Page 544 - Environment
Essar signs 15-year gas sale deal with GAIL
Ruia brothers-led Essar Oil and Gas Exploration and Production (EOGEPL) on Thursday announced that it has signed a 15-year Gas Sale and Purchase Agreement (GSPA) with state-run gas utility GAIL.
Arrival operations at Cochin international airport resume after two hours
Arrival operations at the Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) resumed nearly two hours after it was suspended in view of possible inundation in the airport area following a rising water level in the Periyar river. The CIAL is situated close to the river. "As the situation is improved we are resuming all operations from 3.05 pm today," a CIAL spokesperson said. The CIAL had earlier stopped arrival operations from 1.10 pm, as a precautionary measure. The decision to resume arrival operations was taken after the situation was reviewed by Ernakulam District Collector and top officials of the airport management, the spokesperson said. Earlier, the Ernakulam district administration conducted a review of the situation at the airport after the water level in a canal near it started rising. The decision to suspend the arrival operation was taken after four shutters of the Idamalayar dam were opened this morning to release excess water. One shutter of the Idukki dam was also partially ..
Half-degree less warming can avoid precipitation extremes: Study
Just a half-degree Celsius less warming could prevent extreme precipitation events, and make a major difference when it comes to climate change, according to a study. Published in the journal Nature Communications, the study confirms the significance of the incremental global warming limits articulated by the Paris Agreement. A total of 175 parties (174 countries and the European Union) agreed to work to stop global warming from increasing more than two degrees Celsius, and every effort is to be made to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius and prevent the last half of a degree of warming. The half-degree Celsius is so significant that it could be the barrier preventing extreme precipitation events, according to Tianjun Zhou, a professor at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences. "As the climate warms, both the mean state and the variability of extreme precipitation are projected to increase, inducing more intense and dangerous extreme events," Zhou said. "Limiting global ..
Need to promote medicinal plants grown by tribal people: Jual Oram
Union minister Jual Oram today said that not much attention has been paid to the harnessing of "forest wealth" and there is a need to promote medicinal plants grown by tribal people to help them "achieve the true remuneration". The Union Tribal Affairs Minister made the remarks during the signing of an MoU between the Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development of Federation of India (TRIFED), Ministry of Tribal Affairs, and the National Medicinal Plants Board, Ministry of Ayush, to promote "medicinal forest produce for livelihood development of tribal people". Oram said, "Till now, the focus had been on mining of minerals, be it iron ore, coal... which is non-renewable. But there is another wealth - minor forest produce - and not much attention has been paid to it. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has stressed on it. It is renewable and eco-friendly." "We used to sell around 20 kg of mahua (a tribal drink) for 25 paise. Today, if we consider the minimum support price, the same amount will ..
Cockpit CO2 levels affect pilot flight performance: Study
Higher carbon dioxide (CO2) levels on the flight deck may negatively affect an airline pilot's performance, a study suggests. Commercial airline pilots were significantly better at performing advanced manoeuvres in a flight simulator when CO2 levels in the cockpit were 700 parts per million (ppm) and 1,500 ppm than at 2,500 ppm, researchers said. "The entire flight experience is designed around a culture of 'safety first.' Optimising air quality on the flight deck must continue to be a part of that safety equation," said Joseph Allen, an assistant professor at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health in the US. The research, published in the Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology, recruited 30 male commercial airline pilots and split them into teams of two. Each team was asked to perform three 3-hour-long flight simulations that consisted of 21 manoeuvres of varying degrees of difficulty without the aid of autopilot. Both pilots on each team took a 90-minute turn .
Board of Ravalgaon Sugar Farm approves sale of assets at Ravalgaon
At meeting held on 09 August 2018
33 trees heavily pruned, 5 cut without permission in NCERT campus, Delhi: Official
Around 33 trees were heavily pruned and five cut in the NCERT campus on Aurobindo Road without permission from the forest department, an official said today. Acting on a complaint from an NGO, a team of forest rangers visited the campus yesterday and found that five trees were cut and 33 were heavily pruned, the forest department official said. Cutting and even pruning of trees require permission from authorities under the Delhi Preservation of Trees Act. He said the NCERT campus had applied for permission to cut and prune trees, but before the forest department could take a look into the application, the trees were pruned and some cut. A report was submitted yesterday by the forest rangers who visited the spot and a decision on further action would be soon taken, the official said. According to the complainant Verhaen Khanna from New Delhi Nature Society (NDNS), more trees were pruned than recorded by the forest department. "A whole row of trees along the fence were heavily pruned ...
