RAJASTHAN

CM Ashok Gehlot has approved the proposal to reimburse fees for students up to Class 12. The government will spend Rs 46 crore on this approval under the Right to Education Act.

Under this scheme, children of class 8 studying on free seats will continue to study till Class 12 from the 2023-24 academic session, a release from office of the directorate of elementary education said.

Recently, different associations of the guardians across the state had held a protest against the government for delaying the implementation of this scheme. They apprehended that with the new academic session already started, the government may not implement the scheme this year.

Forest and Environment minister Hemaram Chaudhary said that protected forest cover in the state has increased to 3.92% in 2023-24 from 2.91% in 2018-19, while replying to a debate on the demand for grants of the department.

The government has approved the new forest policy and has set a target of 20% of the land being under forest cover. Nine new conservation reserves have been declared during the tenure of the present government in a bid to achieve the aim of a greenRajasthan. Also, Ramgarh Sanctuary is being developed as the fourth Tiger Reserve after Ranthambore, Sariska and Mukundara Tiger Hills. The process of notifying a tiger reserve in Dholpur is under process, he said. He also informed that 15 places in the state have been declared as eco-sensitive zones to protect the environment.

Urban development and housing ministerShanti Kumar Dhariwalinformed that more than 7.71 lakh leases have been issued so far under the campaign Prashashan Saharo Ka Sang across the state. Also, about 18.18 lakh applications for building maps, name transfer, subdivision, reorganisation and leases have been disposed of under the campaign, he said.

Mines department is keen to preserve and promote the geo-heritage sites as new tourism destinations inRajasthan. There are 13 geo-heritage sites in the state out of 33 in the country having immense academic interest and tourist potential.

During a visit to some of the sites, ACS mines and petroleum took note of the importance of the sites and said the will prepare a strategy for preserving and promoting these sites.

He visited Nepheline syenite near Kishangarh which is estimated to be 1590 million to 1910 million years old, formed out of a tectonic activity.
Agarwalalso visitedSendragranite which is made of tectonic activity that happened 900 million years ago. Special types of shapes found in it are pot holes,skeleton head, snake head, eagle shape, tor rock granitic Landforms which are made of weathering and erosion by water and wind.

Exports Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH) in its budget expectations said input costs for exporters have risen sharply in the past year. It said because of higher costs, exports are becoming uncompetitive.

In fact, many states like Uttar Pradesh are already giving subsidies for freight movement as expenses for it have doubled in past 18 months.

Common facility centres, testing labs and raw material banks are other crucial links that hold key to building a facilitating ecosystem. But they need financial assistance.

Rajasthan is one of the leading handicraft exporting states in the country contributing to around Rs 8,000 crore (30% of the total exports of handicrafts). It is known for traditional and colourful art. The block prints, tie and die, Bagru and Sanger prints, handicraft items, wooden furniture, carpets, and blue potteries attract buyers from all across the globe.

Industries department has inkedMoUsandLoIsworth Rs 6.50 lakh crore during the roadshows of investor summit which now stands postponed.

The department had conducted roadshows in Dubai and six other cities in the country. While in the Mumbai roadshow, MoUs worth Rs 1.94 lakh crore were signed, Delhi came second at Rs 1.05 lakh crore.

As a general practice, after signing MoUs, investors tend to approach other state governments for bargaining a better deal for their investments.

The department has also signed MoUs and LoIs with investors fromRajasthanas well. A senior official in the BIP said that Rajasthan has contributed about Rs 80,000 crore to the total proposed investments.

As per the data, the proposed investments will create EMPLOYMENT opportunities for 3 lakh people.

The socialand Empowerment department is planning to integrate portals ofDivyangpensioners, National Food Security Act (NFSA), National Informatics Centre (NIC) and Swavlamban portals for better facilitation of BPL (below POVERTY-line”>Poverty Line) benefits to the families of specially-abled pensioners.

The Divyang pensioners will not be issued BPL cards. They will only be given benefits on a par with BPL cardholders (families).

Recently, grocery and essentials focused social commerce startup, DealShare, set to be valued at $1 billion, shifted its base from Jaipur to Bengaluru without expressing publicly reasons for the decision. People who know of the development say Jaipur orRajasthandoes not attract talent and it is no more the low-cost destination for both businesses and talent.

Low cost of doing business, touted as a major reason why companies would relocate to Jaipur, no longer holds any water now. Its not only true for startups or businesses in the Services-sector”>services sector, but also the manufacturing .

As the government in power celebrates completion of three years, there is bound to be assessments over how much investments it has received during the period.

In the past one year, the industries department has launched a record number of industrial zones in the state, over 100. But having industrial areas does not translate into investments.

In mining, the department has not been able to announce a policy so far in the current regime of the government. Tourism has not been any different. The government announced a fund of Rs 500 crore to develop and promote. But the fund is yet to see the Light of the day.

The Health department launched NirogiRajasthanChiranjeevi camps from Sunday. Under the camps, facilities from medicine, diagnosis, treatment and screening for non-communicable diseases will be done.

Besides, launching the health camps, health minister Raghu Sharma laid foundation stones and inaugurated Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), Paediatric ICU (PICU), ICU, Oxygen generation Plants and diagnostic labs at Ajmer, Udaipur and Bikaner Government Medical Colleges and hospitals attached to them.