GOVERNMENT SCHEMES – PART I - iasipstnpsc.iniasipstnpsc.in/.../uploads/2018/10/GOVERNMENT-SCHEMES-PART-1.pdf · SHANMUGAM IAS ACADEMY: 46/1, Gokhale St, Opp. Senthil Kumaran Theatre,

GOVERNMENT SCHEMES – PART I

SHANMUGAM IAS ACADEMY: 46/1, Gokhale St, Opp. Senthil Kumaran

Theatre, Ram Nagar, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu 641009 iasipstnpsc.in

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INDIA – A WELFARE STATE

A welfare state is based on the principles of equality of opportunity and equitable

distribution of wealth. It also focuses on the governmental responsibility for those

who are unable to avail themselves of the minimal provisions of a good life.

Under this system, the welfare of its citizens is the responsibility of the state.

The Indian Constitution establishes a welfare state. This is clear from the salient

features in the Preamble and the Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP). In

this spirit, India is making a determined attempt to fulfill its ideal of a welfare

state not only in principle but also through economic planning, thus securing to

the Indian citizens justice—social, economic and political.

The Indian government has established an extensive social welfare system.

Several programmes designed for betterment and enhancement of quality of life

for SC, ST, BC, Minorities, women, etc stand proof to it.

The central schemes are divided into central sector schemes and centrally

sponsored schemes (CSS).

WHAT ARE CENTRAL SECTOR SCHEMES?

Central sector schemes are schemes with 100% funding by the Central

government and implemented by the Central Government machinery.

The central sector schemes are mainly formulated on subjects mainly from the

Union List.

Besides, there are some other programmes that various Central Ministries

implements directly in States and UTs which also comes under Central Sector

Schemes.

In these schemes, the financial resources are not shifted to states.

WHAT ARE CENTRALLY SPONSORED SCHEMES (CSS)?

Centrally Sponsored Schemes are the schemes by the centre where there is

financial participation by both the centre and states. Historically, CSS is the

way through which central government helps states to run its Plans financially.



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A stipulated percentage of the funding is provided by the States in terms of

percentage contribution.

The ratio of state participation may vary in 50:50, 60:40, 70:30, 75:25, or 90:10;

showing higher contributions by the centre.

Various central government ministries directly transfer money to the state

governments. Implementation of Centrally Sponsored Scheme is made by

State/UT Governments. Centrally Sponsored Schemes are created on areas

that are covered under the State List.

RESTRUCTURING OF THE CSS

The CSS have undergone drastic restructuring after the recommendations of

the XIV Finance Commission.

Higher tax share and devolution from centre to states necessitated transfer of

several schemes to the states. In this context, the restructuring of the CSS was a

major outcome of the recommendations of the XIV FC.

Similarly, states were given more flexibilities on the implementation of

projects.

Later, the NITI Aayog created Chief Minister’s Panel recommended reduction of

number of CSS from 66 to 30.

The Panel also grouped these schemes under three heads.

1. Core of the core

2. Core and

3. Optional

Restructuring came into effect from 2016-17 budget onwards. In yet another

meeting, the sub group of Chief Ministers, the CSS were reduced to 28. As a

follow up, under budget 2017, there were only 28 schemes.

Out of these, core of the core are 6, core schemes are 22.

A notable development was the shrinking number of optional schemes as such

schemes were shifted to states.



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FINANCING OF CSS

Centrally Sponsored Schemes are divided into three: core of the core, core and

optional. Though each scheme envisages financial participation from the

states as well, the state share differs for different schemes. Similarly,

geographically difficult states will get higher central share.

FINANCING OF CORE OF THE CORE SCHEMES: these schemes

comprises six umbrella schemes.

After restructuring, the Core of the Core schemes will retain their expenditure

allocation framework.

Most of these schemes prescribes specific financial participation by states. For

example, in the case of MGNREGA, state governments have to incur 25%

material expenditure.

FINANCING OF CORE SCHEMES: In the case of core schemes, the funding

pattern is 60:40 for center and states respectively. But for difficult states (NE

and Himalayan states), there will be 90:10 pattern.

For Union Territories (without Legislature): Centre 100% and for UTs with

legislature existing funding pattern would continue.

FINANCING OF OPTIONAL SCHEMES: For these schemes, the normal

funding pattern is 50:50 and for difficult states its 80:20. States have the

flexibility to decide whether to initiate a specific scheme or not.

For Union Territories:

(i) (without Legislature) - Centre 100%

(ii) Union Territories with Legislature: Centre: UT - 80:20

CORE OF THE CORE SCHEMES

1. National Social Assistance Progamme.

2. Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme.

3. Umbrella Scheme for Development of Scheduled Castes

4. Umbrella Programme for Development of Scheduled Tribes



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5. Umbrella Programme for Development of Minorities

6. Umbrella Programme for Development of Other Vulnerable Groups

MAHATHMA GANDHI NATIONAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE

PROGRAMME

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, (NREGA) was notified on

September 7, 2005

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA),

also known as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme

(MNREGS) is Indian legislation enacted on August 25, 2005.

This act was firstly initiated in Maharashtra in 1970’s by Former Chief Minister

of Maharashtra Vasant Rao Naik. NREGA act resulted in a boon for millions of

farmer families. This act was accepted by Planning Commission and later on

accepted nationwide.



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The MGNREGA provides a legal guarantee for one hundred days of

employment in every financial year to adult members of any rural household

willing to do public work-related unskilled manual work at the statutory

minimum wage.

• The Ministry of Rural Development (MRD), Govt of India is monitoring

the entire implementation of this scheme in association with state

governments.

OBJECTIVE OF THE ACT

The objective of the Act is to enhance livelihood security in rural areas by

providing guaranteed wage employment in a financial year.

MGNREGA Goals

1. Strong social safety net for the vulnerable groups by providing a fall-back

employment source, when other employment alternatives are scarce or

inadequate

2. Growth engine for sustainable development of an agricultural economy.

Through the process of providing employment on works that address causes of

chronic poverty such as drought, deforestation and soil erosion, the Act seeks

to strengthen the natural resource base of rural livelihood and create durable

assets in rural areas. Effectively implemented, MGNREGA has the potential

to transform the geography of poverty

3. Empowerment of rural poor through the processes of a rights-based Law

MNREGA covers the entire country with the exception of districts that have

a hundred percent urban population.

SALIENT FEATURES OF THE ACT

Adult members of a rural household, willing to do unskilled manual work, may

apply for registration in writing or orally to the local Gram Panchayat.

A Job Card holder may submit a written application for employment to the Gram

Panchayat, stating the time and duration for which work is sought. The minimum

days of employment have to be at least fourteen.



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The Gram Panchayat will issue a dated receipt of the written application for

employment, against which the guarantee of providing employment within 15

days operates

The Gram Panchayat after due verification will issue a Job Card.

Employment will be given within 15 days of application for work, if it is not

then daily unemployment allowance as per the Act, has to be paid liability of

payment of unemployment allowance is of the States.

Work should ordinarily be provided within 5 km radius of the village. In case

work is provided beyond 5 km, extra wages of 10% are payable to meet additional

transportation and living expenses.

Wages are to be paid according to the Minimum Wages Act 1948 for

agricultural labourers in the State, unless the Centre notifies a wage rate which

will not be less than Rs. 60/ per day. Equal wages will be provided to both men

and women.

Wages are to be paid according to piece rate or daily rate. Disbursement of wages

has to be done on weekly basis and not beyond a fortnight in any case.

At least one-third beneficiaries shall be women who have registered and

requested work under the scheme.

Work site facilities such as crèche, drinking water, shade have to be provided



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The shelf of projects for a village will be recommended by the gram sabha and

approved by the Zilla panchayat.

At least 50% of works will be allotted to Gram Panchayats for execution.

Permissible works predominantly include water and soil conservation,

afforestation and land development works

A 60:40 wage and material ratio has to be maintained. No contractors and

machinery are allowed

The Central Government bears the 100 percent wage cost of unskilled manual

labour and 75 percent of the material cost including the wages of skilled and semi-

skilled workers

Social Audit has to be done by the Gram Sabha

Grievance redressal mechanisms have to be put in place for ensuring a responsive

implementation process



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All accounts and records relating to the Scheme should be available for public

scrutiny

WHAT ARE SOCIAL AUDITS?

• Social audits refer to a legally mandated process where potential and

existing beneficiaries evaluate the implementation of a programme by

comparing official records with ground realities.

• The public hearings that social audits conclude with remain its soul.

• The proceedings cannot be scripted, and the entire social audit is often a

dramatic process of redistribution of power based on evidence and fact.

• These audits were first made statutory in a 2005 Rural Employment Act.

OBJECTIVES OF SOCIAL AUDIT

• Accurate identification of requirements.

• Prioritization of developmental activities as per requirements.

• Proper utilization of funds.

• Conformity of the developmental activity with the stated goals.

• Quality of service.

BENEFITS OF SOCIAL AUDIT

• Involvement of people in developmental activities ensures that money is

spent where is it actually needed.



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• Reduction of wastages.

• Reduction in corruption.

• Awareness among people.

• Promotes integrity and a sense of community among people.

• Improves the standard of governance.

CRITICISM

In a recent analysis, NC Saxena, Distinguished Fellow of the policy think-tank

Skoch Development Foundation and former Secretary, Planning Commission,

has noted how the expenditure on MGNREGA is higher in better-off states

such as Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh than in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh or

Odisha, where the need for such a scheme is arguably greater.

The average annual MGNREGA spend in TN, for instance, is two-and-a-half

times more than that for Bihar.

ISSUES

1. Insufficient budget allocation:

• Increase in nominal budget but actual budget (after adjusting inflation)

decreased over years

2. Shift to Supply-driven programme:

• State submits Labour Budget to the Centre- A labour budget

contains anticipated labour demand for the next financial year.

• The Centre through the arbitrary “Approved Labour Budget” has reduced

the number of days of work and put a cap on funds through the National

Electronic Fund Management System

• According to Ne-FMS guidelines, states won’t be allowed to generate

employment above the limits agreed by Approved labour Budget

• This has made the programme supply-driven



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3. Poor wages rate:

• Stagnation of wage rate due to delinking MGNREGA wage rates from

Minimum Wages Act, 1948

• MGNREGA wages are lower than minimum wages in most states

• This could push marginalized section to take up vulnerable and hazardous

jobs

4. Delayed payments increased from 39% in 2012-13 to 73% in 2014-15

5. Non-payment of unemployment allowance

6. Partial compensation for delayed payment

7. Distortion in labour market

8. Fabrication of job cards: Payments to fictitious workers

9. Infrequent social audits

10. Ineffective grievance redressal

11. Insufficient involvement of Panchayati Raj institutions

12. Large number of incomplete works.

13. Poor quality of assets created



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MEASURES TO BE TAKEN

1. Proper and timely allocation of funds

2. Ensuring minimum wages for workers

3. Effective monitoring of projects

4. Ensuring employment to rural households as per demand for work.

5. Proper job card verification

6. Ensuring efficient grievance redressal mechanism.

GREEN REVOLUTION – KRISHONNATI YOJANA

The Umbrella scheme comprises of 11 Schemes and Missions.

The 11 schemes and missions were clubbed together under one umbrella scheme

‘Green Revolution – Krishonnati Yojana in 2017-18.



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They aim to develop agriculture and allied sector in holistic and scientific

manner to increase income of farmers by enhancing production,

productivity and better returns on produce.

They primarily focus on creating and strengthening of infrastructure of

production, reducing production cost and marketing of agriculture and allied

produce.

SCHEMES PART OF GREEN REVOLUTION-KRISHONNATI YOJANA

1. Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH):

It aims to promote holistic growth of horticulture sector and also enhance

horticulture production, improve nutritional security and income support to farm

Households.

2. National Food Security Mission (NFSM):

It aims to increase production of rice, wheat, pulses, coarse cereals and

commercial crops, through area expansion and productivity enhancement in

suitable manner in identified districts of country.

It will also restore soil fertility and productivity at individual farm level and

enhance farm level economy.

It also includes National Mission on Oil Seeds and Oil Palm (NMOOP) which

aims to augment availability of vegetable oils and to reduce the import of edible

oils.

3. National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA):

It aims at promoting sustainable agriculture practices best suitable to specific

agro-ecology focusing on integrated farming, appropriate soil health management

and synergizing resource conservation technology.

4. Submission on Agriculture Extension (SMAE):

It aims to strengthen ongoing extension mechanism of State Governments, local

bodies etc. in achieving food and nutritional security and socio-economic

empowerment of farmers.



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It also seeks to institutionalize programme planning and implementation

mechanism, forge effective linkages and synergy amongst various stake-holders,

support HRD interventions, promote pervasive and innovative use of electronic

and print media, inter-personal communication and ICT tools, etc.

5. Sub-Mission on Seeds and Planting Material (SMSP):

It aims to increase production of certified and quality seed to increase SRR

and upgrade the quality of farm saved seeds.

Under it, seed multiplication chain will be strengthened and also new

technologies and methodologies in seed production, processing, testing etc. will

be promoted to strengthen and modernizing infrastructure for seed production,

storage, certification and quality etc.

6. Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanisation (SMAM):

It aims to increase reach of farm mechanization to small and marginal farmers

and to regions where availability of farm power is low.

Under it, Custom Hiring Centres to offset adverse economies of scale arising

due to small landholding and high cost of individual ownership will be promoted.

Hubs for hi-tech and high value farm equipment, create awareness among

stakeholders through demonstration and capacity building activities will be also

created under it.

7. Sub Mission on Plant Protection and Plan Quarantine (SMPPQ):

It aims to minimize loss to quality and yield of agricultural crops from

ravages of diseases, insect pests, nematodes, weeds, rodents, etc. and shield

agricultural bio-security from incursions and spread of alien species.

It will also facilitate exports of Indian agricultural commodities to global markets

and promote good agricultural practices, particularly with respect to plant

protection strategies and strategies.



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8. Integrated Scheme on Agriculture Census, Economics and Statistics

(ISACES):

It aims to undertake agriculture census, study of cost of cultivation of principal

crops and undertake research studies on agro-economic problems of the country.

9. Integrated Scheme on Agricultural Cooperation (ISAC):

It aims to provide financial assistance for improving the economic conditions

of cooperatives, remove regional imbalances and speed up cooperative

development in agricultural marketing, computerization, processing, storage and

weaker section programmes.

It also will help cotton growers fetch remunerative price for their produce through

value addition besides ensuring supply of quality yarn at reasonable rates to

decentralized weavers.

10. Integrated Scheme on Agricultural Marketing (ISAM):

It aims to develop agricultural marketing infrastructure and promote

innovative and latest technologies and competitive alternatives in agriculture

marketing infrastructure.

It also seeks to provide infrastructure facilities for grading, standardization and

quality certification of agricultural produce.

Under it nationwide marketing information network will be established to

integrate markets through common online market platform to facilitate pan-India

trade in agricultural commodities, etc.

11. National e-Governance Plan (NeGP-A):

It aims to bring farmer centricity and service orientation to programmes.

Under it reach & impact of extension services will be enhanced and access of

farmers to information &services throughout crop-cycle will be improved.

It will also enhance and integrate existing ICT initiatives of Centre and States and

also enhance efficiency and effectiveness of programs through making available

timely and relevant information to farmers for increasing their agriculture

productivity.



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Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved continuation of

Umbrella Scheme, Green Revolution – Krishonnati Yojana in agriculture sector

beyond 12th Five Year Plan from 2017-18 to 2019-20.

These schemes will be now continued for three financial years, i.e., 2017-18,

2018-19 and 2019-20 with an expenditure of Rs.33,269 crore.

WHITE REVOLUTION IN INDIA

• The package programme that was adopted to increase the production of

milk is known as White Revolution in India.

• The White Revolution in India occurred in 1970, when the National Dairy

Development Board (NDDB) was established to organize the dairy

development through the co-operative societies.

• Varghese Kurien was the father of White Revolution in India.

• The dairy development programme through co-operative societies was first

established in the state of Gujarat.



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• The co-operative societies were most successful in the Anand District of

Gujarat. The co-operative societies are owned and managed by the milk

producers.

• These co-operatives apart from financial help also provide consultancy.

• The increase in milk production has also been termed as Operation Flood.

OBJECTIVES

1. The procurement, transportation, storage of milk at the chilling plants.

2. Provide cattle feed.

3. Production of wide varieties of milk products and their marketing

management.

4. Provide superior breeds of cattle (cows and buffaloes), health service,

veterinary treatment, and artificial insemination facilities.

5. Provide extension service.

ACHIEVEMENTS

Some of the important achievements of the White Revolution are as under:

1. The White Revolution made a sound impact on rural masses and

encouraged them to take up dairying as a subsidiary occupation.

2. India has become the leading producer of milk in the world.

3. The import of milk and milk production has been reduced substantially.

4. The small and marginal farmers and the landless labourers have been

especially benefitted from the White Revolution.

5. To ensure the success of Operation Flood Programme, research centres

have been set up at Anand, Mehsana, and Palanpur (Banaskantha).

Moreover, three regional centres are functioning at Siliguri, Jalandhar, and

Erode. Presently, there are metro dairies in 10 metropolitan cities of the



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country, beside 40 plants with capacity to handle more than one lakh litres

of milk.

6. Livestock Insurance Scheme was approved in February 2006 and in

2006-07 on a pilot basis in 100 selected districts across the country. The

scheme aims at protecting the farmers against losses due to untimely 2. In

most of the villages the cattle are kept under unhygienic conditions.death

of animals.

7. To improve the quality of livestock, extensive cross breeding has been

launched.

8. For ensuring the maintenance of disease-free status, major health

schemes have been initiated.

PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS

• Collection of milk from the remote areas is expensive, time consuming,

and not viable economically.

• In most of the villages the cattle are kept under unhygienic conditions.

• There are inadequate marketing facilities. The marketing infrastructure

needs much improvement.

• The breeds of cattle were generally inferior.

BLUE REVOLUTION

Realizing the immense scope for development of fisheries and aquaculture, the

Government of India has restructured the Central Plan Scheme under an umbrella

of Blue Revolution.

The restructured Central Sector Scheme on Blue Revolution: Integrated

Development and Management of Fisheries (CSS) approved by the Government

provides for a focused development and management of the fisheries sector to

increase both fish production and fish productivity from aquaculture and fisheries

resources of the inland and marine fisheries sector including deep sea fishing.



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The scheme has the following components:

1. National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB) and its activities.

2. Development of Inland Fisheries and Aquaculture.

3. Development of Marine Fisheries, Infrastructure and Post-Harvest Operations.

4. Strengthening of Database & Geographical Information System of the

Fisheries Sector.

5. Institutional Arrangement for Fisheries Sector.



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6. Monitoring, Control and Surveillance (MCS) and other need-based

Interventions.

7. National Scheme on Welfare of Fishermen.

Integrated Development and Management of Fisheries is being implemented in

consultation with all States & UTs. Besides the activities undertaken under both

the marine and inland sectors, no specific role for the coastal states has been

defined.

The Blue Revolution is being implemented to achieve economic prosperity of

fishermen and fish farmers and to contribute towards food and nutritional

security through optimum utilization of water resources for fisheries

development in a sustainable manner, keeping in view the bio-security and

environmental concerns.

