
Anand Mahindra hails Bengaluru professor G Madhavi Latha behind Chenab Bridge: ‘A commitment that she fulfilled over 17 years'
Anand Mahindra, Chairperson, Mahindra Group, lauded Dr G Madhavi Latha, a professor at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, in his 'Monday Motivation' post on X. Dr Latha played a key role in the Chenab Bridge project.
The Chenab Bridge, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi officially inaugurated on Friday, is the highest railway bridge in the world.
Sharing a picture that features Dr Latha pulling off the iconic Titanic pose all by herself on the backdrop of the Chenab Bridge, Mahindra wrote, 'An accomplished geotechnical engineer and Professor at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, she played a pivotal role in the construction of the Chenab Railway Bridge. A commitment that she fulfilled over 17 years. Dr. G. Madhavi Latha Garu is my #MondayMotivation.'
See the post here:
An accomplished geotechnical engineer and Professor at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, she played a pivotal role in the construction of the Chenab Railway Bridge.
A commitment that she fulfilled over 17 years.
Dr. G. Madhavi Latha Garu is my… pic.twitter.com/UFo4eFcQ09
— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) June 9, 2025
With over two lakh views, the post garnered praise from numerous social media users, who hailed Dr Latha for her contributions. 'Proud of such engineers achieving infrastructure dreams,' a user wrote. 'What an engineering marvel. The Chenab Bridge stands tall thanks to visionaries like Dr. Madhavi Latha,' another user commented.
Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu celebrated Dr Latha's 17-year dedication to the project. 'Another Telugu daughter has made India proud! I salute Professor G. Madhavi Latha Garu, one of the brilliant minds behind the world's highest railway bridge over the Chenab River, inaugurated by Hon'ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi Ji on June 6. Hailing from a small village in Andhra Pradesh, she dedicated 17 years of hard work and sacrifice to build this architectural marvel for the nation,' he wrote on X.
'I congratulate the entire team of engineers and construction workers on completing this unprecedented project, despite the challenging terrain and harsh weather conditions. Your contributions towards nation-building are inspiring,' he added.
Another Telugu daughter has made India proud!
I salute Professor G. Madhavi Latha Garu, one of the brilliant minds behind the world's highest railway bridge over the Chenab River, inaugurated by Hon'ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi Ji on June 6. Hailing from a small village in… pic.twitter.com/uRusNwWXpM
— N Chandrababu Naidu (@ncbn) June 8, 2025
The Chenab Bridge, soaring 359 metres above the river, spans 1,315 metres. It is a steel arch marvel designed to endure seismic activity and strong winds, enhancing connectivity between Jammu and Srinagar.
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India Today
30 minutes ago
- India Today
Case against Jagan Reddy-owned news channel for derogatory remarks on women
Andhra Pradesh Police have registered a case against two Telugu journalists Kommineni Srinivas and VV Krishnam Raju, and the management of Sakshi TV, a regional news channel owned by YSRCP chief Jagan Mohan Reddy, for allegedly making derogatory remarks about women from the Amaravati region. The remarks, aired live on Sakshi TV on June 6, were reportedly made by journalist VV Krishnam Raju, who allegedly referred to the Amaravati region as a 'capital of prostitutes'.advertisementThe case was filed on June 9 at the Thullur Police Station in Guntur district under several sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Information Technology Act, and Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The FIR includes offences under sections 79, 196(1), 353(2), 299, 356(2), 61(1)BNS, 67 ITA-2008, 3(1)(U), SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Kommineni Srinivas was arrested in Hyderabad, Telangana, and is expected to be brought to Vijayawada for further proceedings. Andhra Pradesh Assembly Deputy Speaker Raghurama Krishna Raju filed a complaint with the Director General of Police on Saturday, calling the televised remarks an affront to journalistic ethics and requesting that cases be filed under various sections of the Indian Penal Code against Krishnam Raju, Kommineni Srinivas, Sakshi TV, and the programme Telugu Desam Party Member of Parliament Lavu Krishna Devarayalu lodged complaints with the Press Council of India and the National Human Rights Commission, urging an inquiry into the broadcast and demanding punitive Sunday, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu had issued a strong condemnation of the remarks aired on Sakshi TV. 'Ours is a culture that honours daughters. We belong to a society that reveres the feminine divine. This is our tradition — the essence of Indian life. Particularly among Telugu people, daughters and mothers are held in deep affection and high esteem,' Naidu said. 