Justifying its decision to allocate Rs 100 crore for the proposed Bal Thackeray memorial, the Maharashtra government Thursday told the Bombay High Court it was within its discretion to allot land or money for a monument for a prominent person and it cannot be questioned in court.
The government made the submission before a division bench of Chief Justice N H Patil and Justice N M Jamdar which was hearing two petitions challenging the state’s decision to convert the mayor’s bungalow in central Mumbai into a memorial for Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray.
The petitions were filed by activist Bhagwanji Rayani and NGO Jan Mukti Morcha in April 2017 when the government had proposed to set up the memorial.
When the petitions came up for hearing Thursday, petitioners’ advocates Pradeep Havnur and Uday Warunjikar sought to amend the pleas so as to also challenge the decision of the BJP-led government to allocate Rs 100 crore for the memorial. The decision was taken earlier this week.
Havnur argued that the amount could be used for other important issues facing the state, while Warunjikar claimed the entire machinery was being mobilised for a private individual.
Senior counsel Milind Sathe, appearing for the government, opposed the petitions, saying it was the state’s discretion how much land or money should be allotted for a memorial.
“Whether a person deserves a memorial or statue is up to the state government. Such state actions cannot be questioned in a court of law,” Sathe maintained.
The bench, while agreeing to this, however, said the court could question the manner in which a decision has been taken.
It allowed the petitioners to amend their pleas to challenge the Rs 100-crore allocation and directed the government and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to file their affidavits by February 12.
The court also issued a notice to a government trust, ‘Balasaheb Thackeray Rashtriya Smarak Samiti’, set up in September 2016 to carry out work for the memorial, seeking its reply on the issue.
The petitioners also raised objections to the setting up of the trust and said of its 11 members, six are private persons.
“The six permanent members include Uddhav Thackeray (Shiv Sena chief) and (his son) Aaditya Thackeray. If it is a government trust, how can private persons be made permanent members?” Warunjikar asked.
The petitions also challenged a recent amendment to a provision in the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act by which the civic body chief was permitted to lease any immovable property, owned by the BMC, to any person at a nominal rate of Re 1 per year.
Financial inclusion means providing financial services to the weaker sections of society. It also ensures that financial services meet them at affordable cost. According to rural needs, deposits and withdrawals and loan facilities provided by banks are kept in the purview of financial services, but today accidental or life insurance and pension have also been included in this purview.
When Concept of financial inclusion got importance: –
The importance of financial inclusion began to grow from the year of 2000, because people started to open their account in the bank to start self-employment or get employment in micro industries. In the absence of financial awareness in rural areas, people were living a difficult life.
Bank’s contribution in financial inclusion: –
In the financial year 2016-17, a report of NABARD’s, All India Financial Inclusion Survey was published, according to which 88.1 per cent of rural households and 55 per cent of the farming families had a savings account. On average, each family was saving 17,000 rupees annually. 52.5 per cent of the farming families and 42.8 per cent of the families engaged in farm labour were in debt. 26 per cent of the families associated with agriculture and 25 per cent of the families engaged in farm as agriculture labourer were enjoying the facility of insurance, while 20.1 per cent of the farming families and 18.9 per cent of the families of agricultural labourers were taking advantage of pension. According to this survey, the annual average income of the farming family was Rs 1,07,172 and the average annual income of the farm labourers was Rs 87,228.
Clearly, the large chunk of the rural population is still not transacting with the bank. Due to limited duration of work in banks, inadequate availability of alternative channels, etc., villagers are not taking benefit of financial services. In order to connect the villagers to the banks, many mini banks are being opened in rural areas, known as Customer Service Point (CSP). These mini banks are being provided facilities like deposits, withdrawals, inquiries regarding their accounts etc. to rural customers. More than 58,000 business correspondents (BCs) and CSPs of State Bank were working across the country till March 31, 2018. BC’s work is to bring financial awareness among the villagers and provide them banking facilities at their home. Banks are also providing alternate channels such as ATMs, internet kiosks etc. to the villagers.
State Bank of India has more than 58,000 ATMs across the country; most of them are in rural areas. By March 31, 2018, the number of point-of-sale across the country was 31 lakhs, while 86.18 crore debit and credit cards had been issued. State Bank is providing about 80 per cent of the services through alternative channels such as Internet, Mobile, ATM etc. In the year 2018, there were 2.22 lakh ATMs across the country.
With the availability of mobile towers, electricity and phones in villages, the villagers are now using technology based banking products, but the number of such villagers is still low.
