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15 July 2015

“Make in India” wins the 2015- Economic Development Innovation Award for Policy and Program Implementation Excellence

Frost and Sullivan, USA today presented the 2015 Asia – Pacific Economic Development Innovation: Policy and Program Implementation Excellence Award in Manufacturing to Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion for the Make in India initiative.

Frost & Sullivan, a US based Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth and achieve best-in-class positions in growth, innovation, and leadership. The company's Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined research and best practice models to drive the generation, evaluation, and implementation of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages 54 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from more than 40 offices on 6 continents.

The award is in recognition of the outstanding contribution of the Make in India program’s vision and implementation excellence to simplify the regulatory framework, reinforce connectivity and incentivize investments.

After a detailed 10 step process the independent global experts arrived at the GIL-100 Index: Manufacturing Index for 2015 on Manufacturing Excellence. The Make in India program has scored the highest in this data driven GIL Index on vision and implementation, among 100 Countries. The two underlying principles of evaluation were:

Enabling Vision: Vision for Development Strategy and Vision Congruence, Role of Agency in Policy Design, Industry Focus and Funding and Innovative Programs

Implementation Excellence: Effective Channelization of Resources, Effective Program Coordination and Execution, Program Reach and Accessibility, Infrastructure Development and Implementation Success

The award recognizes that the Make in India initiative has become a catalyst to India’s booming domestic manufacturing sector. The initiative has propelled progress towards high value-added manufacturing growth and heavy investment attraction. With the help of operational and legal relaxations, effective infrastructure programs and schemes, and focusing focus on upgrading the strength of skill sets, the Make in India initiative has facilitated the government’s persistent efforts to attract investments from around the world. The initiative’s aggressive efforts towards reinforcing connectivity, channelizing production methodologies, and maximizing effective investment incentives have put India on a path to excellence. The award is a mark of recognition for Make in India’s outstanding contributions to nurture the country’s economic and industrial transformation, and for steering the country towards an environment conducive to domestic and global manufacturing and investment.

The 360 degree research methodology acknowledges the fact that achieving excellence in Policy and Program Implementation is never an easy task; it is even more difficult with today’s competitive intensity and economic uncertainty—not to mention the challenge of gaining global and regional mindshare with industry captains, governments, and trade agencies. In this context, your receipt of this award signifies an even greater accomplishment.

The Award was received by Mr. Amitabh Kant, Secretary Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion on 14^th July, 2015.

14 July 2015

Launch of SKILL INDIA Campaign on 15th July, 2015

On the occasion of the first ever World Youth Skills Day on 15^th July 2015, the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) will launch the SKILL INDIA Campaign. On this historic occasion, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has consented to be the Chief Guest for the event to be held at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. Announcing this here today, the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Shri Rajiv Pratap Rudy has said that during the function, the Prime Minister will formally launch the “National Skill Development Mission”, unveil the new “National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015”, and roll out on all-India basis the Ministry’s flagship scheme, “Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikash Yojana - PMKVY” – the pilot phase of which has already begun.

He said, the National Mission will converge, coordinate, implement and monitor skilling activities across India. It will also be a vehicle to achieve the objectives of the National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015, which will provide policy direction and guidance to all stakeholders in the skill development and entrepreneurship ecosystem. Shri Rudy said, thePradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), the Ministry’s flagship, demand-driven, reward-based skill training scheme will incentivise skill training, by providing financial rewards to candidates who successfuly complete approved skill training programmes. PMKVY will skill 24 lakh youth, across India, over the next one year. For the first time, the skills of young people who lack formal certification, such as workers in India’s vast unorganised sector, will be recognised through an initiative known as ‘Recognition of Prior Learning’ (RPL), who will have a chance to be assessed and certified for the skills that they already possess. 10 lakh youth will be certified under PMKVY’s RPL category over the next one year.

