Kolkata, Nov. 14 : Former Union Minister and senior Trinamool Congress leader Ajit Panja died of cancer at a private hospital in Kolkata on Friday morning. He was 72 and is survived by his son and daughter.

Hospital sources said that Panja, who was admitted on October 26, breathed his last at 4.30 a. m.

The CESC has signed an MoU with SP Global Solutions (SPGS), a subsidiary of Singapore Power and a leading power utility for consultancy support.

Mr. Sanjiv Goenka, vice-chairman of CESC, after signing the agreement with Mr. Ong Boon Hwee, chief operating officer, Singapore Power and director of SP Global Solutions said, "At present, three of CESC's generating units rank among the top five units in India ........a recent analysis, carried out by Netherlands-based KEMA, who developed the System Average Interruption Duration Index, rated the power distribution system in Singapore as the most reliable in the world, which leads cities like Tokyo, Hong Kong, Seoul and Melbourne. It has the shortest power disruption in any city, at 1.14 minutes.”

Kolkata, Nov. 11 : Rita Rakshit, a middle-aged woman in Kolkata, has presented embroidery in an unconventional art form here.

Rita’s work depicts picture stories, amazingly like paintings on canvas through her special embellishment technique.

Embroidery is the art of decorating fabric or other materials with motifs stitched in strands of thread or yarn using a needle. Embroiders also use other materials such as metal strips, pearls, beads, quills, and sequins to decorate their work. Sewing machines are used to create machine embroidery.

Kolkata, Nov. 11:South African Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer has hailed US President-elect Barack Obama''s victory as an end of racism.

Gordimer, 84, is in India to deliver the second Nobel laureate lecture, an initiative of the Ministry of External Affairs to provide an opportunity for Indian academics and opinion makers to interact with Nobel laureates and also enable the Nobel laureates to be exposed to the emergence of a new India.

Members of the media community of Kolkata arranged a function on Sunday to honor cricketer Sourav Ganguly. Sourav has decided to take retirement from the international cricket after the conclusion of the India-Australia Test series, completing his 13-year cricket career.

Journalists across the city gathered here and honoured his contribution to the Indian cricket. They asked him to lead young cricketers from the state to glorify the name of West Bengal.

Sourav's wife Dona and daughter Sana were also present at the function.