Two Mobile Apps for Farmers

Two Mobile Apps Launched for Farmers

Union Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Minister, Sh Radha Mohan Singh launched two mobile apps for the farmers here today. Mobile app ”Crop Insurance” will help the farmers not only to find out complete details about insurance cover available in their area but also to calculate the insurance premium for notified crops, coverage amount and loan amount in case of a loaned farmer. Mobile apps “AgriMarket Mobile” can be used by the farmers to get the market prices of crops in the mandi within 50 km radius of the device and other mandis in the country.

Releasing the apps Sh Radha Mohan Singh said that Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare is organising “Kishan Jai Vigyan Week”to celebrate birth anniversary of Shri. Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Ch. Charan Singh, from 25^th December. Launching of mobile apps is the part of the week long celebrations. He said it has been constant endeavour of the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare to make available all relevant and timely information to the farmers and other stake holders so as to create a conducive environment for raising farm productivity and income to global levels. It is in this direction that an ambitious project known as National e-Governance Plan in agriculture (NeGP-A) has been launched. Besides providing hardware up to the block levels offices in all States/UTs, the project also includes development of 12 clusters of services (with over 65 discrete websites/applications).

            The Minister said that out of these 36 applications and web portals have already been rolled out and are in use by different departments and other stakeholders across Centre and States/UTs. Some of these are mKisan, Farmers Portal, Insurance Portal, Nowcast, Plant Quarantine Information Systems, revamped Agmarknet and Kisan Knowledge Management System etc. The project also includes making these services available through multiple delivery channels like web based, through Touch Screen Kiosks, SMS, USSD and mobiles.  Internet penetration in rural India is still abysmally low, however number of mobiles with the farmers and in hinterlands is rising at a very fast pace.He said that Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare has therefore decided to make all its existing and future services available through mobile platforms.  mKisan portal of the ministry has been a resounding success in this regard.  Today we have approximately 2 crore farmers registered with us for receiving SMS advisories which are being sent by officers and scientists across all States/UTs, ICAR, IMD and Agriculture Universities.

The Minister also said that the Government will launch new crop insurance scheme next month which would aim speedy disposal of claims with very less premiums.

Features of the mobile apps launched today are:-

Crop Insurance Mobile app

Government of India spends huge amounts in extending crop insurance to the farmers so as to provide them relief in case of unforeseen eventualities. Crop insurance is extended by both public and private insurance companies.  States/UTs nominate insurance companies to extend insurance cover for different crops in districts/blocks.  There is also a specific period during which farmers can avail this facility.  Due to administrative and technical reasons much of this information is not able to reach to the farmers well in time to take advantage of these schemes.  This Crop Insurance mobile app can be used to find out complete details about cover available but also to calculate the Insurance Premium for notified crops based on area, coverage amount and loan amount in case of a loanee farmer. It can also be used to get details of normal sum insured, extended sum insured, premium details and subsidy information of any notified crop in any notified area.

AgriMarket Mobile App

Farmers sometimes have to suffer losses due to distress sales in absence of correct market information. They can take an informed decision based on information about the ongoing prices in markets around them as to which market they should take their produce for selling.  This App has been developed with an aim to keep them abreast with crop prices around them. AgriMarket Mobile App can be used to get the market price of crops in the markets within 50 km of the device’s location. This app automatically captures the location of person using mobile GPS and fetches the market prices of crops in those markets which fall within the range of 50 km. There is another option to get price of any market and any crop in case person does not want to use GPS location.The prevailing prices are fetched from the Agmarknet portal.

Both these apps have been developed in house by IT Division of the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers Welfare and can be downloaded from Google Store or mKisan portal (http://mkisan.gov.in/Default.aspx).  There is a provision that if any State desire to convert these mobile applications in their local language, they can easily do so by simply providing the names of few keywords in their language.  Then this application will be prepared in that language very easily and uploaded on the play store. 

Concession in Train Tickets to Unemployed Youth

Railways grant full concession in second class and 50% concession in sleeper class in the basic fares of Mail/Express trains to unemployed youths up to 35 years to appear in interviews for selection to Central/State Government jobs. Besides above, 50% concession in the basic fares of Mail/express trains in Second and sleeper class is also admissible to unemployed youths appearing in interview for selection to other public sector organisations. 

