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indianexpress: PUNE division is likely to have more power at its disposal after the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company (MSEDCL) implements the project that will reduce the transmission and distribution losses. MSEDCL has recently received Rs 197 crore from Maharashtra State Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) for the purpose, said energy minister Dilip Walse Patil on Friday.

“A sum of Rs 83 crore for Bund Garden, Rs 58 crore for Kothrud and Rs 56 crore for Bhosari subdivision has been sanctioned by MERC recently,’’ said Walse Patil, addressing a gathering of Maharashtra State Electrical Technicians’ organisations.
 
Walse Patil has also announced the revised load- shedding schedule that will be implemented from Saturday across the State. Urban areas will now have power cuts for 3-4 hours while suburban areas will have 5-6 hours of power cuts while rural areas will have 10-12 hours of load shedding. Walse Patil said Pune was the only city in the State to have zero load-shedding.

Malegaon, Bhiwandi and Aurangabad divisions had incurred huge T and D losses, he added. “We have appointed a private company as a franchisee to bring down losses,” he said. Feeder-wise data audition has been initiated to bring down the T and D losses. To overcome power shortage the State power department has embarked on a Rs 700 crore feeder separation project. The first phase would be complete by December 2007.

Walse Patil said Maharashtra was the only State that was supplying eight hours electricity a day to the farmers. “The State currently is grappling with a shortage of around 6,000 mega watts,” he added.

At the gathering, secretary of the organisation Sayyad Zahiruddin placed their charter of demands including direct recruitment for technical persons for Class III and Class IV grade, promotion for line helpers, scrapping of franchisee and outsourcing and no privatisation.

indianexpress: WITH Lohegaon airport having missed the bus to modernisation due to non-availability of land, the only option the city now has to get a modern international airport is at the site at Chakan II where the Indian Air Force has given its clearance for a runway. A socio-economic feasibility report has also been conducted by the Airports Authority of India.

Nearly 10 of the 35 non-metro airports including Chandigarh, Raipur, Bhubaneswar, Port Blair, Agra, Dehradun, Agatti, Udaipur, Goa and Jammu, besides Pune are in the same boat. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has set December 2007 as the deadline to complete the process of selecting joint-venture partners for individual airports or clusters of airports.

The modernisation would require a minimum of 100 acres. The AAI’s proposal for earmarking 200 acres of vacant land south of the Lohegaon airport for developing infrastructure was given an in-principle nod last June. Airport Advisory Committee president Suresh Kalmadi had then said that AAI’s demand for earmarking the land had been met with.

Subsequently, Lohegaon airport director, Deepak Shastri said they had given the AAI the input that land for modernisation was not available in Pune. “They (AAI) then took a decision to drop Pune from their plans. As of now there is no on-going process to acquire land which can be used for modernisation of the airport,” he said on Friday, adding,”the only option is to continue with what we have or shift to a new place.”

The civil aviation ministry had excluded Pune from the list of non-metro airports slated for city-side development through public private partnerships (PPP) last October.

Pune stands to lose out on city-side development — passenger facilities like hotels, shopping malls, restaurants, food courts, parking lots and business centres, business hotels and entertainment joints.

indianexpress: THE District Collector’s Office does not have ready, available information about land allotted to educational institutions in the city. This was brought to light by a query filed by Common Man Welfare Association of India (CMWAI) president Jayraj Landge under the Right to Information Act.

This meant that the government is not being watchful about land acquisition in the city by educational institutes, who were flouting government norms and conditions, said Landge.

“Government land is available at throwaway prices, and the educational institutes are making use of this for building their business. They are establishing campuses and charging exorbitant rates for their courses, which ordinary students cannot afford,” said Landge.

On March 31, Landge along with CMWAI secretary Nitin Salunke had filed an RTI application with the Public Information Officer at the Collectorate, demanding the list of educational institutes and their heads, who had been allotted land by the State government, along with the specific terms and conditions under which this land was given, as well as the price of the land.

In its response, the PIO’s secretary Dadabhau Joshi said, “The requested information is detailed, and has not been consolidated and hence cannot be given.” The letter directed Landge to apply to the tehsildar’s office at Pune and Haveli to get the information.

