Dr Cyrus Poonawalla, founder and chairman of Serum Institute of India, was conferred with the ABLF Lifetime Achievement Award in Dubai, UAE at a glittering ceremony on Thursday.

It was in 1966, that Dr Poonawalla embarked on his journey to establish Serum Institute of India, which is now the world’s largest producer of vaccines by number of doses, producing at least 1.5 billion doses a year of life-saving vaccines used in over 170 countries to combat infection from rabies, measles, mumps, rubella, whooping cough, tetanus, diphtheria, tuberculosis, influenza, meningitis, rotavirus and hepatitis B vaccines among others,thus saving the lives of at least 40 million, mostly under-privileged children across the globe, who would have otherwise perished without the availability of affordable vaccines.

Recently Dr Poonawalla, was also conferred with the prestigious ‘Degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa’ by the University of Oxford, UK at a ceremony in June.

He was also conferred with the honorary degree of ‘Doctor of Humane Letters’ by the University of Massachusetts, Boston, USA last year for his outstanding contribution in improving the public health for all communities. Also known as a philanthropist, focusing on public causes and underserved communities, Dr Cyrus Poonawalla earlier this year was felicitated with the first-ever ‘Vaccine Hero’ Award by Global Alliance for Vaccine Initiative.

A row house located in Primerose, Baner was broken into and cash and jewellery collectively worth Rs 2,36,000 was stolen on Saturday night, according to the police.

The incident came to light on Sunday, when the owner Usha Ramesh Kusadkar, 53, returned to her house and found the safety door and main door of the house broken, said police officials.

Kusadkar filed the complaint on Sunday at the Chatuhshrungi police station. The woman, who is a housewife, had left the house on November 8 afternoon and returned on November 10. She was visiting another house owned by her family in Gulmohar Park, Baner, according to officials.

According to the complainant, the theft occurred while she was away for two days.Gold jewellery worth Rs 1,75,000 along with a digital camera, watches and Rs 10,000 cash was stolen.

A case under Sections 454, 457 (lurking house-trespass or house-breaking in order to commit offence punishable with imprisonment) and 380 (theft in dwelling house) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered against unidentified persons at Chatuhshrungi police station. Assistant police inspector SS havan is investigating the case.

With rain finally past the city, the city has started witnessing a nip in the air with the temperature gradually coming down. On Sunday, city’s temperature was 16.4 degrees Celsius.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD), has said that the winter onset will begin from the third week of November. “This time the winter onset is expected after the third week of November. The temperature will reduce up to 15-16 degrees Celsius,” said Anupam Kashyapi, head of weather department, IMD.

According to IMD, the cyclonic circulation over northeast Arabian Sea and adjoining south Gujarat coast has become less marked, the city is also witnessing its first sunshine in days after the extended rainfall. The residents of Pune are also feeling a slight nip in the air, with the city’s temperature gradually going down.

The city will witness clear sky and dry weather according to IMD, though Konkan and Goa will experience rain with thundery activity in isolated parts.

On Sunday, Pune recorded 16.4 degree Celsius as minimum temperature and 30.7 degree Celsius as its maximum temperature, while lowest minimum temperature was recorded at Mahableshwar at 15.5 degrees Celsius.

As per IMD’s forecast, from second half of November to end of November, minimum temperature will be normal or below normal over most parts of India. However Kashyapi said, IMD will issue winter outlook ( minimum) temperature and cold wave outlook by the end of this month.

The 2019 Diwali was perhaps the best Diwali of my life, which I shall soon elaborate upon.

But before that, let me recount one of my deeply disturbing memories of Diwali which revolves around firecrackers from my childhood. We were then living in Bombay (now Mumbai) and were visiting relatives on Tilak Road in Pune. Children can be very cruel at times, and some teenagers had tied a string of firecrackers (‘ladi’) to the tail of a stray cow. The ladi was then lighted with an agarbatti (incense stick), and as the firecrackers started bursting, the cow panicked, more by the gunfire-like sound than anything else, and ran helter-sketler on the road.

The children who played this prank had their laughs at the expense of the fear-stricken cow.

Rather than a genuine festival of lights and the celebration of good over evil, Diwali in our country has been reduced to a festival of sound pollution and air pollution.

