Centre to launch National Helicopter Medical Emergency plan: Jyotiraditya Scindia
Author: BI Bureau
Srinagar: Union Minister for Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya M Scindia on Monday announced three new projects for enhancing the helicopter sector in the country which includes Project Akash, HEMS and fractional ownership. He also launched a new Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) under project ‘Sanjeevani’ and the service will start at AIIMS, Rishikesh. “Through the learnings from project ‘Sanjeevani,’ we will put in place a National Helicopter Medical Emergency plan in the days to come,” he added.
Addressing ‘4th Heli-India Summit 2022 – Helicopters for Last Mile Connectivity,’ organized by FICCI, jointly with the Ministry of Civil Aviation, and Government of J&K, Scindia said that the government intends to expand medical outreach and access to trauma care services to a wider population across the country using helicopters.
Scindia also announced a project – ‘Akash’ to enhance the safety in helicopter operations and provide all-weather day and night access. The government has started to develop helicopter specific low level IFR routes using GAGAN under the project Akash. “This will greatly benefit the helicopters and small aircraft operations to non-IFR airfields and helipads,” he added.
The Minister highlighted that our scheduled operations by carriers are increasing in the country, and we also need to promote non-scheduled operators (NSOPs). “We have introduced a new concept of ‘fractional ownership’ in the country today,” he said and added that this will help in owning the flying time of an aircraft by a large pool of people rather than buying the plane.
Helicopters, he said, have a multifarious role by providing urban connectivity and the government has started providing helicopter connectivity between airports and cities at economical rates. Helicopters also have an important role in providing medical services along with disaster management.
Rajiv Bansal, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, said that in the last one year, several initiatives have been taken including leasing of helicopters, HEMS, expanding the scope under Heli-Sewa and we are working on the concept of fractional ownership. “There is a great potential for helicopters in promoting tourism in the state. With the proliferation of helicopters, we will have a potential for OEMs to set-up manufacturing and MRO in India and the government is working in this direction,” he added.
Remi Maillard, Chairman, FICCI Civil Aviation Committee and President and MD, Airbus India, said that FICCI will work closely with the Civil Aviation Ministry to accelerate the implementation of various announcements by the government. “The civil helicopter market needs more than just policy push from the government and the role of industry is critical. We will support the government in developing the helicopter market in the country,” he stated. /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.
