The German hockey star and new father, who became the most expensive overseas HIL player at ₹68 lakh, is excited to be back playing in the tournament with a paycheck that he can stash away for his family.

 Gonzalo Peillat’s heart was beating faster during the Hockey India League (HIL) auction than it did when taking a drag-flick. The German hockey star was with his wife at their home in Mannheim, anxiously waiting for his name to be drawn from the lots.

“I was watching the whole auction and was really, really nervous, especially when my name wasn’t called out. To make it more tense, there were a lot of players who went unsold, and I was wondering about my fate,” the 32-year-old said from Germany.

His turn finally arrived. But the famous drag-flicker again had to wait to know his fate. Only this time the wait was one of joy rather than apprehension as teams raised the auction paddle for him, trying to out-bid each other. In the end, Peillat was sold to the Hyderabad Toofans for ₹68 lakh to become the most expensive overseas HIL player.

“At first, the pressure released when a few teams were bidding for me. I was like ‘at least I’m playing’. Then it went higher and higher. I was like ‘wow, that’s really crazy’ (laughs). It was a nice vibe,” added Peillat.

The penalty corner (PC) specialist was always going to go for big bucks. Afterall, he is no ordinary player. Peillat first came into the limelight when he ended as the top-scorer at the 2014 World Cup, helping Argentina claim bronze. Two years later, he became the most prized asset in the hockey world when his 11 goals (top-scorer again) guided Argentina to an unprecedented gold at Rio Olympics.

After falling out with the Argentine setup in 2019, Peillat decided to step away from South America and shifted base to Europe where by 2022 he had earned German citizenship. Few months later, Peillat started turning out in the German white jersey, instantly making an impact and helping Germany win the 2023 World Cup. A year later in Paris, the drag-flicker guided Germany to a silver medal finish, earning his second medal at the Games.

Now, Peillat will be returning to HIL as the league makes a comeback after almost eight years. The defender is familiar with the tournament, having played four out of the five previous seasons and will be eager to make an impact once again.

“I’m really excited. I remember my first year in Kalinga Lancers. We had a really young team. All those players now are playing for India. I’ve seen the development of these players from a nervous young lot, playing their first big tournament to becoming two-time Olympic medallists,” said Peillat.

Among the young lot is a certain Harmanpreet Singh, a fellow drag-flicker, who was a youngster starting out in international hockey when Peillat was part of the Olympic-gold winning team in 2016. A lot has changed in the last eight years with the Indian emerging as the top-scorer at the Paris Olympics with 10 goals, guiding India to a historic bronze medal finish.

“Nowadays, Harmanpreet is the best drag-flicker in the world followed by (Belgian) Alexander (Hendrickx) and (Australian) Jeremy Hayward. Harmanpreet has a really powerful drag-flick. Looking at what he did in the last big tournaments is really amazing. He and India know exactly what they need to do inside the circle. They concentrate on getting more PCs than attempting more shots in the circle, recognising that you have a big drag-flicker.”

“I always say, if you don’t have space to shoot, just look for a corner. Then you will still have a chance to score a goal. This is something that India and Harmanpreet did in the last couple of years, making the opportunities count.”

Off the pitch

As versatile as he is on the pitch, Peillat carries the same virtue off it too. Apart from playing for German club Mannheimer HC, the Buenos Aires-born is involved in several ventures, including managing his club’s sponsorships. Peillat also invests in real estate, leveraging his father’s experience in construction.

The ₹68 lakh HIL pay-check is especially important for the German as he recently became a father. “The earnings will be primarily used to support my family. I became a father so a big part of it will go towards my family’s needs and saving for the future,” said Peillat, who will join the Toofans on December 21. “I’m really happy with what I received in the auction because it makes the decision to be away from my family for eight weeks — especially during Christmas time with a three-month-old baby — a bit easier to justify.”

source/content: hindustantimes.com (headline edited)

U.S. president-elect Donald Trump has named Indian-American venture capitalist Sriram Krishnan as senior policy advisor on AI.

