1. Prologue
  2. [Act I] Rural Infrastructure (RI)
    1. RINS1: Rurban Mission
    2. RINS2: Gram Jyoti Mission
    3. RIES1: Indira Awas Yojana
    4. RIES2: Rural housing fund (NHB)
    5. RIES3: National rural Drinking water Program (NRDWP)
    6. RIES4: Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan
    7. RINS1 (NEW) Swatchh Bharat Abhiyan
    8. RIES5: Backward Region Grant Fund (BRGF)
    9. RIES6: Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY)
  3. [Act II] Urban Infrastructure (UI)
    1. Urban Area Definition (Census 2011)
    2. City Tiers
    3. UINS1: Smart cities
      1. What is smart city?
      2. FDI in Smart cities
    4. UINS2: Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITS)
      1. How does REITs work?
      2. What’re the benefits of REITS?
      3. What is InvITS?
    5. UINS3: Housing for All 2022
    6. UINS4: 500 Cities’ Urban renewal
    7. UIES1: JNNRUM 2005
    8. UIES2: Rajiv Awas Yojana
    9. UIES3: Rajiv RINN Detergent Yojana
    10. UIES4: Municipal Debt
  4. [Act III] State specific Misc.
    1. SS1: North East | SS2: Jammu Kashmir
    2. SS3: Delhi | SS4: UTs
  5. Appendix:
    1. Pt. Deendayal Upadhyaya (1916-1968)
    2. Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukerjee (1901-1953)
    3. Delhi Pact (Nehru- Liaqat) 1950
    4. FAQ | Credits

Prologue

Chapter 13, total four parts

  1. UNDP’s Human Development report 2014, poor, women and children [coming soon]
  2. Education, youth, minorities, SC, ST, PH, Elderly [coming soon]
  3. Rural and urban infrastructure [you’re here]

Structure of these articles:

Economic Survey rural Infrastructure Urban infrastructure

  1. Trivial Statistics | Theory (if and where applicable)
  2. Schemes: New | Existing (Only those mentioned in Survey OR budget.)
  3. Economic Survey observations (if and where applicable)

[Act I] Rural Infrastructure (RI)

But first, some trivial GK from Census 2011.

Census 2011 Indian population

For MCQs

  1. in absolute numbers, both urban and rural population increased
  2. But percentage wise, rural population has declined.
  3. Maximum number of villages: UP >> MP >> Odisha
  4. Lowest number of villages: Chandigarh << Laskhdweep << Diu-Daman
  5. Total Villages: 597485 = ~6 Lakh
  6. Total Villagers: 80 crore+
  7. Villages occupied by Pakistan and China not counted in Census 2011.

Now let’s start with the bogus sarkaari schemes:

  • RINS: Rural infra new scheme
  • RIES: Rural Infra Existing scheme

RINS1: Rurban Mission

NAME Shyama Prasad Mukerjee Rurban Mission* (Ref. Appendix for more details on him)
WHO Undeclared. most probably rural Development ministry
WHY? Villagers get civic infrastructure similar to city folks. including skill development and economic opportunities
FUNDING Via PPP

RINS2: Gram Jyoti Mission

NAME Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana *(Ref. Appendix for more details on him)
WHO Undeclared. Most probably Power ministry because they run R***** G***** Vidhuytikaran Yojana.
WHY? give 24/7 electricity to villagers. upgrade distribution in rural areas
FUNDING 500 cr. (figure not important)

Third is Swatch Bharat given after few paras- to keep continuity in revision. Now let’s move to existing schemes:

RIES1: Indira Awas Yojana

Who? Rural Development ministry
What? Gram sabha identifies BPL households. They get money to construct house.
Money flow DRDA => Gram Panchyat.

Benefits

Nature of work figures not important
house in plains 70,000/-
house in hills, difficult terrain, LWE area 75,000/-
upgrading existing house 15,000/-
land purchase 20,000/-
  • Land development portion: eligible for MNREGA project work. They also get electricity connection under R** G** Vidhutikaran Yojana, toilet under Nirmal Bharat abhiyan.
  • Single women get separate quota under Indira Awas Yojana and Rajiv Awas Yojana
  • MIS Software: “Awaasoft” for transparency, target tracking and automation of work.

