&w=3840&q=100)
Expand loan facility to Primary Agricultural Credit Societies: Amit Shah
Reviewing the scheme to build the world's largest cooperative food grain storage network, Shah emphasised the extensive involvement of PACS in the food storage scheme.
"It is necessary to make PACS an integral part of this scheme so that the financial viability and social effectiveness of PACS can be ensured," he said.
Shah directed the Ministry of Food and Public Distribution and Food Corporation of India (FCI) to conduct national-level mapping of warehouses across the country, so that the implementation of the scheme can be done smoothly as per regional requirements, according to an official statement.
The minister also instructed FCI, National Cooperative Consumers' Federation (NCCF), National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFED) and State Warehousing Corporations to connect PACS with as many warehouses as possible.
It was decided in the meeting that states should involve more PACS at their level in the scheme, and State-Level Marketing Federations should also be linked with it to develop a complete cooperative supply chain.
Shah called upon all organisations to coordinate and implement the scheme in a timely and effective manner so that it proves to be a milestone in achieving the goal of 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' and 'Sahkar Se Samriddhi'.
The minister said there are two major parameters to measure economic progress in India -- Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employment generation.
The food storage scheme is meant to strengthen both these aspects, aiming to increase the income of PACS as well as create rural employment opportunities.
Apart from Ministers of State for Cooperation Krishan Pal Gurjar and Murlidhar Mohol, officials from the Ministry of Cooperation, Food and Public Distribution, Consumer Affairs, FCI, NABARD, National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) and other institutions were present in the meeting.
Currently, there are more than 1 lakh PACS in India according to the National Cooperative Database Portal.
The AIF was launched in 2020 to provide medium- to long-term debt financing for the development of agriculture infrastructure across the country. The scheme was initially set for a ten-year period (2020-2030) but has been extended to 2032-33.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
4 hours ago
- Time of India
Pune's Vamnicom becomes TSU's first affiliate institute
Vadodara: Pune-based Vaikunth Mehta National Institute of Cooperative Management (Vamnicom) became the first affiliate institute of Tribhuvan Sahkari University (TSU). Earlier this month, Union home and cooperation minister Amit Shah laid the foundation stone of TSU, India's first cooperative university, which is taking shape in milk city Anand. The affiliation has been extended to four academic programmes and six certificate courses that will be conducted by the Pune institute under the aegis of TSU to bolster the mandate of cooperative development. The agreement was signed in the presence of Dr J M Vyas, vice-chancellor of TSU, Dr Umakant Dash, director of the Institute of Rural Management Anand, and Dr Suva Kanta Mohanty, Vamnicom's director, at the campus of TSU. "The occasion provided fillip to the cooperative sector whose transformation was envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the vision of 'Sahkar Se Samriddhi'. TSU was established to provide specialized education, training and research opportunities in areas such as cooperative management, finance, law and rural development," an official said. "It will empower cooperative institutions at the grassroots level by promoting innovation, capacity building and best practices, improve governance and accelerate inclusive and sustainable rural economic development," he said.
