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GOVERNMENT SCHEMES FEBRUARY 2019

Government Schemes – February 2019 Free current affairs e-book

Very often questions on Government Schemes are asked in the General Awareness section of

Banking and Government Exams. Questions may be asked about the recently launched

scheme, about changes made in already existing scheme or about budget allocation to the

scheme in exams like NABARD, IBPS RRB, SBI PO and Clerk, IBPS PO and IBPS Clerk, RBI Grade

B and Assistant, SSC CGL, UPSC, NIACL AO, IBPS SO and many more exams. To give you

answers to all these questions, here we provide you with the Important Government Schemes

from the month of February 2019.

Sample Questions –

Q. What is the full form of “SHREYAS” – a scheme programme to provide industry-specific

apprenticeship opportunities to fresh graduates?

1. Scheme for Higher Education Youth in Apprenticeship and Skills

2. Scheme for High School Education Youth in Apprenticeship and Skills

3. Scheme for High School Entrepreneurship Youth in Apprenticeship and Skills

4. Scheme for Higher Entrepreneurship Youth in Apprenticeship and Skills

Answer (1)

Q. What is the categorisation for Large Farmers in terms of land?

1. 12 Hectares and more

2. 10 Hectares and more

3. 15 Hectares and more

4. 5 Hectares and more

Answer (2)

So here we bring to you all the important Government Schemes launched in the month of

February 2019 with a brief overview about it. Go through these to help you ace the General

Awareness section of the Banking and Government Exams.

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Government Schemes – February 2019 Free current affairs e-book

Important Government Schemes – February 2019

1. PM Modi Launches PM-KISAN Income Support Scheme for

Farmers• The central government had announced the PM-KISAN (Pradhan Mantri Kisan

Samman Nidhi) support scheme to address the agricultural sector crisis in

Indian farm sector.

• The scheme Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) would provide

an annual grant of Rs 6,000 to small and marginal farmers having combined

land holding or ownership of up to two hectares. The scheme will benefit

atleast 120 million farmers.

• The amount will be given in three instalments of Rs. 2,000 each and will be

transferred directly to the bank account of the farmers through Direct Benefit

Transfer.

• PM-KISAN is entirely funded by the central government and will incur an

annual expense of Rs. 75,000 crores.

• The existing land-ownership system in the States/UTs will be used for

identification of beneficiaries. Those whose names appear in land records as

on February 1, 2019 are eligible for benefit from the scheme.

• Ministry of Agriculture and farmer’s welfare gave its approval for the scheme.

• Similar to the PM-Kisan Yojana are

(i) Rythu Bandhu Scheme of Telangana

(ii) KALIA Scheme of Odhisha

(iii) Krishak Bandhu scheme of West Bengal

2. Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Mandhan

• The Union Finance Minister Piyush Goyal announced the Pradhan Mantri

Shram Yogi Mandhan scheme for workers in the unorganised sector.

• Under the scheme people working in the unorganised sector will be able to

open their pension accounts and deposit money on a regular basis.

• The interested applicant who has attained an age of 18 years and interested in

joining the scheme have to contribute Rs 55 per month till they attain the age

of 60 years.

• An equal amount will be contributed by the central government.

• The scheme offers an assured a monthly pension of Rs 3000 to the workers of

the unorganised sector after the age of 60 years.

• The scheme will benefit approximately 10 crore workers in the unorganised

sector.

Government Schemes – February 2019 Free current affairs e-book

• The scheme is touted to become the world’s biggest pension scheme for the

unorganised sector in the next year.

3. Know India Programme• Know India Programme (KIP) is a flagship initiative for Diaspora engagement

that familiarizes Indian-origin youth (18-30 years) with their Indian roots and

contemporary India, through a three-week orientation programme organised

by the Ministry.

