HTC Global Solutions, a US-based IT and IT-enabled services provider, has set up a `100 crore delivery facility at Vandalur in the city. It is part of the company’s expansion drive to increase its global business in the next few years.
Company’s president and CEO Madhava Reddy told reporters here that the facility was capable of housing 4,500 employees and would support its ITO and BPO growth. “We have invested about `100 crore in this facility so far and are planning to recruit 10,000 more people globally in the next few years,” he said.
The IT giant is also considering acquiring new units.
HTC Global Services provides its clients services ranging from Mobility, ERP, Integration, Big Data Analytics, Infrastructure Services and so on. It currently has more than 6,500 employees in India operations.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Tamil Nadu / by Express News Service / July 30th, 2014
VIT University here has decided to honour Sathish Kumar, the Vellore youth who won a gold medal for India in the 77-kg class in weightlifting in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, through a cash award. The university would felicitate him at a function to be held here after his return.
In a release VIT chancellor G Viswanathan said, the university would extend all support, including financial assistance, to Sathish Kumar, whose father N Sivalingam was also a national weightlifter and a security guard in the university.
Expressing happiness at Sathish’s achievements, Viswanathan, the founder president of the North Arcot Weightlifting Association for over 20 years said that he had done not only India and Tamil Nadu proud but also Vellore in a big way.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Tamil Nadu / by Express News Service / July 31st, 2014
Student delegates at the sixth Model United Nations at Chettinad Vidyashram
Chennai :
The valedictory of Chettinad Vidyashram’s 6th Model United Nations (MUN) was held on Sunday. The event saw the participation of over 25 schools.
This year, two delegations — The Union of European Football Association and the League of Nations — were introduced.
“The students are very enthusiastic and creative, they come up with a set of new delegations or new ideas as years pass by,” said principal Amudha Lakshmi.
This year, the MUN, saw participants from Maharashtra, Bengaluru and even the UAE.
“I came to know about MUN through my friend Pradeep, whom I met in Chennai six months ago. Most delegates in Economics and Finance council were first-timers, and teaching them was a learning experience,” said Abhishek Verma, a student from Vidya Niketan, Bengaluru, who also chaired EcoFin.
The crisis discussed in the MUN ranged from foreign military bases in sovereign nations to communal violence and child rights.
“It’s wonderful to see children passing interesting resolutions. I have learnt so much from them, their confidence and creativity impresses me,” said Dr Meena Muthaiah, correspondent, Chettinad Vidyashram.
The delegation from the US won the maximum number of awards for their hard-hitting resolutions and debates. PSBB Nungambakkam grabbed the best school delegation award.
“I’ve been a part of MUN since the time it started. I am goin to miss it next year as I will be entering college. It helped me to read newspapers, something I had long-forgotten,” said a chirpy Shreya Shriram from CV.
The function finally ended after the secretary general declared it ‘closed’.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Express News Service / July 22nd, 2014
A golden wedding anniversary had passed silently by and nobody noticed. I allude to that of Rukmini and Rajagopalan, which took place, as I see from the invitation card, on April 29, 1963.
A golden wedding anniversary had passed silently by and nobody noticed. I allude to that of Rukmini and Rajagopalan, which took place, as I see from the invitation card, on April 29, 1963. I am assuming that the couple had a happy married life and were still around to celebrate the 50 anniversary of tying the knot.
What is all this you ask. And what is so unusual about a Tambrahm wedding that happened 51 years ago? Well, in the first place, it took place in Washington, a rather unusual location for those times. And secondly, considering that it took place in an era when media was in its infancy and the Internet was something that the army used, thousands of Tamils followed the build up to the actual event with bated breath all across the world.
Those belonging to that era would have caught my drift. Those who came in later will need explanatory notes and here they are – it was in 1963 that the well-known Tamil writer, humourist and editor of the magazine Dinamani Kadir, Sa Viswanathan (Saavi) embarked on his entirely fictitious account of a Tambrahm wedding in Washington, courtesy the wealthy Mrs. Rockefeller.