Under the scheme, it has been targeted to enhance the fish production from

107.95 lakh tonnes in 2015-16 to about 150 lakh tonnes by the end of the

financial year 2019-20.

It is also expected to augment the export earnings with a focus on increased

benefit flow to the fishers and fish farmers to attain the target of doubling their

income.

The Department has prepared a detailed National Fisheries Action Plan-

2020(NFAP) for the next 5 years with an aim of enhancing fish production and

productivity and to achieve the concept of Blue Revolution.

The approach was initiated considering the various fisheries resources available

in the country like ponds & tanks, wetlands, brackish water, cold water, lakes &

reservoirs, rivers and canals and the marine sector.



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PRADHAN MANTRI GRAM SADAK YOJANA

Rural Road Connectivity is a key component of Rural Development by

promoting access to economic and social services and thereby generating

increased agricultural incomes and productive employment opportunities in

India, it is also a key ingredient in ensuring sustainable poverty reduction.

Notwithstanding the efforts made, over the years, at the State and Central levels,

through different Programmes, about 40% of the Habitations in the country

are still not connected by All-weather roads.

It is well known that even where connectivity has been provided, the roads

constructed are of such quality (due to poor construction or maintenance) that

they cannot always be categorised as All-weather roads.

With a view to redressing the situation, Government have launched the Pradhan

Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana on 25th December, 2000 to provide all-weather

access to unconnected habitations.

The Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) is a 100% Centrally

Sponsored Scheme. 50% of the Cess on High Speed Diesel (HSD) is

earmarked for this Programme.



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The Government has brought forward the target date by three years from 2022

to 2019 to achieve complete rural connectivity through all-weather roads

under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, PMGSY.

This accelerated implementation will be achieved by providing enhanced

financial allocation and through a modified funding pattern in the Scheme.

PROGRAMME OBJECTIVES

• The primary objective of the PMGSY is to provide Connectivity, by way

of an All-weather Road (with necessary culverts and cross-drainage

structures, which is operable throughout the year), to the eligible

unconnected Habitations in the rural areas.

• The PMGSY will also permit Upgradation (to prescribed standards) of the

existing roads in those Districts where all the eligible Habitations of the

designated population size have been provided all-weather road

connectivity.

GUIDING PRINCIPLES of PMGSY and Definitions

1. The spirit and the objective of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana

(PMGSY) is to provide good all-weather road connectivity to unconnected

Habitations. A habitation which was earlier provided all-weather

connectivity would not be eligible even if the present condition of the

road is bad.

2. The unit for this Programme is a Habitation and not a Revenue village

or a Panchayat.

A Habitation is a cluster of population, living in an area, the location of which

does not change over time.

3. The eligible Unconnected Habitations are to be connected to nearby

Habitations already connected by an All-weather road or to another

existing All-weather road so that services (educational, health, marketing

facilities etc.), which are not available in the unconnected Habitation,

become available to the residents.



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4. A Core Network is that minimal Network of roads (routes) that is

essential to provide Basic access to essential social and economic

services to all eligible habitations in the selected areas through at least

single all-weather road connectivity.

5. It should be ensured that each road work that is taken up under the

PMGSY is part of the Core Network. While keeping the objective of

Connectivity in view, preference should be given to those roads which

also incidentally serve other Habitations. For this purpose, while

Habitations within a distance of 500 metres from the road is considered as

connected in case of plain areas, this distance should be 1.5 km (of path

length) in respect of Hills.

6. The PMGSY shall cover only the rural areas. Major District Roads,

State Highways and National Highways cannot be covered under the

PMGSY, even if they happen to be in rural areas. This applies to New

Connectivity roads as well as Upgradation works.

7. The PMGSY envisages only single road Connectivity to be provided. If

a Habitation is already connected by way of an All-weather road, then no

new work can be taken up under the PMGSY for that habitation.

8. Provision of connectivity to unconnected Habitations would be termed as

New Connectivity. Since the purpose of PMGSY inter alia is to provide

farm to market access, new connectivity may involve ‘new construction’

where the link to the habitation is missing and additionally, if required,

‘Upgradation’ where an intermediate link in its present condition cannot

function as an all-weather road

9. PMGSY does not permit repairs to Black-topped or Cement Roads,

even if the surface condition is bad.

10. The Rural Roads constructed under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak

Yojana will be in accordance with the provision of the Indian Roads

Congress (IRC) as given in the Rural Roads Manual. In case of Hill

Roads, for matters not covered by the Rural Roads Manual, provisions of

Hills Roads Manual may apply.



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FUNDING AND ALLOCATION

Once the Core Network is prepared, it is possible to estimate the length of roads

for New Connectivity as well as Upgradation for every District.

States may, each year, distribute the State’s Allocation among the Districts giving

80% on the basis of road length required for providing connectivity to

Unconnected Habitations and 20% on the basis of road length requiring

Upgradation under the PMGSY. The District-wise allocation of funds would also

be communicated to the Ministry / NRRDA / and STA every year by the State

Government.

In making the District-wise allocation, the road lengths already taken up under

the PMGSY or any other Programme may be excluded (even if the road works

are still under execution). The figures of new construction length will thus keep

on changing every year till such time as all Unconnected Habitations (of the

eligible population size) have been covered in the District.



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In addition to the allocation to the States, a special allocation of upto 5% of the

annual allocation from the Rural Roads share of the Diesel Cess will be made

for:

• Districts sharing borders with Pakistan and China (in coordination with

Ministry of Home Affairs)

• Districts sharing borders with Myanmar, Bangladesh and Nepal (in

coordination with Ministry of Home Affairs)

• Left Wing Extremists areas in the Districts identified by the Ministry of

Home Affairs

• Extremely backward Districts (as identified by the Planning Commission)

which can be categorised as Special Problem Areas

• Research & Development Projects and innovations.

IMPACTS

PMGSY has made it possible for producers of perishable produce such as

milk, fish and vegetables to sell these to a wider base of consumers.

Equally, it has enabled companies to distribute their products through rural retail

stores. “These stores were earlier unviable both for their owners and the

companies wanting to replenish stocks.

But with motorable roads today, you have more efficient supply chains and lower

inventory costs.

CRITICISM

Rural roads are not a one-stop solution to raise rural incomes, shows an

analysis of India’s Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) by Sam Asher,

a World Bank economist, and Paul Novosad, assistant professor at Dartmouth

College.

The duo found that while the rural road construction programme increased

mobility and allowed people to find non-farm work outside their own villages,

the impact of new roads on overall incomes, consumption expenditure and

assets was not significant.



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Given the substantial costs incurred in constructing roads and their upkeep,

PMGSY does not appear to be a very efficient scheme in raising incomes.

However, this does not necessarily mean that constructing rural roads is of no

use. The authors note that improved connectivity may have long-term benefits in

the form of increased access to better quality education and healthcare.

PRADHAN MANTRI AWAS YOJANA

The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) Programme launched by the Ministry

of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (MoHUPA), in Mission mode

envisions provision of Housing for All by 2022, when the Nation completes 75

years of its Independence.

• The main objective of the PM Awas Yojana Scheme is housing that is

affordable for all by the year 2022.

• The Government's other goal is directly in association with some of the

most ignored demographics which include widows, lower income group

members, transgender and henceforth provide them with sustainable and

affordable housing scheme.

• Registration is mandatory to avail the benefits of this scheme which

includes the strict beneficiary names to be mothers or wives.

The PMAY scheme is divided into two components - rural and urban. In the

first case, the government plans to construct one crore new housing units by

the end of March 2019 and of these, 51 lakh houses need to be built by March

2018.

The government has set a similar target for PMAY Urban as well.

The Mission seeks to address the housing requirement of urban poor

including slum dwellers through following programme verticals:

• Slum rehabilitation of Slum Dwellers with participation of private

developers using land as a resource



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• Promotion of Affordable Housing for weaker section through credit linked

subsidy

• Affordable Housing in Partnership with Public & Private sectors

• Subsidy for beneficiary-led individual house construction /enhancement.

Under this scheme, affordable houses will be built in selected cities and towns

using eco-friendly construction methods for the benefit of the urban poor

population in India. Also, under the Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme, beneficiaries

under PM Awas Yojana are eligible for interest subsidy if they avail a loan to

purchase or construct a house.

FEATURES OF PRADHAN MANTRI AWAS YOJANA

• Under PMAY Scheme, subsidy interest rate is provided at 6.5% on housing

loan for the term of 15 years to all the beneficiaries.

• Differently abled and senior citizens will be given preference in allocation

of ground floors.

• Sustainable and eco-friendly technologies would be used for construction.



27

• The scheme covers entire urban areas in the country which includes 4041

statutory towns with the first priority given to 500 Class I cities. This will

be done in 3 phases.

• The credit linked subsidy aspect of the PM Awas Yojana gets implemented

in India in all statutory towns from the initial stages itself.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

The government will use the The Socio Economic and Caste Census of 2011

(SECC 2011) to identify and select the list of PMAY beneficiaries.

The village panchayats along with tehsils will be considered for consultation of

beneficiaries before making the list under the rural housing scheme. This is going

to be done in order to ensure transparency of the project and also make sure that

only the deserving receive the aid in housing.

• Any household with total annual income between Rs.6 lakh to Rs.18

lakh can apply for the PM Awas Yojana. The applicant is allowed to

include the income of the spouse while applying for this scheme.

• Indian citizens who are women may apply. No other demographic will be

considered as long as they are women.

• The beneficiary can only buy a new house in order to enjoy Pradhan Mantri

Awas Yojana benefits. People who already own a house are not eligible

to apply for this scheme. No pucca should be owned by the beneficiary

or member of the family, in any part of the country.

Pucca housing refers to dwellings that are designed to be solid and

permanent. This term is applied to housing in South Asia built of substantial

material such as stone, brick, cement, concrete, or timber.

• People will be allowed to buy/construct new houses only. One cannot avail

PMAY benefits on already built house.

• People who belong to the low income group i.e. LIG and economically

weaker sections also known as EWG in the society, may also apply.

• Scheduled tribes and Scheduled castes will also be eligible.



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• Senior citizens and differently abled will be given special priorities for

ground floor housing.

Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana targets specific groups like:

1. Women

2. Scheduled Caste

3. Scheduled Tribe

4. Economically weaker section of the society

5. Low income group population



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PM AWAS YOJANA TECHNOLOGY SUB MISSION will cover following:

• Better Habitat Designing & Planning of the Buildings

• Planning to Develop Environment Friendly Houses

• Best Construction Practices

• Arranging the Most Innovative Technologies

• Picking the Most Suitable Materials

Considering that the housing scheme is moving at a slow pace, allocating

additional funds is likely help it accomplish its goals.

To achieve its target of constructing 51 lakh houses in rural India, the Ministry of

Rural Development is working together with the government of different states.

Month-wise targets have been set up to complete the construction of the houses

and so far, the government appears to be on track.

RECENTLY IN NEWS

The Centre has increased the carpet area of houses eligible for interest benefit

under the PM Awas Yojna (PMAY) for the middle-income group (MIG) up to

2100 sq ft, as it looks to bring more beneficiaries under its fold.

The measure implies that households with an annual income of up to ₹18 lakh

can now avail ₹2.3 lakh upfront subsidy for a home of up to 2,100 sqft.

Households with income between ₹6 lakh and ₹12 lakh fall within the MIG-I

category while those with income between ₹12 lakh and₹18 lakh qualify as

MIG-II.

MIG-I and MIG-II are the segments that need maximum government support to

access housing within their budget, and this move will allow the inclusion of a

wider geographic and demographic pool of buyers across the country.

IMPLEMENTATION

The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), plans to provide homes to 18 million

households in urban India and nearly 30 million households in rural India.



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But as of this April, the Government has approved only 1.88 million urban houses

and roughly 103,000 have been built. The progress of PMAY’s implementation

has been disappointing. However, it’s important to understand how India’s

affordable housing puzzle challenges the programme’s ability to reach the 2022

goal.

There are factors impeding PMAY from reaching its full potential.

Challenge 1: How do we “build” millions of new houses?

The Technical Group on Urban Housing Shortage estimated that the national

housing shortage reached 18.78 million in 2012. But at the current pace of

PMAY, with a little over 100,000 houses built, it will take hundreds of years to

build our way out of the housing shortage.

Challenge 2: Land is scarce

If the aim is to build millions of new housing units, clearly, land is scarce.

However, if the intent is to enable people to upgrade their congested housing,

then there is no shortage; these congested households are already occupying land.

The challenge is to in-situ upgrade this housing. The Government has made

efforts to unlock this land potential by providing Transfer of Development Rights

(TDR) to incentivise developers to in-situ rehabilitate slums. While this has

proven effective in Mumbai, the economics breaks down in smaller cities where

land values are not as high and developers are unable to recover their costs.

Challenge 3: The unacknowledged bottleneck of property records

An important aspect of PMAY is the interest subsidy on a home loan and the

direct subsidy for individual house construction or enhancement. However, a

requirement to avail either subsidy are title documents to the property. And

therein lies the crux of the problem: our land and property records are in a

poor condition.

Many people continue to live in ancestral homes, whose title deeds may be in the

name of deceased grandparents. Slum dwellers — arguably the target

beneficiaries under PMAY — are unlikely to have title documents.

To complicate things further, land records are governed by the State’s revenue

department, while housing is a separate agency. Citizens are unable to navigate



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this maze to obtain their property documents, ending up locked out of the

scheme’s benefits.

Challenge 4: One crore vacant houses do not enter the rental market

The Census showed there were over 10 million vacant houses in 2011, nearly

half the urban housing shortage. The vast majority of these property owners

are private citizens who prefer to leave their house vacant, rather than offer it on

rent. This reflects the distorted rental market in India where property owners fear

they may lose their property to tenants, leading to under-utilisation of assets.

OVERCOMING CHALLENGES

There are three major policy levers that can help solve these challenges. First,

States need to simplify the process of updating property records. This will

allow all citizens to obtain legal documents to their land and property in order to

fully embrace the subsidy features of PMAY and access credit, which will enable

them to upgrade their housing.

Secondly, enable individual households who don’t have legal titles to in-situ

upgrade their housing by providing them with security of tenure — even a

“no eviction guarantee”. Ahmedabad’s success with the Slum Networking

Program shows that the security and comfort from such measures can encourage

slum residents to invest money and upgrade their shelter.

Finally, States need to push through the much-needed rental reforms that

balance the interests of tenants with the protection of property owners’ rights, and

don’t distort rental markets by artificially controlling rents.

This has the potential to bring vacant housing stock into the rental market and

alleviate the housing shortage.



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NATIONAL RURAL DRINKING WATER PROGRAMME

The aim and objective of National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP)

is to provide every rural person with adequate safe water for drinking,

cooking and other basic domestic needs on a sustainable basis, with a

minimum water quality standard, which should be conveniently accessible at all

times and in all situations.

Achieving this aim and objective is a continuous process.

In the 12th Five Year Plan period, under the NRDWP, the Ministry is giving

special emphasis on piped water supply in rural habitations.

States are being asked to plan for coverage of habitations with piped water supply

through stand posts or household connections.

In addition to the fact that this shall reduce the drudgery and time taken in the

collection of water, it shall also facilitate in tackling the problem of drinking water

quality in the habitations affected with water issues.



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SWACHCH BHARAT ABHIYAN

The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan or Mission, launched on 2nd of October 2014, is so

far the largest programme on sanitation by Indian Government.

It has two sub-Missions viz. Swachh Bharat Mission (Rural) and Swachh Bharat

Mission (Urban).

While rural mission comes under the purview of Ministry of Drinking Water

and Sanitation;

The urban mission comes under Ministry of Urban Development.

OBJECTIVES

The basic objective is to provide sanitation facilities to every family, including

toilets, solid and liquid waste disposal systems, village cleanliness, and safe

and adequate drinking water supply by 2nd October, 2019.



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It will be a befitting tribute to the Father of the Nation on his 150th birth

anniversary.

• To eradicate the system of open defecation in India.

• To convert the insanitary toilets into pour flush toilets.

• To remove the system of manual scavenging.

• To make people aware of healthy sanitation practices by bringing

behavioral changes in people.

• To link people with the programmes of sanitation and public health in order

to generate public awareness.

• To build up the urban local bodies strong in order to design, execute and

operate all systems related to cleanliness.

• To completely start the scientific processing, disposals reuse and

recycling the Municipal Solid Waste.

• To provide required environment for the private sector participation.

Key Facts

• Under the programme the Unit cost of the Individual Household Latrine

(IHHL) has been enhanced from Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 12,000 so as to provide

for water availability, including for storing, hand-washing and cleaning of

toilets.

• Central share for IHHLs to be Rs. 9,000 (75 percent) from Swachh Bharat

Mission (Gramin). The State share to be Rs. 3,000 (25 percent). For North

Eastern States, Jammu and Kashmir and Special category States, the

Central share will be 10,800 and the State share Rs. 1,200 (90 percent:10

percent). Additional contributions from other sources will be permitted.

• Discontinue the part funding from MGNREGA for the payment of

incentives for the construction of IHHLs and pay the entire amount of

Government of India share from the Swachh Bharat Mission

(Gramin). Which will help in dealing with the problem of delay in funds.

(in MNREGA)



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• Funding for these new initiatives will be through the following:

BUDGETARY ALLOCATIONS

• Contributions to the Swachh Bharat Kosh (funded via Swachh Bharat Cess)

• Through commitments under Corporate Social responsibility (CSR)

• Funding assistance from multilateral sources

ISSUES AND ANALYSIS

1. Menace of Open Defecation: Toilet Building Should Be Accompanied By

Behavioral Change

Open defecation is rampant in our country. According to a report by the World

Health Organization, India is ranked the highest when it comes to the number

of people practicing open defecation.

http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/112727/1/9789241507240_eng.pdf?ua=1



36

It does not only threaten health, hygiene and environment, but the lack of toilets

is a roadblock in education of girls in our country, and a threat to security of

women who go out in the open to relieve themselves. Many female students leave

schools when they hit puberty due to the absence of separate toilets for boys and

girls.

The problem of open defecation can be analyzed on three levels.

• First, due to poverty and lack of finance people are unable to build

toilets.

• Second, is the poor quality, inadequate numbers, poor maintenance of

toilets and lack of water supply in public toilets has made the condition

of most of our public toilets such that users prefer to defecate in the open.

• Third and the most important cause is the attitude of the people towards

latrine usage. Most of the researches done on use of latrines have come up

to the same conclusion that the people who have government latrines in

their houses do not use them on the regular basis. Even when people have

access to privately build latrines they perceive few health benefits of using

a latrine.

Therefore, latrine construction is not enough. There is a need to take a large

scale awareness drive on the negative effects of open defecation.

This could be achieved through involvement of civil society and incentivizing

local Panchayat with appropriate allocation of funds.

However, the reduction in the budget of the Information Education and

Communication (IEC) component (from 15 percent to 8 percent), which is critical

to trigger behavioural change to ensure usage of toilets, is a matter of concern.

It needs to be understood that without effective allocation of funds the

programme will not achieve its required objectives.

2. Need to Focus on Outcome Driven Approach With Effective Monitoring

The problem with the earlier programmes is at the implementation level. Poor

implementation of sanitation schemes is the reason that India is plagued with

health and hygiene issues.



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A report by the UNICEF India and Centre for Budget and Governance

Accountability (CBGA) revealed that only 49 percent of the budget had been

utilized between 1999 and 2011.

