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IndianExpress: It is past 8 pm on Friday evening, but at Chinchwad industrial area, the machines have not stopped working. This cluster of buildings and tin sheds in the twin industrial township of Pimpri-Chinchwad are neither the poster boys nor the brand ambassadors of Indian manufacturing sector, but they are the backroom for the Tatas, Firodias, Bajajs and Kalyanis.

The recession is far behind them and today, these 4,000-odd small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are scripting the country’s success story with 50 per cent of their products going to world’s auto giants.

The business has never been so good for these companies and world’s largest car-maker General Motors’ decision to set up Rs 1,300-crore facility at Talegaon has just given them another global customer.

IndianExpress: It was a meeting of the illustrious minds of the Indian film industry, as they gathered at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) to discuss the state of scriptwriting in Indian cinema. The first day of the All India Screenwriters Conference witnessed participation by not just people from Bollywood but also from other parts of the country like Jahnu Barua and leading screenwriter and director of South Indian film industry Balu Mahendra.

After a braintstorming session, the issues plaguing Indian scriptwriting became clear. Most believed that screenplay would be better if writers didn’t write what is acceptable to the audiences, but what they really believe in. ‘‘Today there is a challenge to break free of existing norms and create something new,’’ said U R Ananthamurthy, eminent scholar and chairman of FTII.

IndianExpress: Be ready for a power shock. that is if Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) accepts a proposal by the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL). Called the Annual Revenue Requirement (ARR) and Tariff petition, there would be rise across all the segments of low tension as well as high-tension customer categories. In the domestic segment, the rise would be 20 per cent up to 30 units, 24 per cent (31-300 units) and 27 per cent for consumption above 300 units.

The commission will conduct a public hearing towards this at the Pune Divisional Commissioner’s office on August 24.
 

IndianExpress: At a recently held conference in the city on Friday, organised by the Pharmaceutical major - Emcure, 35 leading paediatricians from all over the country came together to discuss and deliberate the use of zinc as a preventive measure for diarrhoea, the second highest cause of child mortality in India, causing almost 700,000 child deaths every year. Placing before these doctors the experiments proving the effective results of zinc as well as the techniques of using it, was an international team of doctors and researchers, consisting of paediatrician Sunil Sazwal from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Camille Saade, director of Academy for Educational Development and Rajiv Tandon, representative of USAID, India.

According to Sazwal, most of the diseases causing child mortality in India are preventable and that too with inexpensive interventions. ‘‘India has highly qualified paediatricians and state-of-the-art curing techniques as well.
 

IndianExpress:  Giving a boost to slum rehabilitation schemes in the city, the State government has initiated the procedure to introduce special Transferable Development Rights (TDR) for such projects.

The Urban Development Department has issued a notification inviting suggestions and objections to modification in the Development Control rules to make grant of 0.6 slum Transferable Development Rights permissible in the city limits.

The State government has initiated the procedure on its own as the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) failed to do it despite directives from the State government.

IndianExpress: Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sandeep Khardekar on Saturday alleged that the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) was violating the High Court directive on speed breakers.

On July 14, Khardekar had sought information under the Right To Information Act on whether speed breakers were being built as per the Court directive. However, he received information from only four ward offices, stating that no new speed breakers were constructed.

In its reply Sangamwadi ward office claimed that of the 19 speedbreakers nine have been completely removed and remaining have been constructed as per the norms. While at Kasba peth five speed breakers are yet to be removed at Yerwada all the speed breakers have been removed. Vishrambaugwada ward office has removed 73 out of 80 speed breakers so f