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TOI : PUNE: The H1N1 toll reached 105 on Saturday with one more death died at the Sassoon general hospital. Pradip Awte, medical officer of state health services, said, “Baliram Narayan Warankar (45), a resident of Ganeshkhind, died at 4 am on Saturday.”

Warankar was admitted to Sahyadri-Munot hospital where he underwent treatment from October 23 to November 6. He was shifted to Sassoon hospital on the same day in critical condition and was immediately put on ventilator. Warankar’s condition deteriorated further, following which he succumbed to the contagion, said Awte.

Warankar suffered from diabetes and hypertension and had developed acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), said Awte.

Meanwhile, three people tested positive for the H1N1 influenza on Friday. With this, the number of infected people in the district so far has reached 1,696. Total 2,915 people visited various screening centres in Pune district on Saturday. As many as 313 suspected patients were administered Tamilfu.

Sixteen patients are being treated in the ICUs of various private and government hospitals at present. Of them, two are on ventilators.

Topics: H1N1 Pradip Awte More Stories from this section Thousands throng Alandi for annual pilgrimage Hindi should be respected in Maharashtra: RSS RSS chief distances himself from BJP leadership issue Two killed in road mishap H1N1: PMC hopeful second wave’…More

TOI : PUNE: Director of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences Ramesh Chandra Deka said here on Saturday that a need is felt for more doctors in India, and the government of India and the Medical Council of India (MCI) are exploring the possibility to increase seats for MBBS courses so that more doctors are produced every year. Deka also highlighted the need for more mid-level health workers and courses to train them to meet the shortage of doctors the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) is facing.

Speaking to mediapersons on the sidelines of the inaugural ceremony of the Mahapedicon 2009′ the annual conference of the India Academy of Paediatrics, Maharashtra State Chapter, Deka pointed out that the NRHM is facing a manpower crunch and there is an urgent need to create more manpower in health sector.

The Mahapedicon has been organised by the India Academy of Paediatrics, Pune and the Department of Paediatrics, Bharati Vidyapeeth University Medical College.

Elaborating on the need for more doctors, Deka said that every year, there is an intake of 29,000 medical students across colleges and institutes in India. “Out of those, about 4 to 5,000 drop out or are unable to complete their studies. Of the remaining 24,000 who pass out per year, about 15,000 opt for post-graduate courses and 5,000 go in for diploma courses with private hospitals. Whoever else remain prefer to wait another year to get admitted for further studies and then there is practically nobody left for the NRHM,” Deka said.

He explained that the proposal is in the process for the approval to increase the intake of medical colleges or to have two shifts of training at the colleges. “If we are really concerned about improvement of rural health then besides MBBS, we also need courses for mid-level health workers, something like B.Sc honours in health practices to take care of the elementary health…More

TOI : PUNE: A school is not authorised until it is duly recognised by the deputy director (education), district education officer (secondary section) Prakash Parab told a gathering of principals of various unaided (mostly English medium) schools on Saturday.

The objective of the meet was to inform the schools about various rules and regulations pertaining to staff approval, recognition of the school and recruitment of staff as well as to clarify the fine print of the Secondary School Code, especially with regard to two of its four sections, namely: terminology and definitions, and rules of school organisations.

The difference between aided and unaided schools is not much, and it is a wrong’ belief that permanently unaided schools do not have much to do with government regulations, deputy education officer K N Chaudhary told the audience.

Touching upon the subject of staff approval (an approval for the qualifications and number of staff per number of students) as well as individual approvals, the teachers were told that while staff approval is a must for a school, individual approvals were necessary for the person’s job security, and would make it easier for them to change jobs from unaided to aided schools. “Furthermore, the service record at your school will enable him/ her to get better pay and pension benefits,” Parab said.

Elaborating further, Parab asked the newer schools among the audience to note the difference between an intention to grant permission to start and run a school, and its actual recognition. “A letter from the educational authorities stating that permission is under consideration does not mean school is sanctioned. The final permission comes from the deputy director (education). Following an inspection, the education officer makes a proposal to deputy director (education) to recognise the school.”

Outlining the difference between a primary and secondary school, Parab said the government rules required both primary and secondary sections of the same school…More

TOI : PUNE: Six huts belonging to construction labourers were gutted in a fire that broke out at Anandnagar, behind Pragati school on Sinhagad road, on Saturday morning. No casualties were reported as the labourers had left for work.

