The Good Bits

Some More Numbers

• 2 GW Solar energy generation in the country crosses a milestone
• 5 Number of Indian universities in London Times Higher Education Ranking (Panjab University, IIT Delhi, Kanpur, Kharagpur and Roorkee)
• 20 Million Tonnes of pulses, a record
• 25 Million Tonnes of maize, an all-time high production
• 37.5 Million bales of cotton produced, an all-time high
• $71 billion Remittance from abroad, compared to $60 billion to China
• 120 Number of new entrants into the UBS World Wealth Report, a list of Indian ultra high net worth individuals (in all there are 7,850 members)
• 1,250 Ultra high net worth Indian women, the highest in the world, with a combined fortune of US $95 billion

Other Good News Nuggets

An estimated 1,00,000 migrating Amur falcons were killed in 2012 in Doy­ang (Nagaland), where they roost bef­ore resuming their flight, and taken to the market to be sold for their meat. An  appeal was issued and the Nagaland Forest Dep­artment and NGOs joined hands with citizens to pre­­vent the mas­s­a­cre this year. Not one falcon was killed in 2013, they reported.

Lt Ganeve Lalji became the first woman to be appointed ADC. She serves Lt. General Bakshi, GOC-in-C of the Central Command. A third-generation Army officer, she was selected from 350 women officers shortlisted. Lt Lalji was commissioned in the Corps of Military Intelligence in 2011. While combat roles are still denied, women are breaking glass ceilings.

S. Swapna from TN became the first transgender to appear for a public service examination. The 23-year-old  graduated through distance education. Denied permission, she approached the High Court, which intervened in her favour. She opted to be identified as a woman. She also pleaded for a 3% reservation for transgenders in education and employment.

Ayesha Aziz (17) has flown a Cessna 172 R aircraft for 10 hours. She cleared the exam for student pilot licence in 2011 from the Bombay Flying Club. The ‘Kashmiri-Mumbaikar’ is described as the youngest Kashmiri girl to get the licence and is preparing for the exam to get a commercial pilot’s licence. She is on her way to bec­ome the world’s youngest commercial pilot.

Arunima Sinha (25), a national level volleyball player from Lucknow, was pushed out of a moving train in 2011 by miscreants after she resisted an attempt to rob her. She was hit by a passing train;  her right leg had to be amputated. But barely two years later, she has become the first female amputee to climb Mount Everest with a prosthetic leg.

There are 300 hyd­rogen gas filling stations around the world, most of them in the US and in Eur­ope. The concept of hydrogen powered cars is not new—­but India’s first hydrogen-fuelled bus rolled out this year after several years of research by the Indian Space Res­e­a­rch Organisation and Tata Motors. It is a milestone in the quest for chea­per fuel for public transport.