Mathias poetry award for Leo D'Souza

Image via Wikipedia

Konkani poet Leo D'Souza has been awarded the Kavita Trust's Mathias Family Poetry award for 2009. A press release from Melwyn

Rodrigues, president of the Trust, here states this annual award is conferred to individuals in any part of the world for their service of more than a decade towards popularising Konkani poetry. The award carries a cash prize of Rs 10,000, a certificate of merit and a memento.
Popularly known as `Liyab' among his innumerable fans, Leo was born on May 6, 1934, in Mangalore. A well-known name in the Konkani literary circle, he has more than 3,000 poems in Konkani under the pen name `Kaavyadas'. A collection of his poems has been brought out in the form of a book titled `Dev Haslo', which is also published in English under the title `And God Smiled'.
The Trust introduced this award last year and poet Aruna Rao Kundaje of Mumbai was the first recipient of this award. The award will be conferred on Leo during the Kavita Fest to be held on January 10 at Moodhadu Island near Barkur in Udupi district.
Eminent poet from Goa Hanumanth Chopdekar will moderate the multi-lingual poetry session and Konkani poet Elyer Taccode will preside over the poetry session.

India introduces tourist visa-on-arrival for five countries

Image via Wikipedia

In the midst of the introduction of new guidelines on tourist visas, the government announced tourist visa on arrival for citizens of

five countries, including Japan, New Zealand and Singapore, in an effort to promote tourism.

The ministry of external affairs said that the visa on arrival plan for Finland, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Singapore would be implemented from Friday and would continue for a year on an “experimental basis.”

The visa is aimed at foreign tourists from these countries who plan their trips on a short notice, the MEA said. "Tourists can also procure their visas from the Missions/Posts in the normal course," the ministry added.

The visas given on arrival for the nationals of these five countries will have a maximum validity of 30 days with single entry facility which will be given initially by the immigration officers at Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata airports.

While announcing the new visa on arrival policy, the government also attempted to clarify the way the new visa guidelines would be implemented. Foreign missions here have sought clarification on the new visa guidelines complaining that tourists were being inconvenienced.

 

The official spokesperson of the ministry of external affairs clarified that the gap of two months between two visas would apply to all tourist visa holders,.

But the spokesperson said that the restriction of a two-month gap between visas will not apply to Persons of Indian origin or Overseas Citizen of India card-holders or foreigners holding business, employment, student and other categories of visa.

``The intention behind the stipulation of a gap of two months between two visits on a tourist visa is to curb the abuse/misuse of the tourist visa,’’ said a “Frequently Asked Questions Relating to Tourist Visa” posted on the home ministry website.

The FAQs further clarified that if there was a real emergency including non availability of connecting flight to the tourist’s country or any other ``exigent’’ situation, re entry within a period of two months would be allowed. But the tourist would have to get special permission from the mission.

The guidelines further said that if a foreign national applies for a tourist visa within one month of the expiry of the previous one, then the case would be referred to the ministry of home affairs for clearance. Similarly, any tourist who is allowed to come in before the two month cooling off period will have to register with the FRRO within 14 days of arrival.

Direct road from Manipal to Bajpe

Image via Wikipedia

Many decisions including re-construction of fish markets in coastal districts, rehabilitation to land slide victims of Karwar, direct road construction from Manipal to Bajpe airport etc were taken in the general meeting of Coastal Development Authority held on Jan.2.
President of Authority B.Nagraj Shetty presided over the meet.
It has been decided to formulate a special committee including authority member Gujjadi Prabhakar Nayak, advisor Dr.G.V.Joshi, and Dr.K.Prabhakar Rao, Secretary of authority to form a draft copy of rules and regulations required to convert Coastal Development Authority to Coastal Development Limited.

Movie Reviews » Minugu

Kannada (U) Cast: Pooja Gandhi, Sunil Raoh, Ajit Hande Director: A Jayavant

The motto for 2010 may be ‘Stick to Basics, Keep it simple’. The first releases of the year have followed it, but with slightly different results.
If the rest of the them are any similar, then the industry has a fine chance of bouncing back sooner and higher than expected. ‘Minugu’ twinkles its way into the mind and heart with its no fuss, evenly-paced narration and focused direction. For once, it is uncluttered cinema.

