06.10.21

Northeastern region to turn into oil palm hub of India: Tomar

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Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Tuesday said the northeastern states will turn into an oil palm hub of the country with the central government’s major intervention with an outlay of Rs 11,040 crore for the next five years. Union Minister for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) G Kishan Reddy urged investors and industrialists to invest in the northeastern region which has immense potential for the agricultural sector, especially palm oil.

In August, the Union Cabinet approved the National Mission on Edible Oils-Oil Palm (NMEO-OP) with a financial outlay of Rs 11,040 crore to promote the domestic cultivation of oil palm in the next five years and reduce the country’s dependence on edible oil imports.

Assam CM launches land revenue streamlining reformsAssam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday launched ‘Mission Basundhara’ aimed at empowering people to resolve their land-related issues through an online system. Terming the initiative as a historic and decisive step, the chief minister asserted that through this mission, middlemen would be eliminated from the system. “Securing land rights of the indigenous population is the prime objective of the mission and public, especially poor and disadvantaged sections, must be facilitated to get their land-related works done through ‘Mission Basundhara’,” an official statement quoting the Chief Minister said. A total of Rs 225 crore would be spent on the implementation of the programme and the mission would be able to rebuild all lost land records of the state, the chief minister said.

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Updating records in a mission mode is a major goal of ‘Mission Basundhara’ by offering nine land revenue related services online, including mutation and reclassification of land, Sarma said. The application period in the portal is from October 2, 2021, to November 30, 2021, and the disposal shall be within May 10, 2022, Sarma said. As part of the second component of the mission, a polygon survey would be conducted of yet-to-be surveyed 672 non-cadastral villages of the state by March 31, 2022.

Centre urges Odisha to adopt Tamil Nadu model to reduce accident deaths

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Wary of an alarming rise in road accident deaths inOdisha, theCentrehas urged chief ministerNaveen Patnaikto consider adopting a road safety model ofTamil Naduthat has succeeded in reducing accident fatalities by 54% in the last five years.

It must be noted that road accident-related deaths have increased by nearly 21% from 2014 (3,931 deaths) to 2019 (4,738 deaths) in the state. This despite theSupreme Courtcommittee on road safety directing the state government to bring it down by 50% by 2020. The fatality rate (death per hundred accidents) is about 48.2 % in Odisha in 2019, much higher than the national average of 36.6%.

The number of accident deaths increased to 1877 between January and April this year from 1,471 during the corresponding months in 2020, taking the rise to a disturbing 27.60%. According to the transport department, the accident fatality rate increased abnormally by 25% in the first half this year as compared to the first six months of 2020, despite the Covid-induced lockdown.

Software Launched In TN To Aid Police Investigation

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Chief Minister MK Stalin launched facial recognition software to assist police officials in their investigation on 4 October.

Highlights:

The software can compare photos of the suspects with data that have been uploaded in the CCTNS, which will, in turn, help the police personnel in their investigation.

More than 5.30 lakh photos were uploaded to the CCTNS websites.

The Uploaded data will be used to identify or compare suspects, accused persons, missing persons, and unidentified corpses.

It will also help identify if the accused person has any warrant issued against them.

The Software will work in computers at the police stations and on smartphones of police personnel.

The depart is also trying to improve the software to identify faces through CCTV footage.

Azcco Group to invest Rs 500 crore in Kerla

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an expatriate industrial group, is launching a new biscuit manufacturing facility based inKerala, informed theDepartment of Industries, Government of Kerala.

For this, an agreement was reached at the Meet the Investor event organized by Industries MinisterP Rajeeveand according to this, the group will immediately invest Rs 150 crore to create a new brand called Craze Biscuits. The official launch will be next year.

Azcco Groupinformed the minister that they will be investing overall Rs 500 crore in the state by 2030. ASCO is an industry group led byAbdul Aziz, an expatriate businessman who runs supermarket chains in the Middle East.Azizsaid the new venture aims to gain a share of the ever-expanding biscuit market in Kerala. The firm will launch thirty-nine varieties of biscuits during the first phase, he added.

The construction of Craze Factory at Kozhikode KSIDC Industrial Park will be completed this year itself. The one lakh square foot factory will use German and Turkish machines and technology.

