News

indianexpress: A DAY after farmers in Wagholi decided to mobilise themselves in a bid to deny land for the 1,880-hectare Special Economic Zone (SEZ) being jointly developed by the Videocon group and Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation Limited (MIDC), district collector Prabhakar Deshmukh said the attempt was to follow a Magarpatta-like model where farmers will be made shareholders.

When contacted, Videocon chairman Venugopal Dhoot said that he had not gone through the proposals. “I would not like to comment on the issue,” he said.

The proposed SEZ by Videocon is to be set up on over 844 hectares at Lonikand, 568 hectares at Wagholi, 283 hectares at Kesnand and 185 hectares at Bakuri located on the eastern outskirts of Pune.

Speaking to the Pune Newsline here on Monday, Deshmukh said, “Only after talking to the farmers, convincing them and arriving at a consensus will we go for acquisition. We are trying to follow a Magarpatta-like model where farmers will be made shareholders. The plan is to arrive at a certain price for the land and make the payment in one go. I have asked the MIDC to form a company of the farmers, that will look after 15 per cent of the developed land that is to be returned to the farmers, which, in turn can be leased to the companies. That will ensure that apart from getting money for their land they will also have a steady source of income.”

On the 15 per cent of the developed land to be returned to farmers at 50 per cent subsidy, Deshmukh said the farmers, in case of fund shortage, were free to auction a part of the land. The rate per acre is to be decided, taking into account various components — the market price, fallow land, irrigated land and single crop and double crop land portion.

Over and above the cash-and-land package, the administration has asked MIDC to set aside land for schools, to be run by institutions where priority will be given to the farmers’ children to whom education will be provided at a subsidised rate.

It is also proposed to include the provision of providing technical education to one person per family so that they can get a job in the SEZ. The cost of education will be borne by MIDC and Videocon, which is jointly developing the SEZ.

indianexpress: NARMADA Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader and social activist Medha Patkar on Monday demanded livelihood alternatives for the descendants of over 1,000 people displaced since1883 by Tata Power Company for the construction of six dams in Maval and Mulshi tehsils of Pune District.

The six dams that were constructed during the British era by Tata company are Walvan, Bhushi, Shirawta, Somavdi and Thokalwadi in Maval and at Mulshi Peta in Mulshi. Rehabilitation continues to elude the descendants a good 120 years after the displacement of their forefathers.
 
Leading a dharna organised by Tata Dharan Grastha Kruti Samiti (Tata dam-affected action committee) at the district collectorate, Patkar termed the construction of the dams as ‘the oldest case of forcible land acquisition in the history of Maharashtra’.

“If one studies the issue in detail, it throws light on the dreaded politician-bureaucrat-capitalist nexus that has resulted in the forceful and illegal occupation of the land owned by poor farmers,” Patkar said.

She said that over the past century the construction dams by the Tatas had resulted in submergence of 100 villages and 30 hamlets, spanning a land area admeasuring 17,000 acres. “The 7/11 extracts show the land legally belongs to the people originally displaced, whose descendants are still the rightful owners. This has caused loss of livelihood and sheer injustice to the people,” she added.

Patkar has threatened to intensify the ongoing agitation by the Kruti Samiti if the long pending demands of the people of the area are not met. She urged district collector Prabhakar Deshmukh to expedite the process of information gathering on the affected persons. “If you fail, the agitators will be forced to evict the company from their lawful land,” she warned.

indianexpress:  THERE should be a common service platform to bring together small and medium enterprises and academia, said France-based Foundation Sophia Antipolis founder Pierre Lafitte, speaking at a brainstorming session on the Innovation and Promotion of Development of Competitive Clusters in Pune region organised by YASHADA on Monday.

Lafitte developed the concept of competitive clusters, wherein various stakeholders, including academia, industries, chambers of commerce, work together to develop clusters in specific fields like pharmaceuticals or automation, which are specifically suited to the needs of the industries.

This model of Competitive Clusters, which became a policy of the French government in July 2005, will be adopted in Pune at India’s first ever ‘Growth Lab’ to be set up at Bhosari by the University of Pune’s Science and Technology Park, which has signed an agreement for knowledge sharing with Sophia Antipolis.

