The Pradhan Mantri’s Gramodaya Yojna (PMGY) is a new initiative to accelerate performance in providing basic minimum services in rural areas to promote the objectives of sustainable human development. The Planning Commission has allocated the additional central assistance in the Primary Health Sector to the tune of Rs.375 crore for this year under the PMGY. Funds under PMGY may be utilised to further the goal of primary health care, as detailed below:

1. 40 per cent on strengthening of existing and functioning of PHCs.
2. 30 per cent on provision of mobile clinics for the benefit of people in remote and inaccessible areas.
3. 30 per cent on establishment of Maternity Hut, which should be established in each village to be used as the village delivery room equipped with medical stores. The panchayat / community is to appoint a competent midwife to look after this Maternity Hut.

    States /UTs would not be required to seek prior approval of Department of Family Welfare/ Ministry of Health and Family Welfare before incurring expenditure under PMGY.

    Of the total allocation of Rs.375 crore for the country this year, U.P. tops the list with an allocation of Rs.52 crore 33 lakh, followed by Bihar with an allocation of Rs.43 crore. West Bengal has been allotted Rs.25.17 crore. Andhra Pradesh has been given Rs.21.3 crore. Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have been allotted Rs.17 and Rs.14.4 crore respectively. Tamil Nadu has been allotted Rs.15.7 crore while Maharashtra and Orissa have been allotted Rs.14.8 crore and 14.7 crore respectively.

    About Rs.11 crore have been earmarked for 10 special category States viz., Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura.

'8A'

    The Minister of State for Women and Child Development, Smt. Sumitra Mahajan has made it clear that India will not allow any dilution of the commitments made in the Platform for Action evolved at the Fourth World Conference on Women held at Beijing in 1995. Smt. Mahajan said this at the interactive session, which focused on the on-going negotiations on the Outcome Document of the Beijing + 5 Process at New York last night. The Minister is currently attending the Special Session of the UN General Assembly on "Women – 2000". Smt. Mahajan pointed out that India had endorsed the Beijing document without any reservation and that a strong consensus has emerged during the interactive session on India taking a strong position on defending the Platform for Action as well as appeal to all countries both developed and developing not to allow any backward movement on the Beijing commitments.

    The negotiations on the document are now at a very crucial stage and there has been polarization of stands on certain issues especially relating to sexual rights, sexual orientation and effects of globalization. There is also a growing consensus on the issues and agreement, to adopt an effective and forward looking document, as the UN session approached its final stage. There was agreement on the strong G-77 position on the impact of Globalization especially on health, education and poverty and that it be pushed through in the Outcome Document.

    Smt. Sumitra Mahajan met a large number of representatives of Non-Governmental Organisations from India, who have gathered in New York to attend the Special Session. She told the NGOs that every effort will be made to ensure wider dissemination of the commitments of the Being + 5 Process and ensure that the goals set in the Platform for Action fully implemented. She told them that the on-going dialogue with the NGOs and women organisations began in New Delhi will be sustained and continued.

    The NGO representatives told her that implementation of the Adopted Document is very important and India should set an example by involving them particularly those at the grass root level for effective implementation of the commitments made in the International Fora. The NGOs in New York are currently engaged in a wide spectrum of activities especially in areas relating to health of women and their socio-economic and political empowerment in India.

'15'

    The Expenditure Reforms Commission (ERC) set up by the Government recently has called for suggestions on its terms of reference. Interested persons can mail their suggestions to expref@nic.in. It has also opened a separate website at the following address: http://expenditurereforms.nic.in.

    It may be noted that the Commission is required to :

1. Suggest a road map for reducing functions, activities and administrative structures of the Central Government, keeping in view the evolving role of the government and the need to avoid overlap of functions;
2. Review all subsidies, explicit and implicit, so as to maximize their impact on the target population at minimum cost;
3. Devise an effective strategy for cost recovery through user charges;
4. Suggest measures for effecting improvement and reducing budgetary support for government funded autonomous institutions; and
5. Review adequacy of staffing and rationalising the staff and cadres of different services, arrangements for redeployment and retraining of surplus staff.

    The Government of India under the leadership of the Prime Minister, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee has accorded the highest priority to health and human resource development. The Prime Minister himself is heading the National Commission on Population while the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is now headed by a Cabinet Minister.

    In his address at 3^rd Ministerial Session of 5^th Global Conference on Health Promotion now held at Mexico city, Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare, Dr. C.P.Thakur has said that India is in the process of reorienting its Health Policy, in the backdrop of India’s population reaching the One Billion mark recently. The thrust of the health policy has been on establishing an effective and efficient health care system for all especially for women and children.

    Life style diseases like Cardio Vascular Diseases, Mental Health etc. have emerged as new threats on the horizon. A developing country like India has to divide its scant resources in order to deal with the new problems as well as the existing ones like TB, Malaria and AIDS.

    Dr. Thakur called upon the developed world to create a Research and Development Fund for development of new drugs to make them available at affordable prices to the developing countries.

    India’s experiment with Health Promotion is comparatively new. India is now strengthening its Health activities (preventive and curative care) in rural areas, with adequate emphasis on the traditional indigenous system of medicine. The healthy life style now being advocated all over the world finds ample support in the Indian System of Medicine. India, therefore, wants to revive and utilise these historical and time-tested recipes to improve health status of the people.

