Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will launch the financing facility of Rs. 1 lakh crore under the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund on 9th August at 11 AM via video conferencing. Prime Minister will also release the sixth instalment of funds of Rs. 17,000 crore to 8.5 crore farmers under the PM-KISAN scheme. The eventwill be witnessed by lakhs of farmers, cooperatives, and citizens across the country.Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, will also be present on the occasion.
The Union Cabinet has approved the Central Sector Scheme of financing facility under “Agriculture Infrastructure Fund” of Rs. 1 Lakh Crore. The Fund will catalyze the creation of post-harvest management infrastructure and community farming assets such as cold storage, collection centres, processing units, etc.These assets will enable farmers to get greater value for their produce, as they will be able to store and sell at higher prices, reduce wastage, and increase processing and value addition.Rs. 1 Lakh Crore will be sanctioned under the financing facility in partnership with multiple lending institutions; 11 of the 12 Public Sector Banks have already signed MOUs with the DAC&FW. 3% interest subvention and credit guarantee of up to Rs 2 Crore will be provided to the beneficiaries to increase the viability of these projects.The beneficiaries of the scheme will include farmers, PACS, Marketing Cooperative Societies, FPOs, SHGs, Joint Liability Groups (JLG), Multipurpose Cooperative Societies, Agri-entrepreneurs, Startups, and Central/State agency or Local Body sponsored Public-Private Partnership Projects.
The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojna (PM-KISAN) scheme, launched on 01 December 2018, has provided a direct cash benefit of overRs. 75,000 Crore to more than 9.9 Crore farmers.This has enabled them to fulfil their agricultural requirements and support their families. The rollout and implementation of the PM-KISAN scheme has happened at an unparalleled pace, with funds being directly transferred into the Aadhaar authenticated beneficiaries’ bank account to prevent leakage and increase convenience for farmers. The scheme has also been instrumental in supporting farmers during the Covid-19 pandemic, through the release of nearly Rs 22,000 Crore to aid the farmers during the lockdown period.
https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1644346
Agricultural Mechanization is one of the key drivers for sustainable development of agriculture sector which helps in increasing production by timely farm operations, reducing losses, reducing the cost of operations by ensuring better management of costly inputs. Mechanization also enhances the productivity of natural resources and reduces drudgery associated with various farm operations. Under the hash-tag #AtmaNirbharKrishi, created by Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Government of India, initiatives taken by Agriculture Mechanization and Technology Division are:
In order to lay special emphasis towards promotion of agricultural mechanization in the country and to bring more inclusiveness, Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM) had been initiated since April 2014. In the year 2020-21, budget of Rs. 1033 crores have been provided for the scheme, out of which Rs. 553 crores have been released to the State Governments.
Paddy straw burning is one of the major problems in the Northern Region of the country causing environmental pollution. Paddy straw burning is currently practiced on a large scale in Punjab & Haryana to clear the fields for Rabi Crop sowing because the time window available between the harvesting of paddy crop and the sowing of next crops is very short (2-3 weeks). With an objective to wean away farmers of this region from Crop Residue Burning, the scheme of CRM (Crop Residue Management) was initiated since 2018 by Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, wherein, farmers are provided machinery for in-situ management of crop residue through establishment of CHCs (Custom Hiring Centres). Individual farmers are also provided subsidy for procurement of machinery. Total funds of Rs. 1178.47 crores were provided in the year 2018-19 & 2019-20 to the States of Punjab, Haryana, UP and NCT. In the year 2020-21, Rs. 600 crores has been provided in the budget for the Scheme and Rs.548.20 crores have been released to the states well before time to ensure they can take up the activities in advance.
Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has also developed a Multi lingual Mobile App “CHC- Farm Machinery” which connects the farmers with Custom Hiring Service Centers situated in their locality. This app is facilitating agricultural mechanization in the country by encouraging small & marginal farmers to take machines on rental basis for agriculture practices without them having to purchase the high priced such machines. The App has been further modified and now has been given the acronym of “FARMS-app” (Farm Machinery Solutions-app). The revised version is more user friendly and the scope of the app has also been enhanced.
Pandemic of COVID has influenced the lives of people across the globe and India is no exception to that. Farming activities and farmers also experienced the impact of this pandemic as the COVID resulted in lock-down thereby influenced the movement of farm inputs including farm machinery from one location to other. Lock- down came as a sudden shock for the farming community when harvesting season for Rabi crops had just commenced. Migration of agricultural labourers to their native places during the lockdown, suddenly created a shortage of farm labourers. To mitigate the effect of shortage of farm labourers and to ensure the timely harvesting of Rabi crops and uninterrupted supply of Farm implements and machinery, Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Ministry in coordination with Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, relaxed the following activities in Agricultural Machinery sector:
- Provision in the Government guidelines that Farming Operations by Farmers and Farm Workers in the field would continue during lock-down.
