Planning Commision

The Planning Commission was set up by a Resolution of the Government of India in March 1950 in pursuance of declared objectives of the Government to promote a rapid rise in the standard of living of the people by efficient exploitation of the resources of the country, increasing production and offering opportunities to all for employment in the service of the community. The Planning Commission was charged with the responsibility of making assessment of all resources of the country, augmenting deficient resources, formulating plans for the most effective and balanced utilisation of resources and determining priorities. Jawaharlal Nehru was the first Chairman of the Planning Commission.

The first Five-year Plan was launched in 1951 and two subsequent five-year plans were formulated till 1965, when there was a break because of the Indo-Pakistan Conflict. Two successive years of drought, devaluation of the currency, a general rise in prices and erosion of resources disrupted the planning process and after three Annual Plans between 1966 and 1969, the fourth Five-year plan was started in 1969.

The Eighth Plan could not take off in 1990 due to the fast changing political situation at the Centre and the years 1990-91 and 1991-92 were treated as Annual Plans. The Eighth Plan was finally launched in 1992 after the initiation of structural adjustment policies.

For the first eight Plans the emphasis was on a growing public sector with massive investments in basic and heavy industries, but since the launch of the Ninth Plan in 1997, the emphasis on the public sector has become less pronounced and the current thinking on planning in the country, in general, is that it should increasingly be of an indicative nature.

National e-Governance Plan

Over the years, a large number of initiatives have been undertaken by various State Governments and Central Ministries to usher in an era of e-Government. Sustained efforts have been made at multiple levels to improve the delivery of public services and simplify the process of accessing them.

e-Governance in India has steadily evolved from computerization of Government Departments to initiatives that encapsulate the finer points of Governance, such as citizen centricity, service orientation and transparency. Lessons from previous e-Governance initiatives have played an important role in shaping the progressive e-Governance strategy of the country. Due cognizance has been taken of the notion that to speed up e-Governance implementation across the various arms of Government at National, State, and Local levels, a programme approach needs to be adopted, guided by common vision and strategy. This approach has the potential of enabling huge savings in costs through sharing of core and support infrastructure, enabling interoperability through standards, and of presenting a seamless view of Government to citizens.

The National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), takes a holistic view of e-Governance initiatives across the country, integrating them into a collective vision, a shared cause. Around this idea, a massive countrywide infrastructure reaching down to the remotest of villages is evolving, and large-scale digitization of records is taking place to enable easy, reliable access over the internet. The ultimate objective is to bring public services closer home to citizens, as articulated in the Vision Statement of NeGP.

The Government approved the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), comprising of 27 Mission Mode Projects and 8 components, on May 18, 2006. In the year 2011, 4 projects - Health, Education, PDS and Posts were introduced to make the list of 27 MMPs to 31Mission Mode Projects (MMPs). The Government has accorded approval to the vision, approach, strategy, key components, implementation methodology, and management structure for NeGP. However, the approval of NeGP does not constitute financial approval(s) for all the Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) and components under it. The existing or ongoing projects in the MMP category, being implemented by various Central Ministries, States, and State Departments would be suitably augmented and enhanced to align with the objectives of NeGP.

In order to promote e-Governance in a holistic manner, various policy initiatives and projects have been undertaken to develop core and support infrastructure. The major core infrastructure components are State Data Centres (SDCs), State Wide Area Networks (S.W.A.N), Common Services Centres (CSCs) and middleware gateways i.e National e-Governance Service Delivery Gateway (NSDG), State e-Governance Service Delivery Gateway (SSDG), and Mobile e-Governance Service Delivery Gateway (MSDG). The important support components include Core policies and guidelines on Security, HR, Citizen Engagement, Social Media as well as Standards related to Metadata, Interoperability, Enterprise Architecture, Information Security etc. New initiatives include a framework for authentication, viz.
e-Pramaan and G-I cloud, an initiative which will ensure benefits of cloud computing for e-Governance projects

BHARTIYA MAHILA BANK

Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB), India’s first all-women bank, has been included in the second schedule to the RBI Act 1934.

With the inclusion in the second schedule or commercial bank category, the bank has become eligible for loans from RBI on bank rate and also gets membership of clearing houses. Furthermore, it assures that any activity of the bank would not adversely affect the interests of depositors.

BMB has been in existence since November 2013 which began with a seed capital of Rs 1,000 crore. To focus on the banking needs of women and promote economic empowerment is one of the main objectives of BMB.

At present, the loan portfolio of the BMB is about Rs 80-90 crore. It offers loan to girl child at a concessional rate which is 1% lower than the normal rates.

Banking For Women

In India, only 26% of women have an account with a formal financial institution, compared with 46% of men. That means an account in either a bank, a credit union, a co-operative, post office or a microfinance institution, according to a study by the World Bank.Also, for women, per capita credit is 80 per cent lower than males.

