MSV ticked him off for Telugu accent’

MSV ticked him off for Telugu accent’

Film-maker recalls how SPB got a chance to sing in Shanthi Nilayam

26/09/2020

Chithralaya Gopu

“I sing the notes as they are written but it is the Almighty who comes out as my voice,” was a frequent statement made by S.P. Balasubrahmanyam. His first recorded song was from the film Shanti Nilayam, produced by Gemini Vasan, and the script work was done by me. Englishman Marcus Bartley was the cameraman.

M.S. Viswanathan had tuned a song Iyarkaii Ennum Ilaiyya Kanni and a few months earlier, SPB had frequented his house seeking an opportunity to sing in films. “Get rid of your Telugu accent and improve your Tamil!” MSV told him, and within months, SPB’s Tamil improved. MSV made him sing Iyarkaii Ennum Ilaiyya Kanni and it was an instant hit. He received ₹150 as remuneration for the song.

eanwhile, MGR had an issue with T.M. Soundararajan, and SPB had the opportunity to sing for him — the song Ayiram Nilave Vaa in Adimai Penn. Though Adimai Penn released first, SPB’s first recorded song was from Shanti Nilayam.

SPB loved working with our Chithralaya Unit and before singing Panivizhum Malarvanam, he said, “Gopu sir, Chithralayaa is my mother’s home.”

Baalu, as we fondly called him, was a perfect gentleman. The film industry will not be the same again.

Anand recalls SPB as his sponsor

Anand recalls SPB as his sponsor

26/09/2020

K. KeerthivasanCHENNAI

Five-time world chess champion Viswanathan Anand is a huge fan of playback singer S.P. Balasubrahmanyam.

On Twitter, Mr. Anand spoke about SPB sponsoring his team — Chennai Colts — in the national team championship in 1983. “His music gave us such joy,” he said.

Mr. Anand said the national team championship in 1983 was, in a way, a turning point for him.

“We have been waiting for good news [about SPB’s recovery]. Every time there was an update that he seemed to have got better, I was relieved. Then, when news emerged that he was very critical, I began to feel the worst,” he said.

MCI goes, National Medical Commission takes charge

MCI goes, National Medical Commission takes charge

New medical regulator notified I Pvt education to get cheaper

Posted: Sep 25, 2020 06:52 AM Updated: 2 hours ago

New medical regulator notified. 

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 24

India’s new medical education regulator, National Medical Commission (NMC), will come into force from tomorrow with the Centre today abolishing the 87-year-old Medical Council of India, which was marred by corruption in its later years.

The Centre on Thursday night notified the 33-member NMC, saying it will come into force from September 25. With the notification, the MCI board of governors stands dissolved. The board was appointed four years ago to run the MCI affairs while the council was dissolved in 2010. Today, the MCI has been abolished.

NEW GUIDELINES

MBBS final year exam to serve as entrance test for postgraduation and foreign medical graduates

The NMC will make guidelines for a new cadre of non-MBBS mid-level health service providers such as nursing practitioners and pharmacists with limited rights to dispense medicines

PGI’s Jagat Ram is among 11 full-time NMC members

The notification names Suresh Chandra Sharma, ENT HoD, AIIMS, New Delhi, as the chairperson of the NMC which will have four autonomous boards to regulate undergraduate, postgraduate education, medical assessment and ethics and medical registration.

The development means that from tomorrow all provisions of the NMC Act, 2019, will roll out, including fee regulation on 50 per cent seats in private medical colleges and deemed universities; end of inspection for college renewals. Final year MBBS exam will now serve three purposes — licentiate exam for MBBS passouts to issue them a licence to practice medicine; entrance exam for postgraduate medical education and entrance exam for foreign medical graduates. Called the National Exit Test, this final year MBBS exam will finally replace the existing National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for PG and Foreign Medical Graduates Test.

Husband, wife set to be elevated as HC judges

Husband, wife set to be elevated as HC judges

25/09/2020

Thamilselvi T. Valayapalayam

Murali Shankar Kuppuraju

Mohamed Imranullah S.CHENNAI

The Supreme Court collegium on Wednesday cleared the names of 10 judicial officers to be elevated as judges of the Madras High Court but what made the news sweeter for the legal fraternity in the State is that two among the 10 officers are a married couple.

Tiruchi Principal District and Sessions Judge Murali Shankar Kuppuraju and the Registrar (Judicial) of the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court Thamilselvi T. Valayapalayam had tied the knot in 1996 and are now the proud parents of two college going children. Once the collegium recommendation passes through the Union Ministry of Law and Justice as well as the Prime Minister’s Office and culminates into issuance of a warrant by the President, the couple would be sworn in judges of the Madras High Court.

Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Kuppuraju, hailing from Coimbatore, said he had obtained his degree in law from the government law college in his native in 1990 and joined Tamil Nadu State Judicial Service in the entry level as a District Munsif-cum-Judicial Magistrate in 1995.