“If there are restrictions on these institutions in the form of government regulations and conditions, then it can stop the commercialisation of education. That the administration does not have consolidated information is a serious matter,” said Landge, objecting to the institutes sidelining local students in favour of students from outside the state.

indianexpress: THE All-India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) has struck off the National Insurance Academy (NIA) from its list of unapproved institutions and put it in the approved list. This move came after the NIA furnished evidence to show that the inclusion in the unapproved list was wrong.

In March, the AICTE had on its website, published the names of institutions unapproved by the AICTE, cautioning students against taking admission. Of these, 169 institutions were listed as running technical courses without AICTE approval, while 104 institutions had unapproved foreign collaborations. NIA, started by the Finance Ministry, was listed in the unapproved foreign collaboration category, because of its agreement with the US-based Fairfax University.

“The agreement was a knowledge collaboration and not a degree collaboration. Since there is no expertise in India available for satellite insurance, we had sought information on the same from Fairfax University. This is no violation of the government regulations,” said NIA director KC Mishra.

Mishra said there were 214 such knowledge-sharing initiatives with universities abroad, in fields like oil and natural gas insurance, rig insurance, and human life insurance but these were not joint degrees.

After a meeting of the NIA governing board, Mishra conveyed to the AICTE that since the inclusion in the unapproved list was based on misinformation and the institute would take legal action if the name was not withdrawn. “After this the NIA’s name was promptly included in the approved list, which shows that the AICTE authorities had erred,” said Mishra.

Mishra claimed that the misunderstanding was a result of a haphazard investigation by the AICTE following anonymous petitions. “This is the clever campaign of other institutions to bring in the name of NIA to avoid the AICTE whip. The AICTE has fallen prey to it,” said Mishra, adding that the AICTE had conducted an inspection in the past but had failed to find any irregularities.

Citing “irreparable damage” to the institute, Mishra said that he would now approach the governing board seeking permission to demand compensation from the AICTE. “If the governing board gives the go-ahead, I will file a suit against the AICTE,” said Mishra.

indianexpress:  KARZDAAR Hakk Sanrakshan Samiti — a union of loan borrowers — wants action taken against Shree Suvarna Sahakari Bank (SSSB) director Dnyaneshwar Agashe and the other implicated officials, rather than recovering money from innocent borrowers.

According to the Samiti, 80 to 85 borrowers have been asked to repay the loan, which they believe is unfair. “These innocent borrowers have been paying interests on time. We can’t understand why they are being targeted instead of the bigwigs involved in the irregularities,” the Samiti’s secretary Sanjay Khandalkar said.
 
Blaming deputy registrar Sanjay Bhosale, who is recovering money from defaulters, Khandalkar said the actions of SSSB were on the wrong track for the last three years. “However, the deputy registrar (Bhosale) failed to take any action against it (the goings-on),” he said.

In the wake of financial irregularities discovered in the functioning of the bank, Agashe and some 30 other erstwhile and current chairpersons were slapped with notices for recovery of dues. Sixty-eight other officials and workers were also served with notices.

The state cooperative commissioner had dismissed the board of the bank late last year by appointing an administrator to look after its day-to-day functioning. Consequently, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) frozen the bank and — after conducting an audit — found at least 96 present and former officers involved in the irregularities. Agashe has been accused as the biggest defaulter after the inquiry.

indianexpress: THE Chatuhshrungi police have charged a doctor with negligence while performing medical duties. Dr Subhash Kale, who runs a private hospital at Kalewadi, was booked after a complaint against him was lodged at Chatuhshrungi police station by Vaibhav Ashok Pawar (22).

Pawar’s father Ashok, suffering from piles for the past three years, was admitted to Kale Hospital on May 18 and operated on May 20 and had developed high BP leading to stomach swelling. When Pawar’s mother enquired of his health, Dr Kale said the case had gone out of hand but refused to discharge him.
 

techtree: Google has newly introduced its translation service enabling automatic translation of Internet search requests and results in not less than 12 languages.

To many, this is an indicator of the company’s growing ambitions outside of the US.

With this service, users can enter search requests in their native language, and choose to have phrases and accompanying results automatically translated into another language.

They can then click on a link, and get the entire Web page translated through a service that the company has already been offering.

