The Hindu : Opinion / News Analysis : Corrections and Clarifications

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Friday, Jun 08, 2007
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Opinion - News Analysis

Corrections and Clarifications

In a report "Window on Brazil — Myth and reality of ethanol and biofuels" (Op-Ed, June 2, 2007), readers wondered whether the claim attributed to Petrobras, Brazil's national oil company, to have "developed a technique of squeezing 40,000 litres of biodiesel from one tonne of castor beans" was right. It amounts to producing 40 litres, or approximately 50 kilograms of oil from one kilogram of beans. Siddharth Varadarajan says that according to an engineer at CENPES, the research facility run by Petrobras, it appears the "one tonne castor to 40,000 litres biodiesel" was the result of an incorrect translation. Dr. Carlos Khalil spoke in Portuguese and the interpretation was done by a Brazilian official unfamiliar with the technology. Dr. Khalil has confirmed that the correct factual position is as follows: "At the Guamare (Rio Grande do Norte) Industrial Plant, in one day 40,000 litres of biodiesel is produced. The castor beans to biodiesel conversion is 590 litres of biodiesel per seed tonne". In his conversation, the "one is to 40,000" referred to output per day rather than output per tonne of castor as reported.

In a piece "A strange decision" (Editorial, June 7, 2007), the name of the Uttar Pradesh Governor should have been T.V. Rajeswar, and not T.M. Rajeswar as was published.

A sentence in a report "Sundara Rajan is Indian Bank CMD" ("Business" page, June 7, 2007) was: "He started his carrier as Probationary Officer in 1972 in Union Bank of India ... ." It should have been "career".

In a report "India score easy wins over Scotland, Malaysia", on the 17th Commonwealth table tennis championships ("Sport", May 31, 2007), it was incorrectly mentioned that Md. Shakirin Ibrahim who lost to Subajit Saha, is from Bangladesh. He is from Malaysia. The error was corrected in later editions.

The report also stated that Saha went on to win in four straight games, while the results column showed him to have won 3-1. Saha won in four games overall after losing the first, and not in straight games.

In a PTI report "Pankaj Advani bows out" ("Sport", May 31, 2007), on the Asian billiards championships in Doha, it was stated that Rupesh Shah had lost in the last four stage. It was an error. He lost in the last eight stage.

The caption of a standalone photograph "Sweet proposition" (Chennai city, June 7, 2007, page 5) was: "Sweet and Swinging: Not the hanging gardens of Babylon, but colourful cotton candy awaiting crowds on the Martina beach." A number of readers point out that it should have been the Marina beach.

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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