kodagu are now heading to Kannur Airport and fly to destinations like Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Dammam, Doha, Bahrain, Riyadh, Sharjah and Muscat.
To get the flyers from these districts in Karnataka the Kannur airport authorities have written a letter to KSRTC recently. Confirming this development, BT Prabhakar Reddy, Divisional Controller, Bengaluru Central Division, KSRTC, told Indianexpress.com, “ We have received a request from the Kannur airport authorities to have Flybus service to the airport from Mysuru and Kodagu districts. The KSRTC is doing a survey in this route to see how it works out.”
source: http://www.indianexpress.com / The Indian Express / Home> Cities / by Darshan Devaiah BP / Bengaluru, Kannur (Kerala) / June 03rd, 2019
App-solutely smart: In the case of white stem borer, growers and the Board have validated 90% accuracy. | Photo Credit: Reuters
Apps fed with data help forecast weather, predict leaf rust
For the 3.5 lakh coffee growers in India, 98% of whom are small-scale, challenges affecting production include labour shortage, climate change and pest attacks.
One way to manage these is by adopting technology, which the Coffee Board is trying to bring about for the growers.
Last year, Eka Software Solutions took up a pilot project for the Coffee Board of India on machine-learning based applications. According to Shuchi Nijhawan, vice president – agri business for Eka Software, the Board and the company took up three areas to try machine learning based apps. One was addressing the white stem borer problem, another was weather forecasting, and the third, predicting leaf rust.
Machine-learning
“Based on the data, photos provided, we created a machine learning algorithm to forecast each of these issues (for a grower). We worked with 20 liaison officers of the Board and they coordinated with the growers.
“The success of the app depends on the data fed in. In the case of white stem borer, the growers and the Board have validated 90% accuracy,” she says. Eka’s digital platform for agriculture aggregates data from different sources and applies the algorithm to provide insight to the coffee growers.
Srivatsa Krishna, chairman of the Coffee Board, adds that though there is no exact data, it is learnt that in the last 10 to 15 years white stem borer would have brought down Arabica production by 25-30%. “The growers do need solutions for such issues.”
“Despite the Coffee Act having been around for more than seven decades, farmers have zero technology. The only way to increase productivity is by bringing in technology,” he says. Even before smartphones became popular, coffee growers had checked prices on the London and New York exchanges almost on a daily basis.
Hence, adopting technology should not be difficult for them. The Board has plans to scale up the analytics technology for adoption by more farmers.
Currently, 90% of the estates depend on labourers for most of the work and there is not much technology adoption among coffee growers in cultivation or to increase production.
“If someone is ready to do it [technology] for us, we will adopt it. It will help increase yield,” says Sundar Subramanium, executive director of Mother Mirra Coffee Plantations. Ms. Nijhawan says the company is exploring partnerships for other crops too. “Indian farmers want such technology services. There are several agriculture institutes and cooperatives in the country that have a lot of data. I see a huge potential for these technologies.”
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Business> Industry> Green Shoots / by M Soundariya Preetha / June 02nd, 2019
New beginnings: The houses built for the displaced tribal people of Diddahalli forest in Kodagu district.
Each house has been built on a 30×40 sq. ft plot at a cost of ₹4.70 lakh; total cost of the project is ₹39.27 crore
Residential colonies coming up in Kodagu for displaced tribals of Diddahalli forests are being developed as ‘model settlements’, putting across facilities usually found in layouts developed in cities, such as well-laid roads, piped water supply, and CCTV surveillance.
The tribals relocated from Diddahalli forests in Virajpet taluk in the district have been provided shelter in the newly-constructed settlements at Basavanahalli and Byadagotta villages in Somawarpet taluk, with the State government coming forward to build individual houses for the families. Each house has been built on 30×40 sq.ft. plot and the project is nearing completion with only a few houses remaining to be built besides establishing essential facilities.
Out of 528 houses proposed for construction, 338 houses had been completed and some families have already shifted to their new dwelling. The construction began two years ago, according to C. Shivakumar, Project Coordinator, Integrated Tribal Development Project (ITDP).
Kodagu Nirmithi Kendra has built each house at a cost of ₹4.70 lakh. The total cost of the project is ₹39.27 crore. So far, ₹21.76 crore had been released to the Nirmithi Kendra for having completed the construction of 338 houses, he told The Hindu.
The Nirmithi Kendra has taken up works like the installation of water tanks for each house, laying of pipelines, covering drainages with stone slabs, construction of parks and fencing, and installation of surveillance cameras at a cost of ₹2.72 crore.
