Hyderabad: Founder-Chairman of L V Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI) Dr Gullapalli N Rao was conferred the 'Bernardo Streiff Gold Medal' by the International Council of Ophthalmology at the opening ceremony of World Ophthalmology Congress in Berlin, Germany.

The Bernardo Streiff Gold Medal is awarded by election every four years by the Academia Ophthalmologica Internationalis at the World Ophthalmology Congress "to an ophthalmologist who has contributed most through history, ethics and education, to the advancement of ophthalmology," the release said.

Academia Ophthalmologica Internationalis is a 60-member body of the top academicians in the world in the field of ophthalmology and Dr Rao is the second Indian to be a member of this group after his teacher late Prof L P Agarwal, former Director of All India Institute Medical Sciences.

Anudeep Kodali of Cary won the United States Tennis Association boys' 12s National Open Championship, which was held last month in Owings Mills, Md.

Kodali, 12, also was awarded the Howard Head Sportsmanship Award.

This is his second national title win this year. He previously won the USTA boys' 12s National Championship held at Cooper Creek Tennis center in Columbus, Ga., in February.

Currently, he is ranked fifth in the nation and second in the Southern division. He lives in Cary with his parents and brother.

Tip of the old fedora to Acalanes High senior Tara Yarlagadda for winning the Quill and Scroll International Honorary Society for High School Journalists' (whew) award for stellar feature journalism writing.

Yarlagadda's entry, "Sexting Sweeps The Nation," was judged the best feature story of 351 entries submitted by high school newspapers across the country (USA). Her piece focused on the perils faced by students who share graphic images and information with others via their cell phones.

Rakindo’s Kumarakom Backwater Glof Resort project will soon be the ‘Crown Jewel’ of Kerala’s tourism landscape. RAKINDO Developers Pvt Ltd (Prasad Koneru, Managing Director), is a Joint Venture between RAKEEN, a Joint Stock Company, promoted by the Govt. of Ras-Al-Khaimah, UAE and the Trimex Group, India. Spread over 450 acres and set amidst the beautiful backwaters of Kumarakom, Kerala, ‘Kumarakom Resorts’, Rakindo’s resort golf – themed township will incorporate the best of lifestyle concepts including

*A 18-hole international golf course
*Resort hotel & spa
*Chic cafes & restaurants
*Street mall
*Villas
*Condominiums

RAKINDO Developers will provide comprehensive and world class amenities in their townships through strategic alliances and partnerships in education, hospitality, health and retail.

RAKINDO’s has formed a JV with Millennium & Copthorne Hotels Plc, a global hotel company which owns and operates over 110 hotels in 18 countries for investment into hospitality projects in India.

The JV Company, M&C Rakindo Hospitality, is scheduled to launch a 105-room business class hotel in T.Nagar, Chennai and a 350-room business hotel in Whitefield, Bangalore in 2009.

Raju Narisetti (born June 26, 1966, s/o Narisetti Innaiah & Venigalla Komala) has been a journalist of 20 years, 13 of which he spent at the Wall Street Journal in the U.S. and Europe.

Raju has a master's degree in journalism from Indiana University at Bloomington; an MBA from the Institute of Rural Management in Anand, Gujarat; a post-graduate diploma in journalism from the Times of India School of Journalism in New Delhi and a bachelor's degree in economics from Nizam College, Hyderabad.

In January 2009, Narisetti was named a managing editor of The Washington Post. As one of two Managing Editors, he is responsible for all content at Washingtonpost.com; the Post's Interactivity team; the Post's Presentation Team (photo, graphics, design, multimedia), its print Features sections--Weekend, Travel, BookWorld, Food, and the Post Magazine (with columnists such as Pulitzer Prize winner Gene Weingarten and Tom Sietsema), in addition to Style, where he supervises editors and critics such as Hornaday, Blake Gopnik and Sarah Kaufman (dance), among others. He reports to Post Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli. He was responsible for overseeing the Post's 2009 print redesign, the integration of its print and online operations which combined two separate newsrooms effective November 2009 and also the rollout of the Post's new internal publishing system, Eidos Methode, slated for July-Dec 2010.

