Ministry of Consumer Affairs | Business Upturn

Government initiates groundbreaking program with National Test House to ensure safety and efficiency of drone components

Gowri Jagadish — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 11:11:44 +0000

The government plans to set up testing facilities for drone components in response to the exponential development in the usage of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) for a variety of commercial uses. With applications in transportation, infrastructure, agriculture, entertainment, and geospatial mapping, this programme seeks to guarantee the efficiency, safety, and dependability of the quickly growing drone sector.

According to two reliable sources, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs’ National Test House (NTH), an industrial testing laboratory, has been given the responsibility of establishing testing facilities for the vital drone sub-components. Among these sub-components are the flight controller, receiver, motors, propellers, landing gear, batteries, and camera.

One of these advanced testing centres is planned to open shortly in Ghaziabad, a prime region for technological development. The NTH is actively working on the project under the direction of renowned scientist D.V. Rajagopala Rao, who is in charge of the science and technology unit at NTH.

Rao disclosed that the testing facility’s equipment procurement process is currently in progress. The government’s dedication to promoting a safe and dependable drone environment will be evident when the extensive testing laboratory becomes fully operational in the next three to four months.

The announcement coincides with the growing integration of drones into a wide range of businesses, offering innovative approaches for anything from infrastructure inspection and delivery services to agricultural crop monitoring. However, as drone use has increased, worries about quality control and safety have intensified.

To put an end to these worries, the government plans to set up specialised testing centres where each drone component will undergo a thorough evaluation and certification process. The emphasis on smaller components like batteries, cameras, and flight controllers guarantees a close inspection of the essential components enhancing a drone’s performance and security.

Ethanol production capacity jumps to 923 litres p.a. in India

Dipankar Ray — Sun, 18 Sep 2022 14:12:48 +0000

In the most recent update, capacities of Ethanol production plants have increased to 923 crore litres annually as a result of the use of extra feedstock, the ministry of consumer affairs, food, and public distribution reported on Sunday, 18th September 2022.

According to the ministry of consumer affairs, food, and public distribution, low carbon innovative technologies are advancing India toward Net Zero aims, helping the nation reach COP26 targets, and supporting Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan by supplying 20% of the country’s fuel needs with ethanol.

Many promises were made during the COP26 and the Indian government for the past few months has made efforts to fulfil those promises and targets. In this respect, Sudhanshu Pandey, Secretary of the Department of Food and Distribution said, “This would also help save foreign exchange for the country worth about ₹30,000 crores per annum. Further, the achievement of E10 has already resulted in additional revenue of about ₹18,000 crores in revenue of sugar mills which will exceed ₹3,5000 on the achievement of E20 blending with petrol by 2025. This would ensure an alternative market for farmers’ produce like rice, and maize helping them achieve better returns, more than MSP and also faster payment from sugar mills. All these activities are leading to transforming the Indian Farming community from ‘Anna Daata’ to ‘Urja Daata’,”

Speculations are being made on the reason for such a move and the most obvious reason is to gain in-depth knowledge which would help in further innovations in the field of Ethanol blending. Recently, Pandey and a group from the Food Corporation of India (FCI) visited Praj Matrix’s R&D facility.

India developed GrainATM bags global innovation award

United News of India (UNI) — Sat, 11 Jun 2022 08:50:25 +0000

New Delhi, June 11: An automated grain dispensing machine developed in India by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in partnership with the Government of India and the WFP Innovation Accelerator has bagged the global innovation award in Munich, Germany.

GrainATM or Annapurti, is an automated multi-commodity dispensing solution. That provides fast, clean, and precise access to commodities (rice, wheat, grains). To beneficiaries, post biometric authentication.

The machine ensures 24×7 access to full entitlements of monthly subsidized grains through India’s Public Distribution System.

“An adaptable, modular, and robust solution, ‘Annapurti’ has potential use for food-based safety nets, food grain distribution during emergencies, and increasing market access for smallholder farmers,” said Ankit Sood, WFP India Head Supply Chain and PDS Unit.

The Award was conferred on Thursday in Munich to recognize the top five innovative solutions. For disrupting hunger from 120 countries where WFP works.

The machines are currently undergoing testing at two locations in Haryana and Odisha. In Fair Price Shops (FPS) that distribute rations to the beneficiaries of National Food Security Act (2013) entitlements.

The Indian government operates one of the world’s largest food-based safety nets, under which subsidized grains are provided to 813 million people every month, through a network of over 500,000 last-mile outlets called FPS.

Under the current practice, the FPS operators manually weigh and distribute the food grain. The manual weighing and distribution of grains. Require the people receiving assistance to queue for long hours. There is a high possibility of grain spillage and waste. And may even lead to people not receiving their share of food assistance.

The development of the GrainATM or Annapurti solution was made possible by work done by the India CO, the Government of India, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, the Department of Food and Public Distribution, and WFP Innovation Accelerator.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Business Upturn staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

DPIIT reaches out to ministries and central agencies to set regulations for e-commerce

Sarthak Yadav — Wed, 25 Nov 2020 08:33:58 +0000

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has asked for comments from various ministries and central agencies to formulate regulations around e-commerce in India.

Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Ministry of Information Technology (MeitY), Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and India Post were included in the list of bodies addressed by DPIITand during a recent meet they discussed the draft regulation which was first proposed in February 2019

This was done to avoid conflicts with upcoming legislation such as the consumer protection bill, data policies and taxation policies which would impact e-commerce, social media and digital companies in India.

“The process is on and some issues have also been identified,” an official said.

The second draft will address the functioning of e-markets like Flipkart and Amazon, incentivise local capital into the sector, restrict bulk buying of smartphones, white goods, electronics and fashion items, and encourage local players.