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indianexpress:  Calling the city “very strong on innovation,” Gordon Brooks, president and CEO of US-based Symphony Services, said that eight of the 16 patents filed by the company in 2007 came from Pune. “Seventy per cent of our white board to release products come out of Pune,” said Brooks here on Friday.

In the three years since the company set up operations in the city, it has employed 1,000 people and Brooks said that this number was expected to increase to 10,000 in a few years. “Our new campus on Baner Road will also become fully operational by February 2008,” said Brooks while introducing the new operational head at Pune, Kishore Wikhe.

While the company is currently into independent software vendors and software enabled businesses, Brooks said that the future was in embedded and design engineering companies. “We are looking into acquiring design engineering units — companies that are into the design of cars and airplanes. While this is a nascent market, it is as big as the embedded market,” said Brooks. In the future, the company expects to get about 40 per cent of its from embedded services.

While he said that India could learn a lot from China in terms of infrastructure, it was ahead in terms of product engineering services. Ninety five percent of the delivery capabilities are in India, he said. Currently the company employs 3,900 in the country with presence in Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad. It is looking at hiring 10,000 in Bangalore and increasing its presence from the current 500 to another 10,000 in China as well in around the same time. By 2008, the company exports are expected to be worth 10 billion dollars from India.

The company was founded in 2002. In 2007, it was named first in ‘software engineering’ by ‘Brown-Wilson Group’s 2007 Black Book of Outsourcing.’

indianexpress: The Oxfam (India) Trust has come out with a 65-minute film that weaves together four fictitious tales concerning youth to ultimately disseminate crucial information on the nature, treatment and prevention of AIDS.

Titled Bewaqt Barish or Untimely Rain, the film has been written and directed by Pune film-makers Sumitra Bhave and Sunil Sukhtankar, who are the makers of the first full-fledged feature film on AIDS Zindagi Zindabad released about a decade back. Interestingly, other than 35 mm prints, VCD and DVD versions, the film — which was screened in New Delhi two days ago — is available for downloading on www.bewaqt-barish.org in keeping with its mission of reaching out to maximum number of people.

“We were approached by Oxfam about a year ago for this venture. It is a developmental organisation working in Rajasthan and Orissa and uses peer educators and people from the community to spread awareness about AIDS. To support this initiative, they needed some kind of an audio-visual tool and that’s when they contacted us,” said Sukhtankar, who wrote the lyrics for the songs in the film.

Bhave has done the story and screenplay. Interestingly, the film has been produced by Muktangana Mitra, the de-addiction centre in the city while the European Union has provided the financial backing for the Rs 30 lakh project.

The story revolves around a youth in rural India and explores beliefs and norms surrounding sexuality and different forms of relationships. Four stories interweave in a small village of Rajasthan to make for tales that touch upon innocence, anger, rejection, acceptance, dreams and exploitation set in the rural context.

indianexpress: This World AIDS Day (December 1) the concern is about resistance to anti-HIV drugs. With 2-3 per cent of one lakh HIV people on anti-retroviral treatment (ART) showing drug resistance in the country, the Pune-based National AIDS Research Institute (NARI) is now studying the resistance levels in the newly infected patients.
A pilot study by the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) at 38 anti retroviral treatment (ART) centres in the country showed that the resistance to anti-HIV drugs was between 2-3 per cent.

Currently, more than 2.5 million people are estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS in the country today. In October this year, the government finally met the target of providing one lakh people living with HIV with anti-retroviral treatment at its 127 centres.

According to senior NACO officials, the government is keen on introducing second line ART drugs and two centers — J J Hospital at Mumbai and Government Hospital of Thoracic Medicine at Tamabaran, Chennai — will be given the second line ART drugs. While an announcement is expected on Saturday, the actual roll out of second line drugs will be in a phased manner from January 1 next year.

At NARI though, studies done in the clinic showed that the resistance to anti-HIV drugs was low. But expanding the study as part of the NACO- WHO programme, director of NARI Dr R S Paranjape told The Indian Express that they will specifically collect specimens from newly-infected individuals from KEM Hospital and Sion Hospital in Mumbai.

indianexpress:  Four persons including three Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) officials have been booked by the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) for allegedly preparing false documents and issuing a cheque worth Rs 9.40 lakh to a contractor who had been given a task of constructing public toilets in ward number 35, which were never constructed in reality!
 
The ACB has registered the offence following a complaint lodged by S B Repale of Bhrashtachar Virodhi Janandolan in Erandwane. Three officials from the department of Urban Community Development of PMC, including deputy commissioner Laxman Rambhau Damse (Rameghprasad, Pradhikaran, Nigdi), assistant commissioner Pradeep Bhalchandra Naik, and junior engineer Ajay Dattatray Wayase (PMC colony, Ghorpade Peth) have been named in the complaint. The concerned contractor, Mahammad Sadiq Gafur Lukade (Prakash Colony, Gultekdi) has also been booked. Four teams of ACB officials also conducted raids on the residences of those booked and secret documents have been found at Lukade’s residence.

