Digital India
23-Dec-2022: Achievements Made under Digital India Programme
Government has launched the Digital India programme with the vision of transforming India into a digitally empowered society and a knowledge-based economy, by ensuring digital access, digital inclusion, digital empowerment and bridging the digital divide. The programme is centred on three key vision areas, namely digital infrastructure as a core utility to every citizen, governance and services on demand, and digital empowerment of citizens. The overall goal is to ensure that digital technologies improve the life of every citizen, expand India’s digital economy, and creating investment and employment opportunities and create digital technological capabilities in India.
Digital India has considerably reduced the distance between Government and citizens. It has also helped in delivery of substantial services directly to the beneficiary in a transparent and corruption free manner. In the process, India has emerged as one of the pre-eminent nations of the world to use technology to transform the lives of its citizens.
Digital India is an umbrella programme that covers multiple projects of various Central Ministries/Departments and States and Union Territories (UTs).
The Government had launched the India BPO Promotion Scheme (IBPS) and the North East BPO Promotion Scheme (NEBPS) under the Digital India programme, with the aim of creating employment opportunities and dispersal of the Information Technology and Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) industry in small cities and towns by incentivising the setting up of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and ITES operations by providing financial support of up to ₹ 1 lakh per seat in the form of viability gap funding towards capital and operational expenditures. Under IBPS and NEBPS, 246 BPO/ITES units have started operations covering 27 States/UTs and are providing direct employment to over 51,584 persons.
The present status of some of the key initiatives undertaken by MeitY under Digital India programme across the country is as follows:
- Aadhaar: Aadhaar provides 12 digit biometric and demographic based identity that is unique, lifelong, online and authenticable. Further to give statutory backing to Aadhaar ‘The Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016’ was notified on 26th March 2016. Over 135.5 crore residents have been enrolled.
- Common Services Centres – CSCs are offering government and business services in digital mode in rural areas through Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs). Over 400 digital services are being offered by these CSCs. So far, 5.21 Lakh CSCs are functional (including urban & rural areas) across the country, out of which, 4.14 Lakh CSCs are functional at Gram Panchayat level. There are 23,035 CSCs are functional in the State of Rajasthan, out of which 18823 CSCs are functional at the Gram Panchayat level.
- DigiLocker: Digital Locker provides an ecosystem with collection of repositories and gateways for issuers to upload the documents in the digital repositories. Digital Locker has more than 13.7 crore users and more than 562 crore documents are made available through DigiLocker from 2,311 issuer organisations.
- Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance (UMANG) – for providing government services to citizen through mobile. More than 1668 e-Services and over 20,197 bill payment services are made available at UMANG.
- e-Sign: e-Sign service facilitates instant signing of forms/documents online by citizens in a legally acceptable form. The services are being leveraged by various applications using OTP based authentication services of UIDAI. More than 31.08 crore e-Sign issued by all agencies wherein, 7.01 Crore e-Sign issued by CDAC.
- MyGov – It is a citizen engagement platform that is developed to facilitate participatory governance. Presently, over 2.76+ crore users are registered with MyGov, participating in various activities hosted on MyGov platform.
- Meri Pehchaan – National Single Sign-on (NSSO) platform called Meri Pehchaan has been launched in July 2022 to facilitate / provide citizens ease of access to government portals. Total 4419 services of various Ministries/States integrated with NSSO.
- Digital Village: MeitY has also initiated the ’Digital Village Pilot Project” in October, 2018. 700 Gram Panchayats (GPs)/Village with at least one Gram Panchayat/Village per District per State/UT are being covered under the project. The digital services being offered are Digital Health Services, Education Service, Financial Services, Skill Development, Solar panel powered street lights including Government to Citizens Services (G2C), Business to Citizen (B2C) Services.
- National Rollout of eDistrict MMP: e-District is a Mission Mode Project (MMP) that aims at electronic delivery of identified high volume citizen centric services at the district or sub-district level. Presently 4,671 e-services have been launched in 709 districts across India.
- Open Government Data Platform– To facilitate data sharing and promote innovation over non-personal data, Open Government Data platform has been developed. More than 5.93 lakh datasets across 12,940+ catalogues are published. The platform has facilitated 94.8 lakh downloads.
- eHospital/ Online Registration System (ORS): e-Hospital application is the Hospital Management Information System for internal workflows and processes of hospitals. Currently, 753 Hospitals have been on-boarded on e-Hospital and ORS has been adopted by 557 hospitals across the country with over 68 lakh appointments booked from ORS.
- CO-WIN - It is an open platform for management of registration, appointment scheduling & managing vaccination certificates for Covid-19. It has registered 110 crore persons and has facilitated administration of 220 crore doses of vaccinations.
- Jeevan Pramaan: Jeevan Pramaan envisages to digitize the whole process of securing the life certificate for Pensioner. With this initiative, the pensioner is no more required to physically present himself or herself in front of disbursing agency or the certification authority. Over 685.42lakh Digital Life certificates have been processed since 2014.
- NCOG-GIS Applications: National Centre of Geo-informatics (NCoG) project, is a GIS platform developed for sharing, collaboration, location based analytics and decision support system for Departments. So far, 659 applications across various domains are operational.
