06.04.23

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CAPSI to set up drone pilot training centre in Tripura

The Central Association for Private Security of India (CAPSI) has taken an initiative to set up a drone pilot training centre in Tripura and an aviation academy for the northeastern region, CAPSI president Kunwar Vikram Singh said during the North East Security Education and Global Employability Conclave.

It was attended by MoS for external affairs & education R K Ranjan Singh and MoS for socialjustice& Empowerment Pratima Bhoumik.

The first-of-its-kind conclave has brought together security organisations and professionals on acommonplatform, which focused on establishing state-of-the-art training institutes, promoting security courses of international standards, generating EMPLOYMENT andwomen empowermentand contributing to the Growth of the region, Bhoumik said.

Assam denies fudging rhino census data

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TheAssam forest departmenthas denied allegations of “manipulation” of rhino census data at the Kaziranga and Tiger Reserve (KNPTR) – a UNESCO world heritage site, flagged by an RTI activist who accused the park authorities of jacking up the total rhino count from 2,042 to 2,634.

Calling the charges baseless, Assam principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF) and head of forest force (HOFF) MK Yadava wrote to the Union forest and Environment ministry to take “suitable action” against RTI activist Rohit Choudhury, who he accused of sharing compartment-wise presence of rhinos in the park, despite restraint by the park director.

The 14th rhino census was carried out at the KNPTR in March last year, which counted 2,634 one-horned rhinos in the park. The final computation of data was carried out on March 28 and 2,613 was the total number of rhinos arrived at during computation.

Choudhury said that in the final computation, the enumerators data of March 26 and 27, 2022, pertaining to 22 blocks was deleted, and the increased numbers of the sample survey of March 28, 2022 were substituted, to jack up the total count from 2,042 to 2,634.

Rehab centres for disabled kids to be renamed

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The has decided to rename the rehabilitation centres for children withdisabilitiesas Manodaya. The department of social security and Empowerment of persons with disabilities issued a notification in this regard recently.

The State Institute for Empowerment of Persons(SIEP) with Disabilities is setting up centres to provide rehabilitation to children with disabilities, the notification said, adding, In order to give acommonnomenclature and identity to these centres, the government will name all the existing as well as the upcoming service centres of SIEP as Manodaya.

Presently, there are three such centres in Bhubaneswar, Berhampur and Jajpur which provide different therapeutic and counselling Services to children with disabilities, department directorBratati Harichandansaid.

Tamil Nadu governor yet to give his assent to siddha varsity bill

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TheTamil Nadu governmenthas been awaitinggovernorR N Ravis nod for a bill on state siddha university for more than six months after it replied to the clarifications he had sought, Health ministerMa Subramaniansaid.

The minister said the governors action of delaying the assent was against the welfare of siddha and wishes of the citizens.

In April 2022, theTamil Nadugovernment passed the legislation to set up a siddha medical university. While all universities in the state have the governor as the chancellor, the bill for the proposed university said the CM would be the chancellor with powers to appoint the vice-chancellor. The state health minister would be the pro-chancellor.

In September, the state announced that Ravi had returned the bill seeking clarifications. On September 17, we sent the reply, prepared by our legal experts, to Raj Bhavan. The governor wanted to know if the university would follow NEET-based admission. In our reply, we said we would follow NEET-based admission until the state succeeds in getting an exemption from NEET, Subramanian said.

Productive age group hit, 13% households in poverty: Study

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The mental healthcare burden in Kerala is 11%, with almost 13% of households pushed below the https://exam.pscnotes.com/POVERTY-line”>Poverty Line due to expenditure on mental illness, according to an all-India study. Though this is lower thanthe nationalmental healthcare burden Average (18%), with 21% of households pushed into poverty, the concern is that the higher proportion of people with mental illness is seen in the economically productive age group (19-55 years).

To estimate the out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE), catastrophic Health expenditure (CHE), and poverty impact due to mental illness in India, the researchers acquired data from the 76th round data of the National Sample Survey (NSS), conducted between July to December 2018.

In NSS, 5,76,569 individuals were studied, of which 6,679 persons reported mental illness during the survey. Using this data, the researchers calculated yearly out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE), monthly OOPE and average monthly total OOPE. The findings showed that several states reported a higher mental healthcare burden than the national average. The mental healthcare burden was highest in Uttarakhand (39%), followed by Sikkim (32%), Himachal Pradesh (24%), Telangana (22%),Maharashtra(21%) and Punjab (17%). On the other hand,Mizoram(3%), Andaman and Nicobar Islands (1%) and Puducherry (2%) reported lower healthcare burden.

