News

indianexpress: Come October, Pune faces the spectre of load-shedding running up to four hours a day, the minimum being three to four hours. That is, if the Confederation of Indian Industry-led ‘public private partnership’ model of using captive power plants to mitigate load-shedding in Pune is not renewed when the present agreement ends in September 2007.

With no additional generation expected this year and the consumption set to rise by 50-75 MW, the 28 companies that between them are currently contributing 100 MW capacity, will need to up their generation to about 150 MW. This, they say is not possible unless more units with captive generation facilities join the club.
 
“Every year the demand in Pune is rising by around 100-150 MW, so we are looking to increase capacity to 150-175 MW by roping in malls, multiplexes, IT companies, hotels, builders and some of the public sector undertakings,” Rahul Kirloskar, chairman, Maharashtra State Council, CII (western region), said here on Wednesday.

Kirloskar and Pradeep Bhargava, vice chairman, Maharashtra State Council, CII (western region) said that they had meetings with the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) officials and the feedback has been positive.

“All these malls and multiplexes have backup that function only when there is load-shedding. If we can use that for generating captive power, it contribute towards increasing the generation of power,” Bhargava said.

“Now the time has come to reach beyond the 28 companies that agreed to generate the captive power,” Bhargava said.

indianexpress: Beginning Friday, citizens of Pune will be chanting a new mantra: I am responsible for my own garbage. As part of the campaign by the National Society for Clean Cities (NSCC) and the Model Colony Parisar Sudharna Samiti for a cleaner Pune, citizens from across the city will be pledging to manage and segregate the waste at home rather than dumping it in landfills, which poses an environmental hazard.

The NSCC, an umbrella organisation of citizens groups and mohalla committees in Pune, has been running a campaign for promoting segregation of wet and dry waste, vermiculture, and so on. As part of this campaign, a public meeting will be held to revive commitment among citizens towards a zero-garbage city.

“The main aim of this is to encourage citizens to take responsibility for their own garbage, through means like segregating waste, selling dry garbage to ragpickers, or better still, reusing waste through vermicompost pits,” said NSCC Pune founder member Gita Vir.

The meeting, which will be attended by city mayor Rajlakshmi Bhosale and state Guardian Minister Ajit Pawar, will be held at the Balgandharva Rangmandir. Stalls will be put up by various environmental organisations to demonstrate initiatives in waste segregation and vermicomposting.

Apart from this, there will be a short film on the problem of garbage in Pune and the landfill at Urali Devachi. Members of the Model Colony Samiti will also be putting up a skit on the issue. A symbolic sale of dry garbage like plastic and glass bottles will also be held to promote the age-old practice of selling dry garbage to ragpickers.

indianexpress: Bank employee Purandar Das began the hunt for a domicile certificate a month ago. She has submitted all the documents and proofs to the Citizens’ Facilitation Centre (CFC) at the collectorate but the person dealing with her is not convinced about her proof of residence and her application is pending.
Retired PMC municipal secretary Ramdas Jagtap on Monday applied for a domicile and nationality certificate for his friend’s son seeking admission for B Tech in Chennai. All he gets is a rude answer about pending signatures from the tehsildar on his application. “Had we hired an agent, ours would have been a day’s work,” said Jagtap.
Lalita Pandey from Viman Nagar has been waiting till late in the night for the past three days to get the certificate for her daughter. The documents were submitted on Monday but her application is still lying with the CFC office.

Incidentally, the government rules say domicile and nationality certificates are to be provided on the day the applications are submitted along with requisite documents.
 
On Wednesday, Pune Newsline found at least 50 parents who have been waiting for anything from three days to one month, for domicile and nationality certificates. Many are told to wait till late in the night to get the certificate. It is mandatory for a student applying for a professional course to submit a domicile and nationality certificate. Parents have to procure a 15-year proof of residence from the local talathi who scrutinises the ration card, school leaving certificate, electricity and telephone bills and even property tax receipts.

