NITI Aayog signs SoI with Lupin Foundation for Collaborating in Aspirational Districts - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

NITI Aayog signs SoI with Lupin Foundation for Collaborating in Aspirational Districts .

To work across the states of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan to create templates for concerted development policy

A Statement of Intent (SoI) was signed today between NITI Aayog and Lupin Foundation to collaborate in Aspirational Districts Programme. The SoI was signed by Shri Yaduvendra Mathur, Additional Secretary, NITI Aayog and Shri Sita Ram Gupta, Executive Director, Lupin Foundation.
For this programme, the NITI Aayog and Lupin Foundation are collaborating to improve indicators in education, health & nutrition, financial inclusion and skill development, agriculture and water resources and basic infrastructure in Aspirational Districts of India.
As per the terms of the SoI, Lupin Foundation, with the NITI Aayog, will work in three states - Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan - to facilitate the creation of an ideal template to develop economic strength, technological viability and moral leadership across three districts in these states as part of Phase I of the cooperation.
Phase I of this cooperation with NITI Aayog will focus on the districts of Dholpur in Rajasthan, Nandurbar in Maharashtra and Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh, and help develop a comprehensive district-level action plan with integrates various initiatives and interventions.
Lupin Foundation will work towards three main pillars of ensuring integrated developmental policy in the model states – social development, which will include initiatives for health, education and women empowerment; economic empowerment, focussing interventions in spheres of agriculture, animal husbandry and skill enhancement; and infrastructure development, where Lupin will loop to establish durable infra in the form of internal roads, school buildings and water resources.
About Aspirational District Programme:
Launched by the Hon’ble PM in January this year, the ‘Transformation of Aspirational Districts’ programme aims to quickly and effectively transform some of the most underdeveloped districts of the country.
The broad contours of the programme are Convergence (of Central & State Schemes), Collaboration (of Central, State level ‘Prabhari’ Officers & District Collectors), and Competition among districts driven by a Mass Movement or a Jan Andolan. With States as the main drivers, this program will focus on the strength of each district, identify low-hanging fruits for immediate improvement, measure progress, and rank districts.
The Government is committed to raising the living standards of its citizens and ensuring inclusive growth for all – Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas.
To enable optimum utilization of their potential, this program focuses closely on improving people’s ability to participate fully in the burgeoning economy. Health & Nutrition, Education, Agriculture & Water Resources, Financial Inclusion & Skill Development, and Basic Infrastructure are this programme’s core areas of focus.
After several rounds of consultations with various stakeholders, 49 key performance indicators have been chosen to measure progress of the districts. Districts are prodded and encouraged to first catch-up with the best district within their state, and subsequently aspire to become one of the best in the country, by competing with, and learning from others in the spirit of competitive & cooperative federalism.
About Lupin and Lupin Foundation:
Lupin is an innovation-led pharmaceutical company with a global footprint and known for its generic medicines. Lupin Foundation is a trust, NGO, independent body promoted by Lupin Ltd. Formed in 1988, decades before CSR became mandatory, showing its commitment beyond just compliance. The Foundation works towards creating an alternative model of rural development which is sustainable, replicable and ever evolving essentially empowering under privileged and marginalized sections of society and providing basic infrastructure and balanced ecological base to the villages. (Source: PIB)


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NITI Aayog signs SoI with Lupin Foundation for Collaborating in Aspirational Districts

NITI Aayog launches ranking of 'aspirational' 101 districts - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis

NITI Aayog launches ranking of 'aspirational' 101 districts.

