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Archive for March 16, 2007

NCP gets Mayor post with Sena’s help

March 16, 2007 at 8:20 am

· City · Current Affairs

indianexpress: The Nationalist Congress Party joined hands with Shiv Sena and walked away with post of Mayor of Pune. It also opened the doors for a changed political equation in the state, with Raj Thackeray playing the role of a spoiler in the already uncomfortable alliance between NCP and Congress. On Wednesday, Congress had decided to go with Thackeray’s Maharshtra Navnirman Sena, a combination already tried in Mumbai. In Nashik, MNS remained neutral, refusing to support the Congress-NCP alliance and Sena came to power there.

NCP leader Ajit Pawar made light of his party’s alliance with Shiv Sena as a Pune-specific arrangement, having no political implications at the state or national level, though he was quick to add that NCP’s support will decide who the next MP of Pune will be. “It is only for the development of the city, that NCP and Sena have come together. In case of sensitive issues, we will discuss and reach an understanding amongst ourselves,” he said, adding that the secular NCP will not go the saffron way. 
 
Reiterating that the NCP was not in favor of breaking the natural alliance with Congress, Pawar said the blame lay squarely with the local Congress leadership. “Had the alliance policy at the national level been implemented in Pune, there would not have been any bitterness. Even while facing defeat in the elections, the Congress was not willing to hold talks with NCP. How could we tell the citizens that we will not be ruling the PMC and instead sitting in the opposition as the Congress was not supporting us,” he said.

NCP candidate Rajlaxmi Bhosale was declared Mayor, receiving 67 votes, including 20 votes from Shiv Sena and seven from independents. She defeated Shailaja Khedekar of Congress, who managed 52 votes, including eight each from MNS and independents. The NCP has a strength of 42 corporators against 36 of Congress.

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Feeling of victory yet to sink, says Pune’s newly elected mayor

March 16, 2007 at 8:20 am

· City · Politics

indianexpress:  On thursday, when the city’s new mayor Rajlaxmi Bhosale, wore the mayor’s red and yellow coat , she thought she had donned the role with much ease. It was only a little later that she realised the enormity of the situation. “When I saw the huge crowd of supporters and the presence of corporators in the house, I realised that I was now the mayor of the city,” was her reaction, a few minutes after she took over the chair from Congress candidate Rajani Tribhuvan. She was also quick to point out that she was still to come to terms with her victory. “The hype and the sense of victory is yet to sink in,” she said.

Dressed in an off-white Paithani saree, specially selected for the occasion, Bhosale, said she was confident of winning the mayoral post. “More than me, my party leaders were tensed. But finally the results are out,” she added.

Hailing from a political lineage, Bhosale has been active in politics since the last 25 years and is a three-term corporator from Hadapsar. She has worked for welfare of Self Help Groups (SHGs) for women and is also a trustee of city-based organisation DISHA .

On a lighter note, speaking after, the ceremony, Bhosale said that while her family was happy for her, it is state Urban Development Department minister Rajesh Tope who could be her lucky mascot. “He had told me that after being the NCP party leader, I could well be the mayor of Pune,” she said.

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PMT boss tightens screws on Tata Motors

March 16, 2007 at 8:19 am

· City

indianexpress: Pune Municipal Transport (PMT) general manager C K Anil wants the PMT committee to do a rethink about conducting future business with automobile giant Tata Motors “as it has failed to meet the February deadline to deliver 10 low-floor buses meant for the Bus Rapid Transit System.”

Anil has asked for the committee’s approval to demand compensation of Rs 1.5 crore from Tata Motors as “operational losses” that the PMT has suffered for non-delivery of the buses.

Tata Motors officials denied violating supply order terms or having failed to keep its commitment. “The delivery process of the first three buses started on Wednesday. The remaining will be delivered within a couple of days,” said Neeraj Srivastava who looks after sales and marketing of buses for Tata Motors when contacted in Mumbai.

However, according to Anil, a purchase order was placed on October 17, 2006 with Tata Motors to supply 10 low-floor buses. The PMT paid an advance of Rs 80 lakh for the buses worth Rs 4.27 crore.

