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I. Banking & Financial inclusion
A. Pradham Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana:Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) is National Mission for Financial Inclusion to ensure access to financial services, namely, Banking / Savings & Deposit Accounts, Remittance, Credit, Insurance, Pension in an affordable manner.
Account can be opened in any bank branch or Business Correspondent (Bank Mitr) outlet. PMJDY accounts are being opened with Zero balance. However, if the account-holder wishes to get cheque book, he/she will have to fulfill minimum balance criteria.
Special Benefits under PMJDY Scheme
Interest on deposit.
Accidental insurance cover of Rs.1.00 lac
No minimum balance required.
Life insurance cover of Rs.30,000/-
Easy Transfer of money across India
Beneficiaries of Government Schemes will get Direct Benefit Transfer in these accounts.
After satisfactory operation of the account for 6 months, an overdraft facility will be permitted
Access to Pension, insurance products.
Accidental Insurance Cover, RuPay Debit Card must be used at least once in 45 days.
Overdraft facility upto Rs.5000/- is available in only one account per household, preferably lady of the household.
Documents required to open an account under Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana
If Aadhaar Card is not available, then any one of the following Officially Valid Documents (OVD) is required: Voter ID Card, Driving License, PAN Card, Passport & NREGA Card. If these documents also contain your address, it can serve both as “Proof of Identity and Address”
HIGHLIGHTS:
scheme for comprehensive financial inclusion launched by the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi on 28 August 2014
Run by Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance
inauguration day, 1.5 Crore bank accounts were opened under this scheme
By 28 January 2015, 12.58 crore accounts were opened, with around ₹10590 crore
B. Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP) (Re-Introduced):
The re-launched Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP) will be available to the investors in the denomination of Rs. 1000, 5000, 10,000 and 50,000, with no upper ceiling on investment.
The certificates can be issued in single or joint names and can be transferred from one person to any other person / persons, multiple times. The facility of transfer from one post office to another anywhere in India and of nomination will be available. The certificate can also be pledged as security to avail loans from the banks and in other case where security is required to be deposited. Initially the certificates will be sold through post offices, but the same will soon be made available to the investing public through designated branches of nationalised banks.
Kisan Vikas Patras have unique liquidity feature, where an investor can, if he so desires, en cash his certificates after the lock-in period of 2 years and 6 months and thereafter in any block of six months on pre-determined maturity value. The investment made in the certificate will double in 100 months.
Reintroduction of Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP) is a welcome step not only in the direction of providing safe and secure investment avenues to the small investors but will also help in augmenting the savings rate in the country. The scheme will also safeguard small investors from fraudulent schemes. With a maturity period of 8 years 4 months, the collections under the scheme will be available with the Govt. for a fairly long period to be utilized in financing developmental plans of the Centre and State Governments and will also help in enhancing domestic household financial savings in the country.
* INTEREST RATE - 8.7%
HISTORY:
Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP) – a certificate savings scheme was launched by the Government on 1st April, 1988. The scheme provided facility of unlimited investment by way of purchase of certificates from post offices in various denominations. The maturity period of the scheme when launched was 5 ½ years and the money invested doubled on maturity.
The scheme was very popular among the investors and the percentage share of gross collections secured in KVP was in the range of 9 % to 29 % against the total collections received under all National Savings Schemes in the country. Gross collections under the scheme in the year 2010-11 were Rs. 21631.16 crores which was 9 % of the total gross collections during the year. In the year of its closure, the scheme secured gross collections of Rs. 7575.95 crores (April 2011 to November 2011).
C. Sukhanya Samridi AccountSukanya Samriddhi Account is another welcome step from Govt of India. Honorable Prime Minister of India, Sh. Narendra Modi Ji launched Sukanya Samriddhi Account “A Small Savings Scheme” on 22nd January, 2015. It is part of “Beti Bachao – Beti Padhao” initiative of Government of India (GOI) also known as BBB.
OBJECTIVE:
Sukanya Samriddhi Account, Govt is trying to give a social message that Girl Child is not a financial burden if parents of a Girl child secure their future through proper financial planning.
7 Benefits:
Highest Interest Rate among all Small Savings Schemes offered by Govt of India: Sukanya Samriddhi Account will offer interest rate of 9.1% for current financial year i.e. FY 2014-15. It is highest among all Small Savings Schemes.
Tax Savings: In order to encourage people to open Sukanya Samriddhi Account, Govt has exempted contribution to this account u/s 80C of the Income Tax Act, 1961.
Lock-in Period: In my opinion this is the BEST Feature of this scheme. The maturity of account is 21 years from the date of opening of the account or Marriage of the Girl Child, Which ever is earlier. For Marriage, Girl should be of 18 years at the time of marriage. The operation of account is not permitted beyond date of marriage.
