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Cabinet approves MoU with Iceland in field of Fisheries

New Delhi (NVI): The Union Cabinet today gave its approval to a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with Iceland in the field of Sustainable Fisheries Development on September 10, 2019 under which the two countries can exchange scientific literature, research findings, information, expertise to study the prospects of fishing.

The MoU entails exchanging of scientists and technical experts and their proper placement, especially in areas of estimating Total Allowable Catches in off shore and deep sea areas.

The pact, approved at a meeting of the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, provides for training to fisheries professionals from key fisheries institutions in the various management aspects on areas of modern fisheries management and fish processing.

This will provide processing and marketing of products from high seas fisheries for entrepreneurship development.

The MoU will strengthen the existing friendly relations between India and Iceland and will enhance consultation and cooperation on Fisheries including consultation on bilateral issues, an official statement said.

Kejriwal to take oath as CM on Feb 16

New Delhi (NVI): Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo Arvind Kejriwal, who led his party to a stunning victory in Delhi Assembly elections, will take oath as the Chief Minister on February 16.

The oath ceremony will be held at Ramlila Maidan.

AAP bagged 62 seats in the 70-member Assembly, making a hat trick.

The party’s tally was, however, 5 less than last time.

Railways’ biggest water treatment plant opened

The new plant at the coaching depot in Bandra Terminus.

New Delhi (NVI): Indian Railways’ biggest effluent treatment facility in the country was recently commissioned as a big step towards reducing its water consumption.

Western Railways has started using treated effluent water from its new plant at the coaching depot in Bandra Terminus for non-potable purposes such as cleaning toilets, platform lines and coaches.

Though it is not yet operating at full capacity, when it starts doing so, the plant will filter and clean one million litres of waste water per day. The move will result in decrease in the use of fresh water that WR buys from municipal authorities.

This is a welcome news in a city like Mumbai, where every drop is precious, as this one of a kind plant will help save millions of litres of water.

The plant has the potential to cut WR’s water bill by Rs 1.9 crore per annum, which is more than its operational cost. The operational cost aggregate stands at Rs 23,000 per day, or Rs 84 lakh per annum, including labour, electricity and other charges, according to officials of the Railway Ministry.

The plant is close to an overhead tank with a capacity of 2.25 lakh litres. A specially laid pipeline – made of anti-bacterial and anti-corrosive substances, which makes it well suited to Mumbai’s climate – takes the treated water to the tank.

This unique initiative will go a long way towards addressing not only water scarcity, but also environmental and ecological issues.

BIMSTEC meet on drug trafficking here tomorrow

New Delhi (NVI): India will host first conference on drug trafficking for BIMSTEC partner nations here tomorrow, providing an opportunity to member nations to deliberate on the increased threats posed by the menace and the collective steps required to negate it.

The two-day ‘Conference on Combating Drug Trafficking’ will be inaugurated by Union Minister Home Minister Amit Shah.

The conference is being organised by Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), the federal agency for drug law enforcement.

Delegations from each BIMSTEC nation have been invited to participate in the conference. Further, various central and state drug law enforcement agencies of India and other stakeholders have also been invited, according to an official statement.

In the changing drug trafficking scenario, Asian countries are increasingly being affected by drug trafficking and BIMSTEC, being the key link between South Asian and South East Asian Nations is one of the most effective platforms to tackle this global threat.

The BIMSTEC is a regional organization comprising seven Member States lying in the littoral and adjacent areas of the Bay of Bengal that is Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand besides India, constituting a contiguous regional unity.

Regional maritime connectivity and trade through the Bay of Bengal are imperative for the shared prosperity and economic growth of the entire BIMSTEC region.

However, while providing unhindered maritime access, security challenges at sea and coastlines are a threat.

One of the most prominent of such challenges is the drug trafficking through sea. It necessitates collaborative efforts at sea, including further strengthening of effective coordination in operations and information sharing amongst partner nations, to combat this menace.

The recent seizures of Methamphetamine is 1156 kgs and 371 kgs by NCB establish the fact that Bay of Bengal region is impegnerated with the drug trafficking menace.

Trump will be accorded ‘memorable welcome’ in India: PM

New Delhi (NVI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said US President Donald Trump would be accorded a “memorable welcome” when he undertakes his first India visit on February 24 and expressed confidence that the trip would go a long way in further cementing the bilateral friendship.

Trump, to be accompanied by First Lady Melania Trump, will attend official engagements in New Delhi and Ahmedabad and interact with a wide cross-section of Indian society during his two-day trip. He is undertaking the visit at Modi’s invitation.

“Extremely delighted that @POTUS @realDonaldTrump and @FLOTUS will visit India on 24th and 25th February. India will accord a memorable welcome to our esteemed guests. This visit is a very special one and it will go a long way in further cementing India-USA friendship,” the Prime Minister tweeted.

