Current Affairs Exam

No funds for Central scholarship for SC/STs, Nitish govt raises aid for OBC-EBC students

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

At a time when Bihars ruling coalition is trying to sharpen its caste strategy to take on the BJPs Hindutva agenda, it has raised the annual Scholarship amount for students from Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs) pursuing professional courses from Rs 90,000 to Rs 4 lakh from the 2023-24 financial year. Fully funded by the Bihar government, it will replace a similar Central government scheme and will be known as the CM OBC/EBC Post-entrance Scholarship Scheme.

As part of its latest move, the government has also decided that students whose annual family income is less than Rs 3 lakh, as against Rs 2.5 lakh earlier, will be eligible to apply for the scholarship. The Department of Education will be the nodal agency for the implementation of the scheme that applies to students in Class 12 to those pursuing Masters degrees or professional and technical courses such as management and engineering in government or private institutions in the state. Only those with Bihar domicile can apply for the aid.

Speed up land allotment to capital project farmers

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

The Nava Raipur Atal Nagar Development Authority, Housing and Environment and Revenue Department in Chhattisgarh will jointly ensure allotment of land to eligible families as per a decision taken on Tuesday.

Housing and Environment Minister Mohammed Akbar chaired the meeting. Urban Administration and Development Minister Shiv Dahariya was also present.

The cabinet ministers asked the Development Authority to coordinate with the Housing and Environment and Revenue Department to ensure early allotment of land to the eligible families affected by Nava Raipur development project.

The Nava Raipur-hit farmers of 27 villages had organized a sit-in demonstration in April 2022 for more than 100 days seeking compensation and rehabilitation.

Rs 2,123 cr Interest of more than 11 lakh defaulter farmers waived

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

The State Cabinet here on Tuesday approved the interest waiver scheme for the waiver of the outstanding interest up to Rs 2 lakh of 11 lakh 19 thousand defaulter farmers of Primary Agricultural credit (PACS) to waive the amount of Rs 2 thousand 123 crore.

The scheme was approved by the Cabinet in accordance with the announcement of Chief Minister Chouhan “Farmers who have become defaulter due to loan waiver, their interest amount will be paid by the government”. The State Government will compensate the defaulter farmers who have outstanding loans of up to Rs 2 lakh including principal and interest as on March 31, 2023 from Primary Agricultural Credit Cooperative Societies (PACS).

According to the scheme, the farmer should have a loan of up to Rs. 2 lakh including short-term crop loan and medium-term converted loan with interest till March 31, 2023. Defaulter farmers will have to apply in their committee to avail interest waiver. The list containing the details of outstanding loan and interest etc. on the defaulter farmers will be made public through a portal at the bank level. Along with this, special facility has been given to the farmers to provide fertilisers for agricultural work. The amount deposited by the farmer in cash in his loan account, he will be able to get fertilizer up to that amount in the form of loan from the committee. The last date of the scheme has been fixed as November 30, 2023. Detailed instructions of the scheme will be issued by the Cooperative Department.

Gujarat second from bottom in infant mortality

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

Gujaratwith 12,119 infant deaths was ranked second from bottom in the country, only better than Maharashtra with 13,807 deaths.
This was the fourth consecutive year when the state was ranked among the bottom five in the country.

The Union Government in its report ‘Vital Statistics of India based on The Civil Registration System-2020’ has stated that in 2020, the state accounted for 8.5% of the total infant deaths in the country. The total infant deaths in the country in 2020 was 1.43 lakh.The Gujarat Health department officials said that in 2020 there was a decline of 22% as compared to 2019. In 2019, 15,602 infant deaths were reported in the state. This was more than the decline in the death across the county where the decline in infant deaths was 13.24%. However, the infant deaths in Gujarat were more than Rajasthan (11,187), Madhya Pradesh (11,585), Uttar Pradesh (10,726), and Bihar (2,299).

The data reveals that of the 12,119 deaths, 1,845 were in rural areas, and of these 1,066 were males. The remaining 10,274 deaths were in urban areas – 6,063 males and 4,211 females.

The state government is set to auction islands inside theJawai Leopard Conservation Reserve(JLCR) inPali districtto private players for 50 years to develop and operate tourism projects in alleged violation of green norms. The plan, which aims to attract around Rs 25 crore, has raised the hackles of environmentalists and forest officials.

