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indianexpress: THE Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) on Tuesday issued demolition notices to owners of 55 structures encroaching upon the nallas giving them a month’s time to bring down the structures. This follows the 150 notices issued earlier to other encroachments.

Tuesday’s notices were sent to owners of 11 structures that fall under the jurisdiction of Hadapsar, 19 structures in Bibvewadi and 25 structures in Dhankawadi ward offices.
 
The PMC has decided to act against 70 slums that have come up illegally near Mangalwar Peth pumping station.

Notices to 105 structures were served in early July since they blocked the course of nallas after heavy rainfall in the city. Demolition of a few structures was also undertaken as an emergency measure. The PMC also decided to locate encroachments on nallas using the Development Plan and the recently conducted satellite survey reports.

Divisional commissioner Nitin Kareer even ordered the district administration to conduct an extensive survey of the nallas by involving the land records department and the civic body.

Promptly, officials began a survey of Ram Nadi, a tributary of the Mutha, in Baner which has been encroached upon in several places. So much so that the river’s water entered housing societies in Baner.

indianexpress:  THE Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation began its anti-encroachment drive along the Pune-Nashik highway in Bhosari around 11 am on Tuesday and halted only at 4.15 pm after advocates for local residents and shopkeepers produced a copy of the Bombay High Court order asking the civic body to maintain status quo.

By then, the PCMC had flattened 67 commercial and residential structures that was necessary for widening the stretch to 61 metres.

Municipal commissioner Dilip Band said further action would be decided “after what happens in the court.”

“I must thank the local residents for cooperating with the PCMC staff. This is the first drive which was quick and peaceful,” he said, adding only one police complaint was registered by the PCMC against a person who stoned a civic vehicle.

Additional municipal commissioner Subhash Dumbare said, “We do not know the petitioners. After going through the copy of the high court orders our lawyers told us to stop the drive.”

The court order asked the PCMC to maintain status quo on Survey No 198 and Survey 211. Dumbare said 650 notices were issued to shop owners and residents. “In all, there are 250 structures to be demolished. 67 were completely razed and six were partially brought down,” he said.

indianexpress: ON Tuesday even as the neighbouring Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) carried out a massive demolition drive, the Khadki Cantonment Board (KCB) also witnessed an hour-long ruckus over “illegal extensions” in Khadki bazaar area.

Activists and shopkeepers in the area indulged in heated exchanges over construction of shops which were hampering traffic and pedestrian movement in the area. Finally, the KCB was forced to take action when Brig V K Bhatt, president, ordered for demolition of all illegal extensions of shops in Khadki bazaar. Shops under renovation were also asked to stop encroaching upon public roads.
 
The issue came to the fore after Brig Bhatt decided to do a ‘reality check’ on encroachments following a complaint from activists Domnic Lobo and Pandurang Garsund of the Common People’s Front. The activists alleged that several shops in the bazaar area had encroached upon roads, making the already crowded area more chaotic. In a letter to Brig Bhatt, they stated that the shops which have been allowed to be renovated by the KCB were setting up their columns right on the roads.

Brig Bhatt then undertook an inspection of the area accompanied by CEO G S Rajeshwaran, senior officials Arun Godbole, P P Varandani and the activists. “Because of the encroachments, citizens find it difficult to walk through the bazaar area,” the activists argued.

indianexpress: DIABETIC and hypertensive patients are now exposed to new risks. In a Pune study on 300 diabetic patients above 50 years, doctors found 104 (38 per cent) had coronary artery narrowing, 150 (50 per cent) had peripheral artery narrowing and almost 192 (64 per cent) showed evidence of cholesterol deposits in coronary or peripheral vascular arteries.

“The study stresses the importance of unrecognised blockages in the vascular system apart from the heart and the need for diabetic and hypertensive patients to undergo periodic evaluation,” said Dr Shirish Hiremath, who presented his research paper at the vascular leadership summit in Kuala Lumpur and at the European Society of Cardiology in Chennai recently.

Peripheral Vascular Disease (PVD) occurs when fatty deposits or plaque build up on the inside walls of the arteries, causing them to narrow and harden. It is a highly prevalent progressive atherosclerotic disease (blockage in the arteries) which can cause stroke, myocardial infarction and premature death.

Blocked arteries in the leg reduce blood flow so that the surrounding muscles do not get oxygen. This causes cramps in the leg muscle and pain while walking or exercising. Other symptoms of PVD in the lower limbs include weakness in the legs, tingling, numbness, change in skin colour, rash or ulcers on legs or feet.

indianexpress:  THE Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) will throw open the University flyover for traffic on Saturday. Meanwhile, one lane, from Government Polytechnic to Pune University circle will be opened on Wednesday.

The inauguration earlier slated for Friday has been delayed due to the death of former PM Chandra Shekhar. “The work is almost complete,” mayor Rajlaxmi Bhosale said, adding the date for inauguration though slated for Saturday will be finalised in consultation with Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar.

“The Pashan leg that ends at Pune University circle would be opened for commuters from Wednesday,” she said.

The seal coating of the road, railing and water draining facility on the other legs in Aundh and Baner would be done in the next two days, Bhosale said.

indianexpress: ON Tuesday, anganwadi workers’ demands for better pay and status came to the fore once again.