Poor utilization of funds, delay in the reach of funds and the lack of funds

has been identified as some of the problems with the earlier programmes. Further,

even if the funds are available the challenge has always been spending money in

the right manner and that needs systems to be put in place.

It also needs roles and responsibilities to be defined in a manner such that there

is clear accountability for how the money is spent and what it is spent on.

Moreover, since the launch of Total Sanitation Campaign to Nirmal Bharat

Abhiyan, there was focus on building more and more toilets.

There was no concrete data pertaining to the usage of the toilets on a national

level. The policy makers need to shift their approach from collecting data on

building of toilets to collection of data of usage of toilets.

Although the current programme focuses on the construction and usage

component but effective monitoring needs to be in place to bring desired

results.

Along with this the mechanism for monitoring needs to be changed. For instance,

the outcome of building toilets needs to be linked with the number decrease in

the number of children dying due to diahorrea resulting from open defecation.

Therefore, unless robust monitoring mechanisms along with a shift outcome

approach are put in place no effective results could be achieved.

CRITICAL ASSESSMENT OF THE PROGRAMME

In the first nine months of 2014, about 25 lakh toilets were built and in the next

three months about 24 lakh toilets were constructed – making it 49 lakh toilets

built in fiscal year 2014-15. While that may seem like an impressive number, it

pales in comparison to the gargantuan 11.12 crore toilets that need to be built over

the next four years to achieve total saturation under the SBM.

It is not clear how the jump from constructing just 50 lakh toilets per year

to 2.6 crore toilets a year will be managed and done.

http://www.kcci.org.in/Document%20Repository/TSC.pdf



38

Further, a simple on-ground verification of numbers uploaded on the MDWS

website in a few areas found that many of the toilets claimed may not actually

exist on the ground. This was revealed when organizations working in those

areas went to provide the communities where such toilets were built information

on post-construction usage and instead found the toilets missing. This raises

questions on the efficacy of the SBM’s monitoring systems.

Moreover, despite of the official statistics on the hundreds of thousands of toilets

built in homes and schools, the scheme has been a non-starter because of lack

of access to water (good/bad). If someone has to carry water pots home on her /

his head for several kms, he / she is unlikely to be enthusiastic about pouring it

down a drain just because someone has brought home the drain. The problem is

that majority of the villages have no access to water facility. So proper

sanitation is clearly out of question unless such an intervention is made, but the

government is doing a reverse intervention of constructing toilets first and then

taking care of other facilities.



39

However, the programme has achieved success in area of raising awareness

about sanitation.

Any cleanliness initiative will not achieve its objective without people’s

participation. To that extent SBM surely deserves a credit.

Other important initiatives include Bal Swatchata mission that was launched to

inculcate cleanliness values and personal hygiene amongst children. This would

go a long way in making behavioral changes towards cleanliness.

The Ministry of Railways has built bio-toilets for train coaches which will

help in reducing manual scavenging.

Other proposals which are under consideration are- Urban Development

Ministry planning to generate electricity and compost from municipal solid

waste; then Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers would soon bring a proposal

before Cabinet to provide Market Development Assistance on sale of city

compost to farmers.

Therefore, initiatives are under way to bring about effective changes on the

ground level. However ultimately time will only tell whether SBA is just an

old model in a new package or an effective programme to bring about

changes.

NATIONAL HEALTH MISSION

The National Health Mission (NHM) envisages achievement of universal

access to equitable, affordable & quality health care services that are

accountable and responsive to people's needs.

OBJECTIVES

To provide accessible, affordable, accountable effective and reliable primary

health care facilities, especially, to the poor and vulnerable sections of the

population.

To bridging the gap in Rural Health Care services through creation of a cadre of

Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) and improved hospital care,



40

decentralization of programme to district level to improve intra and inter-sectoral

convergence and utilisation of resources,

To provide overarching umbrella to the existing programmes of health and family

welfare.

NHM encompasses two Sub-Missions, National Rural Health Mission

(NRHM) and National Urban Health Mission (NUHM).

The National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) was launched in 2005 with a

view to bringing about dramatic improvement in the health system and the health

status of the people, especially those who live in the rural areas of the country.

The sub-mission of National Urban Health Mission (NUHM) under the NHM

strives to improve the health status of the urban poor particularly the slum

dwellers and other disadvantaged sections by facilitating equitable access to

quality health care. The Framework for Implementation of NUHM has been

approved by the Cabinet on May 1, 2013.

The key components of NRHM are:

1. Involvement and leadership of PRIs for the Health Sector,

2. Creation of a Cadre of Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) in a phased

manner,

3. Codification of Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS).

4. Mainstreaming AYUSH at all levels of primary health care.

5. Strengthening of programme management capacities in national, state and

district level.

6. Institutionalizing district level management of health.

7. Supply of additional generic drugs.

8. Promotion of private sector for achieving public health goals.

9. Strengthening Immunization.

http://www.arthapedia.in/index.php?title=National_Rural_Health_Mission_(NRHM)_2005-2012

http://www.arthapedia.in/index.php?title=National_Rural_Health_Mission_(NRHM)_2005-2012



41

10. Implementation of Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) for improving level of

institutional delivery.

NUHM GOALS

• Need based city specific urban health care system to meet the diverse

health care needs of the urban poor and other vulnerable sections.

• Institutional mechanism and management systems to meet the health-

related challenges of a rapidly growing urban population.

• Partnership with community and local bodies for a more proactive

involvement in planning, implementation, and monitoring of health

activities.

• Availability of resources for providing essential primary health care to

urban poor.

• Partnerships with NGOs, for profit and not for profit health service

providers and other stakeholders.



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The National Health Mission seeks to ensure the achievement of the following

indicators.

1. Reduce Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) to 1/1000 live births

2. Reduce Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) to 25/1000 live births

3. Reduce Total Fertility Rate (TFR) to 2.1

4. Prevention and reduction of anaemia in women aged 15–49 years

5. Prevent and reduce mortality & morbidity from communicable, non-

communicable; injuries and emerging diseases

6. Reduce household out-of-pocket expenditure on total health care

expenditure

7. Reduce annual incidence and mortality from Tuberculosis by half

8. Reduce prevalence of Leprosy to <1/10000 population and incidence to

zero in all districts



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9. Annual Malaria Incidence to be <1/1000

10. Less than 1 per cent microfilaria prevalence in all districts

11. Kala-azar Elimination by 2015, <1 case per 10000 population in all blocks

FUNDING PATTERN

The centre-state funding pattern will be 75:25 for all the States except North-

Eastern states including Sikkim and other special category states of Jammu &

Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, for whom the centre-state funding

pattern will be 90:10.

INITIATIVES FOR COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION UNDER NHM

1. ROGI KALYAN SAMITI (Patient Welfare Committee) / Hospital

Management Committee is a simple yet effective management structure.

This committee, a registered society, acts as a group of trustees for the hospitals

to manage the affairs of the hospital.

It consists of members from local Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs), NGOs, local

elected representatives and officials from Government sector who are responsible

for proper functioning and management of the hospital / Community Health

Centre / FRUs. RKS / HMS is free to prescribe, generate and use the funds with

it as per its best judgement for smooth functioning and maintaining the quality of

services.

2. Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) is a trained female community

health activist. Selected from the community itself and accountable to it, the

ASHA will be trained to work as an interface between the community and the

public health system.

• The role of an ASHA is that of a community level care provider. This

includes a mix of tasks:

• facilitating access to health care services,

• building awareness about health care entitlements especially amongst the

poor and marginalized,

• promoting healthy behaviours and mobilizing for collective action for

better health outcomes and



44

• meeting curative care needs as appropriate to the organization of service

delivery in that area and compatible with her training and skills.

AYUSHMAAN BHARAT – JAN AROGYA ABHIYAAN

PMJAY is government-sponsored health insurance scheme, that will provide free

coverage of up to Rs 5 lakh per family per year in any government or empanelled

private hospitals all over India.

It will cover beneficiaries families identified on the basis of Socio Economic

Caste Survey (SECC) 2011.

National Health Agency (NHA) is the apex body for implementing this

scheme.

States will be required to form State Health Agency (SHA) to implement scheme

and at the district level also structure for its implementation will be set up.

Around 13000 hospitals both public and private in the country have been

coordinated for implementation of the scheme.



45

PMJAY will be funded with 60% contribution from Centre and remaining

from the states.

NITI Aayog will be working as partner for this scheme for operationalizing

robust, modular and interoperable IT platform which will involve a paperless and

cashless transaction.

KEY FEATURES OF PMJAY

PMJAY is entitlement based scheme with entitlement decided on basis of

deprivation criteria in the SECC database.

There will be no cap on family size and age under this scheme. The benefit cover

under it also includes pre and post-hospitalisation expenses.

It also takes into consideration all pre-existing medical conditions.

It will provide reimbursement for bed charges and drugs and diagnostics two days

before, during and 15 days after hospitalisation.



46

Beneficiary will be also paid transport allowance for hospitalisation defined

under it.

The payment for treatment will be done on package rate which will be defined by

Government in advance basis. The package rates will include all costs

associated with treatment.

PMJAY allows national portability i.e. resident of any part of country is entitled

for free hospitalization at empaneled hospital anywhere in the country.

It will strengthen healthcare services in India by targeting poor and vulnerable

population of the country.

The scheme allows beneficiary to take cashless benefits from any public or

private empanelled hospitals across the country. ID documentation required for

verifying beneficiary under this scheme may be Aadhaar card or election ID

card or ration card.

Aadhaar is not mandatory. Beneficiaries will QR codes having letters for

verification through scanning.



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SIGNIFICANCE

• Ayushmaan Bharat is an attempt to ensure that universal healthcare

reached the weaker sections of society and it could raise the ratio of people

availing primary and secondary healthcare.

• The government has made this a technology-driven initiative, which is a

great step to ensure transparency and effective implementation, and at

a grander scale, this initiative would encourage more work in development

of overall health infrastructure in the country.

• Growing healthcare infrastructure in the country will help 50 crore poor

people access medicines and essential drugs.

• Besides addressing the challenges of geographic inaccessibility and

unaffordability, Ayushmaan Bharat has the potential of creating a cost-

effective digitised health economy and catapulting India to the league of

developed nations.

CONCERNS

• But the current framework of the scheme will not be beneficial for people

who need tertiary care as the remunerations under the scheme will not

be sufficient to avail value-based healthcare.

• Under the scheme, tertiary healthcare service providers will be forced

to cut cost at every level, which will lead to offering substandard

healthcare to patients under the scheme.

• They may not be able to avail the necessary medication, technology and

clinical expertise to get the best outcome and will soon lose confidence in

the system.

It is clear that the NHPS scheme, which primarily offers support for clinical

services such as hospitalization, is unlikely to help fix the broken public health

system in the country.

The most critical issue remains the limited and uneven distribution of human

resources at various levels of health services, with up to 40 per cent of health

worker posts lying vacant in some states.



48

Most primary health care centres suffer from perennial shortage of doctors and

even district hospitals are without specialists.

Without addressing the human resource situation, public sector health care

will remain of poor quality and largely unacceptable, forcing patients to go

to the private sector.

Therefore, it seems as if NHPS is likely to benefit private parties more than

government health services. This will ultimately be unsustainable and even

detrimental for the poor for whom the scheme is intended.

To maximise benefits, it may be wise to establish a link among various health

initiatives announced in the budget and also with related programmes such as the

National Health Mission.

WAY FORWARD

• Today, nearly 80% of the healthcare in India is provided by the private

healthcare system and to meet the burgeoning healthcare needs of Indian

population through value-based medicine, the country needs a

synchronised effort by both the private and public sectors.

• The healthcare sector has noted that the government should look at

mandatory universal health cover for all sections of society, which will

increase the pool and allow cross-subsidy between the government and the

private sector.



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DIGITAL INDIA

The Digital India programme has been launched with an aim of transforming

the country into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.

The Digital India would ensure that Government services are available to citizens

electronically.

It would also bring in public accountability through mandated delivery of

government’s services electronically; a Unique ID and e-Pramaan based on

authentic and standard based interoperable and integrated government

applications and data basis.

NINE PILLARS OF DIGITAL INDIA

The above mentioned three vision areas have been further divided into nine pillars

as follows:

1. Broadband Highways

2. Universal Access to Mobile Connectivity

3. Public Internet Access Programme

4. e-Governance: Reforming Government through Technology

5. e-Kranti – Electronic Delivery of Services

6. Information for All



50

7. Electronics Manufacturing

8. IT for Jobs

9. Early Harvest Programmes

Each of them is briefly discussed as follows:

Broadband Highways

There are three components of broadband highways viz. Rural Broadband, Urban

Broadband and National Information Infrastructure.

• Under rural, the government plans to connect all village panchayats by high

speed broadband network.

• Under Urban Broadband, the government plans to leverage the Virtual

Network Operators to provide service and infrastructure in urban areas.

• The National Information Infrastructure is to merge earlier digital

infrastructure with latest and cloud based service infrastructure.

Universal Access to Mobile Connectivity

This includes to increase mobile network penetration in the country and spread

the connectivity to all uncovered villages.



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Public Internet Access Programme

This includes establishments of Common Service Centres and Post Offices as

multi-service centres.

The government plans to establish around 2.5 Lakh Common Service Centres i.e.

one in each Gram Panchayat. Further, all the 1.5 Lakh post offices are to be

converted into multi-service centres.

E-Governance: Reforming Government through Technology

This includes improvement and reform of governance using the digital

technology. This includes the National E-Governance Plan: Simplification of

forms, use of online platforms to get basic government documents and services,

integration and improvisation of services such as UIDAI, Payment Gateway,

Mobile Platform, Electronic Data Interchange etc.; use of databases instead of

paper based manuals & registers; automation of workflow within the government,

and grievance redressal via IT infrastructure.

• This includes more than 30 mission mode projects of National e-

Governance Plan (NeGP).



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E-Kranti

Some missions were added to NeGP to call it E-Kranti. It is an important pillar

of the Digital India programme.

Some of these are:

• E-Education: This includes (1) connecting all schools with broadband and

provides free Wi-Fi in secondary and senior secondary schools. (2)

MOOCs –Massive Online Open Courses for E-education. The portal

Swayam was launched as a part of this component.

• E-Healthcare: This includes medical consultation, online medical records

and supply and pan-India exchange of patient information.

• Technology for Farmers: This includes real time price information,

online ordering of inputs and online cash, loan and relief payment with

mobile banking.



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• Technology for Security: This includes leveraging the technology for

emergency response, internal security and disaster management.

• Technology for Financial Inclusion: Increasing financial inclusion via

Mobile Banking, Micro-ATM program and CSCs/ Post Offices.

• Technology for Justice: Interoperable Criminal Justice System shall be

strengthened by leveraging e-Courts, e-Police, e-Jails and e-Prosecution.

• Technology for Planning: National GIS Mission Mode Project would be

implemented to facilitate GIS based decision making for project planning,

conceptualization, design and development.

• Technology for Cyber Security: National Cyber Security Co-ordination

Centre would be set up to ensure safe and secure cyber-space within the

country.

Information for All

One of the pillars of Digital India is to increase access to information for

citizens by promoting pen data platforms and open source programmes and

applications.

Electronics Manufacturing

This includes making efforts towards achieving net zero imports in electronics

items such as FABS, Set Top Boxes, VSATs, Mobiles, Consumer electronic and

so on. Government support includes subsidies, tax sops and funds mobility for

incubators, start-ups, clusters, skill development etc.

IT for Jobs

This includes to train students from smaller towns and villages for IT sector jobs.

Early Harvest Programmes

This includes several programmes such as mass messaging platforms and apps

for spreading information about government programmes, E-greetings to replace

government greetings, biometric attendances in government offices, Wi-Fi in all

universities, public Wi-Fi spots, replacing books by E-Books, SMS based disaster

alerts, a national portal for Lost & Found children etc.



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KEY PROJECTS OF DIGITAL INDIA PROGRAMME:

1. Digital Locker System aims to minimize the usage of physical documents and

enable sharing of e-documents across agencies. The sharing of the e-documents

will be done through registered repositories thereby ensuring the authenticity of

the documents online.

2. MyGov.in has been implemented as a platform for citizen engagement in

governance, through a “Discuss”, “Do” and “Disseminate” approach. The mobile

App for MyGov would bring these features to users on a mobile phone.

3. Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) Mobile app would be used by people and

Government organizations for achieving the goals of Swachh Bharat Mission.

4. eSign framework would allow citizens to digitally sign a document online

using Aadhaar authentication.

5. The Online Registration System (ORS) under the eHospital application has

been introduced. This application provides important services such as online

registration, payment of fees and appointment, online diagnostic reports,

enquiring availability of blood online etc.

6. National Scholarships Portal is a one stop solution for end to end scholarship

process right from submission of student application, verification, sanction and

disbursal to end beneficiary for all the scholarships provided by the Government

of India.



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7. DeitY has undertaken an initiative namely Digitize India Platform (DIP) for

large scale digitization of records in the country that would facilitate efficient

delivery of services to the citizens.

8. The Government of India has undertaken an initiative namely Bharat Net, a

high speed digital highway to connect all 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats of country.

This would be the world’s largest rural broadband connectivity project using

optical fibre.

9. BSNL has introduced Next Generation Network (NGN), to replace 30 year

old exchanges, which is an IP based technology to manage all types of services

like voice, data, multimedia/ video and other types of packet switched

communication services.

10. BSNL has undertaken large scale deployment of Wi-Fi hotspots throughout

the country. The user can latch on the BSNL Wi-Fi network through their mobile

devices.

11. To deliver citizen services electronically and improve the way citizens and

authorities transact with each other, it is imperative to have ubiquitous

connectivity. The government also realises this need as reflected by including

‘broadband highways’ as one of the pillars of Digital India. While connectivity

is one criterion, enabling and providing technologies to facilitate delivery of

services to citizens forms the other.



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PROPOSED IMPACT OF DIGITAL INDIA

A. Economic impact:

According to analysts, the Digital India plan could boost GDP up to $1 trillion

by 2025. It can play a key role in macro-economic factors such as GDP growth,

employment generation, labour productivity, growth in number of businesses and

revenue leakages for the Government.

As per the World Bank report, a 10% increase in mobile and broadband

penetration increases the per capita GDP by 0.81% and 1.38% respectively in the

developing countries.

B. Social impact:

Social sectors such as education, healthcare, and banking are unable to reach

out to the citizens due to obstructions and limitations such as middleman,

illiteracy, ignorance, poverty, lack of funds, information and investments.

• These challenges have led to an imbalanced growth in the rural and urban

areas with marked differences in the economic and social status of the

people in these areas.

Modern ICT makes it easier for people to obtain access to services and resources.

The penetration of mobile devices may be highly useful as a complementary

channel to public service delivery apart from creation of entirely new

services which may have an enormous impact on the quality of life of the

users and lead to social modernization.

The poor literacy rate in India is due to unavailability of physical infrastructure

in rural and remote areas. This is where m-Education services can play an

important role by reaching remote masses.

• According to estimates, the digital literacy in India is just 6.5% and the

internet penetration is 20.83 out of 100 population.

The digital India project will be helpful in providing real-time education and

partly address the challenge of lack of teachers in education system through smart

and virtual classrooms. Education to farmers, fisher men can be provided through

mobile devices.