“Very often academicians are unaware about small and medium enterprises in a particular field. Bringing them together on to one common platform is effective to build positive contacts and inculcate a feeling of community,” said Lafitte. Lafitte said that there was potential for collaboration between Sophia Antipolis and Pune in areas like risk management, water management, and financial innovation.

Speaking about the genesis of the concept of developing competitive clusters in India, STP Director General Rajendra Jagdale said that STP had the mandate of giving guidelines to the government on how to develop clusters on the lines of the French model. “Clusters will be set up in areas like automation, IT open source and agriculture,” said Jagdale.

Also present at the brainstorming session were STP Trustees Lila Poonawalla and SP Ranade, YASHADA Director General Ratnakar Gaikwad, and representatives from the Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA).

indianexpress: THE Industrial Court in the city has stayed the merger of Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Transport bodies and asked the merger committee to consult the PMT’s trade union about several employees-related issues.

On Monday, the trade union of the Pune Municipal Transport (PMT) — PMT Kamgar Sangh (INTUC) — approached the industrial court praying that the employees were not taken into consideration during the merger. Judge Sumant Kolhe has issued directions to merger committee to give the trade union a hearing.
 
“We are not opposing the merger. But the decision taken by merger committee does not include our voice or opinions. There are several issues pending — like the increased dearness allowance, confirming temporary employees and pensions which concern 7,000-odd employees the PMT has,” said general secretary A N Anpur.

According to the union, Pune Municipal Transport (PMT) has not paid the employees the increased dearness allowance for the period between 1997 and 2004. “Moreover, the gratuity and pension amounting to over Rs 5 crore of several employees is pending,” Anpur said.

The union also maintained that the employees have received only 40 per cent of the dearness allowance between 1997-2004. Around 2,100 employees have been working on a temporary basis for the last 14-15 years. “They have not been confirmed as yet. We are not told what will happen to them,” he said.

Pune Municipal Commissioner Pravinsinh Pardeshi, who is the nodal officer for the merger, said the court has not stayed the entire merger process. “The trade union is concerned about two issues — temporary employees being laid off after the merger and the seniorities of employees in PMT and PCMT. Only these two aspects have been stayed. The merger process will not be affected,” he said.

Pardeshi said the next hearing for the case is on May 21.

On April 19, the urban development department has issued a government resolution for the formation of Pune Metropolitan Transport Corporation Ltd (PMTCL) as per the Indian Company Act, 1956. The company is to come into existence within three months.
 

indianexpress: TO ease out traffic congestion in the chowk near Wakad police chowky, the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) has asked for help from the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) to build a flyover exclusively for Pune-Mumbai traffic.

According to PCMC officials, the suggested flyover — around 500-metre long — will start from Wakad police chowky. “The Corporation has requested NHAI to build a flyover at the chowk of Wakad police chowky in wake of frequent traffic snarls reported there,” said PCMC deputy engineer Vishal Kamble.
 
Kamble said that the flyover would be based on the lines of an existing flyover at Tilak Chowk in Nigdi, which is meant exclusively for Pune-Mumbai traffic. He said the traffic will then effectively move in both directions without having facing obstacles of traffic signals. “The Pune-Mumbai traffic will continue to move using the flyover while the local traffic will move below the flyover following traffic signals,” Kamble said. According to designs by PCMC, the width of flyover should be 200 metres at each end and around 50 metres in the middle.

Confirming the move, NHAI project director P D Arora said they have received the proposal. “We have sent it to our headquarters. An acceptance is awaited,” he said. He further added that an existing flyover — between Wakad and Hinjewadi — across the National Highway at Wakad has developed some technical problems. “There are provisions for traffic towards Hinjewadi. However, there are no mechanism for traffic for Mumbai from Hinjewadi,” he pointed out.

While there have been no expenditure estimates checked out, the PCMC is waiting for a reply from NHAI. “After the proposal receives a nod, the revenue estimates will be decided,” Kamble said.

indianexpress: PIMPRI-Chinchwad Mayor Dr Vaishali Ghodekar on Monday accused Municipal Commissioner Dilip Band of adopting double standards while carrying out their anti-encroachment drive.

