Murasoli is an integral part of the Dravidian movement and its history precedes that of the DMK
When DMK president M. Karunanidhi launched Murasoli, a handwritten manuscript mouthpiece of the then fledgling Dravidian movement on August 10, 1942, World War-II was still on. The DMK itself was not launched then. Murasoli— which has since graduated, first from a hand-written magazine to a weekly and then to a daily — is now into its platinum jubilee year.
Recording the landmark moment, Mr. Karunanidhi. writing in the party organ recently, describedMurasoli as his “first child” and said he cherishes its founding day more than his own birthday.
The veteran politician had for long used the mouthpiece as a medium to communicate with his party cadre. In fact, during the Emergency when media was subjected to stringent censorship, he subtly conveyed to the cadre about the list of leaders who had been jailed under the draconian Maintenance of Internal Securities Act (MISA). Knowing well that the Press Information Bureau would not allow these leaders to be named, he, instead, published the list of leaders who would not be able to pay respects to party founder C.N. Annadurai on the latter’s death anniversary.
“The DMK and the Murasoli are inseparable and the contribution of the paper to the growth of the party is immeasurable,” said former Minister Duraimurugan, who has been reading the paper since 1962. Few leaders had the passion of Mr. Karunanidhi when it came to running a party organ, he said.
“Our leader has the capacity to write what will please all sections of the society. He will proof-read what he had written even at midnight and always ensure that he read the paper in the morning before others read it,” said Mr. Duraimurugan.
Former School Education Minister Thangam Thennarasu, a second-generation leader, said, Murasolihas adapted itself to technology and it is now available online to reach a wider audience.
“The first issue of Murasoli had four pages and Kalaignar wrote the contents under his pen name ‘Cheran’,” said Dravidian Movement’s historian K. Thirunavukkarasu. “It became a weekly in 1948 and Kalaignar suspended its publication after joining Modern Theaters. He resumed its publication in 1954 and Murasoli became a daily on September 17, 1960,” he added.
Murasoli has since become the only newspaper of the Dravidian movement to have weathered many a political storm and Mr. Karunanidhi had ensured its existence by forming a trust to run the paper. “He was a hands-on editor and never hesitated to spend his money to run the paper. Murasoli is a guide to the party leaders as well as the cadres,” said Mr. Thirunavukkarasu.
But the admirers of the Dravidian movement, who pointed out its role in demolishing feudalism and upper caste domination in the society, are sceptical about the role of the Murasoli. “While the Dravidian movement ensured that democracy percolated and reached sections of society that were hitherto impossible to reach, Murasoli has become a weapon in the hands of neo capitalists, particularly the family of the DMK leader,” felt V. Arasu, former head of Tamil department at the University of Madras.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Tamil Nadu / B. Kolappan / Chennai – August 15th, 2016
E. Gnanam, chairman, Muthu Group and S. Srinivasan, managing director of the company. Photo: R. Ravindran
From a modest 300 sq.ft. shop set up 45 years ago, Muthu Pharmacy has grown into 51-outlet enterprise. Its founder E. GNANAM talks to LIFFY THOMAS about the spectacular journey
A 1970-model blue Vespa kept in a glass enclosure greets me as I set foot in the corporate office of Muthu Group in Egmore.
On the wall, right above the classic scooter, there is a note.
“We don’t sell banned drugs here,” it says.
The scooter and the note serve two different purposes.
“While the former reminds me of my beginnings, the latter apprises visitors of the value on which the company is built,” explains E. Gnanam.
He set up his first pharmacy 45 years ago in a 300 sq.ft. space in Perambur.
“This is the first vehicle I bought from my earnings; it costed me Rs. 3,000 then,” says Gnanam.
It was with this vehicle that he would go on his business rounds.
From that humble beginning, his enterprise Muthu Group has grown into a Rs. 300 crore business, consisting of five companies — Muthu Pharmacy Pvt. Ltd., Muthu Pharma Pvt. Ltd., Pearl Medicals, Shell Pharmaceutics Pvt. Ltd. and Rao and Co. Pharma Pvt. Ltd.
Gnanam, who is Chairman of Muthu Group, says he has built the brand over the years based on ethics, trust and hard work.
“We stick to the brand prescribed by the doctor, and don’t suggest any other. We don’t sell expired goods,” says 65-year-old Gnanam.
Starting from scratch
So, how did his journey begin?
