Union Government launched Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana

Union government on 25 September 2014 launched Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana. The Yojana was launched by Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Rural Development during the National Convention on Skills for Rural and Urban Poor held in New Delhi.

The Yojana was launched during the 98th birth anniversary of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay. Earlier the Yojana was known as Aajeevika Skills Development Programme (ASDP).

Main Highlights of the Yojana

• The Yojana aims at training 10 lakh (1 million) rural youths for jobs in three years, that is, by 2017.
• The minimum age for entry under the Yojana is 15 years compared to 18 years under the Aajeevika Skills Programme.
• Skill development training centres to be launched so as to address the unemployment problem in the rural area.
• The skills imparted under the Yojana will now be benchmarked against international standards and will complement the Prime Minister’s Make In India campaign.
• The Kaushalya Yojana will also the address the need for imparting training to the differently-able persons and chip in private players including international players to impart the skills to the rural youths.

The Rationale for launching the Yojana

The Yojana was launched in the light of huge problem of unemployment among the rural youths despite the fact that they have merits. In order to correct this match, Union government decided to launch skill development scheme.

Further, in light of the fact that, by 2020 developed countries will have a shortfall of over 57 million semi-skilled workers while India by 2020 will have 47 million surplus of workers. This effectively means that there will be high demand for skilled manpower in developed countries, where Indian rural youth can be absorbed after they acquire industry-specific training.

Status of Skilled workers in India

In India as against 12 million people entering the workforce every year during the last 10 years only 1 million youths were trained. Further out of 12 million people, only 10 percent were skilled ones, while the percentage in European Union is 75 and in China it is 50 percent. Also, as compared to 4500 skills in China, India only has 1600 skills, a huge gap indeed.

About the Aajeevika Skill Development Programme (ASDP)

Aajeevika Skills Development Programme (ASDP) was launched in June 2011 as a sub-mission under the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM). It was launched to cater to the occupational aspirations of the rural youth who are poor and to diversify incomes of the rural poor.

The ASDP aimed at skilling and placing 50 lakhs youth in the formal sector by 2017.

Union Government launched Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Antyodaya Yojana for urban and rural poor

Union Government on 25 September 2014 launched Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Antyodaya Yojana for urban and rural poor. The Yojana aims at alleviating urban and rural poverty through enhancement of livelihood opportunities through skill development and other means.

Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Antyodaya Yojana has two components one for urban India and other for rural India. The Urban component will be implemented by the Union Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation while rural component named as Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana will be implemented by the Union Ministry of Rural Development.

Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana
Under the Yojana, the Union Ministry of Rural Development will launch skill development training centres on a large scale to address the problem of unemployment particularly in rural India.

Main Highlights of the Rural Scheme
• The Yojana aims at training 10 lakh (1 million) rural youths for jobs in three years, that is, by 2017.
• The minimum age for entry under the Yojana is 15 years compared to 18 years under the Aajeevika Skills Programme.
• Skill development training centres to be launched so as to address the unemployment problem in the rural area.
• The skills imparted under the Yojana will now be benchmarked against international standards and will complement the Prime Minister’s Make In India campaign.
• The Kaushalya Yojana will also the address the need for imparting training to the differently-able persons and chip in private players including international players to impart the skills to the rural youths.

Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Antyodaya Yojana for urban areas
Under the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Antyodaya Yojana (DAY) for urban areas extends the coverage to all the 4041 statutory cities and towns, there by covering almost the entire urban population. Currently, all the urban poverty alleviating programmes covered only 790 towns and cities.
Main Highlights of the Urban Scheme 
The scheme will focus on 
• Imparting skills with an expenditure of 15000 rupees to 18000 rupees on each urban poor
• Promotion of self-employment through setting up individual micro-enterprises and group enterprises with interest subsidy for individual projects costing 2lakhs rupees and 10 lakhs rupees for group enterprises. Subsidized interest rate will be 7 percent.
• Training urban poor to meet the huge demand from urban citizens by imparting market oriented skills through City Livelihood Centres. Each Centre would be given a capital grant of 10 lakhs rupees.
• Enabling urban poor form Self-Help Groups for meeting financial and social needs with a support of 10000 rupees per each group who would in turn would be helped with bank linkages.
• Development of vendor markets besides promotion of skills of vendors 
• Construction of permanent shelters for urban homeless and provision of other essential services.

Union Cabinet approved Swachh Bharat Mission for Urban Areas

The Union Cabinet on 24 September 2014 approved Swachh Bharat Mission for Urban Areas. The mission will begin from 2 October 2014 and will be implemented over a period of five years.

The mission will be implemented in over 4041 statutory towns of the country and will cost around 62009 crore rupees of which 14623 crore rupees will be borne by the Union Government.

