Benefit of APY: Fixed pension for the subscribers ranging between Rs. 1000 to Rs. 5000, if he joins and contributes between the age of 18 years and 40 years. The contribution levels would vary and would be low if subscriber joins early and increase if he joins late. Eligibility for APY: Atal Pension Yojana (APY) is open to all bank account holders who are not members of any statutory social security scheme. Age of joining and contribution period: The minimum age of joining APY is 18 years and maximum age is 40 years. Therefore, mini... Read More...
The objectives of the plan are to leverage the region’s hydrocarbon potential, enhance access to clean fuels, improve availability of petroleum products, facilitate economic development and to link common people to the economic activities in this sector. The states covered include Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura. The Vision rests on five pillars: People, Policy, Partnership, Projects and Production. For people, it foresees clean fuel access to households alongside fostering skill development and involvement of the local community. Read More...
Bitcoin has finally gained the recognition of a mainstream currency along the lines of other fiat currencies. The privilege follows the implementation of a new law in Japan which categorizes Bitcoin as a legal payment option within the country. The much-awaited law went into effect on April 1, 2017 (beginning of a new fiscal year in many countries). With the new law’s implementation, Bitcoin exchanges will also come under additional regulatory scrutiny. The recognition of cryptocurrency as a legal tender also means the applicability of regulations governing banks and financial institutions to cryptocurrency exchange platforms. They will be required to ... Read More...
About The SASEC program was formed in 2001 in response to the request of the four countries of South Asia – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal – from ADB to assist in facilitating economic cooperation among them. These four countries comprise the South Asia Growth Quadrangle (SAGQ), formed in 1996, as a vehicle for accelerating sustainable economic development through regional cooperation. Aim As a project-based partnership, the SASEC program has been helping realize regional prosperity by enhancing cross-border connectivity, facilitating faster and more efficient trade and promoting cross-border power trade. Maldive... Read More...
It is time for policymakers to turn their attention to the major task of accelerating economic growth. As of now the prospects are not encouraging. The Central Statistics Office’s second advanced estimates indicate that the growth rate of GDP for 2016-17 will be 7.1% as against 7.9% in 2015-16. The growth rate of gross value added at basic prices in 2016-17 will be 6.7% as against 7.8% in 2015-16. The growth rates projected for 2016-17 do not capture the impact of demonetisation, which when taken into account may bring down the projected growth rate by around 0.5%. The decline in the growth rate is not a recent phenomenon. It started in 20... Read More...
Around 8-10% of India’s population lives with disabilities, with an equal number constituting the aged. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have the potential to significantly impact the lives of these groups, facilitating access of services available to them and allowing them to handle a wide range of activities independently, enhancing their social, cultural, political and economic participation. Making ICT accessible no longer remains an option but has become a necessity. Poor accessibility due to lack of focussed information and political will has led to social exclusion of people with disabilities, exacerbating the nega... Read More...
A major reason for the poor regional air connectivity in India is that airlines do not find it lucrative to operate from small cities. Shimla, Bathinda and Jaisalmer have airports. But they are not in use. The airport in Kullu gets only two flights a day. But things are poised to change with the government’s UDAN (Ude Desh Ke Aaam Nagrik) scheme. Five airlines have won bids to operate 128 routes, that will connect 70 airports including 31 unserved ones like Shimla, Bathinda and Jaisalmer, and 12 underserved airports like Kullu. According to the Civil Aviation Ministry, the first flight under UDAN is expected to start later th... Read More...
All vehicles sold after March 31, 2017 will have to conform to BS (Bharat Stage) IV standards. A recent Supreme Court directive imposed a ban on the sale of the more polluting BS III vehicles from April 1, 2017. The order clears the path for the adoption of BS IV standards throughout the country, seven years after they were put in place. For a country battling serious pollution problems, this will be a significant transition. Advantages Particulate emissions from BS IV compliant trucks are 80 per cent less compared to those from trucks that adhere to BS III standards. BS IV compliant cars emit hal... Read More...
Banking Sector requires action on three fronts: Accelerate recoveries from non-performing assets (NPAs) Recapitalize public sector banks to strengthen their ability to expand credit Introduce reforms that will increase the efficiency of these banks NPAs The traditional strategy for dealing with NPAs has been to reschedule the loans. However, this helps only where projects suffer from a short-term “liquidity problem”. It cannot help when there is a “solvency problem”, i.e. the income stream simply cannot service the debt even over a longer period. M... Read More...
Many a time, we see children spend days outside the ICU where their terminally-ill parent is admitted, only to receive the dead body after a few days. The patient’s relatives have a right to know about the condition of the patient, immediately after life-saving measures are instituted. They have a right to participate in the decision related to the treatment of their loved one, especially if it is an end of life situation. If there is no hope of the patient’s survival, he or she should be allowed to spend the last moments with loved ones. Medical intervention should be restricted to measures that ease the patient’s pain. Life-support The pros... Read More...
