ASSAM

Assamis at the bottom of the performance table among northeastern states when it comes to providingtap watertorural householdsunder the Union governments Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM). The state is blessed with enormous Resources“>Water Resources. However, if the state has to meet the government deadline of 100% coverage by 2024, it has to accelerate the pace of installation.

The Union Jal Shakti minister, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, informed theLok Sabhaon Thursday that out of 65.67 lakh rural households in Assam, only 41% are reported to have tap water in their homes after three years of JJM. This includes 1.11 lakh (1.69%) households, which already had tap water before the launch of JJM in 2019.

It took three years to connect 26.05 lakh households with tap water in Assam under JJM with an estimated 8.68 lakh target achieved annually. However, the government will have to accelerate the pace by achieving over 19 lakh targets annually for the next two years to accomplish the goal of giving tap water connection to the remaining 38.51 lakh households.

The Union Government, in PARTNERSHIP with the states, is implementing the programme to provide tap water to every rural household across districts. The goal is to provide 55 litre treated potable water per member in a household.

Chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma launched the Assam Mission to meet the country’s export demand, besides raising the Nutrition quotient and doubling the income of farmers.

The Centre has prepared a comprehensive strategy to promote Indianmilletexports across the globe from December.

Sarma said the mission has been launched in synergy with the Prime Minister’s aim of obtaining ‘atmanirbharta’ (self-sufficiency). He hoped that under the millet mission, the farmers would diversify their Cropping practices and extend farming to grow millets. The state Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture department has undertaken initiatives in launching the millet mission on 25,000 hectares of crop land initially.
According to the government plan, it will be extended to 50,000 hectares in later phases, to compete with high yielding states like Rajasthan.

Union minister of state for civil aviation, Gen (retd) VK Singh, on Tuesday launched India’s first centre for excellence in research on drone and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology and along with a Skill development centre for drone operation and maintenance at theIIT Guwahati.

Another nodal centre for the overall administrative drone data management for the northeastern region and AXOMDroneport, a designated place to station drones, which will be used to support cargo drones delivering urgent, medical and emergency supplies and precious supplies to remote areas of the northeast, was also inaugurated by the minister.

Having understood the remarkable potential of drones to transform every sector of the economy, the government introduced the New Drone Rules in August 2021 and followed it up with a Production Linked Incentive Scheme (PLI) Scheme for manufacturers. Our focus is to develop India’s capabilities as an important and integral value multiplier to the global drone ecosystem,” said Singh.

Highlighting FICCI’s initiatives to further augment the development of drone technology in the country, Dipankar Barua, chairman of FICCI Assam State Council said northeast needs drone technology, especially in areas like border security, Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture, Health, tourism, mining and Infrastructure.

The IIT Guwahati Centre for Excellence for Drones/UAV and Artificial Intelligence addresses a broad spectrum of technical and social concerns related to the technology.

Along with Assam varsity, three other universities of North East India including Gauhati University at 45th rank, Tezpur University at 46th position and North Eastern Hill University at 59th rank feature in the list of top 100 universities in the NIRF rankings.

Sharing his reactions on being ranked within the top 100 universities, Prof Dilip Chandra Nath, vice-chancellor of Assam University expressed happiness and said that with each passing day the varsity is making progress and aspires to perform better in the days ahead. In his words, “despite many difficulties, we are placed within the top 100 higher educational institutions as ranked by the NIRF. The rankings are based on the results of 2020 and this matter of inspiration for us. Among the central universities, we are ranked 11th which is also motivational for us to forge ahead. We are working continuously to address the issues which pose hurdles on our way and our TEACHING–Learning process, research and development have made commendable progress. We are hopeful to have much improved rankings in the coming years.”

Assam’s name is synonymous with tea all over the world. Tea is one of the major contributors to the state’s economy and millions of people are involved in the tea in the state. When the state can have a ministry for Fisheries, why can’t we have a ministry of tea. At a time when the tea industry is passing through a sluggish phase due toCovidand drought-like conditions, setting up a ministry of tea at the state level will provide the necessary thrust for its revival. The government and policy makers should come forward to give shape to the idea. In fact, a tea ministry should have been formed a long time ago considering the importance of the tea industry in the state. It is the largest EMPLOYMENT Generator industry providing livelihood to lakhs of people,” ACMS president Paban Singh Ghatowar said.

