Posts Tagged ‘Chennai’
Written by admin on 12 May 2012
Chennai, May 12 (IANS) Chennai Super Kings captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to field against Delhi Daredevils in their Indian Premier League (IPL) encounter at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium here Saturday.
Super Kings: Mahendra Dhoni (captain), Michael Hussey, Murali Vijay, Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Srikkanth Anirudha, Dwayne Bravo, Albie Morkel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ben Hilfenhaus, Shadab Jakati.
Delhi Daredevils: Virender Sehwag (captain), David Warner, Mahela Jayawardene, Naman Ojha, Yogesh Nagar, Venugopal Rao, Irfan Pathan, Roelof van der Merwe, Morne Morkel, Varun Aaron, Umesh Yadav.
Tags: Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Posted in National, Sports | No Comments »
Written by admin on 12 May 2012
Chennai, May 12 (IANS) The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Saturday decided to invite Pakistan’s domestic Twenty20 champions for the Champions League tournament to be hosted by India in October.
The BCCI working committee’s decision to invite a Pakistani domestic team means domestic Twenty20 champions Sialkot Stallions, led by Shoaib Malik, would be seen in action in October.
Bilateral cricket ties between India and Pakistan have been put on hold after the terrorist attack in Mumbai in 2008 by Pakistani nationals.
“The Working Committee has decided to invite a team from Pakistan to play in Champions League Twenty20 to be held in October,” BCCI president N. Srinivasan told reporters after the working committee meeting.
“This is a recommendation that the BCCI will make to the Governing Council. CLT20 is owned by BCCI, Cricket Australia, and Cricket South Africa. So we will recommend to the Governing Council that the BCCI has no objection and is prepared to invite a Pakistan team in the Champions League.
“CLT20 will be played in India. As far as inviting a Pakistani team is concerned, it will be done by the Governing Council. The BCCI will make the recommendation to the Governing Council which will decide on the matter,” he added.
During the meeting, the BCCI also decided that from the surplus of IPL, the board will make a one-time benefit payment to cricketers who have retired before 2003-04 in recognition of their services to Indian cricket, in both international and domestic levels. Around Rs.70 crore will be distributed among 160 cricketers.
The BCCI also decided to set up its Anti-Corruption Unit on the lines of the one in the International Cricket Council (ICC).
The working committee also approved a limited number of friendly matches to be played by IPL teams with associate and affiliate countries of the ICC, between June and August, subject to guidelines to be framed by the BCCI.
Tags: Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Posted in Cricket, National, Sports | No Comments »
Written by admin on 12 May 2012
Chennai, May 12 (IANS) The first unit of the protest-hit nuclear power project at Kudankulam is about to be commissioned. Officials have initiated the process to remove its dummy fuel.
The Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KNPP) moved closer to going on stream as officials began the process to open the reactor’s pressure vessel, its inspection and removal of dummy fuel.
“We got the permission from the AERB (Atomic Energy Regulatory Board) chairman May 10 and have started the process like removing the control rod drive assembly. It will take at least one week for us to take out the dummy fuel,” R.S. Sundar, site director of the KNPP, told IANS over phone.
Dummy fuel is similar to the real fuel in terms of specifications but without enriched uranium.
Sundar said a Croatian team belonging to HRID Ltd will inspect the reactor pressure vessel and other systems.
“A task force team from AERB and team from NPCIL (Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd) will also be here while the inspection of the reactor pressure vessel is on,” Sundar added.
NPCIL, India’s nuclear reactor operator, had sent its application to AERB for opening the reactor pressure vessel and the removal of dummy fuel in March and an application for loading the real fuel has also been submitted to the sectoral regulator.
The AERB will study the inspection reports before giving its nod for loading the fuel.
NPCIL chairman and managing director S.K. Jain told IANS that the real fuel loading process will be completed by May or June.
NPCIL is setting up two 1,000 MW lightwater reactors at Kudankulam in Tirunelveli district, around 650 km from here.
The first unit was to become operational last December but hit a hurdle when residents of surrounding villages opposed the project fearing for their lives and the state government passed a resolution urging the central government to stop all project related works.
To resolve the issue, the central and state governments set up two panels.
The central panel submitted its final report Jan 31. The Tamil Nadu government set up an expert committee, which too favoured the project.
In March this year, the state government gave its green signal to the project and also announced Rs.500 crore for local area and infrastructure development. Following that, work at KNPP was restarted.
The anti-KNPP agitators under the banner of People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) have demanded safety drills for locals before commissioning of the reactor.
Jain said there are three types of safety drills that are conducted prior to loading the nuclear fuel — Plant emergency, site emergency and off-site emergency.
The first two of these drills have been completed, the official said.
“The plant emergency is declared if any system malfunctions. Under this drill, all the plant personnel are required to assemble at a designated place if a warning is sounded.”
