Important Govt Schemes - Part 1 ( Aug 2018 – May 2019)

KUSUM Scheme
Prelims level: Particulars of the KUSUM

Mains level: Possible benefits and outcomes of the scheme discussed in the newscard.

News

 The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved launch of Kisan Urja Suraksha evam
Utthaan Mahabhiyan (KUSUM) Scheme with the objective of providing financial and water
security to farmers.

KUSUM Scheme

1. The scheme would provide extra income to farmers, by giving them an option to sell additional
power to the grid through solar power projects set up on their barren lands.
2. It was announced in the Union Budget 2018-19.

Component of KUSUM Scheme

The proposed scheme consists of three components:

Component-A

 Renewable power plants of capacity 500 KW to 2 MW will be setup by individual farmers/

cooperatives/panchayats /farmer producer organisations (FPO) on their barren or cultivable
lands.
 The power generated will be purchased by the DISCOMs at Feed in tariffs determined by
respective SERC.

Component-B

 Installation of 17.50 lakh standalone Solar Powered Agriculture Pumps.

 Individual farmers will be supported to install standalone solar pumps of capacity up to 7.5 HP.
Solar PV capacity in kW equal to the pump capacity in HP is allowed under the scheme.

Component-C
 Solarization of 10 Lakh Grid-connected Solar Powered Agriculture Pumps is included in this
component,
 Individual farmers will be supported to solarise pumps of capacity up to 7.5 HP.
 Solar PV capacity up to two times of pump capacity in kW is allowed under the scheme.
 The excess available energy will be sold to DISCOM.

Expected outcomes

1. The Scheme will have substantial environmental impact in terms of savings of CO2 emissions.
2. All three components of the Scheme combined together are likely to result in saving of about 27
million tonnes of CO2 emission per annum.
3. Further, Component-B of the Scheme on standalone solar pumps may result in saving of 1.2
billion liters of diesel per annum and associated savings in the foreign exchange due to reduction
of import of crude oil.
4. Besides increasing self-employment the proposal is likely to generate employment opportunity
equivalent to 6.31 lakh job years for skilled and unskilled workers.

Deendayal Disabled Rehabilitation Scheme (DDRS)

Prelims level: DDRS

Mains level: Welfare Schemes for Divyangjans

News

 For the overall empowerment of Divyangajan, a Regional Conference on Deendayal Disabled

Rehabilitation Scheme (DDRS) was organized by the Dept. of Empowerment of Persons with
Disabilities, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

Deendayal Disabled Rehabilitation Scheme (DDRS)

1. The umbrella Central Sector Scheme called the “Scheme to Promote Voluntary Action for
Persons with Disabilities” was revised in 2003 and was renamed as the DDRS.
2. The approach of this Scheme is to provide financial assistance to voluntary organizations to
make available the whole range of services necessary for rehabilitation of PwD.
3. The recommendation from the District Social Welfare Officer and State Government is required
in release of grant-in-aid to NGOs.
4. The list of model projects which have been optimized, includes, Pre-Schools, Early Intervention
and Training; Special Schools for:

 Persons with Intellectual Disabilities

 Hearing and Speech Disabilities
 Visual Disabilities
 Project for Cerebral Palsied children
 Rehabilitation of Leprosy cured persons
 Half Way Home for psycho-Social Rehabilitation of treated and controlled mentally ill persons
 Home based Rehabilitation and Home Management etc.

Objectives of the scheme

1. To create an enabling environment to ensure equal opportunities, equity, social justice and
empowerment of persons with disabilities.
2. To encourage voluntary action for ensuring effective implementation of the People with
Disabilities (Equal Opportunities and Protection of Rights) Act of 1995.

Impact

1. Under the scheme, every year more than 600 NGOs are provided with financial assistance for
running their projects for the rehabilitation of PwD.
2. The NGOs being funded are catering the rehabilitative services to more than 35000 to 40000
beneficiaries every year.

PM Shram Yogi Maan-Dhan (PM-SYM) Scheme

Prelims level: Pradhan Mantri Shram- Yogi Maandhan Yojana

Mains level: Pension Scheme for Unorganised sector workers

News

 The PM Shram Yogi Maan-Dhan (PM-SYM) was formally inaugurated by PM Modi.

PM Shram Yogi Maan-Dhan (PM-SYM)

1. PM-SYM will be a Central Sector Scheme administered by the Ministry of Labour and
Employment and implemented through Life Insurance Corporation of India and CSCs.
2. LIC will be the Pension Fund Manager and responsible for Pension pay out.
3. The amount collected under PM-SYM pension scheme shall be invested as per the investment
pattern specified by GoI.

Eligibility Criteria
1. The unorganised workers mostly engaged as home based workers, street vendors, mid-day meal
workers, head loaders, brick kiln workers, cobblers, rag pickers, domestic workers, washer men,
rickshaw pullers, landless labourers, etc. whose monthly income is Rs 15,000/ per month or less
and belong to the entry age group of 18-40 years are eligible for the scheme.
2. They should not be covered under New Pension Scheme (NPS), Employees’ State Insurance
Corporation (ESIC) scheme or Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).
3. Further, he/she should not be an income tax payer.

Features of PM-SYM
Pension Pay out

1. Once the beneficiary joins the scheme at the entry age of 18-40 years, the beneficiary has to
contribute till 60 years of age.
2. On attaining the age of 60 years, the subscriber will get the assured monthly pension of
Rs.3000/- with benefit of family pension, as the case may be.

Family Pension

 During the receipt of pension, if the subscriber dies, the spouse of the beneficiary shall be
entitled to receive 50% of the pension received by the beneficiary as family pension.
 Family pension is applicable only to spouse.

