9 questions about the Zika virus

9 questions about the Zika virus 

The Zika virus was first discovered in the 1940s, though most people had never heard of it until this year. That's because for decades, Zika outbreaks were sporadic and tiny, and the disease seemed to do little harm.

That changed in 2015. A massive outbreak in Brazil — affecting more than 1 million people — has changed our view of the mosquito-borne virus. Scientists are learning that Zika may actually be a lot more dangerous than anyone thought, potentially damaging the brains of fetuses and causing incurable and lifelong health and cognitive problems. In light of this evidence, the World Health Organization declared a public health emergency on February 1.

Meanwhile, the virus has been spreading throughout the Western Hemisphere at a rapid rate, carried by a type of mosquito that feeds on and thrives alongside humans. More than 20 countries are currently battling outbreaks, and Zika is expected to reach nearly every corner of the Americas this year (save for Canada and Chile, which aren't home to the mosquito in question). Odds are you'll be hearing a lot more about Zika in the coming weeks and months.

1) I'd never heard of Zika. Is it a new virus?

Zika is actually an old virus — it's only recently that health experts have been seriously worried. It was first discovered in 1947 when it isolated from monkeys in the Zika forest in Uganda. And for decades thereafter, it barely bothered humans.

Prior to 2007, there were only 14 documented Zika cases. But then the first big outbreak erupted on Yap island in Micronesia, with 49 confirmed cases. And from there, the virus was on the move.

Soon cases popped up in other Pacific Islands, including a large outbreak in 2013-'14 in French Polynesia (388 cases). By May 2015, health officials had detected the virus in Brazil — possibly arriving with a traveler to the World Cup. Within a year, more than a million people in Brazil had been affected, as mosquitoes carried it from person to person as they do diseases like malaria and yellow fever.

Zika has since spread to more than 20 countries — mostly concentrated in Central and South America and the Caribbean — and it's expected to go much further.

2) What happens if you get Zika?

A rash from Zika. (Emerging Infectious Diseases)

It really depends.

One of the things that makes Zika very difficult to track is the fact that in the vast majority of cases, it causes no symptoms at all. Most people who get infected don't even realize it — and therefore never seek medical attention. They can, however, still transmit the disease if they are bitten by a mosquito that then bites someone else.

Meanwhile, a minority of Zika patients — roughly 20 percent — show relatively minor symptoms: a low-grade fever, sore body, and headache, as well as red eyes and a body rash. More rarely, this might include abdominal pain, nausea, and diarrhea. These symptoms usually appear two to 12 days after a bite and go away within a week. Severe disease requiring hospitalization is uncommon.

But that's not the whole story. In rare occasions, Zika seems to cause really serious problems.

In both the Brazil and French Polynesia outbreaks, researchers noted that some people infected with the virus were later diagnosed with Guillain-Barré, a rare and sometimes deadly neurological condition in which people's immune systems damage their nerve cells, leading to muscle weakness and even paralysis. The symptoms can last weeks, months, or even years.

Even more worryingly, there's evidence that Zika is linked to a terrible birth defect called microcephaly, which is characterized by a shrunken head and incomplete brain development. (You can read more about microcephaly in our explainer here.)

Javier Zarracina/Vox

Since Zika arrived in Brazil in 2015, more than 4,000 cases of microcephaly have been reported — a twentyfold increase from previous years.

The timing appears to be no coincidence. The virus been found in the amniotic fluid of pregnant women carrying babies with the birth defect, and even in the brains of babies with microcephaly who died within 24 hours of being born. 

What's more, reanalyses of the data from previous outbreaks, such as one in theFrench Polynesian islands in 2013-'14, revealed a rise in birth defects following the arrival of Zika.

But this is not a closed case. Researchers are still working to confirm the link — could it be something else that's causing the microcephaly? — and there are major questions about the frequency of the condition. As the health ministry in Brazil works to confirm the suspected cases, they're discarding more than they're confirming. (As of January 29, of the 4,180 reported cases, 270 have been confirmed and 462 thrown out. Only six of the confirmed cases have been linked to Zika so far.)

