Climate Awareness Campaign and National Photography Competition

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) is organizing Climate Change Awareness Campaign and National Photography Competition. The competition will be open to all participants till 26th January, 2022, as part of pre-event activities leading to the ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav- Smart Cities: Smart Urbanization’ event on 4th and 5th of February, 2022 at Surat, Gujarat. Both the campaign and competition aims to sensitize the challenges posed by climate change, enrich the participants with ideas to solutions, and promote climate action in cities.

Climate Awareness Campaign:

The campaign will include Municipal Commissioners and key heads of urban local bodies and Smart City CEOs creating awareness across educational institutions including schools and colleges within their cities to align young minds to the challenges and solutions associated with Urban Climate Change and Sustainability. Cities will be organizing one or more of the following activities in their cities leading up to the event:

Climate Change Awareness Campaign: The city officials will create awareness across academic institutions on Climate Change and Sustainable actions.
Social Media Campaign on Climate Change: The city officials will carry out a social media awareness campaign where City leaders like Mayors/Municipal Commissioners/Smart City CEOs will be talking about climate actions, that can be implemented within their city. The issues that will be taken up for discussion include inter alia plantation drive, cleaning of water bodies, recycling of e-waste, promoting the adoption of solar energy within residential and commercial buildings, or any other initiative which promotes climate adaptation or mitigation actions.
Promote Photography Competition: A City level Photography competition will be organised based on the theme of climate change.

Details of the events are available at https://niua.org/c-cube/content/climate-change-awareness-campaign

National Photography Competition:

The participants are invited to submit photographs which are either focusing on the impacts of climate change on Indian cities and actions taken by individuals, communities or city authorities to adapt/ mitigate climate change. To participate in the competition, photographs should be submitted in two categories:

Climate Impacts in Cities
Climate Actions in Cities

The selection of photographs will focus on content, composition and technique. All interested photographers and climate enthusiasts can visit https://niua.org/c-cube/content/national-photography-competition for details of participation. The submission of photograph shall close on 26th January 2022 at 11:59 pm.

Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav

Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav is an initiative of the Government of India to celebrate and commemorate 75 years of progressive India and the glorious history of its people, culture and achievements. This Mahotsav is dedicated to the people of India who have not only been instrumental in bringing India thus far in its evolutionary journey but also hold within them the power and potential to enable Prime Minister Modi’s vision of activating India 2.0, fuelled by the spirit of Atmanirbhar Bharat.

Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav is an embodiment of all that is progressive about India’s socio-cultural, political, and economic identity. The official journey of “Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav” commenced on 12th March 2021 which starts a 75-week countdown to our 75th anniversary of Independence.

NEAT 3.0 and AICTE prescribed technical books in regional languages

Union Education Minister and Skill Development Minister Shri Dharmendra Pradhan launched NEAT 3.0, a single platform to provide the best-developed ed-tech solutions and courses to students of the country. The Minister also launched AICTE prescribed technical books in regional languages.

Speaking on the occasion Shri Pradhan said that NEAT will be a game-changer in bridging the digital divide, especially among the economically disadvantaged students and also in fulfilling the knowledge-based requirement of India and the world. The Minister informed that 58 global and Indian start-up ed-tech companies are onboard NEAT and are offering 100 courses & e-resources for bettering learning outcomes, developing employable skills and overcoming learning loss. He hoped that the e-content & resources and Digital frameworks like NEAT are a step in the right direction in minimising learning loss.

The Minister encouraged AICTE to integrate courses in NEAT with skill India to tap the opportunities in emerging areas of skill to boost employability and prepare our youth for the future. He urged that AICTE and ed-tech companies to offer e-resources in the least possible cost. Shri Pradhan complimented the global ed-tech companies and Indian start-ups who are a part of NEAT 3.0. He said that all ed-techs are welcome to work with a collaborative approach for making education accessible & affordable. But, ed-techs must remember that there is no place for monopoly and exploitation, he added.

The Minister expressed his happiness that today, more than 12 lakh socially and economically disadvantaged students have received free ed-tech course coupons worth over ₹253 crore under NEAT 3.0. This is one of the biggest gift to the student community from Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi in the new year 2022, he added. He stated that India will lead the global economy in the 21st century and will be the most preferred market for trade & economy.

On technical books in regional languages, Shri Pradhan said that our diverse languages are our strength and harnessing them key to building an innovative society. He further said that learning in regional languages will further develop the critical thinking capacity & enable our youth to become global citizens.

NEAT:

National Educational Alliance for Technology (NEAT) is an initiative to provide the use of best-developed technological solutions in the education sector to enhance the employability of the youth on a single platform for learners’ convenience. These solutions use Artificial Intelligence for a personalized and customized learning experience for better learning outcomes and skill development in the niche areas. AICTE, MoE is acting as the facilitator in the process while ensuring that the solutions are freely available to a large number of socially and economically backward students. NEAT has 58 Education Technology Companies with 100 products that help to develop employable skills, capacity building, and bridge learning gaps.

Secretary, Higher Education Shri Sanjay Murthy; Chairman, AICTE Prof. Anil Sahasrabudhe; Vice Chairman, AICTE, Prof. M P Poonia, Prof. Rajiv Kumar, Member Secretary, AICTE and senior officials of the Ministry were present on the occasion.

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District Good Governance Index (DGGI) is modelled on the Good Governance Index 2021

Jammu & Kashmir will soon become the first Union Territory in the country to have a district level Good Governance Index.

Disclosing this here today after receiving an update from the newly appointed Secretary of Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG),Union Ministry of Personnel, V Srinivas, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said, Centre will set up District Good Governance Index (DGGI) in J&K and the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) will carry out this task in collaboration with the Union Territory Government. The framework of the proposed Index has been finalised with the technical support from the Centre for Good Governance(CGG) Hyderabad.

The Minister said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is keen that we should replicate in Jammu & Kashmir, the same best practices of governance which are followed in other States and UTs of the country. He said, for a long time, as a result of certain constitutional and administrative constraints, many of the Central Rules of DoPT and ARPG were not applicable in Jammu & Kashmir, but in the last over two years, there has been a fast-track attempt to change the work culture and to follow the Mantra of “Maximum Governance, Minimum Government”, which has been the guiding principle at the Centre and States ever since the Modi government came in 2014.

Good Governance Index at the district level, said Dr Jitendra Singh, will enable each of the 20 districts of Jammu & Kashmir to rise to the level of some of the best administered districts of the country, with time bound disposal of office files and other matters, increased transparency, increased accountability and increased citizen participation. He said, the next step would be to carry forward these Good Governance practices down to Tehsil and Block level.

The DGGI Framework has 58 Indicators drawn from different aspects of development and district administration distributed in all-encompassing 10 sectors such as Agriculture & allied sector, Commerce & Industry, Human Resource Development, Public Health, Public Infrastructure & Utilities, Economic Governance, Welfare & Development, Public Safety & Judiciary and Citizen Centric Governance.

These indicators were finalised after a series of consultations with the District officials of Government of Jammu & Kashmir, Academia, Subject Specialists, etc. Looking at the availability of authentic published data and other key principles, the set of indicators have been finalised from a larger list of 135 to 58.

To compute the index and rank, the Districts on their performance based on finalised 58 Indicators, an elaborate exercise of data collation followed by rigorous data sanitisation was undertaken. Final index computation process using standard and tested data normalisation and scoring methods is underway. This would result in coming out with Division-wise and District-wise ranks of the Districts. While there will be a comprehensive rank of Districts based on composite 10 Sectors, the DGGI will also offer a window on indicator-wise performance of the Districts.

Making India self-reliant in all areas

The Vice President, Shri M Venkaiah Naidu today called for making India fully self-reliant in all areas, including strategic domains.

Addressing scientists and staff of the Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory at Kochi, the Vice President, stressed the need for increasing indigenous content in the defence sector and cutting down on imports.

“To achieve that, we need to not only give greater thrust to R & D activities, but also allow private collaboration, wherever it is possible and feasible, with stringent quality controls”, Shri Naidu observed.

On this occasion, the Vice President virtually laid the foundation stone of the “Towed Array Integration Facility”, essential for the development of towed array sonar systems, which is critical to underwater defence. The towed array sonar system is expected to enhance the Navy’s capabilities to detect quieter enemy submarines underwater.

Asserting that India is strongly marching ahead on its way to becoming a global superpower in the coming decades, he lauded the scientists In defence, space and other areas for doing excellent work in strengthening India’s security.

Referring to the fact that India is still one of the largest importers of defence equipment, the Vice President said, In this context, the contribution of a small lab like NPOL in empowering the nation in its defence needs is truly commendable.

Keeping in view the geo-political scenario in our neighbourhood, the Vice President said NPOL’s role towards national security is paramount as all warships or conventional submarines in the fleet of the Indian Navy are installed with NPOL-developed sonars. “Besides bringing in the socio-economic gains by stopping imports in this niche domain, NPOL has been able to master a very complex and critical technology that is giving a strategic edge to the Indian Navy in anti-submarine warfare capabilities”, he added.

Lauding the laboratory for establishing itself as a leading Research & Development centre in the area of underwater surveillance systems, he noted that it is currently working on ambitious mission mode projects and technology demonstration projects, besides undertaking a major Flagship Programme, the INTEGRATED MARITIME SURVEILLANCE (INMARS) Programme for Indian Navy’s future requirement for the next 15 years.

Appreciating NPOL for building strong network with industry and contributing towards improving financial performance of PSUs, the Vice President noted that

NPOL has also nurtured more than 100 local industries, including MSMEs and Start-ups, for developing niche technologies.

On the occasion, the Vice President also inaugurated Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam memorial and an installation on the occasion of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav near the laboratory. Describing the memorial as “truly befitting”, he said that it will inspire countless people from all walks of life every day.

Governor of Kerala, Shri Arif Mohhammed Khan, Minister for Industries, Government of Kerala, Shri P. Rajeev, Member of Parliament, Shri Hibi Eden, Director General (Naval Systems & Materials), Dr. Samir V Kamat, Director, Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory, Shri S Vijayan Pillai, Chief Staff Officer (Training), Headquarters, Southern Naval Command, Rear Admiral T.V.N. Prasanna and others were present on the occasion.

Following is the full text of the speech:

“Namaskaram! Good afternoon to you all!

I am pleased to visit Naval Physical & Oceanographic Laboratory (NPOL), a premier R&D establishment of the Defence Research and Development Organization and interact with all of you today.

Formed in the Southern Naval Command in 1952, NPOL later became part of DRDO in 1958. It will be celebrating its 70th year of inception in 2022. It is a matter of pride for the nation that during these last seven decades, NPOL has established itself as a leading Research & Development centre in the area of underwater surveillance systems.

I am told that NPOL-developed Sonar systems, which are the most critical equipment in the Anti-Submarine Warfare, have been fitted in all leading platforms of Indian Navy including ships, submarines and helicopters. The country’s flagship technology achievement, the strategic submarine INS Arihant also carries NPOL-developed sonar system.

I understand that NPOL’s services to the nation started with design and development of Hull Mounted Sonar systems for the Indian Navy’s frontline Frigates and Destroyers. Today, NPOL has diversified the Research and Development area to Submarine Sonars, Airborne Sonars, Diver Detection Systems and Underwater Communication systems. I am happy to note that state of the art R & D facilities have been established and many new technologies in electronics and transducers have been developed.

With NPOL emerging as a leading and high performing R&D laboratory working in the area of underwater surveillance systems, Sonar systems developed by it are being used in Indian Navy’s frontline platforms for last few decades and many of them have entered into third and even fourth generation products.

Dear sisters and brothers,

As you all know, India is strongly marching ahead well on its way to becoming a global superpower in the coming decades. In defence, space and other areas, our scientists from DRDO, ISRO, BARC and other leading R & D organizations are doing excellent work in strengthening India’s security.

But it is also a fact that our country is still one of the largest importers of defence equipment. In this context, the contribution of a small lab like NPOL in empowering the nation in its defence needs is truly commendable. I understand that the scientists here are working very closely with the Indian Navy, frequently sailing with them in ships and submarines in order to gain a deeper insight into their requirements and offer customized solutions. This is advantageous in four ways 1) The complete know-how and know-why, especially in critical areas like oceanography and transducer materials, remains exclusively with us and no foreign player can enter into the market easily; 2) These systems can be upgraded periodically with improvements; 3) Our scientists can address the problems of users in a quick and efficient manner, making maintenance and life time support of these systems easier; and 4) Most importantly, through indigenization of these systems, there will be a savings to the exchequer ranging from 20% to 75%.

I am glad to note that NPOL has also built strong relationship and network with industry for carrying out its charter of duties. The lab has been synergistically working with PSUs like BEL, KELTRON & HMT and is a key provider of technologies, contributing to their improved financial performance during the recent years. I am told that NPOL has also nurtured more than 100 local industries, including MSMEs and Start-ups, for developing niche technologies for underwater surveillance systems.

Keeping in view the geo-political scenario in our neighbourhood, I believe NPOL’s role towards national security is paramount as all warships or conventional submarines in the fleet of the Indian Navy are installed with NPOL-developed sonars. Besides bringing in the socio-economic gains by stopping imports in this niche domain, NPOL has been able to master a very complex and critical technology that is giving a strategic edge to the Indian Navy in anti-submarine warfare capabilities.

I am informed that currently this laboratory is working on ambitious mission mode projects and technology demonstration projects, besides undertaking a major Flagship Programme, the INTEGRATED MARITIME SURVEILLANCE (INMARS) Programme for Indian Navy’s future requirement for the next 15 years.

NPOL is also expanding its work to play a crucial role in establishing Underwater Domain Awareness for the nation.

Dear sisters and brothers,

Our mantra should be atma-nirbhartha—to make India fully self-reliant in all areas, including strategic domains. For instance, we need to keep increasing our indigenous content in the defence sector and cut down on imports. To achieve that, we need to not only give greater thrust to R & D activities, but also allow private collaboration, wherever it is possible and feasible, with stringent quality controls.

On this occasion, let me inaugurate the 70th Anniversary celebrations of NPOL. I am sure that NPOL will keep its flag soaring higher and higher by developing several critical technologies and provide solutions to the Indian Navy in protecting our long coast line. Today, as part of the government’s AZADI KA AMRIT MAHOTSAV celebrations in connection with 75th year of Indian Independence, NPOL is commemorating a great visionary, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, who rose from a humble background to become a great defence scientist and finally the president of the country. I feel honoured to dedicate Dr APJ ABDUL KALAM MEMORIAL to the nation. Dr Kalam’s memorial in front of this great laboratory is truly befitting and I am sure that it will inspire countless people from all walks of life every day.

Namaskar!

Jai Hind!”

*****

Rural tele-density jumps from 44% in March 2014 to 59% in 2021

Increase in Telephone Subscription:

Total telephone connections rose to 118.9 crore in September 2021 from 93 crore in March 2014, with a growth of 28 % in the said period. The number of mobile connections reached to 1165.97 million in September 2021. The tele-density which was 75.23% in March 2014 has reached 86.89% in September 2021.
Urban telephone connections rose to 66 crores in September 2021 from 55 crore in March 2014, a growth of 20% while the growth in rural telephone connections was 40%, which is double of urban increase, rising from 38 crore in March 2014 to 53 crores in September 2021. The rural tele-density jumped from 44% in March 2014 to 59% in September 2021.

Jump in Internet and broadband penetration:

· Internet connections jumped from 25.15 crore in March 2014 to 83.37 crore in June 2021, registering a growth of 231%.

· Broadband connections rose from 6.1 crore in March 2014 to 79 crores in June 2021, growing by about 1200%.

· Average revenue realization per subscriber per GB wireless data reduced to Rs. 9.8 in June 2021 from Rs. 268.97 in December 2014, a reduction of more than 96%.

· Average monthly data consumption per wireless data subscriber increased by 22605% to 14 GB in June 2021 from 61.66 MB in March 2014.

Growth in BTS and Towers:

· The number of Mobile Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) increased from 8 lakh in 2014 to 23 lakhs in 2021 growing by 187 %.

· The number of mobile towers increased from 4 lakh in 2014 to 6.6 lakh in 2021 growing by 65%.

Increase in FDI:

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in telecom sector rose by around 150% between 2014-2021 from Rs. 62,386 Crore in 2002 to 2014 to Rs. 1,55,353 crore during 2014-2021.

(B) TELECOM REFORMS

(i) Telecom Reforms announced on 15.9.2021:

In view of the telecom industry facing financial stress and challenges on issues like liquidity, rationalization of levies, Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) and spectrum pricing, the Government has approved a number of structural and process reforms in the Telecom sector:

(a) Structural Reforms

1. Rationalization of AGR: Non-telecom revenue will be excluded on prospective basis from the definition of AGR.

2. Bank Guarantees (BGs) rationalized: Huge reduction in BG requirements (80%) against License Fee (LF) and other similar levies. No requirements for multiple BGs in different Licensed Service Areas (LSAs) regions in the country. Instead, one BG will be enough.

3. Interest rates rationalized/ Penalties removed: From 1st October, 2021, delayed payments of License Fee (LF)/Spectrum Usage Charge (SUC) will attract interest rate of SBI’s MCLR plus 2% instead of MCLR plus 4%; interest compounded annually instead of monthly; penalty and interest on penalty removed.

4. For Auctions held henceforth, no BGs will be required to secure instalment payments. Industry has matured and the past practice of BG is no longer required.

5. Spectrum Tenure: In future Auctions, tenure of spectrum increased from 20 to 30 years.

6. Surrender of spectrum will be permitted after 10 years for spectrum acquired in the future auctions.

7. No Spectrum Usage Charge (SUC) for spectrum acquired in future spectrum auctions.

8. Spectrum sharing encouraged- additional SUC of 0.5% for spectrum sharing removed.

9. To encourage investment, 100% Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) under automatic route permitted in Telecom Sector. All safeguards will apply.

(b) Procedural Reforms

10. Auction calendar fixed – Spectrum auctions to be normally held in the last quarter of every financial year.

11. Ease of doing business promoted – cumbersome requirement of licenses under 1953 Customs Notification for wireless equipment removed. Replaced with self-declaration.

12. Know Your Customers (KYC) reforms: Self-KYC (App based) permitted. E-KYC rate revised to only One Rupee. Shifting from Prepaid to Post-paid and vice-versa will not require fresh KYC.

13. Paper Customer Acquisition Forms (CAF) will be replaced by digital storage of data. Nearly 300-400 crore paper CAFs lying in various warehouses of TSPs will not be required. Warehouse audit of CAF will not be required.

14. Standing Advisory Committee on Radio Frequency Allocation (SACFA) clearance for telecom towers eased. DOT will accept data on a portal based on self-declaration basis. Portals of other Agencies (such as Civil Aviation) will be linked with DOT Portal.

The Government approved the following for all the Telecom Service Providers (TSPs):

15. Moratorium/Deferment of up to four years in annual payments of dues arising out of the AGR judgement, with however, by protecting the Net Present Value (NPV) of the due amounts being protected.

16. Moratorium/Deferment on due payments of spectrum purchased in past auctions (excluding the auction of 2021) for up to four years with NPV protected at the interest rate stipulated in the respective auctions.

17. Option to the TSPs to pay the interest amount arising due to the said deferment of payment by way of equity.

18. At the option of the Government, to convert the due amount pertaining to the said deferred payment by way of equity at the end of the Moratorium/Deferment period.

C. PROJECTS AND INITIATIVES

(i) Service delivery in villages through BharatNet – Progress in 2021:

· The flagship BharatNet project is being implemented in a phased manner to provide broadband connectivity to all the Gram Panchayats (approx. 2.6 lakh GPs) in the country. The Phase-I has been completed in December 2017 covering over 1 lakh GPs.

· In 2021 (01.1.2021 to 31.10.2021), a total number of 17,232 GPs have been made Service Ready of which 16,344 GPs are on Optical Fiber Cable and 888 GPs are on satellite media.

· As on 01.11.2021, out of the remaining Gram Panchayats to be connected under BharatNet Phase-II, a total of 1,79,247 GPs have been connected by laying 5,52,514 km Optical Fibre Cable (OFC), out of which 1,61,870 GPs are Service Ready.

· In addition, 4218 GPs have been connected over satellite media taking the number of total Service Ready GPs to 1,66,088.

· The scope of BharatNet has now been extended to reach all villages in the country in accordance with the announcement made by the Hon’ble Prime Minister on 15th August 2020.

· On 30.06.2021, Government accorded approval for a revised strategy for implementation of BharatNet through Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model in 16 States of the country covering about 3.61 lakh villages (including 1.37 lakh GPs).

(ii) Installation of mobile towers in LWE affected areas: In order to provide mobile connectivity in the areas affected by Left Wing Extremism (LWE), the Government has installed mobile towers at 2343 locations under Phase- I of this project and these towers are providing mobile services. Under Phase-II of this project, the Government has approved installation of 2542 towers for providing 4G mobile services and the project is under implementation.

(iii) 210 out of 354 Uncovered Villages covered with mobile services: In order to provide connectivity in villages in border areas of Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttarakhand, Karnataka and West Bengal, the Government has accorded to connect 354 villages. As of October 2021, around 210 villages have been covered with mobile services.

(iv) 4G based Mobile service in 502 uncovered villages under Aspirational District Scheme: In order to boost telecom infrastructure in Aspirational Districts of four states namely Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh & Rajasthan, the Government has accorded to provide 4G based Mobile service in 502 uncovered villages and the project is under implementation.

The Government in November 2021 has further accorded to provide 4G based Mobile service in 7287 uncovered villages of Aspirational Districts of 5 States namely Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Odisha.

(v) 1,358 towers installed under Comprehensive Telecom Development Plan (CTDP) for the North-Eastern Region: Government has drawn up a plan to provide Mobile connectivity in the uncovered villages and along National Highways of Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, Meghalaya, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh in North East region. The projects are under implementation and as of October 2021, a total of 1,358 towers have been installed, covering 1246 villages and 283 National Highway sites.

(vi) Submarine Optical Fiber Cable Connectivity Laid under Comprehensive Telecom Development Plan for Islands :

Andaman & Nicobar Islands: The undersea 2,313 km optic fiber-based telecom connectivity between Chennai and Andaman & Nicobar Islands was inaugurated in August 2020.

Lakshadweep islands: Government has approved a proposal for provision of submarine Optical Fiber Cable Connectivity by laying approximately 1891km of submarine cable between Kochi and Lakshadweep Islands. The project is under implementation and targeted to be implemented by May 2023.

(vii) Launch of Satellite-based broadband connectivity for Lakshadweep Islands: Minister of State for Communications and Administrator to Union Territory of Lakshadweep launched and dedicated to the nation the high capacity satellite-based connectivity for Lakshadweep for providing broadband services on 14.08.2021. Under this Satellite project, the bandwidth has been enhanced from 318 Mbps to 1.71 Gbps for Lakshadweep Islands. For Agathi, Androth, Minicoy & Kavaratti Islands, the bandwidth has been enhanced by 200 Mbps, whereas for Amini, Chetlat, Kalpeni, Kadmath, Kiltan & Bitra Islands, the bandwidth has been enhanced by 100 Mbps.

(viii) 50000 Access points deployed under PM-WANI: The Government on 09.12.2020 approved the proposal to proliferate broadband through Public Wi-Fi Networks under the framework of Prime Minister’s Wi-Fi Access Network Interface (PM-WANI). It is expected that with Public Wi-Fi Broadband, the user experience and Quality of Service for Broadband will be improved significantly. This service will be especially useful in rural areas where Public Wi-Fi Hotspots are also being created under BharatNet. Proliferation of Public Wi-Fi Hotspots will lead to increased employment for small and micro entrepreneurs, and provide them with an additional source of income.

Under the PM-WANI framework, online registrations of PDOAs and App providers began on 07.01.2021. As on 23.11.2021, a total of 125 PDOAs and 63 App Providers have been registered by DoT and more than 50000 Access points have been deployed under PM-WANI.

