Bengaluru has been witnessing pre-Monsoon rains for the last couple of days. In addition to the showers, the city has even recorded some hailstorm activities which are by far a rare phenomenon for the garden city. At present also, thunderstorm and rains are going on.

However, the characteristics of the activity are short-lived and it usually gets over by the mid-night hours, starting again in the morning. As of now, Skymet Weather predicts that the rain activity would continue over the city, however, with a reduced intensity.

Further, by the second half of the week would see the activity picking up the pace again. During this time, the city would even witness an increment in the spread and duration both.

Pre Monsoon rain show continues over the city of Bengaluru, even though it is on the lighter side. In the last 24 hours from 8:30 am on Saturday, Bengaluru recorded traces of rainfall.

These rains can be attributed to the trough which has been extending across the Karnataka. As per weathermen at Skymet Weather, these Pre Monsoon rains are expected to continue for some time.

Updated on March 31 at 12:00 pm: Bengaluru has been recording pre-Monsoon rains for the past two days. As predicted by Skymet Weather, Bengaluru witnessed rainfall activity in the last 24 hours. In the last 24 hours from 8:30 am on Friday, Bengaluru city observatory recorded rain to the tune of 3.4 mm.

Meanwhile, during the same time frame, the Airport observatory recorded 4 mm of rainfall. These rains were mainly due to the trough which is extending from Madhya Pradesh to South Coastal Kerala. It is anticipated that light to moderate pre Monsoon rain is likely to continue for the next three to four days. In fact, strong winds will also accompany rains.

Updated on March 30 at 11:00 am: Bengaluru rains have remained in the backseat for quite some time now. In fact, the last time the city recorded some rains were on March 17. During that time, the city had seen rains of varied intensity between March 13 and March 17. Heavy rainfall of 38 mm was also recorded on March 16.

Ten persons were killed and two seriously injured when a four-storeyed dilapidated hotel building collapsed here after a car crashed into it, a police officer said on Sunday

Ten persons were killed and two seriously injured when a four-storeyed dilapidated hotel building collapsed here after a car crashed into it, a police officer said on Sunday. Deputy Inspector General Hari Narayan Chari Mishra told IANS that the MS Hotel near the crowded Sarvate bus stand collapsed on Saturday night.

The hotel Manager Harish Soni was among the dead. The dilapidated building, said to be 80 years old, came crashing down, burying persons staying in the hotel, some passersby and shops under the rubble.
District Collector Nishant Warwade earlier told the media that the district administration, Municipal Corporation, police, fire brigade and traffic police were carrying out a search and rescue operation. The National Disaster Response Force team from Bhopal was also asked to help.

Kiran Soni, daughter of the hotel Manager, told the media that the hotel’s roof had crashed last week. She said though the owner was informed he ignored it. Even as search and rescue operations ended on Sunday afternoon, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan ordered a high-level probe into the tragedy and asked for a report in seven days.

The government also announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh each for the kin of the deceased and Rs 50,000 for those injured. The police officer said a seven-member team of police officers has been set up to find if the building collapsed due to the car hit or for some other reason.

State-owned oil firms, which have been since June last year revising auto fuel prices daily, today raised petrol and diesel rates by 18 paise per litre each in Delhi, according to a price notification

Petrol price today hit a four-year high of Rs 73.73 a litre while diesel rates touched an all-time high of Rs 64.58 in the national capital, renewing calls for the government to cut excise tax rates. State-owned oil firms, which have been since June last year revising auto fuel prices daily, today raised petrol and diesel rates by 18 paise per litre each in Delhi, according to a price notification. Petrol in the national capital now costs Rs 73.73 a litre, the highest since September 14, 2014 when rates had hit Rs 76.06. Diesel price at Rs 64.58 is the highest ever, with previous high of Rs 64.22 being on February 7, 2018.

petrol-chart

The Oil Ministry had earlier this year sought a reduction in excise duty on petrol an diesel to cushion the impact rising international oil rates but Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his Budget presented on February 1 ignored those calls. India has the highest retail prices of petrol and diesel among South Asian nations as taxes account for half of the pump rates.

Jaitley had raised excise duty nine times between November 2014 and January 2016 to shore up finances as global oil prices fell, but then cut the tax just once in October last year by Rs 2 a litre. Subsequent to that excise duty reduction, the Centre had asked states to also lower VAT but just four of them — Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh — reduced rates while others including BJP-ruled ones ignored the call.

