Petrol price  slashed by Rs 3 per litre

          Petrol price was Tuesday slashed by Rs 3 per litre, the steepest reduction in rates in over five years. The fourth reduction in rates since March means that petrol in Delhi will cost Rs 63.09 a litre with effect from midnight tonight as against Rs 66.09 per litre currently. Rates will vary from city to city depending on local sales tax or VAT. In Mumbai, petrol price has been cut by Rs 3.15 to Rs 69.73 per litre, while the fuel in Kolkata will cost Rs 70.35 from tomorrow as against Rs 73.48 per litre. The reduction in rates in Chennai would be Rs 3.18 per litre to Rs 65.90. Today's price cut comes after three consecutive rate reductions on the back of falling international oil prices. State-owned oil firms, which revise rates every fortnight, had from April 16 cut petrol price by Rs 1.20 a litre in Delhi. On March 16, the rates were cut by Rs 2.40 per litre and by Re 1 in the following fortnight. The price cut announced today is the steepest since December 2008 when rates were slashed by Rs 5 to Rs 45.62 per litre. Announcing the reduction, Indian Oil Corp (IOC), the nation's largest fuel retailer, said that since the last price change, international prices have declined from USD 116.61 per barrel to USD 107 a barrel. Rupee-US dollar exchange rate too improved from Rs 54.51 to a US dollar to Rs 54.26. "Thus, it has been decided to pass on the benefit to customers and accordingly the aforesaid reduction in the retail selling price of petrol is being affected," an IOC statement said.

SSLC results declared, 94.17% passed

          Thiruvananthapuram: The SSLC examination results were announced on Wednesday at 11.30 am by education minister P. K. Abdu Rabb. This year the pass percentage is 94.17 percent, which is an all-time record, the minister said. There was no moderation this year. 4,70, 085 students appeared for the examination and among them 10, 073 bagged A plus. The pass percentage in private category is 74.05%.  A total of 861 schools secured centum results and among them 274 are govt schools, 327 are in aided

sector.  Kottayam stands first in pass percentage and Palakkad in last. The schools, which gained more, A plus are in Kozhikode district. SAY examination would be held from May 13 to 18. Minister said certificates would be distributed from May 15.

                      The results can be accessed on the following websites.  

http://gstuattingal.in,
www.keralapareekshabhavan.in, 
http://results.kerala.nic.in,
www.keralaresults.nic.in, 
www.kerala.gov.in,
www.prd.kerala.gov.in,
http://results.itschool.gov.in

22nd STATE CONFERENCE @ KOTTAYAM

RESPECTFUL HOMAGE

SHAKUNTALA DEVI (1929 - 2013)

              Legendary Mathematics wizard Shakuntala Devi, dubbed as the world’s fastest ‘human computer’ and who made complex mental calculations as a child prodigy, died at a hospital here today following respiratory problems. Ms. Devi, who has enthralled fans with her prowess for decades, was 83.Rated as one in 58 million for her stupendous mathematical feats by one of the fastest super-computers ever invented —the Univac — 1108 —, Ms. Devi believed in using grey cells to silicon chips.

Born on November four, 1939, Devi figured in the Guiness Book of World Record for her outstanding ability and wrote numerous books like Fun with Numbers, Astrology for You, Puzzles to Puzzle You, and Mathablit. Hailing from a simple orthodox Kannada Brahmin family, Ms. Devi’s father was a circus performer who did trapeze, tightrope and cannonball shows. He had rebelled against becoming a temple priest. Devi was also an astrologer and gave remedies purportedly based on date and time of birth.

It was while Ms. Devi was playing cards with her father at the tender age of three that he found his daughter’s calculation abilities. It turned out that she beat him not by sleight of hand, but by memorising the cards. At the age of six, she demonstrated her calculation skills in her first major public performance at the University of Mysore and two years later, she again proved herself successful as a child prodigy at Annamalai University. However, despite apprehensions in some quarters, Ms. Devi did not lose her calculating ability when she turned adult like other prodigies such as Truman Henry Safford.

