Month: March 2022

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday flagged off 150 electric buses manufactured by Olectra for public transport in Pune.

He also inaugurated a state-of-the-art electric bus depot and charging station in Baner during the program. PM Modi has also appealed to the nation to encourage electric mobility to avoid diesel hikes and reduce carbon emissions.

With the addition of new 150 electric buses, the citizens of Pune city will experience air-conditioned, noiseless commuting. These will reduce the carbon dioxide emissions significantly in the city, as per an official statement by Olectra.

It is found that urban public transportation is one of the primary causes of pollution across the world. The buses are 100 per cent electric, zero-emission and have several safety features.

It also said that Olectra manufactured state-of-the-art electric buses are able to serve efficiently in multiple cities like Surat, Goa, Silvassa, Dehradun, Mumbai, Pune and Surat etc. As the response from the commuters in multiple cities is exuberant, the respective transport organisations are willing to expand the electric bus fleet.

While announcing the deployment of the buses, Olectra Greentech Limited Chairman and Managing Director KV Pradeep said, “Olectra is proud to add another 150 fleets of electric buses in Pune city to the current fleet of 150 buses. Our buses would now contribute to preserving the rich heritage of Pune city.”

“We are committed to its efforts to reduce the pollution levels, both sound pollution and carbon emissions through an efficient Electric Public Transport System. Our Electric buses have already proved their reliability and efficiency, as it has been successfully operated over 2 crore kilometres in Pune,” he added.

Describing the features of these buses, it stated that these 12-meter AC buses have a seating capacity of 33+D and the electronically controlled air suspension ensures a comfortable ride.

The buses are equipped with CCTV cameras to ensure the safety of the commuters, an Emergency button and USB Sockets for each seat. The lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery installed in the bus enables it to travel around 200 km on a single charge, based on traffic and passenger load conditions, it said.

The technologically advanced bus has a regenerative braking system which allows the bus to recover part of the kinetic energy lost in braking. The high-power AC and DC charging system enable the battery to recharge in three to four hours fully, it added.

Earlier in the day, the Prime Minister also inaugurated a 12 km stretch of the Pune Metro Rail Project in the city. (ANI)

Eight Assembly seats in Varanasi will be in the focus in the last phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, with multiple seats witnessing close contests.

The Varanasi district is witnessing a multi-cornered contest among the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJ), Samajwadi Party and Congress.

Out of eight Assembly seats, five are within the Parliamentary constituency of Varanasi, represented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Lok Sabha.

The eight seats are Banaras City South, Banaras City North, Shivpur, Sewapuri, Cantonment, Ajgara, Pindra and Rohaniya.

In Banaras South, BJP has fielded state minister Neelkanth Tiwari against SP’s Kishan Dixit. Dixit is the Matant of Mahaamrtyunjay temple. Locals say that the two candidates hail from the Brahmin caste, pointing to a close contest.

“Dixit has been working among the people for a long time. Therefore, he holds a good influence among the voters. Whereas, Tiwari is a minister and is contesting the election in the name of PM Modi and CM Yogi Adityanath,” said a local.

From Banaras (North), the BJP has fielded another state minister Ravindra Jaiswal against SP’s Ashfaq Ahmed. Jaiswal has won the elections in 2012 and 2017. This seat is also seen witnessing a tough contest.

In Shivpur, another minister and the BJP candidate Anil Rajbhar is contesting the polls against SP’s Arvind Rajbhar. Arvind is the son of Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party chief Omprakash Rajbhar. The seat has a sizable caste population belonging to Brahmin, Vaishya, Kshatriya, Rajbhar, Patel, Maurya, Yadav, Scheduled Caste, among others.

From the Sevapuri Assembly constituency, Nilratna Patel and Surendra Patel are giving neck to neck fights to each other. Neelratna Patel is contesting from the BJP and Surendra Patel is the SP nominee. Surendra Patel has a stronghold over the region. However, Neelratna Patel had won the 2017 polls.

