Indian wildlife biologist wins Whitley Award

New Delhi: An Indian wildlife biologist was presented with the prestigious Whitley Award on Thursday in recognition of her efforts to protect the endangered hornbill in India’s north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh.

Dr Aparajita Datta was one of the eight conservationists from around the world to win the green Oscar. The ceremony was held in London at The Royal Geographical Society and the awards were presented by Whitley Fund for Nature patron, Princess Anne.

Hornbills hold a special place in many of the north-eastern tribes’ culture, making them vulnerable, as they are hunted for their beaks and feathers. The loss of habitat due to deforestation has also greatly threatened their existence.

According to WFN, “Focussing on hornbills as a conservation flagship species, Dr Datta is seeking to improve the status of the bird’s populations outside protected areas by establishing models of community-based conservation. She is spreading knowledge of the needs of hornbills and their importance, as seed dispersers, in the maintenance of healthy forest ecosystems.

“Key to Dr Datta’s approach is raising awareness of the threats to the bird’s survival, and creating a wider rural and urban constituency for conservation through a participatory community outreach programme that gets people involved”, said WFN.

Other winners include John Kahekwa-Democratic Republic of Congo, Zafer Kizilkaya-Turkey, Daniel Letoiye-Kenya, Zahirul Islam-Bangladesh, Ekwoge Abwe-Cameroon and Eugene Simonov-China, Mongolia, Russia.

Source : ZeeNews

Maruti saves Rs 354 crore in 2012-13 with employee help

It pays to listen to your employees, literally. Maruti Suzuki India, the country's largest car maker, could save a handsome Rs 354 crore in FY13 by paying heed to their workers' suggestions to improve productivity and cut wastage.

Ever since its inception in the 1980s, the car maker has been engaging its staff across various levels and incorporating their suggestions.

During the last financial year, it received over 396,000 suggestions from its employees, which eventually resulted in the savings. In the previous year (FY12), there were 320,000 suggestions, which led to cost savings of over Rs 294.2 crore.

Guiding principle
"The guiding principle here is every employee, irrespective of his level, has the best knowledge of his work area. He is encouraged to look around his work area and come up with improvements that will enhance productivity, bring simplicity, save cost, energy, raw material, etc. Interestingly, each year, the cost savings arising out of these suggestions have gone up," said S Y Siddiqui, chief operating officer - administration (HR, IT and finance) at Maruti Suzuki India.

The suggestion scheme, adopted from parent Suzuki Motor Corporation, has seen employees being rewarded every month in both cash and in kind. Most ideas relate to improving quality and reduce costs, ways to speed up operations, improve efficiencies and streamline supplies. Some suggestions even helped improve efficiencies of the robots used on the shop floor.

"For instance, fool-proofing at line operations is very critical for our organisation. We felt the need to introduce fool-proofing at one of the locations and thus developed a small machine in house for the same. The total cost of development is around Rs 50,000. Had we bought the machine from outside, it would have cost us Rs 850,000, resulting in savings of Rs 800,000," said Siddiqui.

This scheme is being practised at many of Maruti's vendors as well.

There is also an on-line version, Sujhav Sangrehika, which gives real-time update on suggestions.

"To strengthen idea generation across business functions we are also organising specific training on Kaizen (continuous improvement). Through these workshops, we are requesting individuals to constantly challenge the status quo in their disciplines. These training programmes are helping them develop this ability and mindset," Siddiqui added.

After the ideas are implemented at one location, they are replicated at others to reach out the benefits on a larger, company-wide scale.

For example, a body-loading system installed in the vehicle assembly section increased the capacity by 80 vehicles a day at a cost of just Rs 15 lakh. This automation was done within a period of three months. In contrast, a new capacity to make 80 vehicles would have cost several crores," said Siddiqui.

Source : BusinessStandard

Nanao, Dilbag win silver in Russia

Khabarovsk, Russia: The Indian campaign came to an end at the Khabarovsk International Competition in Khabarovsk, Russia with two silver medals and three bronze medals.


