Yojana Magazine Analysis -
Date: 22 July 2019
TOPICS
1. DIGITAL SERVICES, INFRA & EMPOWERMENT
2. TRACKING SCHEMES THROUGH GIS
3. LEVERAGING TECHNOLOGY FOR EDUCATION
4. NATIONAL POLICY ON SOFTWARE PRODUCTS
5. E-SERVICES FOR DIFFERENTLY ABLED
6. DEVELOPMENT OF METRO RAILS IN INDIA
7. TOWARDS A NATIONAL DIGITAL HEALTH ECOSYSTEM
MAJOR INITIATIVES: DIGITAL-LED DEVELOPMENT
1. Digital India Programme (2015)
2. Direct Benefit Transfer Scheme
– Saved > 80k Cr; Implemented > 400 schemes
3. Government e-Marketplace
4. Financial Inclusion via JAM trinity
5. GST Network
6. Unified Payment Interface & BHIM App
7. Others: PRAGATI, SWAYAM, UMANG
DIGITAL DELIVERY OF SERVICES | PHYSICAL INFRA
- Common Service Centres
– 3 Lakh CSCs across 2 Lakh GPs delivering 300+ services
– Created jobs for 12 Lakh people
– Promoted rural entrepreneurship (esp. for women) - ~60k Active Women Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs)
– Implement Stree Swabhiman Initiative for menstrual health
– Micro BPO units are being set up in CSCs (5 to 10 jobs)
– PMGDISHA to e-literate 6 Cr rural households
DIGITAL DELIVERY OF SERVICES | DIGITAL INFRA
- Bharat Net
– Aim: to provide high speed internet in rural areas
– How: by building optical fiber network connecting 2.5 L GPs - National Knowledge Network
– Network to promote knowledge collaboration/exchange
– E.g. Virtual classrooms, NPTEL, various Grids, etc. - National Cloud: Meghraj
- Geospatial Technology: Bharat Maps
- Email Services: X400
DIGITAL DELIVERY OF SERVICES | BACKBONE
STORY IN NUMBERS
- BHIM-UPI => > 2000 Cr worth transactions in 2017-18
- UMANG => multilingual app offers > 350 govt. services
- PMGDISHA => benefitted 2.2 Cr persons
- JAM-DBT => > 7 L Cr disbursed as of Mar 2019
MCQ #1
National Programme on AI is led by:
A. NITI Aayog
B. Ministry of S&T
C. Prime Minister’s Office
D. Prime Minister’s S&T Advisory Council
INTRODUCTION
- Location based information is vital to plan and monitor the developmental programs
- The use of GIS is a critical component of e-Kranti pillar under DIP
- To leverage GIS under DIP, MEITY launched National Centre of Geo-Informatics (NCoG) in Dec 2015
ABOUT NCOG
- NCOG platform is a single source GIS platform for sharing, collaboration, location-based analytics and decision support system, catering to government.
- Currently, more than 200 web applications and 30 mobile applications are at various stages of operationalisation under NCoG platform.
WAY FORWARD
- Government is working on integrating emerging technologies such as Blockchain, AI-ML, IoT and Big Data Analytics with GIS to give further boost to developmental planning and good governance.
MCQ #2
The word API is very commonly used in our digitallyconnected world. What does P in API stand for?
- Provider
- Protocol
- Programming
- None of the above
ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY IN TRANSFORMING EDUCATION
1. Providing Access & bridging the divide
2. Capacity building of teachers
3. Need to adapt to varying needs
- Providing Access & bridging the divide
– Portable devices & internet augmented scale of connectivity
– Availability of MOOCs (e.g. NPTEL) to one and all
– Technology for translating into multiple languages
– Collaboration b/w different institutions at all levels - Capacity building of teachers
– Release from Techno phobia
– Equip teachers with ICT devices + knowledge
– Collaboration & sharing of best practices
– Train through Common Service Centres
– New & innovative ways of delivering lectures/materials - Need to adapt to varying needs
– Technology can break one-size fits all model
– Personalized learning models adjusted to different skill sets
– Mapping skill sets with employability
MCQ #3
Neuralink, recently unveiled by Elon Musk, is a:
A. Medicine for treatment of Brain cancer
B. Device to connect humans and computers
C. High speed vacuum-based transportation system
D. None of the above
NATIONAL POLICY ON SOFTWARE PRODUCTS
- Aim:
– To develop India as the global software product hub: - Driven by innovation, improved commercialisation, sustainable Intellectual
Property (IP), promoting technology startups and specialized skill sets.
– To align with other Government initiatives - Such as Start-up India, Make in India and Digital India, Skill India etc.
– To create Indian Software products Industry of USD ~70-80 billion: - With direct & indirect employment of ~3.5 million by 2025.
EXPENDITURE ON THE POLICY
- For the next 7 years an outlay of Rs 1500 crore has been envisaged.
- This fund would be divided in two categories:
– Software Product Development Fund (SPDF)
– Research & Innovation fund
MISSIONS UNDER THE POLICY
1. Sustainable Indian software product industry
– This would be driven by intellectual property (IP)
– This would lead to a ten-fold increase in India’s share of the Global Software product market by 2025.
2. Nurturing startups:
– To nurture 10,000 technology startups in software product industry.
– This would include 1000 such technology startups in Tier-II and Tier-III towns.
