Fourth Edition of The National Public Procurement Conclave Inaugurated

IN NEWS

• The Fourth edition of the National Public Procurement Conclave [NPPC], organized by Government e Marketplace [GeM], in association with the Confederation of Indian Industry [CII] for two days, was inaugurated online by Shri PiyushGoyal, Union Commerce and Industry & Railways Minister
• The theme of NPPC is “Technology enabled Government Procurement – Towards efficiency, transparency, and inclusiveness”.

ABOUT

• GeM is a short form of one stop Government e-Market Place hosted by DGS&D where common user goods and services can be procured. GeM is dynamic, self-sustaining and user friendly portal for making procurement by Government officers.
• Public procurement forms a very important part of Government activity and reform in Public Procurement is one of the top priorities of the present Government.
• Government e-Marketplace (GeM - gem.gov.in) is a very bold step of the Government with the aim to transform the way in which procurement of goods and services is done by the Government Ministries and Departments, Public Sector Undertakings and other apex autonomous bodies of the Central Government.

FEATURES OF GEM

• Transparency-GeM eliminates human interface in vendor registration, order placement and payment processing, to a great extent. Being an open platform, GeM offers no entry barriers to bonafide suppliers who wish to do business with the Government their feet by restructuring their credits so that they can repay them easily and make a fresh start.
• Efficiency- Direct purchase on GeM can be done in a matter of minutes and the entire process in online, end to end integrated and with online tools for assessing price reasonability.
• Secure and safe- GeM is a completely secure platform and all the documents on GeM are e-Signed at various stages by the buyers and sellers.
• Potential -On GeM, the filters for selecting goods which are Preferential Market Access (PMA) compliant and those manufactured by Small Scale Industries (SSI), enables the Government buyers to procure Make in India and SSI goods very easily.
• Savings -The transparency, efficiency and ease of use of the GeM portal has resulted in a substantial reduction in prices on GeM, in comparison to the tender, rate Contract and direct purchase rates.

Mauritius Declares Emergency as Stranded Ship Spills Fuel

IN NEWS

• The Indian Ocean island of Mauritius declared a "state of environmental emergency" late Friday after a Japanese-owned ship that ran aground offshore days ago began spilling tons of fuel.

ABOUT

• Mauritius officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) off the south-east coast of the African continent.
• It includes the eponymous main island of Mauritius and Rodrigues, Agaléga and St. Brandon. The islands of Mauritius and Rodrigues form part of the Mascarene Islands, along with nearby Réunion, a French overseas department.
• The capital and largest city, Port Louis, is located on Mauritius, where most of the population is concentrated.

OIL SPILL

• The government on Saturday declared an environmental emergency as satellite images showed a dark slick spreading in the turquoise waters near wetlands that the government called "very sensitive".
• French President Emmanuel Macron announced that his country will help from the neighboring island of Reunion, a French overseas territory.

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

• When there are oil spills in the ocean or freshwater, it does not blend with the water.
• This layer, called a slick, expands until the oil layer is extremely thin and can spread hundreds of miles wide. This layer is called a sheen and is usually less than 0.01 mm thick. This can block sunlight from reaching oceanic environments, which can severely impact producers and, thus, the entire food chain of an ecosystem.
• Marine and coastal life can be contaminated in a number of ways, through poison by ingestion, destruction of habitat and direct contact with oil.

COMMON METHOD USED TO CONTROL OIL SPILL

• Oil booms are the most common and popular equipment used in oil clean-up due to their simpler design and easier execution.
• Once the oil is bounded by oil booms, it can be extracted or skimmed easily with the help of skimmers or oil scoops. These skimmers are fitted onto boats to remove the floating oil or greasy contaminants.
• Materials that can adsorb or absorb liquids are termed as sorbents. The use of sorbents is a natural process of oil clean-up. The most common types of sorbents are peat moss, vermiculite (straw), and hay.
• It is similar to burning rice husk after yielding rice crop. In this method, the floating oil is set to fire by igniting it safely. It is the most proficient method of oil clean-up, as it can efficiently remove 98% of the total spilled oil.
• When oil cannot be confined to booms, the last option that remains is oil disintegration. Dispersals are chemicals spread over the spilled oil to initiate the disintegration of oil.

