Clean energy, renewables, stubble burning: What the Union Budget 2021-22 missed - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Clean energy, renewables, stubble burning: What the Union Budget 2021-22 missed.

The budget lost the opportunity to address rural sector, where the Ujjwala Scheme will be extended to only one crore additional beneficiaries

Cleaner fuel for cooking, renewable energy targets and managing stubble burning remained conspicuously absent in the Union Budget 2021-22, presented by Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman February 1, 2021.

The Budget lost the opportunity to address the rural sector as well, where the Union government’s Ujjwala Scheme will be extended to only 10 million additional beneficiaries. According to the last Census of India (2011), 63 per cent rural households used firewood as primary cooking fuel and 23 per cent crop residues and cow dung cakes.

Facilitating rural areas to shift to cooking gas will not only curb carbon emissions, but also reduce indoor air pollution and associated health issues.

The Budget also did not mention the Union government’s plan on dealing with crop residue, burning of which contributes heavily to air pollution in north India. A strategy on the collection and usage of crop residue could help building extra income for farmers, electricity generation from biomass and reduction in air pollution.

The Union government has recently been vocal about the achieving its renewable energy targets of 175 gigawatt by 2022 and 450 GW by 2030. The Budget, however, did not say anything about the government’s plans and the financial assistance available for the same.

India also failed to achieve its annual targets for solar installations in the last five years, according to the Economic Survey 2021.

Sitharaman in her Budget speech said, “To build up domestic capacity, we will notify a phased manufacturing plan for solar cells and solar panels”. This qualitative statement does not fit well with the aspirations of investors and manufacturers.

The industry was anticipating announcement roadmap and financial outlay for developing the solar manufacturing sector in India. Absence of a long-term strategy is a major disappointment and potentially wary off the industry. The safeguard duty on the solar cells and panels expired in July 2020.

Domestic manufacturers are unable to compete with cheap Chinese imports. However, the Union government has not announced long-expected basic custom duty on the solar cells and panels. It seems to have lost hope in developing solar manufacturing sector.

The Budget did announce duty on solar inverter: The big project developers with centralised biddings under state tenders (Solar Energy Corporation of India and others) will be covered under the change in law, but the small developers with private Power Purchasing Agreement (PPAs) will have to bear the heat of increased costs.

The solar rooftop sector will be largely affected as inverter cost component is higher due to heavy usage of string inverters.

The Budget has also been mute on tapping the potential of distributed renewable energy (DRE) systems in rural employment generation. The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has exposed industry structures and migrant issues. DRE would not only help in generating rural jobs but also in sustainable development. The Budget, however, missed this very important aspect of the Indian economy that could have helped streamline lives post-COVID-19. (Source; downtoearth)

The above Article can also be read using the link below:

Clean energy, renewables, stubble burning: What the Union Budget 2021-22 missed.

Union Budget 2021-22: How good is the hike in allocation for health? - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Union Budget 2021-22: How good is the hike in allocation for health?.

Sitharaman admits high out-of-pocket-expenditure worrying; claims ‘137%’ hike to health and well-being in budget

The Union Budget 2021-22 allocated Rs 71,268.77 crore to the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry — an increase of about 10 per cent from the previous year’s budget estimates, according to Union Budget presented February 1, 2021.

The revised estimates for last year was Rs 78,866 crores. This implies the budgetary allocation to the Union health ministry came down by 9.6 per cent.

Sakthivel Selvaraj, a health economist with Public Health Foundation of India, called the allocation a wasted opportunity. “This year gave us an opportunity to be an outlier and allocate more than what had been done earlier. But it seems we wasted it.”

The National Health Policy of India, which came out in 2017, envisaged that India spend at least 2.5 per cent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on health sector by 2025. “A 10 per cent hike, that too during the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, will not take us anywhere close to that goal,” Selvaraj said.

A high-level expert group formed by the Planning Commission in 2012 had suggested that India should achieve this target by 2020.

