IASbaba- Press Information Bureau- 30th Nov – 6th December, 2015

Archives

GS-1

Preparation of Heritage Bye-Laws 

(Topic: Indian Heritage and Culture)

Preparation of heritage bye-laws for all the ‘3686 protected monuments and protected areas’ is under process

A number of agencies are involved in the process of preparing the bye-laws, namely-

• Archaeological Survey of India,
• Survey of India,
• National Monuments Authority,
• Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Law

Reasons for Delay:

• Lack of capacity
• Issues in surveying and marking of the protected, prohibited and regulated areas
• Permits granted in the past (corruption)

In the absence of heritage byelaws, no permission for construction activities should have been granted in protected, prohibited and regulated areas in which case there would have been no danger to the preservation of Indian cultural Heritage

GS-2

Mobile Governance Programme 

(Topic: E-Governance- application, models, successes, limitation, and potential, transparency and accountability)

Objective–Delivery of public services through mobile platform

Steps taken to implement Mobile Governance so far-

• A Mobile Applications Store (m-AppStore) has been developed as part of Mobile Seva project and currently hosts over 659 mobile applications
• Citizens can now directly interact with Government Departments through SMS. As on date, over 583 public services have been made available to the citizens
• DeitY is implementing Mobile Seva project as a one-stop solution to all the Central and State government departments and agencies across the nation for all their mobile services delivery needs

Digital India Implementation-

Aim:

A vision to transform India into a digitally empowered society and a knowledge economy

e-Kranti

Under the Digital India programme, Government has proposed to implement e-Kranti which envisages provisioning of various e-Governance services in the country

• To transform the e-Governance services by expanding the portfolio of Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) in e-Governance under various Government Departments
• Undertake Government Process Reengineering (GPR),
• Work flow automation, introducing latest technologies such as Cloud and mobile platform and focus on integration of services

Various projects are being implemented under Digital India

• MyGov,
• Digital Locker System,
• eHospital,
• National Scholarships Portal,
• Common Services Centres (CSCs),
• Mobile Sevaetc

RashtriyaArogya Nidhi 

(Topic: Government Schemes in Health Service)

Objective-

Provide: Financial assistance to patients, living below poverty line and who are suffering from major life threatening diseases

Receive: Medical treatment at any of the Government super speciality Hospitals/Institutes or other Government hospitals

Financial assistance:

• Released in the form of ‘one-time grant’
• Released to the Medical Superintendent of the Hospital in which the treatment has been/is being received

An illustrative list of categories of treatment to be provided from this fund

• Cardiology& Cardiac Surgery
• Cancer (Oncology)
• Orthopedics
• Urology/Nephrology/Gastroenterology
• Neurosurgery – Neurology
• Endocrinology
• Mental Illness

RashtriyaArogya Nidhi- Registered under the Society Registration Act, 1860, as a Society and dated 13/1/1997

Organ Donation 

(Topic: Health and Family Welfare Schemes and Government Steps)

Reason-

Shortage of donated organs in the country as compared to the number of patients of organ failure who require transplant

National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO)

The Central Government has been given the mandate to maintain National registry of donors and recipients of human organs and tissues under Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissue Act, 1994. The registry has been launched on 27-11-2015

GoI has taken proactive steps to spur organ donation in the country such as-

• Website of NOTTO namely notto.nic.in 
• A 24×7 call centre with toll free helpline number
• Indian Organ Donation Day is being observed annually since 2010. This year it was observed on 27th November 2015
• Launch of National Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplant Registry
• Members of Donor families from different parts of the country and winners of national competition of slogan on organ donation were felicitated
• Award has been given to the best performing State (Tamil Nadu) in the area of Organ Donation

• Organ Donation Publicity through print media, Display Boards, Frequently Asked   Questions, Mobile SMSes, Talks by Experts, etc. is being undertaken.

