Har Ghar Tiranga Movement
Strengthen the Har Ghar Tiranga Movement : PM

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has urged people to strengthen the Har Ghar Tiranga Movement. Shri Modi also recalled the monumental courage and efforts of those who dreamt of a flag for free India. He has also shared some interesting nuggets from history including details of the committee associated with our Tricolour and the first Tricolour unfurled by Pandit Nehru. He said that 22nd July has a special relevance in our history as on this day in 1947, our National Flag was adopted.

In a series of tweets, the Prime Minister said;

“This year, when we are marking Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, let us strengthen the Har Ghar Tiranga Movement. Hoist the Tricolour or display it in your homes between 13th and 15th August. This movement will deepen our connect with the national flag.”

“Today, 22nd July has a special relevance in our history. It was on this day in 1947 that our National Flag was adopted. Sharing some interesting nuggets from history including details of the committee associated with our Tricolour and the first Tricolour unfurled by Pandit Nehru.”

“Today, we recall the monumental courage and efforts of all those who dreamt of a flag for free India when we were fighting colonial rule. We reiterate our commitment to fulfil their vision and build the India of their dreams.”

NITI Aayog Releases Report on Digital Banks
NITI Aayog Releases Report on Digital Banks

NITI Aayog’s report makes a case and offers a template and roadmap for a licensing and regulatory regime for digital banks. It focuses on avoiding any regulatory or policy arbitrage and offers a level playing field to incumbents as well as competitors.
The report was released today by NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Suman Bery and CEO Parameswaran Iyer and Senior Adviser Anna Roy, in the presence of other officials.
‘Given the need for leveraging technology effectively to cater to the needs of banking in India, this report studies the prevailing gaps, the niches that remain underserved, and the global regulatory best practices in licensing digital banks,’ said CEO Parameswaran Iyer.

You need to read – Government undertakes several initiatives to promote electronics manufacturing in India

Recommendations:
The report recommends a carefully calibrated approach, comprising the following steps:

Issue of a restricted digital bank licence (to a given applicant) (the license would be restricted in terms of volume/value of customers serviced and the like).

Enlistment (of the licensee) in a regulatory sandbox framework enacted by the Reserve Bank of India.

Issue of a ‘full-scale’ digital bank licence (contingent on satisfactory performance of the licensee in the regulatory sandbox, including salient, prudential and technological risk management).

The report also maps prevalent business models in this domain and highlights the challenges presented by the ‘partnership model’ of neo-banking—which has emerged in India due to a regulatory vacuum and in the absence of a digital bank licence.
The methodology for the licensing and regulatory template offered by the report is based on an equally weighted ‘digital bank regulatory index’. This comprises four factors—(i) entry barriers; (ii) competition; (iii) business restrictions; and (iv) technological neutrality. The elements of these four factors are then mapped against the five benchmark jurisdictions of Singapore, Hong Kong, United Kingdom, Malaysia, Australia and South Korea.
The Context for the Case of Digital Banks in India: Financial Inclusion
In recent years, India has made rapid strides in furthering financial inclusion, catalysed by the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana and India Stack. However, credit penetration remains a policy challenge, especially for the nation’s 63-million-odd MSMEs that contribute 30% to GDP, 45% to manufacturing output, and 40% to exports, while creating employment for a significant section of the population.
Over the past few years, thanks to digitization—ushered in by the Jan Dan-Aadhar-Mobile (JAM) trinity and Aadhaar—financial inclusion has become a reality for Indians. This has only been furthered by the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which has witnessed extraordinary adoption. UPI recorded over 4.2 billion transactions worth ₹7.7 trillion in October 2021. The platform approach taken by the government in conceptualizing UPI has resulted in valuable payment products being developed on top of it. As a result, payments can now be made with a click not just at retail outlets but also peer to peer—completely redefining the way in which money is transferred between individuals.
A ‘whole-of-India approach’ towards financial inclusion has also resulted in Direct Benefit Transfer through apps such as PM-KISAN and extending microcredit facilities to street vendors through PM-SVANIDHI.
India has also taken steps towards operationalizing its own version of ‘open banking’ through the Account Aggregator (AA) regulatory framework enacted by the Reserve Bank of India. Once commercially deployed, the AA framework is envisaged to catalyse credit deepening among groups that have been hitherto under-served.
The success that India has witnessed on the payments front is yet to be replicated when it comes to the credit needs of its micro, small and medium businesses. The current credit gap and the business and policy constraints reveal a need for leveraging technology effectively to cater to these needs and bring the under-served further within the formal financial fold.
This report has been prepared by NITI Aayog based on inter-ministerial consultations. Last year, NITI Aayog had released a discussion paper on the subject for wider stakeholder consultations. Comments received from 24 organizations were examined and have been suitably addressed in the final report.
Department of Financial Services Additional Secretary (AS) Suchindra Misra, MeitY AS Amit Aggarwal, MSME Assistant Development Commissioner Dr Ishita Ganguli Tripathy and Indian Banks’ Association Chairman Atul Kumar Goel were also present during today’s launch.