Until June 2006, he was the Editor of the Wall Street Journal Europe and a Deputy Managing Editor of the Wall Street Journal, reporting to Paul Steiger, with overall responsibility of Europe, Middle East and Africa.

From 2006-2008 Raju Narisetti was the founding editor of Mint, India's only Berliner format business newspaper (see the paper at www.livemint.com) that was launched by him on 1 February 2007 for HT Media Ltd, which is also the publisher of Hindustan Times and is headquartered in New Delhi. Mint has an exclusive partnership in India with The Wall Street Journal. Narisetti was the Editor of Mint until end-2008 before resigning. Until June 2009 he was also an Editorial Advisory Director for HT Media.

According to Indian Readership Survey Round 2 2008, Mint has total daily readership of 217,000 (Monday-Saturday)making it the No. 2 business daily in both Mumbai and Delhi. It is now available in seven Indian cities--New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chandigarh and Pune, Kolkata and Chennai. Mint's website www.livemint.com has 1.6 million unique users. It also offers a mobile website m.livemint.com, which was launched in late 2008.

Raju Narisetti was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2007. He is a life member of South Asian Journalists Association and is on the board of the World Editors Forum of IFRA/World Association of Newspapers.

Raju hosts the Washington Post's On Leadership forum at washingtonpost.com with Steven Pearlstein.

Raju lives in Bethesda, Maryland where he maintains a hatred for Tony Kornheiser.

On April 12, 2010, The Washington Post won 4 Pulitzer Prizes for work done in 2009, the most for any single newspaper, including two for Post Magazine (Gene Weingarten) and Style (Sarah Kaufman), both sections headed by Raju.

Raju is married to children's/travel books author Kim Barrington Narisetti (www.urbancrayonpress.com), and has two daughters, Leila and Zola.

Archbishop Samineni Arulappa, often shortened to S Arulappa, (28 August 1924—13 February 2005) was an Indian Roman Catholic clergyman who served as the Archbishop of Hyderabad from December 1971 through January 2000. The youngest priest to be consecrated to such a high office, he was also the longest-serving Archbishop in India. He was also the first Archbishop who had the honour of being consecrated by Pope Paul VI in Rome.
"Love and Serve" was his motto.

Arulappa was born on 28 August 1924 to Smt. Rajamma and Sri Samineni Chinnaiah in Kilacheri in the state of Tamil Nadu. Earlier, his ancestors migrated southward from Guntur in search of livelihood. When the state of Andhra Pradesh was formed, Kilacheri fell under Tamil Nadu.

He was the only son of their parents and was preceded by four sisters, three of whom are nuns. He was brought up in an atmosphere of strict discipline by his mother who wanted to see her only son become a Priest. The Archbishop reminiscences that her mother looked forward to the day when she could see him as a Priest but both his parents died while he was still pursuing seminary studies.

Arulappa also evinced keen interest in pursuing the vocation of priesthood and also assisted the Priests as an altar boy during his childhood. He was sent to the Kandy Pontifical College (Known as the Papal Seminary, it was built in 1893 by Pope Leo XIII), Kandy, Sri Lanka to pursue theological studies. The Papal Seminary awarded Arulappa licentiate degrees in Philosophy and Theology (L. Ph. & L. Th.) on successfully completing his studies there. Later in 1955, the said College re-located to Pune [the Papal Seminary / Jnana Deepa Vidyapeeth is located in Ramwadi (Ahmednagar highway), Pune].

Subsequently, he studied Economics and Education in Loyola College, Chennai.

Arulappa was ordained as a priest on 6 May 1950 by Bishop Ignatius Glennie, s.j. the then Bishop of Trincomalee.

He joined the faculty of the Madras Archdiocesan Minor & Major Seminaries in Madras and taught Latin and Philosophy besides being the Rector of the Seminary.

