Category Archives: Business & Economy

Seminar recalls S Ramanujan

Business & Economy, Education, Historical Links, Pre-Independence, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Leaders, Records, All, Science & Technologies

On Monday the Society for Promotion of Science & Technology in India organized a seminar on India’s Contribution to Mathematics and Legacy of Srinivasa Ramanujan at DAV College in Chandigarh’s Sector 10.

Professor M. S. Sriram of the University of Madras and Professor A. K. Agarwal of Panjab University spoke. Explaining the significance of mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan who died in 1920 at the age of 32, they said that during his lifetime, he was as a creative genius who generated a plethora of formulae. His discoveries appeared simple and yet there was more to them than initially met the eye and because of these theorems, new directions of research were opened up, Over the past 60 years, as nearly all of Ramanujan’s theorems have been proven right and appreciation of his work and brilliance have grown.

His work now pervades many areas of modern mathematics and physics. As a tribute to Ramanujan, the Government of India declared December 22 – Ramanujan’s birthday to be ‘National Mathematics Day and  2012 has been designed National Mathematical Year.

Speakers expressed their concern that Indian is not producing enough mathematicians. They said there is a general perception in our society that the pursuit of mathematics does not lead to attractive career possibilities.

source: http://www.DayandNightNews.com  Home> The Capitol / Tuesday, November 27th, 2012

Modified Cape gauge locos flagged off for export to Mozambique

Business & Economy, Science & Technologies, World Opinion

EMERGING POWER: Commissioner of Police Shailesh Kumar Yadav flagging off the locos at Golden Rock Railway Workshop in the city on Thursday. P.Mahesh, Chief Workshop Manager, Golden Rock Railway Workshop, is in the picture. /  Photo: M. Moorthy / The Hindu

Workshop has been exporting MG locos to several countries

Two in-service broad gauge locomotives converted into Cape gauge ones for Mozambique by the Golden Rock Railway Workshop were flagged off for export from here on Thursday.

The conversion, to suit the requirement of the Mozambique Railway network, was carried out by reducing the gauge distance from 1676 to 1067 mm. The horse power of one of the locomotive was upgraded from 2,400 to 3,100 HP and from 1,800 to 2,400 HP in the other.

The workshop had also carried out a series of modifications to increase the horse power by providing higher displacement turbo super charger, upgraded fuel injection equipment, larger capacity air intake cooler and micro processor controlled excitation system.

Several other special features have also been included. A plate type oil cooler to improve cooling efficiency of the engine lubricating system, self cleaning centrifugal lubricating oil filter system to increase life of engine oil, stainless steel interior panel in one of the locomotives and fibre reinforced plastic panel in the other, long-life polyurethane exterior painting and upgraded brake system have been provided. One of the locomotives also has an air-conditioned cabin.

The locomotives were flagged off by Shailesh Kumar Yadav, City Police Commissioner, in the presence of P.Mahesh, Chief Workshop Manager, and R.K.Rana, General Manager, RITES. The Golden Rock workshop has been exporting metre gauge in-service locos to various countries such as Malaysia, Myanmar, Mozambique, Mali, Senegal, Tanzania, Sudan, and Benin. The shop has exported 133 metre gauge locomotives to these countries through Rail India Technical and Economic Service and Indian Railway Construction Company. The exported locos also include 34 in-service metre gauge locomotives converted into Cape gauge for Mozambique and Sudan.

source: http://www.TheHindu.com / Home> News> Cities> Tiruchirapalli / by Special Correspondent / Tiruchi, November 23rd, 2012

630 entrepreneurs evince interest in setting up poultry units

Business & Economy, Nature, Science & Technologies

Perambalur district allocated Rs.2.85 crore subsidy for poultry development

So far 630 entrepreneurs have evinced interest in setting up poultry units in Perambalur district in tune with Chief Minister’s thrust to accord fillip to the sector. (On August 3, the government came out with a slew of proposals for poultry development, including setting up of two poultry clusters in Villupuram and Sankarankoil zones covering seven districts, most of them non-poultry regions. It also announced financial assistance of Rs.20.31 crore for setting up farms with a capacity of 1,000-5,000 birds. The plan is to set up 230 poultry farms in each of these districts. Besides, Rs.2.4 crore had been granted for setting up poultry units in 16 districts).

