Thursday, April 27, 2017
NITI Aayog:- Draft Three Year Action Agenda
In May 2016, the Prime Minister’s Office advised the NITI Aayog, its premier, independent think tank, to prepare a Fifteen Year Vision, Seven Year Strategy and Three Year Action Agenda. The Fifteen Year Vision and Seven Year Strategy document spanning 2017-18 to 2031-32 is in progress. The Action Agenda covers the period from 2017-18 to 2019-20, the last years of the Fourteenth Finance Commission.
How does the Vision, Strategy and Action Agenda exercise differ from the Five Year Plan process?
The 12th Five Year Plan was the last of the Five Year Plans. With an increasingly open and liberalized economy and given the new realities of the global economy, we needed to rethink the tools and approaches to conceptualizing the development process. The Vision, Strategy and Action Agenda framework will allow us to better align the development strategy with the changed reality of India.
An Overview of the Three Year Action Agenda
In preparing the Agenda, the NITI Aayog sought and received inputs from State Governments, Union Territories and Ministries of the Central Government. Extensive consultations were held with groups of scientists, economists, journalists, voluntary organizations, industry associations and experts in education, health, culture, transport and other fields. Numerous experts and institutions provided useful written inputs.
The Draft Agenda was circulated to NITI Aayog’s Governing Council Members on April 23, 2016. It contains ambitious yet achievable proposals to achieve far-reaching changes in India’s economy. Where relevant, we have included possible actions by the states to complement the Centre’s efforts. The document has 7 parts with 24 chapters. The table of contents is attached.
Selected Key Action Agenda Items
Three Year Revenue and Expenditure Framework:
· A tentative medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF) for the Centre is proposed. Based on forecasts of revenue, it proposes sector-wise expenditure allocation for three years.
· Proposes reduction of the fiscal deficit to 3% of the GDP by 2018-19, and the revenue deficit to 0.9% of the GDP by 2019-20.
· The roadmap consisting of shifting additional revenues towards high priority sectors: health, education, agriculture, rural development, defence, railways, roads and other categories of capital expenditure.
Agriculture: Doubling Farmers’ Incomes by 2022
· Reform the Agricultural Produce Marketing to ensure that farmers receive remunerative prices.
· Raise productivity through enhanced irrigation, faster seed replacement and precision agriculture.
· Shift to high value commodities: horticulture, animal husbandry, fisheries.
· A separate detailed roadmap issued by Member, Professor Ramesh Chand
Industry and Services: Job Creation
· Overarching Action Points
· Create Coastal Employment Zones to boost exports and generate high-productivity jobs.
· Enhance labour-market flexibility through reforming key laws
· Address the high and rising share of Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) in India’s banks through supporting the auction of larger assets to private asset reconstruction companies (ARCs), and strengthening the State Bank of India-led ARC.
· Action points for specific sectors
· Apparel
· Leather and footwear
· Electronics
· Food processing
· Gems and jewelry
· Tourism
· Finance
· Real estate.
Urban Development
· Need to bring down land prices to make housing affordable through increased supply of urban land
1. More flexible conversion rules from one use to another
2. Release of land held by sick units
3. Release of other urban land potentially available
4. More generous Floor Space Index.
· Reform the Rent Control Act along the lines of Model Tenancy Act;
· Initiate titles of urban property
· Promote dormitory housing
· Address issues related to city transportation infrastructure and waste management.
Regional strategies
· Actions targeted aimed at improving development outcomes in the (i) North Eastern Region, (ii) Coastal Areas & Islands, (iii) North Himalayan states and (iv) Desert and Drought prone states.
Transport and Digital Connectivity
· Strengthen infrastructure in roadways, railways, shipping & ports, inland waterways and civil aviation.
· Ensure last-mile digital connectivity, particularly for e-governance and financial inclusion, through developing infrastructure, simplifying the payments structure and improving literacy.
· Facilitate Public-Private Partnerships.by reorienting the role of the India Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd. (IIFCL), introducing low cost debt instruments and operationalizing the National Investment Infrastructure Fund (NIIF).
