Page 2 - Rural Development

Shivraj Singh Chouhan makes national debut as agriculture minister

In a significant political move, senior BJP leader and four-time former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chouhan has made his national debut as the Union Agriculture and Rural Development Minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's new Cabinet. The 65-year-old leader, popularly known as "mama" (maternal uncle) and "paon-paon wale bhaiya" (foot soldier), took oath as part of the Prime Minister's Council of Ministers on Sunday, marking a significant milestone in his over three-decade-long political career. With his extensive experience in governance and deep connect with the rural populace, Chouhan's appointment as the Union Agriculture Minister is expected to bring fresh impetus to the government's efforts in addressing the challenges faced by the agriculture sector and the farming community. Chouhan, who assiduously cultivated a 'son of the soil' image and identified himself with the socio-economic concerns of farmers, villagers, women, and children in Madhya Pradesh, .

Record-breaking election spending to ignite rural demand: Experts

Even as the 2024 Lok Sabha polls have started to unfold, anticipation remained high not only in the political landscape but also about the ripple effects on the economy, particularly in rural India, as experts described the elections as the most expensive one ever fought in the country's history. With an expenditure of a staggering Rs 1.35 lakh crore estimated by N Bhaskara Rao, who chairs the Centre for Media Studies and has been tracking election spending for 35 years, significant parts of the amount spent during the polls will reach the pockets of India's rural population boosting sales, business houses feel. According to a study, about 35 per cent of election expenditure in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in India was made on campaigns and publicity. The second highest expenditure head was payments to voters via various means hiring workers, purchasing campaign materials, freebies and direct cash transfers in some cases. Industry leaders expect these will have a positive impact on

Centre notifies 3-10% hike in MGNREGA wage rates for FY25 ahead of polls

Wage rates in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand are set to experience the lowest increase at 3% for FY25 compared to FY24, while Goa will see the highest increase at 10.6%

Land record digitisation will improve GDP: Rural development minister

Digitisation of land records and registration is expected to improve the GDP of the country by about 1.5 per cent, Rural Development Minister Giriraj Singh said on Thursday. He made the remarks at the inauguration of the two-day Bhumi Samvaad on 'Sharing of Best Practices in Land Management Modernization'. Addressing officers from across the country at the conference, Singh emphasized that saturation of the digitisation process of land records and registration will help mitigate the huge pendency of court cases involving land disputes. It will also help in improving the ranking of the country in terms of ease of doing business", he said. "Digitisation of land records and registration is expected to improve the GDP of the country by about 1.5 per cent," he said. Stressing on the importance of emerging technologies such as blockchain and CORS in the modernisation process of land management, he said this will go a long way in achieving the objectives of the government under ...

Rural development Min signs pact with SBI to facilitate loans for SHGs

The Rural Development Ministry and State Bank of India on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to facilitate enterprise financing for rural self-help groups (SHG), an official statement said. The MoU was signed by Additional Secretary Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana - National Rural Livelihoods Mission, Charanjit Singh and Chief General Manager, State Bank of India, Corporate office Mumbai, Shantanu Pendsey. State Bank of India introduced a specialised financial product Svyam Siddha, exclusively tailored for SHG women entrepreneurs seeking loans up to Rs 5 lakhs. This initiative is designed to alleviate the challenges associated with extensive documentation requirements for bank loan applications and reduce the turnaround time (TAT). It does away with the requirement of burdensome documents like quotations and detailed project reports (DPRs), allowing an easy application process where a simple loan application with KYC details can be submitted at local SBI bank branches.

