Latest news with #Ujjwala
News18
17-07-2025
- Politics
- News18
XX Factor Of Narendra Modi's 11 Years: Five Unsung Gems For Women
Last Updated: The force that nurtures Bharat and makes up for half her people is quietly rising, and transformation is happening even in the remotest parts of the nation at unprecedented speed Just before the 2014 elections, in an interview with a popular news anchor, Congress scion Rahul Gandhi came across as a deer caught in the headlights. Many believe that with that interview, he did not just throw the election, but his political career as well. Completely out of depth and lunging desperately for words, he kept coming up with just two: 'Empowering women." What then became a national joke has turned into national irony after 11 years of Narendra Modi as prime minister. It is as if the ruling BJP has snatched women's empowerment out of Rahul Gandhi's mouth and turned it into its own mission. On completing 11 years, the Modi government is predictably advertising its achievements. Big-ticket reforms get the most coverage and prominent among them are the deep changes the government brought for the nation's women. Building more than 12 crore toilets under the Swachh Bharat Mission, for instance, has transformed the lives of crores of underprivileged women who had to step out in the wee hours before dawn to relieve themselves in the open. Or ensuring 100 per cent penetration of LPG cylinders in households under the Ujjwala scheme, which has freed rural women and those living in India's shantytowns of the lethal smoke from the chulha or clay burners. These are widely acknowledged game-changers. But if one dives into the details of Modi's 11-year report card, there are at least five less-talked-about but fascinating changes that his government has brought for Indian women. First, India now has more girls being born than boys. This used to be unthinkable once. The sex ratio per 1,000 males, which was 943 in 2011, rose to 1,020 by 2019-21. Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, a scheme which focused on girl education, and a crackdown on illegal sex determination centres brought about tremendous awareness against female foeticide. Second, female labour force participation has risen from 23.3 per cent in 2017-18 to 41.7 per cent in 2023-24. As India inches towards an equal gender ratio in its labour force, credit must go to skill training, more self-help groups, and entrepreneurship schemes. The second one flows from the third. The number of self-help groups saw a rise from 2.35 crore in 2014 to 10.05 crore in 2024, more than four-fold. Schemes like Lakhpati Didi, in which women cross an annual household income exceeding Rs 1,00,000 through financial inclusion and entrepreneurship, have started showing results. Fourth, institutional deliveries have risen from 61 per cent in 2014-15 to 97.3 per cent in 2023-24. The government's LaQshya programme, which extends quality childbirth and postpartum care and better hospital infrastructure, is leaving an impact. Fifth, maternal mortality is down from 130 per lakh live births in 2014-16 to 97 in 2018-20. Two schemes in particular—PM Surakshit Matriva Abhiyan and Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana—have driven the change. Behind these figures stand the government's mammoth will and effort. The force that nurtures Bharat and makes up for half her people is quietly rising, and transformation is happening even in the remotest parts of the nation at unprecedented speed. The words Rahul Gandhi clumsily tried to use as a shield in that interview—empowering women—has ironically been set in motion by his nemesis, NaMo. Abhijit Majumder is a senior journalist. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18's views. view comments First Published: June 17, 2025, 10:41 IST Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Time of India
14-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Digitise welfaregovernance, MLAsuggests Yogi
Lucknow: In a push to digitise welfare governance, Sarojininagar MLA Rajeshwar Singh submitted a comprehensive proposal to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, recommending integration of blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) into welfare schemes, beginning with the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY). The proposal aims to address long-standing issues in welfare implementation such as delay in fund disbursement, duplication of beneficiary data, lack of progress transparency and leakages at the grassroots level. Singh's vision is to leverage cutting-edge technology to ensure real-time monitoring and enhance citizen trust. Key components of the proposal include blockchain-based sanction orders to prevent tampering post-approval, geo-tagged AI verification of construction progress, smart contracts for automated direct benefit transfers and AI dashboards for real-time monitoring and grievance redressal. The plan suggests a unified beneficiary ledger linked with other central schemes like Ujjwala, Saubhagya and Jal Jeevan Mission. The roadmap outlines a three-phase rollout: Pilot phase in one or two blocks/districts with blockchain-enabled PMAY records and AI dashboards. District-level expansion with MIS integration, smart contracts and chatbot-based grievance redress. Statewide rollout including blockchain welfare IDs, predictive AI for fund allocation and decentralised public audits. Singh sought the Chief Minister's approval to initiate the pilot in coordination with the departments of rural development, urban housing and IT.
