News

indianexpress: FERGUSSON College science student Shiwani Dewal has topped the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) board examination for the Pune division (comprising Ahmednagar and Solapur) with 95.33 per cent. She is also a topper among the girls in the vocational category and shares the spot with Ahmednagar student Roshni Rasal from the Pemraj Sarda College.

Nazeem Shaikh of the Lady Tehrunissa Inamdar College at Wadgaon Sheri came second in the Pune divisional board with 95 per cent. Another student from Pune city Nazreen Ansari from the Abeda Inamdar Junior College secured the first rank in the physically challenged category.
 
Among other award winners from Pune were science students Sukhada Pendse, Pavitra Iyer and Pranjali Ganu from Fergusson College, who secured the third, fourth and fifth ranks respectively.

In individual streams, Shaikh topped the science Stream while Maitrayee Rajput of Brihan Maharashtra College of Commerce (BMCC) came first in commerce while Solapur’s Sumayya Shaikh topped the arts stream.

While laurels were won by the science students of Fergusson College, the Arts students did not figure in the first two awards announced by the Board. “Since 1976, this is the first time no Fergussonian figured among the first two ranks in Arts. But the students have done well overall, and could have figured in the third or fourth rank had they been announced,” said principal SM Chitale.

While there was no merit list this year, the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education announced awards to be presented to the toppers in each divisional board.

indianexpress:  NATIONAL Institute of Bank Management (NIBM) in Kondhwa lost its claim to 1.5 acres that it had hitherto considered its own. The beneficiary is Ali Daruwala, a businessman.

This follows the collectorate’s land measurement department carrying out a fresh demarcation of the disputed plot admeasuring 48,000 sq feet located in the upmarket part of the city, known more for NIBM. The land is now valued at over Rs 10 crore. Daruwala on Friday put up a fence around the demarcated land in the presence of heavy police bandobast.
 
District collector Prabhakar Deshmukh said, “It was a dispute between NIBM and Daruwala. The final decision making authority is the superintendent of land records. An inquiry will be ordered to probe into the complaints regarding sub-letting of the premises by NIBM to third parties.”

ACP (Wanavdi Division) Ramesh Biwal said, “We had asked both Ali Daruwala and NIBM authorities for the documents. NIBM had failed to produce any documents while Daruwala showed us papers to prove he is the legal owner.The institute officials have time and again informed us that their documents are with the Reserve Bank of India and have not shown us any document till date.”

Biwal said the NIBM had complained on Friday that Daruwala was carrying out measurement of the land. “We cannot take action against him because the district collectorate has ordered it,” he said.

Daruwala said the land belonged to him and he had the necessary papers to prove it. “The 7/12 extract, property tax receipt, ULC order and property tax index is in the name of Daruwala family,” he said.

indianexpress:  POLICE Commissioner Jayant Umranikar on Friday inaugurated a dedicated helpline for senior citizens. The helpline centre, bearing number 1091, has been located in the crime branch control room.

Umranikar, in his address, said that the helpline would provide medical, legal and domestic help to senior citizens in case of emergencies. A separate bureau for the helpline would be set up in association with volunteers of the International Longevity Centre, he added. The volunteers will take care of the needs and ensure speedy delivery of goods to senior citizens, he said. Umranikar said that police would play the role of co-ordinator and doctors, lawyers, financial advisors and social workers would be roped in. It is a comprehensive scheme which would provide great relief to senior citizens, Umranikar said.
 
The commissioner felicitated citizens Noor Mohammed Patel, Feroze Shaikh and Basheer Inamdar who nabbed a dacoit on Wednesday night. The trio was awarded a citation for bravery and Rs 5,000 each.

indianexpress: The centralised admission procedure to the first year at five autonomous engineering colleges in Pune, Mumbai, Nanded and Sangli will begin on June 11, on completion of the counseling sessions for these institutes on June 9 and 10.

