The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Maandhan Yojana (PM KMY) completed seven years. PM KMY is a voluntary contributory pension scheme for small and marginal farmers.
Core facts
Launch: PM KMY launched on 12 September 2019.
Core benefit: It assures a minimum pension of ₹3,000 per month from the age of 60.
Enrolment: Total enrolment is 24,96,252 farmers as of February 2026. Haryana leads with 5.75 lakh. Bihar follows with 3.46 lakh.
Outlay used: Government investment since 2019 is ₹540.66 crore.
Administration: It is a Central Sector Scheme under the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. The Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) is the pension fund manager.
Eligibility: It covers farmers holding cultivable land up to two hectares. The entry age band is 18 to 40 years. Names must appear in land records as of 1 August 2019.
Contribution: The farmer pays ₹55 to ₹200 per month by entry age. The government matches the farmer’s contribution equally.
Family pension: A surviving spouse receives 50% of the pension, that is ₹1,500 per month.
Exclusions: Income tax payers, registered professionals and beneficiaries of other pension schemes are barred. These other schemes include the National Pension System (NPS), the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC), the Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maandhan (PM SYM) and the Pradhan Mantri Laghu Vyapari Maandhan (PM LVM).
Enrolment route: Enrolment runs through Common Service Centres using Aadhaar, a bank account and mobile One Time Password. A farmer may route PM KISAN benefits into the PM KMY contribution.
Static Context
PM KISAN is the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi. It transfers ₹6,000 per year in three instalments to landholding farmer families.
A Central Sector Scheme is funded fully by the Union government. A Centrally Sponsored Scheme splits funding between the Centre and the states.
LIC is a statutory insurer. It was set up under the Life Insurance Corporation Act, 1956.
Prelims angle
PM KMY pension amount of ₹3,000 and entry age 18 to 40; LIC as the fund manager; the two hectare landholding ceiling; the distinction between Central Sector and Centrally Sponsored schemes; overlap bars with PM SYM and NPS.
Mains angle
GS Paper 2, welfare schemes for vulnerable sections. The scheme suits a question on old age income security for the unorganised and agrarian workforce.
Matching Previous Year Question
“[2016] Regarding ‘Atal Pension Yojana’, which of the following statements is/are correct? 1. It is a minimum guaranteed pension scheme mainly targeted at unorganized sector workers. 2. Only one member of a family can join the scheme. 3. Same amount of pension is guaranteed for the spouse for life after subscriber’s death. Select the correct answer using the code given below. (a) 1 only (b) 2 and 3 only (c) 1 and 3 only (d) 1, 2 and 3 Answer: (c)”
The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MoSJE) inaugurated distribution of NAMASTE Cards to waste pickers in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) Najafgarh Zone on 4 September 2026.
Core facts
Scheme name:NAMASTE stands for National Action for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem. It is a central scheme for the safety and dignity of sanitation workers.
Implementing bodies: The scheme is run jointly by the MoSJE and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA).
Event substance: Profiled waste pickers received NAMASTE identity cards. The cards formally recognise the worker and link the worker to scheme benefits.
Officeholder: The distribution was inaugurated by the Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment. The individual identity is not material to the policy content.
Static Context
Objective: NAMASTE targets zero fatalities in sanitation work in India. It seeks to end direct human contact with faecal matter in sewer and septic tank cleaning.
Coverage expansion: NAMASTE originally covered sewer and septic tank workers (SSWs). The scheme was later extended to enumerate and cover waste pickers. A national digital application for profiling waste pickers was launched on World Environment Day 2025.
Benefits design: The scheme provides occupational profiling, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kits, Ayushman Bharat health cover, and a capital subsidy for sanitation related livelihoods.
Predecessor: NAMASTE subsumed the earlier Self Employment Scheme for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers (SRMS).
Governing law: Manual scavenging is prohibited under the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013.
Prelims angle
Scheme full form and nodal ministries: NAMASTE is run by the MoSJE with the MoHUA. Expect a purpose or ministry match question.
Beneficiary categories: Sewer and septic tank workers, and waste pickers. The waste picker inclusion is the newest hook.
