Chindia Alert: You’ll be Living in their World Very Soon
aims to alert you to the threats and opportunities that China and India present. China and India require serious attention; case of ‘hidden dragon and crouching tiger’.
Without this attention, governments, businesses and, indeed, individuals may find themselves at a great disadvantage sooner rather than later.
The POSTs (front webpages) are mainly 'cuttings' from reliable sources, updated continuously.
The PAGEs (see Tabs, above) attempt to make the information more meaningful by putting some structure to the information we have researched and assembled since 2006.
Li Zhanshu, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of China, meets with First President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev in Kazakhstan, Sept. 23, 2019. Li paid an official goodwill visit to Kazakhstan from Sept. 21 to 25 at the invitation of Dariga Nazarbayeva, speaker of the Kazakh Parliament’s Upper House, Nurlan Nigmatulin, speaker of the Kazakh Parliament’s Lower House. (Xinhua/Zhai Jianlan)
NUR-SULTAN, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) — Li Zhanshu, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) of China, and Kazakh leaders have agreed here to boost mutually beneficial cooperation in various areas.
During an official goodwill visit from Saturday to Wednesday, Li met with First President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev and conveyed Chinese President Xi Jinping’s cordial greetings to him.
Li told Nazarbayev that China and Kazakhstan are good neighbors and the most reliable friends and partners.
Li said China and Kazakhstan have decided to develop a permanent comprehensive strategic partnership and build a community with a shared future, and their ties have become a model of interstate relations following 27 years of development since the establishment of their diplomatic relationship.
Both sides need to strengthen political mutual trust and mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields, Li said, adding that China has full confidence in the future of Kazakhstan and will continue to support the Central Asian country in pursuing its development path that suits its national conditions.
Nazarbayev told Li that China is a good friend of his country and China’s development is vital to Kazakhstan.
He said strengthening Kazakhstan-China cooperation is in line with the two countries’ interests, and Kazakhstan always prioritizes in its foreign policy cementing and developing ties with China.
At a meeting with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Li conveyed Xi’s good wishes to him.
Li said the construction of a Silk Road Economic Belt was first proposed in Kazakhstan, and both countries as permanent comprehensive strategic partners should respect, trust and support each other no matter how the global and regional situations develop.
China and Kazakhstan should improve the alignment of their development strategies and boost cooperation in production capacities, energy, agriculture, inter-connectivity, finance, cross-border e-commerce, high-technology, education, sports, culture and tourism, Li said.
Tokayev said that Kazakhstan, located in the center of the Eurasian continent, will always be a friendly neighbor of China. He praised China’s key role in maintaining global security and stability.
The Belt and Road Initiative is significant to Kazakhstan, which is ready to strengthen cooperation with China, implement bilateral agreements and achieve more outcomes.
At talks with Dariga Nazarbayeva, speaker of the Kazakh parliament’s upper house, and Nurlan Nigmatulin, speaker of the lower house, Li said the two legislatures should implement the important consensuses reached by the heads of state and facilitate bilateral cooperation with legislation and favorable policy.
Li said the two legislatures should push for the signing of an updated version of the China-Kazakhstan investment protection pact, streamline procedures for customs clearance and work permits, and create a sound investment environment.
Nazarbayeva said that strengthening Kazakhstan-China cooperation has particular significance as the world is fraught with risks and challenges, and that she expects better quality in such cooperation.
Nigmatulin said the Kazakh parliament is willing to compare notes on legislation and supervision with the NPC of China.
During his visit, Li and Kazakh Prime Minister Askar Mamin attended the opening ceremony of the China Construction Bank’s Astana office.
Li listened to a report about the Astana International Financial Center and encouraged financial institutions in the center to participate in the Belt and Road Initiative.
The Chinese top legislator also visited the site of the 2017 Astana Expo and the national museum.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, attends the operation ceremony of the Beijing Daxing International Airport on Sept. 25, 2019. Xi announced the official opening of the airport and inspected the airport’s platforms and check-in hall. (Xinhua/Ju Peng)
BEIJING, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) — Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday announced the official opening of the Beijing Daxing International Airport.
Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, attended the opening ceremony of the airport on Wednesday morning.
Xi stressed that the new airport, which was built in less than five years and put into operation smoothly, has shown China’s prowess in engineering construction.
It is also a display of the political advantages of the CPC leadership and China’s socialist system that can mobilize all sources to make great achievements, said Xi.
While inspecting the rail transit of Daxing Airport Express at Caoqiao station, Xi stressed that urban rail transit marks the direction for future transportation development in large modern cities, and the development of rail transit is an effective way to solve “big city malaise” and to build green and smart cities.
Beijing should continue to develop rail transit in a bid to build a modern international metropolis, Xi said.
Then Xi took the subway heading for the Beijing Daxing International Airport.
On the way, he inquired in detail about the design and production of the rail trains, ticket prices, baggage consignment and connection with other traffic lines.
Xi stressed that transportation should precede urban modernization, and the Daxing International Airport should fully play its role in serving the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.
After his arrival at the airport, Xi heard a report on the construction of the airport integrated transportation system and commended the construction of supporting transportation facilities for the airport.
He said that building a comprehensive transportation system with internal and external traffic connections is essential to improving the operational efficiency of the airport.
Advanced management concepts and modern information technology should be employed to make the management and operation more intelligent and convenient, he said.
When inspecting the airport’s platforms and check-in hall, Xi called the airport a significant landmark project of Beijing which would contribute to the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.
He urged the three areas to seize the opportunity to strengthen coordination and cooperation and accelerate the pace of promoting regional high-quality development.
Xi also stressed the need to construct more advanced aviation hubs and more improved comprehensive transportation systems.
At the check-in counters, Xi saw how self-service paperless check-in was done, acknowledged the airport’s application of modernized facilities to provide passengers with convenient services and urged more efforts to develop the airport into a world-class aviation hub.
At the International Departure area, Xi met with delegates responsible for airport construction and operation.
Xi said that the new airport has demonstrated the great ambition and strategic vision of the Chinese people and displayed the spirit and modern craftsmanship of the nation.
He encouraged builders to march forward and persist in making new contributions.
Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng also attended the ceremony, saying that the opening of the airport is of great significance to enhancing the international competitiveness of China’s civil aviation industry, better serving the country’s opening up and promoting the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.
In December 2014, China started building the Beijing Daxing International Airport with a terminal area of 700,000 square meters, four runways and 268 aircraft stands. Flight checks were successfully completed in February this year.
Animal bursts into private room, causing customers to flee
Police shoot it dead to bring end to the panic
The boar was filmed by surveillance cameras wandering around the karaoke parlour. Photo: Weibo
A 315-pound (143kg) wild boar went on the rampage at a karaoke parlour in northeast China, scaring customers before staff managed to trap the animal in a room for local police to handle.
The incident happened at an unnamed karaoke establishment in Jixian county, Heilongjiang province on Monday evening, video news site Pear Video reported on Thursday.
Surveillance camera footage shows that the creature charged into the parlour before running into a private room, scaring two customers who ran out of the room. Several more frightened customers were seen running out of other rooms on the same corridor.
“The wild boar managed to enter the establishment because the door wasn’t closed, and it damaged the main bar counter by charging into it,” an unnamed KTV parlour staff member was quoted as saying by Pear Video. “Then it ran into a customer’s private karaoke room and scared them out.”
Frightened customers reported the incident to staff, who trapped the animal in a room.
“Wild boars definitely have an aggressive nature and they can seriously harm people,” a local police officer was quoted as saying. “After receiving instructions from our boss, we used a sniper gun to kill the boar. We had to shoot it three times before it finally died.”
Surveillance camera footage also showed several police officers dragging the dead animal down the karaoke parlour’s corridor.
China has a large population of wild boar, estimated to be about 33.5 million, Reuters has reported.
