Cabinet approves setting up of National Recruitment Agency to conduct Common Eligibility Test

 

The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has given its approval for creation of National Recruitment Agency (NRA), paving the way for a transformational reform in the recruitment process for central government jobs.

Recruitment Reform - a major boon for the youth

At present, candidates seeking government jobs must appear for separate examinations conducted by multiple recruiting agencies for various posts, for which similar eligibility conditions have been prescribed. Candidates must pay fee to multiple recruiting agencies and must travel long distances for appearing in various exams. These multiple recruitment examinations are a burden on the candidates, as also on the respective recruitment agencies, involving avoidable/repetitive expenditure, law and order/security related issues and venue related problems. On an average, 2.5 crore to 3 crore candidates appear in each of these examinations. A common eligibility Test would enable these candidates to appear once and apply to any or all of these recruitment agencies for the higher level of examination. This would indeed be a boon to all the candidates.

National Recruitment Agency (NRA)

A multi-agency body called the National Recruitment Agency (NRA) will conduct a Common Eligibility Test (CET) to screen/shortlist candidates for the Group B and C (non-technical) posts. NRA will have representatives of Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Finance/Department of Financial Services, the SSC, RRB & IBPS. It is envisioned that the NRA would be a specialist body bringing the state-of-the-art technology and best practices to the field of Central Government recruitment.

Access to Examination Centres

Examination Centres in every District of the country would greatly enhance access to the candidates located in far-flung areas. Special focus on creating examination infrastructure in the 117 Aspirational Districts would go a long way in affording access to candidates at a place nearer to where they reside. The benefits in terms of cost, effort, safety, and much more would be immense. The proposal will not only ease access to rural candidates, it will also motivate the rural candidates residing in the far-flung areas to take the examination and thereby, enhance their representation in Central Government jobs. Taking job opportunities closer to the people is a radical step that would greatly enhance ease of living for the youth.

Major Relief to poor Candidates

Presently, the candidates must appear in multiple examinations conducted by multiple agencies.Apart from the examination fees, candidates must incur additional expenses for travel, boarding, lodging and other such. A single examination would reduce the financial burden on candidates to a large extent.

Women candidates to benefit greatly

Women candidates especially from rural areas face constraints in appearing in multiple examinations as they must arrange for transportation and places to stay in places that are far away. They sometimes must find suitable persons to accompany them to these Centres that are located far away. The location of test centres in every District would greatly benefit candidates from rural areas in general and women candidates.

Bonanza for Candidates from Rural Areas

Given the financial and other constraints, the candidates from rural background must make a choice as to which examination they want to appear in.Under the NRA, the candidates by appearing in one examination will get an opportunity to compete for many posts.NRA will conduct the first level /Tier I Examination which is the steppingstone for many other selections.

CET Score to be valid for three years, no bar on attempts

The CET score of the candidate shall be valid for a period of three years from the date of declaration of the result.The best of the valid scores shall be deemed to be the current score of the candidate.There shall be no restriction on the number of attempts to be taken by a candidate to appear in the CET subject to the upper age limit. Relaxation in the upper age limit shall be given to candidates of SC/ST/OBC and other categories as per the extant policy of the Government. This would go a long way in mitigating the hardship of candidates who spend a considerable amount of time, money and effort preparing and giving these examinations every year.

Standardised Testing

NRA shall conduct a separate CET each for the three levels of graduate, higher secondary (12th pass) and the matriculate (10th pass) candidates for those non-technical posts to which recruitment is presently carried out by the Staff Selection Commission (SSC), the Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs) and by the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS).Based on the screening done at the CET score level, final selection for recruitment shall be made through separate specialised Tiers (II, III etc) of examination which shall be conducted by the respective recruitment agencies. The curriculum for this test would be common as would be the standard. This would greatly ease the burden of candidates who are at present required to prepare for each of the examinations separately as per different curriculum.

 

Scheduling Tests and choosing Centres

Candidates would have the facility of registering on a common portal and give a choice of Centres. Based on availability, they would be allotted Centres. The ultimate aim is to reach a stage wherein candidates can schedule their own tests at Centres of their choice.

OUTREACH ACTIVITIES BY NRA

Multiple languages

The CET would be available in several languages. This would greatly facilitate people from different parts of the country to take the exam and have an equal opportunity of being selected.

Scores – access to multiple recruitment agencies

Initially the scores would be used by the three major recruitment agencies. However, over a period it is expected that other recruitment agencies in the Central Government would adopt the same. Further, it would be open for other agencies in the public as well as private domain to adopt it if they so choose. Thus, in the long run, the CET score could be shared with other recruiting agencies in the Central Government, State Governments/Union Territories, Public Sector Undertaking and Private Sector. This would help such organizations in saving costs and time spent on recruitment.

