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Crimea
is an autonomous parliamentary republic within
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Russian
President cites controversial referendum held under Russian military
occupation where the decision was to secede from
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Russian
President rejects Western opposition, sayiung the same countries endorsed
Kosovo’s independence (2008) from
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US
calls it “nothing more than a land grab”, warns of more actions
against
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Saturday, March 29, 2014
Russia and Ukraine on Crimea
Same Sex marriage is legal in England and Wales
The countdown began to the
moment when same-sex marriage becomes law in England
and Wales
Several couples are vying to
make history by saying “I do” in the first few minutes, when the historic
marriage law passed by parliament last year comes into force.
Many more plan to exchange
vows in the hours that follow, including one couple who will perform almost the
entire ceremony — barring the legal declaration — in song for a television
programme entitled “Our Gay Wedding: The Musical”.
Civil partnerships have been
legal since 2005 and marriage brings no new rights — the ability to adopt, for
example, was introduced in 2002. But campaigners demanded full equality with
heterosexual couples.
Gay marriage was championed
by Prime Minister David Cameron’s government, and a rainbow flag will fly over
government offices in London England England
The Church of England had opposed same-sex
marriage, insisting weddings should only take place between a man and a woman,
and secured an exemption from the new law. The House of Bishops last month also
warned clergy they should not bless
married gay couples. But Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, the leader of
the world’s 80 million Anglicans, indicated that the Church would no longer
campaign against the issue.
In Brighton ,
Neil Allard and Andrew Wale hope to be the first gay couple to get married by
exchanging vows at one minute past midnight in the picturesque surroundings of
the Royal Pavilion. In London
Fifteen countries have
legalised gay marriage and another three allow it in some areas, but
homosexuals remain persecuted in many parts of the world.
New Chief Secretary for Tamil Nadu
Mohan Verghese Chunkath, now
Additional Chief Secretary heading the State Department of Environment and Forests,
has been promoted Chief Secretary. The 58-year-old Mr. Chunkath succeeds Sheela
Balakrishnan, who has been appointed Adviser to the State government. Ms. Balakrishnan,
who is retiring on March 31, will hold the post for one year or till the need
for it ceases. She has been the Chief Secretary since December 31, 2012 and her
predecessor, Debendranath Sarangi, was Advisor to the government for two months
after retirement.
Born in Thrissur, Mr. Chunkath,
who holds a post-graduate degree in Zoology, has been heading the Department of
Environment and Forests since December 2012. He belongs to the 1978 batch of
IAS officers and his wife, Sheela Rani, is his batch mate too. In his 36-year-long
innings, he held various positions including the Collector of Dharmapuri
district and Secretary in charge of Higher Education Department. As the
Chairman-cum-Managing Director of the Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency
about six years ago, he identified solar energy as an area to be promoted
vigorously.
Known for keeping a low
profile, Mr. Chunkath is a well-known scrabble player and he has won many
tournaments. Two years ago, his publication - Nature Rambles (Mover
Books) – was launched and veteran agriculture scientist M. S. Swaminathan
hailed him for showcasing urban biodiversity heritage through just 200 examples
of the variety of nature in Chennai.
Annual Survey of Industries in Indian States
The latest Annual Survey of
Industries done by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) said that, Karnataka
has overtaken Gujarat to become the second-best state in industrial performance
behind Maharashtra .
Maharashtra continued to lead
the tables of net value added in 2011-12, according to the Annual Survey of
Industries (ASI), while Gujarat slipped to
third position for the first time in more than decade, possibly because of the
slowdown in exports. Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh are fourth and fifth on the
list. Gujarat’s economic
performance has been subject to much scrutiny after the BJP named the state’s
chief minister Narendra Modi as its Prime Minster candidate and has unleashed a
campaign promising to take the Gujarat model
of development to the national level.