Energy
· Adopt consumer friendly measures such as provision of electricity to all households by 2022, LPG connection to all BPL households, elimination of black carbon by 2022, and extension of the city gas distribution programme to 100 smart cities.
· Reduce the cross-subsidy in the power sector to ensure competitive supply of electricity to industry.
· Reform the coal sector by setting up a regulator, encouraging commercial mining and improving labour productivity.
Science & Technology
· Create comprehensive database of all government schemes and evaluate them for desirable changes
· Develop guidelines for PPPs in S&T to improve education and industry-academia linkages for demand-driven research
· Channel S&T to address development challenges such as access to education, improving agricultural productivity and wastewater management.
· Create a “National Science, Technology & Innovation Foundation” to identify and deliberate national issues, recommend priority interventions in S&T and prepare frameworks for their implementation
· Streamline the administration of the patent regime
Governance
· Re-calibrate the role of the government by shrinking its involvement in activities that do not serve a public purpose and expanding its role in areas that necessarily require public provision
· Implement the roadmap on closing select loss-making PSEs and strategic disinvestment of 20 identified CPSEs.
· Expand the government’s role in public health and quality education.
· Strengthen the civil services through better human resource management, e-governance, addressing anomalies in tenures of secretaries and increasing specialization and lateral entry.
Taxation and Regulation
· Tackle tax evasion, expand the tax base and simplify the tax system through reforms. For example, consolidate existing custom duty rates to a unified rate.
· Create an institutional mechanism for promoting competition through comprehensive review and reform of government regulations across all sectors.
· Strengthen public procurement
The Rule of Law
· Undertake significant judicial system reforms including increased ICT use, structured performance evaluation and reduced judicial workload.
· Legislative, administrative and operational reforms of police are suggested to the states.
Education and Skill Development
· Shift the emphasis on the quality of school education paying particular attention to foundational learning
· Move away from input-based to outcome-based assessments
· Rank outcomes across jurisdictions
· Use ICT judiciously to align teaching to the student’s level and pace
· Revisit the policy of automatic promotion up to eighth grade
· Create a tiered regulation of universities and college to provide greater autonomy to top universities under the current system.
· Focus on creating and funding public universities under the World Class Universities program.
Health
· Focus on public health through significantly increasing government expenditure on it, establishing a focal point and creating a dedicated cadre.
· Generate and disseminate periodic, district-level data as per uniform protocols.
· Formulate a model policy on human resources for health, implement a bridge course for nurses/AYUSH practitioners in primary care.
· Reform IMC Act and the acts governing homeopathy and Indian systems of medicine
· Launch the National Nutrition Mission; develop a comprehensive Nutrition Information System.
Building an Inclusive Society
· Enhance the welfare of women, children, youth, minorities, SC, ST, OBCs, differently abled persons and senior citizens.
· Develop a composite gender-based index to reflect the status of women in the country.
· Introduce skill-based education and extra-curricular activities as a mandatory part of school curricula; design innovative conditional cash transfer schemes to encourage girls’ education.
Environment and Water Resources
· Adopt sustainable practices and streamline regulatory structures to support high economic growth.
· Adopt measures to tackle city air pollution
· Revisit the policy towards felling of trees on private land and transport of trees
· Promote sustainable use of water resources by improving groundwater management, adopting smart water meters for specific industrial units and enhancing the regulatory environment in the sector.
Source:-PIB
Dependents of GDS to get benefit within 3 months
Department of Posts has revamped the existing compassionate engagement scheme offered to the dependent family members of Gramin Dak Sevak. A GDS who dies in harness, the dependents of such GDS will benefit from a liberalized and time bound procedure for engagement on compassionate grounds. Henceforth, any death of a Gramin Dak Sevak while on engagement would be compensated by a compassionate engagement to a dependent family member irrespective of the circumstances or indigence. Upper age limit of the applicant could also be relaxed wherever found to be necessary. Thus the new scheme of compassionate engagement will provide greater relief to the members of the family of the deceased GDS who belong to weaker and poorer sections of the society and are thrown into penury and hardship.
