Production of Bio-Gas

The estimated State-wise production of biogas from family type biogas plants and large biogas plants installed in the country under different programmes of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy during the 11^th Five Year Plan period is given below:-

Sl. No.	Name of State	Biogas production (in Lakh cubic metres)
1.	Andhra Pradesh	9969.60
2.	Arunachal Pradesh	58.82
3.	Assam	1616.33
4.	Bihar	2325.94
5.	Chhattisgarh	527.63
6.	Goa	71.83
7.	Gujarat	8731.94
8.	Haryana	1112.13
9.	Himachal Pradesh	842.47
10.	Jammu & Kashmir	47.44
11.	Jharkhand	107.19
12.	Karnataka	8213.62
13.	Kerala	2399.30
14.	Madhya Pradesh	5713.25
15.	Maharashtra	15297.74
16.	Manipur	38.80
17.	Meghalaya	146.30
18.	Mizoram	72.40
19.	Nagaland	95.83
20.	Odisha	4402.65
21.	Punjab	2966.70
22.	Rajasthan	1235.30
23.	Sikkim	144.66
24.	Tamil Nadu	5261.66
25.	Tripura	53.25
26.	Uttar Pradesh	7765.80
27.	Uttarakhand	531.37
28.	West Bengal	6213.70
TOTAL :		85963.53

Central Tool Rooms in the Country

10 Tool Rooms are presently functional in the country. The State-wise list of 10 Tool Rooms  is:

S.No	Name of the Technology Centre	Location	State
1.	Central Tool Room & Training Centre (CTTC),	Bhubaneswar	Odisha
2.	Indo Danish Tool Room (IDTR),	Jamshedpur	Jharkhand
3.	Central Tool Room & Training Centre (CTTC)	Kolkata	West Bengal
4.	Tool Room & Training Centre (TRTC)	Guwahati	Assam
5.	Indo German Tool Room (IGTR)	Aurangabad	Maharashtra
6.	Indo German Tool Room (IGTR)	Indore	Madhya Pradesh
7.	Indo German Tool Room (IGTR)	Ahmedabad	Gujarat
8.	Central Tool Room (CTR)	Ludhiana	Punjab
9.	Central Institute of Hand Tools (CIHT)	Jalandhar	Punjab
10.	Central Institute of Tool Design (CITD)	Hyderabad	Telangana

Gujarat Becomes The First State To Conduct Online Elections

Gujarat has been creating landmark strides in the wing of elections to the local body authorities. Earlier the Gujarat government was successful in clearing the bill which has paved the way for compulsory voting by all the voters in the local municipal and panchayat elections. The very controversial Gujarat Local Authorities Laws Bill, 2009 was passed in the previous year, which made

(a) The voting by all those voters in the electoral college mandatory
(b) Also provided for 50% reservation for women in the local authorities.

Now after making the voting mandatory, the government has decided to make some appeasements by facilitating easy voting. This, the State Election Commission plans to bring by Online Voting.

This according to the commission would facilitate all those voters who are unable to reach the polling stations. The method follows a series of steps as follows:

(1) The voters would have to register themselves in the Gujarat Election Commission Official website.(2) They would have to present themselves for the physical verification which would be carried out by the local officials who would visit the address specified by the voters.(3) The officials would collect the biometric details and along with that would also note the hardware configuration of the laptop and the desktops that would be possibly used for voting.(4) The voters would be asked to use the same hardware as checked by the officials for voting.(5) While voting the voters would receive a OTP(One Time Password) that would be sent to their mobile phones, which would be followed by a line for the purpose of verification.(6) Using these verifications the voter could cast his/her vote online. 

Govt launches E-Vaidya Scheme

The health minister launched the second electronic UPHC - Urban Primary Health Centre in the state of Andhra Pradesh. This would be the first of its kind e-Vaidya telemedicine facility launched in the country. The e-Vaidya scheme comes under the flagship- NUHM (National Urban Health Mission).

E-Vaidya is primarily a digital health unit which would serve as a primary health center, and is a highly innovative approach with a frugal combination between the offline and the online modes. It would help in enabling and provisioning of the health care for all. It operates under a cooperative partnership between the state and the central government. The scheme importantly introduces e-UPHC i.e electronic Urban Primary Health Centre.

