"The Vice President of India, M. Venkaiah Naidu was on an official Visit to Serbia, Malta and Romania from September 14-20, 2018 and returned today.
On the first leg of his three-nation tour, the Vice President visited Serbia from September 14-16, 2018 at the invitation of the President of Serbia, Aleksander Vucic. During the visit, the Vice President had a meeting with President of Serbia, Aleksander Vucic, who hosted a Banquet in the honour of the Vice President. There were also separate meetings of Vice President with Maja Gojkovic, Speaker of the National Assembly of Serbia and Ana Brnabic, Prime Minister of the Republic of Serbia hosted a lunch for the Vice President. The Vice President laid a Wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Serbia.
Marking the revival of the spirit of warmth and cooperation of Marshal Tito-Pandit Nehru years, the Vice President of India M. Venkaiah Naidu was extended the rare honour of addressing the special session of the Parliament of the Republic of Serbia in Belgrade. It was in the same hallowed hall of the National Assembly of Serbia that former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru addressed the world leaders while launching the Non-Alignment Movement (NAM) along with the veteran leader of Yugoslavia Marshal Tito in 1961.
Speaker of the Serbian Parliament received Naidu and escorted him to the podium and introduced him to the Members of the House. The Vice President’s address was applauded quite a few times and particularly when he said that Marshal Tito was a household name in India when he (Naidu) was a school student. The Vice President received huge standing ovation on the conclusion of his address to the law makers of Serbia.
During the day, Venkaiah Naidu held detailed discussions on a range of bilateral and multilateral issues with President Aleksander Vucic, the Prime Minister Ana Brnabic and Speaker of the National Assembly of Serbia Maja Gojkovic besides addressing a business forum.
During the joint media briefing along with Naidu, President of Serbia Aleksander Vucic complimented the Indian political leadership for stellar economic results. He said “India is witnessing exceptional economic progress. We are happy for the country who has been our long time friend and well wisher”. He also thanked India for recognizing Serbia’s territorial integrity. Vucic stressed that Serbia is keen to engage with India on agriculture, pharmacy, IT and generic medicines. He evinced interest in defense cooperation.
On the occasion of 70 years of establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, Serbia Post and India Post have released commemorative stamps on renowned Serbian Physicist and Innovator Nikola Tesla and Swami Vivekananda. Venkaiah Naidu noted that Swami Vivekananda’s thoughts and ideas left a deep impression on Tesla’s works.
In the presence of the President of Serbia and the Vice President of India agreements were signed. Agreement on Plant Protection and Quarantine that seeks to enhance trade in fruits, vegetables and processed foods and revised Air Services agreement aims at promoting connectivity boosting trade and tourism including direct air link between the two countries.
He also addressed the business representatives of India and Serbia at a Business Forum and interacted with the Indian Community during the visit. The Vice president visited Malta from September 16-18, 2018 at the invitation of the President of Malta, Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca. India was one of the first countries to recognize Malta in 1964 and established diplomatic relations soon after the independence of Malta.
During the visit, the Vice President had a meeting with President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca. The two leaders discussed the whole gamut of bilateral relations and also our cooperation in multilateral and international forums. President Coleiro acknowledged Indian diaspora’s positive contribution to the Maltese society especially in sectors like Health care and Information Technology. The fact that both Indian and Maltese economies are performing very well, the scope of mutual cooperation is very high in several sectors such as ICT, pharmaceuticals & health care, maritime cooperation, tourism etc.
President Coleiro thanked the Government of India for opening a Resident High Commission of India in Malta. The two leaders strongly condemned terrorism in all its forms, saying that there could be no justification for terrorism. There is an urgent need to strengthen the global counter-terrorism legal framework to combat this global menace.
The two leaders expressed concern about issue of global warming and climate change. President Coleiro commended India’s effort to focus on renewable energy and the initiative of International Solar Alliance. Malta is giving a positive consideration to joining the ISA as a partner country.
Malta confirmed its support to India’s candidature in various multilateral forums.
Three Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) namely; (i) MoU on Maritime Cooperation between Ministry of Shipping, India and Ministry of Transport, Infrastructure and Capital Projects, Malta; (ii) MoU on mutual cooperation between the Foreign Service Institute, India and The Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies, University of Malta, and (iii) MoU in the field of Tourism Cooperation between India and Malta, were signed in the presence of the two leaders.