- National Knowledge Network: A high speed data communication network has been established to interconnect Institution of higher learning, and research. So far, 1752 links to Institutions have been commissioned and made operational. 522 NKN links have been connected to NIC district centers across India.
- Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyaan (PMGDISHA): The Government has approved a new scheme titled “Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA)” to usher in digital literacy in rural India by covering 6 Crore rural households (one person per household). It has 6.63 crore registered candidates and out of this, 5.69 crore candidates have been trained and 4.22 crore have been certified.
- Unified Payment Interface (UPI) is the leading digital payment platform. It has onboarded 376 banks and has facilitated 730 crore transactions (by volume) worth Rs 11.9 lakh crore.
- FutureSkills Prime: MeitY in collaboration with NASSCOM has initiated a programme titled FutureSkills PRIME. The programme is aimed at re-skilling/ up-skilling of IT professionals in 10 new/emerging technologies which include Augmented/Virtual Reality, Internet of Things, Big Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Robotic Process Automation, Additive Manufacturing/ 3D Printing, Cloud Computing, Social & Mobile, Cyber Security and Blockchain.
- Cyber Security: The Government has taken necessary measures to tackle challenges with regard to data privacy and data security through administering the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000 which has necessary provisions for data privacy and data security. India has made it to the top 10 in Global Cyber security Index (GCI) 2020 launched by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) on June 29, 2021, moving up 37 places to rank as the tenth best country in the world on key cyber safety parameters.
- Electronics Manufacturing
- Modified Special Incentive Package (M-SIPS): As on date, 315 applications with proposed investment of approximately Rs. 85,632 crore have been approved.
- Electronic Manufacturing Clusters (EMC): Under EMC scheme, 19 Greenfield EMCs and3 Common Facility Centres (CFCs) measuring an area of 3,464 acres with project cost of Rs. 3,732 crore including Government Grant-in-aid of Rs. 1,529 crore have been approved in 15 states across the country. Based on closure of receipt of applications under EMC scheme, MeitY notified Modified Electronics Manufacturing Clusters (EMC 2.0) Scheme on 1st April, 2020 for further strengthening the infrastructure base for electronics industry in the country and deepening the electronics value chain.
3-Aug-2022: E-governance
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India launched the ‘Digital India’ programme with the vision to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge-based economy by ensuring digital access, digital inclusion, digital empowerment and bridging the digital divide. In summary, our mission is to ensure that the digital technologies improve the life of every citizen; expand India’s digital economy, create investment & employment opportunities and global digital technological capabilities in the country.
Digital India has dramatically reduced distance between Government and citizens significantly. Further, Digital India has also helped in delivery of substantial services directly to the beneficiary in a transparent and corruption free manner. India has become one of the pre-eminent nations of the world to use technology to transform the lives of citizens. Digital India is an umbrella programme that covers multiple projects of various Central Ministries/Departments and States/UTs. Some of the major initiatives related to public service delivery are as follows:
- Common Services Centres – CSCs are offering government and business services in digital mode in rural areas through Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs). Over 400 digital services are being offered by these CSCs. So far, 5.31 Lakh CSCs are functional (including urban & rural areas) across the country, out of which, 4.20 Lakh CSCs are functional at Gram Panchayat level.
- Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance (UMANG) – for providing government services to citizen through mobile. More than 1,570 government services and over 22,000 bill payment services are made available at UMANG.
- e-District Mission Mode Project (MMP): e-District project has been implemented at district and sub-district levels of all States/UTs, benefitting all citizens by delivering various e-Services such as Certificates (Birth, Caste, Death, Income and Local Resident), Pension (Old Age, Disability and Widow), Electoral, Consumer Court, Revenue Court, Land Record and services of various departments such as Commercial Tax, Agriculture, Labour, Employment Training & Skill Development etc. Presently 4,671 e-services have been launched in 709 districts across India.
- DigiLocker: It is facilitating paperless availability of public documents. Digital Locker has more than 11.7 crore users and more than 532 crore documents are made available through DigiLocker from 2,167 issuer organisations.
- Unified Payment Interface (UPI) is the leading digital payment platform. It is integrated with 330 banks and facilitated over 586 crore monthly transactions worth over Rs 10 lakh crore has been facilitated for the month of June, 2022.
- CO-WIN - It is an open platform for management of registration, appointment scheduling & managing vaccination certificates for Covid-19. More than 203 crore vaccination doses and 110 crore registrations have been facilitated by co-win.
- MyGov – It is a citizen engagement platform that is developed to facilitate participatory governance. More than 2.48 crore users are actively using MyGov.
- Meri Pehchaan – National Single Sign-on platform called Meri Pehchaan has been launched in July 2022 to facilitate / provide citizens ease of access to government portals.
- MyScheme – This platform has been launched in July 2022 to facilitate citizens to avail eligibility-based services.
- Direct Benefit Transfers – 315 Schemes across 53 Ministries are offering Aadhaar enabled direct benefit transfer to citizens. So far, Rs 24.3 lakh crore has been disbursed through DBT platform.
- Diksha – Diksha is a national level educational platform that helps students and teachers to participate, contribute and leverage a common platform to achieve learning goals at scale for the country. As on 27th July 2022, 7,633 courses are available and more than 15 crore enrolments have been done.
