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Facilities under
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ESIC medical students
observe hunger strike
6
Anderson ready to face
the heat
7
AAP up in arms over
Land Acquisition bill
8
Sakthi, a legend
is no more
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Chennai’s No 1 English evening daily since 1982
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NATIONAL DAILY
VOL. XXXIII NO. 79
FOUNDER EDITOR: T.R.R
H CHENNAI H TUESDAY 24.2.2015 (EVENING) H OTHER STATIONS WEDNESDAY 25.2.2015 (MORNING) H 8 PAGES Rs. 4.00 H Regd. No., TN/CC(S) DN/223/15-17, RNI No: 33810 / 82
A
Big day
IADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa turned 67 today, with
partymen organising a number of welfare activities
to mark their leader’s birthday. While special prayers
at religious places were conducted for the former Chief
Minister’s acquittal in an assets case also, mass marriages
and welfare activities marked the day for supporters.
While Ministers were at the forefront of organising
special prayers including pulling temple cars praying for
the well-being of their ‘Amma’ (mother), a slew of events
were organised to mark the occasion across the State.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was among the leaders
who extended birthday greetings to Jayalalithaa.
In the cricket World Cup, Chris Gayle bludgeoned his
way into the record books by becoming the ﬁrst player
to score a double century in the World Cup as the West
Indies rode on the big-hitting opener’s record-equalling
16 sixes to notch up an imposing 372 for two against
Zimbabwe in Canberra today.
Gayle smashed 215 off just 147 balls with the help
of a staggering 16 sixes and 10 fours during a world
record 372-run second-wicket partnership with centurion Marlon Samuels.
Meanwhile, a united Opposition today tore into an
ordinance promulgated to amend land acquisition rules,
calling it an ‘anti-farmer’ move brought by ‘bypassing’
Parliament to beneﬁt corporate houses, a charge vehmently denied by the government.
Amid uproar, govt
tables Land Bill
AMMA WAY
q We will never work against farmers: PM q Oppn walks out
AIADMK veterans celebrating party general secretary J Jayalalithaa’s
birthday at the AIADMK headquarters in Chennai today.
Photo: A R JAYAKUMAR
Welfare activities galore
as Jaya turns 67
NT Bureau
Chennai, Feb 24:
AIADMK general secretary J
Jayalalithaa today turned 67, with
party activists organising a number
of welfare activities to mark their
leader’s birthday.
While special prayers were held at
religious places for the wellbeing of
Jayalalithaa and for her to become
the Chief Minister again, mass marriages and other welfare activities
marked the day for supporters.
At the party headquarters in
Chennai, a souvenir was released
by Electricity Minister and Dindigul
AIADMK secretary Natham R
Viswanathan. Later, a cake weighing 67 kg was cut by Social Welfare Minister B Valarmathi. Chief
Minister O Panneerselvam and
other seniors were present.
Panneerselvam also kickstarted a
mega scheme to plant 67 lakh saplings across the State.
Recalling that Jayalalithaa kickstarted similar projects in 2012, 2013 and
2014, an ofﬁcial release said that the
present initiative is aimed at planting
2.9 lakh saplings in each district. ‘The
work will be completed by December
Modi greets
Prime Minister Narendra
Modi was among the leaders who extended birthday
greetings to Jayalalithaa
today.
‘Birthday greetings to Jayalalithaa ji. May she be
blessed with a long life,
ﬁlled with good health,’ the
Prime Minister tweeted.
this year,’ the release said and
added that Ministers took part in
the launch of this Forest Department’s project in districts and
planted Vilvam saplings.
On Jayalalithaaa’s birthday
today, Ministers were at the
forefront of organising special
prayers including pulling temple cars seeking the Almighty’s
blessings for the well-being of
their ‘Amma’.
Health Minister Dr C Vijayabhaskar has organised health
camps from today till 28 February. Similarly, other Ministers and
office-bearers have organised
various welfare activities.
New Delhi, Feb 24 :
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today
asked the party’s MPS to defend all the
ordinances including the Land Acquisition
Bill. He asked BJP MPs at the Parliamentary Party meet to bust the ‘myths’
propagated by opposition on land bill. He
also asked all NDA MPs to aggressively
defend the ordinances.
The PM has told the MPs that the party
could never work against the interest of
poor farmers, in a direct reference to the
land acquisition law.
A united Opposition today tore into
the ordinance promulgated to amend
land acquisition rules and walked out of
the Parliament calling it an ‘anti-farmer’
move brought by ‘bypassing’ Parliament
to beneﬁt corporate houses, a charge
vehmently denied by the government.
Soon after obituary references and
listed papers laid on the table in Rajya
Sabha, Anand Sharma said Congress
and three other parties have given a
notice under rule 267 for suspension
SI dies in road
mishap at Villivakkam
NT Bureau
Chennai, Feb 24:
A Special Sub Inspector with the CBCID (Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation
Department) died in a road accident this
morning at Villivakkam.
According to police sources, Dinakaran
(50), a resident of Cauvery Street at
Gangai Nagar in Kallikuppam, was riding
alone on his two-wheeler given by the
police department on New Avadi Road
in Villivakkam, when a mini lorry hit the
bike on the left side. The impact threw
Dinakaran to the ground and he died on
the spot owing to head injuries. Police
sources said, he was riding without a
helmet. He is survived by his wife Leela,
son and a daughter.
Gayle-storm leaves
Zimbabwe dazed
q Samuels also hits ton as WI posts 372
Canberra, Feb 24 (PTI):
Chris Gayle bludgeoned his way
into the record books by becoming
the ﬁrst player to score a double
century in the World Cup as the
West Indies rode on the big-hitting
opener’s record-equalling 16 sixes
to notch up an imposing 372 for
two against Zimbabwe here today.
Gayle smashed 215 off just 147
balls with the help of a staggering 16 sixes and 10 fours during
Gayle became the ﬁrst batsman to score a double century
in the World Cup and is the
only player in world cricket to
hit a triple hundred in Tests,
double hundred in ODIs and
a hundred in Twenty20 Internationals.
a world record 372-run secondwicket partnership with centurion
Marlon Samuels.
Former South Africa opener
Gary Kirsten held the previous
individual record with a score of
188 against the same opponents
at the 1996 edition in Rawalpindi,
while the legendary retired Indian
duo of Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul
Dravid held the partnership record,
which they scripted against New
Chris Gayle
Zealand in 1999.
Gayle thus became the only
player in world cricket to hit a
triple hundred in Tests, double
hundred in ODIs and a hundred
in Twenty20 Internationals.
This was Gayle’s ﬁrst century
since June 2013, the ton coming
off 105 balls after the two-time
winners opted to bat at the Manuka
Oval. He reached his double ton in
138 balls, hitting Tendai Chatara for a
boundary.
While his ﬁrst hundred was a workmanlike effort, the second was Gayle at his
devastating best, getting their off a mere
33 balls. Such was the onslaught that
West Indies smashed the hapless Zimbabwe bowlers for 195 runs in the last 13
overs, 152 of them coming in the ﬁnal 10.
Gayle fell short of the highest number
of sixes by only one, tying it with India’s
Rohit Sharma and South African
captain AB de Villiers.
Gayle was ably supported by
Samuels who scored 133 off
156 balls with the help of 11
fours and three sixes.
Gayle’s effort was also the
highest ever individual score
by a West Indian batsman, bettering Vivian Richards’ 189 against
England way back in 1984.
The total gave West Indies a perfect
platform to post their second win in the
tournament and inch closer to a quarterﬁnal berth, after starting their campaign
with a shock defeat against Ireland.
The powerful hitter treated the Zimbabwean bowlers with disdain as he
recaptured his best form after scoring
just 36 and four in his ﬁrst two knocks
at the quadrennial extravaganza.
of the business as the government
has bypassed Parliament to make
changes in a law that was passed in
2013 through consensus of all parties
including BJP.
Defending the ordinance route,
Finance Minister and Leader of the
House Arun Jaitley said 639 ordinances had been promulgated since
Independence, of which 80 per cent
were under Congress rule.
As many as 70 ordinances were
promulgated under ﬁrst Prime Minister
Jawaharlal Nehru and 18 under United
Front, he said listing ordinances that
were promulgated multiple times during
the previous UPA regime.
‘No law can be passed by bypassing Parliament,’ he said, adding
a bill to convert the ordinance into an
Act was listed for introduction in Lok
Sabha and after it is passed in that
House, it will be brought to the Upper
House for discussion.
‘So the new logic that is being constructed that Parliament is being bypassed, is not justiﬁed,’ Jaitley said.
Sharma responded saying ordinances under Nehru were spread
over his 17 years in power and under
extra-ordinary circumstances as the
country had just been partitioned.
The ordinances under UPA had to
be re-promulgated multiple time as
the opposition had not allowed the
House to function, he said.
Stating that no bill was being referred to parliamentary standing
committees, the Congress leader said
the land ordinance was promulgated
without discussion with anyone inside
or outside the House and the government was by-passing parliament
scrutiny. Raising a point of order,
Jaitley said since a bill on the land
ordinance would be introduced in
the Rajya Sabha after being passed
in Lok Sabha, the House cannot be
discussing the issue twice.
Responding to this, Deputy Chairman P J Kurien said Zero Hour was
meant for members and it is only an
anticipation that the bill would come
up in the Upper House.
Mayawati (BSP) said the land acquisition bill passed by Parliament in
2013 was done after elaborate consultations and the present ordinance
was not in the interest of the farmers
and favoured only few industralists
and corporate houses.
2 TUESDAY
24 FEBRUARY 2015
City
Centre
Breaking news
at Anna Nagar
At whose convenience?
Besant Nagar bus depot has no toilets
Though the
facility is
equipped with
CHENNAI
TNSCB quarters in Thirumangalam in a shambles
toilets for bus
drivers and
conductors, most
A view of the Besant Nagar bus depot.
A
s one passes by
b Besant
B
t Nagar
N
bus depot, one is forced to
close his/her nose or will have to
hold the breath due to overpowering
stench.
Though the depot is equipped with
toilets for bus drivers and conductors,
most of them are often found
polluting the open space.
And due to the absence of
public toilets in the depot,
passengers are also forced
to do the same.
‘Besant Nagar bus depot
receives
huge
footfall
of
commuters everyday, but there
are no toilets still. And the one
constructed for the staff too is not
maintained properly’, claims a bus
driver.
Due
D
to
t this
thi inconvenience,
i
i
mostt
passengers prefer to defecate in
the open, especially near the place
where autorickshaws and twowheelers are parked.
Mani, a commuter, says, even if
the ofcials construct toilets, they
must be maintained
properly. ‘Because
unhygienic toilets
are going to drive
R
ADYA
the passengers to
litter in the open,’ he says.
Absence of toilets affects the
women passengers more. Because,
while the male commuters nd their
way somehow, the women are left
with no option.
‘Toilets are necessary in public
places. In depots, either the toilet
of them are often
found polluting
the open space
is not there or is it not maintained
properly,’ says Chandrasekaran K R.
He further says providing access to
good quality public toilets is the need
of the hour. When there are no public
toilets in sight, people answer the call
of nature in open.
Public toilets should be designed in
such a way that they minimise hand
contact as far as possible for hygienic
reasons. The responsibility of
keeping the toilet clean also lies with
the users, apart from the authorities
concerned, many feel.
—NT Bureau
GETTING FACELIFT
PHOTO: M SRINIVASAN
The pavement on 13th Main Road in Anna Nagar is being re-laid,
bringing relief to pedestrians.
