The Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation (TTDC) will promote spice tourism at Thadiyankudisai in the Kodaikanal block of Dindigul district. The campaign will be implemented with a financial support of Rs.70 lakh extended by the Union Tourism Ministry and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Scenic surroundings

Karaikudi: Non-ferrous metals major Vedanta Resources is in talks with three steel companies from Japan, Europe and India to be its partner for its proposed entry into steelmaking. The London-based Vedanta's chairperson Anil Agarwal said the group is even open to offering a majority stake in the venture to the new partner who would be bringing in the technology for making steel. The steel venture would mark Vedanta's foray into ferrous metals.

AIADMK general secretary Jayalalithaa on Monday urged Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi to take steps to prevent the Andhra Pradesh government from going ahead with its plans to construct 10 checkdams across the Ponnaiyaru. In a statement here Ms Jayalalithaa said the Ponnaiyaru was the source of drinking water for Vellore, Kancheepuram, Thiruvallur and Thiruvannamalai districts and construction of check dams would deprive these districts of their drinking water supply. The Ponnaiyaru originates in Srisailam in Andhra Pradesh and confluences with the Palar in Thiruvalam near Vellore.

RAMANATHAPURAM district will soon find its place among the districts in Tamil Nadu, which generate power through windmills. Experts from Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) have conducted a survey along the coast of Rameswaram and Dhanuskodi during the past two years. They have installed wind monitors in three locations to calculate the velocity of wind. Following the assessment of the velocity of the winds along the coastal areas, the TNEB has decided to erect some windmill towers between Rameswaram and Dhanuskodi for power generation.

A Sin hala scholar's remark that Mahendra, son of Emperor Asoka, reached the island nation by land from South India has further substantiated the existence of Ram Sethu, the controversial structure in the Indian Ocean.

The Union health ministry will set up a vaccine manufacturing unit with World Health Organisation's licence and a medical park at Chengalpattu, 30 km from Chennai, at an investment of Rs 300 crore to Rs 500 crore. Speaking to reporters in Chennai on Saturday, Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss said the upcoming vaccine unit and the medical park, along with a medicity and research and development (R&D) centre, would centralise the vaccine production in the country.

Continuous ambient air quality monitoring systems are to be installed at two locations in the city in the first week of next month. Officials of the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) said the equipment, each costing around Rs.70 lakh, would be installed at IIT-Madras, near the Velachery gate of the campus, and Metropolitan Transport Corporation depot in Alandur. The systems would be installed by the Central Pollution Control Board.

With a parliamentary panel finding misutilisation and diversion of tsunami relief funds, an empowered group of ministers (e-GOM) headed by union home minister Shivraj Patil has undertaken a review of the Rs 10,000 crore rehabilitation scheme. Since 2008-09 is the deadline for implementation of the rehabilitation scheme, the e-GoM issued a directive to the affected states and union territories that the work should be expedited to complete the task within the stipulated time.

THE RECENT move of the Tamil Nadu Forest Department to re-introduce largescale cultivation of eucalyptus trees in the state invites stiff resistance from environmentalists on the ground it would create ecological imbalance. Experts have always raised concern over the extensive cultivation of this species. "Monoculture of eucalyptus cannot be recommended," said Supraja Dharani, Tree Foundation. "If the intention of the forest department is to increase forest cover in the state, it should plant indigenous species of trees and maintain the bio-diversity of the region," she added.