Three of twenty students killed in Surat fire clear Class XII exams

Three of the 20 students who died in a massive blaze at a commercial complex in Sarthana in Gujarat's Surat on Friday had appeared for the Class XII Board exams and had cleared them comfortably, as per results that were declared Saturday.
Among the dead, 16 are girls, the youngest being 15 years of age and the eldest just 22, said police.

A child between 3-4 years old received burn injuries in the incident and is currently hospitalised, said Surat police spokesperson P L Chaudhari.
Police said Bhargav Bhutani, who was running the coaching class on the third floor of the ill-fated Takshshila Complex, has been arrested Saturday.
Three of the deceased, Yashi Kevadiya, Mansi Varsani and Hasti Surani had appeared for the Class XII exams of the Gujarat board the results of which were declared Saturday.
"While Yashvi passed the exam with 67.75 percentile (C1 grade), Mansi received 52.03 percentile (C1 grade) and Hasti passed the exam with 69.39 percentile (B2 grade)," he said.
"The youngest victim was 15-year-old Isha Kakadiya while the oldest was 22-year-old Grishma Gajera. Majority of the victims were in the age bracket of 17 to 18. They all were students of a coaching institute imparting art and craft training," an official said.
"While a majority of them were charred to death in the fire, two to three have died as they jumped off from the third and fourth floor of the building to escape the fire," he added.
Earlier Saturday morning, Surat police commissioner Satish Sharma said police have arrested the owner of the Surat coaching centre, and two more persons, both builders, are currently absconding.
Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani Friday ordered a fire safety audit of schools, colleges and coaching centres following the deadly incident.

19 coaching class students jump to death after Surat building catches fire

A massive fire engulfed a four-storey commercial complex in Surat on Friday, killing at least 19 teenage students at a coaching centre, many of whom jumped and fell to their deaths while some were suffocated, officials said.
In a video clip of the incident, some young students at the Takshashila Complex in Sarthana area, where the building is located, can be seen jumping off the third and fourth floors amid plumes of thick smoke.

Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said at least 19 students have died in the fire, but Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel has put the figure at 20.
"As per the information received, 20 students have died in the fire. Many others were injured and shifted to a hospital," Patel said.
Students, mostly teenagers, died "either due to suffocation or jumping off from the complex", he said.
"We have ordered a detailed inquiry into the incident. We will not spare those found guilty," the deputy chief minister added.
Coaching classes at the centre were run in a shade built on the top floor of the building, he said, adding that they "will check if the construction was illegal".
Ninteen fire tenders and two hydraulic platforms were pressed into service to douse the fire, said an official of Surat fire control room.
Eye-witnesses claimed that there were around 50 students in the complex when the fire started.
"Around 10 students on fourth and third floor jumped off to the ground to save themselves from fire and smoke," said a fire official.
Locals helped in the rescue operation to save the stranded students and other occupants of the building.
According to a fire official, flames started from the ground floor and reached the top floor, forcing some students to take shelter on the terrace which was covered.
"Lot of smoke accumulated on the top floor where there were AC compressors and tyres which too caught fire. There was no escape route available for the students who got trapped on the top floors. The fire was doused in one hour. There were no safety equipment installed in the building," a fire official told the media.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed anguished over the fire tragedy.
"Extremely anguished by the fire tragedy in Surat. My thoughts are with bereaved families. May the injured recover quickly. Have asked the Gujarat government and local authorities to provide all possible assistance to those affected," Modi tweeted.
Rupani ordered the principal secretary of the Urban Development department to rush to the spot, conduct an inquiry and give a report within three days.
He expressed grief over the incident and declared a financial assistance of Rs 4 lakh each to the family members of the deceased.
Meanwhile, municipal authorities in Ahmedabad ordered closure of all coaching classes till further orders to check whether they follow fire safety norms.

Surat will be fastest growing city in the world through 2035, says report

When it comes to the top 10 cities for economic growth, India is set to dominate over the next two decades, according to Oxford Economics.
Surat, a diamond processing and trading center in the western state of Gujarat, will see the fastest expansion through 2035, averaging more than 9 per cent, Richard Holt, Oxford’s head of global cities research, wrote in a report. All of the 10 fastest over that period will be in India.

While economic output in many of those Indian cities will remain rather small in comparison to the world’s biggest metropolises, aggregated gross domestic product of all Asian cities will exceed that of all North American and European urban centers combined in 2027. By 2035, it will be 17 per cent higher, with the largest contribution coming from Chinese cities.
Little will change at the top of the list of the world’s biggest cities between now and 2035.
Indian cities Photo: Bloomberg New York, Tokyo, Los Angeles and London will defend their spots as Shanghai and Beijing -- each boasting more than 20 million people -- surpass Paris and Chicago. Guangzhou and Shenzhen in Southern China will also make the top 10, crowding out Hong Kong.
The fastest-growing African city is the Tanzanian port of Dar es Salaam, while the top spot in Europe is held by the Armenian capital of Yerevan, according to the report. San Jose -- a proxy for Silicon Valley -- will be best performer in North America.