The three-day (02-04th March, 2023) long Pusa Krishi Vigyan Mela with the theme of ‘Nutritional, Food and Environmental security through Millets (Shree Anna)’, organized at the sprawling campus of ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, concluded today. Shri Kailash Choudhary, Union Minister of State Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister was the chief guest at the Valedictory Ceremony.

 

Dr Ashok Kumar Singh, Director, ICAR-IARI welcomed the chief guest and other dignitaries. Six Fellow farmers and 42 Innovative farmers with ‘IARI Innovative Farmer Award', including women farmers, were felicitated during the function.

 

In his address, Shri Kailash Choudhary India’s farm output jumped from 265 Million Tonnes in 2013-14 to 315 MT last year and is set to touch 324 MT this Financial Year. He said the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has aimed for four stages of farmers welfare, namely Superior Quality Seeds, Reduce Working Costs, Improve Storage & Transportation, and enable Markets, - provide remunerative prices for farmers’ produce.

 

Shri Choudhary said the Agriculture Ministry has asked ICAR to ensure at least 25% of farming on Agricultural land is held on Organic and Natural Farming techniques. He emphasized on the need to work for the development of varieties of millets for nutritional security. He reiterated the central role of new and innovative farm technologies food and environmental security. He said modern technologies and crop varieties must reach to the farmers without any time lag and must be demonstrated on farmers’ fields for winning the confidence of farmers.

 

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Himanshu Pathak, Secretary, DARE & Director General, ICAR announced that each ICAR Institute will conduct a training programme annually for the benefit of farmers. Pragati (Progress) and Prakriti (Nature) have to go together, - hand in hand, he said. Dr Pathak said Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who visited ICAR-IARI recently spending about two hours at the Pusa Campus, has tweeted that India’s agricultural research center is the No.1 in the world.

 

Large number of farmers from across the country visited the Pusa Krishi Vigyan Mela-2023 and benefited from live demonstration of climate resilient varieties of wheat, mustard, lentil, chickpea, vegetables, flowers and fruit crops and also gained useful and advance knowledge of integrated farming system model. Dr Rabindra Nath Padaria, Joint Director (Extension), Dr JPS Dabaas, In-charge, CATAT, ICAR-IARI and other dignitaries were also present during valedictory ceremony.

 

The mega event was organized by ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute. Several institutes of ICAR across the country participated and special exhibitions on Millets (Shree Anna), farmer friendly technologies, innovations and products were displayed during the three-day mega farmers’ fair.

A two-day Millet Mahotsav was organised by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries at Agra, Uttar Pradesh, from 3-4 March, 2023. The event was inaugurated by Minister of State for Law & Justice, Prof. SP Singh Baghel. Several dignitaries, including Additional Secretary, Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Shri Minhaj Alam, were also present on the occasion.

 

During his inaugural address, Prof. SP Singh Baghel applauded Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s decision to set the Minimum Support Price for Millets higher than Wheat as it would encourage farmers to adopt millet cultivation, especially in the regions where there is a shortage of water. Shri Baghel stated that the consistent efforts of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi led to the United Nations declaring 2023 as the International Year of Millets and has put India to be at the forefront of championing this initiative and built a strong name for Millets at the global level.

 

Shri Baghel referred to the International Year of Millets as the time for Krishi Antyodaya (Upliftment of Farmers). He said that Millets is often perceived to be associated with a poverty-based lifestyle, and there is a need to create awareness to change this perception. The Minister, who is also Member of Parliament from Agra, expressed his gratitude towards the Ministry of Food Processing Industries for the initiative of Millet Mahotsav and for selecting Agra as one of the districts to conduct the event. Uttar Pradesh is the largest producer of food grains in India and accounted for about 18.89% share (58.32 million MT) in the country’s total food grain output in 2020-21. In the year 2019-20, the state of Uttar Pradesh produced 21,71,836.00 MT millet. The different varieties of millets mainly produced in Uttar Pradesh include Sorghum, Pearl Millet, Kodo and Barnyard Millet. In the Agra district, the millet varieties produced mainly include Sorghum and Pearl Millet. In the year 2019-20, Agra produced 99 MT of Sorghum and 2,93,964 MT of Pearl Millet.

