TAMILNADU

Country’s largest debating forum is back for third season in Tamil Nadu

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Speak for India, the country’s largest debating forum for college students is back. Registration has opened for the third season of the Nadu edition of Speak for India.

An initiative by Federal Bank in association with The Times of India, it provides a platform for college students across Tamil Nadu to voice their views and opinions on contemporary issues and become change makers of Society.

It also gives college students an opportunity to explore and realise their awareness, insights and perspective on contemporary topics.

The forum also helps identify top debaters in the state through multiple levels of competitions. College students from across Tamil Nadu can participate in the competition.

Participants can choose between Tamil and English as their language of debate. All participants at every level will get certificates. The winner gets a cash prize of 2.5 lakh and the runner-up gets 1.5 lakh.The six finalists stand to win 35,000 each. Register online at www.speakforindia.in or scan the QR code.

Tamil Nadu to have exclusive press council soon

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Soon, Nadumight get an exclusive media body — thePress Council of Tamil Nadu— as chief ministerM K Stalinhas consented to make appropriate amendments in law to establish it.

The process of circulation and approval from the competent authorities for formation of Press Council of Tamil Nadu and issue of government order for the accreditation rules likely to be completed within a short time after the completion of the urban local body election, said a report filed by director of information and public relation V P Jayaseelan in the highcourt.
The amended Tamil Nadu State News Media Representative Accreditation Rules, 2021 has been issued as a government order. The decision was made following a Madras High Court order.

Rs 2.4 crore more to fix rain-hit NHs in Tamil Nadu

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TheUnion ministry for road transportand highways has approved an additionalRs 2.4 crorefor repairing national highway stretches in TN damaged during the recent floods.

NH stretches across the state, particularly those connecting Chennai withMadurai, Bengaluru and Coimbatore, were battered by unprecedentedrainin November. Some of them were temporarily closed due to excessive flooding. Potholes started to show up, making the commute dangerous.

Project to protect Nilgiri Tahr, Tamil Nadu animal, launched

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Nadu is set to implement Project Nilgiri Tahr, aimed at developing a better understanding of the Population, distribution and ECOLOGY of the endangered species which is the state animal. Quoting references from Sangam literature about its significance and its habitat, the department of Environment, Climate and forest on Wednesday issued an order in connection with the new conservation initiative.

The project, to be set up at a cost of `25.1 crore, will be implemented during the 2022-27 period. Nilgiris Tahr (Nilgiritragus hylocrius), endemic to the Western ghats and locally known as Varaiaadu, has been classified a critically endangered species in the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) red list and protected under Schedule I of the Wildlife (protection) Act of India, 1972. A World Wide Fund for Nature Report in 2015 estimated that there were 3,122 Nilgiri Tahr in the wild.

The project will follow a multi-pronged strategy including synchronized surveys to estimate the numbers of individuals through the use of radio telemetry including radio collaring, etc. It will also include efforts to restore the animals fragmented habitat, with revival of shola grasslands to be taken up on a priority basis.

Getting to root of afforestation plan in Tamil Nadu

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The Nadugovernment unveiled its most ambitious afforestation project a few days ago to plant 265 crore seedlings across the state over the next 10 years. Called Green Tamil Nadu Mission, the project aims to increase forest cover from 23% to 33% by 2030. This year 47 lakh seedlings are to be planted, for which Rs 21 crore has been allotted. Next year its going to be 130 seedlings.

Departments of Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture, forests, Horticulture, highways, Education, Industry and public works department have a role since trees have to be grown on farmland, forests, along highways, in educational institutions, industrial areas and along water bodies.

TN Wetland Mission plans to restore Ramsar sites, wetlands in trouble

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Restoration and management of Ramsar sites and other wetlands under the recently-founded TN Wetland Mission has run into trouble as the law department has raised concerns about violating procedure in selecting two agenciesAnna UniversityandSaconto draw up proposals and implement projects.

