ECR to be extended upto Kanyakumari district. Unbeleivable!!

anyakumari (TN), Mar 16 : The Tamil Nadu Government has decided to extend the Rs 2,160 crore Arcot-Tuticorin East Coast Road, being constructed with World Bank funding, upto Kanyakumari District, Highways Minister Vellakoil Swaminathan said today.

The work on the 740 km stretch of ECR was underway and it had been decided to extend it upto Kanyakumari distirct at a cost of Rs 190 crore, he said laying the foundation stone for a bridge work at Manakudy near here.

He said that 53,450 kms of roads and 2,392 bridges had been constructed in the state in the past four years at a cost of Rs 10,995 crore.

Later talking to reporters, Swaminathan said Chief Minister M Karunanidhi had taken up with the Centre the project for building a fishing harbour at Colachel in the district.

Former Japanese Prime Minister calls on Karunanidhi

Chennai, Mar 17: Former Prime Minister of Japan, Yoshiro Mori, today called on Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi at his Gopalapuram residence on a courtsesy call.

Talking to reporters after his meeting with Karunanidhi, Mori, also the head of the Japan-India Association, lauded the business environment in the state, saying it had good infrastructure for business. - Agencies

Attention users...!!!!Beware of another Facebook spam!

Have you been hit like millions of Facebook users by a new phishing scam that can result in crashing your computers or mobile phones and steal your passwords? If not, beware, do not open the files ending with '.at' or '.be.'

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The phishing scam is being run through the spam messages which steals the sensitive information of the Facebook users. In the attack, the messages are circulated with a subject line of 'Hello' and a prompt to check out areps.at or other URLs ending in '.at.' The mails with the subject line Look at This and links like -- goldbase.be, greenbuddy.be, silvertag.be, picoband.be -- leads to some malicious Web sites, which if visited, could secretly download malware onto computers through a drive-by download application. The URL connectivity, before being blocked directs the visitor to a fake Facebook page and the mail ID and password are stolen as soon as it is logged-in again. According to the All Facebook blog.Facebook, the password in such cases should be changed immediately and the same message should be sent across to one's Facebook acquaintance. 'Whoever is behind the scam has been steadily amassing a large number of e-mail addresses and passwords over the past few weeks,' the blog says.Though, Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt said: 'The impact of this attack or the previous ones are not widespread and only impacted a tiny fraction of a per cent of users. 'We've been updating our monitoring systems with information gleaned from the previous attacks so that each new attack is detected more quickly,' he said. The site has blocked links to the new phishing sites from being shared on Facebook and has added them to the block lists of the major browsers. The social networking site is working with partners to have the sites taken down completely, he said adding Facebook is also cleaning up phony messages and wall posts and resetting the passwords of affected users. 'We believe the bad guys here are phishing an account and then trying those credentials on webmail providers,' Schnitt said. So, for example, if a user is compromised on Facebook and has the same login and ID password for their Gmail, the attacker may be able to intercept the Facebook password reset and compromise the account again in the future, he added.

CM's thanksgiving gesture to workers for building the new Secretariat and Assembly complex

Honouring those who were behind the successful completion of the new Secretariat and Assembly complex, Chief Minister M Karunanidhi today hosted a grand luncheon for engineers, contractors and workers.

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The new Assembly complex with state-of-the-art facilities was inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the presence of AICC chief Sonia Gandhi and Karunanidhi at Omandurar Government Estate here on Saturday. Constructed at an estimate of Rs 500 crore, the works began in 2008 and completed as planned in a couple of years. The huge complex is a labour of love of DMK president Karunanidhi who has been visiting the the landmark edifice in Chennai on almost daily basis to review its progress. Karunanidhi had first made the announcement for the project in 2007 during the golden jubilee celebration of his political career. At the thanksgiving function today, the building engineers, contractors and workers have been served with biriyanis and host of delicious food. The Chennai Sangamam team performed a variety entertainment shows. Among those who were present on the occasion include Assembly Speaker T Avudaiappan, Deputy Chief Minister M K Stalin, State Ministers Arcot Veerasamy, Duraimurugan and senior officials of various departments.

Tamilnadu is Asia’s auto hub. Renault Nissan is the fifth automobile industry (car manufacturing) opening in oragaddam near chennai

Chief Minister M Karunanidhi today said Chennai is emerging as the Asia’s automobile capital and promised to make it as one of the top ten centres for automobile manufacturing in the world. Inaugurating the Nissan India Car Plant at Oragadam near here, he said with the establishment of the car project, which is a joint venture between the French auto major Renault and Japan auto major Nissan, Chennai had become the home of seven auto majors out of top 20 global automobile manufacturers, adding to the existing facilities by Daimler, Ford, BMW, Hyundai and Mitsubishi.

