• The Union Cabinet has given its approval for creation of National Recruitment Agency (NRA), paving the way for a transformational reform in the recruitment process for central government jobs.

• A multi-agency body called the National Recruitment Agency (NRA) will conduct a Common Eligibility Test (CET) to screen/shortlist candidates for the Group B and C (non-technical) posts.
• NRA will have representatives of Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Finance/Department of Financial Services, the SSC, RRB & IBPS.
• It is envisioned that the NRA would be a specialist body bringing the state-of-the-art technology and best practices to the field of Central Government recruitment.
• Under the NRA, the candidates by appearing in one examination will get an opportunity to compete for many posts.
• NRA will conduct the first-level /Tier I Examination which is the stepping stone for many other selections.

• The CET score of the candidate shall be valid for a period of three years from the date of declaration of the result.
• The best of the valid scores shall be deemed to be the current score of the candidate.
• There shall be no restriction on the number of attempts to be taken by a candidate to appear in the CET subject to the upper age limit.
• NRA shall conduct a separate CET each for the three levels of graduate, higher secondary (12th pass) and the matriculate (10th pass) candidates for those non-technical posts to which recruitment is presently carried out by the Staff Selection Commission (SSC), the Railway Recruitment Boards (RRBs) and by the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS).
• Based on the screening done at the CET score level, final selection for recruitment shall be made through separate specialised Tiers (II, III etc) of examination which shall be conducted by the respective recruitment agencies.
• The curriculum for this test would be common as would be the standard.
• The CET would be available in a number of languages.
• Initially the scores would be used by the three major recruitment agencies.
• Later it would be open for other agencies in the public as well as private domain to adopt it if they so choose.
• The Government has sanctioned a sum of Rs. 1517.57 crore for the National Recruitment Agency (NRA).
• The expenditure will be undertaken over a period of three years. Apart from setting up the NRA, costs will be incurred for setting up examination infrastructure in the 117 Aspirational Districts.

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about the Students' Learning Enhancement Guidelines) + Mains ( GS II Social issues + Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources
What's the NEWS

• Union Education Minister virtually releases Students' Learning Enhancement Guidelines
• Due to unequal access to digital resources to get school education at home, the concerns of equity and inclusion can lead to deficiencies in learning of children.
• In view of this, NCERT has prepared Students' Learning Enhancement Guidelines on the direction of the Ministry of Education for the present situation and also for post pandemic situation.

Students' Learning Enhancement Guidelines -highlights

• These guidelines, models are suggested for the following three types of situations.
• Firstly, in which students do not have any digital resources.
• Secondly, in which students have limited digital resources available.
• Lastly, in which students have digital resources available for online education.
• These guidelines emphasize upon the community working closely with the school to get learning materials such as workbooks, worksheets, etc. delivered at the doorsteps of children by teachers and volunteers.
• It also suggests to teach local students by volunteers or teachers setting up television at the community centre and maintaining social distance norms.
• These guidelines also talks about setting up of a helpline at the community center with the help of members of the community and Panchayati Raj.

• It recommends orientation of parents to support and participate in the learning of their children.
• These guidelines will help children, who do not have digital resources to get learning opportunities at home with their teachers or volunteers.

Health
FSSAI's Eat Right Challenge Orientation Workshop


Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Eat Right India movement + about FSSAI)
What's the NEWS

• Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare presided over an online orientation workshop organised by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) as part of its Eat Right Challenge.
• He also launched FSSAI's ‘Eat Right India' Handbook and the website eatrightindia.gov.in to help various stakeholders scale up ‘Eat Right India' initiatives across the country.

Know! about Eat Right India movement

• The ‘Eat Right India' movement initiated by FSSAI under the aegis of Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has been creating awareness amongst the people about safe, healthy and sustainable dietary habits.
• To achieve this end and to convert the program into a people's movement, FSSAI recently announced the Eat Right Challenge, an annual competition for 197 Districts and Cities in a unique way to strengthen the food safety and regulatory environment, build awareness among the consumers and urge them to make better food choices.
• The Food Safety Commissioners and district officials such as District Magistrates and Designated Officers of the cities also joined in the online workshop.