(ix) New Guidelines for Other Service Providers (OSPs): The Department has issued New Guidelines for OSPs on 05.11.2020 and then the Revised Guidelines for OSPs dated 23.06.2021 to further simplify and liberalize the Terms & Conditions for registration of OSPs. It is expected that the New guidelines for OSPs will make the Indian IT/ITeS Industry more competitive in the Global market and further boost the Industry. Under the new guidelines, (i) no registration certificate or bank guarantee required from OSPs,

(ii) Work from anywhere (WFA) in India is permitted

(iii) Sharing of infrastructure between domestic OSP and International OSP is permitted etc.

(x) Online licensing for use of Spectrum: This initiative has been launched on 29.06.2021 to facilitate online licensing for use of Spectrum to conduct Experiments, Demonstrations and for Testing Requirements. The scope of existing Saral Sanchar Portal of DoT, on which applications for Access Services, Internet Services, Internet Services and other licenses are being received, has accordingly been expanded to cover this initiative and to make the approval process faceless, transparent and time bound.

(xi) Liberalisation of Unified License and Commercial VSAT CUG license

The Unified License and Commercial VSAT CUG license regime have been liberalized by permitting:

Backhaul connectivity through satellite using VSAT to Access Service providers for Cellular mobile services and Wi. Fi hotspots.
Sharing of VSAT hub for both Commercial VSAT CUG Service and BLD Service
Sharing of active and passive infrastructure under any service authorization for providing other authorized services to the same license.
Sharing of gateway hub for HTS satellites, managed and operated by the satellite provider itself, with the satellite bandwidth seeker.

D. HARNESSING EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES

(i) High Throughput Satellites (HTS): HTS have the capability of delivering significantly enhanced data rate as compared to conventional satellites. The deployment of HTS in coming times will be instrumental in providing abundant capacity and connectivity to unconnected or sparsely connected regions. Department has issued notifications on 23.09.2021 and 27.09.2021 which will enable framework for sharing of HTS gateway hubs. The data speed restrictions for different types of satellite-based telecom network deployments have been done away with, thereby enabling deployment of faster throughput networks. The relevant standard has been revised and in line with advancements in technology in this field and will help in realizing the Government’s broadband proliferation initiatives.

(ii) Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite is an emerging satellite technology which offers low latency communication by virtue of low propagation delay. Such new technology satellites may supplement availability of requisite bandwidth that could be utilized for rendering broadband services alongwith voice communication in difficult terrain and far-flung areas bringing digital inclusion and digital empowerment at par with others to fulfil the vision of government.

(iii) Mandatory Testing and Certification of Telecom Equipment: Telecom Engineering Centre (TEC), an attached office of this department, completed evaluation of products for determination of trusted sources on trusted Telecom Portal. This is in accordance with mandate under the National Security Directive for procurement of Telecommunication Equipment.

E. INDIA’s RANKING IN GLOBAL INDICES:

India climbed 21 spots in Network Readiness Index 2021 (released on 2-12-2021), reached to 67th position : In an major improvement India jumped 21 rank, from 88 in 2020 to 67th position in 2021, in Network Readiness Index(NRI) which was developed by World Economic Forum in 2002 and now published by M/s Portulans Institute, Washington. India ranked 3rd among lower middle income countries and 12th among Asia & Pacific countries. The number of countries being evaluated is 130.

The report released on 02-12-2021 reveals that India not only improved its ranking but also improved NRI score from 41.57 in 2020 to 49.74 in 2021 i.e 20%.

The report stated, “India is another strong economy in the region and made one of the most notable improvement in NRI 2021 by jumping 21 positions. The aggressive upward movement resulted from better country-wide performance in addition to the introduction to more relevant indicators to the NRI framework. India displayed significant progress across most pillars and sub-pillars, with the technology pillar (49th ) as it’s best dimension.…”

India ranks among top 10 in ITU’s Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI) 2020 (release on 29.06.2021): DoT in consultation with concerned stakeholders of Cybersecurity (such as MeitY, NSCS, MHA etc.) had submitted a detailed and comprehensive response to ITU on this issue. As a result, India has jumped 37 places to be ranked 10th in Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI) 2020 launched by ITU. India is the fourth among Asia-Pacific nations and the ITU’s Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI) 2020 rankings demonstrates the country’s success and commitment to cybersecurity.

National Telecommunication Institute for Policy Research, Innovation & Training (NTIPRIT), launched a course on “National Security” on 17.05.2021 initially for DoT officers and will later be expanded to cover officials in other Government Department as well as the Private sector.

F. PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE

Technology ownership is considered necessary to take lead in the global competitive market and also to make value addition in global supply chains with IPRs. The technology control also facilitates development and production of cost-effective communication network products and devices to bridge digital divide considering the large rural geographies in the country.

Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative provides a big impetus to address current and future technology needs in telecom sector. The following initiatives are being driven in the next generation communication technologies including 5G, upcoming 6G, Quantum Communications etc.

5G Test bed: The Indigenous 5G Test bed project funded by DoT has reached its final stages. The eight (8) implementing agencies viz IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Madras, IIT Kanpur, IISC Bangalore, SAMEER and CEWiT have been working over a period of 36 months. Costing ~ Rs 224 Cr, the project is likely to be completed by 31st December’2021, paving the way for end-to-end testing of 5G User Equipments (UEs) and network equipment by 5G stakeholders developing 5G Products/Services/Usecases, including indigenous Start-ups, SMEs, Academia and Industry in the country. The indigenous 5G test bed, a visionary technology development project initiated in telecom space, will enable development, testing and proliferation of 5G technology system components, cross-sectoral usecases, besides setting up foundation for the development of “6G Technology landscape” in the country.

5G Reference to TRAI and rollout: In September, 2021, a reference has been sent to TRAI, seeking recommendations for the auction of spectrum identified for International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT)/ 5G with regard to reserve price , band plan, block size, quantum of spectrum to be auctioned and conditions of auctions in 526-698 MHZ,700 MHZ, 800 MHZ, 900 MHZ, 1800 MHZ, 2100 MHZ, 2300 MHZ, 2500 MHZ, 3300-3670 MHZ and 24.25-28.5 GHZ bands for 5G public as well as private 5G networks, for meeting the spectrum requirements of captive 5G applications of the industry (Industry 4.0). Process of assignment of frequencies to TSPs would be initiated at the earliest possible.

With regard to rollout of 5G services, Telecom Service Providers (TSPs)- M/s Bharti Airtel, M/s Reliance Jio and M/s Vodafone Idea- have established 5G trials sites in Gurugram, Bangalore, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Delhi, Jamnagar, Ahmadabad, Chennai, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Pune, Gandhi Nagar cities. These Metros and big cities would be the first places for launch of 5G services in the country, next year.

6G Technology Innovation Group (TIG): A 6G Technology Innovation Group (TIG) is constituted by DoT with the objective to co-create and participate in the development of 6G technology ecosystem through increased participation in capability description, standards development at international standard setting bodies. This would be necessary to prepare India’s manufacturing and services ecosystem to capitalise on 6G opportunity. 6G TIG, comprises members from Government, Academia, Industry Associations and TSDSI (Telecom Standards Development Society of India). In its 1st meeting on 25.11.2021, TIG members presented the future technology needs in different sectors of economy to enhance India’s contribution in global value chain. Taskforce are formed to make recommendations on aspects viz. Mapping of global 6G activities; India’s competencies and potential pre-Standardization activities; Mission 6G program; Research views on IMT for 2030 and beyond; with regard to Networks , Devices, Spectrum, multi-disciplinary innovative solutions.

Quantum Communications (QC): C-DOT, the R&D arm of DoT, is currently working on Quantum communication systems. Under the National Mission on Quantum technologies and Applications, the ETG (Empowered Technology Group) has identified C-DoT as the lead agency for Quantum Communications, one of the four components of the National Mission. The TSDSI has recently approved a Study Item to study the need for post-quantum-cryptography in 5G Network in various Industry Verticals and bring out various approaches to evolve a migration path towards security based on post-quantum-cryptography.

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Deep Ocean Mission- to explore and harness deep-oceanic resources and support Blue Economy Initiatives

The year 2021 brought some unprecedented challenges for mankind amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. Indian scientists and researchers came out with a number of remarkable achievements in the field of Earth Sciences and related sectors in year 2021. A few of many success stories of the hard work and relentless efforts of Indian scientists and researchers are listed below.

Major Success Stories of M/o Earth Sciences During 2021

The Deep Ocean Mission, India’s ambitious plan to explore and harness deep-oceanic resources and support the Blue Economy Initiatives of the Government of India with a budget of Rs 4077 crores was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on June 16, 2021. Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) will be the nodal Ministry implementing this multi-institutional ambitious mission. Dr. Jitendra Singh, Hon’ble Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Earth Sciences and Ministry of Science & Technology launched the SAMUDRYAAN, Indian Manned Ocean Mission under Deep Ocean Mission on 05th November 2021.
The underwater mining system was deployed from ORV Sagar Nidhi and Seabed locomotion trials of the experimental undercarriage system of underwater mining system (Varaha-I and II) was successfully undertaken over a distance of 120m on water-saturated soft soil at 5270 m depth in the Central Indian Ocean (CIO) during March – April 2021.
Two gliders were deployed in the Bay of Bengal to monitor the deep ocean physical and biogeochemical parameters with special emphasis to understand the temporal and spatial variability of the Oxygen Minimum Zone (OMZ). Both the gliders after covering 5000 km distance are recovered and collected data was retrieved.
An Earth System Science Data Portal (ESSDP) of MoES (https://incois.gov.in/essdp) was launched on 27 July 2021. The ESSDP hosts about 1050 metadata records of data collected and maintained under different programs implemented by MoES over the years and link them to the respective data centres. It facilitates ease of search and discovery of various data-sets by different search criteria. ESSDP serve the increasing data-discovery needs of a wide range of users including research institutions, operational agencies, strategic users, academic community, industry, policy makers and the public.
Accurate and timely prediction of tropical cyclones Tautkae, Yaas, Gulab and Shaheen combined with fieldwork by disaster management agencies, that helped save thousands of precious lives of countrymen.
There have been significant improvements in forecasting accuracy with respect to severe weather events including tropical cyclones, heavy rainfall, fog, heat wave, cold wave, thunder storm. In general, there has been 20 to 40 percent improvement in forecast accuracy of severe weather events in recent five years (2016-2020) as compared to previous five years (2011-15).The annual average track forecast errors in 2021 have been 60 km, 93 km and 164 km respectively for 24, 48 and 72 hrs against the past five-year average error of 77, 117 and 159 km based on data of 2016-2020.
To mitigate the casualties due to thunderstorm and associated severe weather phenomena, IMD issues three hourly nowcasts for severe weather including thunderstorm and associated weather phenomena for about 1084 stations and all districts in India on regular basis utilizing Radar and satellite data as well as ground based observations. These nowcasts are provided in real time to the users through the Website of India Meteorological Department. Additionally, in case of possibility of severe thunderstorms and associated severe weather phenomena, warnings are issued through SMS and e-mail to the Disaster Management authorities and mass media like All India Radio, TV and social media.

Three Doppler Weather Radars were commissioned at Mukteshwar, Uttarakhand and Kufri, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu.Eleven new District Agro-Meteorological Units (DAMUs) were established during the year taking the total of DAMUs to 199.

Atmospheric Research Testbed is an open field observatory spread over 100 acres of land (50 km northwest of Bhopal in Sehore District of Madhya Pradesh) for better understanding on the processes governing monsoon convection and land-atmosphere interactions over the core monsoon region using the state-of-the-art observational systems such as Radars, Wind Profilers, UAVs etc. This Atmospheric Research Testbed will be a unique facility in the Tropical region. A Dual-polarimetric C-band Doppler Weather Radar was commissioned in the above facility recently for detailed precipitation process studies in the core monsoon zone.
Under Lightning Location Network, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) has established total 83 sensors across the country. With these installations, sensors have been placed in all the States and Union territories except Lakshadweep Islands
IITM has successfully developed indigenous Decision Support System (https://ews.tropmet.res.in/dss/) for advanced air quality management for Delhi NCR region. It was inauguratedby the Hon’ble Minister of Earth Sciences, Dr. Jitendra Singh, on 18 October 2021.
The Data Assimilation (DA) system at National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF), has been updated to assimilate more new satellite observations. A High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) system was also implemented to support nowcasting activities of IMD.
The High Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) model has been developed to generate forecasts for next 12 hours. The RADAR data is assimilated in HRRR model every 10-15 min over a 1-h period. The HRRR is hourly updated, cloud-resolving, convection-allowing atmospheric model, with horizontal resolution of 2km and provides reflectivity and rainfall forecast for next 12 hours. The HRRR model coversthe entire mainland of India viz. North-West Domain, East & North-East Domain and South Peninsular India domain and forecast products are updated after every two hours.
A Virtual Centre on Artificial Intelligence (AI) / Machine Learning (ML)/ Deep Learning (DL) is established at IITM Pune in order to expand the domain through multidisciplinary programs in the field of Earth System Sciences.
During the year, several advisories (88 nos.) on possible coral bleaching were provided s comprising of the locations of Hot Spots (HS) and Degree of Heating Weeks (DHWs) estimated using SST anomalies derived from satellite data on a bi-weekly basis.
A water quality buoy deployed by National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR) in the coastal water off Puducherry at 10m depth (~1.5 km from the coast) was dedicated to the nation on 28.07.2021 by the Chief Minister of Puducherry. This is an automated water quality buoy fitted with sensors to monitor the variations in the water quality and productivity of the coastal waters. The real time water quality data will be disseminated through web-based forecasting system and a mobile app “clean coast” at every 20 minutes interval.
Under the Resource Exploration and Inventorization System (REIS) programme taxonomic studies of samples collected on-board FORV Sagar Sampada within the Indian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) yielded six new species of decapod crustaceans, one new species of polycheate and two species of deeps eels.
The Joint OMNI-RAMA Indian Ocean Data Portal developed by INCOIS jointly with NIOT and PMEL-NOAA was launched on 9 August 2021. It will showcase the large inventory of meteorological and oceanographic data sets with direct access for data display and delivery.
The Existing National Seismological Network has now been strengthened to 150 stations with the addition of 35 new seismic observatories to improve the operational capability to detect any earthquake of M:3.0 or above in most parts of the country
The seismic microzonation work of four cities, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Coimbatore and Mangalore, is at advanced stage of completion and work related to eight more cities (Patna, Meerut, Amritsar, Agra, Varanasi, Lucknow, Kanpur and Dhanbad) has been started and various Geophysical & Geotechnical surveys are in progress.
Under the Scientific Deep Drilling project in the Koyna Intraplate Seismic Zone, Maharashtra,the evidence of deep-water percolation in the Koyna Seismogenic Zone has been established withseveral damage zones being delineated between 2 and 3 km in the Koyna pilot borehole based on the physical and mechanical properties of the rock formations.
Under the national network project, Submarine Ground Water Discharge (SGD), National Centre for Earth Science Studies (NCESS) has estimated SGD flux from three coastal catchments of southwest coastal zone of India through aquifer modelling technique. There are nine critical zones with a total shore length of 106.5 km, out of 640km surveyed, in the SW coastal zone having SGD signatures
The 40th Indian Scientific Expedition to Antarctica (40-ISEA) was launched from Murmugao, Goa in January 2021 with 43 Indian members on board expedition vessel MV Vasiliy Golovnin. The 41st Indian Scientific Expedition to Antarctica launched from National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR), Goa on November 15, 2021.
The 41st expedition has two major programs. The first program encompasses geological exploration of the Amery ice shelf at Bharati station. This will help explore the link between India and Antarctica in the past. The second program involves reconnaissance surveys and preparatory work for drilling of 500 meters of ice core near Maitri in collaboration with the British Antarctic Survey and the Norwegian Polar Institute. It will help in improving the understanding of Antarctic climate, westerly winds, sea-ice and greenhouse gases from a single climate archive for past 10,000 years.
The International Training Centre for Operational Oceanography (ITCOocean) established at INCOIS, Hyderabad a UNESCO Category 2 Centre, had trainees from 95 countriestill date. The online training mode due to the pandemic has enabled increased participation from Indian Ocean Rim countries in the training programmes. During January 2021 – November 2021, 9 training course and 3 webinars were conducted. A total of 1526 persons (Male: 904, Female: 622) were trained of which 906 are from India and 620 (Male: 386, Female: 234) from 58 other countries.
The Implementation Agreement on “Technical Cooperation in Development of the Research moored Array for African-Asian-Australian Monsoon Analysis and prediction (RAMA) and the Ocean Moored buoy Network in the northern Indian ocean (OMNI) for Improving Weather and Monsoon Forecasts” was signed on 09 August 2021 in a virtual event.
India and Vietnam signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) towards promoting scientific and technical cooperation in marine science and ecology on 17th December 2021.
The innovative technologies developed by National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) on “Recombinant Ectoine Deep Sea Bacteria for Skin Care And Cosmetic Application” And Biosurfactant From Marine Bacteria For Environmental Cleanup And Waste Management To M/S. Cosmos Biotech LLP (CBLLP), Bengaluru, Karnataka and M/s ECO BUILDCORP PRIVATE LIMITED (EBPL), Bengaluru, Karnataka respectively through NRDC.
Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav is an initiative of the Government of India to celebrate and commemorate 75 years of progressive India and the glorious history of its people, culture, and achievements. This event is an embodiment of all that is progressive about India’s socio-cultural, political, and economic identity. The MoES iconic week celebrations began on October 18, 2021 and ended on October 24, 2021.To commemorate the monumental occasion, MoES and all its institutes hosted a set of activities for a resurgent, AtmaNirbhar Bharat.
The seventh edition of the India International Science Festival (IISF 2021) organized by the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Ministry of Science and Technology and Vijnana Bharati along with Government of Goa was held in Goa during 10-13, December 2021. The National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR), MoES was the nodal agency for organizing the IISF 2021. The theme of IISF 2021 was ‘Celebrating Creativity in Science’. The festival had 12 programmes including the mega science and technology expo. About 25% of the delegates participated in physical mode and 75% delegates and experts participated through virtual platforms. Three Guinness World Records were set by students in IISF 2021. These records were for (i) most number of students assembling a model rocket kits simultaneously and launching it (ii) most number of students assembling rainwater harvesting kits online and at a single venue and (iii) most number of students attending a space exploration session and building a replica of the giant radio telescope dish antenna.

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DAIRY DEVELOPMENT SCHEMES

1. Rashtriya Gokul Mission:

Breed Development:

The Livestock sector, besides contributing to the national economy, plays a key role in providing livelihoods to 80 million rural households. India is a global leader amongst dairying nations and produced 198.48 million tonnes of milk in the current year valued at more than Rs 8.32 lakh crore. However, productivity of Indian dairy animals is low as compared to most of the dairy countries in the world. Due to low productivity farmers are not getting remunerative income from rearing of dairy animals.

New Initiatives of the Department:

a) Implementation of Rashtriya Gokul Mission from 2021-22 to 2025-26

In order to improve productivity and enhance milk production, thereby making dairying more remunerative to the farmers Rashtriya Gokul Mission for genetic upgradation of bovine population and development and conservation of indigenous bovine breeds has been extended for implementation with an allocation of Rs 2400 crore over duration of 5 years. Several new technologies have been accessible to the farmers at their doorstep under the Mission such as sex sorted semen, IVF technology, genomic selection etc.

Focus of the implementation of the scheme has been shifted from creating cattle and buffalo breeding infrastructure in the States to bringing quality breeding services including artificial insemination services, IVF technology and sex sorted semen at farmer’s doorstep. The scheme also focuses on facilitating private entrepreneurship to improve access and affordability.

With implementation of proposed programme milk production in the country will be increased from 198.4 million metric tonnes in 2019-20 to 300 million metric tonnes in 2024-2025. 8 crore farmers engaged in dairying will get direct benefit in the form of increased milk production on an average 1200 kg per animal per year.

New Components under Rashtriya Gokul Mission:

i) Accelerated Breed Improvement programme: Under the component, IVF technology and artificial insemination with sex sorted semen is being leveraged to produce female calves female calves for the dairy farmers. IVF is important tool for genetic upgradation of bovine population at rapid rate, work which is done in 7 generations (21 years in case of cattle and buffaloes) can be done in 1 generation (3 years in case of cattle and buffalo) through IVF. The technology has huge potential in enhancing farmers’ income through production of only female calves with genetic potential of producing 4000 kg of milk per lactation thus increasing farmers income by many fold. Under the Accelerated Breed Improvement programme 2 Lakh IVF pregnancies will be established in next five years. Subsidy at the rate of Rs 5000 per assured pregnancy will be made available to farmers. The programme has already been initiated in the country.

Sex sorted semen production has been introduced in the country for production of only female calves upto 90% accuracy. Use sex sorted semen will be game changer not only enhancing milk production but also limiting stray cattle population. During the next five years 51 lakh pregnancies will be established and subsidy of Rs 750 or 50% of the cost of sorted semen on assured pregnancy is available to farmers.

ii) Establishment of Breed Multiplication Farms: A major constraint for aspiring dairy farmers is the difficulty of procuring high quality heifers or milch animals from their local areas. To address this issue and to attract investment including entrepreneurship for the dairy sector, and to simultaneously create the opportunity for developing a hub and spoke model of dairy farming where small and marginal dairy farmers can thrive with the help of a local hub of reliable dairy services, a subsidy of 50% (up to Rs 2 crores per farm) on capital cost (excluding land cost) is being provided to private entrepreneurs under this component for establishment of breed multiplication farms of minimum herd size of 200 heads of bovines. The entrepreneur will obtain bank finance for the remaining capital cost and sale high quality heifers, conceived through sorted sex semen/ IVF, to farmers in the region.

Awards and new launches

a) Gopal Ratna Award 2021

Gopal Ratna Award has been launched by the Department in 2021 and is one of the highest National Awards in the field of livestock and dairy sector. Objective of the award is to encourage all individual farmers, artificial insemination technicians nicians and Dairy cooperative societies working in this sector. Awards are conferred in three categories, namely (i) Best Dairy Farmer Rearing Indigenous Cattle/buffalo Breeds; (ii) Best Artificial Insemination Technician (AIT) and best Dairy Cooperative. Award consists of a Certificate of merit, a memento and following cash amount in each category: Rs. 5,00,000/-(Rupee five lakh) for 1st rank holder; Rs. 3,00,000/- (Rupee three lakh ) to 2nd rank holder and Rs. 2,00,000/- (Rupee two lakh) to 3rd rank holder. For the first time, applications were invited on self nomination basis through online application portal https://gopalratnaaward.qcin.org from 15.07.2021 to 15.10.2021. Total 4401 applications were received and were evaluated by the Department and 4 beast dairy farmers, 3 best AI technicians and 3 best dairy cooperatives in the country were felicitated on 26th November 2021.

b) Launching of Breed Multiplication farm Portal

Breed Multiplication Farm Portal has been launched on 26th November 2021 to receive online application from interested private individuals/ Entrepreneurs, FPOs, SHGs, FCOs, JLGs, and Section 8 companies for breed multiplication farm.

c) Launching of Dairy mark

Dairy mark has been launched by Hon’ble Prime Minister on 23rd December 2021, this unified logo is featuring the earlier respective logos BIS-ISI mark & NDDB-Quality Mark and Kamadhenu Cow, for ‘Product–Food Safety Management System–Process’ certification under one umbrella. With the dairy mark our consumers will be ensured about the quality of milk and milk products and will be easy for milk producers/processor to obtain quality certification by applying online to BIS through portal.

Ongoing Programmes

Nationwide Artificial Insemination Programme:

Nationwide AI Programme has been initiated in September 2019 and under the programme AI services delivered free of cost at farmers’ doorstep. As on date 2.20 crore animals have been covered, 2.6 crores Artificial Insemination have been performed and 1.4 crores farmers benefitted under the programme. Income of the participating farmers is expected to increase with the enhancement in productivity. During the next five years Nationwide AI programme will be extended to 15 crore breedable bovines benefitting 7.5 crore farmers.

