Daily News Analysis 29/10/2020

The Office of Economic Adviser, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade is releasing Index of Eight Core Industries for the Month of September, 2020.

2. The combined Index of Eight Core Industries stood at 119.7 in September,2020, which declined by 0.8 (provisional) per cent as compared to the Index of September, 2019.Its cumulative growth during April to September, 2020-21 has been(-) 14.9%.

3. Final growth rate of Index of Eight Core Industries for June’2020 is revised to(-) 12.4 %.The Eight Core Industries comprise 40.27 per cent of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).Details of yearly/monthly index and growth rate is provided atAnnexure.

4.Monthly growth rates of Index of Eight Core Industries (Overall) is depicted in the graph:

5. The summary of the Index of Eight Core Industries is given below: Coal- Coal production (weight: 10.33per cent) increasedby 21.2 per cent in September, 2020 over September,2019. Its cumulative index declined by 6.1per cent during April toSeptember, 2020-21over corresponding period of the previous year.

Crude Oil-Crude Oil production (weight: 8.98per cent) declined by 6.0 per cent inSeptember, 2020 over September,2019. Its cumulative index declined by 6.1 per cent during April toSeptember, 2020-21over the corresponding period of previous year.

Natural Gas- The Natural Gas production (weight:6.88per cent) declinedby10.6 per cent in September, 2020 over September,2019. Its cumulative index declined by 13.2 per cent during April to September, 2020-21 over the corresponding period of previous year.

Refinery Products- Petroleum Refinery production (weight: 28.04per cent) declined by9.5 per cent in September, 2020 over September,2019. Its cumulative index declinedby 16.3per cent during April to September, 2020-21over the corresponding period of previous year.

Fertilizers-Fertilizers production (weight: 2.63 per cent) declined by 0.3 per cent in September,2020 overSeptember,2019. Its cumulative index increasedby 3.7 per cent during April toSeptember, 2020-21 over the corresponding period of previous year.

Steel-Steel production (weight: 17.92per cent)increasedby 0.9 per cent inSeptember, 2020 over September,2019. Its cumulative index declined by 26.7per centduring April to September, 2020-21 over the corresponding period of previous year.

Cement-Cement production (weight:5.37per cent) declinedby3.5per cent inSeptember, 2020overSeptember,2019. Its cumulative index declinedby25.1per centduring April to September, 2020-21over the corresponding period of previous year.

Electricity- Electricity generation (weight:19.85per cent) increasedby3.7per centin September,2020over September,2019. Its cumulative indexdeclined by 8.2per cent duringApril to September, 2020-21over the corresponding period of previous year.

National Productivity Council (NPC), under Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Govt. of India has been granted accreditation conforming to ISO 17020:2012 by National Accreditation Board for Certification Body (NABCB), Quality Council of India (QCI) for undertaking inspection and audit work in the area of Food Safety Audit and Scientific Storage of Agricultural Products. This accreditation is valid for a period of three years. NPC has already formed an Inspection Division at its Headquartersfor undertaking Inspection and audit activities.

NPC has been conducting inspections/audit for different statutory bodies such as Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority (WDRA) and Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), and is already having high credentials in the area of inspections and audits.

WDRA empanelled NPC as an accreditation and inspection agency since 2011 for inspection of Warehouses all over India.FSSAI had also empanelledNPC as an Auditing agency for conducting Food Safety Audit of Food Business Operators (FBOs) across India in the area of Food Storage/Warehousing/Cold Storage. NPC has also conducted Audits of Dairy Plants, Oil Extraction Units, Solvent Extraction Plants and Oil Refineries for FSSAI.

‘Minimum Threshold’ investment requirement replaced by ‘Committed Investment’

This takes into account availability of technology choices which varies from product to product

Last date of filing applications by potential investors extended by one week upto 30.11.2020 Posted On: 29 OCT 2020 12:48PM by PIB Delhi

Union Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals and fertilizers has revised the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Schemes for promoting domestic manufacturing of bulk drugs and medical devices keeping in view the suggestions and comments received from the industry. Accordingly ‘minimum threshold’ investment requirement has been replaced by ‘committed investment’ taking into account availability of technology choices which varies from product to product.

