To counter the rising air pollution in the National Capital Region (NCR), the Delhi government is planning to use artificial rain through cloud seeding. The mechanism is being developed by researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur.  Environment Minister Gopal Rai met with a team from IIT Kanpur on November 8 to discuss the implementation of the cloud seeding. He informed that Delhi might experience artificial rainfall if the skies of the city remain cloudy on November 20-21.

Professor Manindra Agrawal from Department of Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Kanpur shared some insights on the working and implementation of the process.

“IIT Kanpur has its own aircraft that has been attached with flares for implementing cloud seeding. We have also received approval from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for the flares and aircraft. We can now carry on with the process of cloud seeding to create artificial rain wherever possible,” said Prof Agrawal.

“IIT Kanpur has been working and planning in collaboration with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for the past two months to introduce measures and steps for curbing air pollution in the national capital region with the help of cloud seeding,” said Prof Agarwal. “The Delhi government has recently reached out to the institute multiple times to seek help for creating artificial rain in the city,” he said.

Talking about the efficiency of the process, the professor added, “Countering or controlling pollution through cloud seeding is not a permanent solution. It is a temporary process and lasts for a maximum of two weeks. The dust particles present in the atmosphere are washed away in the artificial rains created and gets settled in the soil making the environment pollution-free. The process will result in a temporary relief to the people. Also, the artificial rains can be formed only at places where clouds are present. To eliminate pollution permanently from the atmosphere, we must try and work on introducing measures to counter the sources of pollution in the atmosphere.”

The Delhi NCR region is spread over an area of more than 1,000 square kilometres, he said. The institute will therefore require to do cloud seeding in a very large area. He also explained that creation of artificial rains depends on the presence and kind of clouds in a region which is not under human control. The cost of the entire process is quite expensive as the aircraft charges, its fuel maintenance, flares are a bit costly.
 

In the two years before the war in Ukraine, a private Boeing 737 linked to Russian oligarch Vladimir Yevtushenkov criss-crossed the globe, taking in the French Riviera, the Maldives and Seychelles along with world capitals and financial centres.

This year, instead of traditional playgrounds of the well-heeled, the jet has visited ex-Soviet states Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Belarus a handful of times, along with China, flight tracking data by Flightradar24 shows.

In a sign of both the limitations and reach of Western sanctions in place since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, some of Russia’s rich and powerful are finding ways to keep personal jets airborne, Reuters reporting shows, but the restrictions have sharply curtailed where the planes can travel.

The Boeing linked to Yevtushenkov was among at least 50 private jets re-registered under the Russian flag since the February 2022 invasion, according to previously unreported national aircraft registry data up to early August reviewed by Reuters.

Several of the repatriated private jets were associated with prominent politicians and business figures, according to two senior Russian aviation industry sources, who were not authorised to speak to the media and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The two sources said Yevtushenkov personally used the Boeing-737, which until last year bore the logo of the company he founded, telecoms-to-timber conglomerate AFK Sistema, pictures on website Jetphotos show.

Yevtushenkov said he would not respond to questions about the aircraft, including whether he uses the plane. Yevtushenkov formally ceded control of Sistema after the United Kingdom imposed sanctions on him last year. He remains the main shareholder of the group.

Russia’s aviation authority, Rosaviatsiya, and the Ministry of Transport did not respond to requests for comment. There is no suggestion companies associated with the planes have contravened any sanctions with the repatriations or ongoing flights.

SOME JETS ARE STRANDED

Jurisdictions including Aruba and the Isle of Man, where some of the jets were previously registered, observe the Western sanctions. That had made it hard to get insurance, fuel and permits for Russian-owned planes flying under their flags, one of the sources said.

Putting the planes under the Russian flag allows them to fly to and from nations that have not imposed a flight ban or where individual travellers are not sanctioned, including Turkey and Dubai.

Despite such manoeuvres, more than half of Russia’s private and corporate jet fleet of around 400 remains stranded abroad or has been sold, the same source estimated, based on his extensive knowledge of the sector.

