Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu of Chennai, has become the second youngest grandmaster in the history of Chess! Child prodigies in this era are many, but even Anand is surprised at how young the game has gotten. By reaching the final round of the Gredine Open in Italy, this little boy from Padi has attracted the limelight of global media by achieving the glorious feat. “He has all the elements to make it all the way,” opines the legendary Anand. Son of a bank branch manager, Praggnanandhaa was drawn to chess by watching his elder sister play. Spotting his interest, the chess loving family put him on to Grandmaster R B Ramesh. Ever since, Praggnanandhaa’s journey has been enthralling. “He is the real deal,” says Anand. “All he needs to do is dot the i’s and cross the t’s to become the complete package.” Even as the nation mounts more expectations on the young boy, Praggnanandhaa is having fun – he recently featured in a blindfolded contest in the city where he beat three opponents with considerable ease.
Superheroes take over Anna Arch…
To evangelise the importance of following traffic rules, three superheroes people are most fond of – Batman, Spiderman and Superman – took over the Anna Arch signal on the last Sunday of the month. Batman ensured vehicles stopped behind the stop line at the signal; spiderman led the chain of pedestrians along the zebra crossing while Superman was busy catching the erring commuters and brought them to fold. “It was all done in a humorous and lively way,” says M Radhakrishnan, the co-founder of the trust, Thozhan, which ran the traffic awareness campaign. Spiderman also brought small kids to the fore and persuaded them to take road safety pledges. When people thronged the superheroes for selfies, they obliged only after they promised to wear helmet and seat-belts every time they rode two-wheelers or drove cars. “In 2012, five college students, tragically died on the OMR. The incident impacted us severely and we decided to take up the cause of road safety. We decided to run campaigns throughout the year to spread awareness on road safety. We try to create a small change in people’s mind during the sixty to ninety seconds they wait at traffic signals,” Radhakrishnan passionately elucidates.
2015 floods – a man-made disaster says CAG
In 2015, 421 people, paid the price of reckless governance with their lives – that is what the CAG has confirmed! After mounting pressure, the TN government tabled in the assembly, a report of the CAG that was released in 2016. Unlike the opinion of the then Chief Minister, J Jayalalithaa, who citied unprecedented rains as cause, the audit body has firmly held the State government accountable for the havoc. Release of water from the Chembarambakkam reservoir beyond acceptable measure by the water resources department was found to breach the norms laid out by the Central Water Commission – instead of maintaining discharge at 12,000 cusecs for another six hours, the water resource department released 29,000 cusecs for over 21 hours. The TN government failed to build reservoirs, carry out dam safety measures, revise Chembarambakkam’s compendium of rules and regulations or desilt the Adyar River. The report stated that unless the State government mitigates the contributing factors another such disaster cannot be ruled out!
Blue Dart hub at Chennai airport
Continuing its investment in infrastructure, Blue Dart has set up a 4912-square metre, state-of-the-art hub at the Chennai airport to facilitate faster delivery of cargo. Housing X-ray machines, equipment and manpower for security screening, the hub will cater to the line maintenance of Bluedart’s aircraft fleet and heavy airframe checks. Blue Dart boasts of six B757-200 freighters with a capacity of 500 tonnes. Located at the Blue Dart Aviation Terminal, Gate six of the city’s old international airport at Meenambakkam, the hub also harbours the headquarters of Blue Dart Aviation.