Still, Zika wouldn't be the first virus to cause microcephaly. (Rubella famously caused an epidemic of birth defects before the advent of the vaccine.) And even if this turns out to be a very rare complication of Zika, the imperfect evidence alone was enough to prompt the World Health Organization to issue a rare global public health emergency declaration.

3) What are pregnant women supposed to do about Zika?

Javier Zarracina/Vox

The difficulty with Zika is that many people who get the virus are never diagnosed — yet it might still potentially damage fetuses.

This fact has put pregnant women and would-be moms in an awful bind. In some places in Latin America, women are being told to avoid having children for months or even years because of Zika. This isn't easy: In many of these countries, family planning is nonexistent, condoms are out of reach for some, and abortion is illegal.

Meanwhile, American women who are pregnant have been advised to stay out of countries where the Zika virus is circulating. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also issued guidance on how to care for pregnant women during a Zika outbreak, and whether to get tested for Zika. (See our graphic above.)

If you're trying to get pregnant, proceed with caution if visiting these areas. The CDC recommends consulting your doctor before your trip and following steps to prevent mosquito bites during the trip.

If you'd like to get pregnant in the more distant future, however, there appears to be no need to worry. Zika virus does not seem to pose a risk of birth defects for future pregnancies. As best researchers can tell, the virus clears itself from the body pretty quickly, remaining in the blood for only about a week after infection. (If you're traveling to a place with Zika and worried, read our travel explainer.)

4) How exactly is Zika spread?

Zika is mainly carried by a specific type of mosquito called Aedes aegypti, which spreads the disease through bites.

There's some experimental evidence suggesting the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) can transmit the virus, too. This is a worry because the Aedes albopictushas a much larger range in the United States, reaching at least 32 states. 

The Aedes aegypti mosquito. (Wiki Commons)

What makes the Aedes aegypti a unique threat is that it is remarkably effective at carrying viruses — it's also the primary vector of the yellow fever, dengue, and chikungunya viruses.

Aedes mosquitoes are incredibly well adapted to thrive alongside humans. They can breed and rest in small pools of water and moist environments around people's homes. (You can see examples of the mosquito's main aquatic habitats here, ranging from rain-filled cavities in trees to outdoor pots and animal drinking pans.) This is different from other types of mosquitoes, which prefer larger bodies of water.

Mosquitoes may not be the only way to spread Zika. There have been two studies in the medical literature that suggest Zika can be sexually transmitted. In one case, a man who traveled to Senegal and contracted Zika gave it to his wife through intercourse after he returned home. In another, Zika was isolated from semen.

Researchers aren't sure how long Zika can remain in semen. And it's not clear how common sexual transmission actually is. Right now the evidence is pretty limited. For this reason, the CDC hasn't issued any warning yet about the risk.

6) Is there any vaccine or cure?

No. Until recently, Zika didn't seem to pose much of a threat to human health. So research on the virus has been extremely limited. This outbreak has spurred funding and attention on Zika science, and the WHO has called for researchers to develop a vaccine for Zika as well as better diagnostic testing to detect the virus. This, however, will likely take years.

7) How can we stop more Zika outbreaks?

Margaret Chan, director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), just called Zika a global public health emergency. (Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

Since Zika is carried by mosquitoes and there's no vaccine, the best way to prevent outbreaks is to prevent mosquitoes that carry the virus from biting people.

Health officials can treat certain bodies of water with larvicide to eliminate mosquito breeding sites. They can also spray adult mosquitoes with fumigation to kill them off.

Since Aedes mosquitoes prefer small bodies of water around people's homes, there are also important and effective measures that individuals can take to limit mosquitoes' habitats, says Janet McAllister, a researcher in the division of vector-borne diseases at CDC.

"Just generally keeping your yard clean and in shape, getting rid of debris or things stored outside that can hold water, or adjusting them so that they no longer hold water," McAllister says. "It's also important to maintain the vegetation in your yard — to keep the grass mowed and bushes trimmed, with good air flow." Campaigns to clean up people's yards and work sites, and instituting tire pickup programs (old tires are a popular breeding place).

Inside the home, the CDC recommends making sure you have screens on windows and doors that aren't punctured in any way. Wearing protective clothing, using insect repellents, and keeping your house cool with air conditioning also helps.

