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indianexpress: Even though the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) chairman Dr Pramod Deo last week predicted the possibility of the imposition of loadshedding in Pune in the near future, the reality is that Pune is already facing an undeclared laodshedding.

Untimely and sustained breakdowns and technical snags leading to power trips, which were earlier there only during summer months, are now a regular fixture right through the year.

A report by Prayas Energy Group had revealed that even though Pune is enjoying the status of being the ‘loadshedding free’ city thanks to the captive power project (CPP) initiated by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), in reality, there are about 20 sustained interruptions every month and on an aggregate there is no power supply in the city for about 11 hours each month.

“Even though Pune does not face any scheduled load shedding thanks to the ‘Pune Model’, the city consumers face 10-20 sustained interruptions (of four minutes and more) every month and do not have supply for about 11 hours every month,” said the report which came out in October.

Apart from the power tripping problems, the Prayas study also reveals that the voltage levels in Pune are often below MERC norms. “Even in central Pune (Deccan Gymkhana) voltage is often below MERC norms and for about 7 to 9 per cent time very low (i.e. below 195 Volts). This indicates that, apart from sufficient availability of power, proper maintenance and strengthening of local distribution network is essential to ensure good quality of supply,” the report says.

indianexpress: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has estimated Rs 90 crore as pending water charges from over 4,872 bodies in the city. The list of defaulters include 545 government bodies - defence establishments, district collectorate, Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited, Akashwani, Garrison Engineers and Central Railways. There are also 4,327 private or commercial establishments like hotels and lodges in the defaulters’ list.

In order to collect the dues, the water supply department of PMC has decided to embark upon a drive and serve notices to the defaulters, said deputy chief engineer of PMC water supply department, Rajkishor Supekar.

“For a regular domestic water connection, two per cent of taxable amount is charged in the property tax bills. But for extra residential water connections, the charges are collected as per the water usage recorded on the water meters, which is Rs 5 per kilo litre. For a metered connection of a commercial establishment, it is Rs 21 per kilo litre. In Pune, there are 57,000 metered water connections out of which the dues worth over Rs 90 crore are from 4,8,72 establishments.”

“Amongst the defaulters, there are 545 government establishments. They include, prominent organisations like the defence establishments, district collectorate, Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited, Akashwani, Garrison Engineers, Central Railways, among others. Out of the total dues, 80 per cent are to come from these government establishmnents,” he said.
 

indianexpress:  The city could get its first rooftop helipad soon. Devi Construction Co and the Aditya Birla Memorial Hospital (ABMH) from Pune are among 10 institutions in the country that have recently sought permission from the civil aviation ministry to set up rooftop helipads.
As of now two that have rooftop heliports in the city are Essar Group and Taj Wellington Mews, both in Mumbai.

Incidentally neither of the two institutions currently own a helicopter. However while in the case of ABMH, the Birla Group does own choppers which will probably be pressed into service in Pune, Baney said he intends to purchase one as soon as plans fall into place.

“We sent in our application asking permission for a rooftop helipad a few months ago and it’s still pending with the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). They have reverted to us with some technical queries regarding the feasibility of setting up the heliport. We hope to answer them soon so that thematter can progressfurther,’’ said M H Upadhyaya, COO ABMH. According to Upadhyaya, other than the emergency medical services required by the hospital, the move for permission was made also keeping in mind the boom in medical tourism in the city.

“There are a lot of foreigners coming to Pune for treatment. This facility would greatly benefit those who’d like to come directly here from the Mumbai airport and do not want to take the road or rail route,’’ he added.

Devi Construction on the other hand has chosen to seek permission purely for the novelty aspect of it and for the fact that the move will add yet another luxurious dimension to housing for rich and famous in Pune. The rooftop helipad if approved will come up on top of their residential project coming up near Empress Garden.

indianexpress: Interdisciplinary courses are a must to take India forward, said former director of CDAC Vijay Bhatkar at the fifth convocation ceremony of the Deccan Post Graduate and Research Institute in Yerwada today.
“For a theory, I can draw conclusions from linguistics, archaeology and anthropology. We must develop courses where students can learn all of these together. The stress on separate disciplines must go,” said Bhatkar, speaking to the media later.

He added that it was important for science and technology students to study humanities. “If we are solving problems of the society, which has roots in philosophy and culture, we need to create holistic and integrated solutions. Hence separate disciplines will be of little help,” he said.

Bhatkar said, “inter disciplinary courses are available in other countries, but India is lagging behind in this area, especially in using computational tools with academics. “In archaeology super computers are used for surveying the sites which are processed and later deconstructed. Thus, archaeology students need to understand the computational tools as well,” he said.

