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indianexpress: With just about a year left for Commonwealth Youth Games (CYG) to hit the city, developmental projects worth Rs 268 crore needed to spruce up the city will be taken up on a war footing.

MP Suresh Kalmadi, who is also chairman of the organising committee of the CYG 2008, met municipal commissioner Praveensinh Pardeshi on Friday to take stock of the projects to be carried out by PMC under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) before the event.

The third Commonwealth Youth Games will be held from October 12 to October 18, 2008. Over 1,300 athletes and 350 officials from 71 countries will participate in these games in 9 disciplines — athletics, badminton, boxing, shooting, swimming, table tennis, tennis, weightlifting and wrestling are included in the games which is a run-up to the Commonwealth Games 2010 to be held in Delhi.

Pardeshi said the civic body has already speeded up the work which will be completed before the Games.

Widening and implementing Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) on roads from Lohegaon airport to Chhatrapati Shivaji Sports Complex at Balewadi the main venue of the Games will be implemented.

“The Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the development of roads from the airport to Balewadi is ready along with the maps,” said

indianexpress:  Had it not been for an alert motorist, the 80 schoolchildren of Maharshi Karve Shikshan Sanstha Shishu Vihar located in Karve Nagar may have ended up in a worse situation on Friday.

The students and two teachers, packed into a tempo used to ferry goods and vegetables, were travelling back to school from Deccan Gymkhana where they had gone to attend a Ganeshotsav function. They were heard screaming for help after the overcrowding left them dizzy and fighting for fresh air.

The vehicle was stopped by the traffic police at Hutatma Rajgur Chowk, Kothrud after passers-by alerted them about the schoolchildren.

“Accompanied by their teachers Usha Tamane and Snehal Deshmukh, the students had reportedly gone to a Ganeshotsav function when the bus supposed to drop them back at school did not arrive. The urgency of the situation forced the teachers to hire a tempo,” said traffic API Pratibha Joshi from Kothrud traffic branch who recorded the incident.

The overcrowding left no breathing space and the claustrophobia caused the students to panic and scream. A car driver who heard them immediately notified traffic constable N Gaikwad who stopped the vehicle. “The uniforms were drenched in sweat and the students were scared but none was hurt. Though no major disaster occurred, the overcrowding could have led to something worse,” said Joshi.

indianexpress: Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation’s health department has intensified its awareness campaign and launched a house-to-house search to locate and stub out dengue larvae. Handbills are being distributed across the town including schools and industrial units and an advertisement campaign on cable television and newspapers has been launched.

The move follows the death of 25-year-old Mahesh Bankar, an electronics engineer from Nigdi on Thursday, with which the dengue toll in Pimpri-Chinchwad has reached four in last one-and-half months.

Mahesh’s death is the second blow to the Bankar family. Five days ago, his mother Lilavati Bankar (44) also succumbed to dengue at Niramaya Hospital in Chinchwad. Mahesh’s wife of three months and father are also undergoing treatment for dengue in the same hospital.

PCMC medical director Dr Rajshekhar Iyer said it was difficult to say whether the family was infected in Pimpri-Chinchwad or Akluj where they had gone for a visit.

Since January, the total number of persons affected by dengue in the twin township is 146, with all four deaths reported in August and September. Former PCMC corporator Bhimrao Jawalkar (60) of Kasarwadi who died early last month was the first victim while Krushna Sarode (60) of Sangvi was the second victim.

indianexpress: Ragpickers from Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat (KKPKP) will join hands with the Centre for Environment Education (CEE) and Kalpavriksh Environment Action Group to ensure that the tonnes of nirmalya deposited in rivers during visarjan (immersion) are segregated to protect the environment. Since the immersion began on September 16, volunteers from these organisations have stationed themselves at immersion ghats to help devotees segregate the nirmalya for recycling.

Nirmalya, which is often immersed along with the Ganesh idol in the river, comprises flowers, fruits, coconuts, boxes and bottles containing camphor and other items. The nirmalya deposited in the rivers later accumulates at the ghats around Pune, creating an environmental hazard. To mitigate this problem, ragpickers will be present at major immersion ghats including Sangam, Nene, Vrudeshwar, Omkareshwar, Ashtabhuja, Pulachiwadi, Bapu Ghat, Panchaleshwar, Vitthal Mandir, Garware College, Thosar Paga, Rajarampul, Aundhgaon, Yerawada, and Bund Garden on September 25.

While Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has set up kalash-shaped waste bins in these areas, the ragpickers will accept plastic bags containing nirmalya from devotees and place the contents in separate containers. Some of the food items will be taken home or given to the poor and the rest of the biodegradable waste will either be used by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) as compost in its public gardens or by NGO Waste Matters for their experimental composting project at SNDT.

indianexpress: Three of the eight wards in Pune Cantonment Board (PCB) have been reserved for women while the lone ward - Nava Modikhana - will be reserved for scheduled caste (SC) candidates.

“The names of the wards reserved for women will be decided through a draw system in October-end,” said PCB chief executive officer S K Sardana on Friday after a meeting of the board.

Elections are due in PCB areas this year and the process of delimitation of wards and updating electoral rolls has been done in accordance with the Cantonment Act 2006. The Supreme Court had, in December 2006, ordered local body elections in all 62 cantonments in the country before September 2007.

Sardana said the proposal for elections will be sent to the Defence Ministry which is expected to announce the poll dates soon. The last cantonment polls were held in 1999.

techtree: Epson has added a new photo scanner to its portfolio, the Perfection V500 Photo Scanner, which comes with ReadyScan LED technology with zero warm-up time and very low power consumption, Epson claims.

