04.11.21

Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Saturday approved a proposal of power utility PSPCL for terminating the power purchase agreement (PPA) with private sector electricity generator GVK due to high cost.

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The Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (Pspcl) has issued a termination notice to the company, an official statement said.

The development assumes significance as several Punjab Congress leaders, including Navjot Singh Sidhu, have been pressing for scrapping faulty PPAs signed during the previous SAD-BJP regime to provide electricity to people at cheaper rates.

The GVK power project was set up at Goindwal Sahib with a capacity of 2X270 MW. GVK has been generating energy by arranging coal from Coal India limited. As per the PPA, the company was required to arrange a captive coal mine but it failed to do so even after the lapse of more than five years of synchronisation with the grid.

Rohru farmers to get Rs10 lakh award for red rice cultivation

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Farmers of the Rohru subdivision in Shimla district will receive the prestigious Plant Genome Saviour Award carrying a cash prize of Rs 10 lakh for their contribution in developing red rice, a rare variety of paddy grown in Himachal Pradesh, said Prof HK Chaudhary, Vice-Chancellor of CSK Himachal Pradesh Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture University here today.

The VC said university scientists had gathered all data and helped the farmers growing red rice register the traditional variety Chhohartu with the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers Rights Authority (PPVFRA) eight years ago. The researchers, in the past one year, helped the farmers pursue the matter again with renewed efforts to conserve, develop, popularise and further spread the rice variety, bringing laurels to the state. The university had even helped the farmers form a Society as the award is given to societies only.

Chaudhary said the award, carrying a cash prize of Rs 10 lakh, a citation and a memento, would be presented to the farmers society on November 11 by the Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. It is the countrys highest award for farmers, in recognition of their contribution to conserving and developing plant varieties.

A couple of years ago, the university scientists had helped farmers of Bhedal panchayat in Chamba district get the Plant Genome Saviour Community Award-2019 for conserving land races of maize Haachi (white), Retti (red) and chitkuri (popcorn).

Red rice is under cultivation in about 1,000 hectares in villages of Rohru subdivision.

The excess water having thick consistency, decanted after cooking the red rice, is considered healthy for expecting mothers.

Activists are concerned about the effect of climate change which they believe is responsible for the heavy rains experienced in the second fortnight of October in Uttarakhand. The spell of heavy rains especially on October 18 and 19 had caused more than 70 deaths in the state.

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Environmentalists state that though natural disasters are not new to Uttarakhand especially during the rains, such calamities during the withdrawal of monsoon were not seen in the past. GB Pant University of Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture and Technology meteorologist RK Singh global temperature is rising consistently. Changes like the rise in incidents of heavy rains and droughts are being experienced in the weather due to https://exam.pscnotes.com/Climate-change”>Climate Change. Noted environmentalist Jagat Singh Junglee stressed on the need for efforts to understand the temperament of nature. It will be our dangerous folly if we are not able to understand the situation now.

The pace of climate change is picking up due to Global Warming. This is the reason why Uttarakhand witnessed such extreme weather during October. Similar instances of extreme weather cannot be ruled out in the future.

Uttar Pradesh most improved state in Leads 2021 rankings

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Uttar Pradeshhas improved itsLogistics Ease Across Different States(Leads) ranking, leaping from 13th position in 2019 to 6th this year.

Leads ranking was launched by the ministry of commerce and in 2018 to assess the performance and ease of Logistics in states across the country. No survey was conducted last year in 2020.

UP is ahead of states like Kerala, Karnataka, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in Leads ranking, the spokesperson said, adding that this was essentially because of increased investments in the state following “improved law and order” as well as “ease in doing business”.

Under the leadership of Director Incharge (DIC) BSL Amarendu Prakash, Bokaro Steel Plant is not only focused on plant production but Township administration (TA) under Sameer Swarup ED (P&A) almost with new team working day and night lead by CGM (TA) B.S Popli is also under the voyage of radical changes as in the same series TA Electrical having extensive planning and executions to transform the shape of Bokaro township into Smart Town ship.

