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Government claims it has developed more than 60000 playfields in Villages & Blocks
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
August 20, 2016
While government apathy is considered one of the prime reasons for the state of sports in the country, government data indicates that more than 60000 playfields have been developed at village and block levels between 2008-09 and 2013-14 at a cost of more than 800 crore rupees.
Apathy of successive governments in development of sports infrastructure and promotion of sports is believed as the prime reason for India’s failure on the international stage. But the data presented by government paints a different picture. As per data shared in the Lok Sabha, the Government has developed more than 60000 playfields in village & block panchayats across the country between 2008-09 and 2013-14.
The PYKKA Scheme
The Panchayat Yuva Krida aur Khel Abhiyan (PYKKA) was implemented by the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports from 2008-09 to 2013-14 for creation and maintenance of basic sports infrastructure at village and block panchayat level and holding of annual sports competitions to encourage mass participation in sports. All State Governments have been granted financial assistance under the PYKKA Scheme for development of sports in rural areas.
As per the data with the government, 62609 playfields have been developed across the country between 2008-09 and 2013-14 covering more than 60000 villages. More than 20000 playfields each were developed in both 2008-09 and 2010-11. Most of these were developed in states like Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh etc.
More than Rs 800 crore was spent in developing these Playfields
Government has reportedly spent Rs 806.6 crore in development of playfields across the country under the PYKKA scheme in the 6 years. An average amount of Rs 1.28 lakh was spent on each playfield. Of the states, more than Rs 100 crore was spent only in Uttar Pradesh followed by Rs 95.8 crore in Andhra Pradesh. More than Rs 50 crore was spent in six states. Less than 10 crore was spent in 12 States/UTs. Of the bigger states, only Rs 4.6 crore was spent in West Bengal, which is hardly 5% of what was spent in Andhra Pradesh that has a similar population as West Bengal.
More than 62 lakh participated in competitions in 2 years
Another important component of PYKKA is holding of annual sports competitions to encourage mass participation in sports. As per government data, more than 62 lakh people participated in such events in 2012-13 and 2013-14. The government spent Rs 224.9 crore on these competitions from 2008-09 to 2013-14. Of the states, more than Rs 20 crore each was spent by Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Of the bigger states, Kerala spent the least amount of Rs 1.55 crore on competitions.
Featured Image: Playground for every village


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Government confirms in Parliament that it repaid Oil Bonds worth only ₹ 3500 crore - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
February 14, 2019
The BJP’s official twitter handle posted an infographic in September 2018 which said that the current government repaid more than ₹ 1.3 lakh crore worth oil bonds which were issued during the previous UPA government. Now the government has confirmed in the Rajya Sabha that it repaid only ₹ 3,500 crore worth oil bonds while bonds worth more than ₹ 1.3 lakh crore are still pending.
What the economist PM Manmohan Singh said & did on petroleum prices? He said that money does not grow on trees & left unpaid bills of oil bonds worth Rs. 1.3 lakh crore. Modi govt paid off the pending bills with interest because ‘we should not burden our children’. #NationFirst pic.twitter.com/Z8zTV1kG1i
— BJP (@BJP4India) September 10, 2018
Factly had earlier done a Fact Check based on data available in the budget documents to conclude that the Modi government has only repaid oil bonds worth ₹ 3,500 crore. The Petroleum Planning & Analysis Cell (PPAC) under the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas had also confirmed that the government indeed repaid only ₹ 3,500 crore worth oil bonds. Now the government has confirmed the same in response to a question in the Rajya Sabha.
What are oil bonds & who all issued these bonds?
Oil Bonds were issued by the governments during the days when the prices of petrol/diesel were regulated. Instead of paying the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) for the subsidies extended on petrol/diesel & other oil products, the governments used to issue oil bonds as compensation to these companies which are like government securities. These securities are usually long dated securities of 10-20 years. For instance, look at this notification of the Oil Bonds issued during the  UPA.
Oil Bonds were issued by all the previous governments till 2010 when the petrol price was deregulated. Even the previous NDA government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee issued oil bonds. In his budget speech of the 2002-03 budget, the then Finance Minister, Yashwant Sinha mentioned that the government will issue oil bonds.
What is the worth of Oil Bonds pending?
The budget documents available in the public domain reveal the information of pending oil bonds and the amount of interest to be paid on these oil bonds. As per annexure 6E of the receipt budget 2014-15, titled ‘Special Securities Issued To Oil Marketing Companies In Lieu Of Cash Subsidy’, the total value of pending oil bonds by the end of 2013-14 was ₹ 1,34,423 crore. This is when the NDA government took over. As per this document, the pending liabilities related to Oil Bonds were ₹ 1,34,423 crore. The only set of bonds due for maturity during 2014-19 period (the Modi government’s term) were the two sets of bonds which matured in 2015,  totaling ₹ 3500 crore.  Even this part was confirmed by the government in its response to a question in the Rajya Sabha.
Even the annexure 2E of the receipt budget of 2019-20 show the same set of pending liabilities. In other words, the pending liabilities when the Modi government took over were ₹ 1,34,423 crore and by 2018-19, the liabilities stand at ₹ 1,30,923 crore. In effect, the modi government repaid only ₹ 3,500 crore worth of oil bonds which matured in the year 2015.
What about interest on Oil Bonds?
The interest payments of Government of India are captured in a document titled ‘Interest Payments’ in the demand for grants of the Ministry of Finance under the expenditure budget. All the interest payments made by the government are noted in this document including the interest on special bonds to oil companies. The data of the last 20 years suggests that various government (both UPA & NDA) have been paying interest on oil bonds. The interest liability increased substantially during the UPA-1 because of the issue of multiple oil bonds. The UPA-2 paid a total of ₹ 53,163 crore in interest for oil bonds in the 5-year of period between 2009-10 and 2013-14. On the other hand, the current NDA government paid a total of ₹ 50,216 crores in the 5 year period between 2014-15 and 2018-19. They have also budgeted an interest payment of ₹ 9989.96 crore for 2019-20.
The interest payments for the last 5 years also clearly indicate that there was no change in the outstanding amount, hence no repayments in the last 5 years except in 2015. Though it is true that the Modi government paid an interest of over ₹ 50,000 crore in the last 5 years, the UPA-2 had also paid a similar if not a greater amount of interest during their term.
Government confirms this in the Rajya Sabha
In the answer provided to unstarred question 296 in the Rajya Sabha (on 12th December 2018), Dharmendra Pradhan, the minister in-charge of Petroleum & Natural Gas confirmed the same, that oil bonds worth ₹ 1.3 lakh crore are still pending.

source: news-factly

created: February 14, 2019

license: Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

author: Sai Krishna Muthyanolla


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07 May 2022 - Government Data Roundup: Monthly payroll reporting, CRS, reports on currency & finance are among the data released recently
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
May 7, 2022
In the second edition of the ‘Government Data Roundup’, we cover monthly payroll reporting by MoSPI, Quarterly Report on Employment Scenario, RBI’s report on Currency and Finance 2021-22, Vital Statistics based on Civil Registration System 2020, and Rural Health Statistics.
Making government data available to the public is important as it helps in ensuring transparency in government working & accountability of the various programs undertaken. Public or Government Data is now being extensively used in almost every aspect of governance by policymakers, Central/ State Governments officials, researchers, journalists, etc. The data is also important for creating public value through the following activities:
Considering the significance of data, Factly had launched a fortnightly government data roundup which is a compilation of the data released by the government during the past two weeks with information about the type of the data, the sector to which the data relates, the frequency of release, and a brief about the data. In this second edition of the Government data roundup, we look at some of the important reports released by various ministries across the sectors of health, environment, demography, labour and employment, and finance in the last fortnight up to 05 May 2022.
Brief about the data:
The Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation started publishing this data since April 2018 covering the period from September 2017 onwards. Information on the number of subscribers under three major schemes- the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) Scheme, the Employees’ State Insurance (ESI) Scheme and the National Pension Scheme (NPS) is published in these reports.
Key Highlights:
Significance:
The monthly data on the payroll reporting in the country is based on the administrative records available with selected government agencies. It gives different perspectives on the level of employment in the formal sector in the country. However, it does not measure employment at a holistic level.
Brief about the report:
The report provides quarterly updates about employment vacancies, training, and other related parameters for selected nine (9) sectors of the non-farm economy over successive quarters. The nine (9) sectors which account for 85% of the total employment in the non-farm establishments in the country viz; Manufacturing, Construction, Trade, Transport, Education, Health, Accommodation & Restaurants, Information Technology (IT) & Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), and Financial Services. Detailed information on the methodology and limitations of the survey was published by Factly earlier.
Key Highlights:
Significance:
The Quarterly Employment Survey report is important as it gives insights into the change of employment over the previous quarters and other related parameters such as sector, size of employment unit, type of employment, etc. But the scope of the survey is restricted to units with 10 or more employees that emerged/were established prior to the 6 Economic Census in 2013-14. Furthermore, the survey is based on either records or responses of the establishments and verification of records has not been done for the collection of data.
Brief about the publication:
Sarvekshana is a biannual technical Journal of the National Statistical Office. The first issue was published in 1977. The latest issue for March 2021 is the 112 issue. The journal publishes analytical articles based on the data collected through NSS, other surveys and censuses. Unpublished papers from students, researchers, Government officials and others working on survey and census data including the methodology adopted are published in the journal.
List of papers published:
Significance:
The journal brings a deeper understanding of the socio-economic development of the country. Numerous perspectives are included in it, including a critical analysis of survey techniques and findings of the NSS Surveys. Moreover, the journal provides a platform for encouraging research and analysis among academia and officials in the Government on various socio-economic aspects especially based on the surveys conducted as part of the National Sample Survey (NSS).
About the report:
This annual report was first published in 1937 and has contributors from the Department of Economic and Policy Research (DEPR). It reviews the economic developments in the country during the previous financial year emphasizing the policy decisions of the Government. Since 1998-99, the report has adopted a theme-based approach, and so a detailed economic analysis of the issues related to the theme is presented in the report.
The theme for the 2020-21 report is “Revive and Reconstruct” focusing on a durable recovery post-COVID. The pandemic struck India hard resulting in among the biggest pandemic-induced losses in the world in terms of output, lives, and livelihoods. While this may take years to recover, the Russia-Ukraine conflict has also affected recovery. Record high commodity prices, weaker global growth outlook and tighter global financial conditions have arisen out of the conflict. Amidst such a scenario, the report has come up with policy suggestions for the growth post the pandemic.
Key Findings:
Significance:
The report lists key areas to focus on, and policy suggestions for economic growth which has a direct impact on people. This year’s report which focuses on the pandemic-induced losses, has also looked at sector-wise structural issues, the need for reviving the rural economy, PLI schemes, labour reforms, etc. and called for ensuring social security of employees.
About the report:
The report gives an overview of the working of the Civil Registration System (CRS) in the country. It presents a compilation of data on registered births, deaths, infant deaths and stillbirths with rural-urban & sex-wise break-up and sex ratio at birth based on Civil Registration Records. The report is prepared based on the statutory Annual Statistical Report prepared by the Chief Registrars of Births & Deaths of States/UTs.
Key findings:
Significance:
Civil Registration is a continuous, permanent, compulsory recording of the occurrence and characteristics of vital events, like births, deaths and stillbirths which are important for planning, monitoring, and evaluating various programs related to primary health care, family planning, maternal and child health, education, etc. This year’s report is significant as it helps evaluate the effect of the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
About the report:
The Rural Health Statistics report is based on the healthcare administrative data provided by states/UTs such as physical infrastructure, functional facilities, and human resources available in the rural, urban, and tribal areas across the country as of 31 March of the financial year for which the report has been made. Data for 2015 and 2021 have been compared in this report.
Key Findings:
Significance:
The statistics in the report are helpful to plan for strengthening the rural healthcare infrastructure by studying the trend, requirements, and availability. Moreover, data on urban health infrastructure has also been included in recent publications to increase the scalability of the publication. The publication also helps in planning and executing programs for ensuring healthcare for all.
In addition to these, the monthly reports on WPI, CPI, etc. have also been released, which have been discussed in the previous roundup.


