Government launches portal to send alerts on food import rejections | Mint

New Delhi: The Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has developed an online portal to inform the public and relevant food safety authorities about rejections of food imports at India's borders, Health Minister JP Nadda said, highlighting the achievements of the new government in its first 100 days.

The portal — Food Import Rejection Alert (FIRA) — will generate alerts on food consignments rejected by India due to poor safety standards, he said. The portal was launched during the second edition of the Global Food Regulators Summit 2024, organised by FSSAI at Bharat Mandapam in the national capital on Friday.

The portal will facilitate rapid exchange of information between authorities worldwide on food safety and health risks arising from rejected food. It will also enable relevant food authorities to take immediate action to prevent and control risks before they cause harm.

On July 12, Coin reported that FSSAI has rejected over 1,500 imported food products such as walnuts, apples, whisky, cheese products, almonds and dates from various countries, including developed nations, in the past year for not meeting the standards set by India's food regulator.

The new portal has an online interactive interface for rapid dissemination of information to ensure enhanced traceability and transparency. It also serves as a valuable database for tracking rejected food products and further strengthening the risk management system.

Performance in the healthcare sector

Another major achievement of the Modi 3.0 government in the healthcare sector is the recent announcement of expanding the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) health insurance scheme to cover all senior citizens aged 70 and above, irrespective of their income. This has the potential to benefit around 60 million people across 45 million families.

Another important milestone is the development of the U-WIN portal to fully digitalize vaccination services for pregnant women and children from birth to 17 years of age under the universal immunization program.

As of September 16, about 64 million beneficiaries have been registered, 10.4 million vaccination sessions have been conducted and 230.6 million vaccine doses administered have been recorded on the portal.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the comprehensive Ayushman Bharat PMJAY programme for people in the age group of 70 years and above and roll out the U-WIN portal in October this year,” the health minister said.

The government also introduced a new TB treatment regimen and Indian-made TB diagnostics. The new treatment regimen is shorter and more effective and is now available for use under the National TB Elimination Programme (NTEP). This would help reduce the treatment duration from 9-12 months to 6 months. The health ministry is consulting with state governments and preparing a detailed roll-out plan for logistics and training of healthcare professionals for the introduction of this new regimen early next year.

The minister also said that the number of medical colleges and the number of MBBS and PG seats has increased, which will make more doctors available.

The number of places in the Bachelor's degree programme in Medicine has increased from 108,940 in 2023-2024 to 115,812 in 2024-2025, while the number of places in the Master's degree programme in Medicine has increased from 69,024 in 2023-2024 to 73,111 in 2024-2025.

Earlier this month, the government introduced the National Medical Register (NMR), a comprehensive dynamic database of all allopathic registered doctors in India, to authenticate them.