The Hon’ble Prime Minister, Shri. Narendra Modi announced a special economic package on 12 May 2020 of Rs.20 lakh crore (equivalent to 10% of India’s GDP) under the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’. This special economic package was announced to make India independent against the tough global supply chain competition and help empower the laborers, poor, and migrants who had been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Accordingly, the Finance Minister, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman announced the details of the measures provided under the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan through five press conferences. These measures are provided to different sectors and areas to cover and help everyone affected by the pandemic. The measures were announced keeping in mind the five pillars of Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan. These five pillars are the pillars for making India self-reliant.
Five Pillars of Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan
The five pillars of Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan are:
- Economy – That brings quantum jump rather than incremental change.
- Infrastructure – To become the identity of modern India.
- System – That is driven by technology and a system not based on the past policy.
- Demography – India’s strength is its demography, and it is the source of energy for self-reliant India.
- Demand – The demand and supply chain in the economy is the strength that must be harnessed to its rightful potential.
Measures Provided Under Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan
The various measures are undertaken by the government under the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan in different sectors are as follows:
Reforms for MSME
- The Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) to Businesses or MSMEs from Banks and Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) up to 20% of the entire outstanding credit as of 29.2.2020.
- Rs.20,000 crore for Subordinate Debt for Stressed MSMEs.
- Rs.50,000 crore equity infusion for MSMEs through ‘Fund of Funds’, which are doing viable business but need hand holding due to the pandemic situation.
- Revision of MSME definition by increasing the upper limits of turnover and investments in plant machinery and equipment for MSME. The new definition differentiates MSME under the criteria of investment and annual turnover, which is the same for both the manufacturing and service sector.
- For protecting MSMEs from foreign company competition, global tenders of up to Rs.200 crore will be disallowed in government procurement tenders.
Reforms for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Processing Sectors
- Rs.1 lakh crore for Agri Infrastructure Fund to farmers for farm-gate infrastructure.
- Rs.10,000 crore scheme for formalisation of Micro Food Enterprises (MFE).
- Rs.20,000 crore for fishermen through Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY).
- Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund set up for Rs.15,000 crore to support private investment in Dairy Processing, cattle feed infrastructure and value addition.
- Promotion of Herbal Cultivation with an outlay of Rs.4,000 crore.
Reforms for Employment and Ease of Doing Business
- Additional allotment of Rs.40,000 crore for MGNREGS for boosting employment.
- Decriminalisation of the Companies Act, 2013 for ease of doing business.
- Permission for direct listing of securities by Indian public companies in foreign jurisdictions.
- Private companies that list Non-convertible debentures (NCDs) on stock exchanges will not be regarded as listed companies.
- Including the provisions of Producer Companies (Part IXA) of Companies Act, 1956 in Companies Act, 2013.
- Power to the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) for creating additional or specialised benches.
- Lowering of penalties for all defaults for One-person Companies, Small Companies, Producer Companies and Startups.
Reforms for Poor, Farmers, and Migrant Workers
- Introduction of One Nation One Card. The migrant workers can access the Public Distribution System, i.e. Ration from the Fair Price Shop situated anywhere in India under the scheme of One Nation One Card.
- Provided living facilities to the migrant labours and urban poor at affordable rent under the PMAY (Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana).
- PM Svanidhi scheme launched to facilitate easy access to credit for urban street vendors.
- NABARD extended Rs.30,000 crore additional re-finance support for meeting crop loan requirements of Regional Rural Banks and Rural Cooperative Banks.
- A special drive to give concessional credit to PM-KISAN beneficiaries through the Kisan Credit Cards. Animal Husbandry Farmers and Fishermen are also included in this drive.
Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan 2.0
After the announcement of Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan by the Prime Minister on 12 May 2020, announcements were made on 12 October 2020 under Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan 2.0. Under Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan 2.0:
- SBI Utsav Cards were distributed.
- 11 States were sanctioned Rs.3,621 crore towards the capital expenditure as an interest-free loan.
- LTC voucher schemes were launched.
- Additional capital expenditure of Rs.25,000 crore was provided to the Ministry of Road Transport and the Ministry of Defence.
Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan 3.0
On 12 November 2020, the Finance Minister, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, along with the Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Shri. Anurag Thakur launched the Atmanirbhar Bharat 3.0 for boosting the Covid-hit economy.
Twelve announcements were made by Finance Minister Nirmala under the Atmanirbhar Bharat 3.0, which focused on job creation and tax relief in the housing sector. The twelve announcements are as follows:
- Launch of Atmanirbhar Bharat Rozgar Yojana for the creation of new employment opportunities.
- Launch of ECLGS 2.0 for supporting stressed sectors with a tenure of 5 years, including a moratorium of 1 year.
- Rs.1.46 lakh crore for Atmanirbhar Manufacturing Production Linked Incentives (PLI) for 10 champion sectors.
- An additional outlay of Rs.18,000 crore provided for the PMAY-Urban.
- The performance security on contracts was reduced to 3% instead of 5-10% to ongoing contracts free of disputes and Public Sector Enterprises to support infrastructure and construction.
- Demand booster for the Residential Real Estate Income Tax relief for the Home Buyers and Developers from 10% to 20% (under section 43CA) for only primary sale of residential units valuing up to Rs.2 crore.
- Rs.6,000 crore Equity infusion in NIIF Debt Platform and Rs.1.10 lakh crore Platform for Infra Debt Financing.
- Rs.65,000 crore for subsidised fertilisers for helping 140 million framers.
- An additional outlay of Rs.10,000 crore provided for Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Rozgar Yojana.
- Rs.3,000 crore released to EXIM Bank for promoting the export projects through lines of credit under the IDEAS scheme.
- An additional outlay of Rs.10,200 crore towards Capital and Industrial expenditure.
- Rs.900 crore provided for the COVID Suraksha Mission for Research and Development of Indian COVID-19 Vaccine to the Department of Biotechnology.
