The Central Government lead by Shri Narendra Modi has become quite famous for launching a number of social welfare schemes throughout the country within a short span of time. While we have already discussed about each of them separately in our various articles, we would focus on top famous schemes that Narendra Modi government has launched so far.

Digital India

Digital India Program was launched in August 2014 to change the face of India digitally and electronically. This would in turn pave way for a digitally empowered nation and economy. As per this campaign, all offices and departments of Government of India would be digitally connected to each other and to the target population, thereby making the government mechanism smoother and malpractices-free. This would also ensure effective governance in the country. Digital India Program would reduce paperwork to a significant level. The program which started in 2014 would complete by 2019.

Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana

On his first speech of Independence Day in year 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the famous Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, which ensures a bank account for every Indian. In this mass drive, more than 15 million saving accounts were opened across the length and breadth of the country with almost all public sector banks participating in it. It was the first ever financial inclusion program launched in the country and has seen success so far. More than Rs 1,500 has been deposited in banks so far by the account holders.

Swachh Bharat

This type of campaign was not really new to India, however the name and intent may be new. Previous governments have already worked on similar campaigns like Nirmal Bharat Program. However, nothing has been achieved significantly so far and thus the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan comes with a new hope to clean the country’s mess. The campaign was launched in 2014 with almost every big and small personality of the country taking to the streets and taking part in it. In fact, the cleanliness drive has more to do with self publicity, whether it is the Prime Minister himself, or other ministers, or film stars or the general public. All have taken pictures of cleaning their locality and posted it on their social media account to ensure that people see that they are involved with a noble cause. The evaluation of the campaign has to be seen in a longer run.

Make in India

This was more of a slogan than a campaign coined by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure self sufficiency in the field of mass production. The vision has been to attract global investors to invest in domestic market and thus create India a manufacturing hub for the entire world. Make in India would also ensure that there are sufficient job opportunities for the national youth who are struggling to get a decent job in order to compete with their international counterparts. The Make in India campaign is being run and administered by the Central Government and the government has identified a total of 25 different sectors on which it would focus.

Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana

Inclusive governance is one of the core visions of Shri Narendra Modi. As per Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana, each MP would take out some part of their funds for the development of their constituencies. Physical and institutional infrastructures are some of the way through which the villages of the country can reach up to their empowerment, as a whole.

The Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana ensures the same. The campaign which started in year 2014 is said to be successfully concluding by year 2019. The guidelines for rural development under the scheme have already been issued by the honorable prime minister in October 2014.

Atal Pension Yojana

Low cost benefits have been the core guiding principles of the Narendra Modi lead Central Government in almost all the schemes they are launching. Atal Pension Yojana too is one such scheme, which ensures old age pension to those who are not covered under any other pension or social security scheme. This way, those people who have been working in unorganized sectors and enjoying no pension scheme would be covered and can ensure a healthy and comfortable old age.

Awas Yojana (PMAY)

Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana is primarily a welfare housing scheme launched by the central government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. With PMAY, the intention is to provide housing to all by year 2022. In order to make the scheme a success and reality, a total of around 2 crore houses would be constructed across the length and breadth of the country by year 2022. The houses would be distributed to the needy sections of society and a subsidy on loan would be provided by the central government, thereby making housing an affordable thing for the economically weaker people of the country. Special preference would be given to senior citizens, women and SC/ST in allotment of these houses.

Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY)

The PMJJBY is a term life insurance policy that goes a long way in ensuring a safe financial future for the policy holder and comes with lowest cost on a yearly basis. Anyone who is within the age group of 18 years to 50 years can get enrolled for PMJJBY, provided they have a functional saving bank account. Within the scheme, the policy holder would have to pay as a premium is Rs 330 per year and they would be covered with a life insurance of Rs 2 lakhs.

Suraksha Bima Yojana

Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana targets social security through insuring accidental deaths and partial or permanent disabilities. A large number of population in India live in rural areas and these people do not have access to insurance schemes. PMSBY is an initiative to cater to such a population so that they can enjoy the insurance benefits at minimum contributions. In order to get PMSBY scheme for anyone in India, the subscriber is required to just pay Rs 12 per year and enjoy a carefree insured life of up to Rs 2 lakhs insurance cover. One of the best things about these social security schemes is that they require an insignificant level of paperwork and this leverage has been provided considering the fact that a large number of people living in rural areas do not have all the validation documents available with them.