Designed primarily for amateur photographers, the Epson Perfection V500 Photo boasts high optical resolution of up to 6400 dpi (dots per inch) with a rich 48-bit color depth for accurate digital scans.

The scanner supports a variety of film formats, and comes along with an easy-to-use film holder that Epson claims, would enable users to scan 12 frames of standard 35mm filmstrips, 4 frames of 35mm mounted slides, or 1 frame of medium format at one go.

According to Epson, the V500 is capable of restoring and reviving images to their original glory.

Epson says its Digital Ice Technology digitally clears dust and scratch marks, and ICC Profile Embedding ensures consistent color reproduction across multiple devices.

Besides, the scanner can be outfitted with an optional 30-sheet (up to A4 size) capacity ADF (Automatic Document Feeder) to enhance productivity in an office environment, says Epson.

The High Compression PDF function in Epson Scan helps keep scanned documents to a minimal file size while ensuring that text remains readable. And, the ABBYY FineReader 6 Sprint Plus, a powerful Optical Character Recognition (OCR) tool, converts the image of a text document for easy editing with MS Word or MS Excel.

techtree: Sony Electronics has announced new DVD writers and memory card readers. The internal DVD writers include the DRU-190A and the AD-7190A-OB, while the DRX-840U is the company’s first external 20X DVD Writer. The MRW-620-2/AU5 is the new 11-in-1 memory card reader.

All new products include enhanced features like higher 8X rewrite speed for double layered discs (all new drives), claims Sony.

The DRX-840U can be connected with USB 2.0, and is targeted at modern desktop PCs.

While the memory card reader features a USB port to allow consumers easily connect to other USB-enabled devices. According to Sony, the card reader has been developed to offer a complete solution within a single bay, from accessing memory cards to connecting USB devices.

In addition, Sony has also announced internal SATA and LightScribe models along with external slim drives for laptop users.

The new products are slated to be available by end of this month through Rashi Peripherals and its branches across the country.

zdnet: Wireless communication networks are expected to fuel the growth of the voice market between 2007 and 2011 in emerging Asian countries, namely, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Vietnam, says IDC.

According to the research house’s latest study released Wednesday, telephone density is still very low in these countries because most of the telephone services are located in urban areas, while a majority of the population live in rural villages.

As such, installed voice capacity is unable to meet the demand due to various reasons, resulting in a long list of people waiting to get a connection, the IDC said.

The research house noted that regulators in these countries have pushed for the deployment of wireless communication networks to improve access to basic telephony.

“The emerging markets will continue its rapid growth due to the increasing need for basic voice and data services in the next few years,” Kam Kasturie, senior analyst for IDC’s Malaysia Telecommunications Research, said in a statement. “Regulatory barriers are expected to come down, and new guidelines will be framed to embrace the rapid pace of innovation.”

According to preliminary results from the survey, IDC noted that total revenue from fixed-line services in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Vietnam posted a 114.2 percent annual growth rate from 2005. This market is expected to continue expanding due to strong demand for basic communication from the mass market.

zdnet: Samsung Electronics announced the SGH-F700, an elegant phone for the European market with Vodafone, the world’s largest mobile community. The phone was first introduced at 3GSM World Congress in February earlier this year and is expected to be available in Europe beginning early November. It delivers 3.6 Mbps data speeds under Vodafone’s 3G broadband (HSDPA) network allowing users to experience fast access to the Internet and faster music downloads. With its intuitive touch screen technology, it allows users to navigate freely when using applications and menus.

the SGH-F700 delivers 3.6 Mbps data speeds under Vodafone’s 3G broadband (HSDPA) network (credit : Samsung)

The Samsung F700 aspires to be the easiest to use multimedia handset on the market with tender touch keypad and a surplus of multimedia functionalities. Samsung has applied its legendary expertise in human interface engineering and design to the Samsung F700, which boasts a full touch screen, touchpad interaction and QWERTY key pad.

Using the new F700, business and creative professionals are able to view content on a 3.2″ stunning color display. The device features first class entertainment with a top-of-the-line auto focus 3 mega-pixel camera and 3.6 Mbps HSDPA capabilities, making it easier to watch videos, listen to songs, take high-quality photos, browse the Internet, or catch up on email while on the move. With a full QWERTY key pad that slides underneath the display, it will give users enhanced access to mobile e-mail and text messaging services.

zdnet: Samsung Electronics announced that it has developed the industry’s first 60 nanometer (nm)-class 2 gigabit DDR2 DRAM and will begin mass producing it later this year.

Compared with 80nm 2Gb DDR2, the 60 nanometer (nm)-class with a speed of 800 megabits per second has improved DRAM performance up to 20%. Moreover, production efficiency for the new 2Gb DDR2 will be enhanced by about 40 percent using the finer 60nm-class process technology.

Besides its greater efficiencies, the new 2Gb DDR2 device will provide twice as much storage capacity over existing system memory solutions, which will accelerate the move toward higher densities in high-end market segments.

The new high-performance, high-capacity DRAM is well suited for applications in servers, workstations and notebook PCs where operating speed is a major concern.

The 2Gb DDR2 device cuts in half the number of components used in a 1Gb-based 8GB (four-rank) module, which consists of 72 1Gb chips. The new solution consumes approximately 30% less power than a module of the same capacity using 1Gb chips. The lower power level generates less heat, improving reliability and minimizing cooling requirements.