Monthly Archives: February 2012

Technology demonstration centre planned

Business & Economy, Science & Technologies

The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) will work with research institutions such as Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, and Anna University to set up a technology demonstration centre at Rs.5 crore in the city, said B.V. Ramanaa, Minister for Environment.

Inaugurating a workshop on ‘Onshore petroleum spills’ at IIT-M on Tuesday, he said the advance in technology and rapid industrialisation in the State has resulted in increased effluent discharge and air pollution causing environmental challenges to the industries and monitoring agencies.

Elaborating further, C.V. Sankar, principal secretary, Environment and Forests, told reporters that new industries were being formed unlike earlier days when it was mostly water and air pollution for which there were laws for prevention.

The objective of the demonstration centre was to take the help of academic institutions and research institutions like IIT-M, Central Leather Research Institute (CLR) and Anna University who were involved in collaborative research with national and international institutions. The industries certainly know, say for instance, like how to achieve zero liquid discharge in dyeing units. The research institutions could contribute with their knowledge of latest technological processes, be it chemical or biological, and explain to industries ways of preventing pollution, Mr. Sankar said.

Recently, CLRI developed a technology to reduce salt usage in tanneries.

The process is mostly done manually and research could help the industry reduce salt at the same time preserve rawhide, he said adding that a suitable location was being identified in the city for the centre. IIT-M director Bhaskar Ramamurthi said it could not purely be a demonstration centre but should have research components.

source: http://www.TheHindu.com / News>  States> TamilNadu / by Special Correspondent / Chennai, February 08th, 2012

Indians Living in Singapore Lured to Property Back Home by Rupee’s Decline

Business & Economy, Nri's / Pio's

Vivek Sharma, like many Indians who came to Singapore for work, failed to jump into the island state’s booming property market before the government imposed taxes to deter foreign buyers.

Now, he is joining thousands of his compatriots who are taking advantage of the drop in the rupee to a record low in December and seeking to buy property back home — for rental investments, homes for left-behind family members, retirement properties and residences for their own eventual returns.

“I missed the opportunity to buy property in Singapore when I moved here 2 1/2 years back,” said Sharma, 38, a medical-device manufacturing executive who was among 3,300 attendees at a two-day home fair in January where 53 Indian developers were showcasing their properties and discounting them to boost sales. “Now, prices have risen a lot, and with the new taxes, it makes better sense to invest back home.”

India’s property market may attract $3 billion from overseas buyers this year, almost double last year’s $1.6 billion, Shobhit Agarwal, joint managing director at the Indian unit of Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. (JLL), the world’s second-biggest, publicly traded commercial-property broker, said in an interview in Mumbai in December. About one-third typically comes from individuals like Sharma and two-thirds from investors, he said.

Housing Development Finance Corp. (HDFC), India’s largest mortgage lender and the organizer of the annual Singapore home fair, said the number of developers participating rose 26 percent over last year, while there were 27 percent more attendees. Among those taking part were DLF Ltd. (DLFU), Unitech Ltd. (UT) and Emaar MGF Land Ltd (EMGF). HDFC conducts similar fairs in Kuwait, Dubai — where the next is scheduled for April — and in London.

Sales Declines

The volume of property sales has declined in India’s biggest cities, including Mumbai, New Delhi, Hyderabad and Bangalore, after the nation’s central bank raised borrowing costs by a record 375 basis points since March 2010. The bank is seeking to curb inflation, although property prices remain at or close to record highs.

At the same time, the rupee fell 16 percent against the U.S. dollar in 2011, the worst performer among Asian currencies. The currency has since recouped some of its losses, climbing 7.7 percent to 49.45 to the U.S. dollar last month. It is forecast to fall to 52.25 in the quarter ending in March, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey.

India’s record trade deficit may turn developing Asia’s best-performing currency in January into its biggest loser from now until the year-end, strategists forecast. The rupee will drop 1.2 percent in the rest of 2012, based on the median prediction of 22 analysts in a Bloomberg survey. That is the worst outlook among the region’s 10 most-traded currencies excluding the Japanese yen.