Arulappa also served as a Parish Priest in two parishes and was also Principal of St. Joseph's Anglo-Indian Boys' High School in Madras.

He was also sent to Oxford University, the oldest university in England, for post-graduate studies in Public and Social Administration.

Later, Arulappa was appointed as the Rector of Christ Hall Seminary, a philosophate in Karumathur in Madurai and served as its Rector.

G. Joseph Mark was the fifth Bishop of Hyderabad and later became Archbishop when the diocese of Hyderabad was elevated to an archdiocese on 19 September 1953. With his death on 28 February 1971, the office of the Archbishop fell vacant.

Fr. S. Arulappa of the archdiocese of Madras-Mylapore was brought-in and nominated to the archbishopric of Hyderabad.

On 6 December 1971, he was appointed as the Archbishop of Hyderabad. He was consecrated principally by Pope Paul VI and co-consecrators Cardinals Alfrink and Conway on February 13, 1972 at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

Later, he was installed as the Archbishop of Hyderabad on 19 March 1972 in the All Saints' School Grounds in Abids, Hyderabad.

Arulappa recollects that on 12 December 1971, he received a letter from the Apostolic Nunciature stating that he had been nominated as the Archbishop of Hyderabad and all that he could do was just kneel down and pray like never before.

On 29 January 2000, Arulappa retired from his position as the Archbishop on reaching 75 years of age but continued to live in the Archbishop's House at Secunderabad and was Archbishop Emeritus.

On his retirement, the Archdiocese of Hyderabad released a book "Love and Serve", a brief memoir authored by Archbishop Arulappa himself.

Archbishop Arulappa died in Hyderabad at the age of 80. In accordance to his wishes stated in a will, he was laid to rest in the altar in St. Mary's Church, Secunderabad on 14 February 2005.

WASHINGTON: Rao S Anumolu, an Indian-American from Long Island in New York, has been conferred with the prestigious Ellis Island Medal of Honour — the highest civilian award in the US for immigrants — for his contribution in the development of this country.

Both the United States House of Representatives and Senate have officially recognized the Ellis Island Medals of Honour and the recipients are read into the Congressional Record.

Among the past medalists include six US Presidents, as well as Nobel Prize winners and leaders of industry, education, the arts, sports and government.

CEO of Long Island (New York)-based ASR International Corporation, Anumolu received the prestigious award on May 8, at a ceremony held at Ellis Island in the presence of several dignitaries.

The Medal recognizes recipients for outstanding contributions to their communities, their nation and the world.

Vijayawada born Anumolu came to the US in 1969 and obtained a Masters degree in Industrial Engineering and also an MBA degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago.

He has attended several Advanced Management Programs at Defence Systems Management College, Harvard University and Wharton School of Business Management.

Recently he has graduated from the Owner/President Management Program (OPM) at Harvard Business School (HBS).

In 2003, he was cited by the US Congress for the contributions made by him and ASR International Corporation towards homeland security in USA.

The cost-effective technology and systems deployed by ASR to protect the nation's airports, waterways, railroads and highways were specifically mentioned in Congressional citation.

Pranay Chowdary Malempati won the Delaware Spelling Bee contest will go on to the nationals to be held June 2-4, 2010 in Washington DC.

Eleven-year-old Pranay Malempati, an Indian-American kid going by his name, represents Middletown’s Alfred Waters Middle School.

The bespectacled youngster spelled ‘amenable’ correctly to win the state championship.

Profile:
Pranay plays Little League baseball. His favorite sports figures include Peyton Manning, Donavan McNabb, DeSean Jackson and Brett Favre. Sports aside, Pranay’s role models are his mother and father because Pranay says they make good choices and always do the right things. If you went to his home you would notice that he and his family also are fluent in Telugu. Pranay enjoys camping almost every month. He has earned the rank of First Class Boy Scout, plays violin in his school orchestra and participates in Science Olympiad and Odyssey of the Mind activities. Pranay aspires to become a cardiovascular surgeon and an entrepreneur

The Madurai-based Aravind Eye Care System, which has performed more than one-and-a-half million free eye surgeries in India, received the $1.5 million Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize April 20 in Redwood City, Calif.

