Maharashtra News Archive: April 2006

Maharashtra boosts religious tourism
Sunday, April 30, 2006 | AY

The Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) is planning to e-link with Shirdi Sansthan, Siddhivinayak temple, Tuljapur and Shegaon temples. As part of the new tourism policy, MTDC is aiming at administrative autonomy, freedom to choose joint venture partners and relaxation of complex land acquisition and tendering norms. The policy aims to lure 35 lakh tourists, expected to visit Mumbai by the end 2010, to the numerous exotic destinations in the state.

Matichya Chuli
Saturday, April 29, 2006 | AY

Mahesh Manjrekar is back with a Marathi film 'Matichya Chuli' that's been declared a superhit in Pune. Produced by Ashwami Manjrekar and directed by his brother Sudesh Manjrekar and Atul Kale. It is based on the age-old premise of the mother-in-law/daughter-in-law tussles and is a series of happenings in a family that everyone can identify with.

Commonwealth youth games in 2008
Saturday, April 29, 2006 | AY

The 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games has been moved from Delhi to Pune and would be held from October 12 to 18, 2008. Around 1000 athletes and 250 officials will take part in the Games, which was originally to be held in Delhi but was shifted to Pune as the capital would be getting ready for the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Pune has now an international airport and all the necessary infrastructure necessary for holding these Games.

Maharashtra to honour Rajnikanth
Saturday, April 29, 2006 | AY

Maharashtra Government has decided to honour its famous son of the soil who made it to superstardom in distant Tamil Nadu with the prestigious Raj Kapoor award in recognition of his contributions to cinema. Shivaji Rao Gaekwad (Rajni’s real name) will be presented the award at a glittering ceremony in Pune on April 30. Rajni was born in Maharashtra but moved over to Karnataka for a living. He worked for a while as a bus conductor. It was after watching his ‘style’ that a famous director K Balachander gave him a break in his ‘Apoorva Ragangal’.

John Abraham clothing in Mumbai
Wednesday, April 26, 2006 | AY

John Abraham has launched 'John Abraham clothing,' his signature collection of jeans in Mumbai. The clothes from this signature line will be designed by the actor himself. They are expected to be available in stores by Fall, 2006. Internationally, many celebrities have clothing brands named after them. However, John is the first Indian actor to have a clothing brand after his name.

Bus strike called off
Sunday, April 23, 2006 | AY

Employees of Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) workers had launched an indefinite strike from Friday demanding higher wages. The strike saw 3200 BEST buses go off the road, affecting nearly 50 lakh commuters across Mumbai and its suburbs. BEST General manager S Ksatriya said the employees union and the management had two-hour-long meeting following which the strike was called off.

BJP leader shot by his sibling
Saturday, April 22, 2006 | AY

BJP leader Pramod Mahajan, shot by his younger brother, had undergone underwent a four-hour surgery at the Hinduja hospital. Mahajan has suffered ‘massive blood loss’ due to injuries in the liver, lower chest, abdomen, the pancreas, duodenum, and an important vein caused by the three bullets. Mahajan has been shifted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and is put on ventilator support. Bullets have travelled through the right lower part of the chest, through the diaphragm. They have gone through the liver, shattering its right side, damaged the head of the pancreas and duodenum, an inferior venacava (ivc), which is the main vein in the abdomen carrying blood to the heart. It has also injured the small ntestine. The injury to the ivc has been repaired.

Hotels to go on indefinite strike
Wednesday, April 19, 2006 | AY

The Indian Hotel and Restaurant Association (AHAR), and office bearers of other hotel organizations, decided to go on an indefinite strike from Wednesday April 19, opposing the Value Added Tax (VAT). VAT has caused irrecoverable losses to the hotel industry. Since the hoteliers have not been successful in appealing to the government earlier, the initiative to go on an indefinite strike has been taken, to draw the attention of the government.

Marine Drive getting groomed
Tuesday, April 18, 2006 | AY

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has a wonderful plan for refurbishment of the Marine Drive seafront and Chowpatty. The revamp plan includes beautification of the foothpaths, landscaping, improved sit-outs, environmental friendly bus stops, a wider promenade and larger parking space. The MMRDA will spend Rs 130 crore over the next nine months for the project, and the Civic Corporation will add another Rs 60 crore to strengthen the sea wall and the precinct.

Maths optional from std VIII
Monday, April 17, 2006 | AY

State Minister for School Education Vasant Purke said that Maharashtra is planning to make Mathematics as an optional subject for students from standard eighth. The students were finding it very difficult to get out of the Mathematics phobia and the percentage of failure at the secondary school certificate (SSC) board examination is increasing. A few other subjects like agriculture, computer basics, music, crafts etc will be added to the syllabus as compulsory in place of Maths. However, the Minister said English would be taught right from Std.I and efforts would be made to encourage it.

