New Delhi, February 23
The crisis at St Stephen’s College finally saw a resolution, with Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) welcoming the governing body’s decision at St Stephen’s College, to unconditionally withdraw chargesheets served to two senior woman teachers — Sangeeta Luthra Sharma and Tasneem Suhrawardy of the Department of History, by OSD Rev Valson Thampu.

DUTA sources comment that Thampu had served the chargesheets on flimsy grounds. He wants to detract attention from his ineligibility to hold the post of OSD. DUTA has urged the university and the college governing bodies to ensure Thampu’s removal and appoint an eligible principal.

DUTA president Aditya Narayan Misra said, “The continuance of Thampu would not only create legal, administrative and academic complications, but would also damage the reputation of St Stephen’s College and Delhi University.”

Over 500 teachers sat on a dharna wearing black masks outside St Stephen’s College yesterday. DUTA had organised the dharna. Earlier, DUTA had organised sit-in demonstrations and protest meetings outside the vice-chancellor’s office and St Stephen’s College.

Teachers were protesting against the encroachment of “freedom of expression” by Rev Valson Thampu, OSD/acting principal, St Stephen’s College. Thampu is being accused of “harassing” junior woman colleagues. Thampu recently issued showcause notices to two senior woman colleagues — Sangeeta Luthra Sharma and Tasneem Suhrawardy.

DUTA feels, “This act of desperation springs from Thampu’s attempts to hide his own limitations, that deals with the illegality of his appointment as OSD in contravention with Delhi University Ordinance XXIV and Ordinance XVIII.”

Aditya Narayana Misra informs, “The National Commission for Minorities Educational Institutions support our stand and has stated that the appointment of Rev Valson Thampu as OSD is patently illegal and inoperative. His appointment cannot be justified under the clock of minority autonomy.”

DUTA further informs that Thampu in a bid to hide his limitations and meet the minimum eligibility requirement for principal “has managed to obtain a PHD degree in Theology from a university whose name is still not known.” DUTA asserts, “This mysterious PHD degree has been procured violating rules and norms of the UGC, which require a minimum period of full enrolment of at least two years.”

Misra argues that Thampu has been targeting women colleagues “for uncalled explanations” and this amounts to “harassment.” 

New Delhi, February 23
Party workers of the Bahujan Samaj Party, Delhi Pradesh ,will organize a rally at Ram Lila Ground tomorrow at 10a.m. About 40,000 participants from Delhi and neighbouring states are expected. The participants mostly will travel by buses, tempos etc. from various destinations. Traffic Police has made elaborate traffic arrangements for the rally.

All participating rally buses etc. from outside Delhi will enter from respective borders and ply on Ring Road to approach Rajghat crossing. They will not enter New Delhi area. The rally buses/tempos will be parked at Velodrome Road of IGI stadium, Mata Sundri college Road, MCD parking Asif Ali Road, Service road Rajghat & Shanti Van, Yamuna Pusta behind Vijay Ghat, Service road Samta Sthal, Sadbhawana and Ghata Park. Participants alight and reach Ram Lila Ground.

Motorists are advised to avoid traveling on Ring Road (Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, Jawahar Lal Nehru Marg, Subhash Marg, Asaf Ali Road, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg between 0900 hours to 1700 hours and follow the directions given by the traffic police. Commuters are advised resort to car-pooling and making use of services of Metro.

New Delhi, February 23
The three-day Eastwind Music Festival started yesterday in the Capital at NSIC grounds in Okhla. The festival, organised by Prospect Advisory and Management, will end tomorrow. Over 60 bands will perform in the music festival. The festival aims at promoting original Indian contemporary music and putting India on the international music map.

The idea behind the festival was to bring together musicians, music lovers and music companies and creating an experience as never before.

Mr Prospect A and M said, “The Indian music industry has come a long way in the last few years. Every year we find more and more international artists coming to India to perform.”

New Delhi, February 23
Gone are the days when no one remembered the person behind Amitabh Bachchan’s knotted shirt in ‘Deewar’ or Neetu Singh’s bell-bottoms.

