Tag Archives: Records of Bharat

WORLD RECORDS: ARTS & CULTURE / DANCE: Assam’s Bihu Dance sets 02 World Records with over 11,000 Dancers and Musicians taking the stage

With over 11,000 dancers and musicians, Assam’s Bihu dance breaks two world records and is inducted into the Guinness Book of World Records.

Assam’s Bihu dance has made history by setting two world records with over 11,000 dancers and musicians taking the stage at the Sarusajai Stadium in Guwahati. More than 7,000 dancers, most of whom were female, and more than 3,000 drummers and musicians from all districts of the state performed the popular traditional dance style, which is practised across Assam, particularly during the spring festival of Bohag Bihu or Rongali Bihu.

Himanta Biswa Sarma, the chief minister of Assam, posted unforgettable moments of the MegaBihu rehearsal on Twitter. He added that two world records set in Sarusajai had earned them entry into the Guinness Book of World Records today.

The event sought to break two world records: the largest Bihu dance performance and the largest performance by traditional folk musicians employing instruments including the “dhol,” “pepa,” “gogona,” and “toka.”

Rishi Nath, the official Guinness World Records judge, claimed that 500 Bihu dancers made up the previous record-breaking crowd before the event. He described the event as “mesmerising.”

Speaking at the event, the Assam chief minister expressed his belief that the people of Assam need to present themselves as a proud race on the world stage, and that their mentality of limiting themselves to certain boundaries has held them back.

He also spoke about the need to showcase the bravery and valour of historical figures from Assam, such as Lachit Barphukan, to the rest of the world. The event was well-received, with Guinness World Record adjudicator Rishi Nath describing it as “absolutely fantastic.”

While the exact number of musicians who participated in the second performance is yet to be determined, officials have indicated that it will be recorded in the official certificates.

The event was organised by the Assam government, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will present them with their official Guinness World Records certificates during a similar performance on Friday.

source/content: indiatvnews.com (headline edited)

NATIONAL: Indigenous Chip for NavIC-based Satellite Navigation launched

The processor will give India a huge edge as both government and private sector can move away from their dependence on the American Global Positioning System, says founder of Elena Geo Systems.

In a step towards expanding usage of indigenous satellite-based Navigation, NavIC, a chip that can form the core of the Navigation, Positioning and Timing applications developed by Elena Geo Systems, a Bengaluru-based space technology company, was unveiled at the Defence Space Symposium on Thursday. The chip works using Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC) or the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) satellites.

A chip was formally handed over by Lt. Col. V.S. Velan (retd.), founder and Chief Technology Officer of Elena Geo Systems, to Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan.

“We are thrilled to present India’s first fully designed and developed NavIC chip. The processor will give India a huge edge as both the government and private sector can move away from their dependence on the American Global Positioning System (GPS). Elena is in the process of patenting the technology and the product which has been developed by our dedicated R&D team,” Lt. Col. Velan said.

The chip has many cores that service the requirements of signal acquisition, regeneration, processing and the output interface and hence it is has been named as the NavIC processor, he stated. “We will be manufacturing 10,000 chips in the first batch,” he told The Hindu. He said they had demonstrated several of their products to the armed forces and were supplying 200 NavIC receivers to the Army through Bharat Electronics Limited.

High precision

The chips will enable high precision and accuracy for all the three types of applications such as navigation, positioning and timing, providing self-reliance, Lt. Col. Vasan said, adding that they have been pursuing advance technologies to manufacture these chips and modules; some of which have been supplied to the Indian Army and some private entities.

Elena Geo Systems was incubated at IIT-Kharagpur in 2012 and is now a member of the Delhi-based Indian Space Association (InSA) which organised the symposium in association with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

Elena demonstrated its first processor in April 2019, which could receive and process signals of NavIC S-band, L5 band, GAGAN, GPS and Russian GLONASS. In the last two years, Elena successfully demonstrated its capability across devices and applications for reference stations, DSM map display system with IRNSS for the Army, map display system for patrol boats, marine NavIC receivers, intelligent vehicle tracking devices, NavIC drone navigation units and NavIC-based atomic clock, Lt. Col. Velan added.

source / content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

INTERNATIONAL TRADE: NATIONAL: India’s Mobile Phone Export crosses USD 11 bn in FY23, Apple clocks 50 per cent share

With iPhone maker Apple accounting for around half of the total mobile phone exports, handset exports from India reached close to $11.12 billion, according to industry body ICEA.