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The highspeed network can provide the adequate infrastructure for online

education platforms like massive open online courses (MOOCs).

Mobile and internet banking can improve the financial inclusion in the

country.

Factors such as a burgeoning population, poor doctor patient ratio (1:870), high

infant mortality rate, increasing life expectancy, fewer quality physicians and a

majority of the population living in remote villages, support and justify the need

for tele medicine in the country. M-health can promote innovation and

enhance the reach of healthcare services.

Digital platforms can help farmers in know-how (crop choice, seed variety),

context (weather, plant protection, cultivation best practices) and market

information (market prices, market demand, logistics).

C. Environmental impact:

The ICT sector helps in efficient management and usage of scarce and non-

renewable resources.



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CONCLUSION

A digitally connected India can help in improving social and economic

condition of people through development of non-agricultural economic activities

apart from providing access to education, health and financial services. However,

it is important to note that ICT alone cannot directly lead to overall development

of the nation.

The overall growth and development can be realized through supporting and

enhancing elements such as literacy, basic infrastructure, overall business

environment, regulatory environment, etc.

NATIONAL SKILL DEVELOPMENT MISSION

Skills and knowledge are the driving forces of economic growth and social

development in a country.

As opposed to developed countries, where the percentage of skilled workforce is

between 60% and 90% of the total workforce, India records a low 5% of

workforce (20-24 years) with formal vocational skills.

DEMOGRAPHIC DIVIDEND:

• Demographic dividend does not mean just people; it means skilled,

educated or employed people.

• The ‘demographic window’ is only a span of few decades. The skilled

youth is required to save demographic dividend from becoming

demographic disaster.

• It is worth mentioning here that India has 54 per cent of its total population

below 25 years of age. Over the next 20 years, the labour force in the

industrialised world is expected to decline by 4 per cent, while in India it

will increase by 32 per cent who are not sufficiently skilled and

employable.

• A conservative estimated figure shows that 104.62 million fresh entrants

to the workforce need to be skilled by 2022 in addition to the 298.25

million working persons needing skill training.



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The National Skill Development Mission will provide a strong institutional

framework at the Centre and States for implementation of skilling activities in

the country.

The Mission will have a three-tiered, high powered decision making structure. At

its apex, the Mission’s Governing Council, chaired by the Prime Minister,

will provide overall guidance and policy direction.

• Besides consolidating and coordinating skilling efforts, it also aims to

expedite decision making across sectors to achieve skilling at scale with

speed and standards.



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MISSION STRATEGY

National Skill Development Mission will initially consist of seven sub-missions

under its purview.

Each sub-mission will act as a building block for achieving the overall objectives

of the Mission.

Key focus areas of the sub-mission include:

1. addressing the long-term and short-term skilling needs through revamp of

existing institutional training framework and establishing new institutions

2. undertake sector specific skill training initiatives

3. ensure convergence of existing skill development programmes

4. leverage existing public infrastructure for skilling

5. focus on training of trainers

6. facilitate overseas employment, and

7. promote sustainable livelihoods.

SUB-MISSIONS:

Institutional Training Objectives

• To provide horizontal and vertical pathways to academic qualifications and

the job market, respectively.

• To provide demand driven, outcome focused training aimed at achieving

high placement rates.

• To upgrade and modernize all existing training institutions, like ITIs, ATIs

etc. under DDG(Training) to make them more responsive to industry

demand.

• To specifically focus on reforms in five key areas concerning these existing

institutions,

1. Curriculum flexibility,

2. Training equipment and workshops,

3. Pedagogy,

4. Industry interface, and

5. Financial model.

• To supplement training by providing opportunities to earn and learn

through apprenticeships.



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• To change people’s perceptions about vocational training and make skill

development aspirational with opportunities for long-term career

progression.

Infrastructure Objectives

• To build capacity and ensure high quality skill development in

infrastructure including construction sector to increase productivity of

workers in this sector, through an emphasis on on-site training.

• To match projected requirement of additional 31 million workers to work

in construction sector over the next five years.

• To provide existing workers in this sector the opportunity to have long-

term sustainable livelihoods through RPL and up-skilling.

Trainers Objectives

• To improve overall quality of instruction at training institutions across the

country.

• To meet trainer’s training requirement in each sector and geographical

region across India.

• To ensure adequate availability of trainers in the skills space.

Overseas Employment Objectives

• To ensure that youth in India are trained at the highest global standards, in

order to enable them to access employment opportunities abroad.

• To provide information about employment opportunities abroad and enable

aspirants to access them.

• To ensure international mobility of skilled workers in the country

Leveraging Public infrastructure Objectives

• To optimise the usage of existing public infrastructure to scale up skill

development efforts across India

ISSUES IN IMPLEMENTATION OF SKILL INDIA MISSION

• No evaluation was conducted of PMKVY 2015 (the first version of the scheme)

to find out the outcomes of the scheme and whether it was serving the twin



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purpose of providing employment to youth and meeting the skill needs of the

industry before launching such an ambitious scheme.

• The focus of PMKVY has been largely on the short-term skill courses,

resulting in low placements.

• The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) have pointed out flaws in the

design and operations of the NSDC and National Skill Development Fund which

has resulted in falling short of skill development goals. Majority of them also

could not achieve the placement targets for the trained persons.

• The Sharada Prasad Committee, held the NSDC responsible for poor

implementation of the Standard Training Assessment and Reward (STAR)

programme. It highlighted that only 8.5 per cent of the persons trained were

able to get employment.

• The Report also cites “serious conflict of interests” in the functioning of the

National Skill Development Corporation.



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• NSDC has not been able to discharge its responsibilities for setting up sector

skill councils (SSCs) owing to lots of instances of serious conflict of interest and

unethical practices.

• As per its original mandate, the NSDC should be mobilizing resources for skill

development from the industry, financial institutions, multilateral and bilateral

external aid agencies, private equity providers and ministries and departments of

the central government and states. But the committee said found that the NSDC

did not follow any standard criteria for creation of SSCs which not only increased

their number but created overlapping jurisdictions.

• There have been apprehensions on how many of the 11.7 million trained in the

past two years are really in jobs.

WHAT CAN BE DONE?

Though skill training in the country has improved in recent years, the absence of

job linkages is only aggravating the problem of unemployment.

The newly appointed Minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship,

Dharmendra Pradhan has echoed a similar concern. “We have to think big way, a

lot of technologies are coming, conventional jobs are squeezed, new verticals are

emerging, what are they, they have to be informed to employable youths which

all big jobs are there.”

Skill development starts with identifying future job prospects and segmenting it

according to the need and feasibility of training candidates. The PPP model of

operation of SSCs presents a great chance of bringing industry best practices in

learning and development into such training modules.

Private players can use technology to automate, improve and scale training and

certification approach of skill-based training.

By creating better linkages between the many stakeholders in the process

and establishing key deliverables and a clear chain of accountability would

help make such training programs more effective.

Working towards increasing the accessibility of such training programs, in

parallel, should also be looked at. A recently proposed move of making such

training more district centric is a step towards that direction.



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As India aims to have one of the strongest economic growth stories in the 21st

century, it becomes vital for it ensure it growing workforce is capable to handle

the incoming disruptions and find suitable jobs.

And a core part of this is to tackle the problem of unskilled labour in India and

fix its skilling initiatives, today rather than tomorrow.

PRADHAN MANTRI KAUSHAL VIKAS YOJANA (PMKVY)

Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) is the flagship scheme of the

Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE).

The objective of this Skill Certification Scheme is to enable a large number of

Indian youth to take up industry-relevant skill training that will help them in

securing a better livelihood.

Individuals with prior learning experience or skills will also be assessed and

certified under Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL).

Under this Scheme, Training and Assessment fees are completely paid by the

Government.

KEY COMPONENTS OF THE SCHEME:

1. Short Term Training

The Short Term Training imparted at PMKVY Training Centres (TCs) is

expected to benefit candidates of Indian nationality who are either school/college

dropouts or unemployed.

• Apart from providing training according to the National Skills

Qualification Framework (NSQF), TCs shall also impart training in Soft

Skills, Entrepreneurship, Financial and Digital Literacy.

• Duration of the training varies per job role, ranging between 150 and 300

hours. Upon successful completion of their assessment, candidates shall be

provided placement assistance by Training Partners (TPs).

Under PMKVY, the entire training and assessment fees are paid by the

Government.



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2. Recognition of Prior Learning

Individuals with prior learning experience or skills shall be assessed and certified

under the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) component of the Scheme.

RPL aims to align the competencies of the unregulated workforce of the country

to the NSQF.

3. Special Projects

The Special Projects component of PMKVY envisages the creation of a platform

that will facilitate trainings in special areas and/or premises of Government

bodies, Corporates or Industry bodies, and trainings in special job roles not

defined under the available Qualification Packs (QPs)/National Occupational

Standards (NOSs). Special Projects are projects that require some deviation from

the terms and conditions of Short Term Training under PMKVY for any

stakeholder.

4. Kaushal and Rozgar Mela

Social and community mobilisation is extremely critical for the success of

PMKVY.



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Active participation of the community ensures transparency and

accountability, and helps in leveraging the cumulative knowledge of the

community for better functioning.

In line with this, PMKVY assigns special importance to the involvement of the

target beneficiaries through a defined mobilisation process. TPs shall conduct

Kaushal and Rozgar Melas every six months with press/media coverage; they are

also required to participate actively in National Career Service Melas and on-

ground activities.

5. Placement Guidelines

PMKVY envisages to link the aptitude, aspiration, and knowledge of the skilled

workforce it creates with employment opportunities and demands in the market.

Every effort thereby needs to be made by the PMKVY TCs to provide

placement opportunities to candidates, trained and certified under the

Scheme.

6. Monitoring Guidelines

To ensure that high standards of quality are maintained by PMKVY TCs,

NSDC and empanelled Inspection Agencies shall use various methodologies,

such as self-audit reporting, call validations, surprise visits, and monitoring

through the Skills Development Management System (SDMS). These

methodologies shall be enhanced with the engagement of latest technologies.

The scheme will be implemented through the National Skill Development

Corporation (NSDC).

TRANSFORMATION OF ASPIRATIONAL DISTRICTS PROGRAMME

India is on a high growth trajectory that is expected to lift millions out of poverty.

However, presently the quality of life of many of its citizens is not consistent with

this growth story, a fact reflected in UNDP’s 2016 Human Development Index

wherein we are ranked 131 out of 188 countries.

A closer look at the data reveals high heterogeneity in the living standards in

India. There are significant inter-state and inter-district variations.



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The districts are chosen from all states except Goa where there's no backward

district

By uplifting the districts which have shown relatively lesser progress in

achieving key social outcome, India can move ahead in the human

development index.

Launched in January 2018, the ‘Transformation of Aspirational Districts’

initiative aims to remove this heterogeneity through a mass movement to

quickly and effectively transform these districts.

• The NITI Aayog has launched the baseline ranking for the Aspirational

Districts based on published data of 49 indicators.(with live dashboard)

• All the states — except West Bengal and Kerala — are on board in this

ranking initiative.

About ‘Transformation of Aspirational Districts’ programme

• This programme aims to quickly and effectively transform some of the

most underdeveloped districts of the country.

• The broad contours of the programme are Convergence (of Central & State

Schemes), Collaboration (of Central, State level ‘Prabhari’ Officers &

District Collectors), and Competition among districts driven by a Mass

Movement or a Jan Andolan.



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• With States as the main drivers, this program will focus on the strength

of each district, identify low-hanging fruits for immediate

improvement, measure progress, and rank districts.

• The Government is committed to raising the living standards of its citizens

and ensuring inclusive growth for all – SabkaSaath, SabkaVikas.

• To enable optimum utilization of their potential, this program focusses

closely on improving people’s ability to participate fully in the burgeoning

economy.

• Health & Nutrition, Education, Agriculture & Water Resources,

Financial Inclusion & Skill Development, and Basic Infrastructure are

this programme’s core areas of focus.

• Districts are prodded and encouraged to first catch-up with the best

district within their state, and subsequently aspire to become one of

the best in the country, by competing with, and learning from others in

the spirit of competitive & cooperative federalism.



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BASELINE RANKING

The objective of the program is to monitor the real-time progress of

aspirational districts based on 49 indicators (81 data-points) from the 5

identified thematic areas.

SECTOR RANKING

Health and Nutrition (30%) - With 30% of the overall composite score on

health & nutrition, the program has identified 13 indicators to focus on antenatal

care, postnatal care, gender parity, health of new borns, growth of children,

contagious diseases, and health infrastructure.

Education (30%) - The education sector accounts of 30% of the overall index. 8

indicators have been identified focussing on learning outcomes (transition rate

from primary to upper primary, and subsequently to secondary schooling, average

scores in mathematics and language etc.), as well as infrastructural (toilet access

for girls, drinking water, electricity supply) and institutional indicators (RTE

mandated pupil-teacher ratio, timely delivery of textbooks).

Agriculture & Water resources (20%) - Agriculture is the backbone of India,

with more than 50% of our workforce engaged in cultivation and allied activities.

10 indicators have been identified for the 20% weightage allocated to agriculture.

The focus is on outputs (yield, price realisation etc.), inputs (quality seed

distribution, soil health cards), and institutional support (crop insurance,

electronic markets, artificial insemination, animal vaccination etc.).



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Basic Infrastructure (10%) - A roof over one’s head with water, electricity, and

road connectivity is the priority of the Government. 7 important indicators have

been identified including availability of individual household latrines, drinking

water, electricity, and road connectivity. Districts are also tracked for the number

of internet connected Gram Panchayats, and panchayats with Common Service

Centres.

Financial inclusion & Skill Development (10%) - Together, these two themes

account for 10% of the overall index. 6 indicators have been identified in financial

inclusion to measure progress in take - up of important central government

schemes (Atal Pension Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana etc.),

reach of institutional banking (number of accounts opened under Jan Dhan

Yojana), and ease of institutional financing for small businesses (disbursement of

Mudra loans). 5 indicators have been identified in skill development to keep track

of the progress in skilling of youth, employment, and the skilling of

vulnerable/marginalized youth.

As per the baseline ranking, Vizianagaram in Andhra Pradesh is ranked

highest with score of 48.13% while Mewat in Haryana tails at the end with

26.02%.

BOTTLENECKS

1.The lack of regular, granular data at the district level, the focal point of

implementation in our administrative architecture, has been a serious impediment

to administrative efficiency.

2. But, this effort also raises critical questions about the role (and limits) of data:

can better data lead to improved outcomes without significantly changing the

administrative architecture responsible for outcome failures? Rankings are

expected to incentivise districts to compete in a race to the top thereby

accelerating impact. But are the enabling conditions in place?

3. The real barrier to tailoring development interventions to district needs is

not data but the centralised financing and decision-making structure that

districts are embedded in. Districts have little discretion over funds received

from the central and state governments so much so that if a district wants to use

funds allocated for toilet construction under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan to

promote waste management as its primary strategy to achieve sanitation goals,



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the rules won’t allow it. How then can a district tailored intervention can suit local

needs?

4. Another strategy to bypass funding and implementation constraints is to

collaborate with private sector and civil society organisations. This may yield

short-term gains but unless the vision is to create a permanent parallel structure,

sustaining these successes will require institutional reforms.

5. On first principles, competitive federalism requires a genuinely

decentralised environment where elected local governments, incentivised by

their accountability to voters and empowered with resources, compete to deliver

public goods linked to local preferences. Despite its rhetoric, the ADP seeks to

undermine rather than promote decentralisation. Panchayats have no stated

role in this programme and in its current articulation the ADP seeks to

strengthen the role of the collector (and state and central governments) in

planning, financing and implementing the priorities.

Genuine competition without genuine decentralisation is hard to sustain.

NATIONAL NUTRITION MISSION (POSHAN ABHIYAAN)

Malnutrition as characterized by under-nutrition, over-nutrition and

micronutrient deficiencies has a negative impact on the socio-economic

development of any nation.

• Malnutrition erodes social and economic gains made and put countries in

a vicious cycle of poor nutritional status, high disease burden and increased

poverty.

• Malnutrition has a significant inter-generational effect and must be

addressed in its entirety for any meaningful development to take place.

• It causes low work productivity, absenteeism from work and school due to

illnesses and poor intellectual performance among school children.

• Malnutrition contributes to about 60% of childhood mortality in the world.

Therefore, to achieve the nutrition-related Goals, it is imperative to put in place,

mechanisms for sustained funding for nutrition programmes.

Thus, government has launched National Nutrition Mission.



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OBJECTIVE

The programme through the targets will strive to reduce the level of stunting,

under-nutrition, anemia and low birth weight babies.

• It will create synergy, ensure better monitoring, issue alerts for timely

action, and encourage States/UTs to perform, guide and supervise the line

Ministries and States/UTs to achieve the targeted goals.

SALIENT FEATURES OF THE MISSION ARE:

1. The mission, commencing 2017-18, has a target to reduce under-

nutrition and low birth-weight by 2 per cent each year.

2. It will strive to achieve reduction in stunting from 38.4 per cent as

per the National Family Health Survey-4 to 25 per cent by 2022.

3. It also aims to bring down anaemia among young children, women

and adolescent girls by three per cent per year.

4. Under NNM, the ministries of women and child development, health

and family welfare, and water and sanitation will work together.



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5. The mission will form an apex body that would fix targets and

monitor, supervise and guide nutrition-related interventions across

the ministries.

6. The mission would include several components like an ICT

(information and communications technology)-based real-time

monitoring system, incentivizing of states and Union territories to

meet their targets, social audits, and setting up of nutrition resource

centres.

7. Anganwadi workers will also be offered incentives for using IT-

based tools such as smart phones.

Aadhaar card is a mandatory requirement to avail the benefits of the

mission.

Implementation strategy would be based on intense monitoring and

Convergence Action Plan right upto the grass root level.

NNM will be rolled out in three phases from 2017-18 to 2019-20. NNM targets

to reduce stunting, under-nutrition, anemia (among young children, women and

adolescent girls) and reduce low birth weight by 2%, 2%, 3% and 2% per annum

respectively.

Although the target to reduce Stunting is atleast 2% p.a., Mission would strive

to achieve reduction in Stunting from 38.4% (NFHS-4) to 25% by 2022

(Mission 25 by 2022)

GOBAR DHAN SCHEME

The scheme aims to positively impact village cleanliness and generate wealth

and energy from cattle and organic waste.

• The scheme also aims at creating new rural livelihood opportunities and

enhancing income for farmers and other rural people.

The Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) comprises two main components for

creating clean villages – creating open defecation free (ODF) villages and

managing solid and liquid waste in villages.



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With over 3.5 lakh villages, 374 districts and 16 States/UTs of the country being

declared ODF, the stage is set for ODF-plus activities, including measures to

enhance solid and liquid waste management.

The GOBAR-DHAN scheme, with its focus on keeping villages clean, increasing

the income of rural households, and generation of energy from cattle waste, is an

important element of this ODF-plus strategy.

The scheme envisages the implementation of 700 bio-gas units in different

states of the country in 2018-19.

Currently cattle dung and a portion of agricultural waste is used as cooking fuel.

However, WHO estimates about 5 lakh deaths in India alone due to indoor

air pollution caused by unclean cooking fuel. Women and children suffer the

most, as they spend large amounts of their time near indoor cooking hearth.



