26.05.21

Tripura govt launches education channel for school students

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Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb launched a 24×7 education channel, which will offer lessons to school students, in line with the NCERT syllabus, and help them “make up for the lost learning time” amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Deb, during his address following the launch of ‘Vande Tripura’, said this is the first such initiative by his government to ensure that students do not miss out on their lessons for an extended period of time.

Education minister Ratan Lal Nath, on his part, said, his department launched an innovative scheme — Notun Disha (new direction) which is aimed at assessing and boosting the academic prowess of elementary school students, but the pandemic has brought everything to a halt.

Assam declares black fungus as notifiable disease

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TheAssamgovernment has declared black fungus as a notifiable disease, making it mandatory for all health facilities to report such cases to the health department through the district health authorities.

Assam detected the first black fungus ormucormycosis infectionin a Covid patient who died in a private hospital here recently. But according to health department sources, similar cases might have gone unreported, especially during the second wave, which has increased chances of more black fungus cases due to prolonged stay in the ICU.

The state health department issued the directive in pursuance of a letter from the Union ministry of health and family welfare under Section 2 of the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897. Now all hospitals and medical colleges will have to follow the same guidelines for screening, diagnosis and management of mucormycosis, issued by theUnion health ministryand the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

To arrest child marriages in rural areas, Konark- based NGO Young India started a Community Radio campaign named Nua Sakalara Katha with 13 Community Radios of Odisha.

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The campaign was bolstered with support from the United States Consulate General Hyderabad with an objective of creating awareness on Covid-19, MGNREGA, violence against women and also child marriages among vulnerable communities through community radio initiatives.

Village-level Taskforce Committees formed in 47 villages included members like Anganwadi Workers, ASHA, PRI members, teachers, students and community leaders among others. Resolutions were passed and submitted to the respective district administrations to declare their villages as child marriage free villages.

The process of taskforce committee formation is under process in another 37 villages.

To broaden the impact of behavioural changes, narrowcasting sessions and outreach activities were organised by community radio stations in different villages, schools and slums of Odisha to raise awareness on the issue of child marriage. Radio listeners groups were promoted and provided training on child marriage.

M Appavu elected Tamil Nadu assembly speaker

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The veteran leader, now with DMK,M Appavuwho won the same seat for the fourth time, in the just concluded assembly election, was led to the speaker’s chair in theTamil Naduassembly. The ornate chair was presented by Lord Willingdon, the governor of Madras Presidency to the President of Madras Legislative Council as a personal gift in March 1922.

It has a strong resemblance to the chair in the House of Commons in the United Kingdom.

The 18th speaker in the assembly, Appavu was elected thrice from Radhapuram as a candidate of G K Moopanar’s TMC, an Independent and as a DMK candidate.

Kerala government allots Rs 2 crore for Chellanam

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The state government decided to allot Rs 2 crore for implementing emergency coastal protection measures in the Chellanam coast before monsoon. Also, the ongoing projects along the coast will be completed in a time-bound manner.

The decision was taken in the high-level meeting held in Thiruvananthapuram to discuss the difficulties faced by the residents of Chellanam. Vijayan Canal and Uppu Thodu will be desilted within a week to ensure free flow of water in case of sea flooding. Project worth Rs 45 lakh to repair seawalls and geobags will be completed by the first week of June.

The Irrigation Design & Research Board (IDRB) has been entrusted with the responsibility to complete the tendering of the projects worth Rs16 crore that was earlier announced by the government.

Karnataka: Losing a serious share of investments in electric vehicle to Tamil Nadu, government gives more sops

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Having received a rude shock earlier this year with one of the majorelectric vehicle(EV) investments inOlato neighbouringTamil Nadu, theKarnatakagovernment decided to revisit the 2017 EV andEnergystorage policy to provide a more competitive deal to retain promised investments and attract new investors.
The state government at its cabinet meeting decided to amend the 2017 policy by providing a substantial amount of sops including a 15 percent reimbursement on value of fixed assets (VFA), production linked subsidy and a training stipend.

