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indianexpress:  ATTEMPTS are on to infuse an element of excitement to the Pune racing season that kicks off on July 26. Though there are no new features, the racing days have been increased to 29 from 26 last year. The total advertised prize money, at Rs 5.4 crore, is up by nearly 30 per cent this year and the sponsorships hit an all-time high of Rs 65 lakh.

Though conducting races in July in Pune is not lucrative for the club — since they can only do so on weekdays with the Bangalore season also on — they agreed to it due to the demand from the racing fraternity, said Vivek Jain, chairman, Marketing and Media Working Group, Royal Western India Turf Club (RWITC). A sponsored race will be held on each racing weekend for a second successive year, with seven first-time sponsors lined for the year, he said.

Seven mega events revolving around fashion and glamour have been planned during the racing calendar, in keeping with the club’s efforts to popularise the sport. On cards are contests with prizes that include sponsored trips for the Dubai Gold Cup.

The club has initiated various measures to boost prize money and get sponsors for its less prestigious races to support the small owners, Jain said. Also, norms for participation by outstation horses have been tightened, he said.

indianexpress: INITIATING major administrative reforms in the civic body, Municipal Commissioner Pravinsinh Pardeshi recently roped in state-cadre engineers to undertake various responsibilities in the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC). The move, viewed as indirectly clipping powers of engineers of the municipal-cadre, led to unrest among PMC officials heading various departments.

On Wednesday morning, the PMC Engineers’ Association called an emergency meeting and decided to launch an agitation against the civic chief’s decision to import State engineers reducing the former’s powers. However, the association later called off the agitation after being assured that the newly appointed officials were only for the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) project.
 
Pardeshi had recently approved the appointment of two superintendent engineers — Vijay Deshpande and V R Patil — of the State government to be on deputation to the civic body.

PMC officials said that the various department heads were expected to assist the state-cadre officials. Patil has been entrusted with the responsibility of the Water Works project, River Improvement project, rehabilitation under SRA scheme and rehabilitation of hawkers while Deshpande has been given the charge of roads and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) being implemented under JNNURM.

“We planned to launch protests against the decision of the commissioner, but later withdrew it as we were assured that the PMC-cadre engineers would not be under control of the state-cadre officials. The commissioner has clarified that the officials are appointed only for JNNURM projects,” said Mukta Manohar, president, PMC Engineers’ Association.

indianexpress:  Delegations of automobile majors from Germany, US, France and Japan are used to making a beeline for the temporary facility of the Auto Cluster Development and Research Institute Limited at Chakan before taking the final call on setting up shop. And many of them used to get convinced about destination Pune.

The cluster development centre, till now operating from a makeshift unit, is all set to acquire a hi-tech sheen on July 21 with Union Commerce Minister Kamal Nath and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar gracing the occasion. The Rs 60-crore auto cluster research institute is expected to become a model for similar projects in the country.

The first auto cluster development institute to take off in the country, the facility at Chakan has been set up with grants from the central government and the local civic body, the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC).

Dilip Band, the Pimpri-Chinchwad municipal commissioner and chairman of the auto cluster, said the PCMC had invested Rs 15 crore and provided the 10-acre land for the project. The central government has chipped in with Rs 20 crore as grant while local industry put in Rs two crore. About Rs 9 crore is expected to come from the industry. Initially meant to be a Rs 127-crore project, the cost of the auto cluster institute was scaled down to Rs 60 crore.

indianexpress: After coming out of BIFR and a clean-up of the balance sheet with a new set of owners, the Ahmednagar-based Trinity Forge Private Limited is now looking at fresh infusion of funds to the tune of Rs 20 crore from private equity players.

Murali Cherat, Executive Director, Trinity Forge, said the company was talking to two domestic investors as well as a UK-based investor to divest 25 to 30 per cent equity. The funds will be used to expand capacity for overseas foray as existing capacities would be full this year. Trinity Forge will be utilising LPG gas fuel instead of oil which will enable the company better control over parameters and also get carbon credits.
 
