17.06.21

Students to sound out government on Northeast chapter

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Student organisations from the Northeast are planning to engage with the government and elected representatives to push their demand for a chapter on the Northeast in the National Council of Educational Research and Training curriculum.

Formed in 1961, NCERT is an autonomous organisation assisting and advising the Centre and state governments on policies and programmes for qualitative improvement in school Education, including promoting and coordinating research in areas related to school education besides preparing and publishing model textbooks.

The MHA had constituted a committee headed by M.P. Bezbaruah, member, North Eastern Council, in February 2014 to look into the look into the concerns of persons from the Northeast living in different parts of the country and suggest legal remedies.

Assam health dept gears up to ready infra for Covid childcare

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Assamis on alert over reports of a possible Covid-19 third wave striking soon. The Centre has asked the state Health department to prepare for the worst.
The Assam health department has asked medical college hospitals to immediately ready for childcare. The Population below 18 years, who are yet to be vaccinated, may be worst hit by the third wave, if it comes.

The recent guidelines on Operationalization ofCovid Care Servicesfor Children & Adolescents from the Union Government mentioned that as intermittent surges are expected, a combined effort from the private and public sector is needed to handle rising cases after the easing of the lockdown, school re-opening or as the third wave sets in over the next three to four months.

A target of achieving 1,000Paediatric Intensive Care Units(PICU) has been set in Assam, out of which the minimum goal is 10 in each district. Though children are the most vulnerable in the third wave, villages are also on the radar as they may turn into super-spreaders. State capital Guwahati is no more the biggest concern for virus infection as the focus has shifted to the districts with vast areas under gram panchayats.

Odisha: AAI team in Puri to study international airport plan viability

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The proposed Sri Jagannath International Airport inPurimay soon become a reality with a team of officials from theAirports Authority of India(AAI) conducting a pre-feasibility study in the temple town on Thursday. The central team also inspected a 1,000-acre land, about 5km from the Jagannath Temple, for theconstruction of the proposed airport.

The AAI team was shown a vast stretch of land, sprawling over 1,000 acres, owned and acquired by the near the Girala andMangalarivers under Sipasarubali mouza. The land does not have any encroachment nor is it entangled in legal disputes. The proposed international airport will not violate the CRZ norms as the land is located more than 500 metres from the beach. Verma denied reports of the proposed airport posing any threat to the structural safety of the 12th century shrine.

Tamil Nadu lost Rs 80,000 crore in revenue, tax share since 2014: Finance minister PTR Palanivel Thiagarajan

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Naduminister for finance and human Resources PTR PalanivelThiagarajan said the state had lost around Rs 80,000 crore since 2014 due to dip in own revenues and share of taxes from the Centre.

Compared to this, the total fund required for paying the 4,000 cash dole, being paid in two instalments, to allPDScard holders works out to 9,000 crore. Through prudent fiscal management and improving state’s own revenue.

The data-based approach to ensure higher levels of ‘Ease of Doing Business‘ will be achieved through electronic surveillance, removal of extra scrutiny and data analytics to ensure that there is 100% compliance without indulging in threats.

GST: State to oppose Centres move

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Finance Minister K.N. Balagopal has said that the State will oppose the Centres move to bring natural gas and molasses used for captive consumption under the Goods and Service Tax (GST) regime.

The Finance Minister denied any move to raise the retirement age of employees and teachers. It is one way to stabilise the financial position of the State that is facing acute crisis. We have no plan to increase the retirement age. The government is looking into the report of the committee on statutory pension.

The government is for collecting the tax arrears and taking stern steps against those evading tax. Many are willingly giving Money for charity, but are reluctant to pay taxes to the government, he said. The government would seek the cooperation of traders and the business community in improving tax collection, he said.

Hebbal-Nagawara Valley Project Karnataka

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Citizens and Environmentalists are combat towards the notion to clear over 6,000 trees in Singanayakanahalli to construct a lake under Hebbal-Nagawara Valley Project with the aid of Minor Irrigation Department in Karnataka.

Highlights:

Forest Department, in a latest notification, proposed to felled 6,316 timber to advance Singanayakanahalli lake, Yelahanka hobli, due to the fact they are coming in way of this project.

Hebbal-Nagawara Valley Project: This challenge was launched with the aim of filling 65 tanks in Bengaluru Urban, Rural and Chickballapur. Bagaluru lake was the first lake to obtain handled water from this project.

