Report to the People

 'The Report to the People', highlights the initiatives and achievements of the government in various fields including economy, agriculture, education, poverty eradication, healthcare, power generation, internal security and foreign policy.



Report to the People

Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India Bill

The government is gearing up to regulate the research and use of organisms and products of modern bio-technology. It has prepared a draft Bill to establish Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India ( BRAI), which will be an autonomous and statutory agency to regulate the research, transport, import, manufacture and use of organisms and products of modern bio-technology.

 The authority would consist of a chairperson, two whole-time members and two part-time members, each with expertise in life sciences and biotechnology applications in agriculture, health care, environment and general biology.

The Bill provides for setting up of inter-ministerial governing board to oversee the performance of the authority and a National Biotechnology Advisory Council of stakeholders to provide feedback on use of organisms and products of biotechnology in society.

The Bill also provides for an elaborate risk assessment process involving scientific panels of experts and representatives of concerned ministries including a special public review system for evaluation of applications before final approvals.

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Sustaining the Environment

On completing three years in office the UPA Government recently released a ‘Report To The People’. The following achievements pertain to the Ministry of Environment & Forest and in the field of sustaining the environment.

National Action Plan on Climate Change
The National Action Plan advocates a strategy that promotes, firstly, the adaptation to climate change and secondly, further enhancement of the ecological sustainability of India’s development path. The eight missions under the PM’s Council on Climate Change are the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission, the National Water Mission, the National Missions on Enhanced Energy Efficiency, Sustainable Habitat, and Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change, and the National Missions for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem, a Green India and Sustainable Agriculture.

Forest Conservation
An amount of Rs. 848 crore was released to State Level Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management & Planning Authorities to carry out protection, conservation and regeneration of natural forests in addition to compensatory afforestation. National Green Tribunal

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) was established in October, 2010 for effective and expeditious disposal of cases relating to environmental protection and conservation of forests and other natural resources including enforcement of any legal right relating to environment and giving relief and compensation for damages to persons and property. Delhi, Bhopal, Pune, Kolkata and Chennai are the five place of sitting of the NGT.

Mission Clean Ganga
Projects worth nearly Rs. 2,600 crore have been sanctioned by the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA). These include projects for development of sewer networks, sewage treatment plants and sewage pumping stations, electric crematoria, community toilets and development of river fronts.

Several innovations have been introduced for improved implementation of projects sanctioned by the NGRBA. These include Tripartite Memoranda of Agreements, project appraisal by independent institutions, Third Party Inspection, etc. State River Conservation Authorities have been constituted in the five Ganga basin States to facilitate better coordination and implementation of conservation activities at the State level.

The Central Government has secured World Bank assistance of US$ 1 billion for the NGRBA Programme. The World Bank project will support NGRBA’s immediate objective of Mission Clean Ganga.

Tiger Conservation
A detailed report on the country level status of tigers, co-predators and prey in India was released in July, 2011. This was the second round of country level snapshot assessment. The earlier estimation made in 2006 indicated that there were 1411 tigers in the country; the current estimates show that this number has increased by about 20% to 1706.

Expert Panel On New Poverty Estimates

Expert Panel On New Poverty Estimates

The State-wise poverty lines and poverty ratio for 2009-10 have been computed following the extant Tendulkar methodology. Based on the said methodology the Planning Commission has released the estimates through a Press Note issued on 19th March, 2012. As indicated in the Press Note, the poverty ratio in the country has come down from 37.2% in 2004-05 to 29.8% in 2009-10. As a result, the number of poor persons in the country has reduced from 40.7 crore in 2004-05 to 35.5 crore in 2009-10.


The Tendulkar Committee, which submitted its Report in 2009, has incorporated adequacy of expenditure from the normative and nutritional viewpoint. It stated “while moving away from the calorie norms, the proposed poverty lines have been validated by checking the adequacy of actual private expenditure per capita near the poverty lines on food, education and health by comparing them with normative expenditures consistent with nutritional, educational and health outcomes”.


Taking note of the various points of views and perspectives expressed in the public domain with respect to the need to revisit poverty estimates and related methodologies, Government has since decided to set up an Expert Technical Group to revisit the methodology for estimation of the poverty and identification of the poor.


The Technical Group comprising of eminent economists under the Chairmanship of Dr. C. Rangarajan, Chairman, Prime Minister’s Economy Advisory Council, is as under:


1. Dr. C. Rangarajan, Chairman, Prime Minister’s  Economy Advisory Council … …. Chairman


2. Dr. Mahendra Dev, Director, Indira  Gandhi Institute of Development Research … … Member


3. Dr. K. Sundaram, formerly Delhi School of Economics … … Member


4. Dr. Mahesh Vyas, Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy … … Member



5. Dr. K.L. Datta, Ex-Adviser (Perspective Planning), Planning Commission … … Member Convener


The Terms of Reference of the Expert Technical Group have been finalized as under:


1. “To comprehensively review the existing methodology of estimation of poverty and examine whether the poverty line should be fixed solely in terms of a consumption basket or whether other criteria are also relevant, and if so, whether the two can be effectively combined to evolve a basis for estimation of poverty in rural and urban areas.


2. To examine the issue of divergence between consumption estimates based on the NSSO methodology and those emerging from the National Accounts aggregates; and to suggest a methodology for updating consumption poverty lines using the new consumer price indices launched by the CSO for rural and urban areas state-wise.


3. To review alternative methods of estimation of poverty which may be in use in other countries, including their procedural aspects; and indicate whether on this basis, a particular method can be evolved for empirical estimation of poverty in India, including procedures for updating it over time and across states;


4. To recommend how the estimates of poverty, as evolved above, should be linked to eligibility and entitlements for schemes and programmes under the Government of India”.