Karuna revives TESO, demands Elam for Lankan Tamils

Reviving a pro-Ealam organisation floated nearly three decades ago, DMK President M Karunanidhi today pitched for a UN-sponsored referendum for a separate homeland (Eelam) for Sri Lankan Tamils and asked India to play a role in it. Chairing the first meeting of the Tamil Ealam Supporters Organisation (TESO) headed by him in 1985, Karunanidhi said it would promote the struggle for Tamil Ealam in "democratic and peaceful" means. "For the formation of a Tamil Ealam, UN should conduct a referendum and the Government of India should take all efforts for this purpose," a resolution adopted at the meeting presided over by the 88-year old DMK leader said.

Read more »

Ferry Boat capsizes in the Brahmaputra in Assam

According to reports, a ferry has capsized in the Brahmaputra river near Dhubri in Assam. Some reports suggest that 50 people may have died in the accident.

Assam state police chief J.N. Choudhury says the boat was carrying about 200 passengers, but details were sketchy because bad weather and the remoteness of the area hampered communication.

Read more »

UC Browser For Mobile

If you find the default IE mobile web browser to be a little clunky then give UC Browser a try.

UC Browser is designed to make mobile Web access quicker and more convenient. It's a pretty lightweight application that manages to cram in a number of interesting features without slowing down your browsing experience too much.

Viewing WAP and web sites in UC Browser is a painless experience thanks to its multiple tabs, which allow you to have several pages loaded at once in much the same way as Firefox does. You can flick between the pages simply by tapping tabs, or by using the window icon at the bottom to pull up a pop-up screen listing the tabs you have open.

Read more »

Sachin Tendulkar to be Nominated for Rajya Sabha

Sachin Tendulkar is to be Nominated for Rajyasabha MP by the UPA Government thereby the development of the Sports is expected .The above will be declared officially shortly. Sachin met Sonia and Rajeev Shukla today to discuss the matter.

Read more »

Salary of the Prime Minister of India | PM Pay-Scale Details

The Prime Minister of India, as addressed to in the Constitution of India — Prime Minister for the Union, is the chief of government, chief advisor to the President of India, head of the Council of Ministers and the leader of the majority party in parliament. The Prime Minister leads the executive branch of the Government of India.

The prime minister is the senior member of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. The prime minister selects and can dismiss other members of the cabinet; allocates posts to members within the Government; is the presiding member and chairman of the cabinet and is responsible for bringing proposal of legislation. The resignation or death of the Prime Minister dissolves the cabinet.

Remuneration

By Article 75 of the constitution of India, remuneration of the prime minister as well as other ministers are to be decided by the Parliament[14] and is renewed from time to time. The original remuneration for prime minister and other ministers were specified in the Part B of the second schedule of the constitution of India, which was later removed by an amendment.

Salary in 2009 - 100,000 (US$1,995)

Salary in 2010 135,000 (US$2,693.25)

• Salary: Rs. 50,000

• Sumptuary Allowances: Rs. 3,000

• D. A.: Rs. 62,000

• Constituency Allowances: Rs. 20,000

Hence, currently the Prime Minister of India is getting Rs. 1, 35,000 (One lakh and thirty five thousand) per month.

Read more »

Earth Day | Obama Issues Green Schools Proclamation

Pres. Obama Issues Green Schools Proclamation; Earth Day Network Calls upon Congress and the Administration to Fund Environmental Education

Earth Day Network applauds President Barack Obama’s decision to issue a Presidential Proclamation for the 42nd anniversary of Earth Day lauding the Department of Education’s new Green Ribbon Schools program. We believe, as does the Administration, that green schools provide a solid educational and environmental foundation for our nation’s schoolchildren.

Read more »

IPL 2012 Points Table

Points Table for IPL 2012 tournament which is being held at India from Apr 4, 2012 to May 27, 2012. In Indian Premier League 2012, total 76 matches will be held. The matches of Indian Premier League 2012 will be played in India till May 27, 2012. Points-Table.com helps Indian Premier

League 2012 fans to embed the code for tournament team Standings and provide information about which teams are qualify for the next round or stage.

