Civic

COVID-19 cases surge in Mumbai Between February 15 and March 15, the city has recorded 31,106 new cases of Covid-19, of which 18,903 were reported in March alone, the Hindustan Times reported. Mumbai’s Covid growth rate shot up to 0.42% on March 15, from 0.15% reported on February 15. The doubling rate — the number of days it takes for the number of cases to double —was 165 days on March 15 compared to 455 days on February 15, according to the Hindustan Times. The surge is because of lack of precautionary means such as wearing masks or social distancing,…

Pollution above WHO limits Despite widespread air quality improvements during 2019 and 2020, air pollution continues to be dangerously high, the annual data ‘World Air Quality Report, 2020’, compiled by IQAir, has revealed. Bengaluru recorded an average 15.6% dip in PM 2.5 levels. However, the pollution levels were above the WHO's prescribed limit on 46.7% of the days. The IT city’s annual average stands at 27.5 µg/m3, nearly three times the prescribed limit. Also, Bengaluru’s PM 2.5 levels in December 2020 surpassed the January 2020 levels, indicating that ‘better air quality’ has already faded away. South Indian cities recorded relatively…

Lockdown for Nagpur from 15th to 21st March, Maharashtra govt on alert The Maharastra government has decided to impose a total lockdown in the area under Nagpur Police Commissionerate from 15th to 21st March. The decision was taken after Nagpur reported more than 1800 cases in 24 hours. The government has informed that essential services such as vegetable, fruit shops and milk booths will continue to operate. Maharashtra has reported more than 13000 cases a day, the highest in the country and is still on top of the tally. This has pushed the government into alert mode. CM Uddhav Thackeray…

Budget: Allocation for Bengaluru reduced Allocation for the development of Bengaluru has come down drastically in the 2021-22 budget, as the state government has focused more on essentials owing to Covid. The budget has earmarked Rs 7,795 crore for the comprehensive development of Bengaluru. Some of the projects include conservation of waterbodies, drain development, and suburban rail. Rs 850 cr has been allocated for suburban rail, and a similar amount for the doubling of two railway lines. Rs 950 cr has been allocated for the rejuvenation of Vrushabhavati and Koramangala valleys as well as their sewage treatment plants (STPs). Some…

AIADMK, DMK and MNM release candidate list ConstituencyAIADMKMNMDMKAvadiK PandiarajanUdaya KumarS M NasserMaduravoyalBenjaminPadmapriyaK GanapathyAmbatturV AlexanderVaideeswaran SJoseph SamuelVirugambakkamVirugai N RaviSnehanAMV PrabhakarT NagarB Sathya NarayananPazha KarupaiahJ KarunanidhuMylaporeR NatrajSri PriyaT VeluPallavaramChitlapakkam S RajendranSenthil ArumugamE KarunanidhiTambaramK M ChinnaiahSiva ElangoS R RajaTiruvottiyurK KuppanNot announcedK B ShankarVillivakkamJCD PrabhakarNot announcedA VetriSaidapetSaidai S DuraisamySneha MohandossM SubramanianVelacheryM K AshokSanthosh BabuN/ASholinganallurK P KanthanRajiv M RS Arvind RameshAnna NagarS Gokula IndraV PonrajM K MohanPeramburNot announcedS A PonnusamyR T SekarMadhavaramV MoorthyRamesh KondalasamiS SudarsanamRK NagarR S RajeshFazilJ J EbenezerKolathurAdirajaramNot announcedM K StalinAlandurP ValarmathiSarath BabuT M Anbarasan Source: Times of India | The New Indian Express Read more: 6000 booths, strict COVID protocol, 80-plus to…

Covid cases surge in Mumbai Mumbai division reported 2,856 new cases and 11 deaths, taking the cumulative caseload to 7,49,849 and death toll to 19,921, Livemint reported. Mumbai's COVID-19 tally increased to 3,38,643 and four deaths took the fatality count to 11,519. But BMC Chief Chahal told the Indian Express that “As of now, there is no plan of imposing a lockdown." As many as 90 per cent of patients in Mumbai, who tested positive for COVID-19 in January and February this year, were residents of high-rises, while the remaining 10 per cent were from slums and chawls, NDTV quoted BMC officials.…

In September 2020, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) refused permission to Maharashtra’s state and district central co-operative banks (DCCBs) to finance self-redevelopment of co-operative housing societies, stating that such projects would fall under the category of ‘commercial real estate,’ and hence, outside the banks’ primary purview of lending for activities related to agriculture and rural development. For the Maharashtra government, which was banking on support from the state’s co-operative banking ecosystem, this is as a huge blow to a scheme it had presented late last year as the solution to the state’s, and more specifically, Mumbai’s housing crisis. Meanwhile,…

Ministry of Urban Affairs announces 'Ease of Living' Index 2020 As per the recently released Ease of Living Index by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MOHUA), Bengaluru (in the million-plus category) has been adjudged the most liveable city with rank one. It is followed by Pune, Ahmedabad, Chennai and Surat. The index aims to assess the quality of life by evaluating the impact of various urban development schemes. ong cities with less than a million population, Shimla topped the chart. The index for the very first time also released the Municipal Performance Index. The Municipal Performance Index looked…

On-site vaccine registrations on the rise among seniors The vaccination drive against COVID-19 for senior citizens and persons aged 45 and above with comorbidities kicked off on March 1st. While there are provisions for online and offline registrations, on-site walk-in registrations have gained momentum among this category.  On the other hand, seniors from western suburbs of the city have complained about the lack of adequate number of vaccine centres in their locality. Senior citizens living in Avadi travel all the way to either Anna Nagar or Thiruvallur to get the vaccine shot. Information on government vaccine centers too have been…

Was Mumbai's power outage a cyberattack? A New York Times article last week cited a cybersecurity report to claim that Mumbai's major power blackout last October may have been a cyberattack from China. But the Central and State governments are now in disagreement about what happened, Boom reported. Maharashtra's Energy Minister confirmed the Chinese cyberattack, while Central government chalked it up to a human error and not an attack. Source: Boom After BMC Chief, Aaditya Thackeray talks about the need for a single authority in Mumbai Aaditya Thackeray, Photo by Amit Chivlikar, Unsplash Maharashtra minister and Shiv Sena leader Aaditya…