News

punetimes: The Maharashtra electricity regulatory commission (Merc) has clarified that only shopping malls like Big Bazaar, Shoppers Stop and Spencers are to be charged as per the special tariff rates laid down in the tariff order issued in April this year.

The regulator has given the clarification following an application by Pune based Sajag Nagrik Manch to explain which establishments can be categorised as malls.

In the April tariff order, the Merc had the fixed tariff at Rs 8.50 per unit for malls and multiplexes with sanctioned load of more than 20 KW and fixed charges of Rs 300 per KVA. The commission had created a separate consumer category for them.

The Maharashtra state electricity distribution company ltd (MSEDCL) had also asked the commission whether the spirit of the commission’s tariff order — putting a high cost on unwarranted commercial consumption, can be extended to single shop or departmental stores or any other consumer having primary activity of shopping/sales having load above 20 kW, can be billed under the newly introduced category.

punetimes: Students from Marathi medium and municipal schools in the city are caned more than their counterparts in other schools.

A survey carried out by A-bhay — a group of voluntary organisations — between December 2006 and February 2007, revealed that Marathi medium schools exceed punishment of caning by 18 per cent as compared to English schools, while municipal schools have 24 per cent more cases of punishment than private schools.

The survey, the results of which were announced on Saturday, covered 29.7 per cent Marathi and 70 per cent English school students.

The schools were further classified into 86 per cent private and 14 per cent municipal schools covering students in the age-group of 2.5 to 15 years. “Boys are beaten six per cent more than girls and with generally tougher punishments,” the survey said.

Of the 44 types of punishments in schools that were highlighted in a questionnaire, around 779 responses were from boys and 597 from girls. Around 53.26 per cent boys said their mistakes were not forgiven but that girls were spared several times. Students, while mentioning punishments in schools said that teachers beat them till their hands become red.

punetimes: Very much like the state of Kerala and elsewhere, the 5-lakh strong Malayalee population of the city has also completed all the preparation to celebrate the festival of Onam on Monday. With the belief that King Mahabali visits every Malayalee household to shower good luck on this day, the festival is celebrated as a return to the mythical king.

Also a harvest festival, Onam falls during the month of Chingam. “The highlight of Onam is the Vallamkali (snake boat races) in Kerala. The festival is celebrated with equal fervour by people of all religions as well,” says K Harinarayanan, vice-president of the World Malayalee Council (WMC), Pune.

As part of the celebration, the WMC is publishing a special magazine — Pravasi Sabdam — that contains literary works of Malayalee luminaries as well as updates of the political scenario in Kerala. “It will be available at all news stands,” said Harinarayanan while speaking to TOI on Sunday.

punetimes: Very much like the state of Kerala and elsewhere, the 5-lakh strong Malayalee population of the city has also completed all the preparation to celebrate the festival of Onam on Monday. With the belief that King Mahabali visits every Malayalee household to shower good luck on this day, the festival is celebrated as a return to the mythical king.

Also a harvest festival, Onam falls during the month of Chingam. “The highlight of Onam is the Vallamkali (snake boat races) in Kerala. The festival is celebrated with equal fervour by people of all religions as well,” says K Harinarayanan, vice-president of the World Malayalee Council (WMC), Pune.

As part of the celebration, the WMC is publishing a special magazine — Pravasi Sabdam — that contains literary works of Malayalee luminaries as well as updates of the political scenario in Kerala. “It will be available at all news stands,” said Harinarayanan while speaking to TOI on Sunday.

punetimes: Irked by the Pune Municipal Corporation’s (PMC) drive against illegal hawkers and vendors in the city, c today.

The PMC has been conducting anti-encroachment drives against illegal hawkers, vendors, hand-carts and stalls from August 22 in a bid to make the city roads free of encroachment. Till Sunday action had been taken against around 2,178 such encroachers.

The association members on Sunday decided on their plan of action to stop the PMC from going ahead with this decision. Nana Kshirsagar, president of the association, said that a morcha would be taken out to the PMC building on Monday at 3 pm.

“Sheer injustice is being done. Their lives have come to a standstill. The municipal commissioner has cheated us, he had earlier assured that identity cards would be issued to all and rehabilitation would take place before eviction began,” he said. Kshirsagar pointed out that the spots identified for rehabilitation by the civic authority are mostly on the outskirts of the city.

reuters:  Yahoo Inc said on Sunday it was giving its e-mail users more ways to reach friends and online contacts by allowing them to trade messages with mobile phone users.

The new e-mail-to-phone connection is one of the features the Internet media giant plans to add as it makes available to the more than 250 million Yahoo Mail users a new version of the world’s most popular e-mail program in coming weeks.

The Yahoo Mail overhaul is part of a drive to transform its e-mail franchise into more of a social activity that blends the convenience of instant communication with the implicit network of relationships found in one’s online address book.

