General Studies-II
Issues relating to Health
Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana (PMBJP)
The objective of the scheme is making quality medicines available at affordable prices for all, particularly the poor and disadvantaged, through exclusive outlets “Jan Aushadhi Medical Store”, so as to reduce out of pocket expenses in healthcare.
BPPI (Bureau of Pharma PSUs of India), under the administrative control of the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals& Fertilizers, Government of India will be the implementation agency for the PMJAY.
BPPI has been established under the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Government of India, with the support of all the Pharma CPSUs for coordinating procurement, supply and marketing of generic drugs through the Jan Aushadhi stores.
All State Governments shall be directed to open Jan Aushadhi stores in Government run hospitals and medical colleges.
Memorandum of Understanding shall be entered into with reputed organisations / NGOs / Trusts / Charitable institutions for opening large number of Jan Aushadhi stores across the country.
Applications shall be invited through press media from Private hospitals and other institutions / registered medical practitioners / individual entrepreneurs for opening Jan Aushadhi stores.
All PSUs having township shall be approached to open Jan Aushadhi stores in their township.
To further ensure viability of running Jan Aushadhi stores, possibilities of establishing Jan Aushadhi stores in Kisan Centres / Common Service Centres / other different retail outlets shall be encouraged.
Jan Aushadhi Stores at Railway Stations
‘Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana’ is a campaign launched by the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers, Government of India, to provide quality medicines at affordable prices to the masses through special kendras known as Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Jan Aushadhi Kendras. Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers has, in view of Railways’ pan-India reach, approached Ministry of Railways for proliferation of such kendras over Railway network. The two Ministries have, in principle, agreed to set up such kendras at Railway premises.
At present, 22 exclusive chemist stalls and 15 chemist corners are operational on Indian Railways. Besides, medicines for common ailments and painkillers, which do not normally require doctor’s prescription, are also being sold through existing 339 miscellaneous article stalls at various Railway Stations.
Prevalence of underweight and stunting among children has come down as per NFHS-4
Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme, aiming at holistic development of Children below 6 years of age and Pregnant Women & Lactating Mothers, by providing a package of six services comprising (i) Supplementary nutrition (ii) Pre-school non-formal education (iii) Nutrition and health Education (iv) Immunization (v) Health check-up and (vi) Referral services through Anganwadi Centres at grassroots level. Three of the six services viz., immunization, health check-up and referral services are related to health and are provided by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare through NRHM & Public Health Infrastructure. The services are provided through 13.54 lakh Anganwadi centres located across the country. Cost of implementation of the Scheme is shared by the Center and States/UTs as per ratio decided by the Government from time to time.
As per “The State of the World‘s Children 2016” Report published by United Nations International Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) which is based on 2005-2006 data, India ranks 10th in terms of underweight prevalence and 17th in terms of stunting prevalence in the world. However, as per the 4th National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) based on 2015-16 data the prevalence of underweight and stunting has come down to 35.7% & 38.4% from 42.5% & 48% NFHS-3.
The Government is implementing several schemes and programs like Anganwadi Services and Scheme for Adolescent girls under Umbrella ICDS to address the problem of malnutrition.
General Studies-III
Awareness in the fields of IT; cyber security
India to host Global Conference on Cyber Space (GCCS) 2017
GCCS is a prestigious international conference that aims at encouraging dialogue among stakeholders of cyberspace, which has been taking place since 2011. Incepted in 2011 in London, GCCS witnessed a participation of 700 global delegates. It helped in setting up rules and guidelines for the editions to follow. The second conference was held in 2012 in Budapest with focus on relationship between internet rights and internet security and was attended by 700 delegates from nearly 60 countries. The third edition of GCCS was held in 2013 in Seoul with participation from 1600 delegates. The conference built on the themes such as Economic Growth and Development, Social and Cultural Benefits, a Safe and Secure Cyberspace, Cybercrime and International Security.
The fourth version GCCS 2015 was held on April 16-17, 2015 in The Hague, Netherlands. Nearly 1800 members from nearly 100 countries participated in this conference and over 60 countries participated with delegations led at Ministerial level. The conference focused on Freedom, Security and Growth in cyber space. GCCS 2015 was a program designed as high level stock taking exercise and to generate input for other ongoing processes rather than an independent norm setting initiative. The launch of Global Forum on Cyber Expertise (GFCE) was main deliverable of the conference for capacity building in cyber space.
The GCCS 2017 is themed on “Cyber4All: An Inclusive, Sustainable, Developmental, Safe and Secure Cyberspace”. The GCCS 2017 will take place on the 23rd and 24th of November, 2017 in Aero City, New Delhi.
The goal of GCCS 2017 is to promote an inclusive Cyber Space with focus on policies and frameworks for inclusivity, sustainability, development, security, safety & freedom, technology and partnerships for upholding digital democracy, maximizing collaboration for strengthening security and safety and advocating dialogue for digital diplomacy’.
