Sharing the food of friendship

A bunch of Indian students enjoy some warm hospitality, extended by an Australian senior citizens group. PREETI KANNAN reports

After numerous media reports of hostility towards Indian students in Australia, a group of retired, Australian senior citizens from Newcastle decided to take matters in their own hands to make newly-arrived students feel welcome. Monday Desperates, a modest group of Newcastle citizens who play Lawn Bowls every Monday, recently extended an invitation to Indian students at the University of Newcastle and hosted a unique ‘friendship luncheon’ for about 22 students. Their aim was to make them feel a sense of belonging and acceptance in the Australian community.

The luncheon, a first of its kinds, saw the students and about 40 members from the Monday Desperates come together and share a meal at an Indian restaurant. The luncheon was an attempt to counter antagonising reports in the Indian and Australian media about what was happening Down Under.

The students, mostly newly arrived, were deeply touched by the welcome and the warmth shown by the group.

“We were overwhelmed by the gesture,” said Kanishk Kumar, a Newcastle University student. “Everyone felt extremely touched by the humility and welcome extended by the members of Monday Desperates. None of the students had experienced such hospitality in Australia before and the fact that it came from the local senior citizens, made it more special. One of the Indian students called me the next day and told me she missed her parents a lot after she spent time with members of Monday Desperates”. are really friendly and generous and the luncheon really changed my views towards Aussies,” said Zaanif Kugashia, another student. Zaanif added that the lunch helped overcome any fears of racism and was now enjoying student life.

“I feel we come from our country not just to study here, but for a holistic experience, which extends to knowing about another culture and understanding it. This makes a student’s experience complete and worth coming, even if it means leaving your comfort zone,” remarked Kanishk. He added that such interactions with locals were crucial as it made students feel comfortable, especially since they were leaving their family behind.

“More such events should definitely be held across the country to not just make Indian students welcome, but also to make students from other parts of the world welcome,” he told the Indian Link Students conceded that the lunch helped them see Australians from a different perspective and the perception that Australian society is racist was dispelled.

Monday Desperates, a modest group of Newcastle citizens who play Lawn Bowls every Monday, hosted a unique ‘friendship luncheon’ for about 22 students

Robert Stuart, one of the members of the Monday Desperates, who had initiated the luncheon, said, “I wanted to organise a function to provide the Indian students with a sense of belonging and acceptance in our wonderful community, just like I would have hoped a community may offer my daughter, if she was studying in India. I believed there was no finer group of local citizens with the generosity of spirit and community fellowship than the Monday Desperates and fortunately they supported me and we were thrilled with the result.” added bonus.”

Similar sentiments were echoed by the students. “They did a great job by arranging lunch on that day. It helped me to find out other Indians studying at the university,” said Aakash Mehta, adding, “I really liked the initiative and hope people around the world come to know how hospitable the Australians are. I am looking forward to more such encounters”.

Vaibhav Gaikawad said the lunch provided the opportunity to make good friends with people who he otherwise may never have met. “I thank Bob and all his colleagues for such a wonderful experience. It was undoubtedly the best afternoon I had in Newcastle,” he added.

“The respect and generosity which we got at the luncheon was unforgettable. I never expected this because of the past attacks on Indians. But, truly speaking, Australians

Seventy-two-year-old Robert, who likes to be called Bob, added, “One of the unexpected surprises to come out of the dinner was learning that this was the first time all the Indian students had been brought together in one place and hardly any of them knew each other prior to this. So we were delighted they had the chance to get to know each other over lunch. This was an

The lunch was also attended by a university staff member. The Desperates was started over seven years ago and now has about over 130 men and women, who are retired doctors, nurses, solicitors, journalists, teachers, accountants and people who come from various trades and industries and also comprise of some well-known sportsmen.

The name ‘Monday Desperates’ is in fact a fun title given by former Olympic basketball player and member Terry Charlton, when he sent Bob a postcard from Zurich for the bowlers.

The group is planning a similar event in spring this year and is hoping to bring more students together.

Dhoni weds college sweetheart at private affair

Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has tied the knot with his college sweetheart Sakshi Rawat

The wedding took place at a very private affair at a country villa owned by former Rajasthan chief minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Vasundhara Raje on the outskirts of Dehradun.

Around half an hour before the auspicious time of the wedding , Dhoni on horseback and other guests, which included his teammates Harbhajan Singh, Suresh Raina, Ashish Nehra and R.P. Singh and actor John Abraham, walked for around half-akilometer to the bride’s place, located at the same resort’s premises.