Time of India
12 hours ago
- Time of India
Raghuram Rajan warns India to tread 'cleverly & carefully' in US trade talks
India must be 'very careful and clever' while negotiating trade agreements with the United States, especially in the agriculture sector, former Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan said. In an interview with PTI Videos , Rajan highlighted the risks posed by subsidised foreign produce to India's small-scale farmers. Explore courses from Top Institutes in Select a Course Category Project Management Digital Marketing Public Policy Degree Operations Management Artificial Intelligence Others Cybersecurity Data Science Technology Data Analytics Product Management MBA healthcare Data Science others Finance PGDM CXO MCA Healthcare Leadership Management Design Thinking Skills you'll gain: Portfolio Management Project Planning & Risk Analysis Strategic Project/Portfolio Selection Adaptive & Agile Project Management Duration: 6 Months IIT Delhi Certificate Programme in Project Management Starts on May 30, 2024 Get Details Skills you'll gain: Project Planning & Governance Agile Software Development Practices Project Management Tools & Software Techniques Scrum Framework Duration: 12 Weeks Indian School of Business Certificate Programme in IT Project Management Starts on Jun 20, 2024 Get Details 'I think where it is much more sort of difficult (trade negotiations) is in areas such as agriculture, where every country subsidises its producers, and our producers may be relatively smaller, may have somewhat lower subsidies... unconstrained flow of agricultural products into the country may create problems for them,' PTI quoted Rajan as saying. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Manwa Khera: 1 Trick to Reduce Belly Fat? Home Fitness Hack Shop Now Undo His comments come as India and the US concluded the fifth round of negotiations for a proposed Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) in Washington earlier this week. Agriculture and dairy remain politically sensitive, and India has not granted tariff concessions in these segments under any free trade agreement so far. Calls for FDI in dairy instead of import concessions Rajan suggested that instead of allowing more agricultural imports, India should explore ways to increase value addition for domestic producers through investment. Live Events 'For example, can we encourage more foreign direct investments from those countries (developed countries) to enhance the value added in some of those sectors, the milk for example, sort of improving the value added in our milk products, milk powder, cheese, etc, could be beneficial to our milk producers,' he said. 'Are there things we can do, rather than necessarily saying we welcome sort of more milk into the country from other countries. So all this requires very careful, clever negotiation, and I hope that is what our government officials are engaged in,' he added. US President Donald Trump earlier said the proposed trade pact with India would be similar to the one finalised with Indonesia. However, India has pushed back against US demands for lower tariffs on agriculture and dairy imports. India has so far resisted US demands for duty concessions on agri and dairy products. It has not offered any tariff relaxations in the dairy segment under any free trade agreement so far. The US had announced higher tariffs on multiple countries, including India, on April 2. The move was later deferred by 90 days to July 9, and subsequently to August 1. India is pressing for the removal of a 26% additional tariff, and also wants lower tariffs on steel, aluminium, and automobile exports, which currently attract 50% and 25% duties respectively. Rajan also spoke about the broader implications of trade tensions. 'But you must remember that there are opportunities also in what is happening to the extent that India is perceived as an alternative route to some of the other regions like the United States.' While India's manufacturing exports to the US are currently limited, Rajan believes tariff advantages could help India attract supply chains. 'India's economic growth has sort of settled at a 6-7 per cent range, a fraction of percentage point maybe affected by the global sort of tariff environment,' PTI quoted Rajan as saying. 'But in the longer term, this would spell opportunity for India.' Rajan also acknowledged that India has adopted protectionist measures in certain areas. 'As far as tariffs go, I think there are certain areas where India has become more protectionist, and certainly we can reverse that protectionism. 'For example, in car manufacturing, we have some advantages. We produce certain kinds of cars very well, and bringing competition in the automobile sector can actually be quite beneficial.'
Economic Times
13 hours ago
- Economic Times
Sectoral themes or bottom-up stories? Anand Shah explains the state of the market
Anand Shah, CIO- PMS & AIF Investments, ICICI Prudential AMC, says while banks are currently exhibiting resilience and benign asset quality, they face potential NIM compression due to anticipated interest rate cuts. Credit growth remains uncertain, hampered by weak demand and stagnant wage growth. Revival hinges on export growth or a boost to domestic consumption through fiscal measures to stimulate wage increases and overall economic activity. Shah further says, consumer services exhibit a bottom-up dynamic, contrasting with consolidation in sectors like telecom and airlines. As per capita income rises, spending shifts towards services such as travel, entertainment, telecom, diagnostics, insurance, and financial services, driving resilient demand. While overall growth remains muted, pockets of growth exist within the services sector of the consumption economy, necessitating a bottom-up investment approach. What is