With iPhone maker Apple accounting for around half of the total mobile phone exports, handset exports from India reached close to $11.12 billion, according to industry body ICEA.

The India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA) said mobile phone export from the country has doubled to surpass Rs 90,000 crore, about $11.12 billion (91,000 crore) in the financial year 2022-23 (FY23) from Rs 45,000 crore in FY22. The government has set a target of $10 billion worth of mobile phone exports from the country.

ICEA Chairman Pankaj Mohindroo said, “No economy or sector in the economy can become a great and vibrant global economy without large exports. Riding on the 100% growth in mobile phone exports, which have crossed Rs 90,000 crore for FY 23, electronics exports have also grown by 58% to Rs 1,85,000 crore. It is satisfying that we have crossed the targeted figure of Rs 75,000 crore for the year.”

According to a PTI report, citing industry sources, Apple is estimated to have clocked 50% share with export of ‘made in India’ iPhones worth $5.5 billion, about Rs 45,000 crore while Samsung accounts for about 40% share with export worth Rs 36,000 crore. 

“With the doubling of exports of smartphones to more than $11 billion, India is well on its way to become a leader in the mobile device market of the world and play a major role in India’s electronic exports. This is a major win for PM Modijis Make in India program,” said telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on record smartphone exports from India.

The government has set the target of achieving $300 billion worth of electronics manufacturing by 2025-26, with $120 billion expected to come from exports. Mobile phones are expected to contribute more than $50 billion worth of exports by 2025-26. 

source/content: newindianexpress.com (headline edited)

NATIONAL: Kolkata’s First Underwater Metro starts its trial run below bed of Hooghly

Tunnels under the bed of river Hooghly, running 32 metres below water level, are considered an engineering marvel; Metro station at Howrah too is deepest in the country; commercial services on the stretch expected to begin later this year .

Kolkata Metro on Wednesday achieved a new milestone when a Metro rake completed a journey under the bed of river Hooghly through a tunnel 32 metres below water level.  

“P. Uday Kumar Reddy, General Manager, Metro Railway, travelled from Mahakaran to Howrah Maidan station in Rake No. MR-612 to witness this historic event. This rake crossed river Hooghly at 11:55 hrs. H.N. Jaiswal Additional General Manager, Metro Railway and MD, KMRCL [Kolkata Metro Railway Corporation Limited] as well as other senior officers of Metro Railway and KMRCL accompanied him during this journey,” a press statement by Metro Railway, Kolkata said. General Manager Reddy offered puja at Howrah station once the Metro rake reached there, the statement added.

Describing the development as a “historic event’ Mr. Reddy informed that the trial runs from Howrah Maidan to Esplanade will be conducted for the next seven months and after that regular services on this stretch will begin. It is expected that commercial services on this stretch will begin this year. 

Two Metro rakes had been taken to Howrah Maidan station from Esplanade station, for the trial runs along the 4.8-km underground section from Howrah Maidan to Esplanade. Tunnels under the bed of river Hooghly, 32 metres below the water level, are considered an engineering marvel and are part of East West Metro Project that aims to connect Howrah Maidan with Rajarhat along the 16.6-km route. The process of laying the tunnel was completed in 2017. The underwater tunnels will connect Kolkata and Howrah with a Metro station at Howrah which will be the deepest Metro station (33 metres below surface) of the country. The Metro is expected to cover the 520-metre stretch under the river Hooghly in a span of 45 seconds.

At present about 9.1 km of the East West Metro line from Salt Lake Sector V to Sealdah is operational. Services of East West Metro Railway was started in phases with first phase in February 2020 and the latest in July 2022.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

INTERNATIONAL: SPACE /SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY: 11 Teams to Represent India at the ‘NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge 2023’ in the U.S this month.

