17-05-23 Daily-Himachal Pradesh-HPPSC Current Affairs

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu reviewed the progress of various ongoing National Highway (NH) projects in the state focusing on resolving issues related to land compensation, clearances of FRA (Forest Rights Act) and FCA (Forest conservation Act), and other bottlenecks of the projects.

The Chief Minister lauded the efforts of the officers for disbursing Rs 804 crore as land compensation in various NH projects within a month. He also emphasized the importance of completing the disbursement process of the remaining compensation cases worth about Rs 750 crore by March 27, 2023.

As the roads are the lifeline of the Himachal Pradesh, the has been working diligently to ensure the timely completion of National Highway projects. The State Government’s efforts to expedite the land compensation and other clearances process would facilitate smoother implementation of the projects and provide better road connectivity to the people as well as tourists visiting the state, he said.

Sukhu directed the officers to expedite the FRA-FCA clearance cases, by monitoring the cases every 15 days. He said that a follow-up review meeting would be held on March 27 (Monday) to access the progress made in these matters.

The Ministry of <a href="https://exam.pscnotes.com/Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture in its third advance estimates, released on Thursday pegged Indias overall foodgrains output at a record 330.53 million tonnes in the 2022-23 crop year, as against the actual output of 315.61 million tonnes in the previous crop year.

The wheat production is also estimated to set a record at 112.74 million tonnes in the ongoing 2022-23 crop year (July-June), higher by five million tonnes from the previous year on increased acreage and yield despite unseasonal rains.

Besides wheat, a record output has been estimated in rice, maize, oilseeds, and sugarcane.

The foodgrain basket comprises wheat, rice, nutri-coarse and pulses. The production of wheat in the country is estimated at 112.74 million tonne, which is higher by 5 million tonne as compared to previous years production, the agriculture ministry said.

Wheat production had declined to 107.74 million tonnes due to heat wave in key growing states in 2021-22 crop year. The previous record of 109.59 million tonnes in wheat output was achieved during the 2020-21 crop year.

For the first time, Union Ministry of Minority Affairs has come forward to take steps to boost the Unani system of medicine in the country as it cleared a Rs 45 crore worth proposal envisaging upgradation and establishment of various facilities of the alternate medicine system at major metros Hyderabad, Lucknow, Chennai and Bengaluru and Silchar in Assam.

The Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine (CCRUM) has been sanctioned a total amount of Rs. 35.52 crores while National Institute of Unani Medicine (NIUM), Bengaluru has been allocated Rs. 9.81 crores for the task to be executed under Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas Karyakram (PMJVK), a centrally sponsored scheme (CSS). A centre for fundamental research in Unani Medicine at National Research Institute of Unani Medicine for Skin Disorders, Hyderabad will be established at a cost of Rs. 16.05 crores while a Rs. 8.15 crores preclinical laboratory facility has been planned at Regional Research Institute of Unani Medicine, Chennai.

In a landmark technological advancement using (AI), researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M) have developed a possible solution to traffic snarls on Indian roads through the use of a probe-based approach for real-time re-timing of traffic signals. This is probably the first time a probe-based, demand-responsive signal control has been developed for Indian conditions.

The researchers conducted a study in which travel-time data from four sample-probe vehicles were used to calculate Green and Red timings for each signal cycle. A signal cycle is the time between one green signal to the next green signal or one red signal to the next red signal for a selected movement.

The traffic composition in India is very different from that in the Western countries. In India, the traffic is usually referred to as belonging to the category of mixed traffic conditions, with a variety of vehicle classes juxtaposed with lane-free movement.