While it comes with a lag of
two years, ASI is regarded as providing more reliable data compared with the
index of industrial production (IIP), as it’s based on the audited numbers of
companies. Karnataka improved its position considerably from sixth place in
2010-11 to second in 2011-12, with its net value added growing nearly three
folds since 2009-10 to Rs.10,310 crore. The all-India
Pronab Sen, chairman at National Statistical
Commission, said that ASI net value added was a fair way of looking at the
states’ industrial performance and Gujarat’s falling performance could be
partly attributed to the tax incentives in other states. He said, Gujarat has
had its problem where its industry has been dominated by pharma and
petrochemical firms and due to tax breaks given in Himachal Pradesh and
Uttarakhand, Gujarat ’s pharma firms are
opening units there. Former Planning Commission member YK Alagh said Gujarat benefited in periods of high global growth
(2002-2008 in the last decade), but it correspondingly suffers in periods of
recession-2009 onwards. Incidentally, India
Economic performance is
generally measured in value added terms to avoid double counting. In terms of
total output, however, Gujarat was second to Maharashtra
in 2011-12, while Karnataka was fourth.
ASI covers units registered
under the Factories Act with 10 or more workers on any day of the previous
year, where manufacturing is carried out using a power source of some kind and
20 and more workers in case where power is not used.
Tamil Nadu had the highest
number of factories in 2011-12 at 36,996, followed by Maharashtra, Andhra
Pradesh and Gujarat.
After India abstained vote in UNHRC, Sri Lanka release all Indian fishermen
Sri Lankan President Mr. Mahinda
Rajapaksa ordered the release of all Indian fishermen in the island nation’s
custody. The announcement, termed a “goodwill gesture” by the President’s
office, comes a day after India
abstained from voting on the U.S.-backed resolution on Sri Lanka at the U.N. Human Rights Council
session in Geneva India ,
abstaining — Mr. Rajapaksa told news agency that, it is encouraging that India
The release of fishermen
strengthens the possibility of the two governments holding the second round of
fishermen’s talks here that was earlier cancelled, reportedly due to Tamil
Nadu’s refusal to send its fishermen unless those in custody. A total of 98
Indian fishermen are in Sri Lankan custody. They would be released over the
next few days after the magistrate courts processed their release orders.
Friday, March 28, 2014
Thursday, March 27, 2014
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
No need to target Narendra Modi: AIADMK
The AIADMK took the view that
there was no need to criticise the BJP or its Prime Ministerial candidate, Narendra
Modi, as it is the Congress-led UPA that has been responsible for the present
crisis in the country. The ruling party’s explanation, published in the
AIADMK’s organ, Namadhu MGR, comes as a counter to CPI(M) state
secretary G. Ramakrishnan’s poser as to why the Chief Minister Jayalalithaa was
silent on the BJP and Mr. Modi in her poll campaign.
Asking why the Gujarat Chief
Minister should be targeted here, the AIADMK organ said that after all
“elections are held for the Lok Sabha. It is the ‘Italian Congress’ that
joined hands with the DMK and swindled the nation. What is the need for
criticising the BJP and the Modi?”.
The AIADMK’s contention is
that while the Congress-led UPA was involved in a series of scandals including
the 2G spectrum scam, Adarsh Housing Society scam, the Commonwealth games scam
and in purchase of helicopters, “there is no necessity to target the BJP”.
The AIADMK also wanted to
know why Mr. Ramakrishan, espousing secularism and harping on DMK leader M. Karunanidhi’s
lamentations, had spared the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam leader Vijayakant
who had aligned with the BJP.
“That is why we have kept
away from both saffron and khadi. The hue and cry of Mr. Ramakrishnan’s cannot
divert the efforts of Chief Minister Jayalalithaa to form a government that
will secure the rights of Tamil Nadu,” the party organ said.
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
United States of India
MDMK chief Vaiko has called
for revoking the ban on LTTE and strengthening the country’s federal structure
on the lines of the USA, a demand which is unlikely to go down well with his
national ally, the BJP. Releasing his party’s manifesto in Chennai, Vaiko said India
The party,in its manifesto, vowed
to revoke the ban on LTTE and work towards a separate homeland for Tamils in Sri Lanka
“To safeguard unity and
integrity of the country and strengthen federalism by giving powers to the
state,there is a need to review the Constitution,” he said.
