The shooting of the first Bengali film in Goa at the ongoing International Film Festival of India (IFFI) here could perhaps open the doors for the State towards becoming a major cine-tourist destination. West Bengal and Goa have managed to break ice with each other on the cinema-shooting front with Sujit Guha's directorial venture "Sangharsh". They have completed the songs in Goa. The movie has Swastika Mukharjee starring with Prosenjit Chatterjee.
Prolonged iPod use can cause hearing loss Tuesday, November 28, 2006 | AY
Listening to devices like portable music systems or ipods over prolonged periods could result in deafness, either partial or complete, according to Widex India managing director TS Anand. The company is part of Denmark-based Widex Aps, a market leader in digital hearing aids. Anand said frequent exposure to music at 80 decibels for eight hours, 90 decibels for four hours, or 100 decibels for two hours can cause permanent hearing loss. Keeping the demands of the urban population in mind, Widex has come out with Inteo, a programmable digital hearing aid that detects the voices of the people in the user’s surroundings and provides a better understanding of speech irrespective of location.
Brainwave launches software Monday, November 27, 2006 | AY
Brainwave Applications Limited, a part of the Rs 360-crore Sureka group, has developed a software for the developers which would help in seamless integration of different applications. The company has targetted large organisations with complex requirements of data structures and small and medium-sized which want to lower fixed costs. The company plans to ramp up manpower from 20 to 200 by the middle of 2007. Brainwave expects to generate a revenue of $ two million in the first two years of operation.
Prosenjit and Sameera Reddy in a new bengali film Sunday, November 26, 2006 | AY
Starring Prosenjit and Sameera Reddy, the Bengali feature film Two Boys and A Girl (working title) is being produced by Bag Films, the Delhi-based production house that churns out the popular STAR Plus soap Kumkum. It’s a film on love, politics and our times, with three characters Dilip, Yasin and Rekha. Buladi, mascot of West Bengal State AIDS Prevention and Control Society, emerges as a flesh-and-blood character in the tale of two boys and a girl. TV actress Kamalika Banerjee will play the role.
Novel teacher training programme Saturday, November 25, 2006 | AY
The Modern Academy of Continuing Education (MACE), functioning under Modern High School for Girls, Kolkata, has introduced a teacher-training programme, that claims to be “different” from similar programmes. The training course has six modules - both for the primary and secondary levels. For the primary level course, a 10+2 qualification is sufficient. For those who wish to get trained for the secondary level, a graduation degree is mandatory. The six modules include educational psychology, class room communication, lesson design - where designing particular lessons in order to make them interesting is done, practise teaching - where learning through the means of various activities are taught, education technology - designed keeping in mind the importance of computer expertise in various fields of education, assessment and evaluation - by means of which students and the teachers can be evaluated.
Howrah Bridge in new form Saturday, November 25, 2006 | AY
Howrah Bridge - the arterial link between Kolkata and twin city Howrah - has now joined the league of Tower Bridge, London, and the Golden Gate in San Francisco. In a dazzling ceremony on the banks of the Hooghly, Kolkata Port Trust unveiled a new avatar of the 63-year-old bridge, lighting it up with over 750 lights specially brought in from Holland and Germany. This is the first time that the world's busiest bridge is being illuminated in its 63-year history. Built with rivets instead of nuts and bolts at a cost of Rs 2.5 crore, Howrah Bridge will also change the way it looks to suit the occasion.
West Bengal Speaker admits no-trust motion Tuesday, November 21, 2006 | AY
The Opposition Trinamool Congress and the Congress today jointly brought a no-confidence motion against the West Bengal Government. The motion against the Left Front Government's "anti- people" and "anti-farmer" policies was admitted by Speaker H A Halim and will be taken up for discussion on November 30. Leader of Opposition Partha Chatterjee (Trinamool Congress) served notice to the Speaker about bringing the motion which was signed by five Congress MLAs. The Congress joining hands with the other party to bring the motion was a damage control exercise after it fielded a candidate against the Trinamool Congress for the by-election to the Islampur assembly seat in north Bengal at the insistence of Union Minister P R Dasmunshi.
