National
Ministry of Rural Development Signs MoU with Meesho
⇒ Union Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Shri Giriraj Singh addressed the media after the signing of an MoU by the Ministry with “Meesho” – an e-commerce platform owned by Bengaluru-based Fashnear Technologies Private Limited on 16 February 2023.
The MoU has been signed for marketing of products made by the Self-Help Groups under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihood Mission.
Union Minister Shri Giriraj Singh asserted that the target of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to have 10 Crore SHG members by 2024 will be achieved as the Ministry is working on a pro-active mode to enroll new women Sakhis (members).
Shri Sanjeev Barnwal, Co-Founder and CTO from Meesho said that this partnership with Meesho will enable SHGs across the country to get dedicated handholding and cataloguing support to start their businesses and receive training on how to ship their first order, how to maintain their accounts and list products etc. including dedicated on-boarding support and creation of Meesho Selling Accounts of recommended sellers for SHG products.
- He added that additionally, Meesho will be providing training on cataloguing, order management, pricing and business growth, and will provide free support to individual sellers for 100 products and to aggregators for 300 products. The platform currently offers zero commission fee on all products for Rural Livelihood Mission affiliate sellers.
Achievements of NRLM:
- The Ministry under its DAY-NRLM flagship programme has been working to improve the living conditions of rural Indians by enhancing livelihoods through the SHG ecosystem and providing SHG members better income by facilitating better and profitable markets for their produce.
- As on January 2023, NRLM has its footprints in 7,054 blocks across 737 districts in 34 States/UTs. It has mobilised a total of 8.79 Crore women into 81.61 lakhs SHGs who have been federated into 4.76 lakh Village Organisation and 31,070 Cluster Level Federations.
- Besides the Capitalization Support funding of over Rs 28K crores provided by the programme, Bank loans of Rs 6.17 lakh crore cumulatively has been also accessed by SHGs. Most of the funds have been used for promoting livelihoods activities in the farm and non-farm livelihoods sector. Over 2.30 lakh rural enterprises owned by SHG members have been supported directly under non-farm livelihoods activities of DAY-NRLM.
Rail Post Gati Shakti Express Cargo Service, Joint Parcel Product
⇒ Indian Railways and India Posts have formally launched Rail Post Gati Shakti Express Cargo Service, Joint Parcel Product of Railways and India Post.
It is an initiative of partnership between Indian Railways and India Posts in providing seamless logistics for the services sector in the country. This is in compliance with the Budget Announcement of FY 2022-23.
On 16 February 2023, it has been started on the four sectors-
Delhi to Kolkata; Bangalore to Guwahati, Surat to Muzaffarpur and Hyderabad to Hazrat Nizamuddin
- Earlier, a Pilot weekly service was launched on 31st March 2022 from Surat to Varanasi by attaching a VPU to Tapti Ganga Express.
Key Points:
- The highlights of this service are Total logistic Service: Pick-Up and Delivery at customer premises, Palletization -Transportation through covered and sealed boxes, Semi-mechanized handling, Time tabled service, Insurance at 0.05% of the declared value of the cargo for loss, damage and deterioration, Integrated Parcel Way Bill.
- Joint Marketing Teams between Posts and Railways have been made to take this initiative forward. Doing away with the slab system of pricing is an innovation herein.
Salient Features for Customers:
- Door step Pick-Up and Delivery
- Flexibility of Quantum of Load
- Time Tabled Service
- Safe Transmission
- Insurance
- Affordable Tariff
- Single Point of Contact
- Mobile Application
However, total 15 sectors have been planned to be covered in the first phase.
These are:
- Surat Area –Varanasi-Sonpur-Narayanpur
- Surat Area–Kanpur-Lucknow-Gorakhpur
- Bangalore Area – Melpakkam – Delhi Area
- Delhi Area – Guwahati
- Renigunta – Nizamuddin (Doodh Duronto + JPP)
- Secunderabad Area – Guntur – Rajahmundry – Howrah/ Guwahati Area
- Ahmedabad – Udhna – Howrah/Gawhati
- Mumbai Area – Vasai/Boisar – Vapi/Umbergaon Area – Sahnewal
- Chennai Area – Vijayawada – Tadepalligudem – Howrah Area/Guwahati Area
- Delhi Area – Howrah
- Howrah – Guwahati
- Madurai – Dindagul – Trichy – Vijayawada – Howrah
- Ernakulam – Coimbatore – Tiruppur – Erode – Salem – Howrah
- Bhivandi – Boisar – Vapi/Umbergaon- Udhna – Howrah/Gauhati
- Bangalore Area – Melpakkam – Renigunta-Gudur – Vijayawada – Howrah /Guwahati
North India's first Nuclear Plant in Haryana
⇒ North India’s first Nuclear Plant is coming up in Haryana in the town of Gorakhpur, which is about 150 km north of the national capital of New Delhi.