Contribution by the Subscriber

 The subscriber’s contributions to PM-SYM shall be made through ‘auto-debit’ facility from his/
her savings bank account/ Jan- Dhan account.
 The subscriber is required to contribute the prescribed contribution amount from the age of
joining PM-SYM till the age of 60 years.

Matching contribution by the Central Government

 PM-SYM is a voluntary and contributory pension scheme on a 50:50 basis where prescribed age-
specific contribution shall be made by the beneficiary and the matching contribution by the
Central Government.
 For example, if a person enters the scheme at an age of 29 years, he is required to contribute Rs
100/ – per month till the age of 60 years.
 An equal amount of Rs 100/- will be contributed by the Central Government.

Enrolment Process

 The enrolment will be carried out by all the Community Service Centers (CSCs).
 The subscriber will be required to have a mobile phone, savings bank account and Aadhaar
number.
 The eligible subscriber may visit the nearest CSCs and get enrolled for PM-SYM using Aadhaar
number and savings bank account/ Jan-Dhan account number on self-certification basis.

Facilitation Centres

 All the branch offices of LIC, the offices of ESIC/EPFO and all Labour offices of Central and
State Governments will facilitate the unorganised workers about the Scheme.

Second phase of fame to electrify public transport

Prelims level: FAME Scheme

Mains level: Issues related to the (possible) early adoption of the EVs in India.

News

 The second phase of the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (hybrid) Electric vehicles
(FAME) scheme will come into force from April 1, 2019 with the Union Cabinet nod.
 The scheme will be in effect for a period of three years at a proposed budget of Rs 10,000 crore.

FAME India II Scheme

 The scheme is the expanded version of the present scheme titled ‘FAME India 1’ which was
launched in April 2015.
 The phase two of the scheme plans to support ten lakhs electric two-wheelers, five lakhs electric
three-wheelers, 55 thousands four-wheelers and 7,000 buses.
 The main objective is to encourage faster adoption of EVs by way of offering upfront incentive
on the purchase and also by way of establishing a necessary charging Infrastructure.
 The largely increased allocation for the new phase is a sign of the critical importance that India’s
policy makers are currently placing on shifting to an all-electric Indian mobility sector.

Focus areas

 In this phase two, emphasis is on electrification of the public transportation that includes shared
transport.
 The second phase will also not provide any incentive for passenger cars used for personal use.
 In the two-wheelers segment, however, the focus will be on the private vehicles.
 Demand Incentives on operational expenditure mode for electric buses will be delivered through
State/city transport corporation (STUs).
 In 3W and 4W segment incentives will be applicable mainly to vehicles used for public transport
or registered for commercial purposes.
 To encourage advanced technologies, the benefits of incentives will be extended to only those
vehicles which are fitted with advanced batteries like a Lithium Ion.
 Necessary charging infrastructure

 It also proposes for establishment of charging infrastructure, whereby about 2700 charging
stations will be established in metros, other million-plus cities, smart cities and cities of hilly
states across the country.
 It will ensure availability of at least one charging station in a grid of 3 km x 3 km.

Impact

 Inclusion of buses, taxi and e-rickshaws under Fame 2 will play a critical role to promote EVs.
 The transition to electric buses is expected to not only help reduce carbon footprint but also save
fuel.

Pradhan Mantri Jl-VAN Yojana

Prelims level: PM JIVAN Yojana

Mains level: Aim and particulars of the Scheme

News

 The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved the Pradhan Mantri JI-VAN (Jaiv
Indhan- Vatavaran Anukool fasal awashesh Nivaran) Yojana.
 It aims for providing financial support to Integrated Bio-ethanol Projects using lignocellulosic
biomass and other renewable feedstock.

PM JI-VAN Scheme

 Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas has targeted to achieve 10% blending percentage of
Ethanol in petrol by 2022.
 Therefore, an alternate route viz. Second Generation (2G) Ethanol from biomass and other
wastes is being explored by MoP&NG to bridge the supply gap for EBP programme.
 The PM JI-VAN Yojana is being launched as a tool to create 2G Ethanol capacity in the country
and attract investments in this new sector.
 Centre for High Technology (CHT), a technical body under the aegis of MoP&NG, will be the
implementation Agency for the scheme.
 The policy allows procurement of ethanol produced from molasses and non-food feed stock like
celluloses and lignocelluloses material including petrochemical route.

Features of the Scheme

1. The scheme focuses to incentivise 2G Ethanol sector and support this nascent industry by
creating a suitable ecosystem for setting up commercial projects and increasing Research &
Development in this area.
2. The ethanol produced by the scheme beneficiaries will be mandatorily supplied to Oil Marketing
Companies (OMCs) to further enhance the blending percentage under EBP Programme.
3. Apart from supplementing the targets envisaged by the Government under EBP programme, the
scheme will also have the following benefits:

 Meeting Government of India vision of reducing import dependence by way of substituting fossil
fuels with Biofuels.
 Achieving the GHG emissions reduction targets through progressive blending/ substitution of
fossil fuels.
 Addressing environment concerns caused due to burning of biomass/ crop residues & improve
health of citizens.
 Improving farmer income by providing them remunerative income for their otherwise waste
agriculture residues.
 Creating rural & urban employment opportunities in 2G Ethanol projects and Biomass supply
chain.
 Contributing to Swacch Bharat Mission by supporting the aggregation of nonfood biofuel
feedstocks such as waste biomass and urban waste.
 Indigenizing of Second Generation Biomass to Ethanol technologies.

