ANDHRA PRADESH

Several lakh students of classes 9 to 12 studying in government schools inAndhra Pradeshwere on Monday left disappointed as the state could not keep its promise of delivering them laptop computers. Government sources now say the proposal to distribute laptops has been dropped as “they are costly and many digital Learning apps don’t work on them”.

Now, the government is contemplating to distribute only Tabs (tablet computers) to students of class 8. Each Tab, loaded with digital learning content, will cost the government Rs 12,000.

The has decided to continue to provide freepowerforagriculturefor the next 30 years. The power utilities ofAndhra Pradeshare currently supplyingfreepower to more than 18 lakh agricultural Services.

The state government is developing necessary power Infrastructure to continue the scheme for the next 30 years. As part of this, the government will exclusively set up a 10,000 MW solar power plant for making the free power scheme a permanent one.

The state government already spent about Rs 1,700 crore on upgrading Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture feeders to supply 9-hour free power in two spells during day. The subsidy given by the government to the agricultural sector in the 2018-19 financial year was Rs 6,030 crore against Rs 8,559 crore in 2020-21, representing a Rs 2,529 crore or 40 per cent additional subsidy.

The state government is giving highest priority to the agriculture sector. All thefarmersin the state are happy with the effective implementation of the power scheme. The state is witnessing a significant change in the agriculture sector for the last two years. This would help boost economy and improve livelihoods of farmers.

The nearly 6,000 agricultural feeders consume around 15,700 million units of energy per annum, equivalent to the 24% of the total energy demand (66,000 MU per annum) of the state.

In a major move to create a landmark leisure space in Rajahmundry, the authorities of municipal administration have decided to renovateKambala Cheruvu, a major pond in the city.
The pond will be developed as one of the best tourist attractions along with providing arecreational spotto the citizens.

In fact, the catchment area for this pond has become a collection point for storm water drainage, sewage, and contaminated waste due to its lower elevation. The primary object of the project is to rejuvenate the water body and provide a Park with recreational facilities and leisure spaces.

Industries ministerMekapati Gautham Reddyhas said the government will shortly announce anoxygen policyto encourage manufacturing ofoxygen concentratorsin the state. He said the government will ready its own Plants with a capacity of 300-400 metric tonnes (MT) over the next 45 days.

The minister pointed out that the new policy would help Micro, Small and Medium enterprises (MSME) rapidly launch production and supply operations. The government will grant incentives to manufacturers of Oxygen concentrators, he said, adding that they would also grant additional subsidies to industries producing oxygen.

The Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) has raised strong objection to the financial management in the state and found fault with the for allowing lapse of funds of Rs 6,356 crore given by the Centre.

“As against the government of India guidelines to transfer ‘pass-through’ grants given for implementation of various centrally sponsored schemes to single nodal account pertaining to those schemes, the state government has lapsed unutilised funds of Rs 6,356 crore to the consolidated fund of the state as reduction of expenditure,” said the CAG.

During 2021-22, the state government lapsed the funds by not spending 26,380 crore to state’s consolidated fund which reduced Revenue Deficit and Fiscal Deficit from the previous year. It also lapsed the Finance Commission recommended Health-sector”>Health sector grants to the tune of 488.15 crore given by the Centre.

The CAG report said the action of the state government in lapsing the funds were in violation of the government of India’s guidelines and also led to revenue deficit while creating an interest burden of 11.33 crore.

Increasing number of caesarean births have become a cause for concern inAndhra Pradesh. Even as per the official data, over 50% of the total deliveries occurred at the private hospitals in the last two years in the state are surgical deliveries or C-section births. This stood at about 45% even if the institutional deliveries happened at public Health facilities were taken into consideration. The international healthcare community considers 10-15% C-sections as the ideal rate.

While some people are preferring C-sections on what they believe as an auspicious day or time, a few hospitals are opting for C-sections as they can charge more compared to normal delivery. Some facilities are inclining towards the surgical deliveries to make a fast buck under the Dr YSRAarogyasrischeme, which gives a higher coverage for the C-sections. In some cases, public themselves demand a C-section with a belief that it is a safe option than that of normal birth.

It is assumed that 15% of the pregnancies will land into complication, requiring surgical intervention. Here the caesarean section becomes a lifesaving surgery for the mother and the child.World Health Organisation, in its statement released in April 2015, stated that at Population level, C-section rates higher than 10% are not associated with reductions in maternal and new-born mortality rates. As in other surgeries, C-sections also have inherent risk of surgical and anaesthetic complications.

Discoms in the state have projected a sale of 66,530 million units of electricity for the 2022-23 financial year. TheAndhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commissionconcluded its (virtual) public hearings and state advisory committee meetings on tariffs and aggregate revenue requirements for the next fiscal.

The electricity demand projected for Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture and other agriculture allied Services is 19,819 MU for nearly 19 lakh services.

As much as 38,199 MU (57% of the total energy demand projected for next year) is towards domestic and industrial categories. These two categories add up to 1.52 crore consumers, constituting 80% per cent of the total 1.91 crore electricity consumers in the state.

TheAPERChas strongly felt the need to balance the interest of consumers and discoms. It has stressed on a consumer-centric approach in the power sector, improving financial stability and operational efficiency of the discoms to ensure quality and reliable power supply.

The AP Global Investors Summit-2023 would be held in Visakhapatnam on March 3 and 4 to seek in the state.

Education minister Botsa Satyanarayana and Industries minister Gudivada Amarnath launched the website for the global summit and unveiled the brochure. Amarnath said chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy had unveiled the logo for the global summit. The venue would be the engineering college grounds in Andhra University, Visakhapatnam.

The minister told the media that the summit aimed at attracting investments in 12 key sectors including Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture and Food Processing, aerospace and DEFENCE, automobiles and electric vehicles, textiles and apparels, industries and Logistics Infrastructure, petroleum and petrochemicals, electronics and IT, pharmaceuticals and life sciences, RENEWABLE ENERGY, MSME, startup, innovations, Skill development and education, tourism and hospitality, among others.