Antardrishti dashboard: RBI Governor launched ‘Antardrishti’. It provides the necessary knowledge to evaluate and track the development of financial inclusion by recording relevant data.It will also make it possible to assess the degree of financial exclusion at a local level across the nation so that such places may be addressed.
Financial Inclusion:It aimed to provide access to affordable and appropriate financial products and services, such as savings accounts, credit, insurance, and payment systems.The Reserve Bank has been promoting financial inclusion through various policy initiatives.To measure the extent of financial inclusion the central bank had constructed the Financial Inclusion (FI) Index in 2021.It is based on three dimensions of financial inclusion — ‘Access’, ‘Usage’ and ‘Quality’.The FI-Index has been conceptualised as a comprehensive index incorporating details of banking, investments, insurance, postal as well as the pension sector in consultation with the government and respective sectoral regulators.The index captures information on various aspects of financial inclusion in a single value ranging between 0 and 100, where 0 represents complete financial exclusion and 100 indicates full financial inclusion.
Food Safety Index: Recently, the union Health Minister released the fifth State Food Safety Index in New Delhi. The Index is an annual assessment released by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).It was started in 2018-19 and serves as a tool to propel States and Union Territories to enhance their performance and establish robust food safety ecosystems within their jurisdictionsThis index is based on the performance of the State/ UT on five significant parameters, namely, Human Resources and Institutional Data, Compliance, Food Testing – Infrastructure and Surveillance, Training & Capacity Building and Consumer Empowerment.The Index is a dynamic quantitative and qualitative benchmarking model that provides an objective framework for evaluating food safety across all States/UTs.Ranking of the States and Union Territories in the 2022 -23 Report Among the large state category: Kerala is the top-ranking state followed by Punjab and Tamil Nadu.Among the small states category: Goa is the top-ranking state followed by Manipur, and Sikkim in the Small States category.
Among the Union Territories category: Jammu and Kashmir, Chandigarh, and Delhi.
MAHIR(National Mission on Advanced and High-Impact Research): Recently, the Ministry of Power and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy have jointly launched MAHIR.The mission aims to quickly identify emerging technologies in the power sector and develop them indigenously, at scale, for deployment within and outside India. The Mission will be funded by pooling financial resources of the Ministry of Power, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and the Central Public Sector Enterprises under the two Ministries.Additional funding will be mobilized from the Government of India’s budgetary resources.The mission is Planned for an initial period of five years from 2023-24 to 2027-28.The Mission will have a two-tier structure – A Technical Scoping Committee: It will be chaired by the Chairperson of the Central Electricity Authority.It will identify ongoing and emerging research areas globally and recommend potential technologies for development under the Mission.Apex Committee: It will be chaired by the Union Minister for Power & New and Renewable Energy.It will deliberate on the technology and products to be developed and approve the research proposal.
