News

indianexpress:  Come 2008 and communications between the cadets and the instructors as well as the cadet-to-cadet interaction at the National Defence Academy (NDA) campus will move up a few notches. On the cards is a massive e-learning rollout, with TFT LCD computers, complete with intranet connection, to be installed in each every room of the cadets in the next financial year.

Thus, sharing notes or asking questions, soon information will be a mere touch away for the NDA cadets. Literally. Equipping the students with the intranet will serve not just in saving paper but also time, Group Captain Nitin Sathe, Director (training), NDA, told Newsline on Wednesday.

“Everything that a cadet needs to know will be available to him over the intranet. Be it class schedules, announcements or e-newspapers, he will be able to access it all without even having to leave his room. The intranet will also provide links to access all the inbuilt encyclopedia versions,” Sathe said.

Not only will the cadets be able to ask questions over the ether space, but also receive quick responses. Soft copies of the lectures taken will also be uploaded and be there for the cadets to access at their convenience.

“Once the intranet is in place, the cadets will also be provided with personal IDs on the Academy’s server to facilitate login to the net. Apart from merely accessing information, they will also be able to save relevant information in their account, for future reference,” the officer added.

indianexpress: Failure to find “suitable candidates” for vital administrative posts seems to be constantly haunting the University of Pune (UoP). Three vital posts, including that of the Registrar, Executive Engineer (Estates Department) and Finance and Accounts Officer (FAO), have been lying vacant for some time now, as the authorities could not find any of the applicants satisfactory.

All three posts are crucial to the overall functioning of the UoP. While the registrar is in charge of overall administration and second-in-command to the Vice Chancellor, the executive engineer heads the Estates department and oversees all development and infrastructure work on the university campus, and the FAO handles the finances of the UoP. All three posts have currently been deputed temporarily as an additional charge.

The post of the registrar fell vacant on September 11 after the retirement of D D Deshmukh. Thereafter advertisements were issued and 18 candidates were shortlisted from a total of the 34 who applied. All the 18 were interviewed on September 17, but were rejected on the grounds that they did not possess the necessary experience required for the post.

Similar was the fate of the FAO post, which lies vacant for nearly a year. Former FAO MS Jadhav was asked to leave by the UoP authorities in September last year after a Supreme Court judgement ruled that the post was tenure-based and was only valid for five years. While advertisements were issued thereafter around November, only one of the applications submitted was found valid to be considered for the interview. As a result, no one has yet been nominated to the post, which is now being handled by AG Joshi as an Officer on Special Duty (OSD).

indianexpress: The XIIth International Astronomy Olympiad (IAO), held recently at Semeiz in Crimea, Ukraine from September 29 to October 6, saw Pune boys Aniruddha Bapat and Tushar Shrotriya striking gold.

Dr Aniket Sule, academic coordinator of the Astrology Olympiad Programme, said 24 countries participated in the prestigious event that comprised three rounds — theoretical (solving problems in theoretical astronomy and astrophysics), practical (analysing local observatory data) and observational (sky watching).

At the XIIth IAO, the six-member team received three gold, two silver and one bronze medals in addition to the special prize for Best Performance in the Observational Round (for the senior group). Both Pune boys won gold in their respective groups — Aniruddha in the juniors and Tushar in the seniors.

The team was led by Kedar Soni, Abhinav Vidyalaya, and Mahesh Shetty. Anand Ghaisas from Homi Bhaba Centre for Science Education (HBCSE) in Mumbai accompanied the team as the scientific observer. HBCSE is the nodal center responsible for training and selection of the team for the various olympiads.

Tushar is a student of S P College while Aniruddha is an SSC student at St Mary’s School. Aniruddha has also attended the International Summer School for Young Physicists (ISSYP) at Perimeter Institute of Theoretical Physics, Canada in August 2007. He was a finalist at the national-level Astronomy Olympiad last year, but could not make it to the international event.

indianexpress:  Various workers’ organisations that met in front of the Bajaj Auto Ltd (BAL) gates on Wednesday under the aegis of a ‘Kruti Samiti’ decided to hold a massive rally to express solidarity with the striking BAL workers on October 14. The Sunday meeting, scheduled to begin at 4 pm will be a show of strength by trade unions of Pune that are joining hands and intervening for the first time ever since the Bajaj management decided to stop production at its Akurdi plant from September 1.

“I’m appealing to all Tata Motors workers and its unions to join the struggle to show solidarity to BAL workers,” said Rajan Nair, working president of Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), and the spearhead of the historic Telco strike of 1989. A team of union leaders including Nair, Ajit Abhayankar, Dilip Pawar, Madhav Roham and others have sought time with the Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh to find a solution in the BAL issue.

Meanwhile, Vishwakalyan Kamgar Sanghatana that represents the majority of BAL workers is awaiting a decision regarding recognition as a trade union in the labour court on October 16, which could prove to be a turning point in the ongoing struggle.

indianexpress: For the first time the District Collectorate and Zilla Parishad (ZP) will jointly be undertaking a unique drive to provide a facelift to Primary Healthcare Centers (PHCs) in the district. With funds released for the same under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and the Rugna Kalyan Samiti on October 5, the ZP will be undertaking a systematic survey of the PHCs to understand infrastructure problems faced by them. Officials have set a deadline of one and half months where after the initial phase of looking at 70 PHCs, another 25 will also be covered.

Said ZP CEO S K Bankar, “This drive aims at assessing problems at the centres and we should be completing the process in a week’s time. With Rs 1,75,000 being allotted for each PHC, we want to make sure that there are good infrastructure facilities.”

