At a time when the country’s economy took a severe jolt due to Covid-19 lockdown, the flagship Prime Minister Employment Generation Program (PMEGP) implemented by Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) progressed at a much rapid pace. Thanks to a major decision of the Ministry of MSME introducing a new&faster mechanism  in approving the PMEGP projects, the approval of projects during the first five months of this financial year, i.e. from April 1, 2020 to August 18, 2020, increased by a whopping 44%.

Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), has approved and forwarded 1.03 lakh project applications to the financing banks as compared to 71,556 projects during the corresponding period last year and thus registering a jump of 44%.

PMEGP is the flagship employment generation program of the Central government and KVIC is the nodal agency for implementing the scheme. The Ministry on April 28, this year amended the guidelines to do away with the role of the District Level Task Force Committee (DLTFC) in approving the PMEGP projects. The role of DLTFC, headed by the District Collectors, was time consuming. As such, the swift execution of projects under PMEGP and KVIC was demanding doing away with the same as this important scheme required greater priority. As per the amended guidelines, KVIC, the nodal agency for implementing PMEGP scheme, was entrusted the task of clearing the applications from prospective entrepreneurs and forward it to the Banks for taking credit decisions.

During the period from April to August in 2020, financing banks sanctioned 11,191 projects and Rs 345.43 crore margin money was disbursed to applicants as compared to Rs 276.09 crore margin money disbursed for 9161 projects in the first five months of previous year, i.e. 2019. The number of sanctioned projects by banks thus increased by 22% while the disbursement of margin money by KVIC increased by 24% as compared to previous year.

The faster implementation of PMEGP projects this year assumes greater significance as the entire country was under lockdown for most part of these five months. The higher number of projects also signifies the government’s resolve to create self-employment and sustainable livelihood for the people by promoting local manufacturing.

KVIC Chairman Shri Vinai Kumar Saxena said the massive jump in approval of PMEGP projects is a result of the  Prime Minister’s call for “Minimum Government, Maximum Governance”. “Discontinuing the role of District Collectors has ensured swift implementation of the projects. However, the banks must also expedite the process of sanctioning funds so as to benefit the maximum number of applicants. Timely disbursal of funds is crucial for execution of projects and creating employment in the country,” Saxena said.

Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Shri Narendra Singh Tomar held a meeting through Video Conference today with industry representatives on the Ordinances i.e “the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance, 2020” and “The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance, 2020” promulgated by Government of India. Shri Parshottam Rupala, Minister of State for Agriculture, Shri Sanjay Agarwal, Secretary (Agriculture) and senior officers of the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare were present.

Speaking on the occasion, the Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare thanked Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for his vision in bringing strategic interventions in market reforms for rapid agricultural development and increasing farmers’ income. He mentioned that the Government is taking several measures for the welfare of farmers with a specific focus on ‘AatmaNirbhar Bharat’. The Ministry has been making concerted efforts to bring reforms in agricultural marketing and freeing agriculture sector of various restrictions through strategic interventions.

Giving details of various initiatives, Shri Tomar said that the Government has created the  Agriculture Infrastructure Fund of Rs. 1 lakh crore to be used over the next four years. This fund is for building post-harvest storage and processing facilities, largely anchored at the Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), but can also be availed by individual entrepreneurs. The Agriculture Infrastructure Fund would facilitate in strengthening the agricultural infrastructure, development and improvement of warehouses, cold storage, pack houses and marketing facilities in the rural areas, which would enhance the income of farmers and boost rural economy. He stated that within one month of its approval by the Union Cabinet, the Prime Minister has inaugurated the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund on 9^th August 2020 and Rs. 1128 crore has been sanctioned to Primary Agriculture Credit Cooperative Societies.

The provisional payroll data published by EPFO on 20th August 2020 reveals that the subscriber base of EPFO increased by around 8.47 lakh members during the first quarter of FY21. The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak had adversely affected the enrolments in the month of April and May 2020. Despite the lockdown, around 0.20 lakh and 1.72 lakh net new subscribers were added to social security schemes of EPFO in the month of April and May 2020.The month of June has seen speedy recovery with addition of 6.55 lakh net subscribers registering a remarkable 280% month on month growth. The data published comprises of all the new members who have joined during the month and whose contribution is received.