When he was 16, Gnanam left his village in Tanjore and came to Madras, where he worked at his uncle’s pharmacy shop.
“My work involved sweeping the shop and cleaning the shelves where medicines were kept. My first salary was Rs. 60, a major portion of which would go towards buying food,” says Gnanam who simultaneously did a diploma in pharmacy at the Kilpauk Medical College.
No, this is not what you are thinking: there is no rags-to-riches story here.
Gnanam did not have to put himself through such deprivations, but chose to. His family has always been financially sound and he subjected himself to menial work at a pharmacy because he wanted to learn the ropes of the profession.
By 1970, Gnanam knew what is took to run a pharmacy and set up his own enterprise. His first shop was called Sangam Pharmacy, which he opened borrowing Rs. 60,000 from his mother. It was located near Lourdes Mada Church in Perambur.
For the next two-and-a-half years, Gnanam would be the only employee at the shop.
“I was making sales worth Rs. 250 per day. When it reached Rs. 700 a day I hired an assistant,” he says.
Since then, the business has been steadily growing.
From 1974, Gnanam opened one outlet every two years, giving a fancy name to each of them.
“In 1978, I decided to stick to one name and re-branded all the outlets as Muthu Pharmacy,” he says.
In 1982, he forayed into the wholesale pharmacy business.
“It took me 14 years to find my feet in the business,” he says.
As the brand started expanding, Gnanam was faced with other challenges. Not knowing English was a stumbling block for Gnanam who would later go on to become the general secretary of Tamil Nadu Chemists and Druggists Association and joint secretary of All India Chemists and Druggists Association.
“I picked the nuances of English at work, especially from many of my Anglo Indian customers. It did not matter that my grammar was wrong,” says Gnanam, who spoke to me in halting English.
On the subject of competition, Gnanam says it has not affected the brand in any way. “We never give any discounts, which are a lie,” he says. “Also, name the medicine, and we’ll have it.” From 1990, Muthu Pharmacy started looking beyond expansion, and began to offer value-added services. It introduced door-to-door delivery of medicines.
It added a doctor’s chamber to its pharmacy. Currently, 10 shops in the city have a room where customers get to consult a doctor and get the medicine from the same roof.
Muthu Group now has over 500 employees. While his daughter takes care of the HR and finance aspects of the business, his cousin takes care of the retail units.
It currently has 51 pharmacy stores and 19 wholesale outlets. They deliver to 3,500 chemists in and around the city in a day. The company plans to stop expanding its stores when it reaches 100 outlets.
“We have around 46,000 formulations in our retail outlets,” says S. Srinivasan, managing director and relative of Gnanam, who has been helping him run the business since 1981.
Reaching out
In the initial years, the pharmacy built its brand conducting blood donations camps.
“Our campaigns were a huge hit. The blood we collected from donors was given only to government hospitals,” says Gnanam.
Through Muthu Pharmacy Charitable Trust, the company has been funding the education of underprivileged children. It has also instituted an achievers award. The Muthu Hospital at Pulianthope is also reaching out to many people.
(A column about entities that started in a small way in a neighbourhood and grew bigger)
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> Downtown / by Prince Frederick / Chennai – August 06th, 2016
One of the British-built revetment which had got weakened at the Sozhagan head sluice near Kuthalam in Nagapattinam district. / Photo: A. Muralidharan
Under IAMWARM scheme on an outlay of Rs. 90 crore
A British-built irrigation infrastructure on three major rivers passing through Nagapattinam and Thanjavur districts will be renovated at an estimate of Rs. 90 crore.
The Public Works Department will execute the work under the Irrigated Agriculture Modernisation and Water bodies Restoration and Management (IAMWARM) scheme. The British-built revetments, damaged sluices, regulators and weak banks will be renovated and strengthened so ensure effective management of irrigation supply.
The infrastructure on rivers such as Manjalaru, Veerasozhanaru and Manniyaru will be given a facelift with total strengthening of the revetment. The brick work will all be replaced by concrete structures and the damaged head sluices, regulators and bed dams would be renovated, an official source told The Hindu here on Thursday.
The Manjalaru flowing from Sathanur near Kuttalam accounted for a course of 40 km, with 25 sluices, eight regulators and one bed dam. It had an ayacut of about 50,000 acres. The Manniyaru, with a total course of 60 km from Thanjavur to Nagapattinam, had about 60,000 acres irrigating the fields through 30 sluices, two regulators and one bed dam. The Veerasozhanaru had 50 head sluices, six regulators and eight bed dams. It ran its course for about 50 km.
