5 Key Points on India’s Act Far East Policy

1. PM Modi unveiled the "Act Far East" policy to boost India's engagement with Russia's Far East region.
2. For the development of Far East, India will give line of credit worth $ 1 billion.
3. Ahead of the PM’s trip, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal led a delegation of four BJP chief ministers and 140 businessmen last month to the Russian Far East in a bid to stamp India’s presence in a region currently dominated by China.
4. In many ways India’s presence and involvement in sparsely populated Russian Far East as part of its Indo-Pacific strategy will balance Chinese presence in this region of Russia on the Pacific coast.
5. India's connection to Russia's Far East go back a long way. India was the first country to open a Consulate in Vladivostok.

5 Points on Spiraling Tension between USA-IRAN

1. US Withdrawal from Nuclear Deal: In May 2018, the U.S. withdrew from the 2015 nuclear agreement reached between the P5+1 countries, the European Union, and Iran, which Mr. Trump once derided as the “the worst ever deal”. That move was in disregard of the opinions of the International Atomic Energy Agency and Mr. Trump’s own top advisers that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action had proved effective.
2. There has not been any let-up from the U.S. strategy of exerting “maximum pressure” on Iran so far. In August 2019, the administration imposed sanctions against Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
3. In April 2019, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was designated a terrorist organisation.
4. Iran’s Economic Isolation: Tehran’s crude exports are said to have plummeted to 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) or less since April 2018 levels (more than 2.5 million bpd), according to estimates. Corporations that continue to do business with Iran face the risk of being cut off from the dollar system.
5. Rising Tension in West Asia: In retaliation to these measures, Iran demonstrated its ability to paralyse Western maritime operations by seizing oil tankers off the Gulf of Hormuz. While Mr. Trump held back from a counter-offensive following the downing of a U.S. drone, the missile attack amplified the risk of conflict in the region.

8 Reasons Why PSB Merger is not a Great Idea

1. Merger will not by itself create a globally large bank: Even if you take the largest of the mergers that have been proposed, which is PNB combining with two other entities, it’s going to give you a bank which is about one third the size of the 50th largest bank in the world, which is not saying much.
2. There is no correlation between size and efficiency: Second, the correlation between size and efficiency is suspect beyond a certain minimum size. And that size is quite low: say $10 billion in assets or so you get the necessary scale of economy. Beyond that, the empirical evidence does not suggest there are many great advantages to simply growing bigger. The classic comparison is between HDFC Bank and the consolidated State Bank of India, which is many times its size. The price to book value ratio of HDFC Bank is close to 4, whereas the price to book value of SBI is around 1.25. Therefore, the suggestion that getting bigger is going to, in itself, give you some benefits is not validated by experience, either internationally or within India.
3. Timing of merger amidst slowdown is not good: From a timing point of view, this does not seem an ideal time for going ahead with these mergers. Because, as all of us are aware, the economy is clearly going through a major slowdown. And it requires all hands on the deck. And whenever a merger of such scale happens, I think the senior management gets distracted in terms of trying to make sure who gets what.
4. Prerequisite for Merger success may not be there: In order to make a success of a merger, you need two conditions to be satisfied — you need a very high degree of managerial ability, and at least one of the entities in the merger must be financially strong — I’m afraid I can’t see either condition being satisfied in the mergers that are being proposed.
5. Big bank need not mean better performance: If you’re not able to make a success of your operations and deliver the performance of your existing level of assets, how does the management propose to make a success of a much bigger and more complex entity? The question is not answered simply by citing the theoretical scale economy.
6. No thematic specialization of merged entities proposed: I don’t think there’s any identity which they have tried to create for each of these merged entities in terms of trying to say, one will be focusing on Corporate, one will be on Small and Medium Enterprises, one will be Retail. There’s been no thinking in terms of any or each of these banks’ focus on a particular theme, particular skill-set and developing expertise in a space which is important as far as the overall economy is concerned.
7. Can’t layoff employees even after merger: Here, even if you rationalise the branches, a commitment has been given that people will not be laid off. That is one of the assurances given by the Ministry. And therefore, it’s not clear how any cost economies will be effected... if people are to be retained and yet be redeployed for other purposes.
8. Small SMEs may be impacted: From a lending perspective, the impact will be felt more for the SMEs and small businesses, who have a lot to gain from the personal contact they have with a local person. And as that becomes a lot weaker, that can impact... That is something which we will know only as we go along.

