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indianexpress: That Pune has a large number of Nepalese women working as prostitutes in the city’s red light area is not unknown. What a recent landmark study by the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) has done is given the city the dubious distinction of being the second largest destination in India for these girls who land up as part of a trafficking chain.

The study led by Jay G. Silverman, associate professor of society, human development and health at HSPH that was published in the August 1 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association sought to find out HIV prevalence and predictors of infection in sex-trafficked Nepalese girls and women. Silverman, along with a research team, reviewed the medical documentation and case records of 287 girls/ women who had been trafficked from Nepal to India between 1997 and 2005, and later rescued and repatriated, to discover that 38 per cent of them had been infected with HIV. What significantly adds to the problem is the fact that most of the girls trafficked are between 14 to 17 years old and are unable to defend themselves against forced unprotected sex.

From the sample surveyed the study also deduced that while Mumbai emerged the biggest destination for the Nepalese women, Pune received the second largest number out of the 7,000 plus Nepalese girls/ women trafficked to the country every year. Confirming this is Tejaswi Sevekari of Saheli, the NGO that works in Budhwar Peth for the betterment of the prostitutes. According to her, about 25 per cent of the of sex workers in Budhwar Peth are Nepalese.

While most of the women who ended up in the red light area were forced or duped into the trade, poverty has also been a major cause for the influx, along with the fact that for a particular community in Nepal prostitution is a traditional occupation. “What makes the Nepalese girls more vulnerable is most of these girls do not come to Budhwar Peth directly but are kept in lodges outside the city for a while by the pimps. It hence becomes very difficult for us to reach out, to make them aware of the health hazards or even supply condoms to them. Many get infected even before they reach the brothels,” Sevekari said.

indianexpress: Additional Director General of Police PPP Sharma was transferred to Mumbai from Pune over two years ago. Sharma, who was in CID (Crime), Pune, was first posted as IG, MSEB and then as Additional Director General (Estt) in the DG office Mumbai. During these two years, he opted to keep his government quarters in Pune.

On January 20, 2007 Sharma was issued a notice by the district executive magistrate, in this case the Resident Deputy Collector under the Bombay Government Eviction Act, 1955, asking him to vacate the government accommodation. The orders were issued on the request of the Public Works Department (PWD) as the family had overstayed the stipulated time frame that ended in April 2007.

Since then, three more notices were issued, the final one being on November 1. As per the notice issued today — the ‘final order for eviction’ — the eviction was to be carried out by the tehsildar’s office at 11 am with the aid of cops from the Bund Garden police station.

When the officers from the tehsildar’s office reached Gulmohar (A), Queens Garden, family members told them that there were no male members in the house. As there was no male member in the eviction team and since not a single police officer turned up, they were unable to carry out the order.

“As per procedure we forwarded the eviction request to the District Collector’s office who then issued orders to the tehsildar’s office to carry out the eviction orders,”said Anil Kulkarni, executive engineer, PWD.

indianexpress: From 1982 to 2004, a staggering 35,000 different kinds of objections involving Rs 218 crore were raised by the audit reports of the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC). Of this, civic officers and departments can find ways to settle Rs 189 crore by making the necessary papers available or getting the objected expenses regularised from the standing committee or the general body as the case may be, says audit officials. “This is a possibility. But where can they find the 10 or 20-year-old documents? Besides, why would a current general body or the standing committee regularise something which was approved by not adhering to norms a decade or so back?” ask audit officials.

But for the remaining Rs 29 crore that’s been objected to, there is no way out. This amount, says civic chief auditor Sudhir Rajdarkar, has been declared as “recoverable” which means officers and departments will have to deposit the amount in the PCMC treasury.

This amount relates to overpayment to contractors, salary overpayment, bills not recovered, making payments while violating norms and so on.

indianexpress:  The Pune municipal administration’s efforts to speed up development works under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) was yet again mired in controversy with the Congress objecting to allotment of road development works to the tune of Rs 170 crore to a firm ‘blacklisted’ for the slum rehabilitation project.

“The civic administration has proposed to allot road works of Rs 170 crore to B G Shirke and Company which was blacklisted for malpractices during the bidding process for the slum rehabilitation project under JNNURM,” Congress leader Ulhas Bagul said.

Municipal Commissioner Praveensinh Pardeshi, though, said: “The PMC has not issued any order blacklisting the said company. They have been restricted from participating in the slum rehabilitation project.” He clarified that the tender process for the road development works was initiated a month before discrepancies were found in the bidding process for the slum rehabilitation project.

“The municipal corporation cannot blacklist a contractor on vague grounds as it will not stand the court’s scrutiny. Besides, the road development works have been allotted through competitive bidding and as per the rules,” said Pardeshi
 

indianexpress:  Dedicated parking facility, overtime pay for employees, a new building for international students and development of colleges in adivasi areas. These will be some of the major thrust areas in the University of Pune (UoP) revised budget for the year 2007-08, which was approved at the senate meeting held on Tuesday and Wednesday. The earlier budget amount of Rs. 173 crore has now been revised to Rs. 198.9 crore for the year 2007-08.

