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TOI : * Narendra Jadhav’s father, a Class IV worker with the Bombay Port Trust, was semi-literate, his mother not even that. Jadhav grew up in a Mumbai slum, his formal education started at an unremarkable municipal school and culminated in a PhD in economics from a US university. He rose to become chief economist and principal adviser at the Reserve Bank of India, and is now vice-chancellor of Pune University — the same city where his Dalit ancestors were forced to leave before sundown and sweep their own polluting shadow with a broom

* Nirjharini Bhattacharjee swept the corridors of her school and cleaned the cups to pay her fees and feed her family. She was an exceptionally bright child and her teachers encouraged her to keep at her studies. She grew up to join Rishi Bankim College in Naihati, West Bengal, did her Master’s, and cleared the National Eligibility Test (NET), qualifying as a lecturer. Today, she is principal of her college, and thinks nothing of picking up a broom or wiping the blackboard clean

* E Balaguruswamy was born to a small farmer in a hard-up Tamil Nadu village. Their home had no electricity, but it did have a precious supply of candles, which the young boy used up to study late into the night. He became vice-chancellor of Anna University, is currently a member of the Union Public Service Commission and the author of several best-selling books on software languages

* Vilind Shah’s lot was similar to Balaguruswamy’s, only far worse. Born into an impoverished farming family in Amreli, Gujarat, he went blind at three, was sent to a special school and would probably have lost his way but for the kindness of a gentleman who noticed the boy’s potential and paid for him to go to college in Mumbai. Shah is now a professor of history at the University of…More

TOI : PUNE: Cases of female foeticide are still being reported from various parts of the country, but the adoption scene in Pune has a different story. More and more parents are keen to adopt baby girls, as statistics of various adoption centres reveal. As if this is not enough, there are waiting lists at the centres here.

Roxana Kalyanvala, director of Bharatiya Samaj Seva Kendra (BSSK), says, “We have always taken a larger number of girls since the time we started working, but that was because we had a bigger number of girls coming into the centre.” However, there has been a notable increase in families wanting to adopt a girl child in the past couple of years, the number being almost on a par, if not more, with boys, she adds.

“This change can be attributed to the young and educated working class who are making decisions more independently without any family pressure. Also, the fact that girls are said to be warmer, more caring and sensitive as compared to boys only influences their decision,” says Maina Shetty, assistant director of BSSK.

Shetty also speaks about how the number of girls coming into the centre has decreased significantly over the past year. “Today, we have more boys than girls in our centre,” she says.

It has been four months since teacher Sonali Rode registered with BSSK. And she is firm on adopting a girl child as the first one. “Girls are more loving and caring and, of course, I like girls,” she smiles.

Rode has the support of her husband and father-in-law who, she says, took some time to accept the idea. “We have been asked to wait for a year as there is a long waiting list but I’m fine with it. During the year, we will learn how to take care of a child and will attend…More

TOI : PUNE: With an aim to promote astronomy among school children, Navnirmiti, an educational trust will be distributing ‘astro kits’ in city schools. The project is a part of UNESCO’s International Year of Astronomy, to be celebrated in 2009.

Navnirmiti, a Mumbai-based trust, had launched a similar campaign in Mumbai and has now have shifted its focus to Pune. They plan to cover over 1,000 schools across the country. Navnirmiti is currently holding talks with a few educational institutions in the city to take up the project in schools. Once the talks are over, the kits will be distributed in January, followed by a special workshop for teachers.

Speaking to TOI, Vivek Monterio, head of Navnirmiti, said, “This project is one of our core activities. We want to introduce astronomy to the common people in a very simple, yet, effective way. The project will also focus on encouraging more and more girls to take up astronomy with our ‘She is an Astronomer’ initiative.”

The astro kit, which will be distributed in schools, will have four to five simple experiments that will contain an activity card with instructions on how to conduct the experiments. The kit mainly consists of a simple mirror, lens kit, mount stand, solar filter and punch cards. The punch cards will explain the procedure and will be available in Marathi and English. The cards’ language will change as the project travels to other parts of the country.

Instruments in the astro kit are mainly no-cost or low-cost equipment available in our surroundings, for instance, a simple plastic ball has been used to represent the globe and instead of using a tripod, a circular ring has been used to rest the ball.

Geeta Mahashabde, director, Math programme, Navnirmiti explained, “The aim of introducing no-cost or low-cost equipment is to make these experiments available even to the under-privileged. We…More

TOI : PUNE: It is six months since the implementation of the civic budget 2008-09 and the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has earned only Rs 830.09 crore against the targeted revenue of Rs 1,110.50 crore.

This means that the civic body, with a total annual budget of Rs 2,221 crore, has managed to collect 37.37 per cent revenue so far. And it has made it clear that it would not be possible to meet the target in the next six months either.

In a detail report evaluating the financial condition of the civic body, chief accountant Virendra Jadhavrao has categorically mentioned that considering the revenue deficit in the first six months, the administration would not be able to meet the target in the second half of the financial year. According to the civic administration, the annual revenue deficit as per today’s estimate is Rs 229.24 crore.

Even as the administration is blaming the global meltdown for the losses, the fact sheet presented by the chief accountant shows that the civic body has failed to collect water and property taxes efficiently. The expected revenue through water tax for the year 2008-09 is Rs 160 crore.

But only Rs 18.56 crore, i.e. 11.60 per cent of the total expected revenue, has been collected. Against the annual target of Rs 380.25 crore through property tax, the PMC has collected only Rs 147.63 crore.

The annual budget revenue side shows Rs 200 crore loan component and this week, the civic body has decided to take a loan of Rs 76 crore to from Bank of Maharashtra to complete important projects including road, water and sewage treatment plant.

Only development charges and building permission charges have crossed the 50 per cent of the total target. The total development and building permission charges in the budget are Rs 270 crore. By September-end, the civic administration…More

TOI : PUNE: With the state marketing department’s idea of setting up an agriculture convention centre on the agriculture college ground here getting final shape, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) will be forced to look for alternative land for the main station of the proposed metro railway.

TOI had reported (on September 7) that the state marketing department was planning Maharashtra’s first-ever agriculture convention centre on agriculture grounds, the place where main the metro station was planned.

Talking to reporters at Congress Bhavan on Thursday, marketing minister Harshavardhan Patil said, “The final report on the convention centre is expected within a month. Already a meeting was held, in the presence of the agriculture minister, with agriculture college officials and members of the Mahatma Phule Agriculture University, Rahuri, under which the college falls. The university senate will approve the proposal and then it will come to the government.”

Now, the PMC will be forced to look for an alternative place for the main metro station. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), in a report submitted to PMC, had asked for the commercial exploitation of the agriculture college land, where the land prices are already soaring. The DMRC has recommended that the main station for the Pune metro be set up on this spot to make the project viable.

The proposed route of the metro has a crossing at the agriculture college, from where the rail will go to Nigdi, Warje, Hadapsar, Wagholi, Hingewadi and Katraj.

“The land belongs to farmers and it should be utilised for farmers’ benefit. The agriculture college has made some proposals regarding the land. They have proposed that the marketing department should construct a 10,000 sq.ft. building and give it to the college for use. Another proposal was on leasing the land. A final decision would be taken only after the final report is in place,” said Patil….More