5 Reasons Why PSB Bank Merger is a Good Idea

1. NPA Resolution May get Quicker: Resolution of NPAs becomes difficult when you have so many banks trying to arrive at an understanding amongst themselves. So, to the extent that the discussion is happening among fewer banks, I think the resolution of NPAs will be facilitated.
2. Easy for Government to handle Management Issues: The most important rationale is that the multiplicity of banks was making enormous demands on the bandwidth of the Finance Ministry in terms of appointments of chairmen, managing directors, executive directors, independent directors. Even though they have the banks board bureau to advise them on appointments, the process is extremely time-consuming. There were long delays in making the senior appointments, as a result of which these banks have been incurring substantial costs. And so, collapsing the number of banks makes it easier for the Ministry to monitor the banks on its watch. I think that is probably one argument for the merger which I can sort of relate to.
3. Big Ticket Loans possible by Merged Entity: Having bigger entities enables people to make bigger loans, which would give them a degree of pricing power vis-a-vis corporates because corporates have been playing one bank off against the other under the multiple banking system. To the extent that you combine banks and they do a bigger amount of funding, it does improve the bargaining position of the bank.
4. Increased Income Possibility: Fee income that the banks get from selling mutual funds and insurance products can go up, because now the banks can command a much larger network and therefore demand a bigger commission from the people whose products they’re selling.
5. Trigger Private Sector Consolidation: The other thing which it can trigger is some consolidation in private sector banks. Because the private sector banks would now be falling behind in terms of scale compared to some of these banks. And therefore, to some extent, this can force the private sector banks to think of a similar consolidation.

5 Reasons Why Teaching Quality is Poor in India

Introduction: The Indian teacher, once a foot soldier in the freedom struggle and a contributor to nation building in the early years after Independence, now stands relegated to the margins of public life.

1. Poor Quality Graduates: Graduates whose college education is of poor quality cannot be expected to overcome their learning backlog at a training institute.
2. National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE) Failed as a Regulator: The teacher-training sector became so afflicted by fraudulent institutions and practices that internal mechanisms of correction proved inadequate. Hundreds of cases against bogus institutions reached the Supreme Court, which appointed a commission chaired by late Justice J.S. Verma. For a few years after 2012, when its report was published, an attempt was made to implement its recommendations, but the momentum slowed down before long.
3. Difficult to Sustain Idealism: In a consumption-oriented environment, the kind of idealism school teaching requires is not easy for a young person to cultivate and sustain. The working conditions and ethos at their respective schools erode the stamina of the few who start with a sense of dedication.
4. Family’s cooperation to teachers has receded: Many parents now treat their progeny’s school life as an ‘investment’ for which they demand the best ‘value’, often by relentlessly criticising the teacher and the principal. They don’t know the burden teachers carry on their fragile, ill-equipped professional shoulders. This burden includes the weight of family and community life, and the pressure coming from officialdom.
5. Lure of the Coaching Industry: Para-professionals have been growing in number and influence. They are known by various names in different States, but they also exist in vast numbers outside the system — as providers of home tuition and coaching. This underbelly of the education system suffers no interference from state norms. In the world of coaching, we see the utopia of free enterprise and the demise of teaching as noble work.

