Rs 1.78L-cr invested on rail safety in 9 years, 2.5x more than during 2004-14: Vaishnaw

Therailwayministry is planning to revise the signal engineering manual to improve its reliability even as it contemplates implementing new technologies and bringing procedural changes to prevent the reoccurrence of train accidents such as the one inBalasoreon June 2.

Vaishnaw, who is on a three-day tour of Odisha, said while lots of actions have been taken by the RAILWAY Board after theBahanagaBazar incident and the railway manual may also change. The minister said there is a protocol for every repair and maintenance work.

Vaishnaw said the Indian Railways has sped up the process of installing Kavach (anti-collision device). The plan is to install the device across 10,000 km per year from 2,000 km in next few years.

Liquor sale in Tamil Nadu: Tasmac to go digital

Those buyingliquorfrom state-run liquor shops inTamil Nadumay soon get a bill as Nadu State Marketing Corporation (Tasmac) is on its way to complete computerisation.

Tasmac has awarded a Rs 294 crore order

to public sector undertaking Railtel for end-to-end computerisation of its operations.

In a filing to the Stock Exchanges, RailTel said it has received the work order from Tasmac for “implementation of an integrated solution enabling end-to-endcomputerizationand connectivity of core and support functions of Tasmac.” The contract for digitization is to be executed within five years

Diapers constitute 80% of biomed waste in Kochi

Adult and kids diapers constitute 80% of the biomedical waste being collected fromKochicorporation limits for treatment at the processing facility ofKeralaEnviro Ltd (KEIL).

Sanitary pads and other medical waste including dialysis kits constitute the rest of the waste collected in Kochi. A4 Mercantile, the private agency which is collecting the biomedical waste from Kochi through Aakri app, collects nearly 1.5 tonnes of waste per day for incineration in high temperature at the KEIL facility. The agency has already collected and transported 20 tonnes of biomedical waste to

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KEIL so far this month. They anticipate that 25 tonnes of waste would be collected this month. Last month they collected around 18 tonnes from Kochi.

Most of the adult diapers are coming from Ernakulam South, Perumanur, Kathrikadavu, Thoppumpady and Palluruthy areas, showing the presence of more elderly Population. While kids diapers are mostly coming from areas towards the North like Edappally and Elamakkara.

Karnataka prefers renewable energy to thermal power: Energy minister

Amidst global clamour against thethermal power plantsand thefight against https://exam.pscnotes.com/Climate-change”>Climate Change,Karnataka energy ministerKJ George clarified that there is no proposal to build any new thermal Plants in Karnataka.

Rather than setting up new thermal power plants, we will strengthen the existing plants and focus more on augmenting the generation ofrenewable energyin Karnataka, the minister said during his visit to the Ballari Thermal Power Station (BTPS) at Kuditini in Ballari.

However, the minister directed the electrical engineers to maintain the quality of coal used at these thermal plants.

Lulu Group to invest over Rs 3,500 crore in Telangana over next 5 years

UAE-based retail giantLulu Groupis all set to drive into with an Investment of over Rs 3,500 crore in setting up malls and Food Processing facilities over the next five years, chairmanYusuff Ali MAsaid.

The investments include Rs 2,500 crore in setting up a destination mall on the outskirts of Hyderabad that will generate around 12,000 jobs. The group also inked MoUs with theTelangana governmentfor these investments.
But first off the block will be its Rs 300 crore investment in rolling out the firstLulu mallandLulu Hypermarketin Hyderabad’s Kukatpally area where the group has taken over the 5 lakh square feet Manjeera mall.
The 2 lakh square feet Lulu Hypermarket will not just offer fresh produce and grocery but will also have fashion, Home appliances, electronics, mobiles, IT, and lifestyle products under the brand names Lulu Fashion Store and Lulu Connect.

The project, which is expected to generate EMPLOYMENT for over 2,500 people, is expected to commence commercial operations in the next 18 months.
The UAE-based group is also planning mini malls on the outskirts of Hyderabad and other major cities and towns in the state with an investment outlay of Rs 1,000 crore.

The Abu Dhabi-based $8 billion turnover Lulu Group operates over 250 hypermarkets and 24 shopping malls across 22 countries with a global headcount of over 65,000.

Less than 1% of pupils taking NEET in Telugu

About 1.44 lakh candidates fromAndhra PradeshandTelanganaregistered their names to appear forthe nationaleligibility-cum-entrancetestundergraduate (NEET-UG) 2023. But only some 1,300 candidates opted to write the exam in . While the number of students attemptingNEETin Telugu has remained more or less the same in the last five years, registrations from the two Telugu states are going northwards with each passing year.

Conducting the exam in regional languages is supposed to create a level playing field for students who did their intermediate (10+2) and/or schooling in Telugu medium. It is also opined that Telugu question paper may help them understand the questions thoroughly and encourage them to attempt the exam with full confidence. However, the fewer registrations in Telugu speak an altogether different story.

