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Indianexpress: PUNE’S battle with air pollution is nowhere near the end with over 1,500 autorickshaws yet to convert to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) even though the deadline issued by the Environment Protection (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) ended on Sunday. Maharashtra Pollution Control Board member secretary Dilip Boralkar, in a press note, said the issue is slated to come up when EPCA chairman Bhule Lal and member Sunita Narain will come to Pune on January 7 to review compliance of EPCA directives.

The EPCA was appointed by the Supreme Court to suggest measures to reduce pollution levels in several cities, including Pune, in coordination with the State government and local authorities. Among other steps, it had recommended that the three-seater autorickshaws more than 15 years old should be converted to LPG.

At present, around 15,380 vehicles ply on LPG in the city. Of these, 3,280 are pre-1991 autos, 2,000 are post-1991 autos and 10,000 four-wheelers. An additional 4,397 auto-rickshaws were to convert to LPG by December 2006. Of these, some 3,000 autos have converted.

The failure of the 9,000-odd rickshaws to convert to LPG before the deadline has prompted the Bhure Lal committee to review the implementation of their suggestions.

The EPCA had extended the deadline on two earlier occasions after auto-rickshaw associations and RTO officials requested stating the crunch for LPG kits in the city as the Automotive Research Authority of India (ARAI) had not approved the LPG kits. The Bhure Lal Committee had directed the conversion of 4,500 rickshaws by June 2006 and the remaining by December end failing which it was stated that the permits of rickshaws will be suspended.

Indianexpress:  CATCHING them young seems to be the motto of the Maharashtra Sahitya Parishad, a body formed to boost Marathi literature as it gears up to form special wings to attract children and youngsters towards literary works in Marathi.

At a time when concern is being expressed from all quarters over aloofness among youth about Marathi literature, parishad plans to start a youth club and children’s’ section to encourage literary activity.

V B Deshpande, general secretary of the parishad said the youth club would provide a platform for young writers and would encourage them to add their bit.

The club will organise series of lectures as well as various competitions for young writers. Deshpande said that the children’s’ section will organise programmes to help enrich the language among children and also to provide them with an access to the literature.

Story telling sessions, drama shows and so on are on the parishad’s agenda to attract children. Besides, the parishad plans to come out with the 7th and 8th volume of the Encyclopedia of Marathi Literature by year-end.

Indianexpress: WITH 6000 dollars and 70 solar-powered Light Emitting Devices (LEDs), 11 students from Colorado College, in Colorado Springs, USA are on their way to remote Domi, a Korku adivasi village approximately 950 km from Pune in Melghat.

Some of the students, who were in Pune on Monday, will leave for Domi on Tuesday along with volunteers of city-based NGO Maitri. The rest will start on Friday.

Bruce Coriell, the chaplain and professor of religion at the college, said the money was collected from friends and well-wishers and used to buy the devices. Conceived by the college’s office for community service under its programme for cultural exchanges and working on sustainable energy, the students will instal the solar-powered lights and show the villagers how to maintain the lights. They will stay with the villagers for about three weeks. Last year, students from the same college had installed solar lights for the Tibetan community in Arunachal Pradesh.

“When I first came to India 5 years ago on a trek to Nandadevi, I heard the word Bangalored. I was taken aback by the impact the US had on other countries. I wanted to contribute something that would have a far deeper and positive impact on India. Setting up these lights for the villagers is one of them,’’ said Dan Lustick.

Erika Jrcosus said it will also create awareness about other forms of energy in remote places where electricity hasn’t reached.

Indianexpress: INDIA has no coherent national policy on higher education, said former University Grants Commission (UGC) chairman Arun Nigavekar, speaking at the fourth Foundation Day of the Symbiosis International University on Friday.

Delivering a lecture on the topic ‘Deemed Universities: Opportunities and challenges’, Nigavekar highlighted the constraints plaguing modern Indian education system today. “The last time a national policy was formulated was during the Rajiv Gandhi government in 1986, and now, 20 years later, that policy is no longer relevant,” he said, adding that although new policies are formulated, they change when new governments come to power.

He pointed out to other drawbacks like lack of access to education, paucity of quality teachers, government resources, and so on. Nigavekar also stressed on the need to dissolve the affiliating structure of colleges.

With the UGC granting permission to remove the term ‘deemed’ from deemed universities, the boundaries between state central and private universities have reduced.

