Monthly Archives: August 2018

Bag by bag: Sudha Murthy toils for Kodagu, Kerala

The Foundation, which is 22 years old now, has dealt with 10 natural disasters, Mrs Murty recounts.

Infosys Foundation chairperson Sudha Murty helps pack relief material for flood-hit Kerala and Kodagu
Infosys Foundation chairperson Sudha Murty helps pack relief material for flood-hit Kerala and Kodagu

Bengaluru:

“It’s easy to write a cheque,” declares Sudha Murthy. Far more difficult to dive into the work itself, packing bags and working through the night to personally supervise loading the trucks, as the chairperson of the Infosys Foundation, the company’s philanthropic wing and the city’s conscience keeper found when she threw herself full time into helping the hundreds of the displaced in flood-affected Kodagu and neighbouring Kerala.

Only last week, Mrs Murty found herself lavished with praise from all quarters, after a video of relief kits being prepared at the Foundation went viral. In the video, Mrs Murty doesn’t content herself with overseeing the job, she’s seen actively lending a hand, helping pack 2,000 relief kits which contain everything from rice and dal to biscuits, packaged water, tea and coffee as well as dhotis and sarees, and clothes for children.

“It’s been two weeks of non-stop The kits, which are worth over Rs one crore in total, were sent to Wayanad, Ernakulam and parts of Thiruvananthapuram in four trucks. Flood-hit Kodagu received 25,000 water bottles, steel utensils, buckets and mug, sent to families, slowly returning to normal life in their ravaged homes.

“It’s been two weeks of non-stop work,” an evidently weary Mrs Murty tells Deccan Chronicle on Thursday. “We worked through the night for four or five days, then we crashed for a while.” Twenty of their most dependable staff have been entrusted with the job.

“Too many people will bring down the efficiency,” she says. The 68-year-old author and philanthropist has always maintained a hands-on approach to her social work. The Foundation, which is 22 years old now, has dealt with 10 natural disasters, Mrs Murty recounts. “It needs a lot of experience, really,” she says.

The Infosys Foundation tapped into a vast network of contacts, including the Akshaya Patra Foundation, to help with distribution, which is their biggest worry. The kits have been designed to ensure that they can be distributed to every family with a minimum of discomfort. “We have volunteers on the ground in Kerala as well, for which we looked to our network,” she says. It’s a network she has built, painstakingly, over the last two decades.

“There are three parts to this. Deciding what to send, how to send it there and the distribution process,” Ms Murty said. In Bengaluru, all the action took place at the Bellaku campus. “We have chosen necessities like utensils, clothes, sanitary napkins, tea and coffee apart from food like rice and toor dal and also biscuits. All these are ready for delivery and have been chosen because they can be stored and can withstand the rain in the area. If I send 10 kilos of rice in bulk, who wil see to the distribution?” Work has been happening in full swing for the last two weeks and will come to an end on Saturday.

source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> Nation> Current Affairs / by Darshana Ramdev, Deccan Chronicle / August 31st, 2018

MR Poovamma: Beating Team With Fastest 400m Runner in the World Makes Relay Gold Special

MR Poovamma, spearhead and senior most member of the Asian Games gold medal winning Indian 4×400 Women’s relay team (which included Hima Das, Saritaben Gayakwad and VK Vismaya), explains the future implications of the victory in Jakarta, and reveals details behind the bold strategy that helped them upstage Salwa Naser-led Bahrain.

A gold medal is special under any circumstance, no doubt. But, when the top prize at the Asian Games — at any competition for that matter — comes after an athlete manages to upstage the best in the world, the medal attains a deeper meaning. Its significance transcends the podium, going much beyond the fervour or emotions the celebrating athletes, the fluttering flag, and the national anthem conjure up. The gold medal gets an additional gleam from a promise for the future, while dreams and aspirations of the athlete involved find new horizons.

When Hima Das, MR Poovamma, Saritaben Gayakwad and VK Vismaya climbed onto the top rung of the podium to celebrate the country’s final gold (in the women’s 4x400m relay) from athletics in Jakarta, on the last day of track and field competitions at Gelora Bung Karno (GBK) Stadium on August 30, they stood tall with a realisation that could, in the coming years, take them to higher pedestals.

source:http://www.newsclick.in / News Click / Home> Sports> India / by Leslie Xavier / August 31st, 2018

B’luru youths trek to Kodagu to deliver relief material Read more at:

BhavanBopannaKF31aug2018

A group of Bengaluru-based young professionals trekked through the flood-ravaged Kodagu to reach a remote village near Madikeri in order to deliver relief material.