AwaasSoft

RIES2: Rural housing fund (NHB)

By whom? National Housing Bank (NHB) since 2008. BTW, RBI owns NHB.
Why? Give home loans to weaker sections in rural area. Upto 15 lakh rupees.
Budget 2014 Gave 8000 crores to it.

RIES3: National rural drinking water program (NRDWP)

Who? Ministry of drinking water supply, 2009
What?
  • by 2022 we’ll supply 70 litre water per person
  • within his household or within 50 metres distance
  • 68% junta already covered but slippage due to groundwater depletion, population rise and passive gram Sabhas

Related topics: Neelanchal and PM sinchayi yojana- but under agro chapter.

RIES4: Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan

Earlier known as “Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC)” Renamed in 2012.

Who? Ministry of drinking water supply
What?
  • As per Census 2011, hardly 33% households have latrine.
  • NBA aims to provide 100% latrine access to all household. technically called Individual House Hold Latrines (IHHL)
  • Money given to BPL.
  • Money given to APL – SC, ST and other vulnerable communities.
  • Gram Panchayats get Nirmal Gram Puraskar award for being free of open defecation.
  • Sikkim: first Nirmal State in the country having achieved full sanitation coverage.

Challenges:

  1. Rural sanitation is a state subject. But state governments more interested in giving funds to free electricity, food etc. for vote bank politics. Therefore, rural sanitation not getting the necessary support.
  2. New research on region wise low cost toilets.

RINS1 (NEW) Swatchh Bharat Abhiyan

Who? Undeclared, but most like the Ministry of Drinking water supply
What? 100% toilet access to all households
When? By 2019: Gandhi’s 150th Birth anniversary.

RIES5: Backward Region Grant Fund (BRGF)

Who? Ministry of Panchayati Raj (also runs another scheme “Panchayat Shashaktikaran Yojana)
What? Additional money to backward regions, so they can reach Development level of other “normal” areas.
  • This money is used for improving water, sanitation, schools, street lights etc. rural infrastructure.
  • Using Panchayati Raj institutions (PRI), bottom up Development model.
BRGF has two components
District component State component
~272 district, minimum 1 crore given to each Bihar, Odisha, W.Bengal, UP (Bundelkhand)

Budget 2014 promised to restructure BRGF such that

  1. intra-district inequalities reduced
  2. Sub-districts units within States get adequate support.

RIES6: Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY)

Who? Rural Development ministry 2000 under Vajpayee regime.
What? To construct all weather roads to unconnected habitats.

  • 500 persons in plains area.
  • 250: tribal, desert and special category- North East, JK, Himachal and Uttranchal
  • Population conditions as per Census 2001
How? Money comes from Cess on High speed diesel via Central Road Fund Act.

Budget 2014: >14k crore allotted

[Act II] Urban Infrastructure (UI)

  • ES: existing scheme
  • NS: New scheme

But first some trivial GK

Urban Area Definition (Census 2011)

Two categories
Statutory Towns Census towns
All places  with  a  municipality,  corporation,  cantonment  board  or notified town area committee, etc. that meet following conditions

  1. minimum population 5000
  2. minimum population density 400 persons per sq.km
  3. 75% of males in non-agro work
4041 towns. Number not important but interpretation is: majority of Urban India is “Statutory towns”. 3894 towns

City Tiers

Center city Population is ____
Metropolitan – 10 lakh and above
Urban Tier 1 1 lakh and above
Semi-Urban Tier 2 50,000 to 99,999
Tier 3 20,000 to 49,999
Tier 4 10,000 to 19,999
Rural Tier 5 5,000 to 9,999
Tier 6 less than 5,000.
  • (CENSUS-2011) Population wise Metropolitans: Mumbai > Delhi > Kolkata > Chennai > Bangalore.
  • UN report 2014: Delhi highest population. then Mumbai.
  • Total population in Urban area: ~31.2% OR 37+ crores public.
  • we’ll see IMR, MMR etc data under Health part of Chapter 13.

