Governance
CoWin Global Conclave

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about the conclave and about CoWIN platform)+ Mains ( GS II Health + governance)
What's the NEWS

• Prime Minister addressed the CoWin Global Conclave as India presented the indigenously developed CoWIN platform to the world at the virtual global meet of representatives from 142 countries.
• Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare chaired the inaugural session organized to share India's learnings and experiences with regards to planning, strategizing and executing the world's largest vaccination drive through Co-WIN.

Know! about the conclave

• The Global Conclave was jointly organized by Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW), Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and National Health Authority (NHA) with an objective to extend the Co-WIN platform as a digital public good to the world.
• It is a robust, inclusive and scalable system that can prevent rent-seeking, black marketing and other malpractices.

The Co-WIN platform can be scaled-up as per requirements.

• CoWIN ensured the mammoth challenge of ensuring fair and equitable distribution of the vaccines as well as their last mile delivery removing information asymmetry and aligning stakeholders.
• CoWIN enabled continuous tracking of Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEFI) to not only respond to help such citizens to overcome Adverse Events but to also generate data for policy making.
• Co-WIN platform is the first of its kind software in the world developed by leading IT experts in India to implement the world's largest immunization campaign against COVID-19.
• It has enabled a transparent system to monitor each dose of vaccine supplied to vaccination facilities and recording the fulfilment of demand at a grassroot level.
• Co-WIN being a dynamic platform, can accommodate any modifications
• Since its roll out, the Co-WIN platform has already become the fastest growing tech platform in the world by getting over 36.50 cr registered users through a network of 1,38,427 COVID-19 Vaccination Centres.
• It is an open platform available for sharing as a public good. The platform can be adapted and scaled up for health interventions throughout the globe.

Know! more about Co-WIN

• CoWIN (Covid Vaccine Intelligence Work) is the Indian government's web portal to register for COVID-19 vaccination.
• It displays slots of COVID-19 vaccine available in the nearby areas and can be booked on the website.
• Registration for the vaccination slots can be booked on the same day or a few days prior.
• The platform has also been integrated in the Aarogya Setu and UMANG Apps.
• The certificate after COVID-19 vaccination can also be obtained through the platform.
• As of now, three vaccines can be registered on the platform in the country Covishield, Covaxin and Sputnik V.
• On 16 January 2021, CoWin started offering COVID-19 vaccination for Frontline Workers in the country.
• On 1 March 2021, the platform started offering vaccination to all residents over the age of 60, residents between the ages of 45 and 60 with one or more qualifying comorbidities, and any health care or frontline worker that did not receive a dose during phase 1.
• From 1 April 2021, eligibility was extended to all residents over the age of 45.
• Registration for the next phase began on 28 April 2021 for 1 May 2021, extending eligibility to all residents over the age of 18.
• Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi held a meeting and directed to help other countries by sharing their CoWin platform.
• Iit was announced that an open source version version will be given to over 50 interested countries.

Health
Five Important Portals on Ayush sector launched

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about the five portals)
What's the NEWS

• The Minister of Ayush launched CTRI portal pertinent to Ayurveda Dataset along with AMAR, RMIS, SAHI and e-Medha portals with the collaborative efforts of ICMR and Archaeological Survey of India for these initiatives.
• After the inclusion of dataset pertinent to Ayurveda in CTRI portal, the Ayurveda Clinical Trials would have worldwide visibility and will further the cause of strengthening Ayurvedic Research.
• Similarly, SHAHI portal incorporates authentic resources and will be of immense help in showcasing historical veracity of Ayurveda.
• With the help of e- Medha portal anyone can have online access to more than 12 thousand books.
• These books are related to Indian Medical Heritage and can be accessed through NIC's e- granthalaya platform.
• AMAR portal, is a repository for Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Sowa- Rigpa Manuscripts and catalogues.
• Another Portal CCRAS- Research Management Information System or RMIS in short, is a research guidance platform.

Know! more about these portals

1. Ayurveda Dataset on Clinical Trial Registry of India- CTRI is a primary Register of Clinical Trials under the world health Organization's International Clinical Trials Registry Platform. Creation of Ayurveda Data Set in CTRI facilitates the usage of Ayurveda Terminologies to record clinical study based on Ayurveda interventions. This is a great step towards a worldwide visibility for Ayurveda based Clinical Trials.
2. CCRAS-Research Management Information System- A collaborative effort of ICMR and CCRAS, this portal will be a one stop solution for Research and Development in Ayurveda based studies. Free of cost research guidance by experienced Scientists, Clinicians of Ayurveda can be availed through this portal. Research tools, reference material are also in place in this portal.
3. E-Medha (electronic Medical Heritage Accession) Portal- Online public access catalog for more than 12000 Indian medical heritage books through NIC's e-granthalaya platform.
4. AMAR (Ayush Manuscripts Advanced Repository) Portal- This Portal is of immense value and it has digitized information on rare and hard to find Manuscripts and catalogues of Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha, Sowa Rigpa in libraries or in individual collections across India or in other parts of the world.
5. SHAI (Showcase of Ayurveda Historical Imprints) Portals- This portal showcases inscriptions, Archeo-botanical Information, Sculptures, Philological sources and advanced Archeo Genetic studies. This portal will be of tremendous use in understanding of Indian Knowledge system with a focus on indigenous health care practices.

