Category Archives: Leaders

Minnie Mathew is Andhra Pradesh chief secretary

Business & Economy, Leaders

Hyderabad:

1976 batch IAS officer Minnie Mathew was on Saturday named as the chief secretary to succeed Pankaj Dwivedi upon the latter’s superannuation. Mathew is currently chief commissioner of land administration, a post by convention considered as the CS-in-waiting, and will be head of the AP bureaucracy till her superannuation in February 2013.

Until Friday, there was much speculation that Dwivedi may be given a three-month extension and that Mathew could become the chief secretary even after that. However, for a change, the state government headed by chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy struck to the seniority principle and appointed Mathew.

During Dwivedi’s tenure of over a year-and-half as the chief secretary, the AP bureaucracy has seen its worse phase in the state’s history. While two officers were jailed on various charges including criminal conspiracy, two others were booked in various cases being probed by the CBI. And at least a dozen other IAS officers were questioned with regard to various land allotments and other decisions of the YS Rajasekhara Reddy government.

And after the Supreme Court issued notices to 8 IAS officers in the Jagan disproportionate assets case along with six ministers of the YSR cabinet, the state bureaucracy saw for the first time a major confrontation between the political leaders and the officers on the issue of who should be held accountable for the decisions of the state government.

Mathew, who will have about 8 months of tenure as the chief secretary, will inherit all the problems being faced by the bureaucracy from Dwivedi. While two of the officers, B P Acharya and Y Srilakshmi, are still in Chanchalguda Jail, the process of questioning several other officers by the CBI in the various cases being probed by the investigative agency will continue.

And there is the spectre of some more IAS officers being booked by the CBI. Governance and ensuring that the revenue-earning departments continue to perform well would be other important tasks ahead of Mathew. “These are testing times for the bureaucrats, especially in Andhra Pradesh, and babudom would require their head to lead from the front. The coming months will unveil whether Mathew is upto the task,” said an officer.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / Home> City> Hyderabad / by Ganesh S. Lakshman, TNN / June 30th, 2012

India’s Saina Nehwal blasts out double warning

Leaders, Records, All, Sports

London:

Saina Nehwal has struck stunning form at just the right time ahead of the 2012 London Games where she hopes to deliver India a first Olympic badminton medal.

The world number five followed up victory in the Thailand Open earlier this month with a third Indonesian Open triumph on Sunday. The battler looks more than ever a live challenger to the might of China’s women at the Wembley Arena from late July.

In Sunday’s final, Nehwal saved two match points against China’s latest hotshot Li Xuerui before grinding out another gutsy three setter 13-21 22-20 21-19.

“It was really, really tough,” said Nehwal. “I love the crowd, I love Indonesia. I feel like a champion when I step on to the court here.”

Nehwal, a hugely popular figure in India, was 18 at the Beijing Olympics where she reached the quarterfinals only to lose out in three sets to Indonesian Maria Kristin Yulianti.

“I was so close to it,” she told Reuters in an email. “I should have won that third and final set when I was leading 11-3 but lost it 14-21. Such opportunities do not come every time. I am unlucky in that way.”

Struck Back

The former world junior champion struck back the following year to become the first Indian to win a Super Series tournament when capturing her first Indonesian Open title.

The 22-year-old rates the victory the high point of her career, defeating China’s Wang Lin, who went on to win the world title in 2010.

“It was all the more satisfying in that it was a victory over such a prominent Chinese. It was another three-setter and I won the last two, including 21-9 in the decider.” In 2010, on home territory and once more with the aspirations of the country swirling around her, Nehwal won Commonwealth Games gold, surviving a match point against Malaysia’s Wong Mew Choo.

“It was another odd match,” she recalled. “I lost the first set and I was down in second where it went to a tiebreak but I (survived match point) and won it.

“That made it 1-1 and it relaxed me so much I won the final set 21-13.”

A triumph but not an easy one. “I was tense because of millions of peoples’ aspirations for me,” Nehwal admitted. “But God gave me mental strength and I overcame all the odds to win gold for India.

“That lifted my country to number two in the overall table of medals, a record for India in the Games.”

LOW POINT A year later there followed a low point, defeat in the first round in front of her home crowd in the Indian Super Series.

She acknowledges the burden of expectation is a heavy one as she continues the never-ending battle against powerhouse China, whose women currently occupy the top four in the world rankings

“Yes, it is extreme and particularly on me, all the more so because I want to win and then in turn some silly mistakes occur and I get failure.”

Nehwal is one of an elite set of players backed by Yonex that includes men’s world number one Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia, Denmark’s  Peter Gade and his compatriot Tine Baun, another woman battling the formidable Chinese.

