A Heartfelt farewell to the 25 Paise Coin

The new rules of Government says-All the coins of denomination of 25 paise and below, issued from time to time, will go out of circulation with effect from June 30, 2011 onwards.

The 25 paise coin, which has been fading out of the pocket change in the recent years because of low acceptability, will finally become history from tomorrow as per new RBI rule from today onwards.

The coin, along with those with lower denominations, will be demonetised or cease to be legal tender. Also, in accounting, i.e. the entries in books of accounts, pricing of products / services / taxes shall also be rounded off to 50 paise or whole rupee from that date.

Coins of denomination of 25 paise and below will cease to be legal tender from June 30, 2011. These will not be accepted for exchange at bank branches from July 1, 2011 onwards," the RBI has said recently.

In December 2010, the Government had decided to withdraw the coins of denomination of 25 paise and below from circulation from June 30.

Even before price inflation killed the 25 paise coin, RBI had been receiving complaints regarding non-acceptance of the coin by shops, business establishments, utility services and even public sector organisations and government departments.

The central bank, then, had to issue notice that the coin was in circulation and continue to be legal tender. Coins of 1, 2, 3 and 5 paise denominations have already demonetised.

After independence, during the period of transition (1947-1950), India retained the monetary system and the currency and coinage of the earlier period.

While Pakistan introduced a new series of coins in 1948 and notes in 1949, India brought out its distinctive coins on August 15, 1950.

The Frozen Series 1947-1950 represented the currency arrangements during the transition period up to the establishment of the Indian Republic. The Monetary System remained unchanged at One Rupee consisting of 192 pies.

The Anna Series was introduced on August 15, 1950 and represented the first coinage of Republic India. The King's Portrait was replaced by the Lion Capital of the Ashoka Pillar, according to an RBI document.

In September 1955, the Indian Coinage Act was amended for the country to adopt a metric system for coinage. The rupee remained unchanged in value and nomenclature. It, however, was now divided into 100 'Paisa' instead of 16 Annas or 64 Pice. The 2.5 grams nickel 25 paise coin was born.

The latest 25 paise coin, weighing 2.83 grams, was ferritic stainless steel. In fact, the only ones who are now benefitting from 25 paise coins are the scrap dealers. They can now melt the 25 paise coins and even if they sell it as raw steel, they get more money. In short, the cost of manufacturing a 25 paise coin is much higher than its actual face value.

As per the RBI, over a period of time, cost benefit considerations led to the gradual discontinuance of 1, 2 and 3 paise coins in the 1970s.

Stainless steel coinage of 10, 25 and 50 paise, was introduced in 1988 and of one rupee in 1992.

Wedding Insurance now in India too

Rahul and Anita have fixed their marriage on 23rd March. All the arrangements were made and both were looking forward to their D-day. But unfortunately on the day of their marriage, the van in which the caterers were traveling broke down. As a result, the guests who came to the wedding did not get pre-lunch snacks. They were disappointed as the dream marriage they were expecting did not turn out to be a dream one after all.

So what should they have done? Could they have prevented this calamity? Well, perhaps no but at least they could have prepared adequately for it in terms of costs involved. By opting for a wedding insurance!

Introduction to wedding insurance

Just like we have life insurance to protect our life, car insurance to safeguard our car and health insurance to secure our health, we have wedding insurance to ensure our wedding goes off smoothly.

Is it required?

Over a period of time, marriages have evolved from a simple ritual uniting two souls to a complex affair where lakhs and crores of rupees are spent on lavish ceremonies. Besides costs of all the services involved in providing marriage facilities, have gone up. So if anything goes wrong, the parties involved can suffer heavy losses. This is where having an adequate wedding insurance will help. It will give you peace of mind as you are sure you won't lose any money.

Coverage of wedding insurance

Different insurance companies have different types of wedding categories. Some of the most common ones include: personal accident, postponement/cancellation, damage to property, burglary, money and public danger. However, some insurance companies do offer certain specific categories of cover like food poisoning.

