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Chennai loves to hate its autos
Chennai: In one of many such films, superstar Rajnikanth features Chennai's notorious yellow three-wheeler in a song from his film Badsha.

Tamil cinema has often relied on autos to symbolise the city and now there is a movie called Auto is in the making.
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/chennai-loves-to-hate-autos/19157-3.html

More Auto news or nuisance here....
http://newstodaynet.com/21aug/rf9.htm
Autos many, worries too

NT Bureau
Chennai, Aug 21:

In the world of autorickshaw drivers, it is dog eats dog, as can be seen at the pre-paid auto service bay at Central station.
The auto- stand in Central Railway Station. Some drivers said the pre-paid system had become more a hindrance than help for drivers waiting their turn at the booth. 'Many of our own men corner passengers at the station entrance and pester them into hiring their vehicles,' said one driver.
A few other drivers said the traffic police were hand in glove with these bullies. 'The policemen are supposed to safeguard the interests of passengers and drivers. But they do not take any action against those who go out of turn.'
Passengers too said the same thing. The police introduced this service to stop auto- drivers fleecing people coming to the city. 'It worked well for just a few months, after that things went wrong,' Kamal, a regular railway commuter told this paper.
According to him, policemen on duty at the station, did not bother to stop auto- drivers, who jumped the queue and solicited passengers at the entrance. 'The errant drivers pester you, grab your bags and ask, no they demand, rates that are sometimes many times more than the stipulated amount,' Ramesh Kumar Jain, another passenger, said.
He said one driver who forced him to get into his auto had asked for Rs 150 for a trip to Royapuram. 'He thought I was new to the city,' he added.
Almost all the passengers,with whom News Today interacted with, complained of harassment and overcharging.
Auto drivers, who waited at the pre-paid auto queue also complained about police inaction. 'We wait in the queue from early morning and many times end up with no passengers. Then we too try to jump the queue and go to the entrance to get passengers,' said Ibrahim .
The moral, he added, was if you can't compete with them, join them.

Adventure racing on auto-rickshaw

The 1,000km (590-mile) race, which kicked off in Madras (Chennai), will end in Kanyakumari, the southern-most tip of India, on 27 August.

Participants come from as far as the UK, US, Hungary, Armenia and Russia.

The Indian Auto-rickshaw Challenge is strictly fun, without any prize at the end of the race, the organisers say.

A total of 16 teams comprising 50 people are in the race. Two of the teams are Indian.

Aravind Kumar, the organiser of the challenge, says the race is tailored to give the participants the best the state has to offer.

"Participants will be making their way through monsoon rains, crowds, variable road conditions, and other typically Indian obstacles."

Aravind and his Hungarian friends came up with the idea when they took part in the Budapest-Bamako Rally of 2005, an adventure road race.

The auto-rickshaw, popularly called auto, was chosen for the race as it is India's "national vehicle", says Aravind.

"There are Indians who own many Mercedes cars. There are Indians who do not even have a bicycle. But every Indian would have travelled in an auto at least once in his or her lifetime".

The participants dressed up the autos and donned colourful costumes themselves to match the names of the teams.

The foreign participants seem to be enjoying it the most, as none of them have either seen or ridden an auto-rickshaw before.

Many foreign participants have never ridden an auto-rickshaw

"Driving an auto for 1,000km on an unfamiliar road is an adventure. This is an experience that you could not get anywhere else," says Szabo Gal Andras from Hungary.

"You can not sign up with any travel agency for a trip like this."

Catherine Evens from England agrees. She and her six friends are looking for a "laugh, fun and excitement".

Participants paid 1,500 euros ($1,936) to enter the race.

The organisers provided an auto-rickshaw to each team, and will escort them throughout the rally and undertake any repairs on the way.

At the end of the rally, the vehicles will be sold and the proceeds donated to charity.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5272236.stm

^^

thats a great idea indeed. Will bring in good publiciy to the city and its evolving new 'local culture' :)

Yeah and the autos looked real cool :)

Paper edition of BS had a nice table that placed Chennai at #2 in terms of sales/km at Rs. 134 cr/km way above Mumbai or it's suburbs. If Delhi was treated as one big market, then Chennai would have been #1. One of the biggest reason for this is Chennai is probably the densest city in India. And in terms of household income > 3 lakhs pa, Chennai (28%) scores over Mumbai (23%). Only Chandigarh and East Delhi are way above at about 42%.

http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage_c.php?leftnm=10&autono=102252

How are the Madras Day celeberations in the city ? Is celebrating the city's founding day becoming popular ?

Happy Madras Day
Kudos to Mr S. Muthiah for keeping this going.

Here are some celebrations

Link: http://newstodaynet.com/22aug/rf8.htm

Today, Chennai is entering into 367th year and as part of 'Madras Day' celebrations, Department of Posts, released a special postal cover to commemorate the occasion. Radhika Doraiswamy, Chief Postmaster General, Tamilnadu Circle formally released the special postal cover and S Muthiah, editor, Madras Musings received the first copy. Speaking on the occasion, she said the postal department has the privilege to celebrate 'Madras Day' as it is 150 years old. She also informed that Post Office is part and parcel of the community as it is the only government department where the employee (postman) goes to each and every house.

In his presidential address, Muthiah, said, 'we should be proud of Chennai not only because we are citizens of it, but also for its rich heritage'. He urged that the city's heritage should be taught in schools for the benefit of future generations. T Panneerselvam, Postmaster General, Chennai city region, in his address said that Madras GPO, stands testimony to the test of times and also said that not only the postal department but also other government departments should join hands to celebrate this day.

As part of the 'Madras Day' celebrations, a philatelic exhibition on 'Madras' also kicked off. G Balakrishna Das, president, South India Philatelic Association, C Selvaraj, Chief Postmaster, Anna Road HPO also took part.

Chennai does not have a proper public forum where the factors affecting our day to day life are discussed. Roads , Buses, Trains, Traffic, Drinking water, Sewers, Power, Parking facilities, School Timings etc. We see limited one issue centric letters received from the newspaper subscribers. But an overall plan and agenda is never discussed.

Madras day celebrations may please include the voice of the Chennai citizens.

It is a long known fact that chennai is a mecca for quality and afforable health care center for patients from all over india and many other countries.
Here is another article on that.
http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IE920060907021226&Page=9&Title=Chennai&Topic=0&


Chennai hospitals offer solace to Bengali patients
Thursday September 7 2006 12:33 IST
CHENNAI: It’s like a mini Bengal in the heart of the city. At Apollo Hospitals on Greams Road, 30 percent of the total out-patients and 35 percent of in-patients every month are Bengalis, seeking medical assistance in a range of departments,
like cardiology, neurosurgery and oncology, among the rest.

A cacophony of women in impeccably-starched cotton sarees, speaking in rapid Bengali, with the bengali babus accompanying them, are a common sight at some of the leading hospitals and nursing homes in the city. And it has been decades that
Chennai has been a health hub for Bengalis seeking medical treatment at premier medical institutes in the city.

Why is it that people from West Bengal overlook hospitals and nursing homes in their own state and head towards Chennai?
An indignant Shirish Mukherjee (name changed on request), a heart patient from Kolkata, points out, ‘‘Government hospitals in West Bengal are doing a worthless job. And the private nursing homes are out there to mint money at the cost of
patients. Hence, I decided to pay a visit to Apollo in Chennai.’’

R Gopalakrishnan, head of the department of Orthopaedics, Apollo Hospitals, says, ‘‘The Bengalis believe in perfection in all avenues of life. They come to Apollo because of the perfection in health care.’’

Similar is the scene at Sankara Nethralaya, one of the prime eye hospitals in the country. Sources in the Patient Relations department at the hospital say, ‘‘Even for simple cataract operations and eye checkups, Bengalis come here.’’
A common feature among all the major hospitals here is a special group of Bengali staff to cater to their needs.

The Patient Relations department claims that the information cell which the hospital has arranged at Central Railway Station is aimed at catering to the needs of the plethora of patients who arrive in town aboard the Coromandel Express
from Kolkata.

On a visit to MV Diabetes Specialities Centre, you can see a lot of Bengali patients queuing up at the reception. Sivaranjani, secretary to the general manager, says, ‘‘To cater to the innumerable Bengali patients who come to us, we have trained our staff to interact with the patients in Bengali.’’

Along the length of Greams Road, one can observe a number of medical shops with Bengali name boards. Shanil of Sri Krishna Medicals explains, ‘‘Our shop is inundated with prescriptions from Bengali patients. There are patients who
stay in the city for six months. In fact, there are Bengalis from Assam, Bangladesh and the Gulf countries who are patients at the Apollo.’’

The shop also has a Bengali newspaper kiosk that sells leading dailies from Kolkata, like Anandabazaar and Pratidin. Though the charges per copy are automatically hiked, the shop sells more than 400 copies a day.

To provide accommodation at nominal rates for the Bengalis, Baquer Iqbal, proprietor of New Bengal Mess on Greams Road, informs that there are a host of lodges and messes tucked away at a corner of Greams Road, that cater to the middle-class communities. According to Iqbal, who also has a travel business, when the patients are completely cured, they head to pilgrimage places in the state and other nearby places.

It was time to celebrate and recognise the success of IT entrepreneurs belonging to Tamil Nadu who had done something big for the State. At the Connect2006, this year's ICT event of Tamil Nadu, Mr Shiv Nadar of HCL, Mr Arun Jain of Polaris Software Lab, Mr Kumar Mahadeva of Cognizant Technology Solution and Mr G. Vishwanathan, Chancellor, Vellore Institute of Technology, were given the ICICI Venture-CII Connect 2006 Entrepreneur Awards on Friday.

Mr Nadar, who was born in Tiruchendur in Tamil Nadu and who is on the Forbes List of the world's richest people, was awarded the entrepreneur from the State who made a lasting impact on information, communication and technology (ICT) in India and the world.

Three mantras

"Aspire high, listen to distant signals and do not take past as continuation, which will go into the future. Put these three together, it will stack up," Mr Nadar told the gathering after receiving the award from Union Minister of Communications and Technology, Mr Dayanidhi Maran.

In 1976, Mr Nadar started HCL, which today is a $ 3.8 billion company employing 37,000 employees globally.

Mr Arun Jain who got the award for the entrepreneur who contributed significantly to developing Tamil Nadu as a centre of ICT excellence, said talent, efficiency, innovation, vision and commitment are important to be a successful entrepreneur.

Positive environment

Tamil Nadu had a positive environment in all these areas with abundant entrepreneurs. "Ethical values brought me to the State. Chennai's value system is very right for entrepreneurs," he said.

Mr Jain, who came from Delhi and started Polaris in Chennai in 1984, said: "My biggest asset then was my scooter and the IBM typewriter that I bought for Rs 10,000 in an auction." Today, the $ 180 million company has over 5,000 employees globally, he said.

Cognizant's founder Mr Mahadeva got the award for entrepreneur for building a global business with Tamil Nadu as an outsourcing hub. The company's President and CEO, Mr Lakshmi Narayanan, received the award on his behalf.

In his speech through a video conference from NewYork, Mr Mahadeva said India's infrastructure did not keep pace with the growth of the ICT sector.

He urged the Tamil Nadu Government to take the lead in addressing this concern. "If this issue is addressed, there would be many more companies such as Cognizant in the State," he said.

Mr G. Viswanathan, Chancellor, Vellore Institute of Technology, who was given the award for fostering development of enabling resources to help make the State as an ICT hub, said his message to people was not to send children to schools that who do not have computers. He urged Mr Maran to provide infrastructure to colleges, provide Internet at a nominal charge to educational institutions and help the private institutes get World Bank aid.

`Under-investing?'

Mr Maran said: "Are we under investing in the domestic sector?" The IT capital base in India is 3.5 per cent of the total capital base. This is woefully behind the global norm of 10 per cent. Similarly, the country has 1.48 personal computers per 100 population, whereas the average PC penetration in under invested economies is 12 per 100. Broadband is less than one per cent in India compared to the average of 16 per cent.

"How do we deepen the IT capital into businesses, households, educational institutions and government? How do we geographically disperse this IT capital deepening effort to secondary cities and rural areas? These are major issues to be looked at," he said.

"As entrepreneurs, are we investing innovatively? That, to me, is the key challenge today," he said.

"If this issue is addressed, there would be many more companies such as Cognizant in the State," he said.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/09/10/stories/2006091003790500.htm

Thanks Anniyan for the post.

I was really moved during the meeting. I salute these guys. Great efforts.

Cambridge varsity Business English course in colleges

Staff Reporter

Initially, students of 670 government arts and science colleges to benefit

CHENNAI: Cambridge University will offer Business English course (BEC) in all government colleges across the State.

It will soon sign a memorandum of understanding with The Directorate of Collegiate Education, Tamil Nadu.
http://www.hindu.com/2006/09/26/stories/2006092609000100.htm

More Auto news or nuisance here....
http://newstodaynet.com/21aug/rf9.htm
Autos many, worries too

NT Bureau
Chennai, Aug 21:

In the world of autorickshaw drivers, it is dog eats dog, as can be seen at the pre-paid auto service bay at Central station.
The auto- stand in Central Railway Station. Some drivers said the pre-paid system had become more a hindrance than help for drivers waiting their turn at the booth. 'Many of our own men corner passengers at the station entrance and pester them into hiring their vehicles,' said one driver.
A few other drivers said the traffic police were hand in glove with these bullies. 'The policemen are supposed to safeguard the interests of passengers and drivers. But they do not take any action against those who go out of turn.'
Passengers too said the same thing. The police introduced this service to stop auto- drivers fleecing people coming to the city. 'It worked well for just a few months, after that things went wrong,' Kamal, a regular railway commuter told this paper.
According to him, policemen on duty at the station, did not bother to stop auto- drivers, who jumped the queue and solicited passengers at the entrance. 'The errant drivers pester you, grab your bags and ask, no they demand, rates that are sometimes many times more than the stipulated amount,' Ramesh Kumar Jain, another passenger, said.
He said one driver who forced him to get into his auto had asked for Rs 150 for a trip to Royapuram. 'He thought I was new to the city,' he added.
Almost all the passengers,with whom News Today interacted with, complained of harassment and overcharging.
Auto drivers, who waited at the pre-paid auto queue also complained about police inaction. 'We wait in the queue from early morning and many times end up with no passengers. Then we too try to jump the queue and go to the entrance to get passengers,' said Ibrahim .
The moral, he added, was if you can't compete with them, join them.
URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/09/17/stories/2006091715090300.htm
Auto fare an unfair deal at Chennai Central
The pre-paid autorickshaw system has fallen victim to problems that have ailed the sector for nearly a decade now Auto drivers haggling over fare with visitors is a common sight. Even the presence of the Railway Police and other government officials has little bearing on the situation.

CHENNAI: The pre-paid autorickshaw system at the Chennai Central Railway Station, meant to provide a friendly, fair means of transport to those arriving in the city, has fallen victim to the problems that have ailed the sector for nearly a decade now. Auto drivers haggling over fare with passengers is a common sight throughout the day at the station. Even the presence of the Railway Police and other government officials has little bearing on the situation. If a passenger complains about the fleecing, the police try to pacify them rather than take stringent action against the erring auto driver. For several first time visitors, the situation is very unlike anything experienced in other cities, particularly Bangalore or Mumbai, where the governments have intervened proactively to provide a fair means of transport to those arriving at the railway stations or airport.
Any visitor, who has been to the Bangalore railway station and has experienced the manner in which the pre-paid system works there, will vouch that it is a near perfect one.
A public announcement system informs passengers that the pre-paid autorickshaw counter gives away transport slips costing Re.1. At the counter, the passengers get a computerised receipt with details about the destination, distance from the station, the method of calculation of fare and the fixed rate. A police constable then escorts the passenger to a waiting autorickshaw and ensures that the driver does not demand more.
It does not stop there. All autorickshaws display the licence of the driver, along with details such as the driver's blood group, the local police station to which the vehicle is attached and the Road Transport Office that issued the licence. This is further reassuring for the passengers.

At Chennai Central Railway Station, the receipt at the pre-paid auto stand is just a tacky slip mentioning the destination and the fare. A trip to Shanti Colony in Anna Nagar, for example, costs Rs.70. Nobody knows the method of calculation. The autodrivers at the pre-paid stand demand anything between Rs.20 to Rs.30 more than what is mentioned on the slip even as the policeman at the counter watches haplessly.M. Ramesh, a software professional from Bangalore, who comes home to Chennai on weekends finds it shocking. "I find it hard to explain to friends why there must be such a difference between the system in Chennai and the one in Bangalore. Most of the friends do not like Chennai just because of what happens here." Most autodrivers blame successive Governments' failure in revising the fare for most of the problems. Auto fares have not been revised since 1996. The official rate today stands at Rs.7 for a minimum fare of up to 2 km and Rs.3.50 for every additional km. In Bangalore, the minimum fare is Rs.12 for two km and Rs.6 for every additional km.
The failure to revise fare enables the auto drivers to demand exorbitant sums by citing the petrol price hike.
M.S. Rajendran of the CITU Auto Union says they have consulted the new Government on fare revision. "We have suggested Rs.15 as the minimum fare and Rs.7 for every additional km. If the Government agrees to revise fares, auto drivers in the city will be more than willing to run their vehicles based on meter and a fixed rate." According to the CITU, Chennai has approximately 50,000 autorickshaws running on valid permits. Add to that another 10,000 vehicles from the suburbs, the number of autos plying everyday could be over 60,000. Mr. Rajendran says there is no point in purchasing electronic meters when the fare has not been revised.
Auto drivers point out that if pre-paid stands are to succeed then all drivers must be allowed to access them. Currently, only a set of auto drivers are permitted by the Railway Police to enter the pre-paid stand. The drivers allege this has led to formation of cartels.

why can't the Govt revise the auto fares?

While I am glad Chennai is in the list, the state Govt should work towards moving up in the ladder.

-------------------------------------
Despite Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's efforts, neither Kolkata nor the rest of West Bengal seem to figure on the map of American investors visiting India. Stating this today, John Fennerty, deputy economic counselor, US Embassy, said for any American investor or delegation, the prime destinations are Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, followed by Hyderabad and Chennai.
http://in.news.yahoo.com/061012/48/68ggm.html

http://i9.tinypic.com/48cpsfc.jpg

Bedlam in Chennai local polls

Large-scale violence and booth-capturing vitiated the Chennai Corporation Council elections on Friday as workers of the ruling DMK and its allies clashed with cadres of the AIADMK-led Opposition in several wards.

The AIADMK moved the Madras High Court seeking to declare the polling in all the 155 wards null and void. A Bench comprising Justice S.J. Mukhopadhaya and Justice F.M. Ibrahim Kalifulla ordered notice to the State Election Commission, the police department and the Chief Minister and DMK president, M. Karunanidhi, and posted the matter on Monday for further proceedings.

Complaints of bogus voting were sporadic in the morning and some wards witnessed brisk polling, but by noon several booths witnessed attacks and counter-attacks by members of the DMK-led alliance and supporters of the AIADMK. In several wards of Vyasarpadi, West Mambalam and Besant Nagar, voters who reached the booths after 11 a.m. were told by officials to leave citing "unusual circumstances."

