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TOI : PUNE: As the Dutch performer unveiled the biggest harp in circulation, the audience gasped in wonder. When she struck the first note, a hush fell over the store. Her hands moved gracefully across the 47 strings, her deep blue eyes darted from the notes to the strings, and her feet moved the pedals with a deftness that had to be seen to be believed.

Gwyneth Wentink, a 28-year-old harp player from The Netherlands, was in the city to perform at a popular bookstore on Thursday. “I am in India to introduce the audience to the harp and Western classical music,” she said, in a soft baritone, and the audience was more than enthusiastic, bombarding her with questions from the word go.

For someone who has been performing since the age of five, concerts have become a second nature to her. “I like live performances, where I can connect with the audience. Each concert is different, and I cannot classify which audience I have loved the most. But, I get the most satisfaction playing for intimate gatherings,” she said.

At the age of ten, Gwyneth performed for Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands. In 1998, she won the prestigious International Harp Competition in Israel, where she became the youngest contestant ever to win the competition at the age of 16. In 2002, she was awarded the The Netherlands-American Foundation Prize.

Despite all these achievements, she remains as unassuming as ever. “I am excited by Indian music. I recently got the opportunity to play with famous flautist Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia. We had George Brooks from the jazz background, and a tabla for accompaniment. It was a fabulous experience,” Gwyneth gushed.

Born to Dutch musician parents, she was excited by the harp from a young age. “When my excitement continued till the age of five, my parents finally relented and allowed me to…More

TOI : PUNE: Civic officials were favouring the Environ Protection Company Private Limited as consultants for the 24×7 water supply project though the company has been disqualified for not meeting tender conditions, alleged corporator Ujwal Keskar (BJP) during the general body (GB) meeting on Friday.

Keskar asked the officials whether the original tender for appointing consultants was shelved and re-tendering process had been initiated. He also questioned whether the Environ protection company had applied for the tender and was disqualified for not meeting the conditions.

Replying to the queries, civic water department head P.S. Nirbhavne said the re-tendering process has been initiated and that the department was in the process of scrutinising the tender applications. Nirbhavne also confirmed that the Environ had been disqualified.

“Why is the civic administration taking so long to appoint the consultant,” Keskar asked. “It has been three weeks now, since the tenders have been opened. Why isn’t the lowest bidder being appointed. Are they waiting to device means by which the Environ can be appointed despite being disqualified,” the corporator asked.

While the civic officials were unable to give satisfactory answers, Keskar alleged that the officials were in favour of the company although it was disqualified and that is why it was buying time to take a decision on the issue.

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TOI : PUNE: City mayor Rajlaxmi Bhosale will soon write a letter to Pune police commissioner Satyapal Singh drawing his attention to the rise in number of children seen begging on the streets.

During the general body meeting of the Pune Municipal Corporation on Friday, the Republican Party of India (Athavale faction) corporator Avinash Salve said that the number of small children begging on city roads has risen in the last few weeks. “I fear that these kids are being exploited by some groups. The city police should take serious cognisance of the same and the municipal corporation should communicate the feelings of elected representatives to the city police chief,” Salve said.

Mayor Rajlaxmi Bhosale supported the demand and assured the house that she will write a letter to the police commissioner in this regard. “This is a serious matter. I suspect that these children may be given drugs and kept hungry. It is deplorable,” she said.

Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janata Party corporator Jyotsana Sardeshpande demanded that the civic administration should initiate strict action against those PMC contractors who were dumping their construction material on footpaths and roads. “If civic work is given to contractors they use footpaths and roads to dump construction material. They have blocked many roads and the civic administration is turning a blind eye towards the problem,” she said.

City engineer Prashant Waghmare said that the department will conduct survey in this regard and initiate necessary action.

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TOI : PUNE: Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, on Saturday, said that Maharashtrians should be proud of their roots, but at the same time they should also think of the Maharashtrians working and living outside the state.

