2 october Gandhi Jayanti- the occasion of 151st anniversary, Pharma sector is likely to grow, States/UTs are now seamlessly connected under ONORC (One Nation One Ration Card Scheme), Salient Features of Monsoon 2020, RAISE 2020- ‘Responsible AI for Social Empowerment 2020’, Mega Food Park projects in Kerala, ‘Swachhata Ke 6 Saal, Bemisaal’ of, 100-days Campaign- Jal Jeevan Mission
Gandhi Jayanti- the occasion of 151st anniversary
- The year 2020 has been celebrated on the occasion of the 151st anniversary of our Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi.
- On 2nd October every year, Gandhi ji is remembered not only in India but all over the world.
- He remains a source of inspiration for all humanity.
- His life-story empowers and strengthens the weaker sections of the society.
- His message of truth, non-violence and love paves the way for the welfare of the world by bringing about harmony and equality in the society.
- His values were as relevant yesterday as are today and will remain so in the future.
- People now realize that the solution to the biggest of the problems can be found through the path of goodwill and tolerance as suggested by Gandhiji.
- Gandhiji’s own life is a shining example of treading this very path.
- He taught us that we should behave well with those who are not even our well-wishers, and have a feeling of love, kindness and forgiveness towards all.
- There should be harmony in our thoughts, words and deeds.
- Gandhiji gave a lot of importance to morality and purity of goals and means in his endeavours.
- I am happy that Gandhiji’s thoughts and teachings are at the core of our government’s efforts being practised for the development of our country such as Swachh Bharat Mission, Empowerment of Women, Empowering the poor and downtroddens, helping farmers and providing essential facilities in villages etc.
- On this auspicious occasion of Gandhi Jayanti, let us resolve to rededicate ourselves to the welfare and progress of the nation, to follow the mantra of truth and non-violence, and to build a clean, capable, strong and prosperous India, and to make Gandhiji’s dreams come true.
- On occasion of Gandhi Jayanti, Shri Shripad Yesso Naik, Minister of State (IC) for AYUSH has been inaugurating a Naturopathy hospital at the tribal hamlet at Gohe Budruk in Pune, Maharashtra.
- This project will serve as a Naturopathy and Yoga treatment centre for the patients of the tribal community in the area and also as a training centre for the Tribal Youth incorporating the skills of Naturopathy and Yoga to integrate to their health practices.
- This unit will also study tribal Health practices and develop a repository of tribal health practices.
- This project has the special mandate of using Naturopathy and Yoga treatment for the patients of the tribal community of the area for managing Immune Deficiency Disorders.
- This Naturopathy and Yoga Hospital cum training center is expected to serve as model unit for rest of the country.
- Naturopathy treatments which will benefit the entire community on a long run.
- It may further empower them as self employed and as well as in getting employment both in Nature Cure and yoga Centers as well as in wellness and spa industry, where there is growing demand for workforce.
Pharma sector is likely to grow into 120 billion-dollar industry by 2030
- Union minister For Chemicals and Fertilizers Shri DV Sadananda Gowda has said that this is the best time to invest in Pharma & Medical device sector in India.
- Pharma sector is likely to grow in to 65-billion-dollar industry by 2024 and to 120 billion dollars by 2030 and Medical Devices industry to reach US $ 50 Billion by 2025.
- As business friendly reforms carried out by Government have helped India to emerge as one of the best investment destinations among emerging economies.
- Implementation of policies to promote financial inclusion and to check corruption and easing of compliance of labour laws & regulations has made India the best destination for investment.
- In 2018-19, India attracted FDI inflows of 73 billion dollar, up 18 % from previous year.
- Especially mentioning the pharma and medical device sector.
- He said pharma this is the most opportune time to invest in this sector in India as pharma sector It is likely to grow in to 65-billion-dollar industry by 2024 to 120 billion dollars by 2030 and medical device sector has the potential to grow at 28% per annum to reach US $ 50 Billion by 2025.
- Indian pharma and medical device sector have immense potential to contribute towards making India a 5 trillion-dollar economy in next 4-5 year.
- In this backdrop, Indian Government is supporting development of three Bulk Drug and four Medical Device Parks with State of Art Infrastructure and world class Centres of Excellence across the country.
- Government will also provide Production Linked Incentives (PLI) to eligible new manufacturing units to ensure level playing field to domestic manufacturers.
- Highlighting the contribution of pharma industry during this testing time of covid-19 crisis, Indian pharma and medical devices industry were able to rise to the occasion.
