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indianexpress:   The civic administration’s bid to impose a decongestion tax to curb private vehicles on roads may well be an attempt to hide its total failure on other related fronts — one glaring example being the narrow and congested roads which were to be widened by acquiring land nearby.

While the number of vehicles in the city has increased 87 times in the past four decades there has been only a four-fold rise in population. Little wonder then that the civic administration lays the blame on the

24-lakh vehicle population in the city. Thus, when Municipal Commissioner Pravinsinh Pardeshi blames the city’s two-wheelers that account for 30 per cent of the total number of vehicles, “which is not the case in any other city,” he conveniently overlooks the poor effort by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) over the years to improve the city road infrastructure.

Therefore, it should not come as a surprise that the PMC is yet to acquire 50 per cent of the land earmarked in the Development Plan (DP) of 1987 for widening of city roads.

Any mention of road widening makes the civic officials uncomfortable. Each year new plans are unveiled — dedicated bus lanes, cycle tracks, spacious footpaths. The cost worked out for the current fiscal for all this is Rs 1,709.87 crore, which is likely to escalate to Rs 2,045.87 crore by 2012, the deadline for project completion. But there is deafening silence on where the requisite land will come from, a good 20 years after it’s been bequeathed with a DP for that very purpose.

“The delay in acquiring land for road projects is mainly due to cases filed by property owners and the delay in initiating joint measurement of the land,” said Pardeshi.

indianexpress:  TO cater to the needs of a booming aviation sector and to provide more skilled manpower, the University of Pune (UoP) will soon be starting job-oriented courses in aviation mechanics as part of its “community college” scheme.

The concept of community college refers to colleges offering certificates, diplomas and associate degrees in technical or adult education. The UoP also plans to launch community colleges for various other disciplines for students from the lower economic strata.
 
“With a rising number of dropouts, the idea is to start specific, short-term courses that build skills that will be directly useful for getting a job,” said Vice Chancellor Narendra Jadhav, announcing the scheme at a press conference on Monday.

Moreover, Jadhav said the Industrial Training Institutes (ITI) in the country were not up-to-date and did not cater to the current needs of the market. “There is a need to study emerging requirements of the market and devise courses accordingly,” he said.

The decision to start with a course in aviation mechanics was taken after considering the rising demand for technical experts in aviation in the state, especially with aviation giant Boeing investing over

indianexpress: THE University of Pune (UoP) has decided to raise the fees for unaided and self-supporting courses by up to 20 per cent in the current academic year, putting to rest confusion arising from a recent circular on implementation of the SB Nimse committee report which entailed a fee hike of 50 to 60 per cent.

The fee hike applies to those departments that are self-supporting and receive no aid from the government, like management, biotechnology and engineering.
 
The issue of a hike in fees came up some four years ago during the term of former Vice Chancellor Ashok Kolaskar. After strong protests by student organisations, it was decided to raise the fees progressively by 10 per cent every year. However, this was not implemented on a regular basis.

Last year, a committee under the chairmanship of SB Nimse was appointed to determine the fee structure for all courses. The committee’s recommendations of a fee hike of 20 per cent for all aided courses was approved.

But since the costs for running the unaided courses are higher, another formula had to be devised for fixing their fee structure. The Nimse committee came up with a formula based on the expenses incurred per student and the number of students. This entailed a fee hike of 50 to 60 per cent. A circular in this regard was issued to the unaided departments some two weeks ago.

indianexpress: HAVING lost as many as 40,000 trees in the last few years to road widening and construction activity from Koregoan Park to Sinhagad Road, the Pune Municipal Corporation’s Tree Authority has suddenly gone into tree protection mode.

Initiating strict measures to maintain the green cover, the Tree Authority has increased the fine from Rs 5,000 to Rs 25,000 for cutting trees without the civic body’s permission.
 
