Current Affairs - State In News

In order to give impetus to the perfume industry, the Uttar Pradesh government has decided to develop Kannauj as a perfume tourism destination.

• It will also hold an international perfume fair in Kannauj in December.
• At Kannauj, the first phase of the perfume park being set up will be completed by November 15.
• The Uttar Pradesh government has planned to promote the perfume of Kannauj in the international market. The aim is to take the Rs. 250 crore perfume business to Rs. 25,000 crore.
• The perfume business will give momentum to vision of making Uttar Pradesh a $ 1 trillion economy.
• The state government has also made changes in the export policy to make it easier for the traders to boost their perfume export. If a trader associated with the perfume business participates in a fair abroad, the state government will bear the expenses on their travel and transportation of samples.
• The perfume of Kannauj comes under the ‘One District, One Product’ initiative and has demand in the international market.

Uttar Pradesh government is planning to build an education township in the state.

It will provide high-quality education to the youth and equip them with a variety of professional skills in a single place.

Concept: 'Single Entry, Multiple Exit'

• Built on the idea of 'Single Entry, Multiple Exit' (come like a blank paper and carry multiple skills), the focus of this township will be on high-end education.

Features of the Education Township

• Prestigious government and private universities of the country and the world will be able to open their campuses in the township.
• There will be primary and secondary schools like Atal Residential Schools in the same place.
• Universities and colleges will be established for undergraduate and postgraduate studies wherein studies and research works related to management, technology, law, and medicine will be carried out.
• The education township will also feature skill development universities where training will be imparted to the youth in different types of skills. Besides, many other coaching institutes like Abhyudaya will be started in these education townships so that more and more students can be successful in competitive examinations like NEET, IIT, Union Public Service Commission, etc. to be held in the country and the state.
• It will cater to students from not only the country but also African, Latin American and Central Asian countries.
• Accommodations will be provided to both teachers and students at the education township.
• With the introduction of the 'Single Entry, Multiple Exit' system in the state, students will be able to avail of cheap education loans.

Recent Initiatives by the State Govt.

• Recently Govt. has directed authorities to prepare a comprehensive action plan for setting up five education townships in the state during a meeting with the representatives of consultancy firm Deloitte India to explore ways to make Uttar Pradesh a $1 trillion economy.

To strengthen the rural economy and make the “gauthan” (cattle shed) a centre of livelihood, the Chhattisgarh government will set up ‘gramin aajeevika parks’, to be known as ‘rural industrial parks’ in the state.

• In the first year of the project, there will be 300 such parks.
• The project will be launched on Gandhi Jayanti, October 2, 2022.
• It in line with Mahatma Gandhi’s vision of gram swaraj, which is strengthening the rural economy by promoting cottage industries by providing income-generating opportunities.
• The first such park in Chhattisgarh came up in Kulgaon, Kanker district, which has been named Gandhi Gram. The district administration, along with women’s self-help groups, has developed the park.

Activities involved

• Some of the livelihood-related activities are producing vermi-compost, goat rearing, manufacturing incense sticks, dona-pattal (leaf plate) manufacturing, fish farming, egg production, mushroom output, etc.

Initiatives

• The forest department has started a residential training centre, based on the value addition of minor forest produce.
• Chhattisgarh has set up 8,404 gauthans of the 10,624 sanctioned.
• The state government is procuring cow dung at Rs. 2 a kg for making vermi-compost.
• The state government has started procuring cow urine for Rs. 4 a litre for making organic fertilisers and pesticides.
• The state government has been developing basic infrastructure, such as interlocking, cement/concrete roads, dormitories, residential rooms, kitchen halls, building sheds for women’s self-help groups, and underground irrigation pipelines.

Funding

• The government is planning to use District Mineral Foundation (DMF) funds for this.

The century-old Nawab Wajid Ali Shah Zoological Garden in Lucknow (popularly known as Lucknow Zoo) will now be shifted to Kukrail forest area, about 12 km away from its current location in Narhi.

• The move is aimed at decongesting the overcrowded Narhi area because of the presence of the zoological garden.
• The Govt. will establish Kukrail night safari to encourage eco-tourism and create more employment opportunities for locals engaged in tourism trade, catering, decoration etc.
• Possibilities of channelising Kukrail river and developing it as an attractive river front would also be considered. The cost of this mega project will be assessed after the UP government gets to see the report made by the consultant.
• Kukrail Reserve Forest has a captive breeding and conservation center for the freshwater gharials (gavialis gangeticus), one of the 3 native species of crocodiles in India.

