PIB 19th & 20th September

Contents

1. Preservation of Tribal Languages, Social Security Scheme
2. Various schemes for demand-supply gap of skilled workers
3. SPICe+ Portal deployed by MCA
4. Protection against unfair contracts
5. E-Gram Swaraj Portal

PRESERVATION OF TRIBAL LANGUAGES, SOCIAL SECURITY SCHEME

Focus: GS-II Social Justice  

Why in news?

• Ministry of Tribal Affairs extends support to State Governments / UTs for development of bilingual Primers for preservation of tribal languages and enhancement of learning achievement level amongst the Scheduled Tribe Students.
• So far 82 language primers have been developed by various State Governments.
• Ministry of Tribal Affairs is likely to make a Social Security Scheme for Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTG).

Other Steps taken by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs

• Ministry of Tribal Affairs is also administering the scheme of ‘Mechanism for Marketing of Minor Forest Produce (MFP) through Minimum Support Price (MSP) and Development of Value Chain for MFP’ under which it is ensured that the gatherers of Minor Forest Produce, most of whom belong to Scheduled Tribes, get fair returns for their efforts in collection of the notified forest produce.
• Government has introduced the Van Dhan Vikas Karyakram under this scheme to improve the skills of the MFP gatherers in sustainable cultivation of MFPs, their Value Addition, providing necessary tools and facilities, etc., which will further improve the returns to the beneficiaries.

Bilingual Primers for Preservation of Tribal Languages

• Ministry of Tribal Affairs has through studies found that there are 780 languages spoken in India, of which 443 are said to be spoken by tribal communities.
• Amongst language primers that have been developed by various State Governments are: Juang, Kisan, Koya, Oram, Saora in Odisha, Halbi, Korku, Bhili, Gondi in Madhya Pradesh and Khadia and Khorat in Jharkhand.
• Bilingual primers are meant to contain text in regional and tribal languages to facilitate learning (reading and writing) in schools in tribal areas.
• The Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment observed the slow development of bilingual primers and recommended that the Ministry must pursue the matter with the states.

VARIOUS SCHEMES FOR DEMAND-SUPPLY GAP OF SKILLED WORKERS

Focus: GS-II Social Justice

Why in news?

The Government is implementing various sector/group specific schemes for bridging the gap between demand and supply of skilled workers.

Schemes / Programmes by MSDE:

1. Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) has been implementing the following schemes/programmes namely:
2. Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) imparts short term skill training to youth and recognition of prior learning of informally trained labour in National Skilled Qualification Framework (NSQF) aligned qualifications through the involvement of private training partners.
3. Jan Shikshan Sansthan (JSS) to provide vocational training to non-literates, neo-literates, school dropouts, etc by identifying the skills relevant in the local market.
4. Apprenticeship Scheme makes available industry ready workforce by training youth in the industry through apprenticeship. Government of India shares 25% of the stipend paid to the apprentice.
5. Craftsmen Training Scheme (CTS) to provide long term training in 137 trades through nearly 15000 Industrial Training Institutes.
6. ‘Aatamanirbhar Skilled Employee Employer Mapping (ASEEM)’ portal is a directory of all persons who have been formally skilled, and whose details are made available to the industry for meeting their skilled manpower needs anywhere in the country. This portal seeks to bridge the demand- supply gap in the skilled workforce market by providing real-time data about the demand and supply patterns including – industry requirements, demand per district/ state/cluster, key workforce suppliers, etc.

SPICe+ PORTAL DEPLOYED BY MCA

Focus: GS-II Governance

Why in news?

• The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has notified and deployed a web-form namely ‘SPICe+’ (pronounced SPICe Plus) as a part of Government of India’s Ease of Doing Business (EODB) initiatives.
• The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has amended the Companies (Incorporation) Rules, 2014 whereby zero fee is being charged for incorporation of all companies with authorized capital upto Rs. 15 lakh or upto 20 members where no share capital is applicable.

SPICe+

• SPICe+ would be an integrated Web form offering multiple services viz. name reservation, incorporation, DIN allotment, mandatory issue of PAN, TAN, EPFO, ESIC, Profession Tax (Maharashtra) and Opening of Bank Account.
• The web-form offers 10 services by three Central Government Ministries and Departments (Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Ministry of Labour & Department of Revenue in the Ministry of Finance), one State Government (Maharashtra) and various Banks, thereby saving procedures, time and cost for Starting a Business in India.
• The new web form facilitates On-screen filing and real time data validation for seamless incorporation of companies.
• The number of procedures has been reduced to 3 as against 10 earlier and time has also been reduced to 4 days as against 18 days earlier for starting a Business in the Country.

These 10 services are:

1. Name reservation
2. Incorporation
3. DIN allotment
4. Mandatory issue of PAN
5. Mandatory issue of TAN
6. Mandatory issue of EPFO registration
7. Mandatory issue of ESIC registration
8. Mandatory issue of Profession Tax registration (Maharashtra)
9. Mandatory Opening of Bank Account for the Company and
10. Allotment of GSTIN (if applied for).

PROTECTION AGAINST UNFAIR CONTRACTS

Focus: GS-III Indian Economy

Why in news?

The Consumer Protection Act, 2019 has come into force in 2020 and has replaced the Consumer Protection Act, 1986.

Introduction

• The Indian Contract Act, 1872 determines obligations of the parties to perform or offer to perform respective promises unless such performance is dispensed with or excused under the provisions of the Act, or of any other law.
• As informed by the Law Commission of India, in order to protect the consumers, the Law Commission in its Report No.199 titled ‘Unfair (Procedural and Substantive) Terms in Contracts’ recommended that the provisions of the Indian Contract Act, 1872 and of the Specific Relief Act, 1963 need not be disturbed.

The New Consumer Protection Act

As provided in the new Act unfair contract means a contract between a manufacturer or trader or service provider on one hand and a consumer on the other, having such terms which cause significant change in the rights of such consumer, including the following, namely:

1. Requiring manifestly excessive security deposits to be given by a consumer for the performance of contractual obligations; or
2. Imposing any penalty on the consumer, for the breach of contract thereof which is wholly disproportionate to the loss occurred due to such breach to the other party to the contract; or
3. Refusing to accept early repayment of debts on payment of applicable penalty; or
4. Entitling a party to the contract to terminate such contract unilaterally, without reasonable cause; or
5. Permitting or has the effect of permitting one party to assign the contract to the detriment of the other party who is a consumer, without his consent; or
6. Imposing on the consumer any unreasonable charge, obligation or condition which puts such consumer to disadvantage;

E-GRAM SWARAJ PORTAL

Focus: GS-II Governance  

Why in news?

With a vision to strengthen digitalization in Panchayats for the purpose of empowering rural India, a unified tool e-Gram SWARAJ portal has been developed by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj for effective monitoring and evaluation of works taken up in the Gram Panchayats.

e-Gram SWARAJ

• e-Gram SWARAJ unifies the planning, accounting and monitoring functions of Gram Panchayats.
• eGramSwaraj aims to bring in better transparency in the decentralised planning, progress reporting and work-based accounting.
• It’s combination with the Area Profiler application, Local Government Directory (LGD) and the Public Financial Management System (PFMS) renders easier reporting and tracking of Gram Panchayat’s activities.
• It provides a single window for capturing Panchayat information with the complete Profile of the Panchayat, details of Panchayat finances, asset details, activities taken up through Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP), Panchayat information from other Ministries/ Departments such as Census 2011, SECC data, Mission Antyodaya survey report etc.