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National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015

The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, on July 2 gave its approval for the India’s first integrated National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015. The Policy acknowledges the need for an effective roadmap for promotion of entrepreneurship as the key to a successful skills strategy. The previous National Policy on Skill Development was formulated by the Ministry of Labour and Employment in 2009 and provided for a review after five years to align the policy framework with emerging national and international trends. 

The Vision of the Policy is “to create an ecosystem of empowerment by Skilling on a large Scale at Speed with high Standards and to promote a culture of innovation based entrepreneurship which can generate wealth and employment so as to ensure Sustainable livelihoods for all citizens in the country”. 

To achieve this Vision, the Policy has four thrust areas. It addresses key obstacles to augment skill, including low aspiration value, lack of integration with formal education, lack of focus on outcomes, low quality of training infrastructure and trainers, etc. Further, the Policy seeks to align supply and demand for skills by bridging existing skill gaps, promoting industry engagement, operationalizing a quality assurance framework, leverage technology and promoting greater opportunities for apprenticeship training. Equity is also a focus of the Policy, which targets skill enhancing opportunities for socially/geographically marginalized and disadvantaged groups. Skill development and entrepreneurship programmes for women are a specific focus of the Policy. In the entrepreneurship domain, the Policy seeks to educate and equip potential entrepreneurs, both within and outside the formal education system. It also seeks to connect entrepreneurs to mentors, incubators and credit markets, foster innovation and entrepreneurial culture, improve ease of doing business and promote a focus on social entrepreneurship. 

Highway Challenges in North East

The Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways and Shipping, Shri Nitin Gadkari will inaugurate a conference on “Key challenges in Highways & Infrastructure Construction in the North-Eastern Region and Use of Innovative Technologies and Materials” in Guwahati on 30th June, 2015. The two day conference will be attended by the Chief Ministers, PWD Ministers and other key officials from various North-East states.

The main objective of this conference will be to build the capacity of local contractors, engineers and other stakeholders for participation in construction of highways and infrastructure in the region. The involvement of local stakeholders in construction of highways and infrastructure would result in inclusive development of the region by providing new employment opportunities and avenues.

The conference will also discuss various process and procedure reforms that can be brought into the system to remove the obstacles to increase the pace of Infrastructure development and most importantly result in “ease of doing business”.

The Conference will also focus on challenges in bridge and tunnel construction besides deliberating on the use of NANO technologies and their effective use in NE region. The conference will also aim to address various Road Safety and Environmental issues with a special focus on slope stabilization and environmental friendly slope protection techniques.

The conference will be organised by the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways through its undertaking, the National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd. (NHIDCL). An exhibition would also be held on the occasion to showcase various innovative and appropriate technologies that can be used to enhance pace of highways and infrastructure construction. 

Environment and Indian Constitution

The Indian Constitution guarantees justice, liberty and equality to all citizens of the country. In Maneka Gandhi's case the court gave a new dimension to Article 21. It held that the right to 'live' is not merely confined to physical existence but it include within its ambit the right to live with human dignity. The same view was reflected by Court in Francis Coralie V. Union Territory of Delhi said that the right to live is not restricted to mere animal existence. Article 21 also constitute right to get pollution free water and air. Article 48 of Directive Principles of State Policy directs that the State to take steps to organize agriculture and animal husbandary on modern and scientific lines. Again Article 48-A requires the State to take steps to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forests and wildlife of the country. In M.C. Mehta (II) V. Union of India, the Supreme Court, relying on Article 48-A gave direction to Central and State Governments and various local bodies and Boards under the various statutes to take appropriate steps for the prevention and control of pollution of water. Article 51-A says that it shall be the duty of every citizen of India to protect and impove the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wildlife, and to have compassion for living.

Source: PIB

Elderly people: Saga of plights and sufferings

Things fall apart; the Centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, …. W. B. Yeats.

The era of virtue and innocence is drowned in the cobweb of commercialization, meekly uttered Bijay Kumar Bhattacharjee. Quivering voice of a 77-year old retired employee, Bijay Kumar Bhattacharjee aptly described elderly persons’ helplessness in today’s modern society.  Duped by an agent and a medi-claim insurance company, he moved to court only to be disappointed further.