 

Speaking about the cultural impact of Millets, Shri Baghel said that Millet Based Khareed Kendras have been set up in the country for the first time post-independence and steps like these will contribute greatly towards the initiative of IYoM. He also talked about the nutritional benefits of Millet and how it has helped to control health problems like diabetes.

 

Shri Minhaj Alam, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Food Processing Industries informed the gathering that the government is organizing Millet Mahotsav in 20 States and 30 Districts across the country and these districts represent key regions engaged in the processing of Millets. He enlightened the participants about the aim and salient features of Millet Mahotsav and the importance of a holistic approach to Millet processing. He emphasized on the various qualities of Millets like minimal water requirement and adaptability according to the terrain, that makes Millets a suitable alternative to commercially grown crops. The States hosting the events include Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Odisha, Punjab, Kerala, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, West Bengal, and Jharkhand.

 

Touching upon the importance of millets and the immense market potential for millet-based value-added products, Shri Alam talked about the opportunities in millet processing in Uttar Pradesh. He also informed the stakeholders about the various initiatives undertaken by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries to support the food processing sector and cited the role of the PMFME Scheme in empowering micro food processing enterprises by providing financial, technical and business support across the value chain.

 

The two-day event was aimed at bringing all the stakeholders of the food processing sector with special focus on millets, on a common platform and encompassed a wide range of activities like exhibition and sale of various millet-based products, live kitchen, millet recipe demonstration, cooking competition, painting competition, sharing of success stories, informative sessions on millet processing, interactive sessions between industry experts and micro food processing enterprises, SHGs, FPOs engaged in food processing followed by cultural programs.  

 

In addition to the Millets Mahotsav, a mega-food event World Food India 2023 is also being organized by the Ministry from 3rd to 5th Nov 2023 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi to provide a unique platform to all stakeholders i.e. producers, food processors, equipment manufacturers, logistics players, cold chain players, technology providers, academia, start-up & innovators, food retailers, etc. to interact and have a dialogue. The event is slated to be the biggest-ever congregation of dignitaries, global investors and business leaders of major global and domestic food companies which would put India firmly on the global food landscape.

The FSSAI has issued a notice with respect to the implementation of Traceability Application under Repurpose Used Cooking Oil (RUCO) Initiative and stated that The Traceability Application will be made live from March 15, 2023.

 

According to FSSAI, in order to streamline the RUCO initiative and to promote ease of doing business, it has developed the RUCO Traceability Application.

 

'The application is designed to track the whole RUCO ecosystem, generate UCO disposal requests, enroll NFP (Non Food Product) units, recognise aggregators requested by NFP units, monitor transactions and generate data and reports on real-time basis,' reads FSSAI statement.

 

The Traceability Application is available on RUCO website and it provides log in facility for FBOs, UCO aggregators and NFP Units.

 

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India has notified the Food Safety and Standards (Licensing and Registration of Food Businesses) First Amendment Regulations, 2017, regarding the quality of vegetable oil for repeated frying which prescribes the limit for Total Polar Compounds (TPC) to be maximum 25% beyond which the vegetable oil is not suitable for use.

 

Subsequently, guidelines for collection of Used Cooking Oil (UCO) by Biodiesel Manufacturers from Food Business Operators (FBOs) through authorised collection agencies were issued in May, 2019 which mandated FBOs whose consumption of edible oil for frying is more than 50 litre per day would maintain the usage record and would dispose UCO to agencies authorised by FSSAI or Commissioner of Food Safety of States/UTs from time to time.

 

Also under RUCO, FSSAI has been enrolling the NFP (Non Food Production) units and recognising the UCO aggregators on request of the recognised NFP units.

Demand for apples from Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh has shot up 30% as the earthquake in Turkey has halted shipments of the fruit to India, said traders. Prices of apples have risen about 25%, providing some relief to domestic growers who have been facing stiff competition from Turkish apples, they said.

 

'The severe earthquake that rocked Turkey last month has impacted exports of apples from the country to India. The domestic demand is now being met by the apples produced in Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir,' said Tarun Arora, director of IG International, a fruit importing firm.

