Health Minister's Discretionary Grant

• Under the HMDG scheme, a maximum help of Rs. 50,000 was provided to the poor and needy as part of the expenditure made on hospitalization for major surgical interventions and treatment of major diseases including heart ailments, kidney transplant, hip and knee replacement, cancer, AIDS, hepatitis and tumour.
• Current guidelines: Help is granted up to Rs. 20,000 if the cost of treatment is Rs. 50,000; up to Rs. 40,000 if the cost is above Rs. 50,000 and up to Rs. 50,000 if it is above Rs. 1,00,000
• Fresh Guidelines : Assistance of Rs. 50,000 if the estimated cost of treatment is Rs. 1,00,000; Rs. 75,000 (above Rs. 1,00,000 and up to 1,50,000) and Rs 1,00,000 (above Rs 1,50,000).
• The new areas urology, nephrology, gastroenterology, liver transplant and surgery for portal hypertension, cases of complicated diabetes which require one-time treatment such as amputation or renal transplant.
• 
  

Companies Bill 2011

• Will allow the country to have a modern legislation for growth and regulation of corporate sector in India.
• Salient Features: 
• It will be compulsory for companies with Rs. 5 crore or more profits in last three years to spend 2% of their average net profit towards Corporate Social Responsibility.
• Remuneration of a director of a company should not be more than 5 % of the net profit.
• A new clause for punishment  related to offence of falsely inducing banks for obtaining credit
• Companies which are winding up will have to make payment of two years’ salary to employees.
• Enable C&AG to perform  audit of govt companies more effectively. 
• Provide that the rate of interest on inter corporate loans will be the prevailing rate of interest on dated Government Securities.
• Restrictions on non audit services shall not apply to associate companies and further to provide for transitional period for complying with such provisions.  
• Class of companies having multiple business and separate divisional MDs to appoint same person as chairman as well as MD.
• The number of companies an auditor can serve would be limited to 20
• Annual ratification of appointment of auditors for five years.
• ‘Whole-time director’ has been included in the definition of the term ‘key managerial personnel’. 
•  Provisions in respect of removal of difficulty modified to provide that the power to remove difficulties may be exercised by the Central Government up to ‘five years’ (after enactment of the legislation) instead of earlier up to ‘three years’. This is considered necessary to avoid serious hardship and dislocation since many provisions of the Bill involve transition from pre-existing arrangements to new systems.

Women and Child Development

National Policy for Children 2012

• Acknowledges every person below the age of 18 years as a child  and that childhood is an integral part of life with a value of its own, and a long term, sustainable, multi-sectoral, integrated and inclusive approach is essential for the pleasant development and protection of children.
• Guiding Principles : 
• Right of every child to life, survival, development, education, protection and participation
• Equal rights for all children without discrimination
• The policy has identified the following as the undeniable rights of every child, and has also declared these as key priority areas:
• Survival 
• Health
• Nutrition
• Education
• Development
• Protection
• Participation
• National Coordination and Action Group (NCAG)  be established in order to supervise the performance of National Policy for Children.
• National Commission for Protection of Child Rights and State Commissions for Protection of Child Rights are to ascertain that the principles of the policy are valued in all sectors at all levels. There is a condition for reassessment of the policy every 5 years.
• Ministry of Women and Child Development will be the nodal ministry for supervising and coordinating the effectuation of the policy and will lead the review process for the policy.

Health and Family Welfare

National Programme for the Health Care of Elderly

• Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has launched “National Programme for the Health Care of Elderly” (NPHCE) during 11th Plan period to address various health related problems of elderly people.
• Aim of the NPHCE programme is to provide separate and specialized comprehensive healthcare to the senior citizens at various level of State healthcare delivery system including outreach services.
• The major components of the NPHCE during 11th Five Year Plan were establishment of 30 bedded Department of Geriatric in 8 identified Regional Medical Institutions (Regional Geriatric Centres) in different parts of the country and to provide dedicated health care facilities in District Hospitals, CHCs, PHCs and Sub Centres in 100 identified districts of 21 States.

AYUSH

• Department of Indian Systems of Medicine and Homoeopathy (ISM&H) was created in March,1995 and re-named as Department of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH) in November, 2003 with a view to providing focused attention to development of Education & Research in Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy systems.
• 12^th Plan Proposals:The 12th Plan proposals include setting up of the following Institutions.
  