On Sunday (December 22, 2024), U.S. president-elect Donald Trump named Indian-American venture capitalist Sriram Krishnan as senior policy advisor on AI.

“Sriram Krishnan will serve as the Senior Policy Advisor for Artificial Intelligence at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy,” Mr. Trump said.

Mr. Krishnan will work with David Sacks, former PayPal COO and Trump’s pick to lead the White House policy on AI and Crypto.

“Working closely with David Sacks, Sriram will focus on ensuring continued American leadership in AI and help shape and coordinate AI policy across government, including working with the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology,” he added as he made a number of other appointments on AI.

While Mr. Krishnan is not new to Silicon Valley, he has emerged as a pivotal figure in the tech landscape, particularly after billionaire Elon Musk bought Twitter and asked the Indian-American software engineer to run the platform temporarily in 2022.

Mr. Krishnan, originally from Chennai, India, has built a reputation as a strategic thinker and builder in Silicon Valley. His career trajectory includes influential roles at tech giants such as Facebook (now called Meta), Twitter, and Snap. At Facebook, Mr. Krishnan played a critical role in developing the Facebook Audience Network, which competes with Google’s ad technologies. During his first stint at Twitter, he oversaw product initiatives aimed at enhancing user engagement. 

Transitioning from operational roles, Mr. Krishnan joined Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), one of Silicon Valley’s most prominent venture capital firms, as a General Partner. At a16z, he focused on emerging technologies, particularly AI and cryptocurrency; areas that are now shaping the future of the tech industry. He also spearheaded the firm’s international expansion efforts, including the establishment of a London office, a16z’s first outside the United States. 

Krishnan’s view on AI

Mr. Krishnan’s role as senior AI policy advisor comes at a critical juncture, with AI increasingly influencing geopolitics, global competitiveness, and economic development. His work at a16z aligns closely with emerging trends in AI, including advancements in generative AI, personalised AI assistants, and the ethical considerations of deploying such technologies. 

In his capacity as a venture capitalist, during various talks, Mr. Krishnan highlighted the potential of AI to reshape industries. Speaking about the intersection of AI and business, he once remarked, “The companies that adopt AI not as a tool but as a foundational capability will define the next decade.” 

As the US positions itself as a leader in AI innovation, Mr. Krishnan’s expertise will be pivotal. He will play a critical role in advising the Trump administration on AI policy, alongside the AI and Crypto expert David Sacks. Together, they will work on areas that will balance innovation with regulation, a challenge central to maintaining the country’s competitive edge in AI.

What do critics say about Trump’s AI policy?

The appointment of Mr. Krishnan as senior AI policy advisor for AI has elicited a range of reactions from experts and commentators in the tech community. Some are apprehensive about the administration’s approach to AI policy, particularly regarding potential deregulation.

Others see the involvement of tech industry leaders like Messrs. Krishnan and Sacks in AI policy to be posing potential conflicts of interest. Given Mr. Krishnan’s background with companies like Microsoft, Twitter, and Meta, some observers worry that his appointment could lead to policies favouring large tech corporations over public interest.

The Financial Times notes that figures like David Sacks, appointed as AI and Crypto Czar, have histories that “often attract criticism,” suggesting that similar scrutiny may apply to Krishnan.

There is also concern about the implications of the administration’s AI policies on safety and ethical standards. While both major political parties have shown support for AI development, the specifics of implementation are crucial. Critics argue that without stringent safety measures, rapid AI advancement could lead to unintended consequences, including biases and ethical dilemmas.

In summary, while Sriram Krishnan’s appointment brings a wealth of industry experience to the administration, it also raises concerns among critics about potential deregulation, industry bias, and the adequacy of safety measures in the rapidly evolving field of artificial intelligence.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

In 1915, 29-year-old Indian entrepreneur Jhamandas Watumull arrived in Hawaii’s O’ahu island to set up a retail shop of his import business with his partner Dharamdas.