IN HOME
SONY PIX
05:56PM
09:00PM
11:18PM
The Karate Kid
Sniper: Legacy
P2
HBO
06:10PM
05:00 PM New Songs
vs. Zimbabwe
06:30 PM Galatta Comedy
07:00 PM Cricket World Cup : Tales
The Adventures of Tintin
08:30 PM Akka
11:08PM
Enter the Dragon
09:00 PM Priyamana Thozhi
The Legend of Hercules
10:00 PM Kavidhaiyae Theriyuma
09:00PM
Journey 2: The Mysterious
10:30 PM English News
Island
10:45 PM Tamil News
Shaolin Temple
11:00 PM Thenkinnam
SUN TV
07:11PM
Jurassic Park III
03:00 PM Valli
09:00PM
Transporter 2
03:30 PM Movie
10:41PM
Thir13en Ghosts
06:00 PM Mundhanai Mudichu
06:30 PM Pasamalar
07:00 PM News
07:30 PM Nadhaswaram
08:00 PM Deiva Magal
08:30 PM Vamsam
09:00 PM Priyamanaval
09:30 PM Vani Rani
Kamala Theatre, Udhayam Theatre, PVR Cinemas,
10:00 PM Sakthi
AGS Cinemas, INOX National, Abirami Mega Mall,
10:30 PM Azhagi
Woodlands Multiplex, Mayajaal Cinema, Sangam
11:00 PM Movie
Multiplex, Sri Ganga Cinema, Raj Theatre, Maharani
Theatre
ANEGAN
Mayajaal, Escape Cinema, Devi Cineplex, Kamala Theatre,
PVR Cinemas, Sangam, AGS, INOX National, Hall, Rakki
Multiplex, Abirami Theatres,
THAMIZHUKKU ENN ONDRAI
AZHUTHAVUM
Kamala Theatre Mayajaal, AGS Cinemas, Escape
Cinema, Abirami Theatres, Devi Cineplex, PVR
Cinemas, Luxe Cinemas, AGS, INOX National,
Woodlands,
07:30 PM ICC Cricket World Cup
2015 H/ls : West Indies
10:00 PM News Headlines
10:02 PM Kaliyugam
10:30 PM Sirippu Varudhu
11:00 PM Telebuy
KA LAIGNAR TV
VIJ AY TV
03:00 PM Saravanan Meenatchi
vs. West Indies ’04
06:00 PM En Kanavan En Thozhan
stan 2013 (UAE) H/ls : 2nd
09:00 PM Match Point : West Indies
ODI
vs. Zimbabwe
06:00 PM Australia Tour of Pakistan
10:00 PM Cricket Live
2014 (UAE) H/ls : 1st ODI
10:30 PM Late Cut
11:00 PM Match Point : West Indies 07:00 PM Cricket Classics : Sri
Lanka vs. India
vs. Zimbabwe
04:00 PM Aandaal Azhagar
05:30 PM Uravugal Thodar Kadhai
03:00 PM Cricket Classics : Pakistan
04:00 PM South Africa Tour of Paki-
08:30 PM Cricket Legends
03:30 PM Deivam Thandha Veedu
04:30 PM Super Singer Junior
TEN CRICKET
vs. Zimbabwe
09:30 PM Poomagal
07:05PM
SANDAMARUDHAM
09:30 PM Madippakkam Madhavan
08:00 PM ATP World Tour 500 2015
H/ls : Rio Open
05:30 PM Arusuvai Neram
09:00PM
04:00 PM WWE Raw
09:00 PM WWE Raw
06:30 PM Cricket Legends
08:00 PM Hits
Many residential
apartments at
TNSCB quarters
in NVN Nagar,
Thirumangalam,
have developed
cracks because
of the new
yover project
works, that
is nearing
completion
at Jawaharlal
Nehru Main
Road
04:30 PM Cricket Extra : Post Show 07:00 PM Gillette World Sport
07:30 PM Motorsport Mundial
05:30 PM ICC Cricket World Cup
2015 H/ls : West Indies
07:30 PM News
IN THEATRES
STAR SPORTS 1
JAYA TV
Prince Caspian
STAR MOVIES
he
residents
of
the located in close vicinity to the yover
Tamilnadu Slum Clearance that is coming up. After the kitchenBoard
(TNSCB)
quarters, collapse incident, there is panic
Thirumangalam lurk in fear, as the among residents and they want an
buildings have developed severe immediate action. ‘The cracks are
cracks.
getting bigger as the construction
Many residential apartments of yover is nearing completion. We
at TNSCB quarters in NVN really don’t know when this would
Nagar, Thirumangalam, have cause a collapse’, said Suguna
developed
developing
(name
changed),
a
cracks because of the
dweller here for the past
new yover project
30 years.
AR When the incident
works,
that
is
NAG
A
N
nearing completion
AN
was
reported
to
at Jawaharlal Nehru
TNSCB ofcials, they immediately
main road.
rushed to the site and and repaired
On 11 February,
a
s the damaged portions in many
many buildings developed cracks, apartments. But it is alleged that only
a huge portion of the concrete a few were repaired and checked, as
ceiling in a kitchen at one of the many houses still developed cracks.
apartment, came crashing down.
‘The ofcials used to turn up once
The owner of the house Kala had in two or three years and undertake
a close shave.
some repair works. But cracks are
The colony at NVN Nagar was reappearing because of the yover
build in 1970s by Tamilnadu construction nearby’, said another
Slum Clearance Board, which has resident at ground oor.
around 370 houses. The 14th and
— NT Bureau
15th streets of NVN Nagar are
04:30 PM Kollywood Gallery
The Chronicles of Narnia:
10:55PM
T
TV TODAY
07:00 PM Ramayanam
MOVIES NOW
TNSCB quarters at NVN Nagar in Thirumangalam.
08:00 PM Australia Tour of South
TEN SPORTS
Africa 2014 H/ls : 3rd T20
09:00PM
03:00 PM C2K Xtra Time
Tri-Nation 2014
06:30 PM Puthu Kavithai
07:00 PM Kalyanam Mudhal Kaadhal
Varai
07:30 PM Aandaal Azhagar
08:00 PM Deivam Thandha Veedu
08:30 PM Saravanan Meenatchi
09:00 PM Mahabharatham
09:30 PM Super Singer Junior
10:30 PM Ofce
11:00 PM Kalyanam Mudhal Kaadhal
Varai
11:30 PM Kandaen
RAJ TV
04:00 PM Pudhu Paadal
05:00 PM S K Shoppe
04:30 PM Sirippu Varudhu
05:30 PM Vellithira
05:00 PM Endrum Super
06:00 PM Raj News
05:30 PM Kalai Koil
06:30 PM Thirai Vaanil
06:00 PM Utchakattam
07:00 PM Sindhu Bhairavi
06:30 PM Idhu Pudhusu
07:30 PM Mann Vasanai
07:00 PM News
08:00 PM Karuthamma
07:30 PM Mohini
08:30 PM Alaipayuthey
08:00 PM Bhavani
09:00 PM En Iniya Thozhiye
08:30 PM Romapuri Paandiyan
09:30 PM Gouravam
09:00 PM Odi Vilayadu Pappa
10:00 PM Koppium-Crime Time
S
U
D
O
K
U
2
8
3
1
9
3
8
5
7
3
4
5
2
8
6
2
9
8
1
ANSWER TO
SUDOKU 2998
(23.2.2015)
9
8
5
6
2
2999
The object is to
insert the numbers
in the boxes to
satisfy only one
condition: each
row, column and
3x3 box must
contain the digits
1 through 9 exactly
once: Easy nah?
8
7
4
1
2
9
5
6
1
3
7
8
4
6
1
4
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7
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2
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Around Town
CHENNAI
TUESDAY
24 FEBRUARY 2015
ESIC medical students
observe hunger strike
q Seek reply from Union Labour Ministry on the status of college
e
NT Bureau
Chennai, Feb 24:
Students of the Employees’ State
Insurance Corporation Medical
College (ESIC) at K K Nagar today
went on a one-day hunger strike
seeking favourable reply from Union
Labour Ministry on the status of the
college.
The students are protesting
against the Union Labour Ministry’s recent decision on the exit of
the ESIC from the ﬁeld of medical
education and the stopping of
admissions to the colleges, and
lack of clarity about the future of
their college.
‘We are on the seventh day of our
strike and we plan to intensifying it.
None of the ESIC students across
the country have been addressed
by the Director General or any other
authority so far to comprehend our
Jaya’s request
to martial
arts expert
NT Bureau
Chennai, Feb 24:
Coming to know about martial arts
expert Shihan Hussaini’s action
by nailing himself to a cross in her
support, the AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa on Monday
appealed to him not to take any
step that may endanger his life.
Hussaini, an ardent fan of former
Tamilnadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, crucified himself for
six minutes and seven seconds
to celebrate the birthday of the
AIADMK chief.
‘There is no Indian who has
cruciﬁed himself for some cause.
There is no one across the globe
who has done this. I love Madam
and whenever we went to her, she
had always helped us. I just did
this for her long life and for her to
come back as the Chief Minister,’
Hussaini said.
Hearing the news, Jayalalithaa
said she was deeply shocked and
disturbed to learn that Hussani
had preformed the extreme act
of penance in nailing himself to
the cross and offering a prayer
for her to overcome all obstacles
and to assume charge as Chief
Minister again.
‘While I do appreciate the fervour of your actions, I consider
that subjecting onself to such an
extreme act of self-inﬂicted pain
should be avoided,’ she said in a
statement.
She thanked him for the concern
he had shown in her interest and
advised him to take good care
of himself and not to take such
drastic steps again that might
endanger his life.
Students of ESIC Medical College on a hunger strike inside the college campus at K K Nagar.
problems and ﬁnd a solution to it. We
have forwarded a letter through our
respected Dean and Medical Superintendent, to the Director General of
ESIC , quoting our problems. We de-
mand a meeting with the DG of ESIC
at the earliest possible to get answers
for our questions and discuss our
demands, said the agitating students.
The protest are held by students
Apollo Hospitals inks
pact with Macedonia
q To conduct short/long term
training courses for medical specialists
NT Bureau
Chennai, Feb 24:
Apollo Hospitals and the Ministry
of Health of Republic of Macedonia
have signed an MoU for healthcare
collaboration to provide effective
educational opportunities and
training.
According to a press release, the
MoU was signed by Apollo Hospitals
chief executive ofﬁcer, Chennai, Anne
Marie Moncure and Ambassador of the
Republic of Macedonia in India, Toni
Atanasovski on behalf of the Ministry
of Health in New Delhi recently.
The MoU entails conduct of short/
long term training courses for medical
specialists, nurses, RTG technicians
and other health professionals from
the Republic of Macedonia in various
units of Apollo Hospitals, India to be
provided by the medical experts at
the hospital.
The MoU involves the following specialities - Internal medicine, Surgery,
Cardio surgery, Thoracic surgery,
Vascular surgery, Cardiology, Pediatrics, Gynecology, Anesthesiology,
Neurosurgery, Orthopedic surgery,
Ophthalmology, ENT, Neurology,
Dermatology and Venereal diseases,
Radiology, Radiotherapy, Urology,
Plastic surgery, Nuclear medicine,
Robotics and Transplant.
‘We have developed a special
relationship with the Republic of
The MoU will focus few specialities such as
Internal medicine, Surgery, Cardio surgery,
Thoracic surgery, Vascular surgery, Cardiology,
Pediatrics, Gynecology and Anesthesiology.
Apollo Hospitals CEO, Chennai, Anne Marie Moncure and Ambassador
of the Republic of Macedonia in India, Toni Atanasovski signing the MoU
for healthcare collaboration recently.
Macedonia and have initiated this
programme to bring the beneﬁts of
Apollo’s healthcare model to them.
The purpose behind this pact is to
provide quality education trainings
and development to the healthcare
staff of the Republic of Macedonia.
We also plan to facilitate provision
of telemedicine facilities to patients
ACCA, ICAI
to work together
q Signs MoU to develop and support accountancy profession
NT Bureau
Chennai, Feb 24:
Association of Chartered Certiﬁed Accountants (ACCA) and The
Institute of Cost Accountants of
India (ICAI) have signed an MoU to
develop and support the accountancy profession in India
According to a press release, the
two leading professional bodies
will promote the highest standards
of professionalism and ethics, with
both organisations agreeing to cooperate in professional training,
education and examinations.
The MoU will see ICAI and
ACCA working jointly to ensure
recognition of prior learning by
both organisations, so that members of each body will be exempted from sitting certain papers
offered by each.
ICAI and ACCA have also agreed
to work together on continuing
professional development (CPD)
which is seen by both bodies as a
key requirement of professionalism in a dynamic and demanding
as the Union Labour Ministry has
decided to close down 11 medical
colleges it runs under the ESCI. As
a result, the fate of 238 students (UG,
PG) at K K Nagar hangs in balance.
ICAI president A S Durga Prasad and ACCA chief executive Helen
Brand OBE exchanging the MoU signed between them recently.
business environment.
ACCA chief executive Helen Brand
OBE, who signed the MoU on behalf
of ACCA, said, ‘ACCA was the ﬁrst
professional accountancy body to
incorporate International Financial
Reporting Standards (IFRS) into our
qualiﬁcation nearly 20 years ago,
and like ICAI we have long championed the importance of global
standards. So we are delighted to
be working with ICAI to enable more
ﬁnance professionals to have access
to qualiﬁcations and CPD which will
equip them to guide businesses
through the new developments,
including global standards’.