The various important points under the scheme:

(a) Usage of videoconferencing with which the patients can directly interact with the doctors at far off places.
(b) Specialists and other consultation could be easily carried out by the technique.
(c) The Online e-UPHC at the fringe places would have the facility for video conferencing and also other basic facilities such as machinery for X-Ray, basic labs and other diagnostic technologies.
(d) The common people could consult these doctors using video conferencing and use these facilities for the various tests which are asked to be conducted on them for the purpose of diagnosis.
(e) Many plans are covered under the scheme, the patients could opt for yearly memberships from the e-Vaidya site and can consult with the doctors even while sitting at homes with internet. But the patients will have to pay a nominal fees for memberships.
(f) The fees would vary according to the kind of consultation seeked and the time period availed for such consultations. 

Union Cabinet paves the way for New Development Bank

The union cabinet has approved the establishment of New Development Bank and the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA). The Bank will help India and other member countries to raise and avail resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects. In the New Development Bank each participant country will be given one vote with none having veto power unlike the World Bank, which assigns votes based on the capital share. The BRICS CRA is aimed at providing short-term liquidity support to the members to help mitigate BOP crisis situation through currency swaps, in case such a situation arises.

Swachh Vidyalaya Abhiyan

The Ministry of Human Resource Development has launched Swachh Vidyalaya Programme under Swachh Bharat Mission with an objective to provide separate toilets for boys and girls in all government schools within one year. The Ministry financially supports States/Union Territories inter alia to provide toilets for girls and boys in schools under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA). Under SSA and RMSA 88,728 toilets have been sanctioned during 2014-15. 1.58 lakh toilets as well as dysfunctional toilets have been taken up by Public Sector Undertakings/Corporates for construction/repairs. Besides an amount of Rs. 56.51crore has been allocated from the Swachh Bharat Kosh for re-construction/repairs of the dysfunctional toilets. 

National Marine Police Academy at West Coast

The Government of India has decided to establish a National Marine Police Training Institute in the land offered by the Government of Gujarat located at Pindara village in Devbhoomi Dwarka district of the State, to impart training to the marine Police personnel of all the coastal States/Union Territories in the country.  It will take, at least, 4 years to operationalise this Institute. 

Union Budget 2015-16 Practice Questions

1) On which date Union Budget 2015-16 was presented in Parliament? 

- 28 February 2015

2) Name the Union Finance Minister who presented the Union Budget 2015-16 in Parliament? 

- Arun Jaitley

3) Personal Income Tax limit was not changed in Union Budget 2015-16. What is the present Personal I-T exemption limit? 

- Rs 2.5 lakh

4) Health Insurance Premium deduction hiked from Rs. 15,000 to? 

- Rs. 25,000 (for senior citizens to Rs. 30,000)

5) Transport allowance exemption hiked to Rs. 1,600, from ____ per month? 

- Rs. 800

6) PAN card is must for all purchase above ____ rupees as proposed in Budget 2015-16? - Rs. 1 lakh

7) An additional ___% surcharge on people earning over Rs. 1 cr was put forth in the budget 2015-16? 

- 2%

8) Wht change was made in the Wealth tax? 

- Wealth tax abolished

9) DTC was dropped in the Budget 2015-16. Expand DTC? 

- Direct Taxes Code

10) Corporate tax to be reduced from 30% to ___ over next four years? 

- 25%

11) Mudra banks to be established with capital of Rs.___ crore? 

- 20000

12) Rs. ____ deduction for contribution to New Pension Scheme? 

- Rs. 50,000

13) GAAR implementation deferred by 2 years to? 

- April 2017

14) Service Tax rate hiked to ___% from 12.36%?

 - 14%

15) Tax free bonds were proposed in budget for? 

- Roads, railways, irrigation projects

Union Budget 2015-16 Highlights:

Union Budget 2015-16 Highlights:
- Arun Jaitley leaves North Block with finance ministry officials for Lok sabha.
- Finance Minister Arun Jaitley begins General Budget 2015-16 speech in Loksabha.

