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indianexpress: Several road projects and bridges in the city that have been held up so far because they passed through defence lands may now see the light of the day. Minister of Defence for States, MM Pallam Raju has consented to either share, lease out or transfer such lands to the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC). Raju, who was in Pune on Wednesday met municipal commissioner Pravinsinh Pardeshi, mayor Rajlakshmi Bhosale, Pimpri-Chinchwad municipal commissioner Dilip Band, Khed MP Shivajirao Adhalrao Patil and MLA Chandrakant Chhajed and GOC-in-C Southern Command Lt Gen Aditya Singh.

Civic officials will soon present a detailed proposal to get the defence land. “Pune is a growing city and we will help its people by clearing bottlenecks. PMC’s request for lands are genuine,” said Raju. The total land required from the defence authorities for 8 projects is 21 hectares valued at Rs 45 crore.
 
For starters, five projects will be taken up. Proposals will be drawn up for widening of Bhau Patil, Alandi, Bibvewadi-Kondhwa, Nagar and Sangamwadi-Sadalbaba roads. The other roads are Pune-Solapur, Mumbai-Pune Road near Phugewadi and the Ramwadi-Airport approach Road. The bridges are Holkar, Ghorpadi overbridge and Khadki railway overbridge.

“In cases where land has to be transferred we will pay a fee. Elsewhere, land will be leased out and in some cases the land will remain with the defence authorities while the PMC will use it for development,” Mayor Rajlakshmi Bhosale said.

According to a PMC official, compensation to the defence authorities for demolition of some infrastructure will be worked out. “The defence authorities are working on a comprehensive proposal for rehabilitation and replacing amenities that will come under the PMC hammer once the projects start,” an official said.

indianexpress: There has been a marked increase in the number of house break-in incidents with about three thefts rocking Samartha, Vishrambaug and Pimpri areas of the city during the past 48 hours. Meanwhile, the booty is estimated to be around Rs 8 lakh, while two thieves have been arrested.

In the first incident, the Samartha police arrested Rafique Abdul Sattar Shaikh, a resident of Loni Kalbhor for stealing cash and gold ornaments estimated to be worth Rs 33,000 from Gurukrupa Motor Driving School in Bhavani Peth on Tuesday. According to the police, Shaikh broke open the shutter locks and decamped with the booty.
 
Shashank Subhash Walunj (27), a resident of Mangalwar Peth in a complaint lodged with the Vishrambaug police said that Ravi Basappa Shirsath (19), a resident of Bijapur, Karnataka allegedly attempted to break into his shop Mobile Shoppe located in Sadashiv Peth on Tuesday. However, he was caught by a police patrol team while attempting to break the locks.

Vijay Singh Jagdish Singh Pardeshi (39), a resident of Khairewadi, Ganeshkhind Road in a complaint lodged with the Pimpri police said that some unidentified thieves entered James Auto Private Limited in Kalbhornagar and looted cash estimated to be over Rs 7.41 lakh on Monday. According to the police, the thieves broke into the office through the glass door, went into Pardeshi’s cabin and decamped with the booty. No arrests have been made so far.

indianexpress: A ‘mini car’ would be the first product to roll out from the Rs 1,400-crore General Motors facility at Talegaon near here in September 2008. “The mini car has been identified. It could be a Chevrolet Spark or even a different model,”

P Balendran, director & vice president (corporate affairs), General Motors India said.
 
Balendran said the company had chosen to come to Pune since western region was the second largest market in India. The Pune plant has an initial capacity of 1,40,00 units, which can be ramped up to 2.2 lakh units.

“Pune was selected since our auto-component suppliers are located in and around the region. The company could be looking at exports at a later point. This plant could serve the export needs as well,” he said.

The company would bring two new models to the Indian market every year until 2010. After Magnum Optra, the company is now working on an SUV that is likely to be launched in the market by the end of this year, said Balendran who had come for the launch of Chevrolet Optra TCDi diesel sedan in Pune.

indianexpress: Homegrown technology from Pune will play a significant role in the greening of Europe’s fuel consumption. Europe is expected to increase usage of biofuels with blending expected to go up from 2.5 per cent to 5.75 per cent in 2012 and to 10 per cent by 2020. This will mean more biofuel projects being set up and with at least 10 plants likely in the immediate future. To tap this opportunity that is emerging in the European market, the $ 8 billion Aker Kvaerner of Netherlands BV has got into a Joint Venture (JV) with Praj Industries to set up BioCnergy Europa BV.

