Important Government Schemes – Feburary 2019

Important Government Schemes – February 2019

1. PM Modi Launches PM-KISAN Income Support Scheme for Farmers

• The central government had announced the PM-KISAN (Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi) support scheme to address the agricultural sector crisis in Indian farm sector.

• The scheme Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) would provide an annual grant of Rs 6,000 to small and marginal farmers having combined land holding or ownership of up to two hectares. The scheme will benefit

atleast 120 million farmers.

• The amount will be given in three instalments of Rs. 2,000 each and will be transferred directly to the bank account of the farmers fthrough Direct Benefit Transfer.

• PM-KISAN is entirely funded by the central government and will incur an annual expense of Rs. 75,000 crores.

• The existing land-ownership system in the States/UTs will be used for identification of beneficiaries. Those whose names appear in land records as on February 1, 2019 are eligible for benefit from the scheme.

• Ministry of Agriculture and farmer’s welfare gave its approval for the scheme.

• Similar to the PM-Kisan Yojana are

(i) Rythu Bandhu Scheme of Telangana

(ii) KALIA Scheme of Odhisha

(iii) Krishak Bandhu scheme of West Bengal

2. Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Mandhan

• The Union Finance Minister Piyush Goyal announced the Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Mandhan scheme for workers in the unorganised sector.

• Under the scheme people working in the unorganised sector will be able to open their pension accounts and deposit money on a regular basis.

• The interested applicant who has attained an age of 18 years and interested in joining the scheme have to contribute Rs 55 per month till they attain the age

of 60 years.

• An equal amount will be contributed by the central government.

• The scheme offers an assured a monthly pension of Rs 3000 to the workers of the unorganised sector after the age of 60 years.

• The scheme will benefit approximately 10 crore workers in the unorganized sector.

• The scheme is touted to become the world’s biggest pension scheme for the unorganised sector in the next year.

3. Know India Programme

• Know India Programme (KIP) is a flagship initiative for Diaspora engagement that familiarizes Indian-origin youth (18-30 years) with their Indian roots and contemporary India, through a three-week orientation programme organised

by the Ministry.

• In 2016, the scheme was revamped to increase duration from 21 to 25 days, with a 10-day visit to one or two States and preference given to PIOs from Girmitiya countries (Mauritius, Fiji, Suriname, Guyana, T&T, Jamaica etc).

Since 2016, six KIPs are being organised in a year.

• The programme requires a minimum qualification of Graduation to become a part of the scheme.

• The content of the programme broadly includes the following:

(i) Presentations on the country, political process, developments in various sectors.

(ii) Interaction with faculty and students at a prestigious University/College/Institute

(iii) Presentation on the industrial development and visits to some Industries

(iv) A Visit to a village to better understand the typical village life

(v) A Visit to Agra

(vi) A Visit to one or two focus states in India

(vii) Interaction with NGOs and organizations dealing with women affairs

(viii) A Visit to places of historical importance/Monuments

(ix) Taking part in Cultural programmes

(x) Exposure to yoga

(xi) Call on high dignitaries, which may include Vice President of India, President House, Parliament, Union Ministers, Governor and Chief Ministers of partner states etc.

4. Implementation of Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM JAY)

• The Union Government has taken some steps for smooth and effective implementation of Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM JAY).

• PM-JAY scheme would provide poor, deprived rural families and identified occupational categories of urban worker’s families as per the latest Socio- Economic Caste Census (SECC) data with health benefit cover of Rs 5 Lakhs

per family per year at free of cost. The health benefits under the scheme include more than 1,350 medical packages covering surgery, medical and day-care treatments, cost of medicines and diagnostics.

• The following steps have been undertaken for the effective implementation of PMJAY:

(i) The State Governments have been given the flexibility to implement PM-JAY either through insurance companies, or directly through trust/society, or in a mixed mode.

(ii) National Health Agency (NHA) has been set up by the Government to implement PM JAY through State level Health Agencies.

(iii) A robust IT system has been put in place for effective implementation of the Scheme.

(iv) Central Grievance Redressal Management System has been set up for receiving grievances. A system has been put in place to acknowledge, record, escalate & resolve grievances as per well-defined process through a three-tier grievance redressal structure.