Universities in India

During the last three years (2012, 2013 and 2014) and current year, 139 Universities (2 Central Universities, 32 State Universities, 104 Private Universities and 1 Deemed to be University) have been established in the Country. The State-wise details of these Universities are as under: 

 Central University (2): Uttar Pradesh-1 and Bihar-1. 

 State University (32): Assam-2, Delhi-1, Gujarat-2, Haryana-4, Kerala-3, Madhya Pradesh-1, Punjab-1, Rajasthan-6, Telangana-2, Tamil Nadu-3, Uttar Pradesh-1 and West Bengal-6. 

 Private University (104): Arunachal Pradesh-7, Assam-2, Chhatisgarh-3, Gujarat-9, Haryana-12, Himachal Pradesh-5, Jharkhand-2, Karnataka-10, Maharashtra-4, Madhya Pradesh-5, Manipur-1, Odisha-1, Punjab-8, Rajasthan-15, Sikkim-1, Uttar Pradesh-7, Uttarakhand-5 and West Bengal-7. 

 Deemed to be University (1): Haryana-1. 

Government has not granted permission to private universities to collaborate with foreign institutions. 

Degrees awarded with due permission of University Grants Commission (UGC) by approved Private Universities are valid for all purposes including appointments in Government services in the country. 

Legislation on Trafficking

An inter-Ministerial Committee under the Chairmanship of Secretary, Ministry of Women and Child Development has been constituted for preparing a comprehensive legislation on various aspects of Human Trafficking. Details are as under:

Composition

• Secretary or their representative not below the rank of Joint Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, M/o Women & Child Development, M/o Labour & Employment, M/o External Affairs, M/o Overseas Indian Affairs, M/o Health & Family Welfare and D/o Legal Affairs

• Member-Secretary, National Commission for Women

• Member-Secretary, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights

• Principal Secretary/Secretary of Deptt. of WCD/Social Welfare from State/ UT Govt. of West Bengal, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Delhi and Odisha.

• Representative from National Legal Services Authority (NALSA)

• Mr. Ravi Kant, Shakti Vahini (New Delhi)

• Ms. Sunita Krishnan, Prajwala (Andhra Pradesh)

• Mr. Ajit Singh, Gudia Sansthan (Varanasi-UP)

• Mr. Roop Sen, Sanjog (Kolkata)

• Dr. P.M. Nair, Chair-Professor, TISS, Mumbai

Terms and Reference

• To study the various Acts/Legislations under the purview of different Ministries/Departments relating to various aspects of trafficking.

• To consider the gaps in the existing legislation, from the point of view of prevention, pre-rescue, rescue, post-rescue and rehabilitation aspects.

• To Strengthen victim protection protocol so as to ensure that victims are treated as victims not as offenders.

• To draft a comprehensive legislative framework covering all aspects of trafficking, as may be considered necessary.

• To provide for adequate shelter homes for the rescued victims.

• To prepare a comprehensive policy for law enforcing agencies, including for lady police officers for handling the victims of trafficking.

The Government is also considering to establish a single agency called Organised Crime Investigation Agency. At present, there is no proposal for setting up the Standard Operating Procedures for its implementation.

This was stated by the Minister of State for Home Affairs, Shri Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary in a written reply to question by Smt. Santosh Ahlawat and Shri A. Arunmozhithevan in the Lok Sabha on 8 dec

Power Generation

             The source-wise total electricity generated in the country during the current year (April, 2015 to October, 2015) is given below :

Category	Generation during 2015-16 (April, 2015 to October, 2015) (MU)
Hydro	93,739
Nuclear	21,952
Thermal	5,38,948
Total	6,54,639

As per information available in Central Electricity Authority, there is no power plant which is unable to start production because of non-availability of coal. This was stated by Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal & New and Renewable Energy in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today

            The Minister further stated that the generation capacity of plants presently under various stages of construction is around 1,00,803 MW.  The projected dates of commissioning is progressively upto the end of  13^th Plan i.e. 2021-22.

Electrification of Villages

Government of India has decided to electrify all unelectrified villages of the country by 01^st May, 2018.  This was stated by Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal & New and Renewable Energy in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today.  

