Uppinangady students win National Geographic Explorer Award at Google Science Fair in USA
The duo bagged cash prize of $15,000
Uppinangady: Two students of Indraprasad PU College Uppinangady were awarded National Geographic Explorer Award at the Google Science Fair 2018-19 that was held in California, USA at Google headquarters.
Both the students Nichiketh Kumar and Aman KA are the students of science stream in the college. Their Science teacher K Nichita was also awarded as the 'Inspiring Educator' at the fair for guiding the duo.
The Google Science Fair invites science research from global arena, selects, 1,000 research findings in the first phase of submitted science research. 100 teams are the selected as per the criterion. Out of these 100 teams, 20 teams are selected as Global Finalists and are invited to the Google Science Fair Awards in California, USA.
The final winners are awarded a cash prize of $50,000 at the end of the fair which was bagged by Ireland's Fion Perera this year.
The duo of Nachiketh and Aman bagged the National Geographic Explorer Award for their research on environment. The duo was awarded cash prize of $15,000.
The Science teacher and mentor of the duo was awarded the Inspiring Educator award, an awarded which is conferred to the best mentor of the teams every year.
Four out 20 global finalist teams at the fair belonged to India.
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GBA razes down 400 houses in Yelahanka, minority families including Muslims worst affected
Bengaluru: In an incident reported from the state capital, more than 3,000 people living in Fakir Colony of the Kogilu Layout near Yelahanka were rendered homeless by the officials of the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) on Saturday.
The officials, who said the 400 houses were constructed on encroached land, held the operation using nine tractors and nine earthmovers, razing down the houses.
They have ousted around 90 per cent of the families who had been living in the area for more than 30 years and belong to minority communities, including Muslims from the colony.
The bereaved residents have insisted that the government had provided them land in the locality to build houses and reside. “We have all official documents as well as Aadhaar cards and voter IDs as proofs. Our source of livelihood is only manual labour,” they added.
“Many of the families had mortgaged the houses to get loans from banks, but the GBA officials have razed our houses without giving any prior notice,” they said and added, “Some of the women here are pregnant, but the officers showed no concern for such people too.”
Referring to the title deeds, the residents said that the local representatives had assured them that they would be handed the documents. “So far, however, we were not told to vacate the houses. Since the houses were unexpectedly razed, our children’s documents and other valuables in the houses have been destroyed,” the residents added angrily.
They also expressed fury about representatives failing to come to their help in times of need. “They come here only to campaign and get our votes. When questioned about the propriety of destroying the houses, the police officers assaulted us,” some of them said.
Sara Saif Saufique, one of the residents in the Fakir Colony, said, “My family has been living here for three decades, but has unexpectedly lost the house since the officers did not give us notice. They came at around 4:30 am on Saturday, when we were sleeping, and started destroying the houses.”
She said with fury, further, “The officials also forcibly evicted us from the houses, without even permitting us to gather our winterwear or blankets.”
