Arvind Remedies’ anti-viral drug

Business & Economy, Records, All, Science & Technologies, World Opinion

Chennai :

Chennai-based drugmaker Arvind Remedies has filed for patenting a new drug for treating chikungunya, chicken pox, and combating the herpes viruses such as Varivella Zoster Virus, and Human Herpes.

The drug, slated for clinical trials, will be formulated into a product with higher bio-availability and minimum side effects, according to a release by the company.

The company had signed agreements in 2010 with Presidency College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu Veterinary & Animal Sciences University, and Indian Institute of Integrative Medicines, Jammu, for developing the drug.

source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com / Business Line / Home> Companies / Chennai – November 19th, 2013

Hirotec in talks with OEMs to supply automobile doors

Business & Economy, Science & Technologies, World Opinion
Takahiro Hayama
Takahiro Hayama

Work on new Coimbatore plant takes off

Coimbatore :   

Hirotec India Pvt Ltd (HIPL) is in preliminary discussions with automobile original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to supply car doors that are currently produced by the carmakers themselves. While not disclosing the names of the OEMs, senior company executives said one in located in Maharashtra and another in Gujarat. If the discussion are fruitful, the production facility will be located close to the OEMs.

Speaking to newsmen on Tuesday to announce the commencement of work on HIPL’s new Keeranatham plant near here, Takahiro Hayama, Director and President, HIPL, Coimbatore, said the company is focusing on the production of closure (doors, hood and deck lid), assembly tooling and hemming systems.

The construction of the first phase of 75,000 sq ft built-up area at Keeranatham will be completed at an investment of Rs 40 crore.

Explaining why HIPL chose Coimbatore to locate the factory, he said tooling manufacture for the automobile industry is now turning local as companies look for cost efficiencies. HIPL, which is part of the $1.3-billion Hirotec Group, hopes to gain from the engineering skill available locally as its new facility becomes operational in 2014.

The company has invested about Rs 25 crore in its existing facilities and hopes to witness a three-fold increase in turnover to Rs 120 crore during the current fiscal. Geeth Narayanan, VP-Engineering, HIPL, said the facility will focus on tools for the manufacture of closure panels like car doors. The company counts almost all OEMs as its customers, Narayanan said. Apart from the first phase, the factory has space for the construction of another 1 lakh sq ft. This facility is important for HIPL as it will “get more work done out of Coimbatore”.

Senthil Kumar Parthasarathy, VP-Business Development, asked about the group’s plans for a car door manufacturing plant, said the company is in discussions with an Indian OEM on the lookout for such a supplier. But the required volume is currently low. HIPL is looking at a few other OEMs so that the cumulative volume will be higher “to leverage on the investment” (for the plant).

For achieving economy of scale, a minimum annual volume of 2 lakh units will be required, Hayama said. From past experience of the group, a global player in this product segment, he would put the investment requirement at $30-$40 million for a door manufacturing plant.

source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com / Business Line / Home> Companies /by R. Yegya Narayanan / Coimbatore – November 19th, 2013

City Union Bank

Business & Economy, Historical Links, Pre-Independence, Records, All

City Union Bank Ltd has informed BSE that:

“we will be crossing yet another milestone in our branch expansion programme by opening of our 400th branch on the 22nd November, 2013 at 25/59 K B Dhasan Road, Teynampet, Chennai – 600018.

The Bank was started at the temple town of Kumbakonam as a part of Swadeshi Movement to support Local Agriculture and Commerce in the year 1904 and entered the 110th year of service to the nation on 31st October, 2013.

The 400th branch will be opened by the Veteran freedom fighter and personal Secretary of Mahatma Gandhiji, Shri. V. Kalyanam.

The bank proudly dedicates this milestone to the participants in the Swadeshi Movement, Freedom Fighters and Customers / Stake holders / Employees of the bank -past, present and future.”

source: http://www.moneycontrol.com / MoneyControl.com / Home> Markets> Announcements> Banks – Private Sector> Announcement / Source: BSE / November 20th, 2013

CII-Exim Bank Commendation for BHEL

Business & Economy, Records, All, Science & Technologies

Ninth time BHEL Tiruchi unit is awarded the commendation certificate

BHEL, Tiruchi, has won the CII-EXIM Bank Commendation certificate for “Significant Achievements on the Journey Towards Excellence” for 2013 in the category of large organisation.

