KERALA

Union minister of state for Food Processing industries and Jal ShakthiPrahlad Singh Patelhas urged the to strive harder to achieve the target on implementation of JalJeevanMission programme.

The Union minister, who arrived inKeralafor a two-day visit, was interacting with the media persons in Kochi on Thursday.
Pointing out that tap water connections reached more than 12 crore families across the country andthe nationalaverage of the mission is above 63%, the minister said that the implementation level of the programme in Kerala hasnt reached even 50%.

Jal Jeevan Mission is a major initiative by the central government through which the government aims to give tap water connections to all households by 2024.

About 30% of land in the state is forest land, while 48% comprises the Western Ghats, lakes, backwaters, paddy land and wetland. The Population density of the state is more than 900 per square km, and the present population is 3.5 crore.

Hence, there is very little land available in the state. The proposal of the state that inhabited areas should completely be excluded from the ambit of eco-sensitive zones was under the consideration of the Centre, when The Supreme Court order was pronounced, the resolution said.

Dismissing as baseless Kitex group chairman Sabu Jacob’s allegation that the in Kerala is not Industry-friendly, state industries minister P Rajeev on Wednesday said his government stands for “responsible Investment” and the southern state would be made a destination of such investments in few years.

Rajeev said the focus of the government is to attract green industries and IT-based industries in Kerala as land scarcity and environmental issues associated with it have been a problem in the state.

Elaborating on responsible investment, the minister said it is a strategy and practice to incorporate environmental, social and Governance (ESG) factors in investment decisions.

Meteorologists, however, said the cyclone has been impacting the intensity of the monsoon and the onset over Kerala would be “mild”.

Scientists say cyclonic storms in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea have been intensifying rapidly and retaining their intensity for a longer duration due to https://exam.pscnotes.com/Climate-change”>Climate Change.

According to a study ‘Changing status of tropical Cyclones over the north Indian Ocean’, the frequency, duration, and intensity of cyclones in the Arabian Sea have increased by about 20 per cent in the post-monsoon period and 40 per cent in the pre-monsoon period.

There has been a 52 per cent increase in the number of cyclones in the Arabian Sea, while very severe cyclones have increased by 150 per cent.

Marine experts warned that coastal areas in Kerala will witness an increasing trend of sea surge in the coming years due to rise in sea surface temperature.

Experts are of the view that such storm surges are likely to occur in the coast increasingly in coming years with the rapid warming of the waters in the Indian Ocean, according to the release.

Cyclonic winds help form storm surge in the waters which results in high waves, sea erosion and flooding in the coastal hamlets. This was evidently seen recently, especially in coastal areas like Chellanam.

Chief Minister Pinaryi would inaugurate 97 new school buildings and lay the foundation stone for the construction of 12 more school buildings.

Meanwhile, addressing a high-level meeting here on Monday, the CM called for the timely completion of the preparatory works in connection with the school reopening.

He said the authorities concerned should ensure that all school buildings acquire fitness certificates before schools reopen on June 1. The local self-government institutions should complete the process for the same on priority.

A century ago, Alummoottil Govindan Channar, an avarna (lower-caste person), was one of the few car owners in the erstwhile Travancore kingdom and also its biggest taxpayer. However, as an untouchable he was not allowed to drive past temples in his car. He had to get out and walk to the other side where his upper-caste driver would pick him up.Untouchabilitywas so deep-rooted in Travancore and other parts of Kerala those days thatSwami Vivekanandahad once called the state a lunatic asylum.

The 1924satyagrahaagainst untouchability that started in Vaikom, a town 35km from Kochi and known as the Varanasi of the South, is regarded as a milestone inKeralas HISTORY. It eventually paved the way for the Temple Entry Proclamation of 1936 that granted members of thelower castesthe right to worship inHindu temples.

With the State Budget for the 2022-23 fiscal scheduled to be presented, the Finance Department on Wednesday launched a web portal and a mobile app that can be used by the public to access the budget documents and related information.

The web portal can be accessed on budget.kerala.gov.in. The app ‘Kerala Budget’ can be downloaded from Google Play Store and App Store.

Budget speeches and documents dating back to 1957 are available on the portal. The portal is designed as a user-friendly interface where key budget indicators are presented as charts and graphs. The portal is designed to be useful for both financial experts and the public.

Keralahas seen considerable fluctuation in its organic Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture (OA) policy and this has resulted in concurrent high levels of entry into and exit from the agriculture sector, says a study by a group of international researchers with support from Kerala agriculture scientists.

The case study was done with farmer interviews, focus groups and experts, focusing on Thrissur andWayanaddistricts. The researchers developed a typology of organic farmers and formed them into three core groups wealthy hobby farmers, poorer non-certified farmers, and middle class export farmers.

The study was led byVerena Seufertof University of Hohenheim, Germany, and Navin Ramankutty of University of British Columbia, Canada, et al along with Dr Kunhamu TK, Kerala Agriculture University,Wayanad Social Service Society, Raasta, Organic Wayanad and Fair-Trade Asssociation Kerala among others.

The study recommended that policy support for OA should primarily target non-certified farmers, who are the poorest group and have a strong ideological commitment to OA and are thus likely to persist with it in the long term.

The state will receive Rs 347.55 crore from the Centre under the newly constitutedstate disaster mitigation fund(SDMF) that will be exclusively utilized for preparatory works to ensure mitigation of natural disasters.

The ministry of Home affairs has allocated the funds, to which Rs 115.85 crore will be contributed by the state as its share, taking the total to Rs 463.40 crore to be utilized for the next five years, on the basis of the recommendations of the 15th .
The state is expected to benefit immensely from the new funds as most of the districts have been complaining about shortage of funds for pre-monsoon activities like desilting, ensuring the smooth flow of storm water for averting chances of flooding, etc.

The SDMF will be used for those local level and community-based interventions, which reduce the risks and promote Environment-friendly settlements and livelihood practices. However, the Centre has specifically asked the states that large-scale mitigation interventions such as construction of coastal walls, flood embankments, support for drought resilience, etc. should be pursued through the regular development schemes and not from the mitigation fund.