BJP spokesperson Nirmala
Seetharaman said parties could have their own manifestos. “But a common minimum
programme for any coalition government will be worked out on the basis of which
the government will function,”she said.
Sunday, March 23, 2014
Classified 1962 war report revealed for first time
For the first time, a large
section of the still classified Henderson Brooks Report, which details a
comprehensive operational review of India New Delhi
Thursday, March 20, 2014
Economic Freedom of Indian State
The Economic Freedom of the
States of India report 2013 has shown that the Narendra Modi-helmed Gujarat remains at number one. This is an index that
measures governance, growth, citizens' rights, and labour and business
regulation among the country's 20 largest states. Equally, Bihar
gets a huge vote of affirmation for the work done by Nitish Kumar since he took
over as chief minister (CM) in 2005. The report states that Gujarat
has widened its lead at the top of the economic freedom table with an index
score of 0.65 (on a scale from 0 to 1.0) while Tamil Nadu remains in second
position with 0.54.
The annual report estimates
economic freedom based on data for 2013 using a methodology adapted from the
Fraser Institute's Economic Freedom of the World (EFW) annual reports. The
three states recording the fastest improvement in economic freedom have been
among the fastest-growing states.
Asian Games 2014 @ Incheon
Ace archer Deepika Kumari and
double Olympic medallist wrestler Sushil Kumar are selected as the goodwill
ambassadors for the Asian Games. Three life size mascots were unveiled.
The slogan of the 17th Asian Games, “Diversity
shines here”, was depicted nicely in the road show organised in New Delhi
After the Summer Olympics,
the Asian Games may be the biggest sporting event in the world, with 36
disciplines including eight non-Olympic events, but the President of the
Incheon Asian Games Organising Committee (IAGOC), Kim Youngsoo, said that every
effort was being made towards an economically effective Games so as to give
hope for the future hosts with possibly tight budgets. It will be the third
Asian Games to be hosted by Korea
after Seoul
After expressing confidence
about delivering the best medal tally in the Asian Games, despite it being a
heavy season with the Commonwealth Games and the World Championships, Deepika
Kumari and Sushil Kumar, posed with the three mascots — Vichuon (light), Barame
(wind) and Chumuro (dance) — to cap a memorable presentation.
Saturday, March 15, 2014
Two new species of birds in Andaman & Nicobar Islands
Researchers at the Zoological
Survey of India (ZSI) in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands recently recorded two
new species of birds — the Great Short-Toed Lark and the Blue and White
Flycatcher.
K. Venkataraman, Director,
ZSI, told that the first bird (Great Short-Toed Lark) was sighted in December
last year in the Landfall Island Wildlife Sanctuary, where a sparrow-sized bird
was found foraging on the sand. The bird was photographed to confirm the identity.
The Blue and White
Flycatcher, is a migratory bird and breeds north east of China, south east of
Russia and in North Korea. The bird was sighted in the Saddle Peak
National Park
NDTV 2014 Election Forecast
Narendra Modi's BJP is set to
be the single largest party with 195 seats in the new Lok Sabha, but the
national alliance that its leads, the NDA, at 229, will fall short of a
majority, the NDTV opinion poll shows. It will need the support of 43 more MPs
to get to 272, the halfway mark in the 545-member Lok Sabha, for which
elections will be held next month.
The ruling UPA, led by the
Congress, is likely to get 126 seats only, the survey shows. The Left and other
allied parties like the Samajwadi Party and Nitish Kumar's JD(U), which have
recently announced a non-Congress, non-BJP alternate front, are set to get 55.
It
is from the "Others" column of 78 seats that the BJP will have to win
more friends to make up the numbers it needs to form government. Among them, Tamil
Nadu's J Jayalalithaa is set to add 27 and West Bengal 's
Mamata Banerjee 32 seats in massive victories in their states. Will they
support a BJP government?
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Possible ways for BJP in 272 half-way mark:
Mamata Banerjee has said an
emphatic no Narendra Modi as PM. Jayalalithaa has not and it will be to this "good
friend" that the Mr Modi is likely to look first. Smaller parties like the
JMM, Raj Thackeray's MNS, the Sikkim Democratic Front, Independents and others,
who would not be averse to supporting a Modi government can add another 14.