Selecting the right type of insurance cover

with so many types of covers being available, you have to choose the right cover carefully. For that, consult an insurance agent or request your wedding planner (if you have one), to help you out in selecting the right cover. Also, get the details of every section covered in writing. Read it carefully and ask questions if you find some important points are not covered. Moreover, get in writing from the insurance company, the method of claiming money and the necessary documents required to be submitted to make a claim. E.g. if anybody falls ill at the marriage party, you will have to submit a doctor's certificate stating the nature of the person's illness. If you intend to provide cover to your relatives, you will have to mention their names when submitting the forms for buying the policy.

Choosing the right amount of insurance

The premium of wedding insurance is quite nominal. For a nominal premium of Rs 12,000, you can get an insurance cover of Rs 8 lakhs, which covers all the categories of covers. But you can exclude some covers, thus reducing your premium amount.

Where should I go?

Some companies that offer wedding insurance include Bajaj Allianz General Insurance, United India Insurance and ICICI Lombard General Insurance. Ask them for the quotes and choose the one with the lowest premium.

Marriage is the most memorable event in our life. So we need to ensure that it passes off as peacefully as possible. However despite our best efforts, some untoward incidents can mar our day. It is here that wedding insurance will help. While it won't eliminate the bad taste in our mouth, it will definitely go a long way towards protecting us from financial loss. There are various types of covers available under this insurance. Choose the covers wisely, ask for the quotes from various lenders and then select the most appropriate one for you.

Happy wedding!

Cash loss fear in salary move

The state’s rural and co-operative banks are worried about losing out on service charges and loan interest because of Mamata Banerjee’s decision to disburse schoolteachers’ salaries through nationalised banks.

At present, around two lakh primary and high school teachers have salary accounts in co-operative and rural banks. These banks earn about Rs 60 crore annually as service charge from the government for disbursing salaries and Rs 170 crore as annual interest from loans given to teachers.

“We are worried about the decision to provide teachers’ salaries through nationalised banks. We will lose out on the service charge and loan interest. Also, repayment of loans given to teachers may become uncertain. The decision will affect our financial condition,” said Amit Rajak, the general secretary of the Co-operative Bank Supervising Staff Association in Burdwan.

Rajak, who is also the officer in charge of Samudragarh co-operative bank in Kalna, said the bank had disbursed loans of Rs 28 crore. “We will be in trouble if we fail to recover the amount,” he said.

Srijan Pal, the general secretary of the West Bengal Regional Rural Bank Officers’ Association, expressed similar fears. “The rural banks have disbursed around Rs 1,170 crore salary-linked loans to schoolteachers. The recovery process may now become uncertain. We will also lose out on the Rs 40 crore we earn as service charge every year,” he said.

Officials of co-operative and rural banks said most loans were repaid through EMIs deducted at source from the salaries of teachers.

The banks have written to the chief minister, finance minister Amit Mitra and co-operation minister H.A. Safwi urging them to reconsider the decision. “It will become difficult for us to compete with the nationalised and private banks,” Rajak said.

Naren De, the co-operation minister in the Left government, said: “I don’t know what prompted the government to take such a decision when there was no complaint from teachers. The government should support such banks as they are financially weak compared with nationalised banks.”

School education minister Rabindranath Bhattacharya said he was “looking into the matter”.

Courtesy- http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110628/jsp/bengal/story_14169449.jsp

Mutual funds set to get $10bn

Foreign individual investors can now invest up to $10 billion in domestic mutual funds. “A new class of investors called qualified foreign investors (QFIs), other than foreign institutional investors (FIIs), can invest money into domestic mutual funds,” said Thomas Mathews, joint secretary (capital markets) in the finance ministry. Qualified foreign investors can be individuals and bodies, including pension funds, and cumulatively they can invest up to $10 billion (about Rs 45,000 crore). “We are open to the idea (of increasing the $10-billion limit) if such inflows are less volatile. We will review it (the cap) after six months,” said Mathews. Till now, only foreign institutional investors and non-resident Indians were allowed to invest directly in local equity schemes. Foreign individuals could not directly put in their money. In Budget 2011-12, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had allowed mutual funds registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to accept subscriptions from foreign investors in equity schemes that meet regulatory requirements. “This will enable Indian mutual funds to have direct access to foreign investors and widen the class of foreign investors in the Indian equity market,” the finance minister had said. The fund houses, however, will have to comply with know-your-customer (KYC) norms before seeking investment from overseas investors. Industry experts said the move was aimed at broad-basing the flow of foreign investment in the domestic stock market, reducing the dependence on FII funds. “Sebi will be the market regulator for all such investments,” said Mathews. According to the new proposal, individual foreign investors will be able to buy mutual funds in India through depositories already functioning in their countries or by opening an account with Indian depositories.