Bhavan Bopanna, an IT professional, along with his friends, set out to help the people of Kodagu.

They learnt that Kaloor, a remote village, had become inaccessible.

They walked 6 km to reach the village.

“When we drove our jeep through the roads, it was heartening to see an old couple carrying some relief materials on their head. Later when we reached the village, we found that over 45 families had not received any relief material for over a week,” he added.

As they could not reach the village in their jeep, they trekked for almost 6 km carrying the relief material.

According to Bopanna, most of the families were middle class and had a small property for themselves and they do not wish to stay at relief camps.

“These villagers only wanted to some rice, dal and oil so that they could cook for themselves. But the procedure to get relief is cumbersome.

A few villagers who managed to visit a few relief camps were made to run around and were not given their due by the authorities,” added Bopanna.

He said people from the village that he visited wanted food for their cattle and dogs. But somewhere, the government has not able to understand people’s requirement.

The group not only delivered the relief material, but also picked up trash on the way to ensure that no plastic was left behind.

Now, a Whatsapp group ‘Kodagu for Tomorrow’ with around 45 members are pitching in to help the people recover and rehabilitate.

Following the footsteps of some natives of Kerala in Bengaluru, youngsters are being mobilised in Kodagu also well.

Bhavan wants youngsters to come forward to pick the waste and process them.

Social media comes to international throwball star’s aid

Hailing from a poor family in 2nd Monnangeri — which was destroyed in a landslide — Tashma had a flair for throwball since childhood.

Tashma Muthappa
Tashma Muthappa

Madikeri :

The recent floods in Kodagu have altered numerous lives. Like that of Tashma Muthappa’s. Tashma (23), an international-level throwball player from Kodagu, is now staying at a relief centre after her house was washed away in the floods. And she lost her medals and trophies too. But thanks to the power of social media, help has been pouring in for her. After her story was circulated on the social media platforms, there has been a ray of hope. “I received help from 2nd Monnangeri activist Dhanjay and People for Kodagu Organisation,” Tashma said.

On Wednesday, MLC Veena Achaiah and her son Vishwas Achaiah visited Tashma and offered her help. “Vishwas Achaiah and his friends have offered to pay one year’s rent for our house and have promised to look after other expenses,” she added.

Hailing from a poor family in 2nd Monnangeri — which was destroyed in a landslide — Tashma had a flair for throwball since childhood. She has taken part in many throwball events, including those in Sri Lanka and Malaysia. She was part of the Indian throwball team that won an international championship in Bengaluru recently. However, she gave up her sporting career owing to financial constraints. Tashma, who completed her PU from Alva’s College, Mangaluru, now works as a data operator at Kodagu Medical College. Her parents Muthappa and Girija work at a homestay.

Life suddenly turned upside down for her on August 17. “At around 10 am that day, we started fleeing our homes after we noticed numerous cracks in the earth. We climbed uphill as roads were blocked owing to landslides. Walking through forests, we reached a relief centre at Cherambane at 9 pm,” she said recalling the horror. The family was later moved to a relief camp in Madikeri, where her story was learnt by many well-wishers and was circulated on social media.

Tashma hopes that the government offers her a permanent job. Though her immediate goal is to get a job and support her family, Tashma is ready to enter the throwball field and prove her mettle again … if she gets more support.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Karnataka / by Express News Service / August 31st, 2018

Govt to replace textbooks of Kodagu kids free of cost

Coming to the rescue of children across Kodagu who have lost their textbooks in landslides and floods, the state government on Wednesday ordered free distribution of textbooks.

DH had reported on the government’s decision to replace the textbooks inits edition dated August 22.

The Karnataka Text Book Society issued a direction to the DDPI, Kodagu, on Monday, to distribute textbooks free of cost to the children of Kodagu. “As students of the districts have lost their books in the floods, the BEOs of every block in Kodagu are hereby directed to distribute free books to all the children,” the order said.

The Karnataka Text Book Society has already supplied 33,980 textbooks on Saturday compared to the required 34,270 textbooks.

source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> States> Top Karnataka News / by Niranjan K N , DH News Service / August 29th, 2018

City doctors do their bit for Kodagu flood victims

The team of doctors from Bengaluru attend to a patient at a relief camp in Kodagu.
The team of doctors from Bengaluru attend to a patient at a relief camp in Kodagu.