As per the ACB report, in 2004-05 the PMC passed a proposal to construct public toilets in ward number 35 and had also allocated Rs 10 lakh for the purpose. A re-estimate of Rs 9.50 lakh for the project was also prepared, to which the civic authorities had given a nod on November 30, 2004. After issuing tenders, the municipal authorities received bids from four private contractors. Amongst them, Lukade’s bid was the lowest and hence the project was handed over to him. An order to that effect was also issued and the work had to be completed within the stipulated period of 20 days, as per the contract. Lukade was required to make a contract on a Rs 1,450 stamp paper as well.

indianexpress:  Calling the hike in fares by the private bus operators during the festive season as arbitrary and unjustified, the Sahyog Trust has filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court seeking to appoint an independent committee to go into the price of tickets prior and during the holiday season and to framing of a policy stopping them from taking undue advantage through fare hikes.

The petition which has been filed by Balasaheb Anandrao Sarode says that during the festive season, private bus companies operating in the state and neighbouring states increase the ticket prices exorbitantly, as there is there is no restriction by the government.

It goes on to say that, “The ticket fares are increased by 50 to 100 pc during this period. No prior intimation is given to the passengers about the price hike. Because of the heavy rush in the trains, people are forced to travel by the buses operated by private companies.’’ The petition says the hike is despite the fact that many of the buses are suitably equipped for long distance travel as per the norms of Regional Transport Office (RTO).

The petitioner has demanded the appointment of an independent panel to examine the issue of price of tickets prior to the festive season, to collect the copies of the yearly audit report, to direct the RTO to file documents and information regarding the records of ‘passing’ of the buses from RTO, check the number of buses plying on the roads and also to pass appropriate orders considering the facts.

indianexpress:  Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar today said that the only people to benefit out of the repeal of Urban Land Ceiling and Regulation Act (ULCRA) would be the builders’ lobby and investors.
“The act was good for the people but the government could not enforce the Act,” she said.

Patkar said the land acquisition was an issue until now in the villages, but now it is an urban issue as well. She said that the repeal was a covert way to take land away from the poor. “Maximum people live in the slums and they provide basic services to the city. The government has responsibility to rehabilitate them, but they have never done that,” she said.

She said after the repeal of the law allocation of land to the poor would become difficult as it will lead to increasing the population of the landless.

“If this happens we will fight against it and will take our land back,” said Patkar. Bhai Vaidya, former state home minister and founder of Samajwadi Jan Parishad said that land for the poor was available when his government was in power.

techtree: Asus India has kick-started its formal initiative to enter the PDA market with the launch of two new PDA phones — M530w and P526.

The new M530w is a 3G smart phone with QWERTY keypad, 2.0 mega pixels auto-macro camera, and built-in business card recognition and built-in ClearVue document viewer.

The built-in business card recognition feature allows users to use the camera to capture the details of a business card; while the ClearVue document viewer enables users to read Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF documents.

Weighing 135g, the phone sports a 2.4-inches TFT display with 320 x 240 resolution, and has a built-in flash memory of 256 MB plus 64 MB SDRAM.

Operating on Windows Mobile 6 standard operating system, the M530w offers ActiveSync feature, using which, users can easily transfer data from the phone to a server. So in case of theft or loss, users can retain the account number, and transfer stored data onto another phone.

The Bluetooth-enabled M530w also supports Push E-mail, and can simultaneously receive mails from the office Outlook mail server. It supports various mail server systems such as POP3, IMAP4, Microsoft Exchange, BlackBerry4.0, thus enabling users to stay connected even when abroad.

techtree: Dell has launched the new XPS M1530, a sleek 15.4-inch notebook (NB) in the country.

Featuring a built-in 2.0 mega pixels Webcam and biometric fingerprint reader, the XPS M1530 weighs less than six pounds, and has a trim 1-inch profile.

Customers have the option of personalizing their systems with Intel Core 2 Duo Processors, Windows Vista editions, up to 4GB Dual Channel 667MHz DDR2 memory, and Nvidia’s 256MB GeForce 8600M GT or 128MB GeForce 8400M GS graphics cards.

The XPS M1530 sports a high definition wide-screen 15.4-inch display, and features slot-load optical drive, DirectX 10 capable graphics, and touch-sensitive media buttons.

In addition, the NB also features dual-monitor and picture-in-picture capability, and optional Blu-ray Disc drive with HDMI. The Blu-ray disc drive has noise cancellation ear buds, and travel remote stored in the ExpressCard card slot.

With the MediaDirect and Instant Office technology, users can get fast one-button access to music, movies, and pictures, as well as calendar items and contacts, without booting-up the system.

For easy data transfer, the XPS M1530 includes an 8-in-1 media card reader, USB drives, and Bluetooth. It offers standard Wi-Fi wireless networking.