Apart from these five Portals, four publications were also released by the Ministry of Ayush.

1. Proceedings of International workshop on" Preservation and Promotion of SOWA-RIGPA in Asia
2. Compendium of Important Cereals mentioned in Ayurveda-Series-1, volume-1
3. Ayurveda Sangraha: An important classical textbook of Ayurveda which is mentioned in the Schedule 1 of Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940. Up till now this book was available in Bengali language. Now it has been transliterated to Devanagari Script.
4. PathapathyaVinishcaya- An important book of Ayurveda and has details of diet and lifestyle.

Government Schemes
Govt launches 6 technology innovation platforms
Relevance in - Prelims ( about the technology innovation platforms) + Mains ( GS III government policies and interventions)
What's the NEWS

• The Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises launched six Technology Innovation Platforms that will focus on development of technologies for the globally competitive manufacturing in India.

Know! about these platforms

• These platforms have been developed by IIT-Madras, Central Manufacturing Technology Institute (CMTI), International Centre for Automotive Technology (iCAT), Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI), BHEL and HMT in association with IISc, Bangalore.
• These platforms will facilitate industry (including original equipment manufacturers, Tier-1 Tier-2 and Tier-3 companies and raw material manufacturers), start-ups, domain experts/ professionals, R&D institutions and academia (colleges & universities), to provide technology solutions, suggestions and expert opinions, on issues involving manufacturing technologies
• Further, it will facilitate exchange of knowledge with respect to research and development and other technological aspects. Over 39,000 students, experts, institutes, industries and labs have already registered on these platforms.
• It will help in bringing all India's technical resources and the concerned industry on to one platform to facilitate identification of technology problems faced by Indian industry and crowd source solutions for the same.

Environment
Bamboo Oasis on Lands in Drought (BOLD)

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about BOLD project)
What's the NEWS

• A unique scientific exercise serving the combined national objectives of reducing desertification and providing livelihood and multi-disciplinary rural industry support has been initiated by Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC).

Know! all about the Project

• The project named "Bamboo Oasis on Lands in Drought" (BOLD) is the first of its kind exercise in India which was launched todayfrom the tribal village NichlaMandwa in Udaipur, Rajasthan.
• 5000 saplings of special bamboo species - Bambusa Tulda and Bambusa Polymorpha specially brought from Assam - have been planted over 25 bigha (16 acres approx) of vacant arid Gram Panchayat land.
• KVIC has thus created a world record of planting the highest number of bamboo saplings on a single day at one location.
• Project BOLD, which seeks to create bamboo-based green patches in arid and semi-arid land zones, is aligned with Prime Minister's call for reducing land degradation and preventing desertification in the country.
• The initiative has been launched as part of KVIC's "Khadi Bamboo Festival" to celebrate 75 years of independence "Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav".
• KVIC is set to replicate the Project at Village Dholera in Ahmedabad district in Gujarat and Leh-Ladakh region by August this year. Total 15,000 bamboo saplings will be planted before August 21.
• The green patches of bamboo on these 3 places will help in reducing the land degradation percentage of the country, while on the other hand, they will be havens of sustainable development and food security

Health
Ayurveda Dataset on CTRI Portal Launched
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Ayurveda dataset on CTRI Portal)
What's the NEWS

• Marking a significant step towards worldwide visibility for Ayurveda based clinical trials, the Ayurveda dataset on CTRI Portal launched by Ayush Minister

Know! about CTRI Portal

• This Ayurveda Dataset of CTRI has been jointly developed by ICMR and CCRAS, Ministry of Ayush.
• The Minister also launch four more Portals, all developed by the Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS).
• CTRI is a primary register of Clinical Trials under WHO's International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) and creation of Ayurveda dataset in CTRI facilitates usages of Ayurveda terminologies to record clinical study meta data based on Ayurveda interventions.
• Until now the clinical trials in Ayurveda were dependent on terminology borrowed from modern medicine.
• Now with the joint efforts of ICMR- National Institute of Medical Statistics and CCRAS, Ayurvedic terminology has become part of CTRI.
• The key feature of this digital platform is the provision of selection of the Ayurveda Health conditions from drop down of 3866 Ayurveda morbidity codes incorporated from the NAMASTE portal (a portal developed by the AYUSH Ministry) in which morbidity statistics pertaining to Ayurveda has been classified according to International Classification of Diseases standards.
• It means, now the information, results etc. of Ayurveda Clinical Trials will be available in Ayurvedic vocabulary in the clinical trials registry of India.

Know! the importance of Clinical Registry

• Clinical trials are being done continuously in the world for new drug discovery, treatment of diseases etc. The problem is that the results of these tests are not publicly available and due to this there is a possibility of not having accurate information about the trials.
• In view of this, the World Health Organization made it mandatory to create an online registry of clinical trials. In India this work is being done through CTRI and this registry is also part of the World Health Organization registry.

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