State to form task force to help rural farmers export agricultural products

State Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture minister Dada Bhuse said thestate governmentwas appointing atask forcein every district to boost export of agriculture produce.

The state was leading in production of agriculture produce, but farmers lack information in fetching good price and even exporting goods where there are opportunities.

The minister also added that the agriculture department would also take steps to provide guidance to the tribal community for selling their produce.

On the provision of providing urea to the farmers, Bhuse claimed there is a process in place for efficiently providing urea to the farmers.

Set up organ retrieval centres to boost donations, govt med colleges told

All government medical colleges in the state have been asked to start organ retrieval centres toboost cadaver organ donations in Maharashtra. The state-run medical institutes have been under constant criticism for doing precious little to identify brain deaths and convince families to donate, thereby making organ transplantations largely a private affair.

Mahajan highlighted the importance of compiling a list of required materials in all government medical colleges and ensuring their availability. If any items are lacking, their procurement process should be expedited. By establishing well-equipped organ retrieval centres in remote areas, we can significantly increase the Percentage of donations from brain-dead patients, offering a new lease of life to many needy patients, he wrote in the letter.

PMRDA to draft development plan for 23 villages merged with Pune Municipal Corporation

The Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) would draft the development plan for 23 villages recently merged with the PMC, a notification issued by the on Wednesday stated.

The government said the PMRDA would work as a special planning authority for the development plan (DP).

The state governments notification stated that the order had been issued under sections 40 (1) and 40(1)(D) of the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act. The order stated that the roads in these villages were developed as per land availability and with no planned alignments. The order added that the width of the roads was not as per the requirement and the public amenities had not been developed.

Mahabeej promotes production of finger millet seeds among tribals

The rising demand for nagli (finger millet) seeds has prompted theMaharashtraSeeds Company Limited (Mahabeej) to promote seed production among tribals, who produce nagli only for personal consumption, in the Nashik district.

The tribal farmers have stayed away from large-scale Nagli production as it does not fetch an attractive price in the market. However, the announcement of the International Year of Millet has pushed the demand for nagli seeds.

Currently, the organization is training farmers in the Trimbakeshwar, Surgana and Peth tehsils, where nagli is produced.

Recovery rate increases by 1% in Pune rural: Report

The Covid-19 recovery rate in the districts rural areas increased by just 1% in the last one month.

The recovery rate on April 23 was 84%, which had increased to 85% on May 19, stated a report of thePune Zilla Parishad(ZP). Ayush Prasad, the ZPs CEO, conceded that the recovery rate was improving at a sluggish pace despite taking several measures to contain the spread of coronavirus. We have been aggressively conducting tests via our door-to-door survey. On an Average, we test 10,000 people daily, he said.

The ZP conducted door-todoor survey of a Population of over 20 lakh people, with the help of Asha workers, from May 6 to19.

Maharashtra intensifies focus on private health sector to eliminate TB

The is set to rope in 45 NGOs to work closely with private doctors as part of its strategy to eliminate tuberculosis by 2025.
These NGOs, also called patient-provider support agency (PPSA), will work with private doctors to find TB patients and put them on treatment without compromising their confidentiality. The new NGOs are besides the existing 35 such entities.

Those seeking care from state and Municipal Corporation-run hospitals are followed by dedicated Health staff till they finish the six-month-long treatment and are fully cured. But not everyone seeking care from private doctors, clinics and hospitals gets such care.

As per the national TB prevalence survey, for every one lakh Population in India, there are 199 TB patients. Going by the prevalence rate, Maharashtra, with its 12.87 crore population, is expected to have 2.5 lakh TB patients. Of these, almost 1 lakh seek care from private doctors, and the rest go to state and municipal corporation-run health units.

Under PPSA, a third-party agency is on-boarded to engage private-sector doctors who treat patients with TB and provide end-to-end Services, including diagnosis, notification, patient adherence and support, and treatment linkages, he added.

Under the project, a TB patient seeking medical care at a private clinic or hospital is also provided with free diagnostics and medications.

300 biodiversity hot spots at high risk of extinction

Unless nations dramatically improve on carbon cutting pledges made under the 2015 Paris Climate treaty, the planets richest concentrations of animal and plant life will be irreversibly ravaged by , scientists warned.

