02-03-22 Daily-Himachal Pradesh-HPPSC Current Affairs

The grim national economy has prevented the Centre from offering any help to the hill state in the Union Budget earlier this month. Rising demands of the employee organisations for higher scales, regularisation of jobs, removal of pay anomalies, etc, has aggravated his problems in the election year as meeting them will need thousands of crores of rupees.

Major challenges before the Chief Minister are huge debt liabilities, and compulsion of announcing special packages to small and medium industries, creation of jobs, addressing the sky-rocketing prices of essential commodities like petrol and diesel, besides enhancing the allocations in MGNREGA, Health, Education, etc.

The latest report of CAG has made a startling revelation that Himachals debt burden has mounted to Rs 62,212 crore in the financial year 2019-20 as compared to previous year i.e. Rs 53,147 crore. This needs to be addressed in the upcoming budget on urgent basis.

Twin factors, checking fiscal deficit and debt liabilities, make it necessary to increase allocation in capital expenditures which was pegged at Rs 11,701 crore in 2021-22. It was a huge dip of 31.81 per cent as compared to 2020-21 (Rs 17,449) and 3 per cent down from previous year i.e. 2019-20 (Rs 12,333 crore).

TheGoods and Service Tax(GST) collection inHimachal Pradeshregistered an increase of 25% in February, amounting to a collection of Rs 377 crore.
The GST collection in the current financial year so far is Rs 4,933 crore, which is 21% more than the previous year.

The department has trained around 450 tax officers recently and verified 12 lakh e-way bills during road checking in the current fiscal.

The department is also committed to improve voluntary compliance with time-bound redressal of the issues of the stakeholders, he said.

A free Health camp was conducted for the workers and supervisory staff involved in the works related to the water conveyor system under the Kaleshwaram lift Irrigation project at Namapur village in Pegadapalli mandal of Jagtial district.

According to a press release, the free health camp was conducted by the executing agency concerned on the occasion of the National Safety Day.

More than 300 persons availed the free Services offered by a team of doctors at the medical camp.

The Control Bureau (NCB) will hire experts and firms dealing with financial data analysis and forensic audit to augment its probe in sophisticated drug crimes that involve use of the dark web, cryptocurrencies and deals concealed through layered transactions.

The NCB has issued a notice for empanelment of consultancy agencies which would be required to help it in “unearthing the chain of transactions for drug Money and provide effective guidance in financial investigation matters.”

The experts will also assist NCB sleuths in conducting forensic audits, scrutiny of reports and documents and analysing bank statements, and property transactions to unearth the illegal income of an accused, associates and family members.

UNICEF YuWaah facilitated the NaariShakti conversation, on STEM and Financial Literacy for Young Women. STEM refers to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.

The event was part of the Ministry of Women and Child Developments Iconic Week celebrating International Womens Day under the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav.

Union Minister for Women & Child Development, Smriti Irani participated in the event.

YuWaah is a UNICEF-initiated multi-stakeholder global platform. It aims to prepare young people to transition from Education and Learning to productive work and active .

Sambhav and Svavlamban initiatives were launched by Union Minister of State for Micro, Small and Medium enterprises (MSMEs),Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma, at the International Summit on Plastics Recycling and Waste Management.

The Sambhav and Svavlamban initiatives and the summit will have multiple benefits i.e. formalizing the informal waste sector, job creation in the MSME sector, and reduction in plastic waste.

These initiatives aim to encourage young entrepreneurs, especially from the aspirational districts of India.

The two-day-long 19th military cooperation meeting between India and the US has ended in Agra in Uttar Pradesh, the DEFENCE Ministry stated.

The India-US military cooperation group is a forum established to progress defence cooperation between the countries through regular talks at the strategic and operational levels between Headquarters of Integrated Defence Staff and the US Indo-Pacific Command, the Defence Ministry mentioned.

China announced a 7.1% hike in its DEFENCE spending as well as an annual GDP Growth target of around 5.5% for the coming year.

Chinas Premier and second-ranked leader Li Keqiang announced the GDP target at the opening of the week-long session of the National Peoples Congress (NPC) or Parliament, which approves policies for the coming year.

A draft budget, which the NPC will approve, said defence spending would be hiked by 7.1% to 1.45 trillion Yuan or around $ 230 billion. The military budget was hiked by 6.8% last year when it crossed the $200 billion mark for the first time. Indias military spending this year was announced as around $70 billion, a 4.4% hike from the previous year, although a greater share of Indias defence spending goes towards imports and pensions.

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and <a href="https://exam.pscnotes.com/Climate-change”>Climate Change has clarified that the railways does not need to seek permission to develop Infrastructure on its land in forest areas, after its contradictory orders on the issue created confusion in many states.

This paves the way for the national transporter to execute infrastructure projects even in sensitive forest areas without seeking permission from the Centre.

In a boost to aviation sector, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation(DGCA) has approved a new variant of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited’s aircraft ‘Hindustan 228-201 LW.’

Giving details of the nod, the public sector aerospace conglomerate said on Monday, this variant has maximum take-off weight of 5,695 kg with 19 passenger capability. With this modification, the aircraft would fall in the Sub 5,700 kg aircraft category, the Hal said.

E-Sanjeevani app’s 10 cr reach reflects power of India’s digital revolution

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday highlighted the contribution made by E-Sanjeevani app towards treating 10 crore patients by way of tele and video consultations as he spoke on various issues including Swachh Bharat Mission, Tribeni Kumbh Mahotsav, and Ustad Bismillah Khan Youth Award.

The Prime Minister said the country has seen that in the time of Corona, E-Sanjeevani played a pivotal role in giving contact less treatment to the virus affected patients.

The Centre and Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) have directed state governments to expedite energy efficiency activities on a mission mode.

In accordance with the Government of Indias policy to increase energy efficiency and substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions by achieving the countrys <a href="https://exam.pscnotes.com/Climate-change”>Climate Change targets (Panchamrit), the Union Ministry of Power-led BEE has emphasized the need for all state designated agencies to engage deeply in the energy efficiency movement on a mission mode.

This type of corrosion is characterized by a wormhole-like 1D morphology that can serve as a mass-flow pathway.

The discovery of this type of corrosion is significant for the understanding of material degradation mechanisms in molten salt environments, particularly in relation to next-generation nuclear power Plants that use molten salts as coolants.

The 1D wormhole corrosion is a highly localized form of penetrating corrosion that occurs in a nickel-chromium Alloy when exposed to molten fluoride salt.