Flipkart opens its first grocery centre in Coimbatore

Flipkart, the country’s homegrown E-Commerce marketplace, on Wednesday launched its grocery Services here with the opening of its first fulfillment center in theregionto meet the growing demand for groceries online.

The facility also bolsters Flipkart’s supply chain in theSouthand would create thousands of direct and indirect EMPLOYMENT and opportunities, a company release said.
Spread across over 1.2 lakh square feet, the newly built facility would generate direct employment for nearly 1,200 people while encouraging local entrepreneurship.

In the initial stages, only a part of the facility would be utilised for which over 500 people would be hired and this would be the only facility for Flipkart which would almost be entirely run by Women constituting 90 per cent of theoverall workforce.

To enable more women to join the workforce, Flipkart under its initiative Vividhta provides workplace policies that support women and their career progression.

The new fulfillment centre would further augment Flipkart’s capabilities to cater to more consumers, including millions of first-time e-commerce consumers from the southern region.
Flipkart has also introduced multiple language access for consumers to provide a native language experience.
Interestingly, over 52 per cent of Flipkart consumers are from tier-II and beyond cities, a testament to the growing adoption of e-commerce services.
This would be Flipkart’s second grocery facility inTamil Naduafter Chennai and ninth in the South.

Govt. will work with industry for revival

The Nadu government will engage with the Industry and come out with an economic revival plan, Industries Minister Thangam Thennarasu has said.

Interacting with select members of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)-Tamil Nadu, he said the industrial activity would be allowed in phases, with the drop in the COVID-19 cases factored in.

The members urged the government to come out with a policy to support migrant labourers, important as they were for reviving and sustaining the economic activity, the CII said in a statement.

Micro, Small and Medium enterprises were the most affected by the second wave of COVID-19, the members said, urging the government to help them restart through financial packages and loan moratoria.

Tamil Nadu: New policy to minimise loss of lives, property during disaster

With a view to minimising impact on lives, livelihood, critical , and Environment during disasters, chief ministerM K Stalinon Friday rolled out state Disaster Management plan and state disaster management policy 2023.

The plan aims at makingTamil Nadua disaster resilient state by enhancing the capacity of all stakeholders to respond to disasters. The plan aims at minimising impact on critical infrastructure like Health and Education and socio-cultural status of people.
The policy said inclusive development and mainstreaming disaster risk reduction (DRR) into the Sustainable Development ethos of the state were the need of the hour.
Over the past century, more than50 cycloneshad battered the Tamil Nadu coast at various locations, posing a constant threat to people living in the coastal districts.

On the implementation of the plan, Tamil Nadu disaster risk reduction agency says that the disaster management (DM) Act 2005 enjoins state governments to make provisions for the implementation of the disaster management plans.

The Act also mandates that every department of the State Government prepare a departmental disaster management plan in accordance with the state disaster management plan (SDMP).

Tamil Nadu: Indo-Korean ceramic, glass exhibition inaugurated in Chennai

The Human Spirit: Propositions On Resilience In These Irregular Times, a virtual Indo-Korean ceramic and glass exhibition specially commissioned by InKo Centre, was inaugurated on January 21.

The exhibition looks at the artistic interpretations of the concept of resilience of the human spirit, especially post the pandemic, through the medium of ceramic and glass. Both are transformed through fire into new states of being. The exhibition examines the metaphor of rejuvenation, transformation, fluidity and permeability as attributes of both ceramics and glass through figurative, abstract and natural forms.

Arappor Iyakkam, an anti-corruption NGO, has released a model draft bill onRight of Service, which guarantees citizens the right to obtain government services within a stipulated time.The NGO also sought theTamil Nadugovernment to constitute an independent body – Tamil Nadu Right to Service Commission — for looking into appeals on rejection of service or no reply on applications pertaining to services on the lines of theTamil Nadu Information Commission. TheRight of Service Actmakes government officials dealing with the respective services accountable.

According to it, an appeal shall be disposed of by the first appellate authority within 15 days of the receipt of the appeal. The first appellate authority must be in writing communicate the order of first appeal to the applicant and the designated officer as well through post and online portal. The designated officer should provide the service within five working days of the receipt of the order of first appellate authority, it added.

Census to count elephants in four states from May 17

The state forest department will conduct a wild elephant census for three days from May 17. The last such exercise was conducted in 2017.
State forest SecretarySupriyaSahu said the census will be done in coordination with all the southern states Nadu, Andhra,Keralaand Karnataka. This is the first time that a synchronised elephant census will be conducted, she said.

Chief Wildlife WardenSrinivasR Reddy said the census will cover 465 blocks in 25 forest divisions in Tamil Nadu. Anti-poaching watchers, forest watchers, forest guards, foresters, rangers and volunteers from non-governmental organisations will be involved in the data collection process.
Wildlife officials have prepared a manual for conducting the census, which has been sent to all 25 forest divisions in the state, he said.

Wildlife authorities, forest department biologists and experts train the field staff and volunteers from NGOs on the census process.
Once the data for Population estimation of wild elephants is collected, it will be sent to Mudumalai Tiger Reserve in the Nilgiris. They have been entrusted with the responsibility of compiling the data

Tamil Nadu govt forms agri schemes publicity committee

The has set up an eight-member publicity and promotion committee at the Directorate of Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture for promotion and publicity of state and central schemes implemented in the agriculture sector.

The committee has been entrusted with the task of preparing a number of small video clips on important crops, technologies, scheme components and other forecast news in Tamil. The video content will be specific and subjects where intervention is required, such as applying for micro-Irrigation with subsidy, farm machineries, formation of FPOs, role of FPOs, procurement of pulses/copra, arrangement of seed.

State sanctions fund for new turmeric research centre

The has sanctioned a sum of Rs 2 crore for establishment of a turmeric research centre in Erode district.

The centre has been approved following a request from the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University.

The centre would research on evolving high yielding varieties with high curcumin content, varieties resistant to rhizome rot and foliar diseases, find out improved scientific management practices and come up with post harvest management techniques.

Tamil Nadu: App to help cops track criminals better now

Now Police can monitor criminals and rowdies by clicking on an exclusive mobile application,TracKD. The app was launched by Nadupolice DGP CSylendra Babuat the police headquarters in Mylapore.

The primary objective of the application is to digitalize the age-old system of HISTORY-sheeter checks by jurisdictional officers thus ensuring real-time monitoring of the level of checks done monthly.

It also gives various details to supervisory officers at their fingertips, like the number of rowdies in jail, and how many are underCrPCsecurity sections, alerts regarding the expiry of Bonds, cases pending, the trial against rowdies, filtering/Classification of accused based on the type of offences involved and gang-related rowdies.

Tamil Nadu assembly passes Bill to ban hookah bars

The Nadu assembly passed aBillamending the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA) to banhookah barsas part of the State Government‘s efforts to weed out tobacco abuse.

The Bill, tabled by the Health and family welfare department and passed without any objection, has introduced a clause, effecting Prohibition of opening or runninghookahbars. The clause states that sale and service of hookah at any place including an eating house is prohibited. It describes an eating house as a place where food or refreshment of any kind are served.

The Bill also sought addition of a clause empowering Police officer of the rank of sub-inspector and above to seize materials and articles from a hookah bar. It has introduced another clause that violators can be punished with an imprisonment up to three years and fined up to Rs 50,000.