He said, the launch of the Skill India Campaign is an important milestone towards achieving the objective of skilling with Speed, Scale and Standards accross the country. This event would bring together key stakeholders including Central Ministries/Departments, State Governments, leading Industry Bodies, and trainees. Partnerships with all these these stakeholders is vital to ensure that Skill India, is a success.

MSDE has initiated a range of cross-sectoral partnerships, across Ministries and Departments to scale up skill training efforts. Till date Eight cross-sectoral, overarching MoUs have been signed between MSDE and other key Ministries including (Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Steel, Ministry of Mines, Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals, Department of Fertilisers and Department of Pharmaceuticals). In addition to this, two tri-partite MoUs have been signed between NSDC, NSDF and National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) as well as Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd.

These MoUs seek to:

· Leverage existing government infrastructure to deliver skill training programmes

· Mobilize CSR funds of Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) to support skilling

· Upgrade equipment of ITIs and NSDC/SSC affiliated training providers

· Promote and scale up apprenticeship training in PSUs

· Incentivize hiring of NSQF certified personnel

· Promote adoption of ITIs by PSUs, including provision of technical and resource support

· Introduce vocational courses in schools run by Ministries/PSUs

· Establish ‘Centres of Excellence’ for high quality skill training

· Align training programmes to NSQF and mobilize workforce for Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL)

· Scale up skill training programmes, for Persons with Disabilities

Shri Rajiv Pratap Rudy said, widespread awareness and mobilisation drives have been initiated, parallel to the event to ensure that the message of Skill India, reaches out to every part of the country. All States/Union Territories have been roped in to organise functions at State/District headquarters in the presence of their Chief Ministers, in order to increase awareness of World Youth Skills Day.

The national event is also being telecast live across more than 10000 ITIs, NSDC training centres, select Nehru Yuva Kendras, and some educational institutions in all States/Union Territories in India.

With a view to focus on the most important stakeholder – India’s youth – trainees will be felicitated at the Skill India launch at Vigyan Bhawan, at Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and NSDC training centres, across the country.

A ‘Skill Loan’ initiative will be launched at the event, where loans from Rs 5,000-1.5 lakhs will be available to more than 34 lakh youth of India, who seek to attend skill development programmes, over the next five years. Financial constraints will no longer be a hindrance to accessing skill training programmes.

The entire idea of celebrating World Youth Skills Day on a large scale is to underscore the significance of skilling, vocational education and entrepreneurship amongst the youth of the country and make them feel that by skilling, re-skilling, and upskilling, they shall become an integral part of the growth story of India, besides carving out a career trajectory for themselves.

The majority of India’s vast population is of working age. Urgent and effective action to Skill India is critical to capture the demographic potential of India’s youth, so that they can contribute productively to the economy. Recognising the centrality of skills to overall socio-economic development within and across nation-states, the United Nations, at its General Assembly in November 2014, declared 15^th July as World Youth Skills Day. The resolution, endorsed by all UN regional groups, seeks to generate greater awareness and stimulate discussion on the vital role of skill training, in giving youth access to employment and sustainable livelihood pathways.

Land Leasing: A Big Win-Win Reform for the States - Arvind Panagariya

The Vice chairman of NITI Aayog, Arvind Panagariya has said that states wishing to facilitate industrialization can further benefit from liberal land leasing if they simultaneously liberalize the use of agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes. He shared the views with the people in his blog post published on the website of NITI Aayog in New Delhi today. The full text of the blog post is as follows and can also be accessed at www.niti.gov.in.

“ Land leasing laws relating to rural agricultural land in Indian states were overwhelmingly enacted during decades immediately following the independence. At the time, the abolition of Zamindari and redistribution of land to the tiller were the highest policy priorities. Top leadership of the day saw tenancy and sub-tenancy as integral to the feudal land arrangements that India had inherited from the British. Therefore, tenancy reform laws that various states adopted sought to not only transfer ownership rights to the tenant but also either prohibited or heavily discouraged leasing and sub-leasing of land.

