News

Indianexpress: The city seems to be finally on track to get its own independent single runway international airport as the state government has appointed a private consultant to see the project through and initiated the process to notify close to 1,000 hectares of land near Rajgurunagar for the airport. Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC), the nodal agency for developing the greenfield airport, has appointed Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Limited (IL&FS) as consultants and it will notify the required land within a month for fast track clearance of the project.

With the new site — nicknamed Chakan II — receiving the vital in-principle approval from the Indian Air Force (IAF) in the form of a letter on November 9, MIDC is concurrently working on several fronts to speed up the project. This gains significance as the earlier project to develop an airport at Chakan was scrapped at an advanced stage after IAF refused to grant permission.

“The in-principle approval by IAF has come as a major boost for the project. A decision has been taken by the high-powered committee to notify the land for the new site. Several steps are going on concurrently and once the land has been acquired, we will be able to move fast,” MIDC chief executive officer Rajiv Jalota told Pune Newsline.

Indianexpress: To bring together villagers and facilitate an exchange of ideas, Suyash Charitable Trust, an NGO founded by Minilec-Intech Group of Companies, has planned a two-day workshop of tribal farmers from across India in Pune on December 29 and 30. The workshop is aimed at bringing together 200 villagers, who would present the various village development activities done at their village through Suyash, as well as plan for the next year.

The sessions will enable successful farmers to share their success stories and provide guidance to others from various parts of the country. Talking about the organisation and its activities, Y G Ghaisas, chairman and managing director of Intech Group said: “Through the organisation, we impart training and education to these tribals about the techniques of modern farming, use of quality seeds organic fertilisers, water and land management, finance and marketing of agricultural produce. This would enable them to become self-sufficient in their own villages and reduce their migration to cities.”

Suyash has been working with these objectives in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Orissa and Chhattisgarh. Through their initiatives, tribal youth were brought to Pune and given training and guidance in good farming practices. These trained volunteers, in turn, took up the task of improving their own status as well as that of fellow neighbours in their village.

Indianexpress:  Come New Year and the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation would give a bonanza for commuters. The corporation plans to increase the frequency of AC buses on Pune-Dadar and Pune-Thane routes as well as introduction of Mahabuses on Pune-Kolhapur, Pune-Borivali, Pune-Thane and Pune-Dadar routes.

MSRTC managing director Kishor Gajbhiye said two more AC buses would start plying on Pune-Dadar and Swargate-Thane routes each from the first week of the January. At present, 15 AC buses ply on Pune-Dadar route and three on Swargate-Thane route. Ticket reservation facility for the AC buses would be available at the termini at Dadar, Pune Railway Station, Vandana Theatre in Thane and Swargate.

Besides, Gajbhiye said white-coloured and more luxurious Mahabuses would be introduced on Pune-Kolhapur, Pune-Borivali, Pune-Thane and Pune-Dadar routes in addition to the green air-conditioned Shivneri buses. These 35-seater Mahabuses will have air suspension and video facility. The Mahabuses are already plying on Mumbai-Panjim route.

Technews: For WiMax operators, product suppliers, and software vendors, the technology represents a huge opportunity to shake up the telecom market — one that Clearwire and NextWave are hoping investors will be quick to appreciate. Will investors snap up Clearwire and NextWave’s offerings? The answer could differ by company, even though, at first glance, the two outfits appear to be very similar.

On Dec. 18 and 19, two wireless upstarts — NextWave and Clearwire — filed to go public with the Securities & Exchange Commission. Based on their S-1 forms, both companies hope to make their fortunes on WiMax, a broadband-wireless technology expected to start making significant inroads in the telecom market next year.

Market researcher Gartner (NYSE: IT)  Dataquest expects the North American WiMax services market to swell from 30,000 connections in 2006 to 21.2 million by 2011.

What’s the appeal of WiMax? The wireless technology could provide consumers with a new source of high-speed broadband services, threatening to displace digital subscriber lines (DSL), cable modems, and today’s slower cellular and WiFi  services.

For WiMax operators, product suppliers, and software vendors, the technology represents a huge opportunity to shake up the telecom market — one that Clearwire and NextWave are hoping investors will be quick to appreciate

Technews: Mac-based software remains very viable for small business and enterprise users, noted Laura DiDio, an analyst at Yankee Group, particularly in specialized applications such as graphics, marketing and advertising. Key to getting more exposure for Mac-based software is the ability of software writers to encourage business users of Windows software to migrate to the Mac.

There has been a recent shift in consumer and business response to the Macintosh  platform. The old thinking, largely fostered by the PC industry, was that although Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL)  platform might be better for some tasks, Mac users were constrained by a limited choice of software.

That view seems to be fading away, though. “The common perception of Mac software has changed in the last few years,” said Ryan Kish, vice president of marketing  at AEC Software, which offers project management technology. “We are seeing more interest in Mac software for use in small-to-medium businesses, as well as the larger enterprises.”

A driving force for this uptick in Mac software sales , he suggested, has been a growing response to Apple’s new marketing methods.

One noticeable change: It is now quite common to see major software players develop applications for both platforms, he noted.

Technews: The Linux coders acknowledge that DRM technology, used by media and distribution companies to control content, may sometimes inhibit fair use or compatibility, calling it “deeply disturbing.” However, they also argue that the FSF goes too far in trying to control other software that interacts with GPLv3-licensed software.

The GPL  is a widely used free and open source software (FOSS) license. Its second version, GPLv2, currently covers the Linux kernel. Developers and maintainers who took part in the poll wholeheartedly agreed with the position earlier taken by Torvalds, who abstained.

In “The Dangers and Problems with GPLv3,” James E.J. Bottomley, Greg Kroah-Hartman, Dave Jones, Andrew Morton and others argue that GPLv2 has served Linux well and that provisions of GPLv3 would restrict use and development of free and open source software.

TechTree: With X’Mas upon the world, Nintendo is gifting fans an opportunity to download Super Mario Bros via the Wii Shop Channel for 500 Wii Points or $5 (Rs 225 approx).

Originally released for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1985, Super Mario Bros now joins the 33 odd games already available on the Wii Shop Channel.

Along with Super Mario Bros, Nintendo is making 4 other games available - beginning today: Street Fighter II: The World Warrior (Super NES, 1-2 players, 800 Wii Points); Super Castlevania IV (Super NES, 1 player, 800 Wii Points); Toe Jam & Earl (Sega Genesis, 1-2 players, 800 Wii Points); and R-TYPE (TurboGrafx16, 1-2 players, 800 Wii Points).

Starting Jan 1, 2007, two more games will be made available: namely, Baseball (NES, 1-2 players, 500 Wii Points); and Urban Champion (NES, 1-2 players, 500 Wii Points).

Basis the game specs, downloaded titles can be played on the Wii game system from sytem memory using either the GameCube, WiiMote, or the Nintendo Classic Controller.

Hereon, Nintendo plans to add new games to its Shop Channel every Monday at 9 am (Pacific time).