02.10.21

This credit plan for yak husbandry will help herders in securing loans for strengthening their livelihoods.

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This scheme was developed by National Research Centre on Yak (NRCY) located at Dirang in West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh.

NRCY works under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.

The credit plan started by for yak husbandry was found to be feasible in extending advances with the held Commercial Banks. The credit plan by NABARD has been included in potential linked credit plans (PLCP) of Tawang, West Kameng and Shi Yomi districts of Arunachal Pradesh. This credit plan will boost the livelihood of herders in the state.

Yak is one among the most prized animals in Himalayan region because of its multifarious roles in strengthening nutritional security by providing milk and meat. The animal also provides shelter and clothing through its fibres. It is also used as a beast of burden.

Centre urged to curb import of inferior quality tea

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A tea producers’ body has written to the Centre highlighting that there is an urgent need to curb import of inferior quality tea and consequent manipulation in its place of origin during re-export. The Tea Association of India (TAI) also stressed the need for checking ingress of such quality of tea into the domestic market. A representation to Union Minister of State for Commerce and Anupriya Patel by TAI vice-president Ajay Jalan here on Wednesday said the Foreign Trade policy should focus on improving the country’s market share in existing markets and products as well as exploring new ones.

The TAI raised the issues relating to the import of tea in its proposals to the Central government for upholding the sustainability of the tea industry, which employs over 11 lakh people directly, with almost half of them being Women. It pointed that the import of tea has been increasing in the country at a steady pace over the last five years, going up from 20.97 million kg in 2016 to 23.79 million kg in 2020.

The TAI also pointed to violations in re-export of duty-free imported tea and, quoting Tea Board figures, said against 60.35 million kg of tea imported into India in the last three years, only 23.43 million kg were re-exported, which underlines the fact that the rest 36.92 million kg of imported tea have been sold in the country.

The Adani Renewable Energy (MH) Limited (AREMHL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Adani Green Energy Ltd (AGEL), would acquire an operating 40-MW solar project in Odisha.

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The AREMHL has signed definitive agreements with the Essel Green Energy Pvt Ltd to acquire 100-per cent economic value in a special purpose vehicle (SPV) that owns the solar project in Odisha, the company said in a statement on Thursday.

The project has a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) with Corporation of India (SECI) for `4.235 per unit with remaining PPA life of about 22 years, the company said.The closing of the transaction is subject to customary conditions. The acquisition of project is at an enterprise valuation of `219 crore. Managing Director and CEO of Adani Green Energy Ltd Vneet Jain said, We remain focused on opportunities that help us create value for shareholders as well as facilitate Growth of Environment-friendly green power in India. With acquisition of this project in Odisha, AGEL will now have its footprint across 12 States in India. We are on an expansion path that will make us worlds largest renewable player by 2030. With this acquisition, the AGEL would achieve a total renewable capacity of 19.8 gigawatts (GW). The total portfolio includes 5.4 GW operational assets, 5.7 GW assets under construction and 8.7 GW near construction assets.

The commissioner and secretary of Tamil Nadu agriculture and farmers welfare department C Samayamoorthy on Wednesday said that the state government will setup a turmeric research center in Erode.

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C Samayamoorthy participated in the third edition of PonManjal CII turmeric conclave 2021 that was organised online by the confederation of India (CII) Erode zone.

Stating that Tamil Nadu shared 14.04% of the total production of turmeric in India, he said, Erode district recorded the largest production of turmeric by contributing 24.14 % of the total area for cultivation and 33.37 % of the total production.”

He also said that the State Government created a trading center exclusively for turmeric which was integrated with the e-national Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture market. (E-NAM).

For the first timeneelakurinjiflowers have been spotted in the low lying areas ofIdukki. The flowers have been spotted in the hills of Alankupara which is part of Chakkikavu hills near Elaveezhapoonchira in Kottayam district.

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Earlier, the flowering of neelakurinji (strobilanthes Kunthiana) was also spotted at theAlumkappara hillsnear Moolamattam in Thodupuzha. The area lies along the border between Kottayam-Idukki districts and close to Elaveezhapoonchira.

Alunkapara is at an altitude of 900 metres high and it can be accessed through difficult terrain from Choondikulam Nirappu on Mechal route from Chakkikavu.

In the past year Pushpakandam Anakkara Mettu hills in the Western Ghats borderingTamil Naduand Puttady near Munnar have witnessed isolated flowering of neelakurinji.

The model curriculum prepared byKarnataka State Higher Councilto suit theNational Education Policy(NEP) has elicited mixed response from colleges and universities. The boards of studies of various institutions are now tweaking their curriculum based on this.The council had formed 35 sub-committees to prepare the model curriculum for each subject. The curriculum was ready last week and circulated among various higher educational institutions.

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Universities and autonomous colleges are free to draft their own syllabus and make changes in the model curriculum, if they are unhappy with it, while retaining the number of credits.
Several lecturers are unhappy with the model curriculum. Some have pointed out that the content in HISTORY for the first two semesters is Karnataka-specific.

In a bid to attract investments fromspaceplayers, theTelanganagovernment on Thursday released its draft SpaceTech Framework and called for comments from stakeholders by October 25.

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The policy framework aims to propel as a one-stop destination in the space-tech segment by becoming an end-to-end manufacturing hub from design to testing as well as launch activities.

It said that there is a huge dependency on ISROs capabilities for availing testing Services. While certain Infrastructure would only be available with ISRO, a set of sector agnostic infrastructure would be available in national research institutions across the state such as ARCI, NRSC, Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL), DEFENCE Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), among others.

The State Government will facilitate and establish a system where under-utilised infrastructure of such institutions can be leveraged for testing of space tech systems.

The draft policy noted that manufacturing of satellites and launchers utilises various materials that require very specific characteristics. To support the Industry in this procurement process, state agencies like T-Works will leverage their Network of suppliers.

The state government will also set up a space-tech accelerator center in PARTNERSHIP with T-Works, RICH, T-Hub and We-Hub to provide the required incubation, infrastructure, authorisation support, market insights, investor connect and mentorship support for space-tech startups.

Taking strong objection toTelanganagovernments plans to tap additional water fromGodavari riverfor unauthorised projects, Andhra Pradesh government requested the Centre not to accept the Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) submitted by sister Telugu state for the proposed new projects on Godavari.

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AP government explained that there is no surplus water inGodavariand allowing new projects by will have a serious adverse impact on the inflows into Polavaram national project. The State Government has also requested Godavari River Management Board (GRMB) chairman to turn down the DPRs of Telangana as it was not feasible to allocate water to the proposed projects.

In fact, the tribunal had already distributed all the water of river Godavari dependable flows and remaining water among the basin states based on the agreements finalised by all riparian states.

Maharashtra govt warms up to blockchain tech for tamper-proof education certificates

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Advances in technology come with their own set of challenges. One such challenge is when miscreants use these advancements to suit their vested interests: case in point being the forging of paper-based documents using sophisticated graphics tools.

It is in this context that the move by the Maharashtra government to partner with LegitDoc, an Indian blockchain start-up, signals intent on part of the authorities to tackle such misuse of technology. With this PARTNERSHIP, the Maharashtra government has reposed faith innew-age blockchain solutionsto fight fraud. The tie-up with LegitDoc will help the government issue tamper-proof diploma certificates.

This bold step by the Maharashtra government comes at a time while the Union Government is yet to take a call on legalizing or banning cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. This new-age technology sidesteps solutions built on centralized architecture such as DigiLocker, that have a single point of failure irrespective of the protection levels that go into it.