What is SWAVALAMBAN?

The scheme launched by the Centre for the unorganised sector workers. The scheme was launched as part of a broader plan for financial inclusion.

1. As per the scheme, the central government will contribute Rs. 1,000 a year for four years to every Swavalamban account holder who can deposit up to Rs. 12,000 a year into his pension account.

2. Reportedly only about 13% of the working population in our country is eligible for some kind of retirement pension.

INDIAN STRATEGIC PETROLEUM RESERVES LTD (ISPRL)

To ensure energy security, the Government of India has decided to set up 5 million metric tones (MMT) strategic crude oil storages at three locations namely, Visakhapatnam, Mangalore and Padur (near Udupi). These strategic storages would be in addition to the existing storages of crude oil and petroleum products with the oil companies and would serve as a cushion in response to external supply disruptions. The construction of the proposed strategic storage facilities is being managed by Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Limited (ISPRL), a Special Purpose Vehicle, owned by Oil Industry Development Board (OIDB).

8-point initiative to end the unrest in kashmir valley.

• will appoint interlocutors to begin dialogue with all sections .
• has called for immediate release of youth held for stone pelting.
• want state to review cases of detenues under public safety Act.
• has sought rellook at deployment of security forces in valley with a view to reducing it.
• has announced Rs 5 lakh relife to families of all 108 people killed.
• has asked state to reopen all school,colleges
• grant of Rs100 crore to improve education infrastructure
• will constitute Special Task Forces for jammu and Ladakh to examine their development needs.

Minimum Alternate Tax

The  Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) was introduced in the direct tax system to make sure that companies having large profits and declaring substantial dividends to shareholders but who were not contributing to the Govt by way of corporate tax, by taking advantage of the various incentives and exemptions provided in the Income-tax Act, pay a fixed percentage of book profit as minimum alternate tax.

In other words,its a tax that has to be paid by the companies that are enjoying tax benefits or tax exemption under various schemes.It is mostly targetted to the R&D companies and Export oriented units which enjoy tax emptions.Under this they have to pay a particular amount of MAT, so they come under the tax net.
AT present it is 2% in new Direct tax code.

What is Sevottam framework?

The Sevottam framework has basically three modules - Citizen Charter, Public Grievance Mechanism and Service Delivery Capability. Each of the modules is further divided into three criteria and eleven elements each. The framework helps Government Departments towards improving their public service delivery.

The Performance Management Division of the Cabinet Secretariat has included two modules of the Sevottam framework as mandatory success indicator in the Result Frame Document (RFD) 2010-11 for 62 Ministries/Departments approved under Performance Monitoring and Evaluation System (PMES) by Hon’ble Prime Minister. These success indicators are called “Sevottam compliant system for citizens / client charter” and “Sevottam compliant system for public grievance redress”.

The Second ARC in – “Citizen Centric Administration – The Heart of Governance” – has recommended that Union and State Governments should make the Seven Step Model outlined  mandatory for all organizations having public interface which was accepted by the Government of India. The ARC had made the recommendations after studying the Sevottam model which the Commission felt was a step in the right direction.

What is Sevottam


Sevottam literally is the combination of Hindi words ‘SEWA + UTTAM’, meaning uttam sewa i.e. excellence in services. The Sevottam model was developed with expert support after studying international best practices, stake-holder consultations and field validity. It has basically three modules - Citizen Charter, Public Grievance Redress Mechanism and Service Delivery Capability.  Each of the modules is further divided into three criteria and eleven elements each. The framework helps Government Departments towards improving their public service delivery.

Sevottam as Pilot Project

Initially, Sevottam framework was undertaken from April 2009 to June 2010 in ten Departments of the Government having large public interface. These are, Department of Post, CBEC, CBDT, Railways, Passport office, Pensions, Food Processing, Corporate Affairs, Kendriya Vidyalaya Schools and EPFO. All these organizations have declared standards and implemented in pilot locations.  The Project is now being extended to 62 ministries of the Government.

Sevottam in Operation
The Seven Steps to Sevottam are - Define all services which a department provides and identify clients; Set standards and norms for each service; Develop capability to meet the set standards; Perform to achieve the standards; Monitor performance against the set standards; Evaluate the impact through an independent mechanism and Continuous improvement based on monitoring and evaluation results.
Seven Steps to Sevottam Compliant Grievance Redress System are - Well established system of receipt of grievances; Convenient for all users and its wide publicity; Timely acknowledgement; Time norm for redress; Communication of action taken on redress; Platform for Appeal and Analysis of grievance prone areas for making systemic improvements.