At the NASA Rover Challenge 2023 these teams will compete against 61 others selected worldwide for the 3-day contest to be held from April 20-22.

11 Indian teams including three high school groups will participate in the prestigious ‘NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge’ (HERC) 2023 in the  United States this month. These teams are among 61 others worldwide that will represent India at the international level and will travel to the American agency’s space & rocket centre in Huntsville, Alabama, US to take part in the three day competition from April 20-22.

The HERC Challenge demands teams to design, develop, build, and test human-powered rovers capable of traversing challenging terrain and a task tool for completion of various mission tasks, NASA explained, giving an overview about the competition.

The list of Indian teams participating this year:

Amity University, Noida, Uttar PradeshCollege/University
Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, Pilani, RajasthanCollege/University
Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science, Chennai, Tamil NaduCollege/University
KIET Group of Institutions, Ghaziabad, Uttar PradeshCollege/University
Prayatna Charitable Trust, Ahmedabad, GujaratHigh School
Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh, PunjabCollege/University
Shiv Nadar University, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Uttar PradeshCollege/University
Tec Mantra Labs, Kurukshetra, HaryanaHigh School
Vellore Institute of Technology, Chennai, Tamil NaduCollege/University
Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, Tamil NaduCollege/University
Young Tinker Educational Foundation, Bhubaneswar, OdishaHigh School

Of these, VIT, Vellore, Chennai, HITS, Chennai, BITS Pilani, Rajasthan and Amity Noida, KIET Group of Institutions, Uttar Pradesh featured in the 2022 challenge as well.

Releasing a list of selected teams in October last year(full list here), NASA announced that these teams would be judged based on their ability to design and assemble a rover to traverse a course of approximately half-mile that includes 10 obstacles and 5 tasks with a simulated field of asteroid debris, boulders, erosion ruts, crevasses, and an ancient streambed. “As part of the competition, rover entries are tested to ensure they would fit into a lander storage area, a maximum 5 feet long by 5 feet tall by 5 feet in volume,” NASA said.

The weight and time criteria encourages teams to build their vehicles around its compactness, light weight, high performance, and efficiency. Teams must make real-time decisions on mission objectives – what to attempt or leave behind, driven by limited virtual oxygen supply lasting 8 minutes. The teams earn points on successful completion of these tasks and the one with the highest number of points throughout the project wins the game in each category (high school/college and universities).

Even though Indian teams did not win the overall prize in either category last year, the students are hopeful for international recognition with larger participation this year.

Akanksha Das, a member of one of the participating teams, Young Tinker Educational Foundation, expressing her enthusiasm about the contest, told news agency ANI, “…We sent a proposal to Nasa and they accepted our proposal and we followed all the guidelines. We created a lightweight Rover. In the last edition we got world rank 3, this year we hope to bring 1st position in world rank.”

source/content: hindustantimes.com (headline edited)

INTERNATIONAL AWARD : STATISTICS : Indian-American Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao (C.R. Rao) Wins Top Statistics Award, the ‘ 2023 International Prize in Statistics ‘ – a look back at his pioneering work

Indian-American statistician Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao has been awarded statistics’ equivalent of the Nobel Prize.

The Indian-American statistician Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao has been awarded the 2023 International Prize in Statistics, which is statistics’ equivalent of the Nobel Prize. It was established in 2016 and is awarded once every two years to an individual or team “for major achievements using statistics to advance science, technology and human welfare.”

Prof. Rao, who is now 102 years old, is a ‘living legend’ whose work has influenced, in the words of the American Statistical Association, “not just statistics” but also “economics, genetics, anthropology, geology, national planning, demography, biometry, and medicine”. The citation for his new award reads: “C.R. Rao, a professor whose work more than 75 years ago continues to exert a profound influence on science, has been awarded the 2023 International Prize in Statistics.”

What was Rao’s 1945 paper about?

Rao’s groundbreaking paper, ‘Information and accuracy attainable in the estimation of statistical parameters’, was published in 1945 in the Bulletin of the Calcutta Mathematical Society, a journal that is otherwise not well known to the statistics community. The paper was subsequently included in the book Breakthroughs in Statistics, 1890-1990.

