AAP to expand network in Saudi Arabia, other Gulf countries

Bengaluru, Mar 23: Film producer, philanthropist and entrepreneur V K Mohan committed suicide by hanging himself in a hotel in the city on Monday, police said.

Mohan, who hailed from Kundapur Taluk, Udupi District, was a famous film producer and hotelier.

According to police, Mohan arrived at the hotel on Sunday night and when he did not open the door of his room on Monday, hotel staffs, grew suspicious and peeped through the room window, found him hanging.

Manipal, Mar 12: Team WGSHA is proud to announce that the culinary museum in WGSHA has been listed in Limca Book of Records as India's First Living Culinary Arts Museum.

Limca Book of Records (LBR) is a catalogue of achievements made by Indians, at home and abroad in diverse fields of human endeavour. LBR is a celebration of exemplary exploits and recognizes accomplishments such as firsts, inventions, discoveries, honours, awards and the truly extraordinary.

Chef Thirugnanasambantham, Principal of WGSHA, while thanking MAHE and ITC Leadership for extending all support towards instituting this museum in Manipal and WGSHA, also appreciated and thanked all those who have directly or indirectly helped towards setting up this museum in Manipal.

"The process for WGSHA's culinary museum to make an entry into the popular Limca Book of Records started almost six months back and after validation by LBR recently, has been listed in the book of records. We are glad that we could be the first of its kind in such endeavour and we also hope to be in Guinness World Records soon", said Chef Thiru.

"We are indeed grateful to Michelin-starred Indian celebrity Chef Vikas Khanna, the founder and curator of this museum, who had this idea of establishing a culinary museum and donated thousands of kitchen tools and equipment worth millions of dollars to this museum for preserving the history of India's rich tradition of culinary arts and to educate the future generations. Chef Vikas Khanna, 'Distinguished Alumnus' of WGSHA, being very desirous of making such a museum in India, what better place it would be than in his own Alma Mater!", he said on the background of having the museum.

Chef Thiru mentioned that Udupi, popular for the famous 'Udupi Cuisine', and being a temple town, is adjacent to International University Town of Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE).

MAHE is home to thousands of international students and visitors. With a great heritage of Udupi, combined with the large number of Indian and International students residing in and around Manipal, it was very apt for the college to create a museum for today's Indian youth and the International visitors to understand the rich culinary heritage of India, through the priceless kitchen tools and equipment donated by Chef Vikas Khanna.

"Has placed WGSHA in the global culinary map and we are proud to have joined all such efforts to preserve the history of cuisines and cultures across the world", said Chef Thiru.

The culinary art academic block housing the museum was opened in April 2018, spread approximately over 25,000 sq ft and is shaped in the form of a giant pot very similar to the ones found in Harappa.

There are historical as well as regular household items such as plates made by the Portuguese in India, a 100-year-old ladle used to dole out food at temples and bowls dating to the Harappan era, an old seed sprinkler, an ancient Kashmiri tea brewer known as 'samovar', vessels from the Konkan, Udupi and Chettinad regions, apart from a large collection of rolling pins, utensils of all shapes and sizes, tea strainers of different types etc.

Bengaluru, Jan 28: Brace for hefty traffic penalties as the state government is all set to reverse a notification on revised fines which came into effect last September following pushback from road users and opposition parties.

The Karnataka government will implement traffic penalties as stipulated in the amended Motor Vehicles Act, 2019, in a phased manner following a diktat from the Centre. The government did not specify the timeline for it.

“At a recent meeting of transport ministers from various states, the Union government explained why it wanted to implement these huge fines. We found it convincing and will implement it in its original form,” said transport minister Laxman Savadi on Monday.

Savadi said India’s image globally has taken a beating due to the high number of road deaths and the Centre wants to change it at any cost. However, he said the entire set of hefty fines would not be reintroduced all at once.

BJP govt revised rates in Sept

The BJP government last September had revised fines on compoundable offences and those which are fined on the spot by traffic cops by 50%- 80%, barring drunken driving and racing.

As per the revised rates, helmetless riding attracted a penalty of Rs 500 against Rs 1,000 notified by the Centre. Driving without a licence attracted a fine of Rs 1,000 for

two- and three-wheelers and Rs 2,000 for light motor vehicles as against the earlier Rs 5,000 for all types of vehicles.

The central government recently told states and Union Territories they should enforce fines as per the amended Act and they cannot be rolled back. The road transport and highways ministry said fines cannot be reduced below the minimum amount fixed by law, unless the President gives his assent.