After the Worli-Bandra sea link its gonna be the underwater road from worli to Nariman point!

Now, underwater road from Worli to Nariman Pt?

Yogesh Naik I TNN

Mumbai: Taking note of the spiraling costs in the construction of the Bandra-Worli sealink, senior government officials are now contemplating having a road under the sea for the stretch from Worli to Nariman Point.
A meeting of senior officials will be held on Tuesday under the chairmanship of additional chief secretary (urban development) Ramanand Tiwari at Mantralaya.
The foundation-laying ceremony for the Worli-Bandra sealink was held in 1999, and the project has failed to meet several completion deadlines since then. The cost has shot up from Rs 400 crore to over Rs 1,500 crore.
The contractor, Hindustan Construction Company, blamed the government for the delay and consequent cost escalation. It said the sea-link’s alignment and specifications were changed, resulting in the delay and hike in cost. Also, payment was not made on time, which had earlier forced it to stop work.
Chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh was upset with the mess; the project is being supervised by minister Anil Deshmukh, who belongs to the NCP. The Congress is now likely to suggest a cheaper alternative for the second phase. The chief minister is said to be in favour of the “road under the sea’’ concept as suggested by senior officials of the public works department.
The Bandra-Worli sea-link costs over Rs 200 crore per km; it is believed that the costs will come down if the
new concept is put into place. It involves laying huge concrete blocks under the sea and constructing a road inside the tunnel.
Such tunnels are already in operation in Hong Kong and other cities. Also, said sources, such a design will not mar the beauty of the coastline from Worli to Nariman Point.

World Class Water purification plant at Bhandup - Mumbai [India]

Middle Vaitarna project gets French touch Bhandup Will House Asia’s Largest Water Treatment Plant Purifying 1,000 M Litres Per Day Sukhada Tatke | TNN

Mumbai: Marking a key stage in the development of the Middle Vaitarna project, the BMC has awarded the contract for a Rs 292-crore water treatment plant to French company Degremont Suez. Work on the project is likely to begin by the end of this month and will result in Asia’s largest water treatment plant at Bhandup.

The Middle Vaitarna project funded by the World Bank is proposed to add 455 million litres of water to Mumbai’s existing daily supply. The new plant will have a capacity to treat about 1,000 million litres water per day. Tenders were floated by the BMC for the project after acquiring the approval of the standing committee about four months ago.

Three bidders came forward and Degremont was chosen as it was the lowest bidder and has a history of carrying out similar projects in Mumbai. A team from the company will meet officials in the civic body this week and complete the formalities.

“The additional water that will come out of the middle Vaitarna will be treated in this plant, which will be located adjacent to the existing one in Bhandup,’’ said additional municipal commissioner Manu Kumar Shrivastav. “We gave the company suggestions on how to execute it after consulting the firm Dalal Mott MacDonald (DMM). We also asked Degremont to give suggestions. The company has its own patented technology which would be used, and both our suggestions as well as their recommendations would be amalgamated,’’ he added.

The project would be based on the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) standards. The French company will carry out the construction of the plant over roughly three years and the next four years will be required to operationalise it.

According to Pramod Charankar, deputy municipal commissioner, special engineering, owing to turbidity in the water in Mumbai, process of treating it by allowing it to settle is most critical. “At this stage, alum is added to the water, froth gets formed and then the water settles. After that is the process of filtering and chlorinating,’’ said Charankar. “We will have an additional pumping station and reservoir and then get connection to the usual distribution pipes,’’ he added.

SOME LIQUID FACTS

Mumbai was the first city in India to receive piped water supply in 1860. The city’s water supply system (3,200 mld) is among the largest in Asia

Main sources of water supply (Bhatsa, Tansa, upper Vaitarna, Vihar, Tulsi, Modak Sagar) are about 110 km from the city

The distribution network has more than 4,000 km of mains

HOW THE PROCESS WORKS

Additional water from middle Vaitarna will be first settled, then treated and chlorinated at the plant. It will then go to a pumping station and a reservoir from where it will be connected to the usual distribution links

The 800 year old prestigious university of Oxford coming to our own Pune! :)

