NATIONAL MARCH 2015
- NHSRC to boost health technology in India: WHO
According to World Health Organization the 'Make in India' campaign throws up opportunities for growth of domestic medical devices industry, which is not only underinvested but heavily import-oriented at present. World Health Organization observed that…………- There is a need for appropriate and applicable health care technology in India.
- Indian medical devices industry is underinvested and heavily import-driven at present. But with the current 'Make in India' campaign, there is a huge opportunity for growth and expansion of the medical device industry.
- This would highly improve the access of essential medical devices and health care technology to patients in India
World Health Orgznization formally announced the commencement of National Health Systems Resource Centre (NHSRC), as the WHO collaborating centre for Priority Medical Devices and Health Technology Policy. This is the first WHO collaborating centre in South East Asia Region- The division of healthcare technology and innovation at NHSRC has been working in the area of health technologies and related policy interface.
- Its works includes framing of technical specifications for technologies procured under National Health Mission, best practices for technology life-cycle management and maintenance, secretariat for assessment and uptake of innovations into public health systems among others.
- IAS officer death case handed over to CBI
Giving in to the demand of a CBI probe in the mysterious death of IAS officer DK Ravi, the Karnataka government on 23rd March recommended investigation by the central agency. Currently the case is being probed by CID. DK Ravi had taken on the sand, land mafia and tax evaders in the state and had become quite popular for his bold way of working. - Center allocates 17 mega food parks
The Center on 24th March allocated the development of 17 mega food parks across the country to state governments and private firms envisaging an investment of over Rs 6,000 crore.
A mega food park provides various facilities to food processors, farmers, retailers and exporters, helping achieve faster growth of food processing industries. The project cost to set up these 17 mega food parks would be Rs 2,030 crore, of which the central grant would be Rs 850 crore. An estimated investment of another Rs 4,000 crore would be from food processing units to be set up in these parks.
Under the scheme (2008-09) of mega food parks, the Food Processing Ministry had sanctioned 42 projects throughout the country. Of these, 25 parks have already been allocated. Basic basic infrastructure in these food parks needs to be set up within 30 months. In each mega food park, 40-50 food processing units would come up.
Five state governments -- Punjab, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha --- have been allocated one food park each, while Kerala government has been allocated 2 food parks. In these mega food parks, 80,000 people are expected to get employment while 5 lakh farmers would also be benefitted.
The Mega Food Park Scheme, based on cluster approach, is modelled on hub and spoke architecture. It aims at facilitating the establishment of a strong food processing industry backed by an efficient supply chain, which includes collection centres, central processing centre (CPC) and cold chain infrastructure.
The scheme envisages one time capital grant of 50 percent of the project cost (excluding land cost) subject to a maximum of Rs 50 crore in general areas, and 75 percent of the project cost (excluding land cost) subject to a ceiling of Rs 50 crore in difficult and hilly areas, including the North-East and J&K. - SC strikes down Section 66A
Section 66A of the Information Technology Act is unconstitutional in its entirety, the Supreme Court ruled on 24th March striking down a provision that had led to the arrests of many people for posting content deemed to be allegedly objectionable on the Internet.
The Bench turned down a plea to strike down sections 69A and 79 of the Act, which deal with the procedure and safeguards for blocking certain websites and exemption from liability of intermediaries in certain cases, respectively.
In the judgment, the court said the liberty of thought and expression was a cardinal value of paramount significance under the Constitution. Three concepts fundamental in understanding the reach of this right were discussion, advocacy and incitement. Discussion, or even advocacy, of a particular cause, no matter how unpopular it was, was at the heart of the right to free speech and it was only when such discussion or advocacy reached the level of incitement that it could be curbed on the ground of causing public disorder.
Section 66A of the IT Act- Any person who sends, by means of a computer resource or a communication device
- Any information that is grossly offensive or has menacing character; or
- Any information which he knows to be false, but for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience, danger, obstruction, insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred or ill will, persistently by making use of such computer resource or a communication device
- Any electronic mail or electronic mail message for the purpose of causing annoyance or inconvenience or to deceive or to mislead the addressee or recipient about the origin of such messages, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and with fine."
- Section 66A provides punishment for sending offensive messages through communication services.
- These messages may be any information created, transmitted or received on a computer system, resource or device including attachments in the form of Text, Images, Audio, Video, Any other electronic record which may be transmitted with the message
- Are grossly offensive or menacing
- Proffer false information intending to cause annoyance, inconvenience, intimidation, insult, obstruction, etc.
- Are intended at deceiving the addressee about the origin of the message
- The law was amended in 2008 and received Presidential assent on February 5, 2009.
- Pragati, multi-modal platform launched
PM Narendra Modi on 25th March launched multi-purpose and multi-modal platform PRAGATI (Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation) in New Delhi. PRAGATI is a unique integrating and interactive platform. The platform is aimed at addressing common man’s grievances, and simultaneously monitoring and reviewing important programmes and projects of the Government of India as well as projects flagged by state governments.
During the first PRAGATI interaction, the Prime Minister discussed issues relating to unseasonal rain and relief to farmers, public grievances, project implementation, Swachh Bharat.
The interaction lasted for two hours. The programme will be tied together by technology, with information on projects being available at a click. The Pragati sessions will take place every fourth fourth Wednesday of the month. - Govt to launch Rs 4,500-cr Nat Supercomputing Mission
The government on 25th March approved launch of National Supercomputing Mission to connect national academic and R&D institutions with a grid of over 70 high-performance computing facilities at an estimated cost of Rs 4,500 crore.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved the launch of the mission that will enable India to leapfrog to the league of world-class computing power nations. - Cabinet approves key components of National e-Governance Plan
Government on 25th March approved the approach and key components of 'e-Kranti: National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) 2.0', which aims to enhance the portfolio of citizen centric services and ensure optimum usage of core information and communication technology (ICT).