Perambalur district is one among the seven districts and it has been allocated Rs.2.85 crore subsidy for poultry development.

Inaugurating the preliminary works for setting up a poultry unit at Keezhapuliyur on Saturday, Collector Darez Ahamed said that for a 5,000-bird unit the bank loan would be Rs.8.25 lakhs. Once the unit starts functioning, the entrepreneur would get Rs.2,06,250 (the State government’s subsidy of 25 per cent of the project cost).

Besides, once 75 per cent of the loan is settled by the entrepreneur, the remaining 25 per cent would be remitted to the bank by National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development through its poultry capital fund.

Selected beneficiaries would be given training by Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University training centres on setting up poultry units, distributing fodder, and identifying and preventing diseases.

Mr.Ahamed pointed out that 630 applications had been received for setting up poultry units in the district and steps had been initiated to establish units for 87 applicants who had space and bank loan. Apart from Keezhapuliyur, construction for eight more poultry units began on Saturday at Ezhumur, K.Pudur, and Murukkangundi villages, the Collector added.

source: http://www.TheHindu.com / Home> News> Cities> Tiruchirapalli / by G. Sathyamoorthi / Perambalur, November 25th, 2012

GIS in green polyhouses to aid Kodai farmers

Business & Economy, Green Initiatives/ Environment, Nature, Science & Technologies

Madurai:

A horticulture farm in Gundupatti in Kodaikanal block of Dindigul district has gone high-tech with the installation of the GIS (geographic information system), as part of a pilot project. The GIS provides global access to promote site-specific farming for the first time in Tamil Nadu.

According to S Raja Mohamed, deputy director horticulture (Central schemes) Kodaikanal, the programme has been launched with the objective of locating polygreen houses using GIS. It is being built with the help of subsidy assistances from the National Horticulture Mission  (NHM) for the year 2012-13, in the spatial imagery and to add the attribute data (obtained during the field work) to those polyhouse features.

The GIS-initiative project was taken up by the department of horticulture, Kodaikanal division in co-ordination with the agriculture engineering department, Dindigul division and Remote Sensing and GIS Lab, ECE department, Thiagarajar College of Engineering (TCE). The processes involved includes the raw imagery (the satellite imagery of the location containing the poly houses is obtained), geo-referencing (the spatial data is geo-referenced using the particular toolbar), digitisation and photo-annealing (the images of the polyhouses are also attached with the point features by defining a field of type ‘raster’).

Mohamed said that development and implementation of precision farming or site-specific farming has been made possible by combining the GPS and GIS. These technologies enable the coupling of real-time data collection with accurate position information, leading to the efficient manipulation and analysis of large amounts of geospatial data.

GPS-based applications in precision farming are being used for farm planning, field mapping, soil sampling, tractor guidance, crop scouting, variable rate applications and yield mapping in the developed countries. The carnations grown in polyhouses in Kodaikanal are of international quality coming next only to their famous Columbian counterparts. If accessible over the GPS, cut flower cultivators in the region can become global entrepreneurs without the interference of middlemen as their buyers can get details about them from anywhere in the world.

Precision farming is now changing the way farmers and agribusinesses view the land from which they reap their profits. Position information system provides position data with acceptable degree of accuracy, available on demand at any time and at any location and is able to interface with other equipment. Farmers using the GPS system have the advantage of utilizing their land to the maximum.

According to Mohamed and G Kandasamy, deputy director of horticulture (state schemes), four poly green houses of 8,754 sq metres, belonging to four beneficiaries of Gundupatti in Kodaikanal block, were built with the subsidy being provided under NHM during the year 2012-2013.

With the help of the agriculture engineering department, Dindigul, ground control points (GCP) with GPS measurement for the poly houses were taken and were processed with the help of R A Alaguraja, associate professor, ECE department, TCE for representing these poly houses using GIS.

