Maharashtra News Archive: December 2005

Pakistan movie makers has their eyes on Mumbai
Sunday, December 18, 2005 | AY

Since Pakistan movies have a large expense in its post production, their industry plans to explore the post-production facilities available in Mumbai in a big way. The production cost comes down a lot if services of Indian film industry are utilised, as music composition, dubbing and recording of films are quite cheaper in Mumbai compared to other places in the world. Noting that films with social themes were more popular in Pakistan, Pakistani film producers and directors were keen to work in collaboration with Bollywood.

Cabinet reshufffle on the cards
Thursday, December 15, 2005 | AY

The Cheif minister Mr.Vilas Rao Deshmukh is all set for a major cabinet reshuffle. According to sources, the CM still is in a dilemma whether to increase the number of ministerial berths or not. Mr.Deshmukh will be inclined to do a reshuffle expecially to stamp his authority over the party and ministry. The CM's position in the party have stregthened after the recent bypoll victories by the party candidates by huge margins and the internal problems in the opposition Siva Sena.

An achievement by MEDA
Monday, December 12, 2005 | AY

Maharashtra Energy Development Agency(MEDA)launched the country's first commercial production of biodiesel fuel which was extracted from the seeds of karanja. The fuel has been produced and marketed by Pune-based Mint Biofuels, which is a subsidiary of Minilec and Intec group. CEO of Mint Biofuels, said karanja was chosen over other oil producing plants as it had an edge over other varieties, like being an Indian origin, it remains green during summer and also needs no pesticides. The company will set up a Rs 30 crore plant at Chiplun, which will have a capacity of producing 5,000 tonne of fuel per day. Meanwhile, the company is also undertaking plantation of karanja saplings.

Search for talented musicians
Saturday, December 10, 2005 | AY

Channel [v] is ready to roll another music-based talent hunt. Called [v] Launch Pad, the contest is about launching a music band. The competition opens for registration from December 15, 2005 onwards and, the auditions are scheduled for December 20. While music groups, from across the country can participate, for the auditions however, they would have to travel to Mumbai. Ultimately, five music bands will make it to the final round of [v] Launch Pad. In the deciding round that will take place on January 15, each of the five bands will get to perform with an international artist. CHannel [v] plans to promote the contest through college festivals and hang-out joints such as Cafe Coffee Day.

Maharashtra enters second round
Saturday, December 10, 2005 | AY

The 67th Junior National Table Tennis Championship witnessed the success of Maharashtra, Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) Academy and North Bengal, who have entered the second round. In the boys section, the prominent qualifiers were Sanil Shetty from Maharastra-A team, Devesh Karia, Aman Balgu and Mohit Verma from the PSPB, Soumyajit Ghose, Tuhin Sinha and Santa Bug Chakraborty from North Bengal. In the girls section Prajakta Tipale and Divya Deshpande and number one, Neha Agarwal impressed with their performance while two West Bengal girls, Soumi Mondal and Pallavi Kundu put up some mind blowing performance.

Coorporation under Wadia group starts healthcare business
Tuesday, December 6, 2005 | AY

Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation Ltd, belonging to the Wadia group is making an entry into the booming business of health care. They plan to set up or take over heath-care businesses, including that of dental products and orthopaedics. Bombay Burmah is predominantly into plantations and trading, with almost all of it in the old economy business. The earlier generation of the family was instrumental in giving the city a paediatric hospital. The Wadia Hospital is a well-equipped hospital partly run with government grants and is considered as one of the foremost paediatric and maternity hospital in the city.

Sindhudurg needs more attention from the govt
Sunday, December 4, 2005 | AY

MTDC is trying its best to promote Sindhudurg in Maharashtra on the tourist map of the country. Sindhudurg in Maharashtra is a tourism heaven with rugged forts, picturesque hills and numerous virgin beaches. Due to resistance from local fishermen, who feared hotels on the beaches may deny them access to sea, resisted the development of any star hotels which is a major drawback to this place. The villagers are also on the warpath as they feel that the state government shortchanged them by buying their land cheap and selling it to the hotel groups on a much higher rate. The government is not also doing enough to mediate between protesting villagers and hotel chains. MTDC has got around Rs 15 crore for developing tourist resorts, motels, water sports facility and repairs and renovation of historical monuments in the region. At present, around 2.5 lakh tourists, mostly from Maharashtra, visit this district. But for attracting foreign tourists, corporate tourists or tourists from other states, private investment in this sector is necessary.

Facilities for children introduced in the state
Saturday, December 3, 2005 | AY

11 more districts of Maharashtra, namely, Nanded, Yavtmal, Dhule, Beed, Nashik, Pune, Ahmdnagar, Sangli, Kolhapur, Jalgaon and Nandurbar have been included under the National Child Labour Project (NCLP) Scheme. Under the National Child Labour Project Scheme, Special Schools/Rehabilitation Centres are set up which provides various facilities to the children withdrawn from employment that include formal/non-formal education, vocational training, supplementary nutrition @ Rs. 5/- per child and Stipend @ Rs. 100/- per month to children withdrawn from employment and health care facilities. Based upon the recommendations of the State Government, Nanded, Nasik, Yavatmal and Beed have been recently sanctioned 25, 44, 2 and 25 special schools for child labour respectively in the year 2005 which covers 4,800 children. The State Government of Maharashtra submitted 15 proposals for inclusion of districts under the NCLP Scheme between 1999 to 2004.

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