This is a follow up to the key decisions taken in the first meeting of the Apex Committee on the Digital India programme held in November, 2014. - Cabinet nod to plan to convert 101 rivers into waterways
In a bid to boost transportation for goods and passengers through waterways, the government on Wednesday gave nod to plans for enactment of a legislation for converting 101 river stretches across the country into National Waterways. India at present has only five river stretches declared as National Waterways.
This will create a logistic supply chain with intermodal (Rail, Road and Waterways) connectivity and "would positively contribute to the GDP by opening up business opportunities in the area of dredging, barge construction, barge operation, barge repair facilities, terminal construction...tourist cruise" among others. - Rajasthan govt. opens mother’s milk bank
Rajasthan’s first State-run human milk bank, “Jeevan Dhara”, was inaugurated. The first mother’s milk bank in the State was started by a non-governmental organisation in a government hospital in Udaipur.
“Jeevan Dhara” has been started in collaboration with the Norwegian government and JK Lon Hospital, and aims to collect excess breast milk from lactating mothers and provide it to infants deprived of it. Mr. Rathore said the bank would follow international guidelines to ensure safety in the collection and supply of breast milk. The infant mortality rate in Rajasthan is 47 per 1,000 live births, which is expected to come down substantially when infants get breast milk. - Rajasthan passes bill on eligibility for panchayat polls
Rajasthan became the first State in the country to fix a minimum educational qualification for contesting elections to the Panchayati Raj Institutions. The Assembly on 27th March passed the Rajasthan Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Bill, 2015, which makes Class VIII pass mandatory for the post of sarpanch — except in tribal reserved areas, where the minimum qualification is Class V — and Class X for Zila Parishad or Panchayat Samiti elections. - Camel slaughter banned in Rajasthan
The Rajasthan Assembly has passed a law that bans the slaughter, trading and unauthorised transportation of camels. Camel had been declared as the State animal last year. Causing injury to camel is also a punishable, included in bill. Camel slaughter is punishable for up to five years and monetary fine.
According to the statement of objectives of the Bill Camel is an integral part of the desert eco-system of the State and has played a very important role in the survival of human population in adverse desert conditions. Presently, Camel is presently endangered and in need for initiation of sincere efforts for its conservation and protection, due to an alarming steep population decline observed in the recent past. Agriculture being the main stay of our economy, camel as a working animal is also the backbone of our agricultural and village economic structure. - ‘Give up LPG subsidy' launched
Prime Minister, Narendra Modi appealed to well-to-do sections of Indian society to voluntarily give up LPG subsidy, so that the benefit of the same could be shared more widely with poorer sections of society. Global energy summit - Urja Sangam-2015 - in New Delhi was conducted on 27th March. According to Prime Minister about 2.8 lakh people from across the country had already given up LPG subsidy saving more than 100 crore rupees for the poor.
The movement was launched at the Global Energy Convention- Urja Sangam, to commemorate fifty years of ONGC Videsh Limited, Engineers India Limited and Barauni Refinery of Indian Oil Corporation.
The topic of the convention is `shaping India's Energy Security'. According to Prime Minister that government targets to reduce Oil Imports by 10 percent by the year 2022, which also commorates 75 years Indian Independence, to pay befitting tribute to the freedom fighters.
Prime Minister asserted imports will be further reduced to 50 percent by the year 2030.Currently India imports about 77 percent of its petroleum requirement Government is also working on strengthening the national gas grid which aims to provide PNG connection to more than 1 crores in next four years. - Garg Panel submits report
The Justice T.P. Garg Commission, which was appointed to probe the massacre of 32 Sikhs at Hondh Chillar village in Rewari district of Haryana on November 2, 1984 in the wake of the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, on 27th March submitted its report to Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar. Mr. Khattar said the government accepted the recommendations of the Commission in the Hondh Chillar case and also decided to give it six months extension for Gurgaon and Pataudi cases.
The Commission recommended….- Payment of additional amount of Rs.20 lakh over and above the amount already paid (which is Rs. 7 lakh on three occasions spreading over a period of 23 years from the year 1984-85 to 2006-07) to the claimants for each of 31 deceased (belonging to village Haud) and a sum of Rs.25 lakh to the widow of lone army man Inderjit Singh as she has not been paid any amount whatsoever by way of compensation till date.
- Payment of additional amount of Rs.5 lakh for the loss of property to each of 36 petitioners over and above the amount of compensation already paid.
- Further a sum of Rs.5 lakh each would be paid to the gurdwara and the Janj Ghar to those religious structures which may have been raised by the majority of the survivors of village Haud.
- Payment of additional amount of Rs. 1 lakh to five persons who suffered simple injuries and a sum of Rs.50 lakh be paid to another claimant, Satpal, who had filed his claim through his mother.
- Farmer suicides highest in AP, TS
According to Industry body ASSOCHAM Telangana State and Andhra Pradesh have recorded the highest number of farmer suicides in the country due to the faulty mechanism. The government’s credit for agriculture is not reaching small farmers and high indebtedness is prevailing, says a recent study on "Farm Structure Reform" conducted by ASSOCHAM.
Most prominently ASSOCHAM brought out the huge vulnerability of farming households in Andhra Pradesh to indebtedness as compared to other states and found it linked to their largely uneconomic landholdings.