Finally, one controversial method of controlling mosquitoes would be to usegenetically modified Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that can essentially help sterilize the population. But it's not entirely clear that this will be a panacea, and if human's past battles with mosquitoes are any indication, killing them off won't be easy.

8) Why did the outbreak in Latin America spiral out of control so quickly?

Javier Zarracina/Vox

There are a number of reasons that seem probable, and others that will come into focus as we learn more about the outbreak.

First, because Zika didn't seem to pose much risk to humans, this virus wasn't exactly on the world's watch list. It wasn't even a reportable disease in the US, meaning doctors who found cases didn't have to alert the CDC as they would with other serious diseases. In other words, health authorities weren't anticipating an outbreak of Zika, and therefore were caught unprepared.

Second, Zika had never been recorded in the Western Hemisphere until it hit Easter Island off Chile in 2014. That means people living in the Americas are susceptible to the virus, since nobody has built up the antibodies from previous infections to fight it off.

Third, Aedes mosquitoes live all over Latin America. Couple that with the fact that many people live in communities that are perfectly hospitable to these insects: There's little air conditioning and window screens (to keep mosquitoes out) as well as poor sanitation and a lack of access to clean water (so people store water around their homes). In this environment, it makes sense that Zika has "spread explosively."

Not to mention that the spread of Zika is actually part of an unnerving trend: Several mosquito-borne tropical illnesses (dengue, chikungunya) have lately been spreading into regions of the world that have never experienced them. Researchers don't fully understand why this is happening, but they suspect the increasing popularity of global travel and the warming of the climate have something to with the change.

9) Will Zika spread in the United States?

(Javier Zarracina/Vox)

So far, local transmission of Zika virus has not been identified in the continental United States, but there have been cases in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. And travelers returning to a number of states have tested positive for the virus.

Officials are predicting that Zika is likely to follow the same pattern as dengue fever in the United States — reaching Puerto Rico first, followed by outbreaks in Florida and other Gulf Coast states, and maybe Hawaii — all regions where the Aedes aegyptimosquitoes live. Most likely, an outbreak would start like this: A traveler carrying the virus would return to a place with the Aedes aegypti, and the mosquito would pick up the virus and infect others through bites.

But there's at least some good news: Outbreaks here are expected to be small and local.

"Better housing construction, regular use of air conditioning, use of window screens and door screens and state and local mosquito control efforts helped to eliminate [mosquito-borne infections like malaria] from the mainland," said Lyle Petersen, director of the CDC's division of vector-borne diseases, in a recent statement. These conditions will likely protect Americans, but they aren't present in many developing countries, which suggests Zika will be with us for a long time to come.

Zika virus

Global health officials say the Zika virus, linked to severe birth defects in thousands of babies in Brazil, is spreading rapidly in the Americas and could infect 3 million to 4 million people. The race is on to develop a Zika vaccine.

Here are some questions and answers about the virus and the current outbreak.

How do people become infected?

The virus is transmitted to people through the bite of infected female Aedes mosquitoes, the same type of mosquito that spreads dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said Aedes mosquitoes are found in all countries in the Americas except Canada and continental Chile, and the virus will likely reach all countries and territories of the region where Aedes mosquitoes are found.

How do you treat Zika infection?

There is no treatment or vaccine available for Zika infection. Companies and scientists are racing to develop a safe and effective vaccine for Zika, but one is not expected to be ready for months or years.

How dangerous is it?

The PAHO said there is no evidence that Zika can cause death but some cases have been reported with more serious complications in patients with pre-existing medical conditions.

The virus has been linked to microcephaly, a condition in newborns marked by abnormally small heads and brains that have not developed properly. It also has been associated with Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare disorder in which the body’s immune system attacks part of the nervous system. Scientists are studying whether there is a causal link between Zika and these two disorders.

How is Zika related to microcephaly?

Health officials have yet to establish a direct causal relationship between Zika virus infection and birth defects, but it is strongly suspected. Brazil has reported 3,700 cases of suspected microcephaly that may be linked to Zika. It is unclear whether in pregnant women the virus crosses the placenta and causes microcephaly. Research in Brazil indicates the greatest microcephaly risk appears to be associated with infection during the first trimester of pregnancy.