In an act viewed as insensitive, the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) demolished a tin-sheet hut belonging to a poor old woman in Nehrunagar on Sunday. This irked Dr Ghodekar since she herself had provided the hut to Solachna Anant Palkar as a make-shift shelter. The 55-year-old’s original residence had been demolished by the PCMC a fortnight ago to facilitate road widening. “The Dilip Band-led PCMC administration has different sets of rules for different sections of the society. The poor are being targeted while the powerful are being let off,” she said.  
 
Dr Ghodekar said the hut had existed behind the civic school premises for two-and-half years now. “Just when a poor woman was accommodated for a few days, it was demolished. What was need to raze it in such a hurry?” she said. “If it is illegal, then why is the PCMC administration keeping silent on other encroachments in town?

“My vehicle gets stuck in the endless traffic jam in Pimpri Camp where the roads and chowks have been taken over by encroachers,” said Dr Ghodekar, who made a similar complaint to Police Commissioner Jayant Umranikar last month. Stating that the Nehrunagar clean-up was carried out at the behest of a Congress party corporator, Dr Ghodekar said the civic administration hadn’t shown any courtesy of informing her about it. “When I called Band, he said he needed no permission to remove illegal property from civic land,” she said, adding nobody heeded to her desperate plea. “I am new to politics… do not understand political machinations… which certain people take advantage of.”

Dr Ghodekar has complained to Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar about Band and his administration. Band said at a press conference the Nehrunagar action was taken following a complaint from a local corporator. “It was unfortunate. The incident should not have happened,” he said.

indianexpress: SUN Microsystems India and Tech Mahindra on Monday announced a strategic alliance to enable the rollout of cost-effective and efficient IPTV services to the Indian and Asia Pacific markets. As part of this alliance, Sun and Tech Mahindra along with AMD will jointly set up a next generation IPTV lab at the Tech Mahindra facility in Pune. Tech Mahindra is already engaged with various service providers to offer IPTV solutions in various geographies.

Sun recently introduced the Sun Streaming System — the industry’s first massively scalable and cost-effective video delivery platform for cable and telecommunications operators, which helps operators increase subscriber revenue by offering new video-based services and personalised, unique video streams to each consumer.
 
The IPTV lab at Tech Mahindra would feature solutions from a consortium of solution partners including Digisoft, Envivio, Harmonic, I-Make, Verimatrix and Mototech, and Sun’s own Streaming System. The lab will showcase a pre-integrated end-to-end IPTV system for Tier1, Tier2 and Tier3 service providers. Tech Mahindra would use this lab to showcase its IPTV domain expertise to its global customers. This lab will also allow potential customers, OEMs and ISVs to test the Sun Streaming System’s capabilities, architect and validate an end-to-end solution.

Speaking at the launch, K P Unnikrishnan, Director, Strategic Alliances Sun Microsystems India said they were looking forward to showcasing an end-to-end IPTV solution based on carrier grade Sun systems featuring the Sun Streaming System. “This is Sun’s first such alliance in the country for IPTV services. We are extremely excited about this partnership and what it entails for us,” he said.

“Tech Mahindra through its sustained investments in R&D, has developed IPTV capabilities across several areas that include consulting services, system integration capabilities, network technology areas in next generation elements, network and application performance optimisation, interactive application development and BSS/OSS systems. Tech Mahindra is playing a significant role with a number of incumbent and emerging service providers and enterprises in the IPTV domain and Triple Play. Tech Mahindra has partnered with the industry best product vendors, like Sun, to offer an end-to-end IPTV system to service providers globally,” said Shankar Allimatti, Vice President, Next Generation Technologies, Tech Mahindra.

“To leverage the potential that India offers for IPTV, we are partnering with the industry’s best to provide the most cost effective, best-performing IPTV solutions to our customers and thus further our IPTV strategy for this region. Tech Mahindra was a natural choice given their expertise and experience in telecom solutions and services as well as their intimate knowledge of the Indian market. This alliance will help bring the Sun Streaming System’s market-changing economics to customers in the video services industry in India,” Unnikrishnan also said.

techtree: Global warming has claimed its first victim, the seemingly innocuous light bulb…

According to an Associated Press (AP) report, lawmakers in different parts of the world are gunning for the incandescent bulb because of its alleged contribution to global warming, looking instead at light-emitting diodes or LEDs as possible substitute.

