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Varanasi, June 17: Shakti Pumps (India) Limited, one of India’s leading manufacturers of energy-efficient pumps and solar pumping solutions, hosted an exclusive dealer meet in Varanasi on Sunday, 14 June 2026, to strengthen its distribution network and deepen engagement with channel partners across Uttar Pradesh. Shakti Pumps has been working to provide solutions to water management for farmers across the country.

Shri. Ashok Tiwari, Mayor of Varanasi graced the occasion along with Mr. Ramesh Patidar, Managing Director, Shakti Pumps (India) Limited, and Mr. Rajesh Hingorani, Deputy General Manager and others.

Shri Anand Tiwari,  Mayor of Varanasi shared, “Shakti Pumps has been working hard for the betterment of farmers across Uttar Pradesh and the country. It is a good sign for UP farmers as they will be able to use state of the art machinery along with latest solar technology which will help in reducing the power consumption and the farmer can water the fields in a timely manner. I congratulate Shakti Pumps for reaching out to the farmers of Varanasi and other parts of Uttar Pradesh.”

Held at the prestigious Taj Ganges, Varanasi, the event brought together dealers, distributors, and industry stakeholders from the region. During the event, Shakti Pumps announced the appointment of Maniram Tubes Pvt. Ltd. as its key distributor for Varanasi and select parts of Uttar Pradesh, marking a significant step towards expanding the company’s market presence and ensuring enhanced customer service across the region.

Addressing the gathering, Mr. Ramesh Patidar said, “Uttar Pradesh continues to be an important market for Shakti Pumps, driven by growing demand for efficient water management and sustainable pumping solutions. We are pleased to welcome Maniram Tubes Pvt. Ltd. as our key distribution partner for Varanasi and adjoining regions. Their strong market presence, customer relationships, and commitment to service excellence make them an ideal partner as we continue to expand our reach and deliver value to customers.”

The event served as a platform to share Shakti Pumps‘ growth strategy, product innovations, and future business opportunities with channel partners. Discussions focused on strengthening market penetration, enhancing customer support, and promoting advanced pumping solutions across agricultural, residential, commercial, and industrial segments.

It was an opportunity for participants to interact directly with the company’s leadership team, exchange market insights, and explore new avenues for business growth.

With a strong nationwide distribution network and a focus on innovation, quality, and customer satisfaction, Shakti Pumps continues to strengthen its position as a trusted partner in India’s water and energy management sector.

MUMBAI, India, June 17 — Senator Dr. Rasha Kelej, CEO of Merck Foundation, has been featured by leading lifestyle media publication Vogue India. The feature article, titled “Empowering Change: Dr. Rasha Kelej’s Vision for Women-Led Development”, highlights her inspiring leadership journey, her vision for empowering women and girls through education and healthcare, and the transformative impact of Merck Foundation’s programs in advancing healthcare capacity, breaking infertility stigma, supporting girl education, and driving social change across Africa and beyond.

Senator Dr. Rasha Kelej, CEO of Merck Foundation and One of 100 Most Influential African Women (2019-present) shared, “I am truly honoured to be featured by Vogue India, yet again. As a long-time reader of Vogue, I have always admired its ability to celebrate fashion, individuality, and influential voices. This feature not only highlights the impact of my work but also reflects a message I strongly believe in that women should never feel they must compromise their femininity to become effective leaders. Leadership today is multidimensional; it is not only about the decisions we make, but also about how we present ourselves and represent our mission. I believe confidence, authenticity, professionalism, and personal style can coexist seamlessly, and that embracing our individuality can make us stronger leaders and role models for others.”

Beyond her personal leadership journey, The Vogue India feature also highlights Dr. Kelej’s close collaboration with 33 African and Asian First Ladies, through which she champions programs that empower women in healthcare and STEM, break infertility stigma, support girls’ education, and create lasting impact in communities across Africa and Asia.

Under Dr. Rasha Kelej’s leadership, Merck Foundation has transformed the lives of millions through their impactful programs including the “Merck Foundation Scholarships Program”, through which more than 2,600 scholarships have been provided for healthcare providers from 52 countries in 44 critical and underserved medical specialties.

