Desperate Govt Proposes Road Widening, Grade Separator & Intelligent Traffic Signals At their wit's end in dealing with the heavy traffic volume on the BRT corridor which continues to be marked by jams and delays, the government has initiated a slew of measures to make the corridor work at any cost. The latest are road widening at the Siri Fort intersection, construction of a grade separator on Outer Ring Road and intelligent traffic signals throughout the corridor.

Angry over the mess in the BRT corridor and the mounting opposition to it in an election year, CM Sheila Dikshit had announced that work on the rest of the stretch and the other proposed five corridors would be discontinued till the glitches were removed from the pilot stretch. But commuters who daily emerge bruised and battered from the pilot stretch have been increasingly feeling dismayed by the work on the rest of the stretch that shows no signs of being called off.

Residents of Panchshila Park in south Delhi have strongly opposed Delhi government's move to reopen the U-turn at Savitri Nagar T-point on outer Ring Road. The government had opened the U-turn last week to ease traffic congestion on the BRT corridor. According to residents in the area, the U-turn had become a major problem for residents in the colony as peak hour traffic would force people to divert from the main road traffic to the service lane of the colony, which caused further chaos.

: That the bus rapid transit (BRT) corridor is a perennial nightmare was proved once again on Tuesday morning when two passengers of a Blueline were injured after the driver, while trying to save a pedestrian who had strayed in the bus lane, swerved the bus into a railing near Pushp Vihar.

Pedestrians Flout Rules, Snarl-Ups Continue Even after a Blueline bus rammed into a railing near Pushpa Bhawan in the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor while trying to save a man running in the dedicated bus lane, scores of pedestrians continued to run before buses and cross the road at will in other parts of the 5-km stretch. A good 10 days after trial runs began on the corridor, road users displayed no sense of discipline as pedestrians and private vehicle drivers alike flouted rules putting themselves and others around at the risk of accidents.

Despite fears that the flow of the Bhagirathi, the main tributary of the Ganga, is falling in volume, the government has said there is no such threat to the river and the "natural' receding of the Gangotri glacier does not require any corrective measures. "Gomukh is the ice cave of Gangotri glacier through which the river Bhagirathi emerges from the glacier. Therefore, the question of Ganga going far away from the main source does not arise,' earth sciences minister Kapil Sibal informed the Parliament.

Researchers have developed an eco-friendly inflatable solar panel called SolarStore for domestic use, which would help to save nearly 0.2 tonnes of CO2 emissions each year. According to a report in ENN (Environmental News Network), the SolarStore harnesses the sun's natural energy to warm domestic water and can heat up to three full tanks of water per day at temperatures close to 80

If you live anywhere near the BRT corridor, get set for a manic Monday, again.

Intellectual Property (IP) has always been a niche public policy area understood best by policy wonks and lawyers. Unless there is a major controversy, IP tends to escape public consciousness. But that is changing. Over the past few years campaigns to undermine IP have increased and are now reaching a fever pitch.

Renu Khator became the first woman of Indian origin to be appointed the president of the University of Houston, USA, and the chancellor of the UH system early this year. She will head a system which is considered one of North America's biggest with a faculty of 3,000-plus and over 50,000 students. On a recent visit to India, she talked to Meenakshi Kumar about the differences between American and Indian education system: You studied in India before moving to the US? What major difference do you find between the Indian and American education systems?