CHENNAI Monday 30-12-2013

VOL. 19 No.173 PAGES 8 ` 3.00

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TN PMG(CCR)/WPP No 676/12-14NATIONAL DAILY FOR THE PEOPLE

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Moscow, Dec.30:Ten people were killed

today in a blast on a town bus in the southern Russian city of Volgo-grad, a day after a deadly suicide bombing at the city’s main train station, officials said.“According to initial

information, 15 people were killed and 20 were

wounded” in the explo-sion, the spokeswoman of the local branch of the emergencies ministry Irina Gogoleva told the Interfax news agency.A suicide bomber killed

17 people Sunday in the attack on the train station of of Volgograd, heighten-ing security fears just six weeks before the Sochi

Olympic Games.The death toll from

Sunday’s attack rose to 17 from 16 overnight after another victim died in hospital of his wounds, the health ministry said.Reports said that the

blast was so strong that the trolleybus -- a com-mon form of municipal transport in Russian cities

-- was completely de-stroyed.Investigators have called the trolleybus blast an ‘act of terror’.Russian news agencies quoted un-named local officials as saying that the blast was likely to have been an attack.“This is another act of terror, this time in a trolleybus,” a investigative source told RIA Novosti.

Fresh bomb blast in Russia, 15 die

‘Isai Arasi’ title for Bhagyalakshmi Suresh

Kunnokol artist VVS Manian presenting the Isai Arasi title to Carnatic musician Bhagyalskhmi Suresh at the fourth day of the Trinity Art Festival. Chairman R. Muthukumar and convenor Murali Raghavan are also seen. The vocal performance of Bhagyalskhmi Suresh was a wonderful treat to audience at the Kumararani Muthiah college of Arts and Science.

Chief Minister Jayalalithaa today flagged off 414 new buses including the 81 revamped ones at Kodanad camp office.

Chennai, Dec 30:C h i e f M i n i s t e r

Jayalalithaa today flagged off 333 new buses and 81 refurbished buses at the camp office in Kodanad where she’s now having a short stay.A statement issued

here said that she gave away pension to 5,151 retired bus crew and also gratuity as also leave salary totalling Rs 154. 26 crores in the form of cheques. Also, she inaugurated new buildings constructed at a cost of Rs 37.11 lakhs.The statement noted

that the Chief Minister has been providing the best transport facility for the people across the State by introducing new routes. Every day, 2.10 crore people commute by buses and the existing routes number 20, 634. The people have thanked

Disburses pension to 5151 crewJayalalithaa flags off new buses from camp

office in Kodanad

Chennai, Dec 30:Chief Minister Jayala-

lithaa today inaugurated 50 power substations at an estimated cost of Rs 510 crore in various parts of the State through video conferencing from his Kodanadu camp office. This included a 33 kv sub station sest up at a csot of Rs.4.77 crores at Mhatamagandhi Nagar in Madurai.Besides, the Chief Min-

ister inaugurated the 60 kilo watt solar power electricity production cen-tre at the Tamil Nadu

Electricity Production and Distribution office Chen-nai Secretariat building top tier at an estimated cost of Rs 56 lakh and launched the Rs 77 crore Compact Fluorescent Lamp (CFL) scheme for the consumers residing in huts.The break up of the 50 kv substations in-clude the 33 kv station at Mahatma Gandhi Nagar, Madurati at an estimated Rs 4.77 crore and 49 kv stations at various parts of Tamil Nadu at an es-timated Rs 505.11 crore.In her endeavour to pro-

vide uninterrupted power supply to people, Jayala-lithaa had announced in the Assembly session on April 25 of the impera-tive need of setting up substations. Based on that, the Chief Minister inaugurated the 50- kv substations at a total cost of Rs 510 crore.In her Vision 2023,

Jayalalithaa introduced the Solar Power 2012 concept paving the way for increased production of electricity and based on the knowledge that the solar power generated

is pristine pure. On that persepctive, Jayalalithaa inaugurated 60 kilo watt solar power electricity production centre at the top tier of Tamil Nadu Production and Distribu-tion office in the Secre-tariat of at Rs 55.80 lakh.To encourage saving

of power among the popole and keeping into consideration the prices of quality lamps, Jaya-lalithaa–led government had announced the CFL scheme for around 14.62 lakhs consumers of the huts. Based on that, the

Jayalalithaa inaugurates `500 crore worth 50 power substations across TN

Launches `9 cr Compact Fluorescent Lamp scheme

Chief Minister inaugu-rated the scheme at a cost of Rs 8.77 lakhs.As

the first phase, the Chief Miniser gave away nine watt CFL lamps to seven

people, a benefit which will be extended to seven lakh people. The salient

feature of the scheme, is in around 40 mega watt of electricity be saved.

Jayalalithaa for connecting bus terminals with the nearby railway stations.The statement further

said the Chief Minister gave away the keys of new buses to seven drivers and flagged off

the vehicles. Since the bus corporations have

(Contd on Page 8)

Monday 30-12-201322Bob’s Banter Robert Clements

T ' wa s t h e habit of Mr Sparrow to always build his nest with straw from

the stable. "You clever man!" chirped Mrs Sparrow happily, "While all dem other birds go roun' searchin' for straw you jes' sort of walk into dat stable and grab a beakfull to build our house!"And now that Mrs Sparrow was expecting again, he walked into the stable then shook his head. "There's human's in de stable!" he chirped with disbelief."The innkeeper turned them out!" mooed the cow."Said there was no room in the inn!" said the sheep."Told them to use the manger if they wanted!""Because the woman's jes' going to deliver!" said the cow who knew much about such matters."Mrs Sparrow is also jes going to deliver!" said Mr Sparrow

A feather for the baby!proudly. He picked up a beakfull of straw, then nearly dropped it as he heard the sound of a new born child."There's a baby born in that stable!" said Mr Sparrow to his missus while he neatly laid out the straw for his new house."I know!" said Mrs Sparrow."Whatcha mean you know?" said Mr Sparrow crossly, "You didn't come with me to dat stable m'dear?""I heard de baby cry!""You did?""I never heard a lil' baby cry like that! It was not like it be scared to leave its mama's womb! It cry like it want to be born!"Mr Sparrow stared at his wife thoughtfully. He wondered how women knew things like this more than most men, "The innkeeper didn't have room for them in the inn!" he said sort of worried."That baby's come to make room in heaven for people like dat innkeeper!" said Mrs Sparrow thoughtfully."How you know this woman?""I bin' staring at that star outside! I bin' listen' to them shepherds talkin'! That child is a special baby husband!"

"Whatcha doin' with the straw I jus' brought?" asked Mr Sparrow suddenly."Take it back husband, put it round the baby in manger! I can't take the straw meant for de Holy Child!" Mr Sparrow started back with his beakfull of straw."Husband take dis' feather o' mine! Put it where it'll warm the baby!"Mr Sparrow climbed onto the crib and laid the feather on the little child. The mother of the babe watched and smiled. She reached forward and touched the sparrow."I put your feather on the lil' babe like you said!" said Mr Sparrow."I hope it keeps him warm! Pity about the innkeeper though! It's to save men like him the babes' come down!"Mr Sparrow stared at his wife thoughtfully. He felt glad with what Mrs Sparrow had done for the baby, but wondered sadly why people the babe had come down for didn't have room for him. "I don't understand dem human fellers!" he chirped as he went to gather straw to build another nest for Mrs Sparrow.

bobsbanter@gmail.com

Divine Digest

Inspiring thought Healthy living

Edited and Printed by R Muthu Kumar, at No.1, First Main Road, United India Colony, Kodambakkam, Chennai-600 024 at "Trinity Printers and Publishers Press", No.1, First Main Road, United India Colony, Kodambakkam,Chennai-600 024 and published by R Muthu Kumar for Trinity Printers and Publishers Limited. Phone: Editorial: 24734800 Administration: 24733900 Fax nos: 24732700,24735700.Email: trinitymirror1@gmail.com

“If you think you can, you can. And if you think you can’t, you’re right.”

- Mary Kay Ash

Friend or foeIn a military camp

the intruder is held for inquiry. If he is a friend the treatment is in one way, if a foe it is in another way. The same should be the case everywhere.

Man should be soft with a friend and stern with a foe. Submission to the latter leads to deterioration. Combating with him is part and parcel of life. With manliness the foe is to be kept at bay.

To h i m w h o h a s conquered his base self by the divine self, his own self is the friend; but to him who has not subdued the self,his own self act as the foe.

-Bhagvad Gita

Make banana a must in your daily diet and see it work wonder on your health! A relaxant, it helps improve your mood and makes you feel happier. The fruit also stimulates the production of haemoglobin in blood and is good for the anaemic. It helps beat blood pressure, avoid morning sickness, overcome constipation and heartburn, boosts brain power, calms the nervous system and even helps give up smoking. And if you have a hangover, go for a banana milkshake sweetened with honey. While the banana helps calm the stomach, the milk soothes and rehydrates the system, honey builds up depleted sugar levels.

According research published in The New England Journal of

Medicine, eating bananas as part of a regular diet can cut the risk of death by strokes by about 40 per cent. It was concluded from a study on 200 students at an English school that their brain power improved as a result of eating bananas at breakfast, break and lunch.

The potassium packed fruit can also make pupils more alert, according to another research.

A recent survey amongst people suffering from depression revealed that many felt much better having a banana. Bananas contain trptophan, a type of protein that is converted into serotonin in your body.

The serotonin helps you relax, improve your mood and generally makes you feel happier.

A banana a day

Yesterday’s me-1 solution

Su-do-ku M-20F i l l t h e g r i d w i t h numbers so that every row, every column and every 3-by-3 box contains the digits 1 to 9, without repeating. Solution to this will appear in tomorrow’s edition

Chennai, Dec. 30:C.Bharathidasan, M.

Suman of India Post, K. Ramesh Babu (IOC) and B. Radhakrishnan of Indian Bank entered the quarter-finals in the 30th District Carrom cham-pionship conducted by Chennai District Carrom Association at the Hall of Carrom, SDAT Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.Earlier the tournament

was inaugurated by B. Ravikumar David, vice president, Tamilnadu Car-rom Association. G. Vi-jayaraj, general secretary offered the felicitation and S. Anandan, hony. general secretary, Chennai District Carrom Association wel-comed the gathering.The events are open

singles, non medalist singles, women singles, veteran singles (men & women), junior singles below 18 years for boys and girls and sub-junior below 12 years (boys and girls). A record number of 532

entries are received for this event.

Results: Pre-quarter finals :C. Bharathidasan (India

Post) beat K. Chandraku-mar 23/4, 25/10; J. Gopi beat A. Mahesh Devaraj (AGRC) 25/0, 17/3; Ra-mesh Babu (IOC) beat Y. Saleem 25/4, 25/5;

K. Balakrishnan beat M.U. Anthony Bernard (CMDA) 19/25, 25/15, 25/11; B. Radhakrihnan (IB) beat D. Kubendra-babu (Chennai Customs) 17/15, 25/16;M. Suman (India Post)

beat S. Sakthivel 21/25, 25/13, 19/16; N. Premku-mar beat K. Premkumar (UISRC) 25/16, 11/17, 25/8; J. Sebastian beat R. Balakottiah 8/25, 25/7, 25/0.

4th round Results :

B. Radhakrishnan beat G. Naveen Kumar 23/8, 25/1; D. Kubendra Babu beat Arun Karthik 7/24, 23/11, 19/3; S. Sakthivel beat R.