She also created the “Merck Foundation More Than a Mother” movement in 2015, one of the most impactful and widely recognized campaigns, that aims to empower infertile and childless women through access to information, education, health and change of mindset. The campaign is building quality and equitable Reproductive and Fertility Care capacity, breaking infertility stigma, raising awareness about infertility prevention & male infertility, and Supporting Girl Education.

As a passionate advocate for supporting girls’ education Dr. Kelej has launched Merck Foundation Educating Linda program, which provides annual scholarships to high-performing yet underprivileged schoolgirls, in partnership with African first Ladies. To date, more than 1,500 annual scholarships are awarded to African schoolgirls from 21 countries, covering school fees and other essential educational expenses, including books and uniforms, enabling them to complete their education and reach their full potential.

The article also showcases how Dr. Kelej has leveraged innovative and creative platforms, including media, fashion, music, animation films, and storybooks, to raise awareness about critical social and health issues. Through these initiatives, Merck Foundation has been able to engage communities and create culture shift in communities across Africa and beyond.

The feature also spotlights Dr. Kelej’s distinctive style and fashion presence while offering insights into the personal philosophy that has guided her journey, she shares, “My learnings and takeaways from my work and journey have been to never give up and always be yourself. Be consistent, persistent, and disciplined. Not only in your work commitments and goals, but also in your personal ones, such as daily exercise, healthy eating, and self-development, to stay relevant. Most importantly, practice daily stress management, which is the key to sustainable high performance.”

Grid infrastructure requirements reshape base metals demand outlook to 2040

LONDON/HOUSTON/SINGAPORE, June 16: Research from Wood Mackenzie finds that the base metals required to power the global data centre boom extend far beyond the servers, cooling units, and enclosures inside the facility. When grid reinforcement, transmission networks, and facility-level power systems are included, total system-level metals consumption reaches an estimated three to four times the volume implied by the asset itself.

The research, Data centre metals demand: it’s all about the infrastructure not internals (Wood Mackenzie, June 2026), sets out why the conventional framing of this demand story is incomplete, and what that means for commodity markets, infrastructure investment, and energy policy.

“Most assessments of data centre metals demand stop at the server room door,” said Shashank Sriram, Senior Research Analyst, Al

uminium Markets at Wood Mackenzie. That captures the smallest part of the picture. The infrastructure required to keep a modern data centre running, redundant power systems, on-site generation, transmission reinforcement, has a metals footprint that dwarfs what is happening inside the facility. At the system level, we are looking at three to four times the volume implied within the asset. For investors and grid planners, that is a material difference.”

Key findings at a glance

• Internal aluminium demand peaks at 0.6 to 0.9 million tonnes annually, declining from the late 2030s
• Cooling represents approximately 55% of internal aluminium demand; racking and enclosures approximately 25%
• Internal demand grows at approximately 8 to 10% CAGR to the early 2030s, then falls at approximately 2 to 3% per annum
• Annual data centre power capacity additions are projected to peak at approximately 30 to 33 GW in the early 2030s
• Asia-Pacific will exceed 50% of global additions at peak; North America leads early deployment

What is happening inside the facility

Inside the data centre, aluminium demand is concentrated in cooling systems, at approximately 55% of internal use, and racking and enclosures, at approximately 25%. Copper anchors performance at high-density nodes, driven by power density and system complexity rather than structure. Both metals grow at approximately 8 to 10% per year into the early 2030s, before plateauing and declining at approximately 2 to 3% per annum as efficiency gains and AI-driven design optimisation take hold. Total aluminium demand within the asset peaks at 0.6 to 0.9 million tonnes annually before trending lower toward the late 2030s.

In short, the internal demand profile is front-loaded and bounded, even as underlying compute demand continues to rise.

Where demand is actually being generated

The first structural shift occurs at the facility boundary. As grid connections slow and local power capacity tightens, operators are building power systems into the facility itself. On-site generation now spans solar and wind with storage, gas engines and turbines, solid oxide fuel cells, and emerging small modular reactor concepts. None of this scales with compute load. It sits alongside it, engineered to guarantee uptime regardless of what the grid does. Wood Mackenzie estimates that this layer alone effectively doubles the metals demand implied within the asset, with aluminium expanding across busways, structural housings, and distribution systems, and copper scaling across high-load interconnections and grounding infrastructure.