The proposed delivery schedule was submitted by Tata Motors assistant general manager (institutional sales) R Manoj to the PMT general manager on December 15, 2006. The schedule promised to deliver the first bus by December 20, the second bus by December 31, six more in January and the remaining two in February.

However, none of the buses were delivered. Instead, on February 15, Manoj wrote to municipal commissioner Nitin Kareer saying that all the 10 buses would be delivered by March 15.

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Nagpur’s idea floats in Pune, mishap victims to get timely aid

March 16, 2007 at 8:17 am

· City

indianexpress:  Mukesh Joshi of Vishrantwadi was returning home late one night when he spotted an accident victim on the road. “When I went to a nearby police chowki, they told me the accident spot was not in their jurisdiction. At the other police chowki, there was no one to register my complaint,” he recalled. Not wanting to lose time, he took the victim to hospital but was denied treatment in the absence of a police complaint. After persuasion, the hospital authorities called the police and treatment began.

To overcome this, the Pune traffic police is planning to convert four ambulances they got from the Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways in 2005 into medico-legal vans to provide quick treatment to victims. Police Commissioner Jayant Umranikar, who implemented a similar programme in Nagpur, has taken the initiative to minimise fatal accidents in the city.

“The van will have life-support facilities, doctors from the government hospitals and an assistant inspector or head constable,” said police inspector (Traffic) Shahajirao Patil. A committee headed by the deputy commissioner of police (Traffic) Mahesh Ghurye and medical officers from Ruby Hall Clinic, Sassoon, Lokmanya and police hospitals will look into the details.

A victim will be brought to the van where the policeman will conduct the formalities while the medical staff will provide first-aid. “After the victim is hospitalised, the case will be handed over to the local police station,” Patil said.

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BSNL brings voice, data and video to homes

March 16, 2007 at 8:16 am

· City

indianexpress:  Putting India firmly on the global convergence map, telecom behemoth Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) rolled out its ‘Triple Play’ broadband service bringing voice, data and video into homes on Thursday. Starting initially from Pune, the service will also be launched in Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata and Hyderabad within the next three months, according to BSNL chairman and managing director A K Sinha.

Currently, ‘Triple Play’ offers digital television channels, video-on-demand and World Space radio. Other add-on features like gaming and TV-based interactive education will also be made available soon.
 
“The content for these add-on features are being changed into the television mode and will be available by July,” managing director of DiviNet Access Technologies Ltd, the content developing company, P R Eknath said.

The ‘Triple Play’ broadband service is part of a tripartite agreement between BSNL, Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Ltd (MKCL) and DiviNet.

To avail of this service, a customer has to pay Rs 600 as installation charges, a one-time charge of Rs 3,950 or a monthly rental of Rs 100 for the set-top box, Rs 250 plus taxes per month for basic Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) and Rs 60 every six months as activation charges for video-on-demand with separate charges for movies. BSNL has tied up with Shemaroo Entertainment Pvt Ltd to stream the movies.

 

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Passport adalat a success

March 16, 2007 at 8:15 am

· City

indianexpress: A Passport adalat was organised by the Pune Regional Passport office on Thursday to commemorate World Consumer Rights Day and for redressal of greviences related to passports. Around 225 people attended the camp with problems ranging from police verification, documents and court cases. They were guided by passport officer A A Tejwaney and superintendents M A Sayyed, Jaykumar, and MM Deshpande. A total of 93 passport cases were cleared in the adalat. A majority of the applicants aired their displeasure over the lethargic attitude of the passport officers and non co-operation on the part of police officers.

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IBM Tool Helps Blind See Multimedia

March 16, 2007 at 8:12 am

· Technology

techtree: IBM has announced a new technology that can help blind and visually impaired people see Internet multimedia.

The company said that the new multimedia browsing accessibility tool, which is designed at IBM’s Tokyo Research Laboratory, enables blind people to experience streaming video and animation on the Internet, and has the potential to open up a world of rich content to visually impaired people all over the globe.

