Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan Explained: Part -2 Poor, including migrants and farmers

May, 2020 UPSC
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Context: Recently, the Union Finance Minister announced the short term and long-term measures for supporting the poor, including migrants, farmers, tiny businesses, and street vendors as part of the second tranche of Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan. The announced measures also form a part of the ₹20 lakh crore economic stimulus package to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. Earlier, the Economic Stimulus-I was announced which includes both liquidity financing measures and credit guarantees.

Relevance:
Prelims: Current events of national and international importance.
Mains: GS III-

  • Indian Economy and issues relating to planning, mobilization of resources, growth, development, and employment. Inclusive growth and issues arising from it.
Background
  • With a view to reviving the economy shuttered by the coronavirus lockdown, PM Narendra Modi had announced a Rs 20 lakh crore special economic package.
  • In its first installment, FM had announced Rs 3 lakh crore collateral-free automatic loans for businesses, including MSMEs, as well as Rs 30,000 crore liquidity facility for NBFCs, among other measures.

Key Announcements

Free Food Grains Supply

  • Allocation of additional food grain to all the States/UTs (5 kg per migrant labourer and 1 kg chana per family per month) for two months (May and June 2020) free of cost.
  • This move is an extension of the Pradhan Mantri Gharib Kalyan Yojana.
    • Eligibility:
      • Migrant labourers not covered under National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013, or without a ration card in the State/UT in which they are stranded at present.
  • There are an estimated 8 crore migrant workers, housed in government and privately run relief camps across the country since the lockdown.
  • The entire outlay of ₹3500 crores will be borne by the Government of India.

One Nation One Ration Card

  • 67 crore beneficiaries covering 83% of the Public Distribution System (PDS) population will be covered by National portability of Ration cards by August 2020 and 100% National portability will be achieved by March, 2021.
  • One Nation One Ration Card is part of Technology-Driven System Reforms and will enable migrant workers and their family members to access PDS benefits from any Fair Price Shop in the country.
  • This will ensure that the people in transit, especially migrant workers can also get the PDS benefit across the country.

Scheme for Affordable Rental Housing Complexes for Migrant Workers and Urban Poor

  • This scheme will be launched soon and under this, the Central Government will provide ease of living at an affordable rent.
  • Under this:
    • Government-funded houses in the cities will be converted into Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHC) under PPP mode (Public-Private Partnerships) through concessionaires.

Interest Subvention for Shishu MUDRA loanees

  • The government of India will provide Interest subvention of 2% for prompt payees for a period of 12 months to MUDRA Shishu loanees, who have loans below ₹50,000.
  • The current portfolio of MUDRA Shishu loans is around ₹1.62 Lakh crore. This will provide relief of about ₹1,500 crores to Shishu MUDRA loanees.
Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana (PMMY) scheme
  • The PMMY scheme was launched in April 2015. The scheme’s objective is to refinance collateral-free loans given by the lenders to small borrowers.
  • The scheme, which has a corpus of Rs 20,000 crore, can lend between Rs 50,000 and Rs 10 lakh to small entrepreneurs.
  • Banks and MFIs can draw refinance under the MUDRA Scheme after becoming member-lending institutions of MUDRA.
  • Mudra Loans are available for non-agricultural activities up to Rs. 10 lakh and activities allied to agriculture such as Dairy, Poultry, Bee Keeping, etc, are also covered.
  • Mudra’s unique features include a Mudra Card which permits access to Working Capital through ATMs and Card Machines.
    • There are three types of loans under PMMY:
      • Shishu (up to Rs.50,000).
      • Kishore (from Rs.50,001 to Rs.5 lakh).
      • Tarun (from Rs.500,001 to Rs.10,00,000).
  • Objectives of the scheme:
    • Fund the unfunded:
      • Those who have a business plan to generate income from a non-farm activity like manufacturing, processing, trading, or service sector but don’t have enough capital to invest can take loans up to Rs 10 lakh.

Credit Facility for Street Vendors

  • A scheme will be launched to facilitate easy access to credit to Street vendors and enable them to restart their businesses.
  • It is expected that 50 lakh street vendors will be benefited under this scheme and credit of ₹5,000 crores would be provided.
  • Bank credit facilities for initial working capital up to ₹10,000 for each enterprise will be extended.