Srinivasalu 20/15, 25/0; M. Suman beat M. Karikalan; N. Premku-mar beat P. Sathishku-mar 7/22, 24/20, 17/11; K. Premkumar beat G. Devakumar 25/0, 25/1; Y. Saleem beat S. Stal-lin 0/25, 24/22, 25/15; K. Ramesh Babu beat

M. Vinnoli Idhayanand 21/14, 25/0; A. Mahesh Devaraj AGRC beat K. Purushothaman 21/20, 18/10; J. Gopi beat A. Maria Irudhayam 25/2, 8/21, 25/7; K. Chandra-kumar beat S. Dinakaran 8/25, 25/9, 25/13; M.U. Anthony Bernard beat R. Dharanikumar 25/20, 22/21; R. Balakottiah beat N. Murthy 25/15, 16/25, 23/17; J. Sebastian beat G.D. Kishore Kumar 24/6, 24/6.

Bharathidasan, Suman enter quarter-finals in carrom tournament

Chennai, Dec. 30:S. Shrikrishna (TNBSA)

defeated Elavarasan (Myl-apore Club) 3-0 in round two of the TNBSA State-ranking junior snooker tournament conducted by Tamilnadu Billiards and Snooker Association.In another match, Mo-

hammed Khalid (TNBSA) defeated 8th seed Moham-med Irfan. Khalid was never considered a real threat but on the day, he showed it wasn’t easy to write him off. The new entrant thrashed Irfan with three frames to nil (3 – 0) in the best-of-five frames to enter round 2 stage in style.

R o u n d 2 r e s u l t : S.Shrikrishna (TNBSA) bt Elavarasan (Mylapore

Club) 3 – 0; Sri Deepad-srshan (TNBSA) bt Mohd Khalid (TNBSA) 3 – 0; K.Rajan (TNBSA) bt S.Arun (Mylapore Club) 3 – 0; K.Rakesh (TNBSA) bt P.Mani (MCC) 3 – 0; B.Jagadesh (TNBSA) bt Mohammed Ziyauddin (TNBSA) 3 – 0; Kaavya Bharath (Mylapore Club) bt Mu Mukthar Ahmed (Hangout) 3 – 0.

Round 1 Result: Mo-hammed Khalid (TN-BSA) bt Mohammed Irfan (Mylapore Club) 3 – 0; E.Suresh (Mylapore Club) bt Gopikrishna (Snook City) 3 – 2; Elavarasan (Mylapore

Club) bt Ashwan Ganga (Snook City) 3 – 1; Kaavya Bharath (My lapore Club) bt Aashrith

(Mylapore Club) 3 – 0; B.Jagadesh (Mylapore Club) bt Pradhyumna (TNBSA) 3 – 0;E.Sundar Raj (Madras

Club) bt B.Naveen Raj (TNBSA) 3 – 0; Sri Deepadarshan (TNBSA) bt Viswajith Pai (Snook City) 3 – 0; K.Rajan (TN-BSA) bt Bhusan (Snook City) 3 – 0; P.Mani (MCC) bt Dheeraj (Snook City) 3 – 0; K.Rakesh (TNBSA) bt

K.Adhhityaa (Mylapore Club) 3 – 0; Moham-med Ziyauddin (TNBSA) bt NT.Avinash (Towers Club) 3 – 0; Saran Raj (BTA-CBE) bt V.Haran (Mylapore Club) 3 – 0; Mukthar Ahmed (Hang-out) bt Ratish (BTA-CBE) 3 – 0.

Shrikrishna shocks Elavarasan in Junior Snooker

Lyon, Dec 30:Michael Schumacher,

the seven-time Formula One champion, is in a coma and remains in a “critical” condition after striking his head in a ski accident in the French Alps on Sunday, the hos-pital treating him said.The 44-year-old German

was “suffering a serious brain trauma with coma on his arrival, which re-quired an immediate neu-rosurgical operation”, the hospital in the southeast French city of Grenoble said in a statement.“He remains in a criti-

cal condition.” Schum-acher had been skiing off-piste in the upmarket Meribel resort, where he reportedly has a property, when he fell and hit his head on a rock, mountain police who gave him first aid said.He was airlifted to a

local hospital, then to the Grenoble facility. A specialist neurosurgeon from Paris was rushed in to oversee his treatment.The director of the

Meribel resort, Christophe Gernigon-Lecomte, had said just after the acci-dent that Schumacher had been wearing a helmet

and was “conscious but a little agitated” just after the accident, suggesting he had not received life-threatening injuries.But when Schumacher

then fell into coma, doc-tors realised the damage was worse than initially feared.The two mountain po-

lice officers who gave first aid said Schumacher was suffering “severe cranial trauma” when they got to him and a helicopter was brought in to evacuate him within 10 minutes.A renowned Paris neu-

rosurgeon, doctor Gerard Saillant, was brought to

the Grenoble hospital in a police car to take charge of the famous patient.The hospital statement

was signed by the facil-ity’s neurosurgeon, the professor in charge of its anaesthesia/revival unit, and the hospital’s deputy director. Schumacher was on a private stay in Meribel, according to his spokeswoman. He is to have his 45th birthday next Friday.Schumacher, who won

the last of his world titles in 2004, definitively retired in 2012 in the Brazilian Grand Prix, in which he finished sev-enth, after an abandoned

attempt to quit six years earlier.Since his debut in 1991,

the German towered over the sport, winning more Formula One world titles and races than any other. He had a record 91 wins and is one of only two men to reach 300 grands prix. Schumacher was born

in January 1969 near Cologne, Germany, the son of a bricklayer who also ran the local go-kart track, where his mother worked in the canteen.His helmet had a mes-

sage for fans: “Life is about passions -- Thank you for sharing mine.”

Schumacher in coma, ‘critical’ after France ski accident

Ravikumar david, vice president, Tamilnadu Carrom association inaugurated the tournament. G. Vijayaraj, general secretary, S. anandan, Hony. General Secretary, Chennai district Carrom association participated.

Durban, Dec 30:Jacques Kallis made

his swansong match a memorable one by hitting his 45th Test hundred as India faced a daunting task of batting out the entire fifth day to save

the series-deciding second cricket Test against South Africa, here.Kallis ensured that he

left the Test arena in a blaze of glory with a flu-ent 115 as the home team posted a mammoth 500 in

India fight for survival after South africa post 500

Moradabad, Dec. 30:Tamil Nadu men’s and

Railway women’s won the titles at the 62nd senior

national volleyball cham-pionship which concluded here.While in the men’s

final match Tamil Nadu thrashed Uttarakhand by 3-0. Naveen Raja Ja-cob and G R Vaishnav

Tn men regain Senior national Volleyball title

Chennai, Dec. 30:Chennai’s rising talent

waiting to break into the international arena, Ram-kumar Ramanathan was the lone Indian to survive into the final round of the qualifying matches of the ATP Tour Chennai Open tennis championships with a hard fought second set victory over higher ranked M Elgin of Russia.The tall and hard hit-

ting Ramkumar ended Elgin’s run winning 6-3, 7-5 in his one hour and 42 minute long second

round match. Ramana-than, who is hoping to join his senior compatri-ots Somdev Devverman, Yuki Bhambri and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan in the singles main draw, broke Elgin in the fifth and ninth games of the first set for an easy 6-3 win. But the Russian came back harder in the second set which went on serves till 6-5 in Ramkumar’s favour. Elgin succumbed ultimately in the 12th game when Ramkumar broke him.

their first innings to take a sizeable 166-run lead.India lost both the

openers Murali Vijay (6) and Shikhar Dhawan (19) before reaching 68 for two on yet another rain-marred day, still needing 98 runs to avoid the ignominy of an innings defeat.Cheteshwar Pujara (32)

and Virat Kohli (11) will resume India’s battle.Pujara and Dhawan had

batted with caution after paceman Vernon Philan-der had Vijay caught in the slips. But Faf du Plessis took a spec-tacular one-handed catch to send back Dhawan, who played uppishly in the mid-wicket region and failed to clear the fielder.It was yet another

waste of a watchful start by Dhawan, who ended this Test series with scores of 13, 15, 29 and

19. With one day left in the match, the visitors have to bat out the final day to share the honours in the two-match series. The first Test in Johan-nesburg had ended in a thrilling draw.South Africa on the

other hand need to take eight wickets on a tricky fifth day track at the Kingsmead to give Kal-lis a perfect gift in his farewell match.Beginning at the over-

night score of 299 for five, Kallis scored 115 off 316 balls with 13 bound-aries while lower-order batsman Robin Peterson played a 61-run cam-eo before their innings folded for exactly 500.Left-arm spinner Ravidra Jadeja was the pick of the bowler for India with six wickets for 138 runs while paceman Zaheer Khan took two wickets at the expense of 97 runs.

wreaked the Uttrakhand defense in first set while in the second set explo-sive spikes of C Jerome Vinit and Naveen did not allow the Uttarakhand to return back. TN won the three sets directly by 25-17, 25-16, 25-14.In the women’s fi-

nal Railways hammered Kerala in final encounter 3-1. Captain Minimol Abraham and Soumya V of Railways smashed hardly to win set. Set two was again dominated by Railways as Minmol kept striking. Kerala fought back in third set as Rekha S attacked smartly.Fourth set Railways

outplayed Kerala and thus they won the title by 25-17, 25-10, 23-25, 25-21.In the men’s section

third place was secured by Kerala beating Servic-es 3-2 (23-25, 21-25,25-19,25-17,25-10). Third place in women category was won by Tamil Nadu when they beat Haryana 3-0 (26-24,25-16,25-21).

Ramkumar, lone Indian to survive into final qualifying

rounds of Chennai open Tennis

Monday 30-12-2013 3

The elderly with a history of concussions - involving at least a momentary loss of consciousness - may have higher amounts of toxic brain protein linked with Alzheimer’s disease, a new study has found.“ I n t e r e s t i n g l y, i n

people with a history of concussion, a difference in the amount of brain plaques was found only in those with memory and thinking problems, not in those who were cognitively normal,” said study author Michelle Mielke, with Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, USA.For the study, people

from Olmsted County in Minnesota were given brain scans; these included 448 people without any sign of memory problems and 141 people with memory and thinking problems called mild cognitive impairment.Participants, who were

all aged 70 or older, were also asked about whether they had ever experienced a brain injury

Concussions may lead to alzheimer’s

S c i e n t i s t s h a v e discovered that low oxygen conditions, which often persist inside tumours, initiate a molecular chain of events that give breast cancer cells their ability to move.The study by the Johns Hopkins University underlines the importance of hypoxia-inducible factors in promoting breast cancer metastasis.“High levels of RhoA

and ROCK1 were known to worsen outcomes for breast cancer patients by endowing cancer cells with the ability to move, but the trigger for their production was

a mystery,” said Gregg Semenza, the C Michael Armstrong Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopk i n s Un iv e r s i t y School of Medicine and senior author of the study.“ We n o w k n o w

that the production of these proteins increases dramatically when breast cancer cells are exposed to low oxygen conditions,” Semenza said.T o mov e , c a n c e r

cells must make many changes to their internal structures, Semenza said. Thin, parallel filaments form throughout the cells, allowing them to contract

and cellular “hands” arise, allowing cells to “grab” external surfaces to pull themselves along.The proteins RhoA and

ROCK1 are known to be central to the formation of these structures.Moreover, the genes

that code for RhoA and ROCK1 were known to be turned on at high levels in human cells from metastatic breast cancers. In a few cases, those

increased levels could be traced back to a genetic error in a protein that controls them, but not in most.