- The crisis is being turned into opportunities by supporting development of mega bulk drug and medical device park through mix of right policies.
- It is expected that these schemes of Union Government for development of bulk drug & medical device park will attract cumulative investment of Rs 78000 crore and can generate about 2.5 lakh employment.
- It is a matter of great pride for millions of Indians that from being a net importer, India became second largest producer of PPE Kits in the world with daily production capacity surpassing more than 5 lakh per day.
- Similarly, within a very short span of time, indigenous production capacity of ventilators has increased to 3 lakh per annum.
- We have also achieved self-sufficiency in production of N-95 masks.
- There is need for pharma industry to focus on R & D activities in order to remain as one of the leading global suppliers of medicines.
- The full potential of growth cannot be fully tapped unless we come up with discovery of new drug or repurposing in India.
- We hope that Indian pharma sector will be among the first one to develop and supply low cost vaccines for covid-19.
- The efforts of CII Life Sciences conclave for providing the necessary platform for stakeholders across the world to converge and embed their ideas to help usher in a new era of competitiveness of the Indian pharma segment in the post COVID-19 world.
Total 28 States/UTs are now seamlessly connected under ONORC (One Nation One Ration Card Scheme)
- Two more States, Tamil Nadu and Arunachal Pradesh have been integrated with existing national portability cluster of 26 States/UTs under One Nation One Ration Card.
- The necessary preparatory activities to integrate these States with the national cluster i.e. upgradation of ePoS software, integration with central IM-PDS and Annavitran portals, availability of ration cards/beneficiaries data in Central Repository, requisite testing of national portability transactions, etc. have already been completed in these two States.
- With this, a total of 28 States/UTs are now seamlessly connected with each other under the One Nation One Ration Card plan.
- Migratory PDS beneficiaries in these 28 States/UTs can access their subsidised food grains at the same Scale and Central Issue Prices from any Fair Price Shop (FPS) of their choice w.e.f. 1st October 2020.
- The Department of Food & Public Distribution under Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution implementing nation-wide portability of the benefits under NFSA through “One Nation One Ration Card” plan, which aims to provide an option to all NFSA beneficiaries.
- The beneficiaries of these states can lift their entitled food grains under NFSA from any ePoS enabled Fair Price Shop (FPS) of their choice anywhere in the country, by using their existing/same ration card with Aadhaar authentication on ePoS device.
- This facility is already enabled seamlessly across 26 States/UT, namely – Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Kerala, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Telangana, Tripura and Uttar Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Manipur, Nagaland, Uttarakhand, Lakshadweep and Ladakh.
- Remaining States/UTs are targeted to be integrated in national portability by March 2021.
- Through this system, the migratory NFSA beneficiaries who frequently change their place of dwelling in search of temporary employments, etc. are now enabled with an option to lift their entitled quota of food grains from any Fair Price Shop (FPS) of their choice anywhere in the 28 States/UTs by using their same/existing ration card with biometric/Aadhaar based authentication on an electronic Point of Sale (ePoS) device installed at the FPSs.
Salient Features of Monsoon 2020
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued the following information on India Monsoon 2020:
- Quantitatively, the 2020 All India monsoon seasonal rainfall during 1 June to 30 September 2020 has been 95.8 cm against the long period average of 88.0 cm based on data of 1961-2010 (109% of its Long Period Average (LPA)).
- Considering the recent years since 1990, the all India seasonal rainfall this year was third highest, after 112% of LPA in 1994 and 110% of LPA in 2019.
- Thus 2019 & 2020 are the two consecutive years with above normal monsoon rainfall, after 1958 (110% of LPA) and 1959 (114% of LPA ).
- Considering four broad homogenous regions of India, the monsoon seasonal rainfall during 2020 has been 106%, 84%, 115% & 129% of LPA respectively over East and North-East(NE), North- West(NW), Central and South India.
- Therefore, seasonal rainfall has been excess over Central and South India, normal over East and NE India and deficient over NW India. Monthly and seasonal total rainfall over different broad homogeneous regions and all India are given.
- Out of 36 meteorological subdivisions, 2 subdivisions received large excess, 13 received excess and 16 subdivisions received normal monsoon rainfall during 2020 while only 5 subdivisions received deficient rainfall.
- These 5 Met subdivisions which got deficient rains are Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram & Tripura (- 32%), West Uttar Pradesh (-37%), Uttarakhand (-20%), Himachal Pradesh (- 26%), Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh (-34%) .
- Considering month to month rainfall variation over India as a whole, the season is very uniquely placed in the historical record for its distinct and contrasting month to month variation. The rainfall over country as a whole was 118%, 90%, 127% and 104% of LPA during June, July, August and September respectively.