Tax relief for NY mission

The US Supreme Court today upheld a decision by a federal appeals court that had exempted the Indian and Mongolian missions from paying nearly $50 million in property taxes here.

In 2010, the second US circuit court of appeals in Manhattan upheld the state department intervention in 2009, which exempted taxes on property owned by foreign governments and UN missions that housed diplomatic staff.

In 2008, a federal district judge had ruled that India, which owns a 26-storey property near the UN, owed $42.5 million and Mongolia $4.4 million.

“It doesn’t matter what is fair or not fair,” Aaron Stiefel, the Indian mission’s lawyer, said after the Supreme Court denied New York City’s petition. Stiefel said the rule of reciprocity applied to the case since US diplomatic buildings in India were not taxed.

“While there is perhaps some unfairness to the city when the federal government retroactively declares property taxes imposed by the city against foreign countries to be null and void, this unfairness inheres in the federal government’s unquestioned supremacy in the management of foreign relations,” the judges wrote.

The state department had argued that if foreign properties in the US were taxed, then the US would have to pay millions of dollars in taxes for its own diplomatic buildings in many countries.

Nano arrives in Nepal

The Tata Nano was launched in Nepal today, but various taxes have pushed up the price of the car to Nepalese Rs 8 lakh, over three times its price in India.

After an addition of 240 per cent customs and other duties and insurance charges, the car that is priced at Rs 1,51,000 in India, will come at a cost of Nepalese Rs 7,98,000 (roughly Rs 5 lakh), Tata Motors’ international business head Johny Oommen said.

The Tatas have introduced three versions of the Nano in Nepal —the standard version, the CX and the LX.

Oommen said the car with its comfort, performance and maneuverability would prove to be ideal for Nepal.

The sole distributor of Tata Nano in Nepal — Sipradi Trading — is looking forward to make it the vehicle of choice among the Nepalese, its CEO Siddhartha Rana said.

Ten commercial banks have tied up with Sipradi to provide financing.

The company has started taking bookings of Rs 10,000 deposit per vehicle in Kathmandu and other major cities.

Bookings are scheduled to close after 10 days.

Nepal is the second foreign country after Sri Lanka, where the Tata Nano has been introduced.

Sipradi is the second largest private business organisation in Nepal with over Rs 1,000 crore annual turnover.

Scan on EPFO fund managers

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) is looking into the performance of fund managers appointed by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) to manage its huge corpus of Rs 3.5 lakh crore as part of a five-year “performance audit” of the retirement fund body.

The performance audit report for 2005-10 is likely to be finalised by June-end and will be sent to the labour ministry for comments before being tabled in Parliament, sources said.

“The report is likely to be tabled in the monsoon session,” a source said. The CAG will look into the overall financial management of the EPFO as well as the adequacy of internal controls and the use of IT.

The audit will also look into the basis of declaration of interest rates by the EPFO and whether the subscriber accounts are being updated on a regular basis and claims are settled on time.

The EPFO had appointed four fund managers — ICICI, HSBC, Reliance Capital and the State Bank of India — for the first time in July 2008, to provide a better rate of return on deposits to its 4.72-crore subscribers. Prior to that, the SBI was the sole fund manager since its inception in 1952. Sources said the CAG audit would look into the method adopted for the selection of the fund managers and whether proper checks and balances were conducted prior to the appointment.

Last year, the central board of trustees — the EPFO’s apex decision-making body — had announced that the PF fund managers would pay an interest rate of 9.5 per cent for 2010-11, citing a surplus of Rs 1,731.57 crore. The EPFO had been giving 8.5 per cent interest to PF subscribers since 2005-06.

However, the CAG had cautioned that the accumulation in the interest suspense account of the fund manager was because of “non-updation” of accounts of 4.72-crore members as on March 2010. There are about 10 crore accounts with the EPFO. At present, the EPFO follows a cash basis of accounting for calculating investments, while it calculates the interest liability on the basis of accruals.