The study released on 27th March stressed the need on the part of farmers to form into cooperatives or embark on corporate style farming to tide over crisis.The study based on data of the NSSO 70th round of survey and the chamber’s own half a dozen studies on various aspects of the rural scene earlier found that out of around nine crore households, over 23 lakh households were holding onto a tiny 0.01 hectare or less of landholdings, 2.87 crores to 0.01 to 0.4 hectare of plots and 3.14 crores to 0.41 to 1.0 hectare extent of mostly farming land plots. - National Action Plan for Skill Training for specially-abled persons
National Action Plan for Skill Training of Persons with Disabilities was launched in New Delhi on 21 March 2015. The National Action Plan is a partnership between the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) and Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disability for skilling 2.5 million Persons with Disability (PwD) over seven years between 2015 and 2022
The National Action Plan (NAP) seeks to provide a synergistic framework for people with disability, for improving vocational training and employment opportunities for them with the eventual goal of providing them with livelihoods and independence. The plan envisages use of Information Technology for content, training delivery and employer connect.
The plan is of significant importance for overall development of PwDs since according to census 2011, there are 2.68 Crore PwDs in India. Among them about 1.34 crore persons are in the employable age of 15 to 59 years. According to a United Nations (UN) report unemployment rate among PwDS is usually double that of the general population and often as high as 80% in Asia-Pacific region. - Literacy rates among Scheduled Tribe’s low: Parliamentary Committee
According to a Parliamentary Committee despite government efforts to promote education among the Scheduled Tribes (STs), their literacy rates as compared to the national average have remained low. The literacy rate as per Census 2011 is 73 per cent but for STs is 59 per cent only. The House panel also flagged the female literacy rate, saying it is also lower as compared to the national average. The overall literacy gap amongst the various groups and STs has come down from 19.77 per cent in 1961 to 14.03 per cent in 2011, a scrutiny of State-wise literacy data reveals that in most of the north eastern States like Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland, STs are at par with the general population. The committee has noted that while in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, which have sizeable ST population in remote areas, the literacy gap is as high as 18 to 26 per cent
It has also exhorted the government to view the large disparity in literacy rates of STs in these States, which have lagged in almost all socio-economic parameters, and promote educational development for STs on a ‘mission mode’. The panel also stated that it was unhappy with the fact that the Ministry of Tribal Affairs till date does not have the complete data about the total number of Ashram schools in States and UTs, as according to them the requisite information is awaited from some of the States. Keeping in view the ‘sub-standard food and bad quality’ of personal care products being provided to the ST students in the Ashram schools, the committee has recommended that the ministry should ask all the State governments to take such complaints seriously and conduct appropriate inquiries in this regard and also ensure strict compliance of the standards laid down under the Right to Education Act (RTE). - Rs. 15,000-crore PFC aid for two thermal projects in Telangana
The Power Finance Corporation Limited (PFC) has agreed to provide funds totaling Rs.15,000 crore for the construction of two thermal power projects by the Telangana State Power Generation Corporation, at Manuguru and Damaracherla, respectively.
The funding would cover 80 per cent of the estimated project cost for the 1,080 MW Bhadradri power project at Manuguru of Khammam district, and the 4,400 MW upcoming plant at Damaracherla of Nalgonda district. The remaining 20 per cent will be met from the State grant, which, for the current year, stands at Rs.2,000 crore, as allocated in the recent budget proposals. This will save Rs.300 crore for the corporation.
The loan will be drawn by TSGENCO over the next three years, as per the projects’ progress, with a three-year moratorium on repayment. After three years, the repayment of the loan along with the interest is scheduled over the next 12 years. - Aadhaar not mandatory to claim any state benefit, says Supreme Court
The Supreme Court on 16th March asked the Centre to write to all the states to strictly comply with its earlier order of September 23, 2013, and not make an Aadhaar number compulsory to claim any state benefit. The court had then directed the government that the Aadhaar number should not be made mandatory for availing any government services.
Though 16th March’shearing means status quo on the matter, it could add a bit of cautiousness to various ambitious plans of the Central government that intend to link Aadhaar with several government schemes, even though on a voluntary basis.
After the 2013 Supreme Court order, the previous government had made linkage of Aadhaar optional for disbursing various subsidies and welfare payments such as scholarships and pensions under its Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) project, and had put DBT in cooking gas in abeyance. The present National Democratic Alliance government restarted DBT in LPG, but gave citizens the choice of availing the subsidy in their bank accounts, without linking to Aadhaar number.
The government also launched several new initiatives with the UID number such as the Jan DhanYojana, biometric attendance of Central government employees, etc.
In most of the scheme, where the UID number was linked, it was not made mandatory keeping in mind the Supreme Court order. In the case of Jan DhanYojana, added benefits were defined for the residents who linked their Aadhaar numbers with the bank accounts. It is unclear if the purview of the order encompasses schemes such as the Jan DhanYojana. - Arun Jaitely inaugurates 5th National Community Radio Sammelan
Union Information and Broadcasting Minister ArunJaitley on 16th March inaugurated the 5th National Community Radio Sammelan in New Delhi. The sammelan will bring together community radio operators, policy makers, ministries and other stakeholders for exchange of ideas and cross learning.
The sessions will highlight the vision of the community radio movement in the country besides setting the agenda on the development discourse at the local level. Jaitley also presented the National Community Radio Awards.- In a bid to provide a boost to the Community Radio sector, the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting has simplified the approval procedure by introducing an online application process.
- Applicants will be able to track the status of their applications through a Comprehensive Community Radio Management Information System.
- Community Radio has been fast expanding and the Ministry has given nearly 409 permissions to set up community radio stations, of which 179 stations have already become operational.
