'One nation, one ration card' scheme to be implemented by June 1 across India - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

'One nation, one ration card' scheme to be implemented by June 1 across India.

• 'We will implement the 'one nation, one ration card' scheme by June 1 in the whole country,' says Ram Vilas Paswan
• Under this scheme a beneficiary will be able to avail benefits across the country using the same ration card

Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Monday announced that the 'One Nation, One Ration Card' scheme will be implemented by June 1 across the country.
"We will implement the 'One Nation, One Ration Card' scheme by June 1 in the whole country. Under this scheme a beneficiary will be able to avail benefits across the country using the same ration card," said Paswan while speaking to the reporters here.
Earlier on January 1, Paswan had said that this facility has been started in 12 states in the country on the first day of the New Year.
Under this facility, the beneficiaries of the public distribution of these states can get their share of rations in any of the 12 states in which they are residing, according to the Union Minister for Food and Public Distribution.
Earlier on December 3, Paswan had announced that the 'One Nation, One Ration card' system will be 'implemented without fail in the entire country' by June 30, 2020. (Source: Livemint)


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'One nation, one ration card' scheme to be implemented by June 1 across India

What is ration card portability?How will the ‘One Nation One Ration Card’ scheme be carried out? What are the challenges? - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

What is ration card portability?How will the ‘One Nation One Ration Card’ scheme be carried out? What are the challenges?.

The Bharatiya Janata Party government is showcasing the rollout of the ‘One Nation One Ration Card’ scheme as one of the biggest achievements of its first 100 days in power. The launch of the nationwide food security net is scheduled for June 2020, but several challenges remain before migrants can take advantage of full portability.

What is the scheme about?
India runs the world’s largest food security programme, distributing more than 600 lakh tonnes of subsidised food grain to more than 81 crore beneficiaries every year. This is done through a vast network of more than five lakh ration or fair price shops. Under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), each beneficiary is eligible for five kg of subsidised grains per month at the rate of ₹3/kg for rice, ₹2/kg for wheat and ₹1/kg of coarse cereals.
The Centre is now in the process of expanding these efforts into a nationwide portability network which is called the ‘One Nation One Ration Card’ scheme. It is scheduled to come into full effect by June 2020, after which a ration card holder can buy subsidised grain at any fair price shop in the country.
What are the benefits? Who will gain the most?
The main beneficiaries of the scheme are the country’s migrant workers. According to data from the Census 2011, there are more than 45 crore internal migrants in India, of whom more than half have not completed primary education, while 80% have not completed secondary education. Lower levels of education are linked to lower income, which would make a large percentage of these migrants eligible for NFSA benefits. Registering for ration cards at their new location is an arduous process, especially if some members of the household still remain in their original home. Apart from this, field studies estimate that four crore to ten crore people are short-term migrants, often working in cities, but not moving there permanently. Women who change locations after marriage also find it difficult to start accessing ration benefits using a new household’s card.
The Centre hopes that allowing ration card portability will also curb corruption and improve access and service quality by removing monopolies. Under the old system, beneficiaries were dependent on a single fair price shop and subject to the whims of its dealer. Under the new system, if they are denied service or face corruption or poor quality in one shop, they are free to head to a different shop.
The scheme is also driving the faster implementation of initiatives to digitise and integrate the food storage and public distribution system.
What is needed to make it work?
The scheme involves the creation of a central repository of NFSA beneficiaries and ration cards, which will integrate the existing databases maintained by States, Union Territories and the Centre. Aadhaar seeding is also important as the unique biometric ID will be used to authenticate and track the usage of ration by beneficiaries anywhere in the country. Currently, it is estimated that around 85% of ration cards are linked to Aadhaar numbers.
For the scheme to work, it is critical that all fair price shops are equipped with electronic point-of-sale machines (ePoS), replacing the old method of manual record-keeping of transactions with a digital real-time record. On the back-end, the Food Corporation of India’s Depot Online System is integrating all warehouses and godowns storing subsidised grain in an attempt to create a seamless flow of online information from procurement until distribution.
What is the progress so far?
Two pairs of States — Andhra Pradesh-Telangana and Maharashtra-Gujarat — became the first to begin implementing portability between their States last month. From October 1, two more pairs — Kerala-Karnataka and Rajasthan-Haryana — will join the experiment. By January, all eight States and at least three others which already implement intra-State portability will form the first national grid for the ‘One Nation One Ration Card’ scheme.
What are the difficulties ahead?
There are only 4.32 lakh ePoS machines which have been installed in more than 5.3 lakh fair price shops. Apart from much of Northeast India, much of that gap comes from three States: Bihar, West Bengal and Uttarakhand. Given that they are major source States for migrants, Bihar (only 15% coverage) and West Bengal (70% coverage) must speed up ePoS installation for the system to work smoothly. In some rural and remote areas, ePoS connectivity also remains erratic, jeopardising smooth functioning.
In Jharkhand, a State which was an early adopter of digitisation and Aadhaar-based biometric authentication in 2016, there have been widespread complaints of denial of food due to system failures. A 2017 study in Ranchi district — which was relatively well-connected — found that 20% to 40% of beneficiaries had been unable to buy their rations. Right to Food activists have blamed at least 20 deaths from September 2017 to June 2019 on hunger caused by irregularities in the PDS system.
In other States, the challenge comes from the difference between ration benefits offered by the State in comparison to the Central entitlement. Tamil Nadu, for example, offers 20 kg of free rice per month to almost 2 crore ration card holders, as well as subsidised sugar, pulses and oil, over and above the NFSA benefits. The State government has made it clear that it will not be offering these benefits to migrant workers, as the Centre will cover the costs of NFSA benefits only.
Another issue could arise if the members of a single household are split between two different locations. The scheme’s guidelines only permit purchase of half the subsidised grain at one time in an effort to prevent one member of the household taking the entire ration for the month, leaving family members in a different location stranded without food.
The biggest challenge may lie in the lack of any concrete data on inter-State migration trends, especially short-term migration. The allocation of food grains to States will have to be dynamic to allow for quick additional delivery to cover any shortfalls in States with large migrant populations. Currently, Food Corporation of India godowns stock grains up to three months in advance. Food Ministry officials acknowledged that there is a “steep learning curve” ahead to ensure that movement of grain matches migration flows. (Source: The Hindu)


