Cabinet
Making Aadhaar people friendly

No individual to be compelled to provide proof of Aadhaar number unless provided by law

Aadhaar number on voluntary basis to be accepted as KYC document

Cabinet approves The Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2019

12 JUN 2019

In a major move aimed at making Aadhaar making people friendly, the Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved “The Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2019” to replace the Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Ordinance, 2019. The amendments proposed are the same as those contained in the Ordinance promulgated by President on 2nd March, 2019. The Bill will be introduced in ensuing session of Parliament.

The decision is expected to go a long way in meeting the people friendly and citizen centric nature of Aadhaar.

Impact:

The decision would enable UIDAI to have a more robust mechanism to serve the public interest and restrain the misuse of Aadhar.
Subsequent to this amendment, no individual shall be compelled to provide proof of possession of Aadhaar number or undergo authentication for the purpose of establishing his identity unless it is so provided by a law made by Parliament.

For the convenience of general public in opening of bank accounts, the proposed amendments would allow the use of Aadhaar number for authentication on voluntary basis as acceptable KYC document under the Telegraph Act, 1885 and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.
Details:

The salient features of the amendments are as follows :

• Provides for voluntary use of Aadhaar number in physical or electronic form by authentication or offline verification with the consent of Aadhaar number holder;
• Provides for use of twelve-digit Aadhaar number and its alternative virtual identity to conceal the actual Aadhaar number of an individual;
• Gives an option to children who are Aadhaar number holders to cancel their Aadhaar number on attaining the age of eighteen years;
• Permits the entities to perform authentication only when they are compliant with the standards of privacy and security specified by the Authority; and the authentication is permitted under any law made by Parliament or is prescribed to be in the interest of State by the Central Government;
• Allows the use of Aadhaar number for authentication on voluntary basis as acceptable KYC document under the Telegraph Act, 1885 and the Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002;
• Proposes deletion of section 57 of the Aadhaar Act relating to use of Aadhaar by private entities;
• Prevents denial of services for refusing to, or being unable to, undergo authentication;
• Provides for establishment of Unique Identification Authority of India Fund;
• Provides for civil penalties, its adjudication, appeal thereof in regard to violations of Aadhaar Act and provisions by entities in the Aadhaar ecosystem.

Background:

The Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Ordinance, 2019 was considered by the Cabinet in its meeting held on 28th February, 2019 and the Ordinance was promulgated by the President on 2nd March, 2019.

The Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Ordinance, 2019 amongst other things envisaged strengthening of the Aadhaar Act as per the directions of the Supreme Court and recommendations of Justice B.N.Srikrishna(Retd) Committee.

PIB

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Most of the central government department websites lack in suo-motu disclosure of public information under a mandatory provision of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, according to an official report released Tuesday.

It said the ultimate objective of transparency by them can be performed only by the government who control all supply side of information.

Transparency watchdog Central Information Commission (CIC) has undertaken an evaluation to ascertain the quality of suo-motu disclosures under Section 4 of the RTI Act made by various public authorities.

The evaluation was conducted by a committee comprising A N Tiwari, former Chief Information Commissioner, and M M Ansari, former Information Commissioner.

The committee evolved an evaluation format and requested all public authorities to fill it up.

Out of 2,092 public authorities registered with the commission, feedback was received from 838.

“It has been found that out of 838 public authorities, 158 public authorities got grade A, 157 public authorities got grade B, 118 public authorities got grade C, 133 public authorities got grade D and 272 public authorities got grade E,” the report said.

The departments getting 90-100 per cent score in the evaluation got grade A, those getting 80-89 per cent were put in grade B, 70-79 per cent in grade C, 60-69 in grade D and below 60 per cent in grade E.

“We have been at pains to point out in our report that while the audit of the websites of the public authorities is a necessary step in the direction of ushering in greater transparency in the functioning of the state instrumentalities, the ultimate objective still remains the embrace of transparency by them as central to governance,” the report said.

This task can be performed only by the government who control all supply side of information, it said.

“It is our hope that the initiative taken by the Central Information Commission to evaluate disclosure standards on websites of public authorities shall usher in the change which the RTI Act enjoins. We repeat that institutional transparency is the final frontier of the Right to Information movement,” the report said.

Mentioning its major findings, the CIC report said missing information largely relates to “policy on transfer and posting of senior officers deployed at important and sensitive places; details of domestic and foreign visits undertaken by the senior officials and sources and methods of funding political parties or identification of donors”, among others.