Implementation

1. The JI-VAN Yojana will be supported with total financial outlay of Rs.1969.50 crore for the
period from 2018-19 to 2023-24.
2. Under this project, 12 Commercial Scale and 10 demonstration scale Second Generation (2G)
ethanol Projects will be provided a Viability Gap Funding (VGF) support in two phases:

 Phase-I (2018-19 to 2022-23)

 Phase-II (2020-21 to 2023-24)

Back2Basics
Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Programme

1. Government of India launched Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) programme in 2003 for
undertaking blending of ethanol in Petrol.
2. It aimed to address environmental concerns due to fossil fuel burning, provide remuneration to
farmers, subsidize crude imports and achieve forex savings.
3. Presently, EBP is being run in 21 States and 4 UTs of the country.
4. Under EBP programme, OMCs are to blend upto 10% of ethanol in Petrol.
 SHREYAS Scheme
Prelims level: Shreyas Scheme

Mains level: Skill Education in India

News

 The Ministry of HRD has launched the Scheme for Higher Education Youth in Apprenticeship
and Skills (SHREYAS) for providing industry apprenticeship opportunities.

SHREYAS Scheme

 It is a programme conceived for students in degree courses, primarily non-technical, with a view
to introduce employable skills into their learning, promote apprenticeship and also amalgamate
employment facilitating.
 SHREYAS portal will enable educational institutions and industry to log in and provide their
respective demand and supply of apprenticeship.
 The matching of students with apprenticeship avenues will take place as per pre-specified
eligibility criteria.

Objectives of the Scheme

 To improve employability of students by introducing employment relevance into the learning

process of the higher education system
 To forge a close functional link between education and industry/service sectors on a sustainable
basis
 To provide skills which are in demand, to the students in a dynamic manner
 To establish an ‘earn while you learn’ system into higher education
 To help business/industry in securing good quality manpower
 To link student community with employment facilitating efforts of the Government

Operation of the Scheme

 The primary scheme will be operated in conjunction with National Apprenticeship Promotion
Scheme (NAPS) which provides for placing of apprentices upto 10% of the total work force in
every business/industry.
 The scheme will be implemented by the Sector Skill Councils (SSCs) , initially the Banking
Finance Insurance Services (BFSI), Retail, Health care, Telecom, Logistics, Media, Management
services, ITeS and Apparel.

Financing

 Under the NAPS scheme, Central Government shares 25% of the stipend per month subject to a
maximum of Rs.1500 p.m during the period of the apprenticeship.
 Apart from that, an amount upto Rs.7500 will be met towards basic training cost, where needed.

Implementation

1st Track: Add-on apprenticeship

 The students who are currently completing the degree programme would be invited to choose a
job role of their choice from a selected list of apprenticeship job roles given by the Sector Skill
Councils of the MoSDE.
 At the end of the apprenticeship period, there would be a test conducted by the Sector Skill
Council concerned and successful students would get skills certificate in addition to their degree
certificate.

2nd track: Embedded Apprenticeship

 Under this approach, the existing B.Voc programmes would be restructured into B.A
(Professional), B.Sc (Professional) or B.Com (Professional) courses – which would include a
mandatory apprenticeship ranging from 6 to 10 months depending on the requirement of the
skill.
 During the apprenticeship period, the student would get a monthly stipend of about Rs. 6,000 per
month by the industry, 25% of which would be reimbursed under the NAPS programme.

3rd Track: Linking National Career Service with Colleges

 Under this, the National Career Service (NCS) portal of Ministry of Labour& Employment
would be linked with the Higher Education institutions.
 As of now, more than 9,000 employers have posted requirement of more than 2 lakh vacancies,
for which the students can get considered.

Yuva Sahakar Scheme

From UPSC perspective, the following things are important:

Prelims level: Particulars of the Scheme

 Mains level: Promoting cooperatives business venture

News
Yuva Sahakar-Cooperative Enterprise Support and Innovation Scheme

1. To cater to the needs and aspirations of the youth, the National Cooperative Development
Corporation (NCDC) has come up with a youth-friendly this scheme for attracting them to
cooperative business ventures.
2. The newly launched scheme would encourage cooperatives to venture into new and innovative
areas.
3. The scheme will be linked to Rs 1000 crore ‘Cooperative Start-up and Innovation Fund (CSIF)’
created by the NCDC.

Funding

 The funding for the project will be up to 80% of the project cost for these special categories as
against 70% for others.
 The scheme envisages 2% less than the applicable rate of interest on term loan for the project
cost up to Rs 3 crore including 2 years moratorium on payment of principal.

Eligibility

 It would have more incentives for cooperatives of North Eastern region, Aspirational Districts
and cooperatives with women or SC or ST or PwD members.
 All types of cooperatives in operation for at least one year are eligible.

Back2Basics
NCDC

1. Nodal Agency: Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare

2. The NCDC has the unique distinction of being the sole statutory organisation functioning as an
apex financial and developmental institution exclusively devoted to cooperative sector.
3. It supports cooperatives in diverse fields apart from agriculture and allied sectors.
4. It is an ISO 9001:2015 compliant organisation and has a distinctive edge of competitive
financing.
 Yuva Swabhiman Yojana

Prelims level: Yuva Swabhiman Yojana

Mains level: Various initiatives for EWS

News

 The Madhya Pradesh government has announced the launch of a scheme to ensure temporary
employment to the youths from the economically weaker sections (EWS) in the urban areas.

Yuva Swabhiman Yojana

1. The Scheme would guarantee 100 days of employment every year to the EWS youths.
2. During their employment, youths would be given skills training of their choice, so that they can
take benefits of the available job opportunities.
3. While those in rural areas get employment under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural
Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), the urban poor youth are left out.
4. This scheme will effectively cover them.

