8-Feb-2021: The government has included 21 new disciplines for Central Government Jobs under sports quota
The Government has included 21 new sports disciplines including ‘Mallakhamba’ and ‘Sepak Takraw’ in the list of sports disciplines which qualify for recruitment of meritorious sports persons to any post in Group 'C' in Ministries/Department of Government of India. The details of newly included sports disciplines are as under:
|
Sl.No. |
Name of Sports Disciplines |
|
1 |
Baseball |
|
2 |
Cycle Polo |
|
3 |
Fencing |
|
4 |
Mallakhamba |
|
5 |
Net Ball |
|
6 |
Pencak Silat |
|
7 |
Roll Ball |
|
8 |
Sepak Takraw |
|
9 |
Tenpin Bowling |
|
10 |
Tug-of-war |
|
11 |
Tennis Ball Cricket |
|
12 |
Body-Building |
|
13 |
Deaf Sports |
|
14 |
Kudo |
|
15 |
Motor Sports |
|
16 |
Para Sports (for sports discipline included in para-Olympics and Para Asian Games) |
|
17 |
Shooting Ball |
|
18 |
Rugby |
|
19 |
Soft Tennis |
|
20 |
Triathlon |
|
21 |
Wushu |
17-Jan-2021: Sports Ministry decides to name all new, upgraded sporting facilities after sportspersons
In an effort to honour sporting heroes of the country, the Sports Ministry has taken a decision to name all upcoming and upgraded sporting facilities of the Sports Authority of India, after renowned athletes, who have contributed to sports in India.
In the first leg, the newly built air-conditioned wrestling hall and the learners swimming pool in the National Centre of Excellence (NCOE) in Lucknow, the 100-bedded hostel in NCOE Bhopal, the multipurpose hall and Girls’ hostel in NCOE Sonepat, as well as the new STC In Guwahati which has a hostel, multipurpose hall and staff quarters, will be named after local star sportspersons.
Speaking about the decision, Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, Shri Kiren Rijiju said, “To build a sports culture in the country, it is important that our sportspersons get the honour that they deserve, because only then will the younger generations be enthused to take up sport as a career. The government is already providing all support to present and even past athletes to ensure that they have a life of comfort and dignity. Acknowledging their contribution to sports by naming sporting facilities after them is yet another endeavour of the Government to strengthen its commitment to sportspersons.”
20-Jul-2020: Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports partners with UNICEF to strengthen resolve to mobilise 1 crore youth volunteers to achieve goals of Aatmanirbhar Bharat
In a step to realise the vision of Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Shri Kiren Rijiju to mobilise 1 crore youth volunteers in India and contribute to Prime Minister’s call for Aatmanirbhar Bharat, the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports signed a Statement of Intent with YuWaah (a multi-stakeholder platform formed by the UNICEF) to work in partnership to promote volunteerism among the youth of India as well as to help them transition from education and learning to productive work, skilling and being active citizens. The partnership was launched by Smt Usha Sharma, Secretary, Youth Affairs and Dr. Yasmin Ali Haque, UNICEF Representative in India in the presence of Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Shri Kiren Rijiju.
Speaking about the importance of the partnership, Shri Kiren Rijiju said, “This partnership is very appropriate in these challenging times. I am confident that it will give a strong focus to our existing policies. The Prime Minister has laid out a clearly-charted roadmap for the youth of India and given a clarion call for Aatmanirbhar Bharat, which the youth of India will have to drive. India being such a young country with a huge population, the contribution of the youth in any sphere can make a huge difference, not just in India but at the global platform.”
Kiren Rijiju further added, “The Government of India is committed to listening to young people’s opinions and ideas. These new ways of thinking are what we need to address many of India’s persisting and upcoming challenges. Towards this end, the MYAS can be an effective bridge between young people together with partners like YuWaah and the Government machinery."
The partnership will leverage both the Ministry and UN efforts to work with young people to co-create and implement solutions at scale tackling education, skilling and unemployment challenges for young people in India. This will include collaboration on supporting young people in entrepreneurship, upskilling young people, creating linkages with aspirational socio-economic opportunities, promoting changemaking and civic participation among young people, providing career guidance support to young people, supporting direct dialogue and the establishment of a feedback mechanism between young people and policy stakeholders, and building the capacity of the NSS and NYKS cadre and volunteer force on sustainable development goals.
Speaking about the partnership, Smt Usha Sharma, Secretary, Youth Affairs said, “We, at the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, see YuWaah as a unique opportunity that can provide a platform to fulfill ambitions and dreams ‘of the youth, for the youth and with the youth’. The partnership promises to give a great platform to our NYKS, NSS volunteers, even as they get a chance to interact with global experts.”
Dr. Yasmin Ali Haque, UNICEF Representative in India, and UN Resident Coordinator a.i. said, “The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, a key stakeholder of YuWaah, has spearheaded youth development and youth participation for several decades. YuWaah, through this partnership with the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and UN agencies in India will support young people of this country to build, lead their own agendas and thrive. This especially relevant today as we need to prepare young people for a rapidly changing world, to involve them in decision making and amplify their views on issues/matters that concern their lives, inspiring them to take action.”