India.com
07-07-2025
- Business
- India.com
India's Demand For Fuels Rises 1.94% To Surpass 20.3 Million Tonnes In June
New Delhi: India's consumption of petroleum products such as petrol, diesel, and LPG rose by 1.9% to 20.31 million metric tonnes in June from 19.94 million tons in the same month last year, according to official figures released by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas on Monday. Sales of petrol went up by 6.7% in June compared to the same month last year due to the increase in sales of cars and two-wheelers in the country, with the revival in rural demand amid a more robust performance of the agriculture sector. Diesel, which is the most widely used fuel in the country as an input in both the farm and transport sectors, registered a 1.6% increase to 8.11 million metric tons in June this year compared to the same month in the previous year. The growth in the consumption of diesel, which constitutes close to 40% of fuel sales, reflects the higher economic activity in both the farm and logistics sectors of the economy. Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) sales surged by a robust 9.1% to 2.53 million metric tons in June, compared to the same month of the previous year, as more households switched to cooking gas amid rising incomes, and the government's Ujjwala scheme brought the fuel within the reach of poor families. Besides, commercial consumption of the fuel in hotels and restaurants has also gone up. Sales of naphtha, which is used for making fertilisers, were up 2% to 1.03 million metric tons during the month. However, on a month-on-month basis, the sales of petroleum products fell by 4.7% compared to the previous month due to the early onset of the monsoon in June. India is the world's third-largest consumer and importer of oil. The data is a proxy for the country's oil demand. Meanwhile, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri last month allayed fears over any disruption in oil supplies to Indian consumers during the Israel-Iran war and further escalation in geopolitical tensions in the Middle East because of the US bombing of Iran's nuclear sites. "We have been closely monitoring the evolving geopolitical situation in the Middle East since the past two weeks. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we have diversified our supplies in the past few years, and a large volume of our supplies does not come through the Strait of Hormuz now,' the minister said. He pointed out that the country's oil marketing companies (Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum) have supplies for several weeks and continue to receive energy supplies from several routes. India has diversified its oil sources by increasing imports from Russia as well as the US and building resilience through strategic reserves in underground storage on the coast.
Hans India
07-07-2025
- Business
- Hans India
India's demand for fuels rises 1.94 pc to surpass 20.3 million tonnes in June
India's consumption of petroleum products such as petrol, diesel, and LPG rose by 1.9 per cent to 20.31 million metric tonnes in June from 19.94 million tons in the same month last year, according to official figures released by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas on Monday. Sales of petrol went up by 6.7 per cent in June compared to the same month last year due to the increase in sales of cars and two-wheelers in the country, with the revival in rural demand amid a more robust performance of the agriculture sector. Diesel, which is the most widely used fuel in the country as an input in both the farm and transport sectors, registered a 1.6 per cent increase to 8.11 million metric tons in June this year compared to the same month in the previous year. The growth in the consumption of diesel, which constitutes close to 40 per cent of fuel sales, reflects the higher economic activity in both the farm and logistics sectors of the economy. Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) sales surged by a robust 9.1 per cent to 2.53 million metric tons in June, compared to the same month of the previous year, as more households switched to cooking gas amid rising incomes, and the government's Ujjwala scheme brought the fuel within the reach of poor families. Besides, commercial consumption of the fuel in hotels and restaurants has also gone up. Sales of naphtha, which is used for making fertilisers, were up 2 per cent to 1.03 million metric tons during the month. However, on a month-on-month basis, the sales of petroleum products fell by 4.7 per cent compared to the previous month due to the early onset of the monsoon in June. India is the world's third-largest consumer and importer of oil. The data is a proxy for the country's oil demand. Meanwhile, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri last month allayed fears over any disruption in oil supplies to Indian consumers during the Israel-Iran war and further escalation in geopolitical tensions in the Middle East because of the US bombing of Iran's nuclear sites. "We have been closely monitoring the evolving geopolitical situation in the Middle East since the past two weeks. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we have diversified our supplies in the past few years, and a large volume of our supplies does not come through the Strait of Hormuz now,' the minister said. He pointed out that the country's oil marketing companies (Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum) have supplies for several weeks and continue to receive energy supplies from several routes. India has diversified its oil sources by increasing imports from Russia as well as the US and building resilience through strategic reserves in underground storage on the coast.
Time of India
30-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Uttarakhand government working to promote green energy: Chief minister Dhami
Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami participated in the all India oil sector Meet program organised at ONGC community centre, Dehradun on Saturday. He said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the state government is working to promote green energy with coordination in the economy, ecology and technology. "Clean and green energy is being promoted in the state through the chief minister solar self-employment scheme. Hydroelectric projects like Tehri, Koteshwar, Pipalkoti, Lakhwar, and Vishnugad in the state are playing an important role in establishing Uttarakhand as an energy hub. There are many possibilities in the field of geothermal in the state, on which the state government is continuously working," the Chief Minister said, according to a press release, Dhami said that natural resources play an important role in taking any nation forward. Fuel, along with the development of the nation, also fulfills our daily needs. ONGC is playing an important role in India's energy security by contributing 70 per cent of the total production of crude oil and 84 per cent of the natural gas production in the country. The chief minister said that PM Modi has put the resolution of a self-reliant and developed India in front of people. The country is moving forward with the resolution of becoming a developed India by 2047. He said that under the leadership of the Prime Minister, petroleum reserves have been established for the energy security of the country. "Solar energy is also being promoted along with green hydrogen. Work is being done on many alternative sources of energy. All these efforts have made India capable in the field of energy," he said. The chief minister said that many works have been done in the field of oil and natural gas. Gas pipelines are being expanded under One Nation, One Grid. The gas distribution system has been expanded and made more convenient than before. Bio CNG plants are being set up. Schemes like the Ujjwala have brought a revolution in society. Many policies have also been implemented for oil production. India has also increased investments in the oil and natural gas sector abroad, the chief minister said. He said ONGC has done many such works in Uttarakhand, which are benefiting the state.
