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indianexpress: Gorakh B Ranadive died three months ago at the age of 48. His 19-year-old son, Kiran, is yet to come to terms with the loss. “He worked as a labourer with the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) collecting garbage to ensure we had enough to eat at the end of the day,” said Kiran, helpless inside the two-room hutment at Ambil Odha slums, one of the unhygienic addresses in the city.

Ranadive’s death due to jaundice on July 4 was among the latest entries in the PMC’s Employment Welfare Register. However, there’s no mention of his 35-year-old widow, Chhaya, and son Kiran.

“He had not been keeping well for quite a while, often complaining of stomach-ache and dizziness. This work in garbage heaps claimed his life. We kept him in hospital for three months but he succumbed,” Chhaya said.

“He worked with the PMC for 22 years, including 10 years on daily wages, and was our sole bread earner. The municipal administration has promised a job for Kiran, but it has been three months now. Who knows?,” she added.

Kiran, who has studied up to eighth standard, has to shoulder the responsibility of the house. He is presently working for private contractors, while nurturing the hope that PMC soon sends him a call letter to join as a garbage collector like his father.

“What’s the alternative? I know this PMC job of collecting garbage will kill me like it did my father. But it is permanent income. Right now what I earn is insufficient to make ends meet,” said the 19-year-old lad.

Kiran knows his education is inadequate for landing a decent job. Besides, there are family debts that have mounted to Rs 50,000. “Most of it was taken from private moneylenders during my father’s hospitalisation,” he added.

His mother says the PMC had recently handed over a cheque of Rs 15,000 as financial assistance under the Employee Welfare Scheme.

indianexpress: District Guardian Minister Ajit Pawar on Saturday asked the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to register criminal offences against those who cut trees without prior permission of the civic body. “Many complaints of illegal tree cutting are coming in. If anyone including builders are cutting trees without prior permission of the municipal corporation, then the latter must register criminal offence against them so that a strong message is given” Pawar said in the District Planning and Development Committee (DPDC) meeting held at the Council Hall on Saturday.

Pune Cantonment MLA Balasaheb Shivarkar also raised the issue of government authorities not taking cognisance of the massive tree cutting in the city. “I have written to the municipal commissioner, divisional commissioner and NGOs about the tree cutting on NIBM-Undri road where more than 1,000 trees were felled for road construction by a builder. But no cognisance was taken at any level,” he said. Pawar asked the municipal commissioner to take serious cognisance of such complaints.

Pawar, State Marketing Minister Harshawardhan Patil, Khed MP Shivajirao Adhalrao Patil and MLAs, MLCs, Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad municipal commissioners and Zilla Parishad officials were present for the meeting.

District Collector Prabhakar Deshmukh said that the district administration has identified 55 pilgrimage sites where development works would be carried out. Another issue raised by MLC Ulhas Pawar and other leaders was the development of Bhimashankar. Deshmukh said that the area of Bhimashankar falls under forest land and any development is possible only after permission of the forest department.

Pawar called for money from the PMC for the development of the Sinhagad fort while also asking the State government to fund the development of Shivneri, Purandar and Rajgad forts.

indianexpress: Besides complaining of bodyache and headache, Kasarwadi resident Nilesh Rayate had high grade fever for two days. And when it failed to subside, the 20-year-old was taken to PCMC-run Yeshwantrao Chavan Memorial Hospital (YCMH) on Friday. Dengue and malaria tests proved negative, but the doctors advised him to get admitted till he recovered.

Like Nilesh, 56 others are currently undergoing treatment for high grade fever at this hospital, six of whom suffer from dengue and seven from malaria and one is in the intensive care. Ten of these 57 are children. They have all been admitted to YCMH during the last three days.

YCMH physician Dr Chandrashekhar Katre said viral infection was the main reason. “There are 100 to 200 types of bacteria in the air that become active during this time of the year,” Dr Katre said. “It takes at least four to five days for a patient to recover.”

While dengue and malaria cases have been on the rise for nine months now, cases of high fever have shot up this month. According to PCMC health officers there was nothing to worry as this is a common occurrence in October. “The sudden climatic change affects people’s health. It is hot in the day and cool at night during this month,” said PCMC health director Dr Rajshekhar Iyer. “Fever cases may go up further in October, but there’s nothing to worry.”
 

indianexpress:  The real impact of the Right to Information (RTI) Act lies in how the procured information is used, was the general theme of discussion at an RTI workshop organised by the Public Concern for Governance Trust (PCGT), to commemorate the second anniversary of the implementation of the RTI Act at the Police Sanskrutik Bhavan on Saturday .

State Information Commissioner, Pune division Vijay Kuvalekar spoke about the transition of the Act, citing examples of its reach in rural areas along with urban prevalence. “The process just begins with the RTI application and the implementation is another issue altogether,” Kuvalekar said. “While individual applications reach a satisfactory conclusion when the information sought is acquired, for applications pertaining to the interests of the larger society, the process does not end until some change has been brought about,” he added.

RTI activist Major General S C N Jatar (retd) who also spoke on the occasion said that the Act was an antidote to corruption and bribery. “Often despite RTI applications which have exposed corruption, the problem recurs owing to short public memory and poor follow-up as well as hesitation on part of the media to highlight the same stories.”

Social activist Arvind Kejriwal who was conducting the workshop said that though over 70 countries have adopted similar Acts, the RTI Act in India is the broadest of all.

indianexpress: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has planned to revive the Light and Sound show at Shaniwarwada by inviting private players to attract more tourists to visit the historical monument.

