Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi today inaugurated and addressed the post Union Budget webinar on health. In his address Prime Minister elaborated on factors that underline the efforts of making the health sector holistic and inclusive. Prime Minister strongly emphasized on promotion of research in the traditional Indian medical systems of Ayush and their active engagement in the current healthcare system.
The Ministry of Ayush actively participated in a webinar organized by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare which included panel discussions with eminent experts from both the ministries, NITI Aayog, Startup and other academia on topic of strengthening telemedicine and IT enabled services for inclusive and equitable healthcare delivery.
Prime Minister noted the growing global acceptance of Ayush and exuded pride in the fact that WHO is going to start its only Global Center of Traditional Medicine in India. “Now it is up to all of us how to create better solutions of AYUSH for ourselves and for the world as well”, he added. He Said that during COVID-19 pandemic traditional medicines particularly herbal products were in huge demand and he urged all stakeholders to utilise this opportunity to explore potential in others countries.
Minister of Ayush Shri SarbanandaSonowal said that Ministry of Ayush has already taken various initiatives in the area of Ayushman Bharat, Digital Mission and National Tele Medicine. He said that the initiatives mentioned in Union Budget have been fast tracked and will be implemented according to a roadmap.
The Ayush minister further said that with growing popularity and dependency on the digital space, the central government has emphasized building the digi-infrastructure which Ministry of Ayush has well supported. ‘’The various provisions under the budget will see a major step towards digitizing the entire Ayush sector under Ayush-grid’’ he added.
During the webinar, Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare, Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya, said, “The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and Ministry of Ayush are working in coordination. We are two different ministries but our goal is one that of providing holistic health services to every citizen. The vision of our Prime Minister of ‘One India, One Health’ will be achieved by coordination between both ministries.”
While appreciating contributions from all, Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, Secretary, Ministry of Ayush said, “Ministry is already working toward digitalizing entire Ayush sector through Ayush Grid in alignment with ABDM. Further, there is need for a single window system for regulatory compliances particularly of small hospitals at tier 2, tier 3 and tier 4 cities within ABDM framework.”
The webinar was divided into three parallel sessions, which discussed various steps announced in the Union Budget to strengthen Healthcare system. Panelist gave insight on Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), National Tele-Medicine & E-Sanjeevani platform and Tele Mental Health Programme. All the participants and panelists endorsed the fact that Ayush system of medicine and services should be main streamed and should be integrated with all digital health ecosystems. During discussion, many stakeholders have cited the vital role of States/UTs and also emphasized on more involvement of private organizations.
Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will deliver the inaugural address in a webinar being organized by Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) and Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), along with other Ministries, on 23rd February 2022. The programme is part of the series of webinars announced by the Government on the title ‘Leaving No Citizen Behind’ to discuss ways for effective implementation of initiatives announced in Union Budget 2022-23.
The webinar will witness participation of Government officials, representatives from various Ministries, institutes, consultants, domain experts, real estate developers and other stakeholders. Different break-out sessions on various domains related to rural & urban development will be hosted. The panellists will share their ideas on improving infrastructure in rural and urban areas with respect to affordable housing, water supply, rail, mobile, broadband connectivity, assuring livelihood options to rural poor with focus on women, banking services, easing land governance for the benefit of the people.
At the webinar, six breakout sessions have been scheduled to discuss and brainstorm with experts on how to lay down action points and strategize on Budget implementation roadmap. For the session on Housing For All, Ministry officials and eminent speakers from rural and urban housing sectors will hold discussions on ‘Realizing Housing for All in AmritKaal’ with primary focus on (i) Facilitating universal coverage of affordable housing (ii) Convergence with other schemes, urban planning and infrastructure strategies for enhancing delivery of affordable housing and (iii) Enhancing private participation in affordable housing sector.
