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indianexpress:  The Lohegaon airforce base will get a new squadron of Su-30 MKI by April 2008, Air Marshal K D Singh, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief (AOC-in-C), South Western Air Command (SWAC), said on Friday.

“Pune was primarily developed as a base for the Sukhois and a lot of investment has gone into this,’’ Singh said. Currently Lohegaon airforce base has two squadrons of Su-30 MKI — Lightnings and Rhinos.
 
The Su-30 MKIs will roll out from the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) factory at Nashik. Recently the Jaguar Squadron was shifted and located to Jamnagar airbase in Gujarat for strategic reasons.

Lohegaon airbase is the raising base for Su-30 MKIs and once all the squadrons are raised some of them will be shifted to other airbases in the country. Though IAF has a sanctioned strength of 39.5 squadrons, currently there are only 33 squadrons that are operational.

The phasing out of some of the aircraft and the delay in the production of indigenously developed Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) and floating of the request for proposal for 126 multi-role combat aircraft has resulted in the depleting squadron strength.

Meanwhile, the Su-30 MKI s will be shifted out for about nine months to Rai Bareli once the resurfacing of the runway at Lohegaon airbase starts in September. “Recently we had a meeting with Lohegaon Airport director and it is decided that the resurfacing will start from September 1,’’ Singh said.

indianexpress: The rural police on Friday arrested five trustees of Siddharth Institute of Medical Sciences, a private medical college in Talegaon Dabhade, for cheating 97 students to the tune of lakhs of rupees by admitting them to courses not recognised by the Medical Council of India (MCI).

A rural police team led by Superintendent of Police Vishwas Nangre Patil raided the institute’s Pimpri office.

“The institute, operating without the MCI’s consent, was admitting aspirants with poor standard XII scores for a payment of Rs 3.5 lakh per seat to gain admission to the college,” said Nangre Patil

The institute, which started the course in medicine last year, claimed they were following the syllabus of Kazar Institute located in Azerbaijan.

“The Medical Council of India had given advertisements last year in prominent newspapers clarifying that it has not permitted any foreign university to establish campuses in India or start medical courses,” said Nangre Patil.

“Besides, there was a Bombay High Court order on January 21, 2007, that had ordered the institute to maintain status quo and not admit students for the coming academic year. However, the institution did not pay any heed and admitted students for 2007-2008, which amounts to contempt of court,” he added.

The police have not sealed the institute earlier because it did not want the students to lose out. “But now with cases of cheating being filed, we decided to act,” said Nangre Patil.

The rural police has arrested five members of the institute’s seven-member committee__ Rajendrasingh Uttarsingh Yadav, Piyush Kranti Sukeduvikas Nandi, Sushilkumar Lahuji Verma, Vishvesh Satyapal Sharma and Rekha Rajendrasingh Yadav. The police have filed cases of cheating and violation of MCI Act and University Grants Commission Act, 1956, against them.

The police acted after student Atul Shankar More (19) filed a complaint on Thursday at the Talegaon Dabhade police station against the institute. More, who had acquired 47 per cent marks in standard XII, had visited the Pimpri office earlier, where he was promised a seat by director Rajendrasingh Uttarsingh Yadav.

indianexpress: The first heavy downpour of this monsoon saw the city’s power supply collapse not to return for over three hours, low-lying roads getting waterlogged with water entering many settlements.

MSEDCL executive engineer Rameshsinh Gautam said: “I do not have information instantly available. You have to contact the call centre.”
 
MSEDCL sources said technical snags in Kharadi feeder resulted in power cuts on Pune-Ahmednagar Road, peth areas and parts of Kondhwa. Power will be restored later in the night, they said.

Chief Fire Officer L N Raut said: “We are too busy to attend to your calls. The city is in a mess with waterlogging in low-lying areas and uprooted trees at many places. My men are busy attending calls from all over the city.”

The Pune Police control room too said it had received scores of complaints about power cuts. Wall collapses were reported from Sadashiv Peth, Warje and Market Yard, but nobody was injured.

City fire brigade control confirmed there was waterlogging at Laxmi Narayan theatre chowk, parts of Erandwane, Dahanukar Colony, and Gosavi Vasti. “We do not have full details as the citizens calls are still pouring in,” said a personnel at the control room.

Waterlogging led to traffic snarls at Ambedkar, Laxmi, Shivaji roads, Golibar chowk, Maldhakka chowk, and several places in Kothrud. Tree uprootings were reported from Suraksha Society in Kothrud, Krushna Colony at Vanaz, Lokmanya Colony in Kothrud, while waterlogging was reported at Shivteerth Nagar on Paud Road, Omkar Housing Society on Gandhi Bhavan Road.