Shortening the recruitment cycle

A single eligibility test would significantly reduce the recruitment cycle. Some Departments have indicated their intention to do away with any second level test and go ahead with recruitment on the basis of CET scores, Physical Tests and Medical examination. This would greatly reduce the cycle and benefit a large section of youth.

Financial Outlay

The Government has sanctioned a sum of Rs 1,517.57 crore (US$ 215.29 million) for the National Recruitment Agency (NRA). The expenditure will be undertaken over a period of three years. Apart from setting up the NRA, costs will be incurred for setting up examination infrastructure in the 117 Aspirational Districts.

Mobile App Launched to Provide User Friendly Digital Interface to Source Loan Applications of Street Vendors

 

Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of State (I/C), Housing and Urban Affairs interacted with Urban Development Ministers, Chief Secretaries, UD Secretaries/Principal Secretaries, DGPs, Collectors / SPs / SSPs / Municipal Commissioners / Chief Executive Officers of 125 cities in the context of Prime Minister Street Vendors AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) Scheme which has been launched to provide credit for working capital to street vendors to resume their business. While the Scheme provides the credit facility to the vendors, there is a requirement to ensure that they can do business in a harassment free environment. Shri Durga Shankar Mishra, Secretary, MoHUA was also present in the meeting.

On the occasion, Hon'ble Minister launched a Mobile App for ULB functionaries. This App aims to provide user friendly digital interface for the functionaries of ULBs to source loan applications of street vendors. 

Hon'ble Minister received feedback from states/UTs.  He urged the Ministers of Urban Development and senior officials to hold meetings with key stakeholders towards successful implementation of PM SVANidhi and to ensure the protection of livelihood of street vendors.

During the interaction with the Hon’ble Urban Development Ministers, it was decided that Ministry will conduct complete socio economic profiling of the scheme beneficiaries with an aim to facilitate their actions in other government welfare schemes e.g. PMAY (Urban), Aayushman Bharat, Ujjawala, Jan Dhan Yojana, Saubhagya, DAY-NULM etc. During his interaction, Shri Hardeep Puri said that “States are encouraged to dovetail other schemes for economic upliftment of vendors e.g. Mudra/DAY-NULM credit for purchase of modern pushcarts in place of traditional thelas. About undue harassment of the street vendors by police/municipal officials, action should be initiated against the erring officials by fixing responsibility. Further, to help beneficiary raise their grievances in a conducive environment, a forum chaired by District Collector and having representation of police/ULB and other relevant departments should be constituted.  The Forum so constituted should meet atleast once in a month.”

Observing that PM SVANidhi is not only a micro-finance scheme, the Housing Minister stated that it has a more ambitious objective to formalise the street vendors into urban economy and to provide a complete poverty alleviation package by facilitating their access to various other government schemes.  It was decided that further meetings will be conducted with the lending institutions in coordination with DFS.

Since commencement of online submission of applications on PM SVANidhi portal on 2nd July 2020, more than 5.68 lakh applications have been received and over 1.30 lakh have been sanctioned in different States and UTs.  With the purpose of taking the microcredit facility to the door-step of the vendors a Mobile App for Lending Institutions has already been launched by the Ministry and is available on google play store.

PM SVANidhi was launched by the Ministry on June 01, 2020, for providing affordable Working Capital loan to street vendors to resume their livelihoods that have been adversely affected due to COVID-19 lockdown. This scheme targets to benefit over 50 lakh Street Vendors who had been vending on or before 24 March, 2020, in urban areas including those from surrounding peri-urban/ rural areas. Under the Scheme, the vendors can avail a working capital loan of up to Rs 10,000 (US$ 141.86), which is repayable in monthly instalments in the tenure of one year. On timely/ early repayment of the loan, an interest subsidy @ 7 per cent per annum will be credited to the bank accounts of beneficiaries through Direct Benefit Transfer on quarterly basis. There will be no penalty on early repayment of loan. The scheme promotes digital transactions through cash back incentives up to an amount of Rs 100 (US$ 1.41) per month. The vendors can achieve their ambition of going up the economic ladder by availing the facility of enhancement of the credit limit on timely/ early repayment of loan.

Nearly 60.7 lakh new beneficiaries added under NFSA by states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar during the COVID-19 period; these additional beneficiaries were also able to avail schemes like PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana

 

The National Food Security Act, 2013 (NFSA) provides coverage to nearly 81.09 crore persons to receive highly subsidised food-grains through Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) under two categories, viz. Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) and Priority Households (PHH), which is nearly 2/3rd of the country’s population as per the Census of 2011. The NFSA provides coverage for up to 75 per cent of rural population and up to 50 per cent of urban population. On this basis, nearly 67 per cent of the country’s population was to be covered under NFSA. The responsibility for identification of beneficiaries under NFSA lies with the States/UT Governments.