The subscriber base growth is on account of increased number of new subscribers, lower exits and higher rejoining by exited members. The new subscriber joining has increased roughly by 64 % from 3.03 lakh in May to 4.98 lakh in June 2020. In addition, the exits from EPFO subscriber base declined by nearly 33% from 4.45 lakh in May to 2.96 lakh in June 2020.

The number of members who exited and then rejoined, indicates switching of jobs by subscribers within the establishments covered by EPFO.  This has also increased by approximately 44% for the month of June, 2020 over May, 2020, with more subscribers choosing to retain membership by transferring funds rather than opting for final settlement.

Gender wise analysis highlights that the new enrolment of female workers has improved from 37085 in April 2020 to 106059 in June 2020 in absolute terms, even though the overall female participation in workforce remains low.

Category wise analysis of industry indicates “Expert services” category had a share of approximately 46% and 45% during 2018-19 and 2019-20 respectively. In the first quarter of 2020-21 it stands at 52.7% which is reflecting that many industries are yet to recover but Expert Services has made good progress. The absolute figure for net enrolment in Expert Services category during June 2020 is 3.45 lakh, which is more than the monthly average of 3 lakh during 2019-20. Expert services predominantly consist of man power agencies, private security agencies and small contractors.

The new establishments that remitted their first ECR has grown from its low of 820 in April 2020 to 1802 in May. In the month of June 2020 the growth continued with 2390 establishments registering their first ECR recording a month on month growth of 32%

EPFO manages social security funds of workers in the organised/semi organised sector in India and has more than 6 crore active members. The payroll data is provisional as updation of employee records is a continuous process and it gets updated in subsequent months.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health & Family Welfarelaunched an interactive first-of-its-kind game on COVID-19, The Corona Fighters (www.thecoronafighters.in), and two new videos urging adherence to key COVID Appropriate Behaviours, here today, in the presence of Sh. Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Minister of State for Health & Family Welfare.

Expressing his pleasure at the launch of theuniquely designed game, Dr. Harsh Vardhan said that the game “presents a new and extremely creative way to teach people the right tools and behaviours to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.” He stated that the game was designed to “influence the players’ actions in the real world, reminding them to take the right precautions and escape infection.”He further added that this along with two promotional videos “is a simply designed and enjoyable medium to get a serious message across to the wider public.”

Dr Harsh Vardhan also recollected his experience with the Polio Abhiyaan which was transformed into a social movement through Jan Bhagidari (people’s participation) and support and contribution of many film industry professionals.He said, “The Pulse Polio programme,through its targeted and engaging IEC and outreach campaigns, encouraged the last mile mothers to get their children immunized. The same effort can contain COVID by publicizing COVID appropriate behaviour through caller tunes and other mediums throughout the lockdown and thereafter during the phases of unlocking.” Till we get a vaccine for fighting COVID-19, the COVID appropriate behaviours will serve as a potent social vaccine and keep us protected and safe, he stated.

Congratulating the makers of the game and promotional videos, Shri Ashwini K. Choubey said, “Communication is the key in today’s world. It has played a great part in the fight against COVID during the lockdown when the trajectory of the disease and its containment strategy could be effectively communicated to the last man.” The IEC videos and game launched today  will influence children, and through them the elders in the community, and spread the message and importance of COVID appropriate behaviour,” he added.

Dr V K Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog, Shri Rajesh Bhushan, Secretary for Health and Family Welfare, Shri Parmeswaran Iyer, Secretary, Department of Drinking Water and Sanitationin, and senior officials of the Health Ministry were also present at the occasion.

Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh, who is himself a known Diabetologist and medical professional, released a book on Cancer edited by noted Oncologist and Padma Shree recipient, Dr Ashok K. Vaid DM (Oncology) in a special session organized exclusively for the ceremony during the 3 -day virtual conference on Oncology beginning here from today.

Referring to the changing spectrum of disease in India, Dr Jitendra Singh said, over the last two decades there had been a significant shift from communicable diseases to non-communicable diseases with an upsurge in disorders like Diabetes Mellitus, hypertension, Coronary Heart Disease and Cancer. Meanwhile, he said, we were suddenly taken over by COVID pandemic which has also proved to be more virulent for susceptible individuals suffering from these comorbidities and diseases.

