New Delhi Sep 25 PTI The deep depression over the Bay of Bengal intensified into Cyclone Gulab on Saturday and an orange alert has been issued for north Andhra Pradesh and adjoining south Odisha coasts the India Meteorological Department IMD said The cyclonic storm is likely to move nearly westwards and cross north Andhra Pradesh-south Odisha coasts between Kalingapatnam and Gopalpur around Sunday evening the Cyclone Warning Division of the IMD said The deep depression over northwest and adjoining westcentral Bay of Bengal moved nearly westwards with a speed of 7 kmph in last six hours and intensified into Cyclonic Storm Gulab the IMD said A cyclone warning has been issued for north Andhra Pradesh and adjoining south Odisha coasts An orange alert has also been issued for Andhra Pradesh and Odisha coasts The orange alert is issued as a warning of extremely bad weather with the potential of disruption in commute with road and rail closures and interruption of power supply PTI PR SMN SMN

New Delhi Aug 31 PTI A government-constituted panel has short-listed six innovation and eight research and development proposals related to water supply that will now be considered for listing in the innovation portal of the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation for states and union territories to implement The recommendations by the Technical Committee will help states and union territories to use these technologies depending on their requirement and suitability the Jal Shakti Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday Since August 2019 the ministry is implementing the Jal Jeevan Mission in partnership with states to make provision of tap water supply to every rural home of the country by 2024 Innovative technological solutions are required to realise the goal of the mission with speed and scale amidst the diverse challenges that are encountered it said To assist the implementation agencies the Technical Committee under the chairmanship of the Principal Scientific Advisor was constituted to identify new technologies and select high-end RD proposals for funding The committee has representatives from science-related departments of the Government of India IITs state governments NITI Aayog NGOs and UNICEF The committee was set up in October 2019 and has met four times so far It considered 114 innovative technologies and 84 RD proposals and has accepted 10 innovative technologies and two RD proposals for funding it said The fourth meeting of the Technical Committee was held on August 27 during which it considered six innovation proposals and eight RD proposals One of the RD proposals considered in the meeting was undertaking IoT-based monitoring of drinking water quantity and quality in rural drinking water systems in different parts of the country it said The proposal was presented by different CSIR labs coming together as partners The National Jal Jeevan Mission has two separate portals for recognition of innovations and funding RD proposals in drinking water and sanitation sector Companies technology service providers desirous of getting their innovation accepted by the committee can upload them in the innovation portal The innovative technologies approved are in the areas of decentralised and packaged sewage treatment treatment of grey water and black water using a combination of green plants and bacterial culture drinking water disinfection using auto-chlorination IoT-based electric vehicle for delivery of drinking water to households water quality measurement kits using photometry and IoT-based water quality monitoring and disinfection One of the RD proposals was developing an inexpensive hand-held user-friendly device to produce quality drinking water in an emergency such as a flood and which can be used to directly convert contaminated flood water into potable water PTI PR SMN SMN