 TAXATION
1. Abolition of Wealth Tax.
2. Additional 2% surcharge for the super rich with income of over Rs. 1 crore.
3. Rate of corporate tax to be reduced to 25% over next four years.
4. No change in tax slabs.
5. Total exemption of up to Rs. 4,44,200 can be achieved.
6. 100% exemption for contribution to Swachch Bharat, apart from CSR.
7. Service tax increased to14 percent.

AGRICULTURE
1. Rs. 25,000 crore for Rural Infrastructure Development Bank.
2. Rs. 5,300 crore to support Micro Irrigation Programme.
3. Farmers credit - target of 8.5 lakh crore.

INFRASTRUCTURE
1. Rs. 70,000 crores to Infrastructure sector.
2. Tax-free bonds for projects in rail road and irrigation
3. PPP model for infrastructure development to be revitalised and govt. to bear majority of the risk.
4. Atal Innovation Mission to be established to draw on expertise of entrepreneurs, and researchers to foster scientific innovations; allocation of Rs. 150 crore.
5. Govt. proposes to set up 5 ultra mega power projects, each of 4000MW.

EDUCATION
1. AIIMS in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar and Assam.
2. IIT in Karnataka; Indian School of Mines in Dhanbad to be upgraded to IIT.
3. PG institute of Horticulture in Amritsar.
4. Kerala to have University of Disability Studies
5. Centre of film production, animation and gaming to come up in Arunachal Pradesh.
6. IIM for Jammu and Kashmir and Andhra Pradesh.

DEFENCE
1. Allocation of Rs. 2,46,726 crore; an increase of 9.87 per cent over last year.
2. Focus on Make in India for quick manufacturing of Defence equipment.

WELFARE SCHEMES
1. GST and JAM trinity (Jan Dhan Yojana, Aadhaar and Mobile) to improve quality of life and to pass benefits to common man.
2. Six crore toilets across the country under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.
3. MUDRA bank will refinance micro finance orgs. to encourage first generation SC/ST entrepreneurs.
4. Housing for all by 2020.
5. Upgradation 80,000 secondary schools.
6. DBT will be further be expanded from 1 crore to 10.3 crore.
7. For the Atal Pension Yojana, govt. will contribute 50% of the premium limited to Rs. 1,000 a year.
8. New scheme for physical aids and assisted living devices for people aged over 80 .
9. Govt. to use Rs. 9,000 crore unclaimed funds in PPF/EPF for Senior Citizens Fund.
10. Rs. 5,000 crore additional allocation for MGNREGA.
11. Govt. to create universal social security system for all Indians.

RENEWABLE ENERGY
1. Rs. 75 crore for electric cars production.
2. Renewable energy target for 2022: 100K MW in solar; 60K MW in wind; 10K MW in biomass and 5K MW in small hydro

TOURISM
1. Develpoment schemes for churches and convents in old Goa; Hampi, Elephanta caves, Forests of Rajasthan, Leh palace, Varanasi , Jallianwala Bagh, Qutb Shahi tombs at Hyderabad to be under the new toursim scheme.
2. Visa on Arrival for 150 countries.

GOLD
1. Sovereign Gold Bond, as an alternative to purchasing metal gold.
2. New scheme for depositors of gold to earn interest and jewellers to obtain loans on their metal accounts.
3. To develop an Indian gold voin, which will carry the Ashok Chakra on its face, to reduce the demand for foreign coins and recycle the gold available in the country.

FINANCIAL SECTOR
1. Forward Markets Commission to be merged with the Securities and Exchange Board of India
2. NBFCs registered with the RBI and having asset size of Rs 500 crore and above to be considered as ‘financial institution’ under Sarfaesi Act, 2002, enabling them to fund SME and mid-corporate businesses
3. Permanent Establishment norms to be modified to that mere presence of offshore fund managers in the country does not lead to “adverse tax consequences.”

Union Budget 2015-16: Highlights

Union Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley on 28 February 2015 presented Union Budget 2015-16 in the Lok Sabha. This was the first full year Budget of the NDA government and the second budget of Arun Jaitley.