In 2014, a villager in Heilongjiang died after being attacked by a 100kg wild boar as he was herding cattle on a mountain.
Visually spectacular and with the latest technology, the Chinese capital’s second international airport is open for business
The terminal building at Beijing Daxing International Airport, which has officially opened. Photo: Xinhua
At 4.23pm on Wednesday a China Southern Airlines A380 left Beijing for Guangzhou – on the first commercial flight out of the world’s latest and largest airport terminal at Daxing, five years after construction began on the ambitious project.
The 80 billion yuan (US$11 billion) Beijing Daxing International Airport was officially opened by Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday morning.
China Southern Airlines, the mainland’s largest carrier, has 40 per cent of the flight slots at the new airport. It is one of 16 airlines which will be operating out of Beijing Daxing International Airport, the visually spectacular new facility at the southern end of the Chinese capital.
Six other flights, including China Eastern Airlines for Shanghai and Air China for Chengdu, took off before 5pm in the afternoon. These domestic airlines will have part of their operations moving to Daxing for the upcoming winter-spring season, according to the mainland’s aviation authority. No Hong Kong airlines were listed.
British Airways has announced its whole operation will be moved to Daxing, while some foreign airlines, such as Ethiopian Airlines, Polish Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Royal Air Maroc and Finnair, will operate at both airports.
Spanning 47 sq km (18 square miles) – almost 50 per cent larger than the city of Macau – Daxing, with its 700,000 square metre (7.5 million sq ft) terminal is a spectacular sight. Its futuristic shape, resembling a giant hexagonal starfish or – as some internet users have dubbed it – an alien base, not only handles more aircraft, it also keeps passengers’ walks
From the centre of the security check to the furthest end gate in each wing is about 600 metres (1,970 feet), or less than an eight-minute walk.
Beijing’s new 7-runway, star-shaped Daxing airport opened by Xi Jinping
According to Xinhua, more than 70 restaurants, tea shops and coffee houses will operate in the airport, along with 36 international brands, including Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Bottega Veneta.
Daxing is designed to take pressure off the overcrowded Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA) and, by 2021, is expected to handle 45 million passengers a year, rising to 72 million by 2025.
Located at the south of the capital, 46km (28.5 miles) from the central Tiananmen Square, the airport was once frowned upon for its less than optimal location, with its southern end at the border with Hebei province. But it may not be as time-consuming for travellers as originally thought.
The design of the airport means passengers will walk a much shorter distance to the check-in and security check.Hu Haiqing, China Southern Airlines
Hu Haiqing, deputy general manager of China Southern Airlines’ operation control centre, told Global Times that “although Daxing is further away from downtown Beijing than the Capital airport, there are still some advantages, especially for our airline”.
With most of its bases in the south of the country, China Southern Airlines flights to Daxing will be 10 to 15 minutes shorter than to the Capital airport. A further 15 to 20 minutes taxiing time will also be saved, thanks to its position in the new airport.
“The design of the airport also means passengers, once they leave their car or train, will walk a much shorter distance to the check-in and security check,” Hu said.
According to Xinhua, Daxing’s design also makes transit much quicker, with transfers between international and domestic flights up to 90 minutes shorter than from the Capital airport.
The futuristic shape of Daxing airport not only handles more aircraft, it also keeps passengers’ walks to a minimum. Photo: Xinhua
Public transport will be the quickest way to reach the new airport from downtown Beijing – 20 minutes from West Beijing railway station once the Beijing-Xiongan high-speed rail officially opens. The airport express service will also take passengers from Caoqiao station to the airport in 19 minutes.
There is no underground rail service or airport express connecting the Capital airport in the north with Daxing, but passengers can change trains at Caoqiao for downtown Beijing or other stations which connect with BCIA’s airport express service.
Waiting times at the new airport will be greatly reduced by the use of facial recognition technology for self-service check-in and smart security checks, according to Wang Hui, manager of Daxing’s terminal management department.
