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IndianExpress: Visiting dignitaries have said it, corporate honchos have expressed their displeasure, even the Chief Minister has admitted that the biggest hurdle that Pune has to overcome to fix its infrastructure problem is by getting its roads done. From flyovers to main roads and even arterial lanes, it is a case of callousness and lackadaisical attitude of the administrators that has pushed the city into the brink of disaster.

Though the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) has decided not to undertake any new works, it is the incomplete works that are causing major hassles. Take for instance the Rs 30-crore Integrated Road Development Project (IRDP) being carried out at Ganeshkhind Road. The work orders for two flyovers at the Agriculture College chowk and the University chowk were issued in August 2004, but nearly two years have gone by and a mere 30 per cent of the work has been completed.

IndianExpress: Close on the heels of recovery of Heroin worth Rs 4 crore in the international market from rural Pune last month, another lot of 2.27 kg of heroin was seized by Pune rural police. The police have arrested Mustafa Ahmad Pathan (42) who was supposed to sell it in Mumbai.

While the seized heroin amounts to Rs 3.40 crores in the international market, the drug was to be sold at a rate of Rs 8 lakhs in Mumbai. After receiving a tipoff, superintendent of rural police Vishwas Nangare Patil and his associates prepared a plot. Patil had received the information that the drug will be brought at Hotel Minimahal in Wadgaon Maval on the Mumbai-Pune highway on Saturday.

Acting on a plan, a customer was sent to Pathan for purchasing the heroin. Pathan was then asked to contact his accomplices — Sameer Mohammad Patel alias Papa (20) and Ansar Umar Jwari (22) who hail from Karjat in Raigad district.

IndianExpress: ‘‘Indians must rid themselves of the traditional mindset that all higher education, especially professional education should be affordable to all,” said Symbiosis International Education Centre Founder-Chancellor S B Mujumdar, at a conference on ‘Autonomy in Higher Education — Regulatory and Legal Issues’ organised by Delhi-based Education Promotion Society for India (EPSI) on Sunday.

Mujumdar said that nowhere else in the world was higher education made affordable for the ordinary masses and it was unfair to expect educational institutions in India to offer education at low rates.

SP Jain Institute of Management & Research Director Rajan Saxena said that educationists and financial experts should be consulted while determining fee structures of institutions, and analyse costs as per programme quality and faculty base, instead of imposing a uniform structure across institutions. “Finally, fees should be determined by market forces,” he said.

IndianExpress: Hoping to meet its target of providing free of cost anti retroviral therapy (ART) to 1 lakh Persons Living with HIV and AIDS (PLHA), albeit after a delay of three years, the Centre has now expanded its free-of-cost anti-retroviral therapy (ART) programme.

In 2004-05, the government had announced that free anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs would be distributed through the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) to 1 lakh PLHA. Now, a June 26 circular this year from NACO states that a total of 97 centres, including the existing 51 centres, have been set up countrywide.

The anti-retroviral drugs for 2006-07 have been despatched and Sassoon General Hospital — one of the ART centres — will now treat 2,000 PLHA this year. Pune ART centre in-charge A L Kakrani said the target of treating 1 lakh PLHA will be met by March 2007.

IndianExpress: Two fatal accidents have been reported in the city in the last two days. On Friday, Richard Rocha — a Koregaon Park resident — died in an accident on Friday evening, while he was driving from Sancheti Chowk to Shimla Office chowk.

According to a complaint filed at Deccan police, Rocha — who works as an engineer in Dubai — was driving on his motorcycle when he rammed a cement block near the road divider. The absence of street lights in the stretch added to the poor visibility on the road at night. Rocha’s brother is a doctor in Sancheti Hospital.

IndianExpress:  The Bund Garden police have arrested Bhagwat Kisan Waghmare (55) for allegedly providing false documents to the railway court. Bhagwat works as an agent who provides surety for bails that are granted by the railway court.

According to a complaint filed by Deepak Dynanoba Raut (42) — a clerk from court — the accused had submitted forged documents of his identity to the railway court on Saturday evening. Bund Garden police said that he had provided false information regarding his identity in the past around two to three times.

In a separate case, Nandan Pireddy (51) from Chinchwad has filed a complaint with the Nigdi police saying that two unidentified people approached him on a motor bike on Saturday morning. Disguised as a policeman, one of them came to him and informed him about the riots that occurred in Mumbai.

ITWire.com: In an obvious reaction to the release of VMware Server as free download, Microsoft has announced that it will make all of its Virtual PC products free as well, including the upcoming Virtual PC 2007 for Windows Vista when it finally arrives.

So what’s the difference between VMware Server and Virtual PC 2004? The answer is quite simple really. VMware Server is much better, which it is why it is the market leader.

VMware, owned by EMC, runs on both Windows and Linux as the host operating system and supports virtual machines running a range of guest operating systems, including Solaris, Netware, Windows and Linux.

In comparison, Virtual PC 2004 is almost strictly a Microsoft affair on both the host and guest operating system sides. The Microsoft product requires Windows 2000, Windows XP Professional, or Windows Tablet PC Edition to run and supports Microsoft guest operating systems ranging from MS-DOS 6.22 to Windows XP. It does, however, also support IBM’s OS/2 Warp version 4.0 we hear.

ITWire.com: A new silicon chip implanted in the brain of a 25 year old quadraplegic test subject has been shown to enable the paralyzed man to move computer mouse cursors and robotic arms by thought power.

The 25 year old test subject, who had previously been paralyzed from the neck down after a spinal cord injury, produced brain signals when trying to move his paralyzed limbs. The signals were picked up by a brain implanted sensor and translated into electronic impulses that allowed him to control a computer cursor and manipulate mechanical devices.

The system is called the BrainGate Neural Interface System, which was developed by a US company called Cybernetics Neurotechnology Systems, based in Massachusetts. The brain-computer interface system works by implanting a tiny sensor on the surface of the brain in the area that controls limb movement or other body processes.

The sensor picks up electrical impulses fired by brain cells as a result of thought, which are then transmitted through wires to a computer.

TechNewsDaily.com: Fujitsu do Brasil Ltda. announced PalmSecure™, a new biometric security solution featuring a compact, high-performance sensor that scans palm vein patterns to verify user identification in bank ATM transactions. This pioneering palm vein solution is already being tested internally at Banco Bradesco S.A. (”Bradesco”), the largest private bank in Latin America, with general operation scheduled to start soon.

After researching various biometric technologies, Bradesco chose PalmSecure for its outstanding features, such as high levels of verification accuracy and being non-invasive and hygienic, making it easier to be accepted by customers of the bank.

PalmSecure was developed by Fujitsu as the world’s first palm vein-based biometric authentication system. The sensor captures the palm vein pattern of the user and compares it with pre-registered data to authenticate the user’s identity. The sensor is compact (35mm x 35mm) and can be safely and flexibly used in a wide range of applications, such as in PCs, ATMs and for building and room access.

ITWire.com: An interesting piece of information to come out of the Microsoft and Yahoo messaging alliance is the news that Microsoft is still evaluating whether to include the Mac version of Windows Live Messenger in its interoperability plans.

Frankly this does not really come as a surprise. Microsoft has always deliberately kept its IM releases for Mac users behind releases for their Windows counterparts.

Just think about it. You’re a teenage Mac user and most of your friends are Windows users. They all talk to each other at night after school using Windows Live Messenger (or MSN Messenger as it was once called).

You can text message your friends but can’t talk to them because your version of MSN Messenger doesn’t support voice. You feel left out so despite the fact that you like your Mac, you ditch it for whatever price you can get on eBay and replace it with a cheap white box Windows PC.