MSP hike in line with planned rural pitch

NEW DELHI: The hefty hike in minimum support price (MSP) of kharif crops announced on Wednesday fits neatly into the rural welfare pitch of Narendra Modi government in the run-up to the 2019 general election, for which it is readying to launch an “integrated high-decibel multimedia campaign” to highlight eight key schemes of the rural development ministry.

As per a proposal of the ministry, accessed by ET, the aim is to “connect emotionally and rationally with stakeholders as the ministry reaches out to 70% of the country’s population” which comprises the rural beneficiaries.

Celebrity endorsements may be considered for a “powerful and catchy” campaign and all eight key schemes implemented by the ministry are planned to be unified under one umbrella campaign to reinforce their impact on the lives of rural people across India.


The eight schemes are MGNREGS, PM Awas Yojana – Grameen, PM Gram Sadak Yojana, Deendayal Upadhyaya Antyodaya Yojana, Rural Skills scheme, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee RURBAN Mission, Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana and the National Social Assistance Programme.

“With MoRD reaching out to almost 70% of the population of India, an integrated high decibel multi-media campaign is the need of the hour to create a visual identity of MoRD through pneumonic and characters which would make the audience relate to the programmes instinctively thereby increasing the recall and message retention,” said the proposal.

Successful campaigns, such as Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Incredible India and Digital India, could act as the templates for the ministry’s campaign to connect with people. “The objective is to strategically design media plans to correspond with important events thereby increasing the demand for the services and alleviating poverty,” said the proposal.