06.06.23

Meghalaya inks MoU with NIOS to bring dropouts back to schools

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Concerned with the high dropout rate in Meghalaya, the on Tuesday signed an MoU with the National Institute of Open Schooling to facilitate the return of dropouts to educational institutions.

While Assam recorded the highest dropout rate in the country with 31 per cent of out-of-school students at the secondary level, Tripura with 29.8 per cent is ranked number 2, an official of the Education department said.

Meghalaya with 27.9 per cent dropout rate in secondary level is ranked third followed closely by Madhya Pradesh (26.1 per cent) and Nagaland (24.4 per cent), he said.

An MoU for identification of Out of School Children (OoSC) and enrolling them into the NIOS Study Centres was signed between the Samagra Shiksha authorities and the National Institute of Open Schooling, a statement said.

Samagra Shiksha state project director Swapnil Tembe and NIOS chairperson Saroj Sharma were present on the occasion.


Assam’s Cachar village declared free of child marriage

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TheAssamgovernment has declared Cachar district’s Rukni Part-IV village as a “zero child-marriage village”.

“Rukni Part-IV has been found with nochild marriagecases in the past two years. It’s a good job by the Cachar District Administration, Police department and social welfare department for making it possible by creating awareness among the people of the locality. I also thank the villagers for their sense of consciousness and response to the government initiative,” said Assam minister for excise, and transport Parimal Suklabaidya.

Suklabaidya was addressing a programme at Darmikhal High School Rukni Part-IV village in Dholai assembly constituency on Sunday where the village was ceremonially declared as a “zero child-marriage village”.

Waste mgmt system launched for Twin City

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A comprehensive Waste Management system was launched on Monday for the twin cities of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack on the occasion of World Environment Day.

This would be done in collaboration between AshimaBioearth and Recykal.

With the objective of promoting effective waste management and contributing to a circular economy, AshimaBioearth at present is working with the Bhubaneswar (BMC) and the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) for dry waste.

This joint effort aims to revolutionise waste management practices by implementing innovative solutions and driving behavioural changes among the residents of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack.

By leveraging their expertise in waste management and sustainability, AshimaBioearth and Recykal have successfully established a robust framework for handling dry waste.

This comprehensive system encompasses collection, segregation, processing, and recycling of various types of dry waste materials. Through this initiative, both companies are committed to minimising waste generation, optimising resource utilisation, and reducing the environmental impact associated with waste disposal.

Tamil Nadus performance in the environmental rankings since 2016 is low in comparison to other states, a study by the Centre for Science and Environment along with a media organisation shows. TN is 21 among 29 states.

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A total of 32 parameters including change in forest cover, municipal waste treatment, share of waterbodies not in use, state of groundwater extraction, change in number of polluted river stretches, share of sewage that gets treated, change in installed grid renewable power and water bodies not in use were studied.

Nadu scored just 4.4 of 10, while Telangana topped with a score of 7.2. States that fared well include Gujarat with 6.5, Goa 6.3,Maharashtra5.7 and Haryana 5.5.

As per India State of Forest Report (ISFR), the total forest cover in TN was 26,364.02 sqkm, but only 3,605.49 sqkm was classified very dense forest (VDF), which means large tracts of forest area have degraded. As per ISFR 2021, TNs forest cover is 26,419 sq km, 20.31% of its geographical area.

Four institutions make it to overall top 100 ranks’ list

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According to the Education ministry’s latestNational Institutional Ranking Framework(NIRF), only four institutions from Kerala secured a spot in the top 100, similar to previous year’s ranking.

Kerala University,Thiruvananthapuram, which secured 47th rank by improving five ranks, is the topper from the state followed by MG University (MGU), Kottayam, which slipped from its previous rank of 51 to 52. Other two institutions are NIT Calicut (54), which did not feature last year, and CUSAT, which improved its rank from 69 in 2022 to 63.
IIM Kozhikode secured third rank (fifth in 2022) in the list of top 100 management institutes in India. Other institutes from Kerala are NIT-Calicut (75) and Rajagiri Business School (83).

Among the list of top 100 universities, KU with 24th rank (40 in 2022) is the state topper. MGU secured 31st rank (30 in 2022) and CUSAT secured 37th rank (41 in 2022). Calicut University secured 70th rank (69 in 2022).