Low-oxygen conditions help breast cancer cells spread

Health MattersGood to see you. I’m

sorry. It sounds like you’ve had a tough, tough, week.” Spoken by a doctor to a cancer patient, that statement is an example of compassionate behavior observed by aUniversity of Rochester Medical Centerteam in a new study published by the journal Health Expectations.Rochester researchers

believe they are the first to systematically pinpoint and catalogue compassionate words and actions in doctor-patient conversations. By breaking down the dialogue and studying the context, scientists hope to create a behavioral taxonomy that will guide medical training and education.“ I n h e a l t h c a r e ,

we believe in being compassionate but the reality is that many of us have a preference for technical and biomedical issues over establishing emotional ties,” said senior investigator Ronald Epstein, M.D., professor of Family Medicine, Psychiatry, Oncology, andNursing and director of the UR Center for Commun i ca t i on and Disparities Research.Epstein is a national

and international keynote speaker and investigator on mindfu lness and communication in medical education.

His team recruited 23 oncologists from a variety of private and hospital-based oncology clinics in the Rochester, N.Y., area. The doctors and their stage III or stage IV cancer patients volunteered to be recorded during routine visits. Researchers then analyzed the 49 audio-recorded encounters that took place between November 2011 and June 2012, and looked for key observable markers of compassion.In contrast to empathy

– another quality that Epstein and his colleagues have studied in the medical community -- compassion involves a deeper and more active imagination of the patient’s condition. An important part of this study, therefore, was to identify examples of the three main elements of compassion: recognition of suffering, emotional resonance, and movement t owa r d s a dd r e s s i n g suffering.Emotional resonance, or

a sense of sharing and connection, was illustrated by this dialogue: Patient: “I should just get a room here.” Oncologist: “Oh, I hope you don’t really feel like you’re spending that much time here.”Another conversation

included this response from a physician to a patient, who complained about a drug patch for

pain: “Who wants a patch that makes you drowsy, constipated and fuzzy? I’ll pass, thank you very much.”Some doctors provided

good examples of how they use humor to raise a patient’s spirits without deviating from the seriousness of the situation. I n one c a s e , f o r

example, a patient was concerned that he would not be able to drink two liters of barium sulfite in preparation for a CT scan.Doctor: “If you just get

down one little cup it will tell us what’s going on in the stomach. What I tell people when we’re not being recorded is to take a cup and then pour the rest down the toilet and tell them you drank it all (laughter)… Just a creative interpretation of what you are supposed to take.”Patient: “I love it, I

love it. Well, I thank you for that. I’m prepared to do what I’ve got to do to get this right.”Researchers evaluated

tone of voice, animation that conveyed tenderness and understanding, and other ways in which doctors gave reassurances or psychology comfort.Here’s an instance

in which an oncologist encouraged a reluctant patient to follow through with a planned trip to

Arizona: “You know, if you decide to do it, break down and allow somebody to meet you at the gates and use a cart or wheelchair to get you to your next gate and things like that. And having just sent my father-in-law off to Hawaii and told him he had to do that, he said no, no, I can get there. Just, it’s okay. Nobody is gonna look at you and say, ‘What’s an able-bodied man doing in a cart?’ Just, it’s okay. It’s part of setting limits.”R e s e a r c h e r s a l s o

observed non-verba l communication, such as pauses or sighs at appropriate times, as well as speech features and voice quality (tone, pitch, loudness) and other metaphorical language that conveyed certain attitudes and meaning.Compassion unfolds

over time, researchers concluded. During the process, physicians must challenge themselves to stay with a difficult discussion, which opens the door for the patient to admit uncertainty and grieve the loss of normalcy in life.“It became apparent

that compassion is not a quality of a single utterance but rather is made up of presence and engagement that suffuses an entire conversation,” the study said.

What Does Compassion Sound Like?

Jerusalem, Dec. 30:The mechanism by

which some bacteria are able to survive antibacterial treatment has been revealed for the first time by Hebrew University of Jerusalem researchers. Their work could pave the way for new ways to control such bacteria.In addition to the known

phenomenon by which some bacteria achieve resistance to antibiotics through mutation, there are other types of bacteria, known as “persistent bacteria,” which are not resistant to the antibiotics

but simply continue to exist in a dormant or inact ive sta te whi le exposed to antibacterial treatment. These bacteria later “awaken” when that treatment is over, resuming their detrimental tasks, presenting a dilemma as to how to deal with them.Until now, it had been

known that there is a connection between these kind of bacteria and the naturally occurring toxin HipA in the bacteria, but scientists did not know the cellular target of this toxin and how its activity triggers dormancy of the bacteria.

Now, t h e Heb r ew University researchers, led by Prof. Gadi Glaser of the Faculty of Medicine and P r o f . Na t h a l i e Balaban of the Racah Institute of Physics, have been able to demonstrate how this comes about. Their research showed that when antibiotics attack these bacteria, the HipA toxin disrupts the chemical “messaging” process necessary for nutrients to build proteins. This is interpreted by the bacteria as a “hunger signal” and sends them into an inactive state, (dormancy) in which they

are able to survive until the antibacterial treatment is over and they can resume their harmful activity.T h e r e s e a r c h o n

persistent bacteria has b e e n c ondu c t e d i n Prof. Balaban’s lab for several years, focusing on the development of a biophysical understanding of the phenomenon. It will be combined with other work being done in Prof. Glaser’s laboratory focusing on combating persistent bacteria, in the hope of leading to more effective treatment for bacterial infections.

Work can lead to improved therapies in the future

A patch for detecting cocaine consumption from skin perspiration, a chip to identify pathogens in foods , a dev i ce for monitoring colon cancer via a patient’s blood, and a sensor to detect environmental contamination via the analysis of marine algae. All four applications h av e s ome t h i n g i n common: they all arose from the same European research project, entitled LabOnFoil. This initiative, which ended recently, was set-up to develop rapid and low-cost diagnostics devices that could be adapted to different situations and, in short, offer society new advances to improve quality of life.The collaboration between the 13 entities from eight European countries who participated in the project has borne fruit in the form of the aforementioned four applications, which have generated new business opportunities in sectors with high added value. As underlined by the project coordinator, Jesús M. Ruano-López, “the consortium’s efficient uses of resources and good management in general have enabled LabOnFoil to have a significant economic impact”.

No wonde r some of the applications are now being commercially exploited by different consor t ium par tners . The Spanish company POC Microsolutions, for

example, is industrialising one of the prototypes for launch on the market in 2015. For its part, the Irish company Biosensia is launching patches onto the market to detect the presence of drugs, whilst DTU Nanotech (Denmark) is opening a new line of business based on one of these developments.

The LabOnFoil project, which commenced in 2008 and ended in February 2013, had a budget of 7.1 million Euro, and was co-financed by the VII European Framework Programme (EU).Ruano-López explained

that “the goal for all LabOnFoil project partners was none other than the development of devices with a positive social and economic impact. Results have been achieved thanks to our determination to develop compact, reliable devices with added value compared to existing competitors, that is, that could be commercially exploited”.“Teamwork has enabled us to combine consortium members’ different specialisations, such as micro technology, mo l e c u l a r b i o l o g y, materials, and electronics, to develop much more compact, economical and easier to use diagnostic systems than exist at present. Which ultimately enables drugs, illnesses, contamination, etc. to be identified in very different scenarios, with a very significant commercial

Rapid diagnostics, a new opportunity for European companies

Streptococcus biofilms persisted on objects and surfaces in a daycare center, in some cases after a cleaning.Numerous scientific

studies have concluded that two common bacteria that cause colds, ear infections, strep throat and more serious infections cannot live for long outside the human body. So conventional wisdom has long held that these bacteria won’t linger on inanimate objects like furniture, dishes or toyBu t Unive r s i t y a t

Buffalo research published today in Infection and Immunity shows that Streptococcus pneumoniae a n d S t r e p t o c o c c u s pyogenesdo persist on surfaces for far longer than has been appreciated. The findings suggest that additional precautions may be necessary to prevent infections, especially in settings such as schools, daycare centers and hospitals.“These findings should

make us more cautious about bacteria in the environment since they change our ideas about how these particular bacteria are spread,” says senior author Anders Hakansson, PhD, assistant professor of microbiology and immunology in the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. “This is the first paper to directly investigate that these bacteria can

survive well on various surfaces, including hands, and potentially spread between individuals.”S. pneumon i a e , a

leading cause of ear infections in children and morbidity and mortality from respiratory tract infections in children and the elderly, is widespread i n d ay c a r e c en t e r s and a common cause of hospital infections, says Hakansson. And in developing countries, where fresh water, good nutrition and common antibiotics may be scarce, S. pneumoniae often leads to pneumonia and sepsis, killing one million children every year.S. pyogenes commonly

causes strep throat and skin infections in school children but also can cause serious infection in adults.The UB researchers

found that in the day care center, four out of five stuffed toys tested positive for S. pneumonaie and several surfaces, such as cribs, tested positive for S. pyogenes, even after being cleaned. The testing was done

just prior to the center opening in the morning so it had been many hours since the last human contact.Hakansson and his co-

authors became interested in the possibility that some bacteria might persist on surfaces when they published work

last year showing that bacteria form biofilms when colonizing human t issues . They found that these sophisticated, highly structured biofilm communities are hardier than other forms of bacteria.“Bacterial colonization

doesn’t, by itself, cause infect ion but i t ’s a necessary first step if an infection is going to become established in a human host,” he explains. “Children, the elderly and others with compromised immune systems are especially vulnerable to these infections.”He explains that studies

of how long bacteria survive on inanimate objects have used cultures grown in laboratory media, called broth-grown planktonic bacteria, and invariably show that bacteria die rapidly.“But we knew that

this form of bacteria may not represent how they actually grow in the host,” says Hakansson. “Since discovering that biofi lms are key to the pathogenesis of S. pneumonaie, we wanted to find out how well biofilm bacteria survive outside the body.”The UB experiments

found that month-old biofilm of S. pneumoniae and S. pyogenes from contaminated surfaces readily colonized mice, and that biofilms survived for hours on human hands

and persisted on books and soft and hard toys and surfaces in a daycare center, in some cases, even after being well-cleaned.“In all of these cases,

we found that these pathogens can survive for long periods outside a human host,” says Hakansson. But, he says, the scientific literature maintains that you can only become infected by breathing in infected droplets expelled through coughing or sneezing by infected individuals.“Commonly handled

o b j e c t s t h a t a r e contaminated with these biofilm bacteria could act as reservoirs of bacteria for hours, weeks or months, spreading potential infections to individuals who come in contact with them,” concludes Hakansson. He cautions that more research should be done to understand under what circumstances this type of contact leads to spread between individuals.“If it turns out that

this type of spread is substantial, then the same protocols that are now used for preventing the spread of other bacteria, such as intestinal bacteria and viruses, which do persist on surfaces, will need to be implemented especially for people working with children and in health-care settings,” he adds.