Some of the major digital initiatives taken by the Government for welfare of farmers are as follows:
- National Agriculture Market (e-NAM): Government of India has launched National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) Scheme with the objective of creating online transparent competitive bidding system to facilitate farmers with remunerative prices for their produce. More than 1.73 crore farmers & 2.26 lakh traders have been registered on e-NAM platform. Also, 1000 mandis of 18 States and 3 UTs have been integrated with e-NAM platform.
- M-KISAN – mKisan Portal (www.mkisan.gov.in) for sending advisories on various crop related matters to the registered farmers through SMSs. In mkisan more than 5.13 crore farmers are registered for receiving crop advisories through SMS. More than 2,462 crore mobile based advisories have been sent to farmers to assist them in their farming activities.
- One Stop Window-Farmers Portal (www.farmer.gov.in) for dissemination of information on various agricultural related matter including, seeds variety, Storage Godown, Pests and plant diseases, Best Agricultural Practices, Watershed, Mandi details etc.
- Soil Health Card – It provides soil related information to facilitate farmers in farming activities. More than 22 crore soil health cards have been printed and dispatched to farmers.
- Mobile based advisory system for agriculture & Horticulture (M4AGRI) – It is mobile based advisory system for agriculture and horticulture. It has been implemented in the North-East States namely Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur, Meghalaya, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh.
The Government has taken following steps in direction of data governance for socio-economic development in the country. The brief details are as follows:
- Open Government Data – To facilitate data sharing and promote innovation over non-personal data, Open Government Data platform has been developed. More than 5.65 lakh datasets across 12,800+ catalogues are published. The platform has facilitated 93.5 lakh downloads.
- API Setu – To facilitate data exchange among the system, API Setu has been developed as a platform. The platform has more than 2100 APIs, and 1000+ user organisations.
- MeitY has prepared the draft National Data Governance Framework Policy which aims to realize the full potential of India’s digital government vision, maximize the efficiency of data-led governance & public service delivery and to catalyze data-based research and innovation. Currently the draft policy is under finalization. MeitY released the Draft National Data Governance Framework Policy on 26th May 2022 for public consultation.
The Government has already taken necessary measures to tackle challenges with regard to data privacy and data security through administering the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000 which has necessary provisions for data privacy and data security.
30-Nov-2021: Digital India Programme
Under the Digital India Programme, BharatNet project is being implemented in a phased manner to provide last mile broadband connectivity to Gram Panchayats (GPs) in the country through Wi-Fi or any other suitable broadband technology including Fiber to the Home (FTTH). As on 01.11.2021, a total number of 1,66,088Gram Panchayats have been made Service Ready in the country, including 8,386 Gram Panchayats in Chhattisgarh.
All the Gram Panchayats are to be provided broadband connectivity under the BharatNet project. Further, as part of this project, the last mile connectivity is to be provided through Wi-Fi or any other suitable broadband technology in all GPs to access broadband/internet services. The scope of BharatNet has been recently extended upto all inhabited villages beyond Gram Panchayats. The targeted date for completion of the project is August, 2023.
1-Jul-2020: MeitY celebrates 5 years of Digital India
Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, the Union Minister for Electronics & IT, Communications and Law & Justice, has said that the digital journey has focused on empowerment, inclusion and digital transformation and its positive impact is being felt in all aspects of the lives of Indian citizens. While addressing a video conference marking celebration of 5 years journey of India's Digital India Programme here, today, he stated that in the current pandemic scenario, thanks to JAM trinity (Jan Dhan, Aadhaar an Mobile), people are able to work from home, people are able make digital payment, students are able to learn through TV, Mobile and Laptop, patients are able to take tele-consultation, and farmers in remote corner of India is able to get PM-KISAN benefits directly in their bank accounts.
The conference was organised by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to celebrate 5 Years of Digital India progressing towards Digital Bharat - Aatmanirbhar Bharat. This conference was graced by the presence of MoIT, Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister of State for Electronics & Information Technology, Shri Sanjay Dhotre, Additional Chief Secretaries of some States, Shri Nandan Nilekani, the IT Secretaries of all States, representatives from Ministries, Industry and the academia. The conference was attended by 1,500 delegates all over the world.
The Digital India journey in the past 5 years has centred around empowerment, inclusion, digital transformation. It has positively impacted all aspects of the lives of Indian citizens identity management through Aadhaar, Direct Benefit Transfer, Common Services Centres, DigiLocker, mobile based UMANG services, participatory governance through MyGov, Jeevan Pramaan, to UPI, Ayushman Bharat, e-Hospital, PM-Kisan, e-NAM, Soil Health Cards, SWAYAM, SWAYAM PRABHA, National Scholarship Portal, e-Pathshala, and so on. A ‘National AI Portal’ and ‘Responsible AI for Youth’ was launched recently to lay the foundation for an AI-powered future. Digital India’s initiatives have also played a pivotal role during the CoVID-19 situation, such as Aarogya Setu, E-Sanjeevani, sensitisation through MyGov and Social media platforms etc.
