Keralite wins prestigious US award

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Washington: India-born scientist Dr Thomas John Colacot has won the American Chemical Society's ACS Award in Industrial Chemistry, one of the top honours in the field.

Colacot, who studied at St Berchman's College, Changanacherry, Kerala and IIT, Chennai, is the first Indian to get the award in industrial chemistry. He also holds an MBA degree and was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry

The award is sponsored by the ACS Division of Business Development and Management and the ACS Division of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry.

Currently Global R&D manager in the homogenous catalysis area at Johnson Matthey, a specialty chemicals company, Colacot directs research in US, UK and in Indian labs.

'The ACS is proud to recognize your outstanding contributions to the development and commercialization of ligands and precatalysts for metal-catalyzed organic synthesis, particularly cross-couplings, for industrial and academic use and applications,' a letter from Tom Barton, president of ACS noted.

The 2015 national awards recipients will be honoured at the awards ceremony in conjunction with the 249th ACS national meeting in Denver, Colorado in March next year.

Colacot had received Royal Society of Chemistry's RSC Applied Catalysis Award in 2012 for his contributions to the area of catalysis. His work on 'cross-coupling' is particularly acclaimed.

Colacot joined Johnson Matthey, USA in 1995 and started working in the area of palladium catalyzed cross-coupling.

The catalysts developed in his labs are currently used to make new drugs for Hepatitis C, a deadly disease with no cure, one pill per week for type II diabetics, and many hypertension drugs.

Colacot's work involves developing and commercializing ligands and catalysts for applications in metal-catalyzed synthetic organic chemistry.

His book on 'New Trends in Cross-Coupling: Theory and Applications' is scheduled to be published in October, 2014 by the Royal Society of Chemistry.

He is also PhD thesis examiner to many IITs and visiting faculty at Rutgers University.

Liquor policy: HC rejects bar owner's plea

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Kochi: The Kerala High Court, on Wednesday, rejected the plea submitted by the bar owners against the government's decision to close down the bars operating in the state.

The government had issued notices to 312 bars currently functioning in the state asking them to wind up their operations within 15 days. The bar owners wanted the court to stay this directive and issue an interim order.

The HC clarified that the government has issued the notices as per law.

The licences were renewed according to certain specified conditions. Hence, the licences issued to 312 bars were temporary, it pointed out.

Approving the liquor policy announced by the government, the HC directed the government to proceed further with it.

The court also rejected the petitioners' contention that the serving of notices was violation of rules as they were issued licences till March 31, 2015. 

Don't know clean Ganga plan will happen in our generation: SC to govt

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New Delhi:The Supreme Court, on Wednesday, asked the government not to give a bureaucratic answer about its plan to clean up the Ganga and instead unveil a stage-by-stage timeline for effective monitoring.

'Don't give us a vision plan. An artist's view. It may take 200 years to implement,' said a bench of Justice T.S. Thakur and Justice R. Banumathi. 'We don't know if it (cleaning Ganga) will happen in our generation.'

'Can you indicate the stages through which this plan has to move and the time involved in each stage?' asked Justice Thakur as Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar started reading from a 29-page affidavit starting with the 1985 first Ganga Action Plan.

The court wanted to be enlightened by 'someone who has a comprehensive view of how Ganga would be made pollution free, nitty-gritty of the plan, and how the milestones can be achieved'.

The 2,525-km long Ganga, which originates in the Himalayas, is considered the holiest of rivers by Hindus.

Telling Kumar that the government had given a 'very bureaucratic answer' to its query, the court said it wanted to know how much will be achieved in the five years this government will be in office.

During the last hearing Aug 13, the court had sought the status report on the government's action plan to clean the Ganga along with a roadmap.

The court had also sought a report on what the government was doing to clean the river from Gangotri up to Haridwar in the first phase.

Justice Thakur observed: 'But for nature, it (Ganga) would have been worst. It is nature that is doing a lot of cleaning.'

The court told the solicitor general if polluting industries needed to be relocated, the court could assist the government with legal process.

