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indianexpress: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) General Body decision of September 29 to pass a resolution giving back the status of a river to Ramnadi, merely a ‘water body’ as per the draft Development Plan (DP) for 23 merged villages, might have cheered environmentalists, but it’ll hardly make any difference to the post monsoon status in the adjoining green zone. This is so, given that the areas that got inundated due to flooding of the river will continue to have all the existing structures standing despite its new status.

The draft DP mentions Ramnadi as ‘water body’ and has a green zone of seven metres along side it as per the laid down specification of a nalla. However, the recent flooding of Ramnadi revealed that there has been encroachment, following which a survey of Ramnadi was undertaken jointly by the PMC and district administration to list out encroachments in the river path and initiate action against the encroachers.

“The survey was conducted to enlist the number of structures alongside Ramnadi outside the area as permitted by the Land Records Department. We have nothing to do with the status of Ramnadi (whether it is a nalla or a river),” District Land Records officer Girish Rao said.

He said that around 41 structures were found violating the prescribed limits and a list was furnished to the PMC for further action.

However, a senior PMC officer said the land records survey does not have much significance as it was conducted considering Ramnadi to be a mere nalla, where there is a green zone of seven metre alongside it while the river has to have green zone of 30 metre. A fresh survey needs to be conducted to ensure the green zone is not encroached upon, he added.

indianexpress:  IN a first of its kind procedure in the country, a pacemaker was implanted in a six-day-old baby at Pune’s Jehangir Hospital. According to Dr Manoj Pradhan, chief cardiac surgeon at Jehangir Hospital, “In adults this a simple procedure done under local anesthesia, wherein the pacemaker is implanted through subclavian vessels and not directly onto the heart. In this case the infant’s age and tiny blood vessels posed a huge challenge and necessitated a major cardiac surgery, carried out under general anesthesia.”

He said a permanent pacemaker was implanted directly onto the heart, while the baby was still on ventilator.

“This infant, the baby of Avinash and Vandana Rathod, was born with a heart block on September 16. This resulted in the pulse rate being barely 50-60 beats per minute (The normal rate 120 to 130 per minute in infants),” neonatologist Dr Anshu Sethi told mediapersons on Tuesday. “The baby had difficulty in breathing as the heart was unable to keep up with the body requirements and was on ventilator from birth.”

“This condition is extremely rare in newborn babies and is due to a defect in the conducting system of the heart muscles, which controls the rate of pumping of the heart,” Dr J S Duggal, head of Cardiology at Jehangir Hospital said. “Due to the heart block weaning from the ventilator was not possible and we decided to implant a permanent pacemaker, while still on the ventilator.”

He also said this procedure was extremely difficult in a newborn and is probably the first time it has been performed in the country.

indianexpress: THE theme song for 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games (CYG) will be unveiled for the first time on Thursday exactly 365 days before the games, at an event called ‘Chalo Jigrr Ke Saath — Get, Set, Go’ to be held at the College of Engineering Grounds at 5.30 pm. Lyricist Javed Akhtar who has penned down the lyrics for the song (sung by Shankar Mahadevan) will be presenting the song, while Chief Minister Vilasrao Deskmukh will inaugurate the event.

“The organising committee of the Commonwealth Games intends to kick-start the build up to the games with this event. It will be followed by a slew of events along the year to educate the public about the event,” said Poornima Pendse, director, Cultural and Ceremonies, Pune organising committee.

There will also be a flag rally preceeding the event, representing all the 71 countries participating in the Games. Resident International students studying at the University of Pune will be participating in this march and 30 of them will carry their own country’s flags, said Pendse.

A galaxy of sports stars including athletes P T Usha and Anju Bobby George, ace shooters Anjali Bhagwat, Tejaswini Sawant, Abhinav Bindra and Samaresh Jung and former hockey captain Dhanraj Pillay will be attending the event. A team of actors from the movie Chak De India will also be attending the event.

indianexpress: FOR four months now, Ruta Joshi has been conducting research on social issues in the State. She collects information from newspapers, magazines and journals. A student of performing arts and psychology, Ruta has had brief stints with some social organisations. Jui Ranade, who holds a masters degree in health sciences, too has taken up research work on burning issues in the State.

What Ruta and Jui share in common besides their drive to study and understand the scenario in the State, is the fact that they both work for the Maharashtra Samajik Navnirman Akadamee located near Sangam Bridge. Started in March, the Akadamee focusses on building a strong documentation base about social issues. A brainchild of activist Anil Shidore, the Akadamee has a political connection too since it works in tandem with the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS). Says Shidore, “A little before inception of the MNS, we had a discussion where we realised that people with social backgrounds can work with people involved in politics. If the two come together, it would be easier to address some issues.” The idea of setting up the Akademee thus got a boost.

Though associated with a political party, none of the members of the team at the Akadamee have a political background. “All our people come from different backgrounds. We always wanted to have a young team,” says Shidore. Jui chips in, “ My work involves research on public health and environment. Though we sometimes do interact with politicians, our idea is more academic.”

indianexpress: THE Resources and livelihood group of city-based NGO Prayas has demanded that the state government impartially review its decision to quash reserved fund allotment for the Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS) taking into confidence activists and organisations working in the field.
Addressing a press conference on Tuesday Seema Kakade, member of group said that on June 29 the group had objected the state government’s decision to quash quota of reserved funds for EGS to divert the same to the general budget.

