Current Affairs Exam

Govt plans to reduce child marriages

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

The has decided to prepare a concerted, multi-sectoral action plan engaging all stakeholders to prevent and prohibit the age-old practice of child marriage.
According to theNational Family Health Survey(NFHS) 2015-16, as many as 21.3% girls inOdishaget married before the legal age of 18 years. Along with the districts, the government will also focus on the urban poor in municipalities.

The government will prepare an inter-sectoral convergent action plan for each district for prevention and Prohibition of child marriages. This includes convergence of programmes across sectors and key line departments in districts, officials said.

District task force (DTF) meetings will be held regularly to review implementation of child marriage-free village initiative, rehabilitation and skilling opportunities for adolescents rescued from child marriage or at risk of child marriage, Child Labour and child trafficking.

Tamil Nadu: Indo-Korean ceramic, glass exhibition inaugurated in Chennai

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

The Human Spirit: Propositions On Resilience In These Irregular Times, a virtual Indo-Korean ceramic and glass exhibition specially commissioned by InKo Centre, was inaugurated on January 21.

The exhibition looks at the artistic interpretations of the concept of resilience of the human spirit, especially post the pandemic, through the medium of ceramic and glass. Both are transformed through fire into new states of being. The exhibition examines the metaphor of rejuvenation, transformation, fluidity and permeability as attributes of both ceramics and glass through figurative, abstract and natural forms.

Union Budget: Tax incentives to help startups

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

The startups in the state will benefit from the Union governments proposal to extend the period of incorporation of eligible startups by one more year till March 31, 2023, for providing tax incentives, saidKerala Startup Missionformer CEOSaji Gopinath.

He added that it normally takes three to four years for a new startup to start making profits.
Finance minister in herBudgetspeech said that the country has seen a manifold increase in successful startups over the past few years.

Startups will be getting one more year of tax benefit. It will make a huge difference for those into hardware units, which take around six to seven years to start making profits. Especially for those startups whose profit will come a little later, this is a huge benefit, Gopinath said.

State govt mulls Mangaluru-Goa inter-state waterway for tourism

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

With all 11 inland national waterways (NWs) identified by Indias Inland Waterways Authority (IWA) not taking off, the government ofKarnatakahas embarked on the development of an ambitious inter-state waterway betweenMangaluruand Panaji in Goa, to promote tourism, and for affordable passenger and freight transportation.

Though techno-economic feasibility studies have been initiated for the 11 NWs in Karnataka, the has initiated the preparation of a detailed feasibility report (DFR) for the development of an inter-state waterway between Mangaluru and Panaji.

Three firms had expressed interest in the request for proposal from the Karnataka government, floated by the Ports & inland water transport department, directorate of ports and inland water transport. Kalinath Advisors Pvt Ltd have been selected as consultants for the project.

There are seven critical river systems in Karnataka, with a lot of tributaries, but not much progress has been seen in the development of inland waterways for transport, tourism or cargo movement.

The chamber has said the inland water connection of Nethravathi River from Thumbe, that connects Maravoor Bridge via OldPort, and the Mangaluru International Airport, will catalyse Economic Development along the riverbank.

Telangana saw 21,000 excess deaths in first two waves: Study

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

had 190 percent excessCovidmortality rate during the first and second wave, according to a research study.

It also revealed that the all-India excess mortality was six to seven times higher than official figures.

The research study published in the eminent scientific journal, Science, showed that there were 21,000 excess deaths during 2021 as against 11,000 excess deaths in the year preceding the pandemic in Telangana. This showed that there were 10,000 excess deaths, which stands at 190 per cent.

Hyderabad had reported most number of Covid-19 deaths, only due to serious cases from districts and other states being referred to tertiary care hospitals in the city. However, the study did not mention the figures city-wise. The data provided was only of state-wise figures and national Average.

In case of another Telugu-speaking state, Andhra Pradesh, there were 51,000 excess deaths during 2021 in comparison to 36,000 excess deaths during 2018-2019. This in other words mean AP has recorded 140 percent relative excess deaths. However, Andhra Pradesh had less number of excess deaths during the Covid-19 period, compared to Telangana.

Telangana stood third in the country in terms of relative excess deaths, below Gujarat (230 per cent) and Madhya Pradesh (215 per cent).

