PIB – October 1 , 2019


GS- 2 Paper

Topic- Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

Ayushman Bharat

Context

Prime Minister launched a new mobile application for the Ayushman Bharat, on completiton of one year of Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri – Jan Arogya Yojana PM-JAY.

About

  • A two-day event, Arogya Manthan , was organized by the National Health Authority, to mark the completion of one year of Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY.
  • The purpose of the Arogya Manthan is to provide a platform to meet for all the important stakeholders of PM-JAY to meet and discuss the challenges faced in the implementation of the scheme in the past year.

About Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri – Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY)

  • National Health Protection Mission (AB-NHPM) is also knowan as Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Abhiyaan.
  • It is also known as Ayushman Bharat or the or Modicare,.
  • It was launched on 25 September, 2018.
  • PM-JAY is the world’s largest health insurance scheme aimed at securing the health of over 10.70 Crore Poor families in the country.
  • PM-JAY is meant only for poor and economically-deprived people.
  • Everyone is noteligible to get free medical insurance under Ayushman Bharat scheme

. Key Features of PM-JAY

  • PM-JAY is a government-sponsored health insurance scheme .
  • It provides free coverage of up to Rs 5 lakh per family per year at any government or even empanelled private hospitals all over India for secondary and tertiary medical care facilities.
  • Modicare will be available for 74 crore beneficiary families and about 50 crore Indian citizens.
  • The expenditure incurred in premium payment will be shared between Central and State Governments in a specified ratio.
  • The funding for the scheme will be shared – 60:40 for all states and UTs with their own legislature,.
  • Northeast states and three Himalayan states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal and Uttarakhand will share in ratio of 90:10.
  • Center will fund 100% UTs without legislature.
  • The NHPS will draw additional resources from the Health and Education Cess.
  • The premiums are expected to be in the range of `Rs 1,000 – ` 1,200 per annum.

Benefits of AB-PMJAY

  • AB-PMJAY provides a defined benefit cover of Rs. 5 lakh per family per year. This cover will take care of almost all secondary care and most of tertiary care procedures.
  • To ensure that nobody is left out (especially women, children and elderly) there will be no cap on family size and age in the scheme.
  • The benefit cover will also include pre and post-hospitalisation expenses.
  • All pre-existing conditions will be covered from day one of the policy. A defined transport allowance per hospitalization will also be paid to the beneficiary.
  • Benefits of the scheme are portable across the country and a beneficiary covered under the scheme will be allowed to take cashless benefits from any public/private empanelled hospitals across the country.
  • The beneficiaries can avail benefits in both public and empanelled private facilities.
  • All public hospitals in the States implementing AB-PMJAY, will be deemed empanelled for the Scheme.

Eligibility for AB-PMJAY

AB-PMJAY is an entitlement based scheme with entitlement decided on the basis of deprivation criteria in the SECC database.

The different categories in rural and urban areas include-

  • families having only one room with kucha walls and kucha roof;
  • families having no adult member between age 16 to 59;
  • female headed households with no adult male member between age 16 to 59;
  • disabled member and no able bodied adult member in the family;
  • SC/ST households;
  • landless households deriving major part of their income from manual casual labour,

Families in rural areas having any one of the following-

  • Households without shelter,
  • destitute,
  • living on alms,
  • manual scavenger families,
  • primitive tribal groups,
  • legally released bonded labour.

For urban areas-

11 defined occupational categories are entitled under the scheme

Occupational Categories of Worker sare-

  1. Rag picker,
  2. Beggar,
  3. Domestic worker,
  4. Street vendor/ Cobbler/hawker / Other service provider working on streets,
  5. Construction worker/ Plumber/ Mason/ Labour/ Painter/ Welder/ Security guard/, Coolie and another head-load worker,
  6. Sweeper/ Sanitation worker / Mali,
  7. Home-based worker/ Artisan/ Handicrafts worker / Tailor,
  8. Transport worker/ Driver/ Conductor/ Helper to drivers
  9. conductors/ Cart puller/ Rickshaw puller,
  10. Shop worker/ Assistant/ Peon in small establishment/ Helper/Delivery assistant / Attendant/ Waiter, Electrician/ Mechanic/ Assembler/ Repair worker,
  11. Washerman/ Chowkidar.