The technology does away with the need for a paper boarding pass and passengers can check-in, with or without luggage, and go through the security check by themselves.
Beijing is the window for China to go global … Daxing airport makes it possible to open more global routes.China Eastern Airlines pilot
“The airport has more than 400 self-service check-in kiosks, which means more than 80 per cent of check-ins will be self-service. That shortens each passenger’s queuing time to no more than 10 minutes,” Wang told Global Times.
“The smart security check channels are able to handle 260 passengers per hour, 40 per cent faster than using traditional means,” he said.
The opening of Daxing Airport could be a great boost for the mainland – and even the global – aviation industry by easing pressure on the Capital airport and making new routes possible, said a veteran China Eastern Airlines pilot who declined to be named.
5 things we know about Beijing’s new Daxing International Airport
Opening new flight routes from BCIA was almost impossible, he pointed out, because the centre of Beijing was a no-fly zone for security reasons. Daxing airport’s location at the southern end of the city, however, avoided the problem of planes having to bypass the restricted space, leaving room to open more routes for domestic and international flights.
“Beijing is the window for China to go global but the Capital airport’s schedule is saturated and unable to open new routes. Daxing airport makes it possible to open more global routes,” the pilot said.
He said the runway design at Daxing also meant fewer delays, because the four runways of phase one – more than any other airport in China – included one which was perpendicular to the other three, allowing flights to land and take off regardless of wind direction.
An increasing proportion of young people no longer willing to wait tables in China as restaurant owners look to new technology for answers
Catering robots developed by Pudu Tech, the three-year-old Shenzhen start-up, have been adopted by thousands of restaurants in China, as well as some foreign countries including Singapore, Korea, and Germany. Photo: Handout
Two years ago, Bao Xiangyi quit school and worked as a waiter in a restaurant for half a year to support himself, and the 19 year-old remembers the time vividly.
“It was crazy working in some Chinese restaurants. My WeChat steps number sometimes hit 20,000 in a day [just by delivering meals in the restaurant],” said Bao.
The WeChat steps fitness tracking function gauges how many steps you literally take and 20,000 steps per day can be compared with a whole day of outdoor activity, ranking you very high in a typical friends circle.
Bao, now a university student in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, quit the waiter job and went back to school.
“I couldn’t accept that for 365 days a year every day would be the same,” said Bao.
“Those days were filled with complete darkness and I felt like my whole life would be spent as an inferior and insignificant waiter.”
Olivia Niu, a 23-year-old Hong Kong resident, quit her waiter job on the first day. “It was too busy during peak meal times. I was so hungry myself but I needed to pack meals for customers,” said Niu.
Being a waiter has never been a top career choice but it remains a big source of employment in China. Yang Chunyan, a waitress at the Lanlifang Hotel in Wenzhou in southeastern China, has two children and says she chose the job because she needs to make a living.
Catering robots developed by Pudu Tech, the three-year-old Shenzhen start-up. Photo: Handout
Today’s young generation have their sights on other areas though. Of those born after 2000, 24.5 per cent want careers related to literature and art. This is followed by education and the IT industry in second and third place, according to a recent report by Tencent QQ and China Youth Daily.
Help may now be at hand though for restaurants struggling to find qualified table staff who are able to withstand the daily stress of juggling hundreds of orders of food. The answer comes in the form of robots.
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Shenzhen Pudu Technology, a three-year-old Shenzhen start-up, is among the tech companies offering catering robots to thousands of restaurant owners who are scrambling to try to plug a labour shortfall with new tech such as machines, artificial intelligence and online ordering systems. It has deployed robots in China, Singapore, Korea and Germany.
With Pudu’s robot, kitchen staff can put meals on the robot, enter the table number, and the robot will deliver it to the consumer. While an average human waiter can deliver 200 meals per day – the robots can manage 300 to 400 orders.
