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indianexpress: THE information commissioner for Pune Region will soon initiate a district wise hearing drive for around 2000 appeals pending before its office, said Information Commissioner for Pune Region Vijay Kuvalekar during his lecture on ‘Right to Information — experiences and challenges’ organised by Surajya Sangharsha Samiti at Sardar Mahadeo Balwant Natu Auditorium at Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan on Tuesday.

“The appeals have piled up as we did not have a fixed office space. Now, with a new office available in the administration building opposite council hall, we will soon begin district wise hearing of the appeals on a priority basis in Kolhapur, Satara, Sangli and Solapur. Our office is closely scrutinising the appeals,” Kuvalekar said .

He further advised RTI activists to ensure that the act was not being used to settle personal scores. “One person’s democratic right should not encroach upon others. Every RTI applicant should use the act with utmost responsibility and seriousness,’’ he said.

Commenting on perception of bureaucracy vis-a-vis RTI applications, Kuvalekar opined that a majority of government officials choose to avoid giving correct answers to the queries posed and stressed the need for RTI activists to be vigilant all the time.

He further said that the act had played a significant role in empowering the masses and strengthening democracy. Commenting on the appeals procedure, Kuvalekar said that there was a need to investigate the cases where applicants had compromised with government officials before the appeal was decided. “Cases like this will have an adverse effect on implementation of the act. There is a need to create greater awareness amongst the public to use the act in its true spirit,’’ he said.

The information commissioner further stressed the need to strengthen the act. “Remember that all government officials are not criminals and all applicants are not saints,” Kuvalekar said.

indianexpress: IN May Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) chairman Anil Deshmukh had promised to complete the University chowk flyover by June 15. With the completion of the University chowk and Aundh-Baner legs, that promise is likely to be kept, officials said on Tuesday.

Senior MSRDC officials said the Aundh and Baner side work which was to take most time has been completed. “The ramps have been finished. We have to join the portion of the legs to the block at University chowk,” said an official.
 
The MSRDC planned to allow traffic to ply under the flyover from May 31. “We could not open it for traffic as some work was delayed due to the recent pre-monsoon showers,” the official said. The MSRDC will meet soon to decide when to allow traffic to use the road below the flyover.

Another official said, “We have been working according to the time table set. There are five more columns to be put on the Aundh and Baner roads. Work now will be undertaken as a parallel activity,” they said.

Meanwhile, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has begun surfacing the roads near the flyovers especially the Ganeshkhind Road which is not only an arterial road but one that provides access to developing suburbs like Aundh, Pashan and Bavdhan. It also links five other roads like Senapati Bapat Road, Pashan, Aundh, Baner and Pune University.

The MSRDC has taken up work of three flyovers worth Rs 30 crore on this road. Work has been going on for the last two years. While two flyovers at Agriculture College and Range hills were opened for traffic on October 15, the University chowk flyover was delayed. The earlier deadline had been set for May 1.

indianexpress: THE Brazilian market has begun attracting Indian autocomponent players. Agni Auto Components, a manufacturer of press parts for braking systems in Pune has ventured into the Brazil market. Knorr Bremse AG, German manufacturer of brake systems for rail and commercial vehicles has started the process sourcing braking systems from Agni Auto Components for its plant in Brazil.

“Knorr Bremse has a presence in India for the last one-and-half years and has been supplying braking systems for the heavy vehicles of Tata Motors. Agni Auto Components is supplying the braking systems for Knorr Bremse which assembles these systems at its Pune plant,” said M K Sunderraj, general manager (operations), Agni Auto Components. The company is supplying one lakh units of braking systems every month to Knorr Bremse for its Pune plant. “Knorr has placed a $ 20 million order for its Brazil plant with Agni Auto Components. The first shipment has been dispatched. If the company approves of our quality, more orders would be forthcoming. Agni is also holding discussions with other European players for supply of components,” he said.

To cater to the increased demand, Agni is doubling up capacities at its Pune plant to two lakh components per month. The company is investing Rs 1.5 crore to double manufacturing and will also soon begin tapping other companies for supply. Agni is in discussions with major Indian auto component players for business and is targeting a turnover of Rs 25 crore by 2008-09, Sunderraj said.

indianexpress: REPRESENTATIVE organisations of non-teaching employees from nine non-agricultural universities in the State gathered at the Pune University on Tuesday, to put forth their demands for rectifications in the Fifth Pay Commission, in time for the Sixth Pay Commission, which is awaiting approval of the Central Government.

Organised jointly by the UoP Non-Teaching Employees Action Committee (PUNEAC) and the Maharashtra Federation of University Employees (MFUE), the meeting was held to discuss the defects in the Fourth and Fifth Pay Commission, and to demand for their rectification. “In both, appropriate salaries were not being given to the work being done. These defects should be rectified,” said PUNEAC president Chandrakant Adhav.

The non-teaching employees have also objected to a Government Resolution (GR) passed by the State , which ruled that monthly salaries would have to be audited every time before they were paid to the employees. “A memorandum of these demands will be submitted to the Minister for Higher and Technical Education Dilip Walse-Patil on Wednesday,” said MFUE vice-president.

indianexpress:  LOCAL Crime Branch (LCB) of Pune Rural police has arrested an armed gang of five dacoits on Pune-Bangalore Highway near Jambhulwadi tunnel on Monday and recovered one revolver, a country made stengun and two four-wheelers totally estimated to worth Rs 5.86 lakh.

The suspects identified as Nayan Dattatreya Kumbharkar (30), Deepak Rambhau Patil (28), Ramakant Jagdish Mandal (24), all residents of Haveli taluka, Rajendra Vitthal Bhikule (23), a resident of Dhayarigaon and Ravi Maruti Patil (27), a resident of Warje Malwadi were found waiting in two-wheelers near the tunnel under suspicious circumstances, rural police said. However, their four other accomplices managed to escape.

