MoS Dr Jitendra Singh launches restructured Scheme & Web Portal District Ganga Committees of 57 Ganga districts under Namami Gange Programme eligible to participate Posted On: 17 JUL 2020 7:33PM by PIB Delhi

Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh, launched the restructured Prime Minister’s Awards for Excellence in Public Administration 2020 scheme and web portal here today, which for the very first time seeks to recognize the efforts of District level officials in the Namami Gange Programme.

Addressing the Central Ministries and State/ UT Governments on the occasion, Dr. Jitendra Singh said that the Scheme has been revamped in tune with the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s governance model of citizen participation. He said that the Mantra of “Maximum Governance, Minimum Government” is incomplete without citizen participation and citizen centricity and added that transparency and accountability are its twin hallmark.

In the meeting of the National Ganga Council held on 14th December, 2019 at Kanpur under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister, it was decided to create a “Good Performance for Ganga Rejuvenation” award for the Ganga districts under the Prime Minister’s Awards for Excellence for Public Administration Scheme.

During the meeting, the Prime Minister gave the utmost priority to the functioning of the District Ganga Committees (DGCs) and closely reviewed the performance of the DGCs. He emphatically stated that there is a compelling need to have aligned thinking from the national to the district level and eventually to the field level and for ensuring this, the District Magistrate has to play a very important role.

The District Ganga Committee (DGC) is the most unique feature of the notification of authorities under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 by the Government of India dated 7th October, 2016, which creates a mechanism at the District Level for addressing the problem of pollution abatement of the River Ganga.

The Government of India instituted “The Prime Minister’s Awards for Excellence in Public Administration” in the year 2006 to acknowledge, recognize and reward the extraordinary and innovative work done by Districts/ Organizations of the Central and State Governments. The Scheme was restructured in 2014 for recognizing the performance of District Collectors in Priority Programmes, Innovations and Aspirational Districts and was further restructured in 2020 to recognize the performance of District Collectors towards economic development of the District. For the year 2020, the scope of the awards has been expanded to identify areas of overall outcome-oriented performance in the districts across sectors.

This year, for the very first time, the PM’s Awards for Excellence in Public Administration seeks to recognize the efforts of District level officials involved in the Namami Gange Programme. This is an exemplary recognition for the initiatives being taken up under the Namami Gange Mission. Under this award category, one award shall be given to a district out of the 57 notified District Ganga Committees under the Namami Gange Programme.

Under the scheme, 57 District Ganga Committees on the Ganga main stem and tributaries have been included as a separate category for PM’s awards for excellence in Public Administration by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG). The period of consideration for the award is from 1st April, 2018 to 31st March, 2020. The registration on the PM's Awards web portal, www.pmawards.gov.in, has commenced from July 15th, 2020 and submission of application will be from August 1st, 2020 to August 15th, 2020 after registration. The award has been scheduled to be distributed on the occasion of Rashtriya Ekta Diwas on October 31st, 2020.

Speaking on the occasion of launch of this scheme, Shri Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, Director General, National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) briefly explained about Namami Gange Programme and requested all District Magistrates and Chairperson, District Ganga Committee (57 districts – 52 on Main Stem and 5 on Tributaries) to make maximum use of this opportunity and to prepare details of District initiatives for the Prime Minister’s Awards Scheme. He also gave a brief outline of the parameters for evaluation which include:

Regular and effective conduct of meeting of District Ganga Committee leading to overall positive impact on programmes in the district; Protection and Rejuvenation of traditional water bodies in the district for helping toward Aviral Ganga;

Cleanliness of ghats and areas in the vicinity of the river; Extent of organic farming within 5 kms on both sides of river Ganga within their districts; Plantation along river Ganga (Ganga Van);

Protection of aquatic life & biodiversity conservation; and Awareness generation and ensuring public participation through involvement of NYK, NCC, NSS with special attention to youth and students.

DGCs have also been requested to prepare a write-up on the District Performance Indicators Programme/Innovation along with supporting documents like executive summary, field photographs (maximum 10), flow charts detailing uniqueness and success story of the initiative. Along with the application, a short film of 3-5 minutes’ duration highlighting the initiative/ innovation may also be appended. The write up should contain details of the programme/initiative, strategies adopted in implementation, period of implementation, exceptional achievements and outcomes, positive impact and sustainability.

More than 1,54,000 street vendors applied for working capital loan so far across States/ Uts--over 48,000 already been sanctioned Posted On: 17 JUL 2020 5:36PM by PIB Delhi

Shri Durga Shanker Mishra, Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs launched the Mobile Application of PM Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) here today. This App aims to provide user friendly digital interface for Lending Institutions (LIs) and their field functionaries for sourcing and processing loan applications of street vendors under the Scheme.

