Kochi to have ICAI’s centre of excellence

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) intends to set up a centre of excellence here. The centre will have facilities matching international standards, says Ved Jain, president of the organisation. The Kochi centre will be the third in the country. Jaipur and Bangalore have one each. Mr. Jain says the State government will make available the land required. He was inaugurating a summit organised by the Committee of Chartered Accountants of India jointly with the Centre for Taxation Studies of the State government on Saturday.

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Elaborate arrangements have been made for the Mandalapuja at Lord Ayyappa Temple at Sabarimala on Friday. There was heavy rush of pilgrims at the temple on Wednesday. The Police, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Rapid Action Force and State commandos have been deployed in strength at Sabarimala and the surrounding areas. Darshan: The ceremonial procession carrying the ‘Thanka Anki,’ sacred golden attire of 420 sovereigns offered to the Sabarimala deity by the King of erstwhile Travancore, Chitira Tirunal Ramavarma, will reach Pampa by 12.30 p.m. on Thursday. The idol will be kept for ‘darshan’ at Pampa Ganapathy Temple till 3 p.m. and later taken to the Sannidhanam by Ayyappa Seva Sanghom volunteers. The ‘Deeparadhana’ will be held with the deity adorned with the Anki. The ‘mandalapuja’ will be held at 12.30 p.m. on Friday. The temple will close after ‘Athazhapuja,’ on Friday. It will reopen on December 30 for the Makaravilakku festival. The Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) has made necessary arrangements to increase the buffer stock of ‘aravana’ and ‘appam’ to 10 lakh cans of 250 ml by December 30.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday criticised the Left parties for withdrawing support to the United Progressive Alliance government over the Indo-U.S. nuclear agreement. Addressing a huge rally organised by the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee on the occasion of its State conference at the Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium here, Ms. Gandhi accused the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in Kerala of frittering away the liberal financial assistance extended by the UPA government on account of lack of coordination and unity among its constituents. “We have been accused of going against the country. There is no question of the Congress compromising the nation’s security, integrity and independent foreign policy. The party leaders gave their lives for the country. They were martyred for the integrity and security of the country. No one need teach us about patriotism,” she said.

Curtain rose on the five-day Inter-University South Zone Youth Festival hosted by the Calicut University on its campus here on Wednesday. A dozen-odd eminent personalities, including orator-critic Sukumar Azhikode and eight maestros of various art forms, lit the inaugural lamp to mark the beginning of event being hosted by the university for the third time in four decades. Over 1,500 students from various universities in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry are attending the festival. They will display their talents in 27 events in such categories as painting, theatre, dance, music, literature and quiz.

The Communist Party of India has termed ‘grossly inadequate’ the Rs.20,000-crore financial package announced by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to bail the economy out from the current meltdown. Briefing reporters on Sunday about the second day’s deliberations at the meeting of the CPI national council, now in progress here, party national secretary D. Raja said the package would not benefit the common man as it was clearly intended only for the rich and the business class. The package, however, was significant in that it was an admission by the government that the global economic crisis had indeed affected the real economy of the country, he said. Mr. Raja said the package would be one of the major issues that the Left parties would confront the government with. “It will have to come clean with all the details,” he said in reply to a question whether the Left would seek a White Paper from the government about the magnitude of the crisis and its impact on the economy. Describing the efforts of the UPA government to deal with the economic crisis ‘pro-rich’, he said that with the probability of a prolonged recession, the government should have addressed critical issues of employment generation and restoration of subsidies to the poor if it was sincere about reviving the economy.