States Encouraged to Dovetail Other Schemes For Economic Upliftment of Vendors Like Mudra/Day-Nulm Credit For Purchase Of Modern Pushcarts In Place of Traditional Thelas.
States Asked To Constitute Forum To Help Beneficiary Raise Their Grievances in A Conducive Environment
PM Svanidhi Scheme Aims To Formalise Street Vendors Into Urban Economy And Complete Poverty Alleviation Package by Facilitating Their Access to Various Other Government Schemes
Scheme Targets to Benefit Over 50 Lakh Street Vendors Who Had Been Vending on or Before 24 March, 2020, In Urban Areas Including Those From Surrounding Peri-Urban/ Rural Areas
Housing Minister Urges Authorities to Play a Positive Role to Ensure Success of The Street Vendor Scheme
Posted On: 19 AUG 2020 1:34PM by PIB Delhi
Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of State (I/C), Housing and Urban Affairs interacted with Urban Development Ministers, Chief Secretaries, UD Secretaries/Principal Secretaries, DGPs, Collectors / SPs / SSPs / Municipal Commissioners / Chief Executive Officers of 125 cities in the context of Prime Minister Street Vendors AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) Scheme which has been launched to provide credit for working capital to street vendors to resume their business.
While the Scheme provides the credit facility to the vendors, there is a requirement to ensure that they are able to do business in a harassment free environment. Shri Durga Shankar Mishra, Secretary, MoHUA was also present in the meeting.
On the occasion, Hon'ble Minister launcheda Mobile App for ULB functionaries. This App aims to provide user friendly digital interface for the functionaries of ULBs to source loan applications of street vendors.
Hon'ble Minister received feedback from states/UTs. He urged theMinisters of Urban Development and senior officials to hold meetings with key stakeholders towards successful implementation of PM SVANidhi and also to ensure the protection of livelihood of street vendors.
During the interaction with the Hon’ble Urban Development Ministers, it was decided that Ministry will conduct complete socio economic profiling of the scheme beneficiaries with an aim to facilitate their actions in other government welfare schemes e.g. PMAY (Urban), Aayushman Bharat, Ujjawala, Jan Dhan Yojana, Saubhagya, DAY-NULM etc. During his interaction, Shri Hardeep Puri said that “States are encouraged to dovetail other schemes for economic upliftment of vendors e.g. Mudra/DAY-NULM credit for purchase of modern pushcarts in place of traditional thelas.
With regard to undue harassment of the street vendors by police/municipal officials, action should be initiated against the erring officials by fixing responsibility. Further, to help beneficiary raise their grievances in a conducive environment, a forum chaired by District Collector and having representation of police/ULB and other relevant departments should be constituted. The Forum so constituted should meet atleast once in a month.”
Observing that PM SVANidhi is not only a micro-finance scheme, the Housing Minister stated that it has a more ambitious objective to formalise the street vendors into urban economy and to provide a complete poverty alleviation package by facilitating their access to various other government schemes. It was decided that further meetings will be conducted with the lending institutions in coordination with DFS.
Since commencement of online submission of applications on PM SVANidhi portal on 2nd July 2020, more than 5.68 lakh applications have been received and over 1.30 lakh have been sanctioned in different States and UTs. With the purpose of taking the microcredit facility to the door step of the vendors a Mobile App for Lending Institutions has already been launched by the Ministry and is available on google play store.
PM SVANidhi was launched by the Ministry on June 01, 2020, for providing affordable Working Capital loan to street vendors to resume their livelihoods that have been adversely affected due to Covid-19 lockdown. This scheme targets to benefit over 50 lakh Street Vendors who had been vending on or before 24 March, 2020, in urban areas including those from surrounding peri-urban/ rural areas. Under the Scheme, the vendors can avail a working capital loan of up to Rs. 10,000, which is repayable in monthly instalments in the tenure of one year.
On timely/ early repayment of the loan, an interest subsidy @ 7% per annum will be credited to the bank accounts of beneficiaries through Direct Benefit Transfer on quarterly basis. There will be no penalty on early repayment of loan. The scheme promotes digital transactions through cash back incentives up to an amount of Rs. 100 per month. The vendors can achieve their ambition of going up the economic ladder by availing the facility of enhancement of the credit limit on timely/ early repayment of loan.
