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India’s first and World’s first ‘ Indian Art Hotel ‘. 2010 .

‘Le Sutra’, Mumbai.  The 16-rooms boutique hotel is the first hotel in the world with the theme as ‘Indian Art’ where the rooms are inspired by Indian culture making it the First Indian Art Hotel.

“Sutra” means rope or thread that holds things to-gether in Sanskrit. It is  inspired by Indian mythos based on ‘character’ (Ravana, Ashoka, Buddha) or ‘characteristics’ (Sensuality, Love, Purifiction). The 3-level hotel represents the ‘Gunas’ which sum up the worldview in Indian philosophy. The 3 Gunas being: Tamas, Rajas and Sattva.

The erstwile Pali Hills Hotel in Mumbai’s hip suburb of Bandra, has completely reinvented itself and resulted in the stunning ‘Le Sutra’.

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First hand-reared Rhino in India, to give birth to a calf . April 2013 .

Ganga became the first hand-reared one-horned rhino in India, to give birth to a calf. 

Ganga delivered in the wild in Manas National Park, Assam. In July 2004, an injured 4-month old Ganga was rescued from the flood waters of Brahmaputra Kaziranga National Park. She was then gently hand reared, bottlefed and weaned for 3 years before being acclimatisedinthe wild at Manas.

India’s first-ever pistol shooter scripted history to win gold . April 2013 .

Rahi Sarnobat is the first ever Indian woman pistol shooter to win gold in 25 metres sports pistol at ISSF, Changwon Gold Cup, South Korea.

The 22 year old Indian markswoman hails from Kolhapur, Maharashtra and trains at Gagan Narang’s Gun for Glory Academy in Pune.

Rahi Sarnobat was the youngest Indian shooter at London Olympics 2012. She won 2 gold medals in 2010 Commonwealth Games, Delhi,India. Also won the first gold in 25m pistol event in pair with Anisa Sayyed.

First Indian to circumnavigate the globe, solo, non-stop, un-assisted. April 2013 .

Lieutanant Commander Abhilash Tomy became the first Indian to sail the globe solo, non-stop and un-aided.

34 year old Indian Navy aviator, Tomy sailed continuously circumnavigating the earth and crossing the equator twice in 150 days in INSV Mhadei to reach the milestone. He arrived at the same spot after creating history – Gateway of India , Saturday afternoon April 06th, 2013. He commenced the extra ordinary journey on November 01st last year at the same spop.  Lt. Cdr Abhilash Tomy’s arrival was marked by gun salutes and firing of signal flares.

The arrival was witnessed by President Pranab Mukherjee, the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. The Governor of Maharashtra K. Sankarnarayan, Health Minister Suresh Shety and Senior Navy officers wre there to welcome his.

” If one thing that the sea taught me, is is humility. The proudest moment for me was when I hosted the Tricolour on reaching Cape Horn ” say Tomy.

INSV Mhadei is a 56-foot long custom built sailboat with 23 tonne displacement for the Indian Navy on the banks of her namesake river in Goa in 2009.

Tomy is the second Indian to circumnavigate th globe after Commander Dilip Dhonde, his mentor who achieved the feat in 2010.

 

First woman President of Intel in India. 2012 .

Kumud M. Srinivasan is the first woman President of Intel in India, since its inception in 1997.

Kumud M Srinivasan

Kumud M Srinivasan

 

She is Vice President, Technology and Manufacturing Group . General Manager, Intel Architecture Group, and President Intel India.

Kumud Srinivasan did her her bachelor’s degree in economic from Calcutta University. Then went on to do her master’s degree in information and library studies, Syracuse University. She has completed doctoral coursework in information science at University of California, Berkeley. She is also a member of the Board of Advisors of the School of Information Studies in Syracuse University.

Intel with over 3,500 people, India is Intel’s largest non-manufacturing site outside of the US.

Photo: source: Intel Newsroom

 

First Indian woman to climb Mount Everest . May 1984 .

On 23rd May 1984, Bachendri Pal became the first Indian woman mountaineer to climb Mount Everest.

May 22nd, 1984 alongwith other climbers in the team they started the ascent to the summit of Mount Everest, Bachendri was the only woman in this group. They continued the ascent climbing ‘vertical sheets of cold ice’, cold winds sometimes blowing at the speed of 100Km per hour, temperatures touching minus 30-40 degree celsius.

May 23rd, 1984 Bachendri Pal reached the summit of Mount Everest, creating history at 1:07pm IST, she was standing at the peak (29,028 feet) alongwith one other climber.

Born 24th May 1954 in Nakuri village, Uttarakashi district of Garhwal, Bachendri Pal started mountaineering at the tender age of twelve, when during a picnic alongwith several of her school mates they climbed 13,123 feet high peak. She went to become the first female graduate in her village. Continued and did her Masters Degree in Sanskrit and then her B.Ed.

After completing her studies she joined the ‘Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM). In 1982 whilst at NIM she climbed ‘Gangotri’ (21,900 feet) and ‘Rudugaria’ (19,091 feet).  In 1985 she led an Indo-Nepalese Everest Expedition  team comprising of only women. The expediton created 7 world records and set benchmarks for Indian mountaineering.

She is working as Chief of Adventure Program with Tata Steel Adventure Foundation, where she conducts high altitude training workshops for the corporate workforce.

India – World’s first country to launch “Phonesat” smartphone into space. February 2013 .

India launches world’s first “Phonesat” smart phone successfully launched into orbit. Loaded with a number of experimental ‘Apps’, some services some just for fun. The Mission was designed to test commercial technologies in outerspace. This launch was SSTL’s first with ISRO.

STRaND-1-smartphone nanosatellite / Credit: SSTL/ Surrey Space Centre

STRaND-1-smartphone nanosatellite / Credit: SSTL/ Surrey Space Centre

The British built Strand-1 Spacecraft, a nano satellite developed by scientists in Surrey was sent into orbit from Sriharikota in India. To test the capabilities of a standard smartphone in a space environment.

Amateur radio operators can track STRaND-1 from across the world. Details of frequency are available at www.amsat-uk.org

First Prime Minister of Independent India. 1947.

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was appointed as the firt Prime Minister of Independent India by the Governor General in 1947. He served as Prime Minister till May 27th, 1964 when he died in office making him the longest serving Prime Minister of the country, a period of 17 years.

He is considered to be the architect of the modern Indian nation state. Nehru was elected as Congress President in 1936, 1937 and 1946. He was a graduate of Cambridge University and the Inner Temple, where he trained to be a barrister.

Nehru was also a writer, scholar, historian and patriach of India’s most influential political family. He was the father of Indira Gandhi and the maternal grandfather of Rajiv Gandhi, who were later to serve as the third and sixth Prime Ministers of India.

Born, Allahabad November 14th,1889 – May 27th,1964, New Delhi.