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IndianExpress: DURING the last few days of flooding, the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC), Pune Division, has witnessed a revenue loss of almost Rs 15.75 lakh.

MSRTC regional manager P P Nimsarkar said that during the corresponding period last year, the total trips made — in km — was around 32.13 lakh. However, the trips recorded this year is around 31.07 lakh km, thereby, recording a reduction of 1.06 lakh km.

Out of these, Nimsarkar adds that services to Mumbai, Konkan, Saswad and Talegoan were affected. ‘‘Routes were water logged, due to which the buses were unable to reach Pune.

Like for Mumbai, the buses used to get stranded near Dadar and Parel and the services were either delayed or terminated. As a result, we were unable to send our buses,’’ he said.

IndianExpress: TO cater to the increasing number of women in the corporate world, Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, one of the top B Schools in the country, will try to increase the percentage of women in its forthcoming batches. As of now, 20 per cent of the batch strength comprises women management students at ISB.

‘‘We want to take that number to at least 25 percent within the next three years,’’ said ISB deputy dean Ajit Rangnekar. According to him, the share of women students in American management institutes ranges from 33 to 35 per cent while in Europe, it is around 25 per cent.

ISB conducts a one-year postgraduate diploma in management for industry professionals, with at least two years of work experience. This year, the institute has a batch strength of 418 students. ‘‘We have seen that there is a demand for lady management students by recruiters, but the number of working women opting for management courses is low. ISB wants to fill in this gap by encouraging more women to join our programme,’’ Rangnekar added

IndianExpress: SCIENCE education today needs to spark imagination in students and encourage them to develop an enquiring mindset, said National Chemical Laboratory Director Swaminathan Shivram, speaking at the Foundation Day function of the Deccan Education Society (DES) held at the Fergusson College Amphitheatre on Wednesday.

Shivram said that the technological revolution had created an interaction-based society where the speedy transaction of information required everyone to possess in-depth knowledge. “In such a scenario, today’s generation seems to be unaware and uninterested in the science and technology that go behind the high-end gadgets that they use, although they operate these with utmost ease,” he said. The fault lies in the poor quality of higher education, Shivram feels. “Science is taught as fragmented pieces of information and not as an integrated whole, where various disciplines are inter-related,” he said. Moreover, he said that the excitement of learning science could be created by making it relevant to day-to-day functioning.
 

IndianExpress: After the controversy over the Pune Municipal Corporation’s decision to hand over the civic employees colonies at Wakdewadi estimated at a cost of Rs 100-125 crore to a developer at Rs 15 crore, the developer, Pune Rehabilatation Projects Private Limited on Wednesday came forward indicating open auction of the 9.5 acre land or withdrawl from the bid.

‘‘In light of the current controversy we feel it will be best to put the property for open auction,’’ read a press note issued here by PRPPL spokesman Datta Thorat. It added that the company was ready to withdraw from the bid or alternatively proposed to appoint Vice chancellor, University of Pune, Secretary to Government of Mahrashtra, Primary education; or Anna Hazare as directors on the board of the company.

TechTree: Reportedly, at a DVD forum held in Los Angeles, Microsoft gave the first official demo of its High Definition DVD add-on drive for the Xbox 360.

The drive, which is about the size of a hardback book, is manufactured by Toshiba, and has an internal codename, “Sapphire”. It features two USB 2.0 ports on the back, to make-up for the one USB port that the device itself uses.

The drive has the same cut-out on the back as the Xbox 360, to hold the gaming console’s Wireless Networking Adapter. Besides, it is software upgradeable through Xbox Live, so that whenever new features are introduced, they are automatically downloaded and applied.

Commenting on the development, Kevin Collins, senior program manager, Microsoft, said, “Research has shown that a majority of Xbox owners already own high-definition displays. An Xbox drive provides them with all the other equipment they need to watch HD DVD movie

TechTree: The Tata Group, in an 80:20 partnership with Star Network, has launched Direct-to-Home (DTH) satellite television service across 300 cities in the country at an investment of almost Rs 2,500 crore.

Operational August 8 onwards, the DTH service named “Tata Sky” will be available simultaneously in all these cities to subscribers, and will initially offer 55 channels including Star, Sony, ESPN, Disney, National Geographic, NDTV, Asianet, and TV Today. However, the Zee group of channels will be absent from the Tata Sky service.

Tata Sky is the third DTH venture in the country, the other two players being Zee Group’s Dish TV, and Prasar Bharti’s DD Direct.

Tata Sky will initially offer 55 channels for Rs 200. The one-time installation and activation charges are Rs 3,999. In comparison, Dish TV that includes 75 channels, is available to viewers for Rs 180. The installation cost is Rs 3,290, which also includes three months’ subscription.

News.com: Sony said it is set to introduce its first wireless broadband communications and entertainment device, aimed at heavy users of instant messaging.

Sony’s new Mylo personal communicator is a hybrid electronic device that competes with a range of gadgets already on the market, including the Sidekick, created by Danger, and Nokia’s 770 wireless Internet minitablet.

 The name Mylo stands for “my life online” and provides users access to online instant messaging services, HTML Web pages, e-mails, and to play music or view photos. Mylo will be available in September retail for about $350, Sony said.

Sony is borrowing the name Mylo from a prior, ill-fated generation of its handheld devices the Japanese consumer electronics giant had planned to launch in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, but subsequently canceled.

BetaNews: Nikon on Wednesday introduced its latest digital SLR camera, boasting a resolution of 10.2 megapixels thanks to a new DX Format CCD image sensor. The Nikon D80 is aimed at the “prosumer” and takes a number of features from the company’s professional digital SLRs.

The D80 can shoot up to 3 frames per second, and 100 consecutive images stored in JPEG format. The new camera boots up in 0.18 seconds and has a shutter time of 80 milliseconds. Nikon has added an 11-area auto-focus, along with an image retouch menu. A new 7.5x 18-135mm lens will be optionally available with the Nikon D80, which retails for $1299.95 USD or $999.95 USD without the lens.