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Preface

This is our 5th edition of Yojana Gist released for the month of AUGUST, 2015 on Inclusive
Growth and related issues. Yet the message delivered in the last edition remains the same.
Yojana Magazine (released by Ministry of I&B) is increasingly finding a place in the questions
of both UPSC Prelims and Mains. Every Issue of Yojana deals with a single topic
comprehensively sharing views from a wide spectrum ranging from academicians to policy
makers to scholars. The magazine is essential to build an in-depth understanding of various
socio-economic issues.

From the exam point of view, however, not all articles are important. Some go into scholarly
depths and others discuss agendas that are not relevant for your preparation. Added to this
is the difficulty of going through a large volume of information, facts and analysis to finally
extract their essence that may be useful for the exam.

We are not discouraging from reading the magazine itself. So, do not take this as a
document which you take read, remember and reproduce in the examination. Its only
purpose is to equip you with the right understanding. But, if you do not have enough time to
go through each and every Yojana magazine, you can rely on the content provided here for
it sums up the most essential points from all the articles in Yojana.

You need not put hours and hours in reading Yojana and making its notes in pages. We
believe, a smart study, rather than hard study, of Yojana can improve your preparation
levels. Hence, instead of giving you a gist of articles, we are providing a Q&A format from
both Prelims and Mains that can make you understand – How to read Yojana?

Think, learn, practice and keep improving! That is the key to success. 

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INTRODUCTION
Pranab Mukherjee while addressing both Houses of Parliament described “Inclusive growth
covering the poorest of poor” as the Government’s top priority. India, having successfully
emerged from an under-developed nation to one of the largest economies, needs to
translate into an overall improvement in the lives of poor and the marginalised sections of
the society.

Eleventh Five Year Plan had envisaged the concept of “Inclusive Growth” with the intention
to achieve a growth process guaranteeing improvement in the quality of life and the
equality of opportunity to all. Twelfth plan stressed on it empathetically with an orientation
towards reducing poverty, improving health and education facilities, and livelihood
opportunities.

Poverty
reduction

Quality of Agriculture
employment development

Social Sector Proper

Development Delivery
System

Most social protection policies employed by countries are concerned with equity, which is
reasonable access to equality of opportunity, which should permit people to use the
instruments that are at their disposal to progress by some set parameter. Government of
India, keeping this in mind, has launched various schemes like Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan
Yojana, MUDRA Bank, SETU, Skill India Mission and schemes like Pradhan Mantri Suraksha
Bima Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyothi Bima Yojana and Atal Pension Yojana. MNREGA
has already established itself as a winner by improving the standard of living, checking
migration and increasing employment opportunities for the rural poor significantly.

But to realise the potential of these schemes, a nation-wide integration is important and the
recent revolution of digitization, truly holds the key to ‘effective’ and ‘efficient’ utilization of
technology to bring the excluded groups back into the mainstream; securing to its citizens,
the equality of status and opportunity in real sense.

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Mains Related Questions

1) Examine the role of modern digitization technologies in solving socio-economic

problems and bringing inclusive growth in India.

India has the largest number of poor people in the world and faces several socio-economic
and environmental challenges. Although, various plans and schemes have been underway
since the independence of our country, the advent of globalization has increasingly led to
various other challenges, needed to be dealt with. Technological Revolution, once
implemented, will help India take strides in the improvement of facilitation of services to
both urban and rural areas of India, leading to its deep penetration and good governance on
the basis of communication. This evolutionary new wave of change can be witnessed in the
following:

Digital India:

Broadband highways are as important as National Highways to offer better services (Digital
Payments + Verifiable Digital Identity), equip one with better education, foster innovation
and generate more jobs.

In Agriculture:

 Hybrid and GM crops, precision farming by using sensors, GIS-based soil, weather,
water data, and market information
 Minimization of post-harvest losses by improvement in the storage and distribution
system can reduce leakages and make the sector realize additional value
 Helps in assessing crop damage through all-weather stations, satellite/drone imagery
and mobile based transfers

Manufacturing Ecosystem:

With an ever-increase in the number of employable youth, a smooth transition is important

to make our manufacturing ecosystem globally competitive. Impetus to electronic
manufacturing to realise ‘Zero Import’ vision by establishing proper linkages in terms of
right technology, raw materials and manpower will transform India into a manufacturing
hub. GST will help scale up the entire process.

