How India can do the local motion

Context – recently announced India’s 20 trillion rupees stimulus package is 6th largest covid-relief package of the world. The need of the hour is how can we extract maximum out of it.

Extracting value from this package would require three things: 

• Converging exponential technologies: by Agriculture being its nodal point

• Leveraging the e-governance capabilities of successful enterprises in India to digitise land titles and unclog courts considerably.
• Use mapping, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), big data analytics and blockchain.
• Path from farm to fork can be smoothened using eNam, SuperKisan.
• ‘Vertical agriculture’: As India’s urban food security core.

• Enhancing home entrepreneurship

• 30 crore Indians engaged in homebound activities and handicrafts, work-from-home (WFH) force will require marketing and technology support of a unique nature.
• Decongestion of Dharavi-like clogged manufacturing locations should be supported.
• Dispersal of manufacturing that attracts the lowest fixed costs and provide high-quality living and good basic services.
• Adopting 3D printing to achieve world scale at lowest cost possible if capital costs are subsidised by a direct grant.

• Easing credit flow.

• National Bank for Agricultural and Rural Development (Nabard): fund debt and equity for rural farmer producer organisations (FPOs), micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs)

• Using first loss guarantees and leveraging existing microfinance institutions.
• Data-led credit assessment and monitoring along with tracking by AI and ML to protect from creation of non-performing asset (NPA).
• The last-mile delivery of credit through NBFCs.
• Dried-up venture capital will have to be replaced through the package with cash transfers and cost subsidies