Mohamed said that the GIS would provide a big advantage to farmers especially those into the floral industry, which is the cut flower industry.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / Home> City> Madurai / by Padmini Sivarajah, TNN / November 22nd, 2012

Solar energy soon to power Koyambedu Market, CMDA and TNHB buildings

Business & Economy, Green Initiatives/ Environment, Science & Technologies

 Minister R Vaithilingam planting saplings at Koyambedu on Thursday as the Mayor looks on | P Jawahar

In a green initiative, the State government is exploring the possibility of tapping solar power for Asia’s largest perishable goods wholesale market.

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Department, Phanindra Reddy, told Express that Housing and Urban Development Minister R Vaithilingam is keen on exploring solar energy for Koyambedu Wholesale Market Complex, Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority as well as Tamil Nadu Housing Board buildings. Currently, talks are going on with Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency in this regard, the official said.

Meanwhile, Vaithilingam along with mayor Saidai Duraisamy planted saplings near the flower market. The drive to plant 1,000 saplings is part of an initiative to redevelop the market, which also includes landscaping, construction of a compound wall and rainwater harvesting. CMDA sources said a tender has already been floated for the construction of the compound wall.

Also, tenders have been floated for laying concrete in the open area between the flower and fruit markets. Interestingly, CCTVs are also to be installed in the complex, officials said.

But, garbage and lack of water and bathroom facilities are some of the major issues still plaguing the market. Traders also complained about illegal parking of omni buses, which affects the movement of vehicles in the area.

Sources said work to develop the omni bus stand opposite the Koyambedu market is progressing and four acres of land has been identified.

Sources also said one acre of land behind the flower market has been identified for processing garbage from the market.

Interestingly, MMC officials say that although CMDA had allotted land acquired by it in the 1980s from Tamil Nadu Housing Board for vermin-compost, separation of garbage for the nearby bio-methanation plant as well as banana stem process, the plant could not be put to use due to a court battle over the rights of the land.

Meanwhile, traders also brought to light the lack of water in Koyambedu market. CMDA officials said the market is without water as the traders are yet to pay dues to Metro Water, which cut its connection. “The issue could be sorted out through discussions with Metro Water as well as traders who should be willing to pay their dues,” a senior CMDA official said.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / Home> Cities> Chennai / by C. ShivaKumer – Chennai / November 16th, 2012

WRI eyes advanced research through MoU with Japanese institute

Business & Economy, Sports

 R. Easwaran, General Manager, WRI & Labs, and Prof. Manabu Tanaka of JWRI, Osaka University, Japan, displaying MoU in the city. A.V. Krishnan, ED, BHEL Tiruchi, is in the picture. / Photo by Special Arrangement /

JWRI professors conduct seminar for BHEL engineers

In its pursuit to become a world class institution in the field of welding and joining of metals, the Welding Research Institute (WRI), BHEL Tiruchi, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Joining and Welding Research Institute (JWRI), Osaka University, Japan.

R. Easwaran, General Manager, WRI & Labs, and Prof. Manabu Tanaka of JWRI exchanged the MoU documents on Thursday in the presence of A.V. Krishnan, Executive Director, BHEL-Tiruchi, and other senior executives.

Consultancy

As various core industries, including space, power, automobile, ship building, railways and strategic sectors invariably depend on the welding science for improving productivity, quality and services, the WRI offers consultancy enabling the manufacturing industries to bring in low cost automation and process control, Mr. Krishnan said.

Mutual benefit

The JWRI’s fundamental research and WRI’s expertise in applied research will be of mutual benefit leading to advanced research in the science of welding, Prof. Manabu Tanaka added.

Subsequently, professors of JWRI conducted an international seminar that had the participation of engineers of BHEL and students of BHEL – PSG programme.

Research

Presentations on ‘Plasma Diagnostics and Simulation of Welding Arcs’ by Prof. Manabu Tanaka, on ‘Time Resolved X Ray Diffraction analysis of phase transformation of steel weld’ by Prof. Hidenori Terasaki, and on ‘Macro and Micro plasticity analysis for fatigue life assessment of steel’ by Prof. Seiichiro Tsutsumi of JWRI exposed participants to the depth of research works at JWRI.

source: http://www.TheHindu.com / Home> News> Cities> Tiruchirapalli / by Special Correspondent / Tiruchi, November 09th, 2012

‘Entrepreneurs need to be versatile, proactive’

Business & Economy, Education

 Common goal: Suresh Bose, Head – HR, Sterlite Copper Private Ltd, Tuticorin, addressing a meeting of Business Line Club of the Department of Management Studies of Dr Sivanthi Adithanar College, Tiruchendur, on Sunday.