Courtesy- http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110627/jsp/business/story_14164762.jsp

West Bengal earns HPL 350 cr-a-year bonus

The west Bengal government has scored a brownie point by getting the Centre to scrap the import duty on naphtha, a move that will help Haldia Petrochemicals and one that the previous Left Front government had been demanding for a long time. Bengal industries minister Mr. Partha Chatterjee had written to the Centre earlier this month seeking removal of the duty, which is expected to save Haldia Petrochemicals (HPL) Rs 350 crore annually. HPL, Bengal’s largest industrial venture, will be the biggest gainer from the Centre’s decision to eliminate the five per cent import duty on crude oil and petro products including naphtha, the main ingredient for making polymer used in the plastics industry. This financial year, HPL is expected to gain only around Rs 250 crore from the move since the first three months have gone. But even this may not help the company break even this year if the trend of the first quarter continues. HPL’s losses in the first three months may come to Rs 150-200 crore because of the slowdown in China. The price of naphtha, the main raw material for the company, has risen by 39 per cent in the past 12 months whereas the net realisation from its products, polymer and chemicals, has gone up by only 18 per cent. The last two months have been especially bad, with HPL selling at prices lower than the cost price. However, HPL managing director Mr. Partha S. Bhattacharyya said he was yet to hear about the duty cut but added that it would bring some relief to the company. “We hope the state government also withdraws sales tax on motor spirit. Then the company will be on its feet and plan for bigger things,” he said. “The slowdown in China is playing havoc. Plastic manufacturers are not buying, hoping a further price cut will force polymer producers to sell at lower prices. Everyone is suffering but HPL is suffering more because it could not make a handsome profit when the market was good before, because of various reasons.” The duty cut impacts HPL the most as it is the only manufacturer that imports naphtha. Other players such as Reliance, GAIL (India) Ltd and Indian Oil Corporation are fully integrated and manufacture naphtha internally. As per, Oil minister Mr. Jaipal Reddy  the duty cuts would entail a loss of about Rs 26,000 crore to the government for the full year. But the empowered group of ministers that recommended the cuts found that most of the revenue loss would come from crude imports and only a negligible proportion from naphtha, sources said. The GoM, headed by finance minister Mr.Pranab Mukherjee, decided that removing the duty would boost naphtha imports and the revenue loss could be offset by the excise duty from higher production.

Wrong account number---------- Bank sends back Dhoni’s cheque

Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni''s cheque of Rs 645 to pay house tax was returned by a nationalised bank due to wrong account number.

The cheque was in favour of Ranchi Municipal Corporation and the payment to be made towards holding tax for Dhoni''s house at Harmu under Doranda circle.

"It was not bounced. The cheque dated March 15 was returned (by the bank) due to wrong account number. It''s a human error," as per Ranchi Municipal Corporation''s Chief Executive Officer Vinay Chowbey .

Sensex surges over 500 pts on Greece

The BSE Sensex logged its first weekly gain in three weeks, rising 2.9 percent on Friday, with support from global markets that displayed some relief after Greece reached an agreement for an austerity plan to avoid a debt default.

Financials led the rise with State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank rising between 2.1 and 5.7 percent. The Bank Index gained 3.1 percent on the day.

Greece won the consent of international lenders on Thursday for a five-year austerity plan intended to avoid looming bankruptcy and its prime minister pledged to push radical economic reforms through parliament.

The benchmark 30-share BSE index ended the day 513.19 points higher at 18,240.68, with all but two of its components closing in the positive zone.

To the market is responding to overseas cues and positive developments on commodity inflation which is easing. There is definitely an expectation of moderation in oil prices.

Brent crude rebounded by more than $1 from a four-month low on Friday to $107, but oil prices are more than 20 percent off their early May peaks.

JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs slashed forecasts for crude prices in the third quarter after the International Energy Agency announced the release of 60 million barrels of oil next month to shore up the economic recovery.

Investors, however, remained wary as India is expected to make a decision on raising state-controlled prices of fuel such as diesel and cooking gas at 1330 GMT, which could push up an already sticky inflation, which in May hovered over 9 percent.

The central bank raised interest rates last week for the 10th time in just over a year to combat stubbornly high inflation and signaled more increases to come even as growth in Asia's third-largest economy is slowing down.

Foreign funds have been dumping Indian stocks recently, on worries over rising inflation and a slowdown in economic growth in the world's second-fastest growing major economy after China.

