Dec/10/2011

‘Solution for Kudunkulam will soon be found’

Russian Consul General assures safety of VVER-1000 reactors

Russia is optimistic that a solution would be found soon to the current impasse over the Kudankulam nuclear power plant and the efforts made to allay the fears of the people would bear fruit, said Nikolay A.Listopadov, Consul General of the Russian Federation in Southern India, here on Saturday.

“Owing to unfortunate developments, work on the plant has come to a halt. India is a great democracy and everyone has a right to express their views. But some of the anti-nuclear protestors are professional activists who are not willing to listen to our arguments,” he said speaking at an interactive session with a group of city's trade and industry representatives.

Reiterating that the VVER-1000 reactors were highly safe, Mr.Listopadov affirmed that additional safety features have been incorporated at the Kundakulam plant following the Fukushima nuclear accident. The apprehensions of the people should be allayed through dissemination of information regarding the safety and security of the nuclear plant.

The plant was located on an elevated plane and the coastline there had not suffered any damage even during strong Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004. It would not be detrimental to marine life. Similar nuclear reactors were functioning in Russia and more are being commissioned there and in China and Iran too.

When asked whether the anti-nuclear protests would be a setback for the Kudankulam project, Mr.Listopadov said both India and Russia were interested in continuing the nuclear cooperation programme. “We do not see any reason why it cannot continue,” he observed and pointed out that India and Russia would sign contracts for establishment of two more nuclear reactors at Kudankulam during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Moscow shortly.

Of the 90 nuclear experts from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, who were involved in the construction of the nuclear plant at Kudankulam, some have returned home after the terms of their contracts ended. But others were staying back and awaiting the resumption of the work on the plant, he said.

To a query, Mr.Listopadov said efforts were on to increase bilateral trade between India and Russia and there was much scope for cooperation in areas such as bio-technology and information technology. Efforts were also being made to strengthen the educational and cultural ties between the two countries. He conceded that there was scope for more collaborative research and the two countries have already taken up joint research in the field of space science. He suggested that Indian tourist firms promote the heritage tourism destinations of South India, especially in Tamil Nadu, to attract Russian tourists.

A.Jaya, Mayor, K.Chandramohan, chairman, Confederation of Indian Industry, Tiruchi zone, Rajappa Rajkumar, president, BHEL Small Industries Association (BHELSIA), V.Vasudevan, president, Tiruchi Travel Federation, K.Meena, vice chancellor, Bharathidasan University, R.Ramasubbu, associate editor, Dinamalar, and R.Rajagobal, president, International Cultural Federation, participated.

90 killed in Kolkata hospital fire

Nearly all victims choked to death on the upper floors; 6 directors of the hospital arrested

At least 90 people were killed in a fire that ravaged a hospital here in the early hours of Friday. Most of the victims choked to death on the upper floors, even as the toxic smoke engulfed the building.

The fire broke out around 3 a.m. in the basement of the seven-storey building of the Advanced Medical Research Institute (AMRI) Hospitals at Dhakuria. Soon the smoke swept through to the top, threatening the lives of the 164 in-patients.

Amid frantic cries for help, some youths from the nearby locality joined in the rescue, pulling out those still alive, long before firefighters reached the spot. The death toll would have been less had the hospital authorities allowed them in to evacuate the patients earlier, the locals claimed.

“Most of the victims died of suffocation. The building is centrally air-conditioned, and there was no ventilation channel for the smoke to come out,” a Fire officer said, even as desperate firefighters smashed the glass windows to let the fumes out. The basement where the fire started housed a pharmacy, a central storeroom and the biomedical department, all containing inflammable articles, he said.

Heroic Kerala nurses

Two nurses of the female general ward, from Kerala, saved eight of the nine patients in the ward, but the valiant ones perished in the heat and smoke.

Some relatives of the patients broke down as news of the death of their loved ones came in, while the rest frantically searched for their kin, scanning the list of the deceased.

Trepidation rose as the hospital authorities informed the firefighters of the presence of a biomedical department in the basement, where radioactive material for treatment of cancer patients was stored.

An official of the National Disaster Response Force said: “We are trying to find out whether the fire has reached the radioactive material.” No radiation leak had so far been detected. However, the hospital authorities later denied that any hazardous material had been stored in the basement.

Six directors of the hospital have been arrested and the institute will be sealed once the rescue operations are over, said West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who visited the hospital as well as the morgue at the state-run SSKM Hospital, where the bodies were taken.

“The hospital authorities did not inform the Fire Department about the incident. It was the local police station that made the call at 4.10 a.m.,” Minister for Fire and Emergency Services Javed Ahmed Khan said.

In all, 28 fire-tenders and three sky-lifts were pressed into action and the blaze was put out late in the afternoon. The survivors were shifted to five hospitals

How proteins regulate our appetite and insulin secretion

Scientists have made an important discovery about the mechanism controlling the body’s “fat switch", which sheds new light on how proteins regulate appetite and insulin secretion.

Victor Zammit and his team of researchers at the Warwick Medical School found that an enzyme known as “Carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1A” (CPT1) has a switch, which is thrown depending on the composition and curvature of its cellular membrane. CPT1 is the key protein that regulates fatty acid oxidation in the liver and is critical for metabolism. Its activity determines whether individuals suffer from fatty liver in one extreme or ketosis in the other. “Knowing that the CPT1 enzyme can switch and what controls it will ultimately lead to a better understanding of why some people appear to have a speedy metabolism and others struggle to curb their appetite,” Zammit said.

