Telangana Affairs
Qualcomm strikes biggest SEZ lease deal in Telangana
US-based semiconductors and wireless technology giantQualcommis setting up a mega facility spread over nearly 1.6 million sq ft at a SEZ in Hyderabad. This will be the largest SEZ leasing deal inTelangana. It will also be Qualcomms largest facility in India.
The Qualcomm facility, to be housed over 17 storeys at the Sustain Properties Pvt Ltd SEZ being developed by K Raheja Group at Raidurg, will entail an of Rs 3,904 crore and will create about 8,700 jobs over the next five years, the Visakhapatnam Special Economic Zone (VSEZ) said.
The mega SEZ facility is expected to generate IT Services exports to the tune of Rs 28,658 crore over the next five years, it said.
The project has also received approval from the unit approval committee of VSEZ at a meeting held recently. All SEZs in Telangana fall under VSEZ.
National and International Affairs
Nine states, UTs yet to adopt gender budgeting
Even though the government adoptedgender budgetingin 2005-06 as a strategy to advance gender mainstreaming, nine states andUnion Territories Goa, , Haryana, Chandigarh, Meghalaya, Ladakh, Mizoram, Puducherry and Sikkim are yet to adopt it. So far, 27 states UTs and 37 central ministries and departments have adopted <a href="https://exam.pscnotes.com/gender-BUDGETING“>Gender Budgeting.
The Gender Budget Statement (GBS) is a reporting mechanism to assess budgets which are being allocated for Women and girls by different ministries and departments. Data shared by women and child development minister Smriti Irani in a written response to a question in Lok Sabha showed that for 2021-22, Rs 1,53,326 crore has been allocated for women and girls by 43 ministries, departments and UTs.
The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has approved a grant of Rs 200,000 for V Tejaswini Bai of Karnataka, who won the Arjuna Award in 2011 and was a member of the womens Kabaddi team, that won gold medal games at the Asian Olympic Games in 2014 and 2014 respectively. The Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay National Welfare Fund for Sportspersons (PDUNWFS) has approved financial assistance.
States look to meet Har Ghar Jal target ahead of national goal
As the Centres flagship programme to provide tap water connections to all rural households in the country has entered its third year of implementation, states and Union Territories (UTs) have started rolling out their annual planning exercise with objective to meet their respective targets ahead of the national goal of 2024.
Funds will be released by the Jal Shakti ministry to the states/UTs as per their approved plans under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) that aims to provide tap connections to all rural households in the country by 2024.
In addition to Rs 50,000 crore budgetary allocation for the JJM, there is also assured fund of Rs 26,940 crore available under the 15th grant for water and sanitation.