At both Basavanahalli and Byadagotta, a sum of ₹8 crore was being spent on construction of roads, drainages, septic tanks, UGD lines, culverts, overhead tank, and anganwadi kendras besides establishing electricity connection and water distribution lines to every house.
Out of 174 houses in Basavanahalli, 138 houses had been completed. Byadagotta will have about 354 houses. There are about 84 temporary dwellings which will be making way for the construction of permanent houses consisting of a living room, a bedroom, kitchen, bathroom and other facilities.
Survey identifies 3,000 tribal families
A joint survey by the authorities of various departments in Kodagu has identified around 3,000 tribal families, mostly Yeravas and Jenukurubas, living in various plantations in the district.
The survey was done to collate information on the number of tribal families living outside the forests and working in plantations, which are in need of dwelling.
The survey was done by a committee comprising representatives from the Departments of Revenue, Police, Labour, Tribal Welfare and Public Instruction.
Children admitted to residential schools
Away from the accustomed schooling in government-run ashram schools, tribal children in Kodagu have an opportunity to pursue an education in government-run residential schools – Morarji Desai Residential School and Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya.
The authorities of Integrated Tribal Development Project (ITDP) persuaded the tribal families in the district and their children appeared for the entrance examination to these schools.
As many as 53 tribal children have been selected for Morarji Desai Schools in Madikeri, Somwarpet and Virajpet areas. Two children from tribal settlements have made it to the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya in Madikeri.
“This is perhaps the first time that tribal children from the areas wrote the entrance examination and a few of them got selected. Now the challenge is to persuade their parents to complete the admission process since many are reluctant to send their wards to schools outside their settlement,” said C. Shivakumar, Project Coordinator, ITDP.
Most of the children selected for the residential schools belong to the primitive tribes. There are 11 ashram schools in the district.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Karnataka / by Special Correspondent / Mysuru – June 02nd, 2019
HIGHLIGHTS
Dr Sowmya Dechamma C C, Associate Professor at the centre for comparative literature, University of Hyderabad (UoH) has been awarded the Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowship for the year 2019-2020.
Hyderabad:
Dr Sowmya Dechamma C C, Associate Professor at the centre for comparative literature, University of Hyderabad (UoH) has been awarded the Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowship for the year 2019-2020.
She will be hosted by the Department of Comparative Literature, Queens College, The City University of New York where she will teach a course on “Modern Indian Literary Cultures” and work on her research project “Understanding the Modern: Of Oralities and Languages”.
Dr Sowmya Dechamma’s Fulbright proposal aims to look at how and in what ways issues concerning languages spill-over and charge other spheres of our lives. By foregrounding minority languages (specifically Kodava language) and its relationships with major languages (Kannada and English), the project seeks to understand the nature of modern for speakers of minority languages.
Emerging from this concern around the modern is the course she plans to teach – “Modern Indian Literary Cultures”. Her research and teaching aim to investigate the notions of modern that emerge through these texts; the manner in which they are connected to ideas of community and of region, nation; Ways in which texts engage with the constant presence of oralities in their own cultures; and what acts of writing tell us about the cultures written about.
source: http://www.thehansindia.com / The Hans India / Home> Hans> Young Hans / by Hans News Service / May 31st, 2019
Kodagu Deputy Commissioner Annies Kanmani Joy checks the applications received during the Parihara Adalat in Madikeri on Monday.
Hundreds of people affected by the natural calamity in Kodagu last year took part in the Parihara Adalat and submitted their pleas to the district administration on Monday.
The Parihara Adalat was organised by the district administration to respond to the grievances of natural calamity victims.
The adalat will be held for three days on the second floor of the assistant commissioner’s office auditorium in the district administration complex in Madikeri.
On Monday, hundreds of people enrolled their names.
Deputy Commissioner Annies Kanmani Joy said that the district administration has dispensed 90% compensation to those who have lost their livestock, crops and homes. If anyone is left out, they will be provided with the compensation through the adalat.
The details of compensation have been put up on the website http://parihara.karnataka.gov.in
If the compensation amount has not reached the beneficiaries, such people may furnish their grievances to the district administration during the adalat to be held till May 29.
Many fields and plantations were filled with silt as a result of the natural calamity. A large number of crops were also damaged. Owners of the fields can also claim compensation during the Parihara Adalat.
The compensation amount provided by the government will be credited to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries. The owners of the houses which were completely damaged were added in the first list and the names of those whose houses are found in vulnerable areas were added in the second list, the DC said and added that the rent allowance for the victims who lost their houses, from November 2018 has been directly credited to the bank accounts of the victims.
