KARNATAKA
Karnataka draft education plan for kids aged 3-8 out; focus on ‘learning via play’
Departments of school education and literacy, and women and child development have released the draft of Karnataka State Curriculum Framework for Foundational Stage, in keeping with National Education Policy (NEP) for pupils in the age group of three to eight years.
The national curriculum framework for this age group was released in October 2022. Karnataka is the first state to prepare the state framework, which will be finalised and adopted for use from the 2023-24 academic year.
The framework proposes changes in the curriculum of existing practices of ‘Chili pili’ in anganwadis and ‘Nali Kali’ for students in grades 1-3.
Similar reports on the curriculum of five other age groups will also be framed as part of a revamp of the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) in the state. Reports for the other age groups will also be released soon.
INTERNATIONAL
First Citizens Bank buys Entire Silicon Valley Bank
America’s 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.
NATIONAL
India’s highways infra to match US by 2024
According to Nitin Gadkari, India’s Union Road Transport and Highways Minister, the country’s highways infrastructure 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 India’s 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, India’s largest infrastructure program, will connect more than 580 districts in the country by developing around 35,000 km of National Highway corridors
First solar among winners of India’s $2.4 billion green stimulus
First Solar Inc and Avaada Group are among winners of India’s 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 gigawatt Tamil Nadu plant, which will be a fully integrated facility, Sujoy Ghosh, the company’s India managing director, said by phone.
Avaada Group, backed by Thailand’s 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.
Government mulling proposal to build 37 more roads worth Rs 13,000 crore along India-China border
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 the India-China Border Roads (ICBR) programme. Nearly 70% of these roads under ICBR-III would be built in Arunachal 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 in Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim 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 it’s largely in response to infrastructure development by the Chinese on the other side of the border.
Leprosy cases increased by 15.7% in 2021-22, over 88k active cases
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).
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