– This would generate direct and in-direct employment for 3.5 million people by 2025.
MISSIONS UNDER THE POLICY
3. Creating a talent pool:
– Up-skilling of 1,000,000 IT professionals
– Motivating 100,000 school and college students
– Generating 10,000 specialized professionals that can provide leadership.
4. Building a cluster-based innovation driven ecosystem:
– Development of 20 sectoral and strategically located software product development clusters.
5. National Software Products Mission
– This would be set up with participation from Government, Academia and Industry.
– It would monitor the implementation of the programme and work for its evolution.
LIMITATIONS
- There is no roadmap for the schemes, initiatives and projects to be formulated under this policy.
- Roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders, under the policy, is not defined.
- National Software Products Mission:
– Eligibility of different members is not mentioned in the policy. - No concrete measure to address skill gap in the workforce:
– Sharda Prasad Committee (2017) has highlighted major shortcomings in the PMKVY and has recommended for structural reforms in NSDC.
– Thus this policy should have provided concrete way to ensure skill development rather than relying on skill India mission.
MCQ #4
Vikings are associated with which region of the world:
A. Australia
B. Scandinavia
C. Africa
D. Caribbean
E-SERVICES FOR THE DIFFERENTLY-ABLED
- Government initiatives:
– Accessible India Campaign - To create universal accessibility for PwDs
– Assistance to Disabled Persons (ADIP) - E.g. Cochlear Implant Programme
– Deendayal Disabled Rehabilitation Scheme - Financial assistance to NGOs running rehabilitation schemes
– Smart City Mission – ICT be digitally accessible
– Section 42 of PWD Act 2016 - Requires all content in audio, print and electronic format to be accessible and that there is access to electronic media by providing audio descriptions, sign language and close captioning.
E-SERVICES FOR THE DIFFERENTLY-ABLED
- Some private sector initiatives:
– Avaz – generates speech from limited muscle movements
– Non-visual display access – screen reading software in multiple languages
– Kabi – assists speech impaired for quick communication by selecting pictograph image on their hand held device
– Blee watch – smart watch for hearing impaired ; sounds generate vibrations
– Apps for finding life partners ; book taxi, etc.
MCQ #5
Which of the following cities is also called as the Equator City?
A. Quito in Ecuador
B. Libreville in Gabon
C. Kampala in Uganda
D. Pontianak in Indonesia
CHALLENGES
- Urban population – 40% by 2031 & 50% by 2051
- Vehicle CAGR – 11% since 1951
NUTP 2006
- To address:
– NUTP 2006 – people occupy centre stage and that focus should be on moving people and not vehicles
– MRTS is being implemented, amongst other solutions in pursuance to above policy
CHALLENGES OF EXISTING METRO SYSTEMS
- It is capital intensive systems so requires huge money
- Technology available is not standardized yet resulting higher costs of construction and operations
- Lack of last mile connectivity
- Parking lots and roads leading to many stations remain poorly lit. Security issues.
- Non availability of demand forecasts for metro projects.
ADDRESSING THE CHALLENGES
- Metro Rail Policy 2017 – lays down financial models
- Value Capture Financing Policy Framework 2017
– Betterment levy, vacant land tax, etc. - Standardization of Metro Components
- National Transit Oriented Development Policy 2017
– To integrate land use and transport planning within 500-800 m - National Common Mobility Card
- Setting up Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority
- Multi modal integration e.g. Gurgaon Rapid Metro, feeder bus
WAY FORWARD
- 18 (1L+) cities have operating metro systems while in 9, it is at various stages of development.
- Metro Rail Bill (Construction, Operation & Maintenance) is under way
MCQ #6
Raga Bhairavi is best listened to at what time of the day?
A. Morning
B. Afternoon
C. Evening
D. Night
- Committee, constituted to create an implementation framework for the National Health Stack (NHS) proposed by NITI Aayog, has come up with the National Digital Health Blueprint.
- ‘Think Big, Start Small, Scale Fast’
OBJECTIVES OF NDHB
- Establishing and managing the core digital health data and the infrastructure required for its seamless exchange;
- Promoting the adoption of open standards by all the actors in the National Digital Health Eco-system;
- Creating a system of Personal Health Records, based on international standards, and easily accessible to the citizens and to the service providers, based on citizen-consent;
- Following the best principles of cooperative federalism while working with the States and Union Territories for the realization of the Vision;
OBJECTIVES OF NDHB
- Promoting Health Data Analytics and Medical Research;
- Enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of Governance at all levels;
- Ensuring Quality of Healthcare.
- Leveraging the Information Systems already existing in the health sector
NDHB PRINCIPLES
- From the domain perspective, Universal Health Coverage, Inclusiveness, Security and Privacy by Design, Education and Empowerment of the citizens, and
- From the technology perspective, Building Blocks, Interoperability, a set of Registries as Single Sources of Truth, Open Standards, Open APIs and above all, a minimalistic approach.
Key Building Blocks
NDHM ACTION PLAN
IMPLEMENTATION
- A new entity, National Digital Health Mission (NDHM), is recommended to be established as a purely government organization with complete functional autonomy adopting some features of some of the existing National Information Utilities like UIDAI and GSTN.
MCQ #7
Who was the first Editor of Yojana magazine?
A. Khushwant Singh
B. R K Narayan
C. Mulk Raj Anand
D. None of the above