  
  (i)                 Homoeopathic Medicine Pharmaceutical Co. Limited.
  (ii)               All India Institute of Yoga.
  (iii)             All India Institute of Homoeopathy.
  (iv)             All India Institute of Unani Medicine.
  (v)               National Institute of Sowa Rigpa.
  (vi)             National Institute of Medicinal Plants.
  (vii)           National AYUSH Library & Achieves.
  (viii)         Central Council for Research in Sowa Rigpa.
  (ix)             National Commission for Human Resources in AYUSH.
  (x)               Central Drug Controller for AYUSH.
  (xi)             Indian Institute of AYUSH Pharmaceuticals Sciences.
  (xii)           National Institute of Geriatrics.
  (xiii)         National Institute on Metabolic & Life Style Diseases.
  (xiv)         National Institute of Drugs Tobacco De-addiction.
  
  
  New Programmes: The following new programmes are also proposed to be introduced as a part of the National Mission on AYUSH.
  
  
  (i)                 AYUSH Gram.
  (ii)               Pharmaco vigilance initiative for ASU drugs.
  (iii)             Strengthening of Research Councils’ Unit.
  (iv)             National AYUSH Health Programme.
  (v)               Hospitals & Dispensaries (under NRHM including AYUSH – Flexi-pool). 

Tourism

• The ‘Go Beyond’ campaign focuses on promoting lesser known destinations to domestic as well as international tourists
• “Find what you Seek”, targets the international tourists who imagine a need and find its realization in India.

AWARDS

• Best State/ UT Comprehensive Development of Tourism (Rest of India) : 
  

  
  

  Andhra Pradesh.
• Best State/ UT Comprehensive Development of Tourism 
  (North East, Jammu and Kashmir ) : 
  Jammu & Kashmir.
•  Best Heritage City :  Warangal City (AP)

Labour and Employment

KaushalVikasYojana

• To set up 3000 new Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) & 5000 Skill Development Centres (SDCs) in Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode.
• To provide vocational training to the youth from socially & economically disadvantaged groups of society.

SAR lab and NGN lab

Specific Absorption Rate

• The Telecommunication Engineering Centre has commissioned a Lab for measurement of Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) for the mobile handsets.  SAR is closely related to electric field strengths produced inside human body tissues while making calls.  Lower the value of SAR, safer the mobile handset for the human use.
• The TEC SAR Lab is one of its kind as it is the first lab in India for independent audit of SAR value, self-certified by mobile handset manufacturers and importers in India. 
• This Lab is capable of making SAR measurement for CDMA, GSM 2G and 3G mobile handsets in the frequency band of 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2100 MHz.

Next Generation Network

• The Next Generation Network (NGN) lab in TEC is a unique test infrastructure in the country  which is capable of subjecting Internet Protocol (IP) based equipment for Conformance and Interoperability testing.
• NGN lab has the capability to test both IPv4 and IPv6 and the migration scenarios. The lab also supports the NGN based Interconnection and Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP).
• The lab is upgradable from the present 1G/10G Electrical/Optical Interfaces to 40G/100G optical interfaces. The test facility can also be augmented to take care of testing of Cloud Computing based implementations.  

Urban Development

Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana

• Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY) aimed at providing gainful employment to the urban unemployed and under-employed poor, by financing the self employment ventures by the urban poor living below the poverty line, skills training and also through providing wage employment by utilizing their labour for construction of socially and economically useful public assets by Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation

Youth Affairs

Achievements for the year 2012

• National Youth Policy, 2012 :
   
• Review of NYP 2003.
• Envisages to put in place a comprehensive strategy to ensure the fullest development and realization of the potential of the youth, in the context of future socio-economic growth.
  
•  NEHRU YUVA KENDRA SANGATHAN :
  
• help set up, mentor and nurture rural youth clubs.
• Nehru Yuva Kendras established in the year 1972 with the objective of providing rural youth avenues to take part in the process of nation building
• 1987-88, (NYKS) was converted into as an autonomous organization under the Government of India.
• NEEV programme the youth is provided training in sales, marketing skills, product knowledge and process clarity by Accenture and then work for Tata Motors.Average income earned under the ‘NEEV’ programme varies from Rs. 4,000 to Rs. 15,000 per month.
  
