24 Apr 2018: UPSC Exam PIB Summary & Analysis

Electoral Bond Scheme 2018

• Government of India has notified the Electoral Bond Scheme 2018 on January 2018.
• The Electoral Bonds may be purchased by a person, who is a citizen of India or incorporated or established in India.
• A person being an individual can buy Electoral Bonds, either singly or jointly with other individuals. 
• Only the Political Parties registered under Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (43 of 1951) and which secured not less than one per cent of the votes polled in the last General Election to the House of the People or the Legislative Assembly of the State, shall be eligible to receive the Electoral Bonds.
• The Electoral Bonds shall be encashed by an eligible Political Party only through a Bank account with the Authorized Bank.
• State Bank of India (SBI), in the 3rdphase of sale, has been authorised to issue and encash Electoral Bonds through its 11 Authorised Branches.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister’s Gram Sadak Yojana (CMGSY)

• The Government of India, the Government of MadhyaPradesh and the World Bank signed a $210 million loan agreement for the Madhya Pradesh Rural Connectivity Project.
• The Project is expected to improve the durability, resilience and safety of the gravel surfaced rural roads and enhance the capacity of the state to manage its rural roads network.
• The Project will cover 10,510 km stretch of rural roads in Madhya Pradesh that fall under the Chief Minister’s Gram Sadak Yojana (CMGSY) program.
• Of this 10,000 km will be upgraded from existing gravel to bituminous surface roads, while 510 km of new roads will be built to the same bituminous surface standard.
• This project, on a pilot basis, will engage women self-help groups (SHG) in the post construction maintenance activity. This will involve routine maintenance of off-carriage way parts of the road, while the main carriageway maintenance will remain part of the original contractor’s contract.
• The project will focus on improving road accident data collection and analysis at central and state levels through implementation of the Road Accident Database Management System (RADMS); strengthen road safety capacity at the central level; and focus on training.

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