GOA

PM Modi to open Goa’s 2nd airport on December 11: Sawant

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The Mopa International airport, Goa’s second airport afterDabolim, will be inaugurated by Prime MinisterNarendra Moditentatively on December 11, Goa chief ministerPramod Sawantannounced.

Speaking about revolutionising tourism in India, Sawant said the sector can grow through an integrated and focused approach to developing , ensuring safety and security of tourists, and by upskilling and reskilling human Resources. In this context, he said, apart from building airport, roads and bridges, and floating jetties, the Goa government is also working on a plan to onboard taxi vendors on a single mobile app-based platform within the next year, roll out a ‘Har Ghar Fibre’ scheme to pitch the coastal state as a ‘Work-from-Goa’ hub for tourists across the world, and to ensure that the prevailing connectivity and Network issues are settled for good.

Tourism policy shifts focus to Goas culture, heritage

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Goas hospitality though rides on coastal tourism and casinos have hogged the limelight in the last few years, Goa tourism policy 2020 aims to change that perception by promoting eco-tourism, cultural and heritage tourism.

The policy talks about encouraging tourists to visit villages and explore the traditional Goan houses. The yet-to-be-formed Goa tourism board will designate villages conducive for development as tourism villages. The applicable standards for receiving the designation of tourism village will be defined so that villages can compete for the same in a transparent manner.

Moving in that direction, the Goa government recently notified the tourist villages development scheme under which financial support of Rs 50 lakh will be given to villages every year. The scheme aims to promote rural life, Art and Culture and heritage.

The policy also talks about having ecologically sustainable and environmentally Sound practices in the development of nature-based tourism. Developing high-quality facilities in Protected Areas to increase the number and stay-duration of high-end visitors is also something that finds mention in the policy.

The major aspects of the tourism policy will see the Light of day after the tourism board is constituted. The composition of the board was finalised a while ago, but an order appointing the board is awaited.

Of nearly 30,000 MSMEs registered in Goa, 6,000 are owned by women

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Of the 29,769 Goan business enterprises registered with theUnion ministry of micro, small & medium enterprises (MSMEs), 22% or 6,578 are Women-owned entities, stated the data released by the Centre on Thursday. As expected, a significant number of women-owned MSMEs, 6,467, are in the micro category.

What is intriguing is that just 7% of the 111 medium-category enterprises are owned and managed by women entrepreneurs. Medium-category enterprises are businesses that have an annual turnover of up to Rs 100 crore, and in Goa just eight medium business houses have women at their helm.

The Centre has taken a number of steps to support MSMEs, particularly women-owned enterprises, and has launched special drives for the registration of women-owned MSMEs under theUdyamRegistration portal.

India has 28 lakh women-owned MSMEs registered and classified under Udyam since July 2020, of which 98% fall under the micro category.

The Union ministry implements the Prime Ministers EMPLOYMENT Generation Programme (PMEGP), which is a major credit-linked subsidy initiative aimed at generating self-employment opportunities, and of the total PMEGP beneficiaries, 39% are women.

To widen the scope of MSMEs, retail and wholesale traders have been included in theMSMEcategory.

Goa govt cancels 80,000 ration cards for not availing of food quota

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The has cancelled nearly 80,000 ration cards of beneficiaries across Goa for non-claiming of rations in the past six months.
“These ration card holders have not lifted their quota from August 2022 to January 2023, owing to which they were cancelled,” said director of civil supplies and consumer affairs Gopal Parsekar.

Parsekar said those beneficiaries who have found themselves cancelled from the ration benefits can reverse the cancellation by submitting a letter to the department. The letter can be submitted to civil supplies inspectors at the taluka level, citing the reason for not collecting the ration, along with the KYC form.

Parsekar also said that the former beneficiaries must also give an undertaking stating that they will avail of the quota henceforth.

Goa CM Pramod Sawant seeks 90:10 fund sharing ratio with Centre

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Chief minister Pramod Sawant said that he has requested Prime MinisterNarendra Modito allow fund sharing ratio of 90:10 between Centre and state in the case of implementation of central schemes in Goa. Sawant said that Goa has suffered due to delayed Liberation and stop in mining operations for the last 10 years.