“Landmark day for India's youth”
“PM Modi has given the due right to the job seeking youth of the country by ensuring transparency and ease in the recruitment process”
“NRA is an unprecedented step taken by the Modi Government as it would create a uniform transformative recruitment process”
“This transformational reform will remove the hurdles of multiple exams for Central Government jobs through Common Eligibility Test (CET)”
"Through exam centres in each district, test in multiple languages and CET score validity of 3 years, NRA will provide equal opportunities to all sections of the society”
“Single test will reduce the financial burden, which will greatly benefit the candidates”
Posted On: 19 AUG 2020 8:49PM by PIB Delhi
Union Home Minister, Shri Amit Shah has thanked the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for approving the creation of National Recruitment Agency (NRA) in today's cabinet meeting. Calling it a landmark day for India's youth, Shri Amit Shah said, “this transformational reform will remove the hurdles of multiple exams for Central Government jobs through Common Eligibility Test (CET).”
The Union Home Minister said, “NRA will provide equal opportunities to all sections of the society as each district will have an exam centre, test will be in multiple languages and CET score will be valid for 3 years. Single test will also reduce the financial burden, which will greatly benefit the candidates.”
Shri Amit Shah said, “National Recruitment Agency is an unprecedented step taken by the Modi Government as it would create a uniform transformative recruitment process. Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji has given the due right to the job seeking youth of the country by ensuring transparency and ease in the recruitment process.”
The ‘eSanjeevani’ digital platform of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has completed 2 lakh tele-consultations.
This milestone was achieved in a short time period of ten days only since the 9th of August when Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare presided over a meet to commemorate the completion of 1.5 lakh tele-consultations.
In what can be seen as a big push for the ‘Digital India’ initiative of the Prime Minister, the eSanjeevani platform has proved its usefulness and easy access for the caregivers and the medical community, and those seeking healthcare services in the times of COVID.
eSanjeevani platform has enabled two types of telemedicine services viz. Doctor-to-Doctor (eSanjeevani) and Patient-to-Doctor (eSanjeevani OPD) Tele-consultations. The former is being implemented under the Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centre (AB-HWC).
It aims to implement tele-consultation in all the 1.5 lakh Health and Wellness Centres in conjunction with identified Medical College hospitals in a ‘Hub and Spoke’ model. States have identified and set up dedicated ‘Hubs’ in Medical Colleges and District hospitals to provide tele-consultation services to ‘Spokes’, i.e SHCs, PHCs and HWCs.
The Health Ministry rolled out the second tele-consultation service ‘eSanjeevaniOPD’ enabling patient-to-doctor telemedicine owing to the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2020. This has proved a boon in containing the spread of COVID while simultaneously enabling provisions for non-COVID essential healthcare.
eSanjeevani has been implemented so far by 23 States and other States are in the process of rolling it out.
The top five States which have been utilizing the e-health services being offered through this platform are Tamil Nadu (56,346 consultations), Uttar Pradesh (33,325), Andhra Pradesh (29,400), Himachal Pradesh (26,535) and Kerala (21,433). Andhra Pradesh leads in having the most HWC-medical college interactions with 25,478 consultations while Tamil Nadu leads in the OPD services with 56,346 consultations.
Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Shri Arjun Munda flagged off “Tribes India On Wheels” Mobile Vans via Video Conference in 31 cities across the country today. Smt Renuka Singh Saruta, Minister of State for Tribal Affairs was the Guest of Honour. Shri Ramesh Chand Meena, Chairman, TRIFED.
Shri Deepak Khandekar, Secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, and Shri Pravir Krishna, Managing Director, TRIFED were also present. To begin with, 57 mobile vans were flagged off in the cities like Ahmedabad, Allahabad, Bangalore, Bhopal, Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jagdalpur, Khunti, Mumbai and Ranchi to name a few.
Addressing on the occasion, Shri Arjun Munda said that in these trying times, when the pandemic Covid-19 has disrupted lives in more ways than one, people are focusing on healthier ways of living and staying as safe as possible. This novel initiative by TRIFED ensures that one doesn’t even have to step out to shop for organic, essential natural immunity-boosting products and adopt a sustainable and wholesome way of living.
