15.06.21

Meghalaya nod to amend GST Act

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The state cabinet on Friday approvedamendmentto theMeghalaya Goodsand Services Tax Act, 2017 by issuance of an ordinance (Meghalaya Goods and Service Tax (Amendment) Ordinance, 2021.

“The central government has brought amendments to the CentralGST Act2017 and in view of this, amendments to the State Act was necessitated in order to effect the corresponding changes made by the central act and to simultaneously implement the changes made,” said chief ministerConrad K Sangma, who holds the finance portfolio.

The cabinet also approved the proposal to frame theMeghalayaForensic Science LaboratoryService Rules2021, which entails framing of service rules to govern the conditions of services of its officers. The cabinet also approved the retention of registration mark of old motor vehicles on a new vehicle after the sale or scrapping of the old vehicle.

Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma announces implementation of 2-child norm for availing govt benefits

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Assamchief ministerHimanta Biswa Sarma announced the gradual implementation of the two-child policy for availing government benefits in Assam.
However, tea garden workers and members ofScheduled Casteand Scheduled Tribe communities have been exempted from its purview.

Mentioning that the new Population norms would affect the eligibility for government benefits, including waiver of loans, Sarma said, “Be it loan waiver or other government schemes, population norms will be taken into account. It won’t be applicable to tea garden workers and SC-ST community. In the future, population norms will be taken into account as eligibility for government benefits. Population policy has begun.”
The Assam government had approved a proposal to render people having more than two children as ineligible for government jobs from January 1, 2021.

Odisha shines in grading system

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Odisha improved its position in Performance Grading Index (PGI) 2019-20 to grade-I from grade-III last year, according to the report released by the Union Education ministry on Sunday. The state has also made significant improvement in domains like and facilities and Equity compared to the previous year.

Odisha scored 838 points out of 1000 to make it to grade-1 (801-850) along with Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Tripura, Himachal Pradesh and Daman and Diu. Odisha had scored 749 and 734 in 2018-19 and 2017-18, respectively, and was in grade-III.
The state scored 138 out of 180 in Learning outcome and quality, 68 out of 80 in access, 109 out of 150 in infrastructure and quality, 219 out of 230 in equity and 304 from 360 in Governance process, totalling a score of 838.

The PGI scheme initiated by the department of school education and Literacy (DoSEL) is a tool to provide insight into the status of school education in states and Union Territories (UT). The PGI assessed states and UTs across 54 parameters.

ONGC seeks Tamil Nadu nod to drill 10 oil exploration wells

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Days after chief ministerM K Stalinwrote to Prime MinisterNarendra Modiurging the Union Government not to allow oil and gas exploration in Cauvery delta districts,ONGChas approached the state environmental impact assessment authority (SEIAA) seeking clearance to drill 10 exploration wells in Ariyalur district. The Ongc letter circulated widely on Wednesday attracted sharp criticisms from andfarmerswho have been up againstoil explorationin the agrarian region which had been designated a protected special Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture zone by the previous government.

Already Ariyalur district is facing the bad consequences of excessive limestone quarrying and cement industries. The groundwater level is depleting and oil exploration will make our livelihood worse.

20 lakh vegetable saplings to be distributed in Kerala

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The Kochi district Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture department has announced the launch of its Onathinu Oru Muram Pachakarri programme under the 100-day programme of the .

The distribution of these will begin next week and kits will be available at Krishi Bhavans.
Seeds and vegetable seedlings are being provided by farmer clusters of vegetable and fruits promotion councilKeralam(VFPC-K), government farms, agricultural karma sena teams and agro service centres.

The vegetable seedlings andsaplingsnormally included amaranthus, long beans, brinjal, green chillies, snake gourd and bitter gourds.

Karnataka to monitor dam water levels too: Maharashtra minister

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Maharashtra Resources“>Water Resources minister Jayant Patil attended a high-level meeting withKarnatakachief ministerBS Yediyurappa in Bengalurufor better flood-management between the two states.

After the meeting, Patil said the Karnataka government has decided to set up a real-time data acquisition system (RTDAS) at its Almatti and Narayanpur Dams to monitor water levels, which will help prevent 2019-like floods in Kolhapur andSangli districts, in which 60 people lost their lives.

Plans to enhance godown space set to cost Rs 4k crore

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The which has decided to sell its lands to raise revenues during the pandemic, requires nearly Rs 4,000 crore for construction of 40-lakh metric tonnes storage capacity godowns alone inTelangana.

The Marketing department has prepared detailed project reports to enhance the storage capacity of Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture produce in the state by another 40 lakh metric tonnes. Telangana needs more storage capacity as the cultivation area and agriculture production has increased tremendously due to availability of water from various Irrigation projects, round the clock power supply and input subsidy to the farmers in the form of Rythu Bandhu sop.
Presently, the overall storage capacity of godowns in Telangana is 65.4 lakh metric tonnes including central and state government departments and private agencies. Last year, the state government faced shortage of storage capacity and had to store paddy and other agriculture produce in schools and marriage halls.

Andhra Pradesh starts ramping up paediatric infrastructure

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In its preparation for the third wave ofCovid-19, theAndhra Pradeshhealth department would set up 19 more RT-PCR labs in addition to the existing 14 labs in the state.

Meanwhile, the Health department has floated tenders for procuring 700 neonatal andpaediatricventilators. The Paediatric Task Force, constituted to guide on Covid-19 treatment among the paediatric group during the anticipated third wave, recommended dedicated paediatric intensive care unit(s) at medical college/tertiary unit (one to two per district). The health department has preliminarily decided to add 1,600 paediatricICU bedsto the existing TEACHING and tertiary hospitals.

Andhra Pradesh Medical Service & Development (APMSIDC) has invited bids for providing architectural and engineering consultancy Services, including preparation of detailed project reports, for the proposed paediatric super specialty hospitals inVisakhapatnam,Vijayawadaand Tirupati. The State Government has recently decided to develop three paediatric super specialty hospitals with 180 crore each in three different regions of the state.

Goa government steps up preparation to meet paediatric bed target

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As experts warn that a possible third wave of Covid-19 may strike quicker than expected, concern over the states preparedness has risen in the state, as many fear that it may hit a larger portion of the paediatric Population, even though others wont be spared either.

The government is preparing on the assumption that a little more than 12% of the positive cases will be children when the third wave strikes. As it stands, those under 18 are the only category not eligible for the Covid-19 vaccine.

The state has adopted the guidelines of the Indian academy of paediatrics (IPA) for minimum standards of PICUs. Also, the guidelines issued by the Union ministry of Health and family welfare in June for evidence-based management of children have been adopted.

Maharashtra: 34% of RAT results false negatives, reveals study

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An analysis of negative rapid antigen tests (RAT) that came positive when retested withRT-PCRhas proved that RAT missed up to 33.7% cases. The finding assumes significance since RAT accounts for more than 60% of the dailyCovid-19 testsin the state, being preferred for its ease of use and shorter turnaround time.

The study was based on field data from tests conducted at Icmr-National Institute of Research in Reproductive Health (NIRRH) between July 7 and August 7, 2020.

The institute studied its own Database of 412 antigen negative reports that were retested with RT-PCR (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction), the gold standard test to detect coronavirus. It found that the repeat RT-PCR could pick up 139 positives (33.7%) that were missed by antigen.

The state is carrying out an Average of 2.4 lakh tests of which around 1.3 lakh are antigen tests and the rest are RT-PCR tests.