This was an impressive achievement given Rao was only 25 at the time and had just completed his master’s degree in statistics two years prior.

He would go on to do his PhD in 1946-1948 at King’s College, Cambridge University, under the supervision of Ronald A. Fisher , widely regarded as the father of modern statistics.

The Cramér-Rao inequality is the first of the three results of the 1945 paper. When we are estimating the unknown value of a parameter, we must be aware of the estimator’s margin of error. Rao’s work provided a lower limit on the variance of an unbiased estimate for a finite sample. The result has since become a cornerstone of mathematical statistics; researchers have extended it in many different ways, with applications even in quantum physics, signal processing, spectroscopy, radar systems, multiple-image radiography, risk analysis, and probability theory, among other fields.

In an article published in the journal Statistical Science in 1987, the American statistician Morris H. DeGroot set out an intriguing story (corroborated by Rao’s own account) of how Rao arrived at the lower limit. Prof. Fisher had already established an asymptotic (i.e. when the sample size is very large) version of the inequality, and it seems a student had asked Rao, “Why don’t you prove it for finite samples?” in 1944. A then-24-year-old Rao did so in under 24 hours!

The second outcome of the 1945 paper was the Rao-Blackwell Theorem, which offers a method to improve an estimate to an optimal estimate. The Rao-Blackwell theorem and the Cramér-Rao inequality are both related to the quality of estimators.

A new interdisciplinary area called ‘information geometry’ was born as a result of the paper’s third finding. This field integrated principles from differential geometry into statistics, including the concepts of metric, distance, and measure. Erich L. Lehmann, a renowned statistician, said in 2008 that “this work [of Rao’s] was before its time and came into its own only in the 1980s”.

So overall, Rao’s 1945 paper made an outstanding contribution, boosting the development of modern statistics and its widespread application in modern research. In a 2008 book, Reminiscences of a Statistician: The Company I Kept, Lehmann also discussed the generative nature of the paper – i.e. the goldmine of insights that it was – and acknowledged that “several of my early papers grew out of Rao’s paper of 1945”.

How did Rao enter the field of statistics?

The Australian statistician Terry Speed claimed that the “1940s were ungrudgingly C.R. Rao’s. His 1945 paper … will guarantee that, even had he done nothing else – but there was much else.”

Indeed, one of Rao’s papers in 1948 offered a novel generic approach to testing hypotheses, now widely known as the “Rao score test”. In fact, the three test procedures – the likelihood ratio test of Jerzy Neyman and E.S. Pearson (1928), the Wald test (1943) of Abraham Wald, and the Rao score test (1948) – are sometimes called “the holy trinity” of this branch of statistics.

Rao also contributed to orthogonal arrays, a concept in combinatorics that is used to design experiments whose results are qualitatively good, as early as 1949. A 1969 Forbes article described it as “a new mantra” in industrial establishments.

Given the magnitude and relevance of his contributions, it might seem surprising that Rao entered the field of statistics by chance.

Despite scoring first in mathematics at Andhra University, a 19-year-old Rao didn’t secure a scholarship there for administrative reasons. He was also rejected for a mathematician’s job at an army survey unit because he was judged to be too young.

When he was staying at a hotel in Calcutta, he met a man who was employed in Bombay and had been sent to Calcutta to be trained at the Indian Statistical Institute. He asked Rao to apply to the institute as well. Rao did so, for a year-long training programme in statistics, hoping the additional qualification would help him land a job.

P.C. Mahalanobis, then director of the institute, replied promptly and Rao was enrolled. That marked the beginning of a four-decade-long stay at the institute. Rao retired in 1979 and afterwards settled in the U.S.

The first half of the 20th century was the golden period of statistical theory in general, and Rao is undoubtedly one of the reasons for this being the case, thanks to his mathematical ingenuity. In the words of the late mathematician Samuel Karlin, Rao’s contributions to statistical theory have “earned him a place in the history of statistics”.

