One Nation, One Market- welfare centric nation for farmer, Swiggy Joins Hands with MoHUA to Take Street Food Vendors Online Under PM SVANIDHI Scheme, World Habitat Day 2020 -5 October 2020
One Nation, One Market- welfare centric nation for farmer
- Agriculture based India has moved forward on the path of farmer welfare centric nation where farmers get respect for their hard work and fair price for their produce.
- The agriculture reform Acts of the Government are the guarantee of “happiness in eyes and prosperity in life” of crores of the farmers of the country.
- These Acts will ensure economic empowerment of the farmers by providing them freedom from the clutches of middlemen.
- Agriculture reform Acts are a historic step towards prosperity and empowerment of the farmers.
- As Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act and Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act have been passed, now the farmers will get new opportunities to sell their produce, which will increase their profits.
- This will give the agriculture sector the benefit of modern technology and the farmers will be empowered.
- The minimum support price and government procurement will remain in place.
- These Acts will give freedom to farmers for storage and sale of their crops and free them from the clutches of middlemen.
- Farmers will be liberated from legal restrictions. Farmers will not be compelled to sell their produce to the licensed traders in mandis anymore.
- Farmers will also get freedom from the tax of government mandis.
- The farmers will get their payments within 3 days.
- The dream of “One Nation, One Market” will be fulfilled.
- Farmers’ rights will be protected by the Government at any cost.
- Under the “Prime Minister Kisan Samman Nidhi” in the government, more than Rs 92,000 crore has been given to the farmers so far.
- Further, the system of MSP will continue as before, across the country, and no change will be made.
- Not only this, the MSP of many crops has been increased.
- MSP of Wheat has been increased to Rs 1975 per quintal, Barley Rs 1600, Gram Rs 5100, Masur Rs 5100, Rapeseed & Mustard Rs 4650 and Safflower Rs 5327 per quintal.
- During the in 2009-10, the agriculture budget was Rs 12,000 crore, which is raised to Rs 1.34 lakh crore by Government, Soil Health Cards have been given to more than 22 crore farmers, Fasal Bima Yojna has benefitted about 8 crore farmers, Rs. 6,850 crore are being spent on 10,000 new Farmers Production Organisations by government, Rs. 1 Lakh Crore announced for Agriculture Sector under Aatm Nirbhar Package, provision of Rs 15 lakh crore for farmer’s loan against earlier Rs 8 lakh crore, under the “Prime Minister Kisan Maan-Dhan”, there is provision of minimum Rs 3,000 / month pension to farmers after attaining the age of 60 years, talking about the payment of MSP, the government has paid Rs 7 lakh crore to the farmers in 6 years, which is double that of the UPA government.
- Speaking on Contract Farming, the fact is that the farmers will have all the freedom to decide price of their produce and if a farmer is not satisfied by the contract, he can cancel the contract.
- The agriculture reform Acts give 100 per cent guarantee to protect farmers’ interests.
Swiggy Joins Hands with MoHUA to Take Street Food Vendors Online Under PM SVANIDHI Scheme
- As a part of Prime Minister Street Vendor’s AtmaNibhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) Scheme, Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has entered into an MoU with Swiggy, the leading food ordering and delivery platform in India, to onboard street food vendors on its ecommerce platform, giving them online access to thousands of consumers and help these vendors grow their businesses.
- In a first of its kind initiative, MoHUA has coordinated with the key stakeholders including Municipal Corporations, fssai, Swiggy and GST officials to ensure that necessary prerequisites are completed for this initiative.
- To begin with, MoHUA and Swiggy will run a pilot program by on-boarding 250 vendors across five cities namely – Ahmadabad, Chennai, Delhi, Indore, and Varanasi.
- The street vendors will be helped with PAN and FSSAI registration, training on technology/ partner app usage, menu digitization and pricing, hygiene and packaging best practices. Upon the successful completion of the pilot, MoHUA and Swiggy plan to expand this initiative across the country in phases. This partnership is seen as yet another move by MoHUA to empower street vendors with digital technology and facilitate greater income earning opportunities by being present on a popular ecommerce platform like Swiggy.