Purpose of Sukanya Samriddhi Account: As I mentioned earlier, it is quite evident that Sukanya Samriddhi Account is launched with sole objective of financial planning for the marriage of Girl Child. Social Message is that Marriage or Education of a Girl Child is not a financial burden if parents plan well in advance.
Maturity Proceeds to be Paid to Girl Child: On maturity of Sukanya Samriddhi Account, the account balance along with accrued interest will be paid directly to the account holder i.e. Girl Child. It gives financial independence to Girl child which is currently missing in India.
Interest to be paid even after Maturity: Unlike other financial schemes where interest is not paid after maturity of the deposit / investment scheme. Unique feature of Sukanya Samriddhi Account is that even after maturity, if the account is not closed by the account holder, Interest shall be payable in the account till final closure of the account.
Flexibility to operate Sukanya Samriddhi Account: Based on past experience, Government of India has given lot of flexibility in terms of account operations. I am listing down few of them
(a) Account can be opened with initial deposit of Rs 1000 and thereafter any amount in multiple of Rs 100 can be deposited subject to max limit of 1.5 lakh during financial year. Every FY, a min sum of Rs 1000 should be deposited to keep account operative.
(b) On attaining age of 10 years, a girl child can operate her account
(c) Account can be closed if it is proved that account is causing undue hardship to the account holder
(d) Account can be transferred anywhere in India
D. MUDRA Bank Yojana
1. BUDGET SPEECH:
The Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the promised Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency Ltd (MUDRA) Bank on 8 April, 2015 with a corpus of Rs 20,000 crore and a credit guarantee corpus of Rs 3,000 crore. The launch was the fulfillment of an announcement made earlier by the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his FY 15-16 Budget speech
2. MUDRA Bank Make a Difference to the Economy:
As per NSSO Survey of 2013, there are close to 5.77 crore small-scale business units, mostly sole proprietorships, which undertake trading, manufacturing, retail and other small-scale activities. Compare this with the organised sector and larger companies that employ 1.25 crore individuals. Clearly, the potential to harness and nurture these micro businesses is vast and the government recognises this. Today, this segment is unregulated and without financial support or cover from the organised financial banking system.
3. The principal objectives of the MUDRA Bank are:
Regulate the lender and the borrower of microfinance and bring stability to the microfinance system through regulation and inclusive participation.
Extend finance and credit support to Microfinance Institutions (MFI) and agencies that lend money to small businesses, retailers, self-help groups and individuals.
Register all MFIs and introduce a system of performance rating and accreditation for the first time. This will help last-mile borrowers of finance to evaluate and approach the MFI that meets their requirement best and whose past record is most satisfactory. This will also introduce an element of competitiveness among the MFIs. The ultimate beneficiary will be the borrower.
Provide structured guidelines for the borrowers to follow to avoid failure of business or take corrective steps in time. MUDRA will help in laying down guidelines or acceptable procedures to be followed by the lenders to recover money in cases of default.
Develop the standardised covenants that will form the backbone of the last-mile business in future.
Offer a Credit Guarantee scheme for providing guarantees to loans being offered to micro businesses.
Introduce appropriate technologies to assist in the process of efficient lending, borrowing and monitoring of distributed capital.
Build a suitable framework under the Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana for developing an efficient last-mile credit delivery system to small and micro businesses.
4. Major Product Offerings:
MUDRA Bank has rightly classified the borrowers into three segments: the starters, the mid-stage finance seekers and the next level growth seekers.
To address the three segments, MUDRA Bank has launched three loan instruments:
Shishu: covers loans upto Rs 50,000/-
Kishor: covers loans above Rs 50,000/- and upto Rs 5 lakh
Tarun: covers loans above Rs 5 lakh and upto Rs 10 lakh
Initially, sector-specific schemes will be confined to “Land Transport, Community, Social & Personal Services, Food Product and Textile Product sectors”. Over a period of time, new schemes will be launched to encompass more sectors.
5. Some of the Offerings Planned for the Future:
MUDRA Card
Portfolio Credit Guarantee
Credit Enhancement
II. Agriculture & Irrigation Schemes
A. Krishi Amdani Beema Yojana:
To give an impetus to the dying agricultural practice
There is 14 crore hectares of agricultural land in India, of which only 44 per cent in under irrigation
Pradhan Mantri Gram Sinchai Yojana would be introduced so that more agricultural land is irrigated.
Talking about the plight of small and marginal farmers he said that most of them were leaving the agricultural practice because of the uncertainty over the produce and returns.
