NTPC Ltd, India's largest power producer and a central PSU under Ministry of Power, has invited Global Expression of Interest (EoI) to provide 10 Hydrogen Fuel Cell (FC) based electric buses and an equal number of Hydrogen Fuel Cell based electric cars in Leh and Delhi. The EoI has been issued by NTPC's wholly owned subsidiary, NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam (NVVN) Limited.
The move to procure Hydrogen Fuel Cell based vehicles is first of its kind project in the country, wherein a complete solution from green energy to the fuel cell vehicle would be developed.
The initiative, which has been undertaken with support of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, will also harness renewable energy for generation of hydrogen and develop it's storage and dispensation facilities as part of pilot projects at Leh and Delhi. The move to launch hydrogen powered vehicles aims at decarbonizing mobility segment.
The PSU hasbeen taking various technology initiatives to provide complete e-Mobility solution for public transport including creation of public charging infrastructure and providing electric buses to State/City Transport Undertakings. In this regard, 90 public charging stations in various cities and battery charging and swapping station at Faridabad for e-3-wheelers have already been commissioned. Similarly, e-Bus solution for Andaman & Nicobar Administration is under implementation.
Government of India has been making concerted efforts to facilitate farmers in direct marketing and assure better returns. At the same time the Department issued advisories to maintain social distancing in the mandis to prevent the spread of Corona Virus in the wake of COVID19 pandemic. The States have been requested to promote the concept of ‘Direct marketing’ to facilitate farmers/ group of farmers/FPOs/ Cooperatives in selling their produce to bulk buyers/big retailers/processors etc.
The Union Agriculture Minister Shri Narendra Singh Tomar sent a letter on 16th April, 2020 to the Chief Ministers of States reiterating the need for direct marketing through Cooperatives/ Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) etc and encouraged all the stakeholders and farmers to adopt this process. The Department also issued an advisory to the States to promote direct marketing without insisting for licensing procedures and facilitate the farmers in timely marketing of farm produce.
In order to decongest wholesale markets & to boost the supply chain, following two modules under National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) have been introduced: FPO Module: FPOs can directly trade with e-NAM portal. They can upload produce details from collection centers with picture/quality parameter and avail the bidding facility without physically reaching to the mandis.
Warehouse Based Trading Module: Farmers can sell their produce from Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority (WDRA) registered warehouses notified as deemed market, and do not physically bring the produce to the nearest mandis.
Various States have adopted Direct Marketing and taken several measures: Karnataka exempted Cooperative Institutions and FPOs in the State for engaging in wholesale trade of agricultural produce outside the market yards;
Tamil Nadu exempted market fee on all notified agricultural produce; Uttar Pradesh allowed trading in e-NAM platform from farm gate and promoted issuance of unified licence to processors for direct purchase from farmers and also allowed FPOs to undertake procurement operations of wheat;
Rajasthan allowed direct marketing by traders, processors and FPOs. In addition to that, Primary Agriculture Credit Societies (PACS)/ Large Area Multi-purpose Cooperative Societies (LAMPS) in Rajasthan have been declared as deemed markets.
Apart from Individuals, firms, and processing units, Madhya Pradesh has allowed to set up private purchase centres outside the market–yard to purchase directly from farmers with an application fee of Rs. 500/- only. Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Gujarat have also allowed direct marketing without requirement of any licence.
Uttarakhand has declared Warehouse/Cold storage and Processing plants as sub-mandis. Uttar Pradesh Government has recently relaxed the rules and norms for declaring warehouses/ cold storages as Market-yards.
Rajasthan has issued more than 1,100 direct marketing licences to processors during lockdown period wherein farmers have already started selling directly to the processors. Out of more than 550 PACS declared as market-yards in rural areas, 150 PACS have become functional for direct marketing and village traders are performing trade transactions successfully.
Due to market fee waiver in Tamil Nadu, it was observed that traders have preferred to buy the produce from farmers from their farm gate/ villages.
In Uttar Pradesh direct linkages have been established by FPOs with farmers and traders thereby supplying their produce to consumers in cities which saved wastages and directly benefitted the farmers. Further, the State has facilitated in establishing linkages with FPOs and Zomato Food Delivery App thereby ensuring smooth distribution of veggies to consumers.
In order to distribute one kg of pulses to about 20 crore households for three months in the country, a massive operation for transport and milling of pulses is underway. In order to meet the protein needs of people during this crisis, the Central government had decided to provide one kg of milled and cleaned pulses to each NFSA household for three months under the PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY).
