GS- 3rd Paper
Topic–Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization, of resources, growth, development and employment.
Coal India Limited (CIL)
Context
45th Foundation Day of CIL.
About Coal India Limited (CIL)
- Coal India Limited (CIL) the state owned coal mining corporate came into being in November 1975.
- CIL is headquartered in Kolkata, West Bengal.
- It is the largest coal producer company in the world and contributes around 81% of the coal production in India.
- CIL is a Maharatna company – a privileged status conferred by Government of India.
- Union Government of India owns 90% of the shares in CIL and controls the operations of CIL through Ministry of Coal.
- In April 2011, CIL was conferred the Maharatna status by Government of India.
- It is India’s 5th most valuable company in terms of market value.
- Indian Institute of Coal Management (IICM) as a state-of-the-art Management Training ‘Centre of Excellence’ – operates under CIL and conducts multi-disciplinary management development programmes.
Challenges before the Coal sector in India
India is a Coal rich country. However, India has to import near 213 million tons coal yearly. Major reasons for abysmal condition of Coal sector in India can be stated as-
- Delayed environment and forest clearances;
- Land Acquisition issues;
- Lack of adequate technology;
- Arbitrary, discretionary and non-transparent Allocation process;
- Low productivity of Coal India;
- Higher operation and maintenance costs of Coal plants;
- Ineffective State Pollution Control Boards at monitoring or enforcing compliance.
- Low international investment in coal generation assets in India;
- Coal India Limited (CIL), the PSU, the only commercial miner in the country, has the monopolistic tendencies in the Coal Sector. for more than four decades.
- Monopoly in mining sector was incapable of meeting domestic demands.
Government Initiatives
- New coal linkage policy– The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved a new coal linkage policy to ensure adequate supply of the fuel to power plants through reverse auction.
- The CCEA approved the methodology for auction of coal mines/ blocks for sale of the commodity on 20 February 2018.
- The auction will be done on an online transparent platform. The bid parameter will be the price offer in Rupees/ Tonne, which will be paid to the State government on the actual production of coal.
- The new policy will help in ensuring fuel supplies to the power plants in an organised manner.
- UTTAM App– the Ministry of Coal has launched UTTAM (Unlocking Transparency by Third Party Assessment of Mined Coal) Application for coal quality monitoring in April 2018.
- The app aims to ensure transparency and efficiency in coal quality monitoring process and bring coal governance closer to people.
- Online Coal Clearances System– Ministry of Coal has developed Online Coal Clearances System to provide a single window access to its investors to submit online applications for all the permissions / clearances and approvals granted by Ministry of Coal.
- Coal Allocation Monitoring System (CAMS) – Coal Allocation & Monitoring System (CAMS) is launched for Small & Medium Sector Consumers.
- It is developed to monitor the allocation of coal by CIL to States, States to SNA and SNA to such consumers in a transparent manner.
- Opening up of commercial coal mining for Indian and foreign companies in the private sector.
Significance
- This reform is expected to bring efficacy into the coal sector by moving from an era of monopoly to competition.
- It will increase competitiveness and allow the use of best possible technology in the sector.
GS- 2nd Paper
Topic– Important International institutions, agencies and fora- their structure, mandate.
UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN)
Context
UNESCO has designated Mumbai as a member of UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) in the field of FILM and Hyderabad in the field of GASTRONOMY.
About
- UNESCO has designated Mumbai as a member of UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) in the field of FILM.
- Hyderabad as a member of UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) in the field of GASTRONOMY.
- Ministry of Culture is the nodal Ministry of Government of India for all matters in UNESCO relating to culture.
About UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN)
- UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) was created in 2004.
- It is a network of cities which are thriving, active centers of cultural activities in their respective countries.
- The UNESCO Creative Cities Network now counts a total of 246 cities.
- The member cities that form part of the Network come from all continents and regions with different income levels and populations.
Vision
- They work together towards a common mission of placing creativity and the creative economy at the core of their urban development plans to make cities safe, resilient, inclusive and sustainable, in line with the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Aims
- The UNESCO Creative Cities aims to achieve Sustainable Development Goals through innovative thinking and action.
- Also, cities are championing sustainable development actions that directly benefit communities at the urban level.
Creative fields of UCCN
- The network covers seven creative fields: crafts and folk arts, media arts, film, design, gastronomy, literature and music.
- The 7 categories for recognition under UCCN are as follows-
- Crafts and Folk Arts
- Design
- Film
- Gastronomy
- Music
- Media Arts
- Literature
Indian cities in UCNN list
Previously, 3 Indian cities were recognized as members of UCCN,namely-
- Jaipur-Crafts and Folk Arts(2015)
- Varanasi-Creative city of Music (2015)
- Chennai-Creative city of Music(2017)
Two new inducted cites in the UCCN list-
- Mumbai- Creative city of FILM (2019)
- Hyderabad – Creative city of GASTRONOMY (2019)
World Cities Day 2019
- The United Nations General Assembly has designated the 31st of October as World Cities Day.
- The theme for World Cities Day, 2019 is, “Changing the world: innovations and a better life for future generations”.
GS- 2nd Paper
Topics Covered– Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes; mechanisms, laws, institutions and bodies constituted for the protection and betterment of these vulnerable sections.
Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) PMAY(U)
Context
The 48th Meeting of the Central Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee (CSMC) has approved 371 proposals from participating states/UT for the construction of 2,31,532 houses.