UINS1: Smart cities

WHO Ministry of Urban Development
WHY Rise of neo middle class who wants better civic amnesties
Where
  • Will construct new satellite towns outside larger cities.
  • Will modernize existing mid-size cities

What is smart city?

  • Provides civic amnesties via Information communication technology (ICT) solution.
  • Street lights switched on and off via automated timers, to save maximum energy.
  • Real time information on parking, traffic congestion, public transport
  • As a result, Smart cities are energy efficient and have low carbon foot print.
Smart cities Examples
Surat online monitoring of water quality
Boston, US gunshot sensors placed around city, to immediately notify police on crime in progress.
Dublin (Ireland) mobile apps for parking slot, so you don’t have to loiter here and there to find empty space.
London, UK Mayor gets constant data on city performance, even data mining tools to analyze live twitter feeds (e.g. junta complaining about traffic or late trains)

Proposed smart cities across Industrial corridors:

  1. Manesar (HAR)
  2. Dholera (Guj)
  3. Shendra (MH)
  4. Tumkur (KAR)
  1. Khushkera (RAJ)
  2. Krishnapatanam (Andhra)
  3. Ponneri (TN)

FDI in Smart cities

With following caveats
Condition Before after
*Minimum build up area (sq.m) 50k 20k
*Investment (USD) 10 mil. 5 mil.
Lock in period after project completion 3 years same

*These limit don’t apply to foreign investor, IF 30% of the money spent on low-cost housing for poors/lower middle class.

UINS2: Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITS)

  • Hindi: रियल एस्टेट निदेश ट्रस्ट
  • Not exactly a “scheme” but investment tool. Anyways, what is REITS? Observe the words
Real Estate to construct homes, offices, townships
Investment Indians, NRIs, foreigners –all welcome to invest
Trust operated by professional managers (similar to mutual fund managers)

How does REITs work?

REITs investment explained

Mechanism similar to Mutual funds

  • Junta pools money. Each gets “unit” according to his contribution in the pool.
  • Trust manager invests money in completed / almost completed projects.
  • Such Property is rented / leased. Rent money distributed among investors according to number of “units” held by them.
  • In US, UK: Trust manager must distribute 90% of earning as dividends. (in other words, he can keep upon 10% commission)
  • Budget 2014 promised we’ll permit REITs and will not demand corporate tax on them.
  • SEBI will notify rules in August 2014.

What’re the benefits of REITS?

  1. (Proposed) minimum investment limit will be 5 lakh rupees. (Probably) will provide higher return on investment than bank, sharemarket= less investment in gold, less current account deficit.
  2. REITS units can be sold at stock exchange. (Just like those CPSE exchange traded Funds).  Therefore, you don’t have to wait till maturity or real estate prices to go up. You can sell your units anytime and recover money.
  3. This will provide additional source of finance for real estate developers. So they can finish existing projects, recover money and repay bank loans. NPA will be reduced.

What is InvITS?

  • Infrastructure investment trusts
  • Mechanism similar to REITS.
  • You give money, fund manager builds infrastructure- ports, powerlines, highways. Asset generates income (Port fees, toll collection etc.) from there, you get dividend in proportion to units held by you.
  • Budget 2014 permitted InvITS as well.

UINS3: Housing for All 2022

Exact details not disclosed. but, to achieve this, following measures taken

  1. Income tax: home loan interest deduction raised from 1.5 lakh to 2 lakh.
  2. National housing bank given funds for mission on low cost affordable housing.
  3. Under companies act, certain companies have to spend 2% of their profit on CSR activities. From now on, “slum development” also included in one such corporate social responsibility (CSR) work.
  4. FDI for smart cities
  5. REITs
  6. Municipal debt pool.

UINS4: 500 Cities’ Urban renewal

In 500 cities, 4 things for next 10 years, via PPP

  1. digital connectivity
  2. safe drinking water
  3. Waste management
  4. Recycled water for growing organic fruits and vegetable.