IANS

Sensex, Nifty touch new highs, IT stocks rise

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MUMBAI: A benchmark index of Indian equities markets touched a new high of 27,225.85 points Wednesday before closing the trade at 27,139.94 points. The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) surpassed its previous high of 27,082.85 points of Tuesday. Volatility was seen in the trade around 2.30 p.m. when the markets fell nearly 125 points. It regained tractions and made gains of about 120 points before close. Healthy buying was observed in IT, metal, capital goods, technology, media and entertainment (TECK) and auto sectors. Selling pressure was seen in fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and power stocks. The 30-scrip sensitive index, which opened at 27,128.06 points, closed the trade at 27,139.94 points (provisional), up 120.55 points or 0.45 percent from the previous day's close at 27,019.39 points. The Sensex touched a high of 27,225.85 points and a low of 27,067.02 points in trade so far. The S&P BSE IT index surged 253.06 points, metal index was higher by 144.77 points, capital goods index gained 144.77 points, TECK index rose 125.38 points amd automobile index moved up by 118.40 points. FMCG index dropped by 43.60 points and power index slipped by 1.17 points. The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also hit a record high at 8,141.90 and closed the was trade at 31.55 points or 0.39 percent up at 8,114.60 points. Nifty Tuesday hit a record high of 8,101.95 points.

India to sign free trade agreement with Asean soon: Kher

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NEW DELHI: India today said it has received the free trade agreements on services and investments with ASEAN and it will "shortly" sign the pact.

Signing of the two pacts - FTA in services and investments - were scheduled during the India-ASEAN Economic Ministers meeting in Myanmar last week. But the meeting was postponed as Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was not able to attend the meet due to domestic compulsions.

India and the 10-nation ASEAN had concluded the negotiations for FTA in services and investments in 2012.

"Unfortunately because the Minister has compelling engagements here, she could not attend the Ministerial meeting last week but we now have received the agreements on Services and Investments and the Minister would shortly sign them," Commerce Secretary Rajeev Kher said here at a function.

India has proposed circulation process for signing the pact with ASEAN.

Under the circulation process, each member will separately sign the agreement and it will become effective only after the last member signs the pact.

In December last year, the Union Cabinet had approved the free trade agreement between India and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). Unlike in India, ASEAN members have to approach their respective Parliaments for ratification of such pacts.

The agreement, if implemented, will help boost movement of Indian professionals in the ASEAN region. It will also facilitate more investments in the services sector.

Trade between India and South East nations' bloc ASEAN stood at about USD 76 billion in 2012-13. Both sides aim to increase it to USD 100 billion by 2015.

The ASEAN members are: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam

Mars Mission completes 300 days in space

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CHENNAI: In a major boost to the Indian scientific community, the Mars Orbiter Mission (Mangalyaan), on its maiden tryst with the red planet, has completed 300 days of its journey in space and is just 23 days away from reaching its intended orbit.

"Mars Orbiter Mission completes 300 days in space. Just 23 days more to reach Mars", Indian Space Research Organisation said in its micro-blogging site.

It said the spacecraft has travelled 622 million km in its heliocentric trajectory towards Mars. It is now 199 million km away from Earth and is travelling at a velocity of 22.33 km a second with respect to the distance from the Sun. "MoM and its payload are in good health," ISRO said.

The Rs 450-crore project was launched from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh from the old workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) on November 5, 2013 with the aim of reaching the red planet's atmosphere by Sept 24, traversing 680 million km.

Last week ISRO scientists said the spacecraft had completed 90 per cent of its journey towards Mars. On September 24, the scientists will undertake a "challenging task" when they would restart the on board liquid engine, which has been in sleep mode for nearly 10 months, for Mars Orbit insertion.

The project is expected to provide the scientific community better opportunities in planetary research.

Energy drinks cause heart problems: study

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LONDON: Energy drinks, popular in dance clubs and during physical exercise, can cause heart problems, a new research has warned.

"So-called 'energy drinks' are popular in dance clubs and during physical exercise, with people sometimes consuming a number of drinks one after the other. This situation can lead to a number of adverse conditions including angina, cardiac arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat) and even sudden death," said Professor Milou-Daniel Drici from France who presented the study at European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

"Around 96 per cent of these drinks contain caffeine, with a typical 0.25 litre can holding 2 espressos worth of caffeine. Caffeine is one of the most potent agonists of the ryanodine receptors and leads to a massive release of calcium within cardiac cells," said Drici.