Rural Development Ministry signs MoU with JioMart for selling SHG products

The Ministry of Rural Development on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding with Reliance Retail's JioMart to enhance market access for products of self-help groups under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission. Speaking at the MoU signing event, Additional Secretary of Rural Livelihoods Charanjit Singh said this collaboration will enable self-help groups (SHGs) to be on-boarded as sellers on the e-commerce platform and take their products to a larger consumer base. Singh said that this partnership will add to efforts of the ministry towards income enhancement of SHG Didis. The mission is working to increase the income of SHGs on a sustainable basis. As part of the partnership between the ministry and JioMart, all SHG sellers associated with DAY-NRLM will also get to avail benefits and guidance in growing their businesses online. JioMart will also support them in navigating and operating their accounts on the marketplace and will jointly participate i

130,000 CM Awas Yojana houses to be built in rural areas: Ashok Singhal

The state cabinet has decided to conduct a comprehensive socio-economic assessment of Assam's indigenous minorities

Development of small cities key to developed India resolve: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday that his guarantee begins from where hope from everyone else ends and asserted that development of smaller cities is at the centre of his resolve to make India a developed country. Addressing the beneficiaries of the Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra through video conferencing, the prime minister said, "With resolve of a developed India, 'Modi's guarantee vehicle' is reaching every corner of country." In one month, the Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra has reached thousands of villages and cities and most of them are small towns, he added. Modi said his government is trying to ease troubles of everyone like a family member. "This is our government that has helped the poor, farmers, small businessmen and various other sections of society. Modi's guarantee begins after hope from everyone else ends," he said. The prime minister said that for a long time after independence, benefits of development were limited to a few big cities, but his government i

NIMHANS to start comprehensive rural mental health programme 'NAMAN'

The National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences and the Ashraya Hastha Trust have signed an MoU with multiple stakeholders to implement a comprehensive rural mental health programme named "NAMAN" in two different taluks in India, officials said on Saturday. As of now, the programme is being implemented in Munsiyari taluk of Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand and Belur taluk of Hassan district of Karnataka to cater the mental health needs of the whole population of the two taluks. This will also help them to test the feasibility of rolling out such a programme across the country, they said. The programme plans to follow a lifespan approach, which would cover the entire population from womb to tomb, officials said. According to the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), the national launch of the Comprehensive Mental-Health-Action-Programme for Rural Communities would be held on December 18. The proposed "NAMAN" programme will be completed within

TMSEp565: Extension of PMGKAY, Subrata Roy, primary market, PMPVTG Mission

What are the implications of extending PMGKAY? What led to the rise and fall of Sahara's Subrata Roy? How will the IPO market shape up in new Samvat? What is PMPVTG Development Mission? Answers here

Rural housing construction may be driving up MGNREGS costs, says ministry

Rs 35,000-40,000 crore of MGNREGS wages have already gone towards the construction of houses under PMAY-Gramin since it was revamped in November 2016

JKRLM, Kudumbashree sign pact to support micro enterprise development prog

Jammu and Kashmir Rural Livelihood Mission (JKRLM) and Kudumbashree National Resources organisation have entered into an initial pact to support the micro-enterprise development programme in the Union Territory, an official said on Sunday. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed and exchanged through a video conference, in presence of Commissioner Secretary of the Rural Development Department and Panchayati Raj, Mandeep Kaur, on Saturday, the official said. Through this collaboration between JKRLM and Kudumbashree, the MED (micro-enterprise development) initiative is expected to have a significant impact on the lives of rural communities in 11 blocks of nine districts. "The objective of this initiative is to create sustainable livelihood opportunities and promote economic empowerment for rural communities. It will contribute towards poverty reduction, women empowerment and overall socio-economic development of rural women of J&K," the official said. He said the MED ...

Morgan Stanley upgrades India to standout overweight citing earnings growth

The Wall Street major Morgan Stanley has upgraded India to "standout overweight" citing that the relative economic and earnings growth is improving and the macro-stability setup looks sufficient to withstand the higher real rate environment. "India remains standout overweight. We increase our overweight stance on Indian equities and as our most-preferred emerging market," the brokerage said in a note on Friday. The "dream" run of domestic flows continues and multipolar world dynamics are driving both FDI as well as portfolio flows towards the country, it said. Not just that domestic equities tops the brokerage's global equity investment score with an overall score of 68. Singapore though is at the second highest score is a distant 54, Greece at 47, Mexico at 43 and Poland at 38, making the top five markets for the company this year. India has been structurally outperforming MSCI EM index by 45.5 per cent (in USD terms) from early 2021 until October 2022, and "we expect outperforma

