Latest news with #Lakshmanan
Scotsman
6 days ago
- Business
- Scotsman
Scotland is seeing the start of re-industrialisation on a scale not witnessed since the oil boom of the 1970s
AFP via Getty Images Sign up to our Scotsman Money newsletter, covering all you need to know to help manage your money. Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Aishwarya Lakshmanan started her career in Aberdeen as an electrical engineer working on North Sea oil and gas fields before switching to offshore wind a year ago. Now, she uses the same engineering skills at two wind farms in the Moray Firth operated by Ocean Winds, an offshore wind developer jointly owned by Portugal's EDP Renewables and Engie of France. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'Being able to lead a sustainable life has always been my dream and is what drove me towards the renewables sector,' Lakshmanan said this week at the launch of a pilot funded by the UK government to help current and former oil and gas workers in the Aberdeen area switch to jobs in clean energy. Successful applicants to the scheme, designed by the Scottish government and delivered by Skills Development Scotland, will receive funding for training courses to get work in offshore wind, hydrogen and carbon capture and storage. Yet as far as Reform UK is concerned, it appears young people like Aishawarya shouldn't have the option of working in offshore wind. Last week, the party's deputy leader Richard Tice sent a tersely-worded letter to the heads of offshore wind developers in the UK putting them on notice that, if elected in 2029, the party would 'strike down' all contracts signed under the next government auction that allocates the price at which developers sell power to the grid, known as AR7. This could spell an end to Scotland's huge pipeline of offshore wind projects, most of which is set to come from vast wind farms in the North Sea in ScotWind, under which Crown Estate Scotland (CES) granted options for wind farm leases that started in 2022. Reform's plan would also slam into reverse years of investment in a key piece of the UK's renewable energy jigsaw. Wind and solar were in the past year the largest source of power in the UK on about 38 per cent, followed by gas (30 per cent) and nuclear (14 per cent), according to the National Grid. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The number of people employed in offshore wind has risen by 24 per cent from two years ago to 40,000 today, according to report last month by the Offshore Wind Industry Council and RenewableUK, a trade association. Tice's immediate target is Clean Power 2030, a policy laid out last year by Energy Secretary Ed Miliband that aims to see 95 per cent of the UK's power generated by renewables. To say it is ambitious would be an understatement. But Miliband insists it's needed to effect a 'once in the once-in-a-generation upgrade of our energy infrastructure' to cope with rising industrial demand for electricity, decarbonisation of transport, and reducing reliance on expensive foreign gas. Much of this will involve generating 45-50 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind, of which the bulk (30GW) would come from ScotWind. Tice insists this is all a manifesto for 'industrial decline'. Yet in Scotland, we already see the start of re-industrialisation on a scale not witnessed since the oil boom of the 1970s. At Nigg, Sumitomo Electric of Japan is building a £350 million factory to make the subsea cables needed to connect wind farms to the grid. Ports around the Cromarty Firth were recently grouped together for offshore wind supply chain manufacturing and assembly to create the Inverness & Cromarty Firth Green Freeport – the largest green engineering development area in the UK. Anyone who has visited Royal Yacht Britannia in Edinburgh recently will have noticed the cranes and refurbished docks across the water at Port of Leith, evidence of a transformation allowing it to handle the vessels that ship assembled wind turbines out to sea. Instead, Tice's party wants more licences to drill for oil in the North Sea – a call that may be reinforced by US president Donald Trump when he meets Sir Kier Starmer in Aberdeen. Yet this ignores the fact that the North Sea basin is in decline and any new licences to drill will make little difference to oil production. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad '[Operators] won't discover very much because the acreage has been in the hands of numerous operators over decades and they already know what's there,' explains Gail Anderson, research director at Wood Mackenzie. Trump may also repeat his opposition to offshore 'windmills', new development of which he torpedoed early in his presidency in the US, sending a chill across the industry. That adds to inflationary and regulatory headwinds that are giving some ScotWind developers pause as they factor in mounting costs. CES recently concluded a consultation on extending the ScotWind options to give developers more time to make the numbers work. Some developers, including those behind a wind farm called Ossian, backed by Marubeni of Japan, SSE Renewables and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, have recommended extending. All eyes are now on the nitty-gritty of AR7. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero this week published guidance on the maximum price the government would pay developers in the upcoming auction to compensate them for project risks. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad It was set at a level that indicates the over-arching imperative of lowering consumer bills could be harder, not easier. This is where the Labour government's Achilles Heel lies – and where Reform has an opening.
The Hindu
17-07-2025
- The Hindu
Armed Reserve police constable arrested for assault in Madurai
An Armed Reserve police constable, Lakshmanan, on Thursday was arrested on charges of assaulting Vadivel of Kamarajarpuram and harassing his wife. According to police, Lakshmanan, an alcoholic, returned to duty in May after being suspended for assaulting a Sub-Inspector of Police. On Wednesday, he used abusive language against a woman. When her husband questioned him, the constable attacked him, causing bleeding injuries. Keeraithurai police arrested him on charges of using abusive language, assault, criminal intimidation, and under the provisions of the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Woman Act.
