 The Indian Railways has signed MoU with the RailTel, a Mini Ratna Public Sector Undertaking in order to implement Phase II of e-office programme. Also, the Indian Railways is to provide content on demand services in premium, suburban, express and mail trains. |
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 The Union minister for women and child development Smriti Irani launched 3 welfare schemes for women in Goa. The schemes are Yashaswini Scheme for Women Entrepreneurship, Swasthya Sahayak Project and breast cancer screening initiative handheld device facilitating detection of cancer. Under the Yashaswini Scheme for Women Entrepreneurship, the state government provides interest-free loan up to Rs 5 lakh with a tenure of 5 years to self-help groups with repayment starting from the second year and the loan to be paid in four instalments. Under the Swasthya Sahayak scheme, a diagnostic kit will be supplied to primary healthcare workers and Anganwadi workers in the state to help them conduct basic diagnostic tests at people’s doorstep so as to bring an affordable and convenient solution to the common man, who had to stand in queues and wait for days for getting basic diagnostic tests done. The diagnostic kit has been developed by the Public Health Foundation of India, which has partnered with Procter and Gamble to manufacture and supply the kits using corporate social responsibility (CSR) fund. The Union minister handed over the kit to an Anganwadi worker at the function. The kit includes an interface unit, a tablet and the peripheral bag containing all the equipment needed to perform tests for blood pressure, blood sugar, blood haemoglobin and heart rate. Under breast cancer screening initiative the handheld devices the Anganwadi and healthcare workers will screen women for breast cancer, reaching out to the women in rural parts of the state. With the help of such a device, the delivery of health services will become more accessible and affordable, he said and added that 20,000 women would be screened for breast cancer. To mark the launch of the scheme, a cheque for the Rs 5 lakh loan was handed over by Irani to three women’s self-help groups – Umang Selfhelp Group, Salcete; Pheonix Women’s Self-help Group, Valpoi, and Adarsh Sateri Mahila Mandal, Guleli, Sattari. |
 The Government of India has released new performance energy standards for the performance of air conditioners after consulting Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE). The BEE operating under Ministry of Power develop strategies and policies with primary objective of reduction in energy usage. According to BEE, the total air conditioner capacity of India is 80 million tonnes of refrigeration. It is estimated that this will increase to 250 million by 2030. |
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 On January 5, 2020, Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All (UJALA) and LED Street Lighting National Programme (SLNP) marked their fifth anniversary. The schemes were implemented by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL). EESL is a joint venture of PSU operating under Ministry of Power. |
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 On January 1, 2020, the Government Think Tank released its Draft “Model Concession Agreement for Setting Up Medical Colleges under Public Private Partnership” guideline document. Under the guideline the think tank has suggested Public Private Partnership (PPP) model to link private medical colleges and district hospitals. |
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 A Group of Ministers (GoM) has been constituted to to expedite revival plan of BSNL & MTNL. The GoM will fast-track and oversee the implementation of the Rs 69,000 crore revival plan for state-owned telecom corporations BSNL and MTNL. The GoM includes Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, IT and Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. The government had approved a Rs 69,000 crore revival package for BSNL and MTNL which includes merger of the two loss-making firms, monetising their assets and giving VRS to employees. The GoM will expedite the smooth implementation of decisions taken on revival of BSNL and MTNL. |
| Source: The Hindu |
 Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched Atal Bhujal Yojana (ATAL JAL) which aims to improve groundwater management. During the launch, the strategic tunnel under Rohtang Pass was renamed after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The 8.8 km long tunnel is the world’s longest tunnel above an altitude of 3,000 metres. |
| Atal Bhujal Yojana (ATAL JAL) has been designed with the principal objective of strengthening the institutional framework for participatory groundwater management. It aims to bring behavioral changes at the community level for sustainable groundwater resource management in seven States. The 7 states includes Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. The scheme will promote panchayat led ground water management and behavioural change with primary focus on demand side management. The Government has outlaid Rs. 6000 crore for the scheme. Out of the total outlay of Rs. 6000 crore to be implemented over a period of 5 years (2020-21 to 2024-25), 50% shall be in the form of World Bank loan, and to be repaid by the Central Government. The remaining 50% shall be through Central Assistance from regular budgetary support. The entire World Bank’s loan component and Central Assistance will be passed on to the States as Grants. |
| Source: The Press Information Bureau |
 On December 25, 2019, Union Minister of Communication and IT Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad inaugurated “Digital Village Guruwara”. During the launch, it was announced that the Government has planned to offer free Wi-Fi services to all villages till March 2020. |
| Highlights The Government of India has so far connected 1,30,000-gram panchayats through Bharatnet. More than 50,000 Gram Panchayat are yet to be connected. The government is working under the current target that at least 15% of villages are to be digitalized in next four years. The free Wi-Fi services are being announced under Bharatnet project. The GoI in June 2018 announced that all gram panchayats will receive broadband connectivity by 2020. However, the connectivity has been made free now. |
| Bharatnet Project The initiative was launched in 2011. Under the initiative, 100 Mbps speed internet were to be provided to around 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats. The aim is to increase their speed to around 2 to 20 Mbps in the future to all households in rural areas. The project is a National Optical Fibre Network project. It is seen as a major initiative in order to succeed Digital India. It is being implemented by the Ministry of Telecommunications. |
 Centre government is planning to revamp ‘All India Radio’ officially known as ‘Akashvani’ by introducing Digital Radio in India by 2024, when the country will be technologically-equipped for it. The announcement in this regard was made by Union Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Minister Prakash Javadekar at the 2019 Akashvani Annual Awards in New Delhi. |
| Significance All India Radio is an institution which is a part of people’s lives in form of music, news or entertainment and with AIR news commanding huge credibility, as being one of the largest news gathering and dissemination apparatus in world, there is a needs for AIR to stay ahead of competition from private players. Therefore, once Digital Radio is launch by 2024, there will be more clarity as the audio of digital radio will be more clear, and with digital radio having higher reach Akashvani will be heard for longer range. There will also be four times more stations. |
| About All India Radio (AIR) AIR was established in 1936 and is officially known as Akashvani since 1956. It is the national public radio broadcaster of India and is a division of Prasar Bharati, which is India’s largest public broadcasting agency. AIR is sister service of Prasar Bharati’s Doordarshan elevision Network. |
 The government announced Rs 436 crore outlay for skilling 4 lakh professionals in futuristic areas such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, and cybersecurity over the next 3 years. The ”Future Skills PRIME” programme will be jointly rolled out by the information technology ministry and industry body Nasscom and will seek to position the initiative as India stack for digital talent. The programme will increase employability. |
| Source: The Economic Times |
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