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Important Government Schemes – February 2019

1. PM Modi Launches PM-KISAN Income Support Scheme for
Farmers
• The central government had announced the PM-KISAN (Pradhan Mantri Kisan
Samman Nidhi) support scheme to address the agricultural sector crisis in
Indian farm sector.
• The scheme Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) would provide

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an annual grant of Rs 6,000 to small and marginal farmers having combined
land holding or ownership of up to two hectares. The scheme will benefit
atleast 120 million farmers.
• The amount will be given in three instalments of Rs. 2,000 each and will be
transferred directly to the bank account of the farmers through Direct Benefit
Transfer.
• PM-KISAN is entirely funded by the central government and will incur an
annual expense of Rs. 75,000 crores.
• The existing land-ownership system in the States/UTs will be used for
identification of beneficiaries. Those whose names appear in land records as
on February 1, 2019 are eligible for benefit from the scheme.
• Ministry of Agriculture and farmer’s welfare gave its approval for the scheme.
• Similar to the PM-Kisan Yojana are
(i) Rythu Bandhu Scheme of Telangana
(ii) KALIA Scheme of Odhisha
(iii) Krishak Bandhu scheme of West Bengal

2. Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Mandhan

• The Union Finance Minister Piyush Goyal announced the Pradhan Mantri
Shram Yogi Mandhan scheme for workers in the unorganised sector.
• Under the scheme people working in the unorganised sector will be able to
open their pension accounts and deposit money on a regular basis.
• The interested applicant who has attained an age of 18 years and interested in
joining the scheme have to contribute Rs 55 per month till they attain the age
of 60 years.
• An equal amount will be contributed by the central government.
• The scheme offers an assured a monthly pension of Rs 3000 to the workers of
the unorganised sector after the age of 60 years.
• The scheme will benefit approximately 10 crore workers in the unorganised
sector.
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• The scheme is touted to become the world’s biggest pension scheme for the
unorganised sector in the next year.

3. Know India Programme

• Know India Programme (KIP) is a flagship initiative for Diaspora engagement
that familiarizes Indian-origin youth (18-30 years) with their Indian roots and
contemporary India, through a three-week orientation programme organised

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by the Ministry.
• In 2016, the scheme was revamped to increase duration from 21 to 25 days,
with a 10-day visit to one or two States and preference given to PIOs from
Girmitiya countries (Mauritius, Fiji, Suriname, Guyana, T&T, Jamaica etc).
Since 2016, six KIPs are being organised in a year.
• The programme requires a minimum qualification of Graduation to become a
part of the scheme.
• The content of the programme broadly includes the following:
(i) Presentations on the country, political process, developments in
various sectors.
(ii) Interaction with faculty and students at a prestigious
University/College/Institute
(iii) Presentation on the industrial development and visits to some
Industries
(iv) A Visit to a village to better understand the typical village life
(v) A Visit to Agra
(vi) A Visit to one or two focus states in India
(vii) Interaction with NGOs and organizations dealing with women affairs
(viii) A Visit to places of historical importance/Monuments
(ix) Taking part in Cultural programmes
(x) Exposure to yoga
(xi) Call on high dignitaries, which may include Vice President of India,
President House, Parliament, Union Ministers, Governor and Chief
Ministers of partner states etc.

4. Implementation of Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM JAY)

• The Union Government has taken some steps for smooth and effective
implementation of Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM JAY).
• PM-JAY scheme would provide poor, deprived rural families and identified
occupational categories of urban worker’s families as per the latest Socio-
Economic Caste Census (SECC) data with health benefit cover of Rs 5 Lakhs
per family per year at free of cost. The health benefits under the
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scheme include more than 1,350 medical packages covering surgery, medical
and day-care treatments, cost of medicines and diagnostics.
• The following steps have been undertaken for the effective implementation of
PMJAY:
(i) The State Governments have been given the flexibility to implement
PM-JAY either through insurance companies, or directly through
trust/society, or in a mixed mode.
(ii) National Health Agency (NHA) has been set up by the Government to
implement PM JAY through State level Health Agencies.

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(iii) A robust IT system has been put in place for effective implementation
of the Scheme.
(iv) Central Grievance Redressal Management System has been set up for
receiving grievances. A system has been put in place to acknowledge,
record, escalate & resolve grievances as per well-defined process
through a three-tier grievance redressal structure.
(v) A multi-prong approach has been adopted by putting in place a fraud
control mechanism.