Samajwadi Party and the BJP seem to be engaged in a neck to neck contest on most of the seats in the district but in the Pindra constituency, Congress’ Ajay Rai is giving a tough fight.

The BJP has fielded Awadhesh Singh from the Pindra seat.

In the 1996, 2002 and 2007 elections, Ajay Rai had won the elections on a BJP ticket. After the delimitation, the Kolasala Assembly seat changed to Pindra.

The number of Brahmin voters in the Pindra Assembly seat is about 55,000, while Patels are 70,000 and there are 60,000 Dalits. There are 25,000 Yadavs, 30,000 Kshatriya, 30,000 Bhumihar, 25,000 Muslims, and 20,000 Maurya voters in the Pindra Assembly seat.

Babu Lal Patel from the BSP is also in the fray, and giving a tough contest while he had come second in the 2017 polls from the constituency.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi lead a high-octane roadshow in Varanasi on Friday.

A total of 54 Assembly seats across nine districts including Azamgarh, Mau, Jaunpur, Ghazipur, Chandauli, Varanasi, Mirzapur, Bhadohi and Sonbhadra, will go to polls on March 7.

Votes will be counted on March 10. (ANI)

Sunday is family day. Actor Namrata Shirodkar is making sure to spend the day with her daughter Sitara.

Taking to Instagram, Namrata shared a string of images with the little one. In the pictures, the mother-daughter duo can be seen twinning in white. One of the images features Sitara giving a cheek kiss to her mother.

“A mother-daughter moment!! @sitaraghattamaneni,” she captioned the post.

Namrata and actor Mahesh Babu got married on February 10, 2005. The two first met on the sets of the film Vamsi. They welcomed son Gautham in 2006 and daughter Sitara in 2012. (ANI)

Veteran actor John Stahl, best known for playing Rickard Karstark in ‘Game of Thrones’, has passed away.

According to Deadline, Stahl breathed his last on March 2. He was 68. A cause of death is yet to be disclosed.

The news of Stahl’s demise was confirmed by his agent Amanda Fitzalan Howard via statement, in which she described the late star as “an actor of remarkable skill and a stalwart of Scottish theatre”.

She added: “He died on the (Scottish) Isle of Lewis on March 2 2022 and is survived by his wife, Jane Paton.”

Stahl had also featured in the long-running Scottish soap opera Take the High Road. He appeared in the show from 1982 until the end of its run in 2003. (ANI)

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra led an aggressive poll campaign for the 2022 Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.

Taking the lead for the party’s campaign, Vadra hit the campaign trails hard, getting attention for her campaign with women in the fields.

She sought to raise key public issues. In all her speeches, she emphasised that the elections should not be based on religion and caste, but on people’s issues. She stated that politicians talk about religion and caste because they want to escape their accountability.

Vadra further sought the limelight after she hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi by raking up the “you’ve eaten my salt” slogan. In a public meeting, She referred to a video, saying that “old Amma in the video is saying that I have eaten Modi’s salt”.

In a democracy, the power lies with the people, maintained the Congress leader in her relentless attack on PM Modi.

The Congress leader’s emphasis was on the fact that the power in a democracy lies in the hands of the people, with a thrust on the empowerment of women. She also brought out women’s issues by bringing out a separate manifesto ‘Shakti Vidhan’.

In the Assembly elections of five states in 2022, Vadra addressed a number of rallies in Goa, Uttarakhand, Punjab and mainly focused on Uttar Pradesh. She addressed a total of 167 rallies, public meetings and corner meetings in all five states. Through 42 roadshows and door to door campaigns, she interacted with the public during the election campaign.

Besides, she addressed rallies in Uttarakhand, Manipur, and addressed a total of 340 Assemblies.

Congress made full use of her campaigning style, especially to woo the women voters. It was because of this that Gandhi in Goa and Punjab made the announcement related to women in the manifesto and later in Uttarakhand, she released the entire manifesto. (ANI)

On actor Janhvi Kapoor’s 25th birthday on Sunday, her father-producer Boney Kapoor and cousin-actor Sonam Kapoor penned special birthday posts on social media.

