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1)Government to promote AYUSH and National AYUSH Mission:-

• Behavior Change Communication (BCC) has been included as a strategy of Mass Media Communication incorporating AYUSH strengths in early prevention of diseases through promotion of healthy diet and life style to be adopted by the community which will be advocated by the states.
• Public Health Outreach activity has been included to focus on increasing awareness about AYUSH’s strength in solving community health problems resulting from nutritional deficiencies, epidemics and vector-borne diseases, Maternal and Child Health Care
• AYUSH Gram is a concept wherein one village per block is selected for adoption of method and practice of AYUSH way of life and interventions of health care.
• In AYUSH village AYUSH based lifestyles are promoted through behavioral change communication, training of village health workers towards identification and use of local medicinal herbs and provision of AYUSH health services.

National AYUSH Mission:-

Vision:-

a. To provide cost-effective and equitable AYUSH health care throughout the country by improving access to the services.

b.To revitalize and strengthen the AYUSH systems making them as prominent medical streams in addressing the health care of the society.

c.To improve educational institutions capable of imparting quality AYUSH AYUSH education

d.To promote the adoption of Quality standards of AYUSH drugs and making available the sustained supply of AYUSH raw-materials. 

Objectives:

a.To provide cost-effective AYUSH Services, with a universal access through upgrading AYUSH Hospitals and Dispensaries, co-location of AYUSH facilities at Primary Health Centres (PHCs), Community Health Centres (CHCs) and District Hospitals (DHs).

b.To strengthen institutional capacity at the state level through upgrading AYUSH educational institutions, State Govt. ASU&H Pharmacies, Drug Testing Laboratories and ASU & H enforcement mechanism.

c.Support cultivation of medicinal plants by adopting Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) so as to provide sustained supply of quality raw-materials and support certification mechanism for quality standards, Good Agricultural/Collection/Storage Practices.

d.Support setting up of clusters through convergence of cultivation, warehousing, value addition and marketing and development of infrastructure for entrepreneurs.

Mandatory Components of the Mission:-

 a.      AYUSH Services

b.      AYUSH Educational Institutions

c.       Quality Control of ASU &H Drugs

d.      Medicinal Plants

Flexible Components:-

1. AYUSH Wellness Centres including Yoga & Naturopathy
2. Tele-medicine
3. Sports Medicine through AYUSH
4. Innovations in AYUSH including Public Private Partnership
5. Interest subsidy component for Private AYUSH educational Institutions
6. Reimbursement of Testing charges
7. IEC activities
8. Research & Development in areas related to Medicinal Plants
9. Voluntary certification scheme: Project based.
10. Market Promotion, Market intelligence & buy back interventions
11. Crop Insurance for Medicinal Plants

Expected Outcome:

 a.Improvement in AYUSH education through enhanced number of AYUSH Educational Institutions upgraded.

b.Better access to AYUSH services through increased number of AYUSH Hospital and Dispensaries coverage, availability of drugs and manpower.

c. Sustained availability of quality raw-materials for AYUSH Systems of Medicine.

d.Improved availability of quality ASU &H drugs through increase in the number of quality Pharmacies and Drug Laboratories and enforcement mechanism of ASU&H drugs.

There are three autonomous organizations under Ministry of AYUSH namely, CentralCouncil for Research in Yoga & Naturopathy (CCRYN), Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga (MDNY) & National Institute of Naturopathy(NIN), Pune.

These are engaged in various activities relating to Yoga & Naturopathy, including treatment of patients through these systems. The treatment includes Hydrotherapy, Mud therapy, Massage & Manipulative Therapy,Counseling diet & fasting, Acupuncture, acupressure, solar/chromo therapy, magneto therapy, physiotherapy& various Yoga techniques/ asanas.

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2)National Crop Insurance Programme:-

News:- Due to lack of awareness among farmers , they are unable to avail this facility , hence Govt. is planning to promote through various platforms of advertisement and asked the states to do so.

‘National Crop Insurance Programme’ (NCIP) has been introduced by merging Modified National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (MNAIS), Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (WBCIS) and Coconut Palm Insurance Scheme (CPIS) throughout the country

NCIP has been introduced to provide financial support to the farmers for losses in their crop yield, to help in maintaining flow of agricultural credit, to encourage farmers to adopt progressive farming practices and higher technology in Agriculture and thereby, to help in maintaining production, employment & economic growth.