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Government Data Roundup: Status of Government Debt, CPI, WPI, IIP are among the data released recently
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
April 23, 2022
Starting today, we are launching this new fortnightly series called the ‘Government Data Roundup’.  This fortnightly roundup brings you a compilation of the data released by the government during those two weeks with information about the type of the data, the sector to which the data relates, the frequency of release, and a brief about the data. Here is the first edition.
‘What gets measured, gets managed’. This quote highlights the importance of data collection for bringing any sort of change. Data is an important part of this new-age digital society.
The Government is the single largest source of data, both in the public as well as private sectors. It periodically publishes various data in the form of reports, surveys, and indices. Most often, these publications either go unnoticed or get minimal attention. As a result, many tend to be clueless about the latest happenings in the country. To better equip people with information about the government data, this new fortnightly roundup brings you a compilation of the data released by the government. Information about the type of the data, the sector to which the data relates, the frequency of release, the agency responsible for the publication, and the source link of the data is provided in this roundup.
Information about each data release is divided into three sections:
The sectoral division is not entirely rigid and depends on the type of data released. However, the overarching objective is to provide users with comprehensive information about each source.
In the brief about the data, information about the objective behind the publication of such data is provided. Additionally, insights about the data sources, the method of data collection, and things to be mindful of are also mentioned. In the next section, i.e., key highlights, and important statistics regarding the data are presented. This section provides the takeaways from the data released. The final section deals with how the released data is significant and the ways in which it could impact us, the people. Not all data could be directly relevant to the people, but every piece of data has some significance for the larger public. This roundup strives to add value to each data release from that perspective.
This edition of the Government data roundup consists of reports about the Government debt, the National Time Release Study, the State energy and climate index, RBI’s forward-looking surveys, index of industrial production, Consumer price index, and wholesale price index.
Brief about the report/data:
This report presents a detailed picture of the country’s overall debt position. It is a go-to document to find all the related information about Government’s debt. Public debt is categorized into internal and external debt. Internal debt is further classified into marketable and non-marketable debt.
This report also consists of a debt management strategy (DMS), whose objective is to ensure that the financing of debt is made at the least possible cost, keeping in mind the degree of risk associated.
Key Highlights:
What Government debt could mean to you:
Brief about the report:
This report is the first of its kind that tracks the efforts made by the governments in the climate and energy sector. The report is divided into three thematic parts each dealing with distinct aspects of the sector. The first part deals with the objective and the current energy scenario in the country. The second part deals with the methodology aspects and the ranking of states/UTs based on the scores in the index. The last part looks at the key learnings and the recommendations for the future.
It has 27 indicators under 6 parameters – DISCOM’s performance (40%), Clean Energy Initiatives (15%), Access, Affordability, and Reliability of Energy (15%), Environmental Sustainability (12%), New Initiatives (12%) and Energy Efficiency (6%). The percentage in the parentheses indicates weightage out of 100%.
Key Highlights:
Significance:
Brief about the study:
Time Release Study is a performance measurement tool, as recommended by the World Trade Organization (WTO), to gauge the process of cargo clearance of international trade. It measures the average cargo release time – the total time taken from the cargo arrival till the release for import or export.
The study looked at 15 distinct types of custom formations – seaports, inland container depots (ICDs), air cargo complexes (ACC), and integrated check posts (ICPs).  The study is conducted to review progress in achieving the targets of the National Trade Facilitation Action Plan (NTFAP).
Key highlights:
Significance:
Brief about the survey:
The consumer confidence survey (CCS) is an exercise to measure the current perceptions with respect to the previous year while also measuring the expectations for one year ahead on general economic conditions like spending, employment scenario, the economic situation in general, and price situation, etc. The data is collected from households in the major cities of India. Factly’s explainer on the ‘Consumer Confidence Survey’ can be read here.
Key Highlights:
Significance of Survey:
Brief about the survey:
The Services and Infrastructure outlook survey portrays the expectations of Indian companies in the service and infrastructure sectors based on parameters relating to price situation, demand conditions, employment conditions, and similar other parameters. Around 574 companies were asked to provide their assessment for the fourth quarter Q4 of 2021-22 and expectations from Q1 of 2022-23.
Key Highlights:
Brief about the index:
CPI measures the changes in the price level of goods and services that are consumed in a household. It has a fixed basket of goods and services that includes Food and Beverages; Pan, tobacco, and intoxicants; clothing and footwear; housing; fuel and light, and miscellaneous. Each of these categories has weights assigned to them. Along with this, the Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) is also measured, which is the change in prices of food products consumed by the population. The National Statistical Office (NSO) under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme implementation (MoSPI) is responsible for the release of the data. The base year had been changed from 2010 to 2012 from 2015 onwards and the data is collected from 1181 village markets and 1114 urban markets across the country. It is a Laspeyre’s index, which is calculated as CPI = (Total cost of a fixed basket of goods and services in a particular period*100)/ (Total cost of a fixed basket of goods & services in base period)
Key Highlights:
Significance of the report:
Brief about the index:
It is an average change in the prices of wholesale commodities. The index basket comprises three categories – Primary Articles (117 items, 22.62% of total weight), fuel and power (16 items, 13.15% of total weight) and manufactured products (564 items, 64.23% of total weight). The weights accorded to each category are based on the value of production adjusted for net imports. The base year for this index is 2011-12. It is important to note that WPI does not include services. It focuses on the prices of goods that are traded between the organizations and not the goods brought by the consumers. WPI is also known as the ‘headline inflation rate’ in India.
Key Highlights:
Significance of the report:
Brief about the report:
This index measures the changes in the level of industrial production in a given economy. It indicates the mood of the industrial activity in the country. The base year for this index is 2011-12, and it is assigned a value of 100. While the annual survey of industries gives a complete and detailed picture of the industrial activity, this index gives a short-term analysis of the industrial performance. The data for this index is sourced from 14 different agencies like the Indian Bureau of Mines, coffee board, tea board, central electricity authority, and so on.
For the purpose of this index, industrial production is categorized into three sectors – Mining (14.2%), Manufacturing (75.5%), and Electricity (10.3%). The values in the brackets denote their relative weights. Alternatively, there is also a ‘use-based’ classification of goods – primary goods (34.05%), capital goods (8.22%), intermediate goods (17.22%), infrastructure goods (12.34%), consumer durables (12.84%), and consumer non-durables (15.33%).
Key highlights:
Significance:


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Entrance Fee at ASI Monuments - Government earned ₹ 284 crore in 3 years
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
November 5, 2018
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) manages more than 110 monuments in 19 different states. ASI earns revenue from entrance fee at these monuments and remitted to the consolidated fund of India. As per government data, a total of ₹ 284.18 crore was earned in entrance fee in 3 years between 2013-14 & 2015-16.
As the ‘Statue of Unity’ was unveiled in Gujarat, there have been questions around the revenue earned through tourism at such monuments. Government earns direct revenues through entrance fee at various monuments managed by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). Government data indicates that a total revenue of ₹ 284.18 crore was earned in three years between 2013-14 & 2015-16 through entrance fee at 116 different monuments managed by the ASI. The revenue in 2013-14 was₹ 96.85 crore while it reduced marginally to ₹ 93.95 crore in 2015-16.
ASI manages 116 Monuments in 19 States
The ASI is an attached office of the  Ministry of Culture. It manages various ancient monuments & heritage sites across the country. It currently manages & maintains 116 different ticketed monuments in 19 different states. All these monuments have a ticketed entry and the fee collected is remitted to the consolidated fund of India. Out of the 116 monuments, there are 17 monuments from Uttar Pradesh and 16 from Maharashtra, 12 from Karnataka, 10 from Delhi and 8 from Madhya Pradesh. Apart from these, various state governments have sent 22 proposals for various monuments to be given central protection. These proposals are at various stages of consideration. These include birth places of Dr. B R Ambedkar and Madan Mohan Malviya.
Uttar Pradesh & Delhi account for 69% of all the Revenue
The total revenue through entry ticketing hasn’t crossed ₹ 100 crore in a single year till 2015-16. It was ₹ 96.85 crore in 2013-14, ₹ 93.38 crore in 2014-15 and ₹ 93.95 crore in 2015-16. This is the latest data available in the public domain through parliament questions. Factly has filed an application under RTI for the data of 2016-17 & 2017-18.
While Uttar Pradesh & Delhi account for only 23% of all the monuments managed by ASI, they account for  69% of the total entrance fee earned between 2013-14 & 2015-16. Out of the ₹ 284.18 crore earned in these three years, UP alone accounted for ₹ 123.62 crore followed by Delhi with ₹ 72.87 crore. Maharashtra was third with ₹ 21.60 crore and Karnataka with ₹ 18.16 crore was fourth. None of the other states could contribute a revenue of more than ₹ 10 crore in these 3 years. 13 of the 19 states contributed revenue of more than ₹ 1 crore each, while the rest of the six (6) states contributed less than a crore each. In terms of the average revenue per monument Uttar Pradesh and Delhi are followed by Telangana in the third place. With only 3 such monuments, revenue from Telangana was ₹ 5.88 crore for these 3 years.
Taj Mahal on the Top
As expected, Taj Mahal collected the most revenue in entrance fee with ₹ 60.94 crore in these three years followed by the Agra Fort with ₹ 34.23 crore. The next three in terms of revenue earned are monuments from Delhi. Qutb Minar (₹ 31.30 crore), Humayun’s Tomb (₹ 19.54 crore) and Red Fort (₹ 18.21 crore) were in the top five. The other monuments in the top ten were Fatehpur Sikri, World Heritage Site in Hampi, Monuments in Mahabalipuram, Sun temple in Konark and the group of temples in Khajuraho.
Hampi saw 75% drop in Revenue in two years
The drop in overall revenue from 2013-14 to 2015-16 crore is largely because of the drop in revenue from Taj Mahal & the monuments in Hampi. There is close to 75% drop in ticket revenue from Hampi from 2013-14 to 2015-16 (from ₹ 5.82 crore in 2013-14 to ₹ 1.55 crore in 2015-16). In the case of Taj Mahal, the revenue dropped from ₹ 21.82 crore in 2013-14 to ₹ 17.87 crore in 2015-16. Revenue increased in 2015-16 compared to 2013-14 for 87 of the 116 monuments while it dropped for 28 other monuments. Revenue dropped by more than 10 lakh for 10 monuments including Taj Mahal.
Featured Image: [By Yann], [CC BY-SA 4.0]

created: November 5, 2018


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Government earns 190 crore in 2 years from Entrance Fee at Monuments - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
March 25, 2016
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) manages 116 monuments in 19 different states. Revenue from entrance fee is collected by ASI and remitted to the consolidated fund of India. As per government data, a total of 190.23 crore was collected in entrance fee in 2013-14 and 2014-15. The highest collection was from Taj Mahal with 43.1 crore. Hampi recorded a drop in revenue of 75% in 2014-15 compared to 2013-14.
Apart from the indirect revenue that tourism brings to the country, Government earns direct revenues through various means including entrance fee at various monuments managed by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). Government data indicates that a total of 190.23 crore was collected in 2013-14 and 2014-15, through entrance fee at 116 different monuments managed by the ASI. The revenue in 2013-14 was 96.85 crore while it reduced marginally to 93.38 crore in 2014-15.
ASI Manages 116 Monuments in 19 States
The ASI currently manages 116 different monuments in 19 different states. All these monuments have a ticketed entry and the fee collected is remitted to the consolidated fund of India. Out of the 116 monuments, there are 16 monuments each from Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, 12 from Karnataka, 10 from Delhi and 9 from Madhya Pradesh. Apart from these, various state governments have sent 22 proposals for various monuments to be given central protection. These proposals are at various stages of consideration. These include birth places of Dr. B R Ambedkar and Madan Mohan Malviya.
Uttar Pradesh & Delhi account for 69% of all the Revenue
While Uttar Pradesh & Delhi account for only 23% of all the monuments managed by ASI, they account for 69% of the total entrance fee collected in the two years of 2013-14 and 2014-15. Out of the 190.23 crores collected in both the years, UP alone accounted for 83.5 crore followed by Delhi with 48.15 crore. Maharashtra was third with 13.94 crore and Karnataka with 13.28 crore was fourth. None of the other states could contribute revenue of more than 10 crore. 12 of the 19 states contributed revenue of more than 1 crore each, while the rest of the 7 states contributed less than a crore each. In terms of the average revenue Uttar Pradesh and Delhi are followed by Telangana in the third place. With only 3 such monuments, revenue from Telangana was 3.85 crore for these 2 years.
Taj Mahal on the Top
As expected, Taj Mahal collected the most revenue in entrance fee with 43.06 crore in these two years followed by the Agra Fort with 20.8 crore. The next three places went to monuments from Delhi. Qutb Minar (20.44 crore), Humayun’s Tomb (13.47 crore) and Red Fort (12.04 crore) were in the top five. The other monuments in the top ten were Fatehpur Sikri, World Heritage Site in Hampi, Monuments in Mahabalipuram, Sun temple in Konark and the group of temples in Khajuraho.
Hampi saw 75% drop in Revenue in 2014-15
The marginal drop of 3.46 crore in entrance fee revenue in 2014-15 was largely because of the 75% drop in ticket revenue from Hampi. In Hampi, the revenue dropped from 5.82 crore in 2013-14 to 1.47 crore in 2014-15.
Revenue increased in 2014-15 compared to 2013-14 for 80 of the 116 monuments while it dropped for 36 other monuments. Revenue dropped by more than 10 lakh for 5 monuments including Taj Mahal where it dropped by 59.2 lakh. Fatehpur Sikri on the other hand recorded the highest increase in revenue with 69.4 lakh increase followed by the Agra Fort. Revenue increased by more than 10 lakh for eight monuments.
Featured Image: [By Yann], [CC BY-SA 4.0]


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Government shares conflicting numbers about those killed in Train Accidents
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
August 21, 2017
On 11th August 2017, two BJP MPs from the Rajya Sabha asked the government about the number of train accidents and people killed in these accidents. The government stated two different casualty figures in response to these questions.
The unfortunate derailment of Utkal express in Muzzaffarnagar (Uttar Pradesh) has claimed more than 20 lives and left scores of others injured. But, how many people are killed in train accidents each year? Going by the answers given in Rajya Sabha, it seems that the Ministry of Railways does not really know how many people are killed every year in train accidents.
Question No 3007 in Rajya Sabha on 11th August 2017
On 11th August 2017, a Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat, belonging to the BJP asked a question to the Railway Minister wanting to know the number of train accidents in the last two years and the loss of lives in such accidents. In response, the Minister of State for Railways answered that 122 persons were killed in train accidents in 2015-16 and 238 persons were killed in 2016-17.
Question No 3023 in Rajya Sabha on 11th August 2017
On the same day, a BJP Rajya Sabha MP from Rajasthan asked a similar question i.e., the number of train accidents in the last two years and the number of people killed. In response, the Minister of State for Railways answered that 97 people were killed in 2015-16 and 181 people were killed in 2016-17. It has to be noted that in both the answers, the number of accidents was same i.e., 107 accidents in 2015-16 and 104 accidents in 2016-17.
Two different answers on the same day
It is ironic that on the same day, the Minister of State for Railways stated two different casualty figures for 2015-16 and 2016-17. Out of the two figures, the one stated in response to question no 3007 looks like the accurate one. In response to another question in the Lok Sabha in April 2017, the Minister of State for Railways stated that 122 people were killed in 2015-16 because of train accidents. He also stated 235 people were killed in 2016-17 as per provisional figures. The conflicting answers given to Members of Parliament reflects poorly on the Railways.
The year book only talks about passengers killed
The Ministry of Railways publishes a year book with all the statistics. But the year book contains only the details of passengers killed in train accidents, but not the total number killed in train accidents. As per the year book of 2015-16, 40 passengers lost their lives in train accidents in 2015-16.
Need for real-time data sharing
The Railways collects all its data zone-wise. The statistical statement of 2015-16 also shows zone-wise casualty figure as 122 which is same as in the answer given to Question No 3007. But these statistical statements are released with a delay of almost one year. For instance, the statistical statement for 2016-17 is not yet available. Hence there is a great need for the Railways to share all important data in real-time.
Featured Image: Shreekanth M | Flickr


