End-to-End Computerisation of PDS as a Mission Mode Project

A scheme on End to end Computerisation of Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) Operations with a total approved cost of Rs.884.07 crore is being implemented throughout the country. Under the Scheme, financial and technical assistance is being provided to States/Union Territories (UTs). Government of India has so far released an amount of Rs.257.01 crore to the States/UTs, National Informatics Centre (NIC), Consultancy services and the States have so far reported to have incurred an expenditure of Rs.58 crore. Based on receipt of proposals from the States/UTs, the Central Government releases the funds to them in instalments in accordance with the guidelines of the Scheme. This information was given by the Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Shri Raosaheb Patil Danve in a written reply in Lok Sabha today. The Minister said that the Scheme has been declared as a Mission Mode Project (MMP) by the Government with National Informatics Centre (NIC) as the technical partner to provide technical support to the States/UTs for computerisation of the TPDS. The key activities under the scheme include digitization of beneficiary database, computerisation of Supply Chain Management, installation of Grievance Redressal Mechanism and Transparency Portal. Expenditure under the scheme is to be shared between Central and State Governments. Central Government’s share for the North Eastern States is 90% while in the case of rest of the States/UTs, it is 50%. The Scheme will enable correct identification of beneficiaries; removal of bogus cards and better targeting of food subsidies, timely availability of foodgrains to intended beneficiaries at Fair Price Shops (FPS); check leakages/diversion etc. He said that the original timelines of the Scheme are well past. In view of the slow and uneven progress across the States/UTs, no fresh timelines have been prescribed. They are however being regularly pursued to ensure early completion of various activities under the Scheme. Shri Danve clarified that to monitor and supervise the implementation of the Scheme in the country, a Central Project Monitoring Unit (CPMU) has been created in the Centre. Further, as per the MMP guidelines of National eGovernance Plan (NeGP), a Joint Secretary of the Government has been designated as the Mission Leader for Scheme who periodically reviews the progress under the Scheme through review meetings/ video-conferencing with the States/UTs.

Antyodaya Anna Yojana

More than 242 lakh Families having highly Subsidised Foodgrains under the Antyodaya Anna Yojana

More than 242 lakh families under the Antyodaya Anna Yojana are being provided highly subsidised 35 kg foodgrains per month through TPDS. This information was given by the Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Shri Raosaheb Patil Danve in a written reply in Lok Sabha today. He said the AAY families are to be identified by States/Union Territories (UTs) as per the following criteria: i)                    Landless agriculture labourers, marginal farmers, rural artisans/craftsmen such as potters, tanners, weavers, blacksmiths, carpenters, slum dwellers, and persons earning their livelihood on daily basis in the informal sector like porters, coolies, rickshaw pullers, hand cart pullers, fruit and flower sellers, snake charmers, rag pickers, cobblers, destitute and other similar categories in both rural and urban areas ii)                  Households headed by widows or terminally ill persons/disabled persons/persons aged 60 years or more with no assured means of subsistence or societal support iii)                Widows or terminally ill persons or disabled persons or persons aged 60 years or more or single women or single men with no family or societal support or assured means of subsistence iv)                All primitive tribal households v)                  All eligible Below Poverty Line (BPL) families of HIV positive persons.  The Minister said that requests have been received from a few State Governments to increase the number of beneficiaries under AAY but it could not be acceded to as the number is fixed for every State.  State/UTs are advised from time to time to review the existing list of AAY beneficiaries and remove the ineligible beneficiaries so as to include only the most eligible. Shri Danve clarified that AAY scheme has not been separately evaluated.  This Department however has been getting the functioning of TPDS, including the implementation of AAY, evaluated by different agencies from time to time. These evaluation studies have revealed certain shortcomings/deficiencies in the functioning of TPDS, such as inclusion/exclusion errors, leakages/diversion of foodgrains, etc.  The reports received have been sent to the concerned States/UTs for taking necessary remedial measures to remove the deficiencies noticed in the functioning of TPDS.

#UKPCS2012MAINS FORM OUT,samveg ias dehradun

UKPCS-2012 MAINS FORM OUT:mains definitely should happen in may 2015.

LAST DATE FOR CENTRE-18TH MARCH
FOR CHALAN--23RD MARCH
FOR COMPLETE APPLICATION--31ST MARCH.
FEES FOR GENERAL CANDIDATE -Rs200

read notice:http://ukpsc.gov.in/files/scan0001_64.pdf

apply online
http://ukpscappl.gov.in/

classroom programme and test series at samveg ias

motivation

Game changers in the Budget

The process of monetisation of gold, the insurance and pension schemes and MUDRA are all potential game changers, but their success requires scaling up of execution

Even ignoring the reporting in sections of financial media which have reduced the Budget into mere ‘comics,’ the media debates on budgets increasingly make it difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. Anyone who attentively heard the extensive TV debates on the 2015-16 budget and read the diverse opinions in dozens of newspapers would have been bewildered about constitutes the core thrust of the Budget. The media has headlined the Budget as ‘super budget,’ ‘full of big bangs,’ ‘prepped for take-off.’ This positive branding not withstanding, the question to ask is whether the first full-fledged budget presented by the Narendra Modi government has any game-changing potential. The answer is ‘yes,’ but the realisation of this potential will depend on how well the game changers are executed.

