KERALA

Finance minister K N Balagopal said that Kerala will become a manufacturing hub if Vizhinjam port becomes a reality.

He was speaking after the inauguration of the first edition of Made in Kerala award ceremony of the state council of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and (FICCI) held Saturday.

It is expected that an Investment of Rs 60,000 crore will come to the state with the creation of a new development zone in the area from Vizhinjam to Paripally, the minister said. He said that the governments policy is to promote value-added products as much as possible.

MinisterV Sivankuttysaid that thegeneral Education departmentdoes not have any objection to single-sex schools inKeralagetting converted toco-educational schools. Speaking at a news conference atKanhangadinKasaragodon Monday, he said that many boys-only and girls-only schools would like to become co-educational institutions.

It is not being decided by education department. The decision is being taken unanimously by Parents Teachers Association (PTA) of schools, teachers of the institutions and the local body institution concerned; the department is approving their decision. Education department does not have any objection to boys and girls Learning together, he said.

Meanwhile the minister said that the education department has not taken a decision to implement gender-neutral uniforms in state. He said that some organizations have a misunderstanding that gender-neutral uniforms are being imposed by the government and education department.

For promoting youngentrepreneursand new concepts of as part of observing the ongoing financial year as the ‘Year of Entrepreneurship’, the government has launched a contest seeking ideas on new avenues of entrepreneurship.

The industries and commerce department has come up with the contest ‘Dreamvestor’ for prospective business aspirants in the state. The initiative’s aim is to provide a platform for the innovators in the state to present their ideas before an eminent panel and to explore the possibility of turning their innovative concepts into a business venture.

The ideas selected in the contest will be given necessary handholding support such as access to incubation space in government-owned business incubation centres, mentoring support to overcome challenges, access to seed capital assistance, etc.

Higher Education minister R Bindhu has announced the governments decision to set up an international research centre in memory of physicist Thanu Padmanabhan.

The centre would come up underKerala University(KU), the minister said while inaugurating the student life cycle management system and a host of digital Services readied by KU. Bindhu said the decision to set up an international study centre in memory of the renowned physicist who died recently was taken based on a suggestion of CM Pinarayi Vijayan. A plan for the project was in the final phase, she said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled SPRINT challenges, an initiative aimed at boosting the usage of indigenous technology in the INDIAN NAVY.

Modi unveiled the initiative at a naval seminar organised to engage Indian and academia towards achieving self-reliance in the DEFENCE sector.

The NIIO, in cooperation with the Defence Innovation Organisation (DIO), aims to induct at least 75 new indigenous technologies/products into the Indian Navy in sync with Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav commemorating 75 years of the countrys Independence.

This collaborative project is named SPRINT Supporting Pole-Vaulting in R&D through iDEX (Innovations for Defence Excellence), NIIO and TDAC (Technology Development Acceleration Cell).

heKerala development board(KLDB) has joined hands with the Indian institute of science Education and research (IISER) to promote the cooperation for the advancement of livestock breeding, genomic selection, research and educational exchange between both the organizations.

The State Government is aiming to produce more disease-resistant cattle without compromising in the milk production in its efforts towards attaining self-sufficiency or even surplus milk production in the state.
For this, such collaborations will be useful because the cattle are now to be made more adaptable to resource poor situations and also to the predicted Climate-change”>Climate Change issues.

NavAlt made headlines when it launched a solar water taxi and the countrys first solar ferry in Kerala. As per estimates, a conventional small boat will consume 2,500 litres of fuel/year, which results in 5-6 tonnes of carbon emissions/year. Multiplied by 2.5 lakh boats in India, it gives the size of Carbon Emission, which is massive in terms of environmental impact.

As the goals under general Education protection mission has been achieved, the government decided scrap it and focus on quality education throughVidyakiranammission.

A Navakeralam mission cell will be formed with CM as its president, chief secretary as convener, Navakeralam mission coordinator as joint convener and the concerned ministers and secretaries as its members. For three years, 88 new posts will be created for implementing the second phase and a coordinator will be appointed for its smooth implementation.

Government pleaders: The cabinet cleared the appointment of government pleaders. There will be 20 special government pleaders, 53 senior government pleaders and 52 government pleaders.

A new survey conducted by Kerala Police among youths below 21 years of age, who were victims of substance abuse, has revealed another shocking fact that 40 percent of them were children below the age of 18.

To eradicate the drug menace from the premises of the schools, the police had conducted 18,301 raids in small eateries and petty shops near schools in the state and registered 401 cases.

In 2022, the Kerala Police registered 25,240 NDPS cases and arrested 29,514 accused compared to the 5334 cases registered in 2021 and 6704 accused arrested in 2021, reveals a document.

In a year in which the has set a target to aid the launch of one lakh Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), close to 25,000 MSMEs have been newly registered in State in the current quarter, Industries Minister P. Rajeeve said on Monday.

Inaugurating the MSME day celebrations, he said that this is the highest number of MSME registrations in a year, surpassing the 17,000 achieved in an entire year in 2021. Minister for Local Self Governments M.V. Govindan, who launched help desks for providing support for aspiring entrepreneurs in all local bodies, said that a change in mindset among local body officials will help in the Growth of MSMEs.Currently, Kerala is in the 12th position in the number of MSMEs with 5.6% of such initiatives located here. By the next MSME day, we have to achieve even higher ranks. A total of 24,784 MSMEs have registered this quarter.

Around 80,000 workshops have been organised across all local bodies till now for aspiring entrepreneurs. Online applications have been received for 7 private industrial parks, in addition to 14 applications at the district level. License will be provided to all of them within 30 days. Technology clinics will be organised in all districts.