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TOI : PUNE: Foreign experts and doctors on Monday said that the law making it mandatory for two-wheeler drivers and pillion riders to wear helmets, if enforced properly, will help bring down the number of fatalities in road mishaps. The government should, therefore, make efforts to make people understand the importance of such a regulation, the experts added.

The experts and medical practitioners from various countries made the remarks at the sidelines of an event organised by the NGO Bone and Joint Decade (BJD) 2000-2010. The organisation also distributed around 400 helmets for free to two-wheeler riders near Shivajingar on Monday.

In India, all two-wheeler drivers and pillion riders have to use helmets under section 129 of the Motor Vehicles Act (1988). However, following vehement opposition from the public, the regulation is hardly enforced in the state.

“The law can help make people aware of the importance of using a helmet. It, therefore, needs to be enforced properly,” Wahid Al-Kharusi, a member of the United Nations Road Safety Commission and the BJD, told TOI.

He pointed that similar laws have been enforced in some African nations successfully. “One African country has seen a 93 percent increase in the number of people using helmets. Similar results can also be achieved in India.”

Launched in January this year, the BJD works to advance the understanding of musculoskeletal disorders and to improve the life of people affected by them. It has national action networks in 62 countries and the support of 750 organisations.

Also stressing on the need for educating people about the importance of using helmets, Robert Johnstone, president of Arthritis and Rheumatism International, said that India has a high number of fatalities in two-wheeler mishaps. He added that there was a 70 per cent chance of death due to head injuries in accidents.

Expressing shock at the statistic…More

TOI : PUNE: Insurance sector experts on Monday said that the large-scale damages caused by the terror attack in Mumbai have underscored the importance of liability insurance and stressed on the need to expand the liability insurance portfolio.

The remarks were made at the inaugural session of a two-day seminar on the emerging liability insurance scenario organised by the National Insurance Academy (NIA). The seminar will discuss various aspects of liability insurance and future prospects for it.

“The liability insurance sector has developed in India recently and demand has intensified in the last decade. However, many items and sectors are still not covered under it. There is a need to extend the liability portfolio. The industrial and business sector should take note of the situation and make efforts to realise the extent to which they are still not covered by liability insurance,” S L Mohan, secretary general, General Insurance Council, said.

He added that liability insurers should set targets for different items and sectors. “This will also prove helpful in bringing to light the areas which are still not covered by liability insurance. Recent figures show that the liability insurance market in India is still not deeply penetrated. Efforts are needed to increase the penetration in areas such as products and property.”

K C Misra, director, NIA said Mumbai’s terror assault has woken corporates up to the need for liability insurance. The manufacturing and service sectors are in need of liability insurance in the current scenario, Misra added.

S M Deshpande, regional manager and faculty member at NIA said that the terror attack is expected to give rise to a large number of liability claims.

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TOI : PUNE: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has decided to crack down on those who have not paid their property tax, deputy commissioner Vilas Kanade said in a press release issued on Monday.

Kanade has appealed to the public to clear their dues before December 5. He added that come December 6 and the civic body will issue warrants and impose fine against defaulters.

Those property owners who have not yet received property tax notice have been asked to contact their ward officer or zonal commissioner.

In the current financial year from April 1 to November 30, 2008 the tax department has collected Rs 253.63 crore as property tax, as against Rs 159.39 crore collected in the same period last year.

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TOI : PUNE: The city witnessed a spell of heavy showers late on Monday evening. During the period of a little over an hour, a whopping 6.6 mm of rainfall was received, Met department officials said.

“The presence of a trough off the western coast caused the rainfall. The conditions are likely to remain for the next 24 hours,” A B Mujumdar, deputy director general, meteorology (DDGM), India Meteorological Department (IMD), told TOI.

The city has been witnessing frequent showers this winter season, with rainfall being recorded last month as well. On Monday, lashing showers began around 7.15 pm and continued into the night. Mujumdar attributed the unexpected rainfall to a cyclonic storm that passed close to the state last week. “This has increased the moisture in many parts of the state, resulting in heavy showers in these parts,” Mujumdar stated.

Owing to the increased humidity levels, there was a rise in the minimum temperature for the city. At 8.30 pm on Monday, the Met department recorded the minimum at 20.7 degree Celsius. The normal temperature for this period is 12 degree Celsius, IMD officials said.

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TOI : PUNE: Rumours about the presence of bombs in various locations gripped the city on Monday and the police control room received as many as 40 hoax bomb calls during the day. As a result, the police and the bomb detection and disposal squad (BDDS) were kept on their toes the entire day.

