Record fertilizer sales during lockdown period

Amid National level covid -19 lockdown, Department of Fertilizers, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers has had a record sale of Fertilizers to farmer community.

During 1 - 22 April 2020, POS sale of fertilizers to farmers was 10.63 lakh MT which is 32 percent higher than the last year sale of 8.02 lakh MT during the same period.

During 1-22 April 2020, dealers purchased 15.77 lakh MT fertilizers which is 46 percent higher than last year sale of 10.79 lakh MT during the same period.

Despite lot of movement restrictions due to National level COVID-19 lockdown, with the concerted efforts of Department of Fertilizers, Railways, States and Ports, production and supply of fertilizers in the country is going on without hindrance.     

This is in line with the commitment made by the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers to ensure availability of fertilizers to farmers for the upcoming Kharif season.         

Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers, Shri D V Sadananda Gowda has said, there is no problem of Fertilizers. State Government have Sufficient stock of the Fertilizers. He said we are in touch with State Agriculture Ministers. Shri Gowda said his Ministry is committed to ensure availability of fertilizers to the farmer community before sowing time.         

On 17th April, 41 Fertilizer Rakes moved from plants & ports. This is the highest movement of fertilizers during lockdown period in a day.  One Rake carries 3000 MT of load at a time.  production in fertilizer companies is going on in full capacity.

Government of India, under Essential Commodities Act has allowed operation of Fertilizers plants in the country so that agriculture sector may not feel the heat of lockdown.

As loading and unloading of fertilizers are in full swing at fertilizer plants, railway stations and ports, no compromise is made with precautions to avoid COVID-19. Masks and all other preventive equipments are provided to labours and all other working staff.

India signs US$ 1.5 billion loan with ADB to support India's COVID-19 immediate response

The Government of India and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) today signed a $1.5 billion loan that will support the government’s response to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, focusing on immediate priorities such as disease containment and prevention, as well as social protection for the poor and economically vulnerable sections of the society, especially women and disadvantaged groups.

The signatories to the loan agreement for the ADB’s COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support Programme (CARES Programme) were ShriSameer Kumar Khare, Additional Secretary (Fund Bank and ADB), in the Department of Economic Affairs in Ministry of Finance, and Kenichi Yokoyama, Country Director, ADB, in India.

Earlier, the ADB’s Board of Directors approved the loan to provide budget support to the government to counter and mitigate the adverse health and socio-economic impact of the pandemic.

“We thank ADB’s timely assistance for the government’s immediate response measures to the coronavirus pandemic to implement (i) COVID-19 containment plan to rapidly ramp up test-track-treatment capacity, and (ii) social protection for the poor, vulnerable, women, and disadvantaged groups to protect more than 800 million people over the next three months,” said Shri Khare. “ADB’s financial and technical support will contribute to the sound implementation of the government’s far reaching emergency response programs launched in March 2020.”

“ADB is glad to support India’s bold measures to contain the COVID- 19 pandemic outbreak while protecting the most vulnerable people affected by movement restrictions, by fast-tracking and delivering the largest ever loan to India. We will continue to engage with the government to strengthen the implementation framework and capacities including monitoring and evaluation systems of its health services and social protection programmes so that the benefits reach to the poor, women, and other disadvantaged people,” said Mr Yokoyama.

Earlier, during the telephone call with Smt Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of Finance & Corporate Affairs and ADB Governor on 9thApril 2020, ADB President Mr Masatsugu Asakawa conveyed ADB’s commitment to support India’s emergency needs for the health sector while alleviating the economic impact of the pandemic, as well as short- to medium-term measures to restore the dynamic economic growth of the country by exploring all available financing options.       The CARES Programme is provided as the first support to meet the immediate requirements of the government. 

Building on the CARES Programme, ADB is also in dialogue with the government for further possible support for stimulating the economy, support strong growth recovery, and to build resilience to future shocks. This includes the support for the affected industries and entrepreneurs particularly micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) by facilitating their access to finance through credit guarantee schemes, MSME integration into global and national value chains through enterprise development centers, and a credit enhancement facility for infrastructure projects. Strengthening of public service delivery will be another important agenda, including the extension of comprehensive primary health services in urban areas, and of secondary and tertiary health care systems through PPP modalities.

