India's tea exports volume likely to grow by 5% despite challenges'
Kolkata, June 24: India's tea exports are expected to clock a 5 per cent growth this year in terms of volume, provided shipments to Iran do not get disturbed, said Tea Board Chairman P.K Bezboruah.
"There are some challenges in the current year in terms of tea exports. India's tea exports to Iran, which was a good customer last year, may get disrupted as the US has threatened to re-establish (nuclear programme-related) sanctions on Iran. The Centre is working on it so that bilateral trade between the two countries (India-Iran) continues," Bezboruah told IANS.
India achieved the highest tea exports in 2017 after 36 years, exporting 251.91 million kgs in the last calendar year, up by 13.24 per cent from 222.45 million kgs exported during 2016.
"The exports growth this year would not be spectacular but it is expected to go up by 5 per cent in terms of volume, provided exports to Iran do not get disturbed," he said.
Indian exporters are keen to regain its market share in Kazakhstan which used to import significant volume of Indian tea earlier, he said.
Bezboruah exuded confidence that tea exports will continue to expand in the UAE, the US, China, Russia and the Middle East.
Notably, the country had exported 256.57 million kgs of tea in the last fiscal (2017-18), up by 12.71 per cent from 227.63 million kgs exported in the previous year (2016-17).
In the production front, the crop production was at 1,325.05 million kgs in the last fiscal, an increase of 74.56 million kgs as compared to 2016-17.
Production of the crop is expected to be higher this year as against last year though estimated April production at 85.74 million kgs was down by 7.21 per cent compared to year-ago month, he said.
In fact, estimated tea production stood at 177.94 million kgs during January-April period of 2018, down marginally compared to 181.32 million kgs produced in the corresponding period last year.
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Jhansi fire: Nurse's heroic efforts helped save over dozen babies
Lucknow/Jhansi (UP), Nov 17: Nurse Megha James was on duty when the fire broke out at the Jhansi hospital and she threw herself headlong into the rescue efforts, playing a hero's role by saving several babies.
Even when her salwar got burned, she refused to give up and was able to evacuate 14-15 babies with others' help.
"I had gone to take a syringe to give an injection to a child. When I came back, I saw that the (oxygen) concentrator had caught fire. I called the ward boy, who came with the fire extinguisher and tried to put it out. But by then, the fire had spread," James said.
Ten babies perished in a fire that broke out at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the Maharani Laxmi Bai Medical College in Jhansi Friday night.
Faced with an enormous blaze, James's mind worked with a frenetic speed, to the extent she cared little about burning herself.
"My chappal caught fire and I burned my foot. Then my salwar caught fire. I removed my salwar and discarded it. At that time, my mind was virtually not working," she told PTI Videos.
James just wore another salwar and went back to the rescue operation.
"There was a lot of smoke, and once the lights went out, we could not see anything. The entire staff brought out at least 14-15 children. There were 11 beds in the ward with 23-24 babies," she said.
Had the lights not gone out they could have saved more children, James said. "It all happened very suddenly. None of us had expected it."
Assistant Nursing Superintendent Nalini Sood praised James's valour and recounted bits from how the rescue operation was carried out.
"The hospital staff broke the glasses of the NICU ward to evacuate the babies. It was then Nurse Megha's salwar caught fire. Instead of caring for her safety, she stayed there to rescue the babies and handed them over to people outside," she said.
Sood said James is currently undergoing treatment at the same medical college. She said she did not know the extent of her burns.
"The rescued babies were shifted to a ward very close to the NICU ward… When I recall the scene, I feel like crying," she said.
Dr Anshul Jain, the head of the anaesthesiology department at the medical college, explained the standard rescue operation and claimed the hospital followed the protocol to the T.
"In the triage process during an ICU evacuation, the policy is to evacuate less-affected patients first. The rationale behind this approach is that patients requiring minimal support can be relocated quickly, enabling a larger number of evacuations to be completed in a shorter time.
"In contrast, patients on ventilators or requiring high oxygen support demand more time and resources for evacuation," he said.
"This principle was successfully implemented in Jhansi, playing a significant role in saving many lives," Jain said.
A newborn rescued from the fire died due to illness on Sunday, Jhansi District Magistrate Avinash Kumar said.
