PIB Analysis : 1st July

PIB Analysis for UPSC CSE

Topics Covered

1. National Common mobility card
2. India International Cooperatives Trade Fair
3. STRIDE
4. High Powered Committee
5. Swadesh Darshan Scheme
6. PMKVY
7. PMUY
8. National Manufacturing Competitiveness Programme (NMCP) 

1 . National Common Mobility Card

About National Common Mobility Card

• National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) – One Nation, One Card for transport mobility is an initiative of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs to enable seamless travel by different metros and other transport systems across the country besides retail shopping and purchases.
• The Indigenous Automatic Fare Collection System based on One Nation One Card Model is the first of its kind in India.
• These are bank issued cards on Debit/Credit/Prepaid card product platform.
• The customer may use this single card for payments across all segments including metro, bus, suburban railways, toll, parking, smart city and retail.
• The stored value on card supports offline transaction across all travel needs with minimal financial risk to involved stakeholders. The service area feature of this card supports operator specific applications e.g. monthly passes, season tickets etc.

Benefits of NCMC

• NCMC Ecosystem offers the value proposition for customers as they need not to carry multiple cards for different usage. Further, the super quick contactless transactions will improve the seamless experience.
• For operators, NCMC ecosystem brings common standards for implementation without vendor lock-in.
• This will also help in higher digital payments penetration, savings on closed loop card lifecycle management cost and reduced operating cost. The rich data insights may be used by operators for business intelligence leading to efficient operation.
• With NCMC Ecosystem, Banks will get an access to segments which are highly driven by cash but stickiness in nature. NCMC Ecosystem will further help government in digitization of low value payments and reduced cost for the entire ecosystem.

2 . India International Cooperative Trade Fair

Context : The First Ever India International Cooperatives Trade Fair (IICTF) is going to be held at PragatiMaidan, New Delhi from 11^th till 13^th October, 2019. Steered by NCDC, the Fair is being conducted with the support of one international organization (NEDAC), three Ministries, four State Governments and several apex level Indian cooperative organizations.

Objective

• The Trade Fair is aimed at promoting cooperative to cooperative trade within India and abroad leading to enhanced rural and farm prosperity.
• The fair will be packed with conferences, exhibitions, B2B meetings, C2C meetings, sales promotion, marketing and products display business, networking, policy advocacy etc., providing an immense opportunity to the participants to collaborate and explore business opportunities with the Cooperative Organisations from India and abroad.
• 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.

3 . Scheme for Trans-disciplinary Research for India’s developing Economy (STRIDE)

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

About STRIDE

• 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.
• STRIDE scheme will strengthen research culture and innovation in colleges and Universities and help students and faculty to contribute towards India’s developing economy with help of collaborative research.

STRIDE Objectives

• 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.

STRIDE components

• Component-1 will endeavour to identify the motivated young talents with research and innovation aptitude in universities and colleges. The Scheme will provide research capacity building in diverse disciplines by mentoring, nurturing and supporting young talents to innovate pragmatic solutions for local, regional, national and global problems. This component is open to all disciplines for grant upto 1 crore.
• Component-2 will be mainly to enhance problem solving skills with help of social innovation and action research to improve wellbeing of people and contribute for India’s developing economy. Collaborations between universities, government, voluntary organizations and industries is encouraged under this scheme. This component is open to all disciplines for grant upto 50 lakh – 1 crore.
• Component-3 will fund high impact research projects in the identified thrust areas in humanities and human sciences through national network of eminent scientists from leading institutions. Grant available for this component is upto 1 crore for one HEI and upto 5 crores for multi institutional network.

4 . High Powered Committee of Chief Ministers for Transformation of Indian Agriculture

Context : Governing Council meeting of NITI Aayog, the Prime Minister has set up a High Powered Committee of Chief Ministers for ‘Transformation of Indian Agriculture’.

About the committee

• Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis will act as the convenor of the committee
• CMs of Karnataka, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh & Union Minister of Agriculture will act as members
• The committee will submit its report within two months of the date of notification of the Committee.
• The High Powered Committee of Chief Ministers for ‘Transformation of Indian Agriculture’ will be serviced by NITI Aayog.