The central government had cut excise duty by Rs 2 per litre in October 2017, when petrol price reached Rs 70.88 per litre in Delhi and diesel Rs. 59.14. Because of the reduction in excise duty, diesel prices had on October 4, 2017 come down to Rs 56.89 per litre and petrol to Rs 68.38 per litre. However, a global rally in crude prices pushed domestic fuel prices far higher than those levels. The October 2017 excise duty cut cost the government Rs 26,000 crore in annual revenue and about Rs 13,000 crore during the remaining part of the current fiscal year.

The government had between November 2014 and January 2016 raised excise duty on petrol and diesel on nine occasions to take away gains arising from plummeting global oil prices. In all, duty on petrol rate was hiked by Rs 11.77 per litre and that on diesel by 13.47 a litre in those 15 months that helped government’s excise mop up more than double to Rs 242,000 crore in 2016-17 from Rs 99,000 crore in 2014-15. State-owned oil companies — Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation — in June last year dumped the 15-year old practice of revising rates on the 1st and 16th of every month . Instead, they adopted a daily price revision system to instantly reflect changes in cost. Since then, prices are revised on a daily basis.

People in the city had gleefully been munching on a variety of snacks from their favourite bakeries until a video footage of the miserable conditions of an eatery’s godown went viral.

On Wednesday, National Environment Care Federation state secretary Shashidhar Shetty stumbled upon water leakage from a latrine in a multi-storeyed building. Shetty sought to know where the water was being collected. To his dismay, the environmentalist realised that the toilet water was getting accumulated near the godown of a popular bakery. The video shows food kept uncovered in this tiny godown.
Notwithstanding this, Shetty entered the kitchen and filmed the filthy conditions in which the godown was being operated. The video shows dye used in garment factories and grease being used to make the snacks look colourful and attractive.
The video has garnered around 5,000 shares and 1.30 lakh views in 48 hours on a social networking site.
Shetty alleged the situation is similar in several bakeries and eateries across the city. Despite apprising the government officials concerned of the situation immediately, the latter seemed reluctant to address the issue.

After two days, when they finally visited the godown on Friday, the shopkeepers had already shifted their commodities out and left no traces of evidence there. It appears that they may have vacated the godown after having accessed the video.
“The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India is a sham,” Shetty alleged.

Dr Manjayya Shetty, health officer, Mangaluru City Corporation, however said he had acted upon the complaint lodged verbally by Shetty. However, he could not take immediate action as he did not know the exact location of the godown.
“I visited the godown along with the food and safety officer and others. They have cleaned the godown and shifted all items out. We have taken samples of food items which we will be sending to a food laboratory in Mysuru. The report may be out in 15 days. We have locked the godown,” Dr Shetty said.

Bengaluru experienced thundershowers on Friday evening, which led to at least 13 trees getting uprooted across the city. KR Puram and its surrounding areas experienced the heaviest rainfall in the city. As per the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre’s (KSNDMC) website, 80 mm per hour of rain was recorded at 4.30 pm. The weather helpline, Varuna Mitra, said the gauge at KR Puram recorded 46 mm of rainfall. The gauge at Doddabanahalli near Aavalahalli in Bengaluru East recorded 21 mm of rain, while the one at Yelahanka recorded 16.5 mm.

According to multiple tweets, ITPL and Whitefield received hailstones. The BBMP control room said that trees fell across the city, including Malleswaram and on Old Airport Road. A falling tree caused two electric poles to collapse at Banaswadi. However, no injuries were reported from these incidents.

KSNDMC Director Dr GS Srinivasa Reddy said the current rainfall was due to a trough formed in the atmosphere from over Maharashtra and extending up to Chennai, and passing through Karnataka. “There is thunderstorm activity and convective clouds are getting formed, which happens when the temperature increases. This phenomenon is common in the pre-monsoon period, and will bring down the temperature by 3-4 degrees,” he said.

State Sees Excess Rain In March

The forecast indicated that the rainfall would continue until April 7 or 8, but the forecast’s accuracy was more for the next three days, Reddy added. On Friday, several districts in south interior Karnataka, including Bengaluru Rural, Bengaluru Urban, Kolar, Chikkaballapur, Tumakuru, Mandya, Mysuru, Kodagu and Hassan received isolated to staggered rainfall. The state has greatly exceeded the ‘state normal for the month of March’, which is 8 mm, Reddy said. “Excess rainfall has been recorded in 24 districts, and only the Hyderabad-Karnataka region has received low rain,” he said.

The “Global Energy & CO2 Status Report”, published by the International Energy Agency (IEA), states that “renewable energy saw the highest growth rate of all energy sources in 2017 and met around a quarter of global energy demand growth” — a significant statistic by any standard and one that clearly points to the fact that renewable
This has serious ramifications for fossil fuel-producing nations. While fossil fuels still contribute a large part of the global energy needs, the fact that a “structural shift” is in process is clear. It is clear that over a medium- to long-term horizon, fossil fuel-dependent nations will have to rethink their strategy to boost and manage their economies.

