The Smart Kitchen Scheme will be launched on July 10, 2021.
As part of the scheme, Women of state will be given a loan to renovate their kitchens.
Loans with low-interest rates will be made available in instalment plans.
The scheme aims to reduce the workload of women’s domestic labour.
KERALA
AI cameras ready but no fines for now in Kerala
CM Pinarayi Vijayan launched 726 road surveillance cameras powered by , envisaged to reduce road accidents and prevent traffic violations, in the state. The penalties for rule violations, however, will not be levied for a month and instead, awareness programmes will be conducted.
Transport ministerAntony Rajusaid the AI cameras would bring transparency in levying of fines. The speed limit for vehicles will be revised in the event of road conditions improving in the state, he said. The CM said government was looking to improve road safety by installing these camer-as. The intention behind using modern technology for vehicle inspection is to reduce difficulties for the public.
Kerala Infrastructure of Technology and Education to fix First Bell shortcomings
With thesecond waveof thepandemicprevailing intensely in the state,online classesanddigital learningare likely to be the medium of Education in the upcoming academic year too. To rectify the shortcomings and make digital Learning more student-friendly and effective,Kerala of Technology and Education(KITE) has submitted a proposal to the State Government. The proposal, submitted byKITEchief executive officerK Anwar Sadath, suggests a few additions to the existing First Bell programme based on the experiences gained over the last one year.
KITE proposed to schedule the digital learning system in order to clear the academic gap in students. The plan is to keep a balance between centralized online classes, like the ones in Victers TV, and online lessons delivered by respective teachers at school level. Also, it must be structured in a way that teachers continuous support is provided to students along with the provisions for continuous evaluation.
Suggestions at four levels academic, technological, implementation and monitoring were proposed by KITE to achieve the intended results.
Crops on nearly 41,000ha lost to natural calamities in Kerala
Kerala, which depends on other states for Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture products, has been losing crops on huge tracts of land natural calamities every year, shows data procured under the RTI Act.
Crops on around 40,960 hectares (ha) of agricultural land were lost to calamities in the state in just three-and-half years from June 2019 to December 2022, as per data from the agriculture department. Crops on 18,899.79ha were destroyed due to heavy rain. Crops on around 186ha were lost due to drought during the same period.Landslidesalso washed away crops on 183ha.
Alappuzhaand Kottayam districts were the worst affected by the extreme weather events. Alappuzha reported crop loss of 5,939ha in just from April 2021 till December 2022 and it was 2,957ha in Kottayam. Kasaragod reported the lowest crop loss of 119ha in the same period.
The crop loss affected 3,15,013 farmers in the state with banana cultivators being the worst affected. Banana crops of around 1,12,643 farmers were destroyed in three-and-half years due to the calamities. They are followed by paddy and coconut farmers.
Credibility of higher education institutions under cloud in Kerala
Kerala Sasthra Sahithya Parishad (KSSP) has demanded drastic changes in the higher Education system in the state.
The KSSP leaders said the reports that ineligible persons were appointed in the top posts of educational institutions has put a question mark on the credibility of the higher education system in the state.
There is widespread concern that the policy is against the concept of all-inclusive education, Parishad leaders said in the statement.
Kerala government has already taken measures to transform the state into a knowledge Society. Though the has been taking major steps to achieve this goal, there are many issues to be resolved, they pointed out.
As per the data provided byKerala Higher Education Boardin 2021, there are 18 universities and 1,504 colleges in the state. Though there are adequate infrastructural facilities, around 80,000-degree seats remain vacant every year, most of them in the unaided sector.
Kerala: CIAL retains its position as third busiest airport
Amid the rising number of Covid cases inKerala, theCochin International Airport Limited(CIAL) retained its position as the third busiest airport in India in 2021 in international sector. As per the latest statistics released byAirport Authority of India(AAI) on international travel, CIAL secured third position in December too, similar to previous months in the year.
As per the report, CIAL registered 301,338 international passengers during December 2021. WhileDelhi airportcontinued to top the list with 8,42,582 passengers and Mumbai airport retained its second spot with 4,51,212 passengers in the said period. CIAL is followed by Chennai airport which handled 2,46,387 international passengers.