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Government exempts residents of 3 states from compulsory Aadhaar linking to PAN
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
May 13, 2017
Government has exempted residents of Assam, Meghalaya and Jammu & Kashmir from the mandatory Aadhaar linking to PAN & IT returns. Government’s own data indicates that 11.56 lakh duplicate PANs were cancelled as of April 2016 when there was no Aadhaar linkage.
The Income Tax act was recently amended to include Sec 139AA making it mandatory for quoting Aadhaar number both in the application form for PAN and for filing IT returns. If a person does not have an Aadhaar number, he/she has to quote enrollment ID of Aadhaar application. The amendment also left a provision for the government to exempt certain categories from this rule. The government has now exempted four categories of individuals from this rule.
Who are the exempted inviduals?
The government has now issued a notification exempting the following four categories of individuals from the compulsory Aadhaar rule.
Most government schemes that mandate compulsory aadhaar have exempted some of the North Eastern states owing to lower enrollment of aadhaar. As per data on 30th April 2017, only 7% of Assam’s population have been assigned aadhaar while it is 9% for Meghalaya. In Jammu & Kashmir, this stands at 67%.
Aadhaar & Duplicate/Fake PAN numbers
The government has argued in the Supreme Court that money is laundered through shell companies using multiple PANs. The government also mentioned that 10 lakh PANs were cancenlled through random checks. Aadhaar linking to PAN, the government argued is to prevent such duplication of PANs. But the current amendment mandating Aadhaar for PAN & IT returns is applicable only to individuals and not companies.
As per the information shared by the government in the Lok Sabha, a total of 11.56 lakh PAN were cancelled because they were found to be duplicate as of April 2016. This makes for a mere 0.47% of all PANs in India at that time. In Delhi, 2.62% of all the PANs were cancelled as duplicate. In none of the other states, this was more than 1%. At least 0.3% PANs were cancelled in 16 states. In fact, cancelled PANs percentage was more than the national average in only 5 states. It has to be noted that this cancellation was done before Aadhaar linking. If the government was able to find duplicates and cancel them even when Aadhaar was not linked, it is intriguing as to why the government is now pushing for Aadhaar & PAN linking.


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Government finally bans ‘Dual MRP’
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
July 8, 2017
After months of dilly-dallying, the government has now amended the rules effectively banning the practice of ‘Dual MRP’. The new rules will be effective from 01st January 2018.
The issue of ‘Dual MRP’ has been in the limelight for the last one year with more & more people complaining about such practices. The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) had also ruled that there cannot be two MRPs, except in accordance with the law.  All this while, the law was silent on the issue of dual MRP. Recently, on 23rd June 2017, the government has amended the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011 effectively banning dual MRP. These rules will become effective from 1st January, 2018. Factly had earlier reported that the only way to prohibit such practices is amending the rules.
The relevant law & rules
All packaged commodities like bottled water are covered by sec 2(l) of the  Legal Metrology Act, 2009.  Further, every packaged commodity has to comply with the provisions of Rule 6 of the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011. As per Rule 6 of these Rules, the following mandatory information has to be declared on the package for the benefit of the consumer.
What is there in the current amendment?
The government has now amended these rules by adding the following in rule 18. This clause says, “Unless otherwise specifically provided under any other law, no manufacturer or packer or importer shall declare different maximum retail prices on an identical pre-packaged commodity by adopting restrictive trade practices or unfair trade practices as defined under clause (c) of sub-section (1) of section 2 of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 (68 of 1986)”.
This amendment would be effective from 01st January, 2018. It is interesting to note that Government of India on multiple occasions mentioned in the Lok Sabha  that state governments are competent for taking action in these cases and that an advisory has been sent to the state governments regarding the issue. An advisory on the issue was also sent to various states in September 2016. As the government realized, the only way out was to amend the rules to avoid the ambiguity.
Whether the manufacturers & packers who are used to such ‘dual MRP’ practices will find new ways to overcome this restriction remains to be seen. Government should be vigilant about possible subversion of the law by manufacturers & packers who might come up with different quantity and type of packaging for some specific places. Government should also publicize this rule in big way. The state Legal Metrology departments should have a centralized complaint mechanism for reporting any violation.
What else is part of the amendments?
The amendment is not just restricted to banning dual MRP, but covers the following issues.


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Government Finally notifies Guidelines for the protection of Good Samaritans - Factly
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
June 6, 2015
Good Samaritans or people who help road accident victims by taking them to the hospital had everything going against them from legal wrangles to harassment. Thanks to the Supreme Court directive, the Government has finally notified guidelines to protect good samaritans from any civil & criminal liability among other things. The disclosure of the name has also been made voluntary.
Imagine you being subject to harassment, detention at hospitals and legal hassles when you want to help the injured in road accidents. Most people in India do not come forward to help the injured in fear of such problems. This won’t be the case anymore, thanks to the Supreme Court directive in a petition filed by Save LIFE Foundation in 2012. During the course of hearing in this case, the Supreme Court on 29th October, 2014 directed the Government of India to issue necessary guidelines for the protection of Good Samaritans until appropriate legislation is made. The guidelines were to be made within three months.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has finally notified guidelines to protect Good Samaritans, who come forward to help road accident victims, from legal and procedural hassles. The guidelines were officially notified on 13th May, 2015. The notification said that the Government considers it necessary to protect the Good Samaritans from harassment on the actions being taken by them to save the life of the road accident victims and, therefore, these guidelines were being issued. They are to be followed by hospitals, police and all other authorities for the protection of Good Samaritans.
Some of the key points in these guidelines are
Piyush Tewari, Founder of petitioner SaveLIFE Foundation welcomed the move. “We welcome this move of the Central Government. Although an interim measure, these guidelines will help create a supportive environment for bystanders to come forward and help injured persons without fear of intimidation or harassment by Police and Hospitals. The onus is now on State Governments to ensure implementation of these guidelines”, he said in a statement released by SaveLIFE Foundation. According to a national survey conducted by SaveLIFE Foundation, presently 3 out of 4 people are reluctant to come forward to help an injured in road accidents. Majority of them fear police harassment, detention at hospitals and prolonged legal formalities
Let’s hope that these guidelines will encourage more and more people to help accident victims and take them to the hospital.
Source: The Gazette of India No. 25035/101/2014-RS
Featured image: Biswarup Ganguly [GFDL, CC BY 3.0, GFDL or CC BY 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons


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Government proposes a new framework for monitoring Social Progress in the Country - Factly
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
November 28, 2015
After the adoption of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) by the UN, the government has set up a committee to come up with a mechanism to monitor social development in the country. The government has now come up with a framework comprising 14 goals and 88 indicators corresponding to 19 Ministries.
The Ministry of Statistics & Program Implementation (MoSPI) has set up a committee earlier this year to come up with a mechanism for statistical monitoring of social development in the country. The Committee discussed the achievements and limitations of monitoring system of different ongoing schemes and also discussed about the social indicators covered under the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) and the proposed Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).  The committee has now proposed a broad framework for monitoring social progress in the country.
The 14 Goals
The committee has identified the following 14 goals for monitoring social progress in the country.
MoSPI has now come up with different indicators to monitor each of these goals. The 14 goals and the relevant indicators correspond to 19 different Ministries of the Government of India.
Selecting the 88 Indicators
MoSPI held meetings with various ministries for selecting the right indicators to monitor the progress. The following criteria were followed while selecting the right indicator
After this process, 88 indicators have been identified under the 14 goals mentioned above.
The Goals & Indicators
Featured Image: By Tom Maisey (Flickr) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

created: November 28, 2015


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Government has clarified in 2015 that there is nothing ‘mysterious’ in the unnatural deaths of 11 Nuclear Scientists. - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
September 11, 2019
A post is being shared widely on social media with a claim that 11 Indian Nuclear Scientists were mysteriously killed between 2009 and 2013. Let’s try to analyze the claim made in the post.
11 Indian Nuclear Scientists were mysteriously killed between 2009-2013, during the UPA government.
Fact: In reply to a question asked in the Lok Sabha, Dr. Jitendra Singh has clarified in 2015, during the Modi Government’s first term, that there is nothing ‘mysterious’ in the unnatural deaths of the 11 nuclear scientists. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When searched for information on the deaths of 11 Indian Nuclear Scientists, it was found that many newspapers published about the ‘mysterious’ deaths of 11 nuclear scientists in 2015. The news articles were based on the data released by Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), in 2015, that ‘11 nuclear scientists had unnatural deaths during 2009-13’. But, on the DAE website, a Lok Sabha question and answer regarding this issue was found. In December 2015, in reply to a question about the ‘mysterious’ deaths of 11 nuclear scientists during 2009-13, Dr Jitendra Singh (Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions and Prime Minister’s Office) answered that ‘there were 11 unnatural deaths comprising 9 scientists and 2 research fellows of the Department of Atomic Energy during the period. All these cases of unnatural deaths were investigated by the Police andno case was categorized as ‘mysterious’.” The reasons for each of their deaths can also be found in that reply’s Annexure.
To sum it up, in 2015, during the Modi Government’s first term,  the government has clarified that there is nothing ‘mysterious’ in the unnatural deaths of 11 nuclear scientists and has also listed reasons for each of their deaths.
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created: September 11, 2019


