Government will soon come out with a new set of standards for AI: Secretary
Author: BI Bureau
New Delhi: The Central government of India will have a new project called the time dissemination project that will have its own GPS satellite system. This will help solve cybercrime issues, said Rohit Kumar Singh, Secretary, Department Of Consumer Affairs, Government of India while speaking today at the Public Affairs Forum of India’s (PAFI) Dialogue on the theme ‘Balancing Consumer Interest with Ease of Doing Business.’
He also announced that the government will soon come out with a new set of standards for Artificial Intelligence (AI). The government is working with the US government to understand more aspects about AI. “Cabinet has approved a bill for decriminalisation which will be introduced soon, '' said Singh.
He further spoke about how the department of consumer affairs handles various issues like price stabilization and other administrative and huge infrastructure issues. “The department is finding the root cause and issues related to consumer affairs to address them”, he added. He continued that the economy will only grow if the firms are competitive.
The Department of Consumer Affairs has issued a consumer helpline number. The service is receiving more complaints from e-commerce consumers, which has gone up to 48 per cent from 8 per cent during the last one year.
“Anonymity between consumer and the service is the cause for this increased participation. The relationship between the consumer and the service has gone because of the E-commerce services, which makes the consumer weaker,” said Singh.
Virat Batia, President PAFI, welcomed the Secretary, Department Of Consumer Affairs, Government of India and moderated the session. TS Vishwanath, Director General, Past President and Founding Member PAFI, shared the closing remarks. /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.