(v) A multi-prong approach has been adopted by putting in place a fraud control mechanism.

5. Niti Aayog and Adobe Partner Collaborate on Enhancing Digital Literacy and Creativity Skills

• Software major Adobe and Atal Innovation Mission have collaborated and signed a statement of intent to enhance digital literacy and creativity skills.

• Under this agreement, Adobe would implement the Digital Disha Programme across 100 schools under Atal Tinkering Labs (ATL) initiative.

• Teachers and Children across these 100 schools would benefit from the creative learning resources via free access to Adobe Spark premium.

• Digital Disha Programme - With an aim to spur creative thinking and digital literacy across vocational institutes in India, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship has partnered with Adobe to launch Adobe Digital Disha Programme. With Adobe Digital Disha, Adobe Spark with premium features, a fun and frictionless storytelling Creative Cloud application that runs in any web or mobile browser, is now available free of charge for education and skill

development.

• Atal Tinkering Labs - With a vision to ‘Cultivate one Million children in India as Neoteric Innovators’, Atal Innovation Mission is establishing Atal Tinkering Laboratories (ATLs) in schools across India. The objective of this scheme is to foster curiosity, creativity and imagination in young minds and inculcate skills such as design mindset, computational thinking, adaptive learning, physical computing etc.

6. Human Resource & Development Ministry has launched SHREYAS programme

• HRD Minister Prakash Javedekar has launched the Scheme for Higher Education Youth in Apprenticeship and Skills (SHREYAS) programme to provide industry-specific apprenticeship opportunities to fresh graduates.

• SHREYAS is a programme conceived for students in degree courses, primarily non-technical, with a view to introduce employable skills into their learning, promote apprenticeship as integral to education and also amalgamate

employment facilitating efforts of the Government into the education system so that clear pathways towards employment opportunities are available to students during and after their graduation.

• SHREYAS is a programme basket comprising the initiatives of three Central Ministries, namely the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship and the Ministry of Labour& Employment viz the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS), the National Career Service (NCS) and introduction of BA/BSc/BCom (Professional) courses in the higher educational institutions.

• Objectives

Following are the objectives of SHREYAS

i. To improve employability of students by introducing employment relevance into the learning process of the higher education system.

ii. To forge a close functional link between education and industry/service sectors on a sustainable basis

iii. To provide skills which are in demand, to the students in a dynamic manner

iv. To establish an 'earn while you learn' system into higher education

v. To help business/industry in securing good quality manpower

vi. To link student community with employment facilitating efforts of the Government.

7. Govt. Approves Construction of more than 5 Lakhs Houses under PMAY

• The Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs has approved the construction of 560,695 more affordable houses for the benefit of urban poor under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban).

• The details of the projects approved are listed below:

i. A total of 1,243 projects with a project cost of Rs 33,873 crore with central assistance of Rs 8,404 crore has been approved.

ii. The approval of 560,695 more houses takes the cumulative number of houses sanctioned under PMAY(U) to 79,04,674.

8. UNICEF Representative India Yasmin Ali Haque Lauded Poshan Ahibyaan

• Yasmin Ali Haque has made following observations with regards to Poshan Abhiyaan

i. He observed that Poshan Abhiyaan is a massive step towards eradicating malnutrition.

ii. Poshan Abhiyaan has got global recognition for its effort to eradicate malnutrition. Cash transfers under the mission provide an additional support to the family income.

iii. The first and the most important step for reducing malnutrition in India are providing sufficient nutrition to pregnant and lactating mothers. The child then automatically is at much less risk of being malnourished.

• Poshan Abhiyaan – POSHAN Abhiyaan (National Nutrition Mission) is a flagship programme of the Ministry of Women and Child Development. The Mission is aimed at improving the nutritional status of children (0-6 years), Adolescent Girls, Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers in a time bound manner during the next three years beginning 2017-18.

• The UNICEF Head also pointed out that the current policies are majorly focused on pregnant mothers and lactating children, but the government also needs to think about how to provide nutrition to growing children. He added that

UNICEF will continue working with the government on initiatives like Swachh Bharat, Mission Indradhanush, vaccination policies and Poshan Abhiyaan.

