SDF Govt Continues Attack on Cong Over Lottery Issue

The SDF government in Kerala today continued its attack on Congress over the appearance of AICC spokesman Abhishek Singhvi in the lottery case and said the party's leadership should explain to the people its policy on other state lotteries.

"Party spokesperson Singhvi had argued in High Court on behalf of Megha Distributors, promoters of Bhutan and Sikkim lotteries that state had no power to control the operations in contrast to the stand taken by Congress leaders in Kerala," State Finance Minister T M Thomas Issac told reporters.

Issac said Singhvi, who withdrew from the case following protest from state Congress leaders, did it only after concluding his arguments in the case.

The minister also wanted Singhvi to explain to people whether the position taken by him in the court that state had no power to check the operations of other state lotteries was the same as that of the Congress national leadership. Further details

Two from Sikkim to be part of Indian taekwondo squad

Two martial artistes from Sikkim will be accompanying the Indian team to the fifth World Taekwondo Poomsae Championship 2010 to be held at Tashkent in Uzbekistan from 08 to 10 October.Chief Coach Trilok Subba and Ugyen Gurung of Sikkim Amateur Taekwondo Association [SATA] have been selected in the 14-member Indian team for the said championship.The sixth Dan Black Belt, Subba has already represented India at the 4th World Taekwondo Poomsae Championship held in Cairo last year, while the first Dan Ugyen is a student at Holy Cross School here.The duo were selected after they bagged gold medals in the fifth National Taekwondo Poomsae Championship 2010 held at Surat earlier this year.They have been under rigorous six-hour training session everyday in preparation for the Tashkent event. PTI COR SUS.

Courtesy IBN news

NIT PROFESSOR WINS JAPANESE AWARD

Tiruchi: Assistant Professor in Chemistry at the National Institute of Technology-Trichy, S. Anandan, has been conferred the 'Young Leaf Award" instituted by the Hiyoshi Corporation of Japan. He was presented the award in Chennai recently Tomonori Minowa,Consul,Consulate-General of Japan, Chennai.

Dr. Anandan is attached to the Nanomaterials and Solar Energy Conversion Lab at the Chemistry department of the institute. He has been actively engaged in research as well as training in areas such as environmental degradation of pollutants using solar energy and nanomaterials. 

The professor has published over 60 articles in internationally reputed journals and three chapters in books on environmental research.

Apart from Anandan, three researchers were also chosen for the Hiyoshi Environmental Award-2009 by the Tamil Nadu Centre of ABK AOTS Dosokai and Hiyoshi Corporation, Japan. 

The winners of the environmental awards included P.K. Bhattacharya of the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur who won the 'Think of Ecology" Award and Dinesh Mohan of the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, who received the 'Environmental Award'. Further details…..

CHEMISTRY SEMINAR AT SMIT

Majitar (Rongpo): Three days’ national level seminar on membranes, micro emulsions, and self-assembled systems, organised by chemistry department of Sikkim Manipal Institute of Technology (SMIT) in association with northeast chapter of the Indian Society for Surface Science and Technology (ISSST) started at the seminar hall of SMIT from Monday. More then 20 resource persons along with 120 researchers from all over of the country have participated in the seminar.
The programme was jointly inaugurated by Sikkim Manipal University vice chancellor Prof.(Brig) SS Pabla, Prof. KS Ismail, president northeast chapter of ISSST, Prof. KP Das, president of the same society of Jadavpur University, Kolkata, and Prof. BS Dandapat, director incharge, dean of SMIT. Programme coordinator Prof Amlan Kumar Das, head of the chemistry department of SMIT, in his welcome address briefly outlined the concept and vision to organise the seminar. He said that for the first time such type of conference is being held. Prof KP D as, Prof. Dandapat, Prof. Ismailand Prof. Pabla also addressed the meet. The three-day seminar is sponsored by Ministry of Earth Science, NEC and others.
Courtesy Sikkim Reporter

BRING SIKKIM HOME

It’s taken four decades for the union government to lift the ban on Satyajit Ray’s documentary, Sikkim. It was made the at the behest of the then king (Chogyal). Sikkim has never been shown in India as queen Hope Cooke took home a print and never returned it. Ray’s son, Sandip, also a filmmaker, say,”The original negative perished long ago. But a print has been partly restored by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts And Sciences. Also, I believe there’s one at London’s Brown University.” Sandip is not sure if Sikkim will now be screened abroad: “If the print is acquired from the Academy and a restored copy is sent to us, we could do a formal screening in India.”