In Cantonment area, harried residents at Bungalow no.9, Queens Road, said water had entered 16 barracks.

indianexpress: The Shiv Sena on Friday threatened to storm the flyover segment between University of Pune chowk and Government Polytechnic and forcibly open it for public use as the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) and Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) authorities had adopted delay tactics ignoring the plight of the road users.

However, the agitation was put off till July 7, on which day the MSRDC officials said the flyover will be opened for use.
 
Earlier, Sena’s deputy mayor Chandrakant Mokate, corporators Ankush Tidke, Shrikant Pujari, Ashok Harnaval and their supporters arrived at the University chowk in the afternoon and confronted the MSRDC officials present at the site. However, police arrived on the scene and brought the situation under control.

Following requests by the MSRDC and police officials, Mokate agreed to put off the plan to forcibly open the flyover, but insisted on a fresh date for opening it. Later, the Sena men and MSRDC officials arrived at the PMC headquarters and jointly announced July 7 as the date.

MSRDC official Manoj Khaikar said all works were completed but the consultancy firm appointed for the purpose of final inspection was yet to give its final report before the flyover, connecting roads and ramps were open to public use. Mokate said the Sena was temporarily withdrawing its plans and would wait till July 7. “If the MSRDC fails to meet its fresh deadline, we will not wait any further as the monsoon has set in and commuters are finding it difficult,” he said.

The MSRDC was given a deadline to finish the flyover by June 15 by chairman Anil Deshmukh during his visit in mid-May.

indianexpress: Students unhappy with the evaluation of their answer papers by the University of Pune can now check back. For the first time, a decision has been taken to grant students photocopies of their evaluated answer sheets upon request. The decision will be implemented this October, and will be in addition to the existing practice of revaluation.

The decision was taken on Thursday after a meeting of the varsity’s Board of Examinations, held to review the recommendations of the one-man committee under the chairmanship of University Senate member Gajanan Ekbote.

While this is the first time such a decision has been taken in Pune University, the practice of issuing evaluated answer sheets is already on in other state universities at Mumbai, Nagpur, Nanded, Aurangabad, Kolhapur and the SNDT University, Mumbai. The University Grants Commission (UGC) had also recommended this to state universities in a Gazette Notification dated December 1998.

To consider such an implementation in Pune University, a committee had been formed two years ago under the chairmanship of Ekbote which had said the practice would not be feasible.

Last September, two students from the HV Desai College in Pune had filed an appeal under the Right To Information (RTI) Act requesting photocopies of their answer sheets rejected by the University citing confidentiality. Instead, the University agreed to grant them photocopies of the model answer sheets. This had been objected to by Senate member and HV Desai College professor Atul Bagul, who also approached Vice Chancellor Narendra Jadhav.

The issue was raised in the University Senate meeting in October, when the one-man committee headed by Ekbote was set up again. This committee recommended that while answer sheets could be provided, they should be given under certain conditions, for example to students who had failed or secured marks below 60 per cent, and so on.

indianexpress: India need to push themselves for better innovation and technology management, as the future of the country depends on these two aspects: This was the mantra to come out of the one-day symposium organised by MITCON Consultancy services along with the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) by scientific adviser to the DSIR, Jyoti A Bhat, at the workshop titled Leveraging Innovation for SME competitiveness.

The DSIR is setting up centres all over the country to help nurture innovations and technology. With six of them already being established in various parts of the country, Bhat said they would have to promote more of the same, considering the thrust was to focus on the management of technology.

Bhat also emphasised that Small and Medium Scale Sectors (SMEs) played an important role in this aspect and needed the necessary push. She said there was need for great flexibility, lower overheads, ability to adapt and adopt technology and take risks.

Apart from focusing on technology management that dealt with innovation, the workshop also touched upon issues of technology strategy, infrastructure, finance and protection of technology.

For this, the DSIR has several schemes and this was spelt out to the participants as well as the Bank of Baroda officials, who said the banking sector was open to help out the innovators. Bhat said there was a need to have a change in mindset among the citizens and. “We Indians have the capability and should have the pride to enhance our own products,” was the consensus

indianexpress: From August 1, senior citizens above 60 years of age will get free treatment and medicine at eight hospitals and 11 dispensaries run by the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC). The decision follows a State government resolution passed last December, directing all municipal corporations and councils to provide free treatment and medicine to senior citizens above 60 years age as part of the National Senior Citizens’ Policy.