For funds-flush Bollywood, getting the look of the actors right has evolved into a fine art and designers are now walking away with accolades and applause.

Wake-up at 2 am to look the part for the first shot at 11 am is what the cast of ‘Jodhaa Akbar’ went through during the making of Ahsutosh Gowariker’s just released historical romance inspired by the opulent Mughal era.

Neeta Lulla, who designed for the entire cast of ‘Jodhaa Akbar’ - from Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai, to a commoner walking on the road, is raking in as much applause as the actors of the film that released on Friday.

Neeta is not new to costume dramas, having won a National Award for her designs in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Devdas’.

“Everything was well researched. Even then, I worked on this project for a year and half because there was very little information available about the costumes and jewellery worn during that period,” says Neeta.

While she designed the clothes and the armour, which was crafted in Jodhpur, production designer Nitin Desai designed the weapons. The breathtaking jewellery was designed by leading jewellery brand Tanishq with inputs by Neeta and Gowariker.

The tie-up with Tanishq not only helped Gowariker recreate the grandiosity of the Mughal era but also got the film a lot of on-air publicity.

Ads of Tanishq’s ‘Jodhaa Akbar’ collection designed in gold, cut diamond, ruby, kundan and jade far out-number ads of the film itself.

Unlike the classic ‘Mughal-e-Azam’, Neeta used a lot of warm tones in the film and designed clothes that are ornate but not completely un-wearable.

“I was aiming at a blend of both bringing back the grandness of those days in today’s time zone,” says Neeta.

Bollywood has come a long way from the days when the concept of a costume designer did not exist. The person handling the clothes department was for long known as merely a ‘dresswallah’.

This, in spite of the fact that the only Indian to have won an Oscar so far is costume designer Bhanu Aitheya for her work in Richard Attenbourgh’s ‘Gandhi’. She got the coveted statue for costume design.

It took a true-blue commercial hit film like ‘Rangeela’, in which Manish Malhotra designed Urmila Matondkar’s costumes, to announce the arrival of costume designers in Bollywood.

The short dresses worn by Urmila catapulted her career and opened the floodgates for fashion designers to enter films.

Manish showed that designing for Hindi films was the best way to influence fashion across the country and designers stopped being snooty about associating with Bollywood. — IANS

Faridabad, February 23
The police hopes to solve a number of criminal cases following arrest of two friends of dreaded criminal,Aditya ,alias Katia.The criminal had surrendered a few days ago.

The police today confirmed arrest of his two accomplices ,Ramender and ,both residents of Ballabgarh. It claimed havong seized a Mouzer revolver,three country made pistols and several live cartridges from the two arrested today.

Katia,a resident of this district, is a member of the Jatin Siroi gang of Uttar Pradesh.An ace shooter,Katia is wanted in several cases in Faridabad,Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat.

The police feels that apart from the crimes in which he the gangster was directly involved,other cases in Faridabad and other parts of Haryana could also be solved as he may have been involved in them.Also,he was wanted by the police in other states.

New Delhi, February 23
A delegation of BJP MLAs led by leader of opposition in Delhi assembly Jagdish Mukhi recently gave a memorandum against privatisation of ambulance services in the Capital to Lt Governor Tejendra Khanna. CAT provides ambulance service.

The delegation apprised Khanna with the fact that the state government was planning to hand over the service to Hyderabad-based private firm EMRI.

They demanded that the service should not be handed to a private institution and CAT should continue to serve.

Mukhi said that the Lt Governor had assured that the service would not be privatised.

Khanna said that he had summoned chief secretary (Delhi) to know about the need to privatise ambulance service.

The total number of ambulances would be increased to 140.

Mukhi said that the CAT’s ambulance service had saved more than three lakh lives. CAT is the only successful service being run by the government for the last 17 years, he claimed.

“EMRI has hardly two years of experience in the field. It has failed to provide ambulance services in Hyderabad and rest of Andhra Pradesh. Whereas, CAT has done a commendable job in the last 17 years. It has saved lives of people affected by calamities like — Uphar fire case, attack on parliament, Sarojini Nagar serial bomb blasts, Amar Colony jhuggi fire cases, Lal Kuan fire case and Sahara plane accident at Delhi Airport,” he said

Referring Delhi as the most sensitive state, Mukhi said precautions must be taken on various fronts. CAT service is linked with the national security, terrorist attacks and other natural calamities. It is also linked with providing first aid facility to VVIPs on functions like — January 26 and August 15.

Mukhi claimed, “EMRI hardly gives Rs 6,000 to Rs 8,000 to its employees”. Under such circumstances, their employees might get in touch with anti-social elements and easily break into the security. 

New Delhi, February 23
The 10th Venu Menon National Animal Award’s Ceremony was recently held here. Kapila Vatsyayan, Member of Parliament; Sathya Saran, renowned journalist and editor, DNA; MK Ranjitsinh, chairman Wildlife Trust of India; KB Menon, chairman, Venu Menon Animal Allies Foundation graced the occasion and conferred awards on six individuals, two organisations and one community for making a difference to the lives of animals by acts of kindness and extraordinary courage. 

Fred O’Regan, president of International Fund for Animal Welfare, delivered the 8th Venu Menon Memorial Lecture on the occasion.

Vivek Menon, managing trustee of Venu Menon Animal Allies Foundation and executive director of Wildlife Trust of India while addressing the event said, “In ten years, the awards ceremony has grown to a national event of great importance among the animal welfare and wildlife fraternity. This is the best tribute to Venu’s memory that the foundation can hope for.”

The Venu Menon Animal Awards are India’s premier private awards that commemorate excellence in animal welfare. Started in 1998 in the memory of Venu Menon, an animal lover and a highly respected and successful Communications Consultant.

New Delhi, February 23
“Sanskrit unites our country in one thread”, said Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit opening the three -day All India Sanskrit Conference ,organised by the Sanskrit Academy ,here today.

She said that Sanskrit is the oldest language of the country from which all the other Indian languages emanated. Its a scientific language which will be at the helm of the affairs soon and most of the computer programmes will be run in this language. It plays a positive role in national integration.

The Chief Minister said meets like this should be organised regularly in Delhi to raise awareness about the language.

“We must know our roots and especially the youth should understand that this language is the foundation of our country. Our whole social fabric and civilization is based on this very language. Sanskrit took the world by storm in the olden days and it is set to do it once again”, Sheila Dikshit said.

Delhi health minister Dr. Yoganand Shastri, MLA Ramakant Goswami, former education minister Kulanand Bhartiya, vice-chancellor of Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri Sanskrit Vidyapith Dr. Vachaspati Upadhyaya, secretary Delhi Sanskrit Academy Dr. Shrikrishan Semval and more than 500 delegates were present on the occasion.

Dr. Yoganand Shastri said, “Sanskrit had played a unmatched part in development of our culture and traditions and it is our duty to make it a people’s language. There are 5000 languages in the world in which Sanskrit has contributed immensely. Sanskrit is life and blood of this country.”

New Delhi, February 23
The Seemapuri police in North East Delhi yesterday arrested a private security guard for unprovoked firing at policemen and a PCR van. According to reports, shots were heard by the residents at around 3 am from atop a Maruti car showroom on GT Road.

When police reached there after a call from a resident, they saw a guard firing from the rooftop of the Fairdeal Maruti Showroom. When the cops warned him and asked him to stop firing, he even fired at the policemen and threw stones. Two bullets hit the police cars. The guard had fired 13 rounds in all from a 12-bore gun. Three live cartridges were also recovered from him. Police were finally able to nab him after using the roof of the adjacent buildings.

Jaspal Singh, DCP, North East District along with ACP Prem Nath also reached the spot on hearing the news of firing. The guard Kamruddin, 45, said that he had seen a thief and was thus firing the shots. Other guards posted there, Dharmender and Ashok, were told by Kamruddin that the thief was in the vicinity of the showroom and that firing was a necessity.

