News

IndianExpress: Faced with a fuel shortage in the city following a ‘‘no purchase campaign’’ by the privately-owned petrol pumps, district collector Prabhakar Deshmukh invoked the Essential Commodities Act on Monday. ‘‘The district administration will take over 29 private pumps in the urban area and 11 pumps in the outskirts from Monday night. They will become operational by Tuesday morning,’’ he said. Deshmukh said these pumps would be operated under police protection.

The pumps under the Federation of All Maharashtra Petrol Diesel Associations have gone on a ‘‘no purchase campaign’’ from Sunday midnight in protest against the 32 per cent sales tax levied on transport fuel in the State. At least 90 per cent or 170 petrol pumps in Pune are attached to the federation.

IndianExpress: In what can only be described a brazen con job, a gang of three decamped with the briefcase of Michael Gilbert D’Souza, a 71-year-old resident of Eden Garden society at Viman Nagar, containing Rs 15.96 lakh in cash. The theft scene was played out in the full view of other customers at the busy East Street branch of State Bank of India on Monday around 12 noon.

The incident took place when D’Souza, a distributor of tractors at Shrirampur in Ahmednagar district, had gone to deposit the money in his account. According to inspector of Cantonment police station Krishna Magdoom, D’Souza fell for perhaps one of the oldest tricks in the book - he left the briefcase containing Rs 16 lakh unattended while trying to pick up a few currency notes of Rs-10 denomination that were scattered on the floor.

IndianExpress:  Faced with an alarming decline in girl child, the government and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has now turned to the Indian Medical Association (IMA) to curb the menace of sex determination tests. The agenda: To sensitise the doctors and make them take it up as a personal mission to avoid these tests.

In the city, the IMA has joined hands with the Pune Municipal Corporation to ‘save the girl child’. As a first step, a public programme to create awareness about saving the girl child will be held on Wednesday at Shaniwarwada, according to IMA city branch president Vaijayanti Patwardhan.

IndianExpress: Mayor Rajani Tribhuvan’s August 22 warning to resign, civic activists moving court, civic officials themselves expressing dissatisfaction and politicos lashing out at the Pune Municipal Corporation for failing to repair the city’s roads notwithstanding, their condition has only gone from bad to worse.

It took just three days of rain to wash away all the tar brushing that the civic administration had recently done on a war footing.

IndianExpress: Following a Newsline report about problems faced by commuters while travelling in Pune Municipal Transport (PMT) buses, officials are eager to remedy the situation.

Speaking to Newsline, PMT spokesperson D A Pardeshi said new buses will ply on roads where the demand is high.

He said the number of buses plying in areas like Karve Road, Sinhagad Road, Katraj, Upper Indira Nagar, Pashan, Sangvi and Nagar Road will be increased.

DailyTech: Researchers at Intel and the University of California, Santa Barbara have announced
the world’s first Hybrid Silicon Laser, or HSL. An HSL is a silicon-based laser emitting device. According to Intel, creating a laser emitting silicon chip is a breakthrough that will propel the world of computers into the light-based transmission era.

Called Indium Phosphide, the material contains properties that allow it to emit light when voltage is applied. Intel researchers were able to integrate Indium Phosphide into traditional silicon chip manufacturing techniques, thereby creating a silicon-Indium Phoshide hybrid chip — one that could process traditional electrical signals and transmit laser light. The laser light generated by an HSL chip could be used to transmit data and thus power other silicon photonic devices said Intel.

TechTree: At an event held in Mumbai today, the National Informatics Centre (NIC) announced a tie-up with IBM to power the “National Portal” for Government services.

The enhanced portal, based on open standards and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) will offer citizens anytime, anywhere delivery of government services. It will provide a “single point entry” for government information and services, resulting in greater transparency and responsiveness.

Under the tie-up, IBM with its global experience, will make the portal more user friendly, secure, and scalable. The portal aims at adding breakthrough features such as search, personalization, and localization of content to suit diverse requirements of citizens.

TechTree: At an event today, Dell launched its OptiPlex 745 desktop computer, positioned as the first in a series of business desktops re-designed for enhanced performance, manageability, security, and power savings. Dell is confident the new desktop will help consumers reduce electricity consumption and save money.

Speaking at the launch, Rajan Anandan, vice president & general manager - sales & marketing, Dell India, said, “Dell continues to simplify operations and deliver greater efficiencies for customers, so they can focus on growth and reducing IT complexities. The new OptiPlex line-up exemplifies Dell’s leadership in delivering customer-driven, standards-based solutions.”

BetaNews: Adobe on Monday introduced version 8 of its ubiquitous Acrobat PDF software as part of a minor update to its Creative Suite. The new release brings with it Web conferencing functionality incorporated from Macromedia Breeze.

In recent years, Adobe has endeavored to turn Acrobat from simple PDF creation software into a complete platform for digital publishing - even adding support for 3D imaging. Now, the company is looking to hook businesses with collaboration features.