The world’s largest humanitarian prize was presented to Dr. P. Namperumalsamy, Aravind’s chairman, by Steven Hilton, grandson of the late hotelier Conrad Hilton, who created the prize in 1996.

The prize money will be used to scale up the organization’s reach into India’s villages and its research into the diseases causing blindness, Namperumalsamy said.

"The most critical aspect of our selection process is that the organization demonstrates success in alleviating human suffering in a creative way, and with real impact,” Hilton, who serves as chairman of the Conrad Hilton Foundation, told, noting that the selection each year is made by an independent jury.

“Of all the things that could go wrong with your life, blindness has to be the most devastating. Aravind is directly touching the lives of extremely poor people and changing their lives very quickly,” said the uncle of socialite Paris Hilton.

India has the largest number of blind people — 15 million — in the world, noted the World Health Organization in a May 2009 report.

More than 75 percent of blindness is curable, noted the WHO, adding that cataracts remain the leading cause of the affliction.

Aravind Eye Care began humbly in 1976, with 11 beds in a rented building. Since then, it has grown to become the world’s largest eye care organization, serving about 300,000 patients annually from five hospitals in India.

The organization performs surgeries to reverse or stop blindness, at a cost of about $35 per eye. It hopes to establish 15 more hospitals and perform half a million surgeries annually in India by the year 2015.

Namperumalsamy founded the organization after retiring, along with his wife Natchiar Govindappa, and the late Govindappa Venkataswamy.

Venkataswamy was inspired by the fast-food chain McDonalds – “quality food at an affordable price” — and set out to develop a standardized model that could be endlessly replicated. Aravind’s 300 surgeons daily perform several surgeries back-to-back, thereby greatly reducing costs.

About two-thirds of the surgeries are performed for free, while the cost for the remaining one-third funds the free surgeries. The organization is self-supporting — it receives no private or government funds — and operates on a sliding-scale basis for paying patients.

Namperumalsamy said Aravind would use the prize money to research diabetes-related blindness — India is the world’s capital of diabetes mellitus, he said — and cataract impairment.

The organization also plans to expand its manufacturing facilities, which currently produce many of the materials needed to perform surgeries. Aravind produces the intra-ocular lens used in cataract surgeries for about $2 apiece, a fraction of the $150 cost in the developed world. The organization is currently working on a laser to treat diabetes-related blindness.

The organization also trains its own nurses, who are recruited primarily from villages at the age of 16 or 17, and trained on the job for two years. The nurses do much of the prep work, allowing surgeons to more rapidly perform surgeries.

Aravind’s self-sustainability was an extremely rare phenomenon in the non-profit world, said Hilton. “You don’t see many organizations that can sustain themselves without fundraising or government money.”

The Obama administration could look to Aravind as a model for managing health care costs in the U.S., he opined. “Typically, when you go into a doctor’s office for a simple operation, the doctor, nurse and anesthesiologist are set up just for you, which becomes very expensive.”

This year’s jury included Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen, Princess Salimah Aga Khan, former prime minister of Norway Gro Harlem Brundtland, and former United Nations Under-Secretary-General Olara Otunnu, among others.

The award was presented during the annual Global Philanthrophy Forum’s annual conference.

Leading magazine TIME named Padmashree Dr Perumal Namperumal Swamy, Chairman of the Aravind Eye Care System, Madurai, to the '2010 TIME 100' list, the magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

The magazine said "Dr Namperumalsamy, 70, and his army of cataract fixers at Aravind eye care hospital can, through a simple surgery, give a blind person eyesight back in less time than it take to read the Magazine."

From 1976, the hospital which was founded with goal of bringing assembly-line efficiency to health care, figured out how to replace cataracts safely and quickly. They had performed 3.6 million Surgeries to date, a new one every 15 minutes.

