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indianexpress: As Monday dawned, city’s famous Kayani bakery stood silent and deserted, an aberration from its customary throng of clientele. Even as disappointed customers turned away, shocked at the sight of the shut doors, production work inside the bakery had resumed with an unusual vigour. Unusual as instead of the regular melee of workers it was the six partners of the bakery that donned the baker’s cap. Clearly it was a desperate attempt to salvage pride at the 55-year-old business establishment that’s been rocked by strained labour relations.

“Of the 47-strong workforce, 38 members of the Kayani Bakery Kamgar Sanghatana have refused to turn up for work, demanding that we take three suspended workers back. We have trained them in this art, and now backed into a corner, we have no option but to manage the production ourselves,” said Rustom Kayani, one of the partners in the midst of working in the oven.

With Christmas approaching, the bakery that has Rs 4 crore turnover will be facing a crisis like never before. “Our daily production, on an ordinary day is 1200-1300 cakes and 200-250 kg biscuits and peaks on Saturdays at Rs 1.5 lakh. During Christmas and the New Year, our sales double,” said Pervez Kayani, the partner who handles the finances of the bakery. “However, with this standoff, we can manage only 700-800 cakes today,” he added.

“It is highly improbable that we will be able to sustain our profit levels,” lamented Rustom Kayani adding, “The workers’ refusal to work seems preplanned, with the festive season approaching, as they feel that they wield the bargaining power. While our doors are always open to them, we will not give in to unjustified demands.”

indianexpress: While political parties in the Pune Municipal Corporation are at loggerheads over construction of flyovers by the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation, the civic administration has proposed that all roads in the city that are with the Public Works Department of the State Government be taken over.

“PMC is unable to provide basic amenities on its various roads as adjoining roads are under the control of PWD. Basic amenities can only be provided if all the roads are with PMC,” civic administration said in its proposal tabled before the City Improvement Committee (CIC) meeting scheduled on Tuesday.

The roads proposed to be taken over from the PWD include: internal roads in Police Colony at Swargate, Jail Colony in Yerawada, Maharashtra Housing Board, PWD Colony, Alandi Road from Shivajirao Bhosale Bank to Videsh Sanchar Nigam office, Road connecting Fatimanagar to Dhobighat, road going towards Ganpatimatha in Warje, part of Nagar Road and road from Hadapsar flyover to PMC limits.

In its proposal, the civic administration said that many roads in the PMC jurisdiction were with the PWD and it was not possible for the civic body to lay water pipelines, drainage lines and remove encroachments on these roads.

The poor infrastructure was also hampering the PMC efforts to provide similar services on the adjoining roads with the PMC, it said.

indianexpress: In a rare good news for the citizens, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has decided to revamp the entire water supply system in the city with water auditing to be carried out every six months to ensure optimum use.

“PMC does not have detailed information on the status of its pipeline network and also no exact data related to loss of water through leakages or theft. Now, tenders have been invited from consultants to revamp the entire water supply system of the city and carry out six-monthly water auditing,” PMC Development Engineer (Water Works) V G Kulkarni told The Indian Express.

The PMC will prepare a proposal based on the report by the consultant and send it to the Union government for approval so as to carry out the work under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) umbrella.

The last date of submitting tenders for this critical project is January 20 and the civic administration plans to appoint the consultant by April 2008. The consultant has to submit the report by October end as the last date of submitting the proposal under JNNURM is December 2008.

Kulkarni said the consultant would have to carry out a detailed survey – from the source of water to the pumping station and then to the individual consumer, along with individual metering. As on date, the PMC has 3.5 lakh consumers, each supplied 250 litres of water. Against this, the norm is 150 litre per household.

indianexpress:   ITC Foods has launched a campaign against ‘Climate Change’ in the city. The ‘Sunfeast Hara Banao Environment Fest’ was unveiled by schoolchildren recently.
 
This year, the campaign aims to educate children about the cause and impact of climate change. In addition, the campaign seeks to educate children of small steps they can take to solve issues related to climate change. The one-day fair held in the city showcased projects by the students and included various inter-school environment based competitions like fancy dress, theme dance and quiz. The theme for the drawing competition held on the occasion was ‘ Save my earth’ and ‘I like green plants.’

Speaking on the occasion, Ravi Naware, divisional chief executive, ITC Limited – Foods Division said, “Sunfeast believes that children are the best harbingers of change and improvement in any society. Initiatives such as the Sunfeast Hara Banao Campaign are oriented towards our governing philosophy of responsibility towards the environment.”

The fourth edition of the Sunfeast Hara Banao Campaign aims to sensitise a large group of school children towards climate change and global warming, motivating them towards responsible action, stated a press note. In order to empower children with this knowledge, Sunfeast has tied up with TERI, a non-profit research institute, which over the years has been doing research on energy, environment and other related issues.

indianexpress: Three accidents claimed lives of three persons on different city roads in last two days. Police said all the three cases related to rash and negligent driving.

An unidentified driver has been booked by Wanavdi police for rash and negligent driving on the Pune-Solapur highway which led to the death of a pedestrian in a mishap in front of Armed Forces Medical College. Both the pedestrian and the driver are yet to be identified. The accident took place on Sunday.

In another accident on Sunday on the Pune-Mumbai highway, 60-year-old Bathalamma Bhandari, a resident of Chinchwad who was crossing the road, lost her life after being hit by a tanker. The Pimpri police arrested Amol Shankar Kadam (23), a native of Satara for rash and negligent driving, after Bhandari’s son Maruti Bhandari registered a complaint with them.

