Long Term Strategy to meet Shortage of Petroleum Products

The Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply today that the Government is aware of the expected shortage of petroleum products in the country and has taken a number of steps to enhance availability in consultation with experts. The following important steps, amongst others, have been taken by the Government to enhance domestic production and reduce dependence on imported fossil fuels: ·        New pricing guidelines for domestically produced natural gas approved to incentivize exploration and production of natural gas in the country.  ·        Project for re-assessment of hydrocarbon resources in all sedimentary basins of India taken up. ·        Appraisal of unappraised areas of all sedimentary basins of India taken up. ·        Policy on non-exclusive multi-client speculative survey for assessment of unexplored sedimentary basins adopted. ·        Improved Oil Recovery (IOR) / Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) implemented by Exploration and Production (E&P) companies for enhancing oil recovery from fields. ·        Policy for exploration and production of CBM and also shale oil & gas are being implemented. ·        Policy framework for early monetisation of hydrocarbon discoveries under PSC regime approved. ·        Policy for exploration in Mining Lease Areas approved. ·        Conservation measures to curtail waste of scarce energy adopted. ·        New and renewable energy applications being promoted.

#CentralArmedPoliceForces (Assistant Commandants) Examination, 2014 - Final Result Regarding

Based  on  the  results of the Central  Armed  Police  Forces  (Assistant Commandants) Examination, 2014 held  by UNION PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION on  July 13, 2014 and the interviews for   Personality  Test  held  in February, 2015, the following is the list,   in  order  of  merit, of candidates who have been recommended for appointment to the posts  of Assistant Commandants (Group A) in the Central Armed Police Forces viz. Border Security Force (BSF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF),  Sashastra  Seema Bal (SSB) & Central Industrial Security Force (CISF). A total number of 105 candidates have been recommended for appointment as per the following break-up:- GENERAL OBC SC ST Total 50 31 16 08 105 Appointments to the various services shall be made by the Government according to the number of vacancies available and subject to the candidates fulfilling all the prescribed eligibility conditions/provisions contained in the Rules for the Examination and verifications, wherever due, being completed satisfactorily. Allotment to various services     shall be made according to the merit obtained and preference of services given  by  the  candidates. The  number  of  vacancies  reported  by  the Govt. to  be  filled are  as  under:- Name of Service Number  of  Vacancies General OBC SC ST Total B.S.F 15 07 04 02 28 C.R.P.F. 14 08 04 02 28 C.I.S.F. 22 10 05 03 40 S.S.B. 15 06 03 01 25 TOTAL 66 31 16 08 121 result: http://pib.nic.in/archieve/others/2015/feb/d2015022504.pdf

Status of Muslim Women

A High Level Committee, constituted under the Chairmanship of Justice (Retd.) Rajinder Sachar, in its report has indicated that the Muslim Community (as a whole) lags behind the mainstream in social, economic and educational sectors. As per Sachar Committee Report, the literacy level of Muslim females as compared to others are - Female (Urban) – 2001 All Hindus Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribes Muslims All Others 73 74 58 63 78 Female (Rural) – 2001 All Hindus Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribes Muslims All Others 46 46 36 43 52 (Source: Sachar Committee Report based on 2001 Census) Religion-wise data of Census 2011 is not available. As per Sachar Committee report, about 38 % of Muslims in urban areas and 27 % in rural areas live below the poverty level. Poverty level separately for Muslim women is not available.              The Government has taken following initiatives for the educational development of Minority girls including Muslims. -Under all the scholarship schemes of Ministry of Minority Affairs namely, Pre-matric, Post-matric, Merit-cum-Means based scholarships, 30% of the scholarships are earmarked for girl students. -30% of the fellowships are earmarked for female scholars under Maulana Azad National Fellowship scheme. -Under Free coaching and Allied Scheme, 30% of the number sanctioned for coaching/ training is earmarked for girl students/ candidates. -Maulana Azad Education Foundation, under the administrative control of the Ministry of Minority Affairs implements a scholarship scheme for meritorious girls students belonging to notified minority communities. -To facilitate and motivate education amongst girls of minority communities, free bicycles are given to the eligible minority girl students of class 9th  under Multi-secotral Development Programme (MsDP). -Under ‘Seekho Aur Kamao’ scheme for upgrading the skills of minority youths in various modern / traditional vocations and linked them with market in order to ensure employment/ jobs, minimum 33% of seats are earmarked for minority girls. -Under Prime Minister’s New 15 Point Programme for welfare of minorities, 555 Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBVs) have been sanctioned since 2006-07 in the minority concentrated areas and all are operational.  Department of School Education and Literacy has also issued instructions that as KGBV schools are part of the regular upper primary school system of the State, the State Government / Union Territory’s particular policy for instruction in Urdu medium should be adopted for the KGBV schools. The Urdu teachers available in the system should be deployed for the purpose. -The University Grants Commission (UGC) pays special attention to setting up of women’s hostels in higher education institutions in Muslim concentration areas. UGC has sanctioned 285 Women’s Hostels during 11th Plan in 90 Minority Concentration Districts. During the 12th Plan upto 2014-15 (upto September, 2014), 133 women’s hostels have been sanctioned in Minority Concentrated Districts.