Toys, books, cribs harbor bacteria for long periods, study finds

impact”, stated Ruano-López.The applicationsThe cocaine skin detection patch can detect drugs in human perspiration, which it samples after b e i n g a t t a c h e d t o the arm. This makes it possible to analyse cocaine consumption in real time over a period from 24 hours to ten days (until skin cells are regenerated), making it an effective tool for monitoring professional drivers and hauliers. Bear in mind that drug consumption is estimated to be related to around 25% of fatal accidents in Europe, the USA and Australia.The chip used for identifying pathogens in foods focuses on detecting different bacteria, such as Campylobacter and Salmonella. Not for nothing, campylobacteriosis and salmonelosis are the most common bacterial infections in Europe, and are amongst the five most common infections on the continent. This application could be used to detect the pathogens at farms or livestock holdings, abattoirs and in food.T h e d e v i c e f o r

monitoring colon cancer via a patient’s blood can be used for monitoring patients with this illness, the second most common cause of death in the west. The device offers the option to monitor illness progression using just a few drops of blood,

and provides almost instantaneous results.T h e d e v i c e f o r

examining patients with colorectal cancel will carry out minimally invasive monitoring of their condit ion over time, thus avoiding tests involving colonoscopy. As Garbiñe Olabarria, head of the research at GAIKER-IK4, pointed out, “the development of this application means that it will be possible to analyse the evolution of the disease with just a small blood sample that is obtained at the doctor’s surgery and which will provide the result in less than an hour”.L a s t l y, t h e wa t e r

contamination device analyses phytoplankton c on c e n t r a t i o n i n a sample of sea water. An excessive concentration of such microscopic algae can signal negative consequences for the environment, as it may be toxic to humans, for example. What’s more, phytoplankton levels are an indicator for global warming; as such organisms assimilate CO2 present in the atmosphere through the process of photosynthesis, responsible for the greenhouse effect.

that involved any loss of consciousness or memory.Of the 448 people

without any thinking or memory problems, 17 per cent reported a brain injury and 18 per cent of the 141 with memory and thinking difficulties reported a concussion or head trauma.The study found no

difference in any brain scan measures among

the peop l e w i t hou t memory and thinking impairments, whether or not they had head trauma.However, people with memory and thinking impairments and a history of head trauma had levels of amyloid plaques an average of 18 per cent higher than those with no head trauma history.“Our results add merit to the idea that concussion and

Alzheimer’’s disease brain pathology may be related,” said Mielke.“However, the fact

that we did not find a relationship in those without memory and thinking problems suggests that any associat ion between head trauma and amyloid is complex,” Mielke said.The study was published

in the journal Neurology.

Monday 30-12-20134

monday 30 december 2013

Sports shuffleIt's never too late

to do the right thing. as the year ends, the Indian sports administrator would do well to reflect on this thought and resolve to do the right thing in 2014. The year 2013 was one of the worst years in Indian sport off the field. It was marred by spot-fixing, arrest o f p laye r s and team administrators in cricket. It was blighted by the r e f u s a l o f t h e administrators to change the rules so that individuals a g a i n s t w h om charges had been framed could not fight elections for sports associations. The Indian olympic association officials resisted for one full year before the International olympic committee and the Spor t s ministry managed to arm-twist them into amending the Ioa constitution to keep tainted officials out.but there’s no

one who can arm-

twist the Indian c r i c k e t b o a r d (bccI) officials. despite a man from corporate India (n Srinivasan of India cements) heading it, the bccI has managed to remain comple te ly free of good corporate governance. This lack of e th ica l p rac t i ce s f lows from the top — it bears repeating that Srinivasan is the bccI president, an IPL team owner and the father-in-law of his team official Gurunath meiyappan, who was arrested for of betting, conspiracy a n d c h e a t i n g . Srinivasan’s actions a s a p o s s i b l y able administrator, efficient team owner and a doting father-in-law are, thus, blurred. It took the courts to ensure an impartial probe into the IPL spot-fixing scandal after an internal bccI probe committee said it found “no evidence of any wrongdoing” against

India cements, the owner of chennai Super Kings (cSK), and raj Kundra, co-owner of rajasthan royals.Late in the year,

the Supreme court made some damning observations about t h e po l i t i c i a n s and businessmen who administrator Indian sports. a Sup r eme cou r t bench noted early this month: “Sports are run by private individual persons. Private individuals are controlling the games in India. can the game be held hostage by private interest?” yes, sports are held hostage by private interest. In an ideal world, Srinivasan and his ilk would see the light and exit sport honourably. Sadly, the politicians and businessmen the Sup r eme cou r t refers to are a tenacious lot — they resist eviction. The sports fans are left with forlorn hopes.

3 Solomon’s queen (5)

8 British liquid measure (5)

10 Turn upside down (5)

11 ___ out : make last longer (3)

12 Stupid person (5)

13 Cleans by dissolving out soluble constituents (7)

15 Single-masted yacht (5)

18 Tennis star Henman (3)

19 Vast treeless plain (6)

21 Places of worship (7)

22 Four as a prefix (4)

23 Cut with scissors (4)

24 Stomachs or tummies; abdomens (7)

26 Treated badly or insulted (6)

29 Annual grass of Europe and North Africa (3)

31 Outer coat of a seed (5)

32 A ray of light ? (7)

34 Are not contracted (5)

35 Put on an ____ : carry out a pretense ? (3)

36 One of many written by Aesop ? (5)

37 Atlantic or Pacific (5)

38 Burst for th l ike a volcano (5)

Down

1 Strange or eccentric (5)

2 Built, constructed or established (7)

4 Cuts with an axe (4)

5 Explodes like balloon (6)

6 One a day keeps the doctor away ! (5)

7 __ ___ gear : cruising along smoothly, e.g. (2,3)

9 Also know as, in short

Solution to MailCroSS worD - 5147

across:

4 Tropes, 7 Language, 8 Azalea, 10 Twice, 13 Moan, 14 Hill, 15 Berg, 16 Vii, 17 Onam, 19 Read, 21 Ryan O’Neal, 23 Cusp, 24 ICBM, 26 VAT, 27 Karl, 29 On or, 32 Firs, 33 A nice, 34 Ethane, 35 Withhold, 36 Bronte.

Down:

1 Cloth, 2 Until, 3 Cube, 4 Teaor, 5 On an, 6 Eye-lid, 9 Zagreb, 11 Wig, 12 Cloys, 13 Memoirs, 15 Ban, 16 Val, 18 Napkin, 20 Eamon, 21 Rut, 22 NCL, 23 Captor, 25 AOC, 28 Are we, 30 Nixon, 31 Ready, 32 Fawn, 33 Ashe.

Mail CroSSworD - 5148 (Grid 3)

(3)

12 Persuaded to evil (7)

14 Masculine pronoun (3)

16 Unlocks or unseals or exposes (5)

17 Looks through a small hole (5)

19 Betrayal or treachery (4,3)

20 Sit back on the heels (5)

21 Lisbon’s river (5)

23 Minor misfortune (7)

24 One who serves you in a restaurant, a waiter ? (6)

25 Mr. Botham or Mr. Redpath (3)

27 Australian cricketer Michael (5)

28 No longer fresh (5)

30 Resulting in death (5)

32 Break suddenly (4)

33 Eco. Comm. of Europe (3)

ACROSS: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

8 9 10

11 12

13 14 15 16 17

18 19

20 21

22 23

24 25

26 27 28 29 30

31 32 33

34 35

36 37

38

nasirabad, dec 30:acting on a court order,

rajasthan police have registered an FIr against six army officers for harassing a junior officer and trying to prove him to be mentally ill after he raised his voice against the misappropriation of funds.a court in nasirabad,

a cantonment town, ordered the FIr against two br igad ie rs , two colonels and two majors on december 18 on the complaint made by Lieutenant colonel arun Kumar of 374 composite rT brigade of nasirabad

cantonment.Police registered the

FIr on december 19, but the issue has come to light only now. The army has also initiated an inquiry into the allegations.The FIr has been filed

against station commander brigadier a K Ganguly, his deputy colonel Lalit agnihotri and against another officer, colonel rohit Jha. It also names medical officers brigadier Sanjeev Vaspyan, major S V rekha , ma jo r Gurmendra Singh and the administration registrar of the nasirabad army hospital.

I n h i s comp l a i n t , Lieutenant colonel Kumar said when he discovered the misappropriation of funds and the misuse of the budget in the army, he raised a voice against it. but senior officers disliked his attitude and conspired to declare him mental ill. “brigadier Ganguly, col agnihotri and col Jha conspired against me and on may 17 they issued a notice in Form 10 which states that I am mentally ill,” said the complainant. Lt col Kumar said he was harassed in nasirabad hospital.

Cops pull up army officers for harassing junior

new delhi, dec 30:Proper training of rookie

IaF pilots remains under a cloud with Hindustan aeronautics (HaL) still struggling to deliver its intermediate jet trainer (IJT), in the making for the last 14 years but yet to become fully- operational.While HaL has now

promised the ini t ia l operational clearance (Ioc) for its Sitara IJT by June 2014, IaF remains skeptical given the trainer has missed deadlines at least five times since 2007.Pilots are trained in

three stages, first on a basic trainer aircraft (bTa), then on a IJT and finally on an advanced jet trainer (aJT) to learn the complex and inherently -dangerous art of combat flying.IaF has for long been

saddled with unsafe, obsolete training aircraft

like HPT-32 and Kirans, with new pilots often being unable to handle h i g h l y - d em a n d i n g fighters like miG-21s. almost 40% of the 1,050 crashes recorded by IaF since 1970, for instance, have been attributed to “human error (aircrew)”.IaF may be now

breathing easy on the basic and advanced training fronts, with the ongoing induction of Swiss Pilatus Pc-7 bTa and british Hawk aJTs, but the intermediate one remains the major problem.For one, Sitara cannot

as yet “stall and spin”, which i s a cr i t i ca l manoeuvre to train young cadets on how to handle emergencies, hold their nerve and retrieve their planes from a spin. HaL is now closer to resolving this with help of experts from bae Systems, said sources.

IAF pilots yet to learn combat flying

Trivandrum, dec 30:Kera la’s f i r s t so i l

museum, to be inaugurated here on January 1, will highlight the diversity of soil and mineral resources in the State and provide critical data inputs for farmers, helping them improve crop yield.The museum, set up by

the department of Soil Survey and conservation at Parottukonam, also offers a platform to create awareness of the need for soil conservation and watershed development. It has academic support facilities for students and researchers in soil science.The main attraction of

the museum is a collection

of soil profiles featuring the different benchmark soils in each district. named monolith, a profile represents the soil typical of a region, with all the basic characteristics preserved intact. “We have prepared monoliths of all the 82 soil series found in the State. The information provided by these profiles is of special significance to students, researchers, and farmers alike and of general interest to the public,” says P.n.Premachandran, director, Soil Survey and conservation.each monolith is a

1.5-=metre vertical section of soil. The samples

are dug out without disturbing the elements and transported to the department’s laboratory where it is processed up to a month before being mounted in the museum hall. “The soil structure has to be meticulously m a i n t a i n e d d u r i n g collection, transporting, and processing. It is a long, painstaking process,” explains Premachandran. The project team was trained by experts from Wageningen University in the netherlands, which hosts the World Soil museum.

Kerala CM to open first soil museum

Kochi, dec 30:Kerala chief minister

oommen chandy has said that 24 critical infrastructure projects a c r o s s t h e S t a t e , including the flyovers at Vyttila, Palarivattom and Kundanoor, have been taken up under the rs. 10,000-=crore ‘Speed Kerala’ programme.The Speed (Sustainable

and Planned effort to ensure development of Infrastructure) Kerala programme is an initiative of the Public Works department.The chief minister was

delivering the inaugural address at the opening of the newly reconstructed north road overbridge in

Kochi yesterday.He said the budgetary

allocation of rs.150 crore to the PWd was far too inadequate for the infrastructure needs of the State.The construction of the

runway of the proposed Kannur airport was already underway and it would be formally inaugurated shortly depending on the conven i ence o f Union defence minister a.K. antony. decks have been cleared for Vizhinjam container Terminal project, which is just a few hours away from getting the last technical clearance from the ministry concerned, chandy said.