Adapting ‘Go Vocal for Local’, a mantra in these troubled times, into ‘Go Vocal for Local Go Tribal’, TRIFED has been striving to ameliorate the condition of the distressed and affected tribal people by putting in place several path-breaking initiatives, in addition to its existing flagship programmes and implementations, which have emerged as a panacea and relief. With this novel initiative of Mobile Vans, TRIFED is now taking these goods directly to the customer in various localities, and offering the same discounts. All the sales proceeds will directly go to the tribals and help in sustaining their income and livelihoods.
In her address, Smt, Renuka Singh Saruta said that in these trying times, when the pandemic has disrupted lives in more ways than one, people are focusing on healthier ways of living and staying as safe as possible. This novel initiative by TRIFED ensures that one doesn’t even have to step out to shop for organic, essential natural immunity-boosting products and adopt a sustainable and wholesome way of living. This initiative will help tribals living in rural areas.
Shri R.C. Meena in his address said that as its latest initiative to rehabilitate the affected tribal people (artisans and forest dwellers), TRIFED, M/o Tribal Affairs has launched Tribes India On Wheels whichis yet another creative effort by the team of TRIFED Warriors as they continue to strive towards tribal upliftment.
Shri Pravir Krishna said that Tribes India on Wheels are an effort to bring Nature’s bounty to your doorstep. These mobile vans will bring the natural and immunity-boosting tribal produce such as organic haldi, dry amla, wild honey, black pepper, ragi, triphala, and lentil mixes such as moong dal, urad dal and white beans directly to the doorstep of customers over the next few months. TRIFED is also tying up with business partners for accelerating the sales of products.
Tribes India on Wheels is yet another creative effort by the team of TRIFED Warriors as they continue to strive towards tribal upliftment.
It has now been more than four months since the pandemic has caused (and continues to cause) havoc in the lives of people, across the country. As people try to pick up their lives and livelihoods, the team of TRIFED warriors is continuing in its endeavour to help sustain tribal incomes and livelihoods.
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Due to the suddenness of the pandemic overtaking our lives and the immediate lockdown, stocks by tribal artisans worth crores had been lying unsold. In order to ensure that these stocks got sold and all the sales proceeds go to the affected tribal families, TRIFED has launched an aggressive plan to market these unsold goods online (offering substantial discounts) through its Tribes India website and other retail platforms such as Amazon, Flipkart and GeM.
Keeping in line with the clarion call of Atmanirbhar Abhiyan, TRIFED is also set to launch an exclusive e-marketplace for tribal producers – forest dwellers and artisans, to facilitate the purchase of MFPs, handicrafts and handloomsonline soon. The Tribes India E-Mart platformwill be an omni-channel facility for tribals to sell their goods to a large national and international audience in an e-marketplace through their own e-shop. TRIFED is in the process of onboarding approximately 5 lakh tribal producers across the country and sourcing their natural produce and handcrafted goods.
Context:
The Odisha government has announced to give a facelift to the 11th century Lingaraj Temple, akin to its pre-350-year structural status.
The efforts will be to create a spiritual and ecological ambience in and around the Lingaraj Temple.
About
Lingaraja Temple is a temple dedicated to Shiva and is one of the oldest and largest temples in Odisha.
Built by king Jajati Keshari of Soma Vansh.
It is built in red stone and is a classic example of Kalinga style of architecture.
Located to the north of the temple is Bindusagar Lake.
The temple is believed to be built by the kings from the Somavamsi dynasty, with later additions from the Ganga rulers.
The temple has images of Vishnu, possibly because of the rising prominence of Jagannath sect emanating from the Ganga rulers who built the Jagannath Temple in Puri in the 12th century.
Deula style:
The temple is Lingaraj Temple built in the Deula style that has four components namely, vimana (structure containing the sanctum), jagamohana (assembly hall), natamandira (festival hall) and bhoga-mandapa (hall of offerings), each increasing in the height to its predecessor.
Context:
Recently, the Supreme Court held Prashant Bhushan guilty of criminal contempt of court for his tweets against the CJI S.A. Bobde and against the judiciary.
