News

punetimes: Commuters can now look forward to a quick resolution of the traffic problems on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki. The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) will soon start the widening and concretisation work of this potholed and narrow Pune-Mumbai highway stretch that falls in the Khadki cantonment limits.

The suspense over whether the PMC would be undertaking the project or not ended on Saturday as the chief executive officer of the Khadki Cantonment Board (KCB), G.S. Rajeshwaran, said that the board had finally handed over the stretch to the PMC on Friday. The state Public Works Department(PWD) had earlier owned this 2.2 km long highway stretch in the KCB limits, but was unable to maintain it due to lack of funds.

The KCB took over this road, from the PWD, for maintenance and repair in 2005, but failed to make a difference due to the costs involved. The PMC then volunteered to take over the repairs and failed to give a written proposal for a year to PMC. Rajeshwaran said that an officer in the land estate department of the PMC signed an agreement with the KCB after which the highway was transferred.

The PMC will bear the expenditure of concretising and widening the highway. It is likely to use the funds under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission(JNNURM) or the Commowealth Youth Games for this project. There is defence land on both sides of the highway which is difficult to be acquired. Rajeshwaran said the PMC wants to widen the highway to 45 meters. The PMC will prepare a proposal for land acquisition which will be recommended to the Centre for approval. The PMC officials could not be contacted for comments due to a holiday.

punetimes: About 50 youths duped by a city based travel agent over the last two months ransacked his NIBM road office on Saturday afternoon, demanding justice and their money back.

The agent — identified as one Alam —according to these youths, was running a travel agency situated near the Jyoti hotel. He duped them off Rs 70 lakh in the last two months by providing them forged visas of Gulf countries.
Yogesh Thakur of Ahmednagar, one of the ill-fated youths, said that Alam allegedly issued an advertisement in an English and a Marathi newspaper in June this year. “The advertisement claimed that jobs could be obtained in Gulf countries against some fees.”

About 200 youths from different parts of the state approached Alam, who allegedly demanded Rs 15,000 to Rs 45,000 from each them. “He demanded money depending upon the educational qualification of the candidates,” Thakur said.

He said that apart from the money, Alam also took their passport promising them visas of the nations concerned. “The agent gave us visas from a Hyderabad agency but one of us — Rajkumar, a resident of Hyderabad, decided to check his visa and found that it was forged.”

Rajkumar immediately alerted the others. Three days ago, these youths got together in Pune and went to Alam’s office but he fled. “We looked for him and then went to the Wanowrie police station to file a complaint. The police just recorded our statement but the complaint was not lodged in the last two days,” Thakur alleged.

punetimes: The driver of a container-truck, who plunged to his death in a freak accident on the Katraj-Dehu road bypass on Saturday morning, took some decisive steps in averting a collision with a school bus and a six-seater vehicle.

As a result of Akram Khan Mulla’s bravery, in the face of imminent death, a larger tragedy involving schoolchildren and six-seater passengers was avoided.

Besides Mulla (25), two others — sitting by his side and believed to be a stand-by driver and a cleaner — were killed in the accident. A pedestrian and a motorcyclist were injured.

The accident happened when the huge container-truck came crashing down on the service road from the ramp of the Vadgaon Budruk bridge.

The Haveli police identified the pedestrian as one Phadke and the motorcycle rider as Prasad Nawale (26) of Sadashiv Peth.

According to the police, the container-truck (trolley loaded with two containers) was heading towards Gujarat from Warna in Kolhapur. The police suspect that the trolley somehow got separated from the truck and the brakes of the vehicle stopped functioning.

Phadke, who was walking along the bypass, saw the truck coming unsteadily towards him. He alerted a woman vendor on the road. The woman fled, but Phadke was hit by the rear portion of the trolley. He has been admitted to a private hospital on Sinhagad road.

punetimes: There is hope for Pune’s lungs. And this may even get the scarves off the faces of many a Pune lass, who cover their faces to protect themselves from the pollution arising out of ever-increasing vehicular traffic in the city.

Pune, which has the dubious distinction of being ranked the fifth most polluted city in Asia according to a 2003 World Bank report, will soon have compressed natural gas (CNG) to fuel its vehicles.

Maharashtra Natural Gas Limited (MNGL) would commence CNG supply in Pune from November 2007, Union minister of state for petroleum and natural gas Dinsha Patel said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on Thursday.

MNGL is a joint venture between GAIL (India) Ltd and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) formed for city gas projects in Pune. GAIL and BPCL had had signed an agreement in mid-2004 to enter into a joint venture to supply CNG and piped natural gas to the city.

The plan was to extend the Dahej-Uran pipeline to Pune to supply gas to the CNG mother station in the city and distribute it through the BPCL network of petrol pumps across Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad.

MNGL is planning to set up 29 CNG stations in Pune progressively by end of 2008, the minister’s statement said.
Thanks to the large-scale migration to the city because of the growth of IT and BPO sectors, the number of vehicles registered in Pune has been growing rapidly.

punetimes: The absence of signals and lack of traffic management around the three newly-constructed flyovers on Ganeshkhind road has been leading to confusion among motorists, causing regular traffic snarls and minor accidents at the junctions under all the three flyovers.

