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Indian Express Nearly 100 km southeast of Pune, tucked away in an 120-acre plot in Baramati, is Maratha strongman Sharad Pawar’s dream city—Vidyanagari. But it’s a dream that’s fast turning into a nightmare, at least for the 11,000 students in the Vidya Pratishthan’s group of 11 institutions. Reason: a severe faculty crunch, especially in the two showpiece centres—Institute of Information Technology and School of Biotechnology.

It’s a crisis that has the Union Agriculture Minister’s own son-in-law wringing his hands. ‘‘Even Sharad Pawar’s name doesn’t bring in the faculty,’’ admits Sadanand Sule, board member of the Vidya Pratishthan’s Institute of Information Technology (VIIT).

The solution, VIIT’s governing council chairman Sharad Kulkarni hopes, lies in a new formula to attract teachers: stay in Pune, teach at VIIT. ‘‘We have suggested that people can come and stay here for three days and spend the rest of their time in Pune. We will arrange for everything, including transportation,’’ he says.

Indian Express Can I have a child who looks like my husband. He/she need not be fair. The child can be dark, but he/she should be tall. Is it possible to get such a sperm that will match my expectations…?

If you think this is an unusual query, it’s not. Fertility centres in the city often have people coming up with such a request. What’s more, they are finding it hard to match these expectations of infertile couples. The reason: Shortage of sperm donors.

‘‘Nearly 10-15 per cent of Indian couples face infertility, and in most cases the cause is the husband’s inadequate sperm count. There are two options available: adoption or donor insemination,’’ says Dr Padmanabh Thakar.

The focus, doctors say, continues to be on motivating donors, so that one day, they can have enough samples to provide options to the recipient couple to choose the characteristics they want for their baby.

Indian Express Anyone passing by Yerawada Jail on Sunday would have heard the sounds of laughter floating across the high walls. To commemorate World Laughter Day, the jail staff had organised a laughter club session on the prison grounds, where inmates could laugh away their worries. It has been almost a year that humour became an integral part of life within the prison due to a laughter club.

The idea was mooted by Chaitanya Hasya Yog Mandal, the city’s first laughter club, based in Sarasbaug. When Vitthal Kate, founder president of the club, approached the jail authorities, they eagerly accepted the concept and gave permission to conduct laughter exercises within the prison.
The effect of the club on the prisoners has surprised both the jail authorities and members of the mandal. ‘‘Life in the jail is oppressive and a laughter club and yoga have helped improve the spiritual health of prisoners,’’ says Kate.

Indian Express The Pune rural police arrested 12 people involved in running an illegal dance bar in Shirur on Saturday. The arrested include 10 dance bar girls and two others — Nana Shinde and Nitin Namdev — who provided them shelter and had married two of the girls.

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Indian Express  Professional rivalry took an ugly turn when a pathologist hired four goons to kill a rival pathologist and shut down his clinic. The police set a trap and the five were arrested. They have now been remanded to police custody till Tuesday.
Assistant police inspector S G Gadhve of Pimpri police station said that Dr Vijay Shridhar (28), a pathologist practising in Pimpri, lodged a complaint against Dr Sadanand Rasal, who has his pathology clinic next door. According to Dr Shridhar, Dr Rasal and his employees were spreading rumours about Dr Shridhar’s pathology lab from the last two months.