Ravi Shankar inaugurated Bihars first all women employee post office:
Union Minister of Communications and Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad inaugurated Bihar`s first all-women employee post office on the campus of Bihar Public Service Commission. The post office will deal with all correspondent materials of BPSC competitive examinations. It will also help aspirants in providing required postal services. It is a move to encourage the empowerment of women.
Roles:
Bihar`s first all-women employee post office will be dealing with all correspondent materials of Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) competitive examinations and help the aspirants in providing required postal services.
From the post of a postmaster to the post person, have been filled with women employees. They will be managing the work of registering the letters to delivery of posts. Besides a regular counter, multi-purpose counters have also been made operational with proper display of services made therein.
West bengal’s Midnapore railway station became the 5000th railway station to be Wi-fi enabled:
The Midnapore railway station of West Bengal became the 5000th railway station to be enabled with Wi-fi. The project for providing Wi-fi was started by RailTel in 2016, with Mumbai central railway station being the first for wifi implementation.
Key points:
i. The RailTel roped in Tata trust in providing the wifi facilities to B, C, D, E category railway stations across the country, where Mumbai central railway station was the first to have fast and free RailWire.
PIO cards along with foreign passport will continue as valid travel document till March 31, 2020:
The Indian Consulate in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) stated that, the Bureau of Immigration (BoI) will now accept Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) cards as valid travel document till 31 March 2020 along with valid foreign passport. The Immigration Check Post(s) in India will continue to allow all PIO cards valid for exit/entry into India till 31 March 2020.
Key points:
i. However, the extension of time limit is subject to the condition that if in the meantime any deadline is notified by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) thereby making handwritten PIO cards invalid, then PIO cardholders may have to obtain an appropriate visa from the Indian missions/posts.
ii. Background: GoI (Government of India) had earlier advised that the conversion of all Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) cards to Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) cards had to be done by September 30, 2019.
About PIO card:
It was a form of identification issued to a Person of Indian Origin who held a passport in a country other than Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.It was first implemented in 2002 as a benefit to foreign nationals who could establish at least a third generation tie to Indian origin.
OCI card :
It was implemented in 2005, carried more expansive benefits than the PIO card, and was valid for the holder’s lifetime. In 2014, Prime Minister(PM) Narendra Modi had announced that the two types of cards would be merged and the Indian diaspora would be given the maximum possible benefits.
Govt to launch enterprise development centres for MSMEs in all districts:
Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi launched a support and outreach programme for the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector. The Prime Minister unveiled 12 key initiatives which will help in the growth, expansion and facilitation of MSMEs across the country.
The Loans upto 1 crore within 59 minutes through an online portal.Interest subvention of 2% for all GST registered MSMEs on fresh or incremental loans.
All companies with a turnover of more than 500 crores to be mandatorily on TReDS platform to enable entrepreneurs to access credit from banks, based on their upcoming receivables thus solving the problems of cash cycle.
All PSUs to compulsorily procure 25 percent from MSMEs instead of 20 percent of their total purchases. Out of the 25 percent procurement mandated from MSMEs, 3 percent reserved for women entrepreneurs.All CPSUs to compulsorily procure through GeM portal.The100 Technology Centres to be established at the cost of Rs 6000 crores. The Govt. of India to bear 70 percent of the cost for establishing Pharma clusters.
The Returns under 8 labour laws and 10 Union regulations to be filed once in a year.
The establishments to be visited by an Inspector will be decided through a computerised random allotment. The single consent under air and water pollution laws. The returns will be accepted through self-certification and only 10 per cent MSME units to be inspected. For minor violations under the Companies Act, entrepreneurs no longer have to approach court but can correct them through simple procedures.
Indian-American dosti flag emblem replaces presidential seal from presidential lectern:
The India-US friendship, the Trump administration replaced the presidential seal with an India-US dosti flag emblem from the presidential lectern.
As a matter of tradition, every lectern from where a US President speaks be it a joint press conference or an election speech or any speaking engagement either domestically or overseas carries a presidential emblem.
The pleasant surprise to many, the presidential lectern had a circular emblem with the national flags of both the US and India.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump on Sunday addressed the mega Howdy, Modi event here with over 50,000 Indian-Americans present at the NRG stadium.