They have sold a net $628 million of shares in a total of eight sessions to June 21.

State-run oil marketing companies Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum, which would benefit from any increase in fuel prices, were up between 2.46 percent and 6.14 percent.

The 50-share NSE index closed up 2.84 percent at 5,471.25 points.

The index is down 11 percent year-to-date, and is the worst performer among major Asian markets. By comparison, MSCI's measure of Asian shares other than Japan is down 1.8 percent so far in 2011.

The Sensex is headed for its second annual decline in a decade as persistently high inflation, rising interest rates and slowing growth keep investors at bay, a Reuters poll showed.

As per my knowledge goes Market may maximum touch 5550 then it will come down to 4900. I will wait for that opportunity.

Happy trading.

Buying a Life insurance

At the time of buying an insurance policy, you are required to nominate someone to whom the proceeds would go if you are no longer around. 


The whole purpose of buying insurance is to ensure that your loved ones face the minimum possible hardship if something happens to you.

Therefore, the purpose of buying a policy is defeated if you provide wrong or incomplete information. For starters, let’s assume that the policy holder doesn't assign a nominee. 


In the event of his death, his legal heirs would get the benefit of policy but not before furnishing a succession certificate or a probate of Will, which is a cumbersome process.

Again, assuming that the policyholder didn't mention the share of nominee (that is if there are multiple nominees who are heirs too), it may lead to dispute.

Another significant aspect can be choosing a nominee. While most people nominate their blood relatives, such as parents, wife, children and siblings, instance of nominating close friends aren’t rare.


 Insurers say that it is advisable to choose a nominee(s) in such a way that there’s least possible chance of a contest over the insurance proceeds.

A nominee should ideally be someone who has insurable interest in the life of insured, say a husband or a wife. As a part of risk assessment process, insurers may deny a policy if the relationship between them doesn’t have any insurable interest. Insurance is a long term contract and nominees can be changed over a policy term. 


For instance, boy before marriage may appoint his mother as a nominee but change it to his spouse after marriage.

Further the proposer can nominate more than one individual in which case he needs to specify the percentage share of each nominee in the payout.

For hassle-free and timely settlement of claims, make sure you avoid some common mistakes and some wrong notions:

Just one nominee: Many people, in a hurry to fill up the form, appoint just one nominee even if they have multiple options. 


This could lead to complications. Suppose, a person appoints just his mother as a nominee, even when he has the option of nominating his father too. 


Now if a mother dies before the policy holder, with no change in nomination, there would be unnecessary delays in settlement on the death of the policyholder.

To avoid this, you should appoint multiple people as nominees and should always mention the percentage paid out to each. Mention their full names, addresses, ages and relationships to you.

A minor as nominee: It is recommended that you appoint a major person as a nominee because in case of minor, you need to appoint an appointee too.

If you consider it important to appoint a minor as nominee, then you ensure that you provide complete details of the appointee, including his or her full name, complete address and relationship to the nominee. The appointee loses his status when nominee turns 18.

Not informing the nominee(s): All precautions who must have taken while filling up the proposal form could come to a naught if you fail to inform your nominees about the whereabouts of policy documents. Some people refrain from telling the nominees about the policy either out of a feeling of insecurity or ignorance.

To avoid such a situation, always tell your nominees about the policy documents. Often nominees aren’t aware of existence of a policy, depriving them of money they need the most.

Not updating nominee details: There may be need to update the nominee details time to time. This may be because of change in address, or in a worst case scenario, the nominee may no longer be there to back you up.

This problem can easily be avoided as insurance company gives you an option to change the nomination details as many times as you want and at any time of the year. You only need to inform the insurer about the update by filling up the requisite form.

Mistaken notion that the nominee has absolute rights: A nominee doesn’t have absolute rights. The proceeds from life insurer received by a nominee can be attached if a court passes an order to that effect. 


Legal heirs can claim the money form nominee(s) through a court settlement.

If the nominee and the person to whom the proceedings are bequeathed in a will are two different people, then the provisions of will supersede the rights of nominee.

If you want to pass absolute rights to the nominee, prepare the Will and mention the beneficiaries. You can also issue the policy under the Women’s property Act.