The launch event was organised through a video conference in which, besides senior officials from the Ministry, Principal Secretaries dealing with Urban Development Department and other officials from the States and UTs participated.

PM SVANidhi Mobile App is a step towards boosting the use of digital technology and will enable field functionaries of LIs like Banking Correspondents (BCs) and Agents of Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs)/ Micro-Finance Institutions (MFIs), who have proximity with the street vendors, to ensure maximum coverage of the Scheme. It is believed that launch of Mobile App will give impetus to the implementation strategy of the Scheme besides promoting paper-less digital accessing of micro-credit facilities by the Street Vendors.

Ministry has already launched the Web Portal on June 29, 2020. This App has all the features similar to the Web Portal of PM SVANidhi added with the feature of easy portability. The features include vendor search in the survey data, e-KYC of applicants, processing of applications, and real time monitoring. The App can be downloaded from the Google play store for use by the LIs and their field functionaries. Since the commencement of lending process under PM SVANidhi on July 02, 2020, more than 1,54,000 Street Vendors have applied for working capital loan across States/ UTs and out of which over 48,000 have already been sanctioned.

PM SVANidhi was launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, on June 01, 2020, for providing affordable Working Capital loan to street vendors to resume their livelihoods that have been adversely affected due to Covid-19 lockdown. This scheme targets to benefit over 50 lakh Street Vendors who had been vending on or before 24 March, 2020, in urban areas including those from surrounding peri-urban/ rural areas. Under the Scheme, the vendors can avail a working capital loan of up to Rs. 10,000, which is repayable in monthly instalments in the tenure of one year.

On timely/ early repayment of the loan, an interest subsidy @ 7% per annum will be credited to the bank accounts of beneficiaries through Direct Benefit Transfer on quarterly basis. There will be no penalty on early repayment of loan. The scheme promotes digital transactions through cash back incentives up to an amount of Rs. 100 per month. Moreover, the vendors can achieve their ambition of going up on the economic ladder by availing the facility of enhancement of the credit limit on timely/ early repayment of loan.

As a one stop solution for Indian automobile industry, portal a step towards the vision of ‘AatmaNirbhar’ Bharat Posted On: 17 JUL 2020 6:43PM by PIB Delhi

Department of Heavy Industry (DHI), Govt of India, has embarked on a mission to promote innovation, R&D and product development in India for various sectors. A step towards this mission is the creation of technology platform e-portals where such technology development, information exchange and innovation can be facilitated. There are five portals being developed for specific sectors by different organizations viz, BHEL for power sector equipment, HMT for machine tools, CMFTI for manufacturing technology, ICAT and ARAI for automotive sector.

The objective of these portals is to create an ecosystem which will bring solution seekers and problem solvers together. These include, industry, academia, research institutes, start-ups, professionals and experts. ICAT is developing technology platform for automotive industry called ASPIRE - Automotive Solutions Portal for Industry, Research and Education.

The key objective of this portal is to facilitate the Indian Automotive Industry to become self reliant by assisting in innovation and adoption of global technological advancements by bringing together the stakeholders from various associated avenues. The activities would include Research and Development, Product Technology Development, Technological Innovations, Technical and Quality Problem Resolution for the industry, Manufacturing and Process Technology Development, hosting Challenges for Technology Development and also conducting Market Research and Technology Surveys for identifying the trends in the Indian auto industry.

The e-portal will act as a one stop solution providing a technology platform which will help to bring together the various stakeholders from the Indian auto industry, providing the necessary impetus for ushering the industry into future with combined efforts. This includes bringing together the automotive OEMs, Tier 1 Tier 2 & Tier 3 companies, R&D institutions and academia (colleges & universities) on matters involving technology advancements.

Apart from acting as a solution and resource platform, the portal will also host grand challenges in line with the need of the industry as will be identified from time to time, for development of key automotive technologies.

The ASPIRE portal has been prepared by ICAT and made live in its initial version on 15th July, 2020 as Phase-I. The portal can be accessed through https://aspire.icat.in. The first phase will include connecting the users and experts on the portal for functionality assessment. Phase II of the portal which is expected by August 15, 2020 will include the posting of domain specific challenges, team formation and finalizing the milestones for the execution of projects for the said challenges and industry problems. The portal is expected to be fully functional with hosting of the Grand challenges and providing an elaborate resource database and project monitoring and execution by 15thSeptember, 2020.

