Indian-origin boy Sameer Mishra has won Scripps National Spelling Bee contest, beating 288 children in the 8 to 15 age group.

“Guerdon” said the judges. Thirteen-year-old eight grader asked for the definition, and then confidently spelled it out correctly to the thunderous applause from the audience.

It was a proud moment for Mishra who had participated in the contest for the fourth time and was trained by his sister Shruti who herself is a spelling enthusiast.

His parents and sister stood proudly behind him as he was awarded the coveted trophy on Friday night. Besides engraved trophy, he gets USD 30,000 in cash and USD 2,500 worth US savings bonds from Merriam-Webster with a complete reference library.

The second place went another Indian American 12-year-old Sidharth Chand, a seventh grade student.

In all four Indian Americans were among the last 12 who qualified for the final. Kavya Shivashankar was tied in the fourth place with four others and Janhnavi Iyer was in the 8th place.

Mishra is a computer and video games enthusiast and hopes to grow up to be a neurosurgeon. Earlier he had competed in 2005 when he occupied 98th position.

In 2006, he was at 14th place and last year at 16th position. The youngest to qualify to participate in the champions was 8-year-old Indian American Sriram Hathwar.

The last student of the Indian origin who won the championship was Anurag Kashyap in 2005 by correctly spelling “appoggiatura.”

Nine students of Indian-origin had made to the semi-finals.

Pressing matters of state prevented Prime Minister Manmohan Singh from meeting and catching up with his old school friend Raja Mohammed Ali, 76, for almost a week.

Ali, resident of Singh’s ancestral Gah village in Pakistan’s Punjab province, came bearing soil from Singh’s old homestead to meet his old friend ‘Mohna’, now the Prime Minister of India.

According to a senior government official, another factor responsible for the delayed reunion between the childhood friends was the uncertain nature of India-Pakistan relations. There was concern that in the aftermath of the Jaipur serial bomb blasts, it was not “politically correct” for the Indian PM to be seen hugging a Pakistani, the official said.

However, once the two met on Friday, they chatted to each other animatedly for over half an hour and exchanged gifts. The Indian Prime Minister gave Ali a turban, a set of Titan watches and a shawl, while his friend gifted the PM a photograph of Gah village, a shawl, some juttis and soil from his home. He also gifted two embroidered salwar kameez suits for the Prime Minister’s wife, Gursharan Kaur.

Although the PM did not meet Ali for almost a week, he ensured that Ali, accompanied by nephew Mehmud Ali, was made comfortable in a government guesthouse. — Courtesy HT

NEW DELHI: Tata Motors on Wednesday warned of “challenging times ahead” and announced raising of Rs 7,200 crore through three simultaneous but unlinked rights issues to fund its ambitious takeover of Jaguar and Land Rover marques from Ford.

In a first of its kind in the country, the company will introduce shares with differential voting rights, called “A” equity share, in the proposed rights issue to raise Rs 2,000 crore. In this, every 10 “A” equity shares will carry only one voting right. Merchant banker sources said as “A” equity shares will not carry the similar voting rights, it will be traded at discount to the other common shares having full voting rights.

Another Rs 2,200 crore will be raised through normal rights issue of shares, having full voting rights. In the third issue, which will also hit the market simultaneously, the company proposed to Rs 3,000 crore through a rights issue of 5-year 0.5% convertible preference shares (CCPs), which can be optionally converted into “A” equity shares after three years but before five years from the date of allotment.

In a statement, the company said, the precise terms and condition like ratio on which these securities would be offered, the offer price and the conversion price would be decided only when the issues are ready.

However, Tata Motors also indicated that the issues would raise the equity capital of the company by 30-35% during the current financial year. This means, in the first two category of rights issue, the company is likely to issue 11.5 crore to 13.5 crore shares. Out of this, around 5 crore to 6 crore shares with full voting rights, will be issued at around Rs 400 per share to raise Rs 2,200 crore. At the same time, 6 crore to 7 crore “A” equity share will be issued at around Rs 300 per share to raise Rs 2,000 crore.

