CURRENT AFFAIRS: NATIONAL
Cabinet Approves Rs 1 Lakh Crore Fund For Agriculture Infrastructure
- The Union Cabinet gave its approval to Agriculture Infrastructure Fund of Rs 1 lakh crore, a new pan-India central government scheme, to provide a medium to long term debt financing facility for investment in viable projects for post-harvest management infrastructure and community farming assets through interest subvention and financial support.
- Union Cabinet, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar stated under the Scheme, Rs 1 lakh crore will be provided by banks and financial institutions as loans to Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS), marketing cooperative societies, Farmer Producers Organisations (FPOs), self-help groups (SHGs), farmers, joint liability groups (JLG), multi-purpose cooperative societies, agri-entrepreneurs, start-ups, aggregation infrastructure providers and central/state agency or local body sponsored public-private partnership projects.
- Loans will be disbursed in four years starting with the sanction of Rs 10,000 crore in the current year and Rs 30,000 crore each in the next three financial years.
- All loans under this financing facility will have interest subvention of 3 per cent per annum up to a limit of Rs 2 crore.
This subvention will be available for a maximum period of seven years. - Credit guarantee coverage will be available for eligible borrowers from this financing facility under the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) scheme for a loan up to Rs 2 crore. The fee for this coverage will be paid by the government.
- In case of FPOs, the credit guarantee may be availed from the facility created under FPO promotion scheme of Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare (DACFW)
- The total outflow as budgetary support from the central government will be Rs 10,736 crore.
- The agri infra fund will be managed and monitored through an online Management Information System (MIS) platform.
- National, state and district-level monitoring committees will be set up to ensure real-time monitoring and effective feedback.
- The duration of the scheme will be for 10 years from the financial year 2020 to FY 2029.
Centre to release postal stamp of former PM PV Narasimha Rao to mark centenary
- A commemorative stamp would be released soon by the Centre in honour of former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao on his 100th birth anniversary.
- The Telangana state cabinet and Legislature would pass resolutions requesting a Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honour, for the former Prime Minister.
PM Modi to inaugurate 3-day India Global Week 2020
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi will deliver the inaugural address on the first day of India Global Week-2020 .The theme of the three-day virtual conference is Be The Revival: India and a Better New World. India Global Week- 2020 will have 5,000 global participants from 30 nations. In all, 250 global speakers will address the virtual conference in 75 sessions.
- Other high profile speakers participating at the event will include External Affairs Minister Dr S. Jaishankar, Minister of Railways, Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal, Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir G C Murmu, Isha Foundation Founder Sadhguru, Spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar along with UK’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and Home Secretary Priti Patel, US Ambassador to India Ken Juster and others.
- It will also feature a never seen before performance ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ by Madhu Nataraj and a special 100th birth anniversary concert in tribute to the sitar maestro Ravi Shankar by three of his most eminent students.