On Monday afternoon, the police control room received a call saying that a bomb had been planted in Hotel Aurora Towers in Camp. The BDDS searched the parking area and other parts of the hotel, but did not find anything suspicious, senior inspector Deepak Humbre of the Cantonment police station said. The call was then declared a hoax.

Later, at around 6 pm, a rumour spread about a bomb being planted at the ICC Trade Tower on Senapati Bapat road. Senior inspector Sheshrao Suryavanshi of the Chatushrungi police stations told TOI, “It was a rumour. Security guards at the ICC Towers announced that a high alert has been sounded by the city police, after they received a fax message about bombs being planted at 40 sites in the city. This triggered off panic and the rumour spread. The BDDS and I checked the entire premises, but nothing suspicious was found.”

Meanwhile, there was also talk that IT companies in the Rajiv Gandhi Infotech Park in Hinjewadi had to be evacuated following a bomb threat. Senior inspector Dilip Shinde of the Hinjewadi police dismissed this as untrue. “Employees are working in the IT park right now. We had, in fact, beefed up security there after the Mumbai terror attack,” Shinde said.

Meanwhile, joint commissioner of police Rajendra Sonawane (law and order) appealed to the public to not fall prey to rumours and threatened “serious action” against rumour-mongers.

Police send out SMS

The city police on Monday sent out an SMS to mobile phone users in the…More

TOI : PUNE: The Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) announced a fresh load-shedding protocol for Pune on Monday, which comprises power cut for 3.15 hours to 4.45 hours and has been enforced with immediate effect.

This comes in the wake of the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission’s (Merc) order which rejected the MSEDCL petition seeking an increase in load-shedding hours. Though Merc has asked the power company to implement the load-shedding protocol fixed for a power shortfall of 4,500 MW, the power utility seems to have played safe and used the protocol suitable for shortfall of 4,600 MW to 5,000 MW.

An MSEDCL statement said that group A will now have load-shedding for 3.15 hours (instead of 4.30 hours), group B will have four hours of power cut (instead of 5.30 hours) and group C areas will have 4.45 hours of load-shedding (instead of 6.15 hours). Industries will have no power for 24 hours on Thursday.

The MSEDCL circular issued from Mumbai has mentioned that any interruption in power supply for maintenance work should be adjusted in the scheduled load-shedding hours.

The circular also mentions that in case of zero load-shedding models in Pune, Thane and Navi Mumbai, the additional power required for preventing power cut will be worked out by the chief engineer (power purchase) on the basis of the new load-shedding protocol and conveyed to the franchise the Tata power trading company limited.

Industry and power experts told TOI on Monday that the MSEDCL should allowed to be cautious since power generation has been fluctuating, due to coal shortage and the two generation sets at Dabhol not being in proper working condition.

“The MSEDCL makes suitable changes in the load-shedding hours daily, depending on the demand-supply situation. Considering the performance of the generation company, it is prudent to be prepared for an additional shortfall of 500…More

TOI : PUNE: To study the natural history of neurological involvement in patients with human immunodeficiency (HIV), the National AIDS Research Institute (Nari) along with the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) will set up an anti-retroviral therapy (ART) centre at a civic hospital in the city in the next two months.

The move assumes significance as the extent of HIV-associated neuro-cognitive disorders or HIV-associated dementia has not been ascertained among HIV-infected Indians.

“The proposed ART centre will conduct studies to gauge the impact of anti-HIV drugs on the neurological capabilities of an HIV-positive patient,” said Ramesh Paranjape, director of NARI.

PMC deputy health officer D D Chandakkar said the Bhabha dispensary a civic hospital near Deep Bungalow chowk has been identified for the ART centre.

Paranjape added that to understand issues like how frequently and how early does neurological involvement in an HIV-positive patient occur will be their main motto. “A full-scale ART centre, to undertake research and provide treatment to every HIV-infected patient, will be translated into reality over the next two months. The National AIDS Control Society (NACO) has formally approved the project.”

Paranjape said the purpose of starting the centre at a civic hospital is to provide treatment to HIV patients and to act as a research centre to primarily assess the extent of neurological involvement in HIV-positive patients.

“The ART centre at NARI works exclusively to conduct trials for HIV patients. But since the place where NARI is located is a bit isolated and lacks sufficient space to start a full-scale centre, we decided to start the centre at a civic hospital,” said Paranjpe. The medical facilities and space would be provided by the PMC, he added.