While presenting the Union Budget 2022-23, Hon’ble Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman made several announcements that recognise the importance of urban housing and the increasing pace of urbanisation. Hon’ble Finance Minister emphasized that this Budget laid the foundation and gave a blueprint to steer the economy over the Amrit Kaal of the next 25 years – from India@75 to India@100. Hon’ble Finance Minister also announced that 80 lakh houses will be completed for the identified eligible beneficiaries of PM Awas Yojana, both rural and urban, and ₹48,000 crore is allocated for this purpose. Out of which, ₹28,000 crore has been provisioned for PMAY(U) only. This financial commitment will not only provide shelters, but also add dignity in the lives of 80 lakh beneficiary households, benefitting around 4 crore citizens of the country. Out of these 80 lakh houses to be completed in 2022-23, 28 lakh houses will be in the urban areas and 52 lakh houses in the rural areas of the country.
The webinar will begin at 11 am with an introduction to ‘Housing for All and Budget Announcements’ by Shri Manoj Joshi, Secretary, MoHUA. Thereafter, the speakers/experts at the webinar from MoHUA – Shri Ajay Jain, Special Chief Secretary (Housing), Government of Andhra Pradesh, Shri Harsh Vardhan Patodia, President, CREDAI and Shri Shubhagto Dasgupta, Senior Fellow, Centre for Policy Research (CPR); from MoRD, Dr P K Dash, Visiting Professor, School of Planning & Architecture, New Delhi & International Consultant, UNDP, Dr Manish Ranjan, Secretary, Rural Development, Jharkhand and Shri SK Negi, CBRI will join in, to share their insights.
The session will be of two hours including Questions & Answers and discussions. To register for the session, click on https://pmayu.webex.com/pmayu/j.php?RGID=r7fcea2cedbeb286316ae7eed8f1b12d7.
The agenda for the webinar is as follow:
Time
Sub-Themes
Speaker/Moderators
11:00 am – 11:10 am
Introduction to Housing for All and Budget Announcements
Shri Manoj Joshi, Secretary (MoHUA)
11: 10 am – 11:25 am
Convergence with other schemes, urban planning and infrastructure strategies for enhancing delivery of affordable housing
Shri Ajay Jain, Special Chief Secretary (Housing), Government of Andhra Pradesh
11: 25 am – 11:40 am
Enhancing private participation in affordable housing sector
Shri Harsh Vardhan Patodia, President, CREDAI
11:40 am – 11:55 am
Facilitating universal coverage of affordable housing
Shri Shubhagato Dasgupta, Senior Fellow, CPR
11:55 am – 12:10 pm
Employment generation, training, design, cost, green housing and environmental aspect under PMAY-G
Dr. PK Dash, Visiting Professor, School of Planning and Architecture & International Consultant, UNDP
12:10 pm – 12:25 pm
Demo Houses in Uttar Pradesh and Assam
Shri SK Negi, CBRI
12:25 pm – 12:40 pm
Translating Hon’ble Prime Minister’s Vision into Reality (Effective Implementation of PMAY-G in Jharkhand)
Dr. Manish Ranjan, Secretary (RD), Government of Jharkhand
12: 40 pm – 12:55 pm
Questions & Answers and Discussions
12:55 pm- 1:00 pm
Closing Remarks by Shri Manoj Joshi, Secretary (MoHUA) and Shri Prashant Kumar, Former Special Secretary (MoRD)
Webinar on Poshan Abhiyan organised by Regional Outreach Bureau, Guwahati
Posted On:
21 SEP 2021 5:35PM by PIB Guwahati
With the clarion call of the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, ‘Poshan Maah’ is being observed, to improve the nutritional outcome for children, adolescent, pregnant women and lactating mothers across the country during the month of September and to address the issue of Malnutrition on a mission mode. Accordingly, Regional Outreach Bureau, Guwahati organised a webinar on ‘Poshan Abhiyaan’ on Tuesday where discussion on the importance of nutrition was discussed. The theme of the webinar was ‘POSHAN Abhiyaan– Nutrition and Immunity among Women and Child’.
