Weekly News Report 10 17 2017

Consulate General of India, Vancouver www.cgivancouver.org

Vol. 01, Issue No. 11 November 17, 2017.

India in Vancouver Weekly Newsletter

Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh

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Serene Pachmarhi, Madhya Pradesh

Vol. 01, Issue. 11, November 17, 2017.

Consulate News Indian delegation led by Dr. Subhash Bhamre, Hon'ble RRM attended the #UNPKDM2017 which was held at Vancouver on 14-15 November. RRM held talks with Hon'ble Harjit Sajjan, Canadian Defense Minister at a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Ministerial Conference.

Hon'ble MOS Defense Dr Bhamre with Hon'ble Harjit Sajjan, Minister of Defense for Canada

Hon'ble MOS Defense Dr. Subhash Bhamre at the #UNPKDM2017 Vancouver

Indian Defence delegation at the #UNPKDM2017 Vancouver

Canadian Defence Minister welcoming the delegates

With MP Randeep Sarai

With Premier John Horgan, Govt of BC 1|P a g e

Vol. 01, Issue. 11, November 17, 2017.

5th annual Dr. Ambedkar Chetna Awards Night (Sunday, November 05. 2017) 5th annual Dr. Ambedkar Chetna Awards Night was organized on Sunday, November 05. 2017 by CHETNA ASSOCIATION OF CANADA in association with INDO-CANADIAN TIMES NEWSPAPER, INSTITUTE FOR THE HUMANITIES AT SFU; DR. HARI SHARMA FOUNDATION, THE CENTER FOR INDIA AND SOUTH ASIA RESEARCH, THE DEPT. OF ASIAN STUDIES & THE ROBERT H.N. HO FAMILY FOUNDATION PROGRAM IN BUDDHISM & CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY AT UBC. Consul General Smt. Abhilasha Joshi attended the prestigious award night along with the guest of honor Prof. Vivek Kumar (JNU). Various awards like Dr. Ambedkar Social Justice Award; Dr. Ambedkar Lifetime Achievement Award; Dr. Ambedkar Arts & Literature Award; and S. Tara Singh Hayer Journalism Award were presented. Smt. Joshi spoke on the occasion recalling the contribution of Dr. Ambedkar in nation building and his fight to uplift the marginalized sections of society. It was a wellattended evening of acknowledgements and celebrations.

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Vol. 01, Issue. 11, November 17, 2017.

Government of Madhya Pradesh is organizing ‘Friends of Madhya Pradesh Conclave’, at Hotel Marriott, Indore from 3rd to 4th January 2018. Details of the Conclave are attached. The aim of this conclave is to invite people of Indian origin, especially with roots from Madhya Pradesh and those who are interested in developing relationship with the State of Madhya Pradesh, to hold deliberations on the vision and the way forward for 'Friends of MP' and how this initiative can fuel socio-economic growth in the State.

Details of the conclave can be seen from its website: http://friendsofmp.com/

National Teachers’ Congress foundation MIT Campus S. No-124 Paud Road, Kothrud, Pune-411038 (January 10 – 12, 2018)

The MIT World Peace University, Pune is organising the second National Teachers Congress in Pune from January 10 – 12, 2018. The event has the support of Government of Maharashtra.

2. The National Teachers' Congress (NTC) has been conceptualized with an objective to inspire teachers of Higher Education (under-graduate and post-graduate colleges) from across the nation. Through extensive deliberations and dialogues of 3 days, NTC aim to ignite the spirit of over 8,000 teachers every year so that they continue to look beyond the commercial temptations for creating deeper and wider impact on the society through this noble profession.

3. Over a thousand teachers from India and teachers/professors of Indian origin teaching in foreign universities are expected to participate in the event. The event will provide an opportunity to share their experiences and ideas with their contemporaries in India.

4. Contact details are as below for registration and more information: Phone: +91 88888 15424/25 Email: info@nationalteacherscongress.comm & info.ntc@mitwpu.edu.in Website: http://nationalteacherscongress.com Online registration: http://www.indusfood.co.in/buyer

Global Food & Beverage Show of India January 18-19, 2018, India Exposition Mart, Greater Noida http://www.tpci.in/eventdefault/indus-food/

Trade Promotion Council of India with the support of Dept. of Commerce, Govt. of India is organizing the flagship international food show cum Reverse Buyer Seller Meet – “Indus Food” at India Exposition Centre, Greater Noida India.

The is the largest of its kind food export promotion event organized in India with supported by Department of Commerce with over 400 plus Indian Food & Beverage Manufacturers and Exporters exhibiting and over 500 pre-screened hosted buyers invited from across the world. Indus Food shall be the most significant and vital platform for global food buyers to source, network & connect with Indian Food & Beverage industry with a large and diversified choice.

