PIB Analysis for UPSC CSE
Topics Covered
- Guidelines for Awarding Ashoka Chakra
- Steps taken by Govt to Strengthen Public Sector Banks
- Samagra Shiksha
- Draft National Policy on Domestic Workers
- National Child Labour Project Scheme
- National Policy on Biofuels
- Shyama Prasad Mukherjee RURBAN Mission
- Healthy States, Progressive India Report
1 . Guidelines for awarding Ashoka Chakra
Guidelines for awarding Ashoka Chakra
- The Ashoka Chakra shall be awarded for most conspicuous bravery; or some act of daring or pre-eminent valour or self-sacrifice otherwise than in the face of the enemy.
- The persons eligible for the Ashoka Chakra shall be:
- Officers and men and women of all ranks of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force, of any of the Reserve Forces, of the Territorial Army, Militia and of any other lawfully constituted forces.
- Members of the Nursing Services of the Armed Forces.
- Civilian citizens of either sex in all walks of life and members of Police Forces including Central Para-Military Forces and Railway Protection Force.
2 . Steps Taken by Govt to strengthen Public Sector Banks
Background
- To strengthen the Public Sector Banks (PSBs), over the last four financial years, the Government of India has taken comprehensive steps under its 4R’s strategy of recognising NPAs transparently, resolving and recovering value from stressed accounts through clean and effective laws and processes, re-capitalising banks, and reforming banks through the PSB Reforms Agenda.
- Over the last five Financial Years (FYs), PSBs have been recapitalised to the extent of Rs. 3.19 lakh crore, with infusion of Rs. 2.5 lakh crore by the Government and mobilisation of over Rs. 66,000 crore by PSBs themselves.
Steps taken by the Government to improve the condition of banks
- Change in credit culture with institution of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) fundamentally changing the creditor-borrower relationship, taking away control of the defaulting company from promoters/owners and debarring wilful defaulters from the resolution process and debarring them from raising funds from the market.
- Fugitive Economic Offenders Act has been enacted enabling confiscation of fugitive economic offenders’ property.
- PSBs heads have been empowered to request for issuance of look-out circulars.
- National Financial Reporting Authority has been established as an independent Regulator for enforcing auditing standards and ensuring audit quality.
- Key reforms have been instituted in PSBs, including the following
- Board-approved Loan Policies of PSBs now mandate tying up necessary clearances/approvals and linkages before disbursement, scrutiny of group balance-sheet and ring-fencing of cash flows, non-fund and tail risk appraisal in project financing.
- Use of third-party data sources for comprehensive due diligence across data sources has been instituted, thus mitigating risk on account of misrepresentation and fraud.
- Monitoring has been strictly segregated from sanctioning roles in high-value loans, and specialised monitoring agencies combining financial and domain knowledge have been deployed for effective monitoring of loans above Rs. 250 crore.
- To ensure timely and better realisation in one-time settlements (OTSs), online end-to-end OTS platforms have been set-up.
- For faster processing of loan proposals, Loan Management Systems (LMS) have been put in place for personal segment and MSME loans.
- To strengthen governance at the Board level, the position of Chairman and Managing Director has been bifurcated into a non-executive Chairman and an MD & CEO
- A professional Banks Board Bureau has been created for arm’s length selection of non-executive Chairmen and whole-time directors (WTDs).
Impact on PSBs of Government’s 4R’s approach
- Robust recovery of Rs. 3.59 lakh crores over the last four years, including record recovery of Rs 1.23 lakh crores in FY 2018-19, has been effected.
- Assets quality has improved as reflected in 45% year-on-year reduction in slippage into NPAs in FY 2018-19, and 63% reduction in 31 to 90 days overdue (SMA-1 & 2) corporate accounts by March 2019 from their peak in June 2017.
- With stress recognition largely completed, significant headway in recovery and resolution under IBC, and reduced slippages as a result of improved underwriting and monitoring, gross NPAs of PSBs have started declining, after peaking in March 2018, registering a decline of Rs. 89,189 crore, from Rs. 8.96 lakh crore in March 2018 to Rs 8.06 lakh crore in March 2019.
- With substantial cleaning up accompanied by capitalisation of banks, the overall credit growth of PSBs has picked up substantially, from 0.78 % in FY 2016-17 to 7.51% in FY 2018-19.
