News

indianexpress: PUNE Municipal Corporation (PMC) has decided to send three of its projects for an award in the civic body category promoted by London-based World Leadership Forum which will be announced in December.

World Leadership Forum is a non-profit NGO which promotes leadership by highlighting the work of exceptional leaders and achievers in a host of disciplines, and stimulating debate on leadership issues. The awards celebrate the best in modern city leadership.

“The civic body has been invited by World Leadership Forum to submit its proposal for the annual award. We are eager to project our development at the international level which will give PMC world-wide recognition,” said mayor Rajlaxmi Bhosale.

PMC will pitch for its innovative practices that provide public service and improve the quality of citizens’ life. “The best practices in public service by the PMC have won acclaim at national level. These will be projected at World Leadership Forum,” Bhosale added.

Among the efforts that will be packaged are Unwire Pune — Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) to provide wireless internet connectivity, she said. Deputy municipal commissioner Kishore More in-charge of the civic body’s nominations said Unwire Pune had caught the eye of the World Leadership Forum which invited PMC to participate in the award.

“The mayor has taken a keen interest in applying for the award and it was decided to project two other initiatives too,” he added. While Unwire Pune will vie for honours in the science and technology category, Auto DCR- an automatic solution for approval of building plan proposal will be listed in the architect and civil engineering category, and self-help groups programme will look to gain visibility in the employment category.

indianexpress: FARMERS should shift from agriculture to more lucrative occupations, said Nanasaheb Patil, Principal Secretary for Agriculture, Government of Maharashtra. Patil was speaking at the inauguration of a two-day national symposium on ‘Recent Trends in Organic Farming’ organised by the Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth’s (MPKV) College of Agriculture as part of its centenary year celebrations.

Lamenting the reduction in income generation from 30 to 12 per cent in recent years, Patil said there was a need for transfer of manpower from agriculture in the state. “It is not possible to expect small land holdings to generate income for such a huge load of manpower. So the youth force among the farming community, which constitutes 60 per cent, should be reoriented towards other professions,” urged Patil.

The question naturally arises about the possible impact of such an exodus on the nation’s food security. “Food security should not be an issue of concern for the farmer, but for the government. If farming is not economically feasible, then why can’t foodgrain be imported like it is done in other countries?” said Patil.

Patil also blamed the market infrastructure in India for preventing farmers from diversifying into higher income-generating sectors like horticulture, dairy, and fishing.

“A study by the World Bank has shown that the main obstacle to horticulture growth is the restrictive market infrastructure. Thus government constraints on farmers marketing their own products need to be done away with,” he said.

indianexpress: BAJAJ Auto Limited’s (BAL) assurance that the management would continue its dialogue with the workers’ union and “to ensure all legitimate interests of its workmen to be taken care of,” has brought no light into the lives of 2,730 workers who are being given six-day salaries but not allowed to report to work.

The workers are waiting for the second meeting likely to be held this week with Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar before they intensify their agitations. BAL stopped production at its Akurdi plant on September 1.

“We are not allowed to work and punching of our cards has been stopped,” said president of Bharatiya Kamgar Sena Suryakant Mahadik. The workers said they are feeling the heat already and are uneasy about the future even though managing director Rajiv Bajaj has said they would not close down the plant. They are unsure for how long they will get their wages. Many said banks were refusing them loans be it for their children’s education, short term credits, while grocers were not giving them any credit.

“We have lost our credibility. Our workers who are seeking housing or personal loans or even buying groceries on credit are not getting any,’’ said president of Vishwakalyan Kamgar Sanghatana Dilip Pawar, adding that if issues are not resolved, they would intensify their agitation. “We may call for a bandh as this would deter other industries from taking such steps,’’ he added.

indianexpress: MAHARASHTRA State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) chief engineer Rameshsinh Gautam on Tuesday said Ganesh mandals in the city will be supplied electricity at a concessional rate of Rs 2 per unit and a fixed charge of Rs 200 per connection during the forthcoming festive season. Otherwise the mandals will have to pay a security deposit and will be charged for electricity consumed as per the set norms.