The government says it wants to double farm income by 2022 through the transformation of Indian agriculture. However, the political discourse continues to focus perversely on farm loan waivers. Even though agriculture contributes about 15% to India’s gross domestic product, a majority of the population directly or indirectly depends on the sector for livelihood. Farm loan waiver It might make political sense in the short run—farmers are a sizeable and powerful vote base—but, as experience shows, it is unlikely to help the agriculture sector in the long run. In fact, loan waivers can lea... Read More...
On March 10, Shashi Tharoor, MP, introduced the Anti-Discrimination and Equality Bill 2016 (ADE Bill) in the Lok Sabha. As a Private Member’s Bill, however, this will not be enacted unless the government takes ownership of this Bill. There are at least three reasons why it should do so: The Bill’s symmetric protection, its experiential understanding of discrimination as a lived reality, and its proportionate regulation of the private sector. Bill’s symmetry That discrimination is rife in India is not in doubt. Women, Dalits, religious and sexual minorities, people fro... Read More...
Biotech-KISAN is a new programme that empowers farmers, especially women farmers. Cash crops and horticulture can be a major source of income but the vagaries of climate, disease and market often prevent this. Farmers are eager to use scientific tools that can mitigate these factors. The Scheme is for farmers, developed by and with farmers, it empowers women, impacts locally, connects globally, is Pan-India, has a hub-and spoke model and stimulates entrepreneurship and innovation in farmers. Biotech-KISAN is: For Farmers: The Biotech-KISAN is a Farmer centric scheme launched by of the Department of Biotechnology, where ... Read More...
India’s ties with China are seemingly becoming more complicated by the day. Despite the dialogue held recently at the strategic level, the continuing stalemate over both the proposal at the UN to designate JeM Chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist and India’s entry into the NSG are visibly deepening suspicions that may snowball into other areas where the two countries entertain misgivings about each other. Other critical issues are: China’s Belt and Road Initiative, China-Pakistan Economic Corridor CPEC, and Read More...
Water wars in urban India is not new, they go back to Harappa. Harsud was a town and municipality in Khandwa in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Although the town was more than 700 years old, it submerged under the waters of the Indira Sagar dam in July 2004. The town was relocated to Chhanera (New Harsud) after the old town was submerged in the waters of Indira Sagar Dam. Indus people According to historian DD Kosambi, the Indus people managed water by damming the small branches of rivers. Aryan Aryan people shattered this dam sy... Read More...
The latest edition of the State of the World’s Forests (SOFO) report explores the relationship between agriculture and forestry for a food-secure future. As part of commitment to the SDGs, countries are committed to end hunger by 2030 by ensuring sustainable food production. Making agriculture sustainable is essential for future food production in the face of climate change. Food production and the role of forests While agriculture can feed the world’s population, it is responsible for deforestation globally. The report says that forests support sustainable agriculture by stabilising soils and climate, regula... Read More...
Human Genome Project, an international collaboration that successfully determined, stored, and rendered publicly available the sequences of almost all the genetic content of the chromosomes of the human organism, otherwise known as the human genome. The Human Genome Project (HGP), which operated from 1990 to 2003, provided researchers with basic information about the sequences of the three billion chemical base pairs that make up human genomic DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). The Human Genome Project was further intended to improve the technologies needed to interpret and analyse genomic sequences, to identify all the genes encoded in huma... Read More...
In recent decades, India has enjoyed economic and demographic conditions that ordinarily would lead to rising female labour-force participation rates. Economic growth has been high, averaging 6-7% in the 1990s and 2000s; fertility has fallen substantially; and female education has risen dramatically, albeit from a low level. In other regions, including Latin America and the Middle East and North Africa, similar trends have led to large increases in female participation. Yet National Sample Survey (NSS) data for India show that labour force participation rates of women aged 25-54 (including primary and subsidiary status) have stagnated at about 2... Read More...
What is XDR-TB? XDR-TB, an abbreviation for extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB), is a form of TB which is resistant to at least four of the core anti-TB drugs. Multidrug-resistance (MDR-TB) and XDR-TB both take substantially longer to treat than ordinary (drug-susceptible) TB, and require the use of second-line anti-TB drugs, which are more expensive and have more side-effects than the first-line drugs used for drug-susceptible TB. How do people get XDR-TB? People may get XDR-TB in one of two ways. It may develop in a patient who is receiving treatment for active TB, when anti-TB drugs are misused or m... Read More...
Coral Reef Systems Reef Properties 1. Reefs are found in circumtropical shallow waters along the shores of islands and continents. 2. Reefs live in nutrient poor waters. 3. Reef substrate is composed of calcium carbonate from living and dead scleractinian corals. 4. These corals have a symbiotic relationship with a single-celled algae known as zooxanthallae. Zooxanthallae 1. Zooxanthallae live symbiotically within coral polyp tissue. 2. They assist coral in nutrient production through photosynthetic activities. 3. Corals receive coloration ... Read More...