John Abraham reached Dehradun, along with Dhoni’s teammate Piyush Chawla, earlier Sunday to attend Dhoni’s wedding N. Srinivasan, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary and the owner of Chennai Super Kings, which Dhoni led to victory in this year’s Indian Premier League (IPL) season, was present at the ceremony.

John’s girlfriend and actress Bipasha Basu took to microblogging site Twitter to congratulate the couple. “Wishing Mahi and Sakshi a very happy life together forever. Sad that I can’t be there,” she tweeted.

Bipasha also refuted rumours that Dhoni decided to get married on the spur of the moment, saying the wedding was planned months in advance. “The wedding on Sunday night was all planned. But no one was supposed to know about it. Whatever the truth, we must all be happy for the couple. It’s party time!” she said.

Shilpa Shetty also congratulated the couple, posting: “Congratulations in order to Mahi and Sakshi, wishing them all the happiness and marital bliss forever.”

The media was kept far away. The hordes of media persons and television OB vans gathered there were not being allowed to proceed by private security guards, around more than one and a half kilometre from the venue.

Dhoni has been reported to have visited Dehradun and Mussoori frequently over the last two years. The girl’s father and Dhoni’s father were working together in Ranchi. Her grandfather, a retired divisional forest officer, lives in Dehradun.

Indian High Commission denies Nadira Naipaul’s charge

The Indian High Commission has denied a charge by Lady Nadira, the wife of Nobel laureate and acclaimed author V.S. Naipaul, that she encountered discourteous behaviour from a commission official when she came to inquire how her husband could apply for a Person of Indian Origin (PIO) card.

Naipaul apparently wanted the card as it would enable him to travel visa-free to India. It is learnt that Lady Nadira approached the Indian High Commission at India House in London three months ago inquiring how to apply for such a card.

She recently told an Indian newspaper that an official of the high commission told her that the Trinidad-born Naipaul would have to go to Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh - where his family hailed from - and fetch a certificate of origin from the office of the local ‘tehsildar’. The report referred to Lady Nadira’s indignation at the treatment meted out to her and her husband.

The High Commission issued a statement Monday evening saying “No application has been made by Sir Vidia Naipaul for a PIO card.” It said Lady Nadira had visited the high commission some three months ago and made inquiries regarding the procedures for applying for a PIO card for her husband. The procedures were explained to her, the statement said, adding they were the same as that appeared on the high commission’s website.

The statement came after seeking details of Lady Nadira’s visit and her meeting with the concerned official.

According to rules, an applicant for a PIO card is eligible to do so provided he or she fulfills any of three criteria.

The criteria are, (1) who at any time held an Indian passport; or (2) he/she or either of his/her parents or grandparents or great grandparents was born in and permanently resident in India as defined in the Government of India Act, 1935 and other territories that became part of India thereafter provided neither was at any time a citizen of any country as may be specified by the Central Government from time to time; (3) who is a spouse of a citizen of India or a Person of Indian Origin as mentioned above.

The PIO scheme covers up to four generations and also the foreign spouse of a citizen of India or a PIO.

The documents the applicant has to submit along with the application include the existing, valid passport in original and the expired Indian passport in original or any two or more of six documents.

These include, photocopy of expired Indian passport, letter from British Home Office confirming Indian origin, Indian passport or its photocopies of parents or grand parents of the applicant, birth certificate of the applicant and of the parents or grand parents of the applicant, nationality certificates of the applicant and of the parents or grand parents, school or college leaving certificates of the applicant or parents of the applicant.

India shuts down against hike in fuel prices

More than 250 trains were cancelled or disrupted, 100 flights cancelled and millions of people inconvenienced as India was brought virtually to its knees with opposition parties calling for a shutdown against the rise in fuel prices.

The dawn to dusk all-India strike, the first such challenge for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government, called separately by the Left and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) cost about Rs 10,000 crore, said the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham).

Describing the nationwide shutdown as an “unprecedented success”, the Left threatened to intensify its protests inside and outside parliament if the government did not roll back the hike. “The unity achieved on the street is the real unity... The fight against the government will continue,” said a triumphant Janata Dal-United chief Sharad Yadav at press conference with his BJP counterpart Nitin Gadkari.

With the exception of a few states, life was impacted in most parts of India with trucks and buses off the roads, educational establishments and businesses closed. Malls, shopping complexes and government and private offices also stayed shut.

The strike, sponsored by both ends of the political spectrum, the Left and the BJP, was peaceful in many places. But there was sporadic violence too, with 200 buses burnt in Maharashtra.