The Vice President also had a meeting with Dr. Angelo Farrugia, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Parliament of Malta and Evarist Bartolo, Acting Prime Minister of Malta. Later in the day, the Vice President addressed the business representatives of India and Malta at a Business Forum and the Indian community during the visit.
The Vice President visited Romania from September 18-20, 2018 at the invitation of the Calin Popescu- Tariceanu, the President of the Senate of Romania. The Vice President, Venkaiah Naidu was received by President of Senate Tariceanu and was accorded a very warm welcome. The visit is coincided with the 70 years of establishment of diplomatic relations between India and Romania and the Centenary year for Romania. It was also the fifth year of Declaration of Extended Partnership between India and Romania.
The Vice President had a separate meetings with the President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, the President of the Chamber of Deputies of Romanian Parliament, Nicolae Liviu Dragnea, and the Prime Minister of Romania, Vasilica Viorica Dancila.
The bilateral talks with the Romanian leadership were held in a warm, cordial and positive atmosphere, reflecting the long-standing and friendly bilateral relationship between India and Romania.
Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation on Tourism, Memorandum of Understanding between Petroleum-Gas University, Ploiesti and Pandit Deen Dayal Petroleum University, Gandhinagar and three Memorandums of Understanding of Bucharest Chamber of Commerce each with CII, ASSOCHAM and PHDCCI were signed during the visit.
Both sides appreciated a long tradition of the Indology and welcomed the growing popularity of Yoga in Romania. Given the increasing interest in Ayurveda in Romania, the Vice President of India inaugurated the AYUSH Information Cell and unveiled a Book on Ayurveda.
The Romanian leaders offered their support for resumption of negotiations for early conclusion of India-EU Broad based Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA) with balanced outcomes, especially in the context of Romania’s upcoming Presidency of EU Council from January 2019.
Both sides affirmed the need for a comprehensive reform of the United Nations, including its Security Council. In this context, President Iohannis and Prime Minister Dancila reaffirmed the Romania's endorsement of India's aspirations to become a Permanent Member of the UN Security Council.
Both sides expressed satisfaction regarding mutual support for each other’s candidatures for international organizations. Both sides affirmed commitment to fight the scourge of terrorism, its financing and safe havens. In this context, Romanian side expressed its support to developing consensus on draft UN Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism.
The Vice President Naidu addressed India-Romania Business Forum meeting along with Romanian President of Senate, Minister for Business Environment, Commerce and Entrepreneurship. This kind of Business Forum was being held after almost a decade and was co-ordinated by Bucharest Chambers of Commerce and Indian Chambers of Commerce like CII, PHDCCI, and ASSOCHAM. The presence of larger number of Romanian business people indicated growing interest in investing in India, especially in the sectors like Petroleum and Natural gas Information technology, manufacturing, defence, pharmaceuticals, infrastructure, real estate, tourism etc.
The Vice President Naidu addressed the Prahova Chamber of Commerce in Ploiesti and also addressed the vibrant Indian diaspora in Romania on 20 September. The Vice President was accompanied by Shiv Pratap Shukla, the Minister of State in Ministry of Finance, three Members of Parliament from Rajya Sabha - Prasanna Acharya, Vijila Sathyananth, Saroj Pandey and one Member of Parliament from Lok Sabha - Raghav Lakhanpal and other officials.
The Vice President of India, M. Venkaiah Naidu was on an official Visit to Serbia, Malta and Romania from September 14-20, 2018 and returned today after a successful official visit. The visit was characterised by extremely cordial discussions with Heads of Governments, PMs and other senior political leaders. The visit helped in deepening bilateral ties with each of these three countries.
Some key outcomes:
1. Support for India’s aspiration to be on UNSC and for taking forward UN reforms.
2. Endorsement of India’s stand on terror and support for early adoption of United Nation’s Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism.
3. Strong support for resuming EU-India trade agreement after Romania assumes Presidency of EU.
4. Business Forums generated a good deal of enthusiasm among the industrialists and businessmen in every country as they got to listen to the Vice President about India’s transformative initiatives. The growth story and the reports from World Bank, IMF quoted by Vice President enhanced awareness.
5. The leaders in all the countries expressed unequivocal admiration for India’s economic growth and were eager to engage and partner with India politically, economically and culturally. In Romania, there was a special interest in Space and Aerospace. Malta expressed its desire to join the International Solar Alliance.
