OHCHR, IOM, UNHCR and WHO joint press release:

 In COVID-19 response

The rights and health of refugees, migrants and stateless must be protected

To unite the world in the fight against coronavirus, WHO is bringing together a wide array of partners on a series of engaging initiatives to motivate and mobilize people to Be Ready to beat COVID-19, and to support the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund.

Musicians, footballers, athletes and artists will help you stay connected and healthy through shows of solidarity, lifesaving health messages and entertainment during lockdown.

Click on the campaigns below to learn how you can spread the word and help increase solidarity, awareness and funds to support the global response against COVID-19.

31 March 2020//Joint News Release

In the face of the COVID-19 crisis, we are all vulnerable. The virus has shown that it does not discriminate - but many refugees, those forcibly displaced, the stateless and migrants are at heightened risk. 

Three-quarters of the world’s refugees and many migrants are hosted in developing regions where health systems are already overwhelmed and under-capacitated.  Many live in overcrowded camps, settlements, makeshift shelters or reception centers, where they lack adequate access to health services, clean water and sanitation. 

The situation for refugees and migrants held in formal and informal places of detention, in cramped and unsanitary conditions, is particularly worrying. Considering the lethal consequences a COVID-19 outbreak would have, they should be released without delay. Migrant children and their families and those detained without a sufficient legal basis should be immediately released.

This disease can be controlled only if there is an inclusive approach which protects every individual’s rights to life and health.  Migrants and refugees are disproportionately vulnerable to exclusion, stigma and discrimination, particulary when undocumented.  To avert a catastrophe, governments must do all they can to protect the rights and the health of everyone. Protecting the rights and the health of all people will in fact help control the spread of the virus.

It is vital that everyone, including all migrants and refugees, are ensured equal access to health services and are effectively included in national responses to COVID-19, including prevention, testing and treatment. Inclusion will help not only to protect the rights of refugees and migrants, but will also serve to protect public health and stem the global spread of COVID-19.  While many nations protect and host refugee and migrant populations, they are often not equipped to respond to crises such as Covid-19. To ensure refugees and migrants have adequate access to national health services, States may need additional financial support. This is where the world’s financial institutions can play a leading role in making funds available. 

While countries are closing their borders and limiting cross-border movements, there are ways to manage border restrictions in a manner which respects international human rights and refugee protection standards, including the principle of non-refoulement, through quarantine and health checks. 

More than ever, as COVID-19 poses a global threat to our collective humanity, our primary focus should be on the preservation of life, regardless of status.  This crisis demands a coherent, effective international approach that leaves no-one behind.  At this crucial moment we all need to rally around a common objective, fighting this deadly virus. Many refugees, displaced, stateless people and migrants have skills and resources that can also be part of the solution.

We cannot allow fear or intolerance to undermine rights or compromise the effectiveness of responses to the global pandemic. We are all in this together. We can only defeat this virus when each and every one of us is protected.  (Courtesy: WHO)

Chirag Purshotam as the youngest chairman of IACC

Chirag Purushotam Reddy a 19 year old boy

Mumbai: 17th March 2020: (M. Mumtaz)::

Chirag Purshotam appointed as the youngest chairman Indian American Chambers of Commerce.

Mr Chirag Purushotam Reddy  a 19 year old has been named as the first and the youngest chairman of the international board of entrepreneurs of the Indian American Chambers of Commerce in Washington DC on 16th of March 2020.

The board has selected the young talent for his abilities and intellectual skills in bringing both India and the United States to work closely in Business development.

The chamber is headed by Mr KV Kumar who has served as the adviser to the White House and has worked with 6 presidents of the United States.

Mr Ashish Chauhan who is the CEO of the Bombay Stock Exchange is also member of the chambers.

The chambers' mission is to promote and foster economic development of the United States of America and the Republic of India together with the rest of the world for the benefit of all.

"It is in the best interest of the future of our nation's youth that we have conglomerated this chamber and conferred this position to an outstanding individual who has the potential to steer ambition in our talented youth",said Chirag Purshotam.

Pine Island Glacier spawns piglets

11-02-2020 10:27 AM CET
Pine Island Glacier, known as PIG for short

As anticipated, Pine Island Glacier, known as PIG for short, in Antarctica has just spawned a huge iceberg. At over 300 sq km, about the size of Malta, this huge berg very quickly broke into many ‘piglet’ pieces the largest of which is dubbed B-49. Thanks to images from the Copernicus Sentinel satellite missions, two large rifts in the glacier were spotted last year and scientists have been keeping a close eye on how quickly these cracks were growing. This animation uses 57 radar images captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission between February 2019 and February 2020 (the last frame is from today, 11 February 2020) and shows just how quickly the emerging cracks grew and led to this calving event. Courtesy:European Space Agency

Oath of Office to Colon-Lopez

With Colon-Lopez is his wife, Janet

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Mark A. Milley administers the oath of office to Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Ramon "CZ" Colon-Lopez at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Va., Dec. 13, 2019. With Colon-Lopez is his wife, Janet.