India spent 1.8 per cent of its GDP on health in 2020-21; it was 1-1.5 per cent in the previous years. This is among the lowest any government spends on health in the world. As a result, India is among the 10 top nations with the highest out-pocket-expenditure (OOPE).

An increase in public health expenditure from the current levels in India to three per cent of GDP can bring the OOPE down to about 30 per cent from 60 per cent, according to the Economic Survey 2021.

“India was ranked 145th out of 180 countries (Global Burden of Disease Study 2016) on the quality and access of healthcare. Only few sub-Saharan countries, some pacific islands, Nepal and Pakistan were ranked below India,” the Economic Survey said.

Sitharaman accepted in her speech that a high OOPE was worrying. She added that the budget estimates for expenditure on health and wellbeing increased by 137 per cent this year as compared to last year. She pointed to the annexure for details; what Down to Earth found, however, found was slightly different.

The 137 per cent hike was calculated by taking into account funds allocation to the Union Ministry of Ayush, department of health research, nutrition, vaccination, finance commission grants to states for water-sanitation and health as well.

Sitharaman also announced PM AtmaNirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana with an outlay of about Rs 64,180 crores to be released over six years.

“But there is no budget allocation in the document this year. How can a scheme be launched like that,” asked Indranil Mukhopadhyay, a health economist at OP Jindal School of Public and Government Policy.

The allocation to PMJAY, which covers Ayushman Bharat and health and wellness centres, was worth Rs 6,400 crore. This was the same as in the last year’s budget; but double according to revised estimates. For the last few years, the budget estimates for the scheme have remained the same while the revised estimates were half.

The Union government aims to build 1.5 lakh of health and wellness centres by 2022; of this, only 57,874 have been made so far.

The National Rural Health Mission saw a moderate hike of six per cent from last year. The National Programme for Health Care for the Elderly was allocated Rs 105 crore in the budget last year. The revised estimates, however, were Rs 15 crore. The allocation to National Programme for Control of Blindness went down Rs 10 crore when compared with last year budget estimates.

Telemedicne got a big thumbs-up in this year’s Economic Survey owing to online consultations in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic. However, the allocation to it remained stagnant at Rs 45 crore this year as well.

While the budget allocated to Indian Council of Medical Research (under the department of health research) went up this year, the department’s budget came down compared to last year's revised estimates.

The Union Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH) got a 40 per cent more than last year. All India Institute of Ayurveda was allocated Rs 313.80 crore (revised estimates) last year as against the budget estimates of 76.50 crore. It went up to Rs 348.87 crore this year. (Source: downtoearth)

The above Article can also be read using the link below:

Union Budget 2021-22: How good is the hike in allocation for health?.

Union Budget 2021-22: India to launch Hydrogen Energy Mission - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Union Budget 2021-22: India to launch Hydrogen Energy Mission.

With the announcement, India has joined the race for producing the next big energy source.

Union Minister for Finance Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the Hydrogen Energy Mission will be launched in 2021-22, during her budget speech February 1, 2021.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while speaking at the Third Re-inVest Conference in November 2020, had announced plans to launch a comprehensive National Hydrogen Energy Mission. It is now proposed to launch a Hydrogen Energy Mission in 2021-22 for generating hydrogen from green power sources,” Sitharaman said.

“Green Hydrogen Mission is not only essential to decarbonise heavy industries like steel and cement, it also holds the key to clean electric mobility that doesn’t depend on rare minerals,” Ulka Kelkar, director, Climate, World Resources Institute, India, told Down To Earth.

Moreover, the hydrogen that the minister talked about was to be generated from green sources.

“Hydrogen can be generated from many sources. But what the minister talked about was the hydrogen sources from renewable sources,” Samrat Sengupta, director, Climate Change and Renewable Energy programme, Centre for Science and Environment, a Delhi-based non-profit, said.

The emphasis on hydrogen in the budget was in line with the technological development in the global north and with a long-term vision towards reduced dependency on minerals and rare-earth element-based battery as energy storage, Sengupta added.

Hydrogen energy technologies across the world have still not become commercially viable, but the energy source is seen as the next big thing as its usage would lead to zero emissions. With the announcement February 1, India has officially joined the race.