"We are making great inroads to understanding the science behind our metabolism and how at cellular level it changes according to the influence of different factors -- be they nutritional or hormonal,” he added.

The study has been published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

OUP to reprint Ramanujan's Ramayana essay

Responding to protests from academics, the Oxford University Press (OUP) has decided to reprint “immediately” The Collected Essays of A.K. Ramanujan, and Paula Richman's Many Ramayanas: The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia, featuring Ramanujan's controversial work, Three Hundred Ramayanas, dropped by Delhi University from its undergraduate curriculum over claims that it hurt Hindu sentiments.

This brings to an end a bitter row that saw arguably the world's most respected academic publishing house being accused of censorship by leading academics, including its own authors, over its role in suppressing the two books in what they alleged was an attempt to buy peace with fundamentalist groups.

In a statement, OUP (India) said: “Given the current concern expressed by members of the scholarly community about the availability of The Collected Essays and Many Ramayanas, we have taken the decision to reprint both titles immediately and make them available in India and beyond. We are also makingQuestioning Ramayanas available again. All three titles are available to order from the OUP India website and bookshops across India.''

‘Misinterpreted'

Rejecting allegations of censorship, OUP insisted that it remained committed to academic freedom. It also denied ever apologising to a right-wing group that had sued it for publishing Three Hundred Ramayanas and said that its position in court had been “misinterpreted”.

The statement, sent to more than 450 scholars who had signed a letter of protest written by Sheldon Pollock, professor of Sanskrit and Indian studies at Columbia University, said: “OUP has an important role to play in ensuring that the best scholarship is disseminated freely, and we hope the reprinting of these three important works will demonstrate our commitment in this regard. We also wish to restate the fact that OUP does not and never has apologised for publishing any work by Ramanujan. Any previous communications from OUP India that have given the impression of such an apology have been misinterpreted. We recognise that it is not in the best interests of the scholarly community of which we are a part for such a misinterpretation to remain, which is why we are clarifying our position once again.”

Academics welcome move

The move was greeted with “deep satisfaction” by academics.

“We wholeheartedly support this affirmation of OUP's longstanding commitment to excellence in scholarship, to the broadest possible dissemination of knowledge, and to the right of scholars, writers, and artists to freedom of thought and expression everywhere,” campaigners said in a statement published on the website of Washington-based academic newspaperThe Chronicle of Higher Education.

It quoted Professor Pollock as saying that he and his fellow signatories were “pleased with OUP's statement and believe it has addressed all our concerns.”

Student campaigners at Oxford University said they were “extremely glad that OUP recognised the importance of reprinting these books''.

No change in KG Basin production sharing contract

Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Jaipal Reddy on Friday said the issue of fall in production in the KG Basin D-6 block of Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) would be addressed, asserting that the government was not targeting any one company or individual or indulging in witch hunting.

NO WITCH HUNTING

Talking to journalists after inaugurating the third India-Africa Hydrocarbon Conference, jointly organised by the Petroleum Ministry and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry here, Mr. Reddy said: There will be no change in the production sharing contract (PSC) for KG-D6. The PSC does not link cost-recovery to output, but the Petroleum Ministry wants to restrict this in proportion to gas production vis-a-vis the target. If there are changes in the PSC, they will be introduced from future NELP rounds. They will have prospective effect.''

The Ministry has already indicated that it would be initiating action against the Mukesh Ambani-owned company for drop in gas production from the Dhirubhai 1 and 3 gas fields in the KG-D6 block to about 34 million metric cubic metres a day from the 61.88 mmcmd target, by limiting the amount of expenditure it was allowed to recoup.

Mr. Reddy said the government had no intention whatsoever to jeopardise the output from KG-D6. “We will do nothing which will affect the pace and quantum of production. I have no reservation at all about the pace of gas output in the KG Basin. If there are some points of dispute, they will be discussed. They will not be allowed to come in the way of the schedule of work. These things will be discussed by the experts and authorities concerned,'' he added.

Parliamentary panel allays fears over passage on Lokpal Bill

The Parliamentary Committee dealing with the Lokpal Bill on Friday allayed fears that making it a constitutional body would delay its passage and maintained that the process can be completed in a single day.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel and Law and Justice, which tabled its report in both Houses of Parliament on Friday, said apprehensions regarding delay in granting constitutional status to the institution of Lokpal are “misplaced” as the amendment bill in this regard would be much shorter than the statutory bill.

“It can be passed on the same day and at the same time as the latter though by a different majority,” Committee chairperson Abhishek Singhvi told reporters.

The report states that it is “inconceivable that while parties are in favour of the institution of Lokpal in principle, as a statutory body, parties would not agree with equal alacrity for the passage of a constitutional amendment bill“.

Mr. Singhvi further said the proposed amendment bill to grant constitutional status will not have more than seven paragraphs.

He was hopeful that the Cabinet would clear the Bill and place the amended version before Parliament for its passage.

“Intentions are very clear that this Bill has to be brought in this session of Parliament,” Mr. Singhvi said, adding there were nine more days in the Winter Session to pass the legislation.

Anna Hazare has threatened to go on another fast if the Bill is not passed in this session thus setting a deadline for the government.