Delhi govt allows gyms, yoga centres outside Covid-19 containment zones

 The Delhi government on Sunday allowed gyms and yoga centres in the national capital to reopen after being closed for over five months due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In an order issued late in the night, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) said that gymnasiums and yoga institutes will be permitted to reopen in the city, except in the containment zones, with immediate effect.

According to the order, weekly markets have also been allowed on a trial basis till September 30 under 'Unlock-4'.

The AAP dispensation and the Lieutenant Government office have recently been at loggerheads over the reopening of gyms in the national capital. Last month, the Delhi government had sent a proposal to Lt Governor Anil Baijal in this regard, but it was turned down.

The decision about reopening gyms and yoga centres comes at a time the city has been witnessing a surge in the number of coronavirus cases.

On Sunday, the tally of coronavirus cases in Delhi rose to 2.18 lakh with 4,235 more people contracting the viral disease, while 29 fresh fatalities in the last 24 hours pushed the death toll to 4,744.This was the fifth day in a trot that the national capital recorded a daily spike of over 4,000 fresh cases. The city recorded its biggest single-day jump of 4,321 fresh Covid-19 cases on Saturday, 4,266 on Friday, 4,308 on Thursday and 4,039 on Wednesday.

To double exports, 8 states finalise action plan for agri export policy

The government on Sundaysaid eight states, including Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Karnataka, have finalised action plan for agriculture export policy which aims to double such exports.
"The Agri Export Policy was announced last year with an objective of doubling the export and ensuring doubling of farmers' income...Many states have nominated nodal agency and nodal officer. Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Nagaland, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Punjab and Karnataka have finalised the State Action Plan and other states are at different stages of finalization of the action plan," the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said in a statement.

The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) has been adopting a focused approach for ensuring greater involvement of the state governments for effective implementation of Agri Export Policy (AEP).
Throughout the year APEDA held a series of meetings with state government officials and other stakeholders for preparation of state action plan which included all essential components like production clusters, capacity building, infrastructure and logistics and research and development and budget requirements for the implementation of AEP, it said.
Several rounds of discussions were held with the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare, Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Ministry of Food Processing Industries and other agencies for seeking inputs for formulating a strategy to increase exports and address the existing bottlenecks in the trade.
State level monitoring committees have been formed in many of the states. Cluster visits have been made by APEDA nodal officers to the product clusters, it added.
The roadmap for cluster development in the clusters notified under AEP was prepared to address the identified interventions during the cluster visits.
"As a result of cluster visits by APEDA, the cluster level committee has been constituted in the states viz. potato in Punjab, isabgol
in Rajasthan, pomegranate, orange and grapes in Maharashtra and banana in Tamil Nadu," the statement said.
APEDA organised a number of seminars and meetings for the implementation of AEP throughout the year.
A Memorandum of Understanding was signed with the National Cooperative Development Corporation to include co-operatives for active role in AEP.
A Farmer Connect Portal has also been set up by APEDA on its website for providing a platform for Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) and Farmer Producer Companies to interact with exporters, it said.
Over 800 FPOs have been registered on the portal.