Pawar was delivering a speech after inaugurating the 10th Women’s Literary Meet organised by Suvarnajoyti Women’s Forum at Balgandharva Rang Mandir. “People in Maharashtra should be proud of being Marathis’, but at the same time they should remember that boys and girls from here also go to other parts of the country for jobs, and their security is important. We are responsible for their security,” he said without making any direct reference to Maharastra Navnirman Sena’s (MNS) campaign against North Indians.

It was also the first time when Pawar spoke publicly about the cancer that he’s been battling, and thanked Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw for suggesting corrective treatment to tackle the disease. “Doctors had told me that I had six months of time left. However, Kiran suggested a different treatment and medicine, despite doctors opposing the same I opted it and overcome the disease,” he said, adding that Kiran has helped save thousands of lives through her work in Biocon.

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw was felicitated at the women literary meet. In her speech she said that there was no need to worry because of the current recession. “There are good times and bad times. We should accept the recession like a challenge and win over it,” she said, adding that women have played a pivotal role in every walk of life and have contributed to the country’s development.

Pawar also spoke about women’s empowerment and said that there is a need to raise the level of literacy among women to fifty per cent. “We need to include rural women in the main flow of development. Women should get their share of development,” he said.

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TOI : PUNE: BJP leader Vikas Mathkari said on Saturday that the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) should expedite its process of mobilising resources like Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) and paid Floor Space Index (FSI) to overcome the financial crisis.

Mathkari said, “The PMC has fixed deposits of Rs 603 crore in various banks. The deposits of Rs 555 crore are refundable, and the civic body has to return the same to various contractors after completion of work. This means that the PMC is left with only deposits of Rs 48 crore.”

“The civic body is taking loans to complete many developmental works. Also, cash compensation is being offered to those whose land has been acquired for development. To avoid further pressure on civic coffers, the administration should remove hurdles in issuing TDRs and also the process of paid FSI should be initiated,” he added.

Mathkari also presented a report by PMC’s chief accountant explaining the revenue and expenditure side of the budget from April to November. While the civic body was expected to utilise Rs 830.24 crore on capital works till November 15, actual expenditure is Rs 586.14 crore which is only 44.12 per cent against the expected 62.50 per cent.

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TOI : PUNE: The 30th All India Conference of Linguistics will be held at the Deccan College Post Graduate and Research Institute from November 26 to 28. The conference is part of the golden jubilee celebrations of the Department of Linguistics. Besides the department, the conference will be jointly hosted by the Linguistic Society of India and the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore.

K.S. Nagaraja, head of Department of Linguistics, said, “Some of the most prominent linguistics across the country and those settled abroad will attend the conference. Scholars and alumni of the college and now settled in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and the US will also participate.”

So far, around 500 students have completed post graduation in Linguistics from the college and 150 scholars have obtained doctorate degrees.

Eminent scientist Vijay Bhatkar will inaugurate the conference while K. Rangan of the Linguistics Society of India and Udya Narayan Singh, director, the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore will be present for the conference.

Prof V.I. Subramaniam, honorary director, International Journal of Dravidian Linguistics, and a senior-most linguist, will be felicitated in recognition of his contribution for linguistics.

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TOI : PUNE: The Divisional Social Welfare Office, Pune division, has stated in a press release here on Thursday that it will supervise the scholarships, education fees and examination fees given to the reserved class college students in Pune, Satara, Sangli, Solapur and Kolhapur.

The supervision will be carried out from November 21 to November 27, Umakant Kamble, an officer with the divisional social welfare office said. The supervision will be conducted to cross-check if the amount sanctioned by the district social welfare office has been dutifully distributed.

The divisional office accused that many colleges have been charging fees to these students in spite of the directives issued by the office from time to time to not charge them any fees and use the amount from the fund.

The inspection squad will include officials from the divisional office, special district social welfare office and social welfare officials (Class I) and Zilla Parishad officials. In the statement, the divisional office has appealed to all colleges to co-operate with the members of the inspecting squad and produce the relevant information.