By 1 p.m., the AIADMK took to the streets and staged road-rokos along Royapuram Main Road and Sydenhams Road in Otteri protesting against "irregularities" in the polls. They pelted stones at the police. Some demonstrators, including an MLA, P.K. Sekhar Babu, were injured when the police used batons to disperse the crowds. Several buses were damaged in the violence. Later the protesters were arrested.

In a booth at Stella Maris College, a group of DMK workers led by a partyman identified as Balaji drove past the police personnel, cast bogus votes, and tore up some ballot papers. When the AIADMK agent protested, he was punched in the face.

Actor and leader of the DMDK, Vijayakanth, also met City Police Commissioner Letika Saran to demand a repoll using Central para-military forces instead of the State police. He said his party was boycotting the polls.

Ballot papers were strewn on the streets in a few polling stations in Mint and Vyasarpadi in north Chennai and Raja Annamalaipuram and Saidapet in south Chennai.

Near the Chennai Corporation Urdu School in Mint, a group of Congress volunteers led by R. Mano and another group of AIADMK partymen came close to blows around 11 a.m. Both the groups charged each other with trying to prevent peaceful polls.The polling officials at the school said a knife-wielding gang had earlier snatched the ballot papers from the booths. Ballot papers were strewn all over Srinivasapuram.

Some in the group carried iron and wooden rods. A few journalists were caught in the melee and had to flee. The police who arrived at the spot dispersed the groups.

In a similar incident, a gang ransacked the ballot boxes at the M.P. Devadas High School at Vyasarpadi around 11.45 a.m. and tore up the ballot papers. Polling was stalled in all 13 booths of Ward 35 in the school. Election authorities later in the day said repoll would be held for the ward.

In Ayanavaram, a Tata Sumo carrying at least eight persons was allowed free entry into three booths. The youths spent about five to eight minutes in each booth.

Several residents called up The Hindu to complain that armed groups scared them away from polling booths. In a few instances, the gang members, comprising youths in the age group 20 to 25, even snatched ballot papers from voters and forcibly cast the votes.

At the Corporation Middle School in Thideer Nagar, Saidapet (ward 140), polling agents of the Opposition parties alleged that DMK volunteers forced them to vacate the booths. Around 10 a.m., a group of journalists saw a mob take over the booth. The voters who stood in the queue were not allowed to cast their votes for several minutes. Some youths were seen casting several votes in succession.
http://www.hindu.com/2006/10/14/stories/2006101414420100.htm

Idiots!!!!!!

a disgrace

Deepavali time!!!

Saree with pocket

Sri Kumaran Stores, a leading store in Chennai for garments, has announced the launch of a saree with a pocket -- the first-of-its-kind in the world -- to hold your mobile phone, keys, tissues and intimate make-up. You can carry on with your work without having to worry about the phone or the keys. It’s no longer the men’s preserve to have pockets for all their requirements.

The 'pocket saree', pure handwoven silk saree, delicately embroidered, has been specially designed for the modern, working woman. The sarees are priced at Rs 4,500 to Rs 7,000. And it is available in a range of colours.

http://www.chennaionline.com/fashion-lifestyle/News/2006/10smobile.asp

hai guys,
I just wanted to share an event, that made me think, if 'WE' are reposible or 'THEY' are responsible for this? who is WE and THEY, you will know when you finish reading this post.
Some Swedish researcher went to US for a conference and met some Indians there. The Indians told the Swede that they were from S. India, the developed part of the country. As the Swede had few south Indian friends, he felt comfortable to talk further more and realised that all three Indians could talk the same language. When the Swede asked about if their language was Tamil or other southern languages, they told, ' we speak Bengali and its the language of the south Indians'. When the Swede came back home and said this to my friend from Chennai, and also asked if he also spoke Bengali.
I didnt know if we need to laugh at it or blame ourself. I couldnt take this as a joke, is it we who had hyped so much that Northies get isolated.

we had grinded this issue over an over again in chennai discussions thread (part 1)

Polls over, yet memories of violence linger

CHENNAI: The results of the local body elections may come out by Thursday afternoon. But the discussion in most homes in Chennai still centres on the brazen violence that several voters witnessed rather than the chances of the parties.

While allegations of bogus voting surface in almost all elections, residents are shocked at the violations in several booths, where groups of youth were seen stamping ballot papers. Some of the perpetrators even foul-mouthed the voters and asked them to leave. For example, at the Chennai Corporation's Urdu School at Srinivasapuram in Mint, where the polling was conducted for ward No. 13, an unidentified gang ransacked the booths around 9.30 a.m. It snatched the ballot papers from the officials and threw them along the narrow lane where the school is located, in full view of the public.

While the visibly shaken polling officers and police tried to maintain that all was peaceful, a constable and a woman election officer explained to a group of journalists that a gang brandishing knives had threatened them. The State Election Commission had not ordered a re-poll for the booths in the school.

Booth capturing can take different forms, if one goes by the incidents witnessed during the two days of polling, especially the events in the first phase on Friday. At the polling stations at Kondithope, some agents themselves threatened the voters and polling officers. The polling officials were afraid to make any remark to journalists in front of the agents.

At M.P. Devadas High School at Vyasarpadi, several groups of youth turned up all through the morning to cast votes. The police did not even try to stop them. Just before noon, the agents of the Opposition parties left the booths as they took the protest to the streets.

After 11.30 a.m., another gang barged into the booths and asked all voters to leave. Then they pulled out the ballot boxes, opened them, tore up the ballots, tried to set them afire and left. A couple of policemen, who were mute witnesses to the morning's events, had left by then.

At Tiruvottiyur on Sunday, gangs barged into a booth at Agasthiyar Vidyalaya on Kanakkar Street, Ward 23, to stamp ballot papers. At a booth at Revoor Padmanabha Chetty Matriculation School in the same local body, a group forced its way in, snatched a ballot paper book from polling staff and stamped them.

These papers were, later, kept aside as invalid by the polling officers. Residents of Ward 1 (Velan Nagar) in the Valsaravakkam municipality said that after more than 1,000 votes had been cast by 1.30 p.m., a gang entered, emptied the boxes, put the ballot papers in gunny bags and replaced them with about 800 freshly stamped papers in a one-hour operation. This they did after terrorising the voters.

For the staff at MMDA Colony in Arumbakkam, voting was smooth till 10 a.m., with 200 votes cast.

But suddenly a gang wielding knives and sticks came in, seized the ballot paper books (each containing 50 papers), stamped them, and even without removing the counterfoil stuffed them in the boxes.

For one full hour, the gang held sway. The policemen on duty ran away and closed the gates. A civic official asked the polling staff to listen to the gang and "cooperate." The gang members stayed there the whole day and, going by one member of the polling staff, at least 600 of the 800 votes in that booth were bogus.

What was shocking to the polling staff was that it happened so early in the day, and the police did nothing. That it was ballot papers, and not EVMs, which made the job easy.

For the police, there were no complaints from the polling staff.

http://www.hindu.com/2006/10/17/stories/2006101715950300.htm

They speak Tamil with the right accent and have adapted well to the culture and traditions of Chennai. They influence as well as get influenced by their surroundings.

They are Chinese migrants who have made Chennai their home.

Explains Min Fumie, a homemaker, “It was in the 1950s and 1960s that my parents fled their home and came to India (due to unrest in China). It must have been very difficult for our parents those days since they had to make fresh adjustments and start everything from scratch.”

For those who are born and brought up here, things got much easier since they were exposed to the lifestyle here right from the start.

“For us, it is hardly a problem living in our adopted country. Our taste-buds, lifestyle and even mindset changed with the exposure we had from our childhood," says Stella.

"For instance, I can express myself well in Tamil, English and even Mandarin Chinese. At home, we prepare both Cantonese and Tamil food,” says Stella.

The few Chinese migrants in the city usually take up their family business. Some of the oldest restaurants, beauty parlours and dental clinics are owned by them.

For instance, Eve’s Beauty Parlour, run by Arleen Chaurasia (she married a North Indian), the second generation of Chinese migrants, was started by her parents way back in 1968.

“With my formal training in hair-dressing abroad, I could take over my family business. The other relatives I have here are my brother, a chef at Le Royal Meridian, and my uncle, the proprietor of Dynasty restaurant," says Arleen.

"I don’t know much about the other Chinese migrants here, since we have our own social circles. And as far as I know, there’s nothing like a group or association that binds us together,” says Arleen.

But when it comes to the celebrations, there is no compromise. “The Chinese New Year is one thing that we never fail to observe. It is time for family get-togethers."

"The date differs every year but it is normally at the end of January or the beginning of February. Food is the main part of the celebration. Biscuits, cakes and lots of non-vegetarian goodies are made in abundance,” says Chang, a BDS student.

For many of the Chinese here, Chennai is the only home they’ve known.

“Since many of my relatives settled in the West, I’ve visited most of the European countries, but I haven’t been to China since I don’t know anyone out there," says Arleen.

"I would like to go and see the place but I don’t know when that will happen,” confesses Arleen. The rise in the number of Chinese restaurants is another testimony to the influence of the Chinese community in the city.http://newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IE920061017002016&Page=9&Title=Chennai&Topic=0&

I used to have a Tamil Chinese friend from Chennai :D

DMK, allies sweep civic polls in Tamil Nadu

Chennai, Oct 18: Ruling DMK and its allies Congress, PMK, CPI(M) and CPI swept the civic polls in Tamil Nadu by capturing five municipal corporations in five major cities and winning majority of seats in 152 other municipalities.

The DMK-led alliance was also way ahead of their main rival AIADMK in the poll to town panchayats and panchayat union councils, reports reaching here tonight said.

The alliance captured civic bodies in Madurai, Coimbatore, Tirunelveli, Salem, and Tiruchirappalli.

The DMK led DPA is also set to capture over 80 first grade municipalities and 40 third grade municipalities, the reports said.

The counting of votes for Chennai Municipal Corporation will take place on October 20 as per the Madras High Court order. During the 2001 civic polls, DMK had won the mayoral posts in Chennai and Madurai, for which direct elections were held.

While the erstwhile TMC, which was in alliance with AIADMK then, had won the mayoral post of Tiruchirappalli AIADMK had bagged the mayoral posts in other corporations at that time.

AIADMK, which had put up a creditable performance by winning 61 seats in the May assembly polls, came out with a dismal performance in the civic polls. According to reports reaching the state election commission office, AIADMK could win only in 10 municipalities this time.

The DMK and its allies made deep inroads into AIADMK bastions of Coimbatore, Turicorin and Theni districts where the party had fared well during the assembly polls.

The AIADMK's traditional vote banks in the rural areas of the state seems to have gone in favour of DMK-led DPA as the alliance won in most of the panchayat union wards.

The ruling alliance won majority in all the 29 district panchayats

http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?aid=330186&sid=REG

I am glad that all elections are over, Now DMK govt has to perform independent of any alliance pressure.

From online paper edition of TOI:

TN city in top 10 pollution list
New York: Ranipet in Tamil Nadu, where leather tanning wastes contaminate groundwater with hexavalent chro-mium, the cancercausing substance made famous by Erin Brockovich, is among the 10 most polluted places on Earth, a US environmental group has said.
The list was compiled by the New York-based Blacksmith Institute, which said the world’s pollution is sickening up to 1 b people.
Blacksmith director Richard Fuller said environmental problems cause up to 20% deaths in developing countries.
And environmental toxins in these towns put residents at risk of being poisoned, developing cancers and lung infections and having mentally retarded children, the group said.
“The worst problem is the damage it does to children’s development... and that damages the future of the countries,” Fuller said. The group researched 300 sites to come up with its list.
The sites were not ranked because health records in some developing countries weren’t available. “Norilsk in Russia is also just a horror story,” Fuller said. No US sites were listed in the top 10 as the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and Superfund law helped cleaned up the country, Fuller said. Agencies

The just concluded civic polls in Tamil Nadu have brought to the fore a not too closely guarded secret -- that there are at least five chief ministerial candidates in waiting within the ruling DMK and its allies.

The list comprises Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi's two sons M.K. Stalin and M.K. Azhagiri, PMK chief S. Ramadoss' son Anbumani, Murasoli Maran's son Dayanidhi. Adding to the list of star sons is the star himself - Vijayakanth.

Post-polls, all have been thrown into the favourable limelight and harbour hopes of one day taking over the chief minister's mantle.

The DMK has won 1,550 municipal seats and its allies another 500. The seven-party alliance has captured about 200 corporation, nearly 2,500 town and 300 district panchayat seats, as well as 2,000 village posts.

Of the 155 wards in Chennai Corporation, the DMK has taken 90 and its friends the rest with only three going to the AIADMK.

The civic polls have ensured that Stalin, 52, a first time minister who was entrusted with local government, has uninterrupted 'grassroots loyalty' for the next five years. It has taken the 'heir apparent' 30 long years to get a berth in the Karunanidhi cabinet.

Karunanidhi had banished his other son Azhagiri to Madurai in the 1990s to keep him away from Chennai and the coveted seat of power. But he could be back in the reckoning -- after the civic polls and the by-election to the Madurai Central assembly seat, vacated by the death of DMK strongman P.T.R. Palanivel Rajan, the southern districts are now completely Azhagiri's.

The DMK victory in the deep south, for long considered an AIADMK bastion, is credited to Azhagiri's hard work. Azhagiri has not yet made any claims; but for how long is the question.

There are other hopefuls in the fray.

To the utter dismay of senior DMK politicians like T.R. Baalu, Dayanidhi Maran, Murasoli Maran's son and union Communications and IT Minister, from being a political unknown has become a smart pointsman for the party in the short span of two years. His closeness to Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is well known.

Maran junior got thunderous applause in the civic poll campaigns when he said MDMK's Vaiko is like the Tamil actor Asokan who began as a hero, then became a villain and ended as a comedian.

This civic polls has brought another home truth to the DMK -- that its ally PMK's S. Ramadoss sees his son Anbumani Ramadoss, India's health minister, as the next chief minister of Tamil Nadu.

In its campaigns for civic posts, supposedly as a DMK ally, PMK youth brigade have been reportedly shouting, 'Who will be chief minister of Tamil Nadu? Anbumani Ramadoss, of course!'

Like Maran, the central posting has worked like an internship for the English-speaking but so-long unknown Anbumani.

Then there is actor Vijayakanth, who has bettered his votes in the local polls. Floating the DMDK just a few months before the May 2006 assembly elections, Vijayakanth became legislator at first shot.

In the local polls, his DMDK won 100 municipality seats, nearly 200 town seats, 16 corporation seats and about 200 panchayat seats, a noteworthy performance by any account. Vijayakanth makes no bones that he is 'the alternative' for Tamil people.

In the Madurai by-polls too, the DMDK polled about 17,500 votes and AIADMK supremo J. Jayalalitha knows that he, known popularly as Karuppu MGR, cut into her vote bank.

A thrilled Karunanidhi, therefore, praised Vijayakanth saying his was a 'creditable performance'.

Could one of Vijayakanth's future roles be that of chief minister? Given politics in the state, it could most certainly be.

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/india/article_1214725.php/Karunanidhi_has_five_successors_waiting_in_the_wings

5.49 lakh workers went abroad in 2005.

Kerala 22.8%
TN 21.3%
Karnataka 13.7%
Gujarat 9.1%
Andhra 8.8%
Maharastra 5.3%
Punjab 4.4%
Rajasthan 3.9%

http://thatstamil.oneindia.in/news/2006/10/26/tn.html

http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_sites?cc=IN&ts_mode=country&lang=none

Chennai, Oct. 30 (PTI): The chasm between two ruling coalition constituents in Tamil Nadu grew wider today with the PMK charging the alliance leader DMK with "great betrayal" in the recent civic elections and announcing that its support to the government hereafter will not be unconditional.

Hot on the heels of the allegations against the DMK, which were strongly rejected by Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, PMK leader S Ramadoss told a press conference here that the party's support to the government would be "issue-based".

He made clear that his party would not act in a way that would cause the fall of the DMK Government.

"We will be functioning as a responsible opposition, taking up people's cause. We will support all good measures of the government and will oppose all anti-people measures," he said.

He said "At least in the AIADMK with whom we fought two elections, except its leaders Jayalalitha and Sasikala, others are good. In the DMK, it is the other way round. Only the leaders Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and its General Secretary K Anbazhagan are good."

The PMK, which has 18 members in the 234-member Assembly, provides crucial outside support to the DMK which has 96 MLAs and runs the government with support from other allies including the Congress, CPI(M) and CPI. At the time of formation of the government, the PMK had given a letter of unconditional support to the Governor.

Ramadoss alleged that several second run DMK leaders had openly worked against the PMK in the civic elections and that the party could not contest the polls in many places alloted to it.

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/002200610301855.htm

Suitcase party heheheheheh

Ramadass son Anbumani is under fire at the centre for poorly handling the dengue and chikunguniya epidemic. I feel there must have been internal pressure in congress to remove anbumani from minister post. This and other events must have forced Ramadoss to pressurize DMK govnt at the state. PMK is nothing but purely dirty politics. It had won the 18 seats bcos of DMK and now its flexing its muscles with those seats.

PMK is nothing but purely dirty politics. It had won the 18 seats bcos of DMK and now its flexing its muscles with those seats.

PMK is famous for jumping from one side to the other, we all know that but why no one is blaming the DMK/ADMK who wants to have an alliance with PMK. If you say PMK had won 18 seats cos of DMK, then DMK wud ve won more than 60 seats cos of PMK.

PMK is famous for jumping from one side to the other, we all know that but why no is blaming the DMK/ADMK who wants to have alliance with PMK. If you say PMK had won 18 seats cos of DMK, then DMK wud ve won more than 60 seats cos of PMK.

Its all bcos of caste politics. North TN has a sizeable number of a particular community to which Ramadoss party PMK affiliates itself. To get those vote bank DMK r ADMK needs his help. And now they are facing the consequence. Ramadoss had waited so long just for the local body elections to finish, and now he has started to show his true color.

CNN-IBN is the first national media giving positive coverage to TN. First it was the Growing face of Chennai Suburbs, and now ......
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The history of south India can be traced back to over 2,000 years. However, it was only 50 years ago when the four southern states were created along linguistic lines.

CNN-IBN unveils the changing face of south India and celebrates the Dravidian spirit in a special series The Golden South.

Chennai: Almost every Tamilian family has an NRI relative, someone who went abroad for education and then stayed on.

But today, it looks like many NRI Tamilians are returning to turn investors, social workers, or even politicians.
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/tns-non-returning-indians-are-back/25321-3.html

Upgrade infrastructure, Nokia chief tells State

The State Government must enhance road and rail connectivity to the Sriperumbudur region, which is all set to emerge as the electronic manufacturing hub providing jobs to 20,000 people in the next three years.
http://www.newstodaynet.com/03nov/bu6.htm

I have been watching that the Sardhars and Marwaris talking Chennai tamil fluently. But of late, the Koreans have been taking over Chennai slowly among the expats. A few of them are talking Tamil, which looks a little musical to me.

These guys are very smart ( may even beat our own marwaris in business) and they adapt so well to the local conditions. Except may be for the food, they may blend very well with Chennai in the coming future.

CNN-IBN is the first national media giving positive coverage to TN. First it was the Growing face of Chennai Suburbs, and now ......
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The history of south India can be traced back to over 2,000 years. However, it was only 50 years ago when the four southern states were created along linguistic lines.

CNN-IBN unveils the changing face of south India and celebrates the Dravidian spirit in a special series The Golden South.

