Vijayawada, May 23: Opposition Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) led by Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy established clear leads in 101 Assembly constituencies after completion of first round of votes.
The ruling Telugu Desam party is leading in 17 constituencies.
Interestingly, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu was trailing in Kuppam Assembly constituency in the first round. However he is leading after the second round started.
Nagpur, Aug 8: "He was a great son and always the first one to help others in need. He sacrificed his life for the country," said Neela Sathe, the mother of late captain DV Sathe, who was flying the Air India flight that crash-landed at Kozhikode airport on Friday, claiming 18 lives.
Indian Army Retired Colonel Vasant Sathe and his wife Neela lost both their sons in line of duty. The couple is originally from Nagpur, Maharashtra.
Speaking to news agency, Neela broke into tears and said, "He was a great son and always the first one to help others in need.
His teachers still appreciate him. During the Ahmedabad floods, he saved the children of the soldiers by lifting them in his arms. I wish God would have called us instead of him."
"Both our children sacrificed their lives for the country," she added.
Remembering DV Sathe's childhood, Neela talked about every that moment when he made his parents proud.
Neela told with great pride that Captain DV Sathe had received the Sword of Honor and had also won eight medals in the Air Force.
Neela last talked to DV Sathe over phone call a few days ago during which captain told her mother not to go out of the house amid COVID-19 crisis as if something happens to her, he won't be able to bear that.
Vasant, captain's father retired as a colonel after serving in the Army for 30 years, following the footsteps of their father, both his sons joined too the Army.
Their elder son Vikas, was in the Army, and at the age of 22, he was martyred in an accident in Ferozepur in 1981. Their younger son Deepak (DV Sathe), who served as a pilot in Air India after serving in the Indian Air Force, died in the plane crash on Friday.
An Air India Express plane carrying 190 passengers including 10 infants skidded while landing at Karipur Airport in Kozhikode on Friday evening.
New Delhi, Apr 16: The number of COVID-19 cases in India has reached 12,759, the Health Ministry said on Thursday.
According to the official data, India has 10,824 active cases and 1514 discharged and cured cases. Meanwhile, 420 people have died from the disease which originated in China.
Maharashtra has reported the highest number of cases in the country which stands at 2919, including 295 cured and discharged and 187 deaths.
With 1578 coronavirus cases, Delhi is in the second position of India's tally of corona infected people; followed by Tamil Nadu (1242) and Rajasthan (1023).
Kerala, which reported India's first coronavirus case, has 388 confirmed cases, including 295 cured and discharged and 187 deaths.
On the other hand, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, that border the national capital, have 773 and 205 cases, respectively.
Chhattisgarh, Chandigarh and Pudducherry have reported 33, 21 and 7 cases respectively. While West Bengal has 231 coronavirus infected people, Odisha has confirmed 60 cases.
The newly carved union territories -- Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir--- have 17 and 300 cases, respectively.
In the Northeast, 33 people were detected positive for COVID-19 in Assam, which is the worst-affected states in the region. Six corona cases were confirmed from Meghalaya, two each from Manipur and Tripura and one from Arunachal Pradesh. Nagaland remains free from coronavirus till date, said the Ministry.
New Delhi, Jan 24: Although India's Ujjwala programme encouraged adoption of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for cooking among the poor, households availing the scheme have not shifted away from using highly polluting fuels like firewood, a study reveals.
The researchers, including those from the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada, found that additional incentives to encourage regular use of cooking gas are necessary for a complete transition to clean cooking fuel among poor rural households.
They noted that about 2.9 billion people across Asia, Africa, and Latin America burn solid fuels like firewood to meet their cooking energy needs.
This has significant negative implications for public health, the environment, and societal development, according to the researchers.
Through the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), India has provided capital cost subsidies to poor women to adopt a clean-burning cooking fuel or LPG.
The researchers explained that within the first 40 months of the scheme, more than 80 million households obtained LPG stoves.
However, the full benefits of LPG adoption depend on near complete replacement of polluting fuels with LPG, according to a research-based policy brief published in the journal Nature Energy.
The scientists said this cannot be assumed solely on the basis of LPG presence in the household.
"Our research shows that Ujjwala was able to attract new consumers rapidly, but those consumers did not start using LPG on a regular basis," Abhishek Kar, a postdoc at Columbia University in the US, told PTI.
The study analysed LPG sales data for over 25,000 consumers, including PMUY beneficiaries, as well as general rural LPG consumers in Koppal district of Karnataka.
The scientists employed data covering all LPG purchases of PMUY beneficiaries through their first year in the programme.
They also assessed the general rural population's purchases during their first five years as consumers to assess the effect of experience on use.
The findings estimate that an average rural family needs to purchase five 14.2 kilogramme-cylinders annually to meet half of their cooking needs.
However, the study said just seven per cent of PMUY beneficiaries in Koppal purchased five or more cylinders annually, suggesting that the beneficiaries seldom use LPG.
The general (nonPMUY) consumers in this region use on average two times more LPG cylinders than PMUY beneficiaries, the researchers noted.
Yet, only 45 per cent of nonPMUY consumers use five or more cylinders per year -- even after several years of experience with LPG, they said.
The team assessed price and seasonal factors affecting LPG use among the general population over a three-year period.
It found that LPG consumers are sensitive to price and seasonality -- LPG cylinder refill rates are lower in the summer when agricultural activity is limited, and cash is scarce.
"There was no scheme incentives to promote use, except general LPG subsidies which is available to all, including the urban middle class," said Kar, who was a Ph.D. scholar at UBC when the research was published.
"If there is no additional income, what cost would a poor family on an already tight budget cut to pay for an extra expense on a regular basis.
"Ujjwala has started the scheme of 5 kg-cylinder in response, but the impact of that on LPG sales is still publicly unknown," he said.
These findings, the researchers noted, suggest the need for additional measures to promote regular LPG use for all rural populations.
Although the finding come from a single district in Southern India, it may also apply to other areas with similar socio-economic conditions, they said.
A more expansive evaluation of PMUY would help design targeted incentives to transform infrequent users to regular users, according to the researchers.
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