National
Bhopal Railway Station awarded ‘Eat Right Station’ certification with a 4-star rating
⇒ Indian Railways’ Bhopal Railway Station has been awarded a 4- star ‘Eat Right Station’ certification for providing high-quality, nutritious food to passengers. This certification is granted by FSSAI to railway stations adhering to standard food storage and hygiene practices.
Key Points:
- The ‘Eat Right Station’ certification is awarded by FSSAI to railway stations that set benchmarks in providing safe and wholesome food to passengers.
- The station is awarded a certificate upon a conclusion of an FSSAI-empanelled third-party audit agency with ratings from 1 to 5. The 4-star rating indicates full compliance by the station to ensure safe and hygienic food is available to passengers.
- The certification is part of the ‘Eat Right India’ movement- a large-scale effort by FSSAI to transform the country’s food system to ensure safe, healthy and sustainable food for all Indians.
- Eat Right India adopts a judicious mix of regulatory, capacity building, collaborative, and empowerment approaches to ensure that our food is suitable both for the people and the planet.
Other railway stations:
The other railway stations with this certification include Anand Vihar Terminal Railway Station; (Delhi), Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus; (Mumbai), Mumbai Central Railway Station; (Mumbai), Vadodara Railway Station, Chandigarh Railway Station.
Green Energy Open Access Portal
⇒ In continuation of several initiatives to promote clean and green energy by Government of India, the Union Minister of Power and New & Renewable Energy, Shri R K Singh launched the Green Energy Open Access Portal on 11 November 2023 through Video Conferencing.
- About 500 participants from the States, Regulatory Commissions, RE developers and other stakeholders joined the event.
Green Energy Open Access Portal:
- Any consumer with a connected load of 100 kW or above can get Renewable Energy through open access from any Renewable Energy generating plant set up by himself; or by any developer. The open access has to be granted within 15 days.
- The application for open access can be made on this portal. The portal can be accessed at greenopenaccess.in for processing of applications related to green energy open access by the stakeholders including open access participants, traders, Power Exchanges, National / Regional / State Load Despatch Centres, Central/State transmission utilities.
- The portal provides a transparent, simplified, uniform and streamlined procedure for granting open access to green energy that will be key to facilitating deepening of electricity markets and enabling integration of Renewable Energy (RE) resources into the grid.
» Ministry of Power notified the Electricity (Promoting Renewable Energy through Green Energy Open Access) Rules, 2022 on 06th June 2022. These rules aim at promotion of generation, purchase and consumption of green energy including the energy from waste-to-energy plants.
Employees’ State Insurance Corporation’s (ESIC) Online Maternity Benefit Claim Portal
⇒ Shri Bhupender Yadav, Union Minister of Labour & Employment and Environment, Forest & Climate Change launched the ESIC Online Maternity Benefit Claim Portal during the commemoration of 102nd birth anniversary of Shri Dattopant Thengadi at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, on 10 November 2022.
Key Points:
- The newly introduced Employees’ State Insurance Corporation’s online maternity benefit claim facility will ease the process of claiming maternity benefits for Insured Women as the process has now been made online, where the beneficiaries, at their convenience can now claim the maternity benefits from anywhere.
- Earlier, the beneficiaries, for claiming the Maternity Benefits had to visit the respective branch offices physically but now with the introduction of this new facility, one can avail the benefits at their convenience.
Background:
- Maternity Benefit is given to the insured women in the form of cash benefit in case of certain contingencies such as in the advanced stage of pregnancy, after delivery / in the unfortunate event of confinement or miscarriage and who meet the eligibility conditions.
- Payment at the rate of 100% of wages is paid for of 26 weeks as maternity benefit to the insured woman by ESIC to compensate for the loss of income during her childbirth.
- A total of 18.69 lakh women beneficiaries have been provided maternity benefit of Rs 37.37 crore during the year 2021-22.
International
Executive Director of Stop TB Partnership calls on Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Health Minister
⇒ The Executive Director of the Stop TB Partnership, Dr. Lucica Ditiu and her team met the Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya on 10 November 2022.
- They appreciated the “unprecedented leadership by the Government of India” in leading the global TB elimination response.
Key Points:
- Dr. Ditiu also praised India’s efforts by providing a strong vision, which is backed by effective management and expedited rollout of critical programmatic and policy interventions, including new diagnostic tests, social support initiatives and the accelerated efforts develop a new TB vaccine.
- The discussion also focused on the strong leadership role being provided by India to eliminate TB, and the opportunity to raise the narrative on TB globally through India’s upcoming G20 Presidency.
- Dr. Mandaviya also serves as the Chair of the Stop TB Partnership’s Board till 2024.
- Dr. Mandaviya agreed to host the Stop TB Partnership’s 36th Board meeting on March 25-26, 2023, in Varanasi. The Board meeting will be preceded by a high-level event on March 24, 2023, which is also observed globally as World TB Day.
About the Stop TB Partnership:
- The ‘Stop TB Partnership’ is an international organization working to align stakeholders from across the world, with a mission to serve every person who is vulnerable to TB and ensure that high-quality diagnosis, treatment and care is available to all who need it.
- It was founded in 2001 and its Secretariat is hosted by United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) in Geneva, Switzerland.
- Through its more than 1700 partners, including international and technical organizations, government programmes, research and funding agencies, foundations, NGOs, civil society, community groups and the private sector, it possesses expertise in medical, social and financial aspects to defeat TB.
- The ‘Stop TB Partnership’ a public -private partnership is governed by the Board.
- At present, Hon’ble Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare is heading the board of Stop TB Partnership as Chairperson for three years term till 2024.