Explore Business Standard
Central Schemes
Union Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Dr Virendra Kumar convened a pivotal daylong meeting on Saturday to review the progress of various schemes and strategize on key departmental initiatives for the next 100 days. The meeting included the participation of Ministers of State Ramdas Athawale and B.L. Verma. During the meeting, Secretary of the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD), Rajesh Aggarwal, delivered a comprehensive presentation on the department's initiatives, according to an official statement. This was followed by a detailed discussion on the modernization efforts of the Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation of India (ALIMCO). Heads of various organisations, including the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities (CCPD), the Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI), National Institutes (NIs) and the National Divyangjan Finance and Development Corporation (NDFDC), presented their significant achievements. The participants engag
A Mumbai-based single mother and a beneficiary of the government's micro-finance initiatives, while interacting virtually with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday, said her entrepreneurial success has enabled her to send her son to France for studies. The woman entrepreneur, Meghna, added that central schemes such as Mudra and Svanidhi had helped expand her catering business, which supports 25 women. Meghna was among the beneficiaries of central schemes who interacted with the prime minister after he flagged off the Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram on Saturday. "Our agenda is to assist people in saving money," Modi said, flagging off the Yatra, the government's mega outreach exercise to ensure saturation coverage of central initiatives. Meghna, during her interaction with the prime minister, said she had availed a loan of Rs 90,000 through the Mudra Yojana to purchase utensils for her catering unit. Meghna also told
An amount of about Rs 4,500 crore under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Vikas Karyakram (PMJVK) of the Ministry of Minority Affairs is lying "unused" with the states, officials said on Monday. Till the state governments make use of these funds and submit "utilisation certificates", it is not possible for the Centre to make more funds available to them under the scheme, they said. The officials also said more than 58,000 "units" under infrastructure projects that were part of the PMJVK sanctioned from 2008 to 2018-2019, which the states said were unviable, have been cancelled or dropped after the Ministry of Minority Affairs spoke to the states. The officials said an amount of about Rs 12,000 crore was spent for the welfare of minorities under the UPA rule while in nine years of the Narendra Modi government, an amount of Rs 31,000 crore has been spent for the purpose. The PMJVK, a centrally-sponsored scheme, is an area development programme under which community infrastructure and basic ...
A parliamentary panel has raised concerns over the marginal budgetary increase in one of the key components of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana. It also raised concern over the reduced allocation in the Digital India Land Records Management Programme, saying both the schemes have remarkable impact on the ground. The parliamentary standing committee on Rural Development ministry's department of land records said there has been an increase of 10 per cent from Rs 2,000 crore to Rs 2,200 crore in the budgetary allocation of the Watershed Development Component - Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (WDC-PMKSY). It also said the BE for DILRMP has been reduced by 18.18 per cent (from Rs 239.25 crore to Rs 195.75 crore) during 2023-24 as compared to previous year's allocation at BE stage. "The committee, considering the overall performance of these two schemes and their remarkable impact on the ground, feel that the reduction made in the BE component seems to be an imprudent appro
Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Sunday said the implementation of central schemes in Uttar Pradesh has accelerated significantly since Yogi Adityanath took over as chief minister of the state. Addressing a session on "reimagining cities as growth centres for new Uttar Pradesh" at the Global Investors Summit here, the Union housing and urban development minister said India will become the world's largest economy by 2040. "Development and implementation of schemes in Uttar Pradesh have accelerated significantly since Yogi Adityanath took over as chief minister of the state in 2017, Puri said. "I continue to visit the city every second or third month. The previous government had little interest in implementing the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, which was launched by the central government in June 2015," he said. After Adityanath took over in 2017, more than 17 lakh houses were built in the next 17 months, Puri said. "These figures are enough to tell the success story of the state.