“Nearly every restaurant owner [in China] says it’s hard to recruit people to [work as a waiter],” Zhang Tao, the founder and CEO of Pudu tech said in an interview this week. “China’s food market is huge and delivering meals is a process with high demand and frequency.”
Pudu’s robots can be used for ten years and cost between 40,000 yuan (US$5,650) and 50,000 yuan. That’s less than the average yearly salary of restaurant and hotel workers in China’s southern Guangdong province, which is roughly 60,000 yuan, according to a report co-authored by the South China Market of Human Resources and other organisations.
As such, it is no surprise that more restaurants want to use catering robots.
According to research firm Verified Market Research, the global robotics services market was valued at US$11.62 billion in 2018 and is projected to reach US$35.67 billion by 2026.
Can robots and virtual fruit help the elderly get well in China?
China’s labour force advantage has also shrank in recent years. The working-age population, people between 16 and 59 years’ old, has reduced by 40 million since 2012 to 897 million, accounting for 64 per cent of China’s roughly 1.4 billion people in 2018, according to the national bureau of statistics.
By comparison, those of working age accounted for 69 per cent of the total population in 2012.
Other Chinese robotic companies are also entering the market. SIASUN Robot & Automation Co, a hi-tech listed enterprise belonging to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, introduced their catering robots to China’s restaurants in 2017. Delivery robots developed by Shanghai-based Keenon Robotics Co., founded in 2010, are serving people in China and overseas markets such as the US, Italy and Spain.
Pudu projects it will turn a profit this year and it is in talks with venture capital firms to raise a new round of funding, which will be announced as early as October, according to Zhang. Last year it raised 50 million yuan in a round led by Shenzhen-based QC capital.
To be sure, the service industry is still the biggest employer in China, with 359 million workers and accounting for 46.3 per cent of a working population of 776 million people in 2018, according to the national bureau of statistics.
And new technology sometimes offers up new problems – in this case, service with a smile.
“When we go out for dinner, what we want is service. It is not as simple as just delivering meals,” said Wong Kam-Fai, a professor in engineering at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and a national expert appointed by the Chinese Association for Artificial Intelligence. “If they [robot makers] can add an emotional side in future, it might work better.”
Technology companies also face some practical issues like unusual restaurant layouts.
“Having a [catering robot] traffic jam on the way to the kitchen is normal. Some passageways are very narrow with many zigzags,” Zhang said. “But this can be improved in future with more standardised layouts.”
Multi-floor restaurants can also be a problem.
Dai Qi, a sales manager at the Lanlifang Hotel, said it is impossible for her restaurant to adopt the robot. “Our kitchen is on the third floor, and we have boxes on the second, third, and fourth floor. So the robots can’t work [to deliver meals tdownstairs/upstairs],” Dai said.
But Bao says he has no plans to return to being a waiter, so the robots may have the edge.
“Why are human beings doing something robots can do? Let’s do something they [robots] can’t,” Bao said.
Police investigation reveals animal had escaped from a nearby restaurant
The escaped crocodile was captured by police officers and taken to the local station. Photo: Handout
A security guard at a beauty spot in eastern China was shocked to discover a 2-metre (6ft 6in) crocodile while on his rounds in the early hours of Monday morning.
The animal was lying motionless on a road at Xinlonghu Park in Changzhou, Jiangsu province, with its jaws tied by a strip of cloth, when it was spotted by the security guard, who immediately called the police, according to the Modern Express newspaper.
It took a number of officers to capture the crocodile and take it to the local police station, where an investigation revealed the animal had escaped from a nearby restaurant. The animal was returned and the restaurant owner was “criticised” by police, who urged that a close eye be kept on the animal, the report said.
“They bought it from a farm somewhere as a food material to attract customers. It has been killed for crocodile meat dishes,” an officer told the South China Morning Post on Wednesday.
Crocodiles were once vegetarians – but it was just a phase
Police said it was fortunate that the crocodile had been caught before it had entered the park’s lake or caused any danger to people.