A quick look at the largest sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) in the world tells us that approximately 50 per cent of them are fossil fuel-based economies. Significant pools of capital are available with these SWFs and it should not be a surprise to see them diversify into various asset classes.

The next few decades may see fossil fuel-dependent countries go from being providers of energy and capital to focusing significantly more on being a source of capital, i.e., an investor. This switch towards investing is a visible trend, with SWFs being a source of significant capital across asset classes such as equity, private equity and infrastructure. The key takeaway is that SWFs, especially those from fossil fuel-producing countries, can be significant financiers of infrastructure.

Infrastructure as an asset class has two elements that make it attractive for SWFs: Fixed cash-flow profile and large market. Infrastructure assets, by their very nature, are highly regulated assets with fixed income type of cash flows. Such a structure works well for SWFs that are looking to match liabilities, i.e., cash outflows, on their balance sheets. In addition, infrastructure needs that countries face are large enough markets for SWFs to invest into in meaningful size to generate returns.

The large fossil fuel-driven SWFs are of significant size. Estimates by the Sovereign Wealth Funds Institute say the top 10 SWFs globally are managing more than $200 billion each, and four of these are fossil fuel-driven. Therefore, given the long-dated investment horizon of the SWFs, the nature of liabilities on their balance sheets, and the large size of capital that needs to be deployed, infrastructure as a broad sector is attractive.

For fossil fuel-producing countries, switching from being an energy supplier to a supplier of capital lets them reduce their exposure to fossil fuel price volatility in the short term and play a larger role in boosting trade ties with other nations through infrastructure creation in the long run.

For nations that need financing for infrastructure creation, the global shift towards renewables and its consequent impact on fossil fuel-producing countries to turn investors is an opportunity not to be missed.

There are also important lessons to be learnt by both investors and infrastructure destination nations from the Norwegian government’s decision against allowing unlisted infrastructure investments by its Sovereign Wealth Fund. The reason given was that the fund wasn’t equipped to deal with the risks involved, especially from a political and regulatory perspective.

This points towards the urgent need for infrastructure destination nations to, one, improve regulations around unlisted infrastructure assets and, two, create mechanisms that allow for listed infrastructure assets to grow.

The issues faced by the Norwegian Sovereign Fund are generic issues that all SWFs face. It is important that in a highly competitive global capital market, countries expedite the creation of an enabling environment for infrastructure creation.

Clearly, the global changes in the energy markets also have significant ramifications on the financial markets.

The energy transition from a world dependent on fossil fuels to one driven by renewables does not necessarily need to have winners and losers. In a global economy besieged by the fear of “trade wars”, switching roles for fossil fuel-producing nations from major energy suppliers to large providers of capital is worth considering.

(IANS)

Water taps in India’s Silicon Valley may soon turn dry if authorities don’t revive Bengaluru’s water bodies and conserve scarce water resources, ecological experts stressed on Thursday.

“The city is sitting on a ticking time bomb. Considering the rate at which we are consuming water and are exploiting ground water through bore wells, depleting the water levels more rapidly than ever before, we are likely to run out water very soon if we don’t act now,” Chairman of Bangalore Environment Trust (BET) A.N. Yellappa Reddy told IANS.

Till 1970, the city of pensioners and gardens with salubrious climate through the year had enough water to meet the needs of its denizens from wells in the backyards of every home, borewells and supply from water bodies, including rain-fed lakes, reservoirs, ponds and tanks.

When the city began growing in the 1980s and expanding rapidly from 1990s due to the advent of Information Technology (IT) and other sectors of the economy, the state-run Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) was forced to pump daily water from the Cauvery river, about 130 km southwest of the city, using powerful pumpsets, to meet the increasing demand.

With illegal constructions and encroachments, the city’s land infiltration capacity has been tampered with, preventing rain water from being absorbed into the soil, asserted Reddy, the former secretary of the state government’s Department of Ecology, Environment and Forests.

“Nearly 85 per cent of Bengaluru’s land has been turned impervious and the storm water drains (designed to drain excess rain water from streets) have become sewage water drains due to poor maintenance,” the environmentalist lamented.

With the state and central governments being “indifferent” to the bustling city’s growing water issues, its natural resources are only disappearing, he said.

Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), in a statement on Wednesday quoting a study by its “Down To Earth” magazine, named Bengaluru among the 10 global cities that are fast approaching “Day Zero”, when the city’s taps will run out of water.

