Government Committees, Schemes & Bills - Current Affairs for January, 2016

Chattisgarh join the UDAY scheme after signing the MoU with the Central Government. Government of India Chattisgarh and power distribution firm CSPDCL has signed an MoU under the Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana for operational as well as financial turnaround of CSPDCL. UDAY was launched by the Central Government on November 20, 2015 to ensure distribution utilities break out of long standing chronic debt of close to INR 4.3 lakh crore. MoU will have considerable benefits for CSPDCL with Chattisgarh acquiring 75% of the outstanding debt of CSPDCL and the balance debt repriced or issued as State guaranteed DISCOM bonds at coupon rates along 3% less than average existing rate.

PM Narendra Modi released the first Startup India action plan addressing the gathering of eminent names from the industry. The aim should be to grow and not just earn money. Startup is not just about capital and funding, but involves finding solutions to numerous problems.

MNREGA wage rates will be fixed under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in accordance with prevailing agricultural wage rates in states such as Uttarakhand. Recommendation to this effect has been made by a committee appointed by the Union in light of demands across country for revision in wage rates under MNREGA. Proposal of INR 2000 crore will be submitted to the FM for tailoring wage rates under MNREGA. Currently, wage rate under MNREGA in states like Uttarakhand is INR 161 agricultural wage rate in states is INR 204.

Union Cabinet on 6th January 2016 approved the Stand Up India Scheme for promoting entrepreneurship among SC, ST and Women entrepreneurs. Scheme will work to facilitate two projects per bank branch for one category of entrepreneur each. This will be benefiting 2.5 lakh borrowers. This provides a refinance window through SIDBI with initial amount of INR 10,000 crore. It will also create a guarantee mechanism through National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company or NCGTC. The focus will be on handholding support for SC, ST and women borrowers.

With a major initiative towards fast track implementation of Namami Gange programme, the first company of Ganga Task Force Battalion was deployed at Garmukteshwar on 5th January 2015. Three such companies are set to be deployed at Allahabad, Varanasi and Kanpur. Jawans of the Ganga Task force will also be deployed along the river to ensure industrial effluents and individual polluters do not contaminate the river. The Ganga Gram Yojana was also launched at Village Puth in UP’s Hapur District with 1600 villages situated under the Ganga river bank will be developed as per the scheme. During the first phase of the programme, 200 villages were selected.

Government of India, the State of Jharkhand and Jharkhand Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited have signed an MoU under the UDAY scheme or Ujjwal Discom Assurance Yojana. MoU is for operational and financial turnaround of discoms and this is the first MoU to be signed by a state for this scheme. MoU will aid in electrifying 2200 villages in Jharkhand and providing 24/7 electricity to all.

Government of India has constituted a Committee headed by renowned film personality Shyam Benegal for Holistic interpretation of the provisions of the Cinematograph Act and Rules and the reshaping of the censor board. Apart from Mr. Benegal, the other Members of the Committee are Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Piyush Pandey, Bhawana Somaaya, Nina Lath Gupta and Joint Secretary (Films) as Member Convenor.

The Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Bill, 2015 was passed by the Parliament in the Winter session after it received the assent of the President on the 26th December, 2015 and has been published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary on 29th December, 2015. The provisions of the Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Act, 2015 shall be deemed to have come into force on the 15th June, 2015.

Close to 15 states have agreed to opt for the UDAY scheme meant for reviving debt stressed discoms in the nation according to Union Minister Piyush Goyal. A total of 15 from the current 29 states are on board for the Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana. 4 major states- UP, Odisha, Bihar and Maharashtra have agreed to join UDAY with total of 15 states joining the scheme and 90% of over INR 4 lakh crore on discos debt will be covered under the scheme.

A one man committee will be examining the wage structure, service conditions etc of Gramin Dak Sevaks under DoP constituted by GOI. It will be headed by Retired Member of the Postal Services Board. Shri Kamlesh Chandra Committee will be assisted by T.Q.Mohammad, an SAG officer who will act as secretary to the GDS committee. Department of Post has 2.6 lakh Gramin Dak Sevaks and all of them will come under the purview of the committee.

Financing agreement for IDA credit of USD 50 million for the Nai Manzil Education and Skills Training for Minorities was signed with the World Bank. Total project size is USD 100 million from which USD 50 million will be available as IDA credit and the balance will be in funding from the Union Budget. Project has adopted an integrated and holistic approach towards education and skill development for minority youth.

Union Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Dr Harsha Vardhan on 30th December 2015 launched the National Biotechnology Development Strategy 2015-2020 which aims to establish India as a world class bio-manufacturing hub. Benefits of the mission include impetus to knowledge and tools for advancing the cause of humanity and creating strong infrastructure for research and development as well as commercialisation.