Benefit bundle: PPE, Ayushman Bharat health cover, capital subsidy, occupational profiling.
GS Paper 2, welfare schemes for vulnerable sections. A question can frame the shift from a rehabilitation model (SRMS) to a mechanisation and formalisation model (NAMASTE), and ask whether profiling and card based inclusion secures the rights of informal sanitation workers.
“[2016] Rashtriya Garima Abhiyaan’ is a national campaign to
(a) rehabilitate the homeless and destitute persons and provide them with suitable sources of livelihood
(b) release the sex workers from their practice and provide them with alternative sources of livelihood
(c) eradicate the practice of manual scavenging and rehabilitate the manual scavengers
(d) release the bonded labourers from their bondage and rehabilitate them.
Question (2024, GS2): “In a crucial domain like the public healthcare system, the Indian State should play a vital role to contain the adverse impact of marketisation of the system. Suggest some measures through which the State can enhance the reach of public healthcare at the grassroots level. Linkage: The proposed solution to move a portion of newborn care back to the home is a direct attempt to “enhance the reach of public healthcare at the grassroots level”. This question prompts candidates to suggest structural measures to decentralise care, relieving the burden on overloaded urban hospitals.
Mentor Comment
Three newborns died in an accidental fire at the government women’s hospital in Amravati, Maharashtra. That episode is placed alongside a list of clustered newborn deaths in government institutions since 2017, running from BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur and a government hospital in Ahmedabad through JK Lon Hospital in Kota, and on to district and medical college hospitals in Shahdol, Bhandara, Bhopal, Ambikapur, Nanded, Jhansi and Budaun. The argument drawn from that list is that these are a recurring pattern produced by the system, not a series of isolated accidents. The tension is that the policy success which moved birth out of the home is what has overloaded the units that receive the sick newborn, and the proposed answer is to move part of newborn care back to the home.
What is home based newborn care?
Trained community health workers deliver care where the baby is: They identify and manage neonatal infections at home, support breastfeeding and warmth, and manage low birth weight and preterm babies.
It is already a package inside the public system: The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare adopted it in 2011, and roughly 8,00,000 Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) have been trained on modules built from the Gadchiroli experience.
It does not replace intensive care: A baby with severe prematurity, respiratory distress, shock, severe sepsis or serious birth asphyxia needs immediate facility based treatment.
Why are newborn deaths clustering in government units?
Overcrowding is the first reason: Institutional deliveries rose from 39 percent in 2005-06 to 90 percent in 2023-24 under the National Family Health Survey-6, and the absolute number of institutional deliveries rose from 109 lakh to 194 lakh. Admissions to public Special Newborn Care Units (SNCUs), the secondary level units that treat sick newborns, rose 28 percent in two years, from 11.3 lakh in 2021-22 to 14.45 lakh in 2023-24.
The case mix has become sicker: Government hospitals now receive premature, low birth weight and sick newborns referred from peripheral facilities, alongside the normal deliveries they always handled.
Infrastructure failure is the third reason: The Gorakhpur deaths of August 2017 were attributed by a district level inquiry to oxygen deprivation following an interruption in supply. Fires at Bhandara in January 2021, Bhopal in November 2021 and Jhansi in November 2024 show the electrical and fire risk in units running warmers, incubators and ventilators.
Infection and staffing form the fourth: Inadequate nurse-to-baby ratios, equipment shortages and weak infection prevention practice let hospital acquired infection spread quickly through a crowded unit.
What is the evidence that care at home works?
A field trial cut neonatal mortality by 62.2 percent: The Society for Education, Action and Research in Community Health (SEARCH) ran the trial in rural Gadchiroli using trained community health workers, and published the result in The Lancet in 1999.
Most small babies were managed without a bed: Between 1996 and 2003, 97 percent of low birth weight and preterm babies in Gadchiroli, including those above 1,800 g and beyond 34 weeks of gestation, were managed at home with a very low case fatality rate, published in the Journal of Perinatology in 2005.
The delivery channel already exists nationally: India does not have to invent a system, so the binding constraint is training, supervision and support of the workers already deployed.
What is the three part strategy proposed?
