Here are the big stories from Karnataka today

Karnataka Today newsletter: HAL hands over first LCA Tejas twin seater aircraft to IAF, and more

The Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) handed over the first LCA Tejas twin seater to the Indian Air Force in the presence of Union Minister of State for Defence & Tourism Ajay Bhatt at a ceremony in Bengaluru on October 4.

The LCA Tejas Twin Seater is a lightweight, all-weather multi-role 4.5 generation aircraft. It is designed to support the training requirements of the IAF and augment itself to the role of a fighter in case of necessity. The production of the LCA twin seater variant adds India to the list of very few elite countries who have created such a capability and have them operational in their Defence Forces.

The street dog survey carried out by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) shows that the population of stray dogs has come down by 10% from 3.10 lakh in 2019 to 2.79 lakh in the city. The BBMP attributed the decrease to Animal Birth Control (ABC)-Anti Rabies Vaccinations (ARV) programmes. 

The survey that was conducted through sight-resight method showed that neutering of dogs has increased by 20% from 51.16% in 2019 to 71.85%. At 58,341, the highest number of strays was recorded in Mahadevapura zone and lest number was recorded in Dasarahalli with 21,221 dogs.

Two Shivamogga-based engineering graduates, Akshay V. Nayak and Karthik B.S., have launched an application that could help people with speech and hearing impairment. While there are several applications that convert typed text into speech, their app — Writell — does real-time handwriting-to-speech translation, which makes communication accessible and inclusive.

The application helps convert handwriting in English, Kannada, and eight other Indian languages into speech. The application was launched for Android users on September 21 for free. So far, around 700 people have downloaded it. 

Heavy movement of vehicles between Bengaluru and Mangaluru on National Highway 75 this past weekend due to a series of holidays resulted in motorists having to crawl in and around Kalladka town amid the slush-filled carriageway.