To start off, the upliftment process would include paying attention to water supply, electricity and condition of the PHC building. “From leaking roofs to shortage of water and lack of regular power supply, we have slowly initiated the process of identifying the problem areas. It is important because the PHCs need to have a good basic infrastructure,” Bankar said.

With the centres catering to a population of around 30,000 non-tribals and around 20,000 tribals in the district, a joint plan was laid down by District Collector Prabhakar Deshmukh and Bankar. “This is as per the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) plans wherein we first tackle the infrastructure before moving on to human resource and capacity building and development management systems,” said Bankar.

indianexpress:  Hundreds of retail sector traders, wholesalers and hawkers in the city joined an agitation organised under the banner of Federation of Associations of Maharashtra (FAM) on Wednesday. The stir was to protest against foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail as also against the amendment in the Agricultural Produce Market Committee Act (APMC) that allows big corporate houses to enter retail. The Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee was shut for the day as part of the protest.

The FAM fears that once big corporates spread their tentacles, small and retail shopkeepers will suffer heavily. The Model Act 2005 of the government offered private companies the license of direct marketing, opening private markets, which will leave many people jobless.

“The rules such as restrictions on storage of grains, compulsory weekly-offs, national holiday offs are only applicable for the traders and grocers and not for retail companies. There should be some restrictions and regulations on retail companies too,” said Rajesh Shah, senior vice-president of FAM.

The federation joined the protest as its members have started to feel the impact of the entry of retail companies and these companies were taking business away from them, he said.

Vilas Bhujbal, former president of Pune APMC, said, “The retail companies were already sourcing produce from farmers and they will now replace us. Many families of workers and traders are dependent on the APMC. They fear they will not have any place in the new private markets.”

indianexpress: The MET department officials say that for the past few years, the rainfall in Pune has been crossing the average mean of 55 cm. This year, the seasonal mean touched 84 cm, while in 2006 it was 110 cm. In 2005 it was 116 cm and 2004 saw it at 82 cm. The year 2003 was the only year when the rainfall activity for the season was 17 cm below normal.

According to Dr Medha Khole, director, Weather Central, this variability has been observed for the last four years. “We are planning to undertake a study on the same,” Khole said.

Khole attributed the increased rainfall activity this year to a number of low pressure systems.

techtree: Asus India has introduced its P525 quad-band PDA phone, which is designed to deliver a complete mobile business solution.

The P525 comes with a built-in numeric keypad, and incorporates push email and Wi-Fi support, among other features.

The PDA phone leverages push email functions to deliver real-time synchronization with email, phone books, and calendar items.

With built-in Wi-Fi and GPRS support, the phone provides wireless online connection even when wireless hotspots are not available. Along with Skype-in and Skype-out functions and Bluetooth wireless technology, plus support for Office applications like Excel and PowerPoint, the P525 delivers what Asus claims is ‘a truly mobile office’.

The phone’s 2 mega pixels digital camera with auto-focus doubles as a business card recognition device, making organizing business cards a breeze.

The numeric pad makes for easy input, while users who prefer using a stylus can use the 2.8-inches touch-screen display. One hand menu navigation is facilitated via the five-way joystick. For saving sensitive information securely, the phone comes with a unique feature, ‘MySecret’.

Specifications of the P525 include: 416MHz Intel processor; quad band GSM 850/900/1800/1900, GPRS; 128MB Flash ROM and 64MB SDRAM; 2.8-inches TFT display (240 x 320 pixels, 65,000); 1300 mAh Li-ion battery; 3.5hrs of talk time; 150 to 200hrs of standby time; 2 mega pixels camera with auto-focus and flash light; WLAN 802.11b, Bluetooth version 2.0, USB 1.1; miniSD card slot; and stereo headset with 2.5mm audio jack.

techtree: Fujitsu PC Asia Pacific has launched its first ever ultra mobile PC (UMPC), the LifeBook U1010, in the country.

All of just half-a-kilogram, the LifeBook U1010 comes with a 0.3mm glass LCD screen, and a newly designed 0.2mm Aluminium plated QWERTY keyboard. It sports a convertible, swivel form factor, making it usable as a hand-held, a tablet, or a notebook PC.

The Palm Resistance touch screen allows a user’s fingers to do the talking instead of a stylus. The Glide Point Pointing device makes interaction with the computer that much easier.

The LifeBook U1010 packs security features including Trusted Platform Module support, a 2-level BIOS lock, and a fingerprint sensor.

The LifeBook U1010 boasts a long battery life thanks to Intel’s latest Ultra Mobile Platform 2007, which has the lowest power consumption for optimized battery life. And, the LifeBook is in keeping with the EU’s Restriction of Hazardous Substances directive (RoHS).

techtree: Umax has recently announced its ‘Apus Zoom’ high speed USB 2.0 flash drive.

According to the company, ‘Apus Zoom’ is perfect for mobile users, allowing up to 4GB of storage space in a high speed plug-and-play package.

The ‘Apus Zoom’ weighs around 20g, and has dimensions of 60 x 17 x 10mm.

Its specifications include: hi-speed USB 2.0 interface, average read speed of 8MB per second, average write speed of 4MB per second, 5000 cycles per minute insertion endurance, and support for Windows ME/2000/XP/Vista, Mac OS 9.x ~ 10.x, and Linux 2.4 or later.

Exclusively distributed by Neoteric in India, the ‘Apus Zoom’ comes with a three-years comprehensive warranty.