Summits & Meetings - Current Affairs for September, 2017

The National Conference onv Agriculture for Rabi Campaign - 2017-18 is being organized on 19th - 20th September, 2017 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. The Conference was inaugurated by Union Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Minister, Shri Radha Mohan Singh. Farmers succeeded in attaining the ever highest production of more than 275 million tons of foodgrains and 32 million tons of oilseeds during 2016-17 as per the latest and the 4th Advance Estimates. The quantum jump in pulse production from previous record of 19.25 million tons in 2013-14 to 22.95 million tons during 2016-17 also took place. During the two day conference, with the overall aim of doubling farmers’ income by 2022. Group Discussions were held on important topics such as on 1. Soil Health Card Scheme – Review and Improvements, 2. Increasing Coverage of Non-loanee Farmers, Area and Crops under PMFBY and use of Modern Technology for Greater Efficiency, 3. e-NAM-Ideas on Improvements, 4. Integrated Pest Management (IPM) – Approach for Sustainable Agriculture, 5. Management of Drought, 6. Review of Post Harvest Management (PHM) & Value Chain in the Country, 7. Drought Proofing of 30 Vulnerable Districts, (8) Doubling Farmers’ Income. Each Group was In addition, presentations on the following (ix) flagship schemes were made by Joint Secretaries and senior officials to set the tone for discussions: i. Kharif review & Rabi prospects ii. Seed Quality Control. iii. E- National Agriculture Marketing (E-NAM). iv.Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY). v. Soil Health Card (SHC). vi. Organic Farming. vii. Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY). viii. Horticulture/cold Chain. ix. Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY).

The Ministry of Women and Child Development held the first ever National Conference in New Delhi tomorrow on Mission Mode to address Under-Nutrition in the country. The theme of the conference was “Malnutrition Free India-2022”. Giving details about the conference, the Secretary WCD said that the Government has decided to lay focused attention on this issue. For this said purpose, Ministry of Women and Child Development has identified 113 districts across the States/UTs based on the composite index of NITI Aayog and prevalence of stunting from NFHS-4 data. At least one district has been selected from each State/UTs so that the action taken in the selected district can be emulated in the other districts also, he explained. National Conference, first of its kind, aims at bringing convergence at District/Block levels of the three key Departments (Health & Family Welfare, ICDS/Social Welfare and Drinking Water and Sanitation) wherein a roadmap would be drawn to evolve an appropriate strategy in tackling the problem of stunting, under-nutrition and wasting comprehensively and conclusively. The conference would be sensitizing the District Collectors/Deputy Commissioners/District Magistrates as well as the District-level officers of Health & Family Welfare, Nutrition (ICDS/SW), Drinking Water & Sanitation Departments in the 113 High Burden Districts along with the Principal Secretaries/Secretaries, in-charge of these three Departments of all States/UTs on a multitude of topics relating to stunting, under-nutrition and wasting and the key strategic interventions which are urgently required. The District Magistrates/District Collectors/Deputy Commissioners in these 113 high burden districts, through a dashboard, will regularly monitor and review the schemes covering the aspects of nutrition across the line departments within their jurisdiction at least once in a three month period. Such a review and monitoring at district level would be done in an exclusively and dedicated manner (between 1st to 10th of January, April, July and October every year) to address implementation of schemes having a direct bearing on nutrition and Health. Malnutrition: Know More

• The problem of malnutrition is inter-generational and is dependent on multiple factors which inter-alia, include proper Infant & Young Child Feeding (IYCF) practices, Immunization, Institutional Delivery, Early Childhood Development, Food Fortification, Deworming, access to safe drinking water & proper sanitation (WASH), Dietary diversification, full ANC checkup, early initiation of breast feeding, ICT enabled real time monitoring and implementation of Anganwadi Services, Improving infrastructure of Anganwadi Centres along with training of Anganwadi workers and other related factors.
• These factors can also be Area specific or dependent on particular geographical conditions.
• Further, it requires a convergent approach among all the three departments i.e. Health & Family Welfare, ICDS/Social Welfare and Drinking Water and Sanitation to tackle the issue of malnutrition comprehensively and conclusively.
• Some of the important sessions at the conference include efficacy of food fortification, sustainable solution through breast feeding, dietary diversification, improving maternal & child health through Mission Indradhanush, improving program delivery effectiveness, accelerating Real Time Monitoring among others.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and the Central Board of Excise & Customs (CBEC) have been holding annual Conferences of senior officers for a number of years.

In 2016, for the first time, a joint Conference of the two Boards was held under the umbrella of “Rajaswa Gyan Sangam” which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

This year also, a joint Conference of the two Boards is scheduled to be held on 1st and 2nd of September, 2017 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.

The Rajaswa Gyan Sangam, 2017 will be attended by the senior officers of CBDT and CBEC.

For the first time ever, senior officers of the Finance Department of the States and Union Territories will be attending this event.

There will be several Joint Sessions of the officers of the two Boards.

One of the plenary sessions will be addressed by Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev on the first day when he will be speaking on “Inner Engineering - Technologies for Well Being”.

Sh. K V Chowdary, Central Vigilance Commissioner will address the joint session on the second day.

The objective of the Conference is to enable a two-way communication between the policy-makers and the senior officers in the field offices with a view to increase revenue collection and facilitate effective implementation of law and policies in key result areas.