The autonomous institutes include the College of Engineering, Pune, Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute, Mumbai, University Institute of Chemical Technology, Shri Guru Gobind Singhji Institute of Engineering and Technology, Nanded, and Walchand College of Engineering, Sangli. The admission schedule begins with the sale of brochures and application forms of type A, B and C candidates from June 11 to June 20 from 11 am to 5 pm. The acceptance of the forms at the Application Receipt Centre (ARC) will start from June 15 up to June 20. The forms will also be accepted between 11 am and 5 pm.
 
The centres for sale and receipt of the application forms for type A candidates will be the Government College of Engineering Jalgaon, Government College of Engineering Aurangabad, Government College of Engineering Amravati, and the Government Polytechnic Nagpur. But for type B and type C candidates, the ARC will be only at COEP.

The fees for the information brochure and application form will be Rs 600 for open category candidates and Rs 400 for backward class category candidates. For further details about the admission procedure log on to www.coep.org.in, www.udct.org, www.vjti.ac.in, www.sggs.ac.in or www.walchandsangli.ac.in.

To guide students of the admission procedure for engineering and pharmacy, a lecture will be given by Maharashtra State Director of Technical Education N B Pasalkar at the Vishwakarma Institute of Technology, 666, Upper Indira Nagar, Bibvewadi at 4 pm on June 9. Contact: 2420 2248.

indianexpress: THE Bank of Maharashtra’s shareholders approved a dividend of 20 per cent for the year 2006-07 at the fourth annual general meeting of the bank held at its headquarters in Lokmangal, Pune on Thursday.

Chairman and managing director M D Mallya said that the bank performed well on all parameters and achieved all the set targets. The bank had set a target of Rs 55,000 crore and achieved business of Rs 57,382 crore during the year 2006-07.
 
The bank’s net profit during the year was Rs 271.84 crore compared to Rs 50.79 crore in the previous year. The bank has set a business target of Rs 70,000 crore and 22 per cent growth for 2007-08. Shareholders participated in the discussions and appreciated the all-round performance of the bank. Resolutions were also moved for adoption of accounts and declaration of dividend and the same were carried out unanimously on Thursday.

The thrust areas for 2007-08 is to accelerate growth of low cost deposits and retail term deposits, increase fee based income and client expansion by cross selling of products.

indianexpress: THE monsoon is likely to arrive in the state on June 10. According to the India Meteorological Department officials, certain parts of the state will experience the monsoon showers in the coming two days.

Deputy Director General of Meteorology (weather forecasting) Dr AB Mazumdar told Newsline that the monsoon flow pattern has been revived after the cyclonic storm in the Arabian sea and the state would get the monsoon on the set date of June 10.
 
The southwest monsoon has further advanced in some parts of Konkan and Goa and Madhya Maharashtra and some parts of interior Karnataka.

“It is neither early nor late,” he said. He however was non-committal about the onset of the monsoon in Pune and said that it would be observed closely. He has however forecasted thundershowers in the city and said that the city may get the rains in the coming days if the pattern progresses.

techtree: As a contribution of technology to global health, IBM has developed an advanced software to help predict transmission of diseases across countries across the globe to the open-source community.

The new “Spatio-Temporal Epidemiological Modeler” or “STEM” technology is designed for rapid creation of epidemiological models to show how an infectious disease, say Avian Influenza or Dengue fever is likely to spread geographically over time.

STEM technology, according to IBM, will aid scientists and public health officials to understand and plan more efficient responses to global health crises.

STEM software is capable of running on any operating system, and creates a graphical representation of the spread of a disease, basis parameters like population, geographic and macro-economic data, roadmaps, airport locations, travel patterns, and even bird migratory routes.

Says IBM, STEM technology is the outcome of three whole years of research conducted by scientists in various laboratories of the company spread out across the globe.

Commenting on the innovation, Joseph Jasinski, Program Director of Healthcare and Life Sciences, IBM, said, “STEM will allow public health officials to model the spread of a disease, much like modeling a storm or hurricane. Until now, it wasn’t possible to play out health crisis scenarios on a global scale. STEM gives us the power to do that.”

