TNPSC Current Affairs May 25, 2017 for Group 1 and Group 2 Mains (ALL)

TNPSC Current Affairs May 2017

1.Tamil Nadu government to expand new crop insurance Scheme.

Tamil Nadu Government has planned to expand the new Crop Insurance Scheme called Pradhan Mantri Fasal Yojana coverage for both farmers and the land. As per the latest report, Government has planned to rope nearly 23.9 lakh farmers and around 30 Lakh hectares of land under this scheme.

About the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Yojana:

• It is a new insurance scheme introduced in February 2016 to provide insurance coverage and financial support to the farmers in the event of failure of any of the notified crop as a result of natural calamities, pests & diseases.
• As per the new scheme, farmers will be paying uniform premium of only 2% for all Kharif crops and 1.5% for all Rabi Crops. For annual commercial and horticultural crops, premium will be 5%.
• The balance premium will be paid by Government to provide full insured amount to the farmers against any loss due to natural calamities.
• There will be no upper limit on Government subsidy. Even if balance premium is 90%, it will be borne by the Government.   

Coverage in Tamil Nadu:

Samba Crop is the main crop for Tamil Nadu, will be considered as Rabi crops. Around 15.1 Lakh farmers are expected to be covered under Rabi crops (1.5% premium borne by farmers)

Remaining 8.8 lakh farmers are covered under Kuruvai(which means Kharif crops), so the premium will be 2 % which is borne by farmers.

 2.Setting up of green energy corridor line to transmit thermal and wind power.

Power Grid Corporation of India has set up a two-way link Green Energy Corridor which transmits excess Thermal and wind power from Pugalur in Karur District of Tamil Nadu to  Raigarh in Chhattisgarh. The project has being executed by ABB and BHEL.

Importance of Project: 

• The Green Energy Corridor will enable to transmit excess wind energy generated from the southern state to central India.
• Tamil Nadu is a major wind energy producer of India with installed capacity of 7,685 MW of wind energy. With the help of Green Energy Corridor, Tamil Nadu can transmit excess energy to Central India during Excess production.
• When there is shortage of electricity in Tamil Nadu, State can transmit Thermal energy from Central India.
• The Green Energy Corridor with a capacity of  transmitting 6000 MW is passing through Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, to be connected to Raigarh in Chhattisgarh