PM SVANidhi (PM स्वनिधि ), CHAMPIONS, Air Quality, Kisan Credit Cards (KCC)
1. PM SVANidhi (PM स्वनिधि) Scheme
- The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has launched a Special Micro-Credit Facility Scheme – PM SVANidhi (PM स्वनिधि ) – PM Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbharNidhi,for providing affordable loans to street vendors.
- This scheme will go a long way in enabling them to resume work and earn livelihoods.
- Over 50 lakh people, including vendors, hawkers, thelewalas, rehriwala, theliphadwala etc. in different areas/ contexts are likely to benefit from this scheme.
- The goods supplied by them range from vegetables, fruits, ready-to-eat street foods, tea, pakodas, breads, eggs, textiles, apparel, footwear, artisan products, books/ stationaries etc.
- The services include barber shops, cobblers, pan shops, laundry services etc.
- In such a time of the COVID-19 crisis, there is an urgent need to provide affordable credit to them to ensure their business gets a boost.
- Urban Local Bodies will play pivotal role in the implementation of the scheme.
This scheme is special due to a number of reasons:
1- A historic first: This is for the first time in India’s history that street vendors fromperi- urban/ rural areas have become beneficiaries of an urban livelihood programme.
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 six monthly basis. There will be no penalty on early repayment of loan.
It is for the first time that MFIs/ NBFCs/ SHG Banks have been allowed in a scheme for the urban poor due to their ground level presence and proximity to the urban poor including the street vendors.
2- Harnessing technology for empowerment: In line with the Government’s vision of leveraging technology to ensure effective delivery and transparency, a digital platform with web portal/ mobile app is being developed to administer the scheme with end-to-end solution. The IT platform will also help in integrating the vendors into the formal financial system. This platform will integrate the web portal/ mobile app with UdyamiMitra portal of SIDBI for credit management and PAiSA portal of MoHUA to administer interest subsidy automatically.
3- Encouraging digital transactions: The scheme incentivises digital transactions by the street vendors through monthly cash back.
4- Focus on capacity building: MoHUA in collaboration with State Governments, State Missions of DAY-NULM, ULBs, SIDBI, CGTMSE, NPCI and Digital Payment Aggregators will also launch a capacity building and financial literacy programme of all the stakeholders and IEC activities throughout the country during the month of June and loaning will commence in the month of July.
2. 'CHAMPIONS' a technology platform
- Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi today launched the technology platform CHAMPIONS which stands for Creation and Harmonious Application of Modern Processes for Increasing the Output and National Strength.
- The portal is basically for making the smaller units big by solving their grievances, encouraging, supporting, helping and handholding.It is a real one-stop-shop solution of MSME Ministry.
- It is a technology packed control room-cum-management information system.
Detailed objectives of CHAMPIONS:
- Grievance Redressal: To resolve the problems of MSMEs including those of finance, raw materials, labor, regulatory permissions etc particularly in the Covid created difficult situation;
- To help them capture new opportunities: including manufacturing of medical equipments and accessories like PPEs, masks, etc and supply them in National and International markets;
- To identify and encourage the sparks: i.e. the potential MSMEs who are able to withstand the current situation and can become national and international champions.
As of now, 66 state level control rooms are createdand made functional. They are connected through video conference also in addition to the portal of Champions.
3. 25th Foundation Day of Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences
- It gives me great joy to inaugurate the Twenty Fifth Foundation Day of this distinguished University. I congratulate the entire medical and scientific community associated with this University.
- In these years,you are doing wonderful work in teaching as well as training on systems of medicine.
- 25 years means this University is in the prime of its youth. This is the age to think even bigger and do even better and the University will continue to scale new heights of excellence in the times to come.
- As, today the world is facing one of the biggest crisis since the two world wars.Like the world changed pre and post-World Wars, the same way the pre and post Covid world will be different.
- during such a time, the world is looking up to our doctors, nurses, medical staff and scientific community with hope and gratitude.
- The virus may be an invisible enemy,but our Corona warriors, medical workers are invincible.
- In the battle of Invisible versus Invincible,our medical workers are sure to win.
- Now, the world must unite and focus on humanity centric aspects of development.
We are broadly working on four pillars:
The first is – Preventive Healthcare which includes the importance to Yoga, Ayurveda and general fitness.
The second is- Affordable Healthcare. Ayushman Bharat- the world’s largest healthcare scheme belongs to India.
The third pillar is- Improvements on the supply side. A nation like ours has to have proper medical infrastructure and medical education infrastructure.
The fourth pillar is – Mission mode implementation A well-thought of idea on paper makes it only a good idea. And, a good idea well implemented makes it a great one. Hence, implementation is very crucial.
Appreciative is that the initial gains in the area of Make in India where the domestic manufacturers started production of PPEs and N-95 Masks and already supplied over 1 Crore of PPEs and 1.5 Crore of Masks.
Prime Minister also appreciated how the ArogyaSetu App is helping in the fight against Corona virus.
4. Issues Related to Air Quality in Urban Areas
- The 15th Finance Commission headed by Sh. N. K. Singh and including its Members and senior officials held a detailed meeting with the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change headed by the Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Shri Prakash Javadekar, senior officers on issues relating to Air Quality(AQ) specially that in Urban Areas.
- It may be recalled that the XVFC Report 2020-2021 was the first time that any Commission has given attention to air quality (AQ) as a major focus and this FC had not only recommended grants for 2020-21 and also provided road map for its award period.
- The Commission is currently deliberating the recommendations to be made for the next five years from 2021-22 to 2025-26 and needs to formulate suitable provisions for continuing the grants for these cities/UAs for improving ambient air quality in a sustainable manner. In this regard it needed to understand the procedure and operational guidelines finalised in administering these grants and monitoring the outcomes for 2020-21.