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Bio-gas, the most common form of bio-fuel, is a clean form of energy and can

be obtained from cattle dung, poultry droppings, crop residue, kitchen waste, etc.

Gobar-Dhan shall benefit rural people in general and women in particular

from this clean fuel and also through improvements on health and improvement

in cleanliness in the villages.

Accordingly, this scheme aims to positively impact the Gram Panchayats with

3Es, which are as following:

• Energy: Self-reliance with respect to energy through utilization of

agricultural and animal waste to generate bio-energy through bio-gas

plants.

• Empowerment: Engaging rural people, especially women self-help

groups in construction, management and day to day operations of biogas

plants.

• Employment: Generating jobs among the rural youth and women through

collection of waste, transportation to treatment plants, management of

treatment plant, sale and distribution of biogas generated, etc.

ATAL BHUJAL YOJANA

Aims to tackle ever-deepening crisis of depleting groundwater level.

• The objective of scheme is to recharge ground water and create

sufficient water storage for agricultural purposes.

• It also focuses on revival of surface water bodies so that ground water level

can be increased, especially in the rural areas.

• It will give emphasis to recharging ground water sources and ensure

efficient use of water by involving people at local level.

• The scheme will soon be launched in water-stressed states: Gujarat,

Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya

Pradesh.



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• It will cover 78 districts, 193 blocks and more than 8300 gram panchayats

across these states.

Centre will support half of the total project cost and rest of the budgetary

cost will be shared by the World Bank.

The scheme is to be implemented over a period of five years from 2018-19 to

2022-23

About 80% of the rural and urban domestic water supplies in the country are

dependent upon the groundwater.

According to a World Bank Report, India accounts for about 25% of the total

groundwater abstraction, globally.

The growing number of dark zones (those areas where the groundwater is

overexploited, i.e., annual groundwater consumption exceeds the annual



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groundwater recharge) in the country makes it imperative for this programme to

be implemented.

SIGNIFICANCE:

This scheme will help those who are in need for constant ground water supply

especially farmers who have been hard impacted by acute shortage of

ground water for past several years.

• Its focus is primarily on involvement of communities and convergence

with different water schemes.

• Its major component is making society responsible and bringing about

behaviour change to manage groundwater resource.

It will help improve overall outlook towards water resource.

NATIONAL BAMBOO MISSION

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved restructured

National Bamboo Mission (NBM), a Centrally Sponsored Scheme under National

Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) during remaining period of 14th

Finance Commission (2018-20) with an outlay of Rs. 1290 crore. The

restructured mission will ensure holistic development of bamboo sector by

addressing complete value chain and establish effective linkage of producers

(farmers) with industry.

OBJECTIVES OF RESTRUCTURED NBM

1. Increase area under bamboo plantation in non-forest Government and

private lands to supplement farm income and contribute towards resilience

to climate change.

2. Improve post-harvest management through establishment of innovative

primary processing units, treatment and seasoning plants, primary

treatment and seasoning plants, preservation technologies and market

infrastructure.

3. Promote product development at micro, small and medium levels and feed

bigger industry. Rejuvenate the under developed bamboo industry in India.



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4. Promote skill development, capacity building, awareness generation for

development of bamboo sector.

BENEFICIARIES:

The restructured mission will benefit directly and indirectly farmers as well as

local artisans and associated personnel engaged in bamboo sector including

associated industries.

It will directly benefit about one lakh farmers as it has proposed to bring about

one lakh ha area under plantation.

It is expected to establish about 4000 treatment and product development units

and bring more than 100000 ha area under plantation.

The restructured mission will focus on development of bamboo in limited

states where it has social, commercial and economical advantage.



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IMPACT:

The bamboo plantation will contribute in optimizing farm productivity and

income thereby enhancing livelihood opportunities of small and marginal

farmers including landless and women as well as provide quality material to

industry.

The restructured mission will serve as potential instrument for enhancing

income of farmers and also contribute towards climate resilience and

environmental benefits.

National Bamboo Mission (NBM)

NBM, a Centrally Sponsored Scheme was started in 2006-07. aims to promote

growth of bamboo sector through area based regionally differentiated strategy.

• Increase coverage area under bamboo in potential areas, with improved

varieties to enhance yields.

• Promote marketing of bamboo and bamboo based handicrafts.

• Establish convergence and synergy among stake-holders for the

development of bamboo.

• Promote, develop and disseminate technologies through seamless blend of

traditional wisdom and modern scientific knowledge.

• Generate employment opportunities for skilled and unskilled persons,

especially unemployed youths.

The NBM mainly emphasized on propagation and cultivation of bamboo, with

limited efforts on processing, product development and value addition. There is

weak linkage between farmers (producers) and industry. The restructured

mission addresses the complete value chain for growth of the bamboo sector.



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MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE



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NATIONAL MISSION ON SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE

National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) has been formulated for

enhancing agricultural productivity especially in rainfed areas focusing on

integrated farming, water use efficiency, soil health management and synergizing

resource conservation.

OBJECTIVES

1. To make agriculture more productive, sustainable, remunerative and

climate resilient by promoting location specific Integrated/Composite

Farming Systems.

2. To conserve natural resources through appropriate soil and moisture

conservation measures.

3. To adopt comprehensive soil health management practices based on soil

fertility maps, soil test based application of macro & micro nutrients,

judicious use of fertilizers etc.

4. To optimize utilization of water resources through efficient water

management to expand coverage for achieving ‘more crop per drop’



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5. To develop capacity of farmers & stakeholders, in conjunction with

other on - going Missions e.g. National Mission on Agriculture Extension

& Technology, National Food Security Mission, National Initiative for

Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) etc., in the domain of climate

change adaptation and mitigation measures;

MISSION INTERVENTIONS

NMSA has following four major programme components or activities:

RAINFED AREA DEVELOPMENT (RAD)

RAD adopts an area based approach for development and conservation of

natural resources along with farming systems. This component has been

formulated in a ‘watershed plus framework’, i.e., to explore potential utilization

of natural resources through watershed development and soil conservation

activities /interventions under MGNREGS, NWDPRA, RVP&FPR, RKVY,

IWMP etc.,

This component introduces appropriate farming systems by integrating multiple

components of agriculture such as crops, horticulture, livestock, fishery,

forestry with agro based income generating activities and value addition.

Besides, soil test/soil health card based nutrient management practices,

farmland development, resource conservation and crop selection conducive to

local agro climatic condition are also promoted under this component.

A cluster based approach of 100 hectare or more (contiguous or non contiguous

in difficult terrain with close proximity in a village/adjoining villages) may be

adopted to derive noticeable impact of convergence and encourage local

participation and for future replication of the model in larger areas.

ON FARM WATER MANAGEMENT (OFWM)

OFWM focuses primarily on enhancing water use efficiency by promoting

efficient on - farm water management technologies and equipment. This not

only focuses on application efficiency but, in conjunction with RAD component,

also will emphasize on effective harvesting & management of rainwater.

Assistance will be extended for adopting water conservation technologies,

efficient delivery and distribution systems etc.



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• To conserve water on farm itself, farm ponds may be dug using

MGNREGA funds and earth moving machinery (to the extent manual

digging under MGNREGA is not feasible)

SOIL HEALTH MANAGEMENT (SHM)

SHM aims at promoting location as well as crop specific sustainable soil

health management including residue management, organic farming

practices by way of creating and linking soil fertility maps with macro - micro

nutrient management, Judicious application of fertilizers and minimizing the soil

erosion/degradation.

• Besides, this component will also provide support to reclamation of

problem soils (acid/alkaline/saline).

CLIMATE CHANGE AND SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE

This provides creation of Scientific Establishments and dissemination of climate

change related information and knowledge by way of piloting climate change

adaptation/mitigation research/model projects in the domain of climate smart

sustainable management practices and integrated farming system suitable to local

agro - climatic conditions.

DRAWBACKS OF NMSA

India's National Mission of Sustainable Agriculture structurally is very good and

it can identify the challenges faced by the agriculture in India. But the provision

and strategies of the mission are drawn from the past policies. There are few

drawbacks of the mission which is given below:

1. Proposed provision and strategies are highly extensive which is only targeting

the big farmers and rest are remaining vulnerable.

2. Sustainable Agriculture is based on an understanding of ecosystem services,

the study of relationships between organisms and their environment. But the

proposed strategies of the mission given importance of water and largely ignored

the usage of chemical fertilizers. The use of chemical fertilizer required more

irrigation as compare to the organic farming.

3. The mission is lacked by the adequate framework to meet the climate change

especially challenges faced by agriculture due to the climate change.



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PM FASAL BIMA YOJANA:

OBJECTIVES

1. To provide insurance coverage and financial support to the farmers in the

event of natural calamities, pests & diseases.

2. To stabilise the income of farmers to ensure their continuance in farming.

3. To encourage farmers to adopt innovative and modern agricultural

practices.

4. To ensure flow of credit to the agriculture sector.

SALIENT FEATURES

It replaced all other existing insurance schemes except the Restructured Weather-

Based Crop Insurance Scheme (uses weather parameters as proxy for crop yield

in compensating the cultivators for deemed crop loses)

• A uniform premium of only 2% to be paid by farmers for all Kharif

crops and 1.5% for all Rabi crops.



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• In case of annual commercial and horticultural crops, the premium to be

paid by farmers will be only 5%.

• There is no upper limit on Government subsidy so farmers will get claim

against full sum insured without any reduction.

• The difference between the premium paid by farmers and the actual

premium charged will be paid by the Centre and state government in the

ratio of 50:50.

• It is compulsory for loanee farmers availing crop loans for notified crops

in notified areas and voluntary for nonloanee farmers.

• Yield Losses: due to non-preventable risks, such as Natural Fire and

Lightning, Storm, Hailstorm, Cyclone, Typhoon, Tempest, Hurricane,

Tornado. Risks due to Flood, Inundation and Landslide, Drought, Dry

spells, Pests/ Diseases also will be covered.

• Post-harvest losses are also covered.

• Mandatory use of technology: Smart phones, drones etc., will be used to

capture and upload data of crop cutting to reduce the delays in claim

payment to farmers. Remote sensing will be used to reduce the number

of crop cutting experiments.

• The Scheme shall be implemented on an ‘Area Approach basis’.

Defined Area (i.e., unit area of insurance) is Village or above. It can be a Geo-

Fenced/Geo-mapped region having homogenous Risk Profile for the notified

crop.

Presently, 5 public sector insurers (Agriculture Insurance Company of India,

United India Insurance Company etc.) and 13 private insurance companies are

empanelled for implementation of the scheme.

Recently, states have been allowed to set up their own insurance companies for

implementing the scheme.



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PRADHAN MANTRI KRISHI SINCHAI YOJANA

OBJECTIVES

The broad objectives of PMKSY include

• Achieve convergence of investments in irrigation at the field level

(preparation of district level and, if required, sub district level water use

plans).

• Enhance the physical access of water on the farm and expand cultivable

area under assured irrigation (Har Khet ko pani).

• Integration of water source, distribution and its efficient use, to make

best use of water through appropriate technologies and practices.

• Improve on - farm water use efficiency to reduce wastage and increase

availability both in duration and extent.

• Enhance the adoption of precision - irrigation and other water saving

technologies (More crop per drop).

• Enhance recharge of aquifers and introduce sustainable water

conservation practices.

• Ensure the integrated development of rainfed areas using the watershed

approach towards soil and water conservation, regeneration of ground

water, arresting runoff, providing livelihood options and other NRM

activities.

• Promote extension activities relating to water harvesting, water

management and crop alignment for farmers and grass root level field

functionaries.

• Explore the feasibility of reusing treated municipal waste water for peri

- urban agriculture.

• Attract greater private investments in irrigation.



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PMKSY has the following programme components:

A. Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP)

• To focus on faster completion of ongoing Major and Medium Irrigation

including National Projects.

B. PMKSY (Har Khet ko Pani)

• Creation of new water sources through Minor Irrigation (both surface

and ground water)

• Repair, restoration and renovation of water bodies; strengthening

carrying capacity of traditional water sources, constructing rain water

harvesting structures (Jal Sanchay);

• Diversion of water from source of different location where it is plenty to

nearby water scarce areas, lift irrigation from water bodies/rivers at lower

elevation to supplement requirements beyond IWMP and MGNREGS

irrespective of irrigation command.



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• Creating and rejuvenating traditional water storage systems like Jal

Mandir (Gujarat); Khatri, Kuhl (H.P.); Zabo (Nagaland); Eri, Ooranis

(T.N.); Dongs (Assam); Katas, Bandhas (Odisha and M.P.) etc. at feasible

locations.

C. PMKSY (Per Drop More Crop)

• Promoting efficient water conveyance and precision water application

devices like drips, sprinklers, pivots, rain - guns in the farm (Jal Sinchan);

• Topping up of input cost particularly under civil construction beyond

permissible limit (40%), under MGNREGS for activities like lining inlet,

outlet, silt traps, distribution system etc.

• Construction of micro irrigation structures to supplement source

creation activities including tube wells and dug wells (in areas where

ground water is available and not under semi critical /critical /over

exploited category of development) which are not supported under AIBP,

PMKSY (Har Khet ko Pani), PMKSY (Watershed) and MGNREGS a s per

block/district irrigation plan.

• Secondary storage structures at tail end of canal system to store water

when available in abundance (rainy season) or from perennial sources like

streams for use during dry periods through effective on - farm water

management;



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• Water lifting devices like diesel/ electric/ solar pumpsets including

water carriage pipes, underground piping system.

• Extension activities for promotion of scientific moisture conservation

and agronomic measures including cropping alignment to maximise use

of available water including rainfall and minimise irrigation requirement.

• Capacity building, training and awareness campaign for encouraging

potential use water source through technological, agronomic and

management practices including community irrigation.

• Information Communication Technology (ICT) interventions through

NeGP - A to be made use in the field of water use efficiency, precision

irrigation technologies, on farm water management, crop alignment etc.

and also to do intensive monitoring of the Scheme.

D. PMKSY (Watershed Development)

• Effective management of runoff water and improved soil & moisture

conservation activities drainage line treatment, rain water harvesting, in -

situ moisture conservation and other allied activities on watershed basis.

• Converging with MGNREGS for creation of water source to full

potential in identified backward rainfed blocks including renovation of

traditional water bodies

NEERANCHAL NATIONAL WATERSHED PROJECT

OBJECTIVE

To further strengthen and provide technical assistance to the Watershed

Component of PMKSY i.e. Access to irrigation to every farm (Har Khet Ko Pani)

and efficient use of water (Per Drop More Crop)



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SALIENT FEATURES

• The project is assisted by World Bank.

• It will Bring about institutional changes in watershed and rainfed agricultural

management practices in India

• The project envisages to build systems that ensure watershed programmes and

rainfed irrigation management practices are better focused, more coordinated, and

have quantifiable results.

• To devise strategies for the sustainability of improved watershed

management practices in programme areas, even after the withdrawal of project

support

• Through the watershed plus approach, the project will improve livelihoods,

and incomes through forward linkages, on a platform of inclusiveness and local

participation.

PARAMPARAGAT KRISHI VIKAS YOJANA

OBJECTIVE

1. To promote commercial organic production through certified organic

farming.

2. Envisages pesticide residue free produce that will result in improved health

of a consumer.

3. To raise farmer's income and create potential market for traders.

4. To motivate the farmers for natural resource mobilization for input

production, and to Increase domestic production and certification of

organic produce by involving farmers.



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SALIENT FEATURES

“Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana” is an elaborated component of Soil Health

Management (SHM) under National Mission of Sustainable Agriculture

(NMSA).

Cluster Approach: Fifty or more farmers form a cluster having 50 acre land to

take organic farming. Each farmer will be provided Rs. 20000 per acre in three

years for seed to harvesting crops and to transport them to market.

• Government plans to form around 10 thousand clusters in three years

and cover an area of 5 Lakh hectares under organic farming.

COMPONENTS

Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) certification through cluster approach

- mobilization of farmers, form clusters, identification of land resources and

training on organic farming and PGS Certification and quality control.

Adoption of organic village for manure management and biological nitrogen

harvesting through cluster approach – action plan for Organic Farming,

Integrated Manure Management, Packing, Labelling and Branding of organic

products of cluster.



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NATIONAL AGRICULTURE MARKET

National Agriculture Market (NAM) is a pan-India electronic trading portal

which networks the existing APMC mandis to create a unified national market

for agricultural commodities.

The NAM Portal provides a single window service for all APMC related

information and services. This includes commodity arrivals & prices, buy & sell

trade offers, provision to respond to trade offers, among other services. While

material flow (agriculture produce) continue to happen through mandis, an online

market reduces transaction costs and information asymmetry.

Agriculture marketing is administered by the States as per their agri-marketing

regulations, under which, the State is divided into several market areas, each of

which is administered by a separate Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee

(APMC) which imposes its own marketing regulation (including fees).

This fragmentation of markets, even within the State, hinders free flow of agri

commodities from one market area to another and multiple handling of agri-

produce and multiple levels of mandi charges ends up escalating the prices for

the consumers without commensurate benefit to the farmer.



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NAM addresses these challenges by creating a unified market through online

trading platform, both, at State and National level and promotes uniformity,

streamlining of procedures across the integrated markets, removes information

asymmetry between buyers and sellers and promotes real time price

discovery, based on actual demand and supply, promotes transparency in auction

process, and access to a nationwide market for the farmer, with prices

commensurate with quality of his produce and online payment and availability of

better quality produce and at more reasonable prices to the consumer.

OBJECTIVES

• To promote genuine price discovery.

• Increases farmers options for sale and access to markets

• Liberal licensing of traders / buyers and commission agents. One license for a

trader valid across all markets in the State.

• Harmonisation of quality standards of agricultural produce

• Single point levy of market fees, i.e., on the first wholesale purchase from the

farmer.

• Provision of Soil Testing Laboratories in/ or near the selected mandi to facilitate

visiting farmers to access this facility in the mandi itself.



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IMPLEMENTATION

NAM is being deployed in selected 585 regulated wholesale markets in

States/UTs desirous of joining the e-platform.

Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) is operating the NAM as

the implementing agency with technical support from the Strategic Partner (SP).

Fund Allocation – The Scheme is being funded through AgriTech Infrastructure

Fund (AITF).

• The gradual integration of all the major mandis into NAM will ensure

common procedures for issue of licences, levy of fee and movement of

produce.

• New Features added to the scheme such as E-NAM Mobile App, BHIM

Payment facility, MIS dashboard for better analysis and insights, grievance

redressal mechanism for Mandi Secretaries and integration with Farmer

Database to ease the registration and identification process will further

strengthen e-NAM.

MISSION FOR INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT OF HORTICULTURE

Objective

• To Promote holistic development of Horticulture sector (including

bamboo & coconut) through area based regionally differentiated

strategies in consonance with comparative advantage of each state and

their diverse agro-climatic features.

• Encourage aggregation of farmers into groups such as FPOs.

• Enhance horticulture production, augment farmers income and

strengthen nutritional security.

• Improve productivity by ways of germplasm, planting material and

water use efficiency through micro-irrigation.

• Support skill development and create employment generation

opportunities.



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FEATURES

It is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme which was started from 2014-15 comprising

of following sub-schemes and areas of operation -

National Horticulture Mission: to promote holistic growth of horticulture sector

through an area based regionally differentiated strategies.

