First Ever India International Cooperatives Trade Fair (IICTF)                                            

Asset Monetisation of Public Sector Enterprises                                                                 

Corruption Cases                                                                                                                     

National Common Mobility Card                                                                                             

Various steps have been taken to promote Regional Languages in Higher Education    

Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan                                                                                                    

Various Digital Platforms by MHRD                                                                                        

UGC announces new Initiative - STRIDE                                                                               

steps Taken to Address Grievances of Workers                                                                  

Improving Employability of the Youth                                                                                    

First Ever India International Cooperatives Trade Fair (IICTF)

GS PAPER- 02 GOVERNANCE - Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Context :

• Aligning with the Agriculture Export Policy 2018, The First Ever India International Cooperatives Trade Fair (IICTF) is going to be held at PragatiMaidan, New Delhi from 11th till 13th October, 2019.

About the Fair :

• A large number of Indian Cooperatives and International Cooperative Organisations are expected to participate in this three day event

• The Trade Fair is aimed at promoting cooperative to cooperative trade within India and abroad leading to enhanced rural and farm prosperity.

• The Trade Fair offers a huge opportunity for the industry and business houses from India and abroad to build alliances, business networking, product sourcing and above all, interacting with the primary producers of a wide range of products and service providers.

• Promotion of exports of key commodities / value chain products that have high potential, duly backed by specific promotional initiatives including the involvement of stakeholder entities would be a definite boost for Doubling the Farmers Income and achieving the goals set under the Agri-Exports Policy 2018.

                                                                                                                                                                  Source :- PIB

Asset Monetisation of Public Sector Enterprises

GS PAPER - 03 ECONOMY - mobilization of resources, growth, development and employment. Inclusive growth and issues arising from it.

Context :

• The Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) is working on restructuring and asset monetisation of public sector enterprises for better management and competitiveness in the present world

Objective of Asset monetization of PSE’s  :

• The objective of the asset monetization programme of the Government of India is to unlock the value of investment made in public assets which have not yielded appropriate or potential returns so far.

The policy framework lays down the Institutional framework for monetization :

• Identified non-core assets of CPSEs under strategic disinvestment;

• Immovable Enemy Property under the custody of Custodian of Enemy Property (CEPI), MHA as per sub section 6 of section 8A of the Enemy Property Act, 1968;

• This framework is also available for use to monetize assets of other CPSEs/PSUs/other Government Organizations with the approval of the Competent Authority;

• Sick/Loss making CPSEs under closure normally follow the DPE closure guidelines dated 14.06.2018 in this regard. However, any sick/loss making CPSE can also adopt this framework with the approval of Competent Authority.

                                                                                                                              Source :- PIB

Corruption Cases

GS PAPER  - 02 GOVERNANCE - Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability, e-governance- applications, models, successes, limitations, and potential

Context :

• The complainant against the officers under the Department of Revenue received through CVC, individuals and other sources are dealt as per the existing guidelines of CVC and DOPT.

Steps  taken by the Government to ensure corruption free tax administration in the country:

• Online system for internal whistle-blower has been put in place to get the vital feedback and complaints through department’s portal.

• Reduction in human interface with tax payer with the introduction of higher digitization such as e-filing, e- assessment, e-appeal, e-nivaran.

• Guidelines have been issued for ensuring that the assessing officers do not increase the scope of investigation in Limited Scrutiny cases without following due procedure.

• Guidelines have been issued laying down specific responsibilities during conduct of surveys and in post survey operations to obviate the possibilities of any wrongdoing.

• All field formations have been asked to install CCTV cameras in corridors and public spaces.

• Checklists and Standard Operating Procedures have been laid down for Inquiry Officers to minimize instances of defective Inquiry Reports.

• System studies are being conducted by Zonal ADsG to identify potential areas of corruption and suggest systemic improvements

Other steps taken :

• The government has taken a gamut of steps to comprehensively ensure corruption free tax administration in the country which includes preventive vigilance, systemic and administrative reforms, streamlining process to reduce employee trade interface and robust preventive vigilance mechanism.

• In order to have a corruption free tax administration, all-out effort is being made by taking regular action in the areas of Punitive, Preventive and Participative vigilance.          

                                                                                                                             Source :- PIB

National Common Mobility Card

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability, e-governance- applications, models, successes, limitations, and potential

Context :

• The National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) has been launched in India with the tagline of ‘One Nation One Card’

National common Mobility Card :

• The NCMC card has 2 instruments on it –

  • a regular debit card which can be used at an ATM, and

  • a local wallet (stored value account), which can be used for contactless payments, without the need to go back to the server or additional authentication.

