-Down to Earth The need of the hour is to put halt large hydel-power projects in the Himalayas. Can small hydropower plants offer a sustainable solution? Hydropower is a renewable and non-polluting source of energy. India has an economically exploitable and viable hydropower potential, which is estimated to be about 84,000 megawatt at 60 per cent load factor. It has an installed capacity of 148,701 MW, according to the National Hydroelectric Power...
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Flash floods triggered by heavy rains hit Himachal; 1 killed, 10 missing
-PTI/ The Hindu A search operation is being carried out by the police and fire brigade teams. Shimla: At least one person was killed while 10 have gone missing as flash floods triggered by incessant rains lashed Himachal Pradesh, a senior disaster management official said on Wednesday. State disaster management director Sudesh Kumar Mokhta said that one person was killed and nine went missing in flash floods triggered by a cloudburst in the...
More »India’s first bird flu death: Back to zoonotic diseases -Vibha Varshney
-Down to Earth The disease has been on India’s radar since 2006; need to strengthen disease surveillance, train workforce and build robust laboratories The death of an 11-year-old boy from Haryana at Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences due to Avian influenza — the first such fatality in the country — has stressed the need to respond to zoonotic diseases in a timely manner. Experts have flagged the emergence and re-emergence of...
More »Himachal Pradesh ‘excess deaths’ twice the official COVID-19 toll -Srinivasan Ramani
-The Hindu State registers the lowest undercount factor in north India The number of “excess deaths” registered by the Civil Registration System (CRS) in Himachal Pradesh ever since the COVID-19 pandemic hit (from April 2020 to May 2021) was 6,081, which is 1.9 times the official reported figure of 3,127 COVID-19 deaths for the same period. This multiple is among the lowest for States for which excess deaths have been calculated. Interestingly, while...
More »An irrational draft population control Bill that must go -Dipa Sinha and Vandana Prasad
-The Hindu The Uttar Pradesh government should understand that evidence backs the principle of informed free choice Many of us working in the field of public health and social development have been taken aback, if not downright shocked, by the recently announced draft Uttar Pradesh Population (Control, Stabilization and Welfare) Bill, 2021 that focuses exclusively on making a two-child norm a law, specifying various incentives and penalties for contravention. The burgeoning negative...
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