ICAI president A S Durga Prasad
said, ‘the MoU will enable the CMA
profession to strengthen the global
collaboration with ﬁnancial accounting bodies. The globally recognised
competency of ACCA, in adopting
and implementing IFRS framework,
combined with the Cost and Management competency advocated
by the ICAI-CMA, will deliver the
cutting edge skills for the ﬁnance
professionals in the current business
environment’.
based out of Macedonia and setting
up of an Apollo Information Centre
in Macedonia,’ said Anne Marie
Moncure.
Welcoming the initiative, Toni Atanasovski said this is the beginning of
a long and substantive engagement
between Apollo Hospitals and The
Republic of Macedonia.
Postal Dept
celebrates WC
NT Bureau
Chennai, Feb 24:
To commemorate the ongoing
cricket world cup in New Zealand
and Australia, the Postal Department
has released ‘ICC Cricket World Cup’
memorabilia.
The memorabilia comprises 14
cricket ball-shaped self-adhesive
stamps - one for each of the competing nations. Each stamp features
team colours and imagery, as well
as the ofﬁcial logo. The cost of one
sheet is Rs 400.
A discount of 20 per cent is allowed
on purchase of ﬁve sheets.
This rare sheet of stamps - a collector’s item - will be available at all the
Philatelic Buearux and counters across
India, a note from the Postmaster General, Chennai City Region said.
3
The students are
protesting against the
Union Labour Ministry’s
recent decision on the exit
of the ESIC from the ﬁeld
of medical education and
the stopping of admissions
to the colleges, and lack of
clarity about the future
of their college
The students also staged a march
from Sivan Park, K K Nagar to the
hospital attached to their college,
on Monday.
‘The ESIC’s 164th Standing
Committee meeting was held in
New Delhi recently to discuss
the fate of the medical colleges.
However, the outcome of the
meeting was not briefed to students and media. Hence, we are
continuing the protest and it will
go on until it is made public,’ said
the students.
In its communication to all ESIC
medical colleges on 5 January,
the Labour Ministry had informed
that there would be no further
admissions to these colleges as
they would be wound up after the
current batches pass out. Labour
and Employment Minister Bandaru
Dattatreya, who visited the ESIC
college at K K Nagar in January, had
said the priority before the ESIC was
insurance scheme and not providing
medical education.
The Centre had requested the
State governments to take over
these institutions and gave them
time till 31 January to take the call.
The hospital was set up on 20
acres at K K Nagar way back in
1971, but medical college came
much recently. The Medical Council
of India had given permission to
start PG courses in 2011 and UG
courses in 2013.
Meanwhile, Tamilnadu government ofﬁcials said the communication from the Union Labour Ministry,
sent by a joint secretary-level ofﬁcial, lacked speciﬁcs and sought
more details from the Centre if the
State has to take over the ESIC
medical college.
French ﬁlm fest
begins in city
THE SCHEDULE
24 February
25 February
26 February
27 February
28 February
28 February
1 March
2 automnes 3 hivers (4.30 -7 pm)
La Bataille de Solferino (4.30 -7 pm)
Grand Central (4.30 -7 pm)
La jalousie (4.30 -7 pm)
Attila Marcel (2 pm)
Girafada (4.30 -7 pm)
Jappeloup (4.30 -7 pm)
NT Bureau
Chennai, Feb 24:
The Institut Francais in India
and the Indo-Cine Appreciation
Foundation(ICAF) in association with
Alliance Française of Madras are
hosting a week-long French Film Festival at Alliance Française of Madras.
The festival will screen renowned
French ﬁlms that can revive cultural
ties between the countries.
Inaugurating the festival here yesterday, Alliance Francaise of Madras
director Pierre-Emmaneul Jacob, said
though the mission of cinema is to
entertain, it must also act as a witness
of its time by critically examining the
society and questioning the norms of it.
ICAF president Sivan Kannan said,
‘The recently signed MoU between
the two countries is aimed on organising more French festivals, thus taking
up a new realtionship’.
Delivering the presidential address,
Honorary Consul of France in Chennai, Kausalya Devi, said ‘Cultural
relations and the element of diversity
between the countries can be accentuated through this. The ﬁlm festival
is the living proof of the vitality of the
partnership.’ Eminent cine-artiste
Sandra Amy and ICAF secretary
Thangaraju were present. Passes
for the ﬁlm festival are available on
eventjini.com or at the reception of
the Alliance Française of Madras
For more details, log onto http://
madras.afindia.org/events/frenchfilm-festival-the-alliance-francaiseof-madras.
Good days ahead for
govt music college
NT Bureau
Chennai, Feb 24:
The Tamilnadu Government Music
College has acquired a new life and
has begun to grow, said State Minister
for School Education K C Veeramani.
Inaugurating Jayam 2015 - Ensemble Of Arts, a three day programme
organised by the Tamilnadu Music
and Fine Arts University at the newly
constructed open air auditorium at
the music college premises here
yesterday, the Minister, who is also
the Pro-Chancellor of the university
lauded the efforts and contributions
of Vice-Chancellor Veena E Gayathri
towards the growth of the college and
the university. ‘Its stature will grow in
the years to come,’ he said.
Tamilnadu Iyal Isai Nataka Mandram
president C Deva said that diplomas were
very essential in all ﬁelds now to get good
employment and it was good that the music
colleges offered diploma courses in various branches of ﬁne arts. Deva also told
students about the importance of guru
bhakthi. Recalling her days as a student
of the college, popular playback singer
P Susheela, said that classical music
was the foundation for all other genre
of music and everybody should learn it.
‘Only if they have good knowledge
of classical music they will be able to
understand and sing other genres of
music,’ she said. Earlier welcoming the
gathering Veena E Gayathri said that
12.7 hectares of land at Sholinganallur
had been allotted for building the university campus. The government was
also contributing Rs 50 lakh towards
the university funds every year.
A variety of cultural events were
presented by the music colleges in
the State on the occasion.
Over 100 get
free eyeglasses
NT Bureau
Chennai, Feb 24:
As many as 241 patients attended a
free eye camp conducted by Singhvi
Charitable Trust at Puduvoyal, Gummidipoondi recently.
According to a press release, free
eyeglasses were given to 128 patients and ﬁve of them were referred
for free cataract surgeries. Also, 85
patients were screened for dental
ailments.
Tamilnadu Telugu Yuva Sakthi president K Jagadiswara Reddy
distributing roses to walkers at the Marina in Chennai today on the
occasion of AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa’s birthday.
Telugu Yuva Sakthi is organising celebrations for 10 days to mark
Jayalalithaa’s birthday.
Blend
4 TUESDAY
24 FEBRUARY 2015
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Rahul’s reﬂections!
At a time when he should have been in Parliament taking on the
government on various issues, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi,
has done the unthinkable, so to say. He has ‘applied for leave’ and
chosen to take a break. Party sources said ‘he requested Congress
president Sonia Gandhi for some time to reﬂect on recent events and
the future course of the party.’
However, Rahul seems to have got the timing right and instead
of being at the forefront of the opposition-led attack on the ruling
dispensation on a slew of issues in Parliament, the ‘eternally reluctant
leader’ seems to be retreating into a shell, apparently to ‘introspect’
and probably plot ways to revive the Congress party, whose fortunes
have plumbed new depths in recent times.
The dismal show in Delhi was apparently the last straw and most
likely set the tone for Rahul’s ‘sanyas’!
Things haven’t been hunky-dory in the Grand Old Party since they
lost power to the BJP-led NDA in the Parliamentary elections last
year and with each electoral defeat, the Congress has slipped further
and problems don’t seem to be ending any time soon.
It is said that there were differences of opinion between the Congress
president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul over the continuation of a few
ofﬁce-bearers in the party organisation and had allegedly said he be
allowed to pick his team and remove those general secretaries he
didn’t want.
His move has drawn ﬂak from opposition parties including the BJP,
which said it (Congress) had been reduced to 44 seats in Lok Sabha
due its leaders skipping Parliament in the last one decade.
While Rahul’s induction into the party think-tank was expected to
rejuvenate the Congress, which was struggling to make its presence
felt in electoral tests. A look at the party’s performance and its present
state begs a lot of questions. Since the year 2009 when Rahul began
playing a larger role and became a star campaigner, the party has
lost 24 out of 36 State and Union Territory elections. That is not all,
the drubbing in the Lok Sabha elections last year saw the Congress
tumble to it worst-ever tally.
These are not statistics that Rahul would have wanted to see when
he took the ‘plunge’. For one, he had been a reluctant politician, leave
alone a leader but has continued to represent Amethi, without ever
speaking up for his people in Lok Sabha.
It must be said for a leader, who has harped on land acquisition issues,
his absence from Parliament at a time when the BJP-led government
is attempting to push through the Ordinance with regard to the same
is bafﬂing, to say the least. He is sure to come in for a lot of ﬂak for
his decisions, especially for the plan to embark on a ‘vacation’ when
his presence was most vital.
Often seen as a dynamic link between the party and the younger
electorate, Rahul has failed for the most part despite his ‘so-called’
honest efforts. At this point in time, the Congress is in power by itself
in six States -- Karnataka, Himachal, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur
and Arunachal and a coalition partner in a few others. The party’s
fortunes don’t seem to be looking up either and the Delhi ﬁasco set the
cat among the pigeons and the blame-game did the rounds, as always.
Rahul’s ‘holidays’ or not, the Congress party needs to ﬁnd some spark
before it becomes irrelevant in the Indian political canvas. However,
one can’t see him (Rahul) spearheading any ‘Phoenix’-like revival.
Lessons of
Life: Pain or
Joy, If u r fully
involved in d
intensity of this
moment, the
question ‘what
is the purpose
of life’ wld not
arise
Shekhar Kapur
@shekharkapur
Shashi Tharoor
@ShashiTharoor
The most
famous Indian
magician of my
childhood, PC
Sorcar, was
born 102 years
ago. Can still
recall being
enthralled by
his ‘Indrajal’
Soft drink poses
cancer risk
Drinking caramel-coloured soft a possible human carcinogen formed
drinks, such as cola, regularly could during the manufacture of some kinds
put you at higher risk of canof caramel colour. Building on an
cer, a new study has warned.
analysis of 4-MEI concentrations
Public health researchers have
in 11 different soft drinks ﬁrst pubanalysed soda consumption
lished by Consumer Reports in
data in order to characterise HEALTH
2014, researchers led by
people’s exposure to a potena team at the Johns Hoptially carcinogenic byproduct of some
kins Centre for a Livable
types of caramel colour. The results
show that between 44 and 58 per cent Future (CLF) estimated exposure to
of people over the age of six typically 4-MEI from caramel-coloured soft
have at least one can of soda per day, drinks and modelled the potential
possibly more, potentially exposing cancer burden related to routine soft
them to 4-methylimidazole (4-MEI), drink consumption levels in the US.
Today
VOICE MAIL
Parking woe
Sir,
Vehicles parked on both sides of Reddy Kuppam Road in Mambalam have
caused inconvenience to pedestrians.
The number of shops occupying the pedestrian pathway block the road
completely. The road originally had over 30 feet space for the public which
has reduced to only 10 feet. Though several representations were made to
clear the area for pedestrians, no action has been taken till now.
I request the authorities concerned to look into the issue urgently and
restore the space.
R Thangam, Mambala
ADDRESS YOUR LETTERS TO :
The Editor, News Today, 85, Mount Road, Guindy, Chennai - 600 032.
or e-mail to : [email protected] / [email protected]
CHENNAI
‘Great opportunity for
India-US relationship’
Need to strengthen bilateral trade & war against terrorism
WASHINGTON:
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal
has said there is a ‘great opportunity’
for strengthening Indo-US relationship in the ﬁeld of bilateral trade and
war against terrorism.
Emerging out of the White House
immediately after a meeting with
President Barack Obama, along with
other members of the National Governors Association, Jindal said India-US
relationship is one area on the foreign
policy front where there is a bipartisan
support and the two countries would
beneﬁt - both economically and politically -- from strengthening of this ties.
‘I think, it is a great opportunity for
both countries (India and the US),’
Jindal, who is the ﬁrst Indian American Governor of an US State told PTI
yesterday.
‘One of the things that the President
did talk about (during the meeting) for
example was the potential trade deal
with the Paciﬁc region and I think, this
is one example whether countries
like India or other nations in Asia that
are friend to America. India is one of
them,’ Jindal.
