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Time of India
3 hours ago
- Business
- Time of India
VED celebrates 30th anniversary, president Rina Sinha unveils ‘Vidarbha 2030'
1 2 3 Nagpur: The Vidarbha Economic Development Council (VED) marked a significant milestone with the celebration of its 30th anniversary during its AGM held on Saturday. To commemorate this landmark event, VED Council, led by president Rina Sinha, vice-president Pankaj Mahajan, secretary-general Ashish Sharma, treasurer Varun Vijaywargi, and joint secretary Aliasger Wagh, met Union minister Nitin Gadkari to express gratitude for his support and blessings. During the AGM, Sinha expressed her gratitude to the esteemed trustees, Govind Daga and Vilas Kale for their trust and continued support. She also extended felicitations to key former office-bearers — past VP Dilip Kamdar, past presidents Devendra Parekh and Shivkumar Rao, and past secretary-general Rahul Upganlawar — for their active roles in shaping the organisation's vision and impact over the years. Founding members of VED — Govind Daga, Vilas Kale, and Dilip Kamdar — shared valuable insights and reflections on the journey of the Council. President Sinha also unveiled her strategic vision titled 'Vidarbha 2030', aimed at driving sustainable and inclusive economic development across the region. She highlighted a series of future initiatives, including a high-level seminar on artificial intelligence, Project Kaushika and the upcoming 'Wagh Utsav', along with various other programmes designed to foster growth, innovation, and public engagement. "It is VED's constant endeavour to bring eminent speakers, experts, and industry leaders to deliberate on actionable strategies for Vidarbha's development," said Sinha. She further emphasised the importance of expanding VED's membership base, encouraging like-minded individuals and institutions to join hands in building a prosperous Vidarbha. The event also featured the formal release of 'Progress Pulse', VED's official monthly publication dedicated to highlighting regional developments and Council initiatives. An audio visual presentation curated by joint secretary Ali Asger Wagh covering the synopsis of entire year's activities was shared during the AGM. Treasurer Varun Vijaywargi presented the council's financial report. New members were inducted into the organisation and presented with commemorative mementoes as 'Proud Members of VED'. The AGM concluded with a vote of thanks delivered by secretary-general Ashish Sharma. Nagpur: The Vidarbha Economic Development Council (VED) marked a significant milestone with the celebration of its 30th anniversary during its AGM held on Saturday. To commemorate this landmark event, VED Council, led by president Rina Sinha, vice-president Pankaj Mahajan, secretary-general Ashish Sharma, treasurer Varun Vijaywargi, and joint secretary Aliasger Wagh, met Union minister Nitin Gadkari to express gratitude for his support and blessings. During the AGM, Sinha expressed her gratitude to the esteemed trustees, Govind Daga and Vilas Kale for their trust and continued support. She also extended felicitations to key former office-bearers — past VP Dilip Kamdar, past presidents Devendra Parekh and Shivkumar Rao, and past secretary-general Rahul Upganlawar — for their active roles in shaping the organisation's vision and impact over the years. Founding members of VED — Govind Daga, Vilas Kale, and Dilip Kamdar — shared valuable insights and reflections on the journey of the Council. President Sinha also unveiled her strategic vision titled 'Vidarbha 2030', aimed at driving sustainable and inclusive economic development across the region. She highlighted a series of future initiatives, including a high-level seminar on artificial intelligence, Project Kaushika and the upcoming 'Wagh Utsav', along with various other programmes designed to foster growth, innovation, and public engagement. "It is VED's constant endeavour to bring eminent speakers, experts, and industry leaders to deliberate on actionable strategies for Vidarbha's development," said Sinha. She further emphasised the importance of expanding VED's membership base, encouraging like-minded individuals and institutions to join hands in building a prosperous Vidarbha. The event also featured the formal release of 'Progress Pulse', VED's official monthly publication dedicated to highlighting regional developments and Council initiatives. An audio visual presentation curated by joint secretary Ali Asger Wagh covering the synopsis of entire year's activities was shared during the AGM. Treasurer Varun Vijaywargi presented the council's financial report. New members were inducted into the organisation and presented with commemorative mementoes as 'Proud Members of VED'. The AGM concluded with a vote of thanks delivered by secretary-general Ashish Sharma.
Chicago Tribune
4 days ago
- Climate
- Chicago Tribune
Smoky air from Canadian wildfires envelops Chicago for 3rd day. What does this mean for summer?