Floating port to be launched soon
Wednesday, April 12, 2006 | AY

Katra Group has tied up with Norway-based marine transport major Wilh Wilhelmsen to launch a ‘floating port’ — a 250-metre long ship with 1,30,000 metric tonne of cargo capacity. The ship will help load and unload cargo to and from big ships, which cannot drop anchor close to the port, owing to draught constraints. Katra Group and Wilh Wilhelmsen have floated this as a 50:50 joint venture. Former chief of PepsiCo Foods India, Mr Vangal said that although India has a 6,800 km coastline and over 200 ports, all of them are shallow. As a result, large bulk carriers do not come to India due to poor loading and unloading capabilities of our ports. Using the new transshipment solution will result in a cost savings of $3-5 per tonne.

Mumbai hosts ATP tournament
Tuesday, April 11, 2006 | AY

From this year onwards, India will host two ATP tournaments, after Globosport asked for the rights to All India Tennis Association for holding another meet, which will be held in Mumbai from September 25 to October 1. According to an agency report from London, the Mumbai Open will replace the $380000 Vietnam Open slated for Ho Chin Minh City. The other ATP meet is the Chennai Open, the last edition of which was won by Croat Ivan Ljubicic.

Matichya Chuli
Monday, April 10, 2006 | AY

Mahesh Manjrekar's next production is a marathi film 'Matichya Chuli'. Thsi film is based on the ups and downs faced in a marriage. Directed by his brother Sudesh Manjrekar and Atul Kale, both of whom have assisted him in several ventures earlier, the movie centres around a traditional Maharashtrian household and has been shot in Pune. It talks about a family where the parents dream of getting their only son married to a girl of their choice, but the son ends up tying the knot with someone else. The movie seeks to unfold the nitty gritties of different relationships, whether it is between the father and son or the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. It includes leading marathi actors Vandana Gupte, Sudhir Joshi and Ankush Chaudhari.

EInfochips expands in Pune
Sunday, April 9, 2006 | AY

Embedded software and chip design developer eInfochips announced the opening of its second centre in Pune. The company intends to accelerate its growth to 'eventually' become one of the top three players in the embedded and chip design domain. The company has 450 employees located in Ahmedabad and Pune. With this new 10,000 sq ft centre, we plan to double the number of our software professionals in the city from the current 75 to 150. With clients such as Texas Instruments (TI) ,Hitachi, Samsung, IBM, Fujitsu to name a few, eInfochips will also house an embedded lab for developing reference designs for video surveillance and video conferencing applications for TI in the city.

Just a phone call away to track your case in courts
Saturday, April 8, 2006 | AY

Now people dont have to depend on their lawyers to find out their case status in courts. The high court has launched an automated telephone service to enable litigants to track their cases in court. All that one has to do is dial 22673090 and punch in the necessary details regarding the case to find out the next date of hearing or the date of disposal. Based on the Interactive Voice Response System, the service is available in Hindi, Marathi and English from 8am to 9pm on working days. Developed by the National Informatics Centre unit of the HC, the service has already received about 120 calls.

Polio immunisation in the state
Saturday, April 8, 2006 | AY

Pune district has activated its machinery to administer the polio dose to 4.46 lakh children below five years on Sunday and May 21. There has not been a single case of polio in Pune district since 2001. Maharashtra too has been free of polio since 2005. In 2006, there were only two States that had polio cases — Uttar Pradesh had 12 cases and Bihar reported four cases. From 1,126 cases of polio in the country in 1999, the number has shot down to 16 in 2006. Normally, the immunisation rounds are undertaken in relatively cooler months of December, January and February. Hence there is the crucial task of maintaining the cold chain (in which the vaccine is stored) in the hot months of April and May. The Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd has also been urged to maintain uninterrupted supply of power on these days. A total of 6.4 lakh doses of the polio vaccine has been supplied to the primary health centres.

Rs 50 per quintal for onions
Saturday, April 8, 2006 | AY

Onion producers in Maharashtra who sold their produce to Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMCs) in the state during February and March this year would be given a subsidy of Rs 50 per quintal. The decision would be applicable to onions sold in all APMCs in the state, except in Mumbai. The state government would also follow up with the centre, the proposal for declaring Rs five per kg as minimum support price of onions. The minister said the government has also decided to provide incentives to onion exporters.

Subhash Ghai helps budding actors
Wednesday, April 5, 2006 | AY

Indian filmmaker Subhash Ghai has opened a film school in Mumbai for budding performers. His new school, Whistling Woods International, will offer two-year, full-time programs in acting, cinematography, direction, editing, sound recording and design, music production, animation and screen writing. The courses begin in July. The school is located in Film City, on the outskirts of the city, where many Indian movies are filmed. Ghai said the location of the institute would help students receive hands-on training, visit movie sets, and interact with filmmakers and actors.

CM agrees to halt the Babli work
Wednesday, April 5, 2006 | AY

Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, during his meeting with Andhra Pradesh counterpart Y. S. Rajasekhara Rao in the presence of Union Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz, has agreed to put on hold work on the inter-State Babli reservoir project, till the technical committee is able to convince Andhra's technical committee that construction would not adversely affect Andhra Pradesh. Maharashtra re-started work on the project early last month in the wake of a fall in the water level of Godavari.