Quality summit

This was announced at the inaugural session of the 21st Quality Summit organised by the CII in Bangalore recently.

This is the ninth time that BHEL, Tiruchi, is awarded the CII-EXIM Commendation certificate for Business Excellence.

Three categories

The CII-EXIM Awards are given to companies which are role models in Total Quality Management in each of the three categories (large, medium and small).

S. Dharmalingam, General Manager, Quality, J. Sankaran General Manager, Unit II and Sub-Contracting and Machining, S.R. Govinda Rajan, Additional General Manager, Quality Assurance and Business Excellence, K. Nagarajan, Additional General Manager, Valves, and M. Thiruneelakandan, Additional General Manager, Finance from BHEL, received the award from T. C. A. Ranganathan, Chairman and Managing Director, EXIM Bank.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Tiruchirapalli / by Special Correspondent / Tiruchi – November 17th, 2013

Team effort and hard work can create wonders, feels Sakina

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Education

For Sakina N Olia, a BSc psychology student at Women’s Christian College, Chennai, the final-year of college is proving to be a year of “prioritisation and making the best of the time that is available”.

Sakina is part of Ayamara, which was initially conceptualised by Raghavendra Ramesh, Vineeth Ramesh and Srutanjay Narayanan, students of CEG, Anna University, Chennai. It is a student-run event management company that was started in August last year.

As a part of this 17-member group that manages various events across the city, she explains, “Our service charges are separate from the expenses incurred for that event. So we are able to manage our expenses pretty well. My payment depends on the kind of shows we do.”

They take care of events, both corporate and social. They have hosted a pan-Chennai car rally, launched a website called Paperhut, organised Secret Santa (Ayamara’s own initiative to give back to society in a unique way during Christmas), managed MYTF (a national-level theatre festival curated by Creashakthi), and organised and managed The Epic Show in association with 578 entertainments.

About the group Sakina says, “Each one of us are completely different individuals. But we work extremely well as a team. The advantage of having so many members with different talents is that we get the best product.”

Says Sakina, “I love being a part of Ayamara. I manage to find time to balance both work and studies. At times it’s hectic but equally fun and challenging. I want to pursue my master’s in human resource and in terms of Ayamara, we, the 17 of us hope to take it to larger and bigger heights!”

— kaviya@newindianexpress.com

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Education> Edex / by Kaviya Sanjeevi – Chennai / November 18th, 2013

Lady Wellington College won’t be renamed after leader: Tamil Nadu tells court

Amazing Feats, Education, Historical Links, Pre-Independence, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Leaders, Records, All, World Opinion

Chennai : 

There is no proposal either to rename Lady Wellington College after Singaravelar or to erect his statue on the campus, the Tamil Nadu government has informed the Madras high court.
In a counter-affidavit, filed in response to a PIL of A Gowthaman seeking renaming of the college after Singaravelar and construction of a memorial for the freedom fighter at the venue, which was his house, secretary, Tamil Development and Information (memorials) Department said: “The setting up of Singaravelar statue and renaming the college is a matter of policy to be decided by the Government and no such proposal is pending with the department.”

However, it told the bench comprising Chief Justice R K Agrawal and Justice M Sathyanarayanan that a bust-size statue of Singaravelar was to be erected in Singaravelar memorial in Royapuram.

Senior advocate A E Chelliah, who argued the PIL for Singaravelar memorial, had told the bench that the freedom fighter founded the first trade union in India and had vast swathes of land in several places including Thiruvanmiyur and Mylapore. His residence at Mylapore, is now known as Lady Wellington College. British governor Lord Wellington took over his property after Singaravelar participated in the freedom struggle.

In 2011, the government announced a memorial for Singaravelar at Foreshore Estate, but did not proceed due to Coastal Regulation Zone norms. The PIL wants a memorial adjacent to ‘Vivekanandar Illam’ and renaming of Lady Wellington College as ‘Sindhanai Sirpi Singaravelar Educational campus’.

The PIL is scheduled to be taken up for further hearing on November 21.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Chennai> TamilNadu / TNN / November 18th, 2013

Of virtual mirrors and medical images on the Cloud

Education, Science & Technologies, World Opinion

Viswa Subramanian Sekar, a final-year BE (computer science and engineering) student of PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, looks forward to pursuing a career in research. Three weeks ago, she bagged the National Award for the ‘Best BTech project in Engineering 2013’ from Indian Society for Technical Education (ISTE) and the Government of Punjab for her work on efficient storage of medical images on cloud. “As someone who hails from a family of doctors, I felt I should do some research based on medical images,” says Viswa. “Cloud computing is a cost-efficient technique. I have also created an image compression technique that reduces the image size and also ensures that quality of the image does not get affected.”

