The Indian Railways has planned to extend its RAILWAY Network to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh and other areas of the northeast frontier state in Light of India’s security strategy towards Line of Actual Control (LAC) along the India-China border. This is done in an effort to aid the Indian Army in pushing its personnel and equipment into the border.
This is done in an effort to aid the Indian Army in pushing its personnel and equipment into the border.
Assam, among six states surveyed, has the highest share of consumers who are satisfied with smart electricity or prepaid meters and feel that these have enabled greater control over electricity expenses.
This came to Light at the national dialogue on smart-metered India for a digitalised and people-centric power sector organised in New Delhi by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW). The event was attended by Union power minister RK Singh, who released CEEWs study Enabling a consumer-centric smart metering transition in India, which ranked Assam as the best performing state in delivering customer satisfaction, hassle-free installation ofsmart metersand accessing detailed break-up of bills.
The CEEW study is based on a survey of 2,700 urban households covering 1,200 prepaid and 1,500 post-paid consumers across six states Assam, Bihar, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh,Rajasthanand Uttar Pradesh, 18 districts and 10 public discoms. These six states account for 80% of all smart meters installed in India.
The smart meter project started with a need automating the reading of meters and sending electricity bills to 2.90 crore houses on time.
The survey, however, found that mere 13% of post-paid electricity consumers in India and only six per cent in Assam want to shift to the prepaid mode even as the Centre has envisioned making the entire billing system prepaid in the country by 2025-26.
In Assam, about 68% of the consumers feel that smart meters enable better control on electricity expenses, while 66% of consumers report that electricity supply quality has improved since making the transition to smart meters.
With increasing use of agricultural machinery especially tractors, demand for bullocks for agricultural purposes has gone down over the years. Official data shows the number of bullocks has decreased by 31 per cent in the last seven years in the state.
and animal Resources development (FARD) ministerRanendra Pratap Swaintold the assembly on Wednesday that requirement of bullocks has declined due to reduction in usage of the animals in ploughing and bullock carts.
Official sources in the FARD department said there were 43 lakh bullocks in 2012, but the total number has drastically fallen to 29.85 lakh in 2019.
The Nadu government announced a 1,000 crore plan to promote agri-related Infrastructure in the Cauvery basin region from Trichy to Nagapattinam. The region was declared an agro-industrial corridor last year.
A detailed project report has been prepared to set up the corridor to increase farmers income and create job opportunities. Presenting the Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture budget, agriculture and farmers welfare minister M R K Panneerselvam said, Enhanced incentive packages, market linkages, expert guidance and single window facili-ties will be provided to aspiring entrepreneurs to start agrobased Food Processing industries.
To facilitate efficient ways of storage, processing and Marketing, new industrial estates will be developed with commonfacilities. With value addition, local people will have opportunities in both agriculture and allied sectors and it could encourage exports, he said.
The government also plans to revise its food processing policy unveiled in 2018 that supports private entrepreneurs with incentives and subsidies.
Keralahas seen considerable fluctuation in its organic Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture (OA) policy and this has resulted in concurrent high levels of entry into and exit from the agriculture sector, says a study by a group of international researchers with support from Kerala agriculture scientists.
The case study was done with farmer interviews, focus groups and experts, focusing on Thrissur andWayanaddistricts. The researchers developed a typology of organic farmers and formed them into three core groups wealthy hobby farmers, poorer non-certified farmers, and middle class export farmers.
The study points out that in one village, out of the 48 farmers who adopted OA, only 16 were practicing it four years later, and in another, this number dropped from 98 to five.
In a major achievement for the higher Education department, 289 government first-grade colleges inKarnatakahave been accredited by theNational Assessment and Accreditation Council(NAAC) over the past two years.
Another 18 colleges are expected to get their grades by this month-end, which will take the total to 307.
I t is commendable that many government colleges from Karnataka have got themselves accredited with NAAC the quality assurance seal for higher education institutions for decades. Experts may raise their concern over NAACs accreditation process, saying it may not reflect quality. Nevertheless, the fact that the government is attempting to develop the standards of its higher education institutions is quite reassuring. The focus must be on improving the grades further in the next cycle of NAAC evaluations, thereby increasing the available to students for quality education
Of the 289 colleges that received NAAC accreditation, starting July 2019, Government Arts College in Bengaluru received an A+ grade. While 22 colleges received A grade, 65 were awarded B++, 95 got B+ and another 95 colleges were awarded a B. Eleven colleges got a C grade.
Chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao said his government is implementing a slew of welfareschemesaiming to uplift Women, empower them and enhance their dignity.
The CM, who extended greetings to all women forWomen’s Day, saidTelanganais emerging as thewomen welfarestate through the implementation of welfare programmes aiming for the Empowerment of women.
Rao said the government is safeguarding the girl child from the stage of growing in the mother’s womb by implementing significant schemes from their birth, Health, protection, welfare, Education, marriage, development and empowerment of the child.
The fifth day of AP Assemblys budget session, witnessed a discussion on Global Investors Summit in Visakhapatnam, with minister after minister crediting Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy for attracting investments worth 13 lakh crore for Andhra Pradesh.
Tourism minister R.K. Roja said J in Jagan stands for Josh within the youth icon Jagan. She said the success of Global Investors Summit 2023 will provide job opportunities to six lakh people and pave way for development of the state. Roja said 129 MoUs had been signed in the field of tourism alone.
Energy minister Peddireddi Ramachandra Reddy said Jagan Mohan Reddy has brought in revolutionary changes in the state. Huge investments in the will mean thousands of youths will get EMPLOYMENT in industries.
For the first time ever, Goa is moving to make its heritage drink, feni, available across the country.
“The state excise department is in the process of writing to other states to make feni available there for sale, and also to make it available at all duty-free shops. At present, you cannot sell feni in other states,” Goa Forest Development Corporation (GFDC) chairperson Deviya Rane said
The GFDC chairperson also revealed a startling statistic: Of the seven cashew-producing states in the country, Goa languishes at the bottom of the list. She said that nationally, cashew production stands at 760kg per hectare, but in Goa, it is 454kg per hectare, putting it at the seventh and last spot among all states which produce cashew commercially – Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Odisha, and Nadu.
The cashew sapling first came from Brazil to Goa through its Portuguese colonisers, and the crop was then introduced to the rest of India from Goa.
Deputy chief minister and state finance ministerDevendra Fadnavis tabled the Shinde-led government’s first budget for the year 2023-24 in the Maharashtra assembly.
In his budget speech, Fadnavis said the outlay for farmers has been increased by Rs 6,900 crore and the coverage of the Mahatma Phule Jan Arogya scheme, a Health Insurance scheme of the government, has been raised from Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 5 lakh.
Fadnavis started reading out the budgetary allocations in the Lower House of the State Legislature at 2pm.
He read out the budgetary provisions from an iPad instead of a conventional paper document.
This is for the first time that Fadnavis presented the state budget as he holds the finance portfolio.
During Fadnavis’s tenure as the chief minister between 2014-19, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sudhir Mungantiwar was the finance minister. The Shinde-led government, in which his faction of the Shiv Sena and the BJP share power, was formed in June 2022.