The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully launched the country’s first navigation satellite IRNSS-1A, on Tuesday – July 02nd, 2013.
Category Archives: Science & Technology
India’s first Technical University for Women . June 2013 .
The country’s first Tech University ‘The Indira Gandhi Delhi Technological University (IGDTU) exclusively for women was inaugrated by the Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, at Kashmere Gate based campus in North Delhi on Thursday, June 13th, 2013.
The Chief Minister released the admission brochure and the Delhi Education Minister A.K. Walia launched its website .
The IGDTU, a state university has now been upgraded from the existing Indira Gandhi Insititute of Technology which was set up as the very first Engineering College for Women in 1998 by the Directorate of Training and Technical Education, Government of N.C.T. Delhi.
The Indira Gandhi Delhi Technological University (IGDTU) is a non-affiliated, teaching and research University catering to women desiring higher education in technology & research , presently administered by the Vice Chancellor Nupur Prakash. The University offers 4 B.Tech courses and 5 M.Tech programmes.
India’s first NCE (new chemical entity) discovery drug. June 2013 .
India’s first new chemical entity (NCE) Lipaglyn (Saroglitazar) is discovered and developed indigenously by an Indian Pharmaceutical Company …Zydus Cadilla.
Zydus Cadilla announced a breakthrough in its research effots with Lipaglyn, a drug targeted at bridging a hitherto unmet healtcare need for treating diabetic dyslipidemia or hypertriglyceridemia in Type II diabetes, not controlled by statins.
Lipaglyn is the world’s first drug for treating diabetic dyslipdemia and combines lipid-and glucose-lowering effects in a single molecule. Lipaglyn has an active ingredient Saroglitazar and is the world’s first glitazar to be approved anywhere in the world.
Discovered by Zydus Research Centre, the dedicated NCE research arm of Zydus Cadilla – the Ahmedabad headquartered group.
The drug has been approved for launch in India by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI)and is expected to be in the market by 2014.
India commissions its first Pilatus trainer aircraft . June 2013 .
The Indian Air Force(IAF) formally inducted the first 12 of its 75 Swiss manufactured Pilatus PC-7 Mk11 basic training aircraft into operational service at a ceremony at the premier academy Dundigal AirForce Academy near Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh) on June 07th, 2013.
Minister of State for Defense Jitendra Singh unveiled the tandem-seat turboprop aircraft that is capable of aerobatics as well as tactical night flying. This marked the first formal flight of the Basic Trainer Aircraft. All the 75 aircraft are expected to be delivered by August 2015.
Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshall N.A.K.Browne said the Pilatus will be the ‘ideal platform’ to expose initial trainees to basic flying, modern avionics and navigation aids. This aircraft will be used to train all pilots of the IAF, in addition to pilots of the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard.
Apart from an integrated ground-based training system and a comprehensive support package, the contract requires the company to implement the required transfer of technology to Hindustan Aeronautics, enabling establishment of in-country depot-level maintenance facilities to support the aircraft, throughout its 30-year service life.
India’s first novel anti-malarial drug ‘Synriamtm’ . April 2012 .
Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited (Ranbaxy) launched the country’s first in-house developed new medicine, a new malaria drug, to be priced at one-third the cost of the current therapies.
The drug ‘Synriamtm’ was launched in New Delhi on the occasion of World Malaria Day , April 25th, 2012. The unveiling of India’s first new indigenously developed new drug for Malaria was done by Ghulam Nabi Azad, Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India and Vilasrao Deshmukh, Minister of Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, Government of India, with Ranbaxy dedicating the new age cure for malaria to the nation.
What is most exciting about this drug is that its raw material is synthetic unlike the popularly used Artemisinim based drugs that are derived from a plant. This allows for scaling up of commercial quantities with ease and opened a new chapter in the history of Research and Development in India thus ending a 15-year drug discovery drought for Indian medicine makers.
Ranbaxy’s anti-malaria drug, a combination of two molecules, arterolane maleate and piperaquine phosphatethe will be needed to be taken once a day by patients for three days for the treatment of uncomplicated Plasmodium Falciparum malaria in adults.
India’s first state-of-the-art indigenous MCW Shop . May 2013 .
India’s first indigenous state-of-the-art ‘Manned Chamber Welding’ MCW shop was inaugurated at HAL’s Koraput(Sonabeda)facilities in Odisha by Jitendra Singh, the Minister of State for Defence on Thursday, May 19th, 2013. This makes India the second country in the world after Russia.
HAL Chairman Dr. R K Tyagi handed over the symbol of ‘robotic argon chamber’ dedicated to the nation to the Minister in the presence of the Defence Production Secretary R K Mathur.
The Indian equipment was developed indigenously by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) with the help of other vendors. The Indian MCW system at HAL is unique that it offers both robotic and human (manual) welding in argon atmosphere. Russia and India are the only 2 countries having this facility with the Russian welding process being carried our manually.
In this robotic system, HAL does welding of 17 major modules of Sukhoi engine. The entire outer casing module of the engine is welded inside this chamber. The welder working inside has all life support and health maintaining features.
NBA’s first India-born majority owner. May 2013 .
Vivek Ranadive became NBA’s (National Basketball Association) first India-born majority owner of ‘Sacramento King’. NBA Board of Governors unanimously approved the sale of Sacramento Kings on Tuesday, May 28th, 2013.
