13.05.21

Estimated 4,000-6,000 refugees from Myanmar sought safety in India: UN

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An estimated 4,000 to 6,000 refugees from Myanmar have sought safety in India, a spokesperson for the UN chief has said, as the world body voiced concern over the rising levels of displacement of people since the military coup in the country.

TheUnited Nations Refugee Agency(UNHCR) said that in Myanmar, as of last week, approximately 60,700 Women, children and men have been internally displaced.

Myanmar an over 1,600 km long unfenced and porous land border with India as well as a maritime boundary in the Bay of Bengal. Four North-Eastern states – Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur andMizoramshare the international boundary with Myanmar.

Implementation of new Assam Accord top priority, Atul Bora tells Aasu

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Soon after taking charge as the new Assam Accord Implementation minister, Atul stepped into the office of the All Assam Students’ Union (Aasu) at Swahid Nyas Bhawan Uzanbazar to meet the top office bearers of the student body, including chief adviser Samujjal Bhattacharyya, his old comrade in arms.

Former Aasu president Bora’s visit to the nerve-centre of Aasu’s activism in the heart of the city is of political significance, even as the leading student body claims it to be an ‘apolitical’ organization. After the culmination of the six-year anti foreigners’ movement (1979-85) with the signing of the 1985 Assam Accord, Bora has become the first minister of the department to visit the Swahid Nyas.

Odisha: Industrial Training Institute builds equipment to move Oxygen bedside

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The government-runIndustrial Training Institute(ITI) has developed a trolley-cum-lifter to carryoxygen cylindersnear the beds of Covid patients inhospitals. It can easily transport Oxygen cylinders up to 160 kg in weight.

Transportation of oxygen from production units to the hospital involves various logistical issues. After the cylinders are transported to hospitals and Covid care facilities, these are manually shifted.

R Shanmugasundaram is new advocate-general of Tamil Nadu

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The DMKs former Rajya Sabha member and designated senior advocate, RShanmugasundaramis the new advocate-general ofTamil Nadu. The veteran prosecutor had served asstate public prosecutorfrom 1996 to 2001.

This is the first of a series of appointment of law officers to be made in Nadu in coming weeks, to represent the newly elected DMK government before the High Court, other courts and Tribunals.

Steps to attract NRI deposits on way: Kerala minister V N Vasavan

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Kerala Bankwill soon start accepting deposits from NRIs, said minister for cooperation and registration V N Vasavan on Saturday. Speaking to reporters, Vasavan said the government is also considering linking the bank to the local self-government institutions too.

The aim is to make it to the number one position in the state. Currently, the bank occupies second position, he said.

In order to achieve this, various loan and deposit schemes will be launched.

He said the will strongly oppose acts like the SARFAESI Act. As part of the modernization process all the Cooperative banks will be linked to a single Network.

Sudha Murty gives Rs 10k each to 300 tourist guides in Karnataka

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For tour guides, the pandemic seems to have left them in one of those deep, dark tunnels that they once led eager tourists through one with no end in sight. However, there now is some Light.

Sudha Murty, philanthropist andInfosys Foundationchairperson, has donated Rs 10,000 each to around 300 tourist guides from seven different heritage hubs across the state. The is being directly transferred to the bank accounts of recognised tourist guides in Hampi, Belur, Halebid, Badami,Aihole, Pattadakal and Chitradurga.

The local economy in these places relies heavily on tourism, and incomes of thousands of people are determined by tourist in-flow

In a 1st, Telangana to deploy drones to drop vaccines in remote areas

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Telanganahappens to be the first state in the country to receive permission from the ministry of civil aviation to use drones for delivering coronavirus Vaccines to various primary Health centres, authorities said.

The one-year conditional exemption for Telanganas Medicine from the Sky project will kick off on a trial mode in early May at the Vikarabad Area Hospital.

As part of the project, eight selected start-ups would be divided into four batches of two consortia and each batch would carry out the sorties for 6 days to complete the 24-day trial. A week to conduct an on-ground recce would also be given to all consortia before the start of the programme.

Each drone would carry a combination of dummy vials and regular vaccines over the course of the trials and the performance would be recorded in detail and this data shall be used to guide further policies regarding full-scale adoption.

The has asked the District Administration to plan the on-ground operations and has also identified nodal officers to bolster the move.

Assembly passes resolution against Visakhapatnam steel plant disinvestment

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The AP assembly on Thursday passed a resolution opposing the Union governments plans and proposed privatisation ofVisakhapatnam steel plant.

TheHouseappealed to the Centre to consider the measures suggested by chief ministerYS Jagan Mohan Reddyin his two letters and protect the steel plant.

Industries ministerMekapati Goutham Reddy, who tabled the resolution, said the steel plant is the pride of the people of the state. He said VSP is the only public sector firm in the residuary state with more than 20,000 employees.

Goa: Now, law department nod for new mines memorandum of understanding

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Lawminister Nilesh Cabral said that hisdepartmenthas vetted the memorandum of understanding (MoU) to be signed between the directorate of mines and geology and the Mineral Exploration Corporation Ltd (MECL) to identifynewiron Ore mines in the state.

With the signing of the MoU, Mineral Exploration Corporation Ltd, which is in the process of being formed, will identify new mineral blocks in the state for e-auctioning.

Maharashtra farmers got lowest crop claims payout in 2020

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Farmers inMaharashtrahave received the lowest-ever payout in 2020 under the Prime Ministers Crop Insurance Scheme (PMFBY) since the scheme began in 2016. Farmers received Rs 823 crore, which amounts to just 14% of the Rs 5,801 crore premium paid to insurance companies, the latest data shows.
Only 12.3 lakh farmers benefited from the claims, also the lowest number since the scheme began. They account for 10% of the 1.2 crore cultivators who had applied for crop insurance in 2020.

Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has written to Union Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar suggesting a new crop insurance model wherein insurance companies will have a maximum cap of profit upto 20% and maximum risk of 10% against premium collected. This is the model which the state is implementing in Beed district.

Data shows that the highest claims under PMFBY in the state were paid in 2018-19 and 2019-20, where the claims to premium ratio was 94.7% and 112%. In these two years, the state faced drought and natural calamity. However, in the other three years of the scheme, the claims paid by the firms to farmers were lower than the premium collected by them. In 2016-17, the claims to premium ratio was 48.2% and in 2017-18, it was 76.4%. The gap was most glaring in 2020, when it plunged to 14%.

Under the PMFBY, the farmer pays 2% of the premium, while the rest is split between the Centre and state. However, the payout of claims to farmers can extend upto 350% of the premium. If the claims paid are less than the premium, the insurance firm can keep the amount that remains.