SPSC Aspirants Sikkim

🔆Five Star Villages. ✅The Department of Posts (Ministry of Communications) has launched a scheme called Five Star Villages. The scheme seeks to bridge the gaps in public awareness and reach of postal products and services, especially in interior villages. ✅Objective: To ensure universal coverage of flagship postal schemes in rural areas of the country. 📍Features: ✅Three components: Product and Service Availability, Product and Service Publicity and Product and Service Marketing. ✅One-Stop Centre: Branch offices will function as one-stop shops to cater all post office related needs of the villagers. 📍Schemes covered: ✅Savings Bank accounts, Recurring Deposit Accounts, NSC/KVP certificates, Sukanya Samridhi Accounts/ PPF Accounts, ✅Funded Post Office Savings Account linked India Post Payments Bank Accounts, Postal Life Insurance Policy/Rural Postal Life Insurance Policy and ✅Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana Account/Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana Account. ✅Rating System: One Scheme is equal to one star of rating. Therefore, if a village attains universal coverage for four schemes from the above list, then that village gets four-star status and so on. ✅A Pilot Implementation: The scheme is being launched on pilot basis in Maharashtra; based on the experience here, it will be implemented nation-wide. 📍Implementation Strategy: ✅It will be implemented by a team of five Gramin Dak Sevaks who will be assigned a village for marketing of all products, savings and insurance schemes of the Department of Posts. ✅This team will be headed by the Branch Post Master of the concerned Branch Office. Mail overseers will keep a personal watch on the progress of the team on a daily basis. #gs3 #economy @upsc_government_scheme

🔆Biodiversity conservation 📍What are the Related Initiatives? ✅Green Growth Priority in Budget 2023: The Union Budget 2023 mentioned “Green Growth” as one of the seven priorities or Saptarishis. These green growth efforts will help in reducing carbon intensity of the economy and provide for large-scale green job opportunities. ✅National Mission for a Green India: It aims to increase forest cover on degraded lands and protect existing forested lands. ✅Green Credit Programme: It has the objective to “incentivize environmentally sustainable and responsive actions by companies, individuals and local bodies”. ✅MISHTI Initiative: The Mangrove Initiative for Shoreline Habitats & Tangible Incomes (MISHTI) is particularly significant because of the extraordinary importance of mangroves and coastal ecosystems in mitigating climate change. ✅PM-PRANAM: To sustain our agriculture, PM-PRANAM is important for reducing inputs of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. ✅Amrit Dharohar scheme: The Amrit Dharohar scheme is expected to “encourage optimal use of wetlands, and enhance biodiversity, carbon stock, eco-tourism opportunities and income generation for local communities”. #gs3 #environment #goverment_scheme @upsc_government_scheme

🔆 National Power Portal Government has recently launched National Power Portal (NPP). ✅It is a centralized platform for collation and dissemination of Indian power sector information, (through GIS enabled navigation and visualization chart windows) for generation, transmission and distribution of power in India. ✅NPP Dashboard would also act as the single point interface for all Power Sector Apps launched previously by the government like TARANG, UJALA, VIDYUT PRAVAH, GARV, URJA and MERIT. ✅Significance: It would serve as a single authentic source of power sector information for the purpose of analysis, planning, and monitoring for the government and public. ✅Major stakeholders of NPP are Ministry of Power, Central Electricity Authority (CEA), Power Finance Corporation (PFC) for Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS), Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) for Deen Dayan Upadhyaya Gram JyotiYojana (DDUGJY). Central Electricity Authority (CEA) is a nodal agency for NPP implementation. ✅Broad Objective : To provide central information repository for all power related information/ APPS ✅Nodal Ministry and institutions : CEA ( Central Electrical Authority) #gs3 #economy #goverment_scheme @upsc_government_scheme

🔆Rebate of State and Central Taxes and Levies (RoSCTL) Scheme ✅It aims to reimburse all embedded State and Central Taxes/Levies for exports of manufactured goods and garments. ✅It has been established as a successor for the old "Rebate of State Levies (RoSL) Scheme. ✅The difference between RoSL & RoSCTL Scheme is that under the RoSL Scheme, there was no benefit on the central tax and Levies. But in the RoSCTL scheme, the exporter will get rebate of both State and Central tax and Levies. 📍Objective: ✅To compensate for the State and Central Taxes and Levies in addition to the Duty Drawback Scheme on export of apparel/ garments and Made-ups by way of rebate. ✅The rebate under the Scheme shall be in the form of duty credit scrips. ✅The scrips shall be issued electronically on the Customs system. ✅The duty credit scrips shall be used for payment of Basic Customs Duty on import of goods. These scrips shall be freely transferable. ✅The duty credit available in an e-scrip shall be transferred at a time for the entire amount in the said e-scrip to another person and transfer of the duty credit in part shall not be permitted. ✅Validity of e-scrip: The period of validity of the e-scrip, of one year from its creation, shall not change on account of transfer of the e-scrip. ✅Eligibility: All exporters of garments/Apparel and made-ups manufactured in India are eligible to take benefit under this scheme, except entities/ IECs under the Denied Entity List of the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT). ✅Implementing agency: It has been notified by the Ministry of Textiles. However, the scheme shall be implemented by the Department of Revenue. #gs3 #economy #goverment_scheme @upsc_government_scheme