Chennai: Almost every Tamilian family has an NRI relative, someone who went abroad for education and then stayed on.

But today, it looks like many NRI Tamilians are returning to turn investors, social workers, or even politicians.
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/tns-non-returning-indians-are-back/25321-3.html

dude it's true, i feel cnn ibn gives a positive image to chennai....

as for ndtv... the pm's visit was so poorly covered that i begin to wonder.....

rediff was also good in covering connect 2006

this is why u should not be jumping parties jackass :hahaha:

Sarath Kumar quits AIADMK
http://www.hindu.com/2006/11/07/stories/2006110709330600.htm

URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/11/08/stories/2006110806570100.htm

Autorickshaw fare revision on the cards

TIMELY ASSISTANCE: Transport Minister K.N. Nehru handing over a cheque to the family of an autorickshaw driver who died in a road accident recently. — Photo: S.S. Kumar


CHENNAI: The State Government will hold a meeting with autorickshaw unions later this month to revise the fare structure, K.N. Nehru, Transport Minister, said on Tuesday.

Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi would participate in the meeting, Mr. Nehru said participating in a function on "Road Safety and Vehicle Pollution Control."

For long, the unions have been demanding a revision of the minimum fare of Rs. 7 and Rs. 3.50 a km thereafter.

The Minister announced that the Transport department would issue 10,000 new auto permits. As many as 5,000 permits would be issued with a subsidy of Rs 25,000. The department received nearly 25,000 applications seeking fresh permits.

The department proposed to introduce only LPG-fitted autorickshaws from now. At a meeting organised by the Lions Club of Madras Edifice and Goodwill Auto Drivers Union, Mr. Nehru handed over a cheque for Rs 10,000, the insurance claim, to the family of an autorickshaw driver, who died in a road accident recently.

K. Ranganaathan, Lions District Governor, and Kumar, president, Goodwill Auto Drivers Union, participated.

Hope, these discussions will be successful.
Chennai auto drivers should get a fair deal of new fares.

URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/11/08/stories/2006110806570100.htm

Autorickshaw fare revision on the cards



Hope, these discussions will be successful.
Chennai auto drivers should get a fair deal of new fares.

I don't think this will go anywhere. Auto drivers currently charge about Rs. 10 a km. They refuse to drive for anything less than Rs. 7 a km.

Vote for your favourite Tamilian on CNN-IBN. Lets publicise this page which would encourage CNN-IBN to give more positive coverage to our state:

http://features.ibnlive.com/pix/features/2006/goldensouth/tnintro.jpg
http://static.ibnlive.com/pix/sitepix/11_2006/gold_tn.gif

Visit the following link and look for the image shown above.
http://www.ibnlive.com/index.html

I think the list is too short
They shud have included
Annadurai,
Kamalhassan,
AR Rahman,
K.Kamaraj,
MGR,
Ramanujam

I think the list is too short
They shud have included
Annadurai,
Kamalhassan,
AR Rahman,
K.Kamaraj,
MGR,
Ramanujam

i agree..My favourite tamilian is Aringar Anna, he is not in the list so am going to vote for Illayaraja.

This was done previously also and then also Rajni and Kalam were in tight race.

BTW In the voting, Abdul Kalam is winning, he got my vote too!

One more on Chennai:
Chennai's eating habits:
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/digesting-chennais-meaty-issues/26231-3.html

The ELCOT chief, C Umashankar also informed of 900 acres being earmarked at another two places in the State, which is to be promoted for the IT sector, but refused to name names of the places.

http://www.ciol.com/content/news/Investment/2006/106111501.asp

http://www.ciol.com/content/news/Investment/2006/106111501.asp

Vellore may be

Tamil introduced as an optional subject in Madurai Kendriya Vidhyalaya.
Thanks to the efforts taken by district collector Udhyachandran..I wish they introduce tamil in all KV's in the state.


http://thatstamil.oneindia.in/news/2006/11/17/kendriya.html

The provision of the Educational Code of Kendriya Vidhyalaya has been revoked for the first time in south zone, comprising Kerala, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu, to teach Tamil as an optional language in Kendriya Vidhyalaya-2 here.

Three language forumla-- Hindi, English and Sanskrit, is at present being implemented in the Kendriya Vidhayalaya.


http://www.chennaionline.com/colnews/newsitem.asp?NEWSID=%7B48122455-5FFC-4155-9689-9E33E88E3185%7D&CATEGORYNAME=Tamil+Nadu

Wallets of India's richest business people have swollen substantially this year and are collectively carrying Rs 7.63 trillion (170 billion US dollars), as compared to 106 billion dollars a year ago.

India's top ten richest, including Lakshmi Mittal, Ambani brothers and Azim Premji, alone are worth 112 billion US dollars that accounts for two-thirds of the wealth of all 40 in the list.

Interestingly, the number of billionaires in the list has risen to 36, nine more than last year's 40 richest list, according to Forbes magazine.

Ambani brothers Mukesh and Anil, who split the Reliance business empire last year, saw their fortunes inflate -- that of Mukesh by $ 11.5 billion to 18.50 billion and Anil's by $ 9.3 billion to 14.80 billion.

Though Azim Premji's net worth increased to $ 14 billion from 11 billion in 2005, he slipped to the fourth position this year.

Whereas, real estate major DLF Group's chairman Kushal Pal Singh's fortune doubled this year to $ 10 billion from $ 5 billion in 2005.

On the back of robust real estate market in the country, the fortunes of the 40 richest Indians soared more than 60 per cent as compared to last year's collective wealth.

In line with the rising fortunes, the minimum net worth needed to make it into the list rose substantially to $ 790 million in 2006 from $ 590 million in the previous year.

Despite the rise in minimum cut off, there are some new entrants in the list this year – Sun TV owner Kalanidhi Maran ($ 1.90 billion), Unitech promoter Ramesh Chandra ($ 5.30 billion) and Multi Commodity Exchange CEO Jignesh Shah ($ 0.84 billion).

http://www.chennaionline.com/colnews/newsitem.asp?NEWSID=%7B94A44528-D733-447C-B87B-A021A9B83566%7D&CATEGORYNAME=BIZ

Do can anyone list down the top 20 rich people in TN?
(pls exclude Sasikala)

Excluding all politicians!!

1. Kalanidhi Maran
Not in any order or in person just grouo
TVS group, Murugappa Group, Thiagrajan mills, Golden Breweries, Sakthi Mills chairperson, Spic, Real estate g
Cant really think of any big business bosses from TN! (Shiv Nadar is a delhite)
Some Infosysians are Tamilians Living in Bangalore.

Excluding all politicians!!

1. Kalanidhi Maran
Not in any order or in person just grouo
TVS group, Murugappa Group, Thiagrajan mills, Golden Breweries, Sakthi Mills chairperson, Spic, Real estate g
Cant really think of any big business bosses from TN! (Shiv Nadar is a delhite)
Some Infosysians are Tamilians Living in Bangalore.

Adding to the list

Sterling Shivshankar

Not sure about these people
laksmi mills?
Standard group?
SRM group?

Kalam wins the poll.
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/golden-south-poll-kalam-fav-tamilian/26559-3.html

Its now the turn of Congress to flex its muscles after PMK

Having got the coimbatore and trichy corporations, congress seems greedy for power at the state.

The Tamil Nadu unit of the Congress, which is supporting the DMK Government from outside, is interested for power sharing and the MLAs have conveyed the demand in this regard to the party High Command, its legislature leader D Sudarsanam said today.

"We are a political party at the national level and interested in power. Even when small political parties want power why not the Congress," he told reporters, adding that "Congress was a political party and not a sanyasi mutt".

"The final decision in this regard, however, rested with party President Sonia Gandhi," he said after a meeting of the party MLAs.

"We have submitted the resolution seeking share of power to the High Command. You should ask the High Command about it," he said.

Sudarsanam said, "The UPA Government at the Centre is a good example showing that coalition governments can be successful." TNCC President M Krishnaswamy and party MLAs were also present.

The Congress which contested the Assembly elections with the DMK, has 34 MLAs. PMK with 18 members and Left parties with 15 MLAs are also supporting the DMK Government, which has 96 MLAs, 22 short of a simple majority on its own.

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/004200611201656.htm

Chief minister M. Karunanidhi today sprang the shocker at a news conference, saying his government “will take the necessary legal steps soon to make Tamil the sole court language of Madras High Court”.

http://www.newasiatimes.com/news/reports/?report=11995

i sorta didn't like the headline . as for mr m.k., his act is going to spread a negative image to the rest of the country...

http://www.newasiatimes.com/news/reports/?report=11995

i sorta didn't like the headline . as for mr m.k., his act is going to spread a negative image to the rest of the country...

Plus two other minor issues of forcing Govt employees signing in Tamil and Mullaiperiyar dam issue. TN should try to resolve issues with Kerala peacefully.

Such kind of issues cause more distraction and takes some oxygen away from the Govt's focus on growth.

Plus two other minor issues of forcing Govt employees signing in Tamil and Mullaiperiyar dam issue. TN should try to resolve issues with Kerala peacefully.

Such kind of issues cause more distraction and takes some oxygen away from the Govt's focus on growth.

With respect to the dam issue TN should look for a peaceful solution as the lives of many people and farmers in the 5 districts (Theni, Dindigul, Madurai, Sivagangai and Ramanathapuram) is dependent on it. Some of the actions of kerala govnt over the past few days is highly deplorable. I hope the supreme court decision is respected by the GoK, which permits water level to be raised to 142 feet.

India's Supreme Court has ordered the demolition of tens of thousands of illegal buildings in Madras, the capital of southern Tamil Nadu state

The court also declared illegal a Tamil Nadu law allowing buildings that breach regulations to stand if a fee is paid.

A BBC correspondent in Madras says the city is notorious for violations of building by-laws - both by big builders and individual house owners.

Judges said widespread breaches of these laws had made Madras unliveable.

More than 60,000 structures are likely to be affected by the Supreme Court ruling.

The BBC's L R Jagadheesan says that between 1990 and 2005, the state government regularised thousands of illegal buildings under the Tamil Nadu Town and Country Planning Act.

The law then allowed regularisation of illegal construction if the owner paid a fee to the local government.

The court has ordered the city administration to refund all fees collected for illegal buildings up to now, a sum estimated at about $ 72m.

A similar Supreme Court ruling has led to the demolition of several illegally constructed buildings in Delhi.http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6181900.stm

http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEH20061124085433&Title=Top+Stories&Topic=0&

SC declares Chennai has become totally 'unliveable'
Saturday November 25 2006 00:00 IST Newindpress.com
NEW DELHI: Supreme Court has on Friday dismissed a batch of petitions filed by Tamil Nadu, Chennai Muncipal Development Authority and other property developers challenging the Madras High Court order declaring Section 113 A of the Tamil Nadu Town and Country Planning Act, 1971, as unconstitutional.

A Bench comprising Justice H K Sema and Justice P K Balasubramanyan made a few scathing remarks while dismissing the petitions.

The whole of Chennai has become unsuitable for living due to the flourishing illegal constructions and encroachments. "Let the people live in peace. Let this country survive. Let there be some discipline. You see the past and present. The whole city of Chennai is now unliveable because you allowed unauthorised constructions to flourish in violation of all building laws. Where is the need for building laws and where is the need for town planning? An exasperated Bench asked the counsel for the petitioners.

When senior counsel K Parasaran contended that the apex court had, earlier allowed the regularisation of the unauthorised constructions, Justice Balakrishnan said, "It was only a one-time measure. We cannot allow this to happen for all the times to come."

Counsel for the petitioners were dumb-struck at the stinging remarks made by the Bench in this regard.

Tamil Nadu had enacted "The Tamil Nadu Town and Country Planning Act, 1971" for a planned and a systematic development and the use of rural and urban land in the State.

In 1998, the state government had brought an amendment to the Act by inserting Section 113A. By virtue of this provision, the government or the authority authorized was given power to exempt any land or building or class of lands or buildings from all or any of the provisions of the Act by collecting a regularization fee.

On August 23, 2006, a Division Bench of the Madras High Court pointed out that the apex court in the Consumer Action Group case, upheld the validity of Section 113A of the Act only as a one-time measure and therefore buildings completed on or before February 28, 1999 alone are protected and those that were completed subsequently are not.

Special Leave Petitions were filed challenging this judgment. With the apex court dismissing these petitions today, the state government may have to refund Rs 800 crore collected by it towards regularization fee.

The last time the relationship between Chennai and New Delhi has been so cordial was during the AIADMK-Congress alliance molded by the late M G Ramachandran and Indira Gandhi in the 1980s. If there is one decision that speaks volumes about the DMK-Congress relationship, it is the clearance and implementation in a short span of time of the Sethusamudram ship canal project, a century-old dream of Tamil Nadu.

The clearances for the large number of foreign direct investments (FDI), hundreds of kilometers of new highways, rail gauge conversion, port development, airport expansion, new special economic zones, textile, leather and footwear parks, flow of funds to the social sectors through the self-help groups, 'Sarva Siksha Abhiyan', educational loans etc speak volumes about the new bond established between the Central government and the DMK-led state government.

With 12 Union ministers from the state, holding important portfolios like finance, communications, shipping and environment in the Manmohan Singh government, many more such projects, programmes, investments and development schemes are expected to come to Tamil Nadu.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi, the Prime Minister and all senior leaders of the UPA consult the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on all matters of state, national and international issues, heralding a new chapter in the center-state relations.

Compare this with the terse statements and media confrontations and accusations raised by former chief minister J Jayalalithaa against the Central government and the Union ministers from Tamil Nadu. They were accused of stopping projects or side-stepping the state government.

Among several issues that rocked the Centre-state relations was the Union finance minister P Chidambaram's announcement in January 2005 about the distribution of the tsunami relief package through nationalised banks. Jayalalithaa accused Chidambaram of 'setting aside and completely ignoring the state government'. She wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to tame the finance minister and stop him from treading on the powers of the state government.

Jayalalithaa also fought bitter battles with the Union ministers from Tamil Nadu, especially those belonging to DMK. DMK ministers held the environment portfolio both in the NDA and the UPA government.

Jayalalithaa accused them of the delay in sanctioning the Pykara hydel project, derailing her pet new secretariat complex construction, and stalling the desalination project for Chennai water supply, to list a few.

The Central ministers too had their complaints against Jayalalithaa for losing out on major projects that would have come to Tamil Nadu if she had worked with the Centre. The most important among them is the flight of the 'Fab City' to Hyderabad. Union IT and communications minister Dayanidhi Maran had plumed for it on behalf of the state. According to him, Jayalalithaa's inaction saw the 'Fab City' moving to Andhra Pradesh.

But after Karunanidhi assumed power, he says, five major IT companies have signed agreements with the state government to put up projects in Tamil Nadu. Maran orchestrated the proceedings and investors poured into the state taking Chennai-Delhi relations to the pinnacle, some times at the cost of other states.

The Chennai-Delhi relations are at its best on several fronts. But the inter-state river water disputes with the neighboring states are posing new problems. The opposition party leaders, including Jayalalithaa and those from the BJP, often make political capital out of this DMK-Congress-Left Front dilemma.

http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=147412

any views on the Hyundai car cops of Chennai ? :D

and about rich people, how about actors? superstars and the likes ? and the Amitraj brothers must be rich ?

and about rich people, how about actors? superstars and the likes ? and the Amitraj brothers must be rich ?

Amitraj must be rich, but he is not a chennai resident. I think he lives in US.

He is a Sri Lankan Tamil, right? when did his family came to Tamil nadu?

He is a Sri Lankan Tamil, right? when did his family came to Tamil nadu?

Is he ?

Vijay Amirtraj is not a srilankan tamilian. He was born in Virudhunagar, a small town near Madurai. But to dispute my version in wikipedia its says he was born in Chennai.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vijay_Amritraj

He was born in India but his (grand?)parents are from Ceylon i think.

My Town: Chennai
http://desicritics.org/2006/11/28/090151.php

A nice article about the Mullaiperiyar dam issue.

SOUTHERN FACE-OFF, UPA ALLIES SPAR OVER KERALA DAM


http://www.tehelka.com/story_main23.asp?filename=Ne120906UPA_allies.asp

A nice article about the Mullaiperiyar dam issue.

SOUTHERN FACE-OFF, UPA ALLIES SPAR OVER KERALA DAM


http://www.tehelka.com/story_main23.asp?filename=Ne120906UPA_allies.asp

Nationalizing water resources???

Is that good?

Nationalizing water resources???

Is that good?

Ya, that could be a way to solve lots of water related issues between states.

Nationalizing water resources???

Is that good?

there wont be any differece. A state with more MP's in the ruling party will influence the centre's decision.

Nationalizing the rivers or connecting the northern rivers to the southern rivers seem to be a pipe dream.

I used to advocate these issues strongly among our consultants circle earlier. One of my consultant friends, who is incidentally a world renowned water management expert gave me a patient explanation for 15 mins with drawings and facts.

As per his reports, It is technically too risky (almost not viable) and financially not viable to link the northern rivers to the Southern rivers. Apart from that environmental issue will be a major impediment. Politically ???? Explosive!!!!.

He also has a long list of suggestions for the southern states. He feels that if these are followed strictly, no need for linking up the rivers. He has drawn references from ancient indian practices in water management which are much better than the current modern day practices. He has also done a lot of research in farming methods for south india.

Since he has restrained me from publishing his details, I am not able to do so.
I think that the southern states should collectively employ MS Swaminathan Research Foundation or any other reputed NGO to go into these aspects and come out with the suggestions. They should implement them also.

What will happen to Rajni's 1 Cr offer???

What will happen to Rajni's 1 Cr offer???

It is and will always be safe in his pocket :) . Im sure this project like the Sethu samudhram project will take more than 100 yrs to materialise.

Cuddalore, Dec 3 - As one drives down the East Coast Road from Chennai, towards Kanyakumari, the air becomes rancid past the small town of Cuddalore, about 350 km south. Your nose tells you, something is wrong here.

The clean breeze you expect to breathe whizzing past the shimmering azure water changes to a rotten egg smell that you are familiar with in school chemistry labs. The noxious smell lingers from Achaiyankuppam village to Semmankuppam further south.

The writing on the long wall you go past identifies the area as the State Industries Promotion Corp of Tamil Nadu's special economic zone, a government industrial site selected 35 years ago.

On Nov 22, a massive explosion rocked the SIPCOT estate around 12 noon. The blast took place at a newly set up oil boiler of the illegal Loyal Super Fabrics unit, and was followed by a ravaging fire.

According to the Sipcot Area Community Environment Monitoring - monitors, the fire was difficult to control. It took eight firefighting vehicles more than two hours to douse the blaze.

Activists say the Tamil Nadu government, the inspectorate of factories and the environment ministry in New Delhi are all ignoring numerous reports of pollution from factories in SIPCOT.

Phase I of the SIPCOT complex, spread over 519 acres, accommodates 53 units on the west of Uppanar. Phase II covers 200 acres and Phase III another 300 acres, near Periapattu village on the Cuddalore-Chidambaram highway.

In the neighbourhood, EID Parry, Arkema Peroxide, Clariant and Bayer make pesticides, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, plastics, dyes and intermediates and textiles, discharging their deadly effluents in the sea at Rasapettai, where the water is deep red in colour.

