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TOI : PUNE: Dr Kalmadi Shamarao High School, Ganeshnagar, was recently awarded the prestigious International School Award instituted by the British Council. The school won the honour for outstanding development of the international dimension in its curriculum.

The British Council has instituted the award to promote a global dimension in the teaching and learning process and to build effective partnerships with schools across the world. Dr Kalmadi Shamarao High School devised a series of events, classroom activities and projects aimed at fostering internationalism.

The year-long programme culminated with the presentation of the award in a ceremony in New Delhi on November 9, which saw prize-winners from across India being felicitated. Ruth Gee, the British Council’s regional director for India and Sri Lanka, gave away the prizes.

Kamini Saxena, the principal of the school, said, “The award is a testimony to the innovative and out-of-the-box teaching strategies adopted by the school to make learning more effective. It motivates us to raise the bar for ourselves and do even better.”

Bishop’s Education Society holds athletic meets

The Bishop’s Co-ed School, Kalyaninagar, held its annual inter-house athletic meet and PT display at the Sikh Regiment grounds in Ghorpadi last week. The event saw the students participate in various activities like the march past, running, cycling, pyramid formation, a gymnastics display, relay races and tug of war. The afternoon witnessed a display of athletics and physical fitness and many previously-held school records were broken.

Close on the heels of this event was the first-ever triangular inter-school athletic meet of the Bishop’s Education Society. Held the following day, the meet comprised a plethora of competitions between the Camp, Kalyaninagar and Undri branches of Bishop’s. Lt Gen (Retd) Noble Thamburaj was the chief guest at the occasion. A highlight of the triangular event was the newly-formed cheerleading squad of the Bishop’s Co-ed School, Undri, which cheered all participants tirelessly. At the…More

TOI : PUNE: NCP leader Ajit Pawar is expected to declare the names of the candidates for the posts of chairman and vice-chairman of the Pune zilla parishad (ZP) on Tuesday morning, shortly before the election is to be held at the ZP building.

NCP sources said Pawar will hold a meeting at the residence of outgoing ZP chairperson Vaishali Abane where he will announce the names. Prominent NCP leaders from the district are likely to be present for the meeting.

The sources said that the contenders for the chairman’s post include Savita Dagde (Mulshi), Sharda Shinde (Junnar), Jayashree Pokle (Haveli) and Vaishali Patil (Indapur). Sharad Butte-Patil, Sudam Ingale and Sharad Bhumkar are in the running for the vice-chairman’s post, they added.

With the NCP dominating the ZP, the candidates announced by Pawar are likely to get elected unopposed, the sources said.

The NCP’s strength is 48 in the 75-member ZP. The present chairperson and vice-chairman are both from the NCP. The Congress has 14 members, the Shiv Sena five, the BJP three and the Janata Dal one. There are five independent members.

While the chairman’s post is reserved for women in the open category, the vice-chairman’s post is filled from the open category.

According to a senior NCP leader and ZP member, Pawar had said during campaigning for the recent assembly elections that party workers putting in an impressive performance during the assembly polls would be considered for the posts in the ZP. He said Pawar was likely to discuss the names of the candidates with senior party leaders before making an announcement. He could even hold talks with the aspirants, he added.

However, another NCP leader said that Pawar would list his choice for chairman and vice-chairman in a sealed envelope, as he had done during the last ZP elections.

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TOI : PUNE: It’s 10-year-old Damu’s eagerness to watch film slides on a bioscope that lands him in trouble. On his way to buy jaggery for his mother, Damu decides to play a game with his peers in order to earn some extra money to see the magical visions his Bioscopewallah offers. However, his plan fails him and he returns home in tears.

Vartul,’ (Circle), a moving short film, scripted and directed by Pune-based filmmaker Santosh Ram, has been nominated in the competition section of the 8th Third Eye Asian Film Festival to be held in Mumbai from December 3 to 10.

The film features Chinmay Patwardhan (last seen in Subhash Ghai’s Yuvvraaj’) as Damu and actress Ashwini Giri as his mother, among other characters. “The boy makes a mistake and later owns it up. His mother realises the lesson her child has learnt and forgives him. This is what I wanted to show in my films,” says Ram, who calls Vartul’ semi-autobiographical.

Born in Udgir in Latur district, Ram himself scraped together money to watch images on the bioscope in his childhood. “Each of us looks out for something different in the bioscope. And I relished this childhood experience,” says Ram, who has also done his MA in English.

Vartul’ has also been screened at Osian’s Cinefan Film Festival 2009 in Delhi and the 2nd Nashik International Film Festival 2009.

