Baby abandoned by mom at Udupi hospital in 1970 is now Swiss Parliamentarian!

coastaldigest.com news network
December 14, 2017

Udupi: Around 47 years ago, a newborn baby was abandoned by his mother at Basel Mission Hospital in South Indian temple town of Udupi. Today, he is the first Indian born parliamentarian in Switzerland!

Unfortunately, neither Nik Gugger nor his foster parents know who is his biological mother and why did she abandon.

As the Basel Mission Hospital could not trace the mother who left the hospital after giving birth to the male child, the newborn was sent to what is now the Nettur Technical Training Foundation (NTTF) campus at Illikkunnu in Kerala’s Thalassery.

Nik was sworn in as member of Nationalrat (Swiss Parliament) in Bern in November this year. He has been elected to Swiss Parliament as a candidate of the Evangelical Party. He is one of the youngest members in Swiss Parliament.

The father of three children still cherishes his association with people and institutions at Thalassery where had grown up as an orphan till a Swiss couple – Fritz Gugger and Elizabeth Gugger – formally adopted him and took him to Europe.

However, he is hesitant to find out his biological mother. “No mother will abandon her child without a strong reason. If I meet my mother now it will be shock to her,” says Nik, who believes in destiny.

“I am proud to be in between the two cultures, the Swiss and Indian culture,” says Nik, who is likely to visit India next year when the 70th anniversary of Indo-Swiss friendship would be celebrated.

Nik started his political career as a councillor in the town parliament of Winterthur, the sixth biggest town in Switzerland, and as a member in the Cantonal Council.

He recalls that his foster father was an experienced social worker who had played an important role in shaping him as a social worker. His social work had given him an opportunity to work in Colombia as a youth worker. He studied at the Center for Agogics in Basel, the University of Amsterdam and also at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences.

Comments

Neeha
 - 
Thursday, 14 Dec 2017

Congratulatioons,  happy to see this

shaji
 - 
Thursday, 14 Dec 2017

Thanks God for blessing you with such a nice foster parents.  Wish you all the best and hope you will meet your real some day somewhere.  

Zakir Husain
 - 
Thursday, 14 Dec 2017

Congratulations!

Charan Kumar
 - 
Thursday, 14 Dec 2017

He would have become president of Switzerland if he had grown up with her real biological mother.

Naren Kotian
 - 
Thursday, 14 Dec 2017

Congrats Nik. God bless u. Now Bunder ka bakras who are busy in gujri business might be thinking why their mothers did not abandon them after giving them birth.

Manjay Sheela …
 - 
Thursday, 14 Dec 2017

Great story. But what I think is Mr Nik Gugger should trace her mom so that I can make a film on his life with additional masala casting ranveer Singh. Ramya krishna will play his mother’s role!

Sandeep
 - 
Thursday, 14 Dec 2017

Great improvement.. Congrats and All the best Nik Gugger

George
 - 
Thursday, 14 Dec 2017

God's grace. God planned something. Congrats brother

WellWisher
 - 
Thursday, 14 Dec 2017

May gods blessings always be with you and good luck.  Now you may want to know your mother / parents. But in temple city Udupi you don't try .  Specialized group may forcefully drag you to accept certain religion hence

be careful on these activist.

Don't forget your mother land culture.

Danish
 - 
Thursday, 14 Dec 2017

We cant say, if the mother had not abandoned him, he would now be living here as a govt employee or IT engineer. See his luck

Kumar
 - 
Thursday, 14 Dec 2017

Now we may see as a follow ups such as motherhood claims, compensation etc

Rahul
 - 
Thursday, 14 Dec 2017

Proud moment. Great to see this. Congrats

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News Network
April 8,2025

madhubangarappa.jpg

Bengaluru: The results of the PUC 2 examination one were announced today with an over all pass percentage of 69.16 as against the 81.15% in the 2024 exam 1.