'It won't be long before people will refuse to eat fish from the Cuddalore coast. Agriculture is no longer practised around the SIPCOT estate because toxic wastes have poisoned the land and groundwater', SACEM monitor M. Nizamudeen said.

Despite recommendations to the contrary by various expert agencies, the Tamil Nadu government has allowed Chemplast to set up a PVC factory, a marine terminal and desalination plant in Semmankuppam and Chitrapettai village.

A mega textile park by South India Mills Association is coming up close to the picture postcard village of Perangipettai, put on the world map due to the 2004 tsunami.

When the Madras High Court threatened to close down 737 polluting textile units in Tiruppur, the government decided to shift new dyeing industries to Cuddalore.

The government now plans to pump textile effluents from Erode and Tiruppur to the sea in Cuddalore, between Samiarpettai and Perangipettai.

'That means, the effluents will travel nearly 400 km to fall into the sea in Cuddalore,' says Shweta Narayan of Corporate Accountability Desk.

Effluents from the Ambur-Vaniyambadi leather tanneries are also scheduled to travel 200 km to the Cuddalore sea.

The Nagarjuna group is setting up a 6-million tones per annum petrochemical refinery in Thyagavelli village. This 'is the most frightening of the new proposals', says Narayan.

The deadly chemical ammonium perchlorate is used as a fuel in spacecraft and missiles and 'is a common and persistent groundwater toxin that can inhibit thyroid functioning', she notes.

Within 100 metres of this unit are a town bus stand, a house, an electricity board office and the edge of Semmankuppam village.

http://www.rxpgnews.com/india/Cuddalore-A-Bhopal-in-Chennais-backyard_7021.shtml

This report on Cuddalore looks very alarming. Why is the goverment putting behind the environmental concerns?. Is there anything done to address this issue?.

With rapid strides of industrialisation, we are also neglecting environmental concerns. The laws enacted to prevent pollution & explosions in the factories are toothless and the judiciary takes hell a lot of time to decide.

The Govt should have a clear enviro policy and zone the areas for hazardous / polluting industries. The remedial actions like treatment plants should be in place before the industries are allowed to function. Safety aspects are thrown into wind everywhere. The guilty should be punished very severely so that no one dares to violate.

Common Entrance Test abolished in Tamil Nadu

http://www.hindu.com/2006/12/07/stories/2006120707380100.htm

Life made easy for 12th grade matric and state board students. Difficult times ahead for CBSE and ICSE school students.

very bad

pass mark for science subjects is reduced to 30 :lol:

pass mark for science subjects is reduced to 30 :lol:

Pass percentage will go high in rural areas and they all will be eligible to join ITI or Polytechnic.

Life made easy for 12th grade matric and state board students. Difficult times ahead for CBSE and ICSE school students.

Difficult times ahead for male students as well.:)

Pass percentage will go high in rural areas and they all will be eligible to join ITI or Polytechnic.

40 was already equivalent to 30 to 39 since grace marks would be given.
now 30 would bring it down to 20 to 29 also to pass the subject ...

'Classic' Chennai jives to fusion

Chennai: If you have been Chennai in December, chances are that you have heard a lot of Carnatic music at the December Festival held there.


However, this year, music lovers in the city got a chance to break away from that trend through a concert organised at Kamarajar auditorium
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/classic-chennai-jives-to-fusion/27960-8.html

PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia: Malaysia has stopped issuing visas-on-arrival for Indians flying in from the city of Chennai, saying many from that area have abused tourist visas to work illegally, an official said Friday.

The decision was made after last week's Cabinet meeting and is already in force, said Home Affairs Minister Radzi Sheikh Ahmad.

"The number is alarming, especially from India," particularly among visitors coming from Chennai, Radzi told reporters. Those arriving from other Indian cities will not be affected, he said.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/12/08/asia/AS_GEN_Malaysia_India_Visa_Abuse.php

http://i12.tinypic.com/484k3u8.jpg

What does this picture represent?

http://i12.tinypic.com/484k3u8.jpg

What does this picture represent?

I am seeing a mangoe/manga/aam :) And yes, there is a direction sign also

Its west mambalam :lol:, an area in Chennai.

Chennai Fest also a hub for foodies
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/chennai-fest-also-a-hub-for-foodies/28597-3.html

Its west mambalam :lol:, an area in Chennai.

:rofl: damn pj!!

In an eventful 2006, Tamil Nadu saw the grand old man of politics and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief M Karunanidhi returning as chief minister for the fifth time at the age of 84, after his party-led Democratic Progressive Alliance achieved a resounding victory in the May 8 Assembly elections.

It was also for the first time that the people of the state denied any political party an absolute majority and DMK formed a minority government with outside support from its allies Congress, Pattali Makkal Katchi and Left parties.

The year began with Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief Vaiko, for whose release from Prevention of Terrorism Act detention Karunanidhi fought, switching over to All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-led alliance, giving the then ruling party, a much sought after ally.

Vaiko left the United Progressive Alliance on the day of DMK's pre-poll state-level conference at Tiruchirapalli, on March 4, 2006, where he was supposed to be one of the major speakers.

The MDMK chief accused DMK of adopting a "big brotherly" attitude. With MDMK gone, DMK got a free hand to provide more number of seats to its other allies.

In the May 8 Assembly polls, people reinforced their faith in the DMK-led DPA in the state as they had done to constituents of the UPA at the Centre by giving them all the 39 Lok Sabha seats from Tamil Nadu in 2004.

The acrimonious run up to the Assembly elections saw the DMK and AIADMK offering various sops like free colour television sets, rice at Rs 2 per kg, two acres of land to the landless, free rice of 10 kg to ration card holders and gold for manglasutra.

DMK promised rice of Rs 2 per kg and free land.

After realising that DMK's promises had caught the fancy of the people, AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa too announced 10 kg of free rice, two litres of kerosene free of cost and gold for manglasutras.

Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who campaigned for the DPA, described DMK's manifesto as the 'hero of the 2006 elections'.

Vaiko, leading the campaign for AIADMK, attacked members of Karunanidhi family, alleging they had amassed wealth
disproportionate to their income.

Though DMK formed a minority government with outside support from its allies, it had to pay a price as allies like PMK had compelled the government to give up its decisions like setting up of a satellite town near Chennai.

Congress in the state, on its part, wanted its pound of flesh, by demanding that it be accommodated in the ministry.

Its leaders had spurned the offer of chairmanship of various boards. However, the Congress high command sided with
Karunanidhi by not yielding to Pradesh Congress Committee leaders.

The local body elections came as a thorn in the relations among the constitutents of DPA, with almost all of them charging DMK with 'betraying them' by making its rebel candidates as the chiefs of civic bodies, which had been allotted to them.

The six months rule of DMK had made a positive impact on the economy of Tamil Nadu. International giants like Samsung, Flextronics, Motorola and Dell computers signed MoUs with the state for setting up their units. In fact, FDI to the tune of Rs 2,900 crore came into the state during the period.

The year also saw the death of several prominent personalities. P T R Palanivelrajan, the only religious minded face in the atheist DMK died within a fortnight of being inducted as a minister in the Karunanidhi ministry on May 27.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2006/dec/18tn.htm

Life made easy for 12th grade matric and state board students. Difficult times ahead for CBSE and ICSE school students.

Is that really true? I studied in CBSE and it would have been to my advantage if this CET was not there back then. Infact reason for students to choose CBSE was to get into IIT or possibly BITS and not state engineering colleges. CET is also based on state board syllabus. I think it is not so much about CBSE here, but about complexity of CET vis-a-vis their own board exams. In the board exams, I suppose more % of rural students do well because these exams are simpler to crack. Whereas, CET is a little tougher. So, we see more affluent city based students who have access to extra coaching classes for CET exams, do better than their counter-parts in rural areas.

So, I am okay with abolition of these CET exams. If your argument is that more meritorius students wouldn't be able to join good government colleges, it really wouldn't matter. You would see better private colleges emerging soon where you pay the market prices for such educational services. You already have decent private colleges in TN esp around Chennai. If better students get displaced from good government colleges, they would join these private colleges, raising the standard of these private colleges. It is not as though the best join these private colleges right now. So, there is plenty of room for good students.

^^ if i'm not mistaken, they're going to follow a normalisation system now - it's what BITS Pilani used to follow..

i think it's the best possible system since they compare a student's marks against other students in the same board and gives a percentile result instead of an absolute score..

it's a very fair system imo..

I would like to share my experience of getting a Dish TV connection.

After lots of comparison, we voted for Dish TV over Tata (Sun TV tilted the scale). It took 15 days just to activate the connection and still some of the Star channels and Goal TV channels are not beamed. :ohno:

The most frustrating experience was "dealing with their call centre employees". My wife can recite the questions and suggestions given by these guys / gals now since we are hearing the same (without even a change in the order) for more than 100 times. Still no remedy. :bash:

The climax is that I get a call every day from their Noida centre (from some one at a higher level) whether it has been set alright. These fellows did not even know the status even after the connection was activated. :nuts:

After I threatened them to sue thro consumer court, I am also getting calls from their GM. Same questions - without results. :nuts:

I can understand now why all these US clients are complaining about Indian call centres. Performance linked payments may get a proper response.

The people behind these call centre concept should realise that by merely attending the complaints and responding politely and that too calling a number of times without taking any remedial action will not carry them forward for long.

Do all call centres have similar problems?

yeah most call centers are so ....

kannan dint u come across somebody with a fake accents?

Why cant the stupid govt keep its noses off private business.

Only Rs 50 for A/c theatre in Chennai

Chennai: Tamil Nadu government fixed the minimum and maximum rates for cinema tickets for airconditioned and non-airconditioned theatres in the state on Wednesday.

An official release here said the Chief Minister M Karunaidhi, announced a minimum ticket rate of Rs 10 and maximum of Rs 50 for A/c theatres and Rs 7 and Rs 30 for non-A/c theatres in the corporation areas.

In the Municipal areas, the A/c theatres would charge a minimum of Rs 5 and maximum of Rs 40,and non-A/c a minimum of Rs 4 and maximum of Rs 30, he said.

In town panchayats, the minimum charge would be Rs 5 and maximum Rs 25 for A/c theatres and Rs 4 and 20 for non-A/c theatres, while in village panchayats A/c theatres would charge a minimum of Rs five and and maximum of Rs 15 and Rs 4 and Rs 10 in the case of non-A/c theatres.

The rates were fixed after representations were received from Tamil Nadu Film Producers Council, South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce, Chennai Corporation Film Theatre Owners Association and Distributors, among others.

The rates would come into effect from January 1. The release said the Chief Minister declined permission to theatres to hike ticket charges for a period of two weeks when new films were exhibited.

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/only-rs-50-for-ac-theatre-in-chennai/28996-3.html

Chennai Not Madras: Perspectives on the City

The book attempts to provide a complete perspective of the city, its people, its culture and its literature.

http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/stories/20061229000507800.htm

Chennai high rises sound like the Tower of Babel

Walk in to any high-rise construction site in Tamil Nadu, and you end up feeling as though you had entered the Tower of Babel. Thanks to the influx of migrant labour, attracted by Chennai's construction boom, and you will hear a Bengali, Bihari, Rajasthani, Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam.

What is even more interesting is that Bihari workers, dismissed in their own state for their fabled North Indian laziness, have set the output benchmark in the construction industry.

Says H S Chandrasekhar, CEO, technical, Alliance Infrastructure Projects Pvt Ltd, "Amongst the migrant construction labourers, Biharis are hard working and their output is better than others in the masonary and plastering work."

According to him, gone are the days when construction workers were available in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. "The quality of work and the work culture of the available local labour in these two states is not up to the mark."

Today, labour is brought from states like Rajasthan, West Bengal, Bihar, Kerala and Orissa for different kinds of construction work. The former head of L&T's construction division, Chandrasekhar says, "For any kind of structural steel work the Bengalis and Keralites are used. For stone and wood work, Rajasthani labour is utilised. And, for masonary and plastering work the Biharis are good. For painting jobs, Tamil labour is good."

While there may not be much of a difference in the labour charges between the local Tamilian labourer and his counterparts from other states, construction companies say they have the advantage of prompt project completion when they use use workers fronm outside the state.http://www.domain-b.com/economy/general/2006/20061222_rises.htm

The buzz down under

A nice article on TN in general and Chennai in particular

http://www.business-standard.com/lifeleisure/storypage.php?leftnm=lmnu4&subLeft=2&autono=268935&tab=r

The cinema crazy crowd of Tamil Nadu could not have it better. Not only have the fares in cinema halls fallen but multiplexes here are issuing pre-paid cards to keep your seat booked in the hall for a year.

Why not? Of India's 13,000 cinema halls, Tamil Nadu accounts for about 4,000. Some of the most innovative ones are in Chennai and its outskirts, just as Asia's largest drive in screen is here at an east coast hall.

The year gone by has also seen a dramatic increase in cinema hall crowds as more and more cinemas are upgrading infrastructure, with Satyam Cinema leading the way in innovations for viewer comfort. No matter what picture is showing at Satyam, at weekends viewership is 97 percent. Even Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan catch their 'Mission Impossible' late night show here at Satyam.

Inaugurating the fourth edition of the Chennai International Film Festival here, IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran saidthat though interest in IT-based entertainment was growing, 'still the joy of cinema remains the same. Cinema is a window of past, present and future. Like cricket, it is a passion in India'.

Therefore, little surprise that on a request from the Tamil Film Producers Council, South Indian Film Chamber, Chennai City Theatre Owners Association and Film Distributors Associations, the Tamil Nadu government has decided to reduce taxes and lower fares in cinema halls from Jan 1, 2007.

The cheapest ticket in cinema halls with AC in metros will be Rs.10 while the costliest will be Rs.50. For non-AC theatres, the minimum is Rs.7 and the maximum is Rs.30. In municipality areas, the cheapest AC theatre ticket will cost Rs.5 and the costliest Rs.40. For non-AC theatres the cheapest will be Rs.4 and the costliest Rs.30.

To add to the goodies, the popular Satyam cinema in Chennai has begun issuing pre-paid cards costing Rs.300.

If a person pays Rs.300 and purchases his card, he can at any time, for any show, walk into the theatre and get a seat. The card is renewable. So if one has watched Rs.200 worth of movies, he can recharge the card and his seat is assured for all future films.

The cards are proving to be a boon to cash starved college students.

The Satyam Cinema has won several HR awards for 'organisation with innovative HR practices'.

Satyam is a multiplex with six screens and seating for 2,900 people. It has the highest weekly gross collection. It plans to set up a 29-screen multiplex at the Express Estate on Club House Road, in the heart of the city.

The group is planning a shopping mall-cum-multiplex in the Vadapalani area, and on Poonamalee High Road in west Chennai, and going into smaller towns in the state. Everywhere, pre-paid cards are sure to find their place.

Even Prarthana Cinema, on Chennai's southern outskirts, providing a screen tower 100 by 60 ft high, is upgrading.

Mayajaal, another south city multiplex too, is increasing its screens from six to eight. 'Viewership is now back with interest in value addition,' says a hall owner.

Satyam was the first in the city to set up a transit play lounge Magic Hat. It has its own food outlets.

It was the first in India to introduce the Real Digital Experience (RDX) with DLP Cinema technology from Texas Instruments and hosted the worldwide premiere of Star Wars III, using DLP cinema technology-based projectors.

'Satyam Cinemas has always been looking at opportunities to delight our customers,' says Swaroop V. Reddy, Satyam's director.

With Satyam showing the way, other multiplexes in the city too will soon have to come up with pre-paid cards, say viewers.

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/india/news/article_1236573.php/Chennai_multiplexes_now_offer_pre-paid_cards

The Chennai government has apparently fixed a ceiling for the upper end for prices in multiplex theaters in Chennai at Rs 50. Is it remunerative, can multiplexes still operate there and make money?

Deepak Asher, Director of Inox Leisure tries to answer the question. He says the new investments in multiplexes are not viable with the Tamil Nadu government ticket price cap.

Excerpts from CNBC-TV18's exclusive interview with Deepak Asher:

Q: You have a property coming up in Chennai, but does this change the equations a bit, the kind of pricing which the Chennai government is talking about?
A: We do have a property coming up in Chennai, in fact it's built and ready to begin operations. We are just waiting for the last leg of permissions to come in.

As far as the notification is concerned, it applies not to just Chennai, but the whole of Tamil Nadu. There are different levels of prices which have been kept, depending on whether it is in Chennai or a smaller town or city and on whether it is an air conditioned cinema or otherwise.

To answer your question, no, I don’t think with this kind of ticket prices new investments in multiplexes are going to be viable at all. In fact, our calculations show that at these price levels, multiplexes will operate at a loss and therefore we are trying to persuade the government to relax this notification at least for new investments in multiplexes.

Q: If you fail to persuade the government, will you want to start the Chennai facility at all?

A: I wouldn’t say that and I think its speculative to assume that we would fail to persuade the government. I believe Tamil Nadu is the torch bearer of the entertainment industry in this country. It has a very strong cinema-going culture and I am sure the Tamil Nadu government will do everything that is necessary to induce new investments and exhibition infrastructure.

Why not? Of India's 13,000 cinema halls, Tamil Nadu accounts for about 4,000. Some of the most innovative ones are in Chennai and its outskirts, just as Asia's largest drive in screen is here at an east coast hall.

u know this fact is not known by many in india...they often mix up the number of halls with the number of multiplexes

http://sify.com/movies/tamil/fullstory.php?id=14357656
Now it appears from the above cited news report that mayajaal has to sell tickets at rs15/-. The State Govt appears to be adamant about their decesion. The State Govt acted on the representation of the tamil industry associations.Is is not a foolish act on the part of the tamil film industry?it is a case of shooting its own legs.

Is is not a foolish act on the part of the tamil film industry?

It is. And the state Govt. as well.

^^ is all this BS is happening since AVM is not ready to sell shivaji film rights to SUN tv ???

^^ is all this BS is happening since AVM is not ready to sell shivaji film rights to SUN tv ???

Is it not that the tamil superstar is close to the top DMK leaders? And who r those tamil film association people.I di'nt find any prominent film personality in those groups.

Meanwhile the health factor doesnt seem good.......

Chennai most unfit city in India: Study

New Delhi: Chennai is found to be India’s most unfit metro, while Delhi is ruled the fittest one. Mumbai comes second in the unfit category.

These are the findings of the third National Family Health Survey. According to the survey, 4 out of every 10 people in India are unfit.

As far as the metro cities go, every second person is diagnosed to be unfit. The survey also found obesity to be the biggest health concern among Indians just like their Western counterparts.

In the study of metro cities, 55.5 per cent of Chennai’s women and 43.8 per cent of its men fell short of a national ‘fitness index’. In Mumbai, 50 per cent women and 40.5 per cent men were found to be 'unfit'. The ‘fitness index’ generally took into account the height-weight index and both overweight and underweight people are ruled 'unfit' in the survey.

As far as Delhi's fitness figures go, only 43.5 per cent of Delhi's women and 34.4 per cent of its men fall in the ‘unfit’ category.

The survey attributed the fitness problems to faster lifestyles and imbalanced diets induced by a rapid economic growth. In the national level, tiny northeastern state of Meghalaya was found to be the fittest state in India with only 20.8 per cent of women and 16.2 per cent of men failing 'fitness test'.