Genomic selection:

Advanced dairy nations are using DNA based selection called genomic selection for proving genetic merit of the bulls at birth against 6- 7 years taken in traditional method to prove genetic merit of the bulls. DNA chip for genomic selection has been developed, Indus chip and Buff chip by NDDB and Low density chip for cattle and buffalo by NBAGR. This chip has been converged with the chip developed by NBAGR for undertaking genomic selection of indigenous breeds. Cost of production of bulls will be reduced substantially.

e-GOPALA app:

A comprehensive breed improvement marketplace and information portal for direct use of farmers in the form of the e-GOPALA app (Generation of Wealth through Productive Livestock) has been launched by Hon’ble PM on 10th September 2020. e- Gopala app the digital platform is helping farmers in managing livestock including buying and selling of disease free germplasm in all forms (semen, embryos, etc); availability of quality breeding services (Artificial Insemination, veterinary first aid, vaccination, treatment etc) and guiding farmers for animal nutrition, treatment of animals using appropriate ayurvedic medicine/ethno veterinary medicine.

Establishment of MAITRIs:

In order to meet the demand of AI technicians project has been sanctioned under Rashtriya Gokul Mission for induction of 90958 Multi Purpose AI technicians in Rural India (MAITRIs) as on date 11,000 MAITRIs have been trained and inducted. With the establishment of MAITRIs Artificial insemination coverage will be available at farmer’s doorstep.

2. DAIRY DEVELOPMENT SCHEMES:

1.) National Programme for Dairy Development (NPDD) :-

The Department is implementing Central Sector Scheme- “National Programme for Dairy Development (NPDD)” across the country since Feb-2014 with an objective of creating/strengthening of infrastructure for Production of quality milk, Procurement, Processing and Marketing of Milk & Milk Products through State Implementing Agency (SIA) i.e State Cooperative Dairy Federation.

The scheme has been restructured/realigned in July 2021. The restructured NPDD Scheme will be implemented from 2021-22 to 2025-26 with a budget allocation of Rs.1790 crore. The scheme the aims to enhance quality of milk and milk products and increase share of organised procurement, processing, value addition and marketing. This scheme has two (2) components:-

(i) The Component ‘A’ focuses towards creating/strengthening of infrastructure for quality milk testing equipment as well as primary chilling facilities for State Cooperative Dairy Federations/ District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union/SHG run private dairy/Milk Producer Companies/Farmer Producer Organisations.

(ii) The Component ‘B’ provides financial assistance from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) as per project agreement already signed with them. The central Government share in this project is proposed to be funded through NPDD (Component A).

Progress/Achievements (Jan-Dec 2021):

12 new projects in 8 States were approved under NPDD scheme during January 2021 to December 2021 at a total outlay of Rs. 361.67 crore (Central Share Rs.236.94 crore). These projects primarily aims for creation of additional milk processing capacity of 60 thousand litres per day and strengthening of village level milk chilling, collection and testing infrastructure by installation of 788 bulk milk coolers (with a capacity of 2201.9 thousand litres), 5172 automatic milk collection units and 3921 electronic milk adulteration testing machines.

Physical achievements (January to December 2021)

S. No.	Parameter	Achievement
1	Milk Processing Capcity created (TLPD)	381
2	Incremental Daily Milk Procurement (TKgPD)	368.66
3	Dairy Cooperative Society organised/revived (Number)	1914
4	Farmer members enrolled (in lakh)	1.43
5	Bulk Milk Coolers installed (Number)	291
6	Automatic Milk Collection units installed (Number)	4251
7	Electronic Milk Adulteration Testing Machine installed (Number)	511

“Dairying through Cooperatives” Component B of National Programme for Dairy Development (NPDD) scheme

Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved restructuring of National Programme for Dairy Development (NPDD) under Central Sector Scheme (CSS) umbrella Scheme “Development Programmes” on 14.07.2021 as “Dairying through Cooperatives” Component B of National Programme for Dairy Development (NPDD) scheme.”Dairying through Cooperatives” Component B of National Programme for Dairy Development (NPDD) scheme has the aims to increase sales of milk and dairy products by increasing farmer’s access to organised market, upgrading dairy processing facilities and marketing infrastructure and enhancing the capacity of producer owned institutions, thereby contributing to increase in return to milk producers in the project area with an outlay of Rs.1568.28 crore including in the form of Loan of Rs.924.56 crore (JPY 14,978 million) by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), RS. 475.54 crore as Grant by Govt. of India and participating Institutes’ (PI)share of Rs.168.8 crore for the period of 5 year from 2021-22 to 2025-26. Eligible States are Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The scheme provides employment generation opportunities in the field of procurement, processing, marketing etc under the project area of the scheme.

2) Dairy Processing and Infrastructure Development Fund (DIDF) Scheme:-

Launched: 21st December 2017

Objectives: To modernize the milk processing & chilling plants including value addition

Scheme Outlay: Rs. 11,184 Cr; Total project outlay: Rs. 10,005 Crore (Loan: Rs. 8004 Crore, End Borrowers’ contribution: Rs. 2001 Crore); NDDB & NCDC Contribution: Rs. 12 Crore, Interest subvention (Government of India): Rs. 1167 Crore

Components of DIDF:

Milk processing, Chilling and Value added Products plants
Milk Chilling infrastructure
Electronic milk testing kit

New Components added in June 21

Cattle feed/ feed supplement plants
Milk transportation system (Refer van/insulated tankers etc)
Marketing infrastructure
Commodity and Cattle feed go-downs
ICT infrastructure
R&D (lab & equipment, innovations, product development etc)
Renewable energy infrastructure/ plants, trigen/ energy efficiency infrastructure
Pet bottle/packaging material manufacturing units for dairy purposes

End Implementing Agency (EIA): State Milk federation. District Milk Union, Multi-state dairy cooperative, Milk producer Companies, Subsidiaries of NDDB,

Newly Added EIA: Registered FPOs & SHGs.

Funding:

- Interest subvention [DAHD to NABARD]: 2.5% (with effect from 11.09.2020), Any increase in cost of funds, shall be borne by the Eligible End Borrowers (EEB).
- NABARD to keep the cost of borrowing to the minimum and ensure that interest subvention does not exceed 2.5%. NABARD will not charge more than 0.6% towards fund management cost.
- Loan [NABARD to NDDB / NCDC]: At not more than 6% interest rate
- Fund management and loan risk cost. : Not more than 0.5% by NDDB/NCDC
- Loan [NDDB / NCDC to EEB]:
- At present interest rate is ranging between 5.07% to 5.36% as informed by NABARD
- Direct funding by NDDB allowed in Dec, 2021. NDDB proposed effective rate 5.30%

Progress under DIDF:

Financial Progress (Jan-Dec 2021):

During 2021, 8 projects from 4 states with total outlay of Rs 750.82 Cr with loan component of Rs 519.26 Crore have been sanctioned by NDDB and NCDC. Rs 101.91 Cr of laon has been disbursed.

On cumulative basis, as on 21.12.2021, under DIDF, 48 Projects from 13 States with a total outlay of Rs. 6216.15 Crore with a loan component of Rs. 4101.82 Crore have been sanctioned by NDDB and NCDC Further, Rs. 1256.68 Crore of loan has been disbursed. DAHD, GoI has released Rs. 54.59 Crore to NABARD as interest subvention.

Physical Progress: On cumulative basis, 45 LLPD Milk Processing Capacity, 113 BMCs with 3.54 LLPD capacity, 165 MTPD Drying capacity and 6.76 LLPD Value added Processing (VAP) capacity has been established. Around 23 thousand villages have been covered under the scheme

3) Supporting Dairy Cooperatives and Farmer Producer organizations engaged in dairy activities” (SDC&FPO)

INTEREST SUBVENTION ON WORKING CAPITAL LOANS FOR DAIRY SECTOR

Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying has introduced a new
component “interest subvention on Working capital loans for Dairy sector” as one of
the component under its scheme “Supporting Dairy Cooperatives and Farmer
Producer organizations engaged in dairy activities” (SDC&FPO). Under the interest
subvention component of SDCFPO scheme so far Rs 146.57 Cr has been provided as interest subvention amount against eligible total working capital loan amount of
Rs 10588.64 Cr for milk unions as on 13.12.2021.

KISAN CREDIT CARD (KCC) FOR ANIMAL HUSBANDRY & DAIRYING
FARMERS

A Special drive has been undertaken to provide concessional credit to Animal Husbandry & Dairying farmers through Kisan Credit Cards during 01.06.2020 to 31.12.2020. This has enabled such farmers to gain access to institutional credit at concessional interest rate for working capital expenditure. Under this drive 14.25 fresh KCC were issued to Animal Husbandry and Dairy Farmers.

In order to provide Kisan Credit Card facility to all eligible Animal Husbandry and Fishery Farmers, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying in association with Department of Financial Services have launched a “Nationwide AHDF KCC Campaign from 15 th November 2021 to 15 th February 2022. During this Campaign, District Level KCC Camps are being organized in every week for on the spot scrutiny of applications. Under this campaign 50,454 KCC were sanctioned as on 17.12.2021.

3. Livestock Health and Disease Control Programme (LHDCP):

Livestock Health and Disease Control (LH & DC) scheme and National Animal Disease Control Programme (NADCP) are merged under Disease Control Programme renamed as Livestock Health and Disease Control (LH & DC) Programme.

National Animal Disease Control Programme (NADCP)

National Animal Disease Control Programme for control of Foot & Mouth Disease and Brucellosis (NADCP) is a Central Sector Scheme, with an outlay of Rs 13,343 Cr for five years and was launched inSeptember 2019. The main aim of the Scheme is to control FMD and Brucellosis by 2025 with vaccination and eventual eradication of FMD. Also, the objective of the scheme is to vaccinate all Livestock including cattle, buffalo, sheep, goat and pig biannually against Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) and to vaccinate all Female Bovine Calves (4-8 months old) annually against Brucellosis.

The programme envisages 100% ear tagging of the eligible animal population and their registration on the INAPH (Information Network for Animal Productivity and Health portal), in order to enhance the traceability, monitoring and control of animal diseases. So far, approximately 21.93 crore cattle and buffaloes have been ear tagged; 16.91 crore cattle and buffaloes have been vaccinated in FMD round-1; 4.46 crore cattle and buffaloes have been vaccinated in the ongoing FMD round-2; and 0.27 crore female bovine calves (between 4-8 months of age) have been inoculated in the ongoing Brucellosis vaccination phase.

Livestock Health & Disease Control (LH&DC) Scheme

The Livestock Health & Disease Control scheme with the aim of reducing risk to animal health by prophylactic vaccination against diseases of animals, capacity building of Veterinary services, disease surveillance and strengthening veterinary infrastructure. The major activities supported are: Critical Animal Disease Control Programme (CADCP) for eradication and control of two major diseases namely Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) and classical swine fever (CSF); establishment and strengthening of mobile veterinary units (ESVHD); and Assistance to States for control of other economically important, exotic, emergent and zoonotic animal diseases (ASCAD). The funding pattern is 100% central assistance for the CADCP and the non-recurring components of ESVHD, and 60:40 between Central and State for the other components as well as for ASCAD, with 90:10 for hilly and NE States and 100% for UTs.

Livestock Health and Disease Control Programme (LHDCP) include both NADCP and LHDC, with budget allotment (BE Rs.1470.00 crore and RE Rs. 886.00 crore). Out of this Rs. 886 crore already Rs. 678.51 Crore have been released to the states/UTs under LH&DC during current financial year, including the sanction of MVUs to different states as per the action plan/proposal.

4. Various Developments /Achievements in AHS Division during 2020-21: –

There is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme namely “Livestock Census & Integrated Sample Survey Scheme” under the development programmes category with two components, (i) Livestock Census (LC) & (ii) Integrated Sample Survey (ISS). The main objective of Livestock Census is to provide information on livestock population, species-wise and breed-wise along with age, sex-composition etc. up to household level in rural and urban areas.

As per 20th Livestock Census report, the Total Livestock Population and total poultry in the country is 536.76 million and 851.81 respectively showing an increase of 4.8% and 16.8% respectively over Livestock Census-2012.

Publication work of Breed-wise Report of Livestock and Poultry (based on 20th Livestock census) is at final stage and is going to be published soon.
On the other hand,Integrated Sample Survey(ISS) is an annual survey,main objective of ISS is to estimate of the production of milk, egg, meat and wool at National, State and district level. Activities of the survey were not digitised and compiled manually till 2020-21.In order to digitize all activities under ISS Survey the Division has developed a software, in collaboration with IASRI, consisting development of a web portal and an android application namely “eLISS” for collection of MLP data from Households. From 2021-22, the data are being collected through the android application only, so that data collected through Integrated Sample Survey can made available on time with ensured reliability.
The latest Publication of Basic Animal Husbandry Statistics-2020 is published in year 2020.

Estimate of MLPs for the year 2019-20
Product	Milk (Million Tonnes)	Egg (Billion Nos)	Meat (Million Tonnes)	Wool (Million Kg)
Production	198.4	114.38	8.60	36.76
Growth Rate (%)	5.69%	10.19%	5.98%	-9.05%

MV/MG *************

Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying

The fisheries sector has been recognized as a powerful income and employment generator as it stimulates growth of a number of subsidiary industries and is a source of cheap and nutritious food, at the same time it is an instrument of livelihood for a large section of economically backward population of the country. Fishery sector occupies an important place in the socio-economic development of the country. “Fisheries is a fast-growing sector in India, which provides nutrition and food security to a large population of the country besides providing income and employment to more than 28 million people.

Fisheries sector has been recognized as a ‘Sunrise Sector’ and has demonstrated an outstanding double-digit average annual growth of 10.87%since 2014-15. The sector has reached record fish production of 142 lakh tons in FY 2019-20 and has immense potential for growth. Moreover, it has been instrumental in sustaining the livelihoods of over 28 million people in India especially for marginalized and vulnerable communities and has contributed towards encourage socio-economic development.

India is the second largest fish producing country in the world accounting for 7.56% of global production and contributing about 1.24% to the country’s Gross Value Added (GVA) and over 7.28% to the agricultural GVA. Fisheries and aquaculture continue to be an important source of food, nutrition, income and livelihood to millions of people. Export earnings from the Fisheries sector has been Rs.46,662.85 crores during 2019-20. The sector provides livelihood support to about 280 lakh people at the primary level and almost twice the number along the value chain and the annual average growth rate in the Fisheries sector has been 7% over the last few years. Fish being an affordable and rich source of animal protein, is one of the healthiest options to mitigate hunger and nutrient deficiency. The sector has immense potential to double its exports, it is essential that sustained and focused attention is given to the fisheries sector through policy and financial support to accelerate its development in a sustainable, responsible, inclusive and equitable manner.

Schemes and Programs

Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY)

The Cabinet on 20thMay, 2020 approved the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) at a highest ever total investment of Rs. 20,050 crores comprising of (i) Central share of Rs. 9407 crores, (ii) State share of Rs 4880 crores and (iii) Beneficiaries contribution of Rs. 5763 crores for its implementation within a period of 5 years from FY 2020-21 to FY 2024-25 in all States/Union Territories. PMMSY was initially announced in the Union Budget for FY 2019-20 and subsequently announced as part of the COVID-19 Relief Package (AtmaNirbhar Bharat Package) of the Government of India. PMMSY was launched by the Hon’ble Prime Minister on 10th September 2020.

The Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying issued the Administrative Approval and the Operational Guidelines of PMMSY to all the States/UTs on 12th June 2020 and 24th June 2020 respectively.

During 2020-21, Proposals from Thirty four (34) States/UTs (except West Bengal, Chandigarh) and other organizations at a total cost of Rs. 2881.41 crore (Rs. 2746.86 crore under CSS + Rs. 134.56 crore under CS) involving central share of Rs. 1089.86 crore (Rs. 955.26 crore under CSS + Rs. 134.56 crore CS) have been approved and 1st installment of Central share of Rs. 585.68Crores (Rs. 500.08 Crore under CSS + Rs. 85.60 Crore under CS) have been released. The activity wise achievement made is as under:

During 2021-22, As on date the Proposals from sixteen (16) States/UTs for developmental projects and 22 States/UTs under Livelihood and Nutritional Support during fishing ban/lean period component with a total project cost worth of Rs. 2600.54 crore involving central share of Rs. 845.31 crore have been approved and 1st installment of Central share of Rs. 405.92 Crores and Rs. 176.27 crore as a committed liability were released to various States/ UTs. The activity wise Achievements under PMMSY during the year 2021-22 till date is as under;

Inland Fisheries:2983 hectares of pond area for inland aquaculture, 676 Biofloc units and 1178 Nos of Re-circulatory Aquaculture Systems (RAS), 10,490 Nos of cages and 126 hectares pens in reservoirs and other water-bodies; 110 Nos of fish/prawn hatcheries, 79 hectares of pond area for Inland Saline-alkaline culture were approved.
Marine Fisheries:101 deep sea fishing vessel, 260 up gradation of existing fishing vessels, 1,353, Bio-toilets in mechanized fishing vessels; 890 nos of open sea cage for fish culture; 2nos Small Marine finfish hatcheries, 642 hectares of pond area for brackishwater aquaculture and 3 nos of brackishwater hatcheries were approved.
Fishermen Welfare:974 Nos replacement boats and nets for fishermen; Livelihood and nutritional support for 6,58,462 fishers’ families for conservation of fisheries resources during fishing ban/lean period and 19 nos Extension and support services (MatsyaSevaKendras).
Fisheries Infrastructure:127 Nos. ice plant/cold storages, 117 Nos fish feed mill/plants; 4660 units of fish transportation facilities viz., refrigerated (67) and insulated trucks (373), auto rickshaws (783), motor cycles (1893) and bicycles with ice box (1304); 957 units of fish retail markets (81) and fish kiosks including ornamental kiosks (876)and 13 value added enterprise units have been sanctioned so far.
Aquatic Health Management:4 nos, Disease diagnostic centre and quality testing labs, 2 Mobile centres and testing labs and one Aquatic referral labs have been approved.
Ornamental Fisheries: 273 Nos of Ornamental fish rearing units and 37 Nos of Integrated Ornamental fish units (breeding and rearing) have been approved.
Seaweed Cultivation:23,000 nos rafts and 41,000 nos monoline tubenet approved for seaweed cultivation.
Development In North East Regions:Total Project cost of Rs. 122.50 crore were approved with a central share of Rs. 59.75 crore. There are 23 nos Hatcheries, 421.76 ha area for Integrated Fish Farming, 29 nos Re-circulatory Aquaculture System(RAS), 115 nos of Ornamental Fisheries units, 290 Nos of Biofloc units, 300 ha Construction of new ponds and 39 nos Feed mills were approved.
Other Important Activities:Sagar Mitras : 368 Nos and 19 units Matsya Seva Kendra.

b. Implementation of FIDF

In order to address the infrastructure requirement for fisheries sector, the Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying during 2018-19 has created dedicated fund namely Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund (FIDF) with a total funds size of Rs 7522.48 crore. FIDF provides concessional finance to the Eligible Entities (EEs), including State Governments/Union Territories and State entities for development of identified fisheries infrastructure facilities through Nodal Loaning Entities (NLEs) namely (i) National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), (ii) National Cooperatives Development Corporation (NCDC) and (iii) All scheduled Banks.

Under the FIDF, the Department of Fisheries provides interest subvention up to 3% per annum for providing the concessional finance by the NLEs at the interest rate not lower than 5% per annum. Loan lending period under FIDF is five years from 2018-19 to 2022-23 and maximum repayment period of 12 years inclusive of moratorium of 2 years on repayment of principal.

Under the FIDF, so far 156 nos proposals to the tune of Rs. 5954.96 crore have been received from various eligible Entities (EEs) including State Governments and Union Territories. These proposals have been received from a total of 20 States/UTs namely Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, J&K, Telangana, Mizoram, West Bengal, Assam, Lakshadweep, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Andaman and Nicobar, Kerala, Tripura, Goa and Bihar.

The Tripartite MoA is executed between the (i) concerned (loan availing) State Government, (ii) NABARD and (iii) Department of Fisheries(DoF), Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, GOI funding the State/UTs Projects under FIDF by NABARD. However, so far, only 8 States Governments namely Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Haryana and Goa have signed the Tripartite Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) for availing the initial concessional finance.

The Central Approval and Monitoring Committee (CAMC) constituted under FIDF has approved projects to the tune of Rs. 3783.46 crore with Project cost restricted for interest subvention under FIDF for Rs. 2304.37 crores.

The Hon’ble Finance Minister announced Rs.2 lakh crore concessional credit boost to Rs.2.5 crore farmers including fishers and fish farmers under Kisan Credit Card (KCC) Scheme as a part of Atmanirbhar Bharat Package. Thus, Department of Fisheries in collaboration with all the States/UTs took up a special drive several times to saturate the issuance of KCC to fishers and fish farmers. Further, Hon’ble Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Shri Parshottam Rupala launched the Kisan Credit Card (KCC) campaign to cover fishers and fish farmers on 15th November, 2021. The said campaign will run from 15.11.2021 to 15.02.2022 and will seek to bring majority of fishers and fish farmers under coverage of institutional credit.

Fishermen can be classified into two types, viz., Marine fishers and fish farmers (Aquaculturists), Aquaculture which required heavy capital investment was still nascent in the country and traditional marine fishers did not require too much capital as per their current practices. Under this scheme and under PMMSY, DoF was working with State Governments and fishers/fish farmers to make them aware about the best practices and encouraging them to scale up their activities. This would help farmers enhance their income and also lead to higher credit offtake.

As on date, a total of 6,08,820 of KCC applications received from fishers and fish farmers. Out of that, 70,818 KCCs have been issued and about 4,80,965 lakh applications are with the Banks at various stages for issuance of KCCs. And sum of Rs. 1038.60 Crore has also been disbursed to various KCC card holder beneficiaries against the KCC issued.

Budget Announcements

a) Announcement of Seaweed Park in Tamil Nadu

The initiative intended under Budget announcement would link and promote Seaweed farming and the seaweed-based industries together to bring out full-fledged expansion of this sector. Further, One Stop Park for entire seaweed value chain will link all the activities, farmers, processors, buyers, exporters, importers, retailers together for arriving at an optimum output and thereby maximizing value addition, minimizing wastage, increasing farmers income and creating employment opportunities and this Will be developed on a hub and spoke model for which Government would invest about Rs 100 crores for establishing the seaweed park.

The possible area of Collaboration is being identified by State Government of Tamil Nadu after the detailed deliberation and discussion with the stakeholders and Government of India, for further submitting the comprehensive model for the Multipurpose seaweed park at the earliest.

b) Announcement of Development of 5 Major Fishing harbours as hub of economic activities

5 major fishing harbours – Kochi, Chennai, Visakhapatnam, Paradip, and Petuaghat – will be developed as hubs of economic activity with world class infrastructure and amenities, Seamless and quality cold chain and Hygienic handling, reduce post-harvest losses for which around 600 crores would be spent. In this regard, Preparation of DPRs and Impact Assessment Study wherever required will be completed by 30thSept, 2021 followed by sanction of the Projects by 31st December, 2021.