‘Speed Kerala’ scheme takes off

new delhi, dec 30:chief minister of delhi,

arvind Kejriwal, suffering from what party sources say is a minor infection, promised thousands of supporters gathered at his Kaushambi home yesterday that he would put together a mechanism t o a d d r e s s p u b l i c complaints on corruption and maladministration within 10 days.“I do not want to give

you false assurances”, Kejriwal told visitors who gathered with their demands and grievances outside his home early

in the morning. “I will take your complaints when we come up with an institutionalised mechanism to sort out the problems”. He added that the system could be put in place with the support of the people and without their involvement, the problems could not be resolved.Followers from Uttar

Pradesh and Haryana, c a r r y i n g b o u q u e t s and garlands, started converging on Kejriwal’s residence early in the morning, along with delhi residents.

Delhi CM buys time to redress grievances

mumbai, dec 30:Following congress

vice-=president rahul Gandhi and party president Sonia Gandhi’s remarks on the maharash t ra government’s rejection of the adarsh commission’s r epo r t , S t a t e ch i e f minister Prithviraj chavan is likely to propose to the cabinet to reverse the decision.a h i g h - - = r a n k i n g

bureaucrat said the chief minister has no option but to reconsider the decision. “So far we have no instructions on the cabinet agenda, but we expect a revised proposal on the adarsh panel’s report to be taken up during the cabinet meeting on January 2.”The cabinet rejected

the report on december 20 without giving reasons. The same day, the report, along with a one-line resolution, was tabled in both Houses of the Legislature. The decision

came in for stringent criticism on the grounds that while rahul Gandhi was campaigning against corruption, the congress=-l e d m a h a r a s h t r a government was leaving no stone unturned to protect corrupt ministers and bureaucrats.Subsequently, at a

meeting attended by chavan, mPcc president manikrao Thakre and aIcc general secretary mohan Prakash, rahul Gandhi expressed displeasure at the government’s dec i s i on and asked chavan to reconsider it. on december 28, Sonia Gandhi endorsed rahul’s views and said the State government would address the adarsh issue.meanwhile, a debate

has begun in the State over the possible revision of the cabinet’s decision. Leader of opposition (a s s emb l y) ek n a t h Khadse has demanded a special legislative session

to consider the panel and action=-taken reports. “It is beyond the powers of the cabinet to take a decision on the panel’s recommendations. only the legislature has the powers to consider the panel and action=-taken reports,” said Khadse.but Thakre said there

was no need to convene a special session of the legislature, since the cabinet has the powers to decide on the recommendations. “The decision to reject the recommendations was taken by the State cabinet and conveyed to the legislature. now it is for the cabinet to reconsider its decision and submit a fresh report to the legislature. both rahul and Sonia Gandhi have expressed concerns over the cabinet’s decision. I am sure their sentiments will be honoured.”

Maharashtra CM may reverse decision on scam report

new delhi, dec 30:The prospect of terror

organisations getting their hands on a nuclear device has long concerned both security agencies and thriller writers. now, it seems Indian mujahideen India chief ahmad Zarar Siddibappa alias yasin bhatkal too was thinking along simi lar l ines . bhatkal recently told interrogators that he was planning to explode a nuclear bomb in Surat, according to sources.bhatkal was arrested

on august 27 in Pokhra, nepal, and has been constantly questioned by the nIa, Intelligence bureau and police of several States. He told the interrogators that he had

asked his Pakistan=-based boss, riyaz bhatkal, over phone whether the latter could arrange a small “nuclear bomb”. according to him, riyaz responded, “anything can be arranged in Pakistan”.“riyaz told me that

attacks can be done with nuclear bombs. I requested him to look for one nuclear bomb for Surat,” yasin told the officials.“ r i y a z t o l d m e

muslims would also die in that (nuclear bomb blast), to which I said that we would paste posters in mosques asking every muslim to quietly evacuate their families from the city,” yasin said, according to the report.

However, the plan could not be initiated since yasin was tracked by the Ib and arrested in august.Su r a t h a s a lway s

been on yasin’s radar and he had also played an important role in preparing 27 bombs along with atif ameen in 2008 when serial blasts took place in delhi, Jaipur and ahmedabad. yasin himself was the bomb expert of Indian mujahideen and the outfit’s bomb-making capabilities have been affected after his arrest, say intelligence officials.The Im leader has

also given details of army level training of Im cadres and other terrorists in Pakistan, which shows

that advanced training is given to terrorists with the help of Pakistan.e l a b o r a t i n g o n

training schedule for Im members in Pakistan, yasin said, “Training included morning PT, weapon=handling and explosive/Ied=training, pistols to revolvers, aK-47 etc. Indian weapons like LmG, SLr and sniper rifles and so forth”.yasin further stated that

“we were also exposed to handling of explosives like Pe3a (black colour explosive), c4, c3, TnT, etc. besides this, we were also exposed to fabrication of Ieds with the help of ammonium nitrate, hydrogen peroxide, gelatin stick and so forth. This

training schedule was for 50 days”.For all the plans and

active operations, yasin remained in touch with riyaz bhatkal. riyaz, according to sources, had sent yasin rs 17 lakh in 2013 out of which his personal expenses every month were rs 25,000.a senior intelligence

official said, “We have been coming across different kinds of Ieds over the years. The reason is that terrorists are undergoing all kind of advanced army=level training in Pakistan with the help of ISI. and if terror outfits have access to nuclear bombs, then it is dangerous for us (India)”.

Ultra outfit chief wanted to bomb Surat with nuke

Monday 30-12-2013 5

NAME CHANGEI, Zaina Bi Abdul Rawoof, W/o. Naveethulla, Date of Birth : 16.12.1983, residing at No.33/38, Narayanaswamy Street, Puliyanthope, Chennai - 12, shallhenceforth be known as zAiNAb buGuM NAvEEtHullA.

zaina bi Abdul Rawoof

NAME CHANGEI, Swapana Kumar, D/o.

Kumar, Date of Birth :

05.11.1992, residing at

No.6, Lakshmi Amman Koil

Street, Thadaparumbakkam,

Ponneri, Thiruvallur - 601204,

shallhenceforth be known as

swApNA kuMAR.

swapana kumar

NAME CHANGEMy son Narayanan Krishna Prasad, Date of Birth : 18.11.1996, residing at O.No.27, N.No.31, Vijayarangan Street, Irumbuliyur, East Tambaram, Chennai - 600059, shallhenceforth be known as k.N. kRisHNA pRAsAd.

krishnapillai Narayanan (Father)

NAME CHANGEI, Sundararajan Seethalakshmi, W/o. Syed Zahubar Sadique, Date of Birth : 21.02.1980, residing at O.No.1, N.No.12, Hospital Road, 1st Lane, Saidapet, Chennai - 600015, has converted Hindu to Islam with the name of syEd zAHubAR sAdiquE sHAHidHA.

sundararajan seethalakshmi

NAME CHANGEI, Mohammed Shahe Jahan, S/o. Soharb Ali, Date of Birth : 08.03.1974, residing at No.4/97, Majeeth Street, Royakottai, Denkanikottai Taluk, Krishnagiri District - 635116, shallhenceforth be known as MoHAMMEd sHAjAHAN.

Mohammed shahe jahan

NAME CHANGEI, Renganathan Venkataramanan, S/o. Renganathan, Date of Birth : 17.06.1967, residing at O.No.5, N.No.4, Plot No.32, Murugappa Street, Swamy Nagar Main Road, Ullagaram, Chennai - 600091, shallhenceforth be known as t H i R u v A R u R R E N G A N A t H A N vENkAtARAMANAN

Renganathan venkataramanan

NAME CHANGEI, Pushpalata, W/o.

Surendra Nayak, Date of

Birth : 09.07.1969, residing

at Qtr No. T-5/3, S.O.L. Park

Town, Chennai - 600003,

shallhenceforth be known as

pusHplAtA NAyAk.

pushpalata

NAME CHANGEI, Abdulla Abubakkar, S/o. Abubakkar, Date of Birth : 01.07.1963, residing at No.17/10, Francis Turin Street, Sevenwells, Chennai - 600001, shallhenceforth be known as MoHAMEd AbdullA AbubAkkAR.

Abdulla Abubakkar

NAME CHANGEMy Daughter Zubaida Begum, Date of Birth : 26.09.2002, residing at O.No.6, N.No.43, Pottinaidu Street, Vandavasi, Tiruvannamalai District - 604408, shallhenceforth be known as HARsHiyA zubAidA.

Nazeer Hussain (Father)

NAME CHANGEMy Son Rajasimmhan Gopalakrishnan, Date of Birth : 28.08.2008, residing at No.2/214, N.No.3/72, Valluvar Street, Kothimangalam, T h i r u k a z h u k u n d r a m , Kanchipuram District - 603109, shallhenceforth be known as R A j A s i M M A N v E d H A G R E E s w A R A R GopAlAkRisHNAN.

v. Gopalakrishnan (Father)

NAME CHANGEI, Deepa Sanyal, W/o. P. Abey George, Date of Birth : 28.05.1970, residing at No.7&8, T1, Golden Enclave, S.S.R. Pankajam Road, Saligramam, Chennai - 600093, shallhenceforth be known as dEEpA A. GEoRGE.

deepa sanyal

NAME CHANGEI, B.S. Dhevarhaajan, S/o. B.S. Subramaniyam, Date of Birth : 02.12.1962, residing at No.40, Navaneethammal Street, Pranav E Apts, Saligramam, Chennai - 600093, shall henceforth be known as b.s. dEvARAjAN.

b.s. dhevarhaajan

NAME CHANGEMy Son Hanish

Sivaramakrishnan, Date of

Birth : 11.12.2003, residing at

O.No.18, N.No.8, Kuppusamy

Nagar 1st Street, Ayanavaram,

Chennai - 600023,

shallhenceforth be known as

s H R E E v A R s A N

sivARAMAkRisHNAN.

sivaramakrishnan (Father)

NAME CHANGEMy Daughter Jaisree

Sivaramakrishnan, Date of

Birth : 21.08.2002, residing at

O.No.18, N.No.8, Kuppusamy

Nagar 1st Street, Ayanavaram,

Chennai - 600023,

shallhenceforth be known as

s H R E E k E E R t H A N A A

sivARAMAkRisHNAN.

sivaramakrishnan (Father)

ArabathunnisaNAME CHANGEI, Banda Lakshmi Lavanya, W/o Venkataraman Shankar, Date of Birth : 06.07.1972, at No.14, Flat No.7, Swarna Jayanthi Aprts, V.C. Garden 3rd Street, Mandaveli, Chennai - 600028, shall henceforth be known as sHANkAR lAvANyA.

banda lakshmi lavanya

NAME CHANGEI, Senthil Soundararajan, S/o. Soundararajan, Date of Birth : 27.06.1989, residing at No.5, Singaram Street, Vijayalakshmipuram, Ambattur, Chennai - 600053, shall henceforth be known as sENtHil GANEsH souNdARARAjAN.

senthil soundararajanpAsspoRt lostThis is to general

public that I have lost my Original passport No bearing A2925977 issued on 16.04.1997 by RPO / Chennai, Villivakkam while taking xerox, along with my education certificate, Finder/s is/are requested to hand over the same to me at the below mentioned address: No.26/22, Flat No.S2, Rajaji Nagar, 5th Street, Villivakkam, Chennai - 600049, Finders will be rewarded suitably.

thiyagarajan

Bhagyalakshmi Suresh, singer - learnt music for nearly two decades under her guru and musicologist Smt. Sulochana Pattabhiraman. She has sung in several festivals in Chennai and delhi. She is ably supported by Kalaimamani Usha Rajagopalan on the violin and Veteran artiste Kallidaikurichi Shivakumar on Mrdangam.