A team of Bengaluru-based medical professionals hopped in a car and headed to Kodagu last week, where they treated hundreds of people affected by recent flooding.

The most common ailments that they encountered included minor orthopaedic injuries, diarrhoea, cough, cold, fever, and stomach ache.

Many of the patients were already suffering from mental illnesses.

“Most of the patients have psychosomatic disorder. They need counselling,” said Dr Sunil Kumar Hebbi, organiser of the medical relief mission and founder of the social initiative, Matru Siri Foundation.

One such patient, Hebbi explained, had lost her house, cow, and job—her employer’s coffee estate had suffered severe damage. She cried frequently.

Doctors Deepak Vastrad, Harsha Attibele, and Pradeep also participated in the mission, along with Anamika Kumari, who assisted the doctors and offered counselling services.

“They were in a state of shock. Kids were badly affected, the situation led to mental and physical agony and trauma,” Dr Hebbi told the DH. “Our counselling was intended to cheer them up—to make them talk freely with us, thus to be out of panic, bring confidence among them to return to normal life, giving hope to children to go back to school as early as possible. It was great support to women who were shy to come out to express their feelings and personal needs.”

The small crew began their journey last Monday, when they visited three relief camps at government schools in and around Kushalnagar. On Tuesday, they stopped by two camps at Suntikoppa—Saint Mary Church and Jamia Masjid. The doctors visited one more camp at Rudra Layout in Kushalnagara on Wednesday.

While his team arrived armed with hundreds of various medications, Hebbi told DH that their greatest challenge was lack of proper blood sugar medications.

source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> States> Top Karnataka News / by Grace Hanuck, DH News Service / August 29th, 2018

Asian Games 2018: Gold medal for Rohan Bopanna-Divij Sharan

Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan won 6-3, 6-4 to become the fifth men’s doubles pairing to win gold at the Asian Games.

Tennis - 2018 Asian Games - Men's Doubles - Final - JSC Tennis Court - Palembang, Indonesia - August 24, 2018. Rohan Manchanda Bopanna and Divij Sharan of India shake hands with Aleksandr Bublik and Denis Yevseyev of Kazakhstan after winning their match. REUTERS/Edgar Su
Tennis – 2018 Asian Games – Men’s Doubles – Final – JSC Tennis Court – Palembang, Indonesia – August 24, 2018. Rohan Manchanda Bopanna and Divij Sharan of India shake hands with Aleksandr Bublik and Denis Yevseyev of Kazakhstan after winning their match. REUTERS/Edgar Su

Top seeded men’s doubles pairing of Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan won India’s second medal in tennis – after bronze for Ankita Raina in women’s singles – at Palembang in the Asian Games. The duo produced clinical display of attacking tennis to beat the Kazakhstan pairing of Aleksander Bublik and Denis Yevseyev 6-3, 6-4 in 52 minutes.

In under 20 minutes, Bopanna-Sharan had taken a 4-1 lead in the opening set with two breaks of serves under their command. Soon enough, Bopanna got the job done to wrap up the opening set thanks to his booming serves and Divij’s confident play at the net. Kazakhs did have their moments but were undone by erratic and inconsistent play – a brilliant cross-court backhand winner one moment was followed up by a powerless return buried in the net the very next minute.

Bopanna who played mostly from the back of the court was formidable in his returns. He pulled off some tough winners helped by his sheer force.

Second set was a more evenly contested affair with Bublik and Yevseyev connecting better but they couldn’t keep their unforced error count low to put pressure on the Indian pairing. At 3-3, Bopanna and Sharan clinched the all-important break to go up and despite being pushed a bit in the very next game, the top seeds held serve to grab a 5-3 lead. Kazakhs held their serve to put the onus on Bopanna to hold for the gold medal – which he did so by serving it out to love.

India have claimed the men’s doubles gold on four occasions at the Asian Games, the last pair being Somdev Devvarman and Sanam Singh in the 2010 Guangzhou edition. Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes remain the most successful Indian men’s doubles pair in the Asian Games history, having claimed back-to-back gold medals in the 2002 and 2006 Games.

Paes, however, had stunned the Indian team this time by pulling out on the eve of the Games after complaining of not getting a specialist partner of his choice.

In 2014, Saketh Myneni and Sanam had ended with a silver medal.

