CMD of Navratna CPSE National Aluminium Company Limited (Nalco) Tapan Kumar Chand has been unanimously elected as president of Aluminium Association of India (AAI) in its National Governing Council Meeting, held here Wednesday.
AAI is a body that represents the entire spectrum of Indian aluminium industry. General secretary of AAI KSS Murthy said that with the election of Chand, the AAI would have a more assertive and affirmative approach in promoting the consumption of aluminium and boosting the growth of the industry.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Andhra Pradesh / by Express News Service / March 03rd, 2016
Rickshaw heritage rides give an opportunity to appreciate our rich past
Heritage walks on the ancient lanes of the city’s Old Town area are like time machines that take you on a journey through the pages of history and give a glimpse of some chapters that make your soul recoil with pain and poetry.
The small group of people, which participated in the rickshaw heritage ride recently, took back with it slices of the rich historical past of the city.
For Anita Rao, an artist, the experience was a trip down the ages — to how the area was a few centuries ago. “The over 250-year-old Queen Mary’s School encouraged and made special arrangement to educate widows and even paid them Rs.15 per month to study in the early 1900s. There were several such stories we learnt about the places that give me a reverence for these structures, which we often take for granted,” she said.
Artist Anita Rao’s sketch of Kurupam Market entrance.—Photo: K.R. Deepak
Intrigued by the fascinating tales of many such structures, some of which no longer exist, Rao made a watercolour sketch of the Kurupam Market entrance, which was demolished a few years ago.
The participants were taken around 10 important heritage places of the locality — Town Hall, Town Hall Lane, Kurupam Market, Old European Cemetery, Queen Victoria’s Pavilion, St. John Church and School, Queen Mary’s School, Ishak Madina Dargah, St. Aloysius School, and Light House. Sandhya Parimala Vijapurapu, a youngster, said that the heritage trail gave an in-depth understanding of the city’s history.
The experience made her realise that heritage was more than old buildings.
“When I hold my camera and shoot the walls of the Town Hall, it gives me a different perspective now after sifting through the multiple layers of historical facts. We saw old chairs piled up in corners of the thick walls of the building, which are now silent spectators of the city’s rapid transition,” she said, and added that the exciting part of the tour was the rickshaw ride that promoted the modest ecological mode of transport. Leading from the front was city-based social and heritage activist Jayshree Hatangadi, who had been conducting these Sunday rickshaw heritage rides for the past few months.
The heritage trail takes participants around in four rickshaws.
“The idea behind doing these rides is also to highlight the issues of preserving heritage sites. For instance, the Town Hall needs to be repaired and its surrounding area cleaned so that it can be a place of display of our heritage and have interesting speakers every month to give a talk or a presentation. Once the locations are cleaned, we can have visitor brochures and guides trained to talk about the history of the place. Even the European Cemetery has a big story to tell. Several tombstones have their life in short beautifully calligraphed,” added Hatangadi.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Cities> Visakhapatnam / by Nivedita Ganguly / Visakhapatnam – March 02nd, 2016
Whistle artiste K. Sivaprasad performing at Thyagaraja Mandiram in Ongole. —Photo: Kommuri Srinivas
Many people have a liking to whistle popular tunes from films in a casual manner. But gifted artiste K.Siva Prasad has perfected whistling to an art to give a full-fledged carnatic music concert, winning acclaim from both critics and connoisseurs of art as well.
It was renowned musician Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna who trained him to give concerts.
Spurred by the success of the music album ‘Mera Bharat Mera Saas (My Nation My Breath)’ released by Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya on the Independence Day last year with songs of, among others, Nobel laureate Rabindranth Tagore, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and Muhammad Iqbal, the whistle wizard now plans to come with a video album with songs of noted freedom fighter and social reformer from Tamil Nadu ‘Mahakavi Bharathi’, that kindled patriotism and love for nature.
Mandolin, Saxophone and Shehnai were not so popular in the yesteryears, unlike now, he adds.
On a mission
Mr. Sivaprasad, who had etched his name on the Limca Book of World Records in 1991, was also on a mission to popularise the genre by bringing out a video album on the Ghazals of Mehdi Hassan, Jagjit Singh and Pankaj Udhast. He was here in connection with the Thyagaraja Aradhana.
A disciple of Balamuralikrishna, Mr. Sivaprasad, who has given more than 10,000 concerts in India and abroad, wants people to take to whistle or any other fine art to get relief from stress associated with modern way of living.
Many take interest in whistling popular film songs of the likes of A.R. Rahman, Ilayaraja. “I want to kindle interest in them to mature into whistle artistes,” adds the artiste who has floated Bharatha Bharathi Music Trust for the purpose.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Andhra Pradesh / by Staff Reporter / Ongole – March 01st, 2016
Carol Linda Faison, founder of Care & Share Charitable Trust, Vijayawada, passed away at Daddy’s Home in Gannavaram on Saturday afternoon.
In a statement, the organisation president Noel Harper said the funeral will take place on Monday evening.