NITI Aayog has come up with a mechanism under which 101 most underdeveloped districts of the country termed as 'aspirational' would be competing with each other in terms of performance and they will be ranked on 49 indicators based on various data points.
The 49 indicators on 81 data points will cover five development areas of health and nutrition, education, agriculture and water resources, financial inclusion and skill development and basic infrastructure.
From the beginning of next fiscal year from April 1, this real-time data collection and monitoring will be open for public viewing.
India cannot grow at a high rate on a long run until these districts catch up, whatever high are the GDP number, it has no meaning until the benefit of growth percolates down to very basic level, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said while announcing the launch of ranking for the "Aspirational Districts'.
The ranking of districts follows the launch of 'Transformation of Aspirational Districts' by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January with an aim to quickly and effectively transform some of the most underdeveloped districts in the country.
This will converge the central and state schemes, collaborate central, state and district collectors to strengthen these districts by identifying the low-hanging fruits for immediate improvement, measure progress and then rank the district by getting the data on a real-time basis.
All the states -- except West Bengal and Kerala -- are on board in this ranking initiative; however, these states are expected to join soon, Kant said.
As per the baseline ranking, Vizianagaram in Andhra Pradesh is ranked highest with score of 48.13 per cent while Mewat in Haryana tails at the end with 26.02 per cent.
Among others, Asifabad (Telengana), Singrauli (Madhya Pradesh), Kiphire (Nagaland), Shrawasti, Siddarthnagar and Balrampur (Uttar Pradesh), Namsai (Arunachal Pradesh), Sukma (Chattisgarh) are ranked at bottom of the list.
While on top of the list among others include Rajnandgaon (Chhattisgarh), Osmanabad (Maharashtra), Cuddapah (Andhra Pradesh), Ramanathapuram (Tamil Nadu), Udham Singh Nagar (Uttarakhand), Mahasamund (Chhattisgarh), Khammam (Telangana), Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh).
NITI Aayog and the Andhra Pradesh government have created a dashboard for monitoring the real-time progress of the districts.
From April 1, these 101 districts will start entering data and from May onwards, they will be ranked based on progress made (delta ranking) on a real-time basis.


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NITI Aayog launches ranking of 'aspirational' 101 districts.

NITI Aayog panel recommends tax cuts on gold, revamping monetisation scheme - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis

NITI Aayog panel recommends tax cuts on gold, revamping monetisation scheme

While the government has not made the report public, sources said the panel had recommended a sharp cut in all taxes on the gold business.

A committee of the NITI Aayog has recommended drastic cuts in taxes on gold and also proposed a more liberalised approach towards the yellow metal to increase its contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP) to 3 per cent by 2022.
The panel headed by Ratan P Watal, NITI Aayog principal advisor and former Union finance secretary, gave its report on gold policy, titled Transforming India’s Gold Market, to the finance ministry on February 26.
While the government has not made the report public, sources said the panel had recommended a sharp cut in all taxes on the gold business, including import duty and goods and services tax (GST).
Illegal gold imports have ranged between 100 and 150 tonnes annually in the past few years, and an overall cut in tax structure is required to stop smuggling, according to the report.
The committee had several rounds of discussions and met a number of subject experts before the final report was submitted last Monday, after a draft report in December.
Focus areas of the report, apart from cutting taxes, are promoting gold mining in India, responsible sourcing and good delivery of dore (unrefined) gold, making Indian standards for gold refined by Indian refineries, and setting up a Gold Board with statutory powers as a single-window agency to resolve all issues.
The finance minister has already announced formulating a comprehensive gold policy and setting up a gold spot exchange.The committee has proposed policy measures from mining to marketing of gold. It also wants the jewellery business to be hassle-free, as “it is a productive business and the industry ecosystem consisting of 90-95 per cent of medium and small units employs 6.1 million people”.
It also said the investment part of gold import, a little over 16 per cent, was unproductive.The committee proposed the government see gold with the above perspective and offer alternatives for gold investments without imports.
It proposed revamping the gold monetisation scheme (GMS) and that all banks and their branches offer the service, reducing minimum quantity of gold to be offered by customers under the GMS.
The committee also proposed making GMS attractive enough for banks by linking gold metal loans with international lease rates. As of now, some banks hedge working capital finance cost by importing gold on lease from overseas banks and lending the same gold as gold metal loans to Indian jewellers.
In yet another proposal to give an alternative for gold investment, the committee proposed to replace sovereign gold bonds (SGB) with gold saving accounts, with all conditions and provisions similar to the current SGB. However, after banks make proper arrangements, gold investment in rupee terms in proposed savings accounts should be backed by physical gold lying with Indian households.
Another important recommendation is to set up a gold domestic council in line with export promotion council chaired by a joint secretary level official.
The report proposed a liberal PAN (permanent account number) limit and a new limit for providing data to respective organisation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
The gold trade had different reactions to the proposal with many expecting jewellers’ role to be enlarged in schemes like GMS and gold savings account, while they are divided on duty front.
Some say that including GST and import duty, the tax on gold is over 13 per cent, which should come down to discourage smuggling, but another section says the cost benefit ratio to cut total duty on gold, which is otherwise coming through illegal route doesn’t benefit as revenue forgone for 100-150 tonnes of gold in duty terms is less than revenue loss if overall duty is reduced.(Source: The Business Standard)


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NITI Aayog panel recommends tax cuts on gold, revamping monetisation scheme