Paradigm shift

There is an unseen paradigm shift in this Budget. For the first time, an Indian government’s budget seems to focus on national effort as the core impetus for national development. This is not surprising as the Cabinet resolution on NITI Aayog directs the national policymaking body “most importantly” to “adhere to the tenet that while incorporating positive influences from the world, no single model can be transplanted from outside into the Indian scenario. We need to find our own strategy for growth.” Almost a decade back, Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors of the G20 nations had declared that “there is no uniform development approach that fits all countries” and “each country should choose the development approaches and policies that suit its specific characteristics.” Three years later, the World Bank conceded “we have learned the hard way that there is no one model that fits all.” Yet, for a decade more, India followed the economic model of the West till the NITI Aayog decided to correct the course. The game-changing elements in this Budget are in line with NITI Aayog’s philosophy.

The first expression of the India-centric approach is the innovative agenda to ‘fund the unfunded’ 58 million micro and small businesses in the non-formal sector. This sector, according to the Credit Suisse Asia Pacific/India Equity Research report of July 2013, is unique to India. While in other countries the informal sector is largely illegal, in India, the report says, it is non-formal because government policies have not reached it. These 58 million non-formal micro businesses generate millions of rural and semi-urban entrepreneurs and provide 128 million jobs. Two-thirds of these units are operated by Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes. Yet, this Kamadhenu of job creation gets only 4 per cent of its credit needs from banks. The sector now borrows at usurious rates of interest of 120 per cent and beyond. While it is denied funds, the formal sector — which garnered some Rs.54 lakh crore since 1991 by way of foreign and domestic capital and loans — has added just a couple of million jobs in two decades. All governments since liberalisation had expected these millions of units to die of euthanasia in market economics. But they have posted the fastest growth among all segments of the Indian economy. But economic policymaking in India continued to ignore them. Mr. Modi is the first political leader to see the potential of this sector to drive up jobs. He also realised that the modern banking system is unsuited to fund this sector. In the last budget, the Modi government had announced a committee to structure a new financial architecture for this sector. The Reserve Bank of India reportedly opposed any new architecture. But this Budget has gone ahead and announced a new financial architecture, the Micro Units Development Refinance Agency (MUDRA), for the non-formal sector with a corpus of Rs.20,000 crore and budgetary support of Rs.3,000 crore for credit guarantee. MUDRA will come into existence by a separate law. This will fund the millions of entrepreneurs by an innovative financial architecture that will integrate the existing private financiers of small businesses as last-mile lenders. It is a completely indigenous, India-centric and innovative solution for the most job-intensive, yet totally credit-starved, segment of an economy unique to India.

Monetisation of gold

The second potential game changer is the beginning of the process of monetisation of gold — creating and circulating money based on gold. Modern economists would dismiss gold as a wasteful item; as a “relic of barbarism.” This might be the case in the U.S., which successfully proscribed private gold in the 1930s, made possession of gold an offence and turned it into a government asset. But Indians celebrate gold and the Indian government, unable to do what the U.S. did, has always been bewildered about how to handle this asset. The Budget policy to monetise the domestic gold stock is an Indian solution to a unique Indian economic phenomenon. Obviously, no Western idea can handle it. If, through the sovereign gold bonds proposed in the Budget, the government can generate a substantial gold stock as buffer stock, India can aggregate its demand for gold and use that power in the international market. If it builds a decent buffer stock, it can play the global gold market which, barring China perhaps, no other country can, because only in India private gold consumption is as high as a fourth of the world’s. Despite that, India has no gold refining and standardisation infrastructure. This new policy will help build this. The only concern is that unless full tax immunity is granted to gold to be lodged in bonds, the entire stock of black gold may not enter monetisation.

The next big idea is accident insurance for Rs.2 lakh at Rs.12 per annum; for life insurance at a premium of Rs.330 per annum and lifelong pension on an annual premium of up to Rs.1,000, each to be contributed by the beneficiary and the government equally. This ambitious plan aims to reach crores of poor Indians.