Taking to his Instagram handle, Boney posted his daughter’s childhood picture and heaped praises for his “beta” in the caption.

He wrote, “Joy of our lives, remain the way you are, simple, down to earth, respectful to everyone, spreading warmth, these are your qualities which will take you beyond the moon. Happy birthday beta.”

Sonam shared a glamourous picture with her sister “jannu” on her Instagram handle and wrote, “Happy happy birthday jannu all my love darling girl @janhvikapoor.”

Meanwhile, on the work front, Janhvi has multiple films in the pipeline including ‘Good Luck Jerry’, ‘Milli’ and ‘Mr and Mrs Mahi’. (ANI)

The Taiwanese government has announced a donation drive to help Ukrainians who had to leave their country amid Russia’s military operations in Ukraine, local media reported.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), in a statement, has said that the private donations will be accepted between March 7 and March 18 from 10.00 am to 5.00 pm. The donated goods will be sent to countries bordering Ukraine for distribution among Ukrainian refugees through local relief agencies, Taiwan News reported citing the MOFA press release.

According to the release, people can donate a list of things including clothes, non-perishable food items and medical supplies for Ukrainian refugees.

Earlier on February 28, Taiwan had donated 27 tons of medical supplies and also set up a special fund for Ukrainians in need on March 2, the media outlet quoted the MOFA that added that the calls from people volunteering to donate prompted it to announce this donation drive.

Notably, Russian forces launched military operations in Ukraine on February 24, three days after Moscow recognized Ukraine’s breakaway regions – Donetsk and Luhansk – as independent entities.

Amid the Ukraine-Russia crisis raging for over 10 days now, over one million Ukrainians have fled to neighbouring countries, according to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR. (ANI)

Several cities across Portugal, more than 95 per cent of whose territory is in “severe or extreme drought,” have begun to adopt measures to ration water use.

The water crisis is particularly serious in the southern region, where the Algarve Intermunicipal Community on Saturday announced “joint measures” to face the drought.

Those measures include reducing irrigation of green spaces, using wastewater for non-drinking purposes, as well as campaigns to promote rational use of water.

President of the Portuguese Water Distribution and Drainage Association Rui Godinho defended the urgent implementation of fundamental structural measures to reduce water losses.

It is necessary to “attack the problem” with specific measures and a national program for efficient use of water, he was quoted by the Lusa News Agency as saying. (ANI/Xinhua)

Puducherry’s iconic pier at the Rock beach collapsed partially on Saturday night due to high waves as a result of deep depression over the Bay of Bengal.

Meanwhile, the depression over southwest Bay of Bengal moved nearly southwestwards with a speed of about 07 kmph during the past six hours and lay centred over the same region, about 310 km north-northeast of Trincomalee (Sri Lanka), 260 km east-northeast of Nagappattinam, 270 km east-southeast of Puducherry, said the Indian Meteorological Department on Sunday.

“Depression over southwest BoB moved nearly southwestwards with a speed of about 07 kmph during past 06 hours and lay centred over the same region, about 310 km north-northeast of Trincomalee (Sri Lanka), 260 km east-northeast of Nagappattinam, 270 km east-southeast of Puducherry,” said a tweet from IMD.

Also, the IMD said that light to moderate rainfall/thundershower at a few places with heavy rainfall at isolated places is very likely over north coastal Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Karaikal and light to moderate rainfall/thundershower at isolated places is very likely over south coastal Andhra Pradesh and Rayalaseema on March 6.

Further, it also predicted light to moderate rainfall/thundershower at many places with heavy to very heavy rainfall at isolated places is very likely over coastal Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Karaikal, and light to moderate rainfall/thundershower with heavy falls at isolated places is very likely over south coastal Andhra Pradesh and Rayalaseema on March 7. (ANI)