The Mission is the urban component of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and will be implemented by Union Ministry of Urban Development. The rural component of the Mission will be implemented by Union Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation.

Main elements of the Mission

• The Mission includes elimination of open defecation, conversion of insanitary toilets to pour flush toilets, eradication of manual scavenging, Municipal Solid Waste Management.
• The Programme consists of components for providing (i) Individual household toilets; (ii) Community and public toilets; and (iii) Municipal Solid Waste Management in all 4041 statutory towns
• It would cover 1.04 crore households, provide 2.5 lakh seats of community toilets, 2.6 lakh seats of public toilets and solid waste management facility for all towns.

Aim of the Mission

• It aims towards bringing a behavioural change in people regarding healthy sanitation practices and generating awareness among citizens about sanitation and its linkages with public health.
• It also aims at strengthening of urban local bodies to design, execute and operate systems to fulfill these objectives and creating an enabling environment for private sector participation in capital expenditure and operational expenditure.

Background

The plan of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan was mentioned in the Union Budget 2014-15 by the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on 10 July 2014. The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan was proposed in the Union Budget under Drinking Water & Sanitation plan. As proposed, the Abhiyan will cover every household with sanitation facility by the year 2019.

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award 2014 announced

CSIR on 26 September 2014 announced the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Awards 2014 for ten scientists in recognition of their work. The awards were announced by Director General of Council for Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) Dr. Paramvir Singh Ahuja during the CSIR’s 72nd Foundation day celebrations in New Delhi.

The Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology consists of a citation, a plaque and a cash prize of 5 lakh rupees. The selected awardees in different fields are 
• Biological Sciences: Dr. Roop Mallik of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai
• Chemical Sciences: Dr. Kavirayani Ramakrishna Prasad of Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru and Dr. Souvik Maiti of Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB), New Delhi
• Earth, Atmosphere, Ocean and Planetary Sciences: Dr. Sachchida Nand Tripathi of Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
• Engineering Sciences: Dr. S Venkata Mohan of Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (CSIR-IICT), Hyderabad and Dr. Soumen Chakrabarti of Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai
• Mathematical Sciences: Dr. Kaushal Kumar Verma of Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru
• Medical Sciences: Dr. Anurag Agrawal of Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB), New Delhi
• Physical Sciences: Dr. Pratap Raychaudhuri, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research of Mumbai and Dr. Sadiqali Abbas Rangwala of Raman Research Institute, Bengaluru

Apart from this, the CSIR Awards for S&T Innovations for Rural Development 2013 and CSIR Diamond Jubilee Technology Award 2014 were also announced. The two awards were conferred on 
• CSIR Awards for S&T Innovations for Rural Development 2013: was conferred upon CSIR-Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology (CSIR-CCMB), Hyderabad and Directorate of Rice Research, ICAR, Hyderabad for development and deployment of an improved Samba Mahsuri ricevariety which is bacterial blight resistant, high yielding and possesses fine-grains.
• CSIR Diamond Jubilee Technology Award 2014: was conferred upon Avra Laboratories Pvt. Limited, Hyderabad for Development and Commercialization of Irinotecan – a unique drug for colorectal cancer.

Tamil Nadu government announced Price Stabilization fund for green tea leaf

Tamil Nadu Government on 26 September 2014 announced a Price Stabilisation Fund for Green Tea Leaf with a corpus of 12 crore rupees.

Besides, the government announced a support price of 2 rupee per kg for green tea leaf will be given to small tea growers from the fund.

The Tamil Nadu Government will contribute 8 crore rupees and  Tamil Nadu Small Tea Growers Industrial Cooperative Tea Factories Federation Ltd (INDCOSERVE) will pitch in with 4 crore rupees  towards the corpus for 2014-15 fiscal year.

Every year, INDCOSERVE will give 75 percent of its profits from the sale of Ooty tea and the rest will be provided by the State government to price stabilisation fund.

Pakistan test fired short range nuclear capable missile Hatf IX

Pakistan on 26 September 2014 test fired the Hatf IX -short range surface-to-surface missile. The nuclear capable missile also called as Nasr was tested with successive launches of four missiles from a Multi Tube Launcher with Salvo Mode.

It is a nuclear capable ballistic missile with a maximum range of 60 kilometers can cover western parts of India. With in-flight manoeuvre capability Hatf IX is a quick response system with shoot and scoot capability.

Earlier Pakistan had tested the Hatf IX missile in 2011 and 2012. The development of the missile is in line with Pakistan’s objective of developing a full spectrum of deterrence against the prevailing threat spectrum.

Commentary
The test fire of Hatf IX is in line with the Pakistan’s objective of developing a second strike capability if a catastrophic nuclear attack destroyed all its land-based weapons.