9. Minister of Textiles Smriti Irani Inaugurated two Silk Projects in ASSAM

• Two projects namely Soil to Silk Project and Eri Spun Silk Mill in Assam were inaugurated by the Minister of Textile Smriti Irani.

• Soil to Silk Project –

(i) The project envisages new Eri plantation on 100 hectares and will facilitate post cocoon activities for an on-farm sector like plantation, spinning and reeling.

(ii) It would generate direct employment for 15,600 people during the project period and 7,000 persons per year when the project attains full capacity.

(iii) Under this project, the Central Silk board will also work towards rejuvenation of 600 hectares of existing Eri farms and provide handlooms and work sheds to 2500 weavers which in turn will provide important linkages for self-sustenance of the production activities.

• Eri Spun Silk Mill –

i. The Eri Spun Silk Mill project will be implemented directly by the state government in co-coordination with the Central Silk Board.

ii. The expected turnover from this project during the first year is around Rs 10 crore with a net profit of Rs 3 crore.

iii. The project would generate direct employment for 107 persons throughout the year and will provide indirect employment to around another 1,500 Eri farmers through backward linkage and to around 730 weavers through the forward linkage.

10. Categorisation of Farmers

• In agriculture Census, the operational holdings are categorised in 5 size classes as shown below:

• Marginal Farmer: Below 1.00 hectare.

• Small Farmer: 1.00-2.00 hectare

• Semi- Medium Farmer: 2.00-4.00 hectare. Medium: 4.00-10.00 hectare.

• Large Farmer: 10.00 hectare and above.

11. Family Planning for Males

• Government of India has undertaken the following steps to increase awareness about the need of family planning by males:

i. Vasectomy Fortnight is being observed all over the country in the month of November every year to increase awareness on male participation and promotion of male sterilization.

ii. Training of service providers in No-Scalpel Vasectomy (NSV) has been undertaken to enhance the pool of service providers.

iii. Condom boxes are being set up in facilities to enable people to access condoms in privacy.

iv. The ‘Home Delivery of Contraceptive Scheme’ has been initiated to deliver contraceptives including condoms to the beneficiaries.

v. The compensation for male sterilization has been substantially increased under the Enhanced compensation scheme for sterilization

vi. A 360-degree media campaign has been undertaken to underline the role of men in family planning to encourage men to adopt family planning methods.

12. Strengthening the fight against Mental Illness in India

• The Mental illness is the most neglected and tabooed aspect in the Indian health care system. To address the burden of mental disorders, the Indian Government has undertaken the following steps:

i. National Mental Health Programme (NMHP) is under implementation since year 1982. District Mental Health Programme (DMHP) is under implementation in 517 districts of the country for detection, management and treatment of mental disorders/ illness.

ii. Funds are provided to each district under the DMHP for sensitization training of Community Health Workers and elected representatives of the community at District Hospital/ Community Health Centre for awareness generation regarding early signs and community health seeking behaviour for mental illness.

iii. The Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 provides that the Government shall take all measures to ensure that the Government Officials including police officers and other officers of the Government are given periodic sensitization and awareness training.

iv. Three Central Mental Health Institutions Namely National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences, Bangalore, Lokopriya Gopinath Bordoloi Regional Institute of Mental Health, Tezpur and Central Institute of Psychiatry, Ranchi have been strengthened for augmenting the human resources in the areas of mental health and to provide quality mental health services in the country.

v. Also, to increase the number of qualified mental health professionals in the country, the Government, under the NMHP, is implementing manpower development schemes for the establishment of Centres of Excellence and strengthening/ establishment of Post Graduate (PG) Departments in mental health specialities.

