Kammas World

Hyderabad: Global private equity firm 3i Group may invest Rs 800 -1,000 crore for a 15-26 percent stake in Krishnapatnam Port, the developer and operator of an all-weather, deep-water port in Andhra Pradesh. It is considered the biggest investment by a foreign private equity firm in India’s port sector. The UK-based firm has filed for approval with the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), the agency that clears overseas investments into India, said Chinta Visweswar Rao , Chairman of Hyderabad-based CVR Group, which controls Krishnapatnam Port. The company has not yet signed an agreement with 3i Group, though the usual practice of firms is to tie up partnerships with foreign investors before seeking FIPB approval. "We preferred to sign the agreement only after the foreign investor obtained clearance from FIPB," Rao said. Krishnapatnam Port Co. was formed by CVR Group to develop and operate a Rs10,000 crore, 100 million tonnes (mt) a year capacity port on the cou...

Let a million roses bloom is the credo of Sai Ramakrishna Karuturi , who became the worlds largest producer of roses last year. His has been a meteoric rise through smart acquisitions and timely forays. The journey has been rosy for the most part, and has come despite stiff competition from established players worldwide. Karuturi, a mechanical engineer with MBA from the US, founded the company in 1995 as a 100% export-oriented unit in Bangalore. “There was more value in this business than the cable business I started off with, he says. In 1999, he set up an internet auction portal by the name Rose Bazaar.com to derive benefits of weeding out intermediaries through the use of the Internet. The same year, he set up a second production facility for roses near Bangalore taking the total size of his rose farms to 10 hectares. Roses for Valentines Day in 1998 earned him his first million. There was an order to supply 22 tons of roses to Europe, and the Air France flight that was to ship it...

A CHARITY that started life in the city is set to go global, helping thousands of children languishing in the slums of India. Peterborough was the birthplace of HEAL – Health and Education for All . Now its founder Dr Koneru Prasad , who started by donating his ancestral home in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, to house orphaned children, will be casting his net across the Atlantic and further afield. In the coming months, HEAL American will take shape. Also on the horizon are branches in Canada and, eventually, every state in India. Next month a glitzy event in Peterborough is set to raise cash that will be used to provide shelter, education and health care for the poorest of children in India. And as soon as it is over, the kindhearted GP at the Westwood Clinic in Wicken Way, Westwood, Peterborough, will be off to Atlanta to set up a branch of HEAL, the organisation he founded in 1992. And he is also recruiting for Cycle 2010, after the resounding success of Cycle India 2008, where 30 cycli...

Thanks to the world-wide boom in commodity prices, mining and metals majors are scouting for hot investments, be it in Africa, India, Indonesia or China. RAK Minerals and Metals Investment (RMMI), established under the Ras Al Khaimah Investment Authority (RAKIA), is no exception. Earlier this year RMMI made two prized acquisitions one at Congo where it has acquired a copper mine and the other a mining firm in Armenia. Not to speak of the much wider understanding RAKIA has established with South Sumatra province of Indonesia where RAKIA entered into an MoU that covers the entire mining-to-export chain of coal industry that transcends beyond the industry verticals and looks at developing and supporting other possible industries. The Province of South Sumatra, which holds the largest resources of coal in Indonesia, aims to capitalise its strategic location and get the full benefits from its natural resources and agriculture-based economy to induce social and economic growth in the region ...

PVP Ventures Ltd is set for major investments in the power sector with the proposed merger of Malaxmi Energy Ventures with itself. According to information provided by the Company to the stock exchanges, the PVP Ventures' board will consider and accept the valuation report for the merger by PricewaterhouseCoopers Pvt. Ltd. Mr Prasad V Potluri, Chairman and Managing Director, PVP Group , told that with the merger, PVP Ventures will emerge a large player in the independent power projects arena. For PVP Ventures, power project development and generation will emerge as a major investment area other than real estate development where it has large projects. Malaxmi Energy has a significant stake in two major power projects - 50 per cent in Navabharat Power Pvt. Ltd and 26 per cent in Simhapuri Energy Pvt. Ltd - which are in advanced stages of implementation with confirmed coal linkages. With the merger of Malaxmi Energy with PVP Ventures, the power projects would come under a subsidiar...