5. Niti Aayog and Adobe Partner Collaborate on Enhancing Digital

Literacy and Creativity Skills
• Software major Adobe and Atal Innovation Mission have collaborated and
signed a statement of intent to enhance digital literacy and creativity skills.
• Under this agreement, Adobe would implement the Digital Disha Programme
across 100 schools under Atal Tinkering Labs (ATL) initiative.
• Teachers and Children across these 100 schools would benefit from the
creative learning resources via free access to Adobe Spark premium.
• Digital Disha Programme - With an aim to spur creative thinking and digital
literacy across vocational institutes in India, Ministry of Skill Development and
Entrepreneurship has partnered with Adobe to launch Adobe Digital Disha
Programme. With Adobe Digital Disha, Adobe Spark with premium features, a
fun and frictionless storytelling Creative Cloud application that runs in any web
or mobile browser, is now available free of charge for education and skill
development.
• Atal Tinkering Labs - With a vision to ‘Cultivate one Million children in India
as Neoteric Innovators’, Atal Innovation Mission is establishing Atal Tinkering
Laboratories (ATLs) in schools across India. The objective of this scheme is to
foster curiosity, creativity and imagination in young minds and inculcate skills
such as design mindset, computational thinking, adaptive learning, physical
computing etc.
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6. Human Resource & Development Ministry has launched

SHREYAS programme
• HRD Minister Prakash Javedekar has launched the Scheme for Higher
Education Youth in Apprenticeship and Skills (SHREYAS) programme to
provide industry-specific apprenticeship opportunities to fresh graduates.
• SHREYAS is a programme conceived for students in degree courses, primarily
non-technical, with a view to introduce employable skills into their learning,
promote apprenticeship as integral to education and also amalgamate
employment facilitating efforts of the Government into the education system

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so that clear pathways towards employment opportunities are available to
students during and after their graduation.
• SHREYAS is a programme basket comprising the initiatives of three Central
Ministries, namely the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Ministry of
Skill Development & Entrepreneurship and the Ministry of Labour&
Employment viz the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS), the
National Career Service (NCS) and introduction of BA/BSc/BCom (Professional)
courses in the higher educational institutions.
• Objectives
Following are the objectives of SHREYAS
i. To improve employability of students by introducing employment
relevance into the learning process of the higher education system.
ii. To forge a close functional link between education and
industry/service sectors on a sustainable basis
iii. To provide skills which are in demand, to the students in a dynamic
manner
iv. To establish an 'earn while you learn' system into higher education
v. To help business/industry in securing good quality manpower
vi. To link student community with employment facilitating efforts of the
Government

7. Govt. Approves Construction of more than 5 Lakhs Houses

under PMAY
• The Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs has approved the construction of
560,695 more affordable houses for the benefit of urban poor under Pradhan
Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban).
• The details of the projects approved are listed below:
i. A total of 1,243 projects with a project cost of Rs 33,873 crore with
central assistance of Rs 8,404 crore has been approved.
ii. The approval of 560,695 more houses takes the cumulative number of
houses sanctioned under PMAY(U) to 79,04,674.
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8. UNICEF Representative India Yasmin Ali Haque Lauded Poshan

Ahibyaan
• Yasmin Ali Haque has made following observations with regards to Poshan
Abhiyaan
i. He observed that Poshan Abhiyaan is a massive step towards
eradicating malnutrition.
ii. Poshan Abhiyaan has got global recognition for its effort to
eradicate malnutrition. Cash transfers under the mission provide an
additional support to the family income.

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iii. The first and the most important step for reducing malnutrition
in India are providing sufficient nutrition to pregnant and lactating
mothers. The child then automatically is at much less risk of being
malnourished.
• Poshan Abhiyaan – POSHAN Abhiyaan (National Nutrition Mission) is a flagship
programme of the Ministry of Women and Child Development. The Mission
is aimed at improving the nutritional status of children (0-6 years), Adolescent
Girls, Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers in a time bound manner during
the next three years beginning 2017-18.
• The UNICEF Head also pointed out that the current policies are majorly focused
on pregnant mothers and lactating children, but the government also needs to
think about how to provide nutrition to growing children. He added that
UNICEF will continue working with the government on initiatives like Swachh
Bharat, Mission Indradhanush, vaccination policies and Poshan Abhiyaan.