- Apart from this HUA also launched the updated and modified version of PM SVANidhi Dashboard, which facilitates users not only with better granular view of the Scheme’s performance but also with additional tools for comparisons.
- The Ministry is implementing PM SVANidhi Scheme since June 01, 2020, for providing affordable working capital loan to street vendors to resume their livelihoods that have been adversely affected due to Covid-19 lockdown.
- This scheme targets to benefit over 50 lakh Street Vendors who had been vending on or before 24 March, 2020, in urban areas including those from surrounding peri-urban/ rural areas.
- Under the Scheme, the vendors can avail a working capital loan of up to Rs. 10,000, which is repayable in monthly instalments in the tenure of one year.
- On timely/ early repayment of the loan, an interest subsidy @ 7% per annum will be credited to the bank accounts of beneficiaries through Direct Benefit Transfer on quarterly basis.
- There will be no penalty on early repayment of loan.
- The scheme promotes digital transactions through cash-back incentives up to an amount of Rs. 1,200 per annum.
- The vendors can fulfill their aspiration of climbing up the economic ladder by availing the facility of enhanced credit limit on timely/ early repayment of loan.
- As on October 4, 2020, over 20 lakh loan applications have been received under the PM SVANidhi Scheme.
- Out of these over 7.5 lakh loans have been sanctioned and over 2.4 lakh loans disbursed.
World Habitat Day 2020 -5 October 2020
- Shri Hardeep S Puri, Minister of State(I/C) for Housing & Urban Affairs has stated that the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by the United Nations Member States in 2015 is a guiding document for a planet and the people that inhabit it.
- The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets together reflect, both the collective vision and goal that we have to work to achieving by 2030.
- All the flagship Missions such as Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban, the Smart Cities Mission, the AMRUT Mission were in implementation modewell before the SDGswere adopted by the Member States.
- In a country of India’s size, diversity and population, it is a staggering challenge to implement this ambitious urban agenda. “however, both optimistic and confident that we will succeed.
- The large scale migration from urban areas to the rural areas was a major challenge.
- To tackle this, the Government has quickly come up with a scheme for making available rental housing on a large scale.
- The eco system has been laid down and work is being taken up on a war footing.
- There is a huge focus on use of new and environmentally safe construction technologies and techniques.
- This will have a salutary effect in keeping the adverse impact on the environment in check.
- Through a global housing technology challenge, the very best of national and international technologies are sought to be brought in.
- Providing details of the achievements under Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban, there is the targets for individual and Community toilets have not only been met but have been surpassed by 2 October, 2019.
- It is indeed the best tribute any one could have paid to the Mahatma.
- Not only have the sneers and sniggers stopped but amazingly the people of India embraced the scheme making it into a people’s movement – a Jan Andolan.
- We even had two movies being made that had a story themed around the toilet, Such has been the transformation.
- As regards the benefits arising out of technology the architecture of the Smart Cities Mission enables the use of technology extensively.
- Thus, while the Integrated Command and Control Centres (ICCCs) monitor the critical municipal functions on real time basis, the wide array of CCTVs across the city have ensured that the citizens and more importantly the women have found a new found feeling of security.
- There are well documented stories of the crime rates coming down appreciably coming down in these smart cities.
- Similarly, to help the vulnerable sections of society who were especially hard it, the Government rolled out the PM SVANidhi scheme targeting the street vendors who were affected by the lockdown that was imposed.
- A collateral free working capital of Rs.10,000 is made available to the street vendors immediately by the participating banks.
- Simultaneously, they are being brought on to the formal economy and the formal, digital banking eco system.
- For India with a population of 1.35 billion, the challenges have been magnified.
- The front line warriors led by health professionals and workers have led from the front. But India is resilient. We will come out of this pandemic stronger and wiser. Our cities will I am sure learn the right lessons and make our cities ready for the future.