Preparing more departments for Sevottam

 The  Department  of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances organised between August 30 and September 21, 2010 four workshops, each of two day duration, for officers responsible for implementing the Sevottam compliant citizen charter in 62 ministries/departments of the Government. The aim of the workshops was to facilitate preparation of Sevottam Compliant Citizen Charters and Grievance Redress Mechanism for Ministries/Departments of the Government and its Organizations for modernizing governance through better and enhanced results oriented Public Delivery System to the Citizens/Clients/Stakeholders.
The Agenda of the workshops was: Sevottam Compliant Citizens’ Charters and Grievance Redress Mechanism; Modernizing Governance through Strategic Commitment, Awareness and Outreach and Enhanced Performance and Result in Outcome. It included sessions on the concept of Sevottam, Sevottam Compliant Citizen’s/Client’s Charter, Sevottam Compliant Grievance Redress Mechanism (GRM), and linkages between Sevottam, Strategy and Results Framework Document (RFD).
The participants in these workshops included two officers of Joint Secretary/ Director level from each of the 62 Central Ministries included in the Results Framework Document for 2010-11, and one or two representatives from  select Training Institutions such as Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi; Institute of Secretariat Training and Management, New Delhi; State Administrative Training Institute, Jaipur; State Administrative Training Institute,  Chandigarh; Centre for Good Governance, Hyderabad and Administrative Staff College of India, Hyderabad. As such a total of about 250 officers participated and were trained through these four workshops.
The first workshop was inaugurated by Shri Prithviraj Chavan, Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions. These workshops were organised in collaboration with Performance Management Division of Cabinet Secretariat and FICCI Quality Forum as Consulting Partner. Cabinet Secretary, Shri K.M. Chandrasekhar, Member planning Commission Shri Sam Pitroda and UIDAI chairman, Shri Nandan Nilekani took part in the workshops.

Implementation of the Concept
The Performance Management Division of the Cabinet Secretariat has included two modules of the Sevottam framework i.e. Citizen Charter and Public Grievance Mechanism, as mandatory success indicators in the Results Frame Document (RFD) 2010-11 for 62 Ministries/Departments approved under Performance Monitoring and Evaluation System (PMES) by the Prime Minister. The four workshops held would facilitate these Ministries/Departments in achieving the Sevottam compliance success indicators under Results Frame Document. December 30, 2010 has been fixed as the target date for the formulation of Sevottam Compliant Citizen’s / Client’s Charter. To facilitate meeting  the target date, a Helpdesk for Sevottam related queries has been made available at sevottam@nic.in.
Sevottam in States
Four States namely, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa have adopted Sevottam for capacity building for poverty reduction pilot projects of quality management system.
The Government of Himachal Pradesh selected Municipal Corporation Shimla for the first QMS Sevottam pilot project in 2008 - 2009. As a result, processes in issue of Electricity and Water Bills have been streamlined resulting in timely receipts and enhancement in the collection of revenue. Operations of water bills, property tax, registration of births and deaths, and other services provided are being integrated through a common digital database.
The Grievance Redress Mechanism has been improved. Improvements have been made in functioning and monitoring of the Solid Waste Management Plant and financial arrangements have been made for procuring 33 new vehicles. A ‘User Manual’ for the sector has been created that will facilitate the replication of the process in other municipalities. The User Manual has been uploaded on DARPG website www.darpg.nic.in.
The capacity of Himachal Pradesh Institute for Public Administration (HIPA) Shimla, has been built in this regard and funds have been provided for opening of a new ‘Training Centre on Sevottam’ in HIPA.
The Government of Karnataka selected the Department of Women and Child Development with vertical chain  of service delivery for the Integrated Child Development Services in 7 Anganwadi centres in two villages of Badanaguppe in Chamrajnagar district and Mudlapura in  Raichur district.  The pilot project was started there in December 2008 and  concluded  in February 2010.  This has been a very successful Sevottam pilot project. As part of capacity building a Sevottam training cell has been established in ATI, Mysore to train personnel for extending the service delivery framework in other organizations of Government of Karnataka.
The Madhya Pradesh Government has selected the Public Health and Family Welfare Department with vertical service delivery chain in J.P. Hospital, Bhopal; Community Health Centre, Gandhinagar; in Phanda Block of District Bhopal; Community Health Centres in Bairsia Block and Health Centre Tehsil Bairsia with  PHFW service delivery units in 5 to 6 village clusters therein. Simultaneously, capacity building for training in QMS Sevottam model of the Madhya Pradesh State Administrative Training Institute is involved. Started in August 2009, the project is due to conclude in December 2010.
The Government of Orissa has selected the Food, Supplies and Consumer Welfare (FSCW) Department and its vertical chain of service delivery in Balipatna Block of Khurda District and simultaneous capacity building of State ATI, Bhubaneswar. The project begun in September 2009 and  is due for conclusion in December 2010.

