MyGov has become a ‘Jan Bhagidari’ platform: MeitY Secretary Ajay Prakash Sawhney
Author: BI Bureau
New Delhi: MyGov is not just a website anymore but has become a ‘Jan Bhagidari’ platform, said Ajay Sawhney, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), on Saturday while lauding the citizens who actively participated in ‘MyGov challenges, shared their logo ideas, and helped the government in the formulation of policies and programmes.
Expressing his amazement at the creativity of the winners and the logos MyGov received, he said: “The kind of creativity we see around MyGov is heart warming and whenever we reach out, we get such remarkable ideas. And whenever we receive a good idea or a logo, we take it very seriously and take it to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”
He further said that if the government wants to run any program, “we share it through MyGov and many times, we use the ideas received to finalize the program outline.” “During Covid-19, MyGov has done an amazing job - be it creating awareness about masks, or making promotional videos. During COVID, everyone was a little depressed due to the lockdown and during that period MyGov created a positive harmony with big artists coming on the platform and sharing their music performances.”
Minister of State for Culture Meenakshi Lekhi along with Sawhney, Abhishek Singh, President and CEO, NeGD, and MyGov, and Amitesh Kumar Sinha, Joint Secretary, MeitY, felicitated the winners of several MyGov challenges.
Lekhi lauded all the winners and appreciated the efforts of MyGov through which the government and citizens of India can interact with each other. “Through the launch of the platform we are able to reach out to many people. Most of the people awarded here are the ones who have voluntarily come forward to serve the society,” she said.
“The MyGov platform needs to be further utilized; we all need to participate more in policy making, advise the government and give more ideas. When we are in a democracy, we need to communicate and hence, the government needs to reach out to the citizens and people need to share their feedback,” she added. /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.