Decongest the neonatal units: Strengthen home based care by ASHAs so that appropriate, stable newborns receive care at home rather than occupying a scarce SNCU bed.
Staff and equip the units properly: Adequate numbers of doctors and nurses, appropriate nurse-to-baby ratios, functioning equipment, reliable oxygen and electricity with backup systems, and rigorous infection prevention.
Make the units intrinsically safe: Fire detection and suppression systems, electrical and oxygen system safety measures, emergency evacuation drills and independent safety audits, all made mandatory rather than advisory.
Challenges to home based newborn care
The worker carrying the package is not an employee: An ASHA is an honorary volunteer paid through task linked incentives, so an expanded clinical role rests on availability that is not contractually owed. Eg. The fixed monthly incentive for routine tasks is Rs 2,000, with the remainder paid activity by activity. The Fix: Create a semi-formal cadre under the National Health Mission with a fixed salary component, insurance and pension attached to the newborn care role.
Skill retention needs supervision that is not staffed: A worker trained once and never observed loses the clinical judgement the package depends on. Eg. The Auxiliary Nurse Midwives who supervise ASHAs also carry immunisation, antenatal and reporting duties at the same sub-centre. The Fix: Fund a dedicated supervisory post per cluster of workers with a fixed monthly schedule of observed home visits.
Home care fails when referral fails: A baby that deteriorates at home needs transport and a bed within hours, and neither is guaranteed. Eg. A newborn deteriorating at night depends on a district ambulance network reached through the 102 service. The Fix: Link every worker to a live bed availability record for her referral unit and a guaranteed transport response window.
The model was proven rural and remains rural: Urban newborns in slum and peri-urban households sit largely outside the package. Eg. Urban worker deployment norms are pitched at one worker per 1,000 to 2,500 slum population, and non-slum urban households fall outside that count. The Fix: Extend the package through urban primary health centres with a stated urban deployment norm and a defined household list.
Conclusion
Institutional delivery moved birth out of the home and saved both mothers and babies. It did not create the capacity to look after every newborn who arrives with the mother. The next phase has to divide the work, sending the sick newborn to a unit that is staffed and safe and keeping the stable newborn with a trained worker at home. The measure to watch is whether SNCU admissions fall and neonatal mortality keeps falling, since that combination is what separates decongestion from denial of care.
Newborn and Child Health in India
The mortality position: The Neonatal Mortality Rate stands at about 17 per 1,000 live births, the Infant Mortality Rate at about 25 and the Under-5 Mortality Rate at about 28 per 1,000 live births.
Maternal mortality has fallen alongside it: The Maternal Mortality Ratio is about 80 per lakh live births.
Immunisation coverage is high: Full immunisation coverage reached 93.5 percent under Mission Indradhanush 5.0.
The disease mix has shifted: The share of communicable, maternal and neonatal conditions in India’s total disease burden fell to 33 percent, from 61 percent in 1990.
Government Initiatives for Newborn and Child Health
Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram: Provides free and cashless treatment to sick infants up to one year of age in government institutions, covering drugs, diagnostics and transport.
Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram: Screens children for the four Ds, meaning defects at birth, deficiencies, diseases and developmental delays, with tertiary care for those identified.
Mission Indradhanush 6.0: Targets 95 percent full immunisation coverage and tracks every pregnant woman and child through the U-WIN portal.
Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0: Delivers supplementary nutrition aimed at reducing stunting and wasting among children under six.
Key Facts about Newborn and Child Health
National Newborn Week is observed from 15 to 21 November each year.
The India Newborn Action Plan, 2014 set the goal of a single digit neonatal mortality rate by 2030.
Challenges in Newborn and Child Health
Specialist posts at the referral tier stay unfilled: A district newborn unit needs a paediatrician on its roster, and the sanctioned post is often vacant. Eg. Rural Community Health Centres carry a shortfall of about 80 percent against sanctioned specialist posts. The Fix: Build district paediatric cadres with a rural service obligation tied to postgraduate admission.
Nursing supply is the binding constraint on every unit level standard: A nurse-to-baby ratio cannot be enforced where the nurses do not exist. Eg. India needs an additional 6.5 lakh nurses by 2030 to meet basic World Health Organization staffing norms. The Fix: Fund nursing school expansion in the districts with the highest birth volumes rather than in State capitals.
