ANDHRA PRADESH

In a move to make the students pursuing different technical courses at polytechnic colleges employable soon after finishing their courses, the technical Education department has roped in Micro, Small and Medium enterprises (MSME) industries to provide internship to students.
The MSME association has also agreed to pay 6,000 monthly stipend to all the students during the training period.

The diploma students were struggling due to lack of industry exposure resulting in Unemployment or underpayment soon after assuming charge as technical education commissioner about six months ago and held several rounds of discussions with the industry representatives.

Andhra PradeshGovernor Biswa Bhusan Harichandan said the is taking necessary steps for EMPLOYMENT generation and is giving top priority to technical and skill-based Education.

Addressing the fifth convocation of Krishna University here virtually from the Raj Bhavan, the governor said the new National Education Policy has brought in a major reform in the Education sector, from elementary level to higher education.

He also said the Andhra Pradesh government is taking necessary steps towards creating employment and is giving top priority to technical and skill-based education.

Copious rains in the upper catchment areas, as well as within the state, have left the river Krishna swollen once again.
The first warning signal has been raised as the flood flow crossed five lakh cusecs atPrakasam Barrage in Vijayawadaof Andhra Pradesh.

According to the state Resources“>Water Resources Department data, Srisailam reservoir received an inflow of 4.01 lakh cusecs, while the outflow was 4.45 lakh cusecs.

Palasa and Kasibugga inSrikakulamdistrict are the biggest cashew processing centres in the state with over 300 processing units. All units together produce over 60,000 kilos of cashew kernels per day and have an annual turnover between Rs 250 to Rs 300 crore.

While Palasa cashew is famous for its rich taste and unique flavour, traders have failed to export it to other countries. Cashew manufacturers in Srikakulam have been importing raw cashew from Ghana, Ivory Coast, Benin, Tanzania, Indonesia and other countries through the sea route.

As much as 63.5 lakh tonnes ofricehave been dispatched fromAndhra Pradeshto other ricedeficit statesby the (Fci) in the last three years.

Surplus stocks of wheat and rice from various states are moved to deficit states to meet the requirements under theNational Food Security Act, 2013 by the FCI.

Andhra Pradesh produces an Average 130 lakh tonnes of paddy every year. According to official statistics, the production of paddy in the state is estimated at 134.15 lakh metric tonnes in 2020-21 as against 137.10 lakh MTs in 2019-20.

The FCI, in the draft report of the Committee on Public Undertakings (2020-21), mentioned that Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh are surplus states in terms of wheat procurement vis-a-vis their own consumption. Punjab, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Chhattisgarh and Odisha are surplus states in terms of rice procurement vis–vis their own consumption.
According to the report, about a decade back, nearly 90% of stocks were moved from the north, mainly from Punjab and Haryana, which has now come down to 72%. This is due to an increase in procurement of rice in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and West Bengal, and wheat in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.

The area under paddy in kharif 2020-21 in Andhra Pradesh was 16.90 lakh hectares against 15.26 lakh hectares in 2019-20, representing an increase of 10.7%. Similarly, the production of paddy in kharif 2020-21 was 71.37 lakh tonnes compared to 80.13 lakh tonnes in 2019-20, marking a decrease of 10.9%.

The area under paddy in rabi 2020-21 was 8.81 lakh hectares compared to 8.3 lakh hectares in 2019-20, translating to an increase of 6.1%. Similarly, the production under paddy in rabi 2020-21 was 61.89 lakh tonnes against 56.97 lakh tonnes in 2019-20, showing an increase of 8.6%.
Andhra Pradesh, on its own, procured 34,49,067 MTs of paddy with a value of Rs 6,286 crore from 2.22 lakh farmers in 2019-20. Similarly, in kharif of 2020-21 (October 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021), a quantity of 47,49,844 MTs of paddy, valued at Rs 8,900 crore, was procured from 5.18 lakh farmers.

The gross area irrigated in Andhra Pradesh increased to 38.13 lakh hectares in 2019-20 from 36.35 lakh hectares in 2018-19.

Andhra University School of Distance Educationhas started offering admissions for all its courses twice a yearacademic year batch (July) and calendar year batch (January) from 2022, saidSDEdirector Prof K Visweswara Rao. He added that the admission and further procedures are completely automated.

This covers tuition and exam fee payment, hall ticket downloading, and results announcement. The enrolment has increased over the years. More than 30,000 students joined the SDE in 2022-23. We are working hard to meet the gross enrolment ratio target and cater quality Education to all enrolled. As far as the curriculum is concerned, we are also followingUGCguidelines by offering courses in 70:30 pattern. As directed by the UGC, all courses have been transformed from conventional annual pattern to semester mode from 2023-24. The certificates provided by SDE is on par with regular students. We are in tune with NEP-2020 and meeting the criteria for the same.

Despite the new technologies, programmes and alerts, lightning continues to kill at least 100 people every year in the state.Coastalareas usually witness maximum lighting strikes, owing to its proximity to the sea. Lightning has remained one of the largest causes of deaths due to natural disasters every year in the country for two decades.

As many as 276 people were killed due to lightning strikes between 2018 and 2020 inAndhra Pradesh, according toNCRBdata on accidental deaths. The large proportion of these deaths were in rural pockets, with only 5 to 6 per cent in urban settings.

The lighting strikes also kill wild animals and , cause substantial damage to property and injuries to people and livestock trapped in damaged properties. Experts said that the spate of fatalities every year due to lighting strikes before and during the monsoon months are mostly preventable.