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- Mumbaikars are the hardest working and put in the longest hours among 77 major cities of the world, according to a report by Swiss Bank UBS. The average Mumbaikar works 3,314.7 hours a year as against an average of 1,987 hours and more than twice as much as major European cities like Rome (1,581 hours) or Paris (1,662 hours).
- However, Mumbaikars are not able to afford the must-haves for millennials across the world. For instance, a New Yorker can afford an iPhone X with 54 hours of work, whereas for a Mumbaikar, the cost of this iPhone is equivalent to 917 hours wages.
- Also, if rental expense is factored in, cost of living in Mumbai is 46% that of New York. Mumbai is more affordable in services such as haircut for a male, which is around 228 minutes of wages as against 128 minutes for New York.
- In terms of hourly earnings, Geneva, Zurich and Luxemborg top the list with Mumbai coming in second last at number 76, only ahead of Cairo. Even African cities like Nairobi and Laos rank higher than Mumbai on the average earnings table.
- For the study, UBS has looked at 15 professions that replicate the natural workforce composition of a European country. Zurich is still the most expensive in the report’s ranking (including and excluding rent both), and Luxembourg tops for purchasing power (gross hourly pay).
- Interestingly one of the world's most expensive cities, Hong Kong, is at the bottom when it comes to cost of goods that millennials aspire for.
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- A Taj Declaration to Beat Plastic Pollution was adopted here today as part of which efforts would be made to make the 500-metre area around the historic ivory-white marble monument litter-free and phase out single-use plastic.
- The adoption of the declaration - in presence of Minister of State for Environment Mahesh Sharma, UN Environment Programme Executive Director Erik Solheim, UNEP Goodwill Ambassador Diya Mirza - came ahead of the World Environment Day on June 5.
- Before the adoption of the declaration, the Culture Ministry held a stake-holders' workshop chaired by Sharma.
- The workshop focussed on curbing pollution near the 17th-century monument and drawing short-term and long-term plans to deal with the problem.
- According to an official statement, a pledge was taken to make the 500-metre area around the Taj Mahal litter-free and take steps to phase out single-use plastic from the area.
- Sharma said India and the whole world is today facing the problem of pollution caused by excessive use of plastics."It is a historic moment that the message of Beat Plastic Pollution is being given from the iconic Taj Mahal not only to the people of Agra and the country but to the whole world," he told reporters.
- Sharma said it is an appropriate occasion to spread Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Swachch Bharat message from the Taj.
- He said the government is committed to Agra's holistic development in which the Centre, the state, and the local administration will work together under a single umbrella.
- Solheim expressed happiness that the UN slogan of Beat Plastic Pollution for this year's Environment Day on June 5 is being highlighted from the Taj Mahal. The coming together of all the stake-holders is heartening, he said.
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- Scientists have identified traces of of multiple metals, along with possible signs of water, in one of the least dense exoplanets ever found.
- The team, from the University of Cambridge in the UK and the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC) in Spain used the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) to observe WASP-127b, a giant gaseous planet with partly clear skies and strong signatures of metals in its atmosphere.
- WASP-127b has a radius 1.4 times larger than Jupiter but has only 20 percent of its mass. Such a planet has no analogue in our solar system and is rare even within the thousands of exoplanets discovered to date. It takes just over four days to orbit its parent star and its surface temperature is around 1127 degree Celsius.
- The observations of WASP-127b reveal the presence of a large concentration of alkali metals in its atmosphere, allowing simultaneous detections of sodium, potassium and lithium for the first time in an exoplanet. The sodium and potassium absorptions are very broad, which is characteristic of relatively clear atmospheres.
- According to modelling work done by the researchers, the skies of WASP-127b are approximately 50 per cent clear. "The particular characteristics of this planet allowed us to perform a detailed study of its rich atmospheric composition," said Guo Chen, a postdoctoral researcher at IAC.
- "The presence of lithium is important to understand the evolutionary history of the planetary system and could shed light on the mechanisms of planet formation," said Chen.