What are the symptoms of Zika infection?

People who get Zika virus disease typically have a mild fever, skin rash, conjunctivitis, muscle and joint pain and fatigue that can last for two to seven days. But as many as 80% of people infected never develop symptoms. The symptoms are similar to those of dengue or chikungunya, which are transmitted by the same type of mosquito.

How can Zika be contained?

Efforts to control the spread of the virus focus on eliminating mosquito breeding sites and taking precautions against mosquito bites such as using insect repellent and mosquito nets. US health officials have advised pregnant women to avoid travel to Latin American and Caribbean countries where they may be exposed to Zika.

How widespread is the outbreak in the Americas?

The World Health Organization said Zika cases have been reported in 23 countries and territories in the Americas in the current outbreak. Brazil has been the nation most affected. Other nations and territories include Barbados, Bolivia, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Saint Martin, Suriname, Venezuela and the US Virgin Islands, according to the PAHO.

What is the history of the Zika virus?

The Zika virus is found in tropical locales with large mosquito populations. Outbreaks of Zika virus disease have been recorded in Africa, the Americas, Southern Asia and Western Pacific. The virus was first identified in Uganda in 1947 in rhesus monkeys and was first identified in people in 1952 in Uganda and Tanzania, according to the WHO.

Can Zika be transmitted through sexual contact?

One case of possible person-to-person sexual transmission has been described but the PAHO said more evidence is needed to confirm whether sexual contact is a means of Zika transmission.

The PAHO also said Zika can be transmitted through blood, but this is an infrequent transmission mechanism. There is no evidence the virus can be transmitted to babies through breast milk.

What other complications are associated with Zika?

The WHO says because no big Zika outbreaks were recorded before 2007, little is known about complications caused by infection. During an outbreak of Zika from 2013-2014 in French Polynesia, national health authorities reported an unusual increase in Guillain-Barre syndrome. Health authorities in Brazil have also reported an increase in Guillain-Barre syndrome.

Long-term health consequences of Zika infection remain unclear. Other uncertainties surround the incubation period of the virus and how Zika interacts with other viruses that are transmitted by mosquitoes such as dengue.

The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has asked NITI Aayog to prepare a report on stalled hydroelectric

The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has asked NITI Aayog to prepare a report on stalled hydroelectric power projects which have held up large-scale investment as the government aims to provide 24x7 electricity across the country.

"Recently, the PMO asked NITI Aayog to prepare a report on the country's hydro projects which are stalled and investments which has been held up due these projects," a source said.

The source added that the government think-tank has also been asked to include the reasons for the projects are getting delayed in its report.

NITI Aayog has been asked to prepare the report within three months, the source said.

The proposed hydro capacity addition during the 12th Plan period is 10,897 Mw. However, up to December 2015, the actual capacity addition is only 3,651.02 Mw which is 33.5 per cent of the proposed capacity addition, according to data by Central Electricity Authority (CEA).

Of the country's total installed capacity of 2,84,303.39 Mw as on December 31, 2015, large hydro capacity is 42,623.42 Mw and small hydro capacity is 4,147 Mw, CEA data said.

Hydro power projects are generally categorised in two segments -- small and large hydro.

Hydro projects of up to 25 Mw capacities have been categorised as small hydro power projects.

Power Ministry is responsible for large hydro projects, while the mandate for the subject small hydro power is given to Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

India has set a target of 175 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2022, which includes 5 GW of small hydro power.

According to PWC's Kameswara Rao, hydro power continues to have strong long-term economic benefits for energy prices, especially as the India market matures to offer ancillary services, besides mainstream power sales.

Unfortunately, he said, development in the Himalayan belt slowed down after 2012 floods as the states put new permits on hold. Further, regulatory approvals for project cost has also taken time, which is understandable given challenges in assessing cost overruns.