Tiny, airborne smoke particles blowing in from Canadian wildfires resisted dispersal from a steady, light rain across the Chicago area Wednesday, concentrating even more Thursday to reach levels unhealthy for the general public. The smoke pushed northeast Illinois into its third day in a row of bad air quality Friday and the state into its first two air pollution action days of the year. Chicago's air quality was ranked the worst in the United States on Thursday, according to Swiss air quality technology company IQAir. At one point during the day, The Washington Post reported, the city had the second-worst air quality among the world's major cities. 'Whatever pollutants were in the air (Wednesday), because of the rain, got suppressed and deposited on the ground. But the wildfires are still happening in the north,' said Ashish Sharma, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, whose research focuses on climate and air quality modeling. 'It is sending smoke continuously. Rain would have offset the past smoke, but it won't offset the new smoke.' Before the summer even officially begins, Chicagoans have already encountered their fair share of nasty particles in the air. In May, a rare dust storm enveloped the city in agricultural sediment. This week, hazy skies are reminiscent of the intense Canadian wildfires of 2023, which made Chicago the second-most-polluted major city in the country that year. The smoke reaching the Midwest now mostly originates from fires that have been raging northwest of the provincial capital of Winnipeg in Manitoba since mid-May. Some may be wondering — will it be a summer of days spent indoors? Will the current stretch end or will the smoke stay in the area for weeks? 'It's hard to tell,' said Zac Adelman, executive director of the Lake Michigan Air Directors Consortium, an air quality research nonprofit. 'And it's hard to forecast what's gonna happen, you know? I don't want to catastrophize and say this is going to lead into a summer where we're not going to be able to go outside.' On Thursday and Friday, at least, that was the recommendation. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency urged residents in Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Grundy, Lake, McHenry and Will counties to limit their time outdoors. By midafternoon Thursday, particulate matter levels in the Chicago area had reached an index of 165 on a scale of 500, which is considered unhealthy for the general public. Friday is expected to be similarly bad, and the EPA extended its air quality alert through the end of the day Friday. Levels between 200 and 300 are 'very unhealthy,' and anything between 300 and 500 is 'hazardous.' Wednesday levels remained solidly between 101 and 150, meaning air quality was unhealthy only for sensitive groups. As climate change intensifies, concerns grow about air quality events that disrupt daily life becoming the norm. Dust storms are mostly linked to farming practices that leave soil uncovered and ready to be blown away. However, when it comes to wildfire smoke, scientists say climate change from human activities is making conditions like drought more common, thus increasing the size, frequency and severity of wildfires. 'What we are seeing is that wildfire season is getting prolonged. It's starting early, and it might end late,' Sharma said. 'So that's of big concern for us. Especially if and when the weather pattern starts stagnating, then we will be trapped with a lot of smoke, especially in the Midwest and Chicago, and the Great Lakes region. That might deteriorate the air quality further.' Wind patterns also add a layer of unpredictability to the reach of bad air from intensifying, longer-lasting wildfires. For instance, in summer 2023, a weather system moving counterclockwise pushed air from wildfires across Quebec and Ontario in eastern Canada toward the Great Lakes. A total of 37 million acres were lost to the fires that year. Last summer, fires in British Columbia and Alberta did not blow particulate matter into the Midwest because jet streams carried that smoke eastward and northward, Sharma said. It was also a less intense wildfire season, with just under 13 million acres burning. In 2025, 6.5 million acres have burned as of Thursday, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. 'The bottom line is, it depends on the wind flow and the patterns and where the fire started, and so on,' Sharma said. 'It's not that if wildfires are happening a lot, we will be impacted — it depends. Maybe a smaller wildfire in comparison to historical (ones) might be a lot worse for us. Or a large fire, if the plume is not in our direction, might be a lot worse at some other location.' The air directors consortium uses satellite imagery to understand air pollution at all levels of the atmosphere in the Great Lakes region. Most summer days, Adelman said, they can see smoke overhead. 'The real challenge is, how do you predict when it's going to get to the surface?' he said. 