Oxford University to set up branch in Pune

Manash Pratim Gohain | TNN

New Delhi: If you can’t study at Oxford, the university will come to you. For the first time in its 800-year-old history, Oxford University has announced that it will set up an offshore facility at Lavasa near Pune.
Oxford University vice chancellor John Hood, who is part of the high-level UK delegation to India, on Monday announced the establishment of Oxford University India Business Centre (OUIBC) which will be part of the Said Business School at Oxford.
On choosing India as the university’s first offshore establishment, Hood said, “India has become increasingly important for Oxford and the world at large. And the university is committed to expanding its collaboration with India which has enriched Oxford’s intellectual heritage for more than 400 years.’’
‘UK, India equal partners’: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, in a chat with TIMES NOW, has hailed Indians as dynamic people and backed New Delhi’s bid for a UNSC seat, saying the country “deserved to take its rightful place in the world’’. He said the UK was looking at a “partnership of equals’’ with India as it would benefit both. P 21, 14
Jet eyes British Midland: In what could be a repeat of the Air Sahara buyout, Jet Airways is trying to acquire a controlling stake in UK carrier British Midland (BMI). The move is prompted by the desire to get more slots at Heathrow. BMI controls over 11% of the slots in the international hub at London and Jet has approached BMI chairman Sir Michael Bishop, who holds a 51% stake in the carrier, said an aviation consultant. P 24 Indian biz to be focus of Pune campus
New Delhi: Oxford vice-chancellor John Hood has revealed the varsity’s plans to enter India. The Oxford University India Business Centre (OUIBC) campus at Lavasa near Pune will offer an executive management programme.
“We are going to develop a range of executive education programmes to be delivered through a new facility, which will be visited by our faculty at Oxford,’’ he said.
From 2009, he added, the university will introduce a Masters degree in Indian Studies for scholars of the social sciences to study politics, economics, developmental issues, international relations and the challenges of modern India.
The primary objective of the Lavasa centre, however, will be to research and understand the “extraordinary developments’’ in the Indian business scenario in recent years.
The business centre will be funded by Ajit Gulabchand, chairman of Lavasa Corporation. He will also endow a new chair, Ajit Gulabchand Professor of Indian Business Studies at the University of Oxford, to be based at the Said Business School at Oxford.

Mediocore Geography in Queen's country?

UK school inspectors term geography teaching ‘mediocre’

LONDON: Geography teaching in English schools was slammed as “mediocre” in a damning report by government inspectors on Thursday which said children are not learning about climate change or eco-sustainability. Neither are enough pupils going on field trips, it added, partially because of health and safety concerns.
British schools inspectorate Ofsted said there has been a significant fall in the number of children studying the subject at the upper levels of secondary education. In primary schools, the achievement of pupils and the quality of teaching is weaker than in other subjects. “Many primary teachers are still not confident in teaching geography and have little or no opportunity to improve their knowledge of how to teach it,” the report added. — Reuters

eBooks v/s Ink n Paper - Economic Times - 18/01/2008

Net books are cool, but readers still love their ink and paper

Robert MacMillan NEW YORK

THE number of people subscribing to newspapers may be shrinking as they flock to the internet, but electronic book readers won’t shred the market for ink, paper, glue and binding anytime soon.
After years of promises and false starts, booksellers and technology companies are diving into the world of digital books. Sony is selling the Reader Digital Book for $299, while giant online shopping company Amazon.com offers the Kindle for $399. New readers are lighter than the average hardback fiction best-seller, easy on the eyes, and let readers carry around as many as 200 titles in hardware that weighs less than a pound.
But to some people, there’s something missing. “It’s, I guess, the feel of holding a book that someone really put a lot of effort into writing, and you kind of lose that a little bit with a digital product,” said Katy Farina, 21, of Montgomery, New Jersey.
Farina, a student at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design, was browsing at the Borders bookstore near Madison Square Garden. As shoppers lined up at closing time, the subtle, comforting aroma of books permeated the store.
“It feels real, whereas (the reader) kind of separates you a little bit from the story,” Farina said.
Harry Howe, who had picked up “Surrender Is Not an Option” by former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, said he might use an e-book reader for blog or website material that he wanted to read while away from home, but not for reading a novel. “It’s just not a physical experience that I’m yet comfortable with,” said Howe, 55, who teaches accounting at the State University of New York’s Geneseo campus and lives in Rochester. “On the other hand, I didn’t grow up reading things on various websites.”
Farina said she would like a reader for travelling because she would not have to transport so many books. This is something that HarperCollins Publishers Worldwide Chief Executive Jane Friedman said is a prime advantage.
“To put 10 books on your Sony reader or on your Kindle is a lot better than carrying 10 books,” she said. Readers often shy away from using the devices until they discover how pleasant reading on them can be, Friedman said.
“I was always the person who said, ‘how can you have any kind of experience but the tactile experience of holding a book in your hand?’,” she said. “And I still feel that way about certain books; but I don’t feel that way about every single book I read.”
Sony’s eBook Store offers downloads through its own software to a buyer’s PC. The volumes are then sent from the PC to a Reader Digital Book through a USB cable.
And for people wavering between paper and pixels, Sony does offer a concession — an optional leather cover. “I think it’s a shrewd move,” said Howe. “How retro is that!”— Reuters
Hymn book goes online
LONDON: Churches across the world are able to sing the Lord’s praises online after the launch of the first major digital hymn book on Thursday. Mission Praise — which has sold more than 2m copies as one of most popular hymn books in Britain and around the world — is now available at www.missionpraise.com. Visitors will be able to search through more than 1800 songs and — for an annual subscription of $79 per book — download words, sheet music, accompanying audio backing tracks. — Reuters

