New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday held a series of meetings with key ministers, including Home Minister Amit Shah and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, and officials of economic ministries to firm up the second stimulus package for sectors impacted by lockdown to curb spread of coronavirus, sources said.
The prime minister held discussions with Shah and Sitharaman and would have follow up meetings with ministers of key economic ministries such as Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME), sources said.
The finance ministry, which deferred release of monthly GST collection numbers on Friday, is also scheduled to make a detailed presentation to the prime minister later in the day on the state of economy and several initiatives that it plans to undertake to stimulate Indian economy.
The prime minister already had meetings with different ministries including civil aviation, labour and power on Friday. He had detailed deliberation with commerce and MSME ministries among others on Thursday with focus on attracting both domestic and overseas investment and revival of small businesses in the country so that the recovery process is hastened.
During these meetings both the home minister and the finance minister were present.
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To mitigate hardships faced by the bottom of the pyramid, the government in late March had announced a Rs 1.7 lakh crore stimulus package comprising free foodgrains and cooking gas to poor and cash doles to poor women and elderly.
Sources said the government is considering to announce a second dose of relief measures for the segment and a stimulus package for India Inc shortly.
The government had first imposed a 21-day nationwide lockdown beginning March 25 and later extended it till May 3.
The lockdown shut businesses, stopped air and rail travel and restricted movement of people and goods.
Beginning May 4, the government has decided to ease certain restrictions including opening of industries for green and orange districts which either have nil or low number of cases. The easing of restriction in specified districts is till May 17 with strict vigil by local administration.
PM Modi discusses reforms in agriculture sector
Amid the coronavirus-induced lockdown, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday deliberated on ways to reform the agriculture sector with emphasis on agriculture marketing, access of farmers to institutional credit and freeing the sector of various restrictions with appropriate backing of laws.
The government has maintained that the country's farm sector is functioning smoothly despite the COVID-19 lockdown and there will not be much impact on its growth in the current fiscal, unlike other sectors.
The pros and cons of bio-technological developments in crops or enhancement of productivity and reduction in input costs was also deliberated, an official statement said.
The meeting also focused on making strategic interventions in the existing marketing eco-system and bringing appropriate reforms in the context of rapid agricultural development.
Concessional credit flow to strengthen agriculture infrastructure, special Kisan Credit Card saturation drive for PM-Kisan beneficiaries and facilitating inter and intra-state trade of agriculture produce to ensure fairest return to farmers were some of the other important areas covered, the statement said.
Developing eNAM or the National Agriculture Market into a "platform of platforms" to enable e-commerce was one of the important topics of discussion on Saturday.
Discussions also emanated on the possibilities of a uniform statutory framework in the country to facilitate new ways for farming which will infuse capital and technology in the agrarian economy.
The challenges of the Model Agricultural Land Leasing Act, 2016 and how to protect the interest of small and marginal farmers was discussed in detail in the meeting attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
(PTI Report)
