11.07.23 Daily [Telangana] TSPSC Current Affairs

A new study by researchers from severalIndian Institutes of Technology(IITs), including Hyderabad, and other organisations has revealed energy consumption discrepancies in the Indian brick . They have analysed energy conservation in brick production.Telanganaproduces 3% andAndhra Pradesh4% of Indias bricks. The study, Reconciliation of Energy Use Disparities in Brick Production in India, has been published in Nature.

Highlighting the significance of energy conservation in achieving carbon neutrality in the building sector, the study shows that current energy consumption estimates in the brick industry were vastly underestimated, comparable to that of steel and cement industries. Researchers, including Azharuddin Hashmi and Asif Qureshi from IIT-H, had modelled Indian brick production and regional energy consumption by combining a nationwide questionnaire survey and remote sensing data on kiln enumeration.

States in the west and east are responsible for 10% and 8% production (of bricks). The contributions from the north and North-East are meagre. This implies that the operational practices in the Indo-Gangetic plain and the peninsula have the largest influence on national energy consumption.

Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah will inaugurate a day-long mega conclave Strengthening PACS through FPOs in New Delhi on July 14, 2023. The conclave is aimed at discussing ways to strengthen <a href="https://exam.pscnotes.com/primary-agricultural-credit-societies”>Primary Agricultural credit Societies (PACS) through Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs).

The conclave will witness participation of experts from the sector as well as members from the FPOs across the country. The mega conclave is being organized by the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) in collaboration with the Union Ministry of Cooperation.

With an important initiative of the Ministry of Cooperation Ministry, the Ministry of <a href="https://exam.pscnotes.com/Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has recently allocated additional blocks to NCDC to form and promote 1100 FPOs in Cooperative Sector through strengthening of PACS under the scheme to bolster the cooperative sector and provide comprehensive support to small and marginal farmers.

Under the FPOs Scheme, financial assistance of Rs.33 lakh is provided to each FPO. Further, financial assistance of Rs. 25 lakh per FPO is given to the Cluster Based Business Organizations (CBBOs) for promoting and handholding the FPOs.

The Government has been pushing for integration of the PACS in the FPO scheme to enable the farmers to expand their business range of activities such as supply of production inputs; agricultural equipments like cultivator, tiller, harvester, etc. and processing and value addition, including cleaning, assaying, sorting, grading, packing, storage, transportation, etc.

The PACS have a huge member base of around 13 crore farmers who are primarily engaged in short-term credit and distribution of seeds, Fertilizers, etc. Presently, more than 86% of farmers in the country are small and marginal.

The NCDC is a statutory organisation under Ministry of Cooperation with the mandate to plan, promote, and finance cooperatives for increasing production and productivity and instituting post-harvest facilities.

The All India Football Federation (AIFF) on Tuesday passed a budget of Rs 134 crore — an increase of nearly 50 crore from last year — for 2023-24 during its Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Bengaluru.

The AIFF budget for 2022-23 was Rs 87 crore, which its general secretaryShaji Prabhakaranhad termed “meagre” for a big country like India.

The AGM also approved the appointment of a statutory auditor to audit the accounts of the federation and the financial statements and audit reports of 2022-23.

A radical change in the parameters adopted by the department of school Education & Literacy, Unionministry of educationhas seen a sharp fall in scores of all states in the latest Performance Grading Index (PGI). None of the 28 states and eight Union territories have been able to finish in the top five levels Daksh, Utkarsh, Ati-Uttam, Uttam and Pracheshta-1.

Only two small states,PunjabandHaryanahave managed to get the 6th level, Pracheshta-2, with scores between 641-700. UP, along with 11 others, is among Akankshi-2 states (score band 461-520) in the PGI analysis released last week for 2021-22. In 2020-21, seven states were in level II with scores between 901-950, while none of the states could qualify for the level 1 (951-1000). UP, along with 11 other states, was in level III (score band 851-900). Likewise, last years top performing states KeralaandMaharashtra are among the second best performing states/UTs in the 2021-22 grading. Both these states plunged to Prachesta-3 (581-640 score).

Due to the drastic change in parameters, the scores of PGI 2020-21 can’t be compared with those of 2021-22, stated the PGI report. Starting in 2017-18, it was felt that many parameters of the PGI had lost relevance. Therefore, the PGI structure for 2021-22 was revised and renamed PGI 2.0.

The new PGI structure covers 73 indicators, focused more on qualitative assessment besides including digital initiatives and teacher education. It reduces the weightage given to the Governance Processes.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan introduced a new condition for approving Swedens membership in NATO, calling on European countries to open the way for Turkiye to join the European Union.

The surprise announcement by Erdogan before departing to a NATO summit in Lithuanias capital added new uncertainty to Swedens bid to become the alliances 32nd member, which Turkiye initially blocked saying Sweden was too soft on Kurdish militants and other groups that Ankara considers security threats.

It was the first time that Erdogan linked his countrys ambition to join the EU with Swedens efforts to become a NATO member.

Turkiye is a candidate to join the EU, but democratic backsliding during Erdogans presidency, disputes with EU-member Cyprus and other issues have held up the countrys progress toward admission in the 27-nation bloc.