Diplomacy

News articles and essays on the Indian diplomacy at work around the world.

Government e-Marketplace Help India Govt. Save 1 Billion Dollars

The Government e-Marketplace is also being used to keep Chinese companies away from government contracts after tensions between the neighbours intensified earlier this year amid border clashes. Suppliers must note the country of origin for any goods they sell on GeM, which helps government departments implement Modi govt’s “Make in India” policy.

E-Gram Swaraj Portal-egramswaraj.gov.in

With a vision to strengthen digitalization in Panchayats for the purpose of empowering rural India, a unified tool e-Gram SWARAJ portal (https://egramswaraj.gov.in/) has been developed by the Ministry for effective monitoring and evaluation of works taken up in the Gram Panchayats.

e-Gram SWARAJ unifies the planning, accounting and monitoring functions of Gram Panchayats. It’s combination with the Area Profiler application, Local Government Directory (LGD) and the Public Financial Management System (PFMS) renders easier reporting and tracking of Gram Panchayat’s activities. It provides a single window for capturing Panchayat information with the complete Profile of the Panchayat, details of Panchayat finances, asset details, activities taken up through Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP), Panchayat information from other Ministries/ Departments such as Census 2011, SECC data, Mission Antyodaya survey report etc.

For the year 2020-21, around 2.43 lakh Gram Panchayats have finalized their GPDP on e-Gram SWARAJ. Further, around 1.24 lakh Gram Panchayats have transacted online using the e-Gram SWARAJ Online Payment Module.

Setback for China as India Makes Random Sampling of Imported LED Products Mandatory

In yet another setback for China, the Government of India has made the random sampling of all imported light-emitting diodes (LED) and control gears for LED products mandatory. According to a new notification issued by the Director-General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), now all LED products being imported from other countries will be subjected to stringent quality tests.