Now fly straight into Chandigarh from abroad

The wait for the people in Chandigarh would be over as fresh announcements about starting international flights from the new airport are making the round once again. Fly Dubai, which had to abandon its connection to Chandigarh due to refusal of permission to land at night due to security reasons, would again be looking for the opportunity.

The new terminal is expected to have separate facilities for handling international passengers,
and with the night landing facility also getting operational by January 2011, we hope that one would be able to fly to Canada, USA, Malaysia, UAE, and Bangkok.

Solid Waste Management

We keep on hearing about the problems with our municipal waste treatment plant and more often than not we have the fingers pointed at them for not being able to take care of the city's garbage and continued smell emanating from there, without knowing the real fact.
The moment we talk about garbage we consider anything and everything that is discarded from our office or created in our kitchen or backyard is suitable to go into the municipal waste bin.
Netherlands and European countries have disciplined themselves to handle waste and have been able to successfully generate power to meet the requirements for their cities. And the starting point is our home. The most significant, the very first and foremost requirement for managing municipal waste is segregation of domestic waste. Segregation of waste right at the point of origin is the only way to successfully manage municipal waste.
The process must start from our homes. The campaign to keep our city clean and green must start from our own homes. Let us keep separate bins to dispose of the household and office waste.

eRevolution in September at Chandigarh

‘Future Ready?’ is the theme that some of the leading IT experts would be discussing at the sixth edition of the popular IT event, eRevolution 2010.
The Union Territory of Chandigarh and Punjab have been spearheading the IT revolution in the region in the past five years with eRevolution setting the agenda for the growth of IT/ITeS in the region since 2005.
In the very first year itself, then head of NASSCOM, Kiran Karnik expressed the need for better connectivity to the region with the rest of the world and sought infrastructural development that could pave the way for more investments coming into the state.
eRevolution was initiated by Cyber Media to promote the region as the upcoming investment destination, and right from the kick-off the first event, the region has seen rapid development in many areas including the setting up of Rajiv Gandhi Chandigarh Technology Park, IT park in Mohali areas, four-laning of national highways, hi-speed broadband connectivity, rail linkages and more flights to Chandigarh airport, which is getting upgraded to international status with direct links to many countries becoming a reality in few months from now.
Punjab Infotech which is hosting the event with Chandigarh IT Department is excited about the event since it would give opportunity to leverage its excellent infrastructure and quality of life to the new starts-up and IT companies wishing to expand into the region, says Rakesh Verma, Managing Director, Punjab Infotech.
The setting up of the ISB in Mohali, IIT-Ropar, and proximity to numerous other technical and business institutes in the region, the investors can depend upon the highly skilled and trained manpower, for which both the Chandigarh Administration and Punjab Infotech are making special endeavours and have initiated numerous academia-industry-government linkages.
Many new IT Parks/SEZs have been promoted in Mohali, Ropar, Rajpura, Kapurthala areas with single-window clearance system to help the entrepreneurs in every possible way.
Besides, Punjab Infotech and Department of IT in Chandigarh Administration, eRevolution2010 is co-hosted by STPI Mohali, along with Nasscom and TiE as the conference partners.
On the first day the Conference shall be looking at the 'Future Readiness' challenges for the region and explore the possibilities of ICT-Cluster Collaborations, besides a power panel discussion on "Building New India".
The Nasscom led session on the second day would look at the region 5 years from now, New Age Marketing, 3G Impact, etc.
For more information and registration, you can email Shweta Trehan, Viney Verma or Amresh Mishra

Chandigarh - The Cleanest City

Yes, Chandigarh has been adjudged recently as the cleanest city. Indeed, compared to many other cities in the country today. But how clean will it be?
Just go out in the evening for a walk on Sukhna Lake and you will find all sorts of litter including empty cups, paper, empty packets of chips. The central market place, Sector 17, is no better. And lots of other places. Well-educated people would throw out wrappers and empty bottles and paper plates out of their cars on the road, as if this is the free dustbin.
It's time for all of us to consciously make endeavour not to make our city a big dustbin. Let's be proud of our city, and its beauty. Let's keep it clean.