List of top government schemes important for GK

Important for all SSC, RRB, RRC, PSU, Banks, UGC NET, MBA, State government exams, AFCAT, NIFT, CLAT, etc.

Objectives of the Union Government Schemes in India

There are several different schemes launched by the different Ministries of the Union Government. Each scheme has its own set of objectives. But the main objective of these schemes is to provide social, financial and economic welfare to the citizens of India. The general objectives of the social-economic and financial schemes are –

• Provide social security measures such as pensions, insurance, maternity benefits, housing etc.
• To improve the quality of the life of the people.
• Upliftment of the poor.
• Development of rural and backward areas.
• Reducing the economic inequality between different sections of society.
• Empower women for their better participation in society.
• To provide employment opportunities.
• To provide education and training to the weaker sections of the society.
• To provide financial security to the vulnerable sections of society.
• To provide financial assistance to women, small businesses and weaker sections of society.

Atal Pension Yojana

Atal Pension Yojana (APY) addresses the old age income security of the working poor and the longevity risks among the workers in unorganised sector. It encourages the workers in unorganised sector to voluntarily save for their retirement. The Government had launched the scheme with effect from 1st June, 2015. The scheme replaces the Swavalamban Yojana / NPS Lite scheme.

Benefits of APY

• Fixed pension for the subscribers ranging between Rs.1000 to Rs. 5000, if s/he joins and contributes between the age of 18 years and 40 years. The contribution levels would vary and would be low if subscriber joins early and increase if s/he joins late.
• The same pension is payable to Spouse after death of Subscriber.
• Return of indicative pension wealth to nominees after death of spouse.
• Contributions to the Atal Pension Yojana (APY) is eligible for tax benefits similar to the National Pension System (NPS). The tax benefits include the additional deduction of Rs 50,000 under section 80CCD(1).

Eligibility for APY

Atal Pension Yojana (APY) is open to all bank account holders who are not members of any statutory social security scheme.

Any individual who is eligible to receive benefits under the APY will have to furnish proof of possession of Aadhaar number or undergo enrolment under Aadhaar authentication. An APY subscriber will have to get the Aadhaar number recorded in his or her APY pension account and also in his/ her savings account where the periodic pension contribution instalments are debited and government co-contribution is to be credited.

Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana

Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) is a flagship scheme of Government of India to “fund the unfunded” by bringing such enterprises to the formal financial system and extending affordable credit to them. It enables a small borrower to borrow from all Public Sector Banks such as PSU Banks, Regional Rural Banks and Cooperative Banks, Private Sector Banks, Foreign Banks, Micro Finance Institutions (MFI) and Non Banking Finance Companies (NBFC) for loans upto Rs 10 lakhs for non-farm income generating activities. The scheme was launched on 8th April, 2015 by the Hon’ble Prime Minister.

Eligibility

Any Indian Citizen who has a business plan for a non-farm sector income generating activity such as manufacturing, processing, trading or service sector and whose credit need is less than Rs 10 lakh can approach either a Bank, MFI, or NBFC for availing of Micro Units Development & Refinance Agency Ltd. (MUDRA) loans under Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY).

Types of loans provided

Under the aegis of Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana, MUDRA has already created the following products / schemes.

• Shishu : covering loans upto 50,000/-
• Kishor : covering loans above 50,000/- and upto 5 lakh
• Tarun : covering loans above 5 lakh and upto 10 lakh

The interventions have been named ‘Shishu’, ‘Kishor’ and ‘Tarun’ to signify the stage of growth / development and funding needs of the beneficiary micro unit / entrepreneur and also provide a reference point for the next phase of graduation / growth to look forward to. It would be ensured that at least 60% of the credit flows to Shishu Category Units and the balance to Kishor and Tarun Categories.

Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Housing for All – Urban)

The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) Programme launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (MoHUPA), in Mission mode envisions provision of Housing for All by 2022, when the Nation completes 75 years of its Independence. The Mission seeks to address the housing requirement of urban poor including slum dwellers through following programme verticals:

• Slum rehabilitation of Slum Dwellers with participation of private developers using land as a resource
• Promotion of Affordable Housing for weaker section through credit linked subsidy
• Affordable Housing in Partnership with Public & Private sectors
• Subsidy for beneficiary-led individual house construction /enhancement.

Beneficiaries

• The mission seeks to address the housing requirement of urban poor including slum dwellers. A slum is defined as a compact area of at least 300 people or about 60 – 70 households of poorly built congested tenements in unhygienic environment usually with inadequate infrastructure and lacking in proper sanitary and drinking water facilities.
• Beneficiaries include Economically weaker section (EWS), low-income groups (LIGs) and Middle Income Groups (MIGs). The annual income cap is up to Rs 3 lakh for EWS, Rs 3-6 lakh for LIG and Rs 6 + -18 lakhs for MIG. EWS category of beneficiaries is eligible for assistance in all four verticals of the Missions whereas LIG and MIG categories are eligible under only Credit linked subsidy scheme (CLSS) component of the Mission.
• For identification as a EWS or LIG beneficiary under the scheme, an individual loan applicant will submit self-certificate/ affidavit as proof of income.
• A beneficiary family will comprise husband, wife, unmarried sons and/or unmarried daughters.
• The beneficiary family should not own a pucca house either in his/her name or in the name of any member of his/her family in any part of India to be eligible to receive central assistance under the mission.
• States/UTs, at their discretion, may decide a cut-off date on which beneficiaries need to be resident of that urban area for being eligible to take benefits under the scheme.

At the slum decadal growth rate of 34%, the slum households are projected to go upto 18 million. 2 million non-slum urban poor households are proposed to be covered under the Mission. Hence, total housing shortage envisaged to be addressed through the new mission is 20 million.

Scope

• “Housing for All” Mission for urban area is being implemented during 2015-2022 and this Mission will provide central assistance to implementing agencies through States and UTs for providing houses to all eligible families/beneficiaries by 2022.
• Mission will be implemented as Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) except for the component of credit linked subsidy which will be implemented as a Central Sector Scheme.

Atal Pension Yojana (APY)

Atal Pension Yojana (APY) addresses the old age income security of the working poor and the longevity risks among the workers in unorganised sector. It encourages the workers in unorganised sector to voluntarily save for their retirement. The Government had launched the scheme with effect from 1st June, 2015. The scheme replaces the Swavalamban Yojana / NPS Lite scheme.

Benefits of APY

• Fixed pension for the subscribers ranging between Rs.1000 to Rs. 5000, if s/he joins and contributes between the age of 18 years and 40 years. The contribution levels would vary and would be low if subscriber joins early and increase if s/he joins late.
• The same pension is payable to Spouse after death of Subscriber.
• Return of indicative pension wealth to nominees after death of spouse.
• Contributions to the Atal Pension Yojana (APY) is eligible for tax benefits similar to the National Pension System (NPS). The tax benefits include the additional deduction of Rs 50,000 under section 80CCD(1).

Eligibility for APY

Atal Pension Yojana (APY) is open to all bank account holders who are not members of any statutory social security scheme.

Any individual who is eligible to receive benefits under the APY will have to furnish proof of possession of Aadhaar number or undergo enrolment under Aadhaar authentication. An APY subscriber will have to get the Aadhaar number recorded in his or her APY pension account and also in his/ her savings account where the periodic pension contribution instalments are debited and government co-contribution is to be credited.

Age of joining and contribution period

The minimum age of joining APY is 18 years and maximum age is 40 years. Therefore, minimum period of contribution by the subscriber under APY would be 20 years or more.

Focus of APY

Mainly targeted at unorganised sector workers.

Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana

Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana is a scheme of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas for providing LPG connections to women from Below Poverty Line (BPL) households. In India, the poor have limited access to cooking gas (LPG). The spread of LPG cylinders has been predominantly in the urban and semi-urban areas with the coverage mostly in middle class and affluent households. But there are serious health hazards associated with cooking based on fossil fuels. According to WHO estimates, about 5 lakh deaths in India alone due to unclean cooking fuels. Most of these premature deaths were due to non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer. Indoor air pollution is also responsible for a significant number of acute respiratory illnesses in young children. According to experts, having an open fire in the kitchen is like burning 400 cigarettes an hour.

Providing LPG connections to BPL households will ensure universal coverage of cooking gas in the country. This measure will empower women and protect their health. It will reduce drudgery and the time spent on cooking. It will also provide employment for rural youth in the supply chain of cooking gas.

Target beneficiaries

Under the scheme, an adult woman belonging to a poor family not having LPG connection in her household, is an eligible beneficiary under the expanded scheme.

Release of LPG connection under this Scheme shall be in the name of the women belonging to the BPL family.

Initially, the Government covered the following categories under the Scheme :-

1. Beneficiaries listed in the SECC 2011 list
2. All SC/STs households beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana(PMAY) (Gramin)
3. Antyoday Anna Yojana (AAY)
4. Forest dwellers
5. Most Backward Classes (MBC)
6. Tea & Ex-Tea Garden Tribes
7. People residing in Islands
8. People residing in river islands.

Benefits to the citizens

Under the scheme, five crore LPG connections are to be provided to BPL households. The Scheme provides a financial support of Rs 1600 for each LPG connection to the BPL households, interest free loan to purchase stove and refill by Oil Marketing Companies. The administrative cost of Rs. 1600 per connection, which includes a cylinder, pressure regulator, booklet, safety hose, etc. would be borne by the Government.

UJALA programme

Unnat Jeevan By Affordable LEDs And Appliances For All . An ordinary bulb is an extremely energy inefficient form of lighting with just 5% of the electricity input converted to light.  Efficient light bulbs like Light-emitting Diode (LEDs) consumes only one-tenth of energy used by ordinary bulb to provide the same or better light output. However, high cost of LEDs has been a barrier in adoption of such efficient lighting systems. The DELP on-bill financing scheme proposes to overcome this cost barrier. The scheme is being named “UJALA” – an acronym for Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All.

Under the scheme, 20W LED tube lights and BEE 5-star rated energy efficient fans are also distributed to the consumers. The 20W LED tube lights are 50% more energy efficient than conventional 40W tube lights and are available for Rs. 220/- per tube, as against the market price of Rs. 400-600. The energy efficient fans under the UJALA scheme come with a BEE 5 Star rating. These ceiling fans are rated 30% more energy efficient than conventional fans and are priced at Rs. 1200/- per fan.

Objectives

The main objective is to promote efficient lighting, enhance awareness on using efficient equipment which reduce electricity bills and help preserve environment.

Overall targets

UJALA LED bulbs

• Overall target of number of LED lights to be replaced in 3 years – 770 million
• Expected annual energy savings – 105 bn KWh
• Expected reduction of peak load – 20,000 MW
• Annual estimated greenhouse gas emission reductions –  79 million tonnes of CO₂

Implementation agencies

The Electricity Distribution Company and Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) a public sector body of Government of India are implementing the programme.

Ayushman Bharat–PM Jan Arogya Yojana

Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme having central sector component under Ayushman Bharat Mission anchored in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW). It is an umbrella of two major health initiatives, namely Health and wellness Centres and National  Health Protection Scheme.

Health and Wellness Centres

Under this 1.5 lakh existing sub centres will bring health care system closer to the homes of people in the form of Health and wellness centres. These centres will provide comprehensive health care, including for non-communicable diseases and maternal and child health services.