The Department of Pharmaceuticals earlier come out with the following two Production Linked Incentive schemes- Production Linked Incentive scheme for promotion of domestic manufacturing of critical Key Starting Materials, Drug Intermediates and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients in India

Production Linked Incentive Scheme for Promoting Domestic Manufacturing of Medical Devices Both the schemes were approved by the Cabinet on 20.03.2020 and the detailed guidelines for the implementation of the schemes were issued by the Department on 27.07.2020.

Dr Harsh Vardhan Launches DST initiative SERB – POWER (Promoting Opportunities for Women in Exploratory Research)

It is a scheme to mitigate gender disparity in science and engineering research funding in various S&T programs in Indian academic institutions and R&D laboratories

“Enhancement of participation and promotion of women in the research workforce is one of the prime priorities of our Government”: Dr Harsh Vardhan

“Meri Saheli” initiative taken for focused action on security of women travelling in trains Operation gathering momentum across all Zones Posted On: 29 OCT 2020 7:06PM by PIB Delhi

Indian Railways has launched “Meri Saheli” initiative for focused action on security of women across all zones with an objective to provide safety and security to lady passengers travelling by trains for their entire journey from starting station to destination station.

An initiative of RPF, the Strategy of the entails interaction with lady passengers especially those travelling alone by a team of young lady RPF personnel at the originating station. These lady passengers are briefed about all precautions to be taken during the journey and told to dial 182 in case they face or see any problem in the coach. The RPF team collects only the seat numbers of the ladies and conveys them to stoppages en-route.

The platform duty RPF personnel at the stopping stations en-route keep unobtrusive watch over the concerned coaches and berths and if need arises, interact with the lady passengers. RPF/RPSF escort onboard also covers all the coaches/identified berths during its duty period.

RPF teams at the destination collect the feedback from the identified lady passengers. The feedback is then analysed and corrective action, if any, is taken. If some distress call comes from a train covered under “Meri Saheli” initiative, the disposal of the call is monitored at the level of senior officers.

In the quest for ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’, Indian Army has developed a simple and secure messaging application named the “Secure Application for Internet (SAI)”. The application supports end to end secure voice, text and video calling services for Android platform over internet.

The model is similar to commercially available messaging applications like Whatsapp, Telegram, SAMVAD and GIMS and utilises end to end encryption messaging protocol. SAI scores over on security features with local in-house servers and coding which can be tweaked as per requirements.

The application has been vetted by CERT-in empaneled auditor and Army Cyber Group. The process for filing Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), hosting the infrastructure on NIC and working on iOS platform is currently in progress. SAI will be utilised pan Army to facilitate secure messaging within the service.

Infrastructure development has gained significant importance in many of the Army stations where major works are planned to replace vintage accommodation of pre independence era. The process is cumbersome and time consuming involving multiple agencies.

Land has also become a very scarce resource since all cantonments and military stations have now come closer to major population centres. Presently all functions towards infrastructure development and management to include ascertaining availability of land, planning and monitoring of works, environment conservation and responsive quartering policies are carried out manually, which is not only time consuming but is also in-efficient.

Realising that automation is the key to empowering all stake holders to transform and become efficient, transparent and enhance accountability, Indian Army has introduced a software named the “Infrastructure Management System (IMS)’ software which was inagurated by the COAS on the sidelines of the Army Commanders Conference on 28 October 2020.

The scope of the software package developed includes the following • To automate works initiation, preparation of list and its approval by the MoD.

• To accord administrative approval and monitoring of execution by the CFA.

• To automate availability of CAO pool accommodation, plan vacation, re-allocation and undertake maintenance.

• To automate approval of accommodation allocation/extention for children education ground, special children and Battle/Physical casualty.

• Manage cantonment roads including emergency closure.

• Make land, works and quartering policies available on line.

• Monitor land encroachment, Old Grant Bungalows, VIP references and transfer/exchange of land.