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Government has not launched any scheme offering loans solely based on Aadhaar card - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
February 23, 2024
A series of videos are being circulated across social media platforms alleging that the government is offering loans exclusively based on Aadhaar cards, whether for personal use or to set up their own business (here, here & here). These videos assert that loans ranging from Rs. 50 thousand to Rs. 10 lakhs are being disbursed with government subsidies and without requiring any collateral. Additionally, the accompanying social media posts share links to portals where individuals can purportedly access these schemes. In this article, we fact-check the authenticity of the assertions made in these posts.
Claim:  Government is offering subsidized loans, and without requiring any collateral exclusively based on Aadhaar cards.
Fact: Although the government is extending collateral-free loans to individuals for starting their enterprises, there exists no government scheme specifically providing loans solely based on the Aadhaar card. While some banks/NBFCs are providing loans with minimal documentation, primarily using Aadhaar authentication, these are not directly subsidized by the government. Additionally, individuals must fulfill other conditions established by the bank besides possessing an Aadhar card. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
While the utilization of Aadhaar for banking transactions and accessing government entitlements is on the rise, primarily due to its status as a key KYC document, it is inaccurate to assert that the government is issuing loans solely based on Aadhaar card information. Contrary to the viral claim, our investigation did not reveal any information about a government scheme or initiative that provides loans exclusively based on Aadhaar.
The government does provide collateral-free, subsidized loans through initiatives such as Mudra Yojana, Prime Minister Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi), etc., to support individuals in initiating their businesses. However, it’s important to note that these loans are not secured against Aadhaar. Individuals interested in availing themselves of these loans must meet the specific eligibility criteria outlined by each respective scheme.
Misleading advertisements :
However, it’s essential to note that banks and NBFCs are offering instant loans with minimal documentation, relying solely on Aadhaar authentication for verification. These financial institutions advertise these loans with misleading titles such as ‘instant personal loan on Aadhaar card’, ‘Aadhaar Card Loan’, ‘How to Get a 50000 Loan On Aadhaar Card’, etc., which may mislead people into thinking that these loans are akin to those obtained through a credit card.
However, it’s important to note that these loans are not extended against the Aadhaar card itself. Banks and NBFCs that offer these loans consider Aadhaar as the primary document due to its inclusion of biometric information, which facilitates easy verification of an individual’s authenticity and identity. It’s important to emphasize that these loans are not secured against Aadhaar.
In addition to Aadhaar, individuals seeking these loans must also fulfill other requirements set forth by the bank. Moreover, these loans are not subsidized; they accrue interest, and, crucially, they are not part of a direct government scheme or initiative.
No such Aadhaar loan scheme:
As news about these Aadhaar loans spread rapidly on social media, the government, through its official fact-checking wing PIB, has repeatedly categorically debunked the news as false (here, here, here & here). It has been explicitly clarified that the government is not implementing any such scheme.
क्या प्रधानमंत्री लोन योजना के तहत हर किसी को आधार कार्ड पर ₹3,00,000 का लोन मिल रहा है❓#PIBFactCheck
▪ नहीं ‼
▪ यह दावा फर्जी है।
▪ भारत सरकार द्वारा ऐसी कोई योजना नही चलाई जा रही है।
▪ तथ्यों की सही जाँच किए बिना अपनी आधार संबंधित जानकारी किसी के साथ साझा ना करें। pic.twitter.com/I6KpLBPGVC
Given that these viral posts prompt users to visit specific portals and provide Aadhaar and other information like a bank account, it is recommended to refrain from sharing sensitive details such as Aadhaar, as this could potentially result in the leakage of personal information and, in some instances, lead to financial fraud.
To sum it up, no, the government hasn’t launched any scheme providing loans solely on Aadhaar cards.

created: February 23, 2024


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Government has not launched ‘Rashtriya Sikshit Berojgar Yojana’ to provide relief package of Rs 50,000 to all ration cardholders - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
May 5, 2020
A post claiming that the Government of India launched the ‘Rashtriya Sikshit Berojgar Yojana’ to provide relief package of Rs 50,000 to all ration cardholders is being shared widely on social media. In the post, it is mentioned that the scheme is available for the first 40,000 applicants on a first come first serve basis; therefore, people are asked to register for the scheme. But, FACTLY has found that no such scheme was launched by the Government of India. Also, as the message went viral, the Press Information Bureau (PIB) clarified that the Government has not launched ‘Rashtriya Sikshit Berojgar Yojana’ and termed the message to be fake.
Sources:
Claim – Facebook post (archived)
Fact –
1. PIB Tweet – https://twitter.com/PIBFactCheck/status/1256523743976800263
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Government increases subsidy for Rooftop Solar plants, but targets remain unachievable at the current pace
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
August 16, 2019
The Government has recently launched Phase-2 of the rooftop solar
program with a target to achieve 40,000 MW capacity by 2022. Going by the
current pace of installation, this looks highly unlikely.
Solar energy- which is a renewable source of energy- is easily available and has the potential to be highly beneficial to a country like India which is in an ideal geographical location with adequate sunlight. Even though initial set up cost for solar is high, this clean energy has been found out to be less expensive in the long run with operational costs like electricity bills coming down. In remote places where there isn’t any power line or in tough terrains which are yet to be electrified, generating electricity using solar energy will be very helpful for the citizens living there.
In India, a mere20% of total energy utilisation is from renewable sources. Of this, wind energyconstitutes 41%, followed by 31%  fromsolar energy according to a World Bank report released in 2018.In other words, India, despite having sufficient solar energy, has not yetsucceeded in making good use of this valuable source.  Further, rooftop solar energy contributes onlya mere 6% of the total gridconnected solar energy being generated.
The National Solar
Mission was launched in 2010
In a bid toencourage generation of solar power, the Government of India, in 2010 launchedthe National Solar
Mission (as a part of National Action Plan for ClimateChange) aimed at bringing down the cost of generation of solar power in India.The goal was to bring down costs by focussing on long term goals, policy,research & development and domestic production of critical raw materials,components and products by 2022. As a part of this mission, the government alsolaunched the ‘Grid connected Solar Rooftop programme’ to promote the useof this renewable source of energy in households and shops by providing capitalsubsidy. In this story, the details of this program and the current status arediscussed.
What is the Grid
connected Solar Rooftop Programme?
Solar rooftop system also known as small SPV (Solar Photo Voltaic) system can be installed in the rooftops of houses, residential or commercial complexes, private institutions, housing societies or government organisations in contrast to the large-scale solar power plants. This can be of two types –
As stated by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), the average cost of setting up this grid connected rooftop system is Rs. 60 per Watt or Rs. 6 crores per MW peak capacity (1 MW means 1 megawatt and is equal to one million watts) which is pretty expensive and beyond the financial capacity of most Indians. Thus, the Union government as well as State governments- through State Nodal Agencies are providing subsidies to encourage more people to shift to solar.
40%
to 70% percent subsidy provided by Central Government
Under the Grid Connected
Rooftop Solar Programme, for those who install rooftop solarprojects, the Union Government provides Central Financial Assistance (CFA) andincentives. In February 2019, the Government approved the implementation ofPhase-2 of the programme. As per the revised norms, the CFA has been raisedfrom 30% in 2014 to 40% in 2019 for general category states. It can go up to70% in special states (North Eastern states) and UTs. The CFA under residentialcategory will be provided for 4000 MW capacity in Phase-2 of the programme.
The CFA currentlyis as follows:
Total of 1700.6 MW of grid connected rooftop systems have been
installed across the country
The Ministry has also reported that around 780 MW capacity of rooftop solar plants were installed inthe previous two financial years- 2017-18 and 2018-19. The Ministry has alsoadded that an average of 1.5 million units per MW per year is the generationfrom rooftop plants alone. As on 18 July 2019,total of 1700.54 MW of grid connected rooftop systems have been installedacross the country. State wise distribution of 15 states is shown in thefollowing chart.
Gujarat & Maharashtra together account for more than 27% of total RTS capacity
Alook into the state wise solar installations revealsthat Gujarat has the largest rooftop solar installations in India. The totalinstallation capacity is  around 262 MWwhich accounts for more than 15.4% of the total installation capacity in thecountry. Maharashtra is second largest with 198.52 MW equivalent to 11.67% ofthe installation capacity in the country. In Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Naduand Uttarakhand, the installed capacity of unsubsidized installations is muchlarger than the capacity of subsidized installations. Of the total 1700.54 MW,918.42 MW are subsidized installations and the remaining 782.12 MW areunsubsidized installations. In other words, the subsidized installationsaccount for 54% of the total rooftop solar capacity while the unsubsidized onesaccount for the remaining 46%.
What is the procedure to avail the financial assistance under the
scheme?
Eligiblebeneficiary interested to avail subsidy should directly apply to theimplementing agency and get necessary approvals prior to installation of RTSsystems. The list of the implementation agencies in various states can be accessed here. Onecan also express interest on the online interest form. Priorto installation, one should contact the local state nodal agency followingwhich officials will visit the site.
Theimplementing agency is supposed to select vendors for installation of Rooftopprojects by adopting competitive bidding process. Sanction orders are given by MNREto these implementing agencies for the capacity of the rooftop solar systemsplanned to be installed by them. The implementing agency must submit completeproject details online on the dedicated website foravailing eligible service charges and incentives. The online portal capturesall details of the project like capacity, project cost, address, district,State, latitude, longitude etc. It has to be noted that MNRE does not sanctionany project or subsidy directly to the beneficiaries.
ISRO’s android application to calculate solar potential, elevation
and temperatures
TheSpace Applications Centre of the India Space Research Organisation (ISRO) hasdeveloped an application for
android operating system which helps incalculating the monthly or annual solar potential and temperatures of theuser’s location. This is a very important parameter to finalise the capacity ofthe SPV systems to be installed. The application also gives details regardingthe elevation and day lengths through different times of the year. One can alsocalculate the feasible size of the plant using the Solar Rooftop calculator available on the dedicated scheme website.
The Government’s 2022 target
of 40,000 MW of RTS looks unachievable
By2022, the Government of India has fixed a target of 40,000
MW worth Rooftop Solar projects to be installed acrossthe country. If implemented successfully, India will be contributing by andlarge towards ecological sustainability and reduce carbon footprint. Inaddition to this, the program will also aid in generating employment- up to9.39 lakh job years for both skilled and unskilled workers to attain the 2022target. This also supports the Sustainable
Development Goal 7 which aims to assure affordable,reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.
However, the target looks lofty & unachievable as the current cumulative achievement is less than 10% of the 2022 target. If  the 2022 target has to be achieved, the current pace of installation of solar rooftop projects has to be increased by 30 times which seems highly unlikely.
Featured Image: Subsidy for Rooftop Solar plants