The ambit of dependent family member has also been expanded to include:
- Married son living with parents and dependent for livelihood on the GDS on the date of death of the GDS
- Divorced daughter wholly dependent on the GDS at the time of death of the GDS
- Daughter in law of the deceased GDS who is wholly dependent on the GDS, if the only son of the GDS is pre deceased.
- This expansion of definition of family members aims to bring greater relief to women in our society who are subjected to difficult circumstances in the unfortunate event of demise of their spouse/parent.
- The present system of relative merit points to ascertain the degree of indigence has been dispensed with. Keeping in view the unique and distinct service conditions, socio economic aspects and to relieve the family from financial destitution, the time consuming process of consideration by Circle Relaxation Committee has been done away with. Henceforth, a request received for compassionate engagement would be considered and decided within three months from the date of receipt of the application.
- Further to ensure least displacement, it has been decided that to the extent possible, compassionate engagement would be offered to the dependent of the deceased GDS, to a GDS post near the place where the family of the deceased normally resides.
Press Information Bureau.
"7th Pay Commission: Will Committee on Allowances submit its report today?" - Zee News Report
The wait for higher allowances like Dearness Allowance (DA) and House Rent Allowance (HRA) for nearly 1 crore government employees and pensioners might be near its end as the Ashok Lavasa-led Committee on Allowances like likely to submit its report as part of the 7th Pay Commission to the Finance Ministry on Thursday.
The cause of delay have been many but media reports said that the Committee on Allowances will submit its report on allowances to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley once he returns from his US visit on Thursday.
The government has not given any official confirmation in this regards or a timeline for implementation of 7th Pay Commission reforms for allowances.
Jaitley, in August 2016, formed Ashok Lavasa committee to look into the demands of nearly 1 crore central government employees and pensioners for provisions of higher dearness and house rent allowances.
Apart from allowances, the panel will be giving suggestions on House Rent Allowances to the government. Under the 7th Pay Commission, HRA should be paid at the rate of 24%, 16% and 8% of the new Basic Pay, depending on the type of cities. Employees' unions demanded HRA at 30, 20 and 10%.
The 7th Pay Commission had recommended subsuming all allowances into one block but the finance minister deferred this decision and referred it to committee.
Out of 196 allowances, the 7th Pay Commission report had recommended abolition of 52 and subsuming of another 36 into larger existing ones.
The cause of delay have been many but media reports said that the Committee on Allowances will submit its report on allowances to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley once he returns from his US visit on Thursday.
The government has not given any official confirmation in this regards or a timeline for implementation of 7th Pay Commission reforms for allowances.
Jaitley, in August 2016, formed Ashok Lavasa committee to look into the demands of nearly 1 crore central government employees and pensioners for provisions of higher dearness and house rent allowances.
Apart from allowances, the panel will be giving suggestions on House Rent Allowances to the government. Under the 7th Pay Commission, HRA should be paid at the rate of 24%, 16% and 8% of the new Basic Pay, depending on the type of cities. Employees' unions demanded HRA at 30, 20 and 10%.
The 7th Pay Commission had recommended subsuming all allowances into one block but the finance minister deferred this decision and referred it to committee.
Out of 196 allowances, the 7th Pay Commission report had recommended abolition of 52 and subsuming of another 36 into larger existing ones.
Now, coffee-scented stamps priced at Rs 100 from India Post
Coffee scented postage stamps, priced at Rs 100, were released here today at the General Post Office.
Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Communication, IT and Telecom Minister Sri Manoj Sinha released the stamps at a function at the post office .
The stamps will be printed at India Security Press.
India had introduced aromatic sandalwood stamp, priced at Rs 15, in 2006. Nearly 30 lakh such stamps were sold out within two weeks.
Rose-scented stamps were also released in four varieties of flowers in 2007.
The varieties were Jawahar, Neelam, Delhi Princess and Bhim, each priced at Rs five.
A Jasmine-scented stamp was released in 2008.
PFRDA : Submitting application transformed from Physical Mode to Online Mode
PFRDA smoothens the Process of Registration of Retirement Advisers; Process of submitting application transformed from Physical Mode to Online Mode.
In order to smoothen the process of registration of Retirement Advisers, Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has transformed the process of submitting application from physical mode to online mode.