The lively dance performance by the students of Maari Kala niketan dance School held at Trinity art Festival organized by Makkal Kural and Trinity Mirror held at Kumararani Meena Muthiah College of arts and Science. Students aparna, Preetha, nivedha, Pamil Tharagai, Sneha, durga Balachandar, Tayashree Balachandar, Sabiksha, Kalaivani, Harini, aishwarya, Megna, Madhimitha, dharshini Ilangovan, Sai Saryanya Vasiya, aruna, Janani, aditi are seen in the picture.

Chennai, Dec 30:The l i v e l y d an c e

performance by students Maari Kala Niketan Dance School held at the Trinity Art Festival organised by Makkal Kural and Trinity Mirror at Kumararani Meena Muthiah college of arts and science.C a r n a t i c v o c a l i s t

honoured Guru Nirthiya Sudar Niraimathi Kumar and his students with certificartes and momento.In his felicitation speech

Neyveli Santhanagopalan said, “ Child and god will be there whereever they are celebrated. When a child is dancing whatever she does there will be god’s grace. These students has got a wonderful guru.”The students brillently

performed for Aparna, Preetha, Nivedha, Pamil Tharagai, Sneha, Durga Balachandar, Tayashree Balachandar, Sabiksha, K a l a i v a n i , H a r i n i , A i s hwa r y a , Megna , Madhimitha, Dharshini Ilangovan, Sai Saryanya Vasiya, Aruna, Janani, Aditi.The energetic team

of dance students are Aparna, Preetha, Nivedha, Pamil Tharagai, Sneha, Durga Ba l a chanda r, Tayashree Balachandar, Sabiksha, Kalaivani , Ha r i n i , A i s hwa r y a , Megna, Madhimitha , Dharshini Ilangovan, Sai Saryanya Vasiya, Aruna, Janani, Aditi.Na t tuvaangam was

ef f i c i en t ly done by Guru Nruthiya Sudar N i r a i m a t h i k u m a r , M r u d a n g a m b y Hariharasudan, Violin - Akkarai Murugan, Vocal - Subhashri, nadhaswaram

Impressive performance by Maari Kala niketan dance School students

M Rafi ahmed

Coimbatore, Dec 30:Even when people

across the globe are gear-ing up to welcome the dawn of New Year with zeal by taking part at the celebrations alongwith their families, friends and relatives at differ-ent venues starting from December 31 evening, no one is aware of the fact that they are going to see the same calendar pattern when India at-tained its Independence.Kovaipudur N Hariharan, retired postmaster and an enthusiast in collecting off-beat info regarding important personalities, places and things which he feels would be of interest to reading public. He has to his collec-

tion rare albums contain-ing postal stamps and first day cover cancella-tion starting from 1947.Sharing an interesting information with Trinity Mirror, Hariharan said that the present generation who could not enjoy the celebrations when India got its Independence in 1947 can atleast see the same calendar repeating in of 2014. Most interesting part is

It’s going to be repeat of 1947 in 2014

Madurai, Dec. 30:Burg la r s made an

abor t ive a t t empt to break open ATM of a nationalized bank at Gomathypuram nea r Karuppayurani here in the wee hours of today.

Police said the burglars tried to break the machine and attempted to remove the cash from it but failed in the attempt.There was no night

shift security guard for the ATM kiosk of Canara

Bank.Senior police officials

and finger print experts rushed to the site and held inquiry. Efforts were on to acquire the visuals from the CCTV camera to find out the culprits

Burglars fail in bid to loot aTM in Madurai

Chennai, Dec 30:Chief Minister and

A I A DMK G e n e r a l Secretary Jayalalithaa condemned the murder of A Shahjahan, Thanjavur

North District, Tiruvaiyaru Union, Senthalai West Branch Party Organising Secretary and Youth Pasarai Secretary. In an official release, Jayalalithaa said

that stringent punishment will be meted out to the offenders as per the legal proceedings and prayed for the soul to rest in peace.

CM condemns murder of party cadre

Bharathi Ramasubban’s concert at Trintiy art Festival organised by Makkal Kural and Trinity Mirror at Kumararani Muthiah college of arts and Science was packed with the right elements of aesthetics, clarity, perfect pitch and pace.

by Kalidas and thavil by Sasikumar.

Makkal Kural and Trinity Mirror Editor and

that the New Year falls on Wednesday which was the same during 1947.Elaborating on the identi-cal pattern of calendar, he said that usually the same calendar occurs either once in 11 or 6 years and added that the last iden-tical calendar occurred in 2003 when the year started on Wednesday. Interestingly, the year

which commenced on Wednesday ends on a Wednesday.Hariharan went on to say that identical calendar pattern started from 1902 and the same

calendar appears 25 times till 2127. The next identi-cal calendar of 2014 will occur only after 11 years (2025) and subsequently six years later on 2031. This is a rare phenom-

enon since Gregorian calendar pattern which is also known as western calendar or Christian cal-endar is being followed worldwide.However, he said the

Islamic calendar is some-thing different which is a lunar calendar since the Islamic month begins af-ter sighting of the moon.

Usually, there is atleast 10 to 12 days different which means the days becomes lesser every year while comparing to solar year. That’s the reason the

Holy month of Ramzan occurs during all seasons.Listing out the years

when the 2014 calendar occured, he said the iden-tical calendar started from 1902 followed by 1913, 1919, 1930, 1941, 1947, 1958, 1969, 1975, 1986, 1997, 2003, 2014, 2025, 2031, 2042 , 2053, 2059, 2070, 2081, 2087, 2098, 2110, 2121 and 2127.

Chairman of the fest R. Muthukumar said, “It was innovative performance by enthusiastic young students of Maari Kala Niketan Dance School. Niraimathi Kumar has trained the student very well.”Convenor Murali Raghavan felicitated the students.

Monday 30-12-20136

Pudukottai, Dec.30:Pudukottai is raked

first in the distribution of old age pension and all the welfare schemes launched by the Chief Minister has been swiftly implemented in the district,Adi Dravida and Tribal Welfare Minister N.Subramanian said at the CM’s health awareness camp conduc t ed i n Mzhaiyur in the presence of Karthik Thondaiman, MLA and under the presidentship of District Collector S.Manoharan yesterday.The minister explained

the benefits of the health camp taken to remote villages with a view to educate the villagers on the need to keep hygiene and sanitation in their

dwellings and in their surroundings to avoid falling sick. In the camp 1619

p e r s o n s t o o k p a r t including 700 women and for follup treatment 27 were recommended by the doctors who also did scan tests and ECG test on about 200 patients.The minister also said

a large number of such special health camps for poor has been conducted in the district where the public were advised that to keep Dengue fever at bay they should avoid keeping old tyres or coconut shells and other discarded items where mosquitoes breed and cause health hazard.The v i l l a g e r s a r e

advised on the does

an don’ts on personal hygiene and to avoid use of plastics besides woman aged above 30 to have breast cancer test.P u b l i c we r e a l s o

apprised as to how for serious ailments they can avail the free benefits of treatment under CM’s comprehensive health insurance scheme. The min i s t e r a l so

pointed out that matching private speciality hospitals government hospitals too have been provided with state of art medical equipments for diagnosis and surgery.Thonda iman, MLA

speaking on the occasion said the CM’s health insurance scheme has been available in seven hospitals in the district

and the primary health centre has been upgraded into a 24-hour clinic.Minister Subramanian

also distributed prizes to tenth and Plus two toppers in government high schools in the district. A girl student of the district who was ranked third in the state-level in the question and answer contest jointly conducted jointly by the Tamil Nadu Science Centre and Literacy Association.Joint Medical Director

Karu Ramanathan, deputy directors DR.Ramganesh, Dr.Subramanian, medical officer Dr.Bajrul Ahmed, panchay t commi t t e e president Vengaiyammal Chokkalingam, panchayat chairman Rajendran and others also participated.

Pudukottai tops in implementing old age pension scheme: minister

Chennai, Dec 30:Hemant Kumar Sinha,

P r i n c i p a l S e c r e t a r y and managing director of Tamilnadu Tourism Development Corporation Ltd (TTDC), Chennai, h e l d a mee t i ng o f the liaison officers of various State/Central government departments and under takings at Island Grounds, here on Saturday and reviewed the progress made by the various departments in the construction of the pavilions there for the tourism fair.

He exhorted the officers to complete their pavilions before December 31to facilitate inauguration of the tourism fair during the first week of January 2014.H e d i r e c t e d t h e

departments to display w o r k i n g m o d e l s i n n o v a t i v e l y t o highlight the various welfare schemes being implemented by the State government. He r equ e s t e d t h e

Police Department and Fire and Rescue Services Department to take safety

measures for the visiting public. He directed the TTDC

o f f i c i a l s t o i n s t a l l surveillance cameras at vantage points covering both the government and commercial sectors and also at the entry and exit gates to regulate the crowd. The officers assured

the official of completing their work before this year-=end.S r i d h a r , J o i n t

Commissioner of Police, S. Gabriel, DRO/GM, TTDC, and N. Prabhakaron,

general manager (finance) TTDC, and the liaison officers of all the 42 State/Central government d e p a r t m e n t s a n d undertakings participated in the meeting.After the meeting,

the managing director conducted a detailed inspection of the various works in progress and instructed the officials to expedite the construction by working during night also for which adequate lighting has been provided, said a press release issued here yesterday.

Govt depts geared up for tourism fair

Coimbatore, Dec 30:Heal th Minis ter C

V i j a y a b h a s k a r a n d Agriculture Minister S Damodoran revealed that work will be expedited in the under construction medical wing set up in an estimated cost of Rs 50 crore at Coimbatore

Medical College Hospital catering to the needs of patients from various districts.On a visit to view the facilities at the Medical College Hospital here, the ministers said that the best of treatment is meted out to patients under the Chief Minister’s Revised

Comprehensive Medical Scheme.The ministers visited the emergency treatment ward, outpatient ward, accident and bone treatment wing, heart patient wing, intensive treatment wing, Medical treatment wing for men, infants special treatment

wing, patients under the Chief Minister’s Insurance Scheme, sophisticated k i t c h e n a n d b l o o d bank.The ministers ascertained

the treatment procedure for various ailments and enquired the welfare of patients.

Ministers surprise visit to Kovai Medical College Hospital

ace tennis player of India Rohan Bopanna felicitates winners arun and Vipul from chennai of FIaT India Social Media Contest on aircel Chennai open at SdaT Tennis stadium. omkar Singh, Senior Manager –Sales, FIaT India are also seen.

