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TOI : PUNE:Central Railway (CR) has announced the cancellation of L18 Up and L13 Dn localsdue to direct current-alternative current conversion work on December 22 and23.A statement released hereby CR public relations officer Y.K. Singh said that the L18 Up Pune-Lonavlalocal leaves Pune at 13.00 hrs and L13 Dn Lonavla-Pune local leaves Lonavla at14.00 hrs.The statement alsosaid that additional trains will run between Hazrat Nizammudin and Vasco-Da-Gamato help clear the rush on the eve of Christmas and the newyear.The train 0464 HazratNizammudin (NZM)-Vasco-Da-Gama will depart on December 22, 15 and 30.The departure from NZM will beat 11.15 hrs and the train will arrive at Mathura at 13.15 hrs, Kota 17.00 hrs,Ratlam 22.15 hrs, Vadodra 2.30 hrs, Vasai road 8.55 hrs, Kalyan 10.50 hrs, Pune14.10 hrs, Miraj 20.30 hrs, Belgaum 23.10 hrs, Londa 00.15 hrs, Madgaon 4.50 hrsand Vasco at 6.00 hrs.Thetrain 0463 Vasco-NZM will depart from Vasco on December 22, 24, 27 and January1. The departure will be at 23.00 hrs and the train will arrive at Madgaon at23.50 hrs, Londa 2.20 hrs, Belgaum 3.45 hrs, Miraj 8.10 hrs, Pune 15.00 hrs,Kalyan 19.05 hrs, Vasai road 19.50 hrs, Vadodra 2.25 hrs, Ratlam 6.55 hrs, Kota10.10 hrs, Mathura 15.00 hrs and NZM at 18.00 hrs….More

indianexpress: The Pune Rural Police arrested on Thursday two army soldiers and four accomplices for stealing two 52-inch long elephant tusks from a showcase inside the officer’s mess of the Mechanised Infantry Regimental Centre (MIRC) in Ahmednagar.

The incident has put a question mark over the security at army units. The police said the MIRC army personnel were unaware of the theft as the suspects had replaced the tusks with plaster of Paris duplicates. The soldiers were on their way to sell the tusks for about Rs.3 crore by a Tata Sumo when the police nabbed them near Shikrapur. They were identified as Rajivan P.V. Kannan Iringal (35) and Rajesh Babu Balanna (28). Both were currently attached to the MIRC. Three weeks back, Anand Shivaji Aauti (35), a real estate player from Parner in Ahmednagar and the alleged kingpin behind the plot, offered Rs.40 lakh to the soldiers for the tusks.

The duo photographed the tusks using a mobile phone. Aauti and associate Raju alias Danny Mahavir Chavan (28) of Sainik Colony, Bhingar placed an order with sculptor Prakash Narayan Dhore (32) of Amravati for PoP replicas.

After repeated attempts, the soldiers opened the showcase with a screwdriver in the wee hours of Thursday and replaced the tusks with the PoP ones. The soldiers, Aauti, Danny and Dhore rented a Tata Sumo from Bapu Dadabhau Pachankar (31) of Ranjangaon in Shirur taluka of Pune district. The six left for Shikrapur to sell the tusks.

indianexpress: Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) professor Ranjeev Misra has been selected as the Single Point of Contact in India for celebrations of the International Year of Astronomy, which is to be held in the year 2009.

The IYA, declared by the UN in its 62nd General Assembly meeting on Thursday, aims at generating international interest in the science of astronomy, to celebrate the first astronomical use of a telescope by Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei. As many as 93 nations and 14 organisations have signed up to be a part of the IYA, which will focus on making people realise the impact of astronomy and basic sciences in their daily lives and understand how scientific knowledge can contribute to a more equitable and peaceful society.

While the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has been selected as the lead agency for the IYA, the implementing agency is the International Astronomical Union (IAU) headed by Catherine Cesarsky. The national committee of the IAU will be headed by IUCAA scientist T Padmanabhan.

India, which has been declared as a national node, has a strong background in the study of astronomy and astrophysics, with various organisations like the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Astronomical Society of India (ASI) promoting scientific exploration and research into the field. However, despite many popularisation programmes, reaching out to the common man becomes difficult given the vastness and the unique socio-linguistic fabric of the country.

