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Indian ‘human computer’

Shakuntala Devi no more Indian mathematical genius and astrologer Shakuntala Devi, who was dubbed “human computer” for her swift numerical calculation abilities, passed away in Bangalore on April 21 after brief illness. She was 83.

She is survived by her daughter, son-in-law and two grand daughters.

“Madam breathed her last at 8:15am due to heart failure and renal problem,” Shakuntala Devi’s long-time associate Kavita Malhotra said.

The number-crunching Devi was admitted to Bangalore Hospital April 3 as her kidneys became 80 percent weaker and she also had respiratory problems.

“Even in the intensive care unit (ICU), her mind was full of ideas though her body was frail and weak. She wanted to leave the hospital and return home soon. Trust me, she was full of energy till last,” said Shakuntala Devi’s daughter Anupama.

Hundreds of people, including relatives, friends and admirers were present at her last rites, which was performed in a southern suburb of the city before sunset.

Born here Nov 4, 1929 in a Brahmin family, Shakuntala Devi moved to London in 1944 when she was 15 years old with her father, who worked in a circus company as a trapeze artiste and tightrope performer.

She returned to India in the mid-1960s and married Paritosh Bannerji, an IAS officer from Kolkata.

The couple, however, divorced in 1979 and Shakuntala Devi returned to Bangalore in early 1980s and started offering astrological advice to hundreds of people, including celebrities, politicians and anyone who approached her. Bannerji passed away in 2010 in Kolkata.

“She was a legend. Really, we didn’t expect madam to go like this. She was very lively and was looking forward to get well soon. But her health was not good and it’s a great loss to all of us,” said Malhotra, who accompanied Shakuntala Devi on mathematical and astrological tours abroad.

As a toddler, Shakuntala Devi was discovered to be a born genius by her father when he was showing her some card tricks.

“When mother was three-years-old, she was found to be fond of numbers and having a phenomenal memory. She could calculate any equation and reel off amazing numbers in a flash,” Anupama, a director in her husband’s firm, recalled.

According to the Guinness World Records, Shakuntala Devi displayed her mathematical skills when she was six-years-old at a public function in Mysore, and two years later, proved to be a prodigal wizard in number games at Annamalai University in Tamil Nadu’s Chidambaram, about 200 km from Chennai.

In 1977, Shakuntala Devi discovered the 23rd root of a 201-digit number mentally. Three years later, in June 1980, she answered in 28 seconds when she was asked to multiply two 13-digit numbers picked at random at the Imperial College in London.

She wrote a number of books on mathematics and astrology including Fun with Numbers, Astrology for You, Puzzles to Puzzle You and Mathablit

She had also set up an educational foundation public trust to promote studies in maths, astrology, philosophy and astronomy.

Shakuntala Devi was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award in Mumbai last month.

336 Percent Jump In Child Rapes In A Decade

Amid a public outcry over a brutal sexual assault on a five-year girl in New Delhi, a report by rights group Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) shows there has been an increase of 336 percent in cases of child rapes from 2001-11.

The ‘India’s Hell Holes: Child Sexual Assault in Juvenile Justice Homes’ report, circulated recently, said sexual offences against children in India have reached an epidemic proportion and a large number of them are being committed in the juvenile justice homes run and aided by the government.

The 56-page report, citing National Crime Records Bureau statistics, said that a total of 48,338 child rapes were recorded from 200111 and the country recorded an increase of 336 percent in child rapes from 2001 (2,113 cases) to 2011 (7,112 cases).

“This is only the tip of the iceberg as the large majority of child rapes are not reported to police while children regularly become victims of other forms of sexual assault too,” said a statement from ACHR.

Among the states, Madhya Pradesh recorded the highest number of child rapes with 9,465 cases from 2001-11, followed by Maharashtra with 6,868 cases.

Uttar Pradesh with 5,949 cases was third, followed by Andhra Pradesh with 3,977, Chhattisgarh 3,688 and Delhi 2,909.

