Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyaan) to make India Disabled – Friendly

Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyaan) to make India Disabled – Friendly

Special Feature I.Day 2015 Getting around the physical built-up environment is something most of which take for granted. Stairs, sidewalk, gratings, obstructions, curves, narrow passages etc. are barriers, we walk over, around, or through any routine course.  But, for those with disability, a curb or few stairs can be a big barrier.  We seldom pay attention to traffic signals, audio announcements, signs which give us information or direction to use various facilities. Signs, no matter how well placed and how much information rich are users for persons with visual impairment or hearing impairment unless designed properly We are all physically disabled at some time in our lives.  A person with a broken leg, a child, a mother with a pram, an elderly gentleman etc. are all disabled in some way or another. Thus, Needs of the disabled coincide with the needs of majority, and all people are at ease with them.  As such, designing the facilities for the majority implies designing and planning for people with varying abilities and disabilities. An important aim of the society is to integrate persons with disabilities in the society so that they can actively participate in society and lead a normal life.  Ideally, a disabled person should be able to commute between home, work place and other destinations with independence, convenience and safety. The more persons with disabilities are able to access physical facilities, the more they will be part of the social mainstream.  With firm commitment of the government towards socio-economic transformation of the persons with disabilities there is an urgent need to create mass awareness for universal accessibility. India is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).  Article 9 of UNCRPD casts an obligation on all the signatory governments to take appropriate measures to ensure to persons with disabilities access, on an equal basis with others, to the physical environment, to transportation, to information and communications, including information and communications technologies and systems, and to other facilities and services open or provided to the public, both in urban and in rural areas. Subsequently, governments of ESCAP region gathered in Incheon, Republic of Korea from 29.10.2012 to 02.11.2012 and adopted the Incheon Strategy to “Make the Rights Real” for persons with disabilities in Asia and the Pacific.  The Incheon Strategy builds on the UNCRPD and provides the first regionally agreed disability inclusive “Development Goals”.  Goal No. 3 of the Incheon Strategy mentions that access to the physical environment, public transportation, knowledge, information and communication is a pre-condition for persons with disabilities to fulfill their rights in an inclusive society.  The accessibility of urban, rural and remote areas based on universal design increases safety and ease of use not only for persons with disabilities, but also for all other members of the society. Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities. Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act 1995 under Section 44, 45 and 46 also categorically provides for non-discrimination in participation, non-discrimination of the roads and built up environment.  As per Section 46 of the PwD Act, the States are required to provide for : i)                    Ramps in public buildings ii)                  Provision of toilets for wheelchair users iii)                Braille symbols and auditory signals in elevators or lifts iv)                Ramps in hospitals, primary health centres and other rehabilitation centres. Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD), Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, has formulated the Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan), as a nation-wide campaign for achieving universal accessibility for PwDs.  The campaign targets three separate verticals for achieving universal accessibility namely the built up environment, transportation eco-system and information & communication eco-system.  The campaign has ambitious targets with defined timelines and will use IT and social media for spreading awareness about the campaign and seeking commitment / engagement of various stakeholders.   The Department has asked various State Govts. to identify about 50 to 100 public buildings in big cities and also identify citizen centric  public websites, which if made fully accessible would have the highest impact on the lives of PwDs.  Once identified, “Access Audit” of these buildings and websites will be conducted by professional agencies.  As per the audit findings, retrofitting and conversion of buildings,  transport and websites would be undertaken by various government departments. This will be supported by the Scheme of Implementation of Persons with Disabilities Act (SIPDA), an umbrella scheme run by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) for implementing various initiatives for social and economic empowerment of PwDs.  Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities is collaborating with Ministry of Home, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Ministry of Tourism for creating ‘Accessible police stations’, “Accessible hospitals’ and ‘Accessible tourism’ respectively across the country.  The Department is also coordinating with the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting for enhancing accessibility of Television programmes by incorporating features like captioning, text to speech and audio description. DEPwD is also in the process of creating a mobile app, along with a web portal for crowd sourcing the requests regarding inaccessible places. With the app, downloaded on his/her mobile phone, any person would be able to click a photograph or video of an inaccessible public place (like a school, hospital, government office etc.) and upload the same to the Accessible India portal. The portal will process the request for access audit, financial sanction and final retrofitting of the building to make it completely accessible. The mobile app and portal will also seek engagement of big corporates and PSUs to partner in the campaign by offering their help to conduct access audit and for accessibility- conversion of the buildings/transport and websites. As an offshoot to the campaign, Department has also sought Expression of Interest from IT firms to prepare a mobile app in all Indian languages to locate nearest accessible places. With this mobile app, any disabled person would be able to locate an accessible bank counter, restaurant, ATM or theatre (and similar facilities) nearby.  The mobile app will also have provision of evaluating / rating the accessible place by the users. DEPwD is intensively engaging with public even before launching the campaign. For example, the department sought inputs for the logo and tagline of the Accessible India Campaign on MyGov platform and received more than 500 entries for each of these.

Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna 2015 and Arjuna Awards 2015

Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna 2015 and Arjuna Awards 2015

Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna and Arjuna Awards are given every year to recognize and reward excellence in sports. Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award is given for the spectacular and most outstanding performance in the field of sports by a sportsperson over a period of four years immediately preceding the year during which award is to be given.  Arjuna Award is given for consistently outstanding performance for four years preceding the year of award.   

           

A large number of nominations were received for these awards this year, which were considered by the Selection Committee headed by Mr. Justice V.K. Bali, former Chief Justice of Kerla High Court and consisting of eminent sportspersons and sports administrators. 

                                                     

Based on the recommendations of the Committee and after due scrutiny, the Government has approved to confer Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna and Arjuna Awards for 2015 upon the following sportspersons:

i)         Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ranta 2015

S. No.	Name of the sportsperson	Discipline
1	Ms. Sania Mirza	Tennis

(ii)        Arjuna Awards 2015

S. No.	Name of the sportsperson	Discipline
1	Naib Subedar Sandeep Kumar	Archery
2	Ms. M.R. Poovamma	Athletics
3	Mr. Kidambi Srikanth Nammalwar	Badminton
4	Mr. Mandeep Jangra	Boxing
5	Mr. Rohit Sharma	Cricket
6	Ms. Dipa Karmakar	Gymnastic
7	Mr. Sreejesh P.R.	Hockey
8	Mr. Manjeet Chhillar	Kabaddi
9	Ms. Abhilasha Shashikant Mhatre	Kabaddi
10	Mr. Sawarn Singh	Rowing
11	Mr. Anup Kumar Yama	Roller Skating
12	Mr. Jitu Rai	Shooting
13	Shri S. Sathish Kumar	Weightlifting
14	Mr. Bajrang	Wrestling
15	Ms. Babita Kumari	Wrestling
16	Ms. Yumnam Sanathoi Devi	Wushu
17	Mr. Sharath M. Gayakwad	Para-Swimming

The awardees will receive their awards from the President of India at a specially organized function at the Rashtrapati Bhawan on August 29, 2015. 

           

Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Awardee will receive medal, certificate and award money of Rs. 7.5 lakh and Arjuna Awardees will receive statuettes, certificates and award money of Rs.5 lakh each. 

           

“India’s Strategy for Economic Integration with CLMV”

Commerce Secretary Ms. Rita Teaotia Launches Report on “India’s Strategy for Economic Integration with CLMV”

‘India’s Strategy for Economic Integration with CLMV’, a Report brought out by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, provides a rationale for establishing commercial and economic linkages between India and the Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam (CLMV) region. Prime factors that make economic cooperation between India and CLMV plausible include geographical proximity, economic dynamism, and cheap labour cost in CLMV, among others.

