Page 104 - India

India will get its own index to quantify heat impact next year: IMD chief

India will launch its own composite index next year to quantify the impact of heat on its population and generate impact-based heat wave alerts for specific locations, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has said. The IMD began issuing an experimental heat index for different parts of the country last week, taking into account air temperature and relative humidity to determine how hot it really feels. "The heat index is an experimental product. It is not validated and we have mentioned that (on the IMD's website) too. We are coming up with our own system now, a multi-parameter product called 'heat hazard score'. We hope that it will be better than the others," Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, Director General of Meteorology, IMD, told PTI. Along with temperature and humidity, it will integrate other parameters such as wind and duration. It will be an effective indicator of heat stress for people, he said. The IMD chief said the hazard score will be ready in around two months and "it wil

G20 health agenda: An opportunity for India to shape action in health care

India's assumption of the presidency of the G20 in 2023, forming the G20 troika with Indonesia and Brazil, marks the first time that the troika has been constituted solely by members from LMICs

India reports 3,720 new Covid-19 cases, active infections at 40,177

India has recorded 3,720 new COVID-19 infections and the count of active cases of the disease in the country stands at 40,177, according to Union Health Ministry data updated on Wednesday. The death toll due to the viral disease has increased to 5,31,584 with 20 more fatalities, including five reconciled by Kerala, being recorded, the data updated at 8 am showed. The tally of Covid cases in the country now stands at 4.49 crore (4,49,56,716), according to the data. Active cases now comprise 0.09 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has been recorded at 98.73 per cent, according to the ministry. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease has surged to 4,43,84,955 while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.18 per cent. According to the ministry's website, 220.66 crore doses of vaccines have so far been administered in the country under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive.

India among 14 nations who don't adhere to IPCA protocols, says US report

India is among the 14 countries that do not adhere to any protocols concerning international parental child abduction (IPCA), according to a United States report. The Department of State's 2023 annual report on IPCA that was submitted to the US Congress on Tuesday was referring to a pattern of noncompliance. "India does not adhere to any protocols with respect to international parental child abduction. In 2022, India continued to demonstrate a pattern of noncompliance. Specifically, the competent authorities in India persistently failed to work with the Department of State to resolve abduction cases," it said. "As a result of this failure, 65 per cent of requests for the return of abducted children remained unresolved for more than 12 months," the report added. The Hague Convention on Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (1980), signed by 96 countries, provides for a mechanism to return a child internationally abducted by a parent from one member country to another. On .

Rana Ayyub criticised India at Unesco-sponsored press freedom event

"When we talk about attacks in the press, we normally never look at India as much because India is seen as this place of democracy, you know, syncretic values and cultural pluralism," she said

India, Saudi Arabia discuss aspects of enhancing bilateral coordination

"During the call, they reviewed the historical and strong relations between the two countries and the two friendly peoples and ways to enhance and develop them in various fields"

India trashes USCIRF report, calls it biased and misrepresentation of facts

India on Tuesday categorically trashed as "biased" and "motivated" a report by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) that alleged "severe violations" of religious freedom in the country. External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said the Commission continues to regurgitate such comments and India rejects the "misrepresentation of facts" which only serves to "discredit USCIRF itself". He also asked USCIRF to develop a better understanding of India, its plurality and its democratic ethos. "The US Commission on International Religious Freedom continues to regurgitate biased and motivated comments about India, this time in its 2023 annual report," he said. "We reject such misrepresentation of facts which only serves to discredit USCIRF itself," Bagchi added. "We would urge USCIRF to desist from such efforts and develop a better understanding of India, its plurality, its democratic ethos and its constitutional mechanisms," he said. In its annual rep