5 Points on Hepatitis B Virus in India

1. Morbidity and Mortality Statistics: Despite the introduction of hepatitis B vaccine in the Universal Immunisation Programme in 2002 and scaling-up nationwide in 2011, about one million people in India become chronically infected with the virus every year. According to the Health Ministry, as on February 2019, an estimated 40 million people in India were infected. Hepatitis B infection at a young age turns chronic, causing over 1,00,000 premature deaths annually from liver cirrhosis or liver cancer.
2. Vaccination Coverage Increased; Disease Uncontrolled: According to the WHO, the coverage of hepatitis B third dose had reached 86% in 2015. However, despite the high vaccination coverage, disease prevalence in children aged less than five years has not dropped below 1%.
3. First 24 Hour Period Crucial: One of the reasons for this is the sub-optimal coverage of birth dose in all infants within 24 hours of birth. Even seven years after the Health Ministry approved the birth dose in 2008, its coverage remained low — 45% in 2015 and 60% in 2016 — according to a 2019 Health Ministry report.
4. Awareness and Training of Health Workers: One of the reasons for the low coverage is the fear of wastage of vaccine when a 10-dose vial is used. Unfortunately, health-care workers are very often unaware of the WHO recommendation that allows hepatitis B open-vial policy. Opened vials of hepatitis B vaccine can be kept for a maximum duration of 28 days for use in other children if the vaccine meets certain conditions.
5. Conclusion: Awareness and Achievement: There is also a need to increase public awareness about the merits of the birth dose. On September 3, 2019, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Thailand became the first four countries in the World Health Organization’s southeast Asia region to have successfully controlled hepatitis B. India must follow suit.

10 Steps to Make Indian Cities Liveable

1. Empower cities: More financial power should be delegated to cities in proportion to their responsibilities.
2. National level support: It is important to realize urban issues are not the responsibility of local government alone.
3. Integrate new migrants and other vulnerable populations into the urban fabric: These people are often systematically discriminated against by cities’ bureaucracies. Adopt a people-centred approach to urbanization.
4. Beyond city limits: Ensure policies and management decisions at the city level take into account the regional and global context and interactions.
5. Coordinated long-term vision: As cities grow and new cities emerge, we need a coordinated long-term vision of urban development.
6. Prepare for future risks: Cities need to be prepared not only for the risks arising from global phenomena such as climate change, but also those arising from local processes. For example, numerous cities sit on deltas, and many of the world’s deltas are sinking as a result of extraction and the concentration of high-rise buildings.
7. Implementation and accountability: Many cities suffer from air and water pollution, where local officials prioritize economic development over environmental quality; or worse, corruption is rife and officials are bribed to ignore regulations. Enhancing implementation of environmental regulation and reducing corruption will have a dramatic effect on the liveability of cities.
8. More science in planning and decision-making: We do not have a full grasp of how cities as a complex system behave and respond to intervention. For example, decisions about transport can affect housing, industry, energy consumption and health in unexpected ways. Unintended adverse consequences can be minimized through closer collaboration on science and urban policies.
9. Nurture cultural innovation: Cities are centres of rapid cultural innovation. Evidence shows that cultural shifts in cities, e.g. “Cycling is cool” or “Wasting food is a shame”, have the potential to deliver significant sustainability outcomes within and beyond cities.
10. Facilitate city-to-city learning: Cities learn from each other more than from anything else.

5 Improvements Required in MV Act 2019

1. Compensation Calculation Formula Needs to be Reformed: First, closer attention needs to be paid to the formula used to calculate the quantum of compensation. In the case of Arun Kumar Agarwal & Anr v. National Insurance Co. Ltd & Ors (2010), the deceased was a homemaker. The Accident Claim Tribunal reduced the amount of compensation from the calculated sum of ₹6 lakh to a sum of ₹2,60,000, stating that she was unemployed. In light of the same, on appeal, the Supreme Court commented that: “The time has come for the Parliament to have a rethink on properly assessing homemakers’ and householders’ work and suitably amending he provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act… for giving compensation when the victims are women and homemakers.” The amended Act, however, does not account for such nuances.
2. Suggestions of SC Overlooked: Second, many of the problems with the Motor Vehicles Act highlighted by the apex court in the case of Jai Prakash v. M/S. National Insurance Co. & Ors (2009) either remain unaddressed or are inadequately addressed by the amended version. For instance, though vehicle users who don’t give passage to emergency ambulance vehicle are liable to be punished with fines, such punitive measures are likely to remain ineffective in the absence of an effective implementation mechanism.
3. Justice Delivery Speed: Another problem highlighted by the apex court for which the new Act does not provided any remedy is that of procedural delays on the part of tribunals in claims settlement.
4. Disbursal of Compensation in Installments: An absence of in-built safeguards in the compensation mechanism allows for the money to be frittered away by unscrupulous relatives, touts and agents, especially in cases where the victim or his nearest kin are poor and illiterate. It is to address this concern that the Supreme Court in Jai Prakash suggested payment in the form of monthly disbursements of smaller amounts over a longer period of time to victims or their kin, as against a lump-sum award. This has been overlooked by the new Act.
5. Victim Profiling: The fact that the National Crime Records Bureau does not collate data pertaining to the socio-economic and demographic profile of victims of traffic accidents is a testament to the relative apathy shown by the state machinery.

