Aarogya Setu introduces 'Open API Service', a novel feature to help the people, businesses and the economy to return to normalcy

 As we move on to the new normal of learning to live with COVID19, Aarogya Setu team has worked on a new innovative feature which is called ‘Open API Service’. In order to help businesses and economy to start functioning while being safe, the Open API Service enables organizations to check the status of Aarogya Setu and integrate it into its various Work from Home features. The Open API Service of Aarogya Setu, addresses the fear/risk of COVID-19 infections and help the people, businesses, and the economy to return to normalcy.

Aarogya Setu has been powering India’s fight against COVID-19 since its launch on 2nd April 2020. Aarogya Setu has now emerged as the most downloaded contact tracing App in the world, with more than 15 crore Users. The overwhelming support of the people has enabled Aarogya Setu to aid the efforts of frontline health workers and the Government in COVID-19 mitigation and management efforts. More than 6.6 million Bluetooth contacts have been traced and percentage positive of those who have tested is almost 27 per cent. Thus, Aarogya Setu based Bluetooth contact tracing and testing is very efficient and effective. Similarly, many others have been advised for caution and quarantine and it has led to breaking the chain of spread and has been effective in early detection and ensuring that fatality rates in India are amongst the lowest. The Aarogya Setu ITIHAS interface which uses location data and Aarogya Setu analytics to predict emerging hotspots at Sub Pincode levels has been very effective in helping the health officials and administration to take necessary precautionary steps. More than 30,000 hotspots have been identified at a very granular level of 300 m X 300 m and shared with State Governments and Districts.

Since its launch, Aarogya Setu has continuously innovated and introduced more novel features like e-pass integration, QR Code scanning, sharing of Health status with family/known persons - all of which have been very effective in keeping India and Indians safe in line with the motto of Aarogya Setu – Main Surakshit, Hum Surakshit, Bharat Surakshit.

Open API Service

The Open API Service of Aarogya Setu, can be availed by organizations and business entities, who are registered in India with more than 50 employees, and they can use the Open API Service to query the Aarogya Setu Application in real-time and get the health status of their employees or any other Aarogya Setu User, who have provided their consent for sharing their health status with the organization. The Open API shall only provide the Aarogya Setu status and name of the Aarogya Setu User (with User's consent). No other personal data shall be provided through the API.

Registration for Open API Service can be done at: https://openapi.aarogyasetu.gov.in

Technical queries, related to Open API can be addressed to: openapi.aarogyasetu@gov.in

Indian Railways generates more than 6,40,000 mandays of work till 21 August 2020 under Gareeb Kalyan Rozgar Abhiyan

 

Indian Railways has generated more than 6,40,000 mandays of work under Gareeb Kalyan Rozgar Abhiyan in 6 States viz. Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh.

Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of Railways and Commerce and Industry is closely monitoring the progress made in these projects and generation of work opportunities for the migrant labours of these states under this scheme. Around 165 Railway infrastructure projects are being executed in these states.

Till 21 August 2020, 12,276 workers have been engaged in this Abhiyaan and the payment of Rs 1,410.35 crore (US$ 200.08 million) has been released to the contractors for the projects being implemented.

Railway has appointed nodal officers in each district as well as in the States so that a close coordination is established with the State Government.

Railway has identified no. of railway works which are being executed under this scheme. The works are related to

• construction and maintenance of approach roads for level crossings,
• development & cleaning of silted waterways, trenches and drains along the track,
• construction and maintenance of approach road to railway stations,
• repair and widening of existing railway embankments / cuttings,
• plantation of trees at extreme boundary of railway land and
• protection works of existing embankments/ cuttings/bridges.

It may be noted that Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi launched a massive employment -cum- rural public works campaign named Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan to empower and provide livelihood opportunities in areas/ villages witnessing large number of returnee migrant workers affected by the devastating COVID-19 on 20th June 2020. The Prime Minister announced that an amount of Rs 50,000 crore (US$ 7.09 billion) would be spent for building durable rural infrastructure under the Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan.

This Abhiyaan of 125 days, is being undertaken in mission mode, and involves focused implementation of 25 categories of works/ activities in 116 districts, each with a large concentration of returnee migrant workers in 6 states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Odisha. Public works is being undertaken during this campaign will have a resource envelope of Rs 50,000 crore (US$ 7.09 billion).

The Abhiyaan is a convergent effort between 12 different Ministries/Departments, namely; Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Road Transport & Highways, Mines, Drinking Water & Sanitation, Environment, Railways, Petroleum & Natural Gas, New & Renewable Energy, Border Roads, Telecom and Agriculture, to expedite implementation of 25 public infrastructure works and works relating to augmentation of livelihood opportunities.

1.22 crore Kisan Credit Cards sanctioned with credit limit of Rs 1,02,065 crore under the special saturation drive

 In an effort to buffer the agricultural sector from the shock of COVID-19, a special saturation drive is underway to provide concessional credit to farmers through Kisan Credit Card (KCC). As on 17.08.2020, 1.22 crore KCCs have been sanctioned with credit limit of Rs 1,02,065 crore (US$ 14.48 billion). This will go a long way in reviving the rural economy and accelerating agricultural growth.

