Category Archives: Amazing Feats

This small village sets an example in patriotism

Amazing Feats, Inspiration /Positive News and Features, Records, All

More than 250 youths from Pedda Muraharipuram, a small village 1.5 km from the Pundi railway station in Vajrapukotturu mandal, have been working in the Army.

PeddaMuraharipuramANDHRA16jan2019

Srikakulam :

More than 250 youths from Pedda Muraharipuram, a small village 1.5 km from the Pundi railway station in Vajrapukotturu mandal, have been working in the Army. Inspired by the patriotic spirit, one from each family has been working as a soldier in the Army, Navy and Air Force. Once a year, they gather in the village to offer prayer to Subhas Chandra Bose, who started Indian National Army and also to other freedom fighters.

An association called Sainika Seva Samiti was constituted in the village by involving the present and former army personnel with a view to pass on the tradition for future generations. There were no more than five army personnel in the village in 1985 and their number has increased to 250 now. Taking inspiration from the soldiers in the village, the youths have been striving to be solders in the defence forces.

Because of parents’ support, the number of Army personnel in the village has been increasing, said Sainika Seva Samiti president G Viswanatham and former president T Murali.They also said that the retired army personnel started giving coaching to the youths of the village right from class 10.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Andhra Pradesh / by Express News Service / January 14th, 2019

Polavaram project in Guinness World Records for concrete pouring

Amazing Feats, Business & Economy, Records, All, Science & Technology, World Opinion

The concrete was poured for 24 hours from 8 am on Saturday in the spill channel of the national project.

A view of Polavaram project. (Photo | EPS/P Ravindrababu)
A view of Polavaram project. (Photo | EPS/P Ravindrababu)

Vijayawada :

The attempt by Navayuga Engineering Company Ltd (NECL), the contracting agency executing the major works of the Polavaram Project, to create two world records — most concrete continuously poured in 24 hours and the largest continuous concrete pour — has successfully ended on Monday with the firm pouring 32,100 cubic meters of concrete.

The concrete was poured for 24 hours from 8 am on Sunday in the spill channel of the national project. The adjudicators of the Guinness World Records will formally make an announcement of the same shortly. Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu will receive the memento of the feat at 2.30 pm.

Even though the firm had initially planned to pour 28,000 cubic meters of concrete in 24 hours, it achieved its target by 5 am on Monday by pouring 28,357 cubic meters. In the subsequent three hours, it poured 3,700 cubic meters more. The current record is held by a Dubai-based contracting group which poured 21,580 cu m of concrete in about 35 hours.

“We are evaluating the log sheets of the concrete poured, which were entered on an hourly basis, besides examining the drone and CCTV camera footage. We will make one announcement by 10/11 am and the other will be announced at 1.30/2 pm,” the official adjudicator of the Guinness World Records, Rishi Nathan, explained. A team of 24 members is working to adjudicate the feat achieved by the NECL.

The Managing Director of NECL, Chinta Sridhar, said that the firm engaged 20 agitator trucks, which delivered concrete from 10 batching plants using 90 concrete mixers. “It is a proud moment for us. But, more than anything, it is a morale boost for us as we are running against the time to complete this mega project, which would serve the entire State. The record is a significant step towards completing the project before the onset of monsoon this year,” he said.

It may be recalled that NECL was brought on board after the termination of the contract with Transstroy (India) Ltd last year. NECL had agreed to execute the project at old rates (2014 Standard Schedule Rates).

Sridhar further explained that the cofferdams in the upper stream and the lower stream will be ready by the month of May. Speaking to TNIE, the MD said, “We have already begun the upper cofferdam works. The designs for the lower cofferdam were submitted. We will have to do 1.1 crore units of concrete works and are aiming to complete them by May.”

Terming it as a historic day, Water Resources minister Devineni Umamaheswara Rao credited Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu for facilitating the environment to achieve the feat. “It is indeed a historic feat. Despite all the challenges, we have been able to ensure that the works are expedited. We will divert the water through gravity by June this year,” he added.

Buoyed by the success of the Monday’s record, the MD of NECL, C Sridhar, said that the firm was eyeing at outdoing itself with another record soon. “We plan to attempt another record by pouring 65,000 cu m to 70,000 cu m of concrete maybe in March. We will need a month’s preparation for it and hopefully achieve it,” Sridhar told TNI

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Andhra Pradesh / by Express News Service / January 07th, 2019

Skater Rana’s marathon reaches Vizag

Amazing Feats, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Inspiration /Positive News and Features, Records, All, Sports
Way to go: Rana Uppalapati has covered 4,500 km till date. | Photo Credit: C.V.Subrahmanyam
Way to go: Rana Uppalapati has covered 4,500 km till date. | Photo Credit: C.V.Subrahmanyam

‘Indian Golden Quadrilateral’ aims at raising money for girl child education

Noted skater Rana Uppalapati, who has taken up the task of covering the 6,000-km Golden Quadrilateral to create awareness and raise money for girl child education, reached Visakhapatnam on Thursday.

