With the noticeable increase in Novel COVID-19 cases in the nation day by day, the Government is taking all necessary steps to bring the situation under control and eliminate all the mistakes that other nations have committed.

Several measures have been implemented like Janta Curfew followed by the complete lockdown for 21 days. Along with Section-144 implemented in several states to ensure that we see a drastic fall in the statistics of COVID-19.

While these policies have been implemented, still close to 2000 people have been identified as victims or prone to disease. All the services have been locked down expect a few essential services.

Doctors, Police, Social Activists and Media all are on their forefront in the battle to overcome this situation. These people without even thinking about their loved ones are putting their life in danger each day.

COVID 19 Relief Package announced by Government of India

Looking at the criticality of the situation our honorable Union Finance & Corporate Affairs Minister Smt. Niramla Sitharaman has recently announced a relief package to support the poor and needy under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana by sanctioning an amount of Rs 1.70 Lakh Crore.

The major aim behind this initiative is to make sure that there is proper management of food and other essential resources for the needy people during this time. And to ensure that there is no scarcity.

Honorable State Minister Shri Anurag Singh Thakur (Finance & Corporate Affairs), Shri Atanu Chakraborty, Secretary, (Department of Economic Affairs) and Shri Debashish Panda, Secretary, (Department of Financial Services) all were present during the announcement.

Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package is going to offer following benefits: —

1. Health and Life Insurance scheme for all health care workers helping overcome COVID-19 in Government Hospitals and Health Care Centers.

• Cleanliness staff, nurses, ward boys, ASHA workers, paramedics, technicians, doctors and specialists and all other health workers will be covered under a Special Insurance Scheme.
• Any health care professional, who during the treatment and identification phase of Covid-19 patients comes across with any accident, would be compensated under this scheme with an amount of Rs 50 lakh.
• All government health and wellness centers, along with Centre and State hospitals will be covered under this scheme. Providing insurance cover to approximately 22 lakh people involved in the services to fight and overcome this pandemic situation.

2. PM Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana

• To ensure that no person in need especially the poor people suffer with starvation due to the lack of food grains during the disruption in next three months. Government of India has come up with this step.
• Approximately two-third of the entire Indian population will be benefitted under this scheme and this service will be provided as an addition without any cost.
• The entitlement of each individual will be doubled during this entitlement period over next three months.

Pulses

• In order to ensure that there is no malnutrition due to lack of proteins, all the above mentioned individuals will be provided pulses according to regional preferences for next three months. i.e. 1 kg per family and that too absolutely free of cost by Government of India.

3. Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana

Benefits offered to the farmers

• Benefiting approximately 8.7 crore farmers of our nation, the first instalment of Rs 2,000 which is due in 2020-21 will be front-loaded and paid in the month of April 2020 under the PM KISAN Yojana.
• Cash transfers Under PM Garib Kalyan Yojana:

Help to Needy Women

• Under this MPJDY scheme, women account holders will receive an ex-gratia of Rs 500 per month for next 3 months. An approximate amount of Rs. 20.40 crores will be distributed under this scheme.
• Under this scheme, free LPG cylinders will be distributed done under this scheme, free of cost for next 3 months, to ensure 8 crore poor families do not face any problems during this pandemic situation.

Benefits to low wage earners in the organised sectors

• In order to prevent disruption in the services of low wage earners who earn less then Rs. 15000 per months in small business with less than 100 workers. The Government has proposed to pay 24% of their monthly wages for next 3 months in their PPF accounts.

Support offered to the senior citizens, Divyangs and Widows

• In order to overcome the difficulties during this pandemic, the Government will be offering Rs. 1000 per month over a period of next three months. As part of the COVID-19 Relief Package, this is expected to benefit approximately 3 crore aged people.

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Gurantee Act

• With Effect from 1^st April 2020 there would be an increase of Rs. 20 that will be done to the wages of the workers under MNREGA, that will annually provide a benefit of Rs.2000 to the workers and is expected to help approximately 13.62 crore families.

 4. Self-Help groups (SHG’s)

• Under this scheme free collateral lending limit will be doubled i.e. from 10 lakhs to 20 lakhs and will benefit approximately 6.85 crore households that are engaged through 63 lakh SHG’s (Self Help Groups).

5. Other Essential components offered under PM Garib Kalyan package

Organized sector

• During this Period EPFO’s (Employee Provident Fund Organizations) will amend their policies and benefit approximately 4 crore people registered under EPF. By allowing a non-refundable advance of 75% or three month wages whichever is higher.