The need to give the workers a permanent employment status and an independent department — rather than hire them as provisional workers under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) of the Woman and Child Development department — was forwarded by the Pune district Anganwadi Karmachari Sanghtana (AKS) to the Collector and the Zilla Parishad Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

The Pune faction joined its state and national counterparts to observe a country-wide strike of anganwadi sevikas on Tuesday. Members assembled at the Zilla Parishad, marched to the Collector’s office with banners and listed out their demands.

“As of now, anganwadi workers are under the ICDS scheme. But they should function in a separate department,” said secretary Shubha Shamim, adding that a committee should assess the requirements of formulating this independent department. “The pay scale should atleast be increased to Rs 4,000 from the current Rs 1,470,” she said.

The Sanghtana insisted that the assistant worker too needed to get atleast Rs 3,000 till the posts were made permanent. Shamim said such a move was already undertaken in Pondicherry and Goa, and felt other states should take a cue from them.

The workers’ plight was such that they did not stand to get regular salaries — which were measely — and ended up spending from their pockets to provide meals for the pre-primary classes.

techtree: Apacer Technology recently announced DDR3 memory that supports Intel’s newly launched Bearlake desktop chipset.

According to Apacer, compatibility of its DDR3 1066/1333 models with Intel’s Bearlake desktop chipset has already been certified by several motherboard manufacturers.

In addition to Bearlake-compatible DDR3 memory, Apacer also announced its ‘fastest’ DDR3-1600MHz overclocking module.

Apacer’s DDR3 has a couple of advantages over DDR2. Firstly, it is equipped with an 8-bit prefetch design with computing speed of 800 to 1600MHz unlike DDR2 which has a 4-bit prefetch design with computing spped of 400 to 800MHz.

Secondly, DDR3 voltage is controlled at 1.5V as against DDR2 voltage at 1.8V.

Lastly, ASR or Automatic Self Refresh design is applied to DDR3 to lower the die temperature.

Apacer says that compared to DDR2-800, the average power consumption of DDR3-800, DDR3-1066, and DDR3-1333 is reduced by 25 percent, 20 percent, and 40 percent respectively.

Apacer’s 1066MHz and 1333MHz DDR3 modules come in both 512KB and 1GB capacities to meet the needs of various desktop PCs and workstations.

techtree: Reliance Communications (RCom) is offering it’s NetConnect customers across the country a mobile Internet data card at no additonal cost.

Elaborating on the scheme, S P Shukla, chief executive officer of personal business at Reliance Communications, said that customers can choose from a wide range of options, including getting a free data card against a 12-months subscription.

Under the 24-month subscription Freedom Plan, free usage of up to 1GB is available every month, whereas under the Swift 50 plan, users can avail up to 40 hours free usage every month.

Alternatively, customers can purchase the mobile Internet data card by making an upfront payment of Rs 2,850 for the USB data card, and Rs 2,990 for the PCMCIA data card.

Shukla said the company has already entered into alliances with laptop manufacturers to bundle the NetConnect Data cards.

Reportedly, there are over 10-million Reliance NetConnect customers across the country. With this offering, they will be able to access the Internet at any time and from any where, RCom said.

bbc: New software which works out much more realistically how ancient buildings would have looked in their glory by generating accurate plays of light sources has been developed by scientists in England.
 
The software maps lighting details onto virtual recreations of places

The project, developed at Warwick University in the West Midlands, brings ancient architectural features to life through a revolutionary sophisticated modelling of light.

This allows archaeologists to study how buildings and artwork would have really looked at the time, right down to the differing lighting provided by the types of candles used.

“What you need to do to get an accurate image is model exactly the physics of the light - what colour the light source is, how it moves within the environment, and how it reflects and refracts off all the different surfaces,” said Alan Chalmers, professor of visualisation at the Warwick digital laboratory.

“Once you’ve modelled the physics right, you’re modelling closer to what nature does - and you’re achieving a realistic, physically-based image, and you can use that as a tool to understand what the environment really was like.”

bbc: UK science fiction writer Charles Stross, author of novels Accelerando and Singularity Sky, posits a future in which all human experience is record on devices the size of a grain of sand.
 
Hard drives are reaching the limits of data storage

 We’ve had agriculture for about 12,000 years, towns for eight to 10,000 years, and writing for about 5,000 years. But we’re still living in the dark ages leading up to the dawn of history.

Don’t we have history already, you ask? Well actually, we don’t. We know much less about our ancestors than our descendants will know about us.

Indeed, we’ve acquired bad behvioural habits - because we’re used to forgetting things over time. In fact, collectively we’re on the edge of losing the ability to forget.

For the past 50 years we’ve become used to computers getting cheaper and more powerful exponentially - doubling in performance (or halving in price) roughly every 18 months.

The world’s leading thinkers give a personal view of future technologies

The core trend, described by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, describes the transistor count in microchips.

But a parallel trend in data storage means that storage space is becoming twice as plentiful on a similar time scale - and our ability to generate data to store is also increasing, as witness the 4m CCTV cameras around the UK, and about 70m cellphone accounts, of which maybe half are associated with camera phones able to record video