NATIONAL SEPTEMBER 2013

NATIONAL SEPTEMBER 2013

• K. Rahman Khan, the Union Minister for Minority Affairs launched two new schemes namely “Seekho aur Kamao (Learn & Earn)” and “Jiyo Parsi” in New Delhi on 23rd September. The Minister launched the pilot project of 500 minority trainees through IL&FS Skill Development Corporation at five locations in the country. These locations are Delhi, Kolkata, Shillong, Barnala and Bengaluru. Fifty five trainees comprising Muslims, Sikhs and Christians which started training from July this year were given advance job letters today to ensure employment. Referring to members of the batch from three important minority communities, the Minister assured to reach Buddhists and Parsis, the remaining minority communities. The Minister also launched another very essential scheme “Jiyo Parsi” for containing population decline of Parsis in India. It is a 100% central sector scheme. Referring to the alarming total fertility rate of Parsis that has gone down below one ,Shri Khan said Government of India is very much concern about the declining trend of the Parsi population in the country. Therefore, with the involvement of Parsi community and on their demand, Ministry of Minority Affairs has come up with an ambitious programme i.e. ‘Jiyo Parsi”.
  
• The Department of Posts, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology of India allotted Customized Pin Code to the Supreme Court of India for the first time on 26 September 2013. The Customized Pin Code of the Supreme Court is 110 201.The event took place on the occasion that marked the completion of 41 years of the introduction of Pin Code in the country. The PIN was introduced on 15 August 1972 in India. The Department of Posts also started a Locality Based Online Pin Code Search Directory of Delhi on this occasion for the first time in India. Postal Index Number (PIN) or PIN Code is a 6 digit code of Post Office numbering used by India Post. The PIN was introduced on 15 August 1972. There are 9 PIN regions in the country. 
  
• The Union Cabinet on 24th September approved the proposal for implementation of the multi-sectoral programme to address the maternal and child under-nutrition in 200 high burden districts in the 12th Five Year Plan. The multi-sect oral nutrition programme would address the maternal and child malnutrition in 200 high burden districts by bringing together various national programmes through strong institutional, programmatic and operational convergence at the State, District, Block and Village levels. The scheme will cost Rs. 1,213.19 crore for the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17) as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme with a Centre : State cost sharing ratio of 90:10 for all components in the North Eastern Region States and special category States and 75:25 for other States and Union Territories. The Central share would be Rs. 944.39 crore and the state share would be Rs. 268.80 crore. The programme targets to contribute to the following as Outcomes i) Prevention an d reduction in child under-nutrition (underweight prevalence in children under 3 years of age); and ii) reduction in levels of anemia among young children, adolescent girls and women. 
  
• A six-member expert committee constituted by the Centre on fixing a new criterion for determining the backwardness of Indian states on 26th September, gave its reports, claiming Odisha, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh are the least developed states in the country. The panel led by Raghuram Rajan, former Chief Economic Adviser in the Finance Ministry and the incumbent Governor of Reserve Bank of India, said in its report that Goa, Kerala and Tamil Nadu are the most developed states in the country. The Raghuram Rajan panel report has made a case for ending the 'special category' criteria for providing additional assistance to poorer states and suggested a new methodology for devolving funds on states based on a 'Multi Dimensional Index (MDI)'. Giving details of the report, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said the committee has suggested that the 28 states be split into three categories - least developed, less developed and relatively developed - depending upon their MDI scores. As regards the allocation of funds, the report suggested that each state should get a basic fixed allocation and an additional allocation depending on its development needs and development performance. The panel was formed by the Centre to finalize the new criteria to determine backwardness of states for granting special category status and was asked to submit its report in two months. The panel was set up in the wake of the demand for special category status for Bihar by its Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who held a rally in Delhi to push for this in March. Granting of special category status would allow Bihar to receive “untied” central funds or grants as 30% of total government assistance is kept aside for such states. The committee was asked to look at the gap between a state’s statistics and the national average in terms of per-capita income and other human development indicators, and evolve a composite development index. 
  