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‘Today, Chennai is emerging as Asia’s automobile capital. Establishment of these automobile projects in Chennai bears ample testimony to the favourable investment climate prevailing in Tamilnadu’, he said, adding, with its investor-friendly policies, Tamilnadu has been a forerunner in attracting a large number of domestic and foreign investors. Quoting Oxford Analytica, an international independent consulting firm, he said Tamilnadu was ranked as the most attractive investment destination among 28 States and two Union Territories. During the last three and half years and despite the recent economic downturn, several industrialists have constantly come forward to make investments in Tamilnadu. Karunanidhi said his government had signed 25 MoUs and issued orders for another 12 industries since May 2006. ‘Total investments in these 37 industries will be about Rs 46,091 crores and they will create employment potential for 2.22 lakh people directly and indirectly.’ He said despite, Chennai emerging as the largest automobile hub f India, it was lacking vehicle testing facilities, forcing the auto manufacturers to send their vehicles to Pune for testing and certification. Thanks to the initiative of the DMK government, the Centre was implementing the National Automotive Testing Research and Development Infrastructure Project (NATRIP) at Oragadam near the city at a cost of about Rs 450 crore and the State had allotted 300 acres land for it. ‘This project aims at facilitating introduction of world-class automotive safety, emission and performance standards in India and also ensuring seamless integration of our automotive industry with the global industry’, he added. The Chief Minister said considering the multiplier-benefit arising out of automobile projects, the DMK government would continue to attract more automobile projects in the State to realise his dream of making Chennai as one of the top Ten centres for automobile manufacturing in the world. Former Prime Minister of Japan Yoshiro Mori, Tamilnadu Labour Welfare Minister T M Anbarasan, French Ambassador to India Jérôme Bonnafont, Ambassador of Japan to India Hideaki Domichi, president and CEO, Renault-Nissan Carlos Goshn, president and managing director Akira Sakurai, Renault-Nissan Automotive India Ltd., deputy managing director Marc Nassif and others took part.

Dhoni ruled out of IPL for 10 days - !!disappointment!!!

Chennai Super Kings' Indian Premier League campaign received a huge blow today with skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni being ruled out of action for the next 10 days because of an elbow injury. 'Dhoni will be out of action for the next 10 days and the exact nature of his injury is being examined by the doctors at a private hospitals here," a team management source said.

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Dhoni underwent an x-ray test after being hit by a rising Shane Bond delivery in yesterday's match against Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens even though coach Stephen Fleming ruled out any major injury to the India skipper. The source, however, said that Dhoni will be travelling with the team to Delhi, where the Chennai side will take on Delhi Daredevils at Ferozeshah Kotla on Friday. 'He will be travelling with the team to Delhi,' the source said. 'An official announcement will be made once the nature of the injury is determined by the doctors,' he added. Apart from the match against the Daredevils, the injury also rules Dhoni out of Chennai Super Kings' matches against Kings XI Punjab ( 21 March), Royal Challengers Bangalore ( 23 March) and Mumbai Indians (25 March). Dhoni was awarded Man of the Match ashe resurrected the Chennai Super Kings innings with a 33-ball 66 to help them score 164/3 that proved to be a tall order for KKR who were shot out for 109 in 19.2 overs. Suresh Raina is expected to lead the Chennai Super Kings in the absence of MS Dhoni.

New policy for automobile sector will be implemented soon....says" Thiru Stalin "

The Tamilnadu government will soon unveil a new policy for automobiles and auto components to attract more investments into the State, Deputy Chief Minister M K Stalin announced today. Speaking at the inauguration the Nissan India car plant here, he said the new policy would be ready soon.

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He said as per the Automotive Mission Plan 2006-2016 India was set to emerge as the destination of choice in the world for design and manufacture of automobiles and auto components with the output reaching a level of 145 billion US Dollars providing additional employment to 25 million people by 2016. The DMK government was committed to capitalising this opportunity and attract a major share of investment flows. ‘To achieve this objective, our government is currently formulating a new policy for Automobiles and Components and it will be ready soon.’ He said Chennai has emerged as India’s largest automobile and auto components manufacturer and exporter in India. ‘From bicycles to battle tanks, everything that moves is being manufactured in Chennai. With six car projects — Ford, Hyundai, BMW, Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi-HM — Chennai is now emerging as one of the top ten Global Automobile manufacturing centre’, he added. Stalin said Chennai would have an installed capacity to produce 12.80 lakh cars and 3.50 lakh commercial vehicles each year. ‘This translates to an output of three cars every minute and one Commercial vehicle every 75 seconds’, he said, adding during 2008-09. Chennai produced 5.60 lakh passenger cars, accounting for 30.6 per cent of India’s production. With the largest auto components industry base, Tamilnadu accounted for around 32 per cent of India’s production capacity, Stalin said. ‘Abundant availability of skilled manpower in automobile engineering, excellent port logistics, reliable infrastructure, favourable investment climate and pro-active government support are the primary reasons for making Tamilnadu the home of automobile manufacturing’, he added. Stalin said notwithstanding the current global slowdown, Tamilnadu has been attracting a large number of domestic and foreign investors, thanks to government’s transparent policy and quick response to investment proposals. Stating that the government was honouring the commitments made to investors, he said the state was one of the major recipients of industrial investments. ‘Recently, the State government passed a legislation to create an, empowered Single Window Mechanism, to further speed up approvals’, he said, adding this would help transform the Chief Minister M Karunanidhi’s vision of making Tamilnadu as the most favoured investment destination in the country. Lauding the Renault-Nissan management for establishing the car project in Tamilnadu, Stalin said with the commissioning of the car project, Chennai’s leadership position in automobile sector has been further strengthened.