Keep up-to-date with all that is happening in welfare policy with this curated selection of news, published every fortnight. The current edition focusses on the Coronavirus pandemic in India, and the government’s efforts to stem its increase. 

Policy News

• The Reserve Bank of India has called the pandemic the “worst economic crisis in a century” with the fallout having destabilised the financial system.
• Eight states comprise 90 per cent of COVID-19 reporting in India, the Union government has said.
• In order to ensure that the migrant workers in cities have affordable places to live in, the Union government has approved the development of affordable rental housing complexes (ARHCs). The rent will vary between Rs 1,000-3,000 per month.
• The Union government has set up an agriculture infrastructure fund to provide financial support to entrepreneurs, start-ups, agri-tech players and farmer groups for infrastructure and logistics facilities.
• An amount of Rs 23,848 crore has been allocated for the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) and Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) as per the recommendations of Fifth State Finance Commission in Odisha.
• Haryana government has approved an Ordinance that will impose a 75 per cent reservation in private sector jobs for people from the state.
• Kerala government has launched the ‘Dream Kerala’ project to support and create job opportunities for NRIs returning to Kerala due to job loss from the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The Uttar Pradesh government has approved a startup policy that aims at setting up 100 incubators and developing an ecosystem to set up at least 10,000 startups in the state.
• Curriculum on digital safety and online well-being and Augmented Reality for students has been launched by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and Facebook.

Others

• The World Bank has approved a new project named STARS (Strengthening Teaching-Learning and Results for States Program) worth USD 500 million to improve learning outcome and governance of government schools in six Indian states: Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha and Rajasthan.
• The World Bank has approved a five-year loan of Rs 3,000 crore to the Namami Gange project in order to develop and improve infrastructure projects in the river basin.
• The Union government has signed a USD 750 million agreement with the World Bank to aid Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).