14.02.23

Manipur hosts B20 Conference, delegates from 23 countries participate

by

Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh Friday inaugurated a conference on Opportunities for Multilateral Business Partnerships in ICT, Tourism, Healthcare and Handloom at the City Convention Centre in Imphal.

This was the first of the four sessions of B20 the official dialogue forum for the global business community scheduled in Northeast India.

The Chief Minister informed that Manipur, with a Population of 2.72 million and an area of over 22,300 sq km is the Land Gateway of India to South East Asia. The state has the perfect setting for implementing Indias Act East Policy and the state is the bridge between South East Asia and India, he added.

He further informed that new Industrial and Investment Promotion Policy of Manipur has been adopted to promote investment in the State. To promote Ease of Doing Business, the Manipur Industrial Single Window Clearance Act, 2021 was enacted. Given the importance of Logistics, the Manipur Integrated Logistics Policy, 2022 was notified.

The Chief Minister further informed the congregation that Manipur has huge untapped potential in medicinal Plants, horticultural products, aromatic plants and spices.

Humane approach should be adopted in dealing with child marriages: Experts in Assam

by

Days after the Gauhati observed that the crackdown on child marriages in Assam created “havoc in the private life of people”, a cross-section of Society on Sunday appealed to the State Government to look at it from a humane angle and focus more on creating awareness to end the social evil. With the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led government stating that the ongoing drive against child marriages will be intensified, the opposition termed the exercise as a “political stunt” with a “communal design”.

The state cabinet recently approved a proposal to book men who have married girls below 14 years of age under the POCSO Act, 2012. Cases under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 will be registered against those who have married girls in the age group of 14-18, the cabinet had decided.

Union Budget skips dev concerns of marginalised sections

by

Inclusive development is a top most priority among other seven priorities focused in the Union Budget 2023-24 by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. It is told that the Amrut Kala in Azadi ki Amrit Mahotsav is committed to the motto of leaving no one behind and Sab Ka Saath Sabka Vikas by creating equal opportunity in budgetary allocation for youth, Women, farmers, OBCs, SCs, STs, PWDs, EWSs, manual scavengers and particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTG) who are largely left out in the development process. However many of the concerns of development of excluded social groups have not been reflected in the allocation of the Budget.

The approach of development also has not changed much as there is absence of a clear physical target and also lack of accountability in the absence of clarity over spending. Lets see the outlay in the Budget for SCs and STs to fulfill the felt need of inclusion.

This approach of inclusion has been discussed for a long time but it has often failed to produce the desired result in the absence of ways and means to serve the purpose. Therefore, the idea of inclusive development is still a slogan and there is little to realise on the ground by the marginalised social groups.

The total Union Budget 2023 -24 is Rs 49, 90,842.73 crore. Out of this the total allocation for the welfare of SCs is Rs 1, 59,126.22 crore and for STs, it is Rs 1, 17,943.73 crore. This amount is targeted exclusively for the development of about one-fourth of the Population of the country who are among the most vulnerable social groups.

New park to come up at Mint under Singara Chennai 2.0

by

Residents ofMintand surrounding areas in Chennai will soon get another spot to spend their evenings and early morning hours.

A park in the area, which is under construction, will be open to the public by April this year.

Under theSingara Chennai2.0 scheme, the park is being constructed under the Mint flyover at a cost of Rs 5 crore.

The park will have a walkers path, area for senior citizens, open air gym and facilities, sculptures and art work, tensile fabric structures, toilets and parking.

A total of 1,000 saplings have been planted in the park by local residents in memory of their loved ones. These will be maintained by theGreater Chennai Corporation.

Set up rehabilitation centres, judicial colloquium tells governments in Kerala

by

The Union and state governments should take proactive steps to establish dedicated drug treatment and rehabilitation centres for children, recommended the regional judicial colloquium onPocso Act, juvenilejustice, and drug abuse among children that was organized here by the Kerala .