13. Improving Research Ecosystem in India

• The central government has launched the following schemes to improve the research ecosystem in India:

i. Prime Minister’s Research Fellowship – It is implemented to attract the bright and meritorious students into research within the country, Students selected for the fellowship are given fellowship for 5 years –

Rs.70,000/- per month for the first two years, Rs 75,000/- per month in the third year and Rs.80,000 per month in 4th and 5th year with an annual research grant of Rs. 2 lakhs.

ii. Setting up of Research Parks - The Government has approved setting up of Research Parks at IIT Kharagpur, IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, IIT Guwahati, IIT Kanpur, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Gandhinagar and IISc Bangalore.

iii. IMPRINT (Impacting research Innovation and Technology – The scheme aims to provide solutions to the most relevant engineering challenges and translating knowledge into viable technology in ten selected technology domains.

iv. UAY (Uchhatar Avishkar Yojana) – The Scheme has been launched to promote innovation of a higher order that directly impacts the needs of the needs of the Industry and thereby improves the competitive

edge of Indian manufacturing.

v. Smart India Hackathons – These are organized on yearly basis since 2017 to find out digital solutions to various problems faced by the people and gives hands-on working and research opportunity for engineering students.

vi. IIC (Institution’s Innovation Council) – IICs have been established in 960 Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) for promoting the innovation ecosystem within their campuses.

vii. Trainee Teacher Scheme - A Trainee Teacher Scheme has been initiated in NITs with the objective to attract, motivate and sponsor best graduate engineers for part-time M.Tech and PhD programmes.

14. Government Approves Continuation of CLCS-TUS Scheme for MSMEs

• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved a 3year extension of the Credit Linked Capital Subsidy and Technology Up-gradation Scheme (CLCS-TUS) for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) with a total outlay of 2,900 crores. This scheme will continue beyond the 12th Five Year Plan for three years from 2017-18 to 2019-20.

• CLCS-TUS Scheme –

i. Under this scheme, an upfront capital subsidy of 15% will be provided to the MSMEs on institutional finance of up to Rs 1 crore availed by them.

ii. This will be done to help the MSMEs in employing well-established and improved technology in the specified 51 sub-sectors/products approved.

iii. The scheme aims to improve the competitiveness of MSMEs by integrating various current schemes aimed at up-grading technology through Credit Linked Capital Subsidy, hand holding for zero defect zero effect manufacturing, increasing productivity through waste reduction, design intervention, cloud computing, facilitation of intellectual property and nurturing new ideas.

iv. The scheme also incorporates special provisions to increase entrepreneurship for SC/STs, women, hill states, island territories and the aspirational districts/ LWE (Left-wing extremism) districts.

15. PM Modi serves the 3 Billionth Meal of Akshaya Patra

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi served the 3 billionth meal of Akshaya Patra, an NGO that works with the government on Mid-Day Meal Scheme.

• Akshaya Patra Foundation - It is a Bengaluru-based not-for-profit organisation funded by International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). Akshaya Patra Foundation is an implementation partner for the governments Mid-Day Meal Scheme.

16. Eco Circuit: Pathanamthitta – Gavi – Vagamon – Thekkady’ Inaugurated

• Union Tourism Minister K. J. Alphons inaugurated the ‘Eco Circuit: Pathanamthitta – Gavi – Vagamon – Thekkady’ project at Vagamon, Kerala on 17th February 2019.

• This project is a part of the Swadesh Darshan Scheme.

• The Eco Circuit project was sanctioned in December 2015 at the cost of Rs. 76.55 crores. It has been developed as a 150 km circuit and includes Eco- Adventure Tourism Park at Vagamon, Cultural Centre at Kadamanitta, Eco Log Huts at Peerumedu, Idukki, Approach Roads, Walking trails, Rain Shelters at Piine Valley Forest, Thekkady, Kumily, MoozhiyarDam, Penstock and Kakki.

• The eco-tourism circuit aims to protect the flora and fauna of Pathanamthitta and Idukki districts including places like Gavi, Peerumedu.

17. Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan-Dhan (PM- SYM)

• Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan-dhan (PM-SYM) was announced in the interim budget 2019 and has been notified by the Ministry of Labour and Employment.