“Green hydrogen, produced with renewable electricity, is projected to grow rapidly in the coming years. Many ongoing and planned projects point in this direction. Hydrogen from renewable power is technically viable today and is quickly approaching economic competitiveness,” a 2019 document titled, Hydrogen: A Renewable Energy Perspective by the International Renewable Energy Agency had said.

“The rising interest in this supply option is driven by the falling costs of renewable power and by systems integration challenges due to rising shares of variable renewable power supply. The focus is on deployment and learning-by-doing to reduce electrolyser costs and supply chain logistics. This will require funding. Policy makers should also consider how to create legislative frameworks that facilitate hydrogen-based sector coupling,” it added.

Focussing on the production of green hydrogen in India would mean significantly ramping up the current renewable energy infrastructure across the country, according to experts.

“Green hydrogen energy is vital for India to meet its Nationally Determined Contributions and ensure regional and national energy security, access and availability. Hydrogen can act as an energy storage option, which would be essential to meet intermittencies (of renewable energy) in the future,” Pawan Mulukutla, director, Electric mobility programme, World Resources Institute, India.

Given the range of ways that green hydrogen energy could be produced and used, it allowed the formation of a circular economy, which primarily focussed on ensuring energy security, by utilisation of all the resources possible, Mulukutla added.

However, green hydrogen energy technologies come with their own problems.

“In terms of reaching commercial viability, there are a range of demonstration and real-world live applications currently operating across the world,” Mulukutla said.

He cited the example of a recently opened 8.2-tonne green hydrogen-per-day plant in Quebec, Canada, that will be used for green mobility and heavy industries in the surrounding area. He also cited H21 in the UK.

“In terms of challenges to green hydrogen specifically, cost of renewable electricity is the major problem. Public investments need to strategised and channelled well,” Mulukutla said. (Source: Livemint)

The above Article can also be read using the link below:

Union Budget 2021-22: India to launch Hydrogen Energy Mission.

Union Home Minister to launch various women safety initiatives - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Union Home Minister to launch various women safety initiatives.

Emergency Response Support System to be launched in 16 States/UTs and Mumbai Investigation Tracking System for Sexual Offences (ITSSO) and Safe City Implementation Monitoring Portal also to be launched.

The Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh will launch various initiatives for women safety here tomorrow. These initiatives will include launch of Emergency Response Support System in 16 states/UTs and Mumbai city, Investigation Tracking System for Sexual Offences (ITSSO) and Safe City Implementation Monitoring Portal. The 16 states/UTs are Andhra Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, UP, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Puducherry, Lakshadweep, Andaman, Dadar Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu, J&K.

