Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan

Atmanirbhar Bharat stands for self-sufficient India. Amid the economic vision of strengthening the country to withstand the global challenges, the Government of India has chosen self-sufficiency as one of the vital tools. Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan was introduced to make India self-dependent. The concept is to back up the economy’s major sectors, making India more involved and an important part of the global economy. The initiative took flight amid the outbreak of Covid-19 to ensure the prompt availability of the necessary medical aid from within the country. The concept expanded to granting enough support to various sectors to bring the Indian economy back on track. 

What is Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan?

After India’s most remarkable Swadeshi Movement, Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan is currently in the limelight. During the pandemic, Prime Minister Narendra Modi came up with the big announcement of Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan. On May 13, 2020, he announced the idea of making India “Atmanirbhar” with an initial package of Twenty Lakh Crores, which equals 10% of the country’s GDP. The package was introduced as an investment toward curbing the challenges faced by India’s citizens during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

The mission is based on resilient, efficient, and competitive policies to bring India back on its feet through self-generation and sufficiency. 

To make the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan more effective, India’s Finance Minister announced the inauguration of several enablers and innovative government reforms. These reforms aim to intensify the seven sectors that worked under the self-sufficient mission. Some of the reforms under Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan are as Follows:

• Supply Chain Reforms to aid Agricultural Sector
• Reforms for Rational Tax Systems 
• Reforms for Simple and Clear Laws
• Reforms for Strong Financial System
• Reforms for Human Resources

Key Features of Atmanirbhar Bharat Mission

1. The Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan stands on FIVE PILLARS, as introduced by our Hon’ble PM Narendra Modi and the Finance Minister. The following are the FIVE targeted areas:

• The country’s infrastructure
• The Indian Economy
• Technology 
• Vibrant Demography
• Demand

2. The total package is 20 Lakh Crores, making up 10 per cent of India’s GDP.

3 – The package includes relief measures and aids for various sectors like MSME, salaried workers, NBFCs, HCFs, contractors, agriculture sectors, small farmers, migrant workers, critical industries like coal, space, and power distribution sectors, and a lot more. 

4. However, the Package of Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan is divided into four separate tranches. 

Objectives of Atmanirbhar Bharat Mission

The major objective of Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan is to uplift migrated labourers and society’s weaker sections that have been gravely affected by the harshness of the pandemic. To uphold this primary goal, the mission carries the following vital objectives:

1. To strengthen the NFCs, HCFs, MSME, salaried employees, workers, and contractors through various relief measures
2. Raising funds to uplift the weaker sections, including underprivileged people, small vendors, street vendors, migrant workers, and small farmers.
3. To ensure self-sufficiency in various agricultural sectors and other sectors like animal husbandry, fishery, dairy, etc. 
4. Strengthening the major critical industries such as defence, production, minerals, space sector, atomic energy sector, infrastructure, power production and distribution units, airspace management sector, and coal through fundraising and relief measures. 

The other significant objectives can be listed as follows:

1. Enhanced liquidity ensures a direct cash transfer to the migrant workers’ and labourers’ accounts.
2. No scarcity of food supplies and medical aids.
3. Empowerment of the supply chain logistics.
4. Increase in the number of employment opportunities.
5. Expansion of E-Commerce sectors.
6. Making critical sectors better to compete globally.
7. Ensuring better survival of the society, especially the weaker sections, amid the pandemic.

The Four Tranches of the Atmanirabhar Bharat Abhiyan Package

To execute the objectives of Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan efficiently, the four specific tranches of the packages have been ascertained:

First Tranche: Focuses across sectors like MSME, real estate, NBFC, employees, power sector, etc. 

The measures under the first tranche were as follows:

For Taxpayers

• Expansion in deadlines for filing income tax returns.
• Reduction in TCS and TDS.
• EPF supports the workers with low incomes in small units.
• PF payment for employees and employers was reduced from 12 to 10 per cent.

For MSMEs

• Ensured working capital to forty-five lakh units with a credit line of Rs. 3 crores.
• A subordinate debt of Rs. 20,000 crores.
• A core equity infusion of Rs. 50,000 crores.
• Expansion in investment limits for MSMEs.
• Release of funds for MSMEs by the central public sector enterprises and government within forty-five days.

For NBFCs

• Expansion of partial credit guarantee scheme.
• Introduction of a special liquidity scheme worth Rs. 30,000 crores.

For Discoms

• Announcement of liquidity injections was made worth ninety thousand crore rupees.

For Real Estate

• The date of registration and completion of real estate ventures and projects was extended by six months.

Second Tranche: The focus of the second tranche is to help the migrant workers and includes the following:

• Availability of free food grains.
• Credit facilities to street vendors and farmers.
• Subvention relief to the small businesses relying on the MUDRA scheme for loans.
• Pocket-Friendly housing on rent for ex- Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.
• One Universal Ration Card to ensure that the beneficiary collects ration from any fair price shop in any part of the country.
• The migrant workers who return to the native city/ village should be enrolled under MGNREGA.

Third Tranche: The third tranche focuses on the government reforms to help the agricultural sector in produce and marketing:

• Ensuring inter-state trade of the farm produce at an excellent price to overcome the challenge faced by the farmers in the mandi system.
• Opening doors for private investors in farming by enacting contract farming.
• Investing in enhancing the agricultural infrastructure.
• Deregulating the agricultural produce to remove the stock limits except in the case of any natural calamity, disaster, or exorbitant inflation in prices.

Fourth Tranche: The fourth tranche is all about infusing power into the crucial sectors and industries of the economy like:

• Defence
• Minerals, ex- curbing the monopoly in minerals like coal
• Allowing private players in space sectors
• Availability of remote-sensing data 
• Rationalisation of tax structure, removal of aviation restrictions, and other aids to the aviation sector
• Privatisation of the power utilities and power departments
• Measures and reforms for the atomic sector

Conclusion

The Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan is a mission toward strengthening the weaker sections of the society with the various Government Reforms and Relief Measures. Besides combating the scarcity of food and medical facilities during the pandemic, this mission by PM Modi is an initiative to make the Indian economy self-sufficient in every possible aspect.