Neither the actors, nor the props nor cinemawork and score stuff the viewer unnecessarily. The film is light and engaging.
Jayavant and his dialogue writer Sunil Kumar Singh keep the viewers glued to their seats, mainly with the absence of vulgarity and violence of thought in their vision. Perhaps the stint in television has something to do with it. Composer Goapu has done a neat job. Except ‘Sanchita Sanchita...’, his music doesn’t acquire an identity of its own, merging with the storyline, as expected of him. 
The story deals with an actress, her chance encounter with a close friend and her co-star who also aspires to be her husband.
To reveal anymore will spoil the fun. All the hard work at the gym has paid off for Pooja who would do better to take care of her skin as well. Not burdened with dubbing in her voice, she appears relaxed and in control.
Sunil Raoh is perfectly cast and doesn’t show the rust of a two-year lay-off. It is Ajit who has a ball, with his eyes and the sneer doing the job for him. Close to climax, the film seems rushed but evens out beautifully towards the end. The chinks are almost negligible.

I SEM. DEGREE C.C.S.S. EXAMINATION RESULT RESULT-IV B Sc. NURSING August 2009

Image via Wikipedia

Kannur University announced results online, Others Examination Results 2009 can be checked forom university website, at www.kannuruniversity.ac.in
: Kannur University, Results 2009, Online
Kannur University was established by the Act 22 of 1996 of Kerala Legislative Assembly. The University by the name “Malabar University” had come into existence even earlier by the promulgaton of an Ordinance by the Governor of Kerala, and manages campuses at Kannur, Kasargod, mananthavady, payyannur, Thalassery, kanhangad .

Minister's surprise visit generates heat

Image via Wikipedia

District in-charge minister J Krishna Palemar paid a surprise visit to the town planning section of the Mangalore City Corporation to

After a random check of files, the minister found applications for construction licenses were not cleared by officials. He took to task town planning officer Balakrishna Gowda when he failed to come up with convincing explanations to the minister's queries.

Later, speaking to presspersons Palemar said he paid the visit following large scale complaints from the public regarding harassment by officials in the town planning section. He said the town planning section has become the den of corruption.

On random checking, Palemar found that officials had received 880 applications for construction licenses in the past nine months (April-December 2009) and cleared 516 applications. They have kept pending 364 applications of which 124 were sent to Mangalore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) and have cancelled 82 licenses as they were issued prior to the announcement of the revised city development plan. "The officials have no rights to cancel the license," he thundered.

Palemar said he would conduct a meeting with the MCC commissioner to solve the problem and take disciplinary action against the officials. Replying to the queries, the minister said action like suspension would be affected as MCC was facing shortage of staff. Hence, the best method would be to transfer the guilty officials. Further, the state government was working on a law to transfer municipal officials and he had planned to send officials facing allegations outside the district.

Palemar said a single window system would be introduced to the issue licenses. Expressing concern over the elected representatives' failure to keep officials under control, he said he would call a meeting of all corporators to sensitize them about their powers and duties.

Nso results 2009

Image via Wikipedia

National Science Olympiad is an important event in India. It is in fact a competition for students to assess their skills in Science, Environment and Mathematics. It is conducted bySCIENCE OLYMPIAD FOUNDATION (SOF). Nso results 2009 has been announced and to get the result just visit this link- http://sof.org.in/12nso/

About (SOF), I am quoting from website:
A non-profit organization established by leading academicians, scientists and media personalities with the aim of promoting science, mathematics and computer education, theScience Olympiad Foundation has been striving for over a decade to promote scientific attitude through innovative activities and use of IT in learning process that involve school students across the country.

Although India is a poor country, it has a rich tradition in science and technology. In Asia, it can boast off a rich history in science from ancient to modern time.