The magazine also described the business model of the hospital as brilliant as 30 per cent of the patients can afford to pay subsidised free or low cost care for the 70 per cent who are poor.

The writer, Mullaneu co-founder of the 'Smile Trains', which provides more than 125,000 free cleft surgeries per year for children in developing Countries said As I write these words after a long day spent in the slums in India, I cannottell you how much admiration I have for him and his team.

Newcomer Surya Yalamanchili won the Democratic nomination in the 2nd Congressional District and will meet incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Jean Schmidt in the fall.

With nearly all precincts reporting in the sprawling district, Yalamanchili had 40 percent, Madeira businessman David Krikorian 38 percent and Parker, a health administrator from Pike County, had 21 percent.

Krikorian all but conceded the Democratic primary late Tuesday, saying the Hamilton County vote appears to have given the victory to Yalamanchili, a former Procter & Gamble executive who lives in the East End.

“I think we just won,” Yalamanchili told celebrants at Blackfinn in downtown Cincinnati. “Jean Schmidt is going to be a formidable competitor, but I don’t think the task will be as big as the one we just overcame … The next five months will be like the primary on steroids.”

Krikorian blamed his apparent loss on allegations last week that he had made fun of Yalamanchili’s name. He strongly denied the accusations.

“That clearly affected the final outcome,” he said. “That was the difference. We tried to run a very positive campaign, but one of our opponents stooped to the level of playing the race card.”

2010 is the centenary year of the forgotten cinema genius Sri SM Ramulu Naidu. Mr. Naidu was born on February 1, 1910 in Tiruchirappalli. He endeavoured to exploit the rich heritage of Coimbatore and gave his production a distinct colour. He is regarded as one of the founders of the Tamil film industry.

His first film Aryamala (1941) was a big hit. Mr. Naidu directed more than 20 films for nearly 20 years in Coimbatore. He has made many outstanding contributions to Tamil cinema with socially purposeful films.

S M Sriramulu Naidu started Central studios in 1936 at Uppilipalayam, near Singanallur.

In 1944, Sriramulu moved out of Central and started Pakshiraja studios at Puliakulam in 1945. One of the major ventures of Pakshiraja studios was the multi-lingual movie it made in the mid-50s, cutting across language and geographical boundaries. The studio produced Malaikallan, featuring the star pair of MGR and Banumathi, in Tamil, Aggiramudu in Telugu with N T Rama Rao and Banumathi, Azaad in Hindi with Dilip Kumar and Meena Kumari, Tushkaraveeran in Malayalam, Bettadalli kalla in Kannada and Surasena in Sinhala.

Azaad, the first Hindi movie to be made in the region, was shot in just three months in three schedules lasting 20 days each.

However, Sriramulu turned into the vanguard of Coimbatore's studios, making films off and on. Finally, bowing to the diktat of the times, he transferred his equipment to the newly built Chamundeswari studio in Bangalore in 1968, which was also owned by him. With this, the glorious chapter of studios and filmmaking in the city came to an end.

Director
1. Kalyaniyin Kanavan (1963
2. Sabarimalai Shri Ayyappan (1962)
3. Vimala (1960)
4. Maragatham (1959)
5. Thaskaraveeran (1957)
6. Azaad (1955)
7. Aggi Ramudu (1954)
8. Malaikallan (1954)
9. Desabhakthan (1952)
10. Kanchana (1952)
11. Kanjana (1952)
12. Prasanna (1950)
13. Kanika (1947)
14. Aariyamala (1941)

Producer
1. Kalyaniyin Kanavan (1963)
2. Shri Sabarimalai Shri Ayyappan (1961)
3. Vimala (1960)
4. Azaad (1955) (as S.M.S. Naidu) Hindi
5. Aggi Ramudu (1954)
6. Oka Talli Pillalu (1953)
7. Ponni (1953
8. Kanchana (1952)
6. Beedala Patlu (1950)
9. Ezhai Padum Padu (1950)
10. Pavalakodi (1949)
11. Jagadhala Prathaban (1944)
12. Sivakavi (1943)
13. Malaikallan
14. Bettadalli
15. Surasena
16. Tushkaraveeran

R. Krishnasamy Naidu was an Tamil politician and former Member of the Legislative Assembly. He was elected to the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly as an Indian National Congress candidate from Srivilliputhur constituency in 1957 election and from Rajapalayam constituency in 1962 election.