Pointing out that the number of e-Services has increased from 2,463 in 2014 to 3,858 till May 2020 and daily average electronic transactions have increased from 66 lakh in 2014 to 16.3 crore in 2020, the Union Minister shared that Aadhaar has been issued to 125.7 crore residents and 4,216 crore authentications have been facilitated. “Direct Benefit Transfer to the tune of Rs 11.1 lakh crore has been disbursed for 426 schemes from 56 Ministries and has led to the saving of Rs 1.7 lakh crore due. Jan Dhan Accounts have reached 38.73 crore beneficiaries, with a total of Rs 1.33 lakh crore in beneficiaries bank accounts. Mobile and internet connections are being used by 117 crore and 68.8 crore users, respectively. DigiLocker, launched on July 1, 2015, has 378 crore issued documents. Unified Mobile App for New-Age Governance (UMANG) has 860+ services operational and more than 3 Crore downloads have taken place, he further added. MyGov has been launched to facilitate participatory governance in the country, with a total of 1.17 Crore registered participants, while facilitating the Mann Ki Baat of the Prime Minister.
Emphasizing the Digital India’s initiatives during the COVID-19 situation, such as Aarogya Setu for its ground-breaking development time of 3 weeks and localisation in 12 Indian languages with 13 crore downloads, with additional 3 crores for Kai OS, he informed that it has helped identify over 350 COVID-19 hotspots. He further said that sensitization through MyGov and Social Media Platforms have played a crucial role in tackling the pandemic through user friendly graphics, video, quotes to citizens through the MyGov website and through all social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Telegram, and YouTube. He also spoke briefly about other initiatives such as E-Sanjeevani, SAMHAR-COVID-19, Ayush Sanjivani Mobile app, and VC and e-Office.
While concluding, he reiterated that Digital India’s achievements can be attributed to the united efforts of Central Government, State Governments, Industries and Academia, all key parts of Team India. Lastly, he stated that India’s talent pool of skilled people, technology prowess and geo-political advantages are poised to make India an inspiring country in the 21st Century for the welfare of Indians and the world.
During the event a panel discussion was held regarding public digital platforms. Shri Ajay Sawhney, Secretary, MeitY spoke about ‘Building Digital Government Platforms for the Digital Economy of the Future’. Shri Nandan Nilekani, Non-Executive Chairman, Infosys, spoke about the relevance and success of public-private partnership models in e-Government Development, where he touched four dimensions-Government as an enabler of technology, as a customer of Technology, as a platform provider and the Government as collaborator to provide solutions. He congratulated Hon’ble Minister on the successful implementation of Digital India in the country. The building of Aatma Nirbhar Digital Systems also deliberated extensively. ‘Aatmanirbhar’ or ‘Self-Reliance’ implies development of in-house capacity and capability to drive economic and social development of the country.
31-Aug-2019: 'Build for Digital India' programme.
Tech giant Google has signed a statement of intent with the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) for rolling out 'Build for Digital India' programme. The programme will offer a platform to engineering students to develop market-ready, technology-based solutions that address key social problems.
As part of the program, engineering students across the country will be invited to present their ideas and solutions in areas like healthcare, agriculture, education, smart cities and infrastructure, women safety, smart mobility and transportation, environment, accessibility and disability and digital literacy.
Applicants will take part in online and offline learning opportunities on key technologies such as Machine Learning (ML), Cloud and Android that will be offered through Google's Developer Student Club network and other Google Developer networks.
Google will also offer mentorship sessions in product design, strategy and technology to the most promising products and prototypes.
This initiative will not only motivate the college students across India to innovate but will also produce some good technology solutions for some major social challenges of India.
7-Jan-2018: Government to roll out e-Sansad and e-Vidhan
e-Sansad and e-Vidhan will be rolled out in Parliament and State Legislatures to digitize and make their functioning paperless.
e-Sansad and e-Vidhan are mission mode projects of Government of India under Digital India, to make the functioning of Parliament and State Legislatures paperless. MoPA is the Nodal Ministry for implementation of both the projects. According to the agenda prepared by MoPA for the Conference, these projects would make the functioning of Parliament and State Legislatures participative, responsive, transparent, productive and more accountable to the public and make the entire Legislative process more efficient. Further, this environment friendly initiative is in line with the ‘Go Green’ initiative of the Government.
Some States have made good progress in the field of automation of their Legislatures, yet consumption of huge volume of papers is still going on in these States. In order to address this issue and economize the entire Legislative process, e-Vidhan is proposed to be implemented in all the States/ UTs with Legislatures. For rolling out e-Vidhan in the State legislatures, funding to the maximum extent would be provided by the MoPA. The Delegates of the Whips’ Conference would deliberate on the issue and make suggestions/ recommendations for making the rolling out of e-Vidhan a success.
QR code tagging of cylinders
22-Dec-2022: QR Codes for LPG Cylinders
A pilot study for QR code tagging of cylinders has been undertaken by Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. (IOCL) at Madanpur Khadar Bottling Plant, Delhi. Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO) has accorded approval for a period of 3 months w.e.f. 01.09.2022 for filling of QR coded LPG cylinders at Madanpur Khadar Bottling plant and dispatch to only two distributors of Delhi Market. Subsequently PESO has extended the permission further for 3 more months i.e. till 28.02.2023. This initiative has potential to resolve issues of pilferage, tracking and tracing and better inventory management of gas cylinders. IOCL has sent total 23,827 such QR tagged 14.2 Kg LPG cylinders to these distributors till 27.11.2022.
