PUNJAB

Despite slowdown, Punjab govt meets 85% of revenue target

Despite lockdown and economic downturn amid Covid, the state government has been able to better manage its finances in the last financial year as compared to the previous fiscal.

The revised estimates of the government’s finances for 2020-21 reveal that the state had managed to achieve 84.62 per cent of its revenue targets for the last fiscal. In 2019-20, before the pandemic, the state had managed to achieve just 75.48 per cent of its targeted revenue collection.

The accounts for 2020-21 show that the state had achieved 81.84 per cent of its estimated tax revenue collection (Rs 40,595.81 crore against target of Rs 49,845.61 crore) and 48.59 per cent of its targeted non-tax revenue (Rs 3,909.92 crore against a target of Rs 8,045.99 crore).

Comparatively, in the previous year, Punjab had achieved just 78.47 per cent of its targeted tax revenue and 47.91 per cent of its targeted non-tax revenue. It may be mentioned that in the past several years, the collection of non-tax revenue in the state has always been low, in spite of the issue being deliberated upon and this being a focus area for improving the state’s finances.

INTERNATIONAL

Google Cloud Joined with SpaceX For Providing Satellite Internet Service

Google Cloud and SpaceX signed an agreement to provide Internet services through Starlink satellites.

Google will provide Cloud infrastructure for this connection project, and Space X will install ground terminals in Google’s cloud data center to connect to Starlink satellites. This will help provide fast Internet services in rural areas. This service will be available to customers before the end of the year 2021.

The first Starlink terminal will be set up in a Google datacentre in Ohio, United States. Earlier, Microsoft has signed a comparable settlement with SpaceX to connect its Azure cloud to Starlink.

NATIONAL

SAMVEDNA Tele-Counselling to Children

SAMVEDNA is providing Tele Counselling to children affected by the Covid-19 Pandemic.

The SAMVEDNA remote counselling service aims to provide children with psychological support to solve their stress, anxiety, fear and other problems during the coronavirus pandemic.

The National Commission for the Protection of Children’s Rights provides this service (NCPCR).

Provide children with the following three types of consultations over the phone:

Persons in quarantine/isolation/covid care centres.

People whose parents or close relatives have tested positive for COVID.

Persons who have lost their parents due to COVID.

The service is available in a variety of regional languages and was introduced in September 2020.

The counsellors were taught by a renowned professor from the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and his NIMHANS team.

SAMVEDNA is the acronym for “Sensitive action on mental health vulnerability through emotional development and necessary acceptance.”

Ministry of Tribal Affairs and Microsoft Signed MoU

The memorandum of understanding was signed by the Ministry of Education and Microsoft to digitally transform tribal schools, especially Eklavya Model Residential School (EMRS) and Ashram School.

Microsoft will make AI curriculum accessible to tribal students in both English and Hindi at all EMRS schools under the Ministry as part of an affirmative action programme to train educators and students in next-generation technologies such as Artificial Intelligence.

The aim of the programme is to bridge the gap between tribal students and other students in this area.

Teachers in Indian states will receive phased training to use productivity technologies such as Office 365 and AI applications in their teaching, helping them to provide students with a deliver blended or remote learning experiences in a more personalized, efficient and safe manner.

Students will be mentored on projects involving AI for social benefit and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Article 311 of the Indian Constitution

Article 311 states that no government employee, whether from the central government or a state government, may be fired or suspended by a subordinate authority to the one who appointed him or her.

Section 2 of the article states that no civil servant shall be dismissed, suspended, or demoted from his or her position unless and until he or she has been told of the charges and has been given a fair opportunity to be heard on those charges.

If a government employee is convicted in a criminal case, he may be fired without DE under Article 311 (2) (a).

Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme – RBI

In collaboration with the RBI, the Central Government has decided to issue Sovereign Gold Bonds.

The Bonds will be offered through Scheduled Commercial Banks (excluding Small Finance Banks and Payment Banks), specified post offices, Stock Holding Corporation of India Limited (SHCIL), National Stock Exchange of India Limited, and Bombay Stock Exchange Limited.

The minimum investment will be one gramme of gold.

Investors will be reimbursed at a fixed rate of 2.50 percent per year on the nominal value, payable semi-annually.

Bonds will be sold only to individual residents, Hindu indivisible families, trusts, universities and charities.

The bond has a maturity of 8 years. After the fifth year, you can opt out and exercise the right on the next interest payment date.

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