The report also said many of the child rapes took place in juvenile justice homes.

“It will not be an understatement to state that juvenile justice homes, established to provide care and protection as well as reintegration, rehabilitation and restoration of the juveniles in conflict with law and children in need of care and protection, have become India’s hell holes where inmates are subjected to sexual assault and exploitation, torture and ill treatment apart from being forced to live in inhuman conditions,” said Suhas Chakma, director, ACHR.

“The girls remain to be the most vulnerable. It matters little, whether the juvenile justice homes are situated in Delhi or in smaller towns,” he added.

The recent outrage in the national of the five-year girl’s rape follows her abduction April 15 and sexual assault for a couple of days by her neighbour in east Delhi. The accused has been arrested.

Nutrient from urine, antibacterial clothes: Innovations from IIT-Delhi

A process to recover nutrients from human urine and an antibacterial shirt to keep the body fresh in sweltering heat are some of the innovative solutions offered to the industry by students of the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi (IIT-D) for the benefit of common people.

These are part of around 500 researchbased projects showcased at the annual exhibition of the premier institution.

Students of the Centre for Rural Development and Technology have devised a technology that can retrieve nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium from human urine.

“Human urine contains 70 percent nitrogen, 50 percent potassium and 50 percent phosphorus and if retrieved it has potential to replace any kind of chemical fertilizer and will be environment-friendly,” said Vijayaraghavan M. Chariar, associate professor at IIT-D.

Chariar has been working on the project with a team of seven students.

“We have developed reactors which have the capacity to trap nutrients from urine. These reactors can be fitted to the toilets for retrieval,” said Chariar.

The team has also developed waterless urinals fitted with odour traps and biological blocks to minimise the use of water and make urine odourless.

The technology is already in use at some toilets in IIT-D and the industry has also acquired the technology for replicating it in public loos.

Students from the textile technology department have developed fresh and cool smart technology for garments.

“We have developed silver nanoparticles which when applied to fabric during its manufacturing makes it antimicrobial and keeps it fresh and cool in sweltering heat,” Manjeet Jassal, professor, research group on smart and innovative textile materials, said in New Delhi.

Jassal said the technology has been successfully transferred to RESIL Chemicals, Bangalore, which is Asia’s largest specialty textile chemical company.

The product has already been used by brands like Marks & Spencer, Louis Philippe, Raymonds and Amante.

But that is not all.

The other innovative products include a biosensor chip to detect pesticides, heavy metals, aflatoxin and bacterial contamination in milk, multi-functional wheelchairs and protecting household items from earthquakes.

“We have devised a multifunctional wheelchair which, apart from serving the purpose of navigation, also aids the physically handicapped to use western toilets themselves, reach objects at some height,” said Ansal E, a student from the Department of Applied Mechanics.

According to IIT, some of the projects have caught the attention of industry, with many companies seeking to develop these ideas on a larger scale and take them to the people.

“In the last few years, our strategy has been to invest more in research and development. The innovative solutions offered by students are part of this approach and we have got a very good response from industry,” said Suneet Tuli, Dean, Industrial Research and Development.

Tuli said the industry has approached the institute for technology transfer of several products to produce the products on a large scale.

India receives $69 bn in remittances; tops global list

India received $69 billion remittance in 2012, the highest in the world, followed by China with $60 billion and the Philippines $24 billion, World Bank data showed.

Other major recipients of foreign remittances were Mexico with $23 billion and Nigeria and Egypt with $21 billion each, according to the latest edition of the World Bank’s Migration and Development Brief released recently.

“India remains the largest recipient country in the world, receiving $69 billion in 2012. In addition to large numbers of unskilled migrants working mainly in the oil-rich Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, India also has a large skilled diaspora the US and other high-income countries,” the World Bank report said.