The chief minister said that Goa will now require greater funding to create to support increased tourist numbers due to the opening of the new airport at Mopa.

NIO scientists push for geo-engineering to enhance Arabian Seas iron levels

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There is so littleironin the ocean that even a bit of rust from an iron-made ship significantly throws measurements off. To avoid any such contaminations,scientistsfrom the National Institute of (NIO) studied samples of seawater from theArabian Seaand found that a large part of it in the south and northwest are iron-deficient, leading to lower productivity.

To remedy the situation, they have suggested seeding the waters of the Arabian Sea with an ample amount of iron toenhanceits biological pump, thereby increasing its capacity to sequester atmospheric CO2, which will help diminish the atmospheric CO2levelsintroduced into the Biosphere. ThisGeo-Engineering, they said, would also enhance biological productivity, leading to an increase in fish production.

As a part of the Geotraces-India initiative, a major oceanographic programme supported by the Union ministry of earth sciences, dissolved iron-cycling in the Arabian Sea and subtropical gyre region of the Indian Ocean have been studied.

Goa University first Indian varsity to sign MoU with Bangladesh maritime University

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TheGoa Universityhas signed a MoU with Bangladeshs Bangabandhu SheikhMujibur Rahman Maritime University(BSMRMU) for cooperation in the maritime fields. Goa University has become the first varsity in the country to forge ties with the university.

The MoU was signed between GU and BSMRMU for cooperation in the maritime fields, extending support for Education, research, training, student and faculty exchange and joint research in areas of mutual interest. The study involves both fundamental and applied research leading to conceptualisation of various sensors and equipment for a sustainable usage of blue water.

Goan startups to get boost from Silicon Valley Company

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Budding entrepreneurs and innovators in Goa looking to convert technology-based ideas into successful startups could soon get aboostwith Silicon Valley-based Founder Institute (FI) launching its startup accelerator programme in Goa. In a sign that Goas nascent startup sector is gaining global attention, FI has announced that it aims to incubate projects in the ideation stage and build 20 technology companies per year in the state.

With a presence in 200 cities, FI is one of the worlds major pre-seed accelerators and focuses on mentoring and guiding startups through the early stage funding process. In Goa, FIs virtual accelerator programme will be steered by advisor for Lloyds Ventures, Chintan Oza, co-founder and chief executive officer of Brunchbites, Pritam Onsker, Brunchbites co-founder and image consultant Priyanka Row.

The state government has decided to set upsolarpower plants on barren and uncultivated lands to generate solarpowerin Goa.

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The GoaEnergyDevelopment Agency (GEDA) invited expression of interest from bidders to set up a minimum 500kW and maximum 2mW capacity grid connected ground mounted solar PV power Plants on barren or uncultivable lands.

A plant should be within a 10km radius of the 33kV/11kV Network of the electricity department (EDG) to facilitate easy supply of solar power.

The state wants to set up solar power plants under Component-A of Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha (PM-KUSUM).

The ministry of new and (MNRE), government of India, has issued guidelines for setting up decentralised ground mounted grid connected renewable power plants under Component-A of PM-KUSUM scheme and further allocated 50mW to the GEDA under this component for pilot implementation.

Individual farmers, group of farmers, Cooperative Societies, panchayats, farmer producer organisations (FPO), water user associations (WUA) all of whom can be collectively referred as landowners hereinafter, can collaborate with EPC contractors or system integrators or developers to set up 500kW to 2 mW capacity grid connected ground mounted solar PV power plants on barren / uncultivable lands located within 10km radius of the substations notified by the GEDA.

Include topographic maps in coastal zone plan to prevent disasters in Goa: Greens

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A cause of concern for environmentalists is that while the National Centre for SustainableCoastalManagement (NCSCM) has used toposheets to prepare the draft CoastalZoneManagementPlan(CZMP), the agency has carried out no independent study to determine the states coastal geomorphology.

Environmentalists are of the view that this renders the draft plan inadequate as dressing or altering sand dunes, hills, natural features, including landscape changes for beautification, recreation and other such purposes, is among the prohibited activities within the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) as per the CRZ notification 2011.

Hilly areas and natural features are prohibited from being altered as per the CRZ notification 2011. These have to be identified and marked by using topographic sheets.