Thus in India, the emphasis will be on benefiting the underprivileged sections of the country. “In India we are focusing on bringing the excitement of new astronomical discoveries to students and the general public, especially those living in rural or semi-urban areas. The motivation is to create a scientific astronomical ethos among the people, which will augment our ancient cultural heritage to create a vibrant and modern society,” said Misra, who will coordinate the Indian initiative in the IYA.

indianexpress: Around 3.30 pm on Tuesday, when 52-year-old Ali Gulam Hapsi, an autorickshaw driver from Kasarwadi, developed severe chest pain, his family rushed him to the civic-run Yeshwantrao Chavan Memorial Hospital in Sant Tukaramnagar. There was more shock in store for the family as hospital doctors told them there was “no place in the intensive care unit.” The doctors then contacted the nearby private hospital where, too, ICU was full with patients.

Meanwhile, Ali vomitted twice and his condition worsened. He repeatedly complained of chest pain and uneasiness. The doctors then directed that Ali be taken to another private hospital in Chinchwad. Three kilometres into the drive, Ali began talking incoherently and suddenly breathed his last in the autorickshaw around 5.30 pm — two hours after he complained of chest pain. The doctors said he died of a heart attack. “We had to move from one hospital to another. My father was talking to us and did not look like he will die,” sobs 17-year-old Amrin. The family has lost its bread winner. Ali’s son is a school drop-out, searching for a job.

Ali’s death highlights the lack of adequate medical facilities, especially for the poor, in Pimpri-Chinchwad. Ali who earned barely Rs 3,000 every month after “remaining on the job for 24 hours” lived in one-room tenement in a chawl with wife and two children. His family said YCM hospital — run by the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation — was the only affordable hospital for them.

While the daily rates of ICU in YCMH is a maximum of Rs 350, in private hospitals the amount ranges between Rs 5,000-10,000. YMCH has 24 beds in two intensive care units. Hospital superintendent Dr Anand Jagdale said due extremely low ICU rates compared to private hospitals, there is heavy rush of patients to YCMH. “Patients who cannot afford ICU rates of private hospitals come to YCMH. The numbers keep swelling every day,” says Dr Jagdale. Dr Jagdale denied that there was paucity of ventilators as Ali’s family alleged that he was not given the facility.

indianexpress:  The DSK Group will join hands with Computer and Media Dealers Association (CMDA) to develop the city’s and probably the country’s first IT Hardware Park.
Announcing this while inaugurating the 10th IT expo on Thursday, DSK Group chairman D S Kulkarni said that this project will solve the long standing demand of the CMDA members to have a separate IT hardware Park in the city.

Kulkarni said the city which was becoming a major IT hub required a facility like this for taking care of it’s hardware needs. Speaking on the occasion, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Economic and Cyber Crime Wing) Sunil Phulari said that the growing rate of cyber crimes in the city was indeed an alarming sign for the new generation. He said the cyber cell of the Pune Police had established a committee which would sensitise and train school-children on the issue as they could help police in a bid to curb cyber crimes.

CMDA president Sunil Gugale and the convenor of the IT Expo Sheetal Nahar explained that CMDA Pune has grown over the years from a few members to 300 members and is now ISO9001:2000 certified IT Association. Computer dealers, distributors, system integrators, service providers are our esteemed members. These members control almost 90 per cent of computer hardware and consumables business in Pune.

The theme of this year’s exhibition is ‘Necessity to Lifestyle.’ “We have made an attempt to showcase not only Necessity IT gadgets but also IT lifestyle products for touch and feel for the visitors.”

indianexpress: The search for the right candidate for top administrative posts at the University of Pune is back on track again, with interviews for the posts of registrar and finance and accounts officer (FAO) scheduled next week. The important posts have been lying vacant for months as the search was abandoned after “suitable candidates” were not found.

The advertisements were issued on October 4. The interviews for registrar will be held on December 26, with 25 candidates scheduled to appear. Interviews for the FAO will be on December 24, with ten candidates shortlisted.

The registrar’s post fell vacant following the retirement of DD Deshmukh on September 11. Thereafter interviews had been held with 18 candidates on September 17, but all the applicants had been rejected on the grounds that they did not have sufficient experience for the post, which is second-in-command to that of the Vice Chancellor. As a result, advertisements for the post had to be issued afresh.