The leading teams are Pune warriors, Mumbai Indians Delhi daredevils and Kolkata knight riders updated till 14th April, 2012

Read more »

Jadavpur University Professor Arrested for Spreading Mamata Banerjee Through FACEBOOK | Cartoon Picture Of Mamata Banerjee

A Professor of Jadavpur University was arrested for allegedly spreading the cartoons of the West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress Ms. Mamata Banerjee on the Internet.

Ambikesh Mahapatra, who is a Chemistry Professor of the University, was arrested on Thursday night on charges of forwarding "derogatory images" of Mamata to nearly 65 recipients and mocking her government policies.

The "anti-Mamata Banerjee" cartoon is based on Satyajit Ray's movie "Sonar Kella", which allegedly show Mamata and Railways Minister Mukul Roy discussing how to get rid of party MP Dinesh Trivedi, who has recently resigned as theUnion Railway Minister over passenger fare hike.

Read more »

Tsunami Warning Earthquake Hits Indonesia

An earthquake of magnitude 8.7 has been detected off the west coast of northern Sumatra, the U.S. Geological Survey says.

The epicenter of the quake was some 430 kilometers (267 miles) from Banda Aceh, the capital of Indonesia’s Aceh province, at a depth of 33 kilometers (20.5 miles).

According to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii, a tsunami watch was issued for Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Australia, Myanmar, Thailand, Maldives, United Kingdom, Malaysia, Mauritius, Reunion, Seychelles, Pakistan, Somalia, Oman, Madagascar, Iran, Uae, Yemen, Comores, Bangladesh, Tanzania, Mozambique, Kenya, Crozet Islands, Kerguelen Islands, South Africa and Singapore.

In 2004, Indonesia and many neighboring countries, including Sri Lanka, India and Thailand, have been devastated by a tsunami following a 9.1 magnitude earthquake in Indonesia’s Aceh province.

Read more »

Facebook buys Instagram

Instagram is a free photo sharing application that allows users to take a photo, apply a digital filter to it, and then share it on a variety of social networking services, including Instagram's own.A distinctive feature confines photos to a square shape, similar to Kodak Instamatic and Polaroid images, in contrast to the 4:3 asprect ratio typically used by mobile device cameras.

Instagram was initially supported on iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch; in April 2012, the company added support for Android camera phones running 2.2 (Froyo) or higher. It is distributed via the iTunes App Store and Google Play.

On April 9, 2012, Facebook announced it would acquire the company (and its 13 employees) for approximately $1 billion in cash and stock, with plans to keep it independently managed.

Read more »

Essential Power Source: Kudankulam Atomic Power Project

Kudankulam Atomic Power Project is a nuclear power station under construction in Koodankulam in the Tirunelveli district of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Construction has been delayed due to anti-nuclear protests by the locals and People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy.

Technical Details

Two 1 GW reactors of the VVER-1000 model are being constructed by the Nuclear Power corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and Atomstroyexport. When completed they will become the largest nuclear power generation complex in India producing a cumulative 2 GW of electric power. Both units are water-cooled, water-moderated power reactors.The first was scheduled to start operation in December 2009 and the second one was scheduled for March 2010. Currently, the official projections put unit 1 into operation in June 2011, and unit 2 will go in March 2012.

Four more reactors are set to be added to this plant under a memorandum of intent signed in 2008. A firm agreement on setting up two more reactors, has been postponed pending the ongoing talks on liability issues. Under an inter-government agreement signed in December 2008 Russia is to supply to India four third generation VVER-1200 reactors of 1170 MW.

The reactors have some advanced safety features like passive heat removal system, double containment, Core Catcher, and hydrogen re-combiner instead of conventional systems

Current power production status in India:
• India’s current installed capacity (end of 2010): 1,70,229 MW, from all sources
• Power generation capacity is mainly based on thermal and hydro, with about 11% from renewable energy.
• In 2010, peak power shortage was 12 %.
• Electricity demand is expected to rise by 7.4% a year during the next quarter of a century. This will see generation capacity increase five-fold in India is to supply this growing demand.