As per National Testing Agency (NTA) data for the last five years, the number of students who choose Telugu faded compared to those who opted for other regional

languages in NEET. While English was the favourite, Hindi continued its supremacy as the second most registered language. For example, 16.7 lakh students registered for the exam in English in 2023, followed by Hindi (2.76 lakh), Gujarati (53,027), Bengali (43,890), Tamil (30,536), Assamese (3324), Urdu (1695), etc. All the 11 regional languages accounted for only 1.38 lakh combined registrations.

Goa tourism goes to Times Square to woo US visitors

To strengthen its image on the international arena, the tourism department ran an outdoor campaign at Times Square in New York, coinciding with Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to the USA.

While Goa has not made concerted efforts to woo US tourists, in the past decade, a few attempts were made to explore the distant market, but these did not meet with much success.

While footfalls from the US have been on the lower side, 2018 and 2019 saw a jump. The two years each had over 25,000 US travellers visiting Goa, though the num-bers dropped to 16,000 in 2020, the year Covid-19 derailed the world.

href="https://exam.pscnotes.com/haryana-notes-for-state-psc-exams/">HARYANA (512)

Colleges asked to promote courses by youth climate action group

Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University (Bamu) has requested all affiliated colleges to promote courses offered byMaharashtraYouth for Climate Action (MYCA), a youth programme initiated by Unicef, Maharashtra and Centre for Environment Education, Pune.

In its latest correspondence with the colleges, Bamu asked institution heads to promote the courses on a massive scale. Offered by MYCA without any fee requirements, the courses are themed on

and its mitigation measures such as living with climate change and water management.

MYCA is considered as a step in creating youth representation from Maharashtra in climate action advocacy. The colleges have been asked to visit the official website, www.mahayouthnet.in, for enrollment of students. Earlier on May 24, the state education department had written a letter to all

state universities for popularizing the courses.

Hailed as one of Indias oldest universities, Bamu (est.1958) has jurisdiction over half of Marathwada with a collective student strength of more than 4.4 lakh in over 450 affiliated colleges.

Multi-pronged strategy to be adopted to tackle drug menace, says Hry CM

Instructing the concerned officers to adopt a multi-pronged strategy to eradicate the drug menace in the State, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar launched a state-wide drug-free Haryana campaign at a programme organized on the occasion of International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking in Panchkula.

Speaking on this occasion, Khattar said that under the drug-free Haryana campaign, the Saints and Gurus would work closely with the in bringing those involved in the drug menace into the mainstream of Society. Besides, people would be made aware of the ill effects of drugs so that they do not get addicted.

Urging the people of the state, Social Institutions and Saints and Gurus to work together with determination under this state-wide drug-free Haryana campaign to build a drug-free Haryana, Khattar said that a multi-pronged strategy should be adopted to break the Network of drugs.

He stated that a new task force will be constituted under the Nasha Mukt Haryana campaign which would comprise members from all social and religious organizations, government representatives, Police personnel, and representatives of concerned departments. He said that a joint campaign would be run in the State by all the Stakeholders.

The CM informed that a smartphone app called ‘Saathi’ has been developed to curb the unlawful sale of pharmaceuticals. The Inter-State Drug Secretariat has been established at Panchkula, and Software Hawk has been developed to keep a record of the Database of illegal activities. Besides this, an awareness campaign is being run in the State. For this, Mission teams have been constituted from village level to the state level.

Punjab Govt to hold Pind-Sarkar Milnis for villages holistic development

To give a boost to the development works in the states villages besides making the people at the grass-root level an active partner in the governments decision-making, Punjab Government will organize the Pind-Sarkar Milnis (village-government meetings), on the lines of Kisan-Sarkar Milni programme.

Announcing this, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday said that thesemilniswill be organized at district headquarters in Majha, Malwa, and Doaba regions of the State.

In thesemilnis, the panchayats will apprise the officers about the development works to be started in their villages, said Mann while asking the Rural Development and Panchayats Department to make elaborate arrangements for making this event a huge success.

The Chief Minister said that thesemilniswill be organized twice a week in the Malwa region of the State, and once in a week in Doaba and Majha regions. This will help in resolution of pity issues of the villages that are pending at the level of the officers and

have been hitherto not resolved. The Government will also solicit views of the panchayats that have taken path breaking initiatives to develop their villages on scientific lines, he said.

Envisioning that like Kisan-Sarkar milni this scheme will go a long way in transforming the villages of the state into development hubs, Mann said that Kisan-Sarkar Milni had already proved useful for resolving the issues faced by the states farmers. Village-Sarkaar Milni will go a long way in further ensuring holistic development of the villages, he added.