About the Park

• Lucknow’s zoological park was established on November 29, 1921 by the then Governor, Uttar Pradesh, Sir Spencer Harcourt Butler.
• It was named as Prince of Wales Zoological Garden.
• On June 4, 2001 the zoo was renamed as Lucknow Prani Udyan.
• In 2015, the Lucknow Prani Udyan was renamed as Nawab Wajid Ali Shah Prani Udyan. Shah was the last Nawab of Oudh who was fond of animals and had reared different animals, to create a small zoo in Kolkata.

Drones being used commercially to deliver great healthcare to Indians in the rural locations seems to be a possibility now, through a commercial drone corridor.

• Drones being used commercially to deliver great healthcare to Indians in the most rural locations appears to be a possibility now. In the United States’ Redcliffe Labs, a division of Redcliffe Lifetech, has completed its first commercial drone flight in the healthcare sector.
• Between Uttarkashi and Dehradun, the business just launched a commercial drone corridor.
• The collaboration between Redcliffe and Skye Air resulted in 40 successful trials in North India over the last three months.
• Redcliffe Lab transported a payload of 5 kilograms in air temp boxes from Gyansu, Uttarkashi, to Vivek Vihar, Dehradun, a distance of 60 kilometres by air.
• From June 10, 2022, the business stated it will “operate two flights daily for both routine and specialised test sample collecting.”
• By 2027, the diagnostic service provider hopes to have reached at least 500 million Indians. Jain stated that the corporation “plans to employ drone technology to gather Dx samples” as one of the several approaches to meet this goal.

Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh has launched ‘Mukhyamantri Mitaan Yojana’ (Mitaan stands for a friend), which will be implemented on a pilot basis in 14 municipal corporations including the cities like Raipur, Durg, Bilaspur and Rajnandgaon in Chhattisgarh.

• Under the Scheme, the residents of Chhattisgarh can avail around 100 public services at their doorstep.
• 13 services in 14 municipal corporation areas have been included under the ‘Mitaan’ scheme as announced by the CM in his budget speech for the fiscal year 2022-23.
• Once the concerned department issues the certificate, it will then be delivered at the citizen’s doorstep by the ‘Mitaan’ in a sealed envelope within the prescribed time limit.

In a first in the country, Kerala will launch a state-owned over-the-top (OTT) platform, ‘CSpace’, in November 2022, offering film lovers an array of movies, short films and documentaries of their choice.

• It is an initiative of Kerala State Film Development Corporation (KSFDC) on behalf of the state government.

The government of Kerala is set to launch an Android App ‘Shaili’, aimed at diagnosing and controlling lifestyle diseases among the people in the state of Kerala.

• The app has been set up as part of the population-based screening project launched by the Health Department under the Nava Kerala Karma plan.
• The app would primarily collect information about diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, lung diseases as well as other lifestyle-related ailments and cancers.
• The health status of the individuals would be scored and those with a score of above four would be asked to visit the nearest health centre for a check-up for lifestyle diseases.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister launched the second phase of the Ladli Laxmi scheme (Ladli Laxmi scheme-2.0).

• The scheme is an innovative initiative to encourage girl children to pursue higher education and make them self-dependent.
• The scheme is being implemented by the government of Madhya Pradesh since 2007 to enhance the economic and educational status of the girls.
• Ladli Laxmi scheme is a comprehensive scheme that offers financial assistance for a girl from birth until her marriage in instalments.
• The family of the girl child should be a permanent resident of Madhya Pradesh. The family should come under below the poverty line (BPL), i.e., should not be an income taxpayer. A maximum of two daughters can be registered under this scheme.

The Poumai tribe has declared that Poumai inhabited areas will be a Drug-Free Zone supporting the State government’s War on Drug campaign.

• A huge delegation of the Poumai tribe met Chief Minister and conveyed the resolution of the Drug-Free Zone in Poumai inhabited areas of the State.
• They also informed the Chief Minister that the poppy plantation will not be allowed in the Poumai areas.