Ramesh Deo woos BMC to fund for his movie
Tuesday, April 4, 2006 | AY

Ramesh Deo is palnning to make a movie based on freedom fighter Vasudeo Balwant Phadke’s life and would name it "Deepstambh". The movie will help re-launch his elder son Ajinkya Deo’s acting career and will also be his younger son, Abhinay’s debut as director. Deo has been meeting bigwigs of the BMC, over the past few weeks, to try and convince them to finance part of his Rs 1.5 crore film. The actor hopes to chronicle the freedom fighter’s life in a bi-lingual (English-Marathi) film. The state government has already sanctioned Rs 45 lakh for the Marathi film.

Zicom Electronic sets up traffic surveillance system
Tuesday, April 4, 2006 | AY

Zicom Electronic Security Systems has bagged an order for setting up Mumbai traffic surveillance system. In its first phase this state-of-the-art surveillance system will include implementation of a remotely managed video surveillance at 100 identified locations in Mumbai. The system will collect real time pictures from cameras and transmit them over leased lines with the help of fiber optical technology to the central control room and mobile vans where they will be digitally recorded, and displayed for immediate response.

Well known literateur passes away
Monday, April 3, 2006 | AY

Rajabhau Mangalvedekar, renowned literateur, passed away yesterday evening. He is survived by wife, a son and daughter. Rajabhau has written over 500 books, a lot of them were for children. In a writing career spanning over 50 years, he had been conferred many awards including, Gadima Puraskar by different organisations for his contribution to the Marathi literature.

Chikun guinea in Maharashtra
Monday, April 3, 2006 | AY

Maharashtra health officials has reported outbreak of 'Chikun guinea' or guinea fever in Malegaon in Nasik district. Several people have been affected by this mosquito-transmitted disease and of the 18 samples sent to National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, two cases have been declared positive for `chikun guinea'. It is a viral disease, the fever causes severe body ache and thus makes a person stoop. The disease is a milder form of dengue with almost similar symptoms and is treatable, the virus is transmitted by same mosquito vector Aedes aegypti.

Good news for marathi film lovers
Sunday, April 2, 2006 | AY

Cinemax will host a week long Marathi Film Festival starting this Friday-March 31. All the movie buffs will be able to watch Marathi films like Dombivali Fast, Navra Majha Navasacha, Aga Bai Arrecha, Kai Dyaycha Bola, Goad Gupeeth and Namdar Mukhya Mantri Ganpya Gawde. The Cinemax Marathi Film Festival will screen six popular Marathi Films from 31st- 5th April 2006 daily at 8pm. This festival will attract a host of top celebrities from the Marathi film industry like Dilip Prabhavalkar, Vijay Patkar, Sandeep Kulkarni, Makrand Anaspure and many more.

Fire at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust
Sunday, April 2, 2006 | AY

A major fire broke out in a building at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) at Nhava Sheva in Uran in Navi Mumbai early today. The fire broke out at 4.20 am on the 4th floor of the JNPT building, housing several offices and was still on, police said. At least seven fire tenders have been rushed to the spot to extinguish the fire, police said adding the cause of the fire was yet to be ascertained.

Hirwa Chuda
Saturday, April 1, 2006 | AY

Post production of "Hirwa Chuda", produced by Shashi Prabhu and Suvana Prabhu, directed by Arun Bhosale, has been completed. Starring Mohan Joshi, Milind Gawali, Dipali, Kuldeep Pawar, Rama Joshi, Sharad Ponkshe, Dr Vilas Ujawane, Rajan Tamhane, Ganesh Pardeshi, Dipti Samel, Omkar Manjrekar, Smita Shewale and Arun Nalawade, it has story-screenplay by Suresh Valmiki, lyrics by Sadanand Dabir, music by Nirmal Puwar, editing by Arun-Shekhar, choreography by Shabana-Raju-Deepali Vichare.

New artificial turfs for India
Saturday, April 1, 2006 | AY

The Indian men’s hockey team is languishing at the bottom after finishing sixth in the recent Commonwealth Games and last in the Champions Trophy in December, 2005. The government is hoping to give the game a boost by creating state-of-the-art infrastructure. The Sports Authority of India (SAI) will create eight new artificial turfs around the country at a cost of Rs 20-22 cr. Some of the centres that will benefit are Mumbai’s Kandivali centre, Coorg, Gandhinagar, Patiala, Kolkata and Rourkela.

Cognos opens in Mumbai
Saturday, April 1, 2006 | AY

Cognos has announced the opening of its liaison office in Mumbai to strengthen its presence in the fast growing CPM & BI software market in India. The company also announced the appointment of Suresh Chandra as its country manager for India. Chandra is responsible for all sales, marketing, consulting and administration in the region. His top priorities include leveraging market opportunities in India, while building a strong brand and business across the entire region. Cognos, through its partners, already has 200 customers in India including Reserve Bank of India, American Express, HSBC, HDFC, Kodak India, Tata Teleservices and Ministry of Statistics.

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