The Commerce Secretary Ms. Rita Teaotia, launched a Report of the Ministry at an event organized by the Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS) here in New Delhi on Friday, unveiling a strategy of India towards the CLMV region. The session was chaired by Ambassador Shyam Saran, Chairman, RIS and former Foreign Secretary to Government of India.

The ASEAN region is characterized by the presence of strong production networks and Regional Value Chains (RVCs). While India’s participation in regional value chains (RVCs) has remained low, RVCs are also not well developed in CLMV too, as compared to the rest of ASEAN. Considering that RVCs have emerged as important vehicles for regional economic integration, they need to be facilitated with adequate and integrated policy responses. This is important for achieving developmental objectives such as employment generation, poverty alleviation and improvement in quality of life.

It is in this context that the Ministry’s Report, prepared by Ram Upendra Das, an economist and professor at RIS, presents an analytical and empirical basis for India’s economic integration with the CLMV. It argues for adopting an integrated approach towards trade in goods, services, investment and skills while identifying sectors with untapped potential complementarities.

The current level of economic linkages between India and CLMV, both in trade and FDI, are weak. Some major challenges confronting India-CLMV economic relations include information gap, communication gap, skill unavailability, banking constraints and integrating SMEs in RVCs.

  There are several sectors in CLMV that the report has identified as focus sectors from the view-point of taking advantages of synergies across, manufacturing, trade and investment. These include agro-processing, oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, wood and timber, light engineering, garments, automobiles, education, IT, SMEs, tourism and skill development. The Report finds that one of the important ways of utilising the CLMV’s economic space is by setting up manufacturing units in the region. This will help in accessing the Chinese markets through exports originating from CLMV under the China-AEAN FTA. Additional export expansion to the tune of US$ 100 billion is feasible, which in turn can address the trade deficit of India with China, as estimated in the Report.

One of the major thrusts in the Report includes creating an India-CLMV convergence in the regional trade negotiations and alignment of India’s commercial interests with CLMV’s policy focus. The Report observes that one of the most important ingredients of setting up business is skill availability and there exists considerable skill complementarities between India and CLMV in terms of skill availability in India matched with unavailability in CLMV. It is also desirable to integrate the employment-intensive SMEs with regional value chains through India-CLMV integration and to facilitate this process there is a need to increase the presence of Indian banks there.

The Indian government has sought to promote investments by India Inc. in CLMV as recommended in the Report. In the Union Budget for 2015-16, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley stated that “the ‘Act East’ policy of the Government of India endeavours to cultivate extensive economic and strategic relations in Southeast Asia.” Work is in process for implementing the announcement. This is an important pointer towards effective operationalisation of India’s ‘Act East Policy’, as emphasized by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

Weather Forecast Services

Weather Forecast Services

The Gramin Krishi Mausam Seva (GKMS) of Earth System Science Organization (ESSO)-India Meteorological Department (IMD) has been successful in providing the crop specific advisories to the farmers at the district level twice weekly through different media like print/visual/Radio/ IT based including short message service (SMS) and Integrated Voice Response System (IVRS) for a wider dissemination. At present, the GKMS products are disseminated through SMS and IVRS to 11.46 million farmers in the country.

Stating this in reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, the Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Science Dr. Harsh Vardhan said ESSO-IMD is not providing forecast and advisory services at the Block Level at present. However research efforts are initiated by ESSO –IMD to explore possibility of generating sub district scale Agro-meteorological forecast with acceptable level of verification skill in a pilot mode.

For the benefit of fisherman community, a satellite-based application for the fishermen community of the country, called "Potential Fishing Zone (PFZ) Advisories", is being generated and provided on using the satellite data and Geographic Information System (GIS) tools since 1999 useful for location of fish grounds/aggregation . In addition, the Ocean State Forecast (OSF) (wave height and direction, wind speed and direction, ocean currents, sea surface temperature, depth of mixed layer and thermo cline, sea level at major and minor ports, etc. is also being provided to fisherman. Dr. Harsh Vardhan pointed out that the Indian Institute of Applied Economics had assessed that such services to farmers contribute upto about Two lakh crores Rupees and services extended for the benefit of fishermen amount to over 34,000 crore rupees.