Rural Development Ministry sanctions over Rs 36 cr under PMGSY for Ladakh

The Rural Development Ministry has sanctioned Rs 36.65 crore for the Union Territory of Ladakh under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, or PMGSY, for the financial year 2023-24. A circular issued by the Ministry on October 19 said the UT administration must transfer these funds to Ladakh Rural Road Development Agency (LRRDA) within a maximum period of 30 days from the date of receipt of these funds. The circular also said in case of delay beyond 30 days in the transfer of the central share to the Single Nodal Agency, interest will be charged at the rate of 7 per cent per annum. "In case of non-transfer beyond this period, Central Government may also be constrained to stop further releases," the circular said. The corpus of Rs 36,65,62,500 will be used for the construction of roads and bridges, district roads, and PMGSY roads in the Union Territory that shares its borders with China and Pakistan. This is the first tranche of the first instalment of the Programme Fund of Annual .

QCI takes on board 1,500 'sarpanchs' for quality development of villages

The Quality Council of India has taken on board 1,500 sarpanchs from across the country and plans to add 50,000 more by this year-end as part of its initiative to connect with grassroot leaders and foster quality-driven development of villages, an official said on Monday. QCI, an autonomous body set up under a public-private partnership model by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, has also launched a mobile app called 'Sarpanch Samvaad', which will connect sarpanchs from different parts of the country so that they can exchange good practices and upload their works for each other's benefit, QCI chairperson Jaxay Shah said. On Monday, the QCI expanded to western India by opening its new office in Ahmedabad, and signed an MoU with the city-based Gujarat Technological University (GTU) to conduct training activities for students, faculty members and associated industries. Shah said the QCI has been working with around 500 local bodies for various projects. "We have strength and ...

Double engine govt's efforts now bearing fruit in Uttarakhand: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday that the efforts of the double-engine government for the development of tourism and pilgrimage in Uttarakhand are now bearing fruit

Centre rejects discrimination claims in rural development schemes from WB

Ministry of Rural Development states that Rs 2 trillion was allocated to West Bengal in the last 9 years and the state has not cooperated with the Centre to implement schemes

PM Modi to inaugurate development projects in Rajasthan worth Rs 7,000 cr

Union Minister Piyush Goyal accused Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot of hindering Rajasthan's development

'Will withdraw plea from SC if guv gets pending RDF released by Centre'

Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema on Saturday said the state government will withdraw its petition in the Supreme Court on the pending rural development fund (RDF) if the governor gets it released from the Centre. Cheema was responding to Governor Banwarilal Purohit's letter to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Friday in which he had stated it would be appropriate to wait for the decision of the Supreme Court on the state government's plea. Chief Minister Mann, in a letter on Thursday, had asked the governor to take up the issue of the pending RDF worth Rs 5,637.40 crore with the president and the prime minister. The state government had moved the Supreme Court in July on the RDF issue. On the governor's statement that the state's debt rose by Rs 50,000 crore under the AAP dispensation, Cheema asked him not to talk about debt as it was inherited from previous governments. Responding to the governor's response on the RDF issue, the finance minister said the Punjab governmen

Volume growth returning, rural demand seeing green shoots: Procter & Gamble

With softening of inflation, volume growth is finally returning and rural demand is witnessing green shoots, Procter & Gamble Hygiene and Health Care Ltd (PGHHL) said on Friday. PGHHL, which reported a 12 per cent sales growth in FY23 and 3 per cent sales growth in the first quarter this fiscal, said FMCG consumption in the June quarter was the fastest in the last six quarters. "Inflation is softening and volume growth is finally returning. A growth of 7.5 per cent in a quarter for the industry is great news," PGHHL Vice President Finance Gautam Kamath said in an investors' call. This volume growth eventually unlocks capital investment and triggers a positive investment cycle. "In another piece of good news, the rural demand is growing as well. With a quarter showing 1.4 per cent volume growth in the non-food sector in the rural economy after four quarters of significant volume decline," he added. After a couple of years of flat volume growth, the industry as a whole is looking to