To provide effective deterrence against the offence of rape, the Government has enacted the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2018. And for effective implementation of the Act the measures to strengthen investigation and prosecution machinery and to instil a sense of security amongst women, Government is launching these initiatives.
Emergency Response Support System (ERSS)
The Union Home Minister will launch the Emergency Response Support System (ERSS). The ERSS is a pan-India single number (112) based response system for persons in distress. A citizen may use the following methods to access the emergency services:
a. Dial 112 from phone
b. Press power button on smart phone 3 time quickly to activate panic call to ERC.
c. In case of feature phone, long press of “5” or “9” key on the phone will activate the panic call.
d. Log onto ERSS website for the State and lodge emergency
e. Email SOS alert to State ERC
f. Use 112 India Mobile App, which is available free on Google Playstore and Apple store.
Under this system, all the states have to set up a dedicated Emergency Response Centre (ERC). It will have a team of trained Call-takers and Dispatchers to handle emergency requests relating to assistance from Police, Fire & Rescue, Health and other emergency services. Police can view all events after an Emergency call is made at the ERC. The ERCs are connected to District Command Centres (DCC) and the Emergency Response Vehicles, and assistance/response to victims are facilitated through them. ERSS is designed to be a common protocol managed by each State/UT. ERSS also provides a 112 India mobile App for making distress calls by any person. For Women and children, 112 India App provides a special SHOUT feature which alerts registered volunteers in the vicinity of victim for immediate assistance. The Central Government is funding Rs.321.69 crore to the States/UTs for ERSS as part of Nirbhaya scheme project. The service has already been launched in Himachal Pradesh and Nagaland.
Investigation Tracking System for Sexual Offences (ITSSO)
Union Home Minister, Shri Rajnath Singh will also launch the Investigation Tracking System for Sexual Offences (ITSSO) on the occasion. The ITSSO is meant for Law Enforcement Agencies in the country. The Investigation Tracking System for Sexual Offences (ITSSO) is an online module available to law enforcement agencies at all levels- National, State, District and Police Station that allows State to undertake real-time monitoring and management for completion of investigation in rape cases in 2 months. It leverages the existing CCTNS data base, which covers nearly 15000 police stations in the country. ITSSO would greatly strengthen States ability for analytics and prognosis for timely investigation and prosecution in rape cases.
The Criminal Law Amendment in April 2018 prescribes stringent penal provisions including death penalty for rape of a girl below the age of 12 years. For swift administration of justice in such cases, the Act also inter-alia mandates completion of investigation and trials within 2 months. To enhance women safety in the country, Government has formulated a multi-pronged action plan and initiated a series of measures. ITSSO is one of such measures developed by MHA towards Smart Policing.
Safe City Implementation Monitoring (SCIM) portal
In order to instil sense of security in women in metro cities, Government has identified eight cities for implementation of Safe City projects in first phase at a cost of Rs.2,919 crore. The cities are Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow & Mumbai. The projects are funded under Nirbhaya Fund scheme. The projects have been prepared jointly by Municipal bodies and City Police and reflect integrated action for safety of women. Safe City projects involves creation of on-ground assets, resources & behaviour change programs for safety of women. The projects will supplement existing assets and meet citizen demands for safe eco-system for women in these cities.
Important features of the Safe City projects include:
a. Identification of crime Hot-spots in each city.
b. Saturating such Hot-spots with increased CCTV surveillance.
c. Automated Number Plate Reading (ANPR) and drone-based surveillance also being deployed in few cities as per requirement.
d. Setting up women police out-posts for facilitating ease of access by any aggrieved woman to report incidence or seek assistance.
e. Patrols by Women police in vulnerable areas.
f. Setting up Women Help Desks in Police Stations with facility for trained Counsellors.
g. Augmentation of existing women support centers like Asha Jyoti Kendra or Bharosa centers etc.
h. Implementing Safety measures in buses, including Cameras.
a. Improving Street Lighting in identified Hot Spot areas.
j. Setting up Toilets for women.
k. Undertaking social awareness programmes on women safety and gender sensitivity
All the above measures would be coordinated through an Integrated Smart Control Room in the city. In order to facilitate States to monitor and manage the Safe City projects and avoid duplication on ground, an online Safe City Implementation Monitoring (SCIM) portal has been developed by MHA. SCIM will facilitate online tracking of deployment of assets and infrastructure created under the Safe City projects. SCIM facilitates an evidence based online monitoring system. Details on assets and infrastructure are captured along with latitude and longitude using GPS for greater transparency. SCIM also creates a digital repository of assets, infrastructure and social outreach programs, as well as best practices achieved in each City.
During the event, the Union Home Minister, Shri Rajnath Singh will also make an announcement of a special project under Nirbhaya Fund for strengthening DNA analysis capacities in the State Forensic Science Laboratories of four States of Tamil Nadu (Chennai and Madurai), Uttar Pradesh ( Lucknow and Agra), West Bengal (Kolkata) and Maharashtra ( Mumbai) during the event. (Source: pib)


The above Article can also be read using the link below:

Union Home Minister to launch various women safety initiatives.

Union Government to launch India’s first National Registry of Sexual Offenders - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Union Government to launch India’s first National Registry of Sexual Offenders.

