Media Monitor
Agriculture Industry
Farmers’ collective to hold protest on Feb. 13edit
The All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee called the Union Budget anti-farmer and pro-corporate. It would stage a nationwide protest on February 13 against the pro-corporate proposals in the Budget and the government’s failure to address the debts among farmers and the rising input cost and ensure profitable sale of crops.
‘Destruction of wetlands will lead to water, food and climate insecurity’edit
Today is World Wetlands Day, which marks the date of the adoption of the Convention on Wetlands on February 2, 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the shores of the Caspian Sea. The 2020 theme Wetlands and Biodiversity is an opportunity to highlight wetland biodiversity, its status, why it matters and to promote actions to reverse its loss.
Budget
Government provides 30 per cent higher Budget allocation for agricultureedit
Barring fertiliser and chemicals sector, the government has provided higher budget allocation for agriculture, and its allied activities as well as to the food and food processing sector for 2020-21. For the agriculture and farmers welfare ministry, the government has provided 30 per cent increase in the fund allocation at Rs 1,42,761.58 crore for the next fiscal as against the revised estimate of Rs 1,09,750.17 crore for the ongoing financial year, according to the budget document.
Budget tilted against farm sectoredit
The Union Budget’s altruistic motives have come under a cloud after the warnings about unrealistic targets for the last year’s Budget have proved prescient.
Countering the Opposition’s charge that the targets for tax collection and disinvestment were unrealistic, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had in 2019 said, “Every estimate of receipts and the projections that we have given are realistic, (after) applying our mind to the points…. (will) fully finance expenditure commitments, necessary resource mobilisation from tax and non-tax revenues have all been envisaged.”
None of that came to a pass. The shortfall in direct and indirect tax revenue, along with the missing of the disinvestment target, brought expenditure under pressure, leading to a reduction in the ...
Budget focus on rural economy a welcome step: Northeast industry bodyedit
The Federation of Industry and Commerce of North Eastern Region (FINER) said it was optimistic about the Union Budget presented by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman. It said the Budget aimed to tide over the sluggish growth rate that the country has recorded in the recent past. Speaking to the media soon after the Budget was presented, FINER president Pabitra Buragohain said the Budget had shifted focus from urban to rural economy by allocating more than Rs 1.23 lakh crore to the rural economy.
Agri to infra, Budget 2020 takes a calculated path to revive demand, boost economic growthedit
Global headwinds and challenges in the domestic financial sector moderated the growth of Indian economy in 2019-20. Against this background, the Narendra Modi government’s Union Budget 2020-21 has tried to take a calculated path to revive demand and boost economic growth. The underlying assumption in the Budget’s economic strategy is that the Indian economy appears to have bottomed out and is expected to pick up in 2020-21.
Optimistic Budget for agri sector: Vamnicom Directoredit
With allocation of a whopping 2.83 lakh crore to these sectors this budget calls for State Governments’ active cooperation in implementing the plans and policies. Effective Implementation of the Model Agri produce and livestock and Marketing Act 2017 and the model Agri produce and livestock contract farming and services promotion and facilitation Act 2018 is the need of the hour.
While 20 lakh Farmers are to be benefited by setting up standalone solar pumps, it is the market orientation in agriculture which would help the country achieve the goal of doubling Farmers income by 2022.