• In 2016, the scheme was revamped to increase duration from 21 to 25 days,

with a 10-day visit to one or two States and preference given to PIOs from

Girmitiya countries (Mauritius, Fiji, Suriname, Guyana, T&T, Jamaica etc).

Since 2016, six KIPs are being organised in a year.

• The programme requires a minimum qualification of Graduation to become a

part of the scheme.

• The content of the programme broadly includes the following:

(i) Presentations on the country, political process, developments in

various sectors.

(ii) Interaction with faculty and students at a prestigious

University/College/Institute

(iii) Presentation on the industrial development and visits to some

Industries

(iv) A Visit to a village to better understand the typical village life

(v) A Visit to Agra

(vi) A Visit to one or two focus states in India

(vii) Interaction with NGOs and organizations dealing with women affairs

(viii) A Visit to places of historical importance/Monuments

(ix) Taking part in Cultural programmes

(x) Exposure to yoga

(xi) Call on high dignitaries, which may include Vice President of India,

President House, Parliament, Union Ministers, Governor and Chief

Ministers of partner states etc.

4. Implementation of Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM JAY)

• The Union Government has taken some steps for smooth and effective

implementation of Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM JAY).

• PM-JAY scheme would provide poor, deprived rural families and identified

occupational categories of urban worker’s families as per the latest Socio-

Economic Caste Census (SECC) data with health benefit cover of Rs 5 Lakhs

per family per year at free of cost. The health benefits under the

Government Schemes – February 2019 Free current affairs e-book

scheme include more than 1,350 medical packages covering surgery, medical

and day-care treatments, cost of medicines and diagnostics.

• The following steps have been undertaken for the effective implementation of

PMJAY:

(i) The State Governments have been given the flexibility to implement

PM-JAY either through insurance companies, or directly through

trust/society, or in a mixed mode.

(ii) National Health Agency (NHA) has been set up by the Government to

implement PM JAY through State level Health Agencies.

(iii) A robust IT system has been put in place for effective implementation

of the Scheme.

(iv) Central Grievance Redressal Management System has been set up for

receiving grievances. A system has been put in place to acknowledge,

record, escalate & resolve grievances as per well-defined process

through a three-tier grievance redressal structure.

(v) A multi-prong approach has been adopted by putting in place a fraud

control mechanism.

5. Niti Aayog and Adobe Partner Collaborate on Enhancing Digital

Literacy and Creativity Skills• Software major Adobe and Atal Innovation Mission have collaborated and

signed a statement of intent to enhance digital literacy and creativity skills.

• Under this agreement, Adobe would implement the Digital Disha Programme

across 100 schools under Atal Tinkering Labs (ATL) initiative.

• Teachers and Children across these 100 schools would benefit from the

creative learning resources via free access to Adobe Spark premium.

• Digital Disha Programme - With an aim to spur creative thinking and digital

literacy across vocational institutes in India, Ministry of Skill Development and

Entrepreneurship has partnered with Adobe to launch Adobe Digital Disha

Programme. With Adobe Digital Disha, Adobe Spark with premium features, a

fun and frictionless storytelling Creative Cloud application that runs in any web

or mobile browser, is now available free of charge for education and skill

development.

• Atal Tinkering Labs - With a vision to ‘Cultivate one Million children in India

as Neoteric Innovators’, Atal Innovation Mission is establishing Atal Tinkering

Laboratories (ATLs) in schools across India. The objective of this scheme is to

foster curiosity, creativity and imagination in young minds and inculcate skills

such as design mindset, computational thinking, adaptive learning, physical

computing etc.

Government Schemes – February 2019 Free current affairs e-book

6. Human Resource & Development Ministry has launched

SHREYAS programme• HRD Minister Prakash Javedekar has launched the Scheme for Higher

Education Youth in Apprenticeship and Skills (SHREYAS) programme to

provide industry-specific apprenticeship opportunities to fresh graduates.

