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indianexpress: PARENTS of over 100 students of Bai Najamai Noshirwan Dastur Primary and Nursery School in Pune Camp were in for a rude shock on Tuesday morning when the school administration suspended their wards from attending regular classes for seven days. The reason: the children had applied mehendi on their hands, which according to the school was against the rules.

State Education Minister Vasant Purke told Newsline late evening, “Disciplinary action will be initiated against the school for issuing such irresponsible orders. I have instructed the Deputy Director of Education to issue a show-cause notice in the matter immediately.”

Purke said the school authorities should have explained the issue to the parents and the children, rather than target the students in this manner.

Meanwhile, sensing the outrage, the school went in for a damage control and had withdrawn the suspensions by evening. School chief administrative officer Girish Gulathi said that the suspension orders had been withdrawn with immediate effect. “The orders have been withdrawn and all students can attend the school regularly from tomorrow,” he said.

When asked if action will be taken against headmistress Arnita Batra, Gulathi said: “It will take some time.”

Earlier, confusion prevailed at the school premises as several of the suspended students came out crying worried they will miss the oral exams scheduled on Monday. Agitated parents had gathered at the school premises as the school had telephonically informed them to be there as Batra wanted to discuss some urgent matter.

indianexpress:  Dengue and malaria cases continue to gnaw residents in Pimpri-Chinchwad. In last six days since Newsline reported the figures, 40 new dengue and 31 malaria cases have been reported. In last nine and half months, the official dengue cases have thus reached 228 while malaria cases are put at 536. So far, four persons have died of dengue and three of malaria.

Unofficially, dengue cases are put at over 450 while malaria cases said to have crossed 1000-mark. “This is because 264 private hospitals and 500 dispensaries do not report the cases to us. There are very few private hospitals who keep us regularly updated,” say health department officials of the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation.

Health officials said most of the dengue and malaria cases have been reported from construction sites. Pimple Saudagar, Rahatni, Wakad and Indryani Nagar are the areas where a large number of dengue and malaria cases are recorded.

“Construction sites where cesspools and collection of fresh water in ponds are common are the breeding grounds of dengue and malaria,” says PCMC health director Dr Rajshekhar Iyer, pointing out that the brisk construction activity in these suburbs was spawning dengue and malaria

The health department, says Dr Iyer, has been on massive awareness campaign in residential areas and the Pimpri-Chinchwad-Bhosari industrial belt.

indianexpress:  EVEN as the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) continues its campaign against the entry of elephants in urban areas, the problem continues to be rampant in Pune, with yet another elephant found being used for begging by three men in the Loni Kalbhor area. The three men, clad in sadhu robes, have now been taken into custody and a complaint has been lodged at the Loni Kalbhor Police Station under various sections of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act and the Bombay Beggary Act.

The elephant, Champa, was found by volunteers from animal rights group Friends of Animals (FoA). The elephant was allegedly being used for collecting alms by the “sadhus,” and had blisters on its feet as a result of walking on tar roads.

Aditya Paranjape of Friends for Animals said that volunteers from the organisation had found the elephant begging on the roads in Loni Kalbhor, accompanied by three men dressed as sadhus. “The elephant has blisters on its feet due to walking on the tar roads, and is finding it difficult to walk,” said Paranjape.

FoA has alleged that the men were unable to furnish authentic ownership documents. “The certificate they produced showed that the elephant belongs to a circus called Grand Circus in Bangalore. The certificate also mentions that it is non-transferable, which means that it is not valid in Pune. They claim the elephant was gifted to them, but they have only a handwritten document without any seal or signature of an official organisation,” Paranjape said.

indianexpress: THE Pune police are on their toes and have beefed up security measures at all places of public importance for the 10-day Navratra festival in the wake of Ajmer blast on Thursday. Besides security, the police have increased vigilance around the Navratra spots at Chattuhshrungi, Tambdi Jogeshwari, Bhavani Mata, Taljai, Padmavati, Santoshi Mata Mandir in Katraj, Laxmi Mata in Swargate and Sarasbaug respectively.

The police are also on the lookout for suspicious people roaming around the garba venues as a precautionary measure with strict orders to detain them in case of confirmation of their dubious credibility. The Anti Terrorist Squad too is conducting anti sabotage operations across the city.

According to DCP (Special Branch) R S Khaire, a special advisory has been issued to trustees of all religious places in the city to ensure that adequate safeguards are in place to thwart any terrorist threat. Similarly, a series of meetings were held with the temple priests asking them to put in place adequate light arrangements and queue discipline to avoid anti-social elements from melting into the crowds.

“Security has been tightened at all important places including religious shrines in the wake of Ajmer blasts,” Khaire told Newsline. “We are regularly conducting anti sabotage operations to ensure that no untoward incident take place.

All our teams have been kept ready to tackle any eventuality during the festivities.”

indianexpress: Humming the privatisation tune, guardian minister Ajit Pawar has advocated Build Operate Transfer (BOT) for metro rail, privatisation of municipal transport and water supply network besides Anil Ambani’s venture to mitigate Pune power crunch.

“The traffic problem is deteriorating and it is time for an integrated traffic plan for the city. In an effort to improve the public transport, we are in talks with private players,” said Pawar, while interacting with media in ‘meet the press’ organised by Pune Union of Working journalists (PUWJ).

“The survey for metro rail has been completed. However, it will take over 10 years to complete the metro project. We are looking for the BOT option for metro.
 
Meanwhile, we need to improve the public transport. Some of the private players have agreed for a joint venture where they would provide 2,000 new buses in return of advertising contract for 30 years,” said Pawar, adding that though the PMT-PCMT merger has taken place, the fact remains that the new transport corporation is handicapped without fiscal help from the PMC and PCMC. “So there is a proposal that the PMC commissioner be the chairman of the new transport body and PCMC commissioner hold the post of co-chairman,” he said adding that the implementation of the BRT will be sped up by the PMC.