In his welcome address, Sri. Arijit Chakraborty, Deputy Director, ROB, Guwahati highlighted how Poshan Abhiyaan intends to significantly reduce malnutrition in the next three years. He also informed that the chief objective of the mission is to reduce the level of under-nutrition and also enhance the nutritional status of children in the country by 2022.
Dr. Pooja Jaiswal, MBBS, Clinical & Sports Nutritionist, said that nutrition is essential for health and well-being at every stage of life. She discussed the Poshan Abhiyaan as a programmatic approach in addressing the life cycle issues of malnutrition. She threw light on the importance of a balanced diet, especially for pregnant women. She stressed adequate maternal dietary protein intake and informed the participants about the need for a healthy diet to prevent anemia during pregnancy.
Smt. Ronica Devarshi, Consultant, SPMU, Poshan Abhiyan, Assam, threw light on how Poshan Abhiyaan has been envisaged as India’s flagship scheme to improve the nutritional outcomes of adolescents, children, pregnant women and lactating mothers. She highlighted on the various activities carried out by Poshan Abhiyan in the State and special activities taken during Poshan Maah.
Smt. W. Panthobi Singha moderated and summarized the Webinar and Smt. Smita Saikia, MCO, PIB delivered the closing remarks of the webinar with a vote of thanks to the speakers and the participants present. Anganwadi workers and officials of the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting from the region participated in the webinar.
To mark the ongoing 4th Rashtriya Poshan Maah, the Department of Food and Public Distribution under Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Ministry of Women and Child Development jointly organised a webinar on ‘Rice Fortification: A complementary approach to address Nutritional Anaemia’ with technical support of the World Food Programme on Friday.
The Secretary, Department of Food and Public Distribution, Sh. Sudhanshu Pandey in his keynote address said “It’s a momentous time in the Public Distribution history that such a major decision has been taken.”
Honourable Prime Minister in his address on the 75th Independence Day (15th August, 2021) made an announcement that fortified rice will be provided through all Government of India schemes.
“We have been given a time frame that by 2024 we have to supply fortified rice to the entire public distribution system,” he added.
“I am particularly happy that Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) and the Department of School Education & Literacy are looking to the vulnerability of children and students,” he said adding on “They took decision to supply fortified rice for their Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) programmes and Mid-Day Meal Programmes from 1st of April this year. As a result of which, we got an opportunity to work through an entire ecosystem of rice fortification and prepare ourselves to something which was much bigger.”
“India has been taking promising steps to ensure food security and improving the nutrition outcomes of its population, it is, therefore, about time that fortification is integrated into the larger response to address malnutrition in the country with the understanding that it will reinforce, complement and support ongoing nutrition improvement programmes such as supplementation & dietary diversification,” said Secretary, Department of Food and Public Distribution, Shri Sudhanshu Pandey.
“There is a need to amplify efforts to spread awareness about fortified rice and its benefits so that demand is created and acceptability for nutrient-enriched rice is better. All stakeholders must come together to create awareness campaigns using local languages,” Shri Pandey added.
Dr. Shariqua Yunus, Head, Nutrition and School Feeding Unit, WFP while talking about ‘Rice Fortification: Concept and process’ said that anemia continues to be a problem in the country. “Over last 10 years, the reduction in prevalence of anemia is slightly less than expected,” said claiming that fortified rice is the most sustainable solution to the health issues.
Ms. Inoshi Sharma, Director, FSSAI talked about ‘Benefits of fortified rice, Myth and Misconception around fortified rice’ and emphasized, “There is absolutely no difference between rice and fortified rice.”
Pertinently, 7 States have already started the distribution of fortified rice. Approx. 2.47 Lakh MT of fortified rice is distributed till August 2021 under the pilot scheme. Production of Fortified Rice Kernels (FRK) is increased from 7250 MT in 2018 to around 60,000 MT yearly. (additional 25,000 – 30,000MT/year is also in the pipeline)
Nearly 3100 Rice mills have installed blending unit in 15 Key States with cumulative monthly blending capacity of around 18.0 Lakh MT for production of fortified rice. Standards have been established for fortified rice through regulatory agency such as Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). Similarly, Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has been requested to come out with a standard for extruder and blending machines for fortified rice production for uniformity.