Highlights of the Union Budget 2015-16
• Gross tax receipts of 14.49 lakh crore rupees
• Non-planned expenditure was 1312200 crore rupees
• Corporate tax was reduced to 25 percent over next four years from existing 30 percent 
• Defence allocation for fiscal 2015-16 is 246727 crore rupees
• 100 percent tax deduction for contribution to Swachh Bharat Fund
• Service tax hiked by 14 percent
• 34699 crore rupees allocated for MNREGA, which is highest ever allocation to the programme
• Yoga was included in the ambit of charitable purposes under the Income Tax Act 
• Custom duty on 22 items will be reduced 
• People will have to quote their PAN for all purchases above 1 lakh rupees 
• AIIMS will be set up in five states namely Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh and Assam
• Centres for film production will be created in Arunachal Pradesh 
• Law under FEMA on capital account transactions will be amended 
• National skill development mission to be launched
• By 2022 there is plan to produce 175000 MW renewable energy 
• Visa on arrival extended to 150 countries 
• 1000 crore rupees more allocated to Nirbhaya fund 
• Transport allowance increased to 1600 rupees per month 
• To increase clean energy cess of 220 rupees per tonne of coal 
• Online excise & service tax registrations in 2 working days
• Wealth tax has been abolished, replaced by 2 percent on superrich 
• 9000 crore rupees from additional 2 percent surcharge on the super rich 
• 1008 crore rupees was collected under total wealth tax
• GARR will be deferred by 2 years 
• Benami transactions in property deals will be curbed
• 7-year imprisonment for non-filing of return on foreign asset 
• 300 percent penalty on concealing income 
• Undisclosed income to be taxed on maximum marginal rate 
• New law to tackle black money 
• Sovereign gold bond with fixed rate of interest will be developed 
• Gold monetization scheme will be introduced 
• Internationally competitive direct tax regime will be created 
• Public debt management agency will be created

• 5 ultra-mega power projects, each of 4000MW

• To enable minority youth, a new scheme named Nayi Manzil will be started 
• Investment on infrastructure to go up by 70000 crore rupees 
• Integrated education and livelihood scheme for minorities were announced
• New scheme for assisted living devices for BPL senior citizen
• Senior citizens’ welfare fund will be created 
• Access to the formal credit system will be increased 
• Universal social security system will be created 
• Micro unit development finance unit MUDRA Bank will be created 
• 25000 crore rupees allocated for rural infrastructure development fund 
• National unified market for farm produce will be created 
• 5300 crore rupees allocated for micro irrigation and PM’s irrigation scheme 
• Total transfer to the states will be 62 percent
• Will Form A Monetary Policy Committee
• At least 1 member of each family to have job by 2022
• Electrification of remaining 20000 villages by 2020
• GST will be rolled out on 1 April 2016

Economic Survey of India 2014-15: Highlights

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitely on 27 February 2015 presented Economic Survey of India 2014-15 in the Parliament.
The Economic Survey reviews the developments in the Indian economy over the previous 12 months, summarises the performance on major development programmes and highlights the policy initiatives of the government and the prospects of the economy in the short to medium term.

Three pronged strategy suggested in Economic Survey 2014-15

• To improve the investment climate and reduce the backlog of stalled projects, Economic Survey 2014-15 suggested a three-pronged strategy, namely
• Revival of public investment in short term, to act as an engine of growth in infrastructure sector. It argues that public investment cannot be a substitute for private investment; but is required as a complement and to crowd it in.
• Need of creative solutions to strengthen institutions relating to bankruptcy. This will ensure that exit options are available. This will also ameliorate over-indebtedness that lowers the capacity to generate new investments. Towards this end, it contemplates setting up of a high-powered Independent Renegotiation Committee.
• Economic Survey highlights the need for reorientation and restructuring of the PPP model. This is expected to make them more viable in future.