The two Indian boxers in the finals, National Games gold medallist Th Nanao Singh (49kg) and Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Dilbagh Singh (69kg) had to be content with a silver medal finish after they lost to their respective opponents in the title round.


In the finals of the light fly weight division Nanao Singh went up against local lad Sagaluev Bator. Sagaluev had a similar technique to Nanao and both the boxers were equally matched, but the Russian seemed to have an edge with his precise attacks.


The 22 year old Indian tried hard to reduce the margin, but Sagaluev kept nicking crucial points to maintain the advantage. In the end Nanao lost on points 8-12. Multiple national champion Dilbagh Singh had a bad day at office and seemed out of sorts against Kozhabekov Bakytzhan of Kazakhstan. He lost on points 3-9.

Earlier Sunil Kumar (52kg), Shiva Thapa (56kg) and Satish Kumar (+91kg) reached the semi-final stage of the tournament to bag the bronze medal in their respective weight categories.

Source : IndianSportsNews

World Squash Federation Welcomes International Olympic Committee Sport Shortlist Decision for 2020 Games

St Petersburg, Russia: The World Squash Federation today welcomed the decision by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board to shortlist Squash as a potential sport to join the Olympic Programme for the 2020 Olympic Games. The IOC Executive Board, which comprises 15 IOC members including President Jacques Rogge, made its decision after receiving presentations from eight sports.

The Squash presentation team included seven-time women's world champion and world number one Nicol David, and Ramy Ashour, men's world champion and world number one. Three films - which can be viewed at www.worldsquash.org/ws/?page_id=11686 - were shown in the Squash presentation, including a newly-commissioned film which captures the broadcast innovations the sport has introduced in the last few years.

World Squash Federation President N Ramachandran, who led Squash's presentation team, said: "This is a huge milestone in our quest to join the Olympic Programme and I would like to thank the Executive Board for the faith it has placed in Squash. It was fantastic to have the women's and men's world number ones on our presentation team, and Nicol and Ramy were passionate about what it would mean to them to have the chance to compete in the Olympic Games. It was also important that our presentation communicated the scale and breadth of innovations that Squash has introduced over the last few years, in particular in key areas such as broadcasting, and I believe we did that.
Malaysia's Nicol David, seven-time World Champion, said: "This is a great day for Squash as it takes us one step closer to realising our long held ambition to join the Olympic Games. I said to the Executive Board that the one big regret in my career is that I have never had the chance to compete in the Olympic Games, but I would happily trade all my seven world titles for the chance of Olympic Gold. Hopefully that showed what competing in the Games means to me. It was a true honour to play a part in our presentation and I will do everything I can as we head towards Buenos Aires to help our campaign."

Egypt's Ramy Ashour, Men's World Number one, added: "It was great for Nicol and me to be part of the

presentation team and to represent the Men's and Women's professional Squash Tours. I think this was an important message to the IOC Executive Board as it shows what competing in the Games would mean to us and every single player on the tours. Being part of our presentation has fuelled even more my dream to compete in the Olympic Games, and I really do pray that this journey leads me to the Olympic Games in 2020, where I can make my country proud and win Gold for Egypt."

President Ramachandran concluded: "Squash would grow all over the world with the Olympic Movement. We are a growing, global sport played in 185 countries by millions across the world. We offer the genuine prospect of new nations on the medal podium. We would be easy and low cost to integrate into the Olympic Games with just 64 athletes, two competition courts that can be built in days and we have a great track record of being hosted in iconic locations. I think all these elements were important considerations for the IOC Executive Board. It is critical now that we build further momentum and support ahead of the IOC member vote in Buenos Aires on September 8, and this is what the global Squash family is completely focussed on."

Source : IndianSportsNews

Premlata Agrawal becomes the first Indian woman mountaineer to complete the Seven Summits

New Delhi: The height of her spirit for adventure reached a crescendo as ace woman mountaineer, Premlata Agrawal marked her imprint atop Alaska’s McKinley Peak and planted the Indian Tricolor as completion to scaling the SEVEN CONTINENTAL PEAKS on May 23, 2013. With this, she became the first Indian woman mountaineer to step on the highest peak of North America. She was felicitated for this momentous achievement on her return to India, here in the capital today.

