NITI Aayog/Health/GSII
NITI Aayog Releases Compendium of Best Practices on Home-Based Management of Covid-19

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• NITI Aayog released Home-Based Management of Covid-19, a compendium of best practices adopted by states to combat the pandemic.
• The compendium presents a holistic picture of various home-based care models adopted by the states and summarizes basic principles and practical recommendations.

• Home-based care is a low-cost model and can reach many people at the same time with the help of digital tools such as telemedicine/call centres/apps, etc.
• It emerged as an important pillar of pandemic management.
• Various home-care best practices included in this document provided holistic support to patients and their families.
• Community engagement and management have contributed to the large-scale take-up of home-based care.
• The practices on home-based care described in this compendium may be adopted, adapted, and replicated by the states/UTs for scale-up in respective contexts, building on their experiences.
• The compendium will provide strategic direction to decision-makers for designing sustainable healthcare models at the national and sub-national levels.

• Prime Minister will deliver the keynote address at The Sydney Dialogue on 18^th November,
• He will speak on the theme of India's technology evolution and revolution
• The Sydney Dialogue is being held from 17-19 November, 2021.

• It is an initiative of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
• It will bring together political, business and government leaders to debate, generate new ideas, and work towards common understandings of the opportunities and challenges posed by emerging and critical technologies.
• The event will also witness keynote address by Australian Prime Minister Mr. Scott Morrison and Former Prime Minister of Japan Mr. Shinzo Abe.

• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by the Prime Minister gave its approval to the proposals of Department of Rural Development, Ministry of Rural Development for continuation of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana-I and II upto September, 2022 for completion of balance road and bridge works.
• The CCEA also approved continuation of Road Connectivity Project for Left Wing Extremism Affected Areas (RCPLWEA) upto March, 2023.

• The PMGSY promotes use of new and green technology in construction of rural roads.
• Locally available materials are used in road construction in order to promote cost-effective and fast construction.
• The State of Uttar Pradesh has recently been sanctioned 1,255 Km road length for construction using Full Depth Reclamation Technology
• This technology will not only save cost and time in a big way, but also conserve natural resources and reduce carbon footprint.
• The PMGSY envisages a three tier Quality Assurance Mechanism to ensure quality of road works during construction and post-construction.

• PMGSY-I was launched in the year 2000 to provide connectivity to eligible unconnected habitations of 500+ in plain areas and 250+ in North-East and Himalayan states as per census, 2001.
• The Scheme also included component of upgradation of existing rural roads for those districts where all the eligible habitations had been saturated.
• In the year 2013, it was decided to also cover habitations of population size 100-249 as per census, 2001 in the Left wing Extremism Affected blocks identified by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
• A total of 6,45,627 Km road length and 7,523 bridges have been sanctioned under PMGSY-I, of which only 20,950 Km road length and 1,974 bridges are balance as on 15th November, 2021.
• All the balance habitations are targeted for connectivity within the proposed extended period, i.e. upto September, 2022 by constructing 20,950 Km road length and 1,974 bridges.

• PMGSY-II, which was approved by the Cabinet in May, 2013, envisaged consolidation of 50,000 Km of existing rural road network.
• All the proposals of states/UTs have been sanctioned.
• Out of total 49,885 Km and 765 bridges sanctioned under the scheme, only 4,240 Km road length and 254 bridges are balance.
• Majority of the pending projects are in North-East & Himalayan states/UTs as also in the State of Bihar.
• All pending projects are targeted for completion within the proposed extended period, i.e. upto September, 2022.

• Launched in 2016 for construction/upgradation of 5,412 Km road length and 126 bridges of strategic importance in 44 districts in 9 states, viz. Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh, with an outlay of Rs. 11,725 crore.
• Road and bridge works to be taken up under the scheme have been identified by the Ministry of Home Affairs in consultation with states and security forces.

• PMGSY-I was launched with an objective to provide single all-weather road connectivity to eligible unconnected habitation of designated population size ( 500+ in plain areas and 250+ in North-East, hill, tribal and desert areas as per Census, 2001) for overall socio economic development of the areas. The Government subsequently launched new interventions/verticals namely PMGSY-II, RCPLWEA and PMGSY-III.
• The present proposal is for extension of time-line for PMGSY-I, II and RCPLWEA.
• The PMGSY-III was launched in the year 2019 for consolidation of 1,25,000 Km existing Through routes and Major rural links connecting habitations, inter-alia, to Gramin Agricultural Markets, Higher Secondary Schools and Hospitals and the implementation period of the scheme is upto March, 2025.

• The pre-bid conference organised by the Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI) for prospective bidders for Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) PLI Scheme has received wide participation and interest from bidders
• The bidding will be held online through a transparent two-stage process, under the Quality and Cost Based Selection (QCBS) mechanism.
• The PLI scheme envisages setting up a cumulative manufacturing capacity of 50 GWh for ACCs and an additional cumulative capacity of 5 GWh for niche ACC technologies with a minimum threshold capacity of 500 MWh.

• ACCs are the new generation advance storage technologies that can store electric energy either as electrochemical or as chemical energy and convert it back to electric energy as and when required.
• The consumer electronics, electric vehicles, advanced electricity grids, solar roof top etc. which are major battery consuming sectors are expected to achieve robust growth in sales volume in the coming years.
• It is expected that the dominant battery technologies will control some of the world's largest growth sectors.
• All the demand of the ACCs is currently being met through imports in India.
• The National Programme on Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) Battery Storage will reduce import dependence. It will support the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative.

