General Awareness

GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND SCHEMES - June 2019

Jun 2019

Jul 24, 2019

Madhya Pradesh Gives 27% Reservation to OBCs

The Madhya Pradesh assembly unanimously passed an amendment bill to increase reservation enjoyed by other backward classes (OBCs) in government jobs to 27% from existing 14%.
The assembly passed the MP Public Service (Reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes) Amendment Bill 2019 that will now go to the President for his assent.
With passage of the bill, total quota in government jobs rose to 73%, including 10% reservation for economic weaker section (EWS) from upper castes.

Motor Vehicles Bill Gets LS Nod

The Lok Sabha passed the Motor Vehicles (amendment) Bill that seeks to weed out corruption, improve road safety, promote the use of technology to regulate traffic and bring down the number of deaths as a result of road accidents.
To allay the concerns of the opposition parties, the government assured the House that rights of the states would not be taken away.
The bill was passed by the 16th Lok Sabha, but lapsed with the dissolution of the House after it failed to get the Rajya Sabha nod.
The bill proposes a National Transportation Policy for formulating guidelines on the transportation of goods and passengers.

Jul 23, 2019

AP reserves 75% of private jobs for locals

Andhra Pradesh became the first state to reserve jobs for locals in all private industrial units and factories, irrespective of whether the companies get financial or any other help from the government.
The assembly passed the Andhra Pradesh Employment of Local Candidates in Industries/Factories Act, 2019, which reserves 75% private jobs across all categories in industrial units, factories, joint ventures and projects in public-private partnership mode.
Although many states have repeatedly spoken about reserving a big chunk of private jobs for locals, none has implemented it as yet. Madhya Pradesh had on July 9, 2019 said it would bring a law to reserve 70% of private sector jobs for locals.
Soon after coming to power in December 2018, MP chief minister Kamal Nath had announced an industrial policy that made it mandatory for locals to be given 70% of jobs in companies availing financial and other facilities from the government.
The demand has existed in Karnataka, Gujarat and Maharashtra as well.
The new AP law states that if locals with necessary skills are not available, then companies must train them in association with the state government and hire them. Experts say with the rule, companies will not be able to hide behind the excuse of not finding skilled labour.
The Act also says that only those units that are listed in the first schedule of the Factories Act will be exempted from the Act—after the government looks into each application and takes a call.
These are mostly hazardous industries like petroleum, pharmaceuticals, coal, fertilisers and cement, among others.
Companies will have to comply with these provisions within three years of the commencement of the Act and will have to provide quarterly reports about local appointments to a nodal agency.
Chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy had promised the reservation in the run-up to the assembly election.

National Medical Commission Bill introduced

The National Medical Commission (NMC) Bill, which seeks to replace the controversial Medical Council of India (MCI) and usher in major reforms in the medical education sector, was introduced in the Lok Sabha.
The MCI was dissolved in 2018 following corruption charges and a board of governors was constituted to take over its functioning.
According to the bill, aimed at repealing the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956, the common final year MBBS [Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery] exam will now be known as National Exit Test and this will serve as the licentiate exam for medical graduates, become criteria for admission to postgraduate (PG) medical courses, and also for screening of foreign medical graduates.
Currently, different medical colleges have different MBBS exam patterns, which means there is no surety of the quality of the graduate passing out of the course.
The bill also puts a cap on fees on 50% of seats in MBBS and PG colleges.

Jul 21, 2019

Centre may Fix Ceiling on Insurance Premiums in PM Agriculture Scheme

Seeking to cut delays in settling claims, the Union agriculture ministry may come out with new operational guidelines for its flagship crop insurance scheme in the next few days.
The amended version of the scheme — Prime Minister Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) — may fix a ceiling on insurance premium, make it voluntary even for loanee farmers and include a provision where all collected premium amount can be deposited with a trust or specially created corpus fund.
The corpus fund may be managed by a public insurance company unlike the existing norms where the collected premium is kept by insurers including 13 empanelled private insurance companies.
Farmers have to currently pay low fixed premium amount (maximum 1.5% for rabi, 2% for kharif food and oilseed crops and 5% for commercial/horticultural crops of the total premium) for crop insurance against non-preventable natural risks while remaining part of the premium burden is shared equally by Centre and states.
Many states, however, have expressed concerns over increase in overall premiums ever since the PMFBY was launched in kharif 2016.
Records of PMFBY show that the number of farmers covered under the scheme declined from 5.77 crore in 2016-17 to 5.21 crore in 2017-18. But, the numbers went up to 5.61 crore in 2018-19.

Jul 20, 2019

Trans Rights Bill in New Avatar Tabled in LS

Marking a change from its previous avatar by allowing individuals the right to self declaration of gender identity without going through a screening committee, The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill 2019 was introduced in LS.
Identity certificates will be issued by the district magistrate based on documents that may be prescribed under the rules. The bill also states that "appropriate government" which refers to the Centre and states will have to make provision for coverage of medical expenses by a comprehensive insurance sche- me for sex reassignment surgery, hormonal therapy, laser therapy and other health issues of the community.
The 2019 bill comes without the controversial provision that existed in the previous bill that sought to criminalise begging by the community.
In terms of offences and penalties the bill makes compelling or enticing a transgender person to indulge in the act of forced or bonded labour a punishable offence with imprisonment and fine.
The same punishment applies to anyone who harms or injures or endangers the life, safety, health or well-being, whether mental or physical, of a transgender person or causes physical, sexual, verbal, emotional and economic abuse.
The bill also talks of a national council that will be led by the social justice minister.

Jul 19, 2019

Arbitration Bill Passed

Parliament passed a Bill to set up an independent and autonomous regime for institutionalised domestic and international arbitration in India.
The New Delhi International Arbitration Centre (NDIAC) Bill, 2019, which seeks to replace an ordinance issued in March 2019 by the previous Government, was passed by Rajya Sabha. Lok Sabha had passed the Bill earlier in July 2019.
The Bill provides for setting up an independent and autonomous regime for institutionalised domestic and international arbitration and to acquire and transfer undertakings of International Centre for Alternative Dispute Resolution to the New Delhi International Arbitration Centre with effect from March 2, 2019.
The Upper House also passed the amendment in the Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Bill Act, 2019 that seeks to make changes in the existing law of 1996.
It would now go to Lok Sabha. The Bill was earlier cleared by LS in August 2018 but could not be passed by RS. The Bill lapsed following the dissolution of the 16th Lok Sabha.

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