Government Plan Programme Policies for UPSC Exam

:: UDAY (Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana) ::

Salient Features of UDAY

• States shall take over 75% of DISCOM debt as on 30 September 2015 over two years - 50% of DISCOM debt shall be taken over in 2015-16 and 25% in 2016-17.
• Government of India will not include the debt taken over by the States as per the above scheme in the calculation of fiscal deficit of respective States in the financial years 2015-16 and 2016-17.
• States will issue non-SLR including SDL bonds in the market or directly to the respective banks / Financial Institutions (FIs) holding the DISCOM debt to the appropriate extent.
• DISCOM debt not taken over by the State shall be converted by the Banks / FIs into loans or bonds with interest rate not more than the bank’s base rate plus 0.1%. Alternately, this debt may be fully or partly issued by the DISCOM as State guaranteed DISCOM bonds at the prevailing market rates which shall be equal to or less than bank base rate plus 0.1%.
• State DISCOMs will comply with the Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) outstanding since 1st April, 2012, within a period to be decided in consultation with Ministry of Power.
• States accepting UDAY and performing as per operational milestones will be given additional / priority funding through Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY),Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS), Power Sector Development Fund (PSDF) or other such schemes of Ministry of Power and Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.
• Such States shall also be supported with additional coal at notified prices and, in case of availability through higher capacity utilization, low cost power from NTPC and other Central Public Sector Undertakings (CPSUs).
• States not meeting operational milestones will be liable to forfeit their claim on IPDS and DDUGJY grants.
• UDAY is optional for all States. However, States are encouraged to take the benefit at the earliest as benefits are dependent on the performance.

GST (Goods and Services Tax): Important Topics for UPSC Exams​

What is GST?

• It is an indirect tax for the whole country on the lines of “One Nation one Tax” to make India a unified market.
• It is a single tax on supply of Goods and Services in its entire product cycle or life cycle i.e. from manufacturer to the consumer.
• It is calculated only in the “Value addition” at any stage of a goods or services.
• The final consumer will pay only his part of the tax and not the entire supply chain which was the case earlier.
• It has been established by the 101st constitutional amendment act and there is a provision of GST Council to decide upon any matter related to GST whose chairman in the finance minister of India.

What taxes at centre and state level are incorporated into the GST?

At the State Level:

• State Value Added Tax/Sales Tax
• Entertainment Tax(Other than the tax levied by the local bodies)
• Octroi and Entry Tax
• Purchase Tax
• Luxury Tax
• Taxes on lottery, betting and gambling

UPSC IAS Mains Model Question Cum Answer Booklet (QCAB) - "Public Administration Paper - II"  सिविल सेवा (मुख्य) परीक्षा मॉडल प्रश्न सह उत्तर पुस्तिका - लोक प्रशासन पेपर - II

Exam Name: UPSC IAS Mains

Subject: Public Administration Paper - II लोक प्रशासन पेपर - II

UPSC IAS Mains Model Question Cum Answer Booklet (QCAB) - "General Studies Paper-1"  सिविल सेवा (मुख्य) परीक्षा मॉडल प्रश्न सह उत्तर पुस्तिका - सामान्य अध्ययन पेपर - I

Exam Name: UPSC IAS Mains

Subject: General Studies Paper-1 सामान्य अध्ययन पेपर - I

Government Plan Programme Policies for UPSC Exam

:: UJALA Scheme ::

UJALA’ for the LED based Domestic Efficient Lighting Programme (DELP), which is currently running successfully in over 120 cities across India. UJALA, an acronym for Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All, is being implemented by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL).

The National LED programme was launched by the Hon’ble Prime Minister on January 2015 with a target of replacing 77 crore incandescent lamps with LED bulbs. UJALA is successfully running across 12 states in India namely Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Puducherry, Jharkhand, Bihar and Uttarakhand. While more states are expected to join the initiative very soon.

EESL has already distributed over 7.47 crore LED bulbs across the country resulting in energy savings of more than 2.66 crore kWh every day and has helped avoid peak demand of over 1944 MW. This has helped in reduction of over 21,550 tonnes of CO2 per day which is estimated to have a cost savings of Rs 10.64 crore per day.