Now, Prashant Bhushan has asked the Court to defer the punishment till the review petition is filed and decided.
He also submitted that the remedy of curative petition is also available.
About Curative Petition:
The concept was first evolved by the Supreme Court of India in Rupa Ashok Hurra vs. Ashok Hurra and another case (2002) on the question whether an aggrieved person is entitled to any relief against the final judgement/order of the Supreme Court, even after the dismissal of a review petition.
The court used the Latin maxim “actus curiae neminem gravabit”,which means that an act of the court shall prejudice no one. It’s objectives are twofolds- avoid miscarriage of justice and to prevent abuse of process.
Related Constitutional provisions:
The concept of the curative petition is supported by Article 137 of the Indian Constitution.
It provides that in the matter of laws and rules made under Article 145, the Supreme Court has the power to review any judgement pronounced (or order made) by it.
Procedure:
A curative petition may be filed after a review plea against the final conviction is dismissed.
It can be entertained if the petitioner establishes that there was a violation of the principles of natural justice, and that he was not heard by the court before passing an order.
It must be rare rather than regular.
A curative petition must be first circulated to a Bench of the three senior-most judges, and the judges who passed the concerned judgment, if available.
Only when a majority of the judges conclude that the matter needs hearing should it be listed before the same Bench.
The Bench at any stage of consideration of the curative petition can ask a senior counsel to assist it as amicus curiae (Friend of the court).
A curative petition is usually decided by judges in the chamber unless a specific request for an open-court hearing is allowed.
Context:
The Madhya Pradesh government’s recent decision to reserve all government jobs for “children of the state” raises questions relating to the fundamental right to equality.
What’s the issue now?
Reservation solely based on place of birth would raise constitutional questions.
What does the Constitution say?
Article 16 of the Constitution, which guarantees equal treatment under law in matters of public employment, prohibits the state from discriminating on grounds of place of birth or residence.
Article 16(2) states that “no citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, descent, place of birth, residence or any of them, be ineligible for, or discriminated against in respect or, any employment or office under the State”. The provision is supplemented by the other clauses in the Constitution that guarantee equality.
Enabling provisions:
However, Article 16(3) of the Constitution provides an exception by saying that Parliament may make a law “prescribing” a requirement of residence for jobs in a particular state. This power vests solely in the Parliament, not state legislatures.
Why does the Constitution prohibit reservation based on domicile?
When the Constitution came into force, India turned itself into one nation from a geographical unit of individual principalities and the idea of the universality of Indian citizenship took root.
As India has common citizenship, which gives citizens the liberty to move around freely in any part of the country, the requirement of a place of birth or residence cannot be qualifications for granting public employment in any state.
What has the Supreme Court said on reserving jobs for locals?
The Supreme Court has ruled against reservation based on place of birth or residence.
In 1984, ruling in Dr Pradeep Jain v Union of India, the issue of legislation for “sons of the soil” was discussed. The court expressed an opinion that such policies would be unconstitutional but did not expressly rule on it as the case was on different aspects of the right to equality.
In a subsequent ruling in Sunanda Reddy v State of Andhra Pradesh (1995), the Supreme Court affirmed the observation in Pradeep Jain to strike down a state government policy that gave 5% extra weightage to candidates who had studied with Telugu as the medium of instruction.
In 2002, the Supreme Court invalidated appointment of government teachers in Rajasthan in which the state selection board gave preference to “applicants belonging to the district or the rural areas of the district concerned”.
In 2019, the Allahabad High Court struck down a recruitment notification by the UP Subordinate Service Selection Commission which prescribed preference for women who are “original residents” of the UP alone.
How do some states then have laws that reserve jobs for locals?
Exercising the powers it has under Article 16(3), Parliament enacted the Public Employment (Requirement as to Residence) Act, aimed at abolishing all existing residence requirements in the states and enacting exceptions only in the case of the special instances of Andhra Pradesh, Manipur, Tripura and Himachal Pradesh.
Constitutionally, some states also have special protections under Article 371.
Andhra Pradesh under Section 371(d) has powers to have “direct recruitment of local cadre” in specified areas.