With Canada and California having decided to ban sale of incandescent bulbs by 2012, and Australia by 2010. The European Union looking at altogether banning production, while a US Senate Committee working on a proposal to phase out bulbs in the next decade or so…

Not even New Jersey, home to the light bulb’s inventor, late Thomas Edison, is spared by this angry tide… A bill to ban the use of light bulbs in government buildings has been introduced.

All of which means that while LEDs have been around for a couple of decades, its only now that people are waking up to their ‘other significant’ uses.

The US Department of Energy says nearly 22 percent of electricity produced in the country is consumed by lighting. Encouraging widespread use of LED lighting could cut the consumption to half, so much so that it would result in energy savings the equivalent of about 500 million barrels of oil by 2027. In turn which would translate into that much reduction in emissions of Carbon Dioxide, the gas deemed responsible for the big evil named global warming.

It’s not as if the same degree of energy savings cannot be attained with the incandescent bulb’s current aberration, the compact fluorescent.

However, LEDs are known for certain advantages vis-a-vis compact fluorescents that include: greater energy efficiency, and better brightness among others. Also manufacturers’ claim that LEDs can last up to 50,000 hours, as compared to about 10,000 hours for fluorescents, and 1,000 hours for incandescents is the added big draw.

All said, it might just be a matter of time before lighting’s

techtree: LG Philips LCD has announced developing the world’s first 14.1-inch flexible color electronic paper or e-paper display, according to reports.

The company claims that this product, which showcases the next generation in display technology, is equivalent in size to an A4 sheet of paper, and can be rolled up as well.

The innovation uses electronic ink to produce a maximum of 4,096 colors. It can be viewed from a full 180 degrees. Thus, the company says, images when viewed on this 14.1-inch flexible color e-paper always appear to be crisp, even when the display is bent.

Like the Black and White e-paper that LG Philips introduced last year, the color version too uses a substrate that arranges TFT on metal foil rather than glass, which allows it to regain original shape upon bending.

The color e-paper also uses a color filter (CF) that is coated into the plastic substrate, allowing it to display color images.

Besides, according to LG Philips, the newly developed e-paper displays are energy efficient, and only use power when the image changes. They are really thin, measuring less than 300 micrometers.

In a statement, Chung In-Jae, Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President, LG Philips, expressed the view that these color e-paper displays represent the next generation in display technology.

techtree: Tul Corporation has announced its Gen-Next graphics card, PowerColor HD 2900 XT, also known as ‘R600′.

The 700 million-transistor ‘R600′ can be quite a hair-raising beast, with a core speed of 740MHz, and a memory speed of 1.65GHz for a 512MB GDDR3 memory.

According to Tul, the ‘R600,’ built with 320 unified stream processors, and the world’s first 512-bit memory interface; is capable of taking on the demands of DirectX 10 games.

The ‘R600′ comes with built-in HDMI with HD audio support for single HDTV connectivity, a unique feature, enabled by an intelligent DVI to HDMI adapter, sans any internal SPDIF or other audio cabling.

Besides, the graphics card bundles Valve Corporation’s ‘Black Box gaming bundle,’ comprising three games; namely, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Team Fortress 2, and Portal. The graphics card package comes for about $399 (Rs 17,955 approx), gaming bundle included at no additional cost.

Key specs of the ‘R600′ include: 740MHz Core, 1650MHz Memory; 512MB GDDR3, 512-bit Interface; 320 Unified Stream Processors; DirectX 10 Support; High-speed 128-bit-HDR (High Dynamic Range) rendering ; Phyics processing support; Built-in HDMI with Multi-channel 5.1 surround sound; Dual dual-link DVI with full resolution HDCP support; and Integrated CrossFire support.

Speaking at the occasion, Ted Chen, CEO of Tul Corporation, said, “HD 2900 XT not only offers superb experience in DirectX 10 gaming, but inclusion of built-in HDMI, and the Valve bundle makes this an incredible offer!”