The process of inclusion of new beneficiaries under NFSA is an ongoing exercise under which the respective State/UT Governments try to utilize their full allowed limit of coverage by deletion of inactive/unused/bogus ration cards and include new beneficiaries in their place periodically. During the period 2013-2018, States/UT had weeded out about 3 crore such ration cards against which new and genuine beneficiaries have been added by them.

During the COVID-19 period, since March 2020, a total of about nearly 60.70 lakh new beneficiaries have been added under the NFSA by States like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, etc. within the respective available ceiling limits. This means that these additional beneficiaries were also able to avail the schemes like PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PM-GKAY).

The Department of Food & Public Distribution has been continuously allocating food grains for over 80 crore persons/beneficiaries to States/UTs since the full implementation of NFSA.

With the view to effectively handle the public grievances under NFSA, all States/UTs have set up toll-free number/online grievance redressal systems in their respective portals. This is in addition to the existence of District Grievance Redressal Officers (DGROs), Vigilance Committees at different levels and State Food Commissions (SFCs) to rationalize the coverage of beneficiaries under NFSA. With the help of such mechanisms in place, the States/UTs are able to effectively address the grievances related to issue of new ration cards to genuinely affected persons/households.

Adequate remedies are therefore available in all States/UTs to resolve grievances related to issue of ration cards in inclusion of beneficiaries. In addition to this, the Department of Food & Public Distribution has also been addressing the issue of inclusion of new and genuine beneficiaries under the NFSA through advisories, meetings, etc.

With regard to provision of adequate quantity of food-grains to NFSA beneficiaries during the COVID-19 crisis, the Department in association with Food Corporation of India (FCI) and State agencies has been providing nearly double the quantity of food-grains under NFSA and PM-GKAY per month (nearly 83 LMT/month).

Under NFSA as well as PM-GKAY, an average of nearly 94 per cent beneficiaries have been provided the food-grains since April 2020. Independent surveys conducted by Dalberg, Micro Save Consulting, etc. in various parts of the country, have shown very high level of satisfaction of nearly 94 per cent among the beneficiaries with regards to distribution of food-grains under NFSA and PM-GKAY. Furthermore, the Department has conducted independent Concurrent Evaluation on implementation of NFSA by 26 Monitoring Institutions (MIs) in 27 States/UTs during the period 2018-20, and the evaluation reports have also been shared with the respective State/UT Governments.

At present, no State/UT Government has indicated any further demand of coverage under NFSA, further extension for distribution of free food-grains to migrants under Atma Nirbhar Bharat Scheme during the review VC meeting convened by the Secretary (DFPD) with all States/UTs on 11th August 2020.

RIL takes on Amazon in e-pharmacy biz, acquires majority stake in Netmeds for Rs 620 crore

 

Reliance Retail Ventures, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) retail unit, has acquired a majority equity stake in online pharma company Netmeds for around Rs 620 crore (US$ 87.96 million), directly taking on Amazon which forayed into the the e-pharmacy business last week.

Reliance Retail Ventures has acquired a majority stake in Vitalic Health Pvt. Ltd and its subsidiaries, collectively known as Netmeds -- for a cash consideration of around Rs 620 crore (US$ 87.96 million).

Through this investment, around 60 per cent holding in the equity share capital of Vitalic and 100 per cent direct equity ownership of its subsidiaries, viz: Tresara Health Private Ltd, Netmeds Market Place Ltd and Dadha Pharma Distribution Pvt Ltd will be held by RIL.

“This investment is aligned with our commitment to provide digital access for everyone in India,” said Ms Isha Ambani, director of Reliance Retail Ventures.

“The addition of Netmeds enhances Reliance Retail’s ability to provide good quality and affordable healthcare products and services, and also broadens its digital commerce proposition to include most daily essential needs of consumers,” she added.

Vitalic and its subsidiaries have a portfolio of pharma distribution, sales, and business support services. Netmeds is a subsidiary of Vitalic that runs an online pharmacy platform to connect customers to pharmacists and enable door-step delivery of medicines, nutritional health, and wellness products.

Dadha Pharma, a Chennai-based company, promotes Netmeds. The Dadha family’s pharmaceutical experience dates to 1914, when they ventured first into the pharma retailing business and then into drug manufacturing in 1972, Reliance Industries said in a release.

