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TOI : PUNE: An employee of the Lohegaon airforce station, Parmanand Prasad (46), was robbed of Rs 150 and a wrist watch at gunpoint by a co-passenger and the driver of the auto rickshaw he was travelling in at the Burning ghat road in Koregaon Park on Saturday.

According to the Bund Garden police, Prasad had taken a rickshaw from Lohegaon and alighted at Gunjan talkies. He was walking towards a bus stop to go to the Pune railway station, as he had to board a local train to Dehu, his residence.

A rickshaw driver called out to Prasad and urged him to board his vehicle, where a passenger was already seated. He took another passenger and moved towards Koregaon Park, instead of heading towards Pune station. On being questioned about the change of route, the driver and the co-passengers beat up Prasad, threatened him with a revolver and decamped with the booty.

Prasad has lodged a complaint and has given detailed descriptions of the suspects, who were in the age group of 25 to 28 years. Sub-inspector M.B. Suryavanshi is investigating the case.

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TOI : PUNE: If you thought Information Technology was happening in cities only, think again! The most happening career is now gaining ground in rural areas of the district. And guess who? Women are taking the lead, for a change.

Following their urban counterparts, large number of rural women are opting for computers as a career option. The recently conducted training programmes by Pune Zilla Parishad have shown that out of total applicants, near 25 per cent of women have opted for training related to computers.

Pune ZP’s Mahila Balkalyan department recently conducted these programmes to create self-employment and entrepreneurship initiatives among the womenfolks. Out of 2,465, more than 500 women opted for training courses in computer and information technology. The department is also initiating talks with various societies and state corporations for arranging loans for these women.

“As the use of computers is increasing in rural areas, the women with latest knowledge of computers have large employment opportunities in this area. The training has also provided them all the necessary information for commencement of self-employment and related services,” she added.

Besides IT courses, the women have also opted for fashion designing, beauty parlour, food processing and leather works. The courses in fashion designing recorded the highest attendance of more than 600 women following beauty parlour courses. More than 500 women have undergone training for beauty parlor courses. Adding to this, near about 40 women from tribal areas opted for ayurvedic medicine courses. A course in food processes, which was introduced recently has received response from 160 women.

“After the completion the training programme the department is planning to provide various loan schemes to women. Talks have been initiated with various societies in this regard. We are also providing loans under different corporations run by the state government,” said Sunita Gawade, chairman of Balkalyan Vibhag.

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TOI : PUNE: Throwing Information Technology (IT) time-tables out of gear, cab drivers in the city on Monday went on a day-long strike, held to voice the grievances of call centre cab drivers.

“More than 8,000 drivers did not go to work today. The strike was successful. The intention behind this was to make the authorities aware of the problems faced by the driver,” Nana Kshirsagar, president of the Maharashtra Call Centre Chalak Malak Sanghatana, told TOI.

Kshirsagar added that transportation of more than 30,000 IT employees in the city were affected. Around 150 companies suffered due to the strike, he said. Drivers who own their own cabs, also took part in the strike.

The sanghatana claims that call centre drivers are not getting their due from cab owners and company authorities.

Compared to the work they do, they are paid very little.

The effect of the 12-hour strike was felt most at the major IT hubs at Hinjewadi, Magarpatta, Wakad and Nagar road.

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TOI : PUNE: A city-based anti-virus company will hold an international conference on anti-viruses and upcoming challenges to address the issues that are a major concern to the IT industry as well as for those who are using IT in their day-to-day functions.

The Association of AntiVirus Asia Researchers International Conference, an organisation working on anti-virus related issues, organises international conferences in various countries. This year, AVAR 2008 will be held in New Delhi between December 10 and 12. This is the first time that AVAR is being organised in India.

Speaking to TOI here on Monday Kailash Katkar, organiser of the conference, chief executive officer and managing director of Quick Heal said, “India is becoming the ‘world back office’ for IT companies operating in all parts of the world. Hence data security, information leakage, breaches into financial transaction are becoming major issues of concern.”

The conference focuses on technical papers from computer security researches covering anti-malware and computer security. Delegates from anti-malware researchers and security experts from government and military organisations, legal, financial and educational institutions and large corporations world-wide will be attending the event.
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TOI : PUNE: In a bizarre incident, unidentified miscreants tried to set ablaze three cars and five two-wheelers at the NIBM road on late Sunday night. The vehicles were parked at Natasha Enclave society here.

According to Pradeep Natrajan, a resident of the society, suspects made attempts to put the vehicles on fire at four different wings of the housing society. He said the suspects removed petrol from the vehicles, and poured it on clothes to set the fire.

Attempts were made at select vehicles at the parking lots. Fortunately, however, the fire did not spread, and not much harm was done. “Otherwise, the loss would have been enormous,” Natrajan said.

The matter was brought to the notice of the Kondhwa police. The police have asked the residents to be more vigilant. Print Save EMail Write to Editor Get personalised news s…More