Interestingly, however, of the 25 candidates due to appear for second round on December 26, at least five had already appeared for interviews in September. The candidates include Sambhaji Pathare, Sanjay Mali, Nanasaheb Kapadnis and Vinchurkar.

Fresh candidates appearing for the interview include officiating registrar Sanjay Sonawane and deputy registrar Shivaji Ahire, among others.

indianexpress: The search for the right candidate for top administrative posts at the University of Pune is back on track again, with interviews for the posts of registrar and finance and accounts officer (FAO) scheduled next week. The important posts have been lying vacant for months as the search was abandoned after “suitable candidates” were not found.

The advertisements were issued on October 4. The interviews for registrar will be held on December 26, with 25 candidates scheduled to appear. Interviews for the FAO will be on December 24, with ten candidates shortlisted.

The registrar’s post fell vacant following the retirement of DD Deshmukh on September 11. Thereafter interviews had been held with 18 candidates on September 17, but all the applicants had been rejected on the grounds that they did not have sufficient experience for the post, which is second-in-command to that of the Vice Chancellor. As a result, advertisements for the post had to be issued afresh.

Interestingly, however, of the 25 candidates due to appear for second round on December 26, at least five had already appeared for interviews in September. The candidates include Sambhaji Pathare, Sanjay Mali, Nanasaheb Kapadnis and Vinchurkar.

Fresh candidates appearing for the interview include officiating registrar Sanjay Sonawane and deputy registrar Shivaji Ahire, among others.

indianexpress: Technology developed should reach the fields while productivity of the crop should be increased with reduction in cost of production, said Sudhirkumar Goyal, principal secretary, Cooperation and Marketing Government of Maharashtra at the Vasantadata Sugar Institute (VSI) at the inauguration of the national seminar on ‘fertigation in sugarcane’ on Thursday.

This seminar organised by the Directorate of Sugarcane Development, Lucknow and VSI on Wednesday and Thursday. Sharing her experiences on drip irrigation, Patricial Imas, India Coordinated International Potash, Israel she said that micro irrigation systems had helped in maximising water usage in Israel.

Experts agreed that lack of knowledge about technology was a hindrance in extension work.

techtree: Beta one of the next iteration of Internet Explorer (IE), IE 8, will be released in the first half of 2008, Microsoft has announced. The company assured users that its new version browser has been put through necessary tests to ensure it doesn’t ‘break’ the Web.

Titled ‘Acid2 Browser Test’, the tests are designed to demonstrate whether a browser is able to render a Web site in a certain way or not. In the event it is able to do so, the browser is certified as supporting of accepted Web standards.

Incidentally, Microsoft’s original version IE was developed before Web standards like CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and RSS (Really Simple Syndication) came into being. As such, older IE versions don’t support current Web standards.

Faced with growing competition from open-source browsers like Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft developed its last version IE (IE 7) a shade better than predecessors in terms of support for newer Web standards.

Then again, older versions of IE refused to work with IE 7. With IE 8, Microsoft hopes to address this concern.

An IE blog posting said Microsoft’s goal in developing IE 8 is to support the right set of standards with excellent implementations, and to do so without breaking the existing Web. The posting continued that the key design goal for IE 8 is compatibility with existing Web sites and Web standards supported in other browsers to provide a premium user experience.

techtree: Mozilla has released the Firefox 3 Beta 2 for download, solely for developers and testers.

Firefox 3 Beta 2 claims to include 900 improvements over the previous beta, such as fixes for- stability, performance and memory usage, and platform- and user interface- enhancements. Mozilla claims the improvements are based on community feedback received from the testing of beta 1 that was released in November.

Improved security features in Beta 2 promise protection from cross-site JSON data leaks, tighter restrictions on site-specific content using effective TLD service, better presentation of Web site identity and security, malware protection, more strict SSL error pages, anti-virus integration in the download manager, and version checking for insecure plug-ins.

Overall, Beta 2 promises further ease of use through better password management, easier add-on installation, download manager with resumable downloading, full page zoom, animated tab strip, and better integration with Windows Vista, Mac OS X, and Linux.

Refurbished customization tools, enhanced text and graphics rendering, and support for offline browsing along with Web-based protocol handlers are among other improvements in this beta.

Mozilla claims Linux users will appreciate the improved theme, which makes Firefox look more like a native GNOME application, and makes use of GTK+ icons where available.