Flood Management

The State Governments formulate the proposals for flood management and such eligible proposals which secure all mandatory clearance including investment clearance of Planning Commission are sent to Ministry of Water Resources for availing central assistance through the monitoring agencies for approval under Flood Management Programme. In October, 2013, the Cabinet approved continuation of Flood Management Programme during XII Plan. Under this Programme, a total of 97 new flood management projects having all mandatory clearances were received and the same were approved during the years 2012-13 to 2014-15 of XII Plan. The total utilisable water resource in the country has been estimated by Central Water Commission as 1123 Billion Cubic Metre ( BCM) of which 690 BCM is surface water resource and 433 BCM is ground water resource. It has been estimated in the year 2009 by Central Water Commission (CWC) that about 450 BCM of surface water is being utilised for various purposes. Further, Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) has also assessed in 2009 that about 243 BCM of ground water is being utilised for various purposes. The rest of the water could be considered to be currently flowing into sea flows and the neighbouring countries as also being lost due to evaporation. During every monsoon, the Central Water Commission (CWC) monitors on monthly basis the identified glacial lakes and water bodies having water spread area more than 50 hectare. Any untoward growth in size of such lakes is informed to the concerned State Governments and then high resolution monitoring of such lakes is carried out through National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC).

Ganga Manthan

A national level consultation in the name of ‘Ganga Manthan’ was organized on July 07, 2014 at New Delhi to facilitate interaction with various stakeholders including policy makers and implementers, academicians, environmentalists, spiritual leaders and NGOs. The event was organized by the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), a registered society under Ministry of Environment & Forests (MoEF), implementing the river Ganga pollution abatement programme under National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA). It was aimed to provide a platform for various stakeholders to come together to discuss the issues and possible solutions to the challenging task of Ganga Rejuvenation. The views expressed by the stakeholders participating in ‘Ganga Manthan’ would be helpful for the preparation of a road map for the preparation of a comprehensive plan to rejuvenate the River Ganga. A Memorandum of Agreement for 10 years has been signed in 2010 by MoEF and a consortium of seven IITs for preparation of a comprehensive River Basin Management Plan for Ganga. Besides the IITs, National Institute of Hydrology (NIH), Roorkee, Banaras Hindu University, various universities and research institutes are also involved in Ganga River Basin Management Plan (GRBMP). Interim report has been submitted, which is circulated to different ministries, departments and other stakeholders for comments. For rivers other than Ganga, National River Conservation Directorate (NRCD) in MoEF, which is entrusted with implementation of Centrally Sponsored Scheme of National River Conservation Plan (NRCP) jointly with the State Governments on a cost-sharing basis, has identified polluted stretches of 40 major rivers in 121 towns spread over 19 States in the country, in which pollution abatement activities are being implemented under NRCP. Ministry of Environment & Forests (MoEF) have informed that pollution abatement of rivers, including building of toilets etc., is to be undertaken by the State Government/ local bodies concerned, as per their priorities. The role of the Central Government is promotional and to supplement the efforts of the State Govt. Central Pollution Control Board has inventorised 144 drains discharging wastewater into river Ganga directly. The total wastewater discharge from these drains is 6475 million litres per day (mld) and carrying total Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) load of 426 tonnes/ day.

400 districts already covered by the Strengthened & Resurrected ICDS Scheme Remaining districts to be covered in the current year

