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Gujarat floods: BAPS volunteers participate in relief efforts

Volunteers from BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha are working alongside local authorities to provide emergency assistance.

Gujarat floods: BAPS volunteers participate in relief efforts
Preparations as part of flood relief work in Vadodara.

HEAVY seasonal rains have caused severe flooding in Gujarat, stranding thousands in Vadodara and Jamnagar.

In response to the crisis, volunteers from BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha, under the guidance of His Holiness Mahant Swami Maharaj, are working alongside local authorities to provide emergency assistance.


In Vadodara, BAPS volunteers have distributed significant quantities of food, including hot khichdi to 60,000 people, hot shiro to 25,000, and over 50,000 food packets containing sev, bundi, biscuits, and drinking water.

Meanwhile, in Jamnagar, BAPS prepared 5,000 food packets. Of these, 2,000 were distributed directly by volunteers, and 3,000 were handed to local government authorities for further distribution, a statement said

The flooding has also resulted in additional fatalities, with three more people reported dead overnight, raising the death toll to 31 this week. Authorities have evacuated over 8,700 individuals from ten districts in the past 24 hours due to severe waterlogging, particularly in Kutch district.

Amit Arora, district collector of Kutch, said, “We have evacuated people from coastal areas and relocated them to schools and other facilities to ensure their safety.”

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  • UK life sciences sector contributed £17.6bn GVA in 2021 and supports 126,000 high-skilled jobs.
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Britain is seeking to attract new pharmaceutical investment as part of its plan to strengthen the life sciences sector, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said during meetings in Washington this week. “We do need to make sure that we are an attractive place for pharmaceuticals, and that includes on pricing, but in return for that, we want to see more investment flow to Britain,” Reeves told reporters.

Recent ABPI report, ‘Creating the conditions for investment and growth’, The UK’s pharmaceutical industry is integral to both the country’s health and growth missions, contributing £17.6 billion in direct gross value added (GVA) annually and supporting 126,000 high-skilled jobs across the nation. It also invests more in research and development (R&D) than any other sector. Yet inward life sciences foreign direct investment (FDI) fell by 58per cent, from £1,897 million in 2021 to £795 million in 2023, while pharmaceutical R&D investment in the UK lagged behind global growth trends, costing an estimated £1.3 billion in lost investment in 2023 alone.

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