Keep up-to-date with all that is happening in welfare policy with this curated selection of news – Policy Buzz – published every fortnight.

Policy News

1. Draft Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022 was released by the Ministry Of Electronics and IT.
2. States and Union Territories have been asked to appoint a Child Welfare Protection Officer (CWPO) in every police station to exclusively deal with children, as victims or perpetrators, by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
3. Portal for the National Mission for Natural Farming was launched by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
4. A National Indicator Framework (NIF) for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was developed by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. The framework will function as the “backbone for facilitating monitoring of SDGs at the national level.”
5. The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2022 was notified by the Centre.
6. The fourth phase of Digital Shakti Campaign, a pan-India project on digitally empowering and skilling women and girls in cyberspace, was launched by the National Commission for Women.
7. Long-term capital expenditure funds of ₹60,000 crore were sanctioned by the Centre to the states.

Health and Nutrition 

1. The revised National List of Essential Medicines was notified and brought under the Drug Prices Control Order.
2. DigiLocker completed its second-level of integration with Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM). Using this, users can now digitally store health records and link them with Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA).
3. The Employees’ State Insurance Corporation’s (ESIC) online maternity benefit claim portal was launched by the Ministry of Labour and Employment.

Education 

1. Draft regulations on ‘Deemed To Be Universities’ were released by the University Grants Commission.
2. The Unified District Information System For Education Plus (UDISE+) 2021-22 report on school education was released by the Ministry of Education. Read the complete report here.
3. The Performance Grading Index (PGI) for 2020-21 was released by the Department of School Education and Literacy.
4.  A High Level Committee was constituted by the Centre for strengthening the assessment and accreditation of Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs).

Sanitation

1. The Swachh Survekshan Grameen toolkit was released by the Ministry of Jal Shakti. Access the toolkit report here.
2. Toilets 2.0 campaign was launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. The campaign aims to “change the face  of public and community toilets in urban India through collective action involving citizens and Urban Local Bodies.”
3. The Swachh Vidyalaya Puraskar (SVP), 2021-22 were awarded to the National awardee schools.

Other News

1. The ‘Cities Alive: Designing Cities That Work For Women’ report was released by the United Nations Development Programme.
2. The first Digital Rupee pilot project for the wholesale segment was commenced by the Reserve Bank of India.
3. Citizen Perception Survey 2022, a part of Ease of Living Survey, was launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
4. Recommendations on regulatory framework for promoting data economy were released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.
5. Madhya Pradesh has notified the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Rules to empower rural local bodies.
6. ‘Financing India’s Infrastructure Needs: Constraints To Commercial Financing And Prospects For Policy Action’ report was released by the World Bank.

Also Read: Challenges in Access to Secondary Education in India