National
Central Government launches PUShP Portal
⇒ The Central Government has launched a High Price Day Ahead Market and Surplus Power Portal (PUShP) – an initiative to ensure greater availability of power during the peak demand season.
- Union Power & NRE Minister Shri R.K. Singh launched the portal at a virtual function in New Delhi on 09 March 2023 in presence of over 200 stakeholders from state governments and the power sector.
- Union Power Minister Shri RK Singh said that PUShP part of strategy to ensure availability of adequate power during summer months and will ensure better utilization of capacity at a reasonable rate. No Power Producer would be allowed to charge exorbitant prices.
About Portal:
- The surplus power portal is a one-of-its-kind initiative, reflecting the ingenuity of the Ministry of Power and the Regulator.
- Distribution Companies have tied up long term PPAs for power supply. They have to pay fixed charges even when they do not schedule the power. Now the DISCOMs will be able to indicate their surplus power in block times/days/months on portal.
- Those DISCOMs who need power will be able to requisition the surplus power. The new buyer will pay both variable charge (VC) and fixed cost (FC) as determined by Regulators. Once power is reassigned, the original beneficiary shall have no right to recall as entire FC liability is also shifted to the new beneficiary. Financial liability of new buyer shall be limited to quantum of temporary allocated / transferred power. This will reduce the fixed cost burden on the DISCOMs, and will also enable all the available generation capacity to be utilized.
MSME Competitive (LEAN) Scheme under MSME Champions Scheme
⇒ Union Minister for MSME Shri Narayan Rane launched the MSME Competitive (LEAN) Scheme under MSME Champions Scheme on 10 March 2023.
Speaking on the occasion Shri Rane said that LEAN has the potential to become a national movement and that it aims to provide a roadmap to global competitiveness for the MSMEs of India. LEAN will not only attempt to improve quality, productivity & performance, but also the capability to change the mind-sets of manufacturers and transform them into a world class manufacturers.
About MSME Competitive (LEAN) Scheme:
- This Scheme is an extensive drive to create awareness amongst MSMEs about LEAN Manufacturing practices and motivate and incentivize them to attain LEAN levels while also encouraging them to become MSME Champions.
- Under the scheme, MSMEs will implement LEAN manufacturing tools like 5S, Kaizen, KANBAN, Visual workplace, Poka Yoka etc under the able guidance of trained and competent LEAN Consultants to attain LEAN levels like Basic, Intermediate and Advanced.
- Through the LEAN journey, MSMEs can reduce wastages substantially, increase productivity, improve quality, work safely, expanding their markets, and finally becoming competitive and profitable.
- To support MSMEs, Government will contribute 90% of implementation cost for handholding and consultancy fees. There will be an additional contribution of 5% for the MSMEs which are part of SFURTI clusters, owned by Women/SC/ST and located in NER.
- In addition to the above, there will be an additional contribution of 5% for MSMEs which are registering through Industry Associations/ Overall Equipment Manufacturing (OEM) organizations after completing all levels.
- There is a unique feature to encourage Industry Associations and OEMs for motivating their supply chain vendors to participate in this scheme.
NATIONAL YOUTH CONCLAVE 2023
⇒ India’s biggest youth summit- ‘National Youth Conclave’ was organized by the Smart Cities Mission, MoHUA, Department of Youth Affairs and National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA).
- Both, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports came together in this 2-day Conclave, held on 13-14 March 2023 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.
- The event was organized under the aegis of India’s G20 presidency in 2023, and aligning with the Urban20 and Youth20 engagement groups.
- It brought together young minds to deliberate on the U20 and Y20 priority areas and foster bright leaders of tomorrow.
Some of the key events in the conclave:
Release – SAAR Compendium 1.0 – 15 premier colleges of the country have documented 75+ case studies of innovative urban projects under the SAAR program (Smart Cities &Academic towards Action Research)
Other releases – Compendiums of articles, case studies and information by Prajatantra, Indian Smart Cities Fellow Programme (ISCFP), National Urban Digital Mission (NUDM), The Urban Learning Internship Program (TULIP) and National Urban Learning Platform (NULP) were also launched.
Launch – SAAR Compendium 2.0 – Every Smart city is being encouraged to tie-up with at least one academic/ research institution and prepare at least 3 case studies of implemented projects. These will become reference document for replication of innovative urban initiatives.
Exhibition – Two exhibitions on innovative urban projects under by SAAR and NMCG (National Mission for Clean Ganga) Smart solution exhibition held for the 2 days on the event venue.
