Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister
of State for Commerce & Industry today launched a
slew of e-Governance initiatives of MPEDA under the Digital India Programme. Developed
by MPEDA, two of these programmes, namely, Shrimp Price Information over SMS by
a missed call, and mKRISHI – Mobile App for aquaculture operations have been
developed for mobile phone, providing digitally enables services on demand to
the aqua farmers in the country.
Two additional e-Governance
initiatives were launched aimed at providing Single window solution to
exporters and other stakeholders through two new websites (Portals), namely (i)
Online MPEDA Registration portal for Exporters, and (ii) MPEDA Portal – www.mpeda.gov.in.
The Minister also held an online
conference with farmers from Machilipatnam, Andhra Pradesh relating to SMS
service and the Mobile App. She also talked to farmers from Valsaad, Gujarat
regarding jhinga farms. Farmers expressed happiness at the launch of these
e-Governance initiatives and expressed the view that these initiatives will
help them with readily available information.
The details regarding the e-Governance
initiatives is as below:-
(1)
Shrimp price Information over SMS by a missed
call
India
mainly produces L.Vannamei (LV) and Black Tiger (BT) shrimp in aqua farms in
all maritime states. In 2014-15 about 3.53 lakh tonnes of Vannamei shrimp and
71,400 MT of BT shrimp was produced. MPEDA is providing price related market
information of Vannamei shrimp and BT shrimp to farmers over SMS on a missed
call to a predetermined number. On receipt of the missed call, information on
price of Vannamei shrimp and BT shrimp for different grades in major markets
like Japan, USA and EU are provided by SMS.
Farmers
can dial +918590100800 for getting price information on Vannamei shrimp and
call +918590200800 for getting price information on BT shrimp. The prices
(indicative C&F price in Indian Rupee) are obtained from INFOFISH (an Inter
governmental organization of FAO) published data.
The
price information to farmers will provide them the current market trends
enabling them to make an informed decision on harvest of their produce. The
service is provided free of cost to farmers. The information can be obtained
by farmers all over India. MPEDA hopes that this information power about shrimp
prices will empower the farmers to get better price realization.
(2
) mKRISHI – Mobile App for Aquaculture Operations
This is pilot project presently operated in
Gujarat and will be extended all over India in 3 months. Aquaculture of shrimp
is a complex set of activities wherein huge amount of data is to be captured,
analyzed and decisions are to be taken on a dynamic basis. Currently farmers
are keeping the records in manual form on a sheet of paper which may not
provide them with on growth and trend of the aquaculture operations.
This App will provide an easy tool for book
keeping, advisory services and weather informations. It is an Android mobile
application which has been developed by MPEDA and TCS Innovation Lab, Mumbai
(as part of its CSR initiative).
Farmer will require an android mobile handset
(post 2013 models) with a data/GPRS connection (2G, 3G or WiFi). The Farmer
has to enter the basic information regarding his farming activities. The
farmer gets expert guidance for all operations thereafter making his operations
both economical and profitable. The reports can be seen in the graphical
format. An option to view the trends or reports in the computer is also
provided to give seamless data entry and visualization.
The mobile App is expected to revolutionalize
the way the farm activities are carried out. The App being used in a large
scale can provide the trend of aquaculture activities across the country. It
will also help in resolving to farmer’s issues quickly on a more personalized
approach.
(3)
Online MPEDA Registration portal for
Exporters
Registration
of an exporter with MPEDA is a mandatory requirement under MPEDA Act, 1972. Presently
the registration process is being done manually. The exporters are required to
submit a physical application in the prescribed format along with certain
mandatory documents.
In
the new system developed by NIC, exporters are expected to fill in their
application form online with their log in ID also pay the fee online for which
a payment gateway has been used. The mandatory documents are to be scanned and
uploaded online by the applicant which will be verified by the registering
authority. After due process the Certificate of registration will be generated.
The
stakeholders, mainly the exporters, will be benefitted by reduction of
processes, time delay, transparency, status updation. The objective of the new
system is to facilitate ease of doing business and thereby provide the enabling
environment for exporters to export more seafood from India.
(4) MPEDA
Portal - www.mpeda.gov.in
In order to provide extensive
information in public domain on various aspects of marine products sector,
MPEDA has revamped its website into a portal and renamed the existing URL www.mpeda.com
as www.mpeda.gov.in
The website has both static and
dynamic pages on MPEDA, Exports, Production of Capture Fisheries, Culture
Fisheries, Ornamental Fish, Services for Exporter, Farmer, Fishermen etc, Trade
and Quality Control.
Marine products of India are going to get a
fillip in the international markets with the exhaustive information about it in
the new website. It will provide links to all important sites on fish &
fishery products and export & marketing.
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RC/nb