New Delhi [India], April 18 (ANI): Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change is scheduled to undertake consideration of 'the Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Bill, 2021' on Monday and to consider and adopt the draft report on the Bill.

New Delhi [India], April 18 (ANI): To discuss the upcoming monsoon season, Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change is scheduled to hear the views of the Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences and Director General-India Meteorological Department on Monday on "Monsoon prospects-projections for 2022".

New Delhi [India], March 30 (ANI): Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu will host a dinner along with cultural events for all the outgoing members of the Upper House to mark their farewell on Thursday at his official residence.

New Delhi Mar 28 PTI A group of MPs from the Rajya Sabha has sought urgent intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to provide immediate financial support to rare disease patients under governments RAN scheme to save their lives Rashtriya Aarogya Nidhi RAN was set up to provide financial assistance to patients living below the poverty line and who are suffering from major life-threatening diseases to receive medical treatment at any of the super speciality hospitals or institutes or other government hospitals A group of Members of Parliament from the Rajya Sabha cutting across party lines have written to Modi seeking an urgent meeting with him about saving the lives of several young patients diagnosed with life-threatening rare disease conditions classified under Group 3a in the National Policy for Rare Diseases We would like to seek a meeting with you urgently to discuss the life threatening risks that many of the young patients primarily children are facing and the impending loss of lives due to the lack of immediate support for their treatment the letter read The MPs noted that despite several pleas to extend the Umbrella Scheme of Rashtriya Aarogya Nidhi RAN as a special one-time provision for treatment of these patients before March 31 2022 these patients and their care givers have been left with no option but to wait for the inevitable The members expressed concern that the non-utilisation of the budgetary allocation under RAN before March 31 2022 would not only lead to a fund lapse but also deprive many of these eligible patients from seeking life-saving treatment to their conditions for which the Drugs Controller General of India DCGI approved therapies are already available in India since long The group includes NCP MPs Vandana Chavan and Fauzia Khan and RJD MP Manoj Kumar Jha among others According to the parliamentarians even after almost a year of the crowd funding platform being set up only a meagre amount of Rs 116 lakh has been raised so far as a result of which not a single patient has been put on treatment Over 250 Group 3 patients have registered their applications on the portal seeking treatment support out of which 50 patients are in urgent need of support to start their treatment they said Making a fervent appeal to the prime minister the group of 22 MPs wrote We would also like to draw your attention that the eight designated Centers of Excellence CoEs designated under the National Policy for Rare Diseases 2021 had together sought immediate financial support of Rs 22 crore to provide immediate life-saving treatment to a priority list of 35 patients mostly children diagnosed with Group 3 conditions There have been several instances in the recent past where the allocation under RAN was used to provide the life-saving therapy for Group 3a including that in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu It is in this regard that we would like to meet you in person and seek your support to save these innocent lives at least for those who need immediate treatment as prioritized by the CoEs and for which approved therapies are available in India the letter said PTI UZM AQS

New Delhi Mar 24 PTI The government Thursday said Adani Enterprises Limited and LT are part of two consortia led by State-run enterprises that have evinced interest in building the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV the ISROs warhorse rocket to put satellites in orbitIn a bid to encourage private sector participation in the space sector New Space India Limited NSIL a company under the Department of Space had invited proposals from the Indian industry to build five PSLVsMinister of State in the PMO Jitendra Singh said two consortia one comprising Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and Larsen Toubro and another involving Bharat Electronics Limited BEL Adani Enterprises Limited AEL and Bharat Earth Movers Limited BEML have submitted techno-commercial proposals for building PSLVState-run Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited too has submitted a techno-commercial proposal for end-to-end realisation of PSLV he told the Rajya Sabha in response to a question by NCP member Vandana ChavanThe Indian Space Research Organisation ISRO had been working closely with the industry in building launch vehicles satellites and other components but it was for the first time in 2020 that the government opened up the sector for private participation for the entire spectrum of space operations including planetary exploration missionsThe Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre IN-SPACe acts as the agency to promote handhold and authorise private sector activities in the sector besides enabling sharing of technical facilities and expertise from ISRONSIL has the mandate to scale up private participation in the space programme and also own and operate capital-intensive assets such as satellites and launch vehiclesSingh told Rajya Sabha that since 2020 there have been 48 applications from private players received to IN-SPACe for undertaking space activities and their applications are being processed for further actionOut of these the applications with respect to authorizing the space activities to non-government private entities are 16 sharing of technology and facilities of Department of Space to NGPEs are 23 and Consultancy and Promotion are 9 he said in a written response PTI UZM SKU TIR TIR