• SHREYAS is a programme conceived for students in degree courses, primarily

non-technical, with a view to introduce employable skills into their learning,

promote apprenticeship as integral to education and also amalgamate

employment facilitating efforts of the Government into the education system

so that clear pathways towards employment opportunities are available to

students during and after their graduation.

• SHREYAS is a programme basket comprising the initiatives of three Central

Ministries, namely the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Ministry of

Skill Development & Entrepreneurship and the Ministry of Labour&

Employment viz the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS), the

National Career Service (NCS) and introduction of BA/BSc/BCom (Professional)

courses in the higher educational institutions.

• Objectives

Following are the objectives of SHREYAS

i. To improve employability of students by introducing employment

relevance into the learning process of the higher education system.

ii. To forge a close functional link between education and

industry/service sectors on a sustainable basis

iii. To provide skills which are in demand, to the students in a dynamic

manner

iv. To establish an 'earn while you learn' system into higher education

v. To help business/industry in securing good quality manpower

vi. To link student community with employment facilitating efforts of the

Government

7. Govt. Approves Construction of more than 5 Lakhs Houses

under PMAY• The Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs has approved the construction of

560,695 more affordable houses for the benefit of urban poor under Pradhan

Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban).

• The details of the projects approved are listed below:

i. A total of 1,243 projects with a project cost of Rs 33,873 crore with

central assistance of Rs 8,404 crore has been approved.

ii. The approval of 560,695 more houses takes the cumulative number of

houses sanctioned under PMAY(U) to 79,04,674.

Government Schemes – February 2019 Free current affairs e-book

8. UNICEF Representative India Yasmin Ali Haque Lauded Poshan

Ahibyaan• Yasmin Ali Haque has made following observations with regards to Poshan

Abhiyaan

i. He observed that Poshan Abhiyaan is a massive step towards

eradicating malnutrition.

ii. Poshan Abhiyaan has got global recognition for its effort to

eradicate malnutrition. Cash transfers under the mission provide an

additional support to the family income.

iii. The first and the most important step for reducing malnutrition

in India are providing sufficient nutrition to pregnant and lactating

mothers. The child then automatically is at much less risk of being

malnourished.

• Poshan Abhiyaan – POSHAN Abhiyaan (National Nutrition Mission) is a flagship

programme of the Ministry of Women and Child Development. The Mission

is aimed at improving the nutritional status of children (0-6 years), Adolescent

Girls, Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers in a time bound manner during

the next three years beginning 2017-18.

• The UNICEF Head also pointed out that the current policies are majorly focused

on pregnant mothers and lactating children, but the government also needs to

think about how to provide nutrition to growing children. He added that

UNICEF will continue working with the government on initiatives like Swachh

Bharat, Mission Indradhanush, vaccination policies and Poshan Abhiyaan.

9. Minister of Textiles Smriti Irani Inaugurated two Silk Projects in

ASSAM• Two projects namely Soil to Silk Project and Eri Spun Silk Mill in Assam were

inaugurated by the Minister of Textile Smriti Irani.

• Soil to Silk Project –

(i) The project envisages new Eri plantation on 100 hectares and will

facilitate post cocoon activities for an on-farm sector like plantation,

spinning and reeling.

(ii) It would generate direct employment for 15,600 people during the

project period and 7,000 persons per year when the project attains full

capacity.

(iii) Under this project, the Central Silk board will also work towards

rejuvenation of 600 hectares of existing Eri farms and provide

handlooms and work sheds to 2500 weavers which in turn will provide

important linkages for self-sustenance of the production activities.

• Eri Spun Silk Mill –

Government Schemes – February 2019 Free current affairs e-book

i. The Eri Spun Silk Mill project will be implemented directly by the state

government in co-coordination with the Central Silk Board.

ii. The expected turnover from this project during the first year is around

Rs 10 crore with a net profit of Rs 3 crore.

iii. The project would generate direct employment for 107 persons

throughout the year and will provide indirect employment to around

another 1,500 Eri farmers through backward linkage and to around 730

weavers through the forward linkage.