On each of the seven continents, there is one peak that stands above the rest. The Seven Summits present different challenges that have to be overcome with extreme and testing fortitude. Summiting all of them is regarded as one of the world’s biggest mountaineeringchallenge. Seven Summits has become the dream of many climbers, but only a select few have succeeded. Premlata now proudly belongs to this group.

Speaking on her triumphant return, Premlata Agrawal said, “I am extremely proud to have accomplished this achievement on behalf of my country and all the women who live here with courage and determination. This experience has again taught me that if you have the will and focus, no matter where you come from, you can conquer the world.”

Also present on the occasion and the key facilitator for her homecoming was Member of Parliament, Dr. Ajay Kumar from Jamshedpur (Jharkhand); belonging to Premlata’s family’s hometown. Dr. Kumar said, “Premlata has been a reason for us at Jharkhand to be proud since a long time. She is now a national source of inspiration to all and I’d like to offer her our deepest respect and congratulations.”

The unassuming housewife who ventured out of the kitchen to give shape to all mountaineers’ greatest dream, worked towards her passion for heights starting at the age of 35 when she undertook the Dalma (hill) trek 13 years ago. That was the starting point that led to the now famous Thar Camel Expedition, the ascent of Mt Kilimanjaro before setting foot on the world’s highest peak, Mt Everest, on 20th May, 2011. This feat provided her the vision to want to plant the Tri Color on all the Continental Peaks – The Seven Summits.

Ace mountaineer and the first Indian woman to scale Mt Everest, Tata Steel and Ms Bachendri Pal have played a key role in discovering and encouraging Premlata’s talent to be able to achieve success via rigorous training and mental coaching.

Just before Premlata embarked on the ascent of McKinley Peak to cap off her Seven Continental Peaks’ successful climbs, the Government of India awarded her The Padmashree Honor for her trail-blazing achievements.

To quote Premlata further, “Even when foul weather thwarted my initial attempt of planting my National Flag atop Mt Denali, my determination to climb this peak did not fizzle out; instead, it re-bolstered my will to start anew and ascend Denali. What egged me on in overcoming the toughest of obstacles during my ascents was the fire covering my spirit to achieve in the form of our Tricolour wrapped around me, which, I have planted atop each of the seven Continental Peaks with the pride of being an Indian woman.”

“My most cherished desire is to draw forth Indian women out of their routine household chores and imbibe in them the exciting and indefatigable spirit of adventure that will instill in them the confidence to tackle all situations.”

Source : IndianSportsNews

India emerge champions in inaugural Asian Team Snooker Championships

Doha: The Indian trio Manan Chandra, Brijesh Damani and Alok Kumar created history by thrashing Team Iran 3-0 to emerge champions in the inaugural Asian Team Snooker Championships held in Qatar, Doha.

The Indian cueists were in form right from the start and topped their group with three wins from as many games. After the group stages, India were the only team to remain undefeated. Pakistan, China and Thailand finished on top of their respective groups but suffered a defeat each.

India had little obstruction in clinching gold as they outplayed Qatar 3-1 in the quarterfinals, beat Afghanistan 3-1 in the semifinals before registering a clean sweep against Iran scoring 61-49 (Single); 58-16 (Single); and 63-55 (double).


Sanjay Sawant accompanied the team India as coach.

Source : IndianSportsNews

Qatar seeks India help to set up IIT, IIM

New Delhi: India's prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Managements (IIMs) could mark their international debut with the government considering a proposal to set up one such institution in Qatar.

To take this proposal forward, HRD Minister M M Pallam Raju is expected to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday.

Qatar has attracted some of the prestigious international campuses and requested Indian government to set up elite institutes such as IIT and IIM there, sources said.

They said Qatar made a fresh request in this regard during the recent visit of Finance Minister P Chidambramam to that country.

During the meeting, the PM is also slated to review progress of some of the new IIT campuses in the country, they said.