Agarwal at Jones Lang LaSalle said India’s property prices may decline 10 percent this year, and that with a potential 20 percent loss in the currency, property purchases will become even more attractive to overseas Indians.

“They get a net 30 percent discount, so they will be ready to write the check,” Agarwal said.

Cutting Prices

In Mumbai, where Sharma hopes to buy property as an investment and ultimately for retirement, residential home sales dropped 17 percent to a three-year low in the final quarter of last year compared with the previous quarter, according to Mumbai-based Liases Foras Real Estate Rating & Research Pvt. The dismal sales will spur developers to cut prices to boost volumes,Pankaj Kapoor, founder of Liases Foras, said.

In Singapore’s prime districts such as Orchard Road, a typical three-bedroom apartment would sell for about $2,000 a square foot, or around $4 million. A similar-sized apartment in Mumbai’s posh Malabar Hill would sell for about 25 percent less. Home prices in Singapore soared 55 percent from June 2009 through December 2011, while in Mumbai they nearly doubled in the same period.

Once-in-Lifetime

“Indians living abroad feel the rupee depreciation is a temporary phenomenon because the Indian economy is far stronger than most of the global economies,” J.C. Sharma, Managing director at Bangalore-based Sobha Developers Ltd. (SOBHA) said in an interview in Chennai. “They feel this as a once-in-lifetime kind of opportunity to convert their savings from dollars and other foreign currencies to an Indian asset which they think has a much better future in the times to come.”

India’s economy expanded 6.9 percent in the quarter that ended in September, the weakest pace since 2009. The government Central Statistical Office on Feb. 7 cut India’s growth forecast to 6.9 percent for the year ending in March from 7.6 percent predicted in October. Growth in Asia’s third-largest economy has slowed in the current financial year as Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis hampers global expansion.

Foreigners accounted for 31 percent of home buyers in Singapore before the government imposed an additional 10 percent stamp duty on them in December, according to government data. Before the new tax, the government levy on foreigners was 1 percent on the first S$180,000 ($139,000) of the purchase price, an additional 2 percent on the next S$180,000 and 3 percent on the remainder.

Reining in Prices

Sales of Singapore private homes dropped in December to 632 units, the lowest in two years. Singapore has been attempting to rein in prices since 2009, when the government barred interest- only loans for some housing projects and stopped allowing developers to absorb interest payments for apartments still being built.

“We have been far more aggressive in the Singapore market now as we have been getting a better response from this market,” said Surendra Hiranandani, founder of Mumbai-based House of Hiranandani, which showed its Chennai and Bangalore developments at the Singapore home fair.

“Over the past two years when markets in the West and Middle East crashed and hopes of a major revival seem bleak, interest in the Indian market has increased,” he said, adding that Singapore-based buyers have doubled to 10 percent of international purchasers from two years ago. “Other places like China and Australia are quite saturated as they are overbuilt, whereas India is still an undersupplied market. Definitely, the rupee is a stimulating factor.”

Higher Mortgage Rates

Even though property prices are lower in India, mortgage rates are 10 times higher at about 11 percent compared with between 1 percent and 2 percent in Singapore.

Mumbai-based Lodha Group offered its Singapore customers a chance to freeze the exchange rate at the home fair at 51.6 rupees to the dollar by hedging the currency on behalf of buyers.

For Manoj Mundra, a software professional employed with Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. (CTSH) in Singapore, such offers and discounts from builders will aid his decision to purchase a property in India.

“It’s a good time to invest in India as you are getting more bang for your buck with the rupee depreciation,” Mundra, 41, said. Having lived in Singapore for six years, he is looking to purchase a home in Gurgaon, a suburb near New Delhi, the nation’s capital.

One-Tenth the Cost

A product of India’s seven years of surging economic growth, Gurgaon and its gated communities for the burgeoning middle class have swallowed up farmland. Homes in the area range from two-bedroom apartments starting at 5.3 million rupees to five- bedroom units for more than 50 million rupees, averaging around S$151 a square foot — about one-tenth the cost of a similar- sized apartment in the comparable Tampines area of Singapore.

