Steps taken to promote entrepreneurship in North-Eastern Region - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Steps taken to promote entrepreneurship in North-Eastern Region.

Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr. Jitendra Singh said that the Government has initiated and implemented several initiatives to promote entrepreneurship in North-Eastern Region. In a statement laid in the Lok Sabha today, he said, steps have been taken for improvement in enabling environment and vibrant ecosystem to enable entrepreneurs to tap the potential of the region.

Important connectivity projects for capital rail, air and road connectivity will be completed in the next two to three years. Development of Inland Waterways- National Waterways 2 and National Waterways 16 will provide connectivity to Haldia through Indo-Bangladesh Protocol Route and greatly benefit the eco-system by reducing cost.

Bamboo which has the potential to change the NE economy has got a boost with setting up of bio-refinery at Numaligarh, Assam; Bamboo Industrial Park at Dima Hasao, Assam; with reduced imports following enhancement of import duty to 25% on bamboo sticks for Agarbattis and amendment in Indian Forest Act, 1927.

The institutional framework for promotion of entrepreneurship is provided by several institutes in NER like Indian Institute of Entrpreneurship (IIE), Guwahati; three Indian Institutes of Information Technology(IIIT) in NER, Institutes of Hotel Management at Guwahati and Shillong, Film and Television Institute at Jollang-Rakap (Jote), Arunachal Pradesh, and National Institute of Design (NID), Jorhat, Assam. These institutes provide opportunity for skilling and nurturing young creative talent and design aspirants from North East Region and boost entrepreneurship. Further, KrishiUdaan Scheme to evacuate local produce, 586 Van DhanVikasKendras and Zoram Mega Food Park etc. will boost entrepreneurship, trade and commerce. In Assam and Meghalaya, the PMYUVA Pilot is being implemented in selected Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs), Polytechnics, Pradhan MantriKaushal Kendra (PMKKs) centres and Jan SikshanSansthan (JSS). Under PMYUVA, 25 project institutes have been selected for the pilot project on Entrepreneurship Development in Assam and Meghalaya.

Entrepreneurs in NER have also been benefitted under various credit related schemes. Under Stand Up India Scheme, 3,449 loan accounts of SC/ST/Women beneficiaries were sanctioned for Rs. 714.83 crore and under Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana, a total of 1,07,26,209 loan accounts were sanctioned for Rs 48,868 crore in the 8 North Eastern States. Under Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme 24,455 units were set up and employment for 1,95,640 persons was generated from 2017-18 to 31.12.2020; under Credit Guarantee Trust Fund of Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE), an amount of Rs.4684.55 crore was approved towards 98569 guarantees. An amount of Rs.21.26 crore was settled for 83393 beneficiaries under Interest Subvention Scheme for Incremental Credit to MSME since its inception in November, 2018.

The Start-up India Initiatives aims at fostering entrepreneurship and promoting innovation by creating and enabling eco-system. Under this, 408 startups have been recognized in the NER.

North East Development Finance Institution(NEDFI) has extended financial assistance to 6844 no. of projects with total sanctions and disbursement of Rs.5487.92 Cr. & Rs.4222.64 Cr. respectively, facilitating capital formation of around Rs.15922 Cr. during 1995 to 2020.The North East Venture Fund (NEVF), the first dedicated Venture Fund for NE has approved investments worth Rs 59.52 Crore in 29 ventures across sectors including healthcare, mobility, IT &ITeS, food processing/food tech, adventure tourism, agri-allied services and handicraft.

Under North East Industrial Development Scheme (NEIDS), 2017, 202 units have been registered.

Organizations such as North East Handicrafts & Handloom Corporation (NEHHDC),Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India (TRIFED), Khadi and Village Industries Commission(KVIC) have launched E- Commerce portals i.e. www.purbashree.com, www.tribesindia.com, ekhadiindia.com which enable entrepreneurs including from North East to reach out to a wider market. The organizations like NEHHDC and TRIFED are also supporting the marketing of NE products through other e-commerce platforms. (Source: pib)

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Steps taken to promote entrepreneurship in North-Eastern Region.

How will Centre double farmers’ income by next year? Union Budget 2021-22 has no answer - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

How will Centre double farmers’ income by next year? Union Budget 2021-22 has no answer.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had set the ambitious target in 2016.

Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman made a brief mention in her budget speech of the Centre’s plan to double farmers’ income, the deadline for which is 2022.

The target was announced on February 28, 2016 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had said that by the time India celebrated its 75th Independence Day in 2022, farmers’ income would have doubled.

The Union Budget 2021-22 presented on February 1, 2021, was the penultimate budget before the deadline but the plan to achieve this ambitious target was not outlined in the document.

“Six years are going to end in 2022 and we haven’t heard from the government in the budget on how it plans to do this. There was no report card of current income levels of the farmers and nothing at all to show how to achieve this target,” said Kiran Kumar Vissa, national group member, All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee.

A report by the standing committee on agriculture submitted to Parliament on March 3, 2020 said that the Union government has asked all departments to work towards doubling farmer income. As part of the initiative, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Delhi, has prepared plans for each state and sent them for implementation. But there are no details on how states should work or how the government will analyse the progress.

In 2017, ICAR had decided to adopt and develop two villages as models in each district of the country, the report said, so that state governments can follow the schemes and practices and frame its own policies to double farmer incomes in other villages. Down To Earth had earlier reached out to these villages and found that there is no progress.

Amid extreme rural distress, experts have time and again called this plan unrealistic. Is the government indicating that it was merely sloganeering and the target is not an achievable? The current budget also does not inspire confidence in even increasing farmer incomes if not doubling.

Budget 2021-22 announced a 10 per cent increase in farm credit and higher allocations for fisheries, farmer produce organisations, aajeevika (rural livelihood mission) and recapitalisation of regional rural banks.

"Other than that, there is only stagnation or decline in many other scheme allocations like for crop insurance, interest subvention subsidy and even PM-KISAN (a direct benefit transfer scheme for farmers). Even MIS and PSS has much lower allocation than last year as only half of last year’s allocation was spent,” said Sukhpal Singh, professor, Centre for Management in Agriculture, IIM Ahmedabad.

“The only promise on the agri market front is more agricultural produce market committees (APMC) being planned to be linked to eNam (a national trading platform for agricultural products) and allowing APMCs to access agriculture infrastructure finds as loans. Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojna also has lower allocation than last year. It looks more like an interim budget,” he added.

In the budget speech, Sitharaman shared the procurement data of wheat and paddy and highlighted that the procurement has significantly gone up compared to 2013-14 and that the number of farmers benefitting from this has also increased. But these are just two crops which are procured from few states like Punjab, Haryana, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh.

She also made a major announcement towards increasing agriculture credit target to Rs 16.5 lakh crore. (Source: downtoearth)

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How will Centre double farmers’ income by next year? Union Budget 2021-22 has no answer.