Current Affairs Exam

Centre to review management of river boards

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

Expressing displeasure over the delay in implementation of gazette notification of management ofriver boards, theCentrehas decided to take stock of the situation with AP and.

Union Ministry for Jal Shakti secretary, Pankaj Kumar, will conduct areviewvia video-conference with chief secretaries of AP and Telangana on Tuesday. In a Communication sent to the chief secretary, Dr Sameer Sharma, Pankaj Kumar said the progress of the implementation of the provisions in gazette notification was not satisfactory. He said no state has deposited seed Money of Rs 200 crore each to theKrishnaRiver Management Board (KRMB) andGodavariRiver Management Board (GRMB) even after lapse of five months.

The State Government had argued that inclusion of projects which do not share common interest between AP and Telangana would complicate the implementation of the gazette notification.

Andhra CM releases 1,570 crore for enhanced pension

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

Chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy launched the distribution of enhanced social security pension of 2,500 per month under ‘YSR Pension Kanuka’ at Prathipadu town in Guntur district on Saturday. The chief minister released 1,570 crore from the exchequer to be paid to the beneficiaries under the pension scheme.

Andhra Pradesh is the only state in the country to come up with such an initiative. On YSR Pension Kanuka alone, the government has spent over 45,000 crore since the scheme’s inception without any cuttings or any Corruption besides adding over 18.44 lakh fresh beneficiaries.

Revival of industries pushes Goas GST collections to 73 per cent year-on-year

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

Driven by a strong resurgence in tourism andrevivalin manufacturing activity, the gross goods and Services tax (GST) revenue collection in Goa continues to remain positive, with December registering a73%jump inyear-on-yearcollections. The Growth, which is a 14% increase over November, is also significantly higher than the 13% growth seen at the national level.

According to the Union finance ministry, Rs 592 crore was collected as central GST, state GST, integrated GST and cess in December as against Rs 518 crore in November. In December 2020, the total GST mop-up in Goa stood at Rs 342 crore.

Nationally, the gross GST revenue stood at Rs 1,29,780 crore, of which CGST is Rs 22,578 crore, SGST is Rs 28,658 crore, IGST is Rs 69,155 crore and cess is Rs 9,389 crore.
The state governments annual GST collections has shown a steady increase every financial year, growing from Rs 3,651.8 crore in 2017-18 to Rs 4,689 crore in 2020-21. Till July, Goas GST revenue stood at Rs 1,346.6 crore.

Maharashtra to target 60 lakh in 15-18 age group, 29L in comorbid category

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

The states target beneficiaries in the 15-18 years age group and the comorbid category is 60.63 lakh and 29.09 lakh, respectively, according to the projected Population listed by the Centre on Tuesday.

Of the total 7.4 crore beneficiaries in the age group of 15-18 years in the country, the states target is second highest after Uttar Pradesh. The state immunisation officials claimed that it would take at least six months to cover this population. TheCovid-19vaccination of this age group would commence from January 3.

According to theHealth departmentsNational Family HealthSurvey-5, about 73.5% of the population is above 18 years and 22.8% under 15. Thus, around 3.7% of the population is in the 15-18 age group.

6th finance panel report submitted to Haryana Governor

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

State Chairman P Raghavendra Rao presented the report of the State Finance Commission to Governor Bandaru Dattatreya today at the Haryana Raj Bhavan.

Rao said the 6th commission was constituted on September 22, 2020, and the report had been prepared and submitted to the Governor in a record time of 15 months

Punjab Government to reimburse Rs 4.5 crore to workers’ fund

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

The will reimburse around Rs 4.58 crore which was spent on the vaccination of registered construction workers and their family members to the Punjab Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Board.

It has been learnt the Labour Department has already asked the Finance Department to take steps in this regard in the recent 28th meeting of the board. The meeting was chaired by the Chief Minister himself, wherein the Labour Department asked officials to reimburse the Money citing the free supply of vaccination to the entire Population by the central government.

The Tribune had been highlighting the paid vaccination of construction workers while others were being jabbed for free. The Labour Department had to transfer around Rs 7.04 crore to the Health Department for the vaccination of registered construction workers and their family members. Ironically, other beneficiaries of the state were being jabbed free of cost.

