News

IndianExpress: Three-and-a-half-crore seeds are to planted in Maharashtra, in areas not under the forest department, before the monsoon ends. That’s hardly a daunting task for Prakash Thosre who has recently assumed charge as director, Social Forestry department.

With one-and-a-half crore already planted, Thosre, is busy chalking out plans for his department. These include building two world-class nurseries, costing Rs. 5 crore, which will house state of the art technology, tissue culture and produce seeds and saplings of excellent quality through extensive research.
 
‘‘We all know that fuel is not a permanent resource. Hence alternatives such as bio-diesel are being explored. Since our department does not have a research wing, we are exploring options of tie-ups with universities to look at possibilities of planting Jatropa, Varanj and Neem,’’ he says.

IndianExpress: If the water that flows out of your taps is muddy, just boil it before drinking and don’t blame the Pune Municipal Corporation for it.

For, the civic body is slowly running out of liquid alum and polyaluminum chloride that it uses to purify water at its filtration plants in Parvati, Cantonment and Warje water works. Since the present stocks will last just a few days, the civic body has decided to reduce the dosage of the chemicals used for the filtration, according to deputy city engineer (Parvati water works) Satish Rahalkar.

While muddy water is regular in the monsoon, the civic body usually treats the water before releasing it for consumption. The civic body procures the chemicals from Mumbai and Nagda in Madhya Pradesh but the supplies have been held up because of the heavy rains that have been lashing the region.

IndianExpress: This weekend, DaimlerChrysler sales manager Manjiri Kulkarni will explore her wild side by going white-water rafting on the Kundalika river in Mulshi. “I can relax over the weekend and do something adventurous the following days. I don’t have to worry about bunking work on Monday like my friends,” says Kulkarni.

She is among the lucky ones who will have a long weekend that will spill over to the middle of next week since DaimlerChrysler has declared a holiday on Monday. With Tuesday being Independence Day, people like Kulkarni will have to get back to work only on Wednesday.
 
It’s all part of the employee-friendly attitude that has made several corporates keep their doors closed on Monday. As such, several hundreds of Puneites have made travel plans to go to Lonavla, Khadakvasla or Mahabaleshwar. ‘‘It helps that my company has such sensitivity that so essential for the mental well-being of employees,’’ says Kulkarni

IndianExpress: Even as the term of Pune University’s acting Vice-Chancellor (VC), Ratnakar Gaikwad comes to an end, the controversy surrounding his six-month regime has resurfaced. Members of the university’s management council have alleged that Gaikwad had bypassed them on all major decisions and initiatives undertaken at the University during his tenure.

The Vice-Chancellor office received a letter signed by all 12 members of the Council, demanding a requisition meeting at the earliest. A requisition meeting is usually convened to discuss some contentious issue and is a rare occurrence. The meeting has now been scheduled for August 14.

‘‘The last meeting with the management council was held on June 9. As is common the practice, such meetings are supposed to be held at least once in a month, which Gaikwad has not done,’’ said a council member.

IndianExpress: The State government has decided to provide immediate help of Rs 5,000, 20 kg of foodgrain and 10 litres of kerosene per family to the victims of the recent flood while destitute people would get Rs 1,000 per head.

However, the cash would not be given to the residents of slums in the riverbeds that were submerged by the floods.The State government has announced relief package for flood affected. Distribution of aid for the victims would begin from Friday.
Owners of partially-damaged houses would get aid of Rs 2,400 and a loan of Rs 9,600 for repairs. Owners of totally razed houses would be given help of Rs 4,800 and loan of Rs 12,000. Owners of damaged huts would get help of Rs 2,700 and loan of Rs 10,000.Relatives of people who died in the floods would get Rs 1 lakh.

TechTree.com: According to reports, A-Data Technology, a known memory module manufacturer, has launched its DRAM Module series called “Apple Series”.

The series, which especially caters to Macs, promises to offer high performance as also a ‘fun experience’ for Mac users. With this series, users can freely expand their PCs or Macs.

A-Data contends that since Macs are so popular, both because of their external design and powerful internal systems, great hardware is a must to improve their working efficiency that extends to data processing, audio/video conversion, and Web site/graphic design.

The company says the Apple Series is highly compatible with all types of Macs, and functions in a stable manner. Besides, consumers have no longer to risk upgrading their Macs through invalidated memory modules.

TechTree.com: IBM has reportedly announced the launch of twelve IBM Rational version 7 products - new software delivered through the IBM Software Development Platform.

The twelve new version 7 products include IBM Rational Build Forge, IBM Rational ClearQuest, IBM Rational ClearCase, IBM Rational ClearQuest and Functional Testing, IBM Rational Portfolio Manager, IBM Rational Purify Plus, IBM Rational Requisite Pro, IBM Rational Robot, IBM Rational Rose, IBM Rational Rose Real-Time, IBM Rational Team Unifying Platform, and IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager.

The company says the new products facilitate greater innovation by automating the software testing process, and tracking changes made to software code. As a result, development, testing, and production teams can better collaborate, and channelize efforts towards improved delivery times, lowered costs, and better software quality.

According to the company, the products would add-to the rapidly growing software application development market in the country.

TechTree.com: Nikon has introduced its latest digital SLR camera, the Nikon D80, powered by a 10.2MP DX Format CCD image sensor.

The Nikon D80 can shoot up to 3 frames per second, and 100 consecutive images stored in JPEG format. It boots-up in 0.18 seconds, and has a shutter time of 80 milliseconds.

Besides, it has an additional 11-area auto-focus system that finds focus with superb precision, and can even track a moving object across the frame, shifting focus instantly and automatically as per the object.

The D80’s large, bright 0.94x viewfinder provides a remarkable view, which according to Nikon is not found in many digital SLRs. The camera’s rechargeable battery can last up to 2,700 shots on a single charge, while providing a real-time Fuel Gauge of percentage of charge left in the battery.

TechTree.com: Epson has reportedly launched its Perfection V100 Photo scanner, which the company calls the ideal scanner for quality film scanning.

The V100 Photo is targeted at home users and photo enthusiasts, and is said to effortlessly scan and restore documents, 35mm films, and photographs.

The scanner sports a hinge design, whereby its lid can be opened up to 180 degrees to scan thick documents including books, magazines, and even 3D objects.

Located on the scanner’s front panel are four direct access buttons that provide easy access to commonly-used functions; namely, starting, copying, scanning to PDF, and scanning to email.

Thanks to an optical resolution of 3,200dpi, and a 48-bit color depth, the V100 Photo is said to be capable of captivating output