CIALs passenger volume has almost increased by a million in 2021 compared to that of 2020. The airport handled a total of 43,06,661 passengers in 2021 and 18,69,690 among them were international passengers.
Kerala: Need to overhaul land fair value system, electricity duty, says GIFT
Gulati Institute of Finance and (GIFT), a State Government-funded think tank, has urged the government to overhaul the land fair-value assessment system and hike electricity duty as measures to increase its revenue.
The state government had asked the agency early this year to make suggestions to improve the states revenue. The suggestions, touted as the ones that would ignite little public wrath, have appeared in elaborate form as articles in the latest edition ofKerala economy, a journal published by the institute.
Narayana claims the failure by the state in adopting modern methods for fixing fair value of land has led to a situation wherein the revenue from stamp duty and registration has slipped to 6.76% of the states own taxes and duties in 2020-2021, from 12% till 2010. It recommended the government to use remote sensing and GIS tools to continuously revise the land fair value in accordance with the market value of the land. Though the technology upgrade would require substantial Investment, phenomenal revenue increase would justify the same, he argues.
Even a small increment in duty for the domestic consumer category would bring large-scale revenue benefits. The domestic consumers alone would have contributed an additional revenue of Rs 2,349 crore in 2018-19 period if the electricity duty collected in the state were on par with that levied in Punjab andMaharashtra, said the report.
Kerala was one among the few states that dont charge electricity duty for RAILWAY traction. Since several other states collect electricity duty from railways, Kerala should also collect the same. The 10% duty on electricity consumption introduced in 1969 remains unchanged and hence a revision in the duty would be very much justifiable, the report argues.
Anganwadi-ASHA workers, HMs told to notify births & deaths
Government school headmasters (HM),anganwadiworkers and accredited social Health activists (ASHA) will now have to notify births and deaths in their jurisdiction. Local self-government department (LSGD) has published an extraordinary gazette notification regarding the same. LSGD cited a Supreme Court judgment that had directed all states/UTs on the same.
In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (ii) of sub-section (1) of section 10 of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969 (Central Act 18 of 1969) the Government ofKeralahereby specify ASHA, anganwadi workers and headmasters of government schools to notify every birth or death or both at which he or she attended or was present or which occurred in the area under their jurisdiction to the registrar within the time limit prescribed under the Kerala Registration of Births and Deaths Rules, 1999.
KFRI to set up unique seed museum
Indias first seed museum is set to come up at Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI) in PeechiThe museum will showcase seeds of all medicinal Plants and tropical plants growing in natural habitats in the country.
The work for setting up the museum has already been started and is expected to be opened for the public by next year. The ministry of Ayush has allotted Rs 2.1crore for setting up the museum, which is coming up on the top floor of the seed centre at KFRI.
The museum will exhibit seeds of around 1,000 species of plants, including rare ones.We have already collected 250 species.
STREET project Launched By Kerala
The Kerala Tourism will launch the STREET project for specific spots across the districts to take tourism deep into the interiors of the state,
Highlights:
This project will help visitors to experience the diversity of offerings at these places.
This project has been conceived by Responsible Tourism Mission and is inspired by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) slogan- “Tourism for https://exam.pscnotes.com/inclusive-Growth“>Inclusive Growth“.
STREET Project:
STREET is an acronym for “Sustainable, Tangible, Responsible, Experiential, Ethnic, Tourism hubs”.
Under the project, themes like Green Street, village life experience street, cultural street, experiential tourism street, water street, agri-tourism street, and art STREET have been planned.
These streets will be in sequence with the characteristics of the picked areas and will also focus on experiential tourism.
The STREET project intends to display the unique identity of the state of Kerala before to tourists.
It also offers a vast potential for growth in the tourism sector and would bring in vital changes.
The project will foster mutually profitable organic relationships between tourism development and people’s ordinary lives in Kerala.
The STREET project will be implemented in the Public-Private PARTNERSHIP (PPP) model. It will involve local bodies and residents of the select locations as stakeholders.