NDTV
15-07-2025
- Health
- NDTV
Assam Reports 26 Japanese Encephalitis Deaths, Makes Up 50% Of India's Cases
In a concerning development, Assam has reported 12 additional deaths from Japanese Encephalitis in the past week, bringing the state's total fatalities from the disease this year to 26, government sources told NDTV. The bigger concern is that the virus has now spread to 33 of 35 districts, with only Dima Hasao and Hailakandi remaining unaffected, the state government has sent alerts to all district health authorities. "Japanese encephalitis is endemic to Assam. Every year, we have cases of JE and the virus, the vector, and the host. Every element of the disease is present in Assam. About 50 percent case load of Japanese encephalitis in India is in Assam," Dr. Lakshmanan, Mission Director of the National Health Mission (NHM), Assam told NDTV. Japanese encephalitis is endemic in Assam, with the virus, mosquito vector, and intermediate hosts like pigs and birds being prevalent year-round. This year alone, Assam has 300 confirmed cases of JE virus infections. The cases of the disease in Assam have been on the rise since April. According to Dr. Achyut Baishya, Principal of Guwahati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), the disease is affecting people across all age groups, but children under 10 and adults over 60 are the most vulnerable. "These cases have started coming from the month of April itself and casualty is increasing. It has all age groups but it is more among those below 10 years and above 60 years," Achyut Baishya said. Japanese Encephalitis is a viral, mosquito-borne disease that can affect individuals across all age groups - from infants to the elderly. Achyut Baishya further emphasised that JE is endemic in Assam. Districts such as Jorhat, Sivasagar, Dibrugarh, Lakhimpur, and Biswanath remain JE hotspots. However, cases are now also emerging from lower Assam districts like Kamrup, Nalbari, and Goalpara, indicating a wider spread. Since 2013, Assam has undertaken massive vaccination drives, targeting at least 1 crore people annually, with JE vaccines now also part of the routine immunization programme for all newborns in the state. In 2022, Assam had around 550 confirmed Japanese encephalitis cases. Between 2020 and 2023, the state witnessed more than 600 confirmed cases of the disease. Japanese encephalitis is a rapidly progressing illness and can turn critical within just 2-4 days of the onset of symptoms.
The Hindu
28-06-2025
- General
- The Hindu
The food delivery partner on three wheels
The evening is visibly worn out. And the opportune night is poised to tear into it with fangs of darkness and gobble it. The crowd has thinned out on Besant Nagar Second Avenue. The lights have gone out in the shops except for food outlets given to entertaining customers and orders well into the evening. About fifteen minutes to eleven, a staff from Jonah's Bistro steps out with packed food and hands it to a food delivery partner who would not budge from his two-wheeler. He could not budge from it. Attached to Zomato, Lakshmanan Angamuthu is differently abled, a locomotor disorder making him dependent on a specially designed three-wheeler for movement. Unlike other delivery partners, he cannot sweep into the restaurant and pick up the order to be delivered. Unlike other delivery partners, he cannot step off his bike, ring the bell and deliver that order at the customers' doorsteps. Lakshmanan notes that the delivery details would contain a reference to his condition so that customers are ready for it and step out to collect the order. But if they had missed that detail that came up on the screen, Lakshmanan would enlighten them about it over a call. Unlike other delivery partners, he does not muscle his way through traffic, moving at a clip. He cannot. Being low-powered, his vehicle is hugely limited in speed. One could see that for oneself, after the conversation outside Jonah's Bistro on Besant Nagar Second Avenue, when Lakshmanan rolled into Tiger Varadhachari Road and then Beach Road, and the vehicle was taking him to his destination at a leisurely pace. Lakshmanan has been a food delivery partner for two years, and he enjoys being on the road moving from point A to point B. For, when asked if he would prefer a more settled work day, one that enables him to stretch his heels under a desk, and dig his feet into one address and not waltz from one address to another, the 33-year-old's answer is a 'no' that comes right off the bat without a hint of hesitation. 'I am enjoying this job for now; I like to roam around and this job is all about moving around the city.' He works eight hours every day. Lakshmanan is a resident of Saidapet, and this work would have familiarised him with a multitude of roads around Chennai. As one treats him as a rara avis, Lakshmanan notes that there are other delivery partners with locomotor disorders dependent on such a vehicle and the understanding of customers. He also points out that Zomato makes these vehciles available to such delivery partners through a partnership with customised mobility solutions provider NeoMotion.
New Indian Express
25-06-2025
- New Indian Express
Tribal man assaulted by forest staff for refusing bribe in Tamil Nadu
TIRUVANNAMALAI: A 65-year-old tribal man was allegedly assaulted by forest department personnel at lower Palayamkottai village near Jamunamarathur for refusing to pay Rs 7,000 bribe, according to a formal complaint filed by his wife Mallika L (53) with District Collector Dharpakaraj on Monday. According to the petition submitted by Mallika L, the incident occurred on June 21 when her husband, Lakshmanan, was herding 14 goats in the Tailathope forest area near their village. Mallika alleged that a forest ranger and other officials approached Lakshmanan and demanded Rs 500 per goat for letting him graze his goats in the area. When he said he could not afford to pay, the officials allegedly hurled verbal abuses at him. This escalated into an altercation and the officials physically assaulted him. Lakshmanan sustained serious injuries in the attack and was first taken to the Government Hospital in Jamunamarathur. He was later referred to the Government Hospital in Vaniyambadi, where he continues to receive treatment. Mallika also stated that a police complaint had been filed with the Jamunamarathur police station, but no action has been taken so far. She urged the collector to intervene and ensure that the forest officials responsible for the assault are brought to justice. The incident has sparked concern among locals, who allege that such harassment by forest officials is not uncommon in remote hamlets bordering forest zones. The district administration has yet to issue an official response.
