Cyclone Lehar moves towards Andhra Pradesh, Met warns of extensive damage

November 27, 2013

Cyclone_LeharNew Delhi, Nov 27: The cyclonic storm Lehar in the Bay of Bengal today moved further towards the Andhra Pradesh coast and could cross it tomorrow causing extensive damage, officials said.

The "very severe" cyclonic storm was now centered about 650 km east-southeast of Machillipatnam and 600 km east-southeast of Kakinada in the state, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

"The cyclone moved west-northwestward with a speed of 15 kmph during the past six hours," the IMD said.

The IMD has forecast heavy to very heavy rainfall from Wednesday evening over coastal Andhra Pradesh and Yanam district of Puducherry.

"(The) intensity would gradually increase at most places with heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places and isolated extremely heavy rainfall over coastal Andhra Pradesh and Yanam district Thursday," the IMD said.

It warned of extensive damage to mud houses and agricultural crops, and disruption of power and communication lines as well as rail and road traffic.

IMD has called for total suspension of fishing operations.

It also called for mobilizing evacuation from coastal areas and judicious regulation of rail and road traffic and asked people in affected areas to remain indoors.

An IMD bulletin said squally winds speed reaching 45-55 kmph gusting to 65 kmph would commence along and off Andhra Pradesh and south Odisha coasts Wednesday evening.

The wind speed would be 100-110 kmph gusting to 120 kmph over Vizianagaram and Prakasham districts of Andhra Pradesh at the time of landfall.

The sea would be rough to very rough from Wednesday evening and become "phenomenal" Thursday.

The IMD said the storm surge with height of about two-three metres above astronomical tide would inundate low lying areas of West and East Godavari, Guntur and Krishna districts of Andhra and Yanam.

Lehar will be the second cyclone to hit Andhra coast. Helen hit the coast near Machilipatnam last week killing six people.

Cyclone Phailin and heavy rains last month claimed 58 lives and damaged crops over 13 lakh hectares.

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Agencies
July 29,2020

New Delhi, Jul 29: The new National Education Policy (NEP) approved by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday is set to usher in a slew of changes with the vision of creating an education system that contributes directly to transforming the country, providing high-quality education to all, and making India a global knowledge superpower.

The draft of the NEP by a panel headed by former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief Kasturirangan and submitted to the Union Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal when he took charge last year. The new NEP replaces the one formulated in 1986.

Some of the key highlights of the New Education Policy are:-

The policy aims to enable an individual to study one or more specialized areas of interest at a deep level, and also develop character, scientific temper, creativity, spirit of service, and 21st century capabilities across a range of disciplines including sciences, social sciences, arts, humanities, among others.

It identified the major problems facing the higher education system in the country and suggested changes such as moving towards multidisciplinary universities and colleges, with more institutions across India that offer medium of instruction in local/Indian languages, a more multidisciplinary undergraduate education, among others. 

The governance of such institutions by independent boards having academic and administrative autonomy has also been suggested.

Under the suggestions for institutional restructuring and consolidation, it has suggested that by 2040, all higher education institutions (HEIs) shall aim to become multidisciplinary institutions, each of which will aim to have 3,000 or more students, and by 2030 each or near every district in the country there will be at least one HEI.

The aim will be to increase the Gross Enrolment Ratio in HEIs including vocational education from 26.3 per cent (2018) to 50 per cent by 2035.

Single-stream HEIs will be phased out over time, and all will move towards becoming vibrant multidisciplinary institutions or parts of vibrant multidisciplinary HEI clusters.

It also pushes for more holistic and multidisciplinary education to be provided to the students.

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News Network
March 20,2020

New Delhi, Mar 20: The government on Thursday said one Indian who tested positive for coronavirus has died in Iran while the other citizens infected with the disease are being provided treatment and taken care of by the Iranian government.

Noting that the virus tends to be more fatal for those whose immunity levels are low, a senior MEA official said the deceased, an elderly person, belonged to the vulnerable age group and had health-related complications.

The death was not because of lack of medical attention or care, he said.

"We have evacuated 590 people from Iran where the situation is very severe. The Indians infected with coronavirus in Iran have been segregated and taken care of very well by the government there. We believe they will recover and we will bring them back," the MEA official said, adding that 201 Indians were evacuated from Iran on Wednesday.

The official said closely knit families required some persuasion and counselling during the process of segregation to prevent the spread of the contagion.

The Indian ambassador and other officials explained the consequences of infected people not being separated from their families and were successful to a large extent in segregating the positive cases from the negative ones, he said.

"Some pilgrims and students are still there and our embassy and mission are in control (of the situation)," the official said.

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News Network
March 25,2020

New Delhi, Mar 25: The government is likely to agree an economic stimulus package of more than Rs 1.5 lakh crore ($19.6 billion) to fight a downturn in the country that is currently locked down to stem the spread of coronavirus, two sources familiar with the matter told news agency.
The government has not yet finalised the package and discussions are ongoing between Prime Minister Narendra Modi's office, the finance ministry, and Reserve Bank of India (RBI), said both the sources, who asked not to be named as the matter was still under discussion.

One of the sources, a senior government official, said the stimulus plan could be as large as Rs 2.3 lakh crore, but final numbers were still in discussion.

The package could be announced by the end of the week, both sources added.

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