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:-
- AYUSH Wellness Centres including Yoga & Naturopathy
- Tele-medicine
- Sports Medicine through AYUSH
- Innovations in AYUSH including Public Private Partnership
- Interest subsidy component for Private AYUSH educational Institutions
- Reimbursement of Testing charges
- IEC activities
- Research & Development in areas related to Medicinal Plants
- Voluntary certification scheme: Project based.
- Market Promotion, Market intelligence & buy back interventions
- 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.
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.
3)The Two KayaKalps:-
- 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.
- 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.
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 :-
- 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.
- 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”
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
Questions to be answered (150-200 words)
- Do you think carrying out airstrikes/UAV bombings to fight terrorism and counter-insurgency is ethical (Sending a machine to kill a man) ?
- What is your view on the so-called “GREEN ELECTRIC VEHICLES” ? Should it be promoted?
- Do you think Crop insurance can really help the farmer ? Can it help contain ‘farmer suicide’?What are bottlenecks of National Crop Insurance Policy?
- What is AYUSH ? Do you think it can help the public health profile of India?
Recent Posts
Petrol in India is cheaper than in countries like Hong Kong, Germany and the UK but costlier than in China, Brazil, Japan, the US, Russia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, a Bank of Baroda Economics Research report showed.
Rising fuel prices in India have led to considerable debate on which government, state or central, should be lowering their taxes to keep prices under control.
The rise in fuel prices is mainly due to the global price of crude oil (raw material for making petrol and diesel) going up. Further, a stronger dollar has added to the cost of crude oil.
Amongst comparable countries (per capita wise), prices in India are higher than those in Vietnam, Kenya, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Venezuela. Countries that are major oil producers have much lower prices.
In the report, the Philippines has a comparable petrol price but has a per capita income higher than India by over 50 per cent.
Countries which have a lower per capita income like Kenya, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Venezuela have much lower prices of petrol and hence are impacted less than India.
“Therefore there is still a strong case for the government to consider lowering the taxes on fuel to protect the interest of the people,” the report argued.
India is the world’s third-biggest oil consuming and importing nation. It imports 85 per cent of its oil needs and so prices retail fuel at import parity rates.
With the global surge in energy prices, the cost of producing petrol, diesel and other petroleum products also went up for oil companies in India.
They raised petrol and diesel prices by Rs 10 a litre in just over a fortnight beginning March 22 but hit a pause button soon after as the move faced criticism and the opposition parties asked the government to cut taxes instead.
India imports most of its oil from a group of countries called the ‘OPEC +’ (i.e, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Russia, etc), which produces 40% of the world’s crude oil.
As they have the power to dictate fuel supply and prices, their decision of limiting the global supply reduces supply in India, thus raising prices
The government charges about 167% tax (excise) on petrol and 129% on diesel as compared to US (20%), UK (62%), Italy and Germany (65%).
The abominable excise duty is 2/3rd of the cost, and the base price, dealer commission and freight form the rest.
Here is an approximate break-up (in Rs):
a)Base Price | 39 |
b)Freight | 0.34 |
c) Price Charged to Dealers = (a+b) | 39.34 |
d) Excise Duty | 40.17 |
e) Dealer Commission | 4.68 |
f) VAT | 25.35 |
g) Retail Selling Price | 109.54 |
Looked closely, much of the cost of petrol and diesel is due to higher tax rate by govt, specifically excise duty.
So the question is why government is not reducing the prices ?
India, being a developing country, it does require gigantic amount of funding for its infrastructure projects as well as welfare schemes.
However, we as a society is yet to be tax-compliant. Many people evade the direct tax and that’s the reason why govt’s hands are tied. Govt. needs the money to fund various programs and at the same time it is not generating enough revenue from direct taxes.
That’s the reason why, govt is bumping up its revenue through higher indirect taxes such as GST or excise duty as in the case of petrol and diesel.
Direct taxes are progressive as it taxes according to an individuals’ income however indirect tax such as excise duty or GST are regressive in the sense that the poorest of the poor and richest of the rich have to pay the same amount.
Does not matter, if you are an auto-driver or owner of a Mercedes, end of the day both pay the same price for petrol/diesel-that’s why it is regressive in nature.
