Civil Service Bytes

SWACHH BHARAT MISSION Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) on October 2, 2014, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. The ambitious programme aims to make the streets, roads and infrastructure across the country clean by October 02, 2019, the 150 th  birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation. It is India’s biggest ever cleanliness drive. The relevance of the Swachh Bharat Mission Sanitation has emerged as a key issue since the 2011 Census highlighted e glaring data on lack of toilets in the country by stating that over 26 million people in India defecate in the open. Launched with an estimated cost of around Rs 62,009 crore, Swachh Bharat Mission aims to achieve the elimination of open defecation in the country. Among its other objectives are conversion of insanitary toilets to pour flush toilets, putting an end to the inhuman practice of manual scavenging and carrying out Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM). Involvem...

The term ‘Smart city’ conjures up visions of self-driving cars, touch-sensitive interfaces, and adaptive energy systems. What drives this vision is the possibility that ‘Big Data’ and the integration of ‘Information and Communication Technologies’ (ICTs) could transform urban governance, making urban infrastructure more responsive and effective in meeting the needs of citizens. The catch, however, is that your city can only be as smart as the data it has access to. The idea of Smart cities rests upon the notion of live and continuous data collection, but this only works if every single citizen is registered on the database. The problem in most developing country cities, or cities of the ‘Global South’, is incompleteness of data, and the poor quality of existing datasets. The National Census is the most complete household level dataset available in India, but this is collected every ten years, and given the rapid urban growth we are witnessing (17% between 2001 and 2011 according to ...

Workers from a dalit hamlet in Tamil Nadu’s Villipuram district building a road to a cremation ground on the outskirts of the village as part of the rural jobs programme, National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. As many as 86% of NREGA workers in Tamil Nadu are women. The fruits of a  people’s movement  and the world’s largest anti-poverty public works, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act last year provided employment to 22% of all rural homes. At its peak five years ago, it was a lifeline for 55 million, or one in every three rural homes. But it has yet to expand to its full potential. Up to 70% of interested poor households did not receive any NREGA work between 2004-'05 and 2011-'12, reports the  India Human Development Survey 2 . Unemployment allowance, stipulated in the law, has also rarely been paid as a substitute. Nevertheless, for recipient families, 32% of their poverty decline comes from NREGA alone, according to IHDS2. Why NREGA is currently ...

The Mandate of the Act and Achievements The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) completes ten years of implementation on 2nd February 2016. The achievements of a decade are a cause of national pride and celebration. Of the workers, the percentage of Scheduled Caste workers has consistently been about 20% and Scheduled Tribe workers has been about 17%. Of the total persondays, percentage worked by women has steadily increased much above the statutory minimum of 33%. Sustainable assets have been created linked to conservation of natural resources and overall development of Gram Panchayats. More than 65% of the works taken up under the programme are linked to agriculture and allied activities. Revival of the Programme The past year, 2015-16, has seen a revival of the programme.  44% of all wage payments are being made on time. More than 64% of total expenditure is on agriculture and allied activities, the highest in three years. 57% of all wo...

Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Department of Telecommunication (DoT) with vision to make India the skill capital of the world. MoU Envisages: To  fulfill skilled manpower requirement of the telecom sector and at the same time providing quality opportunities for employment / entrepreneurship. Mobilization of financial support for various activities under the National Ecosystem for Development of Telecom Skills. They utilize old telephone exchanges which are no longer in use or exchanges which have ceased to occupy major space in telecom sector,   for skill development initiatives and upgrade the same on need basis. To develop ‘National Institute for Policy Research Innovation and Training (NTIPRT)’ for training and skill up gradation in Telecom Sector. Recent development in telecommunication sector: The Telecommunications Sector in India is expected to show a strong growt...

Government extended by 3 months, the timeline for its co-contribution facility under the Atal Pension Yojana (APY) in a move aimed at benefiting the unorganised sector. A guaranteed pension scheme, APY provides monthly pension ranging from 1,000 to 5,000 rupees to the subscribers.  Scheme was announced to address the longevity risks among the workers in unorganised sector and to encourage the workers in unorganised sector to voluntarily save for their retirement. Under the scheme the government co-contributes 50 per cent of the subscriber’s contribution for a period of 5 years, if the subscriber has joined before 31st December 2015. The government has now extended its co-contribution plan for subscribers who join APY by 31st March 2016.  This measure is likely to benefit substantial number of people who have not been able to join APY. The scheme will however continue for new subscriptions beyond March 2016, but without the benefit of 50% government co-contr...