Current Affairs Exam

Andhra Pradesh: Smart cities up against unplanned urban growth

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

Increasing Migration to towns and cities in the state is turning out to be one of the governments biggest challenges as it is adding to the already high Population in urban slums.Andhra Pradeshhas the highest number of urbanslumsin the country after Maharashtra.

According to a recent study report byNiti Aayog, about 16 per cent of the urban population in the state lives in slums, close on the heels of Maharashtras 18 per cent.

Interestingly, AP created the highest number of urban civic bodies in an attempt to draw more funds from the Centre for improvement of . However, the creation of new urban civic bodies without proper planning has led to an expansion of urban slums, said experts.

Unplannedurbanisationin the state has already resulted in a number of problems. AP has about 17 municipal corporations, nearly 80 municipalities and 30 nagar panchayats. But full-time planning officers with required qualifications are available only in a few cities. Officials such as town planning supervisors and building inspectors often have little knowledge of the processes of town planning.

The State Government had appointed a large number of planning secretaries in ward secretariats across the state two years ago. Although, a good number of engineering graduates have entered the field, they are from the civil engineering stream and not graduates from planning schools.

NABARD sets moderated Rs 6k cr lending target for priority sectors for 2022-23

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

Goaslendingpotential through priority sectors such asfarm credit,manufacturingandhousinghas been pegged at Rs 6,750 crore for the year 2022-23. Prepared by National Bank for Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture and Rural Development (), the state focus paper has projected that Goas Micro, Small and Medium enterprises (MSME) will requireloansto the tune of Rs 4,479 crore in the coming financial year, which is 66% of the loan projection.

NABARD officials said that the projections for 2022-23 have been moderated in order to project realistic targets for banks and in view of the economic slowdown caused by the pandemic.

Lending towards the agricultural sector through crop loans and agri term loans have been projected at Rs 515 crore and Rs 635 crore respectively.

Bankers and state policy makers agreed to work together to look into the issue of land ownership, which prevents many farmers from obtaining loans for agricultural purposes.

Infosys to provide skill courses for 40L students in Maharashtra

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

Over 40 lakh college students from 4,000 colleges across the state can train for free skill-based courses to be offered as part of an agreement between the higher and technical Education department and IT major Infosys as part of its corporate social responsibility initiative.
The courses will include computer programming, cloud computing, , finance and several others.

Minister of higher and technical education, Uday Samant, said that under the MoU, the students are set to benefit from 3,900 skill courses from different categories.

The courses will be open to arts, science and commerce colleges from Nagpur and Technical College, Ratnagiri in the first phase.
Samant said this agreement will benefit 1,600 technical colleges and 10 lakh technical students and 3,000 higher education colleges and 30 lakh students in state.

Ineligible farmers not turning up to return aid under kisan yojana

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

Nearly 3,300 farmers in the district were found ineligible under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana (PMKSNY) in the district, and were asked to refund the financial aid of around Rs 3.82 crore Just over Rs 38 lakh have been recovered so far.

As per the data procured from the Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department, as many as 3,296 ineligible farmers, majority of whom were payee, were detected, but only 386 farmers have refunded Rs 38,32,000 so far.

The income tax-payee farmers and those who get pension over Rs 10,000 are not eligible to get the financial aid under the scheme that aims at providing Rs 6,000 per annum in three installments for agricultural works. Only those farmers, having land in their name in the revenue records are eligible to receive the aid.

Punjab rural household indebtedness rose from 33% to 35% in 6 years, Parl told

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

As per the latest All-India Debt and Survey (AIDIS), the rural household indebtedness inPunjabhas increased from 33.1% in the year 2012 to 35.1% in 2018, Union finance minister for state Pankaj Chaudhary informed Lok Sabha on Monday. Similarly, the urban household indebtedness in Punjab has also witnessed nearly 2% increase from 18.3% to 20.6% during the same period.

The Average national rural household indebtedness was recorded at 35% and the average national urban household indebtedness at 22.4% in 2018. Chaudhary was responding to a question put by Congress MP from Ludhiana Ravneet Singh Bittu.

Similarly, in the hill state of Himachal Pradesh, the rural household indebtedness witnessed an escalation from 26% to 27.3% and the urban household indebtedness an increase from 21.9% to 23.9% between 2012 and 2018.

100 government elementary schools of Himachal Pradesh to get Rs15 cr

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

As many as 100 government elementary schools have been approved by the government under the Swaran Jayanti Gyanodaya Cluster Shrestha Vidayalaya Scheme for improving the quality of Education so that the students and parents could repose confidence in these.

Under the scheme, a budgetary provision of Rs 15 crore, (Rs 15 lakh per school) has been made for 2021-22 for providing the improved toilets, electricity, library, better drinking water facilities, adequate and smart classrooms, Sports facilities and furniture.

Financial limits have been fixed for each component and Rs 8 lakh has been earmarked for the school

campus development, need-based constructions, renovations and renovation of buildings, toilets, water supply, electricity and fans, playground, boundary walls, lawns, benches, open air gym, stage, waste disposal, botanic garden, Environment-friendly features and solar Light panels.

