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TOI : PUNE: He touched many a heart for his title role in the much acclaimed Marathi film ‘Tingya’ — including those of the jury members who selected the 55th national award winners. But 11-year-old Sharad Goyekar had no idea how big the national award he bagged on Monday was until his adoptive parents explained to him about it.

Speaking to TOI, Sharad, a student of the Sinhagad Springdale residential school in Wadgaon Budruk, said, “I still cannot believe it. I have received some other awards for the film but the National award is something totally different. I thank my parents and the films director Mahesh Hadawale for being so supportive and encouraging throughout,” he smiles. More Stories from this section It’s celebration time at FTII Nehrunagar bus depot to house returning officer’s office Seven new H1N1 cases in Latur division Mahabaleshwar hoteliers beckon tourists School…More

TOI : The Indira Institute of Management conducted a thematic induction’ recently with the theme Emerging India’.

Speaking on the occasion, guest of honour MP Supriya Sule stressed that health care and education were the two most important concerns for her. She also dwelled on power, water, food security, agriculture and youth policy.

Former UGC chairman Arun Nigvekar, and vice-president (HR), Oracle financial services, Ramakrishnan Ganesh delivered lectures on the topic. Tarita Mehendale (chairperson of the Indira Group), Chetan Wakalkar (group director), Prachee Javadekar (director, Indira Institute of Management) and Pandit Mali (deputy director, Indira Institute of Management) were also present on the occasion.

The induction started with orientation of students towards Indira culture and making them familiar with the Indira environment. Research projects related to public issues were allotted to students. This year the students will study various public systems and departments’, including the BSNL, MSEB, water, transport, public gardens, roads, etc, and present papers with findings and suggestions.

Talent Day

The commerce department of the Abeda Inamdar senior college recently celebrated Talent Day’, an occasion that provides students an opportunity to showcase their talent. The competitions included mehndi, cookery, rangoli, best of waste and sketching.

E M Khan, principal, congratulated the students and urged them to practically make the most of their talent. The function was co-ordinated by professor Farzana Shah. Vice-principal Shaila Bootwala inaugurated the function.

Library opened

The departmental library of the faculty of law, University of Pune, was inaugurated by S R Bhosale, dean, faculty of law, on the occasion of Teachers’ Day. Speaking at the function, Bhosale stressed the need for good lawyers. He added that most probably by next year the department of law would expand itself as a national law school under the flag of the university. Head of the department TSN Sastry urged the students to emerge as researchers in the field of law…More

TOI : PUNE: It was celebration time at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) here as news of FTII students bagging as many as seven national awards came in on Monday. The recipients of the 55th National awards for 2007 were announced on Monday.

“For this year’s National awards, we had sent 19 entries from the 2007 batch. With the passing of films through CBFC made compulsory from last year onwards, our films for last year could not be sent as they needed the mandatory certification,” says Chandrashekhar Joshi, film research officer, FTII.

Udedh Bhun,’ by film direction alumnus, Siddhartha Sinha, won the award for best short fiction with a Rajat Kamal and cash prize of Rs 50,000. The film is about an adolescent boy and his encounters with different members of his family as well as his attraction towards a soldier’s wife.

“FTII has given me enough insight into film-making and is a platform for aspiring film professionals like me to be more confident and creative,” says Sinha, who is currently collaborating with a French producer and the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) for his directorial debut that is based on two urban women who live life on the edge.

The award for the best cinematography that comprises Rajat Kamal and a cash prize of Rs 50,000 (each to the cameraman and the laboratory processing the film) has gone to Savita Singh, cinematographer of the diploma film Kramasha’, and Adlabs, which processed the film.

Kramasha’ is an experimental film based on an ascetic’s daily rounds of a village in north India, in the wee hours of morning. It was shot in 2007 in suburban Pune. “Being a student film, the film was a huge challenge as we had to recreate the beauty and nostalgia inherent to a north Indian village in Pune. Location hunting for the film itself took almost a month-and-a-half,” says…More

TOI : PUNE: The office of returning officer for Pimpri assembly constituency is expected to be set up at the bus depot of PMPML in Nehrunagar.

Assistant commissioner and returning officer Ashok Munde said that a letter has been sent to the state election commission identifying this site for the returning officer’s office and for counting of votes for Pimpri assembly constituency.

Munde said, “The PMPML depot is located away from residential area and is ideal for counting. We expect the election commission will accept our recommendation.”

Meanwhile, Munde held a meeting of police and Regional Transport Office (RTO) officials for maintaining law and order in Pimpri assembly constituency with elections in sight. Discussions were held about taking preventive action against criminals, externment of criminals and taking action against illegal banners and hoardings. Discussions were also held about granting permission for political rallies and public meetings.

