The National Gender Resource Centre in Agriculture (NGRCA), Directorate of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmer’s Welfare in collaboration of National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management (MANAGE), an autonomous organization under Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (MoA&FW) has celebrated ‘Mahila Kisan Diwas’ or ‘International Rural Women Day’ on 15th October, 2022. As the year 2023 has been declared as the ‘International Year of Millets by United Nations (UN), the theme of this year Mahila Kisan Diwas is ‘Millets: Empowering Women and Providing Nutritional Security’. This inaugural event was organized through Video Conferencing under the guidance of Union Agriculture Minister Shri. Narendra Singh Tomar and the technical session of the programme is being organized at MANAGE, Hyderabad with the technical support provided by Indian Institute of Millet Research (IIMR), Hyderabad.
Speaking on the occasion, Shri Tomar said, the resolution initiated by Government of India and supported by 72 countries to mark year 2023 as the ‘International Year of Millets’ has been unanimously adopted by the United Nations General Assembly and declared year 2023 as the ‘International Year of Millets (IYOM)’. The Government of India has declared to celebrate IYOM, 2023 to make it peoples’ movement so that the Indian millets, recipes, value added products are accepted globally. The ‘International Year of Millets’ stands to provide a unique opportunity to increase global production, ensure efficient processing and consumption, promote a better utilization of crop rotations and encourage better connectivity throughout food systems to promote millets as a key component of the food basket. Shri Tomar stated the Government of India is committed to give priority to women for bringing them in the mainstream of agriculture development as per the vision of Hon’ble Prime Minister of Atamnirbhar Bharat. He expressed that women are the primary producers of the food grains, custodians of biodiversity and millets are an important food grain from our indigenous food systems. Millet-based farming is the answer to cope with the changing time as Millet farming preserves biodiversity and empowers women farmers as cultivators to agripreneurs and self-employed women ; more confident in their abilities and are better able to address their problems. The government of India has also taken several initiatives focusing on empowerment of women keeping them in the center stage of development process. These initiatives include constitution of Self Help Groups, Farmer Producer Organizations producer companies and capacity building of women through training in various institutions like Krishi Vigyan Kendras.
Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Shri Kailash Choudhary in his address expressed his views on the important contribution of women farmers in agriculture and allied sectors and Indian economy and highlighted the importance of women in self-reliant India. The Minister said, the role of women in agriculture in India is hugeand the government is giving priority to women in every field under the leadership of Hon’ble Prime Minister. Due to the initiative of Hon’ble Prime Minister, United Nations has declared the year 2023 as the International Year of Millets. Today, agricultural women farmers and entrepreneurs are making important contribution in various aspects of production, value addition, processing and nutritional security of millets and coarse cereals.
Shri Tomar released a book on depicting “Evidences based Gender Inequality in Agriculture and Food Systems in India” which will be helpful for the policy makers, academicians and researchers to focus on areas where the gender analysis is needed. The Senior and middle level extension functionaries, women farmers and agri-entrepreneurs and resource persons from various States/Institutes/Start-ups training institutes participated in the event and an exhibition was also showcased at MANAGE, Hyderabad by women Start-ups. The successful women entrepreneurs from various States also said their views and experiences on the occasion during the event.
In light of the significant financial and socio-economic risk for the consumers, especially youth and children, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting today issued two Advisories, one for private television channels and the other for digital news publishers and OTT platforms strongly advising them to refrain from showing advertisements of online betting sites and surrogate advertisements of such sites. The Ministry had earlier issued an Advisory on 13 June, 2022 advising newspapers, private TV channels and digital news publishers to refrain from publishing advertisements of online betting platforms.
It had come to the notice of the Government that several sports channels on television, as well as on OTT platforms, have recently been showing advertisements of offshore online betting platforms as well as their surrogate news websites. The Advisories were supplemented with evidences which contained direct and surrogate advertisements of offshore betting platforms such as Fairplay, PariMatch, Betway, Wolf 777, and 1xBet.
In the Advisories, the Ministry has informed that online offshore betting platforms are now using news websites as a surrogate product to advertise the betting platforms on digital media. In such cases, the Ministry has found that the logos of surrogate news websites bear striking resemblance to betting platforms. Moreover, the Ministry has stated that neither the betting platforms nor the news websites are registered under any legal authority in India. Such websites are promoting betting and gambling under the garb of news as surrogate advertising.