Pallavi Agarwal, Joint Secretary, WCD during her address emphasized on the importance of sustainable diet. She said that the Ministry of Women and Child Development has planned a series of activities particularly on nutrition awareness, throughout the month in tandem with the States/UTs under POSHAN Mah. These awareness activities will be particularly carried out in the grassroots level.
A flagship programme of Government of India, POSHAN Abhiyan aims at improving nutritional outcome for children, adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers. The programme was launched by Prime Minister Sh. Narendra Modi on March 8, 2018 on the occasion of International Women’s Day from Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan.
The POSHAN (Prime Minister’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nutrition) Abhiyan directs the attention of the country towards the problem of malnutrition and address it in a mission-mode. Focusing on the aims of POSHAN Abhiyan, Mission Poshan 2.0 (SakshamAnganwadi and Poshan 2.0) has been announced in the Budget 2021-2022 as an integrated nutrition support programme, to strengthen nutritional content, delivery, outreach and outcomes with focus on developing practices that nurture health, wellness and immunity to disease and malnutrition.
The Ministry of Ayush and Ministry of Women and Child Development jointly organised a webinar on the importance of ‘Poshan Vatika’ for alleviation of malnutrition today.
The webinar was attended by Dr Munjpara Mahendrabhai, Minister of State for Ayush and Women and Child Development; Indevar Pandey, Secretary MoWCD; Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, Secretary, Ministry of Ayush; Prof Sanjeev Sharma, Vice Chancellor, National Institute of Ayurveda (NIA, Deemed to be University), Dr JLN Shastry, former CEO, NMPB, Prof. Meeta Kotecha, Pro-VC, NIA, Varalakshmi Venkatapathy, Policy Consultant and Independent Researcher; among others
The speakers discussed the importance of planting herbal plants in Aanganwadis, schools and kitchen gardens to ensure the easy availability of nutritious food and medicinal plants for pregnant and lactating women and children.
Addressing the webinar, Dr Munjpara said, “Poshan Abhiyaan aims to encourage convergence among various Ministries to tackle the problem of malnutrition. Plantation of nutritional and herbal trees under PoshanVatika would reduce external dependency and make communities Atmanirbhar for their nutritional security.” The Minister added that Poshan Vatika can play an important role in enhancing dietary diversity by providing micronutrients through constant supply of fruits and vegetables sufficient to meet the family’s requirements, which can prove to be a sustainable model for providing food security and diversity to combat malnutrition at the household or community level. He further said that rural areas have ample space and establishing a Nutri garden/PoshanVatikas is far simpler as farm families are involved in agriculture.
Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, Secretary, Ministry of Ayush, said that diet and nutrition have been explained in great details in Ayush systems. He said that his Ministry will collaborate with 3,000 Aanganwadis to take forward the campaign of establishing Poshan Vatikas and will also decide the nutritional and herbal trees that will be planted there. “If we pay attention to nutrition then there would be no need for medicines. If we do not pay attention to our diet, then even the medicines won’t work,” he said quoting a verse from a scripture.
Indevar Pandey, Secretary, MoWCD, said his ministry along with the Ministry of Ayush was at the forefront of making sure that the wellbeing of women and children was being taken care of.
“The main motive behind launching Poshan Abhiyaan is to address the problem of malnutrition. Aanganwaadi covers 50% of the people who are poor and don’t get proper nutrition while Poshan Abhiyaan covers the other 50% who might not be poor but need information about proper nutrition,” he said.
Varalakshmi Venkatpathy, Policy Consultant and Independent Researcher, suggested that plants such as Moringa, Guava, Banana and Tulsi are great candidates to plant in a Poshan Vatika as they deal with problems of malnutrition in women and children.
In two very information packed presentations, Prof. Meeta Kotech and Dr. JLN Shastry shared both vision and implementation strategies of Ayurveda and the Ministry while underlining the possibilities of further enhancement and upscaling.
