Cabinet Approvals on 24th October, 2018

On October 24, 2018, the Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi approved the following cabinet approvals:

Cabinet approved creation of one post of Director each for new AIIMS at Rae Bareli, Gorakhpur, Bathinda, Guwahati, Bilaspur and Deoghar
On October 24, 2018, the Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi approved the creation of post of Director for each new AIMS.

• The number post of Director will be 1 and would have the basic pay of Rs. 2,25,000/- (fixed) plus NPA but not exceeding Rs.2,37,500/- each.
• This will be applied for the news AIIMS coming up at Rae Bareli (Uttar Pradesh), Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh), Bathinda (Punjab), Guwahati (Assam), Bilaspur (Himachal Pradesh) and Deoghar (Jharkhand).
• The Director will be the Chief Executive Officer of the Institute and will be in-charge of overall administration.

Cabinet approved Scheme for setting up of Indian Institute of Skills at different locations across the country in PPP modes
On October 24, 2018, the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi approved setting up of Indian Institute of Skills (IISs) at different locations across the country in Public Private Partnership (PPP).

• It would help the global competitiveness of key sectors of Indian economy by providing high quality skill training, applied research education and a direct connection with industry.
• The locations have not been decided yet.

Cabinet approved appointment of Adjudicating Authority and establishment of Appellate Tribunal under Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988
On October 24, 2018, the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi approved the appointment of Adjudicating Authority and establishment of Appellate Tribunal under Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act(PBPT), 1988.

• It will be along with the three additional Benches and to establish the Appellate Tribunal under the PBPT Act;
• The Adjudicating Authority and Appellate Tribunal shall sit in the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCTD).
• Benches of Adjudicating Authority may sit in Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai.
• They will have the same level/rank from the Income Tax Deptt./Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT).

Background:
Establishment of the proposed Appellate Tribunal would provide an appellate mechanism for the order passed by the Adjudicating Authority under the PBPT Act.

Cabinet approved National Monitoring Framework on Sustainable Development Goals
On October 24, 2018, the Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi approved the constitution of a High Level Steering Committee on Sustainable Development Goals.

• The committee will periodically review and refine the National Indicator Framework (NIF) for monitoring of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with associated targets.
• The High Level Steering Committee will be chaired by Chief Statistician of India and Secretary, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI).
• Other members of the committee will be Secretaries of data source Ministries and NITI Aayog and Secretaries of other related Ministries as special invitees.
• Measurement of SDGs into on-going national policies, programmes through Statistical indicators of NIF will be done to form framework for achieving the targets under different SDGs.
• It will review the National Indicator Framework on regular basis for its improvement.

Background:
♦ SDGs have 17 Goals and 169 Targets.
♦ NIF will help in outcome-based monitoring & reporting on progress on SDGs at National level.
♦ Chief Statistician of India: Pravin Srivastava.

Cabinet approved Creation of Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund (FIDF)
On October 24, 2018, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi approved creation of special Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund (FIDF).
i. It will have an estimated fund size of Rs.7,522 crore. It will be comprised of:

• Rs.5,266.40 croreto be raised by the Nodal Loaning Entities (NLEs),
• Rs. 1,316.6 crorebeneficiaries contribution and
• Rs.939.48 crorebudgetary support from the Government of India.

ii. National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), National Cooperatives Development Corporation (NCDC) and all scheduled Banks (hereinafter referred as Banks) shall be the nodal Loaning Entities.
iii. It would help augment fish production to achieve its target of 15 million tonne by 2020 set under the Blue Revolution.
iv. FIDF would provide concessional finance to State Governments / UTs and State entities, cooperatives, individuals and entrepreneurs etc., for activities of fisheries development.
Background:
Under FIDF, loan lending will be over a period of five years from 2018-19 to 2022-23 and maximum repayment will be over a period of 12 years inclusive of moratorium of two years on repayment of principal.

Cabinet approved increase in supervisory visit charges for ASHA Facilitators
On October 24, 2018, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi  approved the increase in supervisory visit charges for ASHA Facilitators for 2018-2019 to 2019- 2020.

• It has been increased from Rs. 250/-per visit to Rs. 300/- per visit.
• These changes are effective from October 2018 (to be paid in November, 2018).
• ASHA Facilitator will undertake about 20 supervisory visits per month and with this, they will get about Rs 6000 per month against Rs 5000 per month.
• The proposal entails an estimated additional expenditure of Rs.46.95 crore comprising of Rs 15.65 crore during 2018-19 (for six months) andRs.31.30 crore during 2019-20 as central share.

Cabinet approved the New Railway Line between Bahraich and Khalilabad, Uttar Pradesh
On October 24, 2018, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi approved new Railway Line between Bahraich and Khalilabad.

• This will be via Bhinga, Shravasti, Balrampur, Utraula, Domariyaganj, Mehdawal, Bansi.
• The total length of the new Broad Gauge line will be 240.26 kilometers.
• The total estimated cost of the project is Rs. 4939.78 crore.
• It would be completed by 2024-25 and will lie in North Eastern Railway.
• Four districts falling in this project length i.e. Bahraich, Balrampur, Shravasti and Siddharth Nagar are among the 115 aspirational districts identified by NITI Aayog.