23.07.21

The state government has planned to promote brackish water aquaculture to boost the the rural economy as the sector has huge potential of growth inOdisha. Recently, chief secretarySuresh Chandra Mohapatrachaired a meeting in this regard.

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He asked revenue and Disaster Management, and animal Resources development, forest and Environment departments and Idco to work out a facilitating policy to tap the available potential of brackish water aquaculture. Idco has also been asked to develop a land bank for it. Fisheries and animal resources development secretary RRaghu Prasadsaid there was significant Growth in the sector in the last 10 years.

The production of brackish water fish increased from 11,460 MT in 2011-12 to 97,125 MT in 2020-21. Area under brackish water aquaculture also increased from 5,860 hectare to 17,780 hectare during the same period.

The Tamil Nadu government constituted a 13-member expert committee for revival of MSMEs in the state.

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It will be headed by N Sundaradevan, former Industries secretary, Nadu government.
The State Government had promised to constitute such a committee to formulate schemes for revival of MSMEs in the Governors address delivered to the state assembly on June 21, 2021.

In addition, secretaries to Tamil Nadu government for finance, industries and MSME as well as industries commissioner and chairman, State Level Bankers Committee. The newly constituted committee will submit its report to the state government in three months.

MSMEs play a vital role in Economic Development apart from providing EMPLOYMENT and export earnings. MSMEs are undergoing a very difficult period due to Covid pandemic and also due to various economic factors, the statement said. The committee will look into the challenges faced by the MSME sector in Tamil Nadu and will suggest immediate, medium and long term measures required for the revival of the MSME sector.

World Bank sanctions $125 million loan to Kerala

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As part of the states ResilientKeralaProgram, the (WB) has sanctioned 125 million USD to the state to support the states preparedness against natural disasters, Climate-change”>Climate Change impacts, disease outbreaks and pandemics.

The Resilient Kerala Program will focus on two key areas. First, it will incorporate disaster risk planning in the master plans of urban and local self-governments to ease financial constraints on the State Government when faced with unexpected shocks. Second, it will help make the Health, Resources“>Water Resources management, Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture and road sectors more resilient to calamities.
The program is part of a programmatic series of the bank-financed operations in the state.

The first Resilient Kerala Development Policy Operation (DPO) approved in June 2019 had undertaken several initiatives. It had helped the state draft a river basin conservation and management act, which will conserve and regulate water resources and ensure their sustainable management, allocation and utilization. It had also introduced climate-resilient agriculture, risk-informed land use and Disaster Management planning. The program laid the foundations for a five-year state PARTNERSHIP framework.

The support to key sectors under the program include sustainable fiscal and Debt Management through establishing a debt management unit in the finance department to support the states efforts to scale down its debt-to-GSDP ratio to a sustainable trajectory, providing timely and adequate assistance to vulnerable households, disaster and climate-resilient urban development, create resilient public health systems, ensure an integrated and sustainable Water Resources Management, ensure sustainable and resilient food systems and create a climate-resilient road Infrastructure.

A week after the Karnataka government permitted cinema halls to reopen, the film industry in the state is still holding back on going ahead with exhibiting movies. It is citing the 50% cap on audiences and the lack of new movies for its hesitancy.

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A delegation from theKarnataka Film Chamber of Commerce, including its vice-president, Umesh Banakar, on Friday met chief minister BS Yediyurappa and submitted a memorandum urging the government to allow theatres to operate at 100% capacity. They also sought a go-ahead to commence indoor shooting.

There are about 630 single-screen theatres in the state and 260 multiplexes with four lakh seats. Twelve lakh employees are dependent on the . There are about 130 theatres in Bengaluru alone, 110 under BBMP limits.

The government recently waived property tax for single-screen theatres for 2020-21 to help them overcome losses.KFCCsays the 630 single-screen theatres in Karnataka paid Rs 10 crore property tax to the government.

In a bid to attract investments fromTaiwan, theTelanganagovernment is keen on setting up a dedicated cluster for Taiwanese players.

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The TECC delegation was in Hyderabad to discuss economic and trade cooperation as well as opportunities between Telangana and Taipei.