Terms of Reference of the Committee

• To discuss measures for transformation of agriculture and raising farmers’ income and suggest modalities for adoption and time bound implementation of following reforms by States/UTs:
  • The….State/Union Territory ‘Agriculture Produce and Livestock Marketing (Promotion & Facilitation) Act, 2017’ (APLM Act, 2017) circulated by Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, GoI to States/UTs.
  • The …..States/Union Territory ‘Agriculture Produce and Livestock, Contract Farming and Services (Promotion & Facilitation) Act, 2018’ circulated by Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, GoI to States/UTs.
• To examine various provisions of Essential Commodity Act (ECA), 1955 and situations that require ECA. To suggest changes in the ECA to attract private investments in agricultural marketing and infrastructure
• To suggest mechanism for linking of market reforms with e-NAM, GRAM and other relevant Centrally Sponsored Schemes.
• To suggest policy measures to (a) boost agricultural export (b) raise growth in food processing (c) attract investments in modern market infrastructure, value chains and logistics.
• To suggest measures to upgrade agri-technology to global standards and improve access of farmers to quality seed, plant propagation material and farm machinery in agriculturally advance countries.
• To propose any other relevant reforms for transformation of agriculture sector and raising farmers’ income.

5 . Swadesh Darshan Scheme

About the Scheme

• Swadesh Darshan Scheme – Integrated Development of theme based tourist circuits is the flagship scheme of Ministry of Tourism for development of tourism infrastructure in the country.
• Under Swadesh Darshan Scheme Ministry of Tourism is developing critical tourism infrastructure in the country in a sustainable and inclusive manner to make India into a world class tourist destination.
• The focus under the scheme is to develop public facilities like last mile connectivity, Tourist reception Centers, Way side Amenities, Solid Waste Management, Illumination, Landscaping, parking etc. where Private Sector is not willing to invest.

Objectives

• Position tourism as a major engine of economic growth and job creation;
• Develop circuits having tourist potential in a planned and prioritized manner;
• Promote cultural and heritage value of the country to generate livelihoods in the identified regions;
• Enhance the tourist attractiveness in a sustainable manner by developing world class infrastructure in the circuit/destinations;
• Follow community based development and pro-poor tourism approach;
• Create awareness among the local communities about the importance of tourism for them in terms of increased sources of income, improved living standards and overall development of the area.
• Create employment through active involvement of local communities;
• Harness tourism potential for its effects in employment generation and economic development.
• Make full use of the potential and advantages in terms of available infrastructure, national culture and characteristic strong points of each and every region throughout the country by development of theme based circuits.

6 . Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY)

About the Scheme

• Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) is a flagship scheme of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship being implemented with an objective to provide skilling to one crore prospective youth including persons with disability (PwD) under Short Term Training (STT) courses and Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) across the country for four years i.e. 2016-2020
• Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojna (PMKVY) is for all sections of the society including PwD.
• It will be implemented by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship through the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC).
• Under this Scheme, Training and Assessment fees are completely paid by the Government.
• Skill training would be done based on the National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) and industry led standards.

7 . Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana

Main features of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY)

• Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana is a scheme of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas for providing LPG connections to women from Below Poverty Line (BPL) households.
• Under PMUY, cash assistance upto Rs 1600/- is provided for releasing deposit free LPG connection.
• The beneficiary bears the cost of Hot Plate and purchase of first refill.
• The beneficiary has an option to take the Hot Plate or the first refill or both on loan basis, from Public Sector Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) at zero interest rate.
• LPG connection is released in the name of an adult woman of the poor family, subject to the condition that no LPG connection exists in the name of any family member of the family, including the applicant.

8 . National Manufacturing Competitiveness Programme

• National Manufacturing Competitiveness Programme (NMCP) aima to support the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in their endeavor to become competitive.
• The objective of NMCP is to develop global competitiveness among Indian MSMEs.
• This programme targets at enhancing the entire value chain of the MSME sector through the following components:
  • Lean Manufacturing Competitiveness Scheme for MSMEs;  
  • Promotion of Information & Communication Tools (ICT) in MSME sector;
  • Technology and Quality Up gradation Support to MSMEs;
  • Design Clinics scheme for MSMEs;
  • Enabling Manufacturing Sector to be Competitive through Quality  Management Standards (QMS) and Quality Technology Tools (QTT);
  • Marketing Assistance and Technology Up gradation Scheme for MSMEs;
  • National campaign for building awareness on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR);
  • Support for Entrepreneurial and Managerial Development of SMEs through Incubators.     
  • Bar Code under Market Development Assistance (MDA) scheme.