Know! more about The Eat Right Movement

• To improve public health in India and combat negative nutritional trends to fight lifestyle diseases, FSSAI launched 'The Eat Right Movement' on 10th July, 2018.
• The food industry, public health professionals, civil society and consumer organizations, influencers and celebrities came together on a common platform and pledged to take concrete steps to amplify ‘The Eat Right Movement' in the country.
• The strength of the ‘The Eat Right Movement' lies in its holistic and collaborative approach, with stakeholders on both the demand and supply-side
• On the demand side, the Eat Right Movement focuses on empowering citizens to make the right food choices.
• On the supply side, it nudges food businesses to reformulate their products, provide better nutritional information to consumers and make investments in healthy food as responsible food businesses.
• The Eat Right Movement' brings together three ongoing initiatives of FSSAI:
• Safe and Nutritious Food Initiative - focused on social and behavioural change around food safety and nutrition at home, school, workplace and on-the-go;
• The Eat Healthy Campaign - focused on reduction of high fat, sugar and salt foods in the diet; and
• Food Fortification - focused on promoting five staple foods-wheat flour, rice, oil, milk and salt that are added with key vitamins and minerals to improve their nutritional content

Know! about FSSAI

• The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has been established under Food Safety and Standards , 2006 which consolidates various acts & orders that have hitherto handled food related issues in various Ministries and Departments.
• FSSAI has been created for laying down science based standards for articles of food and to regulate their manufacture, storage, distribution, sale and import to ensure availability of safe and wholesome food for human consumption.
• Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India is the Administrative Ministry for the implementation of FSSAI.

Government Schemes
Mobile App Launched to Provide User Friendly Digital Interface to Source Loan Applications of Street Vendors

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about (PM SVANidhi) Scheme ) + Mains ( GS II Social issues - Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population + e governance)
What's the NEWS

• Prime Minister Street Vendors AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) Scheme which has been launched to provide credit for working capital to street vendors to resume their business.
• Minister launched a Mobile App for ULB functionaries. This App aims to provide user friendly digital interface for the functionaries of ULBs to source loan applications of street vendors.
• With the purpose of taking the microcredit facility to the door step of the vendors a Mobile App for Lending Institutions has already been launched by the Ministry

Know! all about PM SVANidhi

• PM SVANidhi was launched by the Ministry on June 01, 2020, for providing affordable Working Capital loan to street vendors to resume their livelihoods that have been adversely affected due to Covid-19 lockdown.
• This scheme targets to benefit over 50 lakh Street Vendors who had been vending on or before 24 March, 2020, in urban areas including those from surrounding peri-urban/ rural areas.
• Under the Scheme, the vendors can avail a working capital loan of up to Rs. 10,000, which is repayable in monthly instalments in the tenure of one year.
• On timely/ early repayment of the loan, an interest subsidy @ 7% per annum will be credited to the bank accounts of beneficiaries through Direct Benefit Transfer on quarterly basis.
• There will be no penalty on early repayment of loan.
• The scheme promotes digital transactions through cash back incentives up to an amount of Rs. 100 per month.
• The vendors can achieve their ambition of going up the economic ladder by availing the facility of enhancement of the credit limit on timely/ early repayment of loan.

Health
‘eSanjeevani' telemedicine service records 2 lakh tele-consultations

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about eSanjeevani' digital platform )
What's the NEWS

• The ‘eSanjeevani' digital platform of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has completed 2 lakh tele-consultations.

• eSanjeevani platform has enabled two types of telemedicine services viz. Doctor-to-Doctor (eSanjeevani) and Patient-to-Doctor (eSanjeevani OPD) Tele-consultations.
• The former is being implemented under the Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centre (AB-HWC).
• It aims to implement tele-consultation in all the 1.5 lakh Health and Wellness Centres in conjunction with identified Medical College hospitals in a ‘Hub and Spoke' model.
• States have identified and set up dedicated ‘Hubs' in Medical Colleges and District hospitals to provide tele-consultation services to ‘Spokes', i.e SHCs, PHCs and HWCs.
• The Health Ministry rolled out the second tele-consultation service ‘eSanjeevaniOPD' enabling patient-to-doctor telemedicine owing to the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2020.
• This has proved a boon in containing the spread of COVID while simultaneously enabling provisions for non-COVID essential healthcare.
• eSanjeevani has been implemented so far by 23 States and other States are in the process of rolling it out.
• The top five States which have been utilizing the e-health services being offered through this platform are Tamil Nadu (56,346 consultations), Uttar Pradesh (33,325), Andhra Pradesh (29,400), Himachal Pradesh (26,535) and Kerala (21,433).
• Andhra Pradesh leads in having the most HWC-medical college interactions with 25,478 consultations while Tamil Nadu leads in the OPD services with 56,346 consultations.

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