Indians in Singapore make up 9 percent of the country’s resident population, forming the third-largest ethnic group after the Chinese and Malays, according to government data. Foreigners in Singapore account for 37 percent of the population.

Indians accounted for 3.7 percent of Singapore’s total home purchases last year, according to data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority. The top foreign buyers in the final quarter of 2011 were Chinese, followed by Indonesians, Malaysians and Indians, according Yang Liang Chua, head of research for Southeast Asia at Jones Lang LaSalle.

“The trend will be that a lot of the Indian wealth that is overseas will start finding its way back to India,” said Agarwal. “This is a new window that is opening.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Pooja Thakur in Singapore at pthakur@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andreea Papuc at apapuc1@bloomberg.net

source: http://www.Bloomberg.com / News / by Pooja Thakur / February 09th, 2012

“Creating talent pool to develop specialised apps a big challenge”

Business & Economy, Science & Technologies

New wave: (From left) Cognizant Technology Solutions vice-chairman N. Lakshmi Narayanan, Polaris Financial Technology founder, chairman and CEO Arun Jain and Mobile Conference chairman Anand P. Surana in Chennai on Thursday. Photo: K.V. Srinivasan / The Hinu

In future, the gold rush will be in developing applications for non-PC based devices, as smart phone devices have overtaken personal computers and laptops, said N. Lakshmi Narayanan, vice-chairman, Cognizant Technology Solutions, on Thursday.

Delivering the special address at ‘Mobile conference 2012′, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), he said that as the future would be driven predominantly by younger people under 35 years of age, the biggest challenge for business organisation was to create the talent pool that could develop specialised and focussed applications (apps) keeping in mind the consumer preferences.

Mentioning that the new world required a new thinking as consumers opted for smart phones and not personal computers and laptops, he said the future of working, worker, workplace and communication would be driven predominantly by non-PC devices. However, enough people were not available to create the apps.

Urging youngsters to develop new apps in different languages, he said that the largest selling business apps were in markets such as Brazil, China and Japan. India offered fantastic opportunity for developing apps in different languages.

Arun Jain, founder, chairman and CEO, Polaris Financial Technology, stressed the need for companies to get into design thinking to emulate the phenomenal success of Apple through its iPods and iPads.

“Design thinking is different from designing products or management. It is about designing the entire eco-system. From that perspective, Aravind Eye Care can be thought of an apt example of design thinking that created an entire eco-system of eye care using innovative public, private and local community partnerships.”

In his welcome speech, S. Sridharan, Convenor, IT, ITeS & Electronics Panel, CII-Chennai Zone, said as compared to its predecessors, the new wave of technologies such as cloud computing, mobile applications and social media were cost effective that could enable small players to access best systems and business practices to fight against large companies.

Anand P. Surana, chairman, Mobile Conference 2012, said that in just two years mobile-ready sites had grown from 1.50 lakh to 30 lakh. About 10.9 billion applications were downloaded in 2010 and the number was estimated to reach over 76 billion in 2014. Consumers spent $6.2 billion on apps last year and studies predict that it would grow to $35 billion by 2014.

source: http://www.TheHindu.com / News> Cities> Chennai / by Special Correspondent / Chennai, February 03rd, 2012

If not F1 power, then not a dream worth living for Narain Karthikeyan

Sports

On paper, Narain Karthikeyan may have signed for the same HRT F1 team that he drove for last year, thus ensuring the sort of continuity that drivers in the fickle world of Formula One crave for to advance their careers. A closer look reveals there is little about the Spanish team that is the same as the 2011 season.

HRT driver Narain Karthikeyan on a vintage car during the driver’s parade of the Indian Formula One GP at the Buddh International Circuit.