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TOI : PUNE: In a world where technology-based competition is increasingly becoming the norm, building indigenous technology capabilities will remain an article of faith, said deputy national security advisor Shekhar Dutt.

He was speaking during the inauguration of the two-day national conference of advances in armament technology on Friday, organised by the Armament Research and Development Establishment. Surendra Kumar, director, ARDE and A.M. Datar, convener, shared the dais.

The conference saw presentations on Aerodynamics and Structural and Ibore, External and Terminal Ballistics. Other subjects that were discussed include Launch Technology, Arming Fuze and Armament Electronics.

Pointing at the need of joining hands of defence sector and private sector, Dutta promoted wide ranging collaboration between public and private sector. He opined that it is more feasible to outsource defence research and development works to private sector.

“Private sector needs to step up their R&D expenditure and also create infrastructure conductive for development and production of defence components, sub-systems and systems,” Dutt said, adding “The interaction between R&D institutes with technology users in the armed forces needs to be further strengthened. In fact, a synergy need to be strengthened between services, DRDO and Indian industry for putting in place an independent, competent and market oriented research. This will immediately increase the possibility of viable and desirable upgrades of equipment already in use of the Armed Forces.”

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TOI : PUNE: The Pravara Institute of Medical Sciences, Loni, and the University of Pune have joined the Erasmus Mundus External Co-operation Window Lot 15 (EMECW15), designed to fund higher education and student and teaching staff mobility between 12 European universities and eight Indian universities. As many as 301 scholarships will be offered to Indian students under this programme aimed at strengthening co-operation between India and Europe at the academic level.

Besides aiding mobility of students and academic staff for studying, teaching, training and research, the programme also aims at enhancing international co-operation between higher educational institutions, paving the way to international recognition of studies and qualifications and enhancing the role of higher education sector by exchanging knowledge, skill and expertise.

Under the scheme, a total of 301 scholarships will be offered to Indian students and academic staff undergraduate students (94), masters degree students (107), Ph.D. students (80), post-doctoral fellows (41) and academic staff (80). The total grant allocation is to the tune of 9.5 million euros (approx Rs 60 crores).

The partners were selected through a competitive system based on academic quality. Independent academic experts were involved in the assessment of the universities.

The large-scale collaboration between the eight Indian universities and the 12 European universities will be for a period of three years up to 2012.

This programme has opened vast opportunities for students and staff. The uniqueness of the programme is that all strata of the community is covered and the project is fully sponsored,” said Ashok Patil, vice-chancellor, Pravara Institute of Medical Sciences.

Topics that will be included in the education and research collaboration programme are agriculture, food processing, climate change, energy, environment, information and communication technology, biotechnology and nano-technology, all reflecting the regional needs of India.

The Delhi University, Jadavpur University (Kolkata), University of Kerala, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, Tata Institute…More

TOI : PUNE: The College of Nursing (CoN) under the Armed Forces Medical College, here will start M.Sc. courses in nursing in the current academic year.

The post-graduate wing of the College of Nursing was inaugurated by Lieutenant General S.K. Kaul, director and commandant, AFMC, during the lamp lighting’ ceremony for the 43rd batch of nursing cadets on Friday. Kaul hoped that with the commencement of the post-graduation course, the college will continue to fulfil with distinction, its aim of producing technically qualified and competent nurse practitioners.

According to Colonel J.A. Fernandez, principal, College of Nursing, 39 students who were enrolled for the B.Sc. nursing course in August 2008 took the pledge of Florence Nightingale and received the significant light’ from their teachers to mark their initiation into the profession. The ceremony was conducted by Major General T. Padmini, additional director general, military nursing service.

Established in 1964, the college will commence M.Sc. courses in community health nursing, medical-surgical nursing, gynaecological and obstetric nursing and paediatric nursing. The yearly intake will be eight students with two seats in each of the disciplines, an official communication by the AFMC said.

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