The forging unit had become sick following labour problems and posted losses and faced a lockout in February 2006.

The erstwhile owners have retained their two Pune units — Trinity India and Trinity Dyes and Forgings — but disposed off the Ahmednagar unit.

Arch Infra Projects Nirman Pvt Ltd, a Rs 16-crore turnover enterprise run by the Howale family, has taken over the sick unit of Trinity Forge and will be re-launching operations on July 21, 2007. The family has put in Rs 8 crore to clean up the books and is investing another Rs 17 crore towards reviving the units.

“We have acquired all the tangible and intangible assets and liabilities along with its brand identity and also approvals from BIFR,” Anil Howale, CMD of Trinity Forge said.
 

indianexpress: DESPITE assurances from education officials that the discrepancy in college code numbers in std XI admission forms for the science stream would not result in wrong allotment of colleges, Ankita Rachcha was allotted a different college, despite having given Nowrosjee Wadia College as her preference, and having the merit to obtain admission in Wadia.

The std XI admission forms for the science stream comprised a list of junior colleges along with the allotted code numbers, to assist students while filling their preference. At the end of the form, another list of the colleges and their respective cut-off percentages in the year 2006-07 was also included.

However, while the colleges in the first list were numbered as 011 to 120, the cut-off list was numbered 11 to 119. As a result, in most cases, the number allotted to each college was different in each list.

“The form clearly instructed us to refer to the cut-off list while filling in the preferences, so that we choose only those colleges as per percentage scored,” said Rachcha’s mother Savita. Rachcha had scored 78 per cent and applied under the Special Backward Class category, while the cut-off at Wadia for the same category was 62.31 per cent.

Accordingly, Rachcha filled in her preference as Wadia College with the code number 72 as provided in the cut-off list. However, since the Wadia College code in the first list was 73, Rachcha was allotted Camp Education Society’s Junior College, which was not even included in Rachcha’s preference list.

indianexpress: Cummins India Limited has decided to exit the auto services business — Cummins Auto Services Limited (CASL). Unattractive market dynamics and fierce competition from the unorganised sector have been cited as the reasons for the decision.

CASL, a 100 per cent subsidiary of CIL, was in the business of retailing and servicing of parts and accessories for commercial vehicles. This has been a loss making business for Cummins India with sales sales in 2006-07 slumping to Rs 4 crore compared to Rs 20 crore in the previous year.

CIL has also embarked on an expansion drive to triple the capacity for small generators and generator drives in the 15 to 140 KVA range. It is setting up a new plant for small generators and generator drives at Pirangut near Pune. “Work for the new facility has commenced. The company plans to commission the EOU section of this facility in the third quarter of the current fiscal. This expansion more than triples the capacity available at the current Daman location,” the company’s annual report said.

The company has also invested in expanding capacity of its existing plant in Pune to meet the growth plans. The Kothrud plant achieved its target of increasing its KV engine capacity from 10 to 12 per day from January this year.

From this year, the Cummins Group has brought all Cummins companies operating in India under different brand names under the Cummins brand name.

techtree: Zebronics aka TopNotch Infotronix has launched Biostar TP35 motherboards based on Intel P35/ICH9R and P35/ICH9 Express chipsets.

Intel’s P35 Express chipsets support a 1333 MHz System Bus speed, Gen-Next 45nm dual- and quad-core processors, and DDR3 memory to deliver improved performance and increased system bandwidth.

Platforms based on Intel’s P35 Express chipsets feature in-built design headroom, Intel Fast Memory Access (FMA), and Intel Turbo Memory, and as such promise best-of-class performance.

Launching the motherboards, Pradeep Doshi, director of sales, Topnotch Infotronix, said, “The P35 T-Force series motherboards from Biostar bring performance computing to all power and mainstream users. Not only is DDR3 memory expensive, it’s availability is also scarce, especially in non-metro cities. Biostar P35 DDR2 boards will bring performance computing to the mainstream.”

