Daily PIB Analysis For UPSC/IAS | 24th Jan 19

Table of Contents

Ministry of Rural Development

DAY-NRLM – Reducing Poverty through Livelihood Diversification
The pace of reduction of poverty in India has speeded up in recent years as per the Global Multi-dimensional Poverty Index 2018 as also the note published by the Brookings Institution.
The Deendayal Antodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) is aimed at alleviation of rural poverty through building sustainable community institutions of the poor.
It seeks to mobilize about 9 crore households into SHGs and link them to sustainable livelihood opportunities by building their skills and enabling them to access formal sources of finance, entitlements and services from both public and private sectors.
It is envisaged that the intensive and continuous capacity building of rural poor women will ensure their social, economic and political empowerment and development.

During the period, 2411additional blocks have been covered under the “Intensive” strategy. Cumulatively, the Mission is being implemented in 5,123 blocks spread across 612 districts of 29 States and 5 Union Territories (UTs).

Between April 2014 and November 2018,more than 3 crore rural poor women have been mobilized into 26.9 lakh Self Help Group (SHGs) across the country. Cumulatively, more than 5.63 crore women have been mobilized into more than 49.7 lakh SHGs. Further, the SHGs have been federated into more 2.73 lakh village level federations and about 25,093 cluster level federations.

The loan outstanding to SHGs have increased from Rs. 32,565 crores in March 2014 to Rs. 76,591 crore in October 2018. Cumulatively, Rs.1.96 lakh crore worth of bank credit has been leveraged by the SHGs during the last five years. The quality of the portfolio has also shown a marked improvement with NPA declining to 2.64% in the current year. This is a result of sustained efforts made by the states to promote timely repayment of loans by the SHGs

During this period, steps have also been taken to promote alternate models for delivery of financial services. About 3050 SHG members have been deployed as Banking Correspondents Agents (BCAs) to provide last mile financial services including deposit, credit, remittance, disbursement of old age pensions and scholarships, payment of MGNREGA wages and enrolment under insurance and pension schemes.

In order to promote agro-ecological practices that increase women farmers’ income and reduce their input costs and risks, the Mission has been implementing MKSP.
During April 2014 to November 2018, about 3 lakh additional women farmers have been covered under MKSP bringing the total coverage to 35.92 lakh women farmers under the project.
Since FY 2015-16, DAY-NRLM has also made significant efforts on creating value chain development interventions to enhance market linkages.
The idea is to develop a complete business model to provide primary producers with end-to-end solutions from creating producer organizations to building marketing linkages.
The Mission has approved proposals to support 2 lakh SHG members under value chain development interventions.
The sanctioned projects cover a variety of agriculture, livestock and NTFP commodities.
The interventions are in vegetables, floriculture, mango and ginger, cashew, hill broom, tamarind, amla, bael, salai gum and other NTFP products, dairy, fishery and goatery value chain development.
These interventions are focused on developing value addition and market linkages through Producers’ Enterprises. As on date, 1.2 lakh SHG members have already been covered under these interventions.

According to the directions given by NITI Aayog in 2016, profiles of more than 1.99 lakh community members have been digitized.
The CRPs have been trained and deployed to provide support to the community institutions in a variety of themes, such as book keeping, training and capacity building, financial services etc.
This also includes more than 31,889 Community Livelihoods Resource Persons (CLRPs) such as Krishi Sakhi and Pashu Sakhi who provide 24X7 door step extension services to the small and marginal farmers including dairy farmers.
Aajeevika Grameen Express Yojana (AGEY) was launched in August 2017 to provide safe, affordable and community monitored rural transport services to connect remote rural villages. As on November 2018, proposals from 17 States have been approved and 624 vehicles are currently plying on road.

Government to launch Technology Mission Centre on Solar Energy & Water Treatment in Chennai.
Union Minister for Science & Technology, Earth Sciences and Environment, Forests & Climate Change, Dr. Harsh Vardhan will be launching three important centre’s set up by Department of Science and Technology (DST), nucleated at Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IITM) on 25th January 2019 at IIT Madras in Chennai.
The first of these is the establishment of DST –IITM Solar Energy Harnessing Centre.
The Centre will focus on a wide range of research and technology development activities such as silicon solar cells that promise high efficiency and are suited for Indian conditions.
The network of researchers engaged in centre comprise of scientists from IIT Madras, IIT-Guwahati, Anna University, ICT-Mumbai, BHEL and KGDS, which will be further expanded.
The centre is likely to be true change agent in the energy landscape of India.
The consortium will be duly poised to address the sustainability requirements in the spirit of ‘Make in India’.

DST-IITM Water –IC for SUTRAM of EASY WATER (DST- IITM Water Innovation Centre for Sustainable Treatment, Reuse and Management for Efficient, Affordable and Synergistic Solutions) which has been established with an aim to undertake synchronized research and training programs on various issues related to wastewater management, water treatment, sensor development, storm water management and distribution and collection systems.
The third one would be the Test bed on Solar thermal desalination solutions which are being established by IIT Madras and Empereal KGDS as solution providers in Naripaaiyur, Ramanathapuram District, Tamil Nadu with the aim to deliver customized technological solutions to address prevalent water challenges in the arid coastal village located on the shores of the Bay of Bengal.

Cabinet approves Memorandum of Understanding between India and Kuwait for cooperation on the Recruitment of Domestic Workers Around 3,00,000 Indian domestic workers deployed in Kuwait. This includes around 90,000 female domestic workers.

The start of online inter-state trade through the e-NAM portal this month is a landmark achievement in e-NAM history
First inter-State trade on e-Nam between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana has been carried out on 19.01.2019 Launched by Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on 14th April, 2016 in 21 Mandis across 8 States with pilot trading of 24 Commodities
The e-NAM portal has integrated 585 Regulated Markets on the common e-market platform in 16 States and 2 Union Territories with trading in 124 commodities.
The e-NAM platform is a pan-India electronic trading (etrading) portal to network the existing physical regulated wholesale market (known as APMC market) through a virtual platform to create a unified national market for agricultural commodities.
e-NAM platform promotes better marketing opportunities for the farmers to sell their produce through online, competitive and transparent price discovery system and online payment facility. Already 2.29 crore MT trade with value of more than Rs.60,000 crore has been recorded on eNAM platform.