The applicants can now submit their application online and upload scanned images of all the required documents. This will reduce the application processing time. PFRDA is registering Retirement Advisers for widening the coverage of NPS by facilitating on boarding of the subscribers and also providing advisory services to them for allocating assets under NPS and choosing Pension Fund Managers.
“Retirement Adviser” can be any individual, registered partnership firm, body corporate, or any registered trust or society, which desires to engage in the activity of providing advice on National Pension System or other pension schemes regulated by PFRDA to prospects / existing subscribers or other persons or group of persons and is registered as such under the PFRDA (Retirement Advisers) Regulations.
NISM and FPSB India are providing necessary certification in order to become eligible for registration as Retirement Adviser. However, Investment Advisers registered with SEBI are exempted from the requirement of such certifications and they can directly submit their application to PFRDA for registration.
PIB
CHQ News: Circle Conference of Himachal Pradesh Circle
It has been reported by Rattan Chand Sharma, Circle Secretary, All India Association of Inspectors and Assistant Superintendent Posts, Himachal Pradesh Circle branch that their Circle is holding 19th Circle Conference on 29-4-2017 at Ksli Bali Hall, Shimla.
Saturday, April 22, 2017
7th Pay Commission: Recommendations of AK Mathur-headed panel on allowances- In Retrospect
Key highlights of recommendations of AK Mathur-headed 7th Pay Commission on allowances.
New Delhi: A high-level committee, headed by finance secretary Ashok Lavasa, which was asked to examine the 7th Pay Commission recommendation on allowances, is likely to submit its final report to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley this week.
The final recommendations on allowances will benefit over 47 lakh central government employees and 53 lakh pensioners.
The Lavasa Committee was constituted in June last year after the government implemented the recommendation of the 7th Pay Commission.
Below are the highlights of recommendations of AK Mathur-headed 7th Pay Commission on allowances
(19 November 2015)
The Commission has recommended abolishing 52 allowances altogether. Another 36 allowances have been abolished as separate identities, but subsumed either in an existing allowance or in newly proposed allowances. Allowances relating to Risk and Hardship will be governed by the proposed Risk and Hardship Matrix.
Risk and Hardship Allowance: Allowances relating to Risk and Hardship will be governed by the newly proposed nine-cell Risk and Hardship Matrix, with one extra cell at the top, viz., RH-Max to include Siachen Allowance.
The current Siachen Allowance per month and the revised rates recommended are as follows:
| Present | Proposed | ||
| 1 | Service Officers | Rs 21,000 | Rs 31,500 |
| 3 | JCO/ORs | Rs 14,000 | Rs 21,000 |
This would be the ceiling for risk/hardship allowances and there would be no individual RHA with an amount higher than this allowance.
- House Rent Allowance (HRA): Since the Basic Pay has been revised upwards, the Commission recommends that HRA be paid at the rate of 24 percent, 16 percent and 8 percent of the new Basic Pay for Class X, Y and Z cities respectively. The Commission also recommends that the rate of HRA will be revised to 27 percent, 18 percent and 9 percent respectively when DA crosses 50 percent, and further revised to 30 percent, 20 percent and 10 percent when DA crosses 100 percent.
- In the case of PBORs of Defence, CAPFs and Indian Coast Guard compensation for housing is presently limited to the authorised married establishment hence many users are being deprived. The HRA coverage has now been expanded to cover all.
- Any allowance not mentioned in the report shall cease to exist.
- Emphasis has been placed on simplifying the process of claiming allowances
Zee News
Contact details of postal life insurance in all states
If you have any grievance or required any help regarding your existing PLI policy, you may contact on the below given address of various Circles:-
The Headquarter of Postal Life Insurance is located at :
Directorate of Postal Life Insurance Chanakyapuri P.O. Complex, 1st Floor, New Delhi–110 021.
Toll Free Number: 18001805232
Ph: 011-24673177
FAX: 011-24100358,26876809
Email ID : pli.dte@gmail.com (pli.dte@gmail.com)
Below are the contact details for Circles :
Andhra Pradesh
O/o CPMG, A.P. Circle, Dak Sadan, Abids, Hyderabad 500 001.