The Advisories issued by the Ministry stated that since betting and gambling is illegal in most parts of the country, advertisements of these betting platforms as well as their surrogates are also illegal. The Advisories relied upon the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act 2019, Cable TV Network Regulation Act 1995 and the IT Rules, 2021. The Ministry has stated that such advertisements are not in conformity with various related laws and has strongly advised TV channels as well as digital news publishers from broadcasting such betting platforms or their surrogate news websites, reminding TV channels that violation may invite penal action. The Ministry has also advised online advertisement intermediaries to not target such advertisements towards Indian audience.
The Ministry has mentioned that betting and gambling pose significant financial and socio-economic risk for the consumers, especially youth and children. Accordingly, the promotion of offline or online betting/gambling through advertisements is not advised in larger public interest.
The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting worked in close coordination with the Department of Consumer Affairs for the issue of the two Advisories.
Read the two Advisories at the links below:
Advisory to TV channels: https://mib.gov.in/sites/default/files/Advisory%20to%20Private%20Satellite%20TV%20Channels%2003.10.2022.pdf
Advisory to Digital Media: https://mib.gov.in/sites/default/files/Advisory%20to%20Digital%20News%20Publishers%20and%20OTT%20Platforms%2003.10.2022%20%281%29.pdf
Ministry of Civil Aviation’s flagship program Regional Connectivity Scheme UDAN (UdeDeshkaAamNagrik) has completed 5 years of success since the launch of it first flight by Prime Minister on 27th April 2017. The scheme was initiatedon 21st October 2016 with the objective to fulfil the aspirations of the common citizen by following the vision of ‘UdeDeshkaAamNagrik’, with an enhanced aviation infrastructure and air connectivity in tier II and tier III cities.
In the last five years, UDAN has significantly increased the regional air-connectivity in the country. There were 74 operational airports in 2014. Because of the UDAN scheme this number has increased to 141 by now.
68 underserved/unserved destinations which include 58 Airports, 8 Heliports & 2 Water Aerodromes have been connected under UDAN scheme. With 425 new routes initiated under the scheme, UDAN has provided air connectivity to more than 29 States/ UTs across the length and breadth of the country. More than one crore passengers have availed the benefits of this scheme as on 4th August 2022. The scheme has also provided a much-needed platform to the regional carriers to scale up their operations.
220 destinations (airports/heliports/water aerodromes) under UDAN are targeted to be completed by 2026 with 1000 routes to provide air connectivity to unconnected destinations in the country.Under UDAN, 954 routes have already been awarded to connect 156airports.
On the occasion, Minister of Civil Aviation Shri Jyotiraditya M. Scindia said,“The Success of RCS UDAN is a demonstration of the government’s commitment to Prime Minister’s vision of ‘Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik’. It has played a great role in the transformation of Indian aviation industry. So far under this scheme, we have 425 routes aiming to go up to 1000 routes, 68 new airports aiming to touch 100 airports. In next 4 years we are expecting 40 crore travelers through Civil Aviation in India. That day is not far when along with rail transport and road transport Civil Aviation will become the bulwark of the transportation in India.”
RCS-UDAN was formulated based on the review of The National Civil Aviation Policy (NCAP)-2016 and it was planned to remain in force for a period of 10 years. It has a self-financing mechanism with the development of Regional Connectivity Fund (RCF). Under this Scheme, RCF was created, which funds the VGF requirements of the scheme through a levy on certain domestic flights. This way, funds generated from the sector themselves stimulate the growth and development of the sector.
UDAN Scheme has benefitted a diverse set of stakeholders. Passengers have got the benefits of air connectivity, airlines have received concessions for operating regional routes, unserved regions have received the direct and indirect benefits of air connectivity for their economic development.
UDAN created a framework based on the need and led to the formulation of:
Lifeline UDAN (for transportation of medical cargo during pandemic).
Krishi UDAN (value realization of agriculture products especially in Northeastern Region {NER} and tribal districts).
International UDAN routes for NER to explore International Connectivity from / to Guwahati and Imphal.
Lifeline UDAN – Lifeline UDAN initiative commenced in March 2020 during COVID-19 period and it helped to operate 588 flights transporting almost 1000 Tonnes of voluminous cargo and essential medical services to various parts of the country.
RCS-UDAN was awarded Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration under Innovation Category for the year 2020. Republic Day Tableau for 26th January 2022 on UDAN was adjudged as the Best Tableau by the Ministry of Defence.