India is all set to roll out the National Registry of Sexual Offenders on Thursday, and will become the ninth country in the world to set up and maintain such a database. The Indian registry will include names, photographs, residential address, fingerprints, DNA samples, and PAN and Aadhaar numbers, of convicted sexual offenders.

Official sources that the database will contain more than 4.5 lakh cases, including profiles of first-time and repeat offenders, based on details compiled from prisons across the country. The offenders will be classified on the basis of criminal history to ascertain if “they pose a serious danger to the community”.
“The database will be maintained by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) under the Ministry of Home Affairs and made available to law enforcement agencies for various purposes, including investigation and employee verification,” a senior government official said.
The registry will be available only to law enforcement agencies in India, unlike in the US where the database maintained by the FBI can be accessed by the public. The registries maintained by other countries — UK, Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa and Trinidad & Tobago — are available only to law enforcement agencies.
India’s registry will store data for 15 years in the case of those classified as posing “low danger”, 25 years for those presenting “moderate danger” and through lifetime for “habitual offenders, violent criminals, convicts in gangrape and custodial rapes”, sources said.
The registry will also store information on arrested and chargesheeted offenders but with a clause that limits access to officers with the requisite clearance. Juvenile offenders are likely to be included in the database at a later stage, sources said.
The decision to set up the database was taken in April following nationwide outrage over cases of sexual assault on minors, including the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in J&K’s Kathua. The Union Cabinet had subsequently promulgated the Criminal Law Ordinance, 2018, for the death penalty to be handed out to those convicted of raping children below 12 years.
According to NCRB, there has been a three per cent increase in crimes against women and a 12 per cent rise in rapes in 2016, as compared to 2015. As many as 38,947 rape cases were registered in 2016, up from 34,651 in 2015. Overall, cases of crimes against women rose from 3,29,243 in 2015 to 3,38,954 in 2016, according to NCRB.
With the launch of this database, the Government hopes to convey the message ahead of elections next year that the safety of women and children is its top priority.
Recently, it set up a National Mission for the Safety of Women, headed by the Union Cabinet Secretary, to undertake specified actions, including setting up Special Fast Track Courts, strengthening forensic facilities, appointing additional public prosecutors, and providing appropriate medical and rehabilitation facilities to victims.(Source: The Indian Express)


The above Article can also be read using the link below:

Union Government to launch India’s first National Registry of Sexual Offenders.

Union health ministry starts empaneling hospitals for Modicare - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Union health ministry starts empaneling hospitals for Modicare.

National Health Agency, the apex body to launch Modicare, says the state health agencies will start empanelling private and public healthcare service providers and facilities in states and union territories.

Moving a step closer to launching the Ayushman Bharat-National Health Protection Mission (NHPM), popularly known as “Modicare”, the union health ministry on Wednesday started the process of empanelling public and private hospitals for the scheme.
State health agencies (SHAs) through state empanelment committees (SECs) will start empanelling private and public healthcare service providers and facilities in states and union territories (UTs) according to the given guidelines, said the National Health Agency (NHA), the apex body to launch Modicare.
District, sub-district and block level workshops will be held to brief hospitals about the empanelment criteria, packages, and processes and address any queries. “We have invited all private and super-speciality hospitals across India for empanelment as they play a critical and indispensable role in this mission. We are also trying to ensure that the empanelment process is conducted in a transparent, time-bound and non-partisan manner based on specific criteria, eligibility and guidelines,” said Dinesh Arora, deputy chief executive officer, Ayushman Bharat.
“Under Ayushman Bharat, both public and private healthcare systems will get strengthened and work in partnership to provide accessible and equitable healthcare services to all entitled beneficiaries,” he said.
The SHAs shall ensure empanelment within stipulated timelines for quick implementation if the applicants meet the essential criteria as defined for general or specialty care facilities. Facilities undertaking defined specialty packages are required to fulfil additional eligibility requirements. Specific criteria are outlined for cardiology and cardio-thoracic vascular services, cancer care, neurosurgery, burns, plastic and reconstructive surgery, neonatal/paediatric surgery, polytrauma, nephrology and urology surgery.
“The aim is to provide financial protection to 10.74 crore deprived rural families and identified occupational categories of urban workers’ families according to the latest Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) data,” said Arora.
Modicare, touted as the world’s largest health insurance scheme, aims to provide free health insurance of ₹5 lakh per family to nearly 40% of the population, or more than 100 million poor and vulnerable families.
More than 22 states have signed memorandums of understanding (MoU) with the union health ministry, committing to launch Modicare. (Source: Livemint)


The above Article can also be read using the link below:

Union health ministry starts empaneling hospitals for Modicare.