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What is ration card portability?How will the ‘One Nation One Ration Card’ scheme be carried out? What are the challenges?.

Cabinet approves Proposal for Official Amendments to the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Bill, 2018 - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Cabinet approves Proposal for Official Amendments to the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Bill, 2018.

The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has given its approval to move official amendments to the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Bill, 2018, pursuant to the recommendations of the Standing Committee on Finance (SCF).

The Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Bill, 2018 was introduced in Parliament on 18th July, 2018 and was referred to the SCF, which submitted its Seventieth Report on the said Bill to Parliament on 3rd January, 2019. The official amendments will further strengthen the Bill in its objective to effectively tackle the menace of illicit deposit taking activities in the country, and prevent such schemes from duping poor and gullible people of their hard earned savings.

Salient features:
• The Bill contains a substantive banning clause which bans Deposit Takers from promoting, operating, issuing advertisements or accepting deposits in any Unregulated Deposit Scheme. The principle is that the Bill would ban unregulated deposit taking activities altogether, by making them an offence ex-ante rather than the existing legislative-cum-regulatory framework which only comes into effect ex-post with considerable time lags;
• The Bill creates three different types of offences, namely, running of Unregulated Deposit Schemes, fraudulent default in Regulated Deposit Schemes, and wrongful inducement in relation to Unregulated Deposit Schemes.
• The Bill provides for severe punishment and heavy pecuniary fines to act as deterrent.
• The Bill has adequate provisions for disgorgement or repayment of deposits in cases where such schemes nonetheless manage to raise deposits illegally.
• The Bill provides for attachment of properties / assets by the Competent Authority, and subsequent realization of assets for repayment to depositors;
• Clear-cut time lines have been provided for attachment of property and restitution to depositors;
• The Bill enables creation of an online central database, for collection and sharing of information on deposit-taking activities in the country;
• The Bill defines “Deposit Taker” and “Deposit” comprehensively;
• “Deposit Takers” include all possible entities (including individuals) receiving or soliciting deposits, except specific entities such as those incorporated by legislation;
• “Deposit” is defined in such a manner that deposit-takers are restricted from camouflaging public deposits as receipts, and at the same time, not to curb or hinder acceptance of money by an establishment in the ordinary course of its business; and
• Being a comprehensive Union Law, the Bill adopts best practices from State laws, while entrusting the primary responsibility of implementing the provisions of the legislation to the State Governments.
Background:
The Finance Minister in the Budget Speech 2016-17 had announced that a comprehensive Central legislation would be brought in to deal with the menace of illicit deposit taking schemes, as in the recent past, there have been rising instances of people in various parts of the country being defrauded by illicit deposit taking schemes. The worst victims of these schemes are the poor and the financially illiterate, and the operations of such schemes are often spread over many States. As per information provided by RBI, during the period between July, 2014 and May, 2018, 978 cases of unauthorized schemes were discussed in State Level Coordination Committee (SLCC) meetings in various States/UTs and were given to the respective regulators/law enforcement agencies in the states. A large number of such instances have been reported from the eastern part of the country. Subsequently, the Finance Minister in the Budget Speech 2017-18 had announced that the draft bill to curtail the menace of illicit deposit schemes had been placed in the public domain and would be introduced shortly after its finalisation.
The Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Bill, 2018, which was introduced in Parliament on 18th July, 2018 provides a comprehensive legislation to deal with the menace of illicit deposit schemes in the country through, (a) complete prohibition of unregulated deposit taking activity; (b) deterrent punishment for promoting or operating an unregulated deposit taking scheme; (c) stringent punishment for fraudulent default in repayment to depositors; (d) designation of a Competent Authority by the State Government to ensure repayment of deposits in the event of default by a deposit taking establishment; (e) powers and functions of the competent authority including the power to attach assets of a defaulting establishment; (f) Designation of Courts to oversee repayment of depositors and to try offences under the Act; and (g) listing of Regulated Deposit Schemes in the Bill, with a clause enabling the Central Government to expand or prune the list. (Source: pib)