Agriculture Infrastructure Fund

Why in NEWS?

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 09th August 2020, launched Rs 1 lakh crore financing facility under the Agricultural Infrastructure Fund.

About

• Facility is launched for startups, agri-entrepreneurs, agri-tech players, and farmer groups for post-harvest management and fostering farm assets.
• Prime Minister also released the sixth installment of Rs 17,000 crore funds to 8.5 crore farmers under the PM-KISAN (Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi) scheme.

Agri-Infra Fund

• The new agri-infra fund, the duration of which will be 10 years till 2029, aims to provide medium-to-long term debt financing facility for investment in viable projects for post-harvest management infrastructure and community farming assets through interest subvention and financial support.
• About Rs 1 lakh crore will be sanctioned under the financing facility in partnership with multiple lending institutions as loans to primary agri-credit societies, farmer groups, farmer producer organisations (FPOs), agri-entrepreneurs, startups and agri-tech players.
• It will be provided for setting up of cold stores and chains, warehousing, silos, assaying, grading and packaging units, e-marketing points linked to e-trading platforms and ripening chambers, besides PPP projects for crop aggregation sponsored by central/state/local bodies.
• Loans will be disbursed in four years starting with sanction of Rs. 10,000 crore in the current year and Rs. 30,000 crore each in next three financial years.
• Moratorium for repayment may vary subject to minimum of 6 months and maximum of 2 years.
• Loans will have interest subvention of 3% per annum up to a limit of Rs. 2 crore. This subvention will be available for a maximum period of seven years.
• Credit guarantee coverage will be available for eligible borrowers from the scheme under Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) scheme for a loan up to Rs. 2 crore.
• It will be managed and monitored through an online Management Information System (MIS) platform
• In case of FPOs the credit guarantee may be availed from the facility created under FPO promotion scheme.

PM-KISAN scheme

• Under this scheme by Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare, Government is providing annually Rs 6,000 in three equal installments to 14 crore farmers, directly transferred into the bank accounts of the beneficiaries through direct benefit transfer (DBT) mode.
• It intends to supplement the financial needs of the Small and Marginal Farmers (SMFs) in procuring various inputs to ensure proper crop health and appropriate yields, commensurate with the anticipated farm income at the end of each crop cycle.

e-Sanjeevani

Why in NEWS?

• Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan lauded the contribution of States in popularising e-Sanjeevani in a short span of time since November last year.

About E-Sanjeevani

• It is the Tele-Medicine platform rolled out by Health Ministry.
• E-Sanjeevani platform has enabled two types of telemedicine services - Doctor-to-Doctor (e-Sanjeevani) and Patient-to-Doctor (e-Sanjeevani OPD) Tele-consultations.
• Tele-consultation by e-Sanjeevani and e-Sanjeevani OPD have been implemented by 23 States, which covers 75 percent of the population.
• It is planned to implement tele-consultation in all the 1.5 lakh Health and Wellness Centres (as spokes) in a ‘Hub and Spoke’ model, by December 2022.

Telemedicine

• It is the delivery of healthcare services, where distance is a critical factor, by all healthcare professionals using information and communication technologies for the exchange of valid information for diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease and injuries, research and evaluation, and for the continuing education of healthcare providers.
• Telemedicine translates to ‘healing at a distance’, is considered to be the remote diagnosis and treatment of patients by means of telecommunications technology. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic Centre’s recent guidelines allowing for widespread use of telemedicine services came as a great push for telehealth crusaders in the country
• It is an umbrella term to encompass health care delivery in addition to education, research, health surveillance, and public health promotion.
• National telemedicine service has completed more than 1,50,000 tele-consultations enabling patient to doctor consultations from the confines of their home.
• Government has started implementing the vision of Digital India through broadband and mobile phones at the Ayushman Bharat - Health and Wellness Centres.
• With the cooperation of States and UTs, and a pool of selfless and medical practitioners and specialists, healthcare services have been provided through tele-medicine platforms such as e-Sanjeevani which has substantially augmented the health infrastructure during the COVID pandemic.