Baby abandoned by mom at Udupi hospital in 1970 is now Swiss Parliamentarian!

Udupi, Jan 17: In a unique philanthropic initiative, two US based NRI children have established the first unit of Keithan & Keisha Skill Development Centre at SVS English Medium School, Katapady in Udupi district.

The centre was inaugurated by Dr. Ranjan B. Kini, Professor of Management - Information Systems of Indiana University Northwest (UCN), USA on Saturday, January 11, 2020.

The centre will provide exposure to rural high school students in technical skills in emerging technological domains, soft skills and life skills through online training and video conferencing during weekend seminars. The centre is established by Keithan and Keisha with the help of their parents. They are the children of Katapady Krishna Mohan Pai, CEO of Invenger Technologies Inc., USA. One 55 inch LCD TV, two computers and one laptop were donated as part of the initiation package.

Dr. Srikanth Prabhu, Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science & Engineering, MIT, Manipal will be anchoring the training sessions which will cover emerging fields like Robotics, its impact and the opportunities in the future. The training will include international online programmes and video conferencing.

“In today’s competitive world, students need technical knowledge to keep pace with the changing scenarios. Along with technical exposure, they should also be equipped with soft skills, communication skills and organizing abilities,” said Dr. Ranjan B. Kini after inaugurating the first unit at SVS English Medium School, Katapady.

Dr. Srikanth Prabhu informed the gathering about the idea behind the project, explained its features and programmes. “If good awareness is given to students at a young age regarding latest developments in technical fields and if they are trained in soft skills and other complementary skills, they will be able to face the future with confidence and attain the heights of success even if beginning from zero,” he said.

Presiding over the function K. Sathyendra Pai, Director of Invenger Technologies said, “This is the first centre to be set up under our initiative to train rural children in add-on skills and help them to gain parity with better educated students.”  More such centres will be set up in other schools soon, he added.

Katapady Krishna Mohan Pai, CEO of Invenger Technologies Inc., Amith Nayak of Archana Developers, Umesh Rao, President of Rotary Club Katapady, Savitha Manjunath, PWD Officer of Udupi, technical experts Nidhi Manjunath and Mitesh Singh were the guests of honour. Directors of the company B. C. Pai, Srinivas Vasudev Kini and Venkatramana Bhat were present.

School Headmaster Devendra Nayak welcomed the gathering. Megha gave a vote of thanks. School teachers Uma and Chaitra along with other teachers coordinated the event. Student leaders Dhanush and Jessel Vinola Quadros compered the programme.

Mangaluru, Mar 24: Amidst uncertainty and fear in the wake of coronavirus outbreak, the prices of vegetables and fruits have shot up in the coastal city of Mangaluru.

Fearing complete closure of shops, people arrived at the market to purchase vegetables in large numbers today morning.

Encashing the situation, the traders too increased the prices of vegetables and fruits.

Tomatoes that were sold for Rs 15 to 20 per kg in the last few days were sold at Rs 40 to 60 per kg. 

Long yard beans were sold at Rs 50 per kg while okra fetched Rs 60 per kg in the market. Onions were sold at Rs 40 to Rs 60 per kg.

Owing to rumours, the price of chicken was reduced to Rs 50 per kg. On Monday, it had increased to Rs 70 to Rs 80 per kg.

May 6: Congress general secretary KC Venugopal on Tuesday termed as "inhumane" the government's decision to "impose excessive costs" on NRIs and expatriates for bringing them into the country from COVID-19-affected nations.

He demanded that the central government fly in the poor and vulnerable free of cost while charge the others with normal fares instead of high costs.

"The central government's decision to impose excessive costs on NRIs flying in special flights from the Covid-affected countries is an inhumane act," he said in a statement.

Venugopal said it was due to protests by a large number of expatriates and their relatives as well as the general public over the past few days that the central government took the decision to bring back Indian citizens from abroad.

"However, it is cruel that the Central government has taken advantage of this plight of expatriates by increasing the price of air fares up to three times. This is inhumane," Venugopal said in his statement.

He urged the Centre to take urgent steps to provide free travel to the most vulnerable, unemployed, sick and pregnant women and to others on normal fare.

Air India will operate 64 repatriation flights for a week from May 7 while the Navy deployed two ships as India rolled out a massive evacuation plan on Tuesday to bring back thousands of its nationals stranded abroad due to the coronavirus-triggered lockdown.

Those availing the repatriation flights will be charged, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri told a virtual press conference in New Delhi. A passenger on a London-Delhi flight will be charged Rs 50,000 and on a Dhaka-Delhi flight Rs 12,000, he added.

From the Gulf countries to Malaysia and the UK to the US, the multi-agency operation christened 'Vande Bharat Mission' will see the state-owned airline operate the non-scheduled commercial flights till May 13 to ferry around 15,000 Indian nationals from 12 countries.