The fully computerised CFC, run by Niranjan Mahila Vishesh Seva Sahakar Maryadit, an NGO, at the collectorate was set up in August 2002 to provide 25 government documents like the domicile and nationality certificate and affidavits on the date of application to stop corrupt practices and touts from fleecing parents that was evident at the Shukarwar Peth tehsildar office.

indianexpress: The office of Registrar of Companies has sanctioned Pune Metropolitan Transport Corporation Limited (PMTCL) as the name for merged body of Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Transport, in a letter sent on June 5.

A press communiqué issued by additional municipal commissioner Mary Neelima Kerkatta said the State appointed committee including PMC and PCMC commissioners, general managers of PMT and PCMT and CIRT director, are preparing a MoA and AOA. Till the directors receive a Director Identification Number (DIN), the committee will control the company.

indianexpress:  Two elephants were taken into custody on Wednesday after they were found to be used illegally by two mahouts in the city. While a criminal case has been lodged under the Wildlife Protection Act (WPA) against the two mahouts, the elephants have now been taken to the Katraj Zoo for further investigation.

The raid was conducted on Wednesday afternoon by Dhiraj Jain, animal welfare officer with animal rights organisation People For Animals (PFA).

“The men were using the elephants for begging, which is banned under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCA) Act 1960,” said Jain.

Moreover, since elephants are protected under Schedule 1 of the WPA, Jain said that anyone possessing an elephant requires the necessary certification.

“These men had no such documents whatsoever,” he said.

Jain then contacted the forest department, who sent a team to verify the details. “A case has been registered against the mahouts, and it will be filed in court tomorrow. Meanwhile, the elephants will be temporarily sent to the Katraj Zoo for identification of their origin and other details,” he said.

A few months ago an elephant and some birds were confiscated from Chokhi Dhani, an entertainment joint at Wagholi.

indianexpress: THE PMC standing committee on Wednesday witnessed a heated debate over the machinery at the garbage plant in Katraj. While MNS corporator Vasant More raised the issue in the meeting saying that the machinery worth Rs 84 lakh was not functioning, deputy commissioner Uday Biniwale refuted the charges. Biniwale then produced pictures of the non-functioning machinery. Standing committee chairman Bapu Pathare ordered the administration to submit an immediate report on the status of the plant.

RTI workshop
YASHWANTRAO Chavan Academy of Development Administration (YASHADA) has organised a one-day workshop on Right of Information (RTI) for citizens on Saturday. Entry fee for the workshop is Rs 150. The workshop will start at 10 am at YASHADA and those interested should contact YASHADA on 25608172/216 during their office hours.
 
Anti-encroachment drive
THE PMC anti encroachment department initiated a drive against 400 hawkers and vendors in the Chandannagar area on Wednesday. The PMC initiated the action after local people complained about frequent traffic congestions in the locality.

techtree: Intel has unveiled its ‘3 Series’ chipset family at the ongoing ‘Computex’ trade show in Taipei. This was formerly codenamed ‘Bearlake’.

The new chipsets are designed for use both with current CPUs as well Intel’s forthcoming 45 nanometer (nm) ‘Penryn family’ processors, the company said.

Speaking on the occasion, Sean Maloney, Executive Vice President of Intel, said, “There is a tremendous amount of excitement and anticipation for our forthcoming 45nm Hi-K processors based on the Intel Core microarchitecture. The Intel ‘3 Series’ chipsets lay the foundation for an exciting, media-rich experience for today’s systems and those that arrive later this year.”

According to Intel, the ‘3 Series’ chipsets will enable exceptional PC performance while making for improved energy efficiency, system design, and quietness.

The company says computers with these chipsets will be able to deliver CE-like video/sound quality, and new data security and manageability features for users. The chipsets would effectively create a base for Intel’s next-generation Viiv processor technology as well as vPro processor technology, codenamed ‘Salt Creek’ and ‘Weybridge’ respectively.

Besides, ‘3 Series’ sports support for PCI Express 2.0, Intel Turbo Memory, DDR2 memory up to 800MHz, or DDR3 memory with data transfer speeds up to 1333 MHz.

