The Unsung Guardians

The Unsung Guardians To mark World Environment Day, Dr Deepti Ganapathy writes on forests and their caretakers

June 2, 2021June 2, 2021 Deepti Ganapathy FEATURED Opinion 3

This World Environment Day, I would like readers to shift their focus to the sentinels who guard our forest eco-systems. It could be the farmer staying on the fringes of a forest or Padmashree awardee Saalumarada Thimakka. India’s rich biodiversity makes it a land of plenty. Rivers originate from this thriving eco-system, irrigating the hinterland, and plants and animals flourish in these forests. The Western Ghats, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, passes through all the states on the western peninsula, and is host to millions of organisms. It is also…

Co-founders Komala Chenna and Kushal of Sapientury, a firm that aims to redefine engineering education in India

Making quality education accessible to engineering students at affordable prices: Sapientury Founded by Komala Chenna and Kushal, the firm aims to nurture engineering mindset in students, thereby enabling every individual to evolve as a truly incredible engineer instead of ending up as just a degree-holder by offering experiential learning courses and application-based projects coupled with D-I-Y kits for hands-on experience

May 28, 2021May 28, 2021 admin1 FEATURED News and events Opinion 0

The start-up Sapientury aims to reinvent teaching-learning processes for engineering education in India. They offer experiential learning courses and application-based projects coupled with D-I-Y kits for hands-on experience. The education delivery happens at the intersection of industry requirements, academic curriculum and student learning preferences. The firm’s objective is to create an everlasting impact by iteratively building and nurturing an engineering mindset in students, thereby enabling every individual to evolve as a truly incredible engineer, instead of ending up as just a degree-holder. Komala Chenna, a 21-year-old student-turned entrepreneur, is the…

Towards an inclusive future Mentored under the General Incubation program of NSRCEL, United Efforts currently works with 3000 students of Grades 8-10, across nine government schools, in Bangalore

March 25, 2021 admin1 FEATURED News and events Opinion 0

United Efforts is a non-profit start-up launched from NSRCEL in 2018. The vision of the start-up is that every student, despite their socio-economic situation, has potential and it is in the larger interest of the country to support and nurture this talent. The start-up focusses on high school students of government schools and through their own Discover-Reinforce-Support (DRS) model of career exposure and guidance, they support students to pursue careers of their choice and develop a mindset of becoming professionals. United Efforts currently works with 3000 students of 8th, 9th…

Steaming ahead! Incubated at NSRCEL, under the Women Start-up Programme, BluePine Foods, by Aditi Madan, hopes to change the way we eat

March 25, 2021March 25, 2021 admin1 FEATURED News and events Opinion 0

BluePine Foods is a food start-up with an endeavour to improve food shelf life and deliver convenience to consumers by providing ready to eat/ cook food in a healthy (read steamed) form. A huge part of farm/agro produce gets wasted due to its limited shelf life and inadequate infrastructure to process the same for future consumption. “Our endeavor is to be part of the solution by preserving the food without preservatives, captured early at its highest nutrient stage, providing it for consumption in the healthiest way possible, minimizing waste. We…

What NEP 2020 overlooked Prof. Malay Bhattacharyya lists five key areas that policymakers would do well to focus on

January 4, 2021September 3, 2025 Malay Bhattacharyya FEATURED Opinion 0

Educate mothers: A child, in its formative years, especially in India, is almost always with its mother every day, in most families. This is the time when a child’s character gets moulded. An educated mother, as it were, is critical for education of her child. Children look up to their mothers for answers to all questions – from academic information to social norms, from hygiene and health to values, from nature to sports. Mother is the first teacher and the go-to person for every child. A well-resourced mother, who answers…

Twenty Years On… Prof. G. Sabarinathan shares glimpses of his journey of two decades at IIM Bangalore

November 3, 2020November 3, 2020 Sabarinathan G Books By Faculty FEATURED Opinion 0

It was twenty years ago to this day that I drove into IIMB to start a new phase in my life. It was not just the start of a new career. It was Kannada Rajyotsava day. As my black ambassador, as old as myself back then, rolled through the streets of the campus, directionlessly because I did not know the way, it may have been a curious sight to the few residents who may have been looking at the streets. Cars were relatively few on the campus in those days. …

Combining tech and food Incubated at NSRCEL, Supply6 looks at giving urban working people, who are strapped for time, convenient food options

September 22, 2020September 22, 2020 admin1 FEATURED News and events Opinion 0

According to National Family Health Survey 2018, 1 in 4 urban Indians skips breakfast almost daily, and 3 in 4 Indians eat unhealthy snacks or fast food for lunch at least twice a week. This can increase tiredness and stress at work, and makes it difficult to focus, apart from having long term health effects. For a professional in urban India, there are very few healthy and nutritious meal options. There are some new age restaurants that serve healthy salads. But these salads do not come cheap. The other problem…

KhaaliJeb: A payments app that woos students Part of the fintech startup incubation programme at NSRCEL, this venture, founded by IIIT Allahabad graduates, is youth-centric

August 28, 2020August 28, 2020 admin1 FEATURED News and events Opinion 0

KhaaliJeb is an app which makes payments and banking simple, fast and rewarding for youth and students. Live as a full-fledged UPI PSP app for over a year now and sponsored by Kotak Mahindra Bank, KhaaliJeb has a program where its users can avail discounts on brands catering to those below 29 years of age. “We have on-boarded 350+ restaurants and salons in Bangalore,” says Prakash Kumar, one of the founders, who currently handles ideation, product and design. How KhaaliJeb was born “It was the year 2015. I was in…

Over a cup of chai Chaika, an instant tea premix firm, part of the Launchpad program at NSRCEL, has used the lockdown to successfully pivot their business model

August 20, 2020August 21, 2020 admin1 FEATURED News and events Opinion 0

“The idea for Chaika started when we were working in Singapore, where we craved masala chai but didn’t know how to make it. Even when we tried, we failed! Moreover, the process took 15-20 minutes – we just didn’t have the time in the mornings. This craving made us quit our finance jobs to take the entrepreneurship route,” chuckles Aradhita Agarwal, Co-founder and graduate of Economics from the National University of Singapore. “We also realised that people were switching over, from masala chai, the beverage they grew up with, to…

“दो परिंदों के सवाल”

May 24, 2020May 24, 2020 Nilam Kaushik FEATURED Opinion 0

As we reel under the Coronavirus crisis with lives and livelihoods destroyed, I recently recited my poem “दो परिंदों के सवाल” at Harvard’s 24th Annual India Poetry Reading* over Zoom. The theme for this year was “Justice”. The poem personifies two birds that wonder whether humans regret the destruction to nature caused by their activities in the garb of modernization. The birds point out that while we may pride ourselves in developing machines and sophisticated technology to protect ourselves against nature’s fury, we stand so helpless in front of something…