October, 2020
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PRESS INFORMATION BUREAU OCTOBER 2020 Atal Tunnel Recently, the Prime Minister inaugurated Atal Tunnel, Rohtang. Atal Tunnel is the longest highway tunnel in the World. The 9.02 Km long tunnel connects Manali to Lahaul-Spiti valley throughout the year. The Tunnel is built with ultra-modern specifications in the Pir Panjal range of Himalayas at an altitude of 3000 Mtrs (10,000 Feet) from the Mean Sea Level (MSL). The tunnel reduces the road distance by 46 Kms between Manali and Leh and the time by about 4 to 5 hours. It has the state of the art electromechanical system including semi transverse ventilation system, SCADA controlled firefighting, illumination and monitoring system. VAIBHAV Summit Prime Minister inaugurated Vaishvik Bhartiya Vaigyanik (VAIBHAV) Summit via video conferencing. The VAIBHAV Summit is a global virtual summit of overseas and resident Indian Researchers and Academicians. The aim of the summit is to bring Indian origin luminaries in academic institutes and R&D organizations across the world and resident counterparts on a single platform to debate upon collaboration mechanisms to strengthen academic and S&T base in India for global development. RAISE 2020 Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and NITI Aayog organized a Global Virtual Summit on Artificial Intelligence (AI), RAISE 2020- ‘Responsible AI for Social Empowerment 2020,’ from October 5-9, 2020. RAISE 2020 is a first of its-kind, global meeting of minds on Artificial Intelligence to drive India's vision and roadmap for social transformation, inclusion and empowerment through responsible AI. Decade of Healthy Ageing (2020-2030) Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare restated commitment of the Government to healthy ageing on the occasion of International Day for Older Persons. Every year 1st October is celebrated as the International Day of Older Persons, as declared by United Nations, to recognize, enable and expand the contributions of older people in their families, communities and societies at large and to raise awareness towards issues of ageing. The Union Health Minister also stated that as 1st October, 2020 is the launch year of Decade of Healthy Ageing (2020-2030), many activities will be undertaken throughout the year, aimed at mainstreaming issues related to elderly and to deliberate upon ways to ensure better and effective delivery of services, making full use of convergence mechanisms. “ The Minister affirmed that the broad aims of the Decade of Healthy Ageing will include evolving convergence within various national health programs and also promoting inter- sectoral coordination with other line Departments/Ministries. Community based organisations, NGOs and multinational agencies will also be involved for developing an implementation framework for multi-sectoral engagement on healthy aging. INDIAN NAVY (IN) - BANGLADESH NAVY (BN) BILATERAL EXERCISE The second edition of Indian Navy (IN) – Bangladesh Navy (BN) Bilateral Exercise Bongosagar was held in Northern Bay of Bengal. Exercise Bongosagar, whose first edition was held in 2019, is aimed at developing inter- operability and joint operational skills through conduct of a wide spectrum of maritime exercises and operations. Upgradation and expansion of Zoos across the country During the celebration of Wildlife Week 2020 Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change said that the government is working towards the upgradation and development of 160 Zoos in Public Private Partnership (PPP) across the country to encourage interaction between wildlife and humans, and help people observe and understand wildlife behaviour more closely. It will help give enhanced experience to the visitors especially the students and children and the future generation in order to nurture the connect between wildlife, nature and humans. On the occasion Minister also launched a report of the CZA-TERI titled “Economic valuation of ecosystem services, National Zoological Park, New Delhi ‘. The report highlights the importance of habitats such as zoos to human wellbeing and the need of replication across India. The study first of its kind in India and perhaps the entire World, pegs the total annual economic value of the ecosystem services (biodiversity conservation, employment generation, carbon sequestration, education and research, recreational and cultural) at around 423 crore (2019-20) whereas, the total value of the one-time cost of services such as carbon storage and land value provided by the zoo is estimated to be around 55,000 crore. PM SVANIDHI Scheme As a part of Prime Minister Street Vendor’s AtmaNibhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) Scheme, Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has entered into an MoU with Swiggy, the