Education and Skill Development:

The huge learning crisis and the problem of unemployment can be revitalised by:

 New forms of adaptive and peer learning (Online Learning) + Access to mentors
 Provision of useful data in real time

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3 pillars:

 Creation of instructional tools for individualized student learning:

 E-content: Digitization of information + Animations + Videos
 ‘Gamification’ of learningMaking learning Fun and Interactive
 Address the diversity of language and culture

 Development of tech-integrated programmes for competency-linked teacher

training:
 Connect with peersExchange of knowledge
 Revisit and enhance knowledge with Mentors
 Creation of digital content
 Getting trained at producing instructional videos + online coaching + peer
support

 Data Collection and analysis for strong governance

 Usage of Management Information Systems to
 Record + Maintain + Track + Analyse student & teacher’s performances
data

Delivery of Health-care Services:

Existing facilities can be augmented with the help of technology to deliver optimal health
outcomes

 Delivering expert consultations over digital networks

 Low-cost portable diagnostic devices
 Improving quality & safety
 Low-cost healthcare and minimization of transportation costs (rural to urban)

Eg: NetraG An optic device that can be plugged into a smart phone and is helpful in
measuring the refractive error of an eye

E-governance

 Bringing government and citizens closer by removing layers of red-tape,

inaccessibility and intermediaries
 Enhancing Competitiveness
 Creation of a Pro-Business Environment
 Cut down delays, corruption and inefficiency

Thus, it is imperative for India to build physical infrastructure to align its vision with the
much awaited socio-economic progress while creating an innovative and an enabling

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environment for growth to thrive. This revolution is sure to help India achieve its goals of
rapid economic growth, greater social inclusion, and better governance by 2025.

2) Economic Development requires India to address the divergences existing between

growth and social development. Trace the recent steps taken by India in this aspect.

Economic growth refers to the increase in an economy’s output over time but economic
development aims at achieving a growth in achieving equal opportunities for all. Regional
imbalances with no improvement in the livelihoods of a large section of people, has led to a
‘jobless growth’. There is thus, a need to address the divergences that exists between
growth and social development.

For Financial Inclusion:

Access to appropriate financial products to all, with a focus on the vulnerable section at an
affordable cost, in a transparent and fair manner

The steps taken are:

PMJDY:

 Included 16.7 crore people in the growth and distribution process

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 Need to inculcate a behaviour of ‘Saving’

 Improvement in the redistributive process

JAM Trinity Comprehensive Financial inclusive Plan

 Link it with PMJDY + Information Technology + Aadhaar Network

 Help bring the bottommost members in the formal Financial System
 Efficient + Leakage-free transfer of benefits Reached the beneficiary

MNREGA: ‘the stellar example for rural development’

 Provision of employment opportunities and livelihood safety to break the image of

India attaining “Job-less” growth
 Measures taken to make it a robust scheme can be utilized in other schemes:
 IT: Identification + Implementation + Distribution of Wage Payments through e-
FMS (Electronic Fund Management System)
 Participation of local people as major stakeholder via ‘Social Audit System’
 Payments have directly influenced the number of rural bank accounts holder
 Women’s socio-economic standing has improved enormously
 Adhaar based transfers + PMJDY + Indian Post System Network will further improve
the efficiency and livelihood of the rural poor, making them a part of growing India

Food Security

An economy is said to have ‘food security’ when all people at all times have access to safe
and nutritious food and drinking water to lead a healthy life

 The present UNICEF Report says that at least 1 million children under the age of 5 die
due to malnutrition; forcing us to look out for the SCs, STs, OBCs and the rural poor
as they share the highest burden of acute malnutrition.
 India also ranks 55 in the Global Hunger Index based on
 number of underweight children under 5
 under-5 Child Mortality Rate
 and the proportion of undernourished in the population
 India has passed National Food Security Act, 2013 to address the grave situation
aiming to provide subsidized food to almost two-thirds of the entire population
 It has been integrated with schemes like PDS + Mid-Day Meal Scheme + Integrated
Child Development Services, to bring nutritional food security to both children and
women.

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However, the NFSA Act is yet to be implemented and both central and state government
should remove the hurdles quickly to make our population heathy and increase our ‘human
capital’.