SHOW OF MIGHT
‘India-US relationship is one area on the
foreign policy front where there is a bipartisan
support and the two countries would beneﬁt
- both economically and politically,’ says
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal,
who is also the ﬁrst Indian American
Governor of an US State
‘We have traditional allies
tries,’ Jindal said.
like South Korea, Taiwan
A Republican presidenand Japan, but also other
tial aspirant, this is for
countries including Vietthe ﬁrst time that Jindal
nam. They are friendly to
has expressed his view
America and want a strong
on India US relationship.
relationship,’ said the LouiHighly critical of
siana Governor, who beObama’s foreign policy,
came the governor in 2008.
Jindal appeared to be
Bobby Jindal
‘I think this (India-US bilateral rela- supportive of the president’s efforts
tionship) is good for India. It is good to strengthen ties with India, which
for America. I think, both economi- he noted is in America’s interest.
cally as well as politically there are Responding to questions, Jindal
great opportunities. And there is a supported joint effort between Inbipartisan support to do that. That is dia and the US in the ﬁght against
something that the President could terrorism, in particular Islamic exwork with this Congress to get done. tremism.
I think this would beneﬁt both coun‘Two things have to happen. One
C
is to call on leaders of the Muslim
community to not just denounce acts
of violence, but also individuals by
name who commit these violence, to
make clear that such individuals are
not going to enjoy or reward after life,
but are rather going straight to hell,’
he said.
‘Secondly, one of the things which
is also very important is that we got to
insist on simulation on integration of
our societies. That is something that
America has a great history of being
a melting pot, welcoming folks from
all over the world,’ he said.
‘The bottom line is we do welcome
people as long as they respect
freedoms of others to live their lives,
to have religious liberty, have freedom of speech, self-determination,’
he added. Referring to his recent
visit to Europe, Jindal said one of the
concerns that people there have there
are people who have come to those
countries are non-assimilating. ‘That
is not healthy for those immigrants.
That is not healthy for those countries,’ he said.
L ICK
PIC
A Ukrainian soldier smiles riding on a self-propelled artillery piece near Artemivsk, eastern Ukraine. In the other photograph, a French ﬁghter
aircraft ﬂies over static display area on the ﬁnal day of Aero India air show at Yelahanka air base in Bengaluru.
New plankton
species
discovered
BEIJING:
Chinese scientists have discovered
a new plankton species deep in the
South China Sea near the disputed
Nansha Islands, researchers said
today. The new species of the microscopic organisms that ﬂoat freely
with oceanic currents were
found in
the South
China Sea.
The species lives in
the water of 1,500 to 2,600 metres
deep, ofﬁcials at the South China
Sea Institute of Oceanology said.
It feeds on organic detritus, and is
ﬂuorescent, Yin Jianqiang, a research
fellow with the institute, told state- run
Xinhua news agency.
The species was found in trenches
near the disputed Nansha Islands,
an area with high tropical maritime
biological diversity. China calls the
islands Nansha while Vietnam, which
also claims them, refer to them as
Spratlys. Chinese scientists started
research near the islands in 1984,
the Xinhua report said.
India calls for Security
Council reforms
UNITED NATIONS:
India has called for an urgent action
to reform the UN Security Council this
year, arguing the most-powerful body
of the United Nations itself
embodies the undemocratic stranglehold of the privileges of a few,
forged by a wartime alliance that no
longer exists.
‘It is ironical that
calls for democracy
and the rule of law
are being made in
a Council that itself
embodies the undemocratic stranglehold of the privileges
of a few, forged by a
wartime alliance that
no longer exists,’ the
Indian Ambassador
to the UN Ashoke Kumar Mukerji said.
‘The logic of democracy and the
anguished faces of human suffering
across the world call for urgent action
to reform the Council. We must do so
this year if we are to learn the right
lessons from history,’ Mukerji said in
his address to an open meeting of the
UN Security Council on Maintenance
of International Peace and Security.
India, the world’s largest democratic
country, top economic and world
power is a rightful claimant to the a
permanent seat in the UN Security
Council. Almost all the veto-wielding
members of the UN Security Council
- the United States, Britain, France,
Russia and China have supported
India’s place in
this most powerful
wing of the United
Nations.
In his remarks,
Mukerji said the
Security Council has taken the
lead in referring
to the purposes
and principles of
the Charter while
attempting to maintain international
peace and security.
‘It is a matter of concern for us, who
are not privileged to sit permanently in
the Council that the Council’s invocation of these purposes and principles
appear selective, to suit the national
interests of powerful member states,’
he said.
Japan clocks
keep time for
16 billion years
TOKYO:
Japanese researchers have built a
pair of clocks which they say are so
accurate they will lose a second only
every 16 billion years -- longer than
the Earth has been around.
‘Cryogenic optical lattice clocks’ are
not pretty -- they look more like giant
stripped-down desktop computers
than ordinary wall clocks -- but they
are so precise that current technology
cannot even measure them.
The research team led by Hidetoshi
Katori, a professor at the University
of Tokyo, believes it has taken the
technology way beyond the atomic
clocks that are currently used to deﬁne the ‘second’.
Abbott dismisses
leadership speculation
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has brushed aside the leaking
of explosive emails showing a split
in his inner circle as ‘one of those
things’.
The latest leak against Abbott and
his ofﬁce comes amid a damaging
new round of leadership turmoil,
with seven ministers who voted for
the Prime Minister in this month’s
failed spill motion indicating they’re
now prepared to help remove him if
he cannot revive the government’s
fortunes.
In two extraordinary emails sent to
members of the federal Liberal Party
executive, a senior party ofﬁcial alleges a conﬂict of interest involving
Peta Credlin serving as chief of staff
to Abbott and her husband, Brian
Loughnane remaining as the party’s
federal director.
In an interview with conservative
radio host Alan Jones on Tuesday,
Abbott described the leak as just
‘one of those things’.
During the interview, a passionate
and supportive Jones urged Abbott
to be more like ‘Mr Whippy’ and ‘ring
Tony Abbott
his own bell’ to tell people what he
is selling.
In the two emails, the Liberal Par- problem between the federal secretariat and the [Prime
ty’s honorary Treasofﬁce] and
urer Phil Higginson
NEWS MAKER Minister’s
I ﬁnd the situation if
threatens to quit his
of the day
it weren’t so serious
unpaid position ‘as
almost amusing,’ he
a result of my concern with the direction the party is wrote.
‘How this party ever let a husband
heading’.
‘Conflict of interest is a serious and wife team into those two key
roles where collegiate competitive
tension is mandatory and private
consultations between colleagues
to see that each side is served well,
is a complete mystery.’
An upbeat Abbott dismissed it as a
‘storm in a teacup’ and denied there
was any ‘conﬂict of interest’ because
Credlin and Loughnane had been in
their jobs for a decade.
‘So if this is a problem it’s been a
problem for ten years, in fact it is no
problem, it is no problem,’ he said.
‘If Peta Credlin was able to be
deputy chief of staff to Malcolm Turnbull when Brian Loughnane was federal director, there was no problem
then and there is no problem now,’
Abbott said.
Enterprise
CHENNAI
New head for
Hyatt India
Hyatt Hotels & Resorts on Monday said Kurt Straub will head its
operations in India as vice president of operations for the country.
A press release here said, Straub
will be responsible for executing
the company’s operational and
growth strategy in India, a country
that plays an important role in Hyatt’s global expansion plans.
Straub has assumed his new
role effective 20 February, 2015,
reporting to Hyatt Group president
Europe, Africa, Middle East and
Southwest Asia Peter Fulton, it
added.
Commenting on the development,
Fulton said: ‘Kurt has been an integral part of the Hyatt growth story in
his 20-plus years with the company. His multi-faceted international
experience and strong operational
expertise across continents will
play a pivotal role in helping Hyatt
re-inforce its goal of being the most
preferred hotel brand in India and
the world’.
Dual drive
solution in the
offing
WD recently introduced My Passport Pro, a portable, Thunderboltpowered dual-drive solution.
A release said this mobile solution offers high performance and
capacity for creative professionals and enthusiasts. For Mac
systems, My Passport Pro has
user-selectable RAID functionality
to deliver high performance for the
most demanding applications in
the ﬁeld. The drive is bus-powered
without the need for power adapters or extra cables. My Passport
Pro is available in two TB and four
TB capacities.
‘WD’s My Passport Pro enhances
the workﬂow of creative professionals by providing fast transfers
and data protection for the large
amounts of digital content they
generate outside the studio. It also
gives them the option to mirror their
data, offering enhanced protection’, said sales director (Content
Solutions), India, Middle East and
Africa, Khalid Wani.
Ajay Singh back
as SpiceJet
owner
The ownership of budget carrier
SpiceJet came back in the hands
of its original promoter Ajay Singh
again Monday after the shares of
the Marans’ family were physically
transferred to his account.
‘Today the entire 58.46 per cent
stake of the Marans’ have been
transferred to Ajay Singh’m sources close to the development said
on Monday.
Singh had exited from the carrier
around four year ago.
After approval from the Home
Ministry, Ajay Singh will be appointed as Director on the board
of SpiceJet with majority stake in
his hand, they said.
With clearance from the Competition Commission of India (CCI)
already in place, Singh is now
awaiting nod from the Home Ministry for his appointment as Director
on the board of SpiceJet.
Will Budjaitley
meet expectations?
Captains, analysts optimistic as countdown starts
NT Bureau / PTI
Chennai/Mumbai, Feb 24 (PTI):
As the BJP-led ruling coalition at the
Centre gets ready to present its ﬁrst
full-ﬂedged Budget, analysts said the
government is most likely to meet its
ambitious 4.1 per cent ﬁscal deﬁcit
target, helped
by lower oil prices. They also
expect Finance
Minister Arun
Jaitley to stick
to the ﬁscal consolidation roadmap.
Help from lower subsidies and
also the recent Rahul K Patwardhan
excise duty hikes on oil products following a sharp drop in crude prices
from last June should help in achieving the 4.1 per cent deﬁcit target, they
said in separate notes.
‘We expect the government to stick
to a ﬁscal deﬁcit target of 3.6 per cent
of GDP for FY16 from 4.1 per cent this
ﬁscal’, economists at private sector
lender HDFC Bank said.
However, economists at American
brokerage Citi said the target can be
stretched to 3.8 per cent.
Budget 2015 has raised expectations across
various industries, experts of which feel that
the government ought to introduce reforms so
as to put the economy on the recovery track
In a note, international rating agency
Standard & Poor’s mentioned the high
deﬁcit as one of the factors constraining it from revising India’s sovereign
rating.
‘Lower crude oil prices, recent
hikes in excise tax may provide ﬁscal
space to stimulate public investment’,
economists at Standard Chartered
said in a note.
In its effort to improve the quality
of the deﬁcit, the Government may
change the composition of spending
away from revenue spending and
transfers towards capital outlays and
investments, HDFC Bank said.
Budget 2015 has raised expectations across various industries,
experts of which feel that the government ought to introduce reforms so as
to put the economy on the recovery
track. In a press release, NIIT Limited
CEO Designate, Rahul K Patwardhan
said, ‘As private sector participation
is key to developing skilled manpow-
er, we expect
speciﬁc indirect
tax rebates in
the forthcoming budget, for
the companies
and its partners
i.e. be it direct
partners or their
franchisees, involved in skillR Kumar
ing’.
‘We would also expect the government to take initiatives to build social
acceptance and industry buy-in for
skills development through high
decibel media campaigns, through
which vocational skill courses/jobs
are made aspirational. Placing a
premium on certiﬁcation by ensuring
only certiﬁed people get government
jobs is much required’, he added.
He also asked the government to
create and empower Skills Universities within existing Universities,
and enable them to provide training pan-India through distributed,
technology-connected hubs or delivery centers. Meanwhile, Navin’s
Housing Pvt Ltd MD, R Kumar wants
Section 80IB to be re-introduced
with much simpler norms until the
entire housing back-log of 25 million
plus is cleared. ‘Online single window approval system, and deemed
approval for residential projects,
subject to certain norms, should be
introduced and a complete removal
of EIA clearance for residential
projects except in highly ecologically sensitive areas like forests,
huge fresh water lakes is needed’,
he said.
Senior vice-president and managing director, India, DHL Express, R
S Subramanian, said, ‘What will be
interesting to see is the execution
and roll out of all the major initiatives
announced by the government, may
it be ‘Make in India’ or ‘Ease of Doing Business’. We are optimistic and
see a renewed conﬁdence among
FIIs and MNCs towards India. This
is a welcome change, as it will boost
India’s economy and transform the
business landscape entirely.’