The two registered Watumull & Dharamdas as a business on Honolulu’s Hotel Street, selling exotic goods like silks, ivory crafts, brassware and other curios from the East.

Dharamdas died of cholera in 1916, prompting Jhamandas Watumull to send for his brother Gobindram to manage their Honolulu store while he took care of their business in Manila. Over the next several years, the brothers would travel between India and Hawaii as they solidified their business.

Today, the Watumull name is ubiquitous on the islands – from garment manufacturing and real estate to education and arts philanthropy, the family is inextricably linked with Hawaii’s rich history.

The first South Asians to move to the island from India, they are now one of its wealthiest families.

“Slowly, slowly, that’s how we did it,” Jhamandas told a local Hawaiian publication in 1973.

Born in pre-independent India, Jhamandas was the son of a brick contractor in Sindh province’s Hyderabad (now in Pakistan). The family was educated but not wealthy. After an accident paralysed his father, Jhamandas’ mother bought his passage to the Philippines where he began working in textile mills. In 1909, he began his own trading business in Manila with his partner Dharamdas.

His grandson JD Watumull says Jhamandas and Dharamdas moved to Hawaii after a drop in their Manila business after the US, which occupied Philippines at the time, curtailed ties with foreign businesses.

Their Hawaii business was renamed East India Store soon after Jhamandas’ brother Gobindram began managing it. In the following years, the business expanded into a major department store with branches in several parts of Asia as well as Hawaii, says SAADA, a digital archive of South Asian American history.

In 1937, Gobindram built the Watumull Building in Honolulu’s Waikiki neighbourhood to house the company’s headquarters. According to SAADA, the multi-million-dollar business had expanded to 10 stores, an apartment house and assorted commercial developments by 1957.

The Star-Bulletin newspaper describes products at the store – linens, lingerie, brass and teak wood curios – as woven with “romance and mystery” that transported one “to distant lands and fascinating scenes”.

The Aloha shirts

As Hawaii emerged as a popular destination for wealthy tourists in the 1930s, shirts in bold colours with island motifs called the ‘Aloha shirt’ became a sought-after souvenir.

According to Dale Hope, an expert in Hawaiian textile and patterns, the Watumull’s East India Store was one of the first on the island to carry designs with Hawaiian patterns.

The designs were first commissioned in 1936 by Gobindram from his artist sister-in-law Elsie Jensen.

“Instead of Mount Fuji, she’d have Diamond Head, instead of koi [she’d] have tropical fish, instead of cherry blossoms [she’d] have gardenias and hibiscus and all the things we know here,” Hope said.

The designs were sent to Japan where they were handblocked onto raw silk, Nancy Schiffer writes in the book Hawaiian Shirt Designs.

“These subtle floral patterns, modern and dynamic in concept, were the first Hawaiian designs to be produced commercially,” Schiffer notes.

“They were sold by the boat load and were exhibited as far away as London,” William Devenport says in the book Paradise of the Pacific.

Gobindram’s daughter Lila told Hope that the Watumull’s Waikiki store had American movie stars Loretta Young, Jack Benny, Lana Turner and Eddie “Rochester” Anderson coming to buy these shirts.

“More and more we are finding out that Watumull has become a synonym for Hawaiian fashions,” Gulab Watumull said in a 1966 interview in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

The Watumulls soon bought the Royal Hawaiian Manufacturing Company, where the first matching family aloha wear was created.

Long road to citizenship

Despite their success, it would be decades before the Watumull brothers – Jhamandas and Gobindram – received US citizenship. Their early years in the country were marred by discrimination and difficult immigration laws, the Hawaii Business Magazine wrote.

In 1922, Gobindram married Ellen Jensen, an American, whose citizenship was stripped under the Cable Act for marrying an immigrant who was not eligible for US citizenship. Jensen would go on to work with the League of Women Voters to reform the law and regain citizenship in 1931.