Munde said that one assistant commissioner of police (ACP) has been appointed as the nodal officer for each assembly constituency. ACP Prabhakar Patil has been appointed as the nodal officer for Pimpri assembly constituency. The police have been given powers to give permission for setting election campaign offices so political parties should send applications to Patil. The police have also been given the powers to give permissions for loud speakers, rallies and public meetings.

Assistant RTO Harishchandra Gadsingh and police inspectors of Nigdi, Bhosari, Pimpri and Chinchwad attended the meeting.

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TOI : AURANGABAD: The Latur division of state’s health services recorded seven fresh cases of H1N1 in last two days. The division comprises four districts Latur, Osmanabad, Beed and Nanded.

S S Patil, the deputy director of health services, Latur, told TOI on Monday that total 67 positive cases, including seven fresh cases, were reported from these districts. Presently, eight patients are being treated at different hospitals including one in Osmanabad, two each in Latur and Beed districts while three positives patients have been admitted to the Nanded hospital.

Patil said there was no cause for worry as all the patients are stable. He said that till date 37,012 people have been screened while 391 have been isolated for further examination. “The division had sent 408 swabs and of them 357 reports was received. Total 51 H1N1 positive patients have already been discharged,” Patil said.

On the other hand, the H1N1 flu situation is relatively better in other four districts of Marathwada Aurangabad, Jalna, Parbhani and Hingoli. Vilas Nikam, the assistant director of health services said that so far 237 Tamiflu tablets have been administered to patients in different districts. Presently four people, including one positive and three suspected H1N1 cases are being treated at different hospitals in the division.

“So far 228 swab samples have been sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune and of them 192 reports have been received,” Nikam said. Total 26 positive patients were reported from these four districts since the outbreak of the H1N1 flu in the state especially in Pune, Nikam said. He said till date 30,324 people have been screened in the division.

More Stories from this section Rose Society looks to ways for developing hardy plants PCMC allows inspection of records on all working days Brawl over TV channel leads to youth’s death Pune goes Ludhiana way to curb power thefts SHGs’ indu…More

TOI : SATARA: Worried by almost 50 per cent drop in business in the backdrop of the H1N1 scare, the civic administration and hotels in Mahabaleshwar on Monday appealed to the tourists to come to the hill station without any fear as the H1N1 flu was well under control in Satara district.

Earlier, Satara district collector Vikas Deshmukh had appealed to tourists not to come to Mahabaleshwar during the Independence Day weekend. Though no fresh cases were reported in Satara in past one week, the tourists have not returned.

Addressing a joint news conference, municipal council president Kisan Shinde said that all precautions were being taken to ensure safety of tourists. “As many as 52 conservancy staff have been deployed to keep the tourists spots clean and regular spraying of disinfectants is done,” he said.

Ajay Khakkar, president of the Mahabaleshwar hotel owners’ association said that health check ups of tourists were being done at the time of check-in. “We also conduct health check ups of hotel staff and they have been told not to report to duty if they were not feeling well. We are also distributing masks among tourists and special cleanliness drive is being undertaken. All the hospital linen is being washed in disinfectants prescribed by the health department,” he added.

Former municipal council president D M Bavlekar, who also owns a hotel, said that there were 95 hotels and lodges in Mahabaleshwar that have reported major fall in number of tourists. “We usually get 14 lakh tourists during Navratri, Dussera and Diwali. The hotel owners association is planning a special dandiya’ festival to attract tourists,” he said.

Bavlekar stated that police stations concerned were being informed if any foreigner arrives at a hotel. “All the foreigners will be asked to undergo health check ups at Mahatma Gandhi hospital before offering them hotel bookings,” he added.

More Stories from this section…More

TOI : PUNE: Intense pressure to get good grades and meet deadlines, together with a decreasing availability of time can tempt students to cut corners and knowingly or unknowingly enter the realm of plagiarism.

Recently, several Indian students in an Australian university were found to have submitted plagiarised versions of their Masters theses, and this incident points out to an underlying and disturbingly growing modern trend.

With an ever-growing access to the internet, students often resort to the copy-paste’ of readymade information, often completely unaware of the possible consequences of their action. However, with the growing sense of awareness about plagiarism, many schools in the city have taken it upon themselves to ensure from a formative level that students do not indulge in such actions that could potentially prove harmful to their future careers.

Parimala Subramaniam, director of Vishwashanti Gurukul School said, “Ours being an International Baccalaureate (IB) World school, have an on-line system to spot copied work. We submit all the students’ work to http://www.turnitin.com, and the website searches the internet and even the previous work submitted by older batches to verify that the students have submitted original work.”

Shaikh Ishtiyaque Ahmed, co-ordinator of Podar International School, Pune said, “We encourage our students to refer to sources even other than the internet, like textbooks and reference books. Since we belong to the ICSE board, the work given to students is largely project-based, and even if the students refer to websites for information, we encourage them to make a bibliography section at the end of each project. All the teachers check the work of the student, and in case of any discrepancy, we may ask the student to redo his or her assignment.”