R.Krishnasamy naidu Born : 05.01.1902. Died : 31.10.1973.

An ardent social worker and a keen co-operator; Agriculturist; interested in coposing Tamil verses; reading books and hearing carnatic music. Member Madras Legilative Assembly 1952- 67.

Joined in the Indian National Congiress in 1922.
Underwent imprisonment for one year in 1930 during the Civil Disobedience Movement.
President Tamil nadu Congress Committee 1962.

Shri.S.Ramasamy Naidu M.A.,BL of Sattur ( Popularly known as S.R) the first generation advocate & Social reformer and a political leader emerged among the agriculturist, was rightly chosen to identify the association. He was the member of Provisional Parliament during the period of 1950-52 and and former Member of the Legislative Assembly. He was elected to the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly as an Indian National Congress candidate from Sattur constituency in 1952 election, from Sivakasi constituency in1957 and 1962 elections as Indian National Congress candidate. He was again elected from Sattur constituency as a Swatantra Party candidate in 1967 election.

Sri SR, because of his dedicated social work and political background; scores of people from southern districts were able to get the basic education prior to 1960. He was instrument in bringing the Govt High School in all villages at Southern Districts and many schools were named as Sri SR Naidu Govt High School. After the demise of Sri SR, one Arts and Science College was established by the community people in his name at Sattur which is a reputed institution at Virudhunagar.

Washington, 20 April: Recipient of this year's prestigious Ellis Island Medal of Honour, Indian American business leader Rao S. Anumolu believes the Indian community, doing an 'A+ job' professionally and economically, is now catching on in politics too.

'Indians here are mostly professionals - doctors, engineers and in finance field, etc,' says Anumolu, president and CEO of Long Island (New York)-based ASR International Corporation, who would be presented the medal recognising those making outstanding contributions to their communities, their nation and the world, on May 8.

'In these professions, there is ample opportunity to prove themselves professionally and economically, and they are doing A+ job,' he told.

'In politics, the second generation is catching on and they are much more in tune as participants, be it (Louisiana governor) Bobby Jindal or others, but not to the extent you expect,' he said.
Asked what makes Indians excel, Anumolu said: 'My take on that is: Talent has always been there in India. The question is of providing sufficient resources to support the basic human talent for growth.'

'Now, in India too they are flooded with the resources, knowledge, know-how, equipment, and whatever is needed to succeed. Indians are excelling worldwide. Anywhere they can excel because they inherently have good talent and they work hard,' Anumolu said.

With the Indian economy now booming, Anumolu's ASR is 'supporting companies here which are going to India and setting up big ventures there'.

'With our support, they are able to go there with full force and implement them with these resources and know-how. So, indirectly we are helping everyone,' he said when asked about his plans to venture out to India.

Both the US House of Representatives and the Senate have officially recognised the Ellis Island Medals of Honour and the recipients are read into the Congressional Record. Anumolu is the only Asian Indian to have been also cited by the US Congress in 2003 for the contributions made by him and ASR International Corporation towards homeland security in the US.

He came to Chicago for higher studies in 1969 and went on to turn ASR into a trailblazer in developing innovative systems and leveraging technology to provide cost-effective, high quality services to Fortune 500 companies like BP, Rolls-Royce, Exxon, Textron and government agencies.

'They work with us because we serve them well in a cost-effective manner,' he said. 'We support Fortune 500 companies and provide services worldwide. Of course most of our work is right here in the US.'

Anumolu, who has also been honoured by national Telugu organisations such as TANA and ATA, has consistently 'supported many associations of Indian origin. In turn, they send out aid when and where needed in India'.

