Something Useful

Air India Express Flight IX 1344, which was arriving from Dubai to Kozhikode on Friday 07 August with 190 passengers on board overshot the runway while landing in Kerala’s Kozhikode Airport and broke into pieces. The Aviation Ministry on Saturday reported that 18 people were dead, including 2 pilots, and more than 100 have been injured in the incident . Check below to know more about the cause of this incident and similar incidents that occurred previously . How they Travelled: The flight was being operated under the Vande Bharat Mission to repatriate Indians stranded abroad because of the coronavirus lockdown. There were a total of 191 people on board the plane, including 10 babies and five crew members. The incident took place when the Air India Express IX 1344 was attempting to land in Kozhikode on Friday evening around 7.40 P.M. Due to heavy rain, the aircraft overshot the runway and fell into a 35 feet valley then broke into pieces. The injured are being treated at 13 hospitals in...

A massive blast took place on August 4 in the port city of Beirut, the capital of Lebanon - a country in Western Asia. As per the Internal Ministry of Lebanon, it has been reported at least 100 people were killed, and more than 4500 people were injured. Check below to know more about what caused this massive explosion, and why does the red smoke appear. Reason for the Explosion: The main reason for the massive blast is caused by 2750 tonnes of Ammonium nitrate , which has been stored at a local warehouse for the past six years " without any preventive measure " nearby the port. Authorities are still not clear on what exactly caused this incident, but there could be a fire accident near the storage area, which could have resulted in this massive explosion. Casualties and Damages by the Explosion: At least 100 were killed, and more than 5000 would have wounded the aftermath of the explosion. There are no official numbers in the count, and the death toll was expected to rise. At...

In recent days wherever you switch to social media sites, you could notice some posts about EIA 2020 and viral hashtags like #withdrawEIA, #withdrawEIA2020. First of all, what is EIA? Why is it strongly criticized by climate and environmental activists and why should you really bother about the draft version, produced by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), India.  What is EIA? Environmental Assessment (EA) is the assessment of environmental consequences (positive-negative) of a plan, policy, program, or actual projects before the decision to proceed with the proposed action . EIA was introduced in India in 1978, for river valley projects, but it was only after the Bhopal gas leak disaster in 1984 the country legislated an Act for environment protection in 1986. Under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, India notified its first EIA norms in 1994, setting in place a legal framework for regulating activities that access, utilize, and af...