#Ranking of Indian Universities

The #UGC has launched the following schemes for making higher education relevant to the needs of the society and industry, namely: Career Oriented Programmes (COC), Community Colleges (CC) and introduction of degrees in vocational subjects in line with National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF). The UGC, through collaboration with National Mission on Education thought ICT (#NMEICT), has undertaken e-content development of post graduate programmes called e-PG Pathashala. The UGC has notified several regulations with the objective of sustenance and improvement in the quality of higher education and for undertaking academic reforms. The regulations are on the following matters, namely: mandatory assessment and accreditation of higher educational institutions; affiliation of colleges by universities; regulation of private and deemed to be universities; minimum qualifications for appointment of teachers; minimum standards for grant of first degree, Master’s degree, M.Phil/Ph.D;  grievance redressal; promotion of equity; curbing the menace of ragging etc. The regulations are available at http://www.ugc.ac.in/page/UGC-Regulations.aspx. The UGC also laid down a list of Degrees specified for the Purposes of Section 22 of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956. No other degree can be granted by a University/College and Institutions empowered to grant degrees by an Act of Parliament.  The UGC supports access and expansion by financing development of the Central Universities, recognition of new State Universities and Colleges, regulation of private and deemed to be universities and establishment of Community Colleges. The UGC conducts inspection of private universities. These Private Universities are also inspected by the UGC with the help of Expert Committees, constituted by the UGC, which includes representatives from the concerned Statutory Council(s), to check their compliance with the laid down regulations and gives them opportunity for rectification of defects and non-conformity with the regulations. The Ministry of Human Resource Development had launched a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) namely Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (#RUSA) which seeks to improve overall quality of existing State higher educational institutions by ensuring their conformity to prescribed norms and standards and adoption of accreditation as a mandatory quality assurance framework.  RUSA is incentivizing State Governments to reform affiliating system, governance and academic and examination system in State higher educational institutions.  The total outlay for RUSA for the 12th Plan is Rs. 22,855 crores. The Project Approval Board of RUSA has approved infrastructure grants for five universities and thirty five colleges, two new professional colleges and grants for faculty improvement, vocationalization of higher education and equity initiatives in higher educational institutions in Gujarat.

Ishan Vikas and Ishan Uday Scholarship Schemes

It has the following components: ·         Visit of Class IX and Class XI students to 22 premier institutes [IITs, National Institutes of Techonology (NITs) and Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs)] with two groups in summer and one group in winter, consisting of 32 students each. Each group of 32 can be formed by taking 4 students from one single school in each of the eight North East states. Each school will send one teacher to accompany the students of that school, which means every group will consist of 32 students and 8 teachers. ·         Summer Internship for Engineering College students of the North-East for a duration of seven weeks at the Premier Institutes like IITs, NITs and IISERs. From 25 such Institutions, about 250 students will visit 16 IITs and 6 NITs every year. The Ministry of Human Resource Development has approved release of Rs. 605.45 lakhs from the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to IIT, Guwahati under the Ishan Vikas programme. The University Grants Commission (UGC) has launched “Ishan Uday” a Special Scholarship Scheme for North East Region (NER) from academic session 2014-15. Under the scheme ten thousand fresh scholarships are to be provided for general degree course, technical and professional courses including medical and para-medical courses. The guidelines of the scheme are available at http://www.ugc.ac.in/pdfnews/ 2773585_final-NER-guidelines-with-annexures.pdf . An amount of Rs.3500/- p.m. for General Degree courses and Rs. 5000/- p.m. for Technical & Professional courses (including Medical & Para medical courses) will be given through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) to the beneficiary student. The Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development earmarks 10% of the budgeted allocations under plan head, under its various schemes, for the development of tertiary education in the North East Region. Further, the Ministry of Human Resource Development had launched a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) namely Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) which seeks to improve overall quality of existing State higher educational institutions in conformity with prescribed norms and standards.