WB to develop Tier II towns as next-gen IT hubs Monday, November 20, 2006 | AY
The West Bengal (WB) government is looking at developing Tier II cities like Haldia, Durgapur and Siliguri as the next IT hubs. Currently, there are around 350 IT companies in WB, employing around 55,000 people with annual software exports of Rs 4,000 crore. The West Bengal Electronics Industry Development Corp (Webel), the state nodal agency for the IT and ITeS projects, is in talks with around 10 big IT and infrastructure companies like Rolta and L&T to set up base in the state. IT players like TCS, Wipro, Infosys and Cognizant are being invited to look at some of the other cities in the state. Webel is also looking at developing the suburban areas around Kolkata for IT companies.
Jaya in Bengali film Sunday, November 19, 2006 | AY
Jaya Bachan plays Konkona Sen Sharma's mother in both Rituparno Ghosh's bi-lingual 'Sunglass' and Pradeep Sarkar's untitled film. Jaya, who spends a large part of her day in hospital looking after her critically ill mother-in-law, is looking forward to joining Ritu's crew in Kolkata.
Underwater metro in Kolkata Sunday, November 19, 2006 | AY
A Rs 40 billion project to connect Kolkata with Howrah by an underwater metro line has been cleared by the central government. A nine-kilometre stretch of the 19-km metro line from Ramrajatala in Howrah to Salt Lake here will pass below the Ganga river. New Delhi has also reportedly permitted the West Bengal government to discuss the project with the Japan Bank of International Cooperation (JBIC). The underwater metro plan was first thought of when the first metro service was inaugurated in Kolkata in 1984 by former prime minister Indira Gandhi. The route is to cover 18 stations and go under the river through a tunnel.
Kolkata film fest Tuesday, November 14, 2006 | AY
The 12th Kolkata Film Festival opened Friday with Danish helmer Andres Thomas Jensen's "Adam's Apples." Weeklong fest, in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata, West Bengal, will showcase 225 films from 53 countries. It includes a retrospective of Ingmar Bergman films and will pay tribute to Italians helmers Luchino Visconti and Roberto Rossellini. Also films by Czech filmmaker Jan Nemec, Chile's Miguel Littin, Italy's Nanni Moretti and Japan's Shohei Imamura are being displayed. The fest will screen Indian films in Assamese, Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi and Tamil languages.
Govt plans Rs 7,000 cr deep-sea port Sunday, November 12, 2006 | AY
The government plans to set up a Rs 7,000 crore modern deep-sea port off West Bengal coast as part of its Rs 55,000 crore plan to double port capacity in the country to 1,000 million tonne by 2012. An expression of interest (EoI) has been invited for the deep sea port, which would come up near sand head in the state. One of the problems of ports in the country has been inadequate depth. This results in most of Indian cargo being transhipped in Singapore, Dubai and Colombo. The Paradip port on the east coast is to be deepened to 17.1 metres from the present 12.8 metres at a cost of Rs 235 crore to make it the deepest port in the country. The Tuticorin port has taken up a project to deepen its channel to 14.7 metres from the present 12.5 metres. The Rs 450-crore project assumes significance in the light of the ongoing Sethusamudram Ship Channel Project, scheduled to be completed by 2008 at a cost of Rs 2,427 crore.
12th Kolkata Film Festival Saturday, November 11, 2006 | AY
With the inauguration of the 12th Kolkata Film Festival here on Friday, the city is warming up to enjoy and appreciate 225 movies from 53 countries over the next eight days. Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said the emphasis was on contemporary movies from around the world that were socially relevant and also aesthetically excellent. Over 2.2 million people were expected to enjoy the movies to be screened across nine auditoriums. The festival was inaugurated with the screening of Adam's Apples, a 94-minute film directed by Andres Thomas Jensen of Denmark.