Politically influential landowners were successful in subverting the reform, however. As P.S. Appu documents in his brilliant 1996 book Land Reforms in India, till as late as 1992, ownership rights were transferred to the cultivator on just 4% of the operated land. Moreover, just seven states, Assam, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, and West Bengal, accounted for some 97% of this transfer.

In trying to force the transfer of ownership to the cultivator, many states abolished tenancy altogether. But while resulting in minimal land transfer, the policy had the unintended consequence of ending any protection tenants might have had and forced future tenants underground. Some states allowed tenancy but imposed a ceiling on land rent at one-fourth to one-fifth of the produce. But since this rent fell well below the market rate, contracts became oral in these states as well, with the tenant paying closer to 50% of the produce in rent.

Many large states including Telangana, Bihar, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh ban land leasing with exceptions granted to landowners among widows, minors, disabled and defence personnel. Kerala has for long banned tenancy, permitting only recently self-help groups to lease land. Some states including Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Assam do not ban leasing but the tenant acquires a right to purchase the leased land from the owner after a specified period of tenancy. This provision too has the effect of making tenancy agreements oral, leaving the tenant vulnerable. Only the states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and West Bengal have liberal tenancy laws with the last one limiting tenancy to sharecroppers. A large number of states among them Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, which otherwise have liberal tenancy laws, do not recognize sharecroppers as tenants.

The original intent of the restrictive tenancy laws no longer holds any relevance. Today, these restrictions have detrimental effects on not only the tenant for whose protection the laws were originally enacted but also on the landowner and implementation of public policy. The tenant lacks the security of tenure that she would have if laws permitted her and the landowner to freely write transparent contracts. In turn, this discourages her from making long-term investments in land and also leaves her feeling perpetually insecure about continuing to maintain cultivation rights. Furthermore, it deprives her of potential access to credit by virtue of being a cultivator. Landowner also feels a sense of insecurity when leasing land with many choosing to leave land fallow. The latter practice is becoming increasingly prevalent with landowners and their children seeking non-farm employment.

Public policy too faces serious challenges today in the absence of transparent land leasing laws. There are calls for expanded and more effective crop insurance. Recognizing that such insurance is likely to be highly subsidized, as has been the case with the past programmes, a natural question is how to ensure that the tenant who bears the bulk of the risk of cultivation receives this benefit. The same problem arises in the face of a natural calamity; if tenancy is informal, how do we ensure that the actual cultivator receives disaster relief.

In a similar vein, fertilizer subsidy today is subject to vast leakages and sales of subsidized fertilizer in the black market. In principle, these leakages could be sharply curtailed by the introduction of direct benefit transfer (DBT) using Aadhar seeded bank accounts along the lines of the cooking gas subsidy transfer. But in face of difficulty in identifying the real cultivator and therefore intended beneficiary, DBT cannot be satisfactorily implemented.

In the context of the difficulties in land acquisition under the 2013 land acquisition law, states wishing to facilitate industrialization can further benefit from liberal land leasing if they simultaneously liberalize the use of agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes. Currently, conversion of agricultural land for non-agricultural use requires permission from the appropriate authority, which can take a long time. State governments can address this barrier by either an amendment of the law to permit non-agricultural use or by the introduction of time-bound clearances of applications for the conversion of agricultural land use in the implementing regulations. The reform open up another avenue to the provision of land for industrialization: long-term land leases that allow the owner to retain the ownership while earning rent on her land. In addition, she will have the right to renegotiate the terms of the lease once the existing lease expires.

Therefore, the introduction of transparent land leasing laws that allow the potential tenant or sharecropper to engage in written contracts with the landowner is a win-win reform. The tenant will have an incentive to make investment in improvement of land, landowner will be able to lease land without fear of losing it to the tenant and the government will be able to implement its policies efficiently. Simultaneous liberalization of land use laws will also open up an alternative avenue to the provision of land for industrialization that is fully within the state’s jurisdiction and allows the landowner to retain ownership of her land.

