01 -15 October 2020 The Asian Independent

8 01-10-2020 to 15-10-2020 ASIA
www.theasianindependent.co.uk
South Central Railway ships
3 cr litres milk from AP to Delhi
Secunderabad : The South Central
Railway (SCR) has so far shipped 3
crore litres of milk from Andhra
Pradesh's Renigunta to New Delhi via
"Doodh Duronto Special" trains amid
the Covid pandemic, a railway official
said. "Doodh Duronto Special, introduced
during the lockdown period
from Renigunta to Hazrat Nizamuddin
to supply milk to the people of the
nation's capital, crossed the 3 crore
litres mark on Monday," SCR
spokesman Ch. Rakesh said.
"Transportation of milk from
Renigunta to New Delhi plays an
important role in balancing the milk
supply across the nation," he added.
Rakesh said that the milk to be
transported was sourced by a National
Dairy Development Board (NDDB)
unit from more than 3,000 pooling
points spread across 13,000 villages in
and around the state's Chittoor district.
Introduced on March 26, Doodh
Duronto Specials ran on alternate days
till July 15, when they started operating
daily.
Each milk train has six tankers of
40,000 litres capacity each, totalling
2.4 lakh litres milk per train. To reach
the 3 crore litre milestone, the railway
zone operated 126 trains, ferrying 751
tankers.
In addition to milk, the train, via
Kacheguda in Hyderabad, also used to
add some parcel vans, ferrying other
commodities, which were transported
to several other places.
Lufthansa cancels all
flights between Germany
and India from Sept 30
New Delhi : Airline major Lufthansa
said on Tuesday that it will cancel all
planned flights between Germany and
India from September 30 to October 20.
According to the airline, the move
comes after Indian authorities rejected
Lufthansa's planned flight schedule for
October. "Lufthansa had applied for the
continuation of special flights it was granted
to operate until the end of September,"
the airline said in a statement.
"This application process is necessary
since India has, so far, not accepted the
invitation by the German government to
discuss the details regarding a temporary
travel agreement between both the countries,"
it said. Lufthansa was operating
these flights under the 'Air Bubble' agreement
between India and Germany. India
had formalised an 'Air Bubble' agreement
with Germany in July 2020. This type of
arrangement allows nationals of both the
countries to travel in either direction. As
per the statement, Lufthansa had originally
scheduled flights for October in order to
continue connecting Delhi, Mumbai and
Bengaluru with Europe and other regions
in Lufthansa's worldwide network.
"The October schedule would also have
seen the addition of flights to and from
Chennai, one of the most important cities
in southern India," it said.
The airline urged India to work together
with the German government in order to
establish a temporary travel agreement
between both the countries.
"Such an agreement is necessary to
address the urgent need of tens of thousands
of Indians and foreign nationals for
travel to and from India and would also
help balance the interests of both the countries'
airlines. "As visa issuance is restarting
and demand for flights to and from
India is increasing, it is regrettable that
Lufthansa is currently being unnecessarily
restricted in its ability to serve its loyal
Indian customers and enable their desired
travel," the airline said. However, aviation
regulator DGCA in a statement said that
there are restrictions in place for Indian
nationals desiring to travel to Germany
which was putting Indian carriers at a significant
disadvantage, resulting in
inequitable distribution of traffic in favour
of Lufthansa. "As against Indian carriers
operating 3-4 flights a week, Lufthansa
operated 20 flights a week. In spite of this
disparity, we offered to clear seven flights
a week for Lufthansa, which was not
accepted by them. Negotiations continue,"
the DGCA said. Earlier, Lufthansa had said
that it will operate 160 flights between
India and Germany in September.
This would have been a four-fold
increase in flights to and from Delhi,
Mumbai and Bengaluru.
Lufthansa has been operating flights
from India for several months between
Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru and its hubs
in Frankfurt and Munich.
Amazon introduces
new way to make people
pay with their palm
San Francisco : Amazon on Tuesday introduced a contactless
way for people to use their palm to make everyday activities
like paying at a store, presenting a loyalty card, or entering
a location like a stadium.
Called, Amazon One, the service uses custom-built algorithms
and hardware to create a person's unique palm signature.
"We'll start in select Amazon Go stores, where Amazon One
will be added to the store's entry gate as a convenient choice for
customers to use to enter the store to shop," Dilip Kumar, Vice
President Physical Retail & Technology at Amazon, wrote in a
blog post. He said that in most retail environments, Amazon One
could become an alternate payment or loyalty card option with a
device at the checkout counter next to a traditional point of sale
system.
"Or, for entering a location like a stadium or badging into
work, Amazon One could be part of an existing entry point to
make accessing the location quicker and easier," Kumar said.
Starting Tuesday, customers can use Amazon One as an entry
option at two Amazon Go stores in Seattle, US.
"It takes less than a minute to sign up at these Amazon Go
stores using an Amazon One device," Kumar said.
"Once you're enrolled, to use Amazon One to enter these
Amazon Go stores, you'll just hold your palm above the Amazon
One device at entry for about a second or so, and be on your
way." Amazon One is likely to be added as an option in additional
Amazon stores in the coming months.
"And, we believe Amazon One has broad applicability
beyond our retail stores, so we also plan to offer the service to
third parties like retailers, stadiums, and office buildings so that
more people can benefit from this ease and convenience in more
places," he said.