It is unclear what species the crocodile belonged to but China permits the commercial breeding and use of the critically endangered Siamese crocodile, as well as saltwater and Nile crocodiles, which are listed as least concern species.
A staff member of the restaurant, called No. 1 Lakeside, told the Post stewed crocodile meat was on the menu for 168 yuan (US$23.60) a serving, while stewed crocodile claw was also available at 258 yuan.
Crocodile appears in ancient Chinese medicine books as a treatment for respiratory illnesses and the meat has long been regarded as a delicacy, especially in southern China, such as Guangdong province. Crocodile skin also remains a popular material for luxury handbags and other leather goods.
In June, another crocodile, measuring about 1.5 metres, was found in a road puddle during a heavy rain in Wuhan, in the central province of Hubei, where many restaurants have crocodile meat on their menus, the Chutian Metropolis Daily reported.
In that incident it took three officers to capture the animal which was sent to a wildlife centre where a physical check-up showed it had been bred in captivity, most likely for food.
Cheng Qiang was just 12 when a magnitude 8 tremor destroyed his village, but he never forgot the heroism of the soldiers sent to help and swore one day to join their ranks
Now a squad leader, on October 1 he will also be part of the National Day celebrations in Tiananmen Square
Cheng Qiang was just 12 when his home in Sichuan was hit by a massive earthquake and airborne troops were sent to help. Photo: People.cn
A young man who survived the devastating Sichuan earthquake and vowed to one day join the ranks of the soldiers who spent months rescuing people from the rubble will on Tuesday lead his very own squad of airborne troops in Tiananmen Square as part of the celebrations for the country’s 70th anniversary.
Now 23, Cheng Qiang was just 12 when on May 12, 2008 he and a group of friends played truant from school to go swimming in a local river, Xinhua reported on Thursday.
When the boys had finished their fun they returned to their village in the township of Luoshui to find their school and many other buildings had been razed to the ground. The death toll from the magnitude 8 quake would eventually rise to 87,000, with 370,000 people injured.
Cheng says he is ready to “continue the glory of the airborne troops” at Tuesday’s parade. Photo: Thepaper.cn
In the days and weeks that followed the devastation, tens of thousands of people from around China and the world descended on towns and villages across Sichuan to help with the rescue effort.
But the ones who impressed Cheng the most were the soldiers from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) with the word “Airborne” printed on the helmets.
“Sometimes they had to remove the debris with their bare hands which were already covered in blood,” he said.
“But they just carried on and eventually pulled dozens of people out of the rubble. I knew then that I wanted to be one of them.”
Cheng said that after the quake having the troops in his village made him feel safe. Photo: People.cn
Having the troops in his village made Cheng feel safe, he said, and he spent his days following them around and doing what he could to help.
Three months later, when the soldiers had completed their work and were preparing to pull out, Cheng said he was determined to show his new heroes just how grateful he was to them.
As the villagers gathered at the roadside to bid farewell to the men who had become their saviours, the young boy held up a handwritten sign. It said simply: “I want to be an airborne soldier when I grow up.”
The moment was captured on camera by a press photographer, and the image soon became a symbol of the gratitude felt by the people who had seen their lives and communities shattered but knew they had not been forsaken.
Cheng said he felt dizzy when he first jumped out of a plane. Photo: People.cn
Five years after the troops rolled out, Cheng was preparing to go to college when he heard the PLA was recruiting and that there were places available with the airborne division.
The teenager did not need a second invitation, and after securing a place on a training course and successfully completing it he joined the ranks of his heroes in 2013.
Not that everything was plain sailing, however.
“When I first jumped out of a plane I felt very dizzy and didn’t really know what was going on,” he said.
Thankfully Cheng managed to overcome his vertigo and went on to become a squad leader.
Tens of thousands of troops will take part in China’s National Day parade on October 1. Photo: Thepaper.cn
When the preparations were being made for next week’s anniversary celebrations in Beijing, Cheng said he and his squad were chosen to take part.
