06-07.11.22

Min highlights Manipurs richness in bio resources

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Commerce and ministerNemcha Kipgenon Friday inaugurated the International Micro, Small and Medium enterprises (MSME) Conference in North East Region -2022 inImphaland highlightedManipurs richness in bio Resources.
The basic objective of the conference organized by the Federation of Industry & Commerce of North Eastern Region (FINER), with support of the Centre-runMSME Development Institute Imphaland Manipur C&I department, is to provide opportunities to MSMEs in Manipur. The other aim is to update MSMEs to meet the challenges emerging from changes in technology, demand and emergence of new markets.

Unlike many parts of the northeast, Manipur is fortunate to have a potential to be the gateway to ASEAN and with the improvement in Infrastructure, it will serve as an important import- export hub for the NE region.

Rs 1,000 Cr-Assam varsity will upskill NE youths: Himanta

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Assam Chief MinisterHimanta Biswa Sarmaon Sunday asserted that the Rs 1,000 crore-Assam Skill University will upskill youths of Northeast. Performing ‘bhumi pujan’ for the institute at Darrang district headquarters Mangaldai, around 70 km from Guwahati, Sarma said that the institute will harness the demographic dividend of Assam, which has a very young Population.

“The Rs 1,000-crore institute will have multiple schools and centres of excellence that will play a huge role in upskilling the youths in Northeast. The university will have various campuses across Assam,” he said.

Sarma said a target has been set to complete the construction of the entire campus by August 2025 but an interim complex is expected to start functioning from 2024 itself.

The skill university, first-of-its-kind in Assam and third such institute in the country, will impart Education for Skill development in different sectors such as and innovation, life skills and languages, and design and creativity, through its various schools and courses.
It is being partially funded by the Asian Development Bank.

Odisha’s Covid mgmt could be reference for future

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The way several States, including Odisha, battled the Covid-19 pandemic and emerged successful must be documented for generation of evidence so that the situation could be tackled effectively if the country faced a similar calamity in future, Senior Consultant (Health) of the ,Dr K Madan Gopalsaid.

The course would include nine semesters while the students would be trained in comprehensive clinics for better Learning and patient ease at each institute, he said, adding he was hopeful that the new curriculum would be launched next year.

There were 316 dental colleges under DCI while around 26,000 students were taking admission in those colleges, Dr Mazumdar said while praising IDS for being ranked 10th in the country though it was started in 2006. Besides, it was the only dental science institute in the country which was among the ten institutes affiliated to Cochrane India Network.

Third edition of Startup Tamil Nadu conducted in Erode district

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More than 180 startups fromErodeand surrounding areas, and more than 150 aspiring entrepreneurs and students participated in the third edition of StartupTN BrandLabs and StartupTN LaunchPad organised byTamil Nadu Startupand Innovation Mission (Startup-TN).

Branding a blended skill of both arts and science is the winning proposition for any company, said StartupTN Mission director and CEOSivarajah Ramanathan. Most entrepreneurs in Naduhave traditionally maintained a low-key culture in branding their products or Services. BrandLabs is a knowledge and networking forum with branding experts and startups to evolve with path-breaking branding strategies, he said.

State ensures hassle-free entry for startups: Min

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Minister for law, industries and coir P Rajeeve has hailed the startup ecosystem inKeralarating it as the best in Asia.

He said that an interaction withIndian Electronics and Semiconductor Association(IESA) at the recentDefence Exporevealed that Kerala is the only place where companies can come with their products straightaway whereas a formal submission of brochures and posters initially is required in other states.
Noting that a whirlwind of change is happening in the IT sector in Kerala, Rajeeve said that Cognizance Technologies opened its 1.5 lakh sq ft facility in Kochi, Tata Elxsi has 50% workforce in Kerala andTata Consultancy Servicesis setting up 36-acre campus near Infopark at Kakkanad.

13% Karnataka govt schools have tech labs, only 7% functional

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Only 13% of government schools (upper primary to higher secondary) inKarnataka, Home to the country’s IT capital, haveICTlabs, says the latest U-DISE (Unified District Information System for Education) data released by the ministry of school education and Literacy on Thursday. Worse, the Percentage of government schools with a functional ICT (Information & Communication Technology) lab is just 7%.

However, Karnataka’s education department said the figures are not updated. “The data could be reflecting only labs built using government funds. Almost all schools have labs through donors or other means.

Last year alone, 764 schools were given permission. Due to Covid-19, we could implement it only in 502 schools thus far. We have a target of completing it by 2025,” said an official of SamagraShikshana Karnataka.