Bhattacharjee, originally hailing from Agartala and now settled in Kolkata, had endured severe mental and physical agony due to merciless commercial practices and apathetic society. Narrating his harrowing experiences, Bhattacharjee informed he was persuaded by an agent of the Star Health and Allied Insurance Co. Ltd of Chennai to purchase a medi-claim policy. With pace-maker implanted in his chest, Bhattacharjee could not believe that an Insurance company would really offer him a medi-claim policy. However, the agent politely mentioned, the aforesaid company has rolled out ‘Senior Citizens Red Carpet Insurance Policy’ for elderly people. However, no medi-claim will be granted if he suffers from heart disease. He purchased the Policy for an amount of Rs 1 Lac from the said Company on February 2012. As per the terms and conditions, Shri Bhattacharjee submitted all the relevant documents pertaining to diseases he was suffering from including fitment of pace-maker before signing on the dotted lines.

Unfortunately, Bhattacharjee fell seriously sick due to sudden attack of PNEUMONITIS and had to be hospitalized later in 2012, couple of months after obtaining the policy. However, the Insurance Company bluntly denied paying the costs of treatment. The Company argued Bhattacharjee did not disclose information relating to his pre-existing illness, even though pneumonia cannot be termed as pre-existing disease. Notably, the Company did not stop accepting premiums from Bhattacharjee. The policy was renewed duly thereafter for 2013 and 2014.

Shocked and aggravated, Bhattacharjee filed a case in District level Consumer Forum, Alipore (DCF) against the Insurance Company (C. C. no. 291 of 2013). Frail and sick, yet he fought the case by himself without appointing advocates. During 14 rigorous trials, he fought the case fiercely and justified his claim. The DCF ordered the Company to pay the medical expenses with 15% interest. The Court levied heavy penalties amounting to Rs 5,72, 434 on the Insurance Company for adopting ‘unfair’ trade practices (Rs one lakh for mental agony and harassment, Rs one lakh as compensation and three lakh for unfair trade practice totaling to Rs 5,72,434, out of which Rs 2 lakh to be deposited to the Consumer Welfare Fund). However, the accused Company moved to the State Consumer Commission (SCC) vide No. FA/166/2014.  Astonishingly, Judges of SCC delivered verdict after a single trial, which Bhattacharjee again fought out by himself. The Verdict, in sharp contrast of DCF verdict, shocked and shattered Bhattacharjee.

He informed, the Judges of the SCC, comprising Jagannath Bag, Member and Debasis Bhattacharya, Member, too found the Company guilty for non-payment of Bhattacharjee’s medical bills and accordingly, ordered the Company to pay Rs 61,646 for his treatment plus Rs 5000 as litigation cost. However Judges waived all other levies imposed by DCF including penalty for causing mental agony, compensation etc. “It is unfortunate that the SCC though identified the Company as offender, ignored my mental agony and physical stress that I had to endure during the trials and allow the erring Company  The c waived the penalty slapped by the DCF for causing mental agony and stress by denying my bona fide medi-claim”, he said. Most strikingly, he added, the SCC Judge passed a one liner verdict without mentioning any clarification or justification. Shaking his head with disgust about present-day societal systems, Shri Bhattacharjee lamented, I won the battle but lost the faith.

Bhattacharjee’s predicament is nothing new and unheard. Small wonder that ageing people, no matter whether educated, wealthy or penniless, are emerging as one of the most vulnerable sections of the country. Analysing the prevailing situation of elderly people in India, Central Statistics Office under the Ministry of Statistics and Program implementation observed, the size of the elderly population, i.e. persons above the age of 60 years is fast growing in the country although it constituted only 7.4% of total population at the turn of the new millennium. For a developing country like India, this may pose mounting pressures on various socio economic fronts including pension outlays, health care expenditures, fiscal discipline, savings levels etc. Again this segment of population faces multiple medical and psychological problems. There is an emerging need to pay greater attention to ageing-related issues and to promote holistic policies and programmes for dealing with the ageing society with delicacy devoid of ugly commercial interests. Though policy makers are concerned about the problems and vulnerability of the ageing society in India, the service delivery particularly health services and insurance products delivery are grey areas where greater focus is needed.  Echoing W B Yeats he added, “…. the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity”. 

Jaydip Chakrabarti. 