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

The state-runEastern Rajasthan Canal Project Corporation Ltd(ERCPC) is slated to open technical bids for a Rs 8.26-crore project on May 4 and 5, followed by financial bids from the qualified players later.

Jawai dam, the largest in western Rajasthan amid the Thar, is also Home to more than 200 crocodiles and other aquatic creatures.
The planned projects will fall inside theleopard reserve, which also hosts sloth bears, wolves, chinkaras and other animals.

The project’s critics claim the government is going about the move “secretly” and constructions on such a “massive scale” inside the reserve will pose a serious threat to leopard conservation.
According to Shatrunjay Pratap, a wildlife conservationist, the declared Jawai a leopard reserve in February 2010 with an area of 19.78 hectares. Later, in May 2016, the state regulated commercial and industrial (including mining) activities within 1km of the zone.

Odisha to spend Rs 1,062 crore to boost health infrastructure

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

The Odisha government has planned to spend Rs 1062 crore for strengthening hospital in the state this year. As many as 863 hospital projects from the sub-centre to district headquarters hospital (DHH) level have been selected for infra upgradation.As per the state action plan 2022-23, additional units will be constructed at nine DHHs at the cost of Rs 26.7 crore along with buildings for six sub-divisional hospitals at Rs 240 crore and 60 CHCs at Rs 596 crore.

The decision for upgrading the hospital infrastructure under the Mukhya Mantri Swasthya Seva Mission has been taken in the wake of recently issued Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS) guidelines to improve the quality of healthcare delivery in view of the rising load of non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

The Health and Family Welfare department has also decided to upgrade five PHCs/CHCs at a cost of Rs 4.6 crore, construct 47 PHC and staff quarter buildings as per IPHS norms at Rs 35.57 crore, 40 sub-centre buildings at Rs 18.4 crore and provide basic amenities at 696 PHCs and sub-centres at Rs 82.42 crore besides the residential and non-residential complexes under AYUSH department at a cost of Rs 58 crore.

Tamil Nadu govt forms agri schemes publicity committee

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

The has set up an eight-member publicity and promotion committee at the Directorate of Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture for promotion and publicity of state and central schemes implemented in the agriculture sector.

The committee has been entrusted with the task of preparing a number of small video clips on important crops, technologies, scheme components and other forecast news in Tamil. The video content will be specific and subjects where intervention is required, such as applying for micro-Irrigation with subsidy, farm machineries, formation of FPOs, role of FPOs, procurement of pulses/copra, arrangement of seed.

Vizhinjam project will attract 60,000 crore investment: Fin min

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

Finance minister K N Balagopal said that Kerala will become a manufacturing hub if Vizhinjam port becomes a reality.

He was speaking after the inauguration of the first edition of Made in Kerala award ceremony of the state council of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and (FICCI) held Saturday.

It is expected that an Investment of Rs 60,000 crore will come to the state with the creation of a new development zone in the area from Vizhinjam to Paripally, the minister said. He said that the governments policy is to promote value-added products as much as possible.

Karnataka legislative assembly clears bill to integrate all modes of public transport

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

The Karnataka legislative assembly passed the long-pending Bengaluru Metropolitan Land Transport Authority Bill, 2022 that aims to streamline the ill-famed Bengaluru traffic and integrate public transport Services and civic agencies under one roof for effective coordination.

Piloting the bill on CM Basavaraj Bommai’s behalf, law and parliamentary affairs minister JC Madhuswamy said the bill has been drafted to supplement the Centre’s National Urban Transport Policy.

Rs 16,000 crore spent in past 8 years on municipalities, says KT Rama Rao

June 14, 2024 by rawan239

Claiming that government was according top priority for creation of Infrastructure in municipalities in the past few years, municipal administration minister KT Rama Rao said the government had spent 16,000 crore on developmental works in all the 141 municipalities in the last eight years.

He said the governmment was also giving priority for bringing reforms in the administration. “The Centre cannot afford to ignore the development ushered in by the State Government in towns and villages regardless of political affiliations.

The minister said that a comprehensive report will be distributed to all MLAs, MLCs and MPs during the next assembly session and municipal officers to let them know how the state government was trying to develop towns.