Indore Creates Record by Winning Title of Cleanest City Fourth Time in A Row

 

Shri Hardeep S Puri, MoS(I/C), Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has stated that “Swachh Survekshan will continue to help us in sustaining the gains made under Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban(SBM-U), while providing a comprehensive roadmap to institutionalize the concept of total Swachhata among all our cities.  As the performance of cities rightly show, we are well on our way to creating not just a ‘Swachh’ (clean) but a ‘Swasth’ (healthy), ‘Sashakt’ (empowered),‘Sampann’ (prosperous) and Atmanirbhar (self-reliant) New India!”. He gave away the awards for Swachh Survekshan 2020, the fifth edition of the annual cleanliness urban survey conducted by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), Government of India at a virtual event titled Swachh Mahotsav organized by MoHUA. While Indore won the coveted title of the Cleanest City of India, Surat and Navi Mumbai won the second and third position respectively (in the > 1 lakh population category). Chhattisgarh won the prestigious title of the Cleanest State of India in the > 100 ULB category while Jharkhand was adjudged the Cleanest State of India in the <100 ULB category. An additional 117 awards were also handed over by the Minister. (detailed results available on www.swachhsurvekshan2020.org). Dignitaries from all over the country, Sh Durga Shanker Mishra, Secretary, MOHUA, Chief Secretaries, Principal Secretaries, Municipal Commissioners and swachhta warriors attended the online event.

The Minister interacted with select beneficiaries of household toilets, SafaiKarmis or sanitation workers, informal waste pickers and members of self-help groups associated with the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U) from across the country. The event was webcast live on https://webcast.gov.in/mohua and on SBM-U’s social media handles.

Addressing the winners and citizens at large, the Minister said “More than five years ago, the Hon’ble Prime Minister had seen a dream – the dream of a Swachh Bharat. Today, we feel immensely proud, as well as humbled, to see how every citizen of urban India have come together to make that dream a tangible reality. In the last five years, we have seen how this Mission has created a deep impact on people’s health, livelihoods, quality of life and most importantly, in their thoughts and their behaviour”. The Minister further exhorted everyone to play their part and be a true Swachhata Warrior by inculcating habits of Swachhata such as practising proper segregation of waste at source, saying no to single use plastic and treating sanitation workers with respect and dignity, amongst others.

Speaking about the genesis of what has become the world’s largest urban sanitation survey, Shri Puri explained, “When the Swachh Bharat Mission- Urban (SBM-U) was launched in 2014, it was with the objective of making urban India 100 per cent open defecation free (ODF) along with 100 per cent scientific solid waste management. With no concept of ODF in urban areas and solid waste processing standing at a mere 18 per cent, it was clear that an accelerated approach was necessary if the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s dream of a Swachh India was to be achieved within the timeframe of five years. A framework was therefore needed to bring about rigour in the progress in monitoring and a spirit of healthy competition amongst states and cities to improve their performance in key cleanliness parameters. It was this underlying thought that led to the conceptualization and subsequent implementation of Swachh Survekshan (SS), a competitive framework to encourage cities to improve the status of urban sanitation while encouraging large scale citizen participation.”

With noteworthy progress being made in the past six years under SBM-U, the Minister outlined the vision for the next phase of the Mission, “Our efforts going forward will be on safe containment, transportation and disposal of faecal sludge and septage from toilets, and also the grey and black water from households and establishments.  Along with this, the treatment of all wastewater before discharging into water bodies, and their maximum possible re-use will also be our priority. Alongside, I am also concerned about the safety of our sanitation workers, our frontline warriors in this ‘Kranti’. Therefore, provision of adequate safety gear and mechanized equipment to all sanitation workers will be paid maximum attention in the next phase of the Mission.”

Speaking at the occasion, Shri Durga Shanker Mishra, Secretary, MoHUA said, “MoHUA had conducted Swachh Survekshan 2016 survey for the rating of 73 cities in January 2016, followed by Swachh Survekshan 2017 conducted in January-February 2017 ranking 434 cities. Swachh Survekshan 2018, which became the world’s largest cleanliness survey, ranked 4203 cities followed by SS 2019 which not only covered 4237 cities but was also the first of its kind completely digital survey completed in a record time of 28 days. Swachh Survekshan 2020 continued the momentum and surveyed a total of 4242 cities, 62 Cantonment Boards and 97 Ganga Towns and saw an unprecedented participation of 1.87 crore citizens.   Going a step forward, to ensure sustainability of on-ground performance of cities, the Ministry had also introduced Swachh Survekshan League last year, a quarterly cleanliness assessment of cities and towns done in three quarters with 25 per cent weightage integrated into the final Swachh Survekshan results for this year. Moreover, the dynamic nature of the Swachh Survekshan framework has also evolved continuously. From being just a monitoring framework for measuring outcomes, Swachh Survekshan has become an implementation accelerator for SBM-Urban, enabling sustainability of outcomes by institutionalizing ‘Swachhata”.