In March, Nehwal lost in the quarterfinals of a glittering All England championships but bounced back the following week to retain her Swiss Open title

“I was cool, relaxed and focused. It was only with victory there that I could forget about the All Englands disappointment.”

Despite her stellar June, a tough challenge lies ahead for Nehwal but the hope is constant as Wembley looms. “My dream is to win a medal for India in badminton,” she says.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / Home> Sports> Tournaments> London Olympics / by Reuters / June 22nd, 2012

Saina Nehwal gets Rs 50 lakh cash incentive from AP Govt

Leaders, Records, All, Sports

Hyderabad, Jun 21 (PTI)

Andhra Pradesh Government today announced a cash incentive of Rs 50 lakh to ace shuttler Saina Nehwal for winning three consecutive international badminton titles this year.

The 22-year-old city-based shuttler has won coveted titles – the Swiss Open, Thai Open and Indonesian Open – this year. Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, who sanctioned the cash incentive, said “Saina has become pride of the nation by winning so many championships and Andhra Pradesh is proud of her.”

The Chief Minister hoped the badminton champion would win the gold medal in the forthcoming Olympics at London. PTI DBV RSY

source: http://www.ibnlive.in.com / by PTI / June 21st, 2012

Jwala Gutta all set to make India proud in London Olympics

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Leaders, Records, All, Sports

On the court, she has brought down many opponents with her powerful shots, and off the court, she has courted several controversies with effortless ease! That’s Jwala Gutta, the glamour queen of Indian badminton.

Jwala Gutta is determined to win gold medals for India

Having started at a very young age of 10, Gutta has never looked back. With several wins in doubles and mixed doubles championships, today she is considered as one of the best doubles partners in badminton.

The Commonwealth gold medalist who is also the first Indian to have qualified for two events in the Olympics is determined to win gold medals for the nation. And Gutta’s track record with her partners, V Diju and Ashwini Ponnappa only inspires confidence.

Training hard for fitness, Jwala Gutta is confident of making India proud in London and we wish her the very best!

source: http://www.yourmoneysite.com / Home> News / Editorial Team, Bloomberg UTV / June 13th, 2012

Sania-Mattek lift Brussels Open title

Leaders, Sports

Sania Mirza won her second WTA doubles title of the season and 14th overall, when she combined with Bethanie Mattek-Sands to lift Brussels Open trophy with an emphatic straight set win over Alicja Rosolska of Poland and China’s Zheng Jie, in Brussels.
In a one-sided contest, the fourth seed Indo-American pair took an hour and 10 minutes to dispatch third seeded pair 6-3 6-2 in the final of the USD 637,400 clay court Premier event.

Sania had won Pattaya Open with Anastasia Rodionova and had ended runners-up at Dubai and Indian Wells with regular partner Elena Vesnina of Russia, early in the season.

It was for the second time that Sania played a final alongside Mattek on the Tour. In 2009, she had won Cincinnati Open with the American.

Sania and her partner converted as many as four breakpoints out of five possible chances while they saved two of the three, to win the match comfortably.

They did not have an ideal start as they suffered a blow straight away to fall to a 0-2 deficit in the first set. But Rosolska and Zhengduo failed to hold on to their advantage and dropped their serve in the fourth game to fall back at 2-2.

The Indo-American combo then capitalised on their rivals’ errors and a break of serve in the eighth game helped them win the set, 6-3.

Sania and Mattek entered the second set high on confidence and won two successive breakpoints to race to a 4-0 lead.

The Polish-Chinese pair though held on their remaining serves but could not bridge the score deficit as Sania and Matter served out of the match comfortably.

The Indo-American duo delivered 60 per cent first serve on target and dropped just 10 points on it, winning 21 out of 31 points en route to victory.

source: http://www.hindustantimes.com / Home> Sports>Tennis / PTI, Brussels (Belgium) / May 28th, 2012

Boy from Mahimalore navigates his way to success

Inspiration /Positive News and Features, Leaders, Science & Technology

Hyderabad:

The ICBM test-fired from the Interim Test Range (ITR), Balasore, Orissa on April 19 was on target 5,000-km into the Indian Ocean. The missile’s accuracy, which hit within double-digit metres of the target, pleased the defence scientists.

“Advanced countries with a superior technology have reportedly achieved accuracy within three-digit metres but Agni-V has achieved what no other country could do before,” a senior DRDO scientist said.

The villagers of Mahimalore in Atmakur mandal of Nellore district have joined the country-wide celebrations of the success, because their boy has made India proud by developing a navigation system that helped Agni-V reach its target.