"This can cause arrhythmias, but also has effects on the heart's abilities to contract and to use oxygen. In addition, 52 per cent of drinks contain taurine, 33 per cent have glucuronolactone and two-thirds contain vitamins," he added.

The study analysed adverse events reported to the ANSES, the French agency for food safety, between January 1, 2009 and November 30, 2012.

The researchers found that consumption of the 103 energy drinks in France increased by 30 per cent between 2009 and 2011 up to over 30 million litres. The leading brand made up 40 per cent of energy drinks consumed.

During the two year period 257 cases were reported to the agency, of which 212 provided sufficient information for food and drug safety evaluation.

The experts found that 95 of the reported adverse events had cardiovascular symptoms, 74 psychiatric, and 57 neurological, sometimes overlapping.

Cardiac arrests and sudden or unexplained deaths occurred at least in 8 cases, while 46 people had heart rhythm disorders, 13 had angina and 3 had hypertension, researchers said.

"We found that 'caffeine syndrome' was the most common problem, occurring in 60 people. It is characterised by a fast heart rate (called tachycardia), tremor, anxiety and headache.

"Rare but severe adverse events were also associated with these drinks, such as sudden or unexplained death, arrhythmia and heart attack (myocardial infarction). Our literature search confirmed that these conditions can be related to consumption of energy drinks," Drici said.

BJP demands CBI probe into murder of RSS leader

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KANNUR: Former BJP National Secretary P K Krishnadas Wednesday sought CBI probe into the murder of RSS leader T Manoj.

Speaking to reporters, he said lapse of investigation in the murder of Yuva Morcha leader K T Jayakrishnan and RMP leader T P Chandrasekharan had resulted in the planned murder of Manoj.

Krishnadas said only CBI probe would unearth the conspiracy behind brutal murder of Manoj.

He alleged that Kerala Police was inefficient in finding out the links of CPI (M) state leaders.

Kerala police officers were controlled by the politicians and there was unholy nexus between CPI (M) and Congress-led UDF government, he alleged.

Krishnadas said BJP/ RSS State leadership would jointly meet Chief Minister and Home Minister tomorrow and handover the memorandum for demanding CBI probe along with the memorandum of the relatives of the dead.

He said the state government had power to handover the case to CBI so they would approach the Union Government in this regard.

Former State President of BJP said the party would protest against the brutal murder of Manoj at national level and make it an important issue in coming days.

To a question, Krishnadas said the party had no role in the attack of CPI (M) office at Pune in Maharashtra and New Delhi. The party only arranged a protest dharna in front of Kerala house yesterday.

He alleged that the CPI (M) was showing intolerance due to the erosion of party workers as around 500 CPI(M) activists had joined BJP last month at Kannur.

Krishnadas claimed that around 1000 CPI (M) activists were showing willingness to join BJP due to the misleading of CPI (M) state and district leadership.

Ten B.Ed centres lose recognition

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THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Ten B.Ed centres under Kerala University have lost their recognition. The National Council for Teachers’ Education, (NCTE) which had met in Bangalore, decided to cancel the recognition, citing the reason that the centres had not followed the criteria for the recognition.
     
The centres which have lost the recognition are those at Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Alappuzha and Pathanamthitta. The step will badly affect about 2000 students and about 200 teaching and non-teaching staff.

Nine out of the ten centres under the university are functioning on government lease lands. In centres functioning in temporary buildings, there are no permanent teachers. The university, after coming into an understanding with the government, could also bypass the criteria that the centres need to have own plots. Every year the centres were able to extend their recognition by informing NCTE about the temporary arrangements. But this time, the centres’ failure to submit application for the extension of recognition, resulted in the cancellation of recognition.

Gang arrested for 'kidnapping, abusing' girl

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PUNALUR: A six-member gang who allegedly kidnapped a girl and sexually abused her was arrested on Wednesday. Sujith, Ratheesh, Baiju, Satheesh Kumar and Shefeeq, all hailing from Punalur, were arrested by the Thenmala police from Puliyara. The victim is a 19-year-old girl from Maniyar. The kidnapping came to light when the girl’s mother lodged a complaint with the police, saying that the girl had gone missing two days ago. Following the search conducted by the police on receipt of the complaint, the police nabbed the gang members. The girl was sent back to home with her mother.