The BJP will still be a
couple of seats short and could well reach out to the Telangana Rashtra Samithi
or TRS expected to be the big winner in what will be the new Telangana state, with
11 seats. The TRS is as yet non-aligned having spurned the Congress' offer for
a merger and showing little enthusiasm so far to be a pre-election ally.
.png)
Friday, March 14, 2014
'Orphaned' Congress Struggles to Identify Candidates in TN
Finding 39 candidates for
Tamil Nadu is proving to be an uphill task for the Congress which is fighting a
lonely battle in the State with no political ally. And that seems to be the
reason why the party top-brass tried to persuade senior leaders and sitting MPs,
including Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, not to shy away from the polls.
But Chidabaram, it seems, has
advised the Congress leadership to convert the challenge into an opportunity. A
top party leader coming out of a meeting of the Central Election Committee said
that the FM “was not agreeable, he’s in retirement mode, wanted the next
generation to take over the mantle.’’
It seems, Chidambaram during
the discussion said: ‘Why field the same tired faces, why not try something new.’
His son, Karti Chidambaram’s name has been doing the rounds as a replacement
for him in Sivaganga constituency.
Meanwhile, in Salem, speculations
as to whether former Salem MP and former Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) president KV Thangkabalu will contest from Salem or not
were laid to rest on Monday as the leader has decided not seek election this
time. The decision comes a few days after senior Congress leader G K Vasan
announced that he would not contest in the polls.
Veteran parliamentarian and
Union Minister for PMO V Narayanasamy will contest the Puducherry Lok Sabha
seat once again, after he has been named
by the AICC as its candidate for Puducherry.
The phone call that changed Tamil Nadu Poltiics
Weeks after it happened, people
are still talking of the phone call between two women chief ministers that
changed the contours of Tamil Nadu's politics. It was a phone call from Tamil
Nadu's J. Jayalalithaa to West Bengal 's Mamta
Banerjee, discussing the possibility of a "Federal Front" after the
Lok Sabha elections. And it created a storm in the southern state's political
circles whose reverberations are still being felt.
During the conversation, Jayalalithaa
acknowledged Banerjee's warmth - that the Trinamool Congress chief has no
reservations on her heading the union government after the elections if the
numbers work out, that is. And Banerjee was celebrating the "blow" Jayalalithaa
administrated to the Left by calling off a proposed alliance in the so-called
Third Front.
Jayalalithaa wants to secure
the maximum number of seats of the 40 at stake, including one from Puducherry, as
for her, every MP counts. She aspires for the AIADMK to become a key player in
the next union government - if none of the UPA and NDA get enough seats on
their own to acquire a majority.
While the two women political
leaders rejoiced, the political strategies of Muthuvel Karunanidhi's DMK and
actor Vijayakant's DMDK swiftly changed. Karunanidhi deputed his lieutenants to
New Delhi New Delhi
Another interesting aspect of
Tamil Nadu politics is that except for Jayalalitha, the other major players - Karunanidhi,
Vijayakant, Ramadoss and Vaiko - are focused on the 2016 assembly elections and
the possible alliances then.
None of the senior Tamil Nadu
leaders, except for Jayalalithaa, want to maximise their presence in the Lok
Sabha. What is their hidden agenda? To prevent the Congress getting a foothold.
Both Jayalalithaa and Karunanidhi want the state Congress decimated.
The shrewed political
manipulation was thanks to Karunanidhi's son M.K. Stalin. It was he who
rejected the idea of an alliance with the Congress, saying the DMK should
instead focus on the 2016 assembly polls.
The other major development
of Tamil Nadu politics is a formidable combination conceived by the BJP's prime
ministerial candidate Narendra Modi - an alliance with the DMDK and also to
rope in Vaiko's MDMK and Ramadoss' PMK. If such a combination goes viral with
Modi addressing three or four rallies, the BJP will not only will gain in
organisational strength but could also claim the second slot in the state's
politics.
