KERALA

The has decided to raise Rs 1,500 crore from the market as Kerala continues to be in a financial crisis.

A statement issued by the finance department said that the government decided to raise the amount and use it for developmental activities in state. However, it is also learnt that the funds are meant for the disbursal of salaries and pensions next month.

The states main committed expenditure include salaries, pensions and interest payments on loans and the revision of salaries and pensions based on the recommendations of the 11thpay commission alone has caused an additional burden of Rs 15,000 crore annually to the exchequer.

The government has been maintaining that with the discontinuation of GST compensation by Centre, Kerala is facing a shortage of Rs 12,000 crore every year. In addition, another Rs 6,700 crore is the Revenue Deficit grant this year.

Finance minister K N Balagopal has said that the will give top priority for enhancing Infrastructure facilities, including road and water transport, inKochi. Speaking at a meeting held to discuss the projects to be implemented for the citys development on Thursday, Balagopal said the government will consider all the needs of the city like construction of RAILWAY overbridges (RoBs), canal rejuvenation and road development favourably.

The government will try to avoid deductions from the plan fund allocation to the city. The government has been making deductions from the plan fund allocation to the city so as to compensate the amount it spent for purchasing land for the corporation at Brahmapuram. The government had to shell out more than Rs 100 crore for providing additional compensation to the landowners.

The annual cyber security and hacking conference, cOcOn 2021, will take place in the year 2021.

Kerala Police is in charge of organising the event.
On November 10 and 11, the conference will have two days of pre-conference workshops.
The main conference will take place on November 12 and 13, and will last two days.
“Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome” will be the subject of the conference.

cOcOn:

cOcOn is a 13-year-old platform that was founded with the goal of educating, showcasing, understanding, and spreading awareness about privacy, information security, and data protection.
Cyber Safe was the previous name for cOcOn. It is an annual event that takes place in Conjunction with International Information Security Day. The cOcOn yearly conferences began in 2008.

The ministry of Education released National Institutional Ranking Frameworks (NIRF) rankings of educational institutions for 2021 on Thursday. Though four universities in state continued to secure a position in the list of top 100 universities in India, the rankings of three fell compared to the 2020 list.

KeralaUniversity (KU), Thiruvananthapuram, came first in state by securing 27th rank followed by Mahatma Gandhi University (MGU), Kottayam (31), Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat, Kochi (44) and Calicut University (CU), Malappuram (60). While Cusat improved its rank (62 in 2020); the rank of KU (23), MGU (30) and CU (54) dipped.

In overall rankings of educational institutions KU topped with 43rd rank (42 in 2020). While MGU secured 52nd rank (49 in 2020), Cusat secured 65th rank (89 in 2020) and CU secured 95th rank (76 in 2020).

In the list of top 200 engineering institutes, Amrita School of Engineering (Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham) secured 16th rank. While NIT-Calicut secured 25th rank IIST, Thiruvananthapuram secured 40th rank and College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram secured 95th rank. Government Engineering College, Thrissur secured 156th rank.

The cabinet decided to reward Rs 5 lakh to eight other Sports persons fromKeralawho represented the country at Tokyo Olympics. This is in addition to the Rs 5 lakh each provided earlier. Earlier, NRI entrepreneur Shamsheer Vayalil had announced a reward of Rs 1 crore for Sreejesh.

Sabarimala airport:The cabinet decided to appoint KSIDC as the nodal agency for the proposed Sabarimala greenfield airport. Earlier, Kinfra was being considered as the nodal agency.
ARC report:The cabinet instructed the departments concerned to prepare detailed guidelines for implementing the recommendations in the fifth report of the fourth https://exam.pscnotes.com/administrative-reforms-commission”>Administrative Reforms Commission, which was chaired by former CM VS Achuthanandan.
Nod for agreement:The cabinet gave clearance to the agreement between state bamboo corporation and forest, wildlife department from November 1, last year till October 3, 2025.

The Cabinet on Thursday decided to recommend the governor to convene the second session of the assembly from July 21.

The department-wise discussion of the revised budget would be held during the upcoming session. Other key decisions:

Onam kit: A decision has been taken by the Cabinet to distribute special Onam kits to all ration card holders in the month of August.

Water Metro: The rates of Kochi Water Metro were finalized for the next one year. The minimum fare would be Rs 20, and for every additional km, it will be Rs 4. The maximum rate towards one direction has been fixed Rs 40. The Cabinet also gave powers to the Kochi Water Metro to form a fair fixation committee to revise the rates from time to time.

Financial aid: The cabinet decided to provide Rs 20 lakh as financial compensation to the family of Harshad, who lost his life after being bitten by a king cobra at Thiruvananthapuram zoo. Rs 10 lakh will be provided as financial compensation and the government will also construct a house for him. His wife will be offered a government job bypassing seniority list and the government would also bear the educational expenses of his son till the age of 18 years.

The government has also decided to offer financial compensation to the family of Tutu, an auto-rickshaw driver in Thiruvananthapuram, who passed away last year due to Covid-19. His family will be offered Rs 3 lakh from the chief ministers distress relief fund, besides an apartment under the Life Mission of the government on a priority basis.

The Kerala government on Friday launched robotic scavenger, Bandicoot, to clean sewages in this temple town, becoming the first state in the country to use robotic technology to clean all its commissioned manholes.

Resources“>Water Resources Minister, Roshi Augustine, launched Bandicoot under the Guruvayur Sewerage Project in Thrissur district by the Kerala Water Authority (KWA), as part of the 100-day action plan of the .

The robotic Tron Unit, which is the major component of Bandicoot, enters the manhole and removes sewage using robotic hands, similar to a man’s limbs, the release, adding that the machine has waterproof, HD vision cameras and sensors that can detect harmful gases inside the manholes.

Bandicoot, developed by Kerala-based Genrobotics, had recently bagged ‘Kerala Pride’ award at the Huddle Global 2022 conclave organised by Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM).

Bandicoot robots are currently deployed in few towns across 17 states in India and three Union Territories. In 2018, KWA started using Bandicoot to clean the manholes in Thiruvananthapuram. Later, it was introduced in Ernakulam also, the release said.

Genrobotics, a Technopark-based company, have developed “the world’s first robotic scavenger” Bandicoot in an effort to eliminate manual scavenging providing respite for workers engaged in manhole cleaning.

The state has made its foray into literary tourism by announcing plans to set up a Malabar Literary Circuit, which is billed as the first literary tourism circuit in the country, in the budget. Literary tourism allows travelers with a literary bent of mind to trail their favourite authors and locales associated with their literary works. Countries like the United Kingdom have capitalized on literary tourism in a big way by showcasing a string of locales associated with literary giants like Shakespeares birthplace in Stratford upon Avon and Thomas Hardys Dorset, among many others.

The Malabar Literary Circuit will connect destinations like Thunchan Parambu in Tirur,the birthplace of Thunchanth Ezhuthachan, the father of Malayalam language, Beypore in Kozhikode, which houses the residences of Beypore Sultan, Vaikom Muhammed Basheer, Thasrak, the village in Palakkad on which the imaginary land of Khasak where O V Vijayans masterpiece novel Khasakkinte Ithihasam is set, and Ponnani, Thrithala and the banks of Bharathapuzha linked to the life and works of eminent writer M T Vasudevan Nair.

The government has earmarked Rs 50 crore for setting up two new tourism circuits in the budget, the other being the circuit connecting places such as Ashtamudi Lake, Munroethuruth, Kottarakara, Meenpidipara, Muttara Maruthimala, Jadayu Rock, Thenmala and Achancovil in Kollam district.