Uttarakhand's Rajaji National Park gets Tiger reserve status

The central government  cleared a proposal to grant the famous Rajaji National Park in Uttarakhand the status of a tiger reserve.

The Principal Conservator of Forest (Wildlife), S S Sharma, said "The proposal for elevating the status of Rajaji National Park as a tiger reserve sent to the Ministry of Environment and Forest about a fortnight ago has been approved. The tiger reserve at the Rajaji National Park will cover an area of 1150 square km including Shyampur of Haridwar forest division besides Kotdwar and Laldhang ranges of Lansdowne forestdivision."

The status was given, as there is presence of tigers in the Chilla and Dhaulkhand ranges of the Rajaji National Park which encompasses the Shivaliks near the foothills of the Himalayas.

Considering the tiger population at the Rajaji national Park, the demand for granting itthe status of a tiger reserve was being raised by various quarters in recent months. For Uttarakhand this is the second tiger reserve after the Corbett National Park.

Fact File:

In India there are 42 tiger reserves at present. All these reserves are maintained under the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).

The Largest tiger reserve in India is Nagarjun Sagar - Srisailam Tiger reserve inAndhra Pradesh.

Rajaji National Park is spread over 820 square km and three districts of Uttarakhand including Haridwar, Dehradun and Pauri Garhwal.

The Park is at the northwestern limit of distribution for both elephants and tigersin the country and has the largest population of elephants in Uttarakhand.

Annual Conference of Relief Commissioners/Secretaries, Department of Disaster Management of States/UTs Held

A. K. Mangotra, Secretary, Border Management in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) inaugurated today the Annual Conference of Relief Commissioners/ Secretaries, Department of disaster Management of States/ UTs in New Delhi to review the status of preparedness of South-West Monsoon, 2013. On this Occasion, Mangotra said the capacities of Early Warning Systems have been strengthened. He emphasized the need to augment multi-sectoral approach in dealing with disasters. He also informed that an inventory of relief materials will be set up at the Centre level. Secretary, Border Management further informed that the Government has started National School Safety Programme in 8600 schools of 43 districts in 22 States in the country. 

Joint Secretary, Disaster Management in the MHA, Shri GVV Sarma made a presentation on the issues related to Disaster Management in the county. 

Other agencies i.e. India Meteorological Department, National Institute of Disaster Management, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, National Disaster Management Authority, Central Water Commission, Geological Survey of India, National Disaster Response Force and Ministry of Defence also made presentations relating to the role of their organization for preparedness and further enhancement of the capacity to deal with disasters. Secretary, National Disaster Management Authority Dr. Shyam S. Agrawal, Relief Commissioners from States/UTs and senior officers of MHA and NDMA attended the meeting. 

UPS REPORT

Prime Minister to Inaugerate National Platform of Disaster Risk Reduction

Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh will inaugurate the First Session of National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in New Delhi at the Vigyan Bhawan on 13th May 2013. Union Home Minister Shri Sushilkumar Shinde will also be present on the occasion. The whole range of stakeholders from Government, Parliamentarians, Media, International Orgnaisations, NGOs, local community representatives, scientific and academic institutions and corporate businesses etc., will participate in this two day conference. The theme of the Conference is “Mainstreaming DRR in Development: From Risk to Resilience”. The Conference will help in sharing of experiences, views and ideas, present findings of research and action and explore opportunities for mutual cooperation in the field of Disaster Risk Reduction. 

The First Session of the National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction will enable the decision makers, partners, experts and practitioners of DRR to come together to deliberate initiatives, share information, promote campaigns and provide useful suggestions relating to Disaster Risk Reduction. 

Tribal Forest Dwellers Empowerment Scheme launched

The Government enacted a Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006. Under this act, the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional forest Dwellers have been given the right to hold the forest land for habitation or for self-cultivation or for carrying out any other traditional activity for their livelihood. Most of the Scheduled Tribes are poor and need financial support for productive utilization of land for their livelihood.

In order to provide concessional finance to the Forest Dwelling STs, the NSTFDC has formulated the new Tribal Forest Dwellers Empowerment Scheme. NSTFDC would generate awareness, provide training and assist in market linkage apart from providing financial assistance at concessional rate of interest of 6% p.a. to the beneficiaries. This assistance would be made available through 33 State Channelizing Agencies of NSTFDC and certain PSU Banks/ Regional Rural Banks having refinance agreements with NSTFDC.