Furthermore, the results of a study using a global dataset covering 350 Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) in 70 countries indicates that more women clients is associated with lower portfolio-at-risk, lower write-offs, and lower credit-loss provisions, ceteris paribus.provision

Objective

The bank will also place emphasis on funding for skills developments to help in economic activity. Moreover, the products will be designed in a manner to give a slight concession on loan rates to women.

The bank shall also aim to inspire people with entrepreneurial skills and, in conjunction with NGOs, plans to locally mobilize women to train them in vocations like toy-making or driving tractors or mobile repairs, according toUsha Ananthasubramanian (CMD).

One of the other objectives of the bank is to promote asset ownership amongst women customers. Studies have shown that asset ownership amongst women reduces their risk of suffering from domestic violence.

Capital

The Bank's initial capital consists of Rs 1,000 crores. The government plans to have 25 branches of the said bank by the end of March 2014 and 500 branches by 4th year of operation (2017).

US-based FIS Global, in partnership with Wipro is leading the race for a Rs 1,000-crore contract to provide IT systems at the country’s first women-focussed bank, it is reliably learnt. ^[11]

Branches

The government has chosen the iconic Air India building at Nariman Point in Mumbai to open the first branch of Bank.^[12] A senior Air India official said the company has agreed in principle to give space to the bank. “The branch will come up in the 5,000 sq ft space on the sea-facing side of the building. With the Bharatiya Mahila Bank, we will have two bank branches on the ground floor of the building — the other is a Bank of India branch,” said a senior Air India official.

The Bharatiya Mahila Bank, which started operations from November 2013, is planning to open a modest 33,400 accounts through 39 branches in its first year.

Key management

Initially the bank will have a board of directors consisting of eight women. The board consists of a business graduate sarpanch from Rajasthan, Chhavi Rajawat, Dalit entrepreneur Kalpana Saroj, who turned around a tubes business, retired public banker Nupur Mitra, academic Pakiza Samad, private equity professional Renuka Ramnath, Godrej Group executive Director Tanya Dubash and Priya Kumar, a government nominee.

One of the key objective of the Bank is focus on the banking needs of women and promote economic empowerment through women's growth and development

NET METERING

Over two years of its launch in Andhra Pradesh, ‘Net Metering’ system may soon be taken up by other states of India.

What is ‘Net Metering’?

Net Metering is an eco-friendly idea that encourages the power consumers to adopt the generation of solar power to manage their demand and supply of electricity. In this process, the consumers not only generate power for their own needs but also get paid for the excess power generated by their solarPhotovoltaic systems (PV systems). The excess electricity is send to the central grid which pays for the energy thus generated.

How ‘Net Metering’ works?

The electricity generated by the PV systems serves the immediate energy needs of your home and slashes your monthly electricity bill. Any extra power your home needs—day or night—is automatically supplied by PG&E. The excess electricity generated by your system, but your home does not use, is exported back to the electric grid.

Why is it called ‘Net Metering’?

Net Metering system is a billing mechanism that credits solar energy system owners for the electricity they contribute to the grid. For example, if a residential customer owns a PV system, it may generate more electricity than the home uses during daylight hours. If the home is net-metered, the electricity meter will run backwards to provide a credit against what electricity is consumed at night or other periods where the home’s electricity use exceeds the system’s output. Customers are only billed for their “net” energy use. Generally, only 20-40% of a solar energy system’s output ever goes into the grid.

What are the benefits of Net Metering?

1. Eco-friendly as it doesn’t generate harmful emissions
2. Reduces dependence on conventional energy sources
3. Provides electricity to power deficient homes
4. Encourages generation of solar energy by power consumers through incentives like negative bills and credits to surplus producers.

CANWFZ Treaty signed to recognize Central Asia as Nuke-Free Zone

Five recognized nuclear weapon states- China, France, Russia, UK and USA inked the Protocol to the Central Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free-Zone (CANWFZ) Treaty in New York, marking a major positive development in the global non-proliferation efforts. The treaty was signed on the sidelines of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Preparatory Committee Meeting at the United Nations.

CANWFZ Treaty  

The CANWFZ Treaty was inked on September 8, 2006 in Semipalatinsk by the five Central Asian nations – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan,Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. It came into force on March 21, 2009. As chair of the CANWFZ Treaty, Kazakhstan has steered the negotiations with the five nuclear states on behalf of its Central Asian neighbors.

Central-Asian parties to the CANWFZ treaty aim to make the region a nuclear-weapon free zone. For the zone to be recognized internationally, it also requires to get the so-called negative guarantees from the five nuclear weapon countries, meaning legally-binding assurances not to use nuclear weapons against the parties of the treaty and not to use the threat of the use of nuclear weapons against them. The Protocol signed on May 6, 2014 in New York provides all these guarantees.  The Protocol awaits ratification by the parliaments of the signing states enter into effect.