In another accident that occured in the wee hours of Monday morning at the Kharadi bypass road, motorcyclist Dynaneshwar Balappa Jadhav (30), a native of Solapur, lost his life after being hit by a dumper. Jadhav was riding his motorcycle towards Chandannagar when the accident occured.

indianexpress: WIPRO has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Maharashtra Institute of Technology, Pune to take its ongoing collaboration with the institution to the next level. This MoU is the first of its kind that Wipro is signing in Pune.

Wipro has chosen to partner with MIT, Pune as it is one of the premier engineering institutes in the country. The MoU envisages a set of planned activities and interactions addressing various stakeholders namely students, faculty and the management. These activities and interactions include faculty development programs, technical sponsorships and student workshops and many more. For instance, one of the programmes is a student workshop that is structured with the primary goal of emphasising on the importance of creative thinking that is paramount to succeeding in corporate world today.

Pradeep Bahirwani, vice-president (strategic resourcing) said, “The objective of this MoU is to build industry-academia relationship and empower students to gear up for the challenges of the corporate world.”

Prof Sharadchandra Darade (Patil), dean, MIT, Pune said, “In the present ever changing and fast growing global technological era, Collaborations / long term relationships with the most reputed in the industry and academia has paramount importance in the academic excellence of out-standing professional Institutes.”

Prof. P Subhramanyam, director (Industry Academia Collaborations), MIT, Pune said, “We are very proud and honored for developing a long term association with one of the world known esteemed organization, Wipro Technologies. It is the outcome of churning of the thoughts of the great visionary Azim Premji, chairman, Wipro Technologies.”

techtree: Logitech has unveiled its ClearChat Pro USB Headset featuring proprietary laser-tuned audio drivers, an audio equalizer switch, and a noise-canceling microphone.

The ClearChat Pro USB Headset connects to the PC through a USB port, producing high-quality digital audio, independent of the quality of the computer’s sound card.

The USB Headset is ideal for PC-Internet calling applications like Skype, as well as for listening to music, watching movies, or playing games on the PC.

The headset’s laser-tuned audio drivers make for high-performance audio in addition to comfort. The Logitech SoundSwitch equalizer is a headset-based switch that instantly optimizes audio performance for PC-Internet calling, music listening, and gaming.

According to Logitech, the PC calling mode accentuates the human voice while the music mode provides well-balanced sound, and the gaming mode enhances gaming audio, increasing the level of realism.

Controls are conveniently located on the headset, giving people quick access to volume and mute functions.

The adjustable noise-canceling microphone makes for a more personal fit, and has a flexible boom that easily adjusts to the desired distance from the mouth.

For added convenience, the microphone boom emits a soft, Red glow when muted so users can be sure no one else is listening-in while they speak.

techtree: Zumobi, previously known as Zenzui, has launched the beta version of its new zooming user interface (UI) and mobile widget platform.

With Web 2.0 functionality, Zumobi claims to revolutionize the way people access, retrieve, and share Web-based content on their mobile phones.

Zumobi presents a combination of widgets and visuals to help people navigate by zooming in and out to see more or fewer details. It also allows users to stay on top of the information they need throughout the day.

The beta version of Zumobi is available for phones running Windows Mobile 5 and 6, for the Blackberry, and for selected J2ME compatibility coming early in the second quarter of 2008.

The site will have content from over 75 mobile widgets or Tiles, including from launch partners such as Amazon.com, MTV Networks, Associated Press (AP), AccuWeather.com, Traffic.com, FlightStats.com, and OTOlabs.

Meanwhile, Zumobi has also unveiled a beta version of the Zumobi SDK (software development kit) for developers that will enable them create and showcase their own Tiles, as well as share and upload their Tiles to the Zumobi Gallery beginning Q1 2008.

technewsworld: Alltel Wireless (NYSE: AT)  has teamed up with SpinVox to launch a new service, Voice2TXT, that converts voice mail messages to text messages. The launch makes Alltel Wireless the first of the five largest U.S. carriers to offer its customers the ability to receive voice mail message in text form, the company said. Any Alltel Wireless customer with an SMS  (short message service)-capable phone can add the Voice2TXT service.

“Our customers will appreciate the fact that they no longer have to wait for the opportune time to listen to a voice mail,” noted Craig Kirkland, director of messaging and voice services for Alltel Wireless. “With Voice2TXT, our customers have an easier way to manage their voice mails via text messages when they are in a meeting, on the go, or anyplace where they cannot or do not wish to use traditional voice mail.”

Voice Still Available
In addition to letting customers store and forward converted voice mails as regular text messages, Voice2TXT still lets customers retrieve the original voice mail for audio playback.

SpinVox connects with the carrier — in this case, Alltel — at the voice mail platform.

“We receive the deposited voice mail as a WAVE file and begin an automated process of running the message through speech recognition filters and processors,” Tony Carter, a spokesperson for SpinVox, told TechNewsWorld.

reuters: Silicon Valley start-up Ribbit Corp on Monday unveiled a technology platform that will let developers put Web telephony in everything from business software to popular social network sites such as Facebook.

As well as planning to sell its own services directly to consumers in the first quarter, Ribbit said it is working with more than 600 outside developers who are using its technology to create their own voice applications.

Ribbit software serves as an interface between anything from Web sites, e-mail and instant messaging to mobile or regular phones. Developers do not need to be telephony experts to build services with Adobe’s Flash software, which works on most computers.

“A developer can take telephony out of our sandbox and bring it to where you live,” said Crick Waters, Ribbit’s vice president for strategy and business development.

For example, he said that about four developers are using Ribbit to build services that consumers could incorporate into their personal pages on Facebook, a popular online hangout. These services could let members make and log calls and check their voicemail in transcript form without leaving Facebook.