6. There was a clear demand for Parliamentary friendship groups and frequent visits by Parliamentarians.
7. The visit gave an opportunity for the members of India Diaspora to listen to the Vice President about the transformative agenda of the government and encouraged them to think of various ways in which they can contribute to the country’s development. The vice President underscored the growing importance of India on the world stage and drew attention to four key features that need to be recognised. He called them 4Ds – Democracy, Demographic dividend, Demand and Diaspora.
8. The visit evoked a lot of interest among the top political leadership and there was an air of bonhomie in all the meetings. The banquets hosted by the President of Serbia and Malta as well as by the President of Senate of Romania provided an opportunity for sharing views on bilateral and multilateral issues with rare candour.
9. The address to the Serbian Parliament was very well received and the admiration for India as the largest democracy and a vibrant, well functioning polity was more than evident in the standing ovation the Vice President received at the end of his address.
10. MOUs entered into related to plant protection, tourism, air services, oil research, diplomatic training and maritime cooperation.
11. In all the three countries, there was considerable interest in Yoga and Ayurveda and in Romania, the Vice President launched two books on Ayurveda and inaugurated an Ayurveda Information Centre.
The Vice President was accompanied by Shiv Pratap Shukla, the Minister of State in Ministry of Finance, three Members of Parliament from Rajya Sabha - Prasanna Acharya, Vijila Sathyananth, Saroj Pandey and one Member of Parliament from Lok Sabha - Raghav Lakhanpal and other officials.
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, here today exchanged the MoUs with the Tata Trusts and Dell to provide a technological platform for nationwide prevention, control, screening and management program of Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs). Anupriya Patel, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare presided over the ceremony and also released the user manual for NCD application under Comprehensive Primary Health Care (CPHC) IT Solutions. Preeti Sudan, Secretary (Health) , BurzisTaraporewala, Senior Adviser, Tata Trusts and SarvSaravanan, Senior Vice President, Dell EMC COE and Jeremy Ford, Director, Dell Giving were also present at the MoU exchange ceremony.
Speaking at the occasion, Anupriya Patel stated that the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases and Stroke (NPCDCS) stresses on the preventive and promotive aspects of healthcare, which is also impressed upon in the National Health Policy 2017. She further stated that the government has now decided to go ahead with the population based screening under NHM for diabetes, Hypertension and three types of common cancers. “Under Ayushman Bharat we have decided to transform 1.5 Lakh Sub Centre and Public Health Centres into Health and Wellness Centres to provide a bouquet of 12 different kinds of services of which Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs) form an important part,” She added.
Anupriya Patel further said that this ambitious program of reaching out to such large target group cannot be successfully implemented without a strong IT backbone. She lauded Dell for the development of the technology platform and Tata Trusts for the implementation support of the NCD programme and added that this software application will help in plugging gaps at the field level.
Non-Communicable Disease (NCD screening program addresses Hypertension, Diabetes, Oral, Breast and Cervical cancers and covers all men and women over the age of 30 years. The programme, which is one of the modules in Ayushman Bharat’s Comprehensive Primary Healthcare (CPHC) Initiative, is currently being deployed in about 200 districts across the country. Through implementation of the software, it will also be possible to track health trends across the country.
Aimed at bringing healthcare technology transformation in Comprehensive Primary Health Care NCD program under Ayushman Bharat, the Health Ministry is working with Dell as technology partner and the Tata Trusts as deployment partner. A cloud-based mobile, web and analytics solution has been developed to digitize health records to aid the population-based screening program, to bring quality health services at door step, to enable increased productivity for health workers and doctors, and to facilitate monitoring of delivery of services by state and district administrators.
This technology solution has been developed by Dell, through Dell Giving, Dell’s CSR program, and in collaboration with reputed institutions and experts from AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences), DGHS (Directorate General of Health Services), WHO (World Health Organization) India, ICMR (Indian Council for Medical Research), NHSRC (National Health Systems Resource Center), NICPR (National Institute of Cancer Prevention Research), Tata Trusts, NIC (National Informatics Center), (CHI) Center for Health Informatics, and IndiaStack team at iSPIRT and State Health Departments. The technology solution is hosted on a Government Data Center and managed by Centre for Health Informatics, MoHFW.
The Tata Trusts are supporting the quality implementation of the programme in States through training, and programme management activities to ensure technology adoption amongst health staff and steady progress through continuous monitoring. Through the Trusts’ trained and skilled personnel on the field, health workers, doctors and local administrators have ready access to support and guidance on challenges they may face adopting the IT solution. The NCD IT solution covers program-level data for screening, referral, diagnosis, treatment and follow-up activities of non-communicable diseases with an aim to connect health workers, doctors and decision-makers in a single, integrated platform. It will provide health records for citizens, mobile applications for health workers, a web portal for the medical officers and dashboards for health officials.