'Because there's somewhere in North America that's burning at all times, and it's loading the upper atmosphere with smoke and particles.' Forest fires produce fine particulate matter, but direct human sources like vehicle exhaust and industry emissions also release these particles — known as PM2.5 for being 2.5 micrometers or smaller, about 30 times smaller than the width of a strand of human hair. So baseline levels of pollution can be tamped down by regulations on tailpipe emissions, power plants and factories, and more. Earlier this year, however, President Donald Trump's administration announced it was launching a set of deregulatory actions that included a 'reconsideration' of a decision under former President Joe Biden last year that had tightened annual air quality standards for PM2.5 from 12 to 9 micrograms per cubic meter of air. In February, the Illinois EPA found that the Chicago metropolitan area hadn't met the Biden-era federal air quality standards from 2021 to 2023, the most recent three years of data. Stricter truck pollution rule would prevent 500 deaths a year in Chicago region, study showsPeople most vulnerable to experiencing health effects from PM2.5 pollution levels like Thursday's include those with respiratory or cardiovascular disorders, children, teens and seniors, as well as adults who are active outdoors. People of lower socioeconomic status who live in heavily industrialized zones already burdened by localized pollution are also more vulnerable to adverse health outcomes during widespread events. Symptoms to look out for include wheezing, coughing, a fast heartbeat, fatigue, chest pain and shortness of breath, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. Initially, PM2.5 may cause burning eyes and a runny nose. But once in the deepest portions of the lungs, it can cross into the bloodstream, messing with blood chemistry and causing heart stoppages. Fine particulate matter has also been linked to premature births, diabetes and even dementia, according to scientists. On action days — which the Illinois EPA calls when air quality is at least unhealthy for sensitive groups for two or more consecutive days — officials also urge residents to limit their contributions to pollution levels. Activities to avoid include driving, idling cars, using gasoline-powered equipment like lawnmowers or leaf blowers outdoors, and smoking, frying or broiling food, burning candles or incense, and using a gas stove indoors. Health officials also recommend conserving energy, using environmentally friendly household and cleaning products, and running a portable air purifier or a central air conditioning system with the fresh air intake closed or set on recirculate. Those who can't avoid outdoor activities can wear an N95 or N100 mask to protect their lungs. The city's Office for Emergency Management and Communications is urging Chicagoans without access to properly ventilated or safe indoor conditions to use public libraries, senior centers, Chicago Park District facilities and the Chicago Cultural Center during hours of operation, or the six community service centers that will be open on Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. These are the Englewood Center at 1140 W. 79th St., the Garfield Center at 10 S. Kedzie Ave., the King Center at 4314 S. Cottage Grove, the North Area Center at 845 W. Wilson Ave., the South Chicago Center at 8650 S. Commercial Ave., and the Trina Davila Center at 4312 W. North Ave. Air quality forecasts are available at Residents can subscribe for free to receive alerts through the website.
Geek Wire
5 days ago
- Health
- Geek Wire
‘Extremely rare': UW PhD computer science grads recognized with prestigious dissertation honors
University of Washington computer science PhD graduates Ashish Sharma, left and Sewon Min. (Photos via UW) Two PhD graduates from the University of Washington's Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering have had their dissertations recognized with prestigious Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Doctoral Dissertation Awards. The honors went to award winner Ashish Sharma, now a senior applied scientist at Microsoft, and honorable mention recipient Sewon Min, a research scientist at Seattle's Allen Institute for AI (Ai2) and incoming faculty member at the University of California, Berkeley. Both students, working on advances in artificial intelligence, earned their doctoral degrees in 2024. 'This is an extremely rare situation,' Allen School Director Magdalena Balazinska told GeekWire. 'For a university to have one of their students win this award is a once-in-a-decade type of event. Having two students recognized in the same year is truly outstanding. And both are AI-related, so very timely.' ACM's yearly awards recognize the best PhD dissertations in computer science. Longtime UW professor Ed Lazowska said there is usually a winner and one or two honorable mentions, and that in the U.S. alone there are more than 2,000 computer science PhD dissertations annually. 'We've had winners three times in the past, and honorable mentions four times,' Lazowska said. 'That's a superb record. But to have two in one year — the winner and one of two honorable mentions — is unprecedented. And both are in AI/ML/NLP, showing our leadership in that area.' For his dissertation titled 'Human-AI Collaboration to Support Mental Health and Well-Being,' Sharma devised ways to address a fundamental challenge in health care by leveraging AI to make high-quality mental health support available to more people. 'Augmenting mental health interventions with AI and NLP-based methods has the potential to provide scaffolding that could make quality mental health care accessible to all,' Sharma said in an Allen School blog post. 