16-17.01.22

North East on Wheels Expedition

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The ‘North East on Wheels Expedition’ has been created to promote Northeastern culture.

Highlights:

Meenakshi Lekhi, Ministry for Culture, has launched the ‘North East on Wheels Expedition’ in New Delhi to promote Northeastern culture.

This year’s Bike Expedition will take place from the 8th to the 16th of April to commemorate the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav.

Seventy-Five bicyclists will be chosen from throughout the country to participate in this trip, which will traverse approximately 9000 kilometers in the North East Region in six groups.

The excursion will also showcase the Ministry of Tourism’s Dekho Apna Desh project. Riders will also spread the word about the significance of road safety.

The voyage will connect, among other things, some of the key spots associated with our country’s historic events.

Assam cabinet nod to set up youth panel for skill development

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The state cabinet on Wednesday approved constitution of theAssam Youth Commission, which will provide youths a platform to register their grievances, besides preparing them for national-level competitive examinations.

The commission is also aimed to protect the interest of states youths within and outside Assam, to provide them EMPLOYMENT and training forSkill development. The cabinet approved the amended election rules of theGuwahati and other municipal boards to replace ballots with EVMs in Elections to the civic bodies, which are likely to be held soon.
The cabinet also approved theHandicraft Policy of Assam, 2022 to facilitate Growth and development of craft-based industries and provide training and technological support to artisans and entrepreneurs, and to provide market linkages and online Marketing support to facilitate the export of products. The policy also provides one-time financial aid up to Rs 30,000 to all eligible handicraft units for development of web portal orappfor online marketing of their products.

States forest cover growth third highest in country

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Odishas forest cover the extent of land covered by forest grew by 537 square km in the past two years, which is third highest among Indian states after Andhra Pradesh (647 sq km) and(632 sq km), the India State of Forest Report 2021 released on Thursday said.
The states increase in the past two years is double the increase in the two preceding years of 2017-2018 when it had gone up by 237 square km. Odishas forest cover has grown by a significant 1.04% in the past two years compared to the countrys Growth of 0.22% since 2019, the biennial report said.

Besides Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Telengana, Karnataka and Jharkhand reported increase in the forest cover while other states showed a decline. Odisha now has forest cover over 51,156 of its 1,55,707 square km. The report attributed the growth in the five states to better conservation and protection measures, afforestation and agroforestry.

Odisha also met the national mandate of having at least one-third forest cover which is 33.50% compared to the national Average of 21.71%. Madhya Pradesh has the largest forest cover in the country followed by Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Maharashtra.
Out of the 30 districts of Odisha, the forest cover has decreased in Malkangiri, Dhenkanal,Sundargarh, Rayagada and Keonjhar while it has increased in the others. The survey said 1,134 square km non-forest land has perceptible forest cover.

Odisha saw eight square km rise in mangrove forests or salt-tolerant plant varieties along its coast, which is the highest among the states. Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapada and Balasore have recorded a rise in mangrove forests. The report attributed it to natural regeneration and plantation along banks of rivers near the estuary.

Similipalin Odisha has the second largest forest cover (2,562.86 square ) after Nagarjunsagar (2,932.95 square km) among the 52 Tiger Reserves in the country.

Thiruvalluvar Day

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The Thiruvalluvar Day is celebrated on January 15 or January 16. It is celebrated as a part of Pongal (or Sankranti) celebrations in Nadu. The day is celebrated to honour the contribution of the Tamil poet Thhiruvalluvar to tamil literature. Thruvalluvar wrote Thirukkural.

Except from his literary works, nothing else is known about Thiruvalluvar. There is no information about his family, birthplace and religious affiliation. However, a few people believe that Thiruvalluvar lived in Mylapore, Chennai. In 16thcentury, Ekambareshwar (Lord Shiva) temple was built in Mylapore. Thiruvalluvar is believed to have born under a tree in the temple complex. Some others believe that he was born in 8thcentury. Also, the Tamil Nadu Government built Valluvar Kottam in 1976 for the poet. A 133-foot statue was built in kanniyakumari for Thiruvalluvar.

Thirukkural

Thirukkural has 1330 couplets. They are divided into 133 sections. Each section has ten couplets. The entire text is divided into three parts. They are dharma, artha and kama. Dharma means virtue. Artha means wealth. Kama means love. The couplets define moral living, ideal characteristics of every relationship in the world, moral responsibilities of every human born in the earth.

Mangoes from Andhra Pradesh to line US shelves again

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The Union Government has secured the approval of the United States Department of Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture (USDA) for export of Indian mangoes to the USA in the new season. The export of Indian mangoes has been restricted by the USA since 2020 asUSDAinspectors were unable to visit India due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The USDAs approval would pave the way for exports from traditional mango production belts such asAndhra Pradesh.

