Achievements and Initiatives in the Ministry of Labour and Employment Governance, Transparency and Efficiency – Ease of Doing Business Single Unified Labour Portal

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Initiatives taken by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion:

Improving Business Environment; Fast Tracking Manufacturing and Liberalisation of FDI Policy Nirmala Sitharaman Addresses Media at PIB National Media Centre

Development of a robust manufacturing sector is the priority of the Government. It has the potential to not only take theeconomic growth to a higher trajectory, but also to provide employment.  The Government is committed to remove all bottlenecks and develop India as a manufacturing hub. A number of measures have been taken by the Government in that direction. During the last three months, the economic activity has picked up as reflected in the quarterly growth figures of GDP which grew at 5.7 % in the first quarter (Q1) of April-June 2014over the corresponding period ofthe previous year (based on CSO estimates).Industrial growth in general and growth in the manufacturing sector in particular has shown significant improvement with growth rates becoming positive as compared to negative growth rates in these sectors in the corresponding period of 2013-14. Gross Fixed Capital Formation (GFCF), the indicator of investment grew as much as by 7% in Q1 of 2014-15, while last year in Q1the growth rate of GFCF was negative, whichreflects upbeat mood of investors and augurs well for the future growth prospects. This perceptible improvement is a reflection of the improved business environment and market sentiment. The HSBC PMI report of July and August 2014 and the Business Confidence Index recently brought out by NCAER validate the positive business sentiment. This perceptible improvement in the economic performance in last three months is a reflection of the improved business environment and market sentiment, an outcome of the series of initiatives taken by the Government to bring about positive changes to revitalise the industrial sector in general and manufacturing sector in particular.A number of positive announcements have already been made in the Union Budget 2014-15 in that direction. Providingan enabling and conducive environment for doing business in India isan important factor contributing to industrial growth.The emphasis of the Government has beenonsimplification of the procedures, rationalization of the existing rules and increased use of information technology to make governance more efficient, effective, simple and user-friendly.  The initiativestaken for ease of doing business in India are given in the Annexure. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) being an important resource, the Government has taken a number of steps to attract more FDI inflows into the country. The FDI policy in Defence sector has been liberalised and FDI cap has been raised from 26% to 49% [vide press note 7(2014 series)]; 100% FDI under automatic route has been permitted in construction, operation and maintenance in specified Rail Infrastructure projects[vide press note 8 (2014 series)]; the norms for FDI in the Construction Development sector are being eased.FDI inflows have increased by 75 % during June and July, 2014 over thecorresponding period in previous year. The development of industrial corridors and industrial clusters has been fast paced with a series of initiatives: ·         A new ‘National Industrial Corridor Development Authority’ is being created to  carry out project development activities, apprise and sanction projects, implement and coordinate all central efforts for industrial corridor development of all Industrial Corridors. ·         Work on 5 smart cities namely, Dholera in Gujarat;Shendra-Bidkin in Maharashtra; Integrated Industrial Township in Greater Noida (UP); Integrated Industrial Township  near Ujjain (MP); Global City in Gurgaon, Haryana is  moving at a fast pace  in Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC). ·         The Perspective Plan for Chennai-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor has been completed. ADB is working on Perspective Plan for the Vizag-Chennai phase of the proposed East Coast Economic Corridor. ·         Steps are being taken to expedite the work relating to the Amritsar-Kolkata Industrial Corridor. The Feasibility Study is likely to be completed in record time. ·         A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between China and India has been signed for promoting cooperation between Chinese and Indian enterprises including the development of industrial parks in India, so as to provide a platform for cluster type development of the enterprises of both countries. A Working Group has been set up to take the workforward. ·         In continuing the initiative of developing Investment and manufacturing clusters, one additional National Investment and Manufacturing Zone (NIMZ) at Kalinganagar, Jajpur district in Odisha has been given in-principle approval, bringing the number of NIMZ’s which have been given in-principle approval to 17. ·         Besides, under the Modified Industrial Infrastructure Up-gradation Scheme, in-principle approval has been accorded to 21 Industrial projects. AnAct recognizing National Institute of Design (NID) Ahmedabad as an institute of National Importance received assent of the President on 17 July 2014. This will enable NID Ahmedabad to confer degrees, promote research and function as an Apex body in Design Education. Four new National Institutes of Design are being established. The Government is focusing on building labour intensive manufacturing. The Indian Leather Development Programme during the last 100 days has provided training to 51216 unemployed youths and 83% of these trained youths have been employed in the leather industry. To provide further impetus to skill development two new Centres of Footwear Design & Development Institutes are being set up.