- XLRI creates world record for largest hand washing relay
XLRI - Xavier School of Management created World Record for the largest hand washing relay. Guinness World Records has officially confirmed the record. The initiative, ‘BanegaSwachh India’ campaign was conducted by the Marketing Association of XLRI (MAXI) with support of leading hygiene product brand Dettol at the 36th MAXI Fair held at XLRI Campus in Jamshedpur in January and was a part of MAXI’s awareness drive to spread the message of ‘Clean India’
The relay saw a participation of over 991 participants including members of XLRI as well as residents of Jamshedpur. The Guinness World Record authorities in London accredited this endeavor by XLRI students for the most number of participants in a hand washing relay in February after a scrutiny of the submitted evidences. XLRI has beaten the record formerly created in Sri Lanka by 650 participants. - SC removes Jats from OBC list
The Supreme Court on 17th March set aside the OBC reservation to the Jat community saying caste, though a prominent factor, can't be the sole factor to decide backwardness. The court while setting aside the then UPA government's notification of 4th March 2014, said possible wrong inclusion of a caste in the OBC list in the past cannot be the basis of further wrong inclusions.
A bench of Justice Tarun Gogoi and Justice R F Nariman also found fault with the Centre's decision to overlook the findings of the National Commission for Backward Classes. The commission had stated that Jats do not deserve to be included in the Central list of OBC as they don't form socio-economic backward class.
The court added though the Union of India is empowered under the constitutional scheme to provide reservation to a particular class but it cannot be permitted to do so on the basis of a decade-old-finding about the backwardness of a caste. - Govt clears All India Ayurveda Institute
The government has approved setting up of an All India Institute of Ayurveda, the first referral-cum-teaching facility in the world’s oldest health care system in New Delhi. The Institute has been conceived as an apex institute of Ayurveda with 200 bedded referral hospital for imparting education in the field of Ayurveda at MD and PhD levels
Similar institutes, to come up on the lines of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), are proposed to be set up in different cities. Government is also in the process of establishing a North Eastern Institute of Ayurveda and Homeopathy at Shillong. At present 52 universities, including deemed universities, in the country are offering courses in Homeopathy. - Portal for complaints launched
To strengthen consumer protection, the government on 18th March launched two key initiatives- A portal on Grievances Against Misleading Advertisements (GAMA) and
- Grahak Suvidha Kendras (GSK) in seven cities. The portal will be linked to all State authorities concerned, select voluntary consumer organisations in the country and the sector regulators.
The GSKs, the one-stop consumer centers will be launched in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Jaipur, Kolkata, Patna and Delhi.
Policy portal too: Information and Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad launched Bharatniti.in, a public policy portal that attempts to put into perspective policy matters using an “ancient yet contemporary” approach.
Bharatniti.in describes itself as an “endeavour, a platform to shape up the narrative of contemporary India necessarily through what we believe are the intrinsic values soaked with centuries of wisdom”. The portal will attempt to put into perspective “the ‘whats’ and ‘hows’ (of information) with the help of a traditional prism”. - NGT warns Haryana and Rajasthan govts over sand mining
The National Green Tribunal has taken strong objection to the non-compliance of its orders by the Haryana and Rajasthan governments, on the issue of sand mining and warned them of coercive action.
A bench headed by Justice Swatanter Kumar directed both the state governments to file comprehensive status reports within two weeks.
The directions came while perusing a report filed by Alwar’s Deputy Conservator of Forests, which had stated that rampant mining is going on in an area approximately spanning 2,612.64 hectares of the district.
The Tribunal had earlier hit out at the Rajasthan government for ‘shutting its eyes’ to indiscriminate mining activities in Alwar and directed it to ban illegal mining of minor minerals in the district and seize all crushers and grinders operating illegally. It had also directed the state government to file a comprehensive plan for ‘restoration, reforestation and reclamation’ of the entire area, along with the cost likely to be incurred. - Women get 33 p.c. quota in UT police
The Union Cabinet on 20th March cleared 33 per cent reservation for women in the direct recruitment for non-gazetted posts of constables to sub-inspectors in the police forces of all Union Territories, including Delhi.
The decision to recruit more policewomen is expected to instil confidence among women, especially in Delhi where crime against women is very high and often the victims are afraid to approach the police as they may have to deal with male police officers.
The decision has also been taken in the light of amendments brought about in the Criminal Procedure Code in the wake of the 2012 gang-rape case in Delhi which requires that reports of crimes against women as well as their statements must be collected by women officers only. - New skill training scheme targets 24 lakh yout
With an aim to target 24 lakh youth, the Union Government on 20th March approved a new scheme for skill development, ‘Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY)’, with an expenditure of Rs. 1,500 crore. The average monetary reward would be around Rs. 8,000 a trainee.
Skill training would be done based on the National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) and industry led standards, and on the basis of demand assessed on the basis of recent skill gap studies conducted by the NSDC for the period 2013-17. - Cener to start Cruise Tourism in coastal states
To tap tourism potential across coastal belt in the country the Union Government has decided to start cruise tourism in coastal states. India has 7,500-km long coastal belt which has a huge potential to attract tourists from across the globe. As a part of Plan spiritual tourism programme is also being considered under which the government has drawn up plans to develop holy places and heritage monuments in different parts of the country. - Pharma Jan Samadhan scheme launched
The Union Minister of Chemicals & Fertilizers Ananth Kumar launched ‘Pharma Jan Samadhan’ scheme on 12th March.It is a web enabled system for redressal of consumers’ grievances relating to pricing and availability of medicines, created by National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA). A Compendium of Ceiling Prices of Essential Medicines 2015 prepared by NPPA was also released.
