by Pankaj Yadav
NEW DELHI, May 16 (NNN-XINHUA) — Indian Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, announced 11 measures worth 163,343 crore Indian Rupees (nearly 21.8 billion U.S. dollars), to support the agriculture and allied activities like fisheries, dairy farming, milk production, animal husbandry and food processing.
The funds would help those involved in these activities and hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, amid the countrywide lock-down that brought almost all activities to a grinding halt during the past eight weeks.
Friday’s measures were the third tranche of announcements out of the stimulus package worth 267 billion U.S. dollars, as announced by Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, on May 12 to make India “self-reliant.”
Among the 11 measures were three related to governance and agri-reforms, including amending the Essential Commodities Act, bringing in a new Central Law, to help inter-state trading and sale of farm produce by farmers themselves, and making a new Legal Framework, enabling farmers to ensure certainty of procurement of their products, even before the sowing season begins.
The biggest announcement of 100,000 crore Indian Rupees (13.3 billion U.S. dollars) were related to strengthening agriculture infrastructure, like building new cold-storage and warehouses for post-harvest preservation of farm produce.
A sum of 20,000 crores (around 2.7 billion U.S. dollars) was allocated for strengthening the fisheries sector, while a sum of 13,343 crores (1.8 billion U.S. dollars) was allocated for the animal husbandry sector.
Besides, an amount of 15,000 crores (2 billion U.S. dollars) was kept aside for strengthening the dairy infrastructure, 4,000 crores (533 million U.S. dollars) for herbal and organic cultivation.
The stimulus package is aimed at extending support to various sectors that were adversely affected during the lock-down, imposed in the country on Mar 25, to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
The finance minister has been announcing measures and allocation of funds for different sectors on a daily basis. Such announcements are likely to continue for a few days, as many sectors, like tourism and hospitality, heavy machinery and auto sector are waiting for similar stimulus to push-start businesses after the lock-down.– NNN-XINHUA