9. Minister of Textiles Smriti Irani Inaugurated two Silk Projects in

ASSAM
• Two projects namely Soil to Silk Project and Eri Spun Silk Mill in Assam were
inaugurated by the Minister of Textile Smriti Irani.
• Soil to Silk Project –
(i) The project envisages new Eri plantation on 100 hectares and will
facilitate post cocoon activities for an on-farm sector like plantation,
spinning and reeling.
(ii) It would generate direct employment for 15,600 people during the
project period and 7,000 persons per year when the project attains full
capacity.
(iii) Under this project, the Central Silk board will also work towards
rejuvenation of 600 hectares of existing Eri farms and provide
handlooms and work sheds to 2500 weavers which in turn will provide
important linkages for self-sustenance of the production activities.
• Eri Spun Silk Mill –
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i. The Eri Spun Silk Mill project will be implemented directly by the state
government in co-coordination with the Central Silk Board.
ii. The expected turnover from this project during the first year is around
Rs 10 crore with a net profit of Rs 3 crore.
iii. The project would generate direct employment for 107 persons
throughout the year and will provide indirect employment to around
another 1,500 Eri farmers through backward linkage and to around 730
weavers through the forward linkage.

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10. Categorisation of Farmers
• In agriculture Census, the operational holdings are categorised in 5 size classes
as shown below:
• Marginal Farmer: Below 1.00 hectare.
• Small Farmer: 1.00-2.00 hectare
• Semi- Medium Farmer: 2.00-4.00 hectare. Medium: 4.00-10.00 hectare.
• Large Farmer: 10.00 hectare and above

11. Family Planning for Males

• Government of India has undertaken the following steps to increase
awareness about the need of family planning by males:
i. Vasectomy Fortnight is being observed all over the country in the
month of November every year to increase awareness on male
participation and promotion of male sterilization.
ii. Training of service providers in No-Scalpel Vasectomy (NSV) has been
undertaken to enhance the pool of service providers.
iii. Condom boxes are being set up in facilities to enable people to access
condoms in privacy.
iv. The ‘Home Delivery of Contraceptive Scheme’ has been initiated to
deliver contraceptives including condoms to the beneficiaries.
v. The compensation for male sterilization has been substantially
increased under the Enhanced compensation scheme for sterilization
vi. A 360-degree media campaign has been undertaken to underline the
role of men in family planning to encourage men to adopt family
planning methods

12. Strengthening the fight against Mental Illness in India

• The Mental illness is the most neglected and tabooed aspect in the Indian
health care system. To address the burden of mental disorders, the Indian
Government has undertaken the following steps:
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i. National Mental Health Programme (NMHP) is under implementation

since year 1982. District Mental Health Programme (DMHP) is under
implementation in 517 districts of the country for detection,
management and treatment of mental disorders/ illness.
ii. Funds are provided to each district under the DMHP for sensitization
training of Community Health Workers and elected representatives of
the community at District Hospital/ Community Health Centre for
awareness generation regarding early signs and community health-
seeking behaviour for mental illness.

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iii. The Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 provides that the Government shall
take all measures to ensure that the Government Officials including
police officers and other officers of the Government are given periodic
sensitization and awareness training.
iv. Three Central Mental Health Institutions Namely National Institute of
Mental Health and Neuro Sciences, Bangalore, Lokopriya Gopinath
Bordoloi Regional Institute of Mental Health, Tezpur and Central
Institute of Psychiatry, Ranchi have been strengthened for
augmenting the human resources in the areas of mental health and to
provide quality mental health services in the country.
v. Also, to increase the number of qualified mental health professionals
in the country, the Government, under the NMHP, is implementing
manpower development schemes for the establishment of Centres of
Excellence and strengthening/ establishment of Post Graduate (PG)
Departments in mental health specialities.