Plenary sessions – Discussions on themes for climate change resilience, governance and planning frameworks catalysing skills and innovation for better urban futures took place.
Shri Hardeep S. Puri, Minister for Housing & Urban Affairs, GoI, commended the Conclave for providing a platform for young people to amplify their concerns on issues such as climate change, future of work, and youth in democracy.
» The Conclave, through quiz and debate competitions, discussions, climate cafe and engaging deliberations helped the youth understand the operations of democracy. The national event witnessed participation from students and young professionals, experts, and innovators from all over the country to co-create, collaborate and connect on urban India’s pressing issues and a way forward.
About Urban 20:
Urban 20 (U20), an Engagement Group under the G20, brings together mayors from major G20 cities to inform the discussions of national leaders at the G20, and establishes a platform for cities to collectively inform G20 negotiations.
U20 dialogue this year will emphasise on the need for changing the urban sector to achieve long-term beneficial results for the globe and set the way for coordinated city-level activities. The deliberations under U20 will be focused on six priority areas that are critical for grounding complex global urban agendas into actionable city-level initiatives. Inclusion will be a cross cutting focus across all deliberations.
Priority Areas of U20 are:
- Encouraging Environmentally Responsible Behaviours
- Ensuring Water Security
- Accelerating Climate Finance
- Championing ‘Local’ Identity
- Reinventing Frameworks for Urban Governance and Planning
- Catalysing Digital Urban Futures
About Youth 20:
Youth 20 (Y20) engagement group, with its first Y20 conference held in 2010, provides a platform that allows youth to express their vision and ideas on the G20 priorities and comes up with a series of recommendations which are submitted to the G20 Leaders.
The Y20 India summit in 2023 would exemplify India’s youth- centric efforts and provide an opportunity to showcase its values and policy measures so that India’s leadership of this summit can stand out among the youth cohort. The priority areas selected for the summit will showcase Indian leadership on these issues to both global and domestic audiences and help fulfil India’s vision of making the G20 summit truly participative.
Priority areas of Y20 are:
- Future of Work: Industry 4.0, Innovation, & 21st Century Skills
- Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction: Making Sustainability a Way of Life
- Peace building and Reconciliation: Ushering in an Era of No War
- Shared Future: Youth in Democracy and Governance
- Health, Wellbeing & Sports: Agenda for Youth
Bhumi Samvaad IV: National Conference on Digitizing and Georeferencing India with Bhu-Aadhaar
⇒ Department of Land Resources organized the National Conference – Bhumi Samvaad IV on implementation of Unique Land Parcel Identification Number (ULPIN) or Bhu-Aadhaar on 17th March 2023 in New Delhi.
This conference was organized under Bhumi-Samvaad series of Dialogues and Deliberations of Land Administration and Governance in the country. It was the 4th such conference with States/ UTs, Ministries and Departments, other stakeholders like Geospatial community, startups, academia.
» Shri Giriraj Singh, Union Minister of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj was the chief guest on the occasion.
Theme:
The theme of the National Conference was – “Digitizing and Geo-Referencing INDIA with Bhu-Aadhaar (ULPIN)”.
Sessions:
The Conference had the following three sessions:
- Democratization of Land Records Data and Matribhoomi;
- Application of Bhu-Aadhaar in Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) and Ease of Living;
- Best Practices – National and Global (Georeferencing / Survey/ Resurvey/ Use of Bhu-Aadhaar and Way Forward.
Participation:
The Conference brought together a diverse group of leaders and participants from various stakeholder groups, including Central as well as State/ UT Governments, academia and research institutes, regional bodies, the business community and civil society.
The following key areas were discussed during the conference:
- Status of geo-referencing of land parcels/ cadastral maps, generation of Bhu-Aadhaar and strategy for its saturation in mission mode.
- Benefits, uses, application of ULPIN or Bhu-Aadhaar in various services/ schemes/ sectors, best practices, feedback received from land owners / stakeholders and issues related thereto.
It facilitated the exchange of knowledge and ideas, showcase innovations, share successful case studies, identify solutions, discuss future strategies and provide mutual learning opportunities on various topics and potential use of Bhu-Aadhaar or Unique Land Parcel Identification Number (ULPIN) across sectors.
About ULPIN:
The Bhu-Aadhaar or ULPIN, a 14-digit alpha-numeric number generated based on the latitude longitude of the vertices of each land parcel shall be a single, authoritative source of truth of information on any parcel of land or property to provide integrated land services to the citizens as well as all stakeholders.