Status of Indian Renewable Power Generation

Total Installed Capacity of Renewable Power Sources

As of Feb 2011, India has over 18.3 GW of installed renewable energy capacity. Wind represents about 13 GW, small hydro represents 2.8 GW, and the majority of the remainder is from biomass installations.
Total Electricity Installed Capacity: 171.9 GW (Feb 2011)

Energy source % Share in installed capacity

Thermal 64.75%
Nuclear 2.78%
Hydro (large hydro) 21.73%
Other renewable energy sources 10.73%

Read more »

What Is VVER Reactor | VVER: Power plants: List of operational VVER installations

The VVER, or WWER, (Vodo-Vodyanoi Energetichesky Reactor; Water-Water Energetic Reactor) is a series of pressurised water reactor designs originally developed in the Soviet Union, and now Russia, by OKB Gidropress. Power output ranges from 440 MWe to 1200 MWe with the latest Russian development of the design. VVER power stations are used by

1. Armenia
2. Bulgaria
3. China
4. Czech Republic
5. Finland
6. Hungary
7. India
8. Iran
9. Slovakia
10. Ukraine and the Russian Federation.

Read more »

Thomas Kinkade, Painter of Light Dies at 54

One of most Notable artists in America, "Painter of Light" Thomas Kinkade, died suddenly Friday at his home in California, the San Jose Mercury News reports.

About Thomas Kinkade

Thomas Kinkade (January 19, 1958 – April 6, 2012) was an American painter of popular realistic, bucolic, and idyllic subjects. He is notable for the mass marketing of his work as printed reproductions and other licensed products via The Thomas Kinkade Company. He characterized himself as "Thomas Kinkade, Painter of Light", a phrase he protected through trademark but one originally attributed to the English master J. M. W. Turner (1775–1851). He also claimed to be "America's most-collected living artist"

Read more »

Veteran actresss M.Saroja passes away

Veteran actress M.Saroja, who regaled the audience with her acting in films like Kalyana Parisu, passed away due to cardiac arrest at her T Nagar residence. She was married to actor K.A.Thangavelu, and the couple tied the knot after getting paired in more than 50 films. The couple got married in Madurai at the Murugan temple during the 100th day celebrations of Kalyana Parisu, in which they had acted as husband and wife.

The duo had later on acted in more than 250 films. Saroja was such a busy actress during those days that she used to act in three shifts in the films of MGR, Sivaji Ganesan and other top actors such as N.T. Rama Rao. Her first release was Sarvadhikari and by the time she did her first film she had learnt dance, sword fights and even horse-riding as a preparation to become an actress. Along with Thangavelu, whom she used to fondly address as CAT, she ruled the Tamil film industry as a top comedian.

Behindwoods.com extends its heart-felt condolences to the bereaved family.

Read more »

Aung San Suu Kyi wins By election

Aung San Suu Kyi, chairperson of the National League for Democracy (NLD), has won Myanmar's parliamentary by-elections, securing a seat of parliamentary House of Representatives, the NLD headquarters announced Sunday night.

Suu Kyi won 75 percent of the ballots in Kawhmu township constituency in which she contested, the announcement said.

The result was available hours after the polling was closed in the afternoon at 4 p.m. (9:30 GMT), followed by counting of votes in the presence of polling station officers, candidates' election agents and 10 witnesses from the public at the scene. 

Aung San Suu Kyi, AC is a Burmese opposition politician and the General Secretary of the National League for Democracy. In the 1990 general election, her National League for Democracy party won 59% of the national votes and 81% (392 of 485) of the seats in Parliament. She had, however, already been detained under house arrest before the elections. She remained under house arrest in Burma for almost 15 of the 21 years from 20 July 1989 until her most recent release on 13 November 2010.

Suu Kyi received the Rafto Prize and the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 1990 and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. In 1992 she was awarded the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding by the government of India and the International Simón Bolívar Prize from the government of Venezuela. In 2007, the Government of Canada made her an honorary citizen of that country, one of only five people ever to receive the honor. In 2011, she was awarded the Wallenberg Medal. On 1 April 2012, her party, the National League for Democracy, announced that she was elected to the Pyithu Hluttaw, the lower house of the Burmese parliament, representing the constituency of Kawhmu.

Read more »