General Awareness

GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND SCHEMES - January 2019

Jan 2019

Oct 09, 2020

Uttarakhand CM Launches Saur Swarojgar Yojana

Uttarakhand CM Trivendra Singh Rawat launched Mukhya Mantri Saur Swarojgar Yojana. The Yojana aims at creating self-employment for nearly 10,000 youths in the state.
Rawat said that the beneficiaries will be allocated solar plants of 25 kilowatts each. 10,000 people will get self-employment under this scheme.
The targeted beneficiaries, including the youth and migrants who have returned home after leaving their jobs in various parts of the country due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Oct 07, 2020

Gujarat Launches 'Digital Seva Setu Programme' for Rural Ereas

The Gujarat Government launched "Digital Seva Setu Programme" for rural areas. The programme was launched under the Bharat Net Project of the Centre.
The programme connects village panchayats and will provide twenty types of pro-people services. This includes providing ration cards at door steps. It is a digital form of the "Seva Setu" Programme.
The programme will help people to receive public welfare services at Panchayat level. Under the programme, the gram panchayats are to be connected to the state data centre at Gandhinagar. This will help in integration of data. The citizens should pay Rs. 20 to avail the benefits of the programme. The programme will help to transform 18,000 villages of Gujarat into modern and global villages.
During the first phase of the programme, 2,000 village panchayats are to be covered. The rest of the villages are to be covered in 2021. Thereby, the programme will encompass all the villages of the state making "Digital Seva Setu" an integrated and dedicated platform in time ahead.

Oct 06, 2020

PM Svanidhi Scheme: MoHUA Unites with Swiggy

Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs signed Memorandum of Understanding with Swiggy to take street food vendors online. This was achieved under PM Svanidhi Scheme.
The programme was launched in five cities such as Chennai, Ahmedabad, Indore, Delhi and Varanasi. Under the programme around 250 vendors were taken on-board across the five cities on first day. In future, more than 50 lakh street vendors will be benefited under the scheme.
PM Svanidhi Yojana
The scheme was launched to bring microcredit facility to street vendors at door steps. Under the scheme, the street vendors can avail a working capital loan of up to Rs. 10,000. If the vendor repays the instalment on time, the loan credit amount can be extended to Rs. 20,000. The loan is provided without collateral. The scheme was announced as part of Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan.
Under the scheme, the street vendors from rural and peri-urban areas are included as beneficiaries of the urban livelihood. This is the first time in Indian history such an inclusion is being made.
The validity of the scheme is till March 2022.
As of October 4, 2020, around 20 lakh loan applications were received. Of this 7.5 lakh have been sanctioned so far and 2.4 lakh were rejected.

Oct 03, 2020

Jal Jeevan Mission: 100 Days of Compangn

The Union Minister of Jal Shakti Gajendra Singh launched 100-days of campaign to provide piped water supply to schools and anganwadi centres. The mission was launched as a part of celebrations of 151st birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
During the campaign, the States and Union Territories will ensure that Gram Sabhas are convened at the earliest to pass resolution to provide safe water in schools and Anganwadi centres. These facilities are to be operated by Gram Panchayats.
On September 29, 2020, PM Modi released "Margdarshika" for Gram Panchayats and Paani Samitis to implement Jal Jeevan Mission. Margdarshika is operational guidelines for Jal Jeevan Mission.
The mission aims to provide tap connections to every household by 2024. The mission was launched as 81.67% of households in India are yet to receive tap connections. The scheme is implemented at four levels namely National, State, District and Gram Panchayat.
The rural water supply programme in India began in 1972 with the launch of Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme. It was then renamed as National Rural Drinking Water Programme in 2009.
The Pani Samiti is a statutory committee of Gram Panchayat. The committee will take care of community participation, ownership and contribution with respect to decisions pertaining to water supply systems.

Oct 02, 2020

GoI to Revamp Food Safety and Standards Authority of India

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has framed a Food Safety and Standards (Amendment) Bill, 2020. The bill introduces 70 amendments in the FSSAI act, 2006. It intends to revamp the functioning and jurisdiction of the FSSAI.
The amendment will give more powers to FSSAI.
The jurisdiction of FSSAI is to be extended towards animal feed as well
It will simplify the processes and enhance penalties imposed for violations. This will include manufacture and sale of unsafe food, businesses that are carried out without licenses, adulteration of food that leads to death. The punishment of sale of unsafe food under the new amendment has been extended till life imprisonment.
The amendment will specify standards for food packaging material. The food packaging material has been mentioned as "food contact material" in the bill.
A Chief Executive Officer is to be appointed at FSSAI. Earlier, the chairperson and the members were selected based on the recommendations made by the Selection Committee. However, now there would be no role of selection committee.
The process of serving notices to a food business operator has been simplified. The notice shall be issued to those running unsafe restaurants.
The FSSAI was established under FSSAI, 2006. The shortcomings and challenges with the act are as follows
The hawkers, retailers and petty manufacturers are exempted from the ambit of FSSAI. They contribute largely to unorganised food sector
There are no enough food testing laboratories in the country for the authority to scrutinize the food processing industries.
The body has failed to ensure quality, safety and hygiene in the food industry.
There are shortages in enforcement and licensing officers. This severely affects food safety measures and thus it requires a structural reform. This is to be achieved through the current amendment.
The FSSAI has only 377 regulations mentioned. On the other hand, foreign countries have more than 10,000 foods and detailed standards.

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