Mumbai, Jul 1: Mumbai police on Wednesday imposed section 144 of CrPC prohibiting the movement of people in public places and gatherings, to prevent the spread of Covid-19, an official said.
The prohibitory order, issued by a senior police official, says restrictions on the movement of residents for non- essential work will remain in force till July 15.
The order prohibits "presence or movement of one or more persons in public places or gathering of any sort", the official said.
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.
New Delhi, Jan 24: The Election Commission of India on Friday told the Supreme Court that its 2018 direction asking poll candidates to declare their criminal antecedents in electronic and print media has not helped curb criminalisation of politics. The poll panel suggested that instead of asking candidates to declare criminal antecedents in the media, political parties should be asked not to give tickets to candidates with criminal background.
A bench of Justices R F Nariman and S Ravindra Bhat asked the ECI to come up with a framework within one week which can help curb criminalisation of politics in nation's interest.
The top court asked the petitioner BJP leader and advocate Ashiwini Upadhyay and the poll panel to sit together and come up with suggestions which would help him in curbing criminalisation of politics.
In September 2018, a five-judge Constitution bench had unanimously held that all candidates will have to declare their criminal antecedents to the Election Commission before contesting polls and had called for a wider publicity, through print and electronic media about antecedents of candidates.
What about those criminals who were already in parliament and vidahan sabhas? shall the ECI cancel their positions?
New Delhi, Jun 24: Over 1,500 urban and multi-state cooperative banks will be brought under the supervisory power of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), said Union Minister Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday.
"Government banks, including 1,482 urban cooperative banks and 58 multi-state cooperative banks, are now being brought under supervisory powers of Reserve Bank of India (RBI); RBI's powers as they apply to scheduled banks will apply for cooperative banks as well," Javadekar said at a press conference, through video conferencing.
"The decision to bring 1,540 cooperative banks under RBI's supervision will give an assurance to more than 8.6 crore depositors in these banks that their money amounting to Rs 4.84 lakh crore will stay safe," he added.
The Minister of Information and Broadcasting further said that the Union Cabinet has approved a scheme "for interest subvention of 2 per cent to Shishu loan category borrowers under Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana, outstanding as on March 31, 2020, for one year to eligible borrowers."
The Minister also said that the Union Cabinet has approved the declaration of Kushinagar Airport in Uttar Pradesh as an international airport.
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