Indian Railways is fully geared to provide COVID Care Centres to State Authorities. Trains with unit composition of 10 coaches, with patient capacity of 16 per coach have been made ready.

Railway Ministry said, a total of five thousand 231 coaches were modified to be used as COVID Care Centre. Telangana has asked for coaches to be stationed in three locations- Secunderabad, Kachiguda and Adilabad. Uttar Pradesh has finalized 24 stations for deployment. In Delhi, 10 coaches are stationed at Shakurbasti location.
   
The Ministry said, Zonal Railways have converted these coaches for a quarantine facility. The coaches can be used for very mild cases that can be clinically assigned to the COVID Care Centres as per guidelines issued by the Health and Family Welfare Ministry. These coaches can be used in areas where the state has exhausted the facilities and needs to augment capacities for isolation of both suspect and confirmed COVID cases. These facilities are part of the integrated COVID plan developed by Union Health Ministry and NITI Ayog.

Eminent Indian-American soil scientist Rattan Lal has been named this year's recipient of the World Food Prize for developing and mainstreaming a soil-centric approach to increasing food production that conserves natural resources and mitigates climate change. Lal, a native of India and a citizen of the United States, will receive the 2.5 lakh dollar award that honours his contribution throughout his career spanning more than five decades and four continents to promote innovative soil-saving techniques that benefit the livelihoods of more than 500 million smallholder farmers, improve the food and nutritional security of more than two billion people and saves hundreds of millions of hectares of natural tropical ecosystems.

Lal said the unbound joy and excitement of receiving the 2020 World Food Prize reminds me about the gratitude, privilege and honour of working for farmers from around the world.

Lal serves as Distinguished University Professor of Soil Science and founding Director of the Carbon Management & Sequestration Center at The Ohio State University (OSU).

The Gujarat forest department has suggested that the Asiatic Lion population in Gir national park has increased by 29% in the past five years — from 523 in 2015 to 674 in 2020. The department has also said the distribution area of lions in the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, where Gir is situated, has increased by 36% from 22,000 sqkm in 2015 to 30,000 sqkm.

“Over the last several years, the Lion population in Gujarat has been steadily rising. This is powered by community participation, emphasis on technology, wildlife healthcare, proper habitat management and steps to minimise human-lion conflict. Hope this positive trend continues!,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted.

Shyamlal Tikadar, Gujarat’s chief wildlife warden and principal chief conservator of forests, said the Asiatic lion, which once faced the threat of extinction, has shown extraordinary recovery , thanks to the timely intervention by the erstwhile Nawab of Junagadh and protection programmes of the Gujarat government.

The Bangladesh Government has launched an online network to facilitate plasma exchange between recovered patients of COVID 19 and those undergoing treatment for Corona infection in the country. The initiative named ‘Shohojodha’ has been launched by the ICT division of the government of Bangladesh in collaboration with Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), a2i innovation lab and eGeneration to facilitate collection and distribution of plasma from patients who have recovered from Coronavirus.
 
Launching the network through a virtual programme on Tuesday, the State ICT Minister Zunaid Ahmad Palak said that the government is implementing IT infrastructure over the existing system to improve health outcomes concerning Coronavirus. The plasma therapy for the Coronavirus patients in Bangladesh is under trial process awaiting final approval from the government.
 
In the meanwhile, the number of deaths and new infections reached record levels on Tuesday with 45 patients dying and 3171 new Coronavirus infections taking place in the country. According to the latest figures of the DGHS, till Tuesday, 975 patients had died while 71,675 persons were infected in the country. Bangladesh reported the first Corona positive case on March 8 while the first death was reported on March 18.

Indian Railways will continue to provide Shramik Special trains within 24 hours after the demand is received from the states. Railway Ministry has requested the State Governments to indicate their requirements about Shramik Special trains.
 
Railway Board Chairman Vinod Kumar Yadav said that Indian Railways will provide the desired number of Shramik Special trains immediately within 24 hours of the request made by the State Governments. Railways has also assured that it will provide additional Shramik Special trains for any future requirement. More than 4,347 Shramik Special trains have been operated by Railways to transport approximately 60 lakh migrant workers to their destination states since 1st of May.

Biocon Executive Chairperson  Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw has been named EY World Entrepreneur of the Year 2020 at a virtual award ceremony, the company said in a statement. She was selected from among 46 Entrepreneur of the Year country award winners from 41 countries and territories, it added.

"I am truly honoured to receive the prestigious EY World Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2020. At its core, entrepreneurship is about solving problems.

The greatest opportunities often arise at the toughest times, and that's been my experience throughout my entrepreneurial journey," Mazumdar-Shaw said.

Andhra Pradesh CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s move of launching an online waste exchange platform, has been hailed by the Indian wing of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

“Thank you @ysjagan , we are sure this will help animals too,” read the tweet by the official handle of PETA India, praising the move.

On the occasion of “World Environment Day 2020” on 5th June 2020, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy launched the online waste exchange platform of AP Environment Management Corporation (APEMC).

The platform, one of a kind initiative taken up by the AP Government, facilitates the authorities to monitor the movement of hazardous waste real-time using the tools incorporated in the platform.

The Andhra Pradesh Environment Management Corporation (APEMC) and the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board (APPCB) will work in close coordination to handle the waste

NEW DELHI: The Indian Air Force on Monday inducted an indigenously designed and manufactured pod called ARPIT, which will be used for evacuation of critical patients suffering from infectious diseases like COVID-19 from isolated and remote areas.

"The IAF has designed, developed and inducted an Airborne Rescue Pod for Isolated Transportation (ARPIT)," said the IAF in a statement.

It said when the COVID-19 outbreak was declared a pandemic, it felt the need for an evacuation system that prevents the spread of infectious aerosol from the patient to another person.

This indigenously designed system has been developed at a cost of Rs 60,000, which is very less when compared to imported systems which cost up to Rs 60 lakh a piece, the IAF stated.

The isolation system has a suitable number of air exchanges, integration of medical monitoring instruments, and ventilation for an intubated patient, the IAF said.

Poet, lyricist and writer Javed Akhtar has become the first Indian to receive the prestigious Richard Dawkins Award for 2020 for critical thinking, holding religious dogma upto scrutiny, advancing human progress and humanist values.

Previous recipients include American TV host, comedian and political commentator Bill Maher and English-American intellectual, philosopher, social critic and writer Christopher Hitchens.

The Ministry of Culture has approved opening of 820 centrally protected monuments under the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) which have places of worship from today. The Union Minister of Culture  has said that all the protocols issued by the Home Ministry and Health Ministry will be followed in these monuments.

In its order, Culture Ministry has said that ASI will ensure that preventive measures as stipulated in the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) to contain the spread of COVID-19 in religious places are effectively put in place and scrupulously followed while opening and managing these monuments.

The Ministry of Culture also asked the  ASI to share the list of these 820 monuments to the concerned States so that any state or district specific orders with regard to containment and prevention of spread of COVID-19 are also comprehensively implemented. There are 3,691 Centrally-protected monuments and archaeological sites maintained by the ASI which were shut from 17th of March in view of COVID-19.