22.02.23

Assam to provide ration cards to 40 lakh people in April

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The Assam government will provide ration cards to 40 lakh people in April, cabinet ministerRanjeet Dasssaid.

The minister also said people have already started applying for the ration cards. He said many who have a government job or come from well-off families have come forward to surrender their ration cards following the state governments appeal.

The Assam government in December last year announced that with the help of the ration cards, consumers will be able to receive cashless medical benefits up to Rs 5 lakh per family at government or private hospitals across the country.

Cashew to be grown in 20K ha more area in State

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Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture and Farmers Empowerment Principal Secretary Arabinda Kumar Padhee said the weather and conditions of Odisha are extremely favourable for cashew farming.

This year more than 20,000 hectares of new land area will be brought under cashew farming, he announced.

More steps are being taken to improve production and productivity of cashew in the State with application of innovations in this field, Dr Padhee said while addressing the National Conference on Cashew. He said that underdeveloped districts and tribal areas will be on cashew farming.

More than 250 delegates from 19 States consisting of cashew farmers, processors, exporters, scientists from research organisations, experts, department officials, field level implementing agencies and officials of Odisha State Cashew Development Corporation participated in the conference.

The Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare will prepare a road map for cashew development for overall development of cashew in the country by incorporating the innovative ideas emanated in the conference. The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare is contemplating achieving self-sufficiency in cashew production by 2029 30.

Tamil Naduhas the scope to be a hub for technical textiles, says commissioner oftextiles M Vallalar.

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Technical textiles are the future of the . Tamil Nadu, which is Home to several leading educational institutions, has skilled manpower. There is a huge potential for mobiltech because Tamil Nadu is the Detroit of India. Our companies must have R&D arrangements with manufacturers of mobiltech products in other parts of the world to produce them in the state.

The government has also announced minitextile parks on a minimum of two acres. We want ancillary units for large technical textile units, stitching DEFENCE clothes and manufacturing components for sportech products, in these small parks. Technical textiles are based on research and development and we have to invest more in that. The need of the hour is branding the products.

A textile city of international standards will be established in Chennai on Outer Ring Road. It is going to be a landmark facility with first-of-its-kind Infrastructure in the country. This is going to be a one-stop exhibition centre, where allthe textile products manufactured in Tamil Nadu will be displayed. Traders from across the country can see them under one roof.

Organic agriculture policy should support non-certified poor farmers in Kerala: Study

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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 experience of Organic Wayanad NGO (formerly the largest organic Marketing agency in Kerala) is similar: of the 2,000 new members in Wayanad in 2004, only 350 remained in 2013. Most members left because they did not receive the expected financial benefits, as yield losses were not compensated by organic premiums.

1,300 schools face recognition issue in Karnataka

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Preliminary data from the department of public instruction has revealed that 1,316schoolsin the state have issues with recognition. However, the department says the data has mistakes and is being reworked.
As per the data, 63 schools have no recognition and 74 have started higher classes without permission. As many as 95 schools have permission to teach only state syllabus, but are claiming to be CBSE/ICSE institutions. This comes at a time when there have been complaints against an international school falsely claiming to be a CBSE affiliate.

About 620 schools have been identified as defaulters for starting additional sections. The Association of Primary and Secondary Schools ofKarnatakahas taken objection to this list. “We have updated all data on the SATS website of the department year on year. The department has been allotting students under the RTE quota to these schools. Why did it suddenly wake up to the fact that these schools are illegal,” asked D Shashi Kumar, secretary. “An older circular from the Education department said schools do not need permission to increase sections,” he added.

Telangana needs Rs 1 lakh crore to complete pending irrigation projects

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TheTelanganagovernment has spent over 1.61 lakh crore on construction of major and medium Irrigation projects in the past eight years between 2014 and 2022. Of this, over 1 lakh crore has been spent on two major irrigation projects,KaleshwaramandPalamuru-Rangareddylift irrigation schemes (LIS). According to officials, the state would have to pump in another 1 lakh crore to complete pending projects in the state.

Irrigation officials claim no other state in the country has spent such huge amounts on projects to provide irrigation facilities. In the past eight years, over 40 lakh acres new ayacut has been created apart from stabilising the existing ayacut.

The has earmarked 26,000 crore in the 2023-24 budget and announced that it would provide irrigation facilities to another 50 lakh acres in the next two to three years to achieve one crore irrigated Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture land.

