RAJASTHAN

The has finalized the Teachers Interface for Excellence program allowing 500 teachers from state-run universities, colleges and polytechnic institutes will be able to get training related to TEACHING in prestigious institutions of the country and abroad on Sunday. The announcement for the same was made in the statebudget2023-24. The aim of the scheme is to expose the teachers to the latest innovations and technology in these institutions. These training programs will be for 1 to 6 months.

As per the scheme, the beneficiary teachers will undertake training in the top 100 institutes listed in QS World Ranking and National Institute Ranking Framework (NIRF). The government has approved Rs 23.50 crore on the scheme for the year 2023-24. The guidelines of the program will be issued by the department soon.

The scheme will encourage quality teaching and research in higher Education. It will also help the higher educational institutions of the state in improving the grading ofthe NationalAssessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC).

Children taking birth in hospitals and other medical establishments have gone down marginally in the state in 2020-21 compared to 2019-20. Out of the 33 districts, 20 have reported decrease in institutional deliveries over the last 12 months. In Jaipur, institutional deliveries have gone down drastically by 15% in a year.

It could be an impact of Covid, which has thrown normal life out of gear and reduced the number of child births in states Health institutions. According to health department figures, 13.2-lakh institutional deliveries were reported in 2020-21, while it was 13.5 lakh in 2019-20. In Jaipur, 1,08,806 children were born in health institutes in 2020-21, while it was 1,28,022 in the 2019-20.

According to the health departments report, Jaisalmer reported the lowest number of institutional deliveries, which were 16,218 in 2020-21 compared to 16,756 in 2019-20.
In Kota, the institutional deliveries have gone down from 35,536 in 2019-20 to 31,686 in 2020-21, a decrease of 10.8%. Jaipurs rural area (Jaipur-I) reported 15.3% decrease in institutional deliveries, which is the highest in the state.

Ajmer also reported a decrease of 8.5% in institutional deliveries in past financial year due to Covid as it dropped from 60,537 to 55,179.
Besides, not all the districts have reported decrease in institutional deliveries, but 13 districts have reported an increase.

United NationsPopulation Fund will establish a ‘Gender Unit’ atRajasthanPolice Academy here to strengthen Police response to gender-based violence, sources said.

The UN agency, formerly called United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), deals with issues related to sexual and reproductive Health. UNFPA India Representative Andrea Wojnar will inaugurate the unit at the Rajasthan Police Academy (RPA), which trains police officers and other cadres in the state on Monday, agency sources said.

Trainers at the academy will be given training on gender-related issues and legislations, including the Sexual Harassment at Workplace (Prevention, and Redressal) Act, 2013. The unit is being set up with the objective of capacity building, raising awareness, preparation of reference material on gender-based issues and legislation, strengthening evidence-based programming through studies on gender-based violence and harmful practices, among others.

The Centre increased the allocation of liquidoxygenfor the state fromJamnagar(Gujarat) to 120 metric tonnes. Earlier, the allocation from Jamnagar was 70 MT. With this, the total allocation for the state by the Centre would go up to 380 MT from 330 MT.

Of these, 100 MT is from Bhiwadi, 120 MT from Jamnagar (Gujarat), 60 MT from Kalinganagar (Odisha), 60 MT from Hazira (Gujarat) and 40 MT from Burnpur (West Bengal).

Though the Centre has allocated 380 MT ofliquid oxygentoRajasthanper day, supply has been hampered because of shortage of tankers and distance of the Oxygen Plants (West Bengal and Odisha). The allocation of oxygen from local manufacturers (ASUs) remains the same, at 125 MT.

So far, the state has received two oxygen tankers carrying 40tonnes of oxygen from Tata Steel in Kalinganagar (Odisha) and three tankers carrying 54 metric tonnes of liquid oxygen from Steel Authority of India (SAIL)-ISP in Burnpur, West Bengal.

The ministry of rural development (MoRD) has said that it is examining the proposal from the on the release of capital support amounting to Rs 100 crore and a grant of Rs 10 crore for administrative and technological support forRajasthan Mahila Nidhi(RMN). It said it would take necessary action as per the procedure laid down.

The ministry also said the decision for establishment of RMN was taken independently by the state government without consultation with MoRD and that the revised proposal seeking financial assistance for it was submitted by the state government almost in the quarter 3 of the financial year 2022-23. The ministry responded to a TOI story that stated it was yet to release the capital support and establishment cost for RajasthanMahila NidhiCredit Co-operative Federation, which was launched by CM Ashok Gehlot in August last year.

Amidlimited supplyof Covid Vaccines, Tika Utsav launched by the Centre from April 11 has been affected.

Though thestate governmenthad to scale down vaccination drive due to limited supply of vaccines, it achieved milestone of vaccinating 1 crore doses to beneficiaries on Monday, the second state to achieve the mileston after Maharashtra. In the first two days of Tika Utsav, 3,12,300 vaccinations have been done.

According to Health department officials, the state has received 1,12,07,360 doses from the Centre from the day of launch (January 16). Out of those, 66,500 doses of vaccines have arrived in Udaipur, from where it will be distributed to nearby districts.

More than 27,000 social security pensioners in the state have so far been verified through the face recognition system (RAJSSP app) launched by the socialjusticeand Empowerment department.
Annual verification is conducted by the department to check if the pensioner is alive.

This process was earlier done manually through biometric verification. Now, the process has become online with the Aadhaar-based face recognition service linked to the departments portal.

Rajasthanis the first state in the country to provide face recognition system to social security pensioners.

According to theMillion Missions Reportreleased at theJaipur Literature Festival, 58% of non-profit organisations (NPOs) have reported an increase inbudgetsizes, while 22% witnessed a decrease in the past five years. The rest 20% said their budgets have stayed the same.

The non-profit sector report revealed that for 56% of the NPOs, the number of sources has increased in the last five years, with 22% reporting they stayed the same and 22% suggesting a decrease.

Small organizations with less than Rs 1 crore expenditure constitute 62%, followed by medium-sized organizations having annual expenditure between Rs 1 crore and Rs 5 crore at 21% and large organizations with having over Rs 5 crore constitute 17% of the sample number.

The desert state has recorded a negligible increase of 25sqkm forest area, according toIndia State of Forest Report(ISFR), 2021.

Out of the total geographical area of 3,42,239sqkm, the present forest cover is 16,655sqkm, which is 4.87%. The forest cover in the state two years ago was 16,630sqkm.

According to the report, the states forest cover has seen a marginal increase of 0.15sqkm compared to 2019. While the moderate forest cover area has increased by 27sqkm, the open forest cover area has witnessed a slight reduction of 2sqkm in the last two years.

In the previous report, the open forest was reduced from 12,210sqkm to 12,208sqkm. In 2019, the states forest cover had seen marginal increase of 57.51sqkm compared to 2017, when the moderate forest cover area and open forest cover area declined, though the former has started to show improvement.

According to the report, while very dense forest (VDF) area remained unchanged from 2019 with 78sqkm, themoderately dense forest(MDF) witnessed a small increase from 4,342sqkm in 2019 to 4,369sqkm in 2021.