“Bio fuels demand in Europe will go up by three to four times the present consumption by 2010,” Wim van der Zande, MD, Aker Kvaerner Netherlands BV said. The 60:40 Praj-Aker Kvaerner JV, BioCnergy, will address both the ethanol and biodiesel opportunities.
 
Both partners have been working through a strategic alliance for the last two years and it is now being converted into JV, Pramod Chaudhari, chairman, Praj said. In India, Praj has been setting up plants of about 1,00,000 litres to 2,00,000 litres but in Europe the plant sizes go up six to 10 times so plant size, technology and execution changes, Chaudhari said. “We have our strength in the oil and gas business. Praj is an innovative company and brings knowledge on board. There will be significant developments in this area in the next five to six years and the kind of feedstock used,” Wim said.

The JV will be located in Zoetermeer, The Netherlands, 50 kms from Amsterdam and have investments of around Euro three million. BioCnergy is betting on oil and gas companies investing in biofuel projects in future. The JV will leverage on the existing facilities of Praj in India and Aker Kvaerner base in Europe and operations in Mumbai and Pune.

indianexpress: The Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education issued an official clarification on the errors in the standard X geography and Marathi textbooks on Wednesday saying a three-member committee has been appointed to fix responsibility.

The final draft of the geography textbooks, ready before printing, had been procured by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) opposition leader Vikas Mathkari, who highlighted several major errors in the textbook. Earlier, the BJP had protested against the errors in the standard X Marathi textbook, which had held up production leading to unavailability of the textbooks in bookstores.

From maps not to scale, to missing districts, the Geography textbooks carried several errors. The Marathi text book was full of spelling mistakes. “All maps have been approved along with a certificate by the Survey of India before including them for printing,” the Board statement said. The Board has denied the claim that the labels for the maps in the Marathi medium book were in Hindi.

Regarding the reference in the geography book to the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean as the Andaman Samudra and the Lakshadweep Samudra (in the Marathi medium book), the Board said this reference was correct, as it was given in the NATOMO Atlas, Government of India, and also the Oxford Students Atlas of India.

In case of the Marathi textbook, as many as 315 errors were found in 260 pages when 13 lakh textbooks were printed and ready for sale in the market. This, despite several sessions of proof-reading and editing before the print order was issued. It then dawned upon the Board authorities that even a corrigendum was not practical given the number of errors and a decision was finally taken to withhold the textbooks and instead go for a reprint

indianexpress: The Pune Municipal Corporation’s (PMC) annual survey by the 19 family welfare centres conducted among a population of eight lakh people in April and May has a new edge — the civic body is counseling couples with one child to undergo sterilisation.

Each family welfare centre covers an approximate 50,000 population with focus on people from nearly 500 slums. Municipal commissioner Pravinsinh Pardeshi, who has shown keen interest in family welfare activities, has roped in ward medical officers, nurses and health officials to visit the people at their doorsteps and counsel them.
 
Even though the stress will be on one-child norm, care will be taken to ensure there is no gender discrimination when nurses go from house-to-house and encourage women to opt for only one child whether it is a girl or a boy. The PMC will also tie up with NGOs to identify eligible couples.

“While family welfare is not just family planning, there is a need to stop unwanted pregnancies. We can only persuade and counsel people. Finally, it is the decision of the couple,” said Pardeshi. The Jalad Sulabh Mofat Yojana where the vehicle reaches the person’s doorsteps to encourage sterilisation has also received a good response, he said.

There are 1.29 lakh couples who can be targetted according to the survey, said head of city family welfare bureau Dr Anjali Sabne. Of these, an approximate 14,000 have one child. “This is one of the groups we aim to encourage and motivate to undergo sterilisation,” she said.

indianexpress: The results for the Maharashtra Common Entrance Test (MHT-CET) for engineering and medical colleges will be declared on Thursday. Students can collect their results from their respective junior colleges at 10 am.

