Keep up-to-date with all that is happening in welfare policy with this curated selection of news, published every fortnight.

Policy News

1. The Union Ministry of Jal Shakti launched Sujalam 2.0, a countrywide project to reuse grey water.
2. The Government of Sikkim is set to announce ‘Bahini’, a scheme to install free sanitary pad vending machines in all the secondary and senior secondary government schools in the state.
3. The State Assembly of Bihar passed the Bihar Land Mutation Amendment Bill, 2021, making the mutation of maps mandatory in the state.
4. The Union Cabinet set a target of about ₹1 trillion for the National Bank for Financial Infrastructure and Development (NaBFID) for sanctioning loans to the infrastructure sector in the next fiscal year.
5. The Department of Land Resources launched the Unique Land Parcel Identification Number (ULPIN) system in Assam under the Digital India Land Records Modernization Programme (DILRMP).

Health 

1. The Union Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved the continuation of the National AIDS and STD Control Programme (NACP) till March 2026, with an outlay of ₹15471.94 crore.
2. The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare released India Tuberculosis (TB) Report 2022 and the National TB Prevalence Survey Report.
3. The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare launched the BRICS Vaccine R&D Centre.

Education

1. The University Grants Commission (UGC) made it mandatory for central universities to adopt the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) for admission to their undergraduate courses. The National Testing Agency (NTA) released guidelines for CUET 2022.
2. The Union Education Ministry conducted a ‘Foundational Learning Study’ in order to assess the learning levels of students up to Class 3 in all the states and union territories.
3. The Ministry of Defence (MoD), in partnership with NGOs, private schools and state governments, approved the setting up of 21 Sainik schools.

Sanitation

1. The Parliamentary Standing Committee report on water resources was presented in the Lok Sabha. The report presented statistics on fund allocation, utilisation and target completion for components of the Swachh Bharat Mission and Jal Jeevan Mission. 
2. The Delhi government proposed an outlay of ₹7,610 crore, 10% of the total budget estimates, for water supply and sanitation. 
3. The Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA) in partnership with the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) and the French Development Agency (AFD) launched the Swachhata Startup Challenge.

Other News 

1. The Union Minister for Rural Development answered in Rajya Sabha that 2.28 crore houses have been sanctioned to the beneficiaries, out of which 1.75 crore houses have been completed as of 9 March 2022, under Pradhan Mantri Gramin Awaas Yojana (PMAY-G). For more information on PMAY-G, read our budget brief here.
2. The Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment tabled its recent report flagging the under-utilisation of funds by the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes.
3. The Union Ministry of Rural Development & Panchayati Raj released the Disaster Management Plan of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj.
4. The National Payment Corporation of India launched a new Unified Payment Interface (UPI) service called UPI-Lite. Read the report here. 
5. The United Nations released the World Water Development Report 2022 (UN WWDR 2022) titled ‘Groundwater: Making the invisible visible.’
6. The Ministry of Home Affairs extended the validity of registration certificates issued under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) till June 2022.