The plot in brief is like this – the well-to-do Hopes family based out of New York is extremely close to the Murthy family, whose head works for the UNESCO. From Vasantha, the Murthy daughter, Loretta, the Hopes child, hears about the wonders of India. When Vasantha gets married in Thanjavur, the Hopes come down and participate in a full-length wedding.
Back in the US, the Hopes brief Mrs Rockefeller about the wondrous Tambrahm wedding and she is keen to see one; not by herself but in the company of all her family and friends. She therefore, using the good offices of Murthy, selects a South Indian couple who are to be married in Madras, to come over the US. They are of course accompanied by their respective clans, an assortment of cooks, priests, musicians (Ariyakkudi, Lalgudi and Palghat Mani Iyer) and nagaswaram artistes, countless other service providers and above all, a battalion of Mamis who are brought in to make appalams.
What follows is a grand wedding at R Street, Washington DC. Wielding a facile pen, Saavi created a hilarious account of how a Brahmin wedding is organised, contrasting it with the wonderment of the Americans. As you read it, you also get the feeling that Saavi was laughing at us. The story when serialised, was accompanied by the sketches of veteran Gopulu, making for a big hit. Alliance Publishers later released it as a book, which is still in print.
Washingtonil Tirumanam became a successful play, staged by every sabha in the city. Making his theatrical debut in it was Poornam Viswanathan. The highlight was the audience participating in the traditional procession accompanying the bridegroom, conducted every evening around the venue.
51 years later, Washingtonil Tirumanam remains evergreen – a testimony to Saavi, and our weddings that keep getting bigger.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus> Society / by Sriram. V. / Chennai – July 18th, 2014
The Chennai Corporation, in collaboration with Teaching College affiliated to Columbia University, New York, inaugurated the Centre for the Science of Learning at the Higher Secondary School in Alwarpet on Wednesday.
The centre will be customised to improve teaching capacity and to assess student potential and is said to benefit more than 80,000 students and 3,000 teachers.
“This initiative will monitor students’ performance and enable teachers to modify their methodology to suit student behaviour,” Mayor Saidai Duraisamy said at the inauguration.
Ryan Baker, associate professor of cognitive studies at Teachers College, said that common education problems could be addressed by using global tools and methodologies.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Chennai / by Divya Chandrababu, TNN / July 16th, 2014
A view of the historical shore temple at Mamallapuram, near Chennai. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Tuesday announced that six more towns in the State would get the heritage tag File photo: K. Pichumani
Thirumuruganpoondi, Kazhugumalai, Swamimalai, Punnainallur Mariamman temple, Thirupuvanavasal and Thirubhuvanam added to the list of heritage towns in the State
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Tuesday announced Rs. 1 crore each for the infrastructure development of 10 ancient and historical towns in the State
The Chief Minister told the Assembly that the State had already declared 64 places as historical and ancient towns and released Rs. 50 lakh each towards the infrastructure development of 60 towns.
Now her government decided to increase the amount to Rs. 1 crore and accordingly Thiurparamkundram, Thiruvattar, Suchindram and Kodumudi would benefit from the announcement.
She also included six more places in the list of ancient towns. They are Thirumuruganpoondi, Kazhugumalai, Swamimalai, Punnainallur Mariamman temple, Thirupuvanavasal and Thirubhuvanam
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> National / by Special Correspondent / Chennai – July 15th, 2014
She may be best known for her Grammy-winning song from Slumdog Millionaire, but there are more sides to the Chennai-based singer, songwriter and designer
On early mornings, there’s only one place to find Tanvi Shah: out at sea. The calm descends within the moment she paddles out into the waters. With the sky above and little else around, Tanvi surfs the sea’s swells, thinking. From lyrics for her next song-writing project, to rehearsing rhythms and tunes, planning song videos, even deciding band placement spots and her performance moves, this is Tanvi’s “me, myself and I” time. The energy in the vast expanses fuels her inventive spirit and this Grammy-awarded singer, songwriter and designer is bubbling over with creative energy.