Union Home Minister launches e-FRRO scheme - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis

Union Home Minister launches e-FRRO scheme .

Shri Rajnath Singh says it provides efficient visa related services online to foreigners visiting India.

The Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh launched the web-based application ‘e-FRRO’ (e-Foreigners Regional Registration Office) at a function here today. Speaking on the occasion Shri Rajnath Singh said that it has been a constant endeavour of the Home Ministry to provide fast and efficient services to foreigners visiting India so that they have a pleasant experience of their stay here.
He said the e-FRRO scheme is aimed at building a centralized, transparent online platform for the foreigners to avail visa related services and to provide Faceless, Cashless and Paperless services to the foreigners with user friendly experience.
The e-FRRO scheme would be a quantum jump in improving the ease of service delivery with respect to foreigners visiting and staying in India. In the new system, foreigners would be able to get as many as 27 Visa and Immigration related services in India from the comfort of their place of stay. Using the e-FRRO application, foreigners can apply online on the portal and obtain the service(s) through email/post without appearing in person at the FRO/FRRO office.
It may be noted that the online services offered by E-FRRO scheme are not available even in some of the most advanced countries in North America and Europe.
In 2017, more than one crore foreigners visited India and out of them approximately 3.6 lakhs had to visit FRRO offices spread across the country for various visa-related services. With the launch of the online e-FRRO scheme, their physical visit to the FRRO offices thus been obviated.
The e-FRRO scheme has been implemented on the IVFRT platform with negligible extra expenditure, taking a cue from the already successfully running e-Visa scheme. It may be noted that the e-Visa scheme has earned revenue of more than Rs 1400 crores since its launch in Nov 2014.
Union Home Secretary Shri Rajiv Gauba, Director IB Shri Rajiv Jain, senior officials of MHA, NIC, MEA and Dept of Tourism were present on the occasion.
In the present system, foreigners staying in India on Visa duration of more than 180 days have to get themselves registered with their respective FROs/FRROs. Similarly, foreigners requiring different kind of visa related services such as Visa extension, Visa Conversion, Change of address, Change of Educational institutions, Exit permits etc are currently required to visit the FROs/FRROs office.
Some of the salient features of the e-FRRO include online FRRO Service delivery mechanism without requirement of visiting FRRO/FRO Office barring exceptional cases. Using this application, foreigners are required to create their own User ID by registering themselves. Afterwards, they can apply online through registered User-ID for various Visa and Immigration related services in India viz. Registration, Visa Extension, Visa Conversion, Exit Permit etc.
The necessary Immigration/Visa document e.g. Registration Permit/Certificate (RP/RC), Visa Extension Certificate etc will be sent by post on the address mentioned in the online application. It would also be electronically sent to the foreigner to his registered email ID. In case of exigency, the foreigner can visit the FRRO/FRO office directly for grant of service.
e-FRRO has already been implemented and is running successfully as a pilot project in four FRROs (Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai) since February 12, 2018. Now it has been rolled out in the remaining eight FRROs, - namely Kolkata, Amritsar, Hyderabad, Cochin, Thiruvananthapuram, Calicut, Lucknow and Ahmedabad.
Advantages of e-FRRO include facilitation of legitimate foreigners through “Digital India” vision of the Government, foreigners need not visit FRRO/FRO office – “Services from the comfort of home”, convenient and Time saving, exclusive dashboard for User friendly experience and Uniform & Standardized Services across the Country.


The above Article can also be read using the link below:

Union Home Minister launches e-FRRO scheme.