(a)whether the Government is successfully implementing India Smart Cities Fellowship (ISCF) and India Smart Cities Internship (ISCI) programmes in the country and if so, the details thereof;
(b) the details of initiatives taken by the Government to promote ease of living for India’s urban residents; and
(c) the other steps taken by the Government to encourage and strengthen the digital payments infrastructure in the country
including in North Eastern Region and Uttar Pradesh?
THE MINISTER OF HOUSING AND URBAN AFFAIRS
(SHRI HARDEEP SINGH PURI)
(a): In the month of July 2018, the India Smart Cities Fellowship (ISCF) and India Smart Cities Internship (ISCI) were launched to act as structured and guided work-based learning program for bright young minds around the theme of Smart Cities. The first batch of ISCF was inducted in January 2019 and subsequent cohorts have been inducted in March 2020 and October 2021. Till date, 123 Fellows have been inducted under the ISCF program who have worked on development of solutions to urban challenges. MoHUA under its ISCI Programme has engaged students pursuing Under-Graduate/Graduate/Post-Graduate Degrees enrolled in recognized Universities/Institutions as interns who have worked on various initiatives under the Smart Cities Mission. MoHUA launched `The Urban Learning Internship Program’ (TULIP) on
4 June 2020 to create synergies between advancing functional skills in students and harnessing their energy and ideas to co-create solutions for the future of our cities. So far, more than 19,000 internship opportunities have been offered by Smart Cities/Urban Local Bodies under TULIP, out of which more than 2500 internships are either ongoing or have been completed.
(b): Various scheme and non-scheme interventions are implemented by MoHUA to promote Ease of Living (EoL) in urban areas. Broadly, a three-level strategy is followed. At the first level, the challenges of poverty alleviation, affordable housing, cleanliness, access to drinking water supply and conservation of water resources are being addressed through Deen Dayal Antyodaya Yojana - National Urban Livelihood Mission (DAY-NULM), Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Urban (PMAY-U), Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U 2.0) and Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT 2.0) in all cities. At the second level, 100 cities are being developed under SCM to evolve new paradigms of urban governance keeping community at the core. At the third level, urban transport projects like Green Mobility, Metro Rail, MetroNeo and MetroLite are being implemented in selected large towns and cities.
(c): Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has informed that it has been assigned the responsibility of “Promotion of Digital Transactions including digital payments”. As apprised by MeitY, DIGIDHAN Mission was set up at MeitY in June 2017, which has been the primary catalyst to promote digital payment ecosystem in India. Under the Mission, MeitY has taken several steps to promote digital payments including, inter alia, Incentive schemes, launch of BHIM app, BHIM Aadhaar Pay, Digidhan digital payments Dashboard, On-boarding of Billers on Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS), National Common Mobility Card (NCMC), National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC), awareness initiatives and undertaking security measures for Digital Payments. Further, MeitY has taken several campaigns to promote digital payments viz. Smart Cities Digital Payments awards, ‘Digital Apnayen’ campaign with Department of Financial Services, ‘Digital Payments Abhiyaan’, MeitY awards and promotional workshops on Digital Payments. In addition, initiatives have been undertaken to empower street vendors with Digital Payments through pilot project
initiated by MeitY and MoHUA to digitally onboard around 7 Lakh beneficiaries of PM Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) scheme with BHIM-UPI QR code through Digital Payment aggregators for increasing digital transactions. These steps have been undertaken throughout the country, including in the North Eastern region and Uttar Pradesh.
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