Already this year Yahoo has been testing another feature that lets its e-mail users communicate using conventional e-mail or via instant messages using either Yahoo Messenger or Microsoft Live Messenger.

“Our goal is to make (Yahoo) Mail a more social experience,” John Kremer, vice president of Yahoo Mail, said in a phone interview. “We really look at ourselves as sitting on top of the largest dormant social network out there.”

Kremer said by upgrading the e-mail service technology, the Sunnyvale, California-based company aims to lay the groundwork for adding more social-networking features later this year.

xinhua:  China will for the first time use robots, one that can move on ice and snow surface and another capable of low-altitude flying like a mini-helicopter in an Antarctic expedition scheduled for October.
 The tank-like robot, which can move on ice, weighs 200 kilograms and can carry 40 kg of burden and pull 100 kg of objects with a maximum working radius of 25 kilometers, according to Qin Weijia, deputy director of the Polar Research Institute of China.

The robot can automatically stride across ice crevasses and snowy slopes, Qin said.

The robot will be equipped with a differential global positioning system (DGPS) and a meteorological observation device.

Another robot, weighing 20 kg, can carry five kg of burden and fly at a speed of 50 to 100 km per hour. It can continually fly for one hour.

The robot will be equipped with an infra-red radiometer for observing ice on the sea and an aerial camera.

“The use of robots can reduce the risks and costs in scientific research,” said Qin. “No matter how bad the weather is, they can still work normally.”

The Chinese expedition team, consisting 219 explorers, will start their journey to the Antarctic in October from Shanghai. It is the 24th expedition for Chinese scientists

hindu: A simple and inexpensive landmine detection system is on the horizonResearchers in The Netherlands are developing a radar system that might one day see through solid earth and could be used to clear conflict zones of landmines, safely and at low cost. Writing in Inderscience’s Journal of Design Research, the team explains how the new technology, with further industrial development, could eventually make vast tracts of land around the globe safe once more.

According to Eurekalert, the news service of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, landmines were first used widely during World War II and continue to represent a significant threat to life and limb in areas afflicted by war. Originally, landmines were used to protect strategic areas such as borders, camps or important bridges and to restrict the movement of enemy forces.

The use of landmines has spread to countless national conflicts and they are now commonly used by terrorist and other organizations against civilians and rivals. This has led to a major proliferation of landmines in many areas beyond conventional military conflict zones.

In the absence of records, the low cost of landmines and the vast areas that have been polluted with them due to aerial distribution, clearing landmines has become and increasingly frustrating and hazardous task.

reuters: Intel Corp (INTC.O: Quote, Profile, Research) on Sunday unveiled its new vPro chip technology aimed at making business personal computers more secure, as the world’s largest chipmaker seeks to solidify its brand.

vPro is a collection of a Core 2 Duo processor, chipset and other elements that together the company calls a platform. Intel’s first platform technology was Centrino, which it announced in 2003.

Since then, under Chief Executive Paul Otellini, the company has moved from selling and branding discrete processors and chipsets to selling them together as related technologies, or platforms, in a bid to sell more chips overall.

“As Intel has platformized its brands, it now wants to sell coordinated silicon sets,” said Roger Kay, principal at Endpoint Technologies Associates. “Intel really wants to sell more silicon.”

The advances in the vPro platform include allowing information technology managers to turn on and turn off a desktop personal computer connected to a company network, even if the hard drive has failed or the operating system has been corrupted.

vPro could also help companies cut costs by allowing for securely turning potentially thousands of PCs on a network remotely that need to receive a software patch, for example, Santa Clara, California-based Intel said, preventing the need for workers to visit each desk physically.

Security features part of vPro also allow for increased protection against software-based attacks on computers on a network and also filter and can defend against virus and other threats, Intel said.

reuters: Juggling rather than throwing his mobile phone, a teenaged circus performer won the freestyle gold medal at the world championships on Saturday.

Taco Cohen of the Netherlands, who was celebrating his 19th birthday, used acrobatics and juggling in his performance which was judged on aesthetics and artistic impression.

He told Reuters his performance reflected his training in a youth circus. “Juggling I have done for many years with balls. (But) these are irregular shapes and weights, it is difficult.”

Finnish domination in the distance event continued when Tommi Huotari took gold with a throw of 89.62 meters, a few meters short of the world record.

“I have never thrown a phone before but have been participating in potato-throwing … surprisingly, a potato flies further,” said the 38-year-old engineer.

“I am sure everyone would like to throw their phone away every once in a while.”

Event organizer Christine Lund said the contest reflected people’s love-hate relationship with the mobile phone.

“This contest speaks to people the world over as mobile phones are a blessing and a curse … phones have become a part of the modern man, and sometimes many of us would like to remove that part.”

Originally a local event in this small town close to the Russian border, the contest drew contestants from Canada, Austria and the United States.