Taare Zameen Par - in real life - I salute Amol n Aamir and everyone behind the beautiful movie :)

Taare... effect: Dyslexia course gets a star billing

The Aamir movie inspires men to sign up for dyslexia remedial training programme

DIPTI SONAWALA

After the success of the recent film Taare Zameen Par, about a male school teacher and a child with dyslexia, many men are signing up for a remedial training programme for the otherwise little known learning disability.
The Maharashtra Dyslexia Association (MDA) has reported that in the last one month, 112 men have shown their willingness to train in the subject, while only 48 women showed interest. Some of the men realised late that they are themselves dsylexic and want to be trained to cope with their learning disablity. Some others are signing up out of curiosity.
Masarrat Khan, CEO of MDA says, “Compared to the knowledge people had about dyslexia a few months ago, there is more awareness about the subject. People have realised that anyone can face learning disablity and so they want to know more about it.”
Khan says that a dyslexic person faces learning disability through his life, and remedial training helps the person learn skills and strategies to cope with the problem.
She informs that some of the men also want the training to help their own kids, and some want to be trained to work towards creating awareness in society.
According to a High Court judgement in 2006, dyslexic kids can be certified from the Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General hospital (LTMG) hospital at Sion, after which they can get special privileges provided to dyslexic students by the state education department.
Rayomand Pavri (25), a web designer, has just completed his remedial training programme. Says Pavri, “ I realised that I have learning disability two years ago. I searched and went through a lot of information about it. When I joined the remedial training programme, I finally learnt how to cope with my problem.”
Says Shashank Tiwari (26), a computer engineer who wants to opt for the remedial training programme, “I was unaware about the term dyslexia and learning disabilities. After watching the movie, I surfed the internet with the motive of acquiring more information about dyslexia and then decided I want to undertake remedial training programme”.

The Maharashtra Dyslexia Association (MDA) has reported that in the last one month, 112 men have shown their willingness to train in the subject

Making Education a Business - How low can they get? - A TOI article - 18/01/2008

Ruia sells students books for five times the MRP

Students have started a signature campaign to protest against the unreasonable prices of science journals

YOGITA RAO

Students of Ramnarain Ruia College in Matunga have started a signature campaign to protest against being asked to pay Rs 2,400 for books.
An SYBSc student says, “They are giving us four science journals and six longbooks, which we can get for a few hundred Rupees in the market. Why should we pay five times more?”
Students, who bought the books, were given receipts on behalf of Shikshana Prasaraka Mandali, Pune, a trust that runs the college, while fee receipts given during admissions are on behalf of Ramnarain Ruia College, which has angered the students even more.
A final year student says, “We paid the amount at the beginning of the year and could not protest as our ID cards, examination forms, everything is given upon showing the fee receipt. Now that the second year students have taken on this campaign, we have also signed up as a mark of protest.”
Students of Computer Science were told that the amount is for journals, long books and internet access. A surprised student says, “The Computer Science course is self-financed, and the amount is included in the tuition fees. So why pay extra for computer access?”
Principal Suhas Pednekar says, “There has been some miscommunication. The amount is not compulsory; it was for add-on materials for science students. And we have to give the trust’s receipt as these materials are not included in the fees.”
The students have approached National Students Union of India (NSUI) with the issue. Sadaf Aboli president of NSUI says, “I have met the principal, and though he claims that the purchase of add-on materials was not compulsory, students have been forced to pay the amount. Why would then the college ask the students to pay up now, after most of them have already purchased the things from outside?”

Principal of Ramnarain Ruia College says the amount is not compulsory