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Government is inviting you to Participate in ‘Digitizing India’ & Make money in the process
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
September 7, 2015
Digitization of government records is an age old problem plaguing the governments. While most departments at both the central & state level have spent thousands of crores on digitization, substantial number of government records are yet to be digitized. Now the government wants to crowd source the entire process of digitization. It has launched the ‘Digitize India Platform’ as a part of the Digital India Initiative.
Digitization of government records has an important role to play in effective governance. For many years now, governments have been mandating departments to digitize their documents. Despite all these efforts, digitization of legacy government documents has not taken place at the pace it was supposed to. Even in cases where the digitization took place, the documents were simply scanned in most cases making them non searchable. This mere scanning in fact goes against the principles of open data. Most departments have already spent thousands of crores on digitization of records. Now, the government wants to crowd source this entire process by seeking the help of citizens in digitization of government records. As a part of the Digital India initiative, the government has now launched the ‘Digitize India Platform’.
What is it all about?
As per the description in the website, Digitize India Platform (DIP) will provide digitization services for scanned document images or physical documents for any organization. The aim is to digitize and make usable all the existing content in different formats and media, languages, digitize and create data extracts for document management, IT applications and records management. DIP provides an innovative solution by combining machine intelligence and a cost effective crowd sourcing model. It features a secure and automated platform for processing and extracting relevant data from document images in a format that is usable for meta-data tagging, IT application processing and analysis.
The Three Stakeholders
The government has identified three important stakeholders namely the User Organization, the Digital Contributor & the Platform Operator.
Government departments, Public Sector Organization and Autonomous bodies can become a user organization and utilize this platform. A user Organization can submit their records for digitization to platform operator. The records should preferably be in a scanned image format. However, organizations who wish to submit physical records will have to pay for scanning separately.
The scanned images are then shredded into snippets with meaningful data. The following process is followed for the scanned documents.
Digital Contributors
Any Indian citizen with an Aadhaar Number can become a Digital Contributor (DC) and perform simple data entry tasks on the DIP. For every verified and correct task performed, the Contributor will earn reward points. They can redeem the reward points into monetary value or donate them to the Digital India initiative. The contributor is served random snippets by the platform.
Platform operator
The platform operator will help in the on boarding of user organization, pre-processing the scanned document images, creating templates for pages being digitized and delivering the digitized data to the user organization. Platform operator will also remunerate the Digital Contributors for their earned reward points. The following is broadly how the platform works
How does it work?
Any Indian citizen who wishes to become a contributor can sign up with the platform. A valid Aadhaar and Bank account are mandatory for signing up. The following are the prerequisites for any contributor.
Once the user registers, he/she can take an assessment of data entry & language proficiency. One can also practice to hone his/her skills.
Once the assessment process is complete, data to be digitized will be sent to the contributor as images. He/She is supposed to enter the data as they see in the image and submit.
The platform will then approve the submitted work and the contributor will keep earning reward points for each approved work. The reward points will then be converted to earnings and then transferred to the contributor’s bank account.
The platform also has a mobile application. Those with a smart phone can download the mobile application and continue data entry even on the move. All that one needs is access to the internet.
The PaaS solution for digitization of records
The Government believes that this is an innovative cloud bases PaaS (Platform as a Service) solution for digitization and hopes that more and more organizations will use the platform for digitizing their records. As on date, there are more than 4000 registered contributors. More than 1.7 lakh documents are scanned and more than 16 lakh snippets were served by the platform. The government is calling it ‘Pixel to Data’ transformation.
The entire process is captured in this video.

created: September 7, 2015


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Government has nothing to do with this cash deposit SMS, it's fake - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
September 9, 2021
A post accompanying a screenshot of a mobile message which says a particular amount has been deposited into a bank account under a Government Yojana is being shared widely. Further, the message asks to click a URL provided in the message. We have also received a query on our WhatsApp tip line (+91 9247052470) regarding the veracity of the same message. Through this article let’s fact-check the veracity of the message.
Claim: Approval link SMS which says a particular amount has been deposited into bank account under a Government Yojana.
Fact: The Government has nothing to do with this message. PIB stated the same and rated the message as fake. Usually, government’s cash transfer messages do not ask to click any URL and these messages also state the name of the scheme under which the amount has been deposited. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When the same message went viral, PIB through a tweet rated the message as fake. Further, the tweet categorically stated that ‘Government of India is not running any such scheme and is not associated with this text message’.
Did you also receive a message claiming that your bank account has been credited with Rs 2,67,000 under 'Govt Yojana'?
BEWARE!
▶This Message is #FAKE!
▶Government of India is not running any such scheme and is not associated with this text message#PIBFactCheck pic.twitter.com/lFYHRozsKn
Generally, the government’s DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer) messages do not ask people to click any URL and these messages specifically state the name of the scheme under which the cash transfer is being done. For example, the message related to the PM-KISAN scheme instalment deposit in the beneficiary bank account can be seen in this article. Even the messages from the concerned bank regarding any amount deposited into the account do not send/ask to click a URL.
The government of India runs a campaign alerting citizens against cyber frauds. As a part of this, the concerned department sends SMS to citizens requesting not to click any links as they may lead to cyber fraud. Further, Union Home Ministry has operationalised the national helpline number 155260 and reporting platform for preventing financial loss due to cyber fraud. Such frauds can be reported on the national cybercrime reporting portal (cybercrime.gov.in).
Dial #155260 in case of monetary loss due to cyber financial frauds: Beware & Be #Cybersafe pic.twitter.com/VjtBcebNZK
To sum it up, Government has nothing to do with this cash deposit SMS, it is a fraudulent message.

created: September 9, 2021


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new guidelines for LPG Distributorships
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
June 7, 2016
In a bid to make the LPG distributorship more broad based, participative and transparent, the government has issued new unified guidelines for selection. Among other things, the guidelines talk of 33% reservation for women across all categories.
The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) has issued new guidelines for selection of LPG distributorships after a comprehensive review of the existing distributorship selection policies. The objective of the new guidelines is to strengthen the LPG supply chain with focus on rural areas and creating job opportunities through supply chain system.
Major Features of the new guidelines
Following are some of the major features of the new unified guidelines.
Irregularities are found in about 6% of the LPG Distributors
Regular Inspections are carried out by the Field Officers, Anti Adulteration Cell and Vigilance Department of Public Sector Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) at LPG godowns and showrooms of LPG distributorships to identify irregularities. These regular surprise inspections at conducted at distributor’s premises by way of refill audits, surprise checks at customer’s premises, en-route checking of delivery vehicles etc.
As per data available with the government, more than 30000 inspections have been carried out by the OMCs in each of the years from 2012-13. The percentage of established cases of irregularities (black marketing/ diversion/ overcharging/ underweight/ irregular home delivery of cylinders by LPG distributors) compared to the number of inspections has been increasing in the last two years. From 6.8% in 2012-13, it went down to 4.4% in 2013-14. It then increased to 6.3% in 2014-15 and has further increased to 7.2% in 2015-16 (till October 2015).
The percentage of irregularities in states varied from year to year. In 2012-13, more than 10% irregularities were found in 7 states. This was down to just 3 states in 2013-14.  Five states had more than 10% irregularities in 2014-15 and 10 states have more than 10% irregularities in 2015-16 (till October 2015).
In all established cases of irregularities, action is taken against the erring distributors as per provisions of Marketing Discipline Guidelines (MDG) and distributorship agreement.
The government believes that the new unified guidelines will pave the way for a more broad based, participative and transparent system of selection of distributors across the country that will also help arrest irregularities. This year, the OMCs will start the process for selection of new distributors in 10,000 new locations.
Featured Image: By Krish Dulal [CC BY-SA 3.0]


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Government issues new guidelines on Service Charge in Hotels, but doubts still remain
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
April 24, 2017
The Central Government has issued new guidelines on ‘Service Charges’ in hotels. While the guidelines make mandatory collection of service charge an unfair trade practice, the success of this move is still doubtful.
In the beginning of this year, the government issued a press note clarifying its stand on the ‘service charge’ collected by many hotels and restaurants. While the press note mentions that making service charge mandatory constitutes an unfair trade practice, it did not specify how it intends to implement the same. Later, in an answer given in the Lok Sabha, the government said that it issued an advisory in December 2016 to the State Governments on this issue and it is the State Governments responsibility to disseminate the information. Factly had said earlier that lack of proper instructions by the government will not bring in any change.  The government has now issued a set ofnew guidelines on this issue, but the doubts still remain.
Customers visiting hotels fall under the definition of Consumer
In the new set of guidelines, the government tried to distinguish between fair & unfair trade practices. It also mentions that some customers are of the impression that service charges are part of government taxes. Among other things the guidelines establish the following premise.
What do the new guidelines propose?
The new guidelines distinguish between fair & unfair trade practice and propose a model for hotels/restaurants to collect the voluntary service charge. The guidelines say
To overcome this situation, the government has proposed that the bill presented to the customer may display that service charge is voluntary and the service charge column should be left blank for the customer to fill in before making payment. The guidelines say that any customer can approach the relevant consumer court in case of such unfair trade practices.
Will this work?
The proposal by the government is akin to what is followed in the west. Enforcement of regulation in the west is far better compared to India and it is a more evolved market where most businesses follow such rules. But there are doubts about its success in a country like ours.
While customers can approach the relevant consumer court in case of violations, this is going to be a very time taking & arduous process. This will discourage most customers to even report such cases of violation. In fact in 2016-17, only 163 such complaints were received by the national consumer helpline in a large country like ours.
A possible way out could be empowering the local bodies (like municipal corporations) to take action in case of violations. The dedicated customer care numbers in use in most of these municipal corporations can also be used for this purpose. This would ensure quick resolution of the issue for the customer. Only those not satisfied with the action of the local body will approach the consumer forum.
Featured Image: Service Charge in Hotels


