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indianexpress: Caught on the backfoot after it launched an aggressive drive to remove hawkers from 30 roads without providing the 7,000-odd licenced ones an alternative space in the city, Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) on Wednesday decided to conduct a ward-wise survey of hawkers to plan their rehabilitation.

However, the civic administration said it would go on with its drive to evict hawkers who congest city roads. It has planned to clean up Juna Bazar Road encroached upon by vendors every Wednesday and Sunday despite PMC providing them space in an adjacent area.
 
Deputy municipal commissioner Dnyandev Thube said PMC will act against hawkers on Juna Bazar Road since they were encroaching on the road despite being given space elsewhere.

“The hawkers’ policy prepared by the civic administration lacks detailed information of the city like the number of hawkers in each ward and places for their possible rehabilitation,” mayor Rajlaxmi Bhosale said after an all-party meeting organised by municipal commissioner Pravinsinh Pardeshi on Wednesday .

To ensure that the hawkers’ issue is resolved once and for all, Bhosale said the civic administration has been asked to undertake a ward-wise survey of hawkers and their rehabilitation plan by involving 14 ward officers along with the local corporator.

indianexpress:  The civic administration has mooted the idea of allotting Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) to the developer of a road on private properties. Such a provision already exists in Development Control (DC) rules.

“Till now, PMC has only developed 7.5 per cent of the area for roads while norms say 15 per cent of the total land should be for roads,” municipal commissioner Pravinsinh Pardeshi said on Wednesday.
 
PMC has been able to construct 30 per cent of the roads proposed in the Development Plan (DP) and the city needed more roads, Pardeshi added.

“The civic administration has sought the opinion of political parties to allot TDR for road development by a private party,” he said. The civic body normally acquires land reserved for road and issues TDR as compensation and thereafter develops the road.

PMC has been receiving many proposals from builders on their preparedness to develop the road stretch passing through their land if the civic body issues them TDR equivalent to the cost of the land and developed road, Pardeshi said.

indianexpress: Bajaj Auto Ltd has officially announced closing of its Pune plant at Akurdi from September 1. No vehicles will be produced from this plant.

Workmen who have been asked to stay at home will receive five and half days’ wages per week for ‘doing absolutely no work’, according to managing director Rajiv Bajaj. The company has refused to entertain another round of VRS for these employees.
 
Dismissing any suggestion of unfairness on the part of the management, Bajaj said, “The management would be well within its rights to have all such workmen report to the plant, as per their normal shift timings, five days per week. However, for the time being, even this requirement is being waived, primarily in the interest of the convenience of the workmen. As such, all workmen will be virtually receiving their normal wages without having to leave home.”

The Pune plant currently has 2,730 workers. The Bharatiya Kamgar Sena, the main union that represents Bajaj Auto workers will hold a meeting in Pune on Thursday to decide future action. They have already expressed unhappiness over the closure of the plant and had demanded re-instatement of the five-day week.

Bajaj said the wage settlement with workers had technically completed its tenure on February 28, 2007 and the management had been discussing a new settlement with the union. Denying speculations about an impending VRS, he said the plant closure was being projected as a means of arm-twisting workmen into accepting such a VRS. “The fact is that there is no VRS planned. The Akurdi plant has been through several VRSes,” he said.

indianexpress: Paving the way for an eco-friendly Ganeshotsav this year, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will permit only those Ganesh mandals which have eco-friendly decorations, to participate in its Ganesh Gaurav competition.

BMC will also install nirmalya kalash (urns to dispose flower offerings) and build artificial lakes for the immersion of Ganesh idols.
 
Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, additional municipal commissioner (eastern) Kishore Gajbhiye said the decorations made from plaster of paris and thermocol are hazardous to the environment. Besides, they do not disintegrate easily after the immersion. “It is BMC’s policy to support an environment-friendly Ganeshotsav and we will, therefore, initiate it through the Ganesh mandals,” he said.

Though the rules also mention that idols should also be made of soil and should not contain dangerous and poisonous colours, most of the mandals opt for large sizes and flashy colours. The civic body has maintained that the maximum height of Ganesh idols should not be more than 15 feet, but many mandals have readied idols that are over 25 feet.

Gajbhiye said that the civic body was late in appealing to the mandals for reducing the height of the idol as the idols were already completed by July. “From next year, we will hold meetings from January with the idol makers, appealing to them to prepare the idols from soil and environment-friendly material and restrict the height as per norms,” he said.

indianexpress: After some results of the Mumbai University’s first-half examinations this year got delayed with the examiners not reporting for the Central Assessment Programme (CAP) on time, the university has now decided to punish the errant teachers.