'In such a state of ours, making disgraceful and vulgar remarks about our mothers and sisters under the guise of political vendetta or media analysis is an unforgivable offence.'He further criticised the YSRCP for propagating what he called a 'toxic culture' through its media arm, and rebuked Jagan Mohan Reddy for remaining silent on the matter. 'It is even more distressing that a former Chief Minister, under whose own media channel these offensive statements were broadcast, has yet to denounce the act or apologise to women — a silence that is deeply troubling,' Naidu warned of strict consequences, declaring, 'Those who crossed all boundaries and wounded the sentiments of women in the name of a malicious conspiracy against the capital will face the strictest possible consequences. The derogatory and deliberate insults aimed at the women of that region — who protested against the previous destructive regime — are not just attacks on individuals, but an affront to womanhood itself.' He added that the National Democratic Alliance government would act decisively to protect the dignity of Andhra Pradesh Women's Commission Chairperson Rayapati Sailaja also condemned the remarks. She said, 'Those who insulted the women of Amaravati must be punished. No one should defend the derogatory comments made by Sakshi Media against the women of the capital. It is not appropriate to attribute caste and religion to Amaravati.'She accused the channel of spreading misinformation without basis. 'What wrong did the women of Amaravati do? Was it their mistake donating land for Amaravati? There is no justification for making insulting remarks about women under the guise of freedom of speech,' she said. 'Did the farmers of Amaravati say anything to Sakshi media? It is Sakshi media that has once again pushed Amaravati farmers onto the streets.'Andhra Pradesh IT Minister Nara Lokesh also criticised YS Jagan Mohan Reddy in a public statement. 'How can your media house Sakshi insult women so horrifically? The false propaganda driven by hatred towards the self-respect of mothers and towards Amaravati is the peak of your degradation,' he said. Calling Amaravati 'the capital of the gods', he accused the former Chief Minister of seeking to defame the region. 'The NDA government will not tolerate any further attacks on the women of the state or their dignity,' he said, demanding an unconditional apology and promising that the alliance government would ensure strict punishment for those found guilty. advertisementIN THIS STORY#Andhra Pradesh


Hindustan Times
an hour ago
- Hindustan Times
Daneesh Majid: 'History has mostly been written by those in power'
What made you address this important piece of our history and the unjustifiably long gap in public discourse? How did you approach writing about that politically sensitive moment? An epiphany back in early 2020 propelled me into action. A little before Covid, a video interview I conducted with Arshad Pirzada crystallized something I had been thinking about when carrying out some Hyderabad-centric features for The Hindu Business Line's weekly magazine two years earlier. Pirzada is a former Gulf NRI whose family came from a priestly lineage and had ties to the bureaucratic Asaf Jahi establishment. Post-1948, they had to adjust to life as numerical minorities in a democratic landscape unlike the old feudal setup in which the ruling Muslim minority held sway. The then chief editor, Ayoob Ali Khan, chided both of us for not emphasizing this fall and rise aspect of Pirzada's journey, one which included him becoming an economic migrant to Saudi Arabia and paving the way for his family's economic revival. There are plenty of such stories in Hyderabad that have remained undocumented (not only because many elders are no longer with us) and diluted through generations. A lot of these accounts have not been brought to the fore through crisp, timely and accessible narratives in the vein of works by authors like Urvashi Butalia, Anam Zakaria, Aanchal Malhotra and yourself. As for my approach, I could not solely rely on oral accounts. Besides my own enormous bookshelf, I scoured various bookstores, accessed personal libraries and found some academic articles to recreate the eras and build worlds that the 11 different families featured in the book lived in. My editor Vikram Shah's nudges in the right direction were key to this. Hyderabad is a city of syncretism, but also of stark divides – linguistic, religious, and class-based. How did you navigate these complexities while telling its story? Some of these divides existed pre-1948. For instance, many people believe that the Mulki agitation which began surfacing in the early 1950s was the earliest harbinger of the Telangana-Andhra divide. One story an acquaintance told me was about his father, a participant in the anti-Nizam and eventually anti-Indian government struggle. When his father was hiding out among Andhra Telugu cadres and interacting with ordinary citizens during the