Thursday Brief

It looks like Maharashtra is having second wave of COVID 19, and daily the number of cases are breaking records. Mumbai city with 5000+ daily case is  also one of the worst suferer. IT looks like Maharashtra govt has become helpless and they have given up, with the statements like citizens have to take care themselves. But why should the law abiding citizen suffer because some of the other not taking precaution, and the main thing in this the people who are not wearing mask when they are stepping outside their homes.

Coming to my other topic of the day:

Our govt announces so many policies for the benefit of citizens, but must of us are unaware how to know about the same. There are some policies which directly affect the citizens, but we are generaly not aware how to get the benefit out of them. With the present govt, details of most of the policies are available on line. We have enough and more media outlets to tell us about what is not happening, and in this din, news of policies, schemes, and programs tht can actually benefit is being lost. There are many online initaitives from the Govt of India (GOI). Details of some of them are given below for your ease:

1. Land Records Portal- In an ambitious endeavour to make land records digital and avaible at anytime, anywhere GOI has launched this service. Ehile it is primarily meant to benefit farmers, those looking to access records of their land and relevant information digitally can use this fortal
2. Aadhar and Direct Benefit (DBT). Most of us now are in pocession of unique identity card called Adhar card. Linking this to our bank accounts have become mandatory, similarly your Income Tax ID PAN number has also has been linked. Linking the bank accounts and PAN number gives the govt to check about bogus account for unaccounted money transfers. For poor people any govt benefits can be transferred to their bank accounts as Aadhar card has all the other relevant details.
3. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs is the go to body for all the information related to establishing and running a legal business. You can now register on line, apply for a name change of your company, view documents and file other change requests.
4. Passport Seva- Perhaps one service that has been visibly recognised is this seva. With the option of filing applications online and submitting copies of documents on the portal, passport appointments are now completed in a matter of a few hours.
5. E courts allow for filing cases, reviewing progress and keeping track of summons all through this portal.
6. E Hospital- so far many E hospitals have come into operation under this service. These hospitals can provide patient info, accept payments and scheduling of appointments all through a secured link.
7. Jeevan Pramaan- With this service govt has put an end to pensioners having to visit offices/bank branches to prove that they are living. Earlier you have to fill the form of living certificate and submit to the respective offices or bank branches. With this lot of time and energy. Thus lot of time is saved. It offers a digital, biometric enabled life certificate that would sufficient to avail.

All the above portal are available on the digital platform. You have to use the link ; services.india.gov.in>service required> details of the information, to get the details of thre seeked information.

Earlier we had  lot of mistrust with the Govt as an insfficient system, but by digitizing the system and evaluating scope for red tape, we have entered in a new era.

Hope this information will be useful.

Waiting for your views and comments.

Anil Malik

Mumbai, India

25^th March 2021