Scaling up execution

Each one of them is a potential game changer. But their success requires scaling up of execution. The MUDRA idea requires millions of private financial intermediaries, who are currently providing finance to non-formal businesses, to be registered and integrated into the new architecture as the last mile delivery instrumentalities. The insurance and pension idea also needs mobilisation of crores of beneficiaries into the network. The idea of gold monetisation also calls for a massive campaign to convince the millions of Indians possessing gold to look at gold bonds as equal to gold itself. These are great ideas but their success will need scaling up of the kind which Mr. Modi demonstrated when he got over 12.5 crore Indians hooked to the banking system through the Jan Dhan Yojana [JDY]. The RBI was reportedly not very enthusiastic, if not optimistic, about such extensive banking extension. But Mr. Modi reportedly insisted on 7.5 crore bank accounts and in less than six months. He could scale up the very execution mechanism of PSU banks, written off by elite Indians as inefficient, to achieve not just 7.5 crore accounts but 5 crore more.

Reaching and financially formalising crores of people was thought of as impossible till Mr. Modi could insist on and drive the JDY to a huge success. His high scale of success lends credibility to the massive reaches of human numbers proposed in the MUDRA, Pension and Sovereign Gold Bond schemes. With Aadhar cards and JDY accounts, the huge scale of operation assumed in the game-changing ideas in the budget do not seem over optimistic. If Mr. Modi succeeds in delivering credit through the MUDRA model to millions of non-formal units, he would do in India what Deng Xiaoping did to China through the 28 million Town and Village Enterprises. If Mr. Modi gets several crores of Indians hooked to the insurance and pension schemes, he could improve their life beyond recognition. If he brings hidden gold into national coffers through the sovereign gold bond scheme, he could transform gold from being a liability of India to its global asset.

SpaceX rocket blasts off with world's first all-electric satellites

A Space Exploration Technologies rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Sunday to put the world's first all-electric communications satellites into orbit.

The 22-storey tall booster soared off its seaside launch pad at 10:50 a.m. EST (0350 GMT), the third flight in less than two months for SpaceX, as the privately owned, California-based company is known.

Perched on top of the rocket were a pair of satellites built by Boeing and owned by Paris-based Eutelsat Communications and Bermuda-based ABS, whose majority owner is the European private equity firm Permira.

Eutelsat and ABS shared satellite manufacturing and launch costs, a business arrangement spurred by technological innovation.

The satellites launched on Sunday are outfitted with lightweight, all-electric engines, rather than conventional chemical propulsion systems, to reach and maintain orbit.

That enabled two spacecraft to be launched aboard one medium-sized Falcon 9 rocket.

"The value of electrical propulsion is that it allows the satellite operator to need much less fuel than when the satellite has chemical propulsion," Eutelsat chief executive Michel de Rosen said in an interview before launch.

"You can have a much lighter satellite, so that, in theory, the cost of your launch is much reduced."

SpaceX, owned and operated by technology entrepreneur Elon Musk, turned the theoretical price cuts into reality, breaking what de Rosen calls "a quasi-monopoly" Europe's Arianespace had on the small satellite launch market.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, although SpaceX's website lists a Falcon 9 launch as costing $61 million.

The disadvantage of electric propulsion is that it will take the satellites months, rather than weeks, to reach their operational orbits about 22,300 miles (35,800 km) above Earth, high enough to appear virtually parked over a particular part of the globe.

Eutelsat's spacecraft will become part of a 35-member network providing a range of mobile, internet, video and other communications services. The new satellite expands the company's reach into the Americas.

ABS, which currently has six satellites, will position its new spacecraft to also serve customers in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

The companies are partnering for a second pair of satellites that are due to launch aboard another Falcon 9 rocket later this year. SpaceX also flies cargo missions to the International Space Station for NASA and is working on an upgraded spaceship to fly astronauts as well.

Highlights of The Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana

(PMJJBY – SCHEME 2 - FOR LIFE INSURANCE COVER)

Eligibility: Available to people in the age group of 18 to 50 and having a bank account. People who join the scheme before completing 50 years can, however, continue to have the risk of life cover up to the age of 55 years subject to payment of premium. Premium:  Rs.330 per annum.  It will be auto-debited in one instalment. Payment Mode:  The payment of premium will be directly auto-debited by the bank from the subscribers account. Risk Coverage: Rs.2 Lakh in case of death for any reason. Terms of Risk Coverage: A person has to opt for the scheme every year.  He can also prefer to give a long-term option of continuing, in which case his account will be auto-debited every year by the bank. Who will implement this Scheme?: The scheme will be offered by Life Insurance Corporation and all other life insurers who are willing to join the scheme and tie-up with banks for this purpose. Government Contribution: (i)       Various other Ministries can co-contribute premium for various categories of their beneficiaries out of their budget or out of Public Welfare Fund created in this budget out of unclaimed money.  This will be decided separately during the year. (ii)     Common Publicity Expenditure will be borne by Government.