Reportedly, STEM is going to be one of the key technologies deployed by the ‘Global Pandemic Initiative’ a collaborative effort by IBM and more than 20 major public health institutions worldwide to help nip infectious diseases in-the-bud.

Meanwhile, IBM’s STEM software is available for use through the Eclipse Open Healthcare Framework Project (OHF), hosted by the non-profit Eclipse Foundation.

techtree: Parallels has announced the final release of its Desktop 3.0 for Mac, which sports 3D graphics, over 50 new productivity and security features, and other enhancements to help Mac users get more out of both Windows and Mac OS X operating systems.

This is the first major update for Parallels Desktop for Mac, since its launch in June 2006.

Parallels Desktop for Mac enables Mac users run Windows, Linux, and any other operating system at the same time as Mac OS X on a single Mac desktop, sans the need for rebooting.

And like older versions, the new version automatically utilizes Intel Virtualization Technology to deliver superior performance and stability while running multiple operating systems at the same time.

Nick Dobrovolskiy, Chief Executive Officer of Parallels, said, “This new version is an important milestone for us to help computer users get the best of all operating systems on a single, seamless desktop. With new features that deliver more flexibility, increased security and peace-of-mind, working with multiple operating systems has never been easier, safer, or more fun.”

The most talked-about feature in the new version is hardware-accelerated 3D graphics. Parallels Desktop 3.0 offers support for OpenGL and DirectX, thus allowing users play popular Windows-only 3D games such as Quake, Half-Life 2, and World of Warcraft, as well as work with complex Windows-only 3D CAD programs.

Another new feature is SmartSelect, a built-in integration tool that enables users open any file from Windows or Mac OS X using an application from either operating system

itwire: The National Hockey League and Sling Media have reached an agreement permitting the use of clips from NHL broadcasts with the Clip+Sling feature coming to the Slingbox.

Slingbox sends TV content via the Internet to SlingPlayer software running on PCs, Macs or mobile devices. Various models connect to cable outlets, set-top boxes and home theatre equipment. Clip+Sling, currently in beta, was announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. It allows SlingPlayer users to record portions of content and then share those clips with the rest of the world.  This sounds rather like YouTube, but without having to manually digitise, encode and upload the clips.

At the time, Blake Krikorian, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Sling Media said “Clip+Sling makes it extremely easy for Slingbox customers to share that priceless moment, and at the same time helps networks and content owners build communities around their content. We look forward to delivering tremendous value for both groups.”

Jason Hirschhorn, president of Sling Media’s entertainment group has obviously been listening to his boss before announcing the NHL deal. “Clip+Sling makes it extremely easy for fans to share a priceless moment with others, dramatically changing the way consumers socialize around TV,” he said. “In addition, it enables content creators to build new communities as well as new revenue and marketing opportunities around their content.”

xinhuanet:  A Chinese company says it has developed a mobile phone that uses solar energy to recharge itself and can provide 40 minutes of talk-time after sitting in the sun for an hour.

    Hi-Tech Wealth, a well-known telecommunication products supplier in China, claims its mobile phone is the world’s first solar power to recharge its battery.

    The company says a scale-like solar panel on the top side of the clamshell-designed phone can also be recharged by light from other sources including candles.

    Hi-Tech Wealth says it has developed the most advanced solar power technology and owns eight patents and has applied for numerous others.

    Many companies around the world are working on similar mobile phones but their products are still at the experimental stage, said an official with Hi-Tech Wealth.

    Zhang Zhengyu, chairman of Hi-Tech Wealth, said the company began researching the use of light as an energy source in 2000 and has invested hundreds of millions of yuan.

    “With more than 400 million mobile phones in the country, China would save a great amount of electricity if all its mobile phones were recharged by light,” Zhang said, adding that the lifespan of the battery in the new phone is 2.5 times longer that traditional batteries.

    In March, Hi-Tech Wealth exhibited its light energy mobile phones at the world’s largest electronic, IT and telecommunication products trade show CeBIT in Hanover, Germany.

    The company plans to put six of its light energy mobile phones on the market this year, and another 30 next year.