Infrastructure: Railways; Roads
Railway Zones and Divisions in India
At present there are 17 Railway Zones and 68 Divisions in the country. The details are given below:
| S.NO. | RAILWAY ZONES | Headquarter | DIVISIONS |
| 1. | Central Railway | Mumbai | Mumbai (CST), Bhusawal, Nagpur, Solapur, Pune. |
| 2. | Eastern Railway | Kolkata | Asansol, Howrah, Malda, Sealdah. |
| 3. | East Central Railway | Hajipur | Danapur,Dhanbad,Mughalsarai, Samastipur,Sonpur. |
| 4. | East Coast Railway | Bhubaneswar | Khurda Road, Sambalpur, Waltair. |
| 5. | Northern Railway | New Delhi | Ambala, Delhi, Lucknow, Moradabad, Ferozpur. |
| 6. | North Central Railway | Allahabad | Allahabad, Agra, Jhansi. |
| 7. | North Eastern Railway | Gorakhpur | Lucknow,Izzatnager,Varanasi. |
| 8. | Northeast Frontier Railway | Guwahati | Katihar, Alipurduar, Rangiya, Lumding, Tinsukia. |
| 9. | North Western Railway | Jaipur | Ajmer, Bikaner, Jaipur, Jodhpur. |
| 10. | Southern Railway | Chennai | Chennai, Madurai, Palghat, Trichy, Trivandrum, Salem. |
| 11. | South Central Railway | Secunderabad | Guntakal, Guntur, Hyderabad, Nanded,Secunderabad,Vijayawada. |
| 12. | South Eastern Railway | Kolkata | Adra,Chakradharpur, Kharagpur, Ranchi. |
| 13. | South East Central Railway | Bilaspur | Bilaspur, Nagpur, Raipur |
| 14. | South Western Railway | Hubli | Bangalore, Hubli, Mysore |
| 15. | Western Railway | Mumbai | Mumbai(Central),Vadodara, Ratlam,Ahmedabad,Rajkot, Bhavnagar. |
| 16. | West Central Railway | Jabalpur | Bhopal, Jabalpur, Kota. |
| 17. | Metro Railway | Kolkata | Not applicable. |
Dedicated Freight Corridors
Ministry of Railways have sanctioned implementation of Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFCs), namely, Western DFC (1504 km) and Eastern DFC (1856 km). The commissioning of Western and Eastern DFCs (excluding few sections) is targeted in phases by 2019/2020.
Western DFC covers Dadri-Rewari-Phulera-Ajmer-Marwar- Palanpur – Ahmedabad –Vadodara – Surat- Valsad-Vasai Road and Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), Mumbai through the States of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra.
Eastern DFC covers Ludhiana-Ambala-Saharanpur-Meerut-Khurja-Kanpur-Allahabad-Mughalsarai-Sonnagar through the States of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
The funding of the project is through World Bank loan ( US $ 2.725 billion) for the Eastern DFC , and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) loan (Rs.38,722 crore) for the Western DFC.
Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation
NITI Aayog’s Strategy Paper on Resource Efficiency (RE)
NITI Aayog in partnership with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH had prepared a Strategy Paper on Resource Efficiency.
Resource Efficiency is a key element of Sustainable Development. This is reflected in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 12 which aims to Ensure Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns. Eight other SDG goals (2, 6, 7,8,9,11,14 and 15) also have a bearing on resource efficiency.
There is a global commitment to achieving resource efficiency in order to establish sustainable consumption and production patterns. It is also a priority for the Government of India, and is reflected in various policies/programme announcements like Make in India, Zero Effect-Zero Defect Scheme, Smart Cities, Swach Bharat, and Ganga Rejuvenation Mission.
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Economic Development
WCO lauds India’s trade facilitation plan
India’s National Trade Facilitation Action Plan (NTFAP), which aims to reduce cargo release time for exports and imports as part of measures intended to boost trade, has been described by the World Customs Organisation (WCO) as a ‘best practice’ that other nations can adopt.
The WCO emphasised the fact that as many as 51 of the 76 activities mentioned in the NTFAP go beyond the implementation requirements of the World Trade Organisation’s Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA).
The NTFAP, which is to be implemented between 2017 and 2020, is part of India’s efforts to improve its ease of doing business ranking in the World Bank’s annual report. While India’s overall rank in the report is 130, it ranks 144 out of 190 nations in the report’s ‘Trading Across Borders’ category.
The TFA — meant to ease Customs norms for faster flow of goods across borders — had come into effect in February 2017.
The WCO — the international body supporting the uniform implementation of the TFA across the globe — has 182 member nations (including India) that manage more than 98% of world trade.
World Customs Organization (WCO)
The World Customs Organization (WCO) is an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. The WCO is noted for its work in areas covering the development of international conventions, instruments, and tools on topics such as commodity classification, valuation, rules of origin, collection of customs revenue, supply chain security, international trade facilitation, customs enforcement activities, combating counterfeiting in support of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), drugs enforcement, illegal weapons trading, integrity promotion, and delivering sustainable capacity building to assist with customs reforms and modernization. The WCO maintains the international Harmonized System (HS) goods nomenclature, and administers the technical aspects of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreements on Customs Valuation and Rules of Origin.
More at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Customs_Organization