Extreme heat put older people at high risk, warns UN report

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New Delhi, July 10 (IANS) As extreme heat grips many countries and becomes “the new normal”, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) warned of heightened health risks for older persons in the Frontiers 2025 Report published on Thursday.Other highlighted impacts of climate change include the melting of glaciers that reawaken ancient pathogens and floods that risk releasing dangerous chemicals.The seventh edition of the Frontiers Report, The Weight of Time – Facing a new age of challenges for people and ecosystems, is part of UNEP’s Foresight Trajectory initiative and highlights emerging environmental issues as well as potential solutions.The first edition in 2016 warned of the growing risk of zoonotic diseases, four years before the COVID-19 pandemic. This report is released as communities across China, Japan, India, Europe, the US and elsewhere face weeks of extreme heat and flooding.”Heat waves are among the most frequent and deadly impacts of climate change, along with floods and shrinking ice cover,” said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP.”We must be prepared for the risks these impacts pose, especially for society’s most vulnerable, including older persons. Yet as this year’s Frontiers Report shows, solutions exist that can help protect communities and restore ecosystems long thought to have been lost,” Anderson said.Adults aged 65 and above now form an increasingly dominant part of the world population, particularly in urban areas of low- and middle-income countries.The report notes that annual heat-related deaths among older people have risen by an estimated 85 per cent since the 1990s.Additional risks arise from deteriorating air quality and floods in low-lying coastal cities where older people live.Older people, especially those with chronic illnesses, limited mobility, or frailty, are particularly vulnerable to heat-related health issues, including respiratory, cardiovascular, and metabolic diseases, as well as increased mortality.The report recommends making cities pollution-free, resilient, and accessible spaces with expansive vegetation. Key strategies include better urban planning, community-based disaster risk management, and improved access to climate information for older populations.Earlier this year, the UN Human Rights Council adopted a new resolution to develop an “international legally binding instrument on the human rights of older persons”, a possible path to add safety to those most exposed to climate change.Beyond the risks to older people, the report also warns of ancient microbes awakening. Should global temperatures rise more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, this would significantly reduce the cryosphere in mass, which includes glaciers, seasonal snow, ice sheets and shelves, sea ice, seasonally frozen ground, and permafrost.The report also identifies risks from the remobilisation of chemicals that were banned and phased out decades ago.Floods can bring such chemicals to the surface after having accumulated in sediment over centuries.Another emerging threat the Frontiers 2025 Report addresses is the risk of ageing dams. Alongside many benefits, dams can harm indigenous and fishing-dependent communities, as well as degrade ecosystems.Removal of large, older dams that have become unsafe, obsolete, or economically unviable is increasingly happening in Europe and North America.The report highlights potential benefits of the removal of dams and barriers in restoring natural river connectivity for biodiversity and ecosystems. Reversing river fragmentation and restoring natural processes support the implementation of the UN’s principles for ecosystem-restoration initiatives.–IANSvg/svn

Manipur: Congress urges Governor to rehabilitate violence-hit displaced people soon

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Imphal, July 10 (IANS) Opposition Congress in Manipur on Thursday urged Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla to take steps to rehabilitate the violence-hit displaced people, who have been staying in the relief camps in different districts for more than two years after the ethnic violence broke out in May 2023. A four-member Congress delegation, led by state Congress chief Keisham Meghachandra Singh, visited the Raj Bhavan and submitted a memorandum to the Governor’s Secretariat seeking rehabilitation of displaced people in their original districts.”Governor Bhalla was not in Imphal when the Congress delegation went to the Raj Bhavan. Both the Central and state governments have no clear-cut policies to deal with the ethnic crisis in the state,” the Congress said in its memorandum.Referring to his visit to the Bishnupur district on Wednesday, Singh said that he visited two sites in the district where prefabricated houses were constructed to accommodate displaced people.”I have found that the construction of prefabricated houses was executed without floating any tender, and it strongly indicates a possibility of looting of public money of hundreds of crores of rupees,” the Congress leader claimed in their memorandum.Singh, also an MLA, earlier said that the Congress rejects the so-called three-phase resettlement plan for displaced people, as it fails to offer a clear and concrete roadmap for restoring displaced people to their rightful homes.”Instead of promoting unity and lasting rehabilitation, the plan risks deepening existing divisions and prolonging displacement,” he said.The state government has established over 300 relief camps in Imphal Valley and hilly regions to provide shelter to over 57,000 men, women and children, who were displaced after the ethnic violence broke out in the state on May 3, 2023.Meanwhile, Chief Secretary Prashant Kumar Singh last week said that with the improvement in the situation, the Manipur government has started resettling the displaced people.The Chief Secretary had said that the resettlement of displaced people would be done in three phases — July, October and December and the process is targeted to be completed by December this year.”Most displaced people would be resettled in their original villages. Even after December 2025, 9,000–10,000 displaced people may not be able to return to their original villages, especially those displaced from some areas, including Tengnoupal, Churachandpur, and Kangpokpi districts. These 9,000–10,000 people would be provided with accommodation in prefabricated houses. A large number of prefabricated houses were already constructed in different districts, and an additional 1,000 such houses are being constructed for this purpose,” Chief Secretary Singh had told the media.He said that the resettlement process has been initiated after a series of meetings with the various Union Government ministries, including the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).Of the three phases resettlement process, the first phase has already begun and it is expected to be completed by this month (July), the Chief Secretary said, adding that the second phase of resettlement is scheduled for October, followed by the third and final round by December.According to the Chief Secretary, the number of displaced people has come down from around 62,000 to 57,000.He said that financial assistance of Rs 3.03 lakh per family would be provided to those families whose homes have been destroyed, and a lump sum amount would be provided to those families whose homes were not damaged but have been partially damaged after two years of abandonment.Chief Secretary Singh said that the state government has taken a series of initiatives to restore free movement in different parts of the state.–IANSsc/svn