Gobindram would become a citizen in 1946 when a law allowing Indians to gain citizenship through naturalisation was enacted.

His brother Jhamandas, meanwhile, continued to split much of his time between India and Hawaii.

During India’s 1947 partition, the Watumull family moved from Sindh to Bombay (now Mumbai), leaving much of their property behind, SAADA says.

Jhamandas’ son Gulab eventually arrived in Hawaii to work in the family business and become its head.

In 1955, the brothers split the business with Jhamandas and Gulab keeping its retail portion while Gobindram’s family took over its real estate section.

Jhamandas moved permanently to Hawaii In 1956, a few years after the death of his wife and one of their sons, and in 1961, became a US citizen.

India connect

Over the years, the family remained invested in the welfare of India and its people. Gobindram was an active member of the Committee for India’s Freedom and often travelled to Washington to support the country’s case for independence, Elliot Robert Barkan writes in Making it in America.

Gobindram’s home in Los Angeles was “a Mecca for people concerned with Indian independence”, Sachindra Nath Pradhan notes in the book India in the United States.

The Watumull Foundation in 1946 sponsored a series of lectures by Dr S Radhakrishnan – who later served as India’s president – at American universities.

Gobindram’s wife Ellen was instrumental in bringing an international parenthood conference to Delhi in 1959, leading to the establishment of the country’s first birth control clinics.

The family’s philanthropy has and continues to include funding for educational institutions in Hawaii and in India, endowments for Honolulu-based art programmes and promoting Indian-Hawaiian exchange.

Many of the Watumull brothers’ grandchildren now work in and around Hawaii.

In the past few years, as the family business shifted focus to real estate, the last Watumull retail store closed in 2020. The company thanked its customers “for years of good business and good memories”.

Watumull Properties purchased a 19,045 sq m (205,000 sq ft) marketplace in Hawaii last year. JD Watumull, the president of the company, said, “The Hawaiian Islands continue to be our family’s focus today and in the future.”

source/content: bbc.com (headline edited)

Plate Cutting Ceremony for the first of the 14 Fast Patrol Vessels (FPV) and first of the six Next-Gen Offshore Patrol Vessels (NGOPV) being constructed by Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd. (MDL) for the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) took place in Mumbai on Thursday, defence ministry said here.

Giving details, officials said MDL was awarded a Rs 2,684 crore contract under the ‘Buy (Indian-IDDM)’ category to build these vessels which will feature advanced technologies like drones for surveillance, AI for decision-making, an Integrated Bridge System for maneuverability, and an Integrated Machinery Control System for efficient operations.

These state-of-the-art vessels are being indigenously designed, developed and constructed and will be delivered over the next few years, reinforcing the Government’s vision of ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ and enhancing the nation’s defence production capabilities.

source/content: dailypioneer.com (headline edited)

K-RIDE officials stated that the U-girder, cast at Gollahalli in January 2024, was launched between 9:45 pm and 10:00 pm on Tuesday at Yeshwantpur as part of the construction work for the Baiyappanahalli-Chikkabanavara line.

K-RIDE successfully installed the first 31-metre-long single-span precast U-girder — the longest in India — on the Mallige Line of the Bengaluru Suburban Railway Project (BSRP).

K-RIDE officials stated that the U-girder, cast at Gollahalli in January 2024, was launched between 9.45 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Tuesday at Yeshwantpur as part of the construction work for the Baiyappanahalli-Chikkabanavara line.

“U-girders are U-shaped, pre-tensioned, and precast structures commonly used in rail-based public transport projects. Their design enhances quality and expedites construction by reducing the need for multiple foundations and piers due to their extended length. The U-Girder is a critical structural component of the elevated track. It forms the base for laying the tracks and other systems component such as traction and signaling,” a official explained.

The installation was carried out using two high-capacity cranes, ensuring precision and safety throughout the process, according to officials. K-RIDE has stated that 450 U-girders will be installed on the 8 km elevated section of the Mallige Line between Hebbal and Yeshwantpur. To date, nearly 60 U-girders have been cast at Gollahalli.