Besides, farmers are also benefited due to: –

• coverage of indemnity for prevented sowing/planting risk and post harvest losses (due to cyclone in coastal areas),

• higher level of indemnity and more proficient basis for calculation of threshold yield,

• faster settlement of claims due to provision for making  50% advance of likely claims under MNAIS component (Modified National Agricultural Insurance Scheme) for immediate relief to the farmers, etc.

• To encourage the State Governments to implement the scheme at village/ village panchayat level, a provision to reimburse 50% of incremental expenses on Crop Cutting Experiments has been made in the scheme.

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3)The Two KayaKalps:-

1. Kayakalp –Award to Public Health facilities has been launched on 15th May 2015, as a national initiative to promote cleanliness, hygiene and infection control practices in public health facilities. Under this initiative public healthcare facilities shall be appraised and such public healthcare facilities that show exemplary performance meeting standards of protocols of cleanliness, hygiene and infection control will receive awards and commendation.
2. Kayakalp:- Another Kayakalp is the Innovation Council of Railway , which looks after and recommends  on improving the railway infrastructure and services..Currently it is headed by Ratan Tata.

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4)National Mission for Electric Mobility  :-

Government of India approved the National Mission on Electric Mobility in 2011 and subsequently National Electric Mobility Mission Plan 2020 was unveiled in 2013

As part of the mission, Department of Heavy Industries has formulated a scheme namely FAME – India (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India).

The scheme will provide a major push for creation of a viable ecosystem of both hybrid and electric technologies vehicles in the country

Analysis:-

Electric Mobility is a great mission  and many see it as a powerful initiative towards “GREEN INDIA” , however the question that we often don’t ask is – how GREEN is the so-called “GREEN AUTOMOBILES/ELECTRIC AUTOMOBILES”  ?

One buys an electric car thinking that it will contribute less towards to pollution – will it ?

To answer that 2 important understanding we have to reach :-

1. Electric automobile are powered by electricity – but what powers the electricity  ?– In India, majority of our electricity is thermal/Coal. That means , if you buy an electric car then chances are that ,you are as polluting as other .It is just that the pollution is done somewhere else – at the thermal plant region.
2. Electric cars are powered by Lithium batteries , and Lithium is quite hazardous to environment if not disposed properly. So to say, electric cars can cause damage to environment through lithium poisoning and exposure to lithium is quite damaging to human health too.

So from the above two facts , it is clear that , unless we change our energy mix altogether , electric automobile won’t bring any substantial change to the pollution we cause.

Then – Why Government is promoting it as a Mission ?

The answer to that lies in the below fact :-

Pure electric vehicle produces around 35%~45% lower CO2 as compared to equivalent gasoline vehicle in India based on the fact that most of electricity produced is obtained predominantly from coal, natural gas and oil (75%~85%). In future in view of more and more renewable energy based electricity production in the country, electric vehicles are going to emit lesser CO2 on a Well-to-Wheel basis.

But , then there is Lithium Poisoning, which has to be addressed , if we really want to go “GREEN”

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5)Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) – ‘Nishant’

• Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has developed Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) – ‘Nishant’ and the same has been inducted in Army. Also, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) has initiated activities for the design, development and manufacture of UAVs.
• UAV are the most advanced systems for obtaining the real-time imagery of the ground and is useful in the internal security scenario. Presently, CRPF has a holding of 10 Micro-UAVs (NETRA) which have been deployed in LWE affected states, including Chhattisgarh

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Questions to be answered (150-200 words)

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1. Do you think  carrying out airstrikes/UAV bombings  to fight terrorism and counter-insurgency is ethical (Sending a machine to kill a man) ?
2. What is your view on the so-called “GREEN ELECTRIC VEHICLES” ? Should it be promoted?
3. Do you think Crop insurance can really help the farmer ? Can it help contain ‘farmer suicide’?What are bottlenecks of National Crop Insurance Policy?
4. What is AYUSH ? Do you think it can help the  public health profile of India?

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