- The sector has registered an average annual growth rate of 4.18 per cent at constant prices over the last five years. As per provisional estimates for 2023-24, the growth rate of the agriculture sector stood at 1.4 per cent at constant prices.
- The allied sectors of Indian agriculture are steadily emerging as robust growth centres and promising sources for improving farm incomes. From 2014-15 to 2022-23, the livestock sector grew at an impressive Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 7.38 per cent at constant prices. The fisheries sector has grown at a compound annual rate of 8.9 per cent between 2014-15 and 2022-23 (at constant prices).
- The government’s priority has been to provide timely, cost-effective, and adequate credit that reduces the dependence on non-institutional credit and increases investment. The measures have reduced the share of non-institutional credit from 90 per cent in 1950 to 23.40 per cent in 2021-22.
- Promotion of greater efficiency in the use of inputs and sustainable production methods through Per Drop More Crop (PDMC), a micro irrigation scheme, and the actions under the National Mission on Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA), including the use of alternative and organic fertilisers are a few examples of initiatives being undertaken to improve productivity and sustainability. An area of 90.0 lakh hectares has been covered under micro irrigation in the country under the PDMC from 2015-16 to 2023-24 as of 6th February 2024.
- To facilitate the adoption of smart agriculture technologies, the government has taken up digital initiatives such as the Digital Agriculture Mission and e-National Agriculture Market (e-NAM), with the latter allowing better price discovery. The Digital Agriculture Mission 2021–2025 aims to modernise agriculture through advanced technologies like AI, remote sensing, drones, etc
- The government has taken various measures to promote cooperatives and farmer-producer organisations. Cooperatives are vital in aggregating produce, enhancing bargaining power, and ensuring better market access to small and marginal farmers, thereby preventing exploitation by intermediaries and traders. As of 29 February 2024, 8,195 FPOs have registered under the new FPO scheme.
- Recognising the need to increase investments in agriculture, the government launched the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF). In addition, the Government has been implementing the Agriculture Marketing Infrastructure (AMI) to improve the extent of storage infrastructure. As of 30th April 2024, 48357 projects were sanctioned for storage infrastructure with ₹4570 Crore released as subsidy, and 20878 other projects are also under progress with ₹2084 Crore released as subsidy under AMI. As of 5th July 2024, AIF mobilised an investment of ₹73194 Crore.
- To facilitate the growth of the food processing sector, the Government has taken several initiatives like Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana (PMKSY), Production Linked Incentive Scheme for the Food Processing Industry (PLISFPI) Prime Minister's Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises (PMFME) Scheme for the development of food processing in the country.
- To remove the financial burden of the poor, the Government decided to continue to provide free food grains to about 81.35 crore beneficiaries (i.e., Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) households and Priority Households (PHH) beneficiaries) under the PMGKAY for a further period of five years.
- Efforts must be made to encourage production patterns and practices in various geographies that are consistent with their agro-climatic characteristics and natural resources. Agriculture policies must be consistent with climate imperatives and water security. Investment in technology, production methods, marketing infrastructure, and reduction in post-harvest losses need to be scaled up. E-NAM, promoting FPOs, and allowing cooperatives to participate in agri-marketing can improve the market infrastructure and allow better price discovery. Improving the market infrastructure by incentivising states can be explored.
Chapter 10: Industry - Small and Medium Matters
- Economic growth of 8.2 per cent in FY24 was supported by an industrial growth rate of 9.5 per cent. Within the four industrial sub-sectors, manufacturing and construction nearly reached double-digit growth, while mining & quarrying and electricity & water supply also experienced significant positive growth in FY24.
- Despite the pandemic and consequent impairment of manufacturing value chains, the manufacturing sector achieved an average annual growth rate of 5.2 per cent in the last decade. Major growth drivers are chemicals, wood products and furniture, transport equipment, pharmaceuticals, machinery, and equipment.
- India became a net exporter of finished steel over the past decade. The steel sector achieved its highest levels of production and consumption during FY24.
- Coal production has accelerated over the past five years, reducing import dependence. In FY24, India produced 997.2 million tonnes of coal, imported 261 million tonnes, and consumed 1233.86 million tonnes.
- India’s pharmaceutical market, currently valued at USD 50 billion, is the world's third largest by volume. With a diverse product range that includes generic drugs, active pharmaceutical ingredients, bulk drugs, over-the-counter medications, vaccines, biologics, and biosimilars, the Indian pharmaceutical industry maintains a strong global presence.
- India is the world's second-largest clothing manufacturer and one of the top five exporting nations. In FY24, the export of textiles and apparel, including handicrafts, increased by 1 per cent, reaching ₹2.97 lakh Crore.
- India's electronics manufacturing sector has experienced significant growth since 2014, accounting for an estimated 3.7 per cent of the global market share in FY22. Domestic production of electronic items increased significantly to ₹8.22 lakh Crore, while exports rose to ₹1.9 lakh Crore in FY23.
- The government has taken many recent initiatives to improve the ease of doing business, reduce compliance burden and alleviate logistic and infrastructural bottlenecks. The PLI schemes for key sectors have attracted significant investments, boosted production, sales and exports and generated jobs, particularly in the case of white goods.
- Keeping in view India’s vision of becoming ‘Aatmanirbhar’, over ₹1.28 Lakh Crore of investment was reported until May 2024, which has led to production/sales of ₹10.8 Lakh Crore and employment generation (direct & indirect) of over ₹8.5 Lakh under PLI scheme.
- To support the MSME sector, Union Budget 2023-24 allocated ₹9,000 Crore to the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE). Since its inception, the scheme has approved 91.76 Lakh guarantees amounting to ₹6.78 Lakh Crore.
- To foster innovation and startup culture in India, the government has taken various interventions like notification of Patent Rules 2024, passing of the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) bill 2023 and The Bharat Startup Knowledge Access Registry.
- The number of granted patents increased seventeen-fold from 5978 in 2014-15 to 103057 in 2023-24. More than 45 per cent of the recognised start-ups are emerging from Tier 2/3 cities. From around 300 start-ups in 2016, the number of DPIIT-recognised start-ups increased to more than 1.25 Lakh by the end of March 2024.
- Sectors with widely scattered production units like textiles, and the MSME sector in general, seek solutions to constraints of supply chain management, market access and formalisation. Interventions may include ensuring support systems to develop MSME projects and their bankability and adequate financing arrangements for such projects; targeted facilitation and incentivisation of employment-intensive MSME segments; progressively easing the compliance requirements with a single-window mechanism for clearances; providing grassroots-level facilitation to ensure market access to MSME products; and, government-industry-academia collaboration to upskill the workforce.
- Two common requirements across industries relate to incentivising R&D and innovation and improving the skill levels of the workforce. With respect to both, industry must take the lead. With active collaboration between industry and academia and emphasis on vocational education in curriculums, India can meet the skill shortage more effectively than hitherto.
- Upgrading the statistics on the industry, like an updated index of industrial production and State level variants of such indices, will help in understanding the emerging geographical patterns of production.
