TRIVANDRUM, 18 June 2006 — Former minister professor P.J. Kurian of the Congress, whose term in the upper house is expiring, P.R. Rajan of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and K.E. Ismail from the Communist Party of India filed their papers for Rajya Sabha from Kerala yesterday. It was smooth sailing for both Rajan, the CPI-M secretary for Trichur district, and former state Revenue Minister Ismail since 98 out of 140 members in the state assembly belong to the ruling LDF and there were no objections to their candidature. The LDF also nominated former student leader Simon Britto, crippled in a political attack, as member of the assembly for the seat reserved for the Anglo-Indian community.
Tharoor’s Village Happy
Elavancherry village in Palghat district is already celebrating, hoping and praying that Shashi Tharoor, whom they consider one of their own, may soon be presiding over the United Nations. Now the UN undersecretary-general for communications and public information, his candidature for UN secretary-general has the backing of India and a few other countries. “Ours is a small village and everyone here hopes he will be elected to the top post,” Narayanan Unni, his maternal uncle, said. “And if he is elected, I want him to visit us because my mother, to whom he is very close, will be overjoyed.” Unni, a farmer, is the younger brother of Tharoor’s mother Lily.
NRI Funds Sought
The new LDF government unveiled its programs and priorities through the customary address of the governor in the state legislative assembly last week. It wants non-resident Indians as partners in building “world-class, state-of-the-art infrastructure” to attract industrial investments. Gov. R.L. Bhatia said the government will immediately float a public limited company on the lines of the Cochin International Airport Limited for this purpose. “Government will have substantial percent of shareholding in the company. My government proposes to tap the vast potential of non-resident Keralites across the world to raise the balance share capital,” he added. Annual remittances from overseas Kerala workers have crossed Rs. 200 billion, about 25 percent of the net domestic product of the state.
Research on Migration
Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi has inaugurated a center for research on migration and its impact on society at the Centre for Development Studies (CDS) here. The CDS had done pioneering studies on the impact of migration that have revealed that there are more than two million Keralites currently working outside the country, with close to 90 percent of them in the Gulf. “To start with, we intend to follow up our earlier studies. We will certainly prepare a detailed plan on the working of the unit,” Dr. Irudaya Rajan, who heads the research, said. The studies in which the CDS has been involved so far include: Socio-economic and Demographic Consequences of Migration in Kerala (2000), Return Emigrants and Regional Development in Kerala (2001), and Gulf Migration Study (2004).
Cinemas Show Soccer
Cinema theaters in soccer-crazy Malabar are now showing the World Cup football matches live from Germany, instead of the regular films. “Ever since the World Cup got under way last week, people have virtually stopped going to the movies,” explains theater owner Dinesh Kumar. “Even the releasing centers are badly hit. So showing the matches live on the big screen seemed a good option. I got the permission from ESPN and hired an LCD projector”. The LCD projector costs Rs. 1,000 a day and the ESPN charges Rs. 25,000 for the season. “Though we had good crowds for matches involving Brazil and Argentina, there weren’t that many people for the other matches. I hope more people would come out to watch, because it’s a great experience watching these great players on a large screen and with great sound effects,” Kumar says.
Meet on Ungulates
Kerala will host the 4th World Congress on Mountain Ungulates in September. India is home to 18 such species. The event will be held in Munnar from Sept. 12-15. This is the first time an international conference of the Caprinae Specialist Group of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) is being held in Asia, the organizers said. Kerala is one of the 34 biodiversity hotspots in the world and Munnar is a haven for the endangered Nilgiri tahr, a goat-like mammal with curved horns and bristly mane that is a mountain ungulate. An ungulate is a hoofed, typically herbivorous, quadruped mammal.
Private Colleges
The self-financing private professional colleges yesterday agreed to the government proposal that they would not conduct separate entrance test for admissions. Instead, they will fill all the seats from the list prepared by the controller of entrance examinations, the government regulator, through a common entrance test. After talks with Education Minister M.A. Baby, representatives of the management associations said they would be able to reduce fees for the merit quota only if they were allowed to charge higher fee for the rest or the government “compensates for the losses”.
‘Ruthless Killer’ Dies
The 25-year-old tusker, nicknamed Kolakolli (ruthless killer), caught and caged in Kerala’s Agasthyar forests, was found dead late Friday evening. Vets, who say the pachyderm was hale and hearty when they inspected it hours earlier, have started an autopsy to fix the cause.
