City: Mumbai

On 27th April 2021, the COVID figures released by Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (commonly referred to as MCGM or BMC) showed the count of positive patients in the city at 66,045.  The positivity rate in Mumbai stands at over 13% which means that approximately 1 out every 8 people getting tested is infected with the virus. Though numbers have been falling over the past week, Mumbai continues to be the worst-affected in Maharashtra. Newer hotspots in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region such as Kalyan-Dombivli, Thane, and Navi Mumbai, are mushrooming. The government is struggling to ramp up health infrastructure even…

Our new refrigerator is arriving, and with it we can be sure of something else – Thermocol as voluminous as the fridge itself. Not so long ago, lunch at the food court meant eating off a Styrofoam plate. What really is Thermocol and Styrofoam? What is Thermocol and Styrofoam? Thermocol and Styrofoam are brand names – the former by BASF and the latter by Dow Chemicals. Thermocol is an EPS (Expanded Polystyrene) and Styrofoam is an XPS (Extruded Polystyrene). Both these polystyrene products are derived from petroleum, just like plastic. Thermocol is so popular that any EPS/XPS is generically called…

With Mumbai recording 7367 Covid-19 cases and 75 deaths as on April 22, the second wave of the pandemic has overwhelmed the maximum city.  Mumbai has reported more than 1.38 lakh cases in April alone so far whereas in  September 2020, during the ‘first wave’, the city had reported 57,755 cases.  Until April 23, Mumbai has conducted 51.22 lakh tests and has reported 11.75% test positivity rate till date. The city’s healthcare infrastructure is under strain with only 7139 COVID beds vacant as on April 22. Of these, only 42 are ICU beds and only 21 are ventilator beds that…

Need a a COVID bed at a hospital in Mumbai? Promising a bed to someone in need of it? Please read what BMC has to say. Dated 24th April, 9:25 p.m. https://twitter.com/mybmc/status/1385985789419343872?s=20 Ward War Rooms - Only Authority To Allocate Beds We appreciate concern of individuals & groups not related to BMC offering help to citizens tweeting to us, but citizens must know that even they will reach out to us to ask for beds. Please follow protocols in the interest of all. Bed allocation system was decentralised since a single helpline, with innumerable calls, could not have taken the…

Lack of oxygen supply hits Mumbai Waiting periods for hospital beds, especially ICU, ventilator, and oxygen beds, have considerably lengthened in the city. According to BMC data, only 661 oxygen beds were vacant and they were vacated due to supply shortages. In order to meet high demands, the first ‘Oxygen Express’ has left for Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) and will transport liquid medical oxygen for Maharashtra’s usage. Volunteer groups have also attempted to aid the cylinder crunch in Mumbai. Several mosques in Mumbra, Mira Road, Kalyan, and Bhiwandi are providing oxygen cylinders to the city’s hospitals. Source: Times of India, Hindustan…

Several parents in Mumbai are upset with the decision by the government to set up a review committee to suggest amendments to the Fee Regulation Act, 2011. They say while the a 3-month review committee may restructure school fees, the school administration has already started restricting students from attending e-learning classes, if fees are not paid. "In 2019 a committee was set up to recommend amendments therefore this new committee formation wasn't needed at all," says Anubha Sahai, President India Wide Parents Association. "The government has always supported schools' decisions on fee hike, both in private and aided schools. Parents…

In 1997, Stephen Webber, a professor of music production and engineering at the Berklee College of Music, proposed teaching a course in turntablism. What DJs were doing with turntables had opened his eyes to a new musical frontier. But when he proposed teaching the course, Berklee denied. He tried two more times but he was denied on both occasions. Webber explained to the college that turntablism and hip hop was a crucial part of culture. “If we plan to be relevant in academia, we have to address it [hip hop] and learn about it ourselves,” he tried saying. In 2003,…

The Union Budget 2021 laid out an elaborate financial package to develop metro rail lines across cities. While more metro lines are being envisioned with a focus on building back the economy, post-pandemic mass transit infrastructure also needs to be leveraged to sustain the growth of jobs and urban economy. One such clear opportunity lies before the Mumbai Metro. Mumbai Metro line 2A (Dahisar – D.N. Nagar) and 7 (Andheri East – Dahisar East) are expected to be operational within the next few months, adding 35 kilometre of mass transit lines to the megacity. Before the pandemic, the 11.4 kilometre long Metro line 1 (Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar) served…

Migrant exodus begins in Mumbai Hundreds of migrant workers waited outside Lokmanya Tilak Terminus to board trains and return to their hometowns. Echoing struggles of last year, migrants are either taking once again to the road, or spending anywhere from Rs. 1,500 to Rs 5,000 for trains and buses leaving the city. The Chief PRO of Central Railway stated that on April 14th ten trains were scheduled to leave for northern states and had waiting lists of more than 1,000 people. The All-India Motor Transport Congress’s Chairman claimed that almost all of Maharashtra’s 14 lakh helpers, unloaders, and truckers are…

On a warm evening in March, staff members worked swiftly inside a glitzy salon in Malad, Mumbai, to sanitize their customers’ hands and feet as they noted down their details and studied the number of appointments pending for the evening.  Most masks stayed on as a customer waited for her hair color to set in just as another client soaked in the afterglow of her manicure. The Glam Factor salon, a family-run establishment in the western suburbs of the city, was slowly getting back on track this year after the pandemic stalled their profits in 2020 after India went into…