(With PTI inputs)

source: http://www.indianexpress.com / The Indian Express / Home> Sports> Asian Games 2018 / by Sports Desk / August 24th, 2018

Calamity in coffee country

Old-timers and environmentalists blame tourism for the devastating floods in Kodagu

Shattered hopes: As many as 1,206 houses and 278 government buildings were damaged in the Kodagu floods | Bhanu Prakash Chandra
Shattered hopes: As many as 1,206 houses and 278 government buildings were damaged in the Kodagu floods | Bhanu Prakash Chandra

IF THE RAINS had not wreaked havoc in Kodagu, Karnataka’s coffee country would be preparing for ‘Kail Murta’, a festival in which the Kodavas worship their weapons. But, the district, which got battered by flash floods and landslides that took 12 lives and rendered more than 1,500 families homeless, is now left with just one weapon: resilience.

On the midnight of August 15, torrential rains started pounding Kodagu. The hills cracked up and tumbled down, and the rivers swallowed everything on their way—century-old houses, brand-new homestays, tiny tea shops, lush green paddy fields, vast stretches of coffee plantations, forests, livestock, bridges and vehicles. Incessant rains submerged low-lying areas in Kushalnagar, Somwarpet and Madikeri, pilgrimage centres like Talacauvery and Bhagamandala, and major bridges like Bethri, while landslides along the national highways turned those into death traps.

By the time the district administration launched rescue operations, the communication lines were cut off and most villages had become inaccessible. Heavy rains, tough terrain and scattered habitations made rescue operations a daunting task even for the armed forces and the National Disaster Response Force. Many people were hungry and exhausted when the rescue teams finally reached them.

Manu Madappa from Mukkodlu village said around 40 people took refuge in his homestay for three days. But with no help arriving, they decided to trek to Madikeri. “We covered a distance of 20km, walking in the rain on a muddied path, and made it to a relief camp in Madikeri,” he said.

As many as 51 relief centres have been opened across the district, sheltering 7,594 people as on August 22. NGOs have ensured an uninterrupted flow of relief material to these camps. The Kodava Samaj in Bengaluru and Mysuru are the nerve centres for organising relief material.

Local MP Pratap Simha, who was part of the rescue operations, said the devastation was unimaginable. “Incessant rains prevented airlifting of stranded people although three Army choppers were on standby. After I sent an SOS to Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the Army unit from Karwar was rushed in,” he said. “The relief centres are working well, and our next big challenge is rehabilitation. We will need huge cash donations to rebuild homes.” According to the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre, 1,206 houses and 123 kilometres of roads have been damaged, 58 bridges and culverts have collapsed, 278 government buildings and 3,800 electric poles and transformers have been severely damaged.

Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, who conducted an aerial survey, said the infrastructure damage alone amounted to Rs 3,000 crore. “A team of engineers from the Border Roads Organisation and the Army engineering task force have been called in to clear roads and restore them,” said Kumaraswamy. “A team from the National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad, is conducting geotechnical studies to ascertain the causes of landslides. We have deputed two IAS probationers to fasten the process of identifying the lands for rebuilding 2,000 temporary homes.” he said.

The government has promised Rs 3,800 per family, along with essential groceries as immediate relief. The chief minister has promised the affected people work under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and offered to issue provisional documents for those who have lost their Aadhaar and ration cards and title deeds. “Rs 5 lakh will be given to the family of the deceased. Special classes and books for children are also being planned,” said Kumaraswamy.

The rainfall was unprecedented, but old-timers and environmentalists said the alarming plight of Kodagu was the fallout of the booming tourism industry. G.S. Srinivas Reddy, director of the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre, said Kodagu received 103 per cent more rainfall than normal this year.

U.M. Poovaiah, editor of Brahmagiri, a Kodava weekly, said he had never seen or heard of such devastation in the history of Kodagu. “This is the fallout of unregulated tourism that has razed down the hills to make roads to homestays. The riverbed has been encroached upon. Unplanned construction has pushed the district to the edge. The authorities are to blame for the influx of tourists and atrocities against nature in this once-pristine district. We want unlicensed homestays and construction activity to be stopped,” said Poovaiah.

The Coorg Wildlife Society, too, blamed the severe stress on Kodagu because of the change in land use and unbridled tourism. In a letter sent last May to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the CWS wrote, “Kodagu provides almost 50 per cent of the total inflow into Cauvery, which is the lifeline of South India, and provides water to over 80 million people and 600 major industries across the region. The food, water and economic security of southern India hinges largely on Cauvery River. It is therefore in national interest to preserve the Kodagu landscape and protect its ecosystems.”