• Training of Transplant Coordinators of Delhi and NCR has been conducted by NOTTO

• Financial assistance is also provided under the National Organ Transplant Programme for hiring of transplant coordinators in Government Hospitals and Trauma Centres

• Regional Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (ROTTO) in the States of Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Assam and UT of Chandigarh and carrying out awareness and training of transplant coordinators

• Importance of organ donation has been highlighted by the Hon’ble Prime Minister in ‘Man Ki Baat’ Programme broadcasted in October and November (2015)

Implementation of National Mental Health Programme (NMHP) 

(Topic: Health Programmes)

Objective-

GoI to implement the District Mental Health Programme (DMHP) under the National Mental Health Programme (NMHP) to provide-

Mental health services: Prevention, promotion and long term continuing care at different levels of district healthcare delivery system

Augment institutional capacity: Infrastructure, equipment and human resource for mental healthcare

Promote: Community awareness and participation in the delivery of mental health services

Steps taken-

• To overcome the acute shortage of qualified mental health professionals in the country, the Government, under the National Mental Health Programme (NMHP), is implementing manpower development schemes for establishment of Centres of Excellence and strengthening/establishing Post Graduate (PG) Departments in Mental Health specialties
• Establishment of additional 10 Centres of Excellence and support to strengthen/establish 93 PG Departments during the 12^thFive Year Plan Period

Steps for 100 Per Cent Literacy 

(Topic: Human Resource Development)

Two major interventions of Government of India, namely

• SarvaShikshaAbhiyan- Universalisation of elementary education

• Saakshar Bharat- Adult population help to bring effective improvement in literacy

The State Literacy Mission Authority (SLMA), Tamil Nadu has been felicitated with State level Saakshar Bharat Award 2015, as the best performing State in the field of literacy, on the occasion of the International Literacy Day on the 8th September, 2015

Allocation for Schemes of Skill Development 

(Topic: Skill Development, job opportunity)

Government has launched Pradhan Mantri Kaushal VikasYojana (PMKVY) in March, 2015

Pradhan Mantri Kaushal VikasYojana (PMKVY)—Aims to enable and mobilise a large number of Indian youth to take up skill training, become employable and earn their livelihood

Implementing Agency:National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC)

Skill Development Initiative (SDI) Scheme:

• To provide vocational training to the people across the Country for skill development in order to improve their employability

• Training is provided through a network of Vocational Training Providers (VTPs) registered across the country.

• No fee charged for training and assessment

• Implementation: Through States and monitored through a web portal

• The scheme is presently approved till March, 2017 and target depends on the budgetary allocation under the scheme

Launching of E-Hospital Service 

(Topic: Health and family welfare government schemes)

Objective-

• To avail OPD appointment services

• To integrate payment gateway for online payments

• To facilitate patients in viewing their lab reports and check blood availability status in hospitals

• Establishing National Medical College Network (NMCN) wherein 41 Government medical colleges are being networked in the first phase riding over National Knowledge Network (NKN) with the purpose of e-Education and e-Healthcare delivery

 Law for Regulating Surrogacy 

(Topic: Health and Family Welfare)

Reason-

• India is a favourable destination for foreign couples looking for Surrogacy
• ART industry is now Rs. 25,000 crore industry
• Around 2,000 foreign babies are born to Indian surrogates every year
• International surrogacy services are offered by nearly 3,000 such clinics operating across the country

Steps taken-

• Government of India has issued comprehensive technical guidelines to the state governments to regulate surrogacy in their respective states
• The Department of Health Research has drafted a legislation to regulate Surrogacy, Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Bill, 2015, which is under inter-ministerial consultation.
• The Department of Health Research has issued instructions-
  • Ministry of Commerce has issued notification banning the import of human embryos except for research purposes;
  • Ministry of Home Affairs has issued directions to not grant visa/permission to foreign nationals (including OCI Cardholders) to visit India for commissioning Surrogacy

MADAD (OnlineConsular Grievances Monitoring System)

(Topic: External Affairs)

Aim-To extend a helping hand to Indians abroad requiring consular assistance

Launched By-Ministry of External Affairs on 21 February 2015

About MADAD-

• Online portal represents a qualitative improvement over existing procedures for handling of consular grievances, through online forwarding, filing, tracking and escalation until their eventual resolution
• Allows direct registration of the grievances by the members of the public
• Effective tracking of the entire grievance
• All Indian Missions and Posts abroad are linked with MADAD

Memorandum of Understanding between India and Israel in the field of water resources management and development cooperation 