The MWP Act states that the proceeds under a life insurance policy bought by a husband , for the benefit of his wife , or children or any of them, shall be payable only to the wife or the children.

Checklist while appointing the nominee for your insurance policy:

Make sure you mention full name, address and relationship with the nominee in your proposal form.

Make sure you have appointed someone who has insurable interest in you.

Make sure you appoint an appointee for a minor nominee.

Evaluate a possibility wherein you can appoint more than one beneficiary.

Be aware of the fact that a nominee doesn’t have absolute rights and legal heirs of a decreased can sue the nominee

.

Be aware of the fact that if case there are creditors; they will have first right over policy proceeds.

Be aware of fact that changes in nomination can be done any time during the duration of the policy.

You can do so by sending a request to insurance company. For this, you shall be required to submit the change in nomination’ form, duly filled, signed and witnessed. You can make this change anytime and any number of times.

To sum up, a little bit of caution on your past could prevent a lot of heartburn for your near ones if you are no longer around.

International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking' tomorrow: Steps taken to prevent the menace

Every Year 26th of June is observed as an “International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking”.  

The Government recognizes Drug abuse as a psycho-socio-medical problem, which can be best handled by adoption of a family/community-based approach by active involvement of NGOs/Community Based Organisations (CBOs) and has been taking several initiatives to help say no to drugs.  

The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, as the nodal ministry for drug demand reduction, coordinates and monitors all aspects of drug abuse prevention which include assessment of the extent of the problem, preventive action, treatment and rehabilitation of addicts, dissemination of information and public education. The Ministry provides community-based services for the identification, treatment and rehabilitation of addicts through voluntary organizations. 

 The strategy for demand reduction is three pronged:

a) Awareness Generation and educating people about ill effects of drug abuse.

b) Community based intervention for motivational counseling, identification, treatment and rehabilitation of drug addicts, and

c) Training of volunteers/service providers and other stakeholders with a view to build up a committed and skilled cadre.

National Consultative Committee on De-addiction and Rehabilitation

A National Consultative Committee on De-addiction and Rehabilitation (NCCDR) under the chairpersonship of Minister for Social Justice & Empowerment was constituted in July, 2008. The Committee has representation of various stakeholders, which also include agencies dealing with supply and demand reduction.   The Committee advises the Government on issues connected with drug demand reduction, education/awareness building, de-addiction and rehabilitation of drug-addicts. The first meeting of the Committee was held on 10.12.2008. Two major recommendations emerged in the meeting: 

§  To bring about further necessary changes in the Scheme for Prevention of Alcoholism and Substance (Drugs) Abuse and

§  To formulate a national policy on Prevention of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse and rehabilitation of its victims

  A sub-committee of the NCCDR was constituted on 28.02.2009 to take necessary steps in regard to both the above recommendations.

National Institute of Social Defence

Training is an important component for capacity building and skill development for the service providers. It is important to have exposure to the new trends regarding the kind of drugs abused, medical and psychiatric problems, new medicines/methodologies available for the treatment of addiction through participation in training programmes and conferences.  Updating and training through refresher courses also needs to be provided to existing staff. A National Centre for Drug Abuse Prevention   (NCDAP) was established in 1998, in the National Institute of Social Defence (NISD) at New Delhi to serve as an apex body for training, research and documentation in the field of alcoholism and drug demand reduction. The number of training programmes organized by NISD in collaboration with RRTCs on Drug Abuse Prevention during the eleventh Plan period areas under:-

.  Year                               Training Programmes

2007-08                                      98

2008-09                                      57

2009-10                                     76

2010-11                                     59

Total during first four years of eleventh Plan is  290

Regional Resource and Training Centres

       Eleven Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), with long years of experience and expertise in treatment, rehabilitation, training and research have been designated as Regional Resource and Training Centres(RRTCs) for different regions of the country. These serve as field training units of National Centre for Drug Abuse Prevention (NCDAP) on various aspects of demand reduction.  RRTCs provide the following services to the NGOs working the field of Drug Abuse Prevention:

• Documentation of all activities of the NGOs including preparation of Information Education Communication (IEC) material.

• Undertaking Advocacy, Research and Monitoring of drug abuse programmes.

• Technical support to the NGOs, Community Based Organisations and Enterprises.

