EPFO officers and staff battled all odds to send Rs 764 crore (US$ 108.38 million) to all Nodal Branches of pension disbursing banks throughout India. All Bank branches have been directed to ensure credit of pension in the accounts of pensioners on schedule.
Timely credit of pension in this hour of need has been accorded topmost priority by EPFO to bring succour to the pensioners during COVID-19 crisis.
The theme for this week is ARTIST BY ARTISTS and is dedicated to Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore. This week’s program coincides with the maestro's 159th birth anniversary on 7th May 2020, a date we would like to celebrate. Many more exciting and thought-provoking themes have to come in the coming days. These virtual programs and exhibitions will give the opportunity to art lovers, artists, art connoisseurs, students, teachers, etc. to see the rarely presented artworks from their homes.
National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi has earlier presented various virtual exhibitions such as Jamini Roy and Raja Ravi Vermaetc. and has also shared permanent collections virtually to commemorate International Days such as International Women’s Day, International Dance Day and International Workers Day. These exhibitions are available on NGMA’s website and social media platforms.
Shri Adwaita Charan Garnayak, DG, NGMA states, “The closure of Museum galleries due to COVID 19 Lockdown did not dampen our spirits and couldn't disconnect us with our audiences. Rather, this has presented us a new opportunity to get connected in an exciting way with a wider world audience through web and social media supported by the internet. All endeavours are being received really well by the community and we are hoping to serve the same way in the coming future.”
The equipment named UV blaster is a UV based area sanitiser designed and developed by Laser Science & Technology Centre (LASTEC), the Delhi based premier laboratory of DRDO with the help of M/s New Age Instruments and Materials Private Limited, Gurugram.
The UV Blaster is useful for high tech surfaces like electronic equipment, computers and other gadgets in laboratories and offices that are not suitable for disinfection with chemical methods. The product is also effective for areas with large flow of people such as airports, shopping malls, metros, hotels, factories, offices, etc.
The UV based area sanitiser may be used by remote operation through laptop/mobile phone using wifi link. The equipment has six lamps each with 43 watts of UV-C power at 254 nm wavelength for 360-degree illumination. For a room of about 12 x 12 feet dimension, the disinfection time is about 10 minutes and 30 minutes for 400 square feet area by positioning the equipment at different places within the room.
This sanitiser switches off on accidental opening of room or human intervention. One more salient safety feature of the product is the key to arm operation.
Under this initiative, the SHG sellers will be able to list their products in 5 product categories, namely (i) handicrafts, (ii) handloom and textiles, (iii) office accessories, (iv) grocery and pantry, and (v) personal care and hygiene. In the first phase, 913 SHGs from 11 States have already registered as sellers and 442 products have been on-boarded. In order to develop a scalable model capable of onboarding a large number of SHGs across the country in a short time frame, GeM has developed an API based integration mechanism with the NRLM database.
GeM will provide dashboards for functionaries at the national, state, district and block level to provide them real time information about the number of products uploaded by SHGs, and value and volume of orders received and fulfilled. In addition, Government buyers shall be sensitized through system generated messages/ alerts in the Marketplace about availability of SHG products on the portal. Potential buyers shall be able to search, view, cart and procure such products through the stipulated modes of procurement.
The on-boarding of the SHGs under the initiative has been initially piloted in the States of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. The coverage shall be rapidly extended to enable a large number of SHGs from all the states/ Union Territories to sell their products to Government buyers.
In order to handhold and facilitate the SHGs in uploading their products, GeM, along with the State and National Rural Livelihoods Missions, are assisting the sellers with product catalogue management, order fulfilment and bid participation. GeM shall also collaborate with State functionaries to address the capacity building and training needs of SHGs, and build up their competencies required for order packaging, catalogue management and logistics.
With inputs and assistance from NRLM and SRLMs, GeM will develop online learning resources in vernacular content for SHGs and SRLM staff to meet user specific needs. Further, GeM will conduct online webinars for SHGs and functionaries at State Livelihoods Missions and develop videos, eBooks, Manual and repository of FAQs fora seamless learning experience.