"The most promising new growth is from the North East, and the transmission corridor through Bangladesh will help bring private investment to the North East hydro sector, and transmission costs will be lower for buyers. The speed of these developments will depend on how Bangladesh and India collaboration on regional network," he added.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Energy had earlier

said that policy measures have failed to revive the hydro sector and had asked the government to come up with a framework to rejuvenate it, besides ensuring transparency and level playing field for all stakeholders.

Policy measures including Hydro Policy, 2008 have failed to invigorate the hydro sector and the government has not been able to give any firm timeline for completion of projects, the panel had said in a report last month.

It further said nine projects of NHPC Ltd, totalling 4,172 Mw, have slipped from the 11th Plan period.

Of this slipped capacity, 3,172 Mw is programmed for the 12th Plan and the remaining 1,000 Mw has further been advanced to the 13th Plan, it added.

Ensuring privacy in a digital age

Citizens are unaware of how their personally identifiable information is collected, stored, used and shared 

On 28 January 1981, the European Council signed the Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data, popularly known as Convention 108. It is the first legally binding international treaty dealing with privacy and data protection. The day has since been celebrated as Data Protection Day in Europe and as International Data Privacy Day around the world. In today’s era of digitization, it is imperative that we understand the concept—and importance—of data privacy.
According to an Internet and Mobile Association of India report, India has around 400 million Internet users. This number took a decade to reach 100 million from 10 million, three years to reach 200 million and just another year to reach 300 million. The Internet is essentially a data ecosystem where every node is engaged in generation, transmission, consumption and storage of data. The scale of this data ecosystem can be gauged from the fact that by 2019, the gigabyte equivalent of all movies ever made will cross India’s Internet protocol networks every hour.
But the situation is such that while we are generating such high volumes of data—most of which is of the “identifier” type that is used to identify a person, a thing or an entity in the ecosystem—we do not have in place measures that safeguard the privacy of this data, nor regulate data retention by platforms collecting it. As a result, ordinary citizens are unaware of how their personally identifiable information is collected, stored, used and shared. Further, as governance-driven digitization (Aadhaar, digital lockers, direct account transfers) fuels large-scale sensitive data collection and storage, the Information Technology Act, with its limited scope to penalize government agencies for breach of data privacy, is the only legal instrument available to citizens against contravention of their privacy in the data ecosystem. This leaves citizens exposed—as in 2013, when the Maharashtra government simply lost the personal data of 300,000 Aadhaar card applicants.
The need of the hour is a comprehensive legislation that provides for a right to privacy as a fundamental entitlement to citizens. The groundwork for such legislation has already been laid in 2012 by a Justice A.P. Shah-headed group of experts constituted by the Planning Commission. The commission had proposed a set of national privacy principles that would place an obligation on data controllers to put in place safeguards and procedures that would enable and ensure protection of privacy rights. These include: notice (to be given to users while collecting data); choice and consent (of users while collecting data from them); collection limitation (to keep user data collected at the minimum necessary); purpose limitation (to keep the purpose as adequately defined and narrow as possible); access and correction (for end users to correct or delete their personal data as may be necessary); disclosure of information (private data should not be disclosed without explicit consent of end user); security (defining responsibility to ensure technical, administrative and physical safeguards for data collected); openness (informing end users of possible collection and utilization of personal data); accountability (institutionalize accountability for adherence to these principles).
The proposed framework aims at being technology neutral and compliant with international standards already in place to protect user privacy. It also recognizes the multiple dimensions of privacy and aims at establishing a national ethos for privacy protection, while remaining flexible to address emerging concerns. It seeks horizontal applicability with both the public and private sectors bought under the purview of privacy legislation. An attempt to introduce such legislation in Parliament failed in 2011 as there could not be a consensus on which government agencies could seek exclusion from such provisions and collect citizen data without any oversight.
Until such provisions are established by law, it will be necessary to adopt mechanisms that ensure compliance towards use of privacy enhancing technologies (PET). PETs are essentially processes and tools that allow end users to safeguard the privacy of their personally identifiable information that they willingly provide to government agencies and other service providers. PETs put the end user in control over what information to share, with whom to share and a clear knowledge of the recipients of this information. The use of data encryption and mandating multi-factor authentication for access to end user data can be examples of other PETs that can be implemented by service providers and government agencies alike.
Our government needs to start with aligning our technology laws with the evolving Internet landscape. User privacy concerns and secure designing should be integrated in the charters of respective standard-setting organizations. There needs to be active user education that makes them aware of their choices. Lengthy and complex privacy policies that practically hand over control of user data to the platforms collecting it need to be replaced with ones that are user friendly in draft and execution. Policy documents that address these concerns need to be widely discussed and debated in the public domain. Recently, the Indian government released its draft Internet of Things Policy and it devotes only one line to the need to have security and privacy standards. The policy document on Smart Cities is indifferent to these concerns as well.
Last year, the Supreme Court referred to a constitutional bench the petition seeking inclusion of the Right to Privacy under Article 21 (Right to Life). While the verdict of the honourable court is still awaited, we can take the first steps towards safeguarding ourselves by voluntarily inculcating digital privacy principles.

