KARNATAKA

The has decided not to repeal the amendment toKarnatakaAPMC law even though Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced last year that the Centre would repeal the three contentious farm laws.

Several farmers bodies had launched protests and laid siege toVidhana Soudhademanding a rollback of theAPMClaw.

The state will continue with Karnataka Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture Produce Marketing (Regulation and Development) (Amendment) Act, 2020 that curtails the powers of local APMCs and allows farmers to sell their produce outside APMC premises.

In May 2020, the state government had promulgated an ordinance to amend APMC (Regulation and Development) Act that envisaged opening up the agricultural market, after the Centre suggested it adopt the Model Agricultural Produce and Livestock Marketing (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2017. The amendment was enacted in January 2021.

Four years and 10 months after the government announced in its budget that at least a quarter of all Police personnel in the state will be Women in five years, only one in 10 members of the Karnataka State Police is a woman.

According to data from the Home department, as on date, the department has 90,539 personnel out of a sanctioned strength of over 1 lakh and only 9,007 of them are women. This does not include officers of the rank of inspector and above. Nationally, as per the bureau of police research and development and an India Report assessment, women make up 10.5% of the police force.

While women make up for nearly 50% of Karnataka’s Population they accounted for 49.3% of the 6.1 crore in the state as per the last decadal census their representation in the police department continues to remain abysmal. That is, theres only one woman police personnel for every 3,345 women! Although the situation is not unique to Karnataka, and is the result of several legacy issues, the state would do well in being an exception and hiring more women. That said, it is making a conscious effort and the move to reserve 25% of posts in all recruitments barring Class-1 officers is welcome.

The government plans to allocate Rs 2,000 crore to restructure and revive the five ailing electricity supply companies (Escoms) in the state. The state cabinet, which is scheduled to meet in Belagavi next week to discuss the anticonversion bill, is expected to sanction the proposal.

The five electric supply companies Bescom (Bengaluru), Chescom (Chamundeshwari),Gescom(Gulbarga), Mescom (Mangaluru) and Hescom (Hubballi) have been in the red largely due to rising dues from the government. They had recently approached Bommai seeking clearance of dues to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore to ensure uninterrupted power supply.

Energy department officials said the government will make payment in two parts grants and guarantees for Escoms to raise loans from the market.

WithKarnataka‘s tech ecosystem moving up the value chain, the plans to strengthen the state’s R&D capabilities by spending an additional Rs 2,000 crore annually on the segment. That’s part of the government’s new Research, Development and Innovation Policy announced at the 25th edition of theBengaluru Tech Summit(BTS) that began here on Wednesday. The objective of the spending is to ensure easy access to a skilled talent base, and support for university-based research and researching enterprises and grassroot innovators.

The government has mandated each department and ministry to earmark a budget for research-based activities.

The policy states that to get R&D to a national Average of 0.7% of GDP and 2-3% of state GDP in the next five years, “additional funding from state government agencies is proposed to go up by 0.1% of state GDP every year.” Given that the state GDP was Rs 20.5 lakh crore in 2021-22, 0.1% of that would be about Rs 2,000 crore.

TheKarnatakagovernment is all set to host the three-day, 24th edition of Bengaluru Tech Summit (BTS) 2021, from Wednesday. After reviewing preparedness for the event,CN Ashwath Narayan, minister for IT, BT and science & technology, interacted with journalists.

Karnataka has an ambitious roadmap to touch $150 billion in IT exports over the next five years. A McKinsey report said Indias IT sector is expected to touch $300-$350 billion over the next five years, growing 10% a year.

In the next five years, we want to increase it to $150 billion from the current $58 billion. We also want to accelerate IT exports in Mysuru, Mangaluru and Hubbali clusters from 2% to 5% which translates to Rs 50,000 crore over five years from the current Rs 10,000 crore. However, these are pure-play IT Services export numbers, we haven’t factored in GCCs or startups and with that, itll be even bigger. The Indian government plans to become a $1 trillion digital economy, and we want to have a 30%-40% share. If we have to achieve this, we have to accelerate Growth beyond Bengaluru andCovidhas shown us the way.

The Karnataka government has rolled out several initiatives aimed at enhancing the ecosystem in these cities, leading to increase in demand for talent from IT/GCC/ESDM companies in Tier II & III cities. The availability of skilled manpower and cost effectiveness are favourable factors and were well positioned to address business challenges. Favourable labour laws and concessions are top priority and the state has provided a conducive Environment.

Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture minister BC Patil on Friday said the government was planning to provide a subsidy of Rs 20 per litre on diesel and petrol used by farmers for agricultural purposes.

Patil had first mooted the idea — a 25 per litre subsidy on diesel for farmers who own up to 10 acres of land — prior to the 2021-22 budget being presented by Yediyurappa. It was envisaged on the lines of the fuel subsidy being provided to fishermen in the state.

In theWestern Ghatsthere are 64 varieties of neelakurinji and 20-25 varieties are found in Karnataka. InKeralawe know the importance and specialities of neelakurinji but Karnataka are yet to identify the same, said Augustine, continuing, In the programme, a detailed discussion was held on the importance of neelakurinji. Later, the minister announced that they will take steps to protect all available varieties of neelakurinji in their state.
He said that most people were unaware of the importance of neelakurinji, which is considered as one of the special Plants with blooming specialities. The government decision will be helpful to preserve the verities of neelakurinji in the state, he said.

Responding to Karnataka chief minister B S Yediyurappas letter urging not to oppose the Mekedatu dam project, Nadu chief minister M K Stalin reiterated that the project was against the interests of Tamil Nadus farmers and requested him not to pursue the project.

The view that Mekedatu dam will not affect the interests of Tamil Nadu cannot be agreed upon as it would hinder the flow of water from catchments areas below Kabini and Krishnarajasagar da, Stalin told Yeddiyurappa.