Prelims 2020: Schemes in News part-1

Scheme/Project

Concerned Ministry 

Features

• About: 
• Ministry of Labour and Employment under its National Career Service (NCS) project has now started offering free online Career Skills Training for its registered job-seekers. 
• The ministry has tied up with TCS ION.
• This course on soft skills assists the learners in enhancing personality development with modules on corporate etiquette, improving interpersonal skills, making impactful presentation including other necessary soft skills demanded by the industry at present.
• Significance:
  • Initiatives like this and a number of other taken under NCS will help to mitigate the challenges in the labour market due to COVID-19 and the consequent lockdown of the economy.
• About NCS:
• ​​​​​​​​National Career Service is a Five Year Mission Mode Project being implemented by the Directorate General of Employment, Ministry of Labour & Employment.
• NCS is a one-stop solution that provides a wide array of employment and career-related services to the citizens of India.
• It works towards bridging the gap between job seekers and employers, candidates seeking training and career guidance, agencies providing training and career counselling.
• The NCS project reaches out to the people of this country through its three essential pillars i.e.
  1. a well-designed ICT based portal which is NCS portal,
  2. Countrywide set up of Model Career Centers and
  3. Interlinkage with all the states through employment exchanges.
• There are around one crore active job seekers and 54,000 active employers registered on NCS and around 73 lakh vacancies have been mobilized through the portal so far.

About:

• It was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in February 2019. 
• PM-SYM is the world’s largest pension scheme.
• It is a central government scheme that is introduced for old age protection and social security of Unorganised Workers (UW). 

Beneficiaries:

• The scheme is meant to benefit workers in the unorganised sector aged between 18 years to 40 years with a monthly income of Rs. 15,000 or below.
• Includes street vendors, rickshaw pullers, agricultural workers, mid-day meal workers, construction workers or workers in similar other occupations.
• There are an estimated 42 crore, such unorganised workers, in the country. 

Provisions:

• PM-SYM is a voluntary and contributory pension scheme.
• Under this scheme, the beneficiary after attaining the age of 60 years would receive an assured monthly pension of Rs 3000/- per month after attaining the age of 60 years.
• 50% of the pension shall be entitled to the spouse of the beneficiary as family pension after the death of the beneficiary. 
• 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.

About:

• It was launched in the year 2016 by PM Narendra Modi as a part of provisions of Taxation Laws (Second Amendment) Act, 2016.
• The scheme provides an opportunity to declare unaccounted wealth and black money in a confidential manner and avoid prosecution after paying a fine of 50% on the undisclosed income.
• An additional 25% of the undisclosed income is invested in the scheme which can be refunded after four years, without any interest.
• Earlier, the scheme was valid from December 16, 2016, to March 31, 2017, and later was extended till June 2020.
• Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India, PM Modi in his speech on 30th June 2020 announced the extension of the PM Garib Kalyan Yojana till the end of November 2020 with a ₹1.70 Lakh Crore ($24 billion) relief package.

Provisions:

• ₹500 each to 19.86 crore women Jan Dhan account holders.
• LPG cylinders to be provided to 8 crore poor families for the next three months free of cost.
• ₹1,000 for senior citizens to tide over difficulties during the next three months.
• As of 11 April, ₹28,256 crores ($4 billion) were disbursed through PMGKY to nearly 32 crore beneficiaries.
• Rs 50,000-Crore in Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyan For returnee migrant workers. 
• Under the PMGKY (food scheme) around 80 crores, people benefitted.
• Additionally, everyone will get 5 kg of wheat/rice for free of whatever they are already getting.
• The government will also provide 1 kg of a pulse of their choice to each household till November end. 
• Medical insurance cover of ₹50 lakh per healthcare workers including Safai karamcharis, ward-boys, nurses, ASHA workers, paramedics, technicians, doctors and specialists. 

About:

• It aims to provide affordable loans to street vendors.
• The scheme is valid until March 2022.
• This is for the first time that street vendors from peri-urban/rural areas have become beneficiaries of an urban livelihood programme.
• Earlier, the Scheme was announced as a part of the Economic Stimulus-II under the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan.

Beneficiaries:

• Those who were vending till 24th March 2020 can avail the benefits of the scheme.
• The scheme would benefit vendors, hawkers, thelewale and people involved in goods and services related to textiles, apparel, artisan products, barbers shops, laundry services etc. in different areas.

Provisions:

• The vendors can avail a working capital loan of up to Rs. 10,000, which is repayable in monthly instalments within a year.
• The loans would be without collateral.
• It is for the first time that Microfinance Institutions, Non-Banking Financial Company, Self Help Groups have been allowed in a scheme for the urban poor due to their ground-level presence and proximity to the urban poor including the street vendors.
• There will be no penalty on early repayment of the loan. 
• On timely/early repayment of the loan, an interest subsidy of 7% per annum will be credited to the bank accounts of beneficiaries.
• The scheme incentivises digital transactions by the street vendors through monthly cashback.
• Urban Local Bodies will play a pivotal role in the implementation of the scheme by ensuring to target the beneficiary and reaching to them in an efficient manner.

About: 

• The Government of India has launched this rural public works scheme through video-conferencing on 20th June 2020.

Objective:

• The scheme aims to provide employment to the migrant workers on one hand and create infrastructure in the rural regions of the country on the other hand.

Beneficiaries:

• The scheme will empower and provide livelihood opportunities to the returnee migrant workers and rural citizens who have returned to their home states due to the Covid-19 induced lockdown.

Provisions:

• It will involve intensified and focused implementation of 25 different types of works.
• This campaign will work in mission mode for 125 days with an outlay of Rs. 50,000 crore.
• A total of 116 districts across six states, namely Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Odisha (where maximum migrant workers have returned) have been chosen for the campaign.
• These districts are estimated to cover about 2/3 of such migrant workers. 
• The workers will help build gram panchayat bhawans and anganwadi centres, national highway works, railway works and water conservation projects, among others across six states.
• The chosen districts include 27 Aspirational Districts.
• 12 different Ministries/Departments, namely, Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Road Transport and Highways, Mines, Drinking Water and Sanitation, Environment, Railways, etc. will be coordinating for the implementation of the scheme.