PM launches Pravasi Teerth Darshan Yojana

Prelims level: Pravasi Teerth Darshan Yojana

Mains level: Various initiatives for Indian Diaspora

News
Pravasi Teerth Darshan Yojana

1. Hon’ble PM has launched the scheme under which a group of Indian diaspora will be taken on a
government-sponsored tour of religious places in India twice a year.
2. The first batch of 40 Indian-origin people at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas will begin their tour.
3. They will be taken to religious places of all major religions in India and the government will bear
all the expenses including the airfare from their country of residence.
4. All people of Indian-origin aged 45 to 65 can apply and a group will be selected out of them with
first preference given to people from ‘Girmitiya countries’ such as Mauritius, Fiji, Suriname,
Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, and Jamaica.

Who are the Girmitiya ?

1. Girmityas or Jahajis are descendants of indentured Indian labourers brought to Fiji, Mauritius,
South Africa, East Africa, the Malay Peninsula, Caribbean and South America (Trinidad and
Tobago, Guyana and Suriname).
2. They were hired to work on sugarcane plantations for the prosperity of the European settlers and
save the Fijians from having to work on these plantations and thus to preserve their culture.
3. “Agreement” is the term that has been coined into “Girmit”, referring to the “Agreement” of the
British Government with the Indian labourers.
4. It was termed to the length of stay in Fiji and the Caribbean, and when they would be allowed to
go back to India.

Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojna (UDAY) for financial restructuring of debt of power
distribution companies.

1. Scheme aims at financial turnaround and revival of Power Distribution

companies (DISCOMs) and ensures a sustainable permanent solution.
2. Allows power DISCOMs in selected states to convert their debt into state bonds as well as roll
out number of measures to improve efficiency at power plants.
3. It Improves operational efficiencies of DISCOMs, Reduce of cost of power, Reduce
interest cost of DISCOMs, Enforce financial discipline on DISCOMs.
4. Improve operational efficiency by swapping of coal linkages, monitoring technical and
commercial (AT&C) losses , smart metering and feeder separation in states.

With UDAY Scheme, Union Government seeks to accelerate the process of reform
across the entire power sector in order to ensure affordable and accessible 24×7
Power for All.

Centre proposes to hike monthly pensions for the elderly

poor, disabled and widows
 Prelims level: NSAP

Mains level: Condition of elderly persons and need for care and rehabilitation

News
Proposed hike in Pensions

1. The Rural Development Ministry has proposed that the monthly pensions under NSAP.
2. For the elderly poor, disabled and widows pensions are to be increased from the current
₹200 to ₹800.
3. For those above the age of 80, the proposal is to increase the pension from ₹500 to
₹1,200 a month.

National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP)

1. The NSAP is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme under the Ministry of Rural Development.
2. It came into effect from 15th August,1995 represents a significant step towards the
fulfillment of the DPSP in Article 41 of the Constitution.
3. It aims to provide financial assistance to the elderly, widows and persons with
disabilities in the form of social pensions.
4. It currently covers more than three crore people who are below the poverty line (BPL),
including about 80 lakh widows, 10 lakh disabled and 2.2 crore elderly.
5. Those who are older than 80 years are paid ₹500 per month, while the rest are given
₹200 per month. These amounts have not been revised since 2007.
6. State governments add their own contribution, ranging from less than ₹500 to ₹2000 per
month.
7. The scheme will need a total budget of ₹30,000 crore in order to increase the pension
amounts to ₹800 and ₹1200.
 SECC: A must need reference

1. The government aims to enact a comprehensive social security and protection

programme to reach every household of old, widows, orphaned children, divyaang and
deprived as per the Socio Economic Caste Census.
2. However, the NSAP uses BPL Criteria to identify beneficiaries.
3. If SECC data was used to determine the number of people covered under the scheme
instead of the current BPL criteria, coverage would double to about six crore people.
4. Several States, including Rajasthan, Telangana, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, have already
shifted to SECC data for their own pension schemes.

Sakhi One Stop Centre

Prelims level: Sakhi OSCs

Mains level: Women Safety Issues

News

 More than 1,90,000 victims across the country have accessed the OSCs, sponsored by
the Centre under the Nirbhaya fund .

Sakhi One Stop Centre

1. Ministry of WCD has formulated a Centrally Sponsored Scheme for setting up One Stop
Centre, a sub – scheme of Umbrella Scheme for National Mission for Empowerment of
women including Indira Gandhi Mattritav Sahyaog Yojana.
2. It is a scheme sponsored under the Nirbhaya fund set up for safety of women after the
gang rape of a paramedical student in December 2012 in New Delhi.
3. It being established across the country to provide integrated support and assistance
under one roof to women affected by violence, both in private and public spaces in
phased manner.
4. The scheme envisages an OSC for medical, legal, psychological and police help for
victims of gender-based abuse such as sexual assault or domestic violence.
5. So far, 234 OSCs have been set up and 485 more are in the pipeline to cover all 719
districts in the country.
6. According to government data shared before Parliament, more than 1,90,000 women
across the country have accessed these centres.

Functioning of the OSCs

1. When a victim of domestic violence comes here, she is asked what relief she wants.
2. If she wants a compromise, the husband is called and both of them are counselled.
3. After this, she is asked to sign on an agreement letter and is sent back to her home and
a follow-up is conducted.
4. If a rape victim comes to the centre , it is first ascertained whether she is speaking the
truth.
5. First the centre in-charge speaks to her and then a counsellor cross-examines her.

Ending up with a Compromise

1. According to National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) data for 2015, Ajmer ranked third
among all districts in Rajasthan in terms of crimes against women and recorded 1,303
cases.
2. Of these 792 or 60% of crimes pertained to cruelty by husband or his family.
3. Between October 2017 and December 2018, the centre has seen a total of 472 cases.
4. Nearly 84% of these are cases of domestic violence and “compromise” is considered
the most important way of resolving matters between spouses.
5. A register on follow-up of cases records one-line remarks and the most common among
them is, “everything is fine”.
 Yarn Bank Scheme

Prelims level: Yarn Bank Scheme

Mains level: The importance of textiles and apparels industry and issues related to it.

