6 JulIndia’s Parvathy Omanakuttan narrowly missed out on winning the Miss World 2008 crown which went to Russia’s Ksenya Sukhinova at a glittering African extravaganza held in Johannesburg on Saturday.
“Miss World 2008 is Russia,” announced Julia Morley, head of the Miss World committee that organises the event.
Twenty one-year-old Parvathy, who hails from Kottayam in Kerala, finished first runner up and failed to join five Indian glamour queens Reita Faria (1966), Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan (1994), Diana Hayden (1997), Yukta Mookhey (1999) and Priyanka Chopra (2000) who had won the title.
This was the first time in eight years that an Indian reached the finals of the Miss World competition.
Parvathy, who had won this year’s Miss Femina contest in April, said she was happy that she could go this far in the contest but was disappointed a little at not having won the crown.
“I had expected that I will win. But there is a little disappointment. After many years, India reached the top five. It’s been eight years since an Indian has reached the finals of Miss World contest and this makes me happy,” Parvathy said.
“But I cannot say that I’m very happy as I had expected to win. I’m a little disappointed. But it is said that destiny has a big role to play in one’s life and God might have something better in stock for me,” the Kerala girl told NDTV.
The second runner up was Gabriel Walcott of Trinidad and Tobago. More than 100 international beauties participated in this year’s Miss World pageant hosted by South Africa.
(L-R) Miss India Parvathy Omanakuttan, Miss Russia Ksenia Sukhinova and Miss Trinidad & Tobago: Gabrielle Walcott
13 DecRaipur- Four poll officials were suspended after 510 votes were cast in a polling booth with 478 registered voters in Chhattisgarh’s Raipur district during the second phase of the assembly elections, officials said Saturday.
Polling booth number 176 in village Manikchauri in Abhanpur constituency recorded above 100 percent voting on Nov 20, the final phase of assembly elections in which 51 of the state’s 90 constituencies went to polls.
Official sources said all the four polling staff deployed at the booth were suspended and the district election officer recommended re-polling.
Chhattisgarh Congress president Dhanendra Sahu, who is a sitting legislator from the seat, is locked in a fight with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) candidate and former Lok Sabha MP Chandrasekhar Sahu. Manikchauri is Chandrasekhar Sahu’s ancestral village.
23 NovHyundai’s bestselling model – the i10 – launched in the domestic market in October 2007 will now face tough competition from the A-Star – Maruti Suzuki’s latest model launched on November 19 in Delhi.
Offered at an introductory price of Rs 346,000 to Rs 411,000 ex-showroom in Delhi for different models, the A-Star will take on i10, which is priced between Rs 337,000 and Rs 543,000.
20 NovThe Central Government has decided to accede to confer the status of classical languages on Kannada and Telugu. This follows the recommendation of the Committee of Linguistic Experts set up by the government. The fight for the prestigious status for the two languages was launched by academicians and language experts in AP and Karnataka after the UPA government had accorded the classical language status to Tamil in 2004. To be classified as classical, a language must fulfill four criteria laid down by the government. Among them are that the language must have a recorded history of at least 1,500-2000 years and its literary tradition must be original and not borrowed from any speech community and must have a large and rich body of ancient literature. Till now, Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit and Tamil have been accorded classical language status. Actually What does getting the ‘classical’ tag mean? According classical language status would greatly boost research, preservation and spread of the language.
2 Nov
Debut Indian novelist Aravind Adiga on Tuesday won the Man Booker Prize, one of the world’s most prestigious literary awards, with “The White Tiger”.
It was only the third time in the Booker’s 40-year history that a first-time writer had claimed the award, and, at 33, Adiga was also one of its youngest winners.
He received a cheque for 50,000 pounds ($88,000) at a gala dinner in London and can expect not only overnight literary fame but also a sharp rise in book sales in the runup to Christmas.
Booker organisers say last year’s winner, Anne Enright, has sold around 500,000 copies of “The Gathering”, largely due to the prize. The White Tiger is published by Atlantic Books.
The White Tiger follows Balram Halwai, the son of a rickshaw puller whose dream of escaping the poverty of his village takes him on a journey to the bright lights of Delhi and Bangalore, where he will do almost anything to get to the top.
“It was important for me to present someone from this colossal underclass, which is perhaps as big as 400 million, and to do so without sentimentality,” Adiga told reporters after the awards ceremony.
“The book has done very well in India. It was a bestseller before this was announced. There’s been a need for a book like this,” he added.
Michael Portillo, chairman of the five-member judging panel, praised The White Tiger for tackling important social and political issues in modern-day India.
“What set this one apart was its originality,” Portillo said. “For many of us this was entirely new territory — the dark side of India.
“It’s a book that gains from dealing with very important social issues — the divisions between rich and poor and the impossibility of the poor escaping from their lot in India.”