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Cabinet approves Proposal for Official Amendments to the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Bill, 2018.

ESIC approves new scheme, Atal Bimit Vyakti Kalyan Yojna for cash relief to unemployed insured persons - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

ESIC approves new scheme, Atal Bimit Vyakti Kalyan Yojna for cash relief to unemployed insured persons.

ESI Corporation (ESIC) has rolled out Atal Bimit Vyakti Kalyan Yojana for insured persons (IP) covered under the Employees State Insurance Act. 1948. Under this ABVKY Scheme, ESIC will provide relief amount to employees in cash directly into their bank accounts in case of unemployment. This financial assistance would be given to employees even while they search for new engagement. Complete instructions such as eligibility criteria, application form will be issued separately.

ESIC has launched this Atal Bimit Vyakti Kalyan Yojana keeping in mind the change in employment pattern. The current scenario of employment in India has been transformed from long employment to fixed short term engagement in the form of contract and temping. So, Employees must get assistance in case they get unemployed for sometime and search new job.
Now Employers will encourage Aadhar (UID) Seeding in ESIC database of their workers and their family members. Aadhaar Seeding is must to avoid de-duplication and in order to transfer assistance directly into the bank account of employees.
Atal Bimit Vyakti Kalyan Yojana by ESI Corporation (ESIC)
In 175th meeting of ESI Corporation which was held on 18 September 2018 in New Delhi under the chairmanship of Sh. Santosh Gangwar (Minister of state for Labour & Employment), ESIC has taken very important decisions to improve its services and benefits provided to insured persons and their dependents.
Now all the insured people covered under Employees State Insurance Act, 1948 can avail benefits of Atal Bimit Vyakti Kalyan Yojana (ABVKY). Now, ESIC will provide financial assistance to people in case the employees leave their jobs and are finding a new one. Relief amount would be credited directly into their bank accounts.
Aadhaar Seeding- ESI Corporation also approves the proposal for reimbursement of Rs. 10/- per person to employers. This would encourage and enhance Aadhaar Seeding of workers and their family members in ESIC database. It will restrict multiple registrations from same Insured people and thus will enable them to get scheme benefits which requires longer contributory conditions.
Increased Amount for Funeral Expenses of Insured Employees
ESI Corporation approves the proposal to enhance the funeral expenses to Rs. 15,000. Previously, all the insured employees were entitled to get Rs. 10,000 as funeral expenses. Now the funeral expenses has been raised from existing Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 15,000 being paid on the death of Insured Person.
Eligibility Conditions Relaxed to Avail Super Specialty Treatment
ESI Corporation has made relaxations in the eligibility conditions to avail Super Specialty Treatment as follows:-
• Previously, insurable employment of 2 years was necessary to avail super specialty treatment. This have now been reduced to 6 months with contribution requirement of only 78 days.
• Eligibility to avail Super Specialty Treatment for dependents of insured person has also been relaxed to 1 year of insurable employment with 156 days contribution.
The new modified provisions would help insured persons and their beneficiaries to get Super Specialty treatment absolutely free as per revised eligibility.


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ESIC approves new scheme, Atal Bimit Vyakti Kalyan Yojna for cash relief to unemployed insured persons.

Government launches the scheme “Seva Bhoj Yojna” - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Government launches the scheme “Seva Bhoj Yojna”.

