June 22 (Reuters) – Riza Kutlu Isik, chief executive of Turkey’s Isiklar Holding — which has interests in construction, energy, foundry and shopping malls — tells Reuters on Tuesday: * Isiklar Holding plans to hold an initial public offering in April-May next year. (Reporting by Evrim Ballim)
Foundry Industry stages comeback in Gujarat
June 30, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Rajkot, June 30 (ANI): Foundry Industry in Gujarat has staged a comeback as new business with the revival in demand from engineering and automobile sectors.
Although, the demand from the export sectors is yet to pick up significantly, the domestic demand from engineering and automobile sectors is showing signs of recovery.
The engineering sector has witnessed a surge in demand of over 50 percent since March this year and the trend is estimated to continue during the rest of the year.
With the revival in demand from engineering and automobile sectors, foundry units across the country have increased their production capacities to 55-60 percent from around 30 to 40 percent in December last year.
Chhagan Bhai, owner of Antala Export, says that the demand for the foundry products has picked up in March-April.
“The export orders which we used to receive some time back, we are not receiving them now because of global recession. As far as the local demand is concerned it has picked up in March-April,” said Chhagan Bhai.
Meanwhile Bhavesh Patel, President, Rajkot Engineering Association said that the condition of the foundry units greatly improved in last 2-3 months.
“Foundry industry was greatly affected by the recession till about six months back. The units manufacturing automobile parts came to a near stand still but their condition has greatly improved in last 2-3 months and we hope the situation will greatly improve in the coming months,” said Patel.
The economic crisis has led to the closure of 500-700 foundry units. (ANI)
Even short-term exposure to pollutants can increase cancer risk
May 18, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Washington, May 18 (ANI): Exposure to environmental pollutants even for a short period can prompt genes to undergo reprogramming, and thereby increase an individual’s risk of developing cancer and other diseases, say Italian scientists.
University of Milan researchers have shown that inhaling certain environmental pollutants can damage DNA as early as three days.
“Recently, changes in gene programming due to a chemical transformation called methylation have been found in the blood and tissues of lung cancer patients,” said investigator Dr. Andrea Baccarelli, assistant professor of Applied Biotechnology at the University of Milan.
“We aimed at investigating whether exposure to particulate matter induced changes in DNA methylation in blood from healthy subjects who were exposed to high levels of particulate matter in a foundry facility,” Baccarelli added.
The researchers compared the blood samples of 63 healthy subjects who worked in a foundry near Milan, and found significant changes in four genes associated with tumour suppression.
“The changes were detectable after only three days of exposure to particulate matter, indicating that environmental factors need little time to cause gene reprogramming which is potentially associated with disease outcomes,” said Baccarelli.
“As several of the effects of particulate matter in foundries are similar to those found after exposure to ambient air pollution, our results open new hypotheses about how air pollutants modify human health.
“The changes in DNA methylation we observed are reversible and some of them are currently being used as targets of cancer drugs,” he added.
Baccarelli said that study results indicated that early interventions might be designed to reverse gene programming to normal levels, reducing the health risks of exposure.
The findings were presented at the 105th International Conference of the American Thoracic Society in San Diego. (ANI)