ANDHRA PRADESH
- 200 crore has been allocated for the development of Visakhapatnam-Chennai industrial corridor.
- 500 crore has been alloted for Chief Minister’s Development Fund; Rs.500 crore for infrastructure development in the capital region Amaravati; Rs.375 crore towards the State’s share of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana.
- 50 crore has been granted for establishment of a research centre at Palasa in Srikakulam district to find a lasting solution to the kidney diseases in Uddhanam region.
- Interest-free loans amounting to Rs.648 crore will be given to urban self-help groups.
Rs.73 crore has been allocated for Chief Minister’s Call Centre.
- Nearly Rs.4,965 crore has been allocated for fee reimbursement scheme for students from the economically weaker sections pursuing medicine, engineering and other professional courses.
- 937 crore given for Law Department; Rs.100 crore allocated for paying ex-gratia to the kin of farmers who end their lives.
- 3,020 crore for higher education and Rs.72 crore for Real-Time Governance.
- 110 crore has been given for setting up labs in the districts where the quality of farm inputs will be tested.
- 200 crore has been alloted for welfare of handloom weavers.
- The Finance Minister gives Rs.9,495 crore for the revenue department and Rs.1,900 crore for animal husbandry
- The Budget allocates Rs.1,280 crore for YSR Housing scheme. Rs.1,740 crore has been given for YSR Aarogyasri scheme.
- YSR Housing scheme envisages building free homes for the poor in 1.50 cents of land per beneficiary. The government plans to hand them over by Ugadi in April next year. The beneficiaries will get title deed of the land.
- The NTR Vaidya Seva scheme has been revamped as YSR Aarogyasri scheme.
- The Budget gives Rs.2,13 crore for pensions to the physically challenged, Rs.410 crore for welfare of the fishermen community and Rs.29770 crore for secondary education.
- Amaravati-Anantapur expressway project gets Rs.100 crore for and Rs.65 crore allocated social security schemes in the capital region.
- Finance Department gets nearly Rs.46,860 crore
- 2,000 crore for disaster management, Rs.12,800 crore for social security pensions, Rs.1,010 crore for general administration department
- 100 crore alloted for advocates’ welfare, Rs.250 crore for Kadapa steel plant and Rs.150 crore for smart cities
- 11,400 crore for medical, health and family welfare; Rs.13140 crore for irrigation and Rs.455 crore for IT sector
- The State has modified crop insurance scheme Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana as YSR-PMFBY and alloted Rs.1,163 crore for it.
- 100 crore for Amaravati-Anantapur expressway project and Rs.65 crore for social security schemes in the capital region
- The Budget has proposed Rs.7,270 crore for welfare of backward classes, and Rs.3,020 crore for higher education
Amma Vodi’ scheme
- 6,455 crore has been alloted for ‘Amma Vodi’ scheme. As per the scheme every mother who sends her child to school will get an annual financial assistance of Rs. 15,000. Mothers of children studying up to Intermediate classes are eligible for the scheme. Students of government schools, tribal welfare schools and private intermediate colleges will be eligible, provided they come under ‘White’ ration card.
- The Budget has proposed Rs.15,000 for Scheduled Castes’ sub-plan and Rs.1,077 crore for mid-day meals in schools.
YSR Rythu Bharosa
- YSR Rythu Bharosa thatprovides input assistance to farmers holding land upto five acres is a flagship scheme of the government. Rs.8,750 crore has been alloted for this scheme.
- 200 crore has been set aside for digging agricultural borewells free of cost and Rs.100 crore will be used for farm mechanisation.
- 4,525 crore has been allocated for providing nine-hour free power supply to farmers.
- In all, the agriculture sector gets Rs.18,330 crore.
Revival of APSRTC
- The debt-ridden Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) will get Rs.1,000 crore financial assistance. Rs.500 crore has been additionally alloted to APSRTC towards the reimbursement of subsidies given by it to passengers.
- The Budget has allocated Rs.574 crore for industrial incentives and Rs.250 crore for creating infrastructure in industrial estates.
