A study published in the journal Risk Analysis says that Australia, New Zealand, Iceland, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu as the island countries are most capable of producing enough food for their populations after an “abrupt sunlight‐reducing catastrophe” such as a nuclear war, super volcano or asteroid strike. In the new study, Professor Nick Wilson from the University of Otago, Wellington, and independent researcher Dr Matt Boyd, from Adapt Research, said that these five island nations would “likely be pockets of survivors around the planet in even the most severe” scen
Twelve South African cheetahs arrived in India on February 18 as part of an ambitious project to reintroduce the spotted cats in the south Asian country. It is the second batch to arrive in the country after eight cheetahs from Namibia last year. The latest arrival is part of an agreement signed between India and South Africa in January to transfer more than 100 cheetahs to the Asian country over the next decade. The South Africa cheetahs will join their Namibian cousins at the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh. Quarantine enclosures have been created at the reserve for the newly arrivi
Climate change and more intense and frequent weather events have been cited by Singaporeans as the top challenge facing the South-east Asian region in 2023. This meanwhile is different for their Asean counterparts, who suggest unemployment, inflation, a commodities crunch, and rising cost of living to be the biggest worries in the era of the Covid-19 pandemic. The findings of the survey were published in the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute’s The State of South-east Asia 2023 report. The survey results indicated that 59.5% of the 1,308 survey respondents polled across the 10 Asean member
South Africa became one of the top tourist destinations for India in 2022 due to its strong recovery efforts and promotion of a variety of destination options. The African nation exceeded its target of bringing 33,900 or more visitors set at the beginning of the recovery year by receiving about 50,000 Indian visitors last year through November. The tourism board wants to surpass last year's goal by 72% this year. India has become South Africa's sixth-largest foreign source market as the two countries commemorate 30 years of diplomatic relations. South African Tourism expects a 35% rise in
The five female and seven male cheetahs will be transferred from the Gwalior air base, where they will land Saturday morning, to Kuno National Park in an MI 17 helicopter Union Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav Thursday announced that 12 more cheetahs would be flown in from South Africa on Saturday (February 18) and that ten quarantine enclosures have been created for them at Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh, where eight such felines were brought from Namibia last year. A military C 17 aircraft left the Hindon air base in Uttar Pradesh at 6 am Wedn
Indian-American schoolgirl Natasha Perianayagam has made it to the “world's brightest” students list for the second consecutive year by the US-based Johns Hopkins Center For Talented Youth. The list was based on the results of above-grade-level tests of over 15,000 students across 76 countries. Perianayagam, 13, is a student at Florence M Gaudineer Middle School, New Jersey. She also took the Johns Hopkins Center For Talented Youth (CTY) test in Spring 2021, when she was in Grade 5. Her parents hail from Chennai. The school girl said she loves doodling and reading JRR Tolkien's novels
In the week since two powerful earthquakes hit Turkiye and Syria on February 6, the Government of India has sent medical assistance worth ₹7 crore to the affected nations, said Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on February 14. The 5,945-tonne emergency relief material included 27 life-saving medicines, two kinds of protective items and three categories of critical care equipment, valued at approximately ₹2 crore, the statement said. On February 6, three truck loads of relief materials were arranged at the Hindon air base comprising life-saving emergency medicines and protectiv
A unique village in Singapore is using innovation to support persons with disabilities (PwDs). Called "Enabling Village" or "EV", the first-of-its-kind community space is an all-accessible, inclusive, sensory-friendly space dedicated to integrating persons with disabilities into society. It has a supermarket with sliding doors and wider walkways, shopping trolleys that could be pushed by wheelchairs, Braille lettering on the washroom doors, and tactile indicators on the floor, among many such features. “The tenants include social businesses that train and hire persons with disabilities,
Various places in Hyderabad were lit up in blue light on February 6 to mark the beginning of E-mobility week in the city. The week began with an electric vehicle (EV) rally event. With the objective of showcasing Telangana’s progress in EV adoption and promoting the message of sustainable mobility, the EV rally saw thousands of EV enthusiasts riding their electric 2-wheelers, 3-wheelers, and electric buses through different parts of the city. Two separate rallies, one from People’s Plaza and another from Miyapur metro station spanned the entire city and culminated at the HITEX Exhibiti
United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has said that the world food prices fell in January for the tenth consecutive month. The FAO Food Price Index averaged 131.2 points in January 2023, down 1.1 points (0.8%) from December 2022, the agency said on February 3. “With this latest decline, the index has fallen 28.6 points (17.9%) from the peak it reached in March 2022,” FAO said. The December figure was revised down from an original estimate of 132.4. It was the lowest reading since September 2021, and is now down about 18% from a record high hit last March followin