Pradhan Mantri Jandhan Yojana was started on August 15, 2014, and on August 28, the work of implementing this scheme was started. Under this scheme, facilities like life insurance, opening zero Balance account, sanctioning loan, Issue Rupay card, SMS etc. are being given to the common man. Till December 5, 2018, 33.44 million accounts were opened by all the banks, of which Rs 84,815 crore was deposited. 26.44 lakh Rupay cards were also issued in these accounts. Rupay card is an ATM card, also called debit card. By the help of this card, withdrawal of money, transfer of money, enquiry of accounts, payment of bills, shopping from point of sale, online shopping, etc. benefits are being enjoyed by villagers. Under the Prime Minister Jandhan Yojana, due to the opening of accounts of the villagers in large numbers, the government is directly transferring the money received from various government schemes through direct benefit transfer (DBT) in their account, thereby reducing the role of middlemen. Along with this, corruption has also been reduced by this measure. The spread of Pradhan Mantri Jandhan Yojana is mainly in rural areas. With the launch of this scheme, the rural people are easily open accounts in banks, because the Know Your Customers (KYC) has been simplified to make this scheme successful. The bank is also providing the facility of overdraft to the villagers who operate the account. Under the facility, customers are allowed to withdraw a fixed amount from the account on the basis of satisfactory transaction.
Role of Mudra Loan in implementing financial inclusion: –
After the introduction of the Prime Minister’s Mudra Loan Scheme, small businessmen like Rehadiwale, Khomchevale, Fariwale etc. have opened their accounts in the bank for taking the benefit of this scheme. There are public Sector banks (PSUs) in the forefront in disbursing Mudra Loan. The second place is of private bank and Micro Financial Institution (MFI). In the year 2018, accounts of 4.88 million Mudra Loan beneficiaries were opened. The number of beneficiaries was 70 per cent, while 23 per cent belonged to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and 32 per cent of the Backward Class. Rs 2,53,677 crore was sanctioned in these accounts and Rs 2,46,437 crore was distributed among the beneficiaries. In the financial year 2018, among 4.81 crore beneficiaries, a large number were small traders. During the financial year 2019, till December 7, 2019, 2.81 crore accounts were opened, out of which Rs 1,48,503.57 Cr. was sanctioned and Rs.1,42,009.91 Cr. were distributed among beneficiaries.
Employment Generation from MNREGA: –
To provide employment to the villagers, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 (MNREGA) program is being run by Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India. Till December 15, 2019 as many as 11 crore 63 lakh workers were working under this scheme, whereas the total number of workers involved in this scheme was 25.55 million. The spread of this scheme is in 691 districts and 6918 blocks in the country. Under this scheme, 12.89 crore Job Cards have been issued so far. Since the beginning of this scheme, a total of Rs 4,95,535.52 crore has been given as wages, while the number of beneficiaries benefitting from this scheme till December 15, 2018, is 4.36 crore.
Participation of youth in the development of rural areas: –
The definition of the age of young people in India has been changed from time to time. At present, 15 to 34 years of age are considered as young people. According to this definition, in 2011 census, the population of youth in India was 42.19 crore, in which the number of men was 21.75 Cr. and the number of females 20.44 crore. In 2011, the total population of the country was 121.09 crore. Thus, the youth in India was 35 per cent in 2011, in which about 70 per cent were rural youth and the remaining 30 per cent urban youth. According to the Agriculture Census of 2011, approximately 61.5 per cent depend on rural agriculture. The percentage of marginal families having less than one hectare of agricultural land decreased from 62.9per cent of 2001 census to 22.5 per cent in the 2011 census. The role of agriculture in the Indian economy is very important. Its contribution to GDP is approximately 17 per cent and it is an area providing employment to more than 60 per cent of the rural population.
Conclusions: –
At present, rural youth do not have many options to fulfill their dream. For them, starting self-employment or getting employment is the most important aspect for living. Depending on traditional agriculture, they cannot get two times meal. For this, it is necessary that they cultivate farming by doing the latest way or by doing small business. With opening accounts in the bank, they can avail loans, can insured crops, take benefits of government schemes etc. To Connect the rural youth with the bank is one of the most important and effective solutions of various rural problems.
By-Satish Singh
(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of AFTERNOON VOICE and AFTERNOON VOICE does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.)
Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari along with Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis Thursday laid the foundation stone for Rs 1,183-crore highway widening project, awarded to MEP Infra by NHAI, in the state.
“MEP Infrastructure Developers Ltd today announced that it has received the letter of appointed date from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for the eight-laning of existing four-lane Vadape to Thane section of NH-3 (new NH-848) in Maharashtra,” MEP Infra said in a statement.
