National Urban Digital Mission Launched

 The Central government has launched the ‘National Urban Digital Mission’ on February 23, 2021.

Highlights

• The National Urban Digital Mission was launched by the Union Housing & Urban Affairs Minister, Hardeep Singh Puri and Minister of Electronics & IT, Ravi Shankar Prasad.
• While launching the mission, the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry (MoHUA) stated that, this mission will institutionalise the citizen-centric and ecosystem-driven approach for the urban governance and service delivery in cities by the year 2022. It will also be providing these service deliveries in all cities and towns by 2024.
• Initiatives like Smart-Code, India Urban Data Exchange (IUDX), Smart Cities 2.0 website, and Geospatial Management Information System (GMIS) were also launched at this virtual event.
• ”India Urban Data Exchange (IUDX)” initiative has been developed by the Smart Cities Mission in partnership with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru.

National Urban Digital Mission

• This mission was launched in order to create a digital infrastructure for all the cities in country.
• This mission will help in creating a shared digital infrastructure which in turn can be used to consolidate and cross-leverage the several digital initiatives of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.
• The mission will also enable the cities and towns to benefit from holistic and diverse forms of support with respect to the needs and local challenges of the towns and cities.

India Urban Data Exchange (IUDX)

It is an open-source software platform facilitating a secure and authenticated exchange of data across several data platforms, data producers, 3rd party applications and consumers. IUDX will provide full control to the data owners regarding the sharing of data. They could control as to what data needs to be exposed and to whom.

Smart Cities Mission

It is an urban renewal and retrofitting program that seeks to develop smart cities across India so as to make cities citizen friendly and sustainable. This mission is being implemented by Union Ministry of Urban Development in association with the respective state governments. It initially included 100 cities that will be completed in between 2019 and 2023.

PM to launch Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyan for returnee migrants on June 20; its key points

The campaign Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyan(GKRA)will be launched through a video-conference, from village Telihar in the district of Khagaria in Bihar on June 20.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Saturday, June 20, launch a Rs 50,000-crore employment scheme or campaign for migrant workers who have returned to their home states during the coronavirus lockdown. The scheme, Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyan (GKRA), will be launched through a video conference from Khagaria district’s Telihar village in Bihar on June 20.

According to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the aim of this campaign is to bring convergence and frontload the money.

“The key thing is it is directly tying up with all the migrant workers who have reached their districts…all of them are going to result in asset creation,” Sitharaman said while addressing a curtain raiser press conference.

The move has come at a time when lakhs of migrants have returned to villages in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak and the need for employment having gone up drastically in rural areas.

Here’s all you need to know about Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyan (GKRA)

*GKRA is a campaign that the Centre is set to launch to “empower and provide livelihood opportunities” to the returnee migrant workers and rural citizens.

* It is a 125-day campaign involving implementation of 25 different types of works to provide employment to the migrant workers on one hand and create infrastructure in the rural regions of the country on the other hand.

* GKRA will primarily focus on six states where maximum migrant workers have returned. A total of 116 districts across Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Odisha have been chosen for the campaign which includes 27 aspirational districts. These districts are estimated to cover about 2/3 of such migrant workers.

*According to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman, the workers will help build gram panchayat bhawans and anganwadi centres, national highway works, railway works and water conservation projects, among others across six states.

Source: Indian Express, 18/06/2020

What is PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana?

To enroll for the scheme, farmers are required to approach the local revenue officer or PM-KISAN Nodal Officer who has been nominated by the state government.

The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana (PM-Kisan Yojana) is a central sector scheme for the families of farmers across the country. Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the third installment of the scheme to approximately 6 crore beneficiaries in Karnataka’s Tumakuru on Thursday.

The scheme defines family as husband, wife and minor children. The scheme, which came into effect from December 1, 2018, provides Rs 2,000 each in three installments for every four months to the farmer families.

The fund is directly transferred to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries. The entire identification of the family rests with the state and Union Territory governments.

To enroll for the scheme, farmers are required to approach the local revenue officer or PM-KISAN Nodal Officer who has been nominated by the state government. Farmers can also self-register themselves through the Farmers Corner on the PM-Kisan website, pmkisan.gov.in.

The government has also set up Common Service Centres (CSCs) to help with the registration fo the farmers.

According to the government website of PM-Kisan, farmers covered under the Exclusion Criteria of the Operational Guidelines are not eligible for the scheme.

The Exclusion Criteria of the Operational Guidelines say that members of the farmer family who are/were former or present holders of any constitutional posts, or former/present ministers/state ministers or former/present members of the Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha or any legislative assembly/councils are not eligible to avail the scheme.

“All serving or retired officers and employees of Central/ State Government Ministries /Offices/Departments and its field units Central or State PSEs and Attached offices /Autonomous Institutions under Government as well as regular employees of the Local Bodies (Excluding Multi Tasking Staff /Class IV/Group D employees) shall not be eligible for benefit under the scheme,” the guidelines add.