Executed by NAFED under guidance of the Department of consumer affairs of the Central government, this operation entails lifting of un-milled pulses from the godowns of Central / State warehousing corporations, getting the pulses milled or cleaned as per quality standards prescribed by FSSAI and then reaching the milled pulses to the States. Thereafter, the milled pulses are carried to state government godowns and then to PDS shops for distribution.
The millers are selected on the basis of Out Turn Ratio (OTR) bids by NAFED through online auctions. In OTR bidding, empanelled millers are required to quote percentage of milled pulses for every quintal of raw pulse considering the expenses involved in cleaning, milling, packing, transportation both inward and outward. Packing is in 50 kg bags. No milling charges paid to the millers. Millers are grouped in clusters. In producing states, locally available raw material and millers are preferred. All costs in distribution including incidental charges to ration shops are being met by the Central government.
The scale of this operation is massive and far more complex than food grain movement. Each kg of pulse goes through at least three (in many cases four) trips by truck and as many cycles of loading and unloading. While for long distances, transport is being done through goods train, in most cases transportation is by road through trucks. About 8.5 lakh MT of un-milled pulses will be moved in this process to distribute about 5.88LMT milled / cleaned pulses to citizens. Government has allowed use of its stocks lying in about 165 NAFED godowns across the country for this scheme.Over 100 dal mills across the country have been pressed into service by NAFED so far.
Each month, 1.96 LMT of pulses are required to be distributed to NFSA households in the country through rations shops. About three-fourth of the milled / cleaned pulses (over 1.45 LMT) have already been offered to the State governments / UT administrations. Several States that have dal mills within their jurisdictionshave been asked to lift the milled pulses by themselves to speed up the process.
The States and UTs have taken one-third of the monthly requirement to final destinations for distribution. 17 States and UTs, namely - Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Andamans, Chandigarh, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Telangana have begun distribution. Several other States and UTs have decided to distribute pulses along with food grain distribution in the first week of May for reasons of social distancing and public safety. While, as on date, about 30,000 MT of pluses have been distributed, but this would speed up in the first week of May. Many states / UTs, particularly the smaller ones such as Andamans, Chandigarh, Dadra Nagar Haveli, Goa, Ladakh, Puducherry, Lakshadweep and even Punjab have been provided milled / cleaned pulses for all three months in one go.
Department of Consumer Affairs has with the help of Ministry agriculture and farmers’ welfare set up five groups of officers headed by Joint Secretaries to coordinate with States / UTs, NAFED, Dal mills and warehousing corporations. Secretary, agriculture and secretary, consumer affairs have been jointly reviewing progress on daily basis and sort out ground level bottlenecks. The Cabinet Secretary is personally monitoring the distribution on day to day basis.
This is the first time that the department of consumer affairs is carrying such a massive operation of pulses. This operation would involve about two lakh truck trips and loading and unloading operation over a period of 4 weeks. It is ambitious in normal times, but is very challenging during lock down with many of the dal mills and godowns located in the hotspot areas. Managing operations safely in such areas is crucial. In such areas, availability of trucks and labor for loading and unloading has been a huge problem.
The next webinar titled ‘Exploring Pondicherry's French quarter - French Connections’and participants to be held on 27th April 2020 Posted On: 26 APR 2020 12:15PM by PIB Delhi
26th April, 2020The Union Tourism Ministry’s Webinar Series under the banner “Dekho Apna Desh” on 25th April 2020 showcased the potential of ‘Culinary Tourism’ with an episode titled Awadh ki sair- the pride of Lucknow. The webinar presented amazing diverse culinary heritage of Lucknow and was laced with the food trail with some stories from history, textiles and other traditions of Lucknow .
Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers Shri, DV Sadananda Gowda has congratulated the chemicals and petrochemicals industry on becoming the top exporting sector of the country for the first time. He has assured them full support towards making India a leading global hub for manufacturing chemicals and petrochemicals supply quality chemicals to the world.
Due to the prevailing situation arising out of lock-down due to COVID-19, the supply chain management of essential items in the country got disrupted as the passenger airlines, railways and state roadways stopped plying.
Union Minister for Commmunications, Electronics& Information Technology and Law and Justice ,Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad while addressing the senior officers of the Department of Posts ,encouraged the department to think out of the box in the crisis period.
As a result of this encouragement, the idea of starting a road network with the existing fleet of departmental vehicles, primarily used for intra- city delivery , was conceived and a National Road Transport Network was designed with 22 long routes of over 500 km interspersed with 34 interstate/intra-state schedules touching over 75 cities across the country.
This initiative will now ensure that there is a movement of essential items within the country as Department of Posts will be able to deliver parcels carrying essential items anywhere in the country.