But unlike direct tax where tax evasion is rampant, indirect tax can not be evaded due to their very nature and as long as huge no of Indians keep evading direct taxes, indirect tax such as excise duty will be difficult for the govt to reduce, because it may reduce the revenue and hamper may programs of the govt.
Globally, around 80% of wastewater flows back into the ecosystem without being treated or reused, according to the United Nations.
This can pose a significant environmental and health threat.
In the absence of cost-effective, sustainable, disruptive water management solutions, about 70% of sewage is discharged untreated into India’s water bodies.
A staggering 21% of diseases are caused by contaminated water in India, according to the World Bank, and one in five children die before their fifth birthday because of poor sanitation and hygiene conditions, according to Startup India.
As we confront these public health challenges emerging out of environmental concerns, expanding the scope of public health/environmental engineering science becomes pivotal.
For India to achieve its sustainable development goals of clean water and sanitation and to address the growing demands for water consumption and preservation of both surface water bodies and groundwater resources, it is essential to find and implement innovative ways of treating wastewater.
It is in this context why the specialised cadre of public health engineers, also known as sanitation engineers or environmental engineers, is best suited to provide the growing urban and rural water supply and to manage solid waste and wastewater.
Traditionally, engineering and public health have been understood as different fields.
Currently in India, civil engineering incorporates a course or two on environmental engineering for students to learn about wastewater management as a part of their pre-service and in-service training.
Most often, civil engineers do not have adequate skills to address public health problems. And public health professionals do not have adequate engineering skills.
India aims to supply 55 litres of water per person per day by 2024 under its Jal Jeevan Mission to install functional household tap connections.
The goal of reaching every rural household with functional tap water can be achieved in a sustainable and resilient manner only if the cadre of public health engineers is expanded and strengthened.
In India, public health engineering is executed by the Public Works Department or by health officials.
This differs from international trends. To manage a wastewater treatment plant in Europe, for example, a candidate must specialise in wastewater engineering.
Furthermore, public health engineering should be developed as an interdisciplinary field. Engineers can significantly contribute to public health in defining what is possible, identifying limitations, and shaping workable solutions with a problem-solving approach.
Similarly, public health professionals can contribute to engineering through well-researched understanding of health issues, measured risks and how course correction can be initiated.
Once both meet, a public health engineer can identify a health risk, work on developing concrete solutions such as new health and safety practices or specialised equipment, in order to correct the safety concern..
There is no doubt that the majority of diseases are water-related, transmitted through consumption of contaminated water, vectors breeding in stagnated water, or lack of adequate quantity of good quality water for proper personal hygiene.
Diseases cannot be contained unless we provide good quality and adequate quantity of water. Most of the world’s diseases can be prevented by considering this.
Training our young minds towards creating sustainable water management systems would be the first step.
Currently, institutions like the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M) are considering initiating public health engineering as a separate discipline.
To leverage this opportunity even further, India needs to scale up in the same direction.
Consider this hypothetical situation: Rajalakshmi, from a remote Karnataka village spots a business opportunity.
She knows that flowers, discarded in the thousands by temples can be handcrafted into incense sticks.
She wants to find a market for the product and hopefully, employ some people to help her. Soon enough though, she discovers that starting a business is a herculean task for a person like her.
There is a laborious process of rules and regulations to go through, bribes to pay on the way and no actual means to transport her product to its market.
After making her first batch of agarbathis and taking it to Bengaluru by bus, she decides the venture is not easy and gives up.
On the flipside of this is a young entrepreneur in Bengaluru. Let’s call him Deepak. He wants to start an internet-based business selling sustainably made agarbathis.
He has no trouble getting investors and to mobilise supply chains. His paperwork is over in a matter of days and his business is set up quickly and ready to grow.
Never mind that the business is built on aggregation of small sellers who will not see half the profit .
Is this scenario really all that hypothetical or emblematic of how we think about entrepreneurship in India?
Between our national obsession with unicorns on one side and glorifying the person running a pakora stall for survival as an example of viable entrepreneurship on the other, is the middle ground in entrepreneurship—a space that should have seen millions of thriving small and medium businesses, but remains so sparsely occupied that you could almost miss it.