An amount of Rs. 1626748.57 lakhs was released to States by the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development under the ICDS Scheme in the year 2013-14 against a release of Rs. 1570149.59 lakhs in the year 2012-13. In the current year (upto 30th June, 2014) an amount of Rs. 570651.62 lakhs has already been released to the States under the ICDS scheme. In order to address various programmatic, management and institutional gaps and to meet administrative and operational challenges, Government approved Strengthening and Restructuring of ICDS Scheme in September 2012 with an over-all budget allocation of Rs. 1,23,580 crore during 12th Five Year Plan. Roll out of Restructured and Strengthened ICDS has been taken place as per the following schedule: I. In 200 high burden districts in the first year (2012-13); II. In additional 200 districts in second year (2013-14) (i.e. w.e.f. 1.4.2013) including districts from special category States and NER; III. In remaining districts in third year (2014-15) (i.e. w.e.f. 1.4.2014). The key features of Strengthened and Restructured ICDS include addressing the gaps and challenges with (a) special focus on children under 3 years and pregnant and lactating mothers (P&L) (b) strengthening and repackaging of services including , care and nutrition counseling services and care of severely underweight children (c) a provision for an additional Anganwadi Worker cum Nutrition Counselor for focus on children under 3 years of age and to improve the family contact, care and nutrition counseling for P&L Mothers in the selected 200 high-burden districts across the country, besides having provision of link worker, 5% crèche cum Anganwadi centre (d) focus on Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) (e) forging strong institutional and programmatic convergence particularly, at the district, block and village levels (f) models providing flexibility at local levels for community participation (g) introduction of Annual Programme Implementation Plan (APIP) (h) improving Supplementary Nutrition Programme including cost revision, (i) provision for construction and improvement of buildings of Anganwadi centres (j) allocating adequate financial resources for other components including Monitoring and Management and Information System(MIS), Training and use of Information and communication technology (ICT), (k) to put ICDS in a mission mode and (l) revision of financial norms etc.

Overseas Indian Centres

The Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs has established two Overseas Indian Centres (OIC) in Washington DC in United States of America (USA), and Abu Dhabi in United Arab Emirates (UAE). Duties being performed by both centres are as follows: OIC, Washington i.               Publicizing Diaspora Schemes like Know India Programme / Scholarship Programme for Diaspora Children. ii.              Recommending, if required, the names of persons interested in participating in schemes to Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs. iii.            Interactions with Indian Community Association. iv.            Works related to Overseas Citizens of India/Person of Indian Origin cards OIC, Abu Dhabi i.               Attestation of employment contracts. ii.              Managing Indian Workers Resource Centre (IWRC) iii.            Maintenance and operation of Indian Community Welfare Fund (ICWF) to provide financial assistance to distressed Indians in need. iv.            Visit jails, hospitals, immigration authorities, labour authorities, police stations and liaison with the concerned local authorities for effectively redressing grievances of Indians. v.             Constant and regular interactions with various social and cultural Indian Community organizations and taking up their cause with the local authorities. vi.            Follow up with concerned authorities for payment of end-of service benefits, death compensation and Diya Money. vii.          Taking up issues of families back home of Indian residents in UAE with the concerned authorities in India.

Steps Taken to Meet the Increasing Energy Demand ,for ias mains

The Minister of State (I/C) in the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply today that during the year 2013-14, the consumption of petroleum products was 158.2 MMT against a total production of 35.5 MMT from indigenous sources(figures are provisional). The Minister said that the following steps are being taken to meet the energy demand and strengthen the country’s energy security: (i) The Government, and the Exploration and Production (E&P) companies have taken several steps to enhance oil and gas production in the country, which inter-alia, includes: • Offering of exploration blocks under New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) - 254 exploration blocks awarded. • Implementation of improved oil recovery and enhanced oil recovery schemes by E&P companies for ageing fields. • Development of unconventional sources of hydrocarbon such as Coal Bed Methane (CBM) and Shale Gas. • Policy for geo-scientific data acquisition through public funding. (ii) Pursuing various E&P opportunities in India and abroad to have a balanced portfolio of exploratory, developing and producing oil and gas assets. (iii) Pursuing transnational oil and gas pipeline projects. (iv) Construction of strategic crude oil reserves of 5.33 million metric tonnes capacity. The Minister informed that our oil companies have E&P assets in 24 countries namely, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, East Timor, Gabon, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Libya, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nigeria, Russia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, USA, Venezuela, Vietnam and Yemen. OVL is currently producing oil and gas from 13 projects in 8 countries viz., Russia, Sudan, Vietnam, Azerbaijan, Myanmar, Colombia, Venezuela and Brazil. During 2013-14, OVL’s share in production of oil and oil-equivalent gas was 8.36 MMTOE. India is actively engaged in bilateral and multilateral cooperation with foreign countries. To strengthen the country’s energy security, the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas is engaged in oil diplomacy. India’s oil PSUs in particular are being encouraged to adopt a global vision in their pursuit of raw materials and raw material-producing assets abroad, and to vigorously pursue acquisition of oil and gas assets overseas.