“Moreover, we have an ART centre at the National Institute of Virology (NIV), where those who have undergone some trials in the past, receive treatment,” said Paranjpe….More

TOI : PUNE: The cyber crime cell of the city police on Saturday arrested software engineer Samir Inamdar on charges of violation of copyright laws allegedly leading to a loss of Rs 100 cr to a city-based e-learning firm. Inamdar was on Sunday remanded to police custody till December 6.

According to a press release by the police, Inamdar had been dismissed from Brainvisa in 2006 and formed his own e-learning company subsequently. However, he illegally retained possession of Brainvisa’s product demonstrations and their source codes, and later tried to pass these off as his company’s products to potential clients.

Inamdar’s lawyer and friend refuted the charges, saying that he was “innocent” and was “being framed”.

According to a press release issued by Brainvisa, Inamdar was employed in key positions in Brainvisa Technologies Pvt Ltd, Pune and Brainvisa Inc, US. During his stint in the company, he had access to its products, demonstrations, source codes, proprietary data and confidential information. After being dismissed from service, he illegally copied this data and information.

The press release further said that Inamdar then started his own e-learning company, Enthuse Technologies Pvt Ltd. The Brainvisa management recently learnt that Inamdar and his associates had uploaded product demonstrations originally developed by them, along with their source code, on Enthuse’s official website. Inamdar was allegedly soliciting clients by passing off the products as Enthuse’s own, the press release stated.

Brainvisa expects to potentially suffer business losses to the tune of US $ 9.5 million annually as a result, the release added. The company has pegged the value of the intellectual property and confidential information allegedly in Inamdar’s possession at US $ 500,000.

Milind Pawar, who represented Inamdar in court, stated that all charges against him were false. “He has been framed in the case. There was no need to remand him to police custody. We…More

TOI : PUNE: Reshma was just five month old when her parents brought her to hospital to find out why she had not gained weight. After a clinical examination and laboratory investigation, she was diagnosed as being HIV positive. The parents were also found to be HIV infected.

The baby was treated with anti-HIV drugs, her health started improving and her immune system normalised within a few months.

Reshma is now seven years old and looks like any other child. “She is enjoying her childhood to the fullest,” said paediatrician Jitendra Oswal, head of the paediatric HIV clinic at Bharati Hospital and Research Centre. “She is always happy to meet us and takes her medicine as a part of her diet.”

According to Prakash Sabde, state project director of the Maharashtra State AIDS Control Society (MSACS), “Maharashtra has a high number of HIV-infected patients. Mumbai has the most and is followed by Pune and then Sangli,” he said.

“Among the total number of HIV positive children, 85 to 90 per cent get the infection from their infected mother. These children are innocent bystanders caught up in this HIV epidemic,” said Veda Purandare, senior medical officer at the ART centre at Sassoon General Hospital.

“The remaining 10 to 15 per cent get the infection from the use of blood. This includes children who require repeated blood transfusion for diseases like thalassemia or haemophilia,” said Purandare.

According to Oswal, a few cases have been documented in which the route of transmission is not known. The only effective way to prevent paediatric HIV is to reduce HIV transmission from pregnant mother to baby. “For this, our national programme of maternal and child health has to be strengthened. Also, it needs to be more effective in order to reach the masses,” said Oswal.

In India, a large number of pregnant women…More

TOI : PUNE: In a major drive launched by the city traffic police against drunken driving, as many as 150 people were arrested on Saturday night.

The special drive, which was under taken at all major junctions in the city, started at 8 pm and lasted till midnight. It was the biggest action so far against drunken driving on a single day, said the traffic authorities.

On Sunday, the police released a list of 150 persons against whom action has been initiated. According to deputy commissioner of police (traffic) Manoj Patil, the offenders include blue collared people working in banks and other commercial establishments, software professionals, autorickshaw drivers, and even students.

Apart from initiating legal action, the driving licences of these offenders would also be cancelled, Patil said.

He stated that in the past four months, the traffic police had booked as many as 1,000 people. Drunken driving has been creating a lot of problems and as a result the campaign against such offenders will be intensified, he said.

“The main objective is to prevent accidents due to drunken driving,” he added.

The offence of drunken driving attracts a punishment of six months imprisonment and a fine of Rs 2,000 if the person is caught for the first time. If the same offence is committed for the second time, the person is liable to face two-year jail and a fine of Rs 3,000.

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