He said that during the rehearsals for the grand parade, he was repeatedly reprimanded by his trainer for not keeping his knees close enough together, for lifting his feet too high and for letting his gun slip off shoulder.
But he was determined to get it right, and after weeks of hard work and 11 years on from the tragedy that devastated his world, he said he was now ready to put his best foot forward.
“The nightmare of earthquake has long gone,” he said. “I am here to continue the glory of the airborne troops. I am ready for inspection.”
Image copyright GETTY IMAGESImage caption Millions of poor Indians still defecate in the open
Two men in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh have been arrested for allegedly killing two Dalit (formerly untouchables) children who were defecating in the open, police say.
Roshni, 12, and Avinash, 10, were attacked on Wednesday while defecating near a village road, they said.
The children’s family told BBC Hindi that they have no toilet at home.
Millions of poor Indians defecate in the open, which especially puts women and children at risk.
Dalits are at the bottom of the Hindu caste system and despite laws to protect them, they still face widespread discrimination in India.
“The two children were beaten to death with sticks,” police superintendent Rajesh Chandel told BBC Hindi’s Shuraih Niazi. “We have registered a murder case against both the accused. They are being questioned.”
Within hours of the attack early on Wednesday morning, police arrested two upper-caste men – Rameshwar Yadav and Hakim Yadav.
Roshni and Avinash were cousins, but Roshni had been brought up by Avinash’s parents and lived with them.
Avinash’s father, Manoj, says that as a daily wage labourer, he cannot afford to build a toilet at his house. He also says he has been unable to access a government subsidy as part of a flagship scheme to build toilets for the poor.
Media caption The Dalits unblocking India’s sewers by hand
The Swachh Bharat Mission or Clean India programme seeks to end open defecation by increasing toilet infrastructure and improving sanitation across the country. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the program in 2014, he vowed to make India “open defecation free” by 2 October 2019.
Manoj’s village – Bhavkhedi – has been declared “open defecation free”, a tag given by the government to villages and cities have successfully ended open defecation.
Image caption Women who go out at night to defecate are often at risk
Research has shown that while the construction of toilets has increased rapidly, lack of water, poor maintenance and slow change in behaviour have stood in the way of ending open defecation.
But many have praised Mr Modi for highlighting the issue and launching a major scheme to address it – the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation honoured him this week, describing the Swachh Bharat Mission as “a model for other countries around the world that urgently need to improve access to sanitation for the world’s poorest.”
MUMBAI (Reuters) – At least 11 people have been killed and six are missing after the Western Indian city of Pune and its neighbouring areas were hit by heavy rain and flash floods, a government official said on Wednesday.
More than 28,000 people have been evacuated from low-lying areas and the local administration is on alert for more rain, Deepak Mhaisekar told Reuters.
Pune, which is around 200 kilometres (124 miles) east of India’s financial hub of Mumbai, has received 113% more rainfall than average since the start of the monsoon season in early June, a weather department official said.
Of the 11 deaths, five occurred in Pune when a wall collapsed, said Mhaisekar.
South Asia gets monsoon rain annually during the June-September months which cause fatalities and mass displacement.
India’s monsoons, which deliver more than 70% of the country’s annual rainfall, are crucial for farm output and economic growth, but rainfall often weakens the foundations of poorly built walls and buildings resulting in deaths.
Aerial photo taken on Sept. 21, 2019 shows a steel girder being lifted by a crane at the construction site of the Pingtan Strait Road-rail Bridge in southeast China’s Fujian Province. China on Wednesday completed the main structure of the world’s longest cross-sea road-rail bridge in Fujian. The last steel girder, weighing 473 tonnes, was bolted on the Pingtan Strait Road-rail Bridge, another mega project in China, on Wednesday morning. With a staggering span of 16.34 km, the bridge connects Pingtan Island and four nearby islets to the mainland of Fujian Province. (Xinhua/Lin Shanchuan)
FUZHOU, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) — China on Wednesday completed the main structure of the world’s longest cross-sea road-rail bridge in its southeastern province of Fujian.
