12-Sep-2022: The Department of Food and Public Distribution directs to use Millet products during official meetings and Canteens
In order to promote consumption of Millets and in view of their health benefits, all offices of the Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD) have recently directed to introduce and promote millets in their canteens and in meetings.
Millets may be included as one of the snacks/Biscuit made up of millets (having main raw material as millet) such as Ragi Biscuits/Cookies/ladoos and baked millet chips etc. as snacks to be serve in the meetings. Millet/Ragi Dosa, Millet mix vada, Millet mix Puri and Idli /ragi ladoo etc. (Having main raw material as Millet) to be used in the Canteens and as far as possible locally available millet-based products should be used.
The year 2023 will be celebrated as International Year of Millets (IYoM). DFPD has been actively promoting procurement/consumption of millets in the country and utilization of procured millets for distribution in the TPDS/ICDS/MDM Scheme. Millets consumption confers several benefits and helps in managing life style diseases. Due to their high density of nutrients including vitamins, minerals, phyto chemicals and dietary fiber, millets are also excellent grains to alleviate malnutrition and micronutrient deficiency.
1-Sep-2022: 13,000 individuals register under Common Registration Facility “Mera Ration Mera Adhikar” since its launching on 5th August 2022 in 11 States/UTs.
A meeting was convened today under the chairmanship of Shri Sudhanshu Pandey, Secretary (DFPD) to further expand the coverage of Common Registration Facility, with 12 more States/UTs i.e. Chandigarh, D&D D&N, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Telangana, Puducherry, Sikkim and Uttar Pradesh. The meeting also reviewed the readiness for further rollout of Common Registration Facility in these States. All the participating States/UTs have shown willingness to come on board of this facility so that it helps them to obtain fresh data of potential beneficiaries for inclusion under NFSA. States/UTs have been requested to make full use of this facility, duly observing the due process of verification at their level before issue of ration card subject to the respective coverage limit under NFSA.
On the occasion of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav(AKAM) and to facilitate the States/UTs in rightful targeting of benefit under NFSA, Secretary (DFPD) launched a web-based Common Registration Facility (Mera Ration Mera Adhikar) on 5th August 2022 for 11 States/UTs i.e. Assam, Goa, Lakshadweep, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Punjab, Tripura and Uttarakhand. This facility has been developed by the NIC and is accessible on https://nfsa.gov.in.
Response to this Common Registration Facility has been quite encouraging as is seen from the nearly 13,000 registration of individual in just 25 days, since the launching of this facility in 11 States/UTs.
The Department of Food and Public Distribution embarked upon this initiative to serve as an enabling facility so that States/UTs can expedite the collection of data for initiating the due process for achieving the coverage of deserving and destitute persons under NFSA, upto their respective limits.
7-Oct-2021: In order to benefit the farmers, Department of Food and Public Distribution develops an application ecosystem that integrates the procurement portals of all state governments.
In view of the benefit of farmers along with keeping traders and middlemen at bay, the Department of Food and Public Distribution has developed an application ecosystem, which allows the integration of procurement portals of all state governments having Minimum Threshold Parameters (MTPs)for monitoring and strategic decision making.
This process began with the onset of KMS 2021-22 in October, 2021. The introduction of Minimum Threshold Parameters (MTPs) in procurement operations are necessitated to avoid middlemen in procurement and provide that farmers get the best value for their produce. The integration with central portal will go a long way in expediting the reconciliation of procurement figures with States and release of funds by Centre Government to the States.
The benefits will be reaped by the society in general, but specific benefits envisaged for stakeholders are as under:
- Farmers: Will be able to sell their produce at suitable prices and avoid distress sale.
- Procuring Agencies: With better management of procurement operations, the State agencies and FCI will be able to procure efficiently with the limited resources at hand.
- Other Stakeholders: The automation and standardization of procurement operations shall provide an integrated view of procurement of foodgrains and its storage in godowns.
MTPs that must necessarily be captured in all the procurement portals to ensure uniformity and interoperability among them are as under:
- Online Registration of Farmers/Sharecroppers: Name, Father’s name, Address, Mobile No., Aadhar No., Bank A/C details, Land details (Khata/ Khasra), Self-cultivated or land on rent/share cropping/contract.
- Integration of registered farmer data with State’s land record portal
- Integration of Digitized Mandi/Procurement centre operations: Generation of buyer/seller forms, bill of sale proceeds etc.
