Government Schemes [India & States] Current Affairs MCQs

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Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma launched the “Water Smart Kids Meghalaya” school campaign, an initiative under the Jal Jeevan Mission of the Ministry of Jal Shakti. Its primary goal is to inspire action and educate children on water conservation and the protection of the state’s water bodies.
Meghalaya also launched the ‘Food Security’ Campaign to sensitise the people on the food items entailed to ensure that the poorest of the poor have access to food grains.

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The Karnataka government’s Shakti scheme has provided free bus travel to 100 crore women since its launch in June 2023.
The scheme allows women to travel for free in 18,609 state-run buses, including 6,308 city buses, 5,958 ordinary buses, and 6,343 express buses. The value of the free tickets issued to women by state-run transport corporations is Rs 2,397.8 crore.

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Tamil Nadu is set to launch a novel scheme Ungalai Thedi, Ungal Ooril (In your town, looking for you), to redress the grievances of the general public.
Under the initiative, every District Collector will visit and stay in a taluk for one day in a month to inspect government offices in that area and listen to the grievances of the general public.

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The Naveen Patnaik Government withdrew its decision to amend Orissa Scheduled Areas Transfer of Immovable Property (By Scheduled Tribes) Regulation, 1956 (OSATIP) which would have allowed transfer of tribal land to non-tribals.
The OSATIP not only prohibits the transfer of tribal lands but also criminalizes any forced alienation in scheduled areas. A cabinet held in the middle of winter session of Odisha Legislative Assembly, approved proposal of withdrawing amendment to OSATIP.

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India’s Union Health Ministry said the production of four generic cost-effective medicines has begun in the country to bring down the high cost and provide relief to patients with rare diseases.
These drugs are now available in the market for the treatment of four rare diseases: Tyrosinemia Type 1, Gaucher’s Disease, Wilson’s Disease and Dravet-Lennox Gastaut Syndrome.

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The government launched a national protocol to provide for training of anganwadi workers to track and help children with disabilities.
The anganwadi eco-system reaches out to over eight crore children from birth to six years on a daily basis, according to a statement issued by the Women and Child Development Ministry. According to the Draft National Policy for Persons with Disabilities 2021, one-third of most disabilities in India are estimated to be preventable, if they are detected early enough and adequately addressed.

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Ministry of Commerce and Industry released the revised draft Rubber (Promotion and Development) Bill, 2023, to reconstitute the Rubber Board.
On a direction by the government, the Rubber Board is scheduled to hold three open house sessions, to discuss the revised draft. An earlier Bill introduced by the Union Government—Rubber (Promotion and Development) Bill, 2022, which sought to repeal the Rubber Act of 1947—had ignited widespread protests among rubber farmers.

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The Kozhikode district administration is launching ‘Suchitwa Theeram’, a project to keep the coastal areas of the district free of plastic and garbage.
The project is being implemented under the aegis of the Department of Local Administration under the ‘Malinya Muktha Navakeralam’ programme. Volunteers under campuses of Kozhikode, National Service Scheme, members of Harithakarma Sena and Kudumbasree besides officials of the Department of Local Administration will take part in the drive.

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YUVAi-Youth for Unnati and Vikas with AI’ is a collaborative initiative of National e-Governance Division (NeGD), Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) and Intel India.
The initiative is set to be prominently featured at the upcoming Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) Summit. This programme is designed to equip the youth with essential AI skills. YUVAi is aimed to foster a deeper understanding of AI, to enable school students from class 8 to 12 with AI skills and empower them to become users of AI. The GPAI Summit is scheduled in New Delhi.

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The Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation Programme (ITEC) is a prominent capacity-building initiative by the Ministry Of External Affairs of the Government of India. Established in 1964, ITEC is one of the longest-standing international capacity-building programs, having trained over 200,000 officials from more than 160 countries in both civilian and defense sectors. Under this programme, recently India and Taiwan have been focussing on collaboration in cutting edge tech areas like 5G, AI, information security, semiconductors etc. ITEC is administered by the Development Partnership Administration-II Division of the Ministry of External Affairs.