Soon after the Agni-V test-firing, flexis and posters of  Gundra Satheesh Reddy, associate director and outstanding scientist, Research Centre Imarat, appeared in his hometown hailing his achievement. Such honours are generally reserved for filmstars but what Satheesh Reddy and his team achieved was not of the filmi variety but real and rare.

As technology director (Navigation) for Agni-V, Satheesh Reddy provided a navigation system which had very high level reliability. The Ring Laser Gyro-based Navigation System (RINS) and the Micro Navigation System ensured that the missile could simply not fail.

“Em Debba kottinaranna (What a shot that was, brother),” callers from Mahimalore and Atmakur said appreciating Satheesh Reddy after the ICBM’s successful launch. They may not know much about the missile but they knew one thing: Gundra Sitarami Reddy and Rangamma’s son had done the country proud. The agricultural family had dreamt of Satheesh Reddy becoming an engineer and he realised not just that but a dream of the country to get into the ICBM club.

“Perhaps because of my village background, I developed a fascination for aeroplanes and during the course of time got into missile technology,” Satheesh Reddy told STOI. When the DRDO job came his way, he lapped it up. “It was not like any other job right from the beginning. I wanted to do something for the country,” Satheesh Reddy said. That was the reason why he stayed on in DRDO while most of his friends left the country for greener pastures. Quite of few of those who joined DRDO along with him may have left the job and gone for what they felt were better opportunities, he decided to stay and be faithful to his calling.

Satheesh Reddy has been involved in the navigation system of all the missiles developed by DRDO and the ‘Outstanding Scientist’ that he is now, has set his sights on achieving something much higher in the missile technology – all for the country’s sake.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / Home> City> Hyderabad / TNN / April 29th, 2012

Contenders eye Olympic ranking points in Asian Badminton Championship

Leaders, Sports

UPBEAT: Badminton players Saina Nehwal and Ashwini Ponnappa at a press conference in New Delhi. File photo / PTI

With just two tournaments to go before the Olympic qualification, contenders would look to rack up enough ranking points when they go all-out to earn a Games berth during the Asian badminton Championship beginning at Qingdao in China on Tuesday.

Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal is already assured of a berth but five of her compatriots are still in the running for a berth in the London Olympics and would look for a productive run in this tournament as well as the subsequent India Open, to be held from April 24 to April 29, before the May 3 deadline.

Saina, the world number five Indian is on a mission to earn some psychological mileage by defeating the top Chinese shuttlers and would start her campaign against Japan’s Kaori Imabeppu.

The 22-year-old has a reasonable draw and is likely to meet second seed Chinese Xin Wang in the quarterfinals. This would be an important tournament for the Indian ace as she would look to test her speed after her recent 5-kilo weight loss.

In the men’s singles, it is a two-way battle between world number 27 Ajay Jayaram and P Kashyap, ranked 31st and the duo would start their campaign against Chinese Taipei’s Jen Hao Hsu and second seed Chen Long of China, respectively.

Top Indian doubles player Jwala Gutta is in running for an Olympic berth in two categories – women’s doubles and mixed doubles.

The 28-year-old from Hyderabad will pair up with Ashwini Ponnappa in women’s doubles as the World number 20 combo opens their campaign against Vita Marissa and Nadya Melati of Indonesia.

“We have been practising with Arif Sir and it has been a good session. We worked hard and we would look to be just calm mentally on court,” Ashwini said.

Jwala will also combine with her mixed doubles partner V Diju to take on Indonesian pair of Riky Widianto and Puspita Richi Dili in their tournament-opener.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / Sports> Other Sports / PTI / New Delhi, August 16th, 2012

On road to London

Leaders, Sports

With the deadline for Olympic qualification fast approaching, the shuttlers in Hyderabad — the hub of badminton in the country — are set for two final events — the Badminton Asia Championships at Qingdao, China, and the India Open Superseries in New Delhi — before the places for London 2012 are finalised.

On paper, a total of 32 places each are up for grabs in the men’s and women’s singles events, while 16 pairs will take part in the three doubles events. The players will be selected based on the Badminton World Federation rankings which would be released on May 3.

Realistically speaking, however, this close to the deadline, few surprises can be expected. From India, Hyderabad’s Saina Nehwal, currently ranked World No.5, is definitely through to the quadrennial multi-sport spectacle. “Saina has qualified for sure,” said national coach Pullela Gopichand. “But everyone else could be affected by how they perform in Qingdao and New Delhi,” Gopi added.