This past Monday though, she’s as jittery as a spring wound tight. She hasn’t hit the water for three weeks, her band is scattered across town and she has a rehearsal to run for in an hour, for her big gig at Hard Rock on Thursday last. Start talking about her music though and Tanvi unwinds, relaxing in the obvious pleasure it gives her. “It’s a Latin night!” she says, “I’m going to be singing in Spanish, Portuguese, Brazilian, French and I may even sneak in a Hebrew song if I can manage it.” Tanvi shot to fame in 2010 when her Spanish lyrics for ‘Jai-Ho’ won her the Grammy with A.R. Rahman and Gulzar, but her love for languages roots itself way back, in her college days, studying ceramics in the U.S.
Born into a family proficient in design, Tanvi never envisioned herself a singer — “always some environment-friendly activist kind” — but her mother says she recognised voices in music even as a child. She grew up on Asha Bhosle and Kishore Kumar, and discovered Osibisa at 11, but her musical world was thrown open in an American college dormitory. With an Egyptian roommate who jived to Daniela Mercury on one side and Spanish friends who danced merengue, samba, salsa and tango on the other, Tanvi delved into a truly international culture at the Havana village parties she frequented in Washington DC. She encountered the Latin American greats — Sergio Mendez, Juanas, Pablo Alboran, Celia Cruz, Gloria Estefan — and though it took a while to understand their complex rhythm patterns, she wasn’t one to cower at a challenge.
Back in India, a chance recording of her singing a karaoke cover, reached Rahman, and in 2004, he gave her her first break with ‘Fanaa’ in the film Yuva. From Delhi 6, to Slumdog Millionaire, Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, Enthiran, Biriyani and much more, Tanvi has worked the Hindi, Telugu and Tamil playback singing circuit for a decade now, most frequently with Rahman and Yuvan Shankar Raja. “Every time I’m at a Rahman recording, he throws me a challenge — let’s sing in Spanish today, let’s try a different style today — and I come away having learnt so much about music and language. I’ve been enormously blessed to work with directors who let me improvise, explore my own talent and draw out what they believe is my potential.”
Outside films, Tanvi has collaborated with international artistes across genres, from Snoop Dogg, on the track ‘Snoop Dogg Millionaire’, to Spaniard Gustavo Alarco on her song ‘Lluvia Lejana’ and producer JHawk on her singles ‘Llamalo Amor’ and ‘Meant To Be’. Three more singles, “on love, life and just taking off on a holiday’ are set for release later this year and Tanvi currently won’t divulge news on more collaborations in the pipeline. With all this genre-hopping, is there a ‘Tanvi Shah sound’ that has evolved over time? “I don’t want there to be!” she says. I have the whole gamut of music genres available to me right now; restricting myself to one would be like eating just the cherry on the cake. I want the whole cake, the cream and the cherry!”
At home in parallel worlds: Tanvi Shah / by Special Arrangement / The Hindu
This positive addiction to productivity is what also pushes Tanvi to lead a parallel career as designer for her label Tansha. Her little office on Chamiers Road is bursting with scrapbooks, lampshades she’s fashioned from discarded liquor bottles, phone covers sprinkled with her doodles, an up-cycled design table mounted on a bicycle and even a cherry blossom tree made of duct-tape climbing across her wall, all of it drilled, chain-sawed and hammered into place by hand. Shoulder pains, bruises and fractures aren’t really deterrents, says Tanvi. “I probably have too much energy bursting inside me. But it’s when my head finally hits the pillow at night and I know I’ve achieved something today, that I’m most satisfied.”
It’s Thursday evening and the heavens have opened slushy chaos over Chennai. In a quiet corner of Hard Rock Cafe, Phoenix Mall, though, Tanvi Shah is a picture of peace. The tables around her are slowly filling up and midway through pre-concert photographs she casts quick glances at the lengthening line outside the entrance. Her band sets up on stage; Hard Rock breaks into its trademark YMCA dance, and the evening is set to begin.
