News

IndianExpress: The three-member panel constituted by the Prime Minister to look into the demands of Vanrai founder and veteran Congress leader Mohan Dharia’s demand of solving debt-ridden farmers’ woes may submit an interim report to the PM before November 14. The committee headed by National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) chairman Y S P Thorat was constituted after 82-year-old Dharia threatened to go on an indefinite hunger strike if his demands including waiver of loans and reducing interest rates were not met before November 14.

“We will hopefully submit the interim report before Dharia starts his hunger strike,” Thorat said after holding a two-and-a-half-hour meeting with Dharia here on Wednesday. The other members include R Radhakrishna, director of Mumbai-based Indira Gandhi Institute of Development and Research, and Nabard’s chief general manager N Srinivasan. The final report is to be submitted by November 30.

IndianExpress:  Bharatiya Janata Party’s plans of strengthening its position in the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), taking advantage of the rift in the Congress and the tussle between the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress are likely to go off track with the murder of Ankush Landge, the leader of BJP in the PCMC and the party’s state executive committee member who was murdered on Tuesday night.

Presently the BJP has 15 corporators in house while its ally Shiv Sena has 11. The NCP — it is the single largest party in the house — has 36 seats and Congress has 31.

IndianExpress: The long-standing family rivalry between the Landges and the Dhawades that turned bitter on Tuesday night with the gruesome murder of PCMC corporator and BJP leader Ankush Landge turned worse when two persons were stabbed to death and then set on fire in the wee hours of Wednesday.

Chandrakant Dhawade, a 50-year-old schoolteacher, and an unidentified man were stabbed to death and then set on fire by an irate mob of Landge supporters, the police said. The mob that went on the rampage also torched eight houses, three two-wheelers and ransacked 20 houses in the area. At least 11 people were injured in the mob frenzy and a case of murder and rioting has been booked against unidentified people.

IndianExpress: Nikesh Ramesh Jain, the 22-year-old son of a Nigdi-based businessman was released by his kidnappers on Wednesday night after they realised that the police were on their trail. According to Pune rural police, Nikesh, son of Ramesh Tejraj Jain, was kidnapped by two unidentified persons on Tuesday morning, from his shop at Chikhli in Dehu Road. The kidnappers called his father who was visiting Thane, demanded Rs 10 lakh and threatened to kill Nikesh if the ransom was not paid.They made Nikesh talk to his father.

Jain immediately rushed to Pune and lodged a complaint at the Dehu Road police station. Pune rural police superintendent Vishwas Nangre Patil sent a team led by PI (Crime) Bhausaheb Andhalkar to nab the kidnappers. The team installed a phone logger on the GPRS system and tracked their location .

TechTree: IBM is reportedly foraying into the Digital Video Surveillance market, with the introduction of a Digital Video Surveillance (DVS) product code-named “S3″ (Smart Surveillance System).

S3 is a first-of-its-kind security technology created by IBM, and promises to be the industry’s most advanced digital surveillance technology.

According to IBM, S3 leverages the company’s hardware, software, research, and services to enable real-time access to critical security information, to detect patterns or search for particular attributes, as also alert authorities of any suspicious behavior.

TechTree: Recently, Gigabyte Technology India has launched the GA-8I945GZME Intel 945GZ Express chipset motherboard that promises exceptional performance and energy efficiency.

The new motherboard incorporates several new generation architectures including the latest dual core processors, dual-channel DDR2 memory, PCI-Express interface, and Intel Matrix Storage technology for improvement of storage reliability and performance.

Key specifications of the motherboard include: support for Intel Core 2 Duo/Pentium D Processor; Dual Channel DDR2 533 for advanced system performance; Integrated Intel Graphic Media Accelerator; Integrated new generation SATA 3Gb/s interface; Optimized Gigabit LAN connectivity; and Feature 8-channel Intel High Definition Audio.

TechTree: Dell has introduced its first notebook with AMD processor options; the Inspiron 1501.

Available in Arctic Silver and Alpine White, the Inspiron 1501 is targeted at both individuals and small to medium sized businesses.

Key features of the new notebook include: Mobile AMD Sempron/Turion 64 or Dual-core AMD Turion 64 X2; 15.4-inch wide-screen display with optional TrueLife technology; Wide aspect screen capable of offering 30 percent more viewable area as compared to standard aspect XGA displays; 512MB of shared memory and 60GB hard drive with the ability to upgrade to 2GB of memory and 80GB hard drive; integrated graphics with up to 256 MB of HyperMemory performance; Standard 3-in-1 media card reader for easy transfer of digital files from cameras and MP3 players; and Integrated wireless networking.

TechTree: Hutchison Essar and Microsoft have come together to announce a broad scale mobile services alliance in India. Building on the successful existing partnership between them, the two companies have agreed in principle to work together to provide mobile search and other key Windows Live services to the Hutch subscriber base of nearly more than 21 million.

According to sources, upon completion of the alliance, Hutch customers in India will be able to search for and access mobile content and information in a one-stop integrated search powered by Windows Live Search for mobile. This will include news, sports, entertainment, information, and more - directly from the World Wide Web. In addition, Hutch users will soon be able to search for local business listings and services for major Indian cities.

TechTree: At the recently concluded Mobile Wimax Summit 2006, Samsung Electronics unveiled a new mobile convergence device, the SPH-P9000 Deluxe MITs, which sports a unique three-way folding, and which, according to the company, is the world’s first WiMax device that doubles as a mobile phone.

This PDA-based device is capable of voice and multimedia data communications through Mobile Wimax technology. In fact it utilizes both Mobile Wimax as well as CDMA EV-DO connectivity.

The Wimax connectivity provides users with wireless access to the Internet, while CDMA EV-DO technology provides mobile phone connection for voice communication

TechTree: Enkay Technologies, authorised commercial business reseller for NEC Computers, has introduced the first one-touch video-conferencing enabled notebooks from NEC.

The notebooks; the NEC Versa E6210, and the NEC Versa E6200, feature the latest Intel Centrino Duo Mobile Technology with Intel Core 2 Duo mobile processor. Significantly, they feature a Skype One-Touch Activation button to enable better mobile computing, communications, and Internet applications, through the integrated digital Web Cam.

Ajit Thatte, chief executive officer and director, Enkay Technologies, said, “This is the world s first one-touch video conferencing notebook that is amazingly user friendly. A click is all that you need to start instant-on voice and video communication.”