Kerala set to receive central funds for literacy drive after 10 years

 

After a hole of10

a long time, Kerala is preparing to receivethe focal assets forliteracyprogrammes as the southern state is currently important for the association government's driven education drive "Padhna Likhna Abhiyan," the perusing and composing effort.

The center goal of the new plan, imagined as a jump forward for accomplishing the objective of the absolute literacyin the countryby 2030,is to grant practical education and numeracy to 57 lakh non-proficient and non-numerate grown-ups in both provincial and metropolitan regions across India in the age gathering of 15 years or more.

The Kerala State Literacy Mission Authority (KSLMA), the self-governing office under the state government, said here on Friday that it was without precedent for the most recent 10 years that the southern state was getting the focal asset for proficiency activities, which is a huge advance in the wake of accomplishing 100% education.

After 2009, the association government had not conceded any asset to Kerala for casual instruction.

"Kerala is additionally now part of the association government's new proficiency drive "Padhna Likhna Abhiyan". The Union Ministry of Human Resources has given minutes in such manner. Of the complete Rs 4.74 crore-worth task, the Center will give Rs 2.84 crore while the state government Rs 1.90 crore,"P S Sreekala, KSLMA chief, said.

Ladies, booked position and clan individuals and beach front inhabitants would get need under the program which lays push on areas with low proficiency rate.

Around 1,15,000 unskilled people, having a place with instructively in reverse locale like Wayand, Idukki, Palakkad and Malappuram, would be made educated in the principal period of the drive, KSLMA sources here said.

NPR will be buried if 10 more states oppose it like Kerala, Bengal: Karat

Current Affairs
CPI(M) leader Prakash Karat on Thursday said if ten more chief ministers stick to their promises and put work on National Population Register on hold like those of Kerala and West Bengal did, the Centre's plan to have an NPR would be "buried".
"Twelve state governments have so far announced that they will not take up the NPR. What Kerala and West Bengal have done should be done by 10 (more) chief ministers," he said, referring to the Kerala and West Bengal governments' orders putting the NPR work on hold in their respective states.
Karat was speaking in a seminar organised to protest against amendments in the Citizenship Act.
"The Narendra Modi government has planned a 'Trishul' (attack) against the Constitution. First thing was the CAA, second is the National Population Register and the third one is the National Register of Citizens. All three are interconnected. All three are one single package and cannot be separated," he said.
After witnessing the widespread protests across the country against the Citizenship Amendment Act, the BJP government, however, has understood that it needs to tread cautiously in implementing the NRC, said Karat.
"Accordingly, they (BJP) have now adopted a manoeuvre and claim that the NPR has nothing to do with the NRC," he added.
"You read the citizenship Act and the rules, it is there in the black and white. The NPR is only for the purpose of creating a national register of citizens. There is no NRC without an NPR," he said.

"To foil the BJP's game plan, we must concentrate on getting the NPR scuttled because once the NPR is created, you cannot stop the NRC and that is a legal process. It is there in the law," he said....Read More

Cong picks 3 agencies to manage digital, social media campaign for LS polls

Opinion News
The Congress party on Tuesday identified three agencies that would manage its digital and social media campaign for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Some more would be hired in the coming days and assigned other tasks.

The publicity committee of the party is headed by party leader Anand Sharma. But there was much disgruntlement in the team — some members complained to Congress President Rahul Gandhi that they were not being kept in the loop. The Congress chief first asked senior leader Jairam Ramesh to take part in the meetings, and when that alone did not help, overseas Congress Chief Sam Pitroda was summoned hastily, which helped break the stalemate.

Scramble to lose

It is unusual for leaders to fight for seats when the chances of victory are bleak. But that's exactly what is happening in the Kerala unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). State leaders are jockeying to contest from Pathanamthitta, the epicentre of the Sabarimala issue.

At least four top leaders including Union Ministers K J Alphons and senior leader K Surendran are vying for a ticket to contest the seat. Interestingly, the BJP has never won a Lok Sabha seat from the state. Also the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and BJP cadres in Kerala do not see eye to eye. Given that, political observers are betting on either the Congress or the Left, despite the mileage BJP gained out of the Sabarimala stir.

