13-14-03-22 Daily-Himachal Pradesh-HPPSC Current Affairs

As many as 300 km roads connecting 20 panchayats will be constructed by the end of this year. As a result, 3,576 panchayats will be connected by roads. Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur had made this announcement in the Budget proposals presented on March 4. As many as 3,556 of 3,615 panchayats have already been connected by roads.

A target has been set to connect 20 more panchayats located in far-flung areas and having a difficult topography in the current financial year. With this, only 39 panchayats will be left without road connectivity.

The number of panchayats increased from 3,226 to 3,615 after re-organisation and of these, 3,556 panchayats have been connected by roads. Besides, 1,200 km of existing roads will be upgraded under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) and 23 new bridges will be constructed.

A sum of Rs 4,373 crore has been provided in the Budget for the construction of 1,060 km of motorable roads, 2,065 metalled roads, 75 bridges and cross drainage on 990 km of roads during 2022-23, increasing the total length of motorable and mettaled roads to 40,000 km and 34,000 km, respectively.

A proposal for the construction of 45 roads of 440 km length at an outlay of Rs 552 crore has been proposed under the PMGSY-III and their DPRs will be sent to the Union Government for approval by June this year.

There has been a marked increase inlightningand thunderstorms in the year 2021 and they have become deadlier too.

Sharing the details of casualties arising out of extremeweatherevents in 2021, director general of India Meteorological Department (IMD), Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, said out of 1,750 deaths occurring due to different extreme weather events, lightning accounted for 45% casualties corresponding to 787, far above than the casualties caused by cyclonic storms (172), which is otherwise considered more dreadful.

Deaths due to flood, heavy rain and landslide accounted for 43% (759) casualties. Lightning events causing deaths have mostly been reported from the eastern part of the country Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh.

TheIndian coast guard’s auxiliary bargeUrja Prabhawas launched byViraj Sharma, wife of deputy director general of the coast guardDR Sharma.

Urja Prabha is 36.96 metre long with a draft of 1.85 metre. It will enhance the INDIAN COAST GUARD operations by extending support to Indian Coast Guard ships deployed in the sea at far-flung areas.

The barge was launched atShoft Shipyard, Bharuch inGujarat.

Aimed at providing accessible, standardised and affordable generic medicines, the Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana (PMBJP) Kendras, which currently offer a product basket of 1,451 drugs and 240 surgical instruments, have added nutraceuticals products, including protein powder and bar, malt-based food supplements and immunity bar for its customers.

Currently there are about 8,675 PMBJP Kendras that have been opened in districts across the country with three IT enabled warehouses functional at Gurugram, Chennai and Guwahati and fourth one is ready to start operations at Surat.

The government has also set a target to increase the number of PMBJKs to 10,500 by the end of March 2025 along with a total of six warehouses.

Under the PMBJP being implemented by the Department of Pharmaceuticals, a medicine is priced on the principle of maximum of 50% of Average price of the top three brands of the said medicine. Thus, the prices of Jan Aushadhi Medicines are cheaper at least by 50% and in some cases, by 80% to 90% of the of the branded medicines.

Making a strong pitch for inclusion of in the daily diet of the Population for their nutritional value and other Health benefits, All India Pearl Millet Research Project has opined that the Central and State governments should make millets a component in the Public Distribution System (PDS), while incentivising farmers to grow nutri-Cereals at the same time.

The millet acreage of 13 million hectares in the country, pearl millet is grown in 7.41 million hectares. The productivity of the crop has gone up from 1200 kg per hectare to 1,370 kg per hectare since 2016. The Minimum Support Price (MSP) for the crop has gone up from 1,300 per quintal to 2,250 per quintal. However, the farmers are being offered much less than this by private buyers.

Sci-fi epic Dune won five prizes and brooding Western The Power of the Dog was named best film as the British Academy Film Awards returned Sunday with a live, black-tie ceremony after a pandemic-curtailed event in 2021.

New Zealand filmmaker Jane Campion was named best director for The Power of the Dog, becoming only the third woman to win the prize in the awards 75-year HISTORY.

The Hungarian parliament has elected Katalin Novak, a detailed ally of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, as the EU member’s first-ever female president.

Highlights

The Hungarian parliament has elected Katalin Novak, a detailed ally of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, as the EU member’s first-ever female president.

Novak, who last served as a minister for family policy, portrayed her election as a victory for Women.