Govt nod to launch of Ayushman Bharat National Health Protection Mission

22/03/2018

NEW DELHI, Mar 21: Union Cabinet on Monday approved the launch of Ayushman Bharat - National Health Protection Mission - which is slated to cover over ten crore poor families and provide coverage of upto Rupees five lakh.
The scheme is touted as the world's largest government-funded health care programme. AB-NHPM will subsume the on-going centrally sponsored schemes - Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) and the Senior Citizen Health Insurance Scheme (SCHIS).
NHPM enables beneficiaries to avail of health facilities from any part of the country and will be a paperless and cashless treatment.
As per the government, various measures like identity validation through Aadhaar, cost control etc, make NHPM easily accessible and transparent in approach. On the other hand, it's upto to the states to decide whether they want to implement the mission in trust mode, insurance company mode or mixed model.
The Cabinet also approved revision of double taxation avoidance agreement between India and Qatar.
The existing Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) with Qatar was signed on April 7, 1999, and came into force on January 15, 2000.
“The revised DTAA updates the provisions for exchange of information to latest standard, includes Limitation of Benefits provision to prevent treaty shopping and aligns other provisions with India’s recent treaties,” an official statement said.
The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the North East Industrial Development Scheme (NEIDS), 2017 with financial outlay of Rs.3000 crores upto March, 2020. Government will provide necessary allocations for remaining period of scheme after assessment before March 2020. NEIDS is a combination of the incentives covered under the earlier two schemes with a much larger outlay.
Union also approved the opening of 18 new Indian missions in Africa with an aim to expand India's footprints in the resource-rich continent where China has been trying to increase its presence.
The new Indian missions will be set up over four years, from 2018 to 2021, the government said in a statement.
It said the new Indian missions will be opened in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Swaziland and Togo.
Currently, India has 29 resident missions in Africa.
"The decision will enhance India's diplomatic outreach in the African continent and allow India to engage with Indian diaspora in African countries," the government said.
It said the opening of new missions is also a step towards implementing the vision of enhanced co-operation and engagement with Africa.
In a separate decision, the Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has given its approval for closure of the India Development Foundation of Overseas Indians (IDF-OI).
The decision was taken to enhance synergies in channelising the Indian diaspora's contributions to India's flagship programmes such as the National Mission for Clean Ganga and the Swachh Bharat Mission, the government said.
IDF-OI was set up with the approval of the Cabinet in 2008 as an autonomous not-for-profit trust to facilitate overseas Indian philanthropy into social and development projects in India.
According to the government, the foundation received only Rs 36.80 lakh between December 2008 and March 2015 as donation from the overseas Indian community.
A comprehensive review of IDF-OI was undertaken in 2015 as donations received by it till then were not very significant.
The government said that although the trust received Rs 10.16 crore between April 2015 and March 2018, most of the contribution received were for either projects related to the National Mission for Clean Ganga or the Swachh Bharat Mission, which are separately administered by their respective administrative agencies.
"In order to enhance synergies, improve efficiencies and avoid duplication of work, it was decided by the 9th Meeting of Board of Trustees of the IDF-OI that the Trust would be closed down by March 31, 2018," it said.

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