- Operations of Custom Hiring Centres (CHCs) related to Farm Machinery were relaxed.
- Shops of Agricultural machinery and its spare Parts (Including Supply Chain) and repairs to remain open.
- Seamless, intra and inter State movement of harvesting and sowing related machines like combine harvesters and other agriculture/horticulture implements was ensured.
- Under the Government subsidy programmes, agricultural manufactures were exempted from essential testing related activities like, random selection of test samples, subsequent batch testing after the expiry validity of test reports, updating of CMVR, COP &Type approval applicable to Tractors, Power Tillers, Combine Harvesters and other self-propelled agricultural machinery till 31.12.2020. Testing of tractors as per revised BIS Standard IS 12207-2019 and Implementation of new technical critical specifications of 51 agricultural machineries has also been deferred till 31.12.2020.
- Due to lock-down, closing out of borders and quarantine measures, disrupted the cross border movements of Agricultural machines like combine Harvesters & other agricultural machines across Districts & States. The timely intervention of the M&T Division of the Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Ministry and coordination with the State Nodal officers of Agricultural machineries, District Administration and Agricultural Machinery Manufacturers ensured the free movement of Agricultural machines across the borders.
Pandemic of COVID has ramifying effects even in the lives of migrant labourers who basically migrate temporarily to urban agglomerates in search of jobs. Migrant labourers in large numbers migrated back to their native places due to lock-down and also due to the fear of future uncertainties. Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare rose to the occasion to help such migrant workers. With an objective to enhance their employment opportunities in their local areas, a special drive for Skilling the Migrant Labourers in the field of agricultural machinery under “Aatm Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan/Krishi” has been initiated. Under this campaign, in-house Skilling training programmes in 8 identified job roles/Qualification packs is being organized at Farm Machinery Training and testing Institutes (FMTTIs) at Budni in Madhya Pradesh and Hisar in Haryana. The first batch of the Training has already been started with 56 trainees from Madhya Pradesh at CFMTTI, Budni and 68 trainees from Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh at NRFMTTI, in Hisar. It was also crucial to institutionalize such initiative, therefore, necessary guidelines for Skilling Programmes of migrant labourers have also been incorporated in the operational Guidelines of Sub Mission On Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM). The copy of Operational Guideline is available on the web portal http://farmech.dac.gov.in/
Shri Girish Chandra Murmu assumed office as the Comptroller and Auditor General of India here today. He belongs to Indian Administrative Service of Gujrat cadre (1985 batch). Shri Murmu succeeds Shri Rajiv Mehrishi, who demitted office on Friday. Prior to this, Shri Murmu was the first Lieutenant Governor of Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir.
Honorable President Shri Ram Nath Kovind administered the oath of office and secrecy to Shri Murmu at a function in the Rashtrapati Bhavan this morning. Vice President Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, Finance Minister Smt Nirmala Sitharaman, outgoing CAG Shri Rajiv Mehrishi, were among the dignitaries present at the occasion.
After the oath ceremony, Shri Murmu came to the CAG office, where he was welcomed by the senior officers of the Indian Audit and Accounts Department. He then offered floral tributes at the statues of Mahatma Gandhi and B R Ambedkar at the CAG office.
Before moving to J&K, Shri Murmu served as Joint Secretary in the Department of Expenditure, Additional Secretary in the Department of Financial Services and Department of Revenue and then Special Secretary before serving as full-fledged Secretary of the Department of Expenditure. Before his tenure in Delhi, Shri Murmu has served on important assignments in the State Government of Gujrat. He has wide experience in administrative, economic and infrastructure fields.
https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1644389
Shri Santosh Kumar Gangwar, Minister of State (I/C) for Labour & Employment and Shri Manohar Lal Khattar, Chief Minister of Haryana inaugurated Plasma Bank at ESIC Medical College and Hospital, Faridabad (Haryana) through video conference from Haryana Bhawan, New Delhi late yesterday.
During his address, Shri Gangwar informed that the Plasma bank is a very important facility in the context of treating Covid-19 patients.
