RAJASTHAN

The latest report by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) for accidents deaths and suicides has revealed an increase in suicide cases in the state last year.

The findings under accident deaths listed deaths due to drug overdose, people falling into manholes and food poisoning. According to NCRB, the overall deaths due to road accidents in 2020 recorded a dip compared to 2019. The state logged 23,478 cases of road accidents in 2019, whereas 19,121 accidents were witnessed in 2020.

The data has listed February last year as the most accident-prone month with a total of 2,044 mishaps, followed by November when 1,982 cases were reported.

The NCRB findings for 2020 revealed thatRajasthanreported 5,658 suicides last year, compared to 4,531 cases in 2019. The state reported 81 suicides where people consumed sleeping pills, 465 people committed suicide by drowning, 56 ended their lives by self-immolation, 21 shot themselves while 842 consumed poison to commit suicide.

The NCRBs findings have pointed out that the state logged 36 deaths in 15 cases under mass or family suicides.

With the inaugural edition of theRajiv Gandhi Rural Olympic Gamesscheduled to begin from August 25, chief minister AshokGehlot launched the logo and the official jersey of the Games at the Maharaja Ganga Singh University inBikaner.

TheGramin Olympicsis expected to see more than 30 lakh participants across the age groups. The winners will be given preference in contractual cadre on vacant posts, informed the CM.

More than 3000 units from Rajasthan has registered on the portal compared to over 1311 from Uttar Pradesh, 922 from Uttarakhand and 732 from Goa. The certificates acknowledge the Covid preparedness mechanism put up by the hotels for not spreading the virus.

The regulatory requirements cover all areas of operation of the hospitality and tourism units including cleaning, housekeeping, sanitization, safety and Health of employees and guests, identifying vulnerable areas, mitigating risks and mobilizing Resources for these activities.

The reserve was not on the elite list, announced by the Union Environment ministry on the International Tiger Day, as state officials failed to give information to theGlobal Tiger ForumandWWF India, agencies that are responsible for giving CATS assessment for theNational Tiger Conservation Authority(NTCA).

The CATS certification is a new conservation tool endorsed by the Global Tiger Forum (GTF) to set minimum standards for effective management of target species for conservation both outside and inside .

Experts believe the selected reserves can receive better funding and support from the Centre as well from players across the world.

InRajasthan, not a single person, who worked as a manual scavenger, has been identified under the Centre’s Self EMPLOYMENT Scheme for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers for capital subsidy up to Rs 5 lakh to take up alternate self-employment projects, a ministry of socialjusticeand Empowerment data states.

So far, capital subsidy up to Rs 5 lakh has been provided to 1,935 persons, who were identified as working as manual scavengers, and their dependents to take up alternate self-employment projects, informedRamdas Athawale, minister of state (MoS) for social and empowerment, while replying to an unstarred question in Rajya Sabha in April this year.

However, the data stated 2,673 persons in Rajasthan have been identified for one-time cash assistance of Rs 40,000 per family and Skill development training has been provided to 1,432 persons in the state under the Self Employment Scheme for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers.

Under the Self Employment Scheme for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers, a one-time cash assistance of Rs 40,000 per family has been provided to all identied and eligible 58,098 persons who worked as manual scavengers. Skill development training has been provided to 22,294 identied persons who worked as manual scavengers and their dependents with stipend of Rs 3,000 per month during the training period.

The Prohibition of employment as manual scavengers and their rehabilitation act 2013, which came into force on December 6, 2013, bans manual scavenging and hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks.

With rains lashed the city, the risk of spread of vector-borne diseases has also increased. According to the National Vector-Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP), the state is among the top three in India withKarnatakaand Naduin reporting highest number of dengue cases in 2022 so far.

The state reported 8.1% of the dengue cases reported in the country from January 1 to May 31. During this period, Tamil Nadu has reported highest number of dengue cases at 2,548 cases, while Karnataka has reported 1,714 dengue cases, andRajasthanis at the third place with 824 dengue cases. Across the country, 10,172 persons have tested positive for dengue from January 1 to May 31, says the NVBDCP.

In 2021, the state had witnessed outbreak of dengue cases, which is why, the Health department is taking more precautions. In 2021, the state had reported 20,749 dengue cases, which was 10.7% of the cases reported in the country in that year. Since, dengue cases are being reported round the year, it has been declared as a perennial disease with seasonal increase during monsoon. Also, it has been made as notifiable diseases under the Epidemic Diseases Act for its effective monitoring and control of the disease.

The has found out a way to operate 35 newlyopened collegesin the state which were announced in the last budget session.

According to the recommendations made by the state finance department, these colleges will be run by a Society.

These colleges have been criticised for not getting any budget fornew recruitments. To get away with this, the finance department has decided to form a society that will be solely responsible in running these colleges, including conducting recruitments and managing the finances.

RAJ-MES is another society which is already functioning for eight medical colleges in the state.

Exports fromRajasthanincreased by over 10% during April to February 2023 of the current financial year, mainly driven by textiles, agro-food products, gems and jewellery and engineering goods. The Growth comes on a high base of 36% jump achieved in 2021-22.

Rajasthan Export Promotion Council (REPC) expects the figures to reach Rs 80,000 crore for 2022-23. Exports from the state have increased from Rs 46,476 crore in 2018-19 to Rs 71,999 crore in 2021-22.

its chairman Rajiv Arora said exports from sectors like agro-food products, gems & jewellery, ferrous and non-ferrous metals, electronics and computer Software have surged in the range of 27-74% in the 11 months of the 2022-23.

We expect the exports reach near Rs 80,000 crore in the 2022-23 financial year. This is significant because the growth comes on a high base of 36% expansion in 2021-22, said Arora.

He said, despite the states heavyweight sectors like textiles, marble and granite, and handicrafts underperforming due to the economic slump in the western economies, the growth has hit double digits.

In order to boost exports from Rajasthan, the state industries department launched the initiative ‘Mission Exporter Bano’ in 2021. Arora said more than 9,000 entrepreneurs, artisans, and handicraftsmen from different districts have been given necessary process and documentation training to make them exporters. They have been issued Import-export codes.

Out of the 581oxygen Plants that theDRDOand the NHAI plan to set up in thecountry, 16 units of 1,000, 500 and 200 LPM (litres per minute) capacity will come up in eight districts of Rajasthan including Jaipur and Ajmer.

While DRDO will set up 400 plants, NHAI will instal 181 with the help of HLL Infra Tech Service. With the help of DRDO and NHAI, work on the 12 plants in Rajasthan started recently.

Apart from this, four Oxygen plants of 250 LPM capacity will also be set up in the state. With setting up of 16 plants in Rajasthan, 2,400 Covid serious patients will be provided oxygen.

A traditional hub forayurveda, its raw materials, and practitioners,Rajasthanhas around 360 small industrialAyush(ayurveda, and unani, sidha, homeopathy) units. While in recent years, the highly unorganised sector is becoming organised, the potential remains unharnessed.

The national Arogya fair to be held in Jaipur for the first time this month, supported by the Central Ayush ministry and Rajasthan government, is looking to bridge the gaps and open new opportunities for all the value chain players, starting from the growers, manufacturing and supply of medicines and digital Services.

The Ayush Industry was estimated to be Rs 2,000 crore eight years ago and has now increased to Rs 1.5 lakh crore.