your take on the overall markets because of late, the Indian market seems to be consolidating. We are in the thick of earnings and this time there was not much expectation. Other than that, the Indian markets are waiting for the tariff announcement. How are you sensing the pulse of the market right now? Anand Shah: Markets have been consolidating but that is after a very sharp uptick in the markets over the last four months. In that context, a consolidation is not bad news. The market peaked in October and then it corrected very sharply all the way till the February end when almost 80% of the smallcaps were down more than 30% from their all-time high, 60% of midcaps were down more than 30% from their individual 52-week highs and that sort of correction had happened especially in small and midcaps. We have seen a sharp recovery in the market. What is still missing for the market to consistently do well is growth. Growth is a challenge. Topline growth, particularly for individuals, at aggregate level for the economy and for the markets is fairly slow. We are finding some pockets of the market where the earnings growth rate is still strong but otherwise demand and growth is an issue. What are the pockets of resilience because of late, it has become hard to find good sectoral themes. Everybody is looking for bottom-up stories. Is that the case with you as well? Anand Shah: Indeed, even within the sectors there are winners and losers and we can clearly see that. But the point is topline growth is fairly muted in general. So, even when we are looking at the consumption sector, even if you were to look at real estate capex, private capex, government capex, and even exports, everything is fairly soft and to that extent, the top line is challenged at aggregate level more or less for most of the companies. The bottom-up way of going is identifying pockets where there is a scope for margin expansion and scope of consolidation. We have exposure in sectors like telecom and airline which are getting fairly consolidated and on the margin, the pricing power is shifting towards the corporates versus the consumers. Separately, we are looking at metals, chemicals, even to some extent cement, those are the sectors again, while the top line can remain muted, there is a scope for margin improvement as global factors and local factors improve the pricing power and the profitability. It is interesting to note that the tone of the market experts have actually changed quite a bit because just two to three months back, the banking and financials was the consensus buy but it is not the case right now. Why is that so? Given that most of the fund houses still have an overweight stance on financials as do the FIIs, do you believe banking as a pack will continue to be one of those preferred bets? Of late, the shift is turning out to be in some of the other sectors which are yet to make a comeback, maybe consumption, autos, or anything else? Anand Shah: Let me take banking first and then we will come to other sectors. Banking is a fairly large and fairly resilient sector as we see and very clearly corporates are not making mistakes, banks are not making mistakes. To that extent, the asset quality stress is fairly benign at this point of time. Having said that, the banks were beneficiaries of the rate hike. They had NIM expansion when the interest rates were moving up. There is no doubt in my mind that this quarter, next quarter, and maybe one more quarter, we should have some NIM compression for the banks in general as the interest rate starts getting cut. So, to that extent, while banks remain fairly valued on the margin, and relatively better placed than the broader market in terms of valuations, the growth would be a challenge for a couple of quarters to come. Obviously RBI has done enough to push liquidity and if the credit growth rate picks up and I am using the word 'if' because it is not a given that credit growth rate will really pick up because demand continues to remain an issue, the wage growth at aggregate level remains an issue, so neither corporates nor households are ready to lever up and start consuming so that brings me to the next part of that. While the bank remains muted, IT is okay, not fairly priced. We will get reasonable growth in other parts of the economy but wage growth is an issue. If you want auto to pick up, you want consumption to pick up. So what we need is wage growth and that is still missing and it will happen either through exports, the global economy post the tariff issues becoming normalised and growth picks up on the exports front or the domestic consumption gets a boost either through budget or pre-budget. That is what we are looking at. My next question was just on that, the kind of boost that we have seen from the budget towards the entire consumption side, but from your latest fact sheet I understand you are slightly underweight on staples and you have select exposure to some consumer services. Could you help us understand what you are liking from that end of the market? Anand Shah: Yes, as I said before, consumer services is more bottom up. We have seen fairly strong consolidation in sectors like telecom and airlines. Plus, we are still seeing robust growth in the services part of the consumption. So, as the per capita income goes up, at the top end of the per capita income, we will see increased spend in services over products and that is where we are seeing fairly resilient demand for travel, for entertainment, for telecom services, diagnostics, for insurance, and asset management – financial services in general. So, we are seeing some pockets of growth within the consumption in services part of the consumption economy and that is where we have been more bottom up. But as I said, overall growth is muted and we need to go more bottom up than top down.