From now on, there will be no “placements” (read promotions) for those who fail to report for evaluation or assessment work on time, according to the university. “Measures need to be in place to ensure that students don’t suffer. And if we find that teachers are not attending the CAP, they will be barred from grades,” said Pro vice-chancellor A D Sawant. He said that such steps were required particularly for courses like Bachelor of Commerce, Bachelor of Management Studies and engineering, where the chances of results getting delayed due to late assessment of answer books are more acute.

The second-half examinations for 2007 (for over 200 courses) will commence from October. Incidentally, the university website mentions that the “results of these examinations will be declared within 30-45 days after the conclusion of respective exams.”

According to the Maharashtra University Act 1994, professors were barred from taking answer books to their homes for evaluation and the provision of central assessment was introduced. And as per the Act, results must to be published a month after the examination is conducted. And if results are declared after 45 days, the university has to send a report to the chancellor explaining reasons for the delay.

indianexpress:  Come September and women in the city will get a chance to showcase their hidden talents. This year’s Mahila Mahotsav, a part of the annual Pune festival, will have a few additions to its list of activities. The popular Festival Queen, an all round personality contest will have participants divided into two seperate groups — one for married women between 25 and 35 years of age and the other for those between 36 and 45 years of age. The winner will be chosen on the basis of personality, disposition, confidence, hobbies, talent and so on. Other than the final winner from each age group, there will also be two runners-up selected along with an ‘Audience Queen’. The last date for entry is September 8 and the final round will be held on September 24.

The event titled ‘Kitchen Queen’ will have judges visiting the homes of the participants to rate them on the basis of cleanliness, nutritional awareness and so on.

Besides, the mahotsav will also have a cookery competition, gift wrapping competition, decorating aarti thali competition and flower arrangement contest

techtree: With quite a few options on the market for online security, Symantec’s Norton Security software happens to be one of the more popular ones globally. The company has reportedly brought out their newest in the series — Norton Internet Security 2008, and Norton AntiVirus 2008.

These security solutions promise wide ranging shield against emerging online threats, including hidden attacks caused by malicious automatic downloads.

Of the two, Norton Internet Security 2008 features: Norton Identity Safe that safeguards personal information and keeps user identity safe while buying, banking, and browsing online; faster start, scan, and running for an enhanced online experience; one-click access to expert support; and protection of home networks via network security monitoring.

Whereas Norton AntiVirus 2008 features: faster start, scan, and running; one-click access to expert support; and Smart technology that runs quietly in the background to let users work/play without disruption.

While Norton Internet Security 2008 costs $69.99 for use on three PCs, a small office version for 5 to 10 users costs $109.99 and $199.99 respectively.

msnbc: Rockets can help power robotic arms, which could help lead to “better, stronger, faster” bionic limbs, research now reveals.

A new prototype rocket-powered mechanical arm can lift about 20 to 25 pounds — three to four times more than current commercial prosthetic arms — and can do so three to four times faster.

“Our design does not have superhuman strength or capability, but it is closer in terms of function and power to a human arm than any previous prosthetic device that is self-powered and weighs about the same as a natural arm,” said researcher Michael Goldfarb, a roboticist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.

“It has about 10 times as much power as other [robotic] arms,” Goldfarb said.

The rocket-powered arm also has greater dexterity and freedom of movement than any other prosthetic to date. Conventional prosthetic arms have only two joints, at the elbow and the “claw.” This prototype functions more naturally than previous models, with a wrist that can twist and bend, and fingers that open and close independently.

msnbc: Microsoft Corp. said on Tuesday it plans to release the first major update to its Windows Vista operating system early next year.

Many of Microsoft’s large corporate customers wait for the release of the first “service pack” — a software package of fixes, updates and improvements — before implementing a new Windows operating system.

Corporate customers often hold back on adopting new software to allow Microsoft time to work out the kinks experienced by regular consumers who often buy a new computer with the latest operating system already preloaded.

In a post on the company’s Web site, Microsoft said it plans to begin testing Windows Vista SP1 among a smaller audience in a few weeks and aims to ship the product to computer manufacturers in the first quarter of 2008.

Microsoft said the first service pack is not as significant as in the past, because the company can now send out patches and fixes to the product through online updates.

Windows Vista SP1 should, according to Microsoft, improve the operating system’s security, reliability and performance, but it will not change the product’s look or add any major features.

bbc: A person’s entire life from birth to death could one day be recorded by a network of intelligent sensors, according to a senior scientist.

By 2057, Martin Sadler of PC firm Hewlett Packard, said there could be at least 1m devices for every UK resident.

Predicted advances in storage and cameras coupled with decreasing costs would allow this explosion, he said.

But, he warned, the amount of personal data that could be collected would lead to difficult ethical dilemmas.

“Maybe the first time you know you are pregnant is when a targeted piece of advertising comes through on your computer screen offering you some baby clothes because somehow the smart toilet, or some other aspect of your environment, leaked that information,” he said.