Source – Yahoo News
17 OctLatest news shows that Tata may exit Singur and take Nano project somewhere else.
Tata Motors Chairman Ratan Tata on Friday threatened to exit West Bengal if there was no let up in violence at Singur, where the company is building a factory to make the world’s cheapest car ‘Nano.’ “We are deeply concerned at the violence and disruption and at the safety of our employees, equipment and investments at the project site at Singur,” Tata told reporters on the sidelines of the Tata Tea annual general meeting.
“If need be we will move and relocate the Nano project elsewhere. We have made a major investment in West Bengal. To move will be at a great cost to Tata Motors and to shareholders, but relocation will also cost the West Bengal government. However, I will not bring my employees here if they will be beaten up,” the Tata Group chairman said.
I don’t know why this West Bengal and Kerala governments and politicians always against development. Communist party always argues that they are the party of workers. Then what is the problem? So many people will get job in these companies. I appreciate Tamil Nadu government and politicians in this. They gave land to start Car Companies for Hyundai and Ford and now so many Tamilians are working there. Why this communist party always think backward? I am not supporting any political parties. But I have some political views. Do something for the development of the state and country. Protesting everything is not nice. Have you ever heard of a state with 80 harthals in 6 months? Harthal is the same bandh only yaar. As the Court banned bandh, we gave it a nickname as harthal and celebrating at least once in a week. That is Kerala. All the political parties are now big burdens to keralites (no matter whether it is LDF, UDF or BJP). I have been there in Delhi, Bangalore and now in Chennai. I never have seen even a Bharat Bandh affecting daily life of common people in these states. In Kerala we have village wise, district wise, state wise and zonal wise harthals. Horrible no? When will the leaders understand our problems?
23 AugWe are Indians facing a major economic thretening for the last few months. Inflation. Before I never bother about this. But when I became a housewife and started to buy groceries, I can realize its effect in our day to day life. Each time the price of vegetables and onion changing. We are getting good salaries and all. So we can manage things somehow. What about the people who are working for daily bread? Poverty and starvation will come back in its full strength. What a horrible situation.
This is the latest news update in rediff.com
India’s inflation rate shot up to its highest level in more than 16 years this month, increasing the chances of the fourth rise in interest rates in Asia’s third-largest economy since June.
The commerce ministry said high prices for food and other essential commodities had driven inflation to 12.63 per cent in the week ending August 9, compared with 12.44 per cent the previous week.
Stocks fell ahead of the announcement amid concern that higher inflation would force the central bank, the Reserve Bank of India [Get Quote], to apply the brakes more firmly on a slowing economy.
The Bombay Stock Exchange’s benchmark Sensex index fell 3 per cent to 14,243.73 points.
The gradual climb in inflation towards the 13 per cent mark fits with economists’ forecasts. Most believe it will peak at between 13 and 14 per cent in the coming two to three months on the back of high oil, steel, cement and food prices and a low base effect from last year. The trend is alarming the Congress party-led ruling coalition, which must face elections before next May in an electorate that has been hypersensitive to inflation.
The RBI has already expressed concern that in spite of a series of monetary tightening measures, underlying demand in the economy remains strong, putting further potential upwards pressure on prices.
Inflation remains twice the RBI’s comfort zone of below 5.5 per cent and is approaching double its target for the end of this fiscal year, next March, of 7 per cent.
Last month, the RBI raised its “repo” lending rate by half a percentage point to a seven-year high of 9 per cent. It also increased the cash reserve ratio, the amount of money banks must keep at the central bank, from 8.75 to 9 per cent.
The drivers behind inflation in the week of August 9 were rising prices for pulses and vegetables, sugar, textiles and cement.
Inflation is expected to get an extra fillip from moves to increase the salaries of 5m central government civil servants by 21 per cent at a cost of $3.6bn (euro 2.4bn, pound 1.9bn) this financial year.
The move is expected to be followed by state governments and state-owned enterprises, providing a stimulus to the economy and making the RBI’s inflation task more difficult.
What will happen? We have to keep money in banks without interest and pay 20% and above for what we borrow?
22 AugI was hopeless and really depressed by Indian stars performances at Olympics 2008 and it reached at its peak when saw the news that Anju Bobby George failed to qualify for women’s long jump event. I have a special consideration for her. She is a malayalee yaar. Beautiful too. When the Malayalam newspaper gave a chance, I wished her good luck too. Gone was gone. 
Here comes happy news. My friend Nicky came and gave me the news update. Wrestler Sushil Kumar claimed India’s second medal at the Beijing Olympics when he won the bronze in the 66kg Freestyle event on today. This is the first time since 1952 Helsinki Olympics that India has won two medals in a single Olympics. Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav was the last Indian wrestler to win a medal, when he won bronze in 1952.
Hearty congratulations Sushil.
20 Aug