The new chipsets include versions with integrated graphics called Intel G33 and G35 Express Chipsets. This variety of chipsets will include Intel’s Clear Video Technology for enhancing video playback and supporting high definition media interface (HDMI).

In a separate development, Intel and Asus have announced jointly designed notebooks for emerging markets that will cost under $200, and run either Linux or Microsoft Windows operating systems

bbc: Digital paper that can speak to you has been created by scientists.
Researchers from Mid Sweden University have constructed an interactive paper billboard that emits recorded sound in response to a user’s touch.

The prototype display uses conductive inks, which are sensitive to pressure, and printed speakers.

The team envisages that the technology could be used by advertisers, and in the future, it might even be employed for product packaging.

The researcher’s display model shows its possible use for marketing holiday destinations.

  One interesting idea would be to use it on cigarette packaging

Mikael Gulliksson, who led the research project, told the BBC News website: “When you approach the billboard and put your hand on a postcard that shows a picture of a beach, you can hear a very brief description of that beach.”

The key to the billboard’s capabilities is a layer of digital paper that is embedded with electronics.

This is printed with conductive inks, which, when applied with pressure, relay information to a micro-computer that contains recorded audio files. Sound then streams out from printed speakers, which are formed from more layers of conductive inks that sit over an empty cavity to form a diaphragm.

This functional layer is sandwiched between a thick sheet of extra-strong cardboard and another sheet of paper that is printed with the billboard’s design.
 
The billboard contains a paper layer with embedded electronics

“This pilot project could be used for stands in shops and in other marketing displays,” said Dr Gulliksson.

At present, the displays are expensive to produce, but the researchers are aiming to find ways of lowering the costs to make the boards easier to change and replace.

In the future, the team also plans to look at down-sizing the technology.

“Our next idea is to look at how we could use this in product packaging,” Dr Gulliksson told the BBC.

“One interesting idea would be to use it on cigarette packaging, so instead of having a written message warning you of danger to your health, you would have a spoken one.”

itwire: Sun claims its Blade 6000 Modular System provides greater memory and I/O capacity than competing products as well as delivering superior benchmark performance.

The range includes blades with UltraSPARC T1, dual quad-core Intel Xeon or dual AMD Opteron CPUs. Up to 10 blades can be installed in each chassis, and up to four chassis per rack.

The Opteron and Xeon blades accommodate a maximum of 64G or RAM, while the the UltraSPARC model tops out at 32G. All three can be fitted with up to  four 2.5in SAS or SATA hard disk drives. Up to 320 processor cores, 2.5T of memory and 5Tbps of “usable” I/O throughput are therefore available in one rack.

The Xeon blade has set a new record for x86 integer performance on the SPECint2006 benchmark, the UltraSPARC blade is the fastest single-processor system under SPECjbb2005 (Java Virtual Machine scalability), and the Opteron blade provides record performance on SPEC OMPM2001, a measure for shared memory servers executing compute-intensive scientific applications.

“With the introduction of the Sun Blade 6000 system, Sun has made it extremely easy to choose the appropriate architecture for the task, be it SPARC, Intel or AMD,” said Chuck Sears, manager of research computing at Oregon State University’s College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Science. “With a unified single chassis design and a common management infrastructure our data center clutter finally can be addressed with out compromising the unique architectural needs of our tasks.”

bbc: A handheld device that recognises the way a finger sweeps across the screen has been developed by Taiwanese phone maker HTC.

The launch of the Touch comes less than three weeks before the iPhone goes on sale.

Apple’s long awaited smart phone also has a finger-controlled display.

HTC’s TouchFLO screen can tell the difference between a pen and human touch.

Menus can be spun around and opened by moving a finger in a given direction.

In January Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs launched the iPhone by asking a euphoric crowd “Are we going to use a stylus? No, we’re not. We’re going to use the best pointing device in our world. We’re born with 10 of them: our fingers.”

Despite his claim that dexterity alone will operate the device, the online accessories retailer Boxware has opted to market a stylus for it.

HTC is not brave enough to abandon the stylus altogether.

It admits that some people will still feel more comfortable turning to a trusty plastic pen for complex actions and is providing one with the phone.