National
Pilot run of the ‘special drive for Digital onboarding of street vendors under PM SVANidhischeme’
⇒ Pilot run of the ‘special drive for Digital onboarding of street vendors under PM SVANidhischeme’ was launched jointly by Shri Ajay Prakash Sawhney, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology and Shri Durga Shanker Mishra, Secretary, Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs.
Ministry of Housing and urban Affairs in collaboration with the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology launched the pilot drive ‘Main Bhi Digital 3.0’ – A special Campaign for Digital Onboarding and Training for street vendors under PM SVANidhi scheme.
The drive was launched on 09 September 2021, is in line with Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s vision of “SabkaSaathSabkaVikas”.
Aim:
The special drive aims to accelerate on-boarding of street vendors on the UPI QR code and handhold them to start accepting/making digital payment transactions.
Participants:
Five major aggregators including Paytm, Phone Pe, Bharat Pe, Mswipe and Aceware agreed to participate in 45 days special drive for digitally onboarding the street vendors with BHIM-UPI QR code on pro-bono basis.
The drive is to cover 223 cities across the country, with around 8,68,184 street vendors to be onboarded under various urban local bodies.
Swachh Survekshan Grameen, 2021
⇒ Swachh Survekshan Grameen, 2021 was launched on 9 September 2021 under the Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) Phase -II.
Minister of State, Jal Shakti Ministry, Shri Prahlad Singh Patel presided over the e-launch of Swachh Survekshan Grameen 2021 at an event organized by Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation (DDWS).
As part of Swachh Survekshan Grameen, 17,475 villages in 698 Districts across the country will be covered. 87,250 public places namely schools, anganwadis, public health centres, haat/bazaars/religious places in these villages will be visited for survey.
Aim:
As part of the ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’, Swachh Survekshan Grameen aims to support acceleration of ODF plus interventions and results in the country.
The Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation will undertake Swachh Survekshan Grameen 2021 countrywide to support acceleration of ODF Plus interventions and increase momentum for improving ODF Sustainability as well as Solid and Liquid Waste Management activities across the villages in the country.
Under SSG 2021, a detailed protocol has been developed to guide the ranking of Districts based on their performance on key quality and quantitative parameters.
The weights to different elements of the SSG 2021 are as below:
- Direct Observation of sanitation at public places- 30%
- Citizen’s Feedback, including feedback from common citizens, key influencers at the village level and from citizens online using a mobile App- 35%
- Service Level Progress on sanitation related parameters- 35%
SSG in the previous years:
The Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation had commissioned “Swachh Survekshan Gramin (SSG)- earlier in 2018 and 2019.
Inauguration of 6 Food Processing Projects
⇒ Union Minister for Food Processing Industries, Shri Pashupati Kumar Paras virtually inaugurated 6 food processing projects in Maharashtra, Uttarakhand and Haryana on 09 September 2021.
Food Processing Week:
The Ministry of Food Processing Industries celebrated the Food Processing Week from 6 September 2021 to 12 September 2021, under which the Ministry organized various programmes.
About Cost of Projects:
The total cost of projects inaugurated is about Rs 76.76 crores, and the Ministry has given a grant of Rs 24.19 crores for these projects.
These projects will also provide direct and indirect employment to about 2500 people and benefit about 6800 farmers in the surrounding areas.
6 Food Processing Projects:
- M/s Sahyadri Farmers Producers Company, Nasik, Maharashtra
- M/s Ashwamedh Engineers and Consultant, Nasik, Maharashtra
- M/s Microtech Food Testing Laboratory, Pune, Maharashtra
- M/s Numix Industries, Udham Singh Nagar, Uttarakhand
- M/s Shell Mount Fresh, Sonipat, Haryana
- Bakery Pilot Plant, Sonipat, Haryana (NIFTEM)
International
Meeting with the Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change and Danish Minister for Climate, Energy and Utilities
⇒ Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Shri Bhupender Yadav met with Danish Minister for Climate, Energy and Utilities, Mr Dan Jorgensen to discuss on general bilateral cooperation between India and Denmark in the areas of environment and climate change.
Recently, Minister Dan Jorgensen visited India for five days in September 2021 with a business delegation.
Discussion:
- Both the Ministers’ held discussion on Green Strategic Partnership (GSP) and upcoming COP 26 meeting.
- The Environment Minister’s also discussed on the Joint Action Plan to take forward the Green Strategic Partnership in the environment sector.
- Both sides agreed to further strengthen the bilateral cooperation on environment, and also to take forward the discussion on GSP and COP26.
» Union Minister Mr. Yadav stated that India and Denmark may explore strengthening bilateral cooperation especially on climate change, clean energy, circular economy, and resource efficiency, etc.
Meeting between the Union Minister for Power and MNRE and Danish Minister for Climate, Energy and Utilities
⇒ The Union Minister for Power and New and Renewable Energy, Shri RK Singh met with Mr. Dan Jorgensen, Danish Minister for Climate, Energy and Utilities on 09 September 2021.
Centre of Excellence on Offshore Wind:
The two ministers jointly launched ‘Centre of Excellence on Offshore Wind’ as part of the Green Strategic Partnership.
This Centre will at the outset be centred around four working groups:
- Spatial planning
- Financial framework conditions
- Supply chain infrastructure
- Standards and testing
Phase:
In the initial phases:
The Centre of Excellence (COE) will focus on the offshore wind sector.
In the medium to long term, the vision is that-
- The Centre will broaden to include a wider group of international governments and players.
- Accumulating experience and best practices on offshore wind and become an international centre for offshore wind and with broader links to new and renewable energy.
» Both sides agreed to further their cooperation in renewable energy with a focus on offshore wind energy.
»The two countries already have an agreement on “Strategic Sector Cooperation in the field of Renewable Energy with a focus on Offshore Wind Energy”.
Bilateral meeting between Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and Parliamentary State Secretariates, German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development
⇒ A bilateral meeting was held between Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Shri Bhupender Yadav and Mr Norbert Barthle and Dr Maria Flachsbarth, Parliamentary State Secretariates, German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development in New Delhi on 09 September 2021.
Discussion:
- Both sides discussed at length on a wide range of environmental issues covering areas such as climate change, water scarcity, marine & air pollution, circular economy etc.
- Both sides stressed on the importance of information exchange in bilateral programmes keeping climate and SDG indicators in focus Agro-Ecology, Solar Partnership Inter resilience.
» Union Minister Mr Yadav stated that India and Germany may explore strengthening bilateral cooperation especially on circular economy i.e., treatment of solid waste (solar panels, batteries), wastewater etc.
Important Day
Himalayan Day 2021
⇒ The National Mission for Clean Ganga organised Himalayan Diwas in association with Naula Foundation. The event was part of the ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’ celebrations.
Theme:
The theme of the Himalayan Day 2021 was ‘Contribution of Himalayas and our responsibilities’.
About Himalaya Diwas:
- Himalaya Diwas is celebrated every year on 9th September in the state of Uttarakhand.
- It is celebrated with the aim to conserve Himalayan ecosystem and region.
- It was officially declared as Himalaya Day in 2015 by the then Chief Minister.