mrityunjaybose

Gandhi's autobiography again in stalls MRITYUNJAY BOSE Mumbai: Mahatma Gandhi's 'The Story of My Experiments with Truth' – is by all means a bestseller – with more than 43 lakh copies being sold so far – and it still continues to attract people. More and more people are purchasing this book – which is available in a dozen languages – Indian and foreign. “In the present context of increasing violence, terrorism and crime, the autobiography and other books of Mahatma Gandhi are inspiring many people all over the world. Gandhiji has left indelible footprints on the sand of time. Even after 62 years of his departure from the world, his thoughts and deeds have not waned,” says veteran Gandhian, TRK Somaiya of Gandhi Book Centre and Mumbai Sarvodaya Mandal. To commemorate Gandhiji's 62nd death anniversary, 300 books on and by Gandhi, Vinoba and Sarvodaya will be displayed and sold at 50% discount by Mumbai Sarvodaya Mandal and Gandhi Book Centre with the financial assista...

Shirish Inamdar gets President's medal SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT bureaus@sakaaltimes.com Mumbai: A veteran of intelligence gathering, assessment and training in Maharashtra Police, Shirish Inamdar – who has an unblemished service record of 32 years, has been conferred with President's Police Medal for Distinguished Service. Inamdar is currently Additional Deputy Commissioner (Political) in the State Intelligence Department (SID). Prior to this assignment, he was Principal of Special Branch Training Institute and has trained hundreds of intelligence officers including the first batch of the intelligence cadre. He has won more than 200 rewards for the good work done by him. On August 15, 2000, he was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal by the President of India and subsequently the Director General's Insignia for meritorious service. He joined the police as a Sub-Inspector in 1973 and he was ranked third in the batch of 165 cadets in the training course. He excelled himself in ...

January 8, 2009 NEW SCIENTIFIC FRONTIERS Fourth exploration planned to Arctic SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT Mumbai: A new exploration to the Arctic is being planned and the Government of India has invited scientific proposals on varied scientific topics like space weather and air quality research and aerosol studies to be conducted there. So far India has sent 28 research missions to Antarctica since 1981 – and as far as the research in Arctic is concerned this would be the fourth mission. The National Centre of Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR), an autonomous R & D institution under the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) has invited proposals. "We are now planning the fourth exploration mission, and it is a continuation of the programme that commenced nearly two years ago," a researcher of Goa-based NCAOR told Sakaal Times on Thursday. The proposals have been invited from national scientific organisations/institutions, research laboratories and universities with a sustain...

Save Sparrows: They Are The Future The number of sparrows is dwindling. And that too very fast. Though the issue may not strike us in one go, the decline in the number of sparrows is really a matter of concern. But one thing that is for sure is that as fellow citizens we can do out bit to save this bird. For Mumbai, our own city, the issue is more important. "House sparrows (Passer domesticus) are the indicator of the environment and they are facing a serious threat. We need to generate funds for extensive research," says Dilawar Mohammed, adding that he would be visiting several places across the country to generate more data on sparrows and their decline. Dilawar has been associated with the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) and have recently launched a website – www.natureforever.org – to save sparrows. He said that the situation is "serious" as house sparrows are indicators of the environment and the decline shows that. Many reasons have been attribut...

September 3, 2008 ENCOUNTER COPS From: MRITYUNJAY BOSE Last Sunday when at the stroke of 1 am, when Pradeep Sharma heard the knock at the door of his flat, he had no idea what was coming. When he opened the door, he was shocked – he found that he has been dismissed from the Mumbai Police, which he served for more than 25 years. The reason – links with underworld. Like Sharma – several of his trigger-happy colleagues and contemporaries are booked in some or the other cases or totally sidelines within the force barring a few. During their heydays, these "encounter specialists" together killed more than 700 criminals of different gangs - now-a-days, they just kill time. They were the poster-boys of Mumbai Police and performed the role of "Dirty Harry", came to be eulogized as "encounter specialists" or "encounter cops" and earned sobriquets like "super cops" – but today if one rewinds to the period of late nineties and compare with the pr...

September 1, 2008From: Mrityunjay Bose MUMBAI POLICE Marked improvement in response timeReaches crime spot in seven minutes; inching towards the international standard Mumbai: In a major achievement for Mumbai police - which is ranked next only to Scotland Yard in crime detection, the city cops have improved the response time to nearly seven minutes - inching towards the international standard of five minutes."The response time is a major factor in policing. In Hindi films we often see the police arriving once everything is over," joint commissioner of police (law and order) K L Prasad said. "We need to reach the scene fast, though in some real cases, it may not happen," he added.Prasad said that as far as the best was concerned - in Mumbai in some cases it is two to three minutes, while the maximum was 12 to 13 minutes. "On an average, the response time that we currently have is six-and-a-half-minutes to seven minutes," he said, pointing out that internat...