NEW YORK – Ford Motor says sales in China by the company and its local partners jumped 84 percent in the first quarter, fueled by higher demand for passenger cars and commercial vehicles.

The jump highlights China’s key role in driving demand for global automakers, while sales remain weak elsewhere.

Ford Motor Co., based in Dearborn, Mich., said it and its local partners sold a total of 153,362 units during the quarter.

Its passenger car joint venture, Changan Ford Mazda Automobile, sold 108,131 units, a 89 percent increase from last year.

Its commercial vehicle investment, Jiagling Motors Corp., sold 41,300 units, boosted by sales of 11,438 Ford Transits.

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NEW YORK — About half the 4,313 security cameras installed along New York City‘s subways aren’t seeing a thing — a blind spot in the crime and terrorism safety net for the nation’s largest city.

“A lot of those cameras don’t work, and maybe someday we’re going to get very badly hurt because of it,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Tuesday.

While cameras are out of commission in the subway, the cash-strapped Metropolitan Transportation Authority has also been forced to cut officers who patrol the major bridges and tunnels on the weekends.

The problem of missing video came to light after two men were stabbed to death on the subway — and there was no camera installed in the station to catch an image of the killer. Darnell Morel and Ricardo Williams, both 24, were killed in a fight that started around 5 a.m. Sunday at the Christopher Street station, about four miles from the World Trade Center site.

The New York Police Department says it doesn’t depend on the surveillance cameras set up by the MTA — instead, officers patrol the subways and set up random bag searches in stations around the city.

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From a GPS-enabled pocket travel guide to an environment-friendly media solutions provider, incubatees at Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA) have a variety of innovations lined up this year. The Entrepreneurship Development Centre (EDC) at MICA is abuzz with activity as incubatees create innovative ideas and work towards transforming them into successful business ventures.

Take for instance, Dare India, a social enterprise for complete inclusion of the disabled by Gaurav Kumar, which aims to create an integrated platform for the empowerment of the disabled. For this incubatee, who once worked with Infosys, a group of disabled children performing in a popular dance programme on television set off the idea of dealing with the challenges of enhancing the skills of the disabled. “My idea is not just to create employment but to generate a culture of inclusion by creating a reach-out platform, where the corporates and the disabled can meet for enterprise development. It will be a long-term exercise of facilitating employment, education, entertainment, recreation and such facilities for the social inclusion of disabled,” says Kumar, who belongs to Bihar.

To begin with, Kumar will launch an Indian Sign Language Workshop at MICA on April 17 to enable even normal people to learn the sign language of the physically disabled. “While the disabled may have learnt the sign language, it is imperative that normal people learn sign language to ensure that they can include the disabled at all levels,” says Kumar, who has also conducted research with the Blind People’s Association. The next step for Gaurav would be to create a database and to fin opportunities for disabled.

Similarly, Ad innovatives by Shakti Bharihok, is a concept to provide customised media solutions, which are green and incorporate empowerment schemes for the local workforce. Ad innovatives is a full service media house providing environment-friendly media solutions, and brand building services to small, medium and large businesses across all sectors.

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