The new Biostar motherboards are readily available through Zebronics’ partners.
 

techtree: Having debuted Parrot Bluetooth in India, IDLDPL (India Digital Life Style Distributors) is now launching the Parrot Easydrive Plug’n'play Handsfree Bluetooth car kit in the country.

The kit needs to be simply installed in the car, and it connects automatically to Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones, according to IDLDPL.

Most importantly, calls can be made whilst driving. The voice recognition feature allows users to call out a name, and the Easydrive automatically dials that number.

The Parrot Easydrive Plug’n'play Handsfree Bluetooth car kit delivers superior acoustic output, and facilitates smooth clear conversations. The in-built microphone helps users talk in natural tones without having to raise their voice.

A small and lightweight device, the Easydrive can be easily slipped into any pocket or hand bag.

Speaking on the occasion, Surinder Saini, brand manager for Parrot at IDLDPL, said, “Parrot Easydrive Plug’n'play Handsfree Bluetooth car kit is another addition to our existing portfolio of Bluetooth devices. Parrot being a French brand is a perfect combination of technology, aesthetics, and price. The biggest advantage of Easydrive is that it can be paired with up to five phones at a time.”

The Easydrive Plug’n'play Handsfree Bluetooth car kit comes with a keypad, HP, 2 covers, fitting accessories, and a user guide.

techtree: ReadyNAS NV+ is a single, safe solution for storing and serving all digital data, and is targeted at home offices, small businesses and workgroups.

Netgear says ReadyNAS NV+ bundles technology that was previously reserved only for high-end servers, and thus brings affordable enterprise-level technology to the masses.

ReadyNAS NV+ supports Gigabit Ethernet speeds, system monitoring capabilities, and built-in backup with hardware RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks).

With the patent pending X-RAID technology, ReadyNAS NV+ provides full data access and redundancy with protection, even during hot swap of disks and hardware failure. Besides, the product has a special energy saving mode for automatic shut-down whenever idle.

And, ReadyNAS NV+ works with Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems.

The ReadyNAS NV+ family comprises different models including: ReadyNAS NV+ RND4425, a 1TB Gigabit Desktop Network Storage (4 x 250GB) with 4 Hot Swappable 250GB HDD in a small 8-inch high desktop design; ReadyNAST NV+ RND4250, a 1TB Gigabit Desktop Network Storage (2 x 500GB) with 4 Hot Swappable HDD in a small 8-inch high desktop design; and ReadyNAST NV+ RND4450, a 2TB Gigabit Desktop Network Storage (4 x 500GB) with 4 Hot Swappable 500GB HDD in a small 8-inch high desktop design.

techtree: Got a Nokia N95 and wish it got a GPS lock much faster? Nokia’s 6110 already does it, and the N95 can do it too, with a satellite lock promised in less than one minute!

It’s good news for owners of Nokia’s GPS capable phones , with the ability to use A-GPS, or assisted GPS, to dramatically speed up the time taken to find orbiting satellites and connect to them so you can get a GPS lock and start navigating.

Nokia says they want all their GPS capable phones and future devices to use this feature, and for N95 owners who’ve had to wait up to 5 minutes to get a GPS lock, this is very good news indeed.

N95 owners need simply use the ‘software update’ facility of the PC Suite software and upgrade their N95’s firmware to the new v12 to take advantage of this feature, while the new Nokia 6110 Communicator is already able to do this.

Nokia says that this service “has the ability to reduce the time a connected mobile device with built in GPS needs to find its current position, known as time to first fix (TTFF) for most geographical locations worldwide. The reduced fix times can increase and improve the usability for all Nokia location-based experiences”.
 
Ralph Eric Kunz, VP of multimedia experiences at Nokia said in a statement that: “By decreasing the time wasted while you wait for a first fix, we are increasing the enjoyment that Nokia Maps provides. Consumers now have the comfort of quick fix times which create a better navigation experience when using Nokia Maps.”