           To implement its three pronged strategy for Drug Demand Reduction, the Ministry is implementing a Central Sector Scheme of ‘Assistance for the Prevention of Alcoholism & Substance (Drugs) Abuse and for Social Defence Services’. This is the flagship scheme of the Ministry in the field of drug demand reduction.  The Scheme has two parts viz. (i) 'Assistance for the Prevention of Alcoholism & Substance (Drugs) Abuse' and (ii) 'Financial Assistance in the Field of Social Defence' .

Observing 26th June as International Day Against Drug Abuse

To mark the International Day Against Drug Abuse, every year the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment launches a national level awareness campaign. Appropriate awareness generation programmes are also organized  by the State Governments, related central Ministries, all the Regional Resource and TrainingCentres (RRTCs) and Delhi based NGOs. The main programme is organized in New Delhi every year where Minister for Social Justice & Empowerment chairs the function. 

Awareness through NYKS and Bal Bhavans

The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in collaboration with Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathanhas started an awareness generation programme in the States of Punjab and Manipur. This programme will cover 3000 villages covering 15 Districts in the State of Punjab and 750 villages covering 9 Districts in the State of Manipur. Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan through its network of volunteers at village level will create awareness about the ill affects of alcoholism and Substance (Drug) abuse among the rural masses, identify the addicts and organize de-addiction camps for these addicts. The whole programme will be completed in one year time. 

The Ministry in collaboration with National Bal Bhavan has also started an awareness generationprogramme among the children of the age group of 12-16 years. It will be implemented through a series of activities like poster making, creative writing, lectures, rallies, nukkad nataks etc at local, zonal and national levels.

Community Based Intervention

    Under the Community based intervention financial assistance is provided for identification, counseling, treatment and rehabilitation of addicts through voluntary and other eligible organizations. Under this scheme, financial assistance up to 90% of the approved expenditure is given to the voluntary organizations and other eligible agencies for setting up/running Integrated Rehabilitation Centre for Addicts (IRCAs), Regional Resource and Training Centres (RRTCs), for holding Awareness-cum-deaddiction camps (ACDC) and Workplace Prevention Programmes etc.  In case of North-Eastern States, Sikkim and Jammu & Kashmir, the quantum of assistance is 95% of the total admissible expenditure. The balance has to be borne by the implementing agency.  The Scheme was last revised in October 2008. Some of the important features of the revised scheme are:

• honorarium rates for service providers of the Integrated Rehabilitation Centres for Addicts (IRCA) projects have been enhanced

• provision for food for inmates who are below poverty line (BPL) has been introduced at the rate of Rs. 900/- per month per inmate

• Panchayati Raj Institutions/Urban Local Bodies have been included under the organizations/institutions eligible for receiving assistance under the scheme and

• 15 and 30 bed IRCAs can be upgraded to 20 and 40 beds respectively, in the urban areas and the North-East.

Financial Assistance in the field of Social Defence

      Second Part of the Central Sector Scheme of ‘Assistance for the Prevention of Alcoholism & Substance (Drugs) Abuse and for Social Defence Services’ provides for financial assistance in the field of social defence.The objective of the scheme is as to meet urgent needs falling within the mandate of the Ministry which cannot be met under its regular schemes and to support such initiatives of an innovative/pilot nature in the area of welfare and empowerment of the Ministry’s target groups, as cannot be supported under its regular schemes.

     Financial assistance is given up to 90% of the approved expenditure to the voluntary and other eligible organizations. In case of an organization working in a relatively new area where both voluntary and Government effort is very limited but the need for the service is very great the Government may bear up to 100% of the cost.

  The major funding under the scheme has been to the Jammu & Kashmir Rehabilitation Council for Rehabilitation of Widows, Orphans, Handicapped and Older Persons affected with terrorism. During 2007-08 to 2010-11, an amount of Rs.300 lakhs was released every year to the Council.

Other Ministries

In addition to the Integrated Rehabilitation Centres for Addicts (IRCAs), which are financially supported by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare also supports 122 de-addiction centres in District Hospitals.

http://pib.nic.in/newsite/efeatures.aspx?relid=72856

Courtesy-http://www.facebook.com/notes/dr-manmohan-singh/international-day-against-drug-abuse-and-illicit-trafficking-tomorrow-steps-take/10150225284700636