The National Family Health Survey is being held in India ever since 1992-93 in order to maintain surveillance on traditional concerns like maternal and child health. This year, it was expanded to focus on new parameters like obesity, male malnutrition and anaemia.

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/chennai-most-unfit-city-in-india-study/top/29593-3.html

The Tamil Nadu Government on Thursday sued MDMK leader Vaiko for statements that it claimed harmed Chief Minister M Karunanidhi’s reputation and caused him mental agony.


Public Prosecutor Shah Jahan filed a defamation suit that alleges Vaiko had accused Karunanidhi, who is the DMK chief, of "hatching a plan to let lose hooliganism in connivance with the state police to prevent MDMK cadres from attending a party meeting."


The allegations appeared in an English newspaper published in Chennai with the headline ‘Vaiko to PM: DMK trying to tarnish MDMK image’, PTI reports.


The complaint said that Vaiko's statement was mudslinging and had Karunanidhi's image. It claimed several people had contacted Chief Minister and asked him if the allegations were true.



DMK treasurer Arcot Veerasamy too filed a similar petition at the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate court and included the English daily.

When 11-year-old Arvind, who went out to play near is house on Tuesday evening, didn't come back past his usual time, his family was worried.

They received a call demanding Rs 5 lakh as ransom later in the evening.

"The boys were playing hide and seek. And when they called out for him he did not come. So they thought he might have gone home,” says Arvind’s relative, S Sudarshan.

Police found Arvind’s dead body with injuries on his head on Wednesday. But neighbours are wondering why a family like Arvind’s should have been a target for the kidnappers.

Arvind’s father works in a private hospital and at no cost could afford to pay the amount asked as ransom.

Meanwhile, the police are waiting for a post mortem report and are trying to establish whether it was a case of personal rivalry or kidnapping.

“The evidence that we have are still vague. We will have a clearer picture once the post mortem report comes in," says Commissioner, Chennai City Police, Letika Saran.

Chief Minister M Karunanidhi's order for a cut in the price of cinema tickets with effect from 1 January, 2007 has caused a rift among film producers and artistes.

Senior actors and actress are now siding with the theatre-owners, who are also a concerned lot, after the GO for a decrease in ticket rates. The reason why the artistes are upset is that the producers are asking them to go for a salary cut as the distributors and theatre owners are not ready to pick movies for 'fancy' price tags. The producers now are asking the artistes for a cut-down (in their remuneration) in a bid to match their selling cost.

Already running into problems are the big Pongal releases - Ajit's Aalwar and Vijay's Pokiri. They have been sold at a big price, months before the GO was promulgated. The immediate fall out was the theatre-owners were not ready to part with the money as demanded by the distributors for these films.


http://www.newstodaynet.com/29dec/ss2.htm

Common Entrance Test abolished in Tamil Nadu

http://www.hindu.com/2006/12/07/stories/2006120707380100.htm

I came to know that from now on rankings for counselling will be based on the totals and not only on the core subjects like Maths, Phy, Chem for Engg and Bio in addition for Medicine students.

This would make students to learn all the 6 subjects especially languages which students used to avoid before.

If 2 student had same total then their Tamil marks will be compared (Im not sure what would happen if one had tamil and other had say french or hindi). If those were same too then their DOB's would be compared. If that too was the same then it would be heads or tails :) .

If 2 student had same total then their Tamil marks will be compared (Im not sure what would happen if one had tamil and other had say french or hindi). If those were same too then their DOB's would be compared. If that too was the same then it would be heads or tails :) .
This is the normal procedure which was practised even in the past. If two students had same aggregate marks,their english marks will be compared. if still it was a tie, a student who has studied tamil will be given preference, if that too was same then will see the date of birth and someone who is elder will be given preference, if that too was same atlast they'll toss the coin.

This is the normal procedure which was practised even in the past. If two students had same aggregate marks,their english marks will be compared. if still it was a tie, a student who has studied tamil will be given preference, if that too was same then will see the date of birth and someone who is elder will be given preference, if that too was same atlast they'll toss the coin.

Before when there was a tie, wasn't Maths marks and then science subjects marks compared?. Im not sure, i might be wrong.

But then before we had the luxury to avoid languages and thats not the case now.

^^ i was not knowing this . sounds funny . wonder whether it ever went till toss of coin !!!

Before when there was a tie, wasn't Maths marks and then science subjects marks compared?. Im not sure, i might be wrong.

But then before we had the luxury to avoid languages and thats not the case now.

I think you are right (see the link below)..but when i joined the college, the system was like as i said..

The Tamil Nadu Government has formulated a set of new guidelines for admission to professional courses for the year 2005-06..http://www.hinduonnet.com/2005/06/11/stories/2005061107360100.htm

The Tamil Nadu Nadu Government on Sunday announced a revision of admission rates for multiplexes classifying them into three categories following discussions with representatives from members of the Theatre Owners Association of Chennai.

The norms specified for multiplexes for the revised tariff are that there should be two or more air-conditioned halls, a total seating capacity of 800, seats at least 20-inch wide, a 41.5-inch gap between two rows, a generator with hundred per cent power back-up, digital projection and sound system, three primary speakers, an effective surround system, toilets with automatic flush, air-conditioned lobbies, computerized ticketing, online ticketing and door delivery of tickets.

The revised tariff is different for each of the three categories of multiplexes.

* Multiplexes with three or more theatres having additional entertainment features, food counter and air-conditioning - Maximum Rs.120, minimum Rs.10.

* Multiplexes meeting specified norms - Maximum Rs.95, minimum Rs.10

* Those with two or more a/c halls, a total seating capacity of 800, a generator with 100 per cent power back-up, digital projection and sound system and any five additional specified features: Maximum Rs.85 and minimum Rs.10

* Prarthana is the only open-air theater in south India which will continue to charge the current rates.



The new rates take effect from the New Year 2007.

There are no changes in the rates fixed by the government for other a/c and non-a/c theatres in Corporation limits and municipal areas. The rates fixed by the government and announced on Dec. 20 are:

*Corporation limits: A/c theatres - Maximum Rs.50 and minimum Rs.10. Non-a/c theatres - Maximum Rs.30 and minimum Rs.7.

* Municipal areas: A/c theatres - Maximum Rs.40, minimum Rs.5. Non-a/c theatres - Maximum Rs.30 and minimum Rs.4.

http://www.imagesfly.com/viewer.php?id=62870jaya-feet_070102.jpg

http://www.cnnibnindianoftheyear.com/nominee_information.html

CHIDAMBARAM: Chaos seems to be the buzzword at the 94th edition of the Indian Science Congress, which began on Wednesday.

Scientists and journalists had a harrowing time and were made to run from pillar to post to find out about their accommodation and food arrangements at the Annamalai University campus in this little temple town, about 235 kms south of Chennai.

Many speakers at the Congress who arrived with their family members, complained of inadequate food and accommodation arrangements on their arrival at the venue late Tuesday night.

Mediapersons, who were initially offered accommodation at the venue, were later told that all the rooms had been allotted to the delegates. After a two-hour wait, they were given a couple of rooms, which did not have any bedding.

All hotel rooms and lodges in the town had already been booked and they had no other option but to brave the winter chill. Delegates and journalists also alleged that the officials in charge of providing accommodation "disappeared" from the scene.

"I have attended several national and international science congress sessions and have not seen this kind of chaos ever," a women delegate from the Department of Space, said.

Some scribes who left for Mayiladuthurai, about 45 km from the venue, in search of getting some kind of accommodation, were also left disappointed as they found all hotel rooms being occupied.

To add fuel to the crisis, several delegates and security personnel who took food from the food court at the venue, also faced health problems in the night and had to be rushed to a hospital.

This is the first time that the Congress is being held in a rural centre like this and organisers clearly seem to be at sea with making adequate arrangements.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/India/Indian_scientists_have_a_chaotic_time/articleshow/1038402.cms


Food poisoning affects 27 at Indian Science Congress venue

http://www.dailyindia.com/show/99311.php/Food-poisoning-affects-27-at-Indian-Science-Congress-venue

"CHIDAMBARAM: Chaos seems to be the buzzword at the 94th edition of the Indian Science Congress, which began on Wednesday. "

--> Which moron thought of organizing such an even in a small town like this? Must be some stupid short sighted politician.

"CHIDAMBARAM: Chaos seems to be the buzzword at the 94th edition of the Indian Science Congress, which began on Wednesday. "

--> Which moron thought of organizing such an even in a small town like this? Must be some stupid short sighted politician.

why do you want to blame the politicians unnecessarily. Annamalai university is the host university for this years conference so it was held in chidambaram.

why do you want to blame the politicians unnecessarily. Annamalai university is the host university for this years conference so it was held in chidambaram.

Did you read this line: "This is the first time that the Congress is being held in a rural centre like this and organisers clearly seem to be at sea with making adequate arrangements."
Did you happen to read about the chaos and lack of shortage of rooms and facilities that took place in the previous post?
Before deciding to organize such a mass event, shouldn't the organizers take logistics and infrastructure of the town into account first?
Some moron thought of this idea and went ahead, and since the CM,PM would be attending, politicians would be involved at some level. Thats the ground reality.

why do you want to blame the politicians unnecessarily. Annamalai university is the host university for this years conference so it was held in chidambaram.

We are not talking here abt hosting some technical symposium, were students attend. Its about hosting Indian science congress, were scientists and delegates from all over the world attend. If it was only the responsiblity of Annamalai university to host this event, then it would be the biggest mistake. I dont think such mistake would have happened.

I firmly beleive at all stages both state and central governments intervention would have been. The government officials should have planned properly taking into consideration the disadvantages of hosting in a small town. I would ask, y in the first place host such a meet in chidambaram?. If nothing could be done to it, then they should have thought and planned well abt providing adequate facilities for the 5000+ delegates expected to attend.

Its failure both on the part of the uni and the government. This would have created a bad impression on the uni and the state govnt.

. If it was only the responsiblity of Annamalai university to host this event, then it would be the biggest mistake. I dont think such mistake would have happened.

I firmly beleive at all stages both state and central governments intervention would have been. The government officials should have planned properly taking into consideration the disadvantages of hosting in a small town. I would ask, y in the first place host such a meet in chidambaram?. If nothing could be done to it, then they should have thought and planned well abt providing adequate facilities for the 5000+ delegates expected to attend.

Its failure both on the part of the uni and the government. This would have created a bad impression on the uni and the state govnt.

This years ISC is organised by Annamalai Univ and co-organised by Indian Science Congress Association(ISCA). I strongly believe that politicians are not involved in selecting the venue. I think ISCA guys wanted to take science & tech to semi-urban areas:)

The focal theme of this years event is 'Planet Earth'. Interestingly, there are tour packages to Navagragha Temple( Temples dedicated to Demi gods representing the planets) offered as part of the Science Congress official tour! You figure out how it fits or missfits with the theme

guys if u haven't checked it out yet do it now......hilarious:lol:

madras tamil on wikipedia....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madras_bashai

Does anyone knows about any Horticulture units in Chennai?


I am not sure about what you mean by horticulture unit .
But i have seen a building near madras university which is dedicated for horticulture. Prolly it is reasearch center or dept building for horticulture.

self deleted

Branding and promoting Chennai by focussing on its unique selling points will help it attain the stature of a world city and bring more global attention to it, speakers at a CEOs' conclave held as part of L'Attitude, the Great Lakes Institute of Management's annual management festival, said on Friday.

Potential

Chennai had the potential to become the new city for the new millennium, if one capitalised on its unique points such as the blend of the old and the new, its knowledge campuses and its excellent connectivity, S. Ramadorai, CEO, Tata Consultancy Services, said.

Three-fold

advantage

The city had a three-fold advantage in its skilled and educated manpower, wide base of technical institutions and its good quality of higher education. Apart from focussing only on the fundamentals of education, attention also needed to be paid to key sectors such as automotive and manufacturing industries.

Also, an entire critical ecosystem had to be developed around Chennai, involving other cities too. "Citizens should take responsibility for their actions to make governance easier," he added.

The marketing of Chennai should focus on aspects such as its customer centricity, its IT and IT enabled services industries, affordable healthcare, talented NRI diaspora, excellent connectivity, affordable living and its educational institutions, Bala Balachandran, founder, GLIM, said.

The government should provide basic waste management infrastructure to enable industries to dispose their waste safely, Ragavendra Rao, managing director, Orchid Chemicals, said.

The State Government has hiked the minimum autorickshaw fares from Rs. 7 to Rs. 14 for the first two kilometres. For every subsequent kilometre, the fare has been increased from Rs. 3.50 to Rs. 6 . The new rates will come into effect from January 26.

The government has fixed a waiting charge of 40 paise for every 5 minutes. For trips between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., the commuters will be charged 25 per cent more than the revised rates. Autorickshaw owners must replace mechanical meters with electronic ones within six months and upgrade existing electronic meters within 45 days.

The government will help owners get financial assistance worth Rs. 2,000 from banks for effecting the change.

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/004200701101541.htm

Here starteth the morphing of Jaya amma to Mamata in obstructing the growth and SEZ ...

AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa Thursday threatened to launch an agitation against TN government move to acquire cultivable lands for setting up a SEZ and a satellite town near Coimbatore.....
www.chennaionline.com

This is how every CM should market its state

Vibrant Gujarat' signs 104 MoUs worth Rs 2.5 lakh cr
To create 6.55 lakh jobs in the State
The special economic zones turned out to be the golden hen for the State Government.
11 MoUs worth Rs 55,139 crore have been signed in the power sector
Reliance Industries Ltd signed six MoUs worth Rs 67,550 crore

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2007/01/13/stories/2007011301731900.htm

http://www.hindu.com/2007/01/14/stories/2007011410160100.htm

CHENNAI: Markazhi music festival is all set to go global, thanks to an ambitious partnership being worked out between the State Tourism department and music sabhas to market the December music season.

For the first time ever, the Government will be an active partner in the music season from next year, extending marketing, publicity and infrastructure support and including it in its successful `Enchanting Tamil Nadu' campaign, which is now on a global platform.

"We have taken a policy decision to go for joint venture partnerships to promote tourism. We will work in collaboration with music sabhas, hotels and tour agents and even private accommodation providers to make it [music festival] the biggest event in the cultural calendar. The modalities are being worked out, including the possibility of selling sabha tickets through TTDC counters and distributing brochures at all important tourism events," V. Irai Anbu, Tourism Secretary, told The Hindu .

The Government has asked N. Ramji, Music Academy secretary, to present a consultation paper on how sabhas could partner in the event. This music season alone, over 500 artists gave more than 3,000 performances in music sabhas in the city and hotels reported full occupancy as music lovers came from all over the world.

Apart from Chennai, the Government is considering promoting events such as Thyagaraja Aradhana at Tiruvaiyaru. "We are working on a three-fold business principle: attract a large number of tourists, make them stay longer in Chennai and make them spend more during their stay," Mr. Irai Anbu said.

Apart from music lovers, efforts would be made to attract business and health tourists to savour the music season. The Chennai music festival would also be featured in TTDC's road shows and electronic media campaigns overseas.

"This is an effort that has come at the right time as the Chennai music festival is evolving on the lines of Edinburgh Music Festival and needs to be showcased to the world on the right platform. Some suggestions made by us include an internet campaign, developing paying guest accommodation facilities and a mega music festival on the Marina," Mr. Ramji said.

http://thatstamil.oneindia.in/news/2007/01/18/hoax.html

:lol:

Hoax wasn't confined only to Chennai and Pudhucherry. In Madurai hoax message saying that a bafallo had entered Madurai Meenakshi temple was spread.

I dono whom to laugh at :lol:.

http://thatstamil.oneindia.in/news/2007/01/18/hoax.html

:lol:

12 huts gutted in chennai

http://thatstamil.oneindia.in/news/2007/01/19/fire.html

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Bangalore, Jan 20: The World Bank has criticised the State for its delay in addressing the problems of regional imbalances and for its failure to live up to the image of a boom State. It has also wrapped the State for slow progress on socio-economic sectors vis-a-vis its neighbours.

The WB table calendar 2007 that gives a brief snapshot on its effort to support Indian States has highlighted programmes and projects it has taken up in Karnataka. “The rich and the varied illustrations reflect the vibrancy of Indian States, some of which are forging new paradigms in development, “ acting director, WB, New Delhi, Rachid Benmessaoud, said in the calendar’s cover page.

“Karnataka’s overall economic and social development has been average and the State has a long way to go to catch up with its neighbours like Tamil Nadu and Kerala,” the WB observed.

It, however, appreciated the decline in poverty in the State, while pointing at backward regions of North Karnataka.

There are seven active WB projects in Karnataka with a focus on community development. Three projects will demand village communities to be in charge of running their own water supply schemes, managing their local tanks and developing their local watersheds. The WB will also help strengthen the capacities of panchayats and municipalities for more effective local governance.

Kerala

“Kerala as a trailblazer in social development for its success in achieving almost total literacy, curtailing population growth and reducing maternal and infant mortality,” the WB said.

“It is perhaps one of the most egalitarian societies in India and has succeeded in meeting most of the basic needs of its citizens.” The WB’s involvement in Kerala is aimed at helping the Sate move to the next level of development.

Tamil Nadu

It lauded Tamil Nadu for substantial reduction of child malnutrition, raising elementary school enrolment, and reducing child and maternal mortality.

“One of the most urbanised States of the country with an educated work-force, TN is fast edging out other States as an attractive investment destination,” the WB said.

On the flip side, the WB said that TN was less successful in creating employment and putting the State on a higher trend growth rate. It also noted that there have been pockets of poverty and marked disparities in property distribution.

The WB projects in TN are aimed at improving larger sections of the poor and the marginalised through better social services and improved infrastructure.

Andhra Pradesh

“Sound systems of governance, a political consensus around the development agenda and some innovative interventions have helped reduce the number of poor people over the 1990s. The WB is helping the State government meet its development priority of increasing the well-being of all its people, especially in rural areas.

http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=29798&n_tit=Bangalore%3A+World+Bank+Criticises+State+for+Slow+Progress

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/wake-up-to-carnatic-music--coffee/31717-8.html

just the start.... we are all gonna love this DMK rule, dont we? ;)

12 huts gutted in chennai

http://thatstamil.oneindia.in/news/2007/01/19/fire.html

:lol: :lol: :lol:



is there an english version of this newspaper?

is there an english version of this newspaper?

nope. the article just states that fire from the lamp got spread and 12 huts were burnt in it.

http://i12.tinypic.com/2i0te2c.jpg

Hi :),
I'm a long time lurker of all Chennai discussions and project updates. I totally love the work you guys are all doing. With passionate folks like us, I'm sure the day when Chennai becomes a world class city is not far away.

I just can't stand baseless media articles like this,
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/readerspeak-chennai-most-unfit-city/31959-3.html

yeah that article is totally baseless. In fact the original CNN article of chennai the most unfit city was talking about health, malnutrition but this guy seems to link that article to living conditions and has formulated his own theories. Thats stupid.

Here is the opriginal article based on the National family Health Survey
http://skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=11052450&postcount=111

A documentary on Chennai

It is a graphic picture of a city where development has been centred on one side, and the other side left to go to seed.

The Split City, a documentary by Venkatesh Chakravarthy calls for applying the break on accelerated growth in South Chennai and the marginalisation of North Chennai.