5 Ways How Motor Vehicle Amendment Act 2019 Helps Accident Victims

1. Enhanced Compensation: The amended Act gives the victims some respite as it provides for an enhanced insurance compensation of ₹5 lakh in case of death of a person in a traffic accident and ₹2.5 lakh where there is “grievous hurt”. The compensation to be awarded following hit-and-run accidents has also been raised to ₹2 lakh when a victim dies and ₹50,000 when he/she suffers a grievous injury.
2. Treatment during Golden Hour: Additionally, the Act now requires insurance companies and the government to notify schemes relating to cashless treatment during the ‘Golden Hour’ — the period of first 60 minutes from the occurrence of an accident when the risk of fatality can be minimised to the greatest extent.
3. Compulsory Insurance: It mandates compulsory insurance of all road users, including pedestrians, who will be covered through a ‘Motor Vehicle Accident Fund’.
4. Interim Relief: It also provides for interim relief to be provided to the claimants.
5. Passage to Ambulance: Vehicle users who don’t give passage to emergency ambulance vehicle are liable to be punished with fines

5 Steps India should take to tackle Climate Change

1. Switch from Fossils to Renewables: India ought to switch rapidly from polluting fossil fuels to cleaner renewable energy.
2. India must invest in building much stronger coastal and inland defences against climatic damage.
3. Economic Resilience: It also needs to do more to build resilience in the sectors of agriculture, fisheries, manufacturing, energy, transport, health, and education.
4. Adequate Finance Allocation: The priority for spending at the national and State levels for disaster management needs to rise. Adequate resources must also be allocated for implementing climate action plans that most States have now prepared.
5. Build Global Consensus for Action: Indeed, India should be alarmed at ecological destruction even in faraway places like Amazon. As the country that is most at risk for climate damage, it should lead in pressing the global community to take sweeping climate action.

5 Reason Why Climate Change Hurts India More

1. HSBC Report: A new report from HSBC has categorized India as being the country most vulnerable to climate change — that is, the country most vulnerable to climatic changes, future extreme weather events, response options, and energy transition risks.
2. Tropical Location: A number of Indian States have experienced extreme heatwaves in the past three years, and the nation’s capital recently recorded a temperature of 48°C, its hottest day in 21 years.
3. Long Coastline: India’s exposure to climate hazards is heightened by the location of its vast coastline in the eye of the storm, across the Indian Ocean, Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea.
4. Population Distribution: It also has a high population density located in harm’s way. For instance, Kerala, which experienced intense floods and landslides in 2018 and 2019, is among the States with the highest density.
5. Monsoon Dependent Economy: Increasing temperatures and changing seasonal rainfall patterns are aggravating droughts and hurting agriculture across the country.

5 Points on India's CVD Burden

1. CVD Burden in India: In low-income countries, including India, however, CVD is still the top killer, with death three times more frequent than that due to cancer.
2. Poor Quality Healthcare: Higher mortality in poorer countries was likely due to other factors, including ‘lower quality and less health care’. Access to affordable, quality health care is still a dream in many pockets in India.
3. High OoP Expenditure Deters Treatment: A great amount of out-of-pocket expenditure (according to Health Ministry data for 2014-15, nearly 62.6 % of India’s total health expenditure) often frustrates continuation of treatment, or adherence to drug regimens.
4. Prominent Causes of High CVD Mortality: It is significant that the single largest risk factor is a low education level. It is no doubt part of the job description of the National Programme to modify this risk factor. However, governments will have to muscle up to tackle a rather startling finding — ambient air pollution and indoor air pollution have an impact on CVD and mortality. Household air pollution is the third top risk factor in low-income countries, according to the study.
5. Solution: National and State schemes running on mission mode, including the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, CVD and Stroke will have to step up efforts to target people at risk with life-saving interventions. While some States have shown limited successes with government-sponsored health insurance schemes, the Centre’s Ayushman Bharat Yojana will have to take much of the burden of hospitalisation for complications of non-communicable diseases.

