KERALA

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.