Public Sector Oil Marketing Companies(OMCs) have taken several steps to prevent pilferage/supply of underweight cylinders to LPG consumers, which inter-alia include, random weight checking of filled cylinders at bottling plant, sealing of cylinders with Tamper Evident Seal, Statistical Quality Control on 10 % cylinders received from bottling plant, pre-delivery checks of cylinders, carrying portable weighing scales by delivery persons, random checks by OMC officials at go-down/delivery points/en-route, organizing public awareness campaigns etc.
Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MOFPI)
20-Dec-2022: Promotion of FPIs
The Ministry of Food Processing (MoFPI), is implementing a Central Sector Scheme- “Production Linked Incentive Scheme for Food Processing Industry (PLISFPI)” with an outlay of Rs. 10,900 crores over a six-year period from 2021-22 to 2026-27. The scheme, inter alia, helps create of global food manufacturing champions commensurate with India’s natural resource endowment and supports Indian brands of food products in the international markets.
The export of agri-food products (ITC Chapters 2-23 excluding 5,6,14) has increased from US$ 29.67 billion in 2015-16 to US$ 46.11 billion in 2021-22 showing a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 7.62% and the export of value added processed-food products (ITC Chapter 16-23) increased from US$ 4.855 billion in 2015-16 to US$ 10.420 billion in 2021-22 showing a CAGR of 13.57%.
In order to ensure overall development of Food Processing sectors across the country, MoFPI has been implementing Central Sector Umbrella Scheme – Pradhan Mantri Kisan SAMPADA Yojana (PMKSY), centrally sponsored PM Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises Scheme (PMFME) and Central Sector Production Linked Incentive Scheme (PLISFPI). Under component schemes of PMKSY, MoFPI provides mostly credit linked financial assistance (capital subsidy) in the form of grants in-aid for setting up of food processing industries/ units/ projects. Ministry provides financial, technical and business support for setting up/upgradation of micro food processing enterprises through PMFME scheme, whereas, PLISFPI is targeted to facilitate expansion of food processing capacity by creating champion brands in Food Processing Sector.
17-Nov-2021: Ministry of Food Processing Industries Signs MoU with Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying
The Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying (DAHD), Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying to extend the benefits to beneficiaries of various schemes of MoFPI and DAHD. The MoU was signed in the august presence of Sh. Pasupathi Kumar Paras, Hon’ble Union Minister, FPI, Sh. Parshottam Rupala, Hon’ble Union Minister, Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Sh. Prahlad Singh Patel, Hon’ble Minister of State, FPI, Sh. Sanjeev Kumar Balyan, Hon’ble Minister of State, Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Dr. L. Murugan, Hon’ble Minister of State, Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Secretary MoFPI, and Secretary DAHD.
The objective of schemes of MoFPI and DAHD are interlinked and complementary in nature. Hence, the MoU will facilitate MoFPI and DAHD to work together to achieve the goal for income generation, sustainable development of the rural poor through the extension of benefits of various schemes to the beneficiaries whenever they require financial assistance for establishment/ extension/ strengthening of quality control, dairy processing and its value addition, meat processing, and value addition infrastructure, animal feed plant and technology assisted breed improvement farms without any limitation.
The MoU will corroborate both MoFPI and DAHD to facilitate the beneficiaries to avail the benefits under the PM Kisan Sampada Yojana and PM Formalisation of Micro food processing Enterprises Scheme of the MoFPI and dairy development schemes of DAHD. This will not only empower the beneficiaries of MoFPI and DAHD but also create awareness through their respective implementation support team on the benefits of various schemes being implemented by them at both the Central and State level.
The convergence between MoFPI and DAHD will also encourage beneficiaries to avail benefits with facilitation for various activities which include Food Safety and Quality Assurance, dairy processing and value addition, meat processing & value addition, and animal feed, etc.
10-Aug-2021: FPI Schemes for Rural Areas
The Ministry of Food Processing industries (MoFPI) has been implementing Central Sector Umbrella Scheme - Pradhan Mantri Kisan SAMPADA Yojana (PMKSY) since 2016-17 for overall growth and development of food processing sector, including processing of agro- products and thus increasing the income of the farmers. The component schemes of PMKSY are - (i) Mega Food Park, (ii) Integrated Cold Chain and Value Addition Infrastructure, (iii) Creation /Expansion of Food Processing & Preservation Capacities, (iv) Infrastructure for Agro-Processing Clusters, (v) Creation of Backward & Forward linkages, (vi) Food Safety and Quality Assurance Infrastructure, (vii) Human Resource and Institutions, (viii) Operation Greens. Under component schemes of PMKSY, MoFPI provides mostly credit linked financial assistance (capital subsidy) in the form of grants-in-aid to entrepreneurs for setting up of food processing / preservation industries. PMKSY is not region or state specific but demand driven and is implemented across the country including the rural areas of Tamil Nadu. So far, Ministry has approved 41 Mega food Parks, 353 Cold Chain projects, 63 Agro Processing Clusters, 292 Food Processing Units, 63 Creation of Backward & Forward Linkages Projects & 6 Operation Green projects across the country under corresponding component schemes of PMKSY. Out of these, Ministry has approved 1 Mega Food Park project, 17 Cold Chain projects, 10 Agro Processing Clusters, 22Food Processing Units, 9 Creation of Backward & Forward Linkages Projects & 20 Food Test Laboratory projects in Tamil Nadu under corresponding component schemes of PMKSY.