According to sources, traders export about 10,000 tonnes of mangoes from Andhra Pradesh to various countries every year. But the official estimates put this figure at about 2,000 tonnes. The difference in the numbers stems from the fact that the traders, after procuring mangoes from the state, export them from international flights and Ports in other states like Maharashtra, Telangana, Karnataka, etc.

Goa has used just 20% of midday meal monitoring, evaluation funds in 20-21

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Goas utilisation of the management, monitoring and evaluation (MME) funds under the midday meal programme continues to be low at 20% for the academic year 2020-21. TheMME fundsare provided by the central government to states to be able to evaluate implementation of themidday meal schemein their respective states and to improve the programmes delivery accordingly.

A team of officials from the Union Education ministry, after reviewing implementation of the midday meal scheme in Goa for 2020-21, expressed concern over the low utilisation of funds. As against the allocation of Rs 73.2 lakh of central assistance as MME funds, Goa has utilised only Rs 15 lakh or 20%.

Goas utilisation of the MME funds has not been low only during 2020-21 due to the pandemic. The state has been found to be lax in evaluating the scheme right from the early days of its implementation from 2004-05.

Funds allotted to Goa under MME by the Centre have consistently remained underutilised. Of the Rs 19.5 lakh allotted to Goa during 2010-11 as central assistance towards MME, the state utilised only Rs 10.2 lakh.

The utilisation by Goa was only 52% against the Union ministrys expected utilisation of 75%. This was even lower than the utilisation of 58% of the MME funds during 2009. A similar trend has continued over the years.

‘Citrus estate’ for sweet lime cultivation to come up in Paithan

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TheMaharashtragovernment will set up a ‘citrusestate’ inPaithanto provide sweet lime saplings tofarmersinAurangabadand Jalna and to conduct experiments connected to its cultivation.

Maharashtra ranks first in the country in sweet lime cultivation, with 21,525 hectares being used in Aurangabad and 14,325 hectares in Jalna. The citrus estate, for which Rs 36.44 crore has been allotted by the , will work in a radius of 100 kilometres. It will strive to ensure disease-free, good quality sweet lime saplings are planted. Farmers will also be trained in various agricultural techniques.

Haryana mulls 10-yr vision document for sports

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In a bid to nurture Sports talent in the state, the Manohar Lal Khattar Government in Haryana will chalk out a 10-year vision document with the assistance of experts.

For this, the Department of Sports & Youth Affairs, Haryana has proposed to set up a Project Management Unit (PMU) which will have experienced and professionals in the field of sports, to help the Department in planning and executing the vision document.

The PMU will prepare the 10-year vision document including budget provisions, standards of all greenfield and brownfield projects, proposals for greenfield projects wherever needed in the state. A gap analysis for sports infrastructure and a demand-supply analysis with special emphasis on Olympic sports will also be conducted in the state for preparing the vision document.

The State Government is looking to strengthen the grassroot sports ecosystem in Haryana and develop a mechanism amongst the identified levels of sports like sports nurseries, sports academies and centre of excellence following the stellar performance of states sportspersons at the Tokyo Olympics last year.

The Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had also recently announced to conduct mapping in each district to ensure that necessary sports infrastructure is being accordingly developed in the state.

The State Government aims to transform Haryana into a leading power hub in sports in the country by setting up cutting-edge training facilities comparable to world-class standards.

25 pc advance claim of crop insurance to be given along with assistance: CM

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Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has said that the damage caused to crops due to hailstorm will be fully compensated. In case of more than 50 percent loss in crops, farmers will be given the benefit of crop Insurance scheme along with compensation of Rs 30,000 per hectare.

Total 25 percent of the claim amount will be given in advance from the insurance company and the remaining 75 percent will be given on the finalization of the claim. Chief Minister Chouhan also announced that the loan of the affected farmers would be changed from short to medium term and the amount of interest for one year would be paid by the .

The Chief Minister said that wherever there has been damage due to hailstorm in the state, assistance will be given by conducting survey with full sensitivity. The Chief Minister also directed to provide assistance for damage to brick kilns, houses and cattle etc.

As per rules. Chouhan assured the farmers that they should not panic, the government is with the farmers with utmost sensitivity and all possible help will be given to them and the benefits of the schemes will also be given to them.

Gujarat HC seeks status report on deep-sea discharge project

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TheGujarat has asked the State Government to place an appropriate report on status of its deep-sea effluent disposal pipeline project for Ahmedabad region and it commented that if this gets materialised, it could save theSabarmatiriver.

The court was informed that a tender with estimation cost of Rs 1,647.4 crore was invited online by the Gujarat Water Infrastructures Ltd in October 2020. There was no information about what happened after the tender was floated.