In 1977, Ms. Devi extracted the 23rd root of a 201-digit number mentally. In the same year in Dallas, she competed with a computer to see who gives the cube root of 188138517 faster and she won.

On June 18, 1980 she demonstrated the multiplication of two 13-digit numbers 7,686,369,774,870 x 2,465,099,745,779 picked at random by the Computer Department of Imperial College, London. She answered the question in 28 seconds flat. This event is mentioned in the 1995 Guinness Book of Records.

“Why do children dread mathematics?”, she was once asked. “Because of the wrong approach. Because it is looked at as a subject,” pat came her reply. “Mathematics is life, you have math in everything, right from time to your date of birth to the food you eat and the air you breathe,” she states. The right age to train children in mathematics is six, says Ms. Devi, who sparkled at three.

Earth Day 2013 - The Face of Climate Change

PROGRAMME NOTICE

Petrol price cut by one rupee per litre

                Petrol price was today cut by Re 1 per litre, effective midnight tonight -- the third reduction in rates in one month. The price cut, which was made possible because of fall in international oil prices, excludes local sales tax or VAT. After including VAT, the reduction in price of petrol in Delhi comes to Rs 1.20 per litre and the fuel will cost Rs 66.09 per litre from midnight tonight against Rs 67.29. However, there will be no change in diesel prices even though today was the appointed day for putting into effect the government decision to hike rates by 40-50 paise a litre. Today's cut in petrol price comes on the back of 85 paise a litre reduction in rates on April 2 and Rs 2 a litre decrease effected on March 16. The March 16 cut after including VAT translated into a Rs 2.40 a litre reduction at pumps. It was the steepest cut in nine months. Petrol in Mumbai will cost Rs 1.26 less at Rs 72.88 per litre. In Chennai, the price has been cut by an equal measure to Rs 69.08. It will cost Rs 73.48 a litre in Kolkata from tomorrow against Rs 74.72.
Announcing the reduction, Indian Oil Corp (IOC), the nation's largest fuel retailer, said since the last price change international prices have declined from USD 119.23 per barrel to to USD 116.61 a barrel.
"Rupee-US dollar exchange rate has, however, deteriorated slightly from Rs 54.28 to a US dollar to Rs 54.51," it said, adding it was decided to pass on the benefit of reduced oil prices to customers. IOC, however, did not say why the rates of diesel, which as per the January decision of the government are to be hiked by 40-50 paise per litre every month till all of the losses on the fuel are eliminated, were not changed. The company said it is losing Rs 6.48 a litre on diesel. Oil firms calculate the desired retail price on 1st and 16th of every month based on average imported oil price on the previous fortnight. The cut in petrol price follows two rounds of hike in rates since February. Petrol price was hiked by Rs 1.50 a litre on February 16 and then by Rs 1.40 per litre from March 2. Both the increases were excluding local VAT.

 

Approval for Smart City 

Master Plan

                   Dubai 11-04-2013: The Director Board meet of the Kochi Smart City project convened today  approved the master plan for the project. As per the plan, the construction of the building will begin on July 1 and would be completed within 18 months. The headquarters of the project would be set up in the first phase in a area of 4 lakh sq feet and would be equipped with a parking lot in 1.5 lakh sq feet. Apart from this, basic facilities will be set up in 50 acres of land.

Besides CM, Minister P K Kunhalikutty, Vice Chairman Abdul Latif Almullah, IT dept Principal Secretary P H Kurien, member of the Director Board Dr M A Yousafali, Smart City managing director Dr Baju George also attended the meet.

The Central SEZ Board has approved a single SEZ status to the entire Kochi Smart city land. The already earmarked 136 acres of land as SEZ zone was added to the 114 acre land and a single SEZ status given. The state government has appealed to the centre to give the 246 acres of land a complete SEZ