21-09-21 Daily-Odisha-OPSC Current Affairs

The size of the State economy has increased from ` 4 lakh crore in 2016-17 to `4.25 lakh crore in 2017-18 and `5 lakh crore in 2020-21 and nearly `6 lakh crore during the current financial year, sources said.

Similarly, the State Budget has also increased from `95,000 crore in 2016-17 to over `1 lakh crore in 2018-19 and `1.39 lakh crore in 2019-20 and `1.5 lakh crore in 2020-21.

Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, the size of Annual Budget of Odisha in 2021-22 has increased by around 26% to `1.70 lakh crore. The public has also gone up even at a faster rate.

On September 17, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had said the State economy is bouncing back from the adverse impacts of the pandemic and is back to track.

Investors are expanding their existing projects in Odisha in spite of the impact of Covid pandemic. We have attracted investments to the tune of over Rs 4.5 lakh crore since the pandemic, the CM said.

The State has been consistently generating surplus revenue and containing Fiscal Deficit within the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) limit. The States GST collection in July this year also registered a 54% Growth over the corresponding period of the previous year.

In spite of the Covid-19 restrictions, the State recorded a growth of 72% in revenue collection till August 31 of the current financial year 2021-22. The State has collected revenue worth Rs 31,198.58 crore from various sources by the end of August while the collection during the same period of 2020-21 was Rs 18,149.38 crore.

The revenue generation from own-tax sources grew by 32.64 and the non-tax revenue increased by 130.44% by August 31. The expenditure of the State has also gone up by 27.72% by August 31. The total expenditure till end of August was Rs 40, 299 crore whereas the total expenditure up to the same period of last fiscal was Rs 33,769.84 crore.

Similarly, the debt stock of the State by the end of July 2021 stood at 17.6% against the FRBM limit of 25%.

The capital outlay is budgeted at Rs 25,788 crore, around 15% of the total budget of 2021-22, the sources said..

The Minister of Railways introduced the RAILWAY Kaushal Vikas Yojana (RKVY), a program under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY).

About the Rail Kaushal Vikas Yojana (RKVY):

Rail Kaushal Vikas Yojana is a skills development program for unemployed young people in India, which provides technical training in various industries to improve their employability and entrepreneurial spirit.

Rail Kaushal Vikas Yojana (RKVY) is one of the skills upgrading training programs under the Ministry of Railways and the Ministry of Skills Development and of India.

Cost-free training is imparted in Railway Training Institutes for eligible youths throughout the country.

Any Matric with an age limit between 18-35 years old can choose and apply for online and offline training through students

A certificate to be given on successful completion of the training.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is working on technologies in order to develop reusable GSLV Mk-III launch vehicle.

This new technology will help ISRO to land its GSLV Mk-III launch vehicles vertically.

It will be similar to what Elon Musks SpaceX is doing.

With this technology, ISRO also seeks to recover the first and second stages of the launch vehicle.

Development of reusable GSLV Mk-III launch vehicle will help ISRO is saving Money as well.

To develop reusable GSLV Mk-III launch vehicle, a wholesale change or augmentation has been made. One of the ways of bringing change is that, vehicle would have to rework its three stages. Second liquid stage will be replaced with a semi-cryo stage, while the terminal cryo stage C-25, will be converted into C-32. Apart from this, inert mass for the terminal stage will be optimised.

The 18th ASEAN-India Economic Ministers (AEM) Consultations were held virtually on 14th September.

Highlights:

The economic ministers of the 10 ASEAN countries attended the meeting

Among different things, the ministers actively mentioned the early commencement of the ASEAN India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITIGA) Review.

The Ministers mentioned the status of the scoping exercise of the review and resolved to complete the method expeditiously to make the agreement trade facilitative, user-friendly with modern and streamlined customs and regulatory procedures.

China has applied to join the Asia-Pacific Free Trade grouping of 11-nation in a bid to increase its influence over international policies.

Application was submitted by the Commerce Minister Wang Wentao, to the Trade Minister of New Zealand as a representative of Comprehensive & Progress Agreement for Trans-Pacific PARTNERSHIP (CPTPP) or the Asia-Pacific free Trade grouping.

CPTPP was originally the Trans-Pacific Partnership. It was a group promoted by former President Barack Obama as part of USAs increasing emphasis on its relations with Asia.

China was not included in the initial group.

Donald Trump had pulled out the group in 2017 and the current President of US Joe Biden has not yet re-joined the group.

US President Joe Biden administration has announced a new trilateral security partnership for the Indo-pacific. Security partnership was done between Australia, United Kingdom and United States.

This security grouping called AUKUS, will focus towards advancing strategic interests in the Indo-Pacific region.

Officials noted that, the trilateral grouping was security focused and is different but complementary to arrangements like the Quad.

The central feature of this partnership comprises of a trilateral 18-month effort in order to help Australia in acquiring nuclear powered submarines which are quieter, more capable as compared to their conventional counterparts.

Such submarines can be deployed for longer periods and needing to surface less frequently.

These are nuclear powered submarines and not armed with nuclear weapons.

AUKUS will also involve a new architecture of meeting and engagements between three countries.

It also involves the cooperation across emerging technologies like AI, quantum technologies as well as undersea capabilities.

AUKUS partnership is a very rare because U.S. shared this kind of technology on nuclear powered submarines only once to UK, before sharing it with Australia.

Australia will assist Indias Gaganyaan mission through tracking it via Cocos Keeling island. There are blind spots by which there is an opportunity of not receiving signals, sources said. The records relay satellite monitoring from Cocos Keeling island is anticipated to help tackle the issue.

Highlights:

Satellites in orbit can’t skip alongside their information to the ground stations on Earth if it does not now have a clear view of the floor station. A relay satellite serves as a way to bypass the satellites information.

Official announcement of the Gaganyaan programme was made by PM Modi at some point of his Independence Day tackle on 15th August 2018.

The first target was to launch the human spaceflight earlier than the 75th anniversary of Indias independence on August 15, 2022.
The goal of the Gaganyaan programme is to reveal the capability to ship people to low earth orbit on board an Indian launch vehicle and convey them back to earth safely.