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Government launches four new Mobile Health Services - Factly
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
January 16, 2016
In a bid to enhance access to public health infrastructure in a cost effective manner, the government has launched four mobile health services aimed at educating pregnant mothers, ASHA workers, helping tobacco users quit tobacco and helping users with information on TB.
To strengthen the public health infrastructure and enhance access in a cost effective manner, the government has launched four new mobile health services.
These initiatives are part of the Government’s Digital India program, aimed at leveraging India’s expanding mobile phone penetration.
Kilkari
Kilkari, which means ‘a baby’s gurgle’, delivers free, weekly, time-appropriate 72 audio messages about pregnancy, child birth and child care directly to families’ mobile phones from the second trimester of pregnancy until the child is one year old. Kilkari is being launched in Jharkhand, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and High Priority Districts (HPDs) of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan in the first phase. Below are some sample audio messages from Kilkari.
Mobile Academy
Mobile Academy is a free audio training course designed to expand and refresh the knowledge base of Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) and improve their communication skills. Mobile Academy offers ASHAs a training opportunity via their mobile phones and provides them the flexibility they need to learn at their own pace and at times they find convenient. Mobile Academy is being launched in Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand.
M-Cessation
M-Cessation aims at reaching out to those willing to quit tobacco use and support them towards successful quitting through text messages sent via mobile phones. When offered along with traditional services, M-Cessation has been found to be cost-effective in comparison to traditional options for cessation support. This is first time in the world that such a two way service is being provided as part of any mHealth initiative.
Users can register by giving a missed call on 011-22901701 or by registering through the NHP portal.
TB Missed Call Initiative
Under TB Missed Call initiative, a helpline with a toll free number will provide information, counselling and treatment support services for TB. Under this campaign the callers can give a missed call or call for free to get information related to TB symptoms, treatment services available, address and contact details of the nearest treatment facility etc. Initially the service will be available to people in the States of Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi. Users can call the toll free helpline number 1800-11-6666.

created: January 16, 2016


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Government Launches ‘IMPRINT India’. Will it spur research in India? – Part 1
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
November 6, 2015
Government of India has launched the ‘IMPRINT India’ initiative, to develop a roadmap for research to solve major engineering and technology challenges in ten different domains. Each of these domains will be coordinated by an IIT or IISc. In this two part series, we look at the research scenario in India and how it compares with the world.
The Government of India launched the ‘acting esearch novation and echnology (IMPRINT) India’, a Pan-IIT and IISc joint initiative to develop a roadmap for research to solve major engineering and technology challenges in ten technology domains relevant to India. The idea of launching ‘IMPRINT India’ originated during the conference of Chairmen, Board of Governors and Directors of Indian Institutes of Technology in August, 2014.
What is IMPRINT India?
The objectives of IMPRINT India are to
IMPRINT India will focus on ten themes with each to be coordinated by one IIT/IISc, namely
There will be a project advisory committee (PAC) formed in the Department of Science & Technology and Rs 1000 crore would be made available in 2016-17 for the projects under this initiative.
Research in India
As per data available with the Ministry of Science & Technology, number of patent applications filed in India is gradually increasing. While 34287 applications were filed in 2009-10, this number has gone up to 42951 in 2013-14, a growth of more than 25%. The number of patents granted though is on the decline. While one patent was granted for every six applications in 2009-10, this ratio has gone down to one patent grant for every ten applications.
Patent Applications & Grants by Indians
Surprisingly, the percentage of patents granted to Indians out of the total patents granted has been on the decline. From 28% in 2009-10, it has come down to 15% in 2013-14, a decline of more than 45%. The rest of the patents are granted to others in India. This is particularly alarming because the number of patent applications filed by Indians has been rising at the same time from 20% in 2011-12 to 25% in 2013-14.
How is the Government helping the Innovators?
National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) is facilitating the individual innovators for commercializing their inventions. So far NRDC has licensed 18 patented technologies to about 85 companies in India and has generated a substantial amount of revenue in past several years. This facility can be accessed by all the innovators for commercialization of inventions /technologies in the country.
Besides that, Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) a not-for-profit Public Sector Enterprise, set up by Department of Biotechnology (DBT), has commercialized 3 Intellectual Properties (IP’s) in the area of drugs, formulation and diagnostics and the products are in the market.
What about Small Organizations & Individuals?
Various Ministries & Departments of the Government have been implementing programs to enable filing patents & safeguarding their IPR.
In Part 2 of this series, we will look at India’s standing in the world among BRICS nations and the USA.

created: November 6, 2015


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Government launches the Regional Connectivity Scheme UDAN
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
October 21, 2016
facThe government formally launched the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) and named it UDAN. The scheme aims at increasing connectivity to underserved regions of the country by capping the airfare based on stage length.
The new Civil Aviation Policy released earlier this year proposed a ‘Regional Connectivity Scheme’ (RCS) that seeks to put a cap on the airfare for smaller distances and improve connectivity to various parts of the country. In July this year, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) sought feedback on the draft RCS document. Now the MoCA has formally launched the RCS Scheme and named it UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik).
The Guiding Principles of UDAN
The final RCS document mentions the following as the key guiding principles of UDAN.
Concessions to be offered by various Governments
The selected Airline operators under this scheme would be extended the following subsidies from the Central & State governments.
Other concessions would also be extended to airline operators who are selected to be part of this scheme. The scheme also covers Helipads & Helicopters.
The list of RCS Airports/Helipads would be published in due course in consultation with the respective state governments.
Cap on Airfare in RCS routes
The following would be applicable with respect to airfares in the RCS routes. (The RCS routes would be finalized based on a certain set of parameters)
Apart from the concessions, airfare cap has been prescribed in the RCS based on the stage length. The all inclusive airfare cap based on stage length is the following.
Similar cap has also been prescribed in the RCS for helicopters based on the flight duration as noted below.
VGF will also be capped
The Viability Gap Fund (VGF) to be provided for each RCS Seat under the Scheme will be capped for
The VGF for an RCS route where both the origin and destination points are underserved has been capped at 10% more than the normal VGF for an RCS seat.
The cap on both airfare and VGF has been linked to the Consumer Price Index so that there is no adverse impact of any externality on the scheme.
The RCF would be allocated equitably to various regions of the country so that there is balanced growth. For this purpose, the country will be divided into 5 different regions. The list of underserved airports has also been annexed in the scheme document.
Featured image: By Steven Byles from Singapore, Singapore (VT-ESC A320-232 Air India) [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

created: October 21, 2016


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Government launches the ‘Inclusiveness and Accessibility Index’ - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
April 7, 2016
The Government has recently launched the Inclusiveness and Accessibility Index to benchmark and evaluate readiness of various stakeholders for making the workplace accessible for Persons with Disabilities (PwDs). The index is an average of two sub-indices, the Inclusiveness Sub-Index and the Accessibility Sub-Index.
Government of India recently launched the ‘Inclusiveness and Accessibility Index’ as a part of the ‘Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan’. The Index was prepared in collaboration with The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). The ‘Inclusiveness and Accessibility Index’ helps the industries and corporates to participate in the Accessible India Campaign (AIC) by voluntarily evaluating their readiness for making the workplace accessible for Persons with Disabilities (PwDs)
Inclusiveness and Accessibility Index
Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan is a nationwide campaign for achieving universal accessibility for PwDs and to create an enabling and barrier free environment. The campaign focuses on three verticals: Built Environment; Public Transportation and Information & Communication Technologies.
The index will measure inclusiveness and accessibility of PwDs across different kinds of organisations. The composite index is split into two independent sub-indices that separately measure inclusiveness, and accessibility (I&A). A toolkit has been developed that helps in measuring these indices. The government has made it clear that these indices are not a substitute for the legal obligations that exist under national or international regulatory regimes. The indices are aimed at assessing the current stage of inclusiveness and accessibility of PwDs.
Inclusiveness Sub-Index
This has three major components namely
There are sub components for each of the component. Each of the sub components is rated on a scale of 0 to 4. The ratings mean the following
0-1: Needs Significant Improvement
Up to 2: Average
Up to 3: Good
Up to 4: Excellent
Accessibility Sub –Index
This also has three components namely
Proposed Methodology
The methodology for determining the position of an organisation on the inclusiveness and accessibility index is as follows,
Rating each component and their sub-component is based on three dimensions:
The toolkit has a detailed questionnaire that will help with arriving at these ratings.The government feels that the recognition of the Index by the Corporate Sector and public sector organisations will benefit them immensely by
What about Government Infrastructure?
The government has fixed the following targets under this campaign with respect to its buildings, transport agencies and websites.
The government has also enrolled 18 access auditors to lead the access audits across the country.  These auditors will audit 1124 public buildings in 32 different cities.
Featured Image: Image


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Government Launches the ‘Vidya Lakshmi’ Portal for Educational Loans
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
August 20, 2015
Availing an educational loan is a great difficulty faced by students who wish to pursue their studies. To solve this problem, the government has launched the ‘Vidya Lakshmi’ Portal, a one stop shop for information and application on educational loans extended by various Banks. The portal boasts of a common loan application form for all the banks and computerization of the entire process of loan application.


