Govt releases Drone Rules for public consultation

Union Health Ministry on Thursday reviewed preparations under India COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health Systems Preparedness Package: Phase -2 with States and Union Territories through a video conference. Union Cabinet has recently approved this new scheme amounting to 23 thousand 123 Crore rupees. This will be implemented from 1st July, 2021 to 31st March next year. During the meeting, States and UTs were requested to send their expenditure proposals at the earliest to enable expeditious approval and sanctioning from the Union Government. States and UTs were advised to conduct a quick gap analysis for various infrastructure components under this scheme including their IT infrastructure readiness.This scheme aims to accelerate health system preparedness for immediate responsiveness for early prevention, detection and management with sharp focus on health infrastructure development including Paediatric care and with measurable outcomes. This will help in strengthening decentralized public health actions and public health facilities in rural, peri-urban and tribal areas. The objectives of Emergency COVID19 Response Package-2 is to support the States to establish dedicated Paediatric Care Unit in all 736 districts of the country for responding to the needs of Paediatric COVID-19 management. 

-Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday launched an Artificial Intelligence-powered grievance management application in New Delhi. The system was developed by Ministry of Defence with the cooperation of IIT-Kanpur.This is the first Artificial Intelligence-based system developed to improve grievance redressal in the Government. The system can identify repeat complaints or spam automatically. It enables geographical analysis of complaints in a category including analysis of whether the complaint was adequately addressed or not by the concerned office.Speaking on the occasion, Singh described the application as a product of good governance, which reflects the growing synergy between the Government and academia. He said this initiative is another citizen centric reform of the Government that aims to empower the people at large.Defence Minister was briefed that this Artificial Intelligence-powered application will automatically handle and analyse the complaints of the people. It will also reduce human intervention, save time and bring more transparency in their disposal.

-In Telangana, normal life has been thrown out of gear in several places in Hyderabad and in some districts following incessant rains. Some residential colonies in Hyderabad witnessed inundation and water-logging. People in Nagole, Uppal, Saroornagar, LB Nagar areas had to face tough times following the storm water entering their houses. The emergency and Disaster Response teams of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation’s (GHMC) are making all efforts to address rain related problems. Meanwhile, heavy rains lashed several parts of Karimnagar, Khammam, Nirmal, Jagtial, Rajanna Sircill, Siddipet districts among others. Reservoirs and lakes are full following heavy inflows and several rivulets are on spate due to incessant rains in upper catchment areas. Meanwhile, the Met officials issued an orange warning to Hyderabad and few surrounding Districts stating that heavy to very heavy rains are likely to occur at a few places while moderate to heavy rain is likely at many places across the state.

-The Assam government has taken steps to boost up the health infrastructure in the state in its fight against the COVID-19. Senior Health officials in Guwahati informed that there were 400 ICU beds before COVID-19 in Assam.But due to the efforts of the governments, the state has nearly 1 thousand 600 ICU beds now. Out of total beds, 1400 beds are set up in medical colleges while rest are in district hospitals. Apart from ICU beds, there are over 16 thousand isolation and 2 thousand 830 Oxygen supported beds are also available in the state. As of Wednesday, 56 percent ICU beds were occupied by COVID patients.

-Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has released reorganized - The Drone Rules, 2021 for public consultation. Built on a premise of trust, self-certification and non-intrusive monitoring, The Drone Rules, 2021 will replace the UAS Rules 2021 (released on 12th March 2021). The last date for receipt of public comments is 5th August 2021. 
Key takeaways from the Draft Drone Rules, 2021 include that there will be minimal human interface on the digital sky platform and most permissions will be self-generated. Safety features like ‘No Permission - No Take-off’ (NPNT), real-time tracking beacon, geo-fencing etc. to be notified in future. Import of drones and drone components will be regulated by Directorate General of Foreign Trade. All drone training and testing to be carried out by an authorised drone school. Directorate General of Civil Aviation will prescribe training requirements, oversee drone schools and provide pilot licences online. Standard operating procedures (SOP) and training procedure manuals (TPM) will be prescribed by DGCA on the digital sky platform for self-monitoring by users.