Scientists seek patent for chicken-gongura pickle

Hyderabad: City-based National Research Centre on Meat’s  application for patent for  its ‘chicken-gongura pickle’ was published by the official journal of the Controller General of Patents this month, and it is one step away from being granted a patent.

NRCM scientists claim that they have invented an effective process for extraction of meat and broth from the deboned chicken and they are using gongura as a natural acidifier instead of vinegar to make the pickle.

NRCM senior scientist Dr B.M. Naveena, one of the inventors of the process, said, “Traditionally, people make gongura pickle or chicken pickle. Our’s is chicken-gongura pickle with a specific process involving at least eight steps. It is made without the use of vinegar, citric acid or lemon. That is the difference. Three steps in the process are entirely different and new.” NRCM said the chicken-gongura pickle can be stored for up to five months at room temperature sealed in polyester pouches.

Legal experts say such patent claims need to be examined properly and the scientists have to prove their innovation with documentary evidence.

Nalsar University professor Dr Madabushi Sridhar said, “Many households have traditional recipies for making non-vegetarian pickles. NRCM will have to prove how its method is different. If the process  invented by NRCM is not different, they can’t be given monopoly on the chicken-gongura pickle. Mmore importantly, the combination of  chicken and gongura is a mere aggregation and cannot be claimed.”

Narayana Murthy seeks airport near electronic city

Bangalore: Infosys Executive Chairman N R Narayana Murthy has pitched for a small airport near Electronics City, the biggest hub of Bangalore's IT industry that houses the main Infosys campus, as he called for improving the infrastructure facilities in Karnataka.

"We are not asking for anything extraordinary. We are asking for reasonably good roads, electricity, water, clean air and some English schools. We need reasonable connectivity to the airport. Ideally, we would like a small airport near Electronics City," Murthy said at a Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce event on Friday night.

While putting forward industries wish list to the state government he also said the software sector has made big contribution towards the economy of the state.

"Ours is an industry that contributes about 25 per cent of the state's GDP (Gross Domestic Product),has created half a million jobs with an average monthly salary of Rs 50,000 and 1.5 million jobs in the secondary and tertiary sectors of the economy. It earns net foreign exchange of Rs 55,000 crore a year and has a capital output ratio of 1:5," he said.

PTI

Mumbai police rescue 15 women forced into flesh trade

Mumbai: The social service branch of the Mumbai Police and members of Rescue Foundation raided a flat in central Mumbai city and rescued 15 women forced into the flesh trade. One person was arrested.

"We got the information that some girls were being forced into prostitution at Kamathipura. So to rescue them, we took the help of the S S branch and we have succeeded in freeing them. Some 15 girls have been rescued," said Rescue Foundation investigation officer, Nitin Narayan Mangekur.

It is speculated that one or two girls might be minors but the officials said they would get a clear picture only after medical tests are conducted and police have filed charges under the PITA (Prevention of Immoral Trafficking Act).

According to United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC) officials, hu

man trafficking is one of the fastest growing crimes in South Asia, as over 150,000 people are known to be trafficked within the region every year - for sex work, labour, forced marriages and as part of the organ trade.

Traffickers often take advantage of impoverished communities, luring girls and young women with promises of jobs as maids or nannies in wealthy households in the cities.

ANI 

Rahul to ensure 50% representation for women in AICC

New Delhi: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday vowed to ensure 50 per cent representation to women in AICC and other party wings as he held his first formal interaction with newly-appointed party office bearers, the team set up by him for the 2014 Lok Sabha poll.

"Gandhi talked about how to ensure 50 per cent representation to women in AICC...It's not about reservation. It's about their representation.

"When he observed that their (women) presence is not in the proportion it should be, he said the presence of women is less but it will definitely be 50 per cent in the coming two-three years," party spokesperson Bhakta Charan Das told reporters after the meeting.

Ambika Sonia is the only women among the 12 AICC general secretaries, while of the 44 secretaries only five are women.

Gandhi also made it categorically clear to the office bearers, mainly general secretaries and secretaries, that those who have been given responsibility will also be held accountable.

As the reshuffled AICC now wears a younger look with 52 being the average age of office bearers, he also chose the occasion to remind the party leaders that youths should move forward by respecting seniors and taking the help of their experience.

The statement is seen as a move by Gandhi to allay misgivings, if any, among the old guards in the party and some sort of assurance that senior leaders won't be overlooked.

Invoking Mahatma Gandhi, the Congress vice president emphasised on the need to connect the party with masses and directed party leaders to focus on strengthening the organisation more than anything else.