Ram’s next project is a feature-length film. “It is based on relationships in typical middle-class Maharashtrian families,” he says. The short film format isn’t as popular as full-length feature films, says Ram. “Short films don’t have much space or value in India. that’s why I struggled for two years to get the necessary funding for Vartul,’” he says. Twitter Facebook Share Print Email Save Comment Text Size: | More Stories from this section Soldier on guard duty kills self at Command HQ Citizens should act…More

TOI : PUNE: The academic council of the University of Pune (UoP) on Monday nominated Nashik-based educationist Ashok Sawant as the university’s representative on the Maharashtra State Board for Secondary and Higher Secondary Education.

Sawant is secretary of the Godavari Shikshan Mandal, which runs a chain of institutions in Nashik, and is also head of the Nashik Municipal Corporation’s school board.

Officiating vice-chancellor Arun Adsool presided over the meeting which was attended, among others, by the UoP’s director of board of colleges and university development Pandit Vidyasagar.

The council discussed the issue of bringing the BBA and BCA courses under its plan of letting the colleges conduct the first-year examination of degree courses like B.Com, B.Sc and B.A.

Vidyasagar said, “The university plans to introduce the measure from the academic year 2010-11.” Other proposals relating to college norms and intake were also taken up for discussion. Twitter Facebook Share Print Email Save Comment Text Size: | More Stories from this section Soldier on guard duty kills self at Command HQ Citizens should act against corruption ‘Knowing enemy’s tech power key to winning war’ Pune, Khadki cantts eligible for JNNURM funds Multi-tasking …More

TOI : PUNE: The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) has developed eVidyapeeth, a platform for the Universities Grants commission (UGC) to bring all 800 open universities in the country online. In its first phase, the project is likely to take off from the academic year 2010-11 for 50 open universities in the country.

The technology has been developed by the Pune and Mumbai C-DAC centres. Zia Saquib, executive director, C-DAC Mumbai said, “Once the UGC gets clearance, the project will begin by the next academic year. There are various government procedures which have to be worked out and then the online procedure for 50 universities will begin.” He was speaking on the sidelines of a workshop organised by C-DAC on Monday.

All major universities in the state including the University of Pune, Nagpur University and Mumbai university are part of this project. This platform will enable students to choose their choice of university, register, enrol for a particular course/degree, pay fees online and later even download study material and tasks.

“A demonstration was made to the UGC this year in May and now we are awaiting for the government nod,” Saquib said.

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TOI : PUNE: The city has started witnessing a marginal dip in the minimum temperatures. On Monday it went down to 11.5 degree C, slightly lower than 12 degree C normal minimum temperature for this time of year.

According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), this trend will continue for a couple of days.

“Northerly winds are having some impact,” said Medha Khole, director (weather forecasting), IMD. “Chances are there that there will be a decrease in temperature in the city and in other parts of the state.” She stated that due to an anti-cyclonic wind flow in some parts of the country the temperature would not decline drastically.

So far in November, the minimum temperature has been above normal by 5 to 8 deg C. On November 17, the minimum temperature was nine degrees above normal. The main reason for this, according to the IMD, is the presence of cloudy conditions.
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TOI : PUNE: The Symbiosis Centre for Distance Learning’s (SCDL) first community college was formally opened at Maan in Mulshi taluka last Saturday. The college aims at training underprivileged and disadvantaged youngsters, especially those from rural areas, in job-oriented skill-based courses.

The SCDL had unveiled its community college plan on May 30 in view of the encouragement offered to such initiatives by the Union government. Community college is an alternative system of education for empowerment of the disadvantaged, underprivileged women and youth through appropriate skill development.

The idea is to offer post-secondary programmes leading to an associate degree in arts, science and commerce. Developed western countries have played a pioneering role in promoting community colleges.

Under the 11th Five Year Plan, the Union government had laid a major thrust on the development of a vast pool of skill-based human resource that can cater to the requirement of the local industry as well as the economy.

The government has decided to set up at least 200 community colleges across the country and has identified the Indira Gandhi National Open University (Ignou) as the nodal agency for implementing this programme. It has identified certain areas like management (secretarial practices), soft-skills, communication and IT, agriculture and fisheries and emergency medical services, among others, for creating a skill-based human resource pool.

Speaking at the inaugural function, Symbiosis community college principal Swati Mujumdar, who also heads the SCDL, said that a major focus would be put on training rural women in soft skills and functional English language proficiency. “This would help rural women face the world confidently and seek gainful employment,” she said.

Mujumdar said the community college would be of immense benefit to women and youngsters from villages in the Mulshi and Maval talukas of Pune district.

Consultant to SCDL, Shashikant Gandhe, gave an overview of the community college scheme and its advantages for the targetted audience. Block…More

TOI : PUNE: The expert committee at Sassoon general hospital, which was probing the circumstances behind the death of 14-year-old Reeda Shaikh the country’s first swine flu casualty has absolved Jehangir hospital of charges of negligence.

