Gurugram flooded, netizens unhappy with state of affairs

On August 19 2020, three hours of heavy rainfall wreaked havoc in Gurugram. The rainfall caused flash floods in the city and also disrupted electricity supply in many places. 2000 police personnel along with civic authorities were deployed to bring the situation back to normal.

Narsinghpur, DLF Phase 3, Bheem Nagar, Model Town remained some of the worst affected areas in the city. The picture of a car submerged at Gold Course Road, one of the posh localities in the city, went viral on social media. However, netizens hailed the traffic officers who rolled up their pants and worked tirelessly on the field, diverting traffic at different locations.

Source: The Tribune

MoHUA announces Swachh Survekshan 2020 awards

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs announced the Swachh Survekshan 2020 awards for Indian cities on August 20th. Madhya Pradesh’s Indore came first in the rankings for the fourth time in a row. Cities of Surat from Gujarat and Navi Mumbai from Maharashtra bagged second and third ranks respectively.

In the category of states with more than 100 urban local bodies (ULBs), Chhattisgarh was declared as the cleanest state, followed by Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.

The Swachh Survekshan 2020 was conducted in 4,242 cities, 62 cantonment boards and 92 Ganga towns. Varanasi, also the constituency of PM Narendra Modi, was declared as the cleanest Ganga town in the country.

PM Narendra Modi later congratulated all the winners and expressed hope that competition will encourage cities to ramp up their cleanliness systems. The survey has been taking place since 2016. Mysore was declared as the cleanest city in the first edition of the survey. Since 2017, Indore has retained the spot of cleanest city in India.

Source: Hindustan Times | NDTV

Adani gets three more airports on lease mode; govt eyes more privatization

On August 19 2020, the cabinet gave its approval to lease out three more airports on PPP mode to Adani Enterprises. The three airports were: Jaipur, Guwahati and Trivandrum. The company won it through a process of competitive bidding.

Thus, the enterprise now enjoys the rights to operate six airports – Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Mangaluru, Trivandrum and Guwahati. In July 2019, the cabinet had given its nod to operation of the airports at Ahmedabad, Mangaluru and Lucknow on PPP mode by the group.

In the meantime, Minister for Civil Aviation, Hardeep Puri, has informed that the government is planning to privatize some more airports. The Modi government is reportedly planning to privatize 30 to 35 airports in the next five years.

Source: News 18 | Livemint

COVID-19: Pune study reveals that 40% patients didn’t have fever

A new study of around 5000 COVID-19 patients by Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital has found out that almost 40% of the patients did not have fever as a symptom. While the remaining 60% had fever and other flu-like symptoms like dry cough and body ache. The study also highlighted that there were no high-grade fever symptoms in COVID-19 patients.

The findings of the study were found to be in line with the WHO’s guidelines. 31% of the patients also recorded loss of taste as a symptom and 15% patients recorded loss of smell in the survey.

Source: The Times of India

Emergency authorization an option only if the government approves: ICMR

In a meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Dr. Balram Bhargava informed the Member of Parliaments (MPs) about the status of various vaccines that are being developed to beat COVID-19.

The Director General also said that emergency authorization to the vaccine could be considered as an option if the Union government decides to go for it. Both the vaccines by Bharat Biotech and Cadila are nearing the completion of phase II trials.

The vaccine developed by Oxford will enter Phase II trials by the end of this week, for which 1700 people will be participating through 17 centers spread across the country.

The committee commended the efforts of ICMR for its role in managing the COVID-19 crisis and appreciated its scientific and medical efforts in combating the pandemic that has claimed more than 55 thousand lives in India.

Source: Hindustan Times | Covid19india.org

[Compiled by Rishabh Shrivastava]