A clash of cymbals, drum rolls like thunder and Tanvi opens into the sharp, seductive notes of ‘Ojos Asi’, Shakira’s Arabic-Spanish number that translates to “Eyes like Yours”. Dressed in a flowing, floral bustier dress, Tanvi belly dances to the beats, hair bouncing, bangles jangling and everyone else’s feet tapping. It’s a mainstream welcome into her world of Latin American music. Her hope though, is to open her listeners to artistes less celebrated than Shakira and Enrique Iglesias. “Within Latin American music alone, there’s Merengue, Flamenco, Pambiche and much else, and under Merengue itself there are seven sub-sections. There’s a whole wide world out there,” she says.
It’s a Portuguese song from Salvador Bahia up next, and Tanvi’s voice soars, all warmed up now and building from soft whispers into full-throated belting. She comes into her own in the Afro-Brazilian maracatu-dance inspired number about liberation. It’s all spunk and power in a call-and-answer sequence with her backing vocalists Roshni Sharon and Priya Krishnan, enough to get the crowd on their feet and dancing. For an audience that understands little Portuguese or Spanish, her music reaches out beyond language, and that’s how she wants it, “Music is universal, and as musicians we have the privilege to step into different cultures. Ninety per cent of the songs in the world say the same things, more or less, but it’s the difference in expression that really speaks to us.” Despite experimenting so broadly, Tanvi says she’s a stickler for perfection. Diction is her pet peeve and she goes into spiels about how the ‘s’ in Spanish is pronounced with a lisp in northern Spain and without one in Mexico, the difference in dialects and how all of this pans out while singing.
By now, the room has transformed into something out of Tanvi’s college days and she takes the crowd with her to the Caribbean islands this time. Playing off the beautiful tones from Shyam Benjamin’s keyboard, she rouses the crowd into singing the chorus of a song that tells of an old woman who can solve any problem with three drops of her magic potion. For her musicians too, Tanvi’s choice of genre is something of a welcoming relief. In a culture popularising rock and fusion, jazz and blues, it’s been a while since any of them have done a Latin American music-only night. With Jeoraj Stanly on drums, Allwyn Paul on a whole host of percussion, Napier Peter Naveen Kumar on the bass and Donan Murray on guitars, the band is in full form all night. By the time the skies outside have let up, Tanvi is well into the closing crowd-pleasers Beyonce’s ‘Single Ladies’ and Shakira’s ‘It’s Time For Africa’. When she finally steps off the stage, she’s tired but smiles and says, “Now, I’m happy!”
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus / by Esther Elias / Chennai – July 11th, 2014
Jasbir Kaur Chahal from London underwent a rare surgery at MIOT Hospitals seen with her husband and Mallika Mohandas,Chairman,MIOT Hospital . / Photo: K. Pichumani / The Hindu
Londoner cured of acute spine condition after stint in MIOT hospitals
Jasbir Kaur Chahal had just gotten off the phone with her mother back in England. “Mum, do you know what I had to eat now?” she had asked her, full of beans. “What’s the worst thing for me? Channa! Yes, I ate channa!” she answered, in raptures over the chickpeas she had eaten for lunch.
Jasbir waits warily for her system to react violently to the chickpeas, but the good doctors here have told the 51-year-old from London that all will be well.
Jasbir had come to MIOT International Hospitals nearly doubled up in pain. She had a history of prolonged use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (painkillers) for a serious condition that affects the spine — ankylosing spondylitis. But that was not her only problem. It was suspected that drug-induced diaphragm disease was keeping her from putting her favourite food into her mouth. She’d been on a liquid and low roughage diet for several months.
While she was careful avoiding food she thought was not good for her, after a point of time, nearly every time she ate, she’d feel ill, have bouts of diarrhoea, vomiting, and a stomach that bloated after a meal. And then there was the crippling pain that made her prone and put her in hospital often. After three years of waiting for a diagnosis through a double-balloon enteroscopy, a fed-up Jasbir made for India, and MIOT.
“You should have taken a picture of her when we came here first. She was bent over, clutching her stomach in pain and was diagnosed with depression,” her husband Joginder Singh explains. The couple came here expecting to wait a fair bit, but within a week, the diagnosis had been made, and the surgery completed, to provide relief.