This has been stated in a report which was submitted by the hospital medical superintendent to senior police inspector Suhas Nadgouda of the Bund Garden police station last week.

The committee avoided making a comment on whether action should be taken against another hospital, Ruby Hall Clinic, for testing the H1N1 samples. However, it has said that any investigation into Ruby Hall’s role in testing H1N1 samples should be done by the director of health services, Mumbai. The committee said it had not come across any circular or directive from the health services which does not allow the testing of such samples at private hospitals.

When TOI sought the comments of Dr Sujata Malik, medical superintendent of Ruby Hall, she said, “We have not received any such report.”

Reeda died at Jehangir hospital on August 3. Three days later, the Pune police wrote to the dean of Sassoon hospital to form a committee to probe alleged charges of negligence against the Jehangir and Ruby Hall in view of a supreme court order. The victim’s aunt, Ayesha Shaikh, had also demanded action against the hospitals in a complaint filed with the police.

The committee, after examining Reeda’s medical reports between June 20 and August 3, arrived at the conclusion that Jehangir hospital cannot be held responsible for negligence. The committee noted that the hospital, in its explanation, had given details of the visits made by government officials, including state health director Dr B S Dhakure and others, on July 31 and August 2, but it had failed to make a mention of these visits in the case papers.

The committee report said: “We have tried to find out guidelines for…More

TOI : PUNE: A week after he was shot in the back by an unidentifed man, Pune-based builder Nikhil Rane (41) succumbed to his injuries at the Sancheti hospital here on Monday.

In a related development, the anti-extortion cell of the crime branch here arrested four real-estate agents late on Sunday night. The quartet, who the police said owe allegiance to the dreaded Ashwin Naik gang, had allegedly tried to extort Rs 10 lakh from Rane for settling a land dispute at Sus on October 15 this year.

However, deputy commissioner of police (zone 1) Dnyaneshwar Phadtare refused to say whether the four suspects were involved in the attack on Rane.

Rane was shot at on the staircase of Anant Chambers on J M road, where his office is situated on the second floor, on November 23.

Speaking to TOI, Dr Parag Sancheti, chairman of Sancheti hospital, said Rane was put on the ventilator immediately after he was admitted to the hospital on the day he was shot at. “On Monday morning, he suffered a cardiac attack. Attempts to revive him failed and he died around 10.45 am. His body has been sent to the Sassoon hospital for a post-mortem,” he added.

Rane was the son of prominent city laywer R G Rane. His mother, Shalini, was the city Congress president in the 1980s. Rane is survived by his wife and two children.

Meanwhile, the police have recovered Rs 2.67 lakh from one of the suspects, Ramdas Borkar (37) of Narayan Peth. The other suspects are Sandeep Sangle (30) of Bhavani Peth, Dhananjay Dixit (35) of Uralikanchan and Sandeep Dicholkar (42) of Badlapur.

Inspector Kishore Jadhav of the anti-extortion cell said Rane had purchased two acres of land at S.No. 42 at Sus from one Uttam Sasar for Rs 1.04 crore. He paid an initial amount of Rs 10 lakh. However, the two parties…More

TOI : PUNE: In 2000, a woman began writing letters to her husband to express her anguish when he was detected with HIV/AIDS. Over the next four years, the wife, a college professor, wrote some 20 missives, which she never sent to her husband.

These moving letters, recounting her triumphs and tribulations, now form the essence of Kahi Patra,’ a one-act single-character play directed by Sameer Kulkarni and produced by the NGO Prayas. It will be performed by Savita Prabhune at 6 pm on December 1 on the occasion of World AIDS Day at Lokayat Hall on Law college road.

“It was the husband’s doctor who asked the woman to write the letters to give vent to her anxiety. The doctor’s support prevented the family from falling to pieces when the husband’s illness was detected. And it’s the wife’s unconditional love for her husband that comes through in her letters,” says Prabhune, who plays the protagonist in Kahi Patra’. “The letters are filled with her daily experiences while dealing with her husband’s illness, her ambitions, her triumphs and simple day-to-day experiences that give her strength,” adds Prabhune, a lawyer by profession.

Interestingly, the wife did not allow herself to be bitter about what she and her family went through. “Rather, she emerged stronger than ever, even after her husband passed away,” says Prabhune.

For Kulkarni, an ENT surgeon and scriptwriter of Amol Palekar’s film Anaahat’, reading the letters made him want to share them with an audience. “The letters just prove that life is bigger than the disease itself, and there is no better remedy than hope. The identities of the couple and its family have been kept confidential, but I truly felt like bringing the experiences of this woman to the stage,” says Kulkarni.

The couple in question came from a village in southern Maharashtra. “The husband, an agricultural officer, expired in 2004. His wife…More