The report has been accepted by the Central Information Commission, subject to any observations that may now be received by the commission from the public authorities.

PTI

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#CG Employees Memes  #Central Government Employees Memes #DA  #Dearness  Allowance #Central Government Employees

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F.No. F-20016/04/2016-E-111
Ministry of Commerce and Industry
Department of Commerce
E.III Section

Udyog Bhawan, New Delhi-110107
Dated: 23/25.05.2017

OFFICE MEMORANDUM

Sub: Extension of 7th CPC benefits and grant of Dearness Relief to Pensioners of Autonomous/Statutory bodies under Administrative Control of Department of Commerce.

The undersigned is directed to refer to e-mail dated 14th May, 2017 (copy enclosed) received from Pensioners Associations of Statutory/Autonomous Bodies of Central Government on the above subject and to say that the 7th CPC orders issued by Department of Pension and Pensioners Welfare are not applicable to the pensioners of Autonomous/Statutory bodies.

The concerned administrative Divisions dealing with Autonomous/Statutory bodies under Department of Commerce are, therefore, requested to take necessary action accordingly.

S/d,
(Amitabh Dwivedi)
Deputy Secretary

Source  : Confederation

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No. 57/112016-P&PW(B)
Government of India
Ministry of Personnel, PG and Pensions
Department of Pension and Pensioners Welfare

3rd Floor, Lok Nayak Bhawan,
Khan Market, New Delhi
Dated the 16th January, 2017

Notice

Subject: Measures for streamlining the implementation of the National Pension System for Central Government employees- reg.

A Committee has been constituted to suggest measures for streamlining the implementation of the National Pension System for Central Government employees. Accordingly, suggestions / views are invited for streamlining the implementation of the National Pension System for Central Government employees for may be sent through s.chakrabarti75@gov.in

(Harjit Singh)
Director (Pension Policy)

Source: http://www.pensionersportal.gov.in/

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The Government has asked all the pensioners and family pensioners to furnish their Life Certificate in prescribed pro-forma in the month of November every year to their respective banks.

The pensioners should indicate their present address, telephone numbers (including mobile number) and email ID (if available) on their respective Life Certificates in order to enable the Banks to provide them (pensioners) better services.

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New Delhi: Ahead of the festival season, the government is likely to give an ad-hoc bonus of up to Rs 3,500 to Group C central government employees and personnel of the armed and para military forces.

The government may sanction grant of non-productivity linked bonus (ad-hoc bonus) equivalent to 30 days emoluments for the accounting year 2015-16 to the central government employees (Group C) and the notification in this regad will be issued next week, a senior official of Finance Ministry said.

“Since the election code of conduct for Bihar Assembly polls is in force, but announcement of bonus a routine administrative matter for which permission of the Election Commission not required to go ahead with,” he added.

“The limit for bonus is Rs 3,500,and the bonus will also be given to all non-gazetted employees in Group B, who are not covered by any productivity- linked bonus scheme,” he also told us.

The payment will also be admissible to the central Police and para-military personnel and personnel of armed forces.

Employees of the Union Territory Administration, which follows the central government pattern of emoluments and not covered by any other bonus or ex-gratia scheme would also be eligible for this ad-hoc bonus.

The expenditure incurred on this account will be debitable to the respective heads to which the pay and allowances of these employees are debited, the Finance Ministry official said.

TST

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To
All Central Trade Unions

The above letter was attached with NFIR’s undermentioned correspondence:-

No.IV/NFIR/INTUC/Corres/Part. I
Dated: 28/05/2015

The General Secretaries of
Affiliated Unions of NFIR

Sub: 10 (+2) Points Charter of Demands of CentraI Trade Unions-reg.

The Government has constituted the Inter Ministerial Committee to hold threadbare discussions with representatives of Central Trade Unions on Charter of Demands and other issues:-

The Inter Ministerial Committee consists of the following:-
1. Shri Arun Jaitley, Finance Minster,
2. Shri Bandaru Dattatreya. Minister ofState (I/C) Labour & Employment,
3. Shri Dharmendra Pradhani Ministerial of State (I/C) for Petroleum & Natural Gas.
4. Shri Piyush Goel, Minister of State (I/C) for Power,
5. Dr. .Jitendra Singh, Minister of State in the Prime Minister Office.

