07.12.21

Project RE HAB

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Project RE HAB Reducing Elephant Human Attacks using Bees was launched in Assam.

Highlights:

The Project RE HAB creates bee fences, where the honey bees in these fences stop elephant attacks in human habitations.

They discourage the elephants without harming them and are more cost-effective than erecting fences or digging trenches.

It also raises honey production and improves farmer income, and helps to address https://exam.pscnotes.com/Climate-change”>Climate Change issues by regenerating forest cover.

The bee boxes, around 15 to 20, are placed in the premises of human habitation. They are placed as fences.

The buzz of the bees irritates the elephants the most as they fear that the honey bees might sting them in their trunks and eyes so, they do not walk ahead of the boxes.

The boxes are connected with a string, and as the elephants try to pass through the string, a pull or tug causes the bees to swarm towards the elephant.

The Project REHAB is implemented by the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC).

The Project RE-HAB is a submission to the National Honey Mission of KVIC, which launched to provide awareness and training in using bee boxes and the bee colonies. The mission was launched in 2017, first in Karnataka.

It will be launched in West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

Between 2014 and 2019, around 403 deaths happened due to elephanthuman conflict.

Three hundred ninety-seven deaths happened in Odisha, 349 in Jharkhand, 332 in Assam, 170 in Karnataka and 289 in Chhattisgarh.

Around 500 elephants died in the human-elephant conflict alone in the last five years.

Cannabis plants worth over Rs 979 crore destroyed in Odisha in last three years

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Despite the governments sustained efforts to stopcannabiscultivation and ganja smuggling in the state, drugmafiacontinue to promote cultivation of the illegal crop with impunity.

Cannabis Plants worth more than Rs 137 crore and spread over 9,473 acres of land were destroyed by the excise officials in 2018-19; plants worth Rs 498 crore and spread over 15,978 acres were razed in 2019-20; more than Rs 325 crore worth plants were destroyed over 22,217 acres in 2020-21 and Rs 18 crore plants were uprooted from 1371 acres in 2021-22 (until October)

Tamil Nadu cuts Sidco land rates to achieve $1 trillion economy goal

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The on Tuesday slashed the prices of plots at variousSidco(Small Industries Development Corporation) estates acrossTamil Naduto make them affordable for MSMEs to establish industrial units. The move is aimed at improving industrial investments in the state to achieve chief ministerM K Stalin’s target of making Tamil Nadu a $1 trillion economy by 2030.
The price reduction, which ranged between 5% and 50%, went up to 75% in some places. In Chennai and its three neighbouring districts, the plot prices were retained at 2016-17 land rate level.

In three recent industrial conclaves held in Chennai and Coimbatore, the state government had signed MoUs with various companies for investments valued at more than 1 lakh crore.

Unlike Sipcot that caters to large industries and whose board determines the cost of industrial plots, Sidco has to sell industrial plots as per the norm set by the Tamil Nadu government. Earlier, the price of Sidco plots were hiked by an Average of 10% to 15% every year based on guideline value, notional increase over previous year, notional increase based on Simple Interest for three different categories of industrial estates, and location of the estates.

SilverLine project: Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan seeks Rs 2,150 crore from Centre

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hief minister Pinarayi Vijayan has written to Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman seeking funds for Silver-Line project. He urged the Centre to allocate Rs 2,150 crore in the upcoming Union budget.

The chief minister, in his letter, said that SilverLine project has been included in the national rail plan and in the budget speech of 2021 the minister had announced in Parliament that all projects included in the national rail plan will be completed by 2030.

This project is in line with the Government of Indias policy and will contribute immensely to the of state. The project is also in line with Make in India and Atmanirbhar Bharat initiatives aimed at increasing the production capabilities of the country as a whole, wrote the chief minister.

More genome sequencing labs to come up in Karnataka

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In a bid to check the spread of Covid-19, especiallyOmicron, the variant of concern, the is planning to increase the number of genome sequencing labs across the state.
Chief minister BasavarajBommai said he has spoken to Health department officials about stepping up Infrastructure for sequencing. He said the authorities are conducting genome sequencing of every case reported in the state. The health department has commenced work to increase the numbers of such labs to tide over the anticipated crisis, he added.