“India and USA share a common commitment to democracy and pluralism. Our nations are cooperating extensively on a wide range of issues. Robust friendship between our nations augurs well not only for our citizens but also for the entire world,” he added.

Modi and Trump, who will be undertaking his first visit to India as the US President, will hold talks on a whole range of issues, covering bilateral matters and regional and international topics of mutual concern.

The issue of terrorism is expected to figure high in the talks, during which the Indian side is expected to draw Trump’s attention to the support being extended to the menace by Pakistan.

The two sides are also expected to deliberate extensively on the defence and security cooperation. The US has already granted ‘Major Defence Partner’ status to India four years back.

External Affairs Ministry yesterday said the global strategic partnership between India and the U.S. is based on trust, shared values, mutual respect and understanding, and marked by warmth and friendship between the peoples of the two countries.

The relationship has further evolved under the leadership of Modi and Donald Trump, with significant progress in all areas including trade, defence, counter-terrorism, energy, coordination on regional and global issues as well as people-to-people ties, it said.

Coronavirus given name COVID-19; death toll soars past 1,100

Representational image

New Delhi (NVI): The new coronavirus, which is spreading and claiming lives across nations, will now be named as COVID-19, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The acronym COVID-19 stands for coronavirus disease 2019, as the illness was first detected towards the end of last year.

“The goal was to avoid stigma,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

The death toll from the coronavirus outbreak, whose epicentre is believed to be China’s Hubei Province, reached a new high today even as Chinese officials said the rate of new infections showed signs of slowing.

The new figures brought the total number of deaths in China to at least 1,113. And the total number of confirmed cases rose to 44,653. Most of the newly reported deaths, 94, occurred in Hubei Province, the heart of the outbreak.

There are 393 positive coronavirus cases outside China, in 24 countries.

The largest outbreak outside China remains in Yokohama, a Japanese port south of Tokyo where a cruise ship has been under tight quarantine for a week now.

Japanese Health Minister Katsunobu Kato said an additional 40 virus cases had been confirmed on board the Diamond Princess as of Wednesday, bringing the total number on board to 175.

Is dog companionship linked with longer life of heart patients?

Representational image

New Delhi (NVI): Dog is a man’s best friend. Accoding to a new research, a dog does not only prove to be just a good friend but it has also been revealed that dog owners live longer and that breeding a dog can be particularly good for heart patients and people living alone.

Doctor Caroline Kremer at MT Sinai Hospital’s University of Toronto Leadership Sinai Center for Diabetes says that we have studied more than 3 million people and the results that have come out are very important.

Kremer and his team said in their results, “Those people who breed dogs have low blood pressure, their cholesterol levels also remain healthy and their stress is also very less in comparison.”

Kremer also added, “Having any pet at home helps you reduce stress and relieve anxiety, depression and loneliness.” However, there are mixed results in this study.

To investigate this, Kremer’s team researched medical literature data dating back to 1950 and found 10 dog breeding studies. They also traced the health data of a total of 38 lakh people in these 10 studies.

According to the study, the risk of death among dog owners decreased by 24% over the next decade compared to those who did not. At the same time, those who were suffering from a heart attack or heart diseases and had a dog, the risk of death was reduced by 65% by the next decade. The total mortality rate of people who lost their lives due to heart causes was reduced by 31% due to dog breeding.

“The increased physical activity of dog breeders played an important role in the cardiovascular benefits,” Kremer said, adding that a dog needs to be taken out for a walk at least three times a day (it increases the physical activity and our heart gets the benefit).

In another study on the same issue, Tove Fall and his team at Uppsala University, Sweden, examined the health of 1,81,696 people suffering from heart attacks and 1,54,617 people suffering from a stroke between 2001 and 2012. They found in the study that the heart attack patients who had a dog reduced their chances of having a second heart attack by 33%. Besides, people living with a dog, partner or child were found to have a lower risk of up to 15 per cent. At the same time, the risk of the second stroke was reduced by 27 per cent in stroke patients living alone. With this, the risk of repeated strokes among dog owners who did not live alone was reduced by 12 per cent.

“We already know that pets make our lives better but it also improves our heart health. It’s a bit surprising,” said the study’s author.

Foreign delegates reach Srinagar

Mubashir Bukhari

Srinagar (NVI): A fresh batch of 25 foreign diplomats reached Kashmir today for assessment of the ground situation in the aftermath of abolition of Article 370.

This is the second batch of foreign diplomats visiting Jammu and Kashmir in the last one month. Earlier, a group of 15 diplomats visited in January.

The delegation, including envoys from Germany, Canada, France and Afghanistan, will be meeting fruit growers in North Kashmir before reaching Srinagar where they are scheduled to meet media representatives, civil society groups and politicians of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said.

The Indian Army will also brief the visiting diplomats on the security situation in Kashmir.