In Uttarakhand, class III and class IV jobs are reserved for locals.
Some states have gone around the mandate of Article 16(2) by using language.
States that conduct official business in their regional languages prescribe knowledge of the language as a criterion. This ensures that local citizens are preferred for jobs. For example, states including Maharashtra, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu require a language test.
Context:
The Union Cabinet has approved setting up of National Recruitment Agency, an independent body to conduct examination for government jobs.
Initially, it will organise a CET to screen/shortlist candidates for the Group B and C (non -technical) posts, which are now being conducted by the Staff Selection Commission (SSC), Railways Recruitment Board (RRBs) and Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS). Later on, more exams may be brought under it.
When was it first announced?
The setting up of such an agency to conduct a common eligibility test (CET) was announced in the Union Budget by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in February.
Composition:
It will be headed by a Chairman of the rank of the Secretary to the Government of India. It will have representatives of the Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Finance/Department of Financial Services, the SSC, RRB & IBPS.
Functions of the proposed NRA:
It will conduct a common preliminary examination for various recruitments in the central government.
Based on the common eligibility test (CET) score a candidate can apply for a vacancy with the respective agency.
How the test will be conducted?
The Common Eligibility Test will be held twice a year.
The test will be conducted for three levels: graduate, higher secondary (12th pass) and the matriculate (10th pass) candidates.
However, the present recruitment agencies– IBPS, RRB and SCC — will remain in place.
Based on the screening done at the CET score level, final selection for recruitment shall be made through separate specialised Tiers (II, III, etc.) of examination which shall be conducted by the respective recruitment agencies.
Other details:
The CET score of a candidate shall be valid for a period of three years from the date of declaration of the result.
To make it easier for candidates, examination centres would be set up in every district of the country.
While there will be no restriction on the number of attempts to be taken by a candidate to appear in the CET, it will be subject to the upper age limit.
The examinations will be conducted in 12 languages.
Why is the NRA needed? What are the challenges faced by students and agencies?
As of now, aspirants have to take different exams that are conducted by various agencies for central government jobs.
Candidates have to pay fees to multiple recruiting agencies and also travel long distances for appearing in various exams.
On an average 2.5 crore to 3 crore aspirants appear for about 1.25 lakh vacancies in the central government every year.
Context:
Even before the end of final stage human trials or regulatory approval, several wealthier countries like Britain, France, Germany and the US have entered into pre-purchase agreements with Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers, a development that has come to be known as “vaccine nationalism”.
There are fears that such advance agreements will make the initial few vaccines unaffordable and inaccessible to everyone apart from the rich countries in a world of roughly 8 billion people.
What is Vaccine Nationalism? How it works?
Vaccine nationalism occurs when a country manages to secure doses of vaccine for its own citizens or residents before they are made available in other countries.
This is done through pre-purchase agreements between a government and a vaccine manufacturer.
How was it used in the past?
Vaccine nationalism is not new. During the early stages of the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic, some of the wealthiest countries entered into pre-purchase agreements with several pharmaceutical companies working on H1N1 vaccines.
At that time, it was estimated that, in the best-case scenario, the maximum number of vaccine doses that could be produced globally was two billion.
The US alone negotiated and obtained the right to buy 600,000 doses. All the countries that negotiated pre-purchase orders were developed economies.
Why its not good? What are the associated concerns?
Vaccine nationalism is harmful for equitable access to vaccines.
It further disadvantages countries with fewer resources and bargaining power.
It deprives populations in the Global South from timely access to vital public health goods.
Taken to its extreme, it allocates vaccines to moderately at-risk populations in wealthy countries over populations at higher risk in developing economies.
What needs to be done?
International institutions — including the WHO — should coordinate negotiations ahead of the next pandemic to produce a framework for equitable access to vaccines during public health crises.
Equity entails both, affordability of vaccines and access opportunities for populations across the world, irrespective of geography and geopolitics.
What is being done now?
To bring about equitable and broad access, WHO, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, and Gavi have come up with an initiative known as “Covax Facility”. The facility aims to procure at least two billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines by the end of next year for deployment and distribution mainly in the low- and middle-income countries.