19-may

Good Governance : System of Application of Technology for Human Resources Improvement (SATHI) application

1)      The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has undertaken a pilot project to implement the Gujarat human resources management model in two Central govt. agencies : Food and Drugs Administration and the Enforcement Directorate; to check its efficacy at the national level.

2)      The proposal for System of Application of Technology for Human Resources Improvement (SATHI) application was approved by the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in 2012, developed by IT major Infosys, and launched in August 2014.

3)      Objective : Aimed at improving the process for

                                i.            recruitment

                              ii.            avenues for training

                            iii.            skill based job allocations

4)      The system proposes :

                                 i.            10 years' recruitment calendar for government offices

                               ii.            It provides for online examinations for inductions and departmental promotions

                             iii.            A system of pre-recruitment eligibility test

5)      Applications :

                                i.            As part of personnel management, the application creates a manpower database showing real-time vacancies and human resource availability.

                              ii.            It also maintains individual profiles of all employees for instant access by the managerial level officials.

                            iii.            It will help identify capable officers on the basis of their talent profiles, which would also provide information about their previous postings.

                             iv.            The system provides online connectivity among all offices within the agency, both horizontal and vertical, through various communication devices.

                               v.            Employees can have access to all the latest government circulars and notification of their interest through the application. It also provides a platform for interaction among them.

6)      The system extends various services to employees, including online learning, skill position matching and feedback on performance besides motivation and empowerment.

7)      From the manager’s perspective, it makes available data on

                                i.            day-to-day manpower availability

                              ii.            filled-in positions in subordinate offices

                            iii.            online communication to pre-designated mailing list

                             iv.            review of pending administrative process

                               v.            pending work process monitoring

                             vi.            talent management

                           vii.            human resource budgeting

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/work-begins-on-hr-management-project/article7221470.ece

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14-may

Supreme Court guidelines for govt. advertisements using public money (Madhav Menon Committee report)

1)      The Supreme Court restrained the government from publishing the photographs of political leaders, Ministers or prominent persons in government advertisements in a landmark judgment holding that taxpayers’ money cannot be spent to build the “personality cults” of political leaders.

Ø  Holding that such personal glorification and image-making at public expense was a “direct antithesis of democratic functioning.

2)      Exceptions : The court drew an exception to this restraint in the case of the President, the Prime Minister and the Chief Justice of India.

Ø  They have to decide for themselves whether or not their photographs should appear in a government advertisement.

3)      Besides this leeway, the judgment only gives space for publishing the photos of “acknowledged personalities” like Mahatma Gandhi to commemorate their anniversaries.

4)   The Guidelines :

                                i.            The verdict relies on guidelines on ‘Content Regulation of Government Advertising’ framed by a three- member committee, led by legal academician N.R. Madhava Menon. The panel was set up by the Supreme Court in 2014.

                              ii.            The judgment accepted the panel’s guidelines that covers all forms of advertising, including on the Internet, introducing some modifications.

                            iii.            The Madhava Menon Committee wanted the exemption accorded not just to the President, the PM and the CJI but also the Governors and the Chief Ministers.

                             iv.            The judgment differed with the recommendation to impose a special curb on government advertisements on election eve. Drawing a distinction between “government messaging” and “politically motivated ads”, it said such a curb is unnecessary on election eve provided the advertisement serves the public interest and facilitates dissemination of information.

5)   Three member Ombudsman body :

Ø  The Supreme Court improvised on the N.R. Madhava Menon Committee’s recommendations to direct the government to appoint a three-member ombudsman body of persons with “unimpeachable integrity” to monitor and redress violations of the guidelines against publishing of photographs of political leaders, ministers or prominent persons in government advertisements.

Ø  SC disagreed with the panel’s suggestion for a separate performance audit of compliance with these advertisement guidelines, to be conducted on Ministries, departments and agencies.

6)      The court clarified that the judgment was not comprehensive and gave the executive liberty to further work on it in the public interest.

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/politicians-lose-space-in-govt-ads/article7203260.ece

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Status of MDG target : India

1)      India has met only four of ten health targets under the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and has
made next to no progress on another four, according to WHO’s annual World Health Statistics for 2015

2)      The deadline for achieving MDGs runs out this year.

3)      The report finds that globally, life expectancy at birth has increased by six years for both men and women since
1990.

4)      The world will meet global targets for turning around the epidemics of HIV, malaria and tuberculosis and increasing access to safe drinking water.

5)      The world had substantial progress in reducing child under-nutrition, maternal and child deaths, and increasing access to basic sanitation.

6)      Infant Mortality : Progress in child survival worldwide is one of the greatest success stories of international development.

Ø  Since 1990, child deaths have almost halved — falling from an estimated 90 deaths per 1000 live births to 46 deaths per 1000 live births in 2013.

Ø  Yet the world will not achieve the MDG target of reducing the death rate by two-thirds.

Ø  Less than one-third of all countries have achieved or are on track to meet this target by the end of this year.

Ø  Top killers of children aged less than 5 years are now: pre-term birth complications, pneumonia, birth asphyxia and diarrhoea.

7)      In India, life expectancy grew by eight years between 1990 and 2013.

8)      India has sharply reduced its infant mortality between 2000 and 2013, it still contributes for the most infant deaths globally.