AlphaSense raises $100m at $1.8 billion valuation

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Market intelligence platformAlphaSensehas raised $100 million at a $1.8 billion valuation led by CapitalG, Alphabets independent Growth fund, and existing investors, including theGrowth Equitybusiness within Goldman Sachs Asset Management (Goldman Sachs) and Viking Global Investors. It has previously raised $225 million last year.

This will fuel the continued deployment of AlphaSenses advanced AI capabilities, including generative AI that dramatically speeds up the research process for business and financial professionals. AlphaSense has spent a decade building and refining its AI tech stack and amassing data to continuously train its language models, while also building its vast collection of top-tier, trustworthy business content.

AlphaSenses platform and search technology leverages proprietary AI and language models, and helps professionals extract relevant insights from an extensive universe of public and private content, including Equity research, earnings calls, company filings, news, trade journals, and expert interviews.

70% kids below 5 years anaemic in Telangana: Govt data

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At 70%,Telanganahas one of the highest Percentage of anaemic children in age group of 6 months to 5 years among states.

As per the report tabled by the Centre in Parliament in response to a query on effectiveness of Anaemia Mukt Bharat (AMB) programme, the number of anaemic children in the state has increased from 60.7% in National Family Health Survey-4 (NFHS-4) to 70% in NFHS-5 released two years ago. Other states with high number of anaemic children are Gujarat (79.7%), Punjab (71%) andRajasthan(71%).

While Centre has launched AMB to reduce anaemia in Women, children and adolescents through a life cycle approach, it seems to be on rise across these categories.

Anaemia in women across age groups is also high in with 57.6% in aged 15-49 affected. It is 64.7% in girls aged 15-19 and 53.2% among pregnant women, Union minister of state for health Bharati Pravin Pawar said in the report tabled in the Lok Sabha.

AP emerges frontrunner in energy efficiency index

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AP has made it to the frontrunners category alongside Karnataka, Kerala,RajasthanandTelanganain the state Energy Efficiency index-2022 released by the Union Government on April 10.

AP scored 77.5 points in SEEI-2022, a 53 per cent improvement compared to its SEEI 2020 score of 50.5. This was the maximum improvement recorded by any state in the country in SEEI-2022.

Bureau of Energy Efficiency director general Abhay Bakre said that collaboration between central and state governments, judicious resource allocation, policy alignment, and regular tracking of states energy efficiency progress through SEEI is essential to contribute effectively to the nation’s Climate commitments and ensure with energy transition.

The innovative IoT based power monitoring device project, a unique model introduced by APSECM and implemented in 65 MSME units, has been recognised across the country. AP has been successful in implementing energy efficiency measures in large industries through ‘perform, achieve, and trade’ scheme and saved around 1.2 Mtoe, said Chandrasekhar Reddy.

The state has constituted a state level steering committee headed by chief secretary involving all the key departments for effective monitoring and implementation of energy efficiency programmes at all levels. The model is being followed by 18 other states in the country.

No Gujarat beach features in projects funded by Centre

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Despite the laying Stress on promoting beach tourism, none of Gujarat’s beaches feature on the list of projects financed by the Union Government to encourage the development of beaches as tourist destinations.

None of Gujarat’s beaches feature in the list of beneficiaries. Since 2014-15, the assistance of Rs 631 crore has been provided for the development of beaches. This is despite the state having the longest coastline in the country, spanning over 1,600 kilometres and dotted by several beaches.

Maharashtra accounts for 15% of India’s GST collection

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Maharashtracontinues to report the highest GST collection in the country, accounting for almost 15% of the national figure in 2022-23. Its GST kitty is also growing the fastest, with its compound annual Growth rate (CAGR) between 2018-19 and 2022-23, outstripping all other states.

The latest data shows that Maharashtra’s GST collection for the financial year 2022-23 was Rs 2.7 lakh crore. This is more than twice the collection of Karnataka which reported 1.2 lakh crore, the second highest GST collection in the country.Gujaratwas placed third with Rs 1.1 lakh crore while Nadu reported Rs 1 lakh crore. The state CAGR between 2018-19 and 2022-23 was 12.3%, which is higher than that of Karnataka which is at 11.8% and Gujarat at 11.7%. The state’s growth rate was much higher than the national CAGR which stood 11.3%.

GST collections is a consumption-based tax and a key indicator of economic activity. It is the main revenue earner for the state and accounts for almost 60% of the state’s income.

The state’s e-way bill generations are also the highest in the country. The state’s e-away bills for 2022-23 amounted to 15 crore, which was a 27% rise from the previous year. By comparison, e-way bills for Gujarat amounted to 11.2 crore, which was a 19% rise from the previous year. E-way bills track the movement of goods above Rs 50,000 in the state.