Government undertakes several initiatives
Government undertakes several initiatives to promote electronics manufacturing in India

Free Guest Posting Website: The government is very focused on its important objective of building the overall semiconductor ecosystem and ensure that, it in-turn catalyses India’s rapidly expanding electronics manufacturing and innovation ecosystem.

As a result of several initiatives taken by the Government and efforts of the industry, the domestic production of electronic goods has increased substantially from Rs. 2,43,263 crore (USD 37 billion) in 2015-16 to Rs. 5,54,461 crore (USD 74.7 billion) in 2020-21 growing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 17.9%. Many policies of the Government including the flagship Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Schemes, Scheme for Promotion of Manufacturing of Electronic Components and Semiconductors, Modified Electronics Manufacturing Cluster (EMC 2.0) Scheme are major steps towards making India “AtmaNirbhar” in electronics manufacturing.

As semiconductors form a major part of all electronic products, as a result of growth in electronics manufacturing sector, semiconductor market in India has also witnessed proportionate growth over the last few years. As per the industry estimate, the semiconductor consumption in India was around INR 1.1 lakh crore in year 2020 which is being met through imports due to absence of commercial semiconductor fabs in India.

The government is very focused on its important objective of building the overall semiconductor ecosystem and ensure that, it in-turn catalyses India’s rapidly expanding electronics manufacturing and innovation ecosystem. This vision of AtmaNirbharta in electronics & semiconductors was given further momentum by the Union Cabinet chaired by the Hon‟ble Prime Minister approving the Semicon India programme with a total outlay of INR 76,000 crore for the development of semiconductor and display manufacturing ecosystem in our country. The programme aims to provide financial support to companies investing in semiconductors, display manufacturing and design ecosystem. This will serve to pave the way for India’s growing presence in the global electronics value chains.
Following four schemes are introduced under the aforesaid programme:

Scheme for setting up of Semiconductor Fabs in India provides fiscal support to eligible applicants for setting up of Semiconductor Fabs which is aimed at attracting large investments for setting up semiconductor wafer fabrication facilities in the country. Following fiscal support has been approved under the scheme:

28nm or Lower – Up to 50% of the Project Cost

Above 28 nm to 45nm – Up to 40% of the Project Cost

Above 45 nm to 65nm – Up to 30% of the Project Cost

Scheme for setting up of Display Fabs in India provides fiscal support to eligible applicants for setting up of Display Fabs which is aimed at attracting large investments for setting up TFT LCD / AMOLED based display fabrication facilities in the country. The Scheme provides fiscal support of up to 50% of Project Cost subject to a ceiling of INR 12,000 crore per Fab.

Scheme for setting up of Compound Semiconductors / Silicon Photonics / Sensors Fab and Semiconductor Assembly, Testing, Marking and Packaging (ATMP) / OSAT facilities in India: The Scheme provides a fiscal support of 30% of the Capital Expenditure to the eligible applicants for setting up of Compound Semiconductors / Silicon Photonics (SiPh) / Sensors (including MEMS) Fab and Semiconductor ATMP

/ OSAT facilities in India.

Design Linked Incentive (DLI) Scheme offers financial incentives, design infrastructure support across various stages of development and deployment of semiconductor design for Integrated Circuits (ICs), Chipsets, System on Chips (SoCs), Systems & IP Cores and semiconductor linked design. The scheme provides “Product Design Linked Incentive” of up to 50% of the eligible expenditure subject to a ceiling of Rs. 15 Crore per application and “Deployment Linked Incentive” of 6% to 4% of net sales turnover over 5 years subject to a ceiling of Rs. 30 Crore per application.


In addition to the above schemes, Government has also approved modernisation of Semi- Conductor Laboratory, Mohali as a brownfield Fab.

Applications have been invited under various schemes for setting up of Semiconductor facilities. So far 23 applications have been received which are under evaluation.

Setting up of Semiconductor unit requires huge investments and necessitates suitable infrastructure like availability of uninterrupted Power and Clean Water. Further, Semiconductors manufacturing is a very complex and technology-intensive sector with huge capital investments, high risk, long gestation and payback periods, and rapid changes in technology which require significant and sustained investments. However, the Government is committed to make all round efforts to develop semiconductors and display manufacturing ecosystem in India.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Electronics & Information Technology, Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.

