TAMILNADU

Union Home ministerAmit Shah assuredTamil Naduthat a six-member inter-ministerial team would visit the state to assess flood damage, said DMK parliamentary party leaderT R Baalu. Nadu government has sought central assistance of 2,629 crore towards flood relief.

Talking to reporters after a meeting with Shah in New Delhi, Baalu said he had submitted the State Government‘s memorandum to the Union minister on the directions of the chief minister, seeking a central aid of 2,079 crore towards permanent restoration and 550 crore to take up interim relief and restoration.

Tamil Nadu received 52% excess rainfall in October and 49% excess rain in November, affecting 12 districts heavily. The state has reported 54 rain-related deaths. Another 52 people are injured. As per the assessment of the administration, 701 huts were fully damaged and 8,846 huts were partially damaged, 67 houses were fully damaged and 2,022 houses were partially damaged.

The Madras on Tuesday sought a response from the State Government on a plea which sought to include 108 chapters/adhigarams ofThirukkural(Arathupal andPorutpal) in the curriculum for the students fromClasses VIto XII.

The petitioner stated that he had earlier filed a PIL seeking to bring out the braille version of Thirukkural inTamiland English languages with standard interpretation to ensure the visually challenged people could read and recite and enjoy the essence of Thirukkural on their own.

He stated that he came across an earlier court order passed in 2016 directing to make the 1,050 couplets of Thirukkural as mandatory subject in the school curriculum from Classes VI to XII. In 2017, the state government passed a GO to teach Thirukkurals at schools.

According toNCRB, TN recorded an increase in cases under the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act in 2020 with 3,057 cases involving 3,103 victims. In 2019, there were 2358 cases involving 2,389 victims. Of the 3,057 cases in 2020, 2,205 were cases of child rape.

The data on child rape does not include male victims. The incidence of rape of adult Women in Nadu rose 7.7% in 2020, despite the national Average falling by 12.7% amid nationwide lockdowns that restricted movement for a significant period. Tamil Nadu ( 390 women raped in 2020 against 362 in 2019) was one of the six states that saw higher incidence of rape, registering the third largest rate of increase afterChhattisgarhandBihar.

With an aim to unlock the Growth potential of Nadu by combining the manufacturing capabilities with technology, the state Industries department is establishing innovation centres in select state-owned Sipcot industrial estates in the state.

The initiative, to spawn technology startups in the industrial manufacturing space, will also seek to include the 80-odd innovation centres in leading educational institutions, but mostly remaining non-functional.

Two Sipcot Industrial Innovation Centres (SIICs) are coming up at Sriperumbudur and Hosur, the two largest industrial clusters in the state. Branded as FORT (Force of Rapid Transformation), the SIICs are envisioned as world-class incubation centres to pave the way for new-age tech-based manufacturing ventures.

The initiative is focused to achieve transformation in three areas. To achieve faster rate of GDP growth through companies engaged in translating innovation output into higher value-added goods; EMPLOYMENT generation through highly-skilled knowledge work; higher per capita income arising from value addition from skilled manpower Resources.

Naduhas topped Niti Aayogs export preparedness index, moving ahead ofMaharashtraand Gujarat.Gujarathad topped the rankings in the previous two years of the index.

Export preparedness index is a data-driven study aimed to serve as a tool for states to evaluate their export performance across 56 indicators, and identify the underlying causes of their challenges.

Karnatakaemerged third in the overall rankings, followed by Gujarat which was pushed to the fourth spot. Haryana, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Punjab were among the top ten states.
The report presents a comprehensive analysis of Indias export performance in FY22, along with its sector-specific and district-level merchandise export trends. It evaluates the performance of the states across four pillars policy, business ecosystem, export ecosystem and export performance.

Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) has been ranked first among agricultural universities in the southern States and third among the State agricultural universities in the country.

The ranking was done by Education World India magazine which conducts a survey on educational institutions every year and ranks them.

The ranks are based on faculty competence, faculty welfare & development, research and innovation, curriculum and pedagogy (digital readiness), Industry interface, placements, Infrastructure, internationalism, Leadership/Governance and range and diversity of study programmes.

The district industries centre (DIC) and GuidanceTamil Nadu conducted a workshop for industries and MSMEs to utilise the Services of the Nadu single window portal to secure required clearances for launching new business ventures.

The industries department said that launching a new Industry requires licences, clearances and mandatory certificates from at least 14 government departments.

The types of clearances required based on the Investment category and sector, training on filling out forms required for licences and the availability of the integrated online grievance redressal system for clearing queries were explained.

The on Saturday deputed nodal ministers for seven more districts, including Cuddalore, Nagapattinam, Tiruvarur, Krishnagiri, Thanjavur, Theni and Kanyakumari.
Earlier, nodal ministers were deputed in highly-infected 14 districts.

The ministers had been deputed to pay special attention in the highly-infected districts and ensure the enforcement of total lockdown measures, besides coordination ofCovidcontrol and treatment, said an official release.

Only 6% of the landowners have registered on theGrower Online Registration of Agricultural Input System(GRAINS) since the registration started on April 1.

The portal is designed to enable the farmers to easily get benefits of various government schemes such as crop loan, incentive for paddy and sugarcane, relief assistance under the state disaster response fund, and benefits from 13 Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture and allied departments.

The Nadu government announced a 1,000 crore plan to promote agri-related Infrastructure in the Cauvery basin region from Trichy to Nagapattinam. The region was declared an agro-industrial corridor last year.
A detailed project report has been prepared to set up the corridor to increase farmers income and create job opportunities. Presenting the Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture budget, agriculture and farmers welfare minister M R K Panneerselvam said, Enhanced incentive packages, market linkages, expert guidance and single window facili-ties will be provided to aspiring entrepreneurs to start agrobased Food Processing industries.
To facilitate efficient ways of storage, processing and Marketing, new industrial estates will be developed with commonfacilities. With value addition, local people will have opportunities in both agriculture and allied sectors and it could encourage exports, he said.
The government also plans to revise its food processing policy unveiled in 2018 that supports private entrepreneurs with incentives and subsidies.