NEWS: Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojana (PMAGY) has covered over 47,300 villages and declared over 16,700 of them as ‘Adarsh Grams’.

CONTEXT

• PMAGY is a centrally sponsored scheme launched by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MoSJE) in 2009–10 and integrated into the Pradhan Mantri Anusuchit Jaati Abhyuday Yojana (PM-AJAY) under the “Adarsh Gram” component.
• Integrated development of Scheduled Caste (SC)-majority villages through the convergence of central and state programmes and flexible gap-filling funding.
• Eligibility: Villages with a total population of ≥ 500 people and an SC population of more than 40%.
• Funding: ₹20 lakh per village for infrastructure and projects, plus ₹1 lakh per village for administrative expenses, capacity building, and VDP creation.
• It monitors 50 socio-economic indicators across 10 sectors, including drinking water, sanitation, education, health, roads, housing, electricity, financial inclusion, and digitisation.

About PM-AJAY

• Launched by MoSJE in 2021–22, it is a centrally sponsored scheme for socio-economic upliftment, poverty reduction, and infrastructural development of SC communities.

Three Components:

• Adarsh Gram: Holistically develops infrastructure in SC majority villages.
• Grants-in-Aid: Funds skill development and enterprise creation for SC households for SC households via a capital subsidy of up to ₹50,000 or 50% of asset cost, whichever is lower.
• Hostel Construction: Finances building and repair of residential facilities in government schools and NIRF-ranked institutions to reduce dropout rates.
• Digital Governance: PM-AJAY Portal and AJAY Mobile Application enable online planning, appraisal, fund tracking, beneficiary monitoring and geo-tagged reporting.