• Features of the PM-SYM: PM-SYM is a voluntary and contributory pension scheme on a 50:50 ratio basis where prescribed age-specific contribution shall be made by the beneficiary and the matching contribution by the Central

Government. The salient features of the PM-SYM are:

i. The Subscriber under the PM-SYM will receive minimum assured pension of Rs 3000/- per month after attaining the age of 60 years

ii. If the subscriber dies during the period of receipt of the pension, the spouse of the beneficiary shall be entitled to receive 50% of the pension received by the beneficiary as a family pension.

iii. If the beneficiary had died due to any cause (before age of 60 years), his/her spouse will be entitled to join and continue the scheme subsequently by payment of regular contribution or exit the scheme as per provisions of exit and withdrawal.

iv. The subscriber must not be a taxpayer.

v. The scheme is expected to benefit as many as 42 crore workers are estimated to be engaged in the unorganized sector of the country whose monthly income is Rs 15,000/ per month or less and belong to the entry age group of 18-40 years who are not be covered under New Pension Scheme (NPS), Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) scheme or Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).

18. CCEA approves launch of KUSUM scheme

• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved the launch of KUSUM (Kisan Urja Suraksha Evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan) scheme.

• The scheme aims to provide financial and water security to farmers through harnessing solar energy capacities of 25.75 gigawatts (GW) by 2022.

• Component of the Scheme - The scheme has three components:

i. Component-A - 10,000 megawatt (MW) of decentralised ground mounted grid-connected renewable power plants

ii. Component-B - Installation of 17.50 lakh standalone solar powered agriculture pumps

iii. Component-C - Solarisation of 10 lakh grid-connected solar powered agriculture pumps.

19. National Rural Economic Transformation Project

• Central Government has proposed a new rural Livelihood Scheme, the National Rural Economic Transformation Project under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM).

• National Rural Economic Transformation Project - The features of the Project (NRETP) are:

i. The project would be undertaken with loan assistance from the World Bank.

ii. The project aims to provide interventions to enhance the livelihoods promotion, access to finance and scale-up initiatives on digital finance and livelihood interventions.

iii. Projects under NRETP would provide alternate channels of financial inclusion, creating value chains around rural products, introduce innovative models in livelihoods promotion and access to finance and scale-up initiatives on digital finance and livelihoods interventions.

20. HRD Minister launches Operation Digital Board

• Union Human Resource Minister, Shri Prakash Javadekar launched Operation Digital Board to leverage technology to boost quality education in the country.

• Operation Digital Board (ODB) is a revolutionary step which will make both learning as well as the teaching process interactive and popularize flipped learning as a pedagogical approach. The features of the programme are:

i. It has been launched on the lines of Operation Blackboard to provide better digital education in schools.

ii. Under Operation Digital Board 7 lakh classrooms of 9th, 10th and 11th standards and two lakh classrooms of colleges and Universities will be equipped with digital boards in the next three years.

iii. The initiative is aimed at improving the quality of education and offer new opportunities and new ways of teaching and learning.

iv. The Operation Digital Board will aid in the provisioning of personalized adaptive learning as well as Intelligent Tutoring by exploiting emerging technologies like Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence & Data Analytics.

21. First Mega Food Park of Tripura Inaugurated

• Union Minister of State for Food Processing Industries Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti inaugurated Sikaria Mega Food Park Pvt Ltd at Village Tulakona in Agartala. This is the 17th Mega Food Park in the country and first in the state of Tripura.

• Following are the highlights of the Mega Food Park of Tripura:

i. The Mega Food Park has been set up in 50 acres of land at the cost of Rs. 87.45 crore.

ii. The food park is having facilities of fully operational Dry warehouse and material handling of 5000 MT, Pineapple canning and Pulping line of 2 MT/Hr each, Packing Unit, Ripening Chambers of 40 TPD, Cold

Storage of 5000 MT with Frozen Storage of 1000 MT, Quality Control, Research & Development Centre.

iii. The Mega Food Park also has fully developed Industrial plots for setting up processing units and Standard Design Factory (SDF) Sheds to provide ready to move in the facility for micro and small enterprises.

iv. The Mega Food Park will leverage an additional investment of about Rs. 250 crores in 25-30 food processing units in the park and generate a turnover of about Rs. 450-500 Crore annually.

v. The Park will also provide direct and indirect employment to 5000 people and benefit about 25000 farmers.