There are some political
pundits who bet that a Vijayakant-led front will see Jayalalithaa getting the
minimum seats and pushing the DMK to the third slot. Vijayakant's DMDK has such
a mass voter following in many parts of Tamil Nadu that the BJP wants to
capitalise on this in formulating a strategy for the 2016 assembly polls.
The DMK is a cadre-based
political party but ridden with family quarrels. The DMK has also fielded many
of Karunanidhi relatives. Thus, after the Karunanidhi era (he is 89), many
senior DMK leaders may prefer to go with the AIADMK or the DMDK - and few with
the MDMK.
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
50 years for "Kadhalikka Neramillai" film
Not very far from where it
all began, a motley group, thrown together 50 years ago, and bound by that
solitary incident, gathered on March 08, 2014. The four of them, in the
twilight of their lives, sat in Chennai’s not-yet-summer gentle shade, and
spoke about that epoch of their lives: ‘Kadhalikka Neramillai’.
The three heroines of the
film — Kanchana, Rajasree and Sachu — and one of the men behind the rip-roaring
comedy, ‘Chitralaya’ Gopu, co-writer on the film with director Sridhar, came
together, chatting merrily over cups of coffee and biscuits, talking as if they
were still on location at the Aaliyar dam bungalow; as if not a day had gone
past since.
In March 1964, ‘Kadhalikka
Neramillai’ broke out on celluloid screens in the South, in glorious Eastman
Colour, with songs (by Vishwanathan-Ramamoorthy) that were an instant hit. It
was a romcom (romance and comedy), in the days before the word came into being,
probably, and from a director known for his pathos and gripping scenes that
wrenched tears out of you.
Gopu, Sridhar’s buddy, says,
“We were sitting in a car on the Marina
“We were so thrilled to be
working with Sridhar sir,” the women chorus. Kanchana, an airhostess, made her
debut; Rajasree, the Telugu actor, got a break in Tamil; and though Sachu had
started as a child star, this was her first solid role. “Sridhar sir had the
courage to introduce fresh faces,” says Sachu. From time to time, they crack up
at the recollection of a fond, shared memory. The loudest laughs are reserved
for reminiscing about the legendary scene between Nagesh and Balaiah, where the
former is narrating a horror story.
“I was standing behind,
trembling to control my laughter. The moment the scene was over, the entire
team began to laugh, so hard, we soon had tears running down our faces,” says
Kanchana.
Rajasree played the heroine,
not only in Tamil, but also in Telugu (‘Preminchi Choodu’) and Hindi (‘Pyar
Kiya Jaa’). “Those colours and the clothes… we wore nighties, and tight jeans,
perhaps for the first time in Tamil cinema. The movie breaks for interval with
a shot of a lipstick mark on a pillow. You could say it was sexy in a subdued
way, for our times,” says Rajasree.
For all the success the film
turned out to be, no one wanted to exhibit it initially. “Chitralaya, our
production house, released the film in Madras ,
at Casino Theatre, and in Madurai
As the four of them chat on,
the shadows lengthen. If you hear them speak, you cannot tell they are alone.
For them, Sridhar hovers about in spirit, as do Nagesh, Balaiah, Muthuraman and
the dashing Ravichandran.
Slowly, the spacious grounds
of Iyal Isai Nataka Mandram seem to fill up with the spirits of the departed
stars of ‘Kadhalikka Neramillai’, and this time around, there is time to love.
Sunday, March 9, 2014
Saturday, March 8, 2014
International Women's Day: India's female pres, pm, cm, gov lists
March 08, 2014
Theme: “Equality for
Women is Progress for All”
The UN theme for International Women's Day 2014 is
"Equality for Women is Progress for All". The Google Doodle on the
eve of IWD 2014 (7 March 2014) featured an International Women's day doodle
video, showing images and videos of women around the world, with music by Zap
Mama.