Colonel (retd) C.P. Muthanna, president of CWS and co-ordinator of the Save Kodagu and Cauvery campaign, said more than 2,800 acres of paddy fields, coffee plantations and highlands were converted to residential layouts, sites, commercial complexes and resorts between 2005 and 2015. “Kodagu’s fast-paced urbanisation will turn it into a slum,” said Muthanna. Earlier this year, he had urged the Karnataka government to regulate tourism in the region and demanded an audit of water and waste and sewage management in the resorts. “While Kodagu has a population of 5.5 lakh, the number of tourists goes up to 13 lakh,” he said.

A report by the Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, said massive deforestation and monoculture plantations caused the landslides. “Trees hold the top soil and also absorb and regulate the flow of rainwater. But deforestation for construction of roads and power lines have resulted in soil erosion,” said T.V. Ramachandra of the centre. “If the government wants to avert disasters, it should not take up any mega projects.”

source: http://www.theweek.in / The Week / Home> The Week> Cover Story / by Prathima Nandakumar / September 02nd, 2018

Asian Games 2018: Dipika Pallikal, Joshna Chinappa settle for bronze in women’s squash

Dipika Pallikal had beaten Japanese Kobayashi Misaki 3-0 in the quarterfinals. File   | Photo Credit: Getty Images
Dipika Pallikal had beaten Japanese Kobayashi Misaki 3-0 in the quarterfinals. File | Photo Credit: Getty Images

Dipika lost to defending champion Nicol David; Joshna lost to Sivasangari Subramaniam

India’s top squash player Dipika Pallikal Karthik on Saturday, settled for a bronze medal, her second at the Asian Games, after losing her semifinal match to Malaysia’s Nicole David, one of the most formidable players the game has seen.

Later in the day, Joshna Chinappa failed to match up to the level of her 19-year-old opponent, Malaysian Sivasangari Subramaniam, losing 1-3 (10-12 6-11 11-9 7-11).

Both the losing semifinalists win a bronze and there is no bronze-medal play-off.

Saurav Ghosal is the lone Indian squash player remaining in the fray and will take on Hong Kong China’s Au Chun Ming in the men’s singles semifinals later in the day.

Dipika led 5-2 and 4-1 in the first two games but three-time defending champion Nicol had enough experience to race away with a 11-7 11-9 11-6 win in the semifinal.

Dipika, who had won a bronze at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, said playing against former world number one Nicol, currently ranked ninth, was not easy.

“She is experienced and knows how to handle every situation, thrown at her. She was world number one for 10 years for a reason. I am happy I played well. It’s unfortunate that I was in top-half to play with Nicol,” she said.

To focus on team event

The 26-year-old Dipika said she had to forget the defeat and get focused on the winning the gold in women’s team event.

“We have a gold to achieve in team event. you can’t think much about what has happened in the singles. It’s hard to regroup and comeback but we have to do it. We don’t want to celebrate as yet, we have a bigger target to achieve,” she said.

The Indian women’s team had won a silver in Incheon.

Asked if a few calls which went against her perturbed her, Dipika said, “We are used to it. It’s part and parcel of the game. She has been playing Asian Games for a long time, she is very experienced. I think you have take positives out of it. I am only 26, I have few more Asian Games to go. Hopefully I welcome back strong.”

Nicol is 35 years old and still going strong. Dipika said it’s Nicol’s time and she will have to wait for her time.

“Squash is about how fit you are, how much you enjoy the game. We can see she really enjoys the game. This is only my third Asian Games. Let the older one win here and we will comeback after four years and win.”

The Indian squash players have trained without a regular coach for some time.

The SRFI had sent Cyrus Poncha and Bhuvneshwari Kumari as coaches with the contingent but Dipika said the players prefer helping each other.

“All of us like to be coached by the players. Only the player will talk to the players, it works like that for us. It’s a silent decision taken by the players. Harry (Harinderpal Sandhu), Saurav (Ghosal), we are all training together.

The story was updated to include the results of Joshna Chinappa’s match

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Sports> Other Sports / by PTI / Jakarta, August 25th, 2018

Karnataka floods: An exclusive look at how drone technology helped rescue efforts in Kodagu

Far beyond social-friendly drone footage, here’s a noble use of drones by an Indian company during flood rescue.