HP notifies scheme for settling legacy cases

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

The Himachal Pradesh government has approved and notified a new scheme, Himachal PradeshSwarn Jayanti(Legacy Cases Resolution) Scheme-2021, to settle all pending legacy cases and recover arrears stuck in cases under litigation. Himachal Pradesh Swarn Jayanti (Legacy Cases Resolution) Scheme-2021 will be available for the pre-GST taxpayers to resolve tax liability and disputes.

The scheme will be valid for six months from its publication in the official gazette of the Himachal Pradesh. It will come in two phases. In the first phase of four months, the dealer is required to pay due tax along with settlement fee at 10% and in the second phase of two months, 150% of the settlement fee as applicable in the earlier phase along with due tax.
Stakeholders or dealers can apply under the scheme by visiting the circle or district office of the department concerned. The dealers will have to deposit applicable settlement fee online in relevant head of account of subsumed enactment and no manual fee will be accepted.

Doon ranks poor inCSCAF,need to adoptclimate-sensitive approach

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

Releasing its report on Dehraduns poor performance inClimate Smart Cities Assessment Framework (CSCAF), the Social Development for Communities (SDC) Foundationhasappealed to all to include the issue of sustainable Urbanisation in their manifestos ahead of the 2022 assembly Elections fora Climate-sensitive approach to urban planning and development in thestate.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) developed CSCAF in association with the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) to provide a roadmap for cities towards mainstreaming climate actions within existing and future projects and policies. A total of 126 cities including 100 Smart Cities, capital cities and other cities were part of the assessment and Dehradun was the only city from Uttarakhand. The cities were given star ratings on the basis of the evaluation based on five parameters including 28 indicators- Urban Planning, Green Cover and Biodiversity, Mobility and Air Quality, Water Management, Energy and Green Buildings and Waste Management. Dehradun received one star in the first three parameters, two stars in the fourth one and three stars in the waste management category.

According to the SDCs report, not a single city out of 126 cities got an overall five-star ranking inthis assessment. Only nine cities includingAhmedabad, Rajkot, Surat, Visakhapatnam and Indore got the four-star ranking while 22 cities got a three-star ranking. Dehradun and the other 63 cities got only a two-star ranking while the remaining 31 cities attained only a one-star ranking.

Namami Gange project gives new lease of life to Yamuna

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

The Namami Gange project has finally succeeded in giving a new lease of life to Yamuna as a major work of purification of this river has been carried out in Mathura.

According to the data released by Jal Nigam, 20 drains have been tapped at a cost of Rs 460.45 crore. Also, a new sewage treatment plant (STP) of 30 MLD (million litres per day) has been prepared. Along with rejuvenating the rivers, the problem of sewerage falling in them is being solved with a state-of-the-art method.

On the other hand, the Ramganga sewerage scheme in Moradabad has brought about a big change under the Namami Gange project. In Mathura, sewerage from 13 drains has been stopped from falling into the river Yamuna at a cost of Rs 330.05 crore and an STP of 58 MLD has been set up.

Besides, a faecal sludge treatment plant (FSTP) of 10 KLD (kilolitres per day) has been set up at Chunar Nagar of Mirzapur at a cost of Rs 2.70 crore. In Firozabad, two big drains have been tapped by the I&D method at a cost of Rs 51.06 crore. In Kasganj, construction of 58 MLD STPs has been completed along with tapping of two drains at a cost of Rs 76.73 crore.

Azim Premji Foundation to set up university in Jharkhand

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

CEO of Azim Premji Foundation, Anurag Behar, met Chief Minister Hemant Soren today and reiterated his resolve to ensure his participation in the development of Jharkhand. He told the Chief Minister that the Foundation would play an active role in the development of Education, quality education and improving the academic Environment in Jharkhand. The Chief Minister assured the Foundation of all possible cooperation from the Government.

The Foundation expressed to open a university in Jharkhand. Behar told the Chief Minister that about Rs 1200 to Rs 1400 crore would be spent on setting up the university. The campus of the university will be spread over an area of 150 acres. Here the students will be given employable and quality education. The intention of opening a university here has been expressed by the Foundation in the same series of topics that were discussed during the online conversation of Azim Premji of Wipro Company with the Chief Minister recently.

The CEO of the Foundation told the Chief Minister that the Foundation would cooperate in improving primary and secondary education. The foundation will extend all possible help in meeting the needs of the schools which are being developed as model schools by the government.