19-20-02-23 Daily-Kerala-KPSC Current Affairs

Though the budget presented by finance minister K N Balagopal did not announce any major IT projects, all major IT parks in the state managed to get fund allocation for development works. This will help make the IT corridor project announced in the previous budget a reality.

An amount of Rs 26. 60cr has been earmarked for developmental activities of Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram, Rs 35. 75cr for the development of Infopark, Kochi and Rs 12. 83cr for Cyber Park, Kozhikode.

The minister also announced that the construction works of the proposed IT park in Kannur will start this year itself. Along with developing the existing IT centres, the government is planning to set up new IT corridors parallel to NH-66 which is being developed as a six-lane highway.

A total of Rs 559cr has been earmarked for the IT sector, in the budget. Among this, Rs 127. 37cr has been provided forKeralaState Information Technology Mission and Rs 53cr for State Data Centre.

Kerala Fibre Optic Network (K-FON) project got Rs 100cr while Rs 2cr was earmarked for providing free household Internet connection under K-FON project to 70,000 eligible BPL families. For this, 500 families will be identified in each assembly constituency.

An official announced that Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharajs 393rd birthday celebration will take place in the Diwan-e-Aam area of the Agra Fort. The 17th-century Maratha emperor, also known as Shivaji Bhonsale I, was born on February 19, 1630.

It is being put on by the social and cultural organization Ajinkya Deogiri Pratisthan in coordination with the Maharashtra Ministry of Culture Affairs.

India has set a target of achieving $14 billion in exports of marine products by 2025 and efforts are being made to achieve the target, said Anupriya Patel, Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industrysaid.

The seafood export sector is showing a positive trend during this year as well, showing a Growth of 3 per cent, the Minister said at the inaugural function of the 23^rdIndia International Seafood Show 2023 at Kolkata.

India is holding the Presidency of theG20from December 1, 2022 to November 30, 2023. During India’s time as president, the country is committed to maintaining its focus on Food Security.

Towards this goal, India plans to propose the launch of a global initiative to encourage Millets consumption and production known as– Millet International Initiative for Research and Awareness also known as MIIRA.

The UN‘s declaration as the International Year of Millet 2023 has been instrumental for India to be at the forefront in celebrating the millet year. MIIRA is in line with this declaration. The MIIRA secretariat will be in Delhi.

Besides setting up a web platform to connect researchers and holding international research conferences, the plan is also to promote millet consumption by raising awareness.

The government is targeting close to 21 million tonne (MT) of millet production in 2022-23; this stood at 14.5 MT in 2015-16. Indias exports stood at 159,332 tonne in FY22 versus 147,501 tonne in FY21.

In an effort to boost bilateral DEFENCE ties between the two countries, the fourth edition of the 14-day-long joint military exercise DUSTLIK between the Indian Army and Uzbekistan Army commenced on Monday in Foreign Training Node, Pithoragarh (Uttarakhand).

The joint exercise will focus on joint counter-terrorist operations in mountainous and semi-urban scenario under United Nations(UN) mandate and will include field training exercises, combat discussions, lectures, demonstrations and culminate with a validation exercise, they said.

Both sides will jointly train, plan and execute a series of tactical drills for neutralisation of likely threats, while Learning to exploit new generation equipment and technology for conducting joint operations.