Shri Gangwar further said that in this crisis Covid situation, 21 ESIC Hospitals across India have been converted into Dedicated Covid-19 Hospitals. More than 2400 Isolation beds, 550 ICU/HDU beds with 200 ventilators have also been made available in these Hospitals. Quarantine facility (approx. 1300 Beds) has been made functional in 04 ESIC Hospitals at Alwar (Rajasthan), Bihta, Patna (Bihar), Gulbarga (Karnataka) and Korba (Chhattisgarh). Besides, Covid-19 testing facility has been made available at ESIC Hospital, Faridabad (Haryana), Basaidarapur (New Delhi) and Sanathnagar, Hyderabad. Plasma therapy is also being provided at ESIC Hospitals, Faridabad and Sanathnagar, Hyderabad for the treatment of serious patients of COVID-19. Shri Gangwar commended the efforts being made by ESIC, an organisation under his Ministry, to combat COVID-19 and added ESIC has been working continuously since its inception to provide social security to its insured persons in India. In the last 67 years of journey, today, the services of ESIC have been expanded to about 566 districts out of 722 districts. About 12 crore beneficiaries are receiving ESI facilities.
Shri Manohar Lal Khattar, Chief Minister, Haryana informed about the efforts of Haryana Govt. in combating Covid-19 pandemic. He also briefed about the starting of Plasma Therapy in Haryana in 03 different locations, viz. Panchkula, Rohtak and Gurugram. At the end, while concluding his speech, he made an appeal to the COVID recovered patients to come forward and donate their plasmas to save the lives of others.
Immunohematology and Blood transfusion Department, ESIC Medical College & Hospital, Faridabad had started Convalescent Plasma therapy under PLACID Trial with permission from Indian Council Of Medical Research on 20th May 2020. First Plasmapheresis was conducted on 2nd June 2020 and more than 25 procedures have been done till date. Accordingly, first Plasma therapy was done on 8th June 2020 and a total of 35 patients have been given transfusions so far.
Department of Immunohematology and Blood transfusion, ESIC Medical College Faridabad is fully equipped with all the required equipment and manpower with a storage capacity of 400 units at a time and holds a valid License from Drug Controller General of India for Plasmaphaeresis. This Hospital is well equipped to conduct 30 plasmapheresis procedures per day, with 3 Dedicated Apheresis machines already working round the clock in the facility. The Convalescent Plasma is important in view of increase in number of COVID cases.
ESIC Medical College Faridabad is a dedicated 540 bedded COVID Hospital with ICU Beds for the treatment of Covid-19 patients of Haryana. Besides, Covid-19 testing facility has also been made available at ESIC Hospital, Faridabad (Haryana). The medical college is equipped with latest equipments, air conditioned classrooms, labs, etc.
The hospital associated with this medical college is centrally air conditioned with inpatient and outpatient departments and provides treatment facilities through various departments. This hospital is equipped with facilities such as OPD, IPD, Wards, Emergency, Diagnostic Services, Operation Theatres, ICU, CT Scan, MRI and many more for the Insured Persons and their dependents. This Hospital is exclusively run for the benefit of insured persons and their family members covered under ESI Scheme.
Shri Heera Lal Samariya, Secretary, Labour and Employment, Ms. Anuradha Prasad, Director General, ESIC and officers of MoLE, ESIC & Govt. of Haryana also graced the occasion.
https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1644413
According to a statement issued by NTPC Ltd., NTPC Group has achieved over 100 Billion Units (BUs) of cumulative generation in the current financial year, reinforcing group’s commitment towards excellence in operation across its plants.
As per the data published by Central Electricity Authority (CEA), NTPC Korba (2600 MW) in Chattisgarh has emerged as the top performing thermal power plant in India with 97.42% Plant Load Factor (PLF) between April to July 2020.
Exemplary performances were registered by five other flagship power plants of NTPC as well. NTPC Sipat in Chattisgarh (2980 MW), NTPC Rihand (3000 MW) and NTPC Vindhyachal (4760 MW) in Uttar Pradesh, NTPC Talcher Kaniha (3000 MW) and NTPC Talcher Thermal (460 MW) in Odisha featured among the top ten performing thermal power plants in the country based on PLF performance.
Further, two 200 MW units, Unit 4 & Unit 1 of NTPC Singrauli in Uttar Pradesh commissioned way back in January 1984 & June 1982 respectively, achieved highest PLF in the country with 99.90% and 99.87% respectively from April to July'20. This demonstrates the expertise of NTPC in Operation and Maintenance of the power plants and the high levels of operational excellence.
With a total installed capacity of 62.9 GW, NTPC Group has 70 Power stations comprising of 24 Coal, 7 combined cycle Gas/Liquid Fuel, 1 Hydro, 13 Renewables along with 25 Subsidiary & JV Power Stations. The group has over 20 GW of capacity under construction, including 5 GW of renewable energy projects.
https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1644344
0 Comments