For the first time, the revised budget was presented mid-term at the October senate meeting, instead of the usual practice where the revised budget is presented along with the annual budget for the following year. This was based on a resolution passed at the March 2007 senate meeting. “The early presentation of the revised budget in October 2007 instead of March 2008 will help facilitate a half-phase evaluation of actual expenditures incurred,” said Vice Chancellor Narendra Jadhav.

Budgetary provision was increased by Rs. 35 lakh for overall development in colleges in tribal areas, and by Rs. 20 lakh for creating parking facilities for various administrative and academic departments on the UoP campus. An additional Rs. 2 crore was also provided for promoting research projects at the college level, and an increased provision of Rs. 72.25 lakh was set aside for the creation of 400 new non-teaching staff posts.

Funding for restoration of the main building was also increased by Rs. 5 crore, a decision that met with some opposition in the senate. Other increases were made for the classroom complex, soft skills programme, and the Krantijyoti Savitrimata Phule Girl Student Scholarship Scheme.

indianexpress: An endoscopy system, the most sophisticated of its kind, for early detection of cancer and digestive system ailments has been installed at Jehangir Hospital.

This system, based on high definition cameras and monitors, magnifies abnormalities three times larger than traditional systems. Using the endoscope’s state-of-the-art Narrow Band Imaging (NBI) technology, very minute (2 to 3 mm) and early cancers in the digestive tract can be easily diagnosed at a treatable stage.

As compared to traditional systems, complex tests in certain patients suffering from jaundice can be carried out with minimum discomfort to patients.

It is also very useful for colon cancer detection in asymptomatic patients with polyps in the intestine which over a period of time can grow into cancer. `

indianexpress: The Dyan-Deep Jankalyan Foundation’s, a city-based non-governmental organisation, activities have received international recognition with the Japan Government sanctioning a grant of $83,717 (Rs 33,88,033) for construction of vocational training centre for women from the slum areas.

Akira Iwanade, Chief Consul, Consulate General of Japan, Mumbai and Dyan-Deep Jankalyan Foundation secretary Vijaya Dahiphale signed the contract at the Pune Sramik Patrakar Bhavan on Thursday in the presence of Mayor Rajlakshmi Bhosale.

Dyan-Deep, which has been working since 1997 in the areas of health, women empowerment, education and employment generation, has initiated many activities like tailoring, beauty courses for women in the slum areas to make them financially independent.

However, with the increase in the number of slums in the city, the Japan grant was a welcome relief, said Dahiphale.

Iwanade described the initiative as a significant step in collaborative efforts of Japan and India during the ‘Japan-India Friendship Year 2007′ and added that he will look forward to having more relationships with Indian NGOs in the future.

techtree: ViewSonic has launched its new CASA series of LCDs ranging from 17-inch to 22-inch models.

The new series includes a 17-inch wide-screen model - VA1716w; two conventional 19-inch models - VA916 and VA926; two 19-inch wide-screen models - VA1916w and VA1926w; two 20-inch wide-screen models - VA2016w and VA2026w; and two 22-inch wide-screen models - VA2216w and VA2226w.

The 17-inch wide-screen VA1716w; the 19-inch VA926; 20-inch VA2026w; and 22-inch wide-screen VA2226w — all have a DVI output, while others are non-DVI models.

The entire range features Dynamic Contrast Ratio (DCR) technology, which enhances LCD contrast ratio up to 2000:1. The technology enables automatic detection of image signals, and controls back-light brightness accordingly.

For instance, when watching an image in a dark room, if a dark scene contains small areas of super bright light, they may appear sacrificed and blown out. But with DCR technology, the user is able to experience lower Black levels while watching darker movies or video games.

Because DCR is able to automatically detect image source to adjust LCD panel back-light, it consumes less power. Compared to conventional LCDs, which have back-light always on, the voltage of LCDs with DCR technology is flexible based on the contrast ratio.

bbc: IBM has developed a new process for repurposing scrap silicon wafers from its chip manufacturing operations for use in energy-producing solar panels.

Typically, Microsoft discards 3 million wafers every year, each of which contains some portion of IBM’s chip designs.

The new process uses a specialized pattern removal technique to recycle those thin discs of silicon material used to imprint patterns that make finished semiconductor chips for computers, mobile phones, video games, and other consumer electronics into a form used to manufacture silicon-based solar panels.

The company said that these repurposed wafers will be available either for reuse in internal manufacturing calibration as ‘monitor wafers’ or for sale to the solar cell industry, which must meet the growing demand for the same silicon material to produce photovoltaic cells for solar panels.

IBM and others in the industry use silicon wafers both as the starting material for manufacturing microelectronic products, as well as to monitor and control the myriad steps in the manufacturing process.

According to the Semiconductor Industry Association, 250,000 wafers are started per day across the industry worldwide. IBM estimates that up to 3.3 percent of these started wafers are scrapped. In the course of the year, this amounts to approximately 3 million discarded wafers. Because the wafers contain intellectual property, most cannot be sent to outside vendors to reclaim, therefore they’re crushed and sent to landfills, or melted down and resold.

bbc: The technology behind the wind-up radio could soon be helping to light up some of the poorest homes in Africa.
The Freeplay Foundation is developing prototypes of a charging station for house lights it hopes will improve the quality of life for many Africans.

The Foundation said the lights would replace the expensive, polluting and unhealthy alternatives many Africans currently use to light their homes.

Field testing of the prototypes will start in Kenya in the next few months.