Scheme seeks to reimburse Central Share of CGST and IGST on Food/Prasad/Langar/Bhandara offered by Religious/ Charitable Institutions.

The Ministry of Culture, Government of India has launched the new scheme namely Seva Bhoj Yojna starting today, with a total outlay of Rs. 325.00 Crores for Financial Years 2018-19 and 2019-20.

The scheme envisages to reimburse the Central Government share of Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) and Integrated Goods and Service Tax (IGST)so as to lessen the financial burden of such as Religious / Charitable Institutions who provide Food/Prasad/Langar (Community Kitchen)/Bhandara free of cost without any discrimination to Public/Devotees.
The Religious / Charitable Institutions such as Temples, Gurudwara, Mosque, Church, Dharmik Ashram, Dargah, Matth, Monasteries etc. which have been in existence for at least Three years before applying for financial assistance/grant and who serve free food to at least 5000 people in a month and such institutions covered under the provisions of section 10 (23BBA) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (as amended from time to time) or registered under the provisions of section 12AA of the Income Tax Act, 1961, for Religious / Charitable purposes, or a company formed and registered under the provisions of section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013 or section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956, as the case may be, for Religious / Charitable Ipurposes, or a Public Trust registered as such for charitable/religious purposes under any Law for the time being in force, or a society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, for Religious / Charitable purposes shall be eligible for grant under the scheme.
Ministry of Culture will enrol the eligible Religious / Charitable Institutions for a time period ending with financial year 2019-20 and subsequently the enrolment may be renewed by the Ministry, subject to the performance evaluation of the institutions. The details of registered institutions will be available on an online portal for the viewership of public, GST authorities and entity / institution itself.
Religious / Charitable Institution shall first register with Darpan Portal of NITI Aayog and get Unique ID generated by Darpan Portal . Thereafter, the institution shall enrol itself in CSMS Portal (http://csms.nic.in/login/sevabhoj.php ) on the Ministry of Cultures website in a prescribed format. Followed by the enrolment , the Charitable/Religious Institution shall apply online in the prescribed application form and upload required documents as listed below in CSMS Portal of Ministry of Cultures website( www.indiaculture.nic.in).


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Government launches the scheme “Seva Bhoj Yojna”.

Govt plans ‘Pariwartan’ scheme for power sector revival - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Govt plans ‘Pariwartan’ scheme for power sector revival.

The ‘Pariwartan’ scheme is being considered to protect value of stressed power projects and prevent their distress sale under the insolvency and bankruptcy code

The government plans to warehouse stressed power projects totalling 25,000 megawatts (MW) under an asset management firm to protect the value of the assets and prevent their distress sale under the insolvency and bankruptcy code till demand for power picks up.
State-run Rural Electrification Corp. Ltd (REC) has identified projects with a total debt of around Rs 1.8 trillion as part of the scheme, which is under government consideration and has been tentatively named Power Asset Revival through Warehousing and Rehabilitation, or ‘Pariwartan’, said a government official aware of the plan, requesting anonymity.
The ‘Pariwartan’ scheme is inspired by the Troubled Asset Relief Programme, or TARP, which was introduced in the US during the 2008 financial crisis.
The proposed plan also aims to stem the rise in bad loans in the power sector.
These stressed power projects will be housed under an asset management and rehabilitation company (AMRC) that will be owned by financial institutions. The plan is being driven by concerns that stressed projects have drawn bids for around Rs 1-2 crore per MW under the insolvency and bankruptcy code, a fraction of the Rs 5 crore per MW needed to build them.
While the promoter’s equity will be reduced to facilitate a transfer of management control to the financial institutions, the lenders will convert their debt into equity. The AMRC will manage the projects and may ask utilities such as NTPC Ltd to operate and maintain them. The AMRC will charge a fee and help complete projects that are stranded for lack of funds.
“These projects will be transferred to the AMRC at net book value, wherein it will own a 51% stake in the projects and the balance 49% will be held by the lenders,” said the government official cited above.
Issues faced by the stressed projects include paucity of funds, lack of power purchase agreements and fuel shortages.
Queries mailed to spokespersons for the power ministry and REC on Tuesday evening remained unanswered.
Power minister Raj Kumar Singh had mentioned the plan proposed by REC on 5 June at a press conference in Delhi.
With promoters losing interest, the value of these assets is deteriorating due to lack of operations and maintenance, added the government official. “With no fresh investments in thermal power, once demand kicks in, driven by a strong economic growth and schemes such as Saubhagya, these assets will be back in play.” (Source: Livemint)


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Govt plans ‘Pariwartan’ scheme for power sector revival.