India has been trying to address the issues of divergence between growth and social
development. However, regional imbalances in implementation of the schemes, lack of
technological integration has been playing foul with our development agendas. There is a
need to identify the factors that are causing a stall, reduce the inter-region imbalances as
well as the leakages and the State Government to play a pro-active role in the development
of India.

3) Small firms form the seedbed of new initiatives and India needs to align its
development agenda with the ‘growth stimuli’ known as MSMEs. In the light of the above
statement, revisit the critical areas of concern and suggest a way ahead for more intensive
economic prosperity in the country.

The social role of MSME’s since Independence has been that of a carrier of fruits of growth,
to the corners of the country. However, keeping in mind India’s growth paradigm and the
unfinished strategy of integration of policies related to MSMS’s, there are various factors
that needs revisiting in order to create a synergy between India’s strategy for alignment of
MSME’s with its development agenda.

Start-up: India needs to harness the motivational skills of its young workforce rather than
just making them capable of earning wages. There is a need to take care of both ‘Program
Modelling’ and ‘Delivery of Programs’ and thus, should develop a proper approach to
understanding, measurement and planning for entrepreneurship development.

Skill Development: The skill-gap needs to be holistically understood and ‘Skill India’ hopes
to harness modular and motivational skills together. This mismatch greatly affects the
capacity build-up,as labour market interventions needs to be demand-driven and should be
in coordination with enhanced income opportunities. Speed, standard and sustainability
should be the mantra.

Knowledge Creation & Transmission: The knowledge system for MSME’s should be
integrated to nourish the whole value chain and make ‘innovation’ its mantra for
sustainability.

Manufacturing thrust: National Manufacturing Competitiveness Programme (NMCP) and

the National Manufacturing policy have been given impetus, with a concentrated focus on

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MSMS’s to make India a Manufacturing hub. Defence, Electronics and Textiles production
are the sectors that need more concerted efforts.

Harnessing the potential of Socially Marginalised Groups: In India, the configurations of

caste and language gets reflected in enterprise clustering and recruitment strategy and
managing this multi-culturism would require MSME’s to equip itself with social engineering
skills and a working public policy

Eg: SHG’s, USTAAD are attempting to bring these groups in the forefront of the
development process.

In India, despite its long history of MSMS Development policy, our efforts towards
integrating its development with ‘inclusiveness’ at its core, has been marred with the failure
of the benefits in reaching the targeted beneficiaries. As India, transforms into a knowledge
economy, more meticulous efforts are needed to identify the loopholes and channelize
them into a meaningful solution.

4. What do you mean by Social Enterprise? What role can it play in bringing ‘inclusive
growth’ to India?

Social Enterprises are defined as enterprises that operate like a business, produce goods and
services for the market, managing the operations but redirecting the surpluses in pursuit of
social and environmental goals. They can be operated by a non-profit organization or by a
for-profit company, having its primary objective as ‘social purpose’ at the top and
‘commercial purpose’ at the bottom.

Social enterprises have two goals at its core:

 To achieve social, cultural, community; economic or environmental outcomes

 Generate revenue to support its goals

India has seen a remarkable GDP growth over the last two decades but its 1.2 billion
populations is still grappling with poverty. We are in need of a response that builds up a
‘social economy’; and social enterprises can play an important role in fulfilling government
policy objectives by:

 Increasing productivity and competitiveness

 Contributing to socially-inclusive wealth creation
 Enabling individuals and communities to renew local neighbourhoods
 Demonstrating new ways to deliver public services
 Developing an inclusive society and active citizenship

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India has produced several social enterprise models but the country still lacks in a social
enterprise policy at a national level. Once brought into the mainstream, it can play an
instrumental role in translating the concept of ‘inclusion’ into an action-oriented
phenomenon, from idea to innovation, smoothly.

But there exists a difference in ‘having an access’ and actually, accessing.

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There is a need for the Government to rethink those measures already taken and those,
about to be taken, to expand their scope in making financial instruments more inclusive.
Orientation programmes for bank staff and financial literacy programme for the public
should be taken up.

To start off, a multidimensional index can be computed to include:

 number of bank accounts per household

 number of bank branches per 1,000 kilometres
 Financial habit indicators (No. of accounts actually used)
 Performance of the BC’s as well as improving their profitability

Credit for image- Financial Express

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5. Enumerate thesocio-economic impact of the expansion of financial access in India.