17-Jun-2020: Sports Ministry to establish Khelo India State Centres of Excellence (KISCE) to enhance India's Olympic performance : Shri. Kiren Rijiju
The Sports Ministry is all set to establish Khelo India State Centres of Excellence (KISCE) under the ministry’s flagship, Khelo India Scheme. One KISCE will be identified in each state and union territory, with an effort to create a robust sporting ecosystem in the entire country. In the first leg, the Ministry has identified state-owned sports facilities in eight states of India, including, Karnataka, Odisha, Kerala, Telangana and the north east states of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland which will be upgraded into Khelo India State Centre of Excellence (KISCE).
Speaking about this initiative of strengthening sporting facilities in the states, Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, Shri Kiren Rijiju said, “The Khelo India State Centre of Excellence are being established to strengthen India’s pursuit for excellence in Olympics. Our effort is to scale up the best sporting facilities available in each state in India into academies of world-class standard, where athletes from all over the country will want to train in their specific discipline. The sporting facilities have been identified after in-depth analysis by a government committee. I am confident that this is a step in the right direction to tap talent from across the country and train them into elite athletes who can win medals for the country in all major international tournaments, and specifically the Olympics.”
The process of selection of these sports facilities was started in October 2019, when each state and UT was asked to identify the best sports infrastructure available with them, their agencies or any eligible agencies, which could be developed into a world-class sporting facilities. Of the 15 proposals received and examined, 8 have been shortlisted based on the training facilities available in priority sports, infrastructure facilities and champion produced by the centre.
In order to upgrade the existing centre to the KISCE, the government will extend a ‘Viability Gap Funding’ in sports science and technology support for sports disciplines practiced at the centre and also bridge the gaps in requirement of sports equipment, expert coaches and high performance managers. The support extended will be to Olympic sports, though support can be extended in sports science and allied fields in other sporting disciplines being run in the centre.
The state and UT will run the centre and build capacity to turn it into the world-class sporting facility, and will be responsible for all aspects of management of the centre including, boarding, lodging and maintenance, while funds for critical gaps such as expert coaches, support staff, equipment, infrastructure will be extended through the Khelo India Scheme.
The eight centres will be given a grant based on the actual amount finalised as per the requirement indicated after a comprehensive gap analysis study. In a bid to broad-base talent identification, the states and UTs will also identify and develop talent in each sport for which funding is received at the centre. The Sports Authority of India will extend expertise, resources and a monitoring system to ensure that the level of performance of the athletes improve to international standards.
In the first batch, the following sporting facilities will be upgraded to Khelo India State Centre of Excellence:
Sangey Lhaden Sports Academy, Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh
Jaiprakash Narayan National Youth Center, Bangalore, Karanataka
GV Raja Sr. Secondary Sports School, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala
Khuman Lampak Sports Complex, Imphal, Manipur
Rajiv Gandhi Stadium, Aizawl, Mizoram
State Sports Academy, IG Stadium, Kohima, Nagaland
Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneshwar, Odisha
Regional Sports School, Hakimpet, Telangana.
8-Feb-2021: Employment Guarantee for Urban Poor
Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs is implementing a Centrally-sponsored Scheme viz. the “Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM)” to reduce poverty and vulnerability of urban poor households by enabling them to access gainful self-employment and skilled wage employment opportunities. The Employment through skills Training and Placement (EST&P) component of the Mission aims to provide skills to the urban poor to increase their income through structured and market-oriented certified courses that can provide wage employment and/or self-employment opportunities which will eventually lead to better living standards and alleviation of urban poverty on a sustainable basis. Further, Self-Employment Programme (SEP) component focuses on financial assistance to individuals/groups/SHGs of urban poor for setting up gainful self-employment ventures or micro-enterprises.
Aatmanirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojna (ABRY) Scheme has been launched to incentivize employers for creation of new employment along with social security benefits and restoration of loss of employment during COVID-19 pandemic. This scheme being implemented through the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), reduces the financial burden of the employers of various sectors/industries including MSME and encourages them to hire more workers. Under ABRY, the Government of India is bearing both the employees’ share (12% of wages) and employers’ share (12% of wages) of contribution payable or only the employees’ share, depending on employment strength of the EPFO registered establishments.
Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) is implementing Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), which is a major credit-linked subsidy programme aimed at generating self-employment opportunities through establishment of micro-enterprises in the non-farm sector by helping traditional artisans and unemployed youth.
Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) has been initiated by Government inter alia, for facilitating self-employment. Under PMMY collateral free loans upto Rs. 10 lakh, are extended to micro/small business enterprises and to individuals to enable them to setup or expand their business activities.
Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) is the flagship scheme of the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE). The objective of this Skill Certification Scheme is to enable a large number of Indian youth to take up industry-relevant skill training that will help them in securing a better livelihood and to meet their employment as well as self-employment requirement.