3 . Samagra Shiksha
About Samagra Shiksha
- The scheme envisages the ‘school’ as a continuum from pre-school, primary, upper primary, secondary to Senior Secondary levels.
- The vision of the Scheme is to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education from pre-school to senior secondary stage in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) for Education.
- Samagra Shiksha is formed by subsuming three erstwhile Centrally Sponsored Schemes of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan(SSA), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha and Teacher education (TE)
The major objectives of the Scheme
- Major Objectives are provision of quality education and enhancing learning outcomes of students; Bridging Social and Gender Gaps in School Education; Ensuring equity and inclusion at all levels of school education; Ensuring minimum standards in schooling provisions; Promoting Vocationalisation of education; Support States in implementation of Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009; and Strengthening and up-gradation of SCERTs/State Institutes of Education and DIET as a nodal agencies for teacher training.
The main outcomes of the Scheme
- Universal Access, Equity and Quality, promoting Vocationalisation of Education and strengthening of Teacher Education Institutions (TEIs).
4 . Draft National Policy on Domestic Workers
A draft National Policy on domestic workers is under consideration of the Central Government. The salient features of the draft policy are as under:-
- Inclusion of Domestic Workers in the existing legislations
- Domestic workers will have the right to register as workers. Such registration will facilitate their access to rights & benefits accruing to them as workers.
- Right to form their own associations , trade unions
- Right to have minimum wages, access to social security, protection from abuse, harassment, violence
- Right to enhance their professional skills
- Protection of Domestic Workers from abuse and exploitation
- Domestic Workers to have access to courts, tribunals, etc.
- Establishment of a mechanism for regulation of concerned placement agencies
5 . National Child Labour Project Scheme
About National Child Labour Project Scheme
- Under the NCLP Scheme, children in the age group of 9-14 years are rescued/withdrawn from work and enrolled in the NCLP Special Training Centres, where they are provided with bridge education, vocational training, mid day meal, stipend, health care, etc. before being mainstreamed into formal education system.
- Children in the age group of 5-8 years are directly linked to the formal education system through a close coordination with the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).
Objective of the Scheme
- This is the major Central Sector Scheme for the rehabilitation of child labour.
- The Scheme seeks to adopt a sequential approach with focus on rehabilitation of children working in hazardous occupations & processes in the first instance.
- Under the Scheme, survey of child labour engaged in hazardous occupations & processes has been conducted.
- The identified children are to be withdrawn from these occupations & processes and then put into special schools in order to enable them to be mainstreamed into formal schooling system.
- Project Societies at the district level are fully funded for opening up of special schools/Rehabilitation Centres for the rehabilitation of child labour.
- The special schools/Rehabilitation Centres provide:
- Non-formal/bridge education
- Skilled/vocational training
- Mid Day Meal
- Stipend @ Rs.150/- per child per month.
- Health care facilities through a doctor appointed for a group of 20 schools.
6 . National Policy on Biofuels
Salient Features
- The Policy categorises biofuels as “Basic Biofuels” viz. First Generation (1G) bioethanol & biodiesel and “Advanced Biofuels” – Second Generation (2G) ethanol, Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) to drop-in fuels, Third Generation (3G) biofuels, bio-CNG etc. to enable extension of appropriate financial and fiscal incentives under each category.
- The Policy expands the scope of raw material for ethanol production by allowing use of Sugarcane Juice, Sugar containing materials like Sugar Beet, Sweet Sorghum, Starch containing materials like Corn, Cassava, Damaged food grains like wheat, broken rice, Rotten Potatoes, unfit for human consumption for ethanol production.
- Farmers are at a risk of not getting appropriate price for their produce during the surplus production phase. Taking this into account, the Policy allows use of surplus food grains for production of ethanol for blending with petrol with the approval of National Biofuel Coordination Committee.
- With a thrust on Advanced Biofuels, the Policy indicates a viability gap funding scheme for 2G ethanol Bio refineries of Rs.5000 crore in 6 years in addition to additional tax incentives, higher purchase price as compared to 1G biofuels.
- The Policy encourages setting up of supply chain mechanisms for biodiesel production from non-edible oilseeds, Used Cooking Oil, short gestation crops.
- Roles and responsibilities of all the concerned Ministries/Departments with respect to biofuels has been captured in the Policy document to synergise efforts.
