15-04-21 Daily-Kerala-KPSC Current Affairs

The city Corporation has finally hit 50% fund expenditure for projects being executed under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) scheme. As on Saturday, the Corporation has spent 50.55% of a total of 357.50 crores allocated for the scheme, with some of the bigger projects under it awaiting commission.

After initial hiccups in getting the scheme started, the civic body maintained a steady pace for projects under the scheme. However, the last year and a half has been beset with delays due to a variety of reasons. Following the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, most of the projects came to a standstill, as some of the major projects depended on labourers from outside the State, many of whom had travelled back Home then.

Two extended periods of <a href="https://exam.pscnotes.com/model-code-of-conduct”>Model Code Of Conduct, first due to the local body Elections towards the end of the previous year and the ongoing one owing to the Assembly elections, have also affected the pace of projects.

The maximum expenditure comes in water supply projects, with 76.57% of the funds spent and 30 out of a total of 45 projects being completed. In the sewerage and septage management projects, 74 out of a total of 114 projects have been completed, with an expenditure of 38.29%.

Indiaselectricmobility sector is on a steady road to recovery, post a lockdown-induced dip in sales. The sector registered nearly 1.35 lakh EVs in FY21, according to CEEW Centre for Energy Finances (CEEW-CEF) electric mobility dashboard.

The updated dashboard released on Wednesday highlighted that electric vehicle (EV) registrations formed 0.88 % of all vehicle registrations in the last financial year – the highest share ever achieved. The Indian automobile market has registered over 6.38 lakh EVs since 2011-12.

The mobility dashboard shows that the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME) in India – II scheme has achieved only 4.25% of its sales targets till now. One major barrier could be that many potential EV buyers are unaware of the financial incentives available to them such as user subsidies and significant exemptions from road tax and registration fees.

The MANAS App was introduced by the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India to encourage Health among all age groups.

NIMHANS Bengaluru, AFMC Pune, and C-DAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing) Bengaluru collaborated on the project.

The Prime Minister’s Science, Technology, and Innovation Advisory Council approved MANAS, which stands for Mental Health and Normalcy Augmentation System, as a national programme (PM-STIAC).

It’s a nationwide interactive wellness Network that’s robust, scalable, and customizable. It’s an app that was created to help Indian people improve their mental health.

It brings together various government ministries’ health and wellness efforts, scientifically validated indigenous Resources, and gamified interfaces developed/researched by various national bodies and academic institutions.

The app was unveiled as part of C-DAC’s 34th anniversary celebrations.

The <a href="https://exam.pscnotes.com/Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture ministry has selected 100 villages in six states Uttar Pradesh,Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana,RajasthanandAndhra Pradesh for pilot projects ondigitalfarming, leveraging the use of technology, data and (AI) in supporting farmers in multiple activities. It has signed an MoU withMicrosoft Indiato develop farmers interface for post-harvest management and distribution.

This project will reduce input costs for farmers and make farming easy. It is proposed to undertake similar pilot projects with other public and private players to create a vibrant digital agro-ecosystem in the country.

Microsoft India has joined its local partner, CropData, to do the pilot projects in 100 villages across 10 districts in six states. Digital technology and data will be used to assist farmers in taking right and cost-effective decisions.