As per U-DISE, there are 28,634 government schools with upper primary, secondary and higher secondary sections in the state. Of these, only 3,924 have ICT labs and they are functional only in 1,999 schools. While 18% aided schools have ICT labs, only 4% have functional ones.

Only 8% of government schools in Karnataka have functional mobile phones for TEACHING purposes, 5% have smart classrooms, 15% have projectors, 3% have PCs with functional Integrated Teaching Learning Devices, 3% have functional tablets, 11% government schools laptops and 9% have cyber security lessons for children.

Telangana makes plan to buy Rs 1 crore MT paddy this year

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Unlike the last year’s hullabaloo with the Centre overpaddyprocurement, the is ready to purchase 1 crore metric tonnes (MTs) of paddy fromfarmersthis time in the midst of reports of a bumper output of 1.55 crore MTs. This tops last kharif season’s 1.24 crore MTs.

While it is it is going to be the highest ever recorded paddy output inTelanganasince the state’s formation in 2014, civil supplies ministerGangula Prabhakar said the government was not only preparing to purchase 1 crore MTs, but also making plans on the additional 55 lakh MTs which could be used for other purposes.

This year’s paddy acreage was also the highest in any kharif season at 24 lakh acres – last year, paddy was cultivated in 21.1 lakh acres.
The minister said the state government has already completed 50,000 tonnes of paddy procurement with the help of 6,713 procurement centres across the state.

Male-female ratio improves in Andhra Pradesh

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The state is showing a healthy trend in girl Population as the is closely monitoring the deliveries, particularly in rural areas. The state has ensured that 100 per cent deliveries are handled at thePHCin tribal area, improving the girl population rate.

AP has already crossed the national Average and also the state average in girl population ratio recorded during the last year. According to the latest information, the state reported the birth of 937 girl babies against each 1,000 babies in the last eight months. The state government has been gathering the data on a daily basis and compiling the information on a monthly basis. The senior officials are closely looking into the issue and alerting the district Health and family welfare administrations wherever intervention is required.

In fact, AP’s sex ratio during theNational Family Health Survey(NFHS-V) based on the information between 2019-2021 is 925: 1,000 (female-male). This is little lower than the national average of 929 against 1,000. Taking the issue seriously, chief minister YSJagan MohanReddy directed the medical and health and Women and child welfare departments to jointly work to improve the girl child ratio in the state. The state’s sex ratio during 2019-21 has tremendously improved over the past few years due to the focus set by the state government. The female population in AP during NFHS-IV conducted in 2015-16 was just 914 against 1,000 males at the time of birth, it jumped to 934 in theNFHS-Vsurvey conducted in 2019-21. Although the sex ratio is well above the national average at the time of birth, the ratio drops by the age of six years due to the high rate of infant mortality in the state. The state goverment thus adopted multi-pronged strategies to save the girl child.

Only 20% government schools in Goa have computers: Central data

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officials have often wondered aloud about the reason for constantly declining enrolment in government-run schools in Goa. Now, theUnion Education ministrys data released for 2021-22 on Thursday may provide some answers.

The Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) data has shown stark difference in availability of computer and Internet facilities in government schools as compared to aided and private schools in Goa.

Only 54.4% schools in Goa had functionalcomputersin 2021-22. But the state Average was largely dragged down by the less-than-desirable facilities in government schools. Only 20.3% government schools had functional computers in the state, compared to 94.1% in aided schools and 95.7% in private schools.
Goas aided and private schools also did much better than most other states, as the national average for aided schools with functional computers stood at 67.5% and for private schools at 71.9%.

Government schools in Goa were, however, ahead in one aspect use of mobile phones for TEACHING purposes during the pandemic. Nearly 45% state-run schools in Goa used mobiles for teaching, as against 16% nationally.

Maharashtra govt to push clustering of colleges in same locality

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The state is planning a big push to clustering of colleges in the same vicinity. In line with the provisions of the NEP, the UGC had released guidelines for forming cluster institutions this September.

The objective was to transform single-stream or multi-disciplinary institutions with rigid boundaries to become part of a cluster, that is a larger multi-disciplinary higher Education institution.

Unlike cluster universities such as Homi Bhabha and HSNC in Mumbai, formed under the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shikshan Abhiyan (RUSA), the cluster institutions will remain affiliated to their parent university, which will conduct their exams too. “It is not like the cluster university planned under RUSA. Under RUSA, the constituent colleges cease to be part of the parent university and become part of an entirely new university.