Latest news with #LSS
Focus Malaysia
3 days ago
- Business
- Focus Malaysia
Renewable energy sector rides high on structural growth, policy support
AFTER a strong CGPP award cycle in late calendar year 2024 (CY24), which lifted Hong Leong Investment Bank (HLIB) 's aggregate coverage orderbooks to RM1.4 bil. The ongoing awards of LSS5 EPCC contracts has further lifted aggregate coverage orderbook to RM1.65 bil. 'As we had earlier highlighted, EPCC contract conversion for the LSS programme is seen to be significantly quicker than the CGPP programme leading to faster orderbook replenishment,' said HLIB regarding the renewable energy sector. Meanwhile, continued robust take-up in the recently expired Net Energy Metering 3.0 (NEM 3.0) programmes help to sustain higher margin C&I project flows in respective orderbooks of solar players. The SELCO programme will provide C&I players with an avenue to reduce electricity costs for the remainder of CY25. We reckon the sector will continue to benefit from the pipeline of large scale of RE programmes like LSS5, LSS5+ (2GW), MyBeST and LSS6. We are estimating that potential EPCC value of RM10-15 bil assuming that LSS6 is 2GW. Note that there is upside to such estimates since LSS6 could feature BESS integration. The slew of programme rollouts is expected to grow orderbooks in the RE segment over the next 12 months. Adding to this, there is also 190MW FiT small hydro and bioenergy bids to be called later of the year and could translate into EPCC contracts for bioenergy players. To this end, we view Solarvest's target of hitting RM2 bil orderbook in FY03/26 as a conservative target; the company has consistently secured 30-40% share of large scale solar programmes. The solar module market remains sluggish with average selling price ( ASP)s languishing sideways at ~USD9 cents/Watt, staying weak due to oversupply conditions. We attribute such accommodative costs as key to rapidly declining LSS bid tariffs, estimated at an average of -22% since LSS4. Modules prices are expected to stay weak on the back of excess manufacturing capacity. Along similar lines, BESS systems are also experiencing downward trending price per MWh, declining by -20% over the past year. This enhances economics of BESS integrated solar deployments. Prevailing cost dynamics are strategic for government's pursuit of NETR goals. We make no changes to our overweight sector rating. We like the sector riding on strong structural themes as well as positive earnings growth cycle. Key catalysts include contract rollout, CRESS, fresh RE quotas and export news flow. Risks: execution, slower-than-expected DC builds and cost pressure. —July 18, 2025 Main image: Getty Images
Mint
13-07-2025
- Health
- Mint
Excess salt intake putting Indians at risk of heart disease, kidney disorders: ICMR study
Indians are eating far more salt than they should, putting millions at greater risk of hypertension, heart disease, stroke, and kidney disorders, according to a new study by scientists from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). While the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends a daily salt intake of less than 5 grams per person, urban Indians are consuming around 9.2 grams a day, nearly double the advised limit. Even in rural areas, average consumption stands at 5.6 grams, still above the safe threshold. To tackle what experts are calling a 'silent epidemic,' researchers at ICMR's National Institute of Epidemiology (NIE) have launched a three-year salt reduction initiative in Punjab and Telangana. The project, supported by ICMR, aims to test the effectiveness of community-led dietary counselling in lowering sodium intake and improving heart health. 'Excess salt consumption is a major contributor to high blood pressure. Even a small shift—like switching to low-sodium salt—can lower blood pressure by 7/4 mmHg on average,' Dr Sharan Murali, senior scientist at NIE and principal investigator of the study, told news agency PTI. Low-sodium salt substitutes (LSS), where sodium chloride is partially replaced with potassium or magnesium, are emerging as a promising solution. But researchers warn that access and affordability remain significant barriers. A market survey of 300 retail outlets across Chennai found that LSS was available in just 28% of shops. While 52% of supermarkets stocked it, only 4% of small kirana stores did. Additionally, LSS is priced more than twice as high as regular iodised salt- ₹ 5.6 per 100g compared to ₹ 2.7. 'The low availability of LSS is likely due to poor demand, which reflects low awareness,' said Dr Murali. 'We need to bridge this gap between health knowledge and everyday access.' As part of the larger push, the NIE has launched a social media awareness campaign — #PinchForAChange — to educate people about the hidden salt in everyday foods and encourage the use of low-sodium alternatives. Dr Ganesh Kumar, a senior scientist at NIE and co-investigator of the study, added that the programme goes beyond just awareness. 'We're co-creating educational materials with frontline health workers, not just instructing but listening to the community. The idea is to make the intervention sustainable and rooted in real-world challenges.' If successful, the programme could be scaled nationwide, helping integrate salt-reduction counselling into existing public health systems.