The new multimedia browsing accessibility tool provides visually impaired people with the same multimedia control features that normal people see and operate with a mouse. And to enjoy a streaming video on video sharing Web sites, for example, visually impaired people can select the “play” button by simply pressing a predefined shortcut key to control the media, instead of having to search for buttons to control the video.

Talking about the tool, Frances West, Director of Human Ability and Accessibility Center, IBM, said, “The new multimedia browsing accessibility tool will enable persons with visual impairments an opportunity to access dynamic multimedia Web content, quickly and easily. IBM has a long history of developing innovative solutions for persons with disabilities, and this tool is another example of an IBM innovation that will enhance the Web experience for persons with visual impairments.”

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Games icon gets modern makeover

March 16, 2007 at 8:11 am

· Technology

bbc: Iconic technology firm Commodore has chosen Cebit as the launch pad for a new subsidiary dedicated to PC gaming.

From April, Commodore Gaming will start selling a line of PCs that cater for the high-end home gamer.

Crammed with high-end components, the machines will also sport distinctive artwork on the case.

The line of computers will be aimed at consumers who do not want to take on the task of building themselves a machine optimised for gaming.

Bala Keilman, chief executive of Commodore Gaming, said: “It feels like the right time to bring back the Commodore brand.”

Cebit, billed as the world’s largest hi-tech fair runs from 15-21 March.

Speaking at the show, Mr Keilman said the subsidiary was launched to fill a gap in the market.

He said currently any gamer going to a store to buy a PC would be faced with only black or beige boxes, none of which did a great job of meeting the computing demands of current PC games.

Consumers will also be able to buy the machines online via the Commodore Gaming website from April.

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Microsoft plans to use mashups to leverage search technology

March 16, 2007 at 8:10 am

· Technology

itworld: Microsoft Corp. hopes that taking a page out of its old playbook can help the company cut into Google Inc.’s thus-far insurmountable lead in the search market.

Microsoft plans to ramp up its efforts to encourage Web developers and other programmers to create mashups — quickly assembled Web-based programs gluing together different data and technology sources — that leverage the software vendor’s search technology, including its flagship Windows Live Search engine and its Virtual Earth mapping and location service.

The company got the ball rolling at its 2007 MVP Global Summit here yesterday, inviting attendees from the ranks of its Most Valuable Professional program to write mashup applications together during an afternoon-long event.

Microsoft’s overall market dominance has long been credited in large part to its success at wooing outside programmers to write software bolstering Windows and its other products.

But in the Web 2.0 market, Microsoft lags behind rivals such as Google because it has been less successful at encouraging the development of mashups using its application programming interfaces (API), acknowledged Jonathan Pincus, general manager of strategy development for Microsoft’s online services group.
 
Pincus said he thinks that by publicizing the company’s various open APIs and offering third-party developers technical support as well as help in coming up with ways for them to make money via advertising or value-added services, Microsoft can make Live Search as attractive a development platform as Windows and Office are.

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Privacy bodies back Google step

March 16, 2007 at 8:08 am

· Technology

bbc: Privacy bodies have welcomed Google’s decision to anonymise personal data it receives from users’ web searches.
The firm previously held information about searches for an indefinite period but will now anonymise it after 18 to 24 months.

“This is an extremely positive development,” said Ari Schwartz, deputy director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, a US-based watchdog.

“It’s the type of thing we have been advocating for a number of years.”

However, governments could still force Google to hold onto data or hand it over to authorities.

“By anonymising our server logs after 18 to 24 months, we think we’re striking the right balance between two goals: continuing to improve Google’s services for you, while providing more transparency and certainty about our retention practices,” a statement from the search giant said.

  It’s a step forward, but I would like to see them anonymising data in a much shorter period

Richard Clayton, Cambridge University

It added: “Unless we’re legally required to retain log data for longer, we will anonymise our server logs after a limited period of time.”

Peter Fleischer, Google’s privacy counsel for Europe, said the decision has been taken after consulting with privacy bodies in the US and Europe.

He said: “We believe that privacy is one of the cornerstones of trust. We will be retroactively going back into our log database and anonymising all the information there.”

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