BBC: It is often said the only constant in the world of hi-tech is change - a fact that makes prediction notoriously difficult. But here three tech veterans give their view about what will drive change over the next 12 months and beyond.

There is little doubt that 2006 was the year that web users started to flex their muscle.

Although everyone is familiar with web giants such as Google, Yahoo and Amazon, the last 12 months have shown that their reign at the top is perhaps not going to last forever.

In 2006 it was YouTube, MySpace, Bebo, Facebook and many other social sites that grabbed the headlines.

The focus on users and online communities will continue in 2007 said Kathy Johnson from Consort Partners - a Silicon Valley-based firm that advises start-ups targeting the so-called Web 2.0 space.

The big trend among hot web companies will be the “actualisation of personalisation” she says. By that mouthful she means web firms will find a way to mine the information generated when net communities spring up.

CNetNews: TIn Microsoft’s latest attempt to reach out to bloggers, the company recently gave away expensive laptops loaded with its new Windows Vista operating system.

But the gifts generated controversy as well as goodwill, as many in that community accused Microsoft of bribery and their peers of unethical behavior.

Several bloggers reported last week that they had received Acer Ferrari laptops, which can sell for more than $2,200, from Microsoft. A Microsoft representative confirmed on Friday that the company had sent out about 90 computers to bloggers who write about technology and other subjects (such as photography and, oddly, parenting) that could be affected by the new operating system.

But while those on Microsoft’s mailing list initially greeted the machines with enthusiasm, many in the blogging community soon objected–and not only because they were left off the list–arguing that bloggers are bound by the same rules as traditional journalists, who should not accept expensive gifts from companies they cover.

Long Zheng, an Australian blogger who received one of the computers, had over 180 comments on his post about the computers, ranging from envy to disgust. “It’s a bribe. Plain and simple,” wrote one commenter.

Computerworld: What a difference a year makes. One year ago, we were dazed, dazzled, and beguiled by the arrival of dual-core processors. Offerings from Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) had analysts, journalists, IT pros, and enthusiasts all gushing with praise for a bright new multitasking future.

Amazingly, both Intel and AMD were able to deliver on the potential of dual-core processing. Throughout 2006, desktop PCs played host to a series of processors that, while slower at the clock-speed level, were faster in real-life usage, allowing for unprecedented amounts of multitasking with minimal slowdown. (For more about both companies’ current lineup of desktop CPUs, see our CPU Buyer’s Guide.)

As the calendar flips to 2007, we are firmly entrenched in the world of multi-core processors. And, based upon the confidential road maps of both Intel and AMD, it is clear that dual-core CPUs are only the launching point for the future of the microprocessor. In 2007, quad cores and even eight-core CPUs will be available. By 2009, there’s a good chance that sixteen-core processors will be on the market.

As we enter 2007, five key questions regarding the pending year’s CPU battle are on our minds:

Will AMD be able to continue its market-share dominance in the desktop category?
How will Intel capitalize upon the success of Core 2?
Will AMD be able to match the success of Intel’s Core 2 processors?
When will the market see true quad-core and even eight-core processors?
What surprises do the chipmakers have up their sleeves?

With all this in mind, we’re taking an extended look at the processors and processor trends you can expect to see in 2007. Not surprisingly, neither AMD nor Intel was willing to divulge many specifics regarding their CPU releases for the coming year. So we scoured the Net, pored over statements from both companies and dug into reports from the host of analysts and experts who cover them.

LAtimes: The doughty Mars rovers will celebrate their third anniversary on the Red Planet with new software that will make them smarter and more independent.

Spirit and Opportunity will have improved image processing capabilities that will help them search out dust devils and other weather patterns. A new navigation system will allow the rovers to spot hazards and figure out how to avoid them without help from controllers on Earth.

Until now, if the rovers encountered an obstacle, all they could do was back up and try a different direction. Sometimes the rover found no solution, said John Callas, project manager for the Mars Exploration Rovers at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge.

“With this new capability, the rover could find its way through a maze,” he said.

The twin rovers continue to defy all expectations for their longevity. When Spirit landed on Jan. 3, 2004, and Opportunity followed three weeks later, experts hoped they would last through their planned mission of 90 Martian days, which are about 40 minutes longer than Earth days.

Their key discoveries include evidence that water was once abundant on the surface of Mars in at least one region. Opportunity also found rock layers showing that wind-blown dunes came and went while the water table fluctuated. Spirit spotted dust devils forming and moving across the arid surface.