Other Key initiatives/ Highlights

Sri Pratap Chandra Sarangi, Hon’ble Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, laid the foundation stone of the project on promotion and scaling up of Open Sea Cage Culture at Balasore coast, Odisha on 10thJannuary, 2021. Chief Executive, NFDB and both the Joint Secretaries from the Department were present in the event. Subsequently, Hon’ble Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Shri Sarangi inaugurated a training-cum-awareness program on Fisheries and Aquaculture with special focus on PMMSY was organised jointly by Department of Fisheries, Govt of India, National Fisheries Development Board, Hyderabad and Department of Fisheries, Govt of Odisha on 11-01-2021 for the benefit of the fish farmers of Odisha state. During the program all the 30 District Fisheries Officers of Govt. of Odisha along with 50 farmers each (1500 farmers), all the 07 Krishi Vigyan Kendra with 30 farmers each (210 farmers), 650 farmers enrolled under Aqua One Centres (Funded by NFDB), more than 1000 Shrimp farmers, Famers and hatchery operators of Odisha, CIFA scientists and technical personnel etc. participated in the webinar.
Hon’ble Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying , Shri Giriraj Singh laid the foundation stone for establishment of Aquatic Animal Quarantine Unit (AAQU) and Disease Diagnostic Laboratory (DDL) at Padappai, Chennai on 21st January, 2021. The aquatic quarantine facility would play a major role to safeguard of farming sector from the ingress of diseases and to minimize the risk associated with the introduction of live aquatic animals. Hon’ble Minister also attended various programmes organised by Coastal Aquaculture Authority(CAA), Central Institute of Brakishwater Aquaculture(CIBA), Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI), Central Salt & Marine Chemicals Research Institute (CSMCRI) and Tamil Nadu State Fisheries Department during his visit from 20th to 24th January, 2021.
Hon’ble then Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Shri Giriraj Singh visited Goa during 5th-7th February 2021 to discuss the development of fisheries sector with Government of Goa including development of fishing harbour/landing centre, seaweed cultivation, mariculture activities under PMMSY in the State of Goa. Further, Hon’ble Minister also announced a series of interventions under PMMSY for taking up in Goa till 2024-25. During his visit, he has also visited various scientific Institutes such as National lnstitute of Oceanography (NIO), Fishery Survey of India, Goa Base, Goa University’ NCPOR and discussed stratergles for making Goa as one of marine fisheries export hubs in the country.
The Hon’ble Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying launched “Matsya Setu” App on 6thJuly, 2021. Matsya Setu App has been developed with the funding support of National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB), Hyderabad. It is a self-learning App with species-wise/subject-wise online course modules explained by renowned aquaculture experts. It would enable aqua farmers and entrepreneurs to learn the advancements in the aquaculture technologies and better farm management practices at their convenience. Upon successful completion of each course module, an e-certificate can be auto-generated.
The Department of Fisheries and its subordinate organizations celebrated the National Fish Farmers Day on 10th July 2021. The day was also celebrated as NFDB Foundation Day. During the occasion, Hon’ble Union Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying has launched the social media/radio jingles and slogans for popularizing and promoting domestic fish consumption across the country as a health food
On 15th July, 2021, Hon’ble Union Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying chaired a meeting with Hon’ble Members of Parliament of Lok Sabha from coastal areas to discuss the draft Indian Marine Fisheries Bill, 2021 as a part of fulfilling an assurance in Lok Sabha. Hon’ble Union Minister also had detailed consultations with Hon’ble Members of Parliament of Rajya Sabha from coastal states/UT and Hon’ble Members of Parliament of Lok Sabha from coastal areas on the revised draft of Indian Marine Fisheries Bill, 2021 from 26th -28th July, 2021. The suggestions made by Hon’ble MPs were incorporated in the draft Bill. Further, consultations on the draft Bill were also held with fishermen associations and marine fisheries experts and their views and suggestions were obtained.
National Fisheries Development Board, Hyderabad signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with M/s Oriental Insurance Company Ltd (OICL) on 14th July, 2021 for implementation of Group Accident Insurance Scheme (GAIS) under Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana. Besides, a tripartite Service Level Agreement (SLA) between NFDB, OICL and M/s Providence Insurance India Pvt. Ltd (Insurance Intermediary) was also signed on 14.07.2021 for smooth coordination and monitoring for implementation of Group Accident Insurance Scheme (GAIS).
The Department organized a webinar on “Major Disease Problems in Freshwater Aquaculture and its Management” on 28th August, 2021 under my chairmanship as a part of Azadi ka Amrit Mohatsav. Officials of Department of Fisheries, Gol, States/UTs, faculty from State Agriculture and Fisheries Universities, entrepreneurs, aquaculture farmers, hatchery owners, representatives from aquaculture industry, etc. participated in the webinar. ICAR Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture made a presentation on major disease problems in freshwater aquaculture in lndia and their management.
Shri Parshottam Rupala, Hon’ble Union Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying launched the River Ranching Programme in Ganga River at Brijghat, Garh Mukteshwar, Uttar Pradesh on 8.10.2021. Simultaneously the program was conducted in States of Uttarakhand, Odisha, Tripura and Chhattisgarh. A total of Rs.8.85 lakh fingerlings were ranched on 8.10.2021 in three river systems namely Ganges, Brahmaputra and Mahanadi. During October, 2021, a total of 76.91 lakh fingerlings have been ranched nationwide. This is expected to boost the fish population in these rivers.
As part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mohatsav celebrations, the Department of Fisheries organized a webinar on “Fish for Health and Fish for Wealth” on 20th October, 2021 and it was well attended by participants comprising Officials from Department of Fisheries (Gol) and States/UTs, faculty from State Agriculture Universities, entrepreneurs, aquaculture farmers and fishers from across the country. Dr. B.K. Das, Director, Central Inland Fisheries Research lnstitute (ClFRl), Barrackpore, West Bengal made a detailed presentation on Fish Health, emerging fish and shellfish disease in lndia, and its prevention and mitigation.
Dr. L. Murugan, Hon’ble Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying and Information & Broadcasting visited Lakshadweep during 30th October to 1st November, 2021 and inaugurated stocking of fishes in Marine Sea cage Farm at Agatti island, developed jointly with CMFRI, Department of Fisheries Lakshadweep, Department of Fisheries, Gol and NFDB by stocking of seeds of high value Pompano fish. He also launched, All-weather seaweed seed reserve cages at Kavaratti island. This technology provides an opportunity for seaweed farming in deeper areas of lagoons and this technology is expected to create new employment opportunities for women in fisheries sector.
Hon’ble Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Shri Parshottam Rupala and Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Dr. L. Murugan, jointly unveiled the Inaugural Plaque of Laxmanrao Inamdar National Academy for Co-operatives Research and Development, National Co-operative Development Corporation (LINAC-NCDC) a Fisheries Business Incubator Centre at Gurugram under PMMSY scheme on 16th November, 2021. LINAC-NCDC Fisheries Business Incubator shall motivate young entrepreneurs to join the sector, leading to employment generation and boost Start-ups activities that will lead to further growth and development of the fisheries sector in India.
Celebration of World Fisheries Day-2021: The Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying has celebrated the ‘World Fisheries Day’ 2021 at Rail Auditorium, Bhubaneswar Odisha on 21st November, 2021. Hon’ble Union Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Shri Parshottam Rupala, Minister of State for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Dr. L. Murugan has graced the occasion. Various State Fisheries Departmental Officers, fish farmers, fishermen, fish farmers, entrepreneurs, stakeholders, professionals, officials and scientists from across the nation has participated in the event. During the event, the awards were given to the best performing States for 2020-21 in the category of Inland, Marine, Hilly and North-eastern region, best district for Inland, Marine, Hilly and North-Eastern Region, Best Quasi Government Organization/ Federation/ Corporation/ Board in Inland, Marine, Hilly and North-Eastern (NE) Region. Besides, this awards were also presented under Best Fish Farmer (Inland, Marine and Hilly and NE Region), best Hatchery (fish, shrimp and trout hatchery), best Fisheries Enterprises, best Fisheries Co-operative Societies/Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs)/Self Help Groups (SHGs), best Individual Entrepreneurs, best Innovation idea/Technology Infusion. Hon’ble Union Ministers also released the various publications of booklets, posters, Radio Jingles during the event.

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Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution

From Price Monitoring and Price Stabilisation to tightening noose over violators of Consumer Protection Act, the Department of Consumer Affairs under Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution made concerted efforts round the year to bring relief and provide protection to the Consumers.

Some of the key initiatives and achievements of the Department are:

In the area of Prime Monitoring, the Department of Consumer Affairs strengthened the mechanism through:

Price Monitor Cell monitors wholesale and retail prices of twenty-two essential commodities (Rice, Wheat, Atta, Gram Dal, Tur (Arhar) Dal, Urad Dal, Moong Dal, Masur Dal, Sugar, Gur, Groundnut Oil, Mustard Oil, Vanaspati, Sunflower Oil, Soya Oil, Palm Oil, Tea, Milk, Potato, Onion, Tomato and Salt) based on data collected from 179 market centres spread across the country. These prices are collected through the Mobile App. The following are the achievements during the year:

57 new price reporting centers were added. Thus, the number of price reporting centers has increased from 122 on 01/01/2021 to 179 till date
Operational Guidelines of the scheme for Strengthening of Price Monitoring Cell were issued on 19/08/2021
During the year, Rs. 1,47,01,908/- has been released to States/UTs for strengthening the price monitoring mechanism.
Mobile App for reporting was operationalised w.e.f. 1st January, 2021. All price collection centres have migrated to daily price reporting through Mobile App.
Predictive price forecasting model has been developed for proactive analysis and thereafter requisite policy-level interventions.

Similar efforts were made in the area of Prime Stabilization Fund:

Prices of some of the horticulture commodities especially onion, potato and pulses are highly volatile. At harvest time and soon thereafter, a steep fall in the wholesale and retail prices is normally observed. With depletion of the stored stocks, the prices tend to increase. This phenomenon is more apparent in the case of onions, potatoes and pulses. Price volatility affects consumers in a big way. Abnormal increase in price of these commodities affect the consumers by way of increase in food consumption budget. Wide price fluctuations also lead to speculation which further impact prices in retail market. To mitigate hardships to consumers, buffer stock is created for procurement and distribution of agri-horticultural commodities, utilizing the “Price Stabilisation Fund”. The following has been achieved in PSF during 2020-21:

12.83 LMT of pulses has been Transferred from PSS of DACFW to PSF, DoCA.
4.94 LMT of pulses has been disposed from PSF buffer.
Onion buffer of 2.08 LMT built for market intervention. Onion from the buffer has been released in a targeted and calibrated manner to cool down prices. Onion was also offered to States/UTs @ Rs.21/kg ex-storage location for distribution to consumers in their States.

Release of funds to States/UTs as reimbursement for intra-States transportation and fair price dealer’s margin for distribution of pulses under PMGKAY and ANB

Rs. 35.59 crore was released to States/UTs as reimbursement for expenditure on intra-State movement & handling of pulses, as also fair price shop dealer’s margin and Additional Margin Distribution through PoS Device under the PMGKAY and ANB scheme.

To protect the rights of Consumers, the Department tirelessly worked towards Consumer Awareness:

Department of Consumer Affairs (DoCA) implements policies for the benefit of consumers and public at large by strengthening consumer protection and creating awareness.
Recognizing the importance of information dissemination, the Department has been conducting country-wide multimedia awareness campaigns titled “Jago Grahak Jago”. Through simple messages, consumers are made aware of fraudulent practices and the mechanism to seek redressal.
A media campaign for publicizing Consumer Protection Act, 2019 was run through laptop branding, weather report / news report captions, animated bug logo insertion on DD News, DD Kisan and regional channels of Doordarshan. Scroll messages have been run on DD News and DD Kisan for educating consumers about features of Consumer Protection Act, 2019, BIS standards, MRP, expiry date, National Consumer Helpline (NCH) etc.
Scroll messages were run on Lok Sabha TV for educating consumers about features of Consumer Protection Act, 2019, BIS standards, MRP, expiry date, National Consumer Helpline (NCH) etc
Sponsored Radio Programmes (SRPs) were run in regional languages in the North-Eastern Region through All India Radio for educating consumers about features of Consumer Protection Act, 2019, Hallmark, MRP, expiry date etc. Branding of 4s & 6s of India- Australia Test Series was done to spread awareness about National Consumer Helpline (NCH). Ad Libs (Live messages by RJs) are also being run during National News as also a special programme for consumer awareness, over AIR.
Due to increased digitalization, social media, is a strong influence and helps in advocacy. Regular posts in the form of creatives and audio / visual on Consumer Protection Act, 2019 and other initiatives of the Department are being uploaded on the Department’s social media handles https://twitter.com/jagograhakjago, https://twitter.com/consaff, https://www.facebook.com/ConsumerAdvocacy/ and https://www.instagram.com/consumeraffairs_goi/ to educate and empower consumers. These tweets have helped consumers obtain relevant information, including about in redressal mechanism.
Audio and video spots have been produced on the various aspects of Consumer Protection Act, 2019. These spots have been dubbed in 20 regional languages. These audio and video spots, along with video spots on mechanism for redressal of consumer grievances and Legal Metrology and Hallmarking of gold jewellery, have been made available in separate language folders on the website of Department of Consumer Affairs under “Videos and Audios” link under “Publicity” available under “Organisation and Units” tab. Alternatively, they can be accessed at https://jagograhakjago.gov.in/ConsumerAwareness/video/index.html. These details have been shared with the State / UT Governments, State Controllers of Legal Metrology and Voluntary Consumer Organisations with the request to disseminate them widely. Print creatives on Consumer Protection Act, 2019 and other initiatives of Department of Consumer Affairs, have been designed and made available under “Print Creatives” link under “Publicity” available under “Organisation and Units” tab. Alternatively, they can be accessed at https://consumeraffairs.nic.in/organisation-and-units/division/publicity/print-advertisements. This entire material (audio spots, video spots and print creatives) can be downloaded by any individual / organization for information and further dissemination.
The Department is making use of Common Service Centres (CSCs) across the country by displaying posters on tin plates on consumer awareness through CSCs located in SC dominated, ST dominated and NER areas. These posters are based on features of Consumer Protection Act, 2019, declarations to be seen on packaged commodities, procedure for filing consumer grievances etc.
IRCTC is displaying messages on daily ticket confirmation / cancellation mails, e-tickets and Banner Train List Top. These messages relate to Hallmarking of Gold Jewellery, National Consumer Helpline and e-Daakhil.

One of the pioneer institutions under the Department, Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) also have remarkable accolades:

The Bureau of Indian Standards was set up as a statutory organization under the Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 1986 by taking over the assets and liabilities of the Indian Standards Institution (ISI) that came into existence in 1947. The Bureau has its Headquarters in New Delhi. It has a network of 05 regional offices, 41 branch offices, 08 laboratories and 01 Training Institute.

BIS Act 2016 came into force with effect from 12 October 2017, subsequently Governing Council was reconstituted and its third meeting was held on 01 March 2021 at BIS HQ New Delhi.

The mandate of BIS is to formulate standards that promote quality of goods and services. The Bureau provides technical support to industries and services sector by way of updated standards, developing new standards in emerging areas, and providing certification of goods and services for ensuring quality and safety. The performance of BIS in its principal activities are indicated below:

STANDARDS FORMULATION

During 2021, 1028 standards (624 new and 474 revised) were formulated and 3484 Standards were reviewed. The total number of standards in force, as on 25 November 2021 is 21466. 6816 Indian Standards have been harmonized with ISO/IEC standards. A total of 89 Indian Standards have been published under Services Sector Division Council.
As of December 2021, BIS is a member of ISO Technical Management Board (TMB) and IEC Standardization Management Board (SMB). BIS is Participating (P) member in the three Policy Development Committees of ISO(CASCO, COPOLCO and DEVCO), 490 Technical Committees/Subcommittees of ISO and 102 Technical Committees/Subcommittees of IEC, and an O-member in 185 Technical Committees/Subcommittees of ISO and 69 Technical Committees/Subcommittees of IEC.
BIS has successfully contested the membership of ISO Council, the apex governance body of ISO, for the 2022-2024 term and will be represented by DG BIS in the Council.
Presently, BIS has 31 MoUs and 08 BCAs signed with National Standards Bodies and other standards development organizations of other countries.
BIS (India) is currently chair of SARSO Technical Management Board for the three year term starting from Oct 2020 to Oct 2023.

CONFORMITY ASSESSMENT

Product Certification: BIS operates a Product Certification Scheme under the Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 2016 and the Rules there under and BIS (Conformity Assessment) Regulations, 2018. The certification scheme is voluntary in nature, except for 381product standards that have been made compulsory by the Central Government on various considerations. During 01 January 2021 to till date, 4356 new licences were granted, which include 77 products covered for the first time under the scheme. The total number of Indian Standards covered under BIS Certification Marks Scheme is 1101.The total number of operative licences, held by domestic manufacturers as on date, is 39950.
Foreign Manufacturer’s Certification Scheme (FMCS): The total number of operative licenses are 1010 against 138 different standards from 56 countries. Total 39 licenses have been granted since 01 March 2021.
Compulsory Registration Scheme (CRS): More than 4000 licenses and 7500 requests for inclusion received from Indian and foreign manufacturers have been granted w.e.f. 01 March 2021 till date under CRS. First license for Ortho Phosphoric Acid was granted in November 2021.

HALLMARKING

During the period from 1st January, 2021 to 25th November, 2021 number of hallmarking registration has grown from 34,487 to 1,25,558 while the number of BIS recognized Assaying and Hallmarking centres have increased from 943 to 976. During the same period, 5.95 crore articles of gold and silver jewellery/artefacts have been hallmarked.
Quality control order for mandatory hallmarking of gold jewellery/artefacts has been issued on 23 June 2021 by the Govt. of India which makes hallmarking mandatory in 256 districts of the country where there is atleast one Assaying and Hallmarking centre.
In view of the implementation of Mandatory Hallmarking Order, a new online system for the automation of the assaying & hallmarking activities at AHCs has been made functional with the new Hallmark consisting of six digit HUID (Hallmarking Unique ID). Since the launch of HUID based system for hallmarking, 4.11 crore articles of gold jewellery/artefacts have been hallmarked as on 25 November 2021.
Hallmarking of gold Bullion in the fineness of 999 & 995 as per IS 1417:2016 was started in October 2015. Under this scheme, so far, 44 licences have been granted to refineries/ India Government Mint for Gold bullion and coin as on 25 November, 2021.

MANAGEMENT SYSYTEMS CERTIFICATION

BIS operates 19 Management Systems Certification Schemes in accordance with ISO/IEC 17021-1:2015 ISO/IEC 17021 Conformity assessment – Requirements for bodies providing audit and certification of management systems. – Requirements.
The Quality Management Systems Certification Scheme, the Environmental Management Systems Certification Scheme and Food Safety Management Systems Certification Scheme have been accredited by National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies (NABCB) against the standard ISO/IEC 17021.
BIS has also applied to NABCB for accreditation of its certification schemes for Occupational Health & Safety Management System (OHSMS) and Energy Management System (EnMS) as per IS/ISO 45001 and IS/ISO 50001 respectively.
Recognition of BIS has been renewed as a Food Safety Auditing Agency as per Food Safety and Standards (Food Safety Auditing) Regulations, 2018 for the following scopes:

Food Processing

Dairy
Other Sectors (including Packaged Drinking Water, Nuts, Spices, Bakery, Edible Oil, Fruit and Vegetable processing, ready to eat/cook etc.)

Food Storage/ware house/cold storage

As on 25 November 2021, a total of 1236 operative licenses exist under the Management systems certification schemes.

LABORATORY

Eight BIS laboratories have facilities for testing of products in the field of chemical, microbiological, electrical and mechanical requirements. In addition to product testing, BIS has established gold assaying lab at Chennai, Sahibabad and Kolkata. Gold assaying lab at Chennai is a referral lab and also tests silver jewellery.
Laboratories at Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Mohali, and Sahibabad have been accredited by the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories ( NABL) as per ISO/IEC 17025.
BIS also operates Laboratory Recognition Scheme (LRS) based on ISO/IEC 17025 for recognition of outside laboratories.There are 274 BIS recognized labs.
Test facilities for Footwear products have been established in Central Lab and likely to be completed in Eastern Regional Lab (EROL), Kolkata by December’21. Test facility for Energy Meter has been installed at BIS Central Laboratory.
New Initiatives:

Development of Laboratory Information Management Software(LIMS)
Interactive sessions with schools, colleges and industries have been organized by BIS Labs.
Gap analysis of the 226 ISS shared with District Administration and 692 ISS shared with Central Government Departments has been initiated.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

The Standards portal was enhanced to add new features like “Know Your Standard” providing a one-stop solution to access all the standards related data and documents. Another feature implemented in Standards portal was “Weekly Bulletin” to access information about ongoing activity in standards formulation etc.
The BIS website (www.bis.gov.in) has been declared compliant with Guidelines for Indian Government Websites (GIGW) 2.0 by STQC on 10 Aug 2021 (valid till 09 Aug
2024). Further, in order to have more interactive engagement with stakeholders, separate web-pages (in multi-language) have been developed for all the Branch Offices (BO) and Laboratories of BIS (https://www.bis.gov.in/index.php/bo-lab-webpage/).
New ‘BIS Talks’ Portal has been developed to provide access to all the educational films launched by BIS.
An upgraded version of BIS CARE mobile app facilitates stakeholders to verify authenticity of ISI mark, Registered Jewellers and marked electronic goods under Compulsory Registration Scheme (CRS).The app also facilitates users in submitting complaints. Feature for ‘Know Your Standards’ and finding laboratories empaneled/recognized by BIS have also been added.
e-Office software by NIC was deployed and implemented throughout the
Headquarter and all the branch offices of BIS to enable paperless file movement and processing.
AHC Automation Software automates the workflow of Assaying and Hallmarking Centre & facilitates jewelers to get their articles hallmarked & enables the progress of work done for the hallmarking requests. The generation of HUID is done using indigenous randomized algorithm using the software. Advanced Hallmarking Dashboard & HUID tracker have been
deployed which would facilitate BIS officials to monitor the hallmarking activities, get an insight of the statistics and key quantifiable attributes & plan the market surveillance activities accordingly.
The conformity assessment portal enables domestic manufacturers to apply for grant of license for use of Standard Mark (ISI) on their products, renewal of such licenses, inclusion in the scope of variety with payment of fees and submission of payment through simplified online means. BIS can process these requests and communicate their decision online, and facilitate real time tracking of the applications by our stakeholders.
Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) and development of Mobile-App based Surveillance Module have been developed. Entire work-flow of BIS laboratories and around 500 Private and government laboratories recognized/ empaneled by BIS right from the dispatch of product samples to them to the dispatch of test reports by them have been automated with the implementation of LIMS.
A Consumer Engagement Portal has been developed to cater to Consumer
Engagement and Standards Promotion Activities, Complaints Management and Enforcement Activities. The portal facilitates NGOs/Consumer Organizations to register with BIS in order to take up the activities or programs offered by BIS.
A training portal has been developed by BIS to cater to the emerging training needs of various stakeholders. Portal has been integrated with GST portal to generate invoices in real time.
A portal is in for managing activities of HR, Finance, Accounts and Stores.

CONSUMER AFFAIRS & PUBLIC RELATIONS

- 462 Standard Promotion programmes were organized by Regional Offices / Branch offices throughout the country during April to November 202 for Consumers.
- 774 Standard Promotion Activities with Industry activities, including for awareness programs for Jeweller/Artisans were conducted during April to November 2021.
- BIS organized 284 activities for students and faculty of colleges and technical institutes during April to November 2021.
- During April to November 2021, BIS conducted 354 Standard Promotion activities with Government as the primary stakeholder.
- State Level Committees on Standardisation have been constituted in 08 States with a view to promoting the use of Indian Standards as a means to creating a robust Quality Ecosystem in the country and protecting the interest of the consumers by ensuring active involvement of the States/UTs in the formulation and use of standards.
- 85 standards clubs have been created throughout the country until 25th November 2021.

- During the year, 211 complaints related to quality of BIS certified products, unauthorized use of BIS Standard Mark and Violation of Quality Control Orders were received and 145 complaints were redressed. As on 01.12.2021, 171 complaints of these categories are under investigation at different stages under different Regional and Branch Offices. In addition, BIS had also redressed 221 grievances received through CPGRAMS portal during the year.

- BIS conducts enforcement activity to curb unauthorized use of BIS Standard Mark by unscrupulous manufacturers. During the year, BIS carried out 65 Search & Seizure operations at the premises of manufacturers misusing BIS Standard Marks and seized material bearing fake BIS Standard Marks.

- To publicize ISI mark and Hallmark amongst common consumers, a number of publicity activities are undertaken by BIS HQ, Regional Offices and Branch Offices through Print, Electronic, Outdoor and Digital media.

