TAMILNADU

French glass major Saint-Gobain will invest 6,000 to 8,000 crore for expansion of Indian operations in the next two years, as the global glass and building materials manufacturer is targeting revenue at 36,000 crore from India by CY2032. The company generated an annual revenue of 12,300 crore in CY2022 and aims at 40% YoY Growth.

It comes in the backdrop of India emerging as the third largest profitable market after the US and France for Saint-Gobain, which has operations in 75 countries.

With 60 manufacturing lines in 30 locations spread over nine states fromRajasthantoTamil Nadu, 14% of the turnover from the Indian operations is generated through exports. While 50% of the turnover is from glass related businesses, 30% is contributed by gypsum and construction chemicals and the rest by abrasives, ceramics and life sciences.

Xylophis Deepaki, a tiny snake with iridescent scales that is only 20 cm long, has been added to the list.

It was discovered in a coconut plantation in Kanyakumari for the first time.

It has been sighted in a few locations in the southern part of the Western Ghats and is now considered an endemic species of Nadu.

The species is named after Indian herpetologist Deepak Veerappan, who was instrumental in establishing the Xylophiinae subfamily to accommodate wood snakes.

Finance ministerPalanivel Thiaga Rajanon Tuesday said having achieved to a large extent in the first two years in power, theDMKgovernment is now focused on attracting new investments and generating EMPLOYMENT.

The first signs of Governance“>Good Governance are in the numbers. During the previous AIADMK regimes, the numbers initially projected kept going downhill. They also indulged in hidden borrowings to a great extent. The present DMK government has made the right estimates and guaranteed it stayed within that, without the need for hidden borrowings,” the minister said.

The state assembly also passed the final ‘supplementary estimates’ of 26,352 crore for 2022-23. This included 19,776 in revenue account, 3,642 crore in Capital Account and 2,934 crore in loan account.

Nadufinance ministerPalanivel Thiaga Rajanwill present the financialbudgetfor the year 2023-24 on March 20.

The finance minister would table the Vote on Account for the first few months of the fiscal year 2023-24 and the final supplementary estimates for the year 2022-23 on March 28. Soon after the budget is presented, the Business Advisory Committee will decide on the dates for the presentation of the Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture budget and debates for the demand for grants for various government departments, Appavu said.

TheMaduraiDistrict Administration is planning to set up a single window system to provide permission for election-related issues, including campaigns as the https://exam.pscnotes.com/model-code-of-conduct”>Model Code Of Conduct for the local body Elections has come into effect, district collector S AneeshSekharhas said.

The collector said that 200 polling booths have been identified as vulnerable and they would be monitored by videographers and micro observers in addition to the CCTV monitoring.

State universities in Nadu are left in a quandary with no clear policy regarding academic bank of credits (ABC) or the introduction of four-year degrees. They are caught unawares of the fundamental changes in higher Education that are likely to take effect in the next few years.

The UGC conducted a national level meeting on operationalisation of the ABC on December 29 and a majority of state universities did not take part in the deliberations. Professors said even if the State Government is opposed to the ABC or other key initiatives of National Education Policy, the professors and academicians need to attend these meetings for better understanding and put forth the state government’s views.

University of Madras’ former vice-chancellor P Duraisamy said the state government may form an expert committee to study the advantages of the new initiatives such as the four-year degrees and ABC and can take a decision based on its recommendations.

The Union territory of has the lowest POVERTY ratio among the Union territories in the country with just 1.72% of its Population living in poverty, according to a Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) report prepared by the NITI Aayog based on the National family Health survey – 4 done in 2015-16. Among the states, Kerala has the lowest poverty ratio with 0.71% whileBiharhas the highest poverty ratio with 51.91% of its population living in poverty.Tamil Naduhas the fourth lowest poverty index among states with 4.89%, after Kerala, Goa (3.76%) and Sikkim (3.82%).

Jharkhand has the second-highest poverty ratio with 42.16% of its population living in poverty followed by Uttar Pradesh (37.79%), Madhya Pradesh (36.65%) and Meghalaya and Assam 32.67%. Among the Union territories, Dadra & Nagar Haveli has the highest poverty ratio with 27.36% of its population living in poverty, followed by Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh (12.58%) and Daman & Diu (6.82%). Lakshadweep is the second least poor territory with 1.82% followed by Andaman & Nicobar Island (4.3%), Delhi (4.79%) and Chandigarh (5.97%).

Niti Aayog vice-chairperson DrRajiv Kumar, in his foreword to the report, said the MPI was prepared using the globally accepted and robust methodology developed by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

The index was prepared based on three key parameters – health, Education and standard of living. Health parameter comprises three indicators – Nutrition, child and adolescent mortality and antenatal care while education includes ‘years of schooling’ and ‘school attendance’ and standard of living includes cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water, electricity, housing, assets and bank account.

Tamil Nadu fared better in several indicators including electricity, school attendance and cooking fuel.

Niti Aayog used the Alkire-Foster (AF) methodology to prepare the index. The AF methodology is a general framework for measuring multidimensional poverty that identifies people as poor or not poor based on a dual cut off counting method. The first order cut-off within each component indicator is applied to determine which person is ‘deprived’ in that indicator. The information across all indicators is then aggregated to arrive at a deprivation score for each individual.

The second order cut-off is then applied to identify the individuals, who are multidimensionally poor. The methodology is an extension of the widely acceptedFoster-Greer-Thorbecke(FGT) class of poverty measures and has a range of technical and practical advantages that make it favourable for use in nonmonetary poverty estimation, said the report.
However, experts pointed out that Niti Aayog used the data collected for a different purpose to prepare a multi-dimensional poverty index. Generally, monetary measurements are used to measure poverty. The monetary measurements will give a clear picture of whether the individual earns enough to feed himself and his family members with adequate food and meet his and family members necessary calorie requirements.

Chief minister M K Stalin on Wednesday announced majorinfrastructureprojects for development ofschools, roads and transport service in Nadu. He made the announcements in the assembly under rule 110 of the House.
He said the government needed to spend Rs 12,300 crore to construct 26,000 new classrooms, 7,500 km compound walls and carry out maintenance of old school buildings. Per Aasiriyar Anbazhagan development scheme was announced to ensure the same, he said.

As the student strength has increased, he said Infrastructure would be improved in 7,200 schools at a cost of Rs 1,050 crore. The works include construction of 6,000 classrooms in panchayat union, elementary and middle schools, and 1,200 classrooms in high schools and higher secondary schools this year. An additional Rs 115 crore was being allocated for maintenance of school buildings, he said.
The government schools in the state saw enrolment of 15 lakh students in the last two years. The State Government was implementing various programmes like free morning meals, Illam Thedi Kalvi, Ennum Ezhuthum, and Naan Mudalvan Scheme to develop the educational sector and be a role model for other states, said Stalin.