HIMACHAL PRADESH

The Central government will provide a financing facility worth about Rs 1,600 Crore throughfor Himachal Pradesh Power Sector Development Programme. With the state Equity, the total programme cost will be approximately Rs 2,000 crore. This programme aims to undertake holistic power sector reforms to allow for improvements in RENEWABLE ENERGY integration in the state.

The key result areas through which this is being targeted is improvements in utilization of states power sector Resources (such as hydro and solar), improvements in reliability of states grid at transmission and distribution level and strengthening of institutional capacities of various states power utilities/agencies.

Through this programme, efforts will be made towards promotion of integrated resource planning to allow comprehensive planning of the power sector, piloting demand response management, improving the technical utilization of the existing Hydro Power assets to facilitate increased integration with other sources of renewable energy.

Union Minister for Commerce, and Textiles Piyush Goyal announced to set up a Weaver Services and Design Resource Center in Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh.

This centre will help in encouraging the attractive handicraft products of the state and provide a better platform to export these products at the international market.

The Minister announced this while addressing at an interaction programme with handicrafts and handloom artisans.

Programme was organized under Seva & Samarpan Abhiyan to commemorate the golden jubilee year of statehood of Himachal Pradesh on September 27, 2021.

Himachal Pradesh has the tremendous talent and potential with magical hands that weaves beautiful art products. Thus, there is a need to work proactively by State & Central Ministries in order to bring these products into the international market to get more befits. More attention should be paid on modernizing the design, packaging, quality and Marketing in order to provide weavers a better price for their products at international market.

Prof Sikander Kumar, vice-chancellor, also said university is also going to provide laptop to all the teachers to strengthen online Education. He said tenders for the same have already been invited.

According to him,digitisationwork of library has already been completed.
Prof Kumar said university would provide Rs 50,000 to each teacher as project funding to produce quality research work. He said grant of Rs 1 lakh is also being given to each department for academic activities.

He said in 2019, four new departments were started in the University Institute of Technology, including civil, electrical, electronics & Communication engineering and applied sciences & humanities. Defense studies, library science (UG & PG), Environment science and Microbiology were introduced last year.

The Chief Minister further said that the would soon hold a meeting with the employees so that they get an opportunity to take up their issues.

He assured the Federation that the endeavour of the State Government would be to amicably resolve all the genuine issues of the employees, as the Government wants to maintain cordial relations with its employees.

Thakur also urged the employees to work with greater dedication and commitment to make Himachal Pradesh a model State in the country. He assured the members of the Federation that their interests would be safeguarded at all cost as they are part and parcel of the Government.

Shoolini University has clinched the third place in the country in the fresh Times Higher Education (THE) university rankings, which just recently came out. The university has also been ranked 77th in all of Asia.

The hallowed Indian Institute of Science-Bangalore has managed to cling to the top position in the country while the JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research-Mysore has secured the second place in the country. It may be noted that out of over 10,000 universities across Asia, only 928 of the institutions were ranked.

For the safety of Dams,Himachal Pradeshgovernment has constitutedState Dam Safety Organisation(SDSO) andState Committee on Dam Safety(SCDS) in the directorate of energy to be headed by chief engineer (energy). TheSDSOwill keep perpetual surveillance, carry out inspections and monitor the operation and maintenance of all specified dams falling under their jurisdiction to ensure continued safety of such specified dams and take such measures as may be necessary to address safety concerns.

In a recent notification issued, chief engineer (energy) has been appointed as the technical head of SDSO while deputy chief engineer (dam safety) will be the head. There will be six other members. Similarly, chief engineer (energy) will be the ex-officio chairperson of SCDS and there will be 14 other members.

The Dam Safety Act 2021 stated that SDSO, for the purpose of enabling it to make decisions compatible with public safety, will make investigations and will gather data as may be required for proper review and study of the various features of the design, construction, repair and enlargement of dams, reservoirs and appurtenant structures under their jurisdiction.

Giving approval to the excise policy for financial year 2021-22, the state cabinet on Monday approved in principle to have excise Police in the Excise and Department to check the inter-state and intra-state smuggling of liquor, illicit trade and bootlegging of liquor leading to substantial loss of excise revenue to the government exchequer.

According to the new policy, low-price brands of IMFL will be cheaper as license fees and excise duty have been reduced. However, the liquor quota of bars attached to hotels has been reduced by 50 per cent in the state.

Under the new policy, the facility of transfer of quota within district and inter-district has also been approved.

The new policy envisages collection of Rs 1,829 crore revenue during the year which is Rs 228 crore higher than the financial year 2020-21 thereby registering an increase of 14 per cent

The Himachal Pradesh government signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Indian School of Business (ISB) on Thursday to integrate data of all government departments under a common platform, ”Him Data Portal”.

The MoU was signed by IT Secretary Abhishek Jain on behalf of the and ISB Executive Director Ashwini Chhatre in the presence of Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.

The chief minister said ISB would collaborate with the Department of Information Technology as a research and technical support partner for building an open-source ”Him Data Portal” that would enable visualization of multiple data sets through advanced analytics and identity-access-management-controlled dashboards and reports to support the state’s policy-making and Governance.

He said it would strengthen the state’s benefit delivery systems through ”Him Pulse” which would support and enhance the capacity of ”Him Parivar” (all departments) in linking digital identity to the delivery of benefits to the targeted Population.

He said the Him Data Portal would bring valuable data from multiple domains together of various departments thereby helping in visualizing patterns, gaps, opportunities and connections cohesively which would result in strengthening efficiency in governance. A website for the same would also be developed.

Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board Limited has come up with an innovative trust-based billing system for its domestic and commercial consumers with a load up to 20kw.

HPSEBL employees have been demanding the status of frontline workers as they are out in the field to ensure uninterrupted power supply. The government, however, has not acceded to their demand yet. The employees also regretted the fact that they have not been given priority for vaccination like bus drivers, Conductors and depot holders.

Punjabchief minister Bhagwant Mann had a breakfast meeting with his Himachal counterpartSukhvinder SinghSukhu on Wednesday following which Sukhu clarified that the hill states move to impose water cess would only be limited to the projects located in Himachal.

Last week, both Punjab and Haryana had passed resolutions in the Vidhan Sabhas to oppose the Himachal governments decision to impose water cess and Punjab Resources“>Water Resources Minister Gurmeet SinghMeet Hayerhad claimed the new levy would mean an additional annual burden of Rs 1,200 crore for partner states, a major portion of which would have to be borne by Punjab.