Towards Consumer Protection, the Department took several steps:

Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’, an initiative of the Government of India to celebrate and commemorate 75 years of independence of progressive India was flagged off on 12th March, 2021 which will end on 15th August, 2023.
The broad mandate of the Central Consumer Protection Authority is to regulate matters relating to violation of rights of consumers, unfair trade practices and false or misleading advertisements which are prejudicial to the interests of public and consumers and to promote, protect and enforce the rights of consumers as a class.
To commemorate the monumental occasion of India’s 75 years’ independence, CCPA has initiated some activities which align with the larger vision of the Department of Consumer Affairs of establishing a hassle free, inexpensive, quick, quality redressal of consumer grievances and upholding the consumer right for a safe product .
The Central Consumer Protection Authority, with the active participation of stakeholders, has mooted a pan India ranking of Consumer Commissions to reduce pendency by taking concerted efforts to dispose of pending cases through Mediation, holding Lok Adalats, hearing through videoconferencing etc.
For assessing the Consumer Commissions, cases pending with them as on 30th September 2021 shall be taken as baseline and progress shall be evaluated on the basis of cases disposed of till 28.2.2022 and the outcome will be declared on the basis of ranking of the State and District Commissions on 15.3.2022 i.e. on ‘World Consumer Rights Day’ i.e. during the iconic week to be observed by the Department of Consumer Affairs from 15.3.2022 to 22.3.2022. For the purpose of assessment of performance of State Commissions and District Commissions, parameters for ranking have been devised. Based on the percentage of disposal and score obtained, State and District Commissions shall be ranked as per the ranking parameters and awarded ‘Best State Commission’ and ‘Best District Commission’.
Consumer Protection Act 2019 provides for e-filing of grievances where in consumers can file the grievances in consumer commissions electronically. So far e-filing has been introduced in 24 States / UTs and NCDRC.
The following Rules/Regulations under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 have been notified :

I) Consumer Protection Search and Seizure and Compounding of Offenses by the Central Authority and crediting of Penalty Rules, 2020

II) Annual Accounts Rules relating to Central Consumer Protection Authority

III) Central Consumer Protection (Annual Report) Rules, 2021

IV) Regulations on submission of inquiry or investigation by the investigation wing of Central Consumer Protection Authority

V) Consumer Protection (Direct Selling) Rules, 2021

Department celebrated World Consumer day with the theme Tackling Plastic Pollution on 15th March, 2021.
The Department of Consumer Affairs celebrated the National Consumer Day, 2021 on 24thDecember, 2021 on line, presided over by Shri Piyush Goyal, Hon’ble Minister of Commerce and Industry and Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Ministry of Textile. The theme of National Consumer Day was Consumer: Know your rights.
During the celebration, following E-Books were released by the Hon’ble Minister:

i) Landmark judgments on Consumer Law and Practice

ii) Handbook on Mediation under Consumer Protection Act, 2019

iii) Handbook of E-filing before Consumer redressal Commission

Besides above, Hon’ble Minister flagged off NTH Mobile Van for Drinking Water Testing.

LEGAL METROLOGY:-

i) Steps taken for Ease of Doing Business

The Legal Metrology (General) Rules, 2011 have been amended vide GSR 149 (E) dated 3.3.2021 to make the provisions that:
- Such weights or measures which are used by the industries for their internal use and which do not affect the quantity delivered to the consumers or are not used in any transaction or for protection, shall not require re-verification.
- For adopting a uniform procedure throughout the country and to avoid double stamping of the same weights and measures in the interest of industries, the procedure for first time verification and stamping of weights and measures, sent from one State to another State, has been made
The Department of Consumer Affairs, Government of India vide GSR No 779(E) dated 2.11.2021 has amended the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules 2011 for enhanced protection of Consumer Rights, ease of doing business and reducing the compliance burden. The requirement for standard pack sizes for various types of commodities have been omitted: this would reduce the compliance burden for the industries. To ensure that consumers are able to make an informed choice and for protection of Consumer rights, Unit Sale Price for all pre packed commodities meant for retail sale is introduced.
- The declaration of date of manufacture on the pre packed commodities have been made mandatory for imported commodities.
- The declaration of MRP on the pre packed commodities simplified.
- The declaration of quantity sold in numbers have been made simpler by easing out the manner in which the quantity in number can be expressed.

ii) Enforcement of Legal Metrology on the e commerce Platform

During the last one year a number of notice have been issued to the e commerce companies and e market places for violation of the Legal Metrology Act 2009 and the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities), Rules 2011.
The violation includes the country of origin, charging more than MRP etc. Around 82 companies have compounded till date with total compounding amount of around Rs 44.55 lakhs.
Due to the enforcement actions on the e commerce companies, it is observed that the companies are now giving due diligence on the declarations on the e commerce platform.

iii) Implementation of Government Approved Test Centre

The Legal Metrology (GATC) Rules, 2013 have been implemented, as the Government of India vide GSR no 95(E) dated 1st Feb 2021 have allowed the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories/ISO:IEC 17025:2017 accredited laboratories for calibration of weights and measures which are in conformity with the GATC rules.
A list of around 70 labs have been provided by the NABL which can work as GATC. Further a draft application form for GATC and flowchart for application of GATC have been submitted by NABL.
The NABL have been assigned the task of accepting the new applications from private NABL accredited laboratories. All the RRSLs of Legal Metrology have been assigned the status of deemed GATC who have started functioning as GATC.

iv) Digitization of the services of Legal Metrology through its online portal lm.doca.gov.in

There are four services of Legal Metrology which have been digitized through the portal lm.doca.gov.in . This has allowed the applicant to apply online for these applications which have reduced the timeline for application and hassles of sending application by post and receiving the certificates though post.
Earlier the entire process of nomination/ registration used to take about 25-30 days from sending the application by post and receiving of certificates, which has been reduced to 3 days. Similarly, the time taken for model approval have reduced from 6 to 9 months to 2 to 3 months.
Further it has introduced the contactless applications with submission of fees through Bharat Kosh online which earlier on was very problematic through demand draft.

v) Inauguration of RRSL Varanasi

Under the Strengthening of RRSL & IILM scheme, The RRSL Varanasi Laboratory has been inaugurated by the Prime Minias a conglomerate of the various testing and calibration facilities shall be very beneficial for the industries like the textile, agricultural, automation and infrastructure etc along with the effective enforcement of Legal Metrology in the region. The laboratory building is ready for the inauguration and is expected to inculcate the feeling of confidence in the industries regarding their performance and production at par with the international standards. As in industrial production the accurate and precise measurement plays a major role for the overall quality. This will be in line with the vision of AtmaNirbhar Bharat mission and Vocal for Local.

vi) Time Dissemination

The dissemination of time through five RRSLs and NPL project is going on for which the tender for the procurement of the time ensembles shall be done soon through the Global Tender Enquiry.

The department organized several activities under Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav

Department of Consumer Affairs and the organisations under it have organised training programs lectures webinars and consumer awareness programs on various issues like drinking water, BIS standards, Hallmark, Consumer Protection, Independence of the country, Single Use Plastic, footwear, importance of standards for Nation building and e-commerce websites. These activities involved participation of educational institutions, Self-help Groups and industry bodies. Messages on MRP, pre- packaged commodities, National Consumer Helpline (NCH), BIS standard etc were disseminated through TV and social media. A Nukkad Natak was organised in the India International Trade Fair to create consumer awareness on hallmarking, BIS standards, NCH and importance of taking receipt after purchase. A hackathon on My gov portal was undertaken involving large number of software professionals to provide software solutions for Consumer Court Cases assessment and Legal Metrology registered and approved shops in an area.

The Department will continue to organise consumer awareness activities like training programs lectures webinars Nukkad Natak and dissemination of messages on TV and social media. These activities will create awareness among consumers on various issues. The Department will celebrate its iconic week from 14th March 2022 to 20th March 2022. During this week, the Department will carry out consumer awareness involving participation of various stakeholders. The Department plans to undertake all India ranking of the District and State Consumer Commissions based on their performance and disposal of consumer court cases registered.
Department has participated in the Exhibition on Good Governance Week from 20.12.2021 to 26.12.2021 organised by the Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances under Adazi Ka Amrit Mahotsava.

In addition, special cleanliness drive was organized:

A Special Drive on Cleanliness was organized during 2nd to 31st October 2021. All Sections and common areas were decongested and cleaned up during the drive. Old obsolete and unserviceable articles, office furniture and electronic waste were disposed of through auction, resulting in freeing of space measuring 3350 Sq.ft and realizing a sum of Rs.172,500/- deposited by the highest bidder. A total of 43,807 files and registers were reviewed and weeded out, and the statistics and photographs uploaded in the departmental portal as well as submitted to Department of Administrative Reforms & PG.
The Department also organized a Consumer Awareness programme on 13th November 2021 at Constitution Club of India. During the event, Sections contributing to achieving the cleanliness targets were rewarded and Nukkad Natak by the departmental staff members on the theme of `Cleanliness’ and `Consumer Awareness’ were staged. Two such Nukkad Natak programmes were also performed at India Trade Fair Exhibition venue and Dilli Haat, INA on 26th November and 29thNovember 2021 respectively, by the departmental team on the same theme.

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Council of Scientific and Industrial Research

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi delivered the inaugural address at the National Metrology Conclave 2021 organised by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research -National Physical Laboratory (CSIR-NPL), New Delhi on its 75th year of inception.

CSIR-NPL, New Delhi, is one of the few premier laboratories established under CSIR before independence on January 04, 1947. As a beginning of the Platinum Jubilee year and to commemorate this special day as its NPL Foundation Day Celebrations, CSIR-NPL organised a National Metrology Conclave under the theme ‘Metrology for the Inclusive Growth of the Nation’. Vice-President, CSIR and Union Minister of Science & Technology, Earth Sciences, and Health & Family Welfare, Dr Harsh Vardhan and Principal Scientific Advisor Dr K VijayRaghvan graced the function.

PM chairs meeting of CSIR Society

Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi chaired a meeting of the CSIR Society on the 04th of June 2021 through videoconference. Speaking on the occasion, the Prime Minister remarked that the Corona pandemic has emerged as the biggest challenge of this century. But whenever there was a big humanitarian crisis in the past, science has prepared the way for a better future. He added that the basic nature of science is to create new strength by finding solutions and possibilities during crises. He urged CSIR to take society and industry along and move forward in a definite way with a roadmap.

COVID-19 Mitigation Initiatives

Launch of aerial delivery of Covid-19 vaccine through Octacopter drones in Jammu

Hon’ble Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh, launched the aerial delivery of Covid-19 vaccine through Octacopter drones in Jammu on 27th November 2021. The Octacopter drones indigenously developed by CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories (CSIR-NAL) are medium class BVLOS multi-copter UAV. The UAV is made out of lightweight carbon fiber foldable structure for ease of transportation and has unique features like autonomous guidance through dual redundant MEMS based digital Autopilot with advanced flight instrumentation systems. NAL Octacopter is integrated with Powerful onboard embedded computer and latest generation sensors for versatile applications like agricultural pesticide spraying, crop monitoring, mining survey, magnetic geo survey mapping etc. The demo was conducted from CSIR-IIIM, Jammu to Government Sub-District Hospital, Marh, Jammu in 15 minutes covering a distance of 15 kilometers. The first consignment of 50 vials of COVID vaccines was dropped by the Drone near the International Border (IB) in the Marh area.

Swasth Vayu Non-invasive Ventilator developed by CSIR-NAL receives regulator nod; technology commercialized with 6 private companies

CSIR-NAL scientists along with medical professionals from CSIR-IGIB came forward to address the shortages of ventilators in the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic and indigenously designed and developed the non-invasive Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure Ventilator – SwasthVayu, with additional features to treat Covid-19 patients and make the country self-reliant. The expert committee constituted by Director General of Health Services, Government of India, has evaluated the performance of the device. The expert committee, after careful evaluation, concluded that SwasthVayu might be used on Covid-19 patients who require oxygen supplementation up to 35%. CSIR-NAL has commercialized this technology with six private companies and one of these companies (in the MSME category) has set up the production facilities for almost 300 units per week. CSIR-NAL bagged an order for supply of 1200 SwasthVayu machines to Delhi Government, and the execution & installation at various hospitals in Delhi.

CSIR-IIP has developed, installed and commissioned 108 Oxygen Plants in partnership with DRDO and funding from PM-CARES

CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum (CSIR-IIP), Dehradun, has developed oxygen enrichment units that can generate up to 500 litres per minute of medical-grade oxygen. This is based on an innovation that allows oxygen to be produced more efficiently and cheaply – using pressure vacuum swing adsorption technology (PVSA). It is cost effective and also has a small footprint and technology has been licensed to multiple industrial partners.

100-bedded Makeshift Hospital Inaugurated in Bhatinda

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh virtually inaugurated a 100-bed makeshift Covid hospital at Talwandi Sabo in district Bathinda, Punjab, scaling up the state’s preparedness for Covid-19 pandemic. The makeshift hospital for Covid patients was built within a very short span of a month & a half with the help of HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd (HMEL) Refinery, Bathinda, under the guidelines of CSIR- Central Building Research Institute (CBRI), Roorkee.

CSIR-CBRI setup a 44-bedded makeshift hospital at Safdarjung Hospital

CSIR’s Central Building Research Institute (CBRI) setup a 44-bedded makeshift hospital at Safdarjung Hospital in New Delhi, providing for management of COVID-19 patients. Hon’ble Minister for Health and Family Welfare Shri Mansukh Mandaviya, inaugurated the facility.

CSIR-CSIO developed UV Disinfection technology to combat SARS-CoV-2 transferred to indigenous manufacturers and also installed in the Central Hall of Parliament

CSIR-Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (CSIO) developed an UV-C air duct disinfection system. The disinfection system can be used in auditoriums, large conference rooms, classrooms, malls etc. which will provide a relatively safer environment for indoor activities in the current pandemic. The technology has been developed according to the requirements for deactivation of SARS COV-2 virus contained in an aerosol with necessary ventilation measures, necessary safety and user guidelines and tested Bio-safety standards etc. The CSIR-CSIO developed product is tested for more than 99 % disinfection and could be used as a retrofit solution to Air Handling Units (AHUs) of buildings, transport vehicles and other spin off applications. CSIR-CSIO has transferred the technology to 28 companies. The technology has been installed in the central hall of parliament for inactivation of the virus before the commencement of monsoon session of the parliament.

CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory (CSIR-NCL), Pune, jointly with Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) and other companies recycle PPE waste into useful products

In a proof-of-concept study, the CSIR-NCL team successfully demonstrated the lab-scale manufacture of moulded automotive products from the decontaminated PPE plastic waste (at M/s Niky Precision Engineers, Pune) by leveraging the existing recycling infrastructure available in Indian cities. CSIR-NCL and RIL have now signed an MoU to scale up the production, laying a path to take the concept to the national level. A pilot scale of 100 Kg in the Pune city area was successfully implemented by collaborating with Pune-based companies like M/s APPL Industries Limited, M/s SKYi Composites, M/s Harsh Deep Agro Products, M/s Urmila Polymers, M/s Jai Hind Autotech Pvt. Ltd., who produced the recycled goods.

Innovative Patient-Friendly Saline Gargle RT-PCR Testing Method developed by NEERI Nagpur

Scientists of Nagpur-based National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) under CSIR have achieved another milestone in this journey, with the development of a ‘Saline Gargle RT-PCR Method’ for testing COVID-19 samples. The Saline Gargle method offers a bunch of attractive benefits, all rolled into one. It is simple, fast, cost-effective, patient-friendly and comfortable; it also offers instant results and is well-suited for rural and tribal areas, given minimal infrastructure

Role of CSIR-IICT in the Synthesis of Agonist molecule for use in COVAXIN developed by Bharat Biotech International Ltd.

Bharat Biotech International Ltd. (BBIL) emerged as the frontrunner in the development of indigenous vaccine for COVID-19, COVAXIN™. The vaccine developed by BBIL is a highly purified, whole virion, inactivated SARS-CoV2. The vaccine is formulated with Algel-IMDG, which contains chemisorbed TLR7/8 agonist onto aluminium hydroxide gel to generate the requisite type of immune responses. Owing to the significant role played by TLR7/8 agonist molecule in the performance of a vaccine, CSIR constituent lab, Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) based in Hyderabad, was approached by BBIL to develop the synthetic route for the agonist molecule with indigenous chemicals at an affordable price and with highest purity. This agonist molecule has aided BBIL to scale up the production of the adjuvant.

CSIR and Tata MD partner to make COVID-19 detection more accessible across India by harnessing network of CSIR labs

CSIR’s apex scientific research organisation and Tata MD, the new healthcare venture from the Tata Group have announced a significant partnership to ramp up the COVID-19 testing capacity across Tier II and III towns as well as rural areas across India. CSIR and Tata MD are developing this capacity to manage any future surge in the COVID-19 testing requirements. The initiative will utilise CSIR’s network of labs across India and help increase India’s testing capacity in smaller locations in the country. CSIR and Tata MD will jointly develop the testing capacity and the RT-PCR CRISPR test will be done using the Tata MD CHECK SARS-CoV-2 test kits that are powered by FELUDA technology from CSIR-IGIB.

Major Achievements and Highlights

State-of-the-art Heli-borne survey technology for ground water management launched

Hon’ble Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh, launched state-of-the-art Heli-borne survey technology for ground water management developed by CSIR-NGRI Hyderabad on 5th October 2021. Minister for Jal Shakti, Gajendra Singh Shekawat graced the occasion with his presence. To start with, the States of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab and Haryana are being taken up for this latest heli-borne survey and the beginning was made today from Jodhpur in Rajasthan. Speaking on the occasion, Dr Jitendra Singh said that the water technologies of CSIR from source finding to water treatment would benefit millions of people across the country and positively contribute to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Har Ghar Nal Se Jal” as well as “doubling farmers’ income” goals.

Indian Bio-Jet Fuel Technology Receives Formal Military Certification

CSIR-IIP Dehradun’s home-grown technology to produce bio-jet fuel has been formally approved for use on military aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF). The provisional clearance (PC) certificate was handed over by Shri R. Kamalakannan, Group Director (AT&FOL), Centre for Military Airworthiness and Certification (CEMILAC) to Mr Saleem Akhtar Farooqui, Principal Scientist from CSIR-IIP in the presence of Group Captain Asheesh Shrivastava and Wing Commander A Sachan of the IAF and Mr R Shanumgavel of CEMILAC. This certification represents India’s growing confidence in aviation biofuel sector and another step towards ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’.

Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh launches India’s first Virtual Science Lab for children under CSIR Jigyasa programme

Hon’ble Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh launched India’s first Virtual Science Lab for children under CSIR Jigyasa programme, which will also connect students with scientists across the country.

Describing the Virtual Lab as a huge new beginning, Dr Jitendra Singh said this will not only take science to all segments of students in every corner of the country, but it is also in tune with the National Education Policy (NEP), where students are allowed to choose any subject and the concept of streams has been disbanded. He said, the new facility will immensely benefit students from Kendriya Vidyalayas, Navodaya Vidyalayas and Government Schools, and will help in catching them young.

Launch of India’s First Indigenous Hydrogen Fuel Cell Bus

India’s first indigenously developed and manufactured Hydrogen fuel cell bus was launched on 15 December 2021 in Pune. CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory (NCL) and CSIR-Central Electrochemical Research Institute (CECRI) developed the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Technology in collaboration with Sentient Labs, an R&D innovation lab incubated by KPIT Technologies.

DCGI gives approval for use of Hydroxyurea in Sickle Cell Anaemia treatment

The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) approved the use of Hydroxyurea in the treatment of Sickle Cell Anaemia (SCA). The CSIR’s Sickle Cell Anaemia Mission is coordinated by the CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Cipla, and with support from CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (IIIM). The committee of experts constituted by Central Drug Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) approved marketing of Hydroxyurea for treatment for SCA.

CSIR-IIP Partners with IndiGo to Manufacture Sustainable Aviation Fuel

CSIR’s Indian Institute of Petroleum (IIP), Dehradun, and IndiGo have signed an agreement to manufacture and deploy Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). It will help in controlling carbon emissions.

Hansa New Generation (NG) aircraft, designed and developed by CSIR-NAL, successfully make its maiden flight

Hansa New Generation (NG) aircraft, designed and developed by CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), Bangalore, successfully made its maiden flight on 3 September 2021. The aircraft took off from HAL airport at 2:09 PM and flew at an altitude of 4000 ft. and gained a speed of 80 knots before it made a successful landing after about 20 minutes.

MoUs exchanged between Aarhus University, Denmark and Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland and CSIR-NGRI; CSIR-TKDL and Danish Patent and Trademark Office

During the visit of Prime Minister of Kingdom of Denmark to India, in the presence of the Hon’ble Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, two CSIR agreements were exchanged between the two countries. The first was the MoU between CSIR-NGRI, Aarhus University, Denmark and Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland on mapping of ground water resources and aquifers. The second was the TKDL Access Agreement between CSIR and Danish Patent and Trademark Office.

CSIR and NCSM sign a MoU for setting up of Science Museums at select CSIR Labs

A MoU was signed between CSIR and National Council of Science Museums (NCSM) in the presence of Shri G. Kishan Reddy, Union Minister of Culture, Tourism and DoNER and Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology, Dr Jitendra Singh. The MoU aims at setting up Science Museums at select CSIR Laboratories to promote scientific curiosity and awareness among the common people across all sections of society.

CSIR develops indigenous Mechanized Scavenging System for Sewage Maintenance

CSIR-CMERI, Durgapur developed indigenous Mechanized Scavenging System was successfully demonstrated at the premises of the CSIR-NPL. Two more versions of machine have been developed for tier-2 and tier-3 cities.

CSIR-CMERI demonstrates three Variants of advanced indigenous design and featured Mob Control Vehicle prototypes

In a view to elevate modern technical support to paramilitary forces engaged in maintaining law and order situation; train and equip them with advanced options, CSIR’s Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (CMERI) demonstrated its three innovative variants ‘Compact, Medium, Heavy’ category of Mob Control Vehicles (MCVs) to a team of MHA recommended members under leadership of IG (RAF), CRPF. The demonstration was successfully carried out at Parade Ground, CRPF Group Centre, Gurugram recently.

CSIR-CDRI and Marc Laboratories Ltd, India sign License agreement for developing drug for coronary and cerebral artery diseases

CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI), Lucknow is committed to support Pharma Cluster in Uttar Pradesh and has tied up with UP-based Marc Laboratories Pvt. Ltd., India, a young progressive enterprise with operating base in 13 other states. It has signed an agreement for the development of a synthetic compound S-007-867 as modulator of blood coagulation cascade, in particular as inhibitor of collagen induced platelet aggregation. This may be helpful in treating patient population of coronary and cerebral artery diseases. The institute has recently obtained the permission to initiate the Phase I clinical trials for the drug

Dr. Jitendra Singh inaugurated with one-day awareness cum training programme for farmers, Agriculture Start-Ups and young entrepreneurs in Jammu under CSIR- Aroma Mission Phase-II

Hon’ble Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh inaugurated the one-day awareness cum training programme for farmers under CSIR-Aroma Mission Phase-II at CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (IIIM), Jammu, and further During interacted with Agriculture Start-Ups, young entrepreneurs and farmers. Dr Jitendra Singh flagged off two mobile vans for awareness the Mission and inspected Stalls showcasing the processed products of aromatic plants from the UT. He also unveiled a song in Baderwahi language composed by artist Maloop Singh for mass awareness to attract farming community to embrace lavender farming.

CSIR celebrates 20 years of India’s Traditional Knowledge Digital Library, the first of its kind globally

CSIR launched a new campaign of highlighting 80 success stories from the organization as it is set to turn 80 years old in 2022. This campaign was launched recently as CSIR’s Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) completes two decades of safeguarding India’s Traditional Knowledge. To commemorate the two decades’ journey, a webinar “Two Decades of TKDL – Connecting to the Future” was organized. The distinguished dignitaries who graced the program were Dr. Raghunath A. Mashelkar, Former DG, CSIR & Secretary, DSIR; Vd. Rajesh Kotecha, Secretary, Min of AYUSH; Shri Guruprasad Mohapatra, Secretary, DPIIT and Ms. BegonaVenero, Sr. Counsellor, Traditional Knowledge Division, WIPO, Geneva, and Dr. Shekhar C. Mande, DG, CSIR and Secretary, DSIR.

15th November declared to be observed as Janjatiya Gaurav Divas every year

Scheduled Tribes (ST) constitute approximately 8.6 percent of population of India numbering around 10.4 crores. There are over 705 Scheduled tribes notified under article 342 of the Constitution of India. In keeping with the vision of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas’, the Government of India has focused on development of tribes and conservation of their heritage and culture as a priority.

