Chennai Apr 25 PTI Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK president M K Stalin on Monday launched a scathing attack on Governor RN Ravi over the anti-NEET Bill saying the State was not asking for his approval for the Bill but to send it for Presidential assent like a postman The Governor does not have the authority to grant his approval to the Bill adopted in the State Assembly twice during the DMK rule seeking exemption from the ambit of the National Entrance-cum-Eligibility Test NEET for Tamil Nadu he said Addressing a public meeting here organised by the Dravidar Kazhagam DK Stalin recalled his governments efforts to do away with NEET including pressing the issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi We are not asking the Governor for approval for the bill The Governor does not have the authority to do so What we ask is send the Bill to the President he said Quoting DK chief K Veeramani Stalin said the Governor should do the job of a postman by referring the Bill to the President and that his refusal to to do even the postal departments job doesnt befit the Governors post He questioned how a nominated governor can return a Bill or prevent it and wondered if he was bigger than people Do you think you are running a massive empire he asked He wondered whether Governors poked their nose in BJP-ruled States and asked if the States would remain quiet if they did He further alleged that NEET was an attempt to confine medical education to a few and that it was a modern knowledge untouchability against which the DMK will fight tooth and nail PTI SA NVG NVG

Chennai Apr 25 PTI The Madras High Court on Monday refused to restrain film producer K E Gnanavelraja of Studio Green Films from releasing three of his films before settling the pending fees that are allegedly due to actor D Sivakarthikeyan Justice M Sundar who took up the plea appointed an arbitrator to settle the issue and directed Sivakarthikeyan to approach the authority According to the actor Gnanavelraja did not pay the remuneration of Rs 15 crore in full for having acted in Mr Local a Tamil feature film produced by him in 2018-19 and also did not remit the Tax Deducted at Source TDS to the Income Tax department His prayer to the court urging it to restrain the producer from making any further investments in the latters ongoing projects titled Rebel Chiyan 61 and Pathu Thala and also to prevent him from transferring any rights with respect to the three movies either to film distributors for theatrical release or to Over-the-Top OTT platforms was not granted PTI COR HDA

Chennai Apr 25 PTI The Madras High Court on Monday granted bail to Gayathri Raghuram president of the Art and Cultural Wing of the Tamil Nadu unit of the BJP and two others who apprehended arrest in connection with a case registered against them by the Koyambedu police here in connection with a scuffle Justice G Jayachandran granted the relief to Raghuram also an actress and the others subject to the condition that they should appear before the investigating officer in the case daily for 30 days The charge against her and others was that they had gotten into a scuffle with the VCK party men when the latters party leader garlanded the statue of Dr B R Ambedkar at Koyambedu on April 14 as part of Ambedkars birth anniversary celebrations PTI CORR SA SA

Chennai Apr 20 PTI U Foods a Hong Kong-based fast-moving consumer goods major was strengthening its footprint in south India after focusing on the north and western markets of the country a top official of the company said here on Wednesday An exclusive branding and sales team has been set up for the expansion plan and the company has earmarked Rs 3 crore in the first phase for this purpose said head of U Foods India Pvt Ltd marketing and sales Pradesh Lenka Indian confectionery market is valued at Rs 14000 crore as per a study in 2022 and India was the worlds fastest growing markets Our products are being retailed in a phased manner Starting from north and west we are now targeting south he told reporters The official and top executives including chief operating officer Adwait Pradhan were here to unveil their popular brand Yoli Yola Yoli Yola soft candies have been priced from Re 1 to Rs 300 while Lollipop range from Rs five to Rs 120 a stick Yoli Yola chocolate balls have been priced from Rs 10 to Rs 75 and cup jellies at Rs five to Rs 300 he said Pradhan said the products were manufactured at its facility in Kundli Haryana for which Rs 100 crore has been invested Our plant have the relevant ISO certifications and follow stringent quality parameters We have a well-equipped research and development laboratory where we constantly innovate he said We have developed a robust distribution network to retail our multiple products to Indian consumers he said According to Lenka the companys products were being retailed in a phased manner Our initial response in this southern market bolstered our confidence and hope to expand and consolidate in South he said We have built a strong distribution network across India and Yoli Yola is visible across 42000 outlets to begin withwe have invested approximately Rs 3 crore in the first phase as our promotional budget he said The company was planning to add more products such as noodles and syrup-based products in the future he said PTI VIJ NVG NVG

Chennai Apr 20 PTI Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras IIT-M were working with the National Health Mission of Tamil Nadu to improve health of newborns as health workers were facing a major challenge at primary health centres PHCs in rural areas of the State A project report SmartNRP neonatal resuscitation programme was released by the National Health Mission Tamil Nadu director Darez Ahamed recently to reduce the maternal mortality rate in the presence IIT-Madras director-professor V Kamakoti among others A team at the IIT-Madras Centre of Excellence on virtual reality identified skill training of the health workers as the major challenge the country was facing particularly at the PHCs Using virtual reality artificial intelligencemachine learning the SmartNRP tool will be used for training the workers at PHCs in Tamil Nadu under the National Health Mission This will be scaled subsequently to other States where NMR is very high IIT-Madras said in a press release If you look at infant mortality the biggest contributor is the neonatal mortality rate NMR which is death within 28 days of birth Around 40 babies are lost per every 1000 births We want to bring this down to single digit and all these initiatives are towards this direction Ahamed said IIT-Madras should also develop tools to train healthcare workers on various other areas such as treating accident victimsthere are numerous other areas that virtual reality can be utilised he said Kamakoti said I am sure virtual reality will make impact not only on healthcare verticals but in other areas as well There are a lot of very interesting ideas from IIT-Madras research scholars and students The projects were supported by corporate social responsibility initiatives of INdiaIdeascomBillDesk This support was crucial in developing the healthcare projects the release said PTI VIJ NVG NVG