News

IndianExpress: The Pune Municipal Corporation’s decision to make 30 major city roads hawker-free zones seems to be going nowhere, a good nine days after the official deadline of September 1 set by PMC, to begin the eviction drive, has passed.

While eviction drive on nine roads was to start on Saturday, following a lay-off on account of the Ganesh festival, politicians intervened on Friday and deferred further action. An all-party leaders meeting will discuss the line of action to be pursued on this issue on Monday.

The hawker-free zone policy of PMC, prepared on the lines of the central government policy of 2004, was announced by the civic administration last month. Four major hawkers’ organisations — Pathari Panchayat, Maharashtra Pathari Sena, Jaaniv Hawker Sanghatna and Shramshakti Vikas Sanghatna — had backed the PMC decision.

IndianExpress: ENTHUSED by increase in its earnings in last two months, the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Transport (PCMT) has decided to purchase as many as 127 new buses.

The purchase, if it takes place, will be the biggest ever in the history of the transport undertaking.

The PCMT management contends the step will help connect every corner of the twin industrial township with the bus service. But the final call on whether PCMT can purchase the buses depends on the PCMC standing committee, which will take a decision about this on Tuesday. The purchase is expected to cost around Rs 20 crore.
 

IndianExpress: EVER wondered why your child is being aggressive or why that ‘‘problem student’’ in your classroom repeatedly indulges in mischief despite being told not to? Quite possibly, the child suffers from low self-esteem. Says education consultant Ruby Mangaldoss, ‘‘Low self-esteem manifests itself in many ways, like being excessively loud and attention-seeking and even the inability to refuse drugs and alcohol.’’

Mangaldoss was speaking at a seminar organised for school teachers by Thane-based education consultancy firm Destiny Education. Based on two topics ‘Building self-esteem in students’ and ‘Team building — how to create an effective team of staff’ the seminar was designed for supervisors and heads of departments at various levels of school education. Education consultant John Barclay conducted the second session on team building
 

IndianExpress:  Around 1,000 students from the Raosaheb Patwardhan School, Sinhagad Road, participated in a tree plantation rally organised by NGO Ranzai that works for environment issues and the PMC’s garden department.

The rally was flagged off by Ranzai President Chandrasen Borhade. It marched on the Dandekar bridge chanting slogans. On the occasion, Ravindra Maruti Shelar was felicitated with the title of best teacher by the NGO.
 

IndianExpress: Students from medical colleges in the city can now receive additional training from the Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) Manipal, just at the click of a mouse. A new e-learning facility launched as part of MAHE’s new Digital Campus on Thursday, will provide medical students in the first and second year MBBS with supplementary education material online, to support their regular college curriculum.

TechTree: Bangalore-based WeP Peripherals has launched its new TOP-UPS under the brand name “Bloom”. TOP-UPS is designed by Shining Emotional Surplus, an international management consultancy company, at its Bangalore center. This is the fist product under the “Bloom” brand name.

The new TOP-UPS is expected to revolutionize the way UPS is treated by all. It aims to raise the status of UPS from its current below-the-working-desk level to that of being part-of-the-working-desktop. The new system incorporates value-added features such as a mobile phone charger, clock, and CD rack among others.

The TOP-UPS’ 600 VA UPS supports 2 PCs simultaneously, connects easily to a 17-inch monitor, handles voltage variations from 140V to 280V, conserves battery with the Intelligent Sleep Mode feature, supports cold start, and protects the modem via the Modem Protection feature.