GOA

TheGoa BoardOf Secondary And Higher Secondary Education is in the process of converting all subject textbooks into the ePub format in association with the state commissioner for persons with disabilities.

Guruprasad Pawaskar, the state commissioner for persons with disabilities, urged the Goa Board to make available the textbooks in accessible format within six months.
Subhash Phaldesai, minister for social welfare, said education is the right of every student with disabilities, and appealed to all educational institutes to take extra steps to understand the obstacles facing these students and to strive to create an inclusive Learning Environment for them.

The ePUB plaftorm is an electronic publication, a file format that is the current standard in digital publishing. EPUBs are a standardised format that can support the digitisation of traditional print books and make the best use of the flexibility of digital screens to resize, reflow and enhance text and media rich content.

Goa Chamber of Commerce & (GCCI) has asked the State Government to consider extending the One Time Settlement scheme (OTS) for mining affected borrowers, which expired in March.

The GCCI, which met cooperation minister Govind Gaude on Friday said that Cooperative banks and societies should be included in the scheme.

Though the initial response was poor, the scheme helped 4,574 mining affected to settle their loans with Rs 98.6 crore disbursed through the Economic Development Corporation (EDC).

As per the debt relief scheme, a subsidy up to 35% on the total loan settlement amount was provided. Banks and financial institutions granted a waiver of 100% loan interest from September 2012, 40% waiver on principle loan amount for trucks owners and 30% to barge owners.

Tourism department will introduce a new heritage policy within the next few months to encourage owners of those houses to repair and convert their properties into tourist accommodations. Though there was a scheme which was notified several years ago, it was a failure, tourism minister Rohan Khaunte said.

Due to the certain Elements people were unable to take benefits of that scheme, he said. The tourism department will remove the hurdles and come up with a new policy, the minister said.

A lot of efforts have been put in the last one year to elevate Goa as a tourism destination and the results will be seen this year, though more needs to be done, he added.

While the hop on – hop off buses are ready to be launched, the tourism department is also looking at exploring and introducing new tourism Services.
Some of the services announced a few years, did not take off, but Khaunte said he has told an empowered committee to explore what kind of new services can be launched.

Five years ago, the tourism department launched an amphibian bus service vehicles that operate on land and sea to showcase back waters and interior parts of Goa. A service provider was selected, and two buses were procured, but the tourism department was not able to run the service due to lack of permission from the transport department.

PM Narendra Modi on Sunday lauded Goa for launching the solar rooftop online portal goasolar.in, developed by theGoa Energy Development Agency(GEDA), in collaboration with the department of new and and the electricity department.

Good step towards harnessing Solar Energy and furthering Sustainable Development, said the PM, sharing Goa chief minister Pramod Sawants tweet announcing the launch of the portal.

While announcing the new initiative, Sawant tweeted, The entire process of application, processing of application, installation of solar project, and the release of subsidy will be done online through the portal.

Goa University(GU) has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with theministry of foreign affairsof Brazil to promote thestudyof BrazilianPortugueselanguage and literature at the varsity.

As per the MoU signed through the consulate general of Brazil based in Mumbai, alecturerinBrazilianPortuguese language, with at least a postgraduate degree, will be appointed at GUs department of Portuguese and Lusophone studies. GU is already among the rare varsities in the country tooffera postgraduate programme in Portuguese, which attracts students from different parts of India.

Now an expert in Brazilian Portuguese language, literature, Brazilian culture and social studies will be based at university. The MoU will be for an initial period of two years, which may be extended later, and the areas of cooperation are also likely to be expanded in the future.

Aiming to boost hinterland tourism and the rural economy, the is planning to connect all five of the states border checkposts with a circle road. The project is expected to ease the traffic congestion created by heavy vehicles passing through the state.

We have received a letter from Union road transport minister Nitin Gadkari on the circle road, and soon, he will appoint a consultant to prepare a detailed project report, chief minister Pramod Sawant said.

He said that the state will ensure that the project is put on the fast track to boost the rural economy. Half the land for the circle road is with the government, and in case it passes through forests, an elevated road will be constructed, Sawant said.

For the first time ever a detailed study of the petroglyphs and geoglyphs in Goa and the Konkan belt is being carried out by archaeologists of Goa and Maharashtra. The area has probably one of the largest concentrations of rock art with nearly 100 sites that have survived thousands of years, said assistant superintendent archaeologist, directorate of archaeology,Varad Sabnis.

These rock carvings, which are petroglyphs or geoglyphs on horizontal laterite surfaces, depict the life of the early prehistoric farming community. The extensive survey will see experts also explore if there are more carvings outside known areas.

There are four known rock carving sites in Goa of which two sites Pansaimol andKazurinSanguem have been notified as protected sites. The sites at Baoliachem Mudd at Quepem andMauzat Sattari are yet to be notified. To preserve this prehistoric treasure trove the directorate of archaeology and museums, Maharashtra, and the directorate of archaeology, Goa have proposed that the sites be notified as .

Optimistic about the UnionBudgetfor 2022-23, leaders of Goas private sector said that theGrowth-orientedBudget could fuel economic growth and EMPLOYMENT generation. Goan entrepreneurs said that the priority laid on PM Gati Shakti, inclusive development, energy transition and Climate action and financing of investments is a step in the right direction.
The private sector said it was glad that Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman avoided announcing new taxes and surcharges while leaving slabs untouched.

The move to extend the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) to 14 sectors for Atmanirbhar Bharat willcreatesix millionjobsand the enhanced fund allocation can also boost the MSME sector.