Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is announced third tranche of government's economic stimulus package today.
Nirmala Sitharaman press conference: Live Updates
- Sitharaman said that a central law will be formulated to provide ample choice to farmers to sell crops at attaractive price. The law will also enable barrier-free interstate trade and framework for e-trading of agricultural produce.
- Limit on storage of Onions, pulses, potatoes will be removed.
- "Essential Commodities Act needs amendment," says Nirmala Sitharaman.
- Rs 5 hundred crore allotted for bee-keeping industry. It is estimated that more than 2 lakh beekeepers will benefit from this.
- Rs 4 thousand crore have been allotted to encourage herbal, medicinal plant farming. Aim to bring 10 lakh hectares of land under herbal farming in 2 years.
- 15 thousand crore have been allotted for improving animal husbandry infrastruture development.
- Rs 20 thousand crore have been allotted for Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana to promote fishery and fish farming. The government estimates that 70 lakh tons of surplus production of fish. 55 lakh people get employment. 9000 crore will be spent to improve fishery and fish farming infrastructure.
- "Cluster approach is necessary to better produce and market local crops"
- Government announces 1 lakh crore to improve agri-infrastructure. This will help primary agricultural co-operative societies, FPOs. This will improve farm-gate infrastructure. Storage facilities and cold chains will benefit.
- "I will announce 11 measures today. 8 of them will pertain to infrastructure while 3 will be about governance and administrative reforms," said Sitharaman.
On Thursday, Sitharaman addressed the concerns of the migrant workers amid the ongoing coronavirus crisis in India. Announcing the 2nd tranche of the Rs 20 lakh crore package, the finance minister said that the government will launch a scheme under PMAY for migrant workers, urban poor to provide ease of living at an affordable rent.
She said the government will convert centre-funded housing in the cities into Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHC) under PPP mode through concessionaire.
Among various other announcements, Sitharaman informed about Rs 5,000 crore Special Credit Facility for street vendors. The government will launch a special scheme within a month to facilitate easy access to credit to street vendors.
PM Modi on Tuesday announced Rs 20 lakh crore economic stimulus package for the country to fight coronavirus outbreak details of which are being announced for the past two days by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. During his Tuesday's address, the Prime Minister also informed about Lockdown 4.0 that will be in place once the current phase ends, however, the next phase will be completely different from the earlier phases. Details will be out before May 18.
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