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India’s first venture capital Dalit fund . June 2013 .

India’s first SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) registered social impact fund the “DICCI-SME Fund”(Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry – DICCI) was launched by the Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram, in the ballroom at the  Taj Mahal Hotel, in the country’s financial capital, Mumbai on June 06th(Thursday, 2013.

The VC fund is initiated by the DICCI and aims to raise Rupees 500 crores over ten years. SIDBI’s (Small Industries Development Bank) Chairman and Managing Director Sushil Munhot handed over a commitment letter to Milind Kamble – Chairman of DICCI, contributing 10 crore to the 100 crore corpus of the DICCI-SME Fund.

The Union Finance Minister, P Chidambaram said “the first Dalit Fund will go a long way in creating social equity”.

India’s first ‘ MasterChef India ‘ winner. December 2010 .

Pankaj Bhadouria, a 38-year old teacher from Lucknow was the first winner of the realty TV show ‘MasterChef India’ Season 1 – on December 25th, 2010 – a contest that was for amateur cooks from across India .

Pankaj Bhadouria has been teaching since the past 16 years. Besides being an aspiring amateur cook her hobbies include painting. She is a mom, housewife, teacher and now a nationally acclaimed winning chef. She is married to a Thakur from Lucknow, Charu Samarth and is blessed with 2 children. Pankaj was born and brought up in Delhi which is a typical foodies paradise, by her parents a Punjabi father and a Bengali mother who gave her a depth of the multi-cultural tastes of India.

Her current accompolishments: (1) Pankaj has shared some of her experiences in the form of her 1st book on cookery titled ‘ MasterChef Cook Book ‘  (2) She has hosted her own cookery show ‘ Chef Pankaj ka Zayka ‘ on Star Plus during September-October 2011 (3)She has her own mobile app which is applicable on Black Berry, I Phones, Google play etc. (4) Pankaj was invited to grace and participate in ‘ The Vali Food Festival’ annuals held in New York, USA for both the years April 2011 and April 2012 (5) She was invited to address the South Asian Community in Britain, by the prestigious Cambridge University in July 2011 (6)Pankaj has been regularly featured in newspapers and magazines both nationally and internationally (7) She conducts regular workshops and cookery demonstrations (8) Pankaj is invited regulary to judge at competitions and events.

In August 2012, she launched her dream project – ‘The Pankaj Bhadouria Culinary Academy ‘ in Hazratgang, Lucknow.

Pankaj Bhadouria’s growth from a small time school teacher to become India’s first MasterChef and a celebrity is a real time story of self-belief.(www.pankajbhadouria.com)

India’s first novel anti-malarial drug ‘Synriamtm’ . April 2012 .

Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited (Ranbaxy) launched the country’s first in-house developed new medicine, a new malaria drug, to be priced at one-third the cost of the current therapies.

The drug ‘Synriamtm’ was launched in New Delhi on the occasion of World Malaria Day , April 25th, 2012.  The unveiling of India’s first new indigenously developed new drug for Malaria was done by Ghulam Nabi Azad, Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India and Vilasrao Deshmukh, Minister of Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, Government of India, with Ranbaxy dedicating the new age cure for malaria to the nation.

What is most exciting about this drug is that its raw material is synthetic unlike the popularly used Artemisinim based drugs that are derived from a plant.  This allows for scaling up of commercial quantities with ease and opened a new chapter in the history of Research and Development in India thus ending a 15-year drug discovery drought for Indian medicine makers.

Ranbaxy’s anti-malaria drug, a combination of two molecules, arterolane maleate and piperaquine phosphatethe will be needed to be taken once a day by patients for three days for the treatment of uncomplicated Plasmodium Falciparum malaria in adults.

India’s first state-of-the-art indigenous MCW Shop . May 2013 .

India’s first indigenous state-of-the-art ‘Manned Chamber Welding’ MCW shop was inaugurated at HAL’s Koraput(Sonabeda)facilities in Odisha by Jitendra Singh, the Minister of State for Defence on Thursday, May 19th, 2013. This makes India the second country in the world after Russia.

HAL Chairman Dr. R K Tyagi handed over the symbol of ‘robotic argon chamber’ dedicated to the nation to the Minister in the presence of the Defence Production Secretary R K Mathur.

The Indian equipment was developed indigenously by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) with the help of other vendors. The Indian MCW system at HAL is unique that it offers both robotic and human (manual) welding in argon atmosphere. Russia and India are the only 2 countries having this facility with the Russian welding process being carried our manually.

In this robotic system, HAL does welding of 17 major modules of Sukhoi engine. The entire outer casing module of the engine is welded inside this chamber. The welder working inside has all life support and health maintaining features.

NBA’s first India-born majority owner. May 2013 .

Vivek Ranadive became NBA’s (National Basketball Association) first India-born majority owner of ‘Sacramento King’. NBA Board of Governors unanimously approved the sale of Sacramento Kings on Tuesday, May 28th, 2013.