Begin technical education in schools: Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai

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Chief minister Basavaraj Bommai, said there is a need for developing technical skills in children with at least some high schools becoming technical high schools.

He also urged minister department of electronics, IT, BT and S&T to upgrade Atal Bihari Vajpayee Tinkering labs even in small capsules to create artificial intelligence at the school level.

IT, BT, science and technology and higher education minister C N Ashwath Narayan said that the government would set up a Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Artificial Intelligence and Data Engineering inHubballi soon as an industry-institute initiative.

The minister said that setting up of CoE is part of the Karnataka Digital Economy Mission. He promised that a park would be developed at Hubballi to facilitate graduating startups to grow further.

The government has brought effective policies to promote innovative technologies and the duration of internship has been raised from 3 weeks to 30 weeks. Students will also be given the opportunity to undergo internship abroad.

Telangana raises objections over referring irrigation project reports to AP

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TheTelanganagovernment raised objections on referring detailed project reports (DPRs) toAndhra Pradeshin a routine manner.

In a letter to the Godavari River Management Board (GRMB) chairman J Chandrasekhar Iyer, Telangana irrigation special chief secretary Rajat Kumar said DPRs of projects such as Chowtpally Hanumantha Reddy Lift Irrigation Project (LIS) and Chanaka-Korata barrage have been referred to AP government for their observations and comments.

“The projects were well within the water allocated and no inter-state issues were involved. The Chowtpally Hanumantha Reddy LIS was taken up, executed and commissioned in the united AP government and has been in operation for six years.

The AP government requested Thungabhadra Board to divert KC canal quota of two tmcft, in addition to the already diverted two tmcft, from Thungabhadra dam to high level canal.

Nearly 30% coastal area in Andhra Pradesh subject to erosion: Report

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The National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR) in its report has pressed the alarm bells warning that the coastline alongAndhra Pradeshis facing a massive coastal erosion. Andhra Pradesh has a coastline of 974 km and of this, about 290 km is under varying degrees of erosion, according to the shoreline change assessment mapping done by the NCCR.

As per the research study, about 480 km of the coast in the state is subject to accretion (deposition of sand), while the remaining coastline is, however, in a stable state. The assessment was carried out by using satellite data spanning 28 years.

Nellore district shows a high accretion trend with a few pockets of erosion and stable condition. Accretion is observed to be dominating the coast in Prakasam, Guntur and West Godavari. The delta regions of Krishna and East Godavari are witnessing an alternating band of accretion and erosion. No significant change is observed in the north coastal Andhra Pradesh belt, from Ichchapuram to Bheemunipatnam.

The coastal erosion had hit several beaches in Vizag city in the past. Visakhapatnam Port Trust is taking up beach nourishment works in the eroded RK beach area every year to improve the beach front. However, the proposed permanent control measures have not made any headway.

Goa: Agri institute on mission to get GI tag for mancurad mango

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In a bid to give impetus to Goas efforts in granting the mancuradmangogeographical indication (GI) status, the Goa State Council of Science and Technology has taken initiative to form a mango farmers association.

A meeting was held at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research-Central Coastal Agricultural ResearchInstitute(ICAR-CCARI), Old Goa, on Tuesday by the institutes fruit scientists along with agriculture officials and prominent mango farmers to form the association. The GI application needs to be jointly filed by farmers and the institute.

Efforts will also be made to tap important commercial varieties like the Hilario, mussahrat and Xavier among others, and hopefully apply for GI status for them as well.

State govt brings women to forefront of climate change fight

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A unique initiative, the Maharashtra government has kickstarted the Women4Climate programme that aims to bring women in Mumbai together to combat climate change.
Under the programme, the state government along with the C40 Cities Network will focus on bringing out leadership qualities in women so that stage can be set for the next generation of climate leaders. Women will get a chance to develop and implement action to accelerate their climate projects, and develop strategies to achieve the overall target of sustainable development goals.

State environment minister Aaditya Thackeray called on women to take part in this initiative and protect the environment from the effects of changing climate.

He further announced that 1,900 electric buses will be added to the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) fleet by 2023. At present, 386 electric buses are plying in the megacity.