Tourism Budget
Why in news?
- The tourism and hospitality industry had a lukewarm response to the budget allocation of Rs 2500 crore for the tourism sector for financial year 2021.
Crucial facts:
- The more ‘immediate’ demands of the industry like granting an infrastructure status to the hospitality industry and treating the tourism industry as an export industry at par with IT industry under export of services had not been considered.
- Industry experts however said the proposed establishment of the Indian Institute of Heritage and Conservation coupled with a greater emphasis on the UDAAN scheme and more Tejas trains for iconic destinations, the new proposal to develop five archaeological sites as iconic destinations along with museums on site should provide a boost to the tourism sector.
- Besides tourism, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has also proposed to allocate Rs 3150 crore for the Ministry of Culture.
- The first Indian Institute of Heritage and Conservation will be set up with the status of a deemed university to be operated under the Ministry of Culture.
Sophisticated Analytical and Technical Help Institutes
Why In news?
- To address the need for building shared, professionally managed and strong Science and Technology infrastructure in the country which is readily accessible to academia, start-ups, manufacturing, industry and R and D labs, the Department of Science and Technology has launched a unique scheme called “Sophisticated Analytical and Technical Help Institutes (SATHI)”.
Key highlights:
- These Centres are expected to house major analytical instruments to provide common services of high-end analytical testing, thus avoiding duplication and reduced dependency on foreign sources.
- These would be operated with a transparent, open access policy.
- DST has already set up three such centres in the country, one each at IIT Kharagpur, IIT Delhi and BHU at a total cost of Rs 375 Cores.It is planned to set up five SATHI Centres every year for the next four years.
- SATHI will address the problems of accessibility, maintenance, redundancy and duplication of expensive equipment in our Institutions, while reaching out to the less endowed organizations in need, e.g., industry, MSMEs, startups and State Universities.
- This will also foster a strong culture of collaboration between institutions and across disciplines to take advantage of developments, innovations and expertise in diverse areas.
Portal Santusht
Why in news?
- ‘Santusht’ – Implementation Monitoring Cell (IMC) has been constituted in the Office of Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Labour and Employment in January 2020.
Key facts:
- The objective of ‘Santusht’ is to promote transparency, accountability, effective delivery of public services and implementation of policies, schemes of Ministry of Labour and Employment at grassroot level through constant monitoring.
- For public grievances, Centralized Public Grievance Redresal and Monitoring System (CPGRAM) portal is already functional.
- Besides, written grievances as received from stakeholders are also disposed by the Ministry. Further, online portal under ‘Santusht’ for public grievances has not been started so far.
Commonwealth
Why in news?
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi has congratulated Maldives on rejoining the Commonwealth.
- Maldives had left the Commonwealth under the previous Yameen administration in October 2016.
About:
- The Commonwealth is a voluntary association of 54 independent and equal sovereign states, nearly all of them former territories of the British Empire.
- The headquarters is located in London, United Kingdom.
- The current Commonwealth of Nations was formally constituted by the London Declaration in 1949.
Member countries:
- 54 countries are members of the Commonwealth with Maldives becoming the 54th member of Commonwealth family.
- All members have an equal say – regardless of size or economic stature. This ensures even the smallest member countries have a voice in shaping the Commonwealth.
- Every two years, members meet to discuss issues affecting the Commonwealth and the wider world at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).
APEDA-CFTRI Sign MoU for Liason Office
Why in news?
- A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed by CSIR-CFTRI with APEDA to set up a Liaison Office in Guwahati, Assam to provide technical support to the food industries in the North East region.
Key facts:
- It will benefit the farmers, producers and entrepreneurs.
- APEDA has undertaken many promotional activities recently to bring the North East states of India on to the export map.
- In 2019 five international buyer seller meets were organised by APEDA in Assam, Manipur, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim to showcase the potential of agriculture/ horticulture and processed food products including organic produce to open the export window from the North Eastern States.
- Capacity building is another such area where APEDA is keenly focusing to hand-hold the new exporters from the North East region.
- APEDA has also organised specific outreach programmes and training on export process for the stakeholders from the North East region.
- It has been in the forefront for generating quality human resource for the development of food industry.