1800-11-5699,
040-23463606
ddmpliapco@gmail.com
APS Directorate
C/o 56 APO
1800-11-5699,26140257
jdpli@armypost.nic.in
Assam
O/o CPMG, Assam Circle, Meghdoot Bhawan, Guwahati 781 001.
1800-34-5305,0361-2547385
pli_assam@yahoo.co.in
Bihar
O/o CPMG, Bihar Circle, GPO Complex, Patna 800 001.
1800-34-56107,0612-2225020
admplipatna@gmail.com
Chhattisgarh
O/o CPMG, Chhattishgarh Circle, Raipur 492 001.
1800-23-31614,0771-2236388
ddmpli.raipur@gmail.com
Delhi
O/o CPMG, Delhi Circle, Meghdoot Bhawan, Link Road, New Delhi-110001.
1800-11-5232,011-23620831
admpli-dl@indiapost.gov.in
Gujarat
O/o CPMG, Gujarat Circle, Khanpur, Ahmedabad 380 001
1800-233-55232,079-22866806
pligujarat@rediffmail.com
Himachal Pradesh
O/o CPMG, H.P. Circle, Kaithu, Shimla 171 009.
1800-180-8047,0177-2629005
ddmplihp@gmail.com
Haryana
O/o CPMG,Haryana Circle, 107, The Mall, Ambala 133 001.
1800-180-1373,0171-2603537
ddmpli_dop@rediffmail.com
J & K
O/o CPMG, J & K Circle, Meghdoot Bhawan, Jewel Chowk, Jammu Tawi 180 001.
1800-180-7046,0191-2543585
jkddmpli8@gmail.com
Jharkhand
O/o CPMG, Jharkhand Circle, Ranchi 834 002
1800-345-6058,0651-2480112
jhddmpli@gmail.com
Karnataka
O/o CPMG, Karnataka Circle, Palace Road, Bengaluru 560001
1800-425-0232,080-22862223
ddmplibg@gmail.com
Kerala
O/o CPMG, Kerala Circle, Thiruvanathapuram 695 003
1800-233-2074,0471-2303005
ddmpli.keralapost@gmail.com
Madhya Pradesh
O/o CPMG, M.P. Circle Dak Bhawan, Hoshangabad Road Bhopal 462 012
1800-233-2074,0755-2550603
ddmplicobhopal@gmail.com
Maharashtra
O/o CPMG, Maharashtra Circle, GPO Building, Mumbai 400 001
1800-22-5232,022-22624470/1689
mahapli@indiapost.gov.in
North-East
O/o CPMG, N.E. Circle, Shillong 793 001
1800-345-3656,0364-2226430
ddmne@hotmail.com
Orissa
O/o CPMG, Orissa Circle, Vidhan Sabha Chowk, Bhubaneswar 751 001
1800-345-6550,0674-2390003
ddmplior@gmail.com
Punjab
O/o CPMG, Punjab Circle, GPO Bldg., Chandigarh 160 017
1800-180-2105,0172-2702231
ddmplichd@rediffmail.com
Rajasthan
O/o CPMG, Rajasthan Circle, Sardar Patel Marg, Jaipur 302 007
1800-180-6655, 0141-2379212
pliraj@rediffmail.com
Tamil Nadu
O/o CPMG, Tamil Nadu Circle, Anna Road, Chennai 600 002
1800-425-6334,044-28520308
ddmplitn@gmail.com
Uttarakhand
O/o CPMG, Uttarakhand Circle, Dehradun 248 001
1800-180-4196,0135-2652226
ddmpli.dehradun@gmail.com
Uttar Pradesh
O/o CPMG, U.P. Circle, 4, Hazratganj, Lucknow 226 001
1800-180-5456,0522-2613126
ddmpliup@rediffmail.com
West Bengal
O/o CPMG, West Bengal Circle, Yogayog Bhawan, Kolkata 700 012
1800-345-5655,033-22120710
ddmlikol@rediffmail.com
*All Pay PLI policies of armed force except BSF/CRPF are maintained by the Army Postal Services New Delhi (Postal Life Insurance(PLI) Toll Fee Nos.- 1800115699)
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