These measures are being developed to develop strong and self-reliant automotive industry in India which is in tune with the vision of Make in India and Atma-Nirbhar vision of Government of India.

In a review meeting of the CHAARDHAAM ROAD PROJECT in the State of Uttarakhand via Video Conferencing, Union Environment Minister, Shri Prakash Javadekar informed that the Zonal Master Plan(ZMP), prepared by the Government of Uttarakhand and appraised by the Ministry of Jal Shakti, has been accorded approval by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change(MoEF&CC) on 16th July,2020.

The Bhagirathi Eco-Sensitive Zone notification from Gaumukh to Uttarakashi covering an area of 4179.59 sq. kilometer was issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change(MoEF&CC) on 18th December 2012 keeping in view the requirements of the local people without affecting their rights and privileges and also ensuring eco-friendly development for their livelihood security. The notification was subsequently amended on 16th April, 2018 in consultation with the Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways, GOI; Government of Uttarakhand and Indian Road Congress.

The Bhagirathi Eco-Sensitive Zone notification mandated the State Government of Uttarakhand to prepare ZMP to be implemented under the supervision of the Monitoring Committee.

The ZMP is based on watershed approach and includes governance in the area of forest and wildlife, watershed management, irrigation, energy, tourism, public health and sanitation, road infrastructure, etc.

The approval of ZMP will give a boost to conservation and ecology of the area and also to undertake developmental activities as permitted under ZMP.

The review meeting of the CHAARDHAAM ROAD PROJECT in the State of Uttarakhand was chaired by Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways and MSMEs Shri Nitin Gadkari. Chief Minister of Uttarakhand Shri Trivendra Singh Rawat, Union Minister of State for Road Transport & Highways Gen (Retd) V K Singh and the State Ministers of Environment & Forest, PWD among others participated in the meeting. Union Secretaries of Road Transport & Highways, Environment and Forests, DG Roads(MoRTH), DG(BRO) and senior officers of the two Ministries and State Government also attended.

The approval of ZMP will give a boost to conservation and ecology of the area and also to undertake developmental activities as permitted under ZMP. The approval will also pave way for faster execution of the ChaarDhaam Project.

Ministry of Tourism has taken several initiatives for the development and promotion of Buddhist sites in the country: Shri Patel Posted On: 17 JUL 2020 12:36PM by PIB Delhi

Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Tourism & Culture Shri Prahlad Singh Patel, as Chief Guest inaugurated the Webinar on “Cross Border Tourism” organised by the Association of Buddhist Tour Operators on 15th July 2020

Inaugurating the Webinar, Shri Prahlad Singh Patel listed the important sites in India related to the life of Lord Buddha. He mentioned that Buddhism has a large following across the world and India being the ‘Land of Buddha’ and endowed with rich Buddhist heritage attracts very small percentage of Buddhist Pilgrims. Shri Patel stressed the point that it was important for all to ascertain the reasons for India receiving a fraction of global Buddhists as tourist/Pilgrims and take corrective measures accordingly.

The Minister also shared the initiative of having signage in international languages at important Buddhist sites in the country including signages in Chinese language that have been put up at 5 Buddhist sites / monuments in Uttar Pradesh including Sarnath, Kushinagar and Sravasti. Similarly, since Sanchi receives a large number of tourists from Sri Lanka, signages in Sinhalese language have been put up at the Sanchimonuments.

The MoS (I/C) Tourism & Culture also highlighted the decision of Government of India to declare the Kushinagar Airport in Uttar Pradesh as an International Airport which will offer better connectivity to the air-travellers resulting in boosting of domestic/international tourism and economic development of the region.

He further informed that the Ministry of Tourism, under its various schemes has taken several initiatives for the development and promotion of Buddhist sites in the country.

The Association of Buddhist Tour Operators is the association of dedicated inbound tour-operators engaged in promoting Buddhist tourism, with over 1500 members in India & Overseas.

Participants in the Webinar included representatives from the UN Peace Keeping Forces Council, Travel & Hospitality Associations of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam amongst others.

Rajasthan Speaker CP Joshi has served notices to 19 Congress MLAs including Sachin Pilot asking them why they cannot be disqualified. The MLAs have time until July 17 to reply.

The Congress in its complaint to the Speaker has accused the rebel MLAs of attempting to jump parties.

Why has the Speaker served notice to the 19 Congress MLAs? The notice has been served under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, popularly known as the anti-defection law.

Can the MLAs go to court at any time before the July 17 deadline to reply? Courts have been extremely reluctant to interfere with the powers of the Speaker under the Tenth Schedule.