India has taken several decisive measures to contain the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, including a US$ 2 billion health sector spending programme to expand hospital facilities, ramp up test-track-treatment capacity and launched a US$ 23 billion pro-poor package to provide direct cash transfer, provide basic consumption goods and free cooking gas cylinders to the poor, particularly to women, old and socially disadvantaged groups. It has also extended insurance coverage to frontline health workers engaged in COVID-19 response. The Central bank, Reserve Bank of India, has slashed policy rates, eased asset quality norms, provided loan moratoriums, taken measures to support exporters and allowed states to borrow more to meet their financing requirements. It has also pumped in massive liquidity to support banks, non-banking financial companies, mutual funds as well as taken measures to push the flow of funds to the MSMEs and the corporate sector.

ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. Established in 1966, it is owned by 68 members—49 from the region.

BEML bags Rs 398 crore order from Coal India

BEML Limited, Bengaluru-based ‘Schedule A’ company under the Ministry of Defence, has bagged order from Coal India Ltd for supply of seven 150-T and eight 205E-T Dump Trucks under trial-cum-sale along with 8-year spare parts contract.

Coal India subsidiaries viz SECL’s Gevra Project and NCL’s Amlohri & Nigahi Projects, respectively will be responsible for deploying these dumpers. The order is worth about Rs 398 crore (US$ 56.46 million).

Dump Trucks are indigenously designed and developed by BEML and are being manufactured at its Mysuru complex. These products are expected to address the growing demand for higher capacity equipment in the mining industry and will improve its production substantially.

All these trucks have eco-friendly emissions certificate engines with electronic fuel management system to deliver maximum power. Its wide body design-higher value metric capacity and low body weight ensures high stability and productivity. A state-of-the-art AC drive system have been engineered to provide exceptional road performance with reduced maintenance.

Contactless shopping and delivery startup Wagonfly raises $500,000

BEML Limited, Bengaluru-based ‘Schedule A’ company under the Ministry of Defence, has bagged order from Coal India Ltd for supply of seven 150-T and eight 205E-T Dump Trucks under trial-cum-sale along with 8-year spare parts contract.

Coal India subsidiaries viz SECL’s Gevra Project and NCL’s Amlohri & Nigahi Projects, respectively will be responsible for deploying these dumpers. The order is worth about Rs 398 crore (US$ 56.46 million).

Dump Trucks are indigenously designed and developed by BEML and are being manufactured at its Mysuru complex. These products are expected to address the growing demand for higher capacity equipment in the mining industry and will improve its production substantially.

All these trucks have eco-friendly emissions certificate engines with electronic fuel management system to deliver maximum power. Its wide body design-higher value metric capacity and low body weight ensures high stability and productivity. A state-of-the-art AC drive system have been engineered to provide exceptional road performance with reduced maintenance.

Union Minister of Rural Development & Panchayati Raj Shri Narendra Singh Tomar issues guidelines regarding the SVAMITVA scheme, a new initiative of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj

Union Minister of Rural Development & Panchayati Raj Shri Narendra Singh Tomar has said that the government has run several programs to digitally empower panchayats across the country. He was speaking in New Delhi on the occasion of issuing guidelines regarding the SVAMITVA scheme, a new initiative of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj. The Minister said that the aim of this program is to provide rural people with the right to document their residential properties so that they can use their property for economic purposes. The Minister said that this scheme will help in streamlining planning and revenue collection in rural areas and ensuring clarity on property rights. This will also help in resolving property related disputes. The scheme will enable creation of better-quality Gram Panchayat Development Plans (GPDPs), leveraging the maps created under this programme.

SVAMITVA scheme, a collaborative effort of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, State Panchayati Raj Departments, State Revenue Departments and Survey of India, aims to provide an integrated property validation solution for rural India, engaging the latest Drone Surveying technology, for demarcating the inhabitant (Aabadi) land in rural areas. The program is currently being implemented in six states - Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Under this, mapping of rural housing land can be done using the latest survey methods and drones. In Punjab and Rajasthan, 101 Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS) will be set up during this year which will set the stage for undertaking actual survey and mapping of inhabited areas of villages next year.

Shri Narendra Singh Tomar also released a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) regarding e-Gram Swaraj on the occasion. He said that following this procedure, it will be ensured that the funds given to the panchayats are not misused and transparency can be maintained in its use. He said that this process will help in establishing a strong financial system by integrating the Priya Soft and PFMS, the payment portals of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj. The application aims to bring in better transparency and strengthening of the e-Governance in Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) across the country through decentralized planning, progress reporting and work-based accounting. It will also assist in enhancing the credibility of Panchayats which would induce greater devolution of funds to PRIs. Furthermore, e-Gram Swaraj provides a platform for effective monitoring by higher authorities. It will be a single platform for all planning and accounting needs of the Panchayats.