- Online payment through Expenditure Advance Transfer (EAT) module of PFMS, for direct and speedy transfer of MSP to farmers.
- CMR/Wheat delivery management- Auto generation of billing upon uploading of Acceptance note/ Weight Check Memo and takeover of the stock (UP Model)
Data to flow through API based integration, to the proposed unified GoI Portal for real time reporting of farmers/sharecroppers benefitted, number of small/marginal farmers, yield, quantity procured, payment made, inventory management of central pool stocks.
It is pertinent to mention here that there is a varied scale of implementation of Information Technology based tools across the States. Moreover, because of the prioritization of the local requirements and practices, a pan-India standard procurement ecosystem was non-existing.
Due to variations in the procurement systems, there emerge both systemic and implementation challenges for implementing the schemes of Centre Government. Reconciliation of the procurement operations with various States, is sometimes a long drawn exercise, leading to avoidable delays in the release of funds to States. Moreover, the non-standard procurement operations/processed also lead to avoidable inefficiencies, which manifest in the form of middlemen in the procurement operations.
Undoubtedly, the Centre Government puts great emphasis towards the welfare of the farmers and MSP based procurement is the traditional approach to ensure that the farmers get the appropriate selling price of their produce. This ultimately helps attain the objectives of the Centre and implementation of the National Food Security Act. Standardization of the operations are essential in helping the country achieve greater levels of transparency and efficiency in procurement operations, which ultimately lead to ensuring food security for the people of the country.
The Government of India over multiple forums has sensitized State governments and other public procuring agencies on the need of Minimum Threshold Parameters compliance for procurement operations and its integration with the central portal, namely Central Foodgrains Procurement Portal (CFPP) through the Department of Food & Public Distribution in its discussion with the respective State governments.
20-Sep-2021: In a first, Centre issues uniform specifications for Fortified Rice Kernels (FRK) for grade A & Common Rice
Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD) under Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution for the first time issued uniform specifications for Fortified Rice Kernels (FRK) for grade A & Common Rice have in case of procurement of Fortified Rice Stocks, of which 1% of FRK (w/w) should be blended with normal rice stock.
The department issued the uniform specifications of food grains for Central Pool procurement for the ensuing Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2020-21. These specifications as per standard practice have been issued in respect of Paddy, Rice and other coarse grains namely Jowar, Bajra, Maize, Ragi. These specifications also include standards of rice for issue to States/UTs for distribution under TPDS and Other Welfare Schemes based on the uniform specifications of rice for KMS 2020-21.
The State Governments are requested to ensure that wide publicity of the Uniform Specifications is made among the farmers to ensure that they get due price for their produce and any rejection of the stocks is completely avoided.
All States/Union Territories and Food Corporation of India have been advised that the procurement during KMS 2020-21 may be strictly in accordance with the uniform specifications. It may be pertinent to mention that in order to protect and promote interest of farmers, Government of India has preponed, Kharif Procurement Period from September 26, 2020 in respect of Haryana and Punjab and for rest of the country from September 28, 2020. The Food Corporation of India and States Procurement Agencies have been directed to ensure hassle free procurement and Minimum Support Price (MSP) payments to farmers.
28-Aug-2020: Department of Food & Public Distribution to organise activities to celebrate Poshan Maah
To commemorate the ‘Poshan Maah’ organised by Ministry of Women and Child Development, a meeting was taken today by Secretary, Department of Food & Public Distribution with CMD, Food Corporation of India, MD, CWC and senior officers of the department.
The Poshan Maah is observed every year in the month of September. As part of this, the DoFPD through its organisations have decided to organise activities as suggested by M/o Women and Child Development, in various parts of the country to sensitize the target groups on the merits of nutritional security.
9-Sep-2022: Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh says, DoPT deputation rules have been relaxed to encourage IAS and other All India Service Officers as well as officers of Central Services to get posted in J&K
Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh today informed that Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) deputation rules have been relaxed to encourage IAS and other All India Service Officers as well as officers of Central Services to get posted in J&K.
Briefing the media about several steps taken to address the shortage of officers in the newly created UT, Dr Jitendra Singh said, due to this relaxation, 22 officers belonging to various services and different cadres have been posted in Jammu & Kashmir at various levels at a crucial time.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, DoPT has played a major role in facilitating induction of Jammu & Kashmir Administrative Services Officers into IAS by coordinating with UT of J&K, Ministry of Home Affairs and UPSC. As a result recently 16 officers from JKAS have been inducted into IAS and another 8 such vacancies will be filled up shortly giving opportunities to the JKAS officers to become part of prestigious IAS service after a long gap of 12 years.