The Radio Partnership MoU between NSTFDC and AIR will cover events organized by NSTFDC for socio economic empowerment of STs. The broadcast can be in 23 languages and 146dialects throughout the country. The coverage will be in the form of Radio Report with in-house/news reel programmes. As AIR is having foot print over the entire country and is covering more than 99% of population, this partnership will facilitate creation of larger awareness about programmes of NSTFDC throughout the country.

World Bank Assisted ISSNIP launched

The National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3) data had indicated about 43 percent children under 5 years of age and 40 percent under three children are underweight. Thus the World Bank assisted ICDS Systems Strengthening and Nutrition Improvement Project (ISSNIP) has been launched by Smt. Krishna Tirath, Minister for Women & Child Development

The four major components under the project are: (i) Institutional and systems strengthening in ICDS (ii) Community mobilization and behaviour change communication (iii) piloting multi-sectoral nutrition actions, and (iv) Project Management, Technical Assistance and Monitoring & Evaluation. The programme aims at improving child development and nutritional outcomes for children in selected districts having higher proportional of child under nutrition.

The estimated cost of phase 1 of the project is about US$ 151.50 million (Rs. 682 crore) of which US$ 106 million is the International Development Association (IDA) share (70 percent). The World Bank is supporting this project initially with a concessionary loan of US$ 106 million payable over 25 years. This is likely to be followed by a second phase of support of US$ 344 million subject to assessment of phase 1. 

The first phase of the project will support the government’s efforts to strengthen policy measures and institutional capacity needed to improve nutrition in the targeted groups of mothers and children and will also finance innovative pilots and programmers in 162 high malnutrition-burden districts across eight States. In additional the project will support urban/sub-urban pilots in NCR of Delhi and convergent nutrition action pilots in Odisha and Uttarakhand. 

There are significant regional disparities in nutritional indicators with 60 percent of the burden of malnutrition found in the low-income states (Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh) and an additional 8-10 percent of the burden concentrated in specific geographical areas in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.

Cabinet approved creation of the National Skill Development Agency (NSDA)

The Union Cabinet has approved for constituting an autonomous body called the National Skill Development Agency (NSDA) by subsuming the Prime Minister’s National Council on Skill Development (PMNCSD), the National Skill Development Coordination Board (NSDCB) and the Office of the Adviser to the PM on Skill Development. It will be located in the Ministry of Finance. 

The new skill body will coordinate and harmonise the skill development efforts of the government and the private sector to achieve the targets of the 12th Plan and beyond. It will also anchor and operationalise the National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF) and be the nodal agency for sector skills councils and endeavour to bridge the social, regional, gender and economic divides in skilling.

Further, it will also be empowered to raise extra budgetary resources. The central ministries and NSDC will continue to implement schemes in their remit, the statement said.

The NSDA is expected to provide the much-needed single point focus to ensure that skilling quality and standards meet sector-specific requirements benchmarked to international standards. The initiative will boost employability of youth in India.

The proposal to set up NSDA was first considered by the Cabinet in its meeting held in January this year and it was referred to a Group of Ministers (GoM) to review all aspects.

Initiatally, there were some objections from ministries such as HRD and Labour and Employment which argued that the new body would lead to duplication of efforts. However, the differences were sorted out subsequently

National Urban Health Mission (NUHM) approved by the Cabinet

The Union Cabinet gave its approval to launch a National Urban Health Mission (NUHM) as a new sub-mission under the over-arching National Health Mission (NHM). Under the Scheme the following proposals have been approved:

a) One Urban Primary Health Centre (U-PHC) for every fifty to sixty thousand population.
b) One Urban Community Health Centre (U-CHC) for five to six U-PHCs in big cities.
c) One Auxiliary Nursing Midwives (ANM) for 10,000 population.
d) One Accredited Social Health Activist ASHA (community link worker) for 200 to 500 households.

The estimated cost of NUHM for 5 years period is Rs.22,507 crore with the Central Government share of Rs.16,955 crore. Centre-State funding pattern will be 75:25 except for North Eastern states and other special category states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand for whom the funding pattern will be 90:10.