• The Supreme Court of India on 27 September 2013 held that citizens have the right to reject all candidates contesting an election. The Supreme Court also directed the Election Commission of India to provide none of the above options at the end of the list of candidates contesting an election in a constituency. A bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam while pronouncing the judgment viewed that negative voting would foster purity and vibrancy of elections .It also ensure wide participation as people who are not satisfied with the candidates in the fray would also turn up to express their opinion rejecting contestants. The bench noted that the concept of negative voting is prevalent in 13 countries. Even in India parliamentarians are given an option to press the button for abstaining while voting takes place in the Parliament. The bench also observed that right to reject candidates in elections is part of fundamental right given by the Constitution in article 19 (freedom of speech and expression). The court passed this order on a Public Interest Litigation(PIL) filed by an NGO, People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), which had submitted that voters be given the right to negative voting.
  
• The Ministry of Tourism on 27th September launched “777 Days of the Incredible Indian Himalayas” campaign to centre stage the Incredible Indian Himalayas on the World Tourism Map. On this occasion, Minister of Tourism(I/C) Dr. K.Chiranjeevi announced that the Ministry of Tourism has decided to meet 50% of Peak fee chargeable by Indian Mountaineering Foundation from the climbing expeditions during the period of 777 days of the campaign. The Minister added that the campaign has been designed to spread awareness around the globe that 73% of Himalayan range lies in India. Describing the Incredible Indian Himalayas as a greatest show on the earth, Dr. Chiranjeevi said that the purpose of the campaign was to tell the entire world that Himalayas provide opportunity for a round-the-year tourism right from hard adventure to soft adventure, rich flora and fauna to bio-diversity hotspots, high altitude peaks to beautiful lakes, from varied culture to the realm of spirituality and wellness. The Ministry also launched a Himalayan Map and a Directory of Events that would contain the activities to be undertaken during this period of “777 days of the Incredible Indian Himalayas” campaign. A book on safety regulations brought out by ATAOI was also release on the occasion. The Ministry also released two short films titled “Greatest Show on the Earth” and “Life Altering Journey”. The Adventure Travel Association of India (ATAOI) is collaborating with the Ministry of Tourism in this campaign and they have designed special adventure programmes running over the next 777 days. 
  
• The Union Minister for Culture Chandresh Kumari Katoch on 16th September unveiled the Brass Plate World Heritage Plaque at the Chittorgarh Fort, Rajasthan and released brochures on the Fort in Hindi & English. Chittorgarh Fort is one of the six hill forts of Rajasthan recently inscribed in the World Heritage List by the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO. The selection was approved in June 2013 in the 37th Session of the Committee. The Union Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation Minister Dr. Girija Vyas was also present on the occasion as a distinguished guest. Both the Ministers also jointly inaugurated the restored topkhana and a photo exhibition in kumbha palace on the occasion. Smt. Katoch lauded the people of Rajasthan for preserving rich cultural heritage of the country for centuries and said, both the international and domestic tourists always list Rajasthan as their preferred destination. 
  
• 'Kanoon Lugat', an Urdu law dictionary, billed as a first of its kind in the country, was released in Mumbai on 15th September, in the presence of legal luminaries. The dictionary, encompassing 52,000 legal terms, has been translated in Urdu for the first time, said chief translator and Supreme Court advocate Muhammad Irshad Hanif. Advocate Hanif has also translated Indian Penal Code and Indian Evidence Act in Urdu, besides publishing two books 'Taziraat-e-Hind' and 'Qanoon Shahadat-e-Hind'. The Urdu legal dictionary has a foreword written by Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir. Jamiat Ulama-e-Maharashtra legal panel member, lawyer Shahid N Ansari said this is the first time that line-to-line translation of the two laws is available in Urdu. 
  
• The Union Cabinet on 20th September, approved the following proposals of the National Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Policy : i) to implement and monitor of the Policy through National and State ECCE Councils; ii) to develop National Early Childhood Care and Education Curriculum Framework and Quality Standards and circulate to the States/Union Territories (UTs) for preparation of Action Plans and implementation by States /UTs; and iii) to delegate of power to the Ministry of Women and Child Development to make necessary changes. 
  
• The Policy would help to 158.7 million Indian children under six years of age who need holistic and integrated early childhood care. In particular it would enable preschool education inputs for their optimum development to realize their potential. The vision of the National ECCE Policy is to promote inclusive, equitable and contextualized opportunities for promoting optimal development and active learning capacity of all children below 6 years of age. The Policy focus is on early preschool learning for every child below six years. The key areas of this policy are universal access with equity and inclusion, quality in ECCE, strengthening capacity, monitoring and supervision, advocacy, research and review.
  
• Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on 21st September laid the foundation stone of the Kishangarh Airport in Ajmer district. Dr. Singh said Kishangarh has become fully accessible to tourists, which will rake in economic progress for the state. Dr. Singh stated that commercial airports are expected to grow throughout the country as the number of air travelers is expected to appreciate to 30 million by 2020.“Kishangarh airport started to be developed under this effort (airports in smaller cities) is the first project. This number is expected to grow in the coming time,” Dr. Singh said the airport, which is likely to start operations in 2016, would cater to pilgrims who visit the Ajmer Dargah and Pushkar Lake.
  
• The project for development of Chhindwara as a Tourist Circuit in Madhya Pradesh, with Central Financial Assistance from Government of India was launched on September 21, 2013 by the Union Minister of Tourism (Independent charge), Dr K. Chiranjeevi and the Union Urban Development & Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Dr. Kamal Nath. The Ministry of Tourism is continuously striving for creating better infrastructure, developing new tourism destinations and bringing them on the national and international tourism map. Dr Chiranjeevi informed that in view of the immense tourism potential in Chhindwara the scope of the tourist destination development project was agreed to be enhanced as the development of Chhindwara as a tourist circuit, with the inclusion of the famous Khedapati Mandir, Chakravyuha water falls in the Ananjangaon Harrai, development of surroundings of Pataleshwar Mandir, Chhote Mahadev Temple Tamia, Sharda Ghat Burman, Narsinghpur and Mundhara, Distt. Seoni etc, thereby considering additional funds of approximately Rs. 300.00 lakh. 
  
• The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated the 11th Asian Pacific Postal Union (APPU) Congress on 3 September at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi. Speaking on the occasion, the President said that the Asian Pacific Postal Union, an inter-governmental organization of 32 countries of the region is actively working to improve cooperation among member nations in the field of postal services. He stated that the changing global scenario calls for postal administrations around the world to think differently. He called upon postal administration to be proactive to change. They must leverage their strengths to provide quality service to the people. He stated that worldwide, postal administrations enjoy the trust of people. The President said that globalization and easier movement of workforce across nations have opened a great window of opportunity for the postal sector. With increasing requirement for remittance channels, it can, with the guidance of the Asian Pacific Postal Union, make a difference. He added that there is a huge scope for postal services to be engaged in e-commerce, and gain from the rising demand for such business products. 
  
• The Union Cabinet on 3rd September, approved the proposal for setting up of the Bharat Rural Livelihood Foundation (BRLF) as an independent charitable society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 to facilitate and upscale civil society action in partnership with Government for transforming livelihoods and lives of rural households, with an emphasis on women, particularly in the Central Indian Tribal Region. It will provide financial grants to Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to meet their human resource and institutional costs for up scaling of proven interventions; invest in institutional strengthening of smaller CSOs and capacity building of professional resources working at the grassroots. Projects supported by BRLF would be able to reach 10 lakh poor families by the end of the fifth year. BRLF would also have supported the capacity building of 1,000 CSO professionals and institutional strengthening of a significant number of smaller CSOs within the above time frame. Even though BRLF will have an India wide mandate, the initial focus of the organization will be on the Central Indian Tribal Region, centered on blocks having significant tribal population across 170 districts in the States of Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Gujarat. Rs 500 crore will be released for creating the corpus fund of the new Society, in two tranches. The society will be constituted as a partnership between Government on the one hand and private sector philanthropies, private and public sector undertakings (under Corporate Social Responsibility) on the other hand. 
  
• The Union Cabinet on 3rd September approved the proposal for setting up of an autonomous "National Institute of Solar Energy" (NISE) to assist the Ministry and function as the apex national centre for research and technology development and related activities in the area of solar energy technologies in the country. The National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE) is to be set up immediately by converting the Solar Energy Centre (SEC), Gurgaon with a long term vision to develop it as a world class institute. A broad based national team in the form of a Review-cum-Strategy Formulation Committee would be set up with representation from industry, the scientific community, financial institutions etc. to prepare a blue print. This committee would look at various models available in the country and outside and prepare a roadmap for the Institute. Setting up of an apex national centre for Solar Energy is a part of the JNNSM, which was considered by the Prime Minister`s Council on Climate Change in August, 2009. The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) and other related proposals were approved by the Govt. in November, 2009. While approving the JNNSM, the Govt. also approved specific targets and budget for the first phase of the Mission till March, 2013. This includes R&D in solar energy, including setting up of a Centre of Excellence as an apex centre on different aspects of solar energy technologies.