A potential hurdle to the land leasing reform laws is that landowners may fear that a future populist government may use the written tenancy contracts as the basis of transfer of land to the tenant and therefore would oppose the reform. This is a genuine fear but may be addressed in two alternative ways. The ideal way would be yet another major reform: giving landowners indefeasible titles. States such as Karnataka that have fully digitized land records and the registration system are indeed in a position to move in this direction. For other states, such titles are a futuristic solution. Therefore, in the interim, they can opt for the alternative solution of recording the contracts at the level of the Panchayat eschewing acknowledging the tenant in the revenue records. They may then insert in the relevant implementing regulations the clause that for purposes of ownership transfer, only the tenancy status in revenue records would be recognized.

State governments must seriously consider revisiting their leasing (and land use) laws to determine if they could bring about these simple but powerful changes to enhance productivity and welfare all around. We, at the NITI Aayog, stand ready to assist them in this endeavour.”

Government is Fully Committed to its Goal of Universal Social Security;More Variants of Social Security Schemes

FM: Government is Fully Committed to its Goal of Universal Social Security;More Variants of Social Security Schemes in Near Future to Bring Maximum Number of Pepole Under Their Ambit ;

7.84 Crore People Registered Under PMSBY, 2.70 Crore Under PMJJBY and 4.69 Lakh Subscribers Joins APY

The Union Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley said that the present Government has taken various initiatives in last one year so that more and more people are covered under the ambit of social security schemes. He said that these schemes are way for future and the Government will bring about other variants of the schemes in the near future. At present, only 11% of the population of the country is covered under pension schemes while only 20% of the people are insured. The Finance Minister said that the Government wants to improve the situation by bringing maximum people under these benefits. He said that the three ambitious Social Security Schemes of the Government, i.e. the Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY), Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY) and Atal Pension Yojana (APY) were launched by the Prime Minister in May 2015 which in turn will play an important role in realising the dream of universal social security. He said that these Social Security Schemes have been successful in evoking a highly positive response from the people at large. The Finance Minister said that so far, 7.84 crore people have registered under PMSBY, 2.70 crore under PMJJBY and 4.69 lakh subscribers have joined APY. Shri Jaitley further said that in order to have better policy formulation and coordination, the Government plans to bring about various social security schemes run by different Departments/ Ministries under one roof. The Finance Minister was speaking at the Second Meeting of Consultative Committee attached to the Ministry of Finance here today on the subject of “ PM’s Social Security Schemes”.

The Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley further said that the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), the First step towards financial inclusion by the present Government, has recorded a spectacular success with opening of 16.73 crore accounts within a year with a total deposits of Rs. 19,990.52 crore. He said that the Government subsequently encouraged to widen the approach to social security for all sections of society by introducing micro insurance, micro pension and micro credit schemes. He said that the movement from Jan Dhan to Jan Suraksha has been facilitated by the Government within one year itself. He said that now the focus is to enlarge the scope of the Social Security Schemes and include maximum number of people with in their ambit .

Later, Dr. Hasmukh Aadhia, Secretary, Department of Financial Services made a presentation on the present level of implementation of these schemes. Under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dan Yojana(PMJDY), he said that number of zero balance accounts have come down from initial 75% to 52%. As on 8th July, 2015, he said that total number of 14.86 crore Rupay cards have been issued under the Scheme to account holders. He further informed that under PMJJBY, 114 claims were made till 10th July, 2015 and 54 have been already settled. Under Atal Pension Yojana (APY), 4.69 lakh people have subscribed and out of that, 3.48 subscribers have already received their Permanent Retirement Account Number ( PRAN). A total corpus of Rs.14.91 crore has been accumulated so far under the Scheme. Dr. Adhia said that under Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) aimed at augmenting the flow of finance to microfinance sector, an overall disbursement target of Rs.1,22,000 crore was set for banks/financial institutions for 2015-16 and till 30th June 2015, Rs. 6184.80 crore has been dispersed by Public Sector banks and Rs.1592.13 crore by RRBs under PMMY.