If we are to achieve meaningful economic growth in our country, we need to incorporate, in our national conversation on entrepreneurship, ways of addressing the missing middle.
Spread out across India’s small towns and cities, this is a class of entrepreneurs that have been hit by a triple wave over the last five years, buffeted first by the inadvertent fallout of demonetization, being unprepared for GST, and then by the endless pain of the covid-19 pandemic.
As we finally appear to be reaching some level of normality, now is the opportune time to identify the kind of industries that make up this layer, the opportunities they should be afforded, and the best ways to scale up their functioning in the shortest time frame.
But, why pay so much attention to these industries when we should be celebrating, as we do, our booming startup space?
It is indeed true that India has the third largest number of unicorns in the world now, adding 42 in 2021 alone. Braving all the disruptions of the pandemic, it was a year in which Indian startups raised $24.1 billion in equity investments, according to a NASSCOM-Zinnov report last year.
However, this is a story of lopsided growth.
The cities of Bengaluru, Delhi/NCR, and Mumbai together claim three-fourths of these startup deals while emerging hubs like Ahmedabad, Coimbatore, and Jaipur account for the rest.
This leap in the startup space has created 6.6 lakh direct jobs and a few million indirect jobs. Is that good enough for a country that sends 12 million fresh graduates to its workforce every year?
It doesn’t even make a dent on arguably our biggest unemployment in recent history—in April 2020 when the country shutdown to battle covid-19.
Technology-intensive start-ups are constrained in their ability to create jobs—and hybrid work models and artificial intelligence (AI) have further accelerated unemployment.
What we need to focus on, therefore, is the labour-intensive micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME). Here, we begin to get to a definitional notion of what we called the mundane middle and the problems it currently faces.
India has an estimated 63 million enterprises. But, out of 100 companies, 95 are micro enterprises—employing less than five people, four are small to medium and barely one is large.
The questions to ask are: why are Indian MSMEs failing to grow from micro to small and medium and then be spurred on to make the leap into large companies?
At the Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship (GAME), we have advocated for a National Mission for Mass Entrepreneurship, the need for which is more pronounced now than ever before.
Whenever India has worked to achieve a significant economic milestone in a limited span of time, it has worked best in mission mode. Think of the Green Revolution or Operation Flood.
From across various states, there are enough examples of approaches that work to catalyse mass entrepreneurship.
The introduction of entrepreneurship mindset curriculum (EMC) in schools through alliance mode of working by a number of agencies has shown significant improvement in academic and life outcomes.
Through creative teaching methods, students are encouraged to inculcate 21st century skills like creativity, problem solving, critical thinking and leadership which are not only foundational for entrepreneurship but essential to thrive in our complex world.
Udhyam Learning Foundation has been involved with the Government of Delhi since 2018 to help young people across over 1,000 schools to develop an entrepreneurial mindset.
One pilot programme introduced the concept of ‘seed money’ and saw 41 students turn their ideas into profit-making ventures. Other programmes teach qualities like grit and resourcefulness.
If you think these are isolated examples, consider some larger data trends.
The Observer Research Foundation and The World Economic Forum released the Young India and Work: A Survey of Youth Aspirations in 2018.
When asked which type of work arrangement they prefer, 49% of the youth surveyed said they prefer a job in the public sector.
However, 38% selected self-employment as an entrepreneur as their ideal type of job. The spirit of entrepreneurship is latent and waiting to be unleashed.
The same can be said for building networks of successful women entrepreneurs—so crucial when the participation of women in the Indian economy has declined to an abysmal 20%.
The majority of India’s 63 million firms are informal —fewer than 20% are registered for GST.
Research shows that companies that start out as formal enterprises become two-three times more productive than a similar informal business.
So why do firms prefer to be informal? In most cases, it’s because of the sheer cost and difficulty of complying with the different regulations.
We have academia and non-profits working as ecosystem enablers providing insights and evidence-based models for growth. We have large private corporations and philanthropic and funding agencies ready to invest.
It should be in the scope of a National Mass Entrepreneurship Mission to bring all of them together to work in mission mode so that the gap between thought leadership and action can finally be bridged.