The scheme will focus on primary health care needs of the urban poor. This Mission will be implemented in 779 cities and towns with more than 50,000 population and cover about 7.75 crore people.

The interventions under the sub-mission will result in

I.  Reduction in Infant Mortality Rate (IMR)
II. Reduction in Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR)
III. Universal access to reproductive health care
IV. Convergence of all health related interventions.

The existing institutional mechanism and management systems created and functioning under NRHM will be strengthened to meet the needs of NUHM. Citywise implementation plans will be prepared based on baseline survey and felt need. Urban local bodies will be fully involved in implementation of the scheme.

NUHM aims to improve the health status of the urban population in general, particularly the poor and other disadvantaged sections by facilitating equitable access to quality health care, through a revamped primary public health care system, targeted outreach services and involvement of the community and urban local bodies.

Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) revised

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved the proposal of the Ministry of Human Resource Development for the revision of norms related to Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA). This will facilitate the States / UTs to execute the civil works for construction of new schools as well as expanding capacity in existing schools.

About RMSA:

This scheme was launched in March, 2009 with the objective to enhance access to secondary education and to improve its quality. It is envisaged to achieve an enrolment rate of 75% from 52.26% in 2005-06 at secondary stage within 5 years of implementation of the scheme by providing a secondary school within a reasonable distance of any habitation. The other objectives include improving quality of education imparted at secondary level through making all secondary schools conform to prescribed norms, removing gender, socio-economic and disability barriers, providing universal access to secondary level education by 2017, i.e., by the end of 12th Five Year Plan and achieving universal retention by 2020.

The revised norms are as follows: 

a) State/UT governments will be permitted to use State Schedule of Rates (SSoR) or Central Public Works Department (CPWD) Rate, (whichever is lower) for construction,
b) enhancing the funds of Management, Monitoring Evaluation and Research (MMER) from 2.2 percent to 4 percent of the total outlay, 
c) subsuming other centrally sponsored schemes of secondary education- Information and Communication Technology (ICT) at school, girls hostel, Inclusive Education for Disabled at Secondary Stage (IEDSS) and Vocational Education (VE) in their existing form under the umbrella of RMSA. The pattern of assistance as well as coverage of schools as per their existing norms of all subsumed schemes will continue for the 12th Five Year Plan, 
d) extending all the benefits of RMSA to aided secondary schools excluding infrastructure support / core areas, this will help in providing support to interventions that will improve the quality of education in these schools. 
e) continuation of existing fund sharing pattern of 75:25 for the last four years of the 12th Plan to non – North Eastern Region (NER) states and 90:10 for NER States (including Sikkim), and 
f) authorizing the RMSA Project Approval Board (PAD) of Ministry of Human Resource Development to consider for approval of the integrated plan of the umbrella scheme of RMSA, including the subsumed four centrally sponsored schemes of secondary education and release of funds to the RMSA state implementation society directly. 
g) Out of enhanced MMER of 4 percent, fund up to 3.5 percent of the annual budget allocated for RMSA will be earmarked to the states/UTs for activities undertaken under MMER. In those states and UTs where the proposed percentages of MMER do not meet the requirement, MMER can be enhanced upto 5 percent of the budget allocation of the concerned states/UTs.

Yash Chopra to be honoured with Dadasaheb Phalke Academy Award 2013

Yash Chopra, Rajesh Khanna and Asha Bhosale are to be honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke Academy Awards 2013 to be given on 30 April 2013 at Bhaidas Auditorium in suburban Vile Parle in Mumbai. Asha Bhosle will be honoured with the Phalke Ratna Award for the contributions made by her in the field of music for over a period of five decades. 

Late Yash Chopra for his contributions to Indian Film Industry will be posthumously awarded with the Dadasaheb Phalke Academy Award. Pamela the wife of the iconic filmmaker Yash Chopra will receive the Saraswatibai Phalke Award. 

