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TOI : Old and rusted bicycles gathering dust in building compounds, colonies, police stations or government offices are a common sight. This piece of moulded metal may have become ‘junk’ for those who have graduated to motor vehicles but, there still exists a section in our society for whom bicycles remain an unaffordable need.

Launching a novel project to help such people as well as promote environment-friendly means of transport, city NGOs Vidhayak, Pune Cycle Pratishthan and Ninad Sanstha declared the ‘Cycle to be recycled’ project on June 5, World
Environment Day.

Turning this junk into operational machines, these organisations will act as mediators between those who can give away old bicycles and those who need them the most. The idea is to have a network that can facilitate proper and prompt usage of old cycles by the underprivileged.

The project idea was conceived by the members of Vidhayak, a city-based NGO, when they were surveying different pockets in the city. “We observed that a lot of old cycles were lying obsolete in housing societies and police stations,” says Anand Saraf, founder member of Vidhayak.

This is when Saraf made use of the Right to Information (RTI) Act and sought information on the number of cycles lying unused in police stations and there were some startling revelations. “We realised that these cycles lie in police stations for two to three years or even more, and are sold as scrap for a pittance. For instance, the Khadak police station sold 20 old cycles just for Rs 2,500,” says Saraf.

tence, in order to avoid such bad transactions it makes more sense to sell old cycles as soon as possible. “It will be an environmentally friendly affair and the police stations will also be able to earn better returns,” he adds.

The NGO’s members are now co-ordinating with various schools,…More

TOI : PUNE: Buoyed by a new syllabus and the accompanying changes like 20 marks weightage to oral exam, internal assessment and objective queries, the state registered an overall pass percentage of 77.35 per cent in the higher secondary certificate (HSC, Class XII) examination held in March.

The pass percentage goes up even further to 89.96 if the performance by the maiden batch of the HSC new course, which was introduced from academic year 2007-08, is to be solely considered.

The overall result, which was declared on Saturday by Maharashtra State Board for Secondary and Higher Secondary Education chief Vijaysheela Sardesai, provided a 13.1 per cent improvement over the March, 2007 exam when the state’s pass percentage was 64.24 per cent.

Kalyani Bhagwant Joshi of the Mahatma Gandhi junior college, Ahmedpur in Latur district, emerged the overall state topper by securing 594 out of total 600 marks getting an astonishing 99 per cent score. She also topped among girls and in the bifocal stream.

Monika Dhoke of Brijlal Biyani science college, Amravati, took the second position with 97.50 per cent while the third spot went to Madhura Sanjay Mulmule of the Shri Shivaji science college, Nagpur. Madhura scored 97.33 per cent and also topped the science stream.

In the backward class category, Shefali Baba Meshram of the Shivaji science college emerged state topper with 96.33 per cent marks while Anjum Yusufmiya Sayyad of Dayanand arts college, Latur topped the commerce stream with 92.50 per cent marks.

Nikita Lokesh Somani of the Pratibhaniketan junior college at Holi in Nanded district topped the minimum competence vocational course (MCVC) stream with 90 per cent marks.

The impact of changes introduced along with the new course reflected in the vastly improved showing in key subjects like english and science. Of the total 8.67 lakh pass students, 92 per cent cleared the…More

TOI : PUNE: The revised fuel prices were implemented in the city from Saturday. According to dealers, petrol and diesel will cost Rs 54.98 and 38.86 respectively, while prices of Power and Speed petrol will be Rs 59.08 per litre. An LPG cylinder for domestic use will cost Rs. 334.43.

A steep hike in the prices of petroleum products were announced by the Union government on Wednesday. However, the state government chipped in by waiving sales tax and octroi on petrol and diesel by 2 per cent and value added tax on LPG by 4 per cent.

Even though the reduction in octroi was announced by the state government on Thursday, the citizens were not benefited with it as the commodities were not available at the revised prices till Friday.

According to the dealers, the benefit was not passed on to consumers as they were waiting for the official communication in that regard from oil companies. …More

TOI : PUNE: Disappointed with your class XII result? No need to worry. Now you can improve your scores, albeit you have just one chance to make it possible.

The Maharashtra state board for secondary and higher secondary education has announced a Class Improvement Scheme (CIS) — effective from the results of the first batch of the new course — that would enable a student to improve his/her HSC aggregate score.
Students who have cleared all their subjects in a single attempt in the March 2008 examination will now get “a chance and that too in the immediate exam i.e. the supplementary exam in October”, to reappear in all subjects for improving their aggregate score. The scheme would be applicable on a similar pattern to all the subsequent exams conducted by the state board. Those opting for the scheme would have the option of keeping the best marklist of the two, said Vijaysheela Sardesai, chairperson of the state board, on Saturday.

Till date, an HSC student did not have the benefit of reappearing for the same subject, which he/she had cleared. They could appear in sporadic and isolated subjects other than those already cleared by them.

Sardesai said the need for CIS was felt out of the growing opinion among various stakeholders in higher secondary education that a student’s performance cannot be judged by way of mere two to three-hour exam at the end of the academic year. …More

TOI : PUNE: Sumedh Satish Ranade of Fergusson College, Pune, and Pavitra Nityanand Shetty of Pemraj Sarda junior college, Ahmednagar, emerged joint toppers in Pune division by securing 574 out of 600 marks for 95.67 per cent score in the higher secondary certificate (HSC, class XII) examination held in March.

Sumedh also topped the bifocal stream, while Pavitra took the first position among girls in Pune division. The division, which covers Pune, Solapur and Ahmednagar districts, registered an overall pass percentage of 81.46, which was the best among all the eight divisions of the Maharashtra state board for secondary and higher secondary education.

Of the over 1.66 lakh students (old as well as new course), who appeared in the exam, more than 1.35 lakh were declared passed in the division, M.R. Kadam, chairman of Pune divisional board, told reporters on Saturday. The overall result was a 10 per cent improvement over last year’s pass percentage of 71.09.

Pune may have had the best overall result in the state, but the same cannot be said in terms of the performance by students from the maiden batch of the new course introduced from 2007-08. The success on this front was still high at 89.72 per cent, but it was bettered by Latur with 90.7 pass percentage and Aurangabad with 89.86 percentage.

The high scoring performance was fuelled by the changes like internal assessment, orals, practicals and objective questions, introduced along with the new course. Of the 1.66 lakh students, 1.45 lakh belonged to the new course batch and 1.30 lakh cleared the exam.

Notably, the performance of the new course students from Ahmednagar and Solapur districts was far better than Pune district. While Ahmednagar’s success rate was 93.17 per cent, Solapur’s was 93.18 per cent.

The overall second position in the division went to Tanzeema Gulam Patel of Abeda Inamdar junior…More