Cabinet on 6 April 2015 gave approval to three mega social security initiatives one pension and two insurance schemes and is scheduled to be launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 9. Which are these 3 schemes?: Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY), Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY) and Atal Pension Yojana (APY)
Explanation: The schemes Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY), Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY) and Atal Pension Yojana (APY) will be launch in Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 9 May 2015. The schemes are expected to address the issue of very low coverage of life or accident insurance and old age income in the country. Thus these initiatives are aimed at providing affordable universal access to essential social security protection in a convenient manner linked to auto-debit facility from bank accounts. Offering from schemes are as follows:
-PMSBY will offer a renewable one-year accidental death-cum-disability cover of Rs 2 lakh for partial/permanent disability to all savings bank account holders in the age group of 18-70 years for a premium of Rs 12 per annum per subscriber.
-PMJJBY on the other hand will offer a renewable one year life cover of Rs 2 lakh to all savings bank account holders in the age group of 18-50 years, covering death due to any reason, for a premium of Rs 330 per annum per subscriber.
-The pension scheme will focus on the unorganised sector and provide subscribers a fixed minimum pension of Rs 1,000, 2,000, 3,000, 4,000 or Rs 5,000 per month starting at the age of 60 years, depending on the contribution option exercised on entering at an age between 18 and 40 years.
The government on 6 April 2015 approved some modifications in the guidelines of which scheme to boost investment in the food processing sector?: Mega Food Park Scheme
Explanation: The Mega Food Park Scheme, based on cluster approach, aims at facilitating the establishment of a strong food processing industry backed by an efficient supply chain, which includes collection centres, central processing centre (CPC) and cold chain infrastructure. Therefore, with new modifications now allowing the central government agencies to hold more than 26 percent equity in the mega food park, would streamline the implementation of the scheme. The Scheme will be implemented in a market driven manner, commensurate with both global and national demands. Innovative supply chain management would be the key to implementation of this scheme. Thus each mega food park is expected to benefit 6,000 farmers/producers directly and about 25,000 farmers indirectly.
The passage of the Constitution Amendment Bill in the Lok Sabha will ensure GST implementation by April 2016, but first it has to pass muster in the Rajya Sabha. In 2006, GST bill was introduce by which party?: Congress led UPA Government
Explanation: Goods & Service Tax (GST) is termed as the biggest indirect tax reform since 1947. A single rate GST will replace central excise, state VAT, entertainment tax, octroi, entry tax, luxury tax and purchase tax on goods and services to ensure seamless transfer of goods and services. GST was first mooted by the UPA government in 2006, is expected to streamline the taxation system and cut down multiplicity of compliance and cascading effect of taxes. The relevant Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty Second Amendment) Bill, 2014, was passed by a division with 336 ayes, 11 against and 10 abstentions. Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan announced the bill was approved with two-thirds majority of the house. The Goods and Services Tax (GST), which is proposed to be implemented from April 1 next year, will subsume excise, service tax, state VAT, entry tax, octroi and other state levies. GST had missed several deadlines as there was lack of consensus between the Centre and states on various issues, including compensation to states. However after this bill get passed from both houses, now government has decided to keep petroleum out. The GST rate will be "much more diluted" than the speculated 27 per cent and thus this 27 per cent (Revenue Neutral Rate) was born. Revenue Neutral Rate (RNR) is the rate at which there will be no revenue loss to the states after GST implementation.
Alstom T&D India on 5 May 2015 announced that it has been picked to lead the smart grid pilot project by Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board. This smart grid project is located at which location?: Kala Amb Industrial area of Himachal Pradesh
Explanation: The smart grid solution looks to enhance monitoring and automation of two distribution substations feeding Kala Amb. Thus this Smart project will serve over 1,500 consumers and also will be second of the 14 projects under Power Ministry's flagship 'Smart Grid pilot' programme. The company assign to design, develop and implement an integrated set of smart grid applications, targeting power quality issues, managing peak demand and power outages, among others issue and requirement. Alstom will lead this project, along with Genus Power Infrastructure and a few other OEM (original equipment manufacturer) equipment suppliers. This smart grid project will is design to looks to save millions of dollars annually in reduced demand charges, defer new generation construction and bring down peak-priced energy purchases.