Overseas Indian Centres

The Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs has established two Overseas Indian Centres (OIC) in Washington DC in United States of America (USA), and Abu Dhabi in United Arab Emirates (UAE). Duties being performed by both centres are as follows: OIC, Washington i.               Publicizing Diaspora Schemes like Know India Programme / Scholarship Programme for Diaspora Children. ii.              Recommending, if required, the names of persons interested in participating in schemes to Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs. iii.            Interactions with Indian Community Association. iv.            Works related to Overseas Citizens of India/Person of Indian Origin cards OIC, Abu Dhabi i.               Attestation of employment contracts. ii.              Managing Indian Workers Resource Centre (IWRC) iii.            Maintenance and operation of Indian Community Welfare Fund (ICWF) to provide financial assistance to distressed Indians in need. iv.            Visit jails, hospitals, immigration authorities, labour authorities, police stations and liaison with the concerned local authorities for effectively redressing grievances of Indians. v.             Constant and regular interactions with various social and cultural Indian Community organizations and taking up their cause with the local authorities. vi.            Follow up with concerned authorities for payment of end-of service benefits, death compensation and Diya Money. vii.          Taking up issues of families back home of Indian residents in UAE with the concerned authorities in India.

Export Targets of MSMEs

As per the revised methodology suggested by Central Statistics Office (CSO), Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI), on the basis of the data on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) published by CSO, MoSPI and final results of the latest Census (Fourth Census), the estimated contribution of MSME sector to GDP, during 2010-11, 2011-12 & 2012-13, are: Share of MSME Sector in Total GDP (%) Year 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 Manufacturing Sector MSME 7.39 7.27 7.04 Service Sector MSME 29.30 30.70 30.50 Total 36.69 37.97 37.54 The Government monitors the employment in the MSME sector in the country by conducting All India Census of the sector, periodically. As per the latest Census (Fourth Census), conducted (with base reference year 2006-07), as well as data extracted from Economic Census 2005 conducted by CSO, MoSPI, for activities excluded from Fourth Census, namely wholesale/retail trade, legal, educational & social services, hotel & restaurants, transports and storage & warehousing (except cold storage); the total employment in the sector increased to 805.24 lakh as compared to 249.33 lakh in the Third All India Census of Small Scale Industries, conducted with reference year 2001-02. Based on the export data maintained by Director General of Commercial Intelligence & Statistics, Ministry of Commerce and the information available with this Ministry about MSME products having significant export, the share of MSME in India’s total export, for the years 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14, has been estimated as 43%, 43% and 42.38% respectively. The Government aims to increase the share of MSME sector by implementing various schemes / programmes. The major schemes / programmes are Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme, National Manufacturing Competitiveness Programme, Credit Guarantee Scheme, Credit Linked Capital Subsidy Scheme, Cluster Development Programme, Market Development Assistance Scheme, and Vendor Development Programme for Ancillarisation. Recently, the Public Procurement Policy has been notified by the Ministry in April, 2012, which would mandate 20% of the procurement by Government Departments from Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs). This would facilitate marketing of products by MSEs.Government in the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises(MSME) has been implementing a credit-linked subsidy programme named Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) from 2008-09 for generating self-employment in the non-farm sector through Banks, with Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) as nodal agency at the national level. Under PMEGP, Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes beneficiaries are provided margin money subsidy under special category at a higher rate of 35 per cent in rural areas and 25 per cent in urban areas in comparison to 25 per cent and 15 per cent respectively for general category beneficiaries.