About
- The 48th Meeting of the Central Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee (CSMC) has approved 371 proposals from participating states/UT for the construction of 2,31,532 houses.
- Cumulative number of houses sanctioned so far is more than 93 lakhs.
- Total Seven states/UT participated in the CSMC namely Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Nagaland, Puducherry and Uttar Pradesh.
About the PMAY- U mission
- The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) Programme was launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (MoHUPA).
Objectives
The Mission will be implemented during 2015-2022 and will provide central assistance to Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) and other implementing agencies through States/UTs for-
- In-situ Rehabilitation of existing slum dwellers using land as a resource through private participation
- Credit Linked Subsidy
- Affordable Housing in Partnership
- Subsidy for Beneficiary-led individual house construction/enhancement.
- Credit linked subsidy component will be implemented as a Central Sector Scheme while other three components will be implemented as Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS).
Beneficiaries
- The mission seeks to address the housing requirement of urban poor including slum dwellers.
- A slum is defined- “as a compact area of at least 300 people or about 60 – 70 households of poorly built congested tenements in unhygienic environment usually with inadequate infrastructure and lacking in proper sanitary and drinking water facilities.”
- Beneficiaries include Economically weaker section (EWS), low-income groups (LIGs) and Middle Income Groups (MIGs).
- The annual income cap is up to Rs 3 lakh for EWS, Rs 3-6 lakh for LIG and Rs 6 + -18 lakhs for MIG.
- A beneficiary family will comprise husband, wife, unmarried sons and/or unmarried daughters.
- The beneficiary family should not own a pucca houseeither in his/her name or in the name of any member of his/her family in any part of India to be eligible to receive central assistance under the mission.
- States/UTs, at their discretion, may decide a cut-off date on which beneficiaries need to be resident of that urban area for being eligible to take benefits under the scheme.
PMAY(U) Awards
- Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has instituted awards for select beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban)- PMAY(U) from each state/UT.
- The award is being given under ‘Beneficiary-led Construction’ component for building their house in a most aesthetic and innovative manner.
- This special award for beneficiaries is likely to enthuse the States / UTs to fulfil the dream of the house for millions, a reality.
- It will encourage beneficiaries to build their house aesthetically using sustainable methods.
PMAY(U) App
- To facilitate this, a PMAY(U) mobile application was launched.
- The mobile app has been designed for beneficiaries to upload high-resolution photographs and videos clips highlighting their success stories of owning a house under PMAY (U).
- The mobile app has marked its reach to more than 50 thousand beneficiaries so far across all States/ UTs,” stated the release
Significance
- PMAY-U does offer a huge opportunity for several sectors by setting off a virtuous cycle.
- One crore houses would mean an opportunity for over Rs 2 lakh crore of home loans, and incremental consumption of 80-100 million tonne of cement and 10-15 million tonne of steel.
- The construction opportunity is of about four billion square feet over the life of PMAY-U and all that would translate into 9-10 crore incremental jobs over the execution period.
Achievements of PMAY(U)- Mission
- As on date, PMAY(U) Mission has achieved milestone of sanctioning more than 93 Lakh houses under PMAY(U) against the validated demand of 1.12 crore houses.
- A total of 55 Lakh houses are grounded for construction of which construction of more than 28 Lakh houses is complete.
GS- 3rd Paper
Topic– Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life.
Online Hackathon on Data-driven Innovation for Citizen Grievance Redressal
Context
Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) to launch Online Hackathon on Data-driven Innovation for Citizen Grievance Redressal.
About
- A nation-wide online Hackathon ‘Data-driven Innovation for Citizen Grievance Redressal’ is going to launch by Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG).
Objective
The basic objective is to provide technology driven solutions to improve the grievance redressal mechanism in the county.
DARPG will address the following problems-
- Create a Chatbot that will help the Citizens to resolve their common queries related to filing a Grievance in the CPGRAMS portaland expedite smooth submission of grievances.
- Making the redressal process more robust and data-driven to reduce the Grievance submission and resolution lifecycle.
- Technology such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) could be used.
- Improvise the quality of public grievance disposals for greater satisfaction of citizens.
- Create predictive models using datasets to smooth the Grievance redressal mechanism.
Participant
- Participation for the Hackathon would be open to students, academia, researchers, corporate, start-ups, MSME, communities, etc. Participants would be given around 60 days from the launch of the Hackathon to register and submit solution prototype.
.About Centralized Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) of DARPG
- The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DAR&PG), is the nodal agency of the Government of India in-charge of policy making, monitoring and coordinating departments for public grievances.
- Centralized Public Grievance Redress And Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) is an online web-enabled system over NICNET developed by NIC, in association with Directorate of Public Grievances (DPG) and Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG).
- CPGRAMS is the platform based on web technology which primarily aims to enable submission of grievances by the aggrieved citizens from anywhere and anytime (24×7) basis to Ministries/Departments/Organizations/State Governments who scrutinize and take action for speedy and favorable redress of these grievances.
- Tracking grievances is also facilitated on this portal through the system generated unique registration number.
For Prelims
Formation day of States
Context
Prime Minister greets the people of Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Haryana, and Karnataka on the formation day of their states.
Highlights
Madhya Pradesh – formed on – 1 November 1956
Karnataka – formed on – 1 November 1956
Kerala – formed on – 1 November 1956
Haryana – formed on – 1 November 1966
Chhattisgarh – formed on – 1 November 2000