ESSO-IMD, in coordination with State Governments, is also generating forecasts for major pilgrimages such as Amarnath Yatra, Manasasarovar Yatra, Chardham Yatra, Kumbhmela, etc. and also various mountaineering expeditions launched by the Armed Forces for Mount Everest and several other Himalayan mountains. Continuous efforts are on to generate value added forecast products at different spatial scales (State, District, City etc.) and temporal scales (from few hours to 5 days) for all the regions of the country. The tourist city forecasts and their updates in particular are made available through designated state government level functionaries, electronic & print media and for general public on ESSO-IMD’s national as well as regional office websites.

ESSO-IMD has operationalized its location specific now-casting weather service across the country. This service activity currently covers 155 urban centres under which now- cast of severe weather (Thunderstorms; heavy rainfall from lows/depressions over the land) in 3-6h range is issued. Origin, development/movement of severe weather phenomena are regularly monitored through DWRs and with all available other observing systems (AWSs; ARGs; Automatic Weather Observing Systems-AWOS; satellite derived wind vectors, temperature, moisture fields etc.) 

Skill India Mission

Skill India Mission

Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship Shri Rajiv Pratap Rudy has said that it is estimated that out of 487 million workforce, 4.69% possess formal vocational education. In addition to the challenges of re-skilling, up-skilling and Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) for existing workforce, as per requirement, there is a need to provide skilling opportunities for approximately 104.6 million people who are expected to enter the workforce between 2015 to 2022. In cognizance of this fact, the Government has notified the National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship on 15.07.2015, to provide a roadmap to meet the challenge of Skilling on a large Scale at Speed with high Standards to ensure Sustainable livelihoods for all citizens in the country.

In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today Shri Rudy further said, the Ministry has also launched the National Skill Development Mission to create convergence across sectors and States in terms of skill training activities. Further, to achieve the vision of ‘Skilled India’, the National Skill Development Mission would not only consolidate and coordinate skilling efforts, but also expedite decision making across sectors to achieve skilling at scale with speed and standards. The Mission document recommends an institutional structure at the State level which would be driven by the State Skill Development Mission and would replicate the institutional structure of the National Mission at State level.

In addition to the above, to scale up skill development with initiatives, Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) has been launched by the Government. The scheme has an outlay of Rs. 1,500 crore, with a target to cover 24 lakh persons within next one year, under skill training (including 10 lakh under Recognition of Prior Learning), the Minister added. 

#UPSC (IAS)-2016 #EXAMCALENDER

UPSC (IAS)-2016 EXAM CALENDER

Elections are about perceptions

A reduction in grievous crimes like murder, robbery and dacoity has contributed greatly to changing the popular perception on the law and order situation in the State

Performance of government matters in Indian elections, but what matters more is perception. The chances of a government getting re-elected are more due to the perception the government creates about development rather than by actual developmental work done during its tenure. True, misgovernance proved costly for the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, but what proved even more disastrous for the Congress was its inability to create a perception that it cared for the needs of the common man.

A large number of voters voted for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by default, as they were fed up with the UPA government. What contributed, however, to BJP’s landslide victory was the perception the party was able to create through an aggressive campaign — of Gujarat being the most developed State in India — and making Indian voters believe that the man who could do that in Gujarat could also change the country. This perception of Gujarat as the most developed State was so strong that that almost everyone believed it, without even checking the claim against reality. After all, there is evidence, including data from the recent State Human Development Reports, suggesting that Gujarat is somewhere at Number 5 or 6 on the development ladder, and certainly not at the top.

