December 24th, 2020, PIB:- Download PDF Here

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Ladakh’s Tso Kar Wetland Complex now a Wetland of International Importance.
2. PM to launch Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY SEHAT to extend coverage to all residents of J&K
3. MISSION SAGAR III - INS KILTAN ARRIVES AT HO CHI MINH CITY
4. TRIFED Signs MoU with MOFPI For Upliftment of Tribal Lives Through the Implementation
 of The PM- FME Scheme.

1. Ladakh’s Tso Kar Wetland Complex now a Wetland of International Importance.

Context:

• India now has forty-two Ramsar sites with the addition of Ladakh’s Tso Kar wetland.

Details about the lake

• The Tso Kar Basin is a high-altitude wetland complex, consisting of two principal waterbodies, Startsapuk Tso, a freshwater lake and Tso Kar itself, a hyper saline lake, situated in the Changthang region of Ladakh, India.
• It is called Tso Kar, meaning white lake, because of the white salt efflorescence found on the margins due to the evaporation of highly saline water.

A major habitat of avian species.

• The Tso Kar Basin is an A1 Category Important Bird Area (IBA) as per BirdLife International and a key staging site in the Central Asian Flyway.
  • A1 category under IBA suggests that the site is known or thought regularly to hold significant numbers of a globally threatened species.
• The site is also one of the most important breeding areas of the Black-necked Crane (Grus nigricollis) in India.
• This IBA is also the major breeding area for Great Crested Grebe (Podicepscristatus), Bar-headed Geese (Anserindicus), Ruddy Shelduck (Tadornaferruginea), Brown-headed Gull (Larusbrunnicephalus), Lesser Sand-Plover (Charadriusmongolus) and many other species.

Ramsar wetland convention

• The aim of the Ramsar list is “to develop and maintain an international network of wetlands which are important for the conservation of global biological diversity and for sustaining human life through the maintenance of their ecosystem components, processes and benefits”.

Significance of wetland

• Wetlands provide a wide range of important resources and ecosystem services such as food, water, fibre, groundwater recharge, water purification, flood moderation, erosion control and climate regulation.
• They are, a major source of water and our main supply of freshwater comes from an array of wetlands which help soak rainfall and recharge groundwater.

2. PM to launch Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY SEHAT to extend coverage to all residents of J&K

Context:

• The launch of the Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY SEHAT by the Prime Minister of India via video-conferencing.

Background:

• PM-JAY is a health insurance which is fully financed by the central government.
• It provides a cover of Rs 500,000 per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation across public and private empanelled hospitals in India.
• The benefit of Rs 5,00,000 is on a family floater basis, which means that it can be used by one or all members of the family. The RSBY had a family cap of five members. However, based on learnings from those schemes, PM-JAY has been designed in such a way that there is no cap on family size or age of members.
• PM-JAY provides cashless access to health care services for the beneficiary at the point of service, that is, the hospital. PM-JAY envisions to help mitigate catastrophic expenditure on medical treatment which pushes nearly 6 crore Indians into poverty each year.

Details:

• SEHAT scheme stands for Social, Endeavour for Health and Telemedicine, a health insurance scheme for the Union Territory.
• The Scheme provides free of cost insurance cover to all the residents of the UT of J&K.
• It provides financial cover up to Rs.5 Lakh per family on a floater basis to all residents of the UT of J&K.
• It provides for an operational extension of PM-JAY to 15 lakh (approximately) additional families.

Benefits of the scheme

• The scheme will ensure Universal Health Coverage and focus on providing financial risk protection and ensuring quality and affordable essential health services to all individuals and communities.
• The scheme will operate on insurance mode in convergence with PM-JAY.
• The benefits of the scheme will be portable across the country.
• The hospitals empanelled under PM-JAY scheme are obliged to provide services under this scheme as well.

3. MISSION SAGAR III – INS KILTAN ARRIVES AT HO CHI MINH CITY

Context:

• Indian Naval Ship Kiltam reached the shores of Vietnamese city as a part of Mission Sagar-III.

Details:

• Mission Sagar’ was India’s initiative to deliver Covid-19 related assistance to the countries in the Indian Ocean Littoral States

Mission Sagar-III

• Mission Sagar-III is being undertaken in accordance with Prime Minister’s vision of SAGAR (Security And Growth for All in the Region)
• The mission reiterates India’s position as a dependable partner, and the Indian Navy as the Preferred Security Partner and First Responder.
• The Mission also highlights the importance accorded to ASEAN countries and further strengthens the existing bonds.

India-Vietnam bilateral relationship.

• India and Vietnam have a civilizational relationship that is over two millenniums old.
• The bilateral relations have grown stronger in recent times due to the vibrant economic engagement and growing convergence on issues of common interests.
• The bilateral relations were elevated to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2016.

Mission Sagar-I

• Indian Naval Ship Kesari delivered food and humanitarian aid.
• It reached out to five Indian Ocean countries– Maldives, Mauritius, Madagascar, Comoros and Seychelles

Mission Sagar-II

• Indian Naval Ship Airavat as part of ‘Mission Sagar-II’, delivered food aid to Sudan, South Sudan, Djibouti and Eritrea.
• The Government of India is providing assistance to friendly foreign countries to overcome natural calamities and COVID-19 pandemic.

4. TRIFED Signs MoU with MOFPI For Upliftment of Tribal Lives Through the Implementation of The PM- FME Scheme.

Context:

• The Union Minister for Food Processing Industries virtually inaugurated the capacity building component of the Pradhan Mantri Formalisation of Micro food processing Enterprises scheme (PM-FME Scheme) and also launched the GIS One District One Product (ODOP) digital map of India.

Details of the PM-FME scheme

• Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI), in partnership with the State/ UT Governments, has launched an all India Centrally Sponsored PM Formalisation of Micro food processing Enterprises Scheme (PM FME Scheme)
• The scheme aims for providing financial, technical and business support for upgradation of existing micro food processing enterprises

Objectives:

(i) Increase access to finance

(ii) Increase in revenues of target enterprises

(iii) Enhanced compliance with food quality and safety standards

(iv) Strengthening capacities of support systems

(v) Special focus on Women entrepreneurs and Aspirational Districts

(vi) Encourage Waste to Wealth activities

(vii) Focus on minor forest produce in Tribal Districts

(viii) Transition from the unorganized sector to the formal sector

TRIFED

• The Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India (TRIFED) was established in 1987, under the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, 1984.
• This body works for the social and economic development of the tribal people of the country.
• It is administered by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.

TRIFED initiative

• TRIFED under Ministry of Tribal Affairs has been looking to identify prospective convergences and partnerships with organisations which are like-minded.
• This will help in forging cooperation with the central goal of tribal empowerment and improving their livelihoods.
• In this regard, TRIFED has started tying up with government departments and other like-minded organisations.
• TRIFED has aligned with is Minister of Food Processing (MoFPI). MoFPI is implementing the Prime Minister Formalisation of Micro food processing Enterprises (PM-FME) Scheme.
• The FME scheme is a landmark initiative under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan to support micro-level food entrepreneurs, FPOs, SHGs and co-operatives. An important component of this scheme is the tribal sub-plan.

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December 24th, 2020, PIB:- Download PDF Here