Flows to Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal have also been robust, helped by strong economic growth in the GCC and India. Remittances to the region are projected to remain buoyant in the coming years, reaching $140 billion in 2015.

Officially recorded remittance flows to developing countries increased by 5.3 percent to $401 billion in 2012.

“Given that many migrants send money and goods through people or informal channels, the true size of remittances are much larger than these official figures,” the World Bank said.

According to the report, remittances to developing countries are expected to grow by an annual average of 8.8 percent for the next three years and are forecast to reach $515 billion in 2015.

As a percentage of GDP, the top recipients of remittances in 2011 were Tajikistan (47 percent), Liberia (31 percent), Kyrgyz Republic (29 percent), Lesotho (27 percent), Moldova (23 percent), Nepal (22 percent), and Samoa (21 percent).

“The role of remittances in helping lift people out of poverty has always been known, but there is also abundant evidence that migration and remittances are helping countries achieve progress towards other Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), such as access to education, safe water, sanitation and healthcare,” Hans Timmer, director of the Bank’s development prospects group, said in the report.

Officially recorded remittance flows to South Asia are estimated to have increased sharply by 12.8 percent to $109 billion in 2012. This follows growth averaging 13.8 percent in each of the previous two years.

Finally, a tiger spotted in Goa jungle

After years of constantly rejecting the notion that Goa’s forests are home to tigers, forest officials finally admitted to seeing the striped beast for the first time. Camera’s equipped with motion sensors laid out at strategic locations in the Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary, 70 kms from here, recently captured a full grown tiger near a spot where it had slain a wild boar.

Wildlife officials said that the operation stretched on for almost a fortnight, with the majestic beast eluding the cameras every time, until it was finally captured on camera.

“Our informer tipped us off that a wild boar has been killed in one location in the northwest side of sanctuary. Accordingly we started tracking and finally got the pugmarks of a tiger,” senior range forest officer Paresh Parab said. “We were tracking this tiger since April 9,” he added.

The Mhadei sanctuary, like the Netravali and Bhagwan Mahaveer sanctuaries, has several open cast iron ore mines located in its vicinity.

For decades now, wildlife activists have alleged that the forest department had been systematically trying to deny the presence of the tiger in Goa’s forests, which could have repercussions on the state’s multi-billion dollar iron ore mining industry.

“It is beyond doubt that these forests were always a home for tigers. The forest officials have denied this because the presence of tigers means setting up of a reserve. And that in turn would mean mining has to stop in those areas,” said activist Rajendra Kerkar, who first documented tiger poaching in the same sanctuary in 2009.

But the mining ban since last October has changed the scene somewhat. So has the appointment of Richard D’Souza as the principal conservator of forests for Goa a little more than a year ago.

D’Souza was the architect of the Mhadei sanctuary, which was notified amongst much political opposition over a decade ago.

Underlining the importance of the visuals of the tiger caught on camera, D’Souza said it could go a long way in convincing the central government to upgrade the Mhadei sanctuary to a wildlife reserve.

“We did have some indirect evidence in the form of big animals being brought down by a tiger. But this is in the face, direct irrefutable evidence,” an elated D’Souza said.

Quite in contrast to his predecessor Shashi Kumar, who had rejected the tiger-in-Goa’sforests premise, saying the beast’s presence in Goa was at best “migratory” from other contiguous forest reserves in Maharashtra and Karnataka.

The question was more or less answered in a tragic manner after one male tiger was snared in a trap laid by hunters for wild boar in the Mhadei sanctuary.

The tiger snared himself in the metal noose and his attempts to break loose only resulted in the wire tightening around his belly, resulting in a deep gash. The tiger’s wails brought the hunters to the spot, who put the animal out of its misery by shooting it dead. While the poachers were arrested, the case is still pending in court.

Rama Prasad Goenka: The business titan and takeover king

Rama Prasad Goenka, doyen of Indian industry died on April 14, after a prolonged battle with cancer.