Madurai, NOV. 7:

A successful entrepreneur does not reach the top of the pyramid by chance. He/she should have in him/her three significant skills to succeed, namely, being sweet, smart and humble. These need to be combined with hard work, forethought and long-term vision and mission to take them to the peak, according to Suresh Bose, Head – HR, Sterlite Copper Private Ltd, Tuticorin.

Addressing a meeting of Business Line Club of the Department of Management studies of Dr Sivanthi Adithanar College, Tiruchendur, on Sunday, he said that entrepreneurs of the present generation who have succeeded have demonstrated these skills very well. Citing the real experiences of Anil Agarwal, founder of Vedanta Group, of which Sterlite is a part, he said that the group had made many strides in its industrial production, exhibiting the significance of these skills.

Basic understanding of the business module is a prerequisite for success, he added. Diversification of the business to other core competency areas add more value and weight in keeping the financial results growing on the right track, he said.

He stressed on the need to stay well connected with a business daily, and appealed to students to nurture the practice of staying tuned to the habit of reading a business newspaper to build their confidence level and overall awareness of the market scenario. Stating that a challenging market awaited their entry, he stressed on the need to be versatile and proactive, engaging themselves in group discussions and role plays as part of improving their communication skills.

He also appealed to them to make periodical industrial visits during their academic career and get to know the realities in the corporate world as part of their curriculum so that they become market ready while they moved out of the gates of the institution.

Highlighting the various eco-friendly activities of Sterlite Copper, he said that budding management students should always look for synchronising the business models with the economy and allocate a permissible budget to give back to the society the due share as part of social cause.

G. Sathish Kumar, Sales Executive, The Hindu, Tirunelveli, earlier gave a brief introduction on the BL Club activities. Dr Tamilarasan, Head of the Department was also present.

source: http://www.TheHinduBusinessLine.com / Home> News> Education / by Hindu’s Correspondent / Madurai, November 07th, 2012

Grape farmers take the road to profit

Business & Economy, Green Initiatives/ Environment, Nature

Farm fresh grapes at farm gates – farmers become entrepreneurs by taking to direct marketing

Even as farmers all over the country are struggling to market agri-produces and cursing middlemen and commission agents for paying poor price, that are not meeting even their production costs and appealing to the governments to fix better price for their produces, grape growers in Dindigul district have brought a revolutionary change in the way they are marketing their fruits, creating a model, that is best, for their counterparts in other areas to emulate.

‘Farm fresh grapes at farm gate’ is their marketing concept. They neither spend single paisa for marketing and nor run from pillar to post in search of customers. Above all, their customers are anywhere in India.

A vast stretch of four-lane National Highway-7 between Kodai Road and A Vellode is their prime market base and their main customers are not the local people. They come from all corners of India to their farm gate to buy farm fresh grapes.

Multi-colour flex boards describing high quality farm fresh grapes greet these travellers on both sides of the NH-7. Men and women, holding out bunches of fresh grapes in their hands, too signal these customers to stop their speeding vehicles. Dawn-to-dusk is the sale time.

To satisfy such valuable customers, innovative farmers lure them with unimaginably cheaper prices. Customers can get one kg of grapes for Rs.30 a kg, enjoying 33 per cent rebate on prevailing market price. (Grape price at fruits shops in towns is Rs.45 and Rs.50.)

Another major benefit is that customers buy fresh fruits plucked from the farm before their eyes. Shelf life is also high for these fruits. At the same time, farmers register a three-fold profit.

“When we sell it to commission agents, they fix different prices for every plucking. They reduce the price for fruits during second and third plucking. It is hard to get Rs.10 a kg for the best quality. If the production is high, prices will crash to Rs.7 and some times to Rs.6 a kg. With no storage facility, we cannot stock plucked fruits and are forced to sell to agents at a very low price,” says Muthu Pandi of Uthupatti in Nilakottai block. “Now, we pluck fruits on the basis of demand. Post harvest loss is very less. Freight charge is nil,” he adds.