The event has been organized by Indian-Americans in Texas for Prime Minister Modi.
This is for the first time that the leaders of the two largest democracies of the world were addressing a joint mega rally in the USA.
###Finance Ministry turns down DoTs Rs 74,000 crore revival package:
BSNL and MTNL hang in limbo as the finance ministry is reportedly not keen to go ahead with the Department of Telecommunications’ (DoT’s) proposal for a massive Rs 74,000-crore bailout package.
The finance ministry has suggested that the DoT come up with some alternative proposals to revive the ailing telcos.The DoT’s proposal for a Rs 74,000-crore bailout package was based on the premise that closing down the loss-making BSNL and MTNL would cost even higher around Rs 95,000 crore.The assumption behind the revival package, which involved an attractive VRS package to BSNL’s 1.65 lakh employees, reducing their retirement age from the current 60 years to 58 years.
BSNL and MTNL
The company was provided 4G spectrum by the government as part of the package then it would be able to compete in the market and start posting lower losses FY21 onwards and become profitable from FY24 onwards.
The VRS payout would entail a cost of Rs 29,182 crore, another Rs 10,993 crore would be the cost in terms of payout of retiral benefits by advancing the retirement age from 60 to 58 years. The allotment of 4G spectrum would cost Rs 20,410 crore and another Rs 13,202 crore would be the capex required to rollout the 4G services.The DoT’s logic was that closing down BSNL, for instance, which posted a net loss of Rs 13,804 crore on a revenue of Rs 18,865 crore in FY19, would require giving VRS to all its employees plus repayment of its total debts which would cost around Rs 95,000 crore. It had also argued that strategic disinvestment of BSNL would not work out as there may not be any takers for it considering the current financial stress in the telecom industry.
The optimistic projection underlying the revival blueprint was that BSNL would see its net loss widen to Rs 18,231 crore in FY20 but thereon it would start narrowing and come down to a loss of Rs 5,432 crore in FY21. It would post a net loss of Rs 396 crore in FY23 and then break into a profit of Rs 2,235 crore in FY24.
###Andhra Pradesh Government govt to give self-employed auto and taxi drivers annual incentive of 10,000:
YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) run Andhra Pradesh government will give a cash incentive of ?10,000 to car and auto drivers every year in the state. The YSR Vahana Mitra scheme will be launched on 4 October and self-employed auto and taxi drivers will be eligible under it.
The decision to start the scheme based on chief minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s election promise during his 3,600 kilometer Pada Yatra. The motto of YSR Vahana Mitra is that the amount could be useful for the drivers to repair, vehicle fitness, insurance expenses.The AP Transport department sent YSR Vaahana Mitra’ applications to all the district collectors and that the verification process for the same will be completed by 30 September. The state government has received over 1.75 lakh applications, out of which a little over 93,000 have been verified. The applications have been received online and offline to make the process easy for the applicants, stated the release.
The scheme was launched after scrapping the previously launched ‘Annadata Sukhibhava’ input subsidy program.
The electrical vehicles (EVs) will be beneficial to the State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) and it will be environmental friendly apart from saving fuel costs. The committee recommended that the state government introduce a large number of EVs in the corporation as well. The report by the committee also suggested using solar power instead of wind power.
The applicants are eligible to apply from DTC level of the Transport Ministry to the VMI Office. They apply through E-Seva, MEE-Seva, CSC, MDO and Municipal Commissioner offices. In this backdrop, the process is simplified by making applications available to the newly recruited village and ward volunteers. As part of this, counters have been set up in municipal corporations in cities like Visakha, Vijayawada, and Tirupati in the state.
YSR Vahana Mitra scheme
The government has received applications through offline and online modes to make the application process easy for the drivers. The applications have been made available at the newly recruited village and ward volunteers.
The Government has asked all the applicants to submit the copies of Aadhar card, white ration card, vehicle registration certificate, driving license, the first page of bank passbook that doesn`t bear any loans. Only eligible drivers that submit required documents will be included in the YSR Vahana Mitra scheme.