Main Highlights of the Economic Survey 2014-15

General Highlights

• Using the new estimate for 2014-15 as the base, GDP growth at constant market prices is expected to accelerate to between 8.1 and 8.5 percent in 2015-16.
• Inflation declined by over 6 percentage points since late 2013 which is likely to remain in the 5-5.5 percent range in 2015-16, creating space for easing of monetary conditions.
• The current account deficit declined from a peak of 6.7 percent of GDP in Quarter 3 of 2012-13 to an estimated 1.0 percent in the fiscal year 2015-16.
• After a nearly 12-quarter phase of deceleration, real GDP has been growing at 7.2 percent on average since 2013-14, based on the new growth estimates of the Central Statistics Office.
• Foodgrains production for 2014-15 is estimated at 257.07 million tonnes, which will exceed average food grain production of last five years by 8.5 million tones
• Foreign portfolio flows have stabilized the rupee, exerting downward pressure on long-term interest rates which is reflected in yields on 10-year government securities and surge in equity prices.
• From a cross-country perspective, a Rational Investor Ratings Index (RIRI) which combines indicators of macro-stability with growth illustrates that India ranks amongst the most attractive investment destinations.
• It ranks well above the mean for its investment grade category (BBB), and also above the mean for the investment category above it (on the basis of the new growth estimates).
• In the short run, growth will receive a boost from the cumulative impact of reforms, lower oil prices, likely monetary policy easing facilitated by lower inflation and improved inflationary expectations, and forecasts of a normal monsoon in 2015-16.
• Growth in medium-term prospects will be conditioned the “balance sheet syndrome with Indian characteristics” that has the potential to hold back rapid increases in private sector investment.
• In the long-run, private investments will be the engine of growth. However, there is a case for reviving targeted public investment as an engine of growth in the short run to complement and crowd-in private investment.
• Expenditure control and expenditure switching from consumption to investment will be the key to growth in the short-run
• It calls for complementing Make in India initiative with Skill India initiative to enable a larger section of the population to benefit from the structural transformation that such sectors will facilitate.
• The Survey emphasizes on creation of a National Market for Agricultural Commodities in place of thousands of agricultural markets
• The Model APMC Act, 2003 should be amended along the lines of the Karnataka Model that has successfully introduced an integrated single licensing system.

Fiscal Framework

• The Survey calls for adhering to the medium-term fiscal deficit target of 3 percent of GDP. This will provide the fiscal space to insure against future shocks and also to move closer to the fiscal performance of its emerging market peers.
• It also calls for moving toward the golden rule of eliminating revenue deficits and ensuring that, over the cycle, borrowing is only for capital formation.
• Expenditure control combined with recovering growth and the introduction of the GST will ensure that medium term targets are comfortably met.
• In the short run, the need for accelerated fiscal consolidation will be conditioned by the recommendations of the Fourteenth Finance Commission (FFC).
• The quality of expenditure needs to be shifted from consumption, by reducing subsidies, towards investment.

Subsidies and the JAM Number Trinity Solution

• Food Subsidy Bill stands at 107823.75 crore rupees during 2014-15 (up to January 2015) which means an increase of 20 percent over previous year
• The direct fiscal cost of select subsidies is roughly 378,000 crore rupees or 4.2 percent of GDP in 2011-12.  
• 41 percent of subsidy given for the PDS kerosene is lost as leakage and only 46 percent of the remaining 59 percent is consumed by households that are poor.
• The JAM Number Trinity – Jan Dhan Yojana, Aadhaar, Mobile – can enable the State to transfer financial resources to the poor in a progressive manner without leakages and with minimal distorting effects.

Indian Railways and Public Investment

• The Indian Railways over the years has been plagued by host of issues. Some of them include underinvestment resulting in lack of capacity addition and network congestion; neglect of commercial objectives; poor service provision; and consequent financial weakness.  These have cumulated to below-potential contribution to economic growth.
• As a result, the competitiveness of Indian industry has been undermined. Calculations reveal that China carries thrice as much coal freight per hour compared to India. Coal is transported in India at more than twice the cost vis-à-vis China, and it takes 1.3 times longer to do so.
• The railways public investment multiplier (the effect of a 1 rupee increase in public investment in the railways on overall output) is around 5.
• In the long run, the railways must be commercially viable and public support must be linked to railway reforms. These include adoption of commercial practices, tariff rationalization, and technology overhaul.