The envoys will spend a night in Srinagar before moving to Jammu tomorrow where they are expected to meet Lieutenant Governor GC Murmu and civil society groups.

The fresh batch of diplomats also includes EU representatives from Poland, Bulgaria and Czech Republic, and their participation assumes significance as the EU Parliament recently initiated to bring a joint draft resolution on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and Kashmir, the vote on which was later deferred.

India’s renewable energy sector seems to be losing steam: Report

New Delhi (NVI): India may find it difficult to meet its own target of 175 GW renewable energy capacity by 2022, even as its total capacity reached almost 86 GW by December 2019, according to a latest report of the think tank Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).

The State of India’s Environment report says that India’s renewable energy (RE) sector seems to be losing steam.

“India has set itself a target of 175 gigawatt (GW) renewable energy capacity by 2022 which is mainly in the form of 100 GW solar (60 GW utility-scale and 40 GW rooftop) and 60 GW wind,” it said.

“But there has been a slowdown in capacity addition and auctions due to emerging risks and unaddressed structural issues,” the report said.

Between 2014 and 2018, the renewable energy sector grew from 2.6 GW to 28 GW which is a cumulative aggregated growth rate of around 18 per cent, it said.

Annual additions to solar capacity have dipped drastically to 6.5 GW in 2018-19, from 9.4 GW in 2017-18.

In wind energy, against a sizable 5.4 GW added in 2016-17, less than 2 GW was added annually in the following two years.

The capacity auctioned to developers has remained almost constant at 2-3 GW. The share of renewable energy in India’s power generation in 2018–19 was 10 per cent, a far cry from the national goal of 40 per cent share by 2030.

This stagnation is due to a combination of factors affecting every aspect from auctions and power purchase agreements (PPAs) to rising costs and payment delays, the report says.

A 25 per cent safeguard duty on import of cells and modules has been imposed, causing commissioning delays and cost increases, it says.

Governments are also hankering for lowest possible tariffs which leads, among other things, to serial cancellation and postponement of bids, the report says.

States are reneging on some existing PPAs in favour of lower tariffs from new projects. Project risks due to inadequate land and power evacuation infrastructure and poor financial health of discoms are worsening the situation.

The slowdown naturally, raises doubts about India’s capability to meet the 175 GW target.

To catch up its own target the country is now required to install 37.8 GW of solar rooftop, 32.1 GW of solar utility and 23.3 GW of wind power capacity in a short span of just two and half years.

While, CSE researchers said that the government must restore the sanctity of auctions by removing arbitrary barriers like ceilings and by refraining from cancellations or postponement of bids.

“New mechanisms should be explored to manage discom risks. Simultaneously, the government should start working on the country’s longer-term energy decarbonisation vision,” researchers added.

Temperature rises in NCR

New Delhi (NVI): Delhi and rest of National Capital Region (NCR) today saw an increase in minimum temperature to 8.2 degrees celsius from 6.0 degrees celsius recorded yesterday.

The maximum temperature today is expected to be around 24.0 degrees celsius, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

The IMD said some isolated parts of north Madhya Pradesh and Odisha will witness cold wave conditions during next 48 hours.

The weatherman has forecast that in Northwest India there will be a fall in temperature by 2 to 4 degrees celsius during next two days, in East India there will be significant change is expected in minimum temperature over next 24 hours.

“In Central India the minimum temperature is expected to rise by 2 to 3 degrees for next three days,” weatherman said.

“No significant change is expected over rest of the country,” it added.

“The shallow to moderate fog is also expected over Northwest India, Odisha, Gangetic West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura during next 2 to 3 days,” it further added.

Hisar in Haryana was today the coldest city in the plains where the minimum temperature was recorded at 5.4 degrees celsius, according to Skymet weather.

In Haryana’s Narnaul, the minimum temperature was recorded at 5.5 degrees celsius.

Fursatganj in Uttar Pradesh and Shahjahanpur in Madhya Pradesh both recorded minimum temperature at 6.2 degrees celsius.

Sikar in Rajasthan and Umaria in Madhya Pradesh recorded 6.5 degrees celsius.

Apart from this, Patiala in Punjab and Rewa in Madhya Pradesh recorded minimum temperature at 6.6 and 6.8 degree celsius respectively.

Datia in Madhya Pradesh and Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh both recorded minimum temperature at 7.2 degrees celsius.

According to the Skymet weather, due to changing wind patterns, the minimum temperature in northern plains is expected to rise by 2-3 degrees celsius during next two to three days.

“This increase in temperature may lead to abatement of cold wave conditions from many parts,” it said.

“The change in the wind pattern can be attributed to the Western Disturbance (WD) which is over Jammu and Kashmir,” it added.

The overall air quality in the national capital today is in “very poor” category.

According to System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR), the Air Quality Index (AQI) in the national capital stood at 323 which falls in the “very poor” category.

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