Ranking of States: 2019

IN NEWS

• The Results of the second edition of Ranking of States on Support to Startup Ecosystems were released by Minister of Commerce & Industry and Railways Shri Piyush Goyal on September 11th 2020, through a virtual felicitation ceremony.

About

• The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) conducted the second edition of the States’ Startup Ranking Exercise, with the key objective to foster competitiveness and propel States and Union Territories to work proactively towards uplifting the startup ecosystem.
• It has been implemented as a capacity development exercise to encourage mutual learning among all states and to provide support in policy formulation and implementation.

Significance

• The launch of the ranking framework in 2018 galvanized the States/UTs into action, thereby giving impetus to the Startup movement across the country.
• Till date, 25 States and UTs have launched their dedicated Startup policies to incentivize Startups in their jurisdiction.
• The Startup Ranking 2019 is expected to take forward the Startup ecosystem in the country and give impetus to the vision of India becoming a Startup Nation.

Ranking Procedure

• The States’ Startup Ranking Framework 2019 has 7 broad reform area, consisting of 30 action points ranging from Institutional Support, Easing Compliances, Relaxation in Public Procurement norms, Incubation support, Seed Funding Support, Venture Funding Support, and Awareness & Outreach.
• To establish uniformity and ensure standardization in the ranking process, States and UTs have been divided into two groups. While UTs except Delhi and all States in North East India except Assam are placed in Category ‘Y’. All other States and UT of Delhi are in Category ‘X’.
• For the purposes of Ranking, States are classified into 5 Categories: Best Performers, Top Performers, Leaders, Aspiring Leaders and Emerging Startup Ecosystems.

States Startup Ranking Results 2019

Category X

This group has all States and UTs except those in Category ‘Y’.

Category Y

This group has all North-Eastern States except Assam and all UTs except Delhi.

Leaders across 7 Reform Areas

The top scoring States across each reform area have been recognised as a leader.

Climate Smart Cities Assessment Framework (CSCAF 2.0)

IN NEWS

• Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs (I/C) has recently launched the Climate Smart Cities Assessment Framework (CSCAF) 2.0, along with the ‘Streets for People Challenge’ in a virtual event organized by the Smart Cities Mission, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA).

ABOUT

• The objective of CSCAF is to provide a clear roadmap for cities towards combating Climate Change while planning and implementing their actions, including investments.
• In the last decade, an increasing frequency of cyclones, floods, heat waves, water scarcity and drought-like conditions have had adverse impacts on many of our cities.
• ​The Streets for People Challenge is the response to the need for making our cities more walkable and pedestrian friendly.
• The Challenge will support cities across the country to develop a unified vision of streets for people in consultation with stakeholders and citizens.
• Adopting a participatory approach, cities will be guided to launch their own design competitions to gather innovative ideas from professionals for quick, innovative, and low-cost tactical solutions.

FEATURES

• This assessment framework was developed after review of existing frameworks and assessment approaches adopted throughout the world followed by series of extensive consultative process with more than 26 organizations and 60 experts from different thematic areas.
• The framework has 28 indicators across five categories namely;
  (i) Energy and Green Buildings,
  (ii) Urban Planning, Green Cover & Biodiversity, (iii) Mobility and Air Quality,
  (iv) Water Management and
  (v) Waste Management. The Climate Centre for Cities under National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) is supporting MoHUA in implementation of CSCAF.

WAY FORWARD

• ​ ​It aims to inspire cities to create walking-friendly and vibrant streets through quick, innovative, and low- cost measures. All cities participating in the challenge shall be encouraged to use the ‘test-learn-scale’ approach to initiate both, flagship and neighbourhood walking interventions.
• The interventions can include inter alia creating pedestrian-friendly streets in high footfall areas, re- imagining under-flyover spaces, re-vitalizing dead neighbourhood spaces, and creating walking links through parks and institutional areas.
• Fit India Mission, under Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, along with the India program of the Institute for Transport Development and Policy (ITDP) have partnered with the Smart Cities Mission to support the challenge.

NSO Report Shows Stark Digital Divide Affects Education

IN NEWS

• Index of Industrial Production (IIP), released by the Centre.

ABOUT

• The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) is an index which shows the growth rates in different industry groups of the economy in a stipulated period of time. The IIP index is computed and published by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) on a monthly basis.
• Description: IIP is a composite indicator that measures the growth rate of industry groups classified under,
  1. Broad sectors, namely, Mining, Manufacturing and Electricity
  2. Use-based sectors, namely Basic Goods, Capital Goods and Intermediate Goods.
  3.Currently IIP figures are calculated considering 2004-05 as base year.

REFLECTOR OF CURRENT IIP-

• Factory output contracted 10.4% in July 2020, in a year-on-year comparison of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP)
• Mining and manufacturing shrunk 13% and 11% respectively, although electricity generation has recovered to a contraction of 2.5%.
• Economists feel the recovery is slowing, noting that although the IIP’s July contraction is significantly better than the 57% plunge seen in April, it is only a mild improvement from the 15.7% y-o-y contraction seen in June.
• Part of the reason is local/partial/weekend lockdown imposed in many parts of the country, often without much advance intimation. This is not allowing orderly recovery of economic activities.
• The manufacture of pharmaceuticals, which saw 22% growth, and tobacco products which posted 6.1% growth, were the only two sectors in positive territory in July.
• The auto sector and paper and beverages manufacturing continued to see contractions over 30%.
• The declining trend in textile (-14.8%) and garment manufacturing (-28.7%) could be important from an employment perspective.

PM-CARES Fund

Why in NEWS?

• PM CARES Fund gets Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) exemption without meeting pre-condition of CAG audit.

About

• The PM CARES Fund has received exemption from all provisions of the law meant to regulate foreign donations, although it does not seem to meet the pre-condition of being a body established and owned by the government whose accounts are audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG).
• Responding to a recent query under the Right to Information (RTI) Act asking for details and documents on the exemption, the Home Ministry said it had to “seek the consent” of PM CARES before giving out the information, as it would be considered a “third party” under the RTI Act.
• It also invoked the clause that allows information to be denied if it is held as part of a fiduciary relationship.

Role of FCRA

• The FCRA is meant to regulate the acceptance and use of foreign contributions and to prevent their use for activities detrimental to national interest.
• This includes gifts and monetary contributions from foreign sources, whether in Indian or foreign currency.
• Organisations which wish to receive foreign donations must have a definite cultural, economic, educational, religious or social programme, and must register under the Act, and receive a clearance from the government.
• There are 49,843 associations registered under FCRA, of which 20,674 have been cancelled, according to government data, with the Centre cracking down on NGOs receiving foreign funds in recent years.
• Section 50 of the Act allows the Central government to issue orders exempting any organisation (apart from political parties) from the provisions of FCRA if it feels it necessary or expedient in public interest, subject to conditions specified in the order.

PM-CARES Fund

• Government has set up the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM-CARES Fund) to deal with any kind of emergency or distress situation like posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
• This Fund has been set up owing to a number of requests made by the people to support the government in the wake of the COVID-19 emergency.
• The Fund is a public charitable trust with the Prime Minister as its Chairman. Other Members include Defence Minister, Home Minister and Finance Minister.
• The Fund enables micro-donations as a result of which a large number of people will be able to contribute with the smallest of denominations.
• The Fund will strengthen disaster management capacities and encourage research on protecting citizens.