NASA submarine to explore oceans in space

US space agency NASA is developing a space submarine to explore ocean waters on Titan, one of Saturn’s moons.
Titan is the only other body in the solar system besides earth with liquid oceans on its surface.
An initial proposal was to send a boat to explore the seas of Titan.
“If you only explored our ocean with a boat, you would miss out on a heck of a lot of stuff,” Steven Oleson from NASA’s Glenn Research Centre told science magazine New Scientist.
NASA now plans to send both the boat and submarine to study seas on Titan.
The space submarine, part of NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC), should be able to communicate from beneath the waves.
“The Titan submarine would serve as a pathfinder for even more exotic future subsurface exploration of oceans in space,” Oleson added.

Ozone-depleting fridge gas

NEW DELHI: The customs department has alerted its offices at ports about smuggling of ozone-depleting substances as there has been a recent spurt in attempts to illegally ship R-22 gas, which is used in refrigerants and air-conditioners (ACs).
In discussions with top officials last month, the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) flagged the gas along with gold, fake Indian currency notes, drugs and red sanders on which it will maintain a special focus this year as the department of revenue intelligence has spotted new ways of smuggling these items into the country, senior government officials told TOI.
While R-22 gas or chlorodifluoromethane is allowed to be imported, shipments are closely regulated and require a licence to be brought into the country.
But given the growing market for fridges and air-conditioners, the demand is higher than licensed supply.
In certain countries, use of the gas will be banned by next year, while manufacturers were barred from using them in products launched after 2004.
In a note to chief commissioners, the CBEC has said that in several cases, R-22 gas cylinders were found to be concealed in consignments where the importer had declared shipments of furniture, kitchen cabinets, photocopiers and even fruits, said senior customs officers.

The shipments were from China and Malaysia and the gas was sought to be smuggled through Mumbai, Chennai and Tuticorn ports. Although the officers said that front companies were being used to smuggle R-22, they did not have data related to the quantity of imports into the country. They, however, said that the scale was not as big as some of the other items, with cigarettes also put on the watch list.
Gold has retained its top slot on the Red Alert list for customs department given the government's decision to maintain 10% import duty as also other restrictions. During the last financial year, consignments worth close to Rs 700 crore were seized by customs and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, the note said. From concealing the precious metal in aircraft cavities, to putting them inside socks and knee caps and inside LCD television sets, smugglers have tried every trick to ship gold.

UKPCS-2012 TEST SERIES PROGRAM BY SAMVEG IAS DEHRADUN,UTTARAKHAND

Crash Course for UKPCS-2012 by SAMVEG IAS,DEHRADUN

Speech by the President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee on the occasion of international literacy day, 2014

