Housing For All, boost for MSP of kharif crops: 5 major decisions taken by Modi government today

NEW DELHI: In a bid to provide affordable houses and boost the agricultural produce in the economy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Union Cabinet and CCEA on Wednesday took key decisions on the 'Housing For All' project and Minimum Support Prices (MSP) for farmers.

The government increased the MSP of pulses by Rs 200 per quintal - a move aimed at incentivising farmers to up the produce of pulses in the country. It also approved an interest subsidy on housing loans for tenure up to 15 years under EWS/LIG categories.

We take a look at five big decisions taken by the Modi government today:

1) Housing For All: The Cabinet gave its approval for launch of Housing for All by 2022" with salient features such as; subsidy for beneficiary-led individual house construction, promotion of affordable housing for weaker section through credit linked subsidy, affordable housing in partnership with Public & Private sectors and rehabilitation of slum dwellers.

Under the Credit Linked Interest Subsidy component, interest subsidy of 6.5% on housing loans availed up to tenure of 15 years will be provided to EWS/LIG categories, wherein the subsidy pay-out on NPV basis would be about Rs 2.3 lakh per house for both the categories.

Central assistance at the rate of Rs 1.5 lakh per house for EWS category will be provided under the Affordable Housing in Partnership and Beneficiary-led individual house construction or enhancement.

2) Hike in MSP for kharif crops: CCEA increased the minimum support price (MSP) of paddy by Rs 50 to Rs 1,410 per quintal for this year. MSP is the rate at which government buys the grain from farmers.

Also, in view of a large surplus of cereals in contrast to huge deficit of pulses, the Cabinet made an exception and decided to give a bonus of Rs 200/- per quintal for pulses over and above the recommendations of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP).

"This is expected to give a strong price signal to farmers to increase acreage and invest for increase in productivity of pulses," the government said. The decision is based on recommendations of CACP for the price policy for kharif crops for the 2015-16.

"Various reports have shown that the Eastern belt of the country gets neglected in so far as procurement is concerned. Also, while the procurement mechanism is strong for rice and wheat, it needs to be improved for pulses and oilseeds. The Cabinet directed that the arrangements for procurement in the Eastern India be strengthened," the government release said.

3) Boost for social initiatives: The Cabinet also wants to step up India's solar power capacity target under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) by five times, reaching 1,00,000 MW by 2022.

The target will principally comprise of 40 GW Rooftop and 60 GW through large and medium scale grid connected solar power projects. The total investment in setting up 100 GW will be around Rs 6,00,000 crore. In the first phase, the Government of India is providing Rs 15,050 crore as capital subsidy to promote solar capacity addition in the country.

Apart from this, solar power projects with investment of about Rs 90,000 crore would be developed using Bundling mechanism with thermal power.

The CCEA has given approval for setting up of over 2,000 MW of Grid-Connected Solar PV Power Projects on Build, own and operate basis by solar power developers (SPDs) with Viability Gap Funding (VGF) under Batch-III of Phase-II of the JNNSM. The total investments expected under this scheme are about Rs 12,000 crore.

4) National Dairy Plan Phase: CCEA gave nod for inclusion of Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh in the list of states to be covered under the National Dairy Plan- I (NDP-I). It also extended the implementation period upto 2018-19 in order to achieve key outputs of National Dairy Plan- I.

"Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh are newly formed States which are primarily inhabited by tribal population having substantial milch animal population and have the potential for coverage under NDP I," the government release said.

5) Indian Standards Bill, 2015: The plan to introduce a new Bureau of Indian Standards Bill, 2015 was also given an approval. "The proposed provisions in the new Bureau of Indian Standards Bill, 2015 will empower the Central Government and the Bureau of Indian Standards to promote a culture of quality of products and services through mandatory/voluntary compliance with Indian standards through the process of 'product certification' and 'Certificate of Conformity' with a broad objective of consumer's welfare. It is also expected to improve enforcement of Indian standards," the government release said.