04.03.22

Centre seeks entries for women Swachhata icons

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In order to recognise the participation of Women in sanitation and Waste Management, the Centre has launched the Women Icons Leading Swachhata (WINS) Awards 2023 and has asked the to nominate its entries in different categories.

The different categories include self-help-groups, micro-enterprises, non-government organisations, startups and individual women leaders.
Urban Local Bodies in the state will first publicise the details of awards and invite entries. Towns will then select up to five entries using an evaluation strategy prepared by theministry of housing and urban affairs. The five entries will then be evaluated at the state level following which three from each category will be finalised. The state can consider organising a public event to facilitate and award the state level nominees or winners, according to the ministrys guidelines.

Nilgiris farmers welcome push for organic farming

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Farmers in theNilgirisdistrict welcomed the announcement of 26 crore for the purpose of extending in the state, in the agriculturebudgettabled at the assembly. They also welcomed the allocation of 82 crore for cultivation of Millets and 2.5 crore subsidy for cultivation of hill-grown vegetables such as peas, chow-chow and beans.

Organic farming has been promoted by the Nilgiris District Administration under the Organic Nilgiris Mission for the past three years.

TheTamil Naduorganic certification department, under the collective farming scheme, has issued scope certificates for more than 5,000 farmers in the district for the first year conversion.

‘Kerala will go for timely alterations in RT policy’

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Keralawill go for timely alterations in its Responsible Tourism (RT) policy to make the activities more people-centric so as to further strengthen the state’s travel and tourism , said tourism minister P AMohamed Riyas.

Riyas said the summit is set to work towards measures that will empower Women in the state. The conclave will discuss RT models of international repute and work towards a global Network in sustainable tourism, he said in his video address .

Riyas said the government has decided to revise its 2008 Declaration on RT and scale up its Environment-friendly activities across the state.

Mega textile park for Kalaburagi

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Kalaburagiwas sanctioned a Mega Textile Park by the Union Government. Prime MinisterNarendra Moditweeted saying that textile parks will be started in Karnataka, Nadu, Telangana, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh andUttar Pradesh.

Karnataka State Government had sent proposals for two districts – Kalaburagi and Vijayapura – but the union government has allotted the textile park to Kalaburagi.

Kalaburagi District Administration had handed over 1,000 acres of land located at Firozabad and Honnakiranagi villages in Kalaburagi taluk to the textile department. Kalaburagi district administration has also received a call from prime ministers office in this regard, which was confirmed by Kalaburagi MP UmeshJadhav.

Umesh Jadhav also issued a press release saying that Union government had promised in its 2021 budget a textile park for Karnataka and now it will materialise in Kalaburagi. He said that from last two years he has been making effort to bring the textile park to Kalaburagi and had been convincing both state and union governments to bring it to Kalaburagi. Finally, we have succeeded, said Jadhav

CII sets up CoE for innovation & startups at T-Hub in city

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As part of efforts to boost the startup ecosystem in the country, the Confederation of Indian (CII) has set up a Centre of Excellence for Innovation, Entrepreneurship andStartups(CII CIES) at T-Hub in Hyderabad in PARTNERSHIP with the Telangana government and Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnans Pratiksha Trust.

The CIES, CIIs secondCoEin Hyderabad after the Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre and the 10th in India, was initially rolled out as a corporate-driven resource platform to enable Growth of successful startups but has since metamorphosed into a co-creating, co-innovating workspace.

Andhra Pradesh wool production nil as focus shifts to meat market

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Andhra Pradesh, which used to produce about 7-8 lakhkgof wool per annum until a few years ago, did not produce any wool in 2021-22. Till 2014, the state accounted for nearly 11% of the total wool production in the country. The production saw a gradual decline over the years, and it has now come down to zero.

As per the Union governments basic animal husbandry statistics 2022, this is due to the states shift to meat production-based cultivation. Even in the country as a whole, wool production decreased by about 10.3% in 2022 compared to a year ago. While ewes contributed to 63.8% of the total wool production, ram/wether and lamb contributed to only 18.86% and 17.37%, respectively.