Dr Jitendra Singh said, the prevalence of Cancer has rapidly increased across the country and has begun to affect different organs. For example, while in Jammu & Kashmir, particularly in the Valley, Gastrointestinal and Lung Cancers are more prevalent, in the North Eastern Region Cancers of head and neck take the highest toll.

Hailing the National Digital Health Mission launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Independence Day, Dr Jitendra Singh said, this is going to provide a unique health identity to every Indian citizen in order to facilitate seamless flow of information and updated healthcare. This, he said, along with Ayushman Bharat and ban on e-cigarette, have been among the major health related initiatives of the Modi government.

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has congratulated cities which have secured top positions in Swachh Survekshan-2020.

The Prime Minister said, “Congratulations to all those cities who have secured top positions in Swachh Survekshan-2020. May other cities also be inspired to further ramp up their efforts towards ensuring cleanliness. Such competitive spirit strengthens the Swachh Bharat Mission and benefits millions.”

Shri Deepak Khandekar, Secretary Ministry of Tribal Affairs and Shri N.N. Sinha,Secretary,Ministry of Rural Developmentsigned a Joint Communication on 18.08.2020 for leveraging each other’s strengths to propel the rural economy and jointly promote sustainable livelihood opportunities among tribal women Self  Help Groups (SHGs) under National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM).  The occasion was graced by Shri Arjun Munda, Union Minister for Tribal Affairs (MoTA), Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister for Rural Development (MoRD), Smt. Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Union Minister for Food Processing Industries (MoFPI),  Smt. Renuka Singh Saruta, Minister of State for Tribal Affairs (MoTA), Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Minister of State for Rural Development (MoRD) and several senior officers.

The features of joint communication are as under:

The DeendayalAntyodayaYojana- National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) implemented by the Ministry of Rural Development has built an extensive network of women-led Self-Help Groups (SHGs) in India, including 8.9 lakh ST SHGs. The programme provides institutionalsupports, livelihood services, access to credit and market through its SHGs. Similarly, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs provides grants to the States based on prefixed criteria through a number of initiatives such as Special Central Assistance to Tribal Sub-Schemes (SCA to TSS), Grant-in-Aid under Proviso to Article 275 (1) of Constitution of Indiatothe States having notified STs, Development ofParticularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) to the States / UTshaving notified PVTGs etc.

Since the initiatives of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and objectives of DAY-NRLM deeply complement each other, the Ministries have decided to come together to improve the economic opportunities available to tribal women. To take this convergence initiativeforward, the series of activities will be carried out by both theMinistries to synergize the efforts to fetch tangibleresults.

Activities by Ministry of Rural Development will include: identification and mapping of tribal women SHG members and their individual livelihood assets; mapping of common tribal community assets; development of comprehensive proposal for the economic development of PVTGs through the strengthening of their traditional livelihood and  occupations; convergence of GPDPs and CCD plan of OVTG habitations; assistance of SHGs to identify tribal households for enrolment under Van Dhan Yojana; and capacity building and credit access support to tribal communities through SHGs

Activities by Ministry of Tribal Affairs will include: planning support to SRLM to finalize the State Annual Action Plan and inclusion of the plan in its Livelihood Annual Action Plan; promotion of livelihood opportunities among women identified by SRLM through avenues such as Mess Management,Outsourcing works of EMRS schools like housekeeping, cleaning and otheractivities in the EMRSs and Ashram Schools; augmenting the creation of individual as well as common livelihood assets as per beneficiaries identified by SRLM; implementing proposals for PVTG inco-ordination with the SRLM; inclusion of tribal SHGs / PG with majority of members from tribal households in Van Dhan Yojana and providing marketing support to produces fromSHGs and PGs through its marketing network.

Ministry of Tribal Affairs is the nodal Ministry for the welfare of tribals.  At the same time, there are 37 other Ministries, who have to spend assigned percentage of their budget as per mechanism designed by NITI Aayog, under Tribal sub Plan or Schedule Tribe Component (STC) for welfare of tribals. NITI Aayog and Secretary Tribal Affairs have been monitoring STC component of such Ministries regularly as per the mandate given to the MoTA in 2017. The total Central budget under STC component during FY 2020-21 is Rs. 51,000crore and MoTA is monitoring such expenditure through a dedicated web portal(stcmis.gov.in), which captures expenditure data of respective Ministries from PFMS.  The performance of such Ministries in respect of utilization of STC funds can also be seen on Performance Dashboard (http://dashboard.tribal.gov.in), developed by MoTA, which was launched jointly by Sh. Amitabh Kant, CEO NITI Aayog and Sh Ramesh Kumar, Member NITI Aayog on 10^th August 2020.   Recently under the guidance of NITI Aayog, all such schemes numbering more than 300 were examined in consultation with respective Ministries, to deliberate how MoTA and sectoral ministries can collaborate and work together for tribal welfare.  