The last steel truss girder, weighing 473 tonnes, was bolted on the Pingtan Strait Road-rail Bridge, another mega project in China, on Wednesday morning.
Hundreds of bridge builders clad in orange overalls, as well as government officials, hailed the completion on the bridge deck, with several rounds of fireworks being set off to celebrate the moment.
With a staggering span of 16.34 km, the bridge connects Pingtan Island and four nearby islets to the mainland of Fujian Province.
The bridge, which is expected to open to traffic next year, can help shorten travel time from two hours to half an hour between Fuzhou, capital city of Fujian Province and Pingtan, a pilot zone set up to facilitate trade and cultural exchanges across the Taiwan Strait.
“Of all the bridges being built across the world, this is no doubt the most challenging,” said Wang Donghui, chief engineer of the project, adding that it is China’s first and the world’s longest cross-sea road-rail bridge.
The project has attracted worldwide attention from the start of construction in 2013 as it spans an area off the coast of southeast China long seen as a “no-go zone” for bridge-building.
The region has strong gales and high waves for most of the year and is known as one of the world’s three most perilous seas along with Bermuda and the Cape of Good Hope.
Workers had to battle the notoriously strong winds, choppy waters and rugged seabed in the region to drill 1,895 piles into the ocean.
MORE THAN MEGA PROJECT
The road-rail bridge has a six-lane highway on the top and a high-speed railway at the bottom, which is designed to support bullet trains traveling as fast as 200 km per hour. It is a part of the 88-km Fuzhou-Pingtan railway.
In the past, Pingtan was a backwater island of humble fisheries. It did not even have a bridge connecting it to the mainland until 2010 when the Strait Bridge began operating for cars only.
In 2010, China established the Pingtan Comprehensive Pilot Zone to facilitate cross-Strait exchange and cooperation, ramping up its efforts to improve the island’s infrastructure.
Today, skyscrapers are popping up all along the shoreline, with the glow of construction work filling the night sky. Meanwhile, thousands of Taiwan residents swarm into the booming island to live and start businesses.
The island has accommodated more than 1,000 shops and companies set up by Taiwan residents, according to government statistics.
Chen Chien-hsiang, a 29-year-old man who moved from Taiwan to Pingtan two years ago, believes that the new bridge will help attract more businesses to the island and further boost its economic development.
“The new bridge means more than a mere mega project,” Chen said. “It also promises a brighter future for people from Taiwan who chose to live and work here.”
INFRASTRUCTURE MANIAC
Huang Zhiwei, 22, found himself making history by lifting the last piece of the bridge girder from a ship about 80 meters below the bridge deck, an undertaking that he had never expected when he joined the project a year ago as an intern.
His parents, unhappy about their son’s career choice, felt relieved after several video chats during which their son showed them his working and living conditions at the construction site.
“With so many advanced technologies and safety measures, I am convinced that we will accomplish the mission, and I am very proud of my contribution,” said the young operator.
More than 1.24 million tonnes of steel have been used for the bridge, enough to build 190 Eiffel Towers, and 2.97 million cubic meters of cement, nine times the amount of cement used to build the Burj Khalifa towers in Dubai, the world’s tallest skyscraper.
“We could not possibly have realized the construction 15 years ago for lack of advanced construction technologies and equipment such as the drilling machine and ship cranes we have developed today,” said Xiao Shibo, an engineer of the China Railway Major Bridge Engineering Group Co., Ltd. The bridge has made history in many aspects, Xiao added.
China is dubbed as an “infrastructure maniac” for countless dazzling megaprojects, with the Chinese builders breaking their own world records.
China is home to the world’s highest bridge, longest cross-sea bridge and 90 out of the 100 highest bridges built this century.
From 2015 to 2020, China’s transportation investment is expected to exceed 15 trillion yuan (2.1 trillion U.S. dollars), with a substantial portion reserved for bridge construction.
CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 