The decision to increase the fine was made at a meeting on Monday. “The fine for cutting trees without PMC permission was Rs 5,000 earlier and has now been increased to Rs 25,000,” said garden superintendent Yashwant Khaire, adding that Rs 10,000 will be refunded if the tree is replanted.

The authority has also increased the fee for cutting of any tree from Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000 per tree while permission for cutting more than 25 trees, earlier given by the ward officer, will now be given by the garden superintendent.

The PMC has to put up a notice on a conspicuous part of the tree slated for felling and periodically release in newspapers the list of trees applied for tree felling to facilitate suggestions and objections by citizens. Contractors or PMC personnel who come to fell trees must possess a valid challan from the garden department regarding the number of trees that have been allowed to be cut.

indianexpress: SOON, addicts will be able to overcome their weaknesses within 24 hours, according to de-addiction expert Narendra Chitte who plans to start around 1,000 centres all over the State as part of his ‘Tobacco, alcohol chale jao’ campaign.

He was speaking at a press conference here on Monday.

The centres will offer free de-addiction programmes for the poor, while others will be required to pay a nominal fee.

Chitte runs a de-addiction programme for alcohol, gutkha, nicotine and drug addicts in Pradhikaran, Nigdi. He describes a four-step process for tackling addiction. “Lack of self-confidence and motivation push an addict towards substance abuse. These centres will provide counselling, psychological techniques, a herbal programme and detox consultation that relieve a person of his substance abuse within a day,” he said.

While Chitte agreed that those who undergo de-addiction programmes always have a risk of relapse, he argued, “Around 76 per cent males and 64 per cent of females in the state are substance abusers. The right kind of counselling is to strengthen the addict’s mind against the urge to consume addictive substances. There are no such things as withdrawal symptoms. They are ‘recovery symptoms’ which an addict faces once he stops consuming the substances and is beginning to overcome his addiction.”

indianexpress: CITY-based Axis Software, a biometrics technology company will set up its manufacturing plant in Chinchwad in the next 6-8 months with an investment of Rs 20-25 crore. Abhay Khinvasara, founder and CEO of the company said on Monday.

The decision to set up a manufacturing unit comes close on the heels of the company bagging a large order from the United Kingdom (UK) government’s Commonwealth Business Council (CBC), which is deploying a large number of ATMs in Africa.
 
In the next 12 months, the company plans to invest around Rs 60-65 crore in the city.

techtree: IDLDPL has launched the Gen-Next “Parrot 3200 LC-COLOR PLUS’ in the Indian market.

“Parrot 3200 LS-COLOR PLUS” is a Bluetooth-enabled, full-featured installed car kit with a large bright color TFT screen, and full duplex audio.

It pairs with up to 5 phones, stores up to 1,000 contacts, and supports 150 voice tags for true voice-controlled and hands-free calling. Once paired with a Bluetooth phone, it automatically synchronizes with the cell-phone address book. And while calling or receiving calls, the screen displays the person’s name, phone number, and his/her photograph.

According to IDLDPL, the device makes for voice not to get distorted at all times, the reason being Parrot’s latest digital signal processing (DSP) technology called Parrot Beamforming.

Parrot Beamforming utilizes advanced noise and echo cancellation technology in combination with two highly sensitive microphones, which help the system to identify and eliminate unwanted background noise while isolating the driver’s voice.

The LS-COLOR PLUS looks almost like a MP4 player and has a TFT color display unit integrated with a pair of external microphones. The TFT can be adjusted for brightness and contrast. The color and user interface can be customized as per user preference.

Speaking on the occasion, Surinder Saini, brand manager for Parrot, IDLDPL, said, “Parrot 3200 LS-color plus Bluetooth car kit enriches our portfolio of Bluetooth devices. I think it is the perfect blend of technology and aesthetics at good price. Every self-driven car finds a definite value in 3200LS-color plus. The driver does not get distracted while talking through this wonderful Parrot device, thus concentrates on the road.”

techtree: TopNotch Infotronix, brand owners of IT brand, Zebronics, have launched their 650i SLI motherboards for Intel CPUs.