News
Yarn Bank Scheme

1. To avoid fluctuation in yarn price, government has launched a Yarn Bank Scheme as one of the
component of PowerTex India with effect from 01.04.2017 to 31.03.2020.
2. The Scheme provides interest free corpus fund up to Rs.2.00 crore to the Special Purpose
Vehicle (SPV)/Consortium formed by powerloom weavers to enable them to purchase yarn at
wholesale rate and give the yarn at reasonable price to the small weavers
3. It aims to avoid middleman and local supplier’s brokerage charge on sales of yarn.

Objectives

1. To provide interest free corpus fund to Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) / Consortium to enable
them to purchase yarn at wholesale rate and give the yarn at reasonable price to the small
weavers.
2. To avoid middle man/ local supplier’s brokerage charge on sales of yarn.

Eligibility Beneficiaries

1. Registered Co-operative Society.

2. Trusts
3. Company set-up under the Companies Act, 1956 as amended.
4. Firm set-up under the Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008 as amended.

National Supercomputing Mission (NSM)

Prelims level: NSM

Mains level: India’s technological advancement in recent years

News

 French IT services firm Atos has won a three-year contract to build the first phase of
supercomputers under India’s Rs 4,500-crore National Supercomputing Mission (NSM)

National Supercomputing Mission (NSM)

1. The Mission envisages empowering national academic and R&D institutions spread over the
country by installing a vast supercomputing grid comprising of more than 70 high-performance
computing facilities.
2. These supercomputers will also be networked on the National Supercomputing grid over the
National Knowledge Network (NKN).
3. The NKN is another programme of the government which connects academic institutions and
R&D labs over a high speed network.
4. The Mission includes development of highly professional High Performance Computing (HPC)
aware human resource for meeting challenges of development of these applications.
5. India looks forward to create a cluster of machines for weather forecasting, drug discovery and
data mining.

Agencies involved

1. The Mission would be implemented and steered jointly by the Department of Science and
Technology (DST) and Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) over a
period of seven years.
2. The tender to build these high performance computers (HPC) had been floated by the Centre for
Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC).
3. Atos would be deploying its energy efficient Direct Liquid Cooled Bull Sequana supercomputers
in India.

Implementation Phases

1. The NSM is divided into two key tracks, build and buy, which are being spearheaded by the C-
DAC and Bengaluru’s Indian Institute of Science respectively.
2. Atos has won the contract for the ‘build’ part of the NSM for which it will partner CDAC in all
three phases of the project.
3. While Phase I involves assembling of the supercomputers, in Phase II, certain components like
the motherboards would be manufactured locally, and in the third phase, the supercomputer
would be designed in India by C-DAC.
4. In Phase II, it will be an aggregate of 10 petaflop, but the number of computers is yet to be
decided.
5. In the first phase, IIT-Kharagpur will have a 1.3 petaflop machine and IISER Pune and IIT-BHU
will have a 650 teraflop computer each.

(One petaflop is a million billion floating point operations per second and is a reflection of the
computing capacity of a system)

Expansion of beneficiaries list under Pradhan Mantri

Ujjwala Yojana
Prelims level: Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana

Mains level: Success of Ujjwala Yojana

News

 The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has cleared the proposal to release deposit
free LPG connections to poor families, who have not been considered earlier under PMUY on
account of their names not been covered in Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC).
 Poor families who could not get LPG connection under PMUY are now eligible to get a
connection subject to fulfilling the eligibility norms and furnishing required documents.

New beneficiaries will include:

 SC/STs households
 Beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Gramin),
 Beneficiaries of Antyodaya Anna Yojana(AAY),
 Forest dwellers,
 Most Backward Classes (MBC),
 Tea & Ex-Tea Garden Tribes,
 People residing in Islands / river islands

Back2Basics
Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana

1. PMUY is a welfare scheme being implemented by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas to
provide LPG connections to families below the poverty line, guided by the strong commitment to
bring about changes in the life of poor women and also protect their health
2. Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) is used to identify the beneficiaries (adult woman of a
BPL family) and is given a deposit free LPG connection with a financial assistance of Rs.1600
per connection by the centre
3. This scheme will help prevent pollution and facilitate the healthy atmosphere in the families of
poor people.

Soil Health Cards (SHC) for optimal utilization of fertilizers

 Prelims level: SHC scheme

Mains level: Soil Health

News

 Soil Health Card Scheme has been taken up for the first time in a comprehensive
manner across the country.
 Under the scheme soil health cards are provided to all farmers so as to enable the
farmers to apply appropriate recommended dosages of nutrients for crop production
and improving soil health and its fertility.

Unique features of SHC scheme

1. Collecting soil samples at a grid of 2.5 ha in irrigated area and 10 ha in un-irrigated

areas.
2. Uniform approach in soil testing adopted for 12 parameters viz. primary nutrients
(NPK); secondary nutrient (S); micronutrients (B,Zn, Mn. Fe & Cu); and other (pH, EC &
OC) for comprehensiveness.
3. GPS enabled soil sampling to create a systematic database and allow monitoring of
changes in the soil health over the years.

Phases of Implementation

1. In the 1st cycle which was implemented in year 2015 to 2017, 2.53 crore soil samples
were analysed and 10.73 crore soil health cards distributed to farmers.
2. The 2nd cycle (2017-19) was started from 1st May, 2017 and against target of 2.73 crore
soil samples, 1.98 crore samples tested and 6.73 crore cards have been distributed to
farmers.
3. The target is to cover 12.04 crore farmers.
4. To enable quick soil sample testing and distribution of soil health cards, the soil test
infrastructure has been upgraded, 9263 soil testing labs have been sanctioned to
States.
5. In addition, 1562 village level soil testing projects have been sanctioned to generate
employment for rural youth.