CHENNAI: The Raja-Lakshmi award for the year 2008 will be presented to table tennis player Achanta Sharath Kamal and chess player Koneru Humpy on November 19 in the city, a release from the Sri Raja-Lakshmi Foundation said. The award carries prize money of Rs. 1 lakh, a citation and a memento. The awardees will also receive the Dr. K.V. Rao and Dr. Jyoti Rao award of $2,000 in association with the Telugu Fine Arts Society, New Jersey.

Gaziantep (Turkey) : International Master Dronavalli Harika lived up to her top billing by annexing the World Junior Girls Championship crown with one round to spare after beating Narmin Kazimova of Azerbaijan in the 12th and penultimate round. Harika took her tally to an unassailable 10 points out of a possible 12 and steered a full point clear of Mariya Muzychuk of Ukraine who was held to a draw by Anastasia Bodnaruk of Russia. Harika became the second Indian girl ever to become the Junior World champion after Koneru Humpy won it in 2001. Harika had won the 2006 World under-18 girls title and was unlucky to miss out of this title last year when she lost the last three rounds after being in lead.

Dronavalli Harika checkmated Bulgaria’s Adriana Nikolova to maintain her half-point lead after the girls’ eighth round in the World junior chess championship at Gaziantep, Turkey, on Sunday. The top seeded Andhra girl now has seven points and plays teammate Soumya Swaminathan in the ninth round as Indian girls kept alive hopes of bringing home more than one medal.

Cancer the focus as work of Jasti Rao brings grants and attention to Peoria medical school PEORIA — When Dr. Donald Rager was tapped in December 1999 to be the interim dean at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria, the medical school presented him with a list of six problems they wanted the new dean to tackle. High on the list was the level of medical research and experiments conducted by the college. Or rather, the lack thereof. "The research efforts in Peoria were anemic," said Rager, a longtime Peoria doctor specializing in internal medicine, "and we didn't have a plan for the development of a robust research program. That was very high on the list of problems." Shortly after his hiring, Rager set about creating an advisory committee, comprised of the college's senior administrators and department heads, to address the school's weak research endeavors. Though presented with a difficult task, it did not take long before the committe...

JERSEY CITY, N.J. & NEW YORK: Gullapalli and Associates, LLC (G&A), an educational firm specializing in the development of collaborative educational strategies and Stream57, a leading provider of fully customizable webcasting and rich media solutions, today announced a joint collaboration to identify, develop and integrate unique new media learning formats and methodologies into comprehensive continuing medical education strategies aimed at healthcare providers. Today's healthcare providers need to keep abreast of ever-advancing medical knowledge, skills and techniques requiring the rapid dissemination and adoption of evidence based medicine. The collaborative framework between these two organizations will deliver new and exciting ways of providing continuing medical education that leverage diverse learning styles and innovative formats and channels to reach and impact the healthcare learner. Combining Stream57's cutting-edge webcasting and rich media capabilities with ...

New Delhi 5, August: The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has decided to confer the prestigious Arjuna award for Dronavalli Harika (Chess).

EMPIRE STATE GAMES - BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — Anjuli Cherukuri of Salisbury Center brought home a pair of bronze medals from the open women’s track and field competition at New York’s 31st Empire State Summer Games which concluded Sunday in and around Binghamton. Cherukuri took third place Friday in the javelin competition with a throw of 32.87 meters then matched that finish with her showing in Saturday’s pole vault. Cherukuri cleared the bar at 3.04 meters, the same height at silver medalist Carol Melice of Ithaca but used more attempts.