Gautam was speaking at a meeting of representatives of the mandals who were told that they should ensure legal connections and help MSEDCL ensure trouble-free and uninterrupted supply of electricity during the Ganeshotsav. “A special one-window system had been introduced at all the divisions in the city to sanction connections to mandals,” he added.

Gautam further appealed to mandals to ensure purchase of electrical materials for lighting and other purposes from authorised suppliers, follow all safety conditions and measures, and ensure against any damage to MSEDCL power distribution network, especially the underground cables that are often damaged due to digging for erecting pandals.

MSEDCL chief engineer said that he had instructed his staff to take stringent action against illegal power connections, an act amounting to a non-bailable offense under the Electricity Act 2003.

indianexpress: THE Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) is all set to soon start a new centre to study the impact of global warming and climatic changes at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) in the city. This information was provided by Union Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Kapil Sibal in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha recently.

The decision to come up with such an institute was taken at a discussion and brainstorming held on June 1 in the city, organised by the MoES, involving experts on climate change and representatives from concerned ministries, non-governmental organisations, academic and scientific institutions. It was also decided at the meet to launch a co-ordinated research programme on climatic changes to study associated aspects.

According to sources at the IITM, the new centre will purely focus on scientific research. The institute is readying a report for the same, sources added. Interestingly, this could be the first institute in the country to have a separate centre that will focus purely on scientific research in climate change.

The research would help evolve policies ranging from emission, energy saving and technology devices, sources said.

The IITM undertakes and encourages research aimed at advancing existing knowledge in atmospheric sciences by identifying, planning, collaborating and conducting research programmes on problems of national and international importance. Functioning as a national centre for basic and applied research in monsoon meteorology and to be housed in a separate wing, the new centre will concentrate on monsoon meteorology of India and neighbourhood in specific.

indianexpress:  PUNE will soon have a fourth labour court. Acting on a proposal sent by the city’s Labour Law Practitioners Association, the Industrial Court of Maharashtra, Mumbai, has agreed to set up a labour court in addition to the existing three. The association on June 29 had sent a proposal to the president of the Industrial Court of Maharashtra in Mumbai, requesting him to allot additional labour courts in Pune — with the required staff strength — to address the increase in the number of cases.

The association in its proposal had referred to the most recent estimate taken, which showed that the first labour court has 1,966 matters, the second court has 1,715 matters while the third has 982 matters on its active file. They claimed the high rate of filing of new matters — especially those cases referred by the Labour Commissioner’s office — had led to bigger daily boards and pendency of matters, which necessitated the setting up of new courts.
 
“We had requested for the additional labour courts, which would serve to lessen the load on the existing courts as well as ensure speedy disposal of cases,” said Advocate Santosh Mhaske, the association president. The Industrial Courts took cognisance of the association’s demands and has sanctioned the setting up of Labour Court No 4, in accordance with the availability of funds. They received a letter to the effect on Tuesday.

The association in its proposal had also pointed out that the Government sanctioned the post of Pune Labour Court Secretary that had been vacant for the past several years. Acting on the request, the Industrial Court of Maharashtra recently appointed S V Phattapure from the Solapur Industrial Court.

techtree: AMD has introduced its first Quad-Core Opteron processor, which promises a 50% increase in performance, energy efficiency, virtualization, and investment protection.

Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors are claimed to be the world s most energy-efficient x86 architecture, which include power-saving technologies such as:

- CoolCore Technology, which reduces energy consumption by turning off unused parts of the processor;
- Independent Dynamic Core Technology, an enhancement to AMD PowerNow! Technology, which allows each core to vary its clock frequency depending on the system load and performance requirement; and
- Dual Dynamic Power Management (DDPM), which independently supplies power to the cores and the memory controller, allowing them to operate on different voltages, determined by usage. DDPM is available in most Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor-based platforms being introduced.

The new Opteron processors feature Direct Connect Architecture that, in presence of the integrated memory controller, enables reduced memory latency, and Rapid Virtualization Indexing. Rapid Virtualization Indexing takes functionality that was previously performed in software. It greatly accelerates it by performing those functions within the CPU to help enable near-real time application performance.

The processors also maintain compatibility with the socket and thermal envelopes of second-generation AMD Opteron processors to enable a seamless upgrade.

