KARNATAKA

Between April 2017 and March 2022, theKarnatakagovernment received complaints or tip-offs about 10,352 attempts of child marriage and 9,261 (about 90%) were prevented. In all, 860 FIRs were registered against people involved in getting minors married or at least tried it in the same period.

Experts and officials point out that most child marriages occur largely due to POVERTY, illiteracy, superstition or to ease what elders see as their burden of having a girl child.

Data of the Karnataka Women and child development department shows that 1,091 child marriages actually took place.

According to sections 9 and 13 of the Act, if the girl is a minor, then the man will be charged with a penalty and severe imprisonment. Sections 10 and 11 provide for imprisonment of at least 1-2 years for those supporting and encouraging such marriages aside from a penalty of Rs 1 lakh.

Geographical tagging, also known as geotagging, is the process of adding geographical identification data. This data consists of latitude and longitude coordinates. The coordinates could then be used to identify the geo-tagged tree, and monitor them through satellites.

The keenly-awaited cabinet expansion comes a week after Bommai took charge as the chief minister of the state, following the resignation of Yediyurappa.

Bommai had earlier said he will not have any deputy chief ministers in his cabinet as per the directions of the high command. Yediyurappa’s younger son and state BJP vice president B Y Vijayendra was not included in the cabinet.

State governorThaawarchand Gehlotadministered oath of office to the new ministers at the Raj Bhavan in Bengaluru.

Two additional guarantee schemes promised by the Congress government in Karnataka have been put into effect.

The first scheme involves providing cash to beneficiaries instead of the extra five kg of rice under the ‘Anna Bhagya’. The second scheme, called ‘Gruha Jyothi’, offers 200 units of free electricity to households.
The government has already fulfilled one of its five election promises, named “Shakti,” by introducing free Services for Women in public transport buses.

Chief minister Siddaramaiah said that the payment to beneficiaries under the Anna Bhagya scheme for this month is expected to commence after July 10. On the other hand, the Gruha Jyothi scheme has become effective immediately, and theelectricity billfor this month will be issued at the beginning of August, in accordance with the billing cycle.

The benefit is calculated based on Average consumption for Financial Year 2022-23, plus 10 percent increase, but total amounting to less than 200 units.

The remaining two guarantees which the government is taking steps to implement soon are — Rs 2,000 monthly assistance to the woman head of every family (Gruha Lakshmi); and Rs 3,000 every month for unemployed graduate youth and Rs 1,500 for unemployed diploma holders (Yuva Nidhi).

The newsmartcampus of Bosch India, a top provider of technology and Services inBengaluru, was essentially inaugurated by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi.

According to a business statement, Modi noted in his inauguration address that this year is a historic one for both India andBosch Indiaas both countries mark their 75th anniversaries of independence.

Boschfirst arrived in India as a German corporation a century ago; now, it is equally as Indian as it isGerman. This is a fantastic illustration of Indian energy and German engineering.

Signalling what could be in store for the State in terms of collection of Goods and Service Tax (GST) for the month of May, when the State was in lockdown, the collection fell by 42% from March while the COVID-19 pandemic was raging in Bengaluru.

The total GST collection, including cess, fell from 9,954 crore in March to 5,731 crore in April. This is expected to slide steeply in the month of May, the figures for which are expected this month. The fall in collection for April came after a record collection in the country in March.

For the State, the net collection from State Goods and Services Tax (SGST), Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST) settlement, Karnataka Sales Tax, and Professional Tax dipped from 7,123 crore in March to 4,304 crore in April a 40% decline. This is excluding the compensation received.

Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd(MRPL) will establish fiveoxygen generation plantsacrossKarnataka, includingDakshina Kannada, to support the states fight against the second wave of the Covid pandemic.

Under the guidance of MPNalin Kumar Kateeland District Administration, MRPL will be setting up a 930 litres per minute plant in theWenlock District Hospital. Shell MRPL Aviation (SMA), a joint venture between MRPL and Shell, will contribute Rs 75 lakh for this initiative. The plant is expected to be operational by mid-June.

