TELANGANA

In a first-of-its-kind initiative inTelangana, the agricultural department has initiated a monkey menacesurvey in villages across the state toidentify hotspotsof monkey movements and the number of monkeys.

The survey is being conducted because the monkey problem has been identified as the main hindrance to crop conversion from paddy to groundnut.

According to officials, , like Himachal Pradesh, is dealing with this issue and the northern state used a sterilisation technique to limit monkey movements. Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture officers around the state were requested to submit the details of monkeys in a five-question format and a special web provision was provided in the departments crop booking system with the name monkey menace survey.

The monkey menace survey is being conducted because the monkey problem has been identified as the main hindrance to crop conversion from paddy to groundnut.

At 9.47%,Telanganahas the highest rural Consumer Price Index (CPI)-based in the country in October this year. Experts attribute the high rural inflation to increased demand for products and Services as well as a surge in prices.

According to the most recent figures released by theUnion ministry of statisticsand programme implementation, state’s rural inflation is 8.2% higher than urban inflation. However, the state can take a breather as the combined inflation rate (rural and urban) has dropped to 8.8% from 10% a few months ago.

Apart from Telangana, only three other states have rural inflation rate of 8% or higher for October. West Bengal is second with 8.6%, followed byHaryana(8.4%) and AP (8%).

As per central government, there is a failure in meeting inflation target when Average inflation rises above the target’s upper Tolerance level of 6% or declines below its lower tolerance level for three consecutive quarters. CPI-based inflation ranged from 6.3% in the March quarter to 7.2% in June quarter to 7% in the September quarter in the country.

Both the states have slipped in the Logistics rankings released by the Union ministry of commerce and Industry on Monday. As per the Logistics Ease Across Different States (LEADS 2021) report, Telangana that had figured on the eighth spot in 2019 has slipped to 10th position in 2021, whereas Andhra Pradesh that bagged the third spot in 2019 has plunged to ninth position trailing states such as Odisha and Uttar Pradesh.

Gujarat, Haryana and Punjab have emerged as the top performers in the LEADS 2021 index.
There were around 17 parameters that assessed the quality of Warehousing, rail & road Infrastructure, multimodal and unimodal terminal infrastructure and logistics Services among others.

The report said states have an essential role in bringing down overall logistics costs by having an enabling policy, regulatory and institutional mechanism in place for the logistics sector. Moreover, states can gain advantage by undertaking measures to increase logistics efficiency and making the states industry products competitive globally, increasing its share in Indias trade basket, it added.

Several higher educational institutions from slipped in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2021rankings, released virtually by the union minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan on Thursday. Only seven engineering institutions from Telangana figured in the top 200 compared to 11 in last years rankings. The figure stood at 16 in 2019.
In a first, the Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad (IIT-H) secured 15th rank in the research category, while improving its overall ranking to 16th from last years 17th rank. In the engineering category, the IIT-H retained its eighth position for the third consecutive year.

The University of Hyderabad (UoH) ranked 25th in the research category. However, in the overall rankings, the university slipped from 15th to 17th rank this year. In the universitys category, the varsity, which was granted the Institution of Eminence tag two years back by the ministry of education, has slipped from the sixth to ninth rank.

Union minister for chemicals and fertilisers Mansukh Mandaviya, in reply to a query by Malkajgiri MP A Revanth Reddy, said: As per information provided by the TSPCB, 3.1 lakh tonnes of hazardous waste was generated against an authorised capacity of 8.2 lakh tonnes in 2019-20.

While there are 651 chemical andpharma industrieslocated in , a majority of the units are established in and around Hyderabad, Rangareddy, Medchal Malkajgiri, Sangareddy, Medak and Yadadri Bhuvanagiri districts.

Jeedimetla, Kukatpally, Balanagar, Sanathnagar, Nacharam, Cherlapally, Moulali, Uppal, IDA Bolaram, Bachupally, Khazipally, Gaddapotharam, Bonthapally, Pashamailaram, Patancheru, Choutuppal, Pochampally and Dothigudem are the areas generating hazardous waste.

Waste from chemical manufacturing Industry like pesticide, pharmaceutical, petrochemical, dye and dye intermediate, fertiliser, refinery, organic chemical and paints are classified as hazardous waste based on the toxic characteristics.

T-Hub said it has partnered with the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), , to foster innovation and Entrepreneurship in the healthcare space.

