Government policies, leadership stories and much more
Considering the present pandemic situation of COVID-19 and for meeting the demand of medical devices, Department of Consumer Affairs, Government of India has permitted the importers of medical devices to import the following categories medical devices for three months from 28.04.2021 onwards,
The Codex Committee on Spices and Culinary Herbs (CCSCH) has finalised and recommended quality standards for four spices; cloves, oregano, basil, and ginger, during its fifth session held virtually from 20th -29th April 2021. The committee forwarded these four new standards to the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) for adoption at final step 8, as full -fledged Codex standards.
India has imposed anti-dumping duty on imports of a chemical used in foam making from four regions, including the EU and Saudi Arabia, for five years to guard domestic players from cheap shipments. The duty was imposed following recommendation of the commerce ministry’s investigation arm Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR), which conducted a probe into alleged dumping of ‘Toluene Di-Isocynate’ from the EU, Saudi Arabia, Chinese Taipei and the UAE.
The decision was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi to discuss the measures needed to improve Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) Supply for COVID management. PM instructed that these Oxygen Concentrators should be procured at the earliest & provided in states with high case burden.
Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare (DAC&FW) is working to identify Traditional Organic Areas to transform them into certified organic production hubs. The Government of India has certified 14,491 ha of such area under Car Nicobar and Nancowry group of islands in UT of A&N Islands. This area becomes the first large contiguous territory to be conferred with organic certification under the ‘Large Area Certification’ (LAC) scheme of the PGS-India (Participatory Guarantee System) certification programme.
For the first time, farmers of Punjab have started receiving payments directly into their bank accounts against sale of their Wheat crop. About Rs 8,180 crore has already been transferred directly into Punjab farmers’ account.
Indian Oil’s Chhotu, 5 kg FTL (Free trade LPG) cylinder does not require customer’s address proof. Customers can avail Indian Oil’s Chhotu cylinders through Indane distributorships, and other point of sales like IndianOil Retail Outlets, Kirana stores, and local supermarkets.
SVAMITVA (Survey of Villages and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Areas) was launched by Prime Minister on 24th April 2020 as a Central Sector Scheme to promote a socio-economically empowered and self-reliant rural India. The Scheme has the potential to transform rural India using modern technical tools of mapping and surveying. It paves the way for using the property as a financial asset by villagers for availing loans and other financial benefits. The Scheme will cover around 6.62 Lakh villages of the entire country during 2021-2025.
Notwithstanding challenges faced by COVID19 pandemic, India’s export of processed food products has witnessed a growth of 26.51%in Rupee term during April-February (2020-21), compared to the same period during the previous year (2019-20).
On Thursday, the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) announced that the number of Atal Pension Yojana (APY) subscribers had surpassed three million by the end of March 2021, with > 79 lakh new subscribers joining the scheme in 2020-21.