The source said that the work would facilitate efficient management of water for irrigation. The work would be taken up after the forthcoming monsoon. “As it involves a good part of masonry and civil works, it can be executed only during the non-monsoon season,” the source said.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Tiruchirapalli / M. Balaganesin / Nagapattinam – August 02nd, 2016
Bright colours and creative designs mark Bhuvana’s crochets Satish Babu
Chennai :
Colourful threads, interlocked in loops to create interesting patterns and accessories- this defines the art of crochet making, in a nutshell. While there are only a handful of crochet makers/artists in the city, CE caught up with Bhuvana, a city-based art teacher and crochet maker.
As we enter her ‘art den’, colourful crochet handbags, keychains, bottle holders, neck pieces, hair clips and other accessories stand out. Made from acrylic (artificial threads) to cotton yarns, from t-shirt yarn to jute, Bhuvana shares that procuring good quality yarns is a tough task. “We get synthetic threads and wool here. But if you are looking for the soft, thick, cotton yarns, you have to procure it from Delhi or foreign countries.”
When asked how she was drawn to crochet making, Bhuvana replies “It all began after I saw the movie Barfi (2012)! Priyanka Chopra carries a crochet handbag in the movie. Until then I had only seen old-fashioned scarfs, baby clothes and accessories.After that, for four years, I did intensive research on materials, tools and accessories involved in crochet making. Until then, I didn’t know the difference between knitting and crochet making!”
A year ago,she started her own label, EM’s Crochet art and artifacts on Facebook and has been showcasing her work on the page. “Since I also teach and paint, I make crochets whenever I get time. In fact, my goal is to incorporate crochet in art,” she says.“Abroad, crochet art installations are very common. Even in India, some artists have done such installations and I intend to do something like that.” With a plethora of styles and stiches in crochet, she explains a few such as single, double, triple crochet, granny squares and bobble stitch. “One interesting thing about crochet is that each stitch in crochet is completed before proceeding to the next. This makes it easy for us to remove a particular loop in case of changes,” she explains. Tapestry crochet, which is predominantly seen in carpets and mats, is another interesting style, adds Bhuvana. “This type of crochet making is not as easy, but its output is very beautiful. It involves working parallely with multiple threads of different colours. I am currently working on stocking material for that,” smiles the artist.
A Masters graduate in painting, she shares that any form can be achieved in crochet. Even stuffed toys! “I made a rat out of crochet. The loops are interlocked in the required shape and then the opening is stuffed with cotton before the final stitch. I am currently concentrating on making more toys,” she says. Shedding light on why crocheting is considered a women’ job in India, she avers, “Firstly, it’s not just a women’s job. I have seen a lot of men doing crochet in foreign countries. But, I don’t understand why it doesn’t happen in India. I know very few men who do it here,”adding that when it comes to accessories, men don’t prefer crochet. “They think it’s feminine. But key chains and crochet bracelets can be used by them. Some of my male friends have bought them from me,” she beams.
Bhuvana has exhibited her paintings and crochet art works at Bangalore and will also be a part of City Souk, Chennai. For details, visit: https://www.facebook.com/emsartandartifacts
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Roshne B / August 04th, 2016
If you are pining for some hot ghee drenched dosa while trudging through a cold North American autumn, you have just been offered yet another choice to indulge in the taste of home. It seems one of South India’s most beloved restaurant chains is set to take its first steps into the United States of America.
The US Consulate in Chennai tweeted out late on Saturday night that Adyar Ananda Bhavan, popularly known as A2B, is planning to open its first branch there next month.
“A2B in the US? Yes! Chennai’s @A2BRestaurant plans 2 open its 1st outlet in US in Aug 2016!,” went the US Consultate’s tweet. It’s facebook post had a bit more information.
According to the Consulate, the decision to open shop in the North American nation was a “direct outcome” of the chain’s participation in the U S Commercial Service’s SelectUSA Investment Summit held in Washington D. C recently.
A2B will be following in the footsteps of the now iconic Hotel Saravana Bhavan, which already has three hotels in the United States and 56 outlets across the globe not including those in India, according to its website.
A2B meanwhile has no branches overseas and 95 branches in India. The chain began three decades ago as a small sweet shop started by founder K S Thirupathi Raja in Chennai. Now at the helm are his two sons – Managing Director K T Srinivasa Raja and K T Venkatesan.