- Another Rs.50 crore has given for buying new buses.
- Presenting a White Paper of Andhra Pradesh’s economy, Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy said the total outstanding liabilities were ₹2.61 lakh crore. Of this, ₹1.97 lakh crore was public debt and the remaining ₹63,520 crore was on public account.
INTERNATIONAL
- France will impose green tax on plane tickets from 2020
- French government is to impose a tax of up to €18 on plane tickets for all flights from airports in France to fund less-polluting transportation projects,
- The move which will take effect from 2020
- A tax of €1.5 imposed on economy-class tickets on internal flights within Europe.
- The highest tariff applied to business-class travellers flying outside the bloc.
- A tax of €1.5 imposed on economy-class tickets on internal flights within Europe.
The highest tariff applied to business-class travellers flying outside the bloc,
The new measure is expected to bring in €182 million a year which will be invested in greener transport infrastructures - A similar tax was introduced in Sweden in April 2018, which imposed an added charge of up to €40 on every ticket in a bid to lessen the impact of air travel on the climate.
- NASA awarded Imaging Xray polarimetry explorer (IXPE) mission to SpaceX
- NASAhas awarded a contract to SpaceX to launch NASA’s Imaging Xray polarimetry explorer (IXPE) mission, a groundbreaking astrophysics mission. The mission aims to uncover the mysteries behind black holes and neutron stars.
- The cost estimated for the mission is $50.3 million. The mission plans to launchthree space telescopes. These telescopes will be capable of analyzing the polarization of cosmic X-rays. The IXPE mission is expected to be launched from the Kennedy Space Centre in April 2021.
- The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) will get information regarding thepolarization state of light from astrophysical sources. This will provide insight into the X-ray production in objects such as neutron stars and pulsar wind nebulae, as well as stellar and supermassive black holes.
NATIONAL
- ICSI launches UDIN to improve corporate governance
- Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) rolled out an initiative in the form of a Unique Document Identification Number (UDIN)
- The main aim is to pursue a heightened sense of self-governance and strengthen the practicing side of company secretaries.
- UDIN will provide ease of maintaining a register of attestation and certification services.
- The ICSI functions under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
- Cabinet approves bill to merge 13 labour laws into single code
- The Union Cabinet approved the Occupational, Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, also known as the OSH Code, that seeks to merge 13 central labour laws into a single code which would apply on all establishments employing 10 or more workers.
- The OSH Code is the second majorlabourreformapprovedby the government. It cleared the Wage Code last week that contained “provisions of minimum wages and payment of wages to cover employees in both the organised and unorganised sectors”, unlike the current Minimum Wages Act and the Payment of Wages Act that apply only to employees engaged in certain kinds of jobs.
- The OSH code will cover 400 million workers in the organised and the unorganised sectors and encompass provisions from around 13 labour laws, including the Factories Act, the Mines Act,
- The Dock Workers Act, the Working Journalists and other Newspaper Employees Act, and the Cine Workers and Cinema Theatre Workers Act.
- IAF to get Advanced Short Range Air-to-Air Missiles (ASRAAM)
- TheIndian Air Force (IAF)plans to adopt Advanced Short Range Air-to-Air Missile (ASRAAM), a new European visual range air to air missile, across its fighter fleet.
The first firing is expected by the end of 2019. This first firing would be the first over the wing launched missile in the IAF inventory. All missiles are fired from under the wing.IAF aims to expand its Su-30 fleet with a proposal to build 40 more jets under license at HAL’s Nashik facility. The Indian government has formally requested Russia to extend the production license.
- The Advanced Short Range Air-to-Air Missile (ASRAAM) of MBDA, European Arms manufacturers company, has been approved for fitting onJaguar jets is currently undergoing integration. ASRAAM is used as a Within Visual Range (WVR) air dominance missile with a range of over 25km.
- For IAF, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) had built about 145 Jaguars for the IAF, of which around 120 are in service, and 80 jets will continue till 2025-30. A plan to get a new more powerful engine has been long delayed.
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