The issue of alliances was not discussed in the meeting, a party leader said, adding that there was no mention of any other party or its leader during the interaction session that lasted for more than two hours.

Asked whether Narendra Modi was discussed in the meeting, Das said, "Do you think we take interest in such things? We do not give importance to him. We totally ignore him."

The newcomers thanked Gandhi for putting his trust in them and giving them responsibilities in the organisation.

"Trust begets trust and we should trust people," he said.

The Congress vice president has in his last several meetings with the party workers had laid great emphasis on working together.

To a question whether Gandhi taking most of the party building initiatives is an indication that the command is now in his hand rather than Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Das said, "Sonia Gandhi is Congress president. She is respectable for all and our top most."

The meeting came at a time when Assembly elections in four states - Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Delhi - are on the cards this year.

Besides AICC secretaries and general secretaries, the meeting was also attended by party treasurer Motilal Vora.

Prior to this meeting, Gandhi had held one-to-one interaction with general secretaries in-charge of various states, especially the poll-bound states.

Party leaders have been insisting that Gandhi has been impressing upon partymen to concentrate on building up the organisation and not to focus on other issues, including alliances.

PTI 

PM sets target for infrastructure projects, approves proposals for 2 international and 50 domestic airports

New Delhi: In a bid to ramp up investor sentiment, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday set an investment target of Rs 1.15 lakh crore in PPP (public private partnership) projects across infrastructure sectors in rail, port and power in the next six months. The proposals include Mumbai elevated rail corridor (Rs 30,000 crore), two international airports in Bhubneshwar and Imphal (Rs 20,000 crore) and power and Transmission projects (Rs 40,000 crore).
The decisions were taken at a meeting the Prime Minister held to finalise infrastructure projects for 2013-14 which was attended by Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and the Ministers of Power, Coal, Railways, Roads, Shipping and Civil Aviation.
The meeting decided that the proposal for creating a rail tariff authority will be accelerated and brought before the Cabinet soon. The Prime Minister highlighted the need for ramping up investment in infrastructure to revive investor sentiment.

"For this purpose, a target of rolling out PPP projects of at least Rs 1 lakh crore in the next six months was set. A steering group is being formed to monitor the award and implementation of projects on priority basis," a PMO release said.
The Prime Minister emphasised that a lot of work was needed to be done to improve infrastructure sector and there should be no slackening of the pace of work, the release said. Ahluwaila also made a presentation about the performance of the six infrastructure ministries and the targets for 2013-14. The government, the release said, decided to form a steering group to monitor the award and implementation of projects.
Besides airports and Mumbai's elevated rail corridor projects, the group will also monitor two Locomotive projects (Rs 5,000 crore), accelerating E-DFC (Eastern-Dedicated Freight Corridor) (Rs 10,000 crore) and port projects (Rs 10,000 crore). In the civil aviation sector, apart from two new international airports, 50 new low cost small airports will be taken up by the Airports Authority of India.
Besides, a target for awarding eight greenfield airports was set for this year in PPP mode at Navi Mumbai, Juhu (Mumbai), Goa, Kannur, Pune (Rajguru Nagar Chakan), Sriperumbudur, Bellary and Raigarh. The statement said airport operations and maintenance through PPP contracts will be introduced in AAI airports and the airports considered for these are Chennai, Kolkata, Lucknow, Guwahati, Jaipur and Ahmedabad.
Besides new low cost airports would be set up at 51 places in Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra. As far as ports were concerned, it stated that both the new ports on PPP mode -- one at Sagar (West Bengal) and the other Durgarajapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) -- approved by Cabinet will be awarded.
For funding of railway projects, the statement issued by PMO said an Inter-Ministerial Group of Railways, Finance and Planning will be formed for coming up with a "financing-cum- implementation mechanism in two months for clearing the large backlog of sanctioned projects of over Rs 200,000 crore in a prioritised and time-bound manner". As far as roads sector was concerned, the PMO emphasised that the slowdown in award of road projects should get reversed in view of the large number of relaxations that have already been provided to PPP road projects.
Concerned over delay in execution of the PPP projects, the Prime Minister asked ministries to ensure proper implementation and monitoring of projects especially roads, an according to an official. The PMO said, "Expressways will get focused attention and the Planning Commission will work with the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways to suggest an implementation mechanism for expressways."
Sources said given the poor performance of the Road Transport and Highways Ministry during 2012-13 when it could award barely 1,321 km of the 9,500 km target on account of factors like bidders shying away from projects, the PMO set a target of 5,000 km for the current fiscal. The target set was higher by about 1,000 km as the Road Ministry was in favour of fixing a target of 4,028 km for 2013-14.
As far as the target for award of roads on OMT (operate, maintain and transfer) mode was concerned, the PMO was in favour of fixing a target of 3,110 km. However, sources said the Road Ministry put its foot down and ultimately the target was revised to 1,295 km. On power front, the statement said, the Ministry will work with Planning Commission and Finance Ministry to resolve issues in the power sector and improve generation and transmission capacity.
Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Ahluwalia said that shortage in fuel supply was hurting the power sector. "The supply as part of the system has not been able to deliver as much fuel as was necessary," Montek said. "New policies for ramping up coal production will be put in place," PMO said.
Coal Secretary SK Srivastava said India will have to import 140 MT during the fiscal as compared to 135 MT last fiscal, of which 110 MT was imported for the power sector. Talking about the shortfall, Ahluwalia said production was much below the target during the 11th Plan and exuded hope that output will increase. Srivastava said coal production target has been fixed at 604 million tonnes (MT), including 482 MT for Coal India, for 2013-14. Last fiscal the production was recorded at 557 MT against the targetted 578 MT.