I am indeed happy to be present amidst you this afternoon in celebrating International Literacy Day. It is an occasion to remind ourselves of the significance of the ability to read and write. It is an opportunity to highlight the learning opportunities that can and should be taken up by those who want to learn these skills. It is a juncture when all the stakeholders reinforce their commitment to the common goals. Today, we celebrate the successful endeavours of individuals and organisations and we recognise those who have made an outstanding contribution for spreading adult literacy. Ladies and Gentlemen, 2. Literacy leads to education in the full sense of the term. It results in the acquisition of essential knowledge and proficiency. These are the instruments for the effective functioning of an individual – both in his group and in the larger community to which he belongs. They empower him and enable him to broaden his horizons and work for his own interest and that of the larger community. 3. Literacy, in its contemporary definition, means "reading the world” rather than "the word”. It enables more perceptive and thus more effective exchanges of thoughts and ideas. These increase understanding and co-operation for achieving the objectives that a society collectively identifies. A literate - and, therefore, educated - society is better able to explore its way towards its inclusive economic and social well being through democratic means. Thus it follows that the more literate a society, the greater its overall integration, growth and development. The plan of action for eradication of illiteracy should, therefore, not only focus on the tangible aspects of literacy but also delve into its intangible and intrinsic aspects. 4. The Father of our Nation, Mahatma Gandhi once observed, "illiteracy is a sin and shame and must be eradicated”. Today, more than 67 years after our independence, where are we? The literacy rate has increased by four times from 18 % in 1951 to about 74 % in 2011. Despite this, our literacy level is below the world average of 84 %. A target of 80% has been set for achievement by the end of the 12th Plan. In this period, we aim to also reduce the gender gap from 16 to 10 percentage points. However our progress in adult literacy has been uneven and wide disparities are still seen. While States like Kerala, Himachal Pradesh and Mizoram have done reasonably well, many other States are lagging behind. The Schedule Castes, Schedule Tribes, Minorities and other disadvantaged groups, which constitute a sizeable part of our population, have very much lower rates of literacy. There is, thus, an urgent need to focus attention on these groups to help them to catch up so that we can move faster towards the national targets. Ladies and Gentlemen, 5. Gender disparity in literacy is another important challenge. As we have been told, male and female literacy rates are 80.89 and 64.64 percent respectively. We need to do much better. Government of India rightly considers female literacy as a force multiplier for its social development programmes. In this context, I was glad to note that the National Literacy Mission has enhanced its focus on female literacy. If the Mission enables the Indian woman to take charge of her life and health and feel more confident in her immediate physical and social environment; if literacy helps her to overcome deprivation, discrimination and injustice, then we can say that an important objective has been achieved. As I have said before, our objective should be to bring the literacy rate not only at par with the world average but to the levels attained by the leading societies of the world. 6. I am happy to learn that the Saakshar Bharat Programme with institutional frame work at National, State, District, Block as well as Gram Panchayat level is operational in rural areas of low female literacy districts in the country. The Lok Shiksha Kendras established in over 1.5 lakhs Gram Panchayats are a good initiative. I am also pleased to learn of the "Volunteer–based mass campaign” approach of the programme - in which ‘Volunteers’ act as mobilisers, trainers and teachers of non-literates. I congratulate the Volunteers participating in these campaigns and thank them for their service for the cause of literacy. 7. I would also like to recognise the outstanding efforts of the ‘learners’, those neo-literates who have also responded to the Government programmes. They have enthusiastically participated in the ‘Assessment and Certification’ initiative introduced in 2010 to assess the literacy skills of adult learners. It is satisfying to see that since the introduction of this programme, about 2.86 crore learners have been certified as literate and awarded certificates by the National Institute of Open Schooling. I am told that groups of successful participants or ‘neo-literates’ as they are called, have been invited from various states to participate in today’s celebrations. I am sure they will be inspired to use their learning productively and spread its benefits. I would expect them to reinforce the efforts of Government and Voluntary Agencies by promoting the adult literacy programmes in their respective spheres of influence. Ladies and Gentlemen, 8. We have still miles to go to accomplish what we have set out to achieve. While the primary focus of Saakshar Bharat remains on imparting of functional literacy to adult non-literates, there is a growing demand for giving access to basic education to the neo-literates emerging from the literacy programmes. This is a good proposal; it will help the neo-literates make use of their learning; they will have the opportunity of access to the formal schooling that they never had . A beginning in this direction has been made through the "Equivalency Programme”. 9. I would stress that the success of our march towards total literacy in India will ultimately depend on two factors. One is meaningful and effective advocacy and, secondly, cooperation and support of society at large, to bring non-literates into the mainstream of literacy. Adult Education in India has, so far, been primarily the responsibility of Government with a degree of involvement of Voluntary Agencies. The National Literacy Mission Authority encourages the Corporate and Private sector to join the Government efforts and contribute by bringing in a variety of synergies. I am happy to learn that this has had a good response. I would, therefore, take this opportunity to call upon State Governments, Panchayati Raj Institutions on one hand and on the other, appeal all the stakeholders in a resurgent India – the Corporate and Private Sectors, Voluntary agencies and Civil Society Organisations - to work together, in unison and with greater vigour to realise this goal. 10. With these words, I would like to congratulate all the winners of Saakshar Bharat Awards 2014 and the Ministry of Human Resource Development­ for instituting these awards. I have no doubt that these awards will inspire further efforts in the direction of total literacy in India. I thank the National Literacy Mission Authority and I wish the participants in this Programme great success in their endeavours.

President presents Saakshar Bharat Awards 2014

The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee today (September 8, 2014) presented the Saakshar Bharat Awards 2014 at International Literacy Day Celebrations organized by Union Ministry of Human Resource Development at a function at Vigyan Bhavan. Speaking on the occasion, the President said that a literate and educated society is better able to explore its way towards its inclusive economic and social well being through democratic means. Thus it follows that the more literate a society, the greater its overall integration, growth and development. The plan of action for eradication of illiteracy should, therefore, not only focus on the tangible aspects of literacy but also delve into its intangible and intrinsic aspects. The President said that he was glad to note that the National Literacy Mission has enhanced its focus on female literacy. If the Mission enables the Indian woman to take charge of her life and health and feel more confident in her immediate physical and social environment; if literacy helps her to overcome deprivation, discrimination and injustice, then we can say that an important objective has been achieved. He stressed that the success of our march towards total literacy in India will ultimately depend on two factors. One is meaningful and effective advocacy and secondly, cooperation and support of society at large, to bring non-literates into the mainstream of literacy.