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

Lakshadweep became first Union Territory (UT) to sign “24x7 Power for All” document. Representative of Government of India and the Administration of Lakshadweep signed the document. The document chalks out a plan to increase solar capacity of the region from 2.15 MW to 8.45 MW. At present, 10 inhabited islands of Lakshadweep are being fed by diesel mostly. The plan also envisions reduction of AT & C losses from current level of 21% to 6.7% till 2019 by increasing the collection efficiency up to 99 %.

• 22 states have already signed the 24x7 Power for All Documents which is being jointly monitored by State and Central governments

Government appointed committee headed by former Cabinet Secretary TSR Subramaniam submitted the report on the evolution of a New Education Policy

• Committee has submitted the report containing the recommendations to the HRD Ministry
• HRD Ministry has attempted to frame the New Education policy and the process includes online, grassroots and thematic national level deliberations on 33 topics
• Apart from Subramaniam, the former chief secretary of Delhi government Shailaja Chandra, former Home Secretary of Delhi government Sevaram Sharma and former Chief Secretary of Gujarat Sudhir Mankad and former NCERT director JS Rajput were panel members
• Thematic consultations were conducted by the ministry and by institutions like UGC, NCERT, NCTE and AICTE as well as several universities and autonomous bodies.

For implementing the vision and philosophy behind Swachch Bharat Abhigyan launched the Kayakalp initiative to set protocols for hygiene and sanitation at government health facilities.

• Initiative towards total Swachchta in public health facilities is aimed towards providing quality service and encouraging teamwork.
• Kayakalp fortnight has been launched from 20th May 2016 to June 3rd, 2016.

Union Minister Gadkari announces slew of initiatives to build a strong system of performance audit and accountability. Shri Gadkari also launched ePACE, INFRACON and an updated version of INAMPRO, three innovative IT initiatives of the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, developed in house by NHIDCL( National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd.)

• ePACE (Projects Appraisal & Continuing Enhancements) is an online integrated Management Information System that brings projects from all wings of the Ministry under a common platform, ensuring their effective and real time tracking.
• INFRACON is the National Portal for Infrastructure Consultancy Firms and Key Personnel. This portal acts as a kind of bridge between consultancy firms working in the road engineering and construction sector and domain experts and key personnel
• INAMPRO is a web based app for material providers and infrastructure developers

Regional launch at Dahod of PMUY for the three states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan & Gujarat

‘Swacch Indhan. Behtar Jeevan – Mahilaon ko mila samman’ was the motto of this yojana.The Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) was launched for the three states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan on May 15 in Dahod. Chief Minister of Gujarat, Smt Anandiben Patel, Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Chief Minister of Rajasthan.

• Fifteen women from BPL families from the three states were handed over LPG connections at the launch. The scheme would impact the lives of women from BPL families in a major way by reducing the drudgery of cooking with polluting fuels and go a long way in reducing indoor pollution and other health related problems faced by them.

Prakash Singh committee constituted an inquiry into the commission and commissions of officers as part of the Jat Quota agitation. Report was submitted on May 13, 2016. It was able to find close to 90 officers found guilty of dereliction to duties.

India approved its first National Intellectual Property Rights Policy on 12th May 2016. It laid down the roadmap for intellectual property in the country for a creative and innovative nation

• IPR are legal rights which result from intellectual invention or innovation
• IPR is required to safeguard producers of intellectual property
• It also stresses India’s commitment to Doha Development Agenda and TRIPS (The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights).

RBI issued a guideline for voluntary surrender of license by payment system operators under the Payments & Settlements Systems Act. As per the PSS Act 2007, RBI must authorities the PSO to operator or commence a payment system in the country.

• RBI also said the option of voluntary surrender of Certificate of Authorisation is only available to entities not commencing payment system operations or discontinuing these operations
• Those entities which have not commenced operations, relevant documents have to be submitted to RIBI
• Guidelines for voluntary surrender of COA is applicable to Payment System Operators, PPI Issuers, MTS Overseas Principal.

Hijacking of an aircraft will now entail capital punishment in the event of death of “any person” as Parliament passed a bill to provide widen the ambit of the law in dealing with this crime.