The ‘Pharma Jan Samadhan’ scheme has put in place a speedy and effective complaint redressal system with respect to availability and pricing of medicines. It would serve as a robust e-governance tool for protection of consumers’ interests through effective implementation of the Drugs (Price Control) Order 2013. ‘Pharma Jan Samadhan’ will provide consumers and others with an on-line facility to redress their complaints relating to over-pricing of medicines, non-availability or shortage of medicines, sale of new medicines without prior price approval of NPPA, and refusal of supply for sale of any medicine without good and sufficient reason. NPPA will initiate action on any complaint within 48 hrs of its receipt. - Centre launches digital gender atlas
Effective implementation and execution of schemes and programmes for girl education is set to get a boost with the launch of web-based tool 'digital gender atlas' which will identify low performing geographic pockets for girls on specific gender-related indicators.
The atlas prepared with active collaboration with UNICEF and released by HRD Minister Smriti Irani in Chhattisgarh recently is a visual representation of the vulnerabilities impinging education of girls. It visualizes the vulnerability status of an area based on composite index of three parameters such as rural female literacy and percentage of boys and girls with disabilities, particularly girls.
The performance status of individual indicators can be visualized at the state and district level, differentiated by colour coding. For example, the level of vulnerability of districts and blocks in Chhattisgarh or western Gujarat or Rajasthan can be measured with the digital atlas. The atlas is placed on the HRD Ministry website and available and ready to be used by states, districts, block education administrators or any other interested group including NGOs
It has been developed as a hands-on management tool to enable critical decisions and actions in pockets where gaps are to be met, the Secretary said. The map has been prepared with data collated from the Unified District Information System for Education Data, Census 2011 and District-level Health Survey. While India has achieved high enrollment for girls at primary and upper primary levels, enrollment, however, remains low at the secondary level. At the upper primary level, the representation of girls in total enrollment is 48.66 per cent and at the secondary level at 47.29 per cent- Delhi, Kerala, Tamil Nadu top: According to Human Resources Development Ministry and UNICEF, Delhi, Kerala and Tamil Nadu are India’s best-ranked States in terms of gender-related education indicators
- Using district-level indicators of girls’ education, health and social disadvantages, the government aims to identify the most backward pockets of the country, requiring the most attention.
- The new data from the Digital Gender Atlas for Advancing Girls’ Education will help States better channelise their resources to the areas that need it most
- While the atlas uses data earlier collected by other government agencies, it also creates a new composite index using 21 indicators to do with girls’ education, along four axes — access, infrastructure, teachers and outcomes.
- Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Delhi and Punjab are in the top 25% of the index’s range for elementary education, and the two Southern states and Delhi make the top quarter of the index for secondary education as well.
- Central and northern States, including Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar, are among the worst performers.
- However, the data shows that pockets of backwardness exist in better-off States too. Ramanathapuram, Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri districts in Tamil Nadu do as badly on the composite girls’ education indicator as Barabanki, Bahraich and Shrawasti in Uttar Pradesh.
- Bangalore’s urban and rural districts do as well as Mumbai or Pune, but the neighbouring district of Tumkur is among India’s worst off districts.
- The atlas also creates a Vulnerability Index of factors which impinge on girls’ education, including the likelihood of joining the workforce early and early marriage.
- The two southern States, along with Delhi and Himachal Pradesh, are the best performers here, with Gujarat, Rajasthan and the central and northern States among the worst.
- Pappu Ki Pugdandi chosen for Toronto kids film fest
The Children's Film Society India (CFSI)’s film Pappu Ki Pugdandi has been officially selected for the Toronto International Film Festival Kids 2015 which will be held from April 7 to 19. TIFF Kids is the largest children’s film festivals in the world. Directed by Seemaa Desai, the cast includes Atul Parchure, Hardik Khanna and Anupam Bhattarcharya among others. This honour has given the CFSI a big boost to make more films. - LS passed Land Acquisition Bill with nine amendments
The Lok Sabha on 10th March passed far-reaching amendments to the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Bill. As many as nine significant amendments — some of them controversial — were made to the law enacted by the UPA Government in 2013.
The key amendments passed by the Lower House include doing away with requirements for consent and a social impact assessment before notification of the acquisition. An amendment that will help remove the bottlenecks faced hitherto by industry in acquiring multi-cropped irrigated land was also brought in.
In another significant move, an earlier proposal that talked about the Centre acquiring land for private hospitals and private educational institutions has been dropped.
The 2013 law stipulates land acquisition for government projects and private companies only after securing 80 per cent consent from farmers (70 per cent in the case of public-private-partnerships).
With both the consent clause and the social impact assessment out of the way
In a nut shell- Social impact assessment to be made voluntary
- Consent clause in 2013 Law scrapped
- Affected farm laborer families assured employment
- Acquisition of multi-crop irrigated land made easy
- RTI Act applies to A-G’s office
Stating that even under common parlance the office of the Attorney General of India has always been understood to mean a constitutional authority, the Delhi High Court on 10th March refused to accept that this office was outside the ambit of the Right to Information Act and further directed it to reconsider the RTI application that it had rejected on these grounds. The issue came into question when a petition challenging an order by the Central Information Commission was up for hearing before the single Bench of Justice Vibhu Bakhru. The CIC had held that the office of the AGI was not a public authority under Section 2(h) of the RTI Act. - Nitish won trust vote
Nitish Kumar, heading the JD(U) government in Bihar, won a trust vote in the Assembly on 11th March, securing the support of 140 MLAs, with the Opposition drawing a blank.
Speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhury put the motion of confidence to vote through a lobby division, as requested by Leader of the House Vijay Kumar Chaudhury and the Rashtriya Janata Dal, an ally of the JD(U). - Coal block allocation: Former PM summoned
A special court in Delhi on 11th March summoned Former PM Manmohan Singh, Ex-coal secretary PC Parakh, industrialist Kumar Manglam Birla in coal block allocation case. The Court summoned them for offences of criminal conspiracy, breach of trust and under provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act. They have all been asked to appear in court on the 8th of April. Besides them, the court also summoned M/s Hindalco, its officials Shubhendu Amitabh and D Bhattacharya as accused in the case. The case pertains to allocation of Talabira II coal block in Odisha to M/s Hindalco in 2005, when the then Prime Minister Singh was holding the coal portfolio.
Scam: The coal scam, or what’s popularly called the coalgate, first came to light when India’s audit watchdog, The Comptroller and Auditor General of India, raised the issue of inadequacies in the allocation of coal blocks from 2004 onwards. It created a political storm, as the loss to the exchequer was initially pegged at over Rs. 10 lakh crore. The final report scaled it down to Rs. 1.86 lakh crore.
CAG’s criticism was that though the government had decided to allot coal blocks through a system of competitive bidding, what it ended up following was a method that was opaque and subjective. Further, its point was, there was no legal impediment in introducing a more transparent process. Last year, the Supreme Court ruled that coal blocks allocated by the government between 1993 and 2010 were illegal. - Law Commission submits report
The Law Commission of India on 12th March submitted its report on electoral reforms to the Union Law Ministry. In its second report on electoral reforms that is the second one in a year, the commission has recommended restricting a candidate to contest from one constituency and making the appointment of the CEC and the two ECs through a collegium.
The Commission has also recommended banning Independents from contesting polls besides rejecting the idea of compulsory voting. The commission has stressed on regulating and restricting government sponsored advertisements six months prior to the date of expiry of the House "to maintain the purity of elections."
On the issue of electoral finances, it said election expenses incurred or authorized by candidates or their election agents currently extends from the date of nomination to the date of declaration of results. This period should be extended to apply from the date of notification of the polls to the date of declaration of results.
The Commission said the Companies Act should be amended to require passing of the resolution authorizing the contribution from the company's funds to a political party at the company's Annual General Meeting instead of its Board of Directors.
The Commission said the disqualification of a candidate for its failure to lodge an account of election expenses and contributions reports should be extended from the current three year period up to a five year period, so that a defaulting candidate may become ineligible to contest at least the next elections.
Recommendations on Electoral Reforms- Restrict candidates to contest from one constituency only
- Appoint CEC and two ECs through a collegium
- Ban Independents from contesting polls
- Commission rejects the idea of compulsory voting
- Regulating government sponsored ads six months prior to date of expiry of the House
- Period for calculating election expenses of candidates should be extended to apply from the date of notification to date of results
- Amend Companies Act to require AGM resolution for contribution from the company's funds to a political party.
- Mission Kakatiya launched
Mission kakatiya, the historic programme of the telangana government to revive and restore over 46,000 tanks and other water bodies across the state, kicked off on on 12th March. Chief Minister KCR has started this programme at sadasivanagar village in nizamabad district. - New Jersey to host international conference on Hindi
The International Hindi Conference with the theme of "Expanding World of Hindi: Possibilities and Challenges," would be held in New Jersey in April. To be attended by Hindi scholars from various parts of the world, in particular from the US and India between April 3-5, participants of the International Hindi Conference would discuss the current status of the teaching and learning of Hindi among other things.
The participants are also expected to discuss individual and organizational partnerships and leadership and field capacity building and infrastructure building skills and topics, such as material selection and development funding, professional development of teachers, and volunteer management
This conference will provide a forum for community members and leaders, language experts, policy makers, education administrators, advocates and other stakeholders from different parts of the US, Canada, South America and Caribbean countries, such as, Trinidad and Tobago along with experts from India to get together and share their views and research, examine a wide spectrum of opportunities, make plans for the future, identify challenges and find solutions for the advancement of the Hindi language in North America and the Caribbean region, he added. - Investors Mission launched
Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on 13th March launched Infrastructure Mission. According to him logistics would be the key driver to transform Andhra Pradesh as the most developed State by 2029.
Under the Infrastructure Mission, along with six other missions would work harmoniously towards realising the single goal of enabling A.P. to claim its destiny and foster a common identity among the people of the State. The Infrastructure Mission was aimed at creating world-class infrastructure across the industrial and social sectors.
According to vision document of the new State of Andhra Pradesh with Sunrise State as the USP, with several plans with investment of Rs.12.44 lakh crore by 2029 on various projects to make A.P. world’s best investment destination by 2050. Besides 14 minor ports, a major port Dugarajapatnam and an aero city with an international airport at Bhogapuram between Visakhapatnam and Vizianagaram.
