Ministry of Civil Aviation mandates Air Suvidha portal for ease of travelling
Author: BI Bureau
New Delhi: To ensure the smooth passage of international travellers arriving in India, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) and Ministry of Health & Family Welfare have mandated contactless self-declaration at Air Suvidha Portal. The Air Suvidha portal was launched in August last year and now has been strengthened to accommodate travel guidelines issued on 30 November 2021.
Air Suvidha is first of its kind digital portal for easing international passenger arrival in India. This portal developed by MoCA aids passengers in providing their details of travel and final stay along with RT PCR, Vaccination status, etc. In today’s time, this helps state officials in contact tracing. The implementation of the Air Suvidha intends to provide hassle-free, queue free, and convenient air travel to all international passengers arriving in India. Air Suvidha portal has already assisted 251210 passengers from December 1, 2021 to December 5, 2021 since the updating of the new travel guidelines on November 30, 2021.
To ensure the necessary prevention of the omicron variant of Covid-19 virus, the exemption forms from the Air Suvidha portal have been discontinued, and filling of the details have been made compulsory for all international passengers arriving in India. All international passengers arriving in India are mandated to declare their current health status prior to boarding on the Air Suvidha Portal along with the required documents: Copy of Passport, PCR Negative Certificate from a test conducted within 72 hours of departure and the vaccination certificate. For immigration, the copy received in e-mail is essential on arrival in India and has to be verified at the APHO counter.
The countries from where travellers would need to follow additional measures on arrival in India are the European nations including the United Kingdom, South Africa, Brazil, Botswana, China, Ghana, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Singapore, Tanzania, Hong Kong, and Israel. /BI/
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The exports of agricultural commodities from March to June 2020 shot up by 23.24 percent on-year to Rs 25,552.7 crores.
As the economy comes to a standstill amid the coronavirus-led lockdown, India’s agriculture sector has taken the baton of economic growth in its hands. The exports of agricultural commodities from March to June 2020 shot up by 23.24 percent on-year to Rs 25,552.7 crores, according to the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare. The government said that self-reliant agriculture is critical for the goal of an Atmanirbhar Bharat and for this, agricultural export is extremely important as besides earning foreign exchange for the country, the exports help farmers, producers, and exporters to take advantage of the wider international market and increase their income.
The surge in exports has also resulted in increased production in the farm sector by increasing coverage area and productivity. The share of India’s agricultural exports and imports in the world agriculture trade in 2017 was 2.27 percent and 1.90 percent, respectively. Even during the difficult time of pandemic lockdown, India took care not to disturb the world food supply chain and continued to export, the government said.
Ministry of Agriculture has prepared a comprehensive action plan for the promotion of Agri trade; the twofold approach focuses on boosting Agri Export with emphasis on value addition and action plan for Import Substitution. Recently, the Agriculture sector has witnessed a series of reforms, giving more choices to the farmers to sell their produce at competitive rates.
To mention a few, the Export strategy focuses on the export promotion of fast-evolving niche markets of Wellness food/ Health-conscious food/nutraceuticals, Development of “Brand India” in campaign mode to help penetration into new foreign markets and of new products which automatically translates into higher value realization, Gulf countries have been identified as focus destination to increase the market share which is a strong market for India though presently India caters to only 10-12% share of their total imports. A product-market matrix has been made containing a list of products of strength that could be expanded in new geographies and a list of known markets which can be introduced with newer products.
At the behest of the Department of Agricultural Cooperation & Farmers’ Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture, product-specific Export Promotion Forums have been created to lead Agri exports to new heights. Each Export Promotion Forum shall be having exporters of the related commodity as its members along with official members representing concerned Ministries/Departments of the Central and State Governments. Chairman APEDA shall be the chairman of each of these forums. The forums will meet at least once every two months, to discuss recommendations on issues pertaining to the export.
The recommendations of the forum will be placed in the product committee / Authority of APEDA. The Forum will keep in close contact with the concerned organization of the Ministry of Agriculture such as MIDH, Extension, NPPO, etc., DGFT, Ministry of Civil Aviation, MoFPI, etc. to further the interest of agricultural export.