While deciding on the disqualification, the Speaker exercises powers that have been conferred to him under the Constitution. Even when challenged, as it was in the case of Karnataka in 2019, the court gave time to the Speaker to decide on the pleas.

Supreme Court’s ruling in ‘Kihoto Hollohan vs Zachillhu And Others’ (1992) case: The court upheld the sweeping discretion available to the Speaker in deciding cases of disqualification of MLAs. While the Speaker’s decisions can be challenged subsequently, the court cannot stay or prevent the process.

Hence, judicial review cannot be available at a stage prior to the making of a decision by the Speaker/Chairman and a quia timet action would not be permissible. Nor would interference be permissible at an interlocutory stage of the proceedings.

Besides, the Court can review only infirmities based on violation of constitutional mandate, mala fides, non-compliance with rules of natural justice, and perversity.

Fundamental Rights in question: Ousted Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot and other 18 MLAs have approached the Rajasthan High Court challenging the constitutionality of Paragraph 2(1)(a) of the Tenth Schedule which makes “voluntarily giving up membership of a political party” liable for disqualification.

The MLAs have said the provision infringes into their right to express dissent and is a violation of their fundamental right to free speech as a legislator.

Context: Union HRD Minister launched the first on-line NISHTHA programme for 1,200 Key Resources Persons of Andhra Pradesh.

These resource persons will help in the mentoring of teachers of Andhra Pradesh, who will take online NISHTHA training on DIKSHA later on.

About NISHTHA: The initiative is an Integrated Teacher Training Programme of the Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of HRD as part of its National Mission to improve learning outcomes at the Elementary level under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Samagra Shiksha.

In 2019, NISHTHA was launched in face-to-face mode. Thereafter, 33 states/UTs have launched this programme in their states/UTs. Around 23,000 Key Resource Persons and 17.5 lakh teachers and school heads have been covered under this NISHTHA face to face mode till date.

Features: It has activity based modules including educational games and quizzes, Social-emotional learning, motivational interactions, team building, preparation for school based assessment, in-built continuous feedback mechanism, online monitoring and support system, training need and impact analysis (Pre and Post training).

Context: Prime Minister to address High-Level Segment of ECOSOC. The annual High-level Segment convenes a diverse group of high-level representatives from the Government, the private sector, civil society and academia.

Theme: “Multilateralism after COVID19: What kind of UN do we need at the 75th anniversary”.

About ECOSOC: The UN Charter established ECOSOC in 1945 as one of the six main organs of the United Nations.

It is the principal body for coordination, policy review, policy dialogue and recommendations on economic, social and environmental issues, as well as implementation of internationally agreed development goals.

It has 54 Members, elected by the General Assembly for overlapping three-year terms. India is the member of ECOSOC (From 1 January 2018 – 31 December 2020)

It coordinates the work of the 14 UN specialized agencies, ten functional commissions and five regional commissions, receives reports from nine UN funds and programmes and issues policy recommendations to the UN system and to Member States.

Context: BIRAC has announced that ZyCoV-D, the plasmid DNA vaccine designed and developed by Zydus and partially funded by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) has initiated Phase I/Phase II clinical trials in healthy subjects, making it the first indigenously developed vaccine for COVID-19 to be administered in humans in India.

DBT has partnered with Zydus to address rapid development of an indigenous vaccine for COVID-19 under the National Biopharma Mission.

About National Biopharma Mission (NBM): It is an industry-academia collaborative mission for accelerating biopharmaceutical development in the country.

It was launched in 2017 at a total cost of Rs 1500 crore and is 50% co-funded by World Bank loan. It is being implemented by the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC).

Under this Mission, the Government has launched Innovate in India (i3) programme to create an enabling ecosystem to promote entrepreneurship and indigenous manufacturing in the biopharma sector.

It has a focus on following four verticals: Development of product leads for Vaccines , Biosimilars and Medical Devices that are relevant to the public health need by focussing on managed partnerships.

Upgradation of shared infrastructure facilities and establishing them as centres of product discovery/discovery validations and manufacturing. Developing human capital by providing specific training.

Developing technology transfer offices to help enhance industry academia inter-linkages.

Context: In a first-of-its-kind case, a 2018 Commonwealth Games silver medallist and reigning national champion weightlifter- Pradeep Singh has tested positive for Human Growth Hormone (HGH).

He has been handed a provisional four-year suspension after his blood sample tested positive for HGH, which is prohibited in and out of competition by the World Anti- Doping Agency.

