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IndianExpress: Having won 25 orders from ayurveda doctors and practitioners for its software - Ayusoft — Pune-based Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) has found global takers for it. At the recently concluded second World Ayurveda Congress, it was the turn of the US-based National Institute of Health (NIH) and multinational cosmetics giant L’Oreal to approach CDAC for customisation and further product development of Ayusoft.

“Representatives of NIH and L’Oreal have evoked keen interest in the product and want to further develop it through joint collaborations,” chief investigator of the project Medha Dhurandhar said. Besides these two organisations, a Malaysian company too has shown interest in Ayusoft. “We already have had six meetings with these prospective overseas clients,” Dhurandhar said.

The software helps ayurveda doctors to take accurate decisions during diagnosis

IndianExpress: The state of roads in the city has made the Pune Municipal Corporation the target of criticism. Waking up to the need to find out the reasons for the deteriorating road conditions, the civic body has decided to follow Indian Road Congress (IRC) norms on carrying out various tests to ascertain worthiness of roads.

The civic authorities have began undertaking California Bearing Ratio (CBR) laboratory test and Benkelman Beam Deflection Test (BBDT) to ascertain the condition of several roads. According to IRC norms, CBR tests must be carried out whenever a new road is constructed. Similarly, the BBDT is required when a road is resurfaced.
 
These tests are meant for strengthening of existing and newly-laid roads. However, the civic body never carried out such tests except for those being reconstructed under PMC’s Integrated Road Development Project

IndianExpress: Traffic on the Mumbai-Pune expressway and Mumbai-Pune National Highway-4 was thrown out of gear for over 20 hours since late Tuesday night after an 100-tonne generator slipped off a trailer and fell on the road near Amrutanjan Bridge on the Bhor Ghat section.

Highway Safety Patrol officials said the Mumbai-Pune corridor, which was closed for traffic after the mishap on Tuesday night, could not be opened till Wednesday evening. They said the delay in opening the road for vehicles was due to non-availability of a heavy duty crane to lift the generator that blocked the road. They said decision of summoning a crane from Mumbai was taken on Wednesday evening.

IndianExpress: The wait for the Pune Municipal Transport’s (PMT) new buses just got longer. The transport body — it had placed an order with Ashok Leyland for 200 new buses about two months ago — is now in a tight spot with the Cosmos Bank, which had earlier agreed to sanction a Rs 40 crore loan, backing out. So, the transport body is now considering other banks for a loan. Additional Municipal Commissioner (Special) and Nilima Marie Kerketta said the loan was cancelled as the PMT did not agree with certain terms and conditions laid by Cosmos Bank.

The Cosmos Bank had initially agreed to give a loan of Rs 40 crore at an interest rate of 8.9 per cent to the PMT, which had been cleared by the state government. According to sources, the Cosmos Bank backed out of giving the loan to PMT due to its poor financial ability. Kerketta said the PMT was in the process to finalise the deal with Central Bank. “Talks are in the final stage. Once the Central Bank gives its rate of interest, we would finalise the deal.’’

TechTree: Lenovo has announced the ThinkPad X60 Tablet, a new convertible tablet PC with two new screen choices and other innovative features like dynamic screen rotation.

The company says the ThinkPad X60 Tablet offers new, combined MultiView/MultiTouch screen features in a convertible tablet PC, thus giving users the power to compute more naturally, whether working in the field or in the office.

The ThinkPad X60 Tablet has a 12-inch MultiView indoor/outdoor, anti-reflective/anti-glare display that helps increase viewability in multiple environments. This screen choice comes combined with the new MultiTouch feature that allows users to move the cursor with their pen or finger, making interaction with the ThinkPad Tablet PC a natural fit.

BBCNews: The tangle of cables and plugs needed to recharge today’s electronic gadgets could soon be a thing of the past.

US researchers have outlined a relatively simple system that could deliver power to devices such as laptop computers or MP3 players without wires.

The concept exploits century-old physics and could work over distances of many metres, the researchers said.

Although the team has not built and tested a system, computer models and mathematics suggest it will work.