Ms. Valayapalayam, hailing from Perundurai in Erode district, had completed her law in Puducherry and joined judicial service in the same post along with him in 1995. They fell in love and tied the knot in 1996. Since then, they have sailed together both professionally and personally.

The couple got promoted to the cadres of sub judge, district judge and then principal district judge at the same time though they ended up being posted in different stations. Their elder daughter too had completed law recently from Sastra University in Thanjavur.

Other eight names that had been cleared for elevation were Kannammal Shanmugasundaram, Sathikumar Sukumara Kurup, Manjula Ramaraju Nalliah, G. Chandrasekharan, A.A. Nakkiran, Sivagnanam Veerasamy, Ilangovan Ganesan and Ananthi Subramanian.

CM requests PM to set up Siddha institute in T.N.

CM requests PM to set up Siddha institute in T.N.

25/09/2020

Special Correspondent CHENNAI

Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Thursday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting him to establish the proposed All-India Institute of Siddha in Tamil Nadu.

In his letter, a copy of which was released to the media, Mr. Palaniswami said he had directed the officials concerned to provide all details sought by the Centre. The State government had already briefed the Union Secretary concerned but a reply was awaited, it added.

Mr. Palaniswami said the land required for the institute, with good air, rail and road connectivity, had already been identified near Chennai. He requested Mr. Modi to establish the institute in Tamil Nadu, in the current financial year. “It will be apt to establish the pioneer institute in Tamil Nadu, which is where the Siddha system originated,” he said.

Stalin questions Prime Minister’s praise for T.N. over COVID-19 management

Stalin questions Prime Minister’s praise for T.N. over COVID-19 management

Modi could conduct a discrete assessment by Intelligence Bureau, says DMK chief

25/09/2020

M.K. Stalin

Special CorrespondentCHENNAI

DMK president M.K. Stalin on Thursday questioned the basis for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to praise Tamil Nadu’s efforts at combating COVID-19 and said that perhaps a discrete assessment by the Intelligence Bureau would bring out the ground reality.

In a statement issued here, he said Mr. Modi, who on Wednesday praised Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami for his handling of the pandemic, might get to know the truth about the State’s efforts and “the various scams in the procurement of medical equipment” if he conducted a discrete assessment by the Intelligence Bureau.

People’s welfare

“I hope the Prime Minister is really interested in the welfare of the people of Tamil Nadu. If that is the case, he should take a broad view of the issue, instead of looking at it through the prism of the BJP’s alliance with the AIADMK, and see the truth for what it is — the State government’s massive failure in handling the pandemic, the doldrums the State’s economy is in, the unemployment in the State, the dissatisfaction of the middle class with the AIADMK government, the State’s fiscal deficit and the maladministration in the government, among other issues,” Mr. Stalin said.

The Leader of the Opposition said he wondered what the Chief Minister had done that warranted a certificate of appreciation from Mr. Modi.

Listing statistics related to the pandemic and the deaths it had caused, Mr. Stalin said he wondered if the Chief Minister had given Mr. Modi the right information.

“Just like how the BJP government at the Centre is a ‘no-data’ government, the Tamil Nadu government is either a ‘no-data’ government or a government that hides the real numbers. Afraid of disclosing the real number of COVID-19 deaths, the State government is providing false data and is hiding the truth from the people,” he said.

Sasikala objects to disclosure of info

Sasikala objects to disclosure of info

Date of her release had been revealed

25/09/2020

Staff ReporterBengaluru

V.K. Sasikala, serving sentence in a corruption case in the Parappana Agrahara Central Prison here, has written to the Chief Superintendent of the prison objecting to the prison authorities disclosing information about her release date and other information in response to Right to Information (RTI) application filed by third parties.

A copy of the letter available with The Hindu quotes an earlier precedent where Tihar Jail authorities had turned down an RTI application regarding details of undertrials on the ground of privacy, that was later upheld by the Central Information Commission.

Recently, prison authorities had revealed that the four-year sentence of Sasikala would come to an end by February 2021, and she would be released from prison on payment of ₹10 crore fine stipulated by the court. The date of her release has attained significance in the light of the coming Tamil Nadu Assembly polls.

ACB probe

Meanwhile, the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) is continuing its probe pertaining to allegations of corruption over providing special facilities to Sasikala and her relative in the prison. A copy of the letter ACB has written to the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms, the competent authority which has to permit the ACB to probe corruption allegations against an officer, on June 28, 2019, is available with The Hindu.

IPS officer D. Roopa, who was DIG (Prisons) then, had in 2017 alleged that Sasikala had been given special facilities in the prison and also alleged ₹2 crore exchanging hands for the same, triggering a series of actions by the Karnataka government. A committee led by retired IAS officer Vinay Kumar probed alleged irregularities at the prison, submitted its findings and recommended ACB probe. Based on directions from the State government, the ACB registered a case against the officer and the probe is still under way.

There were allegations that CCTV footage showed Sasikala returning to jail from outside in civil clothes carrying shopping bags.