“We sell at least 300 kg a day on weekdays and 400 to 500 kg on weekends,” say many farmers.

This silent revolution is making ripples in that area. Today, many growers have come to the street to boost their income and profit margin. Some progressive farmers even depute farm workers in direct marketing.

At last, grape farmers have become entrepreneurs taking care of marketing on their own. Grape is being cultivated on around 150 to 200 hectares in Dindigul, Nilakottai and Athoor blocks in the district.

source: http://www.TheHindu.com / Home> News> States> Tamil Nadu / by K. Raju / Dindigul, November 06th, 2012

BPOs work harder

Business & Economy, World Opinion

Around 4 p.m. on Wednesday, R. Ganesan, was waiting desperately for an auto to slow down near Kasturibai Nagar MRTS station.

“Unlike a lot of people who are going back home, I am going to office. There will be lot of work,” said the employee of a voice-based BPO in Velachery.

With major banks in New York opening yesterday after two days of holidays owing to Hurricane Sandy, and many businesses opening today, BPO employees in Chennai who offer tele-calling  services to them faced an avalanche of work on Wednesday, and hence remained open throughout, despite howling winds and rains due to the cyclone here.

“Most of us who cater to banks and retail stores abroad had to work two shifts today,” said Arun Gopinath, a tele-caller with a BPO in Perungudi.

There are nearly 400 BPOs in Chennai that provide services for clients in the United States, including major firms such as Sutherland, Genpact and Allsec among others. “My work  normally ends at 7 p.m., but I will have to put in one more shift from 10 p.m. to 8.30 a.m.,” said Arun.

While the bigger BPOs offered pick-up facilities, the smaller ones did not do so. Thus, employees were seen stranded at many railway and bus stations. IT employees, however, could leave by 3 p.m. on Wednesday.

While bigger companies such as Cognizant, TCS, Verizon, HCL ensured that most of the buses in their fleet were plying, the smaller companies failed to do so. The suspension of MRTS services from 3.30 p.m. greatly added to the crowd waiting for buses and autos. “We got mails from our employer stating that all buses will leave between 3.p.m. and 3. 30 p.m.. To make sure everyone leaves, the office server in local offices was kept shut down,” said P.R. Sukanya, who works in Siruseri. In many firms, evening and night shifts were also cancelled.

While offices in Olympia Tech Park, on Rajiv Gandhi Salai and GST road were shut down by 3 p.m., most employees of firms in Tidal Park left by 5 p.m. Additional facilities for recreation in many tech parks were also kept closed.

“Though I left at 3 p.m., I could reach home only by 6 p.m., considering many roads in Alwarpet, Anna Salai and Velacerry were blocked due to falling of trees,” said Deepika Madhusudhan, an employee in Mahindra World City. Bus drivers, attendants and helping staff in IT companies too had a tough time getting food, with most roadside eateries and smaller restaurants having downed shutters.

“Many travel agencies have not sent their vehicles and drivers today, so some of us who drive company vehicles have to make extra trips,” said Mohammed Karim, a driver attached to a company on ECR.

source: http://www.TheHindu.com / Home> Chennai> News / November 01st, 2012

Capgemini opens new BPO centre in Tamil Nadu

Business & Economy, Science & Technologies, World Opinion

Chennai:

 French IT major Capgemini on Wednesday  announced commissioning of a 300-seat BPO facility in  Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu.

Photo: Reuters

Spread across an area of 18,000 sq ft, the new facility would increase Capgemini’s BPO strength in India where more than 6,500 full time staff are now employed.

Capgemini pioneered a hub-and-spoke delivery network model in India when it opened a spoke location in Salem in 2008 and based on its success, the company has now expanded its delivery network with the opening of the Tiruchirappalli centre that will serve as another spoke location for the hubs in Bangalore and Chennai, a company release said here.

“The new facility is part of Capgemini India’s ongoing expansion strategy for its BPO services,” B L Narayan, Head of BPO Capgemini, said. All operations at the new centre, like most of
Capgemini’s BPO services in India, will be non-voice based, the statement said.

PTI

source: http://www.FirstPost.com / Home> Firstpost> Fwire / PTI / Photo: Reuters  / October 25th, 2012