The Minister also added that Mid-Career Training of JKAS officers of various seniority was carried out in collaboration with LBSNAA and this has provided a new level of exposure to the JKAS Officers and more than 200 offices.
Dr Jitendra Singh also listed some initiatives by the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension, Government of India like special concessions/incentives to the Central Government employees working in Kashmir Valley in attached and subordinate offices or PSUs falling under control of Central Government. He said, they have been extended special concessions for a period of 3 years w.e.f. 1st August, 2021 and the incentives include an additional house rent allowance, composite transfer grant, per diem allowance, incentive for period of temporary duty, messing allowance, facility to draw pension at place of settlement in relaxation of relevant provisions.
The Minister also informed that the facility for retention of general pool accommodation available to officers who have served in central government has also been extended to officers posted in Jammu and Kashmir on the pattern of north east States.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, in view of home LTC, it can be availed to visit J&K and Ladakh for which guidelines have been notified by DoPT and this will enhance tourism to Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh and also provide an opportunity to all central government employees to visit J&K and Ladakh.
Apart from the above measures, Dr Jitendra Singh said, three National Conferences on Good Governance were held in J&K covering hundreds of J&K employees. He said, best practices from J&K and all over the country were showcased and about 800 J&K government officers were trained on effective handling of public grievances.
Dr Jitendra Singh also informed that the Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DARPG) in Ministry of Personnel had helped the J&K government to switch over to online functioning, as a result of which the UT exchequer would save over Rs 200 cr incurred in transport of records etc. during Durbar move.
The Minister also informed that the District Good Governance Index was launched from J&K for bringing about healthy competition between districts to achieve goal of saturation of citizen services and improving developmental activities in districts. Moreover, 4 policy papers related to good governance were sponsored in J&K encouraging new models for development in the challenging scenario of J&K.
The Minister said, the government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi gives high priority to J&K and there is no dearth of support forthcoming, as far as the Centre is concerned.
26-Oct-2020: DoPT reforms regarding Child Care Leave
While briefing about some of the major reforms brought by Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) under the Modi government, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said today that the male employees of the government are also now entitled to Child Care Leave.
However, Dr Jitendra Singh said that the provision and privilege of Child Care Leave (CCL) will be available only for those male employees who happen to be “single male parent”, which may include male employees who are widowers or divorcees or even unmarried and may therefore, be expected to take up the responsibility of child care as a single - handed parent.
Describing it as a path-breaking and progressive reform to bring ease of living for government servants, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the orders regarding this had been issued quite some time back but somehow did not receive enough circulation in the public.
In a further relaxation to this provision, Dr Jitendra Singh informed that an employee on Child Care Leave may now leave the head quarter with the prior approval of Competent Authority. In addition, the Leave Travel Concession (LTC) may be availed by the employee even if he is on Child Care Leave. Elaborating further, he informed that Child Care Leave can be granted at 100% of leave salary for the first 365 days and 80% of leave salary for the next 365 days.
Based on the inputs over a period of time, Dr Jitendra Singh said, another welfare measure introduced in this regard is that in case of a disabled child, the condition of availing Child Care Leave up to the age of 22 years of the child has been removed and now Child Care Leave can be availed by a government servant for a disabled child of any age.
With the personal intervention and indulgence of Prime Minister Shri. Narendra Modi and his special emphasis on governance reforms, Dr Jitendra Singh said, it has been possible to make several out-of-box decisions in the DoPT over the last six years. Basic purpose behind all these decisions has always been to enable a government employee to contribute to the maximum of his potential, although at the same time there will be no leniency or tolerance toward corruption or non-performance, he said.
8-Apr-2020: DoPT to empower Front Line COVID-19 Warriors with first of its kind iGOT e-learning Platform
The Department of Personnel and Training has announced the launch of a learning platform (https://igot.gov.in) to combat COVID 19 for all front-line workers to equip them with the training and updates in coping with Pandemic. Appropriate training will also prepare them for the subsequent stages of the pandemic. By giving COVID 19 training to other potential second line workforce, India will be better prepared for the emergent situations.
The target group is Doctors, Nurses, Paramedics, Hygiene Workers, Technicians, Auxiliary Nursing Midwives (ANMs), Central & State Govt. Officers, Civil Defence Officials, various Police Organisations, National Cadet Corps (NCC), Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS), National Service Scheme (NSS), Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS), Bharat Scouts & Guides (BSG) and other volunteers.
