Bollywood actorSanjay Duttsaid Arunachal Pradesh’s culture, food, and people are unique. The actor who has been roped in as Brand Ambassador of the ’50 Years of Arunachal Pradesh’ celebration said he will try his best in highlighting the uniqueness of Arunachal Pradesh to the people outside.
The celebrations would start from January 20 to February 20 next year, commemorating the birth of Arunachal Pradesh as a state.
BSF director general(DG) Pankaj Kumar Singh said that the “demographic balance” has been upset in border states like Assam and West Bengal over a period of time and that was probably the reason that the Centre recently extended the force’s jurisdiction.
Rejecting allegations that the October notification of the Union Home ministry (that expanded its jurisdiction to undertake search, seizure and arrest within a larger 50 km stretch from the international border in Assam, West Bengal and Punjab as compared to the earlier 15 km) interfered with local policing, he said that theBSFwas not trying to “act as a parallel Police” and the powers to investigate and file charge sheets continue to remain with the state.
The Border Security Force (BSF) guards over 6,300 km of the Indian fronts with Pakistan on the west and Bangladesh on the east of the country.
The DG said that the force has dome a survey in some border villages that found that there is a “definite” demographic change.
The BSF has a strength of about 2.65 lakh personnel at present and it was raised on December 1, 1965. It has 192 operational battalions at present and is the country’s largest border guarding force with ITBP, SSB andAssam Riflesbeing the other three.
Union Education minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Saturday urged the to repeal theOdishaUniversities (amendment) Act, 2020 to ensure academic autonomy of state public universities.
“The state government has come up with a law to bring all state public universities under one Act. It was created this keeping the administrative needs of the universities in mind. As an alumnus of Utkal University, I request the government to reconsider the proposal of the academics on the Act for academic autonomy, multidisciplinary, employability and other benefits,” said Pradhan while attending the 79th foundation day of Utkal University.
Pradhan said putting the universities in order does not mean the Act will end up creating an obstacle on the path of autonomy of the universities. “A university cannot be a college where a teacher can be transferred from one institution to another. Besides meeting with the governor, I had also written a letter to the then education minister about this issue last year,” Pradhan said.
The government had amended the Odisha Universities Act, 1989, in September last year and brought all state public universities under one Act. Academics and retired professors had criticised the government for amending the Act which they said curtails the autonomy of the universities.
The Union territory of has the lowest POVERTY ratio among the Union territories in the country with just 1.72% of its Population living in poverty, according to a Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) report prepared by the NITI Aayog based on the National family Health survey – 4 done in 2015-16. Among the states, Kerala has the lowest poverty ratio with 0.71% whileBiharhas the highest poverty ratio with 51.91% of its population living in poverty.Tamil Naduhas the fourth lowest poverty index among states with 4.89%, after Kerala, Goa (3.76%) and Sikkim (3.82%).
Jharkhand has the second-highest poverty ratio with 42.16% of its population living in poverty followed by Uttar Pradesh (37.79%), Madhya Pradesh (36.65%) and Meghalaya and Assam 32.67%. Among the Union territories, Dadra & Nagar Haveli has the highest poverty ratio with 27.36% of its population living in poverty, followed by Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh (12.58%) and Daman & Diu (6.82%). Lakshadweep is the second least poor territory with 1.82% followed by Andaman & Nicobar Island (4.3%), Delhi (4.79%) and Chandigarh (5.97%).
Gulati Institute of Finance and (GIFT), a State Government-funded think tank, has urged the government to overhaul the land fair-value assessment system and hike electricity duty as measures to increase its revenue.
The state government had asked the agency early this year to make suggestions to improve the states revenue. The suggestions, touted as the ones that would ignite little public wrath, have appeared in elaborate form as articles in the latest edition ofKerala economy, a journal published by the institute.
Narayana claims the failure by the state in adopting modern methods for fixing fair value of land has led to a situation wherein the revenue from stamp duty and registration has slipped to 6.76% of the states own taxes and duties in 2020-2021, from 12% till 2010. It recommended the government to use remote sensing and GIS tools to continuously revise the land fair value in accordance with the market value of the land. Though the technology upgrade would require substantial Investment, phenomenal revenue increase would justify the same, he argues.
Even a small increment in duty for the domestic consumer category would bring large-scale revenue benefits. The domestic consumers alone would have contributed an additional revenue of Rs 2,349 crore in 2018-19 period if the electricity duty collected in the state were on par with that levied in Punjab andMaharashtra, said the report.
Kerala was one among the few states that dont charge electricity duty for RAILWAY traction. Since several other states collect electricity duty from railways, Kerala should also collect the same. The 10% duty on electricity consumption introduced in 1969 remains unchanged and hence a revision in the duty would be very much justifiable, the report argues.
Only about a third ofKarnatakawomen have ever used the Internet, while not more than half of them spent over 10 years in school, the latest round of national family Health survey (NFHS-5) revealed, even as some other indicators in the state improved.