Government announces first batch of 20 smart cities from 11 States and Delhi

Government announces first batch of 20 smart cities from 11 States and Delhi

Bhubaneswar tops the list; Bhopal at 20

23 States/UTs left out to participate in fast track competition

Selection through competition totally objective and transparent, says Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu

20 cities propose an investment of Rs.50,802 cr over five years ; All cities to resort to PPP

26,735 acres area in 20 cities identified for making them smart

            The Government today announced the 20 winners of the Smart City Challenge competition for financing during this financial year. Announcing the cities here today, Minister of Urban Development Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu said that the winners were from 11 States and the Union Territory of Delhi and the selection was totally objective and transparent based on standardized processes.

            Shri Naidu further said that Smart City Mission marks a paradigm shift towards urban development in the country since it is based on ‘bottom up’ approach with the involvement of citizens in formulation of city vision and smart city plans and the Urban Local Bodies and State Governments piloting the mission with little say for the Ministry of Urban Development. He also observed that it was for the first time in the country and even in the world that investments in urban sector are being made based on competition based selection of cities.

            Informing that 1.52 crore citizens participated in shaping smart city plans of 97 cities and towns in the first round of competition, Shri Naidu said that this enthusiastic participation of people is a major positive outcome.

            3 cities from Madhya Pradesh, two each from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan and one each from the remaining five made it to the winning list.

            The Minister informed that 23 States and UTs who could not make to the list of winners will be given an opportunity to participate in a ‘fast track competition’. Each top ranking city form these left out states can upgrade their smart city proposals and submit them by April 15, this year for inclusion in the mission.

            Shri Naidu informed that the 20 winning cities and towns have proposed a total investment of Rs.50,802 cr over five years with all the cities proposing Public-Private-Partnership as a major vehicle of resource mobilization. 10 of the 20 cities have proposed to mobilise Rs.8,521 cr under PPP model while others have also indicated this option. A total area of 26,735 acres has been identified by these cities for making them smart through necessary interventions.

            Elaborating on the advantages of Smart City Mission, Shri Venkaiah Naidu said that this leads to integrated urban planning by addressing the issue of infrastructure, land use planning, transport, urban design and architecture in a holistic manner unlike in the past. Stating that building a smart city is not a destination but a series of small steps in that direction, Shri Naidu said that the country has taken one such step today.

            The Minister said that urban local bodies are taking a quantum jump to improve their capabilities and have resorted to SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis of each city for coming out with city vision.

            The 20 smart cities announced by Shri Venkaiah Naidu were :

           

Rank	City	State
1	Bhubaneswar	Odisha
2	Pune	Maharashtra
3	Jaipur	Rajasthan
4.	Surat	Gujarat
5	Kochi	Kerala
6	Ahmedabad	Gujarat
7	Jabalpur	Madhya Pradesh
8	Visakhapatnam	Andhra Pradesh
9	|Solapur	Maharashtra
10	Davanagere	Karnataka
11	Indore	MP
12	New Delhi Municipal Council	Delhi
13	Combattore	Tamil Nadu
14	Kakinada	Andhra Pradesh
15	Belagavi	Karnataka
16	Udaipur	Rajasthan
17	Guwahati	Assam
18	Chennai	Tamil Nadu
19	Ludhiana	Punjab
20	Bhopal	MP

