06.07.22

Meghalaya major transit point for drug trafficking

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Meghalayahas turned into a major transit point for drug trafficking because of its close proximity to the Golden Triangle, a fact that has put authorities on very high alert, the director general of state Police,LR Bishnoi, has said. He added that the state has approximately 2.5 lakh users of drugs and psychotropic substances, including injectable drugs.

In the course of his address at a function to observe International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking at theU Soso Tham Auditorium(State Central Library) here on Saturday, the DGP made a detailed presentation on the prominent drug trafficking routes in the state and the modus operandi of traffickers.

Proposed granite park project in Cnagar gains momentum

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ChamarajanagarDistrict Administration has initiated the process to set up a granite park on 130 acres of land at the Kellamballi Badanaguppe industrial area of Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB).

The process, which was delayed due to the pandemic, has now gained momentum following directions from the .

The district is known for black granites and has about 50 granite quarries and 12 granite cutting and polishing industrial units, but its expansion and Growth is hampered by lack of skilled labour.

The products of Chamarajanagar Granite Industries and others are exported to several countries like Japan, China, Indonesia. Bsides this, they also meet the demands of local domestic markets and other states.

Tamil Nadu inks investment deals worth Rs 1.25 lakh crore

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The Nadu government entered into 60 MoUs with investors to attract more than Rs 1.25 lakh crore investments that are expected to generate 75,000 jobs. With this ‘single day record’ at the Investors’ Conclave on Monday, the government has registered cumulative investments of Rs2.2 lakh croresince May last year.

The new investments include industrial units that make auto components, electric vehicles, solar power components, lithium cells, green energy and aerospace, besides FinTech and data centres. Key investors include ACME Green Hydrogen and Chemicals, which is planning to invest 52,695 crore for a green ammonia plant at Tuticorin and Tata Power which will invest 3,000 crore to make 4GW solar cells.

Govt IT parks, Kerala Startup Mission to get independent CEOs soon

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Three government IT parks andKerala Startup Mission(KSUM), the four major IT establishments under the , will have independent chief executive officers (CEOs) soon.

The state government has invited applications for the post of CEOs forTechnopark Thiruvananthapuramand InfoparkKochi and the decision regarding the appointment of CEO for Cyber Park Kozhikode is expected to be announced in the coming days.

Currently, the three IT parks have a common CEO and the same person is also heading KSUM. It is expected that the appointment of separate CEOs would give a boost to the developmental activities of government IT parks. A separate CEO for KSUM would also bring leverage to the activities of Startup Mission, it is expected.

Technopark Thiruvananthapuram is one of Indias largest IT parks and employs more than 64,000 IT professionals. The park is spread across 724 acre in 5 phases, housing 465 companies. Infopark Kochi is also one of the fastest growing government IT parks which is spread over 260 acre of campus, across two phases and housing 425 companies employing more than 56,000 professionals.

Karnataka govt likely to grant road transport corporations diesel subsidy

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TheKarnatakagovernment is likely to forgo its share of taxes on diesel for all four state-run road transport corporations (RTCs) to bail them out of their financial problems.

At present, the four RTCs together spend a whopping Rs 11.5 crore daily to purchase around 13 lakh litres of diesel. They can save over Rs 1.5 crore a day if the waives its share of taxes.
The daily diesel payout would have been more than Rs 15 crore if RTCs went for bulk purchase, as there is a gap of almost Rs 35 a litre between retail and bulk prices. As a result, RTCs have been buying diesel from retailers recently.

Realising the urgent need for addressing the financial needs of these corporations, whose collective losses are touching Rs 5,000 crore, the government has set up a panel under retired Ias officer MR Srinivas Murthy to suggest reforms to make the RTCs not only self-reliant but also profitable. The committee is expected to submit its report in a few weeks.

India’s largest floating solar project commissioned in Telangana

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India’s largest floating solar power plant with a total capacity of 100MW has finally been commissioned by state-run power generation giantNTPCat its Ramagundam power plant inTelangana.

The plant, which has been set up at a cost of 423 crore, has 4.48 lakh photovoltaic (PV) panels floating over 500 acres of the NTPC-Ramagundam reservoir.

According to NTPC, the floating system is anchored through specialHMPE(High Modulus Polyethylene) ropes to dead weights placed in the balancing reservoir bed.

Andhra Pradesh to tap oil palm potential as demand up

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With the demand for edible oil inAndhra Pradeshand neighbouring states increasing, the area under oil palm cultivation in the state will increase to over 3.17 lakh hectares in the coming four to five years with a target of over 25,000 hectares every year.

The has drafted an action plan to increase the oil palm cultivation by replacing paddy, tobacco, subadul, casuarina, and eucalyptus to benefit the farmers. Speaking to TOI, additional director of Horticulture, KBalaji Nayak, said AP stands in first position in oil palm cultivation with 1.81 lakh hectares, and 1.32 lakh farmers in eight districts spread over 229 mandals.

The consumption of palm oil has increased by 10 to 15 per cent in the state in the past few years due to various reasons including the edible oil crisis due to Russia-Ukraine conflict. The consumption may further increase in the coming days. Not only the middle class but the upper middle-class families are also consuming the palm oil in the state.

The Union Government introduced National Mission on Edible Oils-Oil Palm(NMEO-OP) scheme to encourage oil palm on large scale which they wanted to fully tap for the benefit of farmers. Under oil palm mission, an area of 1.36 lakh hectares is proposed to be covered in the state.

Cabinet grants approval to increase states borrowing limit to Rs 3,600 crore

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The state cabinet on Wednesday granted approval to the Goa Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (Amendment) Bill,2022, which is aimed at increasing the states borrowings by 1% of the gross state domestic product (GSDP) for the financial year 2022-2023. The 1% increase will allow the state to borrow up to 4% of the GSDP.

The bill will be introduced in the monsoon session of the state assembly.
The state GSDP is approximately Rs 90,000 crore.

With this amendment, the can borrow a maximum of Rs 3,600 crore.
In the financial year 2021-2022, the state government borrowed around Rs 2,700 crore through the open market. The borrowing limit was around Rs 3,200 crore.

As per the Union finance ministry, the state can carry forward the unutilised borrowing to the subsequent financial year.

Mahas 2021-22 onion exports 27.4% lower than past year

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Export of onions fromMaharashtradeclined by over 27.4% during the 2021-22 financial year when compared to the previous year.

According to the data provided by the Agricultural and Process Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), which functions under the Union ministry of commerce and , onion export from Maharashtra declined to 5.8 lakh tonne during the 2021-22 financial year down from 7.9 lakh tonne during the previous fiscal of 2020-21.

The wholesale prices of onions in the domestic market were higher when compared to the prices of the produce in the international markets. Moreover, freight charges have also increased at large. These two factors led to a drop in onion exports from the state.