The Ministry of Tribal Affairs in line with this vision and its enduring commitment for welfare of tribals geared itself to ensure sectoral development through enhanced allocation of financial resources, convergence of efforts, re-engineering of planning and implementation mechanism of the Ministry.

The budget of MoTA also increased from Rs. 3850 crores in 2014-15 to Rs. 7484 crores in 2021-22. This enhanced availability of resources has enabled the Ministry to chart a new progress path with greater commitment to ensure holistic development of tribal communities.

The major highlights of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs during the year 2021 are as follows:

Cabinet approves declaration of 15th November as Janjatiya Gaurav Divas

The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved declaration of 15thNovember as Janjatiya Gaurav Divas dedicated to the memory of brave tribal freedom fighters so that coming generations could know about their sacrifices about the country.

The date is the birth anniversary of Sri Birsa Munda who is revered as Bhagwan by tribal communities across the country. Pursuant to the speech of Prime Minister on Independence Day of 2016, Government of India has sanctioned 10 tribal freedom fighter museums across the country. Tribal Freedom

Inauguration of Bhagwan Birsa Munda Museum in Jharkhand by Prime Minister

Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, inaugurated the Bhagwan Birsa Munda Tribal Freedom Fighters Museum and Park. Congratulating citizens of the state and the tribal society, PM Modi dedicated the Birsa Munda Memorial Udyan and Museum to the nation. A 25-feet tall statue of Birsa Munda was installed on the premises. “The project has been developed, in association with the Jharkhand government,”

It demonstrates the way tribals struggled to protect their forests, land rights, their culture and displays their valour and sacrifices, which is vital for nation-building.

Prime minister Shri Narendra Modi laid foundation stone of 50 new Eklavya Model Residential Schools on occasion of Janjatiya Gaurav Divas as part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav

On the occasion of Janjatiya Garav Divas Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the construction of 50 new Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRSs) in 27 districts of 7 States and 1 UT through virtual mode from Bhopal at an event to commmeorate Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav (India @ 75). The Ministry of Tribal Affairs has been making continuous efforts in the direction of welfares of the tribal community; education being one of its key areas of intervention. The presently held stately stone laying foundation event marks the indomitable spirit of the Ministry aiming to niche education as a powerful driver for tribal students to pave the roads for future success and accomplishments.

Minister Shri Arjun Munda and MoS Shri Bisheshwar Tudu laid the foundation stone of 11 EMRS in Jharkhand and Odisha.

Shri Arjun Munda and MoS Shri.Bisheshwar Tudu laid the foundation stone of 11 EMRS in Jharkhand and Odisha between July and September 2021. Total 84 EMRS foundation stones were laid during 2021; out of which foundation stone for 50 EMRS was laid by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, total 27 EMRS foundation stone was laid by Tribal Minister Shri Arjun Munda and MoS Shri Bisheshwar Tudu. Other than these, 7 foundation stone of EMRS was laid by State Ministers.

639 EMRSs have been sanctioned, which include 288 under the old scheme and 351 in the new scheme. There are 367 functional EMRSs across the country with around 85,232 students currently enrolled. The construction is under progress in 173 EMRSs, out of which 66 are in the old scheme and 107 are under the new scheme.

These schools are envisaged to be brought at par with Navodaya Vidyalayas. National Education Society for Tribal Students (NESTS) as an autonomous body under the Ministry has been set up to provide overall support and policy directions to the schools in order to bring uniformity in the administration of the schools. The State/UT EMRS Societies at the State/UT level have been set up for day-to-day Administration and Management of the schools.

Ministry of Tribal Affairs organized Janjatiya Gaurav Saptah

The Government of India has announced 15th November, the Birth Anniversary of Bhagwan Birsa Munda as ‘Janjatiya Gaurav Divas’ to pay tribute to the sacrifices and contributions of tribal freedom fighters and for the preservation of cultural heritage and promotion of Indian values of valour, hospitality and national pride.

More than 125 events / activities were organized during the week-long Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations from 15th to 22nd November in various parts of the country to mark the Iconic Week to remember the great unsung tribal heroes who have sacrificed their lives and contributed to nation-building.

Union Home Minister Shri Amit Shah lays foundation stone for Rani Gaidinliu Tribal Freedom Fighters Museum at Luangkao village in Manipur

The Union Minister of Home Affairs and Minister of Cooperation, Shri Amit Shah, laid the foundation stone of the ‘Rani Gaidinliu Tribal Freedom Fighters Museum’ at Luangkao village, in Manipur’s Tamenglong district. The museum will inspire the youth of the country in dedicating their service to the nation apart from realizing the spirit of the freedom struggle.

Addressing on the occasion the Union Home Minister Shri Amit Shah said that “It has been 75 years since the country achieved independence from the British, and the country has a strong commitment to become a superpower of the globe while celebrating its 100th year of independence 25 years later,”.

The Union Home Minister also remembered the life and sacrifices made by Rani Gaidinliu, whose struggle to free her people from the British began from an early age. Mentioning the freedom fighters of Manipur and others from the northeast region, the Union minister also reminded the gathering of the Central government’s decision to rename Mount Harriet, the third-highest island peak in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, where Manipur’s Maharaja, Kulchandra Singh, and 22 other freedom fighters were imprisoned after the Anglo-Manipur war (1891).

Ministry of Tribal Affairs and Microsoft sign MoU on Joint initiative for Digital Transformation of Tribal Schools.

The collaboration seeks to skill educators and students in next-generation digital technologies, including Artificial Intelligence. With a vision to build an inclusive, skills-based economy, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) linked a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Microsoft to support the digital transformation of schools such as Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS) and Ashram Schools, among others under the Ministry, at an online event ‘Empowering Youth for Success’. Under affirmative action initiative, Microsoft will make AI curriculum available to tribal students in both English and Hindi at all EMRS schools under the Ministry to skill educators and students in next-generation technologies, including Artificial Intelligence.

Under this programme in the first phase, 250 EMRS schools were adopted by Microsoft, out of which 50 EMRS schools were given intensive training, and 500 master trainers were trained, in the first phase.

Ministry of Tribal Affairs and CBSE jointly launched an online certificate course on Experiential Learning for the 21st Century for EMRS and CBSE teachers

As part of celebrations of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, the Secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Shri Anil Kumar Jha and Chairman, CBSE, Shri Manoj Ahuja, jointly launched a certificate course on Experiential Learning for the 21st Century for educators from CBSE and Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRSs) in collaboration with Tata Trusts, CETE, TISS (Centre of Excellence in Teacher Education, Tata Institute of Social Sciences), Mumbai and MGIS (Mahatma Gandhi International School), Ahmedabad.

The programme was deployed for 350 educators in 6 States and the event was attended by Shri Asit Gopal, Commissioner, National Education Society for Tribal Students (NESTS), an autonomous organization under the Ministry of Tribal Affairs. Dr Naval Jit Kapoor, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs and Mr R. Pavithra Kumar of Tata Trusts were also present, on the occasion.

Ministry of Tribal Affairs and NCERT join hands for the NISHTHA Capacity Building Programme for EMRS Teachers and Principals

To fulfil the long-standing vision of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) and to achieve academic excellence in Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRSs), 120 EMRS teachers and principals from 3 states completed a 40 days’ NISHTHA-National initiative for School Heads and Teachers Holistic Advancement Program’. It was a national flagship program of the NCERT on 19th June 2021. The Capacity Building programme aimed at building competencies among teachers and school principals, additionally, improving the quality of School Education through Integrated Teacher Training.

MoTA recently collaborated with the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), a national apex education body of several programmatic initiatives and interventions and conducted similar programmes across 350 functional EMRS schools pan India.

Shri Pramod Kumar Shukla, English Lecturer from Eklavya Model Residential School, Chattisgarh, receives National Award for Teachers-2021 from President Sh Ram Nath Kovind on Teacher’s Day.

The Hon’ble President, Shri Ram Nath Kovind, on September 5th 2021, presented the National Teacher Award to 44 talented teachers selected from all over the country on the occasion of Teachers’ Day.

The award was also bestowed upon Shri. Pramod Kumar Shukla, English Lecturer of Eklavya Model Residential School (EMRS), Karpawand, Bastar Chattisgarh. It is the second award in a row for EMRS teachers and holds special significance for Eklavya Model Residential Schools established under the Ministry of Tribal Affairs. In 2020, Smt. Sudha Painuli, Vice Principal, EMRS-Kalsi, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, was felicitated with the award. With the implementation of National Education Policy- 2020, it is believed that greater thrust shall be given to teachers as they gain centre-stage, empowering the teachers to implement the NEP recommendations. It holds direct insinuations to change the facets of EMRSs established for providing quality education to tribal students at the behest of talented and committed teachers.

35.2 lakh tribal students disbursed Pre and Post Matric Scholarships through DBT during 2020-21

The Ministry disbursed an amount of Rs. 2500 crores to 35.2 lakh tribal students under Pre and Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme through Direct Benefit Transfer during 2021, amid the Coronavirus pandemic situation to provide essential support for the continuation of education. In this regard, the State’s portals of Pre-Matric and Post-Matric Schemes have been integrated with DBT Tribal Portal and DBT Bharat Portal. Moreover, 331 Universities have been assimilated into this scheme, while an online student verification process has been undertaken to identify and verify the student’s details.

The total Budget Outlay for Pre/Post Matric, National Fellowship and Scholarship, and the National Overseas Scholarship has been upgraded to Rs. 2546 Crores in 2021 from the previous budget outlay of 2013. Over 32, 08,154 students benefitted from these scholarships and the mode of implementation of this scheme remained fully online, to shift from paper-based application to data-based application as well to reduce the release time of the scholarship.

Union Education Minister and Union Tribal Affairs Minister jointly launched School Innovation Ambassador Training Programme

The Union Education Minister, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan and the Union Minister of Tribal Affairs, Shri Arjun Munda, jointly launched the ‘School Innovation Ambassador Training Program’ for 50,000 school teachers. It aims at training 50,000 School Teachers on Innovation, Entrepreneurship, IPR, Design Thinking, Product development, Idea generation, among others.

Ministry of Tribal Affairs Bags Prestigious SKOCH Challenger Award for “Best Performance In E-Governance” & 3 Gold Awards for Its Initiatives

The Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) received the coveted “SKOCH Challenger Award”- “Best Performance in e-Governance” today for its various initiatives such as Digital Dashboard and Digital Transparency on its 20+ Online Portals with updated information of its implemented schemes, taken during last year. The Award was received by the Union Minister for Tribal Affairs, Shri Arjun Munda, at the Virtual SKOCH Summit.

The Ministry also received 3 Gold Awards for its initiatives namely “Eco-Rehabilitation of tribal villages through Innovative design in water management using Ice-stupas”, Swasthya: Tribal Health and Nutritional Portal and the Performance Dashboard “Empowering Tribals Transforming India” which were received by Dr Naval Jit Kapoor, Joint Secretary, on behalf of the Ministry.

Ministry of Tribal Affairs bags Award of Appreciation in the 18th CSI SIG E-Governance Awards 2020

The Ministry of Tribal Affairs bagged the prestigious Award of Appreciation in the Project Category-Central Government Entity – in the 18th CSI SIG e-Gov Awards 2020 for their ‘Performance Dashboard Empowering Tribals Transforming India through various ICT initiatives”. The award was received by the Joint secretary of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Dr. Navaljit Kapoor from the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Shri Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow.

Tribal women making Rakhis with seeds of indigenous trees under Vruksha Bandhan Project

In a unique initiative Ministry of Tribal Affairs in partnership with The Art of Living Foundation, Aurangabad, and Maharashtra launched Vrushka Bandhan Project where 1100 tribal women created Rakhis for Raksha Bandhan with seeds of indigenous trees, which is a unique contribution to increasing forest cover & combating climate change.

The Rakhis were made of indigenous seeds stuck on naturally dyed, soft indigenous, non-toxic, biodegradable cotton. Once used, the seeds can be sown in soil, thereby benefiting the environment. It is expected that thousands of trees would be planted under this project and project will provide employment to tribal women associated with the project.

Tribal Affairs Ministry and AIIMS organized workshop for NGOs for mission of Sahi Poshan-Desh Roshan as part of POSHAN MAAH

A workshop for Non-Governmental Organizations on Nutrition and Health was organized by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs on 09th September, 2021, as part of its POSHAN MAAH activities. The purpose of the workshop was to closely associate NGOs working with Ministry of Tribal Affairs in the mission of Sahi Poshan-.Desh Roshan. The workshop was attended by more than 70 NGOs who are working in the health sector in tribal areas.

86 ST Entrepreneurs from Southern States honoured as part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav Week Celebrations of Tribal Affairs Ministry

In a bid to promote entrepreneurship amongst the tribal community and encourage successful entrepreneurs, a grand event was organized by the National Scheduled Tribes Finance and Development Corporation (NSTFDC) and Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India honoured tribal entrepreneurs on 22nd November 2021 at Visakhapatnam in association with TRICOR-Andhra Pradesh

Tribal Affairs Ministry has taken up several initiatives to promote leadership qualities and talent among tribal youth

GOAL (Going Online as Leaders) is a joint initiative of Ministry with Facebook for digitally-enabled mentorship and empowering tribal youth to become leaders in their area of interest. Through the GOAL initiative, renowned people from the industry, arts, politics, business etc., known for their leadership skills or roles, are mobilized to personal mentor tribal youth through a digital medium. GOAL program has so far covered 23 States / UTs.

Ministry of Tribal Affairs continuously strives for fostering partnerships with reputed organizations: working for the welfare of tribes like Microsoft, Art of Living Foundation, Tata Foundation, and SECMOL aimed at taking the project with community participation and for creating awareness about leadership among tribal youth.

One Day National Conference on Provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 (PESA) organised to celebrate 25th year of PESA

One of the themes of Amrit Mahotsav is the ‘whole of Government approach’ and ‘Jan Bhagidari’. Taking this into consideration, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs planned several activities during this period both at the National as well as the State Level.

PESA is a significant Act for the welfare of the tribal communities. Officials of the State and Public representatives were asked to visit tribal regions and comprehend the issues of the Tribal at the grassroots level. During the gathering, it was accentuated that safeguarding the culture of the tribal communities is a necessary measure, to be transparent with the tribals and show them the ray of development under rapidly evolving scenarios. Endeavors were made toward this path in many states; different exercises were embraced under PESA in Maharashtra resulting in the economic empowerment of tribals.

National Aadi Mahotsav held in Dilli Haat, INA, New Delhi– A Celebration of Tribal Culture, Crafts and Commerce

The National Aadi Mahotsav was held at Dilli Haat, INA, New Delhi, from the 1st to the 15th February 2021. It celebrated several aspects of tribal culture that evinced a lot of interest and witnessed much footfall in the first place. The festival was an attempt to familiarize the people with the rich and diverse craft, the culture of the tribal communities across the country in one place.

The fortnight-long National Tribal Festival witnessed the participation of thousands of tribal artisans, chefs, artists and cultural troupes from 25 states across the country. The rich tribal culture was evident in the forms of rare tribal handicrafts, handloom and natural products, tribal cuisines as they were exhibited in about 200 stalls. The Aadi Mahotsav succeeded in winning the hearts of the residents of Delhi and witnessed heavy footfall over 15 days and the sales registered. It observed tribal artisans register approx. Rs 4 Crore in direct sales over the past fortnight. Moreover, a purchase order worth Rs 8 Crores was placed by TRIFED; leading to a total of approx. Rs 12 Crores in business transactions for the tribals participating in this festival. The Aadi Mahotsav was in its entirety a celebration of the spirit of tribal life – crafts, culture and cuisine.

Tribes India – Aadi Mahotsav

As India is celebrating the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, Aadi Mahotsav from 16th November to 30thwas organised in Dili Haat.

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With more than 200 stalls from across the country and about 1000 artisans and artists participating with their unique stories, the AadiMahotsav is a way to draw the Adivasis into the mainstream. Showcasing traditional art and handicrafts, and the cultural heritage of the country, this festival connects the tribal artisans with larger markets and brings to focus the diversity and richness of the tribes of India.

The Aadi Mahotsav is a mini-India where the exquisite craft traditions of tribal artisans – weavers, potters, puppeteers, and embroiders – are all in one place. With a wide range of artefacts like paintings be it in the Warli style or Pattachitras; jewellery handcrafted in the Dokra style to bead necklaces from the Wancho and Konyak tribes to the famous Toda embroidery from the South; from virgin coconut oil of the Nicobar Islands to multi-flavoured Nutra-beverages of north-east; from colourful puppets and children’s toys to traditional weaves such as Dongri shawls, Bodo weaves, Kota Doria from Rajasthan; iron craft from Bastar to bamboo craft and cane furniture; pottery such as blue pottery and Longpi pottery from Manipur, the festival is a feast for the senses.

Shri Arjun Munda, Minister of Tribal Affairs virtually launched the nationwide campaign “COVID Teeka Sang Surakshit Van, Dhan aur Uddyam” to accelerate the pace for COVID vaccination among tribals in India.

The campaign was launched to leverage the 45,000 Van Dhan Vikas Kendras (VDVK) of the Tribal Co-operative Marketing Development Federation of India (TRIFED), a national level cooperative body under the administrative control of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India.

M/o Tribal Affairs and Goa Government Jointly Launch Shramshakti Digital Data Solution Tomorrow for Migrant Workers and Tribal Migrant Cell

In a move that would effectively help in the smooth formulation of State and National level programs for migrant workers, the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) launched “Shram Shakti”, a National Migration Support Portal and Shram-Saathi, a training manual for migrant workers in Goa. To facilitate and support approximately 4 lacs migrants who come from different States to Goa, the Chief Minister of Goa will also launch a dedicated Migration cell in Goa. MoTA has also sanctioned Tribal research Institute, Tribal Museum, Van Dhan Kendras and Tribal Lok Utsav in Goa.

Tribal Affairs Minister Shri Arjun Munda launched ‘Adi Prashikshan Portal’ and 3 -Day Online Capacity Building Programme for ST PRI Members

Hon’ble Union Minister of Tribal Affairs, Shri Arjun Munda, launched the ‘ADI PRASHIKSHAN’ portal and inaugurated a three-day training programme on “Capacity Building Training of Master Trainers for ST PRI Members” as part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav in New Delhi.

The Adi Prashikshan portal developed by the Ministry acts as a Central Repository of all training programs conducted by Tribal Research Institutes (TRIs), different divisions of Ministry, National Society for Education of Tribal Students (NESTS), Centre of Excellence funded by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and National Tribal Research Institute.

M/o Tribal Affairs organised the second National Conclave on Sickle Disease in India on World Sickle Cell on 19th June, 2021 Unmukt project to eliminate Sickle Cell Disease launched

To commemorate World Sickle Cell Disease Day on 19th June 2021, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MOTA) organized the Second Online National Conclave on ‘Sickle Cell Disease in India’, in partnership with FICCI, Novartis, Piramal Foundation, Apollo Hospitals, NASCO and GASCDO.The event brought together a group of experts on Sickle Cell Disease across India to deliberate on recent advances in Sickle Cell Disease management-ranging from early diagnosis to the latest medicines and advances in the treatment of the disease.

Shri Arjun Munda, Union Minister and Renuka Singh Sauta flagged off mobile vans under the Unmukt project for strengthening screening and timely management of SCD in Khunti district of Jharkhand and Kanker in Chhattisgarh, two tribal districts with a high prevalence of sickle cell disease among tribals.

Tribal Health Collaborative ‘Anamaya’: A Multi Stakeholder Initiative to enhance Tribal Health and Nutrition launched

Anamaya, the Tribal Health Collaborative, was launched by Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Dr Harsh Vardhan and Union Minister of Tribal Affairs, Shri Arjun Munda, at a function in New Delhi . The Collaborative is a multi-stakeholder initiative of the Tribal Affairs Ministry supported by the Piramal Foundation and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). It will converge efforts of various Government agencies and organisations to enhance the health and nutrition status of the tribal communities of India.

Joint Communication for more effective implementation of the Forest Rights Act signed by Environment and Tribal Affairs Ministries

The Forest Rights Act (FRA) 2006 recognizes the rights of the forest-dwelling tribal communities and other traditional forest dwellers. These communities are dependent on forest resources for a variety of needs, including livelihood, habitation and other socio-cultural needs.

A “Joint Communication” was signed by Shri R.P. Gupta, Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change (MoEFCC), and Shri Anil Kumar Jha, Secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA), in the presence of Minister of Environment, Shri Prakash Javadekar and Minister of Tribal Affairs, Shri Arjun Munda.

The Joint Communication, addressed to all Chief Secretaries of States/UTs, pertains to more effective implementation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006 and for harnessing the potential for livelihood improvement of the Forest Dwelling Scheduled Tribes (FDSTs) and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (OTFDs).

Shri Arjun Munda, Union Minister for Tribal Affairs inaugurates New Building complex for the Tribal Cultural Research & Training Mission (TRI), Andhra Pradesh as part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav

Union Minister of Tribal Affairs, Sh. Arjun Munda; MoS Tribal Affairs, Renuka Singh Saruta, and Dy. Chief Minister & Minister for Tribal Welfare, Andhra Pradesh, Smt.Pamula Pushpa Srivaniji virtually inaugurated the New Building complex for the Tribal Cultural Research and Training Mission (TRI) of Andhra Pradesh on 15th August 2021 as a part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav India @ 75.

Measures undertaken by the Government to improve the livelihood of Tribals during COVID situations

The Ministry of Tribal Affairs provided funds to the State Governments based on their proposals for undertaking various livelihood activities, including agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry, fisheries and other non-farm based livelihood activities etc. under the schemes ‘Special Central Assistance to Tribal Sub-Scheme (SCA to TSS)’, ‘Development of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs)’ and ‘Grants under Article 275(1)’ during 2020-21. An amount of Rs. 587.47 crore was approved/sanctioned by various State Governments for launching various livelihood activities.

Further, funds to the tune of Rs. 12355.43 crore have been provided as Scheduled Tribe Component (STC) by the other Central Ministries / Departments under livelihood related schemes during 2020-21 and 2021-22.

Institutional Support for Development and Marketing of Tribal Products/Produce:

Under the scheme, TRIED has been promoting E-Commerce sale of tribal products from its own portal http://www.tribesindia.com and also present on all major e-commerce portals like Amazon, Snapdeal, Flipkart, Paytm, and GEM.
TRIFED has made the online sales of Rs. 99.74 lakhs in financial year 2020-21. During the current financial year 2021-22, TRIFED has made the sale of Rs.127.54 lakhs (Upto 30.11.2021).
TRIFED has established a network of 145 Outlets i.e. 97 own Sales outlets, 33 outlets on consignment sale and 15 franchise outlets located across the country as on 30.10.2021.
The total number of suppliers/producers empanelled with TRIFED as on 31.10.2021 is 2915.
Sale of tribal products by TRIFED during 2019-20 – Rs. 40.30 cr, 2020-21 – Rs. 29.63 cr and 2021-22 (as on 30.10.2021) – Rs. 18.43 cr.

Minimum Support Price (MSP) for Minor Forest Produce (MFP) SCHEME:

MSP for majority of Minor Forest produce have been increased.
37 new items under the MSP for MFP scheme list from 2020-21.
No. of MFP under MSP scheme increased from 50 to 87 during 2020-21.
Procurement of MFPs under MSP for MFP scheme by States from GoI funds is Rs. 317.89 Cr. since the implementation of the scheme.

Van Dhan Vikas Karyakaram:

Under the scheme of ‘MSP for MFP’ Van Dhan Vikas Kendra Clusters (VDVKCs) act as common facility centres for procurement cum value addition to locally available Minor Forest Produce.
Rs. 254.64 cr. released to TRIFED in last three years for setting up Van Dhan Vikas kendra Clusters (VDVKCs).
3110 VDVKCs have been sanctioned till date since its inception in 2019-20 benefitting 9.28 lakh MFP gatherers of more than 52000 SHGs.