5
Affordable health
insurance from SBI
NT Bureau
Chennai, Feb 24:
SBI General Insurance has reinforced its health insurance portfolio
with Group Health Insurance Policy,
aiming to present an inexpensive
health insurance product to customers.
Addressing the media here yesterday, Deputy CEO, SBI General
Insurance, Steve Hollow, said, ‘We
are targeting a 50 per cent growth this
ﬁnancial year and expect to cross a
premium of Rs 1,600 crore.
The targeted sectors for achieving
this growth will be motor insurance
portfolio, marine cargo and liability
portfolios’.
According to him, ‘Only 15 per cent
of Indian people are covered under
health insurance. Private ﬁnancing
is done majorly in regard to health
issues. Thus, insurance in this ﬁeld
has to pick up and this is why this
scheme is been implemented.
Puducherry students
win big at Unisys
Cloud 20/20
NT Bureau
Chennai, Feb 24:
Unisys India announced the winners of Cloud 20/20 Version 6.0, the
latest edition of one of India’s online
technical project contests.
According to a press release, following rigorous rounds of evaluation,
Nisha O., Pavithraa P and Sujitha G.
from Pondicherry Engineering College, Puducherry, bagged the second
prize for their project - ‘V-SHARE.’
Formula for best-selling
apps decoded!
Washington, Feb 24 (PTI):
With more than 1,200 apps being released daily, an Indian-origin
researcher and his colleague have
discovered a number of ways to
determine which smartphone apps
will be the most successful.
‘More than 1,200 apps are released each day, and we found a
number of ways to determine which
ones would be the most successful’,
said Professor Raghu Santanam,
one of the study’s authors, who
teaches in the Information Systems
Department at the W P Carey
School of Business at Arizona State
University.
‘For example, simply providing updates for an existing app can really
add to its popularity’, he said.
Santanam and doctoral student
Gun Woong Lee tracked individual
apps and their presence on the ‘Top
300’ charts in Apple’s App Store
over 39 weeks.
The ﬁnal dataset covered about
7,600 apps by almost 4,000 sellers,
and the researchers found a number
of factors that make an app more
attractive to buyers.
‘Free app offers, high debut ranks,
expanding into less
popular categories,
continuous quality updates and high user-review scores all have positive
impacts on an app’s sustainability’, said Lee.
The study found that each time
a seller just expands to a new app
category, it bumps up that seller’s
presence on the top-grossing charts
by about 15 per cent.
The researchers also discovered
that free apps generally stay on the
charts up to two times longer than
‘Good times ahead
for hotel industry’
NT Bureau
Chennai, Feb 24:
Indian hotel industry revenue is
expected to grow by 9-11 per cent in
2015-16 after a subdued growth rate
of 5-8 per cent in the current ﬁscal,
rating agency ICRA said in a report.
An ofﬁcial statement here said, the
growth is expected to strengthen in
2015-16 mainly on account of a modest increase in occupancy and small
traction in rates, ICRA said.
The margins are expected to remain
largely ﬂat for the current ﬁscal 201415, while a moderate albeit sub-par
expansion is expected in the next
ﬁnancial year.
While occupancies are showing
signs of improvement, this appears to
be driven by few pockets like Mumbai,
where occupancies grew by 15 per
cent year-to-date in December 2014
supported by trafﬁc for large conferences and weddings. Bengaluru has
also exhibited some stabilisation
with incremental supply being slowly
absorbed. However, the newer properties launched during 2012-14 continue to struggle with weak revenue,
the ICRA report said.
The National Capital Region (NCR)
is exhibiting wide variation in performance across Delhi, Noida and
Gurgaon, with Delhi showing marginal growth while trends in the Delhi
Aerocity area and Gurgaon remained
weak. The country has around
29,000 premium rooms under development, which would be launched
over the next six years. It further
added that the next supply bump will
hit the market in 2016 across Bengaluru, Mumbai, Kolkata and Noida
with over 6,500 rooms.
Google gears up to
combat Apple Pay
San Francisco, Feb 24 (AP):
Google is teaming up
with three major US wireless carriers in an effort
to prod more people into
using its mobile wallet
and undercut the rapid
success of Apple’s rival
payment service. The
deal announced on Monday calls for Google’s tapand-pay service to be built
into Android smartphones
sold by AT&T Inc, Verizon
Wireless and T-Mobile
USA beginning later his
year.
Smartphone owners currently have to download
TUESDAY
24 FEBRUARY 2015
Eyes on European market
Apple said on Monday it would invest 1.7 billion
euros ($1.9 billion) in two data centres located in
Ireland and Denmark, to boost online services in
the European market. ‘This significant new investment represents Apple’s biggest project in Europe
to date’, said Apple CEO Tim Cook in a statement.
The two data centres, set to begin operations in
2017, will run entirely on renewable energy.
Google Wallet and install
the app on their phone
if they want to use the
service. Besides trying to
make it more convenient
to use Wallet, Google
also is hoping to improve
the nearly four-year-old
service. Toward that end,
Google Inc is buying some
mobile payment technology and patents from
Softcard, a venture owned
by the wireless carriers.
Financial terms weren’t
disclosed.
paid apps. In addition, when sellers
keep updating and improving the
features in an app, it can help the
app stay on the charts up to three
times longer.
‘For app sellers, it is a great idea to
implement some type of
portfolio-management
strategy to app markets
that focuses on developing multiple apps
with low production
costs’, said Lee.
‘Then, they can take advantage
of a large network of different user
groups by selling many apps in
multiple categories and offering
frequent updates to those apps’,
Lee said.
The study is published in the
Journal of Management Information
Systems.
City hosts
packaging meet
NT Bureau
Chennai, Feb 24:
Chennai Centre of Indian Institute
of Packaging organised an industry
interaction meet at the IIP campus
in Perungudi here on 21 February,
2015. A press release said, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Commerce
and Industry, Govt of India, Rajani
Rajan Rashmi, was present as the
chief guest to lay the foundation stone
for the propped new educational complex and FIBC laboratory.
Cholayil Industries India Limited
CMD Pradeep Cholaiyil, was the
guest of honour, and Kals Distillery
vice president Indukumar was the
special guest on the occasion.
The event also saw the presence of
Signode India limited chairman RVS
Ramakrishna, chief executive of ITC
Ltd.Packaging and Printing Division,
R Senguttuvan and Institute director
N C Saha.
Shell promises stability
NT Bureau
Chennai, Feb 24:
Shell Lubricants has announced the launch of its
next generation bike oil,
Shell Advance Ultra with
PurePlus Technology developed from natural
gas. The unveiling of the
product was organised at
Asia’s biggest biking festival - India Bike Week being held at Vagator, Goa.
In a press release, Shell
Lubricants India managing director Nitin Prasad,
said, ‘With an ever increasing number of motorcycles on Indian roads,
we believe Shell Advance
Ultra with PurePlus Technology will improve the
riding experiences of the
bikers, given the varied
climatic and geographical
conditions in the country’.
‘Shell Advance Ultra
with PurePlus Technology
possesses unsurpassable
viscosity stability, that
helps protect bike’s engine even in the toughest
conditions.
A more efﬁcient engine
means better power transmission. Developed over
40 years of research at
the Pearl GTL plant in
Qatar, this technology
enables us to produce a
crystal-clear base oil from
natural gas that is virtually
free of the impurities that
are a norm with mineral
oil-based lubricants’, said
vice president (technical),
Akhil Jha.
Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar poses with the new BMW i8 at its launch
in Mumbai recently. This is the ﬁrst plug-in hybrid vehicle from the
sub-brand BMW i.
ADB signs $400 mn
loan pacts with India
The Asian Development Bank has inked two loan agreements worth $400
million with India to upgrade district roads in Madhya Pradesh and to support
improvements to power transmission and distribution systems in Assam.
‘The Government of India and ADB signed recently an agreement for a
$350 million loan to upgrade district roads in the state of Madhya Pradesh’,
the Finance Ministry said in a statement.
The District Connectivity Sector project will improve about 1,600 km of
major district roads in Madhya Pradesh through lane widening, surface
improvements, strengthening of culverts and bridges, it added.
RBI to issue Rs 10
denomination bank notes
Reserve Bank of India on Monday said it will shortly issue Rs 10 denomination banknotes in the Mahatma Gandhi Series-2005.
‘It will incorporate rupee symbol on the obverse and the reverse, with inset
letter ‘N’ in both the numbering panels, bearing the signature of Raghuram
G Rajan, Governor, Reserve Bank of India and the year of printing ‘2014’
printed on the reverse of the Banknote’, an RBI release said.
Cap on foreign investors
buying ING shares
Reserve Bank on Monday said foreign investors would be required to
obtain its prior approval for buying further shares in ING Vysya Bank, as
foreign shareholding in the bank has reached the trigger limit.
RBI monitors ceilings on foreign institutional investors (FII), Non-Resident
Indians (NRIs) and Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) investments in Indian
companies on a daily basis and to effectively monitor the limit, it has ﬁxed
cut-off points two percentage points lower than the actual ceiling.
NAME CHANGE
I, S.SATHESH KUMAR, Son
of Thiru D.Subramaniam,
born on 1st June 1972 (native
district: Chennai), residing
at Old No.4, New No.7, 2nd
Main Road, Jawahar Nagar,
Chennai-600 082, shall
henceforth be known as
S.P. SATHISH BABU.
S.SATHESH KUMAR.
Chennai, 13th February 2015.
Read
Every evening
PUBLIC NOTICE
PUBLIC NOTICE
NOTICE is hereby given that the Shareholders of M/s. Flometallic India Limited
(Company), have, at the general meeting
held on 31st January 2015, unanimously passed necessary resolutions to convert the company from its present status
of a “Public Limited Company” to that of
a “Private Limited Company”. The Company is in the process of ﬁling an application with the Registrar of Companies,
Shastri Bhavan, No.26, Haddows Road,
Chennai – 600 034, for his approval.
If any person has any objection to the
said conversion in the status of our
Company, he may inform the same in
writing, to the Registrar of Companies,
Shastri Bhavan, No.26, Haddows Road,
Chennai – 600 034, with a copy marked
to our company, within a period of one
(1) week from the date of publication of
this notice. If no objections are received
within the aforementioned period, it will
be presumed that there are no objections, whatsoever, to such conversion.
Dated at Chennai this 23rd day of February 2015.
K. Suryaprakash Rao
Director
DIN - 00616868
M/s. Flometallic India Limited
No : 67, Chamiers road,
R.A.Puram, Chennai – 600 028.
This is to inform that I have obtained the proposed environmental clearance before the state level
Environment impact Assessment
Authority Tamil Nadu for the purpose of purposed tough stone
quarrying at S.F.No SEIAA-TN/F.
NO.2486/EC/1(a)/1608/2014,Da
te21.3.2014, S.F.NO.323/1A,2A
,324/10B,7B,327/3B&4, Sirudhamur Village,
Uthiramerur
Taluk, Kanchipuram District .the
main league area is 1.80.0 ha.
The
same
approved
by
the
SEIAA-TN/F.NO.2486/
EC/1(a)/1608/2014,
Date21.3.2014 and copy of the
clearance available in the State
Pollution Control Board and also
website of the SEIAA TN at http://
selaa.tn/gov/in and a copy same
is being sent to the Regional Ofﬁce of Ministry Government and
Forest, Govt. of India located at
Bangalore.
Tvl.RCS Infrastructure Pvt.Ltd
R.Chidhambarm
NO.328,Second Street
Ganapathy colony
Ekkadutangal,
CHENNAI-600 032
6 TUESDAY
24 FEBRUARY 2015
Sports
CHENNAI
Anderson ready to face the heat
Kiwi all-rounder expects verbal barrage from Aussies
Auckland, Feb 24 (AFP):
New Zealand all-rounder Corey Anderson admits his players are braced
for a verbal onslaught from Australia
in their blockbuster World Cup clash
in Auckland on Saturday.
The Eden Park duel is likely to
decide who tops Pool A and plays a
relatively weaker team from Pool B
in the quarter-ﬁnals.
As a result, Anderson feels the
Black Caps will face a charged-up
Australia, but insists if the sledging
starts, it will be one-way trafﬁc.
‘Their sledging tactics are well
known now and something we
haven’t involved ourselves in,’ Anderson told reporters.
‘We’re fairly neutral on the ﬁeld.
We stick to what we do. We’ll be expecting a bit of heat from them and I
guess that’s part of their game-plan
and we’ll just deal with it as it comes.’