The ‘Indian Golden Quadrilateral’ programme, being funded by the Titan Company Limited in collaboration with the Tata Group, was flagged off at Hosur in Karnataka on September 5 and he had so far covered Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Odisha.

The 37-year-old skater, who covered about 4,500 km and reached his home town after 70 days, was given a warm welcome by the denizens, skaters and friends, at the VUDA Children’s Arena in Siripuram.

Money mobilised so far

He is accompanied by a six-member logistic team, who travel in a car ahead.

“In the last 70 days, we have interacted with at least 5 lakh people across various parts of the country and raised ₹3.60 crore, which would be enough for educating close to 10,000 girls. But our target is to provide education for 25,000 girls and I am sure in the next 30 days, we would achieve it,” Mr. Rana Uppalapati said.

Earlier he undertook two such skating trips to create awareness on health issues.

The longest trip he had taken up was from Vizag to Chennai, around 800 km.

Covering 6,000 km now was definitely a tough task, “but it will be a milestone if I can achieve it,” he said.

“In the first 30 days, due to bad roads, high temperature and a few other hassles, we would cover around 12 km per day, starting at 4 am. But later we started to cover close to 50 to 60 km, on a daily basis. Today, I skated from Tagarapuvalasa to Lankapalem, covering almost 67 km in just two and half hours. When we show people the amount of difficulty involved in our journey, the message reaches in a strong way,” said Mr. Uppalapati.

He said his journey would end by meeting kids, communities and other people in schools, colleges, meeting halls etc every day.

“Apart from educating underprivileged girl children, we are also creating awareness among children on safety, especially on good touch and bad touch.”

The mission is expected to end on December 18 at Hosur. A grand event is being planned in Bengaluru.

Managing Director of the Titan Company Bhaskar Bhat, AVP & Head, Corporate Sustainability Titan NE Sridhar, family members, city-based skaters, athletes and others were present.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Andhra Pradesh / by Harish Gilai / Visakhapatnam – November 22nd, 2018

He has sights trained on civil services

Amazing Feats, Education
Panyam Sai Vinayak using the tab gifted by his aunt after he secured top marks in the Intermediate examination. | Photo Credit: V RAJU.
Panyam Sai Vinayak using the tab gifted by his aunt after he secured top marks in the Intermediate examination. | Photo Credit: V RAJU.

Visual impairment no impediment to Vinayak in either education or recreational activities

Panyam Sai Vinayak can swiftly play his fingers on the keyboard of his laptop typing Telugu as well as play a musical keyboard producing nearly perfect tunes.

With total visual impairment since birth, Vinayak, 17, is pursuing under-graduation in English literature, politics and history in the Andhra Loyola College (ALC) and uses his voice-enabled laptop and tablet extensively for education, music and cricket, to sing songs and other activities for recreation.

Topper in Intermediate

His dedication to achieving big in life has always put him at the forefront in education. Vinayak scored 886 marks in Intermediate last year becoming the topper among the visually challenged students in AP. He was recently bestowed upon with the Prathiba Award by the Education Department for it and has become an inspiration for many students studying in ALC and other colleges.

“He can perform many tasks with ease and competes with other students in the college. Not just education but he does well in music too,” says P. Bhargav Ram, a proud father of Vinayak.

In SSC, he scored GPA 9.7, the highest in AP and Telangana that year among the visually challenged, Mr. Ram adds.

“I want to become a civil servant and it is the reason why I have selected the current degree course. After UG, I shall go to the JNU for MA where I can pursue politics while getting trained for civils,” Vinayak explains his career plan in a nutshell.

Against all odds

However, scoring top marks is no easy task for Vinayak. He had to face difficulties like not being able to find a proper scribe, unwanted subjects like mathematics, lack of material for the visually challenged and others.

“No school granted him admission when we moved from Hyderabad to Vijayawada. Finally, St. John’s School came forward. His greatest support is his maternal uncle K. Deepak and braille teacher Nirmala,” says Mr. Ram. Vinayak studies subjects through audio recordings of text book content by Mr. Deepak.

“AP has no institution that prints braille books. It would be a huge problem for students who cannot afford electronic devices for learning,” he says.

“Except the ALC, there is no institution that could provide the required support to persons with vision disability. The college provides scribes and also training in computer usage. The governments should make subjects like mathematics as optionals for the challenged or provide special teaching instead of forcing them to study and pass unwanted subjects,” Mr. Deepak says.

