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indianexpress:   A thirty-five-year-old fruit vendor was done to death with an iron rod in Hadapsar by armed dacoits during the wee hours on Wednesday. There were six break-in attempts in the locality during the night and one of them was caught by alert citizens and handed over to the police. This follows a spate of armed dacoties in recent past where senior citizens became prime targets.

The deceased was identified as Santosh Ashok Mokale, a resident of Unnati Nagar wasti in Hadsapsar, who was woken up as the dacoits banged on the door of his house. Mokale who was sleeping outside the house, was hit him on his head with an iron rod. He died on the spot, police said.
 
Mokale, survived by three-year-old daughter, a one-year-old son and wife, was the only earning member of the family that had recently relocated to Pune from Solapur in search of livelihood.

ACP ( Wanavdi Division ) Ramesh Biwal said, “During his interrogation, Vairat has confessed the involvement of one more dacoit in the break-in. We suspect the absconding criminal to be behind the murder of Mokale.”

Hadapsar Police Inspector VS Sonawane said two dacoits had entered the locality around 3 a.m on Wednesday and attempted a break-in at Akshar Shrushti Granthalaya. Then they attempted three more break-ins before reaching the house of senior police inspector NN Shaikh, currently posted at Patan in Satara District. However, the attempt was foiled by alert citizens of the area.

indianexpress: With monsoon just round the corner, the Central Railway (CR) is making sure they are leaving no stone unturned to ensure that services are provided without any disruption between Pune-Mumbai and other sections in Pune division. In fact, officials claim that most of the monsoon precautionary work has been completed.

A number of exercises from trimming down trees near the railway tracks, waterproofing sub-stations and checking lightning arrestors between Talegaon and Dehu Road have been conducted in the process.

Senior officials from Pune division said the trees have been trimmed so that there are no tree felling cases on the railway tracks leading to blockages. “There are 28 locations where trees with ‘doubtful integrity’ have been identified. These trees may get uprooted in case of heavy rains. We are on a second check if they need to be are urgently cleared,” the official said.

Apart from trees, railway authorities have taken a note of regular incidences of snapping of Overhead Equipment (OHE) wires at Talegaon. In the last monsoon, around 3 such incidences happened causing trouble to passengers in the Pune-Mumbai section.

“We have conducted a check of the lightning arrestors on Talegaon-Dehu Road-Malavli section. There are around 140 lightning arrestors in the section connected with an earthing. Whenever there is a lightning discharge, the arrestors pull it down and channel it to the earthing. In case of a lightning of a bigger earthing value, there are chances of OHE wires getting snapped. We have strengthened around 65 earthings, which had developed snags,” the official said. Another 8 special lightning arrestors have also been placed in the section for a safer side.

Officials also said that the ongoing work of conversion of Direct Current (DC) to Alternative Current (AC) of OHE wires between Pune and Vangani will help in reduction of lightning discharge hassles. “With the conversion, the insulation level of OHE wires between Chinchwad to Dehu Road has increased by 15 percent. We expect a decrease in cases of snapping of OHE wires due to lightning discharge by 90 percent,” the official said.

Moreover, the waterproofing of seven sub-stations between Pune-Lonavla section has also been completed. “Work like sealing of transformers panel and moisture sensitive components have been taken up,” officials said.

indianexpress:  Eminent scientist R A Mashelkar stressed the need for an effective policy on science, technology and innovation for the country’s progress. Speaking at the convocation ceremony of Defence Institute of Advanced Technology (DIAT) on Wednesday, Mashelkar said, “In 1958, we had a policy on science, in 1983 we had a policy on technology. Now in 2008, we should have a policy on science, technology and innovation.”

Citing the example of the Param supercomputer which was initially denied by a US-based company, he said that such restrictions only help the country to become self reliant. “After the successful development of Param supercomputer, it was exported to Germany and other countries,” he said.
 
Mashelkar also spoke about need for cooperation among countries to enforce the Kyoto and various other protocols.

Mashelkar conferred M E, M Tech and MSc degrees to 113 student officers from three wings of the Armed Forces.

Nangre Patil seems to have picked up where he left off Ahmednagar during 2003-05 where a similar crackdown on armed gangs of dacoits especially the Pardhis who had wreaked havoc in the rural hinterlands of the region.

indianexpress: Even as Pune city police is foxed by a spate of dacoities where senior citizens are being targeted, the Pune rural police have claimed 100 per cent detection of all the nine dacoities that took place in the first five months of 2007. As many as 100 dacoits belonging to 17 dreaded gangs have been put behind the bars by the rural police already.