Anderson, 24, said that despite the
two sides not having completed a
match against each other since the
2011 World Cup when Australia won
tralia have not been in action
since their convincing 111-run
win against England in the opening game on 14 February.
Their second game
against Bangladesh
was abandoned
due to heavy rain
in Brisbane on Saturday.
That prompted
Australian opener
Aaron Finch to declare the pressure
of expectation will
be on New Zealand
as they will also be
Corey Anderson is expecting the Australians to come hard at the
playing before a packed
high-ﬂying Kiwis in the key encounter on Saturday.
Eden Park.
by seven wickets, there will be few across the ditch. They don’t have
But Anderson played down
guys who come out of the back of the pressure hype.
surprises come game day.
‘You can play these guys without the hand, anything like that. We just
‘That might be mind games. It’s
being in the international arena and have to go about our work and stick the World Cup and every game is a
see what they’re like. They’re not by our blueprint.’
pressure situation.
New Zealand are in a better posigoing to be foreign,’ said Anderson,
‘It’s exciting for us and we look at
who has yet to face his trans-Tasman tion as they have won all their three it as a positive to come out in front
rivals.‘They’re our neighbours from games at this World Cup while Aus- of a packed crowd at Eden Park,
Federer to skip
Davis Cup in 2015
Roger Federer
Dubai, Feb 24:
Roger Federer is skipping
the Davis Cup this year after
leading Switzerland to its ﬁrst
title in 2014.
Federer played the entire
Davis Cup season last year,
with Switzerland beating
France 3-1 in the ﬁnal. The
Davis Cup was the only
major competition the 17time Grand Slam champion h a d
not won.
Federer won’t be in the lineup when
Switzerland opens defence of the
title in Belgium on 6-8 March. And
Federer said he has no plans to play
Davis Cup the rest of the year either.
‘It wasn’t a difﬁcult decision,’ the
33-year-old Federer said Monday at
the Dubai tournament. ‘I have played
for so long, and I think by winning it
I can ﬁnally do whatever I please, to
be quite honest.’
The Swiss team in Belgium will also
be without 2013 Australian Open
champion Stan Wawrinka.
Federer has played in 26 Davis
Cup ties since 1999 for an overall
50-17 win-loss record. ‘It’s been a
big burden for me throughout my career and one of the things that have
caused more difﬁculties in my life
than many other things, I must say,’
Federer said.
‘I always feel there is so much guilt
put on you from the federation or from
the ITF more so than anybody else.
S o
I’m happy I was able to
ﬁnally tick that off and do
it altogether.’
Federer said his decision to dedicate himself to the 2014 Davis
Cup campaign was more for his
teammates than himself.
‘I totally did it for the boys
more than for me, to be
quite honest,’ he said. ‘I
just
really wanted Michael
(Lammer) and Marco (Chiudinelli)
and Stan to get it because they deserve it. So for me, this year, it was
very clear that I was not going to play.’
While the Davis Cup is not in Federer’s plans, Wawrinka has not decided
on whether to play later in the year.
‘I hope that Stan is going to play,
next round or September or whatever
it’s going to be to keep us in the World
Group,’ Federer said. ‘Who knows?
You never know if they can win it without us, as well. It’s an opportunity, but
clearly we are not the favorites now
playing against Belgium.’
Federer, however, could have to
show up for one more Davis Cup tie in
the next two years in order to qualify
directly for the Swiss Olympic team
for the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.
ITF rules state that a player must
compete in Davis Cup for his country
once in the season leading up to or
in the Olympic year to be eligible to
compete at the games.
who hopefully will get stuck into the
Aussies.’
‘With the amount of hype leading
into the
World Cup, and into
the
England game, then
to come off such a
great win, and such a big
high, there’s pros and cons with
having a break,’ said Anderson.
The fast-rising allrounder smashed a
match-winning 75 and
took two wickets in New
Zealand’s seven-wicket win
against Sri Lanka and then
took three more wickets in a
lacklustre three-wicket victory against
Scotland.
New Zealand also hammered
England by eight wickets in their last
game, which Anderson believed put
the Black Caps in a winning groove.
‘We are on a bit of a roll and it would
be nice to continue that. But the break
will have done everybody good so we
can come back in fresh.’
Moin’s casino visit
comes under scanner
Karachi, Feb 24 (PTI):
Pakistan’s chief selector Moin
Khan has come under ﬁre for
visiting a casino in Christchurch
during the ongoing cricket World
Cup, prompting the PCB to
launch a probe into the matter
yesterday.
PCB chairman Shaharyar
Khan told reporters in Lahore
that the board was investigating
the matter.
‘We don’t want to be judgemental and jump to any conclusions
before the probe is complete. But yes
we feel it would be inappropriate for
Moin to have gone to a casino at a
time when the team is struggling and
the whole nation is disappointed,’
Shaharyar said.
The PCB chief didn’t rule out the
possibility of Moin being recalled to
Youzhny just can’t
stop Federer
Dubai, Feb 24:
Roger Federer crushed a familiar
opponent for the 16th successive time
as he made an encouraging return to
the ATP World Tour after his Australian Open debacle.
The Grand Slam record-holder’s
lively 6-3, 6-1 win over Mikhail Youzhny, a regular sparring partner, in the
ﬁrst round of the Dubai Open helped
him begin to rebuild after a dispiriting
third round loss in Melbourne.
‘He’s (Youzhny) beaten me a lot in
practice,’ Federer said when asked
how he managed to be so ruthless
against someone he had been playing since the turn of the century and
to whom he had never lost.
Youzhny, who has twice reached
the ﬁnal here, is still a ﬂuent groundstroker but only remained a contender
in this match for the ﬁrst seven games
against a Federer intent on not playing too carefully in tricky conditions.
Moin Khan
Pakistan if the probe conﬁrmed he
had acted inappropriately.
‘At this time we are ﬁnding out the
facts and we have no plans to call
him back nor we have taken any such
decision,’ he said.
Shaharyar said he had spoken to
the team manager and Moin about
the matter and sought an explanation.
Media reports in Pakistan have said
that Moin, a former Test captain,
had visited a casino on the night of
the match against the West Indies
in which Pakistan was hammered
by 150 runs for their worst ever
defeat in World Cup.
The issue has been played up
by some channels in view of the
team’s poor performances.
Ever since the Pakistan team left
for its World Cup campaign last
month it has constantly run into
controversies with reports from
New Zealand and Australia suggesting rifts in the team.
But Shaharyar insisted there were
not rifts within the team.
‘There is nothing of this sort, it is just
that the players have not performed
well and they themselves are aware
of how they have let their supporters
down.
Srinath heaps
praise on Shami
Perth, Feb 24 (PTI):
Former India pace spearhead Javagal Srinath said Mahendra Singh
Dhoni’s bowling attack has become
the talking point in the ongoing cricket
World Cup as the side notched up two
convincing wins and lauded young
seamer Mohammed Shami for showing ‘real maturity.’
Riding on a strong batting display
powered by Shikhar Dhawan’s strokeful century, India on Sunday crushed
South Africa by a massive 130 runs
to beat them for the ﬁrst time in World
Cup cricket. This was the defending champions’ second
straight win,
having outplayed Pakistan in their
tournament
opener.
‘Two
clinical
b u t e x - Cricket
tremely
convincing wins
has set the ball rolling in the right
direction for Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s
men. The much assailed Indian bowling line-up would undoubtedly be the
most discussed topic hereon in the
team meetings of most countries in
the tournament,’ Srinath wrote in a
column for ICC.
He added: ‘More than the talent
that the Indian bowlers do indeed
possess, it is the process of execution which has caught the opposition
off-guard.’
Srinath praised the bowlers for
completing the task after the batsmen
set it up for them on both occasions.
‘The actual process though started
much before a single delivery was
bowled in either game, the Indian
team has been involved in. For, it
was the pressure created by the India
batsmen, who have scored more than
300 runs each time that has been the
beginning of the India bowling plans.
‘Once set on their way by the batsmen, it has been all about hunting collectively and executing game plans,
both individual ones and the team
gameplan as a whole,’ Srinath said.
India’s most successful fast bowler
at the ODI World Cup along with Zaheer Khan with 44 wickets, Srinath
played in four editions of the megaevent (between 1992 to 2003).
In the 2003 World Cup, he took 16
wickets, while the 1999 event yielded
him 12 wickets.
WBF chief happy with
work for world meet
WBF president Ginnarigo Rona, BFI president N R Kirubakaramoorthy and others at a press
conference in Chennai on Monday.
NT Bureau
Chennai, Feb 24:
Chennai is gearing up to host the
42nd edition of the World Bridge
Team Championship 2015 and the
Bridge Federation of India and the
State association are leaving no
stone unturned to ensure that it is
a success.
Addressing mediapersons here
last night, BFI president N R Kirubakaramoorthy said that the event
would be held at ITC Grand Chola
from 26 September to 10 October
with HCL as the title sponsor. A
total of 66 teams and 660 players
from 40 countries are expected to
take part in the prestigious Bermuda
Bowl trophy.
He said that the mega event
would promote the game in India,
especially among the youth. BFI has
plans to attract younger players from
all over India by reaching out and
encouraging them to participate in
local and national events.
World Bridge Federation president Ginnarigo Rona said he was
very impressed with the top class
infrastructure in Chennai for the big
event. He also lauded the passion
and dedication of the entire team
led by Kirubakaramoorthy and BFI
vice-presidents S Sundaresan and
Kawaljit Singh in making preparations for the world meet.
C ity S port s
Rio Olympics is Bhavani’s dream
In a chat with
News Today, Bhavani said that she
was training hard
with an eye on the
future and expected more ﬁnancial
support in her endeavours. She is
presently based
in Thalassery in
Kerala and hopes
to be ready when
the big moment arC A Bhavani Devi is thankful to the support extended
rives.
by AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa.
Q: Congrats
for the National
C SHYAM SUNDAR
Games gold, what
Chennai, Feb 24: targets have you set for the year 2015?
Fencing may be an Olympic sport but is
A: My aim is to qualify for the 2016 Olympic
just catching up in the popularity stakes Games in Rio and win the ﬁrst medal in fencin India and Tamilnadu has one of the few ing for India. For 2015 my aim is to be in top
States to embrace it, so to speak. There have 32 in the world, I was the ﬁrst women to win
been quite a few fencers, who have made gold medal at Nationals (sub-junior category)
a mark at the national level but young C A for Tamilnadu and also ﬁrst individual silver
Bhavani Devi stands apart for her exploits medal at the Asian Championship last year
at the national and international level and and (I) aim to win World Cups and World
aims to land a medal at the Rio De Janeiro Championship medals too. There is need
Olympics in 2016.
for world class training, and state-of-the-art
facilities required right from nutritional to
equipment to qualify and perform well in the
Olympics.
Q: Tell us about your training schedule and
how important is physical ﬁtness for fencing.
A: Normally we do two sessions each day.
However, before national or international
competitions we train harder and it involves
physical training, footwork, partner training
and bouts/matches. Initially, I thought fencing didn’t need a lot of physical work but it
is otherwise. I train with Rajamani Prabhu
at R-Accelerate.
Q: Who is your current coach and how
much is his/her contribution to your development?
A: My coach at SAI centre is Sagar Suresh
Lagu, who brought me here (SAI centre)
after seeing my performances at the national
level. I improved fast under his guidance and
progressed from winning medals in national
competitions to international level. Later, I
came under the wings of an Italian and the
improvement has been very good.
Though I was keen to train abroad I was
not ﬁnancially strongly and it is here Geoffrey
Thomas of Amaranta Entertainment came to
my rescue. Later I trained with the USA team
coach and they have motivated me a lot. I am
also grateful to AIADMK general secretary J
Jayalalithaa for her support as provided Rs
one lakh in 2008 and a lot of encouragement.
Q: who are your role models?
A: I look up to shuttler Saina Nehwal, tennis
star Sania Mirza, squash player Dipika Pallikal and all the women athletes who made
their game and their country proud. I am
keen to emulate their feats.
Q: Tell us about the difﬁculties you
faced in participating in events abroad
and who has been supporting you.
A: Like I said earlier, there is a need to
take part in more international competitions and longer training camps abroad.
I need financial support either from
the government or corporates. I have
struggled a lot due to lack of funding
and I know many players who have quit
fencing as a result of paucity of support.
Q: Do you think it will help if you train
abroad?
A: Yes, very much as at this stage that I
need to train abroad for longer periods (say
six-seven months).
Q: What is your biggest dream?
A: To participate in the Olympics and win
the ﬁrst medal in the sport for the country and
make my family and coach proud.