Analysis of statewise data shows that a best-case scenario in 10 of India’s most populous states – Uttar Pradesh,Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh-,Madhya Pradesh,Tamil Nadu,Rajasthan, Karnataka and Gujarat – shows a similar trend.
In almost all these states, the Percentage of men using the internet is much higher, nearly double in some cases, than Women, while the gap between the genders when it comes to spending more than 10 years in school appears to be narrowing.
For instance, as per NFHS-5, around 35 per cent of women in Karnataka ever used the internet, compared to 62.4 per cent of men. In comparison, it is 38 per cent and 61.5 per cent, respectively in Maharashtra, and 30.8 per cent and 58.9 per cent in Gujarat.
Bihar, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra-Telangana (together) have less than 30 per cent of women using the internet, while more than half of the men barring in West Bengal (47 per cent) have used the same.
Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan performed slightly better; Tamil Nadu, on the other hand, tops the table among these states with 46.9 per cent (women) and 70.2 per cent (men) having used the internet.
Similarly, in Karnataka, 50.2 per cent of women spent more than 10 years in school as against 56.5 per cent of men. Comparatively, in Maharashtra, 50.4 per cent of women and 61 per cent of men have achieved this, while figures stand at 33.8 per cent and 45.6 per cent in Gujarat.
In Tamil Nadu, the numbers are 56.6 per cent (women) and 59.1 per cent (men), while West Bengal, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh pale in comparison. Andhra-Telangana (cumulative) numbers appear slightly better in this category.
Analysis of rural-urban data reiterates the lack of access for women and men from rural areas.
Of around 35 per cent of women in Karnataka using the internet, only 24.8 per cent are from rural areas and over 50 per cent from urban areas. Among men, 55.6 per cent from rural areas and 71.5 per cent from urban areas used the internet to take the overall state Average to 62.4 per cent.
The trend is more or less similar in the other 10 states.
There was 24% year-over-year (YOY) increase inGST collectionin November forTelangana, rising from Rs 3,175 crore in 2020 to Rs 3,931 crore for the same month this year.
The state is third after Kerala (36%) and Karnataka (30%) among southern states in terms of Percentage rise in NovemberGSTcollection.
Overall, the state is ranked sixth along with Maharashtra (24%) for GST Growth this year over November 2020.
For , the YOY increase in October was 13% and for September it was 25%. The November GST results are also solid in the sense that they are close to crossing the Rs 4,000 crore barrier, a milestone that the state earlier touched in April for the first time since GST was implemented in the country in 2017.
Across the country, the revenues in November 2021 are 25% higher and 27% higher than in 2019-20. The trend in Telangana is also similar with a 24% increase.
Top YOY gainers in the country for November this year are Odisha (64 %), Kerala (36 %), Punjab (32 %), Karnataka (30%), Delhi (29 %) and Gujarat (26 %). In south, neighbouring Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu saw a 10% gain.
The road Network in Chittoor, Kadapa, Ananthapuram and Nellore districts has been badly damaged by the recent rains and flash floods. Nearly 500 villages still remain cut off due to damage to theroads.
People are finding it difficult even to reach their homes after floods as most roads have been washed away beyond recognition. Many bridges and low-level chaptas have also suffered damages.
The R&B department has estimated that about 1,632 kilometres of road network has been damaged, and breaches were reported at nearly 125 places in the four districts. While about 539 kilometres are damaged in Kadapa, the damages to roads in Chittoor district is about 217 kilometres. About 715 kilometres of road network has suffered damage in Nellore district. Breaches have been reported at 48 places in Chittoor and 46 places in Kadapa district.
Goa has a rich splattering of 254 species of butterflies and quite a few of them are endemic to the state. Soon, Goa is set to become the seventh Indian state to have a state butterfly. The forest department has formed a committee of ecologists and has begun consultations with over a hundred scientists, conservationists and other experts.
There are five butterfly species that have been shortlisted and are in the race to be declared as the states emblem species.
Goa already has a designated state animal, tree and bird, and now it is time to nominate a state butterfly to recognise its ecological significance and conservation value.
MaharashtrasGSTcollections, which had soared in the festive month of October, saw a dip of Rs 699 crore in November.
Thecollections declined from Rs 19,355 crore in October to Rs 18,656 crore in November, the latest data shows. However, the states GST collections in the eight months of the financial year from April to November are a steep 61.5% higher than they were last year. Collections during this period are Rs 1,20,752 crore in 2021 compared to Rs 74,665 crore in 2020.
GST is a consumption-based tax and is an indicator of economic activity. Maharashtras GST collections are the highest in the country and it is the main revenue earner for the .
Indeed, collections for April were the highest so far this year, followed by collections in October. The GST collections for May, June, August and November were relatively lower.
However GST collections for November 2021 are 32.5% higher than the corresponding month in 2020. The collections are Rs 16,428 crore this November compared to Rs 12,403 in November 2020. This is because last years lockdown was more stringent and the economic recovery was slower.