“Cross Border Tourism” promoting Buddhist Pilgrimages, Zonal Master Plan of Bhagirathi Eco-Sensitive Zone, PM SVANidhi Mobile App, Indian automobile industry, Aatma Nirbhar Bharat,
1. "Cross Border Tourism" promoting Buddhist Pilgrimages by Ministry of Tourism
- Inaugurated the Webinar on “Cross Border Tourism” organised by the Association of Buddhist Tour Operators on 15th July 2020.
- Buddhism has a large following across the world and India being the ‘Land of Buddha’ and endowed with rich Buddhist heritage attracts very small percentage of Buddhist Pilgrims.
- It is important for all to ascertain the reasons for India receiving a fraction of global Buddhists as tourist/Pilgrims and take corrective measures accordingly.
- The initiative of having signage in international languages at important Buddhist sites in the country including signages in Chinese language that have been put up at 5 Buddhist sites / monuments in Uttar Pradesh including Sarnath, Kushinagar and Sravasti.
- Similarly, since Sanchi receives a large number of tourists from Sri Lanka, signages in Sinhalese language have been put up at the Sanchi monuments.
- The MoS (I/C) Tourism & Culture also highlighted the decision of Government of India to declare the Kushinagar Airport in Uttar Pradesh as an International Airport which will offer better connectivity to the air-travellers resulting in boosting of domestic/international tourism and economic development of the region.
- Further, the Ministry of Tourism under its various schemes has taken several initiatives for the development and promotion of Buddhist sites in the country.
- The Association of Buddhist Tour Operators is the association of dedicated inbound tour-operators engaged in promoting Buddhist tourism, with over 1500 members in India & Overseas.
2. Zonal Master Plan of Bhagirathi Eco-Sensitive Zone to pave way for faster project execution
- Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways and MSMEs Shri Nitin Gadkari today reviewed the CHAARDHAAM ROAD PROJECT in the State of Uttarakhand via Video Conference.
- Shri Gadkari called for expeditious disposal of all pending issues and for completing land acquisition at the earliest.
- He emphasised that this project is of great national importance and should be handled from that perspective by all concerned.
- He requested CM Uttarakhand to personally review issues pending at the level of State Government especially those related to environment, land acquisition etc. and asked for strict monitoring and cautioned against deliberate delays.
- The Zonal Master Plan(ZMP) for the Bhagirathi Eco-Sensitive Zone, prepared by the Government of Uttarakhand and appraised by the Ministry of Jal Shakti, has been approved on 16th July, 2020.
- The ZMP is based on watershed approach and includes governance in the area of forest and wildlife, watershed management, irrigation, energy, tourism, public health and sanitation, road infrastructure, etc.
- The Chaardham Project proposes to connect Yamnotri, Gangotri, Badrinath and Kedarnath which host Chaardham Yatra in the State of Uttarakhand.
- The all- weather Chaardham Road has in all 53 projects of 826 km length, involving an investment of Rs 12000 crore.
- Considering the fact that river Bhagirathi is rich in aquatic flora and fauna including migratory species, and that as a result of hydro power projects being proposed or commissioned on the river and also continuous and phenomenal increase in human and cattle population.
- The anthropogenic pressure on ecosystems and environment has tremendously increased, which is causing irreparable damage to the fragile mountain ecosystems including flow and character of the river.
- Hence, The Bhagirathi Eco-Sensitive Zone notification from Gaumukh to Uttarakashi covering an area of 4179.59 sq. kilometer was issued by the MoEF&CC on 18th December 2012 keeping in view the requirements of the local people without affecting their rights and privileges and also ensuring eco-friendly development for their livelihood security.
- The notification was subsequently amended on 16th April, 2018 in consultation with the Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways, GOI, Government of Uttarakhand and Indian Road Congress.
- The Bhagirathi Eco-Sensitive Zone notification mandated the State Government of Uttarakhand to prepare ZMP to be implemented under the supervision of the Monitoring Committee.
- The approval of ZMP will give a boost to conservation and ecology of the area and also to undertake developmental activities as permitted under ZMP.