The blue print for a city�s development should include equitable development for all, said the filmmaker after the screening at National Folklore Support Centre on Tuesday.

Displacement in the name of development has far reaching effect on the poor people he added, and called for policy makers to engage all entities in dialogues. The IT boom is not a boon to all, since it does not have a cascading effect on all, felt the lecturer turned filmmaker.

Growth has been triggered as much by real estate value as by other aspects, said the documentary. North Chennai presents a dismal picture with no one wanting to evict the squatters on the Pudupet-Cooum belt, since the land has no appreciable value, while there is a rush for property on Old Mahabalipuram Road where the appreciation has leap frogged.

The North-South divide should narrow felt Chakravarthy and called for involving all stakeholders in dialogues on development. The documentary is likely to be screened by DD and will also travel to universities and schools.

http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IE920070123214952&Page=9&Title=Chennai&Topic=0&

Reliance Retail enters Chennai

CHENNAI: After creating a buzz in Hyderabad and Jaipur, Reliance Retail has now extended its reach to Chennai. It opened 12 pilot Reliance Fresh stores in various parts of Chennai city here on Wednesday.

As for Chennai, the company has drawn elaborate plans to launch stores in different formats including hypermarkets, supermarkets, convenience stores and speciality stores. However, Reliance officials declined to indicate the actual number of stores being planned in the city. "Chennai is ever expanding and our neighbourhood concept too will expand in this city," they said.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News_By_Industry/Services/Retailing/Reliance_Retail_enters_Chennai/articleshow/1436562.cms

yeah that article is totally baseless. In fact the original CNN article of chennai the most unfit city was talking about health, malnutrition but this guy seems to link that article to living conditions and has formulated his own theories. Thats stupid.

Here is the opriginal article based on the National family Health Survey
http://skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=11052450&postcount=111

not the guy's fault.....as the title of the original article was definitely misleading.......but however i am still wondering what the purpose of the article really is.......coz it definitely isn't constructive criticism .........

and one more thing, the abrupt ending:


I think Chennai should take this in the right spirit and work towards improving the surrounding environment and not shout at those people who are showing the scars.

i wonder how ibn live can accept articles with such endings :ohno:

my take on the article: poorly researched , factually incorrect , a pathetic and glib attempt at unbiasedness

more like the author was trying to get his 15 minutes of internet fame....period....!!!

look what the article has led to......the worst slingfight yet on ibnlive:bash: :bash: :ohno: :ohno:

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/readerspeak-chennai-most-unfit-city/31959-8/comments.html

congrats ibnlive......i bet your online traffic has increased several fold coz of this BS

As he said "I think Chennai should take this in the right spirit and work towards improving the surrounding environment and not shout at those people who are showing the scars."

everybody seems to be taking a clue out of big brother...:lol:

look what the article has led to......the worst slingfight yet on ibnlive

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/readersp.../comments.html

congrats ibnlive......i bet your online traffic has increased several fold coz of this BS
__________________

As he said "I think Chennai should take this in the right spirit and work towards improving the surrounding environment and not shout at those people who are showing the scars."

i am not against the author because he wrote about chennai.....but rather because the factors and the parameters he has taken to elicit the comparison are factually inaccurate.........

as for chennaites....they definitely should not parry constructive criticism........!!!

look what the article has led to......the worst slingfight yet on ibnlive:bash: :bash: :ohno: :ohno:

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/readerspeak-chennai-most-unfit-city/31959-8/comments.html

congrats ibnlive......i bet your online traffic has increased several fold coz of this BS

and btw people ....dont bother clicking on the link.....coz the article has been removed..........

yeah good that they did it, that article was extremely substandard

Sai Baba's help needed to clean Coovum

Chennai: The Centre had given Rs 493 crore in 2001 for the cleaning of the Coovum river. To add to that, the World Bank has given about Rs 22 crore this year for the same.

But the Tamil Nadu government doesn’t seem to be satisfied and wants more money.

“As a citizen of Chennai, I humbly request Sai Baba to give us the necessary funds to clean up the Coovum River,” says PWD Minister, Duraimurugan.

According to the government estimates, cleaning up Coovum, which flows through Chennai, will cost Rs 1,700 crore.

But sadly, cleaning of the river has ranked very low among priorities of subsequent state governments, which have been busy doling out sops like free colour televisions.

The Coovum is a perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes, which are carriers of diseases like chikungunya, which rocked the city last year. Pollution of the river is caused mainly by effluents from ill-equipped sewage treatment plants. The plants were built to cater to only about half the current population of Chennai.

“Ninety per cent of pollution comes from sewage treatment plants and slums contribute less than 0.1 per cent of pollution in the Coovum, so if the government thinks it can solve the problem by removing the slums on the banks of the Coovum, it's not going to work,” says advocate and activist, T K Ramkumar.

Beautification plans for Coovum have been there since 1973 but not much has been done on that front over the years. And if you are dream of boating on the river, something promised by subsequent Tamil Nadu governments, it might remain a dream for a long time to come

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/sai-babas-help-needed-to-clean-coovum/32334-3.html

Unbelivable KARUNANIDHI and sai Baba :banana: Requires a seperate thread for this discussion. Karunanidhi's political maneuvers as always surprising. Any backgroud information on this... I saw this in Sun News Cant belive my eyes :nuts: what is sai baba doing in chennai that to with leader of stongest and powerfull atheist movement in south asia??? Dont tell me that they were discussing about cleaning cooum.

Unbelivable KARUNANIDHI and sai Baba :banana: Requires a seperate thread for this discussion. Karunanidhi's political maneuvers as always surprising. Any backgroud information on this... I saw this in Sun News Cant belive my eyes :nuts: what is sai baba doing in chennai that to with leader of stongest and powerfull atheist movement in south asia??? Dont tell me that they were discussing about cleaning cooum.

some highly politicized manoeuvre maybe.....:)

NAGAPATTINAM: A total of 500 houses similar to those built at Amirthapuri will be constructed in the State by the Mata Amirtanandamayi Math.

A letter of consent expressing readiness to construct the 500 houses was given by the Math to Chief Minister M Karunanidhi here on Wednesday. The letter stated that the Math was ready to construct the 500 houses if the government provided the site.

Reading out the contents of the letter, the Chief Minister, who was visibly impressed by the gesture of the Math, immediately granted the request. Impressed by the social service rendered by Mata Amirtanandamayi to the poor and needy, Karunanidhi described her as a ‘pearl’. “Mata was born in a coastal hamlet near the sea,” he said.

Pointing out the spelling mistake in the letter written in Tamil as “thaayaar” (mother) instead of thayaar (ready) to express readiness to construct the houses, Karunanidhi said Mata was akin to a mother to the poor and the needy and appealed to her to render services to the people of Tamil Nadu.

Is MK moving away from his atheist ideology???

http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IET20070131125751&Page=T&Title=Southern+News+-+Tamil+Nadu&Topic=0

probably he thinks times up!

hahaha thaayar thayar classic!! :)

Probable candidates who might share dais with karunanidhi,

SWAMI PREMANANDA 'THE GREAT',
chandra swamy,
Shri Jayendra Saraswathi,
'HIS MAJESTY' Kalki Bhagwan,
'Miracle person' V Vijayakumar of Kasiwanatha Pandara Sannithi,
Prasanna Venkatacharya Chaturveda Swamy
Jaggi Vasudev -- Isha Foundation (Modern concept of math)
Joseph Solomon of the third church
priest Anandaraj of the Moulin Mission Trust,
Sathyaseelan, another bishop
and not the least subramaniya swamy :banana:

Each of these have done a ton of hardwork to the society. I might have missied several names!!! pls add lets make our CM busy

:colgate:

are people really queueing up for these retail stores??? :eek:



a queue in front of big bazar at chennai

http://i18.tinypic.com/4cudqo8.jpg

are people really queueing up for these retail stores??? :eek:

a queue in front of big bazar at chennai

http://i18.tinypic.com/4cudqo8.jpg

they might be giving free stuffs for promotion...

they might be giving free stuffs for promotion...

yeah ... this is what the authour had to say "Queue for entering Big Bazaar vadapalani during a sale day of Jan 26 2007. Most of the regular items are easily 10% less than normal price"

but even then, that is surprising

Probable candidates who might share dais with karunanidhi,

SWAMI PREMANANDA 'THE GREAT',
chandra swamy,
Shri Jayendra Saraswathi,
'HIS MAJESTY' Kalki Bhagwan,
'Miracle person' V Vijayakumar of Kasiwanatha Pandara Sannithi,
Prasanna Venkatacharya Chaturveda Swamy
Jaggi Vasudev -- Isha Foundation (Modern concept of math)
Joseph Solomon of the third church
priest Anandaraj of the Moulin Mission Trust,
Sathyaseelan, another bishop
and not the least subramaniya swamy :banana:

Each of these have done a ton of hardwork to the society. I might have missied several names!!! pls add lets make our CM busy

:colgate:

Remove subramani aka Jayendra sarawathi from the list and include adigalar..

Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology at Thiruvananthapuram has virtually lost the 100 crore central government funding to make it a centre of excellence. Will one of the two premier bio-tech institutes namely School of Biotechnology of the Madurai Kamaraj University or the department of plant molecular biology of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University get the funding this time?.

Biotechnology proves to be the next upcoming field next only to IT field. Will TN use this opportunity to lobby for this 1 BN Rs. project. Will the TN government act early this time unlike loosing the early days of IT boom to Karnataka?

The controversy surrounding the RGCB can be found at the following link.

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=130441&version=1&template_id=40&parent_id=22

Visions of India: Chennai

The Tech Chronicle's Al Saracevic is spending a few days in India, checking in on the world's fastest growing technology economy.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=19&entry_id=13193

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=19&entry_id=13158

You may be surprised that I have received a few emails and phone calls from people from various walks of life, who had the opportunity to go over the postings in our forum. But most of them want to remain anonymous.

Even job offers are there for the forumers in Data Mining and related fields. Can I post those requests?

You may be surprised that I have received a few emails and phone calls from people from various walks of life, who had the opportunity to go over the postings in our forum. But most of them want to remain anonymous.

Even job offers are there for the forumers in Data Mining and related fields. Can I post those requests?

Anything for a part-time graphic artist? :angel:

^^ or for a college flunkie? :colgate:

and btw people ....dont bother clicking on the link.....coz the article has been removed..........


the article has been restored....here's the link

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/readerspeak-chennai-most-unfit-city/31959-3.html

You may be surprised that I have received a few emails and phone calls from people from various walks of life, who had the opportunity to go over the postings in our forum. But most of them want to remain anonymous.

Even job offers are there for the forumers in Data Mining and related fields. Can I post those requests?

no marriage proposals for our esteemed forumers yet ? :lol:

^^ when did you become moderator ?
congrats !!!

^^ when did you become moderator ?
congrats !!!

Fusionist is the new Mod for SriLanka from 6th February or so.:)

Ashok, who was handling the Canadian and SriLankan forum has quitted from the latter.

Fusionist is the new Mod for SriLanka from 6th February or so.:)

Ashok, who was handling the Canadian and SriLankan forum has quitted from the latter.

thats right, and still very much a virgin Mod ( one who hasn't deleted posts or brigged forumers yet ) ! so if you happen to be blonde and beautiful don't cross my way :D

:grouphug:

Waterless flush: Is there anything like this in use in India. Few years back I remember one of the Engineers from Chennai demonstrated it to Chennai Corporation.

http://www.waterless.com/video.php

Waterless flush: Is there anything like this in use in India. Few years back I remember one of the Engineers from Chennai demonstrated it to Chennai Corporation.

http://www.waterless.com/video.php

yes, it is available but donno if it is used anywhere.

http://www.hindu.com/pp/2007/01/27/stories/2007012700181400.htm

yes, it is available but donno if it is used anywhere.

http://www.hindu.com/pp/2007/01/27/stories/2007012700181400.htm

Thanks. I don't know why it didn't become popular. The article talks about the blueseal technology as in the video. The engineer as I mentioned used some fragrant oil which I guess is not bio-degradable. May be that's why it got shot down.

Anusat, a micro-satellite developed by Anna University in Chennai, will be launched using the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle rocket in September, a top official said on Tuesday.

"We are encouraging such programmes which help institutions make test satellites," Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman G Madhavan Nair told reporters on the sidelines of a book release function. The 50 kg micro-satellite is being designed and fabricated by Anna University's academicians and students as part of a project sponsored by ISRO.
http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/feb/13sat.htm

guys, see this clip....very funny

HI-TECH Chennai Police

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGoBktPvnBI

nice t nagar lights

Opb1uziL0l0

Chennai is the second largest market for mobilephones in the world and this had prompted leading phone-makers to set up manufacturing units in Tamilnadu, M Velmurugan, director, Tamilnadu Industrial Guidance and Export Promotion Bureau, said here yesterday. Velmurugan said Chennai had become one of the affordable cities in the world to set up manufacturing units owing to factors such as the availability of skilled manpower at low cost.

He further said the dismantling of the licence quota raj after the liberalisation of the economy in the 1990s had ushered in an industrial and investor- friendly climate in the country. He said Chennai had made rapid strides in information and communication technology of late. 'Chennai has become the nerve centre in this technology with a band width of 13.52 tbps (terra bytes per second) which is the largest in the country,' he added.
http://www.newstodaynet.com/
-------------------------------------------------
Well we all know the man behind all this and even generations after we will be eternally gratefiul to him.

Says she would take the agitation to the national stage

http://www.hindu.com/2007/02/16/stories/2007021620460800.htm

KOODANKULAM: Activist Medha Patkar has joined hands with the Makkal Urimai Paathukaappu Iyakkam (Movement to Protect People's Rights) in its protest against the Koodankulam nuclear power project.

Ms. Patkar came here on Thursday to participate in a daylong hunger strike. All business establishments at Koodankulam had downed shutters. Students from the St. Anne's Higher Secondary School took part in the fast.
------------------------------------------------------------------

What do these guys want ? No industries / no power generation, only agriculture ? They want India to be a land of tribals. Its time people should unite across India and protest for industrialization.

^^ Many in koodankulam, Tirunelveli district donot know who Medha Patkar is. The 2000 odd farmers joined the fast fearing that their farm lands would be taken up for the expansion. The koodankulam project officials say that the expansion would be within the existing complex.

I firmly beleive this controversy would fizzle out in sometime. Development projects like koodankulam are atmost necessity for this district.

Says she would take the agitation to the national stage

http://www.hindu.com/2007/02/16/stories/2007021620460800.htm

What do these guys want ? No industries / no power generation, only agriculture ? They want India to be a land of tribals. Its time people should unite across India and protest for industrialization.

unfortunately, people like Medha get a lot of positive media coverage and that builds her image as a 'fighter for deprived class'. And of course politicians when it suits them don't mind supporting her. She knows this weakness of political class and she exploits it fully. Like Left supported her protest against Narmada dam and BJP rubbed shoulders with her in Singur.

Acquisition of land for developmental purpose runs into problem most of the times since the compensation is not calculated @ market price, the original compensation is pilfered on the way and when it reaches the original owner, it is almost nil, bogus records are created to avail the compensation or politicians use this issue for their own benefits.

The recent Tata car factory case seems to a better manged one than most of the earlier problems.

All Chennai autorickshaws to switch over to LPG within a year

2,500-strong MTC fleet to follow suit the year after

Residents of the metropolis may get to breathe cleaner air in the next two years, with the State Government deciding to phase out liquid fuel in buses and autorickshaws and switch over to eco-friendly gaseous fuel.

"We have decided to follow the example set by New Delhi and clean up Chennai's air. Within the next year, all 50,000 autos in the city will be asked to switch over to liquefied petroleum gas, followed by all 2,500 Metropolitan Transport Corporation buses the next year," Transport Minister K.N. Nehru has told The Hindu . Suitable amendments will be made to the Motor Vehicles Act to facilitate this. Unlike New Delhi, constraints in supply infrastructure may prevent Chennai from switching over to compressed natural gas (CNG) initially. Instead, the Government will build upon the existing network of auto LPG dispensing stations (ALDS), while continuing to explore the option of switching over to CNG.

The decision follows recommendations made by the Environment department.

"We are talking with Indian Oil Corporation to set up more ALDS, in addition to the existing 23 supply points, including those by other oil companies, to meet the fuel needs of 50,000 autos currently plying on city roads. While the oil company has given us a commitment to do so in the next four months, it has asked for some more time to set up more ALDS to cater for the MTC fleet," Mr. Nehru said. The four-month period should be enough for autorickshaws to start retrofitting their vehicles with LPG conversion kits, the Minister said. The Government would give Rs. 2,000 as subsidy for each kit and encourage vehicle owners to seek loans to cover the rest of the cost.

Even with its 17 lakh and growing vehicle population, Chennai has recorded respirable suspended particulate matter, suspended particulate matter, oxides of sulphur and nitrogen levels only slightly higher than the National Ambient Air Quality standards, Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board officials said. This would make the clean-up job so much easier.http://www.hindu.com/2007/02/18/stories/2007021802530500.htm

WIKI CAMP @ TIDEL PARK, CHENNAI ON 25 FEBRUARY:

There is goimg to be a bloggers meet again at Chennai. Wikipedia chief is coming. Any of the forumers going to attend? If possible, we can meet at the sidelines.

Plane Mad! Can you brief the forum on the camp?

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/HFCL_puts_74_in_HTL_on_the_block/articleshow/1640506.cms

NEW DELHI: A Multi-bagger deal linked to real estate assets could be in the offing. Telecom equipment maker Himachal Futuristic Communications (HFCL) is understood to have put its 74% stake in Hindustan Teleprinters (HTL) on the block. HFCL is believed to be looking to unlock the value of real estate owned by HTL in Chennai and has put a price tag of Rs 1,000-1,100 crore.

If the deal goes through at the asking rate, it will be one of the biggest deals in the Indian real estate sector, next only to Unitech’s purchase of a 340-acre plot in Greater Noida for Rs 1,582 crore.

HFCL had acquired majority stake in HTL as part of the latter’s disinvestment process.

Like all such events, this is an unconference, which means that the participants run the show and i beleive it will be similar to barcamp that was held in chennai last year.
Theres a list of topics here (http://wikicamp.in/wiki/index.php?title=Topics) . 200 buck for entry will include food.
Kannan, you attending? I doubt if i can make it to the city next sunday.

Now helmets compulsory on Chennai roads

http://www.ibnlive.com/videos/34046/now-helmets-compulsory-on-chennai-roads.html

With 7.4 million 2 wheelers in TN of which 1.5 million is in Chennai alone, im not sure how far they can implement this rule in a short notice. The rule also calls for the pillion rider to wear a helmet. Can the helmet manufacturers supply so much helmets. Will this demand cause many substandard helmets to be introduced into the market.

I feel the government is a bit too fast in implementing this rule.

^^ It reminds of the huge demand for the PVC pipes and concrete slabs that arised when the Govt. issued a deadline for installing rainwater-harvesting systems in all existing buildings across the state..

It's good from a motorbike safety perspective, and its good to see Chennai once again innovate on the road safety front, after trailing Delhi, Hyd, and B'lore for a little while.