The mission was once intended to act as an impounded reservoir to furnish water in 11 different lakes in this region. Direct use of handled water for ingesting and agricultural purposes used to be prohibited but farmers have been of the view that, task is growing the water table. Activists are questioning the need and good judgment of casting off such big quantity of trees.

Hebbal Lake:The lake is located in Bangalore at the mouth of National Highway 7, close to the junction of Bellary Road & Outer Ring Road. These lakes had been created in 1537 with the aid of Kempe Gowda. It used to be shaped by using damming herbal valley systems. It spreads over a place of 75 ha with plans for extending it up to 143 ha.

Telangana set to mop up Rs 12,500cr from revised land value

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After deciding to auction unutilised government land, the is mulling to increase land values for property registrations. After GST and excise, revenue earned through property registrations is the third highest source of revenue for the government.

Sources said the revised land market values will come into force from August 1 this year if chief ministerK Chandrasekhar Raookays the proposal. Theregistrationand stamps (R&S) department has kept the proposals ready, sources said. Our department is aiming to achieve Rs 12,500 crore this financial year (2021-22) after revising the land values.

The government has plans to enhance market land values for non-Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture properties between 30% and 50%. While the enhancement will be 30% in the rural areas, it will be 50% in Greater Hyderabad and other Municipal Corporation areas. For agricultural properties, the hike in the values would be about 20% on the existing rates.

Though the government has powers to revise market values every year under the Indian Stamp Act, land values have not been revised after formation ofTelangana. The last revision was done in August 2013 when the state was united.

In the last year 2020-21, the government had given a target of Rs 8,000 crore collections to the registration department, but it had earned Rs 5,260 crore through 12.11 lakh documents registrations, which was Rs 1,800 crore less than the 2019-20 revenue. The property registrations had to be stopped for three months as the government decided to have agricultural properties registration through tahsildars and non-agricultural properties through sub-registrar offices in September last year.

With new technology, Andhra Pradesh to turn into mud crab cultivation hub

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The state is all set to dominatemud crabcultivation. With steady rise in demand, Marine Products Exports Development (MPEDA) is focusing on better yield.

According to MPEDA, East Godavari, West Godavari, Krishana and Guntur districts have a lot ofbrackish waterponds, suitable for mud crab culture.

MPEDA has supplied over 60 per cent of the total 650 tonnes mud crab seeds toAndhra Pradesh. MPEDA has decided to promote mud crab farming which would not only contribute to a considerable component of coastal but also provide a Source Of Income for fishermen.

Mud crabs are known for their high flesh content and rapid Growth rate in captivity. A fully-grown mud crab weighs over 1,200 gms. Live mud crabs are in demand in global market. Depending on the size (500 gms, 1,000 gms, above 1,000 gms), prices vary from Rs 600 to Rs 1,200 per kg.

Mud crabs are much in demand in South East Asian countries where live crabs are highly preferred as delectable seafood.

Goa only state where teachers taught throughout pandemic

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Over the last three years, AdhyayanFoundationhas been working in collaboration with the Goa government to improve the TEACHING–Learning processes in government primary schools across the state. During thepandemic,AdhyayanFoundation also helped the directorate of Education train close to 10,000teachersin use of softwares for online teaching.

Having worked with government schools in multiple states, and currently engaged with state schools in Goa, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh, the co-founder of Adhyayan Foundation, Kavita Anand, said that Goa is the only state where online teaching is taking place pan-statethroughoutthe period of the pandemic.

2021 EV policy: Maharashtra push for li-ion battery gigafactory

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As part of the revisedelectric vehicle(EV) policy, the state transport ministry on Friday made a presentation before chief ministerUddhav Thackerayfor a gigafactorythe first of its kind in the stateto manufacture advanced lithium-ion batteries. The presentation also emphasised the need to improve the electric-charging station to encourage more people to switch to electric cars and bikes by 2025.

Thackeray was positive about the project and asked for the draft policy to be submitted in the cabinet soon. There are plans to encourage e-charging points in housing societies, government buildings, andMSRTCbus stops, besides petrol pumps and at malls in future. The presentation mentioned over 2,300 charging stations. An official said: Also, incentives are being planned to attract industries from the sector to set up inMaharashtra.

The presentation pointed out that the states share of the countrys EV registrations was around 12% (32,000 vehicles). The2021 EV policydraft targets across urban agglomerationsMumbai Metropolitan Region, Aurangabad, Pune, Nagpur, and Nashikaims to achieve 25% electrification of intra-city public transport and last-mile delivery vehicles by 2025.