- The objective of the meeting focused was to was to discuss on the status of the implementation of the FC’s recommendations for 2020-21 for administering the grants to improve AQ in million-plus cities and also to seek inputs from the Ministry on what should be considered for the next five years from 2021 to 2026.
- Appreciated the inclusion of Air Quality(AQ) of Delhi in the XVFC’s Report of 2020-2021 and added that there would be a basic structural change in sources of AQ in the next few years and particularly in larger cities of the country due to the new regime to emission norms which would lead to a estimated reduction of 30 to 40 per cent in vehicular emission.
- He informed that with the launching National AQ Index in 2015, we now have reliable data of AQ with respect to 42 million plus cities from 2017 onwards.
- It will be recalled that the 15th Finance Commission in its report for the Financial Year 2020-2021 had recommended grants of Rs. 4,400 crore for the year 2020-21 to improve the ambient air quality in fifty million plus cities/Urban Agglomerations (UAs). For this, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Challenge has been entrusted with the responsibility to facilitate the desired outcomes through these urban local bodies.
5. Three more States included in One Nation One Card scheme
- Three more states namely – Odisha, Sikkim and Mizoram in the scheme on ‘Integrated Management of Public Distribution System’ (IM-PDS), w.e.f distribution month of June 2020.
- Under this system nation-wide portability of the benefits under NFSA through “One Nation One Ration Card” plan is implemented to enable the NFSA ration card holders to lift their entitled quota of subsidised foodgrains from any ePoS enabled FPS of their choice anywhere in the country, by using the existing/same ration card after Aadhaar authentication on ePoS device.
- The facility so far is enabled in 17 States/UTs, namely – Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Kerala, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Punjab, Telangana, Tripura and Uttar Pradesh.
- By August 2020 three more States namely – Uttarakhand, Nagaland and Manipur will also be added to the national cluster.
- Department is doing all necessary arrangements to include remaining all 13 States namely – West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Delhi, J&K, Ladakh, Chandigarh, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Andaman&Nicobar and Lakshadweep island to the national cluster.
- It is confirmed that by 31st March 2021 all States will be added to One Nation One Ration Card scheme and the scheme will be operational all over India.
6. DRDO develops Ultra Swachh for disinfection of PPEs
- Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has developed a disinfection unit named Ultra Swachh to disinfect a wide range of materials, including Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs), electronics items, fabrics, etc.
- The system uses an advanced oxidative process comprising of multiple barrier disruption approach using Ozonated Space Technology for disinfection.
- The system is double layered with specialised Ozone sealant technology assuring trapping of ozone for the necessary disinfection cycle. It also has catalytic converter to ensure environment friendly exhaust i.e. only oxygen and water.
The system is in compliance with International Standards of Industrial, Occupational, Personal and Environmental Safety. The Ultra Swachh comes in two variants namely Ozonated Space and Trinetra Technology. Trinetra technology is the combination of Ozonated space and radical dispenser. Treatment is optimised with automation for quick disinfection cycle.
The system operates on 15 Ampere, 220 Volts, 50 Hertz power supply. The system has been provided with various safety features such as emergency shutdown, door interlocks, dual door, delay cycle, and leak monitors, etc to ensure safe operations for longer duration. Dimensions of the Industrial Cabinet are 7’x4’x3.25’ to disinfect large quantity at a time. Cabinets of different sizes will be available for the industry.
7. Kisan Credit Cards (KCC) campaign
- The Government will provide Kisan Credit Card (KCC) to 1.5 crore dairy farmers belonging to Milk Unions and Milk producing Companies within the next two months (1st June-31st July 2020) under a special drive.
- Under the dairy cooperative movement, approximately 1.7 crore farmers are associated with 230 Milk Unions in the country.
- In the first phase of this campaign, the target is to cover all farmers who are members of dairy cooperative societies and associated with different Milk Unions and who do not have KCC. Farmers who already have KCC based on their land ownership, can get their KCC credit limit enhanced, though interest subvention shall be available only to the extent of Rs 3 lakhs. Although the general limit for KCC credit without collateral remains Rs. 1.6 lakh, but the case of farmers whose milk is directlyprocured by Milk Unions falls under tie up arrangements between the producers and processing units without any intermediaries, and hence the credit limits without Collateral can be upto Rs.3 lakh.This will ensure more credit availabilityfordairy farmers associated with Milk Unions as well as assuring repayment of loans to banks.
- The special drive to provide KCC to 1.5 crore dairy farmers is part of the Prime Minister’s Atma Nirbhar Bharat package for Farmers. Finance Minister on 15 May 2020 has announced to cover 2.5 crore new farmers under the KCC scheme. This will provide an additional liquidity of Rs.5 lakh crore in the hands of farmers, who are suffering from the recent downturn of economy.
- Dairy is among the fastest growing sectors of the economy with a CAGR of above 6% in the last 5 years, providing short term credit to dairy farmers for meeting their requirements for working capital, marketing etc. will boost their productivity tremendously.
8. Telangana Statehood Day- 2 june
- Every year on June 2 is observed as Telangana Formation Day as this is the day when the Telangana state was officially formed.
- On 4 March 2014 the Government of India declared 2 June 2014 the Telangana Formation Day.
- Telangana is the 28th state of the Union of India with Hyderabad as its capital.
- Both states will share the capital for 10 years until Seemandhra can establish its own.
- However, the revenues of Hyderabad and state governing power will go only to Telangana. No special status was accorded to Seemandhra, though it was hinted in the Telangana Bill.
- Also Telangana is called India’s youngest state.