Bioeconomy will be key to India’s future economy over the next 25 years.
Bioeconomy will be key to India’s future economy over the next 25 years.

Bioeconomy will be key to India’s future economy over the next 25 years.
Releasing India’s Bioeconomy Report 2022, Dr Jitendra Singh pointed out that India’s Bioeconomy has reached over 80 billion US Dollars in 2021 recording 14.1% growth over $70.2 billion in 2020. Noting the rapid growth in the sector, the Minister said, Bioeconomy is likely to touch 150 billion dollars by 2025 and over 300 billion dollars by 2030.

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Government of India to boost employment opportunities in the green energy sector

Steps by Government of India to promote renewable energy in the country

Government of India to promote renewable energy
Steps by Government of India to promote renewable energy in the country

Against the target of achieving 175 GW of Renewable Energy (excluding Large Hydro) installed capacity by 2022, a total of 114.07 GW renewable energy capacity (excluding large hydro) has been installed in the country as on 30-06-2022. Further, a capacity of 60.66 GW is under various stages of implementation and a capacity of 23.14 GW is under various stages of bidding.
The Government has taken several steps to promote renewable energy in the country. These include :

You may love to read our another post – Government of India to boost employment

Bioeconomy will be key to India’s future economy over the next 25 years.

Permitting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) up to 100 percent under the automatic route,

Waiver of Inter State Transmission System (ISTS) charges for inter-state sale of solar and wind power for projects to be commissioned by 30th June 2025,

Declaration of trajectory for Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) up to the year 2022,

Setting up of Ultra Mega Renewable Energy Parks to provide land and transmission to RE developers on a plug and play basis,

Schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan (PM-KUSUM), Solar Rooftop Phase II, 12000 MW CPSU Scheme Phase II, etc,

Laying of new transmission lines and creating new sub-station capacity under the Green Energy Corridor Scheme for evacuation of renewable power,

Setting up of Project Development Cell for attracting and facilitating investments,

Standard Bidding Guidelines for tariff based competitive bidding process for procurement of Power from Grid Connected Solar PV and Wind Projects.

Government has issued orders that power shall be dispatched against Letter of Credit (LC) or advance payment to ensure timely payment by distribution licensees to RE generators.

This information was given by Shri Bhagwanth Khuba, Minister of State for New and Renewable Energy in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.

NITI Aayog and WFP to Launch Initiative on Mainstreaming Millets in Asia and Africa
NITI Aayog and WFP to Launch Initiative on Mainstreaming Millets in Asia and Africa

NITI Aayog and the World Food Programme (WFP), India, will launch the ‘Mapping and Exchange of Good Practices’ initiative for mainstreaming millets in Asia and Africa on 19 July 2022 in a hybrid event.
NITI and WFP will prepare a compendium of good practices for scaling up the production and consumption of millets in India and abroad.
The event will be inaugurated by NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Suman Bery in the presence of Member Prof. Ramesh Chand and Adviser Dr Neelam Patel, WFP Representative and Country Director India Bishow Parajuli, National Rainfed Area Authority CEO Dr Ashok Dalwai, and Agriculture Ministry Joint Secretary Shubha Thakur.
Representatives from ICAR, Central and state government departments, Krishi Vigyan Kendras, industry, Central and state agriculture universities, FPOs, NGOs, start-ups, academic and research institutions, and international organizations such as the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Food Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID), etc., will also participate in the event.

PM’s statement ahead of Monsoon session of Parliament, 2022

PM's statement ahead of Monsoon session of Parliament, 2022
PM’s statement ahead of Monsoon session of Parliament, 2022

Namaskar friends,

This session has a connection with weather. Now monsoon is fast approaching in Delhi too. Yet the temperature outside is not dropping and I am not sure if the heat inside the House will also subside or not. This period is extremely significant as we are celebrating ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’. August 15 holds special significance; and after 25 years when the country celebrates the centenary of Indian Independence, we should plan on how our journey of 25 years should be like; how fast can we stride ahead and how can we reach newer heights? This period is about making such resolutions and giving a direction to the nation by being devoted to those resolutions. The House should lead the country. All the honourable members of the House should become instrumental in instilling new energy into the nation. Therefore, this session is also very important from that point of view.

This session is also crucial because elections to the posts of President and the Vice President are being held at the same time. Voting is also underway today. And in this period, the tenure of the new President and the new Vice-President will also begin.