Arrival operations at Cochin international airport stopped
The Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) stopped the arrival operations today in view of possible inundation in the airport area following a rising water level in the Periyar river. The CIAL is situated close to the river. "As a measure of precaution, we are stopping arrival operations from 1.10 pm today," a CIAL spokesperson said. Earlier, the Ernakulam district administration conducted a review of the situation at the airport after the water level in a canal near it started rising. The decision came after four shutters of the Idamalayar dam were opened this morning to release excess water. One shutter of the Idukki dam was also partially opened as a trial run. The opening of the dam shutters had resulted in an increase in the water level in the Periyar river. Heavy rains have been lashing several parts of Kerala for the past few days, leading to a copious inflow into the state's reservoirs.
Biodegradable, paper-based batteries developed
Scientists have created a biodegradable, paper-based battery that is more efficient than previously possible, and could help reduce electronic waste generated in the future. For years, there has been excitement in the scientific community about the possibility of paper-based batteries as an eco-friendly alternative. However, the proposed designs were never quite powerful enough, they were difficult to produce and it was questionable whether they were really biodegradable. The biobattery, developed by researchers from Binghamton University in the US, uses a hybrid of paper and engineered polymers. The polymers - poly (amic) acid and poly (pyromellitic dianhydride-p-phenylenediamine) - were the key to giving the batteries biodegrading properties. "There's been a dramatic increase in electronic waste and this may be an excellent way to start reducing that," said Seokheun Choi, associate professor at Binghamton University. "Our hybrid paper battery exhibited a much higher power-to-cost ...
AI's next terrority to annex: picking vegetables
Artificial intelligence will soon be powering robots that will essentially replace farmers to pick vegetables. Thanks to the global warming, the increasing demand in agriculture, and the lack of ample land for farming, robotics is the solution seem by many to meet the demand of the exploding global population.An American startup, Root AI, is working towards the direction of making indoor farming the next big thing in agriculture where robots, and not humans, help produce and harvest the crop with maximum optimisation of resources.One of the first inventions coming from Root AI is a mobile robot for indoor farming facilities. Using the cameras and sensors on it, the robot is capable of picking tomatoes the right way and assess the health of the crops, conduct operations such as pruning vines, observing and controlling ripening to cultivate crops, TechCrunch reported.Root AI is expected to begin the pilot tests from 2019. Given that the US, and other parts of the world, are facing a ...
L&T's power business bags orders worth Rs 1,080 cr
Larsen and Toubro (L&T) today said its power business has won orders worth Rs 1,080 crore in the domestic market. "The business has received two orders from NTPC for setting up flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) systems at its supercritical thermal power plants at Khargone, Madhya Pradesh and Lara, Chhattisgarh," L&T said in a BSE filing. Installation of FGD systems in existing and upcoming thermal power plants has been made mandatory by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, (MoEFCC) to curtail sulfur dioxide emissions, it added. L&T said it has a long-term technical licence agreement with Chiyoda Corporation of Japan for FGD technology. It said its power business through its joint venture companies has also won orders in the domestic and export markets for engineering services and supply of components. Shares of the company were trading 0.33 per cent higher at Rs 1,302 apiece on BSE.
Criminal case filed against BMW over South Korea car fires
A group of BMW owners in South Korea filed a criminal complaint against the German automaker today over alleged delays in recalling more than 100,000 cars after a spate of engine fires, their lawyer said. The timing of the recall, which was issued last month, is already the subject of a government probe, after more 30 BMW cars -- mostly the 520d sedan model -- caught fire this year in South Korea. BMW apologised on Monday for the fires, blaming a faulty component that was aimed at reducing emissions from diesel engines, but that has done little to allay the concerns of angry consumers, who say the firm should have issued the recall sooner. Johann Ebenbichler, vice head of BMW in charge of quality, told reporters the carmaker became aware of a problem with the component in 2016 but managed to identify the root cause of the fires only in June this year. He did not provide further details. Lawyer Ha Jong-sun said he had filed a criminal complaint against six people including Ebenbichler .
China, N Korea show signs of boosting tourism cooperation
Both China and North Korea are appearing to further intensify cooperation in the field of tourism sector between the two countries, despite the United Nations sanctions' being slapped on Pyongyang, sources said here on Thursday.Sources told Yonhap News Agency that a delegation, comprising senior officials of North Korea's General Administration of Civil Aviation and a tour agency associated with Air Koryo, North Korea's national airline, had visited Guangdong Province in China in July in an effort to strengthen cooperation in tourism between the two nations.The North Korean officials had also called on the top officials of Guangdong China Travel Service Co., a leading tour agency in southern China. The General Administration of Civil Aviation comes under the North Korean government and looks after international aviation and travel services.Sources added that the two sides had discussed on the current trends and development of the tourism industries in China and North Korea, wherein ...