 

The supply of Iranian apples has also been hit due to the ongoing protest in the country, he said, adding, 'The economy in Iran is also in a mess which too is a reason for a drop in exports from the nation.'

 

J&K and Himachal Pradesh are the two major apple producers in the country.

 

'Indian apples are more in demand in the domestic market, unlike last year. A box of around 24 kg of apples was selling at ?2,000 last year. This year prices have gone up to ?2,500 per kg,' said Ravinder Chauhan, president, Apple Growers Association of India. 'This is good for the apple producers in the country as it will give them a fillip to increase production and improve the quality of apples.'

 

J&K produces about 140 million boxes of apples annually, while Himachal Pradesh produces about 30 million boxes. Nearly 1.6 million apple growers in these two regions depend on their production to earn their living.

 

'This year we are expecting that 85-90% of our produce will be consumed within the country and there will be no glut,' said Chauhan.

 

The earthquake in Turkey has also benefited India's tea exporters.

 

'Turkey has been buying tea from Sri Lanka and India. Trade relations between India and Turkey have further improved following India's help to Turkey in this hour of crisis,' said Anshuman Kanoria, chairman, Indian Tea Exporters' Association. 'Last year, Indian tea was able to increase its share in a few countries such as Turkey, which is traditionally a buyer of Sri Lankan tea. We are expecting that Indian tea exports will further increase to the country as it is the cheapest beverage. In this hour of crisis, people need a drink for comfort and tea fills the gap.'

The European Union proposes to raise the maximum residue level (MRL) for tricyclazole in rice to 0.09 mg per kg from 0.01 mg/kg after finding that the raised level is unlikely to cause any risk for consumers.

 

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has proposed the hike in the level of tricyclazole in rice after concerns over allowing the higher limit had been sufficiently addressed. 

 

The proposal is now expected to be ratified by the European Standing Committee on Food Chain and Animal Health in May. 

 

India’s demand

The decision should encourage Indian rice exporters as the fungicide residue’s presence has been a concern for shipments to the EU. However, India has been seeking an MRL of 1 mg/kg for the chemical. 

 

Tricyclazole is a fungicide that is used to control the blast disease in rice. Tests carried out by Japanese scientists on mice are reported to have led to decreased body weight gain and increased organ weight and others in the rodent’s liver. 

 

EFSA said Corteva Agriscience had submitted an application to  Italy’s competent national authority, which is the rapporteur Member State (RMS) of the EU, to set an import tolerance for the active substance tricyclazole in rice. 

 

According to trade experts, Italy is one of the EU members who has been unhappy with the EFSA regulations since it is a significant producer of rice. 

 

Evaluation resubmitted

The RMS drafted an evaluation report in accordance with the EU regulations. It was submitted to the European Commission and forwarded to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) on April 26, 2018. 

 

'The RMS proposed to establish MRL for rice imported from Brazil at the level of 0.09 mg/kg,' it said.

 

In turn, the EFSA identified the gaps in the evaluation and the RMS submitted a revised evaluation report on October 7, 2022. 

 

'Based on the risk assessment results, EFSA concluded that the short-term and long-term intake of residues resulting from the use of tricyclazole according to the reported agricultural practice is unlikely to present a risk to consumer health,' the authority said.

 

Hydrolysis studies conducted to investigate the effect of processing on the nature of tricyclazole demonstrated that tricyclazole 'is stable'. 'As the proposed use of tricyclazole is on imported crops, investigations of residues in rotational crops are not required,' EFSA said.

 

Impact on feed

As by-products from (husked) rice, rice bran may be used for feed purposes, a potential carry-over into the food of animal origin was assessed. The calculated livestock dietary burden did not exceed the trigger value of 0.1 mg/kg dry matter (DM) for all relevant animal species. 

 

'The relative contribution of tricyclazole residues from rice hulls to the total livestock exposure was insignificant, and therefore, animal commodities were not further considered in this application,' EFSA said.

 

The EFSA concluded that 'the proposed use of tricyclazole on rice will not result in a consumer exposure exceeding the toxicological reference values and therefore is unlikely to pose a risk to consumers’ health'.