The CANWFZ Treaty complements the NPT and strengthens the internationalnonproliferation regime by forbidding, among other things, the development and testing of nuclear weapons within Central Asia. Under the CANWFZ Treaty, the five Central Asian zone states may not allow the stationing of nuclear weapons within their territories. The Central Asian states are also mandated to adopt the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Additional Protocol, which provides the IAEA with increased access and power to ensure that all nuclear activities are used only for peaceful purposes.

Other Nuclear-Weapons Free Zones in the World

Apart from the newly created Central-Asian zone, there are four other nuclear weapons free zones in the world, including in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, South-East Asia and the South Pacific. The Central Asian zone is different from the other four in a way that it is the only such zone fully located in the northern hemisphere, the only zone adjoining two nuclear weapon states, Russia and China, and the only zone where nuclear weapons once existed, until Kazakhstan relinquished the weapons it inherited from the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.

Asia-Pacific navies sign communication agreement at Western Pacific Naval Symposium (WPNS)

India and 21 other countries adopted an agreement at ameliorating communication at sea to cut down the possibility of conflict amid developing friction between a progressively assertive China and its neighbours. Naval chiefs of these nations participated at the biennial conference of the Western Pacific Naval Symposium (WPNS) held at Qingdao, China. Rear Admiral S N Ghormade, represented Indian Navy at the meet.

The member nations adopted an agreement for:

• Preventing miscommunication amongst naval vessels that could lead to enmities in the Pacific Ocean.
• How naval ships should communicate and manoeuvre when they accidentally come into contact in sea lanes surrounding China, Japanand Southeast Asia

Western Pacific Naval Symposium (WPNS)

Established in 1987 with objective to encourage cooperation amongst the navies of its member nations, fortify mutual understanding and trust, and collectively safeguard regional maritime security. WPNS constitutes navies whose nations border the Pacific Ocean region.

The WPNS has 21 member states:

1. Australia
2. Brunei
3. Cambodia
4. Canada
5. Chile
6. China
7. France
8. Indonesia
9. Japan
10. Malaysia
11. New Zealand
12. Papua New Guinea
13. Peru
14. Philippines
15. Republic of Korea
16. Russia
17. Singapore
18. Thailand
19. Tonga
20. US
21. Vietnam

India is an observer at WPNS and China is one of the WPNS’ founding members.

NATIONAL URBAN HEALTH MISSION (NUHM)

The NUHM will meet health needs of the urban poor, particularly the slum dwellers by making available to them essential primary health care services. This will be done by investing in high-caliber health professionals, appropriate technology through PPP, and health insurance for urban poor.

Recognizing the seriousness of the problem, urban health will be taken up as a thrust area for the Eleventh Five Year Plan. NUHM will be launched with focus on slums and other urban poor. At the State level, besides the State Health Mission and State Health Society and Directorate, there would be a State Urban Health Programme Committee. At the district level, similarly there would be a District Urban Health Committee and at the city level, a Health and Sanitation Planning Committee. At the ward slum level, there will be a Slum Cluster Health and Water and Sanitation Committee. For promoting public health and cleanliness in urban slums, the Eleventh Five Year Plan will also encompass experiences of civil society organizations (CSO) working in urban slum clusters. It will seek to build a bridge of NGO–GO partnership and develop community level monitoring of resources and their rightful use. NUHM would ensure the following:
• Resources for addressing the health problems in urban areas, especially among urban poor.
• Need based city specific urban health care system to meet the diverse health needs of the urban poor and other vulnerable sections.
• Partnership with community for a more proactive involvement in planning, implementation, and monitoring of health activities. • Institutional mechanism and management systems to meet the health-related challenges of a rapidly growing urban population.
• Framework for partnerships with NGOs, charitable hospitals, and other stakeholders.
• Two-tier system of risk pooling: (i) women’s Mahila Arogya Samiti to fulfil urgent hard-cash needs for treatments; (ii) a Health Insurance Scheme for enabling urban poor to meet medical treatment needs.

3.1.55 NUHM would cover all cities with a population of more than 100000. It would cover slum dwellers; other marginalized urban dwellers like rickshaw pullers, street vendors, railway and bus station coolies, homeless people, street children, construction site workers, who may be in slums or on sites.

3.1.56 The existing Urban Health Posts and Urban Family Welfare Centres would continue under
NUHM. They will be marked on a map and classified as the Urban Health Centres on the basis of their current population coverage. All the existing human resources will then be suitably reorganized and rationalized. These centres will also be considered for upgradation.

3.1.57 Intersectoral coordination mechanism and convergence will be planned between the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and the NUHM.