An analysis of 8,000 published risk assessments for species showed a high danger for extinction in nearly 300 Biodiversity hot spots, on land and in the sea, if temperatures rise three degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, they reported in the journal Biological Conservation.

Earths surface has heated up 1 degree C so far, and the Paris Agreement enjoins nations to cap warming at well below 2 degrees C, and 1.5 degrees C if possible.

National commitments to slash greenhouse gas emissions — assuming they are honoured — would still see temperatures soar well above 3 degrees C by centurys end, if not sooner.

So-called endemic species — Plants and animals found exclusively in a specific area — will be hit hardest in a warming world.

Overall, more than 90% of land-based endemic species, and 95% of marine ones, will be adversely affected if Earth warms another two degrees, the international team of researchers found.

Maharashtra economic survey: Only marginal drop in crime against kids and women

The latest state economic survey for 2022-23 revealed there were 36,018 and 16,836 crimes against Women and children, respectively, in 2022-23, as reported by the office of the special inspector general of Police (prevention of crime against women and children).

The report showed maximum crimes were committed against children under the category of kidnapping – 9,594 in 2022, as against 9,555 in 2021, and 7,392 in 2020. This was followed by child rape – 3,266 in 2022 as against 3,458 in 2021 and 2,785 in 2020. While 364 cases of murder of minors were registered between 2020 to 2022, the number of cases of infanticide, foeticide, abandonment of newborns stood at 24, 21, and 302, respectively, during the period.

Similary, 11,509 cases of molestation of women were reported in 2022 as against 12,945 in 2021, and 12,664 in 2020. Cases of cruelty saw a marginal drop with 9,225 cases registered in 2022, as against 10,095 in 2021. A total of 7,193 cases of kidnapping of women were registered in 2022, compared to 7,559 in 2021 and 5,254 in 2020. The figures for rape cases stood at 5,779 in 2022, compared to 5,954 in 2021 and 4,846 in 2020. The overall crimes against women registered in 2022 was 36,018, compared to 39,526 in 2021 and 31,954 in 2020.

TheMaharashtraState Commission for Women, a statutory body which regularly holds hearings or public hearings on complaints filed by women victims, provides free legal aid and counselling Services. It organises workshops, training programmes and seminars on women related issues, self DEFENCE programmes, awareness about gender , legal Literacy, cyber crime, implementation of Prevention of Domestic Violence Act, 2005, and Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition & redressal) Act, 2013, rehabilitation of acid attack victims, preparation of guidelines for creche. During 2021-22, a total of 16.63 lakh was spent on these programmes while 16.22 lakh was spent between 2022-23 up to January.

Maharashtra among nine states on global top 50 climate risk list

Maharashtrais among nine states in the country that are among the planet’s top 50 regions “at risk of damage to the built Environment” from eight https://exam.pscnotes.com/Climate-change”>Climate Change hazards, says an international report.
The Cross Dependency Initiative (XDI), part of the Climate Risk Group, has released a first pass analysis of Gross Domestic Climate Risk (GDCR) calculating the physical climate risk to the built environment (total Infrastructure plus human cost) in over 2,600 territories around the world in 2050.

Top among the eight climate change hazards are flooding and coastal inundation, the others being: extreme heat, forest fire, Soil movement (drought-related), and extreme wind and freeze thaw. The nine states, other than Maharashtra, are Bihar, UP, Assam, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Punjab and Kerala. These figure among the top 50 provinces in Asia that are at risk of damage, according to the report. The ranking is based on a data pool representing the built environment of the terrestrial world, with an “asset level, bottom-up analysis” using over 320 million data points.

Maharashtra saw 13% rise in drowning deaths in lockdown year: NCRB

Despite restricted access to beaches during the pandemic-induced lockdown year of 2020, deaths by drowning shot up by 13% inMaharashtraas compared to 2019.
Maharashtra had the second highest number of drowning-related fatalities in the country (5,136) after Madhya Pradesh (5,779), showed data with the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) for 2020.

At least 88% of all drowning-related fatalities in Maharashtra have been attributed to fall in water bodies.