Public health spending sits below its own policy target: Unit upgrades compete with every other demand inside a constrained health budget. Eg. Public health expenditure stands at about 1.9 percent of gross domestic product against the National Health Policy, 2017 target of 2.5 percent. The Fix: Ring-fence a newborn care line within National Health Mission allocations so unit safety upgrades are not crowded out.
Back2Basics
Janani Suraksha Yojana was launched in 2005 under the National Rural Health Mission, now the National Health Mission.
It is a conditional cash transfer paid to promote institutional delivery among poor pregnant women.
Its benefits are differentiated between low performing and high performing States, and between rural and urban beneficiaries.
The ASHA is its link worker, escorting the woman to the facility for a performance linked incentive.
The Congress has questioned the Centre’s decision to launch free online coaching for students, citing the government’s poor implementation record under an existing coaching scheme. The criticism follows a Parliamentary Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment report, tabled on 10 August, showing the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment enrolled only 2,790 of a targeted 10,500 candidates, about 26 per cent, under its existing free coaching scheme over three years, with the scheme’s allocation declining every year. It also follows the Leader of the Opposition’s remarks at a Kota event on 17 June that Indian families spend 2.5 times more on coaching centres than the Union government invests in education. The Congress has termed the free online coaching announcement an “accountability-evading gimmick,” questioning the government’s capacity to deliver at scale.
What is the Social Justice Ministry’s free coaching scheme?
Administering ministry: The scheme is run by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment for candidates from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and other disadvantaged groups.
Enrollment target: It had set a target of enrolling 10,500 candidates over three years.
Funding trend: Its budgetary allocation has declined each year since.
What does the committee’s report reveal about the scheme’s implementation?
Sharp enrollment shortfall: Only 2,790 of the targeted 10,500 candidates, about 26 per cent, were enrolled over three years.
Declining allocation: Funding for the scheme fell each year even as the shortfall persisted.
Political context of the new announcement: The Congress says the Prime Minister’s Independence Day announcement of free online coaching followed public pressure after the Opposition Leader’s remarks on coaching dependence at Kota.
Conclusion
The dispute centres on whether the Centre can execute a new free online coaching commitment given its own record on the existing scheme. The government has not yet released implementation details for the new initiative, and the enrollment and funding data for the existing scheme remain the yardstick against which its rollout will be judged.
The Social Justice Ministry has moved a proposal to extend the National Action for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem scheme from towns and cities to rural parts of the country. The scheme profiles sewer and septic tank workers as the route to its benefits, and coverage is being widened ahead of a delivery channel that approves capital subsidy for a small fraction of those profiled.
Components of NAMASTE
Profiling and identification: Sanitation workers are enumerated at camps run by urban local bodies, and that profile is the entry point to every other component of the scheme.
Occupational safety: Profiled workers are given safety training and personal protective equipment for the work they already perform.
Capital subsidy for self employment: A profiled worker or a Private Sanitation Service Organisation may apply for a capital subsidy to buy mechanised equipment and set up a sanitation enterprise.
Emergency Response Sanitation Units: Urban local bodies are supported to set up standing units equipped with suction and jetting machines, so that a sewer or septic tank is cleaned by machine instead of by human entry.
What is manual scavenging?
Manual scavenging: Manual scavenging is the manual handling, carrying or disposing of human excreta from an insanitary latrine, an open drain, a pit or a railway track. The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 prohibits both the practice and the employment of any person for it.
Who is a sewer and septic tank worker (SSW)?
Sewer and septic tank worker: A sewer and septic tank worker (SSW) is a person engaged in cleaning sewer lines, manholes and septic tanks, whether employed directly or engaged through a contractor. The category is distinct from manual scavenging in law, since the work is lawful when performed with mechanised equipment and prescribed safety gear.
What is a Private Sanitation Service Organisation (PSSO)?
Private Sanitation Service Organisation: A Private Sanitation Service Organisation (PSSO) is a private entity providing mechanised sanitation services that can propose projects for capital subsidy under the scheme. It is one of two proposal routes, the other being an application by an individual worker.
