The Centre has announced that it would release caste-based census data ‘as soon as possible.’ It would be part of the Socio Economic and Caste Census, 2011 (SECC).

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the Cabinet, in its meeting on Thursday, decided to to set up a committee under Vice-Chairman of the NITI Aayog, Arvind Panagariya, to classify caste/ sub-caste/clan data and accordingly it would be made public. ”There are 46 lakh data related to caste, sub-caste and clan. These data were sent to the States for clubbing. Once the States send their reports, it would be compiled,” he said while adding that the number of States that had submitted data was ‘negligible.’

This announcement has come after many political parties mounted pressure on the Government to release the caste data after it released the economic census of rural areas on July 3. It was alleged that the Government itself did not want to release the data as it would raise questions on various initiatives and the reservation policy. But Jaitley made it clear that many States were yet to send their reports 8-9 months after sending them data.

Decision on composite FDI cap

Jaitley also announced that the Cabinet had cleared a policy for composite foreign investment limits by including FDI, FII and other routes. This policy seeks to do away with the different kinds of overseas investment and bring about clarity in norms. The move would help in removing ambiguity on application of sectoral caps, conditions, and approval requirements in different sectors and simplify the foreign investment policy.

It would also provide Indian firms and investors the option of categories of investments — between FDI, FPI (FII, Qualified Foreign Investors), NRI and Foreign Venture Capital Investor. It would help in improving the ease of doing business in India, The Commerce and Industry Ministry has proposed a composite foreign investment cap (FDI + FPI (FII, QFI) + NRI + FVCI) in sectors such as agriculture, tea, mining, broadcasting, media, airports, retail (single brand and multi-brand), e-commerce, asset reconstruction companies, banking, commodity exchanges, and insurance.

Railways

In another significant move, the Cabinet has decided to use the ‘Swiss Challenge’ bid method to redevelop 400 Railway Stations. "This is a new method to award contracts for A1 and A category station s. Virtually 400 centres in the country would become points of developmental activity,” Jaitley said.

Transmission project

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved the creation of an intra-state transmission system in the States of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan at an estimated cost of Rs 8,548.68 crore with the Centre's contribution from the National Clean Energy Fund (NCEF) at Rs 3,419.47 crore

The activities envisaged under the project include establishment of 48 new grid sub-stations of different voltage levels with a total transformation capacity of around 17100 MVA (Mega Volt Ampere) by installing over 7800 ckt-kms (circuit km) of transmission lines in the seven states. The project is proposed to be completed in three to five years.

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