He recalls that since the film was the Chogyal’s production, it was well coordinated, and his father had access to many restricted areas to film it.

“He covered three seasons. I went for one of them to Gangtok with Baba. We  shot everywhere, even in places like Lachen where there was no electricity. My father was very upset when the ban was imposed,” reminisces Sandip, who spotted the second Sikkim print in Gangtok in 2003.

“The print was so damaged that it could not be run on a projector. I sent it to the Academy Archives,” he informs.

Sandip saw the restored copy a few years back at the Nantes Three Continents Film Festival in France. He hopes to acquire a copy, and screen it on Satyajit Ray’s 90th birth anniversary on May 2, next year.

C.M. CLAIMS TO MAKE SIKKIM POVERTY-FREE

Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Chamling has asserted that ever since the formation of the state, the SDF government is the only one which has been successful in elevating the economic status of the people.

While observing the 'Garibi Unmolan Diwas' here yesterday, the Chief Minister, addressing the gathering, said people of the state should analyse how many poverty-stricken sections have been elevated in their status economically during the tenure of the Sikkim Democratic Front government and compare the same with the yesteryears.

SLEEP WELL TO SUCCEED IN I.T.

How good is your sleep? This is a million dollar question faced by all those individuals who work late in office or are burdened with loads of work and responsibility. This question is also of great significance to all the IT professionals who spend most of their time sitting and staring their computer monitors! The work of an IT professional primarily comprises more of mental labour as compared to physical labour which is minimal. But this lack of physical acitivity in the work is countered by the intellectual exercise that they perform everyday!

Thus, an activity such as sleep becomes very important for people in this field.

Why is sleep important? 

Sleep becomes more than a simple biological activity and acquires greater significance, something on which depends the health of an individual- both physical and mental.

Some of the ill-effects arising out of loss of sleep could be :

• mood swings
• erratic behavior
• hallucinations

Minimum hours of sleep needed?

An individual requires somewhere between 6-10 hours of sleep but on an average 6 hours of sleep should be enough for an individual. A normal sleep relieves a person from the stress and tensions that he / she gets during the course of the day from work and other spheres of life.

The way people sleep could be categorised into three types

Satvic, Rajasic and tamasic.

Satvic sleep is when people sleep in an undisturbed manner. The moment they hit the bed, they fall asleep. This is primarily due to the fact that they are too tired and their mind is tired after handling a full day’s work and tensions. So, such people sleep the instant they lie down on the bed. Most professionals sleep this way and such a person requires 6-7 hours of rest to recharge his weary senses!! Many IT people professionals too qualify in this category wherein they fall asleep the moment the lie down on the bed. But the concern arises with the number of hours of sleep. When the body gets less than 6 hours of sleep, he/she does not get adequate rest to refurbish the energy drained from the body. As a result of which there is a certain fatigue that looms in the mind of the individual.

HISTORY OF ENGINEERING

                                  

The concept of engineering has existed since ancient times as humans devised fundamental inventions such as the pulley, lever, and wheel. Each of these inventions is consistent with the modern definition of engineering, exploiting basic mechanical principles to develop useful tools and objects.

The term engineering itself has a much more recent etymology, deriving from the word engineer, which itself dates back to 1325, when an engine’er (literally, one who operates an engine) originally referred to “a constructor of military engines.In this context, now obsolete, an “engine” referred to a military machine, i.e., a mechanical contraption used in war (for example, a catapult). Notable exceptions of the obsolete usage which have survived to the present day are military engineering corps, e.g., the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The word “engine” itself is of even older origin, ultimately deriving from the Latin ingenium (c. 1250), meaning “innate quality, especially mental power, hence a clever invention.

Later, as the design of civilian structures such as bridges and buildings matured as a technical discipline, the term civil engineering entered the lexicon as a way to distinguish between those specializing in the construction of such non-military projects and those involved in the older discipline of military engineering.