Telangana: Jamuna Hatcheries encroached upon 70 acres, says report

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A detailed survey by the Medak District Administration has found revealed thatJamuna Hatcheries, belonging to the family of BJP MLA and former ministerEatala Rajender, encroached upon70 acres- nine acres government land and 61 acres assigned land – in Achampet and Hakimpet villages of Masaipet mandal in Medak district.

The report said the firm had constructed huge sheds (survey no. 130 of Achampet village), feed silos and buildings and erected structure footing (sy no. 81 of Achampet village) in assigned land without obtaining any permission from concerned authorities. Ironically, some officers had carried out registration of nine acres of government land in the villages though the land parcel was marked as prohibited land.

Centre releases Rs 543 crore as GST compensation to Andhra Pradesh

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The central government released Rs 17,000 crore to the states and union territories under theGSTcompensation of which Rs 543 crore was given toAndhra Pradesh. The amount was released on November 3 for the financial years 2017-18 to 2019-20, Union minister of state for financePankaj Chaudharysaid in the Rajya Sabha.

The MP also wanted to know whether the central government had any plans to extend the GST compensation beyond 2022. The minister told the members that the central government has also released 1,13,464 crore to the states and union territories towards GST compensation for the period of April 2020 to March 2021.

As per the GST council’s decision, 1.1 lakh crore for 2020-21 and 1.59 lakh crore for 2021-22 was also released to the states and the union territories “as back to back loans” to meet the Resources of the states due to the shortfall in GST compensation.

State is working towards producing technocrats: CM

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Chief minister PramodSawant said that, in the next 10 years, thestatewants to producetechnocratsand that is why coding and Robotics schemes were introduced in schools. These technocrats should be able to work not only at the national level, but also at the international level, he said.

Stating that Goa will be hosting a national-level science festival for the first time, the chief minister urged students to participate in the event that will commence from December 10. Top institutions involved in innovation will be at the science festival, he said.

Coding and robotics schemes have been implemented in the state for Class VI to Class VIII across 435 schools and 65,000 students have participated in the program.

Sawant also said that the has various counselling schemes career, youth and student which can be implemented 100% only if teachers pass them on.

90% health, frontline staff in Maharashtra totally vaccinated

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Complete vaccination of healthcare and frontline workers inMaharashtraagainst Covid still hovers around 90% despite the state striving to further speed up inoculation following the emergence of the new Omicron variant of the contagion.

The states target was to vaccinate all adult beneficiaries with the first dose and those who had skipped the second shot by December 31. However, Maharashtra is yet to vaccinate 100% beneficiaries in the healthcare and frontline worker categories, with whom the inoculation programme had started.

There are definitely some issues with the data. We have been told that many frontline workers might have taken the vaccine in the general 18-44-year category. The data need to be assessed and the list drawn out to arrive at the final figures before the end of December.

Haryana Government has availed a huge sum of Rs 70,126 crore as loans from various public sector banks since April 1, 2014.

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The has availed its largest loan of Rs 15,602 crore from Punjab National Bank from April 1, 2014 to November 30, 2021, according to the data tabled in Parliament in reply to a question on Monday.

The loans were sanctioned by the PSBs to various companies and corporations owned by the Haryana Government.

As per the data, the Indian Bank has sanctioned a total loan of Rs 13,262 crore to the State Government from April 2014 to November 2021. Similarly, the Bank of Baroda has sanctioned a loan of Rs 7796 crore, Bank Of India sanctioned Rs 4300 crore, Canara Bank sanctioned a sum of Rs 5438 crore, Central Bank of India sanctioned Rs 2050 crore to Haryana Government.

During the same time period, Rs 9800 crore was sanctioned by the State Bank of India, Rs 5450 crore by UCO Bank, Rs 5528 crore sanctioned by Union Bank Of India, Rs 600 crore by Indian Overseas Bank and Rs 300 crore by Punjab and Sind Bank.

Notably, Haryanas debt liability is projected at Rs 2,29,976 crore as on March 2022 from Rs 1,99,823 crore as on March 2021, constituting 25.92 per cent of the GSDP. The State Government has come under sharp criticism from the opposition parties over burgeoning debt liability in Haryana.

The states total debt was Rs 70,931 crore in 2014-15, when the BJP assumed power in the state for the first time. Preparing for budget estimates 2022-23, the State Government had recently directed its Departments to keep the need to economize in mind while preparing the budget estimates.