The has initiated preliminary measures to construct aTidelpark inTrichywith senior bureaucrats inspecting potential sites in the city along with officials of Trichy corporation and District Administration. Tidel is a joint venture ofTamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation(Tidco) and Electronic Corporation of Tamil Nadu (Elcot).
The park will give an Infrastructure boost to generate EMPLOYMENT opportunities in IT andInformation Technology Enabled Services(ITES) sectors.
In a major initiative to promote electric vehicles, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (Bpcl), a Maharatna company, on Friday announced the launch of 19 EV fast-charging corridors on 15 major highways inKerala, Karnataka and Nadu.
Among the 19 corridors, which connect important religious and tourist destinations with major cities, three are in Kerala.
An exclusive survey-cum-opinion poll conducted by CVoter in Karnataka ahead of the May 10 assembly reveals that as many as 57 per cent of the respondents are angry with the State Government and want to change it.
As per the survey, just about 17 per cent of the potential voters say that they are not angry with the government and do not want to change it. There are other ominous signals for theBJPgovernment led by chief minister Basavraj Bommai. Almost 47 per cent of the respondents rate the performance of the chief minister as ‘poor’.
In addition, Corruption has emerged as a major issue among the voters in the state after Unemployment and Infrastructure. In assembly elections in states ruled by the BJP, the last time corruption had become a major issue was in Jharkhand in 2019, where the BJP had lost. Barring that, incumbent BJP governments in states have not faced such levels of anger among a majority of the voters who want to change the government.
The (NGT) has ordered Telangana not to proceed withSitamma Sagarmulti-purpose Irrigation project on riverGodavariin Bhadradri-Kothagudem district without obtaining environmental clearance (EC).
Tellam Naresh of Bhadradri-Kothagudem andBura Laxminarayanaof Mulugu filed an application before the NGT Southern Bench alleging that the Sitamma Sagar multi-purpose project at Ammagaripalli village ofAswapurammandal, Bhadradri-Kothagudem district had commenced work without the EC. They alleged it was a violation of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification, 2006.
NaduTransport MinisterSS Sivasankar announced that motorists need not apply for commercial badges to drive taxis, autos, minivans, and other Light Motor Vehicles (LMVs).
This means that those who have ordinary licences (non-transport or own-use) will soon be eligible to drive these commercial vehicles. The move is aimed at addressing drivers’ shortage and avoiding crowds atRegional Transport Offices(RTOs).
In order to reduce crowds at RTOs further, ministerSivasankartold the assembly on Wednesday that motorists can avail 42 different motor vehicle document-related Services online. This includes making changes in driving licences, issue of duplicate licenses, and registration of vehicles. The public can either apply for these contactless services from their homes, net centres or through dealers in case of vehicle registrations.
Goa Shipyard Ltd (GSL) has bagged a Rs 6,200 crore contract to build seven Next Generation Offshore Patrol Vessels (NGOPV) for theIndian Navy. The contract is part of a Rs 9,781 crore order for 11NGOPVsthat theministry of defencefinalised.
Deliveries of the NGOPVs will start in September 2026, and once inducted into the INDIAN NAVY, the warships will be used for anti-piracy operations, search and rescue, maritime patrolling, and surveillance.
Fish catch inMaharashtrarose for the first time since 2017, increasing by around 38% from 1.23 lakh tonnes in 2021 to 1.7 lakh tonnes in 2022, according to Central Marine Research Institute (CMFRI) data.
Despite the increase, the state’s catch was half of the 3.8 lakh tonne landings seen in 2017. Raigad led in the state, contributing 28% of all catch, followed by Mumbai city with 26% and Ratnagiri with 23%. While the catch of all the species rose, except for Indian mackerel which fell slightly, the landings of Indian oil sardine saw the biggest jump -going from 44 tonnes in 2021 to 23,000 tonnes in 2022.
Oil sardine’s catch rises 188% in country, shrimp doubles in Maharashtra
The state’s fish catch increased by 38% to 1.7 lakh tonnes in 2022 with the Indian oil sardine seeing the biggest jump, data from the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) shows.
This increase was likely due to Population dynamics -more eggs might have hatched around the same time -as well as conducive environmental conditions, said CMFRI’s Ramkumar. CMFRI scientists had forecast the bump in sardine catch, as the fishery tends to fluctuate with the La Nina/El Nino cycles (2022 was a La Nina year).
Maharashtra also saw big increases in penaeid prawns or shrimp, which doubled from almost 9,000 tonnes to about 18,000 tonnes, as well as ribbon fish, whose catch increased from 4,600 to over 10,000 tonnes.
Fish catch in the state fell dramatically in 2018 and 2019 due to bad weather that kept boats ashore on many days-including a surprising amount of cyclonic activity in the Arabian Sea-as well as overfishing.
In fact, 2019 saw the state get its lowest fish catch since 1974-though that number then fell further in the pandemic-affected years of 2020 and 2021.
Maharashtra contributed 5% of the all India catch of 3.5 million tonnes. The bulk of the catch (around 72%) was by mechanised purse seine boats, followed by multi-day trawl nets and mechanised dol nets.
Only Odisha and Gujarat saw a decline in catch last year. West Bengal saw the biggest increase in catch of around 38.4%-just a little higher increase than Maharashtra-while Puducherry saw a 30% increase in catch and Tamil Nadu 28%.
Haryana successfully completed the electrification work of railways in the state being carried out by the central and state governments. Lauding this achievement of Haryana, Prime MinisterNarendra Modisaid electrification of railways would create more opportunities towards development of Haryana.
Railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, in his tweet, disclosed the 100% completion of RAILWAY electrification work in Haryana.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann launched (AI) based Chatbot helpline service to facilitate the detection of missing children.
The helpline service is integrated with a WhatsApp number, where people can raise complaints about missing children.
After sending the text to the said WhatsApp number, some AI-based questions will be asked. After they are answered, the information will be sent to the District Control Room, so that the concerned Police stations can be informed. 24 hours after the start of the investigation, the ‘181’ helpline number will stay in contact with the complainant.
The chief ministerSukhvinder Singh Sukhuled government ofHimachal Pradeshwill generate 2,000MW of electricity in the next three years to fulfil its election promise of providing 300 units of free electricity to the people of the state made during the assembly .
He said that the State Government would also try to get 30 percent free power from all those hydroelectric projects set up in the state, which have become debt free. He said that if the government succeeds in this work, then every year the state will get an additional income of Rs 10,000 crore. He regretted that the power policy also changed with the change of government in the state, due to which the royalty of the state kept on decreasing.
He said that at present 12000 MW electricity is being generated in Himachal Pradesh, but the state’s share in it is just nominal. He said that on March 2, 2024, the 99-year lease of the Shanan hydroelectric project would end and the state government was constantly trying to take back this project.