Chennai discussions II

[madurai veeran]

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

[kannan infratech]

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.

[WillyWick]

Common Entrance Test abolished in Tamil Nadu

http://www.hindu.com/2006/12/07/stor...0707380100.htm

[madurai veeran]

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

[sivagct]

very bad

[goldies]

pass mark for science subjects is reduced to 30

[Anniyan]

Originally Posted by goldies

pass mark for science subjects is reduced to 30

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

[Anniyan]

Originally Posted by madurai veeran

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.

[goldies]

Originally Posted by Anniyan

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 ...

[vs007]

'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-...n/27960-8.html

[goldies]

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/...Visa_Abuse.php

[Anniyan]

What does this picture represent?

[sudheeshnairs]

Originally Posted by Anniyan

What does this picture represent?

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

[madurai veeran]

Its west mambalam , an area in Chennai.

[vs007]

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

[ferrari_fan]

Originally Posted by madurai veeran

Its west mambalam , an area in Chennai.

damn pj!!

[goldies]

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

[satish]

Originally Posted by madurai veeran

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.

[ferrari_fan]

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..

[kannan infratech]

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.

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.

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.

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

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?