Back2Basics
 Soil Health Card Scheme

1. Soil Health Card Scheme is a scheme launched by the Government of India in 19

February 2015.
2. Under the scheme, the government plans to issue soil cards to farmers.
3. The SHC will carry crop-wise recommendations of nutrients and fertilizers required for
the individual farms to help farmers to improve productivity through judicious use of
inputs.
4. All soil samples are to be tested in various soil testing labs across the country.
5. Thereafter the experts will analyse the strength and weaknesses (micro-nutrients
deficiency) of the soil and suggest measures to deal with it.

News
Context

Union HRD Ministry launched web portals of two schemes — IMPRESS and SPARC — with
an aim to build a research ecosystem in educational institutions.

IMPRESS Scheme

1. The objective of Impactful Policy Research in Social Sciences (IMPRESS) is to identify and
fund research proposals in social sciences with maximum impact on the governance and society.
2. It will provide an opportunity for social science researchers in any institution in the country
which includes all universities (central and state) and also a few private institutions meeting the
requirement.
3. The scheme will focus on broad thematic areas such as state and democracy, urban
transformation; media, culture and society; employment, skills and rural transformation;
governance; innovation and public policy; macro-trade and economic policy and social media
and technology.
4. Under IMPRESS, 1,500 research projects will be awarded for two years to support social science
research in the higher educational institutions.
5. The Indian Council of Social Science and Research (ICSSR) will be the project implementing
agency.
6. The scheme will be implemented till March, 2021.

About SPARC
 News
SPARC Portal

1. The Govt. in August 2018 had sanctioned the SPARC scheme with IIT Kharagpur as the
National Coordinating Institute to implement the SPARC programme.
2. Now the HRD Ministry has launched the web portal of the Scheme for Promotion of Academic
and Research Collaboration (SPARC).
3. The SPARC scheme aims at improving the research ecosystem of India’s higher educational
institutions by facilitating academic and research collaborations between Indian Institutions and
the best institutions in the world.
4. Under this Scheme, 600 joint research proposals will be awarded for 2 years to facilitate strong
research collaboration between Indian research groups with the best in class faculty and
renowned research groups in the leading universities of the world.
5. The collaboration will conduct research in areas that are at the cutting edge of science or with
direct social relevance to the mankind, specifically India.

Salient Features of SPARC Scheme

1. This scheme will improve research ecosystem of India’s higher educational institutions by
facilitating academic and research collaborations/
2. The Indian institutions will include those from top-100 or category-wise top-100 in NIRF (
including such Private Institutions which are recognized under 12(B) of UGC Act)].
3. The foreign institutions will be from top-500 overall and top-200 subject-wise institutions listed
in QS World University Ranking) from 28 selected nations.
4. As per the criteria mentioned above, 254 top Indian Institutes and 478 top ranked global
Institutes have been already identified.

Thrust Areas of the Research

1. A set of 5 Thrust Areas has been identified for collaboration under SPARC.
2. They are Fundamental Research, Emergent Areas of Impact, Convergence, Action-Oriented
Research and Innovation-Driven.
3. Each Thrust Area will have a Section Chair. The role of Section Chair of each Thrust Area is to
review shortlist and recommend the potential joint-proposals submitted under SPARC scheme.
4. The role of a Nodal Institutions will be to help, handhold and coordinate with willing
Participating Indian (PI) Institutions to forge alliance with the Institutions of concerned
participating foreign country.

Academic Activities under SPARC

SPARC proposes to enable productive academic cooperation by supporting the following critical
components that can catalyze impact making research:
 Visits and long-term stay of top international faculty/researchers in Indian institutions to pursue
teaching and research,
 Visits by Indian students for training and experimentation in premier laboratories worldwide ,
 Joint development of niche courses, world-class books and monographs, translatable patents,
demonstrable technologies or action oriented research outcomes and products ,
 Publication, Dissemination and Visibility through a high profile annual international conference
in India.

UDAN
 The scheme UDAN envisages providing connectivity to un-served and
under-served airports of the country through revival of existing
air-strips and airports.
 UDAN has a unique market-based model to develop regional
connectivity.
 Interested airline and helicopter operators can start operations on
hitherto un-connected routes by submitting proposals to the
Implementing Agency.
 The operators could seek a Viability Gap Funding (VGF) apart from
getting various concessions.

(*Viability literally means ability to survive successfully. VGF is an

economic instrument (or scheme) of Government of India, launched in
2004 with the motive of supporting projects which come under public-
private partnerships (PPP) model.

Basically, it is a grant to support projects that are economically justified

are not financially viable.

Latest examples of these are UDAN Regional connectivity scheme and Metro
rail projects. Under this scheme, the central government offers a VGF up to
20% for a particular project.

VGF is generally provided to those projects which have a long gestation period
(time difference between your investment and it earning profit for you) and
when the user charges cannot be increased to commercial levels.

All in all, it is government’s way of promoting PPP model and distributing its
money for building infrastructure more efficiently.)
  All such route proposals would then be offered for competitive bidding
through a reverse bidding mechanism and the route would be awarded to
the participant quoting the lowest VGF per Seat.
 The successful bidder would then have exclusive rights to operate the
route for a period of three years.
 Since the scheme also capped the price of half the inventory of seats,
airfares would remain affordable.
 A Regional Connectivity Fund would also be created to meet the
viability gap funding requirements under the scheme.

 Additionally, there would be certain tax concessions in ATF fuel from

both the Centre and the states and waivers of landing charges from
airport operators.
 Thus, the UDAN scheme is likely to a give a major fillip to tourism and
employment generation in the hinterland.

What are the challenges?