The key focus areas of M/o Panchayati Raj over the last few years has been to track the fund flow of the Central Finance Commission grants and also to ensure timely payments on real-time basis to the service providers in the Panchayats. The Online Payment Module (erstwhile PRIASoft-PFMS Interface (PPI)) is one of its kind whereby Gram Panchayats are carrying out online payments to the vendors and service providers. The main objective of introducing such a module is to have a sound financial management system in the Panchayats leading to their greater credibility and image.

These endeavours are also congruent to that of Digital India Programme which is to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy - “Faceless, Paperless, Cashless”.

Six courses of SWAYAM appear in best 30 online courses of 2019 in the Class Central list

The Class Central (a free online course aka MOOC aggregator from top universities like Stanford, MIT, Harvard, etc.) has released the list of best 30 online courses of 2019 out of which 6 courses are from SWAYAM.

The ‘Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds' (SWAYAM) an integrated platform for online courses, using information and communication technology (ICT) which covers school (9th to 12th) to Post Graduate Level. Till date, a total of 2867 Courses have been offered through SWAYAM and 568 courses have been uploaded to offer for January 2020 Semester. About 57 lakhs (57,84,770) unique users / registrations have been made on SWAYAM platform and about 1.25 crore (125,04,722) enrollments in various courses of SWAYAM. It also offers online courses for students, teachers and teacher educators. It may be accessed on swayam.gov.in.

Following 6 courses of SWAYAM have been listed in the best 30 online coursed of 2019.

1. Academic Writing: H.N.B Garhwal University (A Central University) Srinagar Garhwal 

2. Digital Marketing: Punjab University Chandigarh.

3. ANIMATIONs:    Banaras Hindu University.

4. Mathematical Economics: Doon University, Dehradun

5. Python for Data Science: Indian Institute of Technology Madras

6. Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE): Avianshilingam Institute for Home Science and Higher Education for Women, Coimbatore

Life insurance companies register 11.4 per cent growth in premium income in FY20

India's life insurance companies witnessed 11.36 per cent growth in their collective premium income at Rs 48.26 lakh crore (US$ 684.64 billion) during the fiscal ended March 2020, as per the data from IRDAI. While in FY19, the 24 life insurance companies' collective premium income stood at Rs 43.33 lakh crore (US$ 614.70 billion).

Although, LIC, the India's largest and the only state-owned insurer, posted a decline in premium income at Rs 8.32 lakh crore (US$ 118.03 billion) during 2019-20, as per the data from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI).

During 2018-19, LIC's premium collection reached Rs 10.74 lakh crore (US$ 152.36 billion). The company’s market share stood at 82.76 per cent as of March 31, 2020.

The rest of the private sector players observed 22.53 per cent rise in their total premium income at Rs 39.94 lakh crore (US$ 566.61 billion). In FY19, the overall income stood at Rs 32.59 lakh crore (US$ 462.34 billion).

As of March 31, 2020, the combined market share of all private sector life insurers stood at 17.24 per cent.

JioMart starts home delivery in Navi Mumbai, Thane and Kalyan

Reliance Industries (RIL) has started home delivery of essentials in partnership with local kirana stores in Navi Mumbai, Thane and Kalyan. These services are available under JioMart, an e-commerce venture of Reliance Retail, an RIL subsidiary.

Under the deal signed between Facebook, this is the first of the deal to use WhatsApp.

The orders can be placed by 5 pm every day and would be available for pick up from the customer’s nearest JioMart Kirana store within 48 hours, as per a message sent to customers across these locations.

Registration is required first where customer has to provide details such as mobile number, area, locality, society name and customer details.

According to the sources, these are the first locations where the services are being launched and would be extended to other cities in the country in a phased manner.

To order customers can send a “Hi” message to JioMart's WhatsApp number (88500 08000) on their phones, following which the company will send a link to take orders.

Global tech giant Facebook signed a binding agreement to invest Rs 43,574 crore (US$ 6.18 billion) in RIL wholly-owned subsidiary Jio Platforms.

WhatsApp has more than 400 million users in India, while the company is readying to insert payments feature in the messaging and Voice over IP service platform.