There are 18452 villages left for electrification   as on 01.4.2015 in 19 States as given below:-

           

State-wise details of Un-electrified villages
Sl. No	State	Total un-electrified villages (As on 01.04.15)	Villages electrified during 2015-16 (As on 30.11.15)	Balance un-electrified villages (As on 30.11.15)
1	Arunachal Pr.	1578	-	1578
2	Assam	2890	170	2720
3	Bihar	2719	1497	1222
4	Chhattisgarh	1080	33	1047
5	Himachal Pr.	36	1	35
6	J & K	132	26	106
7	Jharkhand	2581	116	2465
8	Karnataka	39	-	39
9	Madhya Pr	472	126	346
10	Manipur	276	58	218
11	Meghalaya	912	1	911
12	Mizoram	58	16	42
13	Nagaland	82	-	82
14	Odisha	3450	168	3282
15	Rajasthan	495	57	438
16	Tripura	26	3	23
17	Uttar Pradesh	1528	741	787
18	Uttarakhand	76	-	76
19	West Bengal	22	8	14
TOTAL		18452	3021	15431

RM/RS-  USQ884 – RS

Encouragement to Domestic Households for Installation of Solar Panels

Government has set a target for installation of 100 GW solar power by the year 2022. This was stated by Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal & New and Renewable Energy in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha on 7th December The Government has taken following steps to promote generation of solar power in the country:

• Financial support in the form of generation based incentives and viability gap funding for solar power projects.

• Fiscal incentives such as accelerated depreciation, concessional custom duty, excise duty exemptions, income tax holiday for 10 years

• Concessional loans from Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency

• Loans under Priority Sector Lending upto Rs. 15 crore for renewable energy projects.

• Bank loans as a part of home loan/ home improvement loan for rooftop solar systems

• Subsidy for grid connected rooftop solar systems, solar pumping systems, concentrated solar thermal and other off-grid solar applications.

The Minister further stated that the Central Financial Assistance of 30% of the benchmark cost is provided for general category States/UTs and 70% for special category States/UTs including Andaman & Nicobar, Lakshadweep Islands in the country to defined categories including domestic houses.

Appropriate weight of School Bags

The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has not recommended any textbook for early childhood education. It has recommended only two books (Language and Mathematics) for classes I & II and three books for classes III to V (Language, Environmental Studies and Mathematics). The number and size of NCERT’s textbooks used by the primary and secondary school students are appropriate to their age. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) had asked schools to ensure that students do not carry school bags till class II and also to restrict the number of books to be prescribed in classes I-VIII. CBSE has also issued a circular on 20.7.2015 to ensure that the parents are not forced to buy excessive number of textbooks. Education, being a subject in the Concurrent List of the Constitution, it is for the respective States/Union Territory Governments to prescribe norms with regard to appropriate weight of School Bags for their schools and take action against the schools violating these norms.

NCERT have made available all their textbooks for free access through the web (epathshala.nic.in) and mobile devices. The collections include textbooks for all classes in English, Hindi and Urdu versions and made available for free download and dissemination.

Setting up of Institutions

Total number of premium institutions in the country are -18-IITs, 4-IIITs, 12- IIITs in PPP mode and 19-IIMs.

During the remaining period of XIIth Five Year Plan, 4 IITs, 7 IIITs in PPP mode and 1 IIMs are going to be established.

At present following institutions are functioning in North- Eastern Region- IIT Guwahati, NIT Agartala , Silchar, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, IIM Shillong, IIIT Guwahati and IIIT Manipur. During the remaining period one IISER in Nagaland and one IIIT in Tripura are going to be established.

This information was given by the Union Human Resource Development Minister, Smt. Smriti Irani 7 dec in a written reply to a Lok Sabha question.

Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao

"Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao" scheme is a joint initiative of Ministry of Women and Child Development, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Ministry of Human Resource Development. Guidelines formulated by Ministry of Women & Child Development for implementation of "Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao" scheme have been issued to facilitate effective implementation of scheme on ground. These guidelines cover the key elements of the scheme including enforcement of Pre-Conception & Pre Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PC & PNDT) Act, awareness and advocacy campaign and multi-sectoral action in select 100 districts which are low on Child Sex Ration (CSR).