Don’t gatecrash


 It’s not unusual to hear stories about students in India gatecrashing weddings. Just for fun or to indulge in a hearty meal when hostel mess food is nothing but torture and the monthly allowance from home is diminishing rapidly. A premier institution in the country has had enough of this...Read More

Kerala: Migrant labour faces worst effects of post demonetisation slowdown

PTI11_13_2016_000206A

Current Affairs

When illiterate mason Jalaluddin Shaikh sought a better life seven years ago, he journeyed nearly 2,500 km south from his home in Murshidabad, Bengal, to this riverine town in the greater Kochi agglomeration, known for its farm produce, plywood and sundry small-scale industries.

Jalaluddin, 40, had heard stories of the opportunities in prosperous Kerala, and nearly five years, he was happy, earning Rs 22,000 every month at construction sites, saving enough to send Rs 15,000 back home.

Everything changed on November 8, 2016, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s demonetisation order invalidated 86% of India’s currency.

Jalaluddin’s life worsened in June 2017, when the Goods and Services Tax (GST)--widely criticised for its hasty, often chaotic, implementation--came into effect. With the absence of cash and the complexities of the GST, business dropped and uncounted industries closed.

The downturn was exacerbated by tensions in the Arabian Gulf--the source of 36% of Kerala’s income--when many Arab countries turned against Qatar. That crisis was preceded by a general slowdown in the Gulf states since 2010, when the price of oil had dropped. As wages went unpaid and jobs and incomes were lost in the Gulf, Kerala’s construction industry suffered, as did opportunities for migrants in Kerala.


 Here in India’s seventh-richest state by per capita income, 2.5 million of 33 million people--one in 14--were migrants, according to a 2013 study by the Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation for the Kerala labour department. Mostly manual labour, they sent Rs 17,500 crore home every year. The government now believes about a million migrants are left, a quarter of the number projected for 2018. Although some questions were raised over the study’s accuracy, it is the only available data on migrants like Jalaluddin.

Kerala's tourism footfall in 2018 at half its population: Minister

Economy & Policy:

Kerala collected Rs 36,528.01 crore as revenues from tourism last year: an increase of Rs 2,874.33 crore over last year.

Over 16.7 million tourists, both domestic and foreign, visited Kerala in 2018, compared to 15.76 million the previous year, recording an increase of 5.93 per cent.
Of the total footfalls, 1.09 million were foreign tourists. The share of revenue from foreign visitors touched Rs 8,764.46 crore. There was also a spurt in arrival of domestic tourists to the southern state. United Kingdom (UK) accounted for the largest number of foreign visitors, at 200,000, followed by the United States, France, Germany and Saudi Arabia. The number of visitors from other European countries such as Sweden and Italy also rose during the period.

In the first quarter of calender year 2018, tourist arrivals to the state recorded a 12.3 per cent growth of foreign visitors and a 20 per cent rise of domestic tourists.
The Nipah outbreak in May and the floods in August affected arrivals.
“The number of tourists who visited Kerala in 2018 touched almost half the state’s population. This impressive growth has been achieved against the century’s most severe deluge,” said Kerala's tourism minister Kadakampally Surendran.

"It was through hard work and determination of the Tourism Department, tourism trade and the coordinated efforts of other government departments that the state had been able to achieve this impressive growth,” said Secretary of Kerala Tourism department Rani George.

 Tourism Director Shri P Bala Kiran said tourist arrivals in the state last year had been both inspiring.

PM Modi launches big-ticket projects in TN, Kerala; takes a dig at Congress

Election News:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on slammed the Congress-led UDF for implicating former Isro scientist Nambi Narayanan in an espionage case, saying they did so “as some party leaders wanted to settle political scores”.

“A few years ago, a hard working and patriotic Isro scientist Nambi Narayanan was implicated in a false case just because a few UDF leaders wanted to settle political scores,” Modi, who was in Tamil Nadu and Kerala to announce a series of projects on Sunday, said in Thrissur.

During his visit to the two states, the Prime Minister inaugurated an integrated refinery expansion complex of Bharat Petroleum Corporation at the Kochi Refinery and unveiled a foundation plaque for All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Madurai.

Speaking at the Kochi refinery, Modi said the NDA government had taken “decisive steps” to bring down crude oil import by 10 per cent and save precious foreign exchange for the country.


 Eleven oil PSUs have adopted the modern ‘lignocellulosic’ route for establishing twelve 2G ethnol plants in 11 states. “To cut down on import of crude oil, government has taken decisive steps towards reducing imports by 10 per cent and saving precious foreign exchange,” Modi said, adding that six MoUs have been signed in this direction...Read M0re