C A Bhavani Devi
Mixed Bag
CHENNAI
TUESDAY
24 FEBRUARY 2015
7
Railway Budget
likely to go green
Water recycling plants to come up in depots
Members of AAP’s Tamilnadu unit resorted to a hunger strike
against the amendments to the 2013 Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation & Resettlement Act 2013 in Chennai today.
NT Bureau
Chennai, Feb 24:
As the BJP-led NDA government
introduced the Land Acquisition
Amendment Bill 2015 to replace the
ordinance in Lok Sabha today, the
Tamilnadu unit of the Aam Aadmi
Party (AAP) along with members
of the farmers union from various
districts staged a hunger strike near
the State guest house in Chepauk.
Not just the farmers, many people
will suffer great loss if the Bill gets a
consent, said the media coordinator
of AAP Ramaiah.
It may be noted that the UPA government had brought about changes
in the earlier bill only in 2013.
‘It was not even implemented for
six months. The NDA government’s
move to not seek the consent (of
around 70 per cent of the people) on
Petroleum
Ministry case:
One more held
New Delhi, Feb 24 (PTI):
A casual worker employed at the
Defence Ministry was arrested today for allegedly providing forged
identity card to a key accused in
Petroleum Ministry leaks case while
police maintained that no sensitive
documents were leaked or stolen
from the Defence Ministry.
With this, 13 people have been
arrested in the corporate espionage
case related to Petroleum Ministry,
while one person was arrested
yesterday on charge of leaking
conﬁdential documents from Coal
and Power ministries.
Seven persons were also detained
in this connection.
the projects like general infrastructure, industrial corridors, etc, will have
a drastic affect on agriculturalists.’ he
added. The government is inclined
to inclusive growth. But the fate of
the farmers are put to stake, said an
agriculturalist from Namakkal.
He also pointed out that the Tamilnadu government never implemented
the amendments to the 2013 Land
Acquisition Act, brought about by
UPA government. ‘The State government then passed a bill and excluded
the 2013 law from projects like highways, rural housing and Dalit welfare.
If this bill gets implemented, the State
will suffer the most,’ said Ramaiah.
Social activist from Karnataka
Hiramath, AAP’s interim State committee members Zakir Hussain and
Jayaram Venkatesan were also
present.
NT Bureau
Chennai, Feb 24
University of Edinburgh, Scotland and Christian Medical College
(CMC), Vellore signed an MOU for
online masters degree in Family
Medicine.
At a function held at Anna University
here yesterday, CMC principal
Alfred Daniel and University of
Edinburgh Deputy Vice-Chancellor
Charlie Jeffery signed the pact for
the two-year course.
Speaking to reporters, University
of Edinburgh professor David Weller
said, ‘It is a distance learning course
where evaluation and training will be
done through internet. Our university
will teach the medical skills, procedures that doctors use and the way to
treat diseases themselves to the students. Interactions and e-mailing will
be an essential part of the studies.’
About the importance of Family
Medicine, Jachin Velavan, coordinator, Distance Education, CMC, said,
‘In a family, each person has different
health issue and thus go to different
specialists. We wanted all problems
to be addressed at the same place.’
Ansari met Gyan Das at Hanuman Garhi premises along with his
son Iqbal Ansari. The negotiation
process, which started after the
30 September, 2010, Allahabad
High Court verdict over Ayodhya
issue, was largely being supported
by cross section of the civil society
and religious leaders from both the
communities.
‘We are drafting the ﬁnal points of
negotiation draft which will be presented before the Supreme Court
soon after the hearing starts,’ Gyan
Das said after the meeting yesterday, adding, they will be meeting
After WI high,
Ireland eyes UAE scalp
Brisbane, Feb 24 (PTI):
High on conﬁdence after their stunning win against the West Indies,
giant-killers Ireland will look to continue the momentum when they lock
horns with United Arab Emirates in a
Group B match of the cricket World
Cup here tomorrow.
Ireland’s Kevin O’Brien has already
warned his side that the win over the
West Indies will ‘mean nothing’ if they
don’t see off the UAE at the Gabba.
A victory against their fellow Associate
team would leave Ireland on the brink
of a quarterﬁnal berth.
In their tournament opener, the Irish
posted a rather comfortable win over
two-time winners West Indies, chasing
down a 300-plus total with four wickets
to spare in Nelson on 16 February.
Several members of the Ireland side
play for English county teams and they
will look to the likes of Middlesex’s
Paul Stirling, who scored 92 against
the West Indies, and Sussex’s Ed
Joyce, who scored 84, to carry on
from where they left off. In that match,
Somerset left-arm spinner George
Dockrell took three for 50.
Ireland and the UAE have met several times in low-rung ICC competitions in recent years and all-rounder
O’Brien was impressed by the way the
side nearly pulled off an upset before
losing to Zimbabwe by four wickets
in their opening Pool B match. ‘They
really pushed Zimbabwe and it was
only very good batting performances
from Sean Williams and Craig Ervine
that got Zimbabwe over the line,’
O’Brien said.
The UAE have some decent middleorder batsmen such as Khurram Khan
and Swapnil Patil besides bowlers, especially spinners, who have the ability
5
RAILW
New courses in
family medicine
She also said, ‘Currently, we are the
only university which is approved by
Tamilnadu Medical University for this
course.’ On the learning part, Jachin
said, ‘There are three significant
aspects that the students will learn
- one is the latest updates, then how
to apply systematically and most
to produce impressive spells. Leading
a side made up of mainly expat players
from India and Pakistan, UAE captain
Mohammad Tauqir knows that his
team had quite a few positives from
the game against Zimbabwe. The
batsmen performed well and the bowlers did a decent job.
Squads: Ireland (from): William
Porterﬁeld (capt), Andrew
Balbirnie, Peter Chase, Alex Cusack, George Dockrell, Ed Joyce,
Andrew McBrine, John Mooney, Kevin
O’Brien, Niall O’Brien, Max Sorensen,
Paul Stirling, Stuart Thompson, Gary
Wilson, Craig Young.
UAE (from): Mohammad Tauqir
(capt), Khurram Khan, Amjad
Ali, Amjad Javed, Andri Berenger,
Fahad Alhashmi, Manjula Guruge,
Kamran Shazad, Krishna Chandran,
Mohammad Naveed, Nasir Aziz,
Swapnil Patil, Rohan Mustafa, Saqlain
Haider, Shaiman Anwar.
(Match starts at 9 a.m (IST))
the Prime Minister also to seek his
cooperation.
Ansari, said, ‘After the draft is
ﬁnalised, we will get it signed by all
the top religious leaders from both
the communities who are supporting
our cause since beginning, before
submitting it in the Supreme Court.’
However, the negotiation draft
will be made public only after it is
submitted to the Supreme Court,
he said.
Gyan Das said they have discussed the proposal with almost all
Hindu religious establishments and
main spiritual leaders.
Philander out of
Windies clash
Sydney, Feb 24 (AFP):
South Africa seamer Vernon Philander has been ruled out of Friday’s
key World Cup clash against the West
Indies here after failing to recover
from a hamstring injury.
Philander hobbled off the ﬁeld after
sending down just
four overs in Sunday’s 130-run loss
to India in Melbourne. When he
batted, he was dismissed for nought.
‘Vernon sustained a Grade 1
Vernon Philander hamstring strain
which was conﬁrmed by the scans
done in Sydney on Monday afternoon,’ Proteas team manager Mohammed Moosajee said Tuesday.
‘The recovery period for a hamstring
strain normally takes a week to 10
days which makes him unavailable for
the match against the West Indies in
Sydney on Friday.’ Moosajee added
it was too early to tell if Philander, 29,
will be available for the match against
Ireland in Canberra on 3 March, and
that the all-rounder will be given the
best opportunity to recover to full
ﬁtness.
from waste, a ﬁrst of its kind exercise
in the public transporter.
Railways generate tons of wastage
including plastic which can be used
for producing energy.
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu is
likely to announce a new integrated
management system certiﬁcation of
all major workshops and production
units covering quality, occupational
health and safety. The Rail Budget
is also expected to announce a proposal to change design of locomotive
cabin to reduce the noise level. The
objective is to improve the design to
achieve the limits laid down in US
standards.
Rahul miffed
with senior
Cong leaders?
CMC principal Alfred Daniel and University of Edinburgh Deputy
Vice-Chancellor Charlie Jeffery signing the MoU at Anna University in Chennai yesterday. Vinod Shah of International Christian
Medical and Dental Association (ICMDA) is also present.
Ayodhya row: Talks
on for new proposals
Ayodhya, Feb 24 (PTI):
The main litigant in Babri Masjid
case Hashim Ansari has met Akhara
Parishad president Mahant Gyan
Das to discuss a new proposal for
resolution of Ayodhya dispute and
they plan to put it before the Supreme Court.
The formula for out-of-court settlement broadly talks about the 70
acres of disputed premises accommodating both mosque and temple
with a partition wall which will be
100 ft high, according to Gyan Das,
who is chief priest of Ayodhya’s
famous Hanuman Garhi temple.
consumption, wastage and scope for
saving the precious commodities.
Many major stations in the country
face acute water shortage in summer
and there will be proposals
for ways to enhance water
BU
efﬁciency in railways. An effective plan for water management at stations across
the country will be adopted
to save water. There will be
a separate chapter in the
Rail Budget listing a series of environment initiatives including proposal to
tap wind energy by setting up windmills along the tracks.
The budget is likely to propose setting up a plant for producing energy
ET
DG
AAP up in arms over
Land Acquisition Bill
in production units and workshops,
sources said.
The Minister wants maximum use
of alternative fuel in rail operations
and the budget will reﬂect
the same. Prabhu is likely
to propose setting up of
AY
water treatment plants and
recycling plants in coaching depots, workshops
and railway factories to
conserve water in railways.
The idea is to prevent wastage of
water and maximising the efforts to
save it also, the sources added.
After taking over railways, he has
sought water and energy audit in the
national transporter to know the exact
2
Tamilnadu Chief Minister O Panneerselvam planting a vilvam sapling
at Arulmigu Marundeeswarar Temple at Thiurvanmiyur in Chennai
today to mark the inauguration of a scheme to plant 67 lakh saplings
across the State.
New Delhi, Feb 24 (PTI):
Use of solar energy in a big way,
launching of waste-to-energy project
and proliferation of CNG in train
operations are some of the green
initiatives likely to be announced in
the Rail Budget this time.
Besides an elaborate exercise of
water conservation including setting
up of water recycling plants will also
be announced by Railway Minister
Suresh Prabhu in his maiden budget
address in the Lok Sabha on 26
February.
Apart from using solar energy to
illuminate coaches, station buildings and platforms, there are plans
for solar energy generation plants
importantly about the ethics.’ The fee
for master’s degree and diploma degree will be Rs 9 lakh and Rs 79,000
respectively.
Online applicatitions will be made
available in the CMC website. Scholarships will be provided to the deserving candidates.
New Delhi, Feb 24:
Shortly after Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi took ‘leave of
absence’, Shiv Sena targeted the
Gandhi scion in its editorial mouthpiece ‘Saamna’ alleging that he
took the decision as he was miffed
with senior party leaders.
The article further hints that it
was because of this reason, Rahul
decided to take ‘leave’ even at a
crucial time of Budget Session in
the Parliament.
After party’s electoral defeats,
the Gandhi scion had decided to
take leave from party’s work. He
will not be attending the Parliament Budget Session and won’t be
part of the party’s protest against
Land Acquisition Bill.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi defended the move and said
that Rahul needs ‘some time’.
Even the party came to Rahul’s
defense with Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi saying
that the Gandhi scion had asked
for time to introspect and decide
on future course for the party.
He added that the time for introspection is necessary as All India
Congress Committee (AICC) will
be held shortly and Rahul will give
inputs for it.
2 migrant labourers held
for robbery at Nanganallur
NT Bureau
Chennai, Feb 24:
Two men from Gujarat were detained last evening for allegedly robbing gold
and cash from a house in Nanganallur.
According to sources, Girija (44) had ﬁled a complaint with the police that
valuables were missing from her house since 12 February.
After investigation, police held, Madiyabhai Musafar (23) and Surajbhai (20)
and recovered seven sovereigns gold, Rs 30,000 cah and an LCD television
set from the duo. The arrest was made by Palavanthangal police personnel.
Auto driver found dead at Madhavaram
NT Bureau
Chennai, Feb 24:
An auto driver was found dead at his residence this morning in Madhavaram.