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The planning of Smart town ship includes in order to save energy and in parallel to increase the illumination of the to do away with all conventional Mercury Vapour and sodium vapour lights and to install LED Lights. Also all the High Mast installed at various locations of the township soon to be converted into LED High Masts and 70 more LED High masts in pipeline of installation where already steps taken as recently work of almost 80% completed on installation of 4000 new LED street lights for better lighting in the entire city with energy saving approach also Foundation level Preparation started to install additional new high mast lights in township area.

Transport dept to map out routes for public vehicles in Bihar

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Following the concept of vehicle carrying capacity of road, the state transport department will map out the routes for public vehicles like autorickshaws, e-rickshaws and buses for faster mobility as well as to free up choked roads and improve the air quality. It will be initially implemented inPatnaand neighbouring areas like Danapur, Khagaul and Phulwarisharif.

The department is developing a Software to help decide the routes for public vehicles through geographic information system (GIS). Transport officials have started the manual survey for urban public transport route planning, which includes the number of public vehicles, routes on which the vehicles are plying, travel demand pattern and exploring new routes.

The department will issue permit to new vehicles with routes mentioned while the old vehicles will be streamlined. Once this is implemented, all details regarding autorickshaws, e-rickshaws and buses, including the contact number and name of the drivers, will be available at a click. It will also help in tracking a vehicle in case of any emergency situation.

The Hasdeo Bango Hydroelectric Power Station of Chhattisgarh State Power Generation Co has set a record by producing 90.10 million units of electricity in October. It is the highest production in one month.

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The power generation in October stood at 100.92 percent Capacity Utilization Factor (CUF). During this period, 100 percent Plant Availability Factor (PAF) with zero tripping was achieved.

Earlier, a record of 87.743 million units of electricity generation was set by the Bango Hydel Plant in August 2020. The CUF was 98.278 percent.

The company’s Bango Hydroelectric Plant has a total generation capacity of 120 MW. Three units of 40-40 MW each are functional.

37% rise in suicides by self-employed in Madhya Pradesh

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Number of suicides committed by self-employed persons saw an increase of more than 37% in 2020 when there was a lockdown induced by Covid-19, says data released by National Crime Records Bureau.

Among other persons, the number of suicides committed by daily wagers also increased by 24.7% during the year. Likewise, the number of suicides committed by salaried persons from government and private sector also saw an increase from the previous year.

As per the accidental deaths and suicides data released by the NCRB for 2020 a total of 1,254 self-employed persons committed suicide in the year. The number was only 911 last year. It saw an increase of more than 37% in the Covid-19 year.

Gujarat to get 8 medical colleges in 2 years

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Gujaratgovernment is planning to set up eight new medical colleges in the state in the next two years. They will add 1,200 MBBS seats, representing about 21% of the total number of prevailing seats in Gujarat, said sources in the states Health department.

Presently, there are about 30 colleges in the state with 5,508 seats for which the Admission Committee for Professional Under Graduate Medical Educational Courses (ACPUGMEC) carries out the admission process. There are another 300 seats in the state under two deemed universities for which the admission is carried out at the college level. ACPUGMEC is not involved in this.

The state health department aims to start new medical colleges in Rajpipla, Navsari, Jam Khambhaliya, Botad and Veraval in the next academic year, he added.

New NCRB data shows rise in suicides in Rajasthan

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The latest report by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) for accidents deaths and suicides has revealed an increase in suicide cases in the state last year.

The findings under accident deaths listed deaths due to drug overdose, people falling into manholes and food poisoning. According to NCRB, the overall deaths due to road accidents in 2020 recorded a dip compared to 2019. The state logged 23,478 cases of road accidents in 2019, whereas 19,121 accidents were witnessed in 2020.

The data has listed February last year as the most accident-prone month with a total of 2,044 mishaps, followed by November when 1,982 cases were reported.

The NCRB findings for 2020 revealed thatRajasthanreported 5,658 suicides last year, compared to 4,531 cases in 2019. The state reported 81 suicides where people consumed sleeping pills, 465 people committed suicide by drowning, 56 ended their lives by self-immolation, 21 shot themselves while 842 consumed poison to commit suicide.

The NCRBs findings have pointed out that the state logged 36 deaths in 15 cases under mass or family suicides.