She began her work in 2012. Viswa has also attended various national and international conferences. The research was also published in Elsevier, a reputed international magazine for science and technology this year. She was also the only UG student to attend the Elsevier international conference held in June.

Presently, she is working on her final-year project, which is about creating a virtual mirror interactive dressing room. “I was inspired to take up the project when I saw the video on the same topic by CISCO. Also, interactivity using gestures is the next-gen technology and so is augmented reality,” she explains.

In Viswa’s project, the customer can virtually try out the dress on himself/herself. Also, the sizes could be altered. “The software kinect (used to create the virtual mirror) is very expensive if installed on the system. My idea is to make the virtual mirror available to people at their homes. The project is ready but there is still scope for improvements,” she says.

In future, Viswa intends to pursue her PhD in computer vision and wishes to pursue her master’s in Germany. But for a start, she is all set to go to Technical University of Munich in Germany (her dream university) for an internship spanning over a month-and-a-half at the end of this year.

— edex@newindianexpress.com

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Education> Edex / by Janani Rajeswari – Coimbatore / November 18th, 2013

Students to celebrate India cinema’s centenary year

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, World Opinion

Enthusiastic students of Ethiraj College for Women here will join hands with Tamil director A.L. Venky to pay homage to 100 years of Indian cinema through an exhibition called Flashback, aimed to showcase and document the dynamic growth of cinema.

CinemaCF01dec2013

“As many as 250 students from the visual communication department of Ethiraj College for Women are working on the research material for this exhibition. Several popular studios as AVM and L.V Prasad have come forward to lend their archival materials for display at the exhibition,” said a statement from the visual communication department of Ethiraj College.

The exhibition, which will be inaugurated Dec 14, is slated for Dec 15-21 at the Anna University campus in the Tamil Nadu capital.

“The exhibition will display rare photographs, unusual facts, archival information, miniature of sets, cut outs and posters of Indian cinema over the century. A puppet show which relate to the history of cinema will also be performed at the exhibition,” further read the statement.

“A tent talkie, which was the original mode for exhibition of cinema, will be at the exhibition playing archival clippings and significant shots of Indian cinema. Popular sets such as the courtroom scene from Tamil classic ‘Parasakthi’ will be recreated and the viewing public can have themselves photographed on these sets,” added the statement.

A group of 100 artists will called Chennai Weekend Artists will participate and sketch, paint and display key scenes from milestone films.

source: http://www.pinkvilla.com / Pinkvilla / Home / November 19th, 2013

Tiruchi-based Jungle Jewels expect revenues of Rs 60 lakh in FY14, breaking even in process

Business & Economy

Chennai :

Jungle Jewels, a Tiruchi-based firm that makes jewellery uniquely from seeds and trains economically poor women to craft them, is on the lookout for  funding from social investors.

The firm, founded by engineer-turnedsocial entrepreneur J Balamurali, 40, is already in talks with one investor, which he won’t name. “When people come, they look at us more as a business to make more money. We don’t want investors like that,” says Balamurali.

In its fifth year now, Jungle Jewels hopes to end 2013-14 with revenues of Rs 60 lakh, breaking even in the process. “We could have touched Rs 90 lakh. But due to lack of funding, we had to scale it down,” says its founder.

Balamurali’s venture happened by chance. His father had set up a herbal park to provide alternative primary health care to villagers near Tiruchi in 1979. Many years later, it occurred to Balamurali that the seeds in the park, going waste, needs to be used up somehow. The idea of making jewellery struck him one day when he saw women arranging paddy seeds.

His research showed him no one had done this commercially, though some tribals already knew the art. Balamurali then put up samples in an exhibition in Mumbai. “People were excited seeing the products,” he recalls. That was enough trigger to start Jungle Jewels, which he did by investing his own money as also that of his family and friends.

Jungle Jewels has 30 women from poor backgrounds on its rolls. For most, this is their first job. None of them had any prior idea about craftwork. Their husbands work as auto-rickshaw drivers, farm labourers, textile shop salesmen and lorry load men.