What is the Safai Udyami Yojana?
Safai Udyami Yojana: The Safai Udyami Yojana is the self employment component under which sewer and septic tank workers receive capital subsidy to set up their own sanitation enterprise. It is one of the two self employment routes in which the National Commission for Scheduled Castes has flagged rejections.
What does the proposed expansion change?
Geographic extension: The proposal takes the scheme’s scope from towns and cities to rural parts of the country for the first time.
New worker categories: Coverage will be widened to include drain cleaners, and workers in sewage treatment plants and faecal sludge treatment plants.
Outlay and horizon: The Ministry has proposed around ₹498.73 crore for the expanded scheme, to be spent from this fiscal year to 2030-31.
Second widening of scope: The scheme initially covered only sewer and septic tank workers and was first expanded to include waste pickers, so the rural extension is the second enlargement.
Original aim retained: The scheme was started in 2023-24 with the aim of eradicating sewer and septic tank deaths, and the expansion does not alter that objective.
Why has the scheme’s delivery record become the central concern?
Profiling against approval: 90,915 sewer and septic tank workers have been profiled across the country, and only 810 have been approved for capital subsidies.
Approval against disbursal: Of the 810 approved, 147 had actually received their funds as on 31 March 2026.
Subsidy covers only part of the cost: The capital subsidy meets up to 50 per cent of total project cost, so an approved worker still has to raise the balance before the enterprise can start.
Manual scavengers identified: Only 2,652 projects have been approved against the 58,000 manual scavengers identified under the scheme.
Both routes inside the count: The 2,652 approvals include projects proposed by Private Sanitation Service Organisations as well as by individuals, so the figure is not a count of individual entrepreneurs alone.
Waste picker coverage: 1.3 lakh waste pickers have been profiled alongside the sewer and septic tank workers, per the Ministry’s annual report for 2025-26.
What has the National Commission for Scheduled Castes flagged?
Repeated correspondence: The Commission has written repeatedly to the Social Justice Ministry since last year on the continued rejection of applications under the self employment and capital subsidy components.
Rejections identified as the cause: It has held that one reason for the low number of approved projects is the high rate of rejections.
Rejections across every part: It has noted rejections under each part of the capital subsidy component, and asked that these be examined.
The August 2025 letter: That letter flagged rejections in the self employment components, both in the Safai Udyami Yojana and in the component for Private Sanitation Service Organisations.
Source of the mandate: The Commission acts under Article 338, which empowers it to investigate and monitor safeguards for the Scheduled Castes and to inquire into specific complaints.
Why do sewer and septic tank deaths persist under a statutory prohibition?
Deaths on record: 498 people died across the country while engaged in the hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks from 2019 to June 2026, per the Social Justice Ministry’s reply to Parliament in August 2026.
Enforcement rests with the employer: The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 bars hazardous cleaning without protective gear, and the duty to enforce falls on local authorities who are frequently the employers themselves.
Contracting layer: Sewer cleaning is routinely outsourced, which separates the municipal principal from the worker who enters the tank.
Rehabilitation lag: A worker whose capital subsidy application is rejected returns to the same work, so profiling without disbursal leaves the occupational risk untouched.
Rural gap unmeasured: Rural areas have been outside the scheme until this proposal, so deaths in village septic tanks have had no dedicated scheme response.
Challenges to NAMASTE
Rejection concentrated in the subsidy pipeline: The bottleneck sits between profiling and approval rather than between approval and identification. Eg. The National Commission for Scheduled Castes has recorded rejections under every part of the capital subsidy component and has asked the Ministry to explain them.
Balance financing after subsidy: The worker must raise the uncovered share of project cost as a loan against negligible collateral. Eg. National Safai Karamcharis Finance and Development Corporation term loans routed through State channelising agencies have carried low utilisation and weak recovery.
Urban local body capacity: Emergency Response Sanitation Units need trained crews and maintained machines, which small municipalities cannot sustain. Eg. The Safaimitra Suraksha Challenge launched in 2020 enrolled 246 cities to become sewer death free, and participation was concentrated in large municipal corporations rather than small towns.