Green energy to be key investment focus at GIS

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Andhra Pradeshis betting big on , which is one of the top focus areas for the state at the upcomingGlobal Investors Summit(GIS) 2023 to be held in Visakhapatnam on March 3 and 4.

The YS Jagan Mohan Reddy-led government is leaving no stone unturned to lure investors into investing in this sunrise sector. The state already boasts of 9GW of renewable power installed capacity, comprising 4.3GW of solar power, 4.1GW of wind power, 444MW of Biomass, 106MW of small hydro, 36MW of municipal solid waste, and 41MW of industrial waste to power Plants.

In fact, renewable energy already accounts for around 36% of the total installed power generation capacity in the state, said AP finance ministerBuggana Rajendranath. With rich renewable energy hubs carrying the potential for setting up 38GW in solar, and 44GW (at 100-meter hub height) in wind, Andhra Pradesh provides a conducive Environment and excellent opportunities for investments in renewable energy, said the minister.

He pointed out that the State Government has already readied plans to facilitate lease of 5 lakh acres of land to renewable energy exports project developers. The state has already rolled in a shelf of seven projects with an estimated potential of 17,800MW to set up solar, wind, and solar-wind hybrid power projects. We are coming up with the worlds largest integrated renewable energy storage project with a capacity of 4,230MW, that entails 2,300MW of solar PV, 250MW of wind, and 1,680MW of pumped storage hydro with storage capacity of 10GWh, explained Buggana.

Apart from renewable energy, the AP government has identified renewable energy, automobiles and electric vehicles, aerospace and DEFENCE, Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture and Food Processing, healthcare and medical equipment, petroleum and petrochemicals, industrial and Logistics Infrastructure in addition to electronics, IT, maritime, tourism and hospitality as main focus areas for GIS-2023.

Pernem first in Goa to get GIS-based zoning plan

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In a first for the state, its northernmost taluka ofPernemwill get a geographical information system (GIS)-based zoning plan for 252 sqkm. It is likely to help in detailed zoning of the area and theGISdatabase will serve as the basis for zoning plan formulation.

The town and country planning (TCP) department had decided to prepare zoning plans for Pernem taluka and Kadamba plateau, off Panaji. The department then invited a request for proposal for GIS-based zoning plan for Pernem taluka from the empaneled consultants.

The consultant will prepare a GIS Database of the planning area based on open-source satellite imagery. The database will consist of base map layers, existing land use, and relevant data from stakeholder departments.

Dementia prevalent among nearly 7.5% seniors in India; Maharashtra above national average

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A pan-India study has revealed that dementia, a debilitating disorder that affects memory and cognitive function, is prevalent among an estimated 7.4% of seniors, or 8.8 million individuals, in the country. This figure is notably higher than previous estimates, which had put the prevalence at 3.7 million in 2010 and predicted it would double by 2030. The new findings suggest that the number has doubled a decade earlier, underscoring the pressing need for better care and support.

Maharashtrahas been identified as one of 11 states where prevalence is higher than the national Average. It is 7.61% in the state, with researchers projecting that individuals living with the condition in the state will rise from nearly a million to 1.8 million by 2036. Notably, the study, led by researchers from theUniversity of Southern California, andAIIMS, in collaboration with 18 other institutes, including Mumbai’sJJ Hospital, found wide variations in the presence of dementia among different states.

Dementia prevalence was found to be almost double among Women (9%) than men (5.8%), which experts have linked with differences in Education and early life Nutrition. Prevalence was also higher in the rural areas at 8.4% than in urban areas (5.3%), underlining the urgent need to scale up diagnosis in rural Health facilities. Further, lower education was associated with a greater risk of dementia even in this study. The estimated prevalence was 10% in those with no education at all, compared to 4.5% in those who had primary level education and 1.5% in those who went to eighth standard and above.

Delhi-Mumbai expressway will turn Nuh into an industrial hub: Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar

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The Delhi-Mumbai expressway will transform one of the most backward districts of Nuh into an industrial hub, chief ministerManohar Lal Khattarsaid while virtually participating in the inauguration of the speedway by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

A total of 129km of the expressway passes throughHaryana, which includes much of Nuh. On Sunday morning, the Prime Minister inaugurated the Sohna-Dausa stretch of the expressway in Rajasthan’s Dausa. Earlier in the day, Khattar, and Union ministers Nitin Gadkari and Rao Inderjit Singh inspected the traffic management control tower near Sohna. While Gadkari left for Dausa to join the PM for the inauguration, Khattar, Rao Inderjit and deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala participated in the event virtually from the Hilalpur told plaza.