“The state government then had appointed a committee comprising of elected representatives to study its decision. But it has not announced the authority of committee. Any decision regarding EGS should be taken impartially only after consultation with activists and NGOs working in the sector,” said Kakade.

Intending to diffuse the information about EGS, Prayas has come out with a handy book on EGS to help commoners understand the scheme.

The book introduces readers to the EGS and it could also be used as a daily dairy by those who are registered under the scheme.

“The demand for the book came from activists working on field. Considering the educational and social background of workers on EGS the book was prepared in a simple language with sketches,” said Kakade.

indianexpress:  EVEN as several foreign cadets continue to receive training at the National Defence Academy (NDA), educational eligibility hinders them from securing their degrees. As most of the cadets do not possess the stipulated “10+2” qualification of entry, they step out of the three-year course with the Academy’s certificate of acknowledgement in the place of the university-approved degree.

The Academy’s courses are affiliated to the Jawaharlal Nehru University, which lays down the eligibility criteria for entry. “The difference in the education systems of other countries has caused the hitch,” say NDA officials. “This issue is long pending and is yet to be addressed,” said NDA’s Commandant D S Randhawa. “We have requested the Ministry of Defence to consider the matter, as they undergo the same training as the other cadets both in academics and on the field, but are unable to return with a degree,” he said. However, the cadets do receive an honorary certificate on the NDA’s behalf, acknowledging their tenure at the NDA. “However, this certificate is not related in any way to the formal JNU degree,” Randhawa said.

indianexpress: STUDENTS, teachers and examiners from the Muslim community can look forward to celebrating Ramzan Eid this year without being tied up with the State Board examinations as well. The Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education on Tuesday gave in to requests to postpone the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examinations on October 13, since it would be clashing with celebrations of Ramzan Eid. The SSC papers have been postponed to October 18, while the HSC papers will be held on October 24.

The SSC and HSC examinations for repeater candidates began on October 4. Many students and teachers from the Muslim community had complained that the examination on October 13 would clash with Ramzan Eid that was likely to fall on that day. Advocate and activist Saleem Shaikh accordingly sent letters to State Board chairperson Vijaysheela Sardesai, State School Education Minister Hasan Mushrif and the State Minorities Commission. “It has been brought to our notice that Ramzan Eid is likely to be celebrated on October 13, and the change in time-table has been made accordingly,” a statement issued by State Board secretary Vinay Dakshindas said.

In case of the SSC examination, the papers science-I and physical education had been scheduled in the morning, while the Gujarati paper was scheduled for the afternoon. All three papers have now been postponed to October 18, while the timing will remain the same

techtree: A software that transforms any USB device into a pocket computer — that is what RingCube says its recently launched ‘MojoPac’ software is all about.

‘MojoPac’, which takes up about 35kb of space, is capable of capturing a user’s entire personal desktop onto a USB storage device having a minimum storage capacity of 1GB.

The MojoPac series comprises ‘MojoPac Freedom’, ‘MojoPac Deluxe’, and ‘MojoPac Enterprise Suite’.

According to Shan Appajodu, founder and chief executive officer of RingCube, ‘MojoPac Freedom’ is the world’s first and only free desktop virtualization software available in the country.

While ‘MojoPac Freedom’ is available free-of-cost, the ‘Deluxe’ and the ‘Enterprise Suite’ are priced at $49 and $149 respectively.

cnet: IBM released on Tuesday a tool that it says will let businesspeople, rather than professional programmers, build their own Web applications.

Called the the Mashup Starter Kit, it is an updated version of QEDWiki tool. The starter kit lets people view and access Web information and company databases in order to build mash-ups–applications that combine information from different sources in a single screen.

IBM, which sells to corporate customers, sees a lot of potential in giving businesspeople the ability to build their own applications via tapping into various information sources.

Example: a mash-up application that tracks relevant news and plots Avian flu data using a mapping Web service.

(Credit: IBM )For example, an insurance agent could combine internal rate information with weather forecasts in order to build a model on how much to charge a customer.

The Mashup Starter Kit includes a server component called the Mashup Hub, which is designed to make it easier to view data stored in corporate databases. The QEDWiki tool is the visual front-end for accessing that information and combining it.

When working with customers, IBM found that access to content was at least as important as the front-end assembly tool, said Rod Smith, first president of emerging technology at IBM.

“The idea is that the Hub is like a Web 2.0 Web site where people can register feeds, rate feeds–the things are inside the catalog,” Smith said. “Business people not only wanted to do mash-ups, they want to have more control of information, like a freshness of it for instance.”

msnbc: A Bangladeshi graduate student is developing a robot capable of picking up objects, mopping floors and performing other simple tasks — at the fraction of the cost of other humanoids.

Feroz Ahmed Siddiky of the International Islamic University in Chittagong says his “IRobo” responds to voice commands, has spatial intelligence and is cheap because it’s made from scrap materials he’s collected from electronic shops and car mechanics.

“On completion, this robot will comply with different verbal commands for tasks like shifting objects, cleaning floors and standing guard,” Siddiky told Reuters.

“It can also be used for some risky jobs like in coal mines, where workers commonly suffer many accidents.”

Siddiky has been working on the robot for two years and says he has got another year’s worth of engineering to do before its completed.

He said he is currently discussing commercial production of the robot with an Australian software firm.

“I hope people will be able to buy it for less than $1,000,” he added.

Cyber-crazy Japan is hooked on androids with several companies selling robots that mimic human action for medical and cleaning purposes, as well as entertainment.