Everester pedals for girls, environment

REWARI: Having scaled the Mount Everest at the age 25 in 2011, Sunita Choken, the brand ambassador of ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ programme in Rewari, has set off on a ‘cycle yatra’ from Kanyakumari to Leh-Ladakh to spread the messages of ‘Save the girl child’ and ‘Preserve environment’. She would cover a distance of 4,200 km and every day plant at least five saplings in the city she would halt at. “The yatra aims at making people aware of the adverse effects of gender imbalance and environmental pollution on our society,” said Choken, recipient of Naari Shakti Award, Bharat Gaurav and Bahadur Beti Samman. She said, “I also want to send a message to all, especially girls, that you should dare to dream and have the courage to fulfil these as each one of you has the potential.”

Once bitten, twice shy

Gurugram: Once bitten twice shy, the saying was exemplified by biryani sellers on the Alwar road in Mewat. Fearing “victimisation” in the name of hurting religious sentiments, they kept their shops closed for almost a week during ‘Kaanwar yatra’. Local biryani sellers claimed they feared being framed for hurting sentiments of ‘kaanwariyas’. They said though they took precautions by not displaying meat on top of vessels and ensured proper discarding of bones etc in dustbins with lids, dogs spilled these a couple of times leaving them scared of being targeted and lynched. Over 200 sellers had decided to keep their shops shut. Better safe than sorry.

Catch them young

Rohtak: A team of researchers has developed a genosensor for reliable, rapid, simple and cost-effective detection of the dengue virus. The developers claim that the genosensor-based detection technique will help in detecting the dengue virus at an early stage. The team includes Chaitali Singhal, a PhD student at the Amity Institute of Nanotechnology, Dr CS Pundir, Professor Emeritus at the Department of Biochemistry, Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, and Dr Jagriti Narang, Assistant Professor at Amity Institute of Nanotechnology, Amity University, Noida. “The genosensor-based detection of dengue virus has several advantages over the conventional detection techniques. It is more simple, less time-consuming, sensitive, specific and cost-effective,” says Prof Pundir, adding that they have developed a laboratory model, which could be put to mass/commercial use after miniaturisation.

Bringing innovation into learning

Yamunanagar: A young scientist, Sourabh Kaushal of Yamunanagar, has started a startup ‘Smartcircuits Innovation’ with a mission ‘one student, one innovation’. Sourabh started the education technology startup along with engineers Raghav Sharma and Sachin Sharma under the mentorship of George Salazar from NASA Johnson Space Centre, USA. “As per a report of UNESCO, India will be half a century late in achieving its universal education goals. The 2030 deadline for achieving sustainable development goals will be possible only if India introduces fundamental changes in the education sector,” said Sourabh. He said for this, they had developed hands-on learning activity based on science boxes for school students so that they could learn from basic science to high-end technologies, including robotics, space technology and 3D printer.

On a mission to make Sonepat green

Sonepat: Bowled over by Chandigarh's greenery, Devender Sura, a Sonepat resident serving in the Chandigarh Police, took it on himself to make his city green. Come monsoon and his 'Paryavaran Mitra Mandli' of 27 members take leave, purchase saplings and carry out plantation at public places. With 17,000 saplings planted in two years, this season they want to see 8,500 new trees taking root. 

Contributed by Ravinder Saini, Sumedha sharma, Sunit dhawan, Shiv Kumar Sharma, and BS Malik