03-01-22 Daily -Goa- GPSC Current Affairs

With an eye on the assembly constituencies in the mining belt, the cabinet on Monday granted approval to the re-introduction of the debt relief scheme for mining-affected borrowers of financial institutions, which will have an additional burden of Rs 11 crore on the state exchequer.

The cabinet note stated that since there was a request from stakeholders for further extension of the scheme, the request was forwarded to the government for a decision, however, in the meantime, the scheme expired on March 31 last year, thanks to which the CM had directed that the scheme be reintroduced for one year.

The borrowers who availed of credit facilities for barges, trucks, tippers, mining machinery/equipment from various financial institutions were unable to meet their repayment commitments, a senior official said. The non-performing assets (NPA) of the financial institutions increased substantially due to mining loans, especially in the co-operative sector.
During the last cabinet meeting, the state granted approval to a new policy for handling of mining dumps outside and inside mining leases through auctioning by the and allowing lessees to handle the dumps to restart mining activities in the state. Around 20 million tonnes of iron Ore are lying in the form of dumps.

The state has decided to auction mining leases. The government had identified eight mining leases to be auctioned, which are in Sattari and Bicholim talukas. Sawant had set a deadline to e-auction mining leases by December 15, but they have not yet been auctioned.

Union Environment Ministry has extended measures to conserve the ecologically sensitive Western Ghats. It will be delayed by another six months. Deadline to notify new rules have been extended till June 30, 2022

Earlier deadlines were set to expire on December 31, 2021.

On December 31, environment ministry issued a notification to amend Environment (Protection) Rules, 1986. In rule 5 (3) (d), December 31, 2021, will be substituted by June 30, 2022.

This clause is applicable to or restrictions imposed by government on the location of industries or carrying the processes and operations in an area.

The government seeks to prohibit or restrict industrial and developmental activities across 37% of the area in the mountain range. It accounts for an area of 59,940 sq km, over five states.

Zero is an agricultural practice. It maintains permanent Soil cover. It increases natural biological processes that occur in the soil. It improves sustained crop production and increases soil Nutrition. There is no soil disturbance.

Tillage is land preparation. Tilling of land means agitating the soil particles by overturning, digging and stirring. This is done to kill Weeds, crop residues and to aerate the soil. However, tilling destroys natural structure of the soil. If greater soil area is exposed to sunlight (which usually happens while tilling with the help of tractors), the moisture retaining capacity of soil is lost. On the other hand, zero tillage skips the tilling process. Here the crop seed is sown without land preparation. And the seeds are drilled into the soil.

It was released by DARPG on <a href="https://exam.pscnotes.com/good-Governance“>Good Governance Day (December 25). Gujarat topped the ranking and was followed by Maharashtra and Goa. It is essential to release these indices in order to assess the governance in the state.

The Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory is to get a district level <a href="https://exam.pscnotes.com/good-Governance“>Good Governance Index. The index is modelled on Good Governance Index 2021.

The index will assess the governance in different districts of Jammu and Kashmir. It is to be calculated considering 58 indicators in ten different sectors. The Centre for Good Governance (CGG) provided the technical support to create the framework of the index. The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) is to prepare the index.

The index is to be calculated based on the performance of the districts in 10 sectors such as Citizen Centric Governance, public safety and judiciary, welfare and development, economic governance, public Infrastructure and utilities, public Health, Human resource development, commerce and Industry and <a href="https://exam.pscnotes.com/Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture and allied sector.

It was first announced at the regional conference organised by DARPG (Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances) in Uttar Pradesh. The DARPG operates under the Ministry of Personnel, public grievances and pension. It is the nodal agency for administrative reforms and public grievance redressal.

The first phase of the census and data collection for updating the National Population Register (NPR) has been postponed at least until September 2022, according to the Central Government.

Highlights:

District, sub-district, taluka, tehsil, and Police station boundaries were frozen in December 2021, but this was postponed until June 2022.

The census cannot be conducted without the administrative unit boundary limits being frozen. It is completed at least three months in advance.

Between two censuses, all jurisdictional changes in an administrative area must be covered in order for administrative units to be finalized.

The number of districts has increased from 640 in 2011 to 736 in 2021, according to provisional data compiled by the Registrar General of India (RGI).

On August 25, 2021, India’s Trade Minister, Muhammad Lutfi, presented his case to Indonesia’s lower house of parliament for ratification of the Regional Comprehensive Economic PARTNERSHIP (RCEP) trade agreement.

Highlights:

Minister argued in his statement to DPR Commission VI that the RCEP will benefit Indonesia.

In the midst of the covid-19 pandemic, it also promises to strengthen its role in regional supply chains and improve the country’s economic performance.

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a between Australia, Brunei, China, Cambodia, Japan, Indonesia, Laos, South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam, which includes Australia, Brunei, China, Cambodia, Japan, Indonesia, Laos, South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

The RCEP does not include India or the United States. The 15-member bloc accounts for 30% of the global Population and 30% of the global GDP.