Vivek Ranadive a minority owner with the Warriors joined a team led by health-club financier Mark Mastrov and billionaire Ron Burkle to bid for the Kings to help keep them in Sacramento. Ranadive emerged as the leader, which also included the Jacobs family from San Diego, another Indian-born businessman Raj Bhathal and Australian Silicon Valley entrepreneur Katrina Garnett. The Investment Group led by Ranadive succeeded in competing and beating the $406 million bid led by Steve Ballmer ,Microsoft Chief Executive Officer. The deal was concluded from the team’s existing majority owner since 1999 – the Maloof family of Las Vegas Hotel fame. A new stadium is part of Ranadive’s package. Sacramento City Council now has a public-private deal in place to build a new 18,500 seat arena and retail centre downtown.
Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, a former NBA and Cal Berkeley star says of Ranadive ” He’s a visionary. He understands technology and startups, he’s built businesses “.
Vivek Ranadive was born in Juhu October 07th, 1957. With $50 in his pocket he left Bombay bound for the U.S. at the age of 17. He went on to complete his Bachelors and Masters degree in Electrical Engineering at MIT. Subsequently pursued an MBA at Harvard University in 1983 where he was a Baker Scholar.
Ranadive a slight and unassuming man, worked his way turning his enterprises as Founder and CEO of a multi-billion dollar real-time computing company of Palo Alto’s TIBCO Software.He is a Tae Kwon Do Black Belt and a sports buff. Ranadive has 3 children.
Awards: 1)2002: Info World’s 2002 Top Ten Technology Innovators (2) 2002: Ernst & Young Software Entrepreneur of the Year (3)2005: Wharton Infosys Business Transformation Award (WIBTA): North America Technology Change Agent Award (4) 2008: South Asian CEO of the Year – by the South Asian MBA Association (SAMBAA)
Books: Vivek Ranadive has authored the following books. (1) ‘The Power of Now’- 1990 ( a New York Times best seller) (2) ‘The Power to Predict’- 2006 (International best seller and was profiled in Forbes, Harvard Business School and the Wall Street Journal’s – Smart Money (3) ‘The Two Second Advantage – How We Succeed by Anticipating the Future Just Enough’ – 2011 (the book was New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today best seller).
Sacramento, is the capital of State of California, USA.
India’s first fully fledged fighter aircraft base in South India . May 2013.
The first ever fighter base in the Southern Peninsula was inaugrated in Thanjavur (Tamil Nadu), by Defence Minister A.K. Anthony on Monday, May 27th, 2013.
The Indian Air Force (IAF)under the control of the Southern Air Command is stationing its most lethal Sukhoi Su-30MK1 super manoueverable combat aircraft. The full Sukhoi squadron (16 to 18 jets) will be deployed at the base by 2017. So far India has inducted over 170 of the 272 Sukhoi 30 MKI’s contracted from Russia.
The Indian Air Force(IAF) will keep deploying its regular fighter and transport detachments here since the runaway and other facilites are in place now.
This will strengthen India’s capabilities to protect its vast interests in yet another strategically important Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and Peninsular region.
The airbase has been modernised in the recent past and the infrastructure development includes ‘construction of a new runaway, parallel taxi track and other operational maintenance and adminstrative infrastructure’ to support air operations.
Past: The airbase was first contructed in 1940 by the Royal Air Force (RAF). During the period 1942-45 the RAF operated Hudson, Wellington 1C, Hurricane and Thunderbolt aircraft from this airfield.
The old runaway had served as a civil airport two decades ago. Thanjavur(Tanjore) was connected with Chennai(Madras)by Vayadoot in the early 1990’s.
India’s first ‘ Atlas of Thyroid Surgery ‘ published. May 2013 .
3 specialist ENT Surgeons, Dr.Madan Kapre, Dr.Devendra Mahore and anatomist Dr. Ashutosh Mangalagiri from Bhopal got together to provide a hand-on repository on thyroid surgery.
India’s first ‘Atlas of Thyroid Surgery’ was launched on May 11th in Nagpur by Dr.Ved Prakash, proChancellor and Chief Advisor at Datta Meghe Institute of Medical Sciences, Sawangi. It is a model guide on thyroid surgery for the post graduate medical students and thyroid surgeons.
It is the first time an ‘Atlas’ was put together keeping in mind the Indian context. This has been done previously in USA, Italy and Brazil. The uniquely Indian ‘Atlas of Thyroid Surgery’ was created as a byproduct of camps and workshops in the tribal villages of Central India ,with focus on Chikhaldara in Melghat. This scientific work was carried out with the support of the Rotary club of Nagpur South.
The foreword of the Atlas is written by Dr. Ashok Saha, a world renown authority on thyroid cancer, based in New York.
First woman President of Intel in India. 2012 .
Kumud M. Srinivasan is the first woman President of Intel in India, since its inception in 1997.
Kumud M Srinivasan
She is Vice President, Technology and Manufacturing Group . General Manager, Intel Architecture Group, and President Intel India.
Kumud Srinivasan did her her bachelor’s degree in economic from Calcutta University. Then went on to do her master’s degree in information and library studies, Syracuse University. She has completed doctoral coursework in information science at University of California, Berkeley. She is also a member of the Board of Advisors of the School of Information Studies in Syracuse University.
Intel with over 3,500 people, India is Intel’s largest non-manufacturing site outside of the US.
Photo: source: Intel Newsroom