AP Seva Portal 2.0 Launched By AP CM

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

The AP Seva Portal 2.0 was recently unveiled by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy.

Highlights:

Citizens will benefit from the portal’s improved Services. Citizen Service Site is another name for the portal. The platform will provide citizens with transparent digital services.

The platform would make it easy for the public to follow their applications. The applications’ updates are also sent to users via SMS. Thirty services are available through the site.

This includes six civil supply services, 25 municipal administration services, 30 revenue and land administration services, three rural development services, and additional 53 energy department services.

Applications can now be approved online in version 2.0. Officials can also give certificates and documents online through the platform. Digital signatures are supported by the portal.

Approximately 90% of government services are now accessible through the platform.

To gain access to paid services, gateways have been included.

The platform would make it simple for citizens to obtain government services.

They can use the services from the comfort of their own homes, rather than running from pole to pole.

The platform will also allow secretaries to keep track of the status of their applications.

More than four lakh persons are currently a part of this system.

They provide 540 services to the general public. 3.46 crores government services were available to the public as of January 2020.

Need to reduce post-harvest losses while handling foodgrains

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

Lossesfrompost-harvesthandling of foodgrains should be minimised through value-addition and processing. This issue was discussed during an event on processing and storage of foodgrains and pulses, organised by the ICAR central coastal agricultural research institute (CCARI) and Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), North Goa.

In the technical session attended by 35 farmers and Women working on farms, senior scientist and head of the institute HR Chidananda Prabhu delivered a lecture on processing and storage of foodgrains and pulses.

A national-level training programme on cashew, recent advances in cashew production, processing and post-harvest management was also organised at the institute. Director at the directorate of cashew nut and cocoa development, Cochin, Kerala Dr Venkatesh N Hubballi spoke about the status of cashew production in the country and its scope for improvement.

Mashelkar panel stresses on 70% school enrolment in Maharashtra

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

ocus on research that would help people and Society, public-private PARTNERSHIP model to generate finance in Education, introducing phygital education which would essentially be a blend of physical and digital education are some of the important recommendations made by theMashelkarcommittee with respect to implementation of theNew Education Policy in Maharashtra.

The recommendations were discussed during the state cabinet meeting on Thursday. Eminent scientists and educationistRaghunath Mashelkar, who chaired the committee, told that the emphasis of the report was to improve the gross enrolment ratio from 32% currently to 60-70%.

The report has stated that all learners should be eligible for free digital devices and for students that can reach even the remotest part.
The report has stated that every student in the state must get end-to-end digital access as the lockdown had shown how digital and physical education both go hand-in hand.

Haryana Govt to set up a call centre to offer employment related assistance to citizens

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

After implementing 75 percent reservation for people of the state in private jobs, the Manohar Lal Khattar Government in Haryana has decided to set up a call centre to provide assistance to its citizens and seek feedback on various aspects related to EMPLOYMENT. The outbound call centre is proposed to be launched to provide personalized assistance to the job seekers, offer information on different government policies and schemes, redress grievances of citizens and address the queries of job seekers. Besides this, a bulk messaging service is also planned to be started by the government to connect to the citizens on employment related issues.

The Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Act, 2020 that reserves 75 per cent of jobs in the private sector in Haryana offering a salary of less than Rs 30,000 a month only to locals came into effect on January 15, 2022. Under this, any local candidate (resident of Haryana) aggrieved by the action of any employer in violation of any provision of the Act, can file a complaint with the government.

Himachal CM meets Union Ministers, discusses State-related projects

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

Himachal Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Thursday met several Union Ministers in New Delhi to raise issues related to the hill state.

During his visit to Delhi, Thakur met Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnav and Union Power Minister RK Singh. During his meeting with the Railways Minister, the Chief Minister urged him for expansion of the RAILWAY Network in the state.

He said that the has made efforts to give pace to the work on Bhanupali-Bilaspur railway line so that it could be completed soon. He requested the Union Minister to speed up the work on this railway line and added that extension of this line up to Leh is very important from a strategic point of view. He apprised that a full length survey on the line is completed and urged for taking further action in this matter.

Thakur also requested for starting the work immediately on Baddi-Chandigarh railway line as land acquisition work on the side of Himachal Pradesh has been done. This would be helpful in connecting with the Baddi-Amritsar-Kolkata corridor and boost industrial activities in the industrial belt of the state, he said.