“We want to make the Light and Sound show at Shaniwarwada attractive so that more tourists come in and we have invited private companies to finance it,” said Municipal Commissioner Praveesinh Pardeshi.

He said the Promoters and Builders Association of Pune (PBAP) has offered to take the responsibility of developing the lawn in front of the Shaniwarwada.

Also, plans are on to put up replicas of ancient art in the gallery, Pardeshi said adding that the PMC also wants to develop a heritage walk for tourists visiting historical structures in the city.

The PMC has taken up work to restore the Vishrambaug Wada and Nana Wada.

indianexpress: The Pune Police has issued directions for ensuring a safe and peaceful Navratra and Ramazan festivals, in context of the recent Hyderabad blasts.

Additional Commissioner of Police Rajendra Sonawane, , has issued a directive prohibiting fireworks on roads or on buildings or near Navratra mandals. Cell phones have also been prohibited in the vicinity of places of religious worship.

The directions will be observed upto October 26.

The Commissionerate has also issued directions to the mandals to notify the police about suspicious individuals and refrain from blaring music on loudspeakers to prevent noise pollution.

indianexpress: On the occasion of Ramazan Eid that falls on Sunday, the Pune Traffic Branch has proposed traffic arrangements near the the Mecca, Tamboli, Aaina, Subhanshaa, Gawaksahib and Chandtara mosques. Traffic flow will be suspended between Golibar Maidan Chowk to Dhobi ghat during the time of namaz. Heavy vehicles coming from Solapur towards Sangli/Mumbai will be diverted from the Saswad Road Junction, Hadapsar to the Undari-Pisoli, Katraj route. Traffic from Bhairobanullah Chowki will be diverted through Netajinagar, Lullanagar before reaching Satara Road.

msnbc: By mimicking structures found in seashells, scientists have created a transparent plastic that is as strong as steel.

For years scientists have tried to build sturdy materials for larger products from ultrastrong nano-size building blocks, such as nanotubes, nanosheets and nanorods, only to have the larger structures turn out comparatively weak.

“When you tried to build something you can hold in your arms, scientists had difficulties transferring the strength of individual nanosheets or nanotubes to the entire material,” said study leader Nicholas Kotov of the University of Michigan.

To solve this problem, Kotov and his colleagues have devised a process that builds materials one nanoscale layer at a time, similar to the way that mother-of-pearl, the iridescent lining of mussel, oyster and other mollusk shells, is built.

They built a machine that dips a piece of glass about the size of a stick of gum alternately into a gluelike polymer solution and a dispersion of clay nanosheets. These materials form cooperative hydrogen bonds with each other across the layers, which give rise to a “Velcro effect,” Kotov explained.

This effect, coupled with the arrangement of the nanosheets in a brick-and-mortar structure, make the final product (as thick as a piece of plastic wrap) very strong. The developers say that the product could be widely available in a relatively short period of time.

techtree: For all those on the look out for new motherboards, two top players, Micro Star International (MSI), and TopNotch Infotronix (better known as Zebronics) have announced the latest series motherboards.

MSI has launched its P6NGM Series of motherboards, while Zebronics has launched two new motherboards — the 945 GCVE and the 945 GC.

The MSI P6NGM series motherboards support the latest Intel FSB1333 multi-core processors, including Core 2 Quad/Duo and other Core architecture-based processors, promising outstanding performance in microATX form factor.

MSI claims its P6NGM series motherboards are the first HDMI-ready mainboards supporting Intel processors. They are based on Nvidia MCP73 Series chipset integrated GeForce 7 graphics for Intel processors.

These motherboards offer video resolution up to 1,920 x 1,080 (1080i) HD video output. They feature 1 PCI Express x16 and 1 PCIe x1 slot.

The series comprises three models: the P6NGM-L, the P6NGM-FD, and the P6NGM-FIH, priced at Rs 4,900; Rs 5,800; and Rs 6,800.

Meanwhile, Zebronics has also launched two motherboards — the 945 GCVE and the 945 GC, both based on the Intel 945G chipset platform for Intel Core 2 Duo and Pentium Dual Core processors.

The Intel 945G Express Chipset delivers outstanding system performance through high-bandwidth interfaces such as dual-channel DDR2 memory, 1066/800 MHz system bus, PCI Express x16 graphics port and PCI Express x1 input/output ports, serial ATA 3.0 Gbps, and hi-speed USB 2.0 connectivity.

bbc: The switch has been thrown on a telescope specifically designed to seek out alien life.
Funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, the finished array will have 350 six-metre antennas and will be one of the world’s largest.

The Allen Telescope Array (ATA) will be able to sweep more than one million star systems for radio signals generated by intelligent beings.

Its creators hope it will help spot definite signs of alien life by 2025.

The ATA is being run by the Seti Institute and the Radio Astronomy Laboratory from the University of California, Berkeley, US

“For Seti, the ATA’s technical capabilities exponentially increase our ability to search for intelligent signals, and may lead to the discovery of thinking beings elsewhere in the Universe,” said Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the Seti Institute in a statement.

On 11 October, the first 42 dishes of the array started gathering data that will be analysed for signs of alien life and help with conventional radio astronomy.

The first test images produced by the array are radio maps of the Andromeda Galaxy and the Triangulum Galaxy.