5 Steps by Govt Agency to Curb Plastic Use

1. Policy Making & Implementation: The nodal Ministry for the scheme would be the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, which has been asked not just to ensure and enforce the ban on single use plastics but also finalise the pending policy for Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), especially on milk packets.
2. Plastic as Fuel: Department of Industrial Promotion is to ensure that all cement factories use plastic as fuel.
3. Plastic in Road Construction: National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has been asked to ensure that not only is plastic waste collected and transported responsibly along National Highways but also all collected plastic waste is used for road construction. Gram panchayats have been asked to mobilise shramdaan on October 2 to ensure that all roads under the Prime Minister Gram Sadak Yojana are built using plastic waste and segregate waste in rural areas. According to studies quoted by officials, roads constructed using water plastic are durable against extreme weather conditions and are also cost-effective.
4. Recycling of Plastic: Since 70% of the total plastic waste in India is from urban areas, all 4,378 urban local bodies have been tasked with massive shramdaan for plastic collection and to collect and segregate waste into recyclable and non-recyclable categories.
5. Alternative and Awareness: Ministries of Tourism and Textiles have also been roped in for the campaign, including pushing for greater production of jute bags etc. to replace plastic bags. The Tourism Ministry has been asked to ensure awareness on SUPs at iconic tourist spots. Railways Ministry will organise massive shramdaans (voluntary work) on October 2 for collection of plastic waste at railway stations and along rail tracks and will run advertising radio spots on all trains.

5 Points on UAPA 2019

1. UAPA 2019 in News: Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar, Hafiz Saeed of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), his deputy Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and underworld don Dawood Ibrahim who planned and executed the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts are the first four persons designated as “terrorists” under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act, 2019.
2. Targeting individual ierrorists: UAPA 2019 empowers the government to designate individuals as terrorists. Previously, only an organisation could be designated as one.
3. Faster seizure of property: UAPA 2019 empowers the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to seize properties, which previously required permission from the Director General of Police.
4. Increases investigative resource personnel: UAPA 2019 allows NIA officers, of the rank of inspector or above, to investigate cases. Before, only Deputy Superintendent or Assistant Commissioner of Police or above, could do so.
5. Concerns over UAPA 2019: Opposition parties have raised concern over the law, saying it could also be used against political opponents and civil society activists who spoke against the government may be branded as “terrorists.”

5 Benefits of One Nation One Ration Card

1. Beneficial for Migrants: The system, once introduced, would enable beneficiaries to get their quota of grains from any ration shop of their own choice across the country. The ONORC system is of considerable utility to migrants.
2. Reduce Costs for Migrants: Identification of beneficiaries is transaction-cost heavy and is fraught with several inclusion and exclusion errors. If a household moves, to become eligible, the costs must be incurred all over again. Given the quintessential low bargaining power associated with the fact of being a migrant, the costs are generally steeper for migrant families. ONORC, by doing away with duplication and eligibility-related cost escalations, will benefit them significantly.
3. May lead to divisibility of entitlements: Also, as partial migration is a common phenomenon, ONORC, if combined with divisibility in entitlements, can benefit households even more. The migrant member can pick up grains at his location while the family staying back in rural areas pick their share there.
4. Choice of Dealer Open: ONORC will give the beneficiaries the opportunity to opt for the dealer of their choice. If any dealer misbehaves or mis-allocates, the beneficiary can switch to another FPS shop instantly.
5. Strengthen entire PDS Network: Finally, combined with a rating system based on the experiences akin to the Uber/Ola system, the government can improve PDS by closer monitoring and control. Those PDS dealers who perform better could be rewarded. But for the system to work, there needs to be a unified structure like in app-based cabs.

