ndia today expressed its keenness to invest in development of war-torn Sri Lanka in a big way. It has also promised to rope in private players to develop ports, exploration of oil and gas and other sectors.

In his official meetings in Colombo, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma, now on a visit to Sri Lanka, reaffirmed India's commitment to building infrastructure and institutions in the island nation.
Sharma said both countries reviewed the bilateral ties with reference to rehabilitation and resettlement of
displaced Tamil civilians.

India has been involved in a number of developmental projects in Sri Lanka as part of its efforts to rebuild the
country after the end of the civil war in 2009. 
The country is also building nearly 50,000 houses for displaced civilians in
Tamil-dominated Northern Province.infrast

The Tamilnadu Chief Minister Ms.J.Jayalalithaa has urged the Centre to immediately send back nine Srilankan Airforce Personnel who are undergoing training in Chennai.

In a statement released today, the Chief Minister has condemned the Centre for allowing the Lankan Airforce Personnel to undergo nine months training at the Tambaram Airforce Station.
Referring to the earlier steps taken by her Government on the Srilankan issue, the Chief Minister said that training in India was directly against the cause of the Tamils living there and reiterated that the Airforce personnel should be sent back to their Country immediately.

Tamil Nadu government has proposed to set up solar powered parks to generate 1000 mw in the next five years. The Parks will be set up with public-private participation.

Industries minister P Thangamani told the state assembly that 1000 crore rupees will be invested initally in southern parts of the state in over 500 acres to produce 100 mw. He recalled that Chief Minister Jayalalithaa had mentioned in her 'vision 2023' document the intention to produce 11000 mw of solar power in the next 11 years.

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) is being implemented very successfully in Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu. The district administration focused attention on the rural areas and started an immense IEC awareness campaign. The district got the National Award for Effective Initiative under MGNREGS for the year 2010-11. The scheme is being implemented in all the 228 village panchayats in the district. Around two lakh twenty-five thousand people belongs to one lakh fifty seven thousand households were provided job cards under this scheme. Six days of work is being providing to the workers in a week. The daily wage is fixed as Rs. 119. In the 2011-12 financial year 41 lakh mandays were generated and Rs. 46.78 crore were spent as wages under this scheme. In the present financial year 2012-13, a budget allocation of 65 crore rupees was earmarked for this scheme. Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) scheme has come to the rescue of many tribal habitations in Coimbatore district in Tamil Nadu by improving their connectivity with the laying of new earthen roads. The tribal habitations in Karamadai, Anamalai and Periyanackanplalayam in Thondamuthur block in the district are benefitted by the scheme with the new road connectivity by interlinking the various hamlets in this hilly area. The road construction was merely not possible in this hilly track under any scheme because of the huge capital outlay. But the MGNREGS scheme with the local participation converts the impossible task to a possible one. A classical example of improvement in road transport and connectivity can be seen in the Anamalai block area. Here things are undergone a transformation with people living in this area having laid these link roads under this scheme and thereby making these hamlets in this remote area accessible to vehicular transport. Almost all the tribal people in the area were engaged for work and their effort to clear huge rocks from the slippery foot paths for the construction of link roads is indeed worth mentioning. Before laying these roads tribal people in the area had to carry their agricultural products as head loads and walk kilometers to find the market. The connectivity had saved a lot of distance and time to the tribal people. Now they are getting better maternal and child health care and public distribution system is available in their door steps. Thus MGNREGS had improved the living condition of the tribal people in the hilly area and at the same time it gives work and wages to them.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha has urged the Centre to postpone the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission’s (CERC){u can visit the website for further information} proposal to tighten the Grid frequency, on the plea that it will affect the state, already facing severe transmission congestion problems.

In a letter to the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, the Chief Minister said, changes in the operating grid frequency bandwidth at a time when the state is facing a huge power shortage situation, is totally unwarranted. She said, the proposal of the Electricity Regulatory Commission may result in increasing the duration of the enforced load shedding in the state which would affect agricultural and economic growth in the state.

Ms. Jayalalitha sought the Prime Minister’s intervention to
postpone the proposal for further tightening the frequency bandwidth to a future period and said, this could be taken up when the demand-supply situation and inter-state connectivity improves.

The Cargo Traffic at major ports of the country has registered growth despite slow down in the global economy. The 12 major ports traffic during April to February in 2011-12 was over 510 million tones, which is 1.59 per cent more than the same period last year.  He said during this period Ennore Port of Tamilnadu recorded highest growth in traffic at 47 percent and it was followed by Cochin. Mr. Vasan said, amongst the major Ports, Kandla Port of Gujarat handled the maximum cargo of over 75 million tones

A mild tremor was felt in Thuraiyur near Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu today morning. No major damage reported to houses or other buildings. However, official sources said some old buildings developed cracks due to the tremor . People in that area felt the tremor and local administration inspected the area to assess the situation.