In line with above objective Pakistan has repeatedly tested Babur cruise missile their indigenously produced, nuclear-capable. It has a range of 640 km and can strike targets at land and sea.

Besides, Pakistan is said to be developing shorter-range cruise missiles that can fly lower to the ground and can evade ballistic missile defences and developing sea-based missiles.

Nuclear push of Pakistan comes amid heightened tension with US intelligence and congressional officials over the security of Pakistan's nuclear weapons.

Sukinda Chromite Mine of the Tata Steel in Odisha won Asian CSR Leadership Award

Sukinda Chromite Mine of the Tata Steel in Odisha on 24 September 2014 won the Asian Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Leadership Award. The Sukinda mine of Tata Steels won the award for Community Development. The award was presented by World CSR Congress at Dubai, UAE.

Sumit Ghoshal, Regional Commercial Manager of Tata Steel in Middle East received the award on behalf of the company.

The award recognised the voluntary action of several officers of Sukinda Chromite Mine who have been sponsoring orphan tribal girls of nearby schools of Sukinda.

Forbes India released The 100 Richest Indian List 2014

The Forbes India magazine releasedThe 100 Richest Indian List 2014 on 25 September 2014. As per the list, the top 100 richest tycoons in India are all billionaires for the first time. The combined net worth of 100 richest tycoons in India is 346 billion US dollars in 2014 up more than a third from 259 billion US dollars in 2013.

According to the Forbes India List, the Top 10 Richest people of India: 1. Mukesh Ambani; 2. Dilip Shanghvi; 3. Azim Premji; 4. Pallonji Mistry; 5. Lakshmi Mittal; 6. Hinduja brothers; 7. Shiv Nadar; 8. Godrej family; 9. Kumar Birla; 10. Sunil Mittal

Highlights of the Forbes India Rich List 2014

• Mukesh Ambani topped the list for the eighth consecutive year with a net worth of 23.6 billion US dollars.
• Dilip Shanghvi, founder of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, is at the second position on the list. He overtook steel baron Lakshmi Mittal who slipped to fifth place.  
• Azim Premji whose net wealth increased to 16.4 billion US dollars from 13.8 billion US dollars is at third position.
• The biggest dollar gainer is Gautam Adani who jumped 11 spots to eleventh position adding nearly 4.5 billion US dollars to his wealth which reached 7.1 billion US dollars.
• As many as 85 people out of 89 who returned to the top 100 from 2013 are wealthier and several are billionaires for the first time.
• There are eight newcomers on 2014 list: Amalgamations Group family (No. 47), brothers Dilip & Anand Surana (No. 73), Hasmukh Chudgar (No. 80), real estate tycoon Surendra Hiranandani (No. 83), jeweller T.S. Kalyanaraman (No. 87), Macleod Pharmaceuticals’ Rajendra Agarwal (No. 90), Dubai-based Aster DM Healthcare’s Azad Moopen (No. 95), and stock market veteran Radhakishan Damani (No. 100).   
• The biggest loser this year is Indus Gas founder Ajay Kalsi who lost 1 billion US dollars after the government stalled an increase in the natural gas prices. He is at 85th position.
• Eleven tycoons fell off from the list this year including tycoons Brij Bhushan Singal and Vijay Mallya.

About the Forbes India Rich List 2014

• The minimum amount required to be on the list was 1 billion US dollars. It was 635 million US dollars in 2013.
• This list was compiled using shareholding and financial information obtained from the families and individuals, stock exchanges, analysts and India’s regulatory agencies.
• The ranking lists family fortunes including those shared among extended families such as the Godrej and Bajaj families.
• Public fortunes were calculated based on stock prices and exchange rates as of 12 September 2014.
• Private companies were valued based on similar companies that are publicly traded.

China launched Made in China campaign to retain its manufacturing prowess

China on 25 September 2014 launched Made in China campaign to counter India. The launch of the campaign coincided with the launch of Made In India campaign.

The decision to launch the campaign was taken by Chinese cabinet headed by Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang.
China by launching Made in China campaign seeks to retain its manufacturing prowess through giving host of tax concessions.

In order to arm China with advanced technology and equipment, encouraging more competitive products with high added value, the Chinese cabinet asked government organs to implement the new measures as soon as possible.

Main Elements of the Campaign

• Under the campaign China will encourage high-tech imports, research and development (R&D) to upgrade Made in China.
• Companies that bought new R&D equipment and facilities after January 1 or possess minor fixed assets will have taxes reduced based on value.
• Imported high-tech equipment will also enjoy tax deductions. The industries with imported equipments which will enjoy tax deduction include aviation and bio-medicine production among others.
• Made in China campaign aims to prompt technical improvement of companies, especially innovation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). These SMEs in the last three decades propelled China to become world's second largest economy and made it a powerhouse of the manufacturing industry.