The above is for information and necessary action.

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Mechanism to Control Call-Drop to be Explored

Nation-Wide Mobile Portability by July

FDI in Telecom Reaches Highest in Four Year

Wi-Fi Hotspots at all Major Tourist Places -Taj to be Inaugurated Shortly

Following is the opening statement of Sh. Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister of Communication & IT at the press conference on one year performance.

Ministry of Communications & IT was in the news in the past unfortunately for the wrong reasons for a variety of factors. After the new Government took over, it was important to create optimism and confidence to generate hope for growth. This, in return, required transparency, good governance and faster decision-making. By the collective effort of all, we can say with assurance that all these elements have become integral to decision making and policy formulation which has created a conducive atmosphere for investment and growth. Some of the key elements of these achievements are being enumerated hereunder.

DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

• Highest ever auction proceeds of Rs. 1,09,874 crore, against the approved reserve price of Rs 80,277 crores. This could be achieved because of good governance practices, identification of Defence Band and release of Spectrum from Defence Ministry, which has been pending for more than six years.
• Crossed 100 crore telephone connections in April 2015, the fastest increase in the last 11 months as compared to the previous three years raising national teledensity to 79.85 as against 75.23 in March 2014, 73.32 in March 2013 and 78.6 in March 2012.
• Rural teledensity grew to 48.90%, an increase of 4.57% in the last 11 months. the highest increase in the last three years (43.18 in March 2014, 41.6 in March 2013 and 39 in March 2012)
• The number of broadband connections, i.e. connections with a speed of 512 kbps or higher, increased from 65.33 million in May 2014 to 99.20 million in March 2015 with unprecedented growth of 52% in the last 10 months.
• Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflow in the telecom sector touched $ 2853 million in 2014-15 (upto February 2015). It was the highest in the last four years ($1307 million in 2013-14, $304 million in 2012-13, $1997 million in 2011-12 and $1665 million in 2010-11).

Initiatives to revive BSNL and MTNL

• BSNL revenue grew by 2.1% in 2014-15reversing the trend of negative growth in previous years.
• BSNL added 47 lakh active subscribers and MTNL added 2.11 lakh subscribers in 2014-15 reversing the trend of negative growth in previous years.
• BSNL is in the process of setting up 25645 new base transceiver stations (BTSs) in Phase-VII of its expansion plan at a cost of Rs 4,805 crore, its first such investment plan in over five years. 15000 such BTSs installed in the last one year.
• BSNL replacing network of landline local exchanges by IP (Internet Protocol) enabled Next Generation Network. 432 telephone exchanges and 70 lakh telephone lines are being replaced.
• MTNL is setting up / upgrading 1080 3G sites in Delhi and Mumbai each and 850 2G sites in Delhi and 616 2G sites in Mumbai.
• BSNL and MTNL have launched unlimited free local calls from landlines to any landline/mobile during night hours effective from May 1, 2015.
• BSNL is launching free national roaming.
• Hundred (100) WiFi hotspots at important tourist locations like Varanasi Ghats, Hussain Sagar Lake-Hyderabad, Bangalore, Cochin, Vijayawada etc. have been established by BSNL.

Other important initiatives

• Full Mobile Number Portability (FMNP) notified to allow subscribers to retain their mobile number across the country and enable linking the mobile to Aadhar completing the JAM (Jan Dhan-Aadhar-Mobile) trinity of unique identity.
• Bharat Net (National Optical Fibre Network – NOFN ) is the largest rural connectivity project of its kind in the world, seeking to link each of the 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats of the country, through a Broadband Optical Fibre Network. The work of laying optical fibre network has been speeded up (by 30 times) in the last 10 months. To make the entire project more effective in tune with the Digital India programme, a committee was constituted for further improvement and speedy implementation to serve the larger purpose of Broadband to all. Conference of State IT Ministers was held to discuss the report of committee. Many State governments have agreed in principle to effectively collaborate in implementation of Bharat Net.