List of Indian female President:-
Ø Pratibah Patil: Jul 25, 2007
- Jul 25,2012
List of Indian female PM:-
Ø Indira Gandhi (Jan 24, 1966 -
Mar 24, 1977) -> 11 years and 59 days
Ø Indira Gandhi (Jan 14, 1980 - Oct 31, 1984)
-> 4 years and 291 days
Women Chief Ministers in India Republic
of India , a chief minister is the head
of government of each of twenty-eight states and two union territories (Delhi
#
|
Name
|
State
|
Total Tenure
|
Party
|
1
|
Sucheta
Kriplani
|
Uttar
Pradesh
|
1258
days
|
INC
|
2
|
Nandini
Satpathy
|
Odisha
(Orissa)
|
1278
days
|
INC
|
3
|
Shashikala
Kakodkar
|
2084
days
|
Maharashtrawadi
Gomantak Party
|
|
4
|
Syeda
Anwara Taimur
|
206
days
|
INC
|
|
5
|
Janaki
Ramachandran
|
Tamil
Nadu
|
23
days
|
AIADMK
|
6
|
Jayalalithaa*
|
Tamil
Nadu
|
AIADMK
|
|
7
|
Mayawati
|
Uttar
Pradesh
|
2554
days
|
BSP
|
8
|
Rajinder
Kaur Bhattal
|
388
days
|
INC
|
|
9
|
Rabri
Devi
|
2746
days
|
RJD
|
|
10
|
Sushma
Swaraj
|
51
days
|
BJP
|
|
11
|
Sheila
Dikshit
|
5484
days
|
INC
|
|
12
|
Uma
Bharati
|
Madhya
Pradesh
|
259
days
|
BJP
|
13
|
Vasundhar
Raje*
|
Rajasthan
|
BJP
|
|
14
|
Mamata
Banerjee*
|
AITC
|
List of Indian Female Governors:
Name
|
From
|
To
|
State
|
Sarojini Naidu
|
Aug 15, 1947
|
Mar 02, 1949
|
Uttar Pradesh
|
Padmaja Naidu
|
Nov 03, 1956
|
May 31, 1967
|
|
Vijayalakshmi Pandit
|
Nov 28, 1962
|
Oct 18, 1964
|
|
Sharda Mukherjee
|
May 05,
1977
|
Aug 14, 1978
|
Andhra Pradesh
|
Sharda Mukherjee
|
Aug 14, 1978
|
Aug 05, 1983
|
|
Kumubden Manishankar Joshi
|
Nov 26, 1985
|
Feb 02, 1990
|
Andhra Pradesh
|
Jyoti Venkatachalam
|
Oct 14, 1977
|
Oct 27, 1982
|
Kerala
|
Ram Dulari Sinha
|
Feb 23, 1988
|
Feb 12, 1990
|
Kerala
|
Sarla Grewal
|
Mar31, 1989
|
Feb 05, 1990
|
Madhya Pradesh
|
Chandrawati
|
Feb 19, 1990
|
Dec 18, 1990
|
Puducherry
|
Rajendra Kumari Bajpai
|
May 02, 1995
|
Dec 18, 1990
|
Puducherry
|
Rajani Rani
|
Apr 23, 1998
|
Jul 29, 2002
|
Puducherry
|
Fathima Beevi
|
Jan 25, 1997
|
Jul 01, 2001
|
Tamil Nadu
|
Sheila Kaul
|
Nov 17, 1995
|
Apr 23, 1996
|
Himachal Pradesh
|
Rama Devi
|
Jul 26, 1997
|
Dec 01, 1999
|
Himachal Pradesh
|
Rama Devi
|
Dec 02, 1999
|
Aug 20, 2002
|
Karnataka
|
Pratibha Patil
|
Nov 08, 2004
|
Jun 23, 2007
|
Rajasthan
|
Prbha Rau
|
Jul 19, 2008
|
Jan 24, 2010
|
Himachal Pradesh
|
Prbha Rau
|
Jan 25, 2010
|
Apr 26, 2010
|
Rajasthan
|
Kamla Beniwal
|
Nov 27, 2009
|
present
|
|
Urmila Singh
|
Jan 25,2 010
|
present
|
Himachal
Pradesh
|
Margaret Alva
|
May 12, 2012
|
present
|
Rajasthan
|
Sheila Dikshit
|
Mar 04, 2014
|
present
|
Kerala
|
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