Extension of Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme

  • The Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme for Middle Income Group (MIG, annual income between ₹6 and ₹18 lakhs) will be extended up to March 2021.
  • This subsidy scheme comes under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban).
  • This will benefit 2.5 lakhs middle income families during 2020-21 and will lead to an investment of over ₹70,000 crores in the housing sector.
  • This will create a significant number of jobs by giving a boost to the housing sector and will stimulate demand for steel, cement, transport, and other construction materials.
PMAY- Urban
  • The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) Programme launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (MoHUPA), in Mission mode envisions provision of Housing for All by 2022 when the Nation completes 75 years of its Independence.
  • The Mission seeks to address the housing requirement of urban poor including slum dwellers through following programme verticals:
    • Slum rehabilitation of Slum Dwellers with the participation of private developers using land as a resource.
    • Promotion of Affordable Housing for the weaker sections through credit-linked subsidy.
    • Affordable Housing in Partnership with Public & Private sectors.
    • Subsidy for beneficiary-led individual house construction /enhancement.
  • Key facts:
    • The beneficiaries are poor and people living under EWS and LIG categories in the country.
    • The scheme is divided into three phases. In the first phase, a total of 100 cities will be covered from April 2015 to March 2017. In phase two, 200 cities will be covered from April 2017 to March 2019. In the third phase, the leftover cities will be covered from April 2019 to March 2022.
    • The government is providing an interest subsidy of 6.5% on housing loans which can be availed by beneficiaries for 15 years from the start of the loan date.
    • The government will grant Rs 1 lakh to all the beneficiaries of the scheme. In addition, Rs 1.5 lakh will be given to all eligible urban poor who want to construct their houses in urban areas or plan to go for renovation in their existing houses. One can also avail loans under this scheme to build toilets in existing houses.

Creating Employment using CAMPA Funds

  • Approximately ₹6,000 crores of funds under Compensatory Afforestation Management & Planning Authority (CAMPA) will be used.
  • The funds will be utilized in afforestation and plantation works, artificial regeneration, forest management, soil & moisture conservation works, forest protection, forest, and wildlife-related infrastructure development, wildlife protection, and management, etc.
  • The government will grant immediate approval to these plans which will create job opportunities in urban, semi-urban, and rural areas and also for Tribals.

Additional Emergency Working Capital through NABARD

  • National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) will extend additional re-finance support of ₹30,000 crores for meeting crop loan requirements of Rural Cooperative Banks (RCBs) and Regional Rural Banks (RRBs).
  • This refinance will be front-loaded (an uneven distribution with a greater proportion at one time and smaller ones at other times) and available immediately.
  • This is over and above ₹90,000 crores that will be provided by NABARD to this sector in the normal course.
  • This will benefit around 3 crore farmers, mostly small and marginal, and will meet their post-harvest Rabi and current Kharif requirements.

Credit Boost to Kisan Credit Card Scheme

  • It is a special drive to provide concessional credit to Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) beneficiaries through Kisan Credit Cards.
  • It will inject additional liquidity of ₹2 lakh crore in the farm sector.
  • 2.5 crore farmers will be covered and fisherman and animal husbandry farmers will also be included in this drive.

PM-KISAN

  • Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) is a Central Sector Scheme with 100% funding from the Government of India.
  • It is being implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare.
  • Under the scheme, the Centre transfers an amount of Rs 6,000 per year, in three equal installments, directly into the bank accounts of all landholding farmers irrespective of the size of their landholdings.
  • It intends to supplement the financial needs of the Small and Marginal Farmers (SMFs) in procuring various inputs to ensure proper crop health and appropriate yields, commensurate with the anticipated farm income at the end of each crop cycle.
  • The entire responsibility of identification of beneficiary farmer families rests with the State / UT Governments.

 

Criticism
  • Economists say that this intervention was too little, too late and that the free foodgrain provision should have been universalized to deal with widespread distress.
  • There are 50 crore people in the country without ration cards, of which 10 crores are legally entitled to PDS grain under NFSA. Of the rest, there are many people who were managing in normal times, vegetable vendors, gig economy workers, autorickshaw drivers, who are in dire straits now. PDS needed to be extended to all these people at this time.
  • Economists have asked the government for a one-time cash transfer to vulnerable sections like migrant labourers.
  • There were no steps taken to extend Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) employment guarantee to at least 200 days.
  • Currently, MGNREGA aims to provide at least 100 days of wage employment.



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