Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY)

This PMJAY Scheme is a mega National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS) for poor people. PMJAY will provide Rs. 5 Lakh health insurance for secondary and tertiary hospitalization. This Ayushman Bharat Yojana will benefit around 50 crore poor people and will provide them cashless and paperless treatment in hospitals.

All the insured people can make claims for treatment in all empanelled hospitals and avail treatment at NHPM Treatment Package Rates. Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana is applicable for all Rural and Urban Beneficaries whose name appears in SECC-2011 Data. There will be No Ayushman Bharat Yojana Online Application Forms and anti fraud guidelines are also framed against people who demand money to provide insurance benefits.

People can visit any Health and Wellness Center to avail PMJAY benefits. All the AB-NHPM beneficiaries will be given Ayushman Family Cards and Arogya Mitras will be trained for assistance. Check complete details regarding PMJAY Scheme here.

The important features and highlights of Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana are as follows:-

• Health Insurance cover of Rs. 5 lakh per family per year.
• Around 10.74 crore poor and vulnerable families whose name appears in the SECC-2011 Data are eligible. There is no cap on family size and age.
• States are given the flexibility to decide the mode of implementation.
• Benefits will be portable across the country.
• Around 85% of rural families and 60% of urban families have already been identified.
• To be launched on 25 September 2018 – on the birth anniversary of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay.

The Pakyong airport, The greenfield airport — the Northeast’s first

To visit Sikkim by air means landing at West Bengal’s Bagdogra airport, then travelling 124 km uphill on winding roads to reach Gangtok, its capital. However, from September 24, Sikkim will finally get its own airport — perched between the Himalayan ranges at a height of 4,500 ft! The Pakyong airport will be the country’s 100th functional airport — and on September 24, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate it, as confirmed by the spokespersons of Airports Authority of India.

The greenfield airport — the Northeast’s first — which has been conceived at a budget of Rs 605.59 crore is skilfully engineered to include soil reinforcement and slope stabilisation techniques in context of the altitude it has been built in.

From October 8, SpiceJet will operate daily flights to and from Kolkata and Guwahati under the Union Civil Aviation Ministry’s UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik) scheme that aims to enhance regional connectivity.

UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik)

UDAN-RCS, UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik) is a regional airport development and "Regional Connectivity Scheme" (RCS) of Government of India, with the objective of "Let the common citizen of the country fly", aimed at making air travel affordable and widespread, to boost inclusive national economic development, job growth and air transport infrastructure development of all regions and states of India.

The scheme has two components.

• The First component is to develop new and enhance the existing regional airports to increase the number of operational airports
• The Second component is to add several hundred financially-viable capped-airfare new regional flight routes to connect more than 100 underserved and unserved airports in smaller towns with each other as well as with well served airports in bigger cities by using "Viability Gap Funding" (VGF) where needed.

UDAN-RCS is both enabler and beneficiary of other key Government of India schemes, such as Bharatmala, Sagarmala, Dedicated Freight Corridors, Industrial corridor, BharatNet, Digital India and Make in India, National e-Governance Plan, Startup India and Standup India.

Paryatan Parv

• The Ministry of Tourism, Government of India in collaboration with other Central Ministries, State Governments and Stakeholders is organizing a “Paryatan Parv” across the country
• The Parv is being organized with the objective of drawing focus on the benefits of tourism, showcasing the cultural diversity of the country and reinforcing the principle of “Tourism for All”.
• Paryatan Parv will have three main components as like last year, viz. Dekho Apna Desh, Tourism for All and Tourism & Governance.
• Paryatan Parv shall focus on domestic tourists especially to sensitize youth.

 The Paryatan Parv shall conclude with the World Tourism Day celebrations on 27th September 2018. Partners in the events include the State Governments who will organize cultural and other tourism related events, workshops and seminars at the identified sites as well at other destinations and locations in their States.

ISRO setting up launch pad for Gaganyaan mission

• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is setting up a third launch pad at Sriharikota to undertake the Gaganyaan manned space flight programme, an ISRO official said.
• addition, ISRO is scouting for a location on the western sea coast near Gujarat to set up another launch pad for Small Satellite Launch Vehicles (SSLV).

Small Satellite Launch Vehicles (SSLV)

• The Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV), being built by ISRO, will offer affordable launch options in India and help boost revenues.
• The SSLV is expected to be cleared for launch by next year. It will be exclusively for small satellites such as nanosats and cubesats.