Assistant Commissioner T Jawaregowda and Tahsildar Natesh were present.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> State> Mangaluru / by Adithya K A / DH News Service, Madikeri / May 27th, 2019
After reaching the pre-quarterfinal at the British Open last week, Joshna Chinappa opened up on her rivalry with Dipika Pallikal, problems with the national coaching setup and her plans for 2019 in an interview.
From being top 10 in the world in 2016, to winning the 2014 Commonwealth Games women’s squash doubles gold with Dipika Pallikal and being one of the few on tour to beat the top three in women’s singles, Joshna Chinappa’s career has been on an upswing since she turned pro 15 years back.
Earlier this month, the 32-year-old won the singles title at the Asian Championships in Kuala Lumpur to become the first Indian to win two continental crowns and retain the title she won at Chennai in 2017 by beating Pallikal.
After reaching the pre-quarterfinal at the British Open last week, she opened up on her rivalry with Pallikal, problems with the national coaching setup and her plans for 2019 in an interview. Excerpts:
You are the first Indian to defend and win two Asian Championship titles.
It feels great to have won the Asian Championship again. It was a good week in Kuala Lumpur, especially travelling with the team. On the professional tour it’s usually just me so it was nice to have the whole team, including physiotherapist Dimple and Harry (Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu) be there to support us.
Your opponent in the final, Annie Au, has a strong record against you. How satisfying was it to beat her for the first time since 2017?
Annie is tough to play against, mentally and physically. I had lost to her three times so it was extremely satisfying to win the final.
Sandhu was courtside when Saurav Ghosal and you won the Asian titles. Your thoughts on banking on fellow players for advice instead of a coach…
Harry is a player and has experienced what we as professional players go through and understands the game well. So having him was helpful. At most of my tournaments we help each other because we don’t have a full-time coach travelling with us. As Harry is injured (and out) of the tour, he was happy to come with the team and it is great SRFI (Squash Rackets Federation of India) chose to send him with us.
There’s been a controversy regarding coach, Cyrus Poncha. SRFI say he was in Malaysia. The players deny which is why they had to help each other during matches.
Harry, as coach, and our physiotherapist were the only officials who travelled with us.
What are the challenges of not having a chief national coach?
I work with my coach, Hadrian Stiff, in Bristol, England, so I keep going as often as I can to train there. Also, I train at the squash academy in Chennai. The coaches at the academy are helpful, but it would be great to have an experienced coach based here or even a part-time coach work with the juniors and seniors. I hope we can get a coach to travel with us on the pro tour as it makes a huge difference to have someone in our corner, helping us in-between games.
How do you view your rivalry with Pallikal? You have a better record (7-2) against her.
We have a healthy rivalry on court and when I play her it’s like playing any other player I compete with on the professional tour.
You have beaten the top-three players (all Egyptians) in the world at least once but lost to players ranked below you.
Competition is extremely high in the women’s game. Everyone is working hard and is so fit and strong with high levels of skill. You have to be at the top of your game from Round 1.
Can Egypt’s domination in women’s squash be broken?
Egypt are extremely strong and I don’t see that changing soon.
What can be done to improve Indian squash?
We need more TV time and better infrastructure, which is monitored by quality coaches and trainers.
The disadvantages of squash not being an Olympic sport?
The development of the sport and financial support from the government and corporates would be a lot more if squash was an Olympic sport.
Your goals for 2019?
To be injury free and healthy.
source: http://www.hindustantimes.com / Hindustan Times / Home> Other Sports / by Sandip Sikdar, New Delhi / May 27th, 2019
Tata Coffee has opened its first free-dried instant coffee plant outside of its native India after GEA, a tech supplier for food processing, completed work on the new Vietnam plant.
After Brazil, Vietnam is the world’s second largest producer of green coffee and the new plant based in Binh Duong Province produces 5,000 metric tonnes per year of free-dried coffee.
GEA supplied the entire production line from roast bean treatment right through to the packing of the freeze-dried powder.
This isn’t the first time GEA has undertaken work for Tata Coffee, having built a coffee extraction and evaporation plant for the company in 2013.
“This type of project is ideal for us at GEA because our expertise and scope of supply allows us to build the entire coffee line using our own resources,” said Kim Knudsen, Head of Sales, Coffee and Freeze Drying at GEA.
“This means we can maintain control and take responsibility for the entire project from start to finish.”
source: http://www.fdiforum.net / Food & Drink International / Home> Production / by Dominic Cuthbert / May 28th, 2019
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