Horticulture Mission for North East & Himalayan States: It is a technology

mission which focuses on production of quality planting material, organic

farming, efficient water management etc.



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National Agro-forestry & Bamboo Mission: It aims to Promote the growth of

bamboo through an area based regionally differentiated strategy.

▪ Increase area under bamboo with improved varieties to enhance yields.

▪ Promote marketing of bamboo and bamboo-based handicrafts.

Strategy - Adopt end-to-end approach with backward and forward linkages.

Promote R&D technologies for cultivation and other activities with special

focus on cold chain infrastructure.

Improve productivity through diversification of crops, extension of technology

and increasing acreage of orchards etc.

Improve post-harvest management, value addition processing and marketing

infrastructure.

Promote FPOs and their links with Market aggregators and financial institutions.

Meticulous reporting and monitoring; data base generation, compilation and

analysis

Funding – Central government contributes 100% in North Easter States and 85%

in all other states while remaining 15% is contributed by state government.

PROJECT CHAMAN: In 2014, Project CHAMAN was launched which

envisages use of satellite remote sensing data along with Geographical

Information System (GIS) for generating action plans for horticultural

development.

1. It also provides data for area and production estimation of 7 horticultural

crops (Potato, Onion, Chilli, Mango, Banana and Citrus) in 12 major states.

2. CHAMAN also carries out research activities on horticultural crop

condition studies, diseases assessment and precision farming.

3. It will ensure development of digital inventory of all horticulture zones in

country.

4. It will help decide cold storage hubs and manage inflation through accurate

data of food stocks.



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RASHTRIYA KRISHI VIKAS YOJANA

Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana is a State Plan Scheme of Additional Central

Assistance launched in August 2007 as a part of the 11th Five Year Plan by the

Government of India.

Launched under the aegis of the National Development Council, it seeks to

achieve 4% annual growth in agriculture through development of

Agriculture and its allied sectors.

The scheme is essentially a State Plan Scheme that seeks to provide the States

and Territories of India with the autonomy to draw up plans for increased

public investment in Agriculture by incorporating information on local

requirements, geographical/climatic conditions, available natural resources/

technology and cropping patterns in their districts so as to significantly increase

the productivity of Agriculture and its allied sectors and eventually maximize the

returns of farmers in agriculture and its allied sectors.

Objectives

1. To ensure that agriculture for the State and districts are prepared based on agro-

climatic conditions, availability of technology and natural resources

2. To make sure that local needs/crops/priorities are better reflected in the

agricultural plan of the State



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3. To reduce yield gaps in important crops through focused interventions

4. Maximisation of returns to farmers in agriculture and allied sectors

5. To bring about quantifiable changes in production and productivity of various

components of agriculture and allied sectors by addressing them in a holistic

manner.

The RKVY – Raftaar covers all sectors such as Crop Cultivation, Horticulture,

Animal Husbandry and Fisheries, Dairy Development, Agricultural Research

and Education, Forestry and Wildlife, Plantation and Agricultural Marketing,

Food Storage and Warehousing, Soil and Water Conservation, Agricultural

Financial Institutions, other Agricultural Programmes and Cooperation.

• The financial centre and states share expenditure in this scheme on 60:40

ratio. This ratio is 90:10 between North Eastern States and Himalayan

States.

The RKVY have nine sub-schemes:

1. Extending Green Revolution to the Eastern Region of the Country.

This sub-scheme targets improvement in the rice based cropping systems of

Assam, West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand, eastern Uttar Pradesh and

Chhattisgarh.

The programme of “Bringing Green Revolution to Eastern India (BGREI)”

was launched in 2010-11 to address the constraints limiting the productivity

of “rice based cropping systems” in eastern India comprising seven (7) States

namely; Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Eastern Uttar Pradesh

(Purvanchal) and West Bengal.

Objectives

1. To increase production & productivity of rice and wheat by adopting

latest crop production technologies;

2. To promote cultivation in rice fallow area to increase cropping intensity

and income of the farmers;



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3. To create water harvesting structures and efficient utilization of water

potential; and

4. To promote Post harvest technology and marketing support.

2. Integrated Development of 60,000 Pulses Villages in Rainfed Areas

This sub-scheme aims at attaining self-sufficiency in production of pulses

within the next three years.

3. Promotion of Oil Palm

It seeks to achieve a major breakthrough, special attention will be paid to oil

palm as it is one of the most efficient oil crops.

4. Initiative on Vegetable Clusters

Growing demand for vegetables will be met by a robust increase in the

productivity and market linkage. For this purpose, an efficient supply chain will

be established, to make quality vegetables available at competitive prices.

5. Nutri-cereals

To promote balanced nutrition, higher production of bajra, jowar, ragi and other

millets will be promoted. Additionally, projects will be taken up to upgrade

their processing technologies and create awareness regarding their health

benefits. This initiative would provide market linked production support to ten

lakh millet farmers in the arid and semi-arid regions of the country.

6. National Mission for Protein Supplements

This Mission is being launched to take up activities to promote animal based

protein production through livestock development, dairy farming, piggery, goat

rearing and fisheries in selected blocks.

7. Accelerated Fodder Development Programme

To accelerate the production of fodder through intensive promotion of

technologies to ensure its availability throughout the year. It will benefit farmers

in 25,000 villages.



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8. Rainfed Area Development Programme

This programme aims at improving productivity of crops in rainfed areas.

9. Saffron Mission

This programme aims at revival of saffron cultivation in Jammu & Kashmir.

SOIL HEALTH CARD SCHEME

A SHC is meant to give each farmer soil nutrient status of his/her holding and

advice him/her on the dosage of fertilizers and also the needed soil amendments,

that s/he should apply to maintain soil health in the long run.

SHC is a printed report that a farmer will be handed over for each of his

holdings.

It will contain the status of his soil with respect to 12 parameters, namely

• N, P, K (Macro-nutrients)

• S (Secondary- nutrient)

• Zn, Fe, Cu, Mn, Bo (Micro - nutrients) and

• pH, EC, OC (Physical parameters).



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Based on this, the SHC will also indicate fertilizer recommendations and soil

amendment required for the farm.

Objective

• To issue soil health cards every 3 years, to all farmers of the country, so as

to provide a basis to address nutrient deficiencies in fertilization practices.

• To strengthen functioning of Soil Testing Laboratories (STLs) through

capacity building, involvement of agriculture students and effective linkage with

Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)/State Agricultural Universities

(SAUs).

• To diagnose soil fertility related constraints with standardized procedures

for sampling uniformly across states.

• To build capacities of district and state level staff and of progressive

farmers for promotion of nutrient management practices.

NATIONAL FOOD SECURITY MISSION

India, with its vast population and erratic rainfall patterns has been forced to

launch NFSM, which aims to use technology with new developed hybrid and

high-yielding seeds, to increase food production and in turn, enhance food

security.

As per the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) 2016-17 Report, they

have developed 310 new high-yielding/ hybrid varieties of field crops, 51

horticultural crops and 12,500 tonnes of breeder seeds, all to be transferred to

farmers on mission mode.

Objective

Increase food security by stepping up the overall food production and food stocks

held by the government; ensure the nation remains self-sufficient and prices

remain under check.



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National Food Security Mission (NFSM) is a Central Scheme of GOI launched

in 2007 for 5 years to increase production and productivity of wheat, rice and

pulses on a sustainable basis so as to ensure food security of the country.

The aim is to bridge the yield gap in respect of these crops through dissemination

of improved technologies and farm management practices.

MAJOR COMPONENTS OF NFSM

1. National Food Security Mission – Rice

2. National Food Security Mission – Wheat

3. National Food Security Mission – Pulses



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4. National Food Security Mission – Coarse cereals

5. National Food Security Mission – Commercial crops

CHALLENGES BEFORE THE GOVERNMENT

The biggest threat to the success of NFSM is the high dependence of farmers

on monsoon rains. This has increased the risk and financial stress for farmers

and the only ways to overcome this and step up food production are:

• To increase agricultural land under irrigation

• Develop water catchment areas

• Improve water management and conservation through innovative use of

technology

• Encourage farmers to adopt ‘More Crop Per Drop’ techniques

• Step up developing and subsidised distribution of high-yielding/ hybrid

seeds

• Develop more productive and low-cost farming equipment and tools

• Make more electricity available to farmers and at subsidised rates

• Encourage higher adoption of crop insurance by farmers

• Step up bank financing at subsidised rates

• Increase farmer education and training by leveraging IT and telecom.



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BIOTECH KISAN SCHEME

Biotech-Krishi Innovation Science Application Network (Biotech-KISAN) is a

Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology initiative

that empowers farmers, especially women farmers.

It aims to understand the problems of water, soil, seed and market faced by the

farmers and provide simple solutions to them.

Objectives

Biotech-Krishi Innovation Science Application Network (Biotech-KISAN) is

being implemented in 15 agro-climatic zones of India in phased manner with the

following objectives:

• Linking available science and technology to the farm by first

understanding the problem of the local farmer and provide solutions to

those problems.



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• The working together, in close conjunction, of scientists and farmers is

the only way to improve the working conditions of small and marginal

farmers.

This programme aims to work with small and marginal farmers especially the

woman farmer for better agriculture productivity through scientific intervention

and evolving best farming practices in the Indian context.

• Connects Globally: Biotech-KISAN will connect farmers to best global

practices; training workshops will be held in India and other countries.

Farmers and Scientists will partner across the globe.

• Impacts Locally: The scheme is targeted towards the least educated

marginalised farmer; Scientists will spend time on farms and link

communication tools to soil, water seed and market. The aim is to

understand individual problems of the smallholding farmers and provide

ready solutions.

• Across India. Biotech KISAN will connect farmers with science in the 15

agro-climatic zones of the country in a manner, which constantly links

problems with available solutions.

• Hubs and Spoke. In each of these 15 regions, a Farmer organisation will

be the hub connected to different science labs, Krishi Vigyan Kendra and

State Agriculture Universities co-located in the region. The hub will reach

out to the farmers in the region and connect them to scientists and

institutions.

• Farmers as Innovators. The hub will have tinkering lab, communication

cell and will run year-long training, awareness, workshops and which will

act as education demonstration units to encourage grass root innovation in

the young as well as women farmers.

• Communicating Best Practices There will be a communication set-up to

make radio and TV programmes for local stations, as well as daily

connectivity through social media.



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COMPONENTS OF THE PROGRAMME

1. The Hub: Establishment of Biotech - KISAN Hub in each of 15 agro-

climatic zones of the country under the leadership of a champion, who will

act as a Facilitator. Each Hub will create a network by developing strong

linkages with top quality scientific institutions / State Agri cultural

Universities (SAUs) / Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) / existing state

agriculture extension services / system and other Farmers’ organizations in

the region as well as linkages with leading international institutions /

organizations.

2. Partnering Institutes: The activities of the partnering institute will

include:

• Conduct training programmes for farmers in laboratories of

scientific research institutions.

• Training programmes for scientists in agricultural farms

3. Research projects: If scientists during the course of these programmes

identify a problem, which would require larger funding; it would be

possible for them to submit the research project proposal to the Programme

for additional funding. The proposal will be considered by the relevant

Expert Committee / Task Force of the Programme and based on the genesis

of the project and the solution hypothesised, additional funds may be

provided.



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4. International Training: Short - term Training (STT) Programmes will be

developed by DBT in partnership with international organisations/

universities, where Farmers will be exposed to best global farm

management and practices.

PANDIT DEEN DAYAL UPADHAYAY UNNAT KRISHI SHIKSHA

YOJANA

• To build skilled Human Resource at village level relevant to national needs

towards organic farming and sustainable agriculture.

• To Provide rural India with professional support in the field of Organic

Farming/ Natural Farming/ Rural Economy/ Sustainable Agriculture.

• This scheme, being implemented by ICAR, was launched in 2016 to

include trained farmers of the field of Organic Farming/Natural Farming/Cow

Based Economy for training and capacity building of other farmers of nearby

areas.

• Under this scheme 100 training centers were proposed to be opened for

agricultural education.

• Training Centres will be selected on the basis of farmers who have already

attended training course conducted under Unnat Bharat Abhiyan earlier or are

having working/handling of natural farming in their own land plus must know all

basics, fundamental, theory and practices of natural farming

ARYA PROJECT – “Attracting and Retaining Youth in Agriculture”

Objectives

• To attract and empower the Youth in Rural Areas to take up various

Agriculture, allied and service sector enterprises for sustainable income and

gainful employment in selected districts.



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• To enable the Farm Youth to establish network groups to take up resource

and capital intensive activities like processing, value addition and marketing.

• To demonstrate functional linkage with different institutions and

stakeholders for convergence of opportunities available under various

schemes/program for sustainable development of youth.

• It is implemented through Krishi Vikas Kendra in one district from each

State. KVKs will involve the Agricultural Universities and ICAR Institutes as

Technology Partners.



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• In one district, 200-300 Rural youths will be identified for their skill

development in entrepreneurial activities and establishment of related

microenterprise units.

• At KVKs also one or two enterprise units will be established so that they

serve as entrepreneurial training units for farmers.

MINISTRY OF CIVIL AVIATION

UDE DESH KA AAM NAAGRIK (UDAN)

Objectives

1. Providing connectivity to un-served and under-served airports of the

country through revival of existing air-strips and airports.

2. To develop the regional aviation market

3. To make flying affordable.

UDAN will be applicable on flights which cover between 200 km and 800 km

with no lower limit set for hilly, remote, island and security sensitive regions.

The selected airline operator would have to provide a minimum of 9 and a

maximum of 40 UDAN Seats (subsidized rates) on the UDAN Flights for

operations through fixed wing aircraft and a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 13

Seats on the Flights for operations through helicopters.

The fare for a one hour journey of appx. 500 km on a fixed wing aircraft or for a

30 minute journey on a helicopter would now be capped at Rs. 2,500, with

proportionate pricing for routes of different stage lengths / flight duration.

This would be achieved through:

• a financial stimulus in the form of concessions from Central and

State governments and airport operators and

• a Viability Gap Funding to the interested airlines to kick-off

operations from such airports so that the passenger fares are kept

affordable.



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A Regional Connectivity Fund would be created to meet the viability gap

funding requirements under the scheme. The RCF levy per departure will be

applied to certain domestic flights.

The partner State Governments (other than North Eastern States and Union

Territories where contribution will be 10 %) would contribute a 20% share to this

fund. In addition to VGF, the Centre will also provide concessions such as 2

percent excise on Value Added Tax (VAT) and service tax at 1/10th the rate and

liberal code sharing with domestic as well as international airlines for RCS

airports.



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UDAN has a unique market-based model to develop regional connectivity. The

Airports Authority of India is the implementing authority of the scheme.

DIGI YATRA

The Ministry of Civil Aviation under the proposed “Digi Yatra” initiative is

looking forward to make boarding pass and security check-ins digital at

airports using Aadhaar and mobile phones.

Under this initiative, a digital mode for airport entry and verification of

passengers would be used. The move is aimed to ease the security and boarding

procedure. In a sum, the initiative aims to make the whole air travel

experience completely digital.

All aviation stakeholders – airlines, airport operators, security and immigration

agencies, cab operators, retail establishment and others are working to devise

digital standards which can enable seamless exchange of data and information.



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The platform will be built on 4 key pillars, like Connected Passengers,

Connected Airports, Connected Flying and Connected Systems.

MINISTRY OF COMMERCE

START-UP INDIA

Objectives

To build a strong ecosystem for nurturing innovation and startups in the country

which will drive economic growth and generate large scale employment

opportunities.

What is a Startup?

As per the Ministry of Commerce and Industry

A ‘Startup’ is an entity:

1. If it has been five years since the date of its incorporation/registration,

2. If its turnover for any of the financial years has not exceeded Rupees 25

crore, and



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3. It is working towards innovation, development, deployment or

commercialization of new products, processes or services driven by

technology or intellectual property.

START-UP ACTION PLAN

The Action Plan proposes a 19-point action list which will enable setting up of

incubation centres, easier patent filing, tax exemption on profits, setting up a

Rs.10,000 crore corpus fund, ease of setting-up of business, a faster exit

mechanism, among others.



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1. Compliance regime based on self certification: This self-certification will

apply to laws like payment of gratuity, contract labour, employees

provident fund, water and air pollution acts.

2. Startup India hub: A startup India hub will be created as a single point of

contact for the entire startup ecosystem to enable knowledge exchange and

access to funding.

3. Simplifying the startup process: A startup will be to able to set up by just

filling up a short form through a mobile app and online portal.

4. Patent protection: Government will promote awareness and adoption of

Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) by startups and help them protect and

commercialise IPRs.

5. Funds of funds with a corpus of Rs 10,000 crore: In order to provide

funding support to startups, the government will set up a fund with an

initial corpus of Rs 2,500 crore and a total corpus of Rs 10,000 crore over

four years. The fund would be managed by private professionals drawn

from the industry while LIC will be a co-investor in the fund.

6. Credit Guarantee Fund: The credit guarantee fund for start-ups would

help flow of venture debt from the banking system to start-ups by

standing guarantee against risks.

7. Exemption from Capital Gains Tax: Currently, investments by venture

capital funds in startups are exempt from this law. Now, the same is being

extended to investments made by incubators in startups.

8. Income Tax exemption for startups: Income tax exemption to startups

announced for three years.

9. Tax exemption on investments above Fair Market Value.

10. Startup fests: Innovation core programs for students in 5 lakh schools.

There will also be an annual incubator grand challenge to create world class

incubators.

11. Launch of Atal Innovation Mission: Atal Innovation Mission started to

give an impetus to innovation and encourage the talent among the people.

12. Setting up of 35 new incubators in institutions: PPP model being

considered for 35 new incubators, 31 innovation centres at national

institutes.

13. Setting up of 7 new research parks: Government shall set up seven new

research parks – six in IITs, one in IISc with an initial investment of Rs

100 crore each.



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14. Promote entrepreneurship in biotechnology: Five new bio clusters, 50

new bio incubators, 150 technology transfer offices and 20 bio connect

offices will be established.

15. Innovation focused programmes for students: There will be innovation

core programs for students in 5 lakh schools.

16. Panel of facilitators to provide legal support and assist in filing of patent

application.

17. 80 per cent rebate on filing patent applications by startups.

18. Relaxed norms of public procurement for startups.

19. Faster exits for startups.

Benefits of the scheme

1. It will help in economic growth of the country.

2. It will create more employment opportunities in India.

3. Along with Make in India initiative, it will help in the development of

entrepreneurship culture in India.

CHALLENGES AND CRITICISMS

1. Tax exemptions are not provided for angel investors, seed capital funds

and stock options offered by Startups to employees.

2. Mindset of lenders who do not consider start-up entrepreneurs to be good

borrowers.

3. Tax laws need more clarifications and simplification.

4. Forex regulations are a major reason for re-domiciling.

5. Fund set up by government is not enough to cater the needs of the all

sections of the entrepreneurs.

6. Conducive policy environment should not be restricted just to start-ups but

it should be extended to all businesses.



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MAKE IN INDIA SCHEME

Objectives

To transform India into a global design and manufacturing hub.

The initiative basically promises the investors – both domestic and overseas –

a conducive environment to turn 125 crore population strong-India a

manufacturing hub and something that will also create job opportunities.