Since most school-going children are completely unaware about the implications of plagiarism, the duty to create awareness about the issue lies with their teachers. Aarti Pendse, director of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Pune Kendra’s…More

TOI : PUNE: Despite swine flu scare, eye ball donation and cataract operations in the district have remained unaffected registering a steady growth over the last three months.

Notably, the Pune chapter of District Blindness Control Society (DBCS) has recorded 24,210 cataract operations and 261 cornea (eyeball) collection in the last three months against 23,609 cataract operations and 234 cornea collection registered during the same months last year. Incidentally, the pandemic H1N1 influenza has claimed 35 casualties and infected over 900 people affecting elective surgeries and pushing the blood banks to near dry’ condition.

“The spiralling cases of swine flu have not deterred eyeball donations as well as cataract operations in Pune district. In August when the pandemic reached its peak, the Pune chapter of DBCS had recorded 76 eye ball donations against 64 recorded in the same month last year. Besides, a total of 7,754 cataract operations were performed in August this year, as compared to 7,519 performed in the same month last year,” said Ashok Mahadik, district ophthalmic surgeon and district programme manager of DBCS, Pune unit.

Elaborating further, Mahadik said that total 23,609 cataract operations were performed during June to August last year while the number of operations performed during these three months this year have reached 24,210.

“Similarly, the number of eye ball donations achieved during these three months last year were 234 while this year it is 261,” said Mahadik.

The Pune chapter of DBCS conducts around 90 camps per month where the cataract operations are carried out. For this, DPCS started involving charitable NGO hospitals in the district. “We have got them registered with us as a non-government organisation (NGO). And ever since their involvement the annual performance of Pune chapter of DBCS in carrying out cataract operation has marked a tremendous growth,” said Mahadik.

Among these NGOs, the contribution of H V Desai Hospital, K K Hospital, Mohan…More

TOI : PUNE: The Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS) has extended a new dimension to medical education by getting into a formal tie up with the University of Sydney (Usyd), Australia, to launch the country’s first-of-its-kind one-year international post-graduate paediatric certificate (IPPC) course, which will be taught through distance education mode.

The IPPC is an international version of the diploma in child healthcare (DCH), initiated by The Children’s Hospital at Westmead and Usyd’s Coppleson committee for continuing medical education. It focuses on global best practices in child healthcare and development.

The course would involve extensive use of the internet and DVD learning tools besides 111 hours of lecture-cum-case demo sessions at designated contact points across MUHS regional centres in Pune, Mumbai, Aurangabad, Kolhapur and Nagpur besides the university’s headquarters in Nashik. It would be beneficial particularly to doctors engaged in child healthcare in the rural areas of the state.

Speaking to TOI on Monday, MUHS vice-chancellor Mrudula Phadke said, “The IPPC assumes significance in view of the growing need for doctors (MBBS to MD and diploma-holders in child healthcare included) to be well informed about existing and emerging diseases worldover and the international best practices to tackle the same.”

The process of globalisation and the resultant rapid increase in international travel has ensured that diseases worldover have assumed international significance as well as international dimension, she said. “The spread of swine flu from Mexico to the rest of the world within a short period, provides an apt case for this phenomenon,” she added.

Phadke said, “It is imperative for all doctors to know about the diseases and the approach followed by different countries for tackling them.” For instance, she said, the approach to child vaccination differs from one country to another, depending upon specific conditions and requirement. “The vaccination method in US may not be the same as followed in India. It is important for…More

TOI : PUNE: The Pimpri-based Hindustan Antibiotics Ltd, the country’s first public sector drug manufacturing company, is making a fresh bid to sell off 20 acres of its land located at a prime location in the twin township of Pimpri-Chinchwad.

A major chunk of the land – 16.3 acres, would be used for residential purposes where a promoter or a consortium of promoters and developers are likely to come up with their housing projects. The remaining 3.7 acres has been reserved for a high school.

The sale of land is one of the means for HAL’s revival. The company is being revived under a rehabilitation scheme of the Board for Industrial and Financial Restructuring (BIFR). An asset sale committee has been constituted after sanction of the rehabilitation scheme. The company has stated that the sale of land has been approved both by the Central and the state governments.

Incidentally, the asset sale committee had in August last year made a similar bid to sell the 20 acre land. However, after the bid did not materialize, a fresh attempt is being made to sell off the land.

The 20 acre land has been divided into three plots – all of which come under residential zone under the sanctioned development plan of the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation. While one plot admeasuring 3.7 acres is reserved for a high school, the remaining two plots – 10 acres and 6.35 acres are reserved for residential use.

The land, which is part of surplus assets of HAL, was acquired under the land acquisition Act. The company had come into existence in March 1954. The land which is of prime importance is located behind HAL colony in Pimpri near the geometric centre of the twin township of Pimpri-Chinchwad. The company, in its bid document, has stated that the land is 12 kms away from the IT Park at Hinjewadi and 15 kms away…More