According to LCB officials, the suspects had planned a major dacoity in the area. LCB Chief Bhausaheb Andhalkar said that five suspects arrested were part of a thirty-member gang involved in dacoities in Wadgaon, Dhayari, Haveli and Ambegaon areas.

Andhalkar further said that the gang was involved in the sensational murder of a truck driver at Lonad, looting of an autorickshaw driver at Khadak besides other thefts.

Rural SP Vishwas Nangre Patil had issued special instructions to nab the dacoits after they started wrecking havoc in the rural hinterlands. Meanwhile, the rural police have intensified nakabandi operations at all the major entries and exits.

indianexpress: FIVE incidents of thefts were reported in Deccan, Chatuhshrungi, Vishrantwadi, Wanavdi and Bund Garden areas of the city in the past twenty-four hours. In the first case, Nilja Arun Karkhanis, in a complaint lodged with the Deccan police said that some unidentified thieves stole cash and gold ornaments estimated to be worth Rs 1.22 lakh from her residence.

In the second incident, Deepak Adinath Gaikwad, a resident of Sant Tukaram Nagar, New Sangvi in a complaint lodged with Chatuhshrungi police said an unidentified gang of thieves stole cash and gold ornaments estimated to be worth Rs 1.18 lakh from his residence.
 
At Kondhwa, Haseena Rashid Shaikh (40), in a complaint lodged with the Wanavdi police said that Bablu alias Shabbir Rustam Shaikh (23), a resident of Upper Indira Nagar, Bibvewadi allegedly stole cash and other valuables estimated to be worth Rs 47,000 by breaking open the door lock of her house. Meanwhile, the police has arrested Shaikh and charged him for theft.

Harshal Vinod Parulkar (26), a resident of Tingare Nagar in a complaint lodged with Vishrantwadi police said some unidentified thieves gained entry into his house by breaking open the door lock and decamped with cash and valuables estimated over Rs 71,000.

Also, Pamela Anne Thompli (73), a resident of Koregaon Park in a complaint lodged with Bund Garden police said that a gang of unidentified thieves stole gold ornaments estimated to be worth Rs 40,000 from her residence.

indianexpress: THE Pune Municipal Corporation has set up a 24-hour cell where citizens can call their respective ward offices to register complaints against bad roads and get the potholes fixed. The cell will be operational from June 5.

The civic administration has appointed 15 junior engineers at the 14 ward offices who will attend to the complaints throughout the day. Additional city engineer Vivek Kharwadkar said the cell would undertake road repairs at the ward level and will continue to function even after the monsoon.

techtree: A German neurologist has warned against frequent, incorrect use of a computer mouse, saying this can lead to a condition called ‘Repetitive Strain Injury’ or RSI, according to an IANS report.

Frank Bergmann, Head of the German Association of Nerve Doctors, says that constant clicking using a computer mouse, on top of an unnatural hand position, damages tissues such that in the long term, it could lead to inflammation of nerve fibres.

According to Bergmann, things like tingling, numbness, and weakness in the lower arms are all signs that tendons and nerves are getting overstressed by monotonous motion.

Even early, minor symptoms could lead to the brain forming connections between pain and clicking activity. In the event this happens, despite healing of physical damage in the arm, the act of clicking, by itself, can continue to trigger pain.

To prevent RSI, Bergmann recommends following ergonomic working methods. For instance, he says, many program functions can be executed via the keyboard instead of the mouse. Also, to keep clicking at a bare minimum, double clicks can be reprogrammed onto the scroll wheel. The size of the computer mouse, at all times, should be in-sync with the size of the user’s hands.

Bergmann even suggests the use of cold wrist rests to guard against inflammation, and padded rests for the ball of the hand, so as to reduce strain on the arm.

He says stretching exercises, natural arm/hand movements, and frequent small breaks would all help keep arm musles relaxed.

bbc: The race to create more human-like robots stepped up a gear this week as scientists in Spain set about building an artificial cerebellum.
The end-game of the two-year project is to implant the man-made cerebellum in a robot to make movements and interaction with humans more natural.

The cerebellum is the part of the brain that controls motor functions.

Researchers hope that the work might also yield clues to treat cognitive diseases such as Parkinson’s.

The research, being undertaken at the Department of Architecture and Computing Technology at the University of Granada, is part of a wider European project dubbed Sensopac

Greater subtlety

Sensopac brings together electronic engineers, physicists and neuroscientists from a range of universities including Edinburgh, Israel and Paris with groups such as the German Aerospace Centre. It has 6.5m euros of funding from the European Commission.

Its target is to incorporate the cerebellum into a robot designed by the German Aerospace Centre in two year’s time.

The work at the University of Granada is concentrating on the design of microchips that incorporate a full neuronal system, emulating the way the cerebellum interacts with the human nervous system.

bbc: Mobile phones have shaped global communications. But who shapes mobiles? BBC News speaks to Jan Chipchase, principal researcher at Nokia Design.
Jan Chipchase tours the world looking at how people use mobile phones in their everyday lives and, more broadly, how people live.

“This is my office, my workspace,” he says, pointing to a map of the world.

In the last 12 months he has visited 15 countries, carrying out eight full-scale research projects.

Mr Chipchase’s focus is on the uses to which people put their phones; where they keep them, how they answer them, and a million other details about our relationships with these devices that have helped shape our world

On the street, in homes, in the office, in pockets, handbags, at the marketplace, and in the community - Mr Chipchase tries to put mobile phone use into the context of the culture and landscape he is in.

His research has included looking at home battery charging services in rural Uganda, street charging in Kampala, how illiterate people use a mobile and more recently where we keep our phones.