Cambrian News
06-07-2025
- General
- Cambrian News
Bangor tops UK for zombie survival kit searches
The research by LSS reveals that from the year to April 2025, there were 553 searches per 10,000 people in Bangor for Survival Kit, and 1350 related keywords such as Bug Out Bag, Emergency Kit, and Survival Tools – the highest in the country.
Hamilton Spectator
04-07-2025
- Hamilton Spectator
Information Sought on Missing Colt
A 14-month-old Sorrel stud colt went missing from the Hepburn area under suspicious circumstances. The colt was last seen by the owner on June 14. It carries the unique markings of a partial moon on the forehead and a snipe on the nose. The owner has completed thorough checks of the surrounding area and inquiries with neighbours. The colt does not carry a brand. A picture of the colt is included. While some reports of missing livestock turn out to be criminal, many are simply logistical mix-ups. Animals find a broken fence, employees make mistakes, and sometimes, cows, calves, or horses end up in the wrong pasture or running free on hectares of unsupervised land. This does not appear to be the case in this instance. 'I'd say about 100 to 150 reports of missing livestock come in per year,' Garth Woods, Livestock Services of Saskatchewan operations manager and brand inspector, shared in an article that appeared on in May of this year. 'Most of them are five to six head — and a lot of those turn out to be innocent. But when cattle are worth what they are today, producers aren't willing to take the risk on an investment like that. They report it right away.' Livestock Services of Saskatchewan is responsible for issuing livestock brands, transferring the ownership of registered brands and maintaining the brand registry. It is owned and operated by the five main livestock producer groups requiring inspection services: Saskatchewan Cattlemen's Association, Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association, Saskatchewan Cattle Feeders Association, Saskatchewan Horse Federation, and Livestock Marketers of Saskatchewan Association. The provincial government continues to be responsible for legislation that governs livestock inspections, but the authority to carry out the duties of that legislation was transferred to LSS on January 1, 2014. Ministry staff responsible for livestock inspection services at that time were transferred to the new organization. LSS provides Saskatchewan Livestock Producers with a cost-effective and financially sustainable service. Its operations rely on revenue generated from services provided and is not government-funded. Through its efforts to become a Western Canadian industry leader in technology and best management practices, it develops effective collaborative relationships with neighbouring jurisdictions to facilitate secure livestock commerce. LSS is based out of its headquarters in Regina and has a province-wide network of 66 inspectors operating out of a variety of office locations, primarily auction markets. LSS operates under the authority of The Animal Products Act and The Animal Identification Act. While actual confirmed theft is rare, fraud, and what is called harbouring, keeping livestock that is not yours, is a growing issue. Harbouring involves knowing that another's livestock are in with one's own herd and 'turning a blind eye' to it and letting them remain where they are instead of returning them. A permanent, reliable method of identification makes it easier to confirm their identity if livestock is ever displaced by a natural disaster, such as a wildfire or tornado, by vandalism, such as a cut fence, or through an accidentally broken fence. Branding is one method of identifying a producer's livestock and is thought to be an effective theft deterrent. Hot branding is the oldest known form of livestock identification. Hot branding is carried out by burning the animal's skin with heated metal, while freeze branding creates a permanent mark by applying a branding iron that has been chilled in liquid nitrogen or alcohol and dry ice, which changes the colour of the hair or destroys the hair cells. Branding is the most common source of identification used on cattle. A livestock tattoo, another common method used in purebred animals, is a series of letters and numbers that are applied to the inside of a horse's upper lip or inside a cattle's ear using a series of inked plates with multiple needles dipped in ink. For horses, some owners use a microchip inserted via a needle into the nuchal ligament that runs along the top of a horse's neck as another option. Unless horses are going to be competing or sold, the average horse owner may not have any method of identifying their horse other than its physical markings. Identification in the form of microchips or tattoos, which are not readily visible, makes it more of a challenge to identify missing animals, but they are better than nothing as a source of identity confirmation. If anyone has information related to this case, please call the local RCMP Detachment or Livestock Services Saskatchewan at 306-546-5086. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. 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Indian Express
26-06-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
When the Sangh became part of Janata Parivar – and was never again the ‘outcast'
On a rainy night in late 1974 in Patna, under flickering street lamps, a small group of university students was on the move as they scrawled with chalk on college walls: 'Indira Hatao, Janata Bachao'. Different party flags fluttered amidst the agitators, with some of them bearing the socialist and Left emblems and others marked with the saffron of the Sangh Parivar. It was here, on the fringes of the Bihar student protests – which ignited Jayaprakash Narayan (JP)'s 'Sampoorna Kranti (Total Revolution)' Movement – that the RSS first entered the anti-Emergency stir. As historian Rajni Kothari later observed in his memoirs, this student uprising 'mainstreamed the RSS and gave it political legitimacy'. This legitimacy, for most part, was earned by RSS volunteers who faced jail for mobilising people, organising protests and engineering what was then called the 'underground resistance'. The JP Movement began in March 1974, when Bihar students first rose in protest against 'corruption and misgovernance' of the then Congress-led state government. This snowballed into a revolt against 'misrule and authoritarianism' of the Indira Gandhi-led Congress dispensation at the Centre, which got moral and organisational support from JP as well as diverse Opposition outfits, including the socialists, Congress (O), CPI(M), Jana Sangh, and RSS volunteers. Christophe Jaffrelot and Pratinav Anil explain in their book India's First Dictatorship: The Emergency 1975-77 that the RSS's grassroots networks 'provided JP's movement with the discipline and rural penetration it so sorely needed'. It was, perhaps, in appreciation of this organisational strength that JP, when cornered by Left-leaning critics on his alliance with the Sangh, said: 'If RSS is fascist, I am a fascist.' In their book The Brotherhood in Saffron: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Hindu Revivalism, Walter Andersen and Sridhar Damle, drawing from archival correspondence, paint the RSS not as a passive outfit but as an active force integrating into the umbrella resistance organisation Lok Sangharsh Samiti (LSS) against the Emergency: 'The grassroots structure of the LSS included many RSS workers… presenting the RSS cadre with an unprecedented opportunity to gain political experience and … establish a working relationship with political leaders.' On November 4, 1974, JP and Nanaji Deshmukh, the seasoned Jana Sangh leader and ex-RSS pracharak, led a massive rally in Patna, demanding political accountability. As police descended on the peaceful gathering with batons, JP, then aged 72, was brutally hit – his collarbone, elbows, and legs shattered by the blows. Nanaji was said to have hurled himself over JP's unconscious body, shielding him from further assaults. Public admiration for JP and Nanaji soared, and for many, it marked the point where the Indira Gandhi government lost the moral mandate to rule the country. When Indira imposed Emergency on June 25, 1975, the RSS was among the first casualties. Four days after JP's arrest, then RSS chief Balasaheb Deoras was held at the Nagpur station. The RSS itself was banned on July 4. In subsequent crackdowns, many of the Sangh Parivar's prominent leaders such as Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L K Advani and Nanaji were put behind bars. Despite being outlawed, the Sangh chose resistance over retreat. Thousands of its swayamsevaks and ABVP cadres courted arrest by joining satyagrahas – protesting not just the organisation's ban, but also the government's broader strike on civil liberties and constitutional rights. As repression intensified, the resistance went underground. RSS volunteers built covert networks to print and circulate banned literature, raised funds to sustain the pushback, and established secret lines of communication between jailed leaders and overground activists. Reporting on the Emergency, The Economist wrote on January 24, 1976: 'In formal terms, the underground is an alliance of four Opposition parties …But the shock troops of the movement come largely from the Jana Sangh and its banned affiliate RSS … (of whom 80,000, including 6,000 full-time party workers, are in prison).' According to RSS publicity in-charge Sunil Ambekar, more than 25,000 Sangh workers were arrested under the MISA (Maintenance of Internal Security Act) alone. 