The Prime Minister of India – Narendra Modi today, i.e. Monday, June 1, 2020 chaired the Cabinet Meeting where the Government laid down the road map for effective implementation of various measures that impact the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) farmers and street vendors.
The Cabinet has also approved a proposal for equity infusion of Rs. 50,000 crores for MSMEs through fund of funds. This will establish a framework to help MSMEs in managing the debt-equity ratio and in their capacity augmentation. This will also provide an opportunity to get listed in stock exchanges.
Taking it to twitter, the Prime Minister of India – Narendra Modi tweeted, “As this Government enters its second year, the Cabinet took important decisions that will have a transformative impact on the MSME sector, our hardworking farmers and street vendors. Today’s decisions will ensure a better quality of life for them.”
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs also launched a Special Micro-Credit Facility Scheme – PM SVANidhi (PM स्वनिधि ) – PM Street Vendor’s Atma Nirbhar Nidhi, for providing affordable loans to street vendors. Over 50 lakh people, including vendor and hawkers are likely to benefit from this scheme. This is for the first time in India’s history that street vendors from peri- urban and rural areas have become beneficiaries of an urban livelihood programme. The vendors can avail a working capital loan of up to Rs. 10,000, which is repayable in monthly instalments in the tenure of 1 year.
Talking about SVANidhi, he tweeted, “PM Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) is a very special scheme. For the first time, our street vendors are a part of a livelihood programme. This scheme will ensure support for street vendors. It harnesses technology and emphasises on capacity building.”
In line with the Government’s vision of leveraging technology to ensure effective delivery and transparency, a digital platform with web portal / mobile app is being developed to administer the scheme with end-to-end solution.
For the Kharif season 2020-21, the Government has fixed the MSP at a level of at least 1.5 times of the cost of production. The return over cost for theses 14 crops ranges from 50% to 83%. The Government of India has also decided to extend repayment date up to 31.08.2020 for all Short-Term loans up to Rs.3 lakh advanced for agriculture and allied activities by banks.
Sharing his views on benefits given to farmers, Modi’s tweeted, “India will prosper when our farmers prosper. Our Government has fulfilled its promise to our hardworking farmers, of fixing the MSP at a level of at least 1.5 times of the cost of production. Care has also been taken towards improving the financial situation of our farmers.”
Meanwhile, the total number of Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in India are inching to 2 lakh mark, after the country reported 8,380 fresh cases and 193 casualties in the 24 hours.
As per the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW), the total number of cases in the country now stand at 1,90,535 and there have been 5,394 casualties.
During the day, Tamil Nadu witnessed the highest single day spike with 1,162 fresh cases and 11 casualties being reported. With this, the total number of cases in the State have surged to 23,495 and there have been 184 casualties. Tamil Nadu is the second most affected State.
Maharashtra remains the worst hit State with 70,013 cases and 2,361 casualties. The State reported 2,362 fresh cases and 76 casualties today. The third most affected place is Delhi with 20,834 cases and 523 casualties. The Union Territory (U.T.) registered 990 fresh cases and 50 casualties today.
Gurugram reported 129 new, taking the total number of cases in the District to 903. Uttar Pradesh (U.P.) reported 296 new cases and 5 casualties, taking the total tally to 8,361 and 222 casualties. Karnataka reported 187 new coronavirus cases, taking the total number of cases to 3408 and there have been 52 casualties.