The Rs 1,182.87-crore project will be executed on Hybrid Annuity Mode, it said.
The foundation stone for the project was laid by Fadanavis and union road transport minister Gadkari at Dive Anjur in Thane district, the statement said.
MEP Infra had achieved financial closure for this project in terms of the concession agreement executed with NHAI, by tying up project finance of Rs 567.78 crore, and YES bank is the lead banker to this project, it said.
Commenting on the development, Jayant Mhaiskar, chairman and managing director, MEP Infrastructure Developers Ltd, said, “We are proud of this achievement which reaffirms the positivity of the Hybrid Annuity model that has been propagated by the ministry. The financial viability of such projects will ensure the speedy growth and expansion of our road infrastructure.”
MEP is currently one of the major players in the Hybrid Annuity space with 10 successful bids for projects across Maharashtra and Gujarat aggregating Rs 7,942 crore covering 1,893 lane km.
The about Rs 24 km project consists of widening and construction of existing four- lane road to eight-lane road.
The project envisages one new railway over bridge and two new major bridges on Thane Creek.
The total project cost of Vadape to Thane package is Rs 1,182.87 crore with the construction period of 30 months from the appointed date.
This project is under the new Hybrid Annuity model, which is a mix of engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) and build operate transfer (BOT) system. The Authority and the concessionaire share the total project cost in the ratio of 40:60, respectively.
“Gully Boy” is one of 2019’s most awaited films and actor Ranveer Singh says it was the original “Mere Gully Mein” track that had him hooked.
In the Zoya Akhtar directorial, the 33-year-old actor plays an up-and-coming rapper who sets out to achieve his dream by rhyming about his life on the Mumbai streets.
Ranveer says the original number, created by underground rappers Divine and Naezy, blew him away when he saw its video for the first time.
“When Zoya pitched me this film, ‘Mere Gully Mein’, the original video was the first thing she showed me. She said that this is the flavour of the film I want to make and the video completely blew my brains.
“I mugged up the entire rap and since then I started following Naezy and Divine’s music. ‘Mere Gully Mein’ for me, like for many others, is a huge breakthrough for the scene, the movement that’s happening in our society and I’m glad that I was the first one to whom this breakthrough of a song reached,” he told an agency.
The actor, who has recreated Naezy’s portion in the album, says incidentally it was the first song he rapped for the album.
He said it was “almost like my test”.
“Gully Boy”, also featuring Alia Bhatt and Kalki Koechlin, hits the screens February 14.
Digital payments company Paytm is considering foraying into 1-2 more developed markets in 2019, Chief Financial Officer Madhur Deora said on Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Paytm has already found its footing in Canada and Japan, and several commerce and financial services verticals of the company have begun to churn out revenue and profits, Deora told the Reuters Global Markets Forum.
“We have found the developed markets to be very interesting,” Deora said.
While the company can’t commit to a definite launch in other markets, it is working on building a scalable business, he added.
Berkshire Hathaway Inc bought a Rs 25 billion ($356 million) stake in Paytm’s parent company One97 in August last year.
Paytm, founded in 2010, which counts China’s Alibaba Group and its financial services arm Ant Financial Services Group among investors, faces intense competition from other players such as Google Pay and state-backed Unified Payment Interface (UPI).
John Abraham has shared his new look from the upcoming film ‘RAW’ on social media.
The poster of the film ‘Romeo Akbar Walter’ (RAW) shows John staring intently, wearing a checked shirt and cardigan, A cigarette can be seen dangling from his lips as well. Apart from the main photo, the actor can be seen sporting different looks across the poster.
He captioned the post, “One man. Many faces. One mission – to protect his country. Presenting ‘Romeo’ from #RAW, based on the true story of a patriot. #RAWRomeo.”
‘RAW’ is set against the backdrop of the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971 and is said to be inspired by true events.
Apart from John Abraham, the film will also see Mouni Roy and Sikander Khen in pivotal roles.
Being directed by Robbie Grewal, this is John Abraham’s second collaboration with producer Ajay Kapoor after ‘Parmanu’ and is set to release on April 12.
Indian women’s hockey team skipper Rani on Thursday said their Spanish tour will help “understand where we stand” ahead of the Olympic Qualifiers, slated to be held later this year.
The tour opener will be played in Murcia.
“It will be a challenging tour no doubt but our team has made a lot of improvement in the past two years and we see this as a great opportunity to understand where we stand ahead of the Olympic Qualifying events this year,” stated Rani.
The Indian team will play four matches against Spain between January 26 to January 31 followed by two games against Ireland on February 2 and 3.