The platform delivers curated, role-specific content, to each learner at his place of work or home and to any device of his choice. iGOT platform is designed to population scale, and will provide training to around 1.50 crore workers and volunteers in the coming weeks. To begin with nine (9) courses on iGOT have been launched on topics like Basics of COVID, ICU Care and Ventilation Management, Clinical Management, Infection Prevention through PPE, Infection Control and Prevention, Quarantine and Isolation, Laboratory Sample Collection and Testing, Management of COVID 19 Cases, COVID 19 Training.
Through its customized approach COVID-WARRIORS can learn about critical areas from this one-stop source and respond to the prevailing and emergent situations, by keeping themselves updated in a real-time manner. The platform is well equipped to cater the demands of unlimited requests of learning at any time anywhere. The platform can be accessed by following an easy to use manual for desktop and mobile versions, thereby making it accessible for all.
The platform reflects the vision of Honorable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi to ‘care for those who serve the nation’ and boost their morale. As a critical weapon in the arsenal of all front line COVID-19 healthcare warriors, their updated knowledge and capacity, will help them and our nation win the battle against COVID-19 Pandemic.
A version of iGOT fitted to these needs has been launched with the following URL link (https://igot.gov.in). The first version of the platform is available to use with Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, and subsequent versions will support other browsers.
1-Sep-2022: 17th National Seminar on the subjects covered under 76th and 77th round of National Sample Survey (NSS)
The two days National Seminar on the subjects covered during 76th and 77th round of National Sample Survey (NSS) has been inaugurated by Chief Guest Prof. (Dr.) K. N. Madhusoodanan, Vice-Chancellor, CUSAT today in the Seminar Hall of Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT), Kochi. The inaugural session was also attended by Guest of the Honour Prof. (Dr.) P.G. Sankaran, Pro-Vice Chancellor, CUSAT, the ADGs of National Statistical Office (NSO), MoSPI, Additional Secretary, MoSPI, Independent Domain Experts, Retired Professors, Members of the Working Group, Representatives of Academia, Researchers and Media.
While delivering the inaugural address, the Chief Guest, the Vice Chancellor of Cochin University of Science and Technology observed that the selection of the venue of the seminar by the Ministry is a recognition/acknowledgement of work done by the CUSAT in the field of teaching/research including in Statistics. He was thankful to the Ministry for giving them an opportunity to host the 17th National Seminar at Cochin University of Science and Technology. In his address he impressed upon the increasing need of data supported research insights in academics and called for a strong collaboration with the various agencies producing data in the Country. He was appreciative of the detailed survey reports brought out by NSO, MoSPI and acknowledged that the National Sample Survey (NSS) reports are the backbone of the data driven knowledge base in the country.
The Additional Director General, NSO(SCD) welcomed the guests and expressed her gratitude to one and all for sparing time for participating in the Seminar. She expected that the deliberation in these two days seminar will be a great source of knowledge repository for further evolution of planning the surveys in future.
The Pro-Vice Chancellor, CUSAT, in his remarks, noted that NSS is a household name in India, especially when it comes to the independent research in the academic world.
The Additional Director General, NSO(SDRD), MoSPI was thankful to the organizing team and stated that the National Seminar on the outcome of these two rounds were extremely meaningful for the policy makers, academia and researcher scholars.
The Additional Director General, NSO(FOD), MoSPI observed that this interactive platform are extremely important for introspection and using them make necessary improvements in the manner of data collection in the field. He was supportive of the collaboration between the academia, researchers and the Ministry.
30-Aug-2022: 17th National seminar on the subjects covered under 76th and 77th round of National Sample Survey (NSS)
The Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation organizes National Seminars at regular intervals, usually after the release of survey reports based on data collected during National Sample Survey (NSS) Rounds, where experts/authors from different disciplines viz. Academia / Researchers/Central & State Govt. officers and other institutions/Universities are invited to present research papers. Till date sixteen (16) National Seminars have been organized by the Ministry in reputed Institutes/Universities across the country.
In the series, the 17th National Seminar covering NSS Survey Results taken up during 76th round (July – December, 2018) and 77th round (January – December, 2019) of NSS, is being organized by National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI), Government of India at Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT), Kochi during 1st & 2nd September, 2022.