Avoid Chemical fertilizers, boost organic farming

Government is implementing  a Cluster based programme   to encourage the farmer for promoting organic farming called Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY):

v  Groups of farmers would be motivated to take up organic farming under Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY). Fifty or more farmers will form a cluster having 50 acre land to take up the organic farming under the scheme.

v  In this way during three years 10,000 clusters will be formed covering 5.0 lakh acre area under organic farming. There will be no liability on the farmers for expenditure on certification.

v  Every farmer will be provided Rs. 20,000 per acre in three years for seed to harvesting of crops and to transport produce to the market.

v  Organic farming will be promoted by using traditional resources and the organic products will be linked with the market.

v  It will increase domestic production and certification of organic produce by involving farmers

v  In order to implement the Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana in Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana in the year 2015-16, an amount of Rs.300 crore has been allocated.

State wise Farm area (excluding Forest Area) under Organic Certification during 2013-14

S.No.	State Name	Organic Area (in Ha)
1	Andaman & Nicobar Islands	321.28
2	Andhra Pradesh	12325.03
3	Arunachal Pradesh	71.49
4	Assam	2828.26
5	Bihar	180.60
6	Chhattisgarh	4113.25
7	Delhi	0.83
8	Goa	12853.94
9	Gujarat	46863.89
10	Haryana	3835.78
11	Himachal Pradesh	4686.05
12	Jammu & Kashmir	10035.38
13	Jharkhand	762.30
14	Karnataka	30716.21
15	Kerala	15020.23
16	Lakshadweep	895.91
17	Madhya Pradesh	232887.36
18	Maharashtra	85536.66
19	Manipur	0
20	Meghalaya	373.13
21	Mizoram	0
22	Nagaland	5168.16
23	Odisha	49813.51
24	Pondicherry	2.84
25	Punjab	1534.39
26	Rajasthan	66020.35
27	Sikkim	60843.51
28	Tamil Nadu	3640.07
29	Tripura	203.56
30	Uttar Pradesh	44670.10
31	Uttaranchal	24739.46
32	West Bengal	2095.51
	Total	723039.00

         Source: APEDA (2013-14)

Progress of North East Rural Livelihood Project

North East Rural Livelihood Project, a central sector externally aided multi-state project was launched in March 2012. The main objective of the project is to improve rural livelihoods, especially that of women, unemployed youth and the most disadvantaged in the four participating North East States. The total project cost has been estimated at US$ 144.4 million with World Bank assistance of US$130 million and Government of India’s contribution of US$14.4 million (at 10%). The financial project has been made for five years with the mandate to implement in two districts each of Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim and five districts in Tripura. About 3 lakh households will directly benefit from the project across 11 districts, 62 blocks and 1645 villages. 

The main thrusts of the project are to build community based organizations such as Self Help Groups (SHGs), SHG village Federations, Community Development Groups (CDGs), Producer Organizations etc. and strengthen the existing ones; to nurture and build capacity of the Community-Based Organization Leaders for enabling them to participate in decision making and development process; to provide financial support for promotion of livelihood activities; to facilitate technical support, expert services and knowledge transfer through partnership; to provide vocational trainings and skill trainings for self-business and job placement; to promote a few livelihood clusters; to provide necessary linkages for institutional finance; and to develop value chains on certain potential products. 

The desired outcomes of the project include (a) making the SHGs promoted and supported by the project sustainable, (b) increasing the income level of the members of the SHGs (at least 60% of them) and disadvantaged households by 30% in real term and (c) providing jobs or self employment to the unemployed youths through various skill trainings, entrepreneurship development trainings, vocational trainings and management development trainings. 

Initially, the project had focused on institution building and strengthening of existing community institutions. With minimum coverage of 70% of the households of the project villages, institution building has almost saturated in Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim. Good progress has also been made in two districts of Tripura. By end of March 2015, the project has formed 13,685 SHGs, 142 SHG Village Federations and 1351 CDGs. Having the solid platforms of development laid down, the project is now focusing more on creating resilient livelihoods for the community people. With a view to contributing towards the corpus funds and also to provide livelihood support, the project has so far provided Seed Capital to 11049 SHGs and livelihood Funds to 5780 SHGs amounting Rs.22.09 crore and Rs.28.24 crore respectively. Another Rs.6.52 crore has been released for entry point activities and execution of Community Development Plans. The project has also started 4 model livelihood clusters with approximate investment of upto Rs.100 lakh each on piggery, goatary and dairy. 