Speaking at the launch, Pradeep Doshi, director sales, TopNotch Infotronix, said, “The Zebronics Nvidia 650i SLI boards cater to the performance segment, and yet they offer value for money which is our prime motto. The boards brings performance to the mainstream. Now all enthusiasts can actually unlock their Core2Duo CPUs true potential.”

Derived from the Nvidia 600i chipset series, the 650i SLI boards feature 3 PCI-E slots, 1333 MHZ FSB, Dual DDR2 memory support, SATA II & RAID support, High Definition Audio, NVIDIA Media Shield Technology, and the latest NVIDIA Gigabit Ethernet with First Packet technology.

With Nvidia SLI technology, two Nvidia GeForce graphics cards can be combined for scalable graphics performance. Whereas, Nvidia FirstPacket technology can be exploited to prioritize gaming traffic.

zdnet: Autodesk launched Autodesk Toxik 2008, the latest version of its desktop software for feature film procedural compositing. Toxik has shaped numerous blockbuster films, including Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, Apocalypto and The Fountain. Designed for visual effects artists, Toxik 2008 combines an extensive creative toolset with real-time, interactive compositing of high-dynamic-range imagery (HDRI).

Toxik 2008 is available as a stand-alone product on both the Windows and Linux operating systems. It offers greater interoperability with Autodesk Maya 3D modeling, animation and rendering software, thereby helping artists combine 2D and 3D techniques to solve complex production problems,

“The growing scale and complexity of computer-generated imagery in visual effects work is driving convergence between 2D and 3D pipelines,” said Marc Petit, senior vice president, Autodesk Media & Entertainment. “Transferring camera and rendering information from Maya to Toxik allows artists to make creative decisions in an interactive environment; in the context of live-action footage or computer-generated elements. This gives artists more freedom to experiment and allows them to quickly achieve the shot they want for their client.”

With the latest technology in HDRI, Toxik 2008 gives users a greater dynamic range of exposures than traditional digital imaging techniques, accurately representing a wide range of intensity levels, ranging from direct sunlight to the deepest shadows. With the combination of real-time, interactive compositing of 2K, 4K and higher-resolution imagery, and a deep creative toolset, Toxik 2008 allows users to combine computer-generated and live-action footage to create compelling content for today’s high-end films and television shows .

zdnet: Altera Corporation expanded its intellectual property (IP) portfolio with the introduction of a complete USB 2.0 Hi-/Full-Speed Device Controller solution from System Level Solutions (SLS). This new solution is comprised of a soft IP core, software and class drivers, and SLS’s Snap-On PHY daughtercards. The daughtercards are designed for use exclusively with Altera development kits.

Full- and Hi-Speed USB device controllers are rapidly replacing older RS232 ports in a wide variety of markets such as consumer, medical, industrial, storage and leading-edge applications such as automotive infotainment. The implementation of communication protocols in FPGAs is expanding as designers recognize the increased flexibility and upgrade possibilities offered by this platform. The partner USB 2.0 product is packaged to install as a component for the Altera SOPC Builder development tool. It features a core that is configurable for up to 16 endpoints with software and class drivers and hardware support for two PHY interfaces, including USB 2.0 Transceiver Macrocell Interface (UTMI) and UTMI+ Low Pin Interface (ULPI).

Multiple versions of the SLS USB 2.0 solution are available, allowing designers to rapidly add the protocol flavor demanded by their application. Designers adding USB 2.0 as an additional peripheral in their Nios II embedded processor-based design can select the Avalon® interface version of the core from within SOPC Builder. A FIFO interface version is also available. Regardless of which version is chosen, system architects can download and evaluate a small, three-endpoint reference design for immediate design, simulation and programming of the combined development kit and PHY daughtercard even before the core is licensed.