Meanwhile, AMD claims that Opetron processors outperform the competition on several industry-standard benchmarks (within comparable thermal bands) like SPECfp_rate2006, SPECint_2006, SPECompM2001Base, STREAM, Fluent, and LS-DYNA.

techtree: Reliance Communications (RCOM) and Research In Motion (RIM) have announced the launch of the BlackBerry wireless platform on a CDMA network in India.

RCOM has launched the BlackBerry 8830 World Edition smartphone. The handset allows interoperability between the CDMA and GSM network to enhance the productivity of both enterprises and professionals on the move, the company claims.

The BlackBerry 8830 provides the user with email and messaging, along with premium phone features, Web browsing, and other mobile productivity applications.

The smartphone features a full QWERTY keyboard, large display, trackball navigation system, a microSD expandable memory slot, and an advanced media player for listening to music, viewing pictures, and watching videos.

BlackBerry offers a range of solutions for enterprises and professionals such as Internet-based online trading, for the first time in India, the company claims.

Prakash Bajpai, president of RCOM, said, As the first player to offer BlackBerry 8830 World Edition smartphone in India, we’re confident that our network will offer a superior value proposition to professionals on the move.

BlackBerry from Reliance offers other features like - bloomberg anywhere services, Reliance mobile world access to 23 fun applications, video streaming on BlackBerry, prepaid on BlackBerry for the first time in India, BlackBerry Enterprise Server for enterprise, and BlackBerry Internet Service for SME and professional.

techtree: Linksys has announced the launch of its first wireless broadband router- Wireless-G Home Router (WRH54G) customized for Indian home users.

The WRH54G comes with a dual antenna design for supporting better wireless performance and is equipped with black complexion design.

With the transmission speed of 54 Mbps, the WRH54G supports on demand and time-based access control for better management of Internet access. This function is designed to ensure that consumers are able to monitor and control usage of broadband facility and economize accordingly.

WRH54G is designed to have a flexible wireless radio control, built in with on/off control scheduler to support multiple scheduling, and helping to safeguard home wireless access. Users can select the start/stop or adjust the wireless signal.

It s equipped with a build-in Web-based setup wizard, which helps users to setup the WRH54G easily and quickly.

Sanjeev Gupta, regional sales director (Asia Pacific) of Linksys, said, WRH54G is designed for Indian users, who want flexibility and a cost-effective way to adopt wireless broadband.

As an integrated wireless broadband network solution for consumers, the WRH54G is a wireless access point, designed to interface with standard Wireless-G (802.11g) and Wireless-B (802.11b) equipments, the company claims.

There is also an internal 4-port full duplex 10/100 Ethernet switch, which is capable to connect more wire-based Ethernet network equipments or to cascade with switch and expand into more switch ports.

In addition, through its all-in-one function, the WRH54G is designed to enable the entire customer networks to share single high-speed wire-based network or DSL for Internet access.

techtree: And here comes the Nokia Prism Collection for the Indian consumers.

Nokia has announced the launch of its Prism Collection targeted at style-conscious consumers and showcasing the state-of-the-art technology.

The Prism Collection consists of the Nokia 7900 Prism and the Nokia 7500 Prism handsets with sharp-angled lines, geometric patterns, graphic light-refracting colors, and diamond-cut raised key-mat.

Speaking on the occasion, Devinder Kishore, director (marketing) of Nokia India said, Nokia Prism Collection comprising Nokia 7900 and Nokia 7500 is an ode-to-architecture.

The Nokia 7900 Prism juxtaposes its sleek liquorice-black face with an anodized aluminum reverse-side, which is intricately coin-stamped and laser-etched in Nokia Prism’s signature diamond-cut design.

The Nokia 7900 design has an organic LED light display that supports up to 16 million colors and displays light-focused screensaver graphics.

The Nokia Prism 7500’s black exterior is spliced with a playful burst of bright accent color. It has a 2 MP camera; it can record high quality videos and play music for 8.5 hours.

Nokia 7500 is priced at Rs 11200 and immediately available, whereas Nokia 7900 will be available in October and pricing yet to be decided.