‘Unprecedented’
Doctors found multiple strictures, nine places where the small intestine had narrowed to the point that food would get blocked and then build up, causing the symptoms. “We’ve looked at the literature and it certainly seems the first such case reported in India,” says George M. Chandy, director, MIOT Advanced Centre for Gastrointestinal and Liver diseases.
He goes on to explain what they did medically: S. Arulprakash, the team’s therapeutic endoscopist, performed a double-balloon enteroscopy to study the bowel; the strictures were located, after which the surgeon — V.Baskaran, director, Minimal Access Surgery — took over, removed two feet of the small intestine which had nine narrowed ring-like structures.
After having her bowel reduced by two feet, Jasbir chirps excitedly: “I feel three feet taller already.”
She is thrilled the doctors rallied around her and treated her as a person, rather than a statistic. Her natural jolly self is back after years, so much so her husband says, “I came with one wife, and it looks like I’m leaving with another!”
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Ramya Kannan / Chennai – July 05th, 2014
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are all about accessibility, and this group of youngsters is taking it closer to learners. Cloud Vidyashram, an initiative by data analytics firm Report Bee and the non-profit AMM Foundation, has taken to translating the popular Khan Academy videos to Tamil.
“The idea is to help poor children study the same stuff that Bill Gates’ children study,” said Anant Mani, co-founder of Report Bee. Language was an initial barrier that had to be overcome. When Cloud Vidyashram wrote to Khan Academy about it they were more than happy to let them do the translation. “We experimented with radio artistes and translation professionals for the videos, but finally teachers were the ones who could pull it off,’ said Anant. The videos are 95% in Tamil and include English mathematical terms. Over three months, Cloud Vidyashram has translated 42 Khan Academy videos into conversational Tamil, the kind one hears in classroom across the state. The videos will explain basic concepts of the real number system, data handling and algebra. The project is being piloted in a Chennai Corporation school in Maduvankarai and a government aided school, Sir Ramaswamy Mudaliar Secondary School, in Ambattur.
“Khan Academy is a hit among children worldwide, and has helped children who found maths terrifying to start liking it. A lot of schools across the globe have started using them in classrooms. So we thought it was ideal for our classrooms as well,” said Bharath. Indian classrooms face the ignominy of a high pupil-teacher ratio, and teacher training is nothing to write home about.
Sharanya said Class 11 students were chosen for the pilot as they were a little more relaxed after completing a board exam, and needed a refresher in the basic concepts that they will need to brush up for higher maths. A baseline study of how many Class 11 students could read a bar diagram, pie chart and other basic applications of the three concepts, taught from Class 6 onwards, showed that only around half the students had passable knowledge of it. At the end of three months an endline study will be conducted to see if there has been any impact, and if the effect has percolated to other subjects.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Chennai / by M Ramya, TNN / July 05th, 2014
An eye donation camp held here on Friday in connection with the birth anniversary of Helen Keller, has reportedly entered the Assist World Record with nearly a lakh pledging to donate their eyes.
Lions Club International, which organised the eye donation awareness camp at Quaid-E-Millath Government College for Women, claimed that about a lakh people undertook the pledge during the day, making it the biggest such programme ever.
“The last record was 22,000, and we created history today to emerge on top according to Assist World Record,” said a proud G Manilal, Governor, Lions Club district 324-A8.
Most of the volunteers were students from institutions in the city like Stella Maris and MGR University among others.
“We have circulated forms to college students of whom many have registered. The rest are waiting for their parents’ approval. We are expecting the registration to cross one lakh,” added Manilal.
Each person who registered was given a smart card, which had important medical data about him/her, including the consent to donate eyes.
Justice P Jyotimani, member, National Green Tribunal, New Delhi, distributed the eye donation smart card, which was received by popular director-actor Thangar Bachan.
Dr KS Seetha Lakshmi, principal, Quaid-E- Millath Government College, and many eminent eye surgeons attended the camp.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Express News Service / June 30th, 2014