The sanctioned projects across the country under component schemes of PMKSY are estimated to benefit about 34 lakh famers on completion. In the evaluation study of Integrated Cold Chain and Value Addition Infrastructure Scheme conducted by M/s NABARD Consultancy Limited (NABCONS) in Year 2020, it has been estimated that captive projects under the scheme have resulted in increase in farm-gate prices by 12.38 % and each project is estimated to benefit more than 9500 farmers.
Also, as part of the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Initiative, MoFPI is implementing a Centrally Sponsored Scheme-PM Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises Scheme (PMFME) for providing financial, technical and business support for setting up/upgradation of 2 lakh micro food processing enterprises through credit linked subsidy during five years from 2020-21 to 2024-25 with an outlay of Rs.10,000 crore. Out of this, a total of 12128 units have been allocated to Tamil Nadu with tentative outlay of Rs 572.71 cr. for five years.
6-Aug-2021: Setting Up of Small-Scale Food Processing Units at Farm Level
Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) is implementing Central Sector umbrella scheme- Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana (PMKSY) since 2016-17 for overall growth and development of food processing sector, including cereals, oilseeds, vegetables & fruits based processing industries. Under its component schemes, MoFPI provides credit linked financial assistance (capital subsidy) in the form of grants-in-aid to entrepreneurs for setting up of food processing / preservation industries with farm level infrastructure like primary processing facilities, collection centers etc. So far, a total of 292 Food Processing Units have been approved for assistance under component scheme Creation/Expansion of Food Processing & Preservation Capacities. Also, a total of 124Primary Processing Centres with Dry Warehouse capacity of 116450 MT, Cold Storage capacity of 56520 MT and deep freezer capacity of 1750 MT have been approved as part of Mega Food Park projects.
The Government has announced expansion of scope of “Operation Greens Scheme” from Tomato, Onion & Potato (TOP) to 22 perishable products, in the budget speech for 2021-2022, so as to boost value addition in these perishables. Ministry has identified these 22 perishables, which include Mango, Banana, Apple, Pineapple, Carrot, Cauliflower, Beans etc.
31-Dec-2020: Ministry of Food Processing Industries - Year End Review 2020
Ministry of Food Processing Industries has taken numerous initiatives for development of food processing sector. Some of the major achievements and initiatives are as below:
Creation of Infrastructure Facilities
- A total of 46 food processing projects were completed/operationalised viz; Mega Food Park:3, Cold Chain:15, Unit:21, Food Testing Laboratories:7
- The 46 completed projects created additional processing and preservation capacity of agricultural produce of 31.52 lakh MT per annum. 15 cold chain infrastructure projects created additional milk processing and storage capacityof56.99 (lakh litre per day) and 11.80 MT/hour of IQF (Instant Quick Freezing) of fruits and vegetables.
- The 46 completed projects leveraged private investment of Rs. 771.79 crore and generated direct and indirect employment for 24567persons.
Approval of New Infrastructure Facilities
- A total of 134 food processing projects were sanctioned viz; Agro Processing Clusters: 21, Cold Chain:47, Unit:43, Backward and Forward Linkages:8, Operation Greens:3 and Food Testing Laboratories:12.
- The 134 new food processing and food testing laboratory projects sanctioned will create additional processing and preservation capacity of agricultural produce of 38.3 lakh MT per annum. The 47 cold chain infrastructure projects will create additional milk processing and storage capacity of 13.10 LLPD (lakh litre per day) and 34.20 MT/hour of IQF (Instant Quick Freezing) of fruits and vegetables.
- The new 134 sanctioned projects are expected to leverage private investment of Rs. 2026.32 crore and generated direct and indirect employment for 77330 persons.
COVID-19 initiatives and Grievances Redressal
- Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) has been taking several initiatives for maintaining steady growth of food processing sector. Alike many sectors, food processing sector also went through several hitches during the lockdown. Critical issues such as reduction in processing capacity due to plant shutdowns, disruption in logistics and movement of workers, labor availability at manufacturing sites as well as steep drop in demand, liquidity crunch impacted the sector.
- At the very moment of announcement of lockdown, MoFPI through its dedicated task force, adopted a proactive approach and facilitated timely redressal of issues being faced by the food and allied industry.
- Maintaining uninterrupted supply chain and availability of food to the entire country, has been one of the most crucial tasks of this ministry.
- The ministry established a Grievance Cell and a Task Force which ensured business continuity by facilitating hundreds of units in resuming their operations.
- Resolved 585 issues during the COVID lockdown period.
- Connected with 363 leading processing companies in all states / UTs to understand the capacity utilization of these companies and support required to ramp up the production.