The management of the chain could not be reached for comment.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Tamil Nadu / by Jonathan Ananda / July 30th, 2016
Pattappa and his son Balaji at the Central Kitchen in Triplicane./ PHOTO: K.V. SRINIVASAN
In its long journey, Pattappa Catering Service has evolved from wedding feasts into the restaurant business. Its founder speaks to SUBHA J RAO about the fine art of serving
It’s just a little past 11, and a couple is already waiting outside Pattappavin Thaligai, opposite Nageswara Rao Park. Minutes later, a family disembarks from an auto-rickshaw and rushes in, only to realise that the shutters are still down. They are soon joined by another family from Bangalore.
Behind the closed shutters, efficiency is quietly at work. A waiter lays out tumblers on every table and checks if the water jugs are full. Others line up near the buffet counter, ready to serve customers. That’s when the man who’s lent his name to the restaurant walks in from his fiefdom — the kitchen. L.V. Pattappa looks at the counters and instructs a boy to polish the surface some more. He then narrates the journey of a 14-year-old from Ladavaram in Arcot district who came to Chennai to assist at S.V. Thathachari’s house on Pandala Venugopal Street, Triplicane, and became a caterer who finds mention in popular culture — Sujatha’s novels, Crazy Mohan’s plays…
Just the week before, I’d partaken of a meal that 67-year-old Pattappa, a fifth-generation cook, catered for a lunch at a friend’s house.The menu was delicious but limited, the serving sizes small, the refills innumerable. Just the kind of meal Pattappa is known for. “Food must never be wasted. The mark of a good cook and serving staff is that the plantain leaf must be clean at the end of a meal. Eat as much as you want, but only what you need. The staff must be attentive, and keep serving small portions so that the guest never feels food has been dumped on the leaf,” says Pattappa, who encourages clients to opt for a traditional set menu that’s high on flavour and taste but low on ostentation.
The big hand of the clock inches towards 12, and Balaji, Pattappa’s son, takes one last look at the counters before the guests come in. There’s kesari flecked with pineapple, chappati with dal, ghee-scented sambar rice, rasam rice, a creamy curd rice, kovaikkai (ivy gourd) poriyal, vadaam (fries),mor milagai and pickle.
The shutters go up and the till-now quiet room comes alive with the sound of familiar greeting. “Maama, I’ve come all the way from Bangalore just to eat your saapad,” exclaims a customer, who’s grown up on food catered by Pattappa at numerous occasions — he’s been cooking for more than half a century now.
Within minutes, the 60-seater restaurant, opened just two months ago, is packed. It opens for lunch and dinner on weekdays, and there’s breakfast too on weekends.So, what prompted the move to enter the restaurant business? “A lot of people have been asking us to supply food in this part of town.
Thaligai is a step in that direction. It is also our charity arm. We keep the prices reasonable, and all proceeds go towards a trust in my mother Prema’s memory,” says Balaji. Pattappa was also responsible for steering the business and taking on wedding contracts instead of just the catering.
Meanwhile, in the kitchen, where Prema smiles from a frame on the shelf, Pattappa checks out the hygiene levels; the first lesson he learnt as a trainee cook under his uncle Mukkur Sreenivasa Iyengar. Life’s come a long way since he started off by boiling milk in Thathachari’s house. “Maami would make the coffee. I would cut vegetables, serve the food she cooked…” his voice trails off. He was paid Rs. 60 a month then, and gradually accepted the opportunity to cook for small gatherings. People loved his feasts, and it paid well too. Cooking for a two-and-a-half-day wedding would fetch him Rs. 20.
And then, Pattappa decided to strike out on his own. He’s seen the winds of change blow in the kitchen — firewood ovens were replaced by gas stoves, and steam cooking got popular, but he drew the line at LPG cooking.
Even today, Pattappa cooks every day — in the mornings and afternoons, he’s at venues where the family is catering; mid-mornings and late evenings are reserved for Thaligai. “We decided our timings based on appa’s schedule. Our wedding catering must not suffer because of the restaurant,” says Balaji.
It’s not easy to make the switch from a business where people queue up to book you to another where you wait for people to drop in. But, Balaji says that they were firm that Thaligai will not feature a traditional feast. “This is not fast food, but food meant for those on the go. That’s why all our ‘variety rice’ dishes are pre-mixed. Our wedding specialities are different and will not be served here. What is served here, stays here,” he says. Some things are a constant; they avoid the use of garlic and onion in their food, except on rare occasions when they include onion in some of the dishes at receptions.