Realising the importance of perception in winning elections, the two alliances in Bihar — the alliance of Janata Dal (United) (JDU); Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD); Congress; and Nationalist Congress Party(NCP) (popularly known as Nitish-Lalu alliance) and the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) — have already started waging the perception battle as they go into the electoral campaign mode. Nitish Kumar is trying hard to send out the message that Bihar has developed enormously during the ten years of his rule. He emphasises that the period has been one of susaashan (good governance). Of the achievements the government wants people to notice is a significant improvement in the law and order situation. Travelling through Bihar and talking to the people, one would get a sense that there has been noticeable improvement, but does the perception mirror the reality?

Crunching the numbers

We have used data on incidents of crimes released by the Bihar police and the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) to evaluate the claims and counterclaims about the prevailing law and order situation in Bihar. We have looked at the average annual crime rates during the last RJD regime (2001-2004) and during the two terms of the incumbent Chief Minister Nitish Kumar (2005-2009 and 2010-2014).

A comparative analysis of crime rates during these tenures reveals that Nitish Kumar’s performance in improving the law and order situation has been mixed. First, there has been a steady rise in the number of total cognisable offences in the State. On an average, close to 1 lakh cognisable offences were recorded annually during the Lalu regime, which increased to 1.19 lakh during Nitish Kumar’s first term (2005-10) and crossed 1.6 lakh in his second term (2010-2015). Second, grievous crimes such as murder, robbery and dacoity have reduced considerably over the years. The incidence of murders fell during Nitish’s first term but rose marginally in his second term. The overall average is still lower than that during the Lalu regime. The real success of the Nitish government lies here — controlling these grievous crimes has contributed greatly to changing the popular perception on the law and order situation in Bihar.

Third, there has been a consistent rise in cases of kidnapping, burglary/ theft and crimes against Dalits, even though kidnapping for ransom has declined. The Bihar police claimed that the rise could be due to parents filing kidnapping charges in cases of girls eloping. The rise, however, is too sharp for this justification to work. Also, the rise in incidents of theft and burglary has been quite marked over the past few years with, on an average, more than 22,000 incidents recorded between 2010 and 2014, as compared to 13,359 during the last RJD regime.

There has been an alarming rise in crimes against Dalits. Though only a proportion of these incidents would be cases falling under the SC/ST Atrocities Act, the massive rise cannot be ignored. The annual average, which was 1,819 during the RJD regime and 2,821 during Nitish Kumar’s first term, increased manifold to 4,670 between 2010 and 2013. One can expect the BJP and its allies to raise this issue during the election campaign.

Fourth, figures for crimes against women and, specifically, rapes reveal a complex situation, as there seems to be a contradiction between reported incidents and people’s perception as reflected in the surveys. The average number of rapes every year during Nitish Kumar’s first term at 1,030 was higher than that during the RJD rule at 892. This figure came down slightly during his second term to 982 but continues to remain higher than that for the 2001-2004 period.

We believe there could be two explanations for this evident paradox. First, the higher recording of offences could be a reflection of greater reporting, since victims often refrain from officially lodging complaints due to police inaction, social stigma and fear. Thus, this rise could be seen as an outcome of a more secure reporting environment for victims. Second this perception could be based on a general reduction in grievous crimes and not specifically in crimes against women.

These broad trends remain the same even after the mid-year population estimates released by the NCRB are considered.

It would be incorrect to say that the Bihar government has not taken any steps towards improving law and order in the last decade. There is a much better police-to-people ratio now, compared to the past due to an expansion in the police force. The ratio was 1:1223 in 2013 compared to 1:1825 in 2005.

Other steps like reservation for women in police recruitment would definitely help in improving policing, and in increased reporting of crimes and reduction of fear among victims, especially women and those from the lower castes.

Despite these efforts, it cannot be denied that in recent years there has been a spike in crime rates after an earlier trend of reduction. This makes Nitish Kumar’s task much more difficult. Not only does he need to reassure people that the State will not return to the pre-2005 state of affairs, but also convince them about the performance of his own party in recent times.