Visakhapatnam-Chennai and Chennai-Bengaluru Industrial Corridors would provide better connectivity for faster evacuation of cargo. A parallel beach road from Ichhapuram to Tada, Sagar Mala first phase covering Visakhapatnam to Kakinada, constitution of AP Maritime Board and promote Brand Andhra Pradesh by encouraging second generation infrastructure firms like GVK and GMR would remain on top of his agenda. - PDM and BJP govt in J & K
In Jammu and Kashmir, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed led BJP-PDP coalition government took oath in Jammu on 1st March. Sayeed took oath as the Chief Minister along with 12 members each from PDP and BJP. The two parties were engaged in intense negotiations since December, after the elections threw up a hung Assembly, as part of efforts to put together a coalition government on the basis of a Common Minimum Programme, which will be released on 1st March. - Citizenship Bill passed by LS
The LokSabha on 2nd March passed a Bill to amend the Citizenship Act, which seeks to bring parity between provisions for card-holders of Persons of Indian Origin and those with Overseas Citizen of India cards abroad. This Bill was one of the six items the government had passed as ordinances recently The conferment of a person, as a citizen of India, is governed by Articles 5 to 11 (Part II) of Indian Constitution. The legislation related to this matter is the Citizenship Act 1955, which has been amended by the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 1986, the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 1992, the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2003, and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2005.
PIO, NRI, OCI
NRIs (Non-Resident Indians) are Indian Citizens who live in another country. While OCIs have given up their full Indian citizenship, NRIs are still citizens of India. This is technically a tax classification as opposed to a visa status.
PIO (Person of Indian Origin) used to be a 15 year visa for non-Indian citizens, but it has since been removed.
OCIs (Overseas Citizen of India) are non-Indian citizens who have a lifetime visa to live and work in India with fewer restrictions. An Overseas Citizen of India is a lifetime visa status. It is the closest thing to dual citizenship that India offers. - e-Panchayat services in Telangana soon
In an effort to take e-governance to the grass-roots level, Telangana Panchayat Raj Department is set to launch e-Panchayat initiative in Domakonda mandal in Nizamabad district. This e-Panchayat programme would cover 18 Gram Panchayats and all of them would be connected with Internet, enabling them to offer a wide range of services to the rural people.
The government in-principle decided to use VSAT technology and fibre optic cable network for connecting e-Panchayat centres.
The Minister said all the e-Panchayat centres in the State would be managed only by educated women in villages and asked Panchayat Raj Commissioner to select women in proposed mandals for training. He said the e-Panchayat initiative would be expanded to 150 mandals as part of the World Bank-assisted programme called ‘Telangana Palle Pragathi’. The remaining mandals would be covered in a phased manner, he said. - Telangana constitutes panel for Muslim reservation
The Telangana government on 3rd March constituted a commission to study the socio-economic and educational status of Muslims in the state and recommend increase in the quantum of reservation for the community. Muslims in Telangana currently enjoy four percent reservation in education and employment. The three-member commission to be headed by retired IAS officer G. Sudhir will submit a report to the government within six months.
An order issued by the minorities welfare department said there was a need for the study to enable the government to formulate policies for the amelioration and upliftment of Muslims to bring them on par with other sections of society.
The commission will recommend the steps to be taken to remove the impediments in the improvement of the overall social, educational, economic conditions of the Muslim Community and to provide for reservation in education and employment to poor deserving Muslims, wherever necessary. - India submits 46 entries for UNESCO world heritage sites list
India has submitted a revised tentative list of 46 famous monuments/sites for inclusion in the list of UNESCO's World Heritage Site. The list was submitted to the World Heritage Centre in April 2014 as per UNESCO guidelines
Ancient Buddhist Site (Sarnath, Varanasi), Chilika Lake, Dholavira: A Harappan City, Mountain Railways of India (Extension), Baha'i House of Worship at New Delhi, Silk Road Sites in India, Sri Harimandir Sahib and Mughal Gardens in Kashmir are some of the sites out of the total 46 sites which have been included in the list.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN). Its purpose is to contribute to peace and security by promoting international collaboration through education, science, and culture in order to further universal respect for justice, the rule of law, and human rights along with fundamental freedom proclaimed in the United Nations Charter. UNESCO has 195 member states and nine associate members. - Tax sops for contributing Swachh Bharat
Seeking to encourage public participation in 'Swachh Bharat Mission', government on 4th March cleared certain enabling provisions for a fund to facilitate channeling of money from individuals and companies for the programme.
The Cabinet has approved enabling provisions for Swachh Bharat Kosh to enable people living in India and abroad and companies give funds for the clean Indian mission. The contributions will get tax exemption.
Besides individuals keen to fund the various programmes under the mission, government also expect funds from organizations under the corporate social responsibility.
Modi had on August 15 given a call to achieve the objective of clean India (swachh Bharat) by the year 2019, the 150th year of the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, through the Swachh Bharat Mission.
While the fund was launched in November last, the Cabinet approved certain enabling provisions to make it operational.
The fund will be used to achieve the objective of improving cleanliness levels in rural and urban areas, including in schools. It may also be enabled to bring out innovative or unique projects and girl toilets will be the priority area to start with, guidelines issued earlier said.
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is a national campaign by the Government of India, covering 4041 statutory towns, to clean the streets, roads and infrastructure of the country.
This campaign was officially launched on 2 October 2014. It is India's biggest ever cleanliness drive and 3 million government employees and school and college students of India participated in this event. The mission was started by Prime Minister Modi, who nominated nine famous personalities for the campaign, and they took up the challenge and nominated nine more people and so on (like the branching of a tree). It has been carried forward since then with people from all walks of life joining it. - Child sex ratio worsened: 2011 census
The number of children born every year is declining rapidly in India, but the slowdown is faster for baby girls as against baby boys, according to new data from the 2011 Census. According to data released by the office of the Registrar-General of India which gives an indication of the situation at the time of birth.
Just under 2.1 crore children were born in 2010, the year before the latest Census was conducted. In the year 2000 in comparison, 1.98 crore children were born.
However, the growth in the number of male children born was higher at 5.44 per cent, while the growth in the number of girls born was far lower at 4.69 per cent.