The second shift occurs at the grid. Annual data centre-driven power capacity additions are projected to rise from approximately 15 to 20 gigawatts today to a peak of approximately 30 to 33 gigawatts in the early 2030s, stabilising at structurally higher levels thereafter. Asia-Pacific will account for more than half of global additions during the peak phase. North America leads early deployment. These are not incremental grid connections. They are network reinforcement programmes responding to load profiles that existing infrastructure was not designed to absorb.

At this stage, metals demand is no longer driven by the data centre. It is driven by the power system required to sustain it. Aluminium dominates here, scaling across overhead transmission, conductors, and utility-scale generation frameworks. Copper scales across substations, underground connections, and generation-side electrical systems. The split between the two metals is not a function of price. It is determined by the physical limits of each application. Physics defines outcomes. Price influences the boundaries.

When all three layers are aggregated, total system-level metals consumption reaches an estimated three to four times the volume implied within the asset. The result, the report concludes, is not substitution between aluminium and copper, but co-dependent expansion across the base metals complex.

London, June 16 : AVILOO, the global leader in independent EV battery diagnostics, today announces the launch of the AVILOO Battery Warranty in the UK – the first product of its kind to provide used EV buyers with genuine, financially backed protection based entirely on independent battery health data.

The warranty comes into effect in July in the UK, launching simultaneously in Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, Austria, Belgium, Ireland and Switzerland, following successful rollouts in France and Sweden in June.

The used EV market in the UK is growing rapidly, but buyer confidence has not kept pace. For most consumers, the battery – the single most expensive component in any electric vehicle – remains an unknown quantity at the point of purchase. Manufacturer-reported health figures are neither independently verified nor standardised. The AVILOO Battery Warranty changes that.

How it works: for dealers

The Battery Warranty is issued as a standalone document, separate from AVILOO’s existing independent battery certificate. It is managed through AVILOO Connect, a new digital dashboard for professional EV remarketing, giving dealers, fleet operators, and remarketing platforms a single interface to manage battery test lifecycles from incoming inspection through to warranty issuance.

For each vehicle, an individual State of Health (SoH) floor is calculated using AVILOO’s proprietary diagnostics database – the largest battery health dataset in the world. The calculation sets the minimum SoH the battery must maintain at 20,000 kilometres over the one-year warranty period. Dealers can offer this warranty to buyers as a credible, independently underwritten selling point, without carrying the risk themselves.

How it works: for buyers

Buyers receive a one-year warranty period during which they can carry out an AVILOO FLASH Test – a three-minute, manufacturer-neutral diagnostic that assesses real battery capacity, thermal management, and charging capability against original factory specifications, covering 96% of EV models currently on the road.

If the battery’s SoH falls below the calculated threshold during the warranty period, the buyer receives £2,700 in compensation plus a full refund of the FLASH Test costs. This is a concrete, unconditional financial backstop, not a vague assurance.

Marcus Berger, CEO of AVILOO, said:

“The AVILOO Battery Warranty raises the used electric vehicle market to a new level. For the first time in the UK, we are providing the foundation for a warranty based solely on objective, independent measurement data. This builds trust and gives British dealers and buyers a level of certainty that simply has not existed before. The UK has one of Europe’s most dynamic used EV markets, and we see enormous appetite from both dealers and consumers to get this right. With the Battery Warranty, we are setting a new industry standard – one that provides orientation for all market participants, strengthens the case for electric mobility, and ensures that used EVs are seen not as a risk, but as a sustainable, trustworthy choice.”

Already trusted by Europe’s biggest automotive names

AVILOO’s credentials in independent battery diagnostics are already well established. Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, and Porsche Holding have each selected AVILOO as their preferred third-party battery testing provider for dealerships across Europe, with the FLASH Test deployed on both own-brand and trade-in vehicles.

Leasing majors Ayvens and Arval use AVILOO as part of their end-of-lease remarketing process. Auction groups BCA and Cox Automotive have integrated the FLASH Test into their European operations. Major dealer groups Hedin and Emil Frey are also live. All relationships are underpinned by European-level agreements.