Of the 9.29 million tonnes of meat production, over 51% came from . The top five meat producing states in 2022 wereMaharashtra(12.25%), Uttar Pradesh (12.14%), West Bengal (11.63%), Andhra Pradesh (11.04%), and Telangana (10.82%). They together amounted to 57.86% of total meat production in the country during the last financial year.
Andhra Pradesh was also among the top five milk producing states. The state has a per capita availability of 799 grams of milk a day almost two times higher thanthe nationalaverage of 444 grams. The milk production from exotic/crossbred cattle increased by 6.16% and indigenous/non-descript cattle by 6.13% in 2021-22 as compared to previous year. The milk production from buffaloes also witnessed an improvement by 4.44%. Nearly 31.58% of the total milk production was contributed by indigenous buffaloes, with crossbred cattle contributing 29.91%. The total export of Livestock and livestock products was valued at 46,083 crore.

Goa to pitch for GI tags for korgut rice, Taleigao brinjal

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Goa will seek Geographical Indication (GI) tags for produce that is unique to the state: korgut rice,Taleigaobrinjal and manghilar mango. A GI label indicates a products specific geographical origin and the qualities that stem from that provenance.

To make its pitch successful, the has urged farmers to form producer associations for their respective crops. The government has requested farmers to be a part of this mission.

So far,Goa State Council for Science and Technologyhas managed to record 40 farmers growing korgut rice and 44 farmers growing Taleigao brinjal. Goa Mango Growers Association comprises farmers growing varied types of mangoes such as mangilar and malcorada. The total area and production of these crops are being worked out before they are pitched for the GI status.

Maharashtra’s onion exports up by 40% in 8 months

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Though the onions farmers are having a tough time due to the drop in prices of the produce in the wholesale markets acrossMaharashtra, the state has managed to improve its export figures for the first eight months of the financial year 2022-23.

As per thestate economic survey, Maharashtra has exported around 8 lakh tonne of onions between April and November of the current financial year, earning foreign currencies amounting to Rs 1,590 crore. The export from the state for the April-Nov period of the current fiscal is 40% more than the figures for the corresponding months of the last fiscal (2021-22).
The data assumes significance as the Opposition parties, during the ongoing session of the assembly, are constantly demanding Centre’s intervention to boost export of onions.

The state contributes around 50% of the country’s total onion export, while Nashik district contributes to around 80% of export from Maharashtra. The state had exported 5.78 tonne of onions during the 2021-22 fiscal, earning foreign currencies amounting to Rs 1,400 crore.

In the financial year 2020-21, the state exported 7.96 lakh tonne of onions, earning foreign currencies amounting to Rs 1,515 crore.

Modern land measurement system in Haryana soon: CM

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Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Wednesday said that a modern land measurement system would be adopted, which will replace the age-old chain (jarib) based measurement. This will bring more accuracy and reliability in land measurement and reduce the scope for disputes, he added.

Presiding over a meeting with senior officials regarding the SVAMITVA Yojana, he said that 300 new rovers will be purchased to complete the work related to large-scale mapping of every district and tehsil in a time-bound manner.

Khattar said that Sonipat and Karnal districts have been selected as pilot projects in the first phase and large-scale mapping will be completed on agricultural land and revenue land falling under areas outside the Lal Dore area of these districts. Apart from this, every property will also be linked with the Parivar Pehchan Patra and the work would be completed in these districts by April 15, 2023, he added.

Punjab to have green hydrogen policy soon

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Punjabs new and sources minister Aman Arora on Saturday said the state would soon come up with Green Hydrogen policy as part of energy transition plan, aiming to reduce fossil fuel usage by utilising agricultural residue.

He said the state produced 20 million tonnes of paddy straw every year and 12 million still remained unutilized. With this policy, paddy straw will become an asset, said Arora.The minister said the work on another ambitious project of solarisation of all government buildings has also been initiated.