The total number of business jets under the Russian flag is now 145, up from 97 as of early March 2022, according to the list.

Because of sanctions, Russian planes are prohibited from entering the 27-country European Union, where Russia’s oligarchs previously flew frequently for business and leisure and where many private jets linked to them were registered before the war, tail numbers show.

Both aviation sources, who organise and manage business jets, said some jet owners are flying from Russia to Turkey or ex-Soviet states and then chartering different aircraft to EU airports, providing the individuals were not under personal sanctions.

Examples of this practice happen at least once a week, one of the sources added, without giving specific examples.

According to customs data, some of the repatriated aircraft are linked to state enterprises and business leaders who have backed President Vladimir Putin in the war in Ukraine or who are associated with him.

They include a Bombardier Challenger 650 the data shows was imported by Uralkali, a major fertiliser producer formerly led by Dmitry Mazepin – among the tycoons who attended a gathering of leading entrepreneurs led by Putin earlier this year.

A Bombardier Global 6000 was imported by VEB.RF, a state-owned development bank led by Igor Shuvalov, a former first deputy prime minister.

VEB, Uralkali and Mazepin did not respond to requests for comment on the registration of the jets in Russia.

The customs data shows that most private aircraft repatriated after the outbreak of the war returned to Russia from ex-Soviet countries as well as from the UAE and Turkey.

As in the case of the Boeing linked to Yevtushenkov, the other re-registered aircraft have avoided crossing into EU airspace and have kept to countries considered friendly to Russia, Flightradar24 data shows.

CLIPPED WINGS

In December 2021, the Boeing was photographed on the tarmac in Prague, bearing the Aruba-flagged registration P4-AFK, a picture on website Jetphotos shows. The plane sported grey stripes, along with the Sistema logo on its tail.

Just over a year later, after the war had started, the plane appeared in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, according to a photo on Jetphotos. The tail number had changed to the Russian registration RA-73890 and the Sistema logo had been removed.

But the engine covers still bore the identification P4-AFK and the grey stripes remained.

Sistema declined to comment on the plane or its ownership. The United States added Sistema to its sanctions list on Nov. 2.

Between early 2020 and the invasion of Ukraine, which Russian officials call a “special military operation”, P4-AFK made multiple trips to Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland and the Maldives, and one each to Croatia, the Czech Republic and the Seychelles, Flightradar24 data shows.

It also travelled 105 times in Russia, 17 in France, eight in Italy, the United Arab Emirates and Latvia, five in Britain and four in Turkey.

After the invasion began, the plane flew between airports in Turkey, UAE, Oman and Kazakhstan for the remainder of 2022, never crossing into EU territory. It made only 14 trips during that period.

According to Russia’s aircraft registry, published on Rosaviatsiya’s website in August, the jet was registered under the Russian flag in late December.

Customs data shows it was officially imported to Russia on Dec. 30 from Bishkek, the capital of ex-Soviet member Kyrgyzstan, after which its flights have been largely limited to Russia.

So far in 2023, it has flown 47 times within Russia and a combined nine times to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus and China.

A deadly fire erupted on a moving double-decker sleeper bus along the Delhi-Gurugram Expressway Wednesday night, leaving two passengers dead and 29 others with severe injuries, police said. The blaze, which broke out at 8:30 pm, plunged the bus into a blazing inferno, leaving those on board scrambling for survival.

Those injured were admitted to Gurugram’s Civil Hospital in Sector 10.

“All injured have suffered 30 to 50 per cent burns but are stable,” a doctor at the hospital said. 

The incident took place on the main expressway connecting Delhi and Jaipur, near the Jharsa flyover.

“Three fire engines were rushed to the spot after we received information that a sleeper bus with registration number AR 01 K 7707 had caught fire on the carriageway,” Fire Department Deputy Director Gulshan Kalra told news agency PTI.

Horrifying visuals from the incident showed the bus engulfed in flames, with plumes of smoke rising into the night sky.