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IndianExpress: Sending out a clear message to the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) that tax reforms are a must to get further installments of funds under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), the Centre has said it is mandatory to carry out the reforms. ‘‘Unless the reform commitments are met, the Centre will not provide any financial assistance for the JNNURM projects,’’ joint secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty, Pankaj Jain said.

The PMC had to rollback the property tax hike in the last financial year and it has not gone down well with the Centre. ‘‘We will undertake property tax reforms by 2007,’’ a top official of the civic body said.

‘‘The reforms in property tax doesn’t mean an increase in tax, but the process is to widen the net,’’ municipal commissioner Nitin Kareer told Pune Newsline. The PMC has said that it will identify unassessed properties for tax collection and improve targets to 85 per cent in 2006-07.

IndianExpress:  With the Regional Transport Authority’s (RTA) directions to the Pune Municipal Transport (PMT) and the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Transport (PCMT) to obtain transport permit for each bus from their fleet, the estimated revenue for Regional Transport Office (RTO) is expected to increase three times from this source.

The decision is a blow for the cash-strapped Pune Municipal Transport and Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Transport which will have to take permit for each and every bus that will ply on the roads. In a meeting in May, the RTA had directed both the transport bodies to pay permits for each bus operating as a stage carrier.

 With this directive, instead of paying for 300 routes across the city and in Pimpri-Chinchwad, the transport bodies will have to pay Rs 200 as permit fees on each bus for five years

IndianExpress: The MG Road Hawkers’ Association has said that the hawkers will not vacate their present market at Fashion Street unless the Pune Cantonment Board (PCB) assures them of adequate space in the proposed Rs 76 lakh fireproof structure. It has demanded that instead of the proposed 24,000 square feet single-storied structure, the PCB construct a multistoried building at the fashion street site and add more room to accommodate all 592 hawkers.

“We will vacate only if the PCB gives an assurance that 8 x 10 feet stalls will be created for hawkers,” said the newly-elected president of the association MV Akolkar.

IndianExpress:  Over a hundred Indian starback tortoises that were rescued from Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport on June 21 and sent to Uttara’s Animal Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre in Katraj on June 29 will now go back to the wild. The zoo authorities have decided to release them near Hampi in Karnataka in the first week of August.

The tortoises, found in an unclaimed bag, were to be put on a flight to Malaysia. Katraj park founder Neelimkumar Khaire says, “Of the 500 in the bag, some 380 were found dead. The rest were sent by the airport authorities and the forest department to the bird sanctuary in Karnala where a few more died. The rest were sent to us.”

IndianExpress: Bhajanlal Preetamdas Udani, a 69-year-old businessman from Rajkot, has lodged a complaint with Bund Garden police saying a gang of four conmen duped him of Rs 18 lakh under the garb of providing admission to his grandson Mitesh Mukesh Udani to the MBBS course.

The incident took place when Bhajanlal had come to Pune along with Mitesh and a relative, Ramesh Totaram. Bund Garden police began looking for the conmen after the complaint was lodged. No arrests have been made so far.

IndianExpress: Yet another wada’s wall in the city’s Peth area came crashing down on Thursday morning injuring three persons, including a two-year-old girl.

The injured include Ratan Sampat Takawale (52), Geeta Vijay Takawale (22) and Geeta’s two-year-old daughter Vishakha. They have been admitted to a private hospital in Raviwar Peth.

The Takawales live in four rented rooms in the two-storied, 90-year-old wada in Raviwar Peth where six other families also reside.

Police said a part of a wall had weakened due to the rains and caved in around 9.30 am. Ratan, Geeta and Vishakha were trapped under the debris. They were rescued by the local residents. Later, Pune Municipal Corporation staff pulled down part of the hazardous structure.

IndianExpress:  A Pall of gloom descended upon Bhatnagar area of Yerawada after reports of five residents of the area losing their lives in a mishap which took place on Delhi-Ghaziabad highway reached Pune. All victims are relatives of each other.

According to the reports reaching here, five persons were killed and six injured when the jeep in which they were travelling collided with the retaining wall of a bridge on the highway.

DailyTech.com: Novell has announced the availability of the SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 operating system for servers and desktops.  Novell plans on shipping the OS on Monday, which is going to be the first full release of SUSE Linux since the summer of 2004.  The latest version of SUSE is said to be more user friendly than past versions of the operating system.  According to Novell, SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 is the lowest-cost, best-engineered platform for enterprise computing.  “We’re extremely proud and excited to provide the latest and most innovative Linux desktop and server technology to our customers,” Jeff Jaffe, Novell executive vice president and chief technology officer said.

Novell hopes that it can successfully take advantage of the continued popularity of open source products by businesses.  Server software support subscriptions will cost $349 per server with an unlimited number of virtual server images.  Users interested in desktop Linux support will have to pay $50 per year, which includes live updates and product support.

SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 will be showcased during the LinuxWorld Conference & Expo in San Francisco in late August.  The event will also feature over 100 speaking sessions with a number of open source-related themes.

BetaNews.com: Sony introduced two affordable high-definition camcorders on Wednesday, the first to record in full 1080i resolution. One model will allow for direct recording to three-inch DVD discs, while the other includes a 30GB hard drive permitting video storage and in-camcorder and PC editing.

In addition, the video cameras record in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound, which would provide a truer-to-life sound reproduction on playback. An optional Bluetooth wireless microphone enables the recording of center-channel sound up to 100 feet away.

In addition, each mode includes an HDMI output, allowing for the easy connection to HDTV televisions for playback. Discs can be played back on any DVD player, as the disc-recording model has the capability to record in the original MPEG-2 DVD format.

BetaNews.com: Google is testing a version of its popular search engine that would allow those with vision problems to more easily use the site. Called Accessible Search, the page is different from normal Google Web search in that it also evaluates site usability in ranking results.

Complex site designs can make web surfing very difficult for those with disabilities. For example, individuals that use devices to convert text to speech may find it hard to find what they’re looking for, says Google Research Scientist T.V. Raman.

The customized search engine is built on top of Google Co-op technology, which the company released to allow developers to build search engines that optimize results based on interests or other uses