National Service and Skill Development (NSSD) Scheme

The Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports has decided to reposition the National Service Scheme (NSS) by adding a new Skill Development dimension to the scheme. The new focus of the scheme would be on students attaining employable skills while undertaking work with the community to bring about sustainable social change and equity. A pilot project to this effect would be undertaking in the current financial year. The NSS, which would now be rechristened as the National Service and Skill Development (NSSD) Scheme, originally aimed at fostering relevance between higher education institutions and social wellbeing. Over a period of time, since the inception of NSS, the country has undergone socio economic changes, which have necessitated a review of the Scheme and its objectives. The reformulated NSS aims at creating socially conscientious students ; developing generic and domain led skills that would enhance student employability ; enabling certification (Diploma) of students in a employability enhancing skill in addition to receiving a degree in the field of study.

Energy
Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission, launched on the 11th January, 2010 by the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh is a major initiative in the field of giving a boost to utilisation of non-conventional sources of energy. The Mission has set the ambitious target of deploying 20,000 MW of grid connected solar power by 2022 . It is aimed at reducing the cost of solar power generation in the country through long term policy; large scale deployment goals; aggressive R&D; and domestic production of critical raw materials, components and products. The Mission will create an enabling policy framework to achieve this objective and make India a global leader in solar energy. The 11th Five Year Plan witnessed an impressive progress in research and development and deployment in renewable energy sector. Ministry of new and renewable energy has sponsored 169 R&D projects in the area of solar energy, bio-energy and hydrogen and fuel cells with a total outlay of about Rs.525 crore. Renewables contributed to nearly 14,660 MW power during the 11th Plan and they will become more important in future.

The Ministry is providing subsidy of 30% of the benchmark cost of the solar photovoltaic (SPV) systems. It is also providing subsidy for installing solar lanterns, home lights and small capacity PV plants through NABARD, Regional Rural Banks and other Commercial Banks. Banks also extend credit facility to the beneficiaries at usual commercial rates to meet the rest of the cost. Upto 31st March, 2012 over nine lakh five thousand solar lanterns, eight lakh sixty two thousand solar home lights and about eight thousand solar water pumping systems have been installed in the country. During 201112, the Ministry sanctioned a project for installation of standalone SPV power plants aggregating to 8740 kWp capacity in 4115 schools and 9 examination centers. During the current financial year, a project for installation of 560 SPV water pumping systems in six districts of Bihar has been sanctioned. A Plan has also been prepared for increased exploitation of various renewable energy sources in the country during the 12th Plan . The 12th Plan proposals envisage 29,800 MW grid-interactive and 3267 MW off-grid power generation capacity addition from various renewable energy sources and deployment of 7 lakh biogas plants, 35 lakh cook stoves, 8.5 lakh solar cookers and 80.5 lakh solar thermal energy systems in the country . Twenty million solar lighting systems and 20 million sq. solar thermal collector area is envisaged by 2022. Efforts are also on to promote wind power through private sector investment by providing fiscal and promotional incentives such as concessional import duty on certain components of wind electric generators and excise duty exemption to manufacturers. 10 years tax holiday on income generated from wind power projects is also available. Besides, loans for installing windmills are available from Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) and other Financial Institutions.

Technical support is provided by the Centre for Wind Energy Technology (C-WET), Chennai. The Government had announced a Generation Based Incentive (GBI) during 11th Plan period. Efforts are being made to continue the GBI scheme in 12th Plan. National Tariff Policy was amended mandating State discoms to have a solar RPO of 0.25% by 2013 reaching 3% by 2022. The Government has already implemented a scheme to procure 1000 MW of solar power and supplying it to State discoms after bundling with equivalent capacity of thermal power. Even generation of power from garbage and municipal solid waste is also being given due attention. The 16 megawatt project installed at Okhla in New Delhi is the only such project in operation in the country. The project, commissioned in May this year, has so far generated about 24 million units (kWh) of electricity. Projects on energy from municipal solid wastes (MSW) are being taken up by the Municipal Corporations in public private partnership mode by tying up with selected private companies.

Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY)

The Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) aims at correcting the imbalances in the availability of affordable healthcare facilities in the different parts of the country in general, and augmenting facilities for quality medical education in the under-served States in particular. The scheme was approved in March 2006. The first phase in the PMSSY has two components - setting up of six institutions in the line of AIIMS; and upgradation of 13 existing Government medical college institutions.

Project Arrow
Project Arrow is an initiative to transform India Post into a vibrant and responsive organization and to make a visible and positive difference in postal operations to benefit the customers. It has been launched with objective of modernizing the post and makes visible, tangible and noteworthy differences in the post office operations that matter to Aam Aadmi. In specific terms, Project Arrow entails comprehensive improvement of the core operations of the Post Offices as well as the ambience in which postal transactions are undertaken. Enhancing the quality of services in core areas envisages focus on Mail Delivery, Remittances, Savings Bank and Office service Levels. This is helping the Department of Posts to emerge as a one-stop shop for retail products and offer a single window facility for banking, money remittances and other financial products and services including social and civic initiatives. At present Monitoring of performance Core Operations is done in 15,584 Post Offices and Look & Feel has been improved in 1,843 Post offices.

Coastal Radar Network

The Marine security network will get a boost with the setting up of a Remote Operating Station (ROS) at Kochi as part of the Coastal Radar Network. This is being developed by Defence Public Sector Undertaking, Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) for the Indian Coast Guard. A Regional Operating Centre (ROC) at Mumbai and Remote Operating Station (ROS) at Porbandar as part of the Coastal Radar Network has also been set up. The project envisages integration of high end surveillance gadgets viz. Frequency Diversity Radar, Electro Optic sensors (CCD Day Camera, LLTV and Thermal Imagers), VHF sets and Met equipment on lighthouses and masts erected on DGLL land at 36 locations in mainland, 06 locations in Lakshadweep &

Minicoy Islands and 04 in Andaman & Nicobar Islands. The data generated by the Static Sensors will flow over a robust hierarchal network architecture, connecting Coast Guard District Headquarters (Regional Operating Stations) and Regional Headquarters (Remote Operating Centers) to Coast Guard Headquarters (Control Center) at New Delhi. The sensor data generated from this network would be further supplemented with the AIS data from the National Automatic Identification System (NAIS) Chain of DGLL/MoS and interfaced with the Vessel Traffic Management Systems of the major ports, Fishing Vessel Monitoring System, Long Range Identification and Tracking (LRIT) and National Command Communication Control and intelligence Network (NC3I) of Indian Navy. The project of Chain of Static Sensors aims at preventing undetected intrusion by monitoring the movement of vessels plying along our coastline. The project would also aid in enhancing the efficacy of Search and Rescue (SAR) operations coordinated by the Coast Guard. The sensor data generated by the Coastal Surveillance Network would also be shared with other maritime agencies via the National Command Communication Control and intelligence Network NC3I network to generate a comprehensive Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA). The project of Chain of Static Sensors, is the first of its kind both in terms of expanse and strategic implications. Despite the inherent complexities of the project, involving multi agency coordination at all levels, the project has progressed as per the stipulated time lines.