- It was a good beginning for the season in terms of rainfall with formation and movement of the cyclone Nisarga, over the Arabian Sea.
- It helped the monsoon to advance into main-land along the west coast.
- Subsequent features favored timely advance and monsoon covered entire country by 26th 2 June against normal date of 8th July (about 12 days ahead of normal date).
- The country as a whole experienced excess rainfall (118% of LPA) during June.
- In July, many unfavorable features of monsoon appeared resulting in deficient rainfall for the country (90% of LPA).
- The weak monsoon in July was mainly due to absence of any major monsoon disturbance over Bay of Bengal.
- Absence of such major systems in July also caused the monsoon trough weak.
- The monsoon trough lay to the north of the normal position or closed to the foothills of the Himalayas on many days.
- It resulted in frequent and prolonged floods over northeastern India, Bihar and adjoining areas of east Uttar Pradesh.
At the same time, major parts of central and northwest India received deficient rainfall.
- During August, there was back to back formation of low pressure systems over the north Bay of Bengal and their movement towards Gujarat and south Rajasthan.
- Monsoon trough was mostly south of the normal position and remained active.
- Arabian Sea was very active with stronger winds reaching up to 50-60kmph in lower levels during a few days in the month.
- Five low pressure systems formed during 4-10 , 9-11, 13-18 , 19-26 and 24-31 August 2020 which caused higher than normal rainfall over central and western part of India.
- Total number of low pressure days was 28 against normal of about 17.
- It caused 2-3 spells of riverine floods over Odisha, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, south Gujarat and south Rajasthan.
- It was a record rainfall in August 2020, when all India rainfall was 127% of LPA.
- It has been the record highest in last 44- years, after August 1976 (128.4% of LPA).
- It is also fourth highest in last 120 years.
- The highest ever percentage departure for the month of August during 1901-2020 had been 33% above LPA during 1926.
- The all India rainfall in percentage departure from LPA for the month of the August during 1901-2020.
- During August 2020, consecutively for 4 weeks, India got excess rain with 13% to 41% above LPA during week ending 12 Aug to week ending 2 Sept 2020. Similarly, the most deficient monsoon conditions prevailed in second fortnight of July.
- Month-wise locations of Very Heavy Rainfall (115.6 to 204.4 mm) and Extremely Heavy Rainfall (more than 204.4 mm) reported stations for June to Sept 2020.
- As on 01st October, southwest monsoon has withdrawn from Punjab, western Himalayan region, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi and many parts for Rajasthan and some parts of Uttar Pradesh. The withdrawal line of the Southwest Monsoon passes through Lat. 29°N/ Long.81°E, Lakhimpur Kheri, Shahjhanpur, Alwar, Nagaur and Lat. 26°N/ Long.70°E.
- Considering the four broad geographical regions of India, the forecasts issued in May for the season 3 rainfall over Northwest India, Central India, Northeast India and South Peninsula were 107%, 103%, 96% & 102% of the LPA respectively all with model errors of ± 8%.
- The actual rainfall over Northwest India, Central India, Northeast India and South Peninsula was 84%, 115%, 107% and 129% of the LPA respectively.
- Thus, the forecasts of season rainfall over the Central India, Northeast India and South Peninsula regions were underestimate to the actual rainfall, while the forecast for Northwest India was an overestimate.
- The forecast for the second half of the monsoon season (August – September) for the country as a whole was 104% with a model error of 8% of LPA against the actual rainfall of 118% of LPA.
- This year, IMD had predicted possibility of the development of weak La Nina conditions in the second half of the season in its forecasts issued in April and May. The cool ENSO neutral conditions observed over the equatorial Pacific Ocean in the beginning of the year turned in to weak La Niña conditions by the end of August 2020 as predicted by IMD.
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RAISE 2020- 'Responsible AI for Social Empowerment 2020'
- Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and NITI Aayog are organizing a Global Virtual Summit on Artificial Intelligence (AI), RAISE 2020- ‘Responsible AI for Social Empowerment 2020’, from October 5-9, 2020.
- RAISE 2020 is a firstofits-kind, global meeting of minds on Artificial Intelligence to drive India’s vision and roadmap for social transformation, inclusion and empowerment through responsible AI. Organized by Government of India along with Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and NITI Aayog,the event will witness robust participation from global industry leaders, key opinion makers, Government representatives and academia.
- RAISE 2020 will have a dedicated session on building inclusive AI that empowers one billion plus Indians.