“The second drill is site emergency that applies to all those present within 1.6 km radius of theplant. They too have to assemble at a designated place on hearing a warning sound in case of an emergency,” he said.
The off-site emergency drill is conducted by district administration officials.
“We have trained the district administration officials on safety drills such as traffic diversion and informing the people about how to react in an emergency. Training on evacuating people and handling other emergency situations will be done before the reactor goes critical,” Jain said.
Tags: Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Posted in Business, National | No Comments »
Written by admin on 11 May 2012
Chennai, May 11 (IANS) Delhi Daredevils coach Eric Simmons preferred to hedge his bets as he stressed on the obvious, saying his team needed to be on guard against the Chennai Super Kings whom they meet in a crucial Indian Premier League game here Saturday.
At a media interaction here Friday, Simmons, who is also the bowling coach of his team, pointed out that since the Daredevils are currently on top of the league table with 18 points, it is all the more reason why they should expect their opponents to strike hard.
“The higher you are on the table, the more freedom the opposition takes against you. They will take more chances. Not just in that perspective, but CSK is a very good side. They are full of quality and will take a lot of chances. So they will be particularly dangerous in the game tomorrow,” Simmons said.
The Super Kings, languishing on 13 points, are in a must-win situation as their hopes of making the play-offs hinge on them winning all their remaining games.
Simmons, while admitting that all-rounder Albie Morkel presents a huge threat to Daredevils, pointed out that his team needs to plan against each of the Super Kings batsmen and, more importantly, execute the plans on the field.
“We got to seek answers from his (Albie) brother Morne, but that is one of the great things about IPL when international teammates playing against each other and in this case, international brothers.
Tags: Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Posted in Cricket, National, Sports | No Comments »
Written by admin on 11 May 2012
Chennai, May 11 (IANS) The Gas Authority of India Ltd (Gail) and the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation Ltd (Tidco) would jointly promote a special purpose vehicle to set up a 500 MW liquefied natural gas (LNG) fuelled power plant at an outlay of Rs.2,000 crore, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa said Friday.
Announcing this in the state assembly Jayalalithaa said: “With the gas available through the Kochi-Bangalore pipeline a 500 MW power plant at an outlay of Rs.2,000 crore will be set up in the first phase. Over the next five years the project will be expanded involving an outlay of Rs.10,000 crore.”
Gail is laying LNG pipeline between Kochi in Kerala and Bangalore in Karnataka via Tamil Nadu. Around 310 km of pipeline will traverse through the state and Gail would supply gas for industries, vehicles and houses, she said.
The chief minister said Gail was also planning to set up a floating storage degasification unit along the coast at an outlay of Rs.2,500 crore.
Pointing out that the state is mainly dependent on coal and petroleum products for its energy needs she said the government has realised the importance of LNG in fulfilling its energy requirements.
She said the state government has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Indian Oil Corporation to set up a five million tonne per annum LNG terminal here.
Once the LNG terminal goes on stream in 2016 it would feed around 18 million cubic metre of LNG daily for power generation, industries and houses, Jayalalithaa said.
According to Jayalalithaa, the state government would form special purpose vehicles to promote industrial estates in Tuticorin, Vellore and Krishnagiri districts, besides a hub for heavy engineering industries at Ennore.
Tags: Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Posted in Business, National | No Comments »
Written by admin on 11 May 2012
Chennai, May 11 (IANS) State-owned Indian Bank hopes to convert a sizeable portion of its non-performing assets (NPA) into performing assets during the current fiscal, a top bank official said Friday.
“Most of our NPA are ‘soft’ ones, that is, it would become good soon. Looking ahead gross NPA will be maintained at two percent (of gross advances),” T.M. Bhasin, chairman and managing director of Indian Bank, said here announcing the results for 2011-12.
Indian Bank closed last year’s books with a gross NPA and net NPA of Rs.1,850.78 crore and Rs.1,196.83 crore, respectively, up from Rs.740.31 crore and Rs.397.04 crore posted during 2010-11.
Indian Bank closed last year with a total income and net profit of Rs.13,411 crore and Rs.1,747 crore as against Rs.10,542 crore and Rs.1,714 crore, respectively, during 2010-11.
The bank’s total business last year was Rs.211,988 crore (deposits Rs.120,804 crore, advances Rs.91,184 crore), up from Rs.181,530 crore (deposits Rs. 105,804 crore, advances Rs.75,726 crore).
Bhasin said the profit for the year would have been higher but for reversal of a loan account to NPA status from it earlier restructured one, increased provisioning toward education loan.
He said the bank is expecting to grow its total business (deposits plus advances) by 20 percent this fiscal even though its NIM is expected to go down to 3.1 percent from the current 3.4 percent owing to increase in its cost of funds.
The bank board that approved the accounts Friday has recommended a dividend of 75 percent.
Tags: Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Posted in Business, National | No Comments »