As per STC mechanism, MoRD isspending about Rs.  20000 cr on tribal welfare in 3 main schemes namely Pradhan Mantri AwasYojna (PMAY) which has STC component of Rs 4700 Cr , National Rural Livelihood Mission- Program, STC Component of 1284 cr and rest of expenditure is under MNREGA, which is a demand based scheme. Both MoTA and RD have developed robust IT system and has developed mechanism to share data amongst themselves.  On the basis of data of Anatodya Mission provided by RD, MoTA has done Infrastructural gap analysis of 1170000 villages (available on tritribal.gov.in) with population more than 50% and States have been asked to use this data for making plans in SCA to TSS and 275(1) schemes.   The present collaboration between RD and MoTA is part of such collaborative mechanism, which will go a long way in socio-economic development of STs across the country and strengthen STC mechanism. There is vast scope of expanding such mechanism with other Ministries like Agriculture, Health, Education, MSME and Food Processing to achieve real objective of STC mechanism. 

Democracy is a government meant for the people, as it is by the people, and of the people. The news that us currently making rounds in the country is mostly about corruption, black money, Swiss bank accounts and what not. In this era, everyone wants to earn money without hard work.

The politicians of this country crave for money today. All they do in their long tenures is hog money illegally. Today many of these politicians are preying on the nation itself, which is very disgusting and immensely horrible to describe. We even talk a lot about unification or unity in diversity. Where did this unity disappear during the “Godhra incident”? India did lack the day so called brotherly feeling during the 92-93 Mumbai blasts as well as the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. When the media thinks of setting down and decides to focus on some other interesting topics, we say everything is fine, but what about the lives lost, the wives widowed and children orphaned?

The politicians even try to divide people on the basis of religion. Just take the example of Ram Mandir v/s Babri Masjid issue. These politicians present themselves in frontnif people for votes at the time of elections, saying that they will promise to build a respective religious place of worship. They just bribe the people for votes. After they win the elections, they simply abscond. They loot the money of the people and fool them. In this way, they try to segregate the people and create communal violence across the country, thereby breaking the unity and integrity of the nation.

I don’t think there is any state in India which can claim to have stable government. We at times forget that the land of the country’s territory belongs to the nation first and then to the states. We have even heard of tonnes if food grains rotting. Each grain is a token of happiness and satisfaction to the hungry stomachs of the poor, yet the Government has the audacity to let it rot without distributing the food grains amongst the needy.

I feel, currently in India only rich become richer and the poor beg for a living, and hence we love in an era of ignorance. We see the temples plundered, mosques demolished and the churches ransacked. So where is the so called brotherly love here!?

Japan got it’s freedom in 1945. It came out superbly from the shock of atomic attacks. India got freedom two years later still it is no match to the Japanese technology and competence. Instead, we rely on them for the construction of railways and roadways.

In India there have been some changes and development in the past few years, but they are not considerable in number. There are many changes and developments yet to to be done. We can see a lot of evil, dirty practices and policies going on in India that are huge in number even after Independence.

But do we do anything to stop all these? We think that someone, somewhere will take the initiative in order to control the situation to buy we don’t actually figure the fact that in one way or the other everyone thinks the same. Everyone has the same mentality. They think that why should I care about all these things when there are many others to think about it.

But we are wrong. If everyone thinks like this, do you think India can call itself a developed nation or a super power within 20-30 years? Do you think India will achieve this rank? Our country needs us, and by doing something for the country we can make a big difference. We say that India is a country of the youth, but what is the use finally the youths of this country sit quitely and watch all these atrocities and injustice? So, it is up to us, how seriously we take these issues and however solve them. Being the future citizens of India, it is our duty to lead our country to a better future.

On 15th August, evey year we celebrate Independence Day, but I feel, sadly, India is not truly free even after getting it’s independence.