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IndianExpress:  When 10-year-old Shailesh Avghade got back home in Patil Estate slums along the Pune-Mumbai Road on Monday morning after spending the weekend at the Pune Municipal Corporation-run Dr Babsaheb Ambedkar school at Wakdewadi, he looked for his books and found them soaking wet and completely useless. ‘‘What will I take to school now,’’ he says.

The water discharged from Pavana and Mulshi reservoirs had entered the Avghade residence on Friday and destroyed almost everything inside including their rations.

When the flood water in Pune receded on Monday, the evacuated people from these slums returned to waterlogged homes. Their food and meagre belongings had been washed away. Shailesh’s mother Manisha lost her entire month’s rations and is worried where to get her foodgrains from. ‘‘I had stocked up 20 kg wheat and 10 kg rice. Now, I have nothing except the utensils which I had packed before leaving,’’ she says pointing to the plastic bag placed high on a plank.

IndianExpress: Two months after it demolished over 600 shops in Kasarwadi-Phugewadi area for widening the Pune-Mumbai Highway, the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) is yet to clear the debris.

Since last week of May, when the PCMC began the demolishment drive, broken pipelines and debris have been lying along the highway adding to the chaotic traffic.

The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation officials are playing the blame game and say it will be another couple of months before the new road is laid.

‘‘The entire process takes time and it will take two months to lay the new road,’’ municipal commissioner Dilip Band said.

The officials are also pointing fingers at the civic engineers for not carrying out the task.

IndianExpress: Wary of an epidemic outbreak, Pune Municipal Corporation’s health department swung into the action and began spraying disinfectants in flood-affected areas as the water level of Mutha and Mula rivers receded on Monday. But it was not a welcome sight that greeted those city-dwellers who returned to their houses in the low-lying areas - dead rats, cockroaches and snakes, not to mention the stench.

Deputy Municipal Commissioner Anil Gaikwad said that most of the 371 families that had been evacuated from low-lying areas and vicinities along the rivers have returned home.

‘‘As on Monday evening, only 79 families stayed back in the rescue centres set up by PMC in various school buildings. These people are mostly from Khilare Vasti, Sangamwadi, Pulachi Wadi, Patil Estate, Kamgar Putala and Wakadewadi areas,’’ he said.

IndianExpress: Here is some more good news for Pune’s code writers. For, software services firm Tech Mahindra will set up an 10,000-seat development centre at Rajiv Gandhi Infotech Park at Hinjewadi. The company has already taken 25-acre on lease from the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) and plans to invest Rs 198 crore in the first phase of development.

‘‘The first phase is likely to come up within the next one-and-a-half year’s, while the entire project will be completed in four years,’’ vice-president (Finance) Milind Kulkarni said.

The company that is planning to raise Rs 465 crore through an inital public offer (IPO) will utilise Rs 108 crore for the first phase.‘‘The balance will be through internal accruals,’’ Kulkarni said. It has Rs 288 crore in cash reserves and investments.

IndianExpress: An auto-rickshaw driver — Dilip Dattatray Shinde — has come under the scanner of Regional Transport Office (RTO) for obtaining three permits of the three auto-rickshaws he owns.

After receiving a tip-off from a vigilant citizen, RTO went ahead to conduct its inquiry. The inquiry has revealed that Shinde — a resident from Wadgaonsheri — had obtained three permits on his name for the three auto-rickshaws he had purchased.

Also, it has been ascertained that the permits has been obtained using forged documents. Moreover, he had cancelled the registration of his fourth rickshaw in June 2006. Yet, the officials have found that the rickshaw has been plying on road as a transport vehicle.

IndianExpress: Having made its intentions clear of setting up shop with Rs 1,000-crore investment in Pune, software giant Microsoft is now planning to tap the city having the third highest density of gamers in the country with its Xbox 360. Considered to be the ultimate next generation gaming machine, Microsoft is looking at Pune to increase its sales — worldwide, 5.5 million units have been sold — when the launch happens in September.

‘‘The PC penetration in Pune is the highest in the country and this shows that people here have a good appetite for technology. Also there are a huge number of higher educational institutions where not only ‘geeks’ but even engineering and medical students are hooked on to gaming,’’ said Mohit Anand, country manager, entertainment and devises division, Microsoft India, at an event to introduce the Xbox 360 on Monday.

IndianExpress: The condition of women in India has not improved even today,’’ said Sarla Birla of the Birla group, speaking at the first centenary celebrations committee meeting of the Maharshi Karve Stree Shikshan Sanstha’s (MKSSS) Mahilashram High School. The school, founded in 1906, will carry out a wide variety of cultural, social and educational programmes to mark its centenary year.

‘‘While premier institutions like MKSSS are benefiting many women in society, more work still needs to be done to uplift women in the society,” said Birla.

Also presiding over the meeting was SNDT Vice-Chancellor Chandra Krishnamurthy. Stressing the need to bring empowerment through social justice to every girl child, especially from lower social strata, Krishnamurthy said there was a need for integrated education with equal importance given to health and sports.

TechTree.com: The concept of “Boundless gaming” has arrived with ATI Technologies’ recent announcement regarding leading system integrators and OEMs from around-the-world bringing-to-market the powerful combo of the company’s Radeon X1900 CrossFire multi-GPU graphics and Intel’s Core 2 Extreme processor.

A combination such as two ATI graphics cards working-in-sync with Intel’s Core 2 Extreme processor helps break-down barriers typically associated with traditional gaming, thereby addressing GPU- and CPU-bound scenarios to produce leading image quality as also performance. The result is “Boundless gaming”. Reportedly, over twenty “Boundless gaming” systems are available to gamers across-the-globe.

Godfrey Cheng, director - marketing, platform technologies, ATI Technologies, said, “ATI CrossFire and the Intel Core 2 Extreme processor represents PC gaming excellence today. The number of system integrators and OEMs world-wide backing the platform demonstrates the impact of combining these technologies.”

TechNewsWorld.com: AAOL on Friday will launch the beta version of a free portal designed to let customers view and share videos across the Web.

AOL Video includes roughly 45 new video-on-demand content channels, organized and accessible through video search, browse or an interactive programming guide; free streaming content; the ability to purchase and download full-length content viewable both on- and offline via multiple devices and PCs; and access to millions of music videos, news clips, movie trailers and full-length TV shows.

Some of the features include AOL Video Search, which is based on technology from the company’s Truveo and Singingfish acquisitions, and a video player that the company says can go to full screen without losing picture quality. The portal also includes AOL’s new UnCut Video offering, which allows customers to upload and share videos online directly from their camcorder, Webcam, video-enabled mobile phone or PC.

TechTree.com: SUSTek Computer has launched its P5B series motherboards based on the Intel P965 chipset. The company says the mothewrboards incorporate three unique tools; AI NOS, AI Gear, and AI Nap, for precise PC performance control during various applications.

The patented AI NOS (Non-delay Overclocking System) technology intelligently detects system load, and automatically boosts performance for the most demanding tasks. AI Gear helps balance system performance and silent computing, by allowing users choose from profiles to adjust CPU frequency and vCore voltage. Whereas,
AI Nap lets users instantly “relax” their PCs, without terminating current tasks.

The P5B series motherboards are based on the Intel P965 chipset, which is designed to support a maximum 8GB dual-channel DDR2 800/667/533 architecture and multi-core CPU. The latest chipset includes Intel Fast Memory Access technology, which optimizes the use of available memory bandwidth, and reduces the latency of memory access. The new motherboards are ready for the next generation of Intel Core 2 processors in LGA775 package.