As a part of this PARTNERSHIP, T-Hub has rolled out a three-month cohort-based programme called AIC T-Hub Foundation exclusively for the deep tech startups creating new-age solutions in the field of life sciences and healthcare, it said.

As part of the programme 10 deeptech startups have been handpicked after an extensive screening process by T-Hub, AIM and external Industry experts based on their cutting-edge deeptech innovation for healthcare and life sciences, go-to market readiness, scalability, team composition, T-Hub said.

The programme will focus on providing startups with world-class experts and Resources to sharpen their understanding of markets, refine their business and product commercialization plans, it added.

The Backward Classes (BC) Commission chairman Vakulabharanam Krishna Mohan Rao has urged theNational BC CommissionChairman,Hansraj Gangaram Ahirto recommend to the Centre for taking up socio-economic caste survey on priority basis as it falls under the purview of the Union Government.

Such caste census data arrived on scientific lines would help the states to determine the accurate Percentage of reservation needed for backward classes ineducation,EMPLOYMENT, andlocal body Elections, he said.
He also urged the national BC body to include the BC castes of the state in the central OBC list to enable them to avail benefits of Education and employment fields. And also suggested taking up a review on enhancing the non-creamy layer ceiling from Rs.8 lakhs to Rs.15 lakhs.

Krishna Mohan Rao reiterated that there is an urgency to take up the socio-economic caste census which would ease the difficulties faced by the states in fixing reservations for OBCs in education, employment, and local body representations across the country. This exercise would also provide a helping hand to the Rohini commission working on sub-categorization and finding a permanent solution.

He also explained the various schemes being implemented by the Telangana government such as Kalyana Lakshmi, reimbursement of tuition fees, overseas Scholarship, Mahatma Phule residential schools, and free financial assistance. The state BC commission chairman also discussed the meagre budget of Rs.2,000 crores allotted in the union annual budget of 2023-2024 to the OBCs who constitute 56% of the total Population.

The recently-released data on states and their rankings based on their performance in reaching goals (SDG) seems to have missedTelanganas data on Percentage ofpopulationliving below thepoverty line(BPL).

The first SDG of ending POVERTY by 2030 had set the target of reducing the number of BPL people to 10.96 per cent but the report mentioned the states data as null. Experts pointed out that the state had actually progressed well in reaching its target.

Interestingly, Telangana is the only state in whose case this data is mentioned as null. The government has taken note of this and sources within the government said that while Centre had applied the Tendulkar Committees figures on poverty as baseline to talk about the numbers, it did not apply the same to Telangana. Telangana achieved 69 marks under this SDG even without BPL sub-parameter.

According to Tendulkar Committee estimates, 21.92 per cent of the Population was living below the Poverty Line in 2011-12. The target is to reduce the percentage of of poverty by half. Six states and seven UTs have already achieved the target of reducing poverty rates to below 10.96 per cent.

Telanganas tier-2 cities are poised to see the creation of over 2,500 direct IT sector jobs and 10,000 indirect jobs, thanks to the state governments 3Dmantra decongest, decarbonize and decentralise that is trying to nudge IT companies to start operations, IT & industries minister K TarakaRama Raotold NRI CEOs of over 30 IT companies that he met in Washington DC as part of his US tour.

Pitching tier-2 towns of as future IT hubs, KTR told the top IT honchos in US that as part of this push the government has already set up and inaugurated IT towers in Warangal, Karimnagar, Khammam and Mahabubnagar, even as the IT tower inSiddipetwill be inaugurated soon.

Urging NRIs to come and set up offices in their hometowns and create rural EMPLOYMENT, KTR spoke to them in detail about how IT sector is booming in cities like Warangal, Karimnagar, Khammam thanks to the establishment of IT towers and the state governments commitment to expand IT across all cities and towns of Telangana.

While the state has identified 491 micro-containment zones, alarming trends are being observed in the districts which were reporting zero cases like Nirmal.

They have a high number of micro-containment zones, indicating rapid spread ofCovid-19cases across the state.

Nirmal district, which reported zero cases at one point, now has the third-highest number of micro-containment zones at 32.

Nizamabad district, which had become a hotspot after GHMC, has equal number of micro-containment zones as GHMC. Among 33 districts, except Narayanpet, all districts have micro-containment zones now.