The Andhra Pradesh government today said it would adopt which method for the selection of master developer for its proposed state capital area?: "Swiss Challenge" method
Explanation: Under the Swiss Challenge method, a developer will be asked to presents a bid then another/other prospective developers would be asked to present counter bids. Therefore, if the latter is lower then the first bidder will be asked to submit another bid again. Thus, if the first bidder comes up with lower bid, then he gets the right or if he fails, the one with lower bid gets the project. This overall activity will be done to get the proposal from competent and experienced developers in municipal administration and urban development to develop the recently named the proposed state capital Amaravati. The procedure for the Swiss Challenge will be as prescribed in the AP Infrastructure Development Enabling Act, 2001.
In a major boost to Indian Economy, Union Minister of Steel, Mines, Narendra Singh Tomar on 4 May 2015 said the government has planned to set up four steel plants in which 4 states in India?: Jharkhand, Karnataka, Odisha and Chhatisgarh
Explanation: The announcement was made to meet the rise in demand for steel, when Union Minister of Steel, Mines, Narendra Singh Tomar came to Asansol accompanied by Union Minister of state for Urban Development Babul Supriyo. They said that the IISCO plant's expansion cost had shot up to Rs 16,000 crore from the estimated Rs 10,000 crore nine years ago, during foundation stone laying ceremony for expansion by then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Which state govt. launched ‘Niramaya’, a free drug distribution scheme to cover whole state on 1 May 2015?: Odisha
Explanation: The Free drug scheme was formally launched on 1 May 2015 and will be managed by the Odisha State Medical Corporation (OSMC). ‘Niramaya’ is the name given to an ambitious free drug distribution scheme of the Odisha Govt. to provide as many as 570 medicines in all the 30 districts of the State. The State Government has already allocated Rs.200 crore for the free medicine scheme in the budget for 2015-16. The salient feature of this scheme is that apart from general ailments, medicines for treatment of cancer, haemophilia, thalassemia and sickle cell diseases will also be provided under the scheme.
Union Govt. on 26 April 2015 canceled the licenses of 8,975 entities because of failure of filing their annual returns. This was done after it suspended the FCRA registration of Greenpeace India and put foreign donor Ford Foundation on the watch-list. What are these entities?: Non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
Explanation: Union Home Ministry stated that they had issued notices to 10,343 NGOs on 16 October 2014 to file their annual returns by specifying the source, amount and purpose of of foreign funds they receive. However out of 10,343, these 8,975 NGOs had failed to file annual returns for the years 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12. Thus the Ministry canceled the licenses of these NGOs for violation of Section 18 thereof, read with Rule 17(2) of Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2011 (FCRA).
What is the name given to a ambitious programme of the Modi government — a road built along India's vast west-to-east land border i.e from Gujarat to Mizoram, at a cost of around Rs 14,000 crore. Therefore, enable to linking that to a road network in coastal states from Maharashtra to Bengal?: Bharat Mala
Explanation: The Bharat Mala project has started with a detailed all-India assessment of the existing network and is estimated to complete in 5 years. According to officials, government will have to construct some 5,300 km of new roads at an estimated cost of about Rs 12,000-14,000 crore for covering India's entire west-to-east land border. The project will start from Gujarat and Rajasthan then move towards Punjab and then cover the Himalayan states - Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and then portions of borders of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar alongside Terai and move to Sikkim, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, and right up to the Indo-Myanmar border in Manipur and Mizoram. The road built will provide the following benefits:
- Supplies to India's troops as well as military transport currently happen through poor quality roads.
- India's attempted answer to improve reach and connectivity in border areas, right across a large part of which lies China's impressive road infrastructure.
- Economic activity would pick up along with road side city and villages after an upgrade in road connectivity.
State-run NTPC on 28 April 2015 notify that its board has approved Rs 1,779.25 crore investment to set up which project at Anantpur in Andhra Pradesh?: Solar photo-voltaic project
Explanation: NTPC - country's largest power producer plans to set up 3,000 MW capacity solar power projects across India in this financial year. Thus, NTPC and the Andhra Pradesh power utilities have signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) for procurement of power to be generated from the 250-MW solar power plant being set up in the state, which is its first phase of the 1,000 MW Anantapur ultra solar power project.
- See more at: http://www.time2study.in/current-affairs/current-affairs-29-april-2015-140.html#sthash.c82VYJZn.dpuf