(Topic: India and its International Relations)

Objective: To benefit both the countries in strengthening the techniques in efficient use of water

In terms of:

• Micro-irrigation,

• Recycling/re-use of waste water,

• Desalination,

• Aquifer recharge and

• In-situ water conservation techniques

Monitoring:Joint Working Group to be formed to monitor the activities to be carried out in fulfilment of the MoU

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GS-3

New Initiative to Enable Higher Agriculture Yield per Unit 

(Topic: New Technology in the aid of farmers)

Objective-

• To reduce cost of cultivation
• Enable higher yield per unit
• Realize remunerative prices for farmer

Some of the important new initiatives taken

Soil Health Card (SHC)

• Ability to get to know the exact nutrient level available in their soils
• Ensure judicious use of fertiliser application and save money
• Ensure balanced use of fertiliser, enhancing productivity and higher returns to the farmers

Soil Testing Laboratories established

Neem Coated Urea

• Promoted to regulate urea use
• Enhance its availability to the crop and cut on cost
• The entire quantity of domestically manufactured urea is now neem coated

ParampragatKrishiVikasYojana (PKVY)

• To promote organic farming in the country
• Will improve soil health and organic matter content
• Increase net income of the farmer so as to realise premium price

The Pradhan MantriKrishiSinchaiYojana (PMKSY)

• To expand cultivated area with assured irrigation,
• Reduce wastage of water and
• Improve water use efficiency

Market Intervention Scheme (MIS)

To protect the growers of these commodities from making distress sale in the event of bumper crop when the prices tend to fall below the economic level/cost of production

Centrally Sponsored Schemes—

• National Food Security Mission (NFSM)
• Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH)
• National Mission on Oilseeds &Oilpalm (NMOOP)
• National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA)
• National Mission on Agricultural Extension & Technology (NMAET)
• National Crop Insurance Programme (NCIP)
• Unified National Agriculture Markets
• RashtriyaKrishiVikasYojana (RKVY)

E-commerce Services- Enhancing Rural Entrepreneurship through CSCs 

(Topic: Information Technology, Indian Economy, Development and Employment)

Objective-

• Tocreate a platform to enhance rural entrepreneurship through CSCs
• Enabling sale, purchase and last mile delivery network to offer a level playing field in logistics for rural markets

Initiative By- CSC e-Governance Services India Ltd. (CSC-SPV) in association with e-Commerce partners

Government to Soon Launch Series of Stamps on Nation’s Environmental Profile 

(Topic: Environment and Awareness)

Government to soon launch series of stamps depicting the entire environmental profile of the country and has already brought out a series of stamps on flora and fauna, classical musicians, revolutionaries of India

ZSI: Digitize its various publications and reports and soon will become a part of the National Digital Library, enabling easy access of these publications to the student community

About Zoology Survey of India (ZSI)-

Established on 1st July 1916,ZSI is a premier institution on animal taxonomy in India under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change

Functions:

• Surveying,
• Exploring,
• Conducting Research and
• Documentation leading to the advancement in our knowledge on various aspects of animal taxonomy of the Indian subcontinent

Achievements:

• Brought knowledge to the scientific community about many new and endemic species of animals found in this country
• ZSI has been declared as the designated repository for the National Zoological Collection as per Section 39 of the National Biodiversity Act, 2002
• Many specimens in the collections of ZSI are more than 200-year old

PAHAL-Guinness world record 

(Topic: Related to direct and indirect subsidies, functioning, economics)

Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi received Guinness Book of World Records  in recognition of PAHAL as the largest cash transfer programme in the world

PAHAL-

• LPG consumers who join the PAHAL scheme will get the LPG cylinders at market price and receive LPG subsidy (as per their entitlement) directly into their bank accounts
• The “Pahal” scheme has been acknowledged by the Guinness Book of World Records for being the largest cash transfer program (households) with 12.57 crore households receiving cash transfer as of 30^thJune, 2015
• On 03^rd Dec, 2015, 62 crore LPG consumers have joined the PAHAL scheme and are receiving the subsidy directly into their Bank Accounts.
• Scheme has enabled substantive savings in subsidy on supply of LPG consumers to the households