What is women reservation bill?



1. The women reservation bill will reserve the 33 percent seats in Parliament and state legislatures for the females.


2. The bill is pending from the year 1996 proving that Indian politicians are not ready to accept this bill so every time we see the new drama, new demand from political parties.


3. The women reservation bill will provide Reservation for women at each level of legislative decision-making, starting with the Lok Sabha, down to state and local legislatures.

4. If the Bill is passed, one-third of the total available seats would be reserved for women in national, state, or local governments. And this number will be 181 . The Bill seeks to reserve for women 181 of the 543 seats in the Lok Sabha and 1,370 out of a total of 4,109 seats in the 28 State Assemblies.


5. The reserved seats will be rotated. So the seats will be reserved only once every 3 election.


6. Currently 33.3 percent seats in panchayat elections have been reserved for women already.


7. In the May 2004 general election, 539 candidates were elected to the 14th Lok Sabha. Only 44 of them are women.


8. Women have less than 10 percent representation in India’s parliament even though they make up 44 percent of the voting population.


History of Women Reservation bill in India –


1. 1996 — The Deve Gowda government introduces the women’s reservation bill as 81st Constitutional Amendment Bill.


2. 1998 — the bill is re-introduced in the 12th Lok Sabha as the 84th Constitutional Amendment Bill by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government headed Atal Bihari Vajpayee.


3. 1999 — The NDA government re-introduces the bill in the 13th Lok Sabha.


4. 2002 — the bill is introduced in parliament but fails to sail through.


5. 2003 — Bill introduced twice in parliament.


6. 2004 — The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government includes it in the Common Minimum Programme.


7. 2008 — the government tables the bill in the Rajya Sabha so that the legislation does not lapse.


8. 2010 — the cabinet clears the bill for taking it up in the Rajya Sabha. And on 8th March mother India was again made to cry by some political parties, just like Draupadi of Mahabharat. The house was adjourned for the sixth times and congress failed to punish the law breakers and kept silence like the they also wanted the bill be treated like Draupadi and enjoyed the drama when mother india was insulted.


Update 9th March 2010


The women’s reservation Bill was finally passed in the Rajya Sabha with 186 members voting for it and only one voting against it.


Trinamool Congress Members remained absent when the Bill was put to vote.


The Bahujan Samaj Party Members boycotted the voting


Now the bill will be introduced in the Lok Sabha

New Wholesale price Index,2010

The new series of Wholesale Price Index (WPI) for August ,2010 with additional 241 items and change in the base year from 1993-94 to 2004-05.Its few features are :

• WPI will measure a total of 676 items against the existing 435.

• Readymade food, computer stationery, refrigerators, dish antenna, VCD, crude petroleum and computers would also be part of the new series.

• Under the primary article group of the new WPI, there would be 102 items against the existing 98 while the fuel and power category would remain static at 19.

• There is a substantial increase in the number of items in manufactured products. In the new series, there would be 555 items compared to 318 items at the moment, according to the official.

• At the same time, the weight of manufactured products would go up to 64.9 per cent compared to 63.7 per cent while the weight of primary articles group, including food, has come down to 20.1 per cent against existing 22.02 per cent. The data release would accompany inflation numbers with old base year (1993-94) as well for comparison

• The new series of WPI is based on the recommendations of the Working Group headed by Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen.

Wholesale Price index

First we should know that what is price index?

A price index is a normalized average of prices for a given class of goods or services in a given region, during a given interval of time


The Wholesale Price Index is the price of a representative basket of wholesale goods. Some countries use the changes in this index to measure inflation in their economies, in particular India - The Indian WPI figure is released every 10 days and influences stock and fixed price markets. The Wholesale Price Index focuses on the price of goods traded between corporations, rather than goods bought by consumers, which is measured by the Consumer Price Index. The purpose of the WPI is to monitor price movements that reflect supply and demand in industry, manufacturing and construction. This helps in analyzing both macroeconomic and microeconomic conditions.



Calculation of Wholesale Price Index

The wholesale price index consists of over 2,400 commodities. The indicator tracks the price movement of each commodity individually. Based on this individual movement, the WPI is determined through the averaging principle. The following methods are used to compute the WPI:



Laspeyres Formula (relative method):It is the weighted arithmetic mean based on the fixed value-based weights for the base period. The formula is as follows:

Ten-Day Price Index: Under this method, 'sample prices' with high intra-month fluctuations are selected and surveyed every ten days through phone. Utilizing the data retrieved by this procedure and with the assumption that other non-surveyed "sample prices" remain unchanged, a "ten-day price index" is compiled and released.