There have been many events taking place in the e-pharmacy business in the recent week. Amazon launched its ‘Amazon Pharmacy’ in Bengaluru last week and plans to conduct pilots in other cities, while there are reports that Walmart-owned Flipkart is also planning to foray in the space.

Online medical store, PharmEasy has agreed to merge with smaller rival Medlife, filings with India’s antitrust body show.

Indian Railways introduces Drone based surveillance system for Railway Security

 

Drone surveillance technology has emerged as an important and cost-effective tool for security surveillance over large areas with limited manpower. Mumbai Division of Central Railway in Indian Railways has recently procured two Ninja UAVs for better security and surveillance in Railway areas like station premises, Railway track sections, yards, workshops, etc.

A team of four staff of Railway Protection Force (RPF), Mumbai has been trained for drone flying, surveillance and maintenance. These drones are capable of Real Time Tracking, Video Streaming and may be operated on Automatic Fail-Safe Mode.

Railway Protection Force (RPF) has planned extensive use of drones for the purpose of Railway security. Nine (09) drones have been procured by RPF so far at a cost of Rs 31.87 lakh (US$ 0.05 million) at South Eastern Railway, Central Railway, Modern Coaching Factory, Raebareli and South Western Railway.

It is further proposed to procure seventeen (17) more drones in future at a cost of Rs 97.52 lakh (US$ 0.14 million). Nineteen (19) RPF personnel have so far been trained in operation and maintenance of drones out of which 4 have received licenses for flying drones. Six (06) more RPF personnel are being trained.

The purpose of the drone deployment is to provide a force multiplier and aid to the effectiveness of the security personnel deployed. It can help in inspection of Railway assets and safety of Yards, Workshops, car sheds etc. it can be used to launch surveillance on criminal and anti-social activities like gambling, throwing of garbage, hawking etc in Railway premises. It may be deployed for data collection Analysis of such data collected may prove to be extremely useful in vulnerable sections for safe operations of trains.

The drone may be pressed in service at disaster sites for helping in rescue, recovery and restoration and coordinating of efforts of various agencies. It is very useful while undertaking mapping of railway asset to assess the encroachments on railway property. During large scale crowd management efforts, it may give vital inputs like crowd magnitude, probable time of arrival and dispersal based on which crowd regulation efforts may be planned and executed. Drones were used to enforce lockdown and monitor the movement of migrants during the COVID-19 lockdown.

A drone camera can cover large area which requires 8-10 RPF personnel. Thus, it may lead to substantial improvement in utilization of scarce manpower. Drone beats have been designed based on railway asset, sensitivity of area, activity of criminals etc. Drone acts as an “EYE IN THE SKY” and monitors the whole area. Any suspicious activity if noticed is intimated to the nearest RPF post of division to apprehend the criminal LIVE. One such criminal was apprehended on a real time basis in Wadibunder Yard area while he was trying to commit theft inside railway coach stationed in the yard.

Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad launches "Swadeshi Microprocessor Challenge" to realize the ambition of self-reliance and a momentous stride towards "Atmanirbhar Bharat"

 

Mr Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister of Law & Justice, Communications and Electronics & Information Technology, launched today “Swadeshi Microprocessor Challenge- Innovate Solutionsfor #Aatmanirbhar Bharat” to provide further impetus to the strong ecosystem of Start-up, innovation and research in the country.

IIT Madras and Center for Development of Advance Computing (CDAC) have developed two microprocessors named SHAKTI (32 bit) and VEGA (64 bit) respectively using Open Source Architecture under the aegis of Microprocessor Development Programme of Ministry of Electronics and IT. “Swadeshi Microprocessor Challenge- Innovate Solutions for #Aatmanirbhar Bharat” seeks to invite innovators, start-ups and students to use these microprocessors to develop various technology products.

As one of the concrete steps towards realizing the ambition of self-reliance and a momentous stride towards “Atmanirbhar Bharat”, this initiative is aimed at not only meeting India’s future requirements of strategic and industrial sectors but also has the potential to mitigate the issues of security, licensing, technology obsolescence and most crucially cutting dependency on imports. The design, development, and fabrication of these state-of-the-art processor variants at foundry in the country and abroad, is the successful step to leapfrog to goal of vibrant ecosystem of Electronic System Design and Manufacturing in the country.

The “Swadeshi Microprocessor Challenge” is part of the series of proactive, pre-emptive and graded measures taken by Ministry of Electronics and IT to spur the technology led innovation ecosystem in the country and staying at the forefront of digital adoption. Open to students at all levels and start-ups, the Challenge demands contestants to not only tinker with these Swadeshi Processor IPs and facilitate them with innovating the frugal solutions for societal needs but also make available the entire home-grown ecosystem around Swadeshi Processors to develop the complex designs for catering to both global and domestic requirements in near future.