Rural SP Vishwas Nangre Patil attributes the 100 per cent strike rate to strengthening of the Local Crime Branch (LCB) that has been given a free hand in tackling dacoities.
 
“Earlier there were two officers with a few constables posted with the LCB. We have boosted their strength to 50 constables and six officers and given them specialised training in handling dacoity,” Nangre Patil told Newsline.

LCB Chief Bhausaheb Andhalkar attributed the success to team effort and foolproof intelligence gathering.

Schemes like a three-tier patrolling system where a special jeep with armed commandos headed by an officer of the rank of police inspector has been introduced. The dedicated commando force, created by the rural SP for the first time in the state, seems to have delivered the goods.

For the Rural SP and his team, the day begins at 5 a.m, with cross patrolling of all the eight divisions of the district, crackdown on criminal habitats and sharing criminal intelligence with their counterparts in the neighbouring districts have brought relief to the rural masses.

There has been a fall in dacoities as well as a rise in detections in the last two-and-a-half years. As against 38 dacoities reported in 2005, 27 were detected while 33 dacoities out of 43 were detected in 2006.

indianexpress: Pune district collector Prabhakar Deshmukh has issued orders to cancel membership of the sarpanch, the deputy sarpanch and a member from the gram panchayat of Vitthalwadi (Nandur) in Ambegaon taluka, around 90 kms from here, for the misuse of a Gairaan (common grazing land) for personal purpose.

The collector issued the orders on May 25 in response to an appeal submitted on July 10 last year by a member of the gram panchayat.

In his order, Deshmukh has said that encroachment on government land was illegal and according to the document produced by the main complainant, Shankar Baburao Chikhale, the members “used the common grazing land, which is an open land owned by the government, for private constructions.”

The collector’s order, issued under provisions of the amended Bombay Village Panchayat Act 1958, debars the three members from holding the posts in the gram panchayat.

Chikhale in his appeal to the collector had stated that the three members — sarpanch Sayaji Baban Chikhale, deputy sarpanch Hanumant Rambhau Chikhale, and gram sabha member Bhaskar Vishnu Chikhale — had constructed houses, chawls and even stables on the common grazing land admeasuring 9.75 hectares.

The collector’s order termed the act of misusing government land or public place as a tresspass.

“The appeal clearly shows that the three members are violators of the said act and their membership stands terminated,” stated theorder.

Though the constructions have not been demolished, complainant Chikhale, in a written statement to the media, said they were happy that their complaint was taken up by the district collector and action was taken against those who were misusing their officialposition.

indianexpress: It is a concept that is far off from the regular books, chairs and benches that one comes across in a nursery school. Opening under the aegis of the Maharshi Karve Stree Shikshan Sanstha in the last week of June, Aakar laboratory nursery school promises to provide a novel experience to children between the age group of three to five giving them loads of mental and physical space in a scientific manner.

“A common practice is to teach the pre-primary kids the curriculum of standard I so that they get through good schools,” says Ashwini Godse, coordinator of the school who herself holds a specialisation in ‘early childhood education’.

As a coordinator of such a course at the sanstha, Godse realised that while she was teaching her students the thumb rule of freestyle teaching in the confines of the classroom, in the outside world the reality was much different. “My students would come back and say that all they had learnt was not practical. The schools outside did not run on these guidelines,” she says.

It was then that Godse got a feeling that her teachings had become redundant in the commercial set up where children were under pressure to enter the best schools. Eventually, it gave birth to the idea of Aakar. In September 2006, she made a proposal to the managing committee of the Maharshi Karve Stree Shikshan Sanstha to open a laboratory nursery school with not just a conducive environment but also a training centre for student teachers to pick the right principles of early childhood education. “The school will have flexible timings and a set three week adjustment programme,” elaborates Godse.

techtree: Asus India has entered the communication segment with the launch of its P535 tri-band PDA phone in India.

The P535 tri-band PDA phone features full wireless functionality, Global Positioning System (GPS), and a high quality auto-focus camera, all in one compact form factor, says Asus.

And, the PDA phone is targeted at business professionals and high-end technology users, according to the company.

