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IndianExpress: A DRASTIC reduction in water-carrying capacity had made the Mutha river vulnerable to a Mumbai-like disaster, said Sarang Yadwadkar of the Nadi Bachav Kruti Samiti, Pune at a discussion on ‘Mula-Mutha river cleaning’ organised by the Maharashtra Jyeshta Patrakar Sangh on Monday. ‘‘This is largely due to encroachments on the riverbed and dumping of construction debris that has led to decrease in the breadth of the riverbed’’ he said.

Yadwadkar spoke of the abundant water supply in Pune from the four dams upstream of the Mutha, namely Panshet, Warasgaon, Temghar and Khadakvasla.
While the riverbed cross section is increasingly being narrowed by silting, Yadwadkar said that the major causes were largely man-made. Apart from increasing plot areas along the riverbank, erratic construction by the PMC was also responsible. ‘‘The channel for facilitating river flow was not constructed as sanctioned by the irrigation department,’’ he said.

IndianExpress: AFTER a dismal show in the SSC board examinations of 2005, Pune division has redeemed itself this year. With a pass percentage of 65.90 per cent this year, it has shown an increase of 10.41 per cent over last year.

Afreen Sikandar Jamadar of Anglo Urdu Girls’ High School, New Modikhana, Pune, topped the division with an aggregate of 96.4 per cent.
 
The division had its moment of glory last year when, after a six-year break, Vaibhav Gorde of Mahatma Gandhi Vidyalaya, Rajgurunagar, topped the State with 721 marks (96.13 pc).

IndianExpress: FOR this third rank holder in the SSC merit list in Pune division, President APJ Abdul Kalam is the biggest inspiration. Shehnaz Sardar Makhdum would like to follow his example and carve a name for herself, and with 95.6 per cent, she already seems to have made a great start.

The story of her life is both heart-warming and inspiring. Hailing from Bopodi slums, this youngster, travelled one hour everyday to get to Anglo Urdu Girls’ High School in Camp. Having lost her father when she was four, Makhdum’s grandfather, uncle and mother worked hard to sustain her education.

IndianExpress: IN a rare surgery performed at the Southern Command Hospital earlier this month, a 4.8 kg life-threatening tumor was successfully removed from the chest of a 24-year-old soldier by a three-member-army surgeon team. The tumor, claimed to be the largest of its kind found in the left side of the chest, was removed in a desperate attempt to save the life of Suryajit Singha as it threatened to compress his heart.

‘‘The patient came to us in a critical stage. The tumor was growing at a very fast rate and had already compressed his left lung which had stopped functioning. The heart had also been pushed completely to the opposite side,’’ said Col L S Bohra, who lead the surgery team which included Col C V R Mohan and Col S B Bhot. He added that the patient, who had been referred from Kolkata, was also not responding to chemotherapy.

IndianExpress:  POONAM Vilas Devre (19), a SSC student living at Vijaynagar, Pimpri ended her life on Monday by hanging at her residence after failing in the SSC exam. 
Police said Poonam had an inkling that she would fail in the exam. She had sent her mother to collect the mark sheet. When her mother returned home, she found the door closed from inside. Poonam was found hanging to a hook on the ceiling after the door was forced open. The incident has gone as a case of an accidental death in the records of the Pimpri police

TechTree.com: Bharti Airtel has been ranked amongst the top ten best performing companies in the world, in the coveted BusinessWeek IT 100 list.

Bharti Airtel, which is described by BusinessWeek in the report as a “highly innovative company,” has escalated to tenth position from its last year ranking of 19.

What’s more, Bharti Airtel is the only Indian company to figure in the top 10, ahead of international biggies such as Motorola (11th), Google (13th), Microsoft (37th), Hewlett-Packard (44th), and Oracle (51st).

Besides Bharti Airtel, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, Satyam, and Wipro feature in the annual BusinessWeek list of top 100 infotech/telecom companies.

News.com: Microsoft is trying to allow people to try out the next Office–without the hassle of installing beta software or replacing their current version.

The software maker late Monday released a free, Web-based test version of the new Office.

Microsoft said more than 2.5 million people have downloaded the Beta 2 version of Office 2007 since it was released last month.
The online test drive offers the perfect opportunity for everyone to experience an easier and better way to work,” Microsoft said.

The new Office is a considerable departure from the current edition of the productivity suite, sporting a radically redesigned user interface as well as new XML-based file formats

Newcarnet.co:  Land Rover’s fourth all-new vehicle in just over four years –features two brand-new engines: a 3.2-litre straight-six petrol and a 2.2-litre four-cylinder turbocharged diesel. Both deliver what Land Rover describes as ‘….outstanding combinations of performance and economy’.

However, the vital signs for the engines seem to suggest otherwise. Considering its size, a top speed of 124 mph for the 233 PS in-line six petrol engine and a 0-60 mph (not 0-62 mph) time of 8.9 seconds can scarcely be described as sparkling. And a combined fuel economy of 25.2 mpg is, at best, no more than average.

Likewise, the all-new 2.2-litre four-cylinder diesel engine. The 160 PS unit delivers peak torque of 400 Nm, with around half that output on tap from 1000 rpm through to 4500 rpm. Given that most modern diesels deliver up to 80 or even 90 per cent of their peak torque from low engine speeds, a mere 50 per cent suggests that somebody isn’t trying. And a combined fuel consumption of 37.7 mpg is unremarkable.

TheStar.com: An unmanned Russian spaceship docked with the International Space Station on Monday, bringing food, fresh fruit and vegetables, water, and a fresh stock of DVDs to the orbiting two-man Russian-American crew. 

A spokesman for Mission Control in Moscow said the Progress M-57 craft docked successfully at 8:24 p.m. (1624 GMT). 

The DVDs for Russian commander Pavel Vinogradov and U.S. astronaut Jeffrey Williams, who are spending six months in space, included “Animals Behaving Badly”, a BBC wildlife series, and a TV drama based on the life of Russian poet Sergei Y

Forbes.com: Intel launched a server chip on Monday to help it regain market share lost to rival Advanced Micro Devices.

Intel (nasdaq: INTC - news - people ) claimed its Woodcrest chip, officially known as Xeon 5100, runs faster and is more efficient than what AMD (nyse: AMD - news - people ) offers with its Opteron server chip.

This is the first of what Intel says will be three chips that will reinvigorate its product line and give it a more competitive offering against AMD. Intel will launch chips in the coming months for desktops and notebooks based on the same underlying design as the new Xeon.