03-01-22 Daily-Odisha-OPSC Current Affairs

The Centre has expressed displeasure on the state governments poor progress in implementation of the vehicle location tracking system in public transport vehicles.
The ministry ofroad transportand highways has been providing financial assistance from Nirbhaya fund to states to implement the project for the safety of Women commuters. The has been asked to expedite thewomen safetyproject.

Sources said the proposed projects cost is around Rs 15.40 crore. The Centre and state would share 60% and 40% of the project cost, respectively. Out of the Central share of Rs 9.24 crore, the Centre has released nearly Rs 4.19 crore to the state government.
Under the project, all passenger buses, mini-buses, school buses and cabs/taxis will compulsorily be equipped with the vehicle location tracking (VLT) devices and panic buttons near the seats for the safety of women travellers. Women travellers in distress can press the emergency buttons and expect quick response from the Police.

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.