Assam, which grapples with annual floods caused by the Brahmaputra...
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Without backup plans, global IT outages will happen again
“I’m sure the regulators globally are looking at this. There is...
Major global IT outage grounds flights, hits banks and businesses around the world
A global tech outage that appeared to be related to issues at...
Picking up speed, tropical Storm Elsa moves towards south-central Cuba
Elsa had arrived earlier in the day in eastern Cuba, whipping palms with strong winds and bringing a steady downpour along with parts of the southern coast. Miami-based NHC said data from an aircraft indicated maximum sustained winds were near 65 miles per hour (100 km per hour) with higher gusts. It had downgraded Elsa from a hurricane on Saturday.
NGT directs Jindal Saw Ltd to pay Rs 4 cr compensation for damaging houses by illegal blasting
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) said the company must take precautions in the future and blasting must be scientific so that it does not cause damage to the properties of people. These will be treated as conditions for mining and blasting, apart from the laid down safeguards, it said.
Study indicates association of cloud bursts with forest fires
The study led by Alok Sagar Gautam from HNB Garhwal University and co-authored by S N Tripathi from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, and Abhishek Joshi, Karan Singh, Sanjeev Kumar, R C Ramola from HNB Garhwal University can help improve the understanding of the complex mechanism of cloud burst, weather prediction and climate change condition over this region of Himalayas, the DST said.
Heatwave scorches north India; flash floods render many homeless in Tripura
The northeastern state is being battered by torrential rains for the last 48 hours and besides power and road infrastructure, crops have also been damaged. Though there was some respite for the national capital, temperatures in Punjab and Haryana were recorded above 40 degrees Celsius. Churu in Rajasthan sizzled at 43.6 degrees Celsius, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), while it was 43.5 degrees Celsius in Haryana’s Gurgaon, which falls in the Delhi-National Capital Region.
Floods may be nearly as important as droughts for future carbon accounting
“These wet extremes have basically been ignored in this field and we’re showing that researchers need to rethink it when designing schemes for future carbon accounting,” said senior study author Alexandra Konings, an assistant professor of Earth system science in Stanford’s School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences (Stanford Earth). “Specific regions might be much more important for flood impacts than previously thought.”
SC directs NDMA to issue norms for financial help to kin of Covid victims
A special bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan and M R Shah said that the court cannot direct the Centre to fix a particular amount of financial help but the government can fix the minimum standard of amount to be paid as ex-gratia to family members of those who lost their lives due to COVID-19 while keeping various aspects in mind.
The top court asked the Centre to consider formulating an insurance scheme for cremation workers as proposed by the Finance Commission.
It also directs the authorities to issue appropriate guidelines for simplification of process of issuance of death certificates for Covid fatalities.
On climate change frontline, indigenous provide pointers to save planet
After an analysis of the growing threats confronting the communities and their sustainable ways of life, the authors of the report maintained that indigenous peoples worldwide play a vital role in countering global threats such as the destruction of nature, climate change, biodiversity loss and the risk of future pandemics.
New compensation offer made over Suez canal blockage
The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) demanded $916 million in compensation to cover salvage efforts, reputational damage and lost revenue, before publicly lowering the request to $550 million.The Ever Given’s Japanese owners Shoei Kisen and its insurers have disputed the claim and the ship’s detention under an Egyptian court order.
Karnataka to set up system at dams to get real-time water data, to prevent floods
This system, once set up in Karnataka’s Almatti and Narayanpur dams, will help the officials of both the states overcome the possibility of floods. In case Maharashtra has to release water from its dams as a precautionary measure, it will inform the Karnataka officials who would accordingly lower their water level in Almatti and Narayanpur dams. This alleged lack of communication in 2019 had resulted into Maharashtra releasing lakhs of cusecs water into river beds that flooded the villages on the banks.
SC reserves judgment on PIL seeking direction to provide Rs 4 lakhs ex gratia to kin of COVID-19 victims
The petition also sought the issuance of direction to respondents, respective State Governments to fulfill their obligation to take care of victims of the calamity and their family members. The lawyers- Reepak Kansal, and Gaurav Kumar Bansal– in their petition, filed before the Supreme Court, sought immediate appropriate directions to the concerned authorities to pay financial help or ex gratia amount of Ra 4 lakh, as laid down by the Central government in its statute and rules to the family members of the deceased, who succumbed to COVID-19 pandemic.