Few more recipients for the 13th Dada Saheb Phalke Academy Awards 

• Prem Chopra will be honoured with the Phalke Senior Actor (Negative Role) Award 
• Mala Sinha will be honoured with the Phalke Icon Cine Artiste Award
• Rajesh Khanna will be honoured with the first superstar of Indian Cinema Award. 
• Akshay Kumar will be hounoured with Best Actor Award for Rowdy Rathore
• Dimple Kapadia will get the Phalke Ever Memorable actor award
• Manoj Bajapi will get the Phalke Excellent Performance award for the film Gangs of Wasseyur Irrfan Khan will receive the Phalke Memorable Performance Award for Paan Singh Tomar Phalke Versatile Actor award will be presented to Govinda 
• Phalke Debut Actor Award will be presented to the newcomer of bollywood, Arjun Kapoor
• Phalke Best Supporting Actor Award for Khiladi 786 will be given to Himesh Reshamiya 
• Disha Vakani and Dilip Joshi will be honoured with the best TV actor and actress in small screen category, for their performances in the popular show, Tarak Mehta Ka Ulta Chashma

Dada Saheb Phalke is known as the Father of Indian Cinema and was the first producer, director and screen-writer of India for the silver screen. His first film was Raja Harishchandra in 1913. 

The Dada Saheb Phalke Academy Awards are presented annually to celebrate the jayanti of Dada Saheb Phalke. On this occasion different people from Bollywood are honoured with trophies for their outstanding contribution to the Indian Film Industry.

National Cancer Grid

As ascertained from the Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, the National Cancer Grid is envisaged to be a network of existing and future major cancer centres in the country created with the mandate of: 

i) Creating uniform standards of patient care across the length and breadth of country, bringing high quality cancer care to the doorsteps of patients. 

ii) Augmenting human resource capabilities in cancer management in the country. 

iii) Promoting collaborative research in cancer. 

Two preliminary meetings for the above have been held in August, 2012 and February, 2013 where major Cancer centres in the country participated. 

A proposal for financial assistance of Rs.378.47 crore has been received from Government of Maharashtra to establish a comprehensive Cancer Institute at Government Medical College and Hospital at Nagpur. The extant scheme for cancer (The National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases & Stroke-NPCDCS) does not have provisions to consider a proposal of this magnitude. The existing scheme provides for a financial assistance up to Rs.6.00 crore (Rs.4.80 crorefrom Central Government and Rs.1.20 crore from State Government) after fulfilling the guidelines and conditions. 

Proposals under National Cancer Grid have not been received from other State/UT Governments. 

E-Biz Portal to Ease G2B Services

As part of the Government`s initiative to improve the business environment and the ease of doing business in the country, the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion, Ministry of Commerce & Industry launched the eBiz portal on 28.01.2013 comprising the License and Permits Services component that will allow business users to obtain a customized list of licenses, permits, and regulations that they require or need to comply with across all levels of government. eBiz will serve as a 24X7 online single-window system for providing efficient and convenient Government to business (G2B) services to business community, by reducing the complexity in obtaining information and services related to starting businesses in India, and dealing with licenses and permits across the business life-cycle. It will function as one-stop-shop for obtaining information and forms; submission of forms/applications; online payment and routing of fees; and routing of forms/applications and fees to various departments for licenses, permits, registrations, approvals, clearances, permissions, periodic filings and compliances throughout the life-cycle of business entity. 

During the pilot phase, 29 services of year -1 and 21 services of year 2&3 i.e. total 50 services are envisaged to be integrated with the eBiz portal which include 26 services of Central Government departments and 24 services in each of the 5 pilot states i.e. Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. 

GROUP-II EXECUTIVE POSTS SELECTION LIST

Selection List for Notification No. 39/2011, Group -II Services Recruitment Executive Post