Rafale jets of India, France carry out multinational air exercise

Rafale jets of India and France have been jointly carrying out aerial drills as part of a multinational air exercise at the French airbase of Mont-de-Marsan, officials said on Tuesday. Shivangi Singh, the Indian Air Force's first woman Rafale pilot, is part of the Indian team that is participating in the Exercise Orion, they said. In January, Squadron Leader Avani Chaturvedi scripted history by becoming the first IAF woman fighter pilot to take part in an aerial wargame abroad. Chaturvedi, a Su-30MKI pilot, was part of the IAF's contingent that participated in the 16-day mega air combat exercise with Japan Air Self Defence Force (JASDF) at the Japanese airbase of Hyakuri from January 12 to 26. India deployed four Rafale jets, two C-17 aircraft and two IL-78 mid-air refuellers for the three-week multinational exercise in France that began on April 17. It was the first overseas exercise for the Indian Air Force's Rafale jets. Besides the IAF and the French Air and Space Force (FASF

Computational analysis shows how dengue virus evolved in India: IISc study

A multi-institutional study on dengue led by researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) shows how the virus causing the disease has evolved dramatically over the last few decades in the Indian subcontinent. Cases of dengue a mosquito-borne viral disease have steadily increased in the last 50 years, predominantly in the South-East Asian countries, Bengaluru-based IISc said in a statement. And yet, there are no approved vaccines against dengue in India, although some vaccines have been developed in other countries. We were trying to understand how different the Indian variants are, and we found that they are very different from the original strains used to develop the vaccines, says Rahul Roy, Associate Professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering, IISc, and corresponding author of the study published in medical journal 'PLoS Pathogens'. He and collaborators examined all available (408) genetic sequences of Indian dengue strains from infected patients collected ...

India built world's tallest rail bridge, 35 mt more than Eiffel Tower: CNN

The Ministry of Railways has said that the bridge will be open to visitors by the end of December 2023 or January 2024

IMF raises Asia's growth forecast to 4.6%; India, China to be key drivers

The agency, however, slashed next year's growth forecast for Asia by 0.2% to 4.4%

Ukraine apologises for Goddess Kali tweet, says it respects Indian culture

Ukraine Deputy Foreign Minister Emine Dzhaparova on Tuesday expressed "regret" after an image of a female above blast smoke was tweeted by the country's defence ministry triggering outrage with social media users pointing out the resemblance of the image to the depiction of Goddess Kali.The country's deputy foreign minister Emine Dzhaparova said that Ukraine "regrets" the defence ministry's depiction of goddess Kali in a "distorted manner" and that the European country "respects unique Indian culture and highly appreciates support from India".She added the depiction had been removed."We regret @DefenceU depicting #Hindu goddess #Kali in distorted manner. #Ukraine & its people respect unique #Indian culture & highly appreciate support.The depiction has already been removed. is determined to further increase cooperation in spirit of mutual respect & friendship," Dzhaparova tweeted.On April 30, Ukraine's Defence Ministry tweeted with the caption "Work of art," and shared a .

Sanctions on Indian agencies over 'violation' of religious freedom sought

A federal US commission has urged the Biden administration to impose targeted sanctions on Indian government agencies and officials responsible for severe violations of religious freedom in the country by freezing their assets. The US Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) also recommended to the Congress to raise the issue of religious freedom during US-India bilateral meetings, and hold hearings on it. In its annual report on religious freedom, the USCIRF asked the US State Department to designate India as a country of particular concern on the status of religious freedom along with several other nations. The USCIRF has been making similar recommendations to the State Department since 2020, which have not been accepted so far. The recommendations of USCIRF are not mandatory for the State Department. In its India section of the report, USCIRF alleged that in 2022, religious freedom conditions in India continued to worsen. Throughout the year, the Indian governmen

DRDO conducts validation trial of underground ammunition storage structure

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has successfully conducted a trial of design validation of a state-of-the-art underground ammunition storage facility. The Centre for Fire, Explosive and Environment Safety (CFEES), a Delhi-based laboratory of the DRDO, has designed and developed the vertical shaft-based underground storage facility. "The design validation trial of this underground ammunition storage structure was successfully conducted on April 30," the defence ministry said. "The instrumented blast trial was carried out in presence of the armed forces by detonating 5,000 kg of TNT in one of the chambers of the underground facility," it said in a statement. The ministry said the CFEES team conducted the trial with precision and utmost safety measures in place. "All the parameters recorded during the trial matched with estimated values. This facility will ensure that an explosion within will not cause damage to the adjacent chamber and also ensure full ...