Now let’s check some old schemes mentioned in economic survey and or budget 2014

UIES1: JNNRUM 2005

NAME Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) 2005
WHO Ministry of Urban Development
WHEN 7 years’ time frame. UPA-II wanted to renew but then regime Change. New minister Naidu says we’ll rename and re-launch this scheme.
  • JNNURM has submission for water supply, sanitation, waste Management, transport etc.
  • State and local bodies have to first “reform” themselves to become eligible for JNNURM funding. eg. Adopting e-governance, simplifying property tax collection etc.
  • Not going into more details because as Naidu said, we’ll rename and relaunch!

UIES2: Rajiv Awas Yojana

WHO Ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation
WHEN
  1. Preparatory phase: 2011-13
  2. Implementation phase: 2013-22
Why
  • to create Slum free (Urban) India
How
  • curative approach: to upgrade existing slums into proper houses
  • Preventive approach to prevent new slums.

UIES3: Rajiv RINN Detergent Yojana

WHO Ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation
Why Provide loans to economic weaker section (EWS). so they can buy homes in Urban areas, instead of living in slums.
EPICFAIL because
  • Ceiling 1-1.6 lakh rupee. Not possible to buy in cities @this price!
  • Loan was to be given via banks. Banks reluctant to give loans to these “sub-prime” borrowers.

Let’s check new schemes under Abki baar Modi Sarkar.

UIES4: Municipal Debt

  1. 2006: Government setup “Pooled Municipal Debt Obligation Facility”
  2. It provides loans to municipalities
  3. For projects related to public transport, solid waste disposal, sewerage treatment, drinking water etc.
  4. Budget 2014: promised to give 50,000 crores in next 5 years.

So far we learned Rural infra and Urban Infra. Now last part of this whole series.

[Act III] State specific Misc.

SS1: North East

  • Will promote Commercial organic farming.
  • Will launch Arun Prabha Channel for cultural integrity.
  • Rail connectivity: 1000 cr given.
  • From all India Plan outlay: 10% will be given North east. This will be Non-lapsable. i.e. even if they can spend money by 31st March 2015, they won’t have to return money back.

SS2: Jammu Kashmir

Numbers not important
Rehabilitate displaced Kashmiri Migrant 500 cr
indoor outdoor stadium- building new, upgrading existing. 200 cr
Pashmina Promotion  Programme  (P-3) 50 cr.

SS3: Delhi

Numbers not important
Water, electricity reform 700cr.
setup Hastkala Academy for handicrafts 30cr.
Renuka Dam 50cr.

What Is Renuka Dam?

  • Yamuna river => Tributary Giri River (HP)
  • Himachal Power corp. ltd. will construct a dam on it, in Renuka wildlife sanctuary.
  • petitions filed in National green tribunal (NGT)

SS4: UTs

Numbers not important
Andaman Nicobar communication infrastructure modernization 150
Puducherry disaster  Management preparedness 188

Appendix:

Since Modi named schemes after these leaders, we’ve to prepare’em for General Studies Mains Paper 1: pre-independence and post-independence India.

Pt. Deendayal Upadhyaya (1916-1968)

Schemes named after BJP Janshangh leaders

  1. Born: Mathura district in UP
  2. Bharatiya Jan Sangh (BJS) General Secretary for 15 years
  3. Gave Political philosophy “Integral Humainism” (BJP)
  4. Editor of Panchjanya and Swadesh
  5. Budget 2014 Scheme named after him- Gram Jyoti for 24/7 electricity supply to villagers.

Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukerjee (1901-1953)

  • Barrister from England
  • Youngest VC of Calcutta University
  • Active in Asiatic society of Calcutta
  • President of Hindu Mahasabha (1940-44)
  • Opposed Sarat Suharawady pact, which aimed to create separate “Bengal” nation.
  • Minster of Industries and Supply in Nehru’s Interim Central government. But resigned due to Delhi Pact.
  • Bharatiya Jansangh founder
  • Wanted Uniform civil code
  • Wanted full integration of Jammu and Kashmir i.e. remove article 370
  • Budget 2014: Scheme named after him “Rurban mission.”

