News

indianexpress: The Centralised Admission Procedure (CAP) for standard XI may have begun 13 years ago with the students’ welfare in mind, but for some 1,500 students and their parents, the CAP experience this year is turning out to be a nightmare. From finding their names missing from the list, to being allotted colleges too far away from home, students are being forced to run from pillar to post, with only a handful of their complaints being addressed.

Over 80 per cent of the total complaints received since July 18 were from students who were unhappy with the college allotted to them due to the distance from their homes. “I live at Chandannagar and I have been allotted a college in Hadapsar. I will waste a lot of time and money just travelling to college,” said a student.

This, despite the fact that students are required to fill their area code and give college preferences accordingly. “In most cases, the students did not have the requisite scores to be eligible for the colleges, so the computer rejects their applications. The allotment is then done manually, starting with the last few preferences,” said Assistant Deputy Education Officer VL Vahile.

Outdated computer software is also to blame for such glitches, said Parents’ Association Action Committee chairman Mangesh Sabnis. “The computer software is the same that was used in the first year in 1994. This corelates the students’ percentage with the college chosen by them, instead of focusing on only those colleges within the student’s residential area. This system needs to be updated, especially since Pune now has many more residential areas coming up,” said Sabnis.
The team raised Rs 10 lakh for the expedition and besides their equipment and food, they took a camera to film their adventure.

indianexpress: It’s not everyday that a city-based mountaineering club can claim to have engineered the first-ever successful Indian expedition to the formidable Mount Shivling in Garwhal region of the Himalayas.

But seven members of city-based Giripremi club managed to achieve just that. Adding that extra edge to the celebrations is the fact that they’ve managed this when their club is celebrating its silver jubilee. “It was a very ambitious goal. But we did it with elaborate planning, appropriate selection of team members, coordination and the sheer will to make it,” said secretary Umesh Zirpe
 
Mount Shivling near Gangotri glacier stands at a height of 6,500 feet above sea level and is considered treacherous even by the most experienced climbers.

Stringent criteria marked the selection process. “The core team had a mix of experience, fitness and general level of awareness. In order to survive such hostilities as we would encounter, our team needed to be well-versed in the other aspects of survival, including first-aid, how to make do with paucity of supplies and so on,” says Zirpe.

While 12 members left on May 12, this year for the month-long expedition, seven of them climbed the peak, among them was first-timer Rupesh Khopade. “On the way to the peak, each camp higher was like the pinnacle. Certainly, we were very well-prepared, but there is a saying that unless the mountain allows you to conquer it, there is no way you can,” he said.

indianexpress: A Private construction, a part of a garden, toilet blocks and a crematorium run by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) are among the 27 illegal encroachments along Ram Nadi. The list, drawn up by the land records department of the collectorate, was submitted after the survey of encroachments along Pashan and Sutarwadi stretch.

Collector Prabhakar Deshmukh on Tuesday said action will be taken against the encroachments after a meeting with municipal commissioner Pravinsinh Pardeshi.

The Collector had issued directives on July 4 to conduct an extensive survey of the nallas in the city when rising water in Ram Nadi entered housing societies in Baner after heavy rain. Five teams were deployed for the survey of which three teams conducted the Ram Nadi stretch while the other two are doing the Ambil Odha stretch. With the Pashan and Sutarwadi surveys are complete, land records department officials are now checking Baner and Bavdhan Khurd, said Deshmukh.

Superintendent of land records Girish Rao along with D H Jagtap, S C Yerwatekar, R C Rokade and Sunil Wani measured 323.29 hectares along Ram Nadi.

The illegal encroachments belong to mainly slum dwellers wherein part of their wall or shed or a pumping station, chawls of brick kiln workers was in the 30 metres stretch along the river’s bank.

indianexpress: The civic administration has sought the Pune Municipal Corporation Standing Committee’s permission to start acquisition of land required for construction of the 90-mt wide ring road on the city’s outskirts.

In its proposal, the civic administration has said the project that will pass along the outskirts of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) and link major highways will reduce the number of heavy vehicles entering the city. At present, thousands of vehicles pass through the city on the Pune Solapur and the Pune-Satara roads.
 
