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Prime Minister Narendra Modi hit out at people ridiculing the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) and said those who gave loans to big businessmen “over phone” never understood the power of micro finance.
Addressing an event, Modi said: “The success of Mudra Yojana has encouraged crores of people for self-employment and has shown a new direction.
How much micro finance is significant in increasing the strength of the economy at the grassroots level, how much power micro finance has emerged as, we have seen in these eight years.”
“People who consider themselves experts, big economists, pundits and were in a habit of giving loans to big businessmen over phone, never understood the power of micro finance. Even today, they are ridiculing it.
They do not understand the potential of the common man,” Modi said, addressing the National Rozgar Mela via video conferencing.
His remarks were seen as an indirect swipe at Congress leader and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who had recently criticised the NDA government over PMMY.
In the eight years, loans worth Rs 23 lakh crore have been given without bank guarantee under Mudra Yojana. Out of this, 70 per cent loans have been given to women. This scheme has created 8 crore new entrepreneurs. These are the people who have started their business for the first time with the help of Mudra Yojana.
Editorial page
Jallianwala Bagh fact check (Page no. 16)
(GS Paper 1, History)
Every year in April, we remember the horrific Jallianwala Bagh massacre. This year, as the country considers the proposed Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2023, it is worth revisiting the story of two inquiries conducted over a hundred years ago in the aftermath of the massacre.
The IT Ministry’s proposed rules will give the Press Information Bureau powers to remove any “fake or inaccurate information” about the central government from social media and digital news media. Now is an opportune moment to recall the fundamental principle the Jallianwala Bagh inquiries followed: No government must get a carte blanche to determine what is fake or inaccurate with respect to its own work.
The details of the massacre are well-known. On April 13, 1919, a big crowd assembled at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar, Punjab, to protest peacefully against the arrest of two prominent pro-independence leaders.
General Reginald Dyer, the soon-to-be infamous British military officer, invaded the Bagh with his troops and ordered continuous firing on the unarmed crowd.
A widespread national and international outrage compelled the Government of Punjab to create a ‘Disorders Inquiry Committee’, also known as the Hunter Commission.
There were three Indians in this eight-member Commission; Chimanlal Setalvad, Jagat Narayan, and Sultan Ahmed Khan. Each of the eight members cross-examined the accused officers.
The Indian members were unsparing, detailed, and rigorous in their cross-examination of Dyer. Eventually, they disagreed with the opinion of the five British members and submitted their minority report.
His inclusive vision (Page no. 16)
(GS Paper 1, Significant Personalities)
As we commemorate yet another birth anniversary of Babasaheb Ambedkar on April 14, the dark reality is that his universal vision centred on the idea of justice is under attack from the present government.
A cursory scan of the public sphere reveals how the promise of equal citizenship embodied in the Constitution is diluted or denied by the state apparatus every day.
Ambedkar once proclaimed in the Constituent Assembly that Parliament belongs to the Opposition. During the just concluded Budget session, the BJP MPs disrupted proceedings in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha in a planned manner.
This was done with the singular aim of denying opposition parties the democratic space to raise the alleged nexus of the Adani group of companies with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The washout of the Budget session is an episode unheard of in the history of our Parliament.
In a 1992 lecture — “Discipline and Decorum in Our Legislatures” — the then chairperson of the Rajya Sabha, K R Narayanan described the disruption of parliamentary proceedings as “measles of the middle ages”. He fervently hoped that with the passage of time and the deepening of democracy in India, this malady would be cured. The BJP MPs have unleashed the disease that is plaguing the very foundations of our democratic structures.
Explained
Vibrant Villages Programme (Page no. 24)
(GS Paper 3, Infrastructure)
Recently, Union Home Minister Amit Shah was in Arunachal Pradesh for the launch of the ‘Vibrant Villages Programme’ (VVP) in the border village of Kibithoo.
The constant threat along the country’s border amid the ongoing standoff with China has led to a concerted push to upgrade infrastructure in the border areas.
To this end, the Union Cabinet on February 15 approved the allocation of Rs 4,800 crore for the Centre’s ‘Vibrant Villages Programme.’
This village development scheme was first announced in the 2022 Budget. The programme’s targets are to provide comprehensive development of villages on the border with China and improvement in the quality of life of people living in identified border villages.
The development in these villages will help prevent migration, and thus also boost security. The Parliamentary Standing Committee in 2018 had pointed towards backwardness, illiteracy, and lack of basic facilities and infrastructure in our border areas. The VVP aims to address all these issues.
Under this centrally sponsored scheme, 2,967 villages in 46 blocks of 19 districts have been identified for comprehensive development.
These villages abut the border in the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh and the Union Territory of Ladakh. In the first phase, around 662 villages have been identified for priority coverage.
According to Shah, a population of about 1.42 lakh people will be covered in the first phase. Under the programme, the government has allocated Rs 4,800 crore for infrastructure development and to provide livelihood opportunities in the border areas.
Out of the total outlay, Rs 2,500 crore will be spent exclusively on the creation of road infrastructure. The total outlay is for financial years 2022-23 to 2025-26. There is a conscious effort to not overlap VVP with the Border Area Development Programme.
Behind the Kudmis’ agitation for ST status (Page no. 24)
(GS Paper 1, Population and Associated Issues)
After about a week of protests, the Kudmi community, which is demanding Scheduled Tribe (ST) status and the inclusion of their language in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, lifted their agitation following assurances from the West Bengal government.
The community had been sitting on protest in the Junglemahal areas of West Bengal and parts of Jharkhand. Last week, they blocked National Highways and railway tracks in Bengal’s West Midnapore and Purulia and some areas of Jharkhand for five days.
Kudmis are mainly a peasant community, with their population concentrated in the Junglemahal areas or the Chota Nagpur plateau of West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha.
Some Kudmis are also found in Assam and northern West Bengal, who have migrated from the Chota Nagpur plateau region.
During the British rule, they were in the Scheduled Tribe or Aboriginal community list, and were regarded as a primitive tribe, like the Munda, Oraon, Bhumij, Kharia, Santhal, and others.
After 1950, when the Scheduled Tribe list was prepared in independent India, Kudmis did not find a place on it. Ever since, they have been fighting for their identity as a Scheduled Tribe.
The Kudmis argue that in the British era, various documents listed them as a tribe and an aboriginal community of India, and they want that identity restored.