(State wise detail of RCS Routes & Airports operationalized under UDAN is given in the Annexure-A)
Annexure-A
State wise details of RCS Routes & Airports operationalized under UDAN
S. No.
State
RCS Routes
RCS airports
Andaman & Nicobar Island (UT)
NIL
NIL
NIL
Andhra Pradesh
26
02
Kadapa, Kurnool
Arunachal Pradesh
04
02
Tezu, Passighat
Assam
30
04
Jorhat, Lilabari, Tezpur, Rupsi
Bihar
11
01
Darbhanga
Chandigarh
06
NIL
NIL
Chhattisgarh
12
02
Bilaspur, Jagdalpur
Daman & Diu (UT)
02
01
Diu
Delhi (UT)
35
NIL
NIL
Goa
06
NIL
NIL
Gujarat
53
08
Bhavnagar, Jamnagar, Kandla, Keshod, Mundra, Porbandar, Statue of Unity (WA), Sabarmati River Front (WA)
An Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed today between Ministry of Ayush and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) for providing technical support to Ministry of Ayush for digitalisation of Ayush Sector under the Ayush Grid project for a period of 3 years. This MoU is continuation of the earlier MoU , which was signed in the year 2019. Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, Secretary, Ayush and Shri Alkesh Kumar Sharma, Secretary MeitY signed MoU on behalf of both the Ministries. It was decided that both the Ministry’s will continue to work in collaboration and MeitY along with organizations under MeitY will extend all technical support required for the Ayush Grid project including adoption of emerging technologies.
Ministry of Ayush has conceptualized ‘Ayush Grid’ Project, as part of the Digital India Program, which leverages ‘Information and Technology’ to transform operational efficiency, improve service delivery and enhance quality of services. The Ayush Grid platform is envisaged to be the IT backbone; allowing integration of all stakeholders and functions/ services related to Ayush systems of health care. From a user’s perspective, Ayush Grid is the proposed central IT platform offering multiple IT services for all systems of medicines under Ayush viz. Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Sowa Rigpa and Homeopathy across functional areas, namely, healthcare delivery, education, research, capacity building, drug licensing and standardization along with media outreach.
As per the earlier signed MoU, organizations under MeitY like NeGD supported for development of AyushSanjivani mobile application, Monitoring dashboard, BISAG-N for development of Ayush GIS, Ayush education related modules, DIC for development of Ayush Information Hub, website of the Ministry, Ayusoft, C-DAC for imparting training to Ayush doctors. It is pertinent to mention that NeGD and BISAG-N provided valuable inputs in finalization of various technical documents like technical solution design & DPR of the Project.
A High-Level Advisory Committee (HLAC), chaired by Secretary Ayush and co-chaired by Secretary MeitY was constituted to provide advisory inputs on Ayush Grid project. A working group was also constituted under the chairmanship of Sh. J. Satyanarayana (Former Secretary MeitY& Chairman UIDAI) with other experts from NITI Aayog, NHA, MeitY etc. for giving expert inputs on right architecture, identify core building blocks, leveraging development under ABDM, understanding requirement of building public private ecosystem and various technical and strategy matters for Ayush Grid project. This helped Ministry to shape technical construct of the project.
MoU signed today will be instrumental for leveraging technical support from MeitY in Ayush Grid project of the Ministry of Ayush.
Ministry of Women and Child Development has issued Operational Guidelines regarding implementation of ‘Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0′. The scheme has been approved by the Government of India for implementation during the 15th Finance Commission period 202l-22 to 2025-26.
Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 is an Integrated Nutrition Support Programme. It seeks to address the challenges of malnutrition in children, adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers through a strategic shift in nutrition content and delivery and by creation of a convergent eco-system to develop and promote practices that nurture health, wellness and immunity.
With a view to address various gaps and shortcomings in the on-going nutrition programme and to improve implementation as well as to accelerate improvement in nutrition and child development outcomes, the existing scheme components have been re-organized under Poshan 2.0 into the primary verticals given below:
Nutrition Support for POSHAN through Supplementary Nutrition Programme (SNP) for children of the age group of 06 months to 6 years, pregnant women and lactating mothers (PWLM); and for Adolescent Girls in the age group of 14 to 18 years in Aspirational Districts and North Eastern Region (NER);
Early Childhood Care and Education [3-6 years] and early stimulation for (0-3 years);
Anganwadi Infrastructure including modern, upgraded Saksham Anganwadi; and
Poshan Abhiyaan
The objectives of Poshan 2.0 are as follows:
To contribute to human capital development of the country;
Address challenges of malnutrition;
Promote nutrition awareness and good eating habits for sustainable health and wellbeing; and
Address nutrition related deficiencies through key strategies.
Poshan 2.0 shall focus on Maternal Nutrition, Infant and Young Child Feeding Norms, Treatment Protocols for SAM/MAM and Wellness through AYUSH practices to reduce wasting and under-weight prevalence besides stunting and anemia, supported by the ‘Poshan Tracker’, a new, robust ICT centralised data system which is being linked with the RCH Portal (Anmol) of MoHFW.
Detailed guidelines of ‘Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0’ are available at:
