Ramblings of Souri

Posco of South Korea, the world’s third largest steel maker and the largest stainless steel producer, has struck a 3 year charge chrome supply pact with India Charge Chrome Ltd. (ICCL), which is a unit of the Orissa based Indian Metal & Ferro Alloys. Posco has agreed to pick up around 30,000 tonnes of charge chrome every year from ICCL for its stainless steel production. The Posco-ICCL pact also has options to increase the charge chrome offtake upto 36,000 tonnes per annum. At this rate, Posco will be captively consuming over 50% of ICCL’s total rated capacity of 62000 tonnes of charge chrome and ferro chrome. The long-term agreement with ICCL came as a boon for the company which has been facing a severe financial crisis ever since its ferro chrome conversion agreement with Tata Steel ran into rough weather in the mid-nineties. Currently the company is producing at around 120% its rated capacity

IMFA Group, India's largest producer of ferro alloys, today inaugurated its first phase expansion project, comprising a 27MVA ferro chrome furnace.

The new furnace would take the company's installed capacity to 157MVA.

The furnace was put up by its group company, Utkal Manufacturing & Services Ltd (UMSL), at the industrial complex in Choudwar in Orissa.

It was capable of producing 35,000 tonne per annum of ferro chrome.

The furnace was inaugurated today by Biswabhushan Harichandan, Orissa's minister for industry, and Prafulla Chandra Ghadei, the state's minister for finance, in the presence of Bhartruhari Mahtab, the Lok Sabha member from Cuttack and Bansidhar Panda, founder-chairman of the IMFA Group and Subhrakant Panda, managing director of the IMFA Group.

IMFA had taken up the second and third phases of the expansion programme announced last year, which would see two more ferro chrome furnaces of 27MVA and 48MVA capacity, and a 120Mw power plant at Choudwar.

Paramita Mahapatra, managing director of UMSL, said the project showcased the IMFA Group's strengths with regard to in-house design, technology and project management capabilities.

The IMFA team completed the project in a record time of 11 months at a cost of Rs 50 crore.

The furnace had state of the art control systems and pollution control measures.

IMFA was the only producer in India to produce in excess of 100,000 tonne ferro chrome per annum and was also the leading exporter of the product. It earned foreign exchange in excess of $50 million in 2005-06.

Subhrakant Panda said the project aimed to capitalise on sustained growth in stainless steel production, which was driving up demand for ferro chrome and also maintain IMFA's leadership in the industry.

The IMFA Group comprised Indian Metals & Ferro Alloys Ltd (IMFA) and Indian Charge Chrome Ltd (ICCI). It was India's largest producer of ferro alloys with 130MVA installed furnace capacity backed up by a 108MW captive power plant and own chrome ore mines at Nuasahi and Sukinda.

I think we should have job reservations in all the fields. I completely support the PM and all the politicians for promoting this. Let's start the reservation with our cricket team.
We should have 10 percent reservation for Muslims. 30 percent for OBC, SC/ST like that. Cricket rules should be modified accordingly.
The boundary circle should be reduced for an SC/ST player.
The four hit by an OBC player should be considered as a six and a six hit by a OBC player should be counted as 8 runs.
An OBC player scoring 60 runs should be declared as a century.
We should influence ICC and make rules so that the pace bowlers like Shoaib Akhtar should not bowl fast balls to our OBC player. Bowlers should bowl maximum speed of 80 kilometer per hour to an OBC player.
Any delivery above this speed should be made illegal.
Also we should have reservation in Olympics. In the 100 meters race, an OBC player should be given a gold medal if he runs 80 meters.
There can be reservation in Government jobs also. Let's recruit SC/ST and OBC pilots for aircrafts, which are carrying the ministers and politicians (that can really help the country.)
Ensure that only SC/ST and OBC doctors do the operations for the ministers and other politicians. (Another way of saving the country.)
Let's be creative and think of ways and means to guide INDIA forward...
Let's show the world that INDIA is a GREAT country.
Let's be proud of being an INDIAN.
May the good breed of politicians like ARJUN SINGH long live...

PARADIP: Thousands of villagers staged a dharna, demanding arrest of Posco supporters who attacked an anti-Posco activist on Monday.Sources said supporters of Posco led by Anadi Rout, Kesab Rout and six others attacked one anti-Posco activist Ranjit Swain of Gobindpur village on Monday and tied him with a rope for over three hours. Thousands of villagers, including women, resorted to the agitation demanding his release and police rushed to the spot and freed him.Meanwhile, victim Ranjit Swain has lodged an FIR with Kujang police. Hundreds of anti-Posco activists led by convenor of Rastriya Yuba Sangathan, Biswajeet Ray and Akhaya Kumar of Nav Nirman Samiti have sat on a dharna at Nuagaon police station, demanding arrest of eight accused. A platoon of police force has been deployed in the village to avert clash between the two groups. The accused are absconding.