🔆National Curriculum for Early Childhood Care and Education 2024 ✅The Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) has released the National Curriculum for Early Childhood Care and Education 2024 titled ‘Aadharshila,’ on the lines of the National Education Policy 2020 and the National Curriculum Framework. ✅It is expected to bridge foundational literacy and numeracy gaps which may arise in later school years. ✅MWCD has released the National Curriculum for Early Childhood Care and Education 2024 titled ‘Aadharshila. ✅ Aadharshila (translated as foundation stone) is a detailed 48-week curriculum meant for learning in the age group of three to six-year-olds in anganwadis. ✅ The curriculum aiming to develop key skills such as listening, vocabulary, imagination, narration, instruction following, creativity, social skills, self-expression, and self-esteem. ✅These competencies prepare children for a smooth transition into Grade 1. ✅The program is tailored for different ages, detailing required materials, age-appropriate specifications, variations, and teacher guidelines, including targeted educational objectives and competencies. ✅Activities are designed to observe and respond to the children’s interests. ✅ The curriculum is structured around a weekly play calendar. Children aged three to six years participate in this mixed-age group setting at the anganwadi. ✅ It starts with four weeks of initiation involving academic activities to ease children’s transition from home to the anganwadi center through engaging and playful interactions. ✅This is followed by 36 weeks including varied activities such as exploration, free play, conversations, creative arts, and reflection. ✅Children are introduced to various concepts such as colors, shapes, numbers, sensory uses, body parts, and personal relationships. ✅ They also engage in activities that develop listening, basic numerical skills, sound recognition and imitation, and knowledge about seasons, festivals, and food. ✅ The last eight weeks focus on reviewing and reinforcing previous learning through worksheets and performance assessments #gs2 #goverment_scheme @upsc_government_scheme

🔆Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi (RAN) scheme In news? ✅Recently, the Delhi High Court has held that the new threshold income to claim benefit under the Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi (RAN) scheme is prima facie “extremely low”. ✅Under the new umbrella scheme of RAN, the threshold of monthly income for obtaining benefit is ₹1,571 for rural areas and Rs 1,605 for urban areas. The court is of prima facie view that the threshold limit is extremely low ✅It is provided by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. ✅ It provides one-time financial assistance to poor patients living below State/UT wise threshold poverty line and suffering from life threatening diseases relating to heart, kidney, liver, cancer, etc. for treatment at any of Super Specialty Government hospitals/institutes. ✅It is a Central Sector Scheme 📍Components ✅The Umbrella Scheme of RAN includes three key components as follows: 🔰 Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi (RAN): It offers up to 15 lakhs in financial aid for treating critical illnesses related to the heart, kidney, liver etc, at government hospitals or institutions with super specialty services. 🔰Health Minister’s Cancer Patient Fund (HMCPF): It provides financial assistance up to 15 lakhs for cancer treatment at Regional Cancer Centres (RCCs), Tertiary Care Cancer Centres (TCCCs), and State Cancer Institutes (SCIs). 🔰 Financial Assistance for Patients with Rare Diseases: It allocates up to 20 lakhs for treatment of specified rare diseases at government hospitals or institutes equipped with super specialty facilities. #gs2 #goverment_scheme @upsc_government_scheme

🔆 National Green Highways Project ✅Under the Green Highways Project the government has made it mandatory to set aside 1% of the total project cost of any NH contract to a Green Fund corpus that will be used for plantation purposes. ✅The afforestation is expected to help in sequestering approximately 12 lakh mt carbon annually. ✅Broad Objective : 🔰The Policy aims to develop eco-friendly National Highways with the participation of community, farmers, NGOs and private sector.  🔰The policy will help to improve aesthetics of the project corridors, reduce the impact of air pollution and reduce accidents by cutting down glare from approaching vehicles. 📍Nodal Ministry and institutions : The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways #gs2 #goverment_scheme @upsc_government_scheme

🔆National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research ✅Researchers from National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research reported the conditions that led to unprecedented hindrance in Antarctic ice expansion and ice retreat. 📍National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research: ✅It is an autonomous research institute under the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) established in 1998. ✅It is India’s premier R&D institution responsible for the country’s research activities in the Polar and Southern Ocean realms. ✅It is tasked with planning and executing polar expeditions and scientific research in Antarctica, Arctic, Himalayas and Southern Ocean. ✅It also undertakes research on some of the country’s strategically vital projects like mapping of Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), continental shelf margins and the Deep Ocean Mission. ✅The Center maintains a Research Advisory Committee (RAC) to help guide and concentrate the research activities. ✅It is located in Vasco da Gama, Goa and was formerly known as the National Center for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR). #gs2 #ir @upsc_4_ir @studytoday1