What is HGH? It is known to increase muscle mass, strength as well as tissue- repairing effects, which has been used as a doping agent in power and endurance sports

It is produced in the body and secreted by the pituitary gland near the base of the brain.

When the gland releases the growth hormone, it results in the secretion of a protein called IGF-1 from the liver. This protein is what ultimately stimulates the growth of bones, muscles and other tissues.

About WADA: The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is a foundation initiated by the International Olympic Committee based in Canada to promote, coordinate and monitor the fight against drugs in sports.

It was established in 1999 as an international independent agency composed and funded equally by the sport movement and governments of the world.

Headquartered in Montreal, Canada. The agency’s key activities include scientific research, education, development of anti-doping capacities, and monitoring of the World Anti-Doping Code, whose provisions are enforced by the UNESCO International Convention against Doping in Sport.

Committee of Experts on Non-Personal Data Governance Framework has released a draft.

This government committee (formed in 2019) headed by Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan has suggested that non-personal data generated in the country be allowed to be harnessed by various domestic companies and entities.

What is non-personal data? Any set of data which does not contain personally identifiable information. This means that no individual or living person can be identified by looking at such data.

For example, while order details collected by a food delivery service will have the name, age, gender, and other contact information of an individual, it will become non-personal data if the identifiers such as name and contact information are taken out.

Classification: The government committee has classified non-personal data into three main categories, namely: Public non-personal data: All the data collected by government and its agencies such as census, data collected by municipal corporations on the total tax receipts in a particular period or any information collected during execution of all publicly funded works.

Community non-personal data: Any data identifiers about a set of people who have either the same geographic location, religion, job, or other common social interests will form the community non-personal data. Private non-personal data: Those which are produced by individuals which can be derived from application of proprietary software or knowledge.

Suggestions made: Formulate a separate legislation to govern non-personal data. Setup a new regulatory body- Non-Personal Data Authority (NPDA).

The report identifies and defines new stakeholders in the non-personal data ecosystem, including data principal, data custodian, data trustee, and data trust, and contours their obligations and mechanisms to enable data sharing.

It has also set circumstances under which a private organisation, that collects non-personal data, needs to be remunerated.

Need for regulation: Digital transformations all over the world have meant that data is treated as an asset, which is monetised, either directly by trading it, or indirectly by developing a service on top of that data.

In a data economy, companies with “largest data pools have outsized and seized unbeatable techno-economic advantages.” These companies, having leveraged their “first-mover advantage” to create large pools of data, mean that smaller startups are often squeezed out of the competition, or there are significant barriers to their entry.

India, being the second-most populous country in the world, also with the second-largest smartphone userbase, is by extension, one of the largest data markets in the world.

What are the global standards on non-personal data? In May 2019, the European Union came out with a regulation framework for the free flow of non-personal data in the European Union, in which it suggested that member states of the union would cooperate with each other when it came to data sharing.

In several other countries across the world, there are no nationwide data protection laws, whether for personal or non-personal data.

What should the final draft include? Final draft of the non-personal data governance framework must clearly: Define the roles for all participants, such as the data principal, the data custodian, and data trustees.

Regulation must be clear, and concise to provide certainty to its market participants. Demarcate roles and responsibilities of participants in the regulatory framework.

Assam government has decided to Give Preference To Plasma Donors In Government Jobs.

Other benefits announced: They can entail extra marks in interviews. They will get a certificate.

Government is also considering giving preference to them in government schemes.

People of other States who donate plasma would be provided with State guest house facilities if they visit Assam and the State government would bear the cost of their return air ticket.

APT29 (also known as ‘the Dukes’ or ‘Cozy Bear’) is a cyber espionage group, almost certainly part of the Russian intelligence services.

The group uses a variety of tools and techniques to predominantly target governmental, diplomatic, think-tank, healthcare and energy targets for intelligence gain.

APT29 is using custom malware known as ‘WellMess’ and ‘WellMail’ to target a number of organisations globally. Now, it is accused of trying to steal vaccine data.

Context: first trial container ship flagged off from Kolkata to Agartala through Chattogram Port of Bangladesh.

The ship has been launched under the Agreement on the use of Chattogram and Mongla Ports for the movement of India’s transit cargo through Bangladesh.

India-Bhutan Open New Trade Route: India and Bhutan have opened a new trade route between Jaigaon in West Bengal and Pasakha in Bhutan.

This new land route for movement of industrial raw materials and goods destined for Pasakha Industrial Estate will boost bilateral trade and commerce and lead to decongestion of vehicular traffic along the Jaigaon-Phuentsholing route.