leading food ordering and delivery platform in India, to onboard street food vendors on its ecommerce platform, giving them online access to thousands of consumers and help these vendors grow their businesses. In a first of its kind initiative, MoHUA has coordinated with the key stakeholders including Municipal Corporations, fssai, Swiggy and GST officials to ensure that necessary prerequisites are completed for this initiative. The initiative aims to radically transform the business of Street Vendors across cities, by facilitating them to receive orders and serve customers using online mode of business. To begin with, MoHUA and Swiggy will run a pilot program by on-boarding 250 vendors across five cities namely – Ahmadabad, Chennai, Delhi, Indore, and Varanasi. The street vendors will be helped with PAN and FSSAI registration, training on technology/ partner app usage, menu digitization and pricing, hygiene and packaging best practices. Upon the successful completion of the pilot, MoHUA and Swiggy plan to expand this initiative across the country in phases. This partnership is seen as yet another move by MoHUA to empower street vendors with digital technology and facilitate greater income earning opportunities by being present on a popular ecommerce platform like Swiggy. About PM SVANidhi Scheme The Ministry is implementing PM SVANidhi Scheme since June 01, 2020, for providing affordable working capital loan to street vendors to resume their livelihoods that have been adversely affected due to Covid-19 lockdown. The scheme targets to benefit over 50 lakh Street Vendors who had been vending on or before 24 March, 2020, in urban areas including those from surrounding peri-urban/ rural areas. Under the Scheme, the vendors can avail a working capital loan of up to Rs. 10,000, which is repayable in monthly instalments in the tenure of one year. On timely/ early repayment of the loan, an interest subsidy @ 7% per annum will be credited to the bank accounts of beneficiaries through Direct Benefit Transfer on quarterly basis. There will be no penalty on early repayment of loan. Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) The Union Minister of Jal Shakti launched a special mission mode campaign to provide potable piped water supply in all Schools & Anganwadi Centres across the nation within a short span of 100 days. Details National Jal Jeevan Mission has reached out to States/ UTs to ensure that during the campaign, Gram Sabhas are convened at the earliest to pass a resolution for providing safe water in all schools, anganwadi centres and other public institutions in the village in the next 100 days. These facilities will be operated and maintained by the Gram Panchayat and/ or its sub- committee i.e. Village Water & Sanitation Committee or Paani Samiti. The campaign will go a long-way in ensuring safe water supply to our children that will positively impact their health and overall development. This is a befitting tribute to the ‘Father of the Nation’ Mahatma Gandhi on his 151st birth anniversary. About Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) aims at the universal coverage of provision of tap water connection to every rural home by 2024. Under the mission, special focus is on women and children. Ensuring safe water to children is a priority, as they are the most vulnerable to water-borne diseases like diarrhoea, dysentery, cholera, typhoid, etc. Repeated infections due to consumption of unsafe water in their formative years may have adverse effects, resulting in stunting. The situation is much more complex in areas where water sources are found to be contaminated with Arsenic, Fluoride, heavy metals, etc. and prolonged consumption of water having these contaminants may lead to degenerating diseases resulting in serious health problems. The mission holds the potential to tackle all these serious issues and all Gram Panchayat and/ or its sub-committee should participate in this mission to make it a grand success and provide a big boon to the masses in their respective regions, especially the most vulnerable sections of the society. National Startup Awards 2020 The Results of the National Startup Awards 2020 were released by Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry. The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has conceived the National Startup Awards to recognize and reward outstanding Startups and ecosystem enablers that are building innovative products or solutions and scalable enterprises, with high potential of employment generation or wealth creation, demonstrating measurable social impact. The measure of success is not only the financial gains for the investors, but also the contribution to social good. The first edition of the Awards invited applications across 12 sectors, which were further sub-classified into a total of 35 categories. These