News

IndianExpress:   Yashvantrao Chavan Pratishthan and Bhoomata Charitable Trust will be holding a day-long seminar on pension schemes for senior citizens.

A pension scheme has recently been formulated by S Shridhar, President and Managing Director of National Housing Bank. The seminar will discuss the extension of the scheme to farmers . ‘‘Just as the policy will be implemented for senior citizens, it can also be extended to the farmers,’’ said Dr Mukundrao Gaikwad, an expert in agriculture. The seminar will take place on September 14 and would see the participation of farmers, senior citizens, editors, journalists and bank officials .

IndianExpress: Four persons, including a one-year-old boy and his mother, were killed when a truck dashed their car near Somatane Phata on the expressway on Wednesday evening.

The Mumbai-Pune corridor was closed for traffic for over four hours as both vehicles caught fire after the accident. Police said the identities of the deceased have been ascertained as one- year-old Jasan Vipul Jain, his mother Bhavana, their relative Mitesh Mehta and car driver Reddy.

Police said both vehicles were heading towards Pune from Mumbai when the mishap took place around 6.30 pm.

IndianExpress: The Nigdi Police has rearrested mother-daughter duo Laxmi Mohan Asade (38) and Jyoti Mohan Asade (18) from Solapur. The duo, both residents of Chinchwadgaon are allegedly involved in cheating senior citizens and in over 30 thefts in the city. They had escaped from the Outside Patients Department (OPD) of Sassoon Hospital on Monday when they were brought for a routine medical check-up.According to the police, the duo operated in Ganpeth and Shaniwar Peth areas of the city.

IndianExpress: The special anti dacoity cell of the Pune Rural Police has arrested 15 dacoits and also recovered gold ornaments and cash worth over Rs 11.5 lakh. According to the police,the dacoits have carried out murders and dacoities in Kolhapur,Sangli, Nasik and Thane Districts.Pune Rural Police Superintendent Vishwas Nangre Patil said,‘‘ The dacoits were traced and arrested from Talasari,Kalamb, Beed, Osmanabad, Ahmednagar and Latur.” He added that the dacoits had also molested several women. Two women arrested for cheating.

IndianExpress: Pimpri-Chinchwad, which is known much for its industries and expanding greenery, could well be on the global map in a year’s time. With a click of the mouse, the entire topography with minute details of the 513 sq km area will be available for viewing.

The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation has tied up with the Science and Technology Park (STP), Pune, to put the town on the map with the help of a software called quick bird. All roads, trees, slums, railway lines, bus stops and also statistical and contact details of various government organisations, corporates and educational institutions could be viewed once the project — PCMC Geographic Information System for Dynamic Agency (GIDSA) — goes online.

TechTree: IBM has unveiled the business finder technology, a next-generation, real-time, presence-based mobile resources management technology developed by IBM’s India Research Laboratory.

The business finder technology empowers a consumer to find and use the nearest, most highly rated, and available service vendors like plumbers, electricians, carpenters, or doctors.

Speaking about the technology, Daniel M Dias, director, IBM India Research Laboratory, said, “The business finder technology combines sophisticated geographic information system (GIS) applications and data analysis with mobile telephone networks to provide information, wherever and whenever to a consumer who is looking for a specific near-by service. This technology has the potential to provide significant benefits to both consumers and businesses of all sizes

TechTree: According to reports, Tachyon Technologies, a software company, has developed an all-new technology named “Quillpad” that allows users to send e-mails by typing in Indian languages.

The new technology has been developed by two technocrats; K S Sreeram and Ram Prakash H, founders of Tachyon Technologies, which was started in the year 2000.

With Artificial Intelligence (machine learning techniques), Quillpad can be used not only for writing emails, but also for browsing the Internet or any other document containing Indian languages. Also, while browsing, it automatically learns the language patterns.

According to Tachyon, this learning is just one-time, after which the trained set of patterns can be deployed by all users of Quillpad technology. The newly developed technology enables predictive transliteration.

BetaNews: Microsoft on Thursday will release a Technical Refresh build of Office 2007 Beta 2, which originally debuted to the public in late May. The update brings to the table a number of performance and reliability improvements in all Office applications.

By any measure, the beta program for Office 2007 has been an astounding success for Microsoft. The company has counted 3.5 million people downloading the pre-release code, and has gathered a vast amount of feedback by tapping into the general public.

Like Beta 2, the Technical Refresh will be available for public download at a cost of $1.50, a nominal fee Microsoft has added in order to recoup some of the distribution fees associated with the beta. Current Beta 2 customers, however, will receive the update free of charge

BetaNews: Google on Wednesday plans to deliver an update to its Google Earth application that includes content from a number of premium sources. The features are overlaid atop areas in a map so users can learn about their significance.

Perhaps the most notable addition is before and after imagery provided by the United Nations Environmental Program, which shows 100 areas of extreme environmental degradation around the world. Users can click to see how the Earth has changed in the past 30 years, primarily for the worse, and learn about crisis zones.