- 7 video conferences were organized with industry associations, leading processors, exporters, FPOs, retailers and other stakeholders to assess the situation at the ground level as well as to gauge the industry requirements in the post lockdown era ― industry recommendations were thoroughly observed to provide maximum benefits to this sector under AatmaNirbhar Bharat packages.
AatmaNirbhar Bharat Abhiyan
Ministry of Food Processing Industries launched an all India centrally sponsored PM Formalisation of Micro food processing Enterprises (PMFME) Scheme for providing financial, technical and business support for upgradation of existing micro food processing enterprises. It is to be implemented for a period of five years from 2020-21 to 2024-25 with an outlay of Rs. 10,000 crores.
- The scheme was approved by the Cabinet on 20th May 2020 and the guidelines were issued on 19th June 2020. The Scheme was launched by the Hon’ble Minister & MoS, FPI on 29th June 2020.
- The GIS ODOP digital map of India was launched by the Hon'ble Minster & MoS, FPI on 19th November 2020 through VC. The map provides details of ODOP products of all the States and UTs. The digital map also has indicators for Tribal, SC, ST, and aspirational districts. It will enable stakeholders to make concerted efforts for its value chain development.
- 554 ODOP of 24 States and UTs have been approved till date.
Capacity Building & Training
- Training of Master Trainers for Fruits & Vegetable Processing and EDP inaugurated by the Hon'ble Minster &MoS, FPI on 19th November 2020 through VC.
- 22 DPRs, 99 Audio Video tutorials and Power Point Presentations have been prepared and uploaded by NIFTEM & IIFPT on food processing by micro industries.
MoUs, Joint Letter, and Agreement
- Joint Letter with the Ministry of Rural Development signed on 20th November, 2020 for identification and data collection of eligible SHGs, training and capacity building of beneficiaries, leveraging capacity of DAY-NRLM, handholding support to beneficiaries to avail the seed capital and capital subsidy and marketing & branding of produces of beneficiaries.
- Joint Letter with the Ministry of Tribal Affairs signed on 18th December 2020 for marketing support to TRIFOOD products, building the capacity of its state, district and field-level staff for supporting and handholding identified beneficiaries under the PMFME Scheme.
- An MoU signed with the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India on 18th December 2020 for the development of a new brand ‘NAFED Food’ for the marketing and development of Agricultural food products made by FPOs/SHGs/Co-operatives groups.
- An MoU with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research signed on 18th December 2020 for the facilitation of details of food processing technologies, packaging and machinery developed at various institutes of ICAR, particularly suitable to Micro-enterprises, FPOs, SHGs & Cooperatives under the PMFME Scheme.
- An MoU with the National Cooperative Development Corporation signed on 18th December 2020 for support to Cooperatives engaged in food processing activities in the country in various States and UTs under the PMFME Scheme.
- An MoU with the National Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation on 18th December 2020 for capacity building, research, training and development support to individual enterprises /SHGs/FPOs owned by SC beneficiaries involved in food processing under the PMFME Scheme.
- An MoU with Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India signed on 18th December 2020 for the development of a new brand ‘TriFood’ for food products made by tribals& undertake efforts for its marketing, appropriate packaging, product development, etc. for tribal food products under the PMFME Scheme.
- An Agreement signed with Union Bank as a Nodal Bank on 18th December 2020 for transfer of subsidy amount, monitoring and liaising with lending banks for target driven approvals of applications & timely disbursal of subsidies to beneficiaries.
Project Implementation Plan: Project Implementation Plans of seven States and UTs have been approved.
State Level Technical Institutions: State Level Technical Institutions of 28 states and UTs have been approved.
Financial Progress
- Rs. 93.83 crore released to 35States/UTs.
- Rs. 10 crore allocated to NIFTEM and IIFPT.
- Operation Green scheme extended from tomato, onion and potato(TOP)crops to a total of 41 notified horticulture crops for a period of six months for providing subsidy for their transportation and storage, if prices fall below the average prices for last three years or 15% below of previous year’s price.
- Scheme was notifiedon11.06.2020andamendedon24.07.2020&12.10.2020.
- 21 fruits and 20 vegetable crops are notified for receiving subsidy under the Scheme. List of eligible crops, surplus production clusters & trigger price is available on Ministry’s website.
- Online portal to process claims for subsidy was setup.
- 3,195 applicants have registered from 30 States/UT on the portal till 24thDec.;
- 49 online claims for total subsidy have been received for Onion, Carrot, and Banana. Of these, 12 claims are sanctioned for ₹94.14 Lakh for transportation of 5,268 MT of Onion and 545 MT of Banana and storage of 1,225 MT of Carrot;
- Transportation subsidy under the scheme was extended to Kisan Rail Scheme w.e.f. 12.10.2020. Indian Railway is providing the transport subsidy directly to any applicants by way of charging 50% of their freight charges from them for transportation of any quantity of notified F&V through Kisan Rail Scheme and will adjust remaining 50% of freight from deposit made by MoFPI with them. ₹ 10 cr was sanctioned to Indian Railway (South Central Railway) on 23.10.2020. Recently, Ministry allowed transport subsidy on any F&V through any rail service provided by Indian Railway.
