Andhra govt launches 'Talliki Vandanam' scheme, ₹15,000 to be given for school-going child
Amaravati, The TDP-led NDA government in Andhra Pradesh has launched 'Talliki Vandanam' scheme where ₹15,000 will be given annually to every school-going child in a household, a top official said on Friday.
'Talliki Vandanam' is one of the 'Super Six' set of welfare promises made by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu in the run-up to the 2024 polls.
"The government has issued guidelines for the implementation of the 'Talliki Vandanam' scheme, a key initiative designed to empower mothers/guardians across the state, by extending financial assistance of ₹15,000 per annum per child to every eligible mother/guardian," said Kona Sasidhar, secretary to government in an order.
Irrespective of the number of children in a household who attend school from class I to intermediate, the scheme will be extended to all eligible households.
Likewise, the government will also take into account the expected eligible enrollments into Class I and junior intermediate for this scheme, it said.
Over 67 lakh students and 43 lakh mothers will benefit from the 'Talliki Vandanam' scheme. Out of ₹15,000 per annum, ₹2,000 will be deducted at source for the overall development of educational ecosystem in the state, involving maintenance, hygiene and sanitation.
According to the secretary, this scheme focuses on making school education more accessible and inclusive with a commitment to provide equal opportunities and improve learning outcomes.
"The scheme empowers mothers to be actively involved in their children's schooling from Class I to Class XII, while recognising their pivotal role in shaping educational progress," he said.
The benefits of this scheme will be extended to all the eligible children, Sasidhar said, adding that government, private aided and private unaided schools and junior colleges will be covered.
The southern state has set a timeframe between June 12 and July 5 to complete the entire disbursal and implementation of the scheme.
Dubbed as the "mother of all welfare schemes" by the government, 'Tallki Vandanam' is also aimed at encouraging families to have more children as part of Naidu's focus on addressing a plummeting population and 'demographic management'.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Mint
12 minutes ago
- Mint
GDP's dirty little secret: Why we should be tracking GVA instead
Gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate is the headline number everyone tracks to figure out how the economy is doing. It's time we shifted focus to gross value added, or GVA, which is a more direct measure of the incomes generated in the economy. That's because GDP numbers are affected by random decisions by the GST Council to raise tax rates or by the government to slash subsidies. Cut subsidies, boost growth. Such a prescription might seem like snake oil for the consumption of the simpleminded. But cutting subsidies has, indeed, been the simple route to boost GDP growth in India. India's GDP growth in the final quarter of 2024-25 was a dramatic 7.4%. The growth in GVA, which is what counts for creating jobs and putting income in the hands of people, was a more modest 6.8%. The divergence between the growth rates of GDP (6.5%) and GVA (6.4%) has been modest for 2024-25 as a whole. It was starker in 2023-24, when the GDP growth rate was 9.2%, while GVA grew by only 8.6%. The more subsidies are cut, the greater the boost GDP growth gets over GVA growth. Also read | Growth in charts: GDP-GVA divide, export silver lining, capex push India is not accustomed to the chainsaw breed of fiscal conservatism that Elon Musk vocally championed before his high-profile breakup with US President Donald Trump. In the US, the notion that cutting welfare expenditure and other subsidies will make for a healthier fisc and a more robust economy is part of the mainstream narrative, at least on one side of the political divide. The conventional wisdom in Republican circles is that ridding government expenditure of waste and excess would make room for lower government borrowing and lower taxes, and these two would, combined with a dose of deregulation, boost growth. In India, too, many economists have used this approach – not to genuinely foster growth, but rather to dismiss the government's significant role in the economy by labelling it 'socialism' that curtails capitalist dynamism. The NDA government came to power as a slayer of big government and socialism. It once portrayed the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme as a monument of national failure. But, in the face of revealed distress in the economy, it has also assiduously funded the scheme, regardless of how this made the 'monument of failure' shine brighter. There is a big difference between the role the state and subsidies play in an economy like the US and in India, whose per-capita GDP is 3% of the US's $89,000. The way India's GDP is computed allows for a lower subsidy bill to boost GDP, whatever the role of subsidies in supporting subsistence and sustaining growth. GVA is what really matters While GDP is the headline number on everyone's radar, what matters for creating jobs and incomes is GVA. GVA and GDP are highly correlated but not quite the same. The total value that is generated in an economy breaks down into gross profits and the sum total of wages and salaries. GDP is the value of all final goods and services produced and sold in the economy, whether for consumption, investment or export, net of the imports that go into the production of those goods and services. By taking into account only the final goods, we avoid double counting. Steel goes into machinery, construction, washing machines and safety pins. We look at only the value of these final goods, and not the value of the steel produced. Also read | Kaushik Basu: Redefine prosperity; GDP tunnel-vision could prove costly National income can be estimated either from the income side or the expenditure side. Data on income is hard to capture directly on a comprehensive basis, and it is easier to estimate the expenditure on things. When you buy pills, an X-Ray machine, or lab test, what you pay for includes the tax on the good or service. Some of the goods you buy are subsidised by the government, so the price is lower than the actual value – grain from the fair price shop, or electricity in many states for certain classes of consumers are just two examples of this. So, to arrive at the GVA of the economy, you must add up the total expenditure on final goods and services, which will give you GDP, subtract the taxes borne by these