The fire brigade officials suspect some slum-dweller may have set up a fire to heat water, but failed to douse it completely. The flames spread and enveloped five other huts.

A fire tender and a water tanker from Sinhagad road sub-station rushed to the spot and doused the fire in 10 minutes thus saving three other huts. Sub-division officer Prabhakar Umratkar said four huts were being used by labourers while the other two huts were used by the building contractor to store goods. Topics: Huts Sinhagad More Stories from this section Thousands throng Alandi for annual pilgrimage Hindi should be respected in Maharashtra: RSS RSS chief distances himself from BJP leadership issue Two killed in road mishap H1N1: PMC hopeful second wave’…More

TOI : PUNE: The Yerawada police on Thursday arrested a 19-year-old youth for allegedly molesting a four-year-old girl of his neighbour. The incident took place around 12 pm at Yerawada.

The police have identified the suspect as Chelaram Chaudhary of Yerawada. According to the police, on Friday afternoon, the girl was playing near her residence when the suspect lured her on pretext of giving her chocolate and took her inside his house.

Meanwhile, the girl’s mother came to know that her daughter is missing. As she was searching for her daughter, she heard the girl scream coming from Chaudhary’s house. She forced herself into the house and rescued the girl. Later, the girl told her mother about what had happened, the police said.

Meanwhile, Chaudhary managed to escape from his house. Later, the police nabbed him near from the housing board colony on Friday evening.

Senior inspector Deepak Sawant of the Yerawada police station told TOI, “We have arrested the suspect. He lives with his elder brother who runs a grocery shop. The father of the victim is a tempo driver.”

Meanwhile, the police have found clues in the rape case of two-and-half-year-old girl. Some unidentified persons abducted the victim from near her house in Yerawada, allegedly raped her and dumped her on road near her residence on Wednesday in an unconscious state.

Inspector Sawant said, “We are working on some leads. We have detained some people in this regard and are questioning them.”

Topics: girl yerawada More Stories from this section Thousands throng Alandi for annual pilgrimage Hindi should be respected in Maharashtra: RSS RSS chief distances himself from BJP leadership issue Two killed in road mishap H1N1: PMC hopeful second wave’…More

TOI : PUNE: The good news on the global and country’s economic front has brough cheers to the city’s home seekers as they flocked to the Times Property Show on Saturday at Hotel Le Meridien.

The enthusiasm was visible as the exhibitors have placed on display projects that offer a home for every need. The choice is wide from studio apartments to row houses and villas. And there are homes with one, two or three bedrooms.

And on the specifications side, from affordable, no-frills options to ultra high-tech, intelligent homes there is a full spectrum of choices. Most of the projects on offer are situated on the city’s outskirts such as Wakad, Baner, Pimpl Saudagar, Kharadi and Mohammedwadi.

An important feature of the display is that the developers have disclosed the rates of the properties. This has helped the prospective buyers to easily locate the project they could be interested in, observed a developer.

Housing finance institutions and banks have also marked their presence at the show to offer instant information on the various home loan scheme they have to offer.

The Times Property Show is on till Sunday (November 15) from 10.30 am to 7.30 pm.

Topics: show times property More Stories from this section Thousands throng Alandi for annual pilgrimage Hindi should be respected in Maharashtra: RSS RSS chief distances himself from BJP leadership issue Two killed in road mishap H1N1: PMC hopeful second wave’…More

TOI : PUNE: S K Mahajan, Director of Technical Education (DTE), has advocated the scope for high performance computing (HPC), which he says has great potential to be part of engineering curricula in the future.

Mahajan was speaking at a symposium on HPC organised jointly by the Centre for Development Advanced Computing (C-DAC) and College of Engineering, Pune (COEP) on Saturday.

“HPC will enable the faculty and students in various scientific and engineering disciplines to exploit the benefits of parallel processing,” said Mahajan.

The symposium named — HPC in academia and beyond, was organised for engineering faculty at the CoEP campus. Mahajan further said, “Awareness about HPC and its potential benefits in scientific and engineering disciplines needs to be created across the country. I hope that it will provide the perfect incubation platform for our future engineers and scientists to indulge in advance research using HPC and compete at a global level.”

S P Dixit, Director of C-DAC, Pune said, “The symposium will serve as a solid foundation for accelerating adoption of education tools and curriculum that reflects the increasing role of HPC methods in engineering and science.”

