ATMANIRBHAR BHARAT – PART 5

Swayam Prabha

• SWAYAM Prabha is an initiative of the Ministry of Human Resources Development to provide 32 High Quality Educational Channels through DTH (Direct to Home) across the length and breadth of the country on 24X7 basis.
• It has curriculum-based course content covering diverse disciplines. This is primarily aimed at making quality learning resources accessible to remote areas where internet availability is still a challenge.
• The DTH channels are using the GSAT-15 satellite for programme telecasts.

The DTH channels cover the following :

• Higher Education
• School Education (9-12)
• Curriculum-based courses
• Assist students (class11-12th)

National Digital Health Blueprint

National Health Stack (NHS)

Unveiled by the NITI Aayog last year, NHS is digital infrastructure built with the aim of making the health insurance system more transparent and robust.

There are five components of NHS:

1. Electronic national health registry that would serve as a single source of health data for the nation;
2. Coverage and claims platform that would serve as the building blocks for large health protection schemes, allow for the horizontal and vertical expansion of schemes like Ayushman Bharat by states, and enable a robust system of fraud detection;
3. Federated personal health records (PHR) framework that would serve the twin purposes of access to their own health data by patients, and the availability of health data for medical research, which is critical for advancing the understanding of human health;
4. National health analytics platform that would provide a holistic view combining information on multiple health initiatives, and feed into smart policymaking, for instance, through improved predictive analytics; and
5. Other horizontal components including a unique digital health ID, health data dictionaries and supply chain management for drugs, payment gateways, etc., shared across all health programmes.

What is the National Digital Health Blueprint (NDHB)?

• The NDHB is the architectural document for the implementation of the NHS.
• Its vision is to create a national digital health ecosystem that supports universal health coverage in an efficient, accessible, inclusive, affordable, timely and safe manner, through provision of a wide range of data, information, and infrastructure services.
• NDHB recognizes the need to establish a specialised organisation, called the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) that can drive the implementation of the blueprint, and promote and facilitate the evolution of a national digital health ecosystem.

Features

• The key features of the blueprint include a federated architecture, a set of architectural principles, a five-layered system of architectural building blocks, a unique health ID (UHID), privacy and consent management, national portability, electronic health records, applicable standards and regulations, health analytics.

PM eVIDYA

A programme for multi-mode access to digital/online education to be launched immediately; consisting of:

• DIKSHA for school education in states/UTs: e-content and QR coded Energized Textbooks for all grades (one nation, one digital platform)
• One earmarked TV channel per class from 1 to 12 (one class, one channel)
• Extensive use of Radio, Community radio and Podcasts
• Special e-content for visually and hearing impaired.
• Top 100 universities will be permitted to automatically start online courses by 30th May, 2020.

Manodarpan

An initiative for psychosocial support of students, teachers  and families for mental health and  emotional wellbeing to be launched immediately.

Ease of Doing Business Rankings

The World Bank recently released its Ease of Doing Business Report, 2020. The indicator measures the performance of countries across 10 different dimensions in the 12-month period ending May 1, 2019.

According to the report, New Zealand retained its 1^st position whereas Somalia was ranked at 190^th spot.

India was placed at 63^rd position this time (2019) out of 190 countries marking an improvement of 14 places from its 77^th position in 2018.

• • India’s score improved from 67.23 in the previous year to 71.0 this year.
  • India for the third consecutive year was present in the list of 10 economies where the business climate has improved the most.

The essential features of India’s performance this year are:

• • India’s ranking improved basically on four parameters:
    • Starting a Business- India made starting a business easier by fully integrating multiple application forms into a general incorporation form,
    • Dealing with Construction Permits- For example, building a warehouse cost around 4% of the warehouse value as compared to 5.7% in the previous year,
    • Trading across Borders– with a single electronic platform- improved electronic submission methods for documents and upgrades to port infrastructure, import and export process became easier, and
    • Resolving Insolvency- Recovery rate under resolving insolvency has improved significantly from 26.5% to 71.6%. Also, the time taken for resolving insolvency has also come down significantly from 4.3 years to 1.6 years.
  • India continues to maintain its first position among South Asian countries. It was 6^th (in 2014).
  • The World Bank will now include Kolkata and Bengaluru, besides Delhi and Mumbai, for preparing ease of doing business report, in order to provide a holistic picture of the business environment of the country.

The report measures the performance of countries across 10 different parameters namely:

• Starting a Business,
• Dealing with Construction permits,
• Electricity availability,
• Property registration,
• Credit availability,
• Protecting minority Investors,
• Paying Taxes,
• Trading across borders,
• Contracts enforcement, and
• Resolving Insolvency.
• This time two more parameters were considered namely, employing workers and contracting with the government but these are not included in the score and rankings.

It ranks countries on the basis of Distance to Frontier (DTF) score that highlights the gap of an economy with respect to the global best practice. For example, a score of 75 means an economy was 25 percentage points away from the frontier constructed from the best performances across all economies and across time.