GOA

In a bid to give impetus to Goas efforts in granting the mancuradmangogeographical indication (GI) status, the Goa State Council of Science and Technology has taken initiative to form a mango farmers association.

A meeting was held at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research-Central Coastal Agricultural ResearchInstitute(ICAR-CCARI), Old Goa, on Tuesday by the institutes fruit scientists along with Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture officials and prominent mango farmers to form the association. The GI application needs to be jointly filed by farmers and the institute.

Efforts will also be made to tap important commercial varieties like the Hilario, mussahrat and Xavier among others, and hopefully apply for GI status for them as well.

The electricity department will replace all existingmeterswithsmartmeters under the government of Indias smart meter national programme.

A trial run of 250 smart meters, which provide real time data to the department for better planning, is complete. The meters were placed across Goa in different terrain and the department found that they were 95% efficient.

The department is now drawing up a plan for phasewise installation of 6.5 lakh meters and hasplansof replacing around 50,000 meters by the end of the financial year.
Around 30% of the cost of each meter will be borne by the Centre and the rest by the department.

Through the smart meter programme, the government of India aims to bring in efficiency in thepowerdistribution system leading to better service delivery

The system will provide area-wise and time of the day, data on consumption and shortfall in capacity, which will help the department in its upgradation projects.

Goas gold medallists at the recently-heldSpecial Olympics World GamesinBerlinwill be rewarded with a cash purse of Rs 5 lakh and a government job when they turn 18, chief ministerPramod Sawantannounced.

Goan athletes returned from the World Games with their best-ever medal haul in eight editions, picking up a record nine gold, five silver and five bronze medals.

The has an existing scheme that rewards Special Olympians with Rs 1 lakh for an international gold medal but that has now been significantly hiked, while other cash Awards have also improved significantly.

The state cabinet on Wednesday granted approval to the Goa Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (Amendment) Bill,2022, which is aimed at increasing the states borrowings by 1% of the gross state domestic product (GSDP) for the financial year 2022-2023. The 1% increase will allow the state to borrow up to 4% of the GSDP.

The bill will be introduced in the monsoon session of the state assembly.
The state GSDP is approximately Rs 90,000 crore.

With this amendment, the can borrow a maximum of Rs 3,600 crore.
In the financial year 2021-2022, the state government borrowed around Rs 2,700 crore through the open market. The borrowing limit was around Rs 3,200 crore.

As per the Union finance ministry, the state can carry forward the unutilised borrowing to the subsequent financial year.

The countrys tiniest state with an area of 3,702 sqkm has diverted nearly 150 hectare of forest land, rich in and Home to many endemic animals and Plants, for power projects last yearthe third highest just behind Arunachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, which are 23- and 66-times Goas size, respectively.

When it comes to diversion of forest land for any linear projectroad, rail, power or waterGoa is among the top 10 in the country, according to a report by the Delhi-based Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment.

The only proposed diversion in Goa rejected by any of the committees was to carry out mining near the Bondla wildlife sanctuary.

The proposed Goa Institute of Maritime Excellence (GIME) has run into rough waters even before its inception, as only one university has responded to the states call for bidders to set up the institute.

The official said that the government has now to take a decision whether or not to allow the university to go ahead, or to re-tender it. The Captain of (CoP) had recently invited bids from interested national and international educational institutions and developers to redevelop the existing maritime school into a world-class GIME.

The state had decided to start 22 long-term, short-term, mandatory, and optional courses at GIME. A senior official said the concessionaire would have to run six mandatory courses and 16 optional ones.

Some of the other courses MICE was supposed to run are maritime MBA courses such as shipping and Logistics management, port and shipping management, shipping and finances, etc. The yacht training courses include master of yachts for coastal, open sea, and ocean-going yachts.

GovernorBhagat Singh Koshyari has prorogued 14th budgetsessionfrom May 12, and now thebudgetwould be passed in monsoon session, said a senior officer.

Recently the state cabinet had taken a decision to prorogue theassemblysession.

After the opposition decided not to attend the meeting to decide on the budget session, chief minister Pramod Sawant cancelled the meeting and spoke to the members over the phone.

In March, the state legislative assembly session was cut short by over two weeks and adjourned till July 19 after the state Election Commission declared the schedule for the second phase of the municipal Elections, bringing into force the Model Code Of Conduct.

All pending business of the house which was listed for the coming days, including the discussion on the budgetary demands and the private members bills submitted by the opposition, was earlier decided to be taken up for discussion and consideration in July, after the session resumes.

Despite the laying Stress on promoting beach tourism, none of Gujarat’s beaches feature on the list of projects financed by the Union Government to encourage the development of beaches as tourist destinations.

None of Gujarat’s beaches feature in the list of beneficiaries. Since 2014-15, the assistance of Rs 631 crore has been provided for the development of beaches. This is despite the state having the longest coastline in the country, spanning over 1,600 kilometres and dotted by several beaches.

The has spent funds to the tune of around Rs 4 crore tolaunchthe year-long celebrations of the 60th year of Goas Liberation from December 19, 2020.

The cabinet note said that the state government has decided to constitute a state-level organising and monitoring committee headed by thechief ministerfor coordinating the celebrations.

The committee authorised the chief minister to take urgent decisions.

The council of ministers also vested the chairman of the committee with financial and administrative powers, including the power to relax the codal formalities, where deemded appropriate, to enable timely planning and execution of planned activities/programmes.

CM PramodSawant said that apart from the 10,000 governmentjobson the anvil, at least 25,000-30,000 private sector jobs will be created once the new international airport at Mopa and the electronic manufacturing cluster at Tuem get ready over five years.

Sawant said that over the past five years, along with the white and green revolutions, great achievements have been made in the state to increase fish wealth.

Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture minister Chandrakant Kavlekar emphasised on streamlining schemes while providing funds to farmers for agricultural development. He said that the government is making efforts to double the income of farmers.