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Indianexpress: THE Mahatma’s back-to-the-village slogan has found a following in the University of Pune. Beginning 2007, thousands of students, teaching and non-teaching staff of the University’s affiliated colleges will join the government and NGOs to transform rural Maharashtra.

Called the Samartha Bharat Abhiyaan, the effort will involve all 408 colleges affiliated to the UoP in the three districts of Pune, Ahmednagar and Nashik. Each college will adopt one village in the vicinity, and work towards a 12-point development programme.

“This movement will involve nearly 5.35 lakh students, teachers and non-teaching staff, who will work with the NGOs and the government framework in the adopted village. A system will be developed wherein students can volunteer to visit the village every weekend in batches,” said University Vice Chancellor Narendra Jadhav.

Initially, students and teachers will visit the villages regularly and carry out socio-economic surveys at the ground level. “Four to five areas would be identified, where there is crying need, and these can then be taken up on a priority basis,” said Jadhav. One such priority area could be communal harmony, he said. Guidance can also be provided to women on formation of Self Help Groups (SHGs).

IndianExpress: PEOPLE travelling between Gultekdi and Bibvewadi areas and Swargate were forced to face inconvenience on Saturday morning as the Nationalist Congress Party’s leadership interviewed aspiring candidates for the upcoming civic elections at the Nisarga Mangal Karyalaya opposite Chhatrapati Shivaji Market Yard at Gultekdi.

Massive snarls were witnessed on the much sought Pune-Satara Road, Shivneri Road, Jawaharlal Nehru Road and Kondhawa Road due to processions taken out by the aspiring candidates to show their strength.

The drive from Katraj to Jedhe Chowk at Swargate, which normally takes 20 to 25 minutes, took atleast 45 minutes during the peak morning and evening hours. The situation on the highway was worsened due to the ongoing work of Pune Municipal Corporation’s Bus Rapid Transit System pilot.

There was traffic congestion in bylanes in the area as party workers had parked their cars, two-wheelers and tempos in the lanes, eating up spacious carriageway. As a result, commuters found themselves stranded in serpentine queues for several minutes. The worst-hit were people going to office and students returning home after attending schools.

The Shivneri Path, on which the Nisarga Mangal Karyalaya is located, wore a festive look as aspiring candidates, clad in spotless white khadi, descended there with supporters, to be interviewed by District Guardian Minister Ajit Pawar and Power Minister Dilip Walse Patil. The party leadership on Saturday interviewed aspiring candidates for 75 out of 144 wards

IndianExpress: WHEN it comes to spreading awareness, actions speak louder than words, and that is what was shown by the students of the Garware College, as they carried out a massive cleanliness drive on the banks of the river Mutha near the Z Bridge at Deccan on Saturday.

The cleanup was undertaken under the banner of Friends Society, by nearly 60 students of microbiology from Garware College. “We wanted to make people aware about the need to keep their environment clean. We chose the Z Bridge because that is where the Rambo Circus is being held, and many people come there,” said Friends Society coordinator Karishma Lamba.

The Friends Society had earlier teamed up with other organisations to participate in a massive river-cleaning programme as part of the International Coastal Clean up on September 30. This time around, the cleanup was on a smaller scale, but with a difference. “During our last clean-ups, we had collected all the garbage and given it to the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), who segregated it for us. Today, we decided to make the PMC’s job easier by segregating the garbage on the site itself,” said Lamba.

So, the students spread out in teams of five, and while collecting garbage, separated the biodegradable waste from the non-biodegradable waste. “All the non-biodegradable waste was placed directly in the garbage cans provided to us by the PMC, and the rest was placed in garbage bags,” said Garware College student Amar Parvate.

IndianExpress: The traffic police have cautioned revellers that those who drive in inebriated condition will have to shell out Rs 2,000 or may be jailed for a term of up to six months. Rash driving will attract a fine of Rs 200.

A press communiqué issued by the traffic police outlined the steps to be taken. Mobile squads of doctors will be on patrol for a faster medical check-up of those caught driving in inebriated condition.

The traffic police will barricade major chowks including Khandojibaba, Jhanshichi Rani, Veer Chapekar, Simla Office and Engineering College chowks to avoid mishaps. Similarly, the Jangli Maharaj, Fergusson, MG and Koregaon Park roads will also be barricaded.

This year, the traffic policemen will announce at the eleventh hour, ‘No Tolerance zone’ after gauging the conditions at different locations.

Squads consisting of personnel from traffic police, highway safety police, Pune rural traffic police and Regional Transport Office will be patrolling the city from December 31 evening to the wee hours of January 1 morning. The officials will check licences and book drivers speaking on mobile phones while driving. Those carrying more liquor bottles than allowed as per their permit will be booked under Bombay Prohibition Act.