The ring road is highly beneficial for citizens who can expect less congested roads. “The number of vehicles are increasing with the growing population and immediate steps are needed to tackle the situation for better city roads,” municipal commissioner Pravinsinh Pardeshi said.

Since it is going to benefit both Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad he said it has been decided that both municipal corporations have to acquire the required land for the project.

The ring road has been divided into four stretches starting from Somatne Phata to Pune City (South) to Lohegaon (North) to Wadki. The road will pass through Mamurdi, Kiwale, Chincholi, Nigdi, Talawade, Chikhli, Moshi, Wadmukhwadi, Charholi, Nirgudi, Wadgaon Shinde, Lohegaon, Wagholi, Manjri Khurd, Loni Kalbhor, Phursungi, Wadki, Urali Devachi, Undri, Pisoli, Katraj, Kondhwa Budhruk, Nimbalkarwadi, Shindewadi, Ambegaon Khurd, Dhayari, Wadgaon, Khurd, Warje, Bhugaon, Lande, Jambhe, Mahlungi and Maan.

indianexpress: Power cuts in several parts of the city and suburban areas were the order of the day on Tuesday as several harassed and angry citizens called Maharashtra State Energy Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) call centres complaining about no electricity supply in their areas.

MSEDCL officials said a total of 543 complaint calls regarding breakdown of electricity supply were recorded on Tuesday alone. A majority of the complaints said the toll free numbers of MSEDCL were constantly engaged.
 
Areas comprising Prabhat Road, Law College Road, Bhandarkar Road, Aundh, Bhavani Peth, Wanavdi, Kondhwa, Cantonment, Viman Nagar, Yerawada, Vishrantwadi, Sinhagad Road, Baner, Kharadi, Chandan Nagar and Hadapsar had to go without power for several hours.

“We have been suffering from frequent power cuts for the last two days but when I called up the complaint centre nobody took down my customer number nor did they inform me whether my complaint was registered.

Steps need to be taken to ensure that all the complaints should be promptly attended to by the concerned authorities,’’ Sachapir street resident Chetan Shinde said.

According to MSEDCL officials, the incoming supply line from Loni Kand sub-station to Pune city tripped resulting in power failure in the entire city since 2.30 pm on Tuesday.

indianexpress: The Pune Restaurant and Hoteliers Association has sought information on rules for obtaining official public license from Pune police in the wake of police crackdown on pubs, restaurants and bars for violating the 12.30 am closure deadline. The move comes a day after Police Commissioner Jayant Umranikar issued a stern warning for closure of unlicensed establishments.

Association president Kanakdas Shetty in a release issued on Tuesday said: “As per various government laws, there is no terminology to classify the meaning of a ‘pub’. The fact that restaurants and permit rooms serve food, liquor and also play music, under no circumstances constitutes them as ‘pubs’ according to rules. If there is a requirement for obtaining an official pub license, we would like to know the procedure and regulations for obtaining the same. If we obtain these official rules and regulations from the concerned authorities only then will we be able to inform our members to comply with the formalities.”
 
According to the existing rules of the State Excise, restaurants wanting to sell/serve liquor in the establishment require only beer bar license and FL III (permit room) license,’’ the release added.

City police had closed down several restaurants and bars in the city on Sunday for violating the deadline including 1000 Oaks on East Street, High Spirits, Soho, ABC Farms, Soul, Garden of Eden located in Koregaon Park, Camp and Kalyani Nagar areas of the city. The crackdown resulted in outrage among restaurant and bar owners who termed the move high-handed and illegal alleging that restaurants and hotels were functioning well within deadline and did not violate it.

techtree: Logitech recently launched it’s AudioStation speaker system for the iPod, which promises a full range of smooth, balanced audio.

The AudioStation shows-off a relatively compact bi-amplified acoustic design, and can sit atop any end table or bookshelf or nightstand. With a digital AM/FM tuner, the system acts as a replacement for a traditional living room stereo system.

It sports matching satellites with 2 drivers each; 1-inch, high-definition, soft-dome tweeters; and 4-inch high-power, long-throw woofers for powerful bass.

An elegant one-piece system with black finish and removable cloth grille covers, the AudioStation has no buttons or knobs. Rather, there are touch-sensitive controls on the front panel of the system. Besides, when powered on, small LEDs illuminate the touch-sensitive controls with a soft white glow.