goods and services, and add back the subsidies that artificially lowered your expenditure. In other words, GVA = GDP - tax + subsidy. In other words, GDP = GVA + tax - subsidy. Taxes net of subsidies are called net taxes. So GDP = GVA + net taxes. For the same level of value added in the economy, you can have a higher or lower level of GDP by raising or lowering net taxes. You can raise net taxes by raising taxes, lowering the subsidy outgo, or both. You can lower net taxes by lowering tax collections or increasing the subsidy bill. As you can see from the table, when the GVA growth rate increased from 6.7% in 2022-23 to 8.6% the following year, that is, by 1.9 percentage points, the GDP growth rate rose 2.2 percentage points, from 7% to 9.2%. This was effected by reducing the outlays on major subsidies from 2% of GDP to 1.37% of GDP – a decline of 31.5%. Another 15.5% drop in the subsidy/GDP ratio helped boost the GDP number in 2024-25. To get a grip on economic activity and the incomes it generates, it is more useful to look at GVA, rather than GDP, since GDP is affected by changes to subsidy allocations. Also read: Mint Quick Edit | India's GDP: A key test lies ahead
Hans India
an hour ago
- Hans India
AP partners with WEF for energy centre in Amaravati
Vijayawada: In a significant move to establish Andhra Pradesh as a global hub for innovation and sustainable development, the state government partnered with the World Economic Forum (WEF) to launch 'WEF-AP Centre for Energy and Cyber Resilience' in Amaravati. This initiative aligns with the government's ambitious 'Swarna Andhra Vision 2047'. A Government Order issued on Thursday formalized the establishment of this centre, which will operate under the WEF's global Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR) Network. Notably, it will be India's first thematic C4IR centre and will focus on two critical areas: energy transition and green industries in collaboration with WEF's Centre for Energy and Materials (CENMAT) and AI-led digital transformation and cyber security, in partnership with WEF's Centre for Cyber Security. This initiative stems from high-level meetings with the WEF in Davos and is poised to position Amaravati as India's leading center for green energy, sustainability, and cyber security. The project is being spearheaded by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and IT Minister Nara Lokesh, with the overarching goal of enhancing AP's international profile and attracting significant investments in clean energy, Artificial Intelligence, and digital infrastructure. The centre's key objectives include elevating AP's global standing, fostering international partnerships, supporting the growth of green industries, enhancing cyber security capabilities, and running pilot projects in clean energy, smart grids, and the application of AI in sectors such as agriculture and governance. Furthermore, it aims at upskilling the workforce in cyber security and emerging technologies and connecting the state with prominent global platforms like the WEF's annual meeting at Davos. The state government has allocated Rs 36 crore to support the Centre's operations for three years. It will initially function from Vijayawada or Amaravati and will be governed by a high-level committee chaired by IT Minister Nara Lokesh.
Hans India
an hour ago
- Hans India
Lokesh's ultimatum to YSRCP on 'Talliki Vandanam'
Vijayawada: Minister for Human Resources and IT Nara Lokesh on Friday gave an ultimatum to leaders of the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) to prove their claim that he had arranged to collect Rs 2,000 illicitly from the Rs 15,000 being disbursed to mothers under the 'Talliki Vandanam' scheme. Lokesh demanded that the YSRCP must take down their defamatory tweet within 24 hours, failing which legal action would be launched against the party. He accused the YSRCP of a pattern of repeating false allegations to establish its unfounded charge. In fact, Lokesh alleged, there were irregularities in the implementation of the 'Amma Vodi' scheme during the previous YSRCP government, including the furnishing of false accounts regarding student gross enrollment ratios. Addressing the media, the IT Minister highlighted that under the 'Talliki Vandanam', a key promise under Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu's 'Super Six' programme, the state government has successfully credited Rs 8,745 crore to the accounts of mothers of 67.27 lakh students. This amount is being credited to mothers of students from Class 1 to Intermediate first year. In cases where a mother is absent, the amount will be credited to the father or guardian, and for orphanages, the District Collector will assume responsibility. Lokesh emphasised the establishment of a robust redressal mechanism, allowing citizens to report grievances regarding non-receipt of funds through the Mana Mitra app or at village and ward secretariats. The minister provided a breakdown of the beneficiaries, stating that amounts for students from Class 4 to 10 were credited to 30 lakh BCs, 12 lakh SCs, 4.26 lakh STs, 66,000 minorities, and 8.5 lakh EBCs. He added that Rs 13,000 was credited to 18.55 lakh mothers with one child. For those with two children, Rs 26,000 was credited to 14.55 lakh mothers, covering 29.10 lakh students. Additionally, funds were credited for 6.3 lakh students with three children. Lokesh contrasted the foregoing figures with those of the previous YSRCP government's 'Amma Vodi' scheme, which benefited only 42 lakh students, whereas the current NDA government had extended 'Talliki Vandanam' to 67.27 lakh students. He noted that while the YSRCP government spent Rs 5,540 crore, the NDA government was spending Rs 8,745 crore on 'Talliki Vandanam,' an additional Rs 3,205 crore, projecting an extra expenditure of Rs 16,000 crore over five years. The minister further informed that he had reviewed the scheme's implementation with the Finance Minister and found that 2 percent of mothers' accounts were inactive, for which SMS notifications were being sent to prompt their activation. Regarding school preparations, Lokesh stated that student kits, including books and bags, were distributed to 80 per cent of students on the first day of school reopening. He assured that mid-day meals would be served with fine rice. As part of ongoing reforms, the state government was focusing on a 'one class, one teacher' norm, which had been implemented in 9,600 schools. Additionally, government schools were receiving free power supply. The minister concluded by stating that the teacher transfer process would be completed by Monday.