The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, today laid the foundation stone for India International Convention and Expo Centre (IICC) at Dwarka, New Delhi. Speaking on the occasion the Prime Minister said that the IICC will reflect India’s economic progress, rich cultural heritage and its consciousness towards protection of the environment. He said it is a part of the Government’s vision to give importance to world class infrastructure, and ease of doing business.
The Prime Minister stated that smaller countries have world class conference facilities due to which they have become conference tourist hubs. Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, said that with the construction of IICC, India is moving in the director of developing eco-system of conference tourism in the country. This convention centre will be a mini city within Delhi with expo, meetings, markets, offices and recreation centres at a single place. Prime Minister further stated that the IICC will give a new identity to India in the sphere of meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) which is a multibillion business.
The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, said that the country has witnessed all round development during the last 4 years as the government kept the national interest as the top priority. He said a country develops only when decisions are taken at the right time and they are implemented without any delay. He also said that the NDA Government took tough decisions during last 50 months in the national interest and this trend will continue. The Government is moving ahead with a target to make India a 5 trillion Dollar economy in next 7 years.
Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu, in his address said that the convention centre is of global standards. He further said that the IICC project is in line with the Prime Minister’s vision of New India which is to do not only what is best in India but also do it better than anywhere else in the world.
The Commerce Minister said that the proposed exhibition centre, convention centre and multi- performance arena developments are estimated to generate over 5 lakh employment opportunities for the people. This job creation will not be limited to core IICC facilities, but it will have a multiplier effect of direct and indirect spending and entail opportunities for regular formal employment in supporting IICC land uses like retail, office and hospitality.
Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs (I/C), Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, C. R. Chaudhary, Secretary, DIPP, Ramesh Abhishek, senior officials, industry leaders and diplomats were present on the occasion.
A group of about 90 ASHA representatives from across the country, called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi today to express their happiness, and thank him for the recent announcement of increase in incentives, and insurance cover.
The Prime Minister recalled his recent interaction with the ASHA and Anganwadi workers across the country, via video conference. He appreciated the experiences and personal accounts that had been shared by ASHA representatives that day, and said that these will surely prove inspirational for many.
Today, ASHA activists shared some more accounts of how they had been instrumental in saving lives of poor mothers and children through timely intervention. The Prime Minister appreciated the skill and dedication of ASHA workers, and recalled that even Bill and Melinda Gates had praised the efforts of ASHAs towards eradication of diseases such as Kala Azar.
He encouraged them to devote their energies to work in coordination with other government agencies to improve the quality of life in their villages. He also explained how Government schemes and initiatives are all aimed at empowering the poor to fight poverty. Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare J.P. Nadda was also present on the occasion.
A group of over 100 Anganwadi workers from across the country, called on the Prime Minister today to express their happiness, and thank the Prime Minister for the recent announcement of increase in honorarium and other incentives.
Acknowledging the greetings of the Anganwadi workers, the Prime Minister expressed his happiness that they had assembled from all parts of the country to meet him today.
The Prime Minister emphasized the importance of nutrition in a child's physical and cognitive development. He said the Anganwadi workers have a key role to play in this regard. Referring to the ongoing Poshan Maah (nutrition month), the Prime Minister said that the momentum that has been built up during this campaign should not flag. He said nutrition requires constant focus and development of good habits, which can be provided by Anganwadi workers. He exhorted them to ensure that the nutritional assistance being made available to beneficiaries is used judiciously.
Children will listen more to Anganwadi workers. They have a key role in generating awareness. He encouraged healthy competition among Anganwadis, as a motivation for better nutritional care and efforts among various Anganwadi workers.
Union Minister for Women and Child Development, Maneka Gandhi was also present on the occasion.
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21/09/18
The Detailed Press Note
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21/09/18
Vice President returns after successful visit to Serbia, Malta and Romania
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21/09/18
Health Ministry partners with Dell and Tata Trusts to provide technology solution for a nationwide healthcare program
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20/09/18
Prime Minister lays foundation stone of Convention centre in New Delhi
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20/09/18
ASHA representatives from across the country call on PM
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20/09/18
Anganwadi workers from across the country call on PM
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