SABLA scheme

With the objective to improve the nutritional and health status of adolescent girls in the age group of 11-18 years and empower them by providing education in life-skills, health and nutrition, the Government of India introduced the Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls - SABLA in November, 2010.
SABLA scheme will replace  the erstwhile Kishori Shakti Yojana (the objective of this scheme was to improve the nutrition and health status of girls in the age‐group of 11 to 18 years, to equip them to improve and upgrade their home‐based and vocational skills, and to promote their overall development, including awareness about their health, personal hygiene, nutrition and family welfare and management)and Nutrition Programme for Adolescent Girls (under this programme, 6 kg of free food grain per beneficiary per month was given to undernourished Adolescent Girls).
SABLA will be implemented initially in 200 districts selected across the country, using the platform of ICDS. In these districts, SABLA will replace KSY and NPAG. In rest of the districts, KSY would continue as before.
The objectives of the scheme are to:
a) enable self‐development and empowerment of AGs;b) improve their nutrition and health status;c) spread awareness among them about health, hygiene, nutrition, Adolescent Reproductive and Sexual Health (ARSH), and family and child care;d) upgrade their home‐based skills, life skills and vocational skills;e) mainstream out‐of‐school AGs into formal/non formal‐education; andf) Inform and guide them about existing public services, such as PHC, CHC, Post Office, Bank, Police Station, etc.
Brief description of the services to be provided under the scheme:a) Nutrition: Each AG will be given Supplementary nutrition (SN) containing 600 calories, 18-20 grams of protein and micronutrients1, per day for 300 days in a year. The out of school AGs in the age group of 11-15 years attending Anganwadi Centres AWCs and all girls in the age group of 15-18 years will be provided Supplementary nutrition in the form of Take Home Ration (THR). However, if hot cooked meal2 is provided to them, strict quality standards have to be put in place. The Take Home Ration as provided to Pregnant & Lactating (P & L) mothers may be provided for AGs also, since the financial and calorific norms of Supplementary nutrition for both is same.
b) IFA Supplementation: Under Reproductive & Child Health (RCH-2) of National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), school children (6-10 years) and adolescents (11-18 years) have been included in the National Nutrition Anaemia Control Programme (NNAPP). States will establish convergence with the programme being implemented by Ministry of Health & Family Welfare to provide 100 adult tablets of IFA to each beneficiary through supervised consumption. IFA tablets will be distributed to AGs on Kishori Diwas.
c) Health check-up and Referral Services: There will be general health check up of all AGs, at least once in three months on a special day called the Kishori Diwas. The Medical Officer/Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANM) will provide the deworming tablets to the girls requiring this (as per State specific guidelines). Height, weight measurement of the AGs will be done on this day. Kishori cards for every girl will be prepared and maintained by marking major milestones. The weighing scales provided under ICDS will be used for weighing AG.
d) Nutrition and Health Education (NHE): NHE will be given to all AGs in the AWC jointly by the ICDS and health functionaries and resource persons/ field trainers from NGOs/Community Based Organisations(CBOs). This will include encouraging healthy traditional practices and dispelling harmful myths, healthy cooking and eating habits, use of safe drinking water and sanitation, personal hygiene, including management of menarche, etc. The adolescent girls will be informed about balanced diet and recommended dietary intake, nutrient deficiency disorders and their prevention, identification of locally available nutritious food, nutrition during pregnancy and for infants. This would also include imparting information about common ailments, personal hygiene, exercise/ yoga and holistic health practices.
e) Life Skills Education and Accessing Public Services: Its ultimate aim is to enable AGs in self development. Broad topics to be covered in the training for development of life skills may include confidence building, self awareness and self esteem, decision making, critical thinking, communication skills, rights & entitlement, coping with stress and responding to peer pressure, functional literacy, etc.

