Government launches digital platform Kisan Sarathi

Government on Friday launched digital platform Kisan Sarathi to facilitate farmers to get right information at right time in their desired language.The platform Kisan Sarathi was jointly launched by Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw through video conference on the occasion of 93rd ICAR Foundation Day. Speaking on the occasion, Ashwini Vaishnaw said, farmers can avail personalised advisories on agriculture and allied areas directly from scientists of Krishi Vigyan Kendra through the digital platform. He said, this initiative of Kisan Sarathi will empower farmers with the technological interventions and reach farmers in remote areas. The Minister asked the ICAR Scientists to take-up research on new technological interventions in the area of transportation of farmer’s crop from their farm gate to warehouses, markets and the places where they want to sell with minimum damage.

-Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Friday virtually flagged off eight new routes bolstering the aerial connectivity from Madhya Pradesh to Maharashtra and Gujarat. Scindia congratulated the people of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat on the commencement of the new flight operations. The commencement of these routes fulfils the objectives of the Ministry of Civil Aviation to enhance the regional connectivity of the Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities with the metro cities of the country. Besides, additional flights between the Delhi-Jabalpur route will also commence from 18th of this month onwards, and Khajuraho-Delhi-Khajuraho flights from October onwards. The Minister expressed commitment to bolster regional air connectivity and take the Prime Minister's vision of UDAN to greater heights.

-In Assam, Finance minister Ajanta Neog presented a Rs 566.20 crore  deficit state budget for the year 2021-22.  Ms. Neog promised to recruit 1 lakh educated youth in the government sector as the BJP mentioned in the recently concluded assembly polls campaign.The budget promised to provide 1 lakh rupees each to the next of kin of COVID victims. In a bid to give a boost to the health infrastructure, 1000 sub centres would be converted to hospitals.To minimize the learning loss and bridge the digital divide, smart phones would be given to 8 lakh class  IX and  X students in the government sector. The budget also proposed to set up 1000 model Anganwadi Centres with Child Care facility. It also proposed to constitute an Agriculture Commission under a scientist of international repute to focus on issues related to agriculture, animal husbandry, dairy sector in Assam.

-Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has enabled map services in UMANG App ‘ through Memorandum of Understanding with MapmyIndia. As a result of integration of UMANG with MapmyIndia, citizens will be able to find government facilities nearest to their location, such as mandis, blood banks and much more, at the click of a button.They will also be able to see these on the most detailed and interactive street and village level maps of India, built by MapmyIndia. Besides, they will also be able to view the driving distance, get directions and turn by turn voice and visual guidance to locations, including traffic and road safety alerts during navigation. The UMANG mobile app launched in 2017,  is a Government of India single, unified, secure, multi-channel, multi-service mobile app, providing access to high impact services of various organizations. UMANG brings major government services on a single mobile app on mobile phones of citizens.

-Government has issued two Gazette Notifications for jurisdiction of Krishna and Godavari River Management Boards. Jal Shakti Ministry has notified the jurisdiction of the two Boards in terms of administration, regulation, operation and maintenance of listed projects in Godavari and Krishna rivers in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. This step is expected to ensure judicious utilization of water resources in the two states. The Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act 2014 contains provisions for the effective management of river waters in the two states. Constitution of the Godavari and Krishna River Management Boards and the constitution of an Apex Council for the supervision of the functioning of these Boards, is laid down in this Act. This decision of the Centre for notifying the jurisdiction of two Boards would go a long way in enabling the River Boards to discharge their responsibilities to the fullest  and bring about efficiency in management of water resources in the two States.

-Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday held an interaction with the three recognised Defence Civilian Employees’ Federations on the issues related to Corporatisation of Ordnance Factory Board in New Delhi. These are All India Defence Employees’ Federation, Indian National Defence Workers’ Federation and Bhartiya Pratiraksha Mazdoor Sangh. The meeting was conducted in a congenial atmosphere. The Defence Minister gave patient hearing to the concerns expressed by the Federations on OFB Corporatisation. The Federations stated various points, mainly seeking a last chance to improve OFB performance while continuing in the present set-up for some more years. The Defence Minister assured that the interests of the employees would be protected while implementing the decision of OFB corporatisation. Singh appealed to the Federations to continue discussions with the Department and issues, if any, would be considered sympathetically by the Empowered Group of Ministers under his Chairmanship. Secretary (Defence Production) Raj Kumar clarified that the new Corporate entities would be 100 percent Government owned.