The analysis comes few months after Cape Town, one of the richest cities in South Africa, caught global attention for its severe water crisis nearing Day Zero, when water ration of 25 litres per day, the minimum required to sustain life, will be supplied through trucks.

Below-average rainfall since 2015 had dried up Cape Town’s reservoirs, leading to the unprecedented water crisis.

With Bengaluru’s 11-million-strong population expected to double by 2031, and the water consumption going up while the ground water levels are sinking, the city may soon see its own Day Zero, the study assessed.

Due to resource constraints and topographical challenges, the BWSSB has not been able to supply water to one-third of the city, especially the upscale southeast and southwest suburbs which witnessed explosive population growth owing to the concentration of IT firms, including multinationals.

As a result, of the 11-million population, a whopping four million people are forced to depend on borewells, water tankers and shrinking lakes for sourcing water.

In the process, the city’s water table went down from 10-12 metres to 76-91 metres in 20 years, while the extraction wells have gone up from 5,000 to 450,000 in a period of 30 years owing to increasing population.

Bengaluru Mayor R. Sampath Raj, however, said the city running of water was just speculation and asserted that there was no shortage of water in the city.

“I think these assessments are based on speculation. While I appreciate the thought for bringing people’s attention to the possibility of running out of water and generating awareness, I can assure the people of Bengaluru that the city is not going to run out of water anytime soon,” Raj told IANS.

The city’s civic body budget for 2018-19 has also laid special focus on reviving the lakes and developing storm water drains, he said.

Minister for Bengaluru Urban Development and Town Planning K.J. George asserted that the city will have no water issues till at least 2030.

“Bengaluru will not face water crisis anytime soon. The situation has improved a lot since 2012, when the city was pumping only 900 million litres per day from the Cauvery,” George had earlier said in a Facebook post, downplaying a BBC report that the city may soon run out of water.

“Of the 1,500 million litres per day water required by Greater Bengaluru city, it currently draws about 1,300 million litres per day from Cauvery river, of which over 25 per cent goes waste due to leakage, pilferage and theft.”

Even if the city’s population doubled to 20 million, the state’s projects will ensure water supply till 2031, George had said. “The freshwater supply per person will be around 88 litres per day with a water loss of 25 per cent due to evaporation.

While the city’s authorities may have the intent to alleviate a possible water crisis, effective implementation of water-related projects is what is lacking, averred Bangalore Political Action Committee (BPAC) Chief Executive Officer Revathy Ashok.

“There is need for a multi-pronged approach when it comes to water — implementing rain water harvesting, sewage treatment plants and pushing for lake revival, while simultaneously ensuring water pilferage is checked during distribution,” Ashok
stressed.

(IANS)

In keeping up with its commitment to a better and safer environment, Trio World Academy will be observing the Earth Hour from 8.30 am to 9.45 am at its campus on March 23rd, 2018. As a part of this activity, all non-essential lights will be turned off. The students will spend time in meaningful and constructive activities out in the open to raise awareness about the importance of protecting the environment for the sustainable development of the world. Apart from this, the students will pledge for action on climate change. Trio students and staff members will be encouraged to spend time with their families, friends and neighbours and talk about the importance of saving our planet from the effects of global warming.

Students will work on making posters on the topics related to earth, pollution, save the earth, climate change etc. Street play by students on “Our actions on climate change will shape our future” will be presented on the campus. Conservation of water and proper usage of electricity are the other themes on which the student will be demonstrating their activities.

Elucidating his thoughts on the occasion, Mr. Naveen K M, Managing Director, TRIO World Academy, said, “At Trio, we are delighted to continue our journey in the eco-friendly revolution by extending our support to the WWF for Earth Hour. A global event of this stature is the perfect place for Trio to encourage its students and get them thinking about the impact of energy use on a worldwide scale, a cause that Trio has always believed in.”

Moderate rains, measuring up to 5.8 mm, hit Bengaluru on Friday, with more showers likely over the next two days, the weather office said.

“The pre-monsoon rains are due to the low pressure in the Arabian Sea. Moderate spells of rain accompanied by heavy winds are likely to be witnessed over the next two days,” India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) Bengaluru chief Sundar M. Metri told IANS.

Pre-monsoon months refer to March, April and May, the season before the onset of monsoon, which starts around June.

According to the IMD, the average rainfall received by the city from Thursday till 8.30 a.m. on Friday measured up to 5.8 mm.

The next two days are likely to remain cloudy with light to moderate showers in parts of Bengaluru, Metri said.

The maximum temperature in the city on Thursday was recorded at 32 degrees Celsius while the minimum hovered around 21 degrees.

Light to moderate rains also lashed the coastal and interior districts of Karnataka.