Rail Infrastructure Development Company (Karnataka) Ltd. (K-RIDE) is the government agency responsible for executing the 149-km BSRP.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)

The government on Wednesday said the ‘e-Daakhil portal’ — an inexpensive, speedy and hassle-free mechanism for filing consumer complaints — has been rolled out successfully in all states and union territories.

The government is also working for launch of e-Jagriti, which will further streamline case filing, tracking, and management, ensuring a hassle-free experience for consumers and other stakeholders, it said.

In a statement, the consumer affairs ministry said with the recent launch of e-Daakhil portal in Ladakh, the online platform is now accessible to consumers pan-India.

The e-Daakhil, launched on September 7, 2020, is an innovative online platform designed to streamline the consumer grievance redressal process, providing an efficient and convenient way for consumers to approach the relevant consumer forum, dispensing the need to travel and be physically present to file their grievances.

Currently, 2,81,024 users have registered on the e-Daakhil portal, and 1,98,725 cases have been filed. Out of this, 38,453 cases have been disposed of.

“With its nationwide reach, it is set to revolutionize the consumer rights landscape in India,” the ministry said.

Any consumer or advocate can sign up on the e-Daakhil platform with the required authentication by receiving an OTP on their registered mobile phone or an activation link on their registered e-mail address. They can then move on with filing a complaint.

Through the portal, aggrieved consumers can submit complaints to consumer commissions online, to pay the appropriate fees and track the progress of the case.

The government remains committed to continuously improving and expanding the platform to meet the evolving needs of consumers, it said.

source/content: dailypioneer.com (headline edited)

The device aims to transform point-of-care diagnostics by providing faster and more accessible TG level testing, which is linked to increased risks of heart attack, stroke, and atherosclerosis.

Researchers at MEMS, Microfluidics and Nanoelectronics (MMNE) Lab, BITS Pilani, Hyderabad campus, have announced the development of an innovative electrochemical biosensor for the rapid and cheaper detection of triglycerides (TGs), a crucial marker for heart disease risk assessment, on Monday.

The device aims to transform point-of-care diagnostics by providing faster and more accessible TG level testing, which is linked to increased risks of heart attack, stroke, and atherosclerosis, said stated principal investigator R.N. Ponnalagu.

It also offers promising potential for on-site TG monitoring, significantly enhancing heart disease management and preventive care worldwide, he said. The biosensor utilises screen-printed carbon electrodes made from commercially available overhead projector sheets.

It incorporates gold-cerium oxide nanoparticles to enhance sensitivity and speed up enzymatic reactions. Lipase, a digestive enzyme that breaks down fats in food for absorption in the intestines, is immobilised on the electrodes to speed up reactions with TG, producing an electrical current that is proportional to the concentration of TGs.

A standard test electrode is typically priced at approximately ₹10, providing an accessible option for effective health monitoring compared to commercially available one which cost around ₹300 to ₹500, Dr. Ponnalagu said. The device is suitable for real-time monitoring without sample pre-treatment and a portable read-out device, called ‘potentiostat’, adds to its practicality in various healthcare settings, according to research scholar Parvathy Nair.

“This platform could greatly assist in the rapid detection of TriGlyceride levels, and we are actively expanding its capabilities for multiplexed biomarker detection,” informed co-principal investigator Sanket Goel. “Our biosensor features advanced materials in a portable design, making it a game-changer for real-time TriGlyceride monitoring in point-of-care settings,” he said.

Prof. Goel said the research team is working to developing a turnkey prototype and planning to commercialise it through their start-up, Pyrome Innovation. The work is expected to be presented at the 2025 IEEE Applied Sensing Conference, scheduled to be held in Hyderabad in January 2025. The work was supported by Semiconductor Research Corporation, USA.

The work was also published in the peer-reviewed journal IEEE Sensors Letters, in its December 2024 issue.

source/content: thehindu.com (headline edited)