Classical Tamil Awards

92 Year Old Archaeologist and French Scholar Conferred Classical Tamil Awards by President

The President of India  conferred the Presidential Awards for Classical Tamil . 92 year old Prof. C. Govindarajanar was conferred Tolkappiyar Award for outstanding contribution in the field of Tamil studies. Prof. Govindarajanar is an eminent archeologist who did fieldwork for 17 years in the historically important region from Pumpukar to Vanci which led to the identification of the Kannaki temple.

Prof. Francois Gros, a French National received Kural Pitam Award for the year 2008-09. Prof. Gros has translated many Tamil Classics into French and was Vice President of the International Association of Tamil Research.

Young Scholar Awards for year 2008-09 were also conferred on to Dr. A. Lakshmi Duttai, Dr. S. Madhavan, Dr. M. Ramakrishnan and Dr. S. Sentamizhpavai for showing excellence in Tamil studies.

Presidential Awards for Classical Tamil are instituted by Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, to give due recognition and honour to distinguished scholars who have made outstanding contribution to Classical Tamil language and literature.

Tamil Nadu - Solar Energy Policy 2012

The chief minister made an announcement about fresh guidelines that would probably seek 3000 MW of power to tap, in the coming three years entirely through solar energy. The course of action is expected to produce  1000 MW each year till 2015.

Launching the scheme will give confidence to fit solar panels in houses as well as in government and local bodies which will be considered to be the most significant arrangement of the scheme.

In addition to this, drinking water system and street light facilities will also be arranged with the introduction of solar energy in government buildings and local bodies.

“Large industries and large-scale power consumers can only utilize limited percentage of power that will be obtained through solar energy.

The government has also announced to provide certain facilities to the manufacturers of solar energy apparatus like permitting the roof top plant of solar systems in order to put the excess energy inside the grid, keeping out electricity tax and power cuts.

Intending the state of Tamil Nadu to be in the forefront in the field of solar power generation the policy has been designed, said government sources. In an attempt to make use of the 300 hot sunlit days in a year, the state government has unveiled the new Solar Energy Policy, through which it aims to produce over 3000 MW of power, entirely from solar power in the coming three years.

Initiating the new proposal, the Tamil Nadu government has named it, Tamil Nadu Solar Energy Policy 2012.

Tamil Nadu uses global positioning system to survey land

Tamil Nadu has started using global positioning system and electronic total stations to survey land.

The survey using the global positioning system and electronic total station was conducted on a pilot basis in one village initially and then using the experience gained, the scheme had been extended further.

Modern surveying is now in progress in Chennai, Coimbatore, Tiruppur, the Nilgiris, etc.

The department had proposed to initially introduce modern survey in the newly-created municipal areas for which land records had to be prepared afresh by adopting the town survey system. Accordingly, preliminary work has been started in 11 municipalities so far.

It had also been decided to set up eight modern survey scheme offices with all facilities like computers and accessories, plotters and mapping software.

Under the National Land Records Modernisation Programme, action has been pursued for the creation of land record management centres in the 10 taluks of Kancheepuram district and 11 taluks of Thirunelveli district besides setting up NLRMP cell at the Survey Training Institute, Orathanadu.

The NLRMP envisages online, automated mutation of land records through integration of registration process with the land records maintenance system, to facilitate online delivery of ‘conclusive title’.

Digitisation of field measurement sketches is under progress using ‘Collabland’ software developed by the National Informatics Centre. For this purpose, computer cells have been created in 29 districts and 20 computers and peripherals have been installed in each district. The digitisation is done through the staff of the survey department. So far, around 1.3 million field measurement sketches out of around 5.3 million FMS have been digitised,

Crude oil discovered in Tamil Nadu

State-owned Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has made a crude oil discovery in an exploration block in Tamil Nadu, the company's junior partner Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL)

Exploratory well 'Madanam-3' produced 115 cubic meters per day of oil and 11,500 cubic meters per day of gas in Cauvery basin block, BPCL said in a filing to the stock exchanges.
ONGC is the operator of the block CY-ONN-2002/2 with 60 per cent interest while Bharat Petro Resources Ltd (BPRL), a fully owned subsidiary of BPCL, holds the remaining 40 per cent. The two had won the block in the fourth round of bidding under New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP).

The discovery well is situated 14-km south-east of Chidambaram town in Tamil Nadu.

Compared to earlier lower-productivity basement discoveries, Madanam-3 discovery is a major breakthrough in basement play exploration in Cauvery basin,

TN to digitise all police stations’ records

Upon completion, police officers across the state will be able to access information related to criminals through a new network

Tamil Nadu’s Police Department is planning to digitise all cases handled and disposed as well as store all pending cases in a digital format.

The digitisation aims to make the police records available through an exclusive network to officers employed in all police stations across the state.

The centre and the state will fund the Rs113 crore digitisation project.

The state government already tested a pilot project in Tiruvallur district, while data entry work was being carried out in the Coimbatore City Police Commissionerate and the districts of Ariyalur and Sivaganga.

As part of the digitisation program, the state government will provide police stations with computers and other equipment in addition to creation of new network that is expected to reduce manual work.

With the digitisation in place, police will be able to access details of the accused using the network as well as even fingerprints as they would be integrated to the system.

The state is also planning to integrate the new network with prisons to get real-time information about the release of accused to help local police monitor their movement.

TN to use biometric details for govt exams

Aspiring candidates will have to provide their biometric details before sitting for an exam conducted by TNPSC

The Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC) will make the whole recruitment process transparent through the introduction of an online interactive system, under which biometric details of the candidates will considered.

“The Commission has created more than 5,000 centres in the state for conducting the recruitment exams, TNPSC Chairman R Nataraj said.

According to him, a centre will be considered as sensitive if it accommodates more than 1,000 candidates, and it will require web-casting and recording the exam process on video.

The TNPSC is also planning to upload answers to the questions on their official website soon after the exam is over, so that candidates can assess the correctness of the answers within a week and send an argument if they do not agree with an answer.

An expert panel will review the disputed answers and finalise on the appropriate answer and then put it online.

TN to computerise its district industries centres

The DICs will have modern IT enabled infrastructure to help entrepreneurs access various services online

The Indian state of Tamil Nadu is planning to provide modern information technology (IT) enabled communication facilities to district industries centres (DICs) in all the 32 districts, as part of its move to develop industries in the state.

The state will also take up appropriate civil works in various district headquarters to revamp the DICs, which are expected to play a pro-active role for the benefit of the entrepreneurs.

The state-owned Small Industries Development Corporation (SIDCO), a promoter of Small Scale Industries in the state, has initiative efforts to allow entrepreneurs file their applications for allotment of plots online.

The state government is working with National Informatics Centre (NIC) to develop a software that will enable entrepreneurs submit their applications seeking allotment of plots online, according to an official.

Currently, users can only download application forms for allotting lands from SIDCO’s website