MAHARASHTRA

:Maharashtrahealth officials on Wednesday directed all districts and local authorities to step up testing following the emergence of the new Omicron variant of Covid with the setting a target of 1 lakh tests a day henceforth.

Covid testing had gone down in some parts of the state in the past two weeks. Last week, the Union Health ministry directed nine districts in the state to scale up the daily Average testing, which had fallen below the World Health Organisation (WHO) norms of 140 tests per day per million Population for the week ending on November 22.
Akola, Amravati, Buldhana, Dhule, Gondia, Hingoli, Nandurbar, Washim and Yavatmal were then listed as the districts conducting average tests per million below the WHO norms. These districts, however, registered an improved collection of samples this week.

The Centre has also cited the onset of winter, increased pollution in some states, prevalence of influenza like illness/Severe Acute Respiratory Infections and respiratory distress symptoms as reasons for close monitoring, stepped up testing and early identification of the hotspots. The state has also issued guidelines on these to all districts.

The state governments approval to the draft for issuingvertical property cardsto flat owners of MahaRERA-registered projects is expected soon.

The move would ensure supplementaryverticalproperty cards for flats with details of ownership, carpet area, bank loan information and other details. The aim of issuing it is to map the vertical Growth in cities and rural areas. It would also help maintain an independent record of rights and register for individual apartments in projects.

The draft to issue vertical property cards drew lot of suggestions and objections. The committee constituted for vertical property cards submitted them to the state before the draft was framed.

The state issues property cards for land in urban areas and 7/11 extracts in rural areas.

Opening on a higher side, prices of raw continued to soar probably first time in last one decade with regions Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture produce Marketing committee (APMC) recording over Rs 8,500 per quintal.

Amid the windfall, rumours of raw cotton fetching Rs 9,500/quintal at Achalpur open market went viral in several Social Media groups on Saturday. A purported bill issued by a ginner too was attached to the social media post.

Yet the mood among farmers and other APMC members is upbeat. The rawcotton ratesnormally come down after the opening day, but this year high demand has ensured growers get nearly 30 to 40% more than the minimum support price of Rs6,025 per quintal.

On November 2, the crop committee of Cotton Association of India (CAI) would be meeting to assess the shortfall in production.

Advances in technology come with their own set of challenges. One such challenge is when miscreants use these advancements to suit their vested interests: case in point being the forging of paper-based documents using sophisticated graphics tools.

It is in this context that the move by the Maharashtra government to partner with LegitDoc, an Indian blockchain start-up, signals intent on part of the authorities to tackle such misuse of technology. With this PARTNERSHIP, the Maharashtra government has reposed faith innew-age blockchain solutionsto fight fraud. The tie-up with LegitDoc will help the government issue tamper-proof diploma certificates.

This bold step by the Maharashtra government comes at a time while the Union Government is yet to take a call on legalizing or banning cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. This new-age technology sidesteps solutions built on centralized architecture such as DigiLocker, that have a single point of failure irrespective of the protection levels that go into it.

Calling for mitigating measures, the Environment department, while making the presentation, reiterated that if temperatures rise by 2-2.5 degrees Celsius on account of https://exam.pscnotes.com/Climate-change”>Climate Change, the city and the state will be among the worlds worst-affected spots.

The department warned that if one continues with business as usual then Mumbai and other coastal areas face the prospect of submergence, and central Maharashtra of severe drought. It said that forests, instead of acting as carbon sinks, will burn due to fires.

Savitribai Phule Pune University in India synthesised a nano biomaterial with a stable link between two Molecules. The advancement could soon aid in tissue regeneration

About Bone tissue regeneration:

Bone defect of critical size due to trauma or disease. These are extremely difficult to repair through natural host tissue Growth.

As a result, there is a need to fill these defects with a bridging (usually porous) material (termed scaffold), which should also promote the regeneration of new bone tissue when combined with relevant cells and signalling molecules.

The biomaterials of choice for the development of such scaffolds should have bioactive properties, which means they should react with physiological fluids and form tenacious for bone formation.

Around 46% of Aaple Sarkar Seva Kendras were non-functional inMaharashtra, a recent review meeting of the noted.
Of the 37,000 kendras in the state, only 20,000 were functioning properly, mainly in the urban areas, a senior official of the Maharashtra State Commission for Right to Services said.

Many citizens have complained about being either denied services or being overcharged at these kendras.

The state government enacted the Maharashtra Right to Public Service (MRTPS) Act, 2015, for transparent, efficient and timely delivery of public services to citizens, and to bring Transparency and Accountability among public authorities. Aaple Sarkar Seva Kendras are online service-providing centres.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India in its report released in March stated that half of the kendras were not providing the notified services.

The report also stated that their performance on the delivery of timely services was far from satisfactory.

The CAG report was based on the delivery of services under the RTS Act from 2015 till 2021.

The report also stated that the online portal lacked proper documentation and monitoring of delivery of services was inadequate because of a shortfall in inspection offices.

It mentioned that 27% of the municipal councils and 35% of gram panchayats in the state do not have any centres to serve citizens.

In a clear indication of the economic hit of the lockdown-like restrictions inMaharashtra, state GSTcollectionsplummeted by 36.4% between April and May. The curbs announced to control the second wave of Covid clamped down on most sectors barring Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture, manufacturing, construction and essential Services. Currently, non-essential retail has been allowed to open in a limited manner.

GST collections in April reflected the transactions made in March. However, receipts in May reflect the transactions after the lockdown-like curbs began.

The latest data shows that GST collections decreased from Rs 22,012 crore in April to Rs 13,399 crore in Maya fall of Rs 8,130 crore.

GST is a consumption-based tax and is an indicator of economic activity.

Maharashtra had ended the pandemic-struck year of 2020-21 with GST collections that were 11% lower than 2019. Data showed that the state collected 1.6 lakh crore worth of GST in 2020-21 compared to 1.8 lakh crore in 2019-20. The receipts had dipped by Rs 20,609 crore.

The state has been pressing the Centre to settle its pending GST compensation dues, which are currently Rs 24,000 crore.

The state cabinet decided to extend the period for the Electronics, Space and DEFENCE andReadymade Garmentindustry policies issued by theIndustries Department.

These policies will remain in force till new policies of the respective subjects are prepared.Maharashtra ElectronicsPolicy-2016 and Incentives for Fab Projects under it expired on March 31, 2023.

Flattened Sedimentary Industrial Complex Policy-2018 forReadymade Garment Manufacturing, Gems and Jewellery, Micro Electronics and Engineering Componentshas expired on 13 February 2023. Therefore, it was decided to extend these policies.

Maharashtrahas the legislative competence for granting reservation quota to Marathas and its decision is constitutional as the 102nd amendment does not denude a state of the power to declare its list of Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC), the Centre told The Supreme Court.

The 102nd Constitution amendment Act of 2018 inserted Articles 338B, which deals with the structure, duties and powers of the National Commission for Backward Class (NCBC), and 342A dealing with power of the President to notify a particular caste as SEBC as also of Parliament to change the list.

The , while upholding the law in June 2019, had held that 16 per cent reservation was not justifiable and the quota should not exceed 12 per cent in EMPLOYMENT and 13 per cent in admissions.