As the company has announced Rs 15 per share as dividend, the cost of funds raised through “A” share will be around 5% only. The merchant banker said it is an efficient way of raising funds. “On completion of the above rights issues, it is also proposed to raise about $500/600 million through issue of securities in the foreign markets on terms to be decided at that time,” it said.

The company’s $2.3 billion acquisition of the two British brands is expected to be completed by the end of June. “Though the initial acquisition cost will be financed through bridging loans provided by a syndicate of banks, these loans would be fully repaid through the above-mentioned capital raising schemes,” it said.

Wednesday 28 May, 2008

NSW Premier Morris Iemma today welcomed the Hon. Sri Praful Patel, Minister for Civil Aviation in India, to Sydney to discuss ways to further strengthen ties between NSW and India in the aviation sector.

“I met with Mr Patel during my visit to India last year, and I am delighted to welcome him to NSW,” Mr Iemma said.

“This visit highlighted the many areas of potential trade and investment links between NSW and India including opportunities in the aviation sector.

“The Indian civil aviation market is on a high growth trajectory – growing at a rate of 18 per cent annually – and holds out greater promise for potential investors.”

Mr Iemma said Australia was a leading supplier of airport infrastructure to the world.

“Australia has developed world-class expertise through the development and adoption of airport solutions and supporting engineering capabilities and technologies for a unique geography and diverse local conditions.

“In term of employee productivity, aeronautical developments, staff and operating costs; Sydney and Australia’s other international airports rated among the highest in the world.

“There are more than 260 licensed airports in Australia. Of these, 12 are operated as international airports servicing scheduled international airlines.

“Sydney has Australia’s busiest international airport accounting for 44 per cent of Australia’s international aircraft movements and 46 per cent of international air passenger movements.

“In 2007, a record 31 million domestic and international passengers travelled through Sydney airport.

“Our TAFE and Universities also provide courses in aircraft maintenance, avionics, aeroskills, commercial airline pilot training and coursework programs in aviation management.

“We are committed and look forward to participating in the development of the aviation sector in India,” Mr Iemma said.

Leading Indian-origin women from the fields of journalism, art, education and finance were among the awardees at this year’s Asian Women of Achievement Awards announced at a high profile event here.

Cherie Blair, wife of former Prime Minister Tony Blair, and actress Liz Hurley looked resplendent in saris as they attended the ninth annual awards event at the London Hilton to honour ten dynamic Asian women from various fields.

Co-founded by Pinky Lilani and organised by Real Business magazine, the Asian Women of Achievement Awards recognise achievements of Asian women in the UK.

The winners included Arti Lukha, the home news editor of ITN. She was selected for the award for her “determination to get to the heart of cutting-edge news stories as a hard-hitting journalist”.

In the Arts and Culture category, the winner was Shobana Jeyasingh, a choreographer who has directed the Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company since 1988.

Asha Khemka, another Indian-origin woman, won the Public Sector award for her role as the principal of the West Nottinghamshire College.

The Social and Humanitarian Award went to Bala Thakrar, who has championed the needs of vulnerable people for 20 years.

Indians have turned out to be the largest group of immigrants, who have been granted British citizenship during 2007, according to the official figures released this week.

Last year, a record numbers of foreign nationals, 164,635 people, were granted citizenship, a seven per cent rise in 12 months. It was the highest since the Home Office began keeping comparable records in 1997, the figures reveal.

The biggest group was from India, who made up nine per cent of the total with 14,490. Filipinos constituted seven per cent with 10,840, Afghans six per cent with 10,555 and South Africans five per cent with 8,150.

A quarter of citizenships, about 41,000 were given to children, while about 29,000 became British nationals through marriage.

Last year, 160,980 people applied for citizenship while 14,725 applications were rejected.

According to the Home Office the reasons for increase in 2007 were not clear but suggested that speedier decision making had reduced the backlog of applicants.

While record numbers of people took citizenship, separate figures released by the Office of National Statistics showed that a record 400,000 people have left Britain in 2006, of which more than half were British citizens.

Of these, almost one-third went to live in Australia and New Zealand, a quarter to Spain or France and about one in twelve to the US.