The colloquium for the five southern states ofTamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh,Telangana, Karnataka, and Kerala made the recommendation on Sunday, the final day of the two-day programme held at Kochi Marriott Hotel. The programme was aimed at sensitizing the stakeholders in different domains of the Justice delivery system handling cases involving children.

Other recommendations of the colloquium to the state governments include the implementation of theNavchetnalife skills and drug Education for school children module launched by the Union Government in schools for early prevention of drug abuse.

Karnataka education department focuses on school dropouts

by

The Education department has intensified its survey of out-of-school children and those hwo were never enrolled across the state.

The department has found that 64,003 children were out of school for the 202223 academic year. For this reason, the department decided to conduct an extensive survey till January 5.

All steps will be taken regarding activities to be carried out in the district, taluk cluster, school, and residential areas for children to get enrolled.

The district has found 375 children who never joined any school and 216 children who took transfer certificates before COVID-19 and did not get admission in any school in the district. The department has formed teams to find out about these children.

According to the SATS statistics, more children were found to be out of school.

The state education department will get a clearer picture about the children, said Samagar Shikshan Karnataka assistant project coordinator and nodal officer Prakash Bhutali.

Telangana govt announces Rs 1,540 crore bonanza for Nalgonda

by

Fulfilling its promises made to Munugode assembly constituency voters during by-poll held last month, the government announced Rs 1,540 crore bonanza for the Nalgonda district.

Around Rs 400 crore worth of works would be taken up in the Munugode assembly constituency from the sanctioned amount. The rest of the amount would be spent on roads, Infrastructure improvement, civic works, construction of a hospital and other works.

The government also announced to set up a toy park in Dandumalkapur industrial park which would provide EMPLOYMENT to about 10,000 youths.

Increasing C-sections a cause for concern in Andhra Pradesh

by

Increasing number of caesarean births have become a cause for concern inAndhra Pradesh. Even as per the official data, over 50% of the total deliveries occurred at the private hospitals in the last two years in the state are surgical deliveries or C-section births. This stood at about 45% even if the institutional deliveries happened at public Health facilities were taken into consideration. The international healthcare community considers 10-15% C-sections as the ideal rate.

It is assumed that 15% of the pregnancies will land into complication, requiring surgical intervention. Here the caesarean section becomes a lifesaving surgery for the mother and the child.World Health Organisation, in its statement released in April 2015, stated that at Population level, C-section rates higher than 10% are not associated with reductions in maternal and new-born mortality rates. As in other surgeries, C-sections also have inherent risk of surgical and anaesthetic complications.

Edu cell to give push to legal, financial and digital literacy

by

The state Education department has formed the State Centre for Literacy (SCL) cell to impartlegal, financial, and digital literacy to adults who have not received formal education in any school. The union education ministry had formulated the project in 2021 with the objective to promote adult education and lifelong Learning. The project under the goals designated in New Education Policy 2020 will run till 2027 with an aim to cover all targeted adults.

The cell becomes critical in states with the poorest literacy rate of below 50% among Women in the country.

Maharashtra among nine states on global top 50 climate risk list

by

Maharashtrais among nine states in the country that are among the planet’s top 50 regions “at risk of damage to the built Environment” from eight https://exam.pscnotes.com/Climate-change”>Climate Change hazards, says an international report.
The Cross Dependency Initiative (XDI), part of the Climate Risk Group, has released a first pass analysis of Gross Domestic Climate Risk (GDCR) calculating the physical climate risk to the built environment (total Infrastructure plus human cost) in over 2,600 territories around the world in 2050.

Top among the eight climate change hazards are flooding and coastal inundation, the others being: extreme heat, forest fire, Soil movement (drought-related), and extreme wind and freeze thaw. The nine states, other than Maharashtra, are Bihar, UP, Assam, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Punjab and Kerala. These figure among the top 50 provinces in Asia that are at risk of damage, according to the report. The ranking is based on a data pool representing the built environment of the terrestrial world, with an “asset level, bottom-up analysis” using over 320 million data points.