KTR apprised the delegation about the states single window clearance system that guarantees investors the right to get time-bound clearances to start their businesses. The delegation was also informed about the various measures adopted by the government to improve the Ease of Doing Business quotient in the state.

The government has decided to set up 323junior colleges. The decision was taken following the instructions of chief minister Y SJagan Mohan Reddy.

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After a survey across the state, theeducation departmentidentifiedzilla parishad high schoolsthat can accommodate junior colleges with immediate effect.

With the chief minister keen on launching junior colleges without any delay, the Education department has decided to bring them into operation from the coming academic year.

The decision of the education department to focus only on rural areas by ignoring the urban poor has come under criticism. None of the got an opportunity to open new junior colleges despite the presence of many slums with large populations. The children from economically weaker sections from urban slums have been the worst victims of private educational institutions due to the high free structures.

With educational institutions in urban areas managed by the municipal administration department, the education department has readied the blueprint of new junior colleges by confining itself to rural areas.

Urban development minister Milind Naik said that the Municipality (Amendment) Bill,2021can be sent to the select committee for deliberation before it is passed. The bill devolves partial power to carry out delimitation and reservation to the State Election Commission, and is aimed at conducting polls in a free, fair and transparent manner.

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Replying to the demands, Naik said that the will look into the demands of regularising contract employees of municipalities. He said that after the assembly session, he will fix a meeting with the chief minister to finalise the demands.
Naik also assured to look into the demands of the members of House with regards to pension for seafarers. Naik also said that the chief minister has assured to clear the pending payments of social welfare scheme within three months.

Poor demand for engineering courses and low enrolment for higher secondary certificate (HSC) exams has brought down the registration for the state common entrance test for courses in engineering, architecture, pharmacy, among other professions.

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The registrations have declined by nearly 1 lakh, this year. The common entrance test (CET) will be held in August and admissions would be conducted based on the merit list announced as per theCETscores.

The Covid-19 pandemic has forced Education to go online, so courses such as engineering that mainly depend on practical sessions, have taken a massive setback. There are many students who will be willing to take a break for a year and do some short-term courses, prepare better and then come back next year to appear for the CET and bag a good seat in the college.

The gau rakshaks in Haryana will now be a part of a special cow protection task force and work with Civil and Police Administration in all districts to stop cow smuggling and slaughtering and to rehabilitate the stray cattle in the state.

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According to the government’s notification, the key objective of setting up the task force is to enforce The Haryana Gauvansh Sanrakshan and Gausamvardhan Act 2015 effectively by collecting information regarding cattle smuggling and slaughtering from public and to take prompt action on such illegal activities after special inputs received from the public.

The task force at state and district level will also play a key role in rehabilitating stray cattle of the state in gaushalas, nandishalas and gau abhyaranyas.

The district SCPF will submit a monthly report of action taken during the month directly to the chairman of the Gau Seva Aayog through the Deputy Commissioner of the district concerned.

Haryana Gau Seva Aayog was also constituted for proper implementation of laws with respect to of smuggling and slaughter of innocuous cows.

Its power-play in Punjab. As the State is moving towards Assembly polls with little patience, political parties in Punjab are apparently seeking power out of power issues. Less than a month after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) promised free power supply to domestic consumers besides cancellation of contentious power pacts, Punjab Government, too, has come out with electrifying orders.

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The orders came a day after Punjab Congress newly-appointed team, led by state unit president Navjot Singh Sidhu, had urged a review of the PPAs with Independent Power Producers (IPPs), inked during Akali rule.

Notably, the Pspcl had signed 14 PPAs with Thermal or Hydro Plants and 122 Long Term PPAs with Solar or plants after 2007, to make the state power surplus with a generation capacity of around 13,800 MW (megawatt).

PSPCL was also forced to utilize full power from the Central Sector Generating Stations so that the crops of the farmers could be saved, Capt Amarinder noted, adding that the State was also compelled to enforce power regulatory measures from July 1 to 11 on Large Supply (LS) Industry of to meet the rising demand of the farmers.

It may be mentioned that the Chief Minister had sought a legal opinion on renegotiating controversial PPAs.