Durga Shanker Mishra further added, “Swachh Survekshan 2020 had an overwhelming scale with the survey team visiting over 58,000 residential and over 20,000 commercial areas covering over 64,000 wards in a mere 28 days”.

Some of the key highlights of Swachh Survekshan 2020 are as follows:

• 1.87 crore citizen feedback received
• 1.7 crore citizens registered on Swachhata App
• Over 11 crore impressions on social media
• Over 5.5 lakh sanitary workers linked to social welfare schemes and over 84,000 informal waste pickers integrated into the mainstream
• Over 4 lakh contractual employees employed by Urban Local Bodies
• Over 21,000 Garbage Vulnerable Points identified and transformed

 Since its launch in 2014, Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U) has made significant progress in the area of both sanitation and solid waste management. 4,324 Urban ULBs have been declared ODF, 1,319 cities certified ODF+ and 489 cities certified ODF++ as per MoHUA’s sanitation protocols. This has been made possible through construction of more than 66 lakhs individual household toilets and over 6 lakhs community/ public toilets, far exceeding the Mission’s targets. Additionally, over 59,900 toilets across 2900+ cities have been made live on Google Maps. In the area of solid waste management, 96 per cent of wards have complete door-to door collection while 66 per cent of the total waste generated is being processed – a jump of nearly 4 times over 2014 levels of 18 per cent processing. A total of 6 cities (Indore, Ambikapur, Navi Mumbai, Surat, Rajkot and Mysuru) have been rated as 5-star cities, 86 cities as 3-Star and 64 cities as 1-Star, as per MoHUA’s Star Rating Protocol for Garbage Free Cities.

Other key highlights of the event included the release of the Swachh Survekshan 2020 Survey Report along with reports on Swachh Survekshan Innovations and Best Practices, Swachh Survekshan Social Media Report and Report on Assessment of Ganga Towns. Swachh Survekshan also saw the Minister felicitating partner organizations such as the United Nations Agency for International Development (USAID/ India), Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Microsoft India, Google, Janaagraha amongst others, who have played a significant role in the success of the Mission.

Last month, MoHUA launched the sixth edition of the survey, Swachh Survekshan 2021. Keeping in mind the Ministry’s efforts towards ensuring sustainability of the sanitation value chain, the Swachh Survekshan 2021 indicators focus on parameters pertaining to wastewater treatment and reuse along with faecal sludge. Similarly, the crucial issues of legacy of waste management and remediation of landfills have been brought to the fore in the sixth edition of the Survekshan. Alongside, Swachh Survekshan 2021 saw the introduction of a new performance category, the Prerak DAUUR Samman which has a total of five additional sub- categories -Divya (Platinum), Anupam (Gold), Ujjwal (Silver), Udit (Bronze), Aarohi (Aspiring). In addition to the present criteria of evaluating cities on ‘population category’, this new category will categorize cities based on six select indicator wise performance criteria.

Over the years, digital innovations have always been at the forefront of the Mission enabling scaling up and better monitoring of outcomes along with increased citizen engagement. This has been reinforced with the launch of the integrated MIS portal by the Ministry recently which brings the numerous digital initiatives on a single platform thus ensuring a unified and hassle-free experience for States and cities and leading the way towards the creation of not just a Swachh but a truly digital India.

The link to view the entire list of rankings is https://swachhsurvekshan2020.org/Rankings

About 21 crore mandays employment provided and Rs 16,768 crore spent by the seventh week of Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan

 

The Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan (GKRA) is taking action on mission mode to provide employment to migrant workers who have returned to their native villages of 6 states namely Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. The Abhiyaan is empowering villagers with livelihood opportunities in 116 districts of these states.

By the seventh week itself a total of about 21 crore mandays employment has been provided and Rs 16,768 crore (US$ 2.38 billion) has been spent so far. In the pursuit of the objectives of the Abhiyaan, many structures have been created including 77,974 water conservation structures, 2.33 lakh rural houses, 17,933 cattle shed, 11,372 farm ponds, and 3,552 community sanitary complexes. In addition, 6300 works have been taken up through District Mineral Funds, 764 Gram Panchayats have been provided internet connectivity, and 25,487 candidates have been provided skill training through Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) during the Abhiyaan.