Ministry of Electronics and IT offers a slew of benefits to the contestants and technology resources that include not only the internship opportunities and regular technical guidance from the best VLSI and Electronics System Design Experts in the country but also the business mentorship & funding support, facilitated by Incubation Centres. Financial support to the tune of Rs 4.30 crore (US$ 0.61 million) at various stages of the Challenge for developing the hardware prototype and incubating a start-up is being offered.

The Challenge spread over 10 months, kick-starts with registration process at https://innovate.mygov.in on 18th August 2020 and culminates in June 2021, with an opportunity for 100 Semi-finalists to win total Rs 1.00 crore (US$ 0.14 million) of Award, 25 Finalists to win total Rs 1.00 crore (US$ 0.14 million) of Award and top 10 teams entering the finale, will get the seed fund of total Rs 2.30 crore (US$ 0.33 million) and 12 months incubation support. Above all, participants will get an opportunity to translate their innovations around Swadeshi Processors, showcase them at a higher viewership platform and facilitate them to scale from ideation to marketplace, thereby standing a chance to contribute to the overall mission of #AtmaNirbharta of Government.

158 lakh MT steel to be consumed in construction of houses sanctioned under PMAY(U): Hardeep Singh Puri

 

About 158 lakh Metric Tonne steel and 692 lakh Metric Tonne cement is likely to be consumed in construction of all the houses sanctioned under PMAY(U) as per estimates, said Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, MoS, I/C, MoHUA and MoCA. Addressing a webinar on Atmanirbhar Bharat: Fostering Steel Usage in Housing & Construction and Aviation Sector, the Minister said that nearly 84 lakh MT steel and 370 lakh MT cement would have already been consumed in houses grounded/completed so far. Sh Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas and Steel, Sh F S Kulhaste, MOS Steel, Sh P K Kharola, Secretary Moca, Sh D S Mishra, Secretary, Mohua, Sh P K Tripathi, Secretary, Steel, senior officers and stakeholders from the industry participated in the webinar which was organized by CII.

 Informing that under PMAY(U), so far, 1.07 crore houses (against demand of 1.12 crore houses) across 4,550 urban cities and 67 lakh houses have been grounded and 35 lakh have been delivered so far, Shri Hardeep Singh Puri added that an estimated 3.65 crore jobs would be generated in construction of all sanctioned houses of which about 1.65 crore jobs would have already been generated in construction of houses grounded so far. The minister added that in 2019, a vision for India becoming a US$ 5 trillion economies by 2024 was laid out by Prime Minister and this growth was envisioned to be anchored in innovative, sustainable, inclusive and self- reliant infrastructure development across the country. Speaking on urbanization, the Minister said that our urban centres/cities are hubs of economic productivity, infrastructure, culture, and diversity. He added that 40 per cent of our population or 600 million Indians are expected to live in our urban centers by 2030.

 Highlighting the usage of steel in urban transport, Shri Puri said that presently about 700 km metro length is operational in 18 cities and about 900 km network is under construction in 27 cities. He added that the average per KM requirement of steel in metro projects is about 13,000 Metric Tonnes (Types -Reinforcement Steel, Structural Steel, Stainless Steel and HT Steel).

Speaking about Indirect steel usage in Smart Cities Mission, Housing and Urban Affairs Minister stated that 5,151 projects worth more than Rs 2 lakh crore (US$ 28.37 billion) were identified in 100 Smart Cities and the Mission has tendered around 4,700 projects worth Rs 1,66,000 crore (US$ 23.55 billion) which is about 81 per cent of the total projects proposed. He added that around 3,800 projects amounting to approximately Rs 1,25,000 crore (US$ 17.73 billion) viz. 61 per cent have been grounded and more than 1,638 projects worth over Rs 27,000 crore (US$ 3.83 billion) have been completed. In order to improve mobility, our cities have completed 215 smart road projects and 315 projects are near completion. Keeping with our commitment to making our cities more liveable and sustainable, 70 projects related to smart water and 42 projects under smart solar have been completed. 