DEPARTMENT OF POSTS

• Post offices modernized with 2590 Post Offices having 14.55 crore accounts migrated to Core Banking Solution and 115 Post Office ATMs commissioned.
• 13264 Post Offices have been migrated to Core Postal Life Insurance.
• Procurement of biometric solar charged mobile devices with wireless connectivity to 1,30,000 rural Post Offices is presently underway.
• Sukanya Samridhi Yojana launched on January 22, 2015, has now more than 47 lakh accounts with a total investment of more than Rs 570 crores.
• Kisan Vikas Patra re-launched on November 18, 2014 has attracted investment of about Rs 2600 crore.
• Speed Post revenue grew to Rs 1470 crore in 2014-15 from Rs 1369 crore in the previous year. In CAG report laid in Parliament on May 8, 2015, on the basis of a detailed test check in 8 States, it has been highlighted that the quality of Speed Post service is far better than that of private couriers.
• Parcel revenue growth which had dipped to-2% in 2013-14, registered a robust growth of 37% in 2014-15.
• Cash on Delivery collections increased five times to reach Rs 500 crore in 2014-15 as compared to Rs 100 crore in the previous year.

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS & IT

Electronics Manufacturing:

• Modified Special Incentive Package (MSIPs): Till May 2015, 63 investment proposals worth Rs. 20,825 crore received. 40 proposals worth Rs. 9,565 crore approved. Till May 2014, only 8 proposals worth Rs. 1152 crore investment were approved.
• Electronic Manufacturing Clusters (EMCs): Till May 2015, 39 applications received, 21 approved in principle. Two EMCs at Bhopal and Jabalpur given final approval and foundation stone laid. Till May 2014, only 8 applications approved in principle.
• Electronic Development Fund approved by Cabinet on 10th December, 2014.

New pro-people initiatives:

• Digital India is a mission mode flagship programme, aimed at bridging the digital divide by providing a digital infrastructure for utility of citizens, digital delivery of services and digital empowerment.
• Jeevan Pramaan: 2.02 lakh Digital Life Certificates produced.
  · Digital Locker: Beta version launched. 1.24 lakh lockers opened.
• E-Hospital Registration: Started on May 8, 2015. More than 5421 appointments given.
• National Scholarship Portal for one stop solutions for scholarships for students.
• eBasta: Supports publishers to upload content, schools to collate and students to download on tablet, PC and Phone.

Digital Inclusion:

• Rural BPOs: 48,000 seats across different states for Rural BPOs approved.
• North East BPOs: 5000 seats for BPOs in North East approved.
• Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (DISA): scheme expanded to cover 52.50 lakh candidates, when compared to a target of only 10 lakh last year.

New Policy Initiatives:

• Policy on Open Source Software approved in April, 2015.
• Policy on Collaborative Application Development sent for notification on 11.05.2015.
• Email Policy approved on 18th February, 2015.
• e-Sign Framework has been initiated.
• Policy on use of IT resources approved on 18th February, 2015.
• Policy on Internet of Things has been drafted.

Promoting Indian Languages:

• Updated Indian Languages Toolkit available in all 22 languages now. Earlier it was available only for 10 languages.
• Internationalised Domain Names: Domain name .bharat launched in 8 languages of Devnagari script and in Gujarati, Bengali and Manipuri.

PIB

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Representatives of the Central Public Works Department’s (CPWD) Central Engineering Service Group ‘A’ association, on Thursday, approached the Seventh Central Pay Commission.

They demanded that Group ‘A’ engineers be treated at par, in terms of pay scale and career progression, with IAS officers.

The association has also demanded that they be given an additional 25 per cent of their basic pay as “non-practicing allowance”.

It has also asked that engineers be imparted at least a two-year international training exposure, just as it is done for IAS officers.

Representatives of the Indian Telecom Services and the Central Power Engineering Services too made their submissions before the commission.

In a written submission, the association says, “The engineering fraternity has been denied their due importance in government jobs… The career progression of engineers joining the engineering services is very slow.”

It further stated, “Most of the members of the engineering services more often report to the officers of other services who are much junior in terms of year of joining. These officers recruited through engineering services also end up drawing lesser pay and perks as compared to their counter parts in civil services.”

Reportedly, the fifth pay commission had recommended that all organised group ‘A’ services — including those of the engineering services — should have a model cadre structure which should be achieved by carrying out the cadre reviews.

However, the letter states, “These recommendations were not implemented in the right spirit. It has taken 10 to 15 years to implement cadre reviews for engineering services. On the other hand, most of the civil services have cadre structure either on par or much above the model cadre structure.”

The association has demanded that promotional aspects should be made at par with the civil services, a strict batch parity be maintained in respect of promotions and director-general of CPWD be declared the ex-officio secretary to the Government of India, among others.

Read at: The Indian Express

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