'By carefully designing human-AI collaboration that is grounded in psychology expertise to truly understand the complexities of mental health, human behavior and user needs, and is rigorously tested for safety and effectiveness, we can empower both those seeking help and those providing it.' Sharma worked with professor Tim Althoff in the Allen School's Behavioral Data Science Group. He previously received one of two William Chan Memorial Dissertation Awards, recognizing dissertations of exceptional merit, as well as a JP Morgan AI Ph.D. Fellowship. In her dissertation titled 'Rethinking Data Use in Large Language Models,' Min addressed fundamental challenges in natural language processing by developing a new class of language models and alternative approaches for how such models are trained. 'My research established the foundations of nonparametric models, and also opened up new avenues for responsible data use, such as enabling data opt-out and credit assignment to data creators,' said Min, who worked in the UW NLP Group with professors Hanna Hajishirzi (a senior director at Ai2) and Luke Zettlemoyer (a research director at Meta). Prior to the ACM honor, Min also earned a William Chan Memorial Dissertation Award from the Allen School, as well as the 2024 Western Association of Graduate Schools (WAGS) ProQuest Innovation in Technology Award, which recognizes research that introduces innovative technology as a creative solution to a major problem. During her time at the Allen School, Min received a JP Morgan Ph.D. Fellowship in AI and was also named a 2022 EECS Rising Star. The other ACM honorable mention award went to Alexander (Zander) Kelley for his dissertation 'Explicit Pseudorandom Distributions for Restricted Models of Computation' toward a PhD earned at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Hans India
31-05-2025
- Hans India
5 nabbed with cache of arms in hotel raid
New Delhi: In a major crackdown on illegal arms trafficking, the Delhi Police Crime Branch apprehended five men from a hotel in South Delhi's Jangpura area, a statement said. The arrests led to the recovery of a cache of weapons, ammunition, and electronic gadgets from the accused. Acting on a specific input received by Head Constable Amit Tomar, the Crime Branch launched a coordinated operation after learning that a group from Madhya Pradesh suspected of trafficking illegal firearms had checked into a hotel in the Jangpura area. A dedicated team was formed under Inspector Ashish Sharma's leadership and ACP Yashpal Singh's (ER-I) supervision. The raiding party included Sub-Inspectors Prakash and Guman Singh, ASI Sandeep Chawla, and Head Constables Amit, Manish, and Anil. During the operation, the team identified a room locked from the inside and proceeded with caution. Displaying quick action and coordination, the officers managed to breach the room and detain all five suspects without any resistance. A thorough search of the room led to the recovery of two country-made pistols and 14 live cartridges. In addition, Rs 35,000 in cash, eight smartphones, a laptop, and a tablet were also seized. The police believe these gadgets were being used for communication and coordination within the network. An FIR has been registered at the Crime Branch Police Station under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Arms Act.
Hans India
30-05-2025
- Hans India
Five arrested with cache of arms in hotel raid in Delhi's Jangpura
In a major crackdown on illegal arms trafficking, the Delhi Police Crime Branch apprehended five men from a hotel in South Delhi's Jangpura area, a statement said. The arrests led to the recovery of a cache of weapons, ammunition, and electronic gadgets from the accused. Acting on a specific input received by Head Constable Amit Tomar, the Crime Branch launched a coordinated operation after learning that a group from Madhya Pradesh suspected of trafficking illegal firearms had checked into a hotel in the Jangpura area. A dedicated team was formed under Inspector Ashish Sharma's leadership and ACP Yashpal Singh's (ER-I) supervision. The raiding party included Sub-Inspectors Prakash and Guman Singh, ASI Sandeep Chawla, and Head Constables Amit, Manish, and Anil. During the operation, the team identified a room locked from the inside and proceeded with caution. Displaying quick action and coordination, the officers managed to breach the room and detain all five suspects without any resistance. A thorough search of the room led to the recovery of two country-made pistols and 14 live cartridges. In addition, Rs 35,000 in cash, eight smartphones, a laptop, and a tablet were also seized. The police believe these gadgets were being used for communication and coordination within the network. An FIR has been registered at the Crime Branch Police Station under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Arms Act. Further investigations are underway to trace the origin of the weapons and identify potential links to larger networks. The arrested men have been identified as Akash Yadav (30), resident of Datia, MP; Sachin Gupta (30), resident of Morena, MP; Krishna Rai (24), resident of Gwalior, MP; Subhajit Goswami (36), resident of Kolkata, West Bengal; and Prakhar Shrivastav (24), resident of Dabra, Gwalior, MP.