The 2017 policy also spoke of providing a 50 per cent coverage on stipend for in-plant training provided by the EV manufacturers in the state to a maximum of Rs 10,000 per month per trainee for 50 trainees. While the stipend shall remain the same, the government has withdrawn the clause of limiting it to only 50 students.

Telangana logs 744 black fungus cases, 5th highest in India

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As many as 744 patients are suffering frommucormycosisorblack fungusin Telangana. According to Union health ministry data,Telanganastands fifth in the country inblack fungus cases. Gujarat has the most cases with 2,859, followed by Maharashtra (2,770), while Andhra Pradesh has 768 cases.

Telangana received 1,889 amphotericin B vials for treatment of black fungus cases and another 1,980 vials will be released soon, the health ministry said. With the number of patients treated at the Government ENT hospital touching more than 200, doctors are conducting procedures on patients to remove fungus from the nasal track.

the challenge in treating mucormycosis patients in Telangana could get tougher in the coming days as the caseload in neighbouring states like Maharashtra and AP is also very high. It may be recalled Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Odisha, Telangana, Assam and Delhi have already declared black fungus as a notifiable disease under the Epidemic Diseases Act-1897.

Andhra Pradesh: ‘59% found to have Covid antibodies in sero-survey’

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The recentsero-surveyconducted by the Andhra Pradesh health department in April has found that nearly 59% of those surveyed had developedantibodiesagainst Covid-19.
Of the 46,991Covid-19 samplesextracted from the general population, 27,869 samples turned out to be positive for antibodies. According to experts, this can be corroborated by the fact that the state recorded a 25-30% case positivity rate for several days in the second wave.

The urban population was found to be more exposed to the disease than their rural counterparts. While the survey projected antibodies against the Sars-CoV-2 virus in about 62% urban males and 66% urban females, it was 56.1% in rural males and 57.6% in rural females.

The sero conversion rate in the three different vaccinated groups is over 77%. The officials conducted the survey on nearly 6,300 people who have already received two vaccine doses.
Altogether, 78.8% of the samples taken from rural females in West Godavari turned to be positive for the novel coronavirus. Similarly, 78.5% of the urban female study subjects were found to have developed antibodies against the disease in Chittoor district.

The earlier state-wide sero survey conducted by the AP health department, in two phases, found that about 20% of the 5.4 crore population of the state developed antibodies for the SARS-CoV-2, the Covid-19 causing virus.

Special loans for MSMEs to mfg O2, oximeters

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In an attempt to encourage micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to address the demand for critical goods and services required to tackle the second wave of Covid-19, Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) is offering low-cost funding to units that manufacture oxygen cylinders, oxygen concentrators, oximeters and essential drugs.
Understanding the urgency of the situation, SIDBI has offered to sanction credit within 48 hours to such firms which can help Goa and the nation augment capabilities to fight the pandemic.

SIDBI is offering 100% funding up to an amount of Rs 2 crore to a MSME unit at attractive interest rate of 4.5-6% per annum if the firms meet all the criteria.

While Goa has four medical and industrial oxygen suppliers, it has to depend on neighbouring states for oxygen cylinders, oxygen concentrators, oximeters and other essential equipment.
SIDBI, the principal financial institution for financing and development of MSMEs, has launched the SHWAS and AROG quick credit schemes and hopes that the term loans and working capital funds will help MSMEs speed up the production of oxygen cylinders, oxygen concentrators, oximeters and essential drugs.

PMC wants Maharashtra govt to give stamp duty dues of Rs 176 crore

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ThePune Municipal Corporation(PMC) has approached the state government for the release of its share of stamp duty charges amounting to Rs 237 crore.

The civic body is suffering a revenue loss due to the pandemic. The civic administration should get its share from the state government. It will help carry out Covid-19 mitigation work.

According to civic officials, they had decided to reduce their budget expenditure due to poor revenue generation in 2020-21 and introduced a 40 % cut. Only essential services, mandatory and emergency works were allocated funds.