New Delhi, May 19: A new study conducted in the US’ hottest city Phoenix suggests that waste heat released from data centres can increase air temperatures in downwind neighbourhoods by as much as 4 degrees Fahrenheit, or 2.2 degrees Celsius.

Waste heat produced by a single data centre can surpass the amount emitted by 40,000 households in the US, according to lead author David Sailor, professor and director of Arizona State University’s school of geographical sciences and urban planning.

Air-cooled condenser arrays — which condense turbine exhaust steam — can discharge air heated to 14-25 degrees Fahrenheit (about 8-14 degrees Celsius) above the surrounding air temperature, creating thermal plumes that move downwind over neighbouring areas, researchers said.

“They’re such a concentrated load of electricity consumption and hence heat emissions that we became concerned about the impact that they could have locally, and also in the downwind neighbourhoods,” Sailor said.

“As we do more measurements under different kinds of atmospheric conditions, I think we’re going to see more significant impacts around data centres,” Sailor said.

The researchers said that while previous studies have used remote sensing data from satellites to estimate the heat impact of data centres historically, the study, published in the Journal of Engineering for Sustainable Buildings and Cities, is the first to directly measure air temperatures downwind and upwind of data centres to record real-time effects of waste heat on surrounding communities.

The team mounted data-logging high-accuracy and fast-response temperature sensors on cars that drove around Phoenix-area data centres and throughout nearby neighbourhoods during June 18-October 25, 2025 Using multiple cars allowed the researchers to simultaneously measure temperatures upwind and downwind of four selected facilities ranging from a 36-megawatt single-building data centre in Mesa to a 169-megawatt colocation campus in Chandler (both are cities in Arizona).

The chosen centres reflected the typical design of “hyperscalers” that house thousands of servers and use primarily air-based cooling systems, the team said.

“Five traverses at four facilities in the Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan area, ranging from a 36 MW (megawatt) single-building data center in Mesa to a 169 MW colocation campus in Chandler, reveal downwind air temperature warming as high as 2.2 degrees Celsius, with average downwind air temperatures 0.7-0.9 degrees Celsius warmer than corresponding upwind areas,” the authors wrote.

“Thermal signatures were detectable at distances up to 500 m (metres) from facility perimeters,” they said.

Sailor said that contributing to an additional heat island magnitude of even one degree or two degrees can significantly impact lives, especially in places where extreme heat already poses public health risks.

A one-degree boost in air temperature, for example, is enough to drive higher use of air conditioning across entire neighbourhoods. Those air conditioners, in turn, put even more heat into the surroundings, the lead author said.

New Delhi, May 19: Sixteen new Indian consular service centres are going to be set up in the United Arab Emirates to provide easy access to people for consular services.The  Alhind Tours and Travels formally signed an  agreement with the Indian mission in this regard yesterday

Spread across all seven emirates, the centers going to be operational  from July 1, 2026, when Alhind officially takes over passport, visa and other consular services for the UAE’s over 4.3 million-strong Indian community and foreigners visiting India  This contract was earlier given to  BLS International, which has held the contract since 2011.

Arun Radhakrishnan, Operations Manager for Alhind in the UAE, locations of all 16 centres, which include six in Abu Dhabi at Al Khalidiya, Al Reem Island, Musaffah, Madinat Zayed, Ghayathi and Al Ain.

Dubai will be served by two centres, in Bur Dubai and Dubai Investment Park (DIP), while Sharjah gets centres at Al Majaz and Rolla. The remaining centres will be located in Ajman (Al Jurf), Fujairah, Umm Al Quwain, Khor Fakkan (Corniche), Kalba and Ras Al Khaimah.

The centres in Dubai will be large enough with multiple counters to cater to the large Indian expat population in the emirate,” he assured.

The formal agreement signing ceremony took place at the Embassy of India in Abu Dhabi the company said in a press release.

New Delhi, May 19: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), India has issued an Advisory 2.0 to ensure the welfare of transgender persons to the Secretaries of 11 Ministries, the Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner and the Chief Secretaries/ Administrators of all the states and union territories as part of its continuing efforts to protect and promote their human rights. The Advisory has been issued to the Ministries of Social Justice and Empowerment, Home Affairs, Law and Justice, Statistics and Programme Implementation, Education, Health and Family Welfare, Women and Child Development, Corporate Affairs, Labour and Employment, Housing and Urban Affairs and Rural Development.

Issuing the Advisory, the Commission has noted the encouraging responses from all concerned authorities to its earlier Advisory of 15th September 2023 and the constructive engagement reflecting a shared commitment to this cause. It has also acknowledged the initiatives undertaken by the Government, including the enactment of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2019, along with allied schemes and policy measures aimed at improving their socio-economic conditions.

Based on the NHRC’s continued engagements, including field interactions, stakeholder consultations and reviews of implementation, the Commission has identified a range of persistent and emerging challenges affecting transgender persons. Therefore, the Commission found it necessary and opportune to issue another set of recommendations to further enhance their welfare. Accordingly, all concerned authorities have been requested to implement the recommendations contained in the Advisory and furnish an Action Taken Report (ATR) within a period of two months to appraise the Commission of the progress made in implementing the Advisory.

The Advisory focuses on ten key areas for action to ensure the welfare of transgender persons. These include integrating gender diversity in national data systems, reviewing laws/ rules/ policies to ensure gender inclusivity, building an inclusive legal framework, right to property, right to education, healthcare, inclusivity at the workplace, safeguarding the rights of children with diverse sex characteristics and gender identities/ expressions, safeguarding the rights of elderly transgender persons and strengthening Garima Greh shelters.

The key recommendations are as follows:

i) Inclusion of distinct categories such as ‘Intersex’, ‘Transmen’ and ‘Transwomen’ in the upcoming Census of India and other national surveys to ensure accurate and inclusive gender-disaggregated data collection;

ii) Review of laws, including the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, Juvenile Justice Act and succession laws, to ensure recognition of self-identified gender and protection of the rights of transgender and intersex persons;

iii) Ensuring equal inheritance, succession, housing and property rights for transgender and intersex persons without discrimination;

iv) Developing comprehensive SOPs for police and correctional institutions regarding arrest, detention, searches, interrogations, imprisonment, confidentiality and access to gender-affirming healthcare for transgender persons;

v) Establishing dedicated legal aid cells, helplines and independent grievance-redressal mechanisms for transgender and gender-diverse persons facing discrimination, violence or custodial abuse;

vi) Admission of transgender students in educational institutions based on self-identified gender without requiring medical proof, along with the creation of gender-neutral facilities and grievance-redressal mechanisms;

vii) Mandatory gender-sensitisation training for teachers, counsellors, police, prison personnel, judicial officers and healthcare professionals to promote inclusion and reduce discrimination;

viii) Developing standardised and ethical medical protocols for gender-affirming healthcare, regulation of Sex Reassignment Surgery costs and equal insurance coverage for transgender healthcare needs;

ix) Prohibition of coercive or non-consensual medical procedures on intersex children, except in life-saving situations, while ensuring counselling and psychosocial support for parents;

x) Promoting inclusive workplaces through gender-neutral facilities, inclusive Human Resource policies, workplace grievance mechanisms and mandatory diversity disclosures, alongside welfare measures for elderly transgender persons; and

xi) Simplifying the documentation process and enabling self-identification-based enrolment for elderly transgender persons in welfare schemes and establishing transgender-inclusive old-age homes and community shelters, ensuring privacy, healthcare access, social interaction and emotional well-being.