MRPL has already placed an order worth Rs 1.12 crore with Summits Hygronics Private Limited. This system will have compressors, PSA Tank, filters, tanks, dryers and will ensure Oxygen pressure of 4 bars with a purity of 93 +/- 3 which should be sufficient to meet the medical oxygen requirement.

Karnatakatops the list of states and Union Territories in providing access to and three other southern states figure among the best five, according to theIndia Justice Report2022.

TheIJR, which was released recently, said except for Delhi and Chandigarh, no state or Union territory spends more than one per cent of its total annual expenditure onjudiciarywhere the vacancy of judges in high courts stands at 30 per cent.
The IJR, an initiative of theTata Trustslaunched in 2019, said as of December 2022, the country had 19 judges for every 10 lakh people and a backlog of 4.8 crore cases. The Law Commission had suggested, as early as in 1987, that there should be 50 judges for every 10 lakh people in a decade’s time.

The statistics were shared in IJR which ranked states and UTs on various parameters like vacancies in judiciary, budgetary allocations, Infrastructure, human Resources, legal aid, condition of prisons, functioning of Police and state Human Rights commissions.

Karnatakas gross state domestic product (GSDP), which had shrunk for the first time in at least a decade during 2020-21, is estimated to grow by 9. 5% (by over Rs 1-lakh-crore) to Rs 12. 5-lakhcrore for 2021-22, the Economic Survey released on Friday shows.

While advanced estimates for 2020-21 had pegged the GSDP to shrink by 2. 6% and touch Rs 11. 1-lakh-crore, revised estimates show that the economy actually shrunk by only 0. 5% and had touched Rs 11. 4-lakh-crore.

Also, in 2021-22 all sectors have shown Growth compared to the previous year that saw the industries and Services-sector”>services sector record a dip. The survey projects the Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture sector to grow by 2. 2% while growth rate for the industries and ser- vices sectors are pegged at 7. 4% and 9. 2% respectively.

The growth rate of the agricultural sector (2. 2%) has dipped compared to a much higher figure of 15. 1% last year as reported by the latest survey, and 6. 4% as per the survey released in March 2021. In fact, the overall GSDP and sectoral figures for the past four years 2020-21 to 2017-18 are different in the recent survey compared to the document released in March 2021.

The contraction in agriculture sector is attributed to a lower growth rate of crop sector to -0. 3% in 2021-22 compared to 13. 8% in 2020-21, which in turn was caused by failure of food grain production caused by the floods that affected nearly 15 lakh hectares across Karnataka.
The sector is anticipated to grow showing gradual recovery in industries, which was -5. 5% during the previous year. And, the services sector is expected to grow on account of growth in IT-related services (23% of the GSDP), which was 1. 5% during the previous year.

At current prices, ad- vanced estimates of the GSDP in nominal terms is pegged at Rs 20. 5-lakh-crore, up from Rs 17. 3-lakh-crore during the previous year. In FY 22, Karnataka is estimated to grow at a robust growth rate of 18. 4%, the survey reads.

Kalaburagiwas sanctioned a Mega Textile Park by the Union Government. Prime MinisterNarendra Moditweeted saying that textile parks will be started in Karnataka, Nadu, Telangana, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh andUttar Pradesh.

Karnataka State Government had sent proposals for two districts – Kalaburagi and Vijayapura – but the union government has allotted the textile park to Kalaburagi.

Kalaburagi District Administration had handed over 1,000 acres of land located at Firozabad and Honnakiranagi villages in Kalaburagi taluk to the textile department. Kalaburagi district administration has also received a call from prime ministers office in this regard, which was confirmed by Kalaburagi MP UmeshJadhav.

Umesh Jadhav also issued a press release saying that Union government had promised in its 2021 budget a textile park for Karnataka and now it will materialise in Kalaburagi. He said that from last two years he has been making effort to bring the textile park to Kalaburagi and had been convincing both state and union governments to bring it to Kalaburagi. Finally, we have succeeded, said Jadhav