Health and Wellness Centres

  • 5 lakh existing sub centres will bring health care system closer to the homes of people in the form of Health and wellness centres.
  • These centres will provide comprehensive health care, including for non-communicable diseases and maternal and child health services.

Services to be provided at Health & Wellness Centre

  • Pregnancy care and maternal health services
  • Neonatal and infant health services
  • Child health
  • Chronic communicable diseases
  • Non-communicable diseases
  • Management of mental illness
  • Dental care
  • Eye care
  • Geriatric care Emergency medicine

Challenges

  • The National Health Protection Mission (NHPM) scheme, which primarily offers support for clinical services such as hospitalization, fails to address the broken public health system in the country.
  • The limited and uneven distribution of human resources at various levels of health services, with up to 40% of health worker posts lying vacant in some states.
  • The growth of a for-profit care sector poses the additional challenge of arriving at a basic care package for those who are covered by the NHPS, at appropriate costs.
  • Most primary health care centres suffer from a perennial shortage of doctors and even district hospitals are without specialists.
  • The poor condition of public sector healthcare is largely unacceptable, forcing patients to go to the private sector.
  • The proper training and quality Medicare in public sector health care is essential to make a success for PM-JAY.

GS- 2 Paper

Topic-  Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability, e-governance applications.

Documentation Identification Number (DIN) system

Context

DIN system of CBDT launched ; About 17500 Communications with DIN Generated on First day.

About Documentation Identification Number (DIN) system

  • The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has launched a computer-generated Document Identification Number (DIN) to ensure greater transparency and accountability in tax administration.
  • The DIN system became operative from 1 October 2019.
  • It will be applied to all kind of communications from Income Tax (IT) Department, whether it is related to investigation, assessment, rectification, appeals and penalty among other things.
  • The DIN system will enable every CBDT communication will have to have a documentation identification number.
  • Any communication from IT Department without a computer-generated DIN, be it a notice, letter, order and summon or any other correspondence, would be treated as invalid and shall be deemed as if it has never been issued.
  • Also, all such communications with DIN would be verifiable on e-filing portal and no communication would be issued manually without DIN.
  • The only exceptional circumstances is in the case if the communication is issued manually and it would have to be uploaded and regularised on the system portal within 15 days of its issuance.

Benefits

  • The DIN system would ensure greater accountability and transparency in tax administration.
  • Earlier there have been instances where it was not possible to maintain the audit trail of the manually issued communication which caused inconvenience to taxpayers sometime.
  • This development would also help taxpayers detect fake notices and letters as the notice would be verifiable on e-filing portal of department.

For Prelims-

Consumer App

Context

Union Consumer Affairs Minister launched ‘Consumer App’: A one stop solution for consumer grievance redressal at the palm of every consumer across the nation.

Highlights

  • Consumer App’is launched in order to fast-track consumer grievance redressal process .
  • The app aims to provide a one stop solution for consumer grievance redressal at the palm of every consumer across the nation via mobile phones.
  • To provide an effective forum for consumers to give their valuable suggestions to the Department on consumer related issues.

Paryatan Parv 2019

Context

Nationwide “Paryatan Parv 2019” to promote tourism to be inaugurated in New Delhi.

Highlights

  • The Minister of Petroleum &Natural Gasand Minister of Steel, inaugurate the nationwide  “Paryatan Parv 2019”.
  • The idea of Paryatan Parv is to propagate the message of ‘DekhoApna Desh’, with the objective to encourage Indians to visit various tourist destinations of the country and also to spread the message of ‘Tourism for All’.
  • Paryatan Parv 2019 is dedicated to 150th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

The three components of Paryatan Parv, are

  1. Dekho Apna Desh
  2. Tourism for All
  3. Tourism & Governance

“Digital Gandhi Gyan-Vigyan”

Context

Digital Exhibition on Mahatma Gandhi titled “Digital Gandhi Gyan-Vigyan” inaugurated.

Highlights

  • Bringing a scientific context to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, an exhibition titled “Digital Gandhi Gyan Vigyan Exhibition” was inaugurated.
  • The exhibition has been organised in collaboration with a technology start-up under incubation by IIT, namely, M/s Vizara Technologies Pvt. Ltd, Delhi.

 

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