Govt revises format of bidders from countries sharing border with India

India has revised the format of the application for bidders for public procurement having beneficial ownership in countries which share land borders with the country. Accordingly, applicants are informed that now one hard copy in the prescribed format is required to be submitted to the Office of Joint Secretary (Public Procurement Division) in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). An office memorandum of the DPIIT stated that as per the revision, bidders have to provide details of manufacturer, service provider, contractor and entity providing transfer of technology (ToT) if they are different from bidder, for security clearance. They have to share details of sensitive sectors and technologies in cases of ToT arrangement. Sensitive sectors are categorised into two groups - atomic energy, defence and space, among others are in category-1 while 10 sectors including civil aviation, electronics, agriculture and pharma are in the second one. Sensitive ...

Govt decides to extend Smart Cities Mission deadline till June 2024

The Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry has decided to extend the deadline for the Smart Cities Mission till June 2024, following requests from some cities that sought more time to complete their ongoing projects, officials said on Monday. The existing deadline of the Mission was June 2023. An official said that it would be inequitable to grant an extension merely to "a selected subset of cities". "The extension is being granted not only to complete projects but to complete documentation, dissemination, institutionalisation of all best practices, templates, innovations created under the Mission so that they can be taken up for replication across the country," the official told PTI. The Narendra Modi government launched its flagship Smart Cities Mission (SCM) on June 25, 2015 and 100 cities were selected for redevelopment through two-stage competition from January 2016 to June 2018. The official said that on-ground project execution began at least 18 months post city ...

China calls for representation of developing countries in UNSC reforms

China has maintained its stance on the UN Security Council reforms, saying there should be more representation for developing countries, especially the small and medium countries, but avoided a direct response to India and other countries' call for its expansion and their inclusion. Wang Yi, director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee met Tareq M A M Albanai and Alexander Marschik, co-chairs of the Intergovernmental Negotiations (IGN) on UNSC reforms, in Beijing on Saturday and outlined China's stand on the reorganisation of the top organ of the world body. China is one of the five veto-wielding members of the 15-member UNSC along with France, Russia, the UK and the US. The remaining 10 members are elected as non-permanent members for two-year terms and do not have veto powers. India has been at the forefront of the years-long efforts to reform the Security Council, saying it rightly deserved a place as a permanen

Ciena appoints Amit Malik as India head to help firms meet 5G demands

He was previously Co-chair of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) (IT committee) and Vice Chair for the American Chamber

India is termed cultural continuum because of its oneness: TN Guv RN Ravi

The DNA of every culture in India has been 'one and the same', and that is why this country is called a 'cultural continuum', Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi said here on Monday. People are called migrants or immigrants when they move from one place to another. But there was no concept of migration in India in those days, he said at an event here. The Governor made the remarks while delivering the presidential address at the celebration of foundation day of Gujarat and Maharashtra states at Raj Bhavan. "The oneness of creation, oneness of humanity has spread over a vast land and though the country has beautiful regional variations, the core of the DNA of this country is one and same and that is why we say Bharat is a cultural continuum", he said. Noting that migration of people from one part of the country to another has been going on for several years, Ravi said, "there was no concept of migration or immigration in India." "People move from one part of the country to another unmindf

India logs 4,282 new Covid-19 cases, active infections down by over 1,750

India on Monday reported 4,282 coronavirus infections, while the number of active cases dropped by over 1,750 to stand at 47,246, according to the latest Health Ministry data. The death toll has increased to 5,31,547 with 14 more fatalities, which includes six reconciled by Kerala, the data updated at 8 am showed. On Sunday, India had reported 5,874 coronavirus cases, while the number of active cases was 49,015. The daily positivity rate recorded on Monday was 4.92 per cent while the weekly positivity was pegged at 4.00 per cent. The total tally of Covid cases was recorded at 4.49 crore (4,49,49,671) The active cases now constitute 0.11 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has been recorded at 98.71 per cent, according to the health ministry website. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease rose to 4,43,70,878 while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.18 per cent. According to the ministry's website, 220.66 crore dose