Comment:

Manufacturing sector of China had been a key driver of its economic growth and is globally competitive. With the launch of Made in China campaign a new round of innovation is believed to be spurred which will contribute to stabilising economic growth.

Further this will lighten burdens of enterprises in the real term and prompt the upgrade of outdated equipment.

Finally, it will help ease three aspects problems, viz., weak domestic demand and investment amid slowing economic growth, lagging equipment in manufacturing sector and low technical level of home grown companies.

RBI released Gopalakrishna Committee report on Capacity Building in Banks and non-Banks

The Reserve Bank of India on 24 September 2014 released Gopalakrishna Committee report on Capacity Building in banks and non-banks.  The committee has recommended a 360-degree feedback for a transparent and comprehensive performance assessment exercise, one that ensures adequate performance differentiation between employees.

The key recommendations of the Report include and pertain to:
• Approach to capacity building in banks and non-banks
• Enhancing Human Resources Management practices
• Creation of position of Chief Learning Officer in banks and concept of return on learning
• Strategies for addressing issues of replacement or replenishment of talent in banks
• Process and steps for skill development
• Training strategy and need for expert trainers to help build capacities
• Coaching and mentoring including mentoring programme for Top Management of banks
• Entry point qualifications at recruitment stage, development of competency standards and certification or accreditation in various areas of training
• Conducting a common Banking Aptitude Test (BAT) at entry levels
• Qualifications for generalists and specialists
• E-learning as an important constituent for building capacity and imparting training
• Training and learning Infrastructure oriented to banking
• Proposal for setting up a Centre of Excellence for Leadership Development in banking sector
• Fostering research on skill development in banking sector and evolving a monitoring framework for capacity development in banking sector
• Creation of skills registry for the banking sector

About Gopalakrishna Committee
RBI constituted the Committee on Capacity Building in banks and non-banks headed by G Gopalakrishna. He is a former Executive Director of RBI and currently Director, Centre for Advanced Financial Research and Learning (CAFRAL).

The committee was constituted with an objective to implement non-legislative recommendations of the Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission (FSLRC) relating to capacity building in banks and non-banks, streamlining training intervention and suggesting changes thereto in view of ever increasing challenges in banking and non-banking sectors.

The objectives also included evolving an appropriate certification mechanism in the realm of training, where feasible, examining possible incentives for undertaking such certification and covering all stages of hierarchy-from the lowest rung to the Board level executives.

Indian space programme created history as Mangalyaan entered Mars orbit successfully

India’s Mars Orbiter Mission, Manglayaan on 24 September 2014 successfully entered the Martian orbit. To insert the spacecraft into the orbit the operation was started at scheduled time 07:17:32 am when its Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) was fired for 24 minutes 16 seconds. 

By achieving this fete, India created the history of becoming the first country to insert the spacecraft of the mission around the Mars in first attempt. Apart from this, India also came one step closer to its cherished dream of landing on Mars.

This success of the scientists of ISRO was witnessed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was present at the ISRO to see the crucial Mars Orbiter Insertion. After success of the mission, the Prime Minister congratulated the entire team of ISRO as well as the people of India for the great success. 

Other dignitaries present at the ISRO were Union Railway Minister Sadananda Gowda, Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation G M Siddeshwara, Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman, Dr. K Radhakrishnan and Senior Scientist UR Rao. 

Earlier on 22 September 2014, ISRO test-fired the crucial Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) of the Mission’s main engine successfully.

Till date various countries has sent 51 missions to Mars of which only 21 were successful. This success of Mars orbiter Mission in the very first shot will boost India's global standing in Space.

Mangalyaan is primarily a technological mission and it has been configured to carry out observation of physical features and the atmosphere of Mars.  India on 5 November 2013 launched its first interplanetary mission from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. The mission was executed within 15 months at the cost of 450 crore ($74 million) after the Union Government gave its approval for the mission.

Comparison of India’s Manglayaan and MAVEN of the US

On 22 September 2014, when MOM's motor engine was test fired to insert it into Martian orbit, the MAVEN of US entered the Martian orbit

	MOM (Manglayaan)	Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN)
Attempts	Placed in first attempt	Was placed in 15thattempt
Cost	75 million US dollar	671 million US dollar
Weight during Lift-off	1350 kilograms	2250 Kilograms
Patyloads	Carried 5 payloads	Carried 7 payloads
Reach	closest distance from Mars is 377-423 kilometer	150 kilometer
Objective	The main focus of the study will be finding the presence of methane in the red planet.	To study upper atmosphere of the red planet. It is the first spacecraft dedicated to explore the tenuous upper atmosphere of Mars.