West Bengal team set to okay Tata project in Singur Saturday, November 11, 2006 | AY
The final hurdle in the way of Tata Motors setting up their small car facility in Singur in the Hooghly district of West Bengal may be removed with the seven-member multi-party delegation of Standing Committee on Commerce and Industries, Industrial Reconstruction and Public Enterprise, West Bengal Legislative Assembly, saying that they are planning to submit a positive report to the speaker of the legislative assembly on November 17. The committee members told Newsline on Friday that they were satisfied with what they saw regarding the progress of the Rs 1-lakh Tata car project. The projection is that 2,000 direct jobs and 8,000 spin-off jobs would be created in Hooghly district once the Tata project comes up at Singur.
Rs 42 cr for development of N.Bengal Wednesday, November 8, 2006 | AY
The West Bengal government today said it will spend Rs 42 crore during the current financial year on various development projects in North Bengal. The government has also agreed to promote tea tourism to enhance the viability of tea gardens. The chief minister said the state had already released Rs 20 crore out of its share of Rs 32 crore by September. The remaining Rs 10 crore would come as Central grant. Bhattacharjee said more focus would be given on agriculture, horticulture, industry and infrastructure. The government had already identified two tea gardens and another 10 gardens located in the Dooars and Terai would be targeted for tea tourism.
Wireless tech lab to come up in city Tuesday, November 7, 2006 | AY
Wireless Innovation Platform Labs (WIP Labs) of Denmark wants to set up a facility here for research and development of high-end wireless technology. Company would set up a premier knowledge bank for state-of-the-art and future wireless technologies, based on innovation and commercialisation, standardisation and consultancy. WIP Labs already had 15 innovations patented as Intellectual Property, besides five concepts under various stages of development. WIP Labs has sought 20 acres of land from the state government for its project and would intially invest Rs 200 crore, which would be raised through venture capital companies.
15 crib deaths in Kolkata hospital Sunday, November 5, 2006 | AY
As many as 15 babies died during the past 24 hours at Kolkata’s Dr B.C. Roy Child’s Hospital allegedly due to septicaemia and other infectious diseases, which caused panic in the city. Alarge number of people including women and children staged a demonstration in front of the hospital and alleged that the babies’ death had been caused because of wrong treatment and by the application of infected blood. They burnt the effigies of the Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and the Health Minister, Dr Surya Kanto Misra and demanded their resignations.
City roads to become safer with EMS Saturday, November 4, 2006 | AY
By February 2007, an EMS(Emergency Medical Services) will be set up in West Bengal. EMS is already in action in states like Gujarat and Maharashtra. Plans to initiate a similar system in West Bengal is underway. In 2004, almost 531 people died due to accidents on expressways in the state. While 1,582 people died on national highways due to mishaps, 668 people were killed on state highways.
National academies with foreign coaches Saturday, November 4, 2006 | AY
India will launch a national coaching system next year with academies in Goa and Kolkata staffed by foreign coaches. The academies were recommended by Briton Bob Houghton, who took over as national coach in June. Houghton has also urged soccer authorities to search for taller players to boost the national side, currently languishing at 143 in the world and 24th out of 45 Asian teams.
Dengue toll rises Thursday, November 2, 2006 | AY
Dengue toll in West Bengal rose to eight with the death of a child in a city hospital today, as reports from 19 districts indicated that nearly 800 people were afflicted by the mosquito-borne disease since its outbreak two months ago. Mayor said that there was no cause of panic as the city civic authorities had already taken adequate preventive measures to stop any further spread of dengue.He said that awareness campaign would be further intensified against storing water and for destroying mosquito breeding centres. Dengue deaths were reported from Howrah and Kolkata (two each), Malda, Murshidabad, North 24 Parganas and Purulia one each.
City gets 3rd Subway, McDonald’s is next Wednesday, November 1, 2006 | AY
Kolkata is developing a growing community of consumers that have great interest in foreign investors. McDonald’s plans to invest Rs 100 crore here, with 15 outlets planned over the next five years. Henry V Jardine, US Consul General said that a host of small American businesses are keen on eastern India, apart from big names like IBM that get the headlines. Subway itself began as a small outfit, with its founder borrowing $1,000 from a family friend to launch the first store. Now, 41 years later, it is ranked highly as a model of entrepreneurship.