The correlation between inclusive growth and reduction in poverty and corresponding social
equality is widely recognised. Financial inclusion can thus be seen as a tool of advancing
equitable growth for all the economic participants in the society.

PMJDY:

Creation of a social security net along with Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana, Pradhan
Mantri Jeevan Jyothi Bima Yojana and Atal Pension Yojana

These have the ability to alter the manner in which benefits can be transferred to the
marginalised section, bringing them into mainstream finance. However, lack of access points
and transaction limits make it unattractive and their removal will usher in more frequent
usage and ease of access. Post office payments and usage of Fair price Shops (eg: ‘Anywhere
Rations’ by AP government)as multipurpose shops are beneficial alternatives that can be
leveraged along with DBT, MUDRA Bank and Gold Monetization Schemes to collect and park
the pool of savings for better investment purposes.

Scope of JAM:

 Building up of an inclusive information society

 Improvement in governance
 Can help build a network around which a larger network can be established to link
users to small businesses, majorly bringing them into a level-playing ground

Banking Correspondents System in underbanked areas:

 Convenience and lowered transaction costs

 Improved Banking Relationships visible in the form of higher loan recovery rates
 Disappearance of Informal service providers
 Financial Literacy
 Opportunity to harness savings; channelizing them in areas like housing, education
and health

These socio-economic developments can help India unleash her creative potential and
convert ideas and innovation into a manufactured product in the economy, strengthened by

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inclusive growth yielding higher employment and output for the economy. This will form a
sound foundation for the ‘Make in India’ to become a reality.

6) Recent formulated schemes are major steps taken by government of India to create a
sound and a sustainable social security net in the country. Comment

Schemes like Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyothi Bima
Yojana and Atal Pension Yojana, serve as a successful model towards creation of a
sustainable social security net for millions in the country.

a. They are universally accessible covering the majority of population unable to access
the products privately and the premium has been kept low to attract even the
poorest of the poor
b. It develops a sense of responsibility enhancing awareness and gives a push to
‘financial inclusion’.
c. Bank becomes the mediator, creating great convenience and a sense of safety in the
minds of the account holder.
d. Business Correspondents Model enhances the capacity and the footprint of the
banks in rural areas thereby, contributing to minimum transaction costs for the
banks.
e. Mobilization of savings can be further integrated into the economy to increase
further productive investment.

However, these schemes pose some serious challenges that should be taken care of by the
policy makers:

a. Lack of awareness and understanding is the major hurdle in rural areas where there
is no system to deliver the desired information, makes the role of the Gram
Panchayat extremely important.
b. Zero Balance Account has a high maintenance cost which is difficult to maintain and
the issue of ‘recovery’ being difficult
c. As the number of accounts is increasing, banks are finding it difficult to increase their
workforce and at the same time, deliver services efficiently.
d. Most of these rural accounts are No-Frill accounts and thus, banks are unwilling to
spend inordinate amounts of time and resources to create and nurture a new
market.
e. Connectivity issues make banks suffer more because their investment doesn’t
generate good output in rural areas.

Even with some of the shortcomings, these schemes have provided an option to the poor,
creating a web of good governance with the ‘poor’ being a major stakeholder. Lack of
awareness, poor connectivity and low penetration of banks in rural areas needs to be dealt
with swiftly to forge India towards an inclusive socially developed nation.

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7. Can agriculture be employed as a basic means to uplift the socio-economic indicators of

our country?

In an agrarian economy, a development plan needs to keep agriculture as its centre point.
India has witnessed a major downslide on the productivity and crop-diversification front,
making more than two-thirds of population remain laggard on all aspects of socio-economic
measurements. The sole motto of agriculture has been to increase the acreage and
productivity but there is a need today, to make agriculture, a tool to bring about inclusive
growth and social change.