Infrastructure - Building a Greenfield airport isn’t enough, unless

flights are able to take off and land.

 Inclement weather conditions make it difficult for flights to land on the

airports located on mountainous terrains on most days.
 Also, lack of instrument landing systems (ILS) lead to flight cancellations
and the repeated cancellations make it difficult to build traffic on the
route on a sustained basis.

Traffic route - While the infra challenge might be easier to fix, the
bigger challenge is putting in place an ideal network design.

 Thus, the key is to discover routes where there is sustained traffic, not just
in a few months of the year, but all round the year.
 To generate steady, predictable traffic, a hub and spoke design should be
followed by connecting the large metro airports to the new Udan routes,
as opposed to a point-to-point service.

Capacity - India’s metro airports are largely choked and they have
already run out of capacity in terms of landing and parking slots.

 Also, passenger traffic in these airports continues to gallop at nearly 18-

20% every year.
  To manage these traffic, the existing airlines have responded by ordering
aircraft that could almost double the existing aircraft capacity in another
three years.
 This will stretch India’s airport capacity in the metros even further.
 Though the UDAN routes was intended to help manage this traffic flow
from metro routes, it affects more from this rise in air traffic.
 This is because, the airport operators are expected to waive off landing
and parking charges on these routes and thus more airlines are expected
to ply on these routes.

Time slots - Subsequently, finding convenient time slots for every route
will become an administrative challenge.

 This is because, the number of runways is not increasing in high traffic

airports and the airport capacity lag the passenger traffic growth.
 Especially, the new regional airlines have faced a major challenge in
connecting the metro airports to the new UDAN routes, since they don’t
have pre-existing slots in them.
 This has made these regional operators difficult to start operations for
more than a year, which has also resulted in their licenses getting stripped
off later.
 Thus, managing air traffic is a complex problem to solve, showing that
UDAN has a long way to go ensure seamless connectivity in India.

International UDAN

Under International UDAN, the plan is to connect India’s smaller cities directly
to some key foreign destinations in the neighborhood. Such direct air
connectivity, it is hoped, would promote the development of the city and the
State by wooing tourists and businesspeople to travel via smaller towns, instead
of their flying through the metros. The scheme seeks to make use of the open
skies policy that India has with other Asian countries that allows direct and
unlimited flights to and from these nations to 18 Indian destinations. Now,
these routes are untested, and airlines could be understandably reluctant to ply
them. To encourage them to participate, the government offers a subsidy in the
form of pre-decided payout per seat. Airlines are required to bid on the number
of passenger seats per flight for which such support is required
Draft “UDAN International Scheme”

1. State governments will be able to encourage tourism on preferred

international air routes by offering subsidy to domestic airlines for a
period of three years.
2. The Ministry of Civil Aviation has prepared a draft scheme document for
“UDAN International” and invited comments from stakeholders.
3. The scheme is designed for State governments that are keen to promote
air connectivity on international routes identified by them and for which
they are willing to provide subsidy to airlines.
4. The scheme is meant for domestic airlines.
5. Only fixed wing aircraft with more than 70 seats can be operated under
the scheme and airlines will have to conduct a minimum of three and a
maximum of seven departures on a given route on three days in a week.
6. The Centre has allowed airlines to enter into a code-sharing arrangement
with international and domestic airlines for UDAN international.
7. The AAI may also offer additional discounts at its own discretion such as
landing, parking and housing charges at airports owned by it.

UDAN Round 3:

 Under the first two phases of UDAN, airlines are already operating on
120 routes to 37 unserved and underserved airports.

 Under the latest round of the scheme, 73 proposals were awarded to 11

airlines that will connect a total of 39 airports. These include 16
unserved airports, 17 underserved airports and six water aerodromes.

 Key Features of UDAN 3 included –

o Inclusion of Seaplanes for connecting Water Aerodromes,

o Inclusion of Tourism Routes suggested by the Ministry of Tourism

and

o Bringing in a number of routes in the North-East Region under

the ambit of UDAN
o
Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay Sanrakshan Abhiyan (PM-
AASHA

Prelims level: PM – AASHA and its components

Mains level: Various support schemes for farmers and their effectiveness

News
Context

Giving a major boost to the pro-farmer initiatives of the Government and in keeping with
its commitment and dedication for the Annadata, the Union Cabinet has approved a
new Umbrella Scheme “Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay Sanrakshan Abhiyan’ (PM-
AASHA).

Why such Scheme?

1. Increasing MSP is not adequate and it is more important that farmers should get full
benefit of the announced MSP.
2. For this, government realizes that it is essential that if price of the agriculture produce
market is less than MSP, then govt. should purchase either at MSP or work in a manner
to provide MSP for the farmers through some other mechanism.

PM-AASHA

1. The Scheme is aimed at ensuring remunerative prices to the farmers for their produce
as announced in the Union Budget for 2018.
2. Government has already increased the MSP of kharif crops by following the principle of
1.5 times the cost of production.
3. It is expected that the increase in MSP will be translated to farmer’s income by way of
robust procurement mechanism in coordination with the State Governments.
4. The new Umbrella Scheme includes the mechanism of ensuring remunerative prices to
the farmers and is comprised of-

 Price Support Scheme (PSS),

 Price Deficiency Payment Scheme (PDPS)
 Pilot of Private Procurement & Stockist Scheme (PPPS).

5. The other existing schemes of Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD) for
procurement of paddy, wheat and nutri-cereals/coarse grains and of Ministry of Textile
for cotton and jute will be continued for providing MSP to farmers for these crops.