Contractor liability gap: Outsourcing lets the principal employer distance itself from a death inside a manhole. Eg. In Delhi Jal Board v National Campaign for Dignity and Rights of Sewerage and Allied Workers (2011), the Supreme Court held that the principal employer cannot escape liability by engaging contractors for sewer cleaning.
No rural delivery cadre: Rural sanitation is administered by gram panchayats, which have no wing equivalent to an urban local body’s sanitation department. Eg. Faecal sludge emptying in villages is done by informal private operators outside any municipal register, which leaves no employer to profile a worker against.
Monitoring by profiling count: Progress is reported as workers profiled rather than as workers rehabilitated, so the headline number rises without entitlement delivery following it. Eg. The Ministry’s annual report for 2025-26 leads with profiling totals for sewer and septic tank workers and waste pickers, and not with the count of workers placed in an alternative livelihood.
Conclusion
The Social Justice Ministry has proposed extending the National Action for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem scheme to rural India, to drain cleaners and to treatment plant workers. The proposal is at the stage of a Ministry submission and has not yet been notified, and the next milestone is approval of the expanded scheme and its outlay. The delivery record it inherits is a profiling count far ahead of the number of capital subsidy cases funded, alongside 498 sewer and septic tank deaths between 2019 and June 2026.
“[2016] ‘Rashtriya Garima Abhiyaan’ is a national campaign to
(a) rehabilitate the homeless and destitute persons and provide them with suitable sources of livelihood
(b) release the sex workers from their practice and provide them with alternative sources of livelihood
(c) eradicate the practice of manual scavenging and rehabilitate the manual scavengers
(d) release the bonded labourers from their bondage and rehabilitate them
The Andaman and Nicobar Islands administration has withdrawn an Expression of Interest seeking feasibility proposals for a private sector-led green artificial intelligence data centre on the islands, days after publishing it. The withdrawal follows reports that the Nicobarese population on Great Nicobar Island had not been informed of any plan to set up a data centre in the sea areas around the island.
What is an Expression of Interest in a public project?
About: An Expression of Interest is a pre-tender notice through which a government body invites interested parties to indicate willingness and capability to undertake a project, before a formal tender is issued.
Purpose: It is used to test market interest and technical feasibility for a project whose scope, cost or technology is not yet fixed, so the responses shape the later tender document.
Legal effect: It creates no contractual obligation and can be withdrawn or modified by the issuing authority at any stage before award.
What is a green artificial intelligence data centre?
About: A data centre is a facility housing servers and networking equipment, and an artificial intelligence data centre is optimised for the high power and cooling demands of large model training and inference.
Why green: The green label refers to powering the facility with renewable energy and using low-water or seawater-based cooling, since artificial intelligence workloads consume far more electricity and cooling water than conventional server hosting.
Who are the Nicobarese?
About: The Nicobarese are the largest indigenous community of the Nicobar group of islands, a Scheduled Tribe living in village-based settlements across the Nicobar archipelago including Great Nicobar.
Why they matter here: Their traditional lands and coastal commons fall within the footprint of island infrastructure projects, so their prior information and consent is the legal and administrative test for any such proposal.
Why has the withdrawal drawn attention to consultation?
The sequence: The Expression of Interest was published on 10 August, and a notice issued days later withdrew it with immediate effect due to administrative reasons.
Location of the proposal: The data centre was proposed for the sea areas around Great Nicobar Island, which places it directly in the coastal zone the resident community depends on.
The information gap: The local Nicobarese population on Great Nicobar Island had not been informed of any plan to set up a data centre in those waters.
The wider protest: Local people are already protesting against the government’s proposed Rs 91,000-crore mega-infrastructure project on the same island.
What the reason given does not settle: The notice cites administrative reasons without specifying whether the withdrawal responds to the consultation failure, the technical feasibility or the wider protest.
What is at stake in the Great Nicobar mega project?
Scale: The proposed mega-infrastructure project on Great Nicobar Island carries an estimated cost of Rs 91,000 crore.
Components: The Great Nicobar Island Project comprises a transhipment port at Galathea Bay, an international airport, a power plant and a greenfield township.