List of Services to be provided at Health & Wellness Centre

• Pregnancy care and maternal health services
• Neonatal and infant health services
• Child health
• Chronic communicable diseases
• Non-communicable diseases
• Management of mental illness
• Dental care
• Eye care
• Geriatric care Emergency medicine

National Health Protection Mission (AB-PMJAY)

Benefits

• AB-PMJAY provides a defined benefit cover of Rs. 5 lakh per family per year. This cover will take care of almost all secondary care and most of tertiary care procedures.
• To ensure that nobody is left out (especially women, children and elderly) there will be no cap on family size and age in the scheme.
• The benefit cover will also include pre and post-hospitalisation expenses. All pre-existing conditions will be covered from day one of the policy. A defined transport allowance per hospitalization will also be paid to the beneficiary.
• Benefits of the scheme are portable across the country and a beneficiary covered under the scheme will be allowed to take cashless benefits from any public/private empanelled hospitals across the country.

Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana

The new Crop Insurance Scheme is in line with One Nation – One Scheme theme.  It incorporates the best features of all previous schemes and at the same time, all previous shortcomings / weaknesses have been removed. The PMFBY will replace the existing two schemes National Agricultural Insurance Scheme as well as the Modified NAIS.

1. To provide insurance coverage and financial support to the farmers in the event of failure of any of the notified crop as a result of natural calamities, pests & diseases.
2. To stabilise the income of farmers to ensure their continuance in farming.
3. To encourage farmers to adopt innovative and modern agricultural practices.
4. To ensure flow of credit to the agriculture sector.

Highlights of the scheme

• There will be a uniform premium of only 2% to be paid by farmers for all Kharif crops and 1.5% for all Rabi crops. In case of annual commercial and horticultural crops, the premium to be paid by farmers will be only 5%. The premium rates to be paid by farmers are very low and balance premium will be paid by the Government to provide full insured amount to the farmers against crop loss on account of natural calamities.
• There is no upper limit on Government subsidy. Even if balance premium is 90%, it will be borne by the Government.
• Earlier, there was a provision of capping the premium rate which resulted in low claims being paid to farmers. This capping was done to limit Government outgo on the premium subsidy. This capping has now been removed and farmers will get claim against full sum insured without any reduction.

ASPIRE

A Scheme for Promotion of Innovation, Rural Industries and Entrepreneurship (ASPIRE) is an initiative of Government of India and promoted by the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME). It was launched to set up incubation centres and network of technology centres for enhancing entrepreneurship across India. It seeks to promote start-ups for innovation in the agro-industry.

In India, the majority of the population is dependent on the agriculture industry even to this day. The Government introduced many schemes with innovative initiatives, yet poverty and unemployment problems prevail across the country. To curb this, the Government launched this scheme to generate employment and set up enterprises in the agriculture industry.

Objectives of ASPIRE

The objectives of ASPIRE are:

• Creation of new jobs and reducing unemployment
• Grassroots economic development at the district level
• Promoting entrepreneurship culture in India
• Facilitating innovative business solutions for meeting the social needs of the people
• Promoting innovation for further strengthening the competitiveness in the MSME sector

Scope Of ASPIRE

The assistance provided under this scheme is used for the following purposes:

• Automation of agricultural practices and related activities.
• Addition of value for agriculture and forest produce.
• Recycling of agricultural pre/post-harvest wastages, animal husbandry, off-farm but linked to farm activities, etc.
• Business models for value addition and aggregation relevant for rural areas, for social impact and the generation of local employment in rural areas.

Eligibility For ASPIRE

The following are eligible for obtaining the benefits under ASPIRE-

• Any entrepreneur who intends to set up start-ups.
• Any technical/university/research institutes including those in the field of rural and agro-based industry.
• All MSMEs with Entrepreneurs Memorandum Registration.
• Any institute/agency under the Government of India or any State Government in the field of technology, business management, rural development and entrepreneur development or any body corporate under Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode can set up Livelihood Business Incubation (LBI).
• Any existing incubation centres operating under different Ministries and Departments of Government of India and institutions which include National/Regional level institutions of Government of India or any State Government for setting up centres dedicated to incubation and enterprise creation in the area of agro-based industries.
• Any new incubation centres to be set up by eligible private institutions including industry associations along with academic institutions, universities, government entities, R&D laboratories and technology parks.

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