• Union Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj inaugurated 'Bhumi Samvaad' - National Workshop on Digital India Land Record Modernisation Programme (DILRMP)
• On this occasion, the Minister also launched National Generic Document Registration System (NGDRS) portal and Dashboard.

• It is just like the Aadhar Number of land parcels.
• In this unique system wherein a unique ID based on Geo-coordinates of the parcels is generated and assigned to the plots.
• This has been introduced to share the computerized digital land record data among different States/Sectors and a uniform system of assigning a unique ID to the land parcel across the country.
• So far it has already been implemented in 13 States and pilot tested in another 6 States.
• Department has decided to complete the process of assigning unique IDs to the land parcels in the entire country by the end of this financial year, (FY 2021-22).
• When this system will be implemented in the entire country most of the land disputes will be resolved automatically.

• NGDRS is an in-house advanced software application for the registration system developed by NIC.
• This software application is scalable, flexible, configurable and compatible with the state-specific needs in the country.
• It ensures transparency, accountability of the officials executing the documents and reduction in cost, time and number of visits and procedures required for the execution of the registration documents.
• So far, it has already been implemented in 12 States and pilot tested in 3 States covering more than 10 crore population.
• As per the report, more than 25 lakh documents have already been registered using this system.
• More emphasis is given on the integration of the Registry Office with other offices where some information are required for the completion of registration deeds.
• Information for mutation is automatically sent to the concerned department after the registration of deeds.
• The department has been awarded Digital India Awards- 2020 for the initiative of digitization in the registration process for the year 2020.

• To integrate all the processes and land records database, the Department has also initiated a consolidated effort to computerize the land management system through Integrated Land Management Information System (ILMIS) Project wherein land-related information are available in a single window.
• This endeavour to integrate the land records database with the banks, financial institutions, circle rates, Registration Offices and other sectors is to provide effective and efficient service deliveries by the respective offices.
• So far it has already been implemented in 283 districts of the country.

• Union Minister of Science & Technology will inaugurate the seventh edition of India International Science festival, IISF at Panaji, Goa to be held from December 10 to 13, 2021.
• The theme of IISF 2021 is ‘AzadiKaAmritMahotsav' - celebrating Creativity, Science, Technology and Innovation for a prosperous India.

• The series of India International Science Festival (IISF) is an integral part of India's long-term vision in developing and widening the spectrum of scientific temper for sustainable development and new technological innovations in India.
• IISF will provide a platform to young students, scientists and technocrats from across India for exchange of knowledge and ideas and also supporting flagship programmes like ‘Swach Bharat Abhiyan', Swasth Bharat Abhiyan ‘Make in India', ‘Digital India', ‘Smart Villages', ‘Smart Cities' ‘ NamamiGange', ‘Unnath Bharat Abhiyan' initiated by the Prime Minister in the last seven years.
• The main aim of the Science Festival is to bring into use the innovations by the people and develop technology that is affordable to the masses.
• India International Science festival (IISF) is a joint program of Ministry of Science & Technology, Ministry of Earth Sciences and VijnanaBharati (VIBHA) a swadeshi movement of Bharat.
• The first program of IISF was held in year 2015 and sixth edition of this annual event was organised in year 2020.
• The main purpose of IISF is to celebrate science along with people in India and across the globe.
• The programmes to be undertaken during these four days will include Science Film Festival, Science Literature Festival, Engineering Students Festival, Science Village Festival, Traditional Crafts and Artisans Festival, Guinness Book of World Records, Festival of Games and Toys, Global Indian Scientists and Technocrats Meet, Eco-Festival, New Age Technology Show, National Social Organizations and Institutions Meet.

• The International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA), with an objective to develop the financial products and services International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) has constituted an Insurance Committee under the Chairmanship of Mr. G.N. Bajpai, former Chairman LIC and SEBI, to identify key areas for the development of insurance and reinsurance business from IFSC.

• IFSCA has developed eco-system for Aircraft Leasing and Financing which can be utilized to develop Aviation Insurance Hub and Trade Credit Insurance at IFSC.
• Similar platform may be implemented for shipping industry through facilitating of Protection and Indemnity clubs.
• The Captive insurance model is one of the cost efficient manner of managing own risk.
• Globally, leading financial centres have favourable regulatory regime for captive insurance model. Hence IFSCA may develop a new framework for enabling operations of Captives.
• IFSCA has enabled framework for Global In-house centres which may be utilized by (re)insurers to develop Global In-House Centres to provide services ancillary to insurance.
• Investment framework may be redesigned to give more avenues for insurers to mobilize their funds to a basket of financial instruments and products offering them more returns and flexibility.
• Globally premium financing is prevalent which is very significant driver for some the niche areas of insurance business. The same may be introduced in IFSC.
• Developing alternate risk transfer solutions such as insurance linked securities, catastrophe bonds and parametric risk transfers available for the global market.
• The Committee has also recommended the mapping of insurance needs of the Indian diaspora and meet such needs through promotion and development of the ‘hub and spoke' model.

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