Building and Other Construction Workers Welfare Fund

• In order to support the building and construction workers i.e. approximately 3.5 core workers, this fund has been created under the central Government act to provide relief to these workers.

District Mineral Fund

• In order to support state government for screening, monitoring, medical testing and to further facilitate all other requirements in context to prevention and spread of COVID-19 pandemic along with treatment of the identified suspects, District Mineral Fund (DMF) can be utilized.

Apart from all these initiatives, the Government is strictly working to get the situation under control as soon as possible. By taking a step forward and learning from the mistakes of the others. Although there will be a huge hit on the economy, but it is certain that once we are able to overcome this pandemic situation, we will be able to quickly pull up the economy as well.

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In the latest installment, the Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has proposed a huge sum i.e. approximately US$4.72 million to help these Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises speed up the transformation from the traditional market and increase the adoption rate of digital solutions- channeled to the Malaysia Digital Economy Corp (MDEC).

The proposed growth fund is a part of a recently announced Economic Stimulus Package 2020, that has been carved to strengthen the country’s overall economy and make it ready for any impact arising from the outbreak of COVID-19.

Malaysia Digital Economy Corp (MDEC) will also be further utilizing these funds to empower the Perkhidmatan e-Dagang Setempat (PeDAS) transformation program that has been designed to further focus on modernizing and digitalizing the rural internet centers of Malaysia. With the ultimate goal to convert or transform these internet centers into the e-commerce hubs. With the establishment of these hubs, the rural SMEs and micro-enterprises will be able to expand their future business prospects through the exploration of the massive market opportunities that e-commerce has in store.

In fact, the PeDAS (Perkhidmatan e-Dagang Setempat) program has been launched with the end goal to help the rural MSMEs (Malaysia Digital Economy Corp) become acquainted with the knowledge of how to reach and cater a bigger consumer market through the e-commerce platforms.

Even before the news of allotment of US$4.72 million, the thought of benefitting the rural micro’s and SME’s was still in place and instrumental. However, the allotment of these funds will provide a massive boost and SME’s will be able to develop their skills at these rural internet centers and will be able to get insight into the actual digital, entrepreneurial and e-commerce world.

Also, with the availability of the tools and applications that will be provided, it will certainly help SME’s deliver great values and take business to new heights. Having a good number of products listed in the e-commerce market will not only lead to the growth of the digital economy but will also put the nation on a fast track process of establishing themselves as an online retail hub.

So this is seen as a great opportunity to help the small business grow and touch new horizons.

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Taking advantage of this, a lot of middlemen come in to picture and the profit ratio that the SHG women should get is reduced to pennies. The major reason this situation arises is because of the lack of education and knowledge of the digital world amongst these workers.

The Government, in its initiative to take India to a new horizon, is taking new steps each day and a major focus is also laid on improving the lives of the rural parts and regions of the country.

Taking a step forward in this direction, the Rural Development Ministry of India has proposed to provide a wider market for the products manufactured by women Self Help Groups by listing them on the center’s e-commerce platforms, as revealed by the sources on Sunday. Not only that, the Government has also decided to take some more steps in this direction by providing all necessary support to SHG’s like branding, packaging, pricing, etc. to make the products more marketable.

With the proposal of this strategy, products made or manufactured by the SHG’s will just be a click away, same as Amazon, Flipkart or other e-commerce platforms. As per one of the senior officials of the ministry, the groups or the products will be listed on the center’s e-commerce portal, Government e-Marketplace (GeM).

“This step will help in a big way in making women in villages financially independent and in overall improvement of the rural economy, officials in the ministry said.”

If we look at the current statistics, there are approximately 58.5 lakh Self Help Groups under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojna- National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM), with almost over 6 crore women as members or part of this mission.

It is expected that Ministries and Departments under the Central Government and Public Sector Undertakings (PSU’s) may start the procurement from the GeM platform which is currently managed by and is under the control of the Commerce Ministry.

Talking about GeM, it was launched back in August 2016 in order to increase transparency and efficiency in the process of public procurement. Currently, GeM has almost 3.36 lakh sellers doing business on the platform. Out of which 74,240 are small and micro sellers. And looking at the total transaction value so far it is somewhere around Rs. 47,612 crores.

As proposed by honorable finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, going forward, the expected increase in GeM’s turnover would be somewhere around Rs.3 Lakh Crores.

So, looking at all the proposals and the necessary steps taken by the Government, the proposal is expected to show a great boom in the Indian economy by making SHG’s digitally effective and allowing them to attract more audience/buyers that will automatically help raise the standard and condition of Rural India.

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