Indian statisticians also owe Prof. Rao gratitude for his enormous contributions to the growth of statistics in the country, notably at the Indian Statistical Institute (where this author works). As Lehmann wrote, Rao was “the person who did the most to continue Mahalanobis’s work as a leader of statistics in India.”

Atanu Biswas is professor of statistics, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

GLOBAL: ECONOMY: India, China to Account for Half of Global Economic Growth in 2023: International Monetary Fund (IMF)

The period of slower economic activity will be prolonged, with the next five years witnessing less than 3 per cent growth.

The IMF chief on Thursday said that the world economy is expected to grow at less than 3 per cent this year, with India and China expected to account for half of global growth in 2023.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Kristalina Georgieva warned that a sharp slowdown in the world economy last year following the raging pandemic and Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine would continue this year.

The period of slower economic activity will be prolonged, with the next five years witnessing less than 3 per cent growth, “our lowest medium-term growth forecast since 1990, and well below the average of 3.8 per cent from the past two decades,” she said.

“Some momentum comes from emerging economies — Asia especially is a bright spot. India and China are expected to account for half of global growth in 2023. But others face a steeper climb,” she explained.

“After a strong recovery in 2021 came the severe shock of Russia’s war in Ukraine and its wide-ranging consequences — global growth in 2022 dropped by almost half, from 6.1 to 3.4 per cent,” Georgieva said.

Georgieva said slower growth would be a “severe blow,” making it even harder for low-income nations to catch up.

“Poverty and hunger could further increase, a dangerous trend that was started by the COVID crisis,” she explained.

Her comments come ahead of next week’s spring meetings of the IMF and the World Bank, where policy-makers will convene to discuss the global economy’s most pressing issues.

The annual gathering will take place as central banks around the world continue to raise interest rates to tame galloping inflation rates.

About 90 per cent of advanced economies are projected to see a decline in their growth rates this year, she said.

For low-income countries, higher borrowing costs come at a time of weakening demand for their exports, she said.

Georgieva added that while the global banking system had “come a long way” since the 2008 financial crisis, “concerns remain about vulnerabilities that may be hidden, not just at banks but also non-banks.

“Now is not the time for complacency.”

source/content: hindustantimes.com (headline edited)

INTERNATIONAL: INDIA GLOBAL: AUTOMOBILE:  TVS Motor Company arm to buy 25% stake in Germany’s Killwatt GmbH

The shares are acquired at cash consideration of €235.29/share, translating to a total of nearly €2 mn or ₹18 cr.

TVS Motor Company on Tuesday said its Singapore-based arm will acquire a 25 per cent stake in Germany-based electric mobility products and components start-up Killwatt GmbH.

TVS Motor (Singapore) Pte Ltd, has agreed to acquire a 25 per cent stake in Killwatt GmbH by way of newly issued shares of the latter, amounting to 8,500 common equity shares, the company said in a regulatory filing. The shares are acquired at cash consideration of €235.29 per share, translating to a total of nearly €2 million (nearly ₹18 crore).

Killwatt’s business comprises development, design, manufacture, sale and distribution of high-tech products and components in the field of electric two-wheeler and three-wheeler vehicles, it added.

“Killwatt presents great potential which has been conceptualised by the company. This acquisition is aligned with our larger vision of becoming a leading player in the e-personal mobility space and providing our customers with sustainable mobility solutions, and it complements our other recent acquisitions,” TVS Motor Company said.

The company considers Killwatt as a long-term partner to establish a strong presence in the e-mobility business, it added.

TVS Motor recorded a 1.97 per cent decline in sales in February with 2,76,150 units sold. The company had sold 2,81,714 units during the corresponding month of last year.

source/content: thehindubusinessline.com (headline edited)

GLOBAL: SATELLITES & SPACE: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Successfully Launches 36 Satellites for UK-based OneWeb

This batch of 36 satellites by the UK-based OneWeb will be its 18th launch to date, its third this year and the second with ISRO.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Sunday successfully launched the second batch of 36 satellites for the UK-based OneWeb.

“We have lift off! Thanks to our colleagues at @isro and @NSIL_India for a successful launch. If you don’t already, make sure to follow us for more updates throughout the rest of the mission,” OneWeb tweeted at 9.04am on Sunday.