The scheme envisages among other things

1. an increase in manufacturing sector growth to 12-14 % per annum over the

medium term,

2. increase in the share of manufacturing in the country’s Gross Domestic

Product from 16% to 25% by 2022 and

3. importantly to create 100 million additional jobs by 2022 in the

manufacturing sector alone.

These are quite highly ambitious targets given the background that the

manufacturing sector in India, which accounts for fourth-fifth of the total output,

grew a meagre 3.3 per cent in January 2010.



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The targets also includes the following

• Creation of appropriate skill sets among rural migrants and the urban poor

for inclusive growth.

• An increase in domestic value addition and technological depth in

manufacturing.

• Enhancing the global competitiveness of the Indian manufacturing sector.

• Ensuring sustainability of growth, particularly with regard to environment.

The country is expected to rank amongst the world’s top three growth economies

and amongst the top three manufacturing destinations by as early as 2020.

CHALLENGES

Creating healthy business environment will be possible only when the

administrative machinery is efficient. India has been very stringent when it

comes to procedural and regulatory clearances.

A business-friendly environment will only be created if India can signal easier

approval of projects and set up hasstle-free clearance mechanism. India should

also be ready to tackle elements that adversely affect competitiveness of

manufacturing.

India’s small and medium-sized industries can play a big role in making the

country take the next big leap in manufacturing. India should be more focused

towards novelty and innovation for these sectors. The government has to chart

out plans to give special sops and privileges to these sectors.

In particular, chronic deficiencies in transportation and power impose

prohibitive costs and lower business competitiveness. Multiple enterprise surveys

have identified electricity as the biggest constraint. Further, India lags behind on

every measure of transport connectivity. Though there have been considerable

recent successes spurred by private participation, much needs to be done.

However, introduction of UDAY scheme is a good step in this regard.

Sound macroeconomic policies are necessary to create a low-inflation, low-

interest rate and high-growth environment that is essential for the country’s global

manufacturing competitiveness.



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In any case, instead of big-bang reforms, sustained efforts in multiple directions,

which cumulatively generate large effects, are required to relax these constraints

so that we can realise the goal of making in India.

MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATION

BHARAT NET PROJECT

To provide broadband connectivity to Gram Panchayats through optical fibre

network.

• It aims to provide a minimum bandwidth of 100 Mbps to each of the 2.5

lakhs Gram Panchayats.

• It will facilitate delivery of e-governance, e-health, e-education, e-banking,

public internet access, G2C, B2B, P2P, B2C etc., weather, agricultural and

other services to rural India.



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• It is the new brand name of NOFN (National Optic Fibre Network) which

is being implemented in three phases.

First phase – Envisaged to provide one lakh gram panchayats with broadband

connectivity by laying underground optic fibre cable lines with deadline of

31st December 2017, which was achieved.

Second Phase – It will provide connectivity to all 2,50,500 Panchayats using

an optimal miz of underground fibre, fibre over powerlines, radio and satellite

media to be completed by March 2019.

Third Phase – It will be implemented from 2019 to 2023 during which state-

of-theart, future-proof network, including fiber between districts and blocks,

with ring topology would be created.

• It is being implemented by a special purpose vehicle named Bharat

Broadband Network Ltd. set up under Companies Act.

• BSNL, Railtel and Power Grid are executing agencies for the project in

the ratio of 70:15:15.

It is being funded by the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF).

WHAT IS UNIVERSAL SERVICE OBLIGATION FUND?

• Established in 2002, the USOF is headed by the USOF Administrator who

reports to the Secretary, Department of Telecommunications (DoT).

• The Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Act, 2003 gave statutory status to the

Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF)

• The USOF’s main aim is to provide universal telecom services and

ensure that even the unconnected areas in the country reap the

benefits of inclusive development.

The main functions of the USOF are:

• To provide widespread and non-discriminatory access to quality ICT

services at affordable prices to people in rural and remote areas.



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• To provide an effective and powerful linkage to the hinterland thereby

mainstreaming the population of rural and remote parts of the country.

How does it work?

• The funds come from Universal Service Levy (USL).

• The USL is charged from all the telecom operators on their Adjusted

Gross Revenue (AGR).

• These are then deposited into the Consolidated Fund of India, and prior

parliamentary approval is required for dispatching.

MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES

NATIONAL MONSOON MISSION

Monsoon has always been critical for India’s economy. The current prediction

capabilities are not adequate.

The mission will support focused research by national and international research

groups with definitive objectives and deliverables to improve models in the short,

medium, extended and seasonal range scales through setting up of a framework

for generating dynamical forecasts and improving skill of forecasts.

The mission will also support observational programs that will result in better

understanding of the processes.

Objectives:

• To improve Seasonal and Intra-seasonal Monsoon Forecast

• To improve Medium Range Forecast.

Participating Institutions:

1. Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune

2. National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecast, Noida

3. India Meteorological Department, New Delhi



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FEATURES

For Long range forecasting (upto a season), American model called Climate

Forecast System (CFS) is used, which is a coupled-Ocean forecasting system

i.e. it combines data from ocean, atmosphere and land.

For short to medium range (upto 20 days) Unified Model (UM) developed by

UK is used.

In its phase I, IMD was able to develop high resolution-coupled dynamical

prediction system (seasonal and extended time scale). For the first time, IMD

used the Monsoon Mission dynamical model to prepare operational seasonal

forecast of 2017 monsoon rainfall over India.

The Ministry has now launched the Monsoon Mission Phase II program, for

next 3 years (2017-2020) with emphasis on predicting extremes and

development of applications based on monsoon forecasts.



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MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS & IT

PRADHAN MANTRI GRAMIN DIGITAL SAKSHARTA ABHIYAN

The Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA) being

initiated under Digital India Programme would cover 6 crore households in

rural areas to make them digitally literate.

As per the 71st NSSO Survey on Education 2014, only 6% of rural households

have a computer. This highlights that more than 15 crore rural households (@

94% of 16.85 crore households) do not have computers and a significant number

of these households are likely to be digitally illiterate.

1. It will empower the citizens to operate computer or digital access devices,

thus, enabling them to use IT and related services especially Digital

Payments.

2. It aims to bridge digital divide by targeting the rural population including

marginalised sections (SC, ST, BPL, women, differently-abled persons and

minorities).

3. Implementing Agency – CSC e-Governance Services India Ltd., special

purpose vehicle incorporated under the Companies Act 1956.

4. The identification of the beneficiaries would be carried out by CSC-SPV

in active collaboration with District e-Governance Society, Gram

Panchayats, and Block Development Officers.



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INTENDED BENEFICIARIES

• Citizens of India between the age group of 14 to 60 years.

• Priority to Non smartphone users, Antyodaya households, college drop-

outs,

• Participants of the adult literacy mission and Digitally illiterate school

students from class 9th to 12th where Computer/ICT Training is not available

in their schools.

ELECTRONICS DEVELOPMENT FUND

To achieve “Net Zero Imports” by 2020 as envisaged in digital india scheme.

It is set up as a “Fund of Funds” to participate in professionally managed

“Daughter Funds” which in turn will provide risk capital to companies developing

new technologies in the area of electronics, nano-electronics and Information

Technology (IT).

The EDF will also help attract venture funds, angel funds and seed funds

towards R&D and innovation in the specified areas.

It will help create a battery of Daughter funds and Fund Managers who will be

seeking good start-ups (potential winners) and selecting them based on

professional considerations.

CANBANK Venture Capital Funds Ltd. (CVCFL) is the Fund Manager for EDF.

MODIFIED SPECIAL INCENTIVE PACKAGE SCHEME

The Modified Special Incentive Package Scheme (M-SIPS) encourages

investments in the Electronics System Design and Manufacturing sector in

India.

The Government has approved Special incentive package to promote large-

scale manufacturing in the Electronic System Design and Manufacturing

(ESDM) sector. The scheme is called the Modified Special Incentive Package

Scheme (M-SIPS).



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Under M-SIPS, the Government will provide subsidy of 20 percent on capital

investments in special economic zones (SEZs) and 25 percent on capital

investments in non-SEZs for individual companies.

The incentives would be available for 29 category of ESDM products including

telecom, IT hardware, consumer electronics, medical electronics, automotive

electronics, solar photovoltaic, LEDs, LCDs, strategic electronics, avionics,

industrial electronics, nano-electronics, semiconductor chips and chip

components, other electronic components.

Units across the value chain starting from raw materials including assembly,

testing, packaging and accessories of these categories of products are included.



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BHARAT INTERFACE FOR MONEY

Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) is an initiative to enable fast, secure,

reliable cashless payments through your mobile phone.

BHIM is based on Unified Payment Interface (UPI) to facilitate e-payments

directly through bank.

It is interoperable with other Unified Payment Interface (UPI) applications, and

bank accounts.

Unified Payment Interface (UPI) is an instant payment system built over the

IMPS infrastructure and allows you to instantly transfer money between any two

parties bank accounts.

BHIM is developed by the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI).

SERVICES OFFERED

Through Bharat Interface for Money you can make following type of transaction

1. Request or Send Money via Payment Address

2. Send Money to Aadhaar Number

3. Request or Send Money to Mobile number



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4. Send Money through MMID, Mobile No.

5. Send Money through IFSC code, Account No.

6. In addition, you can use the scan and pay option for Merchant payments.

OTHER SCHEMES UNDER MeitY

DIGISHALA

It aims to promote cashless transactions post-demonetisation, especially in rural

and semi-urban areas.

CYBER SURAKSHIT BHARAT INITIATIVE

1. It has been launched by MeitY, in association with National e-Governance

Division (NeGD) and industry partners. It is first public-private partnership

of its kind and will leverage the expertise of the IT industry in

cybersecurity.

2. The founding partners include leading IT companies such as Microsoft,

Intel, WIPRO. Its knowledge partners include Cert-In, NIC, NASSCOM

and consultancy firms Deloitte and EY.

3. It will be operated on three principles of Awareness, Education and

Enablement.

4. It aims to spread awareness about cybercrime and build capacity of Chief

Information Security Officers (CISOs) and frontline IT staff across all

government departments.



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DIGILOCKER

1. It is a platform for issuance and verification of documents &

certificates in a digital way, thus promoting paperless governance.

2. Indian citizens who sign up for a DigiLocker account get a dedicated cloud

storage space that is linked to their Aadhaar (UIDAI) number.

3. Organizations that are registered with Digital Locker can push electronic

copies of documents and certificates (e.g. driving license, Voter ID,

School certificates) directly into citizens lockers.

4. Citizens can also upload scanned copies of their legacy documents in their

accounts which can be electronically signed using the eSign facility.



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UMANG

Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance is developed by Ministry

of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and National e-Governance

Division (NeGD) to drive Mobile Governance in India.

1. It intends to provide major services offered by Central and State

Government departments, Local bodies and other utility services from

private organizations.

2. It provides a unified approach where citizens can install one application to

avail multiple government services.

3. Its service has been made available on multiple channels like mobile

application, web, IVR and SMS which can be accessed through

smartphones, feature phones, tablets and desktops.

MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND

CLIMATE CHANGE

NATIONAL ACTION PLAN ON CLIMATE CHANGE

The Action Plan was released on 30th June 2008 effectively pulls together a

number of the government’s existing national plans on water, renewable

energy, energy efficiency agriculture and others – bundled with additional ones –

into a set of eight missions.

The Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change is in charge of the overall

implementation of the plan. Emphasizing the overriding priority of maintaining

high economic growth rates to raise living standards, the plan “identifies

measures that promote development objectives while also yielding co-

benefits for addressing climate change effectively.”

It says these national measures would be more successful with assistance from

developed countries, and pledges that India’s per capita greenhouse gas emissions

“will at no point exceed that of developed countries even as we pursue our

development objectives.”



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NATIONAL MISSIONS



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NATIONAL SOLAR MISSION:

The NAPCC aims to promote the development and use of solar energy for

power generation and other uses with the ultimate objective of making solar

competitive with fossil-based energy options.

The plan includes:

• Specific goals for increasing use of solar thermal technologies in urban

areas, industry, and commercial establishments;

• a goal of increasing production of photo-voltaic to 1000 MW/year; and

• a goal of deploying at least 1000 MW of solar thermal power

generation.

• Other objectives include the establishment of a solar research centre,

increased international collaboration on technology development,

strengthening of domestic manufacturing capacity, and increased

government funding and international support.

NATIONAL MISSION FOR ENHANCED ENERGY EFFICIENCY:

Building on the Energy Conservation Act 2001, the plan recommends:

Mandating specific energy consumption decreases in large energy-consuming

industries, with a system for companies to trade energy-savings certificates;

Energy incentives, including reduced taxes on energy-efficient appliances.

NATIONAL MISSION ON SUSTAINABLE HABITAT:

To promote energy efficiency as a core component of urban planning, the

plan calls for: Extending the existing Energy Conservation Building Code;

• A greater emphasis on urban waste management and recycling,

including power production from waste;

• Strengthening the enforcement of automotive fuel economy standards

and using pricing measures to encourage the purchase of efficient vehicles;

and Incentives for the use of public transportation.



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NATIONAL WATER MISSION:

With water scarcity projected to worsen as a result of climate change, the plan

sets a goal of a 20% improvement in water use efficiency through pricing

and other measures.

NATIONAL MISSION FOR SUSTAINING THE HIMALAYAN

ECOSYSTEM:

The plan aims to conserve biodiversity, forest cover, and other ecological

values in the Himalayan region, where glaciers that are a major source of India’s

water supply are projected to recede as a result of global warming.

NATIONAL MISSION FOR A “GREEN INDIA”:

Goals include the afforestation of 6 million hectares of degraded forest lands

and expanding forest cover from 23% to 33% of India’s territory.

NATIONAL MISSION FOR SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE:

The plan aims to support climate adaptation in agriculture through the

development of climate-resilient crops, expansion of weather insurance

mechanisms, and agricultural practices.

NATIONAL MISSION ON STRATEGIC KNOWLEDGE FOR CLIMATE

CHANGE:

To gain a better understanding of climate science, impacts and challenges, the

plan envisions a new Climate Science Research Fund, improved climate

modeling, and increased international collaboration.

• It also encourages private sector initiatives to develop adaptation and

mitigation technologies through venture capital funds.



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MINISTRY OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS

KNOW INDIA PROGRAMME

Know India Programme is a flagship programme of Ministry of External

Affairs for engagement with Indian origin youth (between 18-30 years) to

enhance their awareness about India, its cultural heritage, art and to familiarise

them with various aspects of contemporary India.

Eligibility:

1. Minimum qualification required for participating in KIP is graduation from

a recognized University /Institute or enrolled for graduation and ability to

speak in English.

2. The applicant should not have visited India through any previous

Programme of Government of India.

3. Those who have not visited India before will be given preference.

It is a three-week orientation programme for diaspora youth conducted with

a view to promote awareness on different facets of life in India and the progress

made by the country in various fields e.g. economic, industrial, education, science

& technology, communication & information Technology, culture.

It provides a unique forum for students & young professionals of Indian origin to

visit India, share their views, expectations & experiences and to develop closer

bonds with the contemporary India.

PRAVASI KAUSAL VIKAS YOJANA

Objective:

Training and certification of Indian workforce keen on overseas

employment in select sectors and job roles, in line with international standards,

to facilitate overseas employment opportunities.

Intended Beneficiaries

1. Blue collar workers



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2. Any candidate of Indian nationality who undergoes a skill development

training in an eligible sector by an eligible training provider.

SALIENT FEATURES

It is a skill development initiative of the MEA in partnership with the Ministry of

Skill Development & Entrepreneurship which will be implemented by National

Skill Development Corporation (NSDC).

The short-term program (of 2 weeks to one month) will prepare the

candidates holistically in taking up challenging assignments in different

countries with confidence and meet transnational skill requirements.

It involves training them in suitable skill sets which address the requirements in

communication, trade specific knowledge and skills along with cultural

orientation. These will be in line with international standards.



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MINISTRY OF FINANCE

NATIONAL PENSION SCHEME

Objective

• To provide retirement income to all the citizens

• To institute pension reforms and to inculcate the habit of saving for

retirement amongst the citizens.

NPS is applicable to:

1. All citizens of India between the age of 18 and 65 years.

2. All new employees of Central Government service (except Armed Forces)

and Central Autonomous Bodies joining Government service on or after

1st January 2004.

3. All the employees of State Governments, State Autonomous Bodies

joining services after the date of notification by the respective State

Governments.

4. Any other government employee who is not mandatorily covered under

NPS can also subscribe to NPS

5. All citizens i.e., private employees and unorganized sector workers.

6. Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) with bank accounts in India.

An NRI can open an NPS account. Contributions made by NRI are subject to

regulatory requirements as prescribed by RBI and FEMA from time to time.

However, OCI (Overseas Citizens of India) and PIO (Person of Indian Origin)

card holders and HUFs are not eligible for opening of NPS account.

It is administered by Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority

(PFRDA).

Under the NPS, the individual contributes to his retirement account and his

employer can also co-contribute. It is designed on defined contribution basis

wherein the subscriber contributes to his account, there is no defined benefit that

would be available at the time of exit from the system and the accumulated

wealth depends on the contributions made and the income generated from

investment of such wealth.



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The recordkeeping, administration and customer service functions for all

subscribers of the NPS are being handled by the National Securities Depository

Limited (NSDL), which is acting as the Central Recordkeeper for the NPS.

The subscriber will be allotted a unique Permanent Retirement Account

Number (PRAN) which is portable and can be used from any location in India.

PRAN will provide access to two personal accounts:

Tier I Account: This is a non-withdrawable account meant for savings for

retirement. The tax treatment for contribution made in Tier I account is

Exempted-Exempted-Taxed (EET).

Tier II Account: This is simply a voluntary savings facility. The subscriber is

free to withdraw savings from this account whenever subscriber wishes. No tax

benefit is available on this account.

All existing members of the government's 'Swavalamban Yojana NPS lite' will

automatically be migrated to the Atal pension Yojana. It will now replace the

Swavalamban scheme. NPS returns are market linked.



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It offers 3 funds to subscribers:

1. Equities,

2. Corporate Bonds,

3. Government Securities.

Subscriber can exit from NPS after 10 years of account opening or attaining

60 years of age whichever is early. Only up to 40% of Corpus withdrawn in

lump sum is exempt from tax.

PFRDA recently announced that the National Pension System (NPS) subscribers

will now have the option to partially withdraw funds from their accounts for

pursuing higher education or setting up new business.

NPS withdrawl is allowed but only after 3 years of subscription. Subscribers

are permitted to withdraw not exceeding 25% of the contributions made only by

subscriber.

ATAL PENSION YOJANA

Atal Pension Yojana (previously known as Swavalamban Yojana) is a

government-backed pension scheme in India targeted at the unorganised

sector.

It was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 9 May, 2015 in Kolkata.

As of May 2015, only 20% of India's population has any kind of pension scheme,

this scheme aims to increase the number.

In Atal Pension Yojana, for every contribution made to the pension fund, The

Central Government would also co-contribute 50% of the total contribution

or ₹1,000 per annum, whichever is lower, to each eligible subscriber account,

for a period of 5 years.

The minimum age of joining APY is 18 years and maximum age is 40 years.

The age of exit and the start of pension would be 60 years. The minimum period

of contribution by the subscriber under this would be 20 years or more.