The total project cost for Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao for the 12th Five year Plan is Rs. 199.99 crore with 100% Central Assistance.

Gender sensitization is a continuous process and the Ministry of Human Resource Development has been addressing it on priority. The National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2005 prioritizes gender as an important guiding principle in all curricular areas and stipulates that gender be an integral part of all disciplines offered to children at school stage. Gender concerns have been integrated in the curriculum and in the textbooks drawn up by the National Council of Education Research & Training (NCERT) and widely used by the schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and also in several State Governments.

To encourage the participation of girls at elementary level, the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) provides for the opening of schools in the neighborhood to make access easier for girls, the appointment of additional teachers including women teachers, free textbooks, free uniforms, separate toilets for girls, teachers’ sensitization programmes to promote girls participation, gender-sensitive teaching learning materials including textbooks and the scheme of Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas as residential upper primary schools for girls belonging to SC/ST/Minority Communities, BPL families and girls in difficult circumstances.

Under the Rashtriya Madyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) interventions to promote girls participation in secondary schools include opening of new schools, strengthening of existing schools, appointment of teachers, construction of residential quarters for teachers in remote/hilly areas, hostel facilities for girls, teacher sensitization programmes, separate toilet blocks for girls, stipend for girls with disability and vocationalization of secondary education which provides for choice of courses by the girls in such a manner that gender stereotyping is avoided. In addition, the National Scheme of Incentive to Girls for Secondary Education (NSIGSE), exemption from paying tuition fee in Kendriya Vidyalayas, and 33% reservation for girls in Navodaya Vidyalayas, are also being implemented.

Guidelines for Gender Champions in Educational Institutions dated 3rd June, 2015 issued by Ministry of Women & Child Development, which inter alia include promotion of Gender Champion Clubs in educational institutions, have been forwarded to the University Grants Commission for circulation to all universities and colleges.

E-Library

The National Digital Library (NDL) has been conceptualized as new initiative of the Ministry to provide all kind of e-learning materials to learners under the ‘National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology’ (NMEICT). The NDL is entrusted to Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur as a Co-ordinating Institute. The project envisages integrating existing digital contents across educational institutions and to provide single window access with e-learning facility to different groups of users. The project is aimed at developing an integrated portal to query, search and access a large number of academic and research material available at various academic institutes and cover thesis, journals, books, lecture notes including video lectures, etc.

E-Books available in institutional libraries that are connected to the National e-Library can be searched and located through this National e-Library. However, access of the content of these e-books will depend on the access rights given by the content owners. Those books for which either the material is free of copyright or access has been provided by the content owner will be made accessible freely as permitted by law. Digitization of the books is not part of the project and is to be done by individual institutions / repositories but some content can be procured or digitized as needed under the project.

All NCERT books are already made available as e-books, freely by the Ministry and will also be made available freely through the National e-Library. Under e-Pathshala initiative of NCERT, NCERT has digitalized all its text books and has made them available on its web-site i.e. ncert.nic.in and also through e-pathshala.nic.in which is also accessible through all mobile devices. The collections include textbooks for all classes in English, Hindi and Urdu versions converted into e-pub-3.0 format and made available with an exclusive license for free download and dissemination.

Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) was incorporated in Sept. 2011 as a company under Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013. Government has granted approval for conversion of the existing Section 8 company into a Section 3 company under the Companies Act, 2013 (No.18 of 2013) and for renaming it as Renewable Energy Corporation of India. This was stated by Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal & New and Renewable Energy in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha on 3 Dec15

The Minister stated that the organization has to take up commercial activities including trading of power in order to implement various Govt.’s Schemes and to become self- sustaining. The organization is also required to take up development of all segments of Renewable Energy viz. geo-thermal, off-shore wind, tidal, etc., apart from Solar Energy.

The Minister further stated that currently, the organization is engaged in implementation of a number of renewable energy projects and schemes including setting up of 2000 MW solar power projects under VGF scheme, 750 MW of solar power projects under VGF scheme, Solar Park Scheme, roof-top projects and projects in association with other Ministries/ organizations.