BBCNews: The mysteries of the Antarctic deep will be probed by a new vessel capable of plunging 6.5km (four miles) down.

Isis, the UK’s first deep-diving remotely operated vehicle (ROV), will be combing the sea-bed in the region in its inaugural science mission.

Researchers hope to uncover more about the effects of glaciers on the ocean floor, and also find out about the animals that inhabit these waters.

The mission begins in mid-January and will last for about three weeks.

While the scientists and engineers begin their long journey to the Antarctic at the start of January, Isis left the UK shores in November and has only just arrived at its destination.

Once unpacked from its containers, the ROV will be placed aboard the British Antarctic Survey’s ship - the RSS James Clark Ross - ready to explore the Marguerite Bay area on the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula.

BBCNews: The creator of the Wikipedia encyclopedia is turning his attention to search engines.
Jimmy Wales, the man behind the collaborative online reference work, is planning to create a “people-powered” search site.

The Search Wikia project will not rely on computer algorithms to determine how relevant webpages are to keywords.

Instead the results generated by the search engine will be decided and edited by humans.

The project will stand apart from the Wikipedia encyclopedia but will be overseen by the Wikimedia Foundation - which is headed by Mr Wales.

Like the Wikipedia, the search site will rely on a large community of members to create and run it.

Announcing the project Mr Wales said it was needed because the existing search systems for the net were “broken”.

They were broken, he said, because they lacked freedom, community, accountability and transparency.

TechTree: The creator of the Wikipedia encyclopedia is turning his attention to search engines.
Jimmy Wales, the man behind the collaborative online reference work, is planning to create a “people-powered” search site.

The Search Wikia project will not rely on computer algorithms to determine how relevant webpages are to keywords.

Instead the results generated by the search engine will be decided and edited by humans.

The project will stand apart from the Wikipedia encyclopedia but will be overseen by the Wikimedia Foundation - which is headed by Mr Wales.

Like the Wikipedia, the search site will rely on a large community of members to create and run it.

Announcing the project Mr Wales said it was needed because the existing search systems for the net were “broken”.

They were broken, he said, because they lacked freedom, community, accountability and transparency.

BBCNews: Computer and electronics firm Apple has filed its financial reports on the last possible day, following delays linked to the backdating of stock options.
The firm said it took a charge of $84m (£43m) for misdated options, some of which were awarded to boss Steve Jobs.

But Apple reiterated that its probe had found no misconduct by any current management, including Mr Jobs.

Like many other tech firms, Apple has admitted that some options awarded to executives had had their dates changed.

The effect of such a change could make options more lucrative when cashed in, if the changed date produced a lower price at which they could be exercised.

Many of the more than 150 firms implicated in backdating have been investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Apple said it was providing both the SEC and the Department of Justice with details of its internal inquiry.

The company also reported its results for the year ending in September 2006, which showed a 39% increase in sales to $19.3bn.

Indianexpress: District guardian minister Ajit Pawar has warned ticket-seekers against rebellion. “Do not rebel even if you have been denied candidature. Work together to ensure that Pune’s leader is a Marathi-speaking Maharashtrian,’’ he said on Friday.

He was speaking at a rally of party workers at Quartergate, a day before the Nationalist Congress Party was to begin interviewing candidates for the civic polls on February 1. “Even if the candidate is rejected, he will have to support the official party nominee.’’ Power minister Dilip Walse Patil who maintained the refrain has appealed to party workers to remain united.

Pawar said, “When I said Pune should be led by only Maharashtrians, it was alleged that I was speaking about the Maratha community. The NCP does not believe in regionalism. However, people have every right to be proud of their region,” he said

He was cautious enough to explain that his sons-of-soil stance was limited to only political leadership. “Pune is an IT-BT destination. We want big business houses to come to Pune. We welcome them and would give all cooperation. People from other states can live a dignified life in Pune but the centre of the development would be Marathi maanus and not people from Karnataka,’’ he said.
 

Indianexpress: The Pune Jewellers’ Association on Friday brought an end to the controversy they raked up over barring burqa-clad women from entering their stores by tending an apology. “Our statements were wrongly misconstrued and sent wrong signals to society. We apologise in case it has hurt the sentiments of the Muslim community,” association president Fatechand Rank said.

He said they had only sought the state government’s permission after a spate of thefts by burqa-clad robbers. “There are other means to put security in place. We will consult Muslim women on the measures to be taken for checking them before entering jewellery shops,” he said after leading a protest march to the police commissionerate.

All India Gems and Jewellery Federation president Ashok Meinwala also reiterated that it was not their intention to hurt any community’s sentiments. “We were focusing on security and certainly not on burqa-clad women. We did not intend to hurt the Muslims. We have high regards for the community and its culture,” he said.