Strategic rationale: The transhipment port is intended to rival Colombo and Singapore for container transhipment, capturing traffic that currently bypasses Indian ports.
Ecological setting: Great Nicobar hosts the Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve, along with the Galathea Bay leatherback turtle nesting site and the Campbell Bay and Galathea National Parks.
Community setting: The island is home to the Nicobarese and to the Shompen, a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group living in the interior forests.
The consultation question: The data centre withdrawal repeats the question already raised about the mega project, which is whether affected communities are informed before proposals enter the public domain.
Challenges to Island Infrastructure Development
Prior informed consent: Project proposals reach the public domain before the resident community is told, which converts consultation into a post-facto formality. Eg. The Nicobarese on Great Nicobar were not informed of the data centre proposal in the waters around their island.
Ecological irreversibility: Island ecosystems are small, endemic and cannot absorb clearance at the scale mainland projects assume. Eg. The Great Nicobar project involves diversion of a large tract of tropical forest and construction at the Galathea Bay leatherback turtle nesting beach.
Seismic and tsunami exposure: The islands sit on an active subduction zone, so heavy coastal infrastructure carries a hazard the mainland does not face. Eg. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami devastated the Nicobar group and permanently submerged parts of the coastline near Indira Point.
Water and power for data infrastructure: Artificial intelligence data centres demand continuous power and cooling that island grids cannot supply without new generation. Eg. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands depend substantially on diesel generation and an undersea optical fibre link commissioned in 2020.
Rehabilitation of tribal populations: Displacement from customary land cannot be compensated in cash terms for communities whose livelihood is tied to a specific coastal ecology. Eg. Nicobarese families displaced by the 2004 tsunami were resettled in intermediate shelters, and return to original villages remained incomplete for years.
Regulatory clearance layering: Island projects require forest, coastal zone, wildlife and tribal clearances from separate authorities, which invites piecemeal appraisal of a single project. Eg. The Great Nicobar project’s clearances have been challenged before the National Green Tribunal and reviewed by a high-powered committee.
Strategic and civilian conflict: The islands host India’s only tri-service command, so security requirements limit civilian access and complicate transparent public consultation. Eg. Access to several Nicobar islands remains restricted under tribal reserve and defence notifications.
“[2019] Consider the following statements about Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) in India:
1. PVTGs reside in 18 States and one Union Territory.
2. A stagnant or declining population is one of the criteria for determining PVTG status.
3. There are 95 PVTGs officially notified in the country so far.
4. Irular and Konda Reddi tribes are included in the list of PVTGs.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment flagged delays in constructing and operationalising Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS). Only 428 of 728 sanctioned schools have been completed, while 118 continue from government or rented buildings.
What is EMRS?
EMRS: Eklavya Model Residential Schools.
Provides free residential education from Classes 6 to 12 to Scheduled Tribe (ST) students in tribal-majority and remote areas.
Nodal Ministry: Ministry of Tribal Affairs.
Managing body: National Education Society for Tribal Students (NESTS).
Aim: Improve educational access while preserving tribal cultural identity.
What did the Panel Find?
428/728 schools completed.
249 under construction.
51 at pre-construction stage.
118 schools operate from temporary government/rented buildings.
Delays have caused construction cost escalation.
Panel suggested an independent monitoring agency and an alternative implementation mechanism.
Scholarship Concerns
Scholarship funds are often released in the next academic year due to delays in State/Union Territory verification.
The Committee criticised the repeated explanation that States need more time for verification.
It also recommended reviewing the ₹8 lakh annual income ceiling for the free coaching scheme for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs).
Government accepted 14 of 25 recommendations; the panel rejected responses on four issues.
Why is Implementation Weak?
Federal dependence: Central schemes depend on States for construction and verification.
Weak monitoring: Delays accumulate without independent oversight.
Cost escalation: Delays increase construction costs and budget requirements.
Portal mismatch: Scholarship portals and State verification timelines do not align well.
Constitutional Framework
Article 15(4): Enables special provisions for advancement of socially and educationally backward classes and STs.
Article 46: Directs the State to promote educational and economic interests of STs.
