In Brief – November 2021
Rotarian felicitated for Covid-relief work
Rotary India Covid Task Force chairman PRID Ashok Mahajan was felicitated by the Maharashtra government for
his contribution towards Covid relief and paediatric heart surgeries. He was honoured by Dr Bharati Pawar, state health minister. Rotary clubs in India have partnered with various government agencies to vaccinate over two million Indians against Covid.
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An eco-friendly dyeing process
The American fashion brand Ralph Lauren has introduced a new way to dye cotton, that uses 90 per cent less chemicals, half the water and 40 per cent less energy. In association with four other companies, the clothing designer has developed a way to significantly reduce the amount of water, chemicals and energy needed to colour cotton without compromising on the hues or texture. The new technology named Colour on Demand will enable the recycling and reuse of all the water from the dyeing process, with zero wastage, using the current dyeing equipment already in the factories.
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Russian film crew returns to earth
A Russian female actor and film director returned to Earth after spending 12 days on the International Space Station (ISS) for shooting a space film. The three-person crew comprising actor, director and cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov stepped ahead of a NASA-led project that aims to shoot for a Mission Impossible sequel. The crew landed on Oct 16 at the Baikanour Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan just after midnight. The project marks the expansion of the commercial space market to include filmmaking.
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Grauer’s gorillas flourish in Congo
From a previous global estimate of 3,800 individuals, the number of Grauer’s gorillas, the world’s largest gorilla subspecies, has almost doubled to 6,800. An earlier peer-reviewed paper led by Wildlife Conservation Society in 2016 showed a decline of almost 80 per cent in the population of these gorillas. The revised estimate comes from the recent field surveys conducted in September 2021 at eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the animal’s largest remaining habitat, an area that was previously inaccessible for surveys.
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A Crying Room in Spain
In 2019, 3,671 people committed suicide in Spain, the second most common cause of death after natural causes in the country. One in 10 adolescents has been diagnosed with a mental illness while 5.8 per cent of the overall population suffers from anxiety, according to a government data. To remove the stigma attached to mental health, Spain has started a project named La Lloreria, or the Crying Room. Anyone can walk into the room and cry or call helplines to seek expert’s advice. The initiative is part of Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez’s 100 million-euro ($116 million) mental healthcare drive.