Krishi Sinchai Yojana

India is primarily an agricultural country and irrigation defines the success of agriculture. This is why it is important for any agricultural economy to have a proper irrigation channel throughout the country. Prime Minister Modi has identified this need and thus started this new scheme. As per the scheme details, just 45 per cent of the farm lands in India are accessible to the irrigation channels with remaining 55 per cent depending on traditional methods of irrigation. This is a huge opportunity and the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana would ensure that adequate infrastructural arrangements are made so that maximum fields in the country are connected to the irrigation system properly.

Kaushal Vikas Yojana

Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana would facilitate necessary arrangements so that the younger lot of workforce in India is provided with world class training as far as technical expertise is concerned. The skills training would be in line with latest technologies coupled with personality development and management skills that would ensure that our youth compete well with their international counterparts.

MUDRA Bank Yojana

This is yet another aggressive scheme launched by the Narendra Modi government. MUDRA stands for Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency Ltd., which was initiated to bring into the general public into the normal banking system. Facilities and benefits like credits, loans, and insurance are not reachable to many in India, especially to those living in rural and far flung areas. MUDRA bank is not exactly a bank but a banking regulator which would regulate the micro finance to the rural and needy population.

Garib Kalyan Yojana

Under this scheme, the government would run several micro campaigns to ensure that that the welfare needs of the poor population are met and taken care of. It would conduct workshops to meet its agendas.

Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana

Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana is one of the most promising and relevant schemes launched by the Narendra Modi Government. SSY lays special emphasis on financial empowerment of the girl child. Through this scheme, the parents of any girl child below 10 years can open a saving account for their daughters and operate it till they attain an age of 21 years. After that time, they can withdraw the money and use it for her marriage or higher education. The scheme offers a high rate of return, even much higher than PPF and the depositor gets complete tax exemption for whatever amount invested under 80C of income tax. Ever since the scheme has been launched, lakhs or parents have already got an account opened for their daughters and enjoying the benefits. Read more about this yojana.

DigiLocker Scheme

Just like you have a locker to secure your valuable belongings, Digilocker is a facility through which you can secure and keep your valuable documents secure. Now, when everything has turned out to be digital, online documents are required in order to submit forms and other activities. Digilocker is a space provided by Government of India where you can upload all your important documents in digital format and use them whenever you have to furnish it anywhere to government authorities. This drive has paved way for paperless environment and would also curtain the possibilities of corruption to the significant level.

Ebasta Scheme

eBasta Scheme is very much similar to the concept of DigiLockers. eBasta provides an online learning space for the students in the form of digital books. With this service, students would no more have to go and buy their books from the book shops and neither would publishers need to worry about pirated versions or supply channel flaws. The content and curriculum of the students can be decided by the school and its teachers and students will have to just login and download their study material, which they can use for learning at their computers and tablets. This kind of initiative would initiate the era of interactive learning in India. Last but not the least, there are many more social welfare and system improvement schemes launched by Modi Government like

LPG Subsidy Pahal Scheme

The DBTL scheme was actually launched on 1st June 2013 and it covered 291 districts. As many customers faced problems in linking their Aadhar card, the Government launched the modified version of scheme keeping in mind the issues faced earlier. The new DBTL scheme was launched on 15th November 2014 for the 54 districts of the country. For the remaining districts, the scheme has started on the first day of new year that is 1st January 2015. Not only the government made some significant changes in the scheme, they renamed it to ” Pratyaksh Hanstantarit Labh or PAHAL“. Under this scheme more than 15 crore consumers spread across 676 districts of the country will be covered.

Modi’s Sagar Mala

On 25 March 2015, the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, gave the final nod to proceed with the Sagarmala Project and prepare the concept and institutional framework. It was a significant development in India’s growth story. Taking ex-PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s dream project forward, Modi has rightly identified Sagarmala as a crucial infrastructure initiative whose development has the potential to boost India’s GDP by 2%.

Smart City Yojana

Smartcitiesprojects is the complete platform solely dedicated to serve precise information of all the Smart cities in India. With wholesome forum for the discussion of smartcities, people are invited to comment their opinion, ideas and also to discuss with each other so as to make their smart city a perfect smart city. Smartcitiesprojects is also the official publisher of many Government Smart Cities project. The story published in Smartcitiesprojects includes updated news from every proposed smart cities in the country.