95% of the personnel are new and the team has shifted its base to Spain from Germany but has left its aerodynamics team behind. There will be a new driver in the other F112, not to mention a new team owner and team principal. So, given all this upheaval, along with the fact that HRT F1 will most likely be fighting for the tail-end spots of the race classification again, one can be forgiven for thinking that Karthikeyan is a glutton for punishment.

No playboy
Either that or he has the sort of money that Pedro Diniz, one of F1’s most famous playboys, had to spend on trying to stay in the bottom end of the top rung of global motorsports. The latter certainly isn’t the case, although Karthikeyan is hardly the equivalent of the middle-class Europeans like Lewis Hamilton whose father once worked three jobs to support his son’s motor racing career.

 

Karthikeyan even raced in the cash-rich world of NASCAR in the United States where even drivers with modest results can eke out a reasonable living.

So, why persist with F1? One need only pick out various incidents in Karthikeyan’s racing career that have singled him out as one of the most exciting racing drivers to watch.

Magic moments
From a Formula Nippon race in Japan, where he managed to overtake a competitor after having his car’s front wing ripped off, to his fantastic record at the British circuit of Brands Hatch, he has done it all. The fearsome Brands Hatch circuit was where former F1 winner Johnny Herbert had a near-fatal crash that sapped him of a lot of his confidence. Such instances were a prelude to his performance at the Indian Grand Prix where he bested Red Bull junior driver Daniel Ricciardo.

Karthikeyan’s real reason for racing is racing itself. And it isn’t racing unless he is driving the ultimate racing car. If that means having to bide his time with a tail-end team, then so be it.

Karthikeyan will have a kindred spirit within the team who will understand the challenges of trying to punch ‘above a car’s weight’. Team principal Luis Perez Sala was himself a driver in the Minardi team in 1988 and 1989 and witnessed a Karthikeyan moment when he saw the then 25-year-old attack the kerbs of the chicanes at Monza.

Ten years later, Sala has seen it fit to give Karthikeyan a chance to produce one of those moments of magic again — moments that may not justify Karthikeyan’s involvement with F1’s heavy-hitters, but at least with the likes of Williams or, maybe, Sahara Force India.

source: http://www.HindustanTimes.com / MOTOR SPORTS / by Vinayak Pande / Hindustan Times / February 05th, 2012

TI Cycles Of India Opens Its 200th “BSA Hercules Exclusive” Store In Chennai

Business & Economy

Chennai, Tamil Nadu, February 3, 2012:

TI Cycles of India, one of the leading bicycle manufacturers, part of the the USD 3.8 billion Murugappa Group, today announced the inauguration of their 200th “BSA Hercules Exclusive” store in Chrompet, Tambaram

TI Cycles 200th store inaugration

TI Cycles of India, one of the leading bicycle manufacturers, part of the the USD 3.8 billionMurugappa Group, today announced theinauguration of their 200th “BSA Hercules Exclusive” store in Chrompet, Tambaram. The store, spread over an area of about 900 sq. ft. offers a complete range of Hercules & BSA brands of bicycles, BSA Workouts range of fitness equipments and TracknTrail range of International bicycles.

 

The 200th “BSA Hercules Exclusive” store was inaugurated by ­­­­­­­- Mr. Prabhu Ganesan, Renowned Actor and Producer in the presence of Dr. D Raghuram, President, TI Cycles of India and BSA Motors, Mr. Arun Alagappan, Sr. Vice President – Sales & Marketing, TI Cycles of India and Mr. KC Ramamoorthy, General Manager – Retail, TI Cycles of India.

 

Commenting on the inauguration, Dr. D Raghuram, President, TI Cycles of India and BSA Motors said, “The 200th store inauguration is an important milestone marking our six decades of steady growth and exemplary services. The appetite for social engagement is increasing among newer generation, to beyond traditional forms of entertainment and TI Cycles with its vast range of products promises this element of Fun in Fitness”.

TI Cycles, a pioneer in bicycle manufacturing and design, stands for the core promise of Fun, Fitness and Freedom. Through its brands, BSA and Hercules, TI Cycles offers consumers a range of products, from standard and mountain terrain bikes to electric and performance bicycles.