Prices of rice shipped from top hub India eased this week on a slowdown in demand from buyers in Africa, while Bangladesh looked to clamp down on hoarding to tame soaring local rates for the staple.

 

Rates for India's 5% broken parboiled variety <RI-INBKN5-P1> fell to $390-$395 per tonne from $397-$404, which was the highest in about two years, were also hurt by a depreciation in the rupee.

 

Buying from African countries has slowed a bit due to the recent rally in prices, said a Mumbai-based dealer with a global trade house.

 

India does not plan to lift a ban on broken rice exports and cut a 20% tax on overseas shipments of white rice as the top exporter tries to keep a lid on domestic prices, two government sources said last month.

 

In Bangladesh, domestic prices stayed elevated despite good crops and reserves, which officials blamed on hoarding by middlemen.

 

The government has warned of legal action against those involved.

 

'Surveillance has been increased. New laws are being enacted,' Bangladesh Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder said.

 

Thailand's 5% broken rice prices <RI-THBKN5-P1> were quoted at $450 $460 per tonne, a slight dip from the $460 range last week.

 

'Supply and demand have been muted because it's early in the month, (so) we have to wait for the new harvest,' said a Bangkok-based trader.

 

In Vietnam, 5% broken rice <RI-VNBKN5-P1> was offered at $440-$445 per tonne, down from $457 per tonne a week ago.

 

'Prices edged lower as supplies are building up amid the winter-spring harvest,' a trader based in Ho Chi Minh City said.

 

While prices may ease further as the harvest peaks this month, strong global demand will prevent a more pronounced retreat, traders said.

The department for promotion of industry and internal trade (DPIIT) is starting an exercise to prepare a framework for determining logistics cost in the country, an official said on Thursday.

 

For this, the department will be holding a workshop on the subject, where experts, academicians, professors, and statisticians across the globe will participate on March 20 here besides government officials.

 

'We hope to firm up an index to gauge the country's logistics cost in a year. It will be an annual affair after that.We are organising an international workshop on logistics cost framework,' the official said.

 

Many international players from countries like Japan, Korea and Germany will attend.

 

'We will deliberate on various modules and choose the framework that best suits us,' the official added.

 

At present, the government is going by certain estimates which suggest that logistics cost in India stands at about 13-14 per cent of the country's GDP.

 

The government has rolled out a national logistics policy and PM Gati Shakti initiative to boost competitiveness of industry and cut the logistics cost.

The Centre has fixed a target of 10.6 million tonnes (mt) of rice to be purchased during the rabi season starting April 1, taking the total target to 62.1 mt in 2022-23 (October-September), which is 45 mt more than the actual purchase in the previous year. Besides, 34.15 mt of wheat has been estimated for procurement in 2023-24.

 

During the first session of the conference of State Food Secretaries, held on March 1, to discuss the procurement arrangements for the ensuing season, both wheat and rabi-grown rice targets have arrived after the feedback received from States, the food ministry said Thursday.

 

Initially, the target was 51.8 mt from kharif-grown rice, which was revised to 52.1 mt after higher procurement in Haryana. However, because of lower purchases in Tamil Nadu, the target has since got reduced to 51.47 mt from kharif season, out of which 93 per cent has already procured. 'If the target of 62.1 mt (which is over 47 per cent of total output) is achieved, it will be the highest ever rice purchase as the previous high was 60.25 mt in 2020-21,' said an official.

 

'States were advised to enhance milling capacity so that milling of one season gets completed before the commencement of the next season and recycling of rice may be avoided. It is expected that seamless procurement with direct transfer of money into farmer’s account, minimum cost of transportation, and human interference-free and quick analysis of foodgrains shall be a part of the ecosystem of Food Security Management very soon,' it said.

 

Apart from the auto grain analyser to be used by the Food Corporation of India (FCI), States have been advised to implement more Minimum Threshold Parameters, linking of electricity consumption of mills with the milled quantity of paddy and linking of vehicles used for transportation of foodgrain and their GPS tracking for increased efficiency and transparency by June 2023, the ministry said.

 

The auto grain analyser based on artificial intelligence can process results in a minute with high accuracy for paddy, rice, wheat, and coarse grain. It has been certified by ICAR-CIPHET of Ludhiana. The machine will help minimise human intervention, error and biases, and will also save time by giving digitally verifiable result of each grain.

