17th Feb 2021, Proposals, CESS, Sedition law, awards, COVID stats

17 February 2021

• Proposals approved of M/o Food Processing Industries

  Total 20 proposals worth Rs. 363.40 Crore have been approved in a meeting chaired by Union Minister  of Food Processing industries Shri Narendra Singh Tomar. This meeting was held online through Video conferencing. The proposals include creating infrastructure for APC and creating or improving food processing and preservation facilities.

• Agriculture CESS will improve Infrastructure

  Government officials believe that Agriculture CESS introduced in the budget will improve the condition of the mandis and farming infrastructure. There has been some criticism that the revenue will got to Centre rather than states, but the aim of the CESS is to generate revenue to benefit the farmers.

• Delhi Court says police must use Sedition Law carefully

  Delhi Court has asked police to use Sedition Law carefully, while hearing the cases of arrested farmer protestors. The court said the arrests under the sedition law should be made only on serious offences.

• Minister Giriraj Singh distributes AWBI awards

  Giriraj Singh, Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying distributed the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) awards which are given for the welfare and protection of animals. The Prani Mitra awards and JeevDaya awards were given to individuals, organizations and corporates for performance in animal welfare. The  Prani Mitra Award – Corporate was given to Tata Trust Foundation based out of Mumbai, Maharashtra.

• COVID stats for India

  Total reported cases in India are 10,937,320 out of which 155,949 patients have died. 10,644,858 patients have recovered from COVID, which shows the quality of care and facilities available in India. Total of 207,977,229 persons have been tested for COVID so far in India. 

• Crops, Plants to be protected through SMPPQ

  “Sub Mission on Plant Protection and Plant Quarantine (SMPPQ)” scheme aims to protect the crops and other vegetation from pests, insects, weeds, rodents, diseases and from any other threat that may harm them. Government is encouraging the indigenous manufacturers and exporters of pesticides. Government succeeded in 2020-21 period to control the threat of the locusts over 5.7 lakh hectare in 10 states. Government has forwarded documentation to states to promote Integrated Pest Management and Judicious use of Pesticides.

• Indian market access flexible, says the government

  To stabilize the price and availability of Onions in the market, government opened doors to Indian markets and imported onions in bulk in 2020. In 2020-2021 government has allowed the imports of carrot seeds from Iran, wheat flour, basmati rice and pomegranate seeds from Uzbekistan, pomegranate from Australia, mango, basmati rice and sesame seeds from Argentina and peanuts from Peru.

• RCF pays interim dividend of Rs 49.65 crore for FY 2020-21 to the Government

  RCF (Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers Limited) has paid Rs 49.65 crore as interim dividend to the Indian Government, it's 75% equity holder. RCF is a household name in rural India with good productivity, excellent sales  network and reach to the farmers. RCF not only produces fertilizers, but also Industry chemicals used by a number of industries.

• Government to open new channels of communication with the farming community

  MLAs and MPs of Rajasthan, Haryana and UP met this morning in Delhi and have decided to reach out to the local farmers in their areas to ascertain their ideas about the protests and to bring them to their side, as most of the protesters are from the above listed states. The government wants to show the country that they are proactively handling the situation and at the same time keeping the confidence of supporters in these states with them.