Vinayak, who regularly plays cricket with a special ball with his uncle Deepak, wants the AP government to set up a cricket training institute for them.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Andhra Pradesh / by Tharun Boda / Vijayawada – October 22nd, 2018

Differently-abled youth in squad for Special Olympics

Amazing Feats, Inspiration /Positive News and Features, Records, All, Sports, World Opinion

Anantapur youth make it to the Indian squad for the Special Olympics

Their determination and achievements dwarf their disabilities with which Balakrishna and Kullaiamma were born. Hailing from remote villages in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh, the two have won laurels for the country many times at the Special Olympics.

Four boys and two girls from Anantapur have found a place in the national badminton team to represent India at Andorra Special Olympics to be held this month. Balakrishna and Kullaiamma are part of the team that left for Barcelona on Tuesday, en route to Andorra. The team includes: Shameela Dhanekula, Assefa Pendekanti, Ganesh pasuvula, Sreenivasulu Chakali, Sivaiah Komalli, and Balakrishna Nallabothu.

Kullaiamma | Photo Credit: R_V_S_PRASAD
Kullaiamma | Photo Credit: R_V_S_PRASAD

Player to coach

Daughter of a farm-labourer couple of Kothapalli village, Kullaiamma was born with Intellectual disability (ID), also known as general learning disability, short of hearing and visual disability with extreme squint. But has won gold medals in badminton at Los Angeles in 2013 and in Australia in 2015. Unable to afford studies, Kullaiamma began working at a juice centre and took to tailoring to supplement the family income, but the Community-Based Rehabilitation Centre of Rural Development Trust (RDT) at Bathalapalli gave her a new lease of life.

Her talent was spotted by the RDT coaches and she began training in 2011. Today, Kullaiamma has graduated to assistant coach accompanying a six-member badminton team, part of the Indian contingent at the Special Olympics at Andorra and Spain.

Balakrishna | Photo Credit: R_V_S_PRASAD
Balakrishna | Photo Credit: R_V_S_PRASAD

Differently-abled Balakrishna (short of hearing and needs trainer to explain in sign language) from Marrireddipalli, is the son of a farm-labourer couple. The shuttler has three gold medals so far in his kitty. Studying at Industrial Training Institute, he wants to make it big in the international badminton arena. Their cradle is the state-of-the-art indoor badminton court at Bathalapalli and stadium at Anantapur which have produced several world-class players. After its inception in 2008, it produced gold medallists in 2009 Athens Special Olympics. Baba Fakruddin won a gold and a silver in athletics, while two girls were also there in the country’s contingent. They were born different but they made a big difference.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Andhra Pradesh / by Ramesh Susarla / Anantapur – October 04th, 2018

Winners of Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology 2018 announced

Amazing Feats, Leaders, Records, All, Science & Technology

Dr Aditi Sen De is the only female winner this year

On the occasion of its foundation day, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has put out the list of recipients of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology for 2018.

Every year, several scientists below the age of 45 are selected from various institutions across the country and awarded for their outstanding scientific work in the last five years.

Here is the full list of winners this year in various categories

Category Winner Affiliation
Biological Sciences Dr Ganesh Nagaraju IISc Bengaluru
Dr Thomas Pucadyil IISER Pune
Chemical Sciences Dr Rahul Banerjee IISER Kolkata
Dr Swadhin Kumar Mandal IISER Kolkata
Earth, Atmosphere, Ocean and Planetary Sciences Dr Madineni Venkat Ratnam National Atmospheric Research Laboratory, Tirupati
Dr Parthasarathi Chakraborty CSIR-NIO, Goa
Engineering Sciences Dr Amit Agrawal IIT Bombay
Dr Ashwin Anil Gumaste IIT Bombay
Mathematical Sciences Dr Amit Kumar IIT Delhi
Dr Nitin Saxena IIT Kanpur
Medical Sciences Dr Ganesan Venkatasubramanian NIMHANS, Bengaluru
Physical Sciences Dr Aditi Sen De Harish-Chandra Research Institute, Allahabad
Dr Ambarish Ghosh IISc Bengaluru

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Sci-Tech / by The Hindu Net Desk / September 26th, 2018

CM felicitates Naval officer

Amazing Feats, Inspiration /Positive News and Features, Records, All, Sports, World Opinion
Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu falicitating Lieutenant Commander Patarlapallil Swati of the Indian Navy in Vijayawada on Thursday | Photo Credit: ARRANGED
Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu falicitating Lieutenant Commander Patarlapallil Swati of the Indian Navy in Vijayawada on Thursday | Photo Credit: ARRANGED

Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu felicitated Patarlapalli Swathi, who circumnavigated the globe on a sailing vessel.

Swathi, Lieutenant Commander in the Indian Navy, was part of six-member team that circumnavigated the globe in eight months. The team started its journey on September 10 last year and returned to Goa on May 21. The voyage is christened Navika Sagar Parikrama. She hails from Visakhapatnam.