The college has also orgranised a three-day seminar to mark the birth centenary year of renowned archaeologist Prof H D Sankalia from Monday. The inauguration of the birth centenary seminar of Prof H D Sankalia was also held. The seminar will review the recent research and methodological trends in Indian archaeology. Among the theories that are expected to be discussed and debated include origin of man and the history of agriculture in India.

indianexpress: The Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Panabaka Lakshmi, on Monday said there was a need to work out a methodology for scientific validation of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and Homoepathy) systems so that they get deserving recognition all over the world. She was speaking at the valedictory function of the three-day national conference on naturopathy at the National Institute of Naturopathy (NIN) here.

The development of AYUSH systems in India since Independence has been phenomenal and the government has been extending support to help its growth and development, she said while addressing the seminar organised by NIN. “The holistic nature, accessibility and affordability make AYUSH systems unique. The broad support policy extended by the government has ensured the organised development of all these six systems of health care based on their individual merits and strengths,” Lakshmi added.

“The UPA government has accorded high priority to the health sector in its Common Minimum Programme. The launch of the mission has been very significant for AYUSH systems as one of the objectives of the CMP is mainstreaming of AYUSH systems for the effective provision of the health care to the masses,” the Minister said.

Under NHRM, AYUSH doctors and facilities are being introduced in PHCs and CHCs throughout the country. The availability of AYUSH facilities in PHCs and CHCs would ensure that the entire range of medical facilities would be available to the public and to the poor in particular. The mainstreaming of AYUSH in the health care system will have a significant impact on the health status of the people.

indianexpress: Students of the School of Fashion Technology (SOFT) of Maharshi Karve Stree Shikshan Sanstha bagged an award of Rs 3.5 lakh at a fashion competition organised by Westside. The competition held at the State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) ground saw nine colleges participating, a press note stated. The winning team of SOFT included of Roma Desai, Alisan D’Souza, Swati Shetye, Chitkala, Shabana, Saloni Sardesai, Anchal and Revati. Dhanvi Dave was choreographer of this team.
 
The students expressed thanks to Principal of SOFT Manju Hundekar, director Jayant Kelkar and secretary Ravindra Deshpande for their support and guidance.

techtree: IBM has launched the POWER6 in India, claimed to be the world’s fastest computer processor chip.

IBM India and South Asia Director, Systems and Technology Group, Shashi B Mal, said with this launch, the company’s System p570, which is touted as the world’s most powerful mid-range consolidation machine, and its bladeCenter JS22 servers that are powered by the new chip — both — will be available in India.

POWER6 features virtualization capabilities, and is the latest addition to IBM’s ‘Project Big Green’. The chip is claimed to enable unparalleled power savings on mid-range servers through dynamic re-allocation of resources, power, and cooling benefits.

According to IBM, POWER6, at 4.7 GHz, is twice as fast as POWER5, but uses nearly the same amount of electricity as POWER5 to run and cool.

Which means customers can use the new processor either to increase their performance by 100 percent, or lower their power consumption by 50 percent.

techtree: Here’s some good news for all those aspirants who could not make it to the IIT class room for one reason or the other.

Starting January 2008, IIT-B (Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay) is planning to launch a virtual classroom, where live lectures will be broadcast online through Edusat, the satellite service catering exclusively to the field of education.

The service will also enable engineering students from other colleges to access IIT-B lectures, plus interact with resident teachers at IIT-B.

IIT-B and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to transmit lectures to any of the 1,500 engineering colleges in the country, who are keen to access the service.

In addition, these lectures will be made available to institutions in south-east Asian countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, or Bhutan by tuning in to the same frequency.

As a virtual classroom, IIT-B has set up a studio inside the campus, which has all the facilities required for up-linking lectures to Edusat, which can transmit them to others.

Engineering colleges will have to fit receivers costing approximately Rs 3.20 lacs in their campuses to enable students to sit for lectures.

techtree: Nuance Communications, a leading supplier of speech, text input, and imaging solutions, has announced availability of T9 text input software in Hinglish.

The T9 Hinglish software offers advanced alphabetic input prediction in Hinglish to help mobile phone- and PDA- users quickly write SMS text messages, mobile instant messages, and wireless emails in a language popular with the youth of the country.

With Hinglish T9, it becomes easy to type-in Hinglish words while composing SMS messages. Hinglish T9 is the first T9 mixed-language database, that consists of tens of thousands of Hindi words transliterated into Latin script, as well as a vast English word list.

Incidentally, T9, which is a leading alphabet-based and Chinese, Japanese, and Korean character-based messaging software, was originally developed by Tegic Communications, which was acquired by Nuance Communications in August this year.

A demo and early release of Hinglish T9 is available for licensing to handset makers