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• In case of death of subscriber, the spouse of the subscriber shall be entitled

for the same amount of pension till his or her death. After the death of both

the subscriber and the spouse, the nominee of the subscriber shall be entitled

to receive the pension wealth, as accumulated till age of 60 years of the

subscriber.

It is administered by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development

Authority.



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DIFFERENCE BETWEEN NPS AND APY:

NPS APY

AGE 18 - 65 18 - 40

INVESTMENT

Minimum contribution

for

TIER I – Rs 500

TIER II – Rs 250

The subscribers are

required to opt for a

monthly pension from

Rs. 1000 - Rs. 5000 and

ensure payment of

stipulated monthly

contribution regularly.

RETURNS

Returns are linked to the

markets. It means the

returns for NPS

subscribers can vary

depending on various

factors like market

movement.

As mentioned above, the

returns are pre-

determined. i.e., between

Rs 1000 - 5000

PREMATURE

WITHDRAWL

Only Tier 2 accounts will

allow premature

withdrawals

APY subscribers are not

allowed to withdraw the

money before the term

ends. However, if the

contributor dies, or has a

medical condition,

He/She may be able to

withdraw the amount.



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PRADHAN MANTRI MUDRA YOJANA

Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) is a flagship scheme of Government of

India to “fund the unfunded” by bringing such enterprises to the formal

financial system and extending affordable credit to them.

It enables a small borrower to borrow from all Public Sector Banks such as

PSU Banks, Regional Rural Banks and Cooperative Banks, Private Sector Banks,

Foreign Banks, Micro Finance Institutions (MFI) and Non Banking Finance

Companies (NBFC) for loans upto Rs 10 lakhs for non-farm income

generating activities. The scheme was launched on 8th April, 2015.

Any Indian Citizen who has a business plan for a non-farm sector income

generating activity such as manufacturing, processing, trading or service sector

and whose credit need is less than Rs 10 lakh can approach either a Bank, MFI,

or NBFC for availing of Micro Units Development & Refinance Agency Ltd.

(MUDRA) loans under Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY).

CATEGORY OF LOANS

1. Shishu: covering loans upto Rs 50,000

2. Kishor: covering loans above Rs 50,000/- and upto 5 lakh

3. Tarun: covering loans above Rs 5 lakh and upto 10 lakh

Informal sector accounts for 90% of our non-agricultural workforce, 50% of the

GDP & 40% of the non-farm GDP. Analysts point that the Indian GDP can be

raised by almost 15% if the informal sector data is incorporated in the GDP

series.

The MUDRA bank aims to boost loans and cut borrowing costs for the cash-

starved domestic small businesses

What is MUDRA Bank and what is its role in the MUDRA Yojana?

MUDRA Bank - Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency Bank

The Rs 20,000 crore MUDRA Bank aims to provide refinancing to small and

medium enterprises, particularly those from SC & ST



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• The idea is to refinance micro-finance institutions through Pradhan

Mantri Mudra Yojana

• This bank would be responsible for regulating and refinancing all MFIs

which are in the business of lending to MSME

Concerns regarding the structure or establishment of MUDRA bank?

The bank will be financially challenged since inception, if it is funded through

non-budgetary support

The funds for the bank would be sourced from shortfall in the achievements

of the priority sector lending (PSL) targets

• Currently, the shortfall in the PSL targets of the domestic scheduled

commercial banks are deposited in Rural Infrastructure Development Fund

(RIDF) and for foreign banks in Small Enterprises Development Fund

• The fact of the matter is that banks have been surpassing the targets in

all years, since 2002, except for the last three years

• The shortfall lies only in agricultural loans, but it would be unfair to

divert the target for agriculture from RIDF to micro units.



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PRADHAN MANTRI SURAKSHA BIMA YOJANA

It is One year Personal Accident Insurance Scheme, renewable from year to

year, offering protection against death or disability due to accident.

• Available to citizens (including NRIs) in the age group 18 to 70 years

having a bank account.

• Premium payable is Rs.12/- per annum per member.

• Risk coverage available will be Rs. 2 lakh for accidental death and

permanent total disability

• Rs. 1 lakh for permanent partial disability

• Individuals who exit the scheme at any point may re-join the scheme in

future years by paying the annual premium

• The scheme is offered/administered through Public Sector General

Insurance Companies (PSGICs) and other general insurance companies.

PRADHAN MANTRI JEEVAN JYOTI BIMA YOJANA

A One year life insurance scheme which can be Renewed from year to year,

Offers coverage for death due to any reason.

• Available to people in the age group of 18 to 50 and having a bank account.

People who join the scheme before completing 50 years can, however,



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continue to have the risk of life cover up to the age of 55 years subject to

payment of premium.

• Premium will be Rs.330 per annum. It will be auto-debited in one

instalment.

• The payment of premium will be directly auto-debited by the bank from

the subscribers account.

• Rs.2 Lakh in case of death for any reason.

Terms of Risk Coverage

• A person has to opt for the scheme every year. He can also prefer to give

a long-term option of continuing, in which case his account will be auto-

debited every year by the bank.

• The scheme will be offered by Life Insurance Corporation and all other

life insurers who are willing to join the scheme and tie-up with banks for

this purpose.

PRADHAN MANTRI VAYA VANDANA YOJANA

Pradhan Mantri Vaya Vandana Yojana (PMVVY) is a Pension Scheme

announced by the Government of India exclusively for the senior citizens aged

60 years and above which is available from 4th May, 2017 to 31st March, 2020.

ELIGIBILITY CONDITIONS

1. Minimum Entry Age: 60 years (completed)

2. Maximum Entry Age: No limit

3. Policy Term: 10 years

4. Investment limit: Rs 15 lakh per senior citizen

5. Minimum Pension: Rs. 1,000/- per month

6. Maximum Pension: Rs. 10,000/- per month



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SALIENT FEATURES

1. It will provide an assured pension based on a guaranteed rate of return

of 8 per cent for 10 years.

2. The scheme can be purchased by payment of a lump sum Purchase Price

ranging from a minimum of Rs 1,50,000 for a minimum pension of Rs

1000 per month to a maximum of Rs 7,50,000 for a maximum pension of

Rs 5,000 per month.

3. It will be implemented through Life Insurance Corporation of India

(LIC).

4. The scheme also allows for premature exit for the treatment of any critical/

terminal illness of self or spouse. There shall be no exclusion on count of

suicide and full Purchase Price shall be payable.

5. On death of the Pensioner during the policy term of 10 years, the Purchase

Price shall be refunded to beneficiary.



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6. Loan facility is available after completion of 3 policy years. The maximum

loan that can be granted shall be 75% of the Purchase Price.

PRADHAN MANTRI JAN DHAN YOJANA

To ensure comprehensive financial inclusion of all the households in the

country by providing universal access to banking facilities with at least one

basic bank account to every household, financial literacy, access to credit,

insurance, remittance and pension facility.

SALIENT FEATURES

• All households across the country - both rural and urban are to be covered

under the scheme. Bank accounts will be opened for 15 crore poor persons.

• All bank accounts opened under the scheme are to have an overdraft

facility of Rs 5,000 for Aadhar-linked accounts after satisfactory

operation in the account for 6 months.

• Issuance of RuPay Debit Card with inbuilt Rs 1 lakh personal accident

insurance cover provided by HDFC Ergo and a life cover of Rs 30,000

provided by LIC



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• A minimum monthly remuneration of Rs 5,000 to business

correspondents who will provide the last link between the account holders

and the bank.

STAND-UP INDIA SCHEME

The Stand up India scheme aims at promoting entrepreneurship among

women and scheduled castes and tribes. The scheme is anchored by

Department of Financial Services (DFS), Ministry of Finance, Government of

India.

Stand-Up India Scheme facilitates bank loans between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 1

Crore to at least one Scheduled Caste (SC) or Scheduled Tribe (ST)

borrower and at least one woman borrower per bank branch for setting up a

greenfield enterprise.

• This enterprise may be in manufacturing, services or the trading sector. In

case of non-individual enterprises at least 51% of the shareholding and

controlling stake should be held by either an SC/ST or woman entrepreneur.

KUB RAO COMMITTEE REPORT

As per the KUB Rao Committee Report of 2013, “large and sustained gold

imports are a strain on the external sector’s stability. Given the precarious

global economic situation and its impact on the Indian exports, there is a clear

need to reduce the Current Account Deficit (CAD) considerably. Due to falling

gold re-exports, India’s trade deficit as well as CAD as ratio to GDP worsened

by 0.3 percentage points in 2011-12. Viewed from the fact that India has a large

appetite for gold, it is desirable that the economy needs to moderate the demand

for gold imports to bring down the CAD to a more sustainable level.”

The Report also observed that ‘There is a need to consider introducing new

gold-backed financial products to reduce the demand for physical gold.’



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GOLD MONETISATION SCHEME

Monetization refers to a process of converting a commodity into domestic

currency– rupee. Gold Monetization refers to unlocking the value of gold in terms

of rupee.

Gold Monetization Scheme (GMS) refers to a process wherein a depositor

deposits gold (say jewellery, coin, etc.) with a bank which is then lent by the

bank to its borrowers (say jewellery makers), after melting into gold bars. This

is akin to a normal banking operation (like a savings bank account), but carried

out in terms of gold instead of in rupee.

GMS allows the depositors of gold to earn tax free market determined

interest income (denominated in gold but recoverable either in gold or in rupee

[mandatorily in rupee if it is deposited for a medium or long term]) from the pure

gold they deposit with banks in their “Gold Savings Accounts” and permits the

jewelers to obtain their raw material -gold bars created from the melting of the

gold deposited with the banks- as loans in their “Metal account”. In addition,

Banks / other dealers would also be able to monetize their gold.

OBJECTIVE

1. To mobilise gold held by households and institutions of the country and

facilitate its use for productive purposes, and in the long run, to reduce

country’s reliance on the import of gold.

2. To provide a fillip to the gems and jewellery sector in the country by

making gold available as raw material on loan from the banks.

India imports as much as 800-1000 tonnes of gold each year. Though stocks of

gold in India are estimated to be over 20,000 tonnes, most of this gold is neither

traded, nor monetized.

3. To make the existing schemes for mobilising Gold (Gold Deposit Scheme

and Gold Metal Loan Scheme) more effective and to broaden their ambit

from merely mobilizing gold, to putting this gold into a broad range of

productive uses including strengthening the reserve requirements of the

Central Bank.



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SALIENT FEATURES

It provides different options to the people to monetize the gold, by modifying

the already existing two schemes, namely 'Revamped Gold Deposit Scheme' and

the 'Revamped Gold Metal Loan' scheme.

All scheduled commercial banks (excluding RRBs) have been allowed to

implement the scheme.

REVAMPED GOLD DEPOSIT SCHEME (R-GDS): It will provide the

depositors of gold, improved infrastructure (in terms of ease of depositing, faster



150

processing transparency) and greater flexibility in the terms and tenure of

deposits.

• The minimum deposit at any one time shall be 30 grams of raw gold

(bars, coins, jewellery excluding stones and other metals). There is no

maximum limit for deposit under the scheme.

• A Gold Savings Account denominated in grams of gold will be opened by

customers at any time, even prior to depositing gold at the Collection and

Purity Testing Centres. The banks will enter into a tripartite Legal

Agreement with refiners and Collection and Purity Testing Centres that

are selected by them to be their partners in the scheme.

The deposits under the revamped scheme can be made for

1. a short-term period of 1-3 years;

2. a medium-term period of 5-7 years and

3. a long-term period of 12-15 years.

The principal and interest on short term deposits shall be denominated in

gold.

• In the case of medium and long term deposits, the principal will be

denominated in gold. However, the interest on MLTGD shall be

calculated in Indian Rupees with reference to the value of gold at the time

of the deposit.

Tax exemptions under the GMS include exemption of interest earned on the gold

deposited and exemption from capital gains made through trading or at

redemption.

REVAMPED GOLD METAL LOAN (GML) SCHEME: A Gold Metal Loan

Account, denominated in grams of gold, will be opened by the bank for jewellers.



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SOVEREIGN GOLD BOND SCHEME

To develop a financial asset as an alternative to purchasing metal gold.

Sovereign Gold Bonds (SGBs) are a kind of Government bonds that are issued

(by the RBI on behalf of the Government) on payment of rupees but

denominated in grams of gold. The value of these bonds is tied to the value of

gold. On redemption, the investor gets interest income and the prevailing price of

gold.

These bonds are thus, different from usual Government securities (G-secs) as the

redemption value at the time of maturity is not a fixed sum, but linked to the price

of an underlying commodity called gold.

▪ The Bonds are denominated in units of one gram of gold and multiples

thereof. Minimum investment in the Bonds is 2 grams and The

Maximum investment limit per fiscal year has been increased to 4 kg for

individuals, 4 Kg for Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) and 20 Kg for

Trusts and similar entities notified by the Government from time to time.

▪ The Bonds will be repayable on the expiration of eight years from the

date of issue. Pre-mature redemption of the Bond is allowed from fifth year

of the date of issue on the interest payment dates.

▪ The Bonds can be used as collateral for loans. The Loan to Value ratio

will be as applicable to ordinary gold loan mandated by the RBI from time

to time. The lien on the Bonds shall be marked in the depository by the

authorized banks.

▪ The Bonds will bear interest at the rate of 2.75 per cent (fixed rate) per

annum.

▪ The investment in the Bonds will be eligible for Statutory Liquidity

Ratio (SLR) compliance by banks.

▪ Sovereign Gold Bonds has been made available for subscription at the

branches of scheduled commercial banks and designated post offices

through RBI’s e-kuber system – its core banking solution.

http://arthapedia.in/index.php?title=Statutory_Liquidity_Ratio

http://arthapedia.in/index.php?title=Statutory_Liquidity_Ratio

http://www.arthapedia.in/index.php?title=E-Kuber



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▪ In future, gold bonds may be made tradable (from a date to be notified

by RBI) and to facilitate the same, the investor will have the option to keep

the gold bond in demat form.

Advantages and disadvantages

To the investor

The advantages to the investor in investing in SGB instead of gold are the

following:

▪ Interest earnings on an otherwise dead asset.

▪ Ease of storage and handling gold, while preserving its advantage of

earnings in terms of appreciation of its prices in future.

▪ An alternate instrument for investment.

The only possible disadvantage to the investor is that, while in the event of

appreciation of the price of gold, the investor gains, however, in the unlikely event

of a fall in gold prices, the loss too will be borne by the investor.

To the Economy:

The advantages to the Government and the economy are the following:

▪ Reduction in the cost of Government’s borrowings- the current borrowing

cost from the domestic market is around 7-8 per cent. Thus, an interest

payment below this level is an yearly saving for the Government on

account of its borrowing cost. This difference can be used by the

Government to cover the appreciation of gold prices payable to the

investors at the time of redemption.

▪ A decrease in the price of the gold will be a gain for the Government.

▪ It will reduce the demand for physical gold to some extent and thus helps

in reducing the annual demand for import of gold.

The possible disadvantage to the Government will be in the unlikely event of

a substantial increase in gold prices. For this, the scheme proposes the creation

of a Gold Reserve Fund which will absorb the price fluctuations and the fund

will be continuously monitored for sustainability. Further, the issuance of the

http://www.arthapedia.in/index.php?title=Gold_Reserve_Fund



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SGBs will be in tranches to enable the Government to maintain its issuance within

its yearly borrowing limits.

SWACHCH BHARAT KOSH

To attract Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds from Corporate Sector

and contributions from individuals and philanthropists to achieve the objective of

Clean India (Swachh Bharat) by the year 2019.

• It would be administered by a Governing Council chaired by Secretary,

Department of Expenditure. Donations to the “Swachh Bharat Kosh”, other than

the sums spent for “Corporate Social Responsibility” are eligible for 100%

deduction under section 80G of the Income-tax Act, 1961. This is applicable to

the assessment year 2015-16 and subsequent years.

MINISTRY OF FOOD PROCESSING INDUSTRIES

PRADHAN MANTRI KISAN SAMPADA YOJANA (PMKSY)

PM Kisan SAMPADA Yojana is a comprehensive package which will result in

creation of modern infrastructure with efficient supply chain management

from farm gate to retail outlet.

It will not only provide a big boost to the growth of food processing sector in the

country but also help in providing better returns to farmers and is a big step

towards doubling of farmers income, creating huge employment opportunities

especially in the rural areas, reducing wastage of agricultural produce, increasing

the processing level and enhancing the export of the processed foods.

To supplement agriculture, modernize processing and decrease agri-waste.

The following schemes will be implemented under PM Kisan SAMPADA

Yojana:

1. Mega Food Parks

2. Integrated Cold Chain and Value Addition Infrastructure

http://mofpi.nic.in/Schemes/mega-food-parks

http://mofpi.nic.in/Schemes/cold-chain



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3. Creation/ Expansion of Food Processing/ Preservation Capacities (Unit

Scheme)

4. Infrastructure for Agro-processing Clusters

5. Creation of Backward and Forward Linkages

6. Food Safety and Quality Assurance Infrastructure

7. Human Resources and Institutions

Earlier named as SAMPADA (Scheme for Agro-Marine Processing and

Development of Agro-Processing Clusters), this central sector scheme has been

approved for the period of 2016-20 coterminous with the 14th Finance

Commission cycle.

It would benefit 20 lakh farmers directly and generate 5,30,500 direct/indirect

employment in the country by the year 2019-20.

http://mofpi.nic.in/Schemes/creation-expansion-food-processing-preservation-capacities-unit-scheme

http://mofpi.nic.in/Schemes/creation-expansion-food-processing-preservation-capacities-unit-scheme

http://mofpi.nic.in/Schemes/agro-processing-cluster

http://mofpi.nic.in/Schemes/scheme-creation-backward-and-forward-linkages

http://mofpi.nic.in/Schemes/food-safety-quality-assurance-infrastructure

http://mofpi.nic.in/Schemes/human-resources-and-institutions



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MEGA FOOD PARK

Mega Food Park is an inclusive concept and a scheme of the Ministry of Food

Processing of the Government of India, aimed at establishing a "direct linkage

from farm to processing and then to consumer markets" through a network

of collection centres and primary processing centres.

1. Its purpose was to increase processing of perishables from 6% to 20%

and to increase India's Share in global food trade by at least 3% up to year

2015.

2. To provide modern infrastructure for food processing units in the

country and ensure value addition of agricultural produce including dairy,

fisheries etc.

3. Establish sustainable raw material supply chain in a cluster.

4. Address needs of small and micro food processing enterprising by

providing plug and play facilities.

It is Based on ‘Cluster’ approach and envisages creation of state of art support

infrastructure in a well-defined agri/horticulture zone for setting modern food

processing units along with well established supply chain.

The supply chain consists of collection centres, primary centres, central

processing centres, cold chain and around 30-35 fully developed plots for

entrepreneurs to set up food processing units.

FUNDING – Grant in aid of 50% of eligible cost in general and 75% in north-

east and difficult areas subject to a maximum of 50 crore per project.

Government provides grants up to Rs 50 crores for each food park to a

consortium of companies.

GOVERNMENT SCHEMES – PART I - iasipstnpsc.iniasipstnpsc.in/.../uploads/2018/10/GOVERNMENT-SCHEMES-PART-1.pdf · SHANMUGAM IAS ACADEMY: 46/1, Gokhale St, Opp. Senthil Kumaran Theatre,

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