Google expects its translation service to be especially popular outside of the US and the UK. The reason being a lot of Internet content is typically published in the English language only.

Google’s translator works in the following languages besides English: Arabic, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, Korean, traditional Chinese, and simplified Chinese.

Incidentally, Yahoo! has been offering a translation service in Germany, France, and Japan since 2005. The search major also offers translation tools through its BabelFish Web site.

Of Google’s latest move, industry observers feel that the company is trying to make its search engine more appealing to non-English speaking people in a bid to expand its reach internationally.

As a Google spokesperson rightly said, growth in international markets could significantly ‘move the needle’ for Google, and that its just a matter of time before they overcome this hurdle.

technewsworld: Facebook is creating a new markup language and giving developers the ability to create their own applications that work alongside the social network’s own platform. Users can then choose apps they like to appear on their Facebook profile pages. The new Facebook Platform, the network said, will give developers the opportunity to make money through advertising.

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MySpace competitor Facebook has introduced a new open platform that allows developers to build applications  that integrate with the social networking site and can be chosen by users to appear within their Facebook profile pages.

Announced Thursday by Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg — and called “Facebook Platform” — the new system will also allow application developers to make money by selling advertising  on their so-called canvas pages, although advertising will continue to be kept off of users’ personal pages.

“Until now, social networks have been closed platforms,” said Zuckerberg in announcing Facebook Platform. “Today, we’re going to end that.”

At its launch, Facebook Platform already had more than 65 developer partners and 85 applications. One such application, called “Video,” allows users to easily share personal videos within Facebook. It supports the creation and sending of video messages to and from the Facebook Inbox, and supports direct uploading of video created with mobile devices.

As described, Facebook Platform will allow users to choose which applications to add to their profiles and it gives them the ability to control their order and appearance on the personal sites. “Users can always remove applications, including those built by Facebook, and will have their granular privacy controls maintained across applications,” ensured the company

reuters: Nissan North America (7201.T: Quote, Profile, Research has a warning for customers: placing your electronic key too close to your cellphone could leave you stranded.

The automaker is asking customers driving new models of two of its flagship sedans to keep their car keys and cellphones at least an inch apart to avoid disabling the “intelligent keys.”

Cellphones kept near Nissan’s I-Keys — wireless devices designed to allow drivers to enter and start their cars at the push of a button — can erase the electronic code on the keys, rendering them unable to unlock or start the cars.

The problem has occurred on the 2007 Nissan Altima and Infiniti G35 sedans — two of their top-selling models, the company said on Thursday.

“We discovered that if the I-Key touches a cellphone, outgoing or incoming calls have the potential to alter the electronic code inside the I-Key,” Nissan spokesman Kyle Bazemore said.

“The car won’t start and the I-Key cannot be reprogrammed,” he added.

The problem has occurred in a “very small percentage” of cars sold, Bazemore said. He also said a new version of the I-Key would be available in the fall.

Bazemore said current owners have been notified of the potential glitch via mail and can get new keys from dealers if they encounter the problem.

bbc: Wireless tracking systems could be used to protect patients in hospitals and students on campuses, backers of the technology said.
The combination of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags and wi-fi allows real-time tracking of objects or people inside a wireless network.

Angelo Lamme, from Motorola, said tracking students on a campus could help during a fire or an emergency.

“You would know where your people are at any given moment,” he said.

Marcus Birkl, head of wireless at Siemens, said location tracking of assets or people was one of the biggest incentives for companies, hospitals and education institutions to roll out wi-fi networks.

Both firms were at The Wireless Event, in London, this week selling new products in the area of so-called real-time location services.

Siemens is pushing a complete system, developed with Finnish firm Ekahau, which can track objects or people.

Battery-powered RFID tags are placed on an asset and they communicate with at least three wireless access points inside the network to triangulate a location.

  There needs to be standards put in place so the data is not abused for other purposes

Marcus Birkl, head of wireless at Siemens

Mr Birkl said: “The tags have a piece of software on them and they detect the signal strength of different access points.

“This information is sent back to the server and it then models the movement of the tag depending on the shift in signal strength detected.”

For the system to work, the building or area that has been deployed with a wireless network needs to have been mapped and calibrated.