DCP Jaspal said that later Kamruddin accepted that he did all that due to mental depression. Originally from Bharatpur, Kamruddin was recently sent here by the Badarpur-based Bikal Security Agency. Kamruddin had come to the city for the first time and was finding it hard to adjust himself to the metro lifestyle. 

New Delhi, February 23
Collections inspired by India will mark the grand finale of the upcoming edition of Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week (WIFW), showcasing the designers’ patriotism.

Fashion designers Anamika Khanna and Ashish Soni were on Wednesday chosen to display their works on the ramp for the grand finale, which has been aptly titled ‘Mode in India’.

The 11th edition of the fashion extravaganza, organised by the Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI), is scheduled for March 12-16.

“Both of us have derived our respective collections from India and it is going to be all about our nation. We are proud to be Indians and that is what we are going to showcase on the ramp via our silhouettes,” Anamika told IANS. — IANS

New Delhi, February 23
Indians are three times more susceptible than Europeans/Caucasians to suffer from coronary heart disease.

The Apollo Group of Hospitals and the Apollo Hospitals Education and Research Foundation has organised a two-day summit to discuss the development in cardiac sciences at India Habitat Centre here. The scientific summit is designed to focus on new approaches on diagnoses and management in cardiac sciences.

The statistics make for grim reading. The urban Indian population is nearly three times more susceptible to suffer from coronary heart disease than the rural population. In the past 5 decades, rate of coronary diseases among the urban population has risen from 4 per cent to 11 per cent. About 12.5 per cent of adult urban males suffer from coronary artery disease, while the incidence rate of stroke is 200 per 100,000 people. The steady increase in heart disease means that every year approximately 25,000 coronary bypass operations and 12,000 PTCAs (angioplasties) are carried out.

The summit would also focus on paediatric ailments, as 48,000 to 128,000 children are born each year with congenital heart diseases.

The summit would offer the latest modalities to tackle heart disease and enable best practices amongst cardiac specialists across the country. Experts from across the country would attend the summit. Medical professionals would get an opportunity to enhance their knowledge on critical cardiac issues like — Fetal ECHO, Endovascular repair of aortic aneurysms, myocardial regeneration from stem cells, role of 64 Slice CT angiography in cardiac diseases.

Dr Prathap C Reddy, chairman, Apollo Group of Hospitals said, “Development in cardiac sciences makes such fora important in keeping consultants abreast of the latest technology. We at Apollo encourage such fora, as they can help in developing the necessary skill to tackle heart disease, to which Indians are specifically prone to.”

New Delhi, February 23
The Delhi chapter of Rotary International Club today declared that during the current year there no new cases of polio was reported in the national Capital. In the year 2007, two cases of polio were registered in Delhi and treated with help of the Rotary club.

The polio has three categories– P1, P2 and P3. The P1 can cripple a patient. No cases of P1 have been reported in Delhi.

Besides polio, the club also helps poor heart patients.

New Delhi, February 23
Ansal Institute of Technology (AIT), Gurgaon is organising Agile NCR 2008 Conference jointly with Xebia IT Architects and sponsored by ASCI (Agile Software Community of India) on March 8, 2008 on its campus. Agile NCR 2008 will be the first conference in the NCR region.

According to Prof. M.P.Singh, director AIT, Agile methods are creating a buzz in the software development community and have recently gained widespread popularity. Agile methods are a reaction to traditional ways of developing software and acknowledge the need for an alternative to documentation driver, heavyweight software development processes. Industry and technology move too fast, requirements change at rates that swamp traditional methods and customers have become increasingly unable to definitely state their needs while at the same time expecting more from their software. As a result, several consultants have independently developed methods and practices to respond to the inevitable change they were experiencing.

These Agile methods are actually a collection of different techniques that share the same values and basic principles. The purpose of this conference is to provide a comprehensive overview of the current state-of-the-art, as well as state-of-the-practice, for Agile methods.
Pete Deemer, chief product officer from Yahoo, India will be the keynote speaker in this conference.