 

The wheat procurement target this year assumes significance on the backdrop of 2022 experience when the government could buy only 18.79 mt against the target of 44.4 mt. The lower procurement led to a ban on wheat export, which still continues since May 2022, and also a reallocation of grains in terms of rice by cutting the wheat quota for the beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act (NFSA).

 

Sources said that the target has been set at a conservative level as the food ministry does not want to take any chance with agriculture ministry’s production estimate. The agriculture ministry has already released its forecast of a record 112.18 mt of wheat production during 2022-23 crop year (July-June).

 

Addressing the state food ministers, Union Food Minister Piyush Goyal said that ‘SMART-PDS’ is a technological driven initiative and the need of hour, which should be implemented by all the States at the earliest. He emphasised on a transparent and accountable system and urged officials to reduce human intervention and promote automation in the existing processes. He said transparency should be of utmost importance for free supply chain of foodgrains under Public Distribution System (PDS).

 

The three-day Pusa Krishi Vigyan Mela, organized by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), was inaugurated today by the Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar in New Delhi today. Along with thousands of farmers, scientists and startup entrepreneurs are participating in the fair. Speaking on the occasion, Shri Tomar said that Shree Anna is being widely promoted throughout the world through the International Year of Millets, with which Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi aims to empower the Small Farmers, who constitute 86 percent of farmers in the country. Even while he is occupied all the time as the Prime Minister, Shri Modi is concerned about the welfare of these small farmers living in the villages. Millets are grown by these very small farmers. In order to make them prosperous, the Prime Minister has bestowed Millets with their pride of place by naming them as 'Shree Anna' and has also planned several programs.

 

Chief Guest Union Minister Shri Tomar said that the International Year of Millets is the result of Prime Minister Shri Modi's efforts in the all-round interest of small farmers, he himself had sent a proposal to the United Nations on behalf of the Government of India to declare 2023 as the International Year of Millets. Prime Minister Shri Modi will formally launch the International Year of Millets at a grand function to be held in Delhi on March 18, 2023, in which scientists, other representatives and ministers from many countries will participate. Praising the theme of the Pusa Krishi Vigyan Mela, - ‘Shree Anna’, Shri Tomar said that farmers will get a lot of benefits through this fair as well. Shri Tomar said that this time the G-20 is chaired by India under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Modi and he has kept its theme – 'One Earth, One Family, One Future'. With the vision of the Prime Minister, India is moving towards providing leadership to the world. He said that India is agriculture-oriented, the more the farmer will progress, the country will progress as much as it will be prosperous. If India is to develop then we have to empower the farmers.

 

Shri Tomar said that due to the hard work of farmers, efficiency of scientists and farmer-friendly policies of the government, our agriculture is at the top in the world. There is abundant production in food grains and horticulture and allied sectors in the country and India is emerging in the leading position in every field. He expressed the hope that everyone will work together in the future to make our country's agriculture more advanced. It is everyone's collective responsibility to face and solve the challenges facing the Agriculture sector. Appreciating the contribution of scientists of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), its Institutes and Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) for the progress of the Agriculture sector, he said that farmers adopted their research in farming, due to which the quality of agricultural products improved and the country's economy is also getting its benefit. India's credibility is increasing on the political stage of the world, giving rise to expectations from us, in such a situation the responsibility of all of us increases further. Today the scenario of India has changed, now India is not an importing nation, rather the world expects cooperation from us.

 

Union Minister Shri Tomar said that for the upgradation of agriculture and the welfare of farmers, the Modi Government has launched many important schemes like the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi, Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, 10,000 new Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs), Agriculture Infrastructure Fund worth Rs 1 lakh crore. He also stressed on facing together and resolving the challenges of climate change.