And so, if you wish to eat Pattappa’s famous akkara vadisal, Kasi halwa, thayir vadai, Kanchipuram idli, rava dosai, potato roast or paal payasam, you still have to wrangle for an invitation to some event he’s catering at. Even that is exclusive. “We usually work on just one event a day, except in very rare cases,” says Balaji, who adds the business is run by Pattappa, his four brothers and their six children.
All the cousins have learnt cooking watching their fathers at work. “When we were young, our gurus would never teach us the complete recipe; we had to observe and learn. When we recreated it, it would be rejected. But today, we share recipes without a second thought,” says Pattappa.
“It’s such a good feeling when someone you gave a paal payasam recipe to, calls up to tell you that it turned out well. What else does a cook want?”
So, what’s the favourite food of the man who’s had the who’s who of the city eating out of his hands? A simple poricha rasam made by his daughter-in-law Vidya. And, the bitter gourd kaaramadhu his wife used to make.
Recipe corner
Paal payasam
Ingredients:
Milk: 1 litre
Rice: 1 small ladle
Sugar: 2 small ladles
Saffron: 4-5 strands
Optional: cashew, raisins, cardamom
Method:
Pour the milk into a thick-bottomed vessel and boil on a slow flame.
Clean the rice and add to the milk. Wait till the rice is cooked.
Add the sugar and cook till creamy.
Stir in the saffron strands.
The payasam is done when it turns a pale yellow and the rice, milk and sugar come together beautifully.
If too thick, add half a cup of boiled milk.
Rest for an hour before serving.
Potato Roast
Ingredients:
Potato (ask for the variety used to make chips): 500 gm
Salt and chilli powder: to taste
Oil for frying
Method:
Boil potato with skin on, till it is cooked but firm.
Drain and set aside for 10 minutes.
Once cool, peel and dice the potato into same-sized pieces.
Heat oil and deep-fry the potato in batches.
Drain on a colander, and add salt and chilli powder.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus> Society / by Subja J Rao / Chennai – July 27th, 2016
Railway minister Suresh Prabhu on Sunday said 35,104 bio-toilets have been provided on trains and 30,000 more such toilets will installed in the current financial year.
The minister was speaking after inaugurating country’s first green corridor – the stretch between Rameswaram and Manamadurai — through video conferencing from Chennai Central railway station.
All the trains running on the section have bio-toilets. This has eliminated human defecation on the tracks.
The minister also inaugurated an upgraded free Wi-Fi at Chennai Central which uses 99 antennae provided by Google. The Wi-Fi was part of a larger plan to digitally connect Indians, a pet project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Prabhu said.
He made a fervent appeal to the Tamil Nadu government to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the railways and to participate in railway infrastructure projects.
“All your neighbouring states have signed memoranda with railways. I’ve written a letter to honourable chief minister J Jayalalithaa for her support. I’m awaiting a positive response,” he said.
Tamil Nadu has not yet signed the MoU with railways as it has demanded changes in the existing framework of rules under which a special purpose vehicle (SPV) would work.
Prabhu said Royapuram station could be developed as a third terminal in the city under a joint-venture with the state government. “We want to make terminals which would have better passenger amenities than airports,” he said.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Chennai / by Siddharth Prabhakar / TNN / July 24th, 2016
Dsudee and her family use the stove which reduces emissions, uses less fuel and cooks
Chennai:
At the crack of dawn, 14-year-old Dsudee begins an arduous journey to collect firewood. Shivering under her monkey cap and sweater, the Class 9 resident of Khalsa village in Uttarakhand struggles through rocky terrain and uneven paths. She repeats this trip thrice a day, walking nearly 18km in total. Once home, she helps her grandmother make a tall stack of rotis for the family, coughing and battling tears due to the clouds of smoke from the chulha or mud stove. But her difficult lifestyle is slowly changing for the better after ‘clean stoves’ were distributed to houses in her village as part of the Himalayan Clean Cooking Project (HCCP).
Launched by the Chennai Hub of the Global Shapers Community and the Himalayan Environment Trust in 2014, the project seeks to supply clean cooking stoves to remote mountain communities. These stoves combust the same fuels – wood and biomass – more efficiently. “We got the idea when we were stuck in a hailstorm during a trek in Himachal Pradesh. We took shelter in a hut but the smoke was suffocating,” says Varun Gunaseelan, project director.