Pawar said that city’s power crunch could be met once Anil Ambani’s plan to set up 7,000 MW power plant in Pune district comes into existence. “Ambani has sought land in Pune district to set gas-based power generation plant,” said Pawar. “The water distribution networks in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad are not very good. We plan to hand over the water distribution and drainage system to a private company.”

indianexpress: The verdict is out. In a major decision, the Pune Industrial Court gave accreditation to the Vishwakalyan Kamgar Sanghatana (VKS), as the official Bajaj Auto Ltd (BAL) union, edging out Bharatiya Kamgar Sena (BKS) that was hitherto the recognised workers union. Justice Shrikant Deshpande gave the verdict on Tuesday.

VKS, that has been seeking the recognition for the last two years, had filed an appeal for recognition on October 18, 2005. President of VKS Dilip Pawar who has a backing of more than 2,000 workers and have been campaigning against the BAL closure of the Akurdi plant, said it was a victory that has come at the right time. The VKS had applied for recognition under the Maharashtra Recognition of Trade Union – Prevention of Unfair Labour Practices (PULP) Act, 1971.

“We will now make sure that BAL authorities do not dilly dally the matter any longer. Now they have to speak to us and we will use all the pressure to get the workers back to work as well as restart the plant,’’ he said. VKS was in talks with the Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and a decision would be out soon, he said.

Working president of Indian National Trade Union Congress, Rajan Nair along with various workers union in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad had on Sunday put up a massive show of strength on Sunday appealing Sharad Pawar to to put pressure on Rahul Bajaj to restart the Akurdi plant.

techtree: This week, Abacus Peripherals is launching the Intel-based Biostar GF7050V-M7 motherboard, which is the first to feature Nvidia Chipset (MCP73) on the Intel platform.

The Biostar GF7050V-M7 is designed to support CPUs with 1333MHz FSB, and is based on Nvidia GeForce7050 GPU that supports DirectX 9.0, and offers shared memory size up to 512MB.

With support for a full range of Intel CPUs, 1333MHz FSB, and DDR2 800 MHz memory, the GF7050V-M7 motherboard GPU delivers a premium graphics experience for multi-media PCs.

On-board graphics offer superior compatibility and performance for all DirectX 9.0 applications. Besides, the motherboard is Microsoft Windows Vista Premium capable.

Specifications include: Intel Core 2 Quad/Duo(Extreme Edition) and Conroe-L and Pentium Extreme Edition and Pentium D and Pentium 4; Nvidia Geforce 7050/Nforce610i; Socket 775; 1 PCI-Express x16; 1 PCI-Express x1; PCI 2; LAN RTL8201CL, Onboard 10/100; SATAII 4; USB 2.0 2X USB 2.0 Header; RAID 0,1; Integrated Video Nvidia GF7050, Max Share Memory 512MB; and Integrated Audio 5.1 CH. HD Codec (ALC662).

techtree:   Buffalo Technology is expanding the capacity of its TeraStation Live (HS-DH4.0TGL/R5) and TeraStation Pro II (TS-H4.0TGL/R5) models to 4TB, thus providing home- and business- users with more space to store and share their digital content.

By expanding storage to 4TB, Buffalo is making space for over 650 DVD movies for the home, and nearly 5,000 CDs worth of data for businesses, said Gerardine Lynch, product marketing manager at Buffalo.

While the TeraStation Live is meant for home users who want to store, share, and stream multimedia files; the TeraStation Pro II is for the home office plus small- and medium- sized businesses who need a cost-effective yet efficient NAS device.

The TeraStation Live features the recently launched ‘Web Access’ tool that allows consumers instant and secure access to all their digital files stored on the device via an Internet connection. Besides, it comes with iTunes 7 support and a DLNA Mediaserver.

With Active Directory integration, the TeraStation Pro II is able to utilize domain users and groups by working as a client member in an Active Directory domain.

Both NAS devices deliver transfer rates of up to 35MB/s, and feature five operating modes (i.e. Standard, RAID 0/1/5/10) for security of valuable data. Advanced RAID features allow for email warnings when there is a system fault.

techtree:  Epson has announced developing an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display that is capable of producing ‘the ultimate Black’.

The new technology enables making optimum use of advanced image representation, which is not possible with conventional flat panel displays (FPDs).

Epson holds that it is ‘Black’ which is the key to overall image quality, and as such, has been focusing efforts on achieving ‘the ultimate Black’.

Epson also claims to have solved the problem of early stage brightness deterioration, so as to extend the life of the OLED display. The company claims it has increased the life of the device to over 50,000 hours*1, which is an appropriate level for practical application.

Otherwise, the OLED display features: an 8-inches screen, 800 x 480 pixels resolution, 200 cd/m2 brightness, and contrast ratio of 100,000 :1 or greater.

Epson plans to showcase the new system at the upcoming FPD International 2007 exhibition to be held at Pacifico Yokohama October 24th onwards.

businessweek:   Napster Inc. on Tuesday launched a new Web-based version of its music service that lets customers listen to their music on any computer without downloading software.

Early Tuesday, Napster said the new version of its subscription service, Napster 4.0, works on PC, Mac and Linux systems running the Internet Explorer or Firefox Internet browsers.

In addition to listening to saved songs, subscribers can access albums and playlists online through Napster 4.0.

For further functionality such as downloading songs, burning CDs and moving tracks to portable music players, users must still use downloaded Napster software on a PC platform.

In a note to clients Tuesday, Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Boris Markovich predicted that the new interface will lead to a higher number of new Napster subscribers