NewsBytes

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has granted permission to the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, to conduct cloud seeding operations in Delhi during October and November this year, officials said on Wednesday. The operations will be held under the strict safety, security and air traffic guidelines by the DGCA. The clearance, issued under Rule 26(2) of the Aircraft Rules, 1937, allows IIT Kanpur's Department of Aerospace Engineering to conduct the activity using a Cessna 206-H aircraft. Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said the move is aimed at providing relief to residents from smog and severe air pollution that typically engulfs the city during the post-monsoon season. "When pollution and smog rise, the cloud seeding will be carried out to give relief to the people of Delhi," he said. The DGCA order specifies that the activity will be conducted without remuneration, under visual flight rules, and only after obtaining clearances from state and local authorities. The operations are authorised from October 1 to November 30.

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved Phase-III of a scheme for strengthening and upgrading existing central and state government medical colleges to increase 5,000 postgraduate seats. It also approved the extension of the central scheme for upgradation of the existing government medical colleges to increase 5,023 MBBS seats with an enhanced cost ceiling of Rs 1.50 crore per seat, Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said at a Cabinet briefing. This initiative will significantly augment undergraduate medical capacity, availability of specialist doctors by creating additional post-graduate seats and enable the introduction of new specialities across government medical institutions, the minister said, adding this will strengthen the overall availability of doctors in the country. To a question, the ministry officials said that the new 5,000 medical PG seats would be increased by the year 2028-29. They added that these PG seats are being created only in the government medical colleges across the country.

A new study by a team of researchers of IIT-Kharagpur has warned that extreme weather events are not only becoming more frequent and intense but also affecting people very differently depending on where they live and how old they are. An IIT-Kharagpur spokesperson said on Wednesday that by combining detailed climate projections with demographic data, the study compared the recent past (1991–2020) with the near future (2021–2050) under various warming and population growth scenarios. The research team, led by Prof Rajib Maity of Civil Engineering department, looked at how heat waves or cold waves can overlap with heavy rain or dry extremes. Its findings highlight stark insights as heat-related extremes concurrent with floods or droughts are projected to rise sharply worldwide, and Asia and Africa are set to be the hardest hit, with children and working-age adults facing the greatest risk. The study further flagged that sub-Saharan Africa will experience the highest youth exposure to extremes due to rapid population growth, while in Europe, North America and Australia, it is the elderly who are most vulnerable, especially to heatwaves combined with heavy rainfall.

Project Cheetah, India's ambitious initiative to reintroduce the world's fastest land animal, is set for a major boost by the year-end. Negotiations are underway with Botswana, Namibia and Kenya to translocate 8-10 cheetahs from each country. At present, India has 27 cheetahs, including 11 translocated from South Africa and Namibia in two batches, and 16 born in India. The flagship Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh remains the core hub, covering 748 sq km of inviolate habitat within a larger 3,500 sq km cheetah-compatible landscape. Officials said around 15 cheetahs are currently free-ranging in Kuno. To accommodate future arrivals, two additional release sites have been identified: Banni grasslands in Gujarat and Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh. Both sites were chosen keeping in mind the climatic similarity with southern Africa, from where the cats are sourced.