SAMVAAD App, Tiger Deaths in the Country, ‘age of motherhood’
1.India’s successful cash support payments to the most vulnerable during the Covid-19 pandemic.
- NITI Aayog and MicroSave Consulting organised an international webinar on 5 June to discuss the role of India’s digital financial infrastructure in successfully making direct transfers to targeted groups in a timely manner and making vital financial assistance available to the vulnerable during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
- This was made possible only due to a robust digital financial infrastructure established over the past five years acting as a model worth replicating by other developing countries.
- A big step towards customer centricity and establishing a direct connection of the government with the people was enabled by the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY).
- The Yojana successfully enabled zero-cost, zero-balance bank accounts.
- It is equally noteworthy that of the 380 million PMJDY bank accounts opened to date, around 53% are in the names of women.
- In April 2020, close to a billion UPI and 403 million AePS transactions were recorded.
- However, the creation of India’s robust digital infrastructure has not been an overnight process but a sustained effort to lay its foundational layers: building digital infrastructure, targeted G2P transfer initiatives, PFMS linkage and NPCI’s role in enabling digital payments.
- There are three crucial elements for building a robust digital financial infrastructure: digital identity, digital database and digital payment. As India’s decision to adopt a deliberate design choice of building digital infrastructure as a public good has been the key to its success.
- 65% of India’s population have personal bank accounts in public sector banks, the provision of financial services to these citizens during the pandemic was easily facilitated through efficient functioning of 62,000 Bank Mitras.
- The One National One Card system is a step in the right direction and we must tread that path while continuing to focus on financial literacy and bolstering cybersecurity.
2. 'age of motherhood'
- The Government of India in a gazette notification issued on 04th June 2020, has set up a Task Force to examine matters pertaining to age of motherhood, imperatives of lowering MMR, improvement of nutritional levels and related issues.
- Union Finance Minister, during her Budget Speech for 2020-21 in the Parliament stated that “Women’s age of marriage was increased from fifteen years to eighteen years in 1978, by amending erstwhile Sharda Act of 1929.
The Terms of Reference of the Task Force are as follows:
- To examine the correlation of age of marriage and motherhood with (a) health, medical well-being and nutritional status of mother and neonate/infant/child, during pregnancy, birth and thereafter, (b) key parameters like Infant Mortality Rate (IMR), Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR), Total Fertility Rate (TFR), Sex Ratio at Birth (SRB), Child Sex Ratio (CSR) etc. and (c) any other relevant points pertaining to health and nutrition in this context.
- To suggest measures for promoting higher education among women.
- To suggest suitable legislative instruments and/or amendments in existing laws to support the recommendations of the Task Force.
- To work out a detailed roll-out plan with timelines to implement the recommendations of the Task Force.
- The Task Force may invite other experts to its meetings if and as required.
- The Task Force will be provided secretarial assistance by the NITI Aayog and will submit its report by 31st July, 2020.
3. Tiger Deaths in the Country
- The National Tiger Conservation Authority(NTCA),a statutory body of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has shared that the tiger has been taken from the brink to an assured path of recovery, which is evident in findings of the quadrennial All India Tiger Estimation conducted in 2006,2010,2014 and 2018.
- These results have shown a healthy annual growth rate of tigers at 6%, which offsets natural losses and keeps tigers at the habitats carrying capacity level, in the Indian context.
- For the period 2012 to 2019, one can observe that the average tiger deaths per year in the country hover around 94, which is balanced by the annual recruitment as highlighted by this robust growth rate.
- In addition, the National Tiger Conservation Authority has taken several steps under the ongoing Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Project Tiger to address poaching,which too,is significantly controlled as seen in the confirmed poaching and seizure cases.
- You all can visit www.tigernet.nic.in website for more transparent information shared by The National Tiger Conservation Authority.
- It is also pertinent to mention that the NTCA, through a dedicated Standard Operating Procedure, has a stringent protocol to ascribe cause to a tiger death, which is treated as unnatural, unless otherwise proved by the State concerned through submission of necropsy reports, histopathological and forensic assessments besides photographs and circumstantial evidences.
- It is only after a detailed analysis of these documents that cause is ascribed to a tiger death.
- While it is appreciated that figures as available on the NTCA’s website and as provided in the RTI reply have been used in these reports, the manner in which it has been presented causes alarm and does not take into account the gamut of processes that go into dealing with tiger death in the country and the natural gains that have been made in tiger conservation, as a result of sustained technical and financial interventions by the Government of India under its Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Project Tiger being steered by the NTCA.
4. SAMVAAD Mobile and Desktop App Launched
- Western Coalfields Ltd (WCL) has opened 3 new coal mines in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh having combined annual production capacity of 2.9 million tonnes (MT).
- The three mines which WCL has opened, are
a) Adasa Mine, an underground to open cast mine, in Nagpur Area of Maharashtra,
b) Sharda underground Mine in Kanhan Area and
c) Dhankasa underground mine in Pench Area of Madhya Pradesh.
- The company will infuse total capital expenditure (Capex) of Rs. 849 crores on these projects and generate direct employment for 647 persons.
- WCL has to produce 75 MT of coal by financial year 2023-24.
- Opening of these mines will certainly add in the efforts of the company reaching this milestone and also help Coal India achieve 1 billion tonnes (BT) coal production target by financial year 2023-24.
- The annual coal production capacity of Adasa mine is 1.5 MT whereas Sharda and Dhankasa mines are having annual coal production capacities of 0.4 MT and 1 MT respectively.
- Further, The company launched a surveillance System named WCL EYE for monitoring of its mining operations and an App named SAMVAAD to connect with its employees and stakeholders.
- WCL EYE will monitor operations of 15 major mines of the company round the clock that account for 70% of the company’s coal production. It will also help monitor coal stocks and availability of coal at sidings, keep a tab on placement of rakes and loading at railway sidings and ensure accountability.
- SAMVAAD is a Mobile and Desktop App for employees & stakeholders, which will provide a virtual platform for suggestion/feedback/experience sharing. Quick Response Teams will respond to the queries and feedbacks in 7 days mandated period.
WCL has launched “Mission 100 Days” a roadmap to achieve targets for the current fiscal.
This mission will also help the company accomplish mid and long-term goals.
The company’s coal production and off take target for the current fiscal is 62 MT.
- WCL had produced 57.64 MT of Coal in financial year 2019-20, up over 8% in comparison to the last fiscal.