Expected Benefits
- Reduce Import Dependency: One crore lit of E10 saves Rs.28 crore of forex at current rates. The ethanol supply year 2017-18 is likely to see a supply of around 150 crore litres of ethanol which will result in savings of over Rs.4000 crore of forex.
- Cleaner Environment: One crore lit of E-10 saves around 20,000 ton of CO2 emissions. For the ethanol supply year 2017-18, there will be lesser emissions of CO2 to the tune of 30 lakh ton. By reducing crop burning & conversion of agricultural residues/wastes to biofuels there will be further reduction in Green House Gas emissions.
- Health benefits: Prolonged reuse of Cooking Oil for preparing food, particularly in deep-frying is a potential health hazard and can lead to many diseases. Used Cooking Oil is a potential feedstock for biodiesel and its use for making biodiesel will prevent diversion of used cooking oil in the food industry.
- MSW Management: It is estimated that, annually 62 MMT of Municipal Solid Waste gets generated in India. There are technologies available which can convert waste/plastic, MSW to drop in fuels. One ton of such waste has the potential to provide around 20% of drop in fuels.
- Infrastructural Investment in Rural Areas: It is estimated that, one 100klpd bio refinery will require around Rs.800 crore capital investment. At present Oil Marketing Companies are in the process of setting up twelve 2G bio refineries with an investment of around Rs.10,000 crore. Further addition of 2G bio refineries across the Country will spur infrastructural investment in the rural areas.
- Employment Generation: One 100klpd 2G bio refinery can contribute 1200 jobs in Plant Operations, Village Level Entrepreneurs and Supply Chain Management.
- Additional Income to Farmers: By adopting 2G technologies, agricultural residues/waste which otherwise are burnt by the farmers can be converted to ethanol and can fetch a price for these waste if a market is developed for the same. Also, farmers are at a risk of not getting appropriate price for their produce during the surplus production phase. Thus conversion of surplus grains and agricultural biomass can help in price stabilization.
7 . Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Rurban Mission
About the Mission
- The National Rurban Mission (NRuM) follows the vision of “Development of a cluster of villages that preserve and nurture the essence of rural community life with focus on equity and inclusiveness without compromising with the facilities perceived to be essentially urban in nature, thus creating a cluster of “Rurban Villages”.
- Clusters would be developed by provisioning of economic activities, developing skills & local entrepreneurship and providing infrastructure amenities. The Rurban Mission will thus develop a cluster of Smart Villages.
- The funding for Rurban Clusters will be through various schemes of the Government converged into the cluster.
Mission’s Objective
- The objective of the National Rurban Mission (NRuM) is to stimulate local economic development, enhance basic services, and create well planned Rurban clusters.
Mission’s Outcomes
- Bridging the rural-urban divide-viz: economic, technological and those related to cfacilities and services.
- Stimulating local economic development with emphasis on reduction of poverty and unemployment in rural areas.
- Spreading development in the region.
- Attracting investment in rural areas.
8 . Healthy State Progressive India Report
Context : NITI Aayog will release the second edition of “Healthy States, Progressive India”
About the 2nd Edition of the Report
- The Round-II report focuses on measuring and highlighting the overall performance and incremental improvement over a two-year period (2016-17 and 2017-18) in the States and UTs.
- It takes a comprehensive look at health in terms of Health Outcomes, Governance and Processes and impact of policy interventions.
- The report has been prepared in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) and with technical assistance from the World Bank.
First round of the Health Index
- In 2018, the first round of the Health Index (referred to as 2017 Health Index) was released, which measured the annual and incremental performance of the States and UTs over the period of 2014-15 (base year) to 2015-16 (reference year).
- Among the Larger States, Kerala, Punjab, and Tamil Nadu ranked on top in terms of overall performance, while Jharkhand, Jammu & Kashmir, and Uttar Pradesh were the top three ranking States in terms of annual incremental performance.
- Among Smaller States, Mizoram ranked first followed by Manipur on overall performance, while Manipur followed by Goa were the top ranked States in terms of annual incremental performance.
- Among UTs, Lakshadweep showed both the best overall performance as well as the highest annual incremental performance. Lakshadweep showed the highest improvement in indicators such as institutional deliveries, tuberculosis (TB) treatment success rate, and transfer of National Health Mission (NHM) funds from State Treasury to implementation agency.