28-03-23 Daily-Odisha-OPSC Current Affairs

India achieved the “elimination of leprosy as a public Health problem” as per World Health Organization (WHO) criteria of less than one case per 10,000 Population at the national level in 2005. However, data shows the number of leprosy cases has again risen in the country.

In response to a question raised in Parliament, the data presented by the Union minister of health and family welfare,Mansukh Mandaviya, revealed that the number has increased by 15.7% in 2021-22 as compared to the previous year. From 65,147 in 2020-21, it increased to 75,394 in 2021-22. Till January 2023, there were 88,278 active cases of chronic infectious disease in the country.

As per the data, till January 2023, a maximum 17,014 cases were reported in Maharashtra, followed by Bihar (11,318), UP (10,312),Chhattisgarh(7,422), Madhya Pradesh (7,313), Jharkhand (6,184), Odisha (6,088) and West Bengal (5,012).

The government is considering a proposal to build 37 more roads with a cumulative length of 875 km along the India-China border. This Rs 13,000 crore work has been proposed under theIndia-China BorderRoads (ICBR) programme. Nearly 70% of these roads under ICBR-III would be built inArunachal Pradesh, as per the proposal.

Currently, the phase-I and II of ICBR are underway and these involve construction of 1,435 km of roads inLadakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Arunachal Pradesh with an estimated Investment of around Rs 1,600 crore.

The ICBR project envisages developing Infrastructure along the China-Indian border by constructing strategic roads, including bridges and tunnels, and its largely in response to Infrastructure Development by the Chinese on the other side of the border.

First SolarInc andAvaada Groupare among winners of Indias 195 billion rupees ($2.4 billion) in incentives to encourage domestic manufacturing of solar modules.

Tempe, Arizona-based First Solar won a government grant of 11.78 billion rupees for its planned 3.4 gigawattTamil Naduplant, which will be a fully integrated facility,Sujoy Ghosh, the companys India managing director, said by phone.

Avaada Group, backed by Thailands oil and gas major PTT Pcl, was also awarded a grant, according to its chairman, Vineet Mittal. The company won a production-linked incentive of 9.62 billion rupees for 3 gigawatts of capacity from wafers to cells and modules, he said, adding the company would consider expanding the project to 5 gigawatts.

India plans to more than quadruple its solar generation capacity to 280 gigawatts by 2030, making it an attractive market for module makers. The country has levied import taxes to protect local makers, although it has had to relax a key non-tariff barrier to imports temporarily to prevent a slowdown in project installations.

According to Nitin Gadkari, Indias Union Road Transport and Highways Minister, the countrys highways will be at par with that of the United States by 2024. He revealed that the government is working on this goal in a time-bound mission mode, which includes the development of green expressways and rail over bridges. These initiatives are aimed at ensuring that Indias highway infrastructure matches the standards of the US by the specified timeline.

The ambitious project aims to construct over 5,000 km of expressways and highways at an estimated cost of nearly 3 trillion.

The Bharatmala Pariyojana, Indias largest infrastructure program, will connect more than 580 districts in the country by developing around 35,000 km of National Highway corridors

Americas biggest bank First Citizens Bank acquires all loans and deposits of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) on March 27, 2023.

The deal was locked for worth $110 billion in assets, $56 billion of deposits and loans of $72 billion.

This was done after the Banking system collapsed recently. This is in line with the downturn of the economy across the globe.