News

IndianExpress: THE recent recovery of heroin (worth Rs 4 crore in international market) from rural Pune was no aberration. Pore over the police records and one gets ample proof that the city is no stranger to drug trafficking.

Consider the statistics: The police seized over 190 kg of narcotics, mainly ganja and brown sugar, in January-June this year, which was a quantum jump from only 12.8 kg in the entire 12 months in 2005. The worry lines for the police emerged from the recovery of about 3.5 kg of opium from two cases in 2006, the estimated cost in the international market put at Rs 30 lakh.

As per the rates in the international market, the seized opium is estimated to be worth Rs 35 lakh and brown sugar at around Rs 1.5 lakh. In 2005, the police had seized over 5 kg of opium, costing Rs 50 lakh in the foreign shores.

IndianExpress: BUOYED by the success of the MG Road walking plaza, the Pune Cantonment Board (PCB) has chalked out plans for setting up another walking plaza, albeit in quieter surroundings. A massive environmental upgradation and landscaping project has been initiated to convert the stinky Morwada Nalla into a walking plaza and recreation area on the lines of Osho Teerth in Koregaon Park.

With the Army taking special interest in developing the area into a green zone, work to clean up the area has already been started by the PCB. A proposal was passed at the board meeting on Thursday to obtain sanction for reclassifying the nalla land to carry out ‘‘environment upgradation and nuisance reduction work’’ in and around the area.

IndianExpress: REELING under a deluge of 10,000 samples of suspected cases of chikungunya from various parts of the country, the National Institute of Virology (NIV) has told the government to stop sending any more samples from the same areas for testing.

NIV director Dr A C Mishra said it was virtually impossible for the scientists to test each and every one of the 10,000 samples sent for confirmation of chikungunya — a mosquito-borne disease that had caused havoc in several southern states last year.

But samples from new areas which have not reported any outbreak were welcome at the institute, Mishra said, adding that mosquito control was the top priority and state governments had been directed to launch various measures

IndianExpress: WHEN the Bhurelal committee advised the Regional Transport Authority and the Regional Transport Office in 2005 to enforce the conversion of 4,000 over 15-year-old autorickshaws to Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) by March 30, only 941 met the deadline.

After rickshaw associations said they could not convert since the kits were not approved by the Automotive Research Authority of India, the committee extended the deadline to June 30, 2006.  
On the penultimate day, 600 autorickshaws are yet to change to LPG and RTO officials say the target will not be achieved.
 

IndianExpress: ALLEGING corruption of administration officials in government-aided schools and colleges in the city, members of the Pune Zilla Magasvargiya Shiskshak-Shikshakettar Karmachari Sanghatana have been on an indefinite hunger strike outside the district collectorate since June 26
Tribhuvan alleged that members of the association employed in the said institutions were being removed from service on suspicion that they had leaked the information. “They are being pressurised and false police cases are being registered against them in order to cover up the dubious activities of these corrupt institutions,” said Tribhuvan.

ITWire.com: Multimedia tools and document authoring software vendor Adobe Systems has announced the availability of the Adobe Flex 2 product line and Adobe FlashPlayer 9.

The Flex 2 product line provides developers with a set of tools and technology for end-to-end development of web applications.
Flash Player 9 provides a runtime environment for enterprise-ready rich internet applications. According to Adobe, Flash Player 9 offers Flex developers up to 10 times faster performance through ActionScript 3.0 and a new ActionScript Virtual Machine

TechTree.com: Completing its Intel-based portable pack, and riding on the success of its 17-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pros, Apple Computer launched the all-new MacBook, touted as the world’s most advanced consumer notebook that features Intel’s Core Duo processor and a 13-inch glossy wide-screen display.

Around one-inch thin, the new MacBook promises to be up to five times faster than the iBook, and up to four times faster than the 12-inch PowerBook, thanks to Apple’s latest system architecture comprising a 667 MHz front-side bus and 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM memory expandable to 2GB.

The MacBook boasts a 13-inch glossy wide-screen display with a resolution of 1280 x 800 that is said to be 79 percent brighter than the iBook and the 12-inch PowerBook

Every MacBook features an in-built iSight video camera for video conferencing on-the-fly; iLife ‘06 for recording video Podcasts or iMovies; Apple’s break-through Front Row media experience that allows customers to enjoy digital content with the Apple

TechTree.com: Yahoo! and Nokia today announced the launch of “Yahoo! Go Services” that will enable consumers to access a wide range of popular Yahoo! Services on Nokia devices.

Yahoo! Go Services has been optimized for Nokia N70 users, and will come pre-installed on the Nokia N70, as also on select Nokia Series 60 Smart Phones including the Nokia 6680, Nokia 6681, and the Nokia 6630.

The newly-launched service promises to provide users with a host of Yahoo! services including messenger, e-mail, search, connections, photos, ring tones, and games allowing them to stay informed, entertained, and connected to the world while on-the-move.

The new application offers a desktop-like interface on the mobile, and has an auto-sync feature connecting users to the Web services, regardless of the device.

TechTree.com: Tata Teleservices (TTSL) has announced that it is planning to launch operations in three additional circles by the end of this fiscal year, thereby expanding its presence to all 23 circles in the country.

The company had earlier filed an application with the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), and is awaiting the ministry’s approval for commencing operations in the new circles.
In a separate announcement, the company has also unveiled a new initiative, “Power of Choice” in the pre-paid category, giving customers the flexibility to choose their handsets, and have the most affordable tariff. The tariff plans are Go Easy, Go Life, Go Active, and Go Max, while the new handsets are Indicom Ace, LG 2535, Samsung Hero, Indicom Star, Pantech, LG 6335, and Samsung Wideo.

TechTree.com: Roamware has announced their latest technology, the non-intrusive “Roamware’s Voice SMS”.

Voice SMS is an inexpensive and non-intrusive “speak and listen” messaging process. It is an alternative to the time-consuming “type and read” process of text SMS. Voice SMS let’s a caller deposit a voice message by dialing the called number with a special prefix. All this can be done through a standard mobile instrument.

“Roamware’s Voice SMS” lets a caller deposit a voice message by dialing the called number with a special prefix, and the system sends an SMS notification to the recipient, who in turn can call back to play the message.
Voice SMS opens-up a new channel for communication that ensures the personalization of Voice-mail, and the economy of SMS. It provides an enriched and personalized inter-personal messaging environment