The event zone wise segregation for the exhibitors to specifically participate and show case their products of their respective segments covering all 12 product segments from consumer food, dairy products, marine, meat & poultry to Indian ethnic Food all under one roof.

Interested members may kindly contact: For Exhibitor Participation: Deepak Vohra | +91 9205883437 | exhibit.indusfood@tpci.in For Strategic Partnership & Sponsorship: Sandip Das | +91 9205883429 | info.indusfood@tpci.in For Buyer Nomination: Rohan Chopra | +91 9205883430 | buyer.indusfood@tpci.in Also visit www.indusfood.co.in for more information.

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Vol. 01, Issue. 11, November 17, 2017.

Organization of Consular Camps for Life Certificate The Consulate General of India will be conducting Consular Camps at the places and dates mentioned below for signing of Life Certificates, and other consular services [where there is no BLS centre].

The Consulate will not provide any attestation of ‘Life Certificate’ services at the Consulate during November and the general public may please approach the local contacts given below as regards the venue and timing of the camp.

Sl.

Place

Date

Local organizer

1

Calgary

Sunday 19.11.17

Col Rattan, President Indian Ex-servicemen Immigrant Association Ph: 403 835 2257 Email: colrattan@hotmail.com

2

Edmonton

Sunday 19.11.17

Sh Chander Sheikhar, President, CISE Email: chandermgbuilders@gmail.com, cise@ciseedmonton.com

3

Prince George

Sunday 26.11.17

Sh Sardul Singh Toor, VP, Guru Gobind Singh Temple Association, 443 Kelly St. South, Prince George Ph: 250981 9872 Email: ggstempleg@gmail.com

4

Kamloops

Sunday 26.11.17

Sh Kulwinder Singh Kular, President, Sikh Cultural Society, Ph: 2503 768 285, Email: kal@topdriver.ca

Consular Camps held at the Lakshmi Narayan Temple, Surrey and the Heritage Gurudwara, Abbotsford on November 5th, 2017 and Chateau Regina Hotel, Regina on November 12th, 2017.

Global Notice for Expression of Interest Notice No. CT/IM/LWR/RSM (Dev) Government of India, Ministry of Railways, Research Designs and Standards Organisation Manak Nagar, Lucknow (INDIA) -226011

Ministry of Railways, Research Designs and Standards Organization (R.D.S.O.), Lucknow, India is interested in ‘Exploring the availability of the manufacturers/suppliers of the equipment/system for non-destructive measurement of Rail Stresses and Determination of Stress Free Temperature of LWR/CWR’. Firms having requisite equipment or having facilities to develop the above equipment/system and possessing ISO certificate, are requested to see the details on RDSO’s website www.rdso.indianrailways.gov.in at HOME PAGE under ‘EOI’ appearing in RED and may contact Director Standards/Track Design-I, RDSO, Lucknow on Telephone No. +91-522-2465766 or/and email: dtd1rdso@gmail.com on any working day for further clarifications, if any. The firms are requested to submit details in the prescribed format by 11.12.2017 (15:00 hrs) to Director Standards/Track Design-I, Anusandhan Bhawan, Track Design Directorate, RDSO, Manak Nagar, Lucknow –226011, Uttar Pradesh, (INDIA).

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Vol. 01, Issue. 11, November 17, 2017.

News from India 1. 16-yr-old conferred president’s award for building a device to predict ‘silent’ heart attacks It was also on the occasion of Children’s Day that President Ram Nath Kovind gave away the National Child Awards 2017. The awards were given to celebrate the exceptional achievements of children. This year, the President honored 16 children, with gold and silver medals. The Logical Indian brings forth the story of 16-year-old President’s Gold Medal Recipient, Akash Manoj, for his path-breaking research in preventive cardiology.

A personal experience prompted Akash’s research: It was in 2015 when Akash’s grandfather collapsed due to a silent heart attack. A heart attack is characterized by a chest pain, shortness of breath and pain in the left arm. High blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol levels increase the risk of heart attacks. Akash was invited to Tokyo University of Science, Japan for presenting his project at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences. His project got endorsed and clinically approved by their experts.

How does the device work?: A small silicon patch is stuck on the back of the ear or wrist which monitors if there has been a silent heart attack instead of going through tests like echo cardiograms. This patch uses an electrical impulse which is positively charged to draw negative charges towards it. These negative charges are the proteins that trigger a silent attack. If the amount of Fatty Acid Binding Protein 3 is high, then there is an urgent requirement of medical attention.

Plans to launch this device: Akash was invited by the then president Pranab Mukherjee as an innovation scholar to stay at the Rashtrapati Bhavan for two weeks. He was given research facilities in India’s premier institutions viz.IIT Madras, AIIMS to help him develop his innovative project. Akash plans to launch the product by mid-2018. He has already signed Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare as well as All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) for commercial production of the device.