Highlighting usage of steel in aviation sector, Civil Aviation Minister said that Steel is being used extensively in Airport Terminal buildings for roof structure and as support to glass façade. He stated that with a steel roof structure, large column free spaces can be created to give unobstructed view and appearance. Shri Puri explained that the enhanced use of steel in Terminal buildings, Pre-engineered structures leads to ease in work and speedy construction. He stated that value of steel used in construction of Airport Terminal Buildings in the past 3 years is Rs 570 crore (US$ 80.86 million) (approx). He informed that value of steel expected to be used for construction of Airport Terminal Buildings in the next 5 years - Rs 1,905 crore (US$ 270.25 million) (approx). He further said that in the next five years 15 new Terminal buildings are planned at a cost of Rs 15,000 crore (US$ 2.13 billion). requiring large quantity of steel and added that on an average 12-15 per cent of cost component is steel work for Airports. The minister said that the steel ministry’s vision of 300 Million tonnes of capacity by 2030 would be strongly supplemented by the demand generated by urban infrastructure development over the next decade. He assured that the MoHUA and MoCA will play a crucial role in meeting that demand and the demand for steel is only going to increase further in the years to come.

Speaking about the impact on environment, the minister said that PM had stressed on the need to use new, alternative, and faster construction strategies and technologies which are disaster resilient and environment friendly where the carbon footprint is minimal. He added that the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has given a strong push to new technologies and informed that across the country as of today more than 15 lakh houses have been built/under construction using new technologies, both, under PMAY as well as through other state agencies.  Shri Puri urged the Steel industry to come out with their own design and structures for usage of newer strategies and technologies which will have faster completion periods for houses, and which are resilient. He said that MoHUA will collaborate to promote it across the states. He added that the Ministry has already launched a global challenge -Global Housing Technology Challenge (GHTC) to promote and propagate such new technologies.

Exports of agricultural commodities during March to June 2020 increased by 23.24 per cent compared to corresponding period in 2019

 

Self-reliant agriculture is critical for the goal of an Atmanirbhar Bharat. For this, agricultural export is extremely important as besides earning precious foreign exchange for the country, the exports help farmers/producers/exporters to take advantage of wider international market and increase their income. Exports have also resulted in increased production in agriculture sector by increasing area coverage and productivity.

As per WTO’s Trade Statistics, share of India’s agricultural exports and imports in the world agriculture trade in 2017 was 2.27 per cent and 1.90 per cent, respectively. Even during the difficult time of pandemic lockdown, India took care to not to disturb the world food supply chain and continued to export. The exports of Agri commodities during March 2020 to June 2020 were Rs 25,552.7 crore (US$ 3.63 billion) against an export of Rs 20,734.8 crore (US$ 2.94 billion) during the same period in 2019, showing a sharp increase of 23.24 per cent.

The agricultural exports as a percentage of India’s agricultural GDP has increased from 9.4 per cent in 2017-18 to 9.9 per cent in 2018-19. While the agricultural imports as a percentage of India’s agricultural GDP has declined from 5.7 per cent to 4.9 per cent indicating exportable surplus and decreased dependence on import of agricultural products in India.

Giant strides have been made in agri export since independence. In 1950-51, India’s agri export was about Rs 149 crore (US$ 21.14 million) which has risen to the level of Rs 2.53 lakh crore (US$ 35.89 billion) in 2019-20. There has been substantial increase in export of almost all the agricultural items in the last 15 years, but despite being one of the top producers of agricultural products, India does not figure among top exporters of agricultural produce. For example, India holds second rank in the world wheat production but ranks 34th in export. Similarly, despite being world No. 3 in production of vegetables, the export ranking of India is only 14th. Same is the case for fruits, where India is the second largest producer in the world but export ranking is 23rd. To reach the ranks of top exporting nation in Agriculture, commensurate with the production, there is a clear and categorical need to take proactive interventions.

In view thereof, DAC&FW has prepared a comprehensive action plan/strategy towards promotion of agri trade. A detailed exploration of data and issues of pre-production, production, and post-harvest has been undertaken to evolve an end to end approach for developing a holistic strategy. An analysis of product groups and then specific commodities has been done with regard to present status of production & exports, strengths, challenges and thereafter interventions have been identified after consultations with stakeholders. The twofold approach addresses boosting Agri Export with emphasis on value addition and focussed action plan for Import Substitution. The interventions so identified have been converted into a timed action plan.

To mention a few, the Export strategy focuses on export promotion of fast evolving niche markets of Wellness food/ Health conscious food/nutraceuticals; Development of “Brand India” in campaign mode to help penetration into new foreign markets and of new products which automatically translates into higher value realisation;  Gulf countries have been identified as focus destination to increase the market share which is a strong market for India though presently India caters to only 10-12 per cent share of their total imports. A product market matrix has been made containing list of products of strength which could be expanded in new geographies and list of known markets which can be introduced with newer products.