Vivek Ranadive a minority owner with the Warriors joined a team led by health-club financier Mark Mastrov and billionaire Ron Burkle to bid for the Kings to help keep them in Sacramento. Ranadive emerged as the leader, which also included the Jacobs family from San Diego, another Indian-born businessman Raj Bhathal and Australian Silicon Valley entrepreneur Katrina Garnett. The Investment Group led by Ranadive succeeded in competing and beating the $406 million bid led by Steve Ballmer ,Microsoft Chief Executive Officer. The deal was concluded from the team’s existing majority owner since 1999 – the Maloof family of Las Vegas Hotel fame. A new stadium is part of Ranadive’s package. Sacramento City Council now has a public-private deal in place to build a new 18,500 seat arena and retail centre downtown.

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, a former NBA and Cal Berkeley star says of Ranadive ” He’s a visionary. He understands technology and startups, he’s built businesses “.

Vivek Ranadive was born in Juhu October 07th, 1957. With $50 in his pocket he left Bombay bound for the U.S. at the age of 17. He went on to complete his Bachelors and Masters degree in Electrical Engineering at MIT. Subsequently pursued an MBA at Harvard University in 1983 where he was a Baker Scholar.

Ranadive a slight and unassuming man, worked his way turning his enterprises as Founder and CEO of a multi-billion dollar real-time computing company of Palo Alto’s TIBCO Software.He is a Tae Kwon Do Black Belt and a sports buff. Ranadive has 3 children.

Awards: 1)2002: Info World’s 2002 Top Ten Technology Innovators (2) 2002: Ernst & Young Software Entrepreneur of the Year (3)2005: Wharton Infosys Business Transformation Award (WIBTA): North America Technology Change Agent Award (4) 2008: South Asian CEO of the Year – by the South Asian MBA Association (SAMBAA)

Books: Vivek Ranadive has authored the following books. (1) ‘The Power of Now’- 1990 ( a New York Times best seller) (2) ‘The Power to Predict’- 2006 (International best seller and was profiled in Forbes, Harvard Business School and the Wall Street Journal’s – Smart Money (3) ‘The Two Second Advantage – How We Succeed by Anticipating the Future Just Enough’ – 2011 (the book was New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today best seller).

 

Sacramento, is the capital of State of California, USA.

First Asian player to win the Junior Wimbledon’s Boys singles title. 1954 .

Ramanathan Krishnan was the first Indian and the first Asian tennis player to win the boy’s singles title at Wimbledon Championship 1954, beating Ashley Cooper in the finals.

On the playing court Krishnan was a magician, off it, a thorough gentleman. His playing style was known as ‘touch tennis’. Lance Tingay of The Daily Telegraph described his tennis as “pure oriental charm”. Robert Philip wrote that “each and every Krishnan rally was a thing of rare beauty”. Krishnan was a peerless symbol of a sportsman exuding simplicity that contrasted beautifully with the majesty of his play. Krishnan a prodigy, went on to become the top Indian player of the era. The Kri8shnan saga symbolised a glittering phase in the beginnings of the Indian tennis history.

He has the unique honour of having breakfast with the then Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in London. A telegram breakfast invitation that he received at his hotel,the day he won the match aginst Jaroslav Drobny in London in 1956.

Singles: In singles his records includes victories against Czech Jaroslav Drobny and Australian legends Rod Laver and Roy Emerson.

Davis Cup: Krishnan made his debut in the Davis Cup at the age of 16 against Belgium in Perth .In the Doubles final against Australia, Ramanathan Krishnan and Jaideep Mukerjea won the doubles rubber against John Newcombe and Tony Roche. Krishnan was a key member of the Indian team which reached the Davis Cup final for the first time in 1966.

National: Krishnan won the Indian national title for eight years consecutively.

Awards: Awarded the Arjuna Award in 1961, the Padma Shri Award in 1962 and the Padma Bhushan Award in 1967.

Book: ‘A touch of Tennis: The story of a tennis family ‘. Krishnan has written a book alongwith his son Ramesh Krishnan and Nirmal Shekar. The book covers 3 generations of tennis-playing Krishnans published by Penguin Books India.

T K Ramanathan his father introduced the 10 year old Krishnan to the game at the Talkatora club in New Delhi. T K Ramanathan was rated third amongst the Indian tennis players in the 1930’s. T K Ramanathan hailed from Tenkasi in Tamil Nadu. The family subsequently moved to Chennai(Madras) to keep up with the frequent travel required for Krishnan to participate in all the tournaments nationally and internationally.

Krishnan’s son Ramesh Krishnan emulated his fathers feat by winning the Wimbledon Junior title and went on to become a leading Indian tennis player of the 1980’s.

Krishnan lives in Chennai where alongwith his son Ramesh they run the ‘Krishnan Tennis Centre’. The Centre has 11 courts and have all been sponsored by the top stars each one named after them. He also manages a gas distribution agency.

India’s first fully fledged fighter aircraft base in South India . May 2013.

The first ever fighter base in the Southern Peninsula was inaugrated in Thanjavur (Tamil Nadu), by Defence Minister A.K. Anthony on Monday, May 27th, 2013.