NITI Aayog, CII join hands for sustainable development
The NITI Aayog and the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) on Wednesday announced a partnership to work towards meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the country.Speaking at the Government and Business Partnership Conclave at the national capital, organised by the NITI Aayog, CII and the United Nations, the Minister of State for Power and Renewable Energy, Raj Kumar Singh said, "Business and government partnership needs to be harnessed to achieve the greater good."The minister said that three things were key for sustainable development - energy, water and circular economy or a green industry. He further stated that he aimed to make quality power available to each household in the country and that his ministry is committed to bringing down the prices from Rs 8 per unit to around the Rs 3.50 per unit mark."We want to pass a law, if any DISCOM (Distribution Companies of India) is involved in any load-shedding without any actual breakdowns happening, the law will make ..
Efforts being made to ensure farmers get fair prices: MP CM
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Wednesday said that all efforts are being made to ensure that farmers get profitable prices for their crops.Following a meeting with Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh, the Chief Minister said, "Godowns are stocked with previous batches of crops so we talked about moving it out first so that we can give a fair price to our farmers for their crops and we are trying to export soybean."He further thanked the Agriculture Minister and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for their decision of hiking the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for Kharif crops.The Chief Minister had earlier also said, "I would like to thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The decision to increase MSP for Kharif crop is historic. This is the biggest decision for the upliftment of farmers in independent India. Giving a 50 percent increase in the production of Kharif crops is a great decision."In order to boost the income of the farmers, the Union Cabinet had approved the ..
India's energy deficit down to 1% in four years: NITI Aayog
The installed power generation capacity in India has risen to 344 GigaWatts (GW) and its energy deficit, which stood at over 4 per cent in 2014, has shrunk to less than one per cent in 2018, an official release said on Wednesday.
Two tourists feared drown at waterfall in Nainital
Two tourists were feared drowned in a pond at the bottom of a waterfall in Dhari area of the Nainital district today, police said. The two could not be traced even after hours of rescue operation by the police and theNDRF, SDM Rekha Kohli said, adding the search operation will be resumed tomorrow. Eight people from Kanpur had gone to visit the waterfall when Juber (25) and Shivam (20) were swept away by its strong currents, she said. The 40 ft waterfall with a 1,000 sq ft pond at the bottom is a newly developed tourist attraction in the area.
Spike in PM2.5 levels has serious health implications: SC
The Supreme Court today said a spike in PM2.5 levels in the air is a severe problem as the particulate matter remains in people's lungs, leading to serious health implications. A bench comprising Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan made the observation while hearing a plea seeking a countrywide ban on use of firecrackers. "If even for one day the PM2.5 level goes up, it gets into your lungs and will remain inside," the bench said. Senior advocate C A Sundaram, appearing for firecrackers manufacturers, told the bench that use of firecrackers should not be completely banned and it should instead be strictly regulated. "I am with regulation. It is not a matter of banning. It might need some more regulations," he told the apex court. Citing the data by pollution control boards, he said crackers were not the reason for increase in air pollution and there were other factors, like wind and temperature, which contribute to it. "Argument was made (by the petitioner) that during Diwali, ...
Firecrackers not necessary to bring people together: SC
The Supreme Court on Wednesday was told by the firecrackers' manufacturers that firecrackers alone were not the sole reason for rising pollution levels during Diwali though it was one of the contributing factors, and that an entire industry can't be shut down.
HP Guv, CM urge farmers to adopt natural farming for better future
Himachal Pradesh Governor Acharya Dev Vrat and Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur urged the farm community to shun their old perceptions and adopt the model of Zero Budget Natural Farming wholeheartedly. They spoke at a conference on Zero Budget Natural Farming organised by the Agriculture Department here today. Thakur said overdose of fertilisers resulted in soil degradation and rendered fields barren. He said these chemicals also adversely affected the health of people. The state government is now leaving no stone unturned to ensure effective promotion of natural farming, the chief minister said, adding that Rs 25 crore has been allotted for promotion of Zero Budget Natural Farming. More than 430 officers of the Agriculture Department and farmers of all the districts of the state attended the conference.
