The Hindu : Opinion / News Analysis : Corrections and clarifications

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 06, 2006

Opinion

Opinion - News Analysis

Corrections and clarifications

A few readers, academicians, have objected to the Oscar Wilde quote at the end of the "Know Your English" column ("Book Review" page, September 5, 2006), a day when Teacher's Day was celebrated. The quote was: "Everyone who is incapable of learning has taken to teaching. — Oscar Wilde." Quoting their decades of experience, they felt it was most inappropriate and could have been used on a different day.

In "Kalam asks Indian Bank to set higher growth targets" ("Business" page, September 5, 2006), the sentence was: "President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam on Friday called upon Indian Bank to set higher targets for the next two decades for making larger contribution in the national development tasks." It was a reporting error. It should have been "on Monday".

A reader points out that the expansion of IRDA in "A new era in non-life insurance" (Editorial, September 4, 2006) was incorrect. It should have been the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority, and not the Insurance Regulatory Authority of India, as was published.

The sentence in "Mahanadi floods areas downstream" (September 2, 2006) was: "The situation is likely to improve in a couple of days in the absence of high tide in the sea and no rain across the State [Orissa]." A reader from Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, said it was factually incorrect as there is never a situation where high tide is absent in the sea. High and low tides are a daily phenomena in the sea, and at the Orissa coast it is diurnal tide too. "Tides will always be there, only the maximum and minimum height would vary as per latitude, full and New moons, etc." S.P. Sharma, Technical Officer, National Institute of Oceanography, Dona Paula, Goa, clarifies: "Along the Indian coast, the tides are semi-diurnal, i.e., high tide and low tide occur twice daily. Therefore, the reader is correct in her statement that `there is never a situation where high tide is absent in the sea'. It may be noted that during the period of spring tide, the water level is the highest. Even the low tide level will be higher than the normal water level. Hence the removal of flood water (arising from excess rain) will be slower."

It is the policy of The Hindu to correct significant errors as soon as possible. Please specify the edition (place of publication), date and page.

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