Bira91 raises US$ 30 million funding led by Sequoia India, Sofina

B9 Beverages Pvt. Ltd, the maker of Bira 91 brand of craft beer, has raised US$ 30 million in funding led by its existing investors, Sequoia India and Belgium-based investment firm Sofina.

Mumbai-based consumer-focused venture capital fund, Sixth Sense Ventures, Korean private equity fund Neoplux, and certain family offices also participated in the round, the company said in a statement.

These new funds will be used to further expand its India footprint and consolidate its leadership position in the premium beer market in India.

In 2019, the firm commissioned two new breweries, one each in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, and quadrupled its production capacity. The company achieved market share near to 3 per cent of the overall beer market with the launch of Boom, its latest mass market beer brand. The company has presence in over 400 cities, as of fiscal year ended 31 March 2020.

“We continue to grow our business in both existing and new markets. Our market shares in several markets are now higher than 5 per cent of overall beer and more than 20 per cent share of premium beer market," said Mr Ankur Jain, chief executive at the firm.

“Along with Boom, our other new launches of Bira 91 IPA with Pomelo and the Malabar Stout have been well received. 2020 is a key inflection point for the company where we expect to reach double digit market shares in a number of states through the year," he added.

Production capacity of coveralls required by medical personnel treating COVID-19 cases in the country has been ramped up to more than 1 lakh per day; cumulative production till date is approximately one million coverall units

Production capacity of coveralls required by medical personnel treating COVID-19 cases in the country has been ramped up to more than 1 lakh per day. Bengaluru has become a major hub for PPE Coverall production in the country to combat COVID-19 cases. Nearly fifty percent of the Coverall production in the country is from Bengaluru. Since Body Coveralls (PPE) is a specialized protective suit meant for high level of protection to the health professionals, it has stringent technical requirements as prescribed by Ministry of Health & Family Welfare. M/s HLL Lifecare Limited is the designated single-window procurement agency for the hospitals and healthcare organisations under the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India.

Other than Bengaluru, PPE Coveralls are also being manufactured by approved production units in Tirupur, Chennai and Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, Ahmedabad and Vadodara in Gujarat, Phagwara and Ludhiana in Punjab, Kusumnagar and Bhiwandi in Maharashtra, Dungarpur in Rajasthan, Kolkata, Delhi, Noida, Gurugram and few other places. The cumulative production till date is approximately one million Coverall units.

During the last week of January 2020, the technical standard for the Coveralls was prescribed as per WHO class-3 exposure pressure in accordance with ISO 16003 or its equivalent. Such materials were being manufactured by a few international companies, who expressed their inability to supply on account of a complete glut in stocks and ban of exports by the source countries. Only a limited quantity was offered and procured by the procurement organization of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.

Ministry of Health & Family Welfare finalised the technical requirement on 2nd March 2020, based on the indigenous availability of materials and the technical requirement for a high level of protection of the healthcare professionals who would deal with the COVID-19 cases, in consultation with medical experts in the field. The specification was published on the official website of HLL Lifecare Ltd on 5th March 2020, inviting manufacturers having adequate capability to participate in the procurement process.

As of now, there are four laboratories in the country which have the Synthetic Blood Penetration Resistance Test facilities as well as necessary approvals for conducting tests and certification for Body Coveralls (PPE) required for COVID-19. These are – South India Textiles Research Association (SITRA), Coimbatore, Defence Research and Development Establishment (DRDE), Gwalior, and two laboratories under Ordnance Factory Board – Heavy Vehicles Factory, Avadi and Small Arms Factory, Kanpur.

For each such test conducted in respect of a fabric and the PPE Coverall garment, for which prototype samples are sent by the respective manufacturers, a Unique Certification Code (UCC-COVID19) is generated. This code has records of the type of fabric, type of garment, its date of testing, testing standard and other relevant particulars. The UCC issued to each passed sample is published on the official website of DRDO, OFB and SITRA for verification by any user of the product. With a view to further streamline the process of testing and to ensure that the quality of the PPE Coveralls is maintained, the testing laboratory will now accept the sample for testing only on submission of an affidavit in the prescribed format by the organization intending to get their PPE Coverall sample tested in the approved laboratories.

The PPE kits are being sent to the States by the Ministry of Health as per requirement. Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Department of Pharmaceuticals, and Ministry of Textiles are continuously working with various industry bodies, stakeholders and manufacturers on 24x7 basis, to streamline the supply chain, remove bottlenecks and maintain a steady supply of all materials required for the healthcare professionals.