‘Is bird becoming a parrot?’, Cong MP taunts Tharoor over ‘revisiting’ dark era of Emergency

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New Delhi, July 10 (IANS) Congress MP Shashi Tharoor’s column on the Emergency, spotlighting the blatant abuse of power by the then regime in 1975, has invited reactions from the grand old party on expected lines. Fellow Congress parliamentarian Manickam Tagore took note of Tharoor’s open acknowledgement and criticism of the ‘dark era’ under the Congress regime and took a veiled jibe, saying ‘mimicry may look cute in birds but not in politics’, a stinging remark reflecting the bitter exchange between the two MPs earlier.Taking a sarcastic tone at the Thiruvananthapuram MP, Tagore wrote on X, “When a colleague starts repeating BJP lines word for word, you begin to wonder — is the bird becoming a parrot? Mimicry is cute in birds, not in politics.”Tharoor’s op-ed on the ‘murder of democracy’ and ‘unspeakable atrocities’ during the Emergency imposed by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1975, has seen muted backlash from the grand old party, for now but it is likely to grow more intense, thereby aggravating the already strained ties between him and the party.Shashi Tharoor, in his Op-ed in a leading daily on Thursday, highlighted how the Emergency exposed the ‘fragility and frailty’ of the institutions, even in a robust democracy like India.“The vibrant cacophony of Indian public life, so accustomed to vigorous debate and free expression, had been replaced by an eerie silence. This reminded us that a government can lose its moral compass and sense of accountability to the people it purports to serve,” he wrote in an article.Notably, the two Congress lawmakers – Tharoor and Tagore had an acrimonious exchange on social media, some time ago, over the ‘free bird’ pitch. Tharoor wrote about ‘birds not seeking permission to fly’, to which Tagore had replied with a metaphorical warning that ‘vultures and eagles are there in the sky to target the free bird’.It is to be noted that there has been a growing unease and discomfort within the Congress party over Tharoor’s actions and remarks, often leaving the former embarrassed and making it ‘dissociate and distance’ itself from him, on a couple of occasions.The fresh instance of Tharoor criticising the imposition of Emergency by the Indira Gandhi-led Congress government has further deepened the differences and disquiet within the party.–IANSmr/uk

Flood alert issued across several districts in Nepal

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Kathmandu, July 10 (IANS) Nepal’s Department of Hydrology and Meteorology issued a flood alert on Thursday, warning of elevated water levels in the small rivers across several districts.

Although major rivers like Koshi, Narayani, Karnali, Mahakali, Kamala, Bagmati, and Rapti in Nepal are presently below critical levels, the threat of localised flooding persists, the local media reported.The districts, including Doti, Dadeldhura, Kanchanpur, Kailali, and nearby regions, are reportedly at risk of sudden floods due to a rise in water levels.Meanwhile, nine people have been confirmed to be dead in the flash floods that struck Nepal’s Rasuwa district on Tuesday, according to Nepal Police.Additionally, the search operations for 19 people who have gone missing following the devastating flood are underway. The missing reportedly included 11 Nepali nationals, including two police personnel and six Chinese nationals.The devastating flood wrought destruction in Rasuwa prompting rescue and relief operations to assist those in the flood affected areas.“We are fully deployed in the field. We rescued more than 150 individuals including 127 foreign nationals and airlifted to Kathmandu,” Nepal’s leading newspaper the Kathmandu Post quoted Arjun Paudel, Chief District Officer of Rasuwa as saying.“Electricity and telephone services are also disrupted in the area, making rescue and other operations difficult. We are currently maintaining limited communication through the Chinese border. Efforts are underway to restore telephone connectivity and resume electricity supply,” Paduel added.He also stated that more than 2000 people remain stranded due to flooding, with only a few days of food remaining.“Efforts are now focused on delivering food, restoring power and communication lines, and continuing search and rescue operations,” said Paudel.The massive flood had also swept away the Nepal-China Friendship Bridge and several newly imported Electric Vehicles (EVs) parked at the dry port.Furthermore, the flood has extensively damaged four hydropower plants, while local officials report that the dry port has been nonfunctional.Reports suggest that the entire stretch of the Rasuwagadhi–Timure area is severely disrupted. Several road access points have been paralysed, and electricity, internet, and telephone services have been cut off since Tuesday.–IANSint/scor/as