(Arunima Bhattacharya, The Logical Indian, Thu, 16 Nov, 03:54pm)

2. IIT Ropar and PEC University of Technology scientists develop new method to map glaciers Bursting of glacial lakes is a major cause of concern in the context climate change. Retreat of glaciers is expected to increase the number of glacial lakes and also expand the size of existing ones, posing threats for catastrophic floods. For preventing such events, precise and timely mapping and monitoring of the glacial lakes is necessary. Scientists at the Indian Institute of Technology, Ropar and PEC University of Technology, Chandigarh have developed a new method to map glacial lakes with an accuracy of 85 percent.

Its advantage is that it can help map even a glacial pond as small as 100 square meters with high precision. This is important as glacial lakes generally start as ponds known as supraglacial lakes (SGLs) and then grow in size with time. They form in the hollows on the glacial surface. Since water has lower albedo than ice, it absorbs more of the sun’s energy causing warming of the surface ice, which leads to increase in melting of glacial ice. The rates of ablation or removal of snow or ice from a glacier are typically one or two orders magnitude greater around SGLs than elsewhere. Traditionally SGLs are mapped through field surveys which are laborious, risky and time consuming. The new method maps SGLs by processing remote sensing data using a technique called Object-Based Image Analysis (OBIA) technique.

The researchers tested the new method to map SGLs in Gangotri glacier, using data from Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)’s Resourcesat-2 satellite. Dr. Tiwari said the method could be used to map and monitor other types of glacial lakes also such as moraine dammed lakes which too pose serious threats of flooding through sudden bursting. The study was funded by the Department of Science and Technology. The research team included Kavita V. Mitkari and Manoj K. Arora of PEC University of Technology, besides Dr Tiwari. The study has been published in IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing.

(Sunderarajan Padmanabhan, First Post, Thu, 16 Nov, 03:51pm)

3. IIT Hyderabad develops novel skin patch for constant drug release The amount of drug in the patch can be modified so that it is released at desired rate. Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Hyderabad have developed a novel drug-delivery system that releases a commonly used pain killer (diclofenac sodium) at the target site in a controlled fashion such that there is constant release of the drug for as long as 12 hours. The drug has low half-life of one–two hours and so constant release for up to 12 hours becomes particularly significant.

In normal circumstances, the drug gets metabolized very quickly, thereby requiring frequent dosing to maintain the desired therapeutic levels. The fluctuation of the drug plasma level is one reason why the medicine cases adverse effects.

To prevent burst or quick release of the drug, a team led by Mudrika Khandelwal from the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgical Engineering at IIT Hyderabad fabricated a transdermal patch containing the drug and made the patch highly hydrophobic (water repelling). The high hydrophobicity of the patch ensures that the highly water-soluble drug is released in a slow and sustained fashion. The results were published in the journal Applied Surface Science.

What makes the transdermal patch particularly significant is the freedom to increase the amount of drug present in the patch so that the drug is constantly released at a therapeutically desirable dosage for a longer duration. The patch was prepared by mixing the drug with cellulose acetate bio-polymer and electro spun in the form of a nonfabric. Ordinary nylon mesh with different pore sizes (50, 100 and 200 microns) was used at the site of the collector and this allowed the nanofibers to get deposited with micron-sized gaps in between. The researchers plan to develop transdermal patch prototypes and test them on animals.

(R. Prasad, The Hindu, Sun, 12 Nov, 04:36pm)

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Vol. 01, Issue. 11, November 17, 2017.

4. India:Alice Vaidyan named 7th Most Powerful Woman in Business in the country Mrs Alice G Vaidyan, Chairman and Managing Director of GIC Re, has been ranked seventh on the Most Powerful Women in Business in India by Fortune India. The list is published in this month's issue of the business publication.

In a transcript of her interview with Fortune India, Mrs Vaidyan said that she wishes to see GIC Re in the global Top 10 Reinsurers list. She said that the company is likely to achieve this by 31 March 2018. GIC Re is now the 12th largest reinsurer in the world, up from 14th position last year. Mrs Vaidyan, the first woman to helm GIC Re, India's biggest reinsurer, outlined plans for the reinsurer following its successful listing on Indian bourses last month. The plans include geographical expansion in the developing markets of Brazil, China, Myanmar, Bangladesh and in mature markets like the US, as well as establishing a syndicate at Lloyd’s of London. In addition, GIC Re plans to grow its life and liability businesses and venture into space and cyber security lines.

There are two women from the insurance industry named on the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business in India this year. The second person is Mrs R M Vishakha, MD & CEO of India First Life Insurance Company who is 38th on the list.

(Anoop Khanna, Asia Insurance Review, Fri, 17 Nov, 03:24pm)

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