‘BSA Hercules Exclusive Stores’ have revolutionised the way people buy bicycles in India across Urban and Rural Towns. These stores are a one-stop premium shop for all BSA and Hercules products and have a customer friendly ambience and service. In 2010, the company started “Hercules BSA Cycle Stores – A Rural Retail initiative” to provide the urban retail buying experience in smaller towns. In just over a year’s time, there are over 200 of these rural stores. For its retail innovation, the company was recently appreciated at the recent Retail Awards held in Mumbai for the category of “Excellence in Rural Retailing”

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Arun Alagappan, Sr. Vice President – Sales & Marketing, TI Cycles of India said, “TI Cycles being a strong player in the market strives to provide its customers new and innovative range of products. With our 200th store inaugurating today, our aim is not just to be the preferred shopping destination for bicycles and fitness equipments, but also revolutionize the Indian bicycle industry and induce more Indians to bicycle.”

TI Cycles of India is the only bicycle company who has ventured into an organized retail format spread across cities to give a one-stop-shop experience to the customers. With a turnover of Rs1,121 crore and a year-on-year revenue growth of 18% TI Cycles is a market leader in the ‘specials’ segment of cycles and this has been made possible due to its exclusive retail outlets.

source: http://www.IndiaPRwire.com / Transportation> Trucking/ RailRoad / New Products/Services / February 03rd, 2012

Holding a mirror to the soul

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Uncategorized

ELEMENTS OF NATURE: Kanyakumari is indeed God’s own country. Photo: Lakshmi Sharath / The Hindu

The salts of the sea lure me as I can smell it from a distance. Here, in the confluence of three oceans, lies buried several myths, legends and stories. Kanyakumari has always been a mystery to me. Maybe it has something to do with the sea or the tale of the virgin goddess by the sea shore, but the town has never stopped fascinating me. Looking out of the window, I am lost in the many rotating windmills, dancing to the tune of the sea breeze, when I am interrupted by the laughter in the bus.

I join in the laughter as Sri Charanya, my travel companion, shares her memories of Kanyakumari when she visited the coastal town as a twelve year old. “You know, I was told that I could see red, black and blue colours here. The red was the Indian Ocean, blue the Bay of Bengal and black the Arabian Sea. I believed every word of it then,” she says as echoes of laughter drown her story. Memories come flooding back as I remember my first visit here as a wide-eyed twelve-year-old.

I am on a Naanjil Naadu tour organised by INTACH, travelling through small towns and villages around Nagercoil and Kanyakumari, visiting many temples, rock cut shrines, mosques, palaces and forts. While we alternate between facts and folk lore, we learn from a team of professors and historians accompanying us about the various dynasties that rule the region. I am of course fascinated by the many landscapes painted in front of me — natural, social , historical, political, spiritual, as I realise that what is today considered God’s own country has its origins right here in Naanjil Naadu, long before Kerala came into being.

We visit an ancient Chola temple dedicated to Shiva. Dr V Vedachalam, a retired epigraphist from Tamil Nadu Archaeology Department explains the architecture and draws our attention to the inscriptions and various cults of gods and goddesses. It is really God’s own country. The temples in this region are built by various kings across different eras and each one of them has left his stamp behind. From the Ay dynasty, to early Pandyas to the Venad kings, the land is steeped in cults. And I discover another 19th century cult right on the shores of a small fishing hamlet called Chinna Muttom.

While most of my travel companions are lost in the beauty around, a few of us walk down to a small shrine located on the rocky shores. A man in a turban is officiating as a priest as we gaze inside the sanctum and look at our hazy reflection with the sea forming our backdrop. There is no deity or idol — just a mirror which reflects and represents the soul or the Vishnu inside you. A small board in Tamil explains the philosophy about worshipping your body as the temple, with your mind at peace and devotion and purity in your soul. The belief rests in equality; every devotee is a king. Even Vivekananda, he claims, was influenced by it. The underlying thought is that you keep your mind and thoughts pure and worship the God inside you.