Equity Support to NSTFDC/STFDCs:

NSTFDC extends concessional loans to the eligible Scheduled Tribe persons for undertaking any income generation activities/ self-employment through its implementing agencies.
Rs. 748.75 cr have been disbursed by NSTFDC in the last three years (2019-20 to 30.11.2021) to 4.04 lakh tribal beneficiaries under its five schemes.
NSTFDC has signed MoU with KVIC to act as implementing agency under PMEGP scheme. The MoU aims at providing concessional loans to tribal entrepreneurs seeking financial assistance through banks and SCAs and the ST beneficiaries will get back ended subsidy up to 35% of the unit cost.

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Petroleum & Natural Gas

The Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas is concerned with exploration and production of Oil & Natural Gas, refining, distribution and marketing, import, export and conservation of petroleum products. Oil and Gas being the important import for our economy, many initiatives have been taken by the Ministry for increasing production and exploitation of all domestic petroleum resources to address the priorities like Energy Access, Energy Efficiency, Energy Sustainability and Energy Security. Following initiatives have been taken up by the Ministry in the current year:

Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana: PMUY was launched in May, 2016 to provide 8 crore deposit free connections to poor women. The second phase of the scheme Ujjwala 2.0 has been launched by Prime Minister in the Mahoba District of Uttar Pradesh on 10th August, 2021 on pan-India basis to provide additional one Crore LPG connections, along with free first refill and stove. As on 01.12.2021, a total of 80.5 lakh connections have been released under this scheme. This Ministry is monitoring the implementation of the scheme on a daily basis.

Refill Portability: In order to create competition among distributors in the interest of customer service, refill portability was implemented which enables customer to choose his/ her distributor at the time of booking the refill. In such a scenario, a customer not satisfied with services of his parent distributor can choose any distributor from the list of distributors of the same company serving in his locality/area. This would result in better customer satisfaction and impetus for distributors for providing better service. With customers exercising the right to choose the delivery partner, it further motivates the distributors to provide best in class services to the customers and improve their performance ratings. The flexibility to choose the Distributor for each refill further expands the bouquet of digital services being offered to LPG customers.

Hassle free Non-subsidised LPG Connection (Across the counter): To ease out the process of issuance of new connection, LPG Non-subsidised domestic connection can be issued across the counter with the submission of requisite proof of ID and self-declaration of address by the customer. In case customer wants to submit documents to avail subsidy after taking non-subsidised connection, provision is also enabled to convert to subsidised connection, by submitting Proof of Address other than self- declaration subject to OMC and NIC dedupe clearance.

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Development of Non-monetized Discoveries: A total of 09 discoveries {03 from nomination regime (03 from ONGC) and 06 from PSC} have been monetised as on November, 2021. Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas vide resolution dated 8.11.2019 revised the guidelines for authorization to market transportation fuels, which would promote ease of doing business and boost private players to invest in retail sector. The said resolution applies for marketing of only Motor Spirit and High Speed Diesel for “Bulk” and “Retail” business. Further, under the New Guidelines, authorization has been given to 10 Companies as on 16th December, 2021.

Gas Grid: A total of 21735 Kms of pipelines have been laid upto September, 2021 as part of the Gas Grid.

Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Programme: During Ethanol Supply Year (ESY) 2020-21, 302.30 crore litre of Ethanol has been procured by OMCs for blending purpose till 30.11.2021. The feedstock wise enhanced ethanol prices have been announced for the ongoing Ethanol Supply Year (ESY) 2021-22- from C heavy Molasses route at Rs.46.66/- per litre; from B heavy Molasses route at Rs.59.08/- per litre; from sugarcane juice/ sugar/ sugar syrup route at Rs.63.45/- per litre; from Maize and damaged food grains route at Rs.52.92/- per litre and from surplus rice available with FCI route at Rs.56.87/- per litre.

Biodiesel Blending Programme: On 4th May, 2021, the Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas remotely flagged off the first supply of UCO (Used Cooking Oil) based Biodiesel blended Diesel under the EOI Scheme from Indian Oil’s Tikrikalan Terminal, Delhi. The GST rate on biodiesel, which is sold to Oil Marketing Companies for blending with diesel, has been reduced from 12% to 5% by the Ministry of Finance w.e.f. 1st October, 2021.

Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT): “Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT)” initiative was launched on 1st October 2018 wherein Oil and Gas Marketing Companies are inviting Expression of Interest (EoI) from potential entrepreneur to procure Compressed Bio Gas (CBG). Under this initiative, 2700 Letters of Intent (LoIs) have been issued till 15th December 2021. Supply of CBG initiated from 16 plants through 26 ROs and injection of CBG in CGD network at one place in Gujarat.

Reduction of Regulatory Compliance Burden: Reducing compliance burden, simplification of procedures and improving ‘Ease of Doing Business’ is a continuous process in the Petroleum & Natural Gas sector. In the special campaign launched by the Government in the year 2021, a total number of 276 compliances were reduced and procedures simplified.

Performance Indicator of MoP&NG: Production as on 01.12.2021 is 42.65 MtoE (Oil – 19.88 MMT; Gas – 22.77 BCM). Total of 105 exploration blocks covering an area of 1,56,580 sq km awarded till date. 50 discoveries monetized till 30.11.2021. INR 2,75,781 Cr spent on Hydrocarbon infrastructure till 30.11.2021. As on 01.12.2021, 80.5 Lakh LPG connections released against 1.29 Cr cleared application under Ujjwala 2.0. Indian Gas Exchange launched in June 2020. 21,735 km gas pipeline laid upto Sept., 2021. A total of 83.7 Lakh PNG (D) connections and 3532 CNG stations as on 31.10.2021. CAPEX in overseas assets till date is INR 22,681 Cr. Production of ~56 MMToE from overseas O&G assets added since FY 19 (achieved 50% of the target).

DSF-III: DSF-III was launched on 10th June 2021 by the Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas. Thereafter on 30.07.2021, a Promotional Road show on DSF-III was organized in presence of Hon’ble Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Shri Hardeep Singh Puri.

Setting up of PSA Plants : In view of perturbing situation created due to second wave of Covid-19 and shortage of oxygen supply in various States across India, as per the directions of MoH&FW, 13 Oil PSUs were assigned 110 Hospitals in States of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Odisha, Karnataka, Kerala, Gujarat, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Delhi and Maharashtra for setting up a Pressure Swing adsorption (PSA) Oxygen Plants of adequate capacity under CSR activity so as to appropriately address the oxygen shortage in these Hospitals/Districts. CPSEs are setting up PSA Plants of combined capacity of 98840 LPM. A total of 101 Plants are commissioned and others are at later stage of commissioning.

Setting up of Jumbo facilities: In some refineries, LMO (Liquid Medical Oxygen) is not produced, but Oxygen at low pressure is available. This cannot be liquefied or transported via cylinders. As this Oxygen can be used for medical purposes, hence jumbo Covid care Facilities have been set up adjacent to the refinery premises in coordination with the State Govts. The details of such facilities are as below:

PLANT NAME	LOCATION	OXYGENATED BED CAPCITY SUPPORTED	STATUS
PANIPAT NAPTHA CRACKER, IOCL	Panipat, Haryana	500 Beds	Operational
CPCL (IOCL)	Chennai, T.N.	60 Beds	Operational
Bina Refinery	Bina, Madhya Pradesh	200 Beds	Operational
Kochi Refinery	Kochi, Kerala	350 Beds	Operational
HMEL	Kanakwal, Bathinda	100 Beds	Operational

Gasoline Desulphurization (GDS) Unit under CPCL-fuel Quality up-gradation project has been dedicated to the nation by Hon’ble Prime Minister through video conferencing on 17.02.2021. INDMAX project at Bongaigaon Refinery of IOCL was dedicated to nation on 22.02.2021. Propylene Derivatives Petrochemical Project (PDPP) at Kochi Refinery of BPCL was dedicated to the nation by Hon’ble Prime Minister on 14.02.2021.

******

Petroleum &amp; Natural Gas

Graphical user interface, websiteDescription automatically generated ApplicationDescription automatically generated

Gas Grid: A total of 21735 Kms of pipelines have been laid upto September, 2021 as part of the Gas Grid.

PLANT NAME	LOCATION	OXYGENATED BED CAPCITY SUPPORTED	STATUS
PANIPAT NAPTHA CRACKER, IOCL	Panipat, Haryana	500 Beds	Operational
CPCL (IOCL)	Chennai, T.N.	60 Beds	Operational
Bina Refinery	Bina, Madhya Pradesh	200 Beds	Operational
Kochi Refinery	Kochi, Kerala	350 Beds	Operational
HMEL	Kanakwal, Bathinda	100 Beds	Operational

******

Multilateral agreement with 120 countries to enable faster customs clearance of Postal items

For more than 150 years, the Department of Posts (DoP) has been the backbone of the country’s communication and has played a crucial role in the country’s social economic development. It touches the lives of Indian citizens in many ways: delivering mails, accepting deposits under Small Savings Schemes, providing life insurance cover under Postal Life Insurance (PLI) and Rural Postal Life Insurance (RPLI) and providing retail services like bill collection, sale of forms, etc. The DoP also acts as an agent for Government of India in discharging other services for citizens such as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) wage disbursement and old age pension payments. The Year End Review for Department of Posts highlights the achievements, and progress on various initiatives of department in the year 2021.

Supply Chain and e-Commerce: Mail, Express Services and Parcel:

- Real time updation of delivery: Postman Mobile App implemented in 1.43 lakh POs including 98,454 Post Offices in rural areas. Real time delivery status of 47.5 crore from January-October, 2021 Speed Post and registered articles done through the Postman Mobile App.

- 98% letter box is attached with Departmental Post Offices have been covered under electronic clearance through Mobile App named “Nanyatha”.

- A flagship product of Department of Posts “Speed Post” marked are venue of Rs. 1413.34 crores for handling of traffic of 34.97 Crores during the period of January 2021 to October2021.

- Department is the sole delivery partner of UIDAI since it since option. DoP so far been delivered 166.73 crore Aadhaar cards through ordinary posts and 1.56 crores Aadhaar PVC cards through Speed Post from Jan 2013 to Nov 2021.

- Department of Post shas entered into a tie up with LIC of India for providing complete print to post solution for printing and delivery of policy bonds issued by LIC where in more than 2 crore Policy Bonds are expected to be printed, posted and delivered in a year through Speed Post, generating are venue of more than Rs.100 crores per annum.

- Department of Posts has entered into tie up with Election Commission of India (ECI) for delivery of Elect or Photo Identity Cards (EPICs) through Speed Post. In the initial phase, ECI would provide 6-7 Crore EPICs for delivery through Speed Post, generating are venue of around Rs. 100 in a year.
- Department of Posts has installed Global Positioning System (GPS) in approx. 1263 operational Mail Motor Services (MMS) vehicles across the country and also implemented PS based online tracking system for all the MMS operative vehicles in all Postal Circles with 24X7 control rooms.

- 17 additional new MMS vehicles have been purchased for Jammu & Kashmir Postal circle to improve inter-state connectivity.

- 75 new vehicles have been replaced against condemned vehicles in various Circles during the current FY 2021-22.

- A multilateral agreement for the exchange of electronic advanced data (EAD) has been entered into with more than 120 countries. This agreement shall enable transmission of electronic customs data of International Postal items before their physical arrival at the destination country. It shall also enable faster customs clearance of Postal items.

- PRIME United States Postal Services (USPS) tracked service agreement is signed between India Post and USPS. It will meet the customers demand for a cost-efficient and track-able service. It will help in increasing the mail volume and revenue of India post.

- In order to simplify and ease the customs clearance of International articles, automated Postal Bill of Export (PBE) Software is being developed by DoP. The first version of automated (PBE) software is developed and it is under production environment. It will ease the process of commercial export through Postal Channel by enabling customs clearance in digital mode. After implementation of this software the booking of commercial exports will not remain limited to notified locations.

- International Business Center (IBC) Surat was inaugurated by Minister of State for Communications on 03.11.21. It will provide a much-needed platform in the region to boost commercial export and will fulfill the demands of exporters.

- During the 2nd wave of COVID-19, Department of Posts in collaboration with Customs authorities, facilitated clearance, processing and delivery of COVID related emergency shipments received through post from abroad e. g. oxygen concentrators, equipment, medicines etc. In order to further facilitate the clearance and faster delivery of such shipments a COVID helpdesk was established at Dak Bhawan and all Offices of Exchange.

Banking Services and Financial Inclusion:

- Digital Financial empowerment of the public at large: DOP serves more than 29.29 crore Active POSB accounts through 1.56 lakh post offices across length & breadth of the country and have an outstanding balance of Rs. 12,56,073 crore under Post Office Savings Bank (POSB) Schemes. Overall, 1.67 crore new accounts opened and Rs. 4.71 lakh crore Deposits, Rs. 3.48 lakh crore withdrawal made thereby approx. Rs. 8.19 lakh crore volume of transactions handled in CBS (Core Banking Service) POs. As a result, Net addition of 51.45 lakh accounts and Net deposits of Rs. 1,22,851 crore have been done in CBS POs since April, 2021.The Post Office CBS system is the largest network in the world with 24,971 Offices already on this network. Further 1,29,219 Branch Post Offices have been also enabled to access the network on real time basis. The CBS has enabled the DOP in providing 24×7 services through ATMs, Internet & Mobile Banking.

- Financial Empowerment of Rural Populace: All the 9 Small Savings Schemes of MoF are available in 1.56 lakh Post Offices. 5 Schemes, namely, Monthly Income Scheme, Senior Citizens Savings Scheme, Public Provident Fund, National Savings Certificate & Kisan Vikas Patra have been introduced in Bos (Branch Post Offices). People living in rural India will not be required to come to town & cities to do any Post Office Savings Bank (POSB) transaction. The same will be available at their doorstep through local Branch Post Offices.

- Economic Empowerment of Girl Child: Sukanya Samriddhi Account (SSA) scheme is also known as girl child prosperity scheme and was launched by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi Ji on 22nd January, 2015 in Panipat, Haryana. SSA scheme ensures a bright future for girl children. This scheme has facilitated them in proper education, marriage expenses and securing their future. The Sukanya Samriddhi Account can be opened in any post office. A total of 2.26 Crore Sukanya Samriddhi Accounts have been opened with deposits amounting to Rs. 80,509.29 Crore, by the Department of Posts, till October, 2021 since introduction of the scheme. Approx. 86% of the total SSA accounts in the country are through Post Offices only.

- Insurance and Pension coverage of masses at reasonable rates: The PM Jan Suraksha Schemes, namely, Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY), Pradhan Mantri Jeewan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY) & Atal Pension Yojana (APY) were launched by Hon’ble Prime Minister in May, 2015. The DOP has been playing an active role under these Government of India flagship schemes and had made 3.47 Lakh Atal Pension Yojana (APY), 7.54 Lakh Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY) (including annual auto renewals) and 1.38 crore Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY) (including annual auto renewals) enrolments so far.

3. Postal Life Insurance (PLI)/Rural Postal Life Insurance (RPLI):

- A provision has been introduced for claimant to file an appeal against rejection of death claim cases in PLI/RPLI.

- “Sankalan” e-compendium comprising Post Office Life Insurance Rules 2011, various Standard Operating Procedures, Forms etc. was released on occasion of PLI Day i.e., 01.02.2021 for ease of officials working at various offices as well as for the use of customers and is also available on website.

- Rule 61 of POLI Rules, 2011 has been amended wherein the restriction of two (2) years for settlement of claim on death due to suicide has been reduced to one (1) year, at par with insurance industry practice.

- Business Performance of PLI and RPLI: As on 31.10.2021, there were a total of 100.51 lakh active PLI and RPLI policies with an aggregate sum assured of Rs. 2.32 lakh crores.

- Investment Functions of PLI and RPLI Fund: The total corpus of PLI/RPLI fund has reached Rs. 1.27 lakh crores upto 31.10.2021.

- Bima Gram Yojana : From January 2021 to October 2021, 6,657 villages brought under the coverage of Bima Gram Yojana (BGY). Each Bima Gram Yojana village has at least 100 households covered by one RPLI policy.

- Customer can procure Postal Life Insurance policies online without visiting Post Office. To facilitate multiple payment option of PLI premium and disbursement like Maturity/ Surrender/ Survival/ Death / loan, a close integration with Post Office Savings Bank (POSB) has been done, wherein policy holders can use Standing Instructions (SI), POSB eBanking, mobile banking facility and also use Post Office ATM facilities. Multiple payment gateways have also introduced in the system for online premium payment.

- PLI/RPLI Policy bonds in digital format are now available to policy holders through DigiLocker.

4. Citizen Centric Services:

- Post Office Passport Seva Kendras (PoPSK): With the growing need of citizens for a passport, Ministry of External Affairs and Department of Posts have mutually agreed for setting up Post Office Passport Seva Kendras (PoPSKs) in post offices to utilise the reach and infrastructure of Post Offices for delivering passport services. 428 PoPSKs have been made operational till date, of which 02 PoPSKs have been opened in 2021 namely (i) Dombivali, Maharashtra and (ii) Ekma, Bihar. 12,01,360 applications have been processed through PoPSKs from January, 2021 to October, 2021.

- Aadhar Enrolment and Updation Centres: The facility has brought convenience to the citizens by way of generating new Aadhaar and updating their Aadhaar cards in case of any change/mis-match. More than 42,000 Postal Officials/MTS/GDS have been trained/certified to perform Aadhaar operations. The Aadhaar Enrolments are done free of cost. 13,352 Post Office Aadhaar Centres have been set up across the country. 1,49,50,803 requests for enrollments / updations have been processed by these Centres from January, 2021 to October, 2021.

- Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT): More than 3.29 crores transactions were performed involving an amount of Rs. 3607 crores for a period from January, 2021 to October, 2021. Disbursed benefits of more than 275 schemes of different Ministries to beneficiaries including those in remote and rural areas.

- Digital Inclusion: 1,29,252 Branch Post offices are using SIM based handheld Point of Sale (POS) devices.

Digital Advancement of Rural Post Offices for a New India (DARPAN): Carried out 12.87

crores online Postal and financial transactions involving an amount of Rs.19,402/- crores for a period from January, 2021 to October, 2021 through 1,29,252lakh Branch Post Offices in the rural areas of the country. More than 1.95 crores transactions per month are taking place through DARPAN devices.

- PO-CSC (Post Office-Common Service Centres): A convergence of Post Offices and Common Service Centres for effective delivery of various citizen centric services is a part of the five-year Vision Document (2019-24) of the Department of Posts. Accordingly, 91867 Post offices are now providing CSC services through Digital Sewa Portal of CSC.

- - Launched on 04.05.2020 in 22 Pilot Post Offices selected from 11 Circles.

- - - Expanded to 91867 offices by Oct 2021.
    - MoA Signed between DoP and CSC-SPV on 15.12.2020
    - More than 49669 Operators trained
    - 100+ CSC Services are offered through these POs which include G2C and B2C Services.
    - Since its inception, as on 31.10.2021, 7.37 Lakh transactions worth ₹59.9 Crores were delivered through 91867 PO-CSCs

- - Some of Government to Citizen Schemes Promoted by CSC are:
    - Pradhan Mantri Street Vendors’ Atma Nirbhar Nidhi Yojana

(PMSVANIDHI)

- - - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (Ayushman Bharat)
    - Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan-dhan Yojana (PM-SYM)
    - Pradhan Mantri Laghu Vyapari Maan-dhan Yojana (PM-LVM)
    - The Election Card Printing
    - Various e-District Services
    - Some of B2C (Business to Citizens) Services offered are
    - Bharat Bill Payment System Bills (Electric, Gas, Water bills etc…)
    - Renewal Premium collection for Life Insurance Policies and General Insurance such as Motor Vehicle,etc
    - Third party services such as EMI collections for various loans offered by financial institutions and submission of online application forms for loans.
    - Travel services such as Ticket booking service is available for Flight, Train and Bus Tickets

- Opening of new Branch Post Offices (BOs) in 90 identified Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affecteddistricts in the country: In pursuance of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) Note for Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), a proposal for opening of 4903 new Branch Post Offices (BOs) in 90 identified LWE districts in the country was under taken. In the first phase, 1789 Branch Post Offices have been opened, so far. Recently, Ministry of Finance (MoF) has approved the proposal for opening of remaining 3114 BOs in 90 LWE districts. In this context, 3114 Gramin Dak Sewaks –Branch Postmaster & Assistant Branch Postmaster posts have already been sanctioned to all concerned circles viz, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Telangana & Uttar Pradesh respectively for opening of remaining 3114 BOs in 90 LWE districts. All concerned circles have already been intimated to make 3114 BOs functional by the end of the March.

5. Public Grievances:

- Centralized Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS): Revamping of Centralized Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) was done by mapping over 1.5 lakh Post Offices till the level of Branch Post Offices byintuitive navigation of complaints to the line-end offices for faster resolution of grievances. Department of Posts was the first Department to revamp CPGRAMS in collaboration with Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances. This version not only saves time of resolution but also reduces human intervention by bypassing infructuous levels. The option of remedy of Appeals against resolution was provided to the complainants on CPGRAMS in Jan 2021. The details of the grievances handled in 2021 upto 15.11.2021 areas under:-

Year

Complaints received during the period including

B/F

Complaints settled during the period

% of settlement of settle ment

Average disposal time (days)

01.01.2021 to

15.11.2021

48637

46585

- Social Media Cell: Social Media Cell is an independent entity and deals with the Twitter, Facebook & Instagram accounts of the Department of Posts. Social media team has been strengthened and its working hours extended from 8 hours a day to 16 hours a day. Consequently, the overall average first response time was brought down to 1 hr 35 minutes from over 4 hours. The details of the complaints handled in 2021 upto15.11.2021 areas under:-

Year

Complaints

received during the period

Complaints

settled during the period

% of settlement

01.01.2021 to

15.11.2021

2,39,133

2,37,187

99.2 %

- India Post Call Centre (IPCC): The Department rolled out India Post Call Centre (IPCC) on 01.06.2018in Varanasi. The facility of Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) in IPCC is available for customers 24*7*365. Presently, IPCC is working in eleven languages mapped with geographical locations of the customers. 1.46 crore calls have been serviced in IPCC since its inception. Postal Life Insurance/Rural Postal Life Insurance and Financial Services facilities have been integrated in IPCC which enables IPCC to disseminate the citizens’ centric information to the citizens.

- Implementation of Dynamic Queue Management System (DQMS) in Post Offices: Dynamic Queue Management System (DQMS) has wire based calling terminal which is available at counters and operates on a stand-alone software. A dispenser with thermal printer is available at the entry gate. DQMS has been installed in 325 Head Post Offices having six or more than six working counters. This has helped the public in reducing waiting time, increase in processing capacity, providing comfort level to staff and customers and monitoring customer flow.

- Special Campaign to reduce pendency from 2nd Oct to 31st Oct 2021: Among all Ministries/Departments of Government of India, Department of Posts also participated in the special campaign from 2nd Oct to 31st Oct 2021, to reduce pendency. During the special campaign, the Department ensured significant disposal of Public Grievances, references from Members of Parliament, State Governments and Parliament Assurances. Further, all efforts were taken to improve records management, weeding out of files and overall cleanliness of Government Offices.

- Initiatives taken by the Department in the COVID-l9 situation: CPGRAMS Portal: A separate category for ‘COVID-19’ grievances was created on CPGRAMS to address and monitor grievances of the public with regard to their postal needs in the backdrop of the pandemic. 879 grievances have been resolved within the prescribed timeline of 3 days from 01.01.2021 to 22.11.2021.

6. Marketing & Visibility of Department of Posts:

- Department of Posts is also taking a number of steps to increase the visibility and awareness about postal products and services. In the current fiscal, the Department has undertaken several activities/ campaigns for the marketing of its products and services which include release of advertisement in Radio, TV, Hoardings, etc. The Social Media handles are being utilized for marketing of its products and services.