Delhi Pact (Nehru- Liaqat) 1950

  • Signed between Nehru and Paki PM Liaqat Ali Khan.
  • To prevent communal violence and persecution of refugees.

Salient Features:

  1. Equal citizenship to minorities in both countries. Their minority rights will be enforced.
  2. Refugees can return to dispose their properties.
  3. Abducted women, looted properties will be returned.
  4. Forced religious conversions will be unrecognized.
  5. We’ll appoint minority commissions to implement these terms.

Shayama Prasad Mukerjee opposed this pact because Two similar agreements were made in past but they were #EPICFAIL. So, he felt Pakis would not honor this third agreement either.

FAQ

Q. UPSC exam postpone or not?

Ans. Panel has submitted report, government deliberating on it. Ref: firstpost.com/?p=1643723. Either way, study-momentum must be sustained.

Q. I had filed RTI to get mains answersheet but UPSC replied “NO”.

  • Ans. Talked with RTI expert lawyer friends.  UPSC filed SLP against CIC judgment in Supreme Court. (CIC had earlier ordered disclosure of mains answersheets).
  • So, if you appeal to FAA he’ll take CPIO’s side saying case in SC. You further appeal in CIC, video conferencing date may be allotted after 3-5-6 months because of the case pendency.
  • Nonetheless, if you want to make appeal to FAA, then my RTI champion lawyer friend has drafted readymade petition. Just download following wordfile : files.secureserver.net/0shQTLbTl9pIg5
  • edit details, and upload it on onlinerti portal /OR SEND VIA post it to FAA.

Q. What about those youtube “videos”?

Ans. Long story cut short, It had become difficult to ride two horses, so I stopped giving lectures, till prelim is over. So no lecture, no video.

Q. This is chapter 13 what about remaining chapters?

Ans. I’m publishing in reverse order of chapters: 13, 12, 11…

Q. You’ve not mentioned XYZ scheme / fund /policy in this article?

Ans. Many reasons

  1. Scheme to be included in some other part e.g. safe drinking water under health part. Neelanchal under Agro part and so on.
  2. Scheme not given in economic survey / budget.
  3. As such there are 66 centrally sponsored schemes, and many of them covered under previous summary of Economic survey 2012. But cost benefit = bad, if you start digging and mugging up all of them. Hence focusing only on the schemes that are in news.
  4. Existing scheme that doesn’t have much MCQ worthy “glamour” in them e.g. Panchayat Shashaktikaran yojana.

Q. You’ve hardly given any points for the new schemes

Ans. Jaitley himself did not discuss which ministry will implement? Who’ll be the eligible beneficiaries, what’ll be the salient features etc. Most probably, Modi saving all those details for his 15th august speech which will be a ‘mini-budget’ in itself!

Q. You’re giving so many stupid ascending descending sequence for everything- taxes, census, GDP components and so on. It is humanly impossible to memorize so much data.

Ans. It’s called “spray and pray” technique. Throw up enough data, at least 1 MCQ gets asked in atleast one competitive exam. Then I can make bogus marketing propaganda that it came from my site. Besides, Compared to the amount of “spray and pray” data thrown in coaching material and competitive magazines, I’m the lesser evil in this mafia town.

Q. Will you finish this series before prelim comes?

Ans. I will try to. But unlike Salman Khan, I can’t make commitment because there are many factors beyond my control.

Credits

Technically, this is the “last” part of the Economic Survey 2013 article series. Therefore, credits must roll at the end of the movie. This series was impossible without the help of following:

  1. Rajtanil Solanki, Ahmedabad
  2. Shivaram G., Chennai
  3. Microsoft Onenote 2013.

Workflow: I gather points from Survey + budget. They dig background points. Live synchronization via Microsoft Onenote cloud service.

Moral of the story: instead of forming large online “studygroup” where no one contributes, better find 2-3 hardcore players and collaborate in real-life OR onenote. Otherwise humanly impossible to cover entire GS syllabus singlehandedly- especially in Mains, even with all “readymade” (Authentic / XEROXED) study-material at your disposal.