- Home to the world’s third largest startup ecosystem, elite science and technology institutions like the IITs, robust and ubiquitous digital infrastructure, and millions of newly-minted STEM graduates every year, India is well-positioned to become a global leader in the development of artificial intelligence.
- Industry analysts predict that AI could add up to USD 957 billion to India’s economy by 2035.
- From agriculture to fin-tech and healthcare to infrastructure, artificial intelligence can be a truly transformative force. India is uniquely positioned to become the AI laboratory of the world and contribute to inclusive development and growth through empowerment. The RAISE 2020 Summit will serve as a platform for discussion and consensus building to help create a data-rich environment, which is a stepping stone to eventually transform lives globally.
- It will facilitate an exchange of ideas to create mass awareness about the need to ethically develop and practice AI.
Website:http://raise2020.indiaai.gov.in/
Mega Food Park projects in Kerala
- Kerala’s first and nation’s twentieth mega food park in Palakkad district of Kerala was virtually inaugurated for Food Processing Industries, Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj.
- This project will give impetus to the development of food processing sector.
- Mega Food Park will prove to be a milestone in the development of the food processing sector in Kerala.
- It will leverage an additional investment of about Rs. 250 Crore in 25-30 food processing units in the park and would eventually lead to a turnover of about Rs. 450-500 Crore annually.
- The Park will also provide direct and indirect employment to 5,000 persons and benefit about 25,000 farmers in the CPC and PPC catchment areas.
- Twenty mega food parks in the country have been opened in collaboration with the Centre, seventeen other projects have also been approved, including a park in the Alleppey district of Kerala has been approved.
- The facilities created in the park will not only reduce wastage of agricultural produce but will also ensure value addition.
- With this, farmers will get better prices of their agriproducts and their income will also increase.
- This will provide processing opportunities to farmers, self-help groups, and micro-entrepreneurs and create more employment opportunities in the surrounding areas.
- The KINFRA Mega Food Park has been set up in 79.42 acres of land at a project cost of Rs. 102.13 crore.
- The facilities created by the Implementing Agency at Central Processing Centre (CPC) of this Mega Food Park include Multi-product Cold Storage-5000MT, Drywarehouse-12000 MT, Pack House (Sorting Grading, Packing) 10MT/Hr, Ripening Chambers- 120MT, Condiment processing with mechanical drying facility-15MT/day, Food Testing Laboratory besides state of art enabling infrastructure.
- The Park has a common administrative building for office and other uses by the entrepreneurs and 04 Primary Processing Centres (PPCs) at Ernakulam (Mazhavanur), Thrissur (Koratty), Malappuram (Kakkanchery) and Wayanad (Kalpetta) districts with Packhouse facilities for primary processing and storage near the farms in the catchment area to benefit farmers.
- This Mega Food Park will benefit the people of Palakkad-District as well as nearby Districts of Malappuram & Thrissur of Kerala and nearby district of Coimbatore of Tamil Nadu.
'Swachhata Ke 6 Saal, Bemisaal' of Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban on Gandhi Jayanti
- The Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA) is celebrating the sixth anniversary of Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U) by organizing a webinar titled ‘Swachhata Ke 6 Saal, Bemisaal’ on 2nd October 2020.
- The Minister will release a compendium and a dynamic GIS portal showcasing innovative practices for effective solid waste management (SWM) practices from across India.
- A Sanitation Perspective prepared by NIUA, ‘Frontline Stories of Resilience: India’s Sanitation Champions’ – a collection of inspirational stories of sanitation workers compiled by the National Faecal Sludge and Septage Management (NFSSM) Alliance and a Toolkit for Safety of Sanitation Workers prepared by Urban Management Centre (UMC) will also be released by the Ministry.
- Since its launch in 2014, SBM-U has made significant progress in the area of both sanitation and solid waste management.
- 4,327 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) have been declared ODF so far.
- 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.
- The Mission is now focusing on holistic sanitation through its ODF+ and ODF++ protocols with a total of 1,319 cities certified ODF+ and 489 cities certified ODF++ as on date.
- Additionally, over 59,900 toilets across 2900+ cities have been made live on Google Maps.
- In the area of solid waste management, 97% of wards have complete door-to door collection, 77% of wards have source segregation of waste while 67% of the total waste generated is being processed – a jump of nearly 4 times over 2014 levels of 18% 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.
- Moreover, from being a government program, the Mission has transformed into a people’s movement, a true ‘Jan Andolan’ with participation of over 12 crore citizens being recorded in Swachh Survekshan 2020, the last edition of the annual cleanliness survey conducted by MoHUA.