#DigitalLiteracy

The Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development is currently implementing the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NMEICT) to leverage the potential of ICT in teaching and learning process. Under the Scheme, apart from other activities, e-content in a number of subjects pertaining to the engineering, science, social science and humanities streams at Undergraduate (UG) and Postgraduates (PG) levels have been created for the benefit of the students and learners. The Information and Library Network (INFLIBNET) Centre of the UGC has taken up a number of initiatives for enhancing access to academic resources through ICT, namely: i) UGC-Infonet Digital Library Consortium that extends access to selected scholarly electronic journals and databases to the universities in different disciplines; ii) Shodhganga: A Reservoir of Indian Electronic Theses and Dissertations, that enables online submission of theses and dissertations by research scholars in digital repository set-up at the INFLIBNET Centre; iii) Shodhgangotri that enables research scholars to submit approved synopsis of research proposal submitted to the university; iv) Open Journals Access System (OJAS) that facilitates faculty and researchers in Indian universities to launch their open access journals on OJAS platform offered by the INFLIBNET Centre; v) Access management technologies that would facilitate users to access e-resources irrespective of their physical location. Besides, the Centre through a project entitled “National Library and Information Services Infrastructure for Scholarly Content” (N-LIST) provides access to electronic journals and electronic books to eligible colleges. The University of Delhi has informed that its Campus of Open Learning and Edinburgh College, Scotland have a MOU under UKIERI project (United Kingdom –India Education Research Initiative). As a result, University of Delhi organizes D-LITE (Digital Learning and Innovation for Tomorrow Education) where faculty members of the colleges are being trained on Digital/E-learning tools such as Web 2.0 tools, advanced presentation/audio-video lectures for classroom teaching with effect from 2013 to 2015. Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras along with its National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) partners and National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) have run, three Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) of 10 weeks each. lIT Madras is offering certification on successful completion of the course and nominal fee for online examination and certification is charged. Similarly IIT Kanpur has conducted five Online Courses with certification of 4-5 weeks duration. IIT Bombay has also run four courses globally and three more courses are currently going on. A project on the “Development of National Digital Library” has also been sanctioned to IIT Kharagpur.

Year 2015 as the "Year of Taxpayers Services"

Central Excise Day Celebrated; MoS(Finance) Shri Jayant Sinha Emphasizes that There is Urgent Need to Enhance the Tax to GDP Ratio in India as Well as Expanding the Tax Base and Improving the Tax Compliance; Exhorted the Officers to Work on Innovative Ideas to Facilitate Starting and Doing a Business

The Minister of State for Finance Shri Jayant Sinha emphasized that there was urgent need to enhance the tax to GDP ratio in India, which was lower than those in some of the developing economies such as Kenya, Uganda, and Nepal. Expanding the tax base and improving the tax compliance were therefore of utmost importance. Shri Sinha was speaking at a function organized here yesterday by the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), Ministry of Finance to celebrate the Central Excise Day. The Central Excise Day is celebrated every year to commemorate the Central Excise and Salt Act which was enacted on 24th February 1944. Speaking on the occasion, Shri Sinha who was the Chief Guest exhorted the officers to work on innovative ideas to facilitate starting and doing a business such as development of mobile applications to facilitate starting of business even by a small vendor or a group of students. Officers also needed to make it attractive for a businessman to be part of the tax-net than to avoid it. The Minister of State for Finance, Shri Sinha informed that the day was also historic for the reason that the 14th Finance Commission had recommended unprecedented hike in the States` share of Central taxes by 10 percentage points from 32% to 42%, which is a move in the direction of “cooperative federalism” strongly advocated by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself. Finally, he lauded the stellar role being played by the Central Excise Department in contributing to nation building and congratulated all the awardees and their families. Shri Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Finance also gave away the Certificates of Appreciation to the selected 40 officers of the Department of different grades from all over the country, who by continued devotion and commitment to duty, had contributed to promoting excellence in the fields of Central Excise and Service Tax administration. Speaking on the occasion, Shri Shaktikanta Das, Revenue Secretary, the Guest Of Honour, underlined that the Department had to constantly strike a balance between trade facilitation and enforcement measure, which was not an easy task. He emphasised that the officers should focus on three F’s i.e. firmness, fairness and friendliness. Dr. Jyotsna Suri, President, FICCI and special invitee to the occasion thanked the Department for associating the representatives from the trade and industry to be part of an internal celebration of the Department which was indicative of better understanding and cooperation between the Department and the trade, who were both partners in the economic development of the country. Earlier, in his welcome speech, Shri Kaushal Srivastava, Chairman, CBEC informed that with a view to greater customer focus and service orientation, CBEC was celebrating the Year 2015 as the "Year of Taxpayers Services". He averred that the department was fully geared and committed to undertake the challenges for implementation of the Goods and Service Tax slated to come into effect from 1st April, 2016.