Shipping and waterways sector will play a key role in boosting exports: Minister

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New Delhi, July 10 (IANS) Shipping and waterways will play a vital role in enhancing India’s exports as the country is headed to become the third largest economic power, Minister of State for Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Shantanu Thakur, said on Thursday.Addressing a conference on exports logistics organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here, the minister emphasised that equal and balanced focus on development of each sector is crucial.Thakur highlighted that reduction of the turnaround time of ships in the transportation of goods is of paramount importance. “As 70 per cent of trade happens through shipping, there is a need for vast development of the shipping industry, ” Thakur pointed out.He also said that the use of artificial intelligence is an imperative for deeper development of the shipping and logistics sector.The minister mentioned the need for improved communication to establish a robust connectivity infrastructure, spanning from the Northeast region to the Northwest part of India, encompassing both first mile and last-mile connections.Speaking at the conference, Rajesh Agrawal, Special Secretary, Department of Commerce, highlighted three important factors in India’s logistics journey. First, the container revolution played an important role in enhancing the role of Global Value Chains (GVC).He further emphasised the significance of India’s ongoing and past free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations in enhancing India’s participation in GVCs, adding that identification of gaps in multimodal transportation and bringing all stakeholders together will bring down the logistics cost, driving exports and growth in India’s economy.Secondly, Agrawal mentioned that there is a need for more air cargo space, port space, rail and road space, in addition to enhancing cold chain logistics in India’s agriculture sector.He further highlighted that to achieve Net Zero by 2027, there is a need to see that the logistics journey that India embarks upon is sustainable, with minimum carbon footprint.Vijay Kumar, Chairman, Inland Waterways Authority, deliberated on India’s transformative journey and the role of Inland Waterways in actualising India’s ambitious goal of achieving $2 trillion in exports by 2030, and net zero emission target by 2070.“If the cost of logistics has to be brought down to single digit, we have to meet the twin goals of economy and sustainability, then inland waterways transport is the solution,” he added.Kumar also discussed the crucial steps taken by the government to address major industry issues including water availability and draft variability, highlighting the importance of multimodal connectivity and cargo aggregation hubs to bring down first mile and last mile costs.–IANSsps/na

South Korea, US, Japan arranging three-way talks at ASEAN meetings

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Kuala Lumpur, July 10 (IANS) South Korea, the United States and Japan were arranging to hold three-way talks among their senior diplomats in Malaysia, diplomatic sources said Thursday.The talks, if held, will take place among First Vice Foreign Minister Park Yoon-joo, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya, on the sidelines of multilateral meetings hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Kuala Lumpur.The three sides were fine-tuning the details to hold the meeting, the sources said.The talks would mark the first high-level meeting among the senior diplomats of the three countries since the launch of the Lee Jae Myung government in early June, underscoring their continued commitment to the trilateral partnership built under their previous governments.The envisioned talks come as Seoul has been negotiating with Washington over steep US tariffs to avoid or minimise the impact on its key industries, a measure that has also been affecting Tokyo.The talks would also come just days after South Korea’s national security adviser, Wi Sung-lac, visited Washington earlier this week and held talks with Rubio, who doubles as the top security adviser, on the tariff measures and other alliance issues.Wi said after his US trip that he suggested making efforts to facilitate a “mutually beneficial” deal and that Rubio had agreed with him.On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump sent letters to Korea, Japan and other trading partners to notify them that the “reciprocal” tariffs will go into effect on August 1, an effective extension of the initial July 9 deadline following a 90-day pause.At the envisioned talks, the three diplomats are also likely to discuss coordination on regional security issues, including the growing military ties between North Korea and Russia, Yonhap news agency reported.The talks could also touch on China’s growing assertiveness amid the intensifying rivalry with the US, possibly addressing the Taiwan Strait and other related issues.Park would join the talks in place of the foreign minister, as the nomination procedure is still underway pending parliamentary confirmation.–IANSint/jk/dan

TCS logs 6 pc net profit growth at 12,760 crore in Q1, to give Rs 11 interim dividend