Source: Indian Express, 3/01/2020

The Weakest Link is Jan Dhan Account





Needed, ubiquitous correspondents for mobile banking

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced the start of three schemes, two insurance products and one pension scheme, for poor and unorganised workers. These might repackage ongoing schemes introduced by the previous UPA government, but there is no denying the present administration's ability to give them scale, commitment and visibility the schemes needed. Insurance pools resources to meet contingent expenses. Give that nearly two-thirds of Indians are below 35 years of age, the probability of death in the entire population is small and the premium amount can be kept low to mobilise the resources needed to meet insurance payouts. When coverage is expanded to include the entire population, the odds work in favour of lowering costs.This does not mean that no state subsidy would ever be needed. But the subsidy requirement is not likely to be huge, with some mandatory contribution from the beneficiaries as well. The earlier a worker starts saving for re tirement, the lower the burden on the government to ensure him a minim um pension in old age. These schemes can work well only when the benefici aries understand the schemes in ques tion and diligently make their contri butions. The weakness in the system is not the inability of the poor to pony up the small amounts required as their contribution to these funded programmes, but the bank accounts to which these are linked. While large numbers of bank accounts have been opened, these accounts in physical branches at a distance from where the account holders live remain as hard to operate as ever.
The way to make banks accessible is through mobile phone-linked accounts that can be operated through ubiquitous banking correspondents for depositing or taking out cash. For this, the RBI would need to liberalise its terms for banking correspondents and allow telecom joint ventures with banking licences to make use of their telecom retail network to service banking needs as well.Once that is done, India will move ever closer to the goal of financial inclusion.

Roadmap to Financial Inclusion: Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana Pravakar Sahoo

The state of financial inclusion in India, measured by any standard, leaves much to be desired. As in 2012, only 35 per cent of Indians older than 15 years had a bank account in a formal financial institution; in developing countries worldwide, the average is 41 per cent (World Bank 2012). Because of the Reserve Bank of India’s drive for financial inclusion, the number of bank accounts increased by about 100 million during 2011–13. today, there are 229 million basic bank accounts. Access to formal financial institutions has improved gradually, but thousands of villages still lack a bank branch; less than 10 per cent of all commercial bank credit goes to rural areas, where around 70 per cent of the total population lives. Thus, the need for financial inclusion programmes is beyond question. Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) was launched on 28th August, 2014. Initially, the PMJDY targets the opening of bank accounts for 7.5 crore families in a year, by August 15th, 2015. Around 2 crore bank accounts were opened on the first day of the scheme’s launch. Eventually, the target is to include every eligible Indian in the banking system. In Phase 1, all households will be provided a basic account, financial literacy will be taken to the micro level and the modus operandi for direct cash benefits will be put in place. Phase 2 intends to extend financial services to these basic account holders and provide them micro-insurance and pension. As it is difficult to spread bank branches across all unbanked areas, Bank Correspondents (BCs) will be deployed on a large scale to help execute the plan.

Nov 19 2014 : The Economic Times (Delhi)

Kisan Vikas Patra With KYC Welcome





The point is to use the data that is captured

A new avatar of the Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP) launched by the government to encourage people to save more is welcome. It will reduce some demand for gold as investment, curtail imports and help savings, investment and growth. Household financial savings rate dropped to 7.2% of GDP in 2013-14. It should be raised. The answer lies in both reining inflation, improving the appeal of financial savings and offering a wider variety of financial products. KVP offers an annual return of 8.7%, a tad higher than the 10-year g-secs yield of 8.2%, making it attractive for risk-averse investors. It also offers flexibility.Investors can exit after a lock-in of 2.5 years, and also pledge their certificates as collateral for loans. Clearly , an instrument such as the KVP provides comfort to people with limited access to formal finance and makes available long-term funds for investment. It will also keep many away from fraudulent schemes.The redesigned scheme has welcome safeguards to prevent misuse. Banks and post offi ces will have to document addresses, even if a person buying a KVP does not have to quote her permanent ac count number. Remember, in the IPO scam, fake addresses had been ram pant, but were not spotted. New, big data analytics should mine through the data on KVP investors, once made available as a database. Managing big data holds the key to tracking the source of funds. The country has the IT prowess, and that should be harnessed to use big data analytics.
Ideally, the government should have capped the cash component, and also fixed a ceiling on the amount to be invested to ensure that KVP is not seen as a disguised amnesty scheme to launder black money . That there are no tax benefits is welcome, given that tax sops are a drag on the exchequer. However, the government should also promote other instruments such as inflation-indexed bonds (IIBs) by making them available on a large scale that is comparable to the value of gold demand. Risk-averse investors should be able to subscribe to IIBs, and that will augur well for the economy .

Narendra Modi launches 'Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana'

If nearly 800 MPs develop three villages each by 2019, around 2500 villages will be developed, he says

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched the ‘Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana’, an ambitious village development project under which each MP will take the responsibility of developing physical and institutional infrastructure in three villages by 2019.

