25-26.06.23

Tripura to rename 75 border villages after freedom fighters

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TheTripuragovernment has decided to rename 75 border villages in the state after freedom fighters who sacrificed their lives during the countrys independence movement, a senior official said.

The project to rename 75 border villages will be taken up as part of Azadi KaAmritMahotsav, an initiative to celebrate and commemorate 75 years of the countrys independence and the glorious history of its people, culture and achievements.

Seventy-five border villages spreading across all the eight districts will be identified by the district-level committees. The administration had already prepared a list of freedom fighters from the state and their contribution to the countrys freedom struggle, information and cultural affairs secretary PK Chakravorty said.

The statues of the 75 freedom fighters will be erected in these villages and their family members will be felicitated by the government, he said.

The government will also ensure 100% implementation of all schemes sponsored by the Centre and the state in the 75 identified villages.

Assam govt signs MoU with Caspian Impact Investment Adviser

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Assam Rural Infrastructure and Agricultural Services (ARIAS) Society, an autonomous body under the Assam government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Caspian Impact Investment Adviser Pvt. Ltd. (Caspian Equity), a venture capital institution that invests in social impact enterprises.

This collaboration marks a significant milestone in the pursuit of strengthening rural infrastructure and fostering agricultural productivity in Assam.
Under the partnership, ARIAS will be the nodal agency for establishing and implementing a contributory and determinate investment trust — theAssam Agribusiness Investment Fund(AAIF).

ARIAS is designated as the anchor investor for the AAIF, which will be managed by Caspian Equity as the fund manager.

With a corpus of Rs 250 crore, AAIF is a unique sector-specific fund through a state government in India, focusing on boosting agricultural productivity and employment generation in the state. It will mainly invest in small and medium enterprises in the agribusiness and allied sectors to achieve accelerated growth.

Rs 1.78L-cr invested on rail safety in 9 years, 2.5x more than during 2004-14: Vaishnaw

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Therailwayministry is planning to revise the signal engineering manual to improve its reliability even as it contemplates implementing new technologies and bringing procedural changes to prevent the reoccurrence of train accidents such as the one inBalasoreon June 2.

Vaishnaw, who is on a three-day tour of Odisha, said while lots of actions have been taken by the Railway Board after theBahanagaBazar incident and the railway manual may also change. The minister said there is a protocol for every repair and maintenance work.

Vaishnaw said the Indian Railways has sped up the process of installing Kavach (anti-collision device). The plan is to install the device across 10,000 km per year from 2,000 km in next few years.

Liquor sale in Tamil Nadu: Tasmac to go digital

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Those buyingliquorfrom state-run liquor shops inTamil Nadumay soon get a bill as Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (Tasmac) is on its way to complete computerisation.

Tasmac has awarded a Rs 294 crore order to public sector undertaking Railtel for end-to-end computerisation of its operations.

In a filing to the stock exchanges, RailTel said it has received the work order from Tasmac for “implementation of an integrated solution enabling end-to-endcomputerizationand connectivity of core and support functions of Tasmac.” The contract for digitization is to be executed within five years

Diapers constitute 80% of biomed waste in Kochi

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Adult and kids diapers constitute 80% of the biomedical waste being collected fromKochicorporation limits for treatment at the processing facility ofKeralaEnviro Infrastructure Ltd (KEIL).

Sanitary pads and other medical waste including dialysis kits constitute the rest of the waste collected in Kochi. A4 Mercantile, the private agency which is collecting the biomedical waste from Kochi through Aakri app, collects nearly 1.5 tonnes of waste per day for incineration in high temperature at the KEIL facility. The agency has already collected and transported 20 tonnes of biomedical waste to KEIL so far this month. They anticipate that 25 tonnes of waste would be collected this month. Last month they collected around 18 tonnes from Kochi.

Most of the adult diapers are coming from Ernakulam South, Perumanur, Kathrikadavu, Thoppumpady and Palluruthy areas, showing the presence of more elderly population. While kids diapers are mostly coming from areas towards the North like Edappally and Elamakkara.

Karnataka prefers renewable energy to thermal power: Energy minister

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Amidst global clamour against thethermal power plantsand thefight against climate change,Karnataka energy ministerKJ George clarified that there is no proposal to build any new thermal plants in Karnataka.

