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World Food Day
- World Food Day is a day of action dedicated to tackling global hunger.
- The theme of World Food Day 2018 is ‘Our actions are our future – A zero hunger world by 2030 is possible’.
- The Indian Council of Agricultural Research takes action to remove the suffering from hunger and ensure food security and a nutritious diet for all. The focus of the Government of India is that food is a basic need and fundamental human right. Zero hunger could save the lives of 301 million a year, and can help build a safer, more prosperous world for everyone.
Aim:
- The Government of India aims to transform India’s agricultural sector to contribute to the achievements of global environmental objectives.
- A new project has been launched in association with FAO, India office known as ‘Green-agriculture: transforming Indian agriculture for global environmental benefits and the conservation of critical biodiversity and forest landscapes’.
Initiatives taken:
- The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana, a national level programme, was launched to create world-class food processing infrastructure. This is expected to leverage investment of five billion US dollars, benefit two million farmers and generate more than half a million jobs over the next two years.”
- Mega Food Parks aim to link agro-processing clusters with key production centres. This will offer immense value proposition in crops such as potato, pineapple, oranges and apples. Farmers groups are being encouraged to set up units in these parks, thereby reducing wastage and transportation costs, and creating new jobs.”
Central Warehouse and Digital Cash Management System
- Union Minister of State for Chemicals & Fertilizers and Road Transport & Highways, Shipping, Shri Mansukh Mandaviya inaugurated the hi-tech Central Warehouse, setup by the Bureau of Pharma PSUs of India (BPPI).
About:
- The hi-tech Central Warehouse would facilitate seamless distribution of Jan Aushadhi generic medicines to all PMBJP Kendra functional across the country.
- The Minister had inaugurated the Digital Cash Management System for Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana (PMBJP), to be implemented as a partnership between BPPI and Bank of Baroda.
About:
- This System will be implemented at all PMBJP Kendras for purchasing medicines and cashless payment system with BPPI.
- Bank of Baroda will also provide loan to all PMBJP Kendra for purchasing medicines. The cashless transactions will be done only through unique virtual accounts opened by Bank of Baroda for each and every PMBJP Kendra, across the country.
Goa Maritime Symposium – 2018
- The Goa Maritime Symposium – 2018, the second edition of the Goa Maritime Symposium (GSM) – a forum towards fostering friendly relations with the maritime neighbours – was inaugurated by the Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Sunil Lanba PVSM, AVSM, ADC, at INS Mandovi at Goa.
- The “Naval War College Journal”, an academic compendium with ideas and papers from writers and thinkers on maritime strategy and security, was also released on the occasion by the CNS.
Theme:
- The theme of the seminar was “Building Stronger Maritime Partnerships in IOR”.
- The deliberations were focused on capacity building among IOR Navies to tackle emerging maritime threats, in addition to discussing cooperative strategies for enhancing interoperability among partner maritime agencies.
About:
- The GMS was conceptualised and first held in Nov 2016 aimed at establishing academic excellence as well as sharing of ideas among India’s maritime neighbours’ by facilitating interaction between senior representatives of navies and maritime agencies in the IOR.
- It plays a constructive role in bringing together stakeholders involved in evolving strategies, policies and implementation mechanisms in the maritime domain.
Link between agriculture and entrepreneurship
- Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas & Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, on the occasion of World Food Day, attended the Agri-Startup and Entrepreneurship Conclave.
Theme:
- The theme of the conclave was “Unleashing Potentials in Agriculture for Young Entrepreneurs (UPAYA)”.
- The conclave brought together entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers, scientists, farmers, technology developers to create desired awareness and help build a robust entrepreneurial ecosystem, particularly in the Agriculture sector.
Speech:
- Shri Pradhan addressing the conclave applauded the ICAR for giving a new dimension to the World Food Day.
- This has provided an opportunity to the entrepreneurs who have come up with innovative food products and solutions in the agriculture sector, to showcase their innovations and deliberate on this important area.
- Agriculture in India is seeing fundamental shifts, and we have moved from a paradigm of food deficit to food surplus was said by him.
MoU signed between Lady Irwin College & MoRD for Roshni
Context:
- Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihood Mission (DAY-NRLM), Ministry of Rural Development and Lady Irwin College, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for establishing ROSHNI – Centre of Women Collectives led Social Action.
- ROSHNI is technically and financially supported by UNICEF India serving as a technical support unit at national level for DAY-NRLM and is embedded in the Department of Development Communication and Extension, Lady Irwin College, New Delhi.
Aim:
- DAY-NRLM aims to reach out to 8-10 crore rural poor households (based on SECC 2011) in a time bound manner, and, stay engaged with them till they come out of abject poverty.
- It envisions breaking the self-perpetuating cycle of malnutrition- illness- out-of-pocket expenditure for treatment-poverty through its savings and enterprise approach and layering of Food, Health, Nutrition and WASH (FHNW) interventions through Self-help groups (SHG) and their federations.
About:
- DAY-NRLM is MoRD’s nodal agency for implementation of the convergent action plan under the POSHAN Abhiyaan, which in addition to MORD includes the Ministry of Woman and Child Development and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
- The four areas of convergence are – mobilisation for fixed day health, nutrition and WASH camps (Village Health Sanitation and Nutrition Day-VHSND), convergence through behaviour change communication, convergence through common use of infrastructure and promotion of nutri-based livelihoods for women collectives.
About Roshni:
- Roshni aims to work with women collectives for social action on FHNW interventions in alignment with DAY-NRLM Dashasutra strategy and supporting implementation of convergent action plan under POSHAN Abhiyaan.
- Roshni will learn from Swabhimaan and similar models, and extend support to DAY-NRLM for expanding the scope of FHNW interventions.
- The Centre will lead knowledge creation, capacity building for scale-up of convergent action plan, learning and re- learning in Swabhimaan sites and provide policy guidance to DAY-NRLM on POSHAN Abhiyaan initiatives.
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Also See:
| Zero Hunger Programme | Cashless Economy | NRLM |
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