Showering praises on Lt. Cdr. Swathi, Mr. Naidu said that the youth should take inspiration from her courage and valour. Her voyage remains in the history. Despite hardships she and her team succeeded , he said.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Andhra Pradesh / by Staff Reporter / Vijayawada – September 07th, 2018

A.P. tops in ‘Ease of Doing Business’

Amazing Feats, Business & Economy, Records, All, World Opinion

Willingness to tweak policies gives it the winning edge

Andhra Pradesh has topped the third edition of the government’s ‘Ease of Doing Business’ index for States with a final score of 98.42%. This is the second time in a row that A.P. achieved the first rank.

A.P., which was given second rank in 2015, outperformed other States and Union territories by maintaining its leadership position through implementation of 99.73% reforms.

Telangana and Jharkhand trailed behind A.P. though they scored 100% in reform evidence score.

A.P. got 99.73% score in reform evidence and 86.50% in feedback score. While Telangana stood second in the final score, Haryana bagged the third position. A.P. and Telangana jointly occupied the top slot in fiscal 2015-16.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Andhra Pradesh / by Staff Reporter / Vijayawada – July 11th, 2018

When Railways constructed a subway within 5 hours

Amazing Feats, Business & Economy, Records, All, Science & Technology
Engineering marvel: A train passes over a low height subway in Visakhapatnam. It was completed in four hours using pre-cast reinforced cement concrete technology by the East Coast Railway on Wednesday. | Photo Credit: K.R. DEEPAK
Engineering marvel: A train passes over a low height subway in Visakhapatnam. It was completed in four hours using pre-cast reinforced cement concrete technology by the East Coast Railway on Wednesday. | Photo Credit: K.R. DEEPAK

A time-lapse video recently telecasted by television channels showed Railways constructing a subway within a record time of four-and-a-half hours.

The Limited Height Subway (LHS), was constructed between Kothavalasa-Pendurti line in Waltair division of East Coast Railway on April 26, 2017.

The LHS project was sanctioned in April last year, to remove the manned level crossing no. 484 in between Kothavalasa and Pendurti, where four railway lines pass through.

The construction involved the use of base slabs and pre-fabricated boxes measuring 1.5m X 4.65 m X 3.65 m. As many as 16 heavy duty excavators, three heavy duty cranes, five tippers, 1,000 sandbags, four hydra machines, heavyweight jacks and 300 workforces were deployed to complete the project. The passage of trains via Rammurthypanthulapeta was blocked only for 3.5 hours.

“Just after starting the block, the track was removed with the help of cranes and earthwork started from both sides. Simultaneously, the shifting of boxes and plate was done. After reaching the centre, the surface preparation was carried out and base slabs and pre-fabricated boxes were placed using heavy duty cranes.

“While the earthwork was in progress, the boxes were lifted from both sides and placed at the requisite location. The placement of 20 boxes took one hour; for placing of base slabs after surface preparation and linking of tracks, it took 1.5 hours and the total block was completed in 4.5 hours,” a statement from the East Coast Railway said.

The manned level crossing was completely closed in the next 45 days after the approach road was made.

The Waltair Division has completed construction of 17 LHS during 2017-18 fiscal.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Visakhapatnam / by Special Correspondent / Visakhapatnam – July 06th, 2018

Healing touch of ‘IRs.10 doctor’ in East Godavari

Amazing Feats, Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Inspiration /Positive News and Features, Records, All, Science & Technology
Humane gesture: Doctor Sathi Suryanarayana Reddy with a patient at his nursing home in Anaparthi.
Humane gesture: Doctor Sathi Suryanarayana Reddy with a patient at his nursing home in Anaparthi.

Fee kept steady for the past 27 years

It’s rare for a doctor to be known by his consultation fee than the treatment he renders. However, the ‘₹10 doctor’ in Anaparthi in East Godavari district, has earned the name for providing deprived patients treatment for the same nominal fee for the past 27 years.

It was Sathi Suryanarayana Reddy’s father’s dream that he serve the poor. “This is to fulfil the last wish of my father, who passed away when I was pursuing medicine,” he recalls.

Seeing more than 200 patients, who make a beeline for the outpatient department every day, he spends 12 hours in the OPD and reserves another five for medical procedures.

Come weekends or public holidays, Dr. Reddy gives consultation to patients who mostly throng from surrounding villages and towns. Fee for poor patients from faraway villages, who typically spend everything on transport, is exempted.

He was among the first batch of students at Siddhartha Medical College, Vijayawada, and later specialised in general surgery from the JJM Medical College at Davanagere in 1991, when he opened the nursing home in his native town.

Even then, ₹10 was lower than the average consultation fee charged by most doctors. “I preferred not to raise the fee, as I am here not for earnings. With my wife Adilakshmi extending her support, I am able to run the show this way,” he says, smiling.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Andhra Pradesh / by K N Murali Sankar / Kakinada – July 09th, 2018