Phoenix info

     Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announced two important literary awards, the 'Manoj Das International Literary Award' and the 'Manoj-Kishore Sahitya Pratibha Samman,' as well as the establishment of a museum and a library in his native village Sankhari in Baleswar district, in memory of late renowned bilingual Odia writer Manoj Das.      The State Government will offer an international literary award to Odia writers for creative writing in English and Odia every year. The prize is worth Rs 10 lakh. The ‘Manoj-Kishore Sahitya Pratibha Samman' will be awarded for fundamental writing in both English and Odia at the high school level in order to pique student interest in both literatures.       In both languages, one prize would be given. The prize is worth Rs 1 lakh. The State Government would take over Manoj Das' ancestral residence in Shankhari and rename it "Manmmath-Manoj Smaraki" in honour of two renowned brothers, late historian Ma...

  Under  the Sagarmala initiative, the Ministry of Ports, Shipping & Waterways (MoPSW) has given administrative approval for the development of an all-weather ROPAX (Roll-on/Roll-off Passenger) Jetty and allied infrastructure connecting Kaninali in Bhadrak district and Talachua in Kendrapara district in Odisha.      Kaninali lies on the northern bank of the river Dharma in Bhadrak district, whereas Talachua is on the southern bank of the river Dhamra in Kendrapada district. The residents of Talachua and adjacent villages rely largely on Dharma port, which is around 4 kilometres distant from Kaninali Ghat, for their livelihood.      Since there is no connectivity between the two through roads, the  locals depend upon passenger ferries at ghats of Kaninali and Talachua to cross the river  (a stretch of 7 Km). At present,  numerous passenger vehicles move through private boats without adequate safety measures  and  passen...

   Dengue is a neglected tropical disease. It is usually vector-borne and a huge challenge to the public health system in the world. The estimated annual dengue burden in the globe is nearly 390 million cases from 120 countries. During this 2nd peak of the Pandemic in Odisha, the state went under the pressure to handle Dengue as an epidemic. The initial monsoon resulted in a huge challenge to treat dengue on a priority basis. India is endemic for both dengue fever and dengue hemorrhagic fever.      Initially, the infection was geographically limited to a few states. Later this expanded to most of the states in the country. Odisha did not have any recorded dengue cases till 2009. According to various studies conducted by different local organizations, the state contributes nearly 10-15% of total dengue cases of the country. These cases are scattered in distribution and uneven with a circulation of four serotypes of the virus.      Now coming to Odi...