The Federation of Tamil Sangam of north america in association with Sangeeth Sagar trust conducted Tamil Isai Viza -2013 at T nagar . Industrialist & Chairman of VGP Ulaga Tamil Sangam dr.VG Santhosam presided over the cultural function. Chairman of GEM group of Companies R. Veeramani and Chancellor of VIT Vellore dr. G Viswanathan, dr Sunderavadivel and Kulandaivel Ramasawamy from Federation of Tamil Sangam of north america are seen in the picture.

Former Union Health Minister dr. C.P. Thakur presenting Headline Today’s Healthcare Excellence award for Best Medical Centre in Tamil nadu to dr. a. Ravi, Medical director, SRMC at a function held in new delhi. also seen in the picture is Vinod Rai, former Comptroller and auditor General of India.

Chennai, Dec 30:Internationally renowned

Population Expert and Founde r o f Un i t e d Writers’ Association, Dr K Thiagarajan has been selected for the conferment of `Peace Evange l i s t Honou r ’ by the International Society for Intercultural Studies and Research, Kolkata.T h e a w a r d i n

r e c o gn i t i o n o f h i s pioneering role in peace

Peace Evangelist Honour for dr K Thiagarajan

promotion activities will be conferred during the

international conference on `Peace and Cultural Harmony’ to be held on January 17 in Kolkata.T h e c i t a t i o n

accompanying the award eulogises Dr Thiagarajan’s creative literature output for over four decades, unifies, fosters, creates, propagates, communicates and bestows upon the whole wor ld peace , fraternity and world brotherhood.I n h i s l i t e r a r y

m e a n d e r i n g s , D r Thiagarajan has been i n c o n t i n u o u s a n d uninterrupted dialogue with persons of various religious denomination including Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Quakar and Sikhs radiating notes of mellifluous, magical, mesmeric and melodious episodes and promoting de l i gh t f u l r e l i g i ou s dialogues for fostering harmonious living in 37 countries.

Elle ilam kiliye innam urangudhiyo

chil enru azhaiyen min nangaiyeer podharuginren

vallai un katturaigal pande un vaay aridhum

valleergal neengale naane thaan aayiduga

ollai nee podhaay unakkenna verudaiyai

ellaarum pondhaaro pondhaar pondhu ennikkol

val aanai konraanai maatraarai maatrazhikka

vallaanai maayanai paadelor embaavaay

MaRGazHI PaSURaM - 15

This Paasuram is explained like the narration between the Paavais outside and the Paavai inside. The Paavai inside the house is said to be little bit mischief and has a great tactics is conversation.

Paavai outside:- Hey beautiful Paavai! You have a beautiful voice like that of a parrot. But still why you are sleeping?

Paavai inside:- Why all of you are making this kind of noise wait, I’ am coming.

Outside: - We know about you. You are great speaker.

Inside:- I am not a great person in speaking. You are like that. Even, if you think, I am like that let it be.

Outside:- Please come at once. All of the Paavai have come.

Inside:- “Has all come?”

Sri Krishnar Out side:- “Yes, all have come and all of them are waiting for you. If you have any doubt, come outside and see for yourself. Come out and lets explain the greatness of Sri Krishnar who killed the Asuran - Kuvalaya peedam who came in the form of an elephant sent by Kamsan”.

Words and the Meanings:

Yelley Ilangiliyae Innam : ‘Ilangili’ refers to the small parrot. Orangudhiyo

Vallai Un Katturaigal : This refers to that the Paavai inside is a good speaker and has the ability to tackle others.

Valleergal Neengaley : The Paavai inside the house say that she is not a good speaker but you people (Paavais outside) are like that.

Vallanai Kondranai : Here in this Paasuram, ‘Aanai’ means Elephant. Sri Krishnar killed an Elephant whose name is Kuvalayapeedam.

Monday 30-12-2013 7

Chennai, Dec 30: K a r b o n n , I n d i a’ s

leading mobile brand l o o k s t ow a r d s t h e upcoming 2014 with huge aspirations. The upcoming year which would be very strategically important for the Indian mobile market, will be the one where Karbonn will take the next leap with an aim of reaching out to a greater consumer-base of the country, riding on the top technology trends that will change the face of smart device industry in India.Execut ive Director

of Karbonn Shashin Devsare said, “It will be the perfect blend of technology and consumer orientation that will take us to the next leap of our mission of massifying smart devices in India. The net positive estimates for the Indian mobile market is encouraging Karbonn to focus heavily on the Indian mobile market with its retinue o f cu s t ome r - c en t r i c products & services, and with a more streamlined and consumer-oriented Karbonn ‘Smart’ mobile eco-system.”

“The year 2014 is ready to witness the greatest of smart device tech trends and will ensure the evolution and growth of a great mobile ecosystem in 2014.”The key technology

trends ident i f ied by Karbonn were based on the app ecosystem, biometric identification, connectivity, data usage, compute and graphics process ing , imaging, wearable and flexible technology, high-resolution displays, open-source operating systems, and carrier technology.Some of the most notable

trends to be identified were the processor and camera. According to Karbonn, the former will reach speeds between 2.5GHz and 3GHz, at a lower price points. Octa-cores will also apparently become more common, p r o m i s i n g s i m i l a r performance at a lower energy consumption. As for the camera, Karbonn’s forecast of trends say 16-megapixel cameras will become more mainstream, as well as larger sensor sizes, and the inclusion of optical image stabilisation and better HDR.

Karbonn sees greatest smart device tech trends in 2014

Chennai, Dec 30:Portea Medical, India’s

home healthcare pioneer, has brought its flagship senior-care offering to Chennai focusing on providing elderly residents of the city with high quality support at home, from clinicians trained to address physical and / or mental impairment.Chennai had more than

3.5 lakh persons aged 60 or above, (1.73 lakh males; 1.77 lakh females) as per 2011 census data.Portea Co-founder and

CEO, Meena Ganesh,who

originally hails from Chennai, said:“While it’s been the norm in India to have children or family members caring for senior citizens, today’s reality is that most working p r o f e s s i o n a l s l e a d extremely busy lives with many hours spent at work or commuting within the city or beyond. Despite the best intentions, it often becomes impractical to devote time and extend the support that’s needed for aging parents and relatives.“Recogn i z i ng tha t

healthcare is one of the most important priorities for senior citizens Portea has opened delivery centres in the city to provide convenient and high quality care for the elderly in the comfort of their own homes.”“The home environment

allows a patient to be in their comfort zone and promotes faster recovery,” Ganesh said. “Portea caters for this need through an end-to-end combination of services delivered at home: doctors who assess overall health of the

elderly and make regular house-visits; appropriate nursing care to help the elderly go about their daily activities; physiotherapy to enable rehabilitation; and, nutritionists to ensure a healthy diet”.The home healthcare

market in India, currently estimated as a $3 billion a year opportunity, is driven by the increasing prevalence of chronic d i s e a s e s , a n ag i n g population, and the need for better quality post- operative and primary care.

Portea offers expert geriatric care for senior citizens

Mumbai , Dec 30: Arun Tiwari has assumed charge as Chairman & Managing Director of Union Bank of India. He is a professional banker with more than 30 years of banking experience.Tiwar i s ta r ted his

banking career with Bank of Baroda and was later elevated as Executive Director of Allahabad Bank. Arun Tiwari is M.Sc. (Chemistry) by q u a l i f i c a t i o n w i t h computer background. At Bank of Baroda, he had the privilege to

setup operations at Kuala Lumpur and Singapore Centres of Bank of Baroda.He also headed Greater

Mumbai Zone of Bank of Baroda, in the rank of General Manager with Business size over Rs.

1,12,000 crore, the largest zone of the Bank. He had p l ayed a

critical role in two most important initiatives of the Bank– Project Navnirman and Project Sparsh.He had worked in

various capacities in almost all key segments of Banking in various geographies of the country and in overseas centres including as General Manager – MSME & Wealth Management , Who l e s a l e Bank i n g at Bank of Baroda’s Corporate Office.

As an Executive Director at Allahabad Bank, Arun Tiwari was a, Member of Audit Committee, Member of Customer Se rv i c e Commi t t e e , Member of Information Technology Committee, Member of Management Commi t t ee , Member of Risk Management Committee and Member of Shareholder’s / Investors’ Grievances Committee and had enriched the deliberations with his vast experience.

arun Tiwari takes charge as Chairman of Union Bank of India

Mumbai, Dec 30:P. Pradeep Kumar has

been appointed by the Government as Managing Director of State Bank of India.T h e b a n k h a s

d e s i g n a t e d K um a r as Managing Director and Group Executive (Corporate Banking). His

appointment, which is effective from December

27, is up to October-end 2015.Prior to his elevation,

Kumar was the Deputy Managing Director and Group Executive of the Corporate Banking Group in India’s largest bank.I n c l u d i n g Kuma r ,

SB I now ha s f ou r Managing Directors. The

other three MDs are -Hemant Contractor, A. Krishna Kumar, and S. Vishvanathan.A f t e r A r u n d h a t i

Bhattacharya took charge as Chairperson of SBI in October, the position of MD and CFO has been vacant.

SBI appoints Pradeep Kumar as Md Corporate Banking

Chennai, Dec 30: The Asia’s Biggest

New Year Bash 2014 is just round the corner and keeping at par with its ritual practice, the Country Club is already busy preparing for a glamorous event this year.W i t h m o r e t h a n

3,75,000 members across 14 cities in India and the Middle East thronging the respective venues to be a part of the larger than life events, the Country Club’s New Year event has always been known to be a phenomenal affair and this time around, it will only break its own established records.Known for its high

prof i le s tar s tudded events, the much awaited Country Club New Year extravaganza will witness the ever scintillating Rakhi Sawant putting the stage on fire in Dubai, the other sizzling starlets

all set to drench the New Year’s Eve with style, glamour and fun across our Middle east establishments are Shefali Zariwala, Aarti Chhabria & Payal Rohatgi. C l o s e r home , we

have Maryam Zaqkaria, Kashmira and Krushna, Claudia Ciesla, Shradha Sha rma , Shubhang i , Simran Khan, Sanjana, Charmme & last but not the least southern siren Monica all geared up to enthrall the audience. at Country Club – Jade Resorts ECR Chennai 31st Dec 2013 -8pm onwardsCome & Savour our

sumptuous delicacies at the New Year party.Our chefs have materialized excellent combo cuisines that will cater to all age groups.Avadhi biryani, sea food delicacies, Chaat street live food counters and various carvings.

Asia’s Biggest New Year Bash at ECR

Chennai, Dec 30:K u m a r U r b a n

Development (KUL), a trusted name in realty sector for nearly five decades, announced that it has bagged Franchisee India Estate Awards 2013 – Wes t Ind ia Edition under category “Environmental Friendly Residential Project” for its project ‘Kumar Sublime’ at the 6th Annual Awards Summit 2013 function held in Mumbai.Kumar Sublime is the

first Eco housing project in India to get 5 Star Certificate by Science

and Technology Park and provisional certification by International Institute of Energy Conservation. KUL has consciously worked on creating green and eco-friendly ambience at Kumar Sublime by transplanting existing trees. The landscape has been designed with indigenous species. Effective solid waste management and use of drip irrigation for landscaping has also been implemented at the project.Commenting on the

occas ion , Mr. La l i t Kumar Jain, Chairman

and Managing Director, KUL, said, “This is an extremely proud moment for us. These awards are recognition for our work in the field of environment friendly construction. This is a small step in that direction that only reinforces our commitment to provide eco friendly products that benefit our customers and plays a pivotal role in reducing global warming.”Kumar Sublime is the

first delivery under the Eco Housing Initiative promoted by the Pune Municipal Corporation

(PMC). It is a testimony on

how a focused approach can make a difference and help spread awareness on the green building concept. T h i s i n i t i a t i v e

encourages developers to create eco friendly housing and grants benefits to the developer and the buyer. The home buyer gets benefits such as lower property tax payment and other government benefits of living in a green project.