The sex ratio at birth as a result was slightly worse in 2011 than it was in 2001.
The numbers also clearly indicate that couples are choosing to restrict the size of their families; nearly half of the children born in 2000 were the third, fourth, fifth and so on in the family.
In 2011, just a third of children born in the preceding year were the family’s third, fourth, fifth or so on children.
In fact, the absolute number of first and second-borns only increased between 2000 and 2010, while the number of later-born children declined.
The data also shows that just 2 per cent of women under the age of 18 are now married in India. Statistics on marriage released showed that 72 lakh people under the age of 18 were married as of 2011, 70 per cent of them girls. - Living standard: Hyderabad ranked No. 1 in India, 138 globally
Leaving behind India's more traditional business centres such as Mumbai and Bangalore, the city of pearls Hyderabad is the best city to live in the country, says a global survey. According to consultancy firm Mercer's 'Quality of Living Report-2015', notwithstanding its top rank among Indian cities, Hyderabad globally ranks at 138th position in a list of 230 cities around the world in terms of standard of living.
The list is topped by Vienna for the second consecutive year. Besides Hyderabad, the list figures seven other Indian cities -- Pune (145), Bangalore (146), Chennai (151), Mumbai (152), New Delhi (154) and Kolkata (160).
Globally, Vienna is followed by Zurich, Auckland, Munich, Vancouver, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Geneva, Copenhagen and Sydney, as the world's top 10 cities in terms of quality of living.
Bangui (Central African Republic) and Baghdad (Iraq) were ranked as the bottom two cities on the list.
Interestingly, the survey found that Indian cities are safer than most others in South Asia. While the ranking of Sri Lanka's capital Colombo is above Hyderabad at 132, Dhaka in Bangladesh is ranked 211 and Pakistan's Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi are ranked 191, 199 and 202, respectively.
The parameters taken into account for the survey include political and social environment, medical and health care, public services, recreation facilities and natural environment, among others. - Government serves legal notice on BBC
Government has served a legal notice on BBC, accusing it of violating the stipulated conditions to make a documentary with a controversial interview of one of the convicts of the December 16, 2012 gangrape incident. In the notice, the government told the BBC that it has "violated" the agreement of not using the documentary for commercial purpose and for this the British media giant was liable for legal action.
The BBC has said that it has no plans to telecast the documentary on December 16, 2012 gangrape incident in India even though it went ahead and broadcast it in the UK, defying the ban imposed on by the Indian government. The Union Home Ministry had on 5th March asked BBC not to broadcast the documentary anywhere. - Panel to robe allegations against Teesta NGO
The HRD Ministry has set up a committee to examine an allegation that activist TeestaSetalvad and her husband JavedAnand embezzled public money given to their NGO, Sabrang Trust, under the SarvaShikshaAbhiyan.
The Supreme Court last month gave the couple anticipatory bail in a separate case of alleged misappropriation of funds raised for a museum at the site of the Gulberg Society massacre during the 2002 Gujarat riots. The museum was never built, and Setalvad was accused of diverting donations worth Rs 1.5 crore.
Government sources said Human Resource Development Minister SmritiIrani cleared the setting up of the three-member committee recently. The panel is headed by Supreme Court lawyer AvijitBhattacharjee, and also includes Syed A Bari, vice-chancellor of the Central University of Gujarat, Gandhinagar, and Gaya Prasad, a director in the ministry. - Maharashtra scraps Muslim quota
The Maharashtra government has now officially scraped the five percent reservation to Muslims in education, a move that has triggered outrage and severe criticism from opposition parties. A Government Resolution (GR) issued by the government has now nullified the previous notification issued by the NCP-Congress government in July 2014 granting reservation to Muslims (and Marathas).
Now the GR issued by the State Minority Affairs Department means that the quota for Muslims in both jobs and education has been scrapped.
This is sure to trigger a controversy as despite a High Court ruling scrapping quota for Marathas, the BJP government passed a law in that regard, while the quota for Muslim has been removed despite the court approving it at least in the education sector. - Yadagirigutta named Yadadri
Yadagirigutta in Nalgonda district, where the famous temple of Lakshmi NarasimhaSwamy is located, has been named Yadadri. ChinnaJeeyarSwamy gave this name to the hill temple following a request from chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.
The chief minister, during a visit to the temple on 5th March along with ChinnaJeeyarSwamy, informed the pontiff of his government's plans to develop Yadagirigutta and eight other nearby hillocks as 'Nava Giris' (nine hills) and requested him to suggest an appropriate name for the spiritual centre. After suggesting the name Yadadri, Jeeyar informed the chief minister that he would provide names for the rest of the eight hillocks later. - Prime Minister inaugurated power units in MP
Prime Minister NarendraModi dedicated to the Nation two units each of 600 MW of Shree Singaji Thermal Power Plant in the Khandwa district of Madhya Pradesh. The PM said that Power generation has been up by 11% in last 9-10 months since the new govt has assumed power. - MDG and India’s status
A new report from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) captures India's achievements and challenges in respect to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). According to the report, while India has made remarkable progress in several sectors, achieving all the MDGs appears unlikely.- On the challenge of reducing poverty by half, with 21.9 per cent of the population below the poverty line in 2011, India has already achieved the target well ahead of time.
- The country has also successfully eliminated gender disparity in primary and secondary education.
- Further, it has successfully managed to control the spread of deadly diseases such as AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.
- But on other indicators, India is likely to miss the target. The country is unlikely to meet the target of reducing the proportion of underweight children by half.
- Further, it is unlikely to reduce under-five mortality by two thirds and maternal mortality by 75 per cent.
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