Photo By: Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Dominique A. Pineiro, DOD

2019: A year in review

11:37 (UTC) on Mon 23 Dec 2019

2019 has been a year of extremes

Author: Press Offic

2019 has been a year of extremes: record-breaking heat and rain, along with notable spells of cold and windy weather have all been prominent.

As we approach year-end, we’ve highlighted the most notable climate features of the year, including two all-time temperature records: 
Warmest winter day on record: 21.2 °C recorded at Kew Garden on 26 February 

Hottest day on record: 38.7 °C recorded at Cambridge University Botanic Gardens on 25 July 

Dr Mark McCarthy is the head of the Met Office’s National Climate Information Centre. Commenting on 2019, he said: “2019 will be remembered as an exceptional year for weather records, as it is unusual to get both the UK summer and winter high temperature records within the same calendar year. But this continues a pattern of high-temperature records in the UK over the last few decades, as a result of our warming climate.”

Winter 

January got off to a cold start, with the coldest January night for seven years recorded on 31 Jan with -14.3 °C in Braemar, in Scotland. In parts it was also dry, with one of the driest Januarys on record for Clackmannanshire with 23.1mm of rain (just 15% of the expected average), East Lothian with 9.9 mm of rain (15% of the expected average) and Fife 12.1 mm (15% of the expected average). 

No one could have missed that February was record breaking. Despite starting with snow and freezing temperatures, the warmest winter and February day on record was recorded at Kew Gardens with 21.2 °C on 26 February with temperatures exceeding 20 °C in London, west Wales and as far north as Rochdale making this a more widespread event than the previous record set in February 1998. The   Daily minimum temperatures were also well above average, but not record breaking.  
 Scotland and Wales also broke national records for warmest winter and February days with 18.3 °C recorded at Aboyne in Abderdeenshire on 21 February, and 20.8 °C recorded in Porthmadog, Gywnedd on 26 February. 
 In total 21 locations in the Met Office observing-network broke previous national (England, Scotland, Wales) records, some of these on multiple days. Overall It was the seventh warmest, sixth sunniest, and twenty-third driest winter in series from 1910.  

Spring 

With a mean UK temperature of 6.8 °C (1.3 °C above average), March 2019 provisionally came in as the 10th warmest March on record. A number of records were broken including the hottest Easter Monday on record in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Even though Easter fell relatively late this year, it was notably warm for the time of year and over the Easter weekend many weather stations across the UK broke their local April temperature records. 

Through April, England saw particularly low levels of rainfall, especially in the east. East Anglia received just 25% of its average monthly rainfall. Essex was the driest county, with just 9.2mm of rain through the whole of April. 

Summer 

June was a significantly wet month for some parts of the UK. Notably, Lincolnshire received 230% of the rainfall expected for the month, compared with the average between 1981-2010. Leverton in Lincolnshire, recorded 101.2 mm on 10th June. 

Across Lincolnshire, the rainfall wasn’t sufficient to break the June county rainfall record of 181.9 mm in 2007, but with 128.9 mm it was in fourth place in a series stretching back to 1910. New records were set for two-day and three-day total rainfall in Lincolnshire on 10-11 and 10-12 June respectively. 
July will be remembered for the hottest day on record ever recorded in the UK. A maximum temperature of 38.7 °C was recorded at Cambridge University Botanic Garden on 25 July. This figure exceeded the previous record of 38.5 °C recorded in Faversham, Kent, in August 2003.   
The exceptionally high temperatures gripped large parts of central and western Europe, with Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands breaking national temperature records.  
Also during July, Cheshire received more than twice the average rainfall for the month (219%). Other counties in central and northern England, including Lancashire, Staffordshire Derbyshire and Leicestershire, also received more than one-and-a-half times the month’s typical rainfall for July. Thunderstorms and intense rainfall caused flooding across parts of northern England on 30th and 31st July.
Overall Summer 2019 was the twelfth warmest on record since 1910 across the UK, but unusually this summer was also relatively wet. Previous hot summers have been largely dry, but this summer was seventh wettest overall in the UK in a series dating back to 1910. Scotland was very wet overall as it recorded its second wettest summer, only surpassed by summer 1985.