'They are better than me in channelling the resources...so we give it to them,' he said.

Anumolu has no political favourites, be it in India or the US. 'We stand neutral on the political spectrum. I have friends on both sides of the aisle. We keep away from politics,' he said.

'Our mission is clear - we are focused to achieve a few things. And we believe that this is a major contributor to societal growth, whether it is here or anywhere in the world,' Anumolu said when asked what he believed brought him the honour.

His formula for success: 'Anything you take, work at it, focus on it, try to learn from it, and then move forward with total determination and you will succeed beyond your imagination.'

His two sons, Praveen and Naveen too are now fully involved in the family business, yet Anumolu who keeps fit and at peace by not getting 'involved in unnecessary activities' and doing 'interesting things all the time', has no retirement plans.

Karnataka Governor Hans Raj Bhardwaj has picked Coffee Board of India chairman Gogineni Venkata Krishna Rao to succeed A.K.M. Nayak who left the Raj Bhavan at the end of July 2009 to become additional chief secretary in the Karnataka government.

It will be one more Telugu-speaking IAS officer in an influential office in Karnataka. The state Chief Minister's Office already has three key officials including two IAS officers who are Telugu-speaking.

Krishna Rao, 56, a 1982-batch Karnataka cadre IAS officer who hails from Andhra Pradesh, told, "We are used to moving places in our jobs and I only I hope I live to the expectations of my new job there. Every job has its challenges and responsibilities."

For almost five years since he took over as chairman of Coffee Board in May 2005, the soft-spoken officer served as a friend, philosopher and guide to the coffee industry in India. The Coffee Board, an autonomous body functioning under the Central ministry of commerce and industry, was set up under an Act of Parliament in 1942 to focus on "research, development, extension, quality upgradation, market information, and the domestic and external promotion of Coffees of India". Under Rao's guidance, coffee exports marginally rose to two lakh tons in the current fiscal -- a whiff of energising aroma -- especially factoring lower output because of adverse weather conditions and increase in domestic consumption.

Rau had also worked on several measures to boost demand for coffee -- locally the coffee sector reported six per cent growth rate and outside more than two per cent. "It won't be fair to attribute these good things to me," Rao told, "we all worked together for the success of the Board's objectives." It's exactly the kind of lowkey characteristic that helped the Governor's office to zero in on Rao after some late night consultation with the state chief secretary S.V. Ranganath the last few days.

An MSc in agriculture, Rau will find the Raj Bhavan environment a totally different one for him to cultivate and nurture.

Rao will be entering a fairly tough territory serving as a link between the imposing colonial landmark and the state Government whose functionaries sit in another 1950s granite edifice called the Vidhana Soudha just next door. Close encounters of a powerful kind.

Corpus Media labs (Sachin Tummala, chairman), a media and entertainment software and services unit of the Hyderabad-based Corpus group of companies, has acquired US-based PQ Engineering, Inc (PQE), a digital video consulting group in a cash and stock deal.

Dallas based Corpus Media labs provides cross platform applications like Interactivity, Enhanced TV, Customer care, transactional services, participatory and Information services across TV, PC and Mobile.

Corpus' cross platform applications can be deployed on top of proprietary Service acceleration platform, ''Citadel'' as well on industry renowned middleware platforms.
Denver, Colorado-based privately held PQ Engineering is a digital video consulting services company with expertise in headend solutions, system integration and rollout, and next-generation set-top box development and testing.

Sachin Tummala, group chairman, Corpus group of companies said, "The combined forces of both the companies will allow expanding our expertise both in India as well as in US providing our cable and satellite customers with a broad range of solutions in the fields of Systems Integration, Application development as well as consulting."

In 2006, Corpus had acquired Recreate Solutions, a London-based new media services company, and followed it up by acquiring Retreon Inc., a Denver based Cable and satellite focused company.