SIXTH ECONOMIC CENSUS

The Sixth Economic Census (EC) is scheduled to be conducted during Oct, 2012- June,13 in all the States and Union Territories of the country in collaboration with States/UT Governments.
The Sixth EC proposes to provide up to date information on number of establishments and number of persons employed therein, activity wise, of all the sectors (excluding crop production, plantation, public administration, defense and compulsory social security) of the country including its distribution at all-India, State, district, and at village/ward levels for comprehensive analysis of the structure of the economy (macro, micro, regional Levels).
Scope and coverage of economic census
The Sixth Economic Census is being conducted in all the States/UTs. All economic activities (agricultural and non-agricultural), except those involved in crop production and plantation, public administration, defense and compulsory social security, related to production and/or distribution of goods and/or services other than for the sole purpose of own consumption were covered.
However, as were done in earlier censuses, the following activities are being kept out of the purview of the Sixth Economic Census:
(i) Establishments of shelter-less and nomadic population, which keep on moving from place to place and camp either without shelter or with makeshift shelter.(ii) Establishments engaged in some activities like smuggling, gambling,   beggary, prostitution, etc.(iii) Domestic servants, whether they work in one household or in a number of households, drivers, etc. who undertake jobs for others on wages.(iv) All wage-paid employees of casual nature.(v) Household members engaged in household chores.(vi) Persons doing different types of jobs depending on the availability of work e.g. loading, unloading, helping a mason or a carpenter, doing earthwork for a contractor.(vii) Household members working for other households and earning some money which is insignificant.(viii) Households in which none of the members is engaged in any gainful activity i.e. households depending on remittance, rent, interest, pension etc.
Main objectives of the Sixth Economic Census are as under:
a) To provide detailed information on operational and economic variables, activity wise, of all the establishments(excluding crop production, plantation, public administration, defence and compulsory social security)  of the country including its distribution at all-India, State, district, and village/ward levels for comprehensive analysis of the structure of the economy (macro, micro, regional Levels) and for benchmark purposes;b) To provide similar data at lower geographical levels like tehsils /villages in case of rural areas and wards in case of urban areas for decentralized planning required under 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments;c) To generate information on number of exporting establishments, employing 10 or more workers,  activity wise and area wise in operation;d) To provide information on number of workers working in establishments, activity wise and area wise in operation;e) To provide information on number of workers working in unorganised sector (i.e. establishments employing less than ten workers);f) To provide updated Directory of Establishments employing 10 or more workers for local level planning purposes; andg) To provide an up to date frame (list) from which samples could be drawn for collecting detailed information.
The activities being covered in the Sixth Economic Census have a share of about 86 % in total GDP of the country.

Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011

For the success of any targeted approach, the identification of the real beneficiaries is of paramount importance. Thus the Central Government has decided to conduct a Socio Economic and Caste Survey of the national population in the year 2011. The Socio Economic and Caste Census would be carried out by the respective State Government with the financial and technical support of the Government of India. It was launched on 29th June 2011 in Hazemora Block in West Tripura.

The SECC, 2011 has the following three objectives:

1. To enable households to be ranked based on their socioeconomic status. State Governments can then prepare a list of families living below the poverty line.
2. To make available authentic information that will enable caste-wise population enumeration of the country.
3. To make available authentic information regarding the socioeconomic condition, and education status of various castes and sections of the population.

The SECC, 2011 will be conducted through a comprehensive programme involving the Ministry of Rural Development, Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, The Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India and the State Governments. 

The process is as follows:

• Each Collector/District Magistrate will formulate a District/ Town Plan and a Communication Plan.
• 24 lakh Enumeration Blocks (EB) will be used for the SECC, 2011- each Enumeration Block has roughly 125 households. These are the same Enumeration Blocks that were formed during the Census 2011. The enumerators will be provided copies of the layout maps and Abridged House List prepared during Census 2011. This will ensure complete coverage of the area.
• Enumerators will be trained to conduct the SECC, 2011.
• Each Enumerator will be assigned 4 Enumeration Blocks, and every 6 Enumerators will be assigned to one Supervisor.
• Enumerators will visit every household identified in the Enumeration Block and canvas the questionnaire. They will also reach out to homeless populations (eg. people living in railway stations, roadsides etc.
• A data entry operator will accompany each Enumerator.
• The data will be captured directly on an electronic handheld device (a tablet PC). The hand held device will have the scanned images of the forms filled up for National Population Register (NPR). This will also ensure complete and accurate coverage.
• The information (held in the tablet PC) will be read out to the respondent, who will verify it. A printed acknowledgement slip, signed by the Enumerator and Data Entry Operator will be given to the respondent.
• Collected data will be verified in the Panchayat.
• After all the information is collected from an Enumeration Block, a draft publication list will be prepared for verification.
• Within a week of publication of the draft list, the list will be read out at the Gram Sabha in all rural areas.
• Any person can file claims/objections and information furnished before designated officers for this purpose. The draft list will be made available at the Gram Panchayat, Block Development\Office, Charge Centre and District Collector’s Offices.
• The list will also be uploaded on the NIC/State Government/ MoRD/MoHUPA websites.

This exercise will help better target government schemes to the right beneficiaries and ensure that all eligible beneficiaries are covered, while all ineligible beneficiaries are excluded. 