After the presentation, the Members of the Consultative Committee gave their suggestions and observations with regard to these Social Security Schemes. Most of the Members of the Committee congratulated the Government for both launching and successfully implementing these social security schemes. They appreciated that these Schemes are unprecedented and unparallel measures. They made many suggestions for further improving the performance of these schemes. One of the Member pointed-out that launch of these Schemes was a right step in the right direction. However, there is a need for more penetration of banks especially in rural areas and efforts to create an awareness among the most vulnerable and poor section of society about the various aspects of these Schemes so that benefits of these schemes reach to the last person. Another Member pointed-out the need for appointing more business Correspondents and use of biometric devices for ensuring that benefits reach to the beneficiaries in full and there is no scope for intermediaries to take any undue benefit especially in case of poor, illiterate and vulnerable section of people living in far flung rural areas. Some members suggested the need of taking banking to the every rural corner of India. Another member suggested the need to increase the staff strength of the banks to meet the growing needs and increase in their work load due to implementation of these Schemes. Another important suggestion came was the usage of Post offices as payment banks for these social security schemes, as they have reach till last end. Some Members suggested that loan to micro entrepreneurs should be made available at a reasonable rate of interest so that they take benefit of micro financing policy of the Government through MUDRA.

The Finance Minister, while thanking the Members of their useful suggestions said that it is only the beginning of journey for covering large section of population under social security programmes and there is a long and challenging journey forward. As our economy is prospering, the Finance Minister said that these schemes will be allotted more resources and there will be more variants with improvements. He concluded with the remarks that the present Government is fully committed to its goal of universal social security.

Civil Aviation Minister Launches GAGAN System

Union Minister of Civil Aviation, Shri P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju, formally launched the GAGAN system (GPS AIDED GEO AUGMENTED NAVIGATION) at a function here today. Speaking on the occasion, the Minister congratulated the entire team on development of the GAGAN project.

GAGAN is the first SBAS (Satellite Based Augmentation System) in the world certified for Approach with Vertical Guidance operating in the Equatorial Ionospheric region and the third SBAS to have achieved this feat, after WAAS of USA and EGNOS of Europe. GAGAN was already certified for en route operation since 30th December 2013.

GAGAN is a joint effort of Airport Authority of India (AAI) and Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). In the aviation field, GAGAN will support more direct air routes, reduce fuel consumption and improve safety. In addition, GAGAN provides benefits to agriculture, all modes of transportation and public services such a defence services, security agencies and disaster recovery management by aiding in search and rescue to locate the disaster zone accurately.

Since 14th February 2014, GAGAN has been continuously providing navigation signals from GSAT-8 and GSAT-10 satellites launched by ISRO, augmenting the performance of GPS signals received over Indian Airspace.

IAS TOPPERS 2014 MARKS

top 10 written marks wise candidates.

IRA SINGHAL 4 920
RENU RAJ 4 858
NISHANT JAIN 4 851
NIDHI GUPTA 4 846
VANDANA RAO 3 832
NEELABH SAXENA 4 831
ARUNRAJ S 4 830
AJAY KUMAR DWIVEDI 4 829
BALAJI D K 4 828
NEHA KUMARI 4 827

UTTARAKHAND STUDENT MARKS

RACHITA 771+162=933 RANK 215
ADITYA 745+ 176=921 RANK 308
VIVEK NAUTIYAL 676+171=847

MARKS OF ALL SELECTED CANDIDATES
http://www.upsc.gov.in/exams/marks/2014/csm/CSM_2014_FQ_MARKS.pdf

12 July 2015

#CPF (AC)-2015 #SOLUTION,#UPSC,SAMVEG IAS

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Paper was easier than last year.but the sur prise was less number of questions from current affairs.it seems on path of civil services prelims.But from this paper only one can not guess anything about ias pre exam. net 60 question seems safe if you consider last years cutoff.