Due to several examination reforms, including installation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) enabled CCTV cameras in the examination hall to check malpractices and webcasting of the entire process, the results seem to have dipped by 11.99% compared to the previous year.

The results will be available online after 1:30pm. Candidates can visit http://karresults.nic.in to check their results.

Amoolya M Kamath from Expert PU college Dakshina Kannada, Deeksha R from Vagdevi PU College Shivamogga have topped the state in science stream by scoring 599 for 600.

In Commerce Deepashree S from Canara PU College Dakshina Kannada emerged as topper with 599 out of 600 and in Arts LR Sanjana Bai of Indu Independent PU college Kottur in Ballari bagged the first place by scoring 597.

Minister for School Education and Literacy Madhu Bangarappa released the results and said, "students those who have failed or those who wish to improve their marls can take exam 2 and 3. We will not be charging any fee for exam 2 and 3."

"I will not say students are failed. As the exam process will complete only after 3rd exam, we have hopes to improve the results by 3-4%," he mentioned.

"We have opportunity to improve the results. We have conducted the exams with complete vigil by preventing all the malpractices by monitoring through webcasting," said the minister.

For exams 1 total of 6,37,805 were appeared of which 468439 managed to clear the exams.

This time department has not given any grace marks, except the one which awards to push those who were in border line. "There were over 8297 students in the borderline and pushed with the grace as per scheme of evaluation," the minister added.

Udupi Leads Again

The coastal district of Udupi has emerged as the top performer once again, recording a remarkable 93.90% pass rate, as per a report on One India. Dakshina Kannada followed closely with 93.57%, while Bangalore South stood third at 85.36%. At the bottom of the list, Yadgir reported the lowest pass percentage with 48.45%.

Here are the top 10 performing districts:

Udupi – 93.90%
Dakshina Kannada – 93.57%
Bangalore South – 85.36%
Kodagu – 83.84%
Bangalore North – 83.31%
Uttara Kannada – 82.93%
Shimoga – 79.91%
Bangalore Rural – 79.70%
Chikmagalur – 79.56%
Haveri – 76.56%

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News Network
March 27,2025

nandini.jpg

The Karnataka government has announced that Nandini milk will become ₹4 costlier per litre starting April 1, 2025. This is the second price hike this year.

The decision was made during a cabinet meeting led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. Karnataka Cooperation Minister K N Rajanna and Animal Husbandry Minister K Venkatesh said the increase is meant to support dairy farmers by covering the rising costs of producing and processing milk.

Officials also said that:

>> The extra money from the price hike will go directly to the milk producers.

>> The earlier ₹2 price hike (announced on June 26, 2024) will be withdrawn.

>> The new price hike of ₹4 will apply to both 500 ml and 1-litre packets.

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News Network
April 7,2025

Mangaluru, Apr 7: The long-standing demand for a separate Beary Development Corporation has hit a wall — the Karnataka government has officially stated that no such proposal is currently under consideration.

Beary-speaking people, mainly settled across Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, and parts of Kodagu, have been urging the government to set up a dedicated body for the welfare of their community and the promotion of their unique 1,200-year-old language. But during the recent legislative session, Minority Affairs Minister B.Z. Zameer Ahmed Khan confirmed that his department has not received any proposal on this matter.

The clarification came in response to a question by MLC Ivan D’Souza, who highlighted the community’s cultural richness and a population of over 25 lakh. “The community has raised this demand several times to support education and social upliftment, but the government hasn’t taken any concrete steps,” he said.

In his reply, the minister pointed out that the Karnataka Minorities Development Corporation (KMDC) already runs various welfare schemes for Muslim, Christian, Jain, Buddhist, Sikh, and Parsi communities. Since Beary speakers are considered part of the Muslim community, they are eligible for benefits under these existing programs, he added.

Still, many in the Beary community feel that without a separate development body, their identity, language, and specific needs risk being overlooked.

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