This batch of satellites by the UK-based company will be its 18th launch to date, its third this year and the second with ISRO. This will also complete the company’s first-generation LEO (low earth orbit) constellation, enabling the company to initiate global coverage in 2023.

HT on March 6 reported about ISRO’s plan to launch the second batch of OneWeb’s satellites on March 26.

On February 16, these 36 satellites reached India from the US for their launch. On March 15, the satellites were also encapsulated.

The communications satellites were launched by ISRO’s Launch Vehicle Mark-III (LVM3). In October last year, the Indian space agency successfully launched the first set of 36 satellites by OneWeb from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, marking the rocket’s entry into the global commercial launch service market.

A week after that, ISRO successfully conducted the flight acceptance hot test of the CE-20 engine in the high-altitude test facility of its propulsion complex at Tamil Nadu’s Mahendragiri for 25 seconds for the second batch of satellites that are expected to be placed on low earth orbit.

After its first launch, OneWeb had said that its partnership with NSIL and ISRO demonstrated its commitment to provide connectivity across the length and breadth of India by 2023.

ISRO’s LVM3 rocket is capable of launching four-tonne class of satellites to geosynchronous transfer orbit. It is a three-stage vehicle with two solid motor strapons, a liquid propellant core stage and a cryogenic stage. The OneWeb satellites will be placed in orbit at an altitude of 1,200km above the earth’s surface.

“This mission marks OneWeb’s second satellite deployment from India, highlighting the collaboration between the UK and Indian space industries. Across India, OneWeb will bring secured solutions not only to enterprises but also to towns, villages, municipalities and schools, including the hardest-to-reach areas across the country,” the company said last week.

source/content: hindustantimes.com (headline edited)

INTERNATIONAL RECORDS: ARTS & CULTURE: President Biden presents National Humanities Medal to Indian-American Actress and Producer Mindy Kaling

President Biden said that Mindy Kaling empowers a new generation to tell their stories with irreverence and sincerity.

U.S. President Joe Biden has presented the prestigious 2021 National Humanities Medals to Indian-American actress and producer Mindly Kaling, with several others, in recognition of her giving voice to a new generation of storytellers, at a White House ceremony.

The National Medal of Arts is the highest award, given to artists, arts patrons, and groups by the U.S. government. It honours exemplary individuals and organisations that have advanced the arts in America and inspired others through their distinguished achievement, support, or patronage.

Presenting the award to the actress on March 21, at the ceremony attended by First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and the Second Gentlemen, Mr. Biden said that Mindy Kaling is the first woman of colour to create, write, and star in a primetime sitcom.

He added that the 43-year-old actress empowers a new generation to tell their stories with irreverence and sincerity.

“The daughter of Indian immigrants — we know about that, right? Our Vice President is a daughter of Indian immigrants — a mother who was a great scientist,” the U.S. President said.

“Above all, she is hardworking and an adoring mom, just like her own mom was. And, Mindy, we know your mom is always with you in your spirit. We know that,” Mr. Biden added.

“Imbued with humour and heart, Mindy Kaling’s work across television, film, and books inspires and delights, capturing and uplifting the experiences of women and girls across our nation,” the citation of Mindy’s award, read by a military aide later, said.

The award honours individuals or groups whose work has deepened the nation’s understanding of the humanities and broadened citizens’ engagement with history, literature, languages, philosophy, and other humanities subjects.

The 11 other distinguished medal recipients were Judith Francisca Baca, Fred Eychaner, Jose Feliciano, Gladys Knight, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Antonio Martorell-Cardona, Joan Shigekawa, Bruce Springsteen, Vera Wang, The Billie Holiday Theatre, and the International Association of Blacks in Dance.

Richard Blanco, Johnnetta Betsch Cole, Walter Isaacson, Earl Lewis, Henrietta Mann, Ann Patchett, Bryan Stevenson, Amy Tan, Tara Westover, Colson Whitehead and Native America Calling were the recipients of the National Humanities Medal.

thehindu.com (headline edited)