Varsity on pedals in go-green drive

Manipal University students don’t need a driver’s licence. All they need to do is balance themselves on a bicycle.

The university, which offers graduate and post-graduate professional courses, is worried about the possibility of its students’ rash driving. With accidents increasing sharply, university authorities have decided to introduce cycle zones.

In fact, first-year degree students will have to compulsorily cycle to classes, hostels and even for trips outside, as it plans to prevent them from using two and four-wheelers in the sprawling university-town’s campus.

The university is willing to spend more than Rs 1 crore on bicycles to equip nearly all of its 5,000 first-year students. Authorities say the move will also help curb emissions and give a fillip to the university’s efforts to go green.

Manipal has been picked by the ministry of forests and environment for its “green cities project”, which aims to regulate e-waste, go solar and use only natural lighting. With cycles replacing hot wheels, the university hopes to cut down on emissions, too.

‘Safety net’ for Metro drivers

Delhi’s Metro will soon have access to information transmission technology which will remain operational even in the immediate aftermath of bomb attacks similar to the ones witnessed in London over two years ago.

The transmission system will allow train drivers access to the latest information from a central control room, through cables that will remain undisrupted even by medium-intensity bomb blasts, Metro officials said.

Delhi Metro Rail Corporation has contracted out the task for its second phase to private firm Fibcom. “This technology will provide the most reliable system of transmission available today,” Rajiv Dewan of Fibcom said. The technology is known as Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH). Fibcom will lay out the cables underneath the Metro tracks for a distance of more than 30km.

‘Soft’ corner for MNCs

Like the Centre, the DMK-led government’s heart is with the aam aadmi. But some feel its wallets open more for MNCs.

The perception, strongly denied by those in power in Chennai, has been fuelled by sops showered on some global giants to set up ventures in the state.

The demand for expanding the airport’s cargo complex, for instance, had been an old one but work on the plan picked up after Nokia pressed for it. The cellphone giant is setting a plant at nearby Sriperumbudur, its first in India.

ome fast-growing courier firms are also believed to have pushed for a larger complex. The result: a new courier terminal, a first for an Indian airport, has come up.

Taiwan’s Foxconn was handed a rare tax exemption on items used in its special economic zone for electronic hardware. Its venture is also coming up near Sriperumbudur.

Officials assert the focus on MNCs isn’t at the common man’s expense. They say it is the people who will benefit from new jobs to be offered by the ventures.

Milk outcry

The dairy duel in the capital has started spilling over.

Weeks after Mother Dairy jacked up prices by Re 1 per litre in Delhi and in the areas around the city, protests against the costlier milk have taken a political turn.

Delhi BJP chief Harsh Vardhan slammed the increase as a move against the common man and warned other suppliers would follow the state-owned company. Mother Dairy has blamed the hike on higher costs.

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