Environmentalists and turtle lovers here are up in arms against the Marine Science department of Berhampur University for a report it has prepared for Reliance Industries Limited (RIL).The report goes contrary to the findings of a Central Empowered Committee (CEC) constituted by the Supreme Court which stated that the proposed Reliance gas handling work in MD-10 block of Bay of Bengal would harm the turtles visiting Rushikulya estuary.According to reports, RIL last year signed an MoU with the State Government to explore oil and natural gas in MD-10 block of Bay of Bengal, 60 km from Rushikulya estuary and 75 km from Devi estuary. It had asked the Marine Science department to prepare a report on the movement of turtles in Dhamra, Devi and Rushikulya estuaries to ensure that their work does not harm the Olive Ridleys.The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report submitted by the university in January last gave green signal to RIL to explore and exploit (E&E) natural gas off the Orissa coast.The report prepared after a series of studies and surveys stated that the endangered Olive Ridley turtles, which congregate on the coast every year for nesting, are unlikely to be affected by the E&E activities of RIL. But the environmentalists are not convinced, especially, when the CEC had suggested RIL to shift its proposed location.As per the department’s report, the RIL activities will be far off from the coast. “The proposed exploration will be at least 30 km from the coast and beyond the critical habitat of turtles,” it stated.“Despite extensive observations through deployment of various kinds of vessels for a period of over five months, no mass movement of turtles was noticed in the offshore areas,” the report pointed out.The department had, however, recommended that a comprehensive study on the offshore activities of the endangered species could be taken up by some reputed organisations of the country as all the survey works undertaken were based on the near and on shore activities of turtles.But the environmentalists are not bothered only about the offshore activities of turtles. According to them, the report makes no mention about how the turtles reach their destination. The turtles swim through thousands of kilometres to reach the rookery and the study has failed to cover that aspect, they allege.This apart, the study has ignored the aspect of oil slicks which are detrimental to marine life. Oil slicks do not get dissolved in water and can be carried ashore through winds, waves, currents and tides.The refraction of waves in Bay of Bengal is usually towards the Orissa coast during monsoon. Hence the possible oil slick formed off the coast will be detrimental to the Olive Ridleys, fish and other marine species, they argue. Besides, the oil slicks may even block or disturb the routes of the Olive Ridleys, they add.The environmentalists have now urged the RIL authorities to conduct a study on the coastal and offshore currents by involving experts from reputed organisations of the country for a more accurate report.“Besides, the department should prepare another detailed report and make it public,” they demand. Some environmentalists are also contemplating to file a Public Interest Litigation before the Orissa High Court. Meanwhile, sources in the Marine Science department maintained that the report was prepared covering all relevant aspects.

Nothing could be more tragic or farcical than the ‘posthumous’ awarding of first division marks to the late Reecha Mishra, the Plus Three college student who committed suicide after securing a second division in the last academic session in Bhubaneswar.Reecha became a martyr to the machinations of mercenary teachers who deprived her of her legitimate marks solely because she did not register for their private tuitions. But hers is not an isolated case.Reecha spoke out in death for thousands of students and parents who are victims of the blatant commercialisation of education in the country today. Be it a leaked All India Medical Entrance Examination or manipulation in top ten list of Plus Two results, corruption in education is ubiquitous.The death of a student by her own hand is only symptomatic of the failure in a system that trashes merit and trades in percentages and degrees. By doing so it plays mercilessly with the futures and ultimately with the very lives of innocents. Students and parents are subjected to a particularly vicious form of blackmail that gives them the choice between cheating and failing.Not surprisingly, even those who are light of pocket shell out large sums for private tuitions. Teachers simply pocket the fat salaries paid to them under UGC revised package and hold the classrooms to ransom. They hijack the curriculum, either by not taking classes or deliberately not completing the course so that the classes can be taken back home at a price.They are paid by the hour and tutor large complements of students in multiple sessions.No punishment is too high for these purveyors of education and the prompt action taken by the state government against the guilty trio in the Reecha case is laudable.However, mere suspension or dismissal of individual culprits will not solve the problem. Teachers should be made accountable and this can be done by strict supervision of their work. A better system of monitoring the performance of teachers including grading by those they serve - the students themselves - should put in place.Their increments and promotions should be linked to criteria like completion of course, assignments and quality of teaching. The government should also impose and enforce a ban on private tuition by college teachers who are being paid the UGC scale.As for parents, instead of conniving to make their children cheat or pay their way to success they should speak out against unscrupulous elements in the education system.Students like Reecha should not have to die to get their due.

Mandal II
This is in relation to the recent news artcile about all the reservation for the OBC upto 27%. It is quite unfortunate that even after the VP Singh fiasco the ministers have not yet understood what the public is capable of. The minsters tend to forget that they are only public servants and there is another part of the population that is called as the public.Why would they want to do something like this to the people who actually study and slog so hard. 49.5% would be the total %age of reservation if this bill comes through. As to who is responsible is not the question, as it is no one but the public who has accepted what every politician has promised on the basis of caste, creed and religion. Please, Please my friends...This is a plea for everyone who cares a bit for their nation. I dont know what to say, on how to stop these crackpots who calls themselves the guardians of India's constitution.Even Ambedkar himself said that reservation should be only for 20 years and not more...But look at today. Has the government ever ever done any kind of survey and seen how much of the downtrodden people have prospered because of the reservations that they have offerred them over the last 60 years.Why even now, after all these years of sufferings do students and children who are born in to upper caste houses have to bear the brunt for what their great grandfathers did. Isnt it time to help the people who really need the help...The economically weak.Instead of that they just make use of the fact that elections being round the corner they keep on increasing the reservtion quotas.Right now, its almost as if all the government offices are held by those that benefit from the reservation system.Now they even want reservations in the private system. What do these jerks do sitting in their offices.If someone knows of any kind of protestation thats taking place against this ridiculous behaviour please do let us know...