PCMC health chief Dr Nagkumar Kunachgi said the PCMC offered concessions in medical bills to those above 65 years of age. “Now, after the government directives, all citizens above 60 years of age will get free treatment, medicine and even operations will be performed free,” he said, adding, only those medicines which are available with the hospitals will be provided free. The proposal will be placed before the PCMC standing committee and the general body meeting next month. “The decision will take effect on August 1,” he said.
 
An individual will have to produce a senior citizen’s identity card issued by the tehsildar. “Without the I-card, no free treatment will be provided,” Nagkumar said. “Citizens from other parts of the State will get the facility once they produce the I-card.”

Pimpri-Chinchwad Senior Citizens’ Mahasangh president Dr Shriram Pandey said. “All these years only citizens above 65 years of age were getting the treatment. Now citizens above 60 years will get free treatment at civic hospitals across the State. We had been following the issue with the PCMC.”

There are as many as 30 senior citizens’ organisations in Pimpri-Chinchwad. “So far, we have issued nearly 8,000 I-cards to senior citizens. Any senior citizen can approach us with two photographs and proof of birthdate and we will help in getting the I-card from the tehsildar’s office located near Shaniwarwada,” said Pandey.

techtree: India Digital Life Style Distributions Private Limited (IDLDPL) has brought the Pentax K10D lens-interchangeable digital SLR camera to the Indian market.

The Pentax K10D sports an ergonomic design, and features a 10.2 effective megapixels for precise, high-resolution images.

Powered by a rechargeable DLI50 Lithium-ion battery, the camera features a high quality CCD image sensor, weather and dust seals, and Pentax Shake Reduction (SR) mechanism, and is compatible with all existing Pentax interchangeable lenses.

Other features include: a newly-developed Dust Removal (DR) mechanism, high precision 11-point auto focus system, USB 2.0 hi-speed, 512MB RAM, and world time displays of 71 cities and 28 time zones. The camera uses SD/SDHC memory card.

Commenting on the product, Surinder Saini, product manager for Pentax, IDLDPL, said, “Pentax is one of the competitive brands across the world in the professional and semi-professional camera category. Pentax K10D SLR camera provides immense power, convenience, and ease-of-use at a very competitive price point.”

techtree: IDLDPL, distributors of lifestyle products, have launched the ‘Parrot’ Bluetooth brand in the country.

The first of the ‘Parrot’ devices to be launched is the ‘Parrot MINIKIT’, which is a Bluetooth-enabled, hands-free device meant for voice-activated phoning at home, in the office, or on-the-move.

Drivers can continue to talk long hours by simply fixing the ‘Parrot MINIKIT’ on any part of the dashboard, without having to worry about losing balance or getting fined by cops.

The ‘Parrot MINIKIT’ features a built-in two-watt high-fidelity speaker, and a built-in omni-directional microphone supported by DSP-2 signal processing technology.

The user-friendly ‘Parrot MINIKIT’ allows users set-up their phone-books with voice tags for added convenience and control.

The device is capable of pairing up with up to 5 devices, as well as recognising multiple languages. Once paired, the device can connect automatically with users’ mobiles.

With last-number redial, the ‘Parrot MINIKIT’ enables users switch a call from the speakerphone to the mobile phone, and vice versa.

The ‘Parrot MINIKIT’ is battery-powered, requiring no external wires or accessories.

With a weight of 3.5 ounces and dimensions of 4.3 x 2.5 x 1.2 inches (about the size of a wallet), the ‘Parrot MINIKIT’ features 10 hours of talk time, over one week of standby time, and is capable of fully recharging within 3 hours. The device comes with a 12V and a 120V charging unit.

Speaking at the launch, Surinder Saini, brand manager, Parrot, IDLDPL, said, “Parrot MINIKIT Bluetooth hands-free features the latest generation of Digital Signal Processing, which enables crystal clear conversations in any situation.”

techtree: WeP has reportedly launched its high-speed impact printer, “HQ 2100″ in the country.

The printer, the company says, is capable of printing nearly 710 pages per hour, with around 1,000 characters per second.

The “HQ 2100″ is eco-friendly, and complies with the European Union’s RoHS (Restriction on Hazardous Substances) directive.

The printer is best suited for multi-user networked application necessities, the company said.

The “HQ 2100″ features a serial and parallel interface with auto-share, 1+8 multipart capability, 64 kb input buffer, and 10 LQ fonts.

It also features a zoom function, a two-level menu system for making operating simple, and the capacity to store 3 complete configurations for instant recall.