- Scheme guidelines amended to provide the transportation subsidy to all the notified F&V being transported by air from the NER and Himalayan Region States. Airlines would charge 50% freight for all the fruits and vegetables booked from these airports on the same lines as Kisan Rail.
- Scheme Guidelines further amended to provide 50% subsidy to eligible entities through NAFED for transportation and/or storage of apple from Jammu and Kashmir. Rs. 10 Cr as advance has been released to NAFED for this.
Promotional Activities
- A women-centric three-day Organic Food Festival was organized in New Delhi from 21st-23rd February 2020 with an aim to provide opportunity to women entrepreneurs for capacity building & economic empowerment. In addition, 20 B2B interactions with UAE based LULU Group was also organized during the food festival.
- On the occasion of 74th Independence Day of India, the Ministry of Food Processing Industries launched a monthly awareness campaign called United by Food on social media, describing about the well-known dishes and processed foods of various States and Union Territories of the country.
- In the month of September, the Ministry launched a campaign along with Nutrition Month campaign of Ministry of Women and Child Welfare, namely, 'Processed Yani Paushtik'.
- Image In October, the Ministry launched a social media campaign called “ Ann Devon Bhava” aimed at providing people with information about processed food as well as traditional food. In this campaign, online quiz competition was also organized by the Ministry with prizes of aboutRs.1,10,000/-.
- Ministry used various posts on precautions to be taken during festive season on its social media to spread awareness about Covid-19 amongst people. Many posters and banners related to precautions of Corona were put up at various places of the office premises.
Investment Promotion
- A Project Development Cell at the Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) was constituted on 17thJune 2020 with the prime objective of accelerating investments. The PDC has been―
- Interacting with Individual State / UT Governments for discussion on developing of potential investible projects, company specific issues, creating awareness of benefits under Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana etc.
- Having one-on-one discussion with agri-food companies to facilitate their investment interests or issues.
- Handholding and facilitating Government of Ladakh with setting up of Agro- Processing Cluster (APC) in the UT.
Institutions
NIFTEM
- NIFTEM Technology Innovation and Business Incubation Foundation (NTIBIF) and Contract Research Organization have been established to take care of the startups in food technology ecosystem and collaborative research with Industry Partners.
- A robust automated examination system has been established to provide end to end solutions with regard to students’ registration, setting up of question papers, online evaluation, semester wise results declaration and generation of final grade reports.
- NIFTEM Food testing Lab (CFRA) is awarded integrated accreditation system for analyzing more than 2200 quality parameters.
IIFPT
- Technologies and Indigenous Equipment Developed by IIFPT
- Indigenous food 3D printers (both single and multi-heads). Food 3D printing technology can offer enhanced levels of product customization in terms of appearance as well as nutritional value.
- Integrated collection and filtration unit for coconut water. This can be used in temples and other places of devotion; the water is collected hygienically.
- Non-thermal (cold) plasma treatment unit for liquid food sterilization was developed and tested for decontamination of milk.
- Multi-enzyme based amperometry biosensor was developed for testing thermal oxidation of coconut oil. This can be used for quality evaluation of oils.
- Five Technologies have been Transferred to Industries
- Mobile food processing unit
- Integrated onion processing unit
- Puffing machine for rice &millets
- Moringa leaves separator
- Solar hybrid dryer
- New Facilities Created for Research, Training, and Consultancy Services
- India’s first food glycemic index and food disintegration kinetics testing facility. The centre uses Asia’s first engineered human digestive system. The facility holds significant research and commercial interest for new food product developments.
- Pilot-scale ice cream plant 100 L/batch capacity.
- Fruit beverages (carbonated and non-carbonated) processing pilot plant with100 L/h capacity (MSME funded).
- Pilot scale spray dryer with 3 kg/h capacity.
- Virgin coconut oil plant with 1000 nuts/day capacity (Coconut Development Board funded).
- Students and Academic Excellence
- 100% student placements in major food processing industries including Nestle, ITC, MTR, Cavinkare, Britannia, Aachietc.
- Capacity Building under PM-FME Scheme
- Under the MoFPI, IIFPT is serving as the nodal national-level technical institutes for the centrally sponsored, Prime Minister Formalization of Micro Food Processing Enterprises (PM FME) for capacity building and incubation.
- IIFPT has prepared the training syllabus for the different levels of PMFME trainings as Training of Master Trainers (ToMT), Training of Trainers (ToT) at District level and Training of Beneficiaries (ToB) to impart skills on various aspects of processing including ODOP.
- IIFPT has coordinated with various national level technical institutes and compiled indicative cost norms guidelines hand book for establishment of common incubation facility under PMFME scheme.
- COVID-19 Relief Activities
- IIFPT supported District Administration and Thanjavur Medical College in COVID-19 related activities by providing healthy foods prepared at IIFPT’s Food Processing Business Incubation Centre. The initiative kicked off on 21stApril, 2020 and went on up to August 2020.
- Hand sanitizers were prepared for the police department and COVID warriors, and were supplied on a regular basis.
- RT-PCR instrument was handed over to the Thanjavur Medical College & Hospital for COVID testing purposes from April 2020 to August 2020. More than 2 lakhs samples have been tested using the instrument.