Opposition leaders, including BJP’s Gadkari, Arun Jaitley, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Rajnath Singh, joined their workers in courting arrest in several places. Left leaders Brinda Karat and D. Raja also did the same in New Delhi.

The shutdown was total in states ruled by the NDA parties and the Left such as Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Bihar. The situation was similar in West Bengal and Kerala, ruled by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), where normal life came to a virtual standstill. However, The response was tepid in Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Haryana.

In Congress-ruled Delhi, however, opposition workers forced the strike on buses and shops during the protests following the central government’s move to end curbs on petroleum pricing and hike fuel costs in order to tame the huge fiscal deficit.

The decision increased the price of diesel by Rs.2 a litre, kerosene by Rs.3 a litre, petrol by Rs.3.50 a litre, and cooking gas by Rs.35 per cylinder.

Rail operations in the country, especially in the east, were severely affected with 73 trains cancelled and 192 disrupted.

For passengers who chose to fly to their destinations, it was not much easier with at least 96 flights being cancelled, in many cases because passengers just couldn’t make it to the airport.

In Mumbai, the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA), one of the busiest, wore a near-deserted look as taxis and autorickshaws remained off the roads. If the country’s financial capital was hit, so was the national capital, also ruled by the Congress where opposition leaders courted arrest at various places and activists forced shopkeepers to down shutters and deflated tyres of buses.

Huge traffic snarls, blockades and protests caused chaos even though most major markets were closed as were schools and colleges.

The ruling Congress, however, labelled the strike as against public interest. “It is actually an anti-public interest step masquerading as public interest activity,” Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Sanghvi said, and he questioned the Left and BJP’s strategy.

Indian rocket to launch five satellites July 12

India’s advanced, high-resolution remotesensing satellite Cartosat-2B would be launched on July 12 at 9.23 am from the Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh, giving a boost to the country’s infrastructure and urban planning.

The Indian Space and Research Organisation’s (ISRO) rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) will carry into space the 690 kg Cartosat 2B and an Algerian satellite, Alsat (117 kg).

The rocket will blast off carrying also three nano satellites - NLS 6.1 and NLS 6.2 from Canada and Switzerland, and StudSat developed by students of engineering colleges in Bangalore and Hyderabad.

“The launch is fixed for July 12 at 9.23 a.m. The rocket will carry five satellites,” S.Sathish, director (Publications and Public Relations) saidd.

The rocket’s main cargo Cartosat-2B is a remote sensing satellite carrying a sophisticated panchromatic camera on board to photograph specific spots closely. The pictures are useful for cartographic applications such as mapping, land information and geographical information system.

Cartosat 2B will join the other two cartography satellites Cartosat 2 and 2A launched earlier. With three satellites ISRO’s satellites can cover the country effectively.

ISRO has been carrying out multiple launches for several years and in 2008 it set a world record launching 10 satellites at one go.

Originally scheduled for launch May 9, ISRO decided to postpone the launch as it found “a marginal drop in the pressure in the second stage of the vehicle during mandatory checks”.

Though the pressure drop was marginal, ISRO wanted to be sure as it does not want to risk a failure since PSLV is a major revenue earner, carrying satellites for others for a fee.

India, Canada sign civil nuclear cooperation pact

India’s relations with Canada changed from one of suspicion and unease to a strategic partnership after they forged a civil atomic energy pact which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described as breaking new ground.

Canada, which had led India’s nuclear isolation in the mid-1970s and late 1990s, is now the ninth nation with which New Delhi has a peacetime atomic energy pact, opening the doors for bilateral nuclear commerce on the lines India has with the US.

The pact, paving the way for Canadian firms to take part in India’s $40 billion nuclear energy business over the next 10 years, was inked after a meeting between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Canadian counterpart Stephen Harper.

“The civil nuclear agreement that we have signed breaks new ground in the history of our cooperation in this sector,” Manmohan Singh told reporters at a joint press conference with Harper.

“It reflects the change in international realities and will open new doors for mutually beneficial cooperation in nuclear energy,” he said, alluding to how the global community now looks at India compared with when New Delhi conducted its nuclear tests in 1998.

Thus far, India had civil atomic energy pacts with eighth countries, led by the US, which had kicked off the process to resume the global engagement with India in nuclear commerce.

The other countries are France, Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Argentina, Namibia and Britain.

According to data available with atomic energy department, India currently has 19 nuclear reactors at six locations, all operated by the state-run Nuclear Power Corp of India, with a capacity to produce 4,560 MW of electricity.

