News

IndianExpress:  2.45 PM: Lohegaon Airport. In heavy downpour, a white private jet owned by the Singhanias touches down on the runway. Closely watched by heavily armed security personnel, the aircraft taxis to the apron area and stops besides two vehicles — a white Mercedes van and a metallic gray Toyota Innova.

There is expectation in the air that perhaps Hollywood star couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have arrived. For the next 15 minutes, as rain lashes the entire area and with visibility down to a few metres, there is absolutely no sign of the aircraft door opening. With no respite from the rain, finally the aircraft door opens and a man — their personal security guard — walks out to check out the arrangements with the Central Industrial Security Force personnel who are stationed there.

IndianExpress: DISTRICT Collector Prabhakar Deshmukh has ordered a probe into how the land in Pune district allotted to 125 educational and social organisations by the State government in the past few years is being used.

The decision comes close on the heels of a controversy over Pune Municipal Corporation’s standing committee’s decision to allot prime land at Lohegaon, earmarked for a playground in the Development Plan, to Symbiosis Society.

IndianExpress: FROM taking new knowledge to students’ doorsteps and talking about nanotechnology and mapping of the human genome, these 70 and 80 years old scientists are now the driving forces behind the ‘Moving Academy of Medicine and Biomedicine’ that is hosting a unique ‘Science Congress’. This is for the first time that a national conference of medical students’ research got underway on Thursday at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA).

IndianExpress: COME February, and a fleet of 200 new Pune Municipal Transport (PMT) buses with new air suspension buses with low floors and luxury seats that will hit the roads promise a more comfortable travel for commuters.

The PMT authorities have been seeking these buses for long but had to wait for the proposal to be okayed by the civic body and the State government as the civic body wanted to hire instead of purchasing the buses. Two months ago, a decision was taken on purchasing 200 buses and hiring another 150.

IndianExpress: TO hold on its subscribers in the CDMA category, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) will be upgrading its network in its Pune revenue circle. As of now, the old network doesn’t allow subscribers the privilege to use services like SMS and has low band-width.

‘‘We will replace the old machinery of the CDMA systems with the latest systems having a capacity of 25,000 lines. The requirement has been already been sent for approval by higher-ups,’’ said GK Agarwal, Principal General Manager, BSNL, Pune.

IndianExpress: THREE staffers of Sher-e-Punjab Hotel near Pune Railway Station who fell into a manhole near Alankar theatre around 9 pm on Thursday were rescued. Fire brigade personnel with 1066 emergency team from Jehangir Hospital with Dr Faiyaz Pasha and a paramedic went down the 20 foot drain with oxygen cylinders , revived them and brought them out . The trio were attempting to clear the choked drainage of their hotel. One of them opened the manhole lid and fell into it when he was hit by the gas emanating from the manhole. His colleagues who tried to rescue him also inhaled the gas and fell in. All three are in the ICU at Sassoon Hospital..

TechTree: At an event in Delhi today, Samsung Telecommunications India announced the launch of its SGH-P310, a credit card sized phone.

According to Samsung, the SGH-P310 illustrates the company’s sensitivity to the needs of the country’s fashion-conscious consumers for mobile phones with stylish exteriors, cutting-edge features, and longer battery life.

The SGH-P310, which is a mere 8.5mm thin, with an elegant chrome and black exterior, resembles a sleek and smart credit card, and is intended to attract fashion-conscious business professionals

TechTree: At an event held in Mumbai today, the Director of the Taipei World Trade Center, Thomas Chang, was joined by heads of leading technology companies in announcing the growing importance of India as a global technology hub, and an attractive investment destination to boot.

The gathering was addressed by a distinguished panel of technocrats comprising K R Naik, Chairman and Managing Director, D-Link India; S Raghu, National Manager (Programs), Acer India; Andrew Tsui, Managing Director, Asustek India; P Vyas, Managing Director, Gigabyte Technology India; and Bill Wu, General Manager, Hi-Touch Imaging Technologies

TechTree: Autodesk has launched the “Educational Solution Sets 2007 (ESS 2007)” program targeting educational institutions across the country.

The company says that its ESS 2007 is a unique program that provides the complete set of the latest Autodesk Software, Courseware, Subscription, and other benefits in a single package to meet the curriculum requirements of educational institutes focusing on architecture, civil, and mechanical engineering.