Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan is the mission started by the Government of India on 13th May 2020, towards making India Self-reliant. The Hon'ble Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi announced an economic package of INR 20 lakh crore as aid to support the country in the times of pandemic. It is focused on 5 components – Economy, Infrastructure, Systems, Vibrant Demography and Demand. The Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) has been actively pursuing the Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan through envisioning projects and policies that promote self-sustenance and are self-generating for the tribal community of India.

MoTA with Sri Sri Institute of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (SSIAST) has launched its Centre of Excellence for natural farming to making tribal farmers self-reliant. The project will train 10,000 tribal farmers in sustainable Natural Farming techniques and will introduce them to marketing opportunities.

On Oct. 2nd 2020, MoTA and ASSOCHAM launched the 'Tribal Entrepreneurship Development Program' a three year long initiative focused on socio-economic development of Tribal groups in India. MoTA with FICCI Social Economic and Development Foundation undertook a study on Tribal welfare and Entrepreneurship Development in Jharkhand with the focus of the study was to understanding the present means of livelihood of the tribal community in the two identified districts, identifying the challenges faced by them and recommending suitable strategies to make them self-sustainable.

 

What is Atmanirbhar Bharat Mission?

Atmanirbhar means 'self-reliant'. On May 12, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced in his address to the nation an economic package of Rs 20 trillion to tide over the coronavirus crisis under the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan. He said the economic package would play an important role in making India 'self reliant' and that it would benefit labourers, farmers, honest tax payers, MSMEs and the cottage industry. He said making the country self-reliant was the only way to make 21st century belong to India. According to the government, it is not protectionist in nature.

 

The Five pillars of Atmanirbhar Bharat focus on:

• Economy
• Infrastructure
• System
• Vibrant Demography and
• Demand

 

The Five phases of Atmanirbhar Bharat are:

• Phase-I: Businesses including MSMEs
• Phase-II: Poor, including migrants and farmers
• Phase-III: Agriculture
• Phase-IV: New Horizons of Growth
• Phase-V: Government Reforms and Enablers

 

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.

 

Impact of this Stimulus Package

• Primary Sector: The measures (reforms to amend ECA, APMC, Contract framing, etc) announced for the agricultural and allied sectors are particularly transformative.

  • These reforms are steps towards the One Nation One Market objective and help India become the food factory of the world.
  • These would finally help in achieving the goal of a self-sustainable rural economy.
  • Also, the MGNREGA infusion of Rs 40,000 crore may help in alleviating the distress of migrants when they return to their villages.

• Secondary Sector: Given the importance of MSMEs for Indian economy, the Rs 3 lakh crore collateral-free loan facility for MSMEs under the package will help this finance-starved sector and thereby provide a kickstart to the dismal state of the economy.

  • Also, as the MSME sector is the second largest employment generating sector in India, this step will help to sustain the labour intensive industries and thereby help in leveraging India’s comparative advantage.
  • Additionally, limiting imports of weapons and increasing the limit of foreign direct investment in defence from 49% to 74% will give a much-needed boost to the production in the Ordnance Factory Board, while reducing India’s huge defence import bill.

 

• Tertiary Sector: The government has adopted a balanced approach in addressing concerns across sectors. For example:

  • The newly launched PM e-Vidya programme for multi-mode access to digital online education provides a uniform learning platform for the whole nation, which shall enable schools and universities to stream courses online without further loss of teaching hours.
  • Public expenditure on health will be increased by investing in grass root health institutions and ramping up health and wellness centres in rural and urban areas.

 

Analysis of Declared Economic Package

 

• Inclusion of RBIs’ Expenditure in Fiscal Package:

• The declared package is considered to be substantially less because it includes

the actions of RBI as part of the government’s “fiscal” package, even

though only the government controls the fiscal policy and not the RBI

(which controls the ‘monetary’ policy).

• Thus, the Government expenditure and RBI’s actions are neither the same nor

can they be added in this manner. And thus nowhere in the world fiscal

packages are declared in this manner.

• For instance, when the US announced a relief package of $3 trillion (Rs 225 lakh crore), it only refers to the money that will be spent by the government — and does not include the expenditure of the Federal Reserve (US central bank).

 

• Implication of Inclusion of RBIs’ Expenditure :

• If the government is including RBI’s liquidity decisions in the calculation, then the actual fresh spending by the government could be considerably lower.

• That’s because RBI has been coming out with Long Term Repo Operation

(LTRO), to infuse liquidity into the banking system worth Rs 1 lakh crore at

a time. If RBI launches another LTRO of Rs 1 lakh crore, then the overall

fiscal help falls by the same amount.

• The direct expenditure by a government usually includes wage subsidy or direct

benefit transfer or payment of salaries, etc — immediately and necessarily

stimulates the economy. In other words, that money necessarily reaches the

people — either as through salary or purchase.

• But measures from RBI include credit easing— that is, making more money

available to the banks so that they can lend to the broader economy — is not like

government expenditure.

• In times of crisis, banks may take that money from RBI and, instead of

lending it, may park it back with the RBI.

• Recently, Indian banks have parked Rs 8.5 lakh crores with the central

bank. So in terms of calculations, RBI has given a stimulus of Rs 6 lakh

crore. But in reality, RBI has received an even bigger amount back from the

banks.

• Thus, the declared amount is 10% of GDP, but less than 5% cash outgo is

expected.