Speaking at the launch in New Delhi Mr. Modi said, under the scheme it is envisaged that under the leadership and through the efforts of Members of Parliament, one village would be developed by each MP by 2016.

He said on the basis of the model created by this experience, it is envisaged that two more villages would be developed by each MP by 2019 and that one village will be developed every year.

“We are nearly 800 MPs. If before 2019 we develop three villages each, we reach nearly 2,500 villages. If in the light of this scheme, the states also create a similar scheme for MLAs, then 6-7000 more villages can be added,” Mr. Modi said.

The Prime Minister also said that if one village is developed in a block, it is also likely to have a “viral” effect and development would permeate other villages also.

Speaking about the scheme, Mr. Modi said that there is flexibility and an MP is free to choose any village. The only condition is that it should not be his own village or that of his in-laws.

“I also have to choose a village in Varanasi,” Mr. Modi said and added that he would go there, discuss and choose a village.

He said that till now the model of development being followed in the country has largely been supply driven.

“In Delhi, Lucknow or Gandhinagar, a scheme is prepared and then an attempt is made to inject it everywhere. Through this ‘Adarsh Gram’ (scheme), we want to shift from supply driven to demand driven model,” he said.

He also said that atmosphere should be created where every person is proud of his or her village.

Keywords: MP village scheme, Narendra Modi, Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana

Sep 01 2014 : The Economic Times (Delhi)

Fake Accounts may Cloud `Jan Dhan' Plan

Atmadip Ray

Kolkata:





Attached insurance cover gives rise to duplicates, which may be as high as 15th of newly opened acs; experts call for proper screening

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's financial inclusion drive is off to a flying start, but some who enrolled under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana may have accounts elsewhere and could have been persuaded to open new ones because of the attached insurance cover. This could account for about a fifth of the newly opened accounts, top bankers said, although there's absolutely no way of knowing for sure yet.On the launch day, August 28, banks opened 1.5 crore accounts through 77,852 special camps held across the country, finance minister Arun Jaitley said. That exceeded the 1 crore target.
The programme is aimed at making financial services available to every household instead of taking a villagebased approach followed by the previous Manmohan Singh-led United Progressive Alliance government. Some senior bankers estimate those who already have accounts at 15-20% of the total. “At present, we are opening new accounts under the Jan Dhan scheme for everyone who is coming to us. The screening will be done later,“ United Bank of India executive director Deepak Narang told ET.“A survey has to be done at the rural level to identify the finan cially excluded pop ulation.“
State Bank of India deputy managing director Sunil Sri vastava said there could be some dupli cation of financial inclusion accounts, but it would be diffi cult to put a number to it. “Even if there is 5-10% repetition, still 90% people have ounts. This is going to received new accounts. This is going to be a game-changer,“ Srivastava said.
The accounts come bundled with ` .1 lakh accidental insurance cover, a . 5,000 overdraft (after six months of op` eration), a micro-pension and a RuPay debit card. What's more, Prime Minis ter Narendra Modi has announced . 30,000 life insurance cover on accounts ` opened before January 26 next year. The government has told banks to open 7.5 crore financial inclusion accounts in the next five months.
Bankers aren't sure whether existing account holders would get ` . 1 lakh acci dental insurance cover. It's also not clear as to who is going to foot the bills for the insurance premium and other costs to keep accounts running. “The government needs to spell out clearly who are the targeted people for this scheme,“ said HK Pradhan, professor of finance and economics at XLRI, Jamshedpur. “If banks try to merely achieve the target without proper screening, the entire purpose of the new drive will be defeated.“
The government appears to be in the process of developing an integrated portal for household information based on the 2011 census. Sources close to the development said the information would be reconciled with the district-level database and banks' existing deposit account holders. This integrated database will provide information on the progress of financial inclusion and build credit information.
According to minority affairs minister Najma Heptulla, about 42% or 10 crore households out of 24.64 crore don't have access to banking facilities. About 45% of 16.76 crore rural households and 33% of 7.88 crore urban households don't have bank accounts. The accounts will allow easier transfer of benefits. “We disburse 90 lakh scholarship schemes for minority communities across the country. With this facility, we will be able to transfer the money with transparency,“ Heptulla said.
The programme is a critical part of the fight against poverty, Prime Minister Modi said at the inaugural function in New Delhi. “Crores of Indians are still outside the ambit of organised financial system even after 45 years of bank nationalisation. I call it financial untouchability. Gandhiji ended social untouchability, it is our mission to eradicate this kind of untouchability to eradicate poverty,“ he said.
XLRI's Pradhan has recently launched Sanchetana, a financial literacy initiative. He welcomed the aims of the programme. “When every household gains access to banking, receives cash transfers under several welfare programmes and benefits from a range of financial products, they will be able to come out of the grip of moneylenders,“ he said.