late 1940s in Bapatla, Madras Presidency, some of them either wondered how he was able to articulately communicate in Telugu while many poked fun at his Telangana dialect outright. That too, despite the fact that the Andhra Jana Sangham, which helped foment revolt in Telangana brought the Telugu populations from Madras Presidency and Telangana together on the basis of language. He also spoke of how Andhraites monopolized decision-making out of a sense of organizational superiority. So rather than only looking at these divisions through post-colonial, contemporary lenses, finding and citing primary/secondary sources that mention previous iterations of these divisions helped in navigating those present-day discords. Please tell us about your most important sources, and share any stories that surprised you or changed your thinking. Two important ones which altered specific notions come to mind — both my own and commonly held ones. Dr Rafiuddin Farouqui's compilation of the Aurangabad (then a part of the Nizam state)-born Maulana Maududi's letters, in which he beseeches Qasim Razvi to negotiate the best terms of accession with the Indian government. It showed a more farsighted, accommodating side to someone that many, including my own great-grandfather, who served as a Director in the Religious Affairs Department of Princely Hyderabad, saw as a hardliner. Chukka Ramaiah, the now 98-year-old activist who participated in the early days of the Telangana Revolt not only abhorred the ruled Hindu vs. ruler Muslim angle of looking at the anti-Nizam struggle, but a cruder version of the Andhra versus Telangana binary too. He was all praise for a class of Andhraites who arrived in Hyderabad state during the early 1950s, not as monopolisers of the commercial and ruling dispensations. This group of egalitarian-minded teachers from Andhra uplifted Telangana Telugus who previously didn't have access to education, especially in their mother tongue. Our respective works (mine on the Sindhis) trace the afterlives of two distinct but parallel communities deeply affected by the reshaping of India after Partition. What does this say about how we remember the 'unwritten histories' of India – the ones lived not by governments, but by people? History has mostly been written by those in power. Today, various political figures have been rewriting history especially through their election rhetoric. Since 2018, state, municipal and national polls saw certain opposition factions referring to then Chief Minister KCR as the 'New Nizam.'. The 'Nizam culture' was also blamed entirely for the city's so-called inability to become a global IT hub. All this amounts to a constant rewriting of the past by the powers that be as they evoke the powers that were! But it is the ordinary citizenry of today, the majority of which doesn't have the time nor resources to (re)evaluate bygone eras, who gets polarized as a result. Cinema, social media reels and WhatsApp forwards, backed by a robust ecosystem don't help either. Yes, the Nizam possessed his shortcomings, and princely Hyderabad had a dark side to it. But this us-versus-them prism, with the Nizam and the Razakars being equated as the sole aggressors, has gained too much currency. I was told first and second-hand stories from Kayasthas and Telangana Hindus about Osman Ali Khan's personal generosity and his patronage of temples. A lot of Telugu and Urdu literature chronicles how religious Muslims took to the onset of leftism against a feudal set up spearheaded by their 'own.' Micro-histories that ask the 'big' questions about historical occurrences, in the 'small' places are the need of the hour. Food, tehzeeb, language, architecture – Hyderabad's cultural distinctiveness is legendary. Which elements do you think are still thriving, and which are slipping away? Shervanis as well as Rumi topis are still worn at weddings and various functions. The food, for the most part, is still around. The feudal mentality that makes things more hierarchical while also inducing inertia among Hyderabadis won't disappear anytime soon. That being said, to varying extents, these elements certainly haven't been immune to the onset of McDonaldization. The Dakhani dialect, which isn't in danger of being fully cannibalized by shuddh Hindi or khaalis Urdu yet, can still be heard widely. But the nastaleeq script in which one can read Dakhani and standard Urdu literary gems, is rapidly fading away. Signboards on streets as well as government offices and Urdu 'jashns/anjumans' that often take place are in no way indicative of any substantive revival. Unless the prose is translated, which to some is code for 'diluted,' so much literature risks becoming obscure or an exotic relic of the past. In the past three years, some of my favourite Old City bookstores have closed or aren't selling non-religious content. Did you find yourself having to leave certain things out – whether due to space, sensitivity, or complexity? Are there stories you wish you'd been able to tell more fully? Yes. Throughout my research and