News

indianexpress: Fingers that are usually smeared with boot polish will soon tap away on computer keyboards thanks to a joint venture of the Pune Railway Police and Bhoi Pratishthan. A one-year computer training programme for 55 children who earn their livelihoods by polishing shoes on Pune railway station will get started next week.

“Boot polish is a means of livelihood at the cost of their childhoods, and the computer training will serve to meet their educational needs,” said Bhoi Pratishthan’s founder Dr Milind Bhoi.
 
The programme has attracted the attention of the platform’s coolies. “Six coolies have already given their names,” said Dr Bhoi.

“These children are either runaways, orphans or have parents who are in prison. The children arrive in Pune with no hopes or opportunities of education or employment and then slowly resort to petty crimes at the railway station. Earlier, the railway police used to periodically nab and send them to remand homes, but the cycle continued after they were released,” he said. Ram Kondhalkar of the railway police then decided on a long-term solution to keep them away from anti-social activities and after sessions of counselling, the Bhoi Pratishthan gave them boot polish kits to aid their livelihood.

A team of four, comprising two students from the Institute of Allied Health Science and Technology, Pune, a computer engineer from CMS and another from Microland will conduct the programme for two hours every Saturday and Sunday within the Pune station premises, where the children now assemble every evening for a daily session of prayers and activities, conducted by Prema Chauhan, a railway police lady constable.

indianexpress: Even before Pune’s racing season could be kicked off, a tragedy sent shock waves amongst the racing fraternity in the city. Jockey Anand Gawade fell off his horse at the race course on Saturday morning and died in a matter of two hours.

The 45-year-old veteran jockey was seen falling off his horse after finishing his track work at the racecourse on Saturday morning at about 8 am. He was immediately rushed to the racecourse dispensary, after which he was taken to Jehangir Nursing Home in the RWITC ambulance and then to Ruby Hall Clinic, where he was pronounced dead at about 10 am. His body was sent to Sassoon General Hospital for the post-mortem but the cause of death could not be ascertained.

Gawade’s last rites were conducted at a crematorium near his residence in Fatima Nagar at about 5 pm. He is survived by his parents, two brothers, his wife, a daughter and a son.

“It’s a huge shock. We don’t know what happened. According to eye witnesses — including time-keepers and other riders — he had finished his track work and was cantering past the winning post when he slumped over and fell,” said Shujjat Hussain, senior stipendiary steward, adding the jockey had not displayed signs of being unwell. “I met him in the office the day before. He seemed very fit, like most jockeys usually are.”

According to Dr Urmilla Patil, emergency medical officer at Ruby Hall Clinic, the morning reports suggested Gawade had no pulse or heartbeat when he was brought in. Technicians at Sassoon’s Dead House confirmed the post-mortem has been inconclusive and his organs have been preserved for further investigation which could take about a month.

indianexpress: When city boy Aniruddha Bapat leaves for the International Summer School for Young Physicists (ISSYP) at the Perimeter Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of Waterloo, Canada on August 14, he will be the first kid from the city to be attending the ISSYP.

At the seminar where 100 of the brightest young minds from over 30 countries will meet, Bapat will be among the youngest, having cleared the selection rounds in spite of being underaged.
 
Bapat is no stranger to higher physics and mathematics. It all started in primary school when his parents discovered his inclination to mathematics. “I started attending extra classes and participated in various events to hone my skills. After I was selected to attend the World Year of Physics (WYP) 2005 Symposium at Taiwan in December 2005, I was truly encouraged to participate in more such events,” says Bapat, a standard X student of St Mary’s School.

The competition is open only for 16 and 17-year-old students but Bapat managed to impress the selection committee with his achievements and an essay that he wrote about his interest in physics. The Summer School will include students from Germany, Greece, Italy, the United Kingdom, Trinidad, the Philippines, Scotland, Malaysia and the USA among several other countries.

While at the WYP Bapat presented a project on polarisation of light, at the ISSYP he intends to just sit back and learn various theories of physics ranging from quantum physics to black holes to warped space time and even the expanding universe.

indianexpress: With private-public partnership being the oft-heard mantra in the health sector, Pune’s Sassoon General Hospital (SGH) may soon become one of the first places to see it being tried out. The newly appointed Principal Secretary of Medical Education and Drugs Amitabh Chandra wants to “explore the possibility of initiating a private-public partnership for SGH” — a topic that is slated to come up for discussions at the review meeting scheduled at SGH on Monday.

Talking to Pune Newsline on Saturday, Chandra said he was looking at having some private health sector companies joining hands with SGH to help better the medical services at the hospital. “SGH could become the pilot project and if this is successful we could replicate the same with other hospitals as well,” he said.