The GKRA’s success so far be convergent efforts of 12 Ministries/Departments and State Governments, which are giving higher quantum of benefits to the migrant workers and rural communities.

The Abhiyaan was launched to boost employment and livelihood opportunities for migrant workers returning to villages and similarly affected citizens in rural areas, in the wake of COVID-19 outbreak. The stage is set for a longer-term initiative for jobs and livelihoods for those who choose to stay back.

A big win for Digital India: Health Ministry's 'eSanjeevani' telemedicine service records 2 lakh tele-consultations

 

The ‘eSanjeevani’ digital platform of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has completed 2 lakh tele-consultations.

This milestone was achieved in a short time of ten days only since the 9th of August when Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare presided over a meet to commemorate the completion of 1.5 lakh tele-consultations. In what can be seen as a big push for the ‘Digital India’ initiative of the Prime Minister, the eSanjeevani  platform has proved its usefulness and easy access for the caregivers and the medical community, and those seeking healthcare services in the times of COVID.

eSanjeevani platform has enabled two types of telemedicine services viz. Doctor-to-Doctor (eSanjeevani) and Patient-to-Doctor (eSanjeevani OPD) Tele-consultations. The former is being implemented under the Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centre (AB-HWC). It aims to implement tele-consultation in all the 1.5 lakh Health and Wellness Centres in conjunction with identified Medical College hospitals in a ‘Hub and Spoke’ model. States have identified and set up dedicated ‘Hubs’ in Medical Colleges and District hospitals to provide tele-consultation services to ‘Spokes’, i.e SHCs, PHCs and HWCs. The Health Ministry rolled out the second tele-consultation service ‘eSanjeevani OPD’ enabling patient-to-doctor telemedicine owing to the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2020. This has proved a boon in containing the spread of COVID while simultaneously enabling provisions for non-COVID essential healthcare.

eSanjeevani has been implemented so far by 23 States and other States are in the process of rolling it out.

The top five States which have been utilizing the e-health services being offered through this platform are Tamil Nadu (56,346 consultations), Uttar Pradesh (33,325), Andhra Pradesh (29,400), Himachal Pradesh (26,535) and Kerala (21,433). Andhra Pradesh leads in having the most HWC-medical college interactions with 25,478 consultations while Tamil Nadu leads in the OPD services with 56,346 consultations.

Dr Reddy's launches innovator brand of favipiravir 'Avigan' at Rs 99 per tablet

 

Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd launched the innovator brand of favipiravir ‘Avigan’ at Rs 99 (US$ 1.40) per tablet, a premium compared to existing generic brands already in the market.

“This launch is part of Dr Reddy’s pact with the drug’s Japan-based innovator firm Fujifilm, under which the Hyderabad-based drug maker has the rights to manufacture, sell and distribute Avigan tablets in India as well as export it to all countries globally, barring Japan, China and Russia”, said Mr M V Ramana, chief executive officer for branded markets (India and emerging markets).

The company plans to import the drug from FujiFilm for now, and in about three months, it would start manufacturing its own product through a technology transfer, the company said. Dr Reddy’s has plans to export the drug to other countries.

The price of ‘Avigan’ are kept at a 32 per cent premium as compared to the most expensive brand of favipiravir, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd’s ‘FabiFlu’, which costs Rs 75 (US$ 1.06) per pill. Glenmark’s ‘FabiFlu’ was the first favipiravir brand launched in India.

It is seen that an entire course of favipiravir consists of 122 tablets of 200 mg each over two weeks. Thus, Dr Reddy’s ‘Avigan’ is expected to price a little over Rs 12,000 (US$ 170.23) per course.

While the cheapest favipiravir brand is Sun Pharmaceutical Ltd’s ‘FluGuard’, which costs Rs 4,270 (US$ 60.57) for an entire course, or Rs 35 (US$ 0.49) per tablet.

According to Dr Reddy’s, shelf life is longer in case of the innovator brand of two years as compared to just three months for some of the generic drugs.

Earlier, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals said that the shelf life of product was about three months when it was launched as early launch had shortened the period for stability testing but now FabiFlu’s shelf life is over a year.

There is also 700 patient randomised control trial conducted by Dr Reddy in Kuwait to test for the efficacy of the drug in treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19.

Favipiravir has received emergency use authorisations for the drug to treat mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in several countries like India, Japan and Russia, the regulatory move was based on a large observational study in Japan of around 2,000 patients and several small randomised control studies, including a 150-patient phase-III trial by Glenmark.

Though, many experts have criticised this as there is not enough evidence to support the use of favipiravir, especially as many studies showed that while the drug was able to reduce the time for treatment, it was not able to clear viral load as effectively.

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.