21.04.21

Most NE states not testing people from regions recording spike

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As new variants of the novel coronavirus spread across the country, a sense of fear has returned among the people of the northeast as no state, except Manipur, has issued any order regarding mandatory testing for travellers from areas where a spike in cases has been recorded.

Silchar and Lilabari in Assam and Agartala airport in Tripura have already withdrawn mandatory testing orders. The other airports in Assam, too, plan to discontinue with such practices from March 1. As the Airports Authority of India strictly follows the recommendations of the respective state governments and district administrations so far as testing at airports are concerned, the statutory body also remains in a fix.

Assam: 50% attendance in schools, univs in districts having over 100 cases

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Assam re-clamped 50% attendance rule in classes from upper primary to university level, including technical colleges, in districts having more than 100 active Covid-19 cases and ordered online TEACHING for pre-primary to lower primary level classes, which have been already closed down.

This limited attendance arrangement in educational intuitions was introduced in June-July last year, which remained in force till the year-end. The new guidelines issued to contain the spread of the second wave of the pandemic will come into effect immediately and remain in force till May 8 or until further orders.

The Odisha State AIDS Control Society (OSACS) was set up by the State Government with the objective to prevent HIV transmission and control its spread and to reduce morbidity and mortality associated with HIV infection.

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Besides, it was also supposed to reduce the adverse socio-economic impact resulting from HIV infection and to coordinate and strengthen STD, HIV, AIDS surveillance. But unfortunately, the functioning of OSACS is virtually in a shambles. Prevention is the best strategy of the National AIDS Control Programme (NACP) and NACP-IV focuses on early detection and continued care and support to the high-risk vulnerable communities to prevent further infection in the Society.

These high risk populations includes Women sex workers, intravenous drug users, trans-sexual and transgender (TSTG), men having sex with men (MSM) and bridge Population like migrants and truckers.

In Odisha, high-risk prevalent districts such as Rayagada, Nabarangpur, Jharsuguda and Cuttack where targeted intervention project has failed because of closure of project owing to non-selection of implementation partners since 2015. The Central Government is providing nearly 1 crore annually for these seven districts which are unspent besides crores of other grants. The OSACS sought expression of interest many times but could not materialise it. In 2020 OSACS again invited expression of interest from various NGOs, but no proactive steps have been taken, which has put the fate of vulnerable community in jeopardy.

Lessons learnt in 2020 help T.N. industries

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Lessons learnt during last years lockdown are seemingly helping large industries in Nadu handle production during the second wave of the infection.

However, smaller businesses, especially MSMEs who are yet to come out of debts of the first wave, feel any further downturn will create a huge dent in their balance sheets.

From vaccinating senior workers, arranging transportation, sourcing raw materials, providing accommodation near factory premises and re-aligning operations, big companies are confident of overcoming the current tide.

5 private universities get nod in Karnataka; 6 in pipeline

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Five entrants have joined the growing league ofprivate/deemed universities in Karnataka, with the giving the go-ahead in a notification issued on April 16.

The five universities St Josephs, New Horizon, Sri Jagadguru Murugarajendra, Vidyashilp and Atria will now be allowed to expand their campuses and launch new courses. Murugarajendra University will be based out of Chitradurga, about 200km from here, and the other four will be in Bengaluru.

As per the law, any private/deemed university applicant needs 25 acres of land and at least 3,000 students on its campus. With the newNational Education Policy, these requirements may be diluted due to the growing cost of land and increased need of practical courses.

Annual Brahmotsavams at Telanganas Chilkur Balaji temple begins

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A seven-day annual Brahmotsavams at Chilkur Balaji temple, popularly known as Visa Balaji temple began recently.

The temple is located on the banks of the century-old Osmansagar reservoir, about 25km from the Hyderabad city.

Amid the chanting of Vedic hymns, the temples main archakas and rithviks offered special prayers to Lord Balaji at the sanctum-sanctorum and then started Dhwajarohanam, the main ritual, which signals the beginning of the Brahmotsavams by hoisting the ‘Garuda’ flag atop the ‘dwajasthambam’ (flag mast).

EESL to implement energy efficiency drive for rural Andhra Pradesh

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Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), an energy service company of the Union Government, has decided to implement one more LED lighting programme for the rural households of Andhra Pradesh. The state earlier installed 29.3 Lakh LED street lights.

The LED street lighting program is estimated to save 133 MU electricity per annum in urban areas and around 260 MU in the rural areas. This would reduce the Co2 emissions to the tune of about 0.33 million tons.

Till date, EESL has installed over 1.14 crore LED street lights in the and gram panchayats across India. This has resulted in an estimated energy Savings of 7.72 billion kWh per year and avoided peak demand of 1,286 MW. This has also led to greenhouse gas emission reduction of 5.32 million tonnes per year, and estimated annual monetary savings of Rs 5,395 crore in electricity bills of municipalities.

Under the street lighting national programme, 1576 urban local bodies have been enrolled. Out of these ULBs, work has been completed in 1,060 ULBs in the country. The executive vice-chairman has requested the executives of the state governments and in particular pro-active states like Andhra Pradesh to play a pivotal role in de-carbonization to mitigate the ill effects of Climate-change”>Climate Change.

Centre launches rozgar scheme to create jobs

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In a bid to stimulate job creation, the Centre has launched a new scheme calledAtmanirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojana(ABRY), which will provide financial assistance to those companies that recruit unemployed people, especially those who lost their jobs between March 2020 and September 2020.

Under the ABRY scheme, the Centre will pay both the employees and employers share (12% of wages each) under the EPF and MP Act, 1952, or only the employees share, depending on the EMPLOYMENT strength of the establishment, directly to theUniversal Account Numberof eligible employee maintained by theEPFO.

The scheme is part of theAtmanirbhar Bharat3.0 package and will remain open up to June 30. The benefit shall be available for a period of twenty-four months from date of registration of new employee, not later than June 2023.

Maharashtra plans jab for 37L students at universities and colleges

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State higher & technical department plans to inoculate nearly 37 lakh college students aged 18-25 at university and college campuses. A final decision will be taken after consulting chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, said higher & technical Education minister Uday Samant. The minister said the department should be declared an essential service for smooth processing of results. He said exams for 13 non-agricultural state universities will be held online due to Covid-19.

As the Centre announced a vaccination drive for all above 18 from May 1, Samant said his department will consult the CM, Health department and cabinet colleagues to initiate the drive for students to ensure the next academic session starts without delay. There are around 37 lakh students, for whom the state can arrange vaccination at university level, to avoid crowding at vaccination centres.

Hry procurement reaches 50.3LMT

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The Haryana government had procured 50.32 lakh metric tonne (LMT) wheat by Monday through various procurement agencies at the minimum support price (MSP).

An official said a total of 59.66 LMT wheat had arrived at 396 mandi/ procurement centres of the state.

As many as 6,82,862 J- forms of 1,88,891 farmers had been issued. Till Monday, Rs 2,336 crore had been transferred directly into the accounts of farmers whose crops had been procured.