10 Points on boosting Fintech Sector

Steering Committee on Fintech Recommendations:

1. Virtual Banking System: Department of Financial Services and the Reserve Bank of India may examine the suitability of virtual banking system’ in the Indian context, costs and benefits regarding allowing virtual banks and prepare for a possible future scenario where banks do not need to set up branches and yet deliver the full-scale retail banking services ranging from extending loans, savings accounts, issuing cards and offering payment services through their app or website.
2. Level Playing Field: The panel had also urged the government and the RBI to take steps to eliminate any discrimination in access to payment infrastructure to non-banks as compared to banks, with a view to enhance competition and innovation.
3. Fintech for Security: The committee recommends the use of fintech, especially by PSE [public sector enterprise] financial service companies to bolster cybersecurity, fraud control and anti-money laundering.
4. Encourage Private Players: The committee also recommends that fintech firms specialising in this field should be encouraged to set up their businesses in India.
5. NBFC for Farms: NBFCs had made significant progress in leveraging fintech to increase their outreach, such companies should be incentivised to “work in the agricultural space by including them in credit guarantee schemes.”
6. Ease KYC Compliance: In a bid to ease the KYC process, the committee recommended that various options, including video-based KYC, making available validated electronic versions of KYC-related documents through a DigiLocker, and making these available for verification by service providers with customer consent, be considered early.
7. Harness Tech for Insurance: The Committee recommends that insurance companies and lending agencies in the agri sector should be encouraged to use drone and remote sensing technology, directly or using services of fintech companies, to assess discrepancies in self-reported cropping patterns and crop cutting experiment processes, enabling more efficient delivery of both credit and insurance products and reduce credit/insurance risks.
8. Digitisation of Land Records: Committee said the government should take up “on a war footing” was the digitisation of land records and also recommended a deadline of three years within which this must be completed.
9. Consumer Protection Framework: Committee said that a legal framework for consumer protection should be put in place early keeping in mind the rise of fintech and digital services, and also said a law must also be enacted for this.
10. Ease Access to Social Schemes: To further ease access to pension schemes and small savings schemes, the committee recommended that a common digital platform be created for all micro-pension schemes and Government pension schemes through which pension subscribers can subscribe to specific schemes seamlessly and reduce access barriers by allowing payments through various modes such as Jan Dhan Yojana accounts, debit cards, credit cards, internet banking, mobile wallets, etc.

5 Points on Hunger & Malnutrition in India

1. Statistics: Food and Agriculture Report, 2018 stated that India houses 195.9 million of the 821 million undernourished people in the world, accounting for approximately 24% of the world’s hungry. Prevalence of undernourishment in India is 14.8%, higher than both the global and Asian average.
2. Statistics: It has been “reported in 2017 by the National Health Survey (NHS) that approximately 19 crore people in the country were compelled to sleep on an empty stomach every night. Moreover, the most alarming figure revealed is that approximately 4500 children die every day under the age of five years in our country resulting from hunger and malnutrition, amounting to over three lakh deaths every year owing to hunger, of children alone”.
3. Solution 1: State-funded community kitchen: Tamil Nadu's Amma Unavagam had become a roaring success by involving peers in self-help groups, employing the poor to serve hygienic food to eradicate the gnawing problem of hunger on the streets. Rajasthan's Annapurna Rasoi, Indira Canteens in Karnataka, Delhi's Aam Aadmi Canteen, Anna Canteen in Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand Mukhyamantri Dal Bhat and Odisha's Ahaar Centre were combating starvation and malnutrition crisis.
4. Solution 2: Creation of a national food grid by the Centre that would be beyond the scope of the Public Distribution Scheme (PDS).
5. Conclusion: Starvation deaths continue to eat into the right to life and dignity of social fabric and a “radical” new measure like community kitchens need to be set up across the country to feed the poor and the hungry.

5 Points on Chief Minister Employment Generation Programme

1. The scheme aims to develop small and micro businesses and generate employment by setting up one lakh industries. The programme will be implemented through the Directorate of Industries and Khadi and Village Industry Commission.
2. The investment limit for projects in the service sector and the manufacturing sector is ₹10 lakh and ₹50 lakh respectively. The State government will be granting 15% to 35% of the project cost. The beneficiary will have to invest 5% to 10% of the cost, while 60% to 80% of it would be provided through a loan from nationalised or private banks. Under this scheme, industries won’t have to offer collateral as the government will guarantee to repay the loan.
3. The age-limit for beneficiaries has been set between 18 and 45 years for women, and 50 years for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
4. Women entrepreneurs will be eligible for 30% reservation in the scheme, while SCs/STs will get 20% reservation.
5. The State government has set apart ₹500 crore for the scheme this year.