An estimated 591,000 people came to Britain, resulting in net immigration in 2006 running at 191,000. Net immigration of New Commonwealth citizens was 115,000. It was the highest of all foreign citizenship groups coming to the country.

Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Sri Lankans made up 80 per cent of net migrants, with London being their most common destination, where they intended to stay

A Goa-born surgeon researching and teaching at the Dundee University in Scotland has pioneered a new method for the early detection of breast cancer.
 
Jayant Vaidya, senior lecturer and consultant surgeon at the university, is a leading member of a team of surgeons that discovered that malignant tumours remain cold when surrounding breast tissue is heated to about 20 degrees Celsius.
 
Experts hope the discovery will make it easier for doctors to determine if a lump is cancerous, and also lead to advances in understanding of the disease.
 
A study conducted by the team tested tumours removed from six women an hour after they had undergone surgery at the Ninewells Hospital in Dundee.
 
Each piece of tissue was treated with a hot-air gun, and on each occasion the tumour stayed cold.
 
Terming the discovery as ‘very exciting’, Vaidya said: “Nothing like this has been done before. We heated up a specimen and used a high-resolution thermal imaging camera to take a picture. We found the tumour stayed cold while the rest of the tissue heated up. Then we did the same thing on another five samples and every single one had the same outcome.”
 
“This could open up a lot of doors for breast-cancer treatment and detection, hopefully saving the lives of women all around the world,” he said.
 
The team hope that a probe could be developed to insert into the breast and heat the area around the tumour, which could mean bypassing a painful biopsy.
 
A report on the study, which was published in the International Journal of Surgery, predicts the technique could become crucial in understanding breast cancer.

It has become a norm of sorts. Every time Shaun Marsh walks out to the middle, he scores without fail. It wasn’t any different on Wednesday. Instead it was better than whatever he had dished out prior to this match. The left-hander came out firing on all cylinders, unleashing strokes to every corner of the ground to bring up a scintillating century (115) off just 69 balls that was studded with 11 boundaries and seven sixes.And by the time he was done with the fierce onslaught, he had the orange cap — awarded to the leading run-getter in IPL — firmly placed on his astonishingly cool head. In the process, he pushed Mohali, with contributions from James Hopes (51) and Yuvraj Singh (49), to an invincible 221 for 2. The score eventually proved too much for Jaipur, who took the field without their key players like skipper Shane Warne, Sohail Tanveer and Graeme Smith.

Chasing 221, Jaipur too needed some spectacular performances to get to the target. Yusuf Pathan and Neeraj Patel did play courageous knocks, but they were always fighting a lost battle. Eventually, they were restricted to 180 for 7, and went down by 41 runs.

All said and done, it was the day of Mohali batters. Shaun Marsh started the assault from the outset, hardly giving the bowlers any chance to settle down. Strokes flowed incessantly from his bat, yet there wasn’t even the slightest hint of slogging. Each of his strokes had class written over it. He hardly looked bothered, and treated all the bowlers with utmost disdain. Marsh looked more than happy to drive, pull, cut and hoist them over the ropes, time and again.

After racing to his fifty, he went relatively silent for a while and allowed James Hopes to take over. The aggressive right-hander joined the party and brought up a quick half century to maintain the Mohali scoring rate at breakneck speed.

Jaipur heaved a sigh of relief when Hopes fell for 51 after putting on 133 runs for the first wicket, but the joy was short-lived. Marsh got down to business again, and Yuvraj Singh joined the party from the other end. Marsh raced to his hundred, hitting some towering sixes on the way, while his captain, at the other end, matched him six for six. Yuvraj finally played the knock everyone had been waiting for a while. It rained sixes from his willow the moment he stepped in, and at one point it appeared he would repeat his record of six sixes. He struck three sixes off the last three balls of a Trivedi over, and then smashed the fourth off the first ball he faced again, making it four in four. The next two were spaced out, but he managed to hit six sixes in all, scoring a breezy 49 off just 16 balls. The last ball run-out left him just a run short of what would have been the fastest half-century in the IPL.