Delhi perhaps witnessed its worst Diwali this year with the already high air pollution levels, escalating still further, because of the bursting of crackers. Air quality levels in almost all cities were certainly worse-off than normal because of the noxious stink and pollution caused by firecrackers.

There is growing public awareness about the polluting effects of firecrackers, and it is heartening to note that many children today are sensitive to the cause of the environment and do not burst firecrackers. I was delighted when my 12-year-old daughter returned a box of ‘apti-bombs’ to the person who had gifted it to her. This Diwali, she did not purchase a single rupee’s worth of firecrackers.

She skipped the nominal purchase of firecrackers and this was her first Diwali without firecrackers, simply because we were far away from the city, out on a holiday.

We were in coastal Karnataka, with halts in Udipi, Murudeshwar, Gokarna and Mangalore. Along the way, we also visited the Dandeli forest reserve, Dharmasthal, Belgaum and Kolhapur. The seaside towns of coastal Karnataka were extraordinarily enchanting. The beaches were clean, the air, fresh and pure and the food, very satisfying.

We were lucky to narrowly miss the cyclone and heavy rains that was battering Pune, western Maharashtra and parts of Karnataka around this time. The tourist traffic was very thin wherever we went, partly because of the uncertain weather and partly because it was Diwali time when people prefer to be at home.

The end result was that we escaped the two-three days of firecrackers-induced sound pollution and air pollution that have become a characteristic part of our Diwali celebrations. We escaped the thick smog that envelops our cities every year post-Diwali.

For me, personally, this was indeed a kind of a breakthrough moment: the best place to be during Diwali is out of your city on a holiday. Experience it for yourself.

The Pune Municipal Corporation’s (PMC) ambitious Rs 2,619 crore riverfront project along the rivers of Mula, Mutha and Mula-Mutha sangam river beds, has got a thumbs up from the State government’s State Environment Assessment (SEA) committee.

The committee has recommended the project to the Union environment ministry and the civic body now awaits a formal clearance from the state environment department which it expects will come soon.

The riverfront project of the civic body is on the lines with Gujarat’s Sabarmati riverfront project.

It will not only beautify the riverbanks but also restore the natural flow of the river. The project is spread across 44 km length of the rivers and widths varying between 80 metres to 250 metres.

Mangesh Dighe, environment officer, PMC said, “The project has got recommendation from the state environment assessment committee. Now the committee will put it forward the environment ministry and once we get the formal clearance letter, we can go ahead with the project. This development happened 15 days ago.”

The project might also eat into the roads along the riverbank which are also widely used by commuters during peak hours. Dighe added that any manual construction which blocks the river’s natural course of flow has been asked to be cleared.

The kiosks and stalls below the Z-bridge and other such manual constructions will be removed for the project.

The project also aims to stop the flow of untreated water into the rivers which also increases the growth of hyacinths, leading to serious environmental issues and mosquito menace.

The development of the banks is expected to stop the dumping of garbage and aims to stop the threat of flooding by restoring the natural limit of the riverbanks.

The project will also make the river accessible for citizens for recreational purposes which is currently not available.

The project envisages construction of 11 new sewage treatment plants to cover sewage generation till 2027, laying of 1,13.6 km of sewage lines connected to houses in city, construction of 24 community toilets in slum areas to stop open defecation along the river banks, monitoring of flow of effluent water, facilitation of public awareness programmes and the overall objective of rejuvenation of the Mula-Mutha.

Interception, diversion and treatment of domestic sewage generated and discharged in the river has also been planned to improve the quality of the rivers.

Mula Mutha river 2nd most-polluted in Maharashtra: MPCB

In a report released in June this year, the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) said that the Mula-Mutha river, that flows along a 22-km stretch through Pune city, is Maharashtra’s second-most polluted river.

As of 2018, it contained human and animal excreta three times the permissible limits, MPCB said.

Mumbai’s Mithi river ranked as the most polluted river in the state as per the MPCB’s water quality assessment of eight major rivers in the state in 2018, published in the Maharashtra Economic Survey report 2018-19.

The study found levels of faecal coliform content (indication of human and animal excreta), biochemical oxygen demand (oxygen levels for aquatic life to survive) and dissolved oxygen in the Mula-Mutha river, all not meeting safety levels.

Reacting to the study, Sunil Joshi, environmentalist and river expert had said, “Presence of human and animal excreta three times above permeable limits indicates how our rivers are dying.”