Villagers rescue 43 foreigners

DEHRADUN: Villagers from Didsari near Uttarkashi, whose houses were washed away, rescued 43 foreigners stuck in the Himalayas for over a week. The tourists from the US, UK, Sri Lanka and other nations were there to participate in a 'Himalayan retreat'.

"We're alive because of the villagers. They saw us struggling to get out of the centre up on the hills and came to help though they themselves struggled for food, water and shelter," said Catherine from Canada, one of the survivors. She said 40% houses in Didsari villages were washed away.

The foreigners arrived at the Uttarkashi Tapovan - a yoga centre — on June 14. "On June 16, we saw the bridge — the only link between the town and the hilly region — washed away. The water scaled up the ashram's steps. We were scared. Some stayed up all night to check the water level. The villages lower down were badly hit," said Anjali Mehta, an NRI from the US. She said they contacted embassies of the US, Brazil and Canada and others to send helicopters. Nothing helped. Some of them then climbed down towards the village.

"Ram, Kuldeep, Shikhar were the boys who came to help with their families. Some of the boys trained at the National Institute of Mountaineering (NIM) helped us walk down the steep slope to the Maneri helipad," said Mehta. The tourists now plan to help the villagers financially and with rations. "When we left, some said they had only two days of ration left," said a tourist. NIM's principal Col Ajay Kothiyal said these trained locals had so far rescued 6,000. "They know how to fix ropes, create new tracks etc to bring down people, especially old and sick."

Guard of honour for 20 bravehearts who died in Uttarakhand chopper crash

DEHRADUN: Home minister SushilkumarShinde led the nation in paying tributes to the twenty bravehearts, who died in Tuesday's chopper crash while rescuing stranded people in flood-ravaged Uttarakhand.

Shinde, tourism minister K Chiranjeevi, Uttarakhand chief minister Vijay Bahuguna, Army chief Gen Bikram Singh, senior officials of Army, Air Force, ITBP and NDMA paid their respect to the personnel at a special function organised by the Uttarakhand government and NDMA.

The 'guard of honour' — a ceremonial mark of respect — to the 5 Air Force, 6 ITBP and 9 NDRF personnel was led by Shinde.

The NDRF personnel were from ITBP on deputation to NDRF. Those killed in the chopper crash included Wg Cdr Darryl Castelino, Flt Lt K Praveen, Flt Lt Tapan Kapoor, JWO A K Singh, Sgt Sudhakar Yadav (all IAF).

The men from NDRF who died were commandant Nitya Nand Gupta, inspector Bhim Singh, sub inspector Satish Kumar, constables K Vinaygan, Bassavaraj Yaragatti, Santosh Kumar Paswan, Sanjiva Kumar, Shashi Kant Ramesh Pawar and Ahir Rao Ganesh.

Six ITBP personnel who lost their lives were commandant Nand Ram, sub inspector Jayender Prasad, constables Jomon P G, Bibhuti Roy, Sarvesh Kumar and Ajay Lal.

The sophisticated Mi-17V5 helicopter of IAF had crashed in bad weather during a rescue mission in the flood-ravaged hill state.

Shinde said the nation would not forget the supreme sacrifice of these 20 brave men who gave their lives while rescuing thousands of people in the Uttarakhand floods.

"The guard of honour to the 20 bravehearts is a little step from our side to remember their supreme sacrifice for the service of the nation. We offer our prayer to all those who lost their lives," he said.