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Mumbai, July 10 (IANS) Kicking off the Q1 FY26 earnings season, IT bellwether Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on Thursday said it registered around 6 per cent growth in net profit (year-on-year) at Rs 12,760 crore, which surpassed analyst expectations.The IT major saw revenue from operations growing 1.3 per cent (on-year) to Rs 63,437 crore for the April-June quarter.TCS declared an interim dividend of Rs 11 per share of Re 1 face value each.”The interim dividend shall be paid on Monday, August 4, 2025, to the equity shareholders of the company,” it said in a stock exchange filing.“The continued global macro-economic and geo-political uncertainties caused a demand contraction. On the positive side, all the new services grew well. We saw robust deal closures during this quarter,” said K Krithivasan, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director.He added that the company remains closely connected to its customers to help them navigate the challenges impacting their business, through cost optimisation, vendor consolidation and AI-led business transformation.Ahead of the earnings announcement, TCS share closed with moderate gain 0.4 per cent at Rs 3,397.1 apiece.Operating margins expanded sequentially. The EBIT margin for the fiscal first quarter expanded 30 bps to 24.5 percent from 24.2 per cent in Q4, as per the TCS filing.“Across industries, clients are increasingly shifting their focus from use case-based approach to ROI led scaling of AI. We are investing across the AI ecosystem including infrastructure, data platform solutions, AI agents and business applications,” said Aarthi Subramanian, Executive Director-President and Chief Operating Officer.The company reported net Headcount addition of 6,071 in the quarter, with Last Twelve-Month (LTM) attrition at 13.8 per cent.Milind Lakkad, Chief HR Officer, said that talent development is core to TCS.“In this quarter, our associates invested 15 million hours in building expertise in emerging technologies, enabling them to lead the transformation journey for our customers. It is gratifying to note that TCS now has 114,000 people with higher order AI skills,” he added.–IANSna/

SC asks EC to consider if Aadhaar, Voter ID, Ration Cards could be used for verification in SIR

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New Delhi, July 10 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Election Commission of India (ECI) to consider “in the interest of justice” if documents such as Aadhaar, Voter ID and Ration Cards could be accepted for the purpose of verification of voters during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar. A Bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Joymalya Bagchi was dealing with a batch of petitions claiming that if the June 26 decision of the poll body directing SIR is not set aside, it can “arbitrarily” and “without due process” disenfranchise lakhs of voters from electing their representatives, and disrupt free and fair elections and democracy — a part of basic structure of the Constitution. In its order, the Justice Dhulia-led Bench said that the clutch of petitions raised an “important question” which goes to the very roots of the democratic setup of the country.Opining that the matter required a detailed hearing, it asked the Election Commission to file its counter-affidavit within a week and told the petitioners to file their rejoinder affidavit, if any, before July 28. After hearing the arguments of both sides, the Justice Dhulia-led Bench framed three questions for the consideration of the top court: First, the power of the ECI to conduct such a special intensive revision of electoral rolls; second, the legality and propriety of the procedure adopted by the ECI; and third, the timeline for conducting SIR right before the ensuing Bihar Assembly elections in November 2025.Noting that the draft revised rolls will be published in August, the Supreme Court listed the matter for further hearing on July 28 before the regular Bench. During the hearing, senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, representing the petitioner side, contended that the ECI’s order directing the SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar has no basis in law since the exercise fails to recognise Aadhaar Card and Voter ID Card for the purpose of verification. On the other hand, senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, representing the ECI, urged the apex court not to interfere with the revision exercise at this stage.“Let the revision exercise be completed, and then your lordships may look at the entire picture,” submitted Dwivedi. He objected to the PILs filed by several NGOs and other political activists, questioning their locus standi. “None of them are voters in Bihar! Before you (SC) are some sections of people who write articles and then file petitions. I have a serious objection to this,” the poll body’s counsel said.As per the petitioners, there was no reason for the ECI to resort to “drastic exercise” of electoral rolls revision in a poll-bound state in such a short period of time. The plea filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said that the SIR order issued on June 24 by the ECI excluded identification documents such as Aadhaar or ration cards, making marginalised communities (such as SC, STs and migrant workers) and the poor more vulnerable to exclusion from voting.“The documentation requirements of the directive, lack of due process as well as the unreasonably short timeline for the said Special Intensive Revision of Electoral Roll in Bihar further make this exercise bound to result in removal of names of lakhs of genuine voters from electoral rolls, leading to their disenfranchisement,” it said.The petition claimed that the impugned SIR order requires the inclusion or retention of a voter’s name in the electoral roll upon production of citizenship documents, including proof of citizenship of either or both parents, failing which the voter is at risk of exclusion. It added that the June 26 order of poll body is illegal as it presumes ineligibility of a voter unless otherwise proved by way of providing documents (from a limited list of 11 documents) for self as well as documents of mother or father or both, and thus, ultra vires the Registration of Electors (RER) Rules, 1960.–IANSpds/uk