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- Environment-friendly, clean and equipped with amenities of international standards for tourists, 13 Indian beaches will soon get the Blue Flag certification.
- These beaches of Odisha, Maharashtra and other coastal states will be the first in not just India, but in Asia, to get the Blue Flag certification.
- The Indian beaches are being developed by the Society for Integrated Coastal Management (SICOM), an environment ministry's body working for the management of coastal areas, according to the Blue Flag certification standards.
- Project Head of SCIOM Arvind Nautiyal said that to make the beaches environment and tourist-friendly in accordance with the Blue Flag standards, a beach has to be plastic-free and be equipped with a waste management system.
- They also have to ensure availability of clean water for tourists, have amenities of international standards for tourists and be equipped with facilities for studying environmental impact around the beach, he said.
- Nautiyal was speaking at a five-day conference, which was organised to commemorate the World Environment Day, about making the beaches pollution free.
- Asia remains untouched by it till date. The environment ministry started a pilot project to develop the Indian beaches according to the Blue Flag standards in December 2017.
- A senior ministry official said that 13 beaches from the coastal states had been chosen for the Blue Flag certification under the project. For this, these beaches are being developed in accordance with the Blue Flag beach standards under a Unified Coastal Areas Management Programme.
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- Air India is marking 70 years since its first flight took off from Mumbai to London in June 1948, which laid the foundations of the India-UK relationship.
- The national carrier is inviting members of the Indian diaspora in Britain to share their memories of the airline in its early days. The iconic first flight, on a Super Constellation aircraft, took off from Mumbai on June 8 and landed in London via Cairo and Geneva on June 10, 1948, with just 42 passengers on board, including some Indian 'Nawabs' (noblemen) and 'Maharajas' (kings
- Later this month, Air India is preparing to mark the historic journey, which laid the foundations of the India-UK relationship 70 years ago.
- "We want to reach out to people who would have made some of these early journeys to share their memories and pictures, which we could feature in our inflight magazine and also catalogue to mark those glorious early days of air travel," said Debashis Golder, Air India Regional Manager - UK and Europe.
- "Many of these journeys will mark the arrival of Indians who went on to make their life and fortunes in the UK or friends and family who made visits back and forth during a time when the availability and flight times were not what they are today. It marks an important chapter in the India-UK relationship," he said.
- Golder took charge of the UK and Europe operations of Air India recently, at a time when the airline is undergoing the process of disinvestment. "It does mark a period of big change for Indian aviation, with a lot of hope that Air India will regain its days of grace and glory," he said.
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- Speeding up your walking pace could extend your life, say scientists who have found that a brisk or fast gait significantly reduced the risk of early death.
- Walking at an average pace was found to be associated with a 20 per cent risk reduction for all-cause mortality compared with walking at a slow pace, while walking at a brisk or fast pace was associated with a risk reduction of 24 per cent.
- A similar result was found for risk of cardiovascular disease mortality, with a reduction of 24 per cent walking at an average pace and 21 per cent walking at a brisk or fast pace, compared to walking at a slow pace.
- The protective effects of walking pace were also found to be more pronounced in older age groups. Average pace walkers aged 60 years or over experienced a 46 per cent reduction in risk of death from cardiovascular causes, and fast pace walkers a 53 per cent reduction.
- "A fast pace is generally five to seven kilometres per hour, but it really depends on a walker's fitness levels; an alternative indicator is to walk at a pace that makes you slightly out of breath or sweaty when sustained," said Emmanuel Stamatakis, from University of Sydney in Australia.
- Researchers sought to determine the associations between walking pace with all-cause, cardiovascular disease and cancer mortality.
- Linking mortality records with the results of 11 population-based surveys in England and Scotland between 1994 and 2008 - in which participants self-reported their walking pace - the research team then adjusted for factors such as total amount and intensity of all physical activity taken, age, sex and body mass index.
- "Walking pace is associated with all-cause mortality risk, but its specific role - independent from the total physical activity a person undertakes - has received little attention until now," said Stamatakis, lead author of the study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
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