Andrew Tsui, Managing Director of Asus India, said, “We now aspire to successfully enter the communications segment with the introduction of the P535 PDA phone, which will complement our 3C philosophy of providing products in the computers, communications, and consumer electronics space.”

The P535 offers push email, Internet access, and off-site synchronization of calendar and contact information over wireless or mobile GPRS networks. With the P535, users can view and edit Office documents as well.

The phone features an integrated auto-focus 2.0-megapixel camera that doubles as a business card scanner; Asus’ proprietary Secret Folder software through which users can encrypt and protect sensitive information; and the Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system.

techtree: HP India has launched a new range of Pavilion desktops; the Pavilion a6000 series, and the Pavilion m8000 series.

According to HP, the innovative new range promises state-of-the-art performance and functionality together with improved style and appeal.

The new Pavilion desktops come with optional HP-branded widescreen LCD monitors, as well as wireless multi-media keyboard and mouse.

The monitors feature BrightView technology for sharper display and enhanced productivity. They can be rotated 160-degrees horizontally or vertically.

The wireless keyboards sport a slim space-saving design, and feature easy-to-use low profile keys, and side hot keys for instant access to common functions. The memory card reader and power button are placed on top of the PC.

The new desktops include HP’s newly-introduced Easy Clip feature, which makes for a personalized experience through placing clip accessories onto the edge of the monitor.

With the new Pavilion range, HP has introduced Vista Remote for a digital experience at one’s fingertips as also Pocket Media Drive Bay for additional storage capacity. Select models are also Bluetooth-enabled.

HP’s new Pavilion desktops are available in a glossy Black finish with some parts highlighted in a luminous Azure Blue.

techtree: ASRock has announced a new motherboard, the “ConRoe1333-D667″.

The “ConRoe1333-D667″ is based on Intel 945GC A2 and ICH7 chipsets, compatible with all FSB1333/1066/800/533MHz CPUs except Quad Core.

The new motherboard supports Intel Dual Core 2 Extreme/Core 2 Duo/Pentium D/Pentium Dual Core/Pentium 4/Celeron/Celeron D processors.

In addition, it supports PCI Express x 16 slot, 4 x Serial ATAII 3.0 Gb/s connectors, and dual channel DDRII667 x 2 DIMM slots with maximum capacity of up to 4GB.

Windows Vista Premium 2007 logo-ready, the “ConRoe1333-D667″ features Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950, DirectX 9.0, maximum shared memory of 224MB, and 7.1 CH Vista Premium Level HD Audio (ALC888 Audio Codec). It has 4 USB ports and HD 7.1 channel audio jacks.

According to ASRock, the motherboard will go perfectly with Windows Vista. Being Windows Vista Premium 2007 logo-ready, the motherboard would allow consumers upgrade the operating system to the newly launched Windows Vista Premium version

bbc: A clean-cut vision of a future freed from the rat’s nest of cables needed to power today’s electronic gadgets has come one step closer to reality.

US researchers have successfully tested an experimental system to deliver power to devices without the need for wires.

The setup, reported in the journal Science, made a 60W light bulb glow from a distance of 2m (7ft).

WiTricity, as it is called, exploits simple physics and could be adapted to charge other devices such as laptops.

“There is nothing in this that would have prevented them inventing this 10 or even 20 years ago,” commented Professor Sir John Pendry of Imperial College London who has seen the experiments.

“But I think there is an issue of time. In the last few years we have seen an exponential growth of mobile devices that need power. The power cable is the last wire to be cut in a wireless connection.”

Professor Moti Segev of the Israel Institute of Technology described the work as “truly pioneering”.

The researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who carried out the work outlined a similar theoretical setup in 2006, but this is the first time that it has been shown to work.

“We had a strong faith in our theory but experiments are the ultimate test,” said team member Assistant Professor Marin Soljacic.

“So we went ahead and sure enough we were successful, the experiments behave very much like the theory.”

Wireless energy transfer has been thought about for centuries

The experimental setup consisted of two 60cm (2ft) diameter copper coils, a transmitter attached to a power source and a receiver placed 2m (7ft) away and attached to a light bulb.

With the power switched on at the transmitter, the bulb would light up despite there being no physical connection between the two.

Measurements showed that the setup could transfer energy with 40% efficiently across the gap.

The bulb was even made to glow when obstructions such as wood metal, electronic devices were placed between the two coils.