Rather than setting up new thermal power plants, we will strengthen the existing plants and focus more on augmenting the generation ofrenewable energyin Karnataka, the minister said during his visit to the Ballari Thermal Power Station (BTPS) at Kuditini in Ballari.

However, the minister directed the electrical engineers to maintain the quality of coal used at these thermal plants.

Lulu Group to invest over Rs 3,500 crore in Telangana over next 5 years

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UAE-based retail giantLulu Groupis all set to drive into Telangana with an investment of over Rs 3,500 crore in setting up malls and food processing facilities over the next five years, chairmanYusuff Ali MAsaid.

The investments include Rs 2,500 crore in setting up a destination mall on the outskirts of Hyderabad that will generate around 12,000 jobs. The group also inked MoUs with theTelangana governmentfor these investments.
But first off the block will be its Rs 300 crore investment in rolling out the firstLulu mallandLulu Hypermarketin Hyderabad’s Kukatpally area where the group has taken over the 5 lakh square feet Manjeera mall.
The 2 lakh square feet Lulu Hypermarket will not just offer fresh produce and grocery but will also have fashion, home appliances, electronics, mobiles, IT, and lifestyle products under the brand names Lulu Fashion Store and Lulu Connect.

The project, which is expected to generate employment for over 2,500 people, is expected to commence commercial operations in the next 18 months.
The UAE-based group is also planning mini malls on the outskirts of Hyderabad and other major cities and towns in the state with an investment outlay of Rs 1,000 crore.

The Abu Dhabi-based $8 billion turnover Lulu Group operates over 250 hypermarkets and 24 shopping malls across 22 countries with a global headcount of over 65,000.

Less than 1% of pupils taking NEET in Telugu

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About 1.44 lakh candidates fromAndhra PradeshandTelanganaregistered their names to appear forthe nationaleligibility-cum-entrancetestundergraduate (NEET-UG) 2023. But only some 1,300 candidates opted to write the exam in Telugu. While the number of students attemptingNEETin Telugu has remained more or less the same in the last five years, registrations from the two Telugu states are going northwards with each passing year.

Conducting the exam in regional languages is supposed to create a level playing field for students who did their intermediate (10+2) and/or schooling in Telugu medium. It is also opined that Telugu question paper may help them understand the questions thoroughly and encourage them to attempt the exam with full confidence. However, the fewer registrations in Telugu speak an altogether different story.

As per National Testing Agency (NTA) data for the last five years, the number of students who choose Telugu faded compared to those who opted for other regional languages in NEET. While English was the favourite, Hindi continued its supremacy as the second most registered language. For example, 16.7 lakh students registered for the exam in English in 2023, followed by Hindi (2.76 lakh), Gujarati (53,027), Bengali (43,890), Tamil (30,536), Assamese (3324), Urdu (1695), etc. All the 11 regional languages accounted for only 1.38 lakh combined registrations.

Goa tourism goes to Times Square to woo US visitors

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To strengthen its image on the international arena, the tourism department ran an outdoor campaign at Times Square in New York, coinciding with Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to the USA.

While Goa has not made concerted efforts to woo US tourists, in the past decade, a few attempts were made to explore the distant market, but these did not meet with much success.

While footfalls from the US have been on the lower side, 2018 and 2019 saw a jump. The two years each had over 25,000 US travellers visiting Goa, though the num-bers dropped to 16,000 in 2020, the year Covid-19 derailed the world.

Colleges asked to promote courses by youth climate action group

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Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University (Bamu) has requested all affiliated colleges to promote courses offered byMaharashtraYouth for Climate Action (MYCA), a youth programme initiated by Unicef, Maharashtra and Centre for Environment Education, Pune.

In its latest correspondence with the colleges, Bamu asked institution heads to promote the courses on a massive scale. Offered by MYCA without any fee requirements, the courses are themed on climate change and its mitigation measures such as living with climate change and water management.

MYCA is considered as a step in creating youth representation from Maharashtra in climate action advocacy. The colleges have been asked to visit the official website, www.mahayouthnet.in, for enrollment of students. Earlier on May 24, the state education department had written a letter to all state universities for popularizing the courses.

Hailed as one of Indias oldest universities, Bamu (est.1958) has jurisdiction over half of Marathwada with a collective student strength of more than 4.4 lakh in over 450 affiliated colleges.