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Government of India did not announce any revised pass percentage criteria for 2021 Board Examinations - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
January 20, 2021
A post is being shared on social media claiming that the Government of India reduced the 2021 Board Examination pass percentage criteria from 33% to 23%. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: The Government reduced the Board Examination pass percentage criteria from 33% to 23%.
Fact: No such announcement on revised Board Examinations pass percentage was found on the Ministry of Education and CBSE websites. Press Information Bureau (PIB) through their tweet clarified that the Minister of Education has not made such any such announcement on reducing Board Examination pass percentage. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When we searched for the announcement of revised pass percentage criteria for the 2021 Board Examinations, we could not find any such notification on the Ministry of Education website. Recently, the Minister of Education Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank made a tweet announcing that the  Government of India has decided to waive off the 75% marks eligibility criteria under Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) for the academic year 2021-2022. Reporting the same, the Ministry of Education released a notification on their website. The Ministry of Education did not announce any revised pass percentage criteria for the 2021 Board Examinations. Also, there is no such revised pass percentage criteria mentioned in the CBSE notification on class 10 and 12 Board Examinations.
in respect of NITs, IIITs, SPAs and other CFTIs, whose admissions are based on JEE (Main).
Press Information Bureau (PIB) through their tweet clarified that the Minister of Education has not made such an announcement on revised pass percentage criteria for 2021 Board Examinations.
दावा:- सोशल मीडिया पर एक पोस्ट में दावा किया जा रहा है कि 10वीं और 12वीं की 2021, बोर्ड परीक्षा में अब पास होने के लिए 33 प्रतिशत अंक को घटाकर 23 प्रतिशत कर दिया गया है।#PIBFactCheck:- यह दावा फर्जी है। @EduMinOfIndia ने ऐसी कोई घोषणा नहीं की है। pic.twitter.com/Tp5bnqTBdi
In 2019, CBSE released a circular detailing the pass marks criteria for class 10 and 12. According to the circular, to pass the class 12 examination, students should acquire 33% marks in theory, 33% marks in practical in addition to the 33% aggregate in each subject. For class 10, students should get 33% marks in each subject including theory and practical examinations.
To sum it up, the Government of India did not revise the pass percentage criteria for 2021 Board Examinations.

created: January 20, 2021


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Government of India Did Not Launch any Missed Call Initiative for Expressing Support or Dissent to the Uniform Civil Code - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
July 8, 2023
Update (08 July 2023): The Law Commission of India has also issued a disclaimer notice stating that certain phone numbers circulating on social media, which are erroneously linked to the Uniform Civil Code, are not associated with them. Individuals can express their views on the Uniform Civil Code by visiting the website of the Department of Legal Affairs or by sending an email to the Law Commission of India.
In light of PM Modi’s recent remarks strongly advocating for the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) and criticizing opposition parties for allegedly inciting minority communities against it, a post is circulating widely on social media platforms claiming that Hindus who wish to express their support for the UCC should give a missed call to ‘9090902024’ before 06 July 2023. Let’s verify the accuracy of this claim.
Claim: Hindus who wish to express their support for the Uniform Civil Code should give a missed call to ‘9090902024’ before 06 July 2023.
Fact: The Government of India has not launched any missed call initiative for expressing support or opposition to the Uniform Civil Code. Individuals can share their views on the UCC on website of Department of Legal Affairs or by sending e-mail to Law Commission of India. Moreover, the number ‘9090902024’ is linked to a BJP campaign for the 2024 Lok Sabha Polls, where users can give a missed call to show support for the nine years of the Modi Government. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Through an internet search using relevant keywords, it has been found that the number ‘9090902024’ is associated with a campaign called ‘Jan Sampark se Jan Samardhan’ launched by the BJP in preparation for the 2024 Lok Sabha Polls. The campaign urged users to give a missed call to this number to demonstrate their support for the nine years of the BJP Government.
9 साल…
सेवा, सुशासन और गरीब कल्याण के!
'जनसंपर्क से जन समर्थन' अभियान से जुड़ने के लिए 9090902024 पर मिस्ड कॉल करें। pic.twitter.com/RAAt06ntML
Moreover, to verify the assertion, we tested it ourselves by giving a missed call to the number ‘9090902024’. Upon doing so, we received a message in response expressing gratitude for extending support to the 9 years of the Modi Government. This confirms that the number is indeed associated with the campaign mentioned earlier and not related to the Uniform Civil Code (UCC).
However, the Law Commission of India issued a public notice on 14 June 2023 on the Uniform Civil Code and sought comments from the general public, political parties, and others on UCC over the next 30 days. Individuals who are interested and willing to express their views on the matter can do so by either presenting their opinions here or by sending an email to the Law Commission of India at membersecretary-lci@gov.in
To sum it up, the Government of India has not launched any initiative involving giving a missed call to express support or opposition to the Uniform Civil Code.


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Government of India has not introduced any scheme called the ‘PM Kanya Aashirwad Yojana’ - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
July 14, 2020
A post has gone viral on social media which claims that the Government of India has launched the scheme by the name ‘PM Kanya Aashirwad Yojana’, under which ₹ 2000  will be given to every girl in the country. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Government of India is distributing ₹ 2000 to every girl in the country under the scheme ‘PM Kanya Aashirvad Yojana’.
Fact: There is no such scheme by the name ‘PM Kanya Aashirvad Yojana’,  introduced by the Government of India. Press Information Bureau (PIB) also clarified the same when posts on such a scheme went viral on social media. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Details of all the schemes launched by the central government for the welfare of women and child are usually found on the website of the Ministry of Women and Child Development. But there is no mention of any scheme with the name ‘PM Kanya Aashirvad Yojana’ on the ministry website under any category.
When the posts about the scheme went viral on social media, Press Information Bureau (PIB) clarified that all these posts are fake and that there is no such scheme introduced by the Government of India.
#PIBFactCheck
दावा: प्रधानमंत्री कन्या आशीर्वाद  योजना के तहत सभी बेटियों को मिलेगी  ₹2000 की नगद राशि हर महीने ।
हकीकत: यह दावा झूठा है। केंद्र सरकार द्वारा ऐसी कोई भी योजना नहीं चलाई जा रही है|
निष्कर्ष: #FakeNews pic.twitter.com/kGqyH6LGEh
To sum it up, details of a fake scheme with the name ‘PM Kanya Aashirvad Yojana’ are shared on social media stating that every girl child in the country will receive ₹ 2,000.
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Government of India has not launched PM Dhana Lakshmi Yojana or PM Vaibhav Lakshmi Yojana. - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
July 27, 2020
A video claiming that the central government is providing loans to women under Vaibhav Lakshmi Loan scheme is gaining views on YouTube. Also, a similar post claiming that the central government is providing collateral-free loans to women through PM Dhana Lakshmi Yojana is doing rounds across all social media platforms. Through this article lets fact-check the claim.
Central government has launched PM Dhana Lakshmi Yojana/ PM Vaibhav Lakshmi Yojana for the benefit of women.
Fact: The Central Government has not launched any such scheme. ‘Press Information Bureau (PIB)’ through a tweet has categorically denied the existence of any such scheme and mentioned that the post is fake. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When we searched for information about the schemes mentioned on the website of ‘Ministry of Women & Child Development’ which is the nodal ministry for the advancement of women and children in India, we did not find any mention about these schemes in the list of women-related schemes provided on the website.
As it is mentioned in the video that the loans are provided through SBI and Vijaya banks, we searched for information on SBI and Vijaya bank (now BOB) websites. However, we did not find any mention or any information regarding these schemes. Also, we did not find any newspaper article, or any news reporting regarding these schemes.
‘Press Information Bureau (PIB)’ on 12 June 2020 has cleared the air regarding the scheme through a tweet saying that central government has no such plan of launching a scheme and their tweet has categorically stated that the post is fake.
दावा: पीएम धन लक्ष्मी योजना के तहत महिलाओं को केंद्र सरकार द्वारा 5 लाख रुपये तक लोन प्रदान किया जाएगा#PibFactCheck: यह दावा #Fake है। केंद्र सरकार की ऐसी कोई योजना नहीं है| pic.twitter.com/alE35AFZDD
There is no information about these schemes on the ‘Direct Benefit Transfer’ website of the government of India or for that matter on any government portal.
In a nutshell, there exists no such scheme by the name PM Dhana Lakshmi Yojana or PM Vaibhav Lakshmi Yojana.
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Government of India has not launched ‘Pradhan Mantri Dhan Laxmi Yojana 2020’ - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
June 15, 2020
A post regarding a scheme, ‘Pradhan Mantri Dhan Laxmi Yojana 2020’, is being shared widely on social media with the claim that the scheme provides monetary benefits to women aged between 18 and 55 years. In the post, it is mentioned that the scheme was launched by the Government of India as part of its ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ initiative. Also, it is stated that the government will transfer money directly to the accounts of the women who  apply for the scheme. Let’s try to verify the claim made in the post.
The government of India has launched the ‘Pradhan Mantri Dhan Laxmi Yojana 2020’ scheme for women aged between 18 and 55 years.
Fact: The Central government has not launched any such scheme for women. The ‘Press Information Bureau (PIB)’ has also tweeted saying that the viral message is fake. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When one visits the website given in the post (https://wcd.nic.in/schemes/dhanalakshmi), no scheme with that name was found.
Also, when searched on the ‘Direct Benefit Transfer’ website of the Government of India, there is no scheme with that name. Information about that scheme wasn’t found in any other government portal. Moreover, there are no media reports regarding the scheme. If there was any such government scheme, the media would have reported about its launch.
Also, the ‘Press Information Bureau (PIB)’ has tweeted saying that there is no such Central government scheme and the viral message is fake.
दावा: पीएम धन लक्ष्मी योजना के तहत महिलाओं को केंद्र सरकार द्वारा 5 लाख रुपये तक लोन प्रदान किया जाएगा#PibFactCheck: यह दावा #Fake है। केंद्र सरकार की ऐसी कोई योजना नहीं है| pic.twitter.com/alE35AFZDD
To sum it up, the government of India has not launched any ‘Pradhan Mantri Dhan Laxmi Yojana 2020’ scheme that benefits women aged between 18 and 55 years.
Did you watch our new video?