Drone01KF26aug2018

As the state of Kerala is observing its popular festival of Onam, the restrained celebration is a testament to the recent deluge witnessed by the state over the past week. Rehabilitation, rather than celebration, seems to be top priority of the people of Kerala. After a heartbreaking loss of over 300 lives, the state has come to a halt. But while, most of the world’s attention has been targeted at Kerala, the situation was equally grave in the neighboring state of Karnataka. The district of Kodagu, earlier known as Coorg, has been at the receiving end of heavy rains and resulting floods as well.
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Highlights

August witnessed heavy rainfall in the Kodagu district of Karnataka, as well as Kerala

Although Kerala suffered loss of over 300 lives, the situation in Karnataka was equally sombre

A Mumbai-based company that works with DRDO coordinated surveillance efforts with its indigenous drones
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The relief operation

The crisis began immediately after Independence Day. On the 17th and 18th August, ideaForge reached out to the Governments of Kerala and Karnataka, respectively. The company had already begun internal efforts on August 16 to prepare for operations when needed

ideaForge team carrying out checks before embarking on its mission. Image: ideaForge
ideaForge team carrying out checks before embarking on its mission. Image: ideaForge

Since the situation in Kerala was worsening, the machinery was focussing on getting the defense forces active. Immediate need from Kerala was surveillance and supply drops. Typically in such disaster relief missions, surveillance refers to identifying and locating people stranded in inaccessible areas. Similarly, supply drops refer to airdropping medicines, food packets and other critical needs over inaccessible areas. For the mission, the company identified two of its products – Netra Pro and Q series.

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Transporting drone batteries is a critical component of the whole operation. Since civil aviation rules do not currently allow transporting drone batteries, the company requested the two governments to allow transporting them through the military sorties that were being carried out from Mumbai.

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The team reached Kodagu the next day on August 20. The team had received a request from the Kodagu district collector for drone surveillance to identify people stranded in remote places. The company sourced the relevant products, carried out necessary testing procedures and safety checks before embarking on the surveillance and airdrop mission.

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Meanwhile, the District Collector in Madikeri needed help with post damage assessment. The team reached Coorg on Monday, and sought permissions to fly. The team did a recce while on standby. After receiving permissions, they carried out their first surveillance and mapping operation on Wednesday, August 22. The Q Series and Netra Pro drones were used for this purpose.

The Netra Pro Drone Image: ideaForge
The Netra Pro Drone Image: ideaForge

In less than a day, the report was submitted to the District Collector. Currently, the Karnataka State Police Department, Commissioner’s Office, National Highway Authority of India, Tribal Welfare Department and the local PWD are collectively using the images for rebuilding and rehabilitation operations. Over Friday, August 24 and as of writing this report, drones are carrying out operations in the deeper tribal areas to survey and rescue any stranded victims.

The Netra Q Series Image: ideaForge
The Netra Q Series Image: ideaForge

According to Ankit Mehta, co-founder of ideaForge, “Being at the forefront of UAV technology, we will do our best to leverage this tech in times of need. For us it is about saving one life or at least helping one family in whatever way to recover from this natural disaster”

There’s more to drones than toying around

Drone08KF26aug2018

ideaForge develops drones that has been used by DRDO for its unmanned aerial vehicle program. It is led by Ankit Mehta alongwith Ashish Bhat and Rahul Singh who are alumnis of IIT Bombay. As students, they were part of the Innovation Cell at IIT Bombay, and took a special interest in foraging broken down bikes and scooters to create a hovercraft. The idea back then was to fly over the Powai lake situated near the IIT Bombay campus. After a couple of failures, and some significant mishaps that included connection cables getting chopped by the propeller, they finally managed to get a working prototype up and running.

Mehta is glad he didn’t cease his efforts there. After the initial disappointments, they got an opportunity to build a data loggers for UAVs from the Department of Aerospace at IIT Bombay. One thing led to the other, and the initial idea of flying over Powai lake gave birth to the company ideaForge, which was created at the Innovation Hub of IIT Bombay. Years later, ideaForge built and handed over the world’s smallest and lightest autopilot to DRDO. After an agreement was signed with the DRDO, ideaForge has worked with DRDO and NDRF for collaborating in rescue efforts during natural calamities. During the 2015 earthquake that rocked Nepal, drones made by the company aided with rescue efforts, relaying critical geographical and infrastructure status reports and information to the rescue team to plan out operations.

Far beyond viral video footage, we’re used to seeing on Facebook and YouTube, this is one novel use of drones that has resulted in saving critical human lives. The relaying of valuable information despite ground level challenges has been invaluable. The company has also mentioned its channel partner Arista Risk and Corporate Solutions in enabling necessary connections with government bodies and law enforcement authorities to seek necessary permissions.

source: http://www.bgr.in / BGR / Home> Features / by Nash David / August 25th, 2018