I remember that helmets were made compulsory by the ADMK Govt from 1984 and until late 1980s, before they were made ‘optional’. Sometime in 1999, New Indian Express campaigned for making helmets mandatory and even organised signature petitions to the then DMK government. But nothing happened. Over the years, statistics time and again have confirmed that vast majority of the fatal injuries could have been avoided if a helmet had been used. Now a PIL is pending before Madras HC seeking a directive to the police authorities to make helmets compulsory, thats why the govt is implementing this rule now

about the Tamil film popularity in Japan mentioned in Chenni Prjoects thread..

The real reason for the popularity of Tamil films in Japan can nenver be ascertained, but I can shed some insight into it. It is not just Tamil films that made it 'big' in Japan. Cultures from world over make their impact there. But from our point of view, Rajani, Manisha Koirala and Arvind Swamy became popular from then on. The Japanese ( especially the teen girls ) got captivated by the image of a dark skinned tall man in his 40s ( despite looking 'rogue' by their standards ) helping out elderly women, the poor and even cute looking Indian cows ( :| ). This mixed with him, defeating an army of villans simply captured the imagination of a certain section of Japanese.

Older Manisha Koirala films and Rajani films were translated and released along with other new Tamil/Bollywood films. Thalapathi was one such example. Rajani doing his Samurai style war song with Shobana.. hoped to make it big. Not sure how it was recieved. Later on many Bollywood and Tamil films were dubbed/ translated into Japanese but only some of them made it big.

Lets now put things into context, this trend is merely a blib in comparison to the Hollywood followers in Japan. Japan has a tradition of copying other cultures.. English themesd parks, clothing, food, film etc. It simply doesnt mean Indian films or Tamil films have taken Japan by storm. It is simply a part of their evolving fascination with foreign culture.. and some how some Indian starts managed to capture their imagination. From the Indian perspective, I think it was a good platform to grow from, but somehow the Tamil film industry didnt manage to make much out of it in terms of profit or image like how Bollywood seem to be doing now with its success in the western world.

Lessons to learn from Bollywood in branding and marketting for the Tamil film industry..

i think 'muthu' was the film to be released (dubbed/with subtitles?) in Japanese. .both rajni and meena became popular..i didnt knew that bombay was dubbed to Japanese, do u have any source?

i think 'muthu' was the film to be released (dubbed/with subtitles?) in Japanese. .both rajni and meena became popular..i didnt knew that bombay was dubbed to Japanese, do u have any source?

Not sure, but if my memory serves me right, many Rajani films were subtitled in Japanese. Baba was dubbed I think. Mani Ratnam tried to catch on to this market. Iruvar, Thalapathi, Roja, Dil Se. were subtitled I think. Don't quote me though.

Here is an interesting quote and its link..

'Muthu' was released as 'Dancing Maharaja' and 'Yejaman' as' 'Dancing Maharaja -2'. 'Kadal Desam' was 'Madras College Uduri'.

http://www.chennaionline.com/cfs/tamilfilms.asp

Karakattaran was shown in some cultural film festival in Russia and later it was released in that country with subtitles, it became very popular it seems....i remember reading this in kumudam/anantha vikatan.

Not sure, but if my memory serves me right, many Rajani films were subtitled in Japanese. Baba was dubbed I think.

After 'muthu' all most all Rajni films are being dubbed in Japanese, Rajni even made a Japanese girl to act in Baba..

Another Tamil- Japanese similarity

Tamil harvest festival 'Pongal' is celebrated on Jan 14-15
Japanese harvest festival 'Koshogatsu - rice harvest' is also celebrated on Jan 14-15

now that helmets are being made compulsory, i think its time to make a lamp and cycling helmets compulsory for cyclists as well..

just wishful thinking i guess..

It'll help cyclist safety, so I'm all for it as well.

The PMK has given Reliance an ultimatum to close down its retail outlets in Tamil Nadu within a month or face direct action.

PMK founder Dr S Ramadoss came out with this threat while demonstrating against the entry of large business houses into retail sector which he claimed was threatening the very livelihood of small traders and vegetable vendors.

"Wherever Reliance has opened its stores the small shopkeepers and vegetable vendors in that area have witnessed a huge drop in sales because Reliance is undercutting the prices. To start with they should quit selling vegetables in their stores or face the consequences," he said.

The PMK has regularly used threats to impose its views like when it had warned film producers against using non-Tamil titles for their movies. Three months ago the party had stopped the DMK government from building a satellite city near Chennai saying it would affect small farmers in that area. It has also opposed SEZs for the same reason.

Now comes the threat against Reliance, which could develop into a tricky law and order problem for the DMK government, which is dependent on PMK's support for its survival. Reliance has opened 15 stores in Chennai city and has called for more franchisees. Its low prices, especially that of vegetables and fruits, have seen a rush by middle class households to get the best bargain.

"Reliance can afford to quote such low prices due to contract farming and buying directly from the farmers in huge quantities. Firstly the wholesale trader loses his business and then the retail vendors on the roadside or on pushcarts have witnessed losses. The situation can only become worse when multinationals enter the scene, which should be strongly discouraged," Ramadoss argued.

Nagarajan, a small vegetable vendor on the East Mada Street of Thiruvanmiyur, readily seconds Ramadoss' claim. Ever since a Reliance Fresh store opened in January right next door his sales have plummeted, as he is unable to keep up with the price war. "Tomato out there (at Reliance) costs Rs 3 per kilo than what I sell. Where do you think the customer will go?" he asked.

The Reliance Manager at the store said only the corporate office would be in a position to explain the price difference. "We sell as per the daily price list sent to us and the customers are quite happy. That is what matters to us," he said.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1935370,000600010002.htm

The PMK has given Reliance an ultimatum to close down its retail outlets in Tamil Nadu within a month or face direct action.

PMK founder Dr S Ramadoss came out with this threat while demonstrating against the entry of large business houses into retail sector which he claimed was threatening the very livelihood of small traders and vegetable vendors.

"Wherever Reliance has opened its stores the small shopkeepers and vegetable vendors in that area have witnessed a huge drop in sales because Reliance is undercutting the prices. To start with they should quit selling vegetables in their stores or face the consequences," he said.

The PMK has regularly used threats to impose its views like when it had warned film producers against using non-Tamil titles for their movies. Three months ago the party had stopped the DMK government from building a satellite city near Chennai saying it would affect small farmers in that area. It has also opposed SEZs for the same reason.

Now comes the threat against Reliance, which could develop into a tricky law and order problem for the DMK government, which is dependent on PMK's support for its survival. Reliance has opened 15 stores in Chennai city and has called for more franchisees. Its low prices, especially that of vegetables and fruits, have seen a rush by middle class households to get the best bargain.

"Reliance can afford to quote such low prices due to contract farming and buying directly from the farmers in huge quantities. Firstly the wholesale trader loses his business and then the retail vendors on the roadside or on pushcarts have witnessed losses. The situation can only become worse when multinationals enter the scene, which should be strongly discouraged," Ramadoss argued.

Nagarajan, a small vegetable vendor on the East Mada Street of Thiruvanmiyur, readily seconds Ramadoss' claim. Ever since a Reliance Fresh store opened in January right next door his sales have plummeted, as he is unable to keep up with the price war. "Tomato out there (at Reliance) costs Rs 3 per kilo than what I sell. Where do you think the customer will go?" he asked.

The Reliance Manager at the store said only the corporate office would be in a position to explain the price difference. "We sell as per the daily price list sent to us and the customers are quite happy. That is what matters to us," he said.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1935370,000600010002.htm
Weldone PMK.
Ppl should tell Reliance to behave.
I wish, ppl of AP could do the same.

^^ now pmk wants nadar votes too :lol:

Weldone PMK.
Ppl should tell Reliance to behave.
I wish, ppl of AP could do the same.
--> Well done?
This is anti consumer move.
Retail giants will eliminate the middlemen gobbling up the profits and give consumers better and cleaner choice.

will it not benefit the common man since the tomato is sold at a lesser rate than these small stores.Now a ordinary consumer(even lower middle class) can get more worth for their money.
Previously it was vote bank politics on caste lines, now add the line of business to it. You can't stop wondering how smart the politicians are at creating vote banks and in the end laughing all the way to the banks.:cheers:

it's really too bad that anything that's anti-progress seems to be the politically correct thing to do.. :(

i guess as more and more people find themselves in a position to appreciate and utilise the opportunities that new businesses (like Rel Retail in this case) create, gradually such political nonsense will be phased out..

but then again, when you think of slime like the PMK being what they are and still getting voted to power.. :ohno:

--> Well done?
This is anti consumer move.
Retail giants will eliminate the middlemen gobbling up the profits and give consumers better and cleaner choice.


This is anti-community. Reliance wants a monopoly.

If you look at the structure of vegetable market business - grower, commission merchant, retailer - none of them come under higher income group. they are all lower middle class ppl. none of them could afford to maintain a car. most of them use bicycles, few of them have motor bykes, in case they have other incomes to sustain the expenses.

While building a big market share for themselves, Reliance is not helping/taking care of the poor/middle class vegetable growers and vendors. Reliance should take the welfare of the effected ppl into consideration.

They could at least have involved the commuinity leaders and evolved a way of helping (by providing employment or otherwise) to those poor ppl who's livelyhood has been effected.

will it not benefit the common man since the tomato is sold at a lesser rate than these small stores.Now a ordinary consumer(even lower middle class) can get more worth for their money.
Previously it was vote bank politics on caste lines, now add the line of business to it. You can't stop wondering how smart the politicians are at creating vote banks and in the end laughing all the way to the banks.:cheers:

creating a healthy competition in any business is a good and welcome change. but the change should be implemented in such a way that those poor and lower middle class ppl , who have been making a living by growing/selling vegetables should not be left high and dry.

Being such a big business giant, Reliance should do something for the benefit of the community/ppl who have been effected by Reliance's new businesses. Businesses should learn to grow with the communities, not against them. they could have helped the effected ppl by giving some training and offering jobs, or by giving financial assisatance, or interest free loans, or six months worth of wages so the ppl could find another way of earning a livelyhood, etc.

as far as tomato prices are concerned, today there are still some local vendors, selling at a slightly higher price, so we are able to compare. One year from now, there will not be any local vendors, so if Reliance says Tomato Rs. 100/- Kilogram we still have to buy. no choice.

Thats exactly what is happeing in AP in thecase of Dal prices. All the super markets and wholesale dealers are hoarding huge stocks and hiking the prices. ppl are cribbing, but there is no choice. Govt is checking the warehouses, but how long could Govt keep checking the warehouses... this is BIG business...

it's really too bad that anything that's anti-progress seems to be the politically correct thing to do.. :(

i guess as more and more people find themselves in a position to appreciate and utilise the opportunities that new businesses (like Rel Retail in this case) create, gradually such political nonsense will be phased out..

but then again, when you think of slime like the PMK being what they are and still getting voted to power.. :ohno:

I am not a big fan of PMK in particular. apart from the merits and demerits of PMK.
why isn't Reliance doing anything to help those poor and lower middle class vegetable growers and vendors who's livelyhood has been effected by Reliance's business...

Like all such events, this is an unconference, which means that the participants run the show and i beleive it will be similar to barcamp that was held in chennai last year.
Theres a list of topics here (http://wikicamp.in/wiki/index.php?title=Topics) . 200 buck for entry will include food.
Kannan, you attending? I doubt if i can make it to the city next sunday.

I registered for the same. But I have to be in Hyderabad on Sunday morning and so will miss the same.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/HFCL_puts_74_in_HTL_on_the_block/articleshow/1640506.cms

NEW DELHI: A Multi-bagger deal linked to real estate assets could be in the offing. Telecom equipment maker Himachal Futuristic Communications (HFCL) is understood to have put its 74% stake in Hindustan Teleprinters (HTL) on the block. HFCL is believed to be looking to unlock the value of real estate owned by HTL in Chennai and has put a price tag of Rs 1,000-1,100 crore.

If the deal goes through at the asking rate, it will be one of the biggest deals in the Indian real estate sector, next only to Unitech’s purchase of a 340-acre plot in Greater Noida for Rs 1,582 crore.

HFCL had acquired majority stake in HTL as part of the latter’s disinvestment process.


All biggies will vie for this real estate piece and it will rival the Boat Club bid, I hope.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News_By_Industry/Infotech/Hardware/Chip_market_heading_for_overcapacity_Gartner_/articleshow/1661631.cms

The Indian film industry is the largest in the world in terms of number of films, and Tamil film industry is the third biggest regional film industry in India. Besides, there has been an upsurge of many talented, educated and techno-savvy youngsters who are making heads turn with their novel and experimental efforts and cinema today is not what it used to be decades back. There was a time when the educated did not prefer getting into the celluloid world but now, things have changed and yes, for the better.

Despite these facts, there are not many institutes that offer professional training and guidance to aspiring film-makers and wannabe actors. This has been much talked about by people like Kamal Hassan and now, there is good news for those that shared similar views.

Ace cinematographer and film-maker Balu Mahendra is all geared up to start an institute for films at Chennai and this, he said, will offer courses in acting, direction and cinematography. Balu Mahendra, a product of the Poona film institute himself, has been toying with the idea as many acquaintances had been asking him to start an institute for films. Now, he is all set to start this school and what’s better, he will himself teach direction and cinematography for students of the institute!

Gopali of the National School of Drama (NSD) will head the acting department and guest lectures will be presented by experienced hands from the south Indian film industry.

This institute, named ‘Balu Mahendra Cinema Pattarai’ will be formally inaugurated on 7 September.

So all ye creative minds, unite! For, you will be learning the art from the master himself!

Weldone PMK.
Ppl should tell Reliance to behave.
I wish, ppl of AP could do the same.

This will not continue. PMK will stop shouting after getting some "Cutting" from Reliance. PMK used to do such things with movie producers and now they have started the same on other industries.

The PMK has given Reliance an ultimatum to close down its retail outlets in Tamil Nadu within a month or face direct action.

PMK founder Dr S Ramadoss came out with this threat while demonstrating against the entry of large business houses into retail sector which he claimed was threatening the very livelihood of small traders and vegetable vendors.

"Wherever Reliance has opened its stores the small shopkeepers and vegetable vendors in that area have witnessed a huge drop in sales because Reliance is undercutting the prices. To start with they should quit selling vegetables in their stores or face the consequences," he said.

The PMK has regularly used threats to impose its views like when it had warned film producers against using non-Tamil titles for their movies. Three months ago the party had stopped the DMK government from building a satellite city near Chennai saying it would affect small farmers in that area. It has also opposed SEZs for the same reason.

Now comes the threat against Reliance, which could develop into a tricky law and order problem for the DMK government, which is dependent on PMK's support for its survival. Reliance has opened 15 stores in Chennai city and has called for more franchisees. Its low prices, especially that of vegetables and fruits, have seen a rush by middle class households to get the best bargain.

"Reliance can afford to quote such low prices due to contract farming and buying directly from the farmers in huge quantities. Firstly the wholesale trader loses his business and then the retail vendors on the roadside or on pushcarts have witnessed losses. The situation can only become worse when multinationals enter the scene, which should be strongly discouraged," Ramadoss argued.

Nagarajan, a small vegetable vendor on the East Mada Street of Thiruvanmiyur, readily seconds Ramadoss' claim. Ever since a Reliance Fresh store opened in January right next door his sales have plummeted, as he is unable to keep up with the price war. "Tomato out there (at Reliance) costs Rs 3 per kilo than what I sell. Where do you think the customer will go?" he asked.

The Reliance Manager at the store said only the corporate office would be in a position to explain the price difference. "We sell as per the daily price list sent to us and the customers are quite happy. That is what matters to us," he said.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1935370,000600010002.htm

Ramadoss is insane.Can he stop legally.Generally consumers flock to a shop where the quality is good and price relatively lower.In order to save few hundered small vendors he will loose support of thousands of consumers who may be voting his party.When the customers r quite happy who is he to threaten ? His Tamil nadu his BAP KA JAGIR(HIS FATHER'S PROPERTY)

http://www.wabusinessnews.com.au/en-story/1/49313/Truss-opens-Chennai-consulate-

Australia's deepening economic partnership with India was further strengthened today, when the Minister for Trade, Warren Truss, opened a new office for the Australian Consulate-General in Chennai.

Mr Truss said the establishment of a Consul-General in Chennai is a symbol of Australia's growing commercial engagement with this part of the sub-continent.

"In 2006, India became Australia's eleventh-largest merchandise trading partner and is our sixth-largest merchandise export market with total exports exceeding $8.8 billion," Mr Truss said.

"India has grown faster than any of our top 30 export markets over the past five years - at an average rate of almost 33 per cent. This clearly demonstrates the momentum building up in our trading relationship," he said.

Prime Minister John Howard's visit to India last March resulted in the signing of a Trade and Economic Framework with the Indian Government. The Framework will create structure for both governments to promote economic development.

Last May, the Deputy Prime Minister and the former Minister for Trade, Mark Vaile, announced a $6.5 million budget package to enhance Australia's commercial engagement with India.

Mr Truss said this new dynamism in bilateral relations has an increasingly practical side to it.

"We've identified a number of key sectors for development. South India is hub to India's globally-recognised ICT industry. Other growth areas include infrastructure; services; biotechnology; food and beverage and entertainment," Mr Truss said.

Consul-General and Austrade's Trade Commissioner to Chennai, Aminur Rahman said Australian products and services already enjoy a strong reputation in southern India.

Mr Rahman said Australian food and beverage products already line the shelves of supermarkets in Chennai and Bangalore.

Australian universities are also enjoying increased interest from Indian students. Although the United States remains the number one destination for Indian students, Australian universities are now preferred over European higher education institutions.

"With the Indian economy growing at more than nine per cent and the southern states experiencing similar or even higher growth rates, Australian companies are well placed to take advantage of the tremendous trade and investment opportunities here," Mr Rahman said.

Mr Truss said the establishment of a Consulate-General in South India reflects the Government's commitment to ensuring access to Australians visiting or living in this region.

"The consular services will help facilitate new opportunities emerging from this region and deepen Australia's commercial and cultural links," Mr Truss said.

The Australian Government has had a presence in Chennai since 1995. The Consulate- General will enhance the delivery of services to South India from Australian Government agencies including Austrade.

The Australian Government is also represented by the Australian High Commission in New Delhi and a Consulate-General in Mumbai.

Its interesting to see Maran in the MOU meeting today morning. Usually, he don't appear in a non-IT project event. Is Stalin side-lined and Maran is mentored for future TN leadership ? :)

if they do that, that would be one thing i shall agree with DMK leadership. :)

Some of the new rakes on the CHENNAI suburn lines (already operating) have a central duct with openings(grills)....... what's up with that.

Are they going to weld shut the window shutters..... and
Do they already have a door operating mechanism built into these coaches..just need to be activated :)

this is just the tip of the iceberg.......if the police were to crack down on the marijuana users in chennai, at least one fourth of the student community would be arrested........!!!!

A boisterous Holi party of young IT professionals and students, including 29 girls and 12 foreign nationals, was cut short by undercover policemen in a neat predawn swoop Sunday that landed 251 people behind bars, police said.

Among those arrested from a country villa near the National Defence Academy in Khadakwasla, 30 km from here, were nine organizers of the rave party and two DJs. All of them were booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act as some of them were found to be in possession of drugs and most others under its influence, police said.

Two of the foreign nationals were German and three Palestinian, Patil said.

Receiving information from various sources, including SMS and Internet invitations, police were hot on the revellers' trail and busted the high voltage binge.