Goldi Misra, group coordinator and head, HPC solutions group, C-DAC said, “Over a period of time, these symposiums will culminate into national-level workshops, competitions on parallel programming, software tools, programming environments, multidisciplinary engineering related applications, scientific and research applications among other things.”

The symposium was attended by over 100 engineering faculty from the city and other parts of the state.

Topics: DTE Computing More Stories from this section Thousands throng Alandi for annual pilgrimage Hindi should be respected in Maharashtra: RSS RSS chief distances himself from BJP leadership issue Two killed in road mishap H1N1: PMC hopeful second wave’…More

TOI : PUNE: Two youths were killed as their motorcycle collided head-on with a speeding truck at D Y Patil road near Ravet on Saturday morning.

The Dehu road police have identified the deceased as Arun Nadar ( 17) , a resident of Vikasnagar and Pratap Reddy (18), a resident of Indrayaninagar in Dehu Cantonment area. Nadar was riding the bike while Reddy was pillion.

According to the police, the duo were external SSC students and were on their way to D Y Patil road from Kiwale road when the incident occurred. The truck collided head-on with their two-wheeler killing them instantly.

Investigations have revealed that Nadar, who was driving, had borrowed the vehicle from his uncle.

The police have arrested truck driver Devendra Jagtap (45), a resident of Gandhinagar in Dehu road, for reckless driving.

Topics: Youth D Y Patil road More Stories from this section Thousands throng Alandi for annual pilgrimage Hindi should be respected in Maharashtra: RSS RSS chief distances himself from BJP leadership issue Two killed in road mishap H1N1: PMC hopeful second wave’…More

TOI : PUNE: The civic administration has countered the allegations levelled by BJP corporator Vikas Mathkari about its failure to implement nearly 25 road, flyover and bridge projects.

Speaking to media, additional engineer Vivek Kharwadkar and officers in-charge for JNNURM works, Vinay Deshpande and V R Patil, said that nearly nine projects are in the tendering process and work on five others has already started.

“The other works are major projects and a proper planning needs to be done before implementation. Since the work on implementing the Comprehensive Mobility Plan is also on, we need to ensure that no project is over-lapping. Implementation won’t take much time if the planning process is done thoroughly,” Kharwadkar said.

The officials also explained that if all infrastructure works are implemented at the same time, there will be chaos.

Mathkari had on Friday criticised PMC officials for sitting on development projects even after eight months of budgetary year having passed.
Topics: projects Vikas Mathkari More Stories from this section Thousands throng Alandi for annual pilgrimage Hindi should be respected in Maharashtra: RSS RSS chief distances himself from BJP leadership issue Two killed in road mishap H1N1: PMC hopeful second wave’…More

TOI : PUNE: The secondary school certificate (SSC, Std X) supplementary examinations, held in September and October, recorded an overall success rate of 24.75%. This was up by 5.08% over last year’s supplementary exam pass percentage of 19.67%.

However, the higher secondary certificate (HSC, Std XII) supplementary exam registered a 3.51% drop in overall performance with a pass percentage of 24.19%, as against the 27.70% recorded last year.

Results of the two supplementary exams were declared on Saturday by the Pune-headquartered Maharashtra State Board for Secondary and Higher Secondary Education.

Over 1.94 lakh students appeared for the SSC exam and 48,146 were declared pass. The improved result was mainly on account of a larger number of students appearing in the supplementary exam this year as compared to 2008, board officials said.

On the other hand, more than 1.25 lakh students had registered for the HSC exam and 1.09 lakh actually sat for the exam, with 26,514 of them declared pass.

In all, 13,534 secondary schools and 4,308 higher secondary schools and junior colleges participated in the two exams conducted simultaneously at 436 SSC and 269 HSC centres across the board’s eight divisions.

Nashik and Latur divisions put up the best showing in the SSC and HSC results, respectively, with passing percentages of 35.65% and 30.75%. Pune division recorded 23.76% success for the SSC and 22.28% passing percentage for the HSC supplementary exam.

Topics: result SSC More Stories from this section Thousands throng Alandi for annual pilgrimage Hindi should be respected in Maharashtra: RSS RSS chief distances himself from BJP leadership issue Two killed in road mishap H1N1: PMC hopeful second wave’…More