Corpus Media Lab's main backers are private equity firm ConnectCapital, an investment arm of Insight Capital Partners, whose strategic investors include Microsoft and i2 technologies

The project estimated to involve an investment of Rs.1560 crore, was originally awarded to Maytas Infra Ltd-led consortium in april 2008.

Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh cabinet on Wednesday named infrastructure firm Navayuga Engineering Co. Ltd (Chinta visveswara Rao-Chairman) as the lead promoter of the Machilipatnam port project on India’s east coast.

The project, estimated to involve an investment of Rs1,590 crore, was originally awarded to a Maytas Infra Ltd-led consortium in April 2008.

The Maytas consortium failed to achieve financial closure for the project within the stipulated time and its members, Srie Infrastructure Ltd and Sarat Chandra Co., expressed their willingness to exit from it, the state government said in a statement after the cabinet meeting.

3 Kammas elected to Bangalore Municipal Corporation
1) Munirathnam Naidu - Yeshwanthpur - INC
2) Katta Jagadish - Vasanth Nagar - BJP
3) B.S. Venkataswamy Naidu - Chikkallsandra - BJP

The first indigenous motor in the country was produced in Coimbatore in 1939 , thanks to an engineer who was working in the National Engineering Works of G.D.Naidu.

An electrical engineer from Sheffield University, England, D. Balasundaram had training in a major industrial unit there that had 12,000 employees manufacturing components for power stations.

He is said to have used the “copper rotor welding” technology to design this motor.

Born in 1913 at Avarampalayam ,Coimbatore, he first established Coimbatore Engineering and Trading Company to manufacture components for textile machinery.

When his Textool Company was born, the first ring frame was produced.

According to historian C.R.Elangovan, this was an achievement because it was a period immediately after the Second World War when everything was scarce and there were too many restrictions too.

Besides, everything had to be imported for which also there were a number of controls, licences and practical problems.

Undaunted, Mr.Balasundaram imported old machinery from Europe, repaired them and used for manufacturing various components.

In 1948, the Indian Government itself requested his Textool Company to manufacture guns and Mr.Balasundaram set up a separate division for the same.

From sten gun to SBBL-12 type of gun the unit provided.

His company, which started producing more and more textile components in 1949, had as much as 2,000 employees by 1952, an achievement by itself.

Textool became so prominent that it was manufacturing almost all the components required for textile units and it emerged as one of the top three in the country manufacturing such items.

In 1955, he started manufacturing 5 HP diesel engines meant for agricultural pumpsets and the strength of the workforce commensurately shot up to 4,000 by 1957.

He improved upon the Ambar charka with four spindles designed by Ekambaram of Tirunelveli into a 16 spindle charka.

Though that attracted quite a lot of approbation and recognition , it did not become popular due to certain practical difficulties.

He was not deterred by the serious shortage of pig iron for his factory.

He produced indigenous machinery to make iron from the ore and did produce as much as 50 tonnes of iron a day at the Textool itself.

The company rose to such an eminent position that it received orders even from Neyveli Lignite Corporation for components to their machinery and Textool’s products were considered even sturdier than the ones imported from Germany.

In 1960, Mr.Balasundaram undertook a trip to Japan which revolutionised his activities. That led to his producing even railway signal equipment and also the cone winding machinery for textile units with Japanese co-operation.

Mr. Elangovan considers the total indigenous production of a passenger car in 1965 as one of the greatest achievements of Textool.

Besides, a tractor was made in the same company and the first tractor was handed over to the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, towards Bihar flood relief fund.

The serious recession in the textile industry that began in 1965 started hurting Textool also.
Many customers could not make their payments for the Textool products and the company was caught in a serious financial crisis.

It had to be closed down for some time.

When the State Government took over the company, Mr.Balasundaram relinquished his charge.
Most of the small entrepreneurs, especially in Ganapathi area, are said to have been former staff of the Textool Company and there is none who has not had some counsel or support from Mr.Balasundaram.

He is one who has never bothered about money. All that he thinks of is machines and nothing more.