• It is envisioned that a single card will be usable for all local travel needs across the country.

• This is aimed at low value payments for various segments e.g. Transit, Smart cities, Toll, Parking and other low value merchant payments, in addition to the normal day to day retail payments.

• The vision behind the introduction of this card is to have interoperability, based on open standards.

• The wallet where money is stored is referred as Global/Card wallet.

• Also, any refund pertaining to the transactions done using global/card wallet will be credited in the replica of the wallet maintained at bank’s end, which further can be added to Global/Card Wallet by the customer.

                                                                                                                                                                Source :- PIB

Various steps have been taken to promote Regional Languages in Higher Education

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

Context :

• The university level textbooks are being translated and published in all the 22 languages of Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India under various schemes of Government of India.

Steps Taken :

• The Commission for Scientific and Technical Terminology (CSTT) is providing publication grant towards the publications of University Level Books in regional languages.

• The National Translation Mission (NTM) is being implemented through the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), Mysore under which the books of knowledge texts mostly text books of various subjects prescribed in Universities and Colleges are being translated in all Languages of the 8th Schedule of the Constitution of India.

• The National Translation Mission (NTM) is being implemented through the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), Mysore under which the books of knowledge texts mostly text books of various subjects prescribed in Universities and Colleges are being translated in all Languages of the 8th Schedule of the Constitution of India.

Eighth Schedule Of the Indian Constitution :

• The Constitutional provisions relating to the Eighth Schedule occur in article 344(1) and 351 of the Constitution.

  • Article 344(1) provides for the constitution of a Commission by the President upon expiration of five years from the commencement of the Constitution and thereafter at the expiration of ten years from such commencement, which shall consist of a Chairman and such other members representing the different languages specified in the Eighth Schedule to make recommendations to the President for the progressive use of Hindi for official purposes of the Union.

  • Article 351 of the Constitution provides that it shall be the duty of the Union to promote the spread of the Hindi language to develop it so that it may serve as a medium of expression for all the elements of the composite culture of India and to secure its enrichment by assimilating without interfering with its genius, the forms, style and expressions used in Hindustani and in the other languages of India specified in the Eighth Schedule, and by drawing, wherever necessary or desirable, for its vocabulary, primarily, on Sanskrit and secondarily on other languages

• The Eighth Schedule to the Constitution consists of the following 22 languages:

  • (1) Assamese, (2) Bengali, (3) Gujarati, (4) Hindi, (5) Kannada, (6) Kashmiri, (7) Konkani, (8) Malayalam, (9) Manipuri, (10) Marathi, (11) Nepali, (12) Oriya, (13) Punjabi, (14) Sanskrit, (15) Sindhi, (16) Tamil, (17) Telugu, (18) Urdu (19) Bodo, (20) Santhali, (21) Maithili and (22) Dogri.

  • Of these languages, 14 were initially included in the Constitution. Sindhi language was added in 1967. Thereafter three more languages viz., Konkani, Manipuri and Nepali were included in 1992. Subsequently Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Santhali were added in 2004. 

• At present, there are demands for inclusion of 38 more languages in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution.

                                                                                                                                Source :- PIB

Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

Context :

• The Rashtriya Aavishkar Abhiyan (RAA) was launched by Late Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Former President of India.

Rashtriya Aavishkar Abhiyan (RAA) :

• The RAA is a convergent framework across School Education and Higher Education to motivate children of the age group from 6-18 years through both inside and outside classroom activities and processes.

• It seeks to create curiosity, excitement and spirit of innovation and exploration amongst school children by encouraging higher education institutions assist secondary and elementary schools in the study of Science and Mathematics.

• Major interventions under RAA provided under Integrated scheme for School Education – Samagra Shiksha, include conduct of Science Exhibition, Book Fair, etc.

                                                                                                                                Source :- PIB

Various Digital Platforms by MHRD

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability, e-governance- applications, models, successes, limitations, and potential

The Ministry of Human Resource Development has following three schemes in this regard:

•  Shodhganga :

  • It is a digital repository for research scholars across Universities and Institutes to deposit, re-use & share their Theses & Dissertations in digital formats including scanned documents.

  • It is in open access to the world-wide academic community.

• Shodhgangotri :

  • Under this initiative, research scholars / research supervisors in universities could deposit an electronic version of approved synopsis submitted by research scholars to the universities for registering themselves under the Ph.D. programme.

• National Digital Library (NDL):

  • “National Digital Library (NDL) in India” aims to collect, preserve and disseminate entire intellectual output of our country and provide online access from school level to postgraduate level, including technical education.