LED Distribution

            The details of States covered under Domestic Efficient Lighting Programme (DELP)  along  with number of LED bulbs distributed to the Consumers  till 27/11/2015 State-wise are as follows:-

Sl. No	State	Number of bulbs distributed so far (as on 27.11.2015, 13:20 PM)
1	Himachal Pradesh	27,87,308
2	Rajasthan	45,66,018
3	Andhra Pradesh	99,67,817
4	Telangana	20,000
5	Uttar Pradesh	46,57,271
6	Delhi	40,82,960
7	Puducherry	6,09,251
8	Chhattisgarh	1,24,504
9	Assam	37,000
10	Maharashtra	43,46,795
11	Madhya Pradesh	1,292
	Total	3,12,00,216

This was stated by Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal & New and Renewable Energy in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today.  An independent study has been conducted by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), for 5 locations in Puducherry and Andhra Pradesh and the outcome is as follows:

Region	Units saved annually per LED bulb distributed (kWh)	Units saved annually for the overall project (million kWh)
Puducherry	132.87	80.95
Anantapur	133.76	150.06
Guntur	133.98	249.33
Srikakulam	133.34	142.04
W. Godavari	134.55	214.10

The Minister further stated that the new States proposed to be included in DELP are Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Karnataka and West Bengal. 20,122 MW of avoided capacity addition and 84 mt. of CO₂ emissions are the expected savings from the DELP programme on completion., the Minister added.

RM/RS-  USQ905 - LS

Helicopter Service in NER

In order to provide connectivity to remote areas and difficult terrains, helicopter services are in operation within the States of North East and also for inter-state services in the Region. Helicopter services are in operation in the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagland, Sikkim and Tripura under a subsidy scheme, of Ministry of Home Affairs(MHA). Under this scheme cost of operation after deducting recovery from passengers, is shared in the ratio of 75:25 between MHA and North Eastern States. 

Under the scheme, Pawan Hans Helicopters Ltd (PHHL), a public sector enterprise under the Ministry of Civil Aviation, is the major service provider in the North Eastern States. In addition, States also engages private helicopter services under the scheme. 

This was stated by Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region Dr. Jitendra Singh in Lok Sabha  in a written reply to a question by Shri Baijayant Jay Panda. 

Solar Power Systems on Railway Stations

The Government of India  is encouraging installation of solar power systems particularly on rooftops all over the country including on railway stations and airports as well. This was stated by Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal & New and Renewable Energy (IC) in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha .  The Minster further stated that so far as aggregate capacity of 17.69 MWp solar power systems have been installed at airports and 1.5 MWp in railway stations . The details are solar power systems installed at airports and railway stations

. Details of solar power systems installed at airports and railway stations

Sl.No.	Name of Airport/Railway Station	Solar power (ground mounted) (MWp)	Solar power rooftop (MWp)
A	Airports
1.	Cochin	13	0.10
2.	IGIA, New Delhi	2.14	--
3.	Mumbai	--	0.65
4.	Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan, Safdarjung Airport	--	0.25
5.	Bhopal	--	0.10
6.	Indore	--	0.10
7.	Bhubaneswar	--	0.10
8.	Raipur	--	0.10
9.	Jaiselmer	--	0.10
10.	Amritsar	--	0.40
11.	Lucknow	--	0.50
12.	Guwahati	--	0.05
13.	Jaipur	--	0.10
	Total	15.14	2.55
B	Railways	--
1.	Katra railway station	--	1.00
2.	Other railway stations	--	0.50
	Total	--	1.50

The Minister further  stated that the Government is promoting use of renewable energy systems all over the country which includes airports and railway stations and other public places in the country for which the following steps are being taken:

·         Ministry of Railways has set a target for setting upof  1,000MWp solar power plants on railway/private land and railway buildings in next 5 years.

·         Financial support in the form of generation based incentives and viability gap funding for solar power projects.

·         Subsidy for grid connected rooftop solar systems, solar pumping systems, concentrated solar thermal and other off-grid solar applications.

·         Fiscal incentives such as accelerated depreciation, concessional custom duty, excise duty exemptions,  income tax holiday for 10 years

·         Concessional loans from Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency

·         Loans under Priority Sector Lending uptoRs. 15 crore for renewable energy projects. 

·         Bank loans as a part of home loan/ home improvement loan for solar rooftop systems

·         Capacity building and public awareness through electronic and print media.