Moninder Jain, director India & South East Asia, Logitech, said, “With the AudioStation, we are redefining the premium iPod speaker category. Nothing else delivers this level of full, balanced acoustic performance, the cutting-edge design, and the unanticipated extras. It’s a sophisticated and complete stereo system for any room in the house.”

Above the control panel there’s a large LCD to show information like radio station channels, time, or an audio spectrum analyzer. The LCD also displays track information for FM stations that support RDS by using the Radio Data System (RDS).

Apart from this, AudioStation bundles an advanced remote, which includes the same controls as those on the control panel as well as a menu button, a sleep timer, and a switch to turn the system’s 3D stereo mode on or off. The menu button can be used to adjust bass and treble levels or change the display brightness or keep on or off the iPod backlight

techtree: Western Digital (WD) has announced it’s environmentally friendly GreenPower (GP) family of desktop, enterprise, consumer electronics, and external hard drive products.

Designed with power savings as the main attribute, WD’s GP drives promise superior power conservation along with superior performance.

The first WD GreenPower drive — the WD Caviar GP 1TB hard drive, will reportedly ship in July with WD’s ‘My Book’ series of storage appliances. The 1TB desktop channel shipments are expected in August.

The GP platform comprises the following technologies: IntelliPower, which is a fine-tuned balance of spin speed, transfer rate, and cache size for significant power savings and performance; IntelliPark, which delivers lower power consumption by automatically unloading heads during idle to reduce aerodynamic drag; and IntelliSeek, which calculates optimum seek speeds to lower power consumption, noise, and vibration.

Sharad Srivastava, sales director, South Asia and India, WD, said, “With the GreenPower family, WD is improving the environment, while reducing cost of ownership. Our focus on energy efficiency benefits commercial customers and consumers alike.”

Meanwhile, GP versions of WD RE enterprise and WD AV consumer electronics drives will volume ship within the third quarter of this year, according to the company.

techtree: Kingston Technology has announced it’s second product in the DDR3 overclocking market — ultra low-latency PC3 1375MHz DDR3 HyperX memory modules.

These are also the first production DDR3 modules to achieve CL5 at PC11000 frequencies (1375MHz), according to Kingston.

Rajesh Panicker, country manager India, Kingston Technology, said, “Our new HyperX DDR3 ultra low-latency modules give early adopters and performance enthusiasts the opportunity to push their DDR3 motherboards as far as current memory technology will allow. With new chipsets on the horizon, Kingston is positioning HyperX to be the go-to memory for all DDR3 needs for gaming and mainstream systems.”

Lower CAS latencies deliver better performance without driving thermal conditions that require extra cooling in a system, Panicker said.

The ultra low-latency HyperX is shipping in 1GB modules and 2GB memory kits. The 1GB 1375MHz DDR3 Ultra Low-Latency HyperX DIMM is available for Rs 23,500. Whereas the 2GB 1375MHz DDR3 Ultra Low-Latency HyperX DIMM — Kit of 2, is available for Rs 47,000.

The DDR3 memory is available from Avnet India, Ingram Micro, Kobian Electronics, and Transtek Infoways. It comes with a lifetime warranty and free technical support.

techtree: ZyXEL Communications Corporation has introduced it’s P-2302R VoIP station gateway targeted at home and SOHO office users.

The P-2302R is a broadband sharing gateway that allows PCs on the home LAN share resources and files with online peers, as also access the Internet through the existing DSL/Cable Router.

The auto-provisioning mechanism allows service providers manage and configure the unit remotely, helping users better manage bandwidth.

And, the Network Bandwidth Management feature increases the productivity and efficiency of the network, enabling it meet specific demands like time-sensitive VoIP and multimedia applications.

The P-2302R’s ZyNOS OS, according to ZyXEL, ensures state-of-the-art Firewall performance and robust security. ZyNOS is based on Stateful Packet Inspection and Denial of Service (DoS) and provides the first line of defense against hackers, network intruders, and other hazards.

Mahendra Lalwani, managing director of ZyXEL Technology India, said, “The two built-in standard phone jacks allow enjoying VoIP conversations while surfing the Internet. Since phone numbers given by service providers can be assigned to either each phone port individually or to two phone ports at the same time, the P-2302R series is equivalent to two phone lines, free of extra charge.”