India recorded highest ever merchandise export in 1st FY

The government has decided to bring retail and wholesale trade under the ambit of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSME). It has issued revised guidelines to include retail and wholesale trade as MSME and extend to them the benefit of priority sector lending under the RBI guidelines.In a series of tweets, MSME Minister, Nitin Gadkari said, the decision will benefit 2.5 crore retail and wholesale traders. He said that the government is committed to the strengthening of MSME and make them engines for economic growth. With the revised guidelines the Retail and wholesale trades will now be allowed to register on Udyam Registration Portal.

-In the wake of fake vaccination camps organized in Mumbai, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has revised the guidelines for vaccination at workplaces and housing societies. BMC has clarified that the vaccination at these places should only be carried out by registered private covid vaccination centers. It has also issued the list of such centers. Management of the office or Secretary of society has been asked to ensure that, vaccination center is registered on COWIN Portal by contacting local authorities. The nodal officer will also have to ensure the MoU is signed between organiser and vaccination center. Nodal officer will have to inform the date of vaccination and vaccination center to the local authorities and local police station 3 days in advance. Nodal officer has to ensure that the beneficiary should get the link for digital certificate after vaccination.

-India has recorded the highest ever merchandise export in the first quarter of April to June this year despite the severity of the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic. Also, the country has received the highest ever FDI inflow of 81.72 billion US dollar in the last financial year.Addressing a press conference in New Delhi on Friday, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said that India has set a target of 400 billion US dollar merchandise exports in this financial year. Goyal said, the highest ever Merchandise export of 95 billion dollar has been achieved in the first quarter of this financial year between April to June. He said, it has surpassed the earlier peak of export in quarter four of 2020-21, which was 90 Billion dollars. Mr Goyal said, the export of engineering goods increased by 5.2 billion dollars over the first quarter of 2019-2020. He also said, Rice exports growth has also remained positive since May last year.

-Niti Aayog Member Health Dr. V.K. Paul has cautioned that the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic is not over and the people should not lower their guard against this deadly disease. He has urged the people to get vaccinated and follow Covid appropriate behaviour for better protection from coronavirus disease.While briefing the media in New Delhi, Dr. Paul has said, some districts are still witnessing case positivity rate over 10 per cent in the country. He said, Government of India has sent teams to several States like Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Odisha, Tripura, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh. He said, it has also been observed that corona virus cases are rising in the European countries, hence, the challenge still remains.On the availability of the vaccine, Dr. Paul has said that continuous efforts have been made to ensure the sufficient doses of Covid-19 vaccines in the country. He said India is in talks with Johnson & Johnson for their single-dose vaccine and this vaccine will also be produced by Bio E. He expressed hope that this vaccine will be available in the country. About the total number of Delta plus variant cases in the country, Dr. Paul said that there are 56 Delta AY.1 cases in 12 states.

-Ministry of Jal Shakti has said that 12 out of 22 districts in Haryana have achieved the target under Jal Jeevan Mission. It added that 6 out of the remaining 10 districts have also achieved more than 98 percent of the target. Looking at the current pace of implementation, Minister of State for Jal Shakti Rattan Lal Kataria said that it seems that Haryana will achieve 100 percent target within 2021.Jal Jeevan Mission was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2019. Under this scheme, every rural household of the country is targeted to get 55 litters per capita per day drinking water through functional tap water connection by 2024. So far, 100% target has been achieved in Goa, Telangana, Andaman Nicobar and Puducherry.