• NATIONAL SERVICE SCHEME (NSS) :
  
• aimed at developing qualities of good citizenship and spirit of Volunteerism among youth and to provide them an opportunity to work with the people in the villages and slum dwellers. 
• The scheme seeks to achieve its objectives through twin approach i.e. “Campus to Community” and “College to Village”.
  
• National Programme for Youth Adolescent Development(NPYAD) :
  
• RAJIV GANDHI NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF YOUTH DEVELOPMENT (RGNIYD):
  
• Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development has been declared as an Institute of National Importance and, to this effect, the RGNIYD Act has been notified to commence w.e.f. 19.11.2012.
  
• INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION (IC) :
  
• Exchange of Youth Delegations with friendly countries.
  
• YOUTH HOSTEL :
   
• Built to promote youth travel and to enable the young people experience the rich cultural heritage of the country.
• The construction of the Youth hostels is a joint venture of the Central and State Governments.
  

MPLADS

• Each MP has the choice to suggest to the District Collector for, works to the tune of Rs.5 Crores per annum to be taken up in his/her constituency.
•  The Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament can recommend works in one or more districts in the State from where he/she has been elected. The Nominated Members of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha may select any one or more Districts from any one State in the Country for implementation of their choice of work under the scheme.
• October 1994, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has been looking into it.
• Based on the innovative ideas received from the local people regarding developmental projects, an ‘One MP – One Idea’ Competition may be held in each Lok Sabha constituency annually to select the three best innovations for cash awards on the specific request of an MP to promote such a scheme in his/her constituency
• New Salient Features of the Revised MPLADS Guidelines are as under :
• Assistance to physically challenged persons upto maximum of Rs.10 lakh per year for purchase of tri-cycles and artificial limbs have been allowed
• Ambulances/hearse vans under the District Authority/CMO/Civil Surgeon of the district can now also be operated through private organizations.
• MPs allowed to recommend eligible works upto Rs.10 lakh per year outside the constituency for Lok Sabha MPs and outside States for Rajya Sabha MPs. 
• Release of advances to Government implementing agencies has been changed from the ratio of 50 : 50 to 75 : 25.
• Contingency funds of 0.5% have been increased to 2% of the annual entitlement as administrative expenses.
• MPLADS works can also be implemented in areas affected by man-made calamities like chemical, biological and radiological hazards. 
• Mobile Library for Government Educational Institutions/Public Libraries now permissible.
• Works from out of the shelf of MGNREGA projects approved by the Zilla Panchayat for the year may also be recommended under the MPLAD Scheme. Similarly, convergence of MPLADS funds with Panchayat Yuva Krida aur Khel Abhiyan (PYKKA) and Urban Sports Infrastructure Scheme (USIS) for creation of durable sports assets from out of the shelf of PYKKA Projects has been allowed. 
• Funds from the MPLAD Scheme can be used for construction of Railway Halt Stations to facilitate the local community for boarding/deboarding the train.
• An MP has been entitled for setting up of MPLADS Facilitation Centre in the Nodal District for which MPLADS funds not exceeding Rs. 5 lakh being the cost of equipments, furniture, etc. can be used.  The space/room would be provided by DC/DM in the premises of Collectorate/DRDA and the recurring running expenses will be booked under 2% administrative charges, of which the Nodal District gets 0.8%.
• MPs may recommend purchase of Books up to Rs. 22 lakh annually for schools/colleges/public libraries subject to certain conditions.
• ‘One MP – One Idea’ competition introduced for selecting three best innovations in solving local problems to be held in each Lok Sabha Constituency annually.   

Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana

• National Health Insurance Programme is a government-run health insurance scheme for the Indian poor.
• Project under the Ministry of Labour and Employment.
•  Cashless insurance for hospitalisation in public as well private hospitals.
•  Started enrolling on April 1, 2008 and has been implemented in 25 states of India.
• Every "below poverty line" (BPL) family holding a yellow ration card pays 30 (less than US$0.7) registration fee to get a bio metric-enabled smart card containing their fingerprints and photographs. This enables them to receive inpatient medical care of up to 30,000 (approx US$670 as of March 2011) per family per year in any of the empanelled hospitals.
• Financial contribution by both central and state governments.
• The scheme is unique in the fact that it is heavily IT-enabled. Enrolment of families into the scheme, smart card generation, pre-authorization of admissions, as well as claim submission and approval, all occur electronically.