The Indian Air Force (IAF)under the control of the Southern Air Command is stationing its most lethal Sukhoi Su-30MK1 super manoueverable combat aircraft. The full Sukhoi squadron (16 to 18 jets) will be deployed at the base by 2017. So far India has inducted over 170 of the 272 Sukhoi 30 MKI’s contracted from Russia.

The Indian Air Force(IAF) will keep deploying its regular fighter and transport detachments here since the runaway and other facilites are in place now.

This will strengthen India’s capabilities to protect its vast interests in yet another strategically important Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and Peninsular region.

The airbase has been modernised in the recent past and the infrastructure development includes ‘construction of a new runaway, parallel taxi track and other operational maintenance and adminstrative infrastructure’ to support air operations.

Past: The airbase was first contructed in 1940 by the Royal Air Force (RAF). During the period 1942-45 the RAF operated Hudson, Wellington 1C, Hurricane and Thunderbolt aircraft from this airfield.

The old runaway had served as a civil airport two decades ago. Thanjavur(Tanjore) was connected with Chennai(Madras)by Vayadoot in the early 1990’s.

First Indian American lawyer confirmed as U.S. Court Judge . May 2013 .

Srikanth Srinivasan (widely known as Sri) scripted history as the first South Asian judge confirmed to America’s second highest court. He is the first new judge to be confirmed to the DC circuit in 7 years.

Described as a “trailblazer” by the US President Barack Obama, Srinivasan’s nomination to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Colombia Circuit, was unanimously approved by the bi-partisan voting of the Senate by 97 in favour.

Srinivasan began his legal career by serving as a law clerk for Judge J Harvie Wiekinson on the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth circuit from 1995-1996. He was a very successful litigator for close to two decades prior to serving as the Principal Deputy Solicitor in the US.

Srikanth Srinivasan received his BA with honours and distinction in 1989 (Stanford University) and his JD (Juris Doctor) with distinction in 1995 from Sanford Law School. He was elected to ‘Order of the Coif’ and served as editor of the Stanford Law Review.He also holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

For his work he received recongnition – the Attorney General’s Award for Excellence in ‘Furthering US National Security in 2003’ and the Office of the Secretary of Defence ‘Award for Excellence’ in 2005.

Chandigarh born, 46 years old legal luminary Srinivasan grew up in Lawrence, Kansas. He immigrated to the US at the age of four and his family settled in Lawrence, Kansas. His father was a mathematics Professor at the University of Kansas and his mother taught at the Kansas City Art Insititute. His father hails from Mela Thiruvenkatanathapuram (near Thirunelveli), Tamil Nadu.

First Indian amputee girl scales world’s highest peak Mount Everest on prosthetic leg. May 2013 .

Arunima ‘Sonu’ Sinha became the first Indian amputee to scale Mount Everest. This Indian girl surprised all with her exceedingly rare achievement of scaling the summit on a prosthetic leg.

History was created when 25 year old Arunima Sinha reached the 8,848 metre-high summit, of the world’s highest peak. She left the high camp at 6pm on Monday evening and arrived at the summit at 10.55am on May 21st, 2013 (Tuesday).

Arunima Sinha, a resident of Ambedkar Nagar in Uttar Pradesh (about 200 km from Lucknow) was a part of the 6 member Indian team ‘Eco Everest expedition’ from the Tata Group . Led by India’s former Border Security Force (BSF) staffer Love Raj Singh and accompanied by 9 sherpas on their successful ascent of the summit.

The former national level player, had lost her right leg, in an accident after being thrown off a moving train. Subsequently she joined Tata Steel Adventure Foundation (TSAF) camp in Uttarakashi last year, where she was trained by Bachendra Pal, the first Indian woman to conquer Mount Everest.

Dr.Manmohan Singh, The Prime Minister of India conveyed his congratulations and added “Arunima’s achievement is an example not only to society at large, but also to women everywhere. This young woman looked adversity in the eye and when all seemed lost, decided to make something of her life in the most spectacular fashion possible.”

Arunima’s achievement coincides with the 60th anniversary of Edmund Hilary and Tenzing Norgay’s feat on May 20th, 1953

India’s first Yoga University . May 2013 .

The country’s first private sector, self financed yoga university ‘Lakulish Yoga University’ was inaugrated on May 23rd, 2013 (Thursday) in Ahmedabad, by Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister of Gujarat.

The University has been set up by the Surendranagar based Life Mission Trust which already runs several yoga training centres across the state and overseas. The newly appointed Vice Chancellor is Bansidhar Upadhyay. The Varsity founder Swami Rjarshi Muni said “..there would not be just one medium of teaching in the insititution”.

The University will award degrees for the 3-year courses. Students of the 3-year degree course will be taught Ashtang yoga, Karma, Knowledge, Bhakti yoga, Philosophy, Psychology, Anatomy, Ayurveda and Naturopahy.

The Gujarat government had earlier enacted a law for the creation of Yoga University in the State.

The Varsity is established in a lotus-shaped building on the Sarkhej – Gandhinagar highway on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.