eSanjeevani touches 1.2 crore consultation mark
Author: BI Bureau
New Delhi: In what shows the potential and benefit of the use of technology, eSanjeevani, the Central government’s National Telemedicine Service, has completed 1.2 crore (120 lakh) consultations rapidly shaping into the country’s most popular and the largest telemedicine service. Currently the National Telemedicine Service is serving around 90,000 patients across the country, signalling wide adoption by patients as well as doctors, and specialists across the country.
Ministry of Health & Family Welfare’s National Telemedicine Service eSanjeevani is operational through two modes -- eSanjeevani AB-HWC (doctor to doctor telemedicine platform) that is based on hub and spoke model and eSanjeevani OPD – (patient to doctor telemedicine platform) which provides outpatient services to the citizens in the confines of their homes.
eSanjeevani AB-HWC has completed around 67,00,000 consultations. It is being implemented at Health & Wellness Centres under Ayushman Bharat Scheme. It was rolled out in November 2019. Andhra Pradesh was the first State to roll out eSanjeevani AB-HWC services. Since its roll out, over 2000 hubs and around 28,000 spokes have been set up in various States.
eSanjeevani OPD is a telemedicine variant for citizens to seek non-COVID19 and COVID19 related outpatient health services. It was rolled out on 13th of April 2020 during the first lockdown in the country when all the OPDs were closed. So far, over 51,00,000 patients have been served through eSanjeevani OPD which hosts over 430 online OPDs which include general OPDs and specialty OPDs. Premier tertiary level medical institutions like AIIMS in Bathinda (Punjab), Bibinagar (Telangana), Kalyani (West Bengal), Rishikesh (Uttarakhand), King George Medical College, Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) etc., are also providing outpatient health services through eSanjeevani OPD.
The National Telemedicine Service is plugging the digital health divide that exists in urban and rural India. It is addressing the shortage of doctors and specialists at ground level while reducing the burden on secondary and tertiary level hospitals. In line with the National Digital Health Mission, this digital initiative is also boosting the digital health ecosystem in the country.
It is an indigenous telemedicine technology developed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) in Mohali. The C-DAC team in Mohali is providing end to end services. Considering the usefulness of telemedicine and in planning for the unforeseen event of outbreak of another wave of COVID 19 infections, the initiative of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is being augmented further to enable 500,000 consultations per day.
Leading 10 States in terms of adoption (12033498) of eSanjeevani are Andhra Pradesh (37,04,258), Karnataka (22,57,994), Tamil Nadu (15,62,156), Uttar Pradesh (13,28,889), Gujarat (4,60,326), Madhya Pradesh (4,28,544), Bihar (4,04,345), Maharashtra (3,78,912), West Bengal (2,74,344), Kerala (2,60,654).
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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.