 

Shri Tomar gave away awards to Progressive dedicated farmers and released publications. Thematic exhibitions of major technologies have been set up in the fair, while stalls of research institutes, startups and entrepreneurs have also been set up, which Shri Tomar visited, along with the fields of Pusa Institute. Live demonstrations of important varieties of wheat, mustard, gram, vegetables, flowers, fruits have been done in the fair. There are also stalls of farmers, entrepreneurs, input agencies, while farmer counseling stalls are helping farmers solve their problems. Director General of ICAR and Secretary of DARE, Dr. Himanshu Pathak, Director of IARI, Dr. A.K. Singh, Dr. Ravindra Padaria along with other officers, scientists and a large number of farmers were present.

Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Shri Piyush Goyal said that PM GatiShakti National Master Plan and National Logistics Policy (NLP) together will greatly help both businesses and people, improve competitiveness, improve investment into India and give the world confidence that India is on the rise. 

 

He was addressing the gathering at the Indian Chamber of Commerce’s (ICC) National Conference on GatiShakti in New Delhi today. Shri Goyal expressed his appreciation for the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC), which is based in Eastern India for coming to Delhi to engage with an initiative as crucial as GatiShakti. 

 

Shri Goyal said that the world today recognized India as a leader of innovation. He observed that India has been rapidly developing new tools for good governance, ease of living, and ease of doing business, such as PM GatiShakti National Master Plan. He observed that gone were the days when India had to wait for decades for new ideas and technology to emerge in the west and adopt them to help our businesses and our people. He cited the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) framework as an example of India's technological prowess, and an initiative which has had a deep impact on the country's economy. He further informed that in December last year, India had clocked 7.28 billion digital financial transactions in one month, thanks to UPI. The Minister added that the world was now aspiring to adopt UPI for digital financial transactions. 

 

The Minister emphasized that India was second to none in technology and new ideas, and that the PM GatiShakti initiative was yet another example of this capability. He recalled how the Prime Minister, about 15 years ago, conceived the idea of using geospatial technology to plan infrastructure better and set up BIZAG-N in Ahmedabad. He pointed out that the PM actively engaged with BIZAG during its formative years and planned infrastructure in Gujarat using the data points generated by the institute. As a result, Gujarat is far ahead of many other areas in terms of quality and speed of infrastructure development, he observed.

 

The Minister went on to demystify PM GatiShakti, explaining that it created layers of data where different geological, ecological and infrastructural elements across the country were mapped and captured. Currently, there are about 1300 layers of data, consisting of forests, wildlife sanctuaries, rivers, UNESCO world heritage sites, among others, he said and added that GatiShakti would not only address critical gaps in infrastructure but also help in planning social infrastructure such as schools, nursing homes, hospitals, etc. 

 

The Minister further explained that the data layers of GatiShakti engage with each other through APIs, and if an alignment of a particular project was put into GatiShakti, it would highlight the challenges of implementation and help re-align the project, saving time and cost. He also highlighted that 12 states have digitized their land, which further strengthened the planning.

 

The Minister stated that no state has politicized GatiShakti, as it is an initiative that would help our businesses, our people and the economy as a whole. He added that reducing the cost of logistics is critical to achieving India's goal of becoming a developed country by 2047. He stated that PM GatiShakti, if used well, will help bring down logistics costs tremendously. He highlighted that all highways, railways, ports, and airports were mapped on GatiShakti, which would help in building seamless connectivity networks and creating a positive impact on the logistics ecosystem.

 

The Minister lauded the Prime Minister’s efforts in galvanizing small and developing nations to demand a fair agreement in the interest of equity and balance between the developed and developing world, which was finally adopted in COP 21 in Paris. The Minister observed that every world leader today was looking up to India, and that there was no part of the globe that did not look up to PM Modi to find solutions to challenging global problems.

 

The Minister also highlighted the success of the government in meeting the basic needs of life for its citizens, including food, clothing, shelter, health and education. He mentioned that India’s healthcare program, Ayushman Bharat covered over 500 million people and said that the New Education Policy has been accepted and lauded across sections. These initiatives, Shri Goyal said, had made India's population, especially the youth, highly aspirational.

 

The Minister stressed that GatiShakti is a national approach that has come out of exhaustive consultations and collective, collaborative efforts of countless stakeholders. He concluded by expressing confidence that with the enthusiasm that he saw among the people of the country and the turbo-powered work that is happening in several fields, India may surpass the mark of becoming a USD 32 trillion economy by 2047.