PUNJAB

Punjab Government has decided to make special efforts to boost the game of Rugby in the State. Taking the first step in this direction, Rugby sport will be included in Khedan Watan Punjab Deya for this year, said the state Sports Minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer during a meeting with Indian Rugby Football Union president Rahul Bose at his official residence.

Hayer, during discussions with Rahul Bose a former international Rugby player and an acclaimed film actor and director to promote rugby in Punjab, said that the is making continuous efforts to revive the sports culture in Punjab.

The State Government had organized the first-ever Khedan Watan Punjab Deya in 2022 in which more than three lakh sportsmen participated in 30 sports competitions. This time, Rugby will also be included, he said.

Hayer said that Rugby is a combination of athletics, kabaddi, football, and handball, which suits the nature of Punjabis. There is every possibility that Punjabis will perform better in this game. Rugby Seven is a short form of this game which is included in the Olympic, Asian or Commonwealth Games, so efforts will be made to find acceptance for this form of the game in Punjab, he said.

Despite vaccination being considered the most effective way of suppressing the spread of Covid-19, in Punjab, the ratio of people who have been inoculated is lesser than the infection rate. This has been stated in the Ecowrap report of the https://exam.pscnotes.com/state-bank-of-india”>State Bank Of India.

Against the national Average of 4.3, Punjab has an injection to infection ratio of 4. The neighbouring states ofHimachal Pradeshand Haryana have fared much better. Haryana is at par with the national average while the hill state of Himachal has injection to infection ratio of 8.

With senior citizens accounting for 10.3% of the states total Population of 27,743,338, Punjab is among the top five states in the country Kerala (12.6%), Goa (11.2%), Tamil Nadu (10.4%) and HP (10.2%) having higher proportion of older population than the national average of 8.6%.

Tourism Minister Anmol Gagan Maan has applauded the Chief Ministers of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh for agreeing to jointly develop ropeway projects in the Anandpur Sahib-Naina Devi and Pathankot-Dalhousie regions.The project is expected to boost the socio- of both states and facilitate tourism.

The minister said the ropeway project would be a major attraction for tourists and was expected to bring a significant boost to the local economy. It would provide an easy access to some of the most scenic locations in the region, she said.

Addressing the business tycoons here during the inaugural session of the fifth Progressive Punjab Investors Summit, CM welcomed pravasis and said that Punjab is the most favourable destination across the country and no stone will be left unturned to facilitate them. He envisioned a strong association between the State Government and industrialists to make Punjab an industrial hub in the country.

He envisioned that this policy will provide a roadmap for Infrastructure development, such as industrial parks, Airports, and Ports, which will further facilitate the movement of goods and people and enhance the state’s connectivity to global markets. Bhagwant Mann said that the state Government is developing Integrated Industrial Township adding that it taken a major decision to build 20 Rural Industrial Clusters and 15 industrial parks.

The Chief Minister said that rather than waiting for investments in the state, he has adopted a door-to-door policy to approach entrepreneurs for investing in state. He said Punjab has received more than Rs 40,000 Crores worth of investments since March 2022 thereby generating around 2.50 lakh EMPLOYMENT opportunities. He said that these investments include those by major companies like Tata Steel, Nestle, Freudenberg, Cargill, Hindustan Unilever, Sanathan Textiles and others that have come to state.

To further promote pisciculture in the state, Punjab Government has decided to increase area under profitable agri-allied occupation, shrimp culture, to 5,000 acres over next five years.

Bhullar said that for the development of shrimp culture, a dedicated Demonstration Farm-cum-Training Center is being run at Ena Khera village in Sri Muktsar Sahib district, where free training and -water testing facilities are being provided to shrimp farmers.

He said that special emphasis is being laid to develop for fish farming and increase fish production in the state. State Government is supplying good quality fish seed to farmers at subsidized rates from government fish seed farms. The construction work of new government fish seed farm is underway at Village Killianwali, District Fazilka, which will soon be completed and dedicated to the people.

This state of the art research centre will showcase the message of these three , said the Chief Minister while addressing the gathering after laying the foundation stone of state of art Bhagwan Parshuram Taposthal.

Channi said that since ages, these epics have been source of life and inspiration for the entire humanity and this research centre will act as a Catalyst for disseminating the message of these epics amongst the masses in the simplest form. The State Government is trying to rope in respected Shankaracharya for this ambitious project, he added.

To ensure proper care of the stray cattle in the State, the Brahmin Welfare Board will be entrusted with this task, and the funds will be provided to the Board for proper upkeep of the stray cattle, said Channi adding that it is the need of hour to solve this one of the major social problems.

The Aam Aadmi Partys (AAP) government is all set to approve The Punjab Industrial and Business Development Policy-2022 by bringing it for discussion in the Cabinet meeting scheduled this week. The previous Industrial Policy of 2017 ended on October 17.

Its for the first time that the policy would focus on providing EMPLOYMENT generation subsidy to units that employ people having Punjab domicile.

Those employing Punjabis would be given Rs 36,000 annually per employee for five years and Rs 48,000 per employee on annual basis for five years in case the employee is a woman or belongs to the reserved categories.

The policy would aim to attract an of Rs 5 lakh crore in five years, increase the share of Secondary Sector in GSDP to 30 per cent and Tertiary Sector to 62 per cent, enable job creation, develop worldclass Infrastructure, facilitate the development of at least 15 industrial parks and attract at least one anchor unit in manufacturing and Services-sector”>services sector.

For Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSMEs) and large scale industries, the government would reimburse state goods and services tax for seven years, give a 50 per cent on fixed capital investment, exemption from electricity duty and stamp duty, subsidy on applying for patents and subsidy for getting access to technology.

The policy has identified certain thrust sectors, incuding electronics, Food Processing, apparel, IT and ITES. These sectors would also get above mentioned incentives, besides a slew of incentives for food processing Industry.

The Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (Pspcl) has issued a termination notice to the company, an official statement said.

The development assumes significance as several Punjab Congress leaders, including Navjot Singh Sidhu, have been pressing for scrapping faulty PPAs signed during the previous SAD-BJP regime to provide electricity to people at cheaper rates.

A default notice has been served by the PSPCL to GVK on Saturday for cancellation of the PPA due to high power cost and falling lowest in the merit order, procurement of energy from GVK that had been restricted only within the range of 25 per cent to 30 per cent during most of the times of a year resulting in higher tariff of about Rs 7.52 per unit for the last year, the statement said.

Channi said this step has been taken to safeguard the interests of consumers by way of reducing the burden of costly power.