At the Pune university, motorists intending to take a ‘U’ turn after coming from Shivajinagar are facing severe problems, while motorists heading towards Pashan or Baner from Aundh don’t know from where to take the turn.
Medical representative Prakash Jhambre of Aundh said that the traffic at the junction was not being directed properly. “Motorists do not know when and how to cross the junction,” he said. Jhambre said the several pillars at the junction have been causing confusion while crossing the junction.

A traffic constable posted at the university circle said motorists heading towards the city from Pashan and Aundh stop their vehicles under the bridge for a few seconds, wondering how to cross the junction. The stopover of vehicles was causing traffic snarls and sometimes resulted in minor accidents.

zdnet: Following Microsoft’s partnership with networking giant Cisco, the unified communications market is heating up even further with IBM’s launch of a new range of collaboration products.
IBM has joined forces with Siemens to turn its Lotus Sametime software into a product family that will include new telephony integration software.

The move comes as Microsoft confirmed the October 16 launch of its much-hyped Office Communications Server 2007 for larger enterprises. It plans to sell unified communications to smaller businesses as an on-demand service.

Unified communications pull together voice, video and data communications and a multitude of applications to allow employees to communicate more easily with a range of endpoint devices.

IBM said the new Lotus Sametime product family will make it easier for companies to create a unified communications environment that delivers essential capabilities to users and simplifies back-end integration–without forcing software migration or rip-and-replace decisions.

The central new product in IBM’s vision is the Lotus Sametime Unified Telephony software, which is heavily reliant on Siemens’ OpenScape communications technology.

msnbc: As many techies know, getting in on a hot new startup’s invite-only “beta” test can be tough.

Some resort to posting pleas on their blogs, others beg friends of friends and — as best illustrated with the slow rollout of Google Inc.’s Gmail service in 2004 — some are even willing to purchase invites through eBay Inc.’s auction site.

But with the July launch of InviteShare, things might get a little easier for those aching to pass the online equivalent of the velvet rope outside the trendy nightclub.

InviteShare connects users who have or want access to new Internet offerings, including the online TV service joost and GrandCentral, a one-phone-number-for-life communications service owned by Google.

Although some sites open beta testing to anyone to raise awareness and work out glitches, many initially limit access to a select handful, creating a certain cachet through their scarcity.

Many Internet users, particularly the tech-savvy early adopters, clamor for access to such invite-only sites, considering them a peek into what could be the next best thing on the Web.

On InviteShare, users register for free and then submit their e-mail addresses to lists kept at the site for particular startups to which they want access.

Those with spare invites respond directly to individuals and are encouraged to give priority to users listed higher — those who have done their part in the past to share similar invites.

msnbc: Whenever a doctor, nurse or administrator in Georgia’s DeKalb Medical Center sends an e-mail, the message detours through a special box in the three-hospital system’s computing cluster. The box analyzes the e-mail, scanning for sensitive information like patient names, prescription histories and Social Security numbers.

More than 1,200 times a month, the box finds such private data and automatically routes the message to a server that encrypts it for secrecy before sending it to its original destination. Sometimes, though, the box is unsure what to do, so it asks Sharon Finney.

Finney is the information security administrator, which makes her responsible for keeping the hospital in tune with medical privacy laws. Several times a week, the messaging-control system, set up by Proofpoint Inc., alerts Finney to e-mails awaiting her review.
“What I’m looking for is not so much someone sending out something intentional or volumes of info” inappropriately leaving the hospital, she says. “I’m looking at, is this a legitimate recipient?” Maybe an e-mail address was mistyped, for example, or one too many people was copied in on a spreadsheet with patient account numbers.

Such careful oversight is becoming more common. Many organizations, fearful that inside information can slip out through innumerable digital avenues, now govern precisely what employees can or cannot put into e-mails, instant messages, Web postings and even offline documents. But employers can’t hold their workers’ hands all the time — so they’re increasingly turning to software that tries to do it for them.

techtree: IDLDPL has reportedly introduced the Logic 3 family of iPod speaker systems in the Indian market.

Logic 3 i-Station products are available in six models, including i-Station, i-Station 9, i-Station 8, i-Station 7, i-Station 3, and i-Station Traveller. The i-Stations recharge the iPod battery while it plays, and they all feature plug-n-play.

According to IDLDPL, the most advanced speaker system for iPod is the i-Station 8. The i-Station 8 is fitted with a backlit LCD to show track information, and display commands when using the multi-function remote control. The i-Station 8 operates from a combination of active sub-woofer, passive bass-radiator, and 8 neodymium drivers strategically placed in a vertical-line-array to deliver clear sound.

IDLDPL says with Logic 3 i-Stations, it is possible to play other mp3 players as well.

Logic 3 i-Station 9 and i-Station 8 are immediately available through retail stores (Reliance, Planet M), and some B2C Web sites.