- Apart from this, the Department of Posts is among the first few Departments of Government of India to set up its social media accounts. This enabled the Department in engaging with its customer base directly. So far, the Department of Posts has over 308.4K followers on Facebook, 323.8K on Twitter, 9.8k on Instagram and 204.9K on KOO. Videos related to the Department of Posts and various schemes of the Department are being uploaded on YouTube. There is constant update on the activities undertaken by the Department and promotion of Departmental products is being done on daily basis.
- Department of Posts also has its own web portal (https://www.indiapost.gov.in) wherein information is regularly uploaded and updated for generating a broader awareness and visibility about the activities, products and services of the Department.
- Through social media accounts of the Department of Posts, updates to the citizens about the Government initiatives, services being provided by the Department, and activities undertaken are being done.
- Release of advertisement for promotion, publicity and advertising of Postal Life Insurance and Rural Postal Life Insurance through Radio Jingles in AIR FM and local FM channels across the country in the month of March 2021.

- Under the initiative of the Government of India, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting shared creative for promotion and publicity of “Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana” PM-GKAY Foodgrains through Post Offices. This special scheme was initially available for 2 months (May & June) which was extended to November 2021. The creative on PM-GKAY was displayed in all the Post Offices across the country.

- Under the initiative of the Government of India, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting shared Jan Andolan Campaign 2021 creatives with renewed emphasis on ‘Dawaibhi, KadaiBhi’ with focus on the five-fold strategy viz Testing, Tracing, Treatment, COVID appropriate behaviour and Vaccination which was shared to all Circles on 8th April, 2021. The same was displayed in all Post Offices and also through the Social Media Handles of the Department of Posts.

- Ministry of Information and Broadcasting shared creatives on “Vaccines for all, Free for all” campaign, an initiative of the Government of India, was carried out in all Post Offices in the month of June 2021. This campaign was also carried out in the Social Media Handles of the Department of Posts.

- Ministry of Information and Broadcasting shared creatives on India’s achievement of “100 Crore vaccination mark”, which was displayed in all Post Offices across India. The creatives were also displayed in the Social Media Handle of the Department of Posts.

- In the online campaign for celebrating Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav which is being coordinated by the Ministry of Culture, a major event relating to rendering of National Anthem of India (Rashtragaan) was done through the link https://rashtragaan.in/ which was shared to all Directorates/Divisions/Sections of the Department and also to the Circles. A total of 2,11,608 of the Department took part in the online campaign.

- An online quiz competition was held over the Social Media Handles of the Department of Posts in commemoration of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav in the run up to Independence Day 2021. Four winners were selected from four Social Media Handles of the Department which was declared on 15th August 2021 and were presented with goody bags.

- In regard to dissemination of information about the constitutional right to legal aid and availability of free legal aid services, NALSA has entered into a collaborative project with the Department of Posts. In this collaborative project Nation-wide sensitization is done through all Post offices across India owing to their well-established network. This dissemination of information of NALSA is being provided free of cost as a social obligation of the Department of Posts.

- 11th Oct to 17th Oct 2021 was celebrated as India Post- Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav ICONIC Week, during which various activities, programs, webinars were conducted and also promoted on social media in collaboration with PIB and MyGov. Briefly described as below:

As engaging activities, a week-long activity for audience in collaboration with My Gov was organised where audience were asked to share snap/photo of their preserved letters/postcards along with brief touching story about it, at My Gov platform. Also, on Philately day, audience were requested to share their first stamp collected with the story behind it.

Webinars on the themes of “How India Post is contributing towards financial inclusion in rural areas”, on “Postal Life Insurance-Insuring Lives & Assuring Happiness” and “India Post for MSME, Small Business, Artisans “Aatmanirbhar Bharat’s Logistics partner” were live streamed on the social media handles of the Department.

In respect of on ground activities, various financial inclusion Melas with special focus on Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana, PLI/RPLI were conducted across the country. Coverage on the Melas were done on the Social Media Handles of the Department. In respect of on ground activities, various financial inclusion Melas with special focus on Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana, PLI/RPLI were conducted across the country. Coverage on the Melas were done on the Social Media Handles of the Department.

Documentary on India@75 (Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav), as provided by Ministry of Culture were displayed in the Melas to bring awareness and special cover on India@75 in consultation with Ministry of Culture was release which was also displayed through the Social Media Handles of the Department.

The whole week milestone on number of Sukanya Samriddhi Accounts opened, total number of life insured/covered were also shared through the Social Media Handles of the Department.

On 14th October ‘Business Development Day’, a total of 1.16 lakhs Aadhaar transactions (enrollment/updation) were done in 1641 Camps/Melas across the country and the same was also shared through the Social Media Handles of the Department.

Special Covers on Unsung Heroes of the respective State / UT in consultation with Ministry of Culture were released on Philately Day. The same was also shared on Social Media Handles of the Department.

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Environment, Forest and Climate Change

The Vision of this Ministry is to provide the citizens of India a clean, green and healthy environment with peoples’ participation and to support higher and inclusive economic growth through sustainable utilization of available natural resources. This Ministry has achieved different milestones to plan, promote, co-ordinate and oversee the implementation of India’s environmental and forestry policies and programmes related to conservation of the country’s natural resources including its lakes and rivers, its biodiversity, forests and wildlife, ensuring the welfare of animals, and the prevention and abatement of pollution. The major achievements during year 2021 are as follows: –

Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav:

Green Good Deed of the Week campaign: In order to commemorate the 75thyear of independence, the country is celebrating a 75 week-long “Azadi ka Amrut Mahotsav”. An outreach programme for promoting sustainable lifestyle –“Green Good Deed of the Week” campaign is being organized as a part of this Mahotsav through Eco-clubs since 12th March 2021. State Nodal Agencies and Eco-clubs organized various activities to promote sustainable lifestyle like cleanliness/ plantation drives, painting/ slogan/ essay competitions, awareness on single-use plastics, awareness on environment-friendly ways of celebrating festivals, etc.

Iconic week celebration: The Iconic Week of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) as a part of the Azadi ka Amrut Mahotsav was celebrated from 4th to 10thOctober, 2021. The major themes identified for activities of the week were lake/ wetland conservation, curbing of use of single-use plastics, wildlife conservation, forest conservation and coastal conservation. Activities like Green Pledge, webinars, promotion of Green Good Deeds and screening of videos on the identified themes were organized in schools/ colleges across the country in co-ordination with Department of School Education & Literacy and SNAs.

Swachhta Campaign from October 2 –November 1, 2021

The Swachhta Campaign was observed for one month starting from 2nd October – 1st November, 2021. During the campaign, a big number of files have been reviewed by the various divisions in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change which comes to a huge total of 45,154 files. Out of which around 41,758 files have been weeded out which has resulted in generation of paper waste of approximately 9 tonnes. A heavy duty shredder machine was specially brought to do the huge task. A revenue generation of Rs. 18 thousand has been generated out of the process of disposal of the waste generated by weeding of the files. A sufficient clear and open area in the Indira Prayavaran Bhawan appx 3000 sq.ft. has been reclaimed.
The Ministry has organised an auction of the e-Waste to dispose of all obsolete items including computers, printers, photocopiers and other electronic equipment. The e-waste bid has already been finalised at a price of Rs. 5.21 lakh to M/s. Clean Waste Management, Burari, Delhi. The shifting of e-waste material has been completed.
The Ministry has also organised an auction to dispose of all obsolete furniture items including tables, chairs, almirahs, side racks, sofa sets and other waste furniture items. The furniture waste bid has already been finalised at a price of Rs. 6.80 lakh to M/s Patel scrap.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

The UN General Assembly in its 70th Session considered and adopted the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and associated 169 targets for the next 15 years. The 17 SDGs came into force with effect from 1st January, 2016. Though not legally binding, the SDGs have become de facto international obligations and have potential to reorient domestic spending priorities of the countries during the decade ending 2030. The SDG 13, 15 and 12 have been mapped majorly to Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. Significant strides have been made in achieving SDG 13 (Urgent action to protect against Climate Change and its impact) as 24% reduction in emission intensity of GDP against 2005 levels has been achieved in 2016 itself. India has emphasized that Climate Finance from developed countries as promised in the Paris agreement is integral to achieve this goal. Similarly, country’s pledge on land degradation neutrality and intense afforestation are helping the country move towards SDG 15(Sustainable use of terrestrial Ecosystems and prevention of Biodiversity Loss). The commitment of the country in implementing the Extended Producer responsibility in plastics and ratification of Basel Convention to monitor hazardous substances is a remarkable step in moving towards SDG12 for ensuring sustainable production and consumption patterns. The 2030 Agenda also underscored that quality, reliable and disaggregated data will be needed for measurement of progress and to ensure that “No One is Left Behind”. MoEF&CC is strengthening its data systems for realistic monitoring of progress on the sustainable development goals.

Climate Change

As a responsible member of the International community of nations, the Government will continue to engage in a meaningful way with deliberations in the International fora/ UN climate summit duly keeping in mind the national developmental goals and priorities through the various international meets and at present India is a president of UNCCD.

Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change took part in the 26th Session of the Conference of Parties (COP-26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was held in Glasgow, United Kingdom for green net zero program The National Statement in the World Leaders Summit was delivered by the Hon’ble Prime Minister at COP-26, which the following mainly discussed and highlighted during the summit
- India’s non-fossil energy capacity to reach 500 GW by 2030
- India will meet 50 per cent of its energy requirements with renewable energy by 2030.
- India will reduce its total projected carbon emissions by one billion tonnes from now to 2030.
- India will reduce the carbon intensity of its economy by 45 per cent by 2030, over 2005 levels.
- By 2070, India will achieve the target of net zero emissions.

The transfer of climate finance and low-cost climate technologies have become more important for implementation of climate actions by the developing countries. The ambitions on climate finance by developed countries cannot remain the same as they were at the time of Paris Agreement in 2015 and the Indian Delegation led by Hon’ble Minister for Environment, Forest & Climate Change attending the COP Summit through multilateral negotiations with major countries for adoption of greener norms in the global scenario.
The Glasgow Climate Conference adopted decisions, which inter-alia, include adoption of an overarching decision titled “Glasgow Climate Pact” that stresses the urgency of enhancing ambition and action in relation to mitigation, adaptation and finance in this critical decade to address the gaps in the implementation of the goals of the Paris Agreement. The Glasgow Climate Pact also noted with deep regret that the goal of developed country Parties to mobilize jointly USD 100 billion per year by 2020 has not yet been met. The COP 26 outcome also include completion of work related to rules, procedures, and guidelines for the implementation of the Paris Agreement including that for cooperative approaches, mechanisms and non-market approaches referred to in Article 6, enhanced transparency framework, and common timeframes for Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and it was discussed with Ministers and Representatives from United Kingdom, Scotland, South Korea, Australia, BASIC countries, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives, France, Canada, Brazil, USA, UAE, Germany, Norway, Singapore, Jamaica, Sweden, and Japan. Hon’ble Minister also held meetings with the Ministers of Like Minded Developing Countries and also with representatives from United Nations Environment Programme, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, and Green Climate Fund.
For strengthening impact, the Indian Delegation also participated in side events on the side-lines of COP 26 which include South Asia Co-operative Environment Programme, International Solar Alliance, CDRI, Leadership Group for Industry Transition and Namami Gange.

PARIVESH

In order to streamline the procedure for early grant of Clearances under this Ministry PARIVESH portal has been simplified for grant of Environmental Clearances which is now been reduced to 70 working days..

In pursuant to the spirit of ‘Digital India’ and capturing the essence of Minimum Government and Maximum Governance, a Single-Window Integrated Environmental Management System named PARIVESH (Pro-Active and Responsive facilitation by Interactive, Virtuous and Environmental Single Window Hub) has been developed by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change for complete online, expeditious and transparent system for environment, forest, wildlife and CRZ clearances in the country. The facility is operational for processing of applications for Environmental Clearances (ECs), Forest Clearances(FCs), Coastal Regulatory Zone Clearances (CRZ). Over the years, the existing system of ‘PARIVESH’ has undergone numerous modifications and customization in alignment with statutory provisions and requirements.

Ministry in recent times has automated various processes through PARIVESH such as development of online module in PARIVESH for dispensation for requirement of EC for expansion / modernization with no increase in pollution load, aligning the EIA Notification with MMDR Amendment Act 2021, Online generation of EC with unique identification number etc.

Due to the above initiatives along with other Policy reforms, the average time taken for grant of EC in all the sectors has reduced significantly from more than 150 days in 2019 to less than 90 days. In some of the sectors, the ECs are being granted even within 60 days also accordingly, ECs for 7787 projects was granted under EIA Notification in 2021.

Ministry has decided to upgrade the existing PARIVESH to provide a “single window” solution for administration of environmental regulations. Centralized Processing Centre (CPC) has been proposed to be set up in the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change. Upgraded PARIVESH will not only strengthen the clearance processes but also encourages ease of doing business in the country. Know Your Approval module with inbuilt decision rules in the envisaged system will guide the Users about the applicability of clearances to the proposed project activity. In addition, it will minimize repetitive efforts of the Users and the same time will ensure single version of the truth across all applicable clearances. Further, in the envisaged system redundancies in the process flow will be minimized to maximum extant.

DPR of the project proposal has been approved. Total time line for overall development of modules is 64 weeks, however modules for critical major clearance processes would be made live in 42 weeks from the date of on boarding of NIC’s system integrator.

Nagar Van Yojana:

Ministery is implementing Nagar Van Yojana and revised its guidelines in October 2021 with an aim at developing 400 Nagar Vans and 200 Nagar Vatikas with the objective to significantly enhance the tree outside forests and green cover in cities leading to better environment, enhancement of biodiversity and ecological benefits to the urban and peri-urban areas apart from improving quality of life of city dwellers. The scheme will be funded from the National Fund under CAMPA at a total cost of Rs. 895.00 crore during the period 2020-21 to 2024-25.

School Nursery Yojana: Ministry is implementing School Nursery Yojana with an aim to associate students in the process of raising plantations as part of their learning and by providing an environment for the students to understand and appreciate the significance of plants in maintaining and sustaining the natural ecosystem. The scheme ‘School Nursery Yojana’ is proposed to be implemented for the period of five years..

Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA)

The “National Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority” (National Authority) came into existence in place of the Ad-hoc CAMPA with effect from 30.09.2018; the day the Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF) Act, 2016 and CAF Rules, 2018 came into force. Hon’ble Minister, Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India is the chairperson of the Governing Body of the National Authority. The National Authority manages and utilises the “National Compensatory Afforestation Fund” (National Fund), which has been created under the public account of India. The other fund at the State/UT level is known as “State Compensatory Afforestation Fund” under the public accounts of respective States/UTs. CAF collected against approvals under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 is distributed in the ratio of 90:10 between the concerned State Fund and National Fund and are made available to the National Authority and respective State Authorities through budgetary process. Until 07.10.2021 funds amounting to Rs 6,63,63.12 crore was transferred from state specific bank accounts maintained at New Delhi to the public Account of India and Rs. 48,606.39 crore was disbursed from the National Fund to 32 States, who have created their public accounts and completed reconciliation. Until now, twenty-eight schemes amounting to Rs 1329.78 crore has been approved from the National Fund. Similarly, Annual Plans of Operation (APOs) of 31 States/UTs worth Rs 9,926.48 crore have been approved from the respective State Fund during current financial year. The activities included in the APOs are mostly related to forestry and wildlife management. At national level, achievement of compensatory afforestation (CA) in 9,06,583 Ha against the target of 10,63,031 ha is major achievements of CAMPA. The average survival percentage of CA has been reported to be 73 percent.

Wildlife

The project Dolphin and the project lion have been initiated and the associated environmental impact of this are also strengthen at the major sanctuary and forest areas for cleaner Environmental Protection of endangered species.

The Protected Area coverage in the country has been steadily increasing. The coverage of Protected Areas which was 4.90% of country’s geographical area in 2014 has now increased to 5.03%. This includes an increase in Protected Areas in the country from 740 with area of 1,61,081.62 sq.kms. in 2014 to present 981 with an area of 1,71,921 sq.kms.
Population of several species like Tiger, Asiatic Lion, Greater one Horned Rhinoceros, Asian elephants, etc. increased. Wildlife health is being addressed to aggressively monitor zoonotic diseases.
India has taken a leadership role in conservation of migratory birds along the Central Asian Flyway and had organized a two day workshop in October 2021, with Central Asian Flyway (CAF) Range countries on conservation of migratory birds along the Central Asian Flyway.
The Ministry has released ‘Guidelines for sustainable ecotourism in forest and wildlife areas-2021 in October 2021. These guidelines emphasise on participation of local community in ecotourism activities.

Biodiversity Conservation

India enacted the Biological Diversity (BD) Act in 2002, and notified the Rules in 2004, through an extensive consultative process initiated in 1994. India was one of the first few countries to have enacted such a comprehensive legislation on biodiversity.

The Act is implemented through a three-tier institutional mechanism, at national, state and local levels: The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) at the national level set up by the Government of India, State Biodiversity Boards set up by the State Governments at the State level, and Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) constituted by the elected bodies at the local level.

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) will hold its second part of the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP 15) in Kunming, China in 2022 in which delegates will come together to adopt a “Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework”. The vision for proposed framework is that “By 2050, biodiversity is valued, conserved, restored and wisely used, maintaining ecosystem services, sustaining a healthy planet and delivering benefits essential for all people. 2021 is viewed as a decisive year on biodiversity action. India joined High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People which calls for protecting at least 30 percent of world’s land and ocean by 2030 where India has already reported about 27% of area as conserved under Aichi Target 11 to CBD.

The Biological Diversity (Amendment) Bill, 2021 is being introduced to simplify, streamline and reduce compliance burden in order to encourage conducive environment for collaborative research and investments, simplify patent application process, widen the scope of levying access and benefit sharing with local communities and for further conservation of biological resources, without compromising the objectives of United Nation Convention on Biological Diversity and its Nagoya Protocol and also national interests.’

National Biodiversity Authority

National Biodiversity Authority, a statutory body of the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change established to implement the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 has ensured that 28 State Biodiversity Boards, 8 Union Territory Biodiversity Councils and 2,76,156 Biodiversity Management Committees have been constituted in all local bodies to implement the provisions of the Act. NBA has accorded approvals for over 3000 applications to access biological resources and traditional knowledge for undertaking research, commercial utilization and patents. The BD Act envisages its implementation through consultation with local communities living in forest and rural areas. India is a leading country in issuing Internationally Recognized Certificate of Compliance (IRCC) which recognizes stakeholders for legally accessing biological resources. Till date, out of the 3297 IRCCs issued globally, 2339 IRCCs have been issued by India. Besides, 22 Biodiversity Heritage Sites have been notified by 12 State Governments and 159 plants and 175 animals have been notified as threatened species in 18 states and 2 Union Territories. Seventeen institutions of national importance have been recognized as national Repositories for preserving voucher specimens of biodiversity

Wetland

The number of Ramsar sites (Wetlands of International Importance) in India have increased to 47 covering an area of 10,90,230 hectares which include 21 new sites designated during 2019-2021. India has the largest number of Ramsar sites in South Asia. A dedicated web portal for wetlands has been developed and was launched on 2nd October, 2021 (Gandhi Jayanti). The portal indianwetlands.in is a publicly available information and knowledge platform to facilitate knowledge sharing, information dissemination, host capacity building material, and provide a single-point access data repository.
Health cards prepared for 500 wetlands under the four pronged approach for conservation of wetlands.

Vienna Convention, Montreal Protocol to Protection of Ozone

The Ozone Cell of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change is the national ozone unit for implementation of the Montreal Protocol in India and phase out of substances controlled under the Montreal Protocol.

After successfully phasing out chlorofluorocarbons, carbon tetrachloride, halons, methyl bromide and methyl chloroform for controlled uses, India is now phasing out hydrochlorofluorocarbons as per the accelerated phase out schedule of the Montreal Protocol

The Government of India ratified the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol to phase down Hydrofluorocarbons on 27 September 2021 after approval by the Union Cabinet. Hydrofluorocarbons are used in air conditioners, refrigerators, aerosols, foams and other products, which even though do not deplete the stratospheric ozone layer, they have high global warming potential ranging from 12 to 14,000. As per the Kigali Amendment, to the Montreal Protocol, India will complete its phase down of Hydrofluorocarbons in 4 steps from 2032 onwards with cumulative reduction of 85% of production and consumption of HFCs by 2047. In line with the Cabinet decision, National Strategy in consultation with all the stakeholders will be developed by 2023 and funding for preparing the strategy has been secured from the Multilateral Fund

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has developed and launched the India Cooling Action Plan (ICAP) during March 2019, to provide an integrated vision towards cooling across sectors encompassing inter alia reducing cooling demand, refrigerant transition, enhancing energy efficiency and better technology options with a 20-year time horizon. Space cooling in buildings being the most important and can significantly contribute to achieving the goals in the ICAP, has been prioritized for implementation of the recommendations given in the ICAP. Action points for implementation of the recommendations for Space Cooling in Buildings was finalized and launched on the World Ozone Day held on 16th September 2021 and widely disseminated

Following studies were completed as part of non-investment component of HCFC phase out Management Plan Stage-II (HPMP Stage-II)

a) Application of non-ODS and low GWP alternatives in Cold Chain Sector in India

b) Public Procurement Policies for Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Equipment Using Non-ODS based refrigerants

c) Good servicing practices and Energy efficiency in RAC sector

The above studies were published and launched on 16 September 2021 on the World Ozone Day and were widely disseminated

Preparation of Stage-III of HPMP has been initiated, to the implemented from 2023-2030, after securing funding from the Multilateral Fund for preparation of project proposal.

National Clean Air Program

Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) is implementing National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) for reducing levels of air pollution in non-attainment cities (NACs) of the country since January 2019. NCAP is implemented in targeted 132 cities.

A Commission on Air Quality Management in NCR and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) has been constituted by enactment of an Act by Parliament for better coordination, research, identification and resolution of problems surrounding the air quality index and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

Avoiding Use of Single Use Plastics and Efficient and Effective Management of Plastic Waste.

To enhance the efficacy implementation of PWMR, the Ministry has notified the Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2021 on 12th August 2021 which also prohibits identified single use plastic items, which have low utility and high littering potential, by 2022.
As per the notification, the manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale and use of 12 identified single-use plastic items including polystyrene and expanded polystyrene, commodities shall be prohibited with effect from the 1st of July, 2022.
The thickness of plastic carry bags has been increased from fifty microns to seventy-five microns with effect from 30th September, 2021, and to one hundred and twenty microns with effect from the 31st December, 2022.
The Ministry has organized “Awareness Campaign on Single Use Plastic – 2021”.
The States/UTs have been requested to constitute a Special Task Force under Chairpersonship of Chief Secretary/Administrator for elimination of single use plastics and effective implementation of Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016. 31 Task Forces have been formed.
The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has notified the draft Regulations on the Extended Producer Responsibility for plastic packaging under Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016, as amended from time to time on 6th October 2021 for public consultation.

Combating the Land Degradation, Desertification and Drought:

India committed to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality and restoration of 26 million hectares of degraded land by 2030, which includes 21 million hectares of Bonn Challenge and additional commitment of 5 million hectares as voluntary commitment. India presently holds the Presidency of UNCCD COP for 2 years till April 2022.
Hon’ble Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi graced the High level Dialogue on desertification, land degradation and drought of United Nations General Assembly, held on 14th June 2021 highlighting the initiatives taken by India on combating Land Degradation.

Integrated Coastal Zone Management

Blue Economy is one of the thrust area of the Government for sustainable development of coastal resources. The development will in due consideration of Conservation & protection of coastal and marine resources, Pollution abatement measures, Management of coastal and Marine ecosystem, Livelihood enhancement with security of coastal community, Capacity building and will also comprehend Sustainable development goals.

10 beaches in 7 States and One Union Territory, have been developed at par with international Standards and has been conferred with prestigious Blue Flag certification for its environmentally sound management and ecological sustainable infrastructures with adequate safety measures. This has resulted in better waste management, maintaining bathing water quality, self-sustaining solar energy-based infrastructure, containing marine littering, enhancing local level livelihood options and increased tourist based economy.

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a) Announcement of Seaweed Park in Tamil Nadu

b) Announcement of Development of 5 Major Fishing harbours as hub of economic activities

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4. Citizen Centric Services:

Digital Advancement of Rural Post Offices for a New India (DARPAN): Carried out 12.87

5. Public Grievances:

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