The Seminar will be attended by the Chief Statistician of India & Secretary, Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI), Government of India and other high dignitaries including Vice Chancellor, Pro-Vice Chancellor, Professors and the Research Scholars of Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kochi, Officers of MoSPI and Other Central Ministries/ Departments/Institutions. The Seminar will also be attended by the officials of Directorate of Economics & Statistics (DES), State Govt. of Kerala.
In the aforementioned seminar, various research papers would be presented and deliberated upon. The research papers will cover areas concerning the drinking water, sanitation, hygiene and housing condition in India, persons with disabilities in India as also the land and livestock holdings of households and situation assessment of agricultural household & debt & investment. The deliberation during the seminar are likely to bring to the fore various issues and concerns regarding afore stated aspects of the socio-economic parameters. These papers are also likely to throw some insights on the subjects under reference.
30-May-2017: New office building for National Sample Survey Office (NSSO)
Minister for Statistics & Programme Implementation Shri D.V.Sadananda Gowda inaugurated the new office building of National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), Sankhyiki Bhawan in New Delhi.
With the inauguration of the new building, a new chapter begins in the history of NSSO. Now, with all Divisions under one roof, it will improve coordination of various work at a very closer level resulting speedier and better output. The Minister expressed hope that the present infrastructure will pave the way for a better working environment resulting in quality output. The better facilities will further enhance productivity and will reach new levels of professionalism and Sankhyiki Bhawan will become a new landmark in Delhi. This building has adopted modern energy efficient devices while conserving natural light and using solar power. The new building is equipped with modern facilities like video conferencing, high speed internet, centralized AC, and power backup. The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) has adopted the latest Information & Communication Technology (ICT).
Established in 1950, the National Sample Survey Office conducts nation-wide large-scale sample surveys to obtain comprehensive and continuing information relating to social, economic, demographic, industrial and agricultural aspects. It has been instrumental in developing a strong database that has helped the Central as well as State Governments in developmental planning and policy formulations. The work of NSSO has won international acclaim and stimulated the creation of similar organisations in other developing countries. NSSO is known for its professionalism. Every survey is planned meticulously & field data collection mechanism is elaborate. The results brought out by NSSO are used widely both by national & international entities – in a variety of ways for planning, policy formulation, research, decision making, opinion framing & gauging the pulse of the economy. MOSPI has witnessed remarkable advancements since its inception and in recent past it has taken a number of new initiatives to modernize the data collection, processing, storage, dissemination etc. in line with digital India program.
Central Statistics Office(CSO) is also conducting the Annual Survey of Industries (ASI), the principal source of industrial statistics in India every year. Nowadays, data is collected online through a web-portal directly from data source. The portal permits either the respondent establishment or the field office of NSSO to submit the data for validation and processing. This has increased the accuracy of data as the validation checks which are provided, reduces the errors considerably. Online collection of data has significantly reduced the cost and time. The web portal is being continuously refined.
CSO is planning to develop a web-based data collection system for Index of Industrial Production (IIP), a monthly index compiled to assess the growth of industrial production and release with a lag of 6 weeks. Data collection exercise has gone digital with conduct of quarterly Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) using tablets, and guided by computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) technique. The project is expected to result in huge time savings and will be performed by the surveyors of the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), who will track and upload employment data, among others.
A focused survey on services sector has been incorporated in the 74th round of NSS during 2016-17. The frame for this survey comprises of the list of establishments from Sixth Economic Census (EC), available Business Registers (BR), and the list of active private non-financial companies (MCA-2013-14) with some auxiliary information. Those Enterprises which are maintaining accounts will be covered and data collection will be carried out under the provisions of the Collection of Statistics Act, 2008. The experience of this round will be examined to explore the possibility of conducting the survey of the services sector an annual feature similar to the existing Annual Survey of Industries (ASI).
The Ministry has established a wide area network dedicated to information on ‘State Domestic Product’. The objective is to collect and present data pertaining to SDP from all 29 States and 7 Union Territories of India at one platform. This portal is being used by the Directorate of Economics & Statistics (DES) and M/o Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI).
The Ministry has made efforts to provide NSS estimates at lower administrative level. At present, the NSS estimates are given at National and State levels due to limitation on size of Central Sample. Increase in sample size by pooling of Central and State sample data enables generation of sub-state level estimates. A Manual on Pooling of Central and State Sample Data covering all methodological aspects of Pooling Central and State sample data, prepared by NSSO, has been released for use by States. NSSO is providing technical support to State/UT DESs in the exercise of pooling of data of central and state samples.