NERLP has also put a target of providing skill trainings to about 20,000 unemployed youths from the project districts. For organizing skill trainings on different trades, the project has entered into MOUs with 16 Voluntary Training Providers who are either government/semi government organizations or NSDC empanelled. As on date, 1045 youths have been trained out of which around 519 got placement in various parts of the country mainly in retail, hospitality, IT and health care sector. Another 393 candidates are getting placement very soon and 216 youths are undergoing training. 

Apart from physical achievement, the financial achievement of the project for 2014-15 has been impressive. As against the budget allocation of Rs.90.00 (RE), the project has made a total expenditure of Rs.72.13 crore. This under-expenditure has been mainly due to delayed releases of the RE budget of Rs.60 crore sometime in the first week of March 2015. 

Year end Review for Agri Ministry for 2014-15

The Immediate challenge to the Ministry of Agriculture when the new Government had taken over, was to sustain the increasing agricultural output of the country in the face of impending deficit rainfall in this year 2014-15. All the requisite preparatory measures were made in coordination with the State governments to have the District-wise contingency action plans in place and to bring in flexibility in the various schemes in order that the States are enabled to cope with any desired changes in the Approved Action Plans for tackling the situation arising out of deficit rainfall. With the perspective the Central Research Institute for Dry Land Agriculture (CRIDA) in collaboration with State Agricultural Universities and the State Governments has prepared crop contingency plans in respect of 576 districts across the country. Further, all necessary and appropriate steps have been taken to meet the seed and fertilizer requirement and to disseminate information and on suitable farming practices to be followed in such a situation.

Indian Agriculture at A Glance

·         Agriculture continues to be the backbone of Indian economy.

·         Agriculture sector employs 54.6% of the total workforce.

·         The total Share of Agriculture & Allied Sectors (Including Agriculture, Livestock, forestry and fishery sub sectors) in terms of percentage of Gross Domestic Product is 13.9 percent during 2013-14 at 2004-05 prices. [As per the estimates released by Central Statistics Office]

·         For the 12^th Plan (2012-17), a growth target of 4 percent has been set for the Agriculture Sector. As per the 4^th Advance Estimates of Production of food grains for 2013-14, total food grain production is estimated to be 264.77 Million Tonnes.

Growth Strategy

In order to keep up the momentum gained during the 11^th Plan and achieve the targeted growth rate of 4% during the 12^th Five Year Plan as also the ensure focused approach and to avoid overlap, all the ongoing 51 schemes of the Department have been restructured into five missions viz. National Food Security Mission (NFSM), Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture Mission (MIDH), National Mission on Oil Seed and Oil Palm (NMOOP), National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA), and National Mission on Agricultural Extension & Technology (NMAET); five Central Sector Schemes viz. National Crop Insurance Programme (NCIP), Intergrated Scheme on Agri-Census & Statistics (ISAC&S), Integrated Scheme of Agriculture Marketing (ISAM), Integrated Scheme of Agriculture Cooperation (ISAC) and Secretariat Economic Service; and one State Plan Scheme viz. Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana.

Recognizing the importance of Agriculture Sector, the Government during the budget 2014-15 took a number of steps for sustainable development of Agriculture. These steps include enhanced institutional credit to farmers; promotion of scientific warehousing infrastructure including cold storages and cold chains in the country for increasing shelf life of agricultural produce; Improved access to irrigation through Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sichayee Yojana; provision of Price Stabilisation Fund to mitigate price volatality in agricultural produce; Mission mode scheme for Soil Health Card; Setting up of Agri-tech Infrastructure fund for making farming competitive and profitable; provide institutional finance to joint farming groups of “Bhoomi Heen Kisan” through NABARD; development of indigenous cattle breeds and promoting inland fisheries and other non-farm activities to supplement the income of farmers.

Details of the Initiatives are as follows:

Rashtriya Gokul Mission

 India ranks first among the world’s milk producing Nations are such 1998 and milk production peaked at 137.97 million tonnes in 2013-14.  India has the largest bovine population in the world.  The bovine genetic resource of India is represented by 37 well recognized indigenous Breeds of cattle and 13 breeds of buffaloes. Indigenous bovines are robust and resilient and are particularly suited to the climate and environment of their respective breeding tracts.  Rashtriya Gokul Mission a project under the National Program for Bovine Breeding and Dairy Development is being launched with the objective of conserving and developing indigenous Breeds in a focused and scientific manner.  The potential to enhance the productivity of the indigenous breeds through professional farm management and superior nutrition, as well as gradation of indigenous bovine germplasm will be done with an outlay of Rs. 550 crores.