Calculation Method: Monthly price indexes are compiled by calculating the simple arithmetic mean of three ten-day 'sample prices' in the month.


The WPI comprises of the following indices:

1-Domestic Wholesale Price Index (DWPI)

2-Export Price Index (EPI)

3-Import Price Index (IPI)

4-Overall Wholesale Price Index (OWPI)

The WPI covers five commodity groups - agriculture; manufacturing; quarrying; import and export; and mining.





Features of Wholesale Price Index:

-It captures the price movement extensively and is, therefore, taken as an indicator of inflation.

-The index is published weekly, with the shortest possible time gap of only two weeks.

-WPI is used to analyze market activity and monetary conditions in an economy.

-It focuses on the changing nature of the economy of different kinds of services, such as the railways, road transportation, telecommunications and banking.

-These features highlight the utility of this index in monitoring ongoing changes in an economy in order to suggest the need for any adjustment.

Land Acquisition (Amendment) Act 2007

-came into force in 7 may 2007,This Act amends the Land Acquisition Act to abolish the use of a statutory date in determining the basic compensation for land that is compulsorily acquired on or after 12 February 2007 and to provide that the basic compensation will instead be the market value of the land as at the date of its acquisition.


However, the market value of the acquired land cannot exceed the price which a bona fide purchaser might reasonably be willing to pay for the land. The market value of the land is to be arrived having regard (but not only) to the zoning and density requirements and any other restrictions imposed by or under the Planning Act at the date of acquisition, and any restrictive covenants in the title of the acquired land. However, no account is to be taken of any potential value of the land for any other use more intensive than what is permissible by or under the Planning Act as at the date of its acquisition.


The Land Acquisition Act is also amended so that when accessing the market value of acquired land, it will no longer be prohibited to take into account any increase in value arising from any improvement to the land within two years before the date the land is declared to be required for a public purpose, or from development in the neighbourhood by the provision of roads, drains, electricity, water, gas or sewerage or social, education or recreational facilities within seven years preceding that date.


The special compensation provisions for acquired land which is used as a burial ground and acquired land that is devastated or affected, directly or indirectly, by fire, explosion, thunderbolt, earthquake, storm, tempest, flood or any act of God, have also been abolished. Such land, if acquired, will be assessed no differently from other acquired land.


The compensation for land acquired before 12 February 2007 continues to be governed by the existing law.


The Act also makes improvements and establishes new procedures for the compulsory acquisition of land to simplify the acquisition process.




The Spam Control Bill 2007 (the 'Bill') has been passed in Parliament on 12 April 2007. The Bill was introduced in Parliament on 12 February 2007 following two public consultations in 2004 and 2005 which were jointly conducted by the Info-communications Development Authority of Singapore and the Attorney-General's Chambers. The Bill regulates the sending of electronic messages per se as well as the sending of 'spam', defined in the Bill as the sending of unsolicited commercial electronic messages in bulk.


The Competition (Amendment) Bill 2007 (the 'Bill') was introduced in Parliament today (9 April 2007). The Bill will amend the Competition Act (the 'Act') for, amongst others, the following purposes:


1 To extend Part III of the Act to an anticipated merger which, if carried into effect, will result in the occurrence of a merger, as defined in the Act. The amendments will permit voluntary statutory notifications of certain anticipated mergers to be made to the Competition Commission of Singapore (the 'CCS') for decision.


2 To remove notifications for guidance in respect of the section 54 prohibition and to remove the provision that allows the CCS to re-open a non-infringement decision on a merger due to a material change in circumstances.






3 To clarify when a merger occurs, the test for control for the purposes of determining when a merger has occurred, and who is a party involved in a merger for the purposes of notification, decision and appeal.






4 To replace the criterion for a joint venture to be considered as a merger.






5 To clarify, in respect of the three prohibitions in the Act, that when the CCS gives guidance or makes a decision that one prohibition is unlikely to have been, or has not been, infringed, this will not preclude an investigation by the CCS into a possible infringement of the other two prohibitions.






6 To exclude from the section 34 prohibition and the section 47 prohibition, mergers and ancillary ?restrictions (additional arrangements not integral to the merger, but which are directly related and necessary to its implementation).






7 To exclude from the section 54 prohibition, mergers where the resultant economic efficiencies outweigh any adverse effect from the substantial lessening of competition arising from the mergers, and to clarify the ambit of the exclusion in respect of mergers approved under any written law.