The Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman made five announcements on the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan stimulus package on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.The Economic stimulus was divided in five trance which are as follows:
TRANCHE 1: Business including MSMEs (May 13,2020)
TRANCHE 2: Poor, including migrants and farmers (May 14,2020)
TRANCHE 3: Agriculture (May 15,2020)
TRANCHE 4: New horizons of growth (May 16,2020)
TRANCHE 5: Government reforms and enablers (May 17,2020)
As the COVID-19 is vigorously spreading across the globe, as the economy has been stagnant for past 68 days there are so many sectors which are being destroyed whilst in lockdown, many migrants, farmers, one-day payers, laborers and etc have no means to sustain themselves in this lockdown, they have no supplies or money to even feed their families or even themselves.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on May 13, 2020, announced the 20 lakh crore(nearly 10% of GDP) Economic Stimulus Package mainly focusing on Agriculture, Dairy, Animal Husbandry, and Allied activities. This is to provide relief to various segments of the economy battered by the COVID-19 lockdown. This includes Rs1.7lakh crore package comprising free foodgrain and cash to poor for three months announced in march18, and Rs 5.6 lakh crore stimulus provided through various monetary policy measures by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)
On Friday, 15th May 2020 the center will immediately create a Rs 1 lakh crore Agri-infrastructure fund for farm-gate infrastructure for small and medium farmers, most of whom are marginalized. With this fund, the government has given momentum for the development of farm-gate and aggregation point infrastructure such as primary agricultural and cooperatives societies, farmers producer organizations, startups.
As this was her Third tranche of measures, FM mentioned that due to the lack of proper infrastructures such as cold chain and post-harvest management infrastructure in the purlieu of farm-gate, small and medium farmers are not getting appropriate Value for their produce. With this fund, the government has given impetus for the development of farm-gate and formation point, affordable and financially feasible post-harvest management infrastructure.
This fund will be immediately put in function, she said.
The basic objective of this fund is to help the framers to get their shoes out of the swamp of stagnant economy by providing short term corp loans and funding for long term agriculture infrastructure.
She also announced 11 measures, out of which 8 were related to strengthening infrastructure, capacities, and better algorithm in the country, while the other 3 pertains to governance and administrative reforms. This was the third phase of the economic stimulus package.
On Wednesday, FM said that over the next few days, the finance ministry would hold daily media briefings to put forth PM Modi’s objective of self-reliant India and share more details on the economic relief package meant to revive the battered economy and demolished industries as well as the agriculture sectors and other segmented sectors, who are struggling due to the nationwide lockdown imposed to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
COVID-19 virus does not only affect human health but it is also demolishing the countries economic logistics. As the nation is under the lockdown there are so many people who are not only exposed to this deadly virus in the worst way possible but they are also the ones who got hit the hardest by the battered economy. Their survival now depends upon the government.
