News

Indian Express

Pune, which will become the first city in the country to go for a unique experiment involving private-public partnership to mitigate load-shedding using captive power plants (CPPs), will begin its three-day trial run from Friday. Sources told Pune Newsline that representatives of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL) that met on Tuesday decided that the trial run will go on for three days from Friday and a final decision on implementation of the project would be taken next week.

As reported in Pune Newsline, the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) on May 16 had given the final approval for the CII initiative to utilise power produced from the CPPs of 33 industrial units to mitigate load-shedding in Pune and directed MSEDCL to provide uninterrupted power. The city has a shortfall of 180-200 MW during peak hours.

Meanwhile, the CII and MSEDCL representatives are trying to fine-tune the operational issues in implementing the proposal. ‘‘This exercise has not been tried before. There are many issues that has to be cleared before the project starts,’’ CII’s Pradeep Bhargava, chief architect of the project, said.

Indian Express

The Pune police, which is facing an acute manpower crunch, is expected to get some reprieve in a year with 395 more men joining the force. The recruitment process for the posts — created by the State government last year — will begin on May 30.

Senior police officers said that except a few posts in the police band, the rest are for ranks of police constables and drivers. Of the 395 posts, 113 will be for candidates from the open category, 84 for scheduled tribes, 51 for other backward classes, 57 for de-notified tribes, 50 for nomad tribes and 30 for scheduled castes.

Applications for these posts will be accepted at the police commissioner’s office till May 28. The recruitment process is expected to continue for a couple of months, when candidates will have to appear for a written examination, an interview and physical fitness tests.

The Register

Security researchers are warning of an instant messenger worm that installs a maliciously constructed browser onto compromised Windows PCs. The self-propagating worm, dubbed yhoo32-explr, installs a so-called “Safety Browser”. Users who install the software are directed to a site that loads spyware onto their PCs.

Yhoo32-explr spreads by sending links to a site that installs the Safety Browser to all an infected surfers’ Yahoo! Messenger contacts. Safety Browser uses the IE icon in a bid to dupe unsuspecting users.

Once installed, Safety Browser hijacks the personal homepage in Internet Explorer and directs it towards the Safety Browser homepage (actually a site loaded with spyware). It also plays looped music that can’t be stopped. Safety Browser itself can’t be simply uninstalled. Compromised PCs will need a good hosing down. IM security firm FaceTime describes the malware as the first instance of malicious code installing a web browser onto infected PCs.

Indian Express

In another glaring example of an irregularity observed by the contractors of the hired buses of Pune Municipal Transport (PMT). Contractor Mayuresh Fleets has written a letter to PMT committee chairman Sudhir Kale alleging that contractor D C Gupta has cheated the transport body by awarding a sub-contract of 25 buses to them which was originally awarded to Gupta. They have also demanded that PMT cancels the contract with D C Gupta and file a police case against Gupta’s company.

Mayuresh Fleets has claimed that PMT had originally awarded a contract of running 25 buses on hiring basis to D C Gupta and Sons, Mumbai. However, since the contractor had no office, garage in Pune they sub-contracted the award to Mayuresh Fleets. Accordingly, a contract was also signed in 2004 between D C Gupta and Sons and Mayuresh Fleets. However, the PMT was kept ignorant on this regards by D C Gupta and Sons.

Indian Express

The results of the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) exams conducted in the month of February/March will be declared on June 5, the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education said in a press release. The results will be uploaded on the website for access by the students after 11 am. Students can collect their individual mark sheets from their respective colleges the same day. Details about the website and other information will be provided later.

While the board has been toying with the idea of abolishing the practice of publishing the merit list, keeping in mind the pattern adopted by the CBSE and other state boards, a decision in this matter is under consideration. As for this year, the board will publish the merit list. The board’s decision seems to have been influenced by the recent demands, calling for the abolishing the merit list by educational experts, including parents and students.

Indian Express

Despite the sound and the fury outside, all UPA members and Left parties today decided that the Bill to introduce 27% OBC quotas in Central institutions will be brought in the monsoon session of Parliament to allow its implementation from the academic year 2007.

Simultaneously, the number of seats will also be increased in these institutions to ensure the interest of “all sections” and an “Oversight Committee” will be set up to fix deadlines for its implementation.

Chicago Tribune

Microsoft Corp., the world’s biggest software maker, released test versions of its Windows Vista and Office 2007 products, taking it a step closer to getting the programs in stores by January.