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Mother and Child Tracking System
Posted by Ias Generalstudies2.0 on May 15, 2013 in Women and Child Development

4 Votes

Mother and Child Tracking System (MCTS) is a web enabled name based system to monitor and ensure
delivery of full spectrum of services to all pregnant women and children.

The system was introduced about 3 years back. It is currently being implemented throughout the
country with active involvement of States/UTs. More than 4.06 crore pregnant crore pregnant women
3.3 crore children have been registered in the system since its inception.
Over 99.5% districts, 96% health blocks, 88% health facilities (other than Sub Health Centres (SHCs) and
94% SHCs are reporting data in MCTS.

Total 2.3 lakh ANMS are registered in MCTS, of which 2.2 lakh (96.6%) ANM are registered with Phone
Number.

Total 8.4 lakh ASHAs are registered in MCTS, out of which 6.9 lakh (82.9%) ASHAs are registered with
Phone number.

Everyday approximately 7-8 lakh SMSes are being sent to the beneficiaries carrying useful IEC messages
related to maternal and child care, schemes like JSY, JSSK and Direct Benefit Transfer.

Regular Work plants are being sent to ANMs/ASHAs through SMS.

Daily SMSes are also being sent to senior officials of GOI and State Governments, Regional Directors,
State Coordinators, District Collectors, Chief Medical Officers, District Programme Managers etc.
regarding mother and child registration status, service due and delivery status.

MCTS system has been synchronised to Central Plan Schemes Monitoring System to make JSY payments
online directly into the beneficiary’s bank account in select pilot districts where the Director Benefits
Transfer scheme is being rolled.
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Inflation Index Bonds (IIBs)
Posted by Ias Generalstudies2.0 on May 15, 2013 in Economics
1 Vote

Government of India in consultation with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to launch Inflation
Index Bonds (IIBs), as instruments that will protect savings of poor and middle classes from inflation and
incentivise household sector to save in financial instruments rather than buy gold.

For appropriate price discovery and market development, however, it is necessary to issue comparable
instruments through auctions to the institutional investors such as Pension Funds, Insurance, and
Mutual Funds etc. This will create demand for IIBs and help in making them tradable in the secondary
market. It is therefore proposed to issue initial series for institutional investors (including 20% to retail
investors) and later, another series, exclusively for retail investors. First series of IIBs would be issued in
H1 of the current FY. With a view to target greater retail participation for this series also, it has been
decided to enhance the non-competitive segment for retail investors to 20%, from the present level of
5%.

The details for first series of IIBs are as under:

Capital Indexed Bonds (CIBs) have a fixed real coupon rate and a nominal principal value that is adjusted
against inflation. Periodic coupon payments are paid on adjusted principal. Thus, CIBs provide inflation
protection to both principal and coupon payment. At maturity, the adjusted principal or the face value,
whichever is higher, will be paid.

Index ratio (IR) will be computed by dividing ref. index for the settlement date by ref. index for issue
date (i.e. IR set date = Ref. Inflation Index Set Date / Ref Inflation Index Issue Date).
Final Wholesale Price Inflation (WPI) will be used for providing inflation protection in this product. In
case of revision in the base year for WPI series, base splicing method would be used to construct a
consistent series for indexation.

Indexation Lag: Final WPI with four months lag will be used, i.e. Sept 2012 and Oct 2012 final WPI will
be used as reference WPI for 1st Feb 2013 and 1st March 2013, respectively. The reference WPI for
dates between 1st Feb and 1st March 2013 will be computed through interpolation.

· Issuance method: CIBs will be issued by auction method.

· Retail Participation: Non-competitive portion will be increased from extant 5 per cent to upto 20
per cent of the notified amount in order to encourage retail investors’ participation.

· Maturity: Issuance would target various points of the maturity curve in order to have benchmarks.
To begin with, these bonds will be issued for tenor of 10 years.

· Issuance Size: Each tranche of CIBs will be for Rs. 1,000 – 2000 crore and total issuance would be
for about Rs. 12,000-15,000 crore in 2013-14.
· Issuance Date: First such tranche will be issued on June 4th 2013 and the same would be issued
regularly through auctions on the last Tuesday of each subsequent month during 2013-14.

Second series of IIBs exclusively for retail investors will be issued in H2. First series of
the IIBs will help in determining the coupon rate for the Bonds through auction. This will help in
benchmarking IIBs. Based on the experience in the initial issuances, second series of IIBs for the retail
investors is proposed to be issued around October. Terms of Issuance of IIBs for retail investors would
be announced in due course.
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Scholarships to Poor Students of General Category
Posted by Ias Generalstudies2.0 on May 5, 2013 in Minorities

3 Votes

The Ministry of Minority Affairs implements three Scholarship Schemes for Educational Empowerment
of notified minority communities viz. Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist and Parsis (Zoroastrian) as per
section 2 (c) National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992. Any student belonging to one of these five
notified minority communities, who also comes under General Category, is eligible for Scholarship as per
eligibility criteria of these schemes.
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Green Cess on Industry
Posted by Ias Generalstudies2.0 on May 5, 2013 in Ecology and Environment

4 Votes

The state of Maharashtra has imposed cess of 8 paise per unit from 1st May 2008 on the sale of
electricity to commercial and industrial consumers. The cess is to be used for executing schemes of
generation of renewable energy.