For India, there is one spot open in all the five events. The men’s singles quota will be filled up by either Hyderabad’s Parupalli Kashyap or Bengaluru’s Ajay Jayaram. The women’s doubles pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa should also qualify, according to Gopi. “Jwala-Ashwini and Jwala-Diju (mixed doubles) should be through, but we can’t take it for granted,” said Gopi, explaining, “A lot of factors could still influence the qualification scenario. For example, if Jwala-Ashwini lose in the first or the second round and a Korean pair goes on to win the tournament, we don’t go through. But that’s just conjecture. There are too many permutations at this point to be sure,” Gopi added.

Jwala says a pre-quarterfinal finish in both the upcoming events should guarantee their qualification, but a tough draw awaits them in China. “I don’t have the habit of looking at draws as I believe in just going out there and performing against anyone. But I’ve been informed the draw for the Asian championships is tough. Let’s see how it goes,” said Jwala, philosophically.

“I and Ashwini could well become the first ever Indian doubles pair to qualify for the Olympics. In fact, as things stand now, I am in with a chance of becoming the first Indian to make the cut in both doubles and mixed doubles.”

The Badminton Asia Championships are slated to begin on April 16. They will then take part in the India Open, which will begin from April 24.

source: http://www.DeccanChronicle.com / Home> Channels> Sports> Others / by Vijay Anand / DC, April 12th, 2012

Lifetime achievement award to Sankurathri Chandrasekhar

Leaders, Records, All

Dr. Sankurathri Chandrasekhar (second from right) after receiving the CNN-IBN’s Real Heroes award from Mukesh Ambani (extreme left), Sachin Tendulkar and Amir Khan (extreme right). / Special Arrangement / The Hindu

Guntur-based cultural association Aathmiya Arts Theatre will confer the lifetime achievement award as part of the Ugadi festivities on noted physician and ophthalmologist Sankurathri Chandrasekhar on March 22 (Thursday) at 6.30 a.m. at Government Music College grounds.

Speaking to the mediapersons on Wednesday, Ch. Bhaskar Rao, president, Aathmiya Arts Theatre, said the award was being given away as part of the fourth anniversary celebrations of the association on the auspicious day.

“Mr. Chandrasekhar, who lost his family in the Air India Kanishka air crash in 1985 near Ireland over Atlantic Ocean, dedicated his life to spreading light in the lives of as many as 1,70,000 people by conducting eye operations,” he added.

Sixty-nine year-old Chandrasekhar, who founded social service units in Kakinada in memory of his son Karin and daughter Sarada, is carrying out activities in education, health, and disaster management for the poor and downtrodden.

He received several awards from the Governments of India and the U.S., prominent among them being the Real Heroes honour by the CNN IBN television channel.

Felicitations

Mr. Rao said along with Chandrasekhar, several prominent people such as Achanta Venkatratnam Naidu (theatre), C.S.K. Prasad (physician), Kolasani Vishnu Tulasi Prasad (educationist), Prabhakar (film actor), I. Veerabhadra Rao (former Annavaram temple devasthnam member), Thota Silverstar (mimicry), G. Vishnu Prasad (literature), V. Srinivas (MRO, Kankipadu), Satya Vani (singer), and Baby Jahnavi (dancer) will be honoured for their contributions in their chosen fields.

Former Minister Mandali Buddha Prasad, Tulasi Group of Companies chairman Tulasi Ramachandra Prabhu, Vijayawada ACP B. Satyanarayana, Annayya Charitable Trust president, Bonda Satyanarayana, Booseva Housing MD T. Surya Rao, DCCB president Naraharisetti Srihari Censor Board member K. Dharma Rao, and others will grace the occasion. Later, a musical programme will be held, highlighting, vintage Telugu songs.

source:http: //www.TheHindu.com / News> Cities> Vijaywada /  by Staff Reporter / March 22nd, 2012

 

Felicitation to Rosaiah at Ongole

Leaders, Records, All, Uncategorized

A grand felicitation would be held to Tamil Nadu Governor Konijeti Rosaiah here on February 25.

The Congress leaders and various organisations are going to felicitate Mr Rosaiah on that day at Balaji Tirupati Rao Kalyanamanda-pam.

The minister for rural development and Prak-asam district in-charge minister, Mr Dokka Manikya Varaprasad, the minister for municipal administration and urban development, Mr Manugunta Mahidhar Reddy, the Ongole MP, Mr Mag-unta Srinivasulu Red-dy, MLAs and other people’s representatives of the district are going to participate in the felicitation programme.

Mr Srinivasulu Reddy is taking active participation towards coordinating various leaders for the success of the programme.

In a press note issued by the Congress leaders they urged the people to attend the programme in large numbers and make it a grand success.

source: http://www.DeccanChronicle.com / Home> Channels> Cities> Regions> Nellore / by DC Correspondent / Ongole / February 22nd, 2012