KUL bags Franchisee India Estate awards

Chennai, Dec 30:Oberoi Realty, one of

India’s leading real estate development company, has bagged an award for Oberoi Exquisite under the category- 50% Complete Residential Project under Luxury Segment in MMR City’ - West region at the Annual CNBC Awaaz Real Estate Awards 2013 function held in Mumbai.Commenting on the

occas ion , Mr Vikas Oberoi, Chairman & Manag i ng D i r e c t o r , Oberoi Realty Ltd said “we are truly humbled by the felicitation. Its an honour to be

recognized by CNBC Awaaz Real Estate Award for our contribution to this industry. Oberoi Exquisite is a

development that all of us at Oberoi Realty are very proud of. Awards l ike these

motivate us to continue to remain focused on delivering spaces that enhance the quality of life of our customers.”The CNBC Awaaz

Real Estate Awards 2013 is India’s biggest and the most credible real estate awards that reward excellence in the industry. Driven by st r ingent criteria and a robust methodology along with a comprehensive multi city survey and a two phased jury process, these awards will identify India’s best most preferred projects and the winning teams behind them, chosen from over 8000 projects.

oberoi Realty awarded for luxury residential project

Chennai, Dec 30:As of December 15,

LIC-SZ has realised 46.78 per cent of its target in individual insurance policies and 88 per cent in group insurance policies, while garnering a premium of Rs. 2032.99 crore and Rs. 1558.16 crore respectively.The Life Insurance

Corporation of India is planning to sell around

Rs 520 crore worth of products by December 31 in an effort to increase its market share to 95 per cent by the end of the year.LIC zonal manager T

Sidharthan and Regional Manager for Marketing, M Ravichandran said that the LIC’s South Zone had been given a target of Rs.1000 crore for the month of December,

of which Rs. 480 crore has been realised. “The remaining Rs 520 crore will be realised through new business during the next four days,” he asserted.He also added that

around 50 per cent of this target would be collected by selling popular LIC produc t s l i ke Bima Bachat, which will be sold on single premium,

and Jeevan Anand. “This measure is expected to cover around 10 lakh persons in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry,” he pointed out.LIC South Zone also

released figures which claim that the South Zone is second in terms of Achievement to Budget in individual insurance and fourth in Growth Rate on an all India basis.

LIC driving Insurance Industry Growth

Chenn a i Mu s e um burglary, Officials take inventory to check stolen itemsChenna i , Dec 30 :

Several rare items and replicas of ancient coins on display at the Bronze Gallery of the government museum in Chennai, established in 1854, have been stolen. Museum officials and police are still clueless about the actual number of art pieces that are missing. Officials say that the

museum heist could have taken place on Thursday night or on Friday, which happened to be a holiday.Police personnel and

museum officials inspected the museum. “We are taking the inventory of the valuables in the Bronze Gallery. The idols were not stolen and it is a protected building. Po l i ce wi l l prov ide security for the museum round-the-clock and will maintain surveillance of the building,” said

commissioner of the museum R Kannan.Following the theft of

models of Mughal era coins from the facility on Friday night, city police have decided to review the security at the Egmore government museum.In the complaint lodged

with the police, Egmore Museum duty officer had said that two fiber replicas of Mughal era coins were found missing.There used to be at

least 22 police personnel

on duty at the museum outpost. Over the years that number has shrunk to seven because all other cops were on ‘other duty’.Clippings from the

su rve i l l ance camera indicated that one of the two thieves who entered the bronze gallery premises was inside the facility just before the employees locked the door and left on Friday evening after handing over the keys to the policemen at the booth.

Chennai Museum burglary, officials take inventory to check stolen items

Mumbai, Dec 30:with stressed assets

(non-performing assets - NPAs) continuing to rise and expected to get worse, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has cautioned that risks to the banking system have increased over the last six months, but added that there are no systemic risks at the moment.“The banking stability

indicator shows that risks to the banking sector have increased since June 2013,” the Reserve Bank of India said in its half-yearly Financial Stability Report released on December 30.The indicator combines

the impact on all major risk dimensions, said the RBI, which has carried out multiple tests before coming to this conclusion.“The strain on asset

quality continues to be a major concern,” the report said.W i t h t h e p r e s e n t

conditions continuing,

the gross NPAs in the system will rise to 4.6 per cent by September 2014 from 4.2 per cent in September 2013 or about Rs 2.29 trillion from Rs 1.67 trillion a year earlier, it said.The amount of recast

loans touched an all-time high of 4 trillion or 10.2 per cent of the overall advances as of September 2013, the report added.However, the RBI

expects some positives in the second half of the next fiscal and is estimating gross NPAs to improve to 4.4 per cent by March 2015.In case the economic

conditions deteriorate, the same number will be 7 per cent by March 2015, the RBI warned.The state-run banks will

be the worst-affected, the report said, pegging the GNPAs for public sector banks at 4.9 per cent by March 2015. It projected the GNPAs for private banks at 2.7 per cent in

the same period.If the restructured

assets are added, the total stressed advances ratio will rise to 10.2 per cent as of September 2013 from the 9.2 per cent in March 2013, the RBI said.The report reiterates

that RBI will discontinue the system of relaxed restructuring of advances from 2015 onwards and warned that state-run banks will be affected the most as the provisions will shoot up.“The regulatory concerns

regarding restructuring arises from the possibility of the relaxations not being used judiciously by banks commensurate with the viability of projects. These relaxations for asset classification/provisioning will be phased out by April 2015,” it said.The report said though

agriculture accounted for the highest GNPAs at 5.5 per cent as of the quarter to September 2013, it is

the industrial sector with a GNPA of 4.9 per cent and 10.9 per cent of restructured loans which is the main culprit.Among the sectors, it

said infrastructure, iron and steel, aviation, textiles and mining, which have not been doing well, will continue to perform badly. “Some factorsaffecting the asset

q u a l i t y a d v e r s e l y are current economic slowdown – global and domestic – persistent policy logjams, delayed clearances of various p ro j ec t s , agg res s ive expansion by corporates during the boom phase with resultant excess capacities and deficiencies in credit appraisal,” it said.The central bank also

said that present levels of provisioning for loan losses by banks may not be sufficient to meet the expected losses if the conditions were to deteriorate.

Indian banks assets under stress rise, may get worse: RBI

Monday 30-12-20138

Chennai, Dec.30:In te rna t iona l ly ac-

claimed Carnatic musi-cian Neyveli Santhana-gopalan was undoubtedly the ‘Isai Perarasar’ (an honour conferred by the Trinity Art at its festival inaugural) when he took the audience to the ped-estal of divinity with his cascading alapana and sancharas blended with bhakti and bhava. The gusto with which he and his troupe performed re-minded one of Ariyakudi, the giant among musicians of the yesteryears.A musician is often

revered for his ability to justify innovation while carefully balancing tradi-tion. Neyveli Santhanago-palan was good in balanc-ing both. His elegant and yet simple approach to

educate his listeners and appreciate intricate nu-ances added to his quali-ties as a fine performer. In a rare departure he was adept in introducing ragas through Pallavis.The Kumararani Meena

Muthiah college audito-rium reverberated with wows and applause from the audience as the ac-companying artistes on the violin Pakkale Ram-doss, Jayachandra Rao on mridangam and Giridhar Udupa on the ghatam matched the maestro in his swaraprasthara.From the inaugural

Marghazhi Thingal to the mangalam, the audience was spell bound as the eminent musician took the rasikas to an ecstatic state through his scholarly presentation. Many knew

Santhanagopalan as an erudite scholar and an inspiring Guru.Tail piece:He has tuned and pre-

sented a treasurable col-lection of Tiruppugazh, Thevaram and other lit-erary pieces in Tamil.Santhanagopalan’s com-positions for the operatic Ramayana is particularly noteworthy. These com-positions were choreo-graphed as a dance drama and staged successfully all over Chennai, India and in Cleveland, USA in 2011.Radiating danceThe dancers of Marinik-

etan Dance School set the pace for the entertaining Sunday evening with an exhilirating performance that even earned kudos from Neyvelli Santhana-

gopalan.The young artistes swirled around the stage like butterflies with per-fect dance movements, a presentation for which equal credit goes to their guru Niraimathikumar. “Mallari, pushpanjali, Sambo, Sivasambo, Aadu Pampae, Thaye Yasodha unthan’’ were all per-formed with right nuances and bhava and excellent choreography. The young group of dancers rounded it off with a Kathak. The dancers were presented with mementoes at the end.It was a great way to start the week, and prepare for the transition into the new year. As Trinity Arts Festival of India Convenor Murali Raghavan said, “such per-formances augur well for a prosperous 2014.”

neyveli Santhanagopalan’s masterly rendering enthralls rasikas at Trinity arts Fest

Jayalalithaa flags off new buses...(Contd from Page 1)

seen a turnaround since Jayalalithaa assumed pow-er, the disbursal of salary, pension and other incen-tives to the bus crew has been speeded up.As per her order, the

Chief Minister presented a sum of Rs 5.52 lakhs to 247 crew members who retired during Octo-ber 2013. For those who retired during 2011=2012, she handed over Rs 140.68 crores as gratuity to 4, 321 employees.For 583 bus crew mem-

bers who retired between May 2012 and June 2013, she gave away leave

salaries totalling Rs 8. 6 crores.For the computer divi-

sion of the transport cor-poration in Erode district and for the welfare of students in the college of engineering for transport workers’ wards, she allot-ted Rs 21.11 lakhs for the building of hostels.Among those who were

present on the occasion were Minister of Trans-port V Senthil Balaji, Chief Secretary Sheela Balakrishnan and Prin-cipal Secretary (transport department) Braj Kishore Prasad and other govern-ment officials.

Durban, Dec 30:Dale Steyn struck two

early telling blows to help South Africa’s cause on the final day of the second Test to push India to a corner. Steyn had Kohli caught behind by

Twin strikes by Steyn, India battle to save Test

Chennai, Dec 30:C h i e f M i n i s t e r

Jayalalithaa, from camp office in Kodanad, today disbursed cheques for Rs 6-crore loan to 106 people to start entrepreneurs under the New Entrepreneur-= c u m = E n t e r p r i s e Development Scheme introduced last year by the AIADMK government which she heads.A statement issued

here said that under the scheme, first generation e n t r e p r e n e u r s a n d educated youth who aspire to become business magnates, totalling about 1000, would be trained and 25 per cent of the capital incentive to start businesses would be given to those projects costing not more than Rs 25 lakhs. About 50- per cent of the beneficiaries of the scheme comprise

women.The loans are given

by the State government, through the Bank of India in association with TADCO, to the people hailing from Coimbatore and Tirupur districts, the statement said.Besides, the Chief

M i n i s t e r h a s b e e n working for the economic uplift of Adi Dravidars by introducing several welfare schemes.The beneficiaries of the

schemes have thanked the Chief Minister for her gesture.Earlier, Jayalalithaa

handed over loan sanction orders to seven of the beneficiaries.Among those who were

present on the occasionwere Minister of Labour

P Mohan and Labour Commissioner Swaran Singh among others.

CM gives `6 cr loan to 106 entrepreneurs