Parliament Diary

Policy Priority 

Current Status 

ECONOMY AND FINANCE 

India’s ranking in the Ease of Doing Business Index has improved from 142 in 2014 to 77 in 2019. The government seeks to be among the top 50 countries in the world.

• In October 2019, the World Bank released its annual ‘Ease of Doing Business’ report. In the report, India’s rank improved to 63 out of 190 countries in 2019, from its rank of 77 in the previous year. 
• According to the report, India introduced changes in certain parameters which led to this increase in its business ranking. These include changes related to starting a business, dealing with construction permits, trading across borders, and resolving insolvency.

Policy Priority 

Current Status 

ECONOMY AND FINANCE  

The Fugitive and Economic Offenders Act, 2018 has facilitated the receipt of information on fugitive economic offenders from 146 countries. Automatic exchange of information with 80 of these countries has been established.

• The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has reported that as of December 2019, 51 proclaimed offenders from 66 cases have left for other countries.17 CBI is processing 51 extradition requests which are pending at various stages. The total defrauded amount by persons in these 66 cases is approximately Rs 17,947 crore.

Policy Priority 

Current Status 

AGRICULTURE

To increase income support to farmers, the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi has been extended to every farmer in the country. Under the scheme, Rs 12,000 crore has been disbursed to farmers in three months. The expected expenditure on the scheme is Rs 90,000 crore per annum. 

• PM-KISAN scheme envisages beneficiaries to receive three instalments of Rs 2,000 each, per year. With the increase in coverage, the government expected the scheme to cover around 14.5 crore beneficiaries. So far, in 2019-20, 7.5 crore beneficiaries have received the first instalment, 6.1 crore have received the second instalment and 3 crore have received the third instalment. 
• In 2019-20, Rs 75,000 crore has been allocated to the PM-KISAN scheme. Till December 13, 2019, Rs 29,877 crore has been released under the scheme for the year 2019-20. 42 In 2018-19, Rs 6,005 crore was released under the scheme (as against the revised estimate of Rs 20,000 crore for the year).

Policy Priority 

Current Status 

RURAL AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT

No poor will defecate in the open after 2022. 

Toilets constructed and households covered: SBM - Gramin (in lakh) between 2014-15 and 2019-20

Policy Priority 

Current Status 

WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT

Penalties for crimes against women have been made harsher and the new penal provisions are being strictly enforced. 

Crimes against women cover a range of gender-related crimes, like rape, dowry death, assault with intent to outrage modesty, and cruelty by husband or his relatives.

Crimes against women in 2016 and 2017 

Policy Priority 

Current Status 

HEALTH

The Ayushman Bharat Scheme has been implemented to provide health insurance to 50 crore poor people. As of June, 2019, 26 lakh patients had availed treatments under this scheme.

• Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana scheme has been allocated Rs 6,400 crore in 2019-20.88 As of November 2019, 13.6 crore beneficiary families are covered under the scheme.
• As of November 2019, 54.85 lakh claims have been made under the scheme and the amount of claim raised is Rs 7,609 crore. 

Policy Priority 

Current Status 

WATER AND ENVIRONMENT 

To address the challenges posed by air pollution, the National Clean Air Programme has been started in 102 cities. 

•  The National Clean Air Programme was launched in January, 2019 to set national level targets of reducing PM2.5 and PM10 by 20-30%, by 2024 (as compared to 2017 levels).The programme enables Central Pollution Control Board to identify non-attainment cities, i.e. cities that do not comply with the notified the National Ambient Air Quality Standards.  
• It identified 102 non-attainment cities where the ambient air quality crossed the prescribed standards continuously during the period 2011-15.  It observed that in most of these cities, PM10 levels exceed the prescribed standards. Further, as per the ambient air pollution database released by World Health Organisation in 2018, 14 Indian cities are among the 20 most polluted cities of the world, when ranked on the basis of their PM2.5 levels.