• The Anti-Hijacking Bill, 2014, was approved by the Lok Sabha by voice vote.
• It was passed by the Rajya Sabha earlier. In the earlier bill, hijackers could be tried for death penalty only in the event of death of hostages, such as flight crew, passengers and security personnel.

Parliament on May 10th passed the Industries (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2015 which seeks to transfer the control over industries engaged in the production of potable alcohol from the Centre to states with Lok Sabha approving some technical amendments suggested by the Rajya Sabha.

• The bill in the Lok Sabha was introduced by Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and was later approved by the House
• The Industries (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2015 seeks to amend a schedule to exclude production of alcohol for potable purposes from the ambit of the Act.
• According to the Bill, the central government would continue to be responsible for formulating policy and regulating foreign collaboration (FDI and foreign technology collaboration agreements) for all products of fermentation industries, including industrial and potable alcohol.

Ministry has initiated a scheme of project development, financing and monitoring through the formation of SPVs with state governments.

• MoU for setting up a Joint Venture has been signed with Odisha, Maharashtra, AP, Kerala, Telangana and Chhattisgarh

Government of India has approved a restructured Central Sector Scheme named Blue Revolution: Integrated Development and Management of Fisheries as one of the components.

• National Scheme of Welfare of Fisherman provides financial assistance to fishers during the lean/fishing ban period
• In addition, financial assistance is provided for creation of homes and other basic amenities
• Other components which the CSS scheme has include the following:

To compliment and supplement efforts made by states to protect genotype of indigenous bovine breeds including Gir cow using new scientific methods, the following schemes are being implemented by the government of India:

• Rashtriya Gokul Mission as part of National Programme for Bovine Breeding and Dairy Development
• National Dairy Plan-1
• National Kamdhenu Breeding Centre
• Rashtriya Gokul Mission

Black money compliance window disclosure will be kept secret. Disclosures made in the 4 month compliance window beginning June 1 for domestic black money holders to reveal all will be kept secret according to an amendment to the Finance Bill 2016 approved by the LS. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley bought 21 amendments to the Finance Bill 2016 approved by the LS.

Government has eased norms for availing export benefits under MEIS. Exporters have been relieved from submitting certificate of goods to avail benefits under the MEIS aimed at ease of doing business.

• This scheme covers 5012 lines or products and 2787 lines are required for submission of proof of landing as reward is not there for all markets
• Therefore, landing certificate will not be required for all markets under MEIS
• Move is aimed at improving ease of doing business.

Lok Sabha on Tuesday passed the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Bill 2015 that ensures expeditious utilisation of unspent amounts of over INR 40,000 crore

• India as the Intended Nationally Determined Contribution has committed to create 2.5 billion tonnes of additional carbon sink. The (passing of the) Bill will be a great enabler

Pradhan Mantri Ujwala Yojana in Ballia aims to provide cooking gas connections to five crore below-poverty-line beneficiaries over the next three years.

• Noting that May 1st is observed as Labour Day, the Prime Minister said that in this century, the aim of all workers across the world should be to unite the world.
• The Prime Minister also said that Ballia is the land of the revolutionary Mangal Pandey, and said that while the development of Eastern Uttar Pradesh has suffered for decades, connectivity is now being strengthened in the region.

Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 came into force on 1 May 2016. It also promotes the growth of real estate sector in an environment of trust, confidence, credible transactions and efficient and time bound execution of projects. Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (HUPA) on 27 April 2016 notified 69 of the total 92 sections of the Act to bring it into force from 1 May 2016. This culminates the eight year long efforts in this regard.

• A proposal for a law for Real Estate was first mooted at the National Conference of Housing Ministers of States and Union Territories in January 2009.
• As per the notification, Rules under the Act have to be formulated by the Union and State Governments within a maximum period of six months from the act coming into force that is by 31 October 2016 under Section 84 of the Act.
• The Act also empowers appropriate Governments to designate any officer preferably Secretary of the Department dealing with Housing, as the interim Regulatory Authority until the establishment of Regulatory Authority under the provisions of the Act.