The approval will also pave way for faster execution of the ChaarDhaam Project.
Eco-Sensitive Zones (ESZs):
- Eco-Sensitive Zones (ESZs) or Ecologically Fragile Areas (EFAs) are areas in India notified by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Government of India around Protected Areas , National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries.
- The purpose of declaring ESZs is to create some kind of “shock absorbers” to the protected areas by regulating and managing the activities around such areas.
- They also act as a transition zone from areas of high protection to areas involving lesser protection.
- ESZ are regulated by central government through Min. of Environment, Forests and Climate change (MoEFCC).
- Ministry came out with new guidelines for regulation of such areas in 2011.
3. Microcredit facility for street vendors at their door steps launched in Mobile App of PM SVANidhi App
- PM SVANidhi App aims to provide user friendly digital interface for Lending Institutions (LIs) and their field functionaries for sourcing and processing loan applications of street vendors under the Scheme.
- PM SVANidhi Mobile App is a step towards boosting the use of digital technology and will enable field functionaries of LIs like Banking Correspondents (BCs) and Agents of Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs)/ Micro-Finance Institutions (MFIs), who have proximity with the street vendors, to ensure maximum coverage of the Scheme.
- It is believed that launch of Mobile App will give impetus to the implementation strategy of the Scheme besides promoting paper-less digital accessing of micro-credit facilities by the Street Vendors.
- Ministry has already launched the Web Portal on June 29, 2020.
- This App has all the features similar to the Web Portal of PM SVANidhi added with the feature of easy portability.
- The features include vendor search in the survey data, e-KYC of applicants, processing of applications, and real time monitoring.
- The App can be downloaded from the Google play store for use by the LIs and their field functionaries.
- Since the commencement of lending process under PM SVANidhi on July 02, 2020, more than 1,54,000 Street Vendors have applied for working capital loan across States/ UTs and out of which over 48,000 have already been sanctioned.
- PM SVANidhi was launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, 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, which is repayable in monthly instalments in the tenure of one year.
- On timely/ early repayment of the loan, an interest subsidy @ 7% 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 per month.
- Moreover, the vendors can achieve their ambition of going up on the economic ladder by availing the facility of enhancement of the credit limit on timely/ early repayment of loan.
4. One stop solution for Indian automobile industry, portal a step towards the vision of 'AatmaNirbhar' Bharat
- Department of Heavy Industry (DHI), Govt of India, has embarked on a mission to promote innovation, R&D and product development in India for various sectors.
- A step towards this mission is the creation of technology platform e-portals where such technology development, information exchange and innovation can be facilitated.
- There are five portals being developed for specific sectors by different organizations viz, BHEL for power sector equipment, HMT for machine tools, CMFTI for manufacturing technology, ICAT and ARAI for automotive sector.
- The objective of these portals is to create an ecosystem which will bring solution seekers and problem solvers together.
- These include, industry, academia, research institutes, start-ups, professionals and experts. ICAT is developing technology platform for automotive industry called ASPIRE – Automotive Solutions Portal for Industry, Research and Education.
- The key objective of this portal is to facilitate the Indian Automotive Industry to become self reliant by assisting in innovation and adoption of global technological advancements by bringing together the stakeholders from various associated avenues.
- The activities would include Research and Development, Product Technology Development, Technological Innovations, Technical and Quality Problem Resolution for the industry, Manufacturing and Process Technology Development, hosting Challenges for Technology Development and also conducting Market Research and Technology Surveys for identifying the trends in the Indian auto industry.
- The e-portal will act as a one stop solution providing a technology platform which will help to bring together the various stakeholders from the Indian auto industry, providing the necessary impetus for ushering the industry into future with combined efforts.
- This includes bringing together the automotive OEMs, Tier 1 Tier 2 & Tier 3 companies, R&D institutions and academia (colleges & universities) on matters involving technology advancements.
- These measures are being developed to develop strong and self-reliant automotive industry in India which is in tune with the vision of Make in India and Atma-Nirbhar vision of Government of India.
