24-10-22 Daily -Goa- GPSC Current Affairs

The Centre has written to the Goa government and directed it to complete the smart city mission projects by mid 2023 as the smart city mission is being wound up. The Centre has also formally communicated to ImaginePanajiSmart City Development Ltd (IPSCDL) to ensure efficient utilisation of funds for the approved projects before the mission deadline.

At the national level, implementation of the mission is monitored by an apex committee headed by secretary for Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA). The deadline for completing projects under the Smart Cities Mission (SCM) was extended for all 100 selected cities to June 2023 based on a recommendation.

All officers of the cabinet secretariat, including the cabinet secretary, have adopted Tuberculosis (TB) patients in various parts of the country under the Ni-kshayMitra initiative launched by the Centre recently.

One out of every four TB patients in the world is in India. In absolute numbers, it stands at 26. 9 lakh Indians, as per latest data. A huge majority of those TB patients are poor. TB treatment is free, funded by the government, which also provides some for maintaining a proper diet. But this is a disease that hits the poor really hard because treatment calls for periods of rest and regular intake of nutritious food over a period of months, and both are often out of reach for those who live on modest daily incomes.

According to updates shared by thehealth ministryon nikshay. in, a portal that maintains real-time information on the status of the adoption scheme, of the 13. 5 lakh TB patients who are on treatment currently, 10. 6 lakh (nearly 75%) had consented for adoption under the Centres scheme.

Rapid roll-out of smart meters for power consumers are leading to a sharp improvement in the financial parameters of discoms (distribution companies), initial reports on the implementation of the Centre’s Rs 3.3 lakh crore scheme in states show.

According to a power ministry presentation made at a recent brainstorming session of state power ministers, discoms showed a sharp improvement in billing efficiency, recovery of arrears and actual consumption getting recorded in states replacing old meters with smart meters in earnest.

Though Bihar leads in penetration of pre-paid meters at 92%, UP has installed the highest number of smart meters (post-paid category) at more than 11.5 lakh.
Bihar is a close second with 11 lakh smart meters installed, Rajasthan 5.5 lakh, Haryana 5.3 lakh, Assam 4.1 lakh and Delhi 2.5 lakh.

The Union tourism ministry has directed all states and Union Territories to implement the Tourist Police scheme, especially in places with high tourist footfalls, within the ongoing financial year.

States that have already rolled out the scheme have been instructed to scale up the schemes reach to cover more areas frequented by tourists, while those who are yet to start were given a lowdown this month on the best practices followed by states like Rajasthan, who have implemented the Tourist Police scheme successfully.

At presentAndhra Pradesh, Delhi, Goa,Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra,Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh have deployed tourist police in one form or another.

The Tourist Police scheme, meant to make a tourists experience in the country more hassle free, secure and seamless, was rolled out in 25 tourist destinations as a pilot project in 2019, but could not be implemented across the country due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Union Minister Jitendra Singh on October 21 said more than 30 lakh Central and officials will be trained and exposed to emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine Learning and blockchain by 2023 for effective Governance and service delivery at the grassroots.

He said there are 25 Central training institutions, 33 State-level administrative training institutions and other civil service training institutions, besides Capacity Building Commission and the Wadhwani Institute of Technology and Policy (WITP) which will jointly achieve this noble mission.