The mission was launched onWorld Environment Daywith much fanfare last year. Soon after, 14 crore was spent to create an inventory and to prepare integrated wetland management proposals. The two institutions were selected and were told to do the work to create management plans and to create Health cards of 13 Ramsar sites and 100 wetlands.
This is to assess water and quality, survey of lake boundaries, identifying encroachments, dumping of sewage and garbage.

However, the state law department has said that the Mission didn’t follow the rules under Tender Transparency Act. Instead of calling tenders, the authorities used the sections that allowed them to grant procurement of Services directly. Now, the officials said, they were hopeful that the approval will be received in a month.

Under section 16 B (b) of TN Tender Transparency Act, they need to justify why a tender was not called. Sacon and Anna University were paid about 4 crore for the proposals. However, officials from the mission confirmed this and said that it was an error in judgement as they wanted to speed up the process.

At 534mm, Coimbatore district records 11% dip in average rainfall

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The district received only 534.5mm of rainfall in 2022, against the Average (normal) rainfall of 598.3mm, according to the Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture department. It attributed the 10.7% drop in rainfall to the shortage of rain during summer, while the southwest and northeast monsoon brought enough rainfall. The district had recorded 732.5mm rainfall in 2021.

The rain gauge station at the Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) on the western side of the city, meanwhile, recorded 680mm rainfall in 52 rainy days last year.

Union Road Transport Ministry, IIT Madras and MapmyIndia Collaborate for Road Safety Technologies

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The Union Ministry of Road Transport, IIT Madras, and MapmyIndia inked a memorandum of understanding for PARTNERSHIP in the driver and road safety technologies field on 17 Dec 2021 and jointly launched a free app service for people.

MapmyIndia, a provider of advanced digital maps, stated in a statement that the MapmyIndia app offers users road safety alerts regarding impending accident hazards while driving.

Users will receive verbal and visual alerts about future accident-prone zones, speed breakers, steep curves, potholes, and other hazards by using this navigation Software, according to the company.

IIT-Madras and Tamil Nadu govt join hands to make school education experience better

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Starting with a new Learning management system which will be deployed in newly built high-tech labs in 6,000 government schools to improve the quality of learning for 90 lakh students, IIT-Madras researchers and Nadus department of schooleducationhave joined hands to make digital assessments and learning experience of school students better.

The collaboration between the IIT andTamil Nadu governmentis to provide a richer learning experience to the school students by improvising and updating the existing digital learning platform to an assessment focused learning management system.

Currently, the classroom Education of Tamil Nadus school students is supplemented through a digital learning platform i.e.Education Management Information System. IIT-M researchers will use their AI and data science expertise to come up with ways to improve the way assessments are conducted and framework for dissemination of educational material.

This initiative will be led by faculty, students, project associates and channel partners of the Robert Bosch Centre of Data Science and AI (RBCDSAI), a centre housed at the IIT with a vision to expand and further the research, education and outreach activities in the areas of data science andartificial intelligence.

The initiative will be executed in three phases first will focus on content management for educational material and assessment, second will work towards on delivery and feedback for educational material and assessment and the third phase will lay emphasis on data Analytics, Dashboards and Reporting system.

Food Security Museum Launched In TN

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Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution Piyush Goyal opened India’s first Museum.

Highlights:

The Food Corporation of India created a food security museum in Thanjavur.

Food Corporation of India (Fci) and Visvesvaraya Industrial & Technological Museums, Bengaluru, collaborated on the museum’s creation.

It was constructed on a 1,860sqft plot at a cost of Rs 1.10 crore.

In Thanjavur, the birthplace of FCI, a museum was erected. On January 14, 1965, FCI opened its first office there.

The Food Security Museum depicts man’s progression from nomadic hunter groups to stable Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture practises, which marks the start of civilization.

It also highlights a number of historical global and indigenous grain storage technologies, as well as storage issues and food grain production situations in the globe and India.

It dynamically displays educational material about FCI’s HISTORY, current operations, and the path of food grains from farm to plate through FCI.