In an article on the World Health Organisation (WHO) site dated March 2014, an estimated 700 million people in India still rely on solid fuels and traditional cook stoves for domestic cooking. It further states that having an open fire in the kitchen equivalent to burning 400 cigarettes an hour. Women and young children are considered the first victims of smoke-related acute and chronic respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. “According to WHO estimates, in 2012 there were close to 1.7 million premature deaths attributed to household air pollution from cooking in the Southeast Asia region with India shouldering the biggest burden,” it says.
After extensive research and surveys, the HCCP team distributed their first batch of single-burner stoves to all the 55 households in Sidri village in Uttarakhand, last year. “We conducted road shows and live demonstrations by boiling water. On seeing that the water heated much faster, many locals placed orders,” says Varun, adding that the stoves were provided at a discounted price of 1,000.
The village headman, Ram Singh Pawar, said that households continued to use the appliance as it produced ‘less smoke, cooked food faster and used lesser wood.’
For the next phase of the project, the team partnered with Puducherry-based social enterprise, Prakti, to provide double-burner stoves suited for Himalayan families. The stoves accommodate wood, cow dung and agricultural wastes without processing while the steel combustion chambers ensure the fuels combust more completely.
“The stoves produce 80% to 95% less smoke compared to traditional mud stoves and three-stone fires. It also uses 40% to 80% less fuel and reduces deforestation,” says Prakti program officer Mimi Liu, adding that cooking time is brought down by about 70%.
Limited access to healthcare facilities in these remote areas makes fuel-efficient stoves the need of the hour.
“Using these stoves is crucial as early exposure to large amounts of smoke and pollutants could lead to asthma, wheezing or bronchitis in children below five years and prolonged exposure can cause lung cancer,” says Dr Samantha Balaji, who is pursuing her masters in paediatrics.
The team now conducts periodic roadshows and awareness programmes through student volunteers for various mountain communities on clean cooking methods.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Chennai / Aditia Maithereya / TNN / July 24th, 2016
Despite no formal background in baking, Rinky Kothari (27) has been running her own home-based baking company called Frost Goddess for a year. City Express catches up with her to know more about her journey into baking and how it crystallised into an enterprise.
A flight steward before she took up baking, Rinky shares her opinion on both these professions. “Baking needs a lot of hard work and patience. When you put in all of that, the rewards are good and it motivates you further. I didn’t get this job satisfaction when I was an air hostess,” she begins.
Though she makes both cakes and cupcakes, she works only on themed cakes, and orders are usually delivered home. Rinky designs the cake herself according to the customer’s needs. “Designing is the toughest part. It requires a lot of creativity,” she says. “If you have the creative bentand the passion, you can make a wonderful career out of baking.”
So how does Rinky, a homemaker and a mother, manage all of it? “It’s all because of my family — their support means everything to me. In 2011, I practised baking for fun and made cakes only for my family and friends. After three years, I began to scale up my baking work to include customers from outside my family circle. Since 2015, through word of mouth and social media, I now have a steady stream of customers,” she beams.
Frost Goddess will soon have a commercial outlet in the city. Rinky mastered this skill by reading and practising it on a small scale. For orders, call Rinky at 9176631031.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / byVidya Gowri Venkatesh / July 16th, 2016
Inland fisheries production has shot up fourfold in Tamil Nadu in the last three years, said state agriculture secretary Gagandeep Singh Bedi on Tuesday.
Addressing a gathering on the occasion of the 35th foundation day celebrations of Nabard here, he said the government had taken steps for enhancing the production in inland fisheries. Places like Mettur and Bhavani Sagar were focused and facilities at an outlay of Rs 354 crore were provided for the purpose, he added.
In his keynote address, additional chief secretary, finance, K Shanmugam sought farmers to engage in mixed farming. They could also grow vegetables for short-term income, apart from concentrating on red gram which gives better returns, he said.
Noting that Tamil Nadu recorded 120 lakh metric tonne of agricultural production last year, he said that the state was targeting 140 metric tons of production this year.
Farmers clubs, which adopted innovative methods and technologies and played a proactive role in ensuring agricultural prosperity for bringing change in different spheres at village level, were felicitated on the occasion.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Chennai / Yogesh Kabirdoss / TNN / July 12th, 2016
