The Chief Minister reviewed the scheme at the camp office on Friday night. Ministers Anam Ramanarayana Reddy and Kondru Murali, Chief Secretary Dr P.K.Mohanty and other senior officials attended. About 1885 procedures will be in the scheme in both private and government hospitals network all over the State. A sum of Rs 400 crores will be spent on this scheme per annum. The Chief Minister said that the ‘EHS’ card is very enabling provision for easy, hassle-free treatment. He also said that scheme will be reviewed after six months if necessary shortcomings to be resolved and additional treatments to be added.

The Chief Minister approved the new cashless, seamless and transparent Healthcare scheme for the State Government Employees, Pensioners and their families.

The main objective of the scheme is to provide healthcare to the State Government Employees, Pensioners and their dependent family members through a cashless, seamless and transparent scheme. State Government Employees, all employees of local bodies, Pensioners including re-employed pensioners, family pensioners and their dependent family members will be benefitted by the scheme. 1885 treatment procedures available in empanelled hospitals (both Government and private) 60 per cent of total amount to be borne by Government and 40 per cent by the Employee/ Pensioner contribution. Monthly contribution from the employees/pensioners will be Rs 90 per month for slabs A & B and Rs 120 per month pm for Slab-C, depending on pay scales.

Aarogyasri Healthcare Trust will implement the Scheme. The Steering Committee headed by Chief Secretary will monitor the scheme from time to time. The implementation of the scheme will be reviewed after six months for further fine tuning. The implementation of the Scheme may cost about Rs 400 crores per year.

- INN

The AP Society for Knowledge Networks (APSFKNW), formerly known as Institute for Electronic Governance (IEG) Exchanged Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Google India (P) Ltd at the Office of Minister for Information Technology & Communications., Govt. of Andhra Pradesh.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was exchanged between Information Technology Minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah and Google Vice-President (Emerging Markets) Nelson Mattos.

The MoU is exchanged to train engineering students from various Jawahar Knowledge Center (JKC) Colleges on latest technologies like Mobile and Cloud Computing, Google will also train the trainers / mentors of AP Society for Knowledge Networks and provide required Software, Services & Training Material at free of cost.

IT & C Department Secretary Sanjay Jaju, IT&C Director (Communications) TV Parathasaradhi, APSKN CEO Amarnath Reddy Atmakuri, APSKN Director (IT Projects) K Srinivasa Rao and Google Program Manager Ego Obi Senior were also present.

Google has signed a Memorandum of Understanding for first time in India under its Education Initiative.

Ponnala Lakshmaiah thanked Nelson Mattos of Google for the being enthusiastic and encouraging about this initiative for the empowerment of students and also encouraged Google to build their own office campus in area allotted by the state government so as to help them expand their business in Andhra Pradesh. He also extended his advise to all the students to make good use of this opportunity and enhance their employability skills and also expressed that he will bring more such initiatives for the benefit of students in future.

Nelson said that he has visited Hyderabad four times till now and was overwhelmed by the infrastructural advancement in the city on his every visit and also expressed that 70 per cent of their business in India is churned out of Hyderabad and was also very impressed by the super talent from the local work force. He also invited the Minister to Google’s head office in his next visit to the USA.

Nelson also mentioned that Google shall work closely with Information Technology & Communications Department to bring new Academic Initiative Programs in near future for the benefit of High School students in AP. INN

Ghosh further said that scheme would also encourage small investors and emerging entrepreneurs. He further mentioned that cold chain infrastructure was not just important for the better preservation of commodities but it was also a pre-requisite for the development of food processing industry and making India the major exporter of food across the globe.

Ghosh said that the cold chain sector of India has witnessed the major changes in the past few years. The increased eagerness of private players to enter in the cold chain market has been acting as the ray of hope for the modernization of cold chain logistics in India. The recent trends has shown the inclination towards the multi-purpose storage, utilization of eco-friendly material and techniques, etc. which are expected to benefit the cold chain sector of India in a long run. The Private-Public Partnership (PPP) would play the instrumental role in uplifting the cold chain industry of India.

The Indian government has taken measures to support PPP such as allowing viability gap funding up to 40 per cent, giving other monetary benefits to cold chain players, etc. The Indian Government should increase the coordination among its various arms such as National Horticultural Board, Ministry of Food Processing, National Centre for Cold Chain Development, etc.

On the occasion Ravindra Senna Reddy Chairman Southern Regional Council of ASSOCHAM said that India especially Andhra Pradesh was much below the bench mark for cold storage presence and there is vast scope for investment given right environment for the industry to flourish.

Senna Reddy submitted that the government should also take initiatives towards strengthening the cold chain infrastructure in railways, airports and major ports. This would help in better movement of temperature sensitive material across India and overseas. Private players should focus on increasing the capacity utilization. This will help both the parties; cold stores and refrigerated fleet owners. The private players should also focus towards providing the integrated solution which includes both the transportation and storage.

The pressure on private players for the utilization of scientific techniques has increased significantly since past few years as the large number of companies are now demanding for storage and transportation of temperature/heat sensitive products in a suitable condition. Therefore, the cold chain industry’s stakeholders should focus on implementing the scientific techniques while establishing their network, Senna Reddy said. INN