10. Categorisation of Farmers• In agriculture Census, the operational holdings are categorised in 5 size classes

as shown below:

• Marginal Farmer: Below 1.00 hectare.

• Small Farmer: 1.00-2.00 hectare

• Semi- Medium Farmer: 2.00-4.00 hectare. Medium: 4.00-10.00 hectare.

• Large Farmer: 10.00 hectare and above

11. Family Planning for Males• Government of India has undertaken the following steps to increase

awareness about the need of family planning by males:

i. Vasectomy Fortnight is being observed all over the country in the

month of November every year to increase awareness on male

participation and promotion of male sterilization.

ii. Training of service providers in No-Scalpel Vasectomy (NSV) has been

undertaken to enhance the pool of service providers.

iii. Condom boxes are being set up in facilities to enable people to access

condoms in privacy.

iv. The ‘Home Delivery of Contraceptive Scheme’ has been initiated to

deliver contraceptives including condoms to the beneficiaries.

v. The compensation for male sterilization has been substantially

increased under the Enhanced compensation scheme for sterilization

vi. A 360-degree media campaign has been undertaken to underline the

role of men in family planning to encourage men to adopt family

planning methods

12. Strengthening the fight against Mental Illness in India• The Mental illness is the most neglected and tabooed aspect in the Indian

health care system. To address the burden of mental disorders, the Indian

Government has undertaken the following steps:

Government Schemes – February 2019 Free current affairs e-book

i. National Mental Health Programme (NMHP) is under implementation

since year 1982. District Mental Health Programme (DMHP) is under

implementation in 517 districts of the country for detection,

management and treatment of mental disorders/ illness.

ii. Funds are provided to each district under the DMHP for sensitization

training of Community Health Workers and elected representatives of

the community at District Hospital/ Community Health Centre for

awareness generation regarding early signs and community health-

seeking behaviour for mental illness.

iii. The Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 provides that the Government shall

take all measures to ensure that the Government Officials including

police officers and other officers of the Government are given periodic

sensitization and awareness training.

iv. Three Central Mental Health Institutions Namely National Institute of

Mental Health and Neuro Sciences, Bangalore, Lokopriya Gopinath

Bordoloi Regional Institute of Mental Health, Tezpur and Central

Institute of Psychiatry, Ranchi have been strengthened for

augmenting the human resources in the areas of mental health and to

provide quality mental health services in the country.

v. Also, to increase the number of qualified mental health professionals

in the country, the Government, under the NMHP, is implementing

manpower development schemes for the establishment of Centres of

Excellence and strengthening/ establishment of Post Graduate (PG)

Departments in mental health specialities.

13. Improving Research Ecosystem in India• The central government has launched the following schemes to improve the

research ecosystem in India:

i. Prime Minister’s Research Fellowship – It is implemented to attract

the bright and meritorious students into research within the country,

Students selected for the fellowship are given fellowship for 5 years –

Rs.70,000/- per month for the first two years, Rs 75,000/- per month in

the third year and Rs.80,000 per month in 4th and 5th year with an

annual research grant of Rs. 2 lakhs.

ii. Setting up of Research Parks - The Government has approved setting

up of Research Parks at IIT Kharagpur, IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, IIT

Guwahati, IIT Kanpur, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Gandhinagar and IISc

Bangalore.

iii. IMPRINT (Impacting research Innovation and Technology – The

scheme aims to provide solutions to the most relevant engineering

challenges and translating knowledge into viable technology in ten

selected technology domains.