Rail Milk Network

·         In order to promote Agri Rail Network for transportation of milk, overs have been placed by AMUL and NDDB on behalf of Dairy Cooperative Federations for procurement of 36 new Rail Milk Tankers and will be made available by Railways.  This will help in movement of milk from milk surplus areas to areas of demand providing dairy farmers with greater market areas.

·         An allocation of Rs. 50 crore for development of indigenous cattle breed has been provided.

·         Blue Revolution’ for development of inland fisheries being initiated with a sum of Rs. 50 crore

·         Target for providing institutional agricultural credit to farmers during 2014-15 has been    enhanced to Rs. 8 lakh crore which is expected to surpass.

·         Agriculture credit at a concessional rate of 7% with an interest subvention of 3% for timely repayment will continue during 2014-15.

·         An allocation of Rs. 5,000 crore for 2014-15 has been made for scientific warehousing infrastructure for increasing shelf life of agricultural produce and thereby increasing the earning capacity of farmers.

·         A higher allocation of Rs. 25,000 crore has been made to the corpus of Rural Infrastructure Development Fund during 2014-15 which helps in creation of infrastructure in agriculture and rural sectors.

·         An initial corpus of Rs. 4,000 crore is being created to set up long term rural credit fund in NABARD to give a boost to long term investment credit in agriculture.

·         For ensuring increased and uninterrupted credit flow to farmers and to avoid high cost market borrowings by NABARD an amount of Rs. 50,000 crore during 2014-15 has been made for Short Term Cooperative Rural Credit (STCRC-refinance fund).

·         To improve access to irrigation, Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sichayee Yojana has been initiated with a sum of Rs. 1,000 crore in the year 2014-15.

·         To mitigate price volatility in the agricultural produce a sum of Rs. 500 crore has been provided for Price Stabilization Fund.

·         Government has initiated a scheme for Soil Health Card for every farmer in a mission mode with an initial allocation of Rs. 100 crore in 2014-15.

·         An additional amount of Rs. 56 crore has been made to set up 100 mobile soil testing laboratories countrywide.

·         National Adaptation Fund for climate change has been established with an initial allocation of Rs. 100 crore.

·         To protect landless farmers from money lenders 5 lakh joint farming groups of Bhoomiheen Kisan will be financed through NABARD in the current financial year.

·         A Kisan TV - Channel dedicated to agriculture will be launched with the initial allocation of Rs. 100 crores in the current financial year.

·         An initial allocation of Rs. 200 crore has been allocated for establishing Agriculture Universities in Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan and Horticulture Universities in Telangana and Haryana.

·         An allocation of Rs. 100 crore has been made in the current financial year for setting up of two institutions of excellence in Assam and Jharkhand which will be at par with Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa.

·         An allocation of Rs.100 crore is made for 2014-15 for setting up Agri-tech Infrastructure Fund with a view to increasing public and private investments in agriculture and making farming competitive and profitable.

·         Various initiatives taken by Government to support agriculture and allied sectors is to sustain the growth rate at 4%.

·         In order to increase profitability for small and marginal farmers, Rs. 200 crore has been earmarked for setting up of 2000 Farmer Producer Organisations.

·         Wage employment under MGNREGA will be mainly used for more productive asset creation substantially linked to agriculture & allied activities.

·         Sum of Rs. 14,389 crore for Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana for 2014-15 which will improve access for rural population including farmers.

·         With a view to promoting farmers and consumers interest setting up of a national market will be accelerated by encouraging States to modify their APMC Act and other market reforms.

·         With a view to develop commercial organic farming in the North Eastern Region a sum of Rs. 100 crore has been allocated.

Central Government recognizes and discharges its responsibility to assist State Governments in overall development of Agriculture sector. Effective policy measures are in position to improve agricultural production and productivity and address problems of farmers. State Governments are also impressed upon to allocate adequate funds for development of agriculture sector in State plan, as well as initiate other measures required for achieving targeted agricultural growth rate and address problem of farmers.

Source:PIB