Tripura to have a Film and Television Institute Tripura: MinisterThe Tripura government has planned to set up a film and television institute in the state, Information and Cultural Affairs Minister Sushanta Chowdhury has said. The matter has been discussed with the authorities of Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute in Kolkata for a possible collaboration and the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, he told a press conference here

Chowdhury also said that Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb has given his nod and sent a note to the chief secretary of Tripura in this connection. The chief secretary prepared a file on the creation of the institute and sent it to the state finance department.

Assam CM launches online civic service, distributes cesspool cleaners

People of the state will now be able to avail municipal Services sitting at Home. Chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday launched a host of online services including, procuring instant trade license, property tax assessment and payment and building permission.

He also distributed super sucker machines for the Guwahati under the Guwahati Smart City Project and truck-mounted cesspool cleaners. The CM also presented certificates, cash Awards and sanction letters to nine Urban Local Bodies, which had received awards under the Swachh Survekshan programme recently.

Sarma added that from now on people can get their building permission, trade license, learner’s license and property tax without going to the civic office. The CM said the civic body’s Mission Vasundhara has received positive response and nine lakh people have already applied for the service.

Odisha: 483 mobile towers to come up in Maoist-hit areas

The Centre has approved the installation of 2,542mobile towers, including 483 inOdisha, under phase-II of the scheme for provision of mobile Services in extremism affected areas, official sources said.

Minister of state for communications Devusinh Chauhan told theLok Sabha that under phase-I of the scheme, 256 mobile towers out of the sanctioned 261 have been installed in Odisha. “Five towers could not be installed due to Maoist activities and lack of forest clearance,” he added.

The teledensity in rural and urban areas of the state till September 30 was 61.87% and 144.14%, respectively. Hundreds of villages in tribal-dominated districts do not have mobile connectivity, the sources said.

Chauhan said the BharatNet project is being implemented in a phased manner to provide broadband connectivity to all gram panchayats in the country. In Odisha, phase-II of the project is being implemented under which 2,485 gram panchayats have been made service ready out of the planned 2,946 till November 30, sources said. A total of 6,313 gram panchayats have been made service ready in Odisha in the two phases.

According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, Odisha had 2.11 crore broadband subscribers till October 21. Similarly, the state has 50.15 Internet subscribers per 100 people. The internet penetration is 40.61% in rural areas and 91.98% in urban areas.

Tamil Nadu allocates Rs 353 crore under MLA constituency development fund

The Nadugovernment has sanctioned Rs 352.5 crore towards the implementation of Member of Legislative Assembly Constituency Development Scheme (MLACDS) fully funded by the State Government — for this fiscal. This is 50% of the fund out of Rs 702 crore of budget estimates for the current year.

EachMLAis entitled to get Rs 3 crore to implement the listed schemes in their constituencies. The director of Rural Development andPanchayat Rajis authorised to draw the amount sanctioned and disburse the same to the district collectors and the commissioner of Greater Chennai Corporation, rural development and panchayat raj principal secretary P Amudha said in an order.

The MLACDS was launched in 1997-98 with Rs 25 lakh to a constituency to take up work to bridge the infrastructural gap in the constituencies. The state government increased the amount to Rs 35 lakh in the next fiscal and Rs 50 lakh in the following fiscal. In 2000-01, the allocation was further increased to Rs 77 lakh for each assembly constituency. The EPS regime had hiked the fund from Rs 2.5 crore to Rs 3 crore per constituency per year.

Kerala school introduces unisex uniform amid protests

Amid protests by some people under the collective of Muslim coordination committee, theBalusserygovernment girls higher secondary school inKozhikode,Kerala, on Wednesday implemented the gender-neutral uniform for its students, a move which the state higher Education ministerR Bindutermed a radical step forward.

Bindu said those who oppose such moves are acting against the interests of Kerala and its future generations. She said there are always people who oppose the new changes. “Those who love children will never oppose such progressive changes,”Bindusaid.

The higher secondary section in the school is open to both girls and boys.early a dozen schools in Kerala have already shifted to the new gender neutral uniform.

Karnataka government to pump in Rs 2,000 crore to revive five Escoms

The government plans to allocate Rs 2,000 crore to restructure and revive the five ailing electricity supply companies (Escoms) in the state. The state cabinet, which is scheduled to meet in Belagavi next week to discuss the anticonversion bill, is expected to sanction the proposal.

The five electric supply companies Bescom (Bengaluru), Chescom (Chamundeshwari),Gescom(Gulbarga), Mescom (Mangaluru) and Hescom (Hubballi) have been in the red largely due to rising dues from the government. They had recently approached Bommai seeking clearance of dues to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore to ensure uninterrupted power supply.

Energy department officials said the government will make payment in two parts grants and guarantees for Escoms to raise loans from the market.

All districts in Telangana to have godowns for EVMs

To preserve Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), new godowns have been constructed across the state. While 20 have been completed, another two will be ready by month end. Once this is done, all districts would have separate godowns for storing EVMs.

Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Shashank Goel held a video conference with collectors and issued instructions to shift EVMs to new godowns. He also said revised voters list must be ready by January 5, 2022. Applications for registration of new voters, online and offline, should be checked at booth level and additions/corrections must be done by December 20.

Indias first Green Hydrogen Microgrid Projects in Andhra

State-run NTPC Ltd has awarded Indias first green hydrogen microgrid project in Andhra Pradesh.

The project has been awarded at the Simhadri plant of NTPC Ltd. in Andhra Pradesh.

NTPC will involve in Standalone Fuel-cell based Microgrid along with hydrogen production using electrolyzer project at NTPC Simhadri.

India has also planned to call bids to build 4 gigawatt (GW) of electrolyzer capacity under its Energy Security strategy.

For a green hydrogen mobility project, NTPC Limited (NTPC REL) has also signed a pact with Union territory of Ladakh.

This project will be executed by NTPC in association with the NVVN.

NRGs for dual citizenship for Portuguese passport holders

The Goan Welfare Association, Qatar, has been pushing fordual for Portuguese passport holders having Goan origin.

Association president Simon DSilva at a programme for the Goan community in Dubai, announced an NRI Global Convention with a one-point agenda to demand dual citizenship for Portuguese passport holders.

On his visits to the UK, he said he found that some Goans holding Portuguese passports have never been to Portugal nor speak Portuguese, but work in the UK instead.

Convert 27% OBC seats to general, SC tells Maharashtra

There will be no reservation of seats for Other Backward Classes in the upcoming municipal in Maharashtra as The Supreme Court has held that reservation cannot be granted because the state has failed to fulfill the triple test criteria, including collecting data on OBCs. The SC has directed the state Election Commission to convert the 27% reserved seats into general category ones.

A bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and C T Ravikumar turned down the Maharashtra governments plea seeking suspension of the entire election process for at least three months during which the commission set up by it could complete the task of collecting empirical data on OBCs and for the poll to be held thereafter with seats reserved for OBC candidates.