fieldwork, I learned of some interesting reasons regarding why some Hyderabadis did or didn't undertake life-altering migrations to the West, the Gulf, other Indian cities, certain parts of Telangana/AP, or even Pakistan. There are some intriguing anecdotes about why some Muslims decided to either stay in India or make the move to Pakistan. After 1948, even the apolitical, professional class of Hyderabad's Muslims, regardless of whether they had ties to the nobility, considered settling in Pakistan. Despite the 1965 War, which put spokes in the wheel of Indo-Pak travel, many left for Pakistan in the 1970s out of personal grievances. Including such sagas would have provided a more personal, interior context as to why people decided to leave their families and native soil. However, if an interviewee requests for the omission of any detail or anecdote, out of respect and sensitivity, I have to oblige. Who did you imagine as your ideal reader while writing this book – and what do you hope they will take away from it? My ideal reader was always someone who wants to look at how people remember tragic episodes alongside common, sometimes militantly mainstreamed interpretations. Irrespective of whether the reader approaches my first book as such, at the very least, I hope that they get to experience the flavour of Hyderabad through its 11 diverse families. After all, a city's cultural distinctiveness isn't only defined by its monuments, cuisine and languages, but also by those who call(ed) it home. Saaz Aggarwal is the author of Sindh — Stories from a Vanished Homeland.


India Today
2 hours ago
- India Today
Meet Dr Madhavi Latha, the IISc professor behind world's highest Chenab bridge
Dr G Madhavi Latha, a distinguished professor at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, and an engineer, has been instrumental in the development of the Chenab Rail Bridge, the world's highest railway bridge. Located in Jammu and Kashmir, this bridge stands 359 meters above the Chenab River and is part of a crucial railway project aimed at improving Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu congratulated Dr Latha for her 17-year dedication to work towards building the world's highest railway a post on X, the chief minister wrote, "Another Telugu daughter has made India proud! I salute Professor G. Madhavi Latha Garu, one of the brilliant minds behind the world's highest railway bridge over the Chenab River, inaugurated by Hon'ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi Ji on June 6. Hailing from a small village in Andhra Pradesh, she dedicated 17 years of hard work and sacrifice to build this architectural marvel for the nation." He also applauded the entire team for successfully completing this milestone. He added, "I congratulate the entire team of engineers and construction workers on completing this unprecedented project, despite the challenging terrain and harsh weather conditions. Your contributions towards nation-building are inspiring." advertisement PROFESSOR MADHAVI LATHA'S EDUCATIONDr Latha completed her BTech in Civil Engineering from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad, in 1992. She then pursued her MTech in Geotechnical Engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Warangal, where she graduated as a Gold 2000, she earned her PhD in Geotechnical Engineering from IIT Madras. After completing her doctoral studies, Dr Latha joined the IISc in 2003 as a faculty member, following her tenure as an Assistant Professor at IIT she serves as a professor in the Department of Civil Engineering and is also the Chair of the Centre for Sustainable Technologies at AND HONOURSDr Latha has received numerous prestigious awards and honours throughout her career. In 2021, she was recognised as the Best Woman Researcher in Geotechnical Engineering by the Indian Geotechnical also received the Prof SK Chatterjee Outstanding Researcher Award from IISc and the Woman Achiever Award from the Karnataka Book of is a recipient of the SERB POWER Fellowship and was listed amongst the Top 75 Women in STEAM of India in she served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Indian Geotechnical Journal from 2016 to 2022 and has been an Associate Editor for several international IN DEVELOPING WORLD'S HIGHEST BRIDGEadvertisementDr Latha's role in this project was not easy. She had to face extreme weather, challenging terrain, and the harsh conditions of the mountainous region. The bridge is being constructed at a height higher than the Eiffel Tower and requires precision engineering to ensure its safety and passion for infrastructure development and her ability to thrive in such a tough environment has earned her great respect amongst her peers. Despite the hurdles, she has successfully managed the bridge's construction with dedication and a woman in a traditionally male-dominated field, Dr Madhavi Latha has faced her share of challenges but continues to break barriers. Her leadership and hard work have inspired many, especially women, to pursue careers in engineering.