Krishi Amdani Beema Yojana so that the farmers don’t bear any financial burden if their produce gets destroyed due to unexpected weather or for any other reason.
B. Pradhan Mantri Gram Sinchai Yojana:
ensure water supply to farmers round the year.
basic contours of the agri-irrigation programme would be on lines of the PMGSY, under which each irrigation project would be selected for releasing funds by the state government after seeking nod of the concerned Zilla Parishad.
importance in the wake of poor implementation of various irrigation projects in some states despite release of central funds by different ministries under various schemes for several years.
Besides, water is necessary for farmers as country's 50 per cent of the agriculture land is rainfed.
C. Pradhan Mantri Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana
The Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana was launched last week, for the development of model villages. Under the Yojana, Members of Parliament (MPs) will be responsible for developing the socio-economic and physical infrastructure of three villages each by 2019, and a total of eight villages each by 2024.
The first Adarsh Gram must be developed by 2016, and two more by 2019. From 2019 to 2024, five more Adarsh Grams must be developed by each MP, one each year. This implies that a total of 6,433 Adarsh Grams, of the 2,65,000 gram panchayats, will be created by 2024. Key features of the Yojana are outlined below.
Objectives:
Key objectives of the Yojana include:
The development of model villages, called Adarsh Grams, through the implementation of existing schemes, and certain new initiatives to be designed for the local context, which may vary from village to village.
Creating models of local development which can be replicated in other villages.
Identification of villages
MPs can select any gram panchayat, other than their own village or that of their spouse, to be developed as an Adarsh Gram. The village must have a population of 3000-5000 people if it is located in the plains, or 1000-3000 people if located in hilly areas.
Lok Sabha MPs can choose a village from their constituency, and Rajya Sabha MPs from the state from which they are elected. Nominated members can choose a village from any district of the country. MPs which represent urban constituencies can identify a village from a neighbouring rural constituency.
D. Soil Health Card Scheme for Every Farmer
AIM:
Farming as an activity contributes nearly 1/6th of our Gross Domestic Product and a majority of our population is dependent on it for their livelihood. Deteriorating soil health has been a cause of concern and that has been leading to sub optimal utilization of farming resources. Imbalanced use of fertilisers, low addition of organic matter and non-replacement of depleted micro and secondary nutrients over the years, has resulted in nutrient deficiencies and decrease in soil fertility in some parts of the country.
Soil health needs to be assessed at regular intervals so as to ensure that farmers apply the required nutrients while taking advantages of the nutrients already present in the soil.
Government has launched a scheme to provide every farmer a Soil Health Card in a Mission mode. The card will carry crop wise recommendations of nutrients/fertilizers required for farms, making it possible for farmers to improve productivity by using appropriate inputs.
Central Government provides assistance to State Governments for setting up Soil Testing Laboratories for issuing Soil Health Cards to farmers. State Governments have adopted innovative practices like involvement of agricultural students, NGOs and private sector in soil testing, determining average soil health of villages, etc., to issue Soil Health Cards.
A Soil Health Card is used to assess the current status of soil health and, when used over time, to determine changes in soil health that are affected by land management. A Soil Health Card displays soil health indicators and associated descriptive terms. The indicators are typically based on farmers' practical experience and knowledge of local natural resources. The card lists soil health indicators that can be assessed without the aid of technical or laboratory equipment.
BENEFITS:
The scheme will provide all 145 million farm owners in the country with a soil health card in the next three years.
The budget allotted Rs.100 crore for issuing cards and an additional Rs.56 crore to set up 100 mobile soil testing laboratories across the country.
The soil health card details existing nutrient status of the soil and crop-wise recommendations of nutrients and fertilizers required, making it easier for farmers to improve productivity by using appropriate inputs.
“Applying fertilizer, best quality seeds and ample water is not enough. Farmers should nurture their soil and know what inputs to use and in what quantities,” Modi said while launching the scheme. “Starting soil health laboratories could be an employment avenue for rural youth. In Gujarat where every farmer has a soil health card unnecessary expenses on inputs have come down and farmers have saved a lot of money.”
The agriculture ministry released Rs.86 crore for the soil health card scheme. In comparison, between 2007-08 and April 2014, the ministry had spent Rs.112 crore on the scheme. The flagship scheme of the ministry has been sanctioned Rs.568 crore for the next three years.
Imbalanced use of fertilizer is has led to declining crop productivity in the country, further fuelled by a skewed fertilizer policy where urea is heavily subsided, leading to overuse.
While urea consumption increased from 59% to 66% of total consumption in 2012-13 over 2010-11, per hectare consumption of fertilizer declined from 140kg to 128kg over the same period.
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