This Commission will be headed by Shri. N.K.Singh, former Member of Parliament and former Secretary to the Government of India. Shri Shaktikanta Das, former Secretary to the Government of India and Dr. Anoop Singh, Adjunct Professor, Georgetown University shall be the members of the Commission.  Dr. Ashok Lahiri, Chairman (Non-executive, part time), Bandhan Bank and Dr. Ramesh Chand, Member, NITI Aayog shall be the Part time members of the Commission. Shri Arvind Mehta shall be the Secretary to the Commission.

The Terms of Reference of the Commission has been issued vide notification Number S.O.3755(E). dated 27^thNovember, 2017.

http://www.egazette.nic.in/WriteReadData/2017/180483.pdf 

The post Constitution of Fifteenth Finance Commission Notified  appeared first on FactsToday.

The Project will support the Government of Assam to facilitate agri-business investments, increase agricultural productivity and market access, and enable small farm holders to produce crops that are resilient to recurrent floods or droughts in the state.

The Agreement for the Project was signed by Mr. Sameer Kumar Khare, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, on behalf of the Government of India; Mr. Ravi Kota, Principal Secretary, Finance, Government of Assam, on behalf of the Government of Assam; and Mr. Hisham Abdo, Operations Manager, World Bank India, on behalf of the World Bank.

After the Agreement, Mr Khare, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance said that Assam is simplifying several regulatory procedures related to doing business, agricultural marketing, and fisheries amongst others. He said that the project will help the State increase agricultural productivity by strengthening the farming systems, raise private sector investments to promote agri-enterprises which will create better job opportunities for the youth in the State.

The Project will be implemented in over 16 Districts of Assam. Over 500,000 farming households will directly benefit from the Project. At least 30 percent women are expected to participate in project activities. Specific focus will be given to women-led enterprises and their participation in the decision-making process of farmer producer organizations.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Hisham Abdo, Operations Manager, World Bank said that the Government of Assam aims to double farm incomes in the State and transform the agricultural sector into a stable source of growth and economic development. He said that this project will serve as the nucleus to fulfill the State’s much larger vision of an agriculture-based rural transformation.

The focus on geographic clustering of the production base for certain commodities will help agri-enterprises take advantage of existing and future market opportunities that they may not necessarily achieve alone. The cluster approach will allow for combining efforts, making use of synergies, and pooling resources to increase the competitive advantage of these products, while at the same time share the risks involved in introducing improved products or entering previously untapped markets. Successful clusters will also continuously innovate and adapt ‘best practices’ across agricultural value chains.

Mr. Manivannan Pathy, Senior Agricultural Specialist and World Bank’s Team Leader for the Project said that the value addition and market-led production systems supported through the project are expected to play a vital role in enhancing the competitiveness of the agriculture sector. He said that this will be done by facilitating policy reforms, fostering private-public dialogue and catalyzing a wider private sector development in the agribusiness ecosystem of Gover.

Another key component of the project will be to promote market-led production that can deal with the vagaries of climate change. Assam’s agriculture sector is highly vulnerable to climate variability and the state experiences recurrent floods and droughts. Currently, more than 50 percent of the paddy growing areas are prone to flooding, submergence, and drought. A market-led production system will take advantage of the rapidly changing market, introduce crops that are resilient to climate change, increase production and manage risks for farmers.

The $200 million loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), has a 7-year grace period, and a maturity of 16.5 years.

The post The Government of India and World Bank sign $200 Million Loan Agreement for the Assam appeared first on FactsToday.

To enable institutional and retail investors to plan their investments efficiently and provide transparency and stability to the Government securities market, an indicative calendar for issuance of Government dated securities for the second half of the fiscal year 2017-18 (October 01, 2017 to March 31, 2018) is being issued in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India. The issuance calendar is as under:

As hitherto, all the auctions covered by the calendar will have the facility of non-competitive bidding scheme under which five per cent of the notified amount will be reserved for the specified retail investors.

Like in the past, the Government of India/ Reserve Bank of India will continue to have the flexibility to bring about modifications in the above calendar in terms of notified amount, issuance period, maturities etc. and to issue different types of instruments including instruments having non-standard maturity and floating rate instruments, depending upon the requirement of the Government of India, evolving market conditions and other relevant factors after giving due notice.

Government of India/ Reserve Bank reserves the right to exercise the green-shoe option of upto
` 1000 crore in each maturity bucket, which will be indicated in the auction notification. However, such green-shoe option will be within the notified amount.

The post Issuance Calendar for Marketable Dated Securities appeared first on FactsToday.

This follows the decision by the Government to provide cash benefits to pregnant and lactating mothers under the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana, and is part of an intensive effort to improve the nutritional status of women and children.

The revised Supplementary Nutrition cost norms for the beneficiaries of Anganwadi Services and for Adolescent Girls (11-14 years out of school) under the Umbrella ICDS Scheme, as approved by the Government are as under:

The revision of cost norms for SN for beneficiaries of Aanganwadi Services would cost additional expenditure of Rs.9,900 crore and for beneficiaries of Adolescent Girls, it would cost Rs.2,267.18 crore as GoI share for a period from 2017-18 to 2019-20.

The revision in the cost norms of SN for the beneficiaries of Anganwadi Services and Adolescent Girls would impact the health and nutritional status of about 11 crore beneficiaries per annum.

The post Cabinet approves increase of cost norms for Supplementary Nutrition provided in Anganwadis and in the Scheme for Adolescent Girls appeared first on FactsToday.