Pilot of Private Procurement & Stockist Scheme (PPPS)

1. Cabinet has decided that for oilseeds, states have the option to roll out Private
Procurement Stockist Scheme (PPSS) on pilot basis in selected district/APMC(s) of
district involving the participation of private stockiest.
2. The pilots district/selected APMC(s) of district will cover one or more crop of oilseeds for
which MSP is notified.
3. Since this is akin to PSS, in that in involves physical procurement of the notified
commodity, it shall substitute PSS/PDPS in the pilot districts.
4. The selected private agency shall procure the commodity at MSP in the notified markets
during the notified period from the registered farmers in consonance with the PPSS
Guidelines.
5. But whenever the prices in the market fall below the notified MSP maximum service
charges up to 15% of the notified MSP will be payable.

Price Support Scheme (PSS)

1. In Price Support Scheme (PSS), physical procurement of pulses, oilseeds and Copra
will be done by Central Nodal Agencies with proactive role of State governments.
2. It is also decided that in addition to NAFED, Food Cooperation of India (FCI) will take up
PSS operations in states /districts.
3. The procurement expenditure and losses due to procurement will be borne by Central
Government as per norms.

Price Deficiency Payment Scheme (PDPS)

1. Under PDPS it is proposed to cover all oilseeds for which MSP is notified.
2. In this direct payment of the difference between the MSP and the selling/modal price will
be made to pre-registered farmers selling his produce in the notified market yard
through a transparent auction process.
3. All payment will be done directly into registered bank account of the farmer.
4. This scheme does not involve any physical procurement of crops as farmers are paid
the difference between the MSP price and Sale/modal price on disposal in notified
market.

Atal Pension Yojana indefinitely extended, scope broadened

Prelims level: Atal Pension Yojana

Mains level: Welfare measures for Elderly Population

News
Context

1. The Union Cabinet has decided to indefinitely extend the Atal Pension Scheme, which
lapsed in August.
2. But seeing the mass participation in this runaway-success scheme, the cabinet has
decided to extend it and keep it open-ended.

Atal Pension Yojana

1. It is a social security scheme launched by the government in 2015 to provide a defined

pension between Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000.
2. Now the scheme will expand its focus to target individuals, instead of households.
3. According to government data, over 1 crore people have benefited from the
government’s flagship scheme.
4. The scheme, which was earlier for four years, lapsed in August 2018.

New Propositions
1. Union Cabinet decided to double the accident insurance and relaxed the age criteria by
five years to further incentivise the scheme.
2. To further incentivise people’s participation in the scheme the government had decided
to relax the age criteria for participation in the scheme.
3. Earlier, people of age 18 to 60 years were entitled to enroll in the scheme. But looking
at the rise in average age-expectancy, now it has relaxed it further to 65 years.
4. All accounts opened after August 28 will have an accident insurance limit of Rs 2 lakh,
double the earlier Rs 1 lakh limit.

Ocean Services, Technology, Observations, Resources

Modelling and Science (O-SMART) Scheme

Prelims level: O-SMART scheme

Mains level: Importance of the Coastal Mapping

News
Context

1. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has given its approval for the umbrella
scheme O-SMART at an overall cost of Rs.1623 crore.
2. The scheme encompasses a total of 16 sub-projects addressing ocean development
activities such as Services, Technology, Resources, Observations and Science.

O-SMART Scheme

1. The services rendered under the O-SMART will provide economic benefits to a number
of user communities in the coastal and ocean sectors, namely, fisheries, offshore
industry, coastal states, Defence, Shipping, Ports etc.
2. Currently, five lakhs fishermen community are receiving this information daily through
mobile which includes allocation of fish potential and local weather conditions in the
coastal waters.
3. This will help in reducing the search time for fishermen resulting savings in the fuel cost.
4. It seeks to address issues relating to SDG-14, which aims to conserve use of oceans,
marine resources for sustainable development.
5. It also provides necessary scientific and technological background required for
implementation of various aspects of Blue Economy.
6. The State of Art Early Warning Systems established Scheme will help in effectively
dealing with ocean disasters like Tsunami, storm surges.
7. The technologies being developed will help in harnessing the vast ocean resources of
both living and non-living resources from the seas around India.
8. A fleet of research vessels viz., Technology Demonstration vessel SagarNidhi,
Oceanographic Research Vessel SagarKanya, Fisheries and Oceanographic Research
Vessel SagarSampada and Coastal Research Vessel SagarPurvi have been acquired
to provide required research support.

Objectives of the Scheme

The important deliverables during the next 2 years envisage include-

 Strengthening of Ocean Observations and Modelling

 Strengthening of Ocean Services for Fishermen
 Setting up Marine Coastal Observatories for monitoring marine pollution in 2018
 Setting up Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion Plant (OTEC) in Kavaratti
 Acquisition of 2 Coastal Research Vessels for Coastal research
 Continuation of Ocean Survey and Exploration of Minerals and Living Resources
 Technology Development for Deep Ocean Mining- Deep Mining System and Manned
Submersibles and
 Setting up Six Desalination Plants in Lakshadweep

Other ocean related activities at a glance

1. India has been accorded pioneer status on deep-sea mining of Poly-Metallic Nodules
[PMN] in an area of in the Central Indian Ocean [CIO] allotted by International Sea Bed
Authority [ISBA]
2. India’s ocean related activities are now extended from the Arctic to the Antarctic region
covering large ocean spaces which have been monitored through a wide spectrum of in
situ and satellite-based observations.
3. India has also established a state-of-the art early warning systems for ocean disasters,
viz, tsunami, cyclones, storm surges etc.
4. India had also signed the Antarctic Treaty System and joined Commission of
Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) for harnessing the
resources.
5. Besides, the ministry has been monitoring the health of coastal waters of India including
shoreline changes and marine ecosystem.
6. The others like Remotely Operated Submersible and soil tester, both capable of
operation upto 6000 m. water depth, shallow bed mining systems are some of the
cutting edge technologies developed.=