Passage 1
Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister for Chemicals & Fertilizers and Health & Family Welfare inaugurated a credit assistance program for Jan Aushadhi Kendras, here today. In this regard, he presided over the exchange of an MoU between Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) and Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Bureau of India (PMBI). He also launched a website for credit assistance to Jan Aushadhi Kendras.
Highlighting the Union Government’s efforts towards strengthening the network of Jan Aushadhi Kendras in the country, Dr Mandaviya said that a lot of effort went into making the procurement process robust, expanding the basket of products offered, maintaining a regular supply chain network as well as in ensuring stringent quality checks and control. He also emphasised that the government provided financial assistance to individual operators of these Jan Aushadhi Kendras, including additional assistance for those located in remote and hilly regions, to encourage them to open these centres. This, he said, provided small entrepreneurs with financial autonomy as well as strengthened the network and reach of Jan Aushadhi Kendras across the country.
Source – https://pib.gov.in/PressRelease
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Passage 2
In a remote corner of Myanmar, a line of farmers moves through a field of nodding poppies, making small cuts in the greenish-purple pods to release opium resin.
The next morning they will collect the residue that has seeped out overnight and parcel it into bundles of sticky opium – the building blocks for manufacturing heroin.
Myanmar became the world’s biggest opium producer in 2023, according to the United Nations, overtaking Afghanistan after the Taliban government launched a crackdown on the crop.
Since the military in Myanmar seized power in 2021, causing social and economic turmoil and armed conflict across the country, the cash crop has become more important to some farmers struggling to get by.
“I planted poppies in recent years, but only a few,” said Aung Moe Oo, speaking from the vast field enclosed by hills on the border of Shan and Karen states.
Source – https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2024/3/15/
