Tags: Energy | TEDA

Providing guidance:R. Christodas Gandhi, Additional Chief Secretary and Chairman and Managing Director, Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency, speaking at an awareness programme on ‘New and Renewable Energy Sources', organised by the Coimbatore Institute of Technology and TEDA in Coimbatore on Friday. —

COIMBATORE: The Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency (TEDA) is working with engineering colleges in the State to help the institutions go in for renewable energy, especially solar steam cooking at the hostels.

Chairman and Managing Director of TEDA R. Christodas Gandhi told presspersons here on Friday that it organised workshops at the four Anna Universities last year on solar energy. It had appointed extension managers and they were working with about 40 colleges to find out the requirement and guide the institutions on the approved suppliers for the solar steam cooking and other renewable energy applications. “We have given them the initial motivation and we are reaching out to them on functional basis now,” he said. Most of the engineering colleges were expected to go in for solar steam cooking in another two to three years.

Tags: compensation | footboard travel | Railways Act | Supreme Court

The Railways is liable to pay compensation regardless of the negligence on the part of a passenger who falls to death while standing on the footboard of a train, the Supreme Court has held.

Interpreting Section 124 A of the Railways Act, 1989, dealing with the liability of the administration for death and injury to passengers due to accidents, a Bench of Justices Aftab Alam and R.M. Lodha said: “Whether or not there has been any wrongful act, neglect or default on the part of the railway administration would entitle a passenger who has been injured, or the dependant of a passenger who has been killed, to maintain action to recover damages.”

Writing the judgment, Justice Alam said the Railways would be liable to pay compensation as prescribed. However, no compensation was payable under this Section if the passenger “dies or suffers injuries due to suicide or attempted suicide ...; self-inflicted injury; his own criminal act; and any act committed by him in a state of intoxication or insanity.”

Tags: Agriculture | Erode | Samba cultivation | Transplantation

Samba cultivation has begun in full swing in Erode district. Farmers have completed the transplantation of paddy seedlings in about 1,000 hectares so far.

Samba is expected to be raised on about 40,000 hectares in the district this year. Of which, the department has planned to bring in at least 17,000 hectares under the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) method of cultivation, officials in the agriculture department said.

Usually paddy was raised on about 45,000 hectares in Erode district. The department, however, expects a marginal fall of about 5,000 hectares in paddy cultivation this year, as many farmers have switched to turmeric crop. As the prices of the yellow spice remain high, the acreage under turmeric crop had almost doubled this year to touch 10,000 hectares.

Tags: E. Sarath Kumar | Erode | IIM | Interaction programme | Skill development

Students should look at the bigger picture of generating employment opportunities to thousands of people rather than confining themselves to a job.

“Entrepreneurship is the key to the development of any nation”, E. Sarath Babu, Chief Executive Officer of Foodking Catering Services and IIM-A graduate said.

Sharing the experience of his impressive journey from a slum in Chennai to the top echelons of academia with a gathering of students at an interaction programme held here on Thursday, Mr. Sarath has said that the country, with a population of over one billion, requires more entrepreneurs to create job opportunities and ensure a balanced growth.

“Start a small venture and work towards a larger goal with focus, perseverance and determination,” he said.