The plan is to quadruple this capacity to 21,180 MW by 2020, taking the share of nuclear energy in India’s total installed electricity-generation capacity of around 150,000 MW, from around 3 percent to a little over 10 percent.

While Canadian firms, like those in other countries, cannot yet produce nuclear energy in India that has been reserved for state-run firms by law, they can supply equipment and components - which, in itself, is a big business, officials said.

Four out of India’s 129 reactors are at Tarapur in Maharashtra with a capacity of 1,400 MW. Six are at Rawatbhata in Rajasthan with 1,180 MW, three at Kaiga in Karnataka with 660 MW and two each at Naroda in Uttar Pradesh, Kakrapar in Gujarat and Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu, with 1,320 MW.

These apart, six new reactors are also under construction, some at advanced stages, with a capacity of 2,720 MW. These are two at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu with 2,000 MW, one at Kalpakkam with 500 MW and one at Kaiga with 220 MW.

Bill against sexual harassment likely soon

A bill on prevention of sexual harassment of women at the workplace will be introduced in the monsoon session of parliament beginning later this month, Women and Child Development Minister Krishna Tirath has said.

“We are expecting to table the bill in the coming monsoon session. The draft of the bill is ready and is in the final stage of consultations,” Tirath said. The minister said that the legislation will put pressure on the private sector, which has so far not been prompt in taking steps to check harassment of women workers. It also includes a clause which brings students, research scholars, patients and women in the unorganised sector within the ambit of the proposed law.

“Many private organisations still don’t have a committee for addressing the grievances of women in sexual harassment cases. The proposed law will see that a committee headed by a women is present in every firm to address such cases,” she said.

“A penalty will be imposed on those who fail to follow the guidelines. If private organisations don’t meet the rules strict action will be taken against them,” Tirath added.

According to ministry officials, the legislation has been sent for consultations to all stakeholders.

“Once the draft is cleared by the stakeholders in other ministries and departments it will be sent to the cabinet for approval,” an official said.

The bill envisages that every workplace, whether in the organised or the unorganised sector, should have a forum to take up complaints pertaining to sexual harassment.

In the case of the organised sector, there will be internal complaint committees, in the absence of which a penalty, including deregistration of the institutions or a fine of Rs.50,000 for first offence, will be imposed.

The monsoon session of the parliament will start July 26.

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Swine flu situation grave in five states

The swine flu situation continues to be serious in the four southern states and Maharashtra, which have reported 366 of the 370 H1N1 infections in the recent past.

Kerala remains the worst affected state with 222 confirmed reports of swine flu. A rise in number of swine flu cases has been reported from all severely affected states with Maharashtra reporting 72 cases, Karnataka 31, Tamil Nadu 22, and Andhra Pradesh 19.

Recently 16 people have died due to the virus, with 10 of these being reported from

Kerala while four from Maharashtra and two from Andhra Pradesh.

A health ministry official said that lack of awareness was to be blamed for the growing number of infections in the southern part of the country and the unpopularity of the vaccine.

“There is lack of awareness about the vaccine. Even though the stocks are there not many are willing to take the vaccine,” the official said.

Three cases of swine flu have also been reported from Gujarat, while one case was reported from Uttar Pradesh last week. New Delhi has so far been more or less free from the virus with only three minor cases being reported in over two months.

India’s first indigenous swine flu vaccine was launched by Zydus Cadila in June. The vaccines has, however, not proved to be popular till now with people and even health professionals being unaware and uncertain about its benefits and implications.

India says Iran sanctions can impact energy security

In an oblique reference to the US sanctions on Iran that also target foreign companies doing business with Tehran, India has voiced its concern, saying such “unilateral sanctions” can have “a direct and adverse impact” on India’s energy security. Underlining the importance of Iran for India’s energy security, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao pitched for dialogue and diplomacy to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue within the framework of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

“We are justifiably concerned that the extra-territorial nature of certain unilateral sanctions recently imposed by individual countries, with their restrictions on investment by third countries in Iran’s energy sector, can have a direct and adverse impact on Indian companies, and more importantly, on our energy security and our attempts to meet the development needs of our people,” Rao said.

This is the first time New Delhi has reacted since US recently imposed a new set of sanctions - the toughest so far - on Iran for allegedly defying international norms about its atomic programme, suspected of developing atomic weapons.

