Nagpur: Power consumers in Maharashtra are going to face another steep hike in electricity rates due to high cost of procurement of smart meters on part - Nagpur News
More than 2.24 lakh vaccinated against Covid-19 in the weekend
GN Bureau | January 18, 2021
File photo of PM Narendra Modi making a visit of the three vaccine manufacturing sites in November.
The nationwide vaccination campaign launched Saturday, the largest such exercise in the world, has started setting new benchmarks, with vaccines administered to 2,24,301 beneficiaries in the first two days.
“India has vaccinated the highest number of persons on Day1 under its COVID19 vaccination program, the world’s largest such exercise. This is much higher than many other countries such as USA, the UK and France,” a health ministry release said on Sunday evening.
PM Modi gets emotional as India starts administering vaccines against Covid-19
GN Bureau | January 16, 2021
India on Saturday began the massive vaccination drive against Covid-19, as prime minister Narendra Modi paid tributes the ‘corona warriors’.
“Such a vaccination drive at such a massive scale was never conducted in history. There are over 100 countries having less than 3 crore population and India is administering vaccination to 3 crore people in the first phase itself. In the second phase, we’ve to take this number to 30 crores,” Modi said as he flagged off the first phase of the pan-India rollout of Covid-19 vaccination drive at 10.30 am via video conferencing.
(Illustration: Ashish Asthana)
The Maharashtra government has announced a spending of Rs 2,500 crore annually to develop infrastructure of state-owned distribution company Mahavitaran (MSEDCL).
Out of the total amount, Rs 1,500 crore will be spent on energisation of conventional agriculture pumps and Rs 1,000 crore will go towards strengthening the infrastructure of industrial and urban areas. Additionally the government will implement the new agriculture and renewable energy policies in which solar-based agriculture pumps will be installed and solar power would be made available to farmers during day time.
Addressing a review meeting of the Mahavitaran officials in Mumbai, energy minister Nitin Raut said the funds would be spent for infrastructure development including erection of new substations, installation and distribution of transformers and construction of HT and LT Lines.
Dust and Smoke:
By Awadhendra Sharan
Air pollution is now the world’s leading environmental risk factor. It reportedly causes 5 million deaths globally, India and China alone contributing 1.2 million deaths each. With increased inconveniences and suffering on account of the poor quality of outdoor and indoor air in India, it is imperative to look at how air is impacted by our activities, how it is regulated, and how it affects spaces and bodies across class and gender.
‘Dust and Smoke’ examines the history of smoke as a nuisance in Indian cities, particularly in colonial Calcutta and Bombay. It studies the varied sources of energy used for domestic and industrial purposes, the persistence of old trades, the organisation of industrial production, labouring practices, and urban development projects which produced new sites of work, habitats and commodities on the one hand, and smoke and dust on the other.