National Agriculture Market (NAM):

 Integration of wholesale markets across India on an online platform

 One license for the entire state and a single point levy
 Electronic auctions for price discovery
 Market size for farmers would increase enhancing better prices, better supply chain,
wastage reduction
 Elimination of middlemen enhancing more scope for financial inclusion

Soil Health Scheme

 Importance to soil-health established by mobile soil testing laboratories across the

country
 From sample collection to its analysis, training of farmers, staff and chemists
 Optimum usage of ICT to help the farmers understand the soil quality, the
deficiencies and the proper crops to be grown with the knowledge of the amount of
fertilizers to be put, minimising risk and reducing cost

Prime Minister Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY)

 Achieve convergence of investments in irrigation at the field level

 Expand cultivable area under assured irrigation
 Improve on-farm water use efficiency to reduce wastage of water
 Enhance the adoption of precision-irrigation and
 Water saving technologies like Drip Irrigation
 Enhance recharge of aquifers
 Introduction of sustainable conservation practices
 Exploring the feasibility of reusing treated municipal based water
 Attract greater private investment in precision irrigation system
 Involvement of major stakeholders for proper water-budgeting to be done

Price Stabilization Fund

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 To check volatility of prices and increasing the shelf life of vegetables, government
has established this fund
 Perishable commodities will be procured directly from farmers or their organizations
at the mandi levels and be made available at reasonable prices
 Helps getting buyers directly on the doorsteps of farmers

Agriculture Credit & Farm Insurance

 Making credit available on easy terms

 Enabling farmers to recover the basic inputs in times of uncertainties (Weather-
based insurance scheme)
 Creation of a strong social security system in Rural India

DD Kisan: To inform and educate about the recent initiatives as well as warn them about
weather conditions

Warehousing

 Proper handling and storage will reduce the wastage of food-items

 Enhance effective targeting under NFSA
 Safety of perishable items by increasing their shelf life

Focus on power sector reforms, promotion of renewable sources of energy and waste
management are some of the priority sectors that needs to be addressed. But the
government has definitely diagnosed a major problem lurking in agriculture sector and
therefore, has initiated the process of employing agriculture to bring a sustainable ground
to uplift the socio-economic indicators of our country.

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Do You Know?

E-mandi:

The concept of E-mandi has successfully integrated the agri-markets of the country, making
it a ‘one market’ phenomenon. This web-enabled platform will enable farmers and traders
to purchase as well as sell their agricultural commodities at a favourable price, in a
transparent manner. This will improve the supply-chain mechanism, reduce wastages as
well as bring down the barriers providing a level field to all.

Karnataka has successfully been operating this model and has set an example for the other
states to follow. State governments have been given the responsibility to increase
awareness regarding the methods and the software to roll out this plan efficiently.

Prelims Questions:

1. Identify:

1) It is the largest river island in the world which has been shrinking in size due to erosion

2) It is located in Brahmaputra River and is abode of the Assamese neo-Vaisnavite culture.

a) Moirang
b) Majuli
c) Ziro
d) Mokokchung

2. ‘Rashtriya Avishkar Abhiyan’ aims to inculcate a spirit of inquiry, creativity and a love
for Science and Mathematics, enabling North East youth to come closer to mainstream
India. This unique concept has been developed by

a) Ministry of Youth Affairs

b) National Skill Development Corporation
c) National Service Scheme
d) Ministry of Human Resource Development

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3. The actual usage of NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potash) in India is in the ratio

a) 8:3:1
b) 4:2:1
c) 7:3:9
d) 6:5:2

Explanation:

4:2:1 is the recommended usage of NPK.

4. Consider the following statements regarding the Targeted Public Distribution System
started in 1997:

1) The number of eligible beneficiaries in each state is fixed by the State Government.

2) The identification of actual beneficiaries under BPL and AAY is carried out by the Central
Government.

Choose the correct statement:

a) Only 1
b) Only 2
c) Both
d) None

Explanation:

1) The number of eligible beneficiaries in each state is fixed by the Central Government
based on the state-specific poverty line.

2) The identification of actual beneficiaries under BPL and AAY is carried out by the State
Government.

5. Which of the following is one of the vision statements issued by the ‘Nachiket Mor’
Committee?

a) Bank account for every resident by 2018

b) Bank account for every BPL by 2018
c) Bank account for every citizen by 2016
d) Bank account for every resident by 2016

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6. Consider the following:

a) Self Help Groups (SHGs)

b) Panchayats

c) Khadi and Village Industries units

d) Village Knowledge Centres,

e) Post Offices

Who can become a Business Correspondent for Banks?

I. Only e
II. Both b and e
III. Both d and e
IV. All of the above

Thank You

IASbaba

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