Government Schemes – February 2019 Free current affairs e-book

iv. UAY (Uchhatar Avishkar Yojana) – The Scheme has been launched to

promote innovation of a higher order that directly impacts the needs

of the needs of the Industry and thereby improves the competitive

edge of Indian manufacturing.

v. Smart India Hackathons – These are organized on yearly basis since

2017 to find out digital solutions to various problems faced by the

people and gives hands-on working and research opportunity for

engineering students.

vi. IIC (Institution’s Innovation Council) – IICs have been established in

960 Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) for promoting the innovation

ecosystem within their campuses.

vii. Trainee Teacher Scheme - A Trainee Teacher Scheme has been

initiated in NITs with the objective to attract, motivate and sponsor

best graduate engineers for part-time M.Tech and PhD programmes.

14. Government Approves Continuation of CLCS-TUS Scheme

for MSMEs• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved a 3year

extension of the Credit Linked Capital Subsidy and Technology Up-gradation

Scheme (CLCS-TUS) for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) with a

total outlay of 2,900 crores. This scheme will continue beyond the 12th Five

Year Plan for three years from 2017-18 to 2019-20.

• CLCS-TUS Scheme –

i. Under this scheme, an upfront capital subsidy of 15% will be provided

to the MSMEs on institutional finance of up to Rs 1 crore availed by

them.

ii. This will be done to help the MSMEs in employing well-established and

improved technology in the specified 51 sub-sectors/products

approved.

iii. The scheme aims to improve the competitiveness of MSMEs by

integrating various current schemes aimed at up-grading technology

through Credit Linked Capital Subsidy, hand holding for zero defect

zero effect manufacturing, increasing productivity through waste

reduction, design intervention, cloud computing, facilitation of

intellectual property and nurturing new ideas.

iv. The scheme also incorporates special provisions to increase

entrepreneurship for SC/STs, women, hill states, island territories and

the aspirational districts/ LWE (Left-wing extremism) districts.

15. PM Modi serves the 3 Billionth Meal of Akshaya Patra

Government Schemes – February 2019 Free current affairs e-book

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi served the 3 billionth meal of Akshaya Patra,

an NGO that works with the government on Mid-Day Meal Scheme.

• Akshaya Patra Foundation - It is a Bengaluru-based not-for-profit

organisation funded by International Society for Krishna Consciousness

(ISKCON). Akshaya Patra Foundation is an implementation partner for the

governments Mid-Day Meal Scheme.

16. Eco Circuit: Pathanamthitta – Gavi – Vagamon –

Thekkady’ Inaugurated• Union Tourism Minister K. J. Alphons inaugurated the ‘Eco

Circuit: Pathanamthitta – Gavi – Vagamon – Thekkady’ project at Vagamon,

Kerala on 17th February 2019.

• This project is a part of the Swadesh Darshan Scheme.

• The Eco Circuit project was sanctioned in December 2015 at the cost of Rs.

76.55 crores. It has been developed as a 150 km circuit and includes Eco-

Adventure Tourism Park at Vagamon, Cultural Centre at Kadamanitta, Eco Log

Huts at Peerumedu, Idukki, Approach Roads, Walking trails, Rain Shelters at

Piine Valley Forest, Thekkady, Kumily, MoozhiyarDam, Penstock and Kakki.

• The eco-tourism circuit aims to protect the flora and fauna

of Pathanamthitta and Idukki districts including places like Gavi, Peerumedu.

17. Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan-Dhan (PM- SYM)• Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan-dhan (PM-SYM) was announced in the

interim budget 2019 and has been notified by the Ministry of Labour and

Employment.

• Features of the PM-SYM: PM-SYM is a voluntary and contributory pension

scheme on a 50:50 ratio basis where prescribed age-specific contribution shall

be made by the beneficiary and the matching contribution by the Central

Government. The salient features of the PM-SYM are:

i. The Subscriber under the PM-SYM will receive minimum assured

pension of Rs 3000/- per month after attaining the age of 60 years

ii. If the subscriber dies during the period of receipt of the pension, the

spouse of the beneficiary shall be entitled to receive 50% of the

pension received by the beneficiary as a family pension.

iii. If the beneficiary had died due to any cause (before age of 60 years),

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.

iv. The subscriber must not be a taxpayer.