Around 1,800 junior colleges across the state participated in the city, with a total of 1,74,189 students appearing for the examination in both medical and engineering sections from 455 centres in 35 districts, said Arun Kumar Vyas, the competent authority for MHT-CET.
 
“In the medical stream, there were 1,20,692 students appearing for 3,775 seats in some 58 government and aided colleges,” said Vyas. In Pune, a total of 19,725 students appeared for the CET from 205 examination centres.

techtree:  Joining the likes of Dell, EDS, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), HP, IBM, Lenovo, Microsoft, PG&E, World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and more than 25 other organizations, Intel and Google have reportedly announced the launch of the “Climate Savers Computing Initiative”.

“Climate Savers Computing Initiative” is an initiative that aims at saving energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions with the help of new energy-efficient PCs and components.

As per current estimates, an average desktop PC wastes nearly half of its power, while an average server nearly one-third of its power.

According to Urs Holzle, Senior Vice President for Operations & Google Fellow, “The Climate Savers Computing Initiative is setting a new 90 percent efficiency target for power supplies, which if achieved, will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 54 million tons per year - and save more than $5.5 billion in energy costs.”

To begin with, computer manufacturers and chip makers, environmental groups, energy companies, retailers, and government agencies will participate in this initiative.

According to Pat Gelsinger, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Digital Enterprise Group, Intel, by 2010, the initiative would cut greenhouse gas emissions to an extent equivalent to removing over 11 million cars from the road, or shutting down 20 500 megawatt coal-fired power plants.

Apart from participant companies, consumers too can be part of the initiative. All they need to do is sign-up at www.climatesaverscomputing.org.

techtree: Joining the likes of Dell, EDS, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), HP, IBM, Lenovo, Microsoft, PG&E, World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and more than 25 other organizations, Intel and Google have reportedly announced the launch of the “Climate Savers Computing Initiative”.

“Climate Savers Computing Initiative” is an initiative that aims at saving energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions with the help of new energy-efficient PCs and components.

As per current estimates, an average desktop PC wastes nearly half of its power, while an average server nearly one-third of its power.

According to Urs Holzle, Senior Vice President for Operations & Google Fellow, “The Climate Savers Computing Initiative is setting a new 90 percent efficiency target for power supplies, which if achieved, will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 54 million tons per year - and save more than $5.5 billion in energy costs.”

To begin with, computer manufacturers and chip makers, environmental groups, energy companies, retailers, and government agencies will participate in this initiative.

According to Pat Gelsinger, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Digital Enterprise Group, Intel, by 2010, the initiative would cut greenhouse gas emissions to an extent equivalent to removing over 11 million cars from the road, or shutting down 20 500 megawatt coal-fired power plants.

Apart from participant companies, consumers too can be part of the initiative. All they need to do is sign-up at www.climatesaverscomputing.org.

computerworld: Ultralow power is being added to the features of short-range Bluetooth technology.

The ultra-low-power Wibree technology developed by Nokia Corp. will become part of the Bluetooth specification under an agreement reached by the Wibree Forum and the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), the Finnish mobile phone maker said today.

Bluetooth has been used mostly to connect larger devices such as headsets, keyboards and mice to stereos and PCs. With the help of Wibree, the technology will be able to connect smaller button-cell battery-powered devices, such as watches or sensors attached to a user’s body. Wibree uses the same 2.4 GHz frequency as Bluetooth.

“We look at this as an addition to the Bluetooth family of specifications, enabling a new class of devices that Bluetooth isn’t really suitable for today,” said Michael Foley, executive director of Bluetooth SIG.

In October, Nokia’s research arm announced the development of Wibree and the establishment of an industry forum, whose members include Broadcom Corp. and STMicroelectronics NV, to define a specification.

But after forming the forum, the companies — many of them members of Bluetooth SIG — decided they favored having ultra-low-power devices supported in Bluetooth, according to Harri Tulimaa, head of Nokia Technology Out-Licensing. “They didn’t want to complete an entirely new technology,” he said.

The goal is to develop specifications for two types of ultra-low-cost implementations: a single-mode implementation for watches, sensors and other tiny devices to communicate with each other, and a dual-mode implementation to communicate with both single-mode and traditional Bluetooth devices.