Autumn  

Many people in England will remember Autumn 2019 as a very wet season, with significant flooding in parts of the Midlands and days of prolonged rainfall. But this wasn’t the case across the whole of the UK. 

There was been a marked difference in rainfall amounts between eastern parts of England and north western Scotland. Autumn rainfall records were broken for South Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, and Lincolnshire, with the previous records set in 2000. England as a whole has had its fifth wettest autumn with 348mm. These areas had also experienced a wet summer, so that the rain was falling on already wet ground.
South Yorkshire was the wettest county compared to the long-term average (1981-2010) with more than double its average rainfall for the season (425.4 mm compared to an average of 208 mm).  
Sheffield was a notably wet location, breaking its autumn record weeks before the end of the season. In total it recorded 474.8mm, breaking its previous record of 425.2mm also set in 2000. 
The location with the highest total through the autumn was Holne - on the southern edge of Dartmoor, in Devon - with 899mm. The driest spot was Shoeburyness, in Essex, with 148mm. 
Conversely, northern and western Scotland have been much drier than average, with our north Scotland climate region having just 69% of the seasonal average (364.1mm). 
In comparison to the rainfall distribution in 2000 - when many autumn records were set - this season’s highest rainfall accumulations were focused in the East Midlands. In 2000 the highest totals affected much of England and Wales, with just parts of Scotland ending the season below average. 
The full end of year statistics, as well as those for December 2019, are due to be published on January 2nd 2020.

Jasmine Strait Practicing on An Machine Gun

During training at Camp Geiger

Marine Corps Pfc. Jasmine Strait practices clearing procedures on an M240B machine gun during training at Camp Geiger, N.C., Dec. 17, 2019.
Photo By: Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Brian Bolin Jr.

Centre will soon come out with an updated National Water Policy

Posted On: 28 SEP 2019 6:51PM by PIB Delhi

National Bureau of Water Use Efficiency is being mooted

New Delhi: 28th September 2019: (PIB)::

Government of India will soon come out with an updated version of  National Water Policy to effect key changes in Water Governance Structure, Regulatory Framework, besides setting up of a National Bureau of Water Use Efficiency. Speaking at the valedictory session of the 6th India Water Week-2019 here, Union Minister for Jal Shakti Shri Gajendra Singh Sekhawat said that hydrological boundaries rather than administrative or political boundary should become part of the water governance structure in the country. He said, for this consensus building among the states within the Constitutional framework is a necessary pre-condition.

Shri Shekhawat said said that water conservation along with water-harvesting and judicious and multiple use of water are key to tackle the water challenges in India. Calling for rejuvenation and revitalization of the traditional water bodies and resources through the age-old conservation methods, the Minister underlined the need for dissemination of modern water technologies in an extensive fashion. Dwelling on the idea of Water Trade, Shri Shekhawat said that water surplus states like Chhattisgarh can gain by sharing the resource with the deficient ones. He also asked the States to collect data on water resources and to share the same with others with an open mind.

In his address, the Minister of State for Jal Shakti Shri Rattan Lal Kataria said that demand side management of water should get priority over the supply side management and called for massive conservation of the scarce resource. Underlining the need for recycle and reuse of water, he said that Integrated Water Management is a tool for poverty reduction and sustainable economic development.

Speaking on the occasion, Secretary, Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Shri U.P Singh said that National Water Policy of 2012 needs major updation in the light of new challenges especially the ill-effects of climate change. Batting for policy changes for giving incentive to crops using less water, Shri Singh said that Participatory Ground Water Management should be promoted in a big way to maintain quality and sustainability.  

India Water week was inaugurated by the President Shri Ram Nath Kovind on 24th of this month with a theme of “Water cooperation: Coping with 21st Century Challenges”. Japan and European Union were associated as partner countries for this mega event.

Ministry of Jal Shakti has been organizing India Water Week since 2012 as an international event to focus on water related issues. Five editions of India Water Week have been organized so far.  Water Resources Ministers of various States have attended the Inaugural Function. About 1500 delegates from India and abroad participated in this event, which included about 63 delegates from 28 countries.

The event was divided into Seminars (15 nos.), Brainstorming Sessions (4 nos,), Panel Discussions (12 nos.) and Special Session (6 nos.). Apart from this, an Exhibition showcasing the technologies and solutions in water resources sector was also organized at Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA).  About 62 organizations displayed their work in the exhibition. Many reputed National and International Organizations, Research Institutes, Educational Institutions and NGOs from water resources, agriculture, power sectors participated in the event to share their knowledge and experience in the sector.

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