General Awareness

GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND SCHEMES - December 2018

Dec 2018

Jan 23, 2019

Health scheme for Assam Rifles pensioners

The government has approved the grant of the ex-servicemen contributory health scheme (ECHS) to pensioners of Assam Rifles and their dependents residing in India and Nepal.
The cabinet committee on security cleared the proposal for the Assam Rifles, which is administratively under the home ministry but works closely with the Army and draws most of its officers from there, subject to certain conditions.
As per home ministry records, there are over 92,000 pensioners of the Assam Rifles, which include around 27,000 residing in Nepal.
The total number of beneficiaries, including dependents, would be over 3 lakh.

Jan 22, 2019

UP to now extend pension to seers

The Uttar Pradesh government has decided to widen the scope of its existing pension scheme for the destitute, which may now also include seers who meet the criteria.
UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath has asked them to hold special camps for all destitute and elderly persons, including widows and disabled, from January 20 till January 30 to enrol beneficiaries above the age of 60 years.
The announcement comes at a time when Allahabad is hosting Kumbh Mela 2019, where several lakh Hindu seers are attending the event.
The Yogi government has also decided to bring the old-age and farmer pension at par with those for disabled and widows by raising the existing monthly amount from Rs. 400 to Rs. 500.

Centre to Foot Ayushman Bill

The Union government will fund the entire treatment for beneficiaries of Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) even if their states have pulled out of the scheme for some reason.
The National Health Authority (NHA), the implementing agency for the scheme, has sought special permission from Union health minister JP Nadda, who is also the chairman of the governing board of NHA, to permit interstate portability for such patients.
This will apply not just to about 80 million eligible families that received a letter from the Prime Minister at the time of the scheme's launch, but to all the beneficiaries.

Digi Yatra Norms Out

Aviation regulator DGCA has put in place norms for the roll-out of the "digi yatra" facility, which will make air travel paperless and hassle free.
The airlines will make a provision to collect the digi yatra ID of the passenger for domestic travel at the time of booking. The passenger will have the option to offer any one of the approved IDs.
The digi yatra ID will be authenticated during the first travel at an airport with such a facility.
The airline will ensure that e-tickets will have a 2D/ QR barcode following "one person, one ticket and one code" rule.
The airlines will have to collect passport number for international travel.

Jan 21, 2019

Bharatmala 2.0 will focus on expressways

The next phase of highway development in India will focus on building expressways which allow uninterrupted traffic flow.
Under the second phase of Bharatmala, the government has proposed to build nearly 3,000 km of expressways, including Indore-Mumbai, Varanasi-Ranchi-Kolkata, Bengaluru-Pune and Chennai-Trichy.
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), which has been tasked with implementing the flagship programme, has invited bids for undertaking project preparation so that projects are ready as soon as the work for the first phase are bid out.
Some of the identified greenfield highways include Patna-Rourkela, Jhansi-Raipur, Solapur-Belgaum, Bengaluru-Kadapa-Vijayawada, Gorakhpur-Bareilly and Varanasi-Gorakhpur.
Sources said the target date for rolling out these roads under Bharatmala phase-II would be 2024.

Jan 19, 2019

Madhya Pradesh government draws up plan to offer Rs 50,000 crore waiver

The Madhya Pradesh government has drawn up a six week calendar to execute what will be the biggest farm loan waiver done till date by any state, at nearly Rs 50,000 crore, and is sending its MLAs, ministers and 600 nodal officers out on the ground with three different-coloured forms to be filled up by nearly 55 lakh farmers.
From February 22, the state government aims to start transferring money directly into the "bank loan accounts" of farmers across the state, which would mean that the bank would immediately adjust the same against the outstanding loan.
The huge task of filling up 55 lakh forms in little over two weeks by the designated date of February 5, which one to fill among the maze of three forms — white, green and orange in colour — and only Rs 5,000 crore allotted for the exercise so far, are some of the major challenges in the plan.

Jan 18, 2019

Draft Emigration Bill Open for Public Feedback

In a bid to address the myriad problems of migrants as well as to draft policies to regulate the movement of Indians overseas for work or education, the government has finalised the draft Emigration Bill, which is now open for public feedback.
The bill comes weeks after the Parliament standing committee made a special appeal to the ministry of external affairs to complete drafting of the proposed legislation.
The central feature of the new act would be establishment of an Emigration Management Authority to oversee the welfare of emigrants.
It will be the overarching authority to provide policy guidance, undertaking comprehensive review and stocktaking on emigration management related matters.
It aims to be a multi-ministry agency, with representatives from the ministries of home and human resources besides states.
An emigration bureau will be led by a joint secretary to handle operational matters.

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