It is also noted that Horticulture is a growing sub-sector. India holds 2nd position in production of fruits and vegetables. It exports 8.23 Lakh MT (LMT) of fruits worth Rs 5,638 crore (US$ 799.83 million) and 31.92 LMT of vegetables worth Rs 5,679 crore (US$ 805.65 million) annually. Grapes occupy the premier position in fresh fruit exports followed by Mango, Pomegranate, Banana, and Oranges. In fresh vegetable export basket, Onions, Mixed Vegetables, Potatoes, Tomatoes, and Green Chilly are the major items. However, world trade of fruits and vegetables is US$ 208 billion, and India’s share is miniscule.  There is huge potential to increase export in fruits and vegetables. As such, specific strategy for export promotion has also been evolved for Fresh Fruits & Vegetables with specific emphasis on grapes, mango, pomegranate, onion, potato & Cucumber-Gherkin.

It is also emphasised that the existing Agri clusters are required to be strengthened and more product clusters to be developed to fulfil the gap of bulk quantity and quality of supplies. A time bound action plan has also been prepared for import substitution with focus upon Edible Oils, Cashew, fruits and spices thereby making India self-reliant.

At the behest of Department of Agricultural Cooperation & Farmers’ Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture, product specific Export Promotion Forums have been created to lead agri exports to new heights. Export promotion forums (EPFs) for eight agri & allied products viz.  Grapes, Mango, Banana, Onion, Rice, Nutri-Cereals, Pomegranate and Floriculture have been constituted under the aegis of Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), Department of Commerce.

Each Export Promotion Forum shall be having exporters of the related commodity as its members along with official members representing concerned Ministries/Departments of the Central and State Governments. Chairman APEDA shall be the chairman of each of these forums. The forums will meet at least once in every two months, to discuss/ make recommendations on issues pertaining to export of the respective commodity and invite experts etc. to the meeting for interaction, as required.

The Forums will constantly monitor and identify/anticipate developments in the external/internal situation pertaining to the production and export of their respective commodity and recommend /intervene for taking the necessary policy/ administrative measures. They will be in active touch with the producers, exporters and other relevant stakeholders of respective commodities and hear their problems, and facilitate, support, and provide solutions to them. They will regularly study the market for respective commodities on a global basis and identifying opportunities and developments / implications for domestic entities and disseminate the same expeditiously to domestic producers and exporters.

The recommendations of the forum will be placed in the product committee / Authority of APEDA. The Forum will keep in close contact with the concerned organisation of Ministry of Agriculture such as MIDH, Extension, NPPO etc., DGFT, Ministry of Civil Aviation, MoFPI etc. to further the interest of agricultural export.

Launch of Tribal Health & Nutrition Portal - 'Swasthya' and Opening of National Overseas Portal & National Tribal Fellowship Portal

 

A series of initiatives were announced by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs here today, which included the Tribal Health and Nutrition Portal ‘Swasthya’ and e-newsletter on health and nutrition ALEKH; opening of National Overseas Portal and National Tribal Fellowship Portal. Present during the occasion were Union Minister of Tribal Affairs Shri Arjun Munda, Minister of State for Tribal Affairs Smt Renuka Singh Saruta, Secretary (Coordination), Cabinet Secretariat Shri V.P. Joy and officers of Ministry of Tribal Affairs led by Shri Deepak Khandekar, Secretary, M/o Tribal Affairs. Shri Navaljit Kapoor, Joint Secretary, MoTA gave presentation of Performance Dashboard of Ministry where various outcome indicators of 11 schemes and Initiatives of the Ministry are reflected.

Shri Arjun Munda inaugurated the e-portal on tribal health and nutrition named ‘Swasthya’, a first of its kind e-portal, providing all health and nutrition related information of the tribal population of India in a single platform. Swasthya will also curate innovative practices, research briefs, case studies, and best practices collected from different parts of India to facilitate the exchange of evidence, expertise, and experiences. The Ministry of Tribal Affairs has recognized Piramal Swasthya as the Centre of Excellence for Knowledge Management (CoE for KM) for Health and Nutrition. The CoE will constantly engage with the Ministry and provide inputs to drive evidence-based policy and decision-making pertaining to health and nutrition of the tribal population of India. The portal http://swasthya.tribal.gov.in is hosted on NIC cloud.  

During the event, Shri Arjun Munda stated, “The availability of healthcare for all has been one of the foremost priorities of our Prime Minister. Although the public health standards have improved over time, the differences between tribal and non-tribal populations remain. We, at the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, are committed to bridge this gap. I am glad that the ‘Swasthya’ portal has come out very well. The launch of the portal is a first step towards the much bigger goal of serving the tribal population of our nation. With support from all the stakeholders, I hope and expect to grow stronger and serve better towards fulfilment of visions of our Prime Minister ‘Healthy India.”