- The Mission has also laid great emphasis on providing dignified livelihoods to all sanitation workers and informal waste pickers which is directly in line with Mahatma’s vision of ensuring equality and inclusion for all sections of society.
- To this end, the Mission has successfully integrated over 84,000 informal waste pickers into the mainstream while over 5.5 lakh sanitation workers have been linked to various welfare schemes under the Government.
- Swachh Bharat Mission, the flagship program of the Government of India, was launched by Hon’ble Prime Minister on 2nd October 2014 from Rajghat,
- New Delhi and aimed to achieve the vision of a ‘Clean India’ by 2nd October 2019, the 150th birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation.
- The urban component of the Mission which is being steered by MoHUA had the broad objectives of making urban India open defecation free (ODF) along with modern and scientific waste management through large scale behavior change among citizens.
- Indore, Ambikapur, Navi Mumbai, Surat, Rajkot and Mysuru 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
- Emphasis on dignified livelihoods to all sanitation workers and informal waste pickers in line with Mahatma’s vision of ensuring equality and inclusion for all sections of society
- Over 84,000 informal waste pickers integrated into mainstream while over 5.5 lakh sanitation workers linked to various welfare schemes
100-days Campaign to be launched under the Jal Jeevan Mission to provide potable piped water supply in Schools & Anganwadi Centres
- While releasing the ‘Margdarshika’ for Gram Panchayats and Paani Samitis for implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) to have assured water supply to every rural home and unveiling of JJM Logo on 29th September, 2020.
- However, launching of ‘100 days campaign’ on 2nd October, 2020 to ensure piped safe water in schools and anganwadi centres across the country.
- Ensuring safe water to children is a priority, as they are the most vulnerable to water-borne diseases, therefore provisions have been made under Jal Jeevan Mission for ensuring safe water through tap water connection in schools, anganwadi centres, health care centres, etc.
- National Jal Jeevan Mission has reached out to States/ UTs to launch this campaign on 2nd October, 2020.
- During this 100 days campaign, Gram Sabhas will be convened coinciding with Gandhi Jayanti, on 2nd October, 2020 and in coming days to pass a resolution for providing safe water in all schools, anganwadi centres and other public institutions in the village in the next 100 days.
- These facilities will be operated and maintained by the Gram Panchayat and/ or its sub-committee i.e. Village Water & Sanitation Committee or Paani Samiti.
- As ‘nodal department’, Public Health Engineering Department of States will spearhead the campaign by involving Gram Panchayats and/ or its sub-committees, along with other line departments namely Education, Women & Child Welfare, Panchayati Raj & Rural Development, Tribal Welfare, etc.
- This campaign will go a long-way in ensuring safe water supply to our children that will positively impact their health and overall development.
- This will be a befitting tribute to the ‘Father of the Nation’ Mahatma Gandhi on his 151st birth anniversary.
- On the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti, Government of Gujarat is organizing an event at Porbander, where Chief Minister Shri Vijay Rupani will declare four districts of the State viz. Gandhinagar, Mehsana, Porbandar, and Anand having 100 percent household tap water connections coverage.
- In Gujarat, the tap water coverage in rural households is 79.85 percent as on date.
- In 2020-21, the State has provided tap water connections to 7.70 lakh households.
- In the past one year, more than 2.30 Crore households have already been provided tap water connections across the country.
- As of now, almost 30% of total rural households i.e. 5.50 Crore rural households now get assured safe tap water in their homes.
About Jal Jeevan Mission:
- Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) aims at the universal coverage of provision of tap water connection to every rural home by 2024.
- Under the mission, special focus is on women and children. Ensuring safe water to children is a priority, as they are the most vulnerable to water-borne diseases like diarrhoea, dysentery, cholera, typhoid, etc.
- Repeated infections due to consumption of unsafe water in their formative years may have adverse effects, resulting in stunting.
- The situation is much more complex in areas where water sources are found to be contaminated with Arsenic, Fluoride, heavy metals, etc. and prolonged consumption of water having these contaminants may lead to degenerating diseases like Arsenicosis, Fluorosis, etc. resulting in serious health problems.
- To tackle this serious issue, provisions have been made under Jal Jeevan Mission for ensuring safe water through tap water connection in schools, anganwadi centres, health care centres, etc.
- The goal of the Mission – Har Ghar Jal can be fully realized with the help of all Sarpanch/ Pradhan/ village community leaders as they play a pivotal role in its implementation.