According to police sources, Shankar (26) of N C R Nagar was found hanging from the ceiling by his wife Sangeetha.
Police said, Shankar who had debts recently, asked Sangeetha to give her
anklets for pledging which she refused to part with. This allegedly compelled
Shankar to take the extreme step. Police have registered a case. His body
was sent to Stanley Medical College and Hospital.
Bangladesh denies
bookie links
Melbourne, Feb 24 (AFP):
Bangladesh today rubbished media
reports back home that seamer AlAmin Hossain had been kicked out
of the World Cup for reportedly confessing to meeting an illegal Indian
bookmaker.
The ofﬁcial statement issued on
Sunday by the team
management had said Hossain, 25, was being
sent home for breaking curfew rules ahead
of Bangladesh’s
washed-out match
against Australia in
Brisbane last weekend.
But the Dhaka-based
English language New Age
newspaper and other media
said Hossain had been under observation by the International Cricket
Council’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU) for some time.
However, the Bangladesh Cricket
Board (BCB)’s head of media, Jalal
Yunus, insisted the only charge of
indiscipline against Hossain was
staying out late at night and had nothing to do with any alleged corruption.
‘The ACSU has told us they have
nothing against Hossain, but we
took action because we have a notolerance policy for not obeying team
orders,’ Yunus told AFP.
‘There is no truth in reports that he
was sent home because of
alleged links with bookies.’
Media reports said the ACSU
had already spoken to Hossain
a few days earlier in Canberra when the team was
in the Australian capital for
their opening match against
Afghanistan.
Hossain apparently admitted
knowing an unnamed Indian
bookmaker whom he had met in
Chennai, where he had gone to
have his bowling action tested last
year, but the ACSU did not bring any
charges against him. However, when
the seamer broke curfew rules and
went out late at night in Brisbane, the
team management decided to punish
him and send him packing from the
World Cup.
8TUESDAY
24 FEBRUARY 2015
, CHENNAI
Licensed to post without prepayment under WPP. No. TN / PMG / (CCR) / WPP-470 / 15-17
UAE COACH
HITS OUT AT ICC
BRISBANE:
UAE coach Aaqib Javed,
a member of Pakistan’s
1992 World Cup-winning
team, has criticised the
ICC’s plan to reduce the
number of teams in next
World Cup from 14 to 10,
and questioned the downward spiral of full members like the West Indies
and Bangladesh in recent
years.
The 2019 World Cup in
England is expected to feature the eight top-ranked
nations along with two
other teams who will come
through a qualifying tournament in Bangladesh.
‘I think the gap is nar-
rowing now and every
Associate is pushing the
Full Members. I am really
surprised by the decision
the ICC already made that
the next World Cup would
be 10 teams,’ Javed was
quoted as saying by National.
The 42-year-old former
Pakistan pacer added,
‘Which 10 teams? If you
look at the performances
from some teams, their
graph has been going
down, like West Indies,
Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. I am not just talking
about in this World Cup.
Overall, what have they
achieved in the past 10
years? Why can’t there
be pressure on them to
improve, or go down?’
Javed, who would normally bowl ﬁrst or second
change for Pakistan in the
early and mid 1990s, has
taken 182 wickets in 163
ODIs and 54 in 22 Tests.
‘It is very unusual if you
compare it to other sports.
Sports need competition
and opportunities for every
one. What is there for us in
Associate cricket? Ireland
have been doing so well
for the past 10 years, but
haven’t gained anything.
When it comes to open
series, nobody wants to
play them. Nobody wants
Aaqib Javed
TOMORROW’S MATCH
to play Associate teams.
‘If after two years there
was promotion and relegation, how much interest
would be created? This is
not rocket science.
‘Who are the ICC protecting and why are they
protecting them? Forget
about audience, it is about
competition. Once you are
a Test nation, you are a
Test nation forever, whatever you do. There is no
pressure on them.’
The ongoing tournament
features four Associate
nations in UAE, Ireland,
Afghanistan and Scotland.
— PTI
Ireland vs UAE at Brisbane, 9 am (IST)
Shikhar Dhawan
Just let the players
relax, says Akram
KARACHI:
Pakistan’s former captain and fast bowling great
Wasim Akram has advised the national team management to not involve the players in long
meetings/discussions or training sessions ahead
of their crucial World Cup match against Zimbabwe.
‘All these long meetings and discussions and hard
training will do no good. The best thing now is to allow the players to relax for the next few days and let
them come back fresh for their next match,’ Akram
said on Geo News channel. He said the Pakistani
players needed to relax and unwind after the defeats
to India and West Indies. ‘What has happened cannot
be changed but now the players must regroup and
come back fresh in remaining matches,’ he added.
The Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Shaharyar
Khan said that he had spoken to captain Misbah-ulHaq and the team management over the team’s performances while other reports said that head coach
Waqar Younis and manager Naved Cheema had
held one to one sessions with the players to counsel
them in Brisbane. Akram said the World Cup was all
about pressure and players needed to relax. He also
advised the team management to not experiment anymore and go in with specialist wicketkeeper Sarfaraz
Ahmed and a fourth bowler for the remaining matches.
Akram was also critical of the fact that out of form
opener Nasir Jasmshed was seen batting in the nets
after he hurt himself while taking a catch and came
off the ﬁeld against the West Indies in Christchurch.
‘What was he doing batting in the nets if someone
in authority had seen him it could have become a
issue. First of all I don’t understand how serious was
his injury that he could ﬁeld for the entire innings but
come out to bat,’ Akram asked.
But now it is up for grabs
again at Auckland’s Eden
Park as both sides seek
to defend their unbeaten
starts to the 2015 tournament they are hosting
jointly. Cricket Australia
Chief Executive Officer
James Sutherland said:
‘It is not as if either side
needs any added incentive when playing each
other, but the fact the
Chappell-Hadlee Trophy
is on the line on Saturday
certainly provides it.
‘The trophy is named
after two of our great
cricketing families and so
to have it at stake in this
highly anticipated match
The Fantastic
Four trailer leaks
online
An alternate trailer for the upcoming Miles Teller starrer The
Fantastic Four has leaked online
via Instagram.
The trailer is attached to Kingsman: The Secret Service, which
is currently playing in theatres,
reported Aceshowbiz.
It offers a brief addition of what
appears to be Johnny aka Human
Torch and Sue Storm aka Sue
Storm ﬂying through the sky in blue
and red ﬂash.
The Fantastic Four reboot is set to
arrive in the US on 7 August.
Teller plays Reed Richards or
Mr Fantastic, Michael B Jordan
is Johnny, Kate Mara plays Sue,
Jamie Bell plays Ben Grimm or The
Thing and Toby Kebbell joins the
cast as the villainous Doctor Doom.
The movie is directed by Josh Trank
with a script by Simon Kinberg.
— PTI
is entirely appropriate.
‘Australia and New Zealand are two of the most
in-form sides in world
cricket at the moment
and matches between us
have invariably produced
excitement and drama’.
New Zealand Cricket Chief
Executive David White said
he was delighted the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy was
once again on the line.
‘The Chappell-Hadlee
Trophy brings to mind the
rich history of New Zealand-Australia one-day
contests and two of the
families who played such
prominent roles in the
early rivalry,’ said White.
Team
P
W
L NR
Pts
NZ
AUS
BAN
SL
AFG
ENG
SCOT
3
2
2
2
2
3
2
3
1
1
1
0
1
0
0
0
0
1
2
2
2
0
1
1
0
0
0
0
6
3
3
2
0
2
0
2
2
0
0
2
1
1
0
1
1
0
0
2
1
1
0
2
1
1
0
2
0
2
0
1
0
1
0
(Updated upto 24 February)
4
2
2
2
2
0
0
POOL B
INDIA
SA
IRE
WI
ZIM
PAK
UAE
Chappell-Hadlee
Trophy at stake
MELBOURNE:
The much-awaited World
Cup clash between cohosts Australia and New
Zealand will be about
more than just the race for
quarter-final places with
the cricket borads of both
countries today conﬁrming
that the Chappell-Hadlee
Trophy will be at stake.
The trophy, named after
two of Australia and New
Zealand’s greatest cricketing families, currently
resides with Australia,
who retained it after a
seven-wicket win against
the Black Caps in Nagpur during the 2011 ICC
Cricket World Cup.
POINTS TABLE
POOL A
Ton-up Dhawan
tops twitter chart
PERTH:
Fresh from his matchwinning century against
South Africa in the ongoing Cricket World Cup,
opener Shikhar Dhawan
topped the list of the most
talked about players from
India on Twitter.
Captain Mahendra
Singh Dhoni (@msdhoni)
and Ajinkya Rahane (@
ajinkyarahane88) were
the second and third most
mentioned Indian cricket-
ers. Dhawan smashed
137 to lay the foundation
for India’s huge victory in
Melbourne on Sunday.
While Dhoni’s aggressive
captaincy and ﬁeld placements drew praise from
cricket aﬁcionados, fans
were also impressed with
Rahane’s 79 off just 60
balls in the outing against
the Proteas, which India
won by 130 runs.
The moment Dhawan,
later adjudged Man of the
Sakthi, a
legend is
no more
1993 - the Tamil ﬁlm Pathini Penn which fetched him two State awards
for best ﬁlm and best dialogue writer.
R C Sakthi
C
lose on the heels of veteran
filmmaker K Balachander
breathing his last, Tamil
ﬁlm industry received yet another
jolt on Monday, as senior director
R C Sakthi, who launched Kamal
Haasan in a lead role, passed
away at a private hospital in Chennai at the age of 75.
‘Director Sakthi passed away at
SRM hospital due toage related
ailments,’ a source close to the
director’s family said.
Sakthi started his career as a
theatre artiste. He ﬂoated a troupe
with his friends and went on to act in
a few plays before moving to cinema.
He started his career as an assistant
to theatre artist Subbhu Arumugam,
and worked with him on several plays.
He launched actor-filmmaker
Kamal Haasan as a hero in his
directorial debut Unarchigal, a
controversial film about sexually
transmitted diseases.
He went on to direct some criticallyacclaimed ﬁlms such as Manidharil
Ithanai Nirangala, Dharma Yuddham
and Amma Pillai.
His last directorial venture was in
In his career, he had directed 17
ﬁlms. Sakthi was cremated today.
— NT Bureau
Will miss him a lot: Kamal
Actor Kamal Haasan was
shocked to know the demise of
R C Sakthi, who introduced him
as solo hero with Undarchigal
in 1973.
The actor rushed to the hospital
straight to pay his condolence.
Kamal Haasan always shared an
excellent rapport with Sakthi and
he never failed to mention Sakthi’s name in all his interviews.
Kamal in his condolence message, said, ‘He was introduced to
me as a ﬁlmmaker. We became
friends and now more like a
brother. He was a great lover of
cinemas. He was a good friend
for many in the industry. I will
miss him’.
Match, reached his century, Twitter went abuzz
with posts congratulating
the left-handed batsman.
Of the top five mosttweeted moments, four
were from the match’s second innings when Indian
bowlers were dominating
the show at the Melbourne
Cricket Ground. A total of
around 770,000 tweets
were posted related to
the match.
— PTI
Penguins of
Madagascar
come alive
Holiday Inn Macao, Cotai Central,
is offering guests the chance to
go undercover with the Penguins
of Madagascar and their favourite
DreamWorks Animation characters
this winter with an Ice World Package priced from HK$1,498.
A press note said guests can enjoy
an overnight stay and also have
some fun at the Penguins Undercover Ice World with the DreamWorks
Gang ice sculpture exhibition.
‘Asia’s largest annual indoor ice
sculpture exhibition takes visitors
on an undercover journey with the
Penguins of Madagascar through
the incredibly cool worlds of everyone’s favourite DreamWorks Animation characters, all carved from
ice,’ it said.
Akshay,
Nimrat pair up
for Airli
Airlift starring actor Akshay Kumar
and The Lunchbox actress Nimrat
Kaur’s ﬁrst look has been revealed.
Akshay reportedly plays a wealthy
Indian businessman who controls a
large conglomerate in Kuwait with
Nimrat as his wife.
Airlift, produced by Nikhil Advani
and directed by Raja Menon, is
expected to release in 2016.
— PTI
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Chennai 600 032. Ph: 4202 1111. Editor: K. Balakumar. Phone: Editorial / Admn / Advt / Circulation 2250 4000, Fax: 2250 0303 (Editorial) / 2250 0101 / 2250 1200 (Advt/Admn/Cir). E-mail: [email protected]. Website: www.newstodaynet.com