It may be recalled that as part of the Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Package, the Government had announced provision of a concessional credit of Rs 2 lakh crore (US$ 28.37 billion) which is likely to benefit 2.5 crore farmers, including fishermen and dairy farmers.

Tata Tele partners FirstWave solutions to expand cyber security portfolio

 

Tata Teleservices (TTSL) has partnered with Australian cloud security company FirstWave Cloud Technology to expand its cyber security portfolio.

Under this partnership, TTSL will use FirstWave's Cloud Content Security Platform (CCSP) to provide email security, web security, next-generation firewall, endpoint security and multi-factor authentication (MFA) Security Services.

The SMB customers of Tata Teleservices will have access to a comprehensive smart perimeter security proposition that is robust, scalable and can be rapidly deployed at an affordable cost as a part of this agreement, the company said.

"The COVID-19 Pandemic has created a unique set of opportunities and threats in its wake. We are excited to partner with FirstWave to offer Customers a world-class Platform based Security Portfolio that will enable them to meet these cybersecurity threats, efficiently and cost-effectively," TTSL president for enterprise business Harjit Singh said.

The company will offer security solutions for customers using public and private cloud business applications.

Tata group had earlier sold consumer mobile business to Bharti Airtel but continues to operate the enterprise division of TTSL.

Atal Innovation Mission partners with India-Sweden Healthcare Innovation Centre to expand Start-up ecosystem

 In line with a shared vision of expanding the culture of innovation in the country, Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), NITI Aayog and Business Sweden on behalf of India Sweden Healthcare Innovation Centre are collaborating to promote the disruptive potential of Indian entrepreneurs, and, boost the vibrant start-up ecosystem across the country.

A virtual Statement of Intent (SoI) was signed between AIM and India-Sweden Healthcare Innovation Centre here on Thursday, 20 August 2020.

Under AIM, various programmes or initiatives are being run such as Atal New India Challenge (ANIC), Atal Incubation Centre (AIC), Atal Community Innovation Centers (ACIC), Atal Tinkering Lab (ATL) and Atal Research & Innovation for Small Enterprises (ARISE). Through this collaboration, these initiatives are set to receive support by the means of conducting programs, awareness campaigns, various activities and events that would promote the overall innovation grid of both the countries through these programmes.

India-Sweden Healthcare Innovation Centre is a collaboration between AIIMS Delhi, AIIMS Jodhpur and Business Sweden. The Innovation Centre aims to create an ecosystem of open innovation and is built under strategic guidance from Government of India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Government of Sweden’s Ministry of Health and Social Affairs and Embassy of Sweden in India. It also has a strong network of ecosystem partners - Invest India, AGNII, Start-up India, and knowledge partners – AstraZeneca, NASSCOM and VINNOVA. The Innovation centre has recently launched its first healthcare innovation challenge to collaborate with partners on the Innovation Centre platform to help solve some of the problems in the healthcare delivery landscape of India. Through this collaboration with Atal Innovation Mission, the India-Sweden Healthcare Innovation centre ecosystem will be further strengthened to provide all the required support to the innovators for faster scale-up of their solutions.

“We are very proud that India-Sweden Healthcare Innovation Centre is partnering with us in our endeavours to nourish the existing innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem in India while also enabling innovation collaborations with counterparts in Sweden. Such synergies will enable a vibrant growth of world class Indian start-ups addressing both Indian and global opportunities leveraging global partnerships and networks of Swedish companies,” Mission Director AIM, NITI Aayog R Ramanan said.

He added that the collaboration with India Sweden Healthcare Innovation Centre is in line with AIM’s various initiatives that have been taken in recent past for scaling up the country’s entrepreneurial and innovation network through several international collaborations.

Sharing further details about the SoI, he mentioned that AIM will be supporting initiatives such as Innovation Challenges, Incubation, Mentorship, access to funding networks, innovation showcase and conference events.

Meanwhile, the India Sweden Healthcare Innovation Centre has agreed to support the goals of AIM by enabling synergies towards creating a sustainable ecosystem of innovation and entrepreneurship between the two countries. This will also include building seamless experience for the start-ups onboarded at India-Sweden Innovation centre.

Virtual SoI was signed by Mission Director AIM, NITI Aayog R Ramanan and the Swedish Trade Commissioner to India, Mr Anders Wickberg on behalf of the India Sweden Healthcare Innovation Centre

Sharing his views during the signing event, Wickberg asserted that “We are very happy to partner with AIM who has been playing a significant role in promoting Indian start-up ecosystem. The collaboration with AIM will further strengthen the India-Sweden healthcare innovation centre eco-system to enable seamless experience and faster scale-up to start-ups onboarded with the India-Sweden Healthcare innovation centre”

All such steps being taken by AIM, NITI Aayog are expected to shape the future of a thriving innovation and start up economy across the country.

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.