He further informed about the initiatives of the Ministry in partnership with Facebook though the ‘Going Online as Leaders (GOAL)’ Programme. Through the GOAL Programme, the Ministry aims to mentor 5000 Tribal Youth across India and enable them to become village-level digital young leaders for their communities. He stated “We are working very hard to make this programme a big success and I have every hope that the initiative will realize its objectives and result in empowering tribal youth to become leading resource in their area of influence and help tribal youth and enable them to gain leadership skills, identify problems in their society, find solutions and use their knowledge for society’s socio-economic status.”GOAL program has received huge response from all stakeholders. The road map of the program including the distribution of mobile and launch of the program on 5th September 2020, on Teachers Day was also announced.

Commenting on the DBT Portal, Shri Arjun Munda stated that the Ministry of Tribal Affairs has been recently awarded the 66th SKOCH Gold Award for “Empowerment of Tribals through IT enabled Scholarship Schemes” under guidance of DBT Mission. It was informed that the national evaluation of Centrally Sponsored Schemes focused on social inclusion by KPMG has recognised the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) Portal of Ministry of Tribal Affairs as a best practice in e-governance; leading to greater transparency, accountability and radical improvement in service delivery to Scheduled Tribe students. On the opening of online application for Fellowship and Overseas Scholarship, he added, “National Fellowship and Overseas Scholarship Portal will bring greater transparency and easy information to the ST students”. He talked about extraordinary efforts of Ministry towards realizing the dreams of Digital India envisioned by Prime Minister”.

Speaking on the Performance Dashboard of M/o Tribal Affairs the Minister added “The dashboard is part of Digital India Initiative to work towards empowering Scheduled Tribes and will bring efficiency and transparency in the system.The performance of Tribal Ministry and 37 other Ministries who are required to spend allocated amount of their budget for tribal welfare under STC Component as per mechanism framed by NITI Aayog can be seen on various parameters on dashboard.The dashboard will also be one-point link to all e-initiatives of the Ministry”The Dashboard has been developed by Centre of Excellence of Data Analytics (CEDA), organization under National Informatics Centre (NIC) with domain name (http://dashboard.tribal.gov.in).

Smt Renuka Singh Saruta released ‘ALEKH’, a quarterly e-newsletter. Emphasizing on the commitment of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs to improve the health and wellbeing of the tribal communities, she stated, “I am deeply grateful to the individuals and organizations who tirelessly work on the ground for the betterment of the community especially in providing health services to the ST people during COVID time. I hope this newsletter will enable us to showcase the work of all our stakeholders and encourage us to learn from each other’s successes and failures. I am glad to mention that through the GOAL programme, MoTA and Facebook are jointly reaching the ST youth, and specially ST girls, through digital platform for developing entrepreneurial skills among them. I firmly believe that this will empower them to become champions in the social and economic sector.”

Shri V.P. Joy, Secretary (Coordination), Cabinet Secretariat opened the National Overseas and National Fellowship portal for inviting online applications for academic year 2020-21. He hailed the efforts of the Ministry for creating an excellent database in respect of all scholarship schemes through DBT and bringing transparency and efficiency through performance dashboard.

Other members present during the occasion were Shri Paresh Parasnis, CEO, Piramal Foundation, Shri Shailendra Hegde, Vice President Public Health Innovations, Piramal Swasthya and Shri Rajat Arora, Facebook.

Ester Filmtech to set up Rs 1,350 crore manufacturing plant in Telangana

 Ester Filmtech intends to invest Rs 1,350 crore (US$ 191.52 million) to set up an advanced polyester film manufacturing facility in Telangana.

It is expected that the implementation of the first phase with an investment of Rs 500 crore (US$ 70.93 million) is scheduled to be completed by the third quarter of the calendar year 2022, the company said.

This project will generate direct employment for about 800 people. The end products will be used as packaging material and will help in strengthening the value chain of the flexible packaging industry.

The company also plans to export 30 to 40 per cent of its production, which will help establish Telangana's footprint on the global flexible packaging map.

Chairman Mr Arvind Singhania said, “The company chose Telangana as an investment destination due to its industry-friendly policies, growth-oriented approach and ease of doing business.”

Ester Industries is among the leading producers of polyester films, engineering plastics and speciality polymers in India. The company has manufacturing facilities at Khatima in Uttarakhand with a capacity of 67,000 tonnes per annum of polyester resin, 57,000 TPA of polyester film, 30,000 TPA of speciality polymers and 16,500 TPA of engineering plastics.

It exports about 30 per cent of its production of polyester films with sales and distribution network in more than 56 countries.