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s Inaugural Speech at the Quad Leaders Summit

We always consider the House as an efficient medium of communication, a pilgrimage centre where a dialogue and discussion can take place with an open mind. Debates, criticism and a detailed analysis of things also take place to make a very positive contribution to policies and decisions. I would urge all the respected MPs to make the House as much productive and fruitful as possible with deep thinking and a deep and detailed discussion. That’s why everyone should co-operate and democracy thrives only through everyone’s efforts. The House runs because of everyone’s efforts. It is with the efforts of everyone that the House takes the best decision. And therefore, while fulfilling our duties to enhance the dignity of the House, we should make the most use of this session in the national interest. And we should always remember that we need to fulfil the dreams of those who had dedicated their youth and their entire lives for freedom, and had spent their lives in jails and the sacrifices they had made. I just hope that keeping their dreams in mind, as 15th August is approaching, we should ensure that the House is used most positively in the best possible way.

Heartiest thanks to you all!

Restoration of bonds of friendship between India and Bangladesh
Restoration of bonds of friendship between India and Bangladesh

ATES POST: In order to further strengthen the people-to-people contact between India and Bangladesh through rail, the Government of India and Bangladesh, after several meetings, introduced a new passenger rail service Mithali Express through the recently restored Haldibari-Chilahati rail link. decided to start. This 3rd passenger train service between New Jalpaiguri (India) – Dhaka (Bangladesh) – Mithali Express was launched through virtual medium from Rail Bhawan in New Delhi today (i.e. 1st June, 2022) Hon’ble Railway Minister of India Shri Ashwini Vaishnav and Hon’ble Minister of Bangladesh Jointly flagged off by Hon’ble Minister of Railways, Mohd. Noorul Islam Sujan. This rail service was inaugurated on March 27, 2021 by both the Prime Ministers through virtual medium. Earlier, this train could not be started due to COVID pandemic restrictions.

In his address on the occasion, Shri Ashwini Vaishnav said that Mithali Express will prove to be another important achievement in enhancing this friendship, strengthening this bond, improving this relationship. The warm friendship between the two countries at all levels has accelerated the development. A lot of cooperative efforts have been made between the railways of the two countries. This is a very opportune moment; A moment when we should take major steps to strengthen our ties between the two countries.
Mithali Express train will run twice a week (arriving Dhaka at 11:45 hrs & 22:30 hrs on Sunday & Wednesday from New Jalpaiguri and will depart from Dhaka at 21:50 hrs on Monday & Thursday and will reach New Jalpaiguri at 07:15 hrs) and New Jalpaiguri will run twice a week. Jalpaiguri to Dhaka will cover a distance of 595 kms (of which 61 kms is Indian part). LHB Coaches (like those used in Maitree Express and Bandhan Express) of Indian Railways will be used which consists of 4 Coaches First AC Class, 4 Coaches Air Conditioned Chair Car and 2 Engines. The train will have three categories – AC First Class (Cabin) Sleeper, AC First Class (Cabin) Seat and AC Chair Car. The fares for this train will be US$ 44, US$ 33 and US$ 22 respectively.

The additional new passenger service, the Mithali Express, will boost tourism between the two countries as it connects Bangladesh with north Bengal as well as India’s northeastern region. This train will also provide a means for Bangladeshi citizens to go to Nepal through India.
This new train is in addition to the two existing passenger train services between India and Bangladesh, the Kolkata-Dhaka-Kolkata Maitree Express (five-weekly) and the Kolkata-Khulna-Kolkata Bandhan Express (two-weekly). The services of the above two trains, which were suspended due to COVID pandemic restrictions, have now been resumed with effect from 29 May 2022.

Read in Hindi

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi's Inaugural Speech
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s Inaugural Speech at the Quad Leaders Summit

Your Excellencies,

Prime Minister Kishida, Prime Minister Anthony Albanizzi and President Biden

Prime Minister Kishida, thank you very much for your wonderful hospitality. It is a great pleasure for me to be among friends in Tokyo today.

First of all, Prime Minister Anthony Albanizzi, congratulations to you on your victory in the elections, very best wishes.

Your being among us 24 hours after taking the oath, shows the power of Quad friendship and your commitment to it.
Excellencies,

In such a short span of time, the Quad group has made an important place on the world stage.

Today the scope of Quad has become wider and the form has become effective.

Our mutual trust, our determination, is giving new energy and enthusiasm to the democratic forces.

Our mutual cooperation at the level of Quad is promoting a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific region, which is a common objective of all of us.

Despite the adverse conditions of COVID-19, we have increased mutual coordination in many areas like vaccine-delivery, climate action, supply chain resilience, disaster response and economic cooperation.

This is ensuring peace, prosperity and stability in the Indo-Pacific.

Quad is pursuing a constructive agenda for the Indo-Pacific region.

With this, the image of Quad as a ‘Force for Good’ will be strengthened even more.

Thank you very much.