Enumeration under SECC 2011 has been completed in 2,339,926 enumeration blocks (EBs) comprising 94.26 per cent of the total EBs of all the states as on 31 December 2012. The government has constituted an Expert Committee under the chairpersonship of Professor Abhijit Sen, Member Planning Commission, to examine the SECC indicators and the data analysis and recommend appropriate methodologies for determining classes of beneficiaries for different rural development programmes. It will consult states, experts, and civil society organizations while arriving at these methodologies.

Indian-Origin Economist Raj Chetty Won John Bates Clark Medal For 2013

Delhi-born Raj Chetty, the professor in the Department of Economy at the Harvard University won John Bates Clark medal for 2013, also called Baby Nobel. Raj Chetty’s work was also cited by the US President Barack Obama in State of the Union Address. 

John Bates Clark medal is conferred upon the American economist whose age is below 40 years and the one who has made crucial contribution to economic knowledge and thought. Baby Nobel is one of the most prestigious awards of economy. Infact, it is second only after Nobel Prize in economic science. 

Raj Chetty, 33, is the first Indian-origin person to win this high honour. His areas of work include social insurance, tax policy as well as education policy. 

American Economic Association Honors and Awards Committee described that Raj Chetty’s contributions assimilate evidence by making use of various methodological perspectives in order to find out answers of public policy questions. 

Raj Chetty graduated from Harvard University in 2000. He completed the PhD from Harvard University in 2003. 

UNICEF report on nutrition

The UNICEF report, ‘Improving Child Nutrition: The achievable imperative for global progress’ shows that progress has been made in recent years in addressing stunting in children, and calls for increased efforts to accelerate a response to a condition that affects some 165 million children across the world.

One in four of all children less than five years of age is stunted because of chronic under-nutrition in crucial periods of growth. The damage done to a child's body and brain by stunting is irreversible. It drags down performance at school and later at work, and puts children at a higher risk of dying from infectious diseases. Thus a key to success against stunting is focusing attention on pregnancy and the first two years of a child's life.

An estimated 80 per cent of the world’s stunted children live in just 14 countries. The report highlights successes in scaling up nutrition and improving policies in 11 countries: Ethiopia, Haiti, India, Nepal, Peru, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sri Lanka, Kyrgyzstan, the United Republic of Tanzania and Viet Nam.

Stunting is reduced through a series of simple and proven steps such as improving women’s nutrition, early and exclusive breastfeeding, providing additional vitamins and minerals as well as appropriate food – especially in pregnancy and the first two years of a child’s life.

Some examples:

In the Maharashtra state in India, the percentage of stunted children dropped from 39 per cent in 2005 to 23 per cent in 2012 largely because of support to frontline workers who focus on improving child nutrition.

In Peru, stunting fell by a third between 2006 and 2011 following a Child Malnutrition Initiative that lobbied political candidates to sign a ‘5 by 5 by 5’ commitment to reduce stunting in children under 5 by 5 per cent in 5 years and to lessen inequities between urban and rural areas. Peru drew on its experience of successful smaller projects and integrated nutrition with other programmes. It also focused on the most disadvantaged children and women and decentralized government structures.

Ethiopia cut stunting from 57 per cent to 44 per cent and under-5 mortality from 139 deaths per 1,000 live births to 77 per 1,000 between 2000 and 2011. Key steps included a national nutrition programme, providing a safety net in the poorest areas and boosting nutrition assistance through communities.

The report says that existing solutions and the work of new partnerships represent an unprecedented opportunity to address child under-nutrition through countries accelerating progress through national projects coordinated with donor support and measurable targets.

G8 inks historic agreement against rape in war zones

Foreign Ministers of the world's eight most advanced countries (G8) adopted a declaration committing the international community to tackle sexual violence in conflict zones. G8 members have announced a new fund which amounts to nearly $35.5 million or £23 million.

It includes over $10 million from the United Kingdom: $ 5million from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to support grassroots and human rights projects on sexual violence against women and girls and wider projects on violence against women and girls. The other £5million is from the Department for International Development, to look at what drives violence against women and girls in conflict settings.

Finally, the Declaration emphasises that protection efforts against sexual violence should be included in the first phase of all responses to conflict and humanitarian emergencies. And it includes vital commitments on women and children's rights, the protection of women human rights defenders, and the need for a comprehensive approach to health, psychological, legal and economic support for survivors of sexual violence.