I later learn that the cult is referred to as Ayyavazhi, founded by a revolutionary called Ayya Vaikundar, also believed by his followers as a reincarnation of Vishnu. However , speaking to Ahi Mohan, coordinator of the Nadar Family Welfare centre in Trivandrum, I learn that he was a 19th century social reformer who was born in Kanyakumari district with a strong belief in equality of all people. He had built five main pathis, what we refer to as temples, and the 200-year-old pathi at Chinna Muttom was called Muthapathi. The followers believe that a dip in the sea will sanctify them.

I stand and gaze at my hazy reflection in the mirror for a long time and realise that my mind is blank, bathed by the ocean and purged of all thoughts. Elsewhere in the haze of white foam and fury of the waves, I can see a distant form of Sri Charanya calling out my name, holding some wet sand in her hands. As she comes closer, we both laugh. In her hands are lumps of black and brownish soil and the colours seem to merge with the blue of the ocean.

source: http://www.TheHindu.com / Life & Style> MetroPlus / by Lakshmi Sharath / February 03rd, 2012

Nambikai! Come on Mr PM!

Nri's / Pio's, World Opinion

Malaysia:

It looks like the BN is learning from the opposition whose leaders have now become comfortable with the usage of Mandarin and Tamil in their speeches to the people in the quest for support.

The PM talks about ‘nambikai’ or trust in the Tamil language when he does his walkabouts to the Indian electorate a large majority of whom are of Tamil descent. The PM has got to first understand what he is talking about, he promises transformation in the policies of the country, if he is really a transformer, he should have initiated the transformation policies and made sure that the results reached the people.

But till today, we have a delivery system that does something else when the Chief Executive says another! It is as though the civil service has a mind of its own where old habits die hard and they just refuse to change eventhough the Chief Executive who is their ultimate boss says that he is the initiator of transformation.

Nambikai is a very serious word in Tamil, it entails trust from the people. One wonders for how long are we to give the nambikai to the BN led Federal government when all our request have been met with empty promises after promises. When money allocation is promised for Tamil schools, it doesn’t come or it comes in bits and pieces which will not be of any use to the receivers when they have infrastucture problems to address and land matters to overcome.

The PR government of Selangor had done what the Federal government and the previous BN led Selangor state governments have only been promising for all the years the Indian electorate had given them the nambikai and voted for them.

If the PM is really serious about his 1Malaysia propaganda, he should be the first to transform and start policies that advocate equality amongst the races that make up our population instead of pandering to the wants of the elite few who are afraid that their strangglehold of economy will come to naught if the transformation policies takes place.

The PM must be ready to face the people with the truth and the people will then see how best is it to assess what he has to say with the facts that they see in their daily lives. The basic problems facing the Indians in Malaysia is the lack of state attention shown on them despite the contribution that the Indians have put into the building of this nation.

The isolation policies of keeping the races apart by racial, religious, cultural and economies norms has created a vast space in between the state and the common man on the street as far as the Indians are concerned. The PM has to note that Indians had not only come to this country as indented labourers brought in by the British Raj  but had instead stamped their mark from time immemorial as the early conquerors and traders in this region.

If history is correctly told which the Sejarah Melayu or the Malay annals will say, the sultanate of Kedah which is the oldest of the sultanates in the country has its humble beginnings from Hinduism until the chosen Maharaja had decided to embrace Islam. The same is the case for the Malacca Sultanate whose founding prince was a Hindu from the neighbouring Island of Sumatra whose origins can be traced from the Chola Empire of Tamil Nadu.

Therefore to see Indians in a very pathetic state today asking for only equal rights like what the majority enjoys should sadden any Malay leader who appreciates history and is worthy of the leadership that he professes to the people.

Allocation of land with title grants for places of worship, Tamil schools, crematoruims, and adequate places in all our public institutions of higher learning should be the transformation that the PM should show his leadership in instead of asking for nambikai to be placed in the BN government which has failed in its 55 years of administration.