R Chitra, a 37-year-old employee, says: “This is an additional income for the family, we are very happy. We like the concept and it is different from a regular day job.” Jungle Jewels has two units. The Tiruchi unit, which this correspondent had visited, is a one-room facility having a huge table for a work area. The workers, having fixed work hours, even have a pick-up and drop facility. They make jewellery from 12 seeds, the likes of ‘Canna indica,’ ‘Oryza sativa’ and ‘Delonix regia.’

The company doesn’t have a designer. But workers say they draw inspiration from real life. Prices range between Rs 40 (for a pair of earrings) and Rs 1,400 (for neckpieces). As Jungle Jewels expands its offerings to products such as key chains, stationery items, and do-it-yourself-kits, Balamurali is considering hiring fashion design students as interns. Jungle Jewels markets its products through exhibitions, online shops and resellers. It also has tie-ups with individuals in the US, UK, France, Australia and Dubai to sell its products.

It hasn’t been easy, says Balamurali. Conversations with big retailers, he says, are always about discounts, volumes and profits. “People tell me that my products are under-priced. We have a calculation. We are happy with that calculation. There should be some justification to pricing, right?”

He says: “When people buy a product, they don’t know what its roots are, who made it and where it came from.” He believes it should be different. “Here, we have a story. By buying a necklace, we are supporting a group of women who are financially not doing well. We don’t exploit anyone in the chain.”

Now, Jungle Jewels wants to scale up. Paul Basil, founder and CEO of Villgro, which essentially funds social enterprise firms and ideas, says: “This is definitely unique, a niche type of product but will that scale, is the question.”

Chandu Nair, a Chennai-based entrepreneur and mentor, says: “It is expensive to build a brand and also, difficult to distribute. But, it is definitely possible.” He says there are quite a few social impact funds, which are patient and also ready for relatively smaller returns.

But Nair says, “Much of it depends on how much of a social impact is the firm creating, what kind of an enterprise is it and how good is the team.”

According to the India  Venture Capital  and Private Equity Report 2013, published by IIT-Madras, social sector investments  by private equity and venture capital funds dropped drastically to around $36 million (about Rs 227 crore) in 2012, compared to $160 million (Rs 1,010 crore) the previous year.

source: http://www.articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com / The Economic Times / Home> News> News By Company> Corporate Trends> Jewellery / by Vidhya Sivaramakrishnan, ET Bureau / November 18th, 2013

Europeans’ light skin has Madurai link

Historical Links, Pre-Independence, World Opinion

skin-maduraiCF29nov2013

London:

Indians share a genetic mutation with Europeans that plays a key role in coding for the lighter skin, a new Camb­ridge study has found.

Latest research shows that the presence of the genetic mutation for lighter skin — found in “almost 100 per cent” of Europeans — broadly conforms to many cultural and linguistic differences, as well as ancestral, in the wider Indian population.

The genetic mutation in SLC24A5 is known to be pivotal in the evolution of light skin, and is responsible for a significant part of the skin colour differences between Europeans and Africans.

Now, a new study has examined for the first time a large, uniform genetic sample collected directly in south India, and suggests that natural selection is not the sole factor in skin tone variation across the Indian sub-continent, and that cultural and linguistic traits still delineate this skin pigment genetic mutation.

The results show that the gene is found with much higher frequency in Indo-European speaking groups that are more prevalent in the north-west of the country.

But the mutation is also high in populations groups known to have migrated north to south, such as the Saurashtrians, who – while native to Gujarat – are now predominantly found in the Madurai district.

Researchers say that the study, published in the journal PLoS Genetics, shows that the genetic mutation in SLC24A5 has a common origin between Europeans and Indians.

But while the complete dominance of the gene in Europeans is likely to be solely down to natural selection, they say, the rich diversity of this genetic variant in India – high in some populations while non-existent in others, even neighbouring ones – has some correlation with factors of language, ancestral migration and distinct social practises such as limiting marriage partners to those with specific criteria.

The researchers say the findings display an “intriguing interplay” between natural selection and the “unique history and structure” of populations inhabiting the Indian subcontinent.

”In India, this genetic variant doesn’t just follow a ‘classical’ theory of natural selection – that it’s lower in the south where darker skin protects against fiercer sunlight,” said study co-author Mircea Iliescu from Cambridge University’s Biological Anthropology Division.

source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> News> Current Affairs / by PTI / November 15th, 2013