13. Improving Research Ecosystem in India

• The central government has launched the following schemes to improve the
research ecosystem in India:
i. Prime Minister’s Research Fellowship – It is implemented to attract
the bright and meritorious students into research within the country,
Students selected for the fellowship are given fellowship for 5 years –
Rs.70,000/- per month for the first two years, Rs 75,000/- per month in
the third year and Rs.80,000 per month in 4th and 5th year with an
annual research grant of Rs. 2 lakhs.
ii. Setting up of Research Parks - The Government has approved setting
up of Research Parks at IIT Kharagpur, IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, IIT
Guwahati, IIT Kanpur, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Gandhinagar and IISc
Bangalore.
iii. IMPRINT (Impacting research Innovation and Technology – The
scheme aims to provide solutions to the most relevant engineering
challenges and translating knowledge into viable technology in ten
selected technology domains.
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iv. UAY (Uchhatar Avishkar Yojana) – The Scheme has been launched to
promote innovation of a higher order that directly impacts the needs
of the needs of the Industry and thereby improves the competitive
edge of Indian manufacturing.
v. Smart India Hackathons – These are organized on yearly basis since
2017 to find out digital solutions to various problems faced by the
people and gives hands-on working and research opportunity for
engineering students.
vi. IIC (Institution’s Innovation Council) – IICs have been established in

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960 Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) for promoting the innovation
ecosystem within their campuses.
vii. Trainee Teacher Scheme - A Trainee Teacher Scheme has been
initiated in NITs with the objective to attract, motivate and sponsor
best graduate engineers for part-time M.Tech and PhD programmes.

14. Government Approves Continuation of CLCS-TUS Scheme

for MSMEs
• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved a 3year
extension of the Credit Linked Capital Subsidy and Technology Up-gradation
Scheme (CLCS-TUS) for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) with a
total outlay of 2,900 crores. This scheme will continue beyond the 12th Five
Year Plan for three years from 2017-18 to 2019-20.
• CLCS-TUS Scheme –
i. Under this scheme, an upfront capital subsidy of 15% will be provided
to the MSMEs on institutional finance of up to Rs 1 crore availed by
them.
ii. This will be done to help the MSMEs in employing well-established and
improved technology in the specified 51 sub-sectors/products
approved.
iii. The scheme aims to improve the competitiveness of MSMEs by
integrating various current schemes aimed at up-grading technology
through Credit Linked Capital Subsidy, hand holding for zero defect
zero effect manufacturing, increasing productivity through waste
reduction, design intervention, cloud computing, facilitation of
intellectual property and nurturing new ideas.
iv. The scheme also incorporates special provisions to increase
entrepreneurship for SC/STs, women, hill states, island territories and
the aspirational districts/ LWE (Left-wing extremism) districts.

15. PM Modi serves the 3 Billionth Meal of Akshaya Patra

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• Prime Minister Narendra Modi served the 3 billionth meal of Akshaya Patra,
an NGO that works with the government on Mid-Day Meal Scheme.
• Akshaya Patra Foundation - It is a Bengaluru-based not-for-profit
organisation funded by International Society for Krishna Consciousness
(ISKCON). Akshaya Patra Foundation is an implementation partner for the
governments Mid-Day Meal Scheme.

16. Eco Circuit: Pathanamthitta – Gavi – Vagamon –

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Thekkady’ Inaugurated
• Union Tourism Minister K. J. Alphons inaugurated the ‘Eco
Circuit: Pathanamthitta – Gavi – Vagamon – Thekkady’ project at Vagamon,
Kerala on 17th February 2019.
• This project is a part of the Swadesh Darshan Scheme.
• The Eco Circuit project was sanctioned in December 2015 at the cost of Rs.
76.55 crores. It has been developed as a 150 km circuit and includes Eco-
Adventure Tourism Park at Vagamon, Cultural Centre at Kadamanitta, Eco Log
Huts at Peerumedu, Idukki, Approach Roads, Walking trails, Rain Shelters at
Piine Valley Forest, Thekkady, Kumily, MoozhiyarDam, Penstock and Kakki.
• The eco-tourism circuit aims to protect the flora and fauna
of Pathanamthitta and Idukki districts including places like Gavi, Peerumedu.

17. Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan-Dhan (PM- SYM)

• Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan-dhan (PM-SYM) was announced in the
interim budget 2019 and has been notified by the Ministry of Labour and
Employment.
• Features of the PM-SYM: PM-SYM is a voluntary and contributory pension
scheme on a 50:50 ratio basis where prescribed age-specific contribution shall
be made by the beneficiary and the matching contribution by the Central
Government. The salient features of the PM-SYM are:
i. The Subscriber under the PM-SYM will receive minimum assured
pension of Rs 3000/- per month after attaining the age of 60 years
ii. If the subscriber dies during the period of receipt of the pension, the
spouse of the beneficiary shall be entitled to receive 50% of the
pension received by the beneficiary as a family pension.
iii. If the beneficiary had died due to any cause (before age of 60 years),
his/her spouse will be entitled to join and continue the scheme
subsequently by payment of regular contribution or exit the scheme
as per provisions of exit and withdrawal.
iv. The subscriber must not be a taxpayer.
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v. The scheme is expected to benefit as many as 42 crore workers are

estimated to be engaged in the unorganized sector of the country
whose monthly income is Rs 15,000/ per month or less and belong to
the entry age group of 18-40 years who are not be covered under New
Pension Scheme (NPS), Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC)
scheme or Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).

18. CCEA approves launch of KUSUM scheme

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• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved the launch
of KUSUM (Kisan Urja Suraksha Evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan) scheme.
• The scheme aims to provide financial and water security to farmers through
harnessing solar energy capacities of 25.75 gigawatts (GW) by 2022.
• Component of the Scheme - The scheme has three components:
i. Component-A - 10,000 megawatt (MW) of decentralised ground
mounted grid-connected renewable power plants
ii. Component-B - Installation of 17.50 lakh standalone solar powered
agriculture pumps
iii. Component-C - Solarisation of 10 lakh grid-connected solar powered
agriculture pumps.

19. National Rural Economic Transformation Project

• Central Government has proposed a new rural Livelihood Scheme, the
National Rural Economic Transformation Project under the Deendayal
Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM).
• National Rural Economic Transformation Project - The features of the Project
(NRETP) are:
i. The project would be undertaken with loan assistance from the World
Bank.
ii. The project aims to provide interventions to enhance the livelihoods
promotion, access to finance and scale-up initiatives on digital finance
and livelihood interventions.
iii. Projects under NRETP would provide alternate channels of financial
inclusion, creating value chains around rural products, introduce
innovative models in livelihoods promotion and access to finance and
scale-up initiatives on digital finance and livelihoods interventions.

20. HRD Minister launches Operation Digital Board

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• Union Human Resource Minister, Shri Prakash Javadekar launched Operation

Digital Board to leverage technology to boost quality education in the
country.
• Operation Digital Board (ODB) is a revolutionary step which will make both
learning as well as the teaching process interactive and popularize flipped
learning as a pedagogical approach. The features of the programme are:
i. It has been launched on the lines of Operation Blackboard to provide
better digital education in schools.
ii. Under Operation Digital Board 7 lakh classrooms of 9th, 10th and 11th

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standards and two lakh classrooms of colleges and Universities will be
equipped with digital boards in the next three years.
iii. The initiative is aimed at improving the quality of education and offer
new opportunities and new ways of teaching and learning.
iv. The Operation Digital Board will aid in the provisioning of personalised
adaptive learning as well as Intelligent Tutoring by exploiting emerging
technologies like Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence & Data
Analytics.

21. First Mega Food Park of Tripura Inaugurated

• Union Minister of State for Food Processing Industries Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti
inaugurated Sikaria Mega Food Park Pvt Ltd at Village Tulakona in Agartala.
This is the 17th Mega Food Park in the country and first in the state of Tripura.
• Following are the highlights of the Mega Food Park of Tripura:
i. The Mega Food Park has been set up in 50 acres of land at the cost of
Rs. 87.45 crore.
ii. The food park is having facilities of fully operational Dry warehouse
and material handling of 5000 MT, Pineapple canning and Pulping line
of 2 MT/Hr each, Packing Unit, Ripening Chambers of 40 TPD, Cold
Storage of 5000 MT with Frozen Storage of 1000 MT, Quality Control,
Research & Development Centre.
iii. The Mega Food Park also has fully developed Industrial plots for setting
up processing units and Standard Design Factory (SDF) Sheds to
provide ready to move in the facility for micro and small enterprises.
iv. The Mega Food Park will leverage an additional investment of about
Rs. 250 crores in 25-30 food processing units in the park and generate
a turnover of about Rs. 450-500 Crore annually.
v. The Park will also provide direct and indirect employment to 5000
people and benefit about 25000 farmers.