Government Schemes – February 2019 Free current affairs e-book

v. The scheme is expected to benefit as many as 42 crore workers are

estimated to be engaged in the unorganized sector of the country

whose monthly income is Rs 15,000/ per month or less and belong to

the entry age group of 18-40 years who are not be covered under New

Pension Scheme (NPS), Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC)

scheme or Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).

18. CCEA approves launch of KUSUM scheme• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved the launch

of KUSUM (Kisan Urja Suraksha Evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan) scheme.

• The scheme aims to provide financial and water security to farmers through

harnessing solar energy capacities of 25.75 gigawatts (GW) by 2022.

• Component of the Scheme - The scheme has three components:

i. Component-A - 10,000 megawatt (MW) of decentralised ground

mounted grid-connected renewable power plants

ii. Component-B - Installation of 17.50 lakh standalone solar powered

agriculture pumps

iii. Component-C - Solarisation of 10 lakh grid-connected solar powered

agriculture pumps.

19. National Rural Economic Transformation Project• Central Government has proposed a new rural Livelihood Scheme, the

National Rural Economic Transformation Project under the Deendayal

Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM).

• National Rural Economic Transformation Project - The features of the Project

(NRETP) are:

i. The project would be undertaken with loan assistance from the World

Bank.

ii. The project aims to provide interventions to enhance the livelihoods

promotion, access to finance and scale-up initiatives on digital finance

and livelihood interventions.

iii. Projects under NRETP would provide alternate channels of financial

inclusion, creating value chains around rural products, introduce

innovative models in livelihoods promotion and access to finance and

scale-up initiatives on digital finance and livelihoods interventions.

20. HRD Minister launches Operation Digital Board

Government Schemes – February 2019 Free current affairs e-book

• Union Human Resource Minister, Shri Prakash Javadekar launched Operation

Digital Board to leverage technology to boost quality education in the

country.

• Operation Digital Board (ODB) is a revolutionary step which will make both

learning as well as the teaching process interactive and popularize flipped

learning as a pedagogical approach. The features of the programme are:

i. It has been launched on the lines of Operation Blackboard to provide

better digital education in schools.

ii. Under Operation Digital Board 7 lakh classrooms of 9th, 10th and 11th

standards and two lakh classrooms of colleges and Universities will be

equipped with digital boards in the next three years.

iii. The initiative is aimed at improving the quality of education and offer

new opportunities and new ways of teaching and learning.

iv. The Operation Digital Board will aid in the provisioning of personalised

adaptive learning as well as Intelligent Tutoring by exploiting emerging

technologies like Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence & Data

Analytics.

21. First Mega Food Park of Tripura Inaugurated• Union Minister of State for Food Processing Industries Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti

inaugurated Sikaria Mega Food Park Pvt Ltd at Village Tulakona in Agartala.

This is the 17th Mega Food Park in the country and first in the state of Tripura.

• Following are the highlights of the Mega Food Park of Tripura:

i. The Mega Food Park has been set up in 50 acres of land at the cost of

Rs. 87.45 crore.

ii. The food park is having facilities of fully operational Dry warehouse

and material handling of 5000 MT, Pineapple canning and Pulping line

of 2 MT/Hr each, Packing Unit, Ripening Chambers of 40 TPD, Cold

Storage of 5000 MT with Frozen Storage of 1000 MT, Quality Control,

Research & Development Centre.

iii. The Mega Food Park also has fully developed Industrial plots for setting

up processing units and Standard Design Factory (SDF) Sheds to

provide ready to move in the facility for micro and small enterprises.

iv. The Mega Food Park will leverage an additional investment of about

Rs. 250 crores in 25-30 food processing units in the park and generate

a turnover of about Rs. 450-500 Crore annually.

v. The Park will also provide direct and indirect employment to 5000

people and benefit about 25000 farmers.

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