» Union Minister of State (I/C) Science & Technology; Minister of State (I/C) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh disclosed this on 18 February 2023.
- He said that during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s regime, one of the major achievements would be the installation of Nuclear/ Atomic Energy plants in other parts of the country, which were earlier confined mostly to the South Indian States like Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh or in the west in Maharashtra.
- He added that a bulk approval of installation of 10 nuclear reactors has been given a nod by the Modi Government.
Key Points:
- Gorakhpur Haryana Anu Vidyut Pariyojana’s (GHAVP) having two units of 700 MWe capacity each of Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR) indigenous design is under implementation near Gorakhpur village in Fatehabad district in Haryana.
- Till date, an amount of ₹4,906 Cr has been spent out of total allocated funds 20,594 Cr. (Total Financial progress is 23.8% as on date).
International
3rd G20 Digital Economy Working Group (DEWG)
⇒ The 3rd meeting of the G20 Digital Economy Working Group (DEWG) under India’s G20 Presidency was held in Pune from June 12 – 14, 2023.
The closed-door meeting of the G20 DEWG meeting began on June 13, 2023 with the participation of 77 foreign delegates from G20 Members, 9 Guest Countries, 5 International Organizations, and two Regional Organisations.
Day 1:
» The first day of the 3rd DEWG Meeting began with the inauguration of two-day “Global DPI Summit” and ‘Global DPI Exhibition’, by Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Union Minister of State in MeitY and Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.
The Global DPI Summit (June 12 – 13, 2023)
» The Summit was attended by over 250 delegates in-person, of which, there were 150 foreign delegates from 50 countries. More than 2000 people attended the summit virtually.
» India signed MoU with four countries namely Armenia, Sierra Leone, Suriname, and Antigua and Barbuda on sharing INDIA STACK, that is, successful digital solutions implemented at a population scale.
» The summit provided the global platform to discuss sector agnostic (foundational) and sectoral DPIs which involved insightful and future-shaping discussions among overall 60 Global Experts on DPIs, who participated in 10 important sessions:
- Overview of Digital Public Infrastructure
- Digital Identities for empowering people
- Digital Payments and Financial Inclusion
- DPI for Judicial Systems and Regulations
- Digital Document Exchange for efficient service delivery
- Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) for DPI
- Digital Education and Skilling
- DPI for Digital Health and Climate Action
- Digital Agriculture Ecosystem
- Building the Global DPI Ecosystem
» By providing the global platform on DPI to digital decision-makers from 50 countries and multiple International Organisations, India took the lead and further strengthened its role of acting as a strong bridge between Global North (G20 members) and Global South (Developing and LMIC countries).
The Global DPI Exhibition (June 12 – 14, 2023)
The Exhibition showcased 14 experience zones showcasing successfully implemented DPIs related to Digital Identity, Fast Payment, DigiLocker, Soil Health Card, E-National Agriculture Market, Unified Mobile App for New-Age Governance, Open Network for Digital Commerce, seamless travel experience at airports, language translation, learning solution, telemedical consultation, and Digital India Journey.
Day 2:
» On the second day of the meeting, extensive discussions happened on the actionable deliverables in priority areas namely ‘Digital Public Infrastructure’, and ‘Digital Skilling’.
- The discussions revolved around Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) and the concept of “One Future Alliance & One Future Fund’ for DPI, enabling principles for good DPI, and recognizing the need for financing opportunities for DPI in Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC).
» Thereafter, Digital skilling, upskilling and reskilling, Capacity building & awareness, building a mutual recognition framework for digital skills, and information sharing were discussed.
Day 3:
» On the last day of the meeting, discussions were held on the actionable deliverables on the priority area of ‘Cybersecurity’.
- In this discussion, the security for a safe, resilient, and trusted digital economy and various aspects such as capacity building for children & youth, and countering potential security threats were deliberated.
» The ‘Stay Safe Online (SSO)’ campaign and ‘G20 Digital Innovation Alliance (DIA)’ have been launched under Indian Presidency to engage with common people especially youths and entrepreneurs in G20 Member States.
- So far, under the ‘Stay Safe Online’ campaign, 2,19,000+ persons have participated in the national level Cyber Quizzes. Under DIA, 2460+ Startups have applied for the contest.