Cabinet today gave ex-post-facto nod to recently announced FDI policy reforms in 15 sectors. Last month the government had opened these sectors in a bid to push up reforms. The sectors include real estate, defence, civil aviation and news broadcasting.<br/><br/>The Cabinet nods for changes in National Rural Livelihood Mission for focused and targeted intervention in poverty reduction. Under the mission, government has expanded the benefits of interest subvention to 100 more districts and given flexibility in allocation to Himayat programme and Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushal Yojana for skilling and placing more youth from poorer sections. The Cabinet has also relaxed the existing criteria for the allocation of funds to North Eastern States other than Assam to cover all vulnerable rural households by 2023-24.<br/><br/>The Cabinet also approved setting up of six new Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in Andhra Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Goa, Jammu, Kerala and Karnataka. The Cabinet also gave its approval for their operationalization initially under the Societies Registration Act to give a legal status to them till IIT Act is amended. Each IIT will have an initial intake of 180 students in its first year which would increase to 450 in the second year and to 928 in the third year. About 1,412 crore rupees is estimated to be incurred between 2015 and 2019 for running these IITs.<br/><br/>The Cabinet also approved the revised cost estimates to the tune of 4,799 crore rupees as against the originally approved cost of 2,500 crore rupees, for setting up of five Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research, IISERs at Kolkata, Pune, Mohali, Bhopal and Thiruvananthapuram.<br/><br/>Approved for rehabilitation package and upgradation of infrastructure of the Bangladeshi enclaves and Cooch Behar district after transfer of enclaves between India and Bangladesh has also been given by the Cabinet. The total financial implication for implementation of various components is around 1006 crores. This includes 898 crores as the fixed cost of strengthening and creation of infrastructure in Cooch Behar district and Bangladesh enclaves in India.<br/><br/> Besides, a variable cost of 107 crore rupees is likely to be incurred for the rehabilitation. The actual variable cost would depend upon the actual number of families returning to India. All the works will be implemented by the State Government or its agencies in a time-frame of 3 to 5 years, and funds will be released by the Ministry of Home Affairs to the State Government as grant-in-aid. <br/><br/>Approval was also given for MoU between Indian and Germany, to expand bilateral development cooperation in the field of Solar Energy and for implementation of Make in India campaign for Capital Goods Sector. In an another decision, Cabinet gave its nod for signing of the agreement between India and Iran on visa facilitation for Diplomatic, Official, Service and Ordinary passport holders. <br/><br/>The Cabinet also gave its nod for a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU between India and Maldives in the field of sports and youth affairs. It also approved signing of a MoU between India and Israel in the field of water resources management and development cooperation.

Cabinet today gave ex-post-facto nod to recently announced FDI policy reforms in 15 sectors. Last month the government had opened these sectors in a bid to push up reforms. The sectors include real estate, defence, civil aviation and news broadcasting.<br/><br/>Approval was also given for MoU between Indian and Germany, to expand bilateral development cooperation in the field of Solar Energy and for implementation of Make in India campaign for Capital Goods Sector. In an another decision, Cabinet gave its nod for signing of the agreement between India and Iran on visa facilitation for Diplomatic, Official, Service and Ordinary passport holders. <br/><br/>The Cabinet also gave its nod for a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU between India and Maldives in the field of sports and youth affairs. It also approved signing of a MoU between India and Israel in the field of water resources management and development cooperation. <br/><br/>The Cabinet also approved setting up of six new Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in Andhra Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Goa, Jammu, Kerala and Karnataka. The Cabinet also gave its approval for their operationalization initially under the Societies Registration Act to give a legal status to them till IIT Act is amended. Each IIT will have an initial intake of 180 students in its first year which would increase to 450 in the second year and to 928 in the third year. About 1,412 crore rupees is estimated to be incurred between 2015 and 2019 for running these IITs. <br/> <br/>The Cabinet nods for changes in National Rural Livelihood Mission for focused and targeted intervention in poverty reduction. Under the mission, government has expanded the benefits of interest subvention to 100 more districts and given flexibility in allocation to Himayat programme and Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushal Yojana for skilling and placing more youth from poorer sections. The Cabinet has also relaxed the existing criteria for the allocation of funds to North Eastern States other than Assam to cover all vulnerable rural households by 2023-24.