Cluster schools will be permitted to spend Rs 1.50 lakh on items for cultural programmes, dress, , band and public address system.

A provision of Rs 1.25 lakh per school has been made for thermal scanners, pulse oximeters, material for sanitisation and other activities to combat Covid and Rs 75,000 for procurement and upgrade of sports equipment.

A defence focused incubator will be set up in the premises of Veer Madho Singh Bhandari Uttarakhand Technical University (UTU). The incubator will be set up with the help of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Technology Park (ARTPARK), an organisation that is supported by the Science and Technology department of the Central Government.

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

After the establishment of the incubator, the administration can promote AI and Robotics culture in the state. Banerjee also said that ARTPARK aims to establish not just a good product but a technology that can help the Indian army in resolving the problems causing due to the challenges faced in the current global scenario.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will unveil the Kashi Vishwanath corridor in Varanasi during a two-day visit to his Lok Sabha constituency on December 13 and 14. Before that, he is also expected to visit Gorakhpur on December 7 to inaugurate AIIMS, nine hi-tech ICMR laboratories at BRD Medical College, and a fertiliser plant. The fertiliser plant, once operated by a central PSU, was closed for the last three decades.

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

On December 13, Modi will be inaugurating his dream project, Shri Kashi Vishwanath Dham, following which each house in Varanasi will receive prasad from the temple as also a book on the project. Also, a programme, Bhavya Kashi Divya Kashi, will be organised on both days of his visit.

Significantly, during the 2017 , Modi had campaigned in Varanasi for three days and attended different programmes. This time too, he will be taking part in more than a dozen events during his visit.

The fertiliser plant will ensure large-scale supply of neem-coated urea in eastern Uttar Pradesh as well as in adjoining states and even in Nepal. The trial production in the plant will begin on November 30.

Expressing a need to digitalise safety, Gopal Kumar, chief inspector of factories, Jharkhand, on Monday said that over 1000 severe incidents got registered in 2020 and led to avoidable human deaths. Addressing the 3rd Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Jharkhand Safety Conclave at Beldih Club, he said that safety is multidimensional and cannot be defined. Since the formation of Factories and Mines Act, lots of work has been done in the field of Safety and yet many more things need to be done. Around seven per cent of the world’s population are working as engineers or as workers on sites which need to be alert and cautious during their work at shop floors.

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

He further stated that digitisation is the need of the hour for safety as it bridges the gap between man, process uncertainty and safety officers. Through the help of digitalisation, we can get insights of uncertainty and can get enough time to handle and avoid it. In coming times, Digitisation would not be an option, it will be obligatory and part of our life.

CII Jharkhand organised its third edition of Industrial Safety Conclave today with the theme of Leveraging Digital Initiatives for Improving Industrial Safety. The objective of the CII Jharkhand Industrial Safety Conclave was to inspire the stakeholders towards building an even stronger culture of safety in their organisations. This conclave acted as a forum wherein the participants got the opportunity to interact with the safety professionals, thought leaders to learn the best practices.

Bihars share of poor highest, Keralas least, says Niti index

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

Bihar, with its dismal scores across key development indicators such asnutrition, child andadolescent mortality,maternal Health, years of schooling,sanitationandelectricity, has topped the list of states with the largest share of Population who arepoor, according to think tankNiti Aayogs report, which has identified 25.01% of the countrys population as multi-dimensionally poor.

More than 50% of Bihars population has been classified as poor under the national Multi-dimensional POVERTY Index (MPI), followed by Jharkhand (42.2%), Uttar Pradesh (37.8%), Madhya Pradesh (36.7%) and Meghalaya (32.7%).Keralahas the least number of poor with only 0.7% of its population classified as such. Among the Union territories, 27.4% of Dadra and Nagar Havelis population is poor, according to the MPI parameters.

The data showed 51.9% of the population in Bihar is deprived of Nutrition, followed by Jharkhand (47.8%), MP (45.5%) and Uttar Pradesh (44.5%). has the lowest Percentage of population deprived of nutrition at 13.3%.

According to the report, a household is considered deprived if any child between the ages of 0 to 59 months, or woman between the ages of 15 to 49 years or man between the ages of 15 to 54 years for whom nutritional information is available is found to be undernourished.
The national MPI baseline report based on the National Family Health Survey-4 (2015-16) has been developed by NITI Aayog in consultation with 12 ministries and in PARTNERSHIP with state governments and the index publishing agencies Oxford Universitys Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Uttar Pradesh is on top of the list with a population of nearly 5% categorised as deprived under child and adolescent mortality, followed by Bihar (4.6%), Madhya Pradesh (3.6%), Chattisgrah ( 3.3%) and Jharkhand (3.3%). Under maternal health, Bihar tops the chart with 45.6% categorised as deprived, followed by UP (35.5%), Jharkhand (33.1%) and Nagaland (33.1%).