Tata Power to build India's first floating solar plant

MUMBAI: Tata Power on Tuesday said it will be building the country's first low-cost, high-efficiency floating solar plant in partnership with an Australian company which invented the technology.

Sunengy, the Australian company, and Tata Power will begin constructing a pilot plant that uses the Liquid Solar Array (LSA) technology from August this year, a press release issued here said.

LSA uses traditional concentrated photovoltaic technology but rather than mounting the cells on a frame, it is made to float on water, making it low-cost, cyclone-proof and less tedious as it does not involve any land acquisition, it added.

"It effectively turns a dam into a very large battery, offering free solar storage and opportunity for improved water resource management," the inventor of the technology and Sunengy's Executive Director aInd Chief Technology Officer, Phil Connor, said.

Tata Power's Executive Director, Banmali Agrawala, confirmed the tie-up for the "nascent technology" and said this is a part of the company's effort to invest in clean and eco-friendly technologies.

Rumors about Dr.Abdul Kalam's Death

NEW DELHI: Abdul Kalam, Abdul Kalam death, Abdul Kalam passed way and other similar key words were among the top 20 searches on Google Trends India on Tuesday after a false rumour that the former president had passed away.

Kalam was also one of the top Twitter trends, which made its way to other social networking services.

It was A P J Abdul Kalam's advisor, Dr Hafiz Saleh Muhammad Alladin, who died on Monday night at the age of 80. It seems that some people mistook the news for the former president's death.

Russia, China call for immediate ceasefire in Libya

BEIJING/MOSCOW: China and Russia have called for an immediate ceasefire in Libya expressing concern over civilian casualties in the military strikes by allied forces in areas controlled by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

"China noticed reports of civilian casualties from the multinational military action against Libya and is very concerned with this," Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said at a news briefing.

"We urge (the sides) to do everything to end the violence," Russia defence minister Anatoly Serdyukov told visiting US Defence Secretary Robert Gates after closed-door talks with him. He added that Moscow believed Libyan civilians had been killed in the Western air strikes.

Both the countries, along with India, Brazil, and South Africa, abstained from last week's UN Security Council vote approving international military involvement in Libya, which aims to protect civilians against Muammar Gaddafi's forces.

China is opposed to "abuse of force causing more civilian casualties".

According to reports from Libya at least 64 Libyans had been killed and 150 others wounded by the missiles and bombs fired by the foreign forces over the weekend.

The majority of Libya's civil airports and seaports were destroyed.

"The UN resolution on no-fly zone over Libya aimed to protect civilians. We oppose abuse of force causing more civilian casualties and more serious humanitarian disasters," said Jiang.

I-T dept issues Rs 616.53cr tax notice to Mahindra Satyam, freezes bank accounts

HYDERABAD: In a fresh twist to the Satyam scam, the Income Tax department on Tuesday froze the bank accounts of Mahindra Satyam after the latter failed to pay a tax of Rs 616.53 crore.

The department issued notice to Mahindra Satyam, the new brand identity of Satyam Computer Services Ltd, to pay Rs 616.53 crore in taxes, the company said in a stock exchange filing on Tuesday.

This demand for was raised on the basis of the income declared by the company during disgraced former chief Ramalinga Raju's time. The department refused to buy the line that Satyam had fictitious income and insisted it was real income.

Mahindra Satyam has now moved the Andhra Pradesh high court for a stay.

The company said the Central Board of Direct Taxes, under Section 119 of the Income Tax Act, 1961, rejected various petitions filed by the company seeking reliefs for reopening of past assessments for the Assessment Years 2003-04 to 2008-09; determining the actual income based on the findings of investigating agencies; and granting a stay on recovery proceedings for the said assessment years.

"Notice under Section 226(3) has been issued by the Additional Commissioner of Income Tax, Hyderabad, for recovery of Rs 616,53,92,660. The company filed a writ petition before the Hon'ble High Court of Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad, challenging the said impugned order and seeking stay of further proceedings," the company said in a statement.

Shares of Satyam were being quoted at Rs 66.45 on the BSE in early trade on Tuesday.