Besides these initiatives, flagship programmes of the Government such as Make in India, Digital India, Swachh Bharat Mission, Smart City Mission, Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation, Housing for All, Infrastructure development and Industrial corridors have the potential to generate productive employment opportunities.
Government has implemented the National Career Service (NCS) Project which comprises a digital portal that provides a nation-wide online platform for the job seekers and employers for job-matching in a dynamic, efficient and responsive manner.
3-Feb-2021: Expansion of Railways with Private Participation
It is estimated that Indian Railways would need capital investment of Rs. 50 lakh crore upto the year 2030 for network expansion, capacity augmentation, setting up of freight terminals, station redevelopment, rolling stock induction and other modernization/ upgradation works etc. to enable better delivery of passenger and freight services and to improve Railways’ modal share in transport. In order to bridge the gap in capital funding and bring in modern technology and improve the operational efficiencies, it is planned to use Public Private Partnership (PPP) model in several initiatives including network expansion and induction of modern rakes to run passenger trains on select routes with an objective to provide improved service delivery to passengers. However, the responsibility of train operations and safety will continue to be with Indian Railways. As of now, 150 trains in 12 clusters have been planned for induction of modern passenger rakes on PPP basis.
In case of PPP in train operations, mechanism has been planned to enable return on investment to private participation through collection of revenue and payment of haulage charges and revenue share to Indian Railways.
16-Jan-2021: Ministry of Railways rolls out a new iron ore policy governing allocation of rakes and transportation of iron ore
A new iron-ore policy governing allocation of rakes and transportation of iron-ore has been issued on date by Indian Railways. The aim of policy is to attune it to the present day needs of customers and assure them that Indian Railways is fully committed to meet the complete requirement of transportation of iron ore customers and provide total logistics support to steel industry to meet the competitive challenges domestically and globally. Production of steel is critically dependent on transportation of iron and other raw materials. The policy sets down clear guidelines on how to fully meet the requirement of customers by leveraging infrastructure facilities available at loading and unloading ends to the fullest. The new policy has been named as ‘Iron-ore Policy 2021’ and shall come into effect from 10.02.2021. The provisions of the new policy will be updated in the Rake Allotment System module by CRIS.
Important highlights of the new policy are:
- Existing categorisation based on customer’s profile into CBT/Non CBT customers henceforth is being done away with. Old and new plants will be treated similarly as far as allotment/loading of rakes is concerned.
- Categorization of Priority of movement of Iron Ore has now been based on the availability of Railway infrastructure developed by the customer for loading/unloading and the nature of movement between various types of sidings with a view to maximize iron-ore movement by rail.
- The priority preferences for the customers will be self-generated by the system (Rake allotment scheme) based on customer profile (name of manufacture, consignor name, consignee name, siding/PFT name and code) fed in the system by the concerning zone.
- Higher priority given to movement of iron-ore traffic for domestic manufacturing activity.
- Within domestic movement of iron-ore traffic, priority preference given to Steel /Pig Iron/Sponge Iron/pellet/sinter plant owning customers having their own private sidings at both loading as well as unloading ends (C+), customers with private siding at either loading or unloading end (C), customers without any private siding of their own relying totally on public goodsheds/sidings (C-) in that order.
- Customers are free to choose the priorities or combination of priorities for moving their traffic as per eligibility and necessity. No permission is required to be obtained for choosing priorities or combination of priorities.
- Export traffic shall be given priority ‘D’. To differentiate rail-cum-sea traffic from export traffic, the former should be accompanied by a self-declaration that such traffic is meant for domestic consumption and railway will not be held responsible for any wrong declaration submitted by the manufacturer.
- Pellet and sinter traffic will also move under priority D.
- Any type of customer can move traffic under priority D as per his requirement.
- Dispatch of ‘low grade fines or iron ore rejects’ generated during the process of manufacturing has been freely allowed under priority D to any location.
- Under contractual traffic (GPWIS), customer is free to place indents as per their requirement.
- With the aim to facilitate ‘Ease of doing business’ scrutiny of documentation by Railways has been removed. EDRM office, Kolkata which has been sanctioning programme for movement of iron-ore traffic will have no regulatory role in the new policy. The office will be undertaking analysis of various iron-ore traffic for further improvement of Railway freight loading.
- Customers now desirous of moving their traffic under any priority will have to give undertaking that they have procured, transported and utilized materials as per rules and regulations of Central and State Governments. For lapses, customers will be liable to be taken up as per the law of land and railway will stand indemnified for any such lapses committed by customers.
Iron-ore is the second most important stream of traffic of Railways and along with steel accounts for nearly 17% (53.81 Million Tonne of Steel & 153.35 Million Tonne of Iron ore) of total 1210 Million Tonne freight loading of IR in 2019-20. The new Iron-ore Policy, 2021 issued by Ministry of Railways is expected to have positive impact on the steel industry, provide powerful impetus to the core sector of the economy and boost country’s economic growth.