US President Barack Obama has signed a bill imposing harsh sanctions on Iran that includes cutting off Iran’s access to refined petroleum imports, including gasoline and jet fuel and bans US banks from doing business with foreign banks that provide services to the Revolutionary Guards.

Rao reiterated that India supported Iran’s right to peaceful uses of nuclear energy within the NPT framework and called for adopting “a flexible approach to achieve a comprehensive solution to all issues.”

The US sanctions have the potential to affect a slew of Indian companies doing business with Tehran in the energy sector, including Indian oil and gas companies that are doing business with Iran, including Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Oil India Limited (OIL), Oil and Natural Gas

Corporation (ONGC), ONGC Videsh Ltd and Petronet LNG.

Rao’s stand on stiff sanctions imposed by the US and the EU, soon after the UN sanctions, is seen to be placatory towards Tehran that has nursed “hurt” at New Delhi for voting against its nuclear programme at the IAEA board of governors thrice over the past five years.

Paes wins his 12th Grand Slam India’s Leander Paes and Zimbabwe’s Cara Black won the Wimbledon mixed doubles titles, overpowering Wesley Moodie of South Africa and American Lisa Raymond 6-4, 7-6 (7-5).

Paes and Black,who won the Australian Open title in January and the US Open in 2008, will earn 92,000 pounds between them, while the runners-up take away 46,000 pounds.

With this victory, 37-year-old Paes, surpassed his one-time doubles partner and compatriot Mahesh Bhupathi in winning the most Grand Slam titles for India. Paes now has six doubles and six mixed-doubles titles, one more than Bhupathi, who has won four doubles and seven mixed doubles title.

Paes has lifted the Wimbledon mixed doubles trophy twice previously - with Martina Navratilova in 2003 and Raymond in 1999 - while Black won it with brother Wayne in 2004. Paes also won the 1999 men’s doubles title here with Bhupathi.

It looks like age has still not caught up with Paes, who showed sharp reflexes at the net and came with some stunning returns to surprise Moodie and Raymond. Black, who initially struggled with his serve, was swift with her backhand returns and the two combined well for a convincing win.

Paes and Black took just 37 minutes to win the first set that saw five breaks of serve, four of them coming in the first five games. The second seeds broke Raymond’s serve in the seventh game and Black held on to nose ahead 5-3 before Paes served out the set.

The second set was a close affair with the match going with the serve. Moodie and Raymond gave a strong fight to Paes and Black and took the set to the tie-breaker.

Paes and Black held their nerves in the tie-break before the Indian sealed the match with a volley.

It turned out to be another successful outing for Paes and Black, who have reached five Grand Slam finals winning three titles in two years.

Paes and Black had beaten Czech ninth seeds Lukas Dlouhy and Iveta Benesova to reach the finals while 11th-seeded Moodie and Raymond beat 10th seeds Marcelo Melo of Brazil and Rennae Stubbs of Australia for a place in the final.

Moodie won the 2005 men’s doubles title here, while Raymond won the 2001 ladies’ and 1999 mixed doubles titles.

Special sight-seeing buses in Agra during CWG

Tourists visiting Agra during the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi will be taken for sight-seeing in special tour buses to be launched very soon.

Agra district authorities have announced a plan to start an exclusive sight-seeing bus service, which will pick up tourists from hotels and take them around local tourist spots. Another bus service will take tourists to Fatehpur Sikri, District Magistrate Amrit Abhijat said.

Abhijat said the special buses will make it convenient for tourists to see not just the Taj Mahal but also other historical monuments in the city.

The administration also announced a total ban on spitting and littering near historical monuments. Violaters of the order would be booked and fined heavily.

New hoardings and signages for the convenience of tourists are also being put up near the Taj Ganj area around the Taj Mahal. Delhi’s

Gets A New Glitzy Airport Terminal

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Saturday recently inaugurated a glitzy new terminal at the Indira Gandhi International Arport , stated to be the sixth largest and among the most modern in the world, built in record 37 months at a cost of nearly $3 billion.

The actual operations though will start July 14 for international services while that for the domestic sector, for non-budget carriers, starts 16 days later, the developers of what is called Terminal 3 said at the grand opening.

Among those at the inaugural event were National Advisory Council chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit and chairman of GMR Group, G.M. Rao, which led the consortium that built the terminal.

“Today is a special occasion for our country. We are all very happy and proud of the completion of one of the world’s largest airport terminals in a record 37 months,” the prime minister told the well-attended opening ceremony.

“This airport terminal establishes new global benchmarks. It exemplifies out country’s resolve to bridge the infrastructure deficit in our country. It also proves the success of public-private partnership,” he said. “We have proved the sceptics wrong.”

