How India can do the local motion

The Economic Times 15th May 2020 Save

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