BERLIN: Germany is calling up tens of thousands of reservists to help in the country’s battle against the coronavirus pandemic, Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said Thursday.
The army began mobilizing its first batches of reserve troops over the weekend, said the minister, adding that it will next standby “other reservist troops in through very targeted calls, and through a general call.”
Europe’s biggest economy has a pool of 75,000 reservists for whom the army has updated contact details, the minister said.
Some 2,300 reservists responded to the weekend mobilization call, including more than 900 who can be deployed to health services, said Kramp-Karrenbauer.
Describing the fight against COVID-19 a marathon, the minister said soldiers can step in when the capacity of civil forces is exhausted.
“We can and will deliver what is needed from us,” she said.
The German government is accelerating efforts to ramp up capacity to treat patients, as official data show the number of infections soaring past 10,000.
The numbers, which also include 20 deaths, are compiled by the disease control agency Robert Koch Institute using information from regional authorities of cases tested for the virus.
But depending on an individual state’s policies, many other possible infections may not be reflected in the numbers because the patients have not been tested as they show only mild symptoms or have not been in contact with a known case.
Speaking at a separate press conference, Health Minister Jens Spahn said regulations will be eased for employees in medical services to help in hospitals, to take the pressure off qualified nurses and doctors.
Germany calls up reservists in coronavirus battle
https://arab.news/jx5ze
Germany calls up reservists in coronavirus battle
- The army began mobilizing its first batches of reserve troops over the weekend
- Europe’s biggest economy has a pool of 75,000 reservists for whom the army has updated contact details
India plans AI ‘data city’ on staggering scale
- ‘The data city is going to come in one ecosystem ... with a 100 kilometer radius’
NEW DELHI: As India races to narrow the artificial intelligence gap with the United States and China, it is planning a vast new “data city” to power digital growth on a staggering scale, the man spearheading the project says.
“The AI revolution is here, no second thoughts about it,” said Nara Lokesh, information technology minister for Andhra Pradesh state, which is positioning the city of Visakhapatnam as a cornerstone of India’s AI push.
“And as a nation ... we have taken a stand that we’ve got to embrace it,” he said ahead of an international AI summit next week in New Delhi.
Lokesh boasts the state has secured investment agreements of $175 billion involving 760 projects, including a $15 billion investment by Google for its largest AI infrastructure hub outside the United States.
And a joint venture between India’s Reliance Industries, Canada’s Brookfield and US firm Digital Realty is investing $11 billion to develop an AI data center in the same city.
Visakhapatnam — home to around two million people and popularly known as “Vizag” — is better known for its cricket ground that hosts international matches than cutting-edge technology.
But the southeastern port city is now being pitched as a landing point for submarine internet cables linking India to Singapore.
“The data city is going to come in one ecosystem ... with a 100 kilometer radius,” Lokesh said. For comparison, Taiwan is roughly 100 kilometers wide.
Lokesh said the plan goes far beyond data connectivity, adding that his state had “received close to 25 percent of all foreign direct investments” to India in 2025.
“It’s not just about the data centers,” he explained while outlining a sweeping vision of change, with Andhra Pradesh offering land at one US cent per acre for major investors.
