National Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation (NSFDC)
14-Apr-2017: (MoU) Signed Between NSFDC & Development Commissioner (Handlooms)
National Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation (NSFDC) under Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and Development Commissioner (Handlooms) under Ministry of Textiles signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to help Scheduled Caste weavers and their families by promoting production and marketing of high value quality Handlooms products at Block level Cluster in various States like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Odisha etc.
Handlooms Sector is a part of Textile Industry, the second largest economic activity after agriculture. There are around 44 lakh Handloom weavers in the country out of which 3.90 lakh are Scheduled Caste Weavers. Under the cluster approach, new strategy for promoting production and marketing of high value quality handloom products shall be adopted to ensure more earnings of the Scheduled Caste Handloom Weavers.
In this endeavor, both the MoU signing parties shall popularize the schemes of DC (Handlooms) amongst the SC weavers through Awareness Programmes and advertisements in electronic/print media in SC weavers concentrated areas and collaborate for capacity building including skill upgradation and economic development of SC weavers and their families for achieving the desired outcome. Exhibitions/Fairs shall be organized by both the parties for providing marketing assistance to SC weavers for enhancing their earnings.
Both the parties shall also organize relevant skill development programmes for up-gradation of skills of the scheduled caste weavers in clusters and also for sharing knowledge and experience. This endeavour shall enable scheduled caste weavers to sharpen their skills for production and marketing of high value quality handloom products and better marketing linkages and therefore to have more income.
20-Feb-2017: MoU signed for welfare of Handicraft Artisans belonging to Scheduled Castes
An MoU was signed between Development Commissioner (Handicrafts), Ministry of Textiles and National Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation (NSFDC), a Central PSU under Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, with the objective of working together to improve the earnings of artisans across the country, belonging to Scheduled Castes categories.
The MoU provides for continuous and extensive collaboration between Office of DC (Handicrafts) and NSFDC, aiming at the following:
- Need assessment and gap identification through popularising various schemes by holding awareness camps.
- Extensive need-based skill upgradation in the identified clusters having dominant presence of Scheduled Caste artisans, in the field of innovative and market-friendly designs, and adoption of modern tools and techniques.
- Enhanced participation of Scheduled Caste artisans and their producer groups in domestic and international marketing events.
- Working capital credit for Scheduled Caste artisans at concessional rates, by combining the benefits provided by Ministry of Textiles and Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
It has also been agreed in the MoU that the Office of the DC(Handicrafts) through its various schemes, will support NSFDC in formulation of project reports, undertaking field studies for identifying felt needs of Scheduled Caste artisans, in addition to extending assistance of six Regional Offices and 52 Marketing & Service Extension Centres of the Office of the DC(Handicrafts).
Krishi Unnati Mela
14-Mar-2017: Krishi Unnati Mela 2017
Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) every year has been organising Krishi Vigyan Mela(Agriculture Science Fair) to display and popularise the latest advancement in agricultural research and technology development among farmers and end users since 1972. It continues to be a highly important annual event for receiving feedback from the farming community, which helps in deciding the Institute’s future research strategy. Thousands of farmers and visitors from across the country are participating in the mela every year.
This year Krishi Unnati Mela 2017 will be organised from 15-17 March at the campus of IARI, New Delhi in jointly by ICAR and Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare. The mela will be inaugurated by Hon'ble Minister of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare, Sh. Radha Mohan Singh on 15th March, 2017. A large number of farmers and other visitors are expected to participate in the mela.
Attractions of the Mela
- Digitization in agriculture
- Organic farming
- Agribusiness models
- Precision farming
- Skill building and entrepreneurship development
- Live demonstrations on production technologies of crops, horticulture, Integrated Farming System, Protected cultivation
- Farmers’ visits to experimental fields of IARI
- Water use efficient technology: micro irrigation and sensor based irrigation system
- Recycling of waste water for agriculture
- Display and sale of various products (farm equipments, quality planting materials, bio-fertilisers, Agro-chemicals, innovative farmers' products) and machinery
- On-spot Soil and water testing
- Kisan Gosthi
- Recognition of Innovative farmer
This year about eight thousand invitations are being sent to ICAR Institutes, SAUs, KVKs, ATARIs, Public Sector Undertakings, NGOs, Pvt. Organisations and Farmers for booking of stalls to display agriculture technologies, products and services. The size and rates per stall from different organisation are as follows
Technical Session:
The technical sessions on various themes are planned to educate farmers on various agricultural technologies and Government schemes for agricultural development. A Women empowerment workshop will be organised to sensitise farm women on latest agricultural technologies and their rights.
Glimpse of Krishi Unnati Mela – 2016
The three-day National Agricultural Fair, Krishi Unnati Mela 2016 was organized at the campus of IARI, New Delhi during March 19-21, 2016 in joint collaboration of DARE/ICAR and DAC, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
Prime Minister launched a Mobile App 'Kisan Suvidha' for providing various farmer friendly services. The mega event, that celebrated the great contribution of Indian farmers to agriculture, witnessed the participation of over 1 lakh visitors and 500 public and private exhibitors. Exhibition of improved technologies of agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry, dairy, fisheries, farm machinery and equipments etc. including live demonstrations at the Pusa farms were the major highlights of the Fair. Display and sale of high yielding seeds and quality planting material of different crops, fruits and vegetables were another attraction of the event. Recognition of Innovative farmers as well as organisation of Farmers-Scientists interactive sessions were the major attractions in which experts and scientists provided advance technological knowledge in simple way along with details of the various concurrent government schemes launched for the benefit of the farmers. A large number of farmers from across the country visited the fair and gained useful knowledge and information.
Trade Mark Rules
6-Mar-2017: Trade Mark Rules 2017
The Trade Mark Rules, 2017 have been notified and have come into effect from 06th March, 2017. These Rules, which replace the erstwhile Trade Mark Rules 2002, will streamline and simplify the processing of Trade Mark applications.
Some salient features of the revamped Rules are as follows:
- Number of Trade Mark (TM) Forms have been reduced from 74 to 8.
- To promote e-filing of TM applications, the fee for online filing has been kept at 10% lower than that for physical filing.
- Based on stakeholders feedback, the fees for Individuals, Start-ups and Small Enterprises have been reduced from that proposed in the draft Rules – i.e. only Rs 4,500 as against Rs 8,000 for e-filing of TM applications proposed at the draft stage.
- Modalities for determination of well-known trademarks have been laid out for the first time.
- The provisions relating to expedited processing of an application for registration of a trade mark have been extended right up to registration stage (hitherto, it was only upto examination stage).
- Over all fees have been rationalized by reducing the number of entries in Schedule I from 88 to just 23.
- Modalities for service of documents from applicants to the Registry and vice-versa through electronic means have been introduced to expedite the process; e-mail has been made an essential part of address for service to be provided by the applicant or any party to the proceedings so that the office communication may be sent through email.
- Hearing through video conferencing has been introduced.
- Number of adjournments in opposition proceedings has been restricted to a maximum of two by each party, which will help dispose-off matters in time.
- Procedures relating to registration as Registered User of trademarks have also been simplified.
It may be recalled that the examination time for a TM application has already been brought down from 13 months to just 1 month in January 2017; this is despite a stupendous 35% jump in TM filings in 2015-16 vis a vis the previous year. The new Rules should give a boost to the Intellectual Property Regime in India.