School Nursery Yojana

Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar will tomorrow launch 'School Nursery Yojana' which aims to bring students close to the nature. "The Yojana is an initiative of the environment Ministry to bring students closer to nature by involving them in raising of saplings in nurseries created in schools,"

Nayi Manzil Yojana

The scheme aims to benefit the minority youths in the age group of 17 to 35 years who are school-dropouts or educated in the community education institutions like Madarsas, by providing them an integrated input of formal education (up till Class VIII orX) and skill training along with certification, with a view of enabling them to seek better employment in the organized sector and equipping them with better lives. Minimum 30% seats are earmarked for minority girls. It includes a Non-residential programme of 9-12 months duration involving a Basic Bridge Programme (For Class VIII or Class X) for their education, along with training in trade based skills for sustained livelihood/gainful employment. The scheme covers the entire country.

Gold Monetization Scheme

On Tuesday, 19th of May 2015 the government released a draft notification containing all the guidelines. This scheme was announced during the Union Budget 2015. The Gold Monetization scheme is to be implemented for the sake for reducing the gold import pressure. As this particular scheme is new, there are various doubts and questions in the minds of citizens. This article has been aimed to address all aspects of this ambitious scheme.

Stand Up India Loan Scheme

The “Stand up India” is an initiative for the schedule caste and backward tribes. It aims at providing financial aid to the lower sections of our country. Stand up India also promotes employment and entrepreneurship to the lower sections and women. The loan amount or aid varies between Rs. 10 lakh to Rs. 1 crore. This initiative will enable the underserved section to utilize the institutional credits in the form of bank loans. Moreover, with the Stand Up India initiative, the policy domain of each state will also be restricted.

One Rank One Pension OROP

The Indian government has come up with the One Rank One Pension (OROP) in what is being seen as a final effort to get the attention of the defence community of the country – at the present moment there are 14 lakh soldiers and officers serving in various capacities in different wings of the national armed forces. There are also in excess of 25 lakh military officers in India who have retired. Incidentally, this has been demanded for a long time now and has also been promised but till now it had not been implemented. This is also being regarded as an important step taken by the ruling government before the national assembly elections come calling a few months later. P Chidambaram, the Union Finance Minister, has stated that the OROP will be implemented in a proactive manner and will come into play from the ongoing financial year. The government will be transferring an amount of INR 500 crore to the pension accounts of defence personnel. The main aim of this transfer is to bring down the gap in the amounts being received by people who have retired prior to 2006 and ones who have retired after that.

In fact, in the week gone by, Rahul Gandhi, the prime ministerial candidate for Congress, had lent his support towards the demands for OROP by former armed forces officers. In some ways, this event could now be regarded as a sign of things to come. It needs to be considered in this scenario that if the armed forces officers, soldiers and their family members are taken into account, it would come up to almost 2 crore voters, which is a sizeable base that the ruling party can do with. As per OROP, defence officers who have retired in the same rank and have served for a similar period of time, they will be paid the same pension. It will not take into consideration the year of their retirement. In the last 4-5 years many ex-servicemen have become disillusioned with how the OROP issue has been handled and have thus staged rallies and also given back their medals. During one such rally organized at Rewari during September, VK Singh, an erstwhile chief of the Indian Army and Narendra Modi had attended the proceedings. The main issue was the fact that OROP was not being implemented. In fact, in some circles this step of passing the OROP is being seen as an eyewash of sorts. A senior military official has termed the amount to be fairly low. As per the official it is strange that even though the UPA has been at the center they have introduced the measure only a few months prior to the election. The amount has also been termed as being an insufficient one. Previously an amount of INR 1730 crores had been calculated for the 2014-15 fiscal by the controller general, defence accounts, and the ministry of defence. In some official sources, an amount of INR 3 thousand crores was supposed to be set aside for OROP on a yearly basis.

7th Pay Commission

On 24 February 2014, the Government of India issued a Gazette notification announcing the formation of the Seventh Central Pay Commission with Justice A.K.Mathur as the Chairman, Vivek Rae – Member (full time), Dr. Rathin Roy – Member (part time), and Meena Agarwal – Secretary. The Seventh Pay Commission had to submit its recommendations within 18 months (expected by August 2015) and the same is to be implemented from 1 January 2016. The ‘Terms of Reference’ was to examine, review, evolve and recommend changes regarding the emoluments structure comprising pay, allowances, facilities and benefits – in cash or kind. The Commission has been asked to examine the existing scheme of bonus and its bearing on productivity and performance, examine the incentive scheme to reward performance, productivity and integrity, and examine the pension scheme along with other retirement benefits that will impact:

Above all, it is really important for these entire schemes to be implemented and run well in order to get to the vision through which these schemes have been launched. Only when we could see the success coming out of these campaigns and initiatives would be the time when we can say that we have seen a positive change in the governance.