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TOI : PUNE: The Indian Red Cross Society, Poona district branch, is all set to open a dedicated centre for children suffering from thalassemia in Rasta Peth on February 4. The centre will provide blood transfusion and storage facilities at subsidised rates, besides counselling patients and their parents.

“Parents of children suffering from thalassemia can get themselves registered at the centre and avail of the facilities,” said R V Kulkarni, honorary secretary of Pune branch, adding that the centre can carry out 12 blood transfusion procedures a day.

“The centre is well-equipped with advanced machinery and a team of doctors and technicians. It will be the first dedicated thalassemia centre in the city and will maintain data of all patients for availability of blood,” Kulkarni said.

“The availability of blood and its other components is vital for blood transfusion procedures in cases of thalassemia. Considering this, we will be introducing a separate cell for storing blood at the centre itself,” he said.

“A single blood transfusion procedure takes more than 4 hours. Taking this into account, we have audio-visual facilities at the centre, which will help lighten the atmosphere for patients. All facilities at the centre will be available at subsidised rates about 50 per cent lower than the rates offered in city for similar medical treatment. We will also offer free-of-cost treatment for the economically weak patients,” Kulkarni informed.

Medical director V Ramanan said, “The thalassemia centre will also counsel patients and their parents on all precautions that must be observed during and after treatment. There are about 500 registered thalassemic children in the city. A child with severe thalassemia typically starts to show symptoms when he/she is 6 months old and needs a blood transfusion procedure ranging from every 15 days to 6 weeks. Children under treatment require a lot of attention to avoid complications.”

Project for creating awareness about thalassemia

The…More

TOI : PUNE: Developed countries should invest more in finding cost-effective solutions to the problems caused by climate change at village levels, said Australian environment thinker Tim Flannery. He was speaking on the theme, We are the weather-makers: An exposition on global climate change’ at a lecture organised by the World Institute of Sustainable Energy in association with The Australia India Council at the Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics here on Friday.

When asked who was responsible for increasing carbon emission in the world, Flannery said that developed countries have played a major role in emitting greenhouse gases. However he added that instead of debating the responsibility, everybody should concentrate in solving the problem, which has become a problem of humanity’.

“Developed countries should immediately start reducing their carbon emissions, while developing countries can be allowed to increase the emission for some more years.”

He said more work should be done on increasing the green cover of earth and steps should be taken to increase forests and adopt better agricultural practices.

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TOI : PUNE: Travelling by train could soon become a cleaner, more odour-friendly experience. The Pune railway division has floated a proposal to provide onboard cleaning and maintenance services on trains. This means that bogies and toilets will get periodic clean-ups during the journey.

The proposal, submitted to the railway board for further scrutiny, will cover all express and superfast trains originating from Pune. Should the board approve, tenders for the project will be invited.

Additional divisional railway manager M. G. Dhamangoankar told TOI, “It will create a pleasant travelling experience for commuters. This is the first time the Pune division will introduce onboard cleaning activities. The cleaning works will be outsourced to professional companies, which would help in maintaining the standards.”

Activities involved in keeping the trains clean will include pest control, supply of water and overall maintenance, he said. “All cleaning activities will be carried out using modern machines and techniques. Toiletries like soaps and tissue papers will be made available for the commuters at the toilets.”

At present, the Pune division carries out maintenance and cleanliness activities for more than 50 bogies on a daily basis. “All such work will soon will be carried out by professional agencies, under the monitoring if the Railways,” said Dhamangoankar. “Trains originating from Pune will be considered under the project on a priority basis. Pune has more than 10 such trains.”

According to the senior railway official, “The Railways have announced several new initiatives to make the travel experience pleasant, comfortable and secure. The proposal for onboard cleaning was floated after an announcement was made to introduce onboard cleaning services on express trains, during the railway budget last year. The overall cost of the proposal will be over Rs 15 crore.”

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TOI : PUNE: Speed of thought, depth of knowledge and a willingness to take risks these were the absolute non-negotiables at the ET IN CAMPUS Quiz’ organised by The Economic Times, in assosication with Cognizant, on Saturday at the Symbiosis Institute of Management Sciences (SIMS), Range Hills in Khadki.