The Electricity Act 2003 and Tariff Policy 2006 provide enabling framework for renewable energy
projects in the country. Government of India has also been providing fiscal and financial incentives for
renewable energy sources based power generation systems and quantum and type of incentive depends
upon area, capacity, renewable energy technology, and category of beneficiary etc. Further, profits
earned from sale of renewable power are exempt from income tax for any 10 years out of the first 15
years of projects’ operation, as applicable to infrastructure projects.

In addition, under an assignment from the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy the Power Grid
Cooperation of India Ltd. (PGCIL) has prepared a report for augmenting renewable power evacuation
infrastructure for the likely renewable power capacity addition during 12th Five Year Plan period in eight
major renewable resource rich states namely Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka,
Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and also Jammu & Kashmir.
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Committee on Business Climate
Posted by Ias Generalstudies2.0 on May 4, 2013 in Corporate Affairs

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Committee for Reforming the Regulatory Environment for Doing Business in India

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has constituted a committee under the chairman ship of
M.Damodaran, former Chairman, SEBI for reforming the Regulatory Environment for doing Business in
the country. The committee will conduct an in-depth study in to the entire gamut of regulatory
framework and prepare a detailed roadmap for improving the climate of business in India within a
period of six months. It is noteworthy that easing of business environment mandates extensive
examination of regulations in different areas of root functioning such as financial reforms, governance
reforms, liberalized policy framework, process reforms etc.

The constitution of committee follows a recent Report of World Bank and the International Finance
Corporation, entitled “Doing Business 2012: Doing Business in a very transparent World” that ranks india
in the 132nd position among the sample of 183 countries.

i) Faster incorporation/registration of companies through fully electronic MCA-21 Registry provided;
ii) Companies allowed maintaining records and hold meetings through e-governance mode;

iii) Companies empowered to function in a manner which is ‘self-regulated with
disclosures/transparency’ rather than ‘Government/regulatory approval based regime’;

iv) Concepts of ‘One Person Company’ and ‘Small Company’ recognized to allow new entrepreneurs to
take advantage of corporate form of business;

v) Faster mergers and acquisitions including short form of merger and cross border mergers allowed;

vi) Time bound approvals through National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT); and vii) Summary liquidation
process for a class of companies provided.
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National Council for Tribal Welfare
Posted by Ias Generalstudies2.0 on April 30, 2013 in Minorities

3 Votes

The National Council for Tribal Welfare has been Constituted with the following objectives:-
(i) To provide broad policy guidelines to bring about improvement in the lives of the ST community in
the country.

(ii) To review the implementation of the Forest Rights Act.

(iii) To review the implementation of Schedule-V and Schedule-VI of the Constitution.

(iv) To monitor the implementation of Tribal Sub-Plan.

(v) To monitor programmes aimed at protecting Particularly vulnerable Tribal Groups.

The National Council for tribal Welfare Constituted under the Chairmanship of Hon’ble Prime Minister
has the following composition:-

1) Minister of Tribal Affairs, Government of India;
2) Minister of Finance, Government of India;
3) Minister of Agriculture, Government of India;
4) Minister of Home Affairs, Government of India;
5) Minister of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India;
6) Minister of Environment & Forests, Government of India;
7) Minister of HRD, Government of India;
8) Minister of Rural Development, Government of India;
9) Minister of Woman and Child Development, Government of India;
10) Minister of Culture, Government of India;
11) Minister of Mines, Government of India;
12) Minister of Coal, Government of India;
13) Minister of Power, Government of India;
14) Deputy Chairperson, Planning Commission;
15) Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh/ Gujarat/ Himachal Pradesh / Maharashtra / Rajasthan/ Orissa/
Jharkhand/ Madhya Pradesh/ Chhattisgarh/Assam /Meghalaya/ Mizoram/ Tripura (Schedule V and
Schedule VI States);
16) Two experts to be nominated by the Prime Minister for a period of 2 years.
17) Secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India – Member Secretary.

No meeting of National Council for Tribal Welfare has been held so far.

The States of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh,
Maharashtra, Odisha and Rajasthan are covered under the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution and have
been entrusted with special responsibilities on matter pertaining to the welfare and advancement of the
Scheduled Tribes.

The Chief Ministers of Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh,
Maharashtra, Odisha are the Chairpersons of Tribes Advisory Council (TAC) in their respective States and
have presided over the meetings of TAC during the last three years
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Yash Chopra, Rajesh Khanna to receive Dadasaheb Phalke awards
Posted by Ias Generalstudies2.0 on April 26, 2013 in Awards