            Of these 20 cities accounting for a total population of 3.54 crore, 5 have  population below 5 lakhs each, 4 in the range of 5-10 lakhs, 6 in between 10-25 lakhs, 4 between 25 and 50 lakhs and only Ahmedabad has above 50 lakhs.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan Dedicates a Low Cost Motorized Wheelchair to the Nation

Union Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences Dr. Harsh Vardhan Dedicates a Low Cost Motorized Wheelchair to the Nation

The Union Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, Dr. Harsh Vardhan dedicated a low cost motorized wheelchair called Locomo-WC to the Indian persons with disabilities. Speaking on the occasion he said all such technical advancement should be made accessible the needy poor also.  The Minister said that our Scientists have now developed capacity to be able to reach various advance technologies as required by the people.

The Wheel Chair was developed by the Ministry of Science & Technology under the Department of Biotechnology, (DBT)’s “Make-in-India initiative”.  

Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, Dr. VijayRaghavan, Dr. Rajesh Kapur, Advisor DBT and Padma Bhushan Major (Retd) HPS Ahluwalia, the Chairman of the Indian Spinal Injuries Centre, (ISIC) New Delhi were present at the event.

The motorized wheelchair originally designed at the Human Engineering Research Lab, University of Pittsburg under the joint international collaborative program of DBT and USA government has been completely remodeled to suit Indian conditions.   The Medical Director & Chief of Spine Service Dr. H S Chhabra and Mr. Nekram Upadhaya at ISIC had further worked on the Wheel Chair to remodel it to face the dual challenges of uneven terrain in rural India and prohibitive costs which limits the accessibility of the wheelchairs available in the market.

Estimated cost of LOCOMO would be around Rs 45,000 as compared to the imported motorized wheelchair which could cost Rs 1.5 lakhs. The cost again is expected to come down with mass production and tax exemptions. 

The uniqueness of LOCOMO lies in its suspension system with linear links used to make all four wheels operate independently to make it suitable to handle uneven terrain also.

LOCOMO could withstand rugged conditions and at the same time is also comfortable easy to manipulate and is available at an affordable cost. It is also light weight, simple to handle, easy to fold and reassemble.

LOCOMO will also make people with disability as independent as possible, leading to improved quality of life, social relationships and physical health.

30,000 Megawatt more capacity of Thermal Power has been added during 20 months

30,000 Megawatt more capacity of Thermal Power has been added during 20 months of NDA Government: Shri Piyush Goyal

Shri Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of State (IC) for power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy has said, 30,000 Megawatt more capacity of Thermal Power has been added during last 20 months of Present Government. Addressing an interactive session organized by Indian Chamber of Commerce in Kolkata today, Shri Goyal Said, Power being the most important ingredient of infrastructure for nation’s development, the government is laying utmost emphasis on this sector. The Minister informed that his ministry has achieved 60% working capacity of power plants and has a target of 90% working capacity which will be achieved in near future. Asserting that India’s Coal production has increased substantially by 9.6% which has resulted in remarkable reduction in our coal imports, the Minister said, his ministry is now emphasizing on creating more marketing facilities for coal.

Shri Goyal said, more than 5 crore 36 lakh LED bulbs have been given out at government subsidized rates due to which the rate per bulb has come down from Rs.310 to Rs.64 and within a short time it will come down further to make it affordable for common man. He added that this has resulted in 1600 MW reduction in power consumption and said that by this year March, 10 crore of LED bulbs will be given out. This will result in a huge reduction in power consumption and drastic cut in pollution.

Regarding transmission, the Minister said, during the present government 22,000 circuit Kms of transmission line has been drawn which is a record. During last 18 months, 71% of additional transmission capacity has been created and by 2019 it will reach 200%.

Saying that in power sector, an well-coordinated and harmonized approach is need of the hour to integrate thermal -- both Coal & Gas – , hydel, solar, wind and other renewable power sources – which are eco-friendly – as well as nuclear, Shri Goyal assured that the govt. is relentlessly working in this direction. The minister said that his dream, and effort is to provide uninterrupted 24 x 7 power at affordable cost.