Even as a city police inspector passed on to the rural police information about invitations for the party being sent out from www.isratrans.com, NDPS and Anti-Terrorist Squads in the city too received tip-offs and independently reached the spot, a crime branch inspector said.

Plainclothes police, including some women officers, joined the party after buying tickets and arrested the merrymakers after finding that drugs were being freely distributed and consumed, Superintendent of Police Vishvas Nangre Patil told reporters.

A total of 42 cars and 40 two-wheelers were parked outside the venue of the party deep inside the main road in village Donje. The secluded venue was chosen by the revellers apparently to escape the police vigil on Holi-eve. Some of them had come from Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai.

Some quantity of crushed marijuana leaves, as also a powdered drug and a liquid suspected to be California drops, was seized from the arrested youth, additional superintendent of police P.C. Patil told IANS. The youngsters have been subjected to medical tests and the reports are awaited, he added.



http://www.indiaenews.com/india/20070304/41926.htm

Its interesting to see Maran in the MOU meeting today morning. Usually, he don't appear in a non-IT project event. Is Stalin side-lined and Maran is mentored for future TN leadership ? :)

You have got a sensitive nose Subra!

A funny realistic portrayal of the politics practiced by the dravidian parties in TN.

It can happen only in Tamil Nadu. And what a supreme irony! The Dravidian land of the self respect movement has spawned generations of sycophants.

They may not worship God but they deify their leaders. And how! Their Puratchi Thalaivi or Kalaignar, Puratchi Puyal or Thalapathy, Dr Ayya or Captain can do no wrong.

So every success and every setback almost instantaneously transforms party faithfuls into frenzied mobs. This is perhaps the only state where the death of a political leader automatically results in violence on the streets.

When MGR was in hospital, there were scores of partymen who tried to immolate themselves. When he died, mobs went on the rampage, stoning vehicles and looting shops.

Atrocious as it may sound, the reason is clear. When a thalaivar passes away, normalcy is anathema. Time should stand still and nothing should move. No ambulances, no school buses, no water lorries, no milk vans, no shops. No theatres too. The action, the villains, and the comedians are on the roads anyway!

When 'Tansi Rani' Jayalalithaa was acquitted in that government land deal case, one of her ardent followers cut off his tongue, to fulfill a vow! When the former Chief Minister was convicted in the Pleasant Stay Hotel Case in 2000, her party men cut short three innocent lives.

Students, who had no connection with politics, were burnt alive in their college bus in Dharmapuri, over a political question. Some of those who perpetrated the dastardly crime to display what they considered 'loyalty' to their 'Amma' now face a death sentence.

How is this crime different from terrorism? Victims unknown. Retaliation for an unconnected event. Intention, to spread fear. Means, of course, most cruel.

This is perhaps the only state where 'touching' scenes are the norm. It's almost a drill for followers (let's call them devotees) to fall flat on the ground at the feet of their leaders. Prostration has become almost like a ritual, that anyone whose spine is fine, is considered arrogant and disrespectful!

I remember covering an election campaign of Vaigai Shekar, a DMK candidate who was pitted against Jayalalithaa. He went around canvassing votes by falling at the feet of elders in his constituency. His campaign anthem was: ''I fall at the feet of my elders, my rival does the opposite, jaya heh, jaya heh, jaya heh!''

This is the only state where party workers will hesitate to donate blood to patients in hospitals, but will not bat an eyelid before cutting their veins to write letters to their chiefs!

The only state where self immolation attempts are 'recognised' with monetary compensation and publicity and perhaps a ticket in the next election! The law, of course, 'recognises' suicide as a punishable offence, the only offence where an unsuccessful effort is punished!

This is a state of mega birthday bashes. Cakes weighing 50 kilograms and above to match the ages of the bigwigs is elementary stuff. If you thought a wedding was the only occasion to stand on stage and grin at a thousand guests, pity politicians here.

As they get richer every year, thousands of well wishers will turn up, with gifts, shawls, bouquets, the works. There are full page ads in papers with some hilarious poetry.

I remember Karunanidhi's 75th birthday celebration on the sands of the Marina beach. There was a specially erected stage with a huge pearl embedded in an oyster! As the crowd roared, the birthday boy emerged from the pearl, waving to the sea of humanity!

Don't forget the larger than life size cut outs, those big rings with photographs of leaders, the body paint, with either the two leaves or the rising sun, the naming of babies held aloft by ecstatic parents near campaign vehicles at election rallies, the wedding invitations with full page photographs of kathchi thalaivars on the cover, with the names of the bride and groom ensconced like statutory warnings on cigarette packs!

This is the only state where leaders are portrayed as gods and goddesses. Remember Jayalalithaa's depiction as Virgin Mary and Karunanidhi, post arrest, carrying a cross like Jesus Christ?

Father, forgive these followers, for they know not, what they do!

Link:
http://www.ndtv.com/columns/showcolumns.asp?id=1073

jayalalitha = virgin mary!!!!!??????:lol: :rofl:

Red-coated specters haunting old Fort St George by the Bay of Bengal in Chennai, formerly Madras, would be happy. The 350-year-old stronghold, now the seat of local government, was the first British Empire fortress in India.

The imperialists have been long kicked out, but Chennai is regaining its stronghold status with a slew of major deals. Last month the government of Tamil Nadu state, of which Chennai is capital, announced a memorandum of understanding with South



Asia's largest vehicle-manufacturing consortium.

The consortium of Mahindra and Mahindra (India), Renault (France) and Nissan (Japan), the first of its kind in South Asia, will set up an integrated automobile-making unit with an initial investment of about US$897.2 million to roll out utility vehicles and cars. To be located at Oragadam near Chennai, the unit will be the biggest vehicle-manufacturing center at a single location in the country.

Such deals could be more commonplace in Chennai, a southern Indian metropolis that seems a halfway living station between the hyper-energy and relentless ambition driving Mumbai and the deep cultural anchor of Kolkata. According to India's official pre-budget Economic Survey, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry (a former French colony) together accounted for $1.63 billion (6.5%) of foreign investments, a figure that could double shortly. If India is the world's sleeping giant awakening, Chennai could be India's sleeping foot stirring, increasingly getting attention from local and global investors.

"Chennai's growth has been phenomenal in recent years," local businessman Vivish George told Asia Times Online. "The city has expanded by about 85 kilometers. The challenge is a shortage of workforce as the city's economy is booming and there are more jobs at hand. A restriction on business growth is getting vacancies filled."

Sure enough, other big projects are taking life. Vehicle maker Mahindra is also planning a Mahindra Research Valley in the Mahindra World City near Chennai. The project is expected to add a whopping $4 billion a year to Tamil Nadu's gross domestic product (GDP). Additional investment from vendors and supporting service providers is expected to amass about $2.2 billion.

The Tamil Nadu government is also building an "IT corridor" on the outskirts of Chennai, another Indian Silicon Valley in the making. This forest of information-technology companies is expected to create 300,000 additional jobs. The local Highways Department is speeding up work on an IT highway to connect the IT corridor with the rest of the city. The IT corridor and related infrastructure are expected to be ready this August.

Such developments have changed and raised the city's profile, besides sending real-estate prices through the roof. Still, rentals are very low compared with other leading Asian cities. A two-story bungalow with a garden can be rented in suburban Tiruvanmayur for $270 a month.

A visitor to Chennai after 10 years, as was the case of this correspondent, can be astonished at how much the city has changed: flyovers, glitzy shopping malls, cleaner roads and greater expectations. From being a region whose inhabitants have often been the butt of jokes elsewhere in the country (southern Indians are usually lumped together as "Madrasis", particularly because of the accent in which they speak Hindi, as well as eating and dress habits) the city now wears a quiet confidence, wielding not just serious economic muscle but political power.

The state's ruling Dravida Munnetra Kalagam (DMK) is a key partner in the ruling coalition in the central government. India's successful young information and communications minister, Dayanidhi Maran, is the grandson of the state chief minister, Muthuvel Karunanidhi.

Karunanidhi, 82, a poet and former movie scriptwriter, is now in his fifth term as chief minister, for the past two decades gleefully throwing out the incumbent government and alternating with his arch-rival Jayalalitha Jayaram, a former top movie heroine in the 1970s and leader of the All India Anna DMK.

Jayalalitha, South Asia's version of Imelda Marcos, took over the party mantle after a brief power struggle following the death of her co-star, the party founder, former chief minister and movie idol M G Ramachandran or MGR. The dashing MGR, who initiated a state-sponsored nutritious-noon-meal scheme for schoolchildren, a program now widely adopted across India, was one of the first actor-politicians in the world to assume a major office and never lost an election until his death in 1987. Following in his footsteps, leading Tamil movie stars invariably join a political party or start their own, giving the state's politics a peculiar circus-like atmosphere unmatched anywhere else in the world.

Karunanidhi, besides indulging in many populist schemes including giving free color TVs to poverty-stricken families, has in his current spell as chief minister been energetically making the state investor-friendly to IT majors, so much so that questions now fly whether Bangalore, India's original Silicon Valley and the dictionary word for outsourcing (Bangalored), is losing ground to Chennai. Leading IT companies such as Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, HCL Technologies and other global IT giants such as Ford Information Technology, Verizon, iSoft etc are upgrading their Chennai presence or starting major new ventures.

TCS, India's leading company, will open its largest development center in Chennai and will hire 8,000 software workers over the next 18 months. Mumbai, with about 600 TCS workers, gets relegated to second place.

"Foreign direct investment in Chennai is very satisfactory," R Subramanium, secretary general of the Madras Chamber of Commerce, told ATol. "Per capita income in Tamil Nadu has tripled in recent years and savings comprise one-third of income. So the potential for much more growth is there."

Vivek Harinarain, the state IT secretary, told the media that he is "very bullish" on Tamil Nadu's IT prospects, with the state opening up another 4 million square feet (371,600 square meters) of space for IT and software companies.

An IT industry analyst pointed out that these IT companies do not have a mere presence in Chennai, but their operations there are the largest or the second-largest in India or in the world.


http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/IC08Df04.html

Vivek Harinarain, the state IT secretary, told the media that he is "very bullish" on Tamil Nadu's IT prospects, with the state opening up another 4 million square feet (371,600 square meters) of space for IT and software companies.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/IC08Df04.html

Vivek Harinarain???
Does the writer do any fact checks or copies some old quotes and does a copy paste?

PS: Vivek has long left the IAS and is now a infrastructure consultant.

^^ the article is pretty shoddily written..........with a lot of inaccurate info....for example.....the automobile plant and not the research valley is bound to add 20000 crores to the gdp......

I heard from my friends that there are gossips about MK's sun group is going to start sun airlines any news on this :lol:

I heard from my friends that there are gossips about MK's sun group is going to start sun airlines any news on this :lol:

what's there to laugh about

If the Maran group start airlines service it would be good for TN, as it would offer better regional connectivity. With only Paramount airlines currently based in TN any move by the Sun group to enter aviation field would be welcomed.

But one thing to look out is, will they monopolise the market in this venture too (like the case of Sun network).

There is rumour that Kalanidhi Maran could be in the list of top 10 richest asians. So they have all resources to start an airlines.

If the Maran group start airlines service it would be good for TN, as it would offer better regional connectivity. With only Paramount airlines currently based in TN any move by the Sun group to enter aviation field would be welcomed.

But one thing to look out is, will they monopolise the market in this venture too (like the case of Sun network).

There is rumour that Kalanidhi Maran could be in the list of top 10 richest asians. So they have all resources to start an airlines.

he already is among the richest asians.......forbes magazine estimates his wealth to be anywhere between 1.5 to 2.5 billion dollars.....

as for the airlines....i feel it would be good for tamilnadu....

We need to have statistical insititute in chennai along with maritime university. Tamil Nadu government can start up its own institute instead of seeking support from Central Government. In field of statistics, mathematical economics TN lacks a lot. If TN can improve economics and statistics education its will be great oppertunity for students. Currently economics and statistical education in TN is simply crap. Naganathan, Vice chairman of state planning commission was Professor of Economics, they can use his expertise in introducing the Mathematical economics syllabus. There is tremendous oppertunity for statisticans and econometricians in KPO.

If someone thinks there is decline in editiorial reports here is an example

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Foreign_realty_funds_flock_south/articleshow/1755438.cms

think this lazy reporter has copied some of our recent posts.

An additional 10,000 LPG-run autorickshaws will be added to the existing fleet in the city by end-October.

"There will be no more petrol or diesel autos in the city," said Transport Minister K.N. Nehru. He also ruled out any more permits for share-autos. Of the 10,000 autorickshaws, 5,000 will be covered by a loan scheme for driver-cum-owners. The guidelines are: the applicant should reside in the Chennai Metropolitan Area; should be aged between 25 and 40 and must have passed Class X examination; have a valid light motor vehicle driving licence and five years experience. He or she should not have had a permit earlier and the annual family income should not exceed Rs.36,000. Women and members of Scheduled Castes and Tribes will be given preference based on the existing regulations.

http://www.hindu.com/2007/03/15/stories/2007031505790400.htm

http://www.ndtv.com/morenews/showmorestory.asp?category=National&id=102192 :lol:

After playing a major role in Tamil Nadu politics, the PMK is looking northwards to test the poll waters in the national capital.

It doesn't matter if it's the local body polls as there are over 10 lakh Tamilians who live in Delhi.

It is something that major Dravidian parties like the DMK and the AIADMK seem to have overlooked.

The PMK has decided to contest all the 272 seats in the Delhi Municipal Corporation polls slated for April 5.

"When the northern parties like the BJP can contest in Tamil Nadu, why can't we contest in Delhi?," asked A K Moorthy, Deputy General Secretary, PMK.

Community factor

But while selecting candidates the community factor has been spared. Tamils of course will be in the fray but there will be others as well, especially those who have been spurned by the national parties.

"National parties do not think of us, there is a lot of infighting in them. But in PMK, they are offering us the seat," said Murugesan, PMK candidate.

They are called the Dravidan parties with their area of influence being South of Vindhyas.

By putting candidates for MCD polls, PMK is making a small beginning to bridge the north south divide.

PMK all set to enter the poll arena in the Hindi hearland, the party will contest the upcoming Delhi Municipal polls.

PMK bagged six seats in the Lok Sabha and a place in the ruling coalition in Tamil Nadu.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
:lol: This is the funniest news I read recently. If PMK wins, god only can save Delhi.

Interesting! I am happy that some party from TN actually is doing this.

But it is not new, DMK, ADMK and DMDK have contested in Mumbai corporation polls.


when BJP, forward bloc, rastriya janata dal can contest in TN, why cant PMK contest in Delhi.

:)
http://inhome.rediff.com/money/2007/mar/14cities.htm

Economic development and foreign investment has helped five major Indian cities -- Chennai, New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata -- move up on their global rankings in terms of living standards, a latest study shows.

While Singapore has emerged as the best place in the world to live in, Chennai has emerged as the topper among Indian cities ahead of three other metros as well as Bangalore, shows a 'Location Ranking Survey' conducted by ECA International.
Chennai has improved its global ranking to 138 this year from 179 in 2002-03, while it has been ranked at 26th position in Asia, up from 31st rank in 2002-03.

According to the survey carried by Hong Kong-based solution provider for international HR professionals, the living standards in Asia have improved significantly, which is reflected by a 14-position rise up the ratings on average across the region.

"Such an overall rise in the global ranking reflects significant improvement in the region, with locations in China and India benefiting the most from recent economic development and foreign investment," ECA International Hong Kong General Manager Lee Quane said.

An improvement in the living standard should encourage mobility to locations historically considered "hardship" postings such as China and India, it said.

As a result, multinational companies should find it easier to encourage their internationally mobile employees to undertake assignments in these locations, while assignment costs may be reduced, it added.

Recommending lower 'hardship' allowance particularly in case of some locations in China and India, the ECA survey said this is making a number of assignments in the region more cost effective, helping Asia to maintain a competitive edge.

The survey has compared living standards in 254 locations globally according to categories including climate, air quality, health services, housing and utilities, isolation, social network and leisure facilities, infrastructure, personal safety and political tensions.

The second slot within India is bagged by IT city, Bangalore with ranking showing significant improvement to 150 from earlier level of 179.
Termed as the financial capital of the country Mumbai has been assigned the third rank with the global ranking pegged at 158 as compared to 183. New Delhi followed Mumbai with the global ranking of 174.

However, ranking in case of New Delhi improved substantially from the earlier level of 217 to 174, up 43 notches.

The lowest ranking has been accorded to Kolkata, which showed marginal improvement in terms of ranking as it moved from 201 to 196 this time in terms of global ranking. Thus, slipping to the last position among the cities in the country.

During the last survey the last position went to New Delhi.

This is awesome news.
Finally someone realises the fact.
Chennai rocks! :cheers:

Wasnt this building supposed to come in Chennai?
This is posted as MS office in BLore.
http://michaelsync.net/2007/01/12/proposed-microsoft-office-bangalorel/

Wasnt this building supposed to come in Chennai?
This is posted as MS office in BLore.
http://michaelsync.net/2007/01/12/proposed-microsoft-office-bangalorel/

It is LandIndia's Chennai Tech Park, under construction in Ambattur. This building was designed by UK Architect Zaha Hadid.

Someone has played fool, i got the same one as forwarded e-mail.

It is LandIndia's Chennai Tech Park, under construction in Ambattur. This building was designed by UK Architect Zaha Hadid.

Someone has played fool, i got the same one as forwarded e-mail.

Gee! :)
Thanks.

Chennai in the throes of mall rush

Chennai: Only three malls in the last 13 years but 20 in the next three, that's how Chennai's retail landscape is set to change with 81 lakh square feet of additional retail space.


The new malls want to cash in on Chennai's increasing cosmopolitan nature.
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/business/03_2007/chennai-in-the-throes-of-a-mall-rush-36773.html

PS: There is also a video on this page showing Citi Center mall in RK Salai

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1087611

CHENNAI: Volkswagen AG appears to be reworking its India plans yet again. The German auto major has already postponed plans for an on-site ceremony at its greenfield Pune site twice this year and a high-profile team from the headquarters is currently camping in Chennai, trying to figure out which models to bring to India.
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Any thing going on guys ? Why should they camp in Chennai ? :)

could be that they found Chennai 5-star hotel prices cheaper :). I don't want them to start another round of site identification process, even if that means chennai is to be the site. GOTN should not entertain this delegation. In all probability they might have chosen Chennai for discussing with the various ancillary vendors.



http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1087611

CHENNAI: Volkswagen AG appears to be reworking its India plans yet again. The German auto major has already postponed plans for an on-site ceremony at its greenfield Pune site twice this year and a high-profile team from the headquarters is currently camping in Chennai, trying to figure out which models to bring to India.
------------------------------------------------------------------

Any thing going on guys ? Why should they camp in Chennai ? :)

-----------------------------------------------------

could be that they found Chennai 5-star hotel prices cheaper :). I don't want them to start another round of site identification process, even if that means chennai is to be the site. GOTN should not entertain this delegation. In all probability they might have chosen Chennai for discussing with the various ancillary vendors.





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This is first time I am observing such a confused company from Europe. It seems to be they are attracted by GoTN's new ultra mega automobile plant policy.

i dont think they will be changing the site from pune to chennai.......they've signed the MOU with the MH government and they can't backtrack that decision..