Long before takeovers became the norm for the country’s industry captains to spread wings, RPG Group founder Rama Prasad Goenka showed India Inc. the inorganic way of business growth through a series of acquisitions.

Regarded as “takeover king,” Goenka (popularly known as RP) in 1979 established the RPG Enterprises with four companies,

Phillips Carbon Black, Asian Cables, Agarpara Jute and Murphy India, which he inherited when the family assets were divided.

The four constituent units then had an annual turnover of around Rs.105 crore, but by 1990, even before the opening up of the country’s economy, Goenka was presiding over one of the leading business conglomerates in India, as he added brick by brick by acquiring mostly companies once owned by British merchants.

In 2010, when Goenka divided his business empire among his two sons, the total turnover had touched Rs.18,000 crore, with its imprint in several countries of Asia, Europe, North and South America and Africa.

The tycoon, born March 1, 1930, had business interests spanning a wide range and across diverse sectors like power generation, transmission and distribution, electricity transmission engineering, tyres, carbon black, retail, entertainment, plantations and information technology.

The diversity of the bouquet was unique then in the sense that most of his contemporaries had concentrated on their core areas of operations.

His undivided business empire encompassed: CESC, Noida Power Co. Ltd., RPG Raychem, Spencer, CEAT Tyers, Saregama India (previously Gramophone Co of India), KEC International, Phillips Carbon Black, Fujitsu ICIM (now Zensar Technologies), Harrisons Malayalam, Firstsource Solutions Ltd and RPG Life Sciences.

Goenka was born into one of the oldest business families established in Kolkata by Ramdutt Goenka who moved from Dundlod in Rajasthan in 1820 to do business with the English East India Company. The firm was into banking and later traded in commodities like textiles, jute and tea.

RPG received his training from his grandfather Sir Badridas Goenka who was chairman of Imperial Bank of India and of FICCI. It was his grandfather who had taught him an old Marwari value: word of mouth is much more sacrosanct and important than any legal document.

A few years back, RPG said in an interview that experience taught him the second lesson: “nothing should be hidden from the three most important persons in your business sphere - your lawyer, banker and your doctor”.

The Presidency College and Harvard Unviersity alumnus went on an acquisition spree in the 1980s, beginning with tyre company CEAT in 1981, that created a national media buzz.

The group then went on to acquire Searle India - now RPG Life Sciences (1983), the age-old Gramophone Company - now Saregama India (1985), Harrisons Malayalam (1988), and finally CESC and Spencer (1989).

The reclusive and spotlight-shy entrepreneur scripted quite a few chapters in the history of Indian business. His most prized catch was Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation, now CESC Ltd., a more than 100-year-old power firm set up by the British.

However, he also had a few setbacks. Dunlop was one of them. He bought the company in 1984 jointly with Manohar Rajaram Chhabria but eventually had to leave it to cut losses. His efforts to acquire Bombay Dyeing also did not succeed.

Despite his business empire spreading across the country, Goenka stayed rooted in Kolkata, though the city witnessed a sharp fall in entrepreneurial activity. “If I am not a Bengali, then who is?” he used to say often.

Like his father, Keshav Prasad Goenka, who had distributed the family assets between his three sons decades ago, the RPG Group patriarch in 2010 amicably divided his entire business between his two sons, Harsh Vardhan and Sanjiv, who were running all the companies within the umbrella branding.

Next year RPG’s younger son Sanjiv launched a new group corporate identity RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group for the companies controlled by him.

Goenka was chairman emeritus of both the groups with a combined turnover of around Rs.30,000 crore.

The octogenarian industrialist was like a guardian of Bengal industry captains, who rushed to the visionary man for precious advice.

“He was a very close family friend of ours. He was exceptionally intelligent In his death, not only Bengal but India has lost one of its prominent sons,” said a crestfallen Birla family patriarch Basant Kumar Birla. IANS