Current Affairs 10th December 2018

Current Affairs 10th December 2018 - Important Points 

• FAO Council approved which proposal of India - To observe 2023 as International Year of Millets
• Government notifies four commonly used medical devices as drugs, these are - Nebulisers, Blood pressure monitors, Digital thermometers and Glucometers
• Tourism Ministry formulates Guidelines for approval of Online Travel Aggregators
• ESIC to allow non-insured persons to avail medical services from its underutilised hospitals

Current Affairs 10th December 2018 - Details

FAO Council approved which proposal of India - To observe 2023 as International Year of Millets

FAO ( Food and Agriculture Organisation ) Council of United Nations has approved India's proposal to observe 2023 as the International Year of Millets. This approval was given during 160th session of the FAO. This session was held from 3rd December 2018 to 7th December 2018 in Rome.

Importance :

It has been noted that millet cultivation in India has declined due to change in dietary habits and unavailability of millets.
Important to mention here that Millets consists of Jowar, Bajra, Ragi and minor millets, together termed as nutri-cereals.

Government notifies four commonly used medical devices as drugs, these are - Nebulisers, Blood pressure monitors, Digital thermometers and Glucometers

Four commonly used medical devices has been notified under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act by Government. DCGI ( Drug Controller General of India ) will be regulating import, manufacture and sale of these devices from January 2020.

These four medical devices are :

• Nebulisers,
• Blood pressure monitors,
• Digital thermometers and
• Glucometers

23 medical devices were being monitored already, now in total 27 devices will be monitored.

Tourism Ministry formulates Guidelines for approval of Online Travel Aggregators

The Union Ministry of Tourism has designed the rules for approval as well as re-approval of Online Travel Aggregators to ensure adequate safeguards against deficiency of service, substitute arrangements and punitive deterrence.

Aim

The plan is expected to set ideals towards accreditation and add value to the dependability and reliability to the aggregators in the online space operating in the planned tourism sector.

Guidelines

The Tourism Ministry will approve recognition as an approved Online Travel Aggregators for 5 years, based on the inspection report and approvals of a committee comprising the concerned Regional Director, a representative of FHRAI and IATO each and the endorsement of competent authority such as the Chairman of The Hotel & Restaurant Approval & Classification Committee.

The re-approval, thereafter, shall be approved for 5 years after inspection conducted by a Committee of the same constitution, based upon an application made by Online Travel Aggregators, full and free from all deficiencies along with the requisite fee and papers on the online platform.

The re-approval application would have to be given minimum clear Six months prior to the expiry of the earlier approval.

In case the application completed in all respect and free from all deficiencies is not received minimum clear six months prior to the expiry of the earlier approval, it will be treated as a fresh approval.

The documents received from the applicants after inspection in all respects would be approved online.

The inspection for the 1st approval/re-approval shall be conducted by the inspection team within a period of 40 working days from the receipt of complete and deficiency-free application and payment confirmation of fees by the Pay and Accounts Office, Ministry of Tourism.

It shall be mandatory for an permitted Online Travel Aggregators to prominently display the certificate of sancton given by the Ministry in the office premises by displaying it in a photo frame so that it is visible to a potential tourist and also under a prominent link on the webpage of its main website and online portal.

ESIC to allow non-insured persons to avail medical services from its underutilised hospitals

The Employees' State Insurance Corporation during its 176th meeting organised, took few very crucial decisions towards improvements in its service delivery mechanism.

During the meeting organised under the Chairmanship of Santosh Kumar Gangwar, Minister of State for Labour & Employment (I/C), it was finalised to permit Non-Insured Persons to avail medical services from underutilised Employees' State Insurance Corporation Hospitals.

Important Highlights

The non-insured persons would now be able to avail medical services from Employees' State Insurance Corporation's underutilised hospitals after levying subscriber charges at a subsidised cost of Rupees 10 for OPD Consultation, at 25% of Employees' State Insurance Corporation package rates for admitted patients and to provide medicines on actual rate initially for 1 year on pilot basis.

The decision will vastly help common people get the quality medical care at very little cost.

It will also make sure full utilisation of resources of hospital for residents’ cause.

The recruitment to the 5200 positions in various categories like social security officer, Insurance Medical Officer grade-II, JEs, teaching faculty, Paramedical and Nursing cadre, UDC and Steno in Employees' State Insurance Corporation is under process.