Even as the cream of the city’s quizzing talent converged to the SIMS campus, doing the honours was none other than noted quizmaster Giri Pickbrain’ Balasubramaniam. For his part, the quizmaster, who is known for his love of lateral associations, and on-the-ball logical thinking, was looking forward to quizzing with Pune yet again. “The city is known for its quizzers, and the standards are unfailingly high every year,” he said. “No wonder most quizmasters love coming here.”

Kick-starting the event with a written preliminary round, which saw a participation of over 60 teams, the six finalists were Symbiosis Institute of Management Sciences (SIMS), Sinhgad College of Engineering, Symbiosis Law College (SLC), Vamincon, Symbiosis Institute of International Business (SIIB), Symbiosis College of Management and Human Resource Development (SCMHRD).

In keeping with its name, the ET IN CAMPUS Quiz’ grills participants on articles that have been published in The Economic Times in the course of a year. So, the participants better be up-to-date with the latest in the world of biz chips and management.

The first round, Citings,’ was a crossword quiz with cryptic clues (yes, just like the one ET carries), and the participants could depend on nothing more than a single word clue. Next was Bawdy copy,’ that needed the quizzers to identify the visual, followed by Bulls eye,’ the buzzer round,’ and then “Viewpoints’ that needed the competitors to spot the lateral associations.

While Sinhgad College of Engineering got off to a flying start the first runners-up SCMHRD had a lot of catching up to do which they did, dramatically enough in the final round.

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TOI : PUNE: The Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) has started an exercise to define standards to be followed by Indian corporates in compliance of different legal requirements.

D Hanumanta Raju, the newly-elected president of the Institute, told media persons on Saturday that ICSI has set up an expert committee to define compliance standards, for which company secretaries are responsible. “The ICSI will create a set of standards for its members akin to the Generally Accepted Accounting Practices developed by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India,” Raju said.

“The Companies Act defines the role and responsibilities of a company secretary, but has not laid down any standards for his performance,” he added. The committee has, so far, defined six secretarial standards, like the standard on meetings of board of directors, general meetings, dividend, registers and records, minutes, and transmission of shares and debentures, Raju informed.

Raju said the standards set by the committee will be advisory in nature, though the Institute is working with the government to make them mandatory by a necessary provision in the proposed Companies Bill. This will ensure that all the corporates follow the same methodology.

Raju said there is a huge gap between the requirement and availability of qualified company secretaries and the Institute is promoting the profession across the nation especially in the non-metro and rural areas. “As most of the course is completed through self-study, it is among the least-cost professional courses that offer a very lucrative career opportunity,” he said.

Raju said the ICSI has signed an agreement with the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) to make it possible for the student-members of the institute to complete the Bachelors and Masters degree courses alongside their company secretary course.

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TOI : PUNE: The University of Pune (UoP) is witnessing a rise in the number of students taking up two ancient Indian languages — Pali and Sanskrit. The number of students opting for Pali has shot up to 200 during the current academic year from 20 to 30 in 2005-06.

While around 50 students opted for Sanskrit in 2006-07, the number rose to 65 the following academic year. A total of 82 students are on the rolls this session.

“Pre-2006, there were only about 20-30 students opting for Pali. In 2006, it was 70, in 2007-08, the number went up to 140 while as of today, there are 200 students,” Mahesh Deokar, head of the Department of Pali, UOP, told TOI. (The department, in principle, is distinct from the Department of Sanskrit and Prakrit)

This trend can be attributed to an increasing interest in the languages that are a repository of information on ancient India, not to mention a treasure trove of Buddhist literature, he said.

Taught at the Sanskrit Pragat Adhyayan Kendra on the UOP campus, both Sanskrit and Pali have always dealt with common challenges: Lack of awareness about the subjects, limited career opportunities, as well as a shortage of permanent teaching staff. And though these challenges still persist, the departmental heads say that there are better days ahead.

Here’s why: Pali is the original language of Buddhist teachings, and with Maharashtra boasting the largest Buddhist community in the country, the interest is given. Apart from this, the MA programme in Buddhist literature teaches hybrid Sanskrit, which is distinct from classical Sanskrit and used by the scholars of the Mahayana school of Buddhism (the largest school of Buddhism that spread to South East Asian countries and China), thereby making it a natural choice for Buddhist monks, both Indian and foreign.

However, the challenge of meeting the shortage of permanent staff remains. “We have…More

TOI : PUNE: The registration of the murder case against BJP corporator Dattatraya Khade and others within an hour of the incident, prompt action by the police in arresting the accused, recovering the knife and blood stained clothes of the accused and evidence of two eye-witnesses helped the prosecution secure conviction against the accused.