According to the prime minster, as many as 58 government agencies were involved in coordinating the efforts to build the airport, and accordingly congratulated every artisan, technician and worker involved in the project.

The prime minister said it was noteworthy that India was today the ninth largest aviation market, with 10 scheduled airlines, as opposed to just two in 1990. He said the total fleet size of scheduled carriers had also grown four-fold to 400 aircraft.

Going forward, he said the country’s commercial aviation industry had the potential to absorb up to $120 billion in investment by 2020 and the capacity to handle some 160-180 million domestic passengers and 50 million from overseas.

The developers of the new terminal - the Delhi International Airport Ltd - said the new facility can handle 34 million passengers per annum in the first phase of development, against less than 10 million passengers at present at the international terminal.

They said the new terminal will be the sixth largest in the world -- after those at Dubai, Beijing, Singapore, Bangkok and Mexico City. It is a super-structure spread over 5.4 million sq ft, to give an experience of a city within, they added.

The airport’s developers are led by the Bangalore-based infrastructure major GMR Group, with the state-run Airports Authority of India, Fraport of Germany and Malaysian Airport Holding as members of the consortium.

Some of the key features of the new terminal are: l Sixth largest in the world after those at Dubai, Beijing, Singapore, Bangkok and Mexico City l One pier each for international and domestic operations spanning 1.2 km from one end to other l A city within, with a super-structure spread over 5.4 million sq ft l 78 aero-bridges, against less than 10 at the current international terminal l 63 elevators, 35 escalators and 92 automatic walkways l 168 check-in counters and 95 immigration desks l One pier each for international and domestic operations spanning 1.2 km from one end to other l Over 20,000 sq meters of retail area, including a large food court l Capacity to handle 12,800 bags per hour, with 6.4 km of conveyor belts l Multi-layer parking facility that can accommodate 4,300 cars l Exotic plants, material imported from Thailand, Mexico, Bahrain.

Hugging for a cause : Volunteers take part in a ‘Free Hugs’ campaign as part of International Free Hugs Day at Elliots Beach, Chennai, India on July 3, 2010. The Free Hugs Campaign is a social movement involving individuals who offer hugs to strangers in public places which was started by an Australian man known by pseudonym ‘Juan Mann’ in 2004. These youngsters, by the Free Hug campaign also spread the message that AIDS is not contracted by hugging.

Toyota investing Rs.500 cr for engine plant in India

Japanese auto major Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) is investing an additional Rs.500 crore (Rs.5 billion) in India to set up an engine plant for its upcoming compact car Etios, a top company official said this month.

“We are setting up the second engine plant with an installed capacity of 100,000 units per annum for our Etios compact car, which will enter the Indian market in December,”

Toyota-Kirloskar Motor Ltd (TKML) managing director Hiroshi Nakagawa told reporters in Bangalore.

The new plant will be set up by Toyota Kirloskar Auto Parts Ltd (TKAP), a joint subsidiary of TMC, Toyota Industries, Japan and the Pune-based Kirloskar group.

TKAP has already invested Rs.500 crore in setting up a transmissions plant and an engine plant for exporting to its overseas manufacturing facilities in Asia, Europe and Latin America.

The Toyota group has 90 percent stake in TKAP, while Kirloskars hold the remaining 10 percent equity.

Till Etios production is scaled to 100,000 units per annum from the initial 70,000 units, the remaining 30,000 engines will be exported to Toyota’s auto plants in Thailand and Argentina.

“Though Etios is specially designed for the Indian market, it will have an imported engine from Japan till engines from the TKAP third plant roll out,” Nakagawa said.

TKML has invested Rs.1,700 crore in setting up its second plant to roll out Etios, with an installed capacity of 100,000 units per annum.

TKAP’s third plant for Etios engines will be commissioned in the next 24-30 months.

Simultaneously, the capacity of the first plant, which manufactures 170,000 manual transmissions (gear box) per annum for its Fortuner sports utility vehicle (SUV), will be expanded to 240,000 units per annum by 2012.

All plants are located in the Bidadi industrial hub, about 30 km from Bangalore.

TKML also made a cumulative investment of Rs.3,200 crore in its first plant over the decade to manufacture Qualis and subsequently Innova multi-utility vehicles (MUV), Corolla sedan and the Fortuner. The global auto firm also imports in completely built unit (CBU) its luxury sedan Camry, Land Cruiser Prado and hybrid vehicle Prius for the Indian market.