Prime Minister inaugurated the ‘Pradhan Mantri Samajik Utthan and Rozgar Adharit Jankalyan’ (PM-SURAJ) national portal. It is a national portal launched to provide credit support to small entrepreneurs from marginalised communities. Nodal Ministry- Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment Small entrepreneurs from marginalised communities, including Scheduled Castes, Backward Classes, and sanitation workers, can benefit from the PM-SURAJ Portal. The objective of PM-SURAJ Portal is to provide financial assistance directly to beneficiaries, eliminate middlemen and commissions, and empower marginalised communities economically and socially. Credit support will be provided to eligible persons across country, facilitated through banks, Non-Banking Financial Company-Micro Finance Institutions’....Read More

PM recently launched the Mahatari Vandan Yojana – a financial assistance scheme for eligible married women in Chhattisgarh. Under the scheme, ₹1,000 per month is given to eligible married women in the State as a monthly direct benefit transfer. The scheme will provide benefits to all eligible married women of the state who are above 21 years of age as of January 1, 2024. Widows, divorced and deserted women will also be eligible for this scheme. So far, there have been 70 lakh beneficiaries, and ₹655 crore was transferred recently, as the first payment installment under the scheme. The scheme....Read More

The Tamil Nadu State government launched the Neengal Nalama Scheme with the aim of improving the health index and social well-being of all citizens and making them aware of the Tamil Nadu government schemes. This scheme involves government officials reaching out to beneficiaries across the state to inquire about any challenges or difficulties they may have faced while availing themselves of various Tamil Nadu government schemes. This scheme will be monitored by the welfare department of Tamil Nadu, which will ensure that it solves the problems of Tamil Nadu citizens regarding various schemes.  Read More

Niti Aayog has launched a digital cross-sectoral knowledge platform called Niti for States, which will create a digital public infrastructure (DPI) for policy and governance. ABOUT NITI FOR STATES Niti for States will have a multi-sectoral live repository of 7,500 best practices, 5,000 policy documents, over 900 datasets, 1,400 data profiles of states, districts, blocks etc. broken down by demography and socioeconomic indicators, and 350 NITI publications. The primary goal is to enable better policymaking as a ‘one stop shop’ for officials down to local levels to access robust, contextually relevant and actionable knowledge and insights for quality decision making.....Read More

The government has approved extension of Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP) Scheme support to additional export sectors i.e. Advance Authorisation (AA) holders, Export Oriented Units (EOU) and Special Economic Zones (SEZ) export units. These 3 sectors constitute approximately 25% of India’s exports. ABOUT RODTEP SCHEME The Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP) Scheme is a key initiative aimed at refunding various embedded taxes and duties on exported products. Launched in 2021 Nodal Ministry- Ministry of Commerce and Industry Key sectors such as Engineering, Textiles, Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals & Food Processing and many others stand....Read More

The Union Cabinet decided to extend the subsidy of ₹300 per LPG cylinder for up to 12 refills per year till the end of next financial year. About 27 crore beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) will get the benefit of the scheme with its continuation set to incur ₹12,000 crore. The Centre had started a targeted subsidy of ₹200 per cylinder for up to 12 refills per annum to the PMUY consumers in May 2022. In October 2023, the Centre increased the subsidy to ₹300 per cylinder for up to 12 refills per year. About PMUY Pradhan....Read More

‘e-Kisan Upaj Nidhi’ (Digital Gateway) of Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority (WDRA) was launched recently. The ‘e-Kisan Upaj Nidhi’ initiative with the help of technology will ease the farmers’ warehousing logistics and aid the farmers in receiving fair prices for their produce. It aims to facilitate farmers in obtaining post-harvest loans from banks against their stocks stored in the WDRA registered warehouses. Warehouses under WDRA are well monitored, highly rated and are equipped with infrastructure that protect the farm produce and lead to farmers’ welfare. ‘e-Kisan Upaj Nidhi’ with its no collateral, extra security deposit policy can prevent distress sale....Read More

The 9th Annual Shakti International Women Entrepreneurs Summit was held in New Delhi recently. The annual Shakti International Women Entrepreneurs Summit is held each year in observance of International Women's Day with an aim to empower aspiring and established women entrepreneurs while also celebrating achievements of emerging women entrepreneurs from varied industry sectors. The Summit saw launch of  three new initiatives- Launch of a joint integrated national campaign by Ministry of MSME and Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) ‘ Panjikaran Se Pragati.’ This national campaign is a clarion call to women entrepreneurs across the nation to get Udyam registered and unlock....Read More

Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment inaugurated and laid the foundation stone for 34 residential hostels across various states and central institutes. Among these, 28 hostels cater to SC students, providing accommodation for 3150 girls and 750 boys and 6 hostels are dedicated to OBC students, offering facilities for 396 girls. The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment is implementing schemes for Construction/Repair of Educational Hostels for SC students (Under PM-AJAY) and Construction of Educational Hostels for OBC boys and girls.  ABOUT PRADHAN MANTRI ANUSUCHIT JAATI ABHUYDAY YOJANA (PM-AJAY) It is a comprehensive scheme amalgamating three Centrally Sponsored Schemes, including....Read More

India’s first indigenously developed hydrogen fuel cell ferry was launched recently. The vessel, manufactured by Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL), will be deployed for service at Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. The Hydrogen fuel cell vessel is a 24-meter-long catamaran, which can carry 50 people in its air-conditioned passenger area. This boat has five hydrogen cylinders that can carry 40kg of hydrogen and support eight hours of operations. This vessel uses a 50-kW PEM (proton-exchange membrane) fuel cell, with Lithium-Ion Phosphate batteries. The advantage is that the cells can quickly change their output depending upon the power demand. PEM fuel cells are....Read More