Aarogya Setu IVRS, Soil Health Card, AYUSH, Northern Western Ghats, ‘Punjab- Beyond the Brochure’, EPFO introduces e-Sign mechanism
1. Studies involving AYUSH interventions for COVID 19 situation
- Ministry of AYUSH has taken initiatives to address the COVID 19 pandemic problem in the country through clinical studies (prophylactic and add-on interventions) of AYUSH systems.
Formal launch of the following studies will take place on 07th May, 2020:
- Clinical research studies on Ayurveda interventions as prophylaxis and as an add-on to standard care to COVID 19
- Population based interventional studies on impact of AYUSH based prophylactic interventions
- Ayush Sanjivani application based study for impact assessment of acceptance and usage of AYUSH advisories in its role in prevention of COVID 19
2. Movement on integrated soil nutrient management based on Soil Health Card
- Reviewing the progress of the Soil Health Programme, running mission mode awareness campaigns on increasing use of bio and organic fertilisers and reducing chemical fertilisers strictly based on recommendations of Soil Health Card.
- During 2020-21, the major focus of the programme would be on mass awareness programme for farmers in over 1 lakh villages covering all districts of the country.
- The setting up of village level Soil Testing Labs by youth having education in agriculture, Women Self Help Groups, FPOs etc. He said the SHC scheme will focus on enabling employment generation after appropriate skill development.
- The Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers’ Welfare will launch a comprehensive campaign on soil test based rational application of fertilisers and promotion of organic farming including Bhartiya Prakritik Krishi Padhati (BPKP) for safe nutritious food in association with the Departments of Panchayat Raj, Rural Development and Drinking Water and Sanitation.
- Under the SHC scheme Soil Health Cards are provided to all farmers at an interval of 2 years.
- Launched by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on February 19, 2015 at Suratgarh, Rajasthan, these cards provide information to farmers on nutrient status of their soil along with recommendation on appropriate dosage of nutrients to be applied for improving soil health and its fertility.
- Deterioration of soil chemical, physical and biological health is considered as one of the reasons for stagnation of agricultural productivity in India.
- Soil Health Card provides two sets of fertilizer recommendations for six crops including recommendations of organic manures.
- Farmers can also get recommendations for additional crops on demand. They can also print the card as their own from SHC portal.
- SHC portal has farmers database of both the cycles and is available in 21 languages for the benefit of the farmers.
A 2017 study by the National Productivity Council (NPC) found that the SHC scheme has promoted sustainable farming and led to a decrease of use of chemical fertilizer application in the range of 8-10%.
Besides, overall increase in the yield of crops to the tune of 5-6% was reported due to application of fertilizer and micro nutrients as per recommendations available in the Soil Health Cards.
3. Aarogya Setu IVRS services
- Aarogya Setu Mobile App is developed by the Ministry of Electronics and IT.
- It enables people to assess themselves the risk of their catching the Corona Virus infection.
- It will calculate this based on their interaction with others, using cutting edge Bluetooth technology, algorithms and artificial intelligence.
- All the citizens are urged to download the mobile application.
- This is designed to keep a user informed, in case she/he cross paths with someone who has tested positive.
- The user, upon installation of Aarogya Setu, is asked to answer a number of questions. In case some of the answers suggest COVID-19 symptoms, the information will be sent to a Government server. The data will then help the Government take timely steps and initiate the isolation procedure if necessary and it also alerts if someone comes in close proximity with a person tested positive.
- The app is available on both Google Play (for Android phones) and iOS app store (for iphones).
- It is available in 11 languages-10 Indian languages and English.
- For including the citizens with feature phones and landline under the protection of Aarogya Setu, the “Aarogya Setu Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS)” has been implemented.
- This service is available across the country. This is a toll-free service, where citizens are asked to give a missed call to the number 1921 and they will get a call back requesting for inputs regarding their health.
- The questions asked are aligned with Aarogya Setu App, and based on the responses given, citizens will also get an SMS indicating their health status and also will get further alerts for their health moving forward.
- The service is implemented in 11 regional languages similar to the mobile application. The input provided by the citizen will be made part of Aarogya Setu database and information is processed to send alerts to the citizen on the action to be taken to ensure their safety.
