Tag Archives: key points

5 Takeaways from New Education policy 2017

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Indian Minister of State for Human Resource Development Satya Pal Singh has said that the new education policy is in final stages and it would be announced in December.

Inaugurating a ‘National Academic meet’ in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday, Satyapal Singh said the policy envisages to ‘correct’ the course of education system in the country, that has followed a colonial mindset. The Minister said it will be the first education policy that was discussed layer by layer and threadbare.

He pointed out that unfortunately after independence, most of the academicians followed the footsteps of British and Western scholars and deliberately denigrating Indian culture. Stating that the biggest challenge being faced by the education system and the government is ‘how to de-colonise the Indian mind’ and the government is working on the policy in this regard.

Dr. Singh said improving the quality of education from the primary level, making higher education affordable to people and accessing higher education to more are some of the major issues faced by the education system. He said skill development is one of the major areas the government has given thrust upon.

To prevent the exodus of students to foreign countries seeking education, Dr. Singh said the higher education institutions should be developed to the standard of Centres of International Excellence. He said accessibility to higher education in the country is only 25.6 per cent while in USA 86 per cent Germany 80 and in China 60 per cent.

The Minister pointed out that the aim of the government is to improve the higher education system in the country to make available to more students. Stating that higher education is very expensive, Dr. Singh said it has to be made more affordable to all sections in the society.

Indicating that changes are necessary in the Right to Education Act, Dr. Singh said the Act lacks teeth. The Act provides right to compulsory primary education. But what is the remedy if parents do not send their children to school. So many things have to be done in improving the primary education in the country’, he added.

The meet was organised by Bharatheeya Vichara Kendram as part of the navathi celebration of P Parameswarn, Director of Vichara Kendram.

Minister Reveals App-Driven Highlights of New Telecom Policy in Pipeline

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India’s Minister of Communications Manoj Sinha the new Telecom Policy will be application driven as compared to National Telecom Policy, 2012 that was mainly connectivity driven.

Speaking at a seminar in New Delhi, the minister said the new policy will focus on the end users and the newer opportunities for expanding the availability of Telecom services, in view of high speed data services and enhanced expectations of the users to get real time live applications.

The ministry will involv a large pool of experts from outside the department to prepare the new policy, he said. As of April 2017, the country has close to 1.2 billion telephone connections, including 1.17 billion wireless telephone connections and similarly witnessed the rapid growth of the broadband connections that now stands at 276.52 million.

The minister said there was a six-fold increase in Data traffic in India from 561 million GB in the first quarter of 2016-17 to 2,988 million GB in the third quarter of 2016-17, which is a whopping 400 per cent jump.

While service providers are rapidly deploying the 4G technology, the ministry is focusing on the need to expand the connectivity to all parts including the north-eastern and Left Wing Extremism affected areas, with an eye on future generation applications with the 5G technology roll out, he said.

The FDI equity inflow in telecom sector from April, 2016 to March, 2017 was US$5,564 million, which is more than four times the average inflow of about $1.3 billion every year since 2013-14, he noted.

The Minister said similar to road infrastructure that was seen as a pre-requisite for development in 19th and 20th century, the information superhighways are a must for growth in the 21st century.

He said that the Indian Telegraph Right of Way Rules, 2016 was notified to ease the cable laying approval process and making it integral part of the “Ease of Doing Business” for Telecom Service Providers.

Telecom Secretary Ms Aruna Sundararajan urged the officials to achieve the target of 700 to 800 million internet penetration in the next five years.

India’s Real Estate Bill Passed

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The much awaited the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill, 2015 has been passed by the Rajya Sabha on March 10, 2016. The key points of the proposed bill which is going to benefit property buyers but impact consderably promoters, developers and real estate agents, are as follows:

Ø      The Bill requires setting up a new regulator for the real estate sector. As real estate comes under the purview of state governments, individual States are responsible for setting up the Regulatory Authority at the State level. State-level authorities, called Real Estate Regulatory Authorities (RERAs), will now regulate transactions related to both residential and commercial projects.

Ø    An authority will be created to help frame policies for the real estate sector. The regulator will also monitor compliance of rules on an ongoing basis as developers have to provide updates on progress and maintain a database on violators.

Ø    The specified residential real estate projects need to be registered with RERAs. Further, Promoters cannot book or offer these projects for sale without registering them. The regulator will maintain records of all projects and promoters.

Ø      It is mandatory for developers to register all projects larger than 500 sq mtr or, alternatively, more than 8 apartments, to be registered with the regulatory authority. Further, if the project is developed in phases, each phase must be registered separately.

Ø      The duly filed application should be submitted by the promoters/developers/real estate agents with the RERA for approval along with prescribed supporting documents like layout plan of the project; the carpet area of property for sale; the details of existing projects of the promoters; details of various approvals received by the promoters; details of land title on which the project is proposed and details about the payment dues on land title etc.,.

Ø     If the applicant does not hear back from the RERA within 15 days of the application for registration, the project will be considered as registered. However, RERA is empowered to revoke the approval by giving 30 days’ notice period.

Ø      Real estate agents dealing in these projects also need to register with RERAs. The registration is necessary to facilitate the sale or purchase of property in real estate projects that have been registered. Registered agents must not facilitate the sale of unregistered projects.

Ø     The regulation requires the buyers to pay consideration on purchase of house on carpet area basis (which clearly defines in the bill). Hitherto, it was payable on super built-up area basis.

Ø    In general the buyers faced the problem in the form of change in building plans including change in number of floors constructed after entering into an agreement with promoter. The Bill requires that builders take consent of 2/3rd of the home buyers in case of changes.

Ø     To mitigate developers from diverting funds to other projects, which will endup delaying completion of projects, the bill proposed that the 70% of the amount collected for the project by the buyers must deposit in a separate bank account.

Ø     In a cases where there are delays in completion, the developers/promoters will not pay any penalty or if pay it will be a low rate of interest as agreed between parties during execution of agreement. To avoid ambiguity/favour to one party, the bill is proposed that both parties have to pay the same rate of interest in case of delays in payment by buyer or hand-over by the developer.

Ø     The promoter shall :

  1. a) obtain a completion certificate from the relevant authority;
  2. b) form an association or society of buyers;
  3. c) provide essential services till the association of buyers take over the maintenance of the project.

If the promoter is unable to give possession of the property with agreed time, he shall be liable to return the amount received by him for the project along with interest.

Ø      In case the promoter fails to register the property, he may be penalized upto 10% of the estimated cost of the project. Failure to register despite orders issued by the RERA will lead to imprisonment for up to 3 years, and/or an additional fine of 10% of the estimated cost of the project. The promoter will have to pay upto 5% of the estimate cost of the project if he violates any other provisions of the Bill.

Ø      Real estate agents will have to pay a fine of Rs. 10,000/- for violating any provision of the Bill, for each day the violation continues.