Khade and his associates Satish Dhole and Sunil Fasge were sentenced to life imprisonment in the murder case of wrestler Rajesh Pardeshi by sessions judge Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi on Friday.

The complaint (lodged by Zakir Shaikh) contains all the relevant details and it leaves no scope for inferring any concoction or deliberation of false implication, the judgement stated.

The judge held that the entire evidence ocular, medical and corroborative goes hand in hand to prove the homicide of Pardeshi by Dattaraya Dudhane (who died while the trial was on) with a jambia’ knife.

The defence lawyer had said that there were discrepancies in the evidence of Shaikh and other witness Vishwajit Ghule. However, the court held that “this inconsistency in the sequence of events, though appears to be minor, on the face of it assumes significance in this case, as one has to consider the alleged overt act attributed to the accused and applicability of section 34 (common intention) of the IPC to infer whether they acted in furtherance of their common intention with Dudhane”.

The judge was of the view that “this inconsistency is not of much significance because the incident had taken place within five minutes and the witnesses, who had deposed after two years, were cross-examined at length for several days and there was a possibility of minor discrepancies in their testimonies. These discrepancies, instead of discrediting them, gives an in-built assurance about their truthfulness. It also gives a guarantee that they are not giving a tutored version.”

The judge has observed that “though an attempt has been made…More

TOI : PUNE: The city unit of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Saturday organized a morcha at PMC against its Pune-pattern partner BJP for sheltering’ corporator Dattatraya Khade, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in a murder case.

NCP’s city unit chief Jaidev Gaikwad said that the BJP leaders, including Gopinath Munde, came down heavily on NCP leader Ajit Pawar for inducting a criminal into the party, but the BJP is sailing in the same boat.

“Now, Munde and Nitin Gadkari should answer to the public about why the BJP sheltered a criminal and what action they will take against him after court has convicted him,” asked Gaikwad.

The NCP leaders alleged that the BJP was infamous for inducting criminal elements from the local to the national level.

Meanwhile, Vikas Mathkari, the BJP’s leader in the PMC, said that the party has already announced that it will take its decision as per the law and will announce its stand once the party leaders go through the judgment’s copy.

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TOI : PUNE: Playing to the public ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the standing committee of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) rejected municipal commissioner Pravinsinh Pardeshi’s tax hike proposal.

A steep hike in civic taxes, including a two-fold increase in road and water taxes, was proposed by the municipal commissioner in the draft taxation proposal submitted to the standing committee earlier this month. It was also proposed that sewage, conservancy, fire and theatre taxes be doubled. He also suggested that road tax be hiked by 5 per cent for four-wheeler owners.

The special meeting of the standing committee on Saturday rejected the proposal except for the hike plan in multiplex theatres. “We decided to reject all tax hike proposals as we don’t want to put a burden on the common citizen. Instead, we have asked the municipal administration to concentrate on efficient collection of water and property tax and octroi,” said Anil Bhosale, NCP corporator and leader of the house in the PMC.

The standing committee also rejected the proposals to charge octroi on food grains and other essential commodities, to hike octroi by 50 paise on cosmetics and vehicles and the hike in water tax in cantonment areas.

Anil Bhosale said that the standing committee will hike the charges for escort vehicles (heavy vehicles using Pune roads as thoroughfare). “The existent fee charged to these vehicles is Rs 60 per day and we have decided to raise it to Rs 200. The decision will be enforced from today as there is no need to seek the state government’s approval in order to impose this hike,” said Bhosale.

He added that the standing committee has decided to overhaul the octroi department and the long-pending scheme of connecting octroi posts online would be given momentum. “Also, we will immediately transfer officers and staff in the octroi department who are sticking to their posts for many years….More

TOI : PUNE: A civic contractor who was supposed to set up a sewage treatment plant at Hingne before December 31, 2008, has been blacklisted by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) for delaying the work.

Ramke Infrastructure Ltd was given a work order by the PMC on February 24, 2006, to set up a sewage treatment plant and run and maintain it for five years.

According to a press statement issued by the civic body, the deadline was extended three times.

“Ramke Infrastructure was then given a final deadline of December 31, 2008, which he did not adhere to,” the statement said. “Also, during a recent inspection by Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority officials, found that the work done was not up to the mark. Considering all the factors, the contractor has been blacklisted.”

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