9)      In September, countries will decide on new goals for 2030 : Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/india-way-behind-on-world-health-organisation-health-targets/article7202411.ece

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Overhaul of Child Labour Laws

1)      The Cabinet has approved a proposal to ban employment of children aged under 14 in all kinds of commercial enterprises.

Ø  The Child Labour Prohibition Act, 1986, imposes the ban on only 18 hazardous industries.

2)      Exception : work done in family enterprises and on farmlands, provided it is done after school hours and during vacations.

3)      The proposed amendment Bill will be in sync with the Right to Education Act that guarantees children aged between six and 14 the right to go to school.

4)      The Cabinet has barred employment of adolescents (14 to 18 years) in hazardous occupations and processes in the chemical industry and mines.

5)      The changes provide for stricter punishment for employers for violation.

Ø  there is no penalty for parents for the first offence

Ø  the employer will be liable for punishment even for the first violation

6)      Opposition :

                                i.            Child rights activists had argued that the definition of family enterprises can include matchbox making, carpet weaving and gem-polishing industries where child labour is in high demand.

                              ii.            They have also argued that the new norms can be used to deny education to the girl child who will be stuck with household work.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/cabinet-approves-changes-in-child-labour-law/article7201276.ece

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10-apr

UNESCO report on Education

1)      India has made remarkable strides towards ensuring education for all, a new global monitoring report shows. While access is now close to universal, the quality of education remains a major challenge.

2)      In April 2000, the governments of 164 countries adopted the Dakar Framework to deliver “Education for All” commitments by 2015.

Ø  UNESCO published the “Education for All” Global Monitoring Report to evaluate the progress of countries on these goals.

3)      India's performance :

Ø  India is likely to reach the first goal of 80 per cent enrolment in pre-primary education by 2015.

Ø  It has already reached the second goal of universal primary enrolment

Ø  It  will fall just short of universal youth literacy by 2015

Ø  The one measurable goal India will not reach is reducing its adult illiteracy rate by half (it has reduced it by 26 per cent)

Ø  The country’s major success has been in reaching gender parity for primary and lower secondary enrolment.

4)      Only 25 per cent of the countries have reduced by half their levels of adult illiteracy, and women continue to make up two-thirds of the illiterate.

5)      However, the efficiency of public spending in India comes in for criticism, as does the expansion of contract teaching jobs in public schools.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/unesco-report-lauds-indias-progress/article7086247.ece

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28-mar

NITI Aayog to set up working group

1)      A sub-group of 11 Chief Ministers of the NITI Aayog decided to set up a working group to recommend steps to make Centrally sponsored schemes more effective and their implementation by the States more flexible.

2)      The working group will prepare a draft report which will be taken up for discussion at the next meeting of the panel.

3)      The funding pattern of the Central schemes is expected to undergo further changes, considering acceptance of recommendations of 14th Finance Commission relating to increase in the States’ share of Central taxes to 42 per cent from 32 per cent.

4)      Finance Ministry proposed in the Centre’s fiscal policy strategy statement that the expenditure on 30 such schemes (CSS), which has already been taken into account as State expenditure, be transferred to the States.

Ø  MNREGA and the National Food Security Act are neither being discontinued nor transferred as they are being implemented under laws passed by Parliament.

5)      At its first meeting, the Governing Council of the NITI Aayog constituted three subgroups of Chief Ministers :

                                i.            on rationalisation of the Central schemes

                              ii.            skill development

                            iii.            Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/niti-aayog-to-tone-up-delivery/article7041510.ece

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IAEA review of Indian nuclear power plant

1)      U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency conducted a 12-day review of India’s nuclear safety standards.

2)      IAEA consider that India has a “strong commitment to safety” but the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) needs more independence and separation from the government.

3)      It also called for the Indian government to allow more on-site inspections at the nuclear power plants (NPPs) under international safeguards.

4)      Six preliminary suggestions were given at the end of the review which were accepted by the Indian agency.

5)      Among other suggestions, the international agency said India needs a “national policy” for nuclear safety and radioactive waste management, and needs more “internal emergency arrangements.”

6)      IAEA review came at the invitation of the Indian government after it concluded handing over its civilian nuclear reactors for international scrutiny, and submitted to IAEA requirements for accounting for spent fuel and other nuclear processes.

7)      India had last year ratified IAEA's Additional Protocol and also brought 22 nuclear facilities, including 14 atomic power reactors, under the agency's safeguards, enabling it to have greater role in inspection of these units.

8)      India is keen to get backing for a future bid for membership to the Nuclear Suppliers Group, which it has been kept out of as India has refused to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

1. http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/iaea-for-more-autonomy-to-aerb/article7042068.ece

2. http://defence.pk/threads/iaea-chief-reaches-india-today.367285/

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Rajasthan amends Panchayati Raj law

1)      Rajasthan became the first State in the country to fix a minimum educational qualification for contesting elections to the Panchayati Raj Institutions.

2)      Rajasthan Panchayati Raj (amendment) Bill, 2015, makes Class VIII pass mandatory for the post of sarpanch and Class X for Zila Parishad or Panchayat Samiti elections.

Ø  except in tribal reserved areas, where the minimum qualification is Class V

3)      The amendments to Section 19 of the Rajasthan Panchayat Raj Act, 1994 also make a functional toilet mandatory in the house of a contestant.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/rajasthan-passes-bill-on-eligibility-for-panchayat-polls/article7041483.ece

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