'16'

    India and Thailand have reiterated their keen resolve to enhance business and economic relations between the two countries with Shri Omar Abdullah, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, stressing upon the need to revitalise and invigorate the existing institutional framework for sustained level of interaction both at the government level as well as at the level of the industrial associations and chambers of commerce of the two countries. Shri Abdullah, in his bilateral meeting with Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Commerce, Kingdom of Thailand in Bangkok today, expressed India’s keenness to have closer economic cooperation with Thailand especially in the field of knowledge-based industry where, he said, Indian core competence was recognised world over. Mrs. Rathi Vinay Jha, Additional Secretary, Department of Commerce and Shri R.K. Rai, the Indian Ambassador to the Kingdom of Thailand were also present during the meeting.

'8'

    The Dharmsinh Desai Institute of Technology , Nadiad, Gujarat, has been declared deemed University. The Centre took the decision to declare the institute as deemed to be University on the advice of the University Grants Commission.

'24'

    The Members of the National Telecom Advisory Committee (NTAC) and the National Telephone Services Committee (NTSC) have strongly supported the decision of the Minister of Communications, Shri Ram Vilas Paswan to provide rent free telephone connections to the telecom employees. The Members pointed out that the decision was labour-friendly and a motivational factor for the employees. The First Meeting of the NTAC and NTSC which was held here today was inaugurated by Shri Paswan.

'42'

    The Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers, Shri Suresh Prabhu, held discussions with representatives of the chemicals industry in the United Kingdom during his current visit to Europe and the United States of America. Prominent leaders of the chemicals industry in the United Kingdom attended the meeting. The participants at the meeting included Chem Systems Limited, GAMBICA and MW Kellogg Limited. The meeting was also attended by representatives from the Chemicals Industry Association, the British Safety Council, Chemical Markets Associates and the British Chemical Engineering Contractors Association.

    The Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers invited the representatives of the companies and associations to participate in INDIA CHEM 2000 and the Research and Development Conference to be held in October this year. The British representatives expressed their willingness to take part in the Exhibition and Conference. During their discussions with Shri Prabhu, the representatives raised the issue of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). Shri Prabhu informed them that during the transition period amendments to the Patents Law were made in March 1999. Now major amendments to make Indian laws TRIPS compatible are before Parliament.

    The UK is the second largest importer of Indian goods after the USA. Major items of Indian exports include Pharmaceuticals and Plastic products. The Secretary, Department of Chemicals and Petro-Chemicals, Shri Arvind Varma, had earlier visited the UK in January this year to promote participation in INDIACHEM 2000. The INDIA CHEM 2000 Exhibition is slated to be the largest chemical show in Asia. The Exhibition is being jointly organised by the Department of Chemicals and Petro- Chemicals and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

    The Finance Minister Shri Yashwant Sinha has said that the silent revolution of girls’ education that is taking place in India will empower women and in turn will help in checking the population growth. The noteworthy aspect of this revolution is its spread even in the far-flung and remote areas of States like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, he said.

    Shri Sinha was discussing various issues of economic development and economic reforms with World Bank Vice President Ms. Mieko Nishimizu who called on him here today. Shri Sinha identified public sector reforms, financial sector reforms and reforms at the state level as some of the critical areas which will take India to a sustainable growth rate of 8-10 per cent. The Finance Minister also underlined that the success and credibility of reforms will be determined by their efficacy in alleviation of poverty.

    Ms. Mieko Nishimizu congratulated Shri Sinha for providing effective leadership in the management of economy. She also briefed the Minister on IDF Meetings which recently took place in Paris.

    The issue of the negotiated projects which were expected to go before the Bank Board also came up for discussion. While telecom reform project (US$ 62 million) has been cleared by the Bank Board yesterday (6/6/2000), the National Highway III Project of US$ 516 million is expected to come before the Bank Board tomorrow (8/6/2000). This project will finance upgrading of 477 km of the Delhi-Calcutta National Highway (G.T. Road) from its existing two lanes to a divided highway (4/6 lanes) with service roads and other traffic separation measures where required. This project is part of the ambitious National Highway Development Project (NHDP) announced by the Prime Minister, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

    Union Surface Transport Minister, Shri Rajnath Singh will chair the 29^th Meeting of the Transport Development Council, here tomorrow. The Meeting will discuss important issues relating to road transport including uniformity in the rate of composite tax throughout the country, fixing of minimum freight rate by State governments, citizens’ charter for the offices of RTOs, one-time payment of road tax and rationalization of Motor Vehicle Tax, among others. Prevention of overloading of trucks, amendment in the scheme of National permit to exclude Two Axle vehicles from its purview and the scheme of pollution under control certification are also likely to come up for discussion.

'15'

    A record production of 1653 Metric Tons (MT) of opium has been achieved in the notified tracts of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, under the supervision of Central Bureau of Narcotics, Department of Revenue during the crop year 2000. The target for the year was 1543 Metric Tons. This means an average yield of 52.62 Kg per hectare which is also a record.

    During the year, as against the licensed area of 35,270 hectares, the actual cultivation for opium poppy was done in an area of 31,407 hectares by 1,50,747 licensees. This was expected to yield 1374 MT of opium.

    In order to prevent diversion of opium to illicit channels during the harvest, sustained preventive action was undertaken by various enforcement agencies during April-May, 2000. As a result, 19 cases were booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 involving seizure of 64.580 kgs. of opium and arrest of 22 persons. Three clandestine laboratories engaged in manufacturing of Heroin/Morphine were busted, 1.235 kg. of Heroin/Morphine seized and three persons arrested.