News

IndianExpress: An out-of-court settlement between a private company and Pune Cantonment Board that has allegedly caused the board Rs 8-crore loss has now come under the Directorate of Defence Estates’ (DDE) scanner. A high level DDE team is probing the role of senior PCB officials in drawing up an unfavourable settlement with Bharat Forge Limited in 2004 regarding a dispute over property tax.

The settlement, which ‘resolved’ a 24-year-old dispute over increase in the Annual Rental Value (ARV) of the company’s properties in Mundhwa, resulted in Bharat Forge paying up just Rs 81 lakh as arrears which, sources say, amounted to over Rs 8 crore. The settlement also absolved Bharat Forge of paying any interest on the outstanding dues.

The settlement came even after the Pune District Court had dismissed five appeals by Bharat Forge against PCB’s decision to increase the company’s ARV in 2001. PCB entered into an out-of-court settlement after the company filed a writ petition in the Bombay High Court in 2004.

IndianExpress: While Congress MP Suresh Kalmadi played his trump card of the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) and claimed credit for the implementation of the project, his now arch rival, district guardian minister and Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar laid the card of the Metro rail for Pune region. The NCP came out strongly in support for the Metro going to the extent of saying that the Metro is a must and should not be opposed by any party.

The statement has come barely a month after Pawar’s party opposed the Pune Municipal Corporation’s BRT system. The proposal of approving the Detailed Project Report of the Metro rail that would cost Rs 2.10 crore, is scheduled for the Standing Committee meeting on Tuesday. While the PMC is to pay Rs 1.35 crore, the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation would have a share of Rs 65 crore. Pawar appealed all parties to co-operate and give their approval to the proposal. “I have got the approval from the PCMC and it is ready to give its financial share any time. Now we are only awaiting the PMC’s approval. I request you to approve the project so that the railways can begin the survey,’’ he said speaking at the function for laying the foundation stone of the PMC’s multi-storied parking complex at Moledina hall.

IndianExpress: Pune’s status as the preferred investment destination has got further impetus with over Rs 8,000-crore investment coming in through eight projects this year. The State in total has received Rs 33,415-crore investments for 34 projects.

“These projects represent several sectors and areas like Ranjangaon and Hinjewadi have benefited most from the inflow,” a State Ministry of Industries’ official said.

While the biggest investment has come from Hindustan Semiconductor — Rs 2,200 crore — the automobile industry will be pumping in the most. Bajaj Auto will invest Rs 2,000 crore in a greenfield project at Chakan, while General Motors will put in Rs 1,275 crore for its Talegaon facility. DaimlerChrysler is also ramping up its presence in the city by investing Rs 250 crore in a new unit.

IndianExpress: Chemicals worth Rs 3 crore were destroyed in a major fire that broke out at the factory of LK Chemicals Private Limited in Bhosari MIDC at 4 am on Monday.

No casualties have been reported. According to fire brigade officials,18 fire tenders and 40 water tankers from the Pune Municipal Corporation, Pune Cantonment Board, Dehu Ordnance Depot, Tata Motors and Bajaj Auto were rushed to the spot to control the fire, which took three hours to be put out.

Kiran Gawade, Chief Fire Officer, PCMC, said: “The reason behind the fire has not yet been ascertained as yet.”

He added that chemicals from different factories in the vicinity flowing into a nalla near the factory could have caused a reaction and resulted in the fire

IndianExpress: Gold ornaments and silver ware worth Rs 3.46 lakh were allegedly found stolen from the bank locker of a customer at the Bibvewadi Road Branch of Saraswati Co-operative bank on November 3.

Locker number 102 — it is registered in the name of Shubhangi Sameer Kale (36), a resident of Ganesh Nagar, Nashik — was found open and the jewellery missing.

According to the police, Shubhangi and her husband Sameer, a Reliance official, had come to deposit some jewellery into the locker when they found the locker open and the jewellery missing. “I handed a complaint letter to the bank manager but he refused to listen to us. He claimed the bank was not responsible for the theft. Bank officials later sought some time for investigations, but could not do much. Hence, we decided to approach the police and lodge a formal complaint,’’ said Shubhangi.

TechTree: The Google Toolbar 4 in Hindi is customizable, with new features that allow users to personalize their search experience, and browse all their favorite content more efficiently.

Google’s Toolbar application is a tool designed to make browsing and searching the Internet a breeze, the main thing about it being that users no longer need visit the Google homepage to access Google s vast search capabilities.

The Hindi Toolbar is complete with online bookmarks, enhanced search features, and new sharing capabilities; all in Hindi.

With a single click, users can create, label, and manage bookmarks for their favorite sites. What’s more, the bookmarks are saved to users’ Google accounts, and therefore, are accessible from just about any computer.
 

TechNews: Lycos on Monday unveiled a “watch and chat” video experience. Users can host their own Screening Rooms with Lycos Cinema and invite others to watch. The host controls the video experience. He or she can pause, rewind and fast-forward video streams, and chat with other Screening Room viewers

Our goal is to give users a totally unique viewing experience of high-quality video content they cannot find anywhere else,” said Lycos COO Brian Kalinowski. “Viewing video online becomes much more engaging and enjoyable when you can create a social experience involving friends and family.”

TechNews: Cingular has debuted BlackJack, a new Samsung-manufactured smartphone that runs Windows Mobile 5.0, in the United States. The ultra-thin BlackJack — said to be a response to Motorola’s Q — includes a QWERTY keyboard and is compatible with Cingular’s 3G-enabled BroadbandConnect service

Called “BlackJack,” this is Samsung’s first full-keyboard phone in its ultra slim product line — its answer to Verizon’s (NYSE: VZ)  increasingly popular Motorola (NYSE: MOT)  Q phone. For Cingular, the product introduction represents the first time the company has offered Windows Mobile on this particular phone design, IDC analyst Ryan Reith told TechNewsWorld, the last phone being a flip phone.

BBCNews: Computer giant Sun Microsystems says it will offer programming language Java to the open source community.
Java is used in more than 3.8 billion mobile phones, computers and other devices around the world.

The decision to release the code under an open licence means the world can now use, develop and share Java for free.

The same type of licence also covers the distribution of the core, or kernel, of the open source operating system Linux.