Tenants will also get 200 units of free power: Karnataka government

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Allaying fears of people residing in rented accommodation about the free power scheme,KarnatakaCMSiddaramaiahand energy ministerKJ Georgeon Tuesday confirmed that tenants, too, would get the benefit of the scheme if they were consuming less than 200 units of power in a month.

Karnataka witnessed its steepest hike in power tariffs in mid-May when the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) ordered a 70-paise hike per unit. Even though the previous BJP government constantly rejectedproposals to increase the power tariff, theKERCuploaded its revised orders on its website on May 12, a day before the results of the state assembly were announced.

KERC revised the fixedcharges tariff and merged the urban and rural slabs into one category. While KERC had allowed revisions in tariffs between a minimum of 20 paise and a maximum of 48 paise in the past decade, this was the first time that KERC allowed such a steep hike.

Mega EV shift helps state lower its carbon footprint

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With Environment conscious Telanganaites increasingly shifting gears to adopt green mobility, the number of electric vehicles (EVs) in the states is on the rise. And nowhere is this rapid shift more visible than in the states IT hub and capital Hyderabad.

As per data provided by theTelanganatransport department, as many as 68,872 EVs or battery-operated vehicles were sold in the state between February 2, 2021, to May 31, 2023.

Of these, 50,825 EVs were sold in the Greater Hyderabad (GHMC) districts Hyderabad, Medchal,RangaReddy and Sangareddy — and the rest were sold in the non-GHMC districts. As of March 31, 2023, Telangana had over 1.54 crore registered vehicles, as per the Telangana transport department website.

A recent CBRE report said, Telangana, which already has two wheeler and e-bus manufacturing units as well as EV battery manufacturing, currently accounts for 7% of total EV manufacturing Investment of $28 billion announced in the country in the 2020-H12023 period. Players such as Olectra, BILITI, PureEV, ETO, among others are already manufacturing EVs in the state.

More investments are set to pour in with the Telangana government already announcing plans to set up the Telangana Mobility Valley (TMV) in and around Hyderabad with an EV research and manufacturing cluster.

AP starts GEF project for agri biodiversity

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Andhra Pradeshhas been selected for the global Environment facility (GEF) project as part of a memorandum of understanding entered by the Union ministry of forest, environment and https://exam.pscnotes.com/Climate-change”>Climate Change back in 2022.
The GEF project entitled transforming agricultural systems and strengthening local economies in high Biodiversity areas of India through sustainable landscape management and public-private finance has so far begun in five districts of the state. This will be consequently extended to 16 districts.

Rainforest Alliance will be the lead executing agency for the project, in PARTNERSHIP with the State Government, Rythu Sadhikara Samstha (RySS), and local civil Society organisations.United NationsEnvironment Programme and International Union for Conservation of Nature are the implementing agencies.

Just one university shows interest to set up maritime school

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The proposed Goa Institute of Maritime Excellence (GIME) has run into rough waters even before its inception, as only one university has responded to the states call for bidders to set up the institute.

The official said that the government has now to take a decision whether or not to allow the university to go ahead, or to re-tender it. The Captain of (CoP) had recently invited bids from interested national and international educational institutions and developers to redevelop the existing maritime school into a world-class GIME.

The state had decided to start 22 long-term, short-term, mandatory, and optional courses at GIME. A senior official said the concessionaire would have to run six mandatory courses and 16 optional ones.

Some of the other courses MICE was supposed to run are maritime MBA courses such as shipping and Logistics management, port and shipping management, shipping and finances, etc. The yacht training courses include master of yachts for coastal, open sea, and ocean-going yachts.

Maharashtra No. 1 in attracting FDI in country: Devendra Fadnavis

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Maharashtrahas once again topped in Foreign Direct (FDI) in the country with a 29 per cent share, deputy chief ministerDevendra Fadnavissaid on Monday citing aDIPP reportfor the period between January to March 2023.

Fadnavis said Karnataka is in the second position with a 24 per cent share in attracting FDI and Gujarat is at the third spot with a 17 per cent share.

Notably, Maha Vikas Aghadi leaders including Aaditya Thackeray of Shiv Sena (UBT) and Nana Patole of Congress had claimed that several key projects went out of Maharashtra due to the failure of the Eknath Shinde-Fadnavis government of BJP and Shiv Sena, which came to power in June 2022.