The stress of this partnership will be on better patient management, he said. From better management of departments, equipment as well as having the best staff on board, the tie-up will help turnaround the entire working style of the largest government hospital in the state, he said.

“There would be some charge, though it could be a subsidised one and it would be levied on only for those who can afford it. Those who are below poverty line will continue to get these services free of cost,” Chandra said.

The plan would be to start off with one department and then gradually scale it up. A private party could help run one department with doctors and staff and then the same could be replicated, he said. Citing examples of successful private health care institutions, he said government hospitals too could have the same finesse, ensuring that people no longer complained “about poor services given by the government sector.”

indianexpress: Inconveniences caused to citizens by way of drinking water and sewage lines that continuously collapse, or telephone and electricity cables that get damaged with irritating frequency will soon be a thing of the past. The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has decided to prepare Geographical Information System (GIS) mapping of all utility lines across the city in the next three months — an initiative that is expected to put to an end the blame game that starts between the various public service departments once these utility lines get damaged.

The civic administration recently prepared digitised map of the city roads, a network of around 2,800 kms.
 
“The civic administration does not have any map of utility lines on the city roads. Therefore, it is no surprise that utility lines get damaged during road work causing inconvenience to citizens on a regular basis,” a PMC official told Newsline on Saturday.

With the GIS mapping of utility lines, the PMC will have detailed information on the number of utility lines on any particular road and their exact underground location.

“The utility map will be handed over to contractors so that they don’t damage the utility lines while carrying out work on the road,” the official said.

In addition to causing inconvenience to citizens of a particular area, such damage to utility lines also increases the cost of subsequent repair work.

indianexpress:  Union Commerce Minister Kamal Nath on Saturday inaugurated the Auto Cluster Development and Research Institute in Chinchwad.

Following a request by Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Kamal Nath promised that he would ask the India Trade Promotion Organisation to set up an international exhibition centre in Pune.

“This is the first project under the Industrial Infrastructure Upgradation Scheme and will help raise the quality of auto components to a higher level,” Kamal Nath said.

The centre will focus on four technology areas — CAD/CAM, auto electrical, manufacturing services and rubber components.

In the first phase, Rs 67 crore has been invested, with the Central government pitching in with Rs 45 crore, Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation providing Rs 15 crore and the local industry Rs 7 crore.

Madhur Bajaj, president of Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers and vice chairman of Bajaj Auto, said that with Pune emerging as a major automotive hub, auto ancillary units too were coming up here as the industry was increasingly taking the outsourcing route for components. Bajaj Auto chairman Rahul Bajaj said that the centre would become a model for other such institutes to be set up in the country.

indianexpress:  Buoyed by last year’s response to its packaged tours during the monsoon season — called Varsha Vihar — the Pune region of Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) has planned similar trips from August 5.

Divisional controller P P Nimsarkar said the Swargate depot usually organises one-day trips to Malshej ghat, Lonavla-Khandala, Harihareshwar besides the Darshan special as part of Varsha Vihar. “This year though, we have added a one-day tour to Raigad as well,” Nimsarkar said. Last year, the division generated Rs 15 lakh from the package, which lasts for two to three months depending on the rains.
 
The Malshej ghat tour will cover Narayangaon, Ojhar Ganapati and Malshej ghat while the Lonavla-Khandala tour will cover Mulshi, Ambawane, Sahara City, Bhushi Dam, Lonavla and Rajmachi. Similarly, the Darshan special will include Baneshwar, Balaji, Narayanpur, Jejuri, Morgaon, Bhuleshwar and Theur, while Harihareshwar will cover Tamhini, Dive agar, Harihareshwar and Shreewardhan.

Ticket prices for adults range from Rs 130-275 per head while for children the rates fluctuate from Rs 67-140. For bookings, interested people can contact the Swargate depot at 020-24442860.

indianexpress: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) officials on Thursday arrested Dilip Shankar Pandit (43), for allegedly cheating students by issuing admission forms for his bogus institute called International Institute of Technology and Management, Asia (IITM). Pandit holds a string of degrees, including a Ph D, a Masters Diploma in Business Management and an MBA degree. In the prospectus of his institution, he also claimed to hold an MBA degree which the police found to be false.

Pandit in the institution’s prospectus claimed the institution was affiliated to the University of Pune. He also published a photo of a institute’s model in the prospectus, besides running a website.

Pandit was conducting the institute’s affairs by issuing forms from a rented office in MIDC’s G block in Chinchwad. Rozario Philip Fernandes who owned the office space nurtured doubts about Pandit’s activities and upon investigating discovered the scam that was being run by Pandit. He filed a complaint with the EOW.