A BN government which the Indians can have a nambikai on would not have allowed thousands of Indians from the lower strata of society to lived for generations without proper identification documents like a proper birth certificate and identification cards.

A BN government that the Indians can have a nambikai on would not have allowed, Indians to be converted to Islam unless they have understood what they are doing and have proven that they have embraced Islam on their own free will instead of being imposed on them by the State.
A BN government that the Indians can have a nambikai on would not allow the Indian dead to be a subject of a tussle between the Islamic religious authorities and their families because their faith cannot be proven. Therefore to simply tell the Indians to place their nambikai on the BN government is just not going to do the trick anymore.

The Indians have awoken and have formed the Hindraf to defend themselves from the years of nambikai that they have given to the BN government which has only been replied with empty promises.

The PM should not have backed out from the policy of teaching Maths and Science in English, which would have transformed Malaysian education in  a way that we can never imagine and would have been a catalyst for the Malays to embrace English and not fear the fact that by learning and mastering English they would loose their Malay identity by not knowing their mother tongue and National language.

This policy would have helped the Chinese and the Indians as well, as the command of the English language would have improved besides having a choice to study in their mother tongue. Therefore nambikai can only come when it is earned and for that nambikai to come now, the only way forward will be to have samma urumai (equal rights), is the BN led federal government prepared to transform and give all Malaysians equal rights?

The Opposition is not great but atleast they are making a start in the right direction which one day may see Indian and Chinese leaders leading political parties with majority Malay membership and support!

So Mr PM, you will never get the Nambikai that you want from the Indians unless and until you earn it from us by transforming the country with your policies. Please remember Mr PM that 1Malaysia means everyone is One and the same so it must be equal rights for everyone under the Malaysian sun.

Can we trust you?

source: http://www.FreeMalaysiaToday.com / FMT LETTER/ From P.Dev Anand Pillai / Wednesday, February 01st, 2012

 

Kalam asks experts in medicine to develop new technology

Leaders, Science & Technologies

Former President inaugurates laser surgery machine at Maxivision Eye Care

A. P. J. Abdul Kalam , the former President of India inagurating the VICTUS Femtosecond Laser Cataract Surgery Machine installed at the Maxivision in Hyderabad on Tuesday.Photo: K. Ramesh Babu / The Hindu

Former President of India, Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam said here on Tuesday that the country’s best talent in the field of medicine should strive to develop innovative technology so that the needy could afford the fruits of modern medicine. On Tuesday, Dr. Kalam inaugurated VICTUS Femtosecond Laser Cataract Surgery machine at Maxivision Eye Care, Somajiguda.

“I call upon the Maxivision eye surgeons to form a team of experts who can explore the multidimensional uses of Femtosecond laser in treating various eye ailments. We need to utilise the technology and help people who can’t afford modern medical care,” Dr. Kalam said.

The former President said that the multiple applications of the Femtosecond laser would help doctors treat a host of eye ailments.

Immediately after the inauguration, the renowned nuclear scientist also interacted with the eye surgeons of Maxivision and enquired about the newly acquired laser surgery machine.

The officials of Maxivision said that the new machine had been under test from November 2010.

Already, the eye surgeons had completed close to 450 eye surgeries by using the new laser machine. The surgeons pointed out that not a single case had reported complications after the surgery.

The VICTUS platform, essentially, helped doctors conduct cataract, refractive and therapeutic procedures of the eye on a single platform. The laser machine would help surgeons perform computer controlled precise, accurate and reproducible incisions compared to current manual procedures. The success rate for such surgery was 100 per cent, doctors added.

“This is the first such laser machine in the World and I would like to congratulate Maxivision for this accomplishment,” founder and chairman of GVK, G. V. K. Reddy said.

Chairman of L.V. Prasad Eye Institute, Dr. G. N. Rao, Founder of Maxivision Eye Hospitals, Dr. Kasu Prasad Reddy, Film Producer D. Ramanaidu and several other doctors were present.

source: http://www.TheHindu.com / News> Cities> Hyderabad / by Staff Reporter/ February 01st, 2012