  • Under this scheme, meta-data of e-resources within and outside the country are made available to the learners, on anyone, anytime, anywhere access mode.

  • Some licensed resources as well as resources having no copyright violation are provided as complete document in digital formats, including scanned documents. Students across various.

                                                                                                                             Source :- PIB

UGC announces new Initiative - STRIDE

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

Context :

• The University Grants Commission (UGC) has approved a new scheme – ‘Scheme for Trans-disciplinary Research for India’s Developing Economy’ (STRIDE).

STRIDE :

• Broadly, STRIDE will provide support to research projects that are socially relevant, locally need-based, nationally important and globally significant.

• STRIDE shall support research capacity building as well as basic, applied and transformational action research that can contribute to national priorities with focus on inclusive human development.

• STRIDE shall support creation, development and integration of new ideas, concepts and practices for public good and strengthening civil society.

Objective :

• To identify young talent, strengthen research culture, build capacity, promote innovation and support trans-disciplinary research for India’s developing economy and national development.

• To fund multi institutional network high-impact research projects in humanities and human sciences.

                                                                                                                              Source :- PIB

steps Taken to Address Grievances of Workers

GS PAPER -  02 GOVERNANCE - mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections.

Context :

• The Ministry has taken steps for drafting four Labour Codes on Wages; Industrial Relations; Social Security; and Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions respectively, by simplifying, amalgamating and rationalizing the relevant provisions of the existing Central Labour Laws. 

• The 4 Labour Codes contain provisions relating to wage, social security, safety, health and grievance redressal mechanism for workers.

on-line portal, mobile App, etc address the grievances of workers:-

• CPGRAMS (Centralized Public Grievance Redress And Monitoring System)  :

  • CPGRAMS is the platform which primarily aims to enable submission of grievances by the aggrieved citizens including workers from anywhere and anytime (24x7) basis to Ministries/Departments/ Organisations who scrutinize and take action for speedy and favorable redressal of these grievances.

•  EPFiGMS (EPF i Grievance Management System) :

  • It is a customised portal with an aim to redress grievances for the services provided by EPFO (Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation).

• UMANG (Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance) APP :

  • The services of EPFO (Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation) for subscribers have been integrated and offered through UMANG application of Government of India.

•   PENCIL (Platform for Effective Enforcement for No Child Labour) Portal :

  • Online complaints regarding Child labour can be filed by anybody on the PENCIL Portal.

  • The complaint gets assigned to the concerned Nodal Officer automatically by the system for rescual, rehabilitation and mainstreaming of the child labourer.

•  Shram Suvidha Portal :

  • It operates a transparent risk based Online Labour Inspection Service for effective enforcement of Labour Laws so as to ensure wage security, job security, social security and various other safety, health and welfare measures.

To address the labour issues, the steps undertaken by Government  :

•    Payment of Bonus Amendment Act :

  • Under this eligibility limit for payment of bonus enhanced from Rs 10000/- to Rs. 21000/- per month and the Calculation Ceiling from Rs. 3500/- to Rs. 7000/- or the minimum wages.

• Payment of Wages (Amendment) Act, 2017 :

  • enabling payment of Wages to employees by Cash or Cheque or crediting it to their bank account.

• Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2016 :

  •  provides for complete ban on employment of children below 14 years in any occupation or process.

• Maternity Benefit Amendment Act, 2017:

  •  increases the paid maternity leave from 12 weeks to 26 weeks.

•   The Employee Compensation (Amendment) Act :

  •  seeks to rationalize penalties and strengthen the rights of the workers under the Act.

• The Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Act, 2018 :

  • provides flexibility to the Central Government to increase the ceiling limit of gratuity to such amount as may be notified from time to time.

                                                                                                                                      Source :- PIB

Improving Employability of the Youth

GS PAPER - 02 GOVERNANCE - mechanisms, laws, institutions and Bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections.

Context :

• Employment generation coupled with improving employability of the youth is the priority concern of the Government.

Various initiatives :

• Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) is implementing Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), which is a major credit-linked subsidy programme aimed at generating self-employment opportunities.

• Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) has also been initiated by Government inter alia for facilitating self-employment.

• Under PMMY collateral free loans upto Rs. 10 lakh, are extended to micro/small business enterprises and to individuals to enable them to setup or expand their business activities.

• Pradhan Mantri Rojgar ProtsahanYojana (PMRPY) has been launched by the Ministry of Labour and Employment for incentivising employers for promoting employment generation.

• Under this scheme, Government is paying entire employer’s contribution (12% or as admissible) towards EPF and EPS for all eligible new employees for all sectors for 3 years.

                                                                                                                                        Source :- PIB

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