4. EPFO introduces email mechanism to obtain e-Sign
- In the current scenario of lockdown announced by the Government to control the spread of COVID-19 pandemic and other disruptions, the employers are not able to function normally and are facing problems in using their digital signatures or Aadhaar based e-sign on EPFO portal.
- Many important tasks like KYC attestation, transfer claim attestation etc are being done online by the authorized persons of employers using their Digital Signatures (DSC) or Aadhar based e-Signs on EPFO portal. For using DSC/e-Sign, one time approval from Regional Offices is required. Due to lockdown, many employers are facing difficulties to send the one time registration requests to the Regional Offices.
- Keeping in view the above situation and to further ease the compliance procedure, EPFO has decided to accept such requests through email also. Employer can send the scanned copy of duly signed request letter to the concerned Regional Office through mail. Official email addresses of the Regional Offices are available at www.epfindia.gov.in .
- Further, such establishments, whose authorized officers have approved digital signatures but are not able to locate the dongle, can login to the employer portal and register their e-sign through the link for registration of already registered authorized signatories. If their name against the approved digital signature is same as that in their Aadhar, the registration of e-sign will not require any further approval. Other authorized signatories can register their e-signs and send the request letters approved by the employers and seek approval of the concerned EPFO Offices.
5. 'Punjab- Beyond the Brochure' under Dekho Apna Desh webinar series
- When two roads diverge, taking the one less travelled has made all the difference in the world. So when we tend to take the road less travelled, we tend to encounter the most profound beauty.
- We stumble across unseen, unheard marvels that usually go under the radar. The session was all about finding such lesser known places in the State of Punjab that miss the traveller’s itineraries.
- The presentation touched upon the cultural and monumental heritage of Punjab that have historical footprint dating back to Harappan era , the Buddhist relics, milestones laid by Afghans and Mughal monuments.
- The stories of princely past of Punjab state, the British-era cantonments, martyr memorials, places of faith, and vibrant festivals were also narrated by the presenters.
- The presenters spoke about the different cities and the concept of home stays available which gives an opportunity to mingle with the local people, to know their culture, cuisine and folklore treating the tourists with a taste of Punjab.
- The vibrant festivals like Lohri, Basant Panchmi, Holi, Baisakhi, Teej, Diwali and concluding with the oldest music festival in the World Harivallabh Sangeet Sammelan found mention in the presentation
6. Study of flowering plant endemism of Northern Western Ghats highlights importance of plateaus
- Scientists at the Agharkar Research Institute (ARI), Pune, an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology have come up with plant data of the Northern Western Ghats which indicates that plateaus, in addition to the forests, should be prioritized for conservation of the Northern Western Ghats.
- It is the plateaus and the cliffs that harbour most of the endemic species, thus increasing their importance in conservation plans.
- The international journal Phytotaxa after thoroughly investigating the Northern Western Ghats to produce an updated checklist of 181 local endemic plant species, including four monospecific genera.
- They have found that a majority of the endemic species are therophytes, which complete their life cycle in a short period during monsoon.
- The Western Ghats of India is one of the global biodiversity hotspots owing to the endemism that is sheltered by a chain of mountains. The northern part of this biodiversity hotspot, along with the Konkan region, is considerably different from its southern and central counterparts on account of lesser precipitation and extended dry season.
- A notable geographical feature of the Northern Western Ghats is the presence of plateaus and cliffs that display maximum endemic species, unlike forests. Forests of the Northern Western Ghats harbour many species which are not endemic.
- Although the Northern Western Ghats region has been floristically surveyed well, the local endemism of the flowering plants in the area is not much explored. Scientists have various estimates about the species that are endemic to the region, and the understanding of habitats, seasons, and plant distribution is limited.
- The study conducted by the ARI team suggested that the Northern Western Ghats is the region of rapid diversification of specific herbaceous endemic genera like Ceropegia, Glyphochloa, Dipcadi, and Eriocaulon.
- “To project the Northern Western Ghats prominently on the world vegetation map, it is absolutely necessary to complete the IUCN threat status assessment on priority, which is underrepresented for the region.”