'Over 44,000 more were arrested during the agitation. Some swayamsevaks even died during detention. But ultimately, democracy was re-established,' he told The Indian Express. Former RSS ideologue K N Govindacharya, who actively participated in the movement and was known to be close to JP, put the figure of arrested RSS workers at 1.3 lakh. RSS sources said volunteers took risks in city squares and village crossroads alike. In Meerut on August 9, 1975, satyagraha slogans erupted amid festive crowds. On August 15 that year, RSS cadres distributed pamphlets outside the Red Fort in Delhi. RSS activists circulated their underground newspapers – Motherland, Panchajanya – even though the press was tightly gagged. K R Malkani, the editor of Organiser and Motherland, was among the first few journalists arrested during the Emergency. At the same time, the Sangh also courted controversy. Observers point out that RSS chief Deoras wrote at least two letters to Mrs Gandhi from Yerwada jail, in August and November 1975, lauding her Red Fort address and pledging support for her 20-Point plan if the ban on the RSS was eased. There were also allegations that some RSS detainees wrote apology letters to the government even as a majority refused to buckle under pressure. Some critics like A G Noorani accused Sangh functionaries of 'grovelling before the Congress dispensation'. RSS sympathisers, however, claim it was a calculated strategy, aimed not at undermining democracy, but retrieving institutional legitimacy and securing the release of imprisoned volunteers. 'Sangh workers were in jail, yet they continued the struggle. Also, it would be a good thing to come out of jail and continue the agitation. Had Sangh been in a compromising mood, it would not have joined the movement itself,' Ambekar says. As regards Deoras's letters, many RSS sympathisers draw a parallel with Mahatma Gandhi's own letter to the Viceroy in his early days of defiance. 'It was an act of a guardian who was worried about his wards. Thousands of ordinary workers were rotting in jails and their families were suffering. The letters were an attempt to open dialogue,' Govindacharya told The Indian Express. He also points out that RSS critics never mention how Deoras rejected Mrs Gandhi's offer to revoke the ban on the RSS in exchange for the Jana Sangh not participating in the elections post-Emergency. Ambekar says, 'The letters of Deoras ji should be looked at comprehensively and in the right perspective… But did RSS withdraw from the movement? A decisive battle was waged and the Emergency was defeated – and a new government was formed.' However, these rows and the refusal of Jana Sangh leaders to dissociate from the RSS even as they joined the Janata Party government following the Emergency were said to have even changed JP's sympathetic approach towards the RSS. In his book The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics, Jaffrelot writes that JP felt 'used' and felt that the ideological divergence between his Gandhian socialism and Hindutva could not be papered over indefinitely. Ambekar, however, denies it. 'Jayaprakash ji always knew what the Jana Sangh was. These things had been discussed beforehand. If at all he was disappointed, he must have been so with the people who forced the Jana Sangh to walk out of the government,' he says. Yet, the Emergency altered the RSS's trajectory. The Sangh emerged with new-found credibility, its contributions finally recognised by broad swathes of Indian society and political class. Once ostracised in early years of the Republic for its association with Gandhi's assassin Nathuram Godse, the RSS now joined national discourse as a legitimate player. Barely three years after Emergency, its political wing BJP was born; the BJP under Narendra Modi is now into its third consecutive term in power.