With over 800 big tea plantations and thousands of small tea gardens, Assam contributes to nearly 51% of tea produced in the country. However, stagnant prices, lukewarm global demand, deficit rainfall and the Covid-19 pandemic has left the state’s tea industry in distress. In 2019, the annual tea production in Assam was 716.49 million kg which came down to 618.20 million kg in 2020, a 14% drop owing largely to the Covid-induced lockdown.

Assams first woman finance minister AjantaNeog tabled a Rs 566.20-crore deficit budget in the assembly with a range of bold initiatives like financial help of Rs 1 lakh to each family that has lost their members to Covid-19 and smartphones to about eight lakh Class IX and X students of government schools to bridge thedigitaldivide created by the pandemic.

The financial assistance to Covid-hit families, which is the first-of-its-kind in the country, proves our firm resolve to be with our people during these difficult times. The scheme will immediately cost the exchequer around Rs 40 crore, Neog said.

The budget proposed to start the process of recruitment of one lakh educated youths of the state in the government sector.

The budget also proposed piped water supply schemes to cover all 805 tea gardens in the state within a year. This initiative will benefit more than 2,69,648 families. In due course, we will also provide piped gas supply to tea garden households, starting with the upper Assam districts first, Neog said.

Thestate governmentalso proposed to constitute an Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture commission under a scientist of international repute to focus on issues related to agriculture, animal husbandry and sector in Assam. She said the commission will study and suggest measures for achieving self-sufficiency in the field of agriculture, milk, egg and pork production, identify constraints and devise a roadmap to achieve the goals in five years.

The government also proposed to establish a state university in Karbi Anglong and establish new wildlife safari and rescue center at Silchar and Dibrugarh.

Indian celebrities were truly ruling the red carpet at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. But they were not the only ones putting India on the global map. Promoting the rich Indian textile and weaves, particularly of Assam was designerSanjukta Duttawho had model Ingrida Ilgine walk the red carpet wearing a hooded neon gown made frompaat silkor mulberry silk.

This is the third time the model has picked something from designer Sanjukta Dutta for her Cannes appearance.

The silk gown featured floral detailing around the hemline and a hood, thereby making it avant-garde. Sanjukta is known for empowering the rural artisans of India. She is also reviving and bringing forward the age-old art of Assamese handlooms internationally.
Sanjukta had also recently showcased at Paris Fashion Week with her collection titled Chiki-Miki.

WhileAssamchief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has called on the states immigrant Muslim Population to practise decent family planning practice, the fifth National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) of 2019-20 released by the Union health minister in December shows that this community has seen the sharpest fall in fertility since 2005-06.

Muslims in Assam have recorded the most dramatic decline in fertility since NFHS-3, which was conducted 14 years earlier. While the number of children who would be born per woman or the total fertility rate (TFR) of the Muslim community in Assam at 2.4 is higher than the 1.6 for Hindus and 1.5 for Christians, the reduction in fertility among Muslims has been from 3.6 in 2005-06 to 2.4 in 2019-20, a drop of 1.3 compared to 0.4 among Hindus for the same period, although from a lower base.

The TFR of 2.4 among Muslims in Assam is only a little over what demographers call replacement level fertility, or the TFR level at which just enough babies are born to maintain population levels constant.

This is pegged at 2.1 and Indias overall TFR is 2.2. NFHS-5 data also shows that cultural and geographical factors as well as level of development are more important determinants of fertility than religion.

The TFR for Hindus too is low in Jammu & Kashmir at 1.32. Of the nine states in NFHS-5, the TFR is above replacement level in the Muslim community in just two states, Kerala (2.3) and Bihar (3.6), which are at two ends of the development spectrum. This shows that beyond just cultural and geographic factors, the level of development of a specific community is also a determinant of its TFR.

Assamtea, worth over Rs 3,300 crore, was sold at the Guwahati tea auction centre (GTAC) during the financial year 2022-2023.

According to official data of the Guwahati tea auction centre, around 165 millionkgof tea was sold at the auction centre with an Average price of Rs 191.26 per kg.

Dinesh Bihani, secretary of the Guwahati tea auction buyers association (GTABA) said that during 2022-23, around 165 million kg of tea was sold at the auction centre.

He further said that last year a special tea called Manohari Golden Tea was auctioned at a price of Rs 99,999 per kg. An orthodox tea was auctioned at Guwahati tea auction centre at a price of around Rs 5,100, Bihani said.