Articles by News Desk

Mumbai University exams to be conducted offline Mumbai University will open its doors soon for undergraduate exams for this year's summer session. A detailed timetable is yet to be released, but the exam committee has devised a broad outline. Semester 2 will be offline for both regular and candidates with a backlog of exams, while Semester 4 exams will be entirely online for Arts, Science, and Commerce streams. Backlog candidates for Semester 1, 3 and 5 will appear for exams online.  A call on final semester exams will be taken based on data collected on vaccinated students and the public…

Cabinet nod for Peripheral Ring Road project The state cabinet gave administrative approval for the Bengaluru Peripheral Ring Road (PRR) project, which has been hanging for over a decade. PRR would be 100-metre wide, stretching a length of 73.5 km. The project, estimated to cost Rs 21,000 crore, will be done in the PPP-DBFOT (public-private partnership - design, build, finance, operate and transfer) model. The private firm will be able to collect toll from users for 50 years. Meanwhile, the High Court of Karnataka on Wednesday permitted the BMRCL (Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Ltd) to fell 680 trees along the…

The existing state of urban biodiversity, environment and natural heritage in Bengaluru is a matter of urgent concern. The impacts of ecological degradation is already felt in the city - for example, monsoons are often accompanied by the grim news of many areas getting flooded. Many of these vulnerable sites are found in large layouts and real estate projects that are built in valley zones and adjacent to lakes/rajakaluves (primary stormwater drains). A favoured market for the real estate sector, Bengaluru has witnessed an increase in built-up area that has replaced its green cover and wildlife habitats. Built-up area has…

Guidelines for school reopening The Ministry of Education on February 3rd released guidelines for the reopening of schools across India. "We share these guidelines, which are advisory in nature, and states are free to make their own guidelines accordingly. These guidelines contain all SoPs for attending classes. Students can opt for online education," said the Education Ministry. Currently, 98.85% of teaching staff and 99.07% of non-teaching staff in central institutions have all been vaccinated. Social distancing and sanitation measures have been mandated to ensure safe physical schooling. Source: India Today Union Budget 2022-23: Key highlights Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on…

Night curfew lifted, other restrictions remain City police commissioner Kamal Pant issued orders withdrawing the night curfew, on Monday. But the prohibition on rallies, dharnas and congregations will remain. Three hundred guests in open places and 200 in closed places will be permitted at marriage functions. Fifty per cent occupancy will be allowed in cinema halls, auditoriums, swimming pools, gyms, sports complexes and stadia. The order will remain in force till 5 am on February 15. Those violating the order will be booked under the Disaster Management Act, IPC Section 188, and under Karnataka Epidemic Diseases Act. Source: Deccan Herald…

Urban local body poll preparations underway Preparations are underway for the urban local body polls that are set to take place on February 19th. Counting for the same will happen on February 22nd. The Greater Chennai Corporation is working with the Chennai Police to identify sensitive polling booths and beef up security. A total of 1243 sensitive polling booths across 200 wards has been identified. Proceedings from these booths will be live streamed on the day of the elections. Additional monitoring will be carried out by banking staff roped in for this purpose. A total of 18000 police personnel will…

Mumbai Coastal Road project given priority in 2022-23 budget In the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)'s 2021-22 budget for Mumbai, Rs 3500 crore was allocated to the Coastal Road project, 50% of which has been completed. For the financial year 2022-23, Rs 3200 crore has been allocated for a 90% completion of it. The base construction cost of the project is 8,429.44 crore, and Rs 12,950 crore including taxes, supervision charges, consultancy charges and others. A total of Rs 22,647 crore has been allocated for capital expenditure for spending on projects dealing with infrastructure, drainage systems and water supply. Source: Mid…

Omicron cases start to plateau Since the beginning of the Omicron surge in India in late December 2020, the trajectory of this third wave seems to have now begun to recede. Since January 20th, daily cases have shown a declining trend, with the country registering 233,779 new cases on January 28th. One consoling aspect of this third wave has been the reduced need for hospitalisation and the resultant reduced burden on the public health infrastructure. Experts, however, continue to emphasise the need for caution and strict enforcement of COVID appropriate behaviour, especially wearing of masks. Even as many states start…

COVID cases dipping  Bengaluru continues to report a dip in COVID cases. On January 26th, the State Health Department reported 38,083 fresh cases, of which 17,717 were in Bengaluru. The city had 1,89,853 active cases, and test positivity rate of around 22% on the day. Health minister K Sudhakar said 185 new Omicron cases have been confirmed in Bengaluru, taking the tally of the variant in the State to 1,115. BBMP Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta directed officials to control the spread of infection in areas with higher numbers of cases. “Case trend over the past week across all the eight…

89% COVID-19 samples from Mumbai show presence of Omicron From 280 samples sequenced at civic-run Kasturba Gandhi Hospital, Mumbai, 89% had the Omicron variant of COVID-19. 8% had Delta derivatives, and the remaining 3% had other subtypes. “This explains the reason behind the spike in cases by the end of December last year. As Omicron doesn’t involve the lungs, we are witnessing very few cases of pulmonary pneumonia, which was high in the second wave when Delta variant was predominant in Mumbai,” said Suresh Kakani, additional commissioner of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). Source: Indian Express Mumbai's double decker buses to…