Karnataka BJP MPs mum on farmers’ woes; protest Roopa's transfer

Mangaluru, May 19: Team Be Human, a city based group of philanthropists, has taken commendable initiative to satiate the hunger of the civic workers of Mangaluru City Corporation that are endangering their lives to keep the city clean amidst covid-19 lockdown. 

On Friday, April 18, gorcesary kits were distributed among around 180 civic workers at Eidgah Maidan in Light House Hill in the presence of Corporator Abdul Raoof Bajal, Mansoor Ahmed Azad, Aina group Ashraf, Ceco Asif, Advocate Abdul Shukoor, U B Saleem, Sahil Zaheer, Rash Beary, Munna Kammaradi and Abdul Muttalib.

The Team swung into action on hearing the civic workers' plight due to the delay in payment of their wages by the Antony Waste Management firm. The Team was helped by the alumni of the St Aloysius College, Mangaluru (batch 1989). 

This is not the first time the Team Be Human distributing kits among the needy. Amidst lockdown it has already distributed around 1200 grocery kits among the poor people including the daily wage workers, migrant labourers in Dakshina Kannada district with help of Ahnaf Deals, Altaf, Shameem, Basha, Pradeep, Vincent,  Shiyaz Deals, Nawaz and Haneef. 

In its next step the Team Be Human is planning to distribute the kits among civic workers in Urva and Suratkal region, said Asif Deals, founder president of Team Be Human. He called upon the youth and students to come forward to help the needy and poor people who are deprived of basic facilities.

Bengaluru, Jan 24: After the visit of fact finding committee members to the spot, the Christian community here decided to submit a report to the state government urging to install a 114-ft. statue of Jesus Christ at Kapala Betta in Kanakapura taluk of Ramanagaram district, Congress MLC Ivan D’souza said here on Thursday.

While talking to media, Mr D’souza said the committee would submit the report to Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa and Revenue Minster R. Ashok and urge the government to construct the statue at the earliest.

The RSS and other BJP outfits have strongly opposed the installation, following which the government ordered suspension of the work. A few days ago, Kalladka Prabhakar, RSS ideologue, took out a rally in Kanakapura opposing the installation.

Bengaluru, Jan 10: Education technology company Byju’s is learnt to have raised $200 million in a funding round from Tiger Global Management, which has valued the Bengaluru-based start-up at around $8 billion, making it the third-largest unicorn (start-up valued over $1 billion) in the country.

With this, the Byju Raveendran-founded company has seen over 50 per cent jump in its valuation in just around nine months. In March 2019, Byju’s was valued $5.4 billion, when it raised around $31 million from General Atlantic, and Chinese investment giant Tencent.

At the current valuation, Byju’s has now replaced home-grown cab-hailing major Ola as the third-largest unicorn, next only to Paytm and OYO, which are valued around $16 billion and $10 billion, respectively.

Byju’s confirmed the transaction through a press statement, though the company declined to share any specific details of the deal. Tiger Global could not be immediately reached for its comments.

“We are happy to partner with a strong investor like Tiger Global Management. They share our sense of purpose and this partnership will advance our long-term vision of creating an impact by changing the way students learn,” said Raveendran. “This partnership is both a validation of the impact created by us so far and a vote of confidence for our long-term vision.”

This is Tiger Global’s first investment in the edutech space in India after Vendantu, an online tutoring platform, where it, along with WestBridge Capital, led a $42-million round in August.

An early backer of India’s internet growth story, the New York-headquartered Tiger Global has been a prolific investor in the Indian start-up space. Its portfolio in the country ranges from consumer focused e-commerce companies that are vital for the growth of the sector, such as Flipkart, Delhivery, Grofers, Quikr and PolicyBazaar, to mention a few.

After tasting success with Flipkart, one of its earliest investments, where it had pumped in around $1 billion, the PE major is now doubling down its focus on the Indian start-up space, under its new investment head Scott Shleifer.

Shleifer, who set up international private equity practice for Tiger Global, is said to be as aggressive deal maker like his predecessor Lee Fixel, who left the investment firm in March. Since then, Tiger has also invested in a host of technology-focused companies in diverse sectors including Ninjacart, CRED, NoBroker and Facilio to mention a few.

“Byju’s has emerged as the leader in the Indian education-tech sector. They are pioneering technology shaping the future of learning for millions of school students in India,” Shleifer was quoted in the press statement issued by the edutech firm.