By providing SHGs with direct access to Government buyers, the Saras Collection will do away with intermediaries in the supply chain, thus ensuring better prices for SHGs and spurring employment opportunities at the local level. This is just the beginning and GeM is delighted at this opportunity to partner the SHGs in their growth story.
The SHGs deserve to be specially commended for the manner in which they, like the entire country, are fighting the COVID-19 pandemic valiantly at this time of national health emergency of unprecedented and historic scale.
About DAY-NRLM: DAY-NLRM aims to reduce poverty through promotion of diversified and gainful self-employment while creating skilled wage employment opportunities. The scheme supports building social capital and ensuring financial linkages to alleviate poverty and enhance the quality of the life of rural poor women. It has ambitious plans on innovations for alternate channels of financial inclusion like digital finance, creating value chains around rural products and improving market access, rural enterprise and strengthening community institutions.
About GeM:
Government e Marketplace (GeM) is a 100 percent Government owned Section 8 Company set up as the National Public Procurement Portal for procurement of goods and services required by Central and State Government organizations. GeM provides an online, end to end solution for procurement of goods and services for all Central Government and State Government Ministries, Departments, Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs), local bodies and autonomous organisations. The platform reduces human interventions in procurement and enables transparency, cost savings, inclusiveness and efficiency of faceless standardized public procurement.
The participant in the round includes Beyond Next Ventures (BNV), a Japanese VC Fund, led by Mr Tsuyoshi Ito, President and Mr Mayu Morishima, Executive Officer. Earlier, top business leaders such as Mr Sajan Pillai, former CEO-UST Global, and General Partner-Season two Ventures, the family of Mr Lalit Pai, ex-CEO, Nightingales Healthcare and Dr Muthu Krishnan, ex-CEO Tata Health have also invested in the seed round.
IIM-Calcutta alumnus, Mr Harshavardhan and nutrition expert Ms Pariksha Rao founded the company and pursues to empower millennial moms with a range of kids foods based on good health to strengthen immunity with a focus on quality, hygiene and food safety, while providing the convenience of anytime, anywhere accessibility.
“We are quite excited by the vision of the founders -Harshavardhan and Pariksha, in building a scientific food and nutrition brand focused on the kids. There is a huge opportunity for growth in this space especially as mothers look for healthy and hygienic solutions in the current context of Covid-19. We are impressed with the differentiated business model of the enterprise that combines the range between fresh meals and packaged foods, enabled by technology, and with a focus on principles of good nutrition,” said Mr Tsuyoshi Ito, President and Mayu Morishima, Executive Officer, Beyond Next Ventures.
Mr Harshavardhan, Co-founder and CEO, ‘Lil’ Goodness, said, “We are excited to receive the additional investment support from ‘Beyond Next Ventures’. Given the current circumstances, this is indeed a good boost for the entire team. We, at ‘Lil’ Goodness’ have the vision to positively influence the eating habits of our future generations through tasty, nutritious food options. With this fund infusion, we are looking to further expand our product range and distribution of packaged foods, develop a digital interface that will enable mothers to order products directly to their homes through a contactless delivery option for the fresh meals business, ScoolMeal.”
He was addressing a Facebook Live interaction on the challenges and measures to overcome COVID-19, India has tried to make the most of the unprecedented drop in crude oil prices.
He said, “Up to 60 lakh LPG cylinders are delivered every day by the distributors. They even risk their lives to deliver these cylinders in red zones.”
Mr Pradhan said that India has imported and stored crude oil to meet 20 per cent of domestic demand.
"A crude price drop of this magnitude has never been seen before. Prices went into negative territory in the US as the demand crashed. To make the most of the situation, India's strategic crude oil storage reserves have been filled up in this situation. Now there is 5.33 million tonne (MT) of crude oil stored in the country in underground caverns. Of this, nearly 2 MT has been recently procured at these low prices," Mr Pradhan said.
"Another 7 MT crude has been procured by private and public sector companies and parked in floating reserves in the form of tankers. Some 25 MT crude oil is in the pipelines and other segments of the refinery cycle," he said.
"In all there is around 20 per cent of domestic demand that can be met by this stored low-priced crude oil when there is a need," he added.
Due to the fall in prices, India's import bill will decrease.
