The 59th Statehood Day Was Celebrated By Nagaland

Nagaland celebrated its 59th Statehood Day on 1 December.

Highlights:

Nagaland was given statehood on 1 December 1963, with Kohima being declared it’s capital.

Naga leaders and the central government recognised creating a separate region of the Naga Hills in 1957.

The State of Nagaland Act, 1962, was thus established by the Parliament to present Nagaland statehood.

According to the Article 371-A, no act of Parliament would appeal to the State of Nagaland in a subject relating to religious or social practices of Nagas, Naga customary law and procedure, administration of civil or criminal , including decisions according to Naga customary law and ownership and transfer of land and its Resources.

Nagaland was the first state in the northeast to be separated from Assam as the 16th State of the Indian Union.

Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma keeps his word, announces loan waiver for debt-ridden women

Assam chief ministerHimanta Biswa Sarmakept his poll promise of coming up with a grand loan waiver scheme for the microfinancedebt-ridden Women.

Sarma on Sunday launched the Assam Micro Finance Incentive and Relief Scheme, 2021 at Tezpur in northern Assam, under which 24 lakhdebt-riddenwomen in the state will be given financial relief.

They will be given upto Rs 25,000 or outstanding balance, whichever is less,” said Sarma. Simultaneously, he said those women who could not repay the loans at all will have to apply for a waiver through a portal. Sarma said the number of such women will be 12 lakh.

Odisha: 64% growth in gross GST collection in November

Odisharecorded grossGST collectionof Rs 4,136 crore in November, a 64% Growth from Rs 2,528 crore collected in the same period last year.

The collection is also the highest among major states as well as the highest ever gross collection of GST by the state ever since launching of the new tax regime, said an official statement.

Figures released by the state GST commissioner’s office said progressive collection till November of 2021-22 fiscal is pegged at Rs 28,032 crore compared to Rs 17,229 crore collected in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal. The collection was Rs 19,366 till November of 2019-20 fiscal.

TheSGST(State GST) collection in November is estimated at Rs 1,157 crore, a growth of nearly 70% over the Rs 681 crore collected in the same period last year.

According to the figures, the SGST collection till November of the current fiscal is pegged at Rs 7,977 crore compared to Rs 5,013 crore collected in the same period of the previous fiscal.
In the 2019-20 fiscal, the SGST collection till November was Rs 5,661 crore.

Besides SGST, collection from the state during November was Rs 1,001 crore under CGST (Central GST), Rs 1,223 crore under IGST (Integrated GST) and Rs 735 crore under cess.

Tamil Nadu extends online employment registration renewal drive by three months

TheTamil Nadugovernment has extended by three months an onlinerenewal driveto enable people, who failed to renew their registration with theemployment registration officebetween 2017 and 2019. The department of labour and Skill development has issued an order in this regard.

According to officials, a total of 64.47 lakh people have registered with the EMPLOYMENT office. Of them, around 51 lakh had failed to renew their enrolment. Following this, ministerC V Ganesanon September 4 announced in the assembly that the department would launch an online renewal drive for people who had failed to renew.

The minister then said a total of 64,47,984 people had registered with the employment office. Of these, a total of 51,25,458 have not renewed their registration.

Kerala SC/ST students to get scholarship to learn to fly

The Kerala government will now bear the entire expense of students who pass the entrance examination to the state-run Rajiv Gandhi Aviation Academy, which gives training for a Commercial Pilot License (CPL).

Consequent to this, new directive the will fund the entire fees which come to around Rs 2.5 million for each student.

From now on, each and every student from the SC/ST community who gets admission will be able to study for free, as earlier it was limited.

Karnataka: International tourism expo slated for February shelved

In September, the government had announced thatKarnatakawill host the state tourism international expo in February 2022. This was after it assessed that international flights would resume normal operations by November 15.

However, now with the onset ofOmicron, Karnataka has been forced to postpone the mega event, which was aimed at reviving the struggling tourism .

The Karnataka International Travellers Expo (KITE), scheduled to be held from February 23 to 25, 2022 has been postponed to April, said tourism secretary.

Though ranked eighth on Indias list of states dependent on international travellers, Karnataka has a high footfall of foreign tourists.KIA, as per State Government data, was ranked fifth in footfall between January 2019-January 2020.

Choreographer Shiva Shankar Master Passes Away

Shiva Shankar Master, a National Award-Winning Choreographer, died on 28 November.

Highlights:

The distinguished National Award-winning choreographer and actor Shiva Shankar Master passed away in Hyderabad, .

He was born on 7 December 1948 in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

He was an Indian dance choreographer, accomplished in South Indian movies and received the National Award for ‘Best Choreographer’ for ‘Magadheera’.

A talented artist, Shiva Shankar, who tutored under veteran choreographer Salim, worked in nearly 30 films requested by a few directors.

Andhra Pradesh – Vidya Deevena Scheme

The Andhra Pradesh Government released Rs 686 crores for the Vidya Deevena Scheme, an Education assistance scheme, as the third tranche of the scheme.

Highlights:

The Vidya Deevena Scheme grants scholarships to students who cannot pay their college fees.

It is a fee reimbursement scheme, where the students pay the educational institutes, and the government pays the students, but No total compensation.

Total compensation includes college fees, hostel fees, mess fees, but the scheme compensates for only college fees.

The scheme mainly concentrates on students exploring higher education.

If the student has less than 75% attendance and students in private or deemed universities, the fee disbursement is not done.

The scheme is not appropriate for distant Learning and the NRI quota.

The official website to apply for the Vidya Deevena scheme is NAVASAKAM.ap.gov.in.

Benefits

In 2019, the Government of Andhra Pradesh had allocated Rs 6,259 crores for fee reimbursement under the scheme, which benefitted 21.48 lakh students.

The Government of Andhra Pradesh aims for a 100% Literacy rate in the state through the scheme.

Its main aim is to fulfil the dreams of students pursuing higher education without hampering their families.

Over 2,118 students studying in private universities have availed from the scheme as of November 2021.

Goa govt to stop issuing disability identity cards

The directorate of social welfare has decided to discontinue issuingdisability identity cardsby the state as the central government has begun implementation of the issuance of disability certificates and unique disability identity cards (UDID) to people with disability, which allow them to avail of a slew of benefits for their Empowerment.

The applications for UDIDs may get rejected if an uploaded certificate or Aadhaar card is of poor quality or is not readable.
They could also be rejected if the certificates validity is expired. This is in case of a temporary certificate.

47,000 AIDS deaths in Maharashtra in 6 years, 15% of Indias toll

The graph of AIDS and HIV-related deaths in the state has plateaued over the last few years, showing negligible downward movement despite advances in diagnosis and treatment.
Activists say the lack of timely interventions tofight added infections such as tuberculosis,pneumoniaand meningitis is leading to maximum deaths not just in the state but nationally.

Latest data shows thatMaharashtracontinues to record an Average of 9,000 deaths in people living with HIV (PLHIV) every year, contributing to at least 15% of the AIDS fatalities seen in India annually. Between 2016-17 and 2021-22 (October), the state had recorded more than 47,000 (47086) deaths in HIV patients.

After recording 9,124 deaths in 2017-18 and 9,754 deaths in 2019-20, a decline was registered in the Covid pandemic year (7,316). However, a lag in reporting is likely to be responsible for the dip. Nationally, nearly 59,000 AIDS-related deaths were estimated in 2019. The National Aids Control Organization (NACO) said in a report early this year that deaths had declined by 66% since 2010 and by 78% since attaining its peak in 2005.