Article 275(1): Provides Central grants for tribal welfare and Scheduled Areas.
Article 342: Specifies Scheduled Tribes.
Fifth & Sixth Schedules: Provide special arrangements for administration of Scheduled and tribal areas.
Back2Basics: EMRS
Full form: Eklavya Model Residential Schools.
Nodal Ministry: Ministry of Tribal Affairs.
Implementing body: NESTS, National Education Society for Tribal Students.
Classes: 6 to 12.
Target: ST students in tribal-majority and remote areas.
Purpose: Quality residential education with cultural preservation.
Key Government Initiatives
Pre-Matric & Post-Matric Scholarships: Financial support for ST students.
National Fellowship and Scholarship for Higher Education of ST Students: Supports higher education.
PM-JANMAN: Pradhan Mantri Janjati Adivasi Nyaya Maha Abhiyan, focused on Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs).
Dharti Aaba Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan: Development of tribal villages.
Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojana: Umbrella framework for tribal development.
The Ministry of Rural Development, in collaboration with BRLPS-JEEVIKA, organised a two-day Regional Workshop to prepare a strategy and roadmap for achieving the national target of 6 Crore Lakhpati Didis.
Key Highlights
Objective: Formulate a Strategy, Roadmap, and Annual Action Plan (FY 2026–27) for creating 6 Crore Lakhpati Didis.
Organised by: Ministry of Rural Development with BRLPS-JEEVIKA at BIPARD, Gaya (Bihar).
Key Focus Areas:
Farm and non-farm livelihoods.
Enterprise promotion and value addition.
Digital Management Information System (MIS).
Market linkages and convergence.
Climate-resilient livelihoods.
Major Outcomes:
Strategy for sustainable income enhancement.
Greater use of digital platforms and data-driven planning.
Strengthening community institutions and SHGs.
MoU signed between BRLPS-JEEVIKA and Arunachal State Rural Livelihood Mission (ArSRLM) for knowledge sharing.
Milestone Achieved:3 Crore Lakhpati Didis; next target is 6 Crore.
About Lakhpati Didi Initiative
Launched under Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM).
Aims to enable women Self-Help Group (SHG) members to earn a sustainable annual household income of at least ₹1 lakh through diversified livelihood activities.
Focuses on financial inclusion, entrepreneurship, skill development, and market access.
[2023] Consider the following statements: 1. The Self-Help Group (SHG) programme was originally initiated by the State Bank of India by providing microcredit to the financially deprived. 2. In an SHG, all members of a group take responsibility for a loan that an individual member takes. 3. The Regional Rural Banks and Scheduled Commercial Banks support SHGs. How many of the above statements are correct?
CSIR organised ASPIRE-SHAKTI: Celebrating Women in STEM at its headquarters and released the ASPIRE-SHAKTI Compendium, highlighting the achievements of women researchers.
Key Highlights
CSIR: Council of Scientific & Industrial Research
DSIR: Department of Scientific & Industrial Research
STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics
CSIR-ASPIRE was launched on International Women’s Day 2023 to support women scientists as independent Principal Investigators (PIs).
Out of 2,878 proposals from 969 institutions, 301 women researchers were selected (~10% selection rate).
Research outcomes include:
253+ SCI-indexed publications
15+ patent filings
20+ international conference presentations
Training of 300+ research fellows.
Next phase will focus on:
Commercialisation of innovations
Industry and startup linkages
Technology translation
Greater participation from the North-East, Ladakh, and Tier-2/Tier-3 institutions.
About CSIR-ASPIRE
ASPIRE: A Special Call for Research Grants for Women Scientists
Implemented by CSIR-Human Resource Development Group (CSIR-HRDG).
Supports women researchers across Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, Chemical Sciences, Engineering Sciences, and Interdisciplinary Sciences.
Aims to promote women-led research, innovation, and scientific leadership.
[2018] Consider the following statements : Human capital formation as a concept is better explained in terms of a process which enables 1. individuals of a country to accumulate more capital. 2. increasing the knowledge, skill levels and capacities of the people of the country. 3. accumulation of tangible wealth. 4. accumulation of intangible wealth. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
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