An American living in Venice, Italy, Ms. Faison visited Vijayawada in 1995 and discovered the harsh reality of the street children and the plight of the handicapped here. She began to focus her efforts on helping the less fortunate children and raised funds for a laboratory for production of callipers, artificial limbs and crutches and started a special home for the handicapped.
She also built an elementary school in Manginapudi. Later, she constructed two partially self-sustainable villages — Daddy’s Home and Butterfly Hill — with a dispensary and school for destitute children.
In 1997, she founded the Care & Share Charitable Trust in India to manage all the programmes for the children here. In 2000, she also established Care & Share Italia Onlus in Italy to raise funds for the trust here.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Vijayawada / Special Correspondent / February 28th, 2016
Sri Rangapuram, a tiny settlement nestled in Krishnanagar of Maharanipeta area, was once an Inam estate of the noble Paravasthu family, who were Satana Vaishnavaites, scholars of Telugu literature and teachers of Vaishnavaite scriptures.
The Paravasthus had received the Inam prior to their permanent settlement in 1803 and since then, have been residents of Visakhapatnam, though originally they hailed from Nellore district. The Visakhapatnam Paravasthu branch is also an off-shoot of the original branch, the products of which are people like Paravsthu Chinnayya Suri, who played a major role in the modernisation of Telugu language and was also one of the earliest advocates of social reform.
Members of the Visakhapatnam branch of the Pravasthus have been hereditary trustees of several old Vaishnavaite temples in Vizag and even supported a Veda Pathashala. The famous Venkateshwara temple in the Old City is one such temple that received services from the Paravasthus as hereditary trustees. Over the generations, the Paravasthus greatly promoted traditional scriptural education till the 1950s, after which they lacked the financial means to support their spiritual and benefactor duties chiefly due to the Estate and Inam Abolition Act that came into existence in the early 1950s.
Today, the entire area known as Krishnanagar was once part of the Paravasthu estate and because they were ardent Vaishnavaites, the place is named after Lord Krishna. More importantly, a vast majority of the villagers of Sri Rangapuram are Yadavas, who are ardent worshippers of Lord Krishna and extremely devout Vaishnavaites. The Paravasthus also used to hold court and conduct the Krishna Janmastami celebrations with splendour during their hay days. However, the changes post independence forced many of them to suspend their activities and a vast majority of the Paravasthu clan left the country.
History buff BS Mahesh said, “The Paravasthus were totally devoted to the Bhakti movement and promoted the Bhakti ideology. More importantly, they were people who went with the flow of times and were known to be quite flexible and liberal in their stance concerning social reforms, especially widow remarriage. However, today, the family has been long forgotten and even Sri Rangapuram is just an old village within the city.”
“One of the Paravasthus, Paravasthu Ranga Chari, a descendent of the original Inamdar, used to be an active member of the Theosophical Society and would attend the meetings there. His beliefs and views were quite modern, though they completely agreed with what was basically written in the old scriptures. He was a true practitioner of the Dharma Siddhanta,” said PN Rao, an old resident of the area.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Visakhapatnam / TNN / February 27th, 2016
3D gold knee and ePlus poly cover can also enhance longevity, says doctor
Research in total knee replacement surgery has led to gold knee-blended joint with vitamin ePlus poly cover. The Guntur-based Sai Bhaskar Hospitals has successfully operated upon a 65-year-old man, Gopal Rao, and implanted a gold ceramic-coated knee joint.
Managing Director Busireddy Narendra Reddy said here on Saturday that for the first time a vitamin ePlus poly cover with gold plated knee joint, gold femur, was used in AP while it has been in vogue in the USA since July 2011.
“In comparison to other joint prostheses, knee replacement implants, made of cobalt and chromium that continuously release allergenic metal ions, with ceramic surface coating on metallic components has many benefits in reducing both allergic reactions and wear,” Dr. Narendra Reddy said.
The new 3D gold knee and ePlus poly cover can also enhance the longevity and performance in total knee replacement surgery.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Andhra Pradesh / by Staff Reporter / Guntur – February 28th, 2016
Visakhapatrnam Steel Plant (VSP) clinched the 4 x 400 m relay in the Inter-Steel Athletic Championship 2015-16, which was held at Tata Steel Jamshedpur under the aegis of Steel Plants Sports Board (SPSB) on Friday.
This is for the first time that the VSP won a gold in the SPSB Athletics. K Tarun Kumar, A Sainath, Y Dinesh and L Sai Kumar are the athletes who brought glory to the VSP.
In addition, Tarun Kumar won a bronze in the 200 m category and manager (Utilities) M Vara Prasad, who co-ordinated the team was nominated for the best observer title. Sameer Kumar Sekhar is the VSP athletic team coach while sports committee member BS Chakravarthi is the manager.
RINL director (Personnel) GBS Prasad felicitated the winners and other officials. While congratulating the young athletes, Prasad assured complete support to help them reach greater heights. AGM(Sports) MS Kumar, SEA president YK Garg, general secretary P Satyanarayana, AM(Sports) A Kranti Kumar, JM (Sports) MV Murali Mohan, AE (Sports) NJ George, WIPS members of VSP sports committee and others took part in the felicitation ceremony.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Andhra Pradesh / by Express News Service / February 27th, 2016