“We have quite a few youngsters who have been given a chance to show their potential against strong teams. It is important to have a larger pool of players with good international exposure ahead of important tournaments this year,” she added.
Rani believes her team will carry confidence from its impressive performances last year, which helped India move up the FIH world rankings.
“Though we surprised many with our performance against teams like England and Australia, we feel we could have done better in the 2018 Asian Games and 2018 World Cup.
“While we carry confidence from last year’s events, we work everyday with the belief that we can take our performance to the next level and we certainly have the potential to do so.
“We have been receiving great support from our coaching staff in the past few months of training where we not only had to overcome the heartbreak of losing the 2018 Asian Games final to Japan and a quarterfinal loss to Ireland in the 2018 World Cup but also introspect on the mistakes we were making.”
The Indian team left in the early hours of Thursday morning for the Spain tour from here.
Markets watchdog SEBI on Thursday said that it has not received any reference on relaxation in rules regarding Jet Airways. The regulator’s statement comes amid reports that relaxations have been sought by Gulf carrier Etihad for infusing additional funds into crisis-hit Jet Airways, which is listed on the exchanges.
In its brief statement issued in the afternoon, SEBI referred to reports about certain relaxations of regulations with respect to Jet Airways.
However, the regulator did not provide elaborate.
“It is hereby clarified that SEBI has neither received any reference in this regard from any quarter nor has it expressed any views in the matter,” the statement said.
Shares of Jet Airways rose nearly three per cent to Rs 272 on the BSE at around 1330 hours.
Grappling with financial woes, Jet Airways is looking to raise fresh funds, including from strategic partner Etihad, which currently holds 24 per cent stake in the airline.
According to reports, Etihad has sought various relaxations, including exemption from the possible open offer in case it infuses more funds into Jet Airways.
India goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu feels the country’s recent performance in the AFC Asian Cup will have a huge impact on Indian football.
India began their campaign with a convincing 4-1 victory over Thailand. But thereafter, the Blue Tigers bowed out in the first round after losing back-to-back matches against hosts UAE and Bahrain.
“21 out of the 23 players in the team were playing at such a stage for the first time. Now, we want to take it from here. It is important for us to deliver at the big stages and we shall do so. The impact of the competition will be huge for Indian football,” Gurpreet was quoted as saying by All India Football Federation’s (AIFF) official website.
“This team can go places if we remain united, and the game plan is in the right place. We are out of the tournament but we can certainly do more than we did,” he added.
The Indian football team and its fans were left heartbroken after it lost 0-1 to Bahrain by conceding in the final minutes. The result meant that the Stephen Constantine-coached team was knocked out of the tournament having won just one of its three matches in the UAE.
Gurpreet, who failed to save a penalty from Bahrain’s Jamal Rashid in the final minutes of the game said, “I had to make sure that we were in the game till the very last minute. It was difficult physically and mentally as they were coming at us all guns blazing. We fought till the end but fell short.”
But the 26-year-old maintained that the team was competitive in all three of its games.
“We fought and there weren’t any one-sided games. We matched our opponents every minute and were even better than them on many occasions. We got points on the board, and showed that we could match our opponents,” he said.
Alexander Dinelaris, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of “Birdman”, lamented that the treatment meted out to writers in Indian film industry and wondered why they are considered the lower rung on the ladder.
Dinelaris is in the city to attend the launch of actor Boman Irani’s production banner, Irani MovieTone. He will also conduct a day-long screenwriting workshop for budding writers, directors and students of cinema.
I am unfamiliar with Indian cinema and I am just learning. I have seen handful of films and I have seen Boman’s work. I am opening myself to find a bridge. Hopefully I will be well versed when we meet next, the writer told reporters on Thursday.
My education on Indian cinema began with Boman. I did not know who he was and I had not seen his films. And at the same time I had not won anything or was not paid attention to either, he added.
The 50-year-old scribe also said that he felt a connection with Irani’s script. We just connected on the story that he was writing. Here, the screenwriters are a little bit in lower packing order. That is just the way it is